"No Man Shall Set On Thee To Hurt Thee...In This City" (Acts 18:9-10)

"No Man Shall Set On Thee To Hurt Thee...In This City" from Acts 18:9-10 was preached by Dr. Mark McElreath at the City Baptist Church of Atlanta on May 17, 2026. 

Find out more about the City Baptist Church of Atlanta at www.citybaptistchurch.com.

Transcript

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Welcome to the City Pulpit. Bible messages from the pulpit ministry of the City Baptist Church in Atlanta. Please turn with me to the book of Acts. Acts chapter 18. And we're continuing as we come to Acts chapter 18 in this in this city series. And we find this phrase in Acts chapter 18, verse number 10. And we'll begin reading. Let's read through this passage again. Acts 18, verse number 1 is where we'll begin. The Bible says, after these things, Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth, and found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome and came unto them. And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them and wrought, for by their occupation they were tent makers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. And when they opposed themselves and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads, I am clean, from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. And he departed thence and entered into a certain man's house, named Justus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house, and many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed, and were baptized. Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace, for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city. There are six phrases that are given in verse number nine and verse number ten, and this is the fifth of them. We see in verse nine, the Lord comes to Paul, and he says, In this city, be not afraid. Now we're going to face a lot of things. We're going to deal with many things in this city, but we do not have to fear, and we do not have to be afraid. Many times we are silent when we should be speaking. But he says, In this city, I want you to speak up and I want you to say something. He says in verse number nine, Hold not thy peace. Sometimes we think, well, I'm just going to hold back and I don't want to make a big scene or anything like that. And the Lord says, No, don't hold your peace. This is the time to move forward. This is the time to speak. Verse 10, he says, For I am with thee. This is what gives us the boldness. And this is what gives us the courage to advance in our city. And then he says, This no man shall set on thee to hurt thee. And the idea here where he says, No man shall set on thee, set on thee means to impose or to lay something upon him. He's saying, There are going to be people in this city, and they're going to have ideas, and they're going to have plans, and they're going to have strategies that they're putting together, and they're going to try to work against you, and they're going to try to make something happen. They're going to try to lay this upon you. And the Lord says, Here in Corinth, I'm not going to allow it to happen. Now we've got to think. Did Paul face issues? Did Paul face imprisonment? Did Paul face bodily harm? Did Paul face being maligned? Absolutely. He faced all of those things. And yet in Corinth, what does the Lord say? No man shall set on thee to hurt thee. In Corinth, he says, I'm not going to allow this to happen to you. Now keep reading with me. Let's keep reading in verse number 12, where it says, And when Galeo was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat. Now you say, Pastor, I thought he just said in verse number 10 that no man shall set on thee to hurt thee. Well, let's keep reading. It says in verse 13, saying, This fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law. And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Galeo said unto the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you. But if it be a question of words and names and of your law, look ye to it, for I will be no judge of such matters. And he drave them from the judgment seat. Verse 17, then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat, and Galeo cared for none of those things. And Paul, after this, tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila, having shorn his head in Sancria, for he had a vow. Here we find that Paul is going to be brought before the ruler of that area. He is going to have to face being maligned. He is going to have to face being lied about. Nothing bad is going to happen here, so let me just sit back and let me just, I can kind of take it easy in Corinth, right? Everything's going to be okay. And yet Paul doesn't take that mindset. Paul keeps pressing forward in the face of opposition. Paul keeps pressing forward to see this church started, to see this church growing here in this wicked city of Corinth. And I think there are some key things we can learn from this passage as we serve and we labor in this city. Let's consider these things. Would you make note of them? If you're taking notes, would you write this down? Number one, the gospel will face opposition. The gospel will face opposition. If you look with me in verse number 12, the Bible says that when Galeo was deputy of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against who? Paul. The Jews raise up an issue here and they're against Paul. Now, really, are they against Paul? No. Who are they against? They're really just against the Lord. They're really just fighting against his word and against what he's trying to do. Often people will cause issues and they'll cause problems, and we've had things said about us. We had a lady going around the other day saying things about me. My wife met her in the park, and she goes, Oh, you go to that church? Well, let me tell you about that pastor. She don't even know me. But they're really not against us. They're really just against the Lord. You may be speaking about the Lord at your job or on campus, or you may be taking, you may just be speaking the truth. And people want to raise a fuss, and they want to say, Well, you can't do that, and you can't do that, and you can't say that. As many people say, don't take it personally. They're really just against God and against his word. But we find here when we take a stand for the gospel, it will always bring opposition. Verse 13, it says, saying, This fellow, they're speaking of Paul, this fellow here, let us tell you what he does. He persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law. Now they say, now he's saying they should worship God, but this is not what the Bible actually says. You ever had somebody say, now, you say you believe the Bible, but that's not really what the Bible says. And you know you're believing what the Bible says, right? We can take a stand on the Word of God, and even when people say, this is not what culture teaches, or this is not what is socially acceptable, we can know that we're doing what's right. We're taking a stand for the truth, and we're going to do that in this city. He says here, in uh, actually, let me give you an example. Go back two chapters with me to Acts chapter 16. In Acts chapter 16, look with me. Paul has come to a different place. He's come to Philippi. We understand the Macedonian vision. God comes to him in the night and he says, I want you to go over. I want you to go into Macedonia. He sees this man saying, Come over and help us. Paul crosses over into Philippi, and there's nothing there. There's no church. There's not even a synagogue there, showing there's not even there's not even God seekers there. It seems like nothing is going on spiritually in Philippi. And it says they go down to a riverside and they have a prayer meeting, and there's a lady there named Lydia. It says, Whose heart the Lord opened as she accepts Christ. And then she says, Will you come to my house and will you tell my family about it? Your family gets saved. And there we find the first church on the continent of Europe started in Lydia's house there in Philippi. And then it says, look at verse number 16 of Acts chapter 16. It came to pass as we went to prayer. When does the opposition really come? When they go to pray, what happens? We find that there's a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination, met us and brought her master as much came by suit, saying, What happens? This demon-possessed girl comes on the scene and starts causing issues for him, and Paul's got to cast out the devil. We find that then they're thrown into prison later in the chapter, and it's at midnight they start singing praises unto God. But when a church comes to town, what happens? That's when the opposition really heats up. Nobody had a problem with Paul coming to Philippi. Nobody had a problem with him crossing over into Europe. Nobody had a problem with any of that. But when the gospel started being preached and lives started being changed and families started being revolutionized, that's when the opposition began. And there are people in this city they have no problem with us meeting in a religious setting, staying inside these four walls, and keeping everything to ourselves. It's when we begin to get the gospel outside these four walls. It's when lives start changing and homes start being cleaned up and businesses start shutting down because there's no business anymore for them. That's when people start having an issue, and that's when we will see opposition to the gospel. I read, I've mentioned this before, but I read many years ago, over 100 years ago, 1904, 1905, the Welsh Revival. There was a rival broke out in the country of Wales. And there are stories of judges coming to their courtrooms in the morning, and there would be no cases to hear. Because no one was being arrested, because no one was committing any crimes, because people were getting right with the Lord, because revival broken out. In fact, there was a, what would happen is the bailiff would bring a pair of white gloves to the judge, and he would put the white gloves on and strike his gavel, showing, my hands are clean. There's no crime to be discussed today. There's no allegations to be discussed today. Why? Because the gospel came and it changed lives. Now the world is going to have a problem with that. Because the world is going to say, live and let live. The world is going to say, Why are you causing such trouble? The world is going to say, you know, we're going to go down for a FIFA World Cup. We're going to pass out copies of the Scripture. We're going to talk to people about the Lord. We're going to be a witness. You realize there are countries that are going to play in that stadium that you and I could not get into with a U.S. passport, much less get into as a missionary. And they're going to be right there. And they're going to be on our doorstep. And most likely there'll be people that say, Well, you can't do that here. By the way, we can do this here. You can't talk to people about that and we'll say, Oh, yes, we've got the greatest message you could ever hear. We'll face opposition. And we will stand in this city for what is right and what is true and what is the Bible. Paul said in 2 Timothy chapter 3, writing in Timothy, he said, Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. We should actually be concerned if we're not facing some opposition. There's an old preacher many years ago named R. G. Lee. He pastored in Tennessee. And R. G. Lee said, if I get up in the morning and I'm not looking the devil right in the face, I'm concerned that we're going the same direction. It means if I get up and I'm not looking at his opposition to what I'm trying to do, I'm afraid that he doesn't have any problem with me. He's just fine with what I'm doing. And if we're going to be a lukewarm, mediocre, run-of-the-mill church, the devil's not going to have any problem with that. And we're going to get along just fine. But if we're going to preach the Bible and get out into the highways and hedges and compel people to come in and run the Bible bus, I filled the Bible bus up this morning. I got in the Bible bus and I said, Oh, we're on empty. We better fill it up. You know how much it costs to fill up the Bible bus? Just this morning I hopped in and took $97 to put gas in it. Why would you do that, Pastor? Because there were some people we needed to get to church today. And there were some people that heard there's a place that loves me and cares about me where I can hear the truth, and people that love me, and it is worth it, by the way. And we're going to keep running it. We're trying to figure out what we're going to do for VBS, because I don't think we can fit everybody on the Bible bus. We've got to get another one or rent something, or we've got to figure it out. 1 Peter chapter 3, Peter said, having a good conscience that whereas they speak evil of you, you ever had someone speak evil of you? He says, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. You may be living the right kind of life at home, at work, in the classroom, in your neighborhood, living right before the Lord, and people call you an evildoer. People say what you are doing is wrong. And you know what Peter says in verse 17, that same passage? For it is better if the will of God be so that you suffer for well doing than for evildoing. You know what Peter is saying? Peter's actually writing to people who suffered grave persecution, driven from their homes, at the peril of their own lives. And he says, I'd rather you suffer for good than suffer for evil. It's one thing to suffer because you're actually living the wrong kind of life and living an evil life. It's another thing to suffer when you're living the right kind of life. And you can stand against it. Romans 8.31, what shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? The gospel will face opposition. But make note of a second thing. Go back to our passage back in Acts chapter 18 here in the church of Corinth. The gospel will face opposition, but secondly, would you write this down? God is in control during opposition. God is in control during opposition. Look it down with me to verse number 14, because Paul is brought before Gileo, the deputy of this Achaia, this area. Corinth's the capital of Achaea. And it says in verse number 14, and when Paul was now about to open his mouth, now if anyone could orate, it was Paul. He could make an argument, he could speak, and surely you'd say, well, Paul could probably talk himself out of this one. But you know what happens? It says when Paul is now about to open his mouth, God doesn't let him speak. It says, Galeo, the deputy of that part of Achaia, said unto the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, oh ye Jews, uh, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you. He says, Look, if it was something about that was wrong according to our law, then I would deal with it. But he says in verse 15, but if it be a question of words and names and of your law, look ye to it, for I'll be no judge of such matters. He said, Look, this is something you've got to work out among yourselves. I'm not gonna deal with this. Now, what's interesting is Galileo, I think, has a better understanding of separation of church and state than a lot of people do today. Galileo says, That's not, that's not my purview. That's not what I'm supposed to get into. I mean, this is a lost Roman deputy, and he says, I'm not gonna deal with that. And just as Paul's about to speak, God allows the one that you would think would persecute him to speak and dismiss his case. God works in the midst of opposition there. You know what we've got to imagine is, think about, why wouldn't the Lord do that everywhere else? Why does he do that in Corinth? Why in Corinth does God preserve Paul? He's not thrown in jail here, he's not beaten here. I mean, Paul probably thinks, I kind of got off. I mean, Lystra and Derby, Paul is stoned and left for dead. He's imprisoned. I mean, you can go to 2 Corinthians chapter 11, and Paul talks about all the things he's faced: a night and the day in the deep, starving, tired, cold, all the things he faces for the gospel. But in Corinth, he preserves him. In Corinth, God says, I'm not going to allow that to happen to you. Could God have done that in Ephesus? Yes. Could God have done that in Athens? Yes. Could God have done that in Thessalonica? Yes. But God chose not to. You know what it shows? If you're facing opposition to the gospel, it's because God has allowed it to happen. If you're facing persecution for your stand, God could very easily have brought a Galio around to say, no, we're not going to deal with this person. It's okay. Let them do what they're doing. God could do that just as easily as he could allow the persecution to happen. So if you are under it, you say, Pastor, I'm standing for what's right. I'm doing what's right. My heart is right, my motives are right, I'm standing for the truth, and I'm facing opposition, I'm facing persecution, I'm under it. You realize that's because the Lord has allowed that to happen? He just as easily could say, No, I'm not going to have you face persecution here. And yet he says, I want you to face this. You know, so many times in the New Testament church, the New Testament church is forged in the fires of persecution. The believers are strengthened in the fires of persecution. God brings them along to make them stronger and to use that persecution in their own lives. I think about in Daniel chapter 3, Nebuchadnezzar sets up an image. And Nebuchadnezzar says, Everyone at the sound of all the instruments when they play, I want you to bow down before this image. And we know the story. He says in Daniel chapter 3, and he says, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego do not bow down. And they're brought before the king. And he says, If ye worship not, this is what he says in verse number 15, if ye worship not, you're going to be cast into a fiery furnace. He says, Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? Now God could have very easily allowed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abinegar to be tossed in the fire and be consumed. And yet, look what they say this in Daniel chapter 3, verse 16. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. And what does that mean? We understand what's at stake here. And we're not anxious to give you an answer. If it be so, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O King. Here's what he says in verse 18. But if not, you know what they thought? We're going to, look, we'll go in the fire, but we know God's going to preserve us. But if he doesn't, be it known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. In this city, you know what the Lord gives us the opportunity to do? To say, we believe God is going to preserve us and allow us to continue and allow us to keep fighting and advancing. But if not, we're still going to take a stand for what's right. If not, we're willing to face the fire. If not, we're going to do what's right. And you know the story. They cast him in the fire. He heats it seven times hotter than it's normally heat. The people that throw them in are killed because the fire is so hot. The Bible says in verse 25, Nebuchadnezzar sends a man down to look in the fire and they say, I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire. You know what happens when they get they get thrown into the fire. You realize that, right? But the Lord walks with them through it. The Lord walks with them in the fire. In fact, they come out of the fire and it says they don't even have the smell of smoke on them. Now, could the Lord allow them to be consumed in the fire? Absolutely, but he chose to preserve them. You can read on. Daniel cast in the lion's den. What does the Lord do? He closes the lion's mouths. So can he keep us from opposition and persecution? Absolutely. But if he's allowing us to go through it, it is for his purpose and it is for his glory. God is in control during opposition. Would you make note of a third thing? We find here in this city, would you write this down? Thirdly, God advances the gospel with opposition. God advances the gospel with opposition. Look with me. In Acts chapter 18. Go down to verse number 18. And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while. And then took his leave of the brethren and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila, and having shorn his head in Sancria, he had a vow. What happens? Paul stays. Now we understand Paul stays in verse 11, it says he was there a year and six months. That's up to this point, the longest he spent anywhere. Now he's going to spend two years eventually in Ephesus, but up to this time, this is the longest he spent in any city. And yet, in the midst of This persecution, in the midst of people stirring things up, Paul leaves. You say, why would he leave? Is he trying to get away from it? No. Because that church has already been formed. Leadership's been left behind, and he's moving on to Ephesus. In the midst of the opposition, what happens? There's a church here in Corinth that grows. There's a church here in Corinth that advances. There's a church in Corinth that's doing just fine. And what has the Lord done? The Lord has advanced in the midst of opposition. I want you to go with me to the book of Revelation. When you turn to the last book of the Bible, Revelation and chapter number three. Revelation, chapter number three, chapter two and three is a series of seven letters written in seven churches. And we find here we come to chapter three, and we look at verse number seven. There's a church here that's called the church in Philadelphia, and he writes to him, look at verse number seven, Revelation 3. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write. God giving us an example of an open door. In fact, he's going to say in verse 8, I know thy works, for behold, I have set before thee an open door. These are churches that he's writing to here. They knew opposition, they knew persecution. They knew what it was to truly suffer for their faith. And yet he says to this church of Philadelphia in Revelation 3 and verse number 7, I have opened, and no man can shut it, and shutteth, and no man openeth. Verse 8, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. For thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not defied my name. And what does the Lord do? He says, Church of Philadelphia, you have a little strength. You may look at yourself and you think, yeah, Pastor, that's kind of like me. You know, in the Sunday school today, we heard about somebody that was of little strength. We studied Giddy in the men's class. He said, I'm the least to my family. My family's poor in our tribe. I'm hiding behind a wine press threshing wheat. What are you going to do with me, Lord? He says, I know you are, but I'm going to be with you. And the Lord says, I'm with you, church at Philadelphia, and I'm opening a door before you. Now we've got to remember when the Lord opens a door, he doesn't open the same doors to everyone, every church. And he doesn't keep them open forever. God's given us an opportunity here. God has given the City Baptist Church an opportunity in Atlanta. I love where this pulpit is because when I look out, I can see across the street and I see Georgia Tech campus across the street from us. Sometimes you might catch me. I stand up here when I'm singing. I look out these windows and I watch people walking up and down the sidewalk, cars going, you know, there are cars going up and down this street every hour of the day, night and day. There's people everywhere. There's opportunity everywhere. God has given us the most amazing work to do in this city. He's opened a door. And he says in verse 8, Revelation 3, I, that's God's work, have set before thee, that's our work, an open door. The question is, what are we going to do about it? Paul had an open door in Corinth. And he could have said, I don't know what's going to happen if I go to Corinth. You know, these Jews are stirring up trouble here, and I might just keep my mouth shut. I mean, we got a few little people here in the church, and you know, we can get along with them. No, he didn't do that. I got an open door here. In fact, 1 Corinthians 16, verse 9, Paul says, A great door and effectual is open unto me, and there are many adversaries. Not, but there are many adversaries, and there are many adversaries. You know what we can expect with the open door? The many adversaries. We can expect people to throw a fuss about it. We can expect people to oppose it. Paul prayed in 2 Corinthians 2, verse 12. He said, I came to Troaz to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord. He actually prays in Colossians 4. He says, Pray for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance. Say, Pastor, what are the open doors? Do you see the children God has brought to this place? Coming in on the Bible bus, coming in to this place, VBS this summer, FIFA World Cup Evangelism, Pastor, why would we go down? We're going to run a shuttle down and drop people off and get out in the hot sun and people trying to get to a game and we're going to try to evangelize and get them the gospel? Why would we do that? It's an open door. Why are we going to run a Bible bus and pick people up, kids up, bring them to vacation Bible school? Why are we going to run a student organization on tech campus because it's an open door? And when we come to this, it leads us to the last one, which I'll cover next Lord's Day in Acts chapter 18 and verse number 10. Why would we do it? Because the last thing the Lord says to Paul in Acts chapter 18 and verse 10, for I have much people in this city. I believe most of the people that will ever be a part of the City Baptist Church are not a part of the City Baptist Church yet. They're somewhere. God has them out there. We've got to go get them. We got to go find them. We've got to bring them with us. They're out there in this city. God says, I have much people in this city. And if we have an R for a no more attitude, and we think, well, we got enough people to pay the bills and we got enough to get by. And you know, we don't want to, we don't want the sanctuary to get too full, Pastor, because it. No, no, no, no. God's got so many more people in this city. He wants to be one to himself that he wants to see saved, born again, baptized, added to the church, active, active parts in this church. We got a lot of work to do. Never, ever, ever get comfortable, church. Our time's too short to get comfortable. He said, No man shall set on thee to hurt thee. If you're facing persecution opposition days, because the Lord's allowed it. And it's because he wants to do great things through it in your life and in our church. Thank you for listening to the City Pulpit. For more information about the City Baptist Church of Atlanta, please visit www.mycitybaptist.com.