For Sunday school, let's take our Bibles and go to Acts chapter number 28 and if the Lord Be our helper this morning. We'll try and close this Long trip that we've made through the book of the Acts out today And those of you that's been here since the start of it, I sure do appreciate it. And those of you that's jumped in as we've gone along, I hope it's been a help and a blessing to you. And if you haven't heard any of it, you can go back and listen to it on YouTube or on Sermon Audio. Every one of them are chronicled on there. And so a lot of hours put into this study, and I hope that you've received some spiritual edification and spiritual growth and knowledge from it. We are called to grow in grace and in knowledge. I was reading the other day in Philippians, and Paul's prayer for the Philippian church was this. Paul's prayer for them, he said, I pray, he said, that you may increase more and more in all knowledge and judgment. He didn't say the older that you get in the Christian life, you should be less discriminatory, less discerning, and less knowledgeable. He said the older that you go along, you ought to have more discernment. That's what he's talking about in judgment. You ought to be able to discern between good and evil, right and wrong, light and darkness, truth and lies, more and more. And you ought to know more about the Holy Ghost. You ought to know more about the Word of God and the things of God as we progress. And so I hope this has tried to in some way help you in your Christian walk. So in Acts chapter number 28, we started looking at the burdens and the blessings on this island of Melita, where Melita means a place of honey. And this place, even though there are shipwrecked there, God has provided some sweetness. this place and God does that many times in our burdens and then gives us blessings there but we've not looked at the burdens and the blessings of the island then when they got back on trip and headed towards Rome we find that Paul sees brethren along the way and he thanks God for him in verse 15 and he takes courage after seeing them that's what the assembly of the church does it helps us and We ought to thank God for the brothers and sisters in Christ. I hope you thank God for the church that you're a member of. I hope you thank God regularly for brethren and sisters that encourage you and help you along in this walk for God. Imagine if you was the only Christian you was trying to live for God all by yourself. I'd be a lonely place, wouldn't it? That'd be a tough thing to try and do. If you were like the only one in the whole world, that'd be tough. Thank God for fellow Christians and brothers and sisters. But then we're coming to the end of the chapter looking at the belief and the unbelief of the Jews. We'll look in just a minute. It says some believe and some don't believe, and so it is today. Let's begin reading down in verse 16 and we'll pick up where we left off verse number 16 acts 28 The bible said and when we came to rome the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard But paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him We looked at that last week in verse number 30. It talks about that paul for two whole years Gets an opportunity god blesses him to the point to where he gets an opportunity to stay in a rented house not in the prison, but he gets to stay in a rented house, and he gets to receive people and teach the Bible and preach the Word of God. And obviously, the Philippian church footed the bill for that. We looked at that last week, how he said, I've received the things from Epaphroditus, how you supported the ministry and all. Evidently, the Philippian church of whom he wrote that epistle to, they footed this bill for him to be able to do that. What a blessing. Verse 17, I would pick up here verse 17, the belief and unbelief of the Jews. And it came to pass that after three days, Paul called the chief of the Jews together. It is constantly the burden on the apostle Paul's heart, even though he knows that he is the apostle to the Gentiles. Even though he knows that God's main focus in his life is, I want to send you to the Gentiles. He knows that. God's told him that from Damascus Road. From Damascus Road, God told him, I'm going to send you to the Gentiles. Matter of fact, hold your place here and go back with me and look at what he even highlights that when he is talking to the Jews in one place. Go with me to Acts 22. Acts number 22. In Acts 22, he is rehearsing his Damascus Road experience. And then after Damascus Road, he starts talking about those several days later when Ananias comes in and speaks to him and he receives his sight. And watch what he says here in Acts chapter number 22 and verse number, come all the way down here to verse number 21, verse 21. This is part of his commission. He's only been saved for a few days, and Ananias shows up, he receives the sight, and this is part of Paul's commission, Acts 22, 21. And he said unto me, Depart, for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles. So from the very beginning, Paul knows God's got a special ministry for me. And it's not to go to the Jews, it's to go to these lost Gentiles that nobody else has ever been to before, to send the gospel of Jesus Christ to them. But it is constantly the burden on his heart, everywhere he goes, the first people he wants to go try and evangelize, the Jews, not the Gentiles. Isn't that funny how generally what God tells us to do, that ain't ever what we want to do? God puts you in one ministry and you wish you was in a different ministry. God puts you in one place to work, you wish you was in a different place to work. God gives you this blessing, you wish you had that blessing. And here God gives Paul something to do. Paul ought to just be tickled. Hey, I'm saved. I ain't going to hell. God should have stuck me in hell. And God's given me the job of going to the Gentiles. But I didn't want to do what I want to do, Lord. What I really want to do is heal. You say, why does he do that? I think because he's got such a burden for those people for this reason, because he sees himself in them. He says, man, I know where they're at. I used to be just like them. Lord, let me go back to them people that are just like me. And if God lets you do that, praise the Lord. But sometimes that ain't God's will. God's got a different plan and a different purpose and a different goal for you. Look at what Paul says about this. Hold your place there and go to the right just a few chapters to Romans chapter 9. I'm just talking about here in Acts 28, 17. He said he called the Jews together. I mean, he's in Rome. You think it's time to go preaching to the Gentiles? You're in Rome. He shows up in Rome and he's trying to find Jewish folk that's been scattered out in the dispersion, what they call the diaspora, those that have been dispersed and all. He's trying to find all them Jews. Romans chapter 9, verse number 2, Romans 9-2. He said that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and of whom concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all God blessed forever. Amen. So on and so forth. In other words, he's saying, man, I wish more than anything them people would get saved. I mean, he even wishes so hard, verse 3, he said, I wish myself was a curse from Christ for them people. So he's got a desire for it, but let me just say this. I want y'all to remember this too, and we've said this before. A desire for something does not mean a call for something. Say, I got a desire to do that. That must be God calling me to do it. Not necessarily. The Bible does say, if a man desire the office of a bishop, 1 Timothy 3, 1, he desireth a good thing. But then it starts giving things that he must try and live up to in his life. So some men may desire the office, but they're not capable of living the demands that the office requires. That's a good thing to desire, but maybe that's not what God wants you to do. You say, well, I want to do this for God. Well, I think it's a good thing to always have a desire to do something for God, but you better make sure that you're called to do it more than you just want to do it. Amen. Uh, somebody said this, somebody said this desire may get you in the ministry, but a call will keep you in the ministry. Boy, I desire to do that. I'm going to get in. Okay, good. But all of a sudden when the bullets start flying, and when the devil starts lobbing bombs, and when people start coming against you, and when problems and trials start, it won't be a desire that's going to keep you in. It'll be a call that keeps you in. It'll get to the place of you. There are times. Hey, I'm speaking from experience from being called to preach now for 22 years. There are times where the desire for what I'm doing today has not always been there. Now, I remember when I first got called to preach, Brother Hootie, I had the desire and the cause, like, whoo, yeah, baby, just turn me loose, let me go. But how many of you know serving God? Sometimes, man, it's tiring, it's taxing, you want to quit. Sometimes there's no desire there. So why do you keep on? Because you've been called. Because I know God called me to do it. And a call will keep you going. Anyways, here in the text, Paul has a desire to go to the Jews, but that's not his calling. Verse number 17, Acts 28, back to our text, Acts 28, 17. It came to pass after three days, Paul called the chief of the Jews together. And when they were come together, he said unto them, now he's just gonna basically rehearse things we've already studied now for chapter after chapter after chapter. It says, when they were come together, he said unto them, men and brethren, Though I have committed nothing against the people or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. We've covered all of this extensively earlier. Who, when they had examined me, would have let me go. The Romans were going to let him go. Because there was no cause of death in me. But when the Jews spake against it, I was constrained. I was compelled. I was urged. I was put in a tight spot, basically, is what that word means. And it's kind of funny, the word constrained is showing up in our text this morning in Sunday school because it's going to show up in our text for preaching this morning where we're headed to. Anyways, he said, when the Jews spake against it, I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar. Y'all remember that? He's before... Felix or Festus, I don't remember which one it was. Felix or Festus, one of them, and they said, hey, let's send you back to Jerusalem again to be tried. He said, I've done nothing against the Jews. He said, I appeal to Caesar's judgment seat. And you remember when he stood before Agrippa, Agrippa said, this man would have been set at liberty had he not appealed to Caesar. So he's in Rome now because he did. He made the appeal to the higher court. He said, I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar, not that I had ought to accuse my nation of. He said, I ain't here to put the Jews down. I ain't here to accuse Jerusalem or Israel. I got nothing to accuse my nation of. For this cause, therefore, have I called for you to see you and to speak with you. Still got that burden for them. Now watch this great statement. Because that for the hope of Israel, I am bound with this chain. Why is he locked up? For the hope of Israel. Why did they lock him up? Because he's been preaching Jesus Christ. Him crucified, buried, risen, and coming again. You say, what is that? That's the hope of Israel. What is Jesus Christ, God's Son, crucified, buried, risen, coming again? That's the hope for Israel. I want you all to understand something this morning. The hope for Israel is not America sending them more bombs so they can bomb Iran. I mean, I'm not necessarily sending them stuff to help. I will say this. I take a little different take than some people do on I'll bless them to bless you and curse them to curse you. I believe in standing with Israel, but I'm not sure that mandate means we got to fight every war they're fighting. I'm not sure that means we got to send billions of dollars to them all the time. That's just me. I'll get crucified for that one on the internet. I think the highest mandate the church has towards Israel is not to send them money, it's to send them the gospel. The highest mandate we got for Israel is not trying to send them bombs so they can keep a war going on that's never going to stop between them and Iran and Iraq and whoever else. It's to try and send somebody over there to tell them about Jesus. The hope of Israel is found in the gospel. That's where the hope of Israel is found at. Israel ain't got no hope right now. You say, yeah, they do. They're looking for a Messiah. Their Messiah already come. They missed him. They missed him. You say, he's coming back. Yeah, he's going to come again. But they're going to go through a whole lot of tribulation before they end up getting to see him again. The nation of Israel is going to go through the purifiers, refiners fire of the Great Tribulation and most of the nation is going to be wiped out by the Antichrist before they get to see him again. We sit here and think, oh, the Great Restoration of Israel, how wonderful is that going to be? Yeah, it's going to be wonderful, but do you know how much hell they're going to go through before they get there? I know what Bible prophecy says. The hell that Israel's going to go through before they ever see Jesus Christ again will make the Holocaust look like Barney's Playground. Brother, if you've read your Bible, what they got coming up, and they don't believe any of this, but it's Bible, because they reject the New Testament. But what they've got coming up on the horizon, it's going to make what Hitler did to them in the Holocaust, burn them up by the millions in them chambers and all, it's going to make that look like a walk in the park. I mean, brother, that fellow that's coming, that Antichrist, that man of sin, that son of perdition, he is going to absolutely decimate them hip and thigh. Yes, sir. This awful thing was coming. You say, why is that coming on them? Because they said this little statement while God's Son stood in front of them, beaten, bloodied, bruised, battered to a pulp, coming here for them. Sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Wasn't sent for Gentiles. We're the wild olive tree that got grafted in. He came for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And Jehovah sent himself in the person of his Son to reconcile them to himself. And they looked at that bloodied, bruised, battered God-man who had healed their sick, cleansed their lepers, cast out devils out of their people, raised their dead people, gave sight to their blinded people's eyes, gave hearing to their deaf people's ears. And they looked at that bruised, bloodied form on Caesar's judgment block and said, we have no king but Caesar. His blood be on us and on our children." And God said, done and done. How come they've been persecuted for all of these centuries and millennia, 2,000 years since then? How come they're going to be persecuted in the future? A little statement just like, you better be careful what you say, God might hold you to it. His blood be on us and our children. Is that what you want? Yeah. You know how merciful God is? We've already taught Acts. I ain't got to teach you all this again. God is so merciful. God is so merciful, he sends another preacher to him in Acts 7. He stands before that whole group of the fathers that crucified Jesus Christ. His name's Stephen. He's the first deacon of the first church. And old Stephen stands up there and said, you have been the murderers and the betrayers of the sons of God. You've received the word by the disposition of angels and have not kept it. And brother, they did not accept him again. And old Stephen looked up and said, I see Jesus standing. What would have happened had they received him? I think he'd have come back. The kingdom was ready to be set up. But Stephen says, I see him standing. That don't make no difference to us. Jesus is standing right here. Father, we don't care. Kill him. Stone him. Lord says, fine. Last opportunity. Now I'm going to push Paul's on the Jews for 2,000 years, and we're going to send this gospel to the Gentiles, and they'll hear it. They're going to hear it. I'm glad I got in on it. But I'll say this, the hope of Israel is not just the hope of Israel, it's the hope of the world. Jesus Christ, dying, buried, crucified, risen and coming again, that ain't just their hope, that's my hope. That's the blessed hope. Amen. Yeah. But the Jews aren't looking for it. They don't care nothing about that. Listen to me. You know, I know we as American Christians, you know, we think we're great friends with Israel and all that. You want to see how great of a friend you are to Israel as a Christian? Take your King James Bible, walk right over there into the middle of Jerusalem and start preaching, Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried and rose again. See if you're not in jail in about two seconds. And then they prosecute you as a hate crime and a whole nine over there. The Jews' Bible right now is the Old Testament. That includes the Tanakh and the writing of the law there, the Torah. So that's all the Old Testament books. They're laid out in a different order than they are in the King James Bible, but it's Genesis to Malachi. In theirs, it goes Genesis to 2 Chronicles, but all of them's in there. But then they've also got the Talmud. And the Talmud is a group of writings that they consider sacred. That is a bunch of rabbis and rabbinical writings that they hold as in high esteem as the Torah that they go by. Do you know what they believe, what an Orthodox Jew believes about your Savior this morning in the Talmud? They believe that Jesus Christ was a bastard child in their own writing, born of fornication, and that he deserved his capital punishment from Rome, and when God sent him to hell, he is now burning for eternity in his own feces. That's what they... Did you know that? No, because Israel's great. Israel's this. Israel's wicked. They're going to get back on top. Don't worry about that. I'm not anti-Semitic. I believe the Bible. Jesus was a Jew. The fathers were Jews. And they're going to get back on top in the end, and God's going to bless them. But right now, the most wicked, heathenistic people on the face of the planet, they're all Jewish. The most wicked people in the country that own the pornography industry, the alcohol industry, the movie industry, and the music industry, they're all full-blooded Jews. They're wicked. I mean, ungodly is just as the pit. You say, why? Because blindness has happened to them. They said, we don't want him. We don't want him. And God said, fine. I'm fixing to show it to you in a minute. You want to close your eyes and not see? I'll help you. Boy, what an enlightening thing it's going to be when the light really does pierce the veil of their heart and they see Jesus Christ for who he is. Amen. Anyways, that's the hope of Israel, but they don't see it as the hope. Verse number 21, keep reading here, verse 21. And they said unto him, this is their response to Paul about what he just said, about all this stuff. They said unto him, we neither received letters out of Judea concerning thee, neither any of the brethren that came showed or spake any harm of thee. But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest, for as concerning this sect, we know that everywhere it's spoken against. And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging, to whom he expounded and testified." Check this out, don't miss this. Shift from the Gospels to now the New Testament Church Age of Grace. He testified the Kingdom of God. You know what John the Baptist and Jesus came preaching the most when they came? When you read Matthew, Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven. And they said over and over when they preached, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Do you know the difference between the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God? You've been in our Sunday School class long enough, or our Men's Bible Institute, you know this. The Kingdom of Heaven is a literal, physical, visible Jewish kingdom on planet Earth. That's why the prayer for the Jew is this. Thy kingdom come. Right here. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Bring the kingdom. Have the king sitting on his holy hill of Zion, ruling and reigning right here. Do you know how the kingdom of heaven comes? It comes with violence. Revelation 19, the king comes back, slaughtering his enemies. To do what? To set up a kingdom. Look at Matthew chapter 11. This is the kingdom of heaven, Matthew chapter 11. And this was the gospel of the kingdom that Jesus preached. We don't preach the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. We're not preaching an earthly, physical, visible, literal Jewish kingdom. We preach the kingdom of God, which is a spiritual kingdom that's inside of you, of which we'll look at in just a minute. Watch Matthew 11, Matthew chapter 11, and verse number 10, Matthew 11, 10. For this is he, speaking of John the Baptist, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist. Notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven, what's them next two words? Suffered violence and who gets to take the kingdom of heaven the violent and the violent take it by force Hold your place. We're coming right back, but I've got to show you this by comparison Hold your place go with me to Romans with me. Hold your place right there go to Romans chapter number 14 Romans chapter 14 Romans 14, 17, for the kingdom of God is not physical. You say, that's not what it says. That's what it's talking about. Look at what it said it's not. The kingdom of God is not meat, physical, and drink, physical. What is it? Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. You know what Jesus said in Luke 17, 21? Jesus said, the kingdom of God shall be within you. The kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom that you become a part of when you accept Jesus Christ. It moves in on the inside with Jesus Christ as the king ruling and reigning on the inside. The kingdom of heaven is a kingdom that the violent have taken it by force since the days of David, Saul, Samuel, Solomon, and all them kings through that Old Testament. The kingdom of heaven is a literal, physical, visible, on the earth kingdom. And the kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom that's inside of you. Now that kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, that's been put on hold. They rejected their king, their literal, physical king. They rejected him. So you know what God did? Paws on that kingdom. That's why the book of Acts is such a transitional book of which we've tried to teach you the whole way through. Because when we start the book of Acts, do you know what them apostles keep saying when we start Acts in Acts 1? They say, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? Kingdom of heaven. That's why Peter yanked his sword out in the garden and started cutting ears off. Why? That's how you get the kingdom, by violence. That's how he's going to get the kingdom in Revelation 19. Violence. But Jesus said when he stood before Pilate, and I preached this last Sunday, Jesus said, but now is my kingdom not from hence. Now. It will be one day, but not now. Now is my kingdom not from hence. For if it were from hence, then would my servants fight? The servants are going to fight one day. We come back with him. But not right now. Why? That kingdom's been put on hold, the Savior dies, and on this side of an empty tomb, we preach Jesus Christ, crucified, buried, risen, and coming again, and the kingdom, when somebody receives that gospel, the kingdom moves in them. So some of you Bible students sit there, and some of you Bible students that have read your Bible, this is your next question, because you're sitting there putting dots together, and you're saying, when I hang on, preach it. Over there in Matthew, it keeps talking about the kingdom of heaven, kingdom of heaven, and that's what they're preaching. But there are some of these other gospels, Mark and Luke, that they're preaching, and Jesus and John both preach not just the kingdom of heaven, but also the kingdom of God. So you Bible students caught that. Jesus and John the Baptist, they didn't just preach the kingdom of heaven, literal, physical, visible kingdom, they also preached the kingdom of God, spiritual kingdom. You say, preacher, how come they're the same kingdom? No, they're not, I've already showed you. One's literal, physical, visible on the earth, one's spiritual. So you say, well, how come they're not the same? And how come Jesus and John's preaching them like they're the same? Here's how they could preach them as the same at the same time. Because Jesus Christ is the king over both kingdoms. And he offers both kingdoms. He's the king over the physical literal one. He offers that one. And he's the king over the spiritual one. And if you receive him by faith, he offers that one. He gives both. What I'm showing you is this, back to our text in Acts 28, Paul preaches to these Jews and he expounds to these Jews and testifies to these Jews, verse 23, not the kingdom of heaven. Sorry to tell you boys, they show up in his dwelling, sorry to tell you boys, y'all looking for the throne, y'all looking for Rome to get kicked out of power? Not happening. You missed it. He'll come back one day, but that ain't happening right now. Let me tell you what you need to receive right now. You need to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again. If you'll receive that, He'll come in and make His abode inside of you. That's the kingdom of God. It's not meat and drink. It's righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. And that's what Paul's preaching to them. Anyways, verse 23, back to our text. And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him and to his lodging, to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets from morning till evening. I mean, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., brother, that's a Jewish day, morning to evening. They go all day long. What a Bible study that one was. And they're back and forth. They're persuading. He's talking. Come now, let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet as to be white as snow, they'll be red like crimson as to be as wool, Isaiah 118. He's sitting there reasoning with them, and he throws a scripture on them, and they say, yeah, but what about this scripture? And he says, yeah, but look at this scripture right here. And look at Isaiah 53. He was wounded for our transgressions. He is bruised for our iniquities. He is chastised for our peace upon him with his stripes. Hey, look over at Psalm 22. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? I am a worm and no man. I may tell all my bones. They stare at me. My heart is poured out. Look, that's Jesus over there. I mean, brother, he just starts reasoning with them down through there. He takes from Genesis to Malachi, brother, through that Old Testament. You know, all day long. Now watch, here's the belief and the unbelief. Verse 24. And some believed, thank God for those that believe, the things which were spoken and some believed not. And that's the only two kinds of people that there are. There are those that believe the gospel and they're born again and there are those that believe not and they're lost and they're on their way to hell. It's not white and black, it's not rich and poor. It's not religious and non-religious. It's you either believe Jesus Christ or you don't. And that's as simple as I can make it this morning. Old Ruckman said it best when Ruckman said it like this. He said, if you want to go to heaven, trust Jesus Christ. If you want to go to hell, trust anything else. I mean, that's just as simple as it can be made. You want to go to heaven? Put your faith and trust in what Jesus Christ did for you on a cross in an empty tomb. You want to go to hell? Trust anything else. You say anything? Anything. Anything. There's one road to heaven. I am the way, the truth, the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me. There's one way to heaven, Jesus. Plus another, minus another, one way to heaven, Jesus Christ. But there are thousands and thousands and thousands of roads to hell. The road to heaven is one straight narrow road. And it goes by a cross. And the road to hell looks like spaghetti junction, brother. and got people so confused, and so, well, I wonder, did I earn enough? Well, I wonder, did I say the right words? Well, I wonder, did I repent enough? I wonder if I got baptized right? Was I, should I have been sprinkled? Should I have been immersed? I wonder if I joined up with the right church? Was I confirmed? Did I make sure that I got the priest to read over me my last rites before I die? Can my family pay enough money to get me out of purgatory and hell? Did I do enough Hail Marys and full of grace, the Lord's with thee? Am I sure it's Christianity or is it Islam? Am I sure it's Jesus or is it Buddha? Am I sure, and the devil will get people just, until they finally say, Oh, it just don't matter. Religion is confusing and everybody's got their own opinions. I'll just do my own thing. But you can ride to hell on atheism just as good as you can on baptism. I got baptized. You just go to hell a wet sinner. Good for you. I gave money. You go to hell a poor sinner. You know, I was an atheist. You go to hell a dumb sinner. You know what I'm saying? One way is as good as another. Just grab one. They'll all take you to the same place. But if you want to go to heaven, you better grab a hold of Jesus. That's the only thing that takes a man to heaven. Yes, sir. That's just as clear as I can try and make it this morning. Some believed. Thank God for the day. Well, glory. I got to pause right here and enjoy my own teaching. Thank God for the day I became a some-believed. Cold January night, Pembroke, Georgia, as a teenage boy on that side of the church down behind the piano, I became one of them some-believed. Hallelujah. Yes, sir. Changed my eternal destination. But I live for a good while of my life is that last part. Some believe not. But that's the only kind of people they are. Hold your place right there and look at Matthew 28. Look at Matthew chapter number 28. Jesus rises from the dead. In Matthew number 28, verse 16, Matthew 28, 16. Then the 11 disciples went away into Galilee into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. This is some days after his resurrection. Verse 17. And when they saw him, some people say, oh, if I could just see Jesus, if I could just see Jesus, I'd believe. Maybe not. When they saw him, they worshiped him. But some doubted. Oh, if I could just see Jesus, I'd just see a vision, I'd believe. I ain't so sure about that. These people see Him, and some still don't believe. You'd think the Lord knows more about us than we even know about ourselves. We try and tell God, and sinners try and tell God, oh, if you'd just show me some sign. If you just give me some miracle, I'll believe on you. Are you brain dead? The entire house of Israel saw sign after sign after sign, miracle after miracle after miracle, and they crucified Him. Do you think it would be any different today? Honest to God, do you think people have changed in 2,000 years? Absolutely not. If Jesus right now came back today, started doing the same miracles, the same signs, the same waters, preaching the same message, there'd still be people that wouldn't believe and go to hell. So the Lord says, why do I need to give them that? Wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign. There no sign be given to it. I'm done giving signs. Here's the last sign I'm giving. It's the sign of the prophet Jonas. As Jonas was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so must the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. You looking for a sign? Here's your sign. The tomb's empty. Oh, I need a miracle. I need a fuzzy feeling. I need to see something. You don't need to see nothing more, look no further than the tomb is empty. There's, you know, as the comedian says, here's your sign. You need a sign? Here's your sign. God's given it to you. And if you won't believe that, then Jesus said, told that man in Luke 16, that was in hell. He said, oh, Lord, send Lazarus, that he tell my five brethren, lest they also come to this place of torment. For if one would rise from the dead, they'd believe. And Abraham said, son, If one even rose from the dead, they got Moses and the prophets. And if Moses and the prophets won't persuade them, they wouldn't be persuaded that one rose from the dead. If this morning, me teaching this Bible to you under inspiration of the Holy Ghost and me preaching to you here in a little bit and the Lord bearing witness with it, if that's not enough to make you believe and to get born again, you wouldn't believe if your dead granny walked through that side door, brother, right out the graveyard and said, it's all real. You wouldn't believe that either. You'd go right on back to your drinking, right on back to your fornicating, right on back to your hell raising, right on back to your old filthy life and just go on to hell. That's what they'd do. It wouldn't make no difference. You say, why? Because our heart's wicked. Some believe, some believe not. Y'all don't get discouraged when you keep trying to witness to people and they won't get right. Here's the greatest preacher of the New Testament outside of Jesus Christ and John the Baptist. Right? Wouldn't we say, I mean, am I okay saying that? Surely he's in the top five greatest preachers to ever draw breath, right? Apostle Paul. And here he's preaching to people and it's, you know, some get it and some don't. You think you're going to be any different? Don't be so discouraged you're trying to tell your family and they don't get it. I'm not saying don't have a burden. Cry about it. Pray about it. Have a burden about it. But don't feel like, you know, I'm such a failure because they're not getting right. You can't make nobody get right, friend. Verse 25. Boy, we got to hurry if we're going to close this thing out. And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed. Nobody, you know, they're fussing and fighting among themselves, and they say, well, let's just leave. They agreed not among themselves, verse 25, they departed. After that, Paul had spoken one word. Paul's going to get the last word. After that, Paul, they all get up to leave, and Paul says, hang on, I got one more thing to say. Says they didn't agree, and they're fixing to depart after Paul gets one more word in. Hold on just a minute, I got one more thing to tell you. After that Paul had spoken one word, here's the last word he gets. Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers. Amen. You say, what about inspiration of the scripture? There you go. The Holy Ghost is speaking by Isaiah the prophet. Verse 26, saying, this is what the Holy Ghost said by Isaiah, Go unto this people and say, Hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and not perceive. For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing. And their eyes have they closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. A five-point tulip-hopper Calvinist comes through verse 26 and 27 and says, you see there, you know why people are going to hell? Because God has blinded them. And God only saves those whose eyes God opens. God opens some people's eyes and God leaves other people's eyes in blindness. But that's not what your text said. Did you catch it? Because Jesus quotes the same thing. Look who closes the eyes. Verse 27, the heart of this people's wax gross, their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have... God throwed that light right in their face and they said... And when a man does that, then God's under no obligation to do anything else for him. When a man willingly closes his own eyes, then God can say, okay, you want to close your eyes? I'll blind you. But God didn't blind them. They shut their own eyes, and then God allowed the blindness to happen. Look what Jesus says. Go to Matthew chapter 13. Jesus says the same thing about these Jews. Matthew chapter 13. Blindness in parts happened to Israel. How did that blindness happen? Well, God gives them blindness, but not before they close their own eyes. God simply gives them what they want. Matthew 13. Verse 15, Jesus quoting the same exact passage from the same exact prophet that Paul does. Matthew 13, 15. For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed. lest at any time they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears, should understand with their heart, should be converted, and I should heal them. Now, if you go back to Isaiah chapter number 6, and I'll not take you there this morning, but that's where the text comes from. And in Isaiah chapter 6, it says it like this. In Isaiah chapter 6, it says in verse 10, make the heart of this people fat, make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, convert and heal them. You say, who shut their eyes? They shut their own eyes according to the text. God doesn't shut a man's eyes. A man closes his own eyes. And when a man continually does this to God, I don't want to see, I don't want to see, I don't want to see, God finally says, fine, I'll make it where you can't. Now, it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God, y'all. and playing around with conviction when God deals with a man's heart and a woman's heart and shows them their lost condition and their need for a savior and that individual continually shuts their eyes, I have no idea when this point is. I'm not God. Brother Carl, I have no idea. But according to the Bible, there is such thing as a reprobate status and such thing as God sending divine blindness. And there comes a certain point when a man shuts his eyes long enough and pokes his fingers in his ears long enough and says, I don't wanna hear it, I don't wanna hear it. Finally God says, I keep showing you light and I keep speaking to you and you keep poking your fingers in your ears and sticking your hands over your eyes. Okay, I'll just make you deaf and blind and you won't even hear nothing and you won't see nothing. God bless you, enjoy your road on your way to eternity. Now that's a scary place to be at. And I'm just going to be honest with you, I've talked with people like that before. I mean, I've talked with people before, they just couldn't see and they just couldn't hear. And the only thing I could think is at some point God doesn't give them up and give them over. But it wasn't because God said, well, I choose him, and I'll let him see and hear. You're just out of luck. You're up the creek without the paddle, sir. I'm going to make you deaf and blind, and you'll never get to see in here. That's garbage. That's not Bible. It's not Bible. The Bible says that God lighteneth every man that cometh into the world. God gives light to every man. If they want to see, they can. If they don't want to see, That's on them. That will not be on God. All right, keep reading here. We can get it. We got it. We got it. We can close it out. Here we go. Back to our text, Acts 28, 27. He said, Their eyes have they closed, lest they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Verse 28, be it known therefore unto you, Paul's getting it. Paul is late in his ministry, he's starting to catch it. Be it known therefore unto you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles and that they will hear it. Thank God. I feel terrible of the fact that blindness in parts happened to Israel, but I sure am glad me and my family didn't have to go to hell. Boy, thank God we got the opportunity to hear that glorious gospel. Amen. Y'all don't want it? The children don't want the bread? It's not meat to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs. Yeah, but what if the children don't want the bread? That's Matthew 15. That woman comes to Jesus, the Syrophoenician woman. Got a sick daughter at the house with a grievously vexed with the devil. She said, Lord, help me. Have mercy on me, thou son of David. And they said, hey, I'm not sitting on the lost sheep at the house of Israel. Lord, please help me. He said, it's not meat to take the children's bread, the Jews, and to cast it to dogs, Gentiles. How rude. Jesus is so uncouth. Jesus is so mean. Call that poor woman a dog. How many of y'all come back to church next Sunday? I start walking out there calling people dogs. Yeah, that's what I thought. Jesus, look at that woman, called her a dog. It's not me to take my children's bread and give it to some old dog like you dogs, but she needed something. She said, truth Lord, you got me pegged, I'm a dog. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the master's table. She said, Lord, if it means I'm gonna get some of that bread, I'm willing to be a dog. You say, what happened here with the gospel? God kept trying to give the bread to the children. Look at this hot, fresh bread. Jesus Christ said, I'm the bread of life. He's the bread that comes down from the Father. He's the true bread. Look at this bread. God keeps trying to give them the bread through the preachers, and they turn their nose up at it and say, I don't want that nasty old bread, stinky old, smelly old bread. We don't want it! And here at the end of Acts, the Lord says, fine, you don't want the bread. The dogs want some of it. Woo! Son, they stuff your kids, they look at it on their plate and turn their nose up and don't want it, but if you got an old dog, I guarantee you, he's sitting there just sitting down with his tail wagging behind him going... And I mean the stuff that your children sit there and go... That little dog sitting there with his tail wagging like, please give me some, please give me some. And them Jews looked at Jesus Christ and said, but son, thank God us old Gentiles said, please let us have some. Please let us get in on it. Please, we'll take it. If y'all don't want it, give us all that y'all don't want. And we got our bellies full. I'm satisfied with Jesus. Amen, he said being known the salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles. That's us and they will hear it we did verse 29 and when he had said these words the Jews departed and had great reasoning among themselves and Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house and received all that came in unto him and Preaching the kingdom of God there it is again and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ And here's what you can do brother when you are teaching and preaching the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ You can do it with all confidence You ain't got to give the gospel and shuffle your feet and hang your head and act ashamed and act like, you know, maybe this is right. No, no, no. Confidence. It's right. Jesus is the only way. The Bible is true. Confidence, man. Amen. He said he'd done it with all confidence, no man forbidding him. In other words, nobody stopped him from doing the preaching for two whole years until he winds up losing his head on Nero's chopping block sometime later. You know what God does through all this? Hold your place there or just turn. We're done with Acts. But look at Philippians chapter 1 and we're through. Philippians 1. I must need to read these verses to you. Paul writes the book of Philippians to the book of Philippians while he's in that hired house for those two years. And watch what God's doing through all of this heartache and toil and imprisonment. Philippians chapter 1 and verse number 12. Philippians 1.12, but I would, you should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me, all this stuff, the shipwreck and the burden with the Jews trying to kill me and now being locked up all the way over here in Rome, all these things which have happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, Caesar's palace. Y'all didn't know Paul took a trip to Caesar's palace, did you? He didn't pull no slot machines while he was there though. My bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. And many of the brethren in the Lord waxing confident. Why? Because he had confidence. I just read it to you. Waxing confident by my bonds. Your confidence will inspire others to be confident. Other brethren waxing confident by my bonds are much more bold to speak the word without fear." Go to the end of the book, chapter 4. You say, how far did Paul's gospel reach while he was in prison? Oh, it reached right on into old wicked Nero, Caesar's household. Philippians 4.22. Philippians 4.22. All the saints salute you chiefly. Watch these saints. They that are of Caesar's household. While Paul's locked up as a prisoner and Nero hates God and hates Christians, there's members of his family getting saved. His household. I don't know who that was. Daughter, nephew, niece, grandson. But the gospel's getting all the way up there, saving people. The Word of God's not bound. And so we end the book of Acts with Paul locked up in the prison, the Jews getting put away, and the gospel beginning to go worldwide to the Gentiles. And thank God it did. Father, we thank you so much for the gospel that came to us in our darkness. Thank you so much that when you shined the light into our heart, Lord, we didn't just keep plugging our fingers in our ears and closing our eyes, but one day, Lord, we, by faith, trusted what you said, believed the gospel, and you saved us, quickened us, and changed us by your grace. Father, I pray this morning that you would do that with some sinner. I pray the light would shine square in the face of some sinner. The gospel message by the Holy Ghost would be sounded directly into the ears of their heart. And they would not push the snooze button. They would not draw the shades down and try and black out their heart. But oh God, they'd look full into the wonderful face of Jesus and come as a sinner needing salvation. God help the Christian this morning. Encourage them, revive them, refresh them. Do for them what I cannot do for them, but you can. Bless the songs. Help us to worship you like we ought to. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.