Episode Transcript
Let's read several passages here, Acts chapter 39. You'll see in a minute why I think, Acts chapter 13, I was trying to find a passage where it told us how Paul was preaching near Galatia. I didn't find any particular time. But this is as close as I see in the Scripture. And in the book of Acts of the apostle Paul getting close to Galatia. So I thought, chapter 13 of Acts and verses 38 to 52. This is Paul coming as close as I can see him on the map to Galatia as it is in the Bible that we had in the room with Pat, here we go, verse 38. When David had served God's purposes, in his own generation, he fell asleep, Paul is speaking, he was buried with his fathers, and his body decayed, but the one whom God raised from the dead, did not see decay. Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus, the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, through him. Everyone who believes is justified from everything that you could not be justified by from the law of Moses, take care that what the prophets have said, does not happen to you. Look, you scoffers wonder and perish, for I am going to do something in your days that you would never believe even if someone told you, as Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, this is an Antioch and by Cydia, as they were leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to speak further about these things on the next Sabbath. When the congregation was dismissed. Many of the Jews and the devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God. On the next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy, and talked abusively against what Paul was saying, then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly, we had to speak the Word of God to you first, since you rejected and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles, for this is what the Lord has commanded us. They have made you a light to the nations. That's what Gentiles means, all the other nations, aside from Israel. And I think, frankly, that most of the time for today, the translation nations is a better one. But there we go, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. When the nations when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord, and all who are appointed for eternal life believed the word of the Lord spread through the whole region. But the Jews inside of the God fearing women of high standing, and the leading men of the city, they stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region. So they shook the dust from their feet, to protest against them, and went to I conium. And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Spirit, before we go to Galatians For a moment, just think of it this is Paul preaching on the border of what is technically what's called Galatia, which was just a region of Turkey today, in fact, northern part of Galatia was checking today, it goes into Ankara, which is the capital of Turkey today. So that's how far north it went this region. And here we have Paul preaching the good news, arguing with his fellow citizens who are Jewish, but have not yet crossed the Jesus as the Messiah. So he's arguing with them, they keep these inside the crowds, they persecute him, they chase him out of town. And the interesting thing in those days was that Paul moved from city to city, being mostly chased out of town by the enemies. So he had to keep moving, moving moving. In some of these towns, he mostly stayed a week, maybe two or three maximum, and he was gone. The only place where he stayed long times was emphasis, and then also currents. Those do we know that he stayed quite a bit of time, in emphasis at least three years, and then he visited once or twice, two or three times extra. And then in gardens, at least a year and a half man, the Lord told him to stay. And it doesn't mention how long he stayed. But there was a great harvest in Corinth, and there was a massive harvest in emphasis. You know, this year, the Lord took my wife and I on old trip, and we ended up in emphasis. That was the one city I really wanted to see. We also were in Croatia, which is a small little enclave that was broken off to Yugoslavia, but as we existed for millennium, of course, and I think I mentioned to you that it was when Paul says from Jerusalem
all the way through Illyricum I have flooded at all with the gospel of Christ. Illyricum is what Croatia is today, it was larger than Croatia is Croatia has become very tiny, tiny little country. But nevertheless, that's where Paul went. And it was just glorious to walk in these towns, you know, and think some of these streets look old enough like Paul walk through these towns, it makes you it gives you a great sense of history, and a great sense of the reality and the presence of history. And then an emphasis some of you how many of you have been to FSS on tours. Yeah. Isn't that an impressive town? I mean, I never realized it was so large, I always imagine it like most towns in the 2000 years ago, they were 15,000 20,000 30,000. But FSS according to our guide, he said there was at least 220 to 250,000 people, when you walk through the ruins, I mean, you know, it was a big city and the public baths at the library, and the restaurants and public bathrooms were quite aside. And then the Temple of Artemis, or Diana, was what today is on the other side of a freeway. It isn't really in the city proper. It was quite a distance from the main part of what what was Ephesus. But boy, what a city that was how impressive. I had always wondered what the stadium that Paul wanted to go and speak when people were were angry about Diana of the Ephesians. You remember that because of so many were being converted, they stop worshipping Diana or teammates, and, and they weren't buying all the idols. So the manufacturers of idols got angry, and they wanted to kick Paul out of town. He'd been there for three years, and there was probably a pile of people who were converted. The theologians say that the Ephesians were probably the most spiritual church that is mentioned in the New Testament, in view of the epistle to the Ephesians. And the way he writes to them. But anyway, if you ever get a chance to go to References, take time, don't let them do it for an hour and a half. You should take more time, I should have taken more time, because I wanted to just feel it and reread the passages. But you know, it this actually happened. And emphasis now is further away from Galatia. But this down Antiochian by Cydia may be in what was called Galatia in those days, and Paul is preaching and so he gets into a debate with his own Jewish brothers and sisters. But the Gentiles love it, and they accept the good news. And they are converted. But the interesting thing is did you notice when we were reading it says in verse 44, on the next Sabbath, and this excites somebody like us that have been called to speak to the masses on the multitudes in big cities. And the next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. And when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with joy. But you know, that is an impressive thing. Here is the city of Antioch and by Cydia, a key city in the Roman road that went from east to west. And here almost the whole city gathers to hear the word of the Lord. And you know, sometimes I remember how he Hendricks, a professor at Dallas Seminary, he said, you know, we believe that God can do anything, but we expect them to do very little. And you know, that is absolutely true. I wrote it down today. I heard it like 45 years ago, how he said it. We believe God can do anything, but we expect them to do very little. And that is the absolute truth. We read the promises under the Scripture, like somebody said in these comments, you know, we watered it down, it says it it's clear, the Lord will do this if you do that. But we say yeah, yeah, but you know, it's not gonna work today. It worked in the early church, but it doesn't work today. And so we miss out on the blessing of God, to think that Paul walks into Antioch, one Saturday, he has a debate in the synagogue, the next Saturday, they almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. And you know, sometimes I feel that people in the churches, especially in Europe, and now unfortunately, the infection is spreading to the US. There's a feeling that people are not going to come and hear the word of the Lord that people are not hungry, and they forget the work of the Holy Spirit. Yesterday, we finished you remember talking about being led by the Spirit walking in the Spirit obeying the spirit, pleasing the spirit. Life today is to be lived in the fullness of the Holy Spirit and being flooded by the Spirit of God. But you know, the Bible says in John 16, listen to this one, because it's a fundamental thought in my evangelistic forays for the last 50 years. It says the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, and righteousness and judgment. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. So I want to encourage you as individuals, because you know, the Bible shows us that there are two ways of sharing the gospel of Christ. The first one is all of us are supposed to be witnesses. And I want to encourage you if being a witness acts one eight, you shall receive
Power, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Now, every believer has to be an is a witness, were witness by our life, and we're supposed to be a witness by our words, you're really not really witnessing the good news. You're not proclaiming the good news as a witness, unless you open your mouth and speak the words of truth that brings salvation. The gospel is a message. That's what we've been meditating on a glorious message, a message that transforms, so you have to speak. If you don't speak, you have set the stage to witness by good behavior, hopefully, by loving behavior by good deeds, by season of service, you're showing the love of Christ. But until you open your mouth, and actually articulate the good news, you haven't really witnessed to the person, you just gained credibility to witness, but then you have to speak and in due time, the Holy Spirit will give you the words and, and give you the opportunity to do just that. But then also, there's the gift of evangelism. And we mustn't confuse the two things. I as an evangelist, I'm a witness on a daily basis, just like you are, hopefully, my behavior gives me the ability to my words, but I have to speak just like you at the bank and my neighborhood. wherever I happen to bump into people. I want to be a witness just like you are. And at that point, I'm not an evangelist in the formal sense. People look at me as one more guy who lives in Portland, Oregon, and he's sitting by me on the plane, and he's trying to talk to me about God and so on. I've just another Christian, but then the Lord gives the gift of evangelism. And that's a gift, just like other gifts that the Holy Spirit gives. And a person with a gift of evangelism seems to have not doesn't seem has by the Holy Spirit, not by his own wits, and by his own. Whatever sense of designing himself to be an evangelist, the Holy Spirit gives the gift. The church sees it, the church blesses you, the church approves it, the church prays for you, the church sends you out, support you financially, with prayers, with encouragement, I'm blessed at our church in Portland, Oregon, the church loves me and prays, and I feel so good when I come back. And I just sit in the audience and worship like everybody else, and listen to the message. It's great to be blessed by your church. And our sense of the church loves me and sends me out and still has given the approval to the calling Andrew, the same thing, you begin to notice he has the gift of evangelism because every time he preaches people get converted, that's usually a sign that you're an evangelist. If people get converted when you preach, because that's what evangelists do. They proclaim the good news. So don't put yourself down and say, I can't do what Andrew does. I can stand in front of our crowd and shout out the Gospel. And people come forward. I wouldn't think of it of course, if you don't have the gift of preaching to the masses, but you can witness and you know, the best way to witness that Paul showed us again and again, was just to tell his experience with Jesus Christ, how many times in the book of Acts, his conversion, has mentioned at least three times very fully, twice, he does it himself. And the third time he he told it to, to Luke, because Luke wasn't there. Paul had to tell him, so Paul relish telling his story, when he was before kings, instead of preaching a sermon, he would just tell him what Jesus did in his life, and it was gripping and it's very gripping. So I want to encourage you as you go home, to your place of service, where you work and play and neighborhood and so on, that you don't have to be a genius communicator, quote, unquote, know, what did Jesus Christ do in your life? What has he been saying to you lately? Well, prayers as he answered, you know, those things become a source of evangelism. Now, what I was trying to make, the point here was that Paul went over to Galatia, the crowds came out. And I was so impressed by that thought, you know, the whole city, almost the whole city came to hear the word of the Lord. And the Holy Spirit is the one who draws people to Jesus Christ. He's drawing everybody, the true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. The person of the chapter two says, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to the knowledge of the truth. So the Holy Spirit is always at work in the world. And you know that I'm sure it's in the Scripture. And history shows it for instance, in the Muslim world, was very hard to get in there and to to openly present the good news in many of the countries in the Muslim world. But don't worry about it, you give it your best chance of the Lord pushes you and gives you a chance, a great chance to give the good news to Muslims is when you have them in the USA, in your neighborhood at work, when you buy when you sell, etcetera. You can give the good news here, but in in certain countries, it's impossible. But don't worry, God is not frustrated. He has his way. And many of you know this, how many Muslims come to Jesus Christ without ever hearing a human breed?
Jah leader they do. The Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to them, mostly in dreams and visions. And there's endless, endless testimonials to that. I have heard it for ages, long before the present troubles between East and West. I remember a missionary called Deke killers, who was a missionary in China. And then he traveled in many parts of the world. And he would tell very carefully case studies of, of people who in the middle of the night, would have a vision and they had a hunger for God. And they would see a vision of unusually it's almost always the same. It's quite amazing. They see a vision of a man coming in white. And then they realize this the Lord Jesus, and they hear beautiful music, and they see visions of what appears to be paradise, and the Lord speaks to them. I remember when we were in Egypt, and Kevin brought a group of people from various Muslim countries, and there was a lady from a certain Muslim country who came to Egypt while we were having a campaign there. 10 years ago, Andrew went back to Egypt, another glorious campaign, with TV all over the Muslim world. But this this time, the first time when we were there, this lady came, and everybody reveres right, she comes from an upper class family in one of the Muslim countries, and her father was a Supreme Court justice, and he was into a cultic stuff, people don't realize that there's a lot of occultism and, and Spiritism, and in the Muslim world, anyway, this lady had a hunger for God. And she memorized the Quran, which is one of the great dreams that very few people can ever do. She memorized it. And then she had read about Jesus in the Quran. And then one night, she had a dream. And Jesus appeared to her and spoke to her and said, I am Jesus, you've read about me, but there's more to me than you've read, and I am the Savior. And one day you will know more about me, but love me and trust me, and she didn't know what was going on. But she believed. And then she began to tell her children and began to tell family members and the children's friends, and there was a growing number of young people. And even then, finally, her dad himself, who was very strongly against it because of the culture, but also because of his old cultism. And the father finally became a believer. One day she's at an airport in the capital city, where she came from a Westerner walked up to her out of the blue, and said to her, and she spoke French, would you like a Bible? And would you like a movie about Jesus, that Jesus will, she said, he'd love it. So for the first time, she had a Bible, and she had the Jesus film. And she looked at it and looked at it, and showed it to her children, and showed it to all her friends, and everyone, and she has led tons of people to Jesus Christ, a great servant of God. But that's the way how the Lord reveals himself. So don't panic about those who've never heard, we should still try to go there and give the good news. It's the orders from the master. But there is no need to panic about those who haven't heard, God is very aware, he wants all men to be saved, that he will find a way to reveal himself, he revealed himself in the Bible, to many of them their dreams and visions. And he does it now, especially in places where we cannot go and do not go to do so now. So here today, we talked about the first day, if you remember, we talked about the glorious message. And we dealt with that for a while. Then the second day, yesterday morning, we talked about the glorious message believed and received, and the impact on our lives. And now we're just coming to a close the glorious message proclaimed, it is a glorious message. And we enjoy and love it as believers, and then also the gospel that has an impact on our lives. It's liberated us and there are three things that I'll mention. Just as the final point this morning, God willing. The first thing then is, Paul was sent by Jesus Christ and God the Father, to preach or proclaim the gospel. Look at verse one very simple in Galatians, Paul an apostle, not by man, no by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God, the Father, who raised them from the dead, and all the brothers with me, grace and peace from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus, an apostle sent, he was sent by God the Father, and brothers and sisters, the church you and I has been sent into the world, you are God's person, representative in your sphere of influence. It may be a small sphere of influence in your neighborhood, or it may be a major one, if you're in a big corporation, and you travel, but it doesn't matter. We are His ambassadors, we represent Him and we are sent to every one of us is sent to serve Him. So Paul says, I was sent by God the Father, by Jesus Christ, and God the Father. And you know, when we go, we can go in the full power of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. I like in Romans 15, where Paul says, I was reviewing it this morning. He says, When I come to you, he says to the Romans, I hope I'll be coming in the full measure of the blessing of Christ. You know, to come with the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We can be a real
blessing wherever we go every day for me important when I'm home, when I'm on the road, it tends to be more official. But I'm in private is another thing, that you come in the full measure of the blessing, that you'll be cheerful that you'll be filled with the Holy Spirit, even when we're going through tough times. And we all have tough times, but that we come in the fullness of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, patience, self control against such things, there is no law, we can bless other people's, if we ourselves are filled with the Holy Spirit, and with the love and the joy of the Spirit, if we are miserable, it's not going to work. The other day in Chile, there was such a contrast. They had a thing called the day of the evangelical at the, at what I call the White House, it's got another name over there, but the government, and it was the day of evangelical, it's a new thing. No other country in the world has such a thing that I know of Chile is the first one out there kind of proud of that. And the President who did it was a woman, and she was an atheist. But she just wanted equality for everybody. So she made October 31, which in many countries is called The Day of the Reformation into the day of evangelical. And so there was a celebration, because it was, it was not quite the 31st Because now it's a holiday, but we were there. And some of the some of the clergy who came forward to read proclamations look so absolutely miserable. I tell you long faces, just with a piece of paper reading.
Gosh, what a representative of Jesus Christ, you know, dark clothes, dark face, long face, no joy, no happiness, no freedom. What a poor representation of the Lord Jesus, intellectually, the reading was fine. It was about the history and Martin Luther and Calvin and all those boys, you know, but but there was there was no life, there was no power. And there was no exuberance, you know, where's the Holy Spirit here, for Pete's sake, you know, just another lecture. And we run the risk of being the same way. So we must not allow ourselves to do that. Be sure in the morning before you leave the house, say, Lord, I want to go out into the world filled with the Holy Spirit, to work at the office to do my math to do my engineering, but every time always filled with the Holy Spirit so people can see Christ than me. So Paul says, I was sent not by man, but by God through Jesus Christ, and pray that Andrew and that I will always be such people, that it will not become a professional thing. But actually, we will be filled with the Holy Spirit, wherever we go to bless people, because the blessing of Abraham through us spreads to all nations. That's what he says that the blessing of Abraham may come upon us. It's like a rain that comes upon us. And we can be a blessing if we are filled with the Holy Spirit, when we go out every time. And then what happens when you are sent by the Lord, the Lord will always open doors. So don't be surprised if you hit the road today, at the airport or wherever you're going. Some of you are driving some of your fly, that door will open and you say, oh my soul, I didn't realize here's an opportunity to share Christ in the most amazing ways. The Lord opens doors. That's why last night I quoted that verse. I've said before you an open door that no one is able to shut the doors open, walk in and the name of the Lord and see what happens. That's what makes the Christian life so exciting, and makes it an adventure. You don't know what could happen today. But it could be grandiose, and you might lead a person to Christ that you never expected. It may be just one person, one person and and the Lord God use you. And then supernatural things happen. When you're walking in the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul was always surprised. You remember when he tried? Like all of us, he thought that he will go north. You remember that trip that he was taking across Turkey? The third trip, I believe it was whatever one of them. And he's walking along and he says he wanted to go to Bithynia, which is north? And the Spirit said no. So he went a little further. And he tried again, and the Spirit said no. And then suddenly that night, he has a vision. A man from Macedonia shows up in a dream and says come over to Macedonia and help us he tells his buddies that we're traveling with him seven of them chapter 20 of x. And they all concluded the Lord is calling us into Europe. So they cross from Turkey into Greece. And that's how the gospel actually came through Paul anyway, to Europe. So exciting possibilities can happen when you get up and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. And it isn't just for the bowls of this world or the Barna buses or the Timothy's. Yes, it was for them, but they've been long dead. Now we're alive. We're on the face of the earth. And you know, when we let the Holy Spirit speak to us and speak through us, it has tremendous power and things can happen in the supernatural world that we never expected. Paul and Silas a dream up night. He shares it with his friends on the Lord is calling us to Europe. Let's go and they crossed over how exciting because they get beaten up in Philippi and all get thrown in jail. It was quite exciting. But nevertheless, it was off the Lord and you know
know what can happen in your life. So as you go, going courage because what happens is people do come to Christ and God loves to use you. If you've never led someone to the Lord say to him this weekend before we say goodbye, say, Lord, use me speak through me lead me to win at least one soul for you. I believe the Lord wants to use every one of us to lead a few, at least in our life, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And that's everybody, not just a few privileged people who have unusual gifts of the Holy Spirit as far as soul wedding is concerned. So let the Spirit lead you. The second thing is and it's all over up the epistle and you probably noticed as we've been reading and going through that the glorious message has to be proclaim two words are used. Although there are more in the New Testament, one is proclaimed, and the other one preached, preached to be is the formal presentation and I think you will agree with that. And as you study the New Testament, preaching is the formal presentation of the gospel presentation on our subject, eternal life forgiveness of sins, the cross of Christ, or passage. So that's preaching. It's a serious proclamation and official announcement that a man or woman gets up and presents the claims of Christ, with authority with a Holy Spirit in a grand fashion, making an announcement, a proclamation from God. That's the way how I see all festivals. You go to a city, and you got hundreds of churches who say we're with you, we're with you. You speak to the city, you make a proclamation to the city. The city listens, really do listen, some people say oh, it's just a waste of money. Dear God, we waste money on more stupid things. You know, one day I went, this is unimportant. No, it is important. I went for a freebie to the Houston, Texas Texans, you know, to the game with Kevin, the the owner invited us and so we were up in the big booth and all the rest of it, you know, either way, about 80,000 people there, and the manager of the stadium and the woman in charge of a foundation that this brother has was showing us around Do you want to go down to the field? Yeah. Could you want to have a picture of the players? Yeah, you know, so we go down there. And I looked around and evangelists likes crowds, you know, looked at 80,000. I thought, how much money has been spent for three hours of these elephants crashing into each other? You know, banging each other up tackling each other breaking each other's bones, giving them a bloody nose. How much money did people pay for one session at Houston Texans? And I said to the gal who takes on the cash flow. She knows how much does these people draw? What does the average drop that they do when they come to she said about 120 bucks ahead? And I my little figures my banking years million years ago, that's about eight and a half million. Nobody complains. I've never seen some preacher getting up in front of our stadium saying what a waste of money. It should have been given for Luis Palau to evangelize. This is a waste eating hotdogs are bad for you beer that makes you feisty, and watching these idiots slamming into each other for three hours and shouting. No, nobody complains about that. But you spend 2 million bucks to evangelize 4 million pagan Arizonans. Whoa, what a lot of money could have been given to be offered our something you know, with our duplicity is amazing. How did I take off onto that? Because it's in my heart. That's why, you know, nobody ever complains about the money that is wasted on a football game. I'm all for football games. My wife loves love dogs. You don't spend as much when you go to the ducks. But you do spend. But you know, why is it because we don't value the value of our soul man. We value these elephants crashing into each other. But a person going through hell Hey, man, that's too much money to spend on those guys, you know, and I often thank God for the missionaries who brought the Gospel to us to Argentina. We call them visualize, and they were but they worked for companies, one of them work for Shell Oil Company. Another work for the trains that British train railroads in Argentina and other work for the meatpacking companies that will also run by the British. And they were believers who came to Argentina to win these big an Argentine to Jesus Christ. And boy do we love them. And thank God for their memory. And they brought the Bible and they brought us Jesus Christ. One good thing about these missionaries who came to South America was that none of them had much money. They were just salaried employees. Some of them a little more salary than others, but it was his salary so you don't have abundance of money. That was the greatest blessing. Because they all they brought us was two things, the Bible and Jesus Christ. They didn't have money to build schools. They didn't have money to build orphanages or hospitals or agricultural schools. They just stood in the corners and gave up Bibles and preached there. And people by the 1000s are now millions belong to Jesus Christ and they've taken care of their own hospitals and schools.
and agricultural and all that stuff, they brought us the good news of Jesus Christ. And you know, when it all comes down to that we do good deeds, because we love the needy. We do good deeds, because it honors the Lord and it pleases the spirit. But the key thing that God has sent us to do is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. And of course, the main thing that comes out here is this, the cross and the resurrection. And Paul, of course, is emphasizing it, as we've said in the previous two studies, because the Galatians, were trying to add to the cross and the resurrection, both to get right with God, and also to live a godly life. And brothers and sisters, I think the one thing I'm going to emphasize, and it's in 313, of Galatians, where it says, Christ redeemed us from the curse,
pronounced by the law,
by becoming a curse for us, for it is written curse. It is everyone who's hung on a tree. You know, that verse, and it's many other passages. People are saying nowadays in the United Kingdom, and in Europe, for sure, even longer than that. And now in the USA, that the idea that Christ paid for the sins of the world, is like God is a cosmic child abuser, that He sent His Son to the cross to be punished for the sins of the world seems so horrifying to the Sweetarts. And they are talking about it some more intellectually, some more popularly, but they are painting the picture, that the idea that Christ was the substitute for the suit, and you're gonna hear it if you haven't heard it yet, you will hear it, because it's coming in through many seminaries, when professors go and study in Germany, uncertain seminaries, they bring back the poison, and slowly but surely, it begins to sneak out and seep out, and it'll reach so we have to be alert. All speaks about false preachers, you remember, verses six to nine, we've gone over that one quite a bit. But the true preacher preaches what he says here, that Christ rescued us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, because it is written curse. It is everyone who hangs on across Jesus Christ on the cross, I wouldn't have dared use those words, if they weren't in the Bible. Jesus was cursed, on the cross for you. And for me, that is the message that changes lives. And if we had time, we would have seen that it cuts across we've already talked about it. It destroys religious self effort. Whatever kind of religious self effort, Paul does it magnificently in this epistle. Secondly, the message of the cross deals with our sinful nature. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. When you understand the cross of Christ, you deal a blow to the flesh to the sinful nature in us not that it dies or disappears, but we deal with it severely uncompromisingly, the old nature has to be dealt with harshly, and the cross deals with our selfishness and with our sinfulness. And then thirdly, the cross also deals with the world. And you've read it, I'm sure if not, you'll read it. The rest of the week, Far be it from me to glory, He says in six, than in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world is crucified to me, and I am crucified to the world. What's destroying many kids in Christian homes today is the world and the things of the world. And it's always been a battle. Nowadays, it's different from the old days, but it's the same old world and behind the world is the prince of this world who is Satan. And he is the one who puts up a behind all the shows that the great women that tempt you in ways you shouldn't be tempted that makes it easy for kids to see things they shouldn't see. And to think thoughts they shouldn't think the world is they're attacking us. The cross deals a blow to the world and it says, Far be it from me to glory, saving the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ. When I survey the wondrous grace, on which the prince of glory died. My riches gain I count but loss and poor contempt on all my pride. The world is distinguished by its pride show off Enos arrogance. pompousness all that the world does the brag all over the place the cross deals with that, and we need to deal with it too. So the message of the cross is very powerful. And when we walk in the power of the Holy, we will share the cross of Jesus we know some people will laugh. Paul says to the Jews, it's a joke until until the Greeks also but we who know him he has the power of God and the wisdom of God and the salvation of God. The crosses it without the cross. We're just a bunch of pagans trying to be religious. That's what it is though.
Across divides the human race. And it's a glorious message. We don't have to shout and preach. Now, I'm excited because there's a crowd here, but one on one, you just tell the story of Jesus Canada story, the history of Jesus Christ, dying on the cross as a holy, perfect man. In place of the unbeliever, it touches the conscience, the Holy Spirit will speak through you. And all you do, you know, the old I've been getting, the more I'm keeping my message simpler and simpler and simpler, and I am so happy that I'm doing it and I see better conversions. I think, the more closely you keep it to the basic gospel, so don't be ashamed. I am not ashamed of the good news gospel of Christ. It is the power of God, for the salvation of everyone who believes all we have to do is just put it out there. Tell your story, how you found peace with God, how your sins were forgiven, it may seem a very simple story, a Sunday School conversion. Some again, conversion when you are eight 910 or 11, or 12. Tell the story, don't worry about a thing. And then tell about Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit will take the truth and set men and women free.
Hi, this is Andrew Palau. And I am so glad that you were able to listen to one of Dad's messages today. I love it. We miss him every single day you can imagine. But the beautiful thing is this the work that dad did for God's Kingdom has not ended. Of course, we continue to spread the good news all around the world. In fact, we're reaching more people with the hope of Jesus Christ than ever before, day after day. But there's still so many, many people out there who don't yet know him. So the harvest is plentiful. We see that every single day and we would love your partnership and support and help and if you'd like to support Palau on this mission, sharing the gospel with every person on the planet. That's our goal. Visit us at luispalau.org and you'll see how you can do that. Thank you for joining us today. God bless you.
