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All right, so continuing on there in the book of Acts, of course, in verse 1, God reads, and it came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper coast, came to Ephesus and finding certain disciples. He said to them, have you received the Holy Ghost? Since, he believed. And of course, last week, we were introduced to the character Apollos. He was discipled briefly there by Priscilla and Aquila. And then Paul had parted from those two. So you're kind of getting a little bit of a timeline here where Apollos was and where Paul is at currently. And he's seeing certain disciples. Now, that can be a little confusing there when the Bible's calling them disciples, because as we'll see here in a minute, these people are actually unsaved. These aren't saved people. They have to be, at least that's my opinion, they have to be saved and then, of course, re-baptized. Of course, we all understand you don't have to be baptized to be saved, but they're being baptized again because of the fact that they just got saved. Okay, so that's what I believe here. Now, you might, again, might scratch your head at that, saying, well, why is it calling it disciples? Well, it's because of the fact that they are trying to follow Christ. They're trying to live the Christian life. They're trying to do certain things. And even in Matthew, in fact, if you want to go there, go to Matthew chapter number seven, we'll see that there's people like this in this world, even today, those that are doing things in the name of Christ, they're professing Christ, but they don't have their faith in Christ. They're actually trusting in themselves. It says there in verse 22, we'll back it up to verse 21. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, so they're calling him by name. They're saying, I mean, that's his name. It's the Lord, right? They're saying, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works. Now, again, these are things that Christ did. These are things that the apostles did, okay? They prophesied, they've cast out devils, they've done many wonderful works, so they're doing good things. If you look at verse 23, and then he says, and then I will profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. I always found that interesting, and it says, ye that work iniquity, even after they're proclaiming the same works that Christ himself has done. He's saying, you know what, you're working iniquity. It's not the works themselves that they're doing, but the fact that they're trusting in those things for their own salvation, that's what makes them workers of iniquity. Not necessarily in the works themselves, because again, these are all things that we see Christ do, prophesying, casting out devils, healing, and so on and so forth. So keep something in Matthew, we'll come back in Matthew in a minute, but that's just another example in the scripture where you have people who are doing things in the name of Christ, but don't understand the gospel. So you can see why the Bible here calls these people certain disciples. They're trying to live the Christian life, but they're not saved. Now, I will give them some credit, because even though they're unsaved, they're trying to live for the Lord. They're trying to do works, and it's almost kind of a mark on a lot of saved people who don't work. We believe that salvation's by grace or faith and not of works, and amen, but God has also foreordained that there are certain works that we should walk in. God still has things for saved people to do, so it's kind of a slap in the face to the saved when you have these unsaved people who are being called disciples, and yet you have other people who are saved who aren't disciples. Look at the unsaved have enough character and enough zeal to serve God. What's that say about the saved if we're not serving God? It's not a good commentary on the saved when they begin to lack the works that even these unsaved people can somehow manage to pull off. Look at verse two, and he said to them, have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? And they said to him, we have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost, and that right there is kind of what kind of tells me that these people aren't saved, because what's the Holy Ghost, right? If we believe, if we receive the Holy Ghost, we might not receive it in the exact same way that you're gonna see these people receive it in a minute and elsewhere in the book of Acts, but we are sealed by the Holy Spirit unto the day of our redemption, okay? So the Holy Spirit is a mystery to these people. They don't even know what this is. So that right there kind of tells me that they're probably not saved. They're just completely clueless about the Holy Ghost. Although they're disciples, they don't know anything about the gospel, the truth of the gospel. Verse three, he said unto them, unto what then were you baptized? And they said unto John's baptism. So they're hearing the preaching, they had heard the preaching of John, and of course, John preached the gospel, okay? That's not saying that, this isn't invalidating any of John's works, okay? John obviously was sent before to prepare the way for Christ. Obviously, he was a man of God, a great, powerful man of God, but it just goes to show you that in every ministry, even the greatest preachers are gonna be heard by people who don't understand the message, no matter how plain and how simple it is made, there's always gonna be people who choke on it and don't understand. And that's what I believe you have taking place here. He's saying, hey, what were you baptized? I said, John's baptism. Does this somehow invalidate John's baptism, like he wasn't following up or he wasn't doing a thorough enough job in his preaching? No, it's just the fact is is that when you go out and preach some people are gonna hear it, some people are gonna receive it, and some people, it's gonna be the seed that's fallen on the stony ground. It's gonna be the seed that can't take root, okay? That's the case in every ministry. It says in verse four, then Paul said, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance. Okay, he's saying you were baptized unto, they're saying we're baptized on John's baptism. He's saying, well, John's baptism was a baptism unto repentance, and he's talking about the gospel here, saying unto the people that they should believe, okay? On him which should come after him, that is on Christ Jesus. So he's saying, well, Paul's kind of confused here, and he's clarifying it. He's saying, well, John preached Christ. So how is it you don't know about the Holy Ghost, right? He's saying he baptized the baptizing of repentance, and what did he say? That they should believe. So obviously, John's baptism is legitimate. John's preaching, his ministry was right. It wasn't like another gospel or a different thing. It was just a very unique ministry at that time in order to prepare the way for Christ. And these people, they either heard of it, or maybe they even heard the preaching of John, or the word just got back to them. But either way, whatever it is that they heard, they did not understand, okay? But that did not prevent them from trying to at least live some kind of a godly life, like trying to do the things that they thought were right to be considered disciples. That didn't make them safe, obviously. Then it says in verse five, when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them, and they spake with tongues and prophesied. So they received the Holy Ghost. Of course, today, that doesn't take place. We don't, we receive the Holy Spirit. We're not gonna be speaking with tongues and prophesying. These are gifts that were given to the early church, I believe. And even in this chapter, we see that Paul is given special miracles, okay? But if you would go over to Matthew chapter 21. So there's a couple of great things in just these first seven verses that we can learn. One being that there's people out there with good intentions that aren't saved, and they're gonna go to hell because they haven't believed in Christ, okay? And it's unfortunate, but hell is filled with what we would consider good people, okay? And there's a lot of good people who are trying to do a lot of good things that are trusting in themselves, and even in this world today. That's one thing that we can learn from this. Another is is that John's baptism, or what he preached, was the same gospel that was preached by Christ. It was the same gospel that's preached by the apostles. It wasn't some other thing. Look at Matthew 21, verse 28. Of course, this is Christ preaching to the Jews, saying, but what think ye? A certain man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard. And he answered and said, I will not. But afterward he repented and went. And he came to the second and said, Likewise, and he answered and said, I go, sir, and went not, whether the twain did the will of his father. They said unto him the first, Jesus saith unto him, verily I say unto you that the publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God before you, right? So he's using this parable of a father going to his sons and saying to the first one, go work in my vineyard, and he's saying, I'm not gonna go, but then he ends up going. And that's a picture of the Gentiles, right? That's the application that Jesus makes here. He says, whether of the twain did the will of his father, I say unto you that the publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God before you, okay? And again, he's preaching to the religious people of that day, the people that are, you know, the priests, the Levites, so on and so forth, those that have gone about to establish their own righteousness, as it says in Romans, we'll look at that in a minute. And he's, you know, this would really chap their hide because he's saying it's harlots and publicans that are going in before you. You know, these irreverential, these unholy people, these Gentiles, these people that, you know, are living wicked lives are gonna go into heaven before you. Okay, that's what Christ is saying to them. And say, why is that? Well, he gives them the answer, verse 32. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not, okay? And I'm pointing this out because people love, whenever they see the word repent, they love to just bring this up. There's people out there that believe in this false works-based gospel. It's another gospel, which is not another. It's not even a gospel, but they wanna believe in this repent of your sins salvation. You know, it's something that you won't find in scripture. You'll find that phrase in the Book of Mormon, but you won't find it in the King James Bible, and yet somehow it's managed to creep in even into Baptist churches today, where it is still a major controversy. You know, and people believe in this, but so they'll latch onto these words repent, and they'll say, oh, see, the Bible teaches repentance. You guys don't preach repentance. It's like, no, we preach repentance. I'm not afraid of the word repent. You know, I'm constantly preaching that people should repent, that we should constantly be getting sin out of our lives, that we should constantly be changing, turning from one thing to another, because that's all that repent means, okay? But notice the context in which repentance is being used by Christ in relation to the baptism of John. He's saying here that John came unto the way of righteousness and ye believed him not. So what's the problem? Is it the fact that they're not, they're unholy people, that they're ungod, because is it the things that they're doing? That he's saying that's the problem here, you guys, is you guys aren't doing the things you're supposed to be doing. No, because it's the publicans and harlots that are going into the kingdom of heaven before them. It should go without saying that publicans and harlots are not doing the things that you would think would earn your way to heaven if it were possible. If you could work your way into heaven, being a publican and a harlot is not the way to do it. You know, that's the opposite. That would be you working your way out of heaven, being a thief and a whore. Basically, that's what a harlot is, okay? People that are just selling themselves for money, okay? But he's saying, look, ye believed him not, the publicans and harlots believed him, okay? So why are the publicans and harlots going in? Oh, because they changed their life. No. Is that what Jesus said? Because they stopped being a publican? Because they stopped being a harlot? That's not what he said. He said they're going in because they believed, right? That's what it's, it's plain as the nose on your face. The publicans and harlots believed him. That's why they're going into the kingdom of heaven before you, right? Does it say, oh, because they stopped being publicans and harlots, because they turned from their sins, because they repented when John preached repent? No, they believed Christ. And it says that when they believed him, and it goes on and he says, when ye, and ye, when ye had seen it, when they saw what? When they saw publicans and harlots believe on Christ, when they saw that, repented not afterward, that you might believe him. So what's the repentance that's gotta take place here? Going from unbelief to belief. And you have one group of people who are living wicked, ungodly lives, unholy lives, and that's putting it lightly. When you're a publican and a harlot, you know, that's some serious debauchery going on right there. They're going in because they believed. That's the group of people that are getting saved. Not because they're cleaning up their life, but because they've done the one thing that we all must do to go to heaven. Whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And then you have the other group of people who are trusting in their works, who might even be doing good things. Who are, you know, giving alms to the poor, perhaps. You know, they're doing all these other things, but you know what, they're trusting in their own works, and they're not believing. They repented not that they might believe him. So again, this is all in relation to Acts, where we are tonight, and it's basically showing us in this chapter that, you know, there's a group of people out there in Paul's day that are, though disciples, were not saved. And they'd heard the baptism of John, and it wasn't that John was preaching something different. We just saw that John, even Jesus is saying, he preached that you should believe on him, whom God has sent, right? That's what John preached. So it wasn't that John had a different gospel or something like that. These people are just showing us that you can hear the gospel, you can hear it and miss it. If you would, go over to Romans chapter number 10, just another verse to kind of drive this home. Actually, you know what, go to 1 Corinthians 3. We'll move along. Just go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 3, but I'll remind us of what it says in Romans 10. Paul said in verse one, "'Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel "'is this, that they might be saved, "'for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, "'but not according to knowledge.'" Okay, it's not that they're just these lukewarm, lame, disinterested, just people who aren't interested, things of God. No, they have a zeal, but it's just not according to knowledge. It's misplaced zeal. But again, I'd give them credit for at least having some zeal. And that's kind of what you see in Acts chapter number one. You have people, they have zeal, it's just, it's misplaced. He said, "'For I bear them record "'that they have a zeal of God, "'but not according to knowledge, "'for they being ignorant of God's righteousness "'and going about to establish their own righteousness "'have not submitted themselves "'under the righteousness of God.'" So it all kind of ties together with Matthew 21, Acts, where the problem with people is, is that even though they have zeal, they might be zealous of good works. If they're doing those things to establish their own righteousness, then they have not submitted themselves under the righteousness which is of Christ, which is the only righteousness which will do before a holy God. For the end of the law for righteousness is, excuse me, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth, to everyone that believeth. Not to just, you know, the religious zealots, not to just, you know, people with good intentions or who've done more good than bad. No, it's everyone, the publicans, the harlots, even the religious folks who are trusting their own works. Christ is the end of the law to everyone that believeth. So that's one, you know, one thing we can learn out of these first seven verses here is that you have groups of people out there that are trusting in their own works. They're mishearing, they're hearing the right gospel, but they're not applying it correctly. You know, and I kind of bring this up too because of the fact that, you know, today even you'll hear this criticism sometimes out there, at least I've heard it, and I've even had people come to me with concerns and I'm not against them doing so. I appreciate that people come to me with this concern and they've said things like, hey, you know, I'm soul winning. Are you sure I'm doing, I'm just not sure I'm doing a thorough enough job in this or that. You know, do you think if I'm missing some points or I'm not thorough enough, do you think I'm doing more harm than good? You understand what I'm saying? There's people that sometimes will come to me and say, hey, you know, I'm not so sure that I, you know, it sounds to me like the people I'm preaching to are getting saved, that they're understanding, but you know, the person that I'm talking to, the soul winner, you know, they kind of have some doubts about how effective they're truly being. And the concern that they'll express to me is they'll say things like, do you think I'm, you know, doing more harm than good? Meaning, am I giving these people a false sense of security? And to me, in my opinion, I would say no. I would say no. I don't think you are, I don't think you're ever doing any harm in going and preaching somebody the gospel, you know, regardless of how thorough you are at it or not. Because they're not any less saved than when you got there. I would rather have somebody come and get, you know, kind of a choppy gospel than none at all. Because even us, you know, if we go there and we're not as thorough or as perfect or as whatever dynamic as we would like to be, you know, really, you know, it's not our power that saves anyone to begin with. Now, I'm not against people being thorough. In fact, when someone comes to me and expresses that kind of concern, that's actually reassuring that that person is probably more thorough than some other people. You know, I've seen other people just like give up, you know, they just preach some three-minute gospel to somebody and they just proclaim these people saved. Everyone around them is going, that guy didn't get saved. But they're just like, oh man, I got these guys saved. And they're just hooping and hollering to get all excited. It's like, we're not counting those people. But the people that come to me and are concerned about how thorough they're being, to me, I take that as, well, you know, this person is probably more thorough than most. They're probably, you know, to be that sensitive to that, that's a good sign. That means it's on their mind. They're concerned about, am I being thorough enough? Which means they probably are. You follow what I'm saying? The problem is is that when you get the guy who that's the farthest thing from his mind, how thorough he's being, right? But, you know, people who will come express this concern and they'll say, you know, I just don't know if I'm leading them astray. It's like, well, how are you leading them astray if you're preaching them the gospel? You can't get somebody more unsaved by preaching them the gospel. That doesn't make any sense. Yet this criticism is out there. Oh, you know, you guys go out there and just preach your one, two, three, repent after me, shake my hand, go into heaven. Like, we've never promoted that. We've never practiced that. In fact, we've preached against it. And, you know, if I'm ever out-souling with somebody who starts doing that, I would correct them, lovingly, gently, and in a nice way. But I would say that's not how we soul win. That's not how you win a soul. We're very thorough. You know, we drive home the fact that it's a gift. We drive home the fact that it's eternal, that it's by faith alone. But the critics, the criticism that we often get from these people, the critics that give that, oh, you guys are just so quick about it, they're the ones that wanna park it on, you know, how you're a sinner, how you're a wretch, you're a worm before God, and then you need to repent. What they really wanna do is get somebody at the door to just break down in tears and pour out all their beer in the fridge before they'll preach them the gospel. You know, and it infuriates me. Look, it's out there. I've talked to people and I've asked them, would you lead a soul to Christ? You preached in the gospel, it was clear as day, he understands it, but he's not willing to quit drinking. Would you preach the gospel? Would you get that guy saved? Would you lead him in prayer? Oh, I'd wait as a wise soul winner for the Holy Spirit to work. What they mean is they'd wait for him to come under conviction and be under deep contrition and, you know, and wanna just clean up his life. Oh, you mean do works to get saved? Because that's what it is to repent from sin. Anyone in this room that's ever tried to repent from sins knows what a work that is. Anyone's ever tried to get over some sin, some habitual sin, knows that that's not easy, that's a great deal of work, that's something you have to work at every single day of our lives sometimes. Why would I go out there and preach that to some unsaved sinner who doesn't even have the Holy Spirit, who doesn't even have the power or doesn't even know the word of God well enough to claim the promises of God to be able to get over those sins? It's ridiculous. But, you know, that's who the critics usually are. It comes from that crowd. Oh, you guys are just so quick. You guys are just so quick to just count a number. He says, no, we're not. But you know what? He said, well, I explained the numbers that you have here then. Well, you know, that's what happens when you go out, half a dozen, a dozen people, and you go out for hours at a time consistently every week and preach the gospel in receptive places, you'll come back with those numbers. You know, there's gonna be some people that will scoff and mock at the numbers that come back from St. Lucia at the end of this missions trip. But, you know, they've never been there. They've never set foot there. They don't know how receptive it is. Though they're gonna doubt the fact that, you know, they're gonna doubt the numbers in spite of the fact that there's, you know, dozens of soul winners there out there every day for hours every day for like a week preaching thoroughly, preaching a thorough gospel, seasoned soul winners that know what they're doing in a highly receptive area. Of course you're gonna have high numbers. You know, and it's not that we're all about numbers, but not against them either. What's the measure of success in the ministry? Is it how many people fill a pew? How big the building is? How many little rooms we have for all our other extracurricular ministries? Or is it how many souls we've led to Christ? That's the measure. But, you know, people will criticize and they'll, you know, throw shade on genuine bonafide biblical soul winning. And, you know, if you wanna get me fired up and you wanna get me mad and angry, you know, be one of those people. And be one of those people that would criticize and doubt, you know, about, you know, how thorough real soul winners are being. Look, when a soul winner comes to me and expresses concern about how, whether or not they're doing more harm than good, to me, I'm just like, you know what, God bless you. I'm glad you have a heart for that. I'm glad that there, and there's been more than one person like that that's come to me over the years and has expressed that. I just say, that's great. I think it's great that that's on your mind, that you're driven to be thorough and we should be thorough. I'm more interested in, you know, if our soul winning is just about coming back to report a number, what's it gonna matter in heaven? If you're just, if you just wanna come back and be able to raise your hand and report a number, you know, you have your reward. That's it. What a weak, shallow, lame reward. I got to lift my hand and point up a couple of fingers in a church service on a Thursday night or something. Woo! You know, all you had to do was drive down here and to be able to do that, all right? And sit through my preaching. You know, but if you're sincere and you're thorough and you do a good job, look, you'll have souls in heaven. You'll have a reward in heaven. I know I gotta move on. But to me, I thought that was a good example of that. That even in the book of Acts, you have people who are hearing the gospel, they're hearing the baptism of John, which was the same gospel that Christ is preaching, and it's just going right over their heads. Look, there's gonna be people that you go out and preach to that are just not gonna get it. It's not your fault. It's not because you're not thorough. It's not because you didn't try. It's because they just don't get it. It's just some people just aren't gonna get it. It's not their day. But that's not to say that they're never going to get it. Okay? And this is why, again, this goes back to my original point, that's why I'm not against people preaching even if it's kind of a dicey, choppy gospel. You know, the way you get better at soul winning is by soul winning. You know, and this is something I've really come around on in the last few years. I've really learned to just back way off on people when it comes to soul winning, and not be nitpicky, and not, you know, insist that people do things my way or exactly the way I do it. I mean, I believe in definitely having a track to run on, personalize it, there's definitely certain points that should be covered. But, you know, even if somebody goes out there and, you know, they're just starting out soul winning, God bless them. I don't want to discourage them. I mean, if they want my opinion, if they want some advice, if they want points, and obviously if they go way off the rails, yeah, we need to correct that. But most people aren't doing that. Most people that start out soul winning, their biggest problem is that they're just kind of, they're not, they don't flow as easily, right? They're not as smooth in their delivery. I mean, you know what, know who was. You know, I'm sure there's some just gifted, natural speakers who are just people, you know, some salesman gets saved later in life and he's been talking to people for decades, it's just gonna be a smooth transition to going to preaching the gospel to strangers. Some of us, you know, never talk to anybody besides the people we know, let alone some complete stranger. Let alone when we talk to that complete stranger, do we bring up their eternal soul? I mean, it's enough to be, you know, it's enough to step out of your comfort zone and just talk to some total stranger about anything. Sometimes, you know, I mean, for some people, let alone bring up spiritual things, let alone ask them, hey, are you gonna go to heaven when you die? I mean, you've seen it, if you've ever asked it at the door, it really takes some people aback, they're just, they don't know how to respond. I hope so, I think so, I mean, I'm a good person. You know, but you ask that question a few thousand times, it just starts to roll off your tongue. But you know what, I bet a lot of people would say the first few times I'd go knock on the door, man, I was just so nervous, and I would fumble, and I would just mumble, and it was hard, you know? And it wasn't someone picking them apart that made them better, it was them just being consistent and going, okay? And you know, that's why I'm not against people, even if they're not doing as good a job. I'm against people doing a sloppy, terrible job and thinking they're doing a good one, okay? But if people are going out there and learning the ropes, I'm not gonna discourage that. And even if we're really good at preaching the gospel, we're seasoned at it, man, we know how to wield this sword, and we know how to talk to people, and people still aren't getting it, we should not walk away discouraged because we have to understand there's just some people that are not going to get it. Look at 1 Corinthians 3, verse 5. "'Who then is Paul,' he says, "'and who is Apollos, but ministers "'by whom ye have believed, "'even as the Lord gave to every man?' "'So God has given to every person "'that's believed a minister.'" Okay? "'I have planted, Apollos watered, "'but God gave the increased.'" He's saying, look, there's a minister for every man, we might not be that person. He's saying, I've planted and Apollos has watered, but God's the one that gives the increase. You know, sometimes when we go out and preach the gospel, all we're doing is planting, all we're doing is watering. I mean, I've heard people get in the van, you know, after soul winning, and say things like, where we have no salvation, zero. And they'll make some remark about what was said. Just something like, well, that was a waste of time, or something like that, or that was for naught. And in unison, like several people in the van, including myself, all said, like, it's never a waste of time. And I don't believe that person was, you know, out of line. You know, just sometimes people feel that way. Some people just don't know how to keep certain things to themselves. You know, some people could work on that, I guess. I've been guilty of that. But, you know, sometimes it just comes out. You know, well, you know, I guess that was kind of, you know, a waste of time. And all the soul winners who've been at it a while are like, no, that was not a waste of time. As we understand, there's some people, it's just planting. And someone else might water. So when that guy goes up, that gal goes up, knocks on that door, and they're fumbling, and they're putting, you know, Ephesians before Romans, and then they're going to John at the end of the book. And you're going, man, that's not the order in which it's supposed to be done. You know, and it's just driving you nuts. Like, well, you know what, at least they're planting. At least they're watering. And that person they're talking to isn't any less saved as a result. Maybe they're not perfect in exactly the way you would do it. But you know what, you know, help them along. Encourage them. And eventually, you know, they'll be just as good as us. And just as humble, too, right? He said, now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, but every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor, for we are laborers together with God. Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. If you would go over to 1 Corinthians chapter number one, 1 Corinthians chapter number one. So I'm just making, you know, a couple points out of these, you know, about this group of people in Acts 19 there where he's coming and they're disciples, but they're not understanding the gospel. Like they're doing works, but they haven't understood. You know, and Paul's preaching them and saying, well, John preached the baptism unto repentance that you might believe, right? He clears them up. Well, this is what John preached. And when they heard that, they were baptized and they received the Holy Ghost, okay? I believe that's a picture of them getting saved. If you look at 1 Corinthians chapter number one, verse 12, he said, now this I say that every one of you that sayeth I am of Paul and I have Apollos and I have Cephas and I have Christ, is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I had baptized in my own name. And I baptized also the household of Stephanus. Besides, I know not whether I baptized any other, for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. So Paul's saying here, it's not the wisdom of words that gets people saved. It's the power, you know, he said, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. So I don't know if I could be a good soul winner. Well, do you know how to preach the gospel? Do you know how to just go and turn to a Bible verse and briefly explain it? It's not that complicated. That's the beauty of soul winning, is that the Bible does all the heavy lifting for us. The Holy Spirit is there working with us. We are, you know, we are laborers together with God. That's what we just read. We're God's building. He's working with us. The Holy Spirit is there with us. Look, I believe that. I believe that when I'm out there soul winning and preaching the gospel, I'm laboring with God, not just on his behalf, but that his Holy Spirit is actually there with us, laboring alongside of us. And how does he do that? You know, we fall down in the yard and just start gyrating and just start, you know, doing all these crazy charismatic things. I take my jacket off and I start slapping him at the door. Yeah! No, you know, that's a bunch of charismatic apostolic nonsense. That's not the fruit of the spirit. That's not the laboring, God laboring alongside of us. The God laboring alongside of us is that as we preach the word, he takes the words that are coming out of his word and he brings it home. And, you know, and he visits the heart. He begins to work on that person. And that's why, again, in verse 17, Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. That's what you need. What do I say when I'm out souling? Just preach the gospel. Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. And it doesn't have to be some fancy, nuanced, unique way of, and if you have some effective and unique way of preaching the gospel, God bless you. But if we're just trying to be fancy and nuanced and unique for the sake of being fancy and nuanced and unique, you know, then why are you, then don't be surprised if it's the wisdom of words and not the power of God that's at work in people's hearts. We just preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words. We just want to preach and let the power of Christ work on those people. Go to Acts chapter number 10, okay? The other thing we can get out of these first few verses in Acts 19 is that baptism follows salvation, okay? Obviously, we're Baptist here. It's on the door. We probably all have a pretty firm understanding of what it, about, around the doctrine. We have a firm understanding of the doctrine of baptism here, okay? We're not sprinklers. We understand that we don't baptize infants. You know, you have to baptize a converted believer, right? Which is why we see Paul re-baptizing these people, right? Because they had not understood the gospel. They had heard it, you know, the seed had been planted. Paul came along and watered. God gave the increase. They got saved. He said, okay, now that you're saved, let's baptize you. And they had already been baptized, okay? But baptism doesn't save, does it? It's another great proof text that baptism didn't do these people any good. They might've been trying to live as a disciple. They might've even considered disciples. They're being baptized or following Christ, but they don't understand the gospel. When they finally do understand it, Paul goes ahead and re-baptize them. Then they receive the gospel because they have the gospel once again thoroughly and made clear to them. They understand it. They get saved, and then they're baptized, okay? We all get that here. And a thing is too is that sometimes you'll have people who will, you know, they'll have gotten baptized maybe even somebody else's ministry, or they'll have gotten baptized by somebody that turns out to be a heretic later. You know, we've had people baptizing in our ministry that later turned out to be unsaved individuals. Say, oh, I can't believe that. Well, you know, the apostles didn't know Judas was a Judas the whole time. You know, Jesus picked him out. Jesus said, oh, Jesus didn't know what Judas was, a betrayer. He was a devil from the beginning. Jesus knew that. He knew he was gonna betray him. And he said, well, come be one of my disciples. You know, and people wanna level criticisms at us because some wolf tries to, you know, creep into this ministry. Well, you know, if I was Satan and I was trying to creep into a ministry, this would be one that I'd try to creep into because this is a ministry that's getting souls saved. I'm not saying it's the only one that's doing it, but I'm saying it's a ministry that is a powerhouse of soul winning. Of course, Satan's gonna try and infiltrate. Of course, he's gonna send his minions. Of course, you know, people are even unknowingly gonna come into this ministry and be Judases, okay? And that's a whole nother subject. Did Judas even know he was a Judas? I don't think he did until it was too late. So of course, you know, there's gonna be people that have crept in over the years and have even, you know, were ordained and have baptized other people. And then other, you know, the people that they baptized will later come back and say, well, I feel like I need to get baptized again. And then other people say, oh, you definitely should. You know, and our position always just been, if you feel like you need to, go ahead. You know, it's like, it's just, it's real easy to do again. It's not that big of a deal. Because there's nothing mystical or magical about baptism. You know, I know we read about Jesus' baptism that the heavens were parted, right? And the Spirit of God lighted upon him like a dove, the Holy Spirit, and he heard a voice in heaven. That's the only baptism that's ever happened at, though. You know, that doesn't happen here. So don't get baptized and expect like, aah, you know? Baptism's real simple. We just, you know, put you under, recite the 119th Psalm, and bring you back up. That's a Bible joke. It's the longest chapter in the Bible, right? Bring a snorkel and you get baptized here. Just kidding, right? But, you know, does it really matter? If you got baptized, whose name are you being baptized in? Paul's saying, I thank God I baptized none of you. Right, you know, I baptized any other, you know. Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. I'm not downplaying the importance of baptism, but let's not overplay it either. You know, and he's dealing with the carnality of, the Corinthian church is saying, I am of Paul, and I have Apollos, and I have Cephas, and I have Christ. That's carnality. And this even, this shows up in baptism, and it's something that I think babes in Christ can struggle with. Because you'll have people that'll say, oh, you know, I gotta be baptized by, by Pastor Anderson, by this pastor. It's gotta be this, and they'll even have a home church that will baptize them, in another part of the country. And it's like, but they gotta come all the way here to get baptized by a certain person. And it's like, yeah, we'll baptize you, but it's kinda like, why don't you do that where you're at? Because who are you getting baptized for? It's not for us, it's for Christ. You know, baptizing the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost. That's who you're being baptized in, that name. Right, you're being baptized in the name of Christ, not in the name of some preacher. So as long as you were baptized, you were saved, and you got baptized, does it really matter who baptized you? To me, it doesn't seem that important. Now if you were unsaved, like these people in Acts 19 where we are tonight, yeah, we should probably get rebaptized, because you were unsaved. Because that follows salvation. Now look at, now let me say one last thing about baptism, because this is another thing about baptism that is probably gonna hold a little more water, pun intended, for you guys tonight. Can any man forbid water that these should be baptized? Should not be baptized, so of course, this is Peter at Cephas when he's received the vision, and he goes and he preaches the Gentiles, the Holy Spirit falls upon them, the Jews that are with him are amazed, and he says, can any man forbid water that these should be baptized? He's saying, is there any reason why we shouldn't baptize these guys right now? Would you have received the Holy Ghost as well as he? And look at verse 48, and he commanded them to be baptized. I love that. He wasn't like, well, you know, if you wanna get baptized, it's the next step in the Christian life, you know, you should be baptized, the Bible does teach. Some people just need to be commanded to be baptized. Being baptized is a command of God. It's not like it's optional. You know, if you're saved and you haven't been baptized, you need to get baptized. You know, the Bible demands baptism, it commands it. You have to be baptized in obedience to Christ, not for salvation. You know, if you wanna be, follow Christ, if you want to be pleasing to God, you should be baptized. I love Peter's approach here. He commanded them to be baptized. He wasn't all gentle and soft and nice about it. You know, he didn't have like a six to eight week class, you know, instructing them about baptism, because it's not that complicated. You know, it's like, people get so mixed up on this doctrine, it's so basic. You got one group of people that just won't get baptized, for whatever reason. You know, one reason people don't get baptized is because they're just shy. They don't want, they feel like they'll be embarrassed. They don't want everyone looking at them. And look, I get that. You think I like this? Right? So maybe I'm not the person to talk about that, because, you know, I have people looking at me three times a week. You know, I feel more sorry for you than for me. You gotta look at this, right? But I get that there's people out there that are shy, they're bashful, you know, they don't like the idea of people looking at them. I get that. But you know what? Just think about Jesus. You know, the Bible says he endured the cross, despising the shame for the joy that was set before him. Jesus was publicly hung on a cross, naked, in front of everybody. Had a bunch of people walking by, scoffing, shooting out the lip, casting derision at him, shaking and wagging the head. Come down from the cross. You know, if you be the savior, if you be God, come down, we'll believe. He saved others, himself he cannot save. Look, if you get baptized here, nothing like that's gonna happen. You know, there's a couple things, let me tell you what won't happen if you get baptized here. The heavens will not part. The Holy Spirit will not descend upon you bodily like a dove. You will not hear a voice from heaven unless I hit your head on the way down. You know? You might, some people might sound like thunder, like dong, you know? That's not gonna happen. Okay, me hitting your head might happen, no promises. But you're not gonna hear, you know, a voice from heaven. This is my beloved son in whom I love. It's not gonna happen. You know what else isn't gonna happen? People aren't gonna stand up and start laughing and pointing and going, ha ha, you know, that's never happened here. It's not gonna happen. But you know what, that's exactly what Jesus went through. Jesus went through public humiliation. And he actually, you know, you would actually understand why it was humiliating. Because people were scoffing and mocking and ridicule. And by the way, that's what he did for you. And he asks and he commands that all you do is believe and be baptized. You know, some people need to just get over it and get baptized and not, why? Because they need to get baptized for the Lord to be pleasing unto God. Look, if I wanna please God, I don't care what anybody else thinks. I don't care what anybody else thinks. If I know God wants me to do something, I'm gonna do it. I don't care what anybody else thinks. If God says preach this way, that's how I'm gonna preach. And I don't care what anybody else thinks. If God says get up and rip face and show my people their sins and call out iniquity and preach hard. He that hath my word, let him preach my word faithfully. That's what I'm gonna do. You know what? And it's probably not gonna build a really big church. I'd probably build a much bigger church if I was just nice all the time. Wave my arms around more. You know, and it's just more entertaining and just a nicer guy. But it's kinda hard to be nice and preach every word of this book. I'm sorry, it's not, this isn't some nice little, you know, feather to just kinda waft on you and just oh, you know, pat you and make you feel good. This is a Brillo pad. This scratches, this hurts. Obviously it's a balm, it helps, right? But you know what? I'm gonna preach it anyway because that's what God said. And if me getting up and getting baptized is gonna be embarrassing for me, I'm gonna do it anyway because that's what God said. Peter commanded it. He said, he commanded them to be baptized. He said, well, if you guys feel like it, if it's not too embarrassing for you, you know, if it doesn't make you feel too uncomfortable, you could be baptized right now. He said, get baptized. Why? Because that's what Christ commanded. That's what we're here to do. And it's you, it's between you and God. It's between the person being baptized and the Lord. You know, and it's an opportunity for you to show God how much you do love him. You know, if we love God, we'll be willing to do things that are hard and difficult and make us uncomfortable. I mean, it's not what we do for our loved ones. You know, we go to work all day and put on, you know, us dads and fathers and others, you know, we go to work all day to provide for our families because we've got nothing better to do. Just because we really like just going to work it for the man. You know, it's because we love the people we're taking care of, right? We do things that we don't want to do for the people that we love. That's the point I'm making. And if we love God, we would do things that we don't want to do, even get baptized. Preach things we don't want to have to preach. Do things we don't want to have to do because we love God. And we would do things that make us feel uncomfortable if he commanded it because we love him. So there's a lot there, right? Well, let's move along in the story. There's a lot more chapter to get through. I want to get through it tonight. Go back to Acts 19 and it says in verse eight, and he went into synagogue and he spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading of things concerning the kingdom of God. But when diverse were hardened and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them. So this kind of ties into what I preached in last week, that there's a time and place to just, you know, a man that is an heretic after third, second, first and second admonition reject, right? As you told Titus. But he's saying here, you know, notice that's what Paul did. He was there for three months. And eventually those that went diverse, meaning when many were hardened, they weren't that way when he showed up, they became hardened, okay? And believed not, but then they began to spake evil of that way. So you see the progression there? This is like how you become a reprobate. First you just harden yourself to the things of God. Well, I'm not gonna listen to that. I don't have any interest in that. I'm not gonna listen to the gospel, blah, blah, blah, whatever, whatever, whatever. Then you get so hard in that and then you just refuse to believe. You're not going to believe. And then you begin to actually speak evil of that way. Then you cross over this line where you're actually, and make yourself an enemy of the gospel of Christ. And that's some scary ground to get on. And how did Paul handle it? He departed from them because there's, speak not in the ears of the fool, lest he despise the wisdom of thy words. When people harden themselves, when people are just gonna begin to speak evil and they've just made themselves an enemy of the truth, you just depart. Just go and find somebody that's not like that. Go find somebody that is tenderhearted and will listen. And separated disciples disputing daily in the school of one, Tyrannus. Look at verse 10, and this continued for the space of two, by the space of two years, so that all which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. Everyone in Asia, what we call Turkey, they heard the word of the Lord Jesus Christ in the space of two years. Now that we might say, wow, that seems almost impossible, but the world was a lot smaller then, right? Wasn't as many people. But the principle is that, you know, one, God wants everyone to hear the gospel, and in order to do that, it takes time. It's not gonna happen overnight. You know, we have a goal of knocking every door in Tucson. You know, and that's gonna happen in a lifetime. You know, some of you are young enough, it might happen twice. Me, it's probably gonna be once. One and a half, one and a quarter, I don't know. You know, I guess a lot of that depends on me. But anyway, that's another subject. But if we're gonna accomplish that goal of having an entire region hear the word of God, it's the long game. You have, that's how you have to look at the Christian life. You have to look at the long game. You can't think about just week to week, month to month, year to year even. You have to think in terms of decades, okay, years. Look at verse 11, and God brought special miracles by the hands of Paul. Now what's another word for special? Unique, right? Particular. So the miracles that Paul did were special because he was the only one that did them, right? We can't look to everything that God allowed Paul to do and say that's for us, okay? Look at some of the things that happened. So that from his body were brought unto him, the sick, under the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases were departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them. So you're literally just taking like handkerchiefs, piece of cloths that Paul had handled and bringing it to people and they're being healed. Paul's not even showing up. I mean, this is a very special gift, right? That's very unique. It's certainly not anything I possessed, you know? I'm not gonna blow my nose in a tissue. If I did that, it would actually, you would contract whatever I had. That's how that would work, right? I don't know that's what was going on here, okay? The handkerchiefs and the aprons, these are just cloth items that Paul had handled and it's just this great miracle. But of course, it's unique to Paul. And you wanna understand that, why it uses that word special, because some people get carried away and they start thinking that all these different miracles are things for them to do. Look at verse 13 and you have a group of people that are an example of this. Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits, excuse me, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus saying, we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. So they're saying, well, let's go try this out, right? They see what Paul did and now they're getting all cares maniac. And there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jew and chief of the priests which did so, right? Now look at verse 15, and the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are ye? One, I don't wanna ever have an evil spirit reply to me. Just the thought of that sends chills down my spine. Like that's not anything I wanna get into, right? And I think this is a strong warning against people getting into the occult and start dabbling in this stuff, because that stuff's real, stuff's out there. Now I believe as God's children, if we're indwelt with the Holy Spirit, they have no power over us. I think these guys, they're vagabond Jews, they're sons of a chief priest, which was a Jew. I don't think these are saved guys doing this. They're just into that kind of thing, right? They're the guys that are up late watching cable television, the different poltergeist shows or whatever that are out there, the ghost hunters, right? I don't know what these shows, I know they're out there, right? They're just into that stuff. They're watching the YouTube places where they go into the haunted places. I don't want anything to do with that. And I believe some of that stuff. I believe in evil spirits, why would I wanna dabble with any of that? But I believe these guys are getting beat up by these spirits because they're not God's children. I've been asked multiple times by multiple different people, do you think that people can be cursed or hexed or have evil spirits mess with God's people? I know that was kind of a word salad right there, but basically they've asked me, do you think that people can do black magic on Christians? No, I don't. I don't believe that. I don't think it's possible. I think people might read into that and allow themselves to think that. These guys that happen to them because of the fact that they're not saved, okay? And again, we're reading about a bunch of Jews that harden themselves and believe not, spake evil of that way. Then you have these vagabond Jews, their dad is the chief priest. I mean, these aren't, it's not saying these are Christians, right? There's no more in here that says you're saved. And they get beat up. And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them and overcame them and prevailed against them. So they fled out of that house naked and wounded. You don't wanna mess with this stuff. It'll end up hurting you and shaming you, right? Stay away from the Ouija board. And look, people, you just say that, people are like, oh, that's so silly. You Baptists. But I know people that have messed with that stuff and they have scary stories to tell. You know, I don't like to just throw out anecdotal things, but I'll go ahead and do it because you guys need to be entertained tonight. Like, I had one friend who, he was in a group, and they were doing the Ouija board, and this one kid said, I don't want anything to do with it, for whatever reason. He said, I'm not touching this thing. And he went and he sat in a corner while everybody else was messing with it. And while they were doing the Ouija board, this kid just starts shrieking. Ahh! Ahh! Just like screaming and runs out of the room. And they're like, what's going on? And so he said he felt something like grab the back of his neck, like somebody walked up and just grabbed him. And say, oh, come on. I don't know, maybe it's just a silly story, but you know what? It's not beyond the realm of possibility. Do you really believe that stuff? Are you reading the same Bible I am? Because these guys went in and messed with a guy that was possessed and got beat up. You know, and they're trying to have their little seance in Jesus' name, and stuff's happening. Look, the dark arts, the occult, it's real. It works because they tap into that which is demonic and satanic, right? And they can sit there and talk about, are you a good witch or a bad witch? You know, black magic, white magic. You know, I never read any of the Harry Potter books, and I never will, and I never let my kids read them or watch the movies, because I don't want to give them a taste for the occult. You know, I've never watched that stuff, but I guarantee you it all leads back to the same source, Satan, okay? That's where it all comes from. And there's other stories, like all these stories are starting to come to mind about people that have, you know, and it's all anecdotal, obviously. I can't just get up and say, oh yeah, for sure. You know, this is exactly what happened. I mean, I know people that had gotten into that stuff, and stuff started moving around the room. My great, okay, I'll tell one story. My great, it's like my great, great, great uncle was Black Elk, which was the last Sioux medicine man. Basically the last Native American medicine man, like genuine, before the white man came, medicine man. And that's, you want to talk about some dark arts, and some black magic, you get into these medicine men, and other things, it's, when they're cutting the heads off chickens, and everything else, I mean, they're into it, they're deep, right? My dad tells a story about his aunt coming over to his house when he was just a little boy, and his aunt was just terrified. And she's like, John, and my dad's name's John, she's like, John, I was over at so-and-so's house, because they all lived out on the reservation. And Black Elk showed up, and the lights started turning on and off, the cupboards were opening, things were moving around. And she was freaked out. And my dad was freaked out, because he's six years old hearing about it. You know, now with my dad, you know, it's hard to know what to believe sometimes, to be honest, now you know where I get it, okay? But that one I believe, I believe that probably was the case, you know, because Black Elk was a real medicine man, you could go read his book, Black Elk Speaks, I don't recommend it, you could do it. Where he talks about, you know, his life, but that guy was deep into, you know, they wouldn't call it that, they would call it, you know, their Native American religion. You know, their spiritual way, you know, whatever. But all that stuff is so over romanticized today, they just love the idea of the dream catcher, and the four winds, and blah, blah, blah. You know, it's all, it's all satanic, folks. So yeah, do I think that maybe Black Elk actually showed up to one of my great, great distant relatives' house, and crazy, paranormal things are gonna happen? Sure, because that kind of stuff happens. It's real, it's not just Hollywood, okay? The occult is real. I mean, the Bible's telling us the story for a reason. There really are evil spirits, there really is such a thing as possession, the demonic world is very real, you know, it's unseen, you know, we should not, it's not for us to know, we see through a glass darkly, we shouldn't delve into those things. If we go try to overextend ourselves, and go beyond our bounds, and start to dabble with these things, like these guys, you know, as unsaved people, you walk out naked and ashamed. It doesn't do you any good. Thank God that's all that happened to them. They just walked out naked and wounded. Verse 17, we gotta move along. And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks who were also dwelling at Ephesus, and fear fell on all of them, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. Now let me point out one other thing. What did the devil say in the story? He said what? He said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know. That's really something, you know. I know it's like some rock song, the devil knows my name. And that might be true with some of these rock stars. But Satan knew, this devil knew who Paul was. Why? You know, because Paul was on Satan's 10 most wanted list or whatever, like he was known in that world, that demonic world, because he's, you know, he's shaking things up for the kingdom of God. He's battling against principalities and powers in high places. He's wrestling against those things, against the spiritual wickedness in high places. That's what Paul's doing. You know, if you wanna mess with the occult, you know, mess with them by preaching the gospel, you wanna, you know, get on the God side of things and do it that way. You wanna start messing with the devil, go out there and start getting some soul saved. You know, does that kind of thing still happen today? I don't know. But it does tell me that the devil will mark certain people. And I believe the devil will mark ministries. Ministry starts doing too good, starts getting a lot of people saved, God starts moving into ministry. You can mark it down that the devil is gonna take note of that and try to resist it and fight it some way. He's gonna say, the Lord I know, Jesus I know, faithful word I know. And look, I wanna be known as a minister. I wanna be known as a ministry by the devil, because it means we're doing something. You know, they didn't just pull Paul's name out of a hat, it's because Paul was mixing it up, getting some stuff done. That's a whole sermon right there, but let's move along. So mightily, verse 20, grew the ward of God and prevailed. After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, after he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia to go to Jerusalem, saying after I've been there, I must also go to Rome, also see Rome. So he set into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, to Mothius and Erastus, but he himself stayed in Asia for a season. So we're just getting some more of the details of his movements. And the same time, there arose no small stir about that way, for a certain man, Demetrius, a silver-met Sith, who made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain of those craftsmen. Now, you say, what's with these minor details about where he went when and who he sent where? That stuff might seem, on the surface, just kind of unimportant, but it's details like that that help you piece a lot of the other scriptures together. It gives you a timeline in the New Testament, the Epistles, when certain things were written, when Paul refers back to certain events in the Epistles, you can kind of figure out where he's talking about in the Acts. It's a deep study. Obviously, we're not going into that tonight, but if you don't know why that kind of stuff's in there, don't just read over that. That's something you could delve into if you wanted to. Verse 24, you kind of have this more famous story. For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain of the craftsmen, whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, Sir, as you know by this craft, we have our wealth. So Demetrius here is getting upset because of the fact that Paul's going around and he's preaching against idolatry. He's preaching that all men everywhere should repent and turn unto the living God. He's saying forsake these idols, God in times past winked at these things, but now commandeth all men to repent. That's what he preached on Mars Hill. When he went there and said, I saw, when he saw the whole place given to idolatry, he brought up the unknown God. So he's preaching against this guy's craft. Not directly, but because he's telling people to not trust in things that are made of stone and silver and gold, but in the living God. So this guy, Demetrius, he doesn't like the fact that Paul is basically messing with his livelihood, which obviously is not Paul's intent, but when you're making idols, you're not exactly in an honest business. You're damning souls to hell. And notice that this guy, all he cares about is money. He says, Sir, as you know that by this craft, we have our wealth. It's a skilled trade. There's not a lot of people doing it. We got everyone hooked on idolatry. We're the only ones making the idols. Moreover, verse 26, you see here that not alone in Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned much people away. Well, what a great testimony to Paul, right? He's turned much people away throughout all Asia. Praise God, powerhouse. Saying that they be no gods which are made with hands. So that not only this, our craft is in danger to be said it not, but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshipeth, right? So he's just really concerned about Diana and this temple, this shrine and this idol that they've made, and his craft, his religion and his money. He doesn't want that messed with, right? And look, there's still people like this today. We run into them all the time out soul winning. They're Catholics, they're so entrenched in their Catholicism, they were born Catholic, they were raised Catholic, grandma was Catholic, they're just Catholic because everybody else was Catholic, they're entrenched in it, right? It's their tradition, it's their longtime standing religion and it's hard to turn them away sometimes from that. But another thing that keeps people in false religion is the networking. A lot of people just, Mormons are like this, Catholic churches are like this, where they go to that church not just because they're just such devout religious people, because they like to network with the old boys group that's in there. And all the businessmen go to that particular Catholic church, all the wealthy people go to that particular Mormon temple and they network with each other. They have their wealth because of their religion. That still goes on today. And people that are like that, man, they are more concerned about their wealth, their craft and their religion than they are the truth. And they can cause problems, all right? The Bible says, we all know 1 Timothy 6, the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows, okay? This is a perfect example of that. A guy who just loves his money, loves his wealth and you know what, he's piercing himself through with many sorrows, he's damning himself and he'll take everybody else with him because of money. And that really, I mean, think about that. The Bible says the love of money is the root of most evil. No, all evil. You see some evil in the world, it comes back to money every single time. Somebody's making a lot of money off of some evil, that's what it all comes down to, money, every time. You know, a great example of that was in that film that Pastor Shelley and Steadfast Baptist Church put together, The Sodomite Deception, right? What was it, no, what was the last one that just came out? Yeah, the terrorist one, where they show you how all these pharmaceutical companies started making money off the AIDS epidemic. And they're the ones that are promoting all the faggotry in our country. They're promoting faggotry, not because they care about queers and homos and they just want people to be free to love who they love, but because they wanted to get them a disease so they can make money off of them. Because the love of money is the root of all evil. You think how wicked that is? It's wicked. The people are out there, there's people like this in this world. You know, and I believe, you know, this guy here, the silversmith Demetrius is kind of an example of that. And so he's getting everybody rolled up, we'll move through this very quickly, 28, when they heard these things, they were full of wrath and cried out, great is Diana the Ephesians, and then of course the whole city's come together, they take Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions of travels, they rush with one accord into the theater, so they get this big angry mob, they're grabbing Paul's buddies, and when Paul would have entered into the people, the disciples suffered him not. Paul's just like, oh great, opportunity to preach. Paul sees this great big writhing angry mob that's got his buddies just grabbing him, they're all riled up because of Demetrius, and he's just like, oh man, a crowd, I can preach to him. Like he's ready to go in there and just start preaching the gospel. Yeah, I said that about Diana, yeah, that's what I think about your stupid idols, like he's ready to just double down. I mean, this guy, he's so bold. You can see why that devil could say, Jesus I know, and Paul I know. Because Paul's not backing down from a fight, right? How many preachers could you say that about today? They're not even backing down from a fight, there's not even a fight coming their way, and they're backing down. They cower from preaching things in the word of God. And the more I see it, the more irate it makes me. It's so infuriating, and I'm sorry that you have to hear me rant and rave about it, but you gotta understand, when you're someone who's actually trying to preach the whole counsel of the word of God, and then you see somebody get up, week in and week out, just multitudes of people, just preachers everywhere, Baptist preachers with the King James Bible on their end, and they won't touch some of these passages, not because they're stupid, not because they don't know they're there, because they're scared. And they're backing down from a fight that hasn't even come to them yet. It's pathetic, you know, and that's the reason why we're in the state that we're in in this country today. You know, I don't see that with Paul. What I see with Paul is a bold man who's like, oh, there's an angry mob over there, let me go tell them again how their false god is gonna damn them to hell. And he's willing to just take it right to them. The disciples are like, you know, stay back, Paul. Paul's like, hold me back, hold me back, right? They've gotta grab this guy and say, Paul, they're gonna tear you limb from limb. It's dangerous. Paul's like, well, all right. Nice, but he wanted to go. Other people had to stop him. You know, a lot of preachers today, they're just like, no one's gotta hold them back, because they're not even a threat. They're, you know, they're holding themselves back. Anyway, you could tell it's kind of an itch in my craw lately. The disciples suffered him not, and then of course, and certainly the chiefs of Asia, which were his friends said unto him, desiring that he would not venture himself into the theater, saying, please don't go, the leaders are there in the government. Some therefore cried one thing and some another, for the assembly was confused, so angry mobs are nothing new. You know, this is their woke mob of Diana back then. Then more part knew not, wherefore they were come together, so it just gets confusing, and they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward, and Alexander beckoned with a hand and would have made his defense unto the people, but when they knew that he was a Jew, they all with one voice for the space of two hours cried out, greatest Diana of the Ephesians. Can you imagine just hearing that for two hours? You know, it's just, that's what angry mobs do, they just shout some slogan, just nonstop, right? And when the town clerk had appeased the people, when they finally calmed down, he said, you men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that this city of the Ephesians is a worshiper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter? So the image would be the statue, right? Of Diana that fell from Jupiter. Now, you know, you could say, was it a literal image that they think fell down? That's probably maybe the folklore that was behind it, oh, this image, this idol fell right from Jupiter, our God or whatever. Or it could be that it was like, some people theorize, it was like a comet with some kind of precious metals in it, some iron or whatever, it's kind of a meteorite that crash landed and they made, oh, this is from Jupiter and they made an image out of it. I don't know, but you know, that's out there. But what they're saying is, you know that everyone knows this about us. You know, this isn't, our religion is strong, we're well known, what they're getting at is like, these guys aren't really that much of a threat. Seeing that these things cannot be spoken against, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rashly. He's saying calm down, right? Because Demetrius, he's just feeling threatened about his craft, he's just worried about his wealth, so he's getting everybody else worked up and to where they're taking people captive, they're assembling an angry mob and the town clerk is like, you guys need to calm down, this isn't as big a deal as you think it is. Our religion is not threatened here. Okay, everyone knows that we're a worshiper of Diana. We know this is, it's world known, worldwide, it's known worldwide. Seeing then, verse 36, that these things cannot be spoken against, he ought to be quiet and do nothing rashly, for you have brought thither these men, which are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess. Wherefore, if Demetrius and the craftsmen that are with him have a matter against any man, the law is open. Let them get their union together and go play politics. And there are deputies, let them implene one another. But if you inquire anything concerning other matters, it shall be determined in a lawful assembly. So they want law and order. So even people in the world, they just want peace, quiet, law and order. Verse 40, for we are in danger to be called in question for this day's uproar, there being no cause whereby we may give an account of this concourse. Meaning, we might have to answer to the Romans. The authorities might show up and saying, because the powers that be do not like angry mobs. They're not a fan of riots. They wanna maintain order. And by the way, that's what we believe as Christians. Paul said, 1 Timothy 2, I will that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. I will that men pray everywhere for kings and for all that are in authority that we may live a quiet and peaceable life. As much as it lieth in you, be at peace with all men. We're not to get mixed up in these political movements, these riots, things like that. And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly. Now Paul obviously didn't get a chance to deal with this guy, Demetrius. But he's not the first craftsman that he, I guess I should say the only craftsman that he had to deal with. Demetrius the silversmith, but if you remember in 2 Timothy 4, there was also Alexander the coppersmith. He said, did me much evil. So there's another probably, I would guess, kind of the same situation. This coppersmith who's making idols, who doesn't like the fact that Paul is turning people away under the truth of the gospel, and therefore is resisting Paul. And Paul said of him, the Lord reward him according to his works. Because he's withstood our words. So we need to know when to pick and choose our battles. Not every battle's worth fighting. And a lot of times, and we saw it again last week, when they drug Paul before the magistrates, and the guy in charge said, if it's a matter of your words and religion, see you to it. I will be no judge of such matters. And Paul didn't even have to open his mouth, and then they're beating the guy that took him there. And Paul, they're holding him back. He wants to go in and fight and take this guy on and make a public example of him and preach the gospel in all likelihood, but he's being held back. And another guy stands up, the town clerk, and calms everybody down and disperses the mob. And Paul's fellow servants and companions of travel are let go, no harm comes to them. Paul, when he has to deal with the coppersmith later, has learned and just says the Lord reward him to his works, according to his works. So Paul, obviously he's flesh and blood just like the rest of us, but if you pay attention when you read these stories, you can see the lessons that he's learning sometimes over and over again, sometimes repeatedly. He knew when to leave that synagogue when certain hardened themselves and spoke evil against that way. He left. He said, I'm not gonna fight this battle. But then he sees the angry mob and says, I'm gonna go fight this battle. Somebody else has to say, don't fight that battle. Right? We don't have to right every wrong in the world. We don't have to go out and fight every battle, every injustice. You know, we need to pick and choose our battles today. And we need to make sure that we're focusing on doing the work that only we can do, which is to preach the gospel, okay? Sometimes you see Christians, they get mixed up and all these things that aren't even biblical. And I'm not saying they're necessarily bad. I'm not saying you can't ever have anything going on like that, okay? Just as an example, and I know this will ruffle some feathers, but some guys get really into their Second Amendment rights. And look, I love the Second Amendment. I love the right to bear arms. I do it. You know, almost daily. I sleep with a pillow under my gun, okay? I shower with that thing. No, I'm just kidding. But you know, some guys, they're really into it, right? And that's fine, I'm all for it. You know what, but there's a lot of unsaved people that'll fight that battle for us. You know what, those unsaved people that are just all gung ho for guns, they can't fight the battle we can fight, can they? Can't take a carnal unsaved man and have him fight the spiritual battles that we're called to. You know, but we can go fight battles with them. The question is, should we? Should we get caught up in all these other things? No man that warreth entangled themselves with the affairs of this life that he may please him with called him to be a soldier. That's what Paul told Timothy, to not get overly wrapped up in this world. I understand we have responsibilities and things we have to do to provide, we're commanded to do that, so on and so forth, but let's pick our battles and make sure that we're involving ourselves in the most important battle, which is the one only we can fight, the battle for the truth, the battle for the gospel, the battle that is going to result in not certain carnal temporary freedoms, but will set people at liberty for all of eternity. The battle for people's souls. Let's go ahead and close the word of prayer.