We are in Acts chapter 18. We'll read the first eight verses of the passage. This is the reading of God's Word. Acts chapter 18, picking up in verse 1. After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth, and he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked, and they were tent makers by trade. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the Word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, Your blood be on your own heads. I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles. And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household, and many of the Corinthians, hearing Paul, believed and were baptized. Saints, there's such a subtlety to spiritual warfare. We're taught to think in these categories. The Apostle himself teaches us to understand that we don't live in peace times. We actually live in the midst of a great spiritual war. And so while we live in a nation that has a great deal of peace, spiritually speaking, the war is all around us. What's so tricky about that is that when we hear about warfare and even the imagery that we use to raise us up for warfare, we think of things that are dramatic and things that are obvious. You know, we think of swords and we think of shields. We think of bombs. We think of guns, we think of armies going to and fro, fleeing, advancing, whatever it may be, but the spiritual warfare that we are engaged in turns out to be so much more subtle than that. There's no bombs going off. There's no guns. There's no sides that you can look at and say, that's the side that's attacking that side. It is so subtle, this warfare that we are engaged in. Instead of guns and bombs, we're talking about conversations. We're talking about thoughts. We're talking about attitudes. The fighting is taking place in ways that we may never see, not with our eyes. But it's going on all around us, and it's so subtle that it would be no surprise if we forgot it was going on from time to time. The Apostle Paul would say that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Classic, classic passage in Romans chapter 10. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But he lays out from there a logical step-by-step argument that really anyone can follow. They can only believe in the Lord if they've heard of him. Hard to deny that. But they are only then going to be able to hear of the Lord who would save them if someone preaches. In other words, they're only going to be able to believe in this God if someone actually makes God known, makes His salvation known. And so what Paul brings us to is an inescapable conclusion that if we want people to believe in the Lord and be saved, we must speak. Must. Absolutely necessary. It's funny, we have these responses, well God can save however He wants. Amen! God can save however He wants, but God in His Word led us to believe that the way that He wants is for us to speak. The way that He expects salvation to go forward is for us to speak. The way that He thinks is necessary for salvation in all ordinary circumstances It's for us to speak. And we realize that if no one speaks of the Lord, if no one makes known that gospel, then here is that logical conclusion from Paul. Well, no one's going to believe. If no one speaks, no one's going to believe. That's the math that comes right out of the scriptures. And so we come back to this idea of the warfare that surrounds us, the warfare that is everywhere, the war that we're participating in. And you realize this, that Satan's victory comes when we simply don't say anything. There were no bombs. There were no planes. We did not line up on sides with swords and charge one another. Satan wins when we simply don't say anything. Satan, in some sense, still wins even when, you know, me and you don't renounce the faith. We don't walk away from the Lord. We don't abandon the gospel or anything. Satan wins when we just simply conclude, ah, I'm just not the right person for that. Satan wins when we just assume, well, someone else will talk to them about the gospel. I don't have to because certainly someone else will do it. The battle was lost because the battle was never fought. And so we consider our warfare We consider the basics. We come to the Lord today to say, Lord, we know our theology. We're not hyper-Calvinists. We know people have to go out there and preach the gospel so that other people can believe we have our theology. But Lord, help us to believe our theology. Help us, Lord, to live out our theology. And the Lord bless him. He's going to help us today. He's going to help us through Paul. Paul continuing to travel on this missionary journey, going out there, proclaiming the Word of God, and see how not merely Paul preaches, but see how God meets with him. See how God helps with him. We consider this passage in terms of Paul's preaching God's promise and God's protection. We start first with those verses we already read, and we come back to Paul doing exactly what you would expect Paul to be doing at this point in Acts. He just keeps on preaching. Verses 1-8, we look at Paul's preaching, but he's in a new city now. He's moved on from Athens, where we had that great showdown, that fortress of unbelief that God invaded and still saved souls. We've moved on now to Corinth. Corinth. Corinth is a famous name. It's a famous name, of course, because there are books of the Bible we still have that are written to Corinth, but you might not know the landscape that goes along with Corinth. Corinth, you see, was a very big city. Not all of these places have been big cities. Paul often was going to the big cities. Paul was often going to places of influence. Not always, though. Sometimes he went to very small places. Corinth is a big city. At its height Corinth would end up being about three quarters of a million people. So that's bigger than where we live. This is a big city and it's a capital of the province in which it resides. And on top of that is a very big commercial hub. There's a lot of business going on. And so however you measure it, whether it's in population, whether it's sort of in political influence, whether it's in commerce, everything about Corinth is big. But Corinth is a difficult place to be ministering. It was actually known as something of the capital of sin and decadence in the Roman world. I frankly can't help but compare it to Las Vegas. Capital of sin and decadence. Maybe the most prominent feature that would communicate that to you is up on the heights was the Temple of Aphrodite, goddess of love. Well, at the Temple of Aphrodite, they had, you can't say employed, they had approximately 1,000 female slaves. Those same female slaves were known to roam the streets at night, serving as prostitutes. Corinth was a bad place. Corinth was a pagan. place. Corinth was a difficult place to be ministering. But it's here where the apostle goes. The apostle goes and now he meets a new ministry team. We meet Aquila and Priscilla. Quilla and Priscilla, they're actually a really cool team. They're a married ministry team. You always will hear about them together. You'll see them show up in multiple places in the Bible. The reason they end up in Corinth is that they, along with any number of Jews, had actually been expelled from Rome. The historical backdrop on that is not entirely known, but there's actually a suspicion, more than a suspicion, there's a case to be made that what may have happened was that there were Christians who arrived in Rome, started preaching the gospel, and then there were, of course, that divided response, that contentious response. Rome doesn't like the discord that's coming from Christ among the Jews, and so Rome just kicks them all out. This is what brings Priscilla and Aquila to Corinth. It actually may well be that they were leaders of a sort in the church in Rome. But kicked out of their home there in Corinth, and God in his providence brings Paul, Aquila, and Priscilla together. Aquila and Priscilla will actually go down one very noteworthy thing. As Paul will say in Romans 16, they actually risked their lives for Paul. They were important as far as the early church goes, and God used them. They were very active in the New Testament. You'll see them pop up in various places in the New Testament. Paul goes to them and he joins them, and this is when we learn about Paul's occupation, Paul's other occupation, you might say. He goes and joins up together with them because they are of the same trade. They're tent makers. Or maybe a better translation, a better understanding is they worked with leather, leather workers. It would be that kind of material that would go into tents and any number of other products. But this was a common thing and we now learn this side of Paul. Rabbis were actually often encouraged to have a trade, to have a skill. So even with all their training in the Word, they aspired to also have a skill. And this is something that Paul clearly lived out. He is a man who worked with his hands. It's easy to read the Bible and then read all the theology we have around the Bible and think that Paul was the kind of guy who just sat around reading all the time. Not true. Paul was a man who worked with his hands. He worked with his hands to provide for himself. So again, not only did he not work with his hands, but Paul's a guy who knew what it was to hold a job. This is an accusation that gets made of pastors also from time to time. Oh, you have no idea what it's like in the real world. You've never worked a job. That's a real, actually, downside. When that charge turns out to be true, Paul actually held a job. He was not a guy who had no idea what a gallon of milk cost, so to speak. Paul was a man who worked with his hands. And where he went, this is something you see playing out in his ministry, wherever he went, he made a point to not take money from the people that he was bringing the gospel to. He does this with great principle, he does this with great pride. Which is interesting, because on the one hand, he doesn't want any money from people he goes to, because he doesn't want them to think he's only in it for the money. Yet he will also write fiercely saying, but I had every right to ask money from you and you should provide for your pastors. Paul would fight for this right almost just so that he could just voluntarily give it up because he did not want money to ever be mistaken for his motive for why he's traveling around taking the gospel forward. And so here we see in Acts Paul playing out the very things he's going to talk about in his letters. He's working with his hands so that he can keep ministering as he goes along on this ministry. Sometimes he could depend on support from churches that he had already planted, but often he had to provide for his own needs. So Paul, Aquila, Priscilla, teaming up, intent making, and doing the ministry then as they are able. Paul, though, you have to imagine, he was a motivated guy. He did his work. I have no doubt he did it with excellence. But at the same time, wasn't Paul the guy who was itching to get out there and go mix it up? Itching to go out there and proclaim the gospel again, because that's what he's about. That's what he's doing. He didn't travel across the world to just make tents. traveled across the world because he was going to share the gospel. So he's out there sharing the gospel. The team starts reassembling. Silas and Timothy, they arrive. And what's Paul doing? He's occupied with the Word. occupied with the Word, the text says. That is to say, he's occupied with the preaching of the Word, just like he has always been. At this point, I think it's fun. This far into the book of Acts, you know exactly what he was doing. You know the kinds of sermons he was preaching. You know who he was preaching to. You know how that goes. What's he doing? He's out there proclaiming that Jesus was the Christ. He's taking that message to the synagogues because to the Jews first came that news of salvation. He ministers there to the God-fearers, those Greeks, those Gentiles who had not fully converted to Judaism, but did believe in the God of the Bible. So there He is, pressing that same case, preaching that same gospel. Jesus is the fulfillment of all the plans of God. Everything that you all believe in the Scriptures, that was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. We fast forward a little bit through the response because we have seen this sermon, we've seen this reaction. What's about to happen? Divided response. Eventually they get to the point, those people in the synagogue, where they start to really oppose him. No, we don't like what you're saying. We disagree with what you're saying. They revile him. It's getting insulting. They drive him out of the synagogue. We want no more of this traveling rabbi and his talk about Jesus. Paul then, he responds in a way that maybe we find uncomfortable. He responds, fine. Your blood is on your own heads. What he's doing is actually just playing out what an Old Testament prophet would do. If I had not warned you, I would be guilty. Now I've warned you. I've told you about Jesus. I've told you about judgment. You're going to reject it. Now you are the one who bears the responsibility. So he shakes off the dust. We've seen him do this with his sandals before. It's almost like, I don't even want any of your dust to cling to me. It's a symbolic accusation, good riddance, so to speak, to you and your unbelief. Now I'm going to do what? He always says, right? Now that I've gone to the Jews, if you guys are going to reject me, I'm going to focus on the Gentiles. This is the pattern. Always going out, always ministering to Jews, seeking that remnant that would believe in the gospel, but then when they rejected him, he would turn and minister more exclusively to the Gentiles. What's funny about this is he goes on and he continues preaching where? next door to the synagogue, right? You have to imagine this. This crowd kicks him out. He's like, fine, good riddance. And he just walks next door to set up shop over there. I have to imagine that was part of the problem that we're going to get to here soon. But there's a Greek God-fearer who takes him in. It just happens to be he lives next door to the synagogue. So Paul keeps going. Paul isn't turned away. We said, though, it's a divided response. And that's when you learn the name Crispus. Crispus was the synagogue leader. And it's here that I want you to remember Jews were absolutely believing the gospel. Jews believed the gospel. Jews took the gospel out. Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, he and his whole household believe. Crispus will go down in history because in 1 Corinthians Paul has the wonderful comment, he says, I'm glad I didn't baptize any of you guys, except Crispus, Gaius, and I don't know who else, but that is who I baptized. I'm glad I didn't baptize any more of you. This is Crispus. This is Crispus. Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believes. And so what do we have then? Jews coming in and the gospel flourishing among the Gentiles. Many are believing. Many Corinthians are believing. What are they doing? Being baptized. Once they believe, we see that natural pattern continuing. What is happening in Corinth? A fruitful but difficult ministry. It's from here that we move from Paul's preaching, which we went through a little quicker so we can get to this part. From Paul's preaching, we then move to God's promises. And let's go back to the text and we look at verse 9. We'll just read through verse 11. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you. No one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people. And he stayed a year and six months teaching the word of God among them." God's promises. God's promises come to our, what seems like, fearless protagonists, our fearless evangelists. God's promises come to him. and this tremendous message of comfort. Let's break it down just bit by bit. Do not be afraid, the Lord says. Do not be afraid, but go on speaking. Do not be silent. Do not be afraid. I say he seems like our fearless protagonist, but it must have only been he seems like. It's easy to look at Paul and think that he was Superman. I'm the guy, you stone me and I get up. You drive me out of town and I just keep moving on. I'll talk to governors, I'll talk to leaders, I'll talk to mobs, whoever. Paul seems fearless sometimes, and I have no doubt Paul was a brave man. He clearly was. Was he fearless? Never afraid? Nah. Paul was a man. Paul was a man. And God, in just his compassion, God in his empathy, he comes to Paul and he says, don't be afraid. Do not be afraid. Why? We're going to get to that in a moment, but he's going to continue. He's going to say, do not be afraid, but go on speaking. Do not be silent. We remember the burden that every Christian bears, but especially Paul bears. Do not be silent. Go on speaking. Why? Because there is no salvation if the preaching stops. No one's going to believe in the God they've never heard of. You have to keep preaching or no one's going to be believing. And so God offers him then two motivations, two promises, two foundations that he can stand on. On the first hand, do not be afraid. Why? For I am with you. Do not be afraid for I am with you. No one will attack you to harm you. What a blessing to the man who begins to see the wasps begin to buzz, right? He knows that he's set up shop next door to the synagogue. He knows he's in this big city with no room for Christianity. Undoubtedly, especially over time, he knows the looks he's getting in the streets, in the market. How uncomfortable would it be when he walked by the people who stayed at the synagogue? The people who drove him out. But God says, I'm with you. I'm with you. And on top of that, God gives him a particular promise, a special blessing. He says, no one's going to attack you to harm you. No one is going to be able to attack you to harm you. And you actually have to read that very specifically. It's not that no one's going to attack you. It's that no one's going to be able to harm you. God in his kindness provides a promise that really Paul had never had. Paul's been harmed lots of times, hasn't he? Do not be afraid. I am with you. No one will attack you to harm you. Foundation number one. Motivation number one. But then you have the second foundation, the second motivation. Go on speaking. Do not be silent, for I have many in this city who are my people. And it's there we get this peek at this wondrous plans of God. The eternal plans of God. I have many in this city who are my people. In other words, God knows those who are his. He knows every one of them. God knew every single person in Corinth that he had appointed to eternal life. You marvel at God's plans. Absolutely marvel at God's plans because what he tells us about how his salvation works is that he decided from eternity past everyone who would be his. In his plans there is no random. In his plans there are no accidents. In his plans he knows the names of every single soul that is his. We get this glorious peek into God's plans because we don't know that. We don't go out there and say, oh, look it, you've got the salvation name tag. I'm gonna preach the gospel to you because I know it's gonna go well. God doesn't put a spotlight on people and say, that's the one, that's the one, go preach to them. We never get to know this, but God does know this. God knows this and he says, they may not have believed yet, but they will. And from God's perspective, it's absolutely certain. God doesn't fail. God doesn't lose his people. God doesn't have, you know, a 10-item to-do list and say, oops, I only got to nine. God saves everyone he means to save. Every single person, every specific person, He knows them all. And so God looks at His evangelists and says, I have so many more in this city. I have so many more that are mine, which means you know that when you go out there and preach the gospel to the ones I have set aside for eternal life, you know they are going to believe. You know I'm going to say See, this is what God's sovereignty is supposed to do for us. God's sovereignty is supposed to be such an incredible encouragement for evangelism. Because if we go out there without God's sovereignty, what we are doing then is saying, we go out here and we've got to save people. We've got to go out there and we've got to give them life. We've got to go out there and we've got to give them new hearts. We've got to go out there and we've got to transform them. And if you have ever tried to convince someone of anything, you know how hard this is. If you've ever tried to intervene in someone's life, to pluck them out of the mistakes they're making, the sins they're in, you know how hard this is. The truth is we cannot do it. Sometimes there's such contention between theological camps, Calvinists and Arminians. And I would actually say this, we should have a great sense of compassion for our Arminian brothers, those who believe that this is a big free will thing going on, that we need to convince people into the kingdom of God. They bear such an incredible burden. Because at the end of the day, the preacher like me in their pulpit goes home and people die eternally because of their failings. Pray for the Arminian brothers and sisters. What a burden. To those who believe in the sovereignty of God, we have such an encouragement. God knows those who are His. God knows every single person in Reno who is supposed to believe. He has set them aside from all eternity. He knows them. He knows they are going to believe. And that means that what we have to do is not raise anyone to life. We don't have to go out there and give anyone new hearts. What we need to do is just simply go out there and speak. which maybe sounds scary to you, but sounds a whole lot better than raising the dead to life on your own power. We have the encouragement of knowing that God has set aside those who are his, and all we need to do is share the words of life with them. We are so blessed. We are so encouraged to have a sovereign God when we take the gospel out to a dead and hostile world. And that is the encouragement that God gave Paul. He said, I know who are mine in this city. I have so many in this city. I'm going to protect you. So go out there and preach that gospel. Don't be silent. And Paul, again, was a man. What do we say? The best of men is the man at best. There he is with this promise, and don't miss the ways that this is contrary to the reality that Paul has experienced in the past. Has Paul found that pagans or Jews, you know, were peaceable with him? Has he found that he's gotten out of a lot of towns without harm? Paul's a man who bears the scars of his ministry all over his body. Paul knew what it was to be afraid. Paul had concrete evidence that if they get a chance, the Romans will beat me, the Jews will stone me, they'll all throw me in prison. They've done it before. God says, no, they're not going to harm you. Paul looks around and it wouldn't have taken long to see all the immorality of this giant city and think, really? This place? This place is filled with your people? God says, I have many. I have many in this wicked city. And Paul believed. We know Paul believed because he stayed. He stayed laboring in the Word and he stays for longer than any place. He stayed before a year and a half. Actually more than a year and a half, Paul is committed to laboring in this harvest that God has called out for him. And so we go from Paul's preaching to God's promises. Now we're going to see God's protection. We're going to see God keep His promises. Let's pick up in verse 12 all the way to 17. But when Galileo was proconsul of Achaia, The Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, saying, This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law. But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Galileo said to the Jews, If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint. But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves. I refuse to be a judge of these things." And he drove them from the tribunal, and they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Galio paid no attention to any of this. So we see God's protection. God's protection. In those first verses we see the hostile Jews, those who've rejected the gospel, not the Jews who believed it. We see them mount a united attack and you see why we had to be specific. God did allow an attack to come against him. We'll see what comes of it, though. They bring Paul before the proconsul. That's like the governor. They bring him before the governor, Gallio, and they want Gallio to find Paul guilty of breaking Roman law. See, the Jews know the Romans aren't supposed to weigh in on purely Jewish matters, interpreting religion and that kind of thing. What they want is they want Gallio to think that Paul is a Roman threat. And so they say he is going against Roman law. The idea must be Christianity is not a sanctioned Roman religion. This is not Judaism, this is Christianity. No one has approved this. They don't accept all these things that are important about Roman society and Roman religion. This is an illicit religion that this man is preaching. So they want him to get in official trouble. They want the Romans to weigh in on this. And this is a moment of faith for Paul, because Paul has been here before. And again, the Romans have beaten Paul before. So when Paul stands before a Roman authority with people accusing him of breaking the law, nothing about this situation should be taken for granted. Like, Paul is just, oh, I'm so relaxed. Of course this is going to go well. No, he has every reason to think it won't go well. But it's in that moment that we actually see God come through according to his promise. Galio shows discretion. He recognizes this isn't a Roman matter. This is not our law. This is not some vicious crime. You're not bringing before me some murderer. This is about your guys' law. This is about you guys disputing over your religion. And you really appreciate this moment of discretion. Galileo says, I refuse to judge this. Like Paul was getting ready. Paul knows how to defend himself in a public setting. Paul's getting ready to make his argument. He's like, and Galileo's like, no, get out of here. I'm not even hearing this case. I'm not even hearing this case. I refuse to judge in this case. Which you have to say, praise God. Praise God that Paul wasn't just brought before the people who were going to give him a caning. Praise God Paul wasn't thrown in the stocks again. That's God answering prayer. That's God keeping his promise. And in that moment this has been called by commentators the first official Roman recognition that Christianity is not a crime. We take so many things for granted. they would have been rejoicing for the time that they actually went before the authorities and were not judged as being criminal. But before we go too far and give Galio too much credit, we go from Galio's discretion to Galio's injustice, and that's verse 17. So they all, it seems like the crowd, probably the Greeks, Maybe there's some Jews in there. It's not clear. They all see Sosthenes. Sosthenes must be the replacement for Crispus or perhaps there were multiple leaders of that synagogue and he was one who stayed behind. But in the wake of the failed case, they see Sosthenes and they beat him right in front of the tribunal. Gallio just can't be bothered. This isn't like this escaped Galio's notice. This is like Galio didn't care. Either Galio didn't care because he didn't like that they brought the charge and he thought it was all bogus and maybe he thinks they deserve it, or Galio doesn't care because in a lot of these places there was real and potent anti-Semitism. So when the crowd sees him dismiss the Jews kind of disrespectfully, maybe the crowd's like, great, we're going to go beat the Jewish guy. It's really a pretty ugly scene. It goes on right in front of the Roman authorities. And so it's there that you realize Gallio's not exactly a great guy. So we rejoice that he didn't just beat Paul. But that is not how you handle justice. If this guy Sosthenes is guilty of anything, then Rome should take care of it. Rome's not supposed to outsource to whatever mob wants to beat down the leader of the synagogue. This is a bad moment. Gallio doesn't stop it. Gallio won't do a thing. As we emerge out of this scene, Gallio, on the one hand, has made Christianity at least pass one hurdle. It's not criminal. He's not going to weigh in on it. But then, like, moments after, he's totally complicit in this act of injustice, absolutely unjust, And so you realize that the saints in Corinth were not supposed to especially trust Galio. Galio was not the most faithful of authorities. But who was faithful? God was faithful. Let's zoom back out of Galio's injustice and ask ourselves, why was it that Paul wasn't just beaten down? Why was it that Paul wasn't just thrown in prison? It's because God gave him his word. Do not be afraid. They will not attack you to harm you. And God, with all those wasps swarming around Paul, God was completely true to his word. And Paul is not harmed. Galileo may be unfaithful, but God is faithful, and God keeps his word. God provides for Paul. God protects Paul. God keeps his promises. And as a result, Paul will not be silent. Saints, we cannot be silent. Do not be silent. Remember anew. Drive this truth, not just from into your brain, but from your brain deep into your heart, that no one will be saved if Christians go silent. No one will be saved if Christians go silent. Why might we be silent for all the reasons we're seeing playing out in Paul's life? We might be afraid. We might recognize the opportunity, but we're trembling inside. We might be afraid. Thank God at this stage in our lives, it doesn't really look like bodily harm is what we're expecting. But we might be afraid of what happens to our relationships. We might be afraid of everything that goes wrong because we opened our mouths with that person. We might be afraid of what happens to our reputation at work. We might be afraid of whether we lose our job altogether because of who we are in Christ. We might be afraid of any number of consequences. We might be thinking just like Paul could have at Corinth. We might be thinking, there's no way God is saving anywhere. And here, we're just like little Las Vegas. This darkness, this is where you think the gospel is going to flourish. Do you see what we're like? Do you see the things we believe in? Do you see the things we talk about? Do you see what we do on the weekend? Reno's a bad place. We might be thinking, I'm not going to share the gospel here. What would happen if I shared the gospel here? Nothing. But saints, remember, salvation requires that someone speaks. Salvation requires that someone speaks. Do not be silent. And you have the same motivations Paul has. Not the precise promises, but you have the same foundation that he stood on. Do not be silent because God is with us. That is the promise of Jesus Christ. The Great Commission ends, and I will be with you even unto the end of the age. Christ is with us, saints. Christ is with His people. Christ is with us in this dark city. Christ is with us in this dark state. Christ is with us in this dark country and in this dark world. Christ is with us. And He is with us, saints, no matter how far it goes. We don't have a promise, like in Corinth, these people will never hurt you, but we have the promise that says that even if we die, we will live. Christ is with us no matter how far this world takes us. Christ is with us. Saints, don't be silent. Do not be silent because, Saints, God is still saving. No matter how bad it looks, no matter how bad Reno looks, Nevada looks, the United States looks, the whole world looks, God is still saving. He would still be able to say to you, don't you realize I have many still in this harvest? I have many still in this city. I have many still in this world. And we do it entirely backwards. Sometimes we look at the world and we say, it's so wicked, I can never imagine anyone being saved. God actually would look at it the opposite. Wicked places are exactly where we'd expect people to be saved. Wicked people are exactly who need to be saved. Maybe our failing is we think some people are the good people and those are the likely ones to be saved. Whereas all the wicked people, oh, no way. No, wicked all of us without Christ. Dead all of us without Christ. All of us need that saving gospel and the good news is that gospel is made for the wicked. That gospel is made for the dead, and so we absolutely expect that God will save in the dark. We absolutely expect that God will save even in the places that we think are the least likely. So, saints, do not be silent. God was saving in Corinth, God is saving in Reno. Let's pray. Our God, we thank you for a gospel that saves. We thank you that your goodness is greater than our evil. Your light is greater than our darkness. We thank you that you are the God that is still saving. And we pray that you would work in us, your people. Lord, help us to speak. We confess we have been afraid to speak. We confess we have given up on people. We have given up on cities. We confess it all to you. Forgive us, Father, and turn us to be a people faithful to speak. And Lord, we long to see your gospel spread. We long to see those in this room who don't trust in you. We long to see them saved. We long to see our families. We long to see our neighborhoods. We long to see our friends. We long to see this world. Saved. And so God, use us. Even today, use us. Make us faithful to speak. Tomorrow, use us. Make us faithful to speak. Give us opportunities, Lord. And we pray that you would allow us to see you bringing in that harvest, to see you saving souls. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.