Acts chapter 14. Starting in verse one in Iconium, they entered the synagogue of the Jews together and spoke in such a manner that a large number believed both Jews and Greeks, but the Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brethren. Therefore, they spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord, who was testifying to the word of his grace, granting the signs and wonders be done by their hands. But the people of the city were divided, some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. And when an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers to mistreat and to stone them, they became aware of it and fled to the cities of Liconia, Lystra and Derby and the surrounding region. And there they continued to preach the gospel. In Acts, chapter 14, We have this wonderful little, tiny, short, brief description of the gospel going to Iconium. And what's fascinating is that Luke actually spends considerable time on the gospel, how it penetrated other areas, for instance, Antioch. This seems like a relatively short, relatively brief account. of that event in Iconium, but what Luke tells us, what Luke gives us in this little tiny seven verse snippet of the Gospel going into Iconium is this incredible portrayal of the power of the Gospel as the sword of the Spirit. And in fact, as you read through this text, if you read through it slowly enough, you'll realize that the gospel is a sword that goes forth and it wounds and it convicts and it brings life. But it's also a sword that goes forth and wounds and convicts. And instead of bringing forth life, it simply opens up the passageway for all of the poison and the pus of the unbelieving soul to come spurting out. And it's a sword that also comes and brings peace between sinners and God. But it's also a sword that comes and brings division. And you have actually all of that, all of those sword like functions in this passage before us. And so we begin, first of all, in verse one. And Luke tells us that they went to Iconium. Now, if you remember back at the end of chapter 13, verse 51, once the Jews had incited opposition there, verse 51, they shook off the dust of their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium. Iconium is approximately 75 miles east of Antioch. And the Greek text, and I don't know why the New American Standard actually translates that they entered the synagogue together. The idea is not that they entered the synagogue together, although that is for sure to be true. But it says that they entered the synagogue, and there's a little Greek expression, according to the same. And that expression, according to the same, is in all likelihood an expression that relates to according to the same pattern. According to the same pattern that you see in Antioch, according to the same pattern that the Apostle Paul was prone to do, and that was he went into the synagogues and looked for opportunities, segues, to be able to preach the gospel to the Jews and also to the God-fearers. This fit the Apostle's pattern of ministry. to the Jew first and then to the Greek. And so he would go to the synagogues and he would look for an opportunity. And here it is the same thing. And that's that's what it means. They entered the synagogue according to the same pattern. And then this is really wonderful. And he says, and they spoke in such a manner that a large number of people believe both Jews and Greeks. Now, remember, they're coming out of Antioch, where there had been a pretty intense opposition and even persecution. They leave there in that place and they go now to Iconium. And the text says, and they preach there in such a manner. That many people believed. J.A. Bengal, who is an old New Testament scholar, lived in the late 1700s, makes the little statement here. They preached in such a manner that many believed, he says, persecution had increased their power. And so as they had tasted the opposition, as they had tasted the persecution, they go into Iconium. But notice there's two things about this expression. First, they spoke in such a manner. The second part, believed. In this little expression, you actually have a profound principle for preaching. The manner of preaching is not a matter of indifference. Notice very clearly that Luke says they spoke in such a way, in such a manner, that there was a result that many believed. Now, does Luke, in the book of Acts, emphasize repeatedly the sovereignty of divine grace? And the answer is, of course he does. From beginning to end, in the book of Acts, the sovereignty of grace is always at work, whether it is the subtlety of opening Lydia's heart to believe the things spoken by Paul, or whether it is the cataclysmic event of Acts 9 and Saul's conversion, or the dramatic conversion of the Philippian jailer. Throughout the book of Acts, there is this consistent emphasis that it is the sovereign grace of God alone that brings people from darkness to light. And yet what the apostle or what Luke does in this in this little phrase is he actually zeros in on the human element of the manner of preaching that God was pleased to use to bring people from darkness to light. In other words, the manner of preaching was used by God to bring a multitude to faith. The manner of preaching must be persuasive. The manner of preaching must be powerful. The manner of preaching must be passionate. The manner of preaching must be articulate. The manner of preaching must be earnest. And we can say biblically that God is pleased to own that kind of preaching to change people's lives. They spoke in such a manner that many believe you have the apostle in 2nd Corinthians, chapter four, verse 13, and we speaking in terms of the apostolic band, we are the same spirit of the psalmist and we believe and therefore we speak. The Apostle Paul had a deep conviction. He believed what he had to say, and he communicated it in a way that was persuasive. He could say in that same epistle, 2nd Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 11, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men. Believing in a sovereign God who who works by the power of his Holy Spirit freely does not mean that all of a sudden all you need to do is just become a talking head that disseminates information and gospel facts, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah in a monotone. So the more boring the preaching, the more exciting the conversions. That's not the case. These men went into the synagogue and they preached in such a way. They preached in such a manner that many believed. Now, notice very clearly that Luke says both of Jews and Greeks or Gentiles, those Gentiles would have been God fearers who would have been in the synagogue. And so Paul goes, he preaches. He preaches earnestly. He preaches passionately. He preaches with with articulate expression. He's preaches the gospel with precision. He preaches in such a way that God is pleased actually to bring a multitude, a large number in to the faith. Now, that's the good part. That's the good news. That's the revival. But anytime God's at work, the devil's also at work, right? In fact, You can be certain of that very thing. Wherever God is at work, the devil will also be at work. And so don't think of revivals or awakenings or anything like that as if they were pristine, unpolluted, uncorrupted movements of God. Every time God is at work in powerful, profound ways, the enemy of our souls is always right there, right there to sow the seeds of destruction. And so it was in Iconium. It says, but the Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brethren. The unbelieving Jews in the synagogue actually rose up. Now, what's interesting, New American Standards says they disbelieved. The term that is used here, that is almost always translated to disobey, is the term apetho. Now, the reason I tell you that is because the word patho means I am convinced or I am persuaded. The term apetho, the alpha in front of it, negates the statement. So a theist, for instance, if you say an atheist, you have a person that doesn't believe in God, patho goes to apetho. And the idea, the root idea actually, is that they were unpersuaded. They were unconvinced. But from a gospel perspective, for somebody to sit there and be unpersuaded and unconvinced is for somebody to be disbelieving or unbelieving. And from the gospel perspective, to be unbelieving of the gospel is actually to be disobedient to the gospel. In fact, Balart and Gingrich, the classic Greek lexicon, says the supreme disobedience was a refusal to believe the gospel. And so here, and you need to get this picture in your mind, there are two groups of people in the synagogue. Paul preaches earnestly, passionately, and there's a multitude who believe, that is, in other words, they obey the gospel. And then there's this other group, and they are unconvinced, unpersuaded, they are disbelieving of the gospel, and thus they are disobedient to the gospel. And so you've got believers and unbelievers. You have the obedient and the disobedient. And those are the only two classifications of people that were under the ministry of the word. And it's the same today. There's there's two classifications of people. Now, thankfully, many of those who are in the unbelieving disobedient to the word category can indeed be brought over by the power of God's grace. But the fact is, is that there's there's only two categories and there are always only two categories, the believing, the unbelieving, the obedient, the disobedient. Those are the two fundamental categories. And so, although a multitude believed in Iconium, there were many who were unpersuaded, thus they disbelieved the gospel message. They were being disobedient to the gospel. And this reminds me of what Paul says in Second Corinthians, chapter two. Paul says in Second Corinthians, chapter two. He says, we are. A fragrance of Christ to God. Among those who are being saved. And among those who are perishing. To the one, an aroma from death to death. To the other, an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? What Paul is saying, and this is this is demonstrated in Iconium, is Paul says we are a gospel fragrance. We are a gospel aroma. It is our responsibility to emit the fragrance, the aroma of the gospel. Now, the reality is, is that for some, that is an aroma of life unto life. They come into contact with the aroma of the gospel. It grips them. It opens their heart. It changes them. And they go from life to life. They are transformed. And the gospel to them is the very message of life. But there are others who will hear the exact same message. And instead of it being an aroma of life unto life, it is actually a fragrance of death unto death. For then they want nothing to do with it, and they reject it, and they resist it, and they oppose it, and instead of it being the fragrance of life, it is actually the aroma of death because of their unbelief. Now in Acts chapter 14, what happens is that those who disbelieved, those who were unconvinced, New American Standards says they stirred up the minds of the Gentiles. Probably the better idea is that they poisoned the minds of the Gentiles. Notice they rose up. Those that were unconvinced, those that were unbelieving, those who were opposed to the gospel, they actually rose up. The idea is that they were stirred up, they were agitated, they were irritated. These were not hippies who were content to live and let live. They were absolutely irate that anybody would believe this gospel nonsense. And as a result, they went on the attack. They rose up and they poisoned, literally the text says they poisoned the souls of the Gentiles. This particular word that I just translated for you, poisoned, is used six times in the New Testament, it's the word kakao. It's used six times in the New Testament, five times it's used in the book of Acts. And every other time that it's used in the New Testament, it means to mistreat or to harm, always with the exception here of being physical harm or physical mistreatment. The idea that Luke is communicating here is that their unbelieving hostility As they turned to others, they allowed that unbelieving hostility to poison the minds of others, turning them against the gospel. So in a sense, because of their unbelief, because of their opposition, they actually ended up mistreating others. But their mistreatment was not the physical harm. It was actually the spiritual harm. It was a poisoning of their minds. And so, Bauerart and Gingrich say that this word can also mean to make angry, to embitter, to poison the minds of some persons against another. And so you could imagine the scene very clearly. Here the gospel's been preached, there are people that are believing, and there are others who are just downright angry about it. They are furious, they're irate. They raise themselves up against these apostles and against this gospel message, and they go about the business of spreading their slanderous campaign. And what? And it's not just a matter of saying, you know what, I'm glad that Jesus works for you, but he's not for me. It was a matter of actually turning people's minds, poisoning people's minds against the word of God through unscrupulous slander. Notice what they were doing. The text says explicitly that they were poisoning the souls of the Gentiles against the brethren. This wasn't just a slander campaign against the apostles and against the preachers, but it was against anybody who had dared believe the message. This was a slanderous campaign against anybody who dared bow the knee to King Jesus. And so their unbelief, their rejection, their disobedience became a contagion. No, just like a cancer. Just like a poison. that started to spread through people's minds. You know that that is how the enemy works. The enemy is an expert at turning unbelief into a contagious epidemic. The enemy is an expert at taking people who are angry and bitter and unbelieving and who have rejected that message and using them to infect other people with their unbelief and their rebellion against God and the gospel. That's why, young people, you need to be careful who your friends are. Unbelief can spread like a contagion. Unbelief and rebellion against the gospel can spread. That's why adults, you need to be careful who your friends are. because that kind of contagion, you know, all it takes is one person who is angry, who is embittered, and begins to spew out their poison, and all of the sudden, your perspective becomes jaundiced, and everything that you begin to see and hear gets filtered through that, and pretty soon, you're just as poisoned as the person who has poisoned you. Little opposition, though, didn't stop them. Verse three, therefore, they spent a long time speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord. You have to appreciate that. Therefore, they poisoned the souls of the Gentiles against the brethren. Therefore, they stuck around longer. That's the connection. Now, there's no doubt in my mind, I can't wait. I mean, Jesus is what's going to make heaven heaven, right? But I can't wait to meet Paul. Because I have no doubt that he was one of the most gritty, determined people in the whole world. And here is a guy that the opposition, and you know what? Opposition is terrible. Opposition makes you feel horrible. Opposition makes you question yourself and the whole nine yards. And yet here's what happens. The apostles stay anyways. The opposition increases, the poison is spreading, but the opposition was not perceived by them to be a closed door. What I'm afraid of is that for for too many of us, the minute we encounter any kind of opposition, whether it's in personal witness or or in ministry, any time we encounter any kind of opposition, we're ready to say, oh, well, it looks like the Lord's closing this door. And yet the apostle in first Corinthians could say, The Lord has opened a door of ministry for us, although there is much opposition. For Paul, opposition didn't mean a closed door, it just meant more opportunities for enemies of the gospel becoming friends of Jesus. In the pastorate, opposition is not a sign to leave always. You know how many guys just leave the minute people start to oppose them? They just, well, God must be closing the door. And sometimes, although opposition is always painful and emotionally draining, sometimes the call is to actually stay put, and to be bold, and to oppose the opponents. Opposition is not the reason to think that God is no longer working and you need to go to some other field. And so here's Paul, here's Barnabas, here's his his apostolic band and the opposition has increased, but they spend a long time there. Speaking boldly. In reliance upon the Lord, that's the other thing about about the text, that's a great example for us. Notice Paul doesn't pare down his message. He doesn't say, well, you know what, maybe if I made it a little softer or made it a little easier, made it a little more user-friendly, then maybe the opposition would kind of diminish a little bit. And so what I'll do is I'll recraft the message. I mean, I won't actually mess with the content, and I certainly won't. you know, take away any of the gospel pillars. But, you know, maybe just kind of remove some of the hard edges and back off a little bit, because after all, we want to win people. That wasn't the apostles tactic. He says, bold preaching has got me here, bold preaching is going to keep me here or get me killed. But notice it was boldness upon the Lord. With boldness, it was reliance upon the Lord. The apostle Paul, no doubt, went in, whether it was the marketplace or the synagogue or from house to house, whatever the venue of ministry was. And don't you know that the apostle went in, absolutely prayed up, ready to preach the word. Prayed up, ready to preach with boldness. Prayed up, saying, Lord, you know that I'm utterly dependent upon you to fill my heart and my mouth. I want to say what you want me to say. And as Paul preached, he preached in reliance upon the Lord. And it was bold. It was straightforward gospel preaching. And then Luke says something that is absolutely marvelous and encouraging to anyone who preaches. Notice this very clearly. He they preach with reliance upon the Lord, who the Lord was testifying to the word of his grace, granting that signs and wonders be done by their hands. This is really a great statement regarding preaching here. They're preaching. And what is God doing? God is actually speaking through them. God is actually speaking the word of grace through them, which is the gospel. And so here they are in bold proclamation, independence upon God. And it was God who was speaking, who was testifying through them to the word of his grace. And isn't that, in a sense, what we saw this morning? God was confirming the gospel through Jesus, confirming the gospel through the apostles, confirming the gospel to those who heard through the power of the Holy Spirit. And so the apostle here is preaching the word, preaching it boldly, and he had the confidence, even as he says in 2 Corinthians 5 20. It's as if God is beseeching you through us be reconciled to God. That was the confidence that the apostle had. The apostle Paul didn't enter into the pulpit and open up the scriptures and figure that what he was doing was sharing a few really neat religious opinions with people that might make some mad and others happy and might gain some adherence. He was absolutely thoroughly convinced that as he opened his mouth to proclaim the word of God, to proclaim the gospel, that it was none other than God himself who was speaking through him, addressing sinners, addressing saints, preaching the word with power. And again, right in the midst of opposition. Right in the midst of those who wanted to see him dead. And there's Paul and his companions. And what are they doing? They are undaunted by the threats. They are undaunted by the opposition. And they have decided to stay put until God tells them otherwise. And to speak the gospel with boldness, absolutely confident that what was going on was that God was actually speaking through them, testifying to the word of grace through them, through signs, miracles and wonders. So we noted this morning, 2nd Corinthians 12, 12, the apostle says to the Corinthians, when I was with you, I had the signs of an apostle, signs, wonders, various miracles of the Holy Spirit. This is the apostolic calling card. This is the authentication of the gospel message. And Paul says, I had it with me as I preached to you. And God says, here's the stamp of approval on the ministry. The power of the Holy Spirit. And so once again, God was powerfully at work, even in the midst of opposition, antagonism. You all are wonderful to preach to. you for the most part, not all of you, some of you look like you were weaned on pickle juice, but others of you, by and large, look, you know, very happy and pleased to be here. And, you know, you're listening to the word and you got to smile and you're nodding your head. I'm with you, brother. I'm listening. And, you know, and all of that's good. But could you imagine the apostle there in that synagogue in Iconium or in the marketplace or whatever venue of ministry he was engaged in? Could you imagine that Not everybody was friendly. Not everybody was there to eagerly hear. There actually were those there who were there to oppose. There were those who were there to intimidate. There were those who were there to distract and to take away from the message and to be actually the agents of Satan, to try to pluck up the seed as it was being sown. And yet here's Paul, absolutely undaunted, and day after day, Sabbath after Sabbath, He just keeps on preaching, keeps on preaching, keeps on preaching. And he could look at those glaring at him and probably stare him down better than any of them. But he was undaunted. In the proclamation of the gospel, that this has a result. Verse four, but the people of the city were divided and some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. All of a sudden, the apostles ministry in Iconium is making waves. It's making big deal. It's making the newspapers, so to speak. People are recognizing that something's going on here. You can't have miracle signs and wonders and bold, confrontational gospel preaching taking place without the whole community. knowing it and recognizing it. And so here, the apostle is preaching the word of God, and what is happening is that the city actually ends up being divided into two camps. The word for divided is the word schizo. To bring a division, to separate, to create. By the way, this word schizo is where we get the word schism. And so the word goes forth and it goes forth like a sword right down the middle of this city. And the city is divided right into two very distinct camps. There are those who are siding with the Jews in opposition to the gospel and the apostles, and those who are siding with the apostles in favor of the gospel and for Christ. That gospel sword had gone right through the city of Iconium and it made a division. Now, see, we live in a day and age where virtually any sense of schism, any sense of division is seen to be just inherently bad. But I would remind you that there is a gospel schism. That is ordained by Jesus himself. Keep your finger there in Acts 14 and turn over to Matthew, chapter 10. Matthew, chapter 10. Here's gentle Jesus, meek and mild. Verse 34. Here are the words of the Prince of Peace. Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace. But a sword. For I came to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother. The daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's enemies will be the members of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who has found his life will lose it. And he who has lost his life for my sake will find it. Notice very clearly, Jesus says, I did not come to bring peace. I came to bring a sword. Now, most certainly, Jesus is the Prince of Peace and brings peace between sinners and God. And Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, who is our peace and has broken down the dividing wall. All of that is wonderfully true. But in the context, that statement, I did not come to bring peace, but a sword is in the context of ultimate loyalty to Jesus. Now, in in the overall context of those who have ultimate loyalty to Jesus, there is matchless peace. There's unprecedented peace, but for those who will oppose Christ and those who will follow Christ, there is a division, there is a gospel schism. There is the sword of the gospel that comes and actually separates even the closest of relationships. And that is indeed sometimes what happens when the gospel comes into our lives. We are so enamored with the family, and we are so enamored with the nuclear family, and we are so enamored with being mommies and daddies and husbands and wives and all that. And the Bible addresses those things. But we need to realize that the Bible also says that the very word that says you're to honor your mother and father also says that there are times where the gospel comes and it comes in such a way that if one person is not willing to be supremely loyal to Jesus Christ and the other person is, there will be a division. There will be a sword that goes right down the middle of those dearest, most important of relationships. And the loyalty to Jesus Christ discipleship demands it. And Jesus says, if you're not willing to pay that price, you're not worthy to be my disciple. Unless you're willing to put Jesus Christ first above all other earthly relationships, unless you're willing to put Jesus Christ first and to have supreme loyalty to him, you're not worthy to be his disciple. Make no mistake about it. Sometimes the gospel comes and it is a sword that separates. And some of you know that by experience and some of you know it painfully so, but that is the reality. Anathema on a gospel that has no divisive power. A gospel that never, never says supreme loyalty will set you apart. Supreme loyalty to Jesus will make you make you make a decision between. Sticking behind and burying the dead. Following Jesus and letting the dead bury the dead. That's the call. It is uncompromising, and that is the gospel. This isn't some this isn't some fine print on page 12. didn't come to bring peace, it came to bring a sword. And that sword went right down the middle in Iconium. Now, let me just ask you a question. Do you think that as that device of sword came into the city of Iconium, that indeed it did not, in fact, turn brother against brother? We're not talking about the people that lived on this side of the tracks accepted the gospel and the people that lived on that side of the tracks rejected the gospel. We're talking about a gospel sword that went right down a city that was full of families and extended families. And there's no reason to believe that when the Bible talks about the city was divided. That you're talking about a division that went right down the middle of nuclear family lines. Turn over to First Corinthians, chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Verse 18. Paul says, for in the first place, 1 Corinthians 11, 18, for in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear the divisions exist among you, and in part, I believe it. For there must also be factions among you. So that those who are approved. May become evident among you. There are times where the gospel sword goes forth and even in the midst of a body. Makes a division. And Paul says those divisions aren't all bad at the end of the day. Sometimes those divisions simply come about to show what people's true colors are all about. I mean, I doubt that there would be any one of us here who would say that it was absolutely regrettable that Martin Luther divided the church. I think we would look back and we would say thanks be to God for Martin Luther dividing the church. What happened when that gospel sword made that division in 1517? Those who were approved were manifest. And so here this city is divided into two camps. And it was the buzz of the city. This was the news. I mean, you're talking about, could you imagine, there's the, here's the Jewish guy and the Gentile guy, and they both work at the steel mill. And they get there that morning, they didn't have steel mills in Iconium, I'm sure, but use your imagination. And they get there, and the Gentile guy says, I can't believe it. My wife is following this, this Jesus that Paul is preaching. And the Jewish guy says, you're kidding me. You know, that's a false Messiah. We Jews have a corner on this messianic thing. And I'm just telling you that this, this whole thing is just rotten to the core. You need to get her out of that. And so he gets all stirred up, fired up, and he goes back home and he says, woman, I got to tell you something, you're not going to go to that church anymore, because this is it. You're following this cultic religion, and I'm done with it. And she says, you know what? I love you, you're my husband, but I love somebody else more than I love you. Jesus Christ is now Lord of my life and I love him more than anybody else, and it's better for me to obey him than to obey you. Fine. I'll be seeing the attorney in the morning. That's what the gospel can do. Now, the gospel also brings peace and unity and harmony. Acts 14.5. The harmony is somewhat missed by the new American standard. When an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers to mistreat and to stone them, that's how it starts. The text actually uses a particular word that says that both Gentiles and Jews with their rulers were of one mind. The idea, the word that is used is the word Horme, which means impulse, inclination, desire. And the idea is that the Jews and the Gentiles who opposed actually came together and there was wonderful harmony and unity. Finally, at last, Jew and Gentile getting along. In their common hatred of the gospel. In their common hatred of Jesus Christ, and so here are these Jews and Gentiles, traditional enemies, now friends at last being of one impulse, one mind, one desire with the leaders, and here is what bound them together. Let's kill Christians. Across town, there was also unity among Jew and Gentile. That had been accomplished through Jesus Christ. They were now one new man. John Stott says of some Jews and Gentiles were reunited in the faith. Others were united in their opposition. Now, these people are serious. There's this common attempt, there's this oneness of mind, there's this harmony to do what to mistreat and to stone them. So, in other words, these people are so serious in their opposition to the gospel that they actually are collaborating together. They're actually sitting down having drinks together and thinking about how can we kill Christians? How can we mistreat them? How can we stone them? And the idea of how can we stone them? The idea there is probably how can we create a situation that ends up looking like mob violence where they end up at the bottom of a pile of rocks? Verse six says that they became aware as the apostles, they became aware of it and fled to the cities of Lyconia, Lystra and Derby in the surrounding region. There's a time to stay. And there's a time to go. It was finally time to go. The time to escape was when they saw the danger and Now again, think, we don't know how long they were there, not very long from the account, you can't even, to the best attempts, you can't assume that they were there very long at all. And all of a sudden they find out, hey listen, there's a plot to kill you guys. Actually to do you great harm, to take your life. Just like earlier or actually later in the book of Acts, you have those Jewish guys that all make a covenant, an oath with each other. We're not going to eat until Paul's dead. Well, they either broke their oath or starved to death. But I mean, they were serious. You know, they laid a plan. They were going to kill the apostle. They had it all laid out. OK, we're going to tell them, have the Romans bring him down this road and then we'll ambush him and all that. And so here these people are so filled with hatred, so filled with violence that they actually are plotting on how to kill these people. That seems extreme to us. But I would remind you that the world is absolutely filled. With people who, if they could come into this building, this room right now and kill each and every one of us, it would be their greatest delight. Do you understand that? And in fact, there are places in the world where that kind of seething hatred and violence is at work every single day. And so what you see here may look extreme to us, but that's because we live in a land of peace and prosperity. But let me tell you, that peace will diminish. As we live in a culture that is more and more tolerant of everything except evangelical Christianity. As we live in a culture that is absolutely asleep to the true nature of Islam, we will find ourselves in increasing danger in the decades to come. You need to understand that. Islam is not a religion of peace. It is a religion of violence. It's been a religion of violence all along, and the ones that are peaceful either aren't real Muslims or they're faking it. You need to understand that this kind of violence, this kind of hatred exists everywhere in the world and it exists here and only by the common grace of God has it been held at bay. The apostles find out and they say it's time to go. Now they leave a young baby group of Christians But they leave that young baby group of Christians in good hands. They're not ditching this brand new conceived church. They're leaving it in the hands of God. Just so you know, look at the end of chapter 14. Look at verse 21. By the way, let's back up to verse 19. I'm going to show you how serious these people were. The Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and having won over the crowds, they stone Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. So they are going to achieve their purpose. And in fact, what's going to happen is, even though the apostles have left, they are going to gather up the opponents, the antagonists from Antioch and Iconium, and they're going to track them down. And they will stone Paul to death, but not to death. They just thought he was dead. Verse 21, after they preached the gospel of that city and had made many disciples, I love this, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch. The apostles that wouldn't run at the face of opposition and escape by the skin of their teeth and then even get stoned a little later, everybody supposing them to be dead, what do they do? They end up going back. That is what you could call gospel resilience. Paul was like a a gospel super bouncy ball. And, you know, you just throw up as far as you could. And you know what? He hit something to come right back. Verse 22, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith saying through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. They didn't abandon these new little Christians. They came back at the first opportunity. And what did they find? They found a group of believers that they could go and they could strengthen. Just look over chapter 16. What do you think happened in the midst of this revival in Iconium? Look at 16. Paul also came to Derbe and to Lystra. That is, remember, that's where they go after they leave. And a disciple was there named Timothy. The son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek, and he was spoken of, spoken well of by the brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium. They have to leave. But God didn't leave them. He would raise up a young man in that church named Timothy. And he would see that his purposes were being accomplished. Now, what happens In verse 6 of chapter 14 is they go to like Tony at Lystra and Derby. These three areas are little backwater areas. They are not on any major trade route. In fact, these would be the areas where the hillbillies and rednecks had settled. OK, these would be. He could have said, Menden, Gardnerville and Topaz. All right. Yeah, I mean, these are the people that just like us, gun racks in the back of our truck and NRA stickers on our pickups. This is where they end up, they end up there by God's providence. It may look like a defeat. And after all, they have to leave before they wanted to. It may have looked like a defeat because at the end of the day, the opponents, the antagonists of the gospel were the ones that drove him out. It may look like a defeat because they actually had a plan to kill him and they had to escape and they escaped by the skin of their teeth. It may look like a defeat, but but Luke is absolutely committed to the theological perspective that the gospel is never defeated. ever. And so he says in verse seven, and there they continued to preach the gospel. And so no matter what happens in the economy of God, it all fits into his purpose and his plan. And the rednecks and hillbillies of Laconia and Lystra and Derby needed to hear the gospel. And how are they going to hear the gospel except for these men to be dispersed, escaping by the skin of their teeth, the death threats and going and preaching the gospel? And so here the word of God goes and it is completely unhindered. The apostle would reflect back. Twenty five years later. Let me read you his reflection, he says to Timothy. So now you followed my teaching, my conduct, my purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions and sufferings. Such has happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra. You know what persecutions I endured. And out of them all, the Lord rescued me. The gospel wasn't defeated, Paul wasn't defeated. God used the anger, the envy, the malice of man. To further his purposes. Luke is careful to remind us. That the word of God always advances, it is never hindered, no matter what the circumstances. As you read this little narrative, these marvelous little seven verses, it's easy just to skip by it very quickly as you read. But you know what it reminds us? It reminds us that real, authentic gospel preaching leaves no one able to stand in middle ground. Real gospel preaching absolutely demands that everybody listening says, you know what? I'm either this camp or this camp. There is no middle ground. Real authentic gospel preaching is that sword that makes a division among men that says you are either among the unbelieving or the believing. You're either among the saved or the lost. You're either among the obedient or the disobedient. And there is no middle ground. Identify yourself. Identify yourself. The gospel actually presses us and pushes us. Real, authentic gospel preaching will push us, compress us into the valley of decision in order to say what we really are. And that is the message of the gospel in Iconium. It went forth and you were either with the apostles and with Christ or you were with the Jews and against Christ. You were either with the believing or the unbelieving, the lost or the saved, the obedient or the disobedient. There was no middle ground. And that's what real gospel preaching will always, always do. And it will make those who are seeking middle ground completely uncomfortable. They have to do business with God. Real gospel preaching is a sword that pierces. It's a sword that cuts. It's a sword that is as an aroma of life unto life actually brings healing. It wounds and it heals, but there is also a sense in which the gospel sword goes out and it makes its cut. It's the surgeon's scalpel that goes deep, and what happens is instead of bringing healing, it enrages, it divides, it causes schism, it creates anger, and all of the sudden, the pus and the poison that's in the soul towards God starts to ooze out. Could it be that one of the best testimonies of a God-owned ministry is not the friends it attracts, but the enemies who oppose? The reality is that each and every one of us, as followers of Jesus, are better known not by our friends, but by our enemies. And if you're busy speaking the gospel, you will have enemies. That leaves us with the reality tonight that there are only two groups of people in this room. The believing and the unbelieving. The obedient and the disobedient. And God, who is the searcher of all hearts, knows exactly where each and every one of us stands. There is no hiding from the omniscient God. And so where do you stand? What side of the gospel sword do you fall on? Let's pray. Father, we do come to you right now in the name of the Lord Jesus. And we pray that as the sword of the gospel pierces, we pray that it would pierce for our healing. And Father, if we are among those that have the poison in the pus and it started to ooze out, we pray that you would Clean it all out. No matter how painful the process. And father, for those who are here, who who are in the camp of opposing Christ and his gospel, we pray even tonight that you'd be pleased to transfer them to the kingdom of your son. So, Lord, we do commit the ministry of the word to you tonight. And we pray that you would use it for the advancement of your kingdom and your glory in our hearts and lives. And we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.