It's Acts chapter 14 and we will pick up in verse 8 and read down through verse 20. Acts 14 and verse 8. Thus says the word of the Lord, And in Lystra a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother's womb who had never walked. This man heard Paul speaking and Paul observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed said with a loud voice, stand up straight on your feet, and he leaped and walked. Now when the people saw what Paul had done they raised their voices saying in the Laconian language, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men.

And Barnabas they called Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker. And then the priest of Zeus whose temple was in front of their city brought oxen and garland to the gates intending to sacrifice with the multitudes. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude, crying out and saying, men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God who made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless, he did not leave himself without witness, and that he did good, he gave rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.

And with these sayings they could scarcely restrain the multitudes from sacrificing to them. Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there and having persuaded the multitude they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city supposing him to be dead. However when the disciples gathered around him he rose up and went into the city and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for these words of life, these ancient words.

Lord, we thank you O God that you have not left us without witness of the great and glorious things that you have done. Lord you have revealed your Son to us, you have shown us Lord his death, his burial, his resurrection, his glorious life that he lived, his ascension. You have shown us now in the book of Acts his disciples and apostles who have gone everywhere preaching the Word of God through much tribulation and trials and persecutions and deaths and Lord your word is exalted your Son is glorified and the Word of God continues and we are so thankful for that. Lord we we are hopeless without you. We thank you oh God that you have given us this text today and I pray oh Lord that you would open our eyes to see the glory of God and I ask it in Jesus name.

Amen. You may be seated. Jealous for the glory of God or jealous for the worship of God these two things in my mind are going hand in hand. What is it that you're jealous for? You know often times we think of jealousy as something that is not a good thing.

We think of it as something that's negative, a bad emotion that we have. But the word of God tells us that our God is a jealous God. Therefore we know that jealousy is not always a bad thing, but in fact, men, you should be jealous over your wives. Wives, jealous over your husbands, husbands and fathers, over your family. But there's something even more important, I believe, than that, and that is that we should be jealous for the glory of God.

We should be jealous for his worship. You know, as I was thinking about this text and hoping to delve into this and open the word of God to us this morning, I was thinking about often times you try to explain something that is not always understood in the best way. And so I wanted to somewhat relate this to you and ask you these questions or this question and give you this thought here. Have you ever been trying to tell somebody something really important, something that you know that they need to hear and they just really miss the point. And so in your mind you think hey a good illustration at this time would be helpful that you would be able to tell them something with a with an illustration something that would help them to better understand what you're trying to say regarding this topic.

And the topic that you pick is a topic that this person has a natural affection for in hopes that they will understand your point. But instead of understanding the illustration as being simply an illustration to point to something bigger, they mistake the illustration as being the main point of what you are saying. This is frustrating to say the least. Husbands and wives, I know you know what I'm talking about. When we try to communicate something to someone of great importance and yet to be misunderstood by what is said.

This kind of thing is what happened to Paul and Barnabas as they came into this city to bring the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This illustration, if you will, is not just their illustration. I want you to see something that it was actually God's illustration for them to show them something that was Greater and bigger than what actually happened in the beginning of this text we we begin our passage with yet Another miracle Scott introduced this this morning to us to help us to see this glorious miracle of this man being brought up to his feet who had never walked. The Lord in this miracle though was doing something greater than the miracle itself. Because you'll find that the turmoil that takes place was not around the man being healed, but what it meant and who it was that did it.

You see, the apostles were witnesses of Christ, and Christ, through the miracles, gave witness to their message. You remember this from Acts 14, three. I mentioned something just like this. It says this in verse three. Therefore they stayed there a long time speaking boldly in the Lord who was bearing witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.

This is part of that. This is God bearing witness to the words of their grace. That's what He's still doing in the remainder of what we're looking at here and will continue to do through signs and wonders being done. And so now the Lord here in verse 8 and 9, He's doing it again. He's doing a miracle to show something.

He's wanting to validate the message that is being proclaimed by Paul and Barnabas. And he's bearing witness of this grace and he was wanting the word of grace to be effectual. Even before the miracle in this instance, his desire was to show something greater and I believe that the healing was not only for the benefit of the man which was of great benefit no doubt as Scott pictured for us there. Imagine being a child and not being able to even stand on your feet or to run. And this man was a grown man and now he had been his whole life this way.

But there's something greater than simply the miracle of this man being healed. As great and glorious as that is. That healing and that miracle was temporal. This man is now dead and in heaven. The miracle of healing his feet is not benefiting him in the natural sense, although he has full liberty now in heaven to run and leap and jump and all the things that God's people do there in the joys of heaven.

But just to let you know what I will be, that what I'm gonna be doing through this text, I want you to understand that after each point, I have five points that I want to share with you, they're there in your outline, I want to bring something a little different than normal. Normally I leave all my application there at the end of the text, I want to bring you an application at the end of each of these points because I want it to be fresh upon your mind and I want you to really grab a hold of that and let it just be nailed in to the to your memory so that you will hold on to it and so that it will be fresh there and that it will be beneficial for you. So first and foremost, let's look at verses eight through 10 and you'll see there in your outline, this is where we see faith to be healed. A fascinating portion of scripture, no doubt, this crippled man was here in Lystra. Certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother's womb who had never walked.

The section begins, it would seem that the cripple man as it begins, he seems as the main point of the text would be this man but what we're going to find out is he's going beyond this man but it turns out at this that the Lord was actually using this man to bring greater glory to himself That's something that we should all acknowledge is that the miracles in the Bible are not just for the people themselves or those who are doing the miracles, but it's actually to point you to the glory of God. Jesus Christ came to reveal the Father to us and he did that through the miracles that he worked and he showed that he was God and now through the apostles he is demonstrating the glory of God throughout this text. And so this healing was actually to be a catalyst if you will of what the Lord wanted to do there in Lystra. There were some details here in this man's life that I think are important and Luke wants the reader to understand the hopelessness of this man's condition. Again I've touched on them already, Scott touched on them.

He was without strength in his feet. I don't know if you've ever been in that kind of position. Some of you have, some of us never have. I can't remember a time when I didn't have strength in my feet to get up and go. Maybe when I was sick for a brief time.

But I want you to get the idea here and Luke wants to point out that this man, he was in a hopeless condition, no strength in his feet, he was stuck to sitting or lying down for the entirety of his life. No standing, no walking, no leaping. He was crippled from his mother's womb. The moment he was born, he was born without the ability to walk. He had never walked.

It was not like a sprained ankle when you're lipping around for a while, as bad as that is. But this was the case in which was hopeless. There was no walking for this man. And then we have here Paul right in the middle of this situation breaks in and he's preaching the gospel. Paul, he's there.

He says this man heard Paul speaking. Paul observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed. No doubt wherever you find Paul he is speaking. He's always either speaking to God or he's speaking to man about God and so here he is he's speaking here in Lystra and he has a crowd around him and part of the crowd is this man, this crippled man, who was there to hear what Paul had to say. And Paul was doing what he did best, he was speaking the gospel and he was telling forth what God had done.

And I think we have a hint here at least a little bit of what it was that Paul might have been saying and I'll share that in just a moment. But first let's look at this in verse 9 it says that Paul observing him intently not that the crippled man was observing Paul intently, Paul had his eye on him actually. He was observing him intently. He was looking to him and seeing that he had faith to be healed. So not only did this man have ears to hear what Paul was saying, but this crippled man had faith in believing what Paul was saying.

And what I don't understand fully or exactly is how is it that Paul saw that he had faith to be healed? Was it a divine discernment, something of the Holy Spirit? Was it some interaction? You know sometimes when you're speaking with someone you feel like you're really connecting with them and they hear what you're saying. I do that sometimes even when I'm preaching here someone is tuned in.

Somebody's sleeping, that's okay. Some people are tuned in and listening to what you're saying. I don't know if it was something like that. There was a spiritual insight, whatever it was, and Paul understood that this man had faith to be healed. And I think that is the point at which we get some insight.

What is it about Paul's message that would cause this cripple man to believe that he could be healed. I believe what was happening here that Paul was proclaiming the gospel and he was testifying to the grace of God, testifying to what God had done just in the last city he was in and when he was healing, I'm sure that he was speaking about the glorious things that the Lord Jesus Christ had done in healing other cripples. And perhaps this man now hearing this, believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ and believe that not only could he do it there but he could do it right here and with me. You know it's easy to look at the gospel and to consider the glorious nature of the gospel. It's easy to read a text like this and say wow God really moved back then.

But I want you to realize something, that God is the same God today as he was then. And what I mean by that is, is not that we're going around bringing physical healing to cripples, God does heal people, He is powerful and mighty to do all things. But I want you to understand something. In one sense, we're worse than cripples. We are dead in our sins and trespasses.

And when the Word of God goes forth, there are times in which people will listen with a hearing of the ear, a hearing of the heart in which they believe that they too can receive the glorious gospel and be forgiven for their sins and be healed from the penalty and from the guilt of their sins. Don't deny that. That is something that God is doing even now. There are people in this congregation, I believe, with all my heart, that are hearing the gospel being proclaimed. They're reading these words and they're understanding that God can bring me to deliverance from my sins.

There's no greater healing than this. But notice what he does, Paul seeing these things and with confidence he says with a loud voice I resemble that with a loud voice stand up straight on your feet what kind of boldness is this I've never had such confidence to look at a cripple and say stand up on your feet and walk. But Paul through the power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit had this great confidence to be able to say with boldness and with loudness for everyone to see the man wasn't deaf. He didn't speak loudly because he couldn't hear. He spoke loudly because of who was there.

He wanted everyone to know and to hear and to see what was about to happen. Because there was a greater purpose than this man's healing. If it was just his healing, he could have come up and said, Hey dear brother, let's stand up and walk. He didn't do that. He shouted loudly.

He spoke it loudly. He wanted everyone to hear. And then what did he do? And he leaped and walked, this very reminiscent of Acts chapter 3 when Peter says to the lame man, silver and gold have I none but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk." And he went leaping and walking and praising God into the temple.

And God is doing it again. And he was working these beautiful things so that we will understand something. That our God is a mighty God, strong to save. Now by way of application, here's the first application. Do you have faith to be healed?

I'm not speaking of some physical malady but do you believe the gospel as this man believed the gospel? Have you heard Paul speaking this morning through the word of God. Have you heard what I'm trying to say? Do you have faith to be saved from your sins? To be healed from your sickness that is unto death?

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Children look at me there are many of you here this morning who are not believers. You have not come to an understanding yet. I want you to realize something. The Bible says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.

Do you believe that? Do you believe that God can take you from death to life? Do you believe that he can raise the dead? He can take you from being of the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, do you believe? Do you have faith to be healed?

Secondly, in verses 11 through 13, It says, now when the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices in the Laconian language. The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. It's amazing to me the foolishness of the darkened heart. The foolishness of the darkened heart. What a contrast we have here.

We begin with a man with faith to be healed and now we have a people who totally miss the point and in their unbelief they cling to what was temporal and not that which was eternal. They hooked on to the illustration and missed the big point. This is the natural tendency of the darkened heart. It's to not see what is right there. It is actually why Jesus spoke in parables so that hearing they would not hear and seeing they would not see.

Oftentimes people have said, oh he spoke in parables so the people would understand. The Bible actually says the opposite. He spoke in parables so that they would not. Except for those to whom it was given. And in this case, there are many here who did not understand what was taking place.

We know for sure the cripple man did. And we'll read later and understand that others did because there's actually a church planted here. So others did. There are disciples who were being born into the kingdom of God here. But there were many here who did not.

They clung to the illustration and missed the point. That's the difference between eternity in hell and eternity in heaven. Don't miss the point this morning. Don't miss the point. The natural man does not understand these things.

Paul says in 1st Corinthians 2.14, but the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned." What was it the trouble with these people? The trouble with these people, there was folklore going on within this. There was mysteries and mysticisms and all sorts of foolishness that was taking place in Lystra. And I want to share a little bit of that with you. MacArthur notes this that he says the strange reaction by the people of Lystra to the healing actually had its roots in local folklore.

According to tradition the gods Zeus and Hermes visited Lystra incognito asking for food and lodging and all turned them away except for a peasant named Philemon and his wife Bacchus. The gods took vengeance by drowning everyone in a flood, but they turned the lowly cottage of this couple into a temple where they were to serve as priests and priestess, not wanting to repeat their ancestors mistake. The people of Lystra believed Barnabas to be Zeus and Paul to be Hermes. We don't want to do that again. Let's come out and worship these two people.

And they missed the whole point. You know, now we see certainly that the blind were leading the blind. The priest come out. Oh that's not much help. The priest of Zeus whose temple was in front of their city brought oxen and garland to the gates intending to sacrifice with the multitudes.

That's not helpful. You know it never ceases to amaze me the devotion of unbelievers to their superstitions. Believers to their superstitions. Knock on wood. Where's your rabbit's foot?

That's not too big anymore. Used to when I was a kid people would carry rabbits foot with them in their pocket and rub it. It's weird. The Rosary. Shooting stars and a thousand other things.

Superstitions. Just go knocking on a few doors with us on evangelism Sunday and you will see them plastered on their front doors, in their yards and around and you will see the superstitions. You will see what people believe. You will see what they are thinking. It actually reveals a lot about that person and in fact I found it most helpful that whatever is on their door or in front I begin using that to preach the gospel to them.

It clicks with them because they are the ones that put it there. That's what Paul is doing here. Paul is using what is brought to him. He didn't go to the Old Testament to begin to argue with them about the law. We're going to see that in just a minute.

He used the God of creation and that's what they understood. They were thinking about these gods who had created them. You see these religious symbols of the people on their doors and these religious things that were happening here, these superstitions, it was ridiculous of what was going on and Paul took note of that. One commentator notes this, he says, how amazingly does the Prince of Darkness blind the minds of them that believe not? He says the Jews would not own Christ Godhead though they saw him work numerous miracles.

They rejected it time and time and time again. But these heathens seeing mere men work one miracle were ready to sacrifice to them as if they were gods. Isn't that astounding? The prince of darkness can take the religious and deny the miracles that God was doing, and can take the foolish and show them one thing and then they want to worship. There really is no end to the length at which the darkened heart will go in their foolishness to somehow appease their own guilty conscience.

They were concerned about the superstition of that the gods might come down and destroy their city again and therefore they bring out garland and animals to sacrifice to them. What in the world can we learn from this? Are there areas that we can glean from this? Is there something here for us? What is it perhaps in your life where you are superstitious?

Oh there's nowhere in my life I'm superstitious. Maybe not in a very stark contrast of a way that you can see it clearly. You're not throwing salt over your shoulder, you're not not walking under ladders. Sometimes I walk under ladders on a job site just for the fun of it. I do, I really do.

But do you have some mixture of Christianity mingled with worldly superstitions? You know, syncretism is our greatest danger. A little mixture. I do not want to assume this morning that everyone in this congregation is theologically sound. The human heart, as my brother said this morning in the prayer room, is an idol factory.

We would make an idol out of anything if we let ourselves go. I think it's good for us actually to stop and examine ourselves and to see what we believe about God and the Lord Jesus Christ. I think it's important and I think we need to be careful that we are not syncretized with the world in our thinking. That some discernment in this area could be had and noting, what am I willing to sacrifice to and for? You think, I don't sacrifice?

That's ridiculous. I'm not taking animals and killing them and bringing them to an altar. Obviously we have a divide here of historical context that we're dealing with and we could easily go home and pat ourselves in the back and say I'm not sacrificing anything to false gods. Let me ask you this, what valuable possession are you willing to give up for that which you worship? Let me hone in.

Some 21st century examples may be helpful. Are you willing to sacrifice family for career? Are you willing to sacrifice your precious time for that which is useless? Some useless activity, some vain thing. How about this, what do you spend your money on?

Money is often a good indicator of where our heart is. How about this, what thrills you? What captures your attention? What is it that you're willing to sacrifice to continue doing what you're doing? If you were to examine your time and money and aspirations, do they sink more with the world or with the Bible?

Let's move on from here and see what we can learn from the Apostles' response to this foolish and misdirected worship that we see. In verses 14 through 18 we see a godly fear of misdirected worship. Now let me clarify this. I'm not talking about the people of Lystra's godly fear. I'm talking about Paul and Barnabas had a godly fear that someone would worship them.

They were jealous for the glory of God we're going to see. They were jealous for the true worship of God. And they wanted to be careful. There is in every person a desire to be praised. And I want to give you strong warning regarding this.

This is not to say that you shouldn't be thankful for others. It's not that you shouldn't say, honey I really appreciate you doing that. You did a great job. That's not what I'm talking about. You should give godly praise to others and especially I say to your family of a job well done but what I'm talking about is the danger of receiving for yourself what only belongs to God.

Are you jealous for the glory of God to the extent that you would refuse, maybe not outwardly refusing somebody saying good job, good sermon, whatever, you know, you're pushing back on that, but you're actually within your heart, you are guarding yourself from receiving what belongs to God. Look at the Apostles response here. Grief and mourning. It says in verse 14, but when the Apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, They tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude crying out and saying, men, why are you doing these things? Do you hear their passion?

Do you see what they're...they are concerned, they're jealous for the glory and worship of God. Paul and Barnabas, what a holy zeal to stop this misdirected worship. This greatly grieved them. We see this in the tearing of their clothes. You know it's interesting at how many times we see this done in the Bible.

It would seem that being a Jew, excuse me, it would seem that among the Jews you would have a secure and lucrative business if you made new clothes and repaired torn clothes. They went around all the time in some outward show of grief of ripping their clothes and their garments. But there was something to this. In all seriousness, these men, They could not stand the thought of someone giving to them what solely belonged to God. These men were willing to worship these men.

They were willing to literally kill animals and spill their blood for these men. And to sacrifice to them. But Paul and Barnabas would have none of it. They wanted none of it. How about you?

How about me? How often and ready I am to receive the praise of men in place of the praise of God. To live in such a way that the greatest desire of my life is to receive the pleasure of God, not the pleasure of men, and to never receive the glory that God alone deserves being cast upon me because of some strength or ability or whatever it may be it is the gift of God. What do you have that you've not received? It's all God's.

Give glory to God and that's what they were worried about. They acknowledge in verse 15, they were mere men. We also are men with the same nature as you. We're just like you. Apart from Christ, we have the same nature.

We're foolish inside. We have a darkened heart apart from Christ we're just like don't worship to me I'm a man don't worship me and he says we're mere men and we preach to you They understood who they were and what God had called them to do. They were men, they were finite, they were fallible. Not worthy of worship, but rather wanting to promote the worship of the one true God. They saw all other types of worship as a useless thing.

Now let me bring this home. This isn't in the application yet. We'll get there in a moment but I'm going to give you a little application here. How about that? What is it that motivates you to take the gospel to this lost and dying world.

Is it simply that this person would be saved and be able to go to heaven? That's a good goal. I pray for people to be saved and go to heaven. But I want you to know something, there's something much greater than that. Don't miss the main point.

I want you to understand that we take the gospel to the world, not simply so that someone can be healed, but so that God can be glorified. Do you realize that the greatest good we can do is to cause a sinner to worship the one true living God? You see, God is worthy of more worshipers. That's what God was saying in Isaiah when he spoke about Jesus. It's too small a thing for you that you should only be the Savior of the house of Jacob.

I'm going to make you a light to the Gentiles, to the whole world. You're worthy, O Lord, you're worthy to receive praise and honor and glory not only from this little group right here But from everyone Lord, you're worthy to receive glory and that's why we go We go so that God will be worshiped he's worthy of that worship brothers and sisters That should motivate us That should motivate it'll motivate you more. You know your love for fellow man won't motivate you near as much as your love for God. It just won't. You know, one of the greatest desires that your elders have is what Paul's talking about here is that you would be done and turn from useless things.

Verse 15, B into 16, Paul is preaching to them this, he says, we also are men with the same nature as you and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God. There's your elders heart right there. We desire that all of you would turn from useless things to the living God. That's what I want. That's what I want my own heart.

I want to turn from all useless things to the living God. And Paul's acknowledging this. They're useless things that they're dealing with. They're wrapped up in all of these stupid superstitions and worldly things, vain things. There are so many useless things in this world that are only there to distract you from the great things.

Don't get tangled up in the useless things. Things that do not edify. Things that do not build up. Things that do not bring glory to God. Things that are no benefit for your soul.

Let me give you some words. Here's some words. Vain. Empty. Idle.

Trifling. Frivolous, thoughtless, rash, irreverent, profane, impious. That's what he's talking about. These are the useless things. So in your mind I want you to do an examination of your life and begin to run through all of the stuff that fills your time.

And I want you to put a little mark beside every one of those things that you fill your time and attention and affections with that are these things, empty and vain and idle and trifling and frivolous and thoughtless and rash and irreverent and profane and impious, and turn from them. They're useless. And turn to the living God. That's what Paul is telling them. You're doing useless things.

He was grieved that these people gave themselves over to useless things and he called them to repentance. That's what turning is. Turn from these things and turn to the living God. Paul knows his audience and he does not simply appeal to them regarding the law of God but rather the natural revelation of creation. And in this general revelation was a witness to them throughout all of history.

Listen to what he says. He's talking about turning to the living God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are in them who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways nevertheless he did not leave himself without witness and that he did good gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness. That's our living God. He was Calling them to think way bigger than the pantheon of little G-O-Ds that was over each little realm of their life or section of their life. Be done with the useless things.

Why worship a useless vain thing? Our brother read it this morning and I say, why worship those useless things? He was calling them to worship the true and living God who created all things. Why waste your time on useless things when you can worship Him who created all things? Be done with the things that hinder your growth in the Lord and that just bog you down.

Be done with them. He was calling them to worship God. They were jealous for the worship of God. In verse 16 he says God allowed the nations in their own to walk in their own way. Listen this is the worst judgment that could ever come upon you if God was to allow you to walk in your own way.

That is the judgment of abandonment We see that in Romans chapter 1. Turning them over, turning them over. That is the word. If you are allowed right now, think about your life, are you allowed to walk in your own way? If so, you are on slippery ground, your own deadly ground to let them walk in their own way.

Can I just say that that is the worst path to walk on? Your own path. The book of Judges, every man did what was right in his own eyes because why? There was no king. I was reading through the Gospels this week and I was reading in the it was in the Gospel of I think it's either John or Luke and the Jews said this they were they were calling out for Christ to be crucified and they made this statement we have no king but Caesar that just struck me The religious leaders who said they believed in God said we have no King but Caesar.

How do you live? Do you live your life as if there is no King but Caesar? Or do you live in truth that Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? You see he goes on these nations worshiped all kinds of gods over different aspects of the creation and offered sacrifices to them for good crops and fertility and for abundance and for all kinds of things that every thought of the imagination of your heart they would have a God for it. But Paul tells them that the true and living God is a merciful God.

Here it is, you've been giving praise and honor and glory to a to a nothing God when the true and living God is the one who's been blessing you and giving you all of these common graces that you've been thanking somebody else for. What's that about? God is so merciful. That's what Paul is telling him. God is so merciful.

Even when they were walking in their own ways, he did not leave himself without witness. His witness was he did good to them. Why did he do good to them? Because he's good. We have a good God.

He gave rain from heaven, he gave fruitful seasons, he even allowed sinful idolatrous people to have their own hearts filled with food and gladness. You want to preach the goodness and mercy of God? God allows wicked, sinful, atheist, and pagans to eat food that is pleasant to their mouths and they drink drinks that are good for them and they delight in those things and they do not acknowledge God. And God still shines the sun on them the next day and bring rain on them the next. This is a good God we have.

He is so merciful. You need to acknowledge the goodness and mercy of God. But now, but now, He commands all men everywhere to repent and to turn from these useless things to the living God. Turn to the living God. In verse 18 we see in their desire to restrain their madness and with these things they could scarcely restrain the multitude from sacrificing to them.

They vehemently resisted their attempts to offer them worship. You know think about it, They tore their clothes in a visible sign of rejection of what they were doing. They questioned their desires. They acknowledged their own mortality. They preached the uselessness of their religion.

They acknowledged God as their creator. They pointed out the ignorance of fallen man, they pointed to the goodness of God, and all in an effort to stop them from misdirecting their worship. What are you willing to do to stop men from worshipping idols. They feared receiving what belongs to God. Application.

My question for you here in verse 15 is what really spurs this on. We, he says, preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God. So my question much like the last question application but a little broader and deeper, what are the useless or vain or worthless things that you need to turn from so that you can turn fully to the true and living God. I do believe that there's people within this congregation that are occupying their times and efforts and energies with useless things and they need to turn from it. Things that don't bring life, but that bring death.

The human heart loves useless things. It's most often seen in the direction of our affections. What is it you think about? What is it that when you don't have something that like you're at work or you're doing something active, where does your mind love to run to when you have a moment? What has garnered your affections?

Let me turn the dial on the focus. Paul says that they should turn from useless things to the living God. There's a contrast here between the things that are dead and useless and the thing that is living. I'm not being disrespectful to call God a thing but he who is living. Where are you seeking life-giving benefits From God or from creation?

Let's dial it a little more. Where is it that you run to for your peace and your joy and your happiness and your pleasure? God has given us, just like Paul just said, he's given us all of these things he gives you food to enjoy I'm not saying don't enjoy food God gave it to you that's good I'm not saying don't enjoy your family God gave you your family that's a good thing to enjoy But I want you to think about it for a moment. The tendency of our heart is to cling to those things to fulfill us and to bring us joy and pleasure when in fact there's only one who can do that. You want to see the most frustrated wife in the world?

It's the wife who looks to her husband to fulfill her and to do everything that our heart desires. To meet all of our needs, to quell all of our anxieties, that is a frustrated woman because she's married to a sinful, foul, weak, ignorant man. And the same is true about men. You want to see discontented men running off and doing all kinds of foolish things? It's the man who thinks before he's married and after he's married that a woman can fulfill all his needs.

Better listen up. What is it that Bode says if you can't say it, you better say ouch. That's the truth. You're not going to find these things anywhere but in God alone. There's only one who can give you the longings of your soul.

There is only one who can give you the joy despite your circumstances. Stop seeking in creation what only the creator can supply. You must seek him. You know it never ceases to amaze me the length at which the wicked go to disrupt the proclamation of the truth. Number four and we'll fly through these last two they're short and quick.

They had fury, I'm talking about the Jews in verse 19. They had fury at the witnesses of the truth. Look at verse 19. The then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there. Now wait a minute, You just read through that, you didn't think a thing about it.

I did. How far is that? How far is that? How far is it from Antioch to Iconium, 95 miles. And then from Iconium to Lystra, another 20.

Didn't these people have anything better to do? You know it reminds me in Isaiah 57 but the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt There is no peace says my God for the wicked." And Proverbs says much the same in chapter four. Do not enter the path of the wicked and do not walk in the way of evil. Avoid it. Do not travel on it.

Turn away from it and pass on. For they do not sleep unless they have done evil and their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence." That's who these Jews were. They were on a mission. 95 mile walk, that's nothing.

I'll do it in order to cast down this Paul man, this man who's preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'll follow him to the ends of the earth to destroy him. That's the wicked. But then you have the fickleness of the foolish here, having persuaded the multitude, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city supposing him to be dead. One moment they're wanting to worship the Apostles and sacrifice to them and the next they're persuaded to sacrifice them.

How quickly an untethered heart turns. One moment they are wanting to adorn them with garlands and the next they are dragging them out of town as dead and food for the beast and the birds of the air. Supposing him to be dead. Now quick application. There's a principle that I learned that I try to consider whenever I read of someone doing something, you know, dumb, evil, and good in the Bible.

Don't pass over the dumb parts. That may be you. Okay? When you read something dumb, it could be you in the Bible. All right?

So you need to learn from this. Think about this with me. I ask myself, how am I like that person? Okay? The Jews have followed after the apostle to do evil and is there any desire in you to pursue evil or to persuade others to do evil?

Now your first answer that came into your mind was this, I'm not a mind reader, I know the heart of man. Of course not, I would never do something like that. Did anybody, I hope nobody had a different thought than that. Yeah that's what I want to know. We don't want to, we don't desire to do evil.

If you're a Christian, we don't have a desire to lead others to do evil. Now it's very easy for us to pass over this, again pat ourselves on the back and go our merry way. To this I would say, wait just a minute, I want us to think more deeply about this. I want you to think about how Jesus Christ dealt in the Beatitudes regarding the law. Listen to what he says in Matthew 5, You have heard that it was said, to those of old, you shall not commit murder, and whoever murders is in danger of the judgment.

But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, Raka, shall be in danger of the council, but whoever says, you fool, shall be in danger of hellfire." Did you see how Jesus drilled down on that commandment? And I want to say the same thing to you. I want you to think about something. Of course you would not knowingly, willingly go to do evil nor lead others to evil you would think.

But I want you to understand something in like manner. I want you to ask if there are any attitudes, actions, or words that you have or use that are not godly and in fact could be an evil influence upon those around you especially little ones. Anger, lust, outburst, quarreling, fighting, and keep going. The list keeps going. You may be thinking I'm taking this a little bit too far.

Trent, is this really the context? I do believe I have scriptural background for this and foundation. In 1st Corinthians 10, listen to what the Apostle says, moreover brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all of our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea all ate the same spiritual food all drank the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ But with most of them God was not well pleased. For their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things became our examples.

There's my point. We need, when we're reading the Bible, you look to the word of God and if you see somebody doing something really dumb or evil, you better stop and say, that's an example to me. I tell my children that, you're being an example. You can be a good one or you can be a bad one, but you're always being an example. So guess what adults, we are always being examples.

We're being good ones or we're being bad ones. So could you have a negative or evil influence upon someone else to lead them to evil themselves? Yes, if you continue on being a bad example. These were given for our examples. I want you to listen to the things that he lists here as those examples.

Now these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted and do not become idolaters as some of them were as it is written the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play nor let us this is the third thing nor let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did and in one day 23, 000 fell, nor let us tempt Christ as some of them who also tempted and were destroyed by the serpents, nor complain as some of them who also complained and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happen to them as examples and they were written for our admonition upon whom the end of the ages come. Real quick what does it mean to tempt Christ? Let me read the passage that he's referencing in Numbers 21, and the people spoke against God and against Moses. Listen, this is tempting Christ.

Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness. For there is no food, no water, and our souls loathe this worthless bread. So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people and many of the people of Israel died. I promise this has not been fun for me either. Very convicting.

In what ways am I leading or encouraging or being an example for others to follow in a negative way. Lastly fortitude of the faithful witness. However when the disciples gathered around him he arose up and went into the city and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe. You know sometimes the Bible reads so matter of fact that I fear we sometimes read over it and we miss it. Kind of like how far is it from Antioch to Iconium?

95 miles. I find this to be the case here. It's much like when it says regarding Christ there they crucified him. That's a really small statement packed with a whole lot of truth. Think of the detail that went around all that and it's said in four words.

It's kind of like that here, Paul, they stoned him. Listen, don't miss it. The disciples gathered around him, he rose up and went into the city and the next day he departed. Wait. Paul was just stoned nearly to death.

They thought he was dead. For a moment think, but you're one of the disciples. Let's imagine women here just for a moment. You're going to gather around Paul. He's been drug out of the city.

You're gathering around Paul because you think he's dead. And you gather around him whom everyone thought this is the end. He was just stoned. Now stoning is no light affliction. It's brutal and bloody.

You gather around and he gets up. You help him up. You brush him off carefully. You brush him off so as not to hurt the wounds and he walks. Where?

Where did he walk Scott? Back into the city. Do you see why I said the fortitude of the witnesses of the truth? He walks back into the city and then the next day he walks to Derby. And now you're wanting to know how far is Derby?

Well, my wife helped me on this while I was wrapping things up this morning. Derby is 62 miles from Lystra. So for instance, if we left this building this morning and we walked to Burlington, 62 miles. You see again why I use the word fortitude because that's what it took. It means courage in the midst of pain and adversity.

I think this word sums it up pretty good. Consider the fortitude of these fateful witnesses and let this application point bring it home to us. Now when I think about the difficulties that I've ever had in my life it was nothing compared to this. Now these men were serious and devoted to the gospel ministry. It took more than stoning to give Paul more than a day's rest.

Now it says and when they had preached, wait wait wait I want to back up I don't want to give it away too fast. He was stoned and then he went to Derby and I want you to think it was not out of fear that he left, but out of a jealousy for the glory of God. And I wanna prove it to you, and I'm gonna give you a sneak peek into next time. I don't have time to preach it unfortunately. Verse 21, and when they had preached the gospel in that city, what city?

Derbe, and made many disciples They returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. The fortitude of these faithful witnesses of the gospel. Now, they were apostles, I understand that. They didn't have full families like many of us do and they were carrying our families. These were men called by God for a special ministry but I want you to, I just want to give us a little push here.

What excuses have you made for not preaching the gospel or sharing the gospel? Do they even come close to what happened here? Pretty cold out there today. Kind of wet. I remember one day, I think it was our first Sunday we were going out, it's like 107 degrees.

It is hot out there. But we hadn't been just stoned, Brother Paul. We were not stoned the day before. You know, sometimes I think we need to give a little bit of, we need a little extra push there to go on the fortitude. I want to be more like this.

I want to be less easily turned away from sharing the gospel. I want to be more zealous to go. I want to have fortitude. So brothers and sisters, not to shame us, but to encourage us and challenge us in our devotion to the Lord. One that we never receive the praises of men in the place of the praises of God and always preach for the glory of God and to do it untiringly in the work which He has given us to do.

You're not an apostle Paul, I understand that, but what has he given you to do? Do it with all your heart. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven we thank you again for the Word of God. How convicting, how glorious, how wonderful.

It is wonderful because you are wonderful, Lord. You have done a great and glorious thing, and I pray, oh Lord, that you would make this word effectual to the saving of souls and the encouraging and building up of the saints. And I ask it in Jesus' name, amen.