You can open your Bibles tonight to the book of Acts and chapter 14. Acts 14 is we're studying the life of Paul and we're in Paul's first missionary journey. And tonight we're going to look at what the scriptures say about his ministry at Lystra. Now just begin by reminding us that the Lord has often used persecution or opposition to the gospel and to God's people as a means of spreading the gospel. And when we read about Paul's first missionary journey, when he got to Galatia, he went first to Antioch and was run out of Antioch. They forced him out of that city, but he went to Iconium and preached the gospel there. And he had to flee Iconium because they were threatening to stone him. But when he left Iconium, the Bible tells us that he went to, verse six, excuse me, he went to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and under the region that lieth round about, and there he preached the gospel as well. So leaving Iconium, he goes to Lystra, and this is just a map of Paul's first missionary journey. If you remember, he began in Syrian Antioch, as the Holy Spirit called him in Barnabas to this ministry. They traveled 16 miles down to the coast to the city of Seleucia, which was the port city for Antioch. Got on a ship, sailed 90 miles southwest to the island of Cyprus, landed at Salmus, preached the gospel there, made their way across the island of Cyprus to Paphos. It was there that they encountered the ruler, Sergius Paulus, who was interested in the gospel, but also a man named Eliamus, or Simon Bargesus, who opposed Paul in his ministry, and Paul pronounced a judgment on him. He was stricken with blindness, and Sergius Paulus believed on Christ. But from there, Paul went and made his journey northwest to the area of Galatia, the southern region of Galatia, landing at Perga. and made his way up the road to Pisidian Antioch. We noted that it's about 3,600 feet, a 3,600 foot climb from the coast there at Perga up to Pisidian Antioch. And Paul preached the gospel there. And we noted the fact that when he wrote to the Galatian churches, he noted that his ministry there began because he was sick. It was some infirmity that the Lord used to lead him in his movements in Galatia when he first came to Antioch. He began to run out of there, went to Iconium, and then went from Iconium about 18 miles south to Lystra. Lystra was a Roman colony. That being the case, there were a number of retired soldiers that were there. We know that there was at least a small number of Jews that were there. It was kind of a mixed city, but it was predominantly populated by local tribespeople. They were an uneducated people. This is kind of a new territory for Paul in this journey. in that he's preaching to a different kind of people than he has preached to previously in this journey. Not only are they primarily uneducated, but they're also pagans. They're idolaters, as we see in the story. And so, you know, it's primarily that pagan element that Paul preaches the gospel. at Lystra. And so we began there in verse 7 of Acts 14. He preached the gospel and it tells us in verse 8 that there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb who had never walked. The same heard Paul speak, who steadfastly beholding him and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked. And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, the gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. when they called Barnabas Jupiter and Paul Mercurius because he was the chief speaker. And then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands under the gates and would have done sacrifice with the people, which when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of, they rent their clothes and ran in among the people, crying out and saying, sirs, why do you these things? We also are men of like passions with you and preach unto you that you should turn from these vanities under the living God, which made heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are therein. who in time past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless, he left not himself without witness, and that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. And with these sayings, scarce restrained they the people that they had not done sacrifice unto them. And there came through there certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium who persuaded the people and having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead. How be it as the disciples stood around about him, he rose up and came into the city. And the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe. So as we think about Paul's ministry at Lystra, let's just stop for a moment. And first of all, think about Paul's preaching of the gospel there, they preached the gospel, Paul and Barnabas heralding the gospel. And we note, first of all, that the gospel was given to all men. Paul wrote in Romans 1, verse 14, he says, I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. The people of Lystra would have fallen under that category of barbarians. It doesn't mean that they were just completely backwards. Again, they were uneducated and they were idolaters, and that's the sense of that word barbarians. But Paul said, I'm indebted to preach the gospel to anybody and everybody. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, he said, for it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. He said the gospel is the power of God to salvation to whoever believes. And so he was willing to preach the gospel to all men, regardless of who they were, what their situation was or their condition was. One writer said there was no place where Paul was afraid to preach the gospel. He preached the gospel in Athens, the intellectual capital of the world, and he was mobbed there. He preached the gospel at Jerusalem, the religious capital of the world, and he was mobbed. And he preached the gospel at Rome, the political capital of the world, and he was martyred. He preached the gospel to all men, and evidently there is no synagogue at Lystra. because there's no mention of that Paul going into the synagogue, which tells us that, again, there was not a large group of Jews living in Lystra, but we do know that there were some. I think if memory serves me correctly, you had to have 12 Jewish men in order to have a synagogue. And so the fact that Paul doesn't go to the synagogue tells us there weren't 12 Jewish men there, but we do know that there were some Jews there because there's one very familiar Jew that comes out of Lystra that we read about in Paul's ministry later. Can anybody tell me who that was, is? One of Paul's companions was a native of Lystra, but he was a Jew, Timothy. Timothy lived in Lystra. Probably Timothy was saved under Paul's ministry at this time in Lystra. Timothy's mother and grandmother are Jews. Timothy is a Jew, though his father is a Gentile. So there are Jews there. There's not a lot of them, but some of them even come to Christ. So Paul preached the gospel to everybody, to Jew, to Gentile, to barbarian, to the wise, to the unwise, to whoever would listen, Paul would preach the gospel to them. But he also tailored the gospel to the audience. He didn't change the message, but he did change the way he presented the message, and the Lord did that. You know, when he was talking to Nicodemus, Nicodemus is a teacher, he's a rabbi. And Jesus begins with him, you need to be born again, the woman at Samaria, at the well in Samaria. Jesus begins with her about talking about the water of life and giving me water and then explaining to her about the water of life. The message didn't change, but the way it was presented did. We talked about this before, you know, that it's okay to have a plan like the Romans wrote in presenting the gospel, but we need to get to that point where We are not locked into, there's only one way I can present the gospel. That I can start where somebody is or where the conversation is and begin there and then lead that message or that conversation into the gospel. You know, when Paul was preaching to the Jews, he presented Jesus as the Messiah, because they already had the background of the knowledge of the Word of God, and they were expecting Messiah to come. And so Paul, just as he's preaching to the Jews in their synagogue, as it begins there, he tells them, Messiah has come, and it was Jesus. But when he preaches to these pagans who don't have the scriptures, they don't have that foundation of the word of God, what is his message in verse 15? We read it, we preach unto you. We have been, literally the idea is this is the message we've been preaching to you. Let me remind you of what we've been telling you. You're trying to worship us, well wait a minute. Let me tell you, what we have been preaching unto you is that you should turn from these vanities, these worthless idols, to the living God which made heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are therein. Hey, let me tell you about the God that you need to worship. He's the God who created all things. He begins with the knowledge that God has given of Himself. And He left not Himself without witness, verse 17, that He did good, and He gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. Let me tell you about the God who has been providing for you, who has revealed himself in nature and has been taking care of you, revealed himself through his goodness to you. Let me tell you about that God. That's the one. That's the living God. These idols you've been worshiping, they're nothing. They're dead. They're worthless. They can't help you. But let me tell you about the living God. He's the one that created everything. And, you know, that's what when in Romans chapter one, where Paul talks about the fact that All are sinners, and in Romans chapter one, he particularly is driving home the truth that the Gentiles are sinners. And what does he say in Romans chapter one? God revealed himself in nature. That which may be known of God is seen in the creation of God, in the heavens, and God has witnessed to his existence. That's not sufficient. We have to go from there to the gospel, but Paul said, He said, this is how God has revealed himself, and the Gentiles have rejected the knowledge they had. So evidently, when Paul is speaking to a predominantly Gentile audience as he was preaching the gospel, that was his approach. He did the same thing at Athens. when he was given the opportunity to speak there to the learned men, but he gives them basically the same message. Let me tell you about, you know, that God that you ignorant worship, the unknown God, let me tell you about him. He's the one that made all things. He's the one in whom we live and move and have our being. He's the God that is ever present and has taken care of you through all this time. Let me tell you about that God. He said the same thing in Athens that he said at Lystra, verse 16, who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. He said, you know, the true God has revealed himself in creation, in nature, in his provision, his blessings to you. But he's allowed you, up to this point, he has allowed you to walk in your own ways. In other words, the point of that is, God has not immediately judged these Gentile nations, though they're walking contrary to God's will and God's ways. God was very lenient with them here on earth. He didn't immediately judge them. He was giving them opportunity to repent. He was giving them opportunity to seek more truth if they would embrace the truth of God that they knew. But instead of that, as Romans chapter one tells us, they rejected God. They rejected the truth they knew and began to worship the creation of God instead of the creator. And though it doesn't say it here in Acts 14, no doubt it was a part of Paul's message because it comes up in Acts 17 at Athens. Paul said that God in the past, he allowed all nations to walk in their own ways, but now calls them to repent, to turn from their ways and to believe on Jesus Christ, to turn to God from idols and to serve God. And by the way, Jesus told us that eternally God will judge men based on their knowledge of the truth. When he addressed Capernaum and Bethsaida, cities in which he had done so many mighty works and they didn't believe on him. He said it would be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon, for Sodom and Gomorrah than it would be for you because they didn't have the truth that you have had. And God would judge them based upon the truth that they had and how they responded to that truth. Now, those who do not know Christ as Savior will be cast into hell because there's only one way to heaven and that is through Jesus Christ. But men will be judged on the basis of their knowledge of the truth. Those in America who reject God, by and large, are going to face severe judgment because of our access to the truth. Now, God will deal fairly with every man, and every man hasn't had, even in America, hasn't had the same access to the truth as others. But by and large, people in America have had the truth of the gospel and rejected it. But in other parts of the world, they haven't had that. And God will judge accordingly. But as Paul preached the gospel there in Lystra, there were some that believed. Because we read in verse 20 that after he had been stoned and left for dead, that there was disciples who stood round about him. There were those who had believed the message, believed on Jesus Christ. Of course, again, one of them was Timothy. But, you know, I was reminded of what the Lord Jesus said when he, when he's speaking to Peter and Peter's great confession, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And the Lord said, blessed art thou Simon Barjona, flesh and blood, hath not revealed it unto thee, my father, which is in heaven. And he said, I say unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Paul is storming the gates of hell. In every city that he goes to, he is storming the gates of hell. And the devil is opposing him. The devil is trying to stop him from saving people from, he's not saving them, God is saving them, but from the message, from them believing the message and being saved. But even though there are many who do not get saved, do not embrace the gospel, there are those that do. So be encouraged tonight. You know, as we declare the gospel, there are some who will believe. The gates of hell will not prevail against the church of Christ. God's work will go forward, even in this day. Regardless of the opposition, the church marches on. We've seen that in history, and it's the same today. Even though we may be living in the last part of the last days, the gospel will go on, and as long as the church is on earth, it will march forward. Souls will be saved, the church will grow, and we can go out confidently knowing that God will continue to work. So there's the heralding of the gospel as they preach the gospel, and people got saved in spite of the opposition. But then we see a second thing that occurred. Paul healed the lame man. There was a man there who had been a cripple from his mother's womb. He had never walked. That's significant. And Luke tells us that, the Holy Spirit tells us that. He wants to be sure that we understand that this is a man who has never ever taken a step. He's been lame since he was born. But as Paul was preaching, God was working in his heart and he had embraced the message in faith. By the way, just thinking about this, this man has been, he's been a cripple from his mother's womb. He's never walked, but he's a man, so he's grown. We don't know how old he is, but he's, you know, at least in his 20s. You know, the text, the way it reads and the way we would read it, you'd think this guy's probably older than that. He's probably on up in years a little bit. But what had the idolatrous people of Lystra done for this man? You know, maybe they had tried to relieve some of his suffering, you know, it doesn't tell us he's a beggar, maybe he was. Maybe they had tried, if he was, maybe they had tried to help him a little bit, but they could not heal him of his lameness. They couldn't help him. And it just reminds us tonight, the world doesn't have the answer to the problems of life. And I would even submit to you that by and large the world does not truly care about the problems of your life or of an unbeliever's life. Even people who, unbelievers who try and help others, many times they're doing it not so much because they care about the other person, but because they're trying to do good to make me feel better or to earn heaven or You know, there's some selfish motivation. I'm speaking generally here, okay? I understand that. But by and large, an unbelieving world doesn't really care about the problems of other people, and even when they do, they don't have the ultimate solution, because that is only found in Jesus Christ. And so as Paul preaches the gospel, this man begins to embrace it by faith, and Paul is aware of what God is doing. I mean, he's just, there must have been something in this man's countenance that suggested to Paul that he's believing the message that's being preached. And so Paul is able then to work this miracle of healing when Paul perceives that he has faith to be healed, he says, with a loud voice, stand upright on thy feet, and he leaped, and he walked. And again, think about that. Now, the man has never walked before. And Paul says, stand upright on thy feet. And he didn't hesitate. There's his faith. He didn't hesitate. And he just leaps and walks, having never done that before. One of our younger granddaughters has just started walking. Our daughter sent us a little video of her taking a few steps. It's very tentative, and she's having to learn to walk, and that's the same for your kids, your grandkids. They all have to learn to walk. This man didn't have to learn to walk. That's the power of God. to heal him such that he can just immediately not only stand up, but walk around and leap, having never done that before. That's a miracle of God. And that miracle attests to the reality of the gospel. You remember that when the Lord gave the Great Commission, it's recorded in Mark 16, he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name they'll cast out devils, they'll speak with new tongues, they'll take up serpents. If they drink any deadly thing, it'll not hurt them. And they shall lay their hands on the sick and they will recover. And so it says, they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following. The miracles that the apostles did just confirm the message of the gospel. They didn't have the Bible like we do today. We don't need miracles today because we have the word of God, the completed word of God. But before the word of God was complete, God testified to the reality of the message through these miracles. When Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ, people believed. They believed what Philip spake. It says that they gave, with one accord, they gave heed unto the things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them, and many that were taken with palsies, and that were lame were healed. They saw the miracles, and they believed the message of the gospel. The writer of Hebrews said about the message of the gospel as it was preached that God confirmed that message both with signs and wonders and with diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost. Now, we don't have all that today. Salvation is according to faith as we believe the message of the gospel. And the healing that takes place today is not Physical healing. Now, does God heal today? Yes, he does. Sometimes he does, most often he does not, but sometimes he does. We've known of situations like that. You've heard of those testimonies of people that have been healed. Does God heal? Yes. Does God give men the gift of healing today? No. But God does sometimes heal. But the healing that God does primarily today is the healing of the soul. And that physical healing is a type of the spiritual healing that accompanies salvation. And one of the testimonies to the reality of the gospel is the change that comes in the lives of sinners. How do you explain that? How do you explain the transformation that takes place? It's not mind over matter, but is the Holy Spirit producing a new life in that person that believes the gospel. And, you know, in the first epistle of John, John points to that change as an indication of the reality of salvation. He says, you know, here's how you can know that you're saved. And he gives us some tests, if you will, how we can know that we're saved. But one of them, there's a new concern about sin. And then there's a new consideration for others, a new love for others, especially other believers. There's a new view of the world. No longer do I love the world and sacrifice spiritual things for the things of this world. There's a new value system that I get. Those are the things that result from salvation. That's the kind of change that God does today. And many times it is as radical as the healing of this man who just jumps up and begins immediately to walk around having never walked before. But the gospel produces change. And it's one of the testimonies to the reality of the gospel, the change that comes in the lives of people that believe. But then we see the fact that after that, Paul and Barnabas had to hinder worship because the people wanted to glorify them. They said, oh, the gods have come down to us. And they called Barnabas Jupiter, who was the chief of the gods, of the Greek gods. And they called Paul Mercury, because Mercury was the messenger of the gods, and he was the chief speaker. And that city, the city of Lystra, had a temple there, right outside the city, a temple to Jupiter, where they worshiped Jupiter. And so they're thinking, hey, Jupiter's here. And so let's worship him. He's done this great work, this great miracle. And so let's worship him. And so the priest gets an oxen and festoons it with garlands and comes to the gates and is ready to do sacrifice. And they're gonna glorify the preachers because they are thinking that they are gods. Someone noted how quickly men reject the true God and yet wanna deify men. We wanna make gods of men but we want to reject the true God. But these people wanted to exalt the preachers. And as a reminder to us, we need to be careful that as God works, and he works through men, that we don't exalt the men that God uses to the level of God or to a place that belongs only to God. You know, one of the ways sometimes you can tell what's going on in a church Is the church following God or is the church simply really worshiping the pastor? When the pastor leaves, especially he's been there a long time, and the pastor leaves, what happens to the church? Does that ministry continue on faithfully and the people just keep walking in step and everything just goes on as it was? Or does that ministry fall apart? Who are they really worshiping, God or the pastor? Because if it's God that they're following, the pastor was simply helping them to follow God. When he steps out of the way, God hasn't left, God hasn't moved, God hasn't changed. The people can still follow God. But when the church falls apart because a preacher leaves, even if he's been there a long time, that suggests that the people aren't really following God. Or even though the pastor wasn't exalting God and encouraging the people to follow God, he may have even been encouraging this kind of worship. But the preacher can't really do anything. He's simply a tool in the hand of God. If a real work of God is done. Now, can men accomplish things in the flesh? Absolutely. Can men build churches through humanistic means that are not glorifying to God? Absolutely. You know, I have thought lately about how quick we are sometimes to say of a person who passes away, and by all accounts, they seem to have been a faithful man or woman of God, and we say, certainly right now, they're hearing God say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. And I wanna suggest, I hadn't thought about this until recently, but I wanna suggest to you tonight that we need to not say that, because we don't know. Matter of fact, isn't that what Paul said to the Corinthian church when they were worshipping the preachers? You know, I'm a man of Paul. I'm a follower of Paul. I'm a follower of Peter. I'm a follower of Apollos. And Paul says, you know, hey, we're just men. We're just the messengers. The message is God and the one to worship is God. And he said in chapter 4, 1 Corinthians, listen, What you should say is we're stewards, we're just the messengers of God and we need to be faithful. But he said, you know what, you can judge me if you want to, but really you ought not because the only one who really has a right to judge me or my ministry is God. He's the only one that can accurately judge my ministry. God is the only one that can accurately judge a life. And I thought about something that happened recently. There was a preacher, a well-known preacher, an apologist who died. It was even said that on his deathbed, he said to his family that all he wanted to do was glorify God in his death. And everybody was just so sorry to lose this great man of God, this preacher, and he was a great preacher and was doing a good work for God, and only God knows his heart all along the way, but it came out after he passed away that he had been an adulterer in the latter years of his ministry, but it was unknown. We all look at that man and say, hey, well done, thou good and faithful servant. No, that's what he's hearing. Well, I don't know what he was hearing. There's a lot of things I could say about that, but I don't wanna dwell on that this evening. Let me say one other thing. A lot of times we would say in a situation like that where a preacher or a layman who seems to have faithfully served God and then we find out after their death that they weren't what they seemed to be or they had fallen into sin doesn't mean that they weren't what they were trying to be. It doesn't mean that their entire ministry was phony because a man of God can fall into sin. He can be sincere and following God and then fall into sin. The fact that he covered it up or tried to hide it, that's tragic. But it doesn't mean that his entire ministry was a sham. It just means he was human and fell into sin. But we need to be careful about exalting, glorifying the preacher and putting him in a place that belongs only to God. But the other side of that is the preacher has to not allow himself to be glorified. They were gonna worship Paul and Barnabas. Paul and Barnabas could have said, hey, you know, this would be great. I mean, they think we're God, so let's let them think that, and maybe it'll help us, it'll give us credibility with them, it'll give us a standing with them for preaching the gospel, but Paul didn't do that. No, hey, we're just men. We are men of like passions with you. and preach that you should turn from these vanities unto the living God. We're not God, we're just a messenger. And we're telling you to worship God. Don't worship us, worship God. We're just men like you. When John the Baptist's disciples came to him and said, you know, the multitudes are following Jesus, they're leaving you to follow Jesus, what did John the Baptist say? He must increase, I must decrease, it's not about me. And sometimes the preacher can be guilty of allowing people to worship him, to follow him, instead of following God. And so there's two sides to that coin. Paul would say later on, by the grace of God, I am what I am. I'm nothing. I'm just a recipient of God's grace. And so then lastly, we see here hostility to the gospel. There you go. It was due to unbelief, those that did not believe. Now, please note this. It is interesting that the people, it tells us in verse 19, certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium came to Lystra. Antioch's 100 miles away. And these Jews, are so antagonistic to the gospel. When Paul was at Antioch, he preached the gospel. You know, when he writes to the Galatian church, what does he tell them? You have left the true gospel, the gospel of grace, and you've embraced another gospel, a gospel of grace and works, Christ and the law. And he said, that's not the true gospel, that's another gospel. That's another gospel that's being preached today. Trust Christ and do good and you'll go to heaven. That's faith and works. Now trust Christ alone to get to heaven. Do good works because you've been saved, not in order to be saved. But Paul preached that message of faith alone, and the Jews at Antioch didn't like it, and so they began to oppose Paul, and so Paul finally said, you know, God said that the word should first have been spoken to you, but you've put it from you, and judged yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, so we're going to the Gentiles, and the Jews aren't happy about that. They find out Paul's at Lystra, he comes to Iconium, and he faces the same thing, the hostility of the Jews, who stir up not only their own people and the rulers, but also the unbelieving Gentiles, and they're going to stone Paul and Barnabas, and so they find out about it and they flee. But those unbelieving Jews from Antioch and from Iconium come together to Lystra. They hate Paul. And they're so hostile to the gospel, they're willing to travel all that way just to stir up opposition to Paul. And they come and persuade the people. They talk the people into stoning Paul and leaving him for dead. It was because of their unbelief, and I know, secondly, it was due to the antithetical nature of the gospel. What do we mean by that? The gospel, the Jews wanted to be saved by works, and the gospel was opposed to that. So that's Antioch and Iconium. But when Paul comes to Lystra, it's not primarily Jews, it's primarily Gentiles, it's primarily pagans who worship other idols. But what is the message of the gospel to them? Don't worship these idols. We're not gods, don't worship us. And so whether it was at Antioch and Iconium, the gospel was contrary to the popular opinion or the religious sentiments of the people there. And he comes to Lystra, and the gospel is in opposition to what they believe. They've been rejected because they want to worship these guys. And they say, no, that's not the gospel we're preaching. We're telling you to turn from this to Christ. And so they didn't get to do what they wanted to do. So it was very simple for those Jews to turn these pagans against Paul because he's just rejected them. He's rejected their religion. The gospel is opposed to salvation by works, and the gospel is opposed to idolatry, and those who heard the message of the gospel and realized we can't be what we are and embrace the gospel, all of a sudden are hostile to the gospel. So don't be surprised today. When you preach a gospel of grace through faith in Christ alone, and those who want to believe a gospel of works get mad at you. Or when you tell people that, you know, you have to turn from idols to serve God, and we don't worship idols in the form of Buddhas or things like that, primarily in America today, but we've got a lot of idolatry. When you tell people you've got to turn from your idols and embrace God and follow Him, and they don't like that. And so then they become hostile. They get mad, they get angry. And in Paul's case, at Lystra, it resulted in mob violence. You know, Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter three, beginning in verse 10, he says, thou hast fully known my doctrine, my manner of life, my purpose, my faith, my long suffering, my charity, my patience, and the persecutions and afflictions which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra. but what persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, in all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Timothy, remember what happened to me at Lystra? Remember those people from Antioch and Iconium that came to Lystra and they stoned me and left me for dead? You were there, you saw that. Timothy was probably part of that group of disciples that are standing around Paul as he'd been dragged out of town and left for dead. But God took care of him. And let's remind ourselves tonight, God never promised a life free from suffering for his sake. He promised, in fact, just the opposite. But he gives grace to endure the suffering. And God's work goes on despite the suffering. And many times, if it doesn't result in death, God's workers go on. God worked a miracle. There's a question, was Paul actually dead or not? We don't know. They thought he was, so they supposed he had been dead. In their minds, he was dead. Maybe he was. Maybe he was just unconscious. But either way, God worked a miracle because even if he had just been beaten unconscious, you don't suffer like that and get up and go into the city and the next day continue on your journey. But God raised him up. Whether he was dead or just unconscious, God raised him up. And he continued on his way because Paul was not hindered or thwarted by the opposition that they face to the gospel. So let me just close by saying this. If you've never believed on Christ and him alone as your savior, if you're believing another gospel, a gospel of faith in Christ plus good works, I know to get to heaven, I got to trust Christ, but I also got to live a good life. If that's what you're believing, that's not the gospel. That gospel won't get you to heaven. There's only one gospel that'll get you to heaven, that's the one that says Christ paid it all, and all you can do and must do is believe on him. And if you've never done that, do that tonight. But if you have, then declare the gospel despite opposition, because it is the power of God unto salvation. It produces changed lives. And the gospel will go forward. The gospel will change lives in spite of opposition. And then let's make sure that we glorify God and not the messenger. The God who gave the message, not the messenger who preaches it. Well, let's stand together for prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we pray that you would take the truths that we've considered tonight Use them in each of our lives as needed. Lord, we pray that your Holy Spirit will just continue to be our teacher and guide and that you will, as we meditate upon truths that we've heard tonight, that it will bear fruit in our lives for your glory. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.