Walter Veith - Parallels In The Book Of Acts

[Music] today we're going to talk about parallels in the book of acts let us open with prayer heavenly father we are living in very troublesome times and your word is a lamp unto our feet and so i pray that you will help us glean what we need to know for the times we are living in out of your word in jesus name amen i want to talk about some of the parallels in the book of acts because i believe that we are in that time period when the latter rain will be poured out and the latter rain is very similar to the former rain the early rain now what were the conditions that prevailed in the time of the outpouring of the former reign and we can find these informations in the book of acts and so i felt impressed lately to go and have a look again at the book of acts to see if we can find any parallels with the time that we are living in in hebrews chapter 13 verse 8 we read that jesus christ is the same yesterday today and forever and verse 9 says be not carried about by with diverse and strange doctrines for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace not with meats which have not profited them but have been occupied therein in other words don't eat food that doesn't have sustenance study the word and find out what is god's will for the time in which we are living the war between christ and satan has been raging ever since sin popped up its head raised its head in the courts of heaven and if we do not understand world events in the light of the conflict that is raging between christ and belial we will get lost in the maze of information out there i would like to read you a quote which comes from the spirit of prophecy eternal interests are at stake with every one of us we shall all be tried and tempted many act as though there were no devil no tempter no conflict between good and evil unless you realize that you have something to contend against your feet will slip from under you some will someone will come to our churches with a message and you will be unable to discern light from darkness and will be just as likely to accept the darkness as the light remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent if therefore thou shalt not watch i will come on thee as a thief and thou shalt not know what hour i will come upon thee if we do not see the battle in the light of the conflict between good and evil we cannot discern what is happening in the world and we have to know what the enmity is about it is about christ and about his government that is the enmity and when you preach christ and when you preach the principles of his government then there will be war and so the issues of law and grace justice and mercy the contrast between righteousness and unrighteousness these are themes that run through history and that have always been contended even to the point of burning people at the stake because they adopted a particular view regarding these issues so let us have a look at the book of acts and see if we can glean some information for it because we are in a parallel situation at the moment what happened during pentecost well it was the outpouring of the holy spirit and strange phenomena took place people started speaking in tongues but please remember that they were real tongues they were real languages in our own mother tongue they heard the people proclaiming the great works of god acts chapter 2 verse 41 says and they that gladly received his word were baptized and the same day they were added unto them about 3 thousand souls paul had given a rousing speech condemning them for their actions in that they nailed jesus christ to the cross and they were cut to the heart and in one day 3000 people were added to god's people now we must remember that the gospel initially went only to the jews and this is a very important issue if we read in matthew chapter 10 verse 5 these twelve jesus sent forth when he sent forth the twelve and commanded them saying go not into the way of the gentiles and into any city of the samaritans enter ye not but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of israel and if we look later in the book of acts how did the disciples and the converts deal with this thing then we'll see that it says in acts 11 verse 19 now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about stephen traveled as far as fairness and cyprus and antioch preaching the word to none but the jews alone so the jews knew about the torah they had the word of god they understood the law they understood the rituals that they were taught from childhood today we are in a different situation today people have lost sight of what the bible teaches and some people believe that all you need to know is that jesus died for you and that he saved you yes we do have to preach that we have to preach righteousness by faith but there's more to it he's not only your edema he's also your king and he has a government he has a law and satan hates the precepts of god because it is the precepts of god that banned him from heaven because he transgressed god's law so now if we go through the various chapters in the book of acts we can find information about what we can expect in the times we are living in we'll start with the stoning of stephen because this was the turning point this is where the gospel herald went to the gentiles after this great event it was at that event that saul was cut to the heart and called to be an apostle to the gentiles and stephen made such a magnificent speech that they gnashed their teeth at him they became so angry what was it that he said that really irked them acts chapter 7 verse 35 he was comparing moses with jesus and he was explaining to the jews that they had rejected jesus because they claimed to be disciples of moses but moses had called their attention to one who would come after him who would be greater than him and that they should listen to him but they had neglected that and so he makes this comparison this moses whom they refused even then the jews the israelites saying who made thee a ruler and a judge the same did god send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush so the one whom they rejected when he interfered when there was this battle or this argument between an israelite and an egyptian they rejected him but this very one was eventually to become the ruler and the deliverer and he makes this comparison with jesus the one whom they rejected whom they nailed to a cross would be the one who would be the ruler and the deliverer in acts chapter 7 51 he says to them ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears yet you always resist the holy ghost as your forefathers did so do ye which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted and they have been they've slain them which showed before of the coming of the just one of whom ye have been now betrayers and murderers who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it now isn't that fascinating that the very nation that claimed to be so law abiding and so concerned about the issues of the law had not kept the law by becoming murderers themselves chapter 8 in the book of acts deals with the acts of philip and it tells also the story of the conversion of the ethiopian it also tells the story of simon magus now this is an interesting twist because simon magus was the one who thought he could purchase the holy spirit and peter who was later introduced to that situation condemned him for his seminy thinking that he could buy the power of god now it's interesting that this very simon magus became sorcerer to the emperor nero and some say that he became the petra the simon petra simon the rock so the one who was the sorcerer to nero became the simon peter if you were but let's not go there let's continue so in acts chapter 9 we have the conversion of saul and it's interesting we're not going to go into the conversion he was on his way to persecute god's people and he has this vision of jesus christ and he's blinded and it's very important that jesus didn't just give him his commission but sent him to go and wait in a particular place until he should be told what he should do and then the lord appeared to ananias and told him that saul was praying and that he should go and open his eyes and he was horrified and he argued with god and said do you know what this person has done but the lord said unto him go thy way for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the gentiles and kings and the children of israel so when the the jews rejected the gospel herald by killing christ their probation as the soul heralds of the gospel did not end but when they stoned stephen and attacked god's people that's when their commission as being the herald for the gospel as a nation ended not for individuals but for the nation and the gospel went to the gentiles and god confirmed it by giving peter a vision and we read about that in acts chapter 10 where peter receives the vision of the sheet coming down and the voice telling him that he must eat the unclean animals in the sheet and peter answers not so my lord i have never eaten anything impure or unclean in all my life but then there were the three people that arrived three times he saw the vision three people knock at his door and he takes witnesses with him and he goes to cornelius and the first thing he says you know that it is unlawful for me as a jew to associate with someone from another nation but god has shown me in vision that i may call no man impure or unclean and he preaches to them and they receive the holy spirit and they are baptized and he received a lot of opposition as a consequence of this but it was the confirmation that the gospel herald should be taken to the gentiles after the stoning of stephen now paul started preaching and the main center that was arising as a christian center was antioch and while he was preaching there we can see what kind of situations he was confronted with in acts chapter 13 we read in verse 44 that he preached to the jews first and then the gentiles came and asked whether he would repeat the same teachings the following sabbath and the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of god and when the jews saw the multitudes they were filled with envy and spoke against those things which were spoken by paul contradicting and blaspheming this is a recurring theme in the book of acts he first preaches to the jews some of them accept the teaching the majority rejected he turns to the gentiles he preaches the same message they are filled with anger when the gentiles accept it and they start contradicting and blaspheming then paul and barnabas waxed bold and said it was necessary that the word of god should first have been spoken to you but seeing ye put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life lo we turn to the gentiles for so has the lord commanded us saying i have set thee to be a light up to the gentiles that thou should be for salvation unto the ends of the earth and what is the consequence the but word acts chapter 14 verse 2 but this terrible little word but the unbelieving jews stirred up the gentiles and made their minds evil affected against the brethren so we in the time in which we are living can expect a very similar conflict now when we're talking about the jews in the book of acts what would we say at the end of time from where will the opposition come it will come from the believers in other words it will come from those churches that accept jesus christ as their savior but do not want to have the package deal now in the time of the jews and in the time of the former reign the message went to the jews that as we said before already knew the torah now we are preaching to the churches who already know that jesus is the savior but they do not comprehend that his government is based on the teachings in his law and so we will have a similar conflict in the times that we are living in there will be contradicting there will be blaspheming and there will be attempts to make null and void the teachings of those who bring the everlasting gospel the full gospel so we can expect opposition how much opposition well when paul preached at lystra where he had to flee to it says in acts chapter 14 verse 19 and there came there certain jews from antioch and iconium so he flees to lystra but they follow him they follow him and they came heather certain jews from antioch and iconium and persuaded the people and having stoned paul drew him out of the city supposing that he was dead the opposition becomes so great their anger knows no bounds that they would even stone a person to death fortunately paul did not die during that stoning and therefore in acts 14 22 it says that paul confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith and then he said we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of god now my brothers and sisters if it was so under the former rain we can expect the same under the outpouring of the latter rain we must with much tribulation enter into the kingdom of god now what were the issues that were particularly prominent in the time of the early reign and that's why god so meticulously wrote down all of these things so that we can be fortified in the time that we are living in acts chapter 15 is an amazing chapter because the scene switches from outside to inside the church and often it is more dangerous when we consider the things that come from the inside compared to those that come from the outside from the outside we can expect the stoning but what can we expect from the inside and certain men which came down from judea taught the brethren and said except ye be circumcised after the manner of moses ye cannot be saved whenever paul and barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them they determined that paul and barnabas and certain others of them should go up to jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question so what was the issue the issue was except ye be circumcised after the manner of moses ye cannot be saved now can we expect issues of this nature in the time that we are living in unless you do this and this and this or unless you believe this and this and this you cannot be saved do we have issues like that in the church and the answer is yes we do have issues like this we have issues in the church where people say that you have to accept their view of the godhead or else you cannot be saved we have issues in the church where people say you have to reach this state of perfection or else you cannot be saved we have people in the church that say if you do not keep the feasts as proclaimed by moses you cannot be saved and the issues and the theological discussions continue on and on and on what was the message that paul had received from god i will make you the apostle to the gentiles go and preach go and preach the gospel and now they're being kept busy with this internal strife in the end they say to them we'll have to find council so go to the apostles and find out about this and question they were come to jerusalem they were received of the church and of the apostles and the elders and they declared all things that god had done with them now i like the way the bible says this thing when paul and barnabas were confronted with these issues it said they had no small dissension and disputation with them what does that really mean well that means there was a massive argument so now what happens in jerusalem the same issue is now brought to the leaders in the church and it says in verse 5 but there rose up certain of the sect of the pharisees who believed in other words they'd become christians saying that it was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of moses and the apostles and the elders and they came together to consider this matter and when there had been much disputing peter arose much disputing this takes time people are occupied with all of these issues is it like this or is it like that and while we are disputing on the inside people are being lost on the outside and when there had been much disputing peter rose up said unto them men and brethren you know how that a good while ago referring to that vision that he had god made the choice amongst us that the gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe and god which knoweth the hearts bear them witness giving them the holy ghost even as they did unto us and we know what the outcome was eventually james got up and as spokesperson said the following in verse 19 wherefore my sentence is that we trouble not them which from among the gentiles are turned to god but that we write unto them that they abstain from pollutions of idols and from fornication and from things strangled and from blood for moses of old time has in every city them that preach him being read in the synagogue every sabbath day so let us not bother them with this did he get rid of the health message there no he did not there were certain issues in the book of moses that was still regarded as binding even at that council so don't bother them with this and one would expect that the issue would go to rest but it didn't verse 22 then please that the apostles and the elders with the whole church to send chosen men of their own company to antioch with paul and barnabas namely judas serna and barcelos and silas chief men amongst the brethren can you imagine if paul and barnabas had come back alone to antioch and said the church has decided we do not need to circumcise the gentiles would they have believed them no they would not have believed them and in that day there was no email and there was no telephone so it would have taken months to resolve this issue so they sent prominent brethren with them and they wrote letters by them after this manner so they put it in writing the apostles and the elders and the brethren sent greetings unto the brethren which are of the gentiles in antioch in syria and silesia so the whole church had made this decision it's of course troubling that the new translations changed that by putting a comma in there and making it the decision of the apostles and elders alone and not of the brethren but i believe that the receive text has it right here again for as much as we heard that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words subverting your soul saying ye must be circumcised and keep the law to whom we gave no such commandment it seemed good to us being assembled with one accord to send chosen men unto you with our beloved barnabas and paul men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our lord jesus christ we have sent therefore judas and silas who shall also tell you the same things by mouth so witnesses were sent along and was the issue resolved absolutely not the very ones that made the decisions were they swayed absolutely they were swayed and eventually it came to a huge conflict and paul had to even rebuke peter who had been persuaded by certain men who came from james the very one who made the announcement that no such thing was required and yet this thing did not go to rest and we have the same situation in our churches today we have issues where people say unless you see it this way exactly like we see it you cannot be saved and no matter how much you preach and no matter how many councils sit and make decisions the issue does not go away and it is designed to keep us from preaching the three angels messages to the world we must expect it from within but we should not according to the light that we have here become so involved that god's message is prevented from going to the world it's interesting that this breakup that came between paul and barnabas eventually led to the fact that paul took silas with him and barnabus took mark over who the issue was in the first place and actually now there were two teams so god doubled up the work which was a way of dealing with this issue now what happened as paul and silas went and preached the gospel in the various places that they went to again we find an interesting story for example acts 15 39 when the contention between paul and barnabas became very great and very sharp between them that they departed asunder one from the other and so barnabas took mark and sailed to cyprus and it's interesting that when paul comes to the place where he is going to preach he finds a man there whose mother is a jewish and his father is a greek namely timothy and what does paul do it's interesting that paul takes timothy and circumcises him now isn't that amazing the very paul who had such a sharp contention with those who came and said that you have to be circumcised that went to the council and came back with the message that it wasn't necessary for the sake of appearance has timothy circumcised we must learn from these things acts chapter 16 verse 19 tells the story in the same place where this woman who had a spirit of divination follows paul and says these people are from god they're speaking the very oracles of god and paul looks at her and he rebukes her because he realized that her spirit was not right and when a master saw that the hope of their gains was gone because the spirit left her they caught paul and silas and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers and brought them to the magistrates saying these men being jews do exceedingly trouble the city and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive neither to observe being romans can we expect similar things in the time that we are living in when we are confronted with these people with strange spirits who seem to be preaching the gospel with power when they are rebuked that the anger is aroused and people drag them before the magistrates and say these people are teaching contrary to our customs and they are not lawful for us to receive i believe we are going to have situations like that more and more and the multitudes rose up together against them and the magistrates rent off their clothes and commanded to beat them and when they had laid many stripes upon them they cast them into prison charging the jailer to keep them safely now imagine in our time that we should preach let's say a sermon on the sabbath and say that those who are calling upon god and are performing miracles of divination and are receiving visions from god constantly we just have to look at the internet to see what the mega preachers in the world are doing today and how they are constantly saying that they have a message from god and how they are preaching and how thousands flock to their services and the money rolls in and here people say if you do not act in accordance with god's commandments then the spirit is not from god and what if we should start preaching sabbath is the seventh day and is the sabbath of the lord not the first day of the week and what if that should become law wouldn't they then say exactly the same thing wouldn't they say these people teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive neither to observe being romans i find it interesting that in this coronavirus situation that we are in with the total economic collapse of many many nations that they are saying we have to make up the time we have to introduce a six-day work week and then people stand up and say excuse me we cannot go along with that because the seventh day is the sabbath of the lord your god wouldn't the people say that these people are teaching things which are against the law and against what the governments are introducing to save us from the situation we are in i expect that these very same things will happen to us and it's interesting as they sat there in the jail after having received the stripes acts 25 says and at midnight paul and silas prayed and sang praises unto god and the prisoners heard them this midnight concept is a recurring theme throughout the bible it is that last moment and we are living in the midnight of this world and we can expect the very same issues that affected the disciples it was at midnight that the lord smote the firstborn at egypt this midnight theme is a constant one samson lay till midnight and arose at midnight and took the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts and went away with them bar and all and put them upon his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill we read in judges 16 3 it is the midnight judgment the gates stood for judgment and he put the judgment herald on top of the hill we are living in the time of judgment we have to take the bars of the gates we have to carry them up onto a hill for all to see we must plant them on top of a hill and say there will be a judgment and god will judge the people and the judgment will be according to the law of god at midnight the cry was made behold the bridegroom cometh we are living in exactly that period of time acts chapter 17 tells of paul's experience in thessalonica and then again we have this butt theme and some of the jews that he preached to believe and consorted with paul and silas and of the devout greeks a great multitude and of the chief women not a few but the jews which believed not moved with envy took unto them certain lured fellows of the base of sort and gathered the company and set all the city in uproar and assaulted the house of jason they couldn't get hold of poor paul so they got hold of jason who had received him and sought to bring him out to the people and when they found them not they drew jason and certain brethren into the under the rulers of the city crying these that have turned the world upside down or come heather whom jason has received and these also do contrary to the decrees of caesar saying that there is another king one jesus do you think we're going to have this clash between caesar and jesus absolutely caesar has a law who is caesar what was his title wasn't his title pontifex maximus well who bears that title today isn't that the pope in rome isn't his name his title pontifex maximus does he have a law yes he has a law and is it contrary to the law of jesus absolutely jesus has a law it's called the ten commandments which rome has changed and so we're going to have exactly the same situation they troubled the people and the rulers because the decrees of the caesar differed from the teaching of paul we're going to have exactly the same situation in our time they troubled the people and when they had taken security of jason and of the others they let them go in other words poor jason had to pay a fine it's interesting that many governments have said that if you criticize their methodology you will be fined or imprisoned we are heading for exactly the same situation the rest of chapter 17 accounts paul's teachings in athens we don't have to go there and uh tells the story about even the rulers of the synagogue that believed and again you have a but in there in chapter 18 we read and when galio was the deputy of akiya the jews made insurrection with one accord against paul this is a constant theme we can expect a major battle between those who preach the commandments of god and those who preach the commandments of men the bible calls the religious system that has become confused with regard to the word of god because they have drunken of the wine the false doctrine of babylon and what was that false doctrine well there are two issues which form the basis of the false doctrine the one issue is the immortality of the soul the bible teaches clearly that the dead in christ sleep until the resurrection the roman catholic church acknowledges it in its encyclopedia but says that in spite of it the church teaches that the soul continues so the immortality of the soul is the one leg of the spiritual union and the other leg is sunday's sacredness both are against the word of god we can expect great battles now in this particular case when he was taken again before the judges you get some judges that are a little bit wiser and you get some judges that are not so wise and we can expect the same in acts chapter 19 we read that certain vagabond jews exorcists took upon them the call over them which had evil spirits in the name of the lord jesus saying we are join you by jesus whom paul preaches and there were seven sons of skiva so here you have again this teaching of people driving out demons and the devil answered and said jesus i know paul i know but who are you and then they proceeded to beat up these false teachers can we expect many false teachers in the world out there who with great boasts drive out demons in the name of jesus while they neglect the law of god we have exactly the same circumstances in our time as we had in the outpouring of the early reign and it's interesting to me that when paul went to ephesus in acts chapter 19 the issue there was the economy and i'm fascinated to see how through this corona virus the economies of the world are in dire straits and what the the methodology will be to rectify the situation now let's read what it says over here in acts chapter 19. it says in verse 23 that while he was preaching there at that time there arose no small stir about that way about this this sect that was preaching namely paul and silas and there was a certain man there demetrius the silversmith who amassed great wealth out of selling these little statues of diana the issue is here not what did he sell the issue is how did it affect the economic workings moreover you see in here that not alone at ephesus but almost throughout all ages this paul has persuaded and turned away much people saying that they be no gods which are made with hands and that not only this our craft is endangered to be set at nought but also that the temple of the great goddess diana should be despised and her magnificence should be destroyed from all ages and the world worshipeth so this female deity was not to be touched and the economy was not to be disturbed do we have a female deity that everybody worships in the time that we live in absolutely and i'm not referring to the mary of the roman catholic system i'm referring to mother earth mother gaia who is bleeding and is suffering and who needs the support of humanity and these people that are preaching and preaching about the law of god and the sabbath won't they be hurting mother earth when everybody has agreed to keep sunday to give the earth a rest according to lodato see the papal encyclical aren't we going to have these same issues repeating themselves aren't people going to say you people are against the environment you people are against mother earth you will be responsible for desecrating her name and what about our economy i believe that these issues are upon us after these events we read in chapter 20 how paul is on his way to jerusalem and he's preaching in troas we know the story and he preached off the sabbath because it was dark in the upper room so it was after the sabbath on the first day of the week and he preached until midnight and he probably preached as long as i did so poor uticas fell out of the window and had to be resurrected but i'm not interested in going into those details i want to hear what paul told the people at troas the believers what should their attitude be in the time that we are living and this is what he says he says serving the lord with humility of mind and with many tears acts chapter 20 from verse 19. and temptations which befell me by the lying in weight of the jews so we're going to expect tears and we must be humble as we preach these things and how i kept back nothing that was profitable unto you but i've showed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house that's our duty we have to preach publicly and we have to preach from house to house testifying both to the jews and to the greeks we must preach to the churches and we must preach to the world repentance towards god what does it mean to repent it means to turn from your evil ways out of being in disharmony with god's precepts to coming into harmony with these precepts knowing the things that shall befall me there as he speaks about jerusalem then he says in verse 24 but none of these things move me neither counter my life dear unto myself so that i might finish the course with joy and the ministry which i have received of the lord jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of god that should be our attitude none of these things move me i will stand by the grace of god like the needle to the pole neither counter my life dear unto myself the message is now priority not your personal comfort he knew what he was going up against and yet he stood as firm as a rock to principle and he repeats in verse 27 i have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of god we cannot preach half-hearted messages we have to tell the truth as it stands we cannot soften it to please itching ears take heed there for unto yourselves and unto all the flock because he says that grievous wolves will enter in amongst you not sparing the flock we will have many false teachers in the church that doesn't make the church babylon but we can expect false teachers in the church to the law and to the testimony if they speak not according to this word they have no light in them we have the filters use them speaking perverse things to draw disciples after them the church is full of everyone wind of doctrine we have to stay focused declaring the counsel of god i commend you to god and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance amongst all them which are sanctified i have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel i have showed you all things how that's so laboring you ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the lord jesus how he said it is more blessed to give than to receive it is our duty not only to preach to the outside but to support those who are weak in the church we now need to show courage and fortitude because people are struggling and some of them haven't had all the experiences and they are uncertain we have to show that we believe the word of god and now comes the sad story of jerusalem chapter 21 paul goes to the brethren and it's interesting that brethren receive him gladly and in verse 19 of chapter 21 it says and when he had saluted them he declared particularly what things god had wrought amongst the gentiles by his ministry and they were all overjoyed and when they heard it they glorified the lord and said unto him thou seest brother how many thousands of jews there are which believe and they are all zealots for the law and they are informed of thee that thou teachest all the jews which are amongst the gentiles to forsake moses saying that they ought not to circumcise their children neither to walk after their customs what is it therefore the multitude must needs come together for they will hear that thou have come do therefore this that we say to thee we have four men which have a vow on them then take and purify thyself with them and be at charges with them that they may shave their heads and all may know that these things were of they were informed concerning thee are nothing but thou that ourselves also walketh orderly and keep us the law so it says in verse 26 then paul took the men and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple there is always this fear of what the others may think you cannot be so direct you cannot preach like you are preaching we have to take the others into account we have to make a compromise show them that we are in solidarity with them it sounds so economical but in the end it leads to death paul should not have listened to that advice but he did in fact he also circumcised timothy it shows you how difficult it is to stand by the principles as we have received them without this brother or that brother swaying us into a direction so that it doesn't seem quite so different we are different we are different in that we preach the same jesus that everyone preaches but we also preach adherence to his principles and we cannot now enter into compromises they will lead to death we know what happened acts chapter 21 verse 30 and all the city was moved it's interesting that it says the city when it refers to jerusalem there's another city today which is on a hill and it's called babylon the great and it sits on seven hills and all the city was moved and the people ran together and they took paul and drew him out of the temple and forthwith the doors were shut and they went about to kill him we can expect the same we have to be very close to god no compromise those people who believe that by compromising their actions that they will get off lightly are making a mistake you will not get off likely you will get off worse stick to the principle and have god be your protector the city was moved wesley comments on verse 30 and he says immediately the gates were shut both to prevent any further violation of the temple and to prevent paul's taking sanctuary at the horns of the altar it was shut babylon will close itself off against the preaching of god's people we must expect it when he came before the governors felix wrote to festus and he said this man was taken of the jews and should have been killed of them then came i with my army and he rescued them having understood that he was a roman and when i would have known the cause where of they accused him i brought him forth unto the council whom i perceive to be accused of christians of their law we will be accused of questions of the law am i perceived to be accused of questions of their law we must expect to be judged about questions of the law but to have nothing laid to his charge worthy of death of bonds and nevertheless this was the response of the jews for we have found this man a pestilent man a pestilent fellow a mover of sedition and he's doing it throughout the world and a ring leader of the sect of the nazarenes and they have profaned the temple and we have to judge him according to our law will have the same situation at the end they will judge us according to their law but what about god's law what about god's law paul's response should be our response verse 11. because that thou mayest understand that they are yet but 12 days since i went up to jerusalem for to worship and they neither found me in the temple disputing with any man neither raising up the people neither in the synagogue nor in the city neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me but this i confess unto thee that after the way which they call heresy and we did a whole sermon on that called bookends so worship i the god of my fathers believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets how many churches today that are in babylonian confusion can say that they believe all things in this book from the creation account all the way through to a universal flood all the way through to all of the issues that are written in this book which so many claim are fables and conjectures while they call themselves christians i want to end with what happened finally we know that paul was sent to wrong and i did a whole lecture series on this issue and it was called crete to malta if some would like to look at that link again to malta but acts chapter 27 is what we can expect will be the outcome of this great conflict that we are in and that is now coming to a head verse 14 but not long after while he was on the ship there rose against the tempestuous wind called uraclidon and there stood by this night the angel of god whose i am and whom i serve so the people were in disarray they were afraid and paul tells them an angel had appeared to him that night on the ship saying fear not paul thou must be brought before caesar and lo god has given thee all them that sail with thee we will appear before the courts of this world we will be brought before caesar we will come into conflict with the law of caesar wherefore sirs be of good cheer for i believe god that it shall be even as it was told me how beard we must be cast upon a certain island and when the fourteenth night was come as we were driven up and down adria about midnight there we have the midnight theme again the shipment deemed that they drew near to some country and as the shipment were about to flee out of the ship when they had led down the boat into the sea under color it's interesting as though they would have cast anchors out of the four ship paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers except these abide in the ship you cannot be safe i believe this is the final journey of the gospel ship we are in a confrontation with the law of caesar and we're going to strike a certain island and the island that he struck is melitta which is the island of malta and we know that the knights of malta are the military arm of the roman catholic system and it's interesting that we should strike against this military arm of rome there will be a confrontation and what will be the outcome unless you stay on the ship you cannot be saved this gospel herald ship that brings the law and the testimony to the people in the world will have a conflict with the military powers of rome and falling into place where two seas met they ran the ship ground and the four parts stuck fast and remained unmovable but the hindu part was broken with the violence of the waters this ship front the front lines will be unmovable and the back will break up this is a fascinating story and it broke up with the violence of the waves where the seas met where the nations met it broke it up and the soldiers council was to kill the prisoners lest any of them should swim out and escape but the centurion willing to save paul kept them from their purpose and commanded that they who could swim should cast themselves first into the sea and get to the land and arrest some on boards and some on broken pieces of the ship and so it came to pass that they escaped all safe to land when this gospel ship strikes the opposition of this power that is contrary to the word of god and the laws of god then the ship will break up but we have to cling to the planks the many organizations which together call themselves the church have to cling to the principles of the church we are seventh-day adventists and we will remain seventh-day adventists even if we cling to our little portion that survives the storm and what happens then well they come onto land and when they were escaped verse 28 they that knew that the island was called melitta and the barbarous people showed us no little kindness and they kindled the fire and received us everyone because of the present rain and because of the cold so here when the ship is breaking up in the storm after it crashes against this power because of the issue of the law of god and particularly the sabbath sunday issue the ship breaks up and the message is brought to a people while it is pouring with rain what kind of rain are we referring to here in a spiritual sense this is the outpouring of the latter rain because of the present reign and what happened when paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire there came a viper out of the heat and fastened onto his hand we can expect the viper to come and fasten onto our hand we can expect the workings of the devil but what will happen here and when the barbarian saw the venomonous beast hanging on his hand they said amongst themselves no doubt this man is a murderer whom thou although he has escaped the sea yet vengeance suffers him not and he shook off the beast into the fire and felt no harm the bible promises that during the latter reign there will be signs and wonders that follow the believers the bible promises that you will stand on serpents that you will drink poison and it will not affect you do we believe these promises miracles were wrought and in the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the island whose name was publius who received us and lodged us three days courteously and came to pass that the father of publius lay sick with the fever and of a bloody flux to him paul entered and prayed and laid his hands on him and healed him and then it says also others which had diseases in the island came and we're healed signs and wonders follow the believers and they preach the final message under the outpouring of the latter rain people are converted people that were barbarous are converted and accept the gospel truth and join thousands in a day so we can expect the same acts 28 30 and 31 is what i wish to end with and paul dwelled two whole years in his own hired house when he came to rome and received all that came in unto him and what did he do preaching the kingdom of god and teaching those things which concern the lord jesus christ with all confidence no man forbidding him under the outpouring of the latter reign god's power will attend the message you will preach the kingdom and you will preach the lord jesus christ he is the one who saves us he is the one who redeems us by his grace we will preach the righteousness of christ we will preach about imputed and imparted righteousness that no man is saved through the law but through the righteousness of christ but we will also preach the kingdom and the kingdom has a law and has a system of government and the law is the basis of that and we keep the law not because we have to but because we want to because it is just and good and holy and right may god give us understanding as we approach this time described here under the symbols of the former rain and may we during the latter rain stand as the needle to the pole as we preach this gospel to a dying world let's pray heavenly father you have written down all the details of the confrontations which the disciples faced under the outpouring of the early reign and i believe that it is there to encourage us because the way in which you worked and even if there were stripes and the jailers were healed of their melody of sin and joined themselves to god's people and i believe that many of the greeks and many of the prominent women and we're talking about churches here lord will join themselves to this final message may god be with his people as we approach the times ahead and may our heads be lifted up to you from where our strength comes is my prayer in jesus name amen thank you for watching this video to subscribe click here when the bell appears click again to get notifications to watch the next video click here thank you

Channel: Clash Of Minds

Views: 72,321

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Id: 5pa92VWbgek

Length: 67min 57sec (4077 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 18 2021