Welcome to Bible Believers Fellowship and the ministry of bbfohio.com. I'm Pastor Greg, and I welcome you to our current events update and then our study in Acts chapter 14, verses one through seven, titled, And There They Preached the Gospel. The conclusion of this two-part message can be found at bbfohio.com. As we now begin, this is part one of two. The current events update. Israel at war, 2-18-24, day 135 since the October 7th beginning of the war. The hostages remain, so Prime Minister Netanyahu stays the course. They have dedicated themselves to full victory over Hamas. He was asked again, he's asked every time he goes in front of anybody and he says they're not fighting in Rafah would mean losing the war. And the Rafah is in the southern part of Gaza. It's a terrible situation, we grant that. The people from the north all went south and now that's where Hamas goes because Hamas uses people as a human shield. And we still remind you, they still have the hostages. If they cared about their people, they would release the hostages. And not surprisingly, Arab Muslims want to keep the hostages and get a ceasefire. That's why when you hear the hostage talks and ceasefire talks not going anywhere, that's why. Because the Arab Muslim supporters of Hamas, they wouldn't claim that they are, but they are. And they want the hostages to remain in the possession of Hamas and get a ceasefire. This is an example of the Qatari PM. Hostage deals shouldn't be conditioned for truths. Okay, you can say that all you want. You took 136 of our people after slaughtering a couple of thousand. You give us our hostages or it's total war. And folks, that's Romans 13, one to five in your Bible. Israel is doing what God has ordained government to do. And I'll say this flat out, I don't care who it is, Christian or not, those who are calling on Israel not to go get those hostages and not to destroy Hamas are anti-biblical and filled with the spirit of antichrist. And just as in America, the leftist unions in Israel stand against the right on every issue. I'm not anti-union, but most of our unions are trash. Most of our unions support every wicked thing in this country. I belonged to a union. I used to go to the meetings and tell them how wicked they are. And every Christian who's in a union needs to speak up whenever they see their union using their money to support the murder of unborn children, gun confiscation, Marxism in all its forms, and standing against Israel, and supporting Sodom and Gomorrah. Sadly, that's what most unions in this country do with the union dues they get. They support wicked, anti-Christ politics. And that includes the teachers' union, one of the worst. But over there in Israel, the union chief calls for elections. He's saying that Netanyahu should resign. And you look at the subtitle, Netanyahu took Israel to the edge, says the name of the union, or something like that. Arnon Bar-David, who slams divisive policies and economic conduct. It's not Netanyahu who has caused this division, it's Hamas. And let me let you in on a little secret, it's Islam. Islam is a wicked religion. Its founder Muhammad was a wicked man, a pedophile, a rapist, a murderer, a thief, and a liar, and a false prophet. Aren't you afraid somebody's going to come after you? Let them. Don't threaten me with heaven. We stand with Israel and pray for peace and victory for the Jewish state. We stand there unapologetically. We stand there and we stand there loudly. We will say it to whoever will hear us. This is a post I just co-opted. It said there's no victory until every last hostage returns home. Amen, amen. We won't stop until they're all back. That's the hashtag bring them home now movement. We're told in the Bible, Psalm 122, six, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love thee. That's not optional. We're supposed to do that. So that's why we do it. We have the banner to remind you. And that map we've shown you several times now, just so you have a visual of what Israel is up against. And I believe if this is the end time Gog Magog conflict, it's just going to get worse until we're out of here. Happy days are here again. Well, yeah, for us. It's the world left behind that faces the darkness. So number two, I just want to make this recommendation. I sent this out as a link to some of our relatives and friends. Tucker Carlson interviewed a fellow named Mike Binns. And it's about internet censorship, but it really goes beyond that. But the whole world right now is interconnected with the internet. So if you censor and control the internet, you're going to control everything. You're going to control banking. You're going to control the news media. You're going to control politics. You're going to control everything. And elections, yes. So I highly recommend that. If you'll notice, that's on our website. All you have to do is go to bbfohio.com and scroll down and watch that interview. It's only about an hour. Ginny and I watched it in the morning and then we came here and sat and watched a half of it with the BBF snow removal battalion that showed up yesterday. But I just want to say this, too. I always have to give a disclaimer. I'm not saying that I recommend everything Tucker Carlson says. I don't recommend everything Mike Ben says. I don't know a lot about the guy. But that interview is accurate. And I did some homework just to check. You know, I always do that. So we highly recommend that video on our website, bbfohio.com. And now I got to say this. I know the Lord is coming soon because the light roast and dark roast are here at the same time. Minus Matt. Still didn't get them all in here. All right. So anyway, David Limbaugh, who is Rush Limbaugh's brother, He's a good Christian man. Again, I don't know everything about what he believes, but he takes a good, solid Christian view on morals and that sort of thing. And he shared this. That's what caught my eye about this. But, you know, Elon Musk, he's got issues. I don't, again, Elon's another one. I don't endorse everything he believes and the Neuralink thing is going to be used by the Antichrist and all that. But he bought Twitter, renamed it X, and said, free speech. What happened? He now has six federal investigations against him. Government is controlled by a Democrat Marxist death call who hates free speech. And it is documented that they've done everything they can to shut down Christians. Do you realize there are people going to prison right now for doing nothing more than standing in front of abortion clinics and urging women not to murder their babies? And they're going to prison because of Joe Biden and his wicked administration. And folks, we better stand up and say something now, because if it keeps going, they're gonna shut down churches like this. Only Laodicean churches will be allowed to remain open. And so Elon Musk, who is really one of them on a lot of issues, but because he allows free speech, they've gone after him now with six separate federal investigations, weaponizing your government to punish political enemies. And then these gaslighters, these wicked lying reprobates on the left, they gaslight, and they not only project and accuse you of doing what they're doing, and then they'll go after people and then complain because they're scared to death now that if Donald Trump is elected, he'll do what they're doing. It's okay that they're doing it. They just don't want somebody doing it to them. It's just a wild time to be alive, folks. And Elon Musk, he responded and said, the public still doesn't understand even a tiny fraction of the power of the censorship government industrial complex. You've heard of the military industrial complex. Well, now we've got a clear censorship government industrial complex right now in this country. It is no different than the Communist Party. It is no different than the Communist Party. Russia, China, you name the communist country, this is exactly what they do to their people. And it's just a clear end call, folks, and I hope you'll join me. It's now or never, as Elvis would say. You had better stand up and do something or it's over. They've already rigged the elections. They've already stole most of the media, news media. I mean, Soros just bought up a couple hundred AM radio stations so he can control the message even on AM radio. Number three. on the same line, our brave new world is ugly. John Lennox is a guy that I like to listen to when he's talking about, he's not, don't listen to him, I don't think he ever does Bible teaching. I don't know what he actually, his theology is. But when he's talking about evolution, creation, the basic discussion of the existence of God, those things. And he pointed out something that you have two main books that you can see playing out before our very eyes in the secular world. One is Huxley's Brave New World. And another is 1984 by George Orwell. But they kind of took different views of how the world would come under the thumb of the authoritarian government. They're both right, even though they're both different. Huxley said that you wouldn't have to use force because people would do it willingly. That's the woke cult. Everybody you know who's caught up in the woke cult is fulfilling the brave new world model. The rest of us are under the 1984 model, where you have to say 2 plus 2 is 5. A man can be a woman. Abortion is not murder. So forth. You see where we're going? That's where we're at right now. Our tech is built on the backs of African slave labor. On top of all this, all that we're seeing in our culture is becoming tech, and the whole thing is built on slavery. And all these snooty, left-wing, white liberals especially just make me sick as they talk about how they want reparations and everything. And they right now are largely to blame for the slavery across the world, whether it's what we're talking about now or our open border in the South, where people are coming over by the tens of thousands being turned into slaves of different varieties right here in the United States of America. This was out yesterday, disturbing footage of children in the Congo being worked to death in a mining cobalt over in the Congo. You can go out and check this out for yourself. This is a very wide range. When they zoom in and show you what is actually happening and they discuss the abuse of these children, it's not fit for discussion in a church service. That's real. That is a cobalt mine. And that is where all these electric cars and all the solar stuff that everybody's having forced down their throat. That's where it starts right there. A bunch of slaves in mines. And there's thousands of these all over the place over there. Mining cobalt that is used in lithium batteries. And here in America, there's two things. Number one, the people who they know would care, they don't tell them this. They just never mention it. But let me tell you something. There's a huge part of the population in America who don't care. I mean, you think about it. If they kill a baby, then why would they care about that? And that, like I said, it's a vision from a distance. You can go out there and do your own research. I've told people, there's some language, so you better be careful. But Michael Moore, who's a nut job, Michael Moore, you know him? You know who I'm talking about? The only video he's ever made, documentary he's ever made, I'd recommend. Planet of the Humans. You'll get details. For a while, he was canceled by the left, even though he's a lefty, because he put that out. It's available on Rumble. Planet of the Humans. Meanwhile, $100 billion is sent overseas to foreign countries, but nothing to the Americans here in East Palestine, Ohio. This is just this time. They've been sending tens of billions of dollars overseas. And right here in Ohio, where the train wreck took place, with some of you remember the images of the chemical cloud that's covered the area, making the kids sick and adults and kids alike, making them sick, ruining the whole region and nothing. A whole year later, and because Biden needs some votes, he shows up. The White House has said all along, and even this week, that President Biden would visit here when the time was right. But aides to the president could not explain why 4 p.m. on a Friday afternoon, just before jetting off to Delaware for the weekend, was the right time. It was back on February 3rd of last year that roughly one-third of a 149-car train operated by Norfolk Southern caught fire and derailed. As the train approached this small town of fewer than 5,000 people, the accident sent flames high into the sky and contaminated local air, soil, and creeks with over a million gallons of hazardous chemicals. This, in turn, prompted the evacuation of half the population and a massive response from state and federal agencies. President Biden vowed to visit the area as he did for disasters in other communities such as Lahaina, Hawaii, but only the Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg, showed up almost three weeks after the disaster. The White House said this week that Mr. Biden is coming here at the invitation of the mayor and looks forward to hearing about the progress made over the last year plus. The president has always said when the time is right and when it made sense for him to go, he would go. And so that's what he's doing. He's going to be on the ground. He's going to get a briefing on what's happening. He's going to hear directly from the people of Palestine. And obviously, this administration is continuing to make sure that Norfolk Southern is held accountable. And we want to make sure that we support the community as it moves forward. The Biden administration says it immediately mobilized the Environmental Protection Agency and other key agencies and departments to help the residents here rebound from the disaster. Jean-Pierre was also asked this week if, while he's here, President Biden will drink the water in East Palestine, Ohio, and she said he will. There's no evidence he did. Talk is cheap. Show us drinking that water that you're telling everybody there to drink. Guys, what was happening that morning, the evening of, and the next day, and the weeks, and the following is amazing. It's absolutely amazing what this community rose to. You know, I want to thank the folks of East Palestine to know, I want them to understand that we're not going home No matter what to this job is done, it's just we're not done yet. There's a lot more to do. A vast majority has been done. Here's a real city. You just heard that. What was your reaction to Joe Biden and the EPA? So basically cheering themselves, giving themselves a pat on the back. We're never going to get help. We're never going to get help. Like, how can they turn a blind eye when our kids are still having unexplained nosebleeds? When they're starting to have seizures, when we have to tuck kids into beds in homes that haven't been tested. We're citizens, we're not politics, we're people. How can they do this to us? That's what they left these poor families. All that talk, they're not helping these people. But they've got, yeah, that's the story behind the story. It's a largely MAGA Trump territory, so only now has it been the right time because an election's coming up. And think of the billions of dollars being sent to kill people over in wars. Can't even spare, they're not asking for one billion. They're not asking for $10 billion, $100 billion, like she's going overseas. They're not even asking for a billion. They just want enough help to clean up their homes, clean up their neighborhoods, to test and make sure that things aren't contaminated before they let their kids play. And I mean, it's just a sick, sad situation. And pray for those people we have many times over the past year. And keep that all in mind when you hear words. Words mean nothing unless it's backed up. So we're at Acts 14, verses one through seven. We're titling it as verse seven. And there they preach the gospel. We'll come to that as we close. But let's read verses one through seven. Acts 14, 1-7, and I have you read the odd verses with me, so start right there in verse 1. And it came to pass in Iconium that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and made their minds evil-affected against the brethren. Long time, therefore, abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands. But the multitude of the city was divided, in part held with the Jews, in part with the apostles. And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles and also of the Jews with their rulers to use them despitefully and to stone them, they were aware of it and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lyconia, and unto the region that lieth round about. And there they preached the gospel, amen? So Paul and Barnabas are in southern Europe. And we'll see that they practice what is laid out in the Book of Acts. First they go into a city and they go to the Jew first, and that's at the synagogues. And we'll see is typical, they face opposition. And then we see their response to assault. And so we'll come to that, but let's start right there with verse one. And it came to pass in Iconium that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews. So we begin where they're going to plant a church in a place called Iconium, but this is not a local church. This is not Christians going to church on Saturday Sabbath. Just repeatedly point that out as we go through Acts. As we mentioned before, Christians met on the first day of the week. But here they're out trying to reach unsaved Jews who have yet to turn to the risen Christ for salvation. And so where they go, it says, and came to pass in Iconium. And these are cities located today in modern Turkey. We've got a nice big map back there if you ever want to look at the Middle Eastern region. You'll see it's a very small part of the world that gets all the attention. It's an amazing thing. There's one word that explains why that part of the world gets all the attention. Jesus. If Jesus had come to the Americas like the Mormons claim, there'd be a lot more attention on what's going on in St. Louis or thereabouts. Jesus was born, crucified, risen in Jerusalem. But where I'm sitting, I can look at that map and I can see Canada, the United States, Mexico. I can see the Congo that we were talking about earlier. I can see Germany, of course Russia and China, they're pretty big land masses. I cannot even see Israel on that map. that tiny little piece of land, and it's what half the news stories today will be about. It's just an amazing thing. If you look on a map, you'd have to look at the ancient map to see Iconium and Antioch of Pisidia, which is where they came from, because they changed the names of those towns. There's the larger map, so you kind of see it zooms in there, up in the what we would call the northwest corner of the map, is where you see Iconium and Antioch of Pisidia, not Antioch of Syria, which is over across the way there, just to keep that fresh in your mind. And Antioch-Pisidia is modern Isparta Turkey, if you look on a modern map. And Iconium is Konya, which is, I think, some of you like that brand of coffee. But I think that's actually where it got its name. Konya, Turkey. And it's a three-hour drive today. But in Paul's day, some of you are aware of this, they didn't have cars. And most people didn't have camels or anything else to ride. They had to walk. And it's a 53-hour walk. Now he's not here this morning, he's under weather I think, but we have one man who walks that far in a week and he never does it in one single day and that's Jim Oldham. And if you want to know how he keeps so fit and trim and looking so young and vibrant, that's how it's walking like that. So, but I think I might have walked 53 hours the entire year last year. But that's quite a walk. I mean, Sean does bike rides that far, but they didn't have bikes back then. So, you know, that's a... Yes. This was rough terrain. Yeah, you're right. So it says that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews there at Iconium. This is apostolic SOP. How many of you know what SOP is? Standard operating procedure. That's a good term to just be familiar with. I saw another military vet with a hand up so you can see that's kind of a military term but it's used standard operation procedure anytime even in football coaches used to use that term a lot. Why? Well, it is explained by Paul in Romans 1 16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, and look what he says, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.