Now there's a lot going on in this world. Not just now, in the time we're in now, but through the ages. And there's nothing new under the sun, is there? And the reason we see wars and rumors of wars and we see conflicts and different things happening is because of our sinfulness as humans. Sin is the root cause of all the things that we see. And everything that we do, even as believers, is tainted with sin, isn't it? I stand before you a man saved by the grace of God, and yet still a sinner. We will be sinners until we go home to be with the Lord. And then we're never sin again. That's just glorious. But what a comfort for us as God's people to know that God protects us. That he watches over us. I remember hearing Henry one time talk about a lady who had lost her mind. She got Alzheimer's. She was attending his church, and she got Alzheimer's, and somebody said, the things she says sometimes is not indicative of a Christian. And he said, whether God's people lose their minds and say things that they never would have said, God's still keeping them. He's still got his hand on them. See, our salvation is not dependent upon us, is it? It's dependent upon Christ. My, oh, my. And isn't it amazing to know and to find out that after God saves you, you find out about how much He protected you before you were saved? We can now look back and go, man, I should have died there. I should have died there. I should have died there. But I didn't. Donny Bell said he was in Vietnam with a .45 on his temple, ready to kill himself. He was in Kaesaw during the siege. And he said, I couldn't do it. Well, he's a gospel preacher, isn't he? And I was in tears when I heard that message, because he was my mentor. And I thought, you couldn't have done that, Donny, because God wouldn't have let you. He protected him. Not just to be the folks you were with, sister, that sat under his ministry, which was greatly blessed, but all the other people. that has been affected by his ministry. Isn't that amazing? God protects them. We're gonna see here today, God protects his people. We're gonna see a situation here, similar to the Mordecai event. Remember Mordecai? He had the hangman thing all made up? Or not Mordecai, Haman, wasn't it? Which one made the? Haman made up, yeah, Haman made up all the, for Mordecai. Well, it ended up Haman was swinging off that thing, wasn't it? You know, that's happened a lot in this world. We're gonna see a situation where someone tries to trap Paul, brings him before the Roman pro-council, which is the Roman governor in Greece. We're going to see the Roman governor's response to this. It's amazing. But remember, as we're reading this, God is protecting Paul. And this is a time when Paul now is going to leave Corinth after this situation. Not because he has to, but because he's being guided by God to do that. So the name of the message is God's Protection. Open your Bibles, if you would, to Acts chapter 18. Acts chapter 18. Marvel that God sent Christ into this world, God the Father, sent Christ into this world to save sinners, such as we. That's the whole mission of Christ, coming to this world, is to save sinners. Ain't that wonderful? Remember on Thursday I preached on how Christ is God's salvation. You want salvation? It's in a person. It's in a man. It's in the God-man. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ. You won't find salvation in a formula. You won't find salvation in man's doing. You won't even find salvation in taking a certain theological stand. You'll find salvation in Christ, in Christ alone. Cassimian said, mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Now, I like theology. You know, I like good theology. But salvation, good theology points to Christ, points to his work, points to what he's done. Right? He's the hub. And all the smokes come from him. All of it. Man is totally depraved. God sends a savior, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Man will never choose God. God chooses a people in Christ who Christ comes to redeem. Isn't that wonderful? Christ dies for those people. He didn't die for the whole world. He dies for those people. That's incredible. God's people aren't willing to come to Christ. God makes them willing in a day of his power. And if it was up to us, we'd fall a thousand times a day. God keeps us and protects us. It says we're kept by the power of God. Praise his mighty name. It's wonderful. See, it's all centered around Christ though, isn't it? All of it. Okay, let's stand up and read Acts chapter 18, verses 12 to 17. This will be our text today. And when Galileo was the deputy of Archaia, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat. saying, this fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law. And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Galileo said unto the Jews, if it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason that I should bear with you. But if it's a question of words and names and of your law, look ye to it, for I'll be no judge of such things. And he drove them from the judgment seat. Then all the Greeks took Sothenus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. And Galileo cared for none of these things." Oh, my. This is incredible here. The Jews who hate the gospel, the unbelieving Jews, just like we did in our natural state, bring Paul before the Roman governor, the pro-council. He's the pro-council of Greece. So he's in charge of all of Greece for the Roman Empire. He's the emperor's representative. Now during our last lesson from Acts 18, we saw through the eye of God given faith that our Lord Jesus Christ in a vision spoke to Paul. his ordained apostle. And he says these words, be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace. So what we learned last week is Paul's just like us. He's afraid in this situation. Ever been afraid? When you're talking to someone about Christ or when they react a certain way, ever been afraid? We all have been. You ever been afraid in general? So the Lord's telling Paul, you go and preach the gospel, you go and preach Christ, and do not be afraid. And then he told him, no one's gonna touch you, no one's gonna lay harm to you. Now who's saying this? This is the God of the universe. This is the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, risen, who's telling Paul this in a vision. My. It's absolutely incredible. And then, look what he says, be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace, for I am with thee. God says I'm with you. Do you know he's with us too, Brother Eric? Man, we can take that, can't we? We can take that as our own. He's with us. If God's saying that to the Apostle Paul, who's a sheep of God, well, that's for us too. My, isn't that wonderful? That's wonderful. He says, for I am with thee. Then look what he says. No man shall sit upon thee to hurt thee. No one's going to lay a hand on you to hurt you. And then I love this. This is amazing. Now, Paul's already preached and Christmas was saved. He was the chief synagogue. Now, when the Lord's telling them this, we find out Paul's going to be with them for 18 months more. And we know what he's, what's he gonna do? He's gonna preach Christ, right? And look what the Lord says to him. I have much people, which in the Greek is, I have many people in this city. Before he's even preached again, go preach the gospel. I got a whole lot of folks in there. That's wonderful, isn't it, Chris? That's wonderful. That means that God's got sheep. That means that God's got sheep in that city. And they have to hear the gospel, right? So God sends him a preacher. Oh my, this is wonderful. And he tells Paul, no one's gonna hurt you. Even with him being brought up before Galileo, no one hurt him. They just brought him along. They just bought him along. But what a lesson we have here of God's protection over his people. And that can bring us comfort amidst all the stuff going on, right? God will protect us. He watches over his people. Now, we're aware of everything going on, and some of it troubles us much. But let us always remember that God's in control. Man is not in control. They think they are, but they're not. They're not in control. My. And the Lord Jesus was with Paul. Think of this. During all the painful trials that he went through, he was with him. And during this time when no one would lay a hand on him, he was with him. God is ever with his people. There's never a time when he's not with his people. Never. That's comforting for the blood-washed saints of God. And we see that our Lord said, I will not let anyone harm you. Now, we know that, remember, he was stoned in Listeria. God allowed that to happen, right? There was a reason in that we don't understand. But there was a reason. But in this circumstance, for 18 months, the Lord says, no one's going to touch you. No one's going to touch you. And what an encouraging promise from God that we can lay to our hearts, that even if we go through persecution, even if it is physical, or even if it is painful, that God is with us, no matter what. No matter what. Think of the worst thing even you've seen in a Christian church. God is still with you. He's still with his sheep. Now that's encouraging, isn't it? Think of the worst thing you've seen in the world. God's still with us. Think of before we were even saved. He's watching over us. My, protecting us. Do you remember the sower and all that? And the scripture says that some fell on good ground, Henry Mann preached the message one time on that, and he said, you know what the difference with that ground is than the stony ground? That ground's prepared ground. It's been tilled. It's been taken care of. It's ready to receive the seed. The weeds are gone. The stones are gone. You must be born again. God prepares our hearts, doesn't he? Sister Diane, I remember you telling me, one second you're looking for Christ, and the next second, boom, you're born again. Just like that. Why? But God had been preparing the soil of our hearts to receive the word. That's amazing. And the whole time, even before we were saved, He's protecting us and watching over us. My. I'll tell you what. Is it any wonder we want to tell people how wonderful Christ is? Is it any wonder we want to tell Him, tell people about how He's loved us with an everlasting love? Oh my. It's absolutely amazing. So Paul receives this encouraging promise from the risen, exalted God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, that his restraining hand would be upon him, that no one would harm him while he was in Corinth. Think of the ungodly enemies of Christ who'd come at him before. They're not gonna cause you any physical harm. They may yell at you, they may mock you, but they're not gonna lay a hand on you. And the reason our Lord told his ordained missionary to speak and not hold his peace is because there's more sheep there. That's encouraging. You see, I get up and preach the gospel and other preachers get up and preach the gospel. We know there's more sheep out there. How do we know? Because it hasn't all stopped. When God saves the last sheep of that covenant, it's over. There's no more need. But we know he hasn't saved the last one yet, right? But when he does, it's over. It's over. And Paul was the ordained apostle who would be used by our sovereign God to preach the gospel to these saints who are at Corinth, who would be delivered from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God's dear son. by the irresistible power of God the Holy Spirit. We were listening to those fellows I like to listen to on the radio this morning, or on YouTube, and I had them on this morning, and the one guy was just preaching a sermon by himself, and he said something that just knocked my socks off. Think of this. We were in the kingdom of darkness, right? Do you know there's two kingdoms? We were in the kingdom of darkness. We were under the sway of Satan. There's people all around us who are in the kingdom of darkness, and they don't even know it. And by the power of God Almighty, who's greater than all, we've been translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son, which is the true kingdom, right? All because it pleased God to do so. Just let that sink in for a while, eh? We have been taken out of the kingdom of slavery to sin, slavery to evil. We now have a new spirit within us that hungers and thirsts after righteousness. We now hate sin more than we've ever hated it before. We now sin more than we ever want to, because now we see our sin. We didn't see it when we were in the kingdom of darkness. We weren't even aware of it. Now we're aware of it. Now we're born again. We're in the kingdom of God's dear son. And we've always been, even when we were in the kingdom of darkness, think of this. This is how absolute sway God has. Even when we were in the kingdom of darkness, Brother Travis, we were under God's protected hand. Satan thought he had us, right? He doesn't know who the elect are, remember that. He has no clue who the elect are. But as soon as he sees a seed maybe, someone getting an interest, Do you ever notice that when the Lord was drawing you to Christ, things were happening that may have prevented you from coming to Him? I remember after the Lord saved me going home, and I was pretty wild, as you guys know, in my past, and my dad said to me after the Lord saved me, I'd rather still have you in the bars than be in church. That shows you his heart, doesn't it? But I used to love that lifestyle. Because I was under the sway of the kingdom of darkness. Now, we love the Lord, we love each other, we love God's people, we love the Redeemer. That's all because of the power of God in us, working in us, conforming us to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's amazing. So we've been delivered by the sovereign, irresistible call from God, the Holy Spirit, all that are appointed time of love. Look at verses 9 to 11. Then the Lord spake to Paul at night by a vision, be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace, for I am with thee, and no man shall, no man, look at that, set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much, many, in the Greek, people in this city. And he continued there a year and six months, 18 months, teaching the word of God among them. A wonderful statement. I have much people in this city. Wonderful statement. Our sovereign God delivers his chosen blood-bought children from the power of darkness, not by the sinful works of the flesh or by man's works, but by a sovereign grace and a sovereign mercy. How? Through the perfect redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, I'm telling you about something that was accomplished 2,000 years ago. If it was accomplished 2,000 years ago, is there anything for us to do? Is there any laws we have to follow? If salvation is complete, and it is, If salvation is finished by the perfect man, by the Lord Jesus Christ, and it has been for 2,000 years, there's nothing for us to do but look to him. And we get grace to even look to him. God gives us faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody says, that's too good to be true. No, it's not. It's the truth. Somebody says, that's so simple. Yep. And yet it's so profound. It's simple. Look to Christ and live. And it's so profound. God chose us and before the foundation of the world in Christ. My, oh my. But see, this is God's salvation, not man's salvation. This is what Paul was preaching. Salvation is only in and through Christ alone. Remember, he says, for I am determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Paul was, I think he was a genius. He says, I don't want to, I'm not, I'm determined. I know about that stuff, but I'm not going to even talk about it. I'm going to preach to you Christ. You talk about a theologian. Man, I'm preaching Christ. Isn't that wonderful? It's amazing. And all of God's ordained preachers have been entrusted with the same gospel, the same gospel. If we're not preaching Christ and Him crucified, then we're not God's preachers. Bottom line. Sister Marsha, that fellow you heard, he's not God's preacher. Not at all. And you knew by what he was saying. Not God's preacher at all. They're not preaching Christ. People say, come on, Wayne. No, it's true. If they're not preaching Christ, they're not God's preachers. Because Paul said, I'm determined not to preach anything among you, but Christ and him crucified. Christ has to be the center of the preaching. Travis knows that, too. When we prepare messages, he's the center. It's all about him. Now, we talk, like even in Sunday school, we looked at maturity in Christ. That was fantastic, but it was all centered around Christ. It has to be. If it's about what we do, then we're in trouble. But if our Christian walk and our Christian life is centered around Christ, well, what a hope we have. What a hope we have. Let's read verses 12 to 16 in Acts chapter 18. And when Galileo was the deputy of Archaea, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat. They're getting all fired up. Too many people are converting. Oh my, something's going on in Corinth. And the religious hoo-hoo's getting upset, aren't they? Saying, this fellow persuaded man to worship God contrary to the law. Now, they try to bring him before the Roman pro-council. They don't even know he's Roman. They try to bring him before the Roman council, and they're claiming, they're claiming that the preaching of Christ is breaking the law. And I love, I love how sometimes the Lord uses unsaved men to straighten people out. not doctrinally, but we see here, he's gonna give it right back to them. God's gonna use this Roman pro-council to protect Paul from any persecution. And the persecution's gonna be flipped from Paul to the high priest. My, or not the high priest, but the ruler of the synagogue. Look at this, this fellow persuaded man to worship God contrary to the law. Well, he's not breaking any Roman law. Look at this, and when Paul was about, Paul's ready, he's about ready to speak. I'll tell you what, I've experienced this before when you don't have to say a word. You guys know years ago I was gonna write a letter to those fellows that were causing trouble, and you guys rose up and wrote a bunch of notes. that I didn't have to say a word. And God took care of the whole thing, didn't he? Isn't that amazing? But I was ready. That was incredible. Here. Paul, he wants to defend himself, right? Because he's just preaching the gospel. I love this. The Lord shut his mouth, and Galileo, he used Galileo to turn it around on them. This is amazing, look at this. This is amazing. And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Galileo said unto the Jews, if it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O you Jews, reason that I should bear with you. So he's saying, okay, if Paul's breaking the law, the Roman law especially, then I'm gonna take care of this. And this is the pro-council, this is the highest you can get. It's like a governor of a state. But they had even more power back then, these Roman pro-councils. They were the emperor's, basically they were the emperor's representative, that's what they were. They were representing the emperor. And they were chosen people, chosen men in those situations. Usually men of influence, senators sometimes, or generals, past generals. They were specifically chosen by the emperor for this situation. Look at what he says, but if it be a question of words and names. I love this. If it be a question of words and names, and of your law, look ye to it, for I will be no judge of such matters. He's saying, if you're tossing around different views of religion, I'm not having nothing to do with that. Isn't that how it should be? The government should stay out of what we believe, right? Yeah. He's saying, I have nothing to do with this. This is a spat between you all. See, God's using him. Remember what the scripture says? The heart of the king is in the Lord's hands. Who put that man in power? Well, someone said, well, Caesar did it. Or one of the, no, God put him there. Who puts men in authority over us? God does that. Sometimes they're wicked men. Sometimes they're good men. Well, good in the sense is, you know what I mean. Sometimes our rights are protected. Sometimes our rights are infringed. But God's always in control. See, ultimately, and this is why I try not to, whoever gets elected as president, I try to just leave it be because I'm not going to argue with God's sovereign rule. Right? And I know, think of this, how many presidents in your lifetime, since you've been a believer and even before, how many presidents have come and gone and your life really hasn't changed? We still have the right to meet and freedom. We still have the right. I can't have arms because I'm not a citizen yet, but I want to become one. But some of you have a right to carry weapons and have weapons. That's your constitutional right. Right? And that hasn't changed. we are able to come and worship together. Like my son brought it up one time to me, he goes, you're for freedom of religion. I said, absolutely. And he even knows, he goes, because if you weren't, then they could crack down on anybody then. But see what freedom of religion has allowed us to preach the gospel, the truth, and to still put it out. That's all comes from God's protecting hand. My, it's absolutely amazing. God overrules the sinfulness of man. This man is a sinful man, but God is using him to keep Paul protected. These Jews want him beaten, they want him thrown in jail, they want him to stop preaching this Christ. So much so that they say, he's breaking the law. He ain't breaking the law, is he? Look what he does. Look at verse 16. And he drove them away from the judgment day. That means he drove them away. Get out of here! We see God's protecting hand here. The unbelieving Jews took Paul to Galileo, again the deputy of Archaea, which is Greece. That's Greece. When you see that word, that's Greece. That means Greece proper. That's Greece. And he's the governor of, it'd be like, again, being the governor of a state here in the US, but with a little more power. And the Roman governors of provinces, they commonly held their court in what was in the agor or the marketplace. So he's either here in the agor, which is the judgment place, or he's in the marketplace. Sometimes they didn't have an agor in a certain town, so they'd meet in the marketplace. So he's in one of two places. And he's there, sitting on a chair probably, on a raised platform, and people can bring, he goes all around Greece so that people can bring their complaints or their things up to him. And he's the final authority, remember. So that's what he's doing in Corinth. He's there, he's hearing complaints, so here come the Jews to him. This fellow here, this guy. And if you notice, if you notice in the text, if you notice in the text, see where it says verse 13. Notice in the text here. Where is it there? No, it's not verse 13. Yeah, Acts 18, saying, this fellow persuaded men to worship God contrary to the law. This fellow is italicized. So they couldn't even, they said, this. They were so disgusted with him. They couldn't even say this, Paul. They said, this. is preaching things contrary to the law, the hatred and the faminance that was coming out of them. Oh, my. This, this man, he's persuading people to worship contrary to the law. Well, contrary to what they thought, but not contrary to what God thinks. He's preaching the gospel. He's preaching salvation through Christ alone. And so Galileo, sitting in the marketplace, and the Jews, having probably pre-planned, they probably pre-planned this, they took advantage of the opportunity to bring him, bring Paul before the Roman governor. And it was purposed by God that Paul should stay there for 18 months. He's coming to the end of that 18 months. We're going to see after this situation, he leaves. He leaves Corinth because it was time, according to God's will and purpose, for him to leave. But no, they still didn't lay a hand on him. Because God had told him, as long as you're in Corinth, the time that I'm going to have you there, no one's going to lay a hand on you. My, this is all purpose by God. Paul has to continue his missionary journey, doesn't he? He has to continue. And so the Lord allows this to happen, these ungodly Jews, to come up and persecute him. But we don't read where Paul suffered any physical harm, none at all, from his persecutors. They laid a hold on him, but they bought him before the judgment seat of Galileo, the Roman official. And look at verse 13. They say, and this, again, fellow is italicized, persuades man to worship God contrary to the law. So we see the accusation that they brought against Paul was that he was breaking Roman law. He was breaking Roman law. Well, what Paul was doing had nothing to do with breaking Roman law. He was preaching Christ. The only thing he was guilty of was preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Right? It's the only thing he was guilty of. The only thing. Paul's desire, which is the desire of all Christians, was to persuade men and women to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That you look to Christ by faith. Because that's all we've done as believers. We're sinners who are looking to Christ. Saved sinners. Sinner saints looking to Christ. And Christ alone. And Paul had been delivered from his own sinful attempt to make himself righteous in God's sight. Remember he used to try to keep the law before he was saved? He said, before I was saved, I was walking before the law blameless. in his mind. But then he said, everything that I counted precious, such as doing all that stuff, it's all just a bunch of maneuver. It's all just refuge. He learned from his experience that those who were trying to earn favor with God by their own sinful, polluted works of the flesh were on a path that only leads to eternal damnation. Think of how many people pass from this world thinking, I'm a good person. Think of how many people pass this world being a strict Mormon, or being a strict Jehovah Witness, or being a strict Catholic, or being a strict religionist. And as soon as they breathe their last breath, they find themselves in eternal torment. And if it wasn't for the grace of God, we'd all be there too. Who made you to differ? And what do we have that we didn't receive? Oh, we've received everything we have. We've received grace and mercy, redemption, sanctification, All in Christ. We're just a bunch of mercy beggars, aren't we? That's all we are. My, oh my. Paul had been taught by God the Holy Spirit that the only one who could make the preaching of the gospel effectual, too, was the God the Holy Spirit. And he reasoned with his hearers. We saw that in our past studies. He's reasoned with the hearers, showing them Christ is the Messiah. But it has to be revealed to us, right? Has to be revealed to us. Now let's read verses 14 and 15 of Acts chapter 18. And we see Paul's about to speak in his defense, but he didn't have to. And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Galileo said unto the Jews, if it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason that I should bear with you. But if it be a question of words and names and of your law, look ye to it, for I be no judge of such matters." I'm not going to get involved in that. So Galileo, the man our Lord Jesus Christ had put on that judgment seat and who was under his sovereign control. Remember, man can do nothing. Man can do nothing unless it's fitting to God's permissive will. Oh my, and God's not the author of sin either. We do that all by ourselves. What does he have to do for us to be wicked? Just leave us alone. What does he have to do for a man to go to hell? Just leave him alone. What does he have to do for us to go to heaven? Everything. Praise his mighty name. It says, But if it be a question of words and names, and of your law, look ye to it, for I will be no judge of such matters. Remember Pilate? Remember Pilate said this? Speakest thou not unto me? No, not that I have the power to crucify thee and I have power to release thee, speaking to Christ. And what did our master say? He said, thou couldst have no power at all against me, except that we're given thee from above. My, oh my, we see that right here too, don't we? They're looking to persecute Paul. They're not given the power to do that. And know that God protects us like this too, beloved. Sometimes we go through painful things, yes. Sometimes we go through physical things, yeah. But know that God's, he's always with us. He's never left us and never will leave us. Now what was true of Pilate was also true of Galileo. And it's just as true concerning all humans throughout the history of man. What peace that can bring us is born-again blood-washed believers living in the sin-cursed world. Our great God is absolutely sovereign. Period. He does what he wills, when he wills, with the armies of heaven, and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing in his eyes. Now, that wounds our pride, doesn't it? Oh, man says, you mean I'm nothing? Well, that's what the scripture says about us. Isn't it a wonder that God has mercy on we nothings? What Scott used to say, we're all a bunch of zeros until you put the one in front of them. I love that. And that being Christ. You preach like that, people are like, oh, I don't want to hear that. Well, yeah, I'd probably offend you, but I'm not trying to offend you. I'm just telling us the truth. Right? We're sinners in desperate need of Christ. And so when Galileo said unto these Jews it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, which is a criminal offense, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you. And so he's on the judgment seat to prosecute those who broke Roman law, not those who break things that people think are contrary because they don't agree with it. If you've broken Roman law and you get brought up before Galileo, he's going to persecute you. Right? If I'd broken Roman law and got brought before him, and I did something wrong, sure as day coming and night coming, I'm going to get persecuted. You break the law, what happens? There's supposed to be consequences, isn't there? Oh, my. I always told my son, I said, if you get pulled over or anything by cops, if you didn't break any laws, you got nothing to be afraid of. Nothing. Not at all. Don't even be afraid. Now, if you broke the law, you might be a little nervous then. Right? Well, Lord, I was only doing, or sir, I was only doing 75 in a 50. Here's your ticket, sir. Sometimes the cops will say, OK, well, you know. But they have to uphold the law. It's just how it is. And let's read now verses 15 and 16. Look at this. But if it be a question of words and names and of your law, look ye to it. For I will be no judge on such matters. And he drove them, he drove them from the judgments. He drove them. Now Crispus, Crispus was the leader at the synagogue, and remember the Lord saved him. He was converted. So now they need a new leader now, don't they? They need a new leader. Well, we see in verse 17, there's a new leader, Sothenus, the chief ruler of the synagogue. So Crispus was converted. He get booted out, right? They wouldn't want him leading the synagogue now. He's born again, blood-washed child of God. So out goes Crispus, and in comes Sothenus. And we see the Jews, they've been driven from Galileo's judgment seat, but some Greeks who were probably Jewish proselytes, several commentators said, were still there. And look what happens in verse 18. Look what happens to the ringleader. And all the Greeks took Sothenus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. They beat this man. And Galileo cared for none of those things. Now, he should have upheld the law. It wasn't right that they beat him. It wasn't right that they beat him, but they did. And Galileo just sat there and watched. Watched him just beat this man. Now, remember this too. This man is conspiring against one of God's preachers, right? He has got a load of people up and they're going at Paul. I was telling Sister Diane, there is a gem in here. There's an absolute gem in here that I did not see until I was putting this message together. Oh, this, this, this is amazing. So Galileo again should have upheld the law. It was his responsibility and he should have stopped them from beating him because his responsibility is to protect all the citizens of Greece. However, he's to be commended in the fact that he refused to bear charges against Paul. Those charges that were being bought against Paul, he said, nope, we're not going to have anything to do with that. So he's to be commended for that. It's not the business of civil courts to make rules or judgments in matters regarding the free exercise of religion. And Crispus was the chief ruler of the synagogue, but we see he's being replaced by Sothenus. And when Crispus, he'd been granted faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Jews had already been driven from Galileo's judgment seat, but some of the Greeks, again, who were probably Jewish proselytes, were still there, and they turned on Sotheus. And they beat him. They beat him. the same seat that they bought Paul to be beaten, the ringleader gets beaten. Isn't that amazing? But you know, our Lord, according to his promise to Paul, would not allow those men to lay a hand on him. Instead, the beating that Sothenus wanted to be laid upon God's servant fell upon himself. And many a Haman has been hanged on the gallows that he built for the hanging of God's Mordecais. Oh, yeah. Now, here's something with God's amazing grace. Here's what I never saw until I was putting this message together. And I told Sister Diane, it made the hair in the back of my head. You ever get that tingly feeling? And you're just in awe? Turn to 1 Corinthians. Turn to 1 Corinthians. Yeah, I know you guys already saw it. I've seen y'all there. But this is amazing. This is absolutely, shows God's incredible grace and mercy. Incredible. Oh my. God is so good. He's so good. Take note that there's a man mentioned in verse one, who's a brother. in Christ. Look at the name, beloved. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 1 to 3 we'll read. Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God and so Theseus, our brother. Praise God! He saved him! Isn't that wonderful? My, isn't that God's grace? He's just like Paul, he was an enemy of the gospel. And the Lord saved him. And several commentators said, when Paul's writing this letter, Sothesis is with him, he's ministering to him. He's with Paul now. He may have fled Corinth. And I think they said that he's in Ephesus writing this letter to the Corinthians. I'll have to check on that, to the Corinthians. So Thetis is with him. He's born again. He's a brother. And several commentators said, with them putting his name in there, now they find out that the Lord saved him. And it would, how did some, they said several people would be rejoicing over this wonderful salvation, and then other people who might have had something against them, right, for causing all that to Paul, be all gone. Washed under the blood of Christ. Isn't that beautiful? My! God's grace is amazing grace. It's wondrous grace. Saved a rebel like me, and like you. Oh! What mercy! He's a ringleader causing all this trouble. God saved him just like that. It says, unto the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, look at that, we're sanctified in Christ, beloved, called to be saints by the irresistible grace of God, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours. Grace be unto you, and peace from God, our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. So marvel, beloved of God, at God's amazing grace, the Lord saved Sotheis. a despiser of the gospel, a hater of the gospel, a works-based religionist saved by the grace of God. What a picture of us, right? Oh, my. Oh, God's grace is amazing. Ah, there's two valuable lessons we can learn from this portion of scripture here that we've looked at. The first lesson is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is an offense to lost man. It's offensive to lost man. When we preach, Travis, we're not trying to offend people. We're just not. We don't set out to offend people. The gospel's offensive. It offends man's pride because it says there's nothing you can do to save yourself. Only Christ can save you. So it's an offense to natural man. The plain declaration of redemption by Christ and salvation by Christ alone, through grace of God alone and through faith alone, is to them that perish foolishness. How do we know? Well, we were there. We were there. You mean, you mean I, my free will, I didn't exercise my free will? Well, no, you're made willing. And the only reason you willingly came to Christ is because you were made willing. God gets all the glory, doesn't he? All the honor, all the praise. See, we fail to realize that the depths of our dead nature and the will which is tied to our nature, if we have a dead nature, that dead nature is going to guide our will. But now we're alive in Christ. Luther's Bondage of the Will is an excellent book if you can ever read it. He breaks it down so well. Because when we're made alive in Christ, now we have a new nature. And that new nature is now guiding our will. So the will is ultimately guided by our nature. If you have a dead nature, you're just going to want to sin. If you have a new nature, you're still a sinner, but you're going to want to serve God. It's that simple. It really is. So we can learn here that the gospel is offensive to natural man. Now think of this too. Natural man is tolerant to a lot of things. Natural religious man is really tolerant. They're tolerant of other religions. Right? They think, oh yeah, they're all good. You know, you talk, I remember when I was a Catholic, and I used to think that, you know, Muslims were fine, and Hindus were fine, and Buddhists were fine, and, you know, they all got their own paths. Oh, there's only one way to heaven. There's only one way to the Father. We found that out, didn't we? And that's offensive to man. That's offensive to natural man. The fact that there's only one way to heaven and that salvation is in a man, not in a method, not in a formula, it's in a man, the man Christ Jesus. Period. Oh. You know what I mean? What about what I do for him? Well, the only reason we do anything for him is because the grace of God working in us. Right? Oh my. God is so good to us. Natural man will not, they'll tolerate all kinds of things. They'll tolerate man's free will, they'll tolerate good works, they'll tolerate religious ceremonies. That's all acceptable to them. I know, I was there. It's all acceptable to natural man. But they will not tolerate the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ. It is an offense to them. Paul writes this, and I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross ceased. Paul preached salvation through Christ alone, by Christ alone, by his perfect work alone. And he says, if you add circumcision, then you just made void the gospel of Christ. If you add any works, a pinprick, remember, a pinprick of your works, you've made void the grace of God. Praise God for His amazing grace. His amazing grace. The next thing that we can learn here, last point, is that God's providential rule over this world works all things together for the good of His elect. Even the stuff we're seeing going on today. It's all working for our good and for God's glory. Isn't that amazing? The Jews' persecution was as much a work of God's sovereign providence for Paul as the benevolence of Aquila and Priscilla in letting Paul stay in their home. It all happened according to the will and purpose of God, didn't it? And it's now become evident to Paul that his work at Corinth is coming to a finish. And beloved, he didn't flee the city because of fear of the Jews. Nobody got nothing to fear, does he? No. But he saw their persecution as an indication that God would have him move on to another place. Next week, we're going to see. See, he moves on to another place. When God thwarted the Jews' plans, He confirmed his promise to Paul, didn't he? That no man will lay a hand on you. Oh, beloved, let us live in awe and wonder at God's protecting hand. We may see affliction, we may see pain, we may see sorrow, but let us take this great comfort. I am with thee. And what do we say? Praise the mighty name of Jesus. Praise his mighty, mighty name. Brother Dan, can you close us in prayer?