with me and he mentioned maybe Mark or Timothy or one of them. And Titus actually went back one time when he was with Paul. He left. And there's different opinions on why. Some say the heat got too hot. I don't know. I wasn't there to find out. But, nevertheless. Anyway, did anybody think to read Ike's? If you didn't, it's okay. I know it's hard to remember all that. But we're going to Pick up in Acts 18, we probably won't make it very far. Let's go read a few verses, and then we'll stop and kind of go over some things, because I want to lay some foundation here tonight for different reasons. But Acts chapter 18, verse 1. Somebody read down to verse 3 for me, please. Okay, this word tent makers does not appear in the Bible very much. We know that, right? Does anybody know how many times it appears? There's another homework assignment. It's real easy to figure that one out. But anyway, a lot of people, and I'm going to mention a lot of things here for a couple moments, so try to stay with me and not get lost in your imagination. There's arguments people make about preachers being full-time. I've heard a lot of people say, well, Pop worked here as a tent maker. I said, how many times did you read that in the Bible? And when you stop and put it in context, he was a tent maker here, but understand, in many places Paul went, the church did support him financially with whatever means he needed. Here at Corinth, if you study this out, he spent some time here. He was here for at least a year and a half. So it wasn't like he just passed through for a few weeks and moved on. It was a big difference. And he met some resistance. Now if you remember, last week and a week before, I mean last week we talked about Greece and I kind of corrected myself there on the history lesson briefly. He didn't hang around Greece very long because of their unbelief. They actually, he gave them the gospel. If you back up in Acts chapter 17 verse 32, this was when they had heard the resurrection of the dead. Some mocked and others said, again in this matter, so Paul departed from them, from among them. Howbeit a certain man claimed unto him and believed, and he gave him some names. Now, the significance of this here, when he was in Athens, cause Corinth was still considered Greece. Athens and Greece were about 50 miles apart. But he was so aggravated, I think, or discouraged that he left, remember Mark, or not Mark, but Timothy and Luke, or Silas, I'll get the names right in a minute, Timotheus, as it says, and Silas was coming to them. He asked them to come, sent word that he needed them, and he left before they even got there. He said, I've had enough of this place. Okay, the reason being, and sometimes this happens in our life, use this for an experience, not for an excuse. Sometimes people are hardened to the gospel to the point there's no use in wasting your time. There are people like that. You will run into people like that. We were out setting monuments one day. A young man was with us. And I won't say who because of the public audience I currently have for different reasons. And he's well known in any way. Great young man. He's a fine young preacher. And I admire him. He witnesses to everybody he can. And if they don't bring it up, he'll bring it up. And he started to witness to this gentleman. He said, you got a church here? He said, no. And I could tell by the way he said no, the conversation was over. That was the end of it. Well, this young man proceeded to try again and try again. And I finally kind of got him. I said, he don't want to hear it. That's it. And he finally caught on after a few times because without basically coming out and saying it, the guy could basically come right to the point of saying, shut up. He didn't come out and say that, but he just was well. And when someone is that close to the gospel, unless the Holy Spirit is absolutely grinding a hole in your heart, leave him alone. Unless he is literally ripping your heart out of your chest, and when he is, trust me, you will know it. Stop. This young man said, but I feel like God kept pressing me. He said, I'm going to see him again at the judgment seat. I said, you may do it. I said, but you done all you could. I said, he wanted to hear nothing you had to say, not a word. And when someone is that closed, sometimes the best thing you can do is try to plant a small seed and move on. Because Paul said, you know what, there's fertile soil somewhere else. So we pick it up in chapter 18, and when Cindy read these three verses. So Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth, again, they're about 50 miles apart, and Corinth on both sides of the city was a dockage where the sea came up and they had seaports and so they had merchant ships coming and going all the time. This was a major city of trade. Some interesting things I want to mention here. Now this is something somebody else read or wrote down. I'm just reading here. So Paul was such a man, he made a brilliant contrast to the pagan philosophers of Athens with their studied philosophical detachment for a man like Paul burning with prophetic unction. Smug complacency in his ears was too much to bear. So he left Athens in search of more receptive fields. So eager was Paul to get out of Athens that he'd not even wait for Silas and Timothy. then in route Paul must have felt at least a little dejected as he walked the 50 miles to Corinth. I'd say he probably did, no doubt. He just sat there and preached a perfect message to the people of Greece, to Athens, and basically destroyed everything they believed and explained it, and they said, you're just some old babbler. You're nuts. So, that since coming to Europe, he had suffered a terrible beating in Philippi, civil rejects in Thessalonica and Berea, and indifference in Athens. That'd be hard not to get discouraged, wouldn't it? This is his second missionary journey, and these are the things he's running into in new cities. So after preaching there, like I said, Corinth was about 50 miles directly west of Athens. This happened somewhere around A.D. 50, 51. We place it primarily between 49 and 52. Does anybody remember what year the day of Pentecost was? I'm going to keep asking these questions until we get them. Good guess. No. Anybody got a shot at what year A.D. Pentecost was? 30. around eighty thirty. So we are about twenty years removed to this point. So we have some time lapse here. Now let me read this to you. So between the years of forty nine and fifty two Paul traveled approximately two thousand miles by foot. If you remember last week on the projector screen we saw that. at about 1,000 miles by boat. If you remember, it gave us the mileage. So this is all estimations. That means this nearly 50-year-old man walked equivalent of the distance between Raleigh, North Carolina and Denver, Colorado, just to tell people about Jesus. That's an approximate. But stop and put that in perspective for a minute. How far are we willing to go? And this is a little bit of application at the beginning of this, much more than just interpretation. All right. Now, I want to set a little tone here for the city of Corinth. You know it, but I'm going to get into more detail. So corrupt was Corinth that it was actually made into a verb, so that to be Corinthianized. Let me tell you what that meant. It meant to be morally corrupt in the extreme. This commentator writes that Corinth was in every more wicked city, larger cities of the empire, at this period. The very term Corinthian came to mean a bad word, profligate. Basically, if you all know, you may not know this, but Rome was not considered the moral capital of the world by no means. They were extremely corrupt, they were sinful, they were lustful, basically everything God was, they was opposite. They were not quite as bad as Sodom and Gomorrah, but they certainly was brothers with them. To Corinthianize, and these are going to be some strong words if you're watching on live stream. Corinthianize meant to practice whoredom, whoremonger. B.H. Carroll wrote of Corinth, religion was too vile to discuss publicly. No decent tongue could describe what occurred under the name of religion in Corinth. They called it religion. If you remember, I said last week there was a temple there. I've mentioned this before. Does anybody remember the name of it? Or does anybody know the name of it? Diana, I don't remember if Diana was at Corinth or not, it might have been. I was thinking Aphrodite's but you may be right, I may be wrong on my names right there. We're going to go with one of the two's right. It was a temple, a goddess temple there and that temple was prostitutes. What the Corinthian people would do in the name of religion would go there and have relations with prostitutes and then go to church. And this teaches us in the book of Corinthians. G. Kimber Morgan wrote of Corinth, it was a proverbial forced democracy. Men at the time, when describing, desiring to describe utter corruption, said they live as they do in Corinth. So you see how bad the city of Corinthians was. It was not a good place. It was not a place of moral upholding by no means. So we see that Paul went there and I would venture to say Paul knew a little bit about what he was getting into when he went there. The other thing I want to apply to you and help you realize and see and know is that if the gospel was good enough for these people back then, how wicked as they were, is it not good enough for our people today? Is there anywhere we should not be willing to take the gospel? I don't recommend this unless you know without a doubt God tells you, but I know a preacher personally, mom and dad knows him. They may remember this story. He said he felt led to stop at a bar one night and hang up a flyer to a revival. Walked in, hung the flyer up, and basically walked out. Eugene McAlister, if I'm not mistaken, is the one that done it. I think I've heard it. I don't know if you all remember that story or not. Mom's shaking her head yes. You remember that story? Am I right on who it was? Again, I'm not saying, but the bottom line is the gospel's supposed to be powerful enough for anybody. The gospel's not the problem. We're the problem. So Aquila and Priscilla came there. Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome and came unto them. Now, the reason for this, three different occasions the Jews was run out of Rome. Claudius was the emperor at the time, he was Caesar of Rome, and basically he didn't like Jews. A lot of times the reason why sometimes is because the Jews had their law that they were not going to let go of, then the Romans had their laws. And sometimes it matters what happened in the Jewish community that the Romans could care less about. It meant nothing to them. But the Jews would get in a big uproar and a big tizzy over it, and they would take it to Romans and say, hey, we got this problem, we need you to fix this. And they would say, that's nothing to us, just leave us alone. And so sometimes I think the Romans would get tired of them and just run them out. That's what is believed happened here. He just got tired of hearing them and dealing with them, so he said, get out of Rome, I'm tired of dealing with you. So they came here to Corinth. Not sure why, unless they were led of God. A lot of places I would go, they'd probably be the last. But anyhow, verse three, because he was of the same craft, he abode with them and wrought by their occupants, they were tent makers. So there's some debate, we don't know when they were born again, if Paul witnessed to them, and they were born again here with him, or if they were born again when they met up with Paul. We don't know for sure. We just know that they lived together for a while, worked together, I don't need to rephrase that, worked together, I don't know about living together, I'm sure they had their own tents. But anyway, so, and they were, kind of bonded together for the betterment of the gospel. Verse four, and he reasoned in a synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. Notice verse six. When they opposed themselves and blasphemed, he shook his raiment and said unto them, your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean, from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. Have you ever heard that before in the word of God? Does anybody remember who else made a similar statement? Jesus. If you remember when he was here on earth, oh man, He kept telling the Jews, he kept going to them, he kept going to them, finally he said, enough. And he turned to the Gentiles. He basically started speaking to the Jews in parables about point forward, and he only spoke to the Jews in parables all the time. He spoke to Gentiles or their disciples in plain terms, but everyone else he spoke to in parables. So, does anybody got any questions or comments on any of that so far? your wrong preacher your right preacher or anything. Because I'm not always right. I think there were. Yeah. Well, that's a off the wall kind of question. Tribulation period. That's why, that's one of the reasons why we have the tribulation period. That is the main reason I believe it happens is because that's when God renews his covenant and it's going to take that to get them to see. When the antichrist comes into the temple, three and a half years and says, you're going to sacrifice to me. They pulled the veil themselves. Not when you're a Jew. I'll agree with you, but at their mindset, remember Sunday morning when I was preaching, and I may not have did a good job, but I was trying to describe the embarrassment, just the downright humiliation of crucifixion. To have anything to do with it, to be associated with it in any way. To have a family member crucified was total embarrassment. And that's how it was looked at. And so they can't get past certain things like that. And you're seeing that here, right here. They had the Apostle Paul preaching to them. It doesn't get any better than that. Jesus himself came down. You're right. It's happening. In this country, it definitely is. I think there are countries that the gospel is still exploding. But it's countries that have not heard the gospel for years, centuries. They're hungry for it. We've had men of God stand in this pulpit. If you remember, with help ministries, there have only been one or two, I think, from Nigeria. They've been one or two here. I haven't heard, I don't know. Good chance they're not alive today. If they are, I'll tell you, it's nothing short of a small miracle. That is one of the most persecuted countries in the world right now. If you're a Christian, they have slaughtered hundreds of Christians over the last few years, thousands. But the gospel just keeps spreading. It's amazing. So anyway, let me mention a couple more things here real quick on this and we'll be done. But they opposed him, they blasphemed him, they basically said, you're wrong, that's false, we don't want to hear that. He shook his raiment, in other words, that was just a symbol of like, hey, I'm done. I'm shaking off everything there is to do with you, with the Jews here, I'm finished with the Jews in this area. And also, if you remember, Jesus told the disciples, if people won't receive them, I believe it's in Luke, he sent the 70 out, shake the dust off your feet as you walk out. In other words, I want nothing to do with this place. I'm leaving, I'm not taking anything with me. So Paul left that synagogue and he said, your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean from henceforth. I will go to the Gentiles. In other words, he said, I've done everything I can possibly do to try to show you all the truth of the gospel and you refuse to hear it. You refuse to see it. I'm finished. So we see exactly two straight times Paul got up and preached and was utterly rejected. So don't ever think you're not gonna be rejected sometimes for giving the gospel. If the Apostle Paul was rejected, I'll guarantee you, you and I will be too. The only person I guess that was ever a better preacher was Jesus Christ himself. That's a pretty good company to be in. It's what was rejected then, it's what's rejected now. It wasn't him necessarily, it was the word of God. Completely. And let me say this too, and we're kind of here on this area. A lot of public figures, politicians, whatever, will claim scripture or God to a certain point. David Gibbs said that, you know, he's a lawyer with American, I can't believe I forgot him, anyway. I know who's with anyway he's when it started. Christian Law Association I think that's it. They run strictly by support from churches they don't they don't charge churches or Christians for legal support anyway. Now I forgot what I was going to say. Oh, he said, you can go to politicians. He said, I'll talk about being conservative. He said, they don't mind that. You're not going to shake him. He said, but when you switch the subject to righteousness, he said, they get real uneasy real fast. There's a difference in being conservative and being righteous. And it's black and white. It's not blurred. Thank God for conservative people. But how about some righteous people? When I say righteous, that means you're born again, you're right with God, you're saved, you proclaim Jesus Christ as your Savior and nothing else. And that is where the dividing line is. A lot of people will run right up to that. But when you get to that point right there and you really nail them down, you'll find out where they really stand. Yes, sir. The difference between religion and salvation and relationship and fellowship. If you're in a fellowship and relationship with God, friend, you're not—something's wrong. It's that simple. So, alright. Anybody got any other comments or questions? We're working on it. Yes, we'll do our best. I'll at least mention it because the wheels are turning, ain't they? That's fine. Verse seven, he departed Tanzania into a certain man's house named Justice, one that worshiped God, whose house was joined hard to the synagogue. So sometimes the leaders of certain synagogues, their house was built onto the synagogue, and that is where that leader lived. So again, we see the church, and I'm not telling you all to do this, please don't take this out of context, I'm just saying, The pastor, please don't build me a house built onto the side of this church. I will not live in it if you do. I'll just go ahead and tell you. Sandia Morgan's almost too close for me, much less any closer, but anyhow. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house, and many of the Corinthians, here he believed, were baptized. This guy, Crispus, is very, I want to mention this. Next week, write this down. Somebody read 1 Corinthians and tell me where you discovered this guy's name again. It does matter. 1 Corinthians. We're just gonna look at it tonight, but I'm out of time to go into much more. So let me read that again. In Christmas, the chief ruler of the synagogue believed on the Lord with all his house, and many of the Corinthians hear him believe and were baptized and spake the Lord to Paul in the night by vision. Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace. For I am with thee, and no man shall sit on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city. And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. The reason it's believed the Lord spoke to him is two or three reasons. If you remember, I just read to you on his second missionary journey, he had been beaten and thrown in prison in Philippians. Yes, a great revival, we know the great story, Let me ask you a question. Are you willing to get beaten to a pulp and throwed in jail to preach the gospel today? A lot of people says they are. I'm not sure when it comes down to it if we're willing to do that. So he was beaten. He was threatened in Thessalonica and Berea. He was basically run out of town almost, if you will. He went to Athens. Basically most of them, Man, you're a nut job, leave us alone. So he comes to Corinthians. He went to the Jewish synagogue first. They looked at him and said, buddy, you got it all wrong. We don't want nothing you got to say. And so he had met such resistance that second missionary journey, I don't know this. Now this is somewhat speculation, okay. This is Craig theology from reading other commentaries and opinions and my own thoughts. Remember, he was still a man, just like you and I. Apostle Paul was no different than us when it came to being flesh and bone. Yeah, he got to experience things you and I and most people never get to experience, but he was still a human being. I think he was to the point that he was saying, I'm ready to get on a boat and I'm headed back to Antioch. I think that's where he could have been at, and I think that's why he had that dream and the Lord spoke to him in a vision. saying, Paul, don't quit. I need you here. The Bible doesn't say that, but Lord gave him a vision for some reason. So, again, Let me repeat it again, that's my opinion. I don't know anywhere in the Bible that it actually says here why he had that vision. I'll try to study it out some more and see if somebody a lot smarter than me has an answer. But from what I know, what I've read, what I understand, the way I'm looking at it, I think he was met with such resistance this time, I think he was getting a little bit weary. It's my opinion. Again, he was human. And if you don't say you don't get frustrated and discouraged sometimes and want to quit, I don't know what you're drinking daily, but I want some of it. As long as it's legal. Take it in a legal fashion. Because I need some. So we see after that, he stayed there a year and six months. And we'll pick back up there because there's a lot more to go over through this. Remember, read 1 Corinthians. And if you haven't read chapter 18 of Acts, try to read that also between now and next week. And we'll pick back up here and take back off and try to cover the rest of this chapter. I wanted to spend just a little bit of time, though, and I may paint a little bit more of a picture on it, on just how corrupt Corinth was. Our country is definitely headed that direction. There's no doubt, you see it in the news every day. There's a high school coach, I wanna say from the state of Washington, football coach, but I don't know for sure if that's right or not what state he's from. Some of you may have seen it. Okay, Janet says she thinks so. Some of you others may have seen it. Silently, by himself, he knelt down in the field and prayed after the game. They told him to stop. He didn't. The students joined him on their own mission. He didn't ask them to. They fired him, and he's been without a job, and it's in the Supreme Court right now. And it looks like he might win. There was another professor, a teacher at a college, would not call, I think it was a college, would not call a student by their preferred pronoun. So they fired him. Thankfully, he won recently, and they owe him $400,000. for back pay and some aggravation. So we're winning a few battles in the court system. That's good, but we need to win more spiritual battles outside the court system. We won't need the court system. That's what you're going to get. You can't put Ahab and Jezebel's in and expect Joseph's. That ain't going to happen. Yeah. Tried to stop it, but they can't legally. They can't do it. Our students have much more many more rights than what our teachers and administrations and Board of Education's realize I want to miss. Our kids in our public schools can carry a Bible with them to school. They are allowed to get it out. They're allowed to read it as long as it's not during instructional time. And by the way, that goes for comic books. Anything is my point. If it's not on instructional time, they are perfectly allowed. I can legally go into a schoolhouse on the kids' lunch hour if it's student-sponsored and preach the unadulterated gospel word for word. But it has to be student-sponsored and student-led. And I can do that, legally speaking. And I have mentioned that to our teens. I'm going to mention it again. So not all rights have been taken, but most of them have. Again, I say this all the time. I get into a prison and preach all out of age or not can of school. Something's wrong. Well, there's something on that, too. There was one just now denied, and they're throwing a fit over it, a satanic club in the school system. The Satanists are trying to get those started, and they're doing it with the guys that they want to teach them that hell's not real, and they're playing games with them. They're teaching Satan is good. It is really, really not a good thing. I'm going to be honest with you. I don't like this, but according to our Constitution, they are allowed to do so. I say don't let them either. but I don't know how much longer we're gonna fight that battle and win that one. What we gotta fight is on our knees, and then telling people about Jesus. That's where you'll win the battle. So, alright, does anybody got any other questions, comments, or gripes? Yeah. We are one of the most liberal abortion countries in the world. A lot of countries still don't allow it. We are more liberal than most countries on abortion. That's been coming for a while. We'll stop there. A lot of our lawmakers, even on the federal level, has introduced a bill like that. They call it post-birth abortion. Is it off? Nancy Pelosi has tried to introduce a bill like that.