In his sermon at the synagogue in Antioch, Paul addresses the Jewish audience and God-fearing Gentiles, recounting the history of Israel and emphasizing the mighty acts of God. Paul highlights God's personal nature, describing Him as the God of Israel who governs history, initiates relationships, and is powerful, patient, generous, just, sovereign, and holy. He underscores God's grace and salvation through Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead, fulfilling the promises made to the forefathers. The sermon warns against complacency and presumption in sin, urging listeners to continue in God's grace, emphasizing that justification and salvation are achieved through faith and repentance. Paul concludes with an exhortation for believers to rely on God's grace for perseverance and holiness.

Acts 13, beginning at verse 16. Acts 13. Paul is in Antioch in Pisidia. And we pick up this account. He is in the synagogue, they've had their service, they've read the law and the prophets, and they've asked him if he had any word to speak.

And so he stands up and begins this sermon. Then Paul stood up and motioning with his hand said, Man of Israel and you who fear God, listen! The God of His people Israel chose our fathers and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm he brought them out of it. Now for a time of about forty years he put up with their ways in the wilderness, and when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he distributed their land to them by allotment. After that he gave them judges for about 450 years until Samuel the prophet, and afterward they asked for a king.

So God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And when he had removed him, he raised up for them David as king, to whom also he gave testimony and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do my will. From this man's seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior, Jesus, after John had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John was finishing his course he said, Who do you think I am? I am not he, but behold there comes one after me, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to loose.

Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham and those among you who fear God, to you the word of this salvation has been sent. For those who dwell in Jerusalem and their rulers, because They did not know him, nor even the voices of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled them in condemning him. And though they found no cause for death in him, they asked Pilate that he should be put to death. Now, when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb, but God raised him from the dead. He was seen for many days by those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses to the people.

And we declare to you glad tidings, the promise which was made to the fathers. God has fulfilled this for us, their children, in that He has raised Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm, you are my son, today I have begotten you. And that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption he has spoken thus, I will give you the sure mercies of David. Therefore he also says in another Psalm, you will not allow your Holy One to see corruption.

For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption. But he whom God raised up saw no corruption. Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins, and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come to you. Behold you despisers, marvel and perish, for I work a work in your days, a work which you will by no means believe, though one were to declare it to you." So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath.

Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. This law of His mouth is better than thousands of coins of gold and silver. Almighty Heavenly Father, please give us understanding of Your Word. Open our eyes that we might behold wondrous things out of Your law, and sanctify us that we may be set apart to obey Your gospel, to be your holy vessels, a royal people, a royal priesthood. And I ask that you also sanctify my sinful lips, that they might proclaim your holy word.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Paul speaks in this message primarily to Jews. He addresses the Jews, men of Israel, and those who fear God, those who were coming to the synagogue and following the Word of God, and praying to God like Cornelius was praying to God. He was a God-fearer. But people who had not become Jews, had not become circumcised for whatever reason.

Paul addresses these people specifically. Men of Israel, the Jews, and the God-fears. And he has tailored his message to be especially applicable to them. He reviews their history, historical accounts of which they would be very familiar. And the thing that I think jumps out in this message, the first thing is the number of references to God, what God is and what God does.

Just look at all the times He talks about God. God, God, or He, it dominates this message. He is speaking to them about their mighty God. And I'd like to look this morning with you at all the things that God is in this passage. God is, the first thing is that God is God of His people, His people.

God, the God of His people, Israel. God is a personal God. He's not a force, He's not an energy, He's not a divine being or the supernatural, even though He is some of those things, He is a personal God. He is one that we can know through Jesus Christ. He is God of His people.

The Muslim God is not a personal God. He's not God that they can know. He's not a God who cares. He's an impersonal, unknowable God. He is, this is our God.

He will never leave us nor forsake us. He knows us. He knows us from before the foundation of the world. And Paul says this God, the God of His people Israel. Secondly, He's a governing God.

The God of His people Israel chose our fathers and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt. Paul says this personal God, our God, chose our forefathers. He's not a God as the deists imagine, someone who simply sits back and watches the world that He made operate. He's also not a bellhop God who merely grants requests when people make them or ask Him for things. He's the governing God.

He's the one who is determining what will happen. He's the one who is making the decisions. God chose them. That's an active work of God in history. It was His choice.

It was His will. He wasn't simply acquiescing to what the forefathers did or wanted or asked for, He was the one who made the choice. Because He's a governing God. Dominion Covenant Church used to have every year for several years a providential history festival that we would go to and they don't no longer have it for various reasons but the whole focus of that festival was to study history to see how God governs in history. And it was a very wonderful thing.

We always enjoyed going to it every year because there are so many details that you just don't know about. As John says, you could write all the books of the world, could not contain the things that God does. These little things, though, are marvelous. He's a governing God. He's a personal God who governs in the affairs of his people and to accomplish his purposes.

And I think it's one thing we should do and train our children to do is to look to see God's hand in governing, God's providential hand in favor of His people, providing for them, leading them, blessing them, yes, chastening them when that's needed. So when we see chastening, we should be looking for where we've erred, and where we've sinned, and what the Lord is wanting to teach us, where we see His blessing, we should be thankful. We should always be looking to understand the things that happen around us as God's choice, as God's government, as His providential rule in our lives. And we know that as His children, everything that He does, that He brings to pass, He does not only for His own glory, but He also at the same time does them for our own good. So Paul says that this God, our God, is a personal God, and He's The governing God.

He's also the initiating God. He's the initiating God. God is the one who chose. That was His initiative. The forefathers didn't choose God.

God chose them. God is the one who comes to us. We're not the ones who sought after God. He's the one who first elects us. He's the one who initiates the relationship with us.

God came to Noah and promised to save him and his family. Noah didn't come to God and ask. God came to Noah and made this wonderful promise. God came to Abraham and said, I will be your God. Abraham wasn't seeking God.

He didn't initiate that relationship. God initiated that relationship. God came to David and promised David that he would never lack a son, one from his own flesh to sit upon the throne. And David was very grateful for that, because he did not initiate that relationship. He wasn't seeking to be king.

God initiated that relationship. God chose David to sit on the throne. Jesus said to these same people, to the Jews in John 6, 44, that no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them. God is the initiating God. And we can be very grateful, because if He didn't, we would never initiate that.

Of course, God's choice is not based on anything desirable that He saw in us. When we were little growing up, and I guess he still does it today, you want to play a game, you pick teams, and you choose a captain, and then they start choosing people. And who are they going to choose? Well, they choose the people they think would be most desirable for their team. But that's not the way God chooses.

He's not choosing these people. He's not initiating relationships because He sees anything desirable in them. When young men are seeking a wife, they're looking for somebody desirable. And they initiate relationships with people they think are desirable and will be a blessing. But God doesn't initiate a relationship with us because He saw something desirable and it's quite the opposite.

There's nothing in us that was desirable. There was nothing that He needed that we could provide. It's simply His sovereign choice to be gracious to us, to make us vessels of purity, set apart for His pleasure and His glory. It's a favor that is not merited. It's not earned.

Romans 5, Paul writes, God demonstrates His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, while we were still in rebellion against Him, Christ died for us. So God is a personal God. He's the governing God. He governs in history. He's the one who brings things to pass.

And I think I've mentioned before, some of these people that aren't Christians that are reading the Bible for the first time in their lives are seeing that God is the governing God. That's what they're coming away with. God is governing in the affairs of men and nations. I think that's a very accurate understanding that they've gotten out of the Word of God. He's the initiating God, and He is the powerful God.

He's the powerful God. He chose our forefathers and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt and with an uplifted arm, with a mighty arm, He brought them out of Egypt. When God exalts, no one can debase. And when God brings love, no one can raise up. Just think of people like Haman who were greatly exalted and sought to exalt themselves and were very conniving in climbing the corporate ladder in the court.

But God brought them low. Or Mordecai, the one who had no ambitions, but God raised up. God is a powerful God. And the Egyptians saw that they were completely powerless to stop God delivering the children of Israel. The children of Israel were slaves.

They had nothing. They were destitute. They worked backbreaking labor, making bricks, gathering the straw, and yet God delivered them from the hand of the most powerful army on the earth at that time, or one of the most powerful armies, and He destroyed that army and delivered them. That's the powerful God that is our God. There is no earthly enemy.

There is no army big enough. There is no unseen spiritual power that can resist the mighty God. And I know you all know that. I know you've heard that a thousand times. And that's no exaggeration.

And yet, how often Do we not remember that our God is a powerful God? When we're facing difficult situations, we need to remember that our God is a powerful God. And when we're not facing difficult situations, When we think everything is going well, and that we are able to anticipate all the things that are happening, we especially need to remember that God is a mighty God. And that the things that are happening, He is actively governing and bringing to pass. The God of His people Israel chose our fathers and exalted the people when they dwelled as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm, He brought them out.

But He's also a patient God. And for a time of about 40 years, he put up with their ways in the wilderness. He's a patient God. What are the things that he put up with in the wilderness? Or he put up with their disowning Him?

A mere three months after dramatically and spectacularly liberating them from the Egyptians. He brought them to a point where, and if you look at a map, I don't have one to show you at the moment, but if you look at a map, the plane that he brought them to, It's this outcrop into the Gulf of Aquaba. It's kind of like a big area on the beach. There's a city there now, but most of that beach is like the coast of California. It's cliffs, mountains, and then the ocean.

There's not very much beach. But this one area, there's a big beach area. And it's fed by a narrow pass that comes through the mountains. And God led the children of Israel through this narrow pass down to this clearing at this Red Sea. And they brought the Egyptian army in that pass.

And they were thinking, we've got them now. The army thought we've got them, right? They've gone into this pass. On both sides of them are mountains, they're cliffs. You can't climb them.

And yet in this one little narrow pass, and the army is coming down it. Now you see the predicament. The sea is in front of them. It's a thousand feet deep and more. The mountains are on either side of them.

You can't scale them. They're cliffs. And coming down the one outlet is the Egyptian army. God delivered them out of that miraculously, and three months later they disown him and say that this golden calf brought them out. Made out of jewelry that they got from the Egyptians.

Gold jewelry. How absurd. How blasphemous. Even on a human level, this would be an insult. If you deliver somebody, you help them in some way, and three months later, they disown you.

God was patient with them. He put up with their continual complaining. The children of Israel complained against Moses, Numbers 14 says in Aaron. And the whole congregation said, If only we had died in the land of Egypt. How ungrateful could you possibly be?

The land of Egypt was the land of slavery. They were crying out under the burden, the onerous burden of slavery, they're crying out to the Lord, and now three months later they're saying, oh, we're back there. Why did the Lord bring us to this land so that we die and our children become victims? God was patient with their disobedience. God said, I'm giving you the land of Canaan, go and take it from the Canaanites.

And the people said, no, the Canaanites are too powerful for us. They forgot what God did to the Egyptian army. And so when God swore in His wrath that they wouldn't enter the promised land, but that their carcasses would fall in the wilderness, They said, well, now we're going to go. And God said, no, don't go. But they disobeyed and went anyways.

And Moses said, why do you transgress the command of the Lord? You're not going to succeed. Don't go up lest you be defeated by your enemies, for the Lord isn't with you. The Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you'll fall by their sword because you have turned away from the Lord and the Lord will not be with you." But they presumed to go up to the mountains And they learned their lesson. God was patient with their disobedience.

He was patient with their rebellion. God raised Moses to deliver the children of Israel, saying in Numbers 12, I speak with him face to face, even plainly and not in dark sayings. And Moses sees the form of God. But Miriam and Aaron said, has the Lord spoken only through you? Moses has and He's spoken through us as well?

And the Lord heard it. And you remember the judgment that came on Miriam. Or there's Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and some 250 other rulers that rebelled against God, saying of God's anointed Moses, you take too much on yourselves, Moses, for all the congregation is holy. God had said they were a holy people. And the Lord is among them.

Why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord? You take too much upon yourselves. That's what they said. Nehemiah describes God's patience in Nehemiah 9 in this circumstance. He says, But they and our fathers acted proudly.

They hardened their necks and did not heed your commandments. They refused to obey. They were not mindful of your wonders that you did among them, but they hardened their hearts, they hardened their necks, and in their rebellion they appointed a leader to return to their bondage. But you are God, ready to restore, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in loving kindness, and did not forsake them. Our God is a patient God.

God is a patient God. In Exodus 34, when God allowed Moses to see His glory, the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord, Jehovah. Jehovah God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgressions and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. God is a patient God. He's also a generous God.

Verse 19. He distributed their land of the seven nations to them by allotment. He destroyed seven nations and distributed everything. In fact, God brought them in right after the harvest. So places like Jericho, the city had all of the harvest in.

So when they captured the city, when they captured all these cities, their harvest was there for them, ready to eat. The Lord promises in Deuteronomy 28 to grant us plenty of goods in the fruit of our body, in our children, in the increase of our livestock, and in the produce of our ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you." In Psalm 78, He split the rock in the wilderness and gave them drink in abundance from the depths. God is a gracious God. He provided for them, despite all of their rebellion and disobedience against Him. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ.

The physical blessings, the physical needs, the food, everything that we need, as well as the spiritual blessings. He is a generous God. Generous God. Who has richly blessed us. But He's also the just God.

He's a just God. He destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan. These are all people that were descendants of Noah. They were descendants of Noah. Their ancestor, several generations earlier, were saved by God through the flood.

Noah and his family were saved. And these are descendants from Noah, these Canaanites, that are destroyed because God is a just God. God didn't destroy these nations in the days of Abraham because he was patient. He was waiting for their iniquity to be full. But he is a just God and he doesn't delay his anger forever.

But as he says, he judges every sin. He He's God who though restrains evil. God gave them judges for 450 years To teach the people His ways, the way of blessing, and to execute judgment, to bring true judgments to them. 450 years He sent them judges until Samuel the prophet. And after Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life, 1 Samuel 7 says.

He went from year to year on a circuit to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah, and judged Israel in each of those places. And then he always returned home to Ramah. That's where he was from. That was his home there. And he judged Israel.

And it was in Ramah that he built an altar to the Lord. And when they asked for a king, God gave them a king. They wanted a king like all the other nations. So God gave them Saul, who was big and strong and handsome, head and shoulders above everyone else. But though he did some good things, he was afraid of Goliath.

He became a tyrant himself, and he didn't follow the Lord. And the Lord rejected him and sought for himself a man after his own heart. And the Lord commanded him, David, to be a commander over his people, because Saul had not kept what God commanded him. So God is a God who restrains sin. He provides civil rulers, civil magistrates, who bring His wrath on those who do evil, who restrain sin.

Even unjust civil magistrates, tyrants, have a restraining effect on sin and wickedness. And that is a blessing of God that He gives these rulers. He gave them judges. Mostly He gave them good judges. Samuel was a good judge.

His sons weren't, but Samuel was. And most of the other judges that He raised up were good. And God brought blessing to His people through them. Now, There's a lot more here. I'd like to close with one more, and that is He is the God who saves.

He is the God who sent His only begotten Son. God raised up for Israel a Savior Jesus. Jesus is a word that means Jehovah saves. Jehovah saves. He is a justifying God.

He is a justifying God. Verse 39, And by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses." He said, justifying God. That means we are declared just in His court. And those whom God declares just, no man can condemn. And that's Paul's argument in Romans 8, who can lay a charge against God's elect?

It's God who justifies. Who is He who condemns? And so those whom God has declared just, not guilty, are indeed justified. But He's also the Holy God. Justification always accompanies repentance.

John speaks about John. He preached the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. Repentance is needed Because God is a holy God who hates sin and rebellion. He demands holiness. We need faith to get our righteous record, our righteousness from Jesus, it's received by faith, but we also need repentance because God doesn't justify anyone who doesn't repent.

He's a holy God. He is also a sovereign God. See, He promises, He purposes, He plans, and he accomplishes his plan. And his plan and his purpose is to defeat death, the last great enemy. He raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption.

And He is the God who defeats death. This is the one enemy that we all must face. And there is only one God who can defeat death, And that's the Holy God of Israel. He's a patient God. He knows our weaknesses.

He doesn't immediately destroy all those who sin. He doesn't cast us off forever when we fail. He's grieved. And He doesn't delay His justice forever. He is patient.

And he forgives. He's the God who forgives. For you, Psalm 86 says, for you, Lord, are good and ready to forgive and abundant in mercy to all who call upon You. He's ready to forgive to all who call upon Him. Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer and attend to the voice of my supplication." So there are two ditches that we can fall into.

We can begin to think that our sins are too great to be forgiven. We can doubt that God forgives our sin. We can doubt that He accepts us as righteous in His sight, that He truly justifies us. And in so doing we can live in doubt and fears. But He is the God who forgives.

He is the God who justifies. And we need to believe His promise and His word that He does. But we also need to remember that He is the just God. And we cannot live any way that we please. That we will give an account, even for every idle word that men may speak, we will give account for it in the day of judgment.

And so, over the other side, we can fall into a sink that well, we are saved. He's just he's justified us and therefore, well, he'll overlook this sin. He'll overlook that sin. And we begin to be. To presume upon His grace, to receive His grace in vain.

He gives us His grace that we might be holy, that we might be cleansed from our sin. But He also gives us His grace that we may mortify the sin and put it away and not become complacent with it. And the Israelites that He is speaking to had become complacent with it. They didn't think that they were sinful or wicked or under God's condemnation. And so his final warning is, Beware, lest what has been spoken about by the prophets come on you.

Behold you despisers, marvel and perish, for I work a work in your day, a work which you will by no means believe." Well God blesses his word. And when Paul finished his message, many of the Jews and the devout proselytes followed Paul and Bonobus, and they persuaded them to continue in the grace of God, not to continue in their own strength, not to continue keeping the law by their own power, but to continue in the grace of God. It's by His grace that we are justified, and it's by His grace that we persevere, and It's by His grace that we persevere, it's by His grace that we repent and believe and obey. The works that we do, we do by His grace in us. And so our exhortation this morning is to continue, to continue in the grace of God.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, We thank you that your strength is made perfect in our weakness. We pray that your Word may feed us this morning. We ask that you would minister to us by your spirit, bring life through your word, bring healing, bring repentance where we need to repent, bring sight where we are blind, blind to our own sins. Blind to our own weaknesses.

We ask that you would bring comfort and assurance. Where we doubt your power or your grace, where we doubt the sufficiency of your work for our sins. We thank you Lord that you are the mighty God and we bless your name through Jesus Christ. Amen.