Oh Salvation purchase of God Lord of the spirit washing his blood. This is my story, this is my song, Praising your Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long.

Perfect submission, perfect delight, Visions of rapture outbursts from my sight. Angels descending bring from above, Echoes of mercy, whispers in love. This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long. Praising my Savior all the day long.

Thank you Doug for that good song, that song of assurance. Good morning to everyone. Good to see you all here this morning. Beautiful sunny day, and the weather's been nice the last few days, huh?

We're gonna be continuing our study in Acts 14. We've been talking for the last couple messages in chapter 13 about the importance of the gospel made clear and the implications of the gospel made clear. And today in chapter 14 at Lystra, we're going to see the power of the gospel made clear. 

In Romans 1:16 to 17, Paul makes this important statement. He says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ; for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek." I’d like you to turn over to 2nd Corinthians 5 as we start this morning. 

Look at 2nd Corinthians 5 at verse 14 with me. I want to highlight a couple of passages. In 2nd Corinthians 5:14, Paul writes, "For the love of Christ compels us because we judge thus: that if one died for all, then all died. And He died for all that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."

Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

God has given to us the ministry of reconciliation, the word of reconciliation. We are ambassadors for Christ. 

Turn over to 1st Corinthians 1 with me, please. Now 1st Corinthians 1:18. Paul says, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.' Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness; but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."

Paul tells us again that we are to preach Christ, that God has chosen through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. In Romans 10, it says that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!"

But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?" But in verse 17, listen to these words. It says, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God," or literally a message about Jesus.

Jesus commanded that we go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, making disciples of men. My friends, the scriptures are abundantly clear that God has chosen His means of saving lost men in Adam and placing them into Christ, making them new creations, and that means is the gospel preached: Jesus Christ crucified, buried, and risen again, victorious over sin and death and hell, and having fully satisfied the wrath of God in our place for our sins. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation for every man who believes. This is the way it is, God's way, and it's the only way that a man can be saved. 

He must hear a message about Jesus Christ, and having heard, he must turn from his own self-righteousness and turn to Christ in order to believe and be saved. This would seem basic; this would seem fundamental to the Christian Church, the body of Christ, the ambassadors sent out into this world. But it seems that we easily forget this truth, and we want to turn to other ways, other ideas, philosophies of men, means of the world, slick business models, emotional manipulation, and entertainment, all kinds of things, finding the gospel and the preaching of the Word insufficient to accomplish our goals. 

Well, I tell you, my friends, the preaching of the Word of God, the proclamation of the gospel accomplishes God's goals. His word will not return void. The message we see in our text this morning and throughout the book of Acts is that the Apostles believed with all their heart, and the early church believed that it is the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation, and they preached that gospel clearly, boldly in faith, trusting God for the outcome. 

And we see the results of that; we see the impact of that; we see the power of that gospel of Jesus Christ turn the world upside down. Let's look at our text in Acts 14 beginning at verse 1. I'm going to read a lengthy passage down to verse 23.

Acts 14:1, "Now it happened at Iconium that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great multitude, both of the Jews and the Greeks, believed. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren. And 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. But the multitude of the city was divided; part sided with the Jews and part with the Apostles. And when a violent attempt was made both by Jews and Gentiles with their rulers to abuse and stone them, they became aware of it and fled to Lystra and Derby, cities of Lyconia and to the surrounding region, and they were preaching the gospel there. 

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. 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 Lyconian 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. Then the priest of Zeus, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands 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, 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, in that He did good, gave us 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 the Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there and having persuaded the multitudes, 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 Derby. And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith and saying, 'We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.' So when they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed."

I've given you four points this morning on your outline. First, we're looking at reception; second, resistance; third, resilience; and fourth, return. 

We see at the end of chapter 13 that Paul and Barnabas are expelled from the region of Antioch by persecution, primarily by the Jews, and so they move on to Iconium, to the next city, to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are relentless ministers of the gospel, set on, focused on the commission that Jesus gave to them. And when they came to this new city to Iconium, as was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue to preach Christ to the Jews.

In verse 1 of our text, we see that he and Barnabas had great success, and a great multitude of Jews and Greeks believed. Luke records this in a matter-of-fact way and moves on, but I wonder if you’ve thought about the ministry of Paul and Barnabas that we’ve been studying. What it must have been like! 

We’ve talked some about all the hardships, the trials, the persecutions, the difficulty of travel, the peril upon peril, as Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 11, but also in the midst of all this, Paul is having amazing fruit – many, many converts coming to faith in the Lord. 

It must have been tremendously exciting, encouraging, an amazing time to go into those synagogues to preach boldly the gospel and to persuade men to believe Jesus by the power of the gospel. And here it says great multitudes; there was a tremendous reception of the gospel at Iconium, amazing turning to the Lord in faith by both Jews and Greeks. 

This is the joy of the preacher; this is the joy of the evangelist – those who believe, those who receive the word with gladness. And what joy it must have been for Paul and Barnabas to see so many in these cities come to faith in Jesus.

You know, Jesus said if they receive you, they receive me, and there was a great reception of the gospel at Iconium. But as we see over and over throughout the missionary journeys of Paul, whenever there is a great reception, whenever there is great fruit, there’s always the rising up of a great resistance as well. 

Look at verse 2. It says, "But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren." Luke uses some graphic language here to describe what happened, and what seemingly always happens where the gospel is producing great fruit. 

The unbelievers, the unbelieving Jews, the religious men of that time, stirred up, it says, stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren. The word translated stirred up literally means to injure or affect negatively. And the word translated minds here is *psuche*, referring to the emotions in the mind, the thinking part of man. 

Here’s the interesting thing: the religious Jews could not refute Paul. They could not work from the truth, from the scriptures, to debate or disprove the things that Paul was preaching concerning Jesus. It was the gospel truth, the power of God that Paul was preaching, and it could not be withstood by any argument, by any logic, reason from the Old Testament. What he was saying was true, and it was good news for all the people.

So the religious Jews who would not believe had to resort to emotional manipulation. They had to maliciously work against Paul by injuring the minds of the people with lies and poisonous speech. They had to play on the emotions of the Gentiles in order to turn them against Paul and Barnabas, against Jesus. 

You know, it was no different in Jesus’ time in dealing with the Pharisees and the religious leaders, just as they stirred up the crowds, it says, before Pilate to incite the Jews to ask for Barabbas to be released and to call for the crucifixion of Jesus. False religion, when confronted with the truth, must always resort to lies and manipulation of the emotions to incite violence against Christ and His gospel and His messengers. And that is exactly what the Jews did here. 

As much as we see a great reception by so many, so we see a great resistance from those who will not believe. Again, a powerful lesson for us as to what we should expect when we go out to preach the gospel. Truth divides. Jesus brought a sword that divides men into two groups, those who receive and believe Him and those who reject and rebel and resist Him, sometimes in violent ways. 

So we see in our text reception and resistance. And next we see resilience. This is an amazing part of Paul’s ministry. Look at verse 2 again. "But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren. For 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. But the multitude of the city was divided; part sided with the Jews, part with the apostles. And when a violent attempt was made by both the Gentiles and Jews with their rulers to abuse and stone them, they became aware of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lyconia, to the surrounding region, and they were preaching the gospel there."

It’s a very interesting word that begins verse 3. Verse 2 tells us of a great resistance against Paul and the gospel in that city. They were coming against them; they wanted to kill them, stone them. Verse 3 says, "Therefore, they stayed a long time there, speaking boldly in the Lord." 

The word says that in light of the resistance, the persecution, because of this, they stayed a long time and preached boldly. In the face of persecution, they stayed and preached all the more. This is resilience, my friends. This is trust and faith and action. This is a commitment to the truth, to the gospel, to the call of God to be witnesses, to preach the truth no matter what. And this was what was in the heart of Barnabas and Paul. They were going to preach Christ wherever they were, whatever happened, no matter who came against them.

Philip Samuel called me from India yesterday, and I asked him how he was doing and he said, “We’re doing well by the grace of God,” that’s what he always says. But things are getting harder there. It’s not just back in the book of Acts where there’s persecution. There’s persecution all over the world against Christ happening all the time. Sometimes we don’t understand that here. 

But the believers are being persecuted. They’re leveling churches. They’re killing them. And sometimes I wonder as I think about that, like in northern India, why do you go up there? Augustine told me when I was there, "You don’t want to go up there." But they go up there and they have witnesses, and they speak boldly the gospel. This is what Paul and Barnabas did.

Turn over to Acts 16 with me, please, Acts 16 at verse 20. Just a page over. Paul and Barnabas get into a little trouble here in the city for their work, and it says, "And they brought them to the magistrates and said, 'These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city. And they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.' Then the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such a charge, he put them in the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks." 

Put yourself into this situation. This is a serious situation: arrested, beaten with rods, placed in prison, in chains, in the stocks. Persecution for the sake of Christ. And how did these witnesses respond? 

Look at verse 25. "But at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them." The response to this persecution, to being beaten, placed in chains, in the prison, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening, witnesses, no matter what. 

And we see that God brings an earthquake and creates further opportunity, and the jailer and his household are saved, and amazing fruit from a faithful, resilient life of witness. And this is a tremendous example for us. How can we live a resilient life of witness for Jesus? How can we be bold? How can we continue in the face of rejection or perhaps even persecution? How was it that Paul was so bold, so clear, so faithful? 

I believe it boils down to one thing. He believed what he wrote in Romans 1:16. "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes." You believe this, my brother, my sister in Christ? We hear a lot about methods today, about how to reach men, how to not offend men and drive them away, how to draw them in, all kinds of theories and methods and programs and systems on how to win men to Christ and keep them coming to church, even how to design a church that carnal men will attend. 

But what did Paul believe? What was it that drove him to preach Jesus Christ crucified and nothing else? It was faith. It was a firm conviction and belief that God’s way is through the message preached. You see, the message is the method. And if you truly believe that, my friends, if you trust God to work out the details and do the saving by His grace and power, and if you believe His word that it is the gospel, the message preached that is the power that can save, that can bring faith, then you will be committed like Paul to preaching the simple gospel truth. 

Paul said, "We believe, therefore we speak." Paul also asked for prayer from the believers for him, that he might preach the gospel as he ought, that he might make it clear. The methodology and systems we have seen take over the evangelical church today are an indication to me that the believers think that they know a better way, that they do not believe God, that it is the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation for every man who believes. 

I even heard a Bible preacher say one time in a sermon that it’s no longer good enough to just preach the gospel. It always amazes me when I hear Christians talk about how things are different now. How we’re dealing with new things that require new methods, as if the heart of man has changed, as if the need of man has changed, as if God has changed, or His gospel has changed. 

I don’t think Paul believed this nonsense, and I don’t think God thinks much of it either. Resilience comes in the life of a believer and his witness because he trusts God and he believes that through the preaching of the gospel, men can believe and be saved. No other way. 

As we continue in our text on to Lystra, we see almost unbelievable resilience on the part of Paul. Look at verse 8 in our text. "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. 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 Lycanian language, 'The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!' In Barnabas they called Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker. 

Then the priest of Zeus, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, intending to sacrifice with the multitudes. 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, 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, in that He did good, gave us 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. Look at verse 19. "Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there, and having persuaded the multitudes, 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 he went into the city, and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe."

Paul and Barnabas come to Lystra, and they're preaching the gospel, they're preaching Christ like they always do, and then when we see this great miracle of the healing of the crippled man who had never walked, this event sets the crowd into a frenzy, and the people assume they are gods, and they call them Zeus and Hermes, and they're going to bring out cattle and oxen and sacrifice to them. And Paul doesn’t realize what’s going on at first because they’re speaking in their own language, but when they see this happening, when they understand what’s going on, it says they tore their clothes and they ran in, imploring the men to stop, to leave these pagan ideas, turn from this religion, and turn to the true living Creator God. 

But it says they could barely restrain them from sacrificing to them. And then we see this amazing event in verse 19. And again, the Jews are dogging Paul's steps; they're motivated by hatred for Jesus; they followed Paul everywhere he went, and they went to great lengths to silence the gospel. And here we see that Paul went from being a god, from being worshipped by these people, in a very short period of time, to being stoned and dragged out of the city and thrown on the trash heap.

The Jews persuaded the multitudes, just as we saw before, poisoning their minds with lies and hatred, and manipulating their emotions, turning them against the truth. Think about what those words say in verse 19. "They stoned Paul, they crushed his body with stones, and they threw him on the trash pile and left him for dead." 

And verse 20 says when the disciples gathered around him, mourning him, he stands up. He rises up and he says, "Guys, let's get out of here!" No. He turns around immediately and goes right back into the city. Now this is resilience, my friends. This is faith. This is trust in God that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. 

This is the love of God poured out into Paul’s heart for men to be saved, so that he’s compelled by the love of Jesus Christ to persuade men to come to faith. This is commitment to the truth and preaching the truth. He’s stoned, he’s left for dead, and he gets back up, he goes right back into the city, and he preaches some more, and the next day they go to another city, another town, another opportunity to preach Jesus Christ.

I'm not even sure how to process this. But it does teach us about Paul’s commitment to the gospel, about his conviction concerning preaching the truth and persuading men. And that is a lesson for us today, to not be taken in by the latest and greatest fad on how to do church, how to reach men, how to win friends and influence people.

God said, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." Now we do this as a natural course of life. We do this to everyone we meet, to everyone we have opportunity. We love people because Jesus has poured His love out into our hearts. We’re not looking at a system, method? We love people. We want them to be saved. We want to tell them the truth. God said it’s the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation. 

Paul said, "We preach Christ crucified." My friends, believe what God says. Trust Him and keep on preaching the truth whenever you have opportunity. Don’t give up. Keep praying. Keep seeking. Keep striving to make it clear. Then just trust God for the outcome. Trust God for the details, even if they stone you and leave you for dead.

We see in our text reception, resistance, resilience, and last we see return. Verse 21: "And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, 'We must, through many tribulations, enter the kingdom of God.' So when they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed."

Paul's desire, God's desire, is not just to lead men to faith in Jesus, not just evangelism, but also discipleship. It is God's intention for preaching of the gospel and salvation of men through faith in Jesus to be the beginning point, not the end. And what we see in these last verses is that after Paul had completed his missionary journey and had led multitudes to Christ in these cities, founding these churches, he returned. 

He went back through these cities to strengthen the brethren, to disciple the believers, to appoint elders and organize the churches to do the work that God intended them to do. That’s why we meet here on Sunday morning – to go through God’s Word, to know Jesus, who He is and what He has done, to be strengthened, to be built up, to come to maturity, to have discernment, to be equipped to then go out into the world to do the work of ministry.

They taught them, they strengthened them in the Lord. This is the main function of the local body of believers, to study and preach and teach the Word of God, to learn to abide in Christ and to be effective through faith in Him. 

And this is what Paul exhorted them to do, to continue in the faith, to keep looking to Jesus and trusting Him and preaching and teaching about Him. And this is what we do, my friends. This is all we can do. And in doing this, we then trust God to work the work of sanctification, to conform us to the likeness of Christ and to work through us for His will and purposes.

And this is what we see in the last verse of our text. "When they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed." We see a bit about God's intention for church organization here as well. They appointed elders in every city, overseers of the church. The church is to be guided, shepherded by elders, a plurality of elders appointed to oversee the affairs of the church. 

Paul gave this same instruction to Titus, to appoint elders in every city. This is an important distinction for many of the church organization models we see today, and it's vital to the fruitfulness of the church. But the important point in verse 23 is that when they had done all that they could do, teaching, encouraging, exhorting the brethren to continue in the faith, it says they commended them to the Lord in whom they believed. 

What a wonderful statement that is. Trust the Lord. Depend on Him. Know that He’s faithful. He will do it. He’s going to do what He promised, and He’s going to keep the believers by His power. He’s going to conform them to the likeness of Christ, and He’s going to produce abounding fruit through them for His glory. 

Listen to Jude's words in verse 24: "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen."

I'd like to just close this morning by asking you to turn to one more passage in Acts 20. As we see the example of Paul again in his ministry to the church in Ephesus, this passage really sums up what we’re to be doing now, and how we’re to be thinking, and how we are to be trusting God. 

Acts 20:17 says, "From Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called for the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them, 'You know from the first day that I came to Asia, in what manner I also always lived among you, serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews. How I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly, and from house to house testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.' 

And see now I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulation await me. What he says in verse 24: 'But none of these things move me, nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I have received from the Lord Jesus.' What was his ministry that he received from the Lord? 

Look at this: 'To testify to the gospel of the grace of God.' And indeed now I know that you all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God will see my face no more. This is the last time Paul's gonna see them, the elders of the church in Ephesus. 

"Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God." Why could Paul say he was innocent of the blood of all men? Because he did not shun to declare the whole counsel of God. I wonder how many evangelical preachers and teachers can say that today. What is it that they’re proclaiming? What is it that they are doing? What ministry do they think Jesus has given to them? 

Now look at Paul’s last words, his warning, his exhortation to them in verse 28. "Therefore take heed to yourselves and all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves, men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone, night and day with tears." 

So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. Having done all this for three years, he says, preaching, teaching, warning, exhorting, proclaiming Jesus, Paul commends them to God. He gives them to the Lord, trusting that God will keep them, God will build them up and produce fruit to them. 

You see, this is what we are to be about, my friends. Teaching, preaching Jesus, speaking the truth boldly, doing all that Jesus had commanded us, and as we see exemplified in the life and ministry of Paul, in doing all this, we are trusting the Lord. We are depending on Him, looking to Him to do just what He has promised, to build His church and glorify Himself. 

Do you believe Him, my friend? Do you believe His words, that the gospel is enough, that Jesus is enough for salvation of lost men, for the sustenance and edification of the believers, and for the accomplishment of His will? 

The message of our text this morning is that we can trust Him. We can trust Him and what He’s told us. Let’s close in prayer. 

Father, we’re so thankful for this record of the early church and Paul’s ministry and his example to us, and I just pray, Father, that you would help us to understand that without You, we can do nothing, that we live in this world and we live our lives, we work, we have social interactions, we have our family, and everywhere we are to be bringing the truth in the natural course of our lives, Lord, showing the love of Christ to men, telling them about Jesus, offering ourselves to them, our time, our resources. Help us, Lord, to understand that it’s the gospel that’s the power of God unto salvation, that You do the saving as faithful men preach the truth. We thank you for that wonderful simplicity in Jesus’ name.