The sermon by David Green, titled 'Paul's Healing Ministry on Malta,' begins with Paul's shipwreck on the island of Malta, where he assists by gathering wood. When a viper bites him, the islanders initially believe Paul is cursed but change their minds after he suffers no harm, considering him a god. Paul heals the father of Publius, a prominent islander, which leads to many others being healed. The sermon discusses how spiritual gifts, like healing, were present in Paul's time but suggests that such gifts have ceased, aligning with biblical teachings that the complete revelation of God's word has replaced the need for such signs. It emphasizes the continued power of prayer and faith in healing within God's will. The sermon concludes by highlighting the provision and blessings from God, even through unexpected means, and invites listeners to seek salvation in Jesus.

Alright, so here we are at Mary Ross Park in Brunswick and hopefully this will record. I don't know what the wind will do but we'll see It's good to see everybody that's able to make it out this evening. If you have your Bibles, let's go ahead and go into the chapter 28. I think I mentioned this before, but Lord willing, after we're done with the Book of Acts, we will be going into Galatians. So go ahead and, as you're doing your Bible reading, go ahead and read through the book of Galatians in preparation for that study looking looking forward to that.

Acts chapter 28 and we'll begin reading that verse 1. When they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melitta, and the barbarous people showed us no little kindness, for they kindled the fire, and received us every one because of the present rain, and because of the cold. And 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. 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 hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live.

And he shook off the beast into the fire, felt no harm, howbeit 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 that he was a god. In his same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius, who received us and lodged us three days courteously. It came to pass that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux, to whom Paul entered in and prayed and laid his hands on him and healed him. So when this was done others also which had diseases in the island came and were healed who also honored us with many honors, and when we departed they laded us with such things as were necessary." Let's again go to the Lord in prayer.

Our Father in heaven, we are thankful for your blessings. We thank you, our Father, for the day, for the time that you've given us, that we can come together and meet here at this place and at this time. Lord, I pray that your word will find a lodging place in the hearts and minds of your people. Lord, if it's in your will that others would come to know you as their savior. And Lord, I pray that you'll help us to be a light in a dark place that we live in.

Forgive us where we failed you, for it's in Jesus. And then we pray, amen. Some of this that I've just read is a repeat for those who were here or rather at the house last week but in that sermon I focused on the fact that Paul, even though he was a prisoner, shipwrecked on the island of Malta, he gathered wood to help out in the situation. And I pointed out that the Paul, being a missionary, being an apostle, he really was not afraid to get down and do the dirty work. That he was helping out.

That he didn't stand around and complain. This was not something that he had planned to do. This was not something that he, some place he had planned to be but this is where he was. Well as I pointed out the the the the folks there on that island they were barbarians They were unbelievers who had never been reached with the gospel. And they had an opinion when Paul got bit by that snake.

But I read all of that and I repeat some of this because I missed something in there in my studies and I wanted to bring this out a little bit this evening because in verse 4 If you look at it, it doesn't stand out very well, but it stands out real clear in the, and this is the reason I noticed it, I was reading the text in the Legacy Standard Bible, and this is the way it reads there. It says, And when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they began saying to one another, undoubtedly this man is a murderer, though he has been saved from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live." Now you can't tell anything really from the way I read it, but in the text, justice is capitalized. And I thought why in the world would the translators of the legacy standard, why would they capitalize the word justice there? And so I went to dig a little bit further to see if there was some error maybe in the way that they wrote it or whatever. And so I looked at John Gill in the commentary and this is what Gill has to say.

Gill says, Yet vengeance suffereth not to live. This is the Greek word, dies, rendered vengeance, is the name of a goddess among the heathens, said to be the daughter of Jupiter and Themis. She is represented as sitting by her father Jupiter, and when anyone does injury to another informs him of it. She is painted sorrowful, and with a contracted forehead, a grave countenance and a rough aspect to strike terror in unrighteous persons and give confidence to righteous ones agreeably to her name, which signifies justice. This deity, the barbarians, supposed pursued Paul.

Although she let him escape the sea, she will not suffer him to live any longer. For they looked upon the vipers fastening on him as to be sent by her, so to be immediate death to him." And so this is why they were thinking this and why they in turn said, oh, he must be a god because he escaped vengeance, he escaped justice, he escaped their supposed deity. But you see how this was all going according to the plan of God. Because Almighty God, the God of the Bible, is showing himself to be more powerful than the supposed gods, the false gods, of the barbarians. And I missed that when we were looking at that last time.

Nothing against the King James translators, They translated it properly, but it was just missed because I didn't dig far enough in the Greek. And the Legacy Standard translators actually brought it out more clear because they capitalized the word showing that it is a proper name in the Greek. And so that shows that indeed this was a spiritual warfare that was going on there. Well, we pick off where we left off last week. That is verse seven through ten, and we're introduced to a man named Publius.

Publius, perhaps. I'm not sure how to pronounce his name and This man Was a wealthy man he had some Land There some power and prestige there on that island He had Enough that he could entertain Paul and the others when they ended up on the island Well He kept them for three days on that island and and and so He was very hospitable He had the means to do it, so he kept them. While they were there, his father ended up getting sick. Interestingly enough, tradition states that this Publius, or rather a Publius, we don't know if it's the same one, perhaps it is, but a man named Publius became the bishop of Athens and was later martyred. We don't know if that was the same person, but it is possible.

It would make sense that this could be the same person. Paul's there. Paul had a habit of sharing the gospel everywhere he went. Excuse me. Surely seeds were sown during this trip with Publius and his household.

Whether or not this is who it is or not, what we do know is that according to our text here in in Acts 28 the Bible tells us that that they lodged there for three days courteously And it came to pass in verse 8, that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux, to whom Paul entered in and prayed, laid his hands on him and healed him. He had fever and a bloody flux. Now we don't use that kind of language very often or much at all anymore. However, in medical terms we'd say that he had a fever and dysentery. That's what he would have been diagnosed as.

In street language, we'd say he had fever and bloody diarrhea. That's what was wrong with him. This man was sick. Very very ill. He could have died from this and without proper care he would have died.

Thankfully, Paul was there. Thankfully, Paul had the gift of healing. Notice what he says there. It says, To whom Paul entered in and prayed and laid his hands on him and healed him. So when this was done, others also which had diseases in the island came and were healed.

Paul had this gift, this gift of healing. There's no question of that. We've read about that earlier. If you go back to Acts chapter 19, you can turn back there with me. Acts chapter 19.

In verse 11 it says, In God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul, so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and evil spirits went out of them And so Paul had this special This special gift of healing that he could heal people so much so that handkerchiefs and aprons were sent out from him. Extraordinary miracles were being done by the Apostle Paul with these gifts. Some people read this and they'll say, well, this sort of thing continues on today. Certainly there are people who will draw massive crowds. You know, it's sad, but they'll draw massive crowds and one of the greatest things that they'll do is they'll find people who supposedly have one leg shorter than the other.

And they'll yank on the leg and say, well, I've healed this person who had a limp. It's all show. They don't go into where the cancer centers are and heal cancer. When COVID was going on, there were so many people dying of COVID. These people who said they had the gifts of healing, they weren't going in there trying to heal folks with COVID.

Why is that? Well, the reason is that The Bible tells us that these special gifts that we read about here in the Bible, that they would eventually cease. That they wouldn't go on forever. That they were there for a time, but then they were gone First Corinthians chapter 13 First Corinthians 13 verses 8 through 10 Charity or love never faileth, but whether there be prophecies they shall fail, whether there be tongues they shall cease, whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

Sun gifts have ceased. That includes, as he's talking about here, he's talking about the gifts of tongues. But also the gifts of healing. Why? Because now we have the complete canon of scripture.

Verse 10, there says, But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away." Perfect is applied not to Jesus, as some people say. He's not talking about the coming of Christ, but He's talking about a neuter object. About a neuter object he's talking about the Word of God when that which is perfect is come partial revelation was these spiritual gifts but complete revelation is God's Word and we have that You have it there in your laps, and I have it here in my hand. The Bible, the Word of God. James 1.25 speaks of the Bible as being perfect.

He says, but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word, this man shall be blessed in his deed. It is telling that there's no more mention of signed gifts in the Bible after 1 Corinthians. Even Paul, he had these great gifts here in the book of Acts to be able to heal, But during his lifetime these gifts ceased. We see that in his epistles in 1 Timothy chapter 5. 1 Timothy chapter 5.

In verse 18. 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 18 I'm sorry verse 23, 1 Timothy 5 23. Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and thine often infirmities. You see, Paul didn't say to Timothy, Hey, I know you've got some stomach issues. So here's a handkerchief to heal you.

He didn't say that. He didn't say, Hey, Timothy, why don't you hurry up and get over here so I can touch you and heal you? He didn't say that. He said, Timothy, drink a little wine for your stomach's sake. You see, there's medicine for that.

And Further proof is found in Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. Verse 25-27 says, Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labor, and fellow soldier, but your messenger, he that ministered to my wants, for he longed after you, was full of heaviness, because ye had heard that he had been sick. For indeed he was sick, nigh unto death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow Paul was concerned very concerned for his friend who had been sick but he Even to the point of being feeling helpless for him but there's no mention of him being healed by Paul. In fact, Paul felt pretty helpless about the whole thing.

The scriptures are very plain. Those types of miracles, those signed gifts, they're gone. They ended sometime in the lifetime of Paul. Now The question is, does God still heal the sick? And the answer to that is yes.

I don't want to leave you hopeless today. James chapter five, verses 13 through 15. James says, Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry?

Let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him are you sick let it be known We'll pray over you and for you. If it be the will of God, He may heal you.

He will heal you. He has that power to heal you, if it's His will. And so back into our text there, in Acts 28, We kind of begin to bring this to a close I'll get there in a minute, I promise. Verse 10 says, who also honored us with many honors when we departed they laded us with With such things as were necessary And so the Bible says that Paul and the companions, the Romans who were there, that they laded them, supplied Paul and the others with all that they needed they were able to leave the island. You know we aren't looking in this world to be honored or respected.

We want all the glory to go to God. We want all the praise to go to Him. He's the one that's deserving. As we go through life, He supplies those things, even sometimes at the hands of barbarians. We see that as God was working there through supplying the things that Paul needed in Paul's journey.

So we thank God for that. You know, God's good to us. God has blessed us and we thank him for it. And certainly, If you're here today and you're within the sound of my voice, if you've never been saved, if you've never come to know Jesus as your Savior, we point you to Him. He's the only hope that we have in this world far greater riches are to be found in Christ than anything this world could ever offer.

We'll stop there and Lord willing We'll look further at Paul's continued journey on the way to Rome. We'll go ahead and have a time of prayer. And,