Fruit Worthy of Repentance

[00:00:00] Speaker A: All right, let's get our Bible. Turn to acts, chapter 19. Acts, chapter 19. And we will continue as we walk through the account of Paul's time in Ephesus. Acts 19. And we will begin reading in verse. We will begin reading in verse number 1111. The time that Paul spent in Ephesus was a remarkable time in his ministry. And the Lord, as you'll see here in just a minute, the Lord was doing some really amazing things, things that, listen, if we would lift our eyes up, our spiritual eyes, and by faith, kind of look out into the distance and see what the Lord might do among us. Look, the people in Ephesus were Christians, just like we are Christians. We studied the Holy Spirit this morning, and they had the Holy Spirit just the same as we have the Holy Spirit. Paul was just a man, just like us, subject to like passions. And we have the same God as was present with Paul in Ephesus. And if our faith would allow us to just lift our eyes up a little bit and look into the future and see, perceive by faith what the Lord might do among us from this church. And we'll circle around at the end of the message on that subject. But it's just remarkable what happened in Ephesus here. So let's read verse eleven down to verse number 20. The Bible says, and God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul, so that from his body were brought unto the sick. Handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them. And of course, the crowd of the faith, healers and things like that, they claim this kind of thing. Joel Osteen wipes his head with a rag or piece of toilet paper or whatever, and then we send it to people. As long as you give your seed offering or whatever. Paul's not charging for this benefit. But this is not, again, just like we said this morning, what happened with these twelve Jews that received the Holy Spirit? This was not normative. How do we know that? How do we know that, Brother Ben? Verse eleven, probably. It says, special miracles. Okay, so looking at this and listen, this is the basis whereby faith healers and things like that will extract a verse like this. And we'll build this whole money making scheme to get people to send them offerings. Listen, we ought not take that kind of thing at face value. And we should be skeptical. We should be skeptical when someone is taking kind of an idea from the Bible, but ignoring all of everything around it that informs us, just like we saw this morning with the Holy Spirit. So let's continue. In verse number 13, the Bible says, then certain of the vagabond Jew. Jew. Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, we adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul Preacheth. And there were seven sons of one Siva, a Jew and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, jesus, I know, and Paul I know. But who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them and overcame them and prevailed against them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus. And fear fell on them all. And the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many that believed came and confessed and showed their deeds, many of them also, which used curious arts, brought their books together and burned them before all men. And they counted the price of them and found it 50,000 pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. Let's pray together. Lord, thank you for your word. Lord, thank you for the remarkable examples you've given to us in scripture. Lord, I pray right now, I can't put a time or a means on what we ask you, but we ask you to do a similar work here, this area. Lord, thou knowest, you know, the hearts of all men. Greenville has been totally saturated with the gospel to the point that many people have just. It's bland to them. But, Lord, you can do a great work here among these people, Lord, using this humble church, using us humble people here that are in this building, that are listening in, that are a part of our church here, Lord, you can do a great work. We pray. Please do it. Please, Lord. And if there's anything in us that's hindering your ability and your willingness to use us, Lord, remove it from us. Lord, we want to see you do great works, Lord, not that our name or not that the name of this church be glorified, but that the name of Christ would be glorified. And so, Lord, as we look at your word tonight, I pray that you would guide our study and give me wisdom as I try to help your people, Lord, and that they would be helped not by me, but by the spirit of God and the word of God. In Jesus name. Amen. All right. So in verses eleven and twelve, this is one evidence that we know that God is doing something unusual because he's giving Paul the ability to do special miracles, not the normal kind, where hands were laid, people prayed, and those kinds of things, but special miracles. And then in verse number 13, we're introduced to these vagabond Jews. It's a good old word, vagabond. Vagabond. It just simply means people who wander or roam about from place to place without a settled habitation or a home, and just a very weird group of people. And of course, these were exorcists. So let me just kind of explain the kind of people that we're looking at here. And this is not the only place we find these types. Jesus said in Matthew, chapter twelve, verse 27, he said, when the Jews questioned the source of his power to cast out devils, he said, and if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out devils by the spirit of God, going back to what we studied this morning, if I cast out devils by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. So there were apparently Jews that went about and attempted out. Whether they did or not, who knows? But they were involved in dabbling in witchcraft, was what it ends up being. And we see witchcraft later on in this passage. And they were attempting to cast out devils. So there were people that were oppressed and possessed with devils. And that's something that exists today. And there were people that thought they had power to do that, and that also exists today. This was a thing. Now, they didn't do this kind of thing, though, free of charge, just so you know. And this is true in a lot of countries to this day. It doesn't matter if you're a buddhist country or you're a catholic country or if you're a muslim country, a Hindu country. All the major religions practice witchcraft in this way. All of them dealing with casting out devils and interacting with that. All of them, okay? And they always charge for it. This is never done out of the goodness of people's heart. So what you have is you have these vagabond Jews, and they travel from place to place, right? Just go from here and there, anywhere they think there's an opportunity and they settle down at a place. Remember, no mass media at this point in history, right? So they settle down in a place and they find the problems. And for a fee, they attempt to cast out devils and deliver people from this kind of oppression and those kinds of things. And then eventually, when it doesn't work out like they had predicted and advertised, the society kind of sours. And so they move on and they have to constantly move because eventually it sours. And so if they got locked into a place where they were reputable and believable, they would settle down. But they don't. But they don't. They continually wander. And really it raises questions because I've seen this kind of wandering person overseas in Cambodia. We saw people like this. We saw a lot of people in their fifty s and in their sixty s and they would move to Cambodia. In fact, there was a visa that Cambodia, a type of visa, which is a visa is the permission you have to be in the country, right? As a foreigner, there was a type of visa, a retirement visa. There were so many people of retirement age that were moving to live in Cambodia. I say in their retirement at that age that they actually developed a visa for that specific purpose. And you think, well, what's wrong with that? Well, there's nothing actually wrong with it, except it begs the question why you're going into your golden years. Where's your family? Where's your kids, your grandkids? That's the most valuable thing we have, right. As we get older. The Bible says that children's children are the glory of old men, right? Is that not what it says? That's the thing we value the most. We don't want to be far from them. And yet they are. Why? Raises questions. Why are you a vagabond? It made me wonder, you know what? A lot of them were getting in trouble. They were wanted to be in a place where nobody knew them and nobody could really interact with them. And people were kind of hesitant to approach them so that they could get into stuff that they really shouldn't be getting into. And that's often why they were there. And it was kind of a weird, not a good thing. Not a good thing. And we saw those kinds of vagabond people, and a lot of them were Americans or british or Australians. That's what they were. So when these people were here, were exposed as frauds, they would move on. So let's keep on going to verse number 14. And there were seven sons of one Siva, a Jew in chief of the priest, which did so. Verse number 15. And the evil spirit answered and said, jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye? So apparently in the spiritual world, these men were not as significant and powerful to the devil as they presumed themselves to be. In other words, the devil did not recognize them. So obviously they weren't as significant in his world as they thought their power allowed them to be they were not even recognized by the ones who supposedly they were controlling. Then we see that the evil spirit, of course, overcame them. We'll get to that in just a minute. But notice what they're doing in verse 13. They're saying, we adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches, trying to cast people out. And what's interesting about these people is that they were playing the part of a Christian. In other words, they were mimicking the actions, the words as they viewed it, the spells of Paul, right. And of other believers, in order to accomplish their mission, which, of course, involved money. They were saying christian words. They were doing christian things. In fact, you can see it in verse number twelve, because the Bible says of Paul that in the second part of that verse, the diseases departed from them and the evil spirits went out of them. And Paul wasn't even like talking about Jesus. It was. They were literally taking towels, basically from him. Can you explain that? No. I mean, I can't. That's unusual, right? I don't have an explanation. But the Lord was with Paul. It wasn't about Paul, but the Lord was with him to such a degree that when. When that towel or whatever got to the person that was afflicted, the evil spirits went out of them. And so these men, these mimickers, these frauds, were trying to do the same thing. They were invoking the name of Christ. They were invoking the name of Paul. But the difference was that they were frauds. And the proof that they were frauds is in their lack of power. Their lack of power. In other words, everything that they were doing, all the christian words they were using, was all hollow. Why do I say hollow? Because it had the form and the sound and the appearance of the real thing. But just like this morning, it was without the Holy Spirit. It was just a shell. It was just a form where God wasn't inside of it. You know what? It's good for nothing. It's good for nothing. You see what made Paul's ministry of casting out devils? Remember verse twelve? What made his ministry effective? You know what? It was one thing and one thing only. The presence of Jesus Christ in him. That was it. That was the only thing that made his ministry possible. It wasn't how suave Paul was. It wasn't that he knew the right words to say. It wasn't that his faith was all that. No, no. It was God in the same. Again, you have these men doing the same thing absent God. But when Paul came to a place, and when Paul interacted with and confronted evil, spirits like we've seen in our study. Those spirits, those devils, had no choice but to obey. For the Lord in him was and is the Lord of all. Jesus is the Lord of all. And so when Jesus commanded, those devils had to obey. And this raises an interesting point about these men, and this is something we see a lot around here in this world. You see, these men were trying to use christian things, play the christian part. Number first. They were trying to play the christian part. They were doing all the right things, saying all the right things, had the right vocabulary, but it was all without God, without the spirit of God, without Jesus himself, it's just a hollow shell. And you know what that does? That brings terrible reproach upon the name of Christ because it's empty, it's powerless, powerless. Imagine these men calling out Jesus'name and people hearing them and knowing they're warlocks, right? They're warlocks, and yet they're calling know, calling out Jesus'name and all this kind of stuff, that association that is not pleasing to God. And the Lord made sure he made it known in a very public way. So they were just the shell of Christianity. But even worse than that is this. They were attempting to use christian things to accomplish whatever it was that they wanted to accomplish, which was in this case, whether it's the reputation and probably most likely the money, they were using holy things as a means to an end. In other words, we might say in our time, they were using the church, they were using Christianity, using faith, using the Bible. People do this in this day, all the time. They take christian elements and they use them in whatever way they can to accomplish whatever goal they have. In other words, those things in their mind are not sanctified. Those things are not holy. Those things are not special. They're just common. They're just a tool to be used to accomplish some in. And that is wicked. That is wicked. And here's the thing we have to understand is that always ends in destruction for the person using it in that way. Because let me give you an example. Young man comes into the church. He's pursuing a young lady in the church. He's going to play the part of the to. And listen, Brother Stuart knows this is true. Brother Tim knows this is true. Are you born? And they play the part. They might even get baptized. They'll say and do whatever they have to do to convince everyone that they're a believer because they're in pursuit of a girl. That is wicked, that is vile, that is ungodly, because it's using the things of God for that, and that ends up in destruction. Look, when people play the part, they say the words, they act part. And listen, I was this, okay? I was this. I was it sincerely, but I was it. When they play the part, you know what eventually happens? We learn the right vocabulary, we do the right things, all of that. We look the part, but in the end, we get disillusioned with it because there's nothing there. It's empty. It's the words. Without God, it's the works. Without God, it's the rules. Without God, it's the church. Without God, it's religion. Without God. And religion without God is just dead. It's just lifeless and terrible. It is. Listen, it's terrible. And eventually, you know what happens? Those people pull away. Eventually they see, you know what? This ain't worth it. It's a lot of trouble. And I can't do what I really want to do anyway because remember, God's not in them. And so they withdraw, and it ends up not only in their own destruction, as then you meet them later and they say, oh, well, yeah, I've already done all that. The truth is, they hadn't. They only had the form. No God. Just like these men. It ends in destruction. Think about the destruction that comes upon the people that saw them. People who without the Holy Spirit, have a life that's not transformed. Terrible reproach upon the name of Christ. This is a powerful tool of the devil in his war against God, in maligning the name of Christ. There's nothing to that. Nothing to it. I think of this man Daniel. We talked know, he told me that. He told us that. I asked him because just from experience, I know that a lot of times people that were once Christians withdraw and stop believing. I'm using that loosely because of things that happened with their parents. So I asked him about it. I said, were your parents consistent Christians? Did you come to a christian home? He said, yeah, I guess. I said, were your parents consistent Christians and practiced what they preached, so to speak. He said. He said, well, my dad cheated on my mom when I was, what, 16? That will kill your family, right? God help us. That will destroy your family. Because you know what it does. What it demonstrated was that the shell of Christianity, and I know believers fall into sin like that. I know that. But think of the effect upon a man like that. It destroyed his world, his spiritual world, and thinking what was hollow. He came disillusioned. And now somebody talks to him and he's like, nah, I believe all that. There's nothing to it. I think of other people in my family that have made professions of faith that were empty. Again, just the words went through the processes. There's no God. You know what that does? And then after the fact, after they become disillusioned to pull away. There's nothing to it. They say. There's nothing to it. It's a powerful tool of the devil. Verse 17, or verse 16, rather. And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them and overcame them and prevailed against them. So they fled out of that house naked and wounded. You think about people who have the form, right? They have the form, the words, the rules, the religion, the religious. Look, everything's just so looking from the outside, there's no way to tell. But when it comes time to do war with the devil or to do war with temptation, I'm using biblical terminology, right? Ephesians, chapter six, the armor of God when it comes time. And the difference is made between a man that has God in him or a man who doesn't have God in him at that moment of battle, which is what happens here. Yeah. And have a chance. Didn't have a chance without God in them. Didn't have a chance. And so many people fall, just crash, crash. It's terrible. Verse 17. And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus. And fear fell on them all. And the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. Notice everything we've read so far. Paul isn't anywhere near here. You see this? Paul is nowhere near this event. This event is brought about by the spirit of God to magnify the name of Christ. And Paul's not even here. God did this without Paul. In other words, you could say God is working behind the scenes without the hand or input of man whatsoever. Listen, would God do that kind of thing among us where God would show his power without our help? I'd like to see that at sometimes, wouldn't you? The Lord working behind the scenes in ways that none of us can claim any power, none of us can claim any praise for it or receive any thanks for it. It's not because we were there. We weren't even there. And God's doing something. Do you believe God does stuff when people aren't around? Do you believe that? We ought to pray to that end, right? God, do something. Do something. Don't sit still. Do something. Do something, Lord. Do something. Do something. Among us, verse 18. And many that believed came and confessed and showed their deeds. Many of them also, which used curious arts, brought their books together and burned them before all men. And they counted the price of them and found it. 50,000 pieces of silver. How much was Jesus sold for to the chief priests by Judas? 30 pieces of silver. All right? So in that financial transaction, here's what you have. You have Judas being. This is what's called a voluntary financial transaction. Capitalism. Judas valued Christ at 30 pieces of silver because Judas was willing to turn him over for that amount. The priests valued Christ at 30 pieces of silver because they were willing to pay. It was an agreement. The Bible says they covenanted together. That's an agreement. So they took that money after Judas repented? Sort of. They took that money and with that money, did what? Bought the potter's field to bury strangers in, right? So the price of Christ, 30 pieces of silver, was enough to buy a parcel of land. I don't know how big that parcel was. This amount is 1667. Times that amount. All right? The price of a common slave. I just want to say, this is a lot of money. This is a lot of money in this time, like tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars. Okay? That's what we're looking at here. Here's what I want you to see about this. These people repented. These people, up to this point, had used curious arts. This is a seed of Diana. The worship of Diana. Wickedness. These people were involved in witchcraft. Indicated by the books, right? So before Paul arrived and was preaching the gospel and before they got saved, they were involved in witchcraft. They were involved in this kind of wickedness. But now that they have believed, they are not. Okay? That's a key difference. They have repented. In other words, they didn't continue and just add Jesus to it. There was actual repentance. And this kind of repentance, for those of you that are in the know on this, is not just repenting of unbelief. They're actually repenting of the wickedness that they have been practicing. So their sin is what's in view here. And in Luke three eight, we know that John the Baptist preached that the Jews should bring forth fruits worthy of repentance. That's what's happening here, this repentance. Look at verse 18. And then many that. What's the next word? Believed. Came and confessed and showed their deeds. So what we see here now, follow me. What we see here in this event, with the burning of the books and the confession, is we see the fruit of repentance. Now, we know that repentance and faith go together right. Repentance is. Faith is something that's in the heart. Repentance is also something that's in the heart, but it produces, just as faith produces fruit, so repentance produces fruit. And this, what we're seeing is the outgrowth of repentance in the heart. We're seeing fruit worthy of repentance. Sometimes people get confused. Repentance is not changing what you do. Repentance is in the heart, but it produces fruit that affects what you do. Right. It's fruit. That's what we see. But they're associated with faith. They had believed in verse number 18. They believed just like the Bible says in Mark 115, repent and believe the gospel. You see that they go together. They had repented and they believed verse 18, even though it doesn't say repent. They had, because how do you know it? Because of verse 19. Right. They had repented. And now, afterward, and in due time, the fruit of that repentance, that true repentance, when they believed, came out. You see it now. What is the fruit worthy of repentance? Here, verse number 18. And many that believed came and confessed. Here's what confess means. To declare or disclose something which one has kept or allowed to remain in secret as being prejudicial or inconvenient to oneself. To acknowledge. To own. To admit. So to confess means to own it. I did it. I did it. Now, why is this important? Because by confessing, there is no excuses anymore. Listen. Confession. Confession of one's sin, when a person believes in Christ, is one of the signs of repentance. And. Listen, anybody. Listen. Anybody who claims to get saved but does not disclose the wickedness that they've been performing and seeks to continue to hide it is not bearing the fruit of repentance. That is not biblical repentance. Biblical repentance confesses it. You say, I don't like that. Well, nobody likes to confess sin, but that's what confession is. And anyone who seeks to. And you remember the verse that says, whoso covereth his transgressions? I'm getting it wrong. Help me. Help me. Shall not prosper, but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Right? You see that contrast? Covering versus confessing? Confessing means, I did it. I'm guilty. So these people, apparently not even having been prompt, came and said, we did it. And it says, they showed their deeds. Listen, you should hold in suspect. I should hold in suspect. Anybody, even as a believer that says they did wrong but will not name the thing that's fake. Don't believe it. If they will not name the thing. If we will not name the thing, it's fake. Do not believe it. But even as we look, it's easy to say them right. But look at us. When we sin, we should feel a great sense of shame. But when we get that thing right, part of getting it right is to say, I did it. Sometimes it's even hard to do that before God. Is it not just you and God in those private sins before the Lord? It's hard to say, Lord, I did X. That's hard. But it's important because it alters the way we view the sin. When we no longer hide it, it's exposed. Listen, our sin needs the exposure of the light of day. It helps us. That's why it's so important. Feeling that sense of shame, even as a believer now, is important because it'll keep you from doing it again. It'll keep me from doing it again. Confession. Confession is. Of course, we know. First John one nine. First John one nine. If we confess our sins. Thank you, brother. Look, you're the reference guy. You're not the verse guy. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Listen, it's important for us, even as believers, to confess our sin. To name it, and not in general terms. I did wrong. Listen, when you go to get right with somebody because you sinned against them, you ought not merely mount. Well, if I offended. No, you say it clearly. Clearly articulate what you have done. That's the way you get forgiveness. That's the way you get reconciliation. And anybody that doesn't do that, don't believe them. Mark it down. They have not repented. Mark it down. If you believe, and if I believe they have repented and they're unwilling to confess the matter, they will do it again, guaranteed. Take it to the bank. Because there's no repentance showing one's deeds, hiding it. Now, notice what it says in verse 19. As we get ready to close, many of them also, which use curious hearts, brought their books together and burned them before all men. This, I love this. This is proper repentance, right? This is again the fruit of repentance. Now, there was a day that when young people got right with God. They would burn trash, they would burn clothes that were wicked. They would burn, back in the day, CDs that were wicked. Eight tracks records. I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. What's that. [00:35:03] Speaker B: I had pictured when I when I was in Booma and one night, teenager, a young person had, like, a rock shirt on some band. I mean, of course it was cold. They were wearing layers. [00:35:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:35:20] Speaker B: And they, like, I got to get this off me. They literally just ripped it and threw it in the wood stove. And then the people, like, in the winter up in Alaska, and they ran out of the house and they ran. They got things like, they gambled all this stuff and they brought it back. [00:35:40] Speaker A: And they threw it into the wood stove. [00:35:49] Speaker B: It's not like I said anything about it. [00:35:56] Speaker A: The Lord prompts people to do that nowadays. It's like, well, that's outlandish. What a waste. Look, do we not need a little bit of outlandishness in our faith, for crying out loud? Do we not need a little bit of something a little bit extreme and get out of the humdrum? Well, I'll follow the Lord, but just a little bit. No. Look, if sin, even as a believer, if sin has invaded your life, take extreme measures, right? Take extreme measures to deal with that. We need to do that. These people took extreme measures. This is two Corinthians 710. Listen to this. For godly sorrow, please listen to these words. This is very important. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation. Notice this. Not to be repented of. What's that talking about? It's talking about repenting in such a way that you do not repent of your repentance. I lost Sister Karen there. Repenting so that you don't repent of your repentance is going back to the vomit. Now that makes perfect sense, right? God loves double naked. Yes. And this is exactly what these people did. Listen, they repented. And the fruit of that repentance was so thorough that they made it impossible to repent of their repentance. They burned the bridges. Does everybody understand? They burned them. You think, well, look at all that money. Thousands. They paid no regard to money. No regard to monetary value. You know what? How many of you have ever been in a situation where you had something, you burned it for God, I remember my wife, she tells me, you know what I'm going to say, don't you? After she got saved and Lord was working in her heart, she got all her immodest clothing and got it out of her closet and took it. You was going to throw it away, right? Which isn't as good, but it'll work. She got all her immodest clothing and she's got handfuls and bags of clothes and she's taking it to throw it out. I mean, this is expensive stuff. This is back when you get a pair of jeans or whatever, it's like $50 now. It's like nothing. But back in the days, in the old days, in the 90s, I'm waiting on somebody to laugh. That's expensive. She had this out, and members of her family are like, what are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? That's expensive. What are you doing? And the other things that were like, we can sell that. I think it was music or something, whatever. We can sell that. What if they say, well, these books. I mean, you could sell these books. I mean, you could give it to the Lord. Why sell the books? They could have made a lot of money on that, no doubt. But listen now. Repentance, recognizing the evil of their works, true repentance, did not want that wickedness in the hands of other people either. Burn it. That's crazy. That's extreme. Burn it. What's that? That's the picture. Burn it. Listen, as a believer, we ought to be burning stuff. I'll take this seriously. If you or I have a deadly sin in our life, if we have a besetting sin in our life and it's hurting us and we're repenting over and over and over, maybe it's time to take extreme measures to burn the bridge so you can't go back to. [00:39:54] Speaker B: It or delete the app. [00:39:55] Speaker A: Delete the app. Yeah, but see, by burning the books, not only did, they didn't care at all about the monetary value. And on that subject, listen to this. Exodus 32 20. And Moses took the calf. What was the calf made of? Gold. All right, good. He took the calf which they had made and burned it in the fire and ground it to powder and strawed it upon the water and made the children of Israel drink of it, one thing you could not do is use the gold anymore. No heed was paid at all to the value of that gold. Burn it. Deuteronomy 725. Listen to this. The graven images of their gods. The Lord tells Israel of the people that in the land of Canaan, the graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire. Thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein. For it is an abomination to the Lord thy God. God said, burn it. Don't even desire it. No. Pay no heed to the monetary value of said thing. I'm just showing you this is the real deal. This is what real repentance looks like from a person coming to Christ. And for a believer who's thoroughly getting rid of some sin in his life, but by burning the books, there was no turning back. You know the song? I have decided to follow Jesus. Right? No turning back. There is no turning back. The books are. Don't. They don't have the formulas and the incantations and the spells. They're all in the books at a time when books were handwritten, extremely expensive. But once they're gone, they're gone. There's no way to get it back. I mean, you've lost all that money. You don't have money to buy new books. How are you going to practice that again? You see, here's the problem. Many people repent in such a way that they can repent again later. They repent in such a way that uturns are allowed. That's not thorough repentance, you and I, if we do that, will go back. We will. As a believer, you will burn the bridges. Burn the bridges that allow you to go back to sin. And if that means you got to get a flip phone, get one. I'm not joking. Better to have a flip phone and get laughed at than to continually putting a wicked app on your phone, say men, right there. Amen. Better not to. We have a TV in our house. But if that's a snare, better not have one. Right? Better not have one. See, that's crazy. I'm not concerned with that. Right. It's when we repent, we must do it in such a way that the way back to our sin is destroyed. Think of the children of Israel. Once they had crossed the Red Sea and that water came back, came back down. There was no turning back. So I say burn the bridges. Amen. Burn them. Burn them. Last thing I want to point out is in verse 20. Actually, it's three verses, verse ten. Look at verse ten real quick. Verse ten says this. And this continued by the space of two years, so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. Verse 17. And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus. And fear fell on them all. And the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. Verse 20. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed three times. The Bible says, in Ephesus, Christ was magnified. Not the Christians, not the church, but Christ. Is this not our ultimate aim? Choice hills baptist church. It is not about our church growing. Do I want our church to grow? God knows. God knows. I pray to that end. And I hope you pray to that end too. That Lord would grow us according to his will. But that's not the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is Christ being magnified. John the Baptist said what he must increase, but I must decrease. John was content to fade into obscurity if the name of Christ increased through him. Choice hills baptist church must be willing to fade into obscurity as long as the name of Christ is glorified. Would we be okay? I mean, just saying as a church here and I know you guys are good people as far as you follow the Lord and you want to do the will of God but would we all be okay? If the name of Christ was magnified through our work and nobody gave us any praise about it would we be okay with that? As long as Christ was glorified and magnified people heard about Jesus and got saved. Would we be okay with that? I hope so. Because it's not about this church. It's not about me. It's not about you. It's about Christ. In fact, what God's doing in Ephesus. He's not even asking Paul about it. He's doing it behind the scenes. That's why I say what I said at the beginning. Let's lift up our eyes of faith and see what the Lord might do among us. What the Lord might do through us. What he might do here in Greenville, South Carolina. I sent something to Ari yesterday about D. L. Moody. It was H. A. Ironside. I was reading his commentary on acts and he was a little boy when D. L. Moody was preaching in Canada in a province of Canada. And he says as a little boy, he remembered. He remembered that after the meetings on the streets of Canada. I know you hear this and brother Ari is the same way. You hear this and you think, well, people are exaggerating. He says, I would hear as a little boy on the streets people coming back in public coming back from these meetings, singing hymns. I mean, marvelous things happening. And this is in the provinces of Canada. This isn't down south A. No, no. This is places that are thoroughly secular. Now, can the Lord do that here? Can he use our church to do something great like that? I sure hope so. Help me pray to that end that the name of Christ would be magnified through us. Lord knows we're just a bunch of nothings. We can't do anything. We're powerless, totally hopeless and helpless. But God can do it. He don't have to use us at all. He can do whatever. And hopefully he'll allow us to have a part in it. Right? Amen. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for the chance to look in your word. Help your people. Lord, I pray that especially that your name would be glorified through us. And Lord, that's all that matters. Not I'll even take off the part that says through us. I pray that your name would be glorified in Greenville. Help us, Lord, to be obedient, Lord, if there's any need of repentance among us, thou knowest our hearts. Help us to thoroughly repent and to hate the sin and destroy it. Destroy all paths back to it as well. Lord, work in me. Help me to do. Lord, we thank you for your word. And Lord, how clear it is in Jesus name. Amen. Larry. [00:48:16] Speaker C: Page number 449. Let's stand 449. The light of the world is Jesus. Let's stand 449. The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin. The light of the world is Jesus. Like sunshine at noonday his glory shone. In the light of the world is Jesus. Come to the light to shining for thee. Sweetly the light has dawned upon me. Once I was blind but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. Verse number three is the last. Ye dwellers in darkness within blinded eyes. The world is Jesus. Go wash at his bidding and light will arise. The light of the world is Jesus. Come to the light is shining for thee. Sweetly the light has dawned upon me. Once I was blind but now I can see the light of the world. World is Jesus. [00:49:48] Speaker A: All right. Thank you so much for being here. We will close in prayer. Please don't forget to pray for one another. And if you need help, you want to sign up with the QR code, you say, what's the QR code? Just ask somebody. They'll be able to help you. All right. Brother Mark, will you pray for us to close us, please, sir?