Open your Bibles, if you would, to Acts chapter 18. We'll continue our study in this wonderful book that we've been going through. We've been journeying through the book of Acts. It's been amazing to see the unfolding of God's eternal will and purpose through the pages of Scripture. We'll be in chapter 18. We've been journeying with Paul and Silas and Timothy through the preceding chapters. because the Holy Spirit has given us a record of their missionary journeys, and that, of course, is for our learning. Scriptures are for our learning, aren't they? They'll teach us the things of Christ. It's absolutely wonderful, and those of you who were at Sunday school will see how much this message will tie in also with the Sunday school message. I'll give you a little brief thing of that, where Paul is comparing the Christian life Like what Travis said, the Christian life is running a race. And he's saying, don't let our past sins hinder us and weigh us down, because it can, can't it? But for the believer, he says, I press forward, remembering that all my sins are forgiven. They're all forgiven. And he presses on to the high calling of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now remember, too, that it's God who's sustaining us and giving us the grace and strength to run the race. Because we can't do it on our own. It's the grace of God in Christ, the Holy Spirit working in us, strengthening us, giving us grace to make it through each and every day. Last week, we looked at Paul having entered Corinth. Where'd he go? Right to the synagogue, didn't he? Right to the synagogue in the city. And what did he preach? Well, he preached that Jesus Christ is the risen Messiah, that he's the Messiah sent by God, the long-awaited Messiah. Well, we saw that some of the Jews rejected that preaching. They mocked Paul. My. They mocked him, but not all. The Lord saved the chief ruler of the synagogue, a man named Crispus, who was one of the Lord's lost sheep. We see that in verse 8. Look at Acts chapter 18, verse 8. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord. Look at that. And not just himself, but it says, with all his house. And then it says, and many of the Corinthians herring believed and were baptized. Look at that. Notice the, because baptism doesn't save, do you notice the order? They believed and they were baptized. Gotta believe before you can be baptized. Ah, that's amazing. That's what the scripture says. So marvel that we're seeing here. What we are seeing here is the birth of the Corinthian church. This is the birth of the Corinthian church who Paul wrote two letters to. This is the birth of that church. It's absolutely incredible. Let's read verses, let's stand up and we'll read verses five to 11 together. Acts 18, 5-11, we'll stand up and read this wonderful text. And when Silas and Timothy were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. And when they opposed themselves in blasphemy, 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. And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man's house, named Justice, one that worshipped God, and whose house was joined hard to the synagogue. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house, and many of the Corinthians hearing believed and were baptized. Then 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 set on thee to hurt thee, for I have, what, much people, that's many in the Greek, in this city. And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. Now the name of the message is many people. Where it says much people, in the Greek that's many. Many people. The Lord had a bunch of lost sheep there. They have to hear the gospel, right? Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And God, the Holy Spirit, takes the preaching of the Word, and He regenerates His lost sheep. They're born again. As the Lord said, you must be born again. They're born again. They're given faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and they're given repentance. So both faith and repentance are gifts from God. And then we never stop looking to Christ, do we? And we never stop repenting. We keep confessing to Christ our sinfulness and His gloriousness. It's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. Now, our sovereign God before time appointed the time and deliverance of His chosen people. This is a fact. Because look at this, Paul, now Paul's preached, and Crispus and many other Corinthians have been saved, but the Lord says, don't leave this city, I got many more. He hadn't even preached the gospel to them. That's called election, beloved. God chose the people in Christ. We don't know who they are, Paul didn't know who they are, so he preached to everyone, didn't he? Preach the gospel, and preach this. Preach this fact, that Christ came into the world to save sinners. Ain't that wonderful? That's wonderful news, isn't it, Brother Tom? We're sinners, saved by grace. That's wonderful news. I'm a sinner, saved by grace. That's wonderful. It's still wonderful news to our ears, isn't it? Even though we're saved. It's like, wow, this is wonderful. My, my, oh my. We say, this is incredible. Christ saves sinners? And who is Christ? God in the flesh. Sent by the Father to save sinners. Scripture says, He was sent by the Father, thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. It's amazing. And so for a preacher, we know that the whole reason the church exists is for the furtherance of the gospel. We proclaim the word. We proclaim salvation in Christ alone, that Christ came to save sinners. He redeems us with his precious blood. And God, leave it in God's hands. Leave it in God's hands. Because he's the only one who can save us, right? You know he can save us without us moving a muscle? Because it's regeneration. You must be born again. Oh my. So our sovereign God, he has a people in this city who he's appointed before time. He's chosen them in Christ before time began. He's chosen the time of their deliverance from the bondage of sin. And he's chosen the instrument that he'll use to have them hear the gospel, which is Paul. And now we know from last week, Timothy and Silas are with him. They're preaching the same gospel, aren't they? Salvation through Christ alone, that Christ is the Messiah. He rose from the grave. God's satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ in the room and place of his people. So think of this as we've been seeing the unfolding of God's sovereign will and purpose. Paul left Berea. He leaves Berea. He goes to Thessalonica too. He leaves that place. Then he goes from Berea to Athens. Now he's come to Corinth. Because our Lord has appointed a time for those many people to hear the gospel. And how shall they hear without a preacher? Well, God sends them a preacher. Oh my, it is wonderful, isn't it? It's wonderful. I remember an old preacher saying to me one time, he says, you know, we're fishing in a stock pond. You ever think of that? My dad and I, when I was younger, we used to go to this stock pond. We used to do creek runs. We used to go fishing along the creeks, right? And he knew all the holes. He could find them just like that. I was amazed. But then as he got older, he didn't want to walk through all those woods, right? He says, let's go to the stock ponds. So we go to the stock ponds. You're almost guaranteed to catch a fish in those things. because there's so many of them and they didn't feed these ones. And so you just toss a line in and bam, you get hit right away. See, all the preacher does is just cast the line, sow the seed. And what does God do? He gives the increase, doesn't he? Oh my, it's amazing. I don't know who the Lord's people are, but he knows. And I rejoice, don't you? Don't you rejoice after the Lord saves us that He chose us in Christ because we never would have chosen Him? My, what a Savior! What a Redeemer is Jesus Christ our Lord! It's absolutely incredible. So Paul has to leave Berea, he has to go to Athens, and now he has to come to Corinth. All by the will and purpose of God. God's guiding him, isn't He? right to where he wants to be. Now, where God wants him to be. And at the exact appointed time, he will preach the gospel, and the Lord will open the hearts of those people. Remember Lydia? Lydia's just down having a prayer meeting with a bunch of other ladies. Lord opens, she attains to the things of the Lord, and the Lord opens her heart just like that. Absolutely amazing. Oh my. So marvel, beloved of God, as our appointed time, it's the appointed time for Paul to be there in Corinth, for him to go to each place that he's preached, and these wonderful truths even apply to the salvation of all of God's elect. Brother Eric, we were in the exact place that God wanted us to be, and we heard the gospel. How many times did we hear the gospel and it just fell on deaf ears? Now, we may not even be able to pinpoint a date, but we know now we're alive, don't we? We know now we're born again. I'm always suspect sometimes of those fellows. We were talking about that, Eric. These fellows got all these dates. Oh, this is the exact date. Well. I just know this. I'm born again by the Holy Spirit of God. I can't give you an exact date, but I'll tell you I'm saved. I'm redeemed. And I know this. Think of this. Somebody asks you, well, when were you saved? Well, I was saved in time and space here, but actually in eternity. Because Christ is the lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. So in God's mind, we were chosen in Christ. But again, like we've talked about many times, that which God purposed and planned had to come to pass in time and space. So God invents time and space, invents this world we live in, creates it out of nothing, puts time in space. We're constrained by time, God's not. He lives outside of time and space. Christ comes into time and space in this world, redeems us with His precious blood, goes back outside of time and space, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us. And we are redeemed. He obtained what? Eternal life for us by the shedding of His blood. That's glorious, isn't it? That's glorious. And again, as I said, all the false gods of Rome and Greece and even today, you always have to do something to please them. It's transactional. There's no transaction in Christianity. Christ has done it all. And we're simply receivers of the grace and mercy of God. My, oh my. Someone says, that's too good to be true. No, it ain't. It's the truth. It's the truth. God is satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ in the room and place of his people. So much so that he says, your sins and iniquities will I remember no more. And Paul tells us, as we looked at in Sunday School, he says, don't let those sins of ours from the past weigh us down. What did an old preacher friend of mine say? Some guy called him, I told you guys many times, I'm going to repeat it again. Young preacher calls up this older preacher of ours, says, oh, I've sinned so bad, I've just, and he says, repent and move on. Don't let it hinder the race that you're running. Don't let it hinder you in the race of life. Because we all have a past, don't we? Every one of us has got a past. And there's things in our past that could haunt us. Beloved, when I see the blood, God tells us, I'll pass over you. I was reading one commentator this week. He said, our sins have been drowned in the blood of Christ. Isn't that amazing? Never to rear their ugly head again. What liberty and freedom we have in Christ, beloved. And Christ came to save sinners, and I'm here to tell you I'm a sinner saved by grace, are you? And I'll tell you this, he's never turned away anyone who comes to him by faith. And that's God-given faith, too. We can't even muster that up. For by grace he is saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. It's grace from beginning to end, beloved, and everything in between. It's absolutely amazing. Let's read verses 9 to 11. This will be our text today. Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a 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. Now I had planned on preaching further down in this text until I looked into these three verses and thought, I can't go any further. I gotta stop at these three verses. I have to. Now, our Lord probably spoke to Paul in a dream, or while he was sleeping, or it was a vision when he was awake. We don't know. We don't know. It happened at night. We know that. And he came to him, and it was a vision from the Lord. And his word clearly states that to be true. Look at verse 9. Then spake the Lord to Paul at night by a vision. Now we've looked at, in our past studies, Paul was bold in speaking the gospel, wasn't he? He was bold in speaking the gospel to the unbelieving Jews. And telling them, in verse six, that their blood was upon them, their own heads. Now, this was interesting. Several commentators believe, and after studying the text, I think it's true too, because let us remember, Paul is just like us. Paul's not a super Christian. Let us not put these Bible characters and think that they're super Christians. Because that's what we have a tendency of doing, right? We vault these fellas up. They're just like us. They're men of like passions, just like us. And we see here, And we know this because the Lord says, don't be afraid. Paul was fearing. Something had made Paul afraid. And I think it's verse six. I think he might have been afraid what these Jews might do to him. Because what had happened in other places? He got beaten. Remember, they stoned him? They thought he was dead! They stoned him! Left him for dead! Well, I don't know about you, but I think that would shake some of us up, wouldn't it? And it's only by the grace of God. I love what Paul did. He's laying there, half dead, and this is the grace of God at work. He gets up, and he goes right back in the city. That's the grace of God. Because in our nature, we go the other way, beloved. Is it not true? I'd be running after you, Eric. And we'd have a whole bunch of us running after us. Right? We would. It's just in our nature. But by the grace of God. You know what God gives us in a time of need? Fortitude. He gives us grace and fortitude to just say, no, this is wrong. To stand up and say, this is wrong. Look at verse 6. So a lot of commentators believe that he was fearful for his life. He was fearful for his life. He's a man of like passions, like us. It's only by the grace of God that we have the grace to be able to not run when we're talking to someone and they're threatening us. I used to do street evangelism and you get that all the time. People, they look at you and tell you they want to kill you. Okay. It's just words. It's just people flexing. One time I was out with a group of guys and this fella picked this one guy up, smallest one of us, and he started going like this, like he was gonna throw him out in the road in front of the cars. And the guy just put his Bible in his arm and he says, you're not gonna do that. The guy put him down and they took off. Lord gave that man fortitude, didn't he? My. Because what would have happened if one of us got put down? Whoa, right? And by nature, right? But see, God quells us. We're to be as harmless as doves, but as wise as serpents. Oh, my. I'm not saying we're to go and put ourselves in dangerous situations either. But isn't this amazing? The Lord says to Paul, be not afraid to speak. Don't be afraid. Do not be afraid. This is amazing. Our Lord knows what's in our hearts, beloved. He knows us better than ourselves. He knows our thoughts. So he knew Paul was having fearful thoughts. He knew this. If it wasn't true, he wouldn't have said to Paul, be not afraid. Right? So Paul's just like us. And remember, you know what this is like, Brother Tom. Tom was a soldier in the battlefield. Paul's in the battlefield here. We Christians are in a warfare, beloved. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against princes and principalities, spiritual wickedness in high places. Look at this, let's read verse nine again. Then spake the Lord, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, to Paul in the night by vision. Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace. Now listen to this in the Greek literal Bible. Now the Lord said to Paul through a vision in the night, do not fear, but continue speaking and do not be silent. In the Greek there, hold not thy peace is one word. Don't be mute. Don't be silent. The Greek word for afraid means to put in fear, to terrify, to frighten, to cause, to run away. Paul was afraid. We're not told what he was afraid of. Again, I think it was from the Jews, but that's just speculation on my part, and we shouldn't speculate, should we, when it comes to the scriptures? So marvel, beloved, Paul is just like us. Paul's just like us. There are times that he's bold, and there are times when he's afraid. There's times when he's full of courage, and there's times he's fearful. There's been times when he's wanted to run away from persecution. But mark these comforting words. Mark these comforting words. Be not afraid, and hold not thy peace. Now, hold not thy peace, again, is one word in the Greek. It means silent stillness, to be silent, mute. So the Lord's saying, don't close your mouth. Don't stop preaching the gospel. Don't be afraid, and don't stop preaching. So what he's telling them is, don't have the fear of man. And we preachers, we're not supposed to fear man. We're not hirelings. Now, I know what I preach sometimes offends people. In no way do we want to be offensive, but the gospel's offensive. Because it strips men down to nothing and shows us our desperate need for Christ, shows us we can't save ourselves, and the only way we can be saved is by the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. But no preacher, we don't seek to offend people, not at all. But preaching the gospel will offend. It will. And so Paul is told, don't be silent. Don't be mute. Preach the gospel. What comforting words that would be for Paul, right? Especially since he's being fearful. He's afraid. And this would give him assurance as he goes forth. And there'd be even more, we're going to see in the next few verses, even more encouragement to go forward. To go forward and preach the gospel. Several commentators think that Paul was thinking about leaving Corinth. Yet even though he had enough to encourage him with Crispus' conversion and the Corinthians, what we see in our text, he's afraid. Because otherwise, if he wasn't afraid, the Lord wouldn't have even mentioned it. You ever been afraid? You ever been afraid talking to someone about Christ? You ever been afraid when someone says something back to you about Christ? Be not afraid. You know why? Because the Lord's with us. Now, we may endure mocking. We may endure that. Yeah. But remember, it's Christ that they're mocking. It's Christ in you, the hope of glory that they hate. That's what it is. Marvel not that the world hate you, the Lord said. It hated me first. My oh my. So this is where Paul's at. And because of that vision, Paul knew what was before him, and so do we. Because it was recorded for our learning. This is recorded for our learning, beloved. And the Lord said to Paul, speak and hold not thy peace. Don't hold back. Don't hold back. Do you think Paul ever softened the gospel? Nope. Not at all. You think Paul ever watered down the gospel? Just read Galatians. You get your answer real fast. He never did. No. People say, oh, don't judge things nowadays. Don't do this. Do you know we make judgment calls every day in our life? Every day. Why are we not to examine what someone's preaching, which we are if we're Bereans, right? That's all. Paul commended the Bereans because they actually checked out what he was preaching. We are to listen to what a man preaches and say, who gets the glory? Does God get all the glory? Does Christ get all the glory? Or is that man bragging on himself? And if that man's bragging on himself, he's not preaching the gospel. If he's telling you a bunch of stories, trying to tickle your ears, he's not preaching the gospel. We preach Christ and Him crucified. We preach Christ, the only Saviour of sinners. We preach Christ, who by His perfect sin-atoning work redeemed His people with His precious blood. We preach Christ came to save sinners, and every person who is born again, I'm chief. You know, that was a difference when the Lord saved me out of religion. Because in religion, it was always, well, you're a sinner, you're a sinner. In grace, it's I'm a sinner. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And I'm here to tell you, I'm one sinner who's received mercy and grace through the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us. It's wonderful. It's wonderful. So Paul said, the Lord says to Paul, don't hold back. Keep on preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't be silent. And just the assurance of God being with him was encouraging enough for Paul to continue to preach the gospel at Corinth, knowing that no man would be allowed to impose any kind of harmful pain on him. would have removed any fear that Paul might have had of those unbelieving Jews. Listen to verses nine and 10. I was looking at Wiest, who's a Greek fella who does Greek translation. Listen to how he interprets in the Greek, verses nine and 10. And the Lord said to Paul during the night through a vision, stop being afraid. but continue to be speaking and do not begin to be silent, because as for myself, I am with you. And not even one person will assault you to do you harm, for I have a large group of people in this city. Oh my. Now let's read verse 10, look at this. Now what comfort here for every believer in Christ. No matter what circumstance we find ourselves in, God is with us. And remember this, God is for us. He's not up there beating us. God loves his people with an everlasting love in Christ. He loves us so much that he sent his son, the word of God, to redeem us from all our sins. The Lord Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, Look at this in verse 10. This is God telling Paul this. For I am with thee. I could preach a thousand sermons right there. God says that, brother Jim, to Paul. I'm with you. My. And no man, look at this. Now, not only is he with them, but he tells Paul that while he's in Corinth, this is amazing, no man shall set on thee to hurt thee. This is God's sovereign providence at work, beloved. See, our God, we believe in a sovereign God, don't we? And he says to Paul, Brother Charlie, he says, not one man is going to hurt you. Not one man, not one person in this city is gonna hurt you. Now, if I said that or you said that to Paul, doesn't mean anything, does it? But God, the sovereign God of the universe says to Paul, I'm with you and no one's gonna hurt you. What comfort that is for us too as believers, right? The same holds true for us, right? At the time of our appointment of death, we shall die, but not a second before. I just love this. As a preacher, and I know just as a believer, I look at this and go, this is marvelous, because God tells Paul, I'm with you, and that's true of every believer. For I am with thee. Oh Lord, burn that in my heart. Burn that in this old sinner's heart. You're with me. You will never leave me nor forsake me. And then he says to Paul, no man shall sit on thee to hurt thee. For I have much people, many people in the Greek, in this city. Or as Weiss brought forth, I have a large group of people in this city. Oh my. So what do we see in verse 10 too? We see the restraining hand of God, don't we? We see that God is sovereign. When God says to Paul, no one's gonna touch you, you know what? Thomasia, no one's gonna touch him, is he? No one! If we say that to each other, well, no one's gonna touch you in Elmon. I can't guarantee that, could you? But this is God saying this to Paul. Oh, how that must... Could you imagine that fear just melting away? God's for me. And he could tell himself, he could wake up in the morning and say, God's for me, God's with me, and no one's gonna touch me while I'm in this city. I bet you he reminded himself this. Just like we can wake up in the morning and be, Lord, you saved my soul by shedding your precious blood for me, a sinner. My, what grace we've received. What mercy we found in Christ. So we see here God's sovereign restraining hand on those ungodly Jews in Corinth. Oh, now think of this too. He could have done that any time, right? He could have done that when Paul was in Lystia and he got stoned. He could have done it before when the Thessalonians chased the Jews in Thessalonica, chased them out of Thessalonica. He could have restrained them, but it wasn't his purpose. He's having Paul stay in this place, in this place, Look at verse 11, and he continued there, a year and six months. It's God's purpose that he was gonna be in that city for a year and six months, because he must preach the gospel, and God's got many people in that city. And he said, the whole time you're in this city, no one's gonna touch you. He had a year and six months of reprieve. What joy must have filled his heart. What joy must have filled his heart. So what can we conclude that the Lord restrained the ungodly Jews at this time and the ungodly people who would come against Paul for harm. And then in other situations, he allowed Paul to go through a trial. Well, we can conclude that those painful trials that Paul experienced were purposed by God, as well as any other part of Paul's life. And Paul had learned that that truth applies to all of us as well. What Paul had learned, that truth applies to us all too. Think of all the trials we've gone through. I think of Colin and your daughter, what they went through. But there was a purpose in that. We don't know what it is, but look at, man, he's preaching, he's getting built up again. There's a purpose. Right? When I came here, some folks left, remember? There was a purpose in that 10 years ago, and here we are now. We don't know why. But there's a purpose in those things. The trials we go through as individuals, the trials we go through as a church, it's all purposed by God. Some things he takes care of right away, right? Other things he lets us go through. But always remember this, for I am with thee. Even through those painful trials we go through, the Lord is with us, beloved. He'll never leave us nor forsake us. my in marvel what we see here in verse 10 we see that god has many people in this city god has chosen a great multitude of humanity that he will save by the preaching of his gospel. Again, we don't know who they are, so we preach the gospel to everyone, and God does the saving. Can you save yourself? I can't save myself. No, not at all. But I can tell you about someone who can save anyone who comes to him, and his name is the Lord Jesus Christ. Right? How do I know that? Because he saved my soul. I can't, Tom, I can't tell you about my hometown because you've never been there. But I can tell you I've been there. I grew up there. Same with you with your hometown. We can't speak what we don't know. Oh, my. My, oh, my. So we see in verse nine that the fear of man must never stop the mouths of God's servants. Never. And the Lord encouraged Paul in a vision to faithfully continue preaching the gospel. Here are three wonderful truths brought out of verse 10. Look at this. Three wonderful truths brought out of verse 10. The first is the presence of God with his born-again, blood-washed children. First point. the presence of God, for I am with thee. We can all grab a hold of that. God is with us. Isn't that wonderful? Three precious truths. The second precious truth is that Paul has promised the protection of God. No man shall set on thee to hurt thee. Fear not he who could destroy the body, But fear he who can destroy both body and soul in hell. God protects his people until the day he takes us home. And then we're delivered from this present evil world, aren't we? all because of the wondrous works of the Lord Jesus Christ in saving our souls. And then we see in our text that God reveals the purpose. He reveals to Paul the purpose of him staying in that city. I have much people in this city. Do you know the whole reason why we're here as a church? It's for the furtherance of the gospel. We're here as a local group of believers. We gather together. We're family. We love each other. It's wonderful. What we have here is so special. Eric's even said, Eric and Sandy, the different places you guys visit. This is wonderful what we have here. It's absolutely incredible. It's all the Holy Spirit's doing. It's all God's doing, beloved. It's all His doing. Let us never forget that. It's all His doing. And let us remember that he's for us, not against us. If God be for us, who can be against us? It's God that justifies. Isn't that wonderful? So, we're here for the furtherance of the gospel. Number one for us in here. And then we send the message out into the world through Sermon Audio. And we've already seen the explosion going on there by the grace and glory of God. It's all Him. He gets the glory. But that's why we're here, beloved. Isn't that wonderful? And we get the benefits of being together, fellow sinners struggling through this race of life. And we get the joy of sharing the love that we have, the love of God spread abroad in our hearts for each other too. It's absolutely amazing. Can we imagine how much these words in verse 10, for I am with thee and no man shall sit on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in the city. Could you imagine how much this would encourage Paul? It encourages me as a believer. Does it encourage you? Mine. Just reading this, I get encouraged. His word will not return on him void, will it? Not at all. So let us marvel at these wonderful truths set before us. Turn, if you would, to 1 Peter, 1 Peter 1. Let us marvel at the fact that all who were chosen in Christ in eternity, all who were redeemed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, must be called through the preaching of the gospel at God's appointed time. God says, you're gonna stay in that city, because I got much people, they need to hear the gospel, and they're gonna hear it at the appointed time, and I'm gonna regenerate them and save them. Salvation's of the Lord, right? Jonah 2, 9. It's all Him. And how does He do it? Well, here, call Him. Through the voice of a gospel preacher and by the power of God the Holy Spirit. See, we're just mouthpieces. We preachers, we're just blowing a trumpet. Somewhere between my mouth and your hearts, God the Holy Spirit gets all those words and blesses your soul, just like He blessed mine when I'm studying. Isn't that amazing? Look at this, 1 Peter, look at this, chapter one, verses 23 to 25, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. So that's the preaching of the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. We're either saved by Christ alone through his perfect work, or we're not saved at all. You add a pinprick of man's works, and you're not saved. Oh my. And I can confidently say that, because I was in workspace religion. So were some of you. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word by which the gospel is preached unto you." My, it's incredible. Born again. not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." So God, the Holy Spirit, regenerates us through the preaching of His Word, gives us faith to believe, and we trust Christ. We look to Christ. It's amazing. So Paul had learned that our great God sends his preachers where there's sheep. The whole reason I was sent from Oregon to here is because there's sheep here. Right? It's true. My. And marvel how encouraged Paul would be after the Lord Jesus Christ told him that he had much people in the city, much more that Paul had to preach to. That's incredible. You talk about, you talk about get the coals warm and fire and get them hot. Oh my. He'd be, he'd be waking up going ready to preach. Oh my, it's wonderful. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. And he continued to preach no matter how strong the opposition might be. We need to ponder these holy words from the Lord Jesus Christ. I have many people in this city. The Lord has lost sheep out there, doesn't he? We put the gospel out and leave it in his hands. And how do we know God says? We're proof. We're proof, aren't we? We're living proof that God says we who are the redeemed of the Lord and marvel at how this would perfectly harmonize with the doctrine of God's electing grace, right? God chose a people. People get all worked up about, well, maybe I'm not one of the elect. Whenever someone asks me that, well, what if I'm not one of the elect? Do you believe on Christ? Are you trusting Christ? Then you're one of the elect. Stop worrying about it. Well, my faith goes like this and I get down. It's not dependent on our faith. It's dependent on what Christ has done. All of our faith goes like this, doesn't it? Down and up and down and up. But Christ is constant. I am with thee. God saved us, beloved, not just a mere man. God saved us. Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, sent from heaven by the Father. This is the most glorious news sinners can hear. Christ came into the world to save sinners. The question is, are you a sinner? Because not everybody thinks that they're sinners. But if God ever shows you that you're a sinner, you'll run to Christ. You'll run to Christ. And I mean a real sinner. I mean a bona fide sinner. I don't mean like, oh, I did this wrong. No, I mean someone who's on the slave block of sin, right? Oh, my. My, so how this would encourage Paul. Then look at verse 11. And he continued there, a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. A year and six months. Paul stayed in the city of Corinth for 18 months after the Lord spoke to him in that vision. And he wasn't idle, he was preaching the gospel, wasn't he? He was out preaching the gospel. He continued to preach and teach the Word of God the whole time he was there. What did he preach? Oh, he preached the complete, finished, sin-atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ in the room and place of sinners, in the room and place of his people. And Christ saved us from our sins. He saved his people from our sins. And the Lord Jesus Christ, by his perfect work, bought in everlasting righteousness, so that we can be in the presence of God, clothed in his perfect spotless righteousness, and not be found in our own righteousness, which is nothing. And by his life of submission and obedience to the law of God, as our substitute, as a man, The God-man, the Son of God, established righteousness in this earth. Perfect righteousness. Perfect righteousness. And this righteousness was performed by Christ and Christ alone, our representative before God. And it is this perfect righteousness performed by Christ which God imputes to his people, clothes us like a garment. You know what that white garment is in Revelation? That's the righteousness of Christ, beloved. Oh, my. Marvel, we who are the redeemed of the Lord, as God the Father declares us righteous by the virtue of Christ's righteousness. We have no righteousness of our own, but we are made righteous before God in Christ. Praise his mighty name. What a saviour is Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul preached that Christ satisfied the justice of God. When he was there for that 18 months, he preached all these things, that Christ satisfied the justice of God as our substitute. God demands the death of every transgressor. The soul that sinned, it must die. Christ, the great substitute, the perfect lamb, dies in the room and place of his people. My, and God's wrath for our sins, for the sins of his people, fell upon Christ. Fell upon him, and he bore it all, beloved. He extinguished the wrath of God that was against us. That's good news, isn't it, for sinners? Oh my. Like Scott said, since I heard the good news, I ain't heard no bad news. Oh my. Oh. And he satisfied the claims of God's justice and law. How do we know? Because he was raised from the dead for our justification. And he's seated at the right hand of the Father right now, ruling and reigning the King Supreme. Oh! Jesus Christ, our Savior, has put away the sins of His people by the sacrifice of Himself. He took our sins upon them. They were reputed to Him. He's perfect. He's spotless. He's the Lamb of God in life and in death. Insofar as the law and justice of God are concerned, our sins, the sins of all who believe, are gone. They no longer exist. Really? Yeah. As far as the East is from the West, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Do you know if you go East, you'll never stop going East. East will never meet West. And if you go West, West will never meet East. They're gone, beloved. God's people are bought and paid for by the blood of Christ. What a Savior. So rejoice, beloved of God. Christ put away our sins. As I said earlier, He drowned them in His precious blood. So far as the law and justice of God are concerned, they're gone. Romans, Paul wrote this, quoting David, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Why? Because when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. Oh my. By His perfect sinless life and by His perfect sinless death, the Lord Jesus Christ secured and guaranteed the eternal salvation of His people. It's all Him. It's not based on anything we do. It's all based on what Christ has done. Now that, that brings us peace. I'm just looking to Christ. Are you? By God-given faith, we're just looking to Christ, aren't we? I stopped looking to myself. We look to Christ. We look to the one who finished the work. And we're going to be looking at, we're looking, we're looking at Him even before our feet and our bodies get there. It's what Paul says when he's running the race. He's looking at the finish line. Christ. Who are we going to see when we enter into glory? Christ. Who are we going to worship when we get to heaven? Christ. Who are the angels and all the saints currently singing to? Christ. Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive glory and honor and power and blessings, beloved. And we're going to join one day We're gonna join that great choir singing that song, We Who Are God's People, and it'll be absolutely amazing. Praise be to God for his wondrous gift of salvation in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Brother Neil, can you close us in prayer?