WWUTT 1083 As Many As Were Appointed to Eternal Life Believed?

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The Jews rejected the gospel that was being preached, and so Paul and Barnabas turned to the

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Gentiles, who rejoiced to hear the gospel, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

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When we understand the text. You're listening to When We Understand the

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Text, committed to sound teaching of the Word of God. For questions and comments, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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And don't forget our website, www .tt .com. Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.

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Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of Acts chapter 13, and I'm picking up where we left off yesterday with Paul's sermon to Antioch in Pisidia, starting here in verse 42.

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As the people went out of the synagogue, they begged that these things might be told to them the next

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Sabbath. And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed

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Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.

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The next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.

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But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him.

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And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you.

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Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the

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Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, I have made you a light for the

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Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. And when the

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Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the

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Lord. And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

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And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district.

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But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the

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Holy Spirit. So remember, Paul gives this robust gospel presentation here in the synagogue at Antioch, where he is showing how

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Christ is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. And where we concluded yesterday was the end of that particular sermon.

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So we're picking up here with how the Jews responded to what Paul had just preached to them.

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And it says, as they went out, they begged that these things might be told to them the next

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Sabbath. Paul would go into the synagogue, he would reason, he would teach on the Sabbath. There were those who would stand up and read the scrolls.

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And so Paul would either get up and speak in response to what was read from the scrolls, or he himself would also come to the scrolls that were there at the podium, what would have been the equivalent of a pulpit.

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And he would have read from the scrolls himself and explained from them how Christ is the fulfillment of this.

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How this in the Old Testament had pointed to Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins, according to the scriptures, who was buried and raised again on the third day, according to the scriptures.

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And that's just as Paul had presented that to the Corinthians also in 1 Corinthians 15.

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So after he told them about these things, the people were captivated by it. And they begged him that he would come back again the next

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Sabbath and continue to teach these things. And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many

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Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas. So remember,

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I mentioned that there were Jews who were there, and they generally had the best seats in the synagogues, that which was closest to the podium.

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And then the Gentiles would have had to sit outside. Those Gentiles that feared God and wanted to hear about the

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Hebrew God, but they couldn't sit in the most important places in the synagogue. Why not? Well, because they weren't circumcised.

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That really was the biggest thing for a Jew. You had to be circumcised if you wanted to be part of that circle of a more inner circle.

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But then there were also Gentiles who were devout Jews or converts to Judaism, as it's described here in verse 43.

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They would have been Gentiles who were circumcised. So they get a little bit better seat than the Gentiles who have to sit outside, but still maybe not as forward as those

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Jews who had been Jews by their heritage. So they followed

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Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.

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So it's an understanding. Paul and Barnabas speaking to these Jews are speaking of an understanding of justification by grace through faith alone.

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That's essentially the message that Paul is saying to them when he tells them to continue in the grace of God.

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Understand that your salvation is not by keeping the law. It never has been.

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Keeping the law of Moses is not what merits your right standing before God.

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And Paul had talked about this in this sermon. You go back to verse 38, where it says,

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Let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, that through this man, through Jesus Christ, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.

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And by him, everyone who believes, everyone who believes by faith is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

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Moses, the law had no ability to forgive you of your sins. It could not cleanse you from unrighteousness.

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It could not make you right before a holy God. The law could not do that.

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It's through the law that we become knowledgeable of our sin. As Paul lays out in his theology of justification, according to Romans chapter three.

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So it's through the law comes knowledge of sin, that we are fallen short of the glory of God, but are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

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So as these Jews and these Jewish converts are going out from the synagogue and continuing to talk about these things with Paul and Barnabas and begging him to come back the next

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Sabbath and talk more about them. Paul is giving an exhortation to them. You might even consider it a benediction of sorts.

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You know how a pastor will stand up at the end of service on Sunday and he'll give you a benediction or some sort of exhortation.

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Go out and do likewise, you know, something like that. That's what Paul and Barnabas are doing here with these devout

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Jews that are talking with them about coming back on the Sabbath and talking with them about the stuff that Paul had just preached.

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He said, or he urged them to continue in the grace of God. So as they went out from the synagogue, they still talked about these things.

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It's like he reminded them, keep in mind what I just preached to you. Salvation, justification comes by believing in Christ.

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The grace of God has been poured out to you. And God is using faith in Christ to be that vehicle, that mechanism that he transmits the blessings and abundant mercies of his grace to you.

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So continue in the grace of God. That's in a nutshell, what Paul and Barnabas were encouraging the

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Jews to do until they could gather again another Sabbath. And Paul would explain further these things as the

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Old Testament scriptures pointed to Jesus Christ, urging them, continue in the grace of God.

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Do not go about this week thinking that you need to do good works in order to have right standing with God.

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Your works will never be good enough, but rather trust in the finished work of Christ. This one whom

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God has raised from the dead by faith and belief in him. You are freed from the things the law of Moses could never free you from.

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So now verse 44, the next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the

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Lord. So they've heard about this stuff that Paul and Barnabas had been teaching and they're showing up to hear these things talked about.

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There were the Jews who were coming because it was their synagogue. It was their scriptures that were being preached.

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You had the Gentiles that were coming because this had caused such a stir. They wanted to know what all the commotion was about.

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And if you had Romans and Greeks in the city, which there certainly would have been given that the name of the city is

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Antioch, they would have desired to know new philosophies. And this is what

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Paul and Barnabas were talking about. As far as a Greek man was concerned, it's like, oh, hey, a new teaching, a new philosophy of man.

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I wonder what this is all about. So the people come to hear the teaching that's going to be given there at the synagogue.

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That doesn't mean that they're all coming there ready to believe it. For there are many who are going to walk away not believing it.

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You had the Jews that contested with the things that Paul and Barnabas were talking about. The whole city gathered to hear the word of the

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Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, the crowds being made up of more than Jews, they were

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Gentiles. Then the Jews were filled with jealousy. And they began to contradict what was spoken by Paul reviling him.

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So Paul is saying the Old Testament scriptures are pointing to this Jesus Christ, who by grace through faith in him, you are forgiven your sins.

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And the Jews are standing up and going, no, no. It's by keeping the law, you are forgiven your sins. It's by sacrificing and keeping the

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Sabbaths and the feasts and eating these certain foods. It's all of this stuff that makes you holy before God.

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So they're contradicting what Paul was preaching. Paul is showing how the law and the prophets point to Christ.

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They're saying, no, no, no, the law and the prophets don't do that. The law and the prophets are the law and the prophets. So you have to obey them or else

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God's not going to love you. That's that was the message that they were saying in contestation against Paul and Barnabas preaching.

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And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly saying it was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you talking to the

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Jews. But since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we're turning to the

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Gentiles. And in this particular case, it's not that Paul and Barnabas are turning from the synagogue.

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Like later on, when Paul goes to Corinth, he's preaching in the synagogue. The Jews won't accept what it is that he's preaching.

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So he shakes his garments of them and says, from now on, I'm going to the Gentiles. So he actually does go out to go preach to the

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Gentiles. In this case, he's not going out from the synagogue. He's there. And he's saying, hey, you

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Jews don't want to listen to this. Well, look how many Gentiles there are. Look how many Jewish converts there are that were not raised in a

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Jewish heritage. They want to be here and listen to this. So we're going to turn to them and preach it to them since you don't want to listen.

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Now, we have this being the fulfillment of what is said in the scriptures. As Paul had previously talked about, the people did not receive the message of Christ.

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So they crucified him, not realizing that they were fulfilling what the scriptures had said about him in the fact that they were turning against Christ and putting him to death.

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So in fulfillment, even that the heart that the hearts of the Jews would be hardened against God, Paul says to them that you don't want to listen.

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So we're going to preach to the Gentiles. And that's in fulfillment of the scriptures as well. In fact, we have it said in Romans 10, chapter 19.

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But I ask, did Israel not understand? First, Moses says, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation with a foolish nation.

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I will make you angry. That's cited from Deuteronomy, chapter 32. Then Isaiah is so bold to say,

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I have been found by those who did not seek me. I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.

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But of Israel, he says, all day long, I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.

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Because here the the Israelites or the Jews were contradicting what Paul and Barnabas were saying that the scriptures were pointing to faith in Jesus Christ.

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Moses predicted it. Isaiah predicted it. That the Jews in their hearts would be hardened against the message of the gospel.

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And so it would go to the Gentiles with a foolish nation. I will make you angry.

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And here we see that being fulfilled. What was said in Deuteronomy 32, the Jews saw the crowds and they were filled with jealousy and they began to contradict what

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Paul and Barnabas were preaching about. Later on in Romans chapter 11, Paul says through their trespass, through the trespass of the

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Jews, salvation has come to the Gentiles. So as to make Israel jealous. And then

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Paul talks about preaching the gospel in order to make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save some of them.

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That's Romans 11, 14. So the Jews get jealous, seeing that the blessings of God, which were guaranteed to the descendants of Abraham, have been taken from them and given to a different people, to the

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Gentiles. And that makes the Israelites jealous. God did give qualifications to that covenant that he made with them.

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And it's stated in the book of Deuteronomy. If you love me, I will keep my steadfast love for you for thousands of generations, as long as the sun and moon are in the sky.

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So the love of God would be for them. But when they rejected that, when they turned away from that, when their hearts were hardened against it, when they crucified the son of God, the blessings of God were now no longer for just the

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Jews, but they were even going to the Gentiles. Those Jews who were jealous and were convicted in heart and turned from their sin and followed

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Christ, well, they were saved. But those Jews that continued in the hardness of their hearts, that covenant that God made with them was no longer valid because they didn't keep their end of the covenant.

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According to what's said in the book of Deuteronomy. So Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying it was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you, which is

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Romans 1 16. I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to the

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Jew first and also to the Greek. It was meant to go to Israel first, but Israel did not receive it.

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And so then it goes to the whole world, the whole world of men, every nation of men that they might hear the gospel and believe, as Paul says here, since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life.

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Behold, we are turning to the Gentiles for. So the Lord has commanded us, saying, I have made you a light to the

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Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. And that is quoted from Isaiah 49 6.

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You know, this helps us to understand that passage in John 3 16, even for God so loved the world that he gave his only son.

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The contrast to that is what Jesus was talking about previously with Nicodemus. He gave the reference to the book of Numbers, where the people had grumbled against God.

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The Lord sent serpents into the camp. And when a person was bitten by the serpent, they would die until relief was given for them with the bronze servant, the bronze serpent that Moses raised up on a pole.

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Whoever looked at that serpent would be healed of their snake bite and they would not die, but they would live.

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And so Jesus was saying to Nicodemus, just as the bronze serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up.

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And then you have John 3 16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only son. This was being communicated to Nicodemus that the savior had come not just for the

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Jews, but for the whole world, all the nations of men that anyone who looked to him and so believe in his name, believe his gospel would have everlasting life.

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I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.

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Verse 48. And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the

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Lord. And as many as were appointed to eternal life, believed.

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Notice that they don't believe first and then they're appointed to eternal life. No, it's by the sovereign plan of God, that decree that was made before the foundation of the world.

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As we read about in Ephesians chapter one, this is verses four and five.

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He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love.

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He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved.

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In Psalm 139, David says, all the days for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

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And in Revelation chapter 13, verse eight, it is said to us that those who follow the beast, those who worship the beast are those whose names were not written before the foundation of the world.

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In the book of life of the lamb who was slain, the Lord knows those who are his and when his sheep hear his voice, they follow him.

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He calls them each by name. They don't follow the voice of a stranger. They follow the good shepherd as Jesus talked about in John chapter 10, and it is because God had appointed them for this salvation.

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And as many as God is appointed for salvation, they will believe in his name and so live.

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He will not lose a single one of those souls who were written down in his book before one of them came to be.

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As many as were appointed to eternal life, believed there were Gentiles from before the foundation of the world that were set apart for this salvation that they would receive through the hearing and believing of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Yes, God had appointed Israel to himself and called them out of Egypt. But this is demonstrating that it's not just among the

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Jews that God would call people to to his kingdom, but even among the

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Gentiles, as he so far ordained it as and as many as were appointed to eternal life, believed and the word of the

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Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. So here we have it demonstrated that the word of the

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Lord was now going beyond what was the Holy Land through most of acts. Up to this point, we've seen the gospel being preached to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and then to Gentiles that lived in those regions.

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But now it's even going out beyond those regions. The word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region.

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This area that's now beyond the land where the Jews lived, but the

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Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district.

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Again, this is the way the Jews are going to respond to this out of jealousy, because, hey, this is our God. This is not anybody else's

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God. It's our God, not realizing that God is sovereign over all doesn't matter what their nationality is.

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But through the hearing and believing of the gospel, a person becomes a child of God, not because they were a child of Abraham.

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For Jesus said in John chapter eight, you think you have Abraham as your father, but it's rather the devil who is your father.

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For those who do not believe in Jesus Christ, God is not their father, but they follow Satan. Verse 51.

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But they shook the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium. Speaking of Paul and Barnabas and the disciples were filled with joy and with the

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Holy Spirit. Amen to that. Knowing that you have been called to this salvation because God had predestined you for this salvation and you have come to believe it because your book was or your name was written down in his book before you even knew about it.

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Yes, you have a responsibility to turn from your sin and believe the gospel. As far as you are concerned, you must you must respond to that call.

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But ultimately, we know that we were not able to respond to the call. According to what we have written for us in the scriptures, we could not have responded to that call if God had not acted first.

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And so he did by laying down a decree before the foundation of the world, by fulfilling that decree through his son and then pouring his

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Holy Spirit into our hearts. This salvation that we have being a fully Trinitarian work from beginning to end, beginning being before the foundation of the world, the end being the glory that we will inherit with God, our father forever in glory.

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Amen. All right. Let's conclude with prayer. Our heavenly father, we thank you for calling us to this salvation and affecting it in our hearts through the hearing of the gospel and the

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Holy Spirit that you have given to us. Help us to live according to that spirit today. We live lives according to the spirit of God.

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The way that we conduct ourselves today is because we know we have God dwelling within us.

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And so may we live lives that are pleasing unto you and where we stumble and where we falter.

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May we come to you and seek forgiveness for our sins and so be cleansed of all unrighteousness.