Now some while ago, Mr. Markley gave us this beautiful set of maps of about twelve maps that are very interesting and very helpful. We don't very often use them, but since we're talking about Paul's missionary journey, I thought it may be wise to put up the map of Asia Minor. Now the back here won't seem very well, but Some of you get some idea anyhow. I expect you all got a picture in your mind of Asia Minor. It's much easier for me because I lived ten years in Athens, Greece, and I know that part of the world pretty well. I spent some time in Egypt and Palestine and Syria and so on so that we know that part. But it's always interesting. I'm a great lover of maps anyhow. Now we're going to read through the thirteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Can you all hear me all right this morning? The thirteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, and we're going to read from verse thirteen. Now when Paul and his companions loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Phamphilia. And John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem. But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down. And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, You men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation from the people, say on. Then Paul stood up. and beckoning with his hand said, Men of Israel and all ye that fear God give audience. The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an high arm brought he them out of it. In about the time of forty years suffered their manners in the wilderness. And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He divided their land to them by lot. And after that he gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years until Samuel the prophet. And afterwards they desired a king. And God gave unto them Saul, the son of Kitt, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years. When he removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king. to whom also he gave testimony and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, which shall fulfill all my will. Of this man's seed, as God, according to his promise, raised unto Israel a Savior, Jesus. When John had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel, And as John, John the Baptist, fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think ye that I am? I am not he. That's the Messiah. But behold, there cometh one after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to lose. Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you fear is God, to you is the word of this salvation sent. For they that dwelt at Jerusalem and their rulers, because they knew him not, knowing at the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him. And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired, they, Pilate, that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulchre. But God raised him from the dead. and he received many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto this people. And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again, as if he is also written in the second psalm, thou art my son this day of thy begotten thee. and as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this way, and he's quoting from Psalm eighteen. Psalm eighteen, I will give unto you the sure mercies of David. Wherefore he saith also in another Psalm, thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption. For David after he had served his generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption. But he whom God raised again saw no corruption. Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe, are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, let that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophet. Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish, for I work a work in your day, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you. And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached unto them the next Sabbath. Now, when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. Shall we pray? The grace of God, our Father, we thank you for this record of the address of the Apostle Paul in the city of Antioch in Christelia. We thank you for the way he preached. We thank you for the way he recounted thy goodness to Israel. And for the way he raised up this one and raised up that one, all leading on to that great day when he would raise up the one of thy beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we thank you for him. He thanked me, he went to the place called Calvary and bore our sins in his own body on the tree. He thanked me, thou hast raised him from the dead and set him at thine own right hand, far above all dominion and might and power. And there he waits today for that great day when he will come back to rain and put this world right. Help us then as we open thy word. May the Holy Spirit reveal the teaching of thy word in this wonderful sermon to us this day. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. So our subject today is Paul's address at Antioch in Vesidia. Now, last week we were talking about the way in which the Gospel began to spread out. We mentioned that there were three circles mentioned in the first chapter of Acts. The Lord Jesus said, He should be my witnesses in Jerusalem, that's a small circle. Judea and Samaria, a larger circle. And then to the uttermost parts of the earth, that's spreading out the gospel to the far ends of the earth. The disciples were rather slow. They stated Jerusalem. God sent a great persecution, and they were all scattered abroad, but not the apostles. They stated Jerusalem. But the believers, the disciples, were scattered abroad and they went everywhere preaching the gospel. That's the eighth chapter of the Acts. Then we get the recording of what God did, how he used this one and that one and the gospel spread out through that part. Many were saved. We mentioned there were three. men used of God in those early days. First of all, Peter. Peter seems to fill the story of the first seven chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. Then Philip the Evangelist came on the scene. And then God saved Saul of Tarsus. And in this chapter we're reading, the thirteenth chapter, in verse... It says, Then Saul, who is also called Paul. And in this chapter, he uses his other name, Paul, and this is Paul, the great apostle. Once known as Saul of Tarsus, the destroyer of the church, and now the builder of the church. And we saw last week how there was a large church. formed, a local church formed in Antioch in Syria. Now let's get the place clear. Antioch in Syria is here. Now Jerusalem is down here. Here's Jerusalem. Damascus, Jerusalem, you get all up, this is where they're fighting, they have been. around Tyre and Sidon, in Lebanon, and you go all up through Syria, and up here was Antioch, that great city. And there in Antioch, a large church was formed. And it was there that God called the Holy Spirit, they separate unto me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work where unto I have called them. And the work that God called them to was a great missionary journey. The Holy Spirit revealed it. It wasn't their idea. They were to fulfill the work which the Lord Jesus gave them long ago, go into all the world. And they started their missionary journey. They came down to Seleucia here, and they sailed across the Paphos, to sail across to Salamis on the island of Cyprus. You've heard much about Cyprus in these days. The Turks have a part of Cyprus. The Greeks have the other part. It was a British possession for centuries, not for centuries, for many, many years. But now the Greeks have this and the Turks have this house and cities have been destroyed and there's been great trouble. But Paul landed here at Salamis and he came across the island to Paphos, Paul and Barnabas and Paul with young John Mark with them. Then they sailed across to Atalia in Phanphilia, and they landed here, went up to Perga. We don't hear much of what happened at Perga, except they went there, and then they made a... John Mark decided to go home. He didn't go back even to Cyprus. He didn't go back to Antioch. John Mark went home to Jerusalem. His mother had a beautiful home there, and he went back home. We don't know, and we mustn't judge John Mark. Years later, Paul said he's very profitable. But later on, when he went on the second journey, Paul wouldn't take him at all, because he left the work and went home. But Paul and Barnabas then left the loan, went on, and they journeyed all up through these mountain ranges, and came up here to Antioch, right up through here to Antioch. And this is Antioch in Physidia. Antioch in Physidia. And this is where we are this morning. in our reading from the Thirteenth Chapter, that the first missionary journey reached up to Antioch in Pisidia. Now we're not going to stop to say any more about the work in Cyprus. There was that strange story of that sorcerer, Elamish, and thank God we have the record of one deputy there, a man of authority, the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord. And that man was saved, and doubtless the great work started in Cyprus. There's not much going on in Cyprus today. We have some friends working there. When we were in Egypt in the war, we were very much connected with a mission called the Mission to Mediterranean Garages, a British, a Scottish mission, working amongst British troops. They have spent nearly four years with them, with that mission. And they are in Cyprus today, and they're still working amongst the British troops, so there are quite a lot of British troops in Cyprus, and they're still working there. You get their magazine. regularly and hear the work that's going on. Personally, I've not been to Cyprus. So they left Cyprus and went across to the mainland, Gratia Minor, where I've shown you on the map. They landed there and went up to Purga in Pamphylia. John left them and then in the fourteen verse he says, They departed from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. Now, this is where we are today, and we'd like to study a little bit in Paul's great talk in Antioch. The work at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost started with a great sermon, a great address by Peter. You remember very well. I'm sure that wonderful talk he gave on the second in the second chapter of the act on the day of Pentecost and how three thousand souls accepted the Lord Jesus and three thousand souls were baptized on the day of Pentecost and so this church started as the Lord said at Jerusalem. Now we're spreading up and Paul gets with the Barnabas to Antiochian Presidium. He had a way of going, first of all, to the Jews. There were synagogues all over that part of the world in those days. The Jews had been dispersed. This is before, of course, before the great dispersion, the destruction of Jerusalem in AD. But even before the Lord came, the Jews... who had returned from Babylon, they were dispersed all over, and the Greek language also was a common language, and Roman roads had been built, and God had prepared everything for the preaching of the Gospel. And in nearly all these cities there was a synagogue. When he got to Philippi, we'll find that long way on in the story. In his next missionary journey, when he got to Philippi, there was no synagogue. And a few women went out by the water side, by the river side, and had a prayer meeting on the Sabbath day. But here in Antioch and Pasidia, there was a synagogue. And that his manner was, if we look at chapter sixteen, it says, when he got to Thessalonica, it says, chapter seventeen. when they got first verse. When they passed around Tripolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was the synagogue of the Jews, and Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them three Sabbath days and reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. Paul, as his manner was, his manner was to go to the Jew first. He said that in his writing, to the Gospel, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentiles. And so when he got to Antioch in Nicaea, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down. And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue said unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, stay on. Now they recognized that there were two Jewish rabbis, I suppose, Paul and Barnabas would be called. They were probably dressed in the robes of a rabbi, and they realized there were people who understood something about the scriptures, and they said to them, if you have anything to say, any word of exhortation for the people, say it. And Paul stood up. and beckoned with his hand. You often find it, Paul, when he speaks, he used his hand. He beckoned with his hand. And he said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God. Now compare that with the second chapter. When Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost, Peter said, you men of Judea and all ye that dwell in Jerusalem. He was speaking to the Jews in Judea and Jerusalem. He was speaking direct to the men and women, to the men who had crucified the Lord Jesus. He told them, he charged them with the murder of the Lord Jesus Christ in that second chapter. And he talked to the men of Judea and the dwellers of Jerusalem. Now Paul is now in a Gentile country, not a Jewish land. And in these Gentile countries, as I said, there were synagogues. So he addressed the Jews, but in all these synagogues, there were Gentiles who had accepted the Jewish faith, proselytes. They had become not Jews by birth, but Jews by choice. I'm an American citizen by choice. I was born in the United States, a Britisher. When I came in, I was born in Great Britain, I mean in England, a Britisher. When I came to this country, I became a citizen of the United States by choice. And some of these by choice had become... They couldn't become Jews but they became proselytes. And so in the synagogue there were some Gentiles. So he says, men of Israel and ye that feared God. Can you see the Jew and the Gentile there? Men of Israel and ye that feared God. Now the fear of the Lord at the beginning of knowledge says this. Proverbs one, verse seven, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, and even for people that fear God. But they knew nothing about the Lord Jesus Christ, nothing at all. They had accepted the Jewish faith, and they were reading the scriptures, and they read the prophet after the reading of the prophet. Then they appealed to... Paul and Barnabas. And Paul stood up and said, Men of Israel, and all ye that fear God, give audience. Now, I suppose we're apt to judge sermons by the skills and the wisdom and the oratory of the speaker. Some speakers can preach beautiful sermons and sway the people, and they can use all kinds of alliteration and give you seven P's or six D's or whatever they want to. Paul didn't do anything like that at all. Paul took the Word of God and he expounded the Word of God. And he went back over, not preaching a wonderful sermon, but to preach the Word of God. and he exalted the Lord Jesus Christ. When Paul had finished, you wouldn't say, what a wonderful preacher is Paul. You'd say, what a wonderful Savior is Jesus. That's how he preached. And so he starts back, and what a reasonable and wise way it was in dealing with these Jewish people, and these who had accepted the Jewish faith. He says, the God of this people of Israel... chose our fathers. He's going back now to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the patriarch. He chose our fathers. and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land. By exalted means he raised them up out of Egypt. They were prisoners. They were slaves rather in Egypt. They didn't go down there as prisoners at all. Joseph had a great position when they went down there. But over the years there arose another king that knew not, Joseph, and they became slaves. But God exalted, God raised them up out of Egypt with a high arm and brought them out of it. And about the time of forty years he suffered their manners in the wilderness. Paul is hurrying through. He wants to get to the story of the Lord Jesus Christ. But as a background for his talk, he talks about things which the Jews will understand. He won their confidence by talking about the things which were dear to their hearts. And so he told them of how God brought them out of Egypt. And then how God suffered their manners in the wilderness, forty long years. They grumbled and grumbled and grumbled, and God had patience with them. Well, this verse tells us of the infinite grace of God. He suffered their manners forty years. Sometimes he cut them off. Sometimes he opened the earth and swallowed them up because of their grumbling. I think if there's one thing God can't stand, it's discontent and grumbling. God has given us the wonderful things to enjoy in this world, as so many people grumble and complain, and they're not happy. Why in the world can't we be happy when God's given us all the wonders of this life and the wonder of this life in Christ Jesus? But the Jewish people, although he brought them out with a high arm and saved them out of Egypt, they said, let's make a caption and go back to Egypt and go back to slavery. He suffered their manners in the wilderness. And when he had destroyed seven nations, now we get up to the time with Joshua, he destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he divided the lands to them by large. You can read all this in the Old Testament. And after that he gave them judges for the space of four hundred and thirty years, until Samuel the prophet, and afterward they desired a king. and God gave them Saul, the son of Kish. You know about Saul? He reigned for forty years, and then God chose a man after his own heart. When he removed Saul, he raised up David to be their king, to whom also he gave testimony. He said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, which shall fulfill all my will. Now he's bringing in cleverly showing them how the Lord Jesus was born of the royal line of David, who was their great king, of this man's seed, David, as God, according to his promise, raised unto Israel a Savior, Jesus. So how clearly he, they'll go along with him all the way. The Jewish people go along with all his day. He's recounting their history and gradually going along, to show how Jesus came out of the seed of David." Then he talked a little bit about John the Baptist. John the Baptist first preached before his coming, preached the baptism of repentance in the people of Israel. And as John fulfilled his course, he said, Who think ye that I am? I am not he. Behold, there cometh one out to me, and I lack ye of whose shoes I am not worthy to honor them. Men and brethren, now he's coming to a point, so he comes back to address them fresh. Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham. Now he's talking to his own brethren, the children of Israel, men and brethren. He's talking to the children of the stock of Abraham, those who are real Jews because they came down to the feet right down from Abraham, the father of the Jewish people. Men and brethren, children of the stalker of Abram, and now here come the Gentiles, and the usurper among you fear is God. To you is the word of this salvation sent. Whoever talked about salvation, he's bringing in something new now. He's given the background, so he's been there confident, and now he wants to bring out the story which he knows is going to upset some of the Jews. But how tactfully and wonderfully he did. Now men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and all those among you who fear God, to you, to the Jew and to the Gentile, to you is this salvation sent. For they that dwelt at Jerusalem and their rulers, because they knew him not. Remember what we were saying in an early meeting this morning? That He came unto his own decision not, that he was in the world, the world knew him not. And we were saying that even John the Baptist, who knew him best of anybody, John the Baptist, said, I knew him not. And now he's saying the Jewish people did not know him. If they had known he was the Messiah, they wouldn't have put him to death. They knew him not. And he says, for they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not. Nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath day. We have read here now how they read the prophets that Sabbath day in Antioch in Pharsidia. And he says, that's being done in all the synagogues. The prophets are being read every Sabbath day. And they have fulfilled the very words of the prophets. They have fulfilled the scriptures in condemning him. As we were quoting this morning from the twenty-fourth chapter of Luke, the Lord began it, Moses, and all the prophets. And he founded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. But they didn't know. Their eyes were blinded, and they didn't know. And they crucified the Son of God. Now he's telling them all this, and accusing the Jews, just as Peter did on the day of Pentecost, accusing them of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. though they found no cause of death in him, yet they desired, Pilate, that he should be slain. And when they fulfilled all that was written of him, that's when the Lord Jesus said, it is finished. When all the Scripture was fulfilled, everything had been fulfilled except one thing. He says, in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink, and that hadn't been fulfilled. And then the Lord cried with a loud voice, I thirst. And then they gave him the vinegar, and all the scriptures written of him in the Old Testament about his death were all complete. And then the Lord cried with a loud voice, It is finished. Now the scripture was completed. I would say also that salvation's work was completed when the Lord Jesus died at Calvary's cross. And so he can talk about salvation. And when they fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulchre. Now here's the wonder. What a wonder for these people to hear. They hadn't heard about it. In Antioch, in Physidia. But God raised him from the dead. And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people. How Paul loved to tell that. Do you remember in the fifteenth chapter, first Corinthians? He said, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, how that Christ died according to the Scriptures. He was buried, and the third day he was raised again according to the Scriptures. That's what he preached. The death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ, and it was all according to the Jewish Scriptures. He's doing the same thing here. That's how Paul preached. He was then in the fifteenth chapter. He says that he was seen of Cephas, then he was seen of this one and that one, and then of over five hundred brethren at once and last of all he was seen, he said he was seen of many. Saul of Tarsus, I saw him. So he knew the Lord was raised from the dead. He was seeing many, verse thirty-one, of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you glad tidings how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God has fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he has raised up Jesus again, as it is also written in the second Psalm. I like the fact that he said the second psalm. It means that the order and the arrangement of the psalm were the same right back in those days. Two thousand years ago, the second psalm was still the second psalm. Now some of the scriptures, they moved around, but the second psalm was the second psalm then, and it's the second psalm today. And what does it say there? It says, Now, my psalm, this day have I begotten thee. Speaking of the wonderful resurrection of the Lord Jesus, when he raised him up from the dead. and as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption. He says, on this wise, I'll give you the short mercies of David. Wherefore, he says in another sound, thou shalt not suffer thine holy one, deceiver up. But all Jesus was in the tomb three days, for his body did not go to corruption. Lazarus was in the grave four days, and they said, by this time he stinked. His body was seen corrupt, but God raised him up. But the Lord Jesus did not see corrupt. Now, I sometimes think, I don't know, I made it wrong. I sometimes think that the fact that the Lord Jesus never sinned, the wages of sin is death. You and I, if we have to go into the grave, our bodies will go to corruption. We're sinners. He was not. Maybe, I don't know. Maybe that was a bit. His body did not see corruption. God raised him from the dead. And he says, David did see corruption. But David, after he served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep and was laid unto his fathers, and he saw corruption. But he whom God raised again saw no corruption. His body came out of the grave perfectly. yet it had the marks of accomplished redemption in his fleshed hands and feet and sides when he came out of the grave in silence. Now he's going to challenge me. Be it known unto you, therefore, brethren, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sin. And all who believe, are justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. They had been reading that morning the law of Moses. They had been reading the prophets. They were studying the Old Testament. But Paul comes in with an absolute new thing altogether. And he says, through the Lord Jesus and his death and his resurrection, you can have forgiveness of things. Your sins can be put away forever. You don't have to make sacrifices every year for God to pass over your sins for one more year, as the children of Israel did on the day of atonement. But God forgives God's sins. I love the hymn. Gone, gone, gone, gone. All my sins are gone. Buried in the deepest sea, I shall reign eternally. Pray God, my sins are gone. God says they're behind his back. He says they're in the depths of the sea. He says as far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us, all by the wonderful work. And he accomplished redemption which the Lord Jesus wrought at the place called Calvary. He preached unto them the forgiveness of sins. Now I wonder. As I look around here, I don't know everybody, and I don't know your heart. And I tell you what, it's easy to pass muster as a Christian and not be a Christian, so I don't know. But I do know that the Lord Jesus, and God himself looks down into every heart, and he knows every one of them. And he says this morning through the word that we can preach unto you the forgiveness of sins. Now are your sins forgiven? You say, well, yes. Well, you know, I've heard lots of men, and they say, yes, I'm a Christian, and whenever they pray, they say, I've heard many men say, now we pray all this, Lord, and ask for the forgiveness of our sins. Have you heard that thing? Have you heard men praying and say, and for the forgiveness of our sins? Well, then they don't believe their sins are forgiven. They're still asking for they might be forgiven. The Lord has forgiven our sins. Past, present and future. Our sins are forgiven. Now, this is not a license to go and sin more and more. This is the gracious word of God. We stand on it. He's given us the forgiveness of sins. When we save, we start a new life. The past is gone, forgotten, forgiven, done with. We don't want to live in the past. Nice to hear good testimonies, how wonderfully God can say, but we don't live in the past. The moment we accept the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we start a new life. And baptism teaches that the old life died. We died with Him. That's what it means. That's the end bearing the old man, the old nature of what baptism is. And so it says, by Him, all that believe are justified. Justified. made just as if we had never sinned at all. Every one that believes in the Lord Jesus Christ this morning here, God looks down from heaven and he sees no sin in you. Because the Lord Jesus bore our sins in his own body on the feet. And we're justified. She believes it. That's what all the Roman epistle is written about. Justification by faith. By faith in the Lord Jesus. We are justified from all things. for which we could not be justified by the law of Moses. The law of Moses does not justify it. The law of Moses only makes us more in debt to God than ever. The law of Moses says, do this, do this, do this, don't do that, don't do that, don't do that. And the first one of all, thou shalt love the Lord thy God, the Lord thy heart, I have done it. Therefore I come short. Therefore I must do it. And so the law instead of justifying me makes me guilty and shows me how I am a sinner. I remember years ago, a preacher, and he said, when a man built a brick wall, and they used to build lots of brick walls in England, and they could boast some of them on any bricks they could lay. I had an uncle. They boasted he could lay a thousand bricks a day, and now the trade union won't let them lay more than three hundred a day. That's the rule. But he boasted, he could do it for a thousand bricks a day. He came from Wales. And what they do, I watch them many a time over there to put in the bricks. They have a plumb line, you know. They have a plumb line. And it's set in a, over there, it was set in a wooden kind of frame. And they put the frame against the wall and watch the plumb line to see if they're going straight. And if they're not going straight, this is what they do. Do they use the plumb line to put it straight? Oh no, the plumb line can't put it straight. The plumb line only says it's out. You've got to put it down and go again if it's not going straight. The law of God is the plumb line. It tells me I'm out. God's law, when I read, thou should do this, and I say, I'm done it. That's the plumb line that says you're out. You're not going the right way. But the law can't put me right. You cannot be justified. We are justified from all things, all things from which He could not be justified by the law of Moses. The law can't justify the law, and He makes His sinners. And then He gives them a warning, a great warning before this meeting closes. Behold, you despise us, and wonder and perish. For I work a work in your day which we shall in no wise believe, O man, declare it unto you. And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. So when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes, either as the Gentile proselytes, followed Paul and Barnabas, who were speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. So the meeting closed. And like every meeting, every meeting they closed his gospel meetings. It closes this way, as it did in Acts twenty-eight. He persuaded them all day and it says, some believe and some believe not. All meetings end that way. Some believe and some believe not. And those that believe are justified freely and those that believe not are going on in their sins to a last eternity and a last hell. So when we close our meetings, we should be very serious. You'd worry me when I used to do a lot of gospel preaching, and I'd preached the gospel for all I was worried. And then the meeting would break up. And I was anxious to see some souls saved. And I stand at the back and think some poor souls were going to come and say, show me how to get saved. But everybody was talking about the last car they'd bought, or the new house they'd bought, or all their gardens, and their seeds, and their flowers, and their crops, and their hats, and everybody talked about everything, and they were all laughing and joking. And I used to think, And I just preached the gospel. I was hoping somebody wanted to be saved, but nobody had any interest. That's how the meeting changed. They all went home, but a few of them stayed with Paul and Barnabas and wanted to learn more. And they said, just come back next Sabbath day. We want to hear some more. Come back next Sabbath and tell us some more about it. Boy, I trust that as we leave today, we'll go away with a desire to hear more and know more about the wonderful work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Blessed God. Our Father, we thank you. For the Apostle Paul, what a tremendous job he did as he went about preaching the gospel to the first and also to the Greek. He prayed outlightened words upon our hearts that we might have something of the desire and the fervor and the energy of the Apostle Paul that we too might go forward to tell the wonderful gospel story that many women all around us. We should have parting blessings. In the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.