(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Now, of course, we're picking up where we left off last week in Acts 27, where they got through that harrowing story about being on the ship and they were out at sea for weeks on end without seeing the sun, moon, or stars. Horrible storm. They all thought they were going to die, except for the fact that God had made a promise unto Paul that everyone on the ship would survive. It was a pretty amazing promise, because the ship ended up getting stuck in the water, where the front part of it was wedged in, and the back part was being beaten and destroyed by the waves. People literally had to just jump into the water and swim to the shore. Other people who could not even swim were just grabbing pieces of wood, pieces of the ship, and they just barely made it. But because of God's promise, they all actually made it safely ashore, miraculously. And it says in chapter 28, verse 1, and when they were escaped, this is when they escaped the treachery of that shipwreck. Then they knew that the island was called Melita. So they get there and they find out where they are, and the barbarous people showed us no little kindness. And by the way, no little kindness means it was a big kindness, all right? And it says, for they kindled a fire and received us, everyone, because of the present rain and because of the cold. So it's raining and cold, because if you remember, they're coming out of this big storm. And when they get there, everybody's nice to them and kindles the fire and gets them under some shelter. And it says in verse 3, when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat and fastened on his hand. So Paul's trying to help out by getting some wood for the fire, and he grabs a piece of wood and he throws it into the fire, and apparently inside that wood, there was a snake living inside the wood. You know, if you ever have a wood pile, that's where all the black widows are and all the creatures are. I just moved some wood around today and there were all kinds of lizards and everything running out of it. So this creature, this viper, this snake, is living in the wood. So when he grabs this bundle of sticks and throws it into the fire, basically this snake, you know, jumps out. And when it jumps out, it bites Paul's hand, and it was a venomous beast. It was actually a poisonous snake bit onto Paul's hand and fastened on his hand. It says, and when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, no doubt this man is a murderer, whom though he has escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. And he shook off the beast into the fire and felt no harm. Albeit they looked when he should have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly, but after they had looked a great while and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god. So this is a typical reaction that a lot of people have, and it's the wrong reaction that when something bad happens to someone else, we just assume, oh, they must have done something wrong to deserve that, right? This is exactly why Job's three friends. When they found out that Job's children had died, that he had lost all his possessions, that he had been afflicted with a physical disease and boils all over his body, they assumed that he must be living in sin and God's punishing him. And they kept begging Job to just admit what it was. Tell us what you did. Why have you sinned against God and brought all this on you? Job is just trying to tell him, look, I didn't do anything wrong, I'm not perfect, but I've been living a righteous life, and they wouldn't believe him. So we've got to be careful not to look at people's lives and see if bad things happen and just assume, well, God's judging them, God's punishing them. That's not always the case. Job was not being judged or punished. Job was the most upright and righteous man living upon the earth at that time. That's what the Bible says. And he was afflicted because he was being tested, and Job said, when I am tried, I shall come forth as gold. It was a purifying joke. It was trials that God was bringing him through to make him even more righteous, to make him stronger and more steadfast. And so we should never look at someone going through something bad and assume that they've done wrong. But also, even in our own lives, sometimes we'll make a decision to do something different in our lives, and then something bad will happen. And then we just say, oh, this is a sign from God. I made the wrong decision. See, you can't base decisions on that. You got to base your decisions on the Bible. Base your decisions on what the Bible says, because you can't always properly interpret the circumstances of life. For example, let's say you start going to a new church, and then your car breaks down on the way to church. Oh, see, this is a sign from God. God doesn't want me to go to this church. Or let's say you go soloing for the first time, and somebody attacks you or touches you out or something. You know, it's a bad sign. We got to get off all these signs. Just read the Bible and do what the Bible says, and reading the Bible should tell you what's right and wrong. Because sometimes when you start doing the best things in your life, bad things happen because it could be the devil that's attacking you. Maybe the devil's trying to keep you from going to church. Maybe the devil wants to stop you from soloing. Maybe the devil doesn't like a change that you made in your life. So you can't always just read the circumstances of life and say, oh, God's not in this because things are going bad for me. Oftentimes when we're doing the right thing, that's when the most bad things happen. And sometimes when you're doing the wrong things, things will be going great because of a delayed reaction, because God's chasing and God's judgment doesn't always happen instantly. Many times he's long suffering with us, and his judgment lingereth and it doesn't come right away. And so we ought not let the events of life determine what we believe is right and wrong or what we believe about ourselves or other people being in or out of the will of God. Use the Bible to determine that. If someone gets bit by a snake on the camping trip, I'm not going to say, well, what kind of sin have they been into? What have they been hiding? Tell us what you did. See, that's what these heathens are doing. But they were wrong because Paul hadn't done anything wrong, and they're basically proven wrong when he shakes off the beast into the fire. He just puts it right back in the fire where it came from, and it says he felt no harm. So they're waiting for it to start swelling up and for it to be in pain. And watch, it says that when they saw no harm come, they changed their minds and said that he was a god. So they started out thinking, this guy's a really bad guy. He's a murderer. And then like five minutes later, he's a god. It's funny because earlier in the book of Acts, we had the opposite happen. Do you remember that story? He walks into town, and they think he's a god because he healed somebody. He performed a miracle. And then basically just a short time thereafter, the Jews came and poisoned a well about that and told everybody how bad Paul was. And then they stoned him. And they thought he was dead. That's the only reason they stopped stoning him. He just barely survived that encounter. And so sometimes the same people that will worship you and call you a god are the same people that are going to turn on you the fastest. Think about that. The people that will call you a god in one minute and they'll practically worship you are the same minute that they'll turn on you and watch you dead the next minute. Or vice versa. In this story, we have the exact opposite, going from wanting him dead to he's a god. And this is the way people are. They go to these extremes. And whenever somebody is very flattering to you, and they're almost inappropriate in how much they just praise you, you know, and I mean, it's not that we're giving somebody a compliment, but where people just like worship you, you know, those are the same people that are going to turn on you. Because it's just all lip service. It's the flattering tongue. You know, you got to watch out for that. And that's the way people are sometimes. But look what it says in verse number seven. It says, in the same quarters, or in the same area, it's saying, were possessions of the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius, who received us and launched us three days courteously. And it came to pass that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux to Paul entered in and prayed and he laid his hands on him and healed him. So basically, because of this whole snake thing, he gets a better place to stay, you know, because everybody knows how many guys were there? So there are 276 on the ship. So there are 276. Well, because of Paul, you know, living through this snake bite, then he gets to go stay as the chief guy of the island's house. So he got to stay in a nicer place. And then for three days, he heals this guy's father. Now you say, are we just Christians? Should we all be able to lay hands on people and heal people? I remember when I was in high school, there were all these Pentecostals at my high school and they would lay hands on people and he'd try to heal them and they would try to perform all these miracles. And these are like these worldly teenagers, you know, bumping all their rap music and just, you know, they don't know the Bible. They live a worldly and sinful life. And then, but they're going to heal everybody and they're going to lay hands and they're going to rebuke the devil in the name of Jesus and throw out the, you know. The Bible is clear. When Jesus Christ sent out his apostles, he sent out 12. Later he sent out 70. He gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. Guess what? He did not give that power to every single believer. That's why the Bible says a little bit earlier in the book of Acts, it says special, did you hear me? Special miracles were done at the hands of Paul. Special miracle. Now if everybody was doing it, it wouldn't be special. It was special because it was something that only the apostles could do. That's why Paul also in his epistles talked about how he had wrought the signs of an apostle among them. Because he had proven that he was an apostle by performing these miracles that the apostles performed because the apostles had received special power from God where they could heal people and cast out devils. Not every single Christian can cast out devils or heal people. And you say, well what about, are there apostles today? No. Because the apostles were people who physically been sent out by Jesus Christ. They saw him in his resurrected form. And if you remember Paul, go to 1 Corinthians 15 and I'll show it to you real quickly. 1 Corinthians 15. Here we talk about the, here he talks about the resurrection of Christ and witnessing the resurrection of Christ. And you know, in Acts chapter 1 if you remember, they wanted to replace one of the 12 apostles. Because if Judas Iscariot betrayed Christ, turned out he never believed on Christ, he went out and hanged himself, he fell and broke his body. And when they went to replace him, they said that it needed to be someone who had been with them the whole time. You know, beginning from the baptism of John until the days when he was taken up from us, must one be ordained, and this is the key, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection. So the apostles basically were those who had witnessed his resurrection. And I'm going to prove that to you right here in 1 Corinthians 15 as he equates those two things. It says in verse number, let's start verse 3, for I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures, and that he was seen of Cephas, that was Peter, that's another name for Peter, then of the 12, after that he was seen of above 500 brethren at once, those are people that are saved, that's what he means by brethren. You're like, wow, that's a big family, that's just me and people that are saved. 500 brethren at once of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are falling asleep. So he's saying, you know, a lot of those guys are still alive today, but he's writing 1 Corinthians, he's saying. After that he was seen of James, and then watch this, then of all the apostles. So he was seen of what? All the apostles. So, are there more apostles than just 12? Absolutely, because earlier it said he showed himself to the 12, then it says he showed himself to all of the apostles, because there were 70. First there were 12, then there were 70 that Jesus sent out, that's why Barnabas was called an apostle. He must have been one of the 70 to be called an apostle in the book of Acts. And so the Bible basically says here he was seen of all the apostles, and then look at verse 8, and last of all he was seen of me also. So, has anyone seen the resurrected Jesus Christ bodily since the apostle Paul? No, that was the last one, because this is written decades and decades after Paul has seen him on the road to Damascus. He said, last of all he was seen of me, and the next time we see him, it's going to be, behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth shall well the cousin of him, and so he met. So it says, last of all he was seen of me also as of one born out of due time, for I am the least of the apostles, that I'm not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God, but by the grace of God I am what I am. So he was as one born out of due time, and what he's saying is, he was a late comer to being an apostle. He was a late comer, he was like one born out of due time, because all the other apostles were ordained as apostles previously, and they saw the resurrected Christ previously. He was lastly to see him, and to basically take up that mantle of being an apostle. And so, you know, although there are churches where the pastor calls himself an apostle, that is not biblical, because the ones that he called apostles, just get this down, the ones that he called apostles were the ones that he laid his hands on, gave them power against unclean spirits, gave them power to perform miracles and heal people, and sent them out two by two, starting with the twelve, then the seventy. He did the same thing with Paul, late. He met him on the road to Damascus, sent him out, gave him a mission, appeared unto him. We do not have apostles today, and we do not have people who go around that can just heal everybody that they lay hands on and cast out every devil. Now is that to say that people cannot be healed today? Absolutely not. Of course God can heal people. Of course God can perform a miracle. There are people in the Bible who God used to perform a miracle that were not apostles. All throughout the Old Testament God used people to perform miracles. But they were more few and far between. Not to the extent where with Paul, just, you know, or the shadow of Peter, you know, the special miracles where the shadow of Peter could just fall on somebody and they'd be healed. Or the special miracles where they just lay hands on anybody and they would recover. That's not just an everyday normal occurrence unless you're at a Benny Inn per se. And the funny thing is, you know, you look at all these people and here's the biggest proof that it's a fraud. That these healing lines are frauds. And I'm not saying God can't heal. I'm not saying God can't perform a miracle. The Bible commands us that when someone is sick and dying to call for the elders of the church and to pray for that person and to lay our hands on that person and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord and pray that they might be healed, the Bible says in James chapter 5. It's not that God can't heal. But it's not like just an automatic just anybody I touch is going to be healed because I'm, you know, Pastor Steve Anderson, apostle. That doesn't mean that God won't choose to heal some and not heal others. He will perform miracles. God can perform miracles. But I'll prove to you that this healing line thing and all those kids at my high school are all frauds. Every single one of them believe you can lose your salvation. Every single one. I mean you never run into somebody who says eternal security believer you can't lose your salvation. It's by faith alone. It's by grace through faith plus and minus and it's eternal. You can't lose it. That'll then be, you know, believing in healing lines and tongue speaking and all this other stuff. The two go hand in hand. Losing your salvation doctrine and work salvation and lordship salvation are a prerequisite to believing in that stuff. You know, and if you look at the preachers that do that stuff, they're not Baptists. They don't believe in Bible doctrine. They deny the doctrines of eternal life and everlasting life. And they've already been exposed as frauds and, you know, people have gone backstage and showed how they're frauds. I mean if you call for it, you're a pretty gullible person. You know, if you can watch Benny Hinn and you think it's real as he, you know, whacks people with his decade and they're falling down. I mean slain in the spirit. Slain means you're killed. Why would that be a good thing? Why would you want to be killed in the spirit? You know, and he gets this weird voice and he's slapping people and they're falling on the ground. That is not a guy. It's wicked. And I believe that a big part of it is just to make Christianity look stupid to the world. They look at that and they think it looks stupid. You know, people look at this Harold campaign with this May 21st billboard. The Bible guarantees it. Yeah, what verse is that? But it's just designed to make Christianity look stupid. Because, oh, the Bible guaranteed. May 21st, 2011, nothing happened. And then Harold campaign says, oh, it just happened spiritually. That's what he's saying. Well, it did happen. It was just a spiritual thing. And the world's still going to end on October 21st. So now he bought himself another six months. But it's all just designed to make Christianity look foolish, to make it look stupid to the world. Because they think of Christianity, they think of these people falling on the ground and flopping around and everything. It just makes it look foolish. It doesn't change the fact that the Bible's true. And these atheists can mock all these phony Christians all they want, but it's not going to make Hell any cooler for them. And so back to Acts 28, we see that Paul was an apostle. He was clearly an apostle, and he clearly had the power to perform special miracles that an apostle could do, like just healing people, casting out devils. That was a special power that he was given as an apostle. And so he healed all kinds of people. First he healed Publius and said in verse 9, so when this was done, others also, which had disease in the island, came and were healed, who also honored us with many honors. And when we departed, they laid to us with such things as were necessary. And after three months, we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had wintered in the isle whose sign was Castor Apollos. So they waited there for three months, their ships destroyed. So now they got a hit to ride with another ship. So they hop on this ship of Alexandria, verse 12, it says, and landing in Syracuse, we carried there three days. And from that we fetched a compass and came to Regium. And after one day, the south wind blew, and we came the next day to Puteoli, where we found brethren, and were desired to tarry with them seven days, and so we went toward Rome. And so they found people that were saved, they found some believers there, and they got with them. And it says in verse 15, and from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as happy form. And the three tabards, who when Paul saw it, thanked God and took courage. So this encouraged Paul, because he finds these brethren, he stays with them seven days, and then these brethren come and meet up with him at another place where he sailed. And it just really encouraged him. And that will encourage you to get around God's people right there. And that's part of the purpose why we come to church, is to get around other believers, because it's encouraging. You know, when you're all by yourself in this world, you're going to start to get down, and you can also get backslidden, because everybody around you is doing everything the worldly way, and the sinful way. And so it's good to get around other people that believe like you, so you can get encouraged, and get refreshed, and get motivated, and not feel isolated, and feel like, you know, I'm the only one, and it can be depressing sometimes. You know, you go out in the world, and everybody is against everything you believe, and they might even ridicule and mock you. So it's great to go somewhere where you can get with some real brethren, and get with people that actually believe the Bible. And that's what's great about this church, is when you come to this church, you're actually with people who believe like you believe. They actually love the Bible. I mean, some of these churches, it's like everybody believes something different in these churches. Because there's not a lot of doctrine coming across the pulpit, and you'll go around and talk to different people, and they all believe different things. They all have dramatically different ideas. And look, we're not all a bunch of clones here, but you know what, we do all believe the Bible, we all believe in soul winning, and I'm sure that we don't agree on everything, but the bottom line is we're going to agree on 90-some percent, because we've all got the same Bible, same Holy Spirit, and we all love soul winning, we're all motivated. I was at a church before, and I went around and just asked people what they believed about salvation, and you get all different answers in a Baptist church. Some people were definitely saved, other people, and look, if you go out soul winning, you know this, you'll hear, there will be a certain church where everybody you talk to from that church is not saved. You'll talk to 15 people from that church and they're not saved. And then other churches, everybody you talk to from that church is saved. And then that tells you, okay, it's a pretty good church, everybody you talk to is saved. They're telling us that they believe on Christ and that it's eternal life and everything. But then you'll run into these other churches, and even like an independent fundamental Baptist church, we just knocked out, what was that, yesterday? We knocked on the door yesterday of somebody at an independent fundamental Baptist church, and we asked this guy if he could lose his salvation, and he says, oh yeah, you can lose it. He's been going to an independent fundamental Baptist church for two years, and he believes you can lose your salvation. And then once Brother Garrett explained it to him, it seemed like he made perfect sense to him. It's just that he never heard it before, that was the problem. I mean, can you believe that? I mean, how do you go to an independent fundamental Baptist church and not learn? And I've run into a ton of people from that church that weren't saved, the same church. And I've run into a bunch that were saved. But then I've run into a ton that weren't saved. And they say, oh, we're the biggest independent fundamental Baptist church in Arizona. Well, big whoop. Half the people we run into from your church don't even know for sure they're going to heaven or think you're going to lose your salvation. What in the world good is that? What's the point of it all? Thank God for a church where we can have some unity. You know, whenever we're all going to agree on every single thing, you know, it's not going to be perfect, but we have unity. I mean, we all know we're saved, we all believe in soul winning, we all believe that the King James Bible is the word of God, we all have the same authority of God's word in our lives, and we all read the same book and we all read it a lot. And so we're going to have a kinship here. And that's what I love about our church. I feel like I can talk to people and it's a kindred spirit there. There's a unity there. There's a friendship there that comes from having the same beliefs. And so that's what going to church should be. One accord, unity, one place. Not just a place where a whole bunch of people come and get together, hear a message that's not about that much. You're not going to really have that same kindred spirit. But when you do get in a place where there's real believers and people that are saved and that love God, it is very encouraging. And that's why church is so important. You know what? You may be tempted to get out of church. And I'll tell you right now, the gas prices make it hard for some people to come to church. But you know what? You've got to make it a priority. You've got to make it a priority to get to church. Because a lot of people in the summertime too, the gas prices go up and obviously the gas price is already extremely high right now. And in the summertime it's hot and the gas is expensive and a lot of people just start laying out of church. But you know what? You're not going to get the encouragement that you need. You're not going to get the fellowship that you need. You're not going to get the preaching that you need. You say, oh, I'll just tune in online. Well, I'm going to start taking the sermons off the internet. No, I'm not. I'm tempted to sometimes. See, I'll just download it. Are you going to download? Look around. Look around the room. Are you going to download all these people? Are you going to download this group? Are you going to download this? No. And so don't let the gas prices get you down. Make it a priority. And if you need help with gas, talk to us. We can help you out with the gas. But just get to church. You need to be here. And don't start to fade as the summer comes because summer is the time of fading. Summer is the time when people start to fade away. And you know what? It's going to affect you spiritually. Even Paul needed encouragement. Paul was greater than me or you or anybody in this room. And even he needed a great encouragement of just getting around other believers. It says when we came to Rome, verse 16, and it says he thanked God. And you know, we ought to thank God for the fellowship of other believers that we have. We ought to thank God that we have a church to go to where we can fellowship. Look at verse 16. It says when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard, but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with the soldier of the captain. So again, Paul is always getting special treatment. You notice that? Always. It's like all the other prisoners, they get thrown into the general population. And it's like, oh, you just send a soldier with them. Let him have his own. Let him do what he wants. Man, this Roman persecution of Christians in the book of Acts is really a killer, huh? It says in verse 17, it came to pass that after three days, Paul called the chief of the Jews together. So keep in mind, he's dwelling by himself with a soldier that kept him. So he just has one soldier guarding him. And he can just live on his own. So after three days, he calls the chief of the Jews together. That's plural, chief plural, like the chief man of the Jews. And when they were come together, he said unto them, men and brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. But when they have examined me, would have let me go, because there was no cause of death in me. But when the Jews spake against it, I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar. Not that I had ought to accuse my nation of. For this cause, therefore, have I called for you, to see you and to speak with you, because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain. Now, from the way he's talking to these guys, these chief of the Jews, it sounds to me like he's not sure whether they've even really heard of Jesus Christ, because he's kind of bringing this to them almost like it's the first time they're hearing of it. He's bringing this up saying, you know, look, I'm being bound with this chain because of the hope of Israel. It sounds like he's going to start preaching to them the gospel and giving them the news about how Jesus Christ is the Messiah, that the hope of Israel has come, and so forth. But they actually had heard about Jesus Christ, because in the next verse, it says in verse 21, and they said to them, we neither received letters out of Judea concerning thee, neither any of the brethren that came showed or spake any harm of thee. So they're saying, well, we haven't really heard about your individual case, and we haven't really heard people, you know, tell us anything really bad about you, but we desire to hear it be what thou thinkest, and look at this, for as concerning this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against. So they have heard of Christianity vaguely. They haven't really heard a whole lot about the apostle Paul, but they said there's one thing we know about Christianity is what they mean by this sect, as far as people believe me Christ. We just know that everywhere it's spoken against. And let me tell you something, it's still the same today. Real Bible Christianity is going to be spoken against everywhere. And the Bible says, woe unto you when all men speak well of you, for so they did to the false prophets. He said, marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates you. And God's word is always going to be spoken against. And the preacher who's popular, guess what, he's preaching a watered-down message, or he's preaching lies, or he's a compromiser, because he's just loved by the world, and he's not being spoken against at all. Well, you know, he must not be part of the group here, of the real so-called sect here, you know, that's not really a Bible word, it's a word that basically is only used when they're kind of talking derogatory about Christians, they call it that, you know, the sect. I think it'd be kind of like today the word like cold. I don't know, isn't it in German? When I was in Germany, the word secta, doesn't it mean cold? Yeah, so the word sect kind of has that connotation to it, of like a cold. You know, a lot of people will look at Bible-believing Christianity and say, oh, you're in a cold. You're in a cold because, you know, you live by a strict life, or whatever, you go to church three times in one week, that's a cold. But here's the thing, if you really know the definition of what a cold is, a cold is always centered around a man, it's centered around a person. Like for example, a really common usage of the word cold has to do with Joseph Stalin in the USSR. They called it the personality cult, or the cult of personality around Joseph Stalin, where people literally worshipped their leader in the Soviet Union, they worshipped Stalin. Some people had an almost cult-like worship of Obama, like when he's running for office and they're crying, and they're getting his autograph, and almost worshipful singing hymns to him. I remember I saw this video of kids in school singing songs to Obama, and it was to the tune of church songs. They took church songs that were about Jesus. They took the song Jesus Loves the Little Children, which is a church song, who knows that song? Jesus loves the little children. They take Jesus Loves the Little Children and they change it to a praise of Obama. So that's a cultic mentality. Rock stars often have a cult-like following. I'm just trying to help you to understand the word cult. There will be a cult-like following around rock stars, where people will go backstage and they're shaking, and they're crying, and they're getting the autograph, and it's like a worship of these stars, whether it be actors or musicians or movie stars, whether it be a political leader like Stalin or Obama or somebody like that who has this cult-like following, where people are obsessed, where people worship him beyond what's normal. There are a lot of leaders that are admired. There's nothing wrong with admiring a leader, looking up to a leader, a hero, or a role model or a mentor. That's great. Not against that. But it crosses a line when you're crying and falling on your face and staring at a picture of him before you go to bed at night. That's the problem. When you have a cardboard life-size of him in your house, that's where it gets better. So nothing wrong with looking up to somebody and admiring a politician or admiring someone, as long as you're admiring the right people. But not this cult-like worship. Now, so how does that apply in a religious sense? Because I'm just teaching you about the word cult in our society. It's used about rock stars. Have you ever heard of a movie? Who's ever heard of a movie being called a cult classic? Cult classic. It just means people are just really into that movie. But the word cult is used centering around a man where they basically lift up a man and basically whatever that guy says, they're just going to follow him. Now, of course, here's some classic examples. Jim Jones. Who knows who Jim Jones is? He's a cult leader because he basically took all of his followers, he went to live in a compound somewhere, shut out the outside world, and he was basically like a dictator, like they obey everything he says. He dictates every part of their life. And then he basically instructs them all to commit suicide and drink poison Kool-Aid. And some people were forced to drink the Kool-Aid, others drank it on their own. And we're talking literally, what was it, 900 and some casualties? Does anybody know the number? About 900 and some. I mean, did you hear me? 900 and some casualties that drank the Kool-Aid with Jim Jones. Okay, that's a cult. If somebody can just tell you, drink this poison Kool-Aid, okay, that's what a cult is. You know, another cult is like Charles Manson. He told people to do all these horrific murders and they just obeyed him. That's a cult where the leader can do no wrong. Whatever the leader says, we're just going to believe. Now, those are extreme examples. You know, David Koresh is another one, extreme example of a cult. But you can look at other cults like Mormonism is a cult. Joseph Smith, you know, starts this bizarre religion, changes everything. And basically what Joseph Smith said and taught supersedes the Bible to them. What Brigham Young taught supersedes the Bible. And when he says, I'm going to start marrying all these young girls and I'm going to have multiple wives because God told me to do this? And they're just relinquishing all these girls and young ladies to them? Well, guess what? That's a cult. Because this leader is saying these bizarre things that contradict the Bible, but people are going with the leader over the Bible. And really, I have to say, I think Catholicism is the biggest cult in the world. Because the Pope is like a cult leader. Because what he says goes against the Bible, do people worship the Pope? Oh yeah, they bow down and worship him. They get on their knees and on their face before him. And I talk to Catholics all the time and they say, well, we don't worship the Pope. I say, if the Pope landed at the airport, would people bow down and before him? Well, okay, I see your point. Because guess what? People would. They'll bow down and kiss the Pope's big toe or whatever. And that is cult-like, where you lift up first. And people will literally just want to touch the Pope. And basically, if they can just touch the hem of his garment. Well, you know what? That's great if he's Jesus, but he's not. He's a human being. And guess what? People tried to treat the Apostles that way in the Bible, where they bowed down to Peter and they bowed down to Paul. And they always got angry and told them, get up on your feet. I'm a man like you are. Don't get on your knees before me. Don't worship me. But Mormonism is definitely a cult because Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, with all their bizarre doctrines about other gods and other planets and other galaxies and other wives, are just accepted by the followers. And we all need to move across the country and go to Salt Lake City and get away from all this oppressive government that's telling us only one wife per man. We've got to get away from all that stuff. That's a cult. And so, can churches become cult-like? Any church can become cult-like when the pastor becomes a god-man who can do no wrong. That's when a church becomes a cult, is when the pastor starts running your personal life. And basically, he's making your decisions for you. He's running your home. And he's actually to the point where he can preach anything. And you're just going to say, well, because Pastor Anderson said that, I already know it's true. I don't even need to see what the Bible says. That's a cult. But guess what? Is that how our church is? No. And really, people will say, independent fundamental Baptists are a cult. Like, they'll put the whole gamut of all independent. And here's the key word, independent. So we're not affiliated with any of these. I mean, there are independent Baptist churches in Phoenix. Guess what? We're not affiliated with any of them. Not even one of them. But they'll try to put a blanket like, independent Baptists are a cult. Okay, well then who's our cult leader? I mean, who is the cult leader of independent Baptists? Can anyone really point to one leader that we have as Baptists? No. Anybody who knows anything about independent Baptists knows that we don't get along with each other. I mean, in our church we do. But the church down the street, let me tell you something. We don't get along with each other. Because independent Baptists are very different from one another. I mean, there are types of independent Baptists that are night and day from each other. And so, whoa, look at what cult? Who's the leader? I'll tell you who the leader is. Jesus. You know, if you want to call us a cult for worshiping Jesus, well, that's who we were. That's who we followed. That's who we bowed down to. Jesus Christ. And we don't have any leader. No one else can point to a leader. I mean, name the leader. Because I guarantee you, if you named any big famous independent Baptist leader, less than half of independent Baptists would even like that guy. And the rest of them would say, hey, I don't want to be anywhere around that guy. If you named the big name preacher or something like that. And in our church, this isn't a cult because we have hard preaching and go to church three times a week and do a lot of soul winning. Is anybody making you do that? Is there anybody where I'm making you go soul winning? Or I've made you change your life. Okay, honey, you're my wife. No, I'm just kidding. Our family is a cult. But anyway, the thing is, nobody ever has told you, hey, you need to make this change in your personal life. You have to change the way that you dress. And you have to change jobs. And you have to do this. And you have to be out soul winning. And you have to be. Nobody's ever told you that because you're not in a cult. Okay. So that's what a cult is. And that's what the world will try to get you to be ashamed of going to church or something. Oh, you're in a cult. You know, if you're not a Catholic or if you're not in a big mega church, you must be in one of these cult churches. Well, just ask them, well, who's my cult leader? And whoever they tell you, it's like, well, what did he ever tell me to do? What did he ever make me do? And so that's what a cult is. So I just want to make sure that you know what it means. Because a lot of people don't even know what a cult means. Sometimes people just throw words around and they don't really know what they mean. So hopefully that helps you to understand what the word cult means. And the word sect pretty much means the same thing. It kind of has the same connotation. So back to the message here. It says, this sect, concerning this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against. And when they appointed him a day, there came many to him under his logic. Must not have been that small of a place if that many people could come over. I mean, a big group is coming over to his logic. To whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets from morning till evening. So he's preaching to these people all day long. I mean, he starts in the morning and he preaches to them the Bible. What's he preaching about? One word, Jesus. And what's he preaching out of? And which part of the Bible? The Old Testament. The Old Testament, the law of Moses and out of the prophets from morning. You know what that tells me? That tells me that the Old Testament must talk a lot about Jesus. I mean, if he could get up and preach for 10 hours or 12 hours, all about Jesus using only the Old Testament, that shows me that the Bible talks a lot about Jesus and the Old Testament. That's why it says in Acts 10, 43, they would give all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive permission of sins. Verse 24, this is the reaction whenever you go soloing. Whenever you preach the gospel unto people. In any scenario, whether it's in your house or at somebody else's house, some believe the things which are spoken and some believe not. That's the key right there. Some believe it, some didn't. And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed them. After that, Paul had spoken the word. Well spake the Holy Ghost by his eyes, the prophet unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this people and say, Hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and not perceive. For the heart of this people is waxed and gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should yield them. Be it known therefore unto you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. And when he had said those words, the Jews departed and had great reasoning among themselves. Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and receiving all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding him. Now let me just finish up with this one thought. I brought this up a few weeks ago, and I want you to read about it and think about it and digest it for a few weeks until we got to tonight, the final ending of the story here. Every church that I've pretty much been to, or every time you hear preaching on the Apostle Paul, or you hear this in Bible college, you get this in history books, will tell you that Paul was beheaded by Rome, by Nero. And that's when he died a martyr's death for the cause of Christ, and Nero was burning Christians at the stake, and he cut off Paul's head. Now, is there any evidence of that in the Bible? Now, let's just stop and think about this, okay? I'm going to show you some evidence against that really quickly before we go. Look at the last two verses. These are the two final verses of the book of Acts. Now let me ask you this. Do you think that we're missing part of the book of Acts? Is there like a chunk that's missing? Or is this how God intended the book to end? I believe that this book is complete. God's word is complete. This is not a partial copy of the book of Acts. These are the final two verses of the book of Acts. It says, And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house. So he has his own house. And is it one that he owns or rents? Well, he's renting it, because it says his own hired house. So he's renting out a house. He's renting a house. And received all that came into him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at this. With all confidence, no man forbidding him. So is anybody saying, hey, you're not allowed to preach the Bible? You're not allowed to preach Jesus Christ. You're breaking the law. You're doing something wrong here. No. No man forbidding him. He was legally allowed. I mean, he was within his rights here. Totally legal for him to be there for two years in his own house and preach the gospel and teach the Bible. Nobody's gotten him. Now, what happened after that? Because something happened at the end of those two years, didn't it? Because it doesn't say he was there three years or four years or five. It says he was there two years. What happened at the end of the two years? Now, would this make sense to you? We just read a couple of chapters where it's told us how he's getting all this special treatment and we don't even need to guard him. Just put one soldier over there and whatever. He's being treated very well. He's being put up at the Sheridan on that island. Everybody else is thrown into, they're around the campfire or whatever, and he's in the nicest building in the whole island. He's being treated well as a prisoner. The Romans don't really care about the charges against him because they said this man has done nothing worthy of death or boss. He's in his own house. Would it really make sense to say, you know, he preached the kingdom of God, no man forbidding him, and then they cut his head off the next day? I mean, but that's what basically I've been taught my entire life. I mean, who's heard that before in church? You know, Paul was beheaded. I mean, that's what you hear. It's not true. Go to 2 Timothy. Now, 2 Timothy is the last book that Paul wrote because he talks about it and how his life is pretty much over and how he's pretty much finished all the work that God gave him to do. So let's go to 2 Timothy and let's look at the last book, or I'm sorry, 2 Timothy, the last book that the apostle Paul wrote. And while you're turning there, I'll read for you a verse from Philippians chapter 4. It says in verse number 22, all the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar's household. So right here we see that some of Caesar's household were saved because Paul is passing on a greeting to the Philippians saying, hey, all the Christians, all the saints say hi, and by the way, especially those of Caesar's household. That sounds pretty good. Look at 2 Timothy chapter, let's start in 2 Timothy chapter 3. It says in verse 10, but thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience. Look at verse 11. This is Paul talking to Timothy. The end of his life, the last book he wrote, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me. So he talked about, hey, I've been persecuted, I've been afflicted, but out of all these persecutions and afflictions, the Lord delivered me. Look at chapter 4, verse number 6. 2 Timothy 4 says, for I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. Now the word departure is used in the Bible about death. And he says, the time of my departure, have you ever heard of like your departed loved ones? It means they died. He says the time of my departure is at hand. It's about to happen. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Heads forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but in the all and also that loves appearing. So we see here that first in chapter 3 Paul said, you know, God has delivered me out of all my persecutions and afflictions. Then in chapter 4 he says, you know what, I'm about to die. My life is over. I've finished the work that God gave me to do. I've finished my course. I've kept the faith. The time of my departure is at hand. So does Paul realize that he's about to die? He knows that. He's predicting that. He's saying, I'm about to die. The time of my departure is at hand. Okay? Now look at verse number 16 of chapter 4. And my first answer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me. And by the way, he'll always stand with you when no one else will. And strengthen me that by me the preaching might be fully known and that all the Gentiles might hear and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion and the Lord shall deliver me, that's future tense, the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom to be glory forever and ever. Amen. So the last epistle that he wrote, the last thing he said, the last statement out of his mouth and the last epistle is that the Lord is going to deliver me from every evil work. I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. I was delivered out of my persecution. I was delivered out of these afflictions. And then he just gives the greeting in verse 19, you know, salute, priska, quilla. He just gives the greeting. The last statement was hey, I'm going to be delivered from everything. Now does that, if the time of his departure being at hand meant that he knew he was about to get his head cut off, would that make any sense that he says, yep, and I was delivered from all the persecution. But I'm also, did I mention I'm about to have my head cut off. But God's going to deliver me from every persecution but I know that I'm about to have my head cut off. Well, that's not deliverance. You know, having your head chopped off is not being delivered from the persecutions and the afflictions in the mouth of the lion. And there's no vital evidence at all of that. It's just a fairytale. It's what it is. It's a fairytale. He died of natural causes. He says here I'm about to die but he says it's not my persecution. It's not that I'm going to be killed for the cause of Christ or murder. He's just saying my life's over. I'm about to depart. It's about done. And he was in that higher house for two years and that's the end of the story. The end of the two years was the end of Paul. And so be careful what you just blindly believe and accept because search the scriptures and you'll see that there's no evidence of Paul being dead. There's no evidence in the Bible of the Roman Empire persecuting Christians at the time that the Bible was written. Not that they didn't later, you know, but that's outside the scope of the Bible. I don't care what happened later. I'm talking about what happened during the Bible days. You won't see it. They were trying to protect them from the Jews that were trying to persecute them. So that's what the Bible teaches and that's the end of the book of Acts as far as it's never worth a prayer. Father, thank you so much for your word and the book of Acts and the great truths that we've studied and read over the last 28 weeks as we went through the book of Acts. And God, I pray that you just bless these truths down to our ears and help us to apply them to our life and help our church to be a book of Acts kind of church that's out living the exciting life of reaching the gospel, winning souls for Christ. Help us to be following the great examples that we see in the book of Acts and avoiding some of the mistakes that people made in the book and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.