SPEAKER_01: Welcome to DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_01: Our Sunday morning services are weekly at 9 and 10 30 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: You're listening to an audio recast of this past week's service.
SPEAKER_01: We hope you enjoy.
SPEAKER_01: God bless.
SPEAKER_00: Have your Bibles, open them to Acts chapter 19.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 19, we're going to begin in verses.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to begin at verse 11 and read down through verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: Turn there.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember the Energizer Bunny?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I say, do you remember him?
SPEAKER_00: Like he's still around, right?
SPEAKER_00: But but he has been around for a long time.
SPEAKER_00: The first commercial with the Energizer Bunny came out in 1988.
SPEAKER_00: 1988, and he just keeps going.
SPEAKER_00: In 2007, he appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: Well, earlier than that, he's appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.
SPEAKER_00: And in 2007, a beanie baby was made after the Energizer Bunny.
SPEAKER_00: Now some of you are going, what is a Beanie Baby?
SPEAKER_00: Many of you know.
SPEAKER_00: But in the Beanie Babies, this is the poem about the Energizer Bunny.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it said.
SPEAKER_00: Whether at home, at work, or play, nothing will get in E.B.'s way.
SPEAKER_00: And here's one thing that's sure worth knowing.
SPEAKER_00: This bunny just keeps going and going.
SPEAKER_00: That's how we know the each energizer bunny, if you see the commercials, no matter what the circumstance, no matter what he faces, he just keeps going.
SPEAKER_00: And today, as we look in our passage in Acts, what we're going to find, what we're going to see about the word of the Lord is it just keeps going.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what stands in its way, no matter what tries to prevent the word of the Lord from prevailing, no matter what tries to prevent the word of the Lord from increasing, it just keeps going.
SPEAKER_00: So if you are able, I invite you this morning to stand with me as we give honor to the reading of God's Word.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 19, we'll begin reading in verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them.
SPEAKER_00: Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.
SPEAKER_00: Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Skeva were doing this.
SPEAKER_00: But the evil spirit answered them, Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?
SPEAKER_00: And the man in whom was the evil spirit leapt on them, mastered all of them, and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
SPEAKER_00: And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, and fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.
SPEAKER_00: Also many of those who were now believers came confessing and divulging their practices.
SPEAKER_00: And a number of those who had practiced magic arts were brought brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all.
SPEAKER_00: And they counted the value of them and found it came at came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.
SPEAKER_00: So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: God, we thank you for today, and we thank you for this opportunity that we have to open your word.
SPEAKER_00: God, we thank you for how you have revealed yourself to us through your word.
SPEAKER_00: So we pray that this morning, as we study, as we unpack, as we explore, Father, we pray that we will see you.
SPEAKER_00: God, we love you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is in your name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So as we look at this interesting passage and try to unpack it, there's a couple of things that I think we need to see first of all.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: First, let's go back to what we looked at about three weeks ago, the last time we were in Acts, in Acts chapter 19.
SPEAKER_00: Go back and look at verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what he says.
SPEAKER_00: This continued for two years.
SPEAKER_00: What is this that continued?
SPEAKER_00: Just as for a reminder, what continued for two years was Pete Paul going to the house of Tyrannus and sharing the gospel, sharing the word of the God, proclaiming the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: This continued for two years so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both the Jews and the Greeks.
SPEAKER_00: That little phrase I think is a key for us to understand in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: They heard the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: If you go down further to the last verse that we read in our passage today, in verse 20, again, it says, So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.
SPEAKER_00: It seems like by using this phrase, the word of the Lord, what Luke has kind of done for us is formed brackets around this passage to show us at least one thing that should be emphasized in this passage, and that is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We need to stop, we need to take notice of the word of the Lord and how it is increasing and how it is how it is spreading in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: So really the essence of the text, what we get is in that verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: Again, hear it again.
SPEAKER_00: So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.
SPEAKER_00: And what we hopefully will see as we understand, as we try to unpack this today, hopefully what we understand is this the word of the Lord will always increase and will always prevail mightily, no matter what stands in its way.
SPEAKER_00: The word of the Lord is going to increase.
SPEAKER_00: It is going to prevail, it is going to work its way through.
SPEAKER_00: So the challenge for us then is this: to be witnesses to the kingdom of God by proclaiming the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So if that's our challenge, to be witnesses by proclaiming the word of the Lord, let's go back and see how the word of the Lord increased in this passage that we looked at today.
SPEAKER_00: So I think what we find here is three ways that the word of the Lord increased here.
SPEAKER_00: The first, I think we see that the word of the Lord increased divinely.
SPEAKER_00: It increased divinely.
SPEAKER_00: And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, miracles were being done, things that couldn't be explained, things, amazing things were happening.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, they were even taking handkerchiefs that Paul had touched, or aprons that he wore while he was making tents, things that has touched his skin, and they were taking them to people, and diseases were being healed, demons were being cast out just by touching that.
SPEAKER_00: But don't miss the important thing in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: I think Luke says it, and he doesn't want us to miss it.
SPEAKER_00: Is this God was performing the miracles?
SPEAKER_00: May we never think that it was Paul.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think Paul would want us to think that.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen the same kind of thing back in Acts chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: If you'll remember, back in Acts chapter 5, in verse 12, down through verse 16, it says, Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles.
SPEAKER_00: And they were all together in Solomon's portico.
SPEAKER_00: None of the rest dared join them, but people held them in high esteem.
SPEAKER_00: And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.
SPEAKER_00: So they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them.
SPEAKER_00: The people also gathered from towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.
SPEAKER_00: See, what's remember what's happening?
SPEAKER_00: They're bringing their sick, they're bringing their demon-possessed, and just laying them in the streets, hoping that Peter's shadow would fall on them.
SPEAKER_00: Now, it doesn't really give us a clear definition of whether they were healed when Peter's shadow fell on them, but he was doing, and the apostles were doing such amazing things that they were hopeful that that would happen.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't want us to miss what it says here in verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: Now, many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people, listen, by the hands of the apostles.
SPEAKER_00: Now go back to Acts 19 and hear again verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul.
SPEAKER_00: The same way that Paul was healing people is the same way that the apostles were healing people.
SPEAKER_00: The same way Paul was casting out demons is the same way that the apostles were casting out demons.
SPEAKER_00: It was God healing.
SPEAKER_00: It was God casting out the demons.
SPEAKER_00: He was just using them.
SPEAKER_00: They happened to be the vessels that God was working through, but it was God who was doing these things.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as we try to unpack this for us today, as we try to see what is happening here for us today, for us to see what do we do with this?
SPEAKER_00: How do we unpack this?
SPEAKER_00: Now, listen, I said this, I said this several weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to stand up here and tell you what God is or is not going to do.
SPEAKER_00: He is God and He can do whatever he wants to.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to stand and tell you what God can and cannot do.
SPEAKER_00: He is God and He can do whatever he wants to, and whatever He does, I can assure you it is right and it is good.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not even going to stand up here and try to tell you what God does.
SPEAKER_00: Because again, He is God.
SPEAKER_00: But it seems to me, as we look at this passage and unpack this passage, what is happening as these miracles were being done.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, not everybody, we don't see everybody in these passages performing these miracles.
SPEAKER_00: It's Paul, it's the apostles, and just two or three other people.
SPEAKER_00: That's how these whom God is using to perform these miracles that we know for sure.
SPEAKER_00: So we see that.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing that we need to try to see and we need to try to understand here is what was the reason for these miracles.
SPEAKER_00: Understand that the apostles and Paul, they were taking the word of God and the acts of Jesus to people who didn't have a word of God.
SPEAKER_00: See, even here in Ephesus, where they are, we know that Peter, that Paul wrote several of his letters, of his epistles to churches from Ephesus that we now have in our Bible today.
SPEAKER_00: What the miracles did was they confirmed that what the apostles were saying, what they were teaching, what Paul was saying and teaching, what was happening, what the miracles did was confirmed that this is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It was confirmation of what they were doing.
SPEAKER_00: Now, for us today, it seems like we don't need miracles to confirm the word of the Lord, because we have the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now listen, I'm not going to tell you that miracles don't happen.
SPEAKER_00: Hear me.
SPEAKER_00: When someone who is an unbeliever, an enemy of God, is turned into a friend of God through salvation, that is a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: When a believer, when God works in the life of a believer and begins to change them from the inside out, making them into the people that he has already made them, and a believer does something like burn their magical books.
SPEAKER_00: That is a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, God, he is still performing miracles.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying that the miracles that that happened here, it seems like they are not needed today to confirm the word of the Lord because we have the word of the Lord with us.
SPEAKER_00: This is his word.
SPEAKER_00: And so if we are going to, if we are going to see it increase and to see it prevail where we need to focus, and what we need to do is focus on the word of the Lord that he has given us, how he has revealed himself to us.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be more concerned about this and knowing God through this than we are through any miracles.
SPEAKER_00: It is the word of the Lord, and it increased divinely, not through the hands of people.
SPEAKER_00: Second, we see the word of the Lord increasing awfully.
SPEAKER_00: Now listen, when I say that, many of you go, awfully?
SPEAKER_00: Bad?
SPEAKER_00: No, I don't mean bad by that.
SPEAKER_00: What I mean is maybe I should say this, it increed awesomely.
SPEAKER_00: See, especially in verse 17, what happened.
SPEAKER_00: This became known to the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, and fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.
SPEAKER_00: The fear of the Lord fell on them.
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about in here, and and honestly, I know I've used this illustration in here, but but for me to understand the fear of the Lord is the best one that I got, so just hear it again.
SPEAKER_00: When I was a kid, I was afraid of my father.
SPEAKER_00: I was afraid of him.
SPEAKER_00: Now listen, he didn't beat me, but listen, but when I disobeyed, he rightfully spanked me.
SPEAKER_00: And it hurt.
SPEAKER_00: And I knew that when I disobeyed, I was going to get a spanking, and I was afraid of his spankings.
SPEAKER_00: I was scared of them because he was rightly going to punish me.
SPEAKER_00: But as I grew, not just growing older in age, but hopefully in maturity, but more than that, as I grew in my relationship with my father, here's what began to happen.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't so much afraid of spankings.
SPEAKER_00: I just revered the man that he was.
SPEAKER_00: I revered the person that he was, the reputation that he had, his relationship with God, the way he treated my mom, the way he treated people around him, the way he treated me, I revered him.
SPEAKER_00: I was in awe of him.
SPEAKER_00: And as we understand the fear of the Lord, listen, I think there's some kind of balance between a fear of punishment and an awe.
SPEAKER_00: Because understand, God is a just God and He is justly going to punish our sin.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: And if that doesn't send a little bit of chill up your spine, something's wrong with you.
SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, when I consider what God has done to save me from my sin, it causes me to stop and stand in awe.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, here's what I understand that I am a sinner and I deserve punishment.
SPEAKER_00: But God loved me so much that He sent His only Son on the earth who lived a perfect life and who died upon a horrible cross, taking upon himself the punishment that I deserve, the punishment that you deserve.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus took that punishment on himself and then arose from the grave and he removed that punishment from me and then places on me his righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: If that doesn't cause you to stop and stand in awe of what God has done, there's something wrong with you.
SPEAKER_00: So when we see the fear of the God, fear of God, that's what fell upon them.
SPEAKER_00: So what caused that fear to fall on them?
SPEAKER_00: Well, here's what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: There are some itinerant Jewish exorcists who began to undertake and try to cast out demons themselves.
SPEAKER_00: It was something that was happening prevalently among that time.
SPEAKER_00: And so what these Jewish exorcists would do is they would they would take little bits from all religion and they would go and they would say, we're going to cast out demons, and they would they would make utterances that made complete nonsense, being synchronistic and just taking pits of pieces of other religions and just saying all these things and babbling things out.
SPEAKER_00: And so what they saw was demons being cast out by through the hands of Paul when he said, in the name of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So they said, Hey, we're going to invoke the name of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, in the name of Jesus whom Paul proclaims come out.
SPEAKER_00: And there were seven of these guys, the sons of Skeva, who was a high priest.
SPEAKER_00: Now, we don't know much about them.
SPEAKER_00: We really don't know much about Skeva, other than Luke says that he is a high priest, but if there is no actually no historical record of a high priest named Skeva.
SPEAKER_00: So what's going on?
SPEAKER_00: Well, some commentators believe he could have just totally made it up.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's not in Jerusalem, he's in Ephesus.
SPEAKER_00: So he could have just totally made up, hey, I'm high priest, these are my sons.
SPEAKER_00: Could have totally made it up.
SPEAKER_00: Second is he could have actually been maybe in the family lineage of the high priest and just be claiming high priesthood through association with the family.
SPEAKER_00: Either way, not a good situation.
SPEAKER_00: Not good things happening.
SPEAKER_00: So these sons go into this man who is possessed with a demon and say something like what the Jewish itinerant, what these itinerant Jewish exorcists are saying, in the name of Jesus, whom Paul proclaims, I adjure you.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, the demon responds through the man and says, Jesus, I know.
SPEAKER_00: Paul I recognize.
SPEAKER_00: Who are you?
SPEAKER_00: And the demon takes control of this man's body to the point that he violently thrusts himself upon these, upon these men.
SPEAKER_00: He thrust himself upon them and beats them to the point that they flee naked and wounded.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, if you enter a fight and flee naked and wounded, you have been beaten.
SPEAKER_00: And they flee.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what happens.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what happens.
SPEAKER_00: The fear of the Lord fell upon them, and the name of Jesus was extolled.
SPEAKER_00: The name of Jesus was extolled.
SPEAKER_00: Fear fell upon them, and the name of Jesus was extolled.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of those moments that people could have said, well, Jesus must not be that powerful because they used Jesus' name, and look what happened.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they got beaten.
SPEAKER_00: It's not what happened.
SPEAKER_00: People knew the truth.
SPEAKER_00: People knew what was going on.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why because the word of the Lord is always going to increase and prevail, even when we think it's not.
SPEAKER_00: And the fear of the Lord fell.
SPEAKER_00: On them.
SPEAKER_00: It fell on them, and the name of Jesus was it stalled.
SPEAKER_00: So, what do we do with this?
SPEAKER_00: How do we go with this?
SPEAKER_00: Listen, what I would tell you and encourage you is this.
SPEAKER_00: When we speak the name of Jesus, let's speak it correctly.
SPEAKER_00: See, here's what's really happening in this.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the Ten Commandments when it says, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord your God in vain?
SPEAKER_00: And so often when we hear that, we we rightly to a degree recognize, hey, we don't need to use Jesus' name as a curse word.
SPEAKER_00: And that's true.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need to use Jesus' name as a curse word and or God's name as a curse word.
SPEAKER_00: And when we do, we are taking it in vain, taking his name in vain.
SPEAKER_00: But the heart of that command is much deeper.
SPEAKER_00: Anything that we do that really lessens the name of Jesus is taking his name in vain.
SPEAKER_00: Such as not believing in Jesus, not trusting in Jesus, not knowing Jesus, and trying to cast out a demon in the name of that Jesus, that's lessening the name of Jesus, and you have just taken the name of the Lord your God in vain.
SPEAKER_00: What we must do is proclaim the Lord, the name of the Lord our God honestly.
SPEAKER_00: If we are going to proclaim the word of God, if we are going to be a part of its increased increase, what we must be careful that we are doing is proclaiming the word of God because nothing else is needed.
SPEAKER_00: All scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training and righteousness so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
SPEAKER_00: We must be proclaiming the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It is all that is needed for life and for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Let us focus here.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God increased divinely.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, this morning, the word increased mightily.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what happened.
SPEAKER_00: The people who were believers took their magic book, their books of magic, which is predominant in Ephesus.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesus was a city full of magic.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm not talking about Harry Potter.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about like black, dark magic.
SPEAKER_00: And it's full of it.
SPEAKER_00: And so what people are doing is they are bringing their books of magic and casting them out to be burned.
SPEAKER_00: And you say, how can a believer have books of magic?
SPEAKER_00: It's the process of sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, understand, our salvation is a one-time event where we trust in God, but then our lives become a process of sanctification where God makes us into the people that He has made us.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we walk along, we find sins that we need to confess and we need to repent.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what's happening here.
SPEAKER_00: These believers, they are seeing what is happening here, and they go, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: This is something I don't need to be a part of.
SPEAKER_00: So they are bringing their books and tossing them out to be burned.
SPEAKER_00: God is working in their life.
SPEAKER_00: He is sanctifying them and they are bringing and repenting before him.
SPEAKER_00: And it requires sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about Old Testament sacrifice of bulls and goats.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen how those didn't really atone for sin.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about more sacrifice, like Paul tells the church at Rome in Romans 12, 1 and 2, when he says, I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to him.
SPEAKER_00: Sanctification is going to require sacrifice and lots of different kinds of sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: See the sacrifice that is happening.
SPEAKER_00: They brought their books to be burned because they didn't want to sell them so that somebody else gets a part of that evil.
SPEAKER_00: They burned these books and they calculated the worth to 50,000 pieces of silver.
SPEAKER_00: That's 50,000 days' wage.
SPEAKER_00: An average day's wage was a piece of silver.
SPEAKER_00: 50,000 days' wages were burned up.
SPEAKER_00: That's a sacrifice to God.
SPEAKER_00: Sanctification is going to require us sometimes to sacrifice, to stop being conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we may know the will of God.
SPEAKER_00: The word increased divinely.
SPEAKER_00: It increased awfully.
SPEAKER_00: And it increased mightily.
SPEAKER_00: So what do we do with this?
SPEAKER_00: The challenge is to be witnesses of God by proclaiming the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So what we need to do is know God through his word and proclaim this word.
SPEAKER_00: As we honor our time of invitation today, here's what we're inviting you to do.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know God, know him today.
SPEAKER_00: The God who sent his son to take the punishment that you deserve on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He did that so you can find salvation in him.
SPEAKER_00: If you've never trusted in Christ today, we're inviting you to come.
SPEAKER_00: We'll pray with you as we stand and sing in just a moment.
SPEAKER_00: We'll pray with you.
SPEAKER_00: Then there will be counselors who will take you out and share with you how you can trust in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: If you have, but but maybe today you've seen some sanctifying work God is doing in your life, and there needs to be some repentance in your life.
SPEAKER_00: We invite you to come.
SPEAKER_00: We'll pray with you.
SPEAKER_00: These steps can be an altar.
SPEAKER_00: You can kneel down here and pray and repent there.
SPEAKER_00: You can do it from your seat.
SPEAKER_00: I just encourage you to do this.
SPEAKER_00: Allow God a sanctifying work to work in you today.
SPEAKER_00: As we stand and sing in just a moment, I'm going to pray for us.
SPEAKER_00: We invite you to come and make whatever decision God is leading you to make.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: God, I thank you for today.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for how you love us.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for all you've done for us.
SPEAKER_00: God, we ask you now, as you are working, as you are moving, God, as you are calling us to salvation, help us respond.
SPEAKER_00: As you are sanctifying us, help us to respond.
SPEAKER_00: God, move as only you can.
SPEAKER_00: Allow your word here in this place this morning to increase and prevail mightily.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, it's in your name that we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening to this week's sermon.
SPEAKER_01: If you have any questions for our pastor, feel free to reach out at DeSoto Hills.com.