Trent Moody's sermon, based on Acts chapter 5, explores the dual themes of the folly of opposing God and the faith that rejoices in suffering for His name. The sermon focuses on the apostles' boldness in proclaiming the gospel in Jerusalem, despite strict orders from religious authorities to stop. When faced with the gospel message, the religious leaders react with fury and plot to kill the apostles, highlighting their spiritual blindness and resistance to divine truth. The sermon emphasizes that fighting against God's plan is futile and ultimately self-destructive. It also discusses the role of suffering in the Christian life, suggesting that true faith finds joy even in persecution for Christ's sake. Gamaliel's wise counsel to the council serves as a reminder of God's sovereignty and the futility of human plans against divine will. The sermon calls listeners to examine their own responses to the gospel and challenges them to live a life where the gospel is central, urging them to repent and believe in Jesus Christ as the only true Savior.

Please turn in the book of Acts to chapter 5. And I want to pick up in verse 28 just to grab a little context, but our focal passage will be verses 33 down through the end of the chapter, verse 42. In verse 28, the Bible says, saying, did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. But Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.

The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God hath exalted to his right hand to be prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses to these things. And so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him. And when they heard this they were furious and plotted to kill them.

Then one in the council stood up a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, held in respect by all the people and commanded them to put the apostles outside for a little while. And he said to them, Men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what you intend to do regarding these men. For some time ago Thaddeus rose up and claiming to be somebody. A number of men, about four hundred, joined him and he was slain and all who obeyed him were scattered and came to nothing. And after this man, Judas of Galilee, rose up in the days of the census and drew away many people after him.

He also perished and all who obeyed him were dispersed. And now I say to you keep away from these men and let them alone for if this plan or work or this work is of men it will come to nothing but if it is of God you cannot overthrow it lest you even be found to fight against God And they agreed with him and when they had called for the Apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. So they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily in the temple and in every house they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. Let us pray.

Our gracious Heavenly Father we come before you this morning and we stand before your Word seeking you to teach us. We ask now that the Holy Spirit would guide us Lord unto all truth for we know that your word is truth and in this word Lord I believe that you have the very word for your people today. Lord there are different types of suffering in this world but there is no suffering so great as the suffering of those who suffer shame for the name of Jesus Christ. And Lord I pray that you would count us worthy if the day ever comes and if need be we suffer for the name of Christ that we would also and likewise rejoice because of that worthiness that would be placed upon us to suffer for your name. But Lord it is not about us it's all about you.

You are the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and we rejoice in your name because it is through your name that there is salvation and your name Lord by which you have called us out of darkness into your light. And Lord you do not only call the wise but Lord you call even those whom the world would seem to be foolish and Lord as these religious leaders stood before these apostles and condemned them Lord the world stands and condemns us but you have overcome the world and greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world. Lord I pray that you would grant us wisdom today and that the name of Jesus Christ would be praised and we ask it in your name amen you may be seated this morning I want to speak to you very specifically about the folly of fighting against God and the faith that rejoices in suffering for his name the folly of fighting against God and the faith that rejoices in suffering for his name. The folly of fighting against God and the faith that rejoices in suffering for his name. We see here in this first part in verse 32 and then in verse 33 it says in verse 32 and we are his witnesses to these things and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.

And verse 33, and when they heard this they were furious and plotted to kill them. Now one would think that with such sound reasonings as the apostles had just given to this council, and they're explaining to them and laying out for them the doctrine of the gospel and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ to which these men, they were not unknown to these things. They understood what had happened in Jerusalem. They were understanding what was taking place because these are the religious leaders. These are the ones who were stirring up the crowd.

These were the ones who condemned Jesus Christ. And now we find them here and they're going after the apostles. And you would think though that with the sound reasoning of the apostles that they gave regarding their obedience to God, that they would obey God rather than men when it came to the understanding of what God had told them to do, that you would be my witnesses to go into all the world and proclaim thy testimony of Jesus Christ. You would think that these religious leaders who knew the word of God, who were teachers and they were lawyers within the word of God, they read and studied God's Word, you would think that these would however find a way to understand and to believe what they had just been faced with and presented by the apostles. But Rather what we find is that they rage against sound reasoning.

They are those that would hear the very clear teaching of the gospel and rage against it. So first and foremost we see here in verse 33 those that rage against reasoning. In Matthew chapter 6 verse 22 we read the lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good your whole body will be full of light but if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness.

And so here we have these religious leaders and you would think that they would have agreed with the apostles. However, when the light of the gospel was proclaimed to them, this gospel however had not shown into their hearts and therefore that light that was in them was utter darkness, just as Jesus had said in Matthew 6. So truly the darkness of these council members' eyes was utter darkness because they could not see the very clear proclaiming of the logic of God or the reason of God, the word of God, and darkness was in them. They could not see the very facts standing before them even as they could not see the very truth incarnate before them when he looked at them in the eyes. And their response was certainly not humility, but rather they raged.

We read this and quoted this this morning in our reading that they were furious and they raged as well. We find out throughout the book of Acts that there are times when those when they hear the Word of God they quickly hear it and they repent of their evil deeds and their sins and then you find other times they rage against it. They raged. How unlike was the response of these well-educated religious leaders compared to those Jews in Acts chapter 2 verse 37. Listen to this.

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart And they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? And then Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises to you and to your children to all who were afar off as many as the Lord our God would call and with many other words he testified and exhorted them saying be safe from this perverse generation and listen to this. Then those who gladly received his word were baptized and that day about 3, 000 souls were added to them. What a difference we see here between these two groups. We have one being more of just the average Jew who was there and they heard and they had seen the things that was going on regarding the Holy Spirit and how the Apostle Peter was preaching the word of God.

And then this contrast here between this religious council from the high priest down and they knew the word of God, they knew the scriptures and yet when they heard these things they were furious. Brothers and sisters laid before you today is the response of nearly every person. Maybe with one other one of being that of indifference. But you will have those who hear the Word of God and they will rage against you and you will have some who hear the word of God and they are cut to the heart and they say, men and brethren, what shall we do? And you can tell them what to do.

Repent and believe the gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. But here we find them raging. What is the folly of raging against God? For the gospel was contrary to them.

They had no room for that. They wanted their law, they wanted their position, They wanted their power, but they did not want the gospel. They did not want their savior, Jesus Christ, who had come to save them from their sins. They have been blinded by the God of this age. And you know, in fact, we need to consider that when we have those that rage or that are indifferent to the message of the preaching of the gospel which many of you saw yesterday as you were standing in the streets of Wake Forest you may have seen those who were raging against you you may have seen those that were just indifferent towards you and who thought that you were just so unloving and unkind and we can't believe that you would say these things.

But I want you to understand something. Paul tells us and explains to us in 2nd Corinthians that it's not only the hardness of their own hearts but he tells us but even if our gospel is veiled it is veiled to those who are perishing whose minds the God of this age has blinded who do not believe lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God should shine on them." So in one sense we we can stand in awe in a sense of their raging against God who would fight against God But in another sense we have compassion on them because we know that the God of this age has blinded their eyes. Their hearts are hard but yet their eyes are blinded. And we know this as we stand to proclaim the gospel to them and as I stand here today before you to those of you who are here undoubtedly who are not believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and most of you who are but those who are not believing on the Lord Jesus Christ you stand here with a veil over your eyes and you cannot see the glory of Jesus Christ.

That's what he says, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God, you cannot see his glory because God has not removed that veil from your eyes. And my prayer today is that God would cause the blind to see because there's been a great light that has shown to those who sit in darkness and his name is Jesus Christ. But they were not only furious these religious leaders but they also plotted to kill them. I want you to look at that in verse 33. When they heard this they were furious and plotted to kill them.

They were putting their minds together, putting their heads together, they were figuring out a way in which they might murder them. I think it's instructive and it's a warning to each of us that we must never underestimate the hatred of those whose eyes have been blinded by the God of this world, this age. They murdered the most innocent and holy man to ever live, Jesus Christ. What makes us think that for one moment that they will not seek to destroy you if they had opportunity? In 1 Peter 5, 8 we read these words that I preached at the father-daughter retreat.

Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Chrysostom says this, he's not wanting to bite you. He's wanting to devour you. We need to understand who our enemy is. The person themselves that we are preaching to is not our enemy, but they have been blinded by the true enemy of our soul, the devil and Satan, the adversary of us.

And yet their eyes are blinded. And I want you to understand though that they will seek ways many of them or some of them at least to get rid of you. If they had the power within their hands they would. They crucified Christ. What makes us think that we are any better?

If they would crucify the most holy one, they would crucify you if they had it within their power to do so. But I want you to know there are steps in a man here who begins to add reason but without light. He has some reasoning among him, he has some knowledge and he's well respected by all. Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in respect by all the people and he commanded them to put the apostles outside for a little while which is understandable. They wanted to discuss what was going on and they wanted to speak about what they would do and he wanted to gather their attention and he was wanting to bring some sense of moderation to the circumstance.

He was seeing what was happening that they were getting enraged and furious and they were plotting to how they might kill them. He heard the whisperings going on. Remember there's over a hundred of them here. You would no doubt hear whisperings and yet he had in himself the sense to which we want to cool the temperature just a bit. Now there's a couple ways to look at this and I believe that his advice was wise and from one perspective I believe that it was unwise.

There's different people that look at this different ways and so I'm going to bring a little bit of both in here just so we can have a fuller picture of the possibilities of both because I think both could be true. And so I believe that his conclusion though is extremely wise but it's not even his wisdom. I think that God oftentimes uses people, even people who are not his, to speak or to do something that would accomplish his purposes. And I think that's what happens here. So in this conclusion, whether it be wisdom that he had through patient watching or simply a desire for moderation or perhaps even cowardice and indecisiveness before the multitude, the truthfulness of his conclusion is undeniable.

The communication of God's truth and the accomplishment of his divine plan is not hindered by the weakness or even the rebellion of sinful men." I want to read that again. The communication of God's truth and the accomplishment of God's divine plan is not hindered by the weakness or even the rebellion of sinful man. And I mean weakness by the he lacks wisdom in understanding the fullness of God's purpose. He lacks wisdom in the sense that he does not have the light of the gospel within him because he is standing here and he remains indecisive about this whole situation. He's taking the approach, let's wait and see.

Let's let cooler heads rule. We have one Matthew Henry who says the grave advice which Gamaliel, a leading man in the council, gave upon this occasion, the scope of which was to moderate the fury of these bigots and check the violence of their persecution. And then on the other hand we have Warren Wiersbie who says in spite of the fact that Gamaliel tried to use cool logic rather than overheated emotion his approach was still wrong. So we have these differing opinions but I don't think that's really the problem with what we need to understand. I think we can understand what's taking place here.

So I want us to consider first the weakness of his reasoning in regards to who Jesus Christ truly is. And you may find if you're sitting here today without Christ, you may have these same thoughts. And many in our world do. To see Jesus Christ as simply another man seeking to lead a conspiracy against the establishment. That's one view.

This however happens all the time in our day. Men who want to see Jesus as one of the options. They see Jesus as a man among men. They see Christianity as one among many religions. However, I would like to ask them did any other man ever open the eyes of one born blind?

Did any other man raise the dead? Did any other man have the testimony of God the Father and the testimony of the Holy Spirit descending in the form of a dove and saying to him this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Did any other man raise from the dead? Did any other man ascend into heaven and sit at the right hand of God the Father Almighty? We quoted it today at the stoning of Stephen.

He stood and or he looked up to heaven and he saw Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of the Father. And their result and the result of that testimony was rage again. They will not only believe your word unless the Father opens the blinded eyes but through this man's reasoning who was held in respect by all it seems to some degree, yet he seems to be a double-minded man. He's double-minded in the sense that he's not willing to take a stand on either side and he wants to see how it plays out. There are many in our day who just wants to wait and let's just see how this thing turns out.

I've got bad news for them. When it does turn out, it will be too late. There would be no second chances. Today is the day of salvation. You cannot presume upon tomorrow.

You can't presume upon, hopefully one day you'll come to the conclusion. One of my sons was speaking to a man this week up in the mountains and he wasn't originally from there but he had been there for a few years, and he was trying to share the gospel with him. And this man was telling him, yeah, you know, some days I'm in and some days I'm out, and I'm just really hoping that I'm going to be in on the day I die. He was trying to explain to him that's not how it works. But he had heard it, he knew it, and I would say he was one like this, Gamaliel.

He was a man sitting upon the fence. The less wait and see approach. However, there's no such thing as neutrality when it comes to Jesus Christ. Are you sitting here this morning thinking, I'll wait and see? There is no neutrality.

You either submit to him as your Lord and Savior or you in fact are rejecting him as your Lord and Savior. He is not one of many gods but he is the one and only true Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. I was speaking also to another man this weekend in the church up there in Spruce Pine and he told me a story about this house that he had been working on. It was in a ritzy community where the people were moving in and buying the mountaintops and putting in large mansions up on a hill. And in this huge mansion up on the third story of this mountain house, He said that she had built this prayer room.

It was a big room. In fact, he said each wall cost forty thousand dollars. The reason of which it cost so much was because he said when he walked into that room, into this prayer room, that right in front of him was a 3D image of Jesus upon a cross with two thieves. He said it was unbelievable. It looked as if this figure was standing in the room.

I thought that's interesting. He said he turned to the left and there standing in the room or it seemed to be is the image of Buddha. Shocked by this he turns to look at the other wall and there is the God of the Hindus with all of the arms and all of the stuff. She wanted to cover her bases. She wanted to ride the fence and she wanted to see how this thing plays out and so she thought she would just make sure she covered all of it.

But what happens when you think that you can cover all your bases you're gonna find that you have none of them. It's really sad. She thought that she was in fact covering all the choices, but what in fact she was doing was making a clear choice. She was rejecting the testimony that Jesus Christ is the one true savior of the world. There is no other.

There can be no neutrality or duplicity when it comes to Christ. What are you trusting in? What are you trusting in and what are you waiting on? There is not any other, there is only one, the King of Kings, Jesus Christ, and the testimony of his Apostles that we have here before us that we have read this morning is true. And if you do not repent of your sins and trust in this one and only Lord Jesus Christ who is the Savior of the world, you will find that you will actually stand before a judgment seat and you will be given no credit because you were open minded.

You will be given no credit because you were indecisive. You will be given no credit because you were waiting to see how this thing turns out and in fact your decision will have been made and you will be cast into the lake of fire which burns forever and ever. What a dreadful conclusion to a life. So I call every one of you here today to repent of your sins and to trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation for there is no other way. But what we see here taking place is something that is really astounding.

In verses 38 and 39 we see this extraordinary statement by this religious leader, Gamaliel, and he says this in verse 38, and now I say to you keep away from these men, let them alone. For this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing. But if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest you even be found to fight against God. Woe to him who strives with his maker. In Isaiah chapter 45 verse 9 are these words, woe to him who strives with his maker.

Let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him who forms it, what are you making? Or shall the handiwork say, he has no hands? As if to say God is not the one who has done this. Is it right for man to fight against God?

But there are so many in this world right now and they are fighting against God. It is utter folly to fight against God. I've seen little children sometimes come up to really big men and want to put up the dukes. Utter folly. But the reality of fighting against God is infinitely greater.

As Jonathan Edwards said, and this is not a direct quote, but in his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, even if your strength was 10, 000 times that of the strongest angel in heaven, you would utterly be destroyed. You would have no hope. You cannot fight against God. It is utter folly, but guess what? That's what you're doing when you reject God and When you're furious at his doctrine and when you're furious at the gospel, or if you're indifferent to his gospel, you are fighting against God.

Because he who would love this world will find that they're actually an enemy of God. You can't love this world and say that you love God. If you love the world and the things of the world, the love of the Father is not in you and you will find as the Apostle Paul often says is that you were an enemy of God. Turn with me over to Ephesians chapter 2 and let's look at that. Ephesians chapter 2 we read these astounding verses.

He says, In you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world according to the Prince of the power of the air the Spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath. This children of wrath here means that you were someone who was an enemy of God. You were someone who was going to receive the wrath of God if there is not true repentance from you and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. And in other places it speaks of us being the enemy of God before he redeemed us and called us out of darkness. But here, this foolishness of fighting against God, in God's kind providence though, these words fell from the lips of a lost soul.

That's astounding to me. These words of truth fell from the lips of a lost soul. In God's providence, they fell from His lips, and because of His providence, it spared for a time the life of the apostles. Isn't it interesting how God uses means and ways in which to preserve the life of his people according to his purpose and according to his timeline. You see no man can kill you until God is ready, until that appointed time in which God has determined the day of your death.

They plotted to kill them, but it came to nothing. They often plotted to kill Jesus. In fact, they were dragging him up to the top of the hill to cast him off and he just walked right through the crowd Because they could do nothing against the providence of God and his sovereignty There is no hand that can stay God's hand you see He did at least have the understanding to know that the plans of man are futile when they come against the plans of God which are certain and forever and infallible. God cannot be undone. Who can stay his hand?

It should be instructed to all of us though who persecute the true ministers of the gospel, not us in the sense I'm speaking about those true believers here today, but anyone who would persecute a true minister of the gospel or anyone who would come against the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are finding yourselves to actually fight against God. Consider what is written for us in Acts chapter 9. And he saw journeyed as he journeyed he came near Damascus and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven and then he fell to the ground and he heard a voice saying to him Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me? Those words should stand as a striking reference there to the unity of the Christian and Christ.

Those who are in Christ are one with him. And when the church is persecuted, Jesus says, he is persecuted. Why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord? And then the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

It is hard for you to kick against the goads. I like that. Do you know what a goad is? If you've ever done any kind of research on this or ever plowed with an ox. Anybody plowed with an ox?

I don't think so. Don't raise your hand because I don't know if that's true. I've seen it done. I've not done it. I've seen it done.

And on this, behind this is a man who is holding a goad and this goad is a sharp metal object at which when that ox is acting up or being lazy that ox driver will take that goad and poke him. Now imagine if you would kicking against this sharp metal object and that is what Paul or Saul was doing at this time in which he was seeking to persecute Christ and I want you to understand something what he means by this is it is utter folly to kick against a goat and it is utter folly to fight against God. You cannot win. You will not win. You will either bow your knee to him as your Lord and Savior or you will stand before him as your judge.

And there will be no escape. He will pass judgment upon you, and to the sheep will be on his right hand, and to the goats they will be upon his left. And those who reject him will be cast into utter darkness for all eternity. But we learn from this that when we see Christ and we understand that in Christ we are one with him as his people, it's a beautiful thing that really should bring comfort to our hearts that whenever you are persecuted Christ is persecuted with you in the sense that they are coming against him but what arrogance of man to think that they can withstand the working of God there is no one who can resist God's will even Nebuchadnezzar learned this hard lesson Nebuchadnezzar learned this in Daniel 434 he says and at the end of the time I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven and my understanding returned to me and I blessed the Most High and I praised and honored him who lives forever. For his dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom is from generation to generation.

All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. He does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth no one can restrain his hand or say to him what have you done? No one. This was the most powerful king in all the world at this time and he humbled him to be a person who would eat grass like an ox. Until his sense came back, God restored his understanding, and in that understanding he acknowledged that God is God and he is not.

And so I call you today to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is God. He is the King of kings and you cannot kick against his gold. Humble yourself before the mighty hand of God. And guess what? The Bible says that to those who are proud he will humble, but to those who humble themselves he is merciful.

He is a merciful God and he would show you mercy today if you would humble yourself and repent of your sins. And then we come to verse 40. It says, and they agreed with him and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and they let them go. And so they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily in the temple and in every house they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

We see here in these few verses the ineffective warning of these religious leaders. They wanted to give one last warning. They agreed with what Gamaliel had said. They understood, hey this is reasonable. Let's take the moderate approach in this situation, let's sit on the fence with him and wait and see.

But instead of just waiting and seeing, they had one more plan that they wanted to enact and one more retribution that they wanted to give and one more warning that they wanted to make be felt to the Apostles. And so as advice went over and they agreed but they wanted one last painful warning as often the enemies of God do to God's people. They just had to have one last punch. You ever seen children scrappling with each other and fighting and you always have one who reaches out for one last little punch. If you have boys you've seen this but if you have no boys I'm sorry you've not seen this.

It happens. One last punch. They just had to do it. They had to fight against God. They had to kick one more time against the Goad.

When you fight against God you will not prevail, you will not have the last say, you will not have the last punch. There's coming a day when all the world will stand before the Almighty God seated upon his throne and you will give an account for everything that you've ever done and God will have the last word. However, until then, the enemies of God will try to punish and threaten the people of God, seeking to intimidate you, seeking to silence you, seeking to cause you pain. But this never works because the gospel is the power of God and to salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, nothing can stop the gospel of God. The threats and the beatings only work to produce joy in those who receive the beatings.

Isn't it unusual that the enemies of God think that they can silence God's people by giving them pain and by telling them sit down and be quiet. But what happens is in verses 41 and 42 we see this joyful suffering and ceaseless preaching of the Apostles. Joyful suffering. What is this about? How do you fight against a true believer that when you punish him and cause him pain, he is joyful?

When you beat them and threaten them, the Bible says, so they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing. This beating that they had received was most likely the 39 lashes, the 40 minus 1, of which oftentimes, sometimes people would die from the beating. It was not just a little rod on the backside, this was a a flogging if you will, this was a beating from them and it was not something that people would rejoice in naturally speaking. So what is the deal with this rejoicing in these sufferings? Well they were rejoicing not in the pain that they were experiencing they were not rejoicing in in the act of suffering They were rejoicing in the point of it.

They were rejoicing in that which caused them to suffer. They were counted worthy to suffer. They were counted worthy to suffer shame. They were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. For His name.

They rejoiced because they were enough like their Savior through the work of the Spirit that they were treated like the Savior. To all those who will live godly shall suffer persecution. So this verse is also helpful for us in teaching us what it is to be joyful. Joyfulness is not that which causes just happy feelings and good feelings to the body and mind, But actually joyfulness is something that is much deeper and abiding that even in the midst of extreme suffering you can have joy in your heart because God is your God. And no matter what takes place you know that nothing can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus and Romans 8 comes flooding in.

Thank you brother Scott, teaching us how to suffer with joy. You see they experienced the joy and spirit despite that their outward circumstances were pretty horrible. You know it's interesting this week, it's what's at the forefront of my mind. We spoke about different types of suffering. Our brother Josh even mentioned it.

I thought you were reading my mind there for a minute. I was thinking the same things of the different types of sufferings. And there were people there who had lost their homes and yet they were smiling. They were rejoicing. Now they weren't rejoicing because they suffered shame for the name of Christ, but I believe they were rejoicing and had joy for the simple fact that they were honoring God and acknowledged, it's amazing, most acknowledged God's goodness to them.

In fact there was one, a couple ladies there, they had this house that got flooded and I'll talk to you about this after a while, but one of the things that they required us to do before we left, get this, There was a huge pear tree full of pears and they said, go take some pears with you, you're not leaving here without some pears. So I went over and I tried to be very respectful because I'm bringing them food and water and they want me to take food with me and so I get three or four maybe and I walk back up and one of the ladies comes out with this box and she says how do you expect to fill this box with three pears? So I sent Jaylen down the hill and he filled the box with pears. It was glorious. They had joy.

They were thankful. They recognized that God had been better to them than they deserved and they were thankful. That is something that happens to a Christian who loves the Lord Jesus Christ and they understand that all of life is grace. It was a wonderful thing to see. They experienced the joy of the Spirit.

But I want you to understand that this joyful suffering produced in them, this burning in their bones if you will, in the words of Jeremiah. It was like a fire in his bones that needed to be let out. And so they went about ceaselessly teaching and preaching the word of God. That's what he says in verse 42, and daily in the temple and in every house they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. Wherever they were, they taught and they preached of their Lord.

The gospel was the theme of their life. It was not a part of their life. It was their life. Can that be said of you that the gospel is your life or is it just a part of it? You've given it a slice of the pie if you will But you have this whole big section here that is absent of the theme of the gospel flowing through the entirety of your days.

For these men went daily in the temple and in every house. They could not stop talking about Jesus Christ. They could not stop preaching Jesus as the Christ. And I pray that this may be true of each of us as we live out our days, whether in pain and suffering or in abundance and ease, will we ceaselessly proclaim the gospel wherever we are. And that is my prayer for you and again be warned it is utter folly to fight against God but I want you to know that there is a sure foundation of those who have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and that faith is the faith that will rejoice in suffering for his name's sake.

Do you have that faith? Today is the day of salvation. Scott and I will be up here afterwards and we would love to talk to you about the state of your soul. Would you pray with me? Our Heavenly Father, we do rejoice to call you our Father.

We are glad that you have made us heirs and co-heirs with Christ. Lord, we thank you that you stopped us from kicking against the goad. Lord that was your work. You removed the scales from our eyes. You changed our heart of stone and you gave us a heart of flesh.

You gave us ears to hear and you gave us eyes to see the glory of Christ who is the image of God. And Lord all glory and praise and honor is unto your name for this. For Lord if you had not acted we would be still kicking. Our eyes would still be blind and our hearts would still be hard but Lord your grace abounded and you did a great work and you translated us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light and for this oh Lord we give you praise. In Jesus' name, amen.