Standing on the Promises

Acts 18:9-11 and the Promise of God's Presence

Well, I want you to remain standing and take out your Bibles. We're going to go ahead and read the Scripture for the morning. Pray and then we will be seated for the message. The focus of today, if you'll remember, we started last week looking at Acts 18 verses 1 -17.

Well, the focus of today is going to key in on verses 9 -11, so let's just read that as our opening and then I'm going to go back and bring us some context in the message. So it says here in verse 9, And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, Do not be afraid, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you.

For I have many people in this city, and he stayed a year and six months teaching the word of God among them. Father in heaven, I thank you for your word. I thank you for the truth of it. I thank you that you give us opportunities to study together.

I pray that you would bless this time. I pray first and foremost, as I always do, that you would keep me from error, as I am a fallible man and certainly capable of preaching error. I pray that you would keep me from that for my sake and for the sake of your people.

And Lord, for those who are here who are believers, I pray this message would be an encouragement to them to be reminded about your promises. And Father, for those who are not yet believers, I pray that this would be to them the moment that they are reminded that today is the day of salvation, that none of us are promised tomorrow.

And Lord, your word calls all men everywhere to repent. And Lord, may that be the word that is brought forth today, the call to repentance and faith and trust in the promises that you have given to us.

In Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. You may be seated. The title of today's message is Standing on the Promises and you'll probably likely, those of you who grew up in church or have been in church for any length of time will probably remember that that is the title of a hymn which is very popular.

And later in the service, Brother Jim and the gentleman of the band will be leading us in singing that hymn and I appreciate them putting that song up for us this morning to be reminded of. But that's what we're going to be focused on today.

Corinth, Athens, and the Gospel to a Religious City

We're going to be talking about a promise that God gave to the Apostle Paul in the midst of his time in Corinth. As those of you who have been here for a long time will remember, we've been studying through the book of Acts.

We've gone verse by verse and we've been doing our study of Acts and we've now been in for quite a few many, well over a year and made our way now to chapter 18. And in chapter 18 we see the Apostle Paul having gone from Athens where, if you remember in chapter 17, he stood on Mars Hill, the Areopagus, the bastion of human philosophy at the time and he had made his appeal to them reminding them that there is only one God who created all things and that they are responsible to that God to not only worship him but they're responsible to repent.

And Acts 17 is where we get that word from the Apostle Paul where he says, the times of ignorance God has overlooked but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. And it was at that call to repent that he also added, because he has appointed a day in which he will judge through the man that he has chosen, Jesus Christ, who he showed by raising from the dead.

So the Apostle Paul confronts the intelligentsia, the philosophers, the brilliant men with a very simple message. God created you and thus God has authority over you and God has commanded you to repent of your sins and to trust in his Son.

That message hasn't changed. That message is the same today and it's the same message that Paul brings into Corinth. But as we talked about last week, Corinth is a much different place than Athens. If Athens was the home of the intelligentsia, Corinth was the home of the illicit person, the lustful person.

It was the home of sensuality, not of mental stimulation, but physical. And so Paul goes to this place, and we talked about this last week, I don't want to reiterate everything, but I know not everyone was here.

But Paul goes into Corinth and Corinth is a trade route. It's a place where people not only did business north and south but they did business east and west. It was the closest place where two bodies of water came together.

And so these two bodies of water was a place where people would bring ships in and they would cart across the cargo to another ship three and a half miles over and they'd send it on. And so Paul sees this place and he says, here's a place where trade goes in every direction, so too will the gospel be able to go in every direction from here.

But he had to fight a battle. As he walked into a place, Corinth, that was already saturated with religion. Men are incurably religious. R .C. Sproul makes a point that man is homo religiosus. You've all heard the term homo sapien, homo sapien in Latin for a thinking being.

Homo religiosus, he's also the religious being. Man is the only being that worships, and all men worship something. Even those who say, I don't worship anything, I'm an atheist, I don't believe in God.

They tend to worship at the altar of the academy. They tend to worship at the altar of science. They tend to worship at the altar of human achievement. Everyone worships something and everyone worships somewhere.

Well, Paul walks into Corinth and in Corinth, the worship was that of Venus, Epaphrodite also known as, who was the goddess of lust, the goddess of sensuality. And her temple had a thousand temple prostitutes.

So he walks into this place to preach the gospel and he's all by himself, mind you. You remember that Timothy and Silas who were on the journey with him, they're still back where he had left them. He is all by himself.

He's gone through Athens. He's been kicked out. He's been run out of town. He was run out of Thessalonica. He was run out of Berea. And now he's gone to Athens and he's seen not much fruit. He saw a few people get saved, but in general, the philosophers turned a deaf ear to what he had to say.

So now he's in Corinth and he's surrounded by religious people. This is why I always get to me and say, I like that guy, he's a religious guy. Be careful of religious people because you got to ask the question, what are they worshiping?

Everybody's religious and somebody can be uber religious, but worshiping a false God. Paul walks into a place, ultra religious, worshiping Venus. Also the God Poseidon was very popular there because again, the seas were very close.

So the ship mariners who were there, the sailors who were there often appealed to Poseidon because of them not wanting to die at sea. So Poseidon had a place of worship there as well. So you have this great city of worship.

Let me, let me back that up. I say great city. You have this city filled with great acts of idolatry. And here comes the apostle Paul and what does he do first? He gets a job. We talked about this last week.

He went to making tents. Why did he go to making tents? Well, it's likely at this point he is at a low point in his ministry. He might not even be able to support himself financially with what he had brought with him and he might need to have a job to take care of his financial situation.

He's in a place where he is low and along come Aquila and Priscilla. They had been kicked out of Rome because the Jews at this point under Emperor Claudius had been kicked out of Rome, expelled because of the rioting that was happening in Rome.

And here come Priscilla and Aquila and they take him in and they live together. And they're tent makers and they make tents together. And here the apostle Paul is preaching in the synagogue on Sunday, the Bible, the Greek word, the dialogue.

He's having a dialogue in the synagogue every Sabbath. He would go in on Saturday, he would talk and he would try to engage people about the gospel but he was doing it on the Sabbath. And here comes Silas and Timothy and they bring with him things to meet his needs and companionship.

And when his companions arrive, he begins then to preach the gospel with boldness. And we come to our verse for today, which we stopped last week at verse 6. Because at verse 6 is where we find out that the apostle Paul is preaching to the Jews and much like the Jews in Thessalonica, much like the Jews in Philippi, they didn't want to hear what he had to say.

And so Paul turns to them and he says, I'm innocent of you. I'm innocent of you. Your blood is on your own heads. I'm going to go to the Gentiles. And so he goes to preach to the Gentiles. And it says in verse 7,.

And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. And his house was next door to the synagogue. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord together with his entire household.

And many of the Corinthians, hearing Paul, believed and were baptized. I want you to get this picture. Paul had been going now, we don't know for how long of a time, but Paul had been going into the local synagogue every Sabbath and reasoning with the Jews, trying to share the gospel with them.

Many of them rejected him. Many of them reviled him to the point that it drove him to a frustration where he said, Okay, your blood is on your own head. I'm going to the Gentiles. But the very next passage says that the ruler of the synagogue believed.

So Paul had made an influence on some level that the highest guy in the room had believed what he had to say. And here's the part that gets me. Verse 7 says that Titius Justice, the man who Paul stayed with and the man who let them worship there, was right next door to the synagogue.

Talk about a dividing line for people. I mean, imagine just, I want to give a good analogy for this. But imagine you've got a church here and then another church that teach something totally contrary to what you teach crops up right next door.

I mean, literally like they build a building. Or maybe this little store over here closes. You know, this store over here that sells all the cigarettes and stuff. Maybe they close down. And then a Jehovah Witness kingdom hall takes over.

I doubt it. I'm not saying it's going to happen. But I mean, imagine. Standing out in front, here come the wards and we see them turn into the kingdom hall. Yeah, but that'd be going, yeah. It's not as if you can hide this.

It's not as if it's something that's a secret. There's a dividing line in the sand, which is going on right here. Paul set up shop next door. It's not like he's across town. It's not like he's in an alleyway somewhere where nobody's going to see because as you're coming in, you're going to have to make a choice.

Boy, what a picture of the gospel. You're going to have to choose to go the way you've always gone to the synagogue. You have to go the way you've always gone. Or you're going to have to choose to walk in and worship with Paul.

And it's as plain as the nose on your face. It's a big fork in the road. As Jesus said, there are two ways. There's one way which leads to destruction, and that way is broad and easy. Wouldn't it have been hard for a man who was a Jew to walk into that synagogue?

He's done it his whole life. But what would have been hard was walking into the house of Titius Justice. Can you imagine what the synagogue president, that's what the King James Jews were, president. He's the leader.

He's the head of the synagogue. Imagine when he did that and took his whole family with him. I just, every time I think about it, I think about how bold the Holy Spirit, the boldness that the Holy Spirit gives us, the power to do such a thing.

It's an amazing thing. And so in verse 8, it says, in many Corinthians, hearing Paul believed and were baptized. So Paul has a ministry now that is starting to see some fruit. In the midst of immoral people and immorality, Paul is seeing fruit.

In fact, he's seeing more fruit here than he saw in Athens. Remember last week I said Athens was sort of like you're going to Yale and you're going to talk to the philosophers. And Corinth was sort of like going to the frat house and talking to the frat guys.

You know, it's sort of two different pictures here. You've got the intelligentsia and you've got the elicita. And so you've got these two things. Paul is, he's gone to the philosophers, they didn't want anything to do with him.

So here he is. And he's seeing converts. He's seeing people be baptized. Baptism is a huge deal. Baptism is cutting them off from their community. Cutting them off. You get baptized. This is why I believe that in the scripture we see connection between baptism and salvation.

Not because baptism saves you, but because baptism had such a connection to faith in the ancient world, especially at this time in history, that if a man was baptized, that was a sign, a true sign of faith.

Whereas today, baptism is, you know, not that big of a deal for many people. Should be, but it's not. It's sort of what everybody is expected to do, and it shouldn't be, but it is. But in the ancient world, if you were baptized, you were cutting yourself off.

It was a new form of circumcision. You were cutting off the world. You were dying to self and raising with Jesus Christ. And that's what these people are doing. And then in verse 9, and you might think this comes out of nowhere, but in verse 9 it says, And the Lord said to Paul in a vision one night, Do not be afraid.

And you might say, well, why now? Paul was beaten in other cities. Paul was pushed out of other places on the run at night from other places. Why now is God encouraging Paul? Well, the text doesn't tell us in our we only see the situation Paul is in.

Paul has just gone through a difficult time. Paul's just gone through a downtime, and he's about to again be faced with some of the same things he's been faced with before, because he's about to have people rise up against him.

He's about to have people come against his ministry again. And so God says, Do not be afraid, but go on speaking. Do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you. So far, that hasn't been the case.

Many people have attacked. Some people have harmed him. At one point, he was left for dead. He was stoned and left for dead. Remember that? But God makes this promise, and here he says in the latter part of verse 10, For I have many in this city who are my people.

By the way, Calvinists in the room, they're not saved yet, but God said they're my people. Why? Because he knows who are his. My sheep hear my voice, right? Jesus said that. He said, There are people here.

What did the scripture, what did God say in the scripture to Elijah? Elijah, I'm the only one left. No, I have 7 ,000 men who have not bowed the knee to battle. I have people here. Paul, you're going nowhere, and nobody's going to hurt you until you are done.

You will not go anywhere, and you're not going to get hurt, and I'm going to be there, and I'm going to watch out with you. You are immortal until you're finished. Had a conversation with a guy about this recently.

Had one of the most interesting moments in my life. I had a guy, and God bless him. I love him to death. I'm certainly not speaking ill. I had a guy, not a member of the church, but a guy who listens to our messages online, so you may hear this one, and he called me and said, Can I talk to you about a message?

And I said, Sure. And he took me to lunch, and he sat down, and he had written five lines out of a message that I had written, and he had a question about, and it was about the sovereignty of God. Five sentences, and we talked for two hours about those five sentences.

He was very, very, very concerned about what I had said, but I want to repeat what I said and make sure it's clear, because what I said in his concern, I said, Until God is finished with you, you're absolutely immortal, and you're not going to live a day past.

God has determined your days. The Bible says he has fashioned them before you, before the world was. Now where he took issue with that was on things like health and personal protection, and how do those things play a part, and I do think those things play a part.

I don't have time to get into it today, but I do think that God uses means to bring about his ends, and one of the means is health, one of the means is personal protection, those things. But at the end, I stood firm on what I said.

I said, What I am saying is true. God has appointed a day that we will die, and he is certain of that day, and if God could be wrong about that, he could be wrong about anything. You don't know when you're going to die.

It could be today, it could be 50 years from now, but I will say this, God knows, and he will never be taken by surprise. God has appointed a day for you. It is appointed unto every man who wants to die.

We hand out little cards. I keep them in my wallet, little cards that look like appointment cards for when you go out to the doctor's office, and they give you the appointment card, and it says, Reminder, you have an appointment, as everyone does, and that's the key here.

God is reminding Paul of that promise. He's reminding him. He's saying, Look, you are not, nothing is going to happen to you. You just speak the truth, because I've got people here who need to hear the gospel, and the next verse to me is so fascinating, because it says,.

And he stayed with them 18 months. He stayed with them one year and six months, teaching the word of God. In the city of debauchery, in the frat house, Paul is preaching the gospel for 18 months, and God protects him every single day.

But then in verse 12, we do see God's promise coming to fruition, because in verse 12, it says,. But when Galileo was proconsul of Achaia, this is an interesting historical note, because we can date certain passages of scripture by these types of things.

You know, when it says when Jesus was born, Kyrenius was governor of Syria, so we can look at historical documents and find out when Kyrenius, that's how we know Jesus was born before Christ. No, the idea, you know, the BC, you know, we talk about year zero, Jesus was born about four years BC, because that's when Kyrenius was governor of Syria.

So we look at those things. Here, when we see Galileo, Galileo is the brother of Seneca, the ancient author, and this guy is in charge only for two years, 51 and 52. So if he's only in charge for two years, this is somewhere between 51 and 52.

It says, When Galileo was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, saying, This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law. Not exactly an untrue statement, because Paul was calling people to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

That was technically against the law, because there was no problem in the ancient world at that time of introducing a new God. They had so many gods, they were tripping over them. The idea was, if you said your God was the only God, that was the problem.

And that's what Paul was saying. So they're not exactly saying something that's necessarily untrue here. And you'll notice in verse 14, Paul was about to defend himself. Paul was not afraid. Paul had a promise from God.

He was about to defend himself. It says, But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Galileo said to the Jews, If this were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint.

But since it is a matter of question about words and names and your own law, see to it yourself. I refuse to be a judge of these things. Boy, how did God come through? Because this judge had the power to punish Paul.

Paul had already been punished in other places. Remember in Philippi, he was put in jail, right? But here, Paul is brought before the tribunal. He's brought before Galileo, and Galileo doesn't even let him speak.

Paul didn't even have to defend himself. Galileo looks at the Jews. He says, Guys, this is all about your Jewish religion and who you call God and what his name is, and I don't care. I don't care. So what does Paul have to do?

Nothing. God fought his battle. Years ago, years ago there was a time where I thought I was going to have to resign as a pastor. This is several, this is more than ten years ago. Well, I've been a pastor for ten years, about nine years ago, right after I became the pastor, an issue arose that was really affecting my conscience, it was something that was happening in the church.

And without getting too serious about it, it was a biblical issue that I knew needed to be dealt with. And I felt like, well, this may be the place I have to draw the line in the sand. I can't let this continue.

So I prepared myself to visit with the elders and talk about this issue. I prepared myself facing what I knew was going to be the end of my ministry, which had been a short ministry at that point, but it was okay because I had to do it.

I walked into the room, prepared whether to give my resignation or to take a stand or both, and I didn't get the words out of my mouth. I'd been praying on my knees for a week about this meeting. I didn't get the words out of my mouth before the person who had the issue, who was also present, stood up, recanted, and walked out of the room, and it was over.

And I said, thank you, God, for going before me, for preparing the way. And I didn't have to say anything. I bawled that night when I got home and told my wife. I said, God will fight our battles for us.

He will protect us. If he has us where he wants us, he'll make us a way to stay. I know what a blessing it was. And I just, I can't, I think about Paul, about to speak, and the procouncil says, Nunny, they're out, you're in, you win.

They're wrong, you're right, I don't care. And what's interesting is the next thing, which I think Luke sort of adds this in just almost for comic relief, it's not really funny, but the very next thing in verse 16, it says, and he drove them from the tribunal, he said, he just put them out, and they all see Sosthenes, who is the leader of the Jewish people, and they beat him in front of the tribunal.

But Galileo paid no attention to it. They drug him outside, beat him up, Galileo said, I don't see nothing. It's just an interesting little side note that these guys not only get put out of the courtroom, but he's punished sort of physically and very literally out in front of everyone, and the judge just sort of turns a blind eye.

And so that's not funny. Well, it's not funny, but it's an interesting little side note. He's put out. He's beaten. Nobody says a word. Paul walks away unscathed. Now, I say all that and I want to bring an application.

Promises for the Unbeliever, the Guilty, the Evangelist, and the Anxious

I didn't really get to the application portion last time. So I want to today, as I began to draw to a close, come to some points of application. And as I was thinking about how I wanted to apply this message this week, I was thinking about the fact that it is Thanksgiving week.

And this does remind us of one of the great promises God gives Paul. And God comes through for Paul and we see it. And I got to thinking about what are some of the promises that God has given to us that sustain us in times of difficulty?

I even put out a post this week. I just was curious. I asked people, I said, what are some of the promises that God has given you in scripture that you hold most clearly and dearly to in your times of difficulty?

I had some wonderful responses. It was nice to have so many people just respond in positive ways. But I have some things I'd like for you to think about. And some of these, you're going to say, boy, that's a scripture everybody knows.

There's no scripture that everybody knows. But here are some things that I want you to think about. If you write notes down, you can take notes. There's a place on the back of your bulletin. But here's the first one.

A promise from scripture that we should all know and we should all remember. The first one is for the unbeliever. And that may be you today. You may have come here today and you may not know Christ. You may have come here because somebody made you come.

You may have come here because you got up this morning and it was cold outside and you wanted to go somewhere where it was warm. You may have come here this morning because you're trying to satisfy somebody who needs you to be with them or something.

I don't know why you're here. But if you're an unbeliever here, I want to just share a scripture that you've heard before. I'm certain you've heard this before. But I want to remind you what it says. In this way, this is John 3 .16 for those who don't know it.

In this way, God loved the world. People always say for God so loved the world. That word so in the Greek actually means in accordance with this or in this way. In this way, God loved the world. That he gave his only begotten son.

That past hop is to him in the Greek, all the ones believing. Are all the believing ones. Will not perish. But will have everlasting life. So if you're here today and you're an unbeliever, that's the promise I present to you today.

All the ones who believe in Jesus Christ will not perish. All the ones who believe in Jesus Christ will have eternal life. All the ones who trust in him will never taste the sting of death. You know what the Bible says death is for the believer?

It's a moving, it's a transition which is angelically escorted. Luke 16 says that the poor man died and he was carried his spirit carried by angels to Abraham's bosom. He says, but the rich man, the unbeliever, he died and what happened?

He closed his eyes and he opened his eyes in hell. No angelic escort. No escort at all. If you're an unbeliever today, the Bible is clear. It gives you a promise. All the believing ones will not perish.

But the converse is also true. Those who do not believe are condemned already. Another promise that I want to share with you is maybe you're a person who deals with guilt. First John chapter 1 and verse 9.

Brother Roy read the entire context of the passage this morning. And I don't have time to read the whole context of the passage. But in first John 1 and verse 9, it says, let her breathe. She's holding her mouth shut.

Sorry, she'll be alright. It's not hurting nothing. First John 1 9. If you're dealing with guilt today, if you're a believer and you're dealing with guilt, it says this. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous or just to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

Beloved, is that you? Do you have something in your life and you say, I just don't understand how God can forgive me. I just don't understand why God would forgive me. Do you know why God forgives you?

It's not because of you. And it's not because you're good. It is because He is good and He is infinitely greater a Savior than you are a sinner. And so He has made a promise that if we confess our sins to Him and we repent of those sins, He will cleanse us and forgive us and we do not have to carry that nonsense anymore.

It's like the lady who went to R .C. Sproul and she said, R .C., I've prayed for forgiveness and I've repented of my sins, but I just don't feel forgiven. And he said, then you need to repent. And she goes, I've already repented.

He says, no, you need to repent of not believing that God will forgive you because that's where you are. God has promised He'll forgive you. You've confessed your sin to Him. He's already forgiven you.

And you're not believing it doesn't make it not so. You're not believing it is itself another sin because you don't believe He will. Just trust that promise. Some of you are afraid to evangelize. And I understand that.

Talking to unknown people, talking to strange people, talking to people we've never met is hard. Here's a verse for you. John 6 and 37. Jesus says, all the Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me I will in no way cast out.

All the Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me I will not cast out. When you go and share the gospel with someone, you're sharing the gospel with them, but it's not up to you to make them come to Christ.

It's up to you to give them the message. Christ says the Father is the one who gets them to come. All the Father gives me will come. The Father is the one who's going to do the work of regeneration. In fact, Jesus said in that same passage later, He says no one can come unless it's granted by the Father.

But I just love that promise. All the Father gives me will come to me. So when you evangelize, you have to remember the promise of Christ that you cannot fail if you proclaim the truth. And that's a promise that spurs you to go.

What about those who fear the future? Pastor, I have a hard time with anxiety. And hey, I do. I've had dealings with my own self with, I'm going to be interviewed next month with Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

It's going to interview me and one of the conversations we're going to have during the interview is issues I've dealt with with depression and anxiety. So I'm not standing on a pedestal to get knocked off of.

I'm not perfect. But this is what the Apostle Paul says in Philippians 1 6. I am sure of this. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus. God began the work and God will finish the work.

He's the one who started it and he's the one who will complete it. Do you believe that? That's a promise that can undergird us through some of the most difficult times in life. And my favorite, and this is where I'm going to end.

For those of you who are facing trials, and some of you are facing some real trials. Some financial, some physical, some health. Some of you face trials that I don't and I face trials that you don't. But this is the one passage that's, to me, I pray this passage.

I pray it when I'm up here, I pray it to myself when I'm at home. I pray this passage all the time and it's Romans chapter 8. Really it starts at verse 28, but the promise really begins at verse 31. Romans 8, the whole chapter is a beauty.

Begins with that, for there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. What a promise that is. But it ends with this, it ends with no condemnation. I'm sorry, it begins with no condemnation, but it ends with no separation.

Because hear this, it says, What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all. How will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?

And who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised. Who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long.

We are regarded as sheep as to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am certain that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That's a promise worth standing on. And that's a promise God gives to all believers. And if you are in Christ today, that promise is for you. And as Paul stood before that tribunal, knowing that God would never leave him nor forsake him, so too can you know that God will do the same for you.

Let's pray. Father in heaven, I thank you for your Word. I thank you for the promises of Scripture. And I have not even scratched the surface of the many promises that are there. I pray for the unbelievers in this room.