SUNDAY - OCTOBER 12, 2025

Welcome to DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.

Our Sunday morning services are weekly at 9 and 10.30 a.m.

You're listening to an audio recast of this past week's service.

We hope you enjoy.

God bless.

If you have your Bibles this morning, we'll be in Acts chapter 13.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

I think I gave Miss Vicky the wrong reference this week when I had her put that in the worship guide.

We'll be in Acts chapter 13, looking at verses 42 down through verse 52.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

I'm going to do something a little bit different this morning.

I want us just to go ahead and begin with reading our scriptures.

So if you're able this morning, I want to invite you to stand with me as we give honor to the reading of God's Word.

Acts chapter 13, we're going to start in verse 42.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath.

And after meeting after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews, devout, converts, and devout converts to Judaism, followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.

The next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.

But when the Jews saw the crowd, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him.

And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you.

Since you thrust it aside and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.

For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, You have made, I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.

And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region.

But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district.

But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium.

And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

Let's pray together.

God, I thank you for today.

I thank you for your word and the opportunity that we have now to open your word, to hear your word proclaimed.

God, I pray that today you change our lives because of your word.

Jesus, it's in your name we pray.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So as we come to this passage, it's really interesting to me.

Verse 43, I want us to begin with verse 43 and see there.

It says in verse 43, and after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to the Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.

See, here's what happened last week.

Paul preached a message.

He preached a message proclaiming that Jesus is the Messiah that God had promised, who came to free them from the law of Moses because they were enslaved.

They were in bondage to this law of Moses because the law showed them their sin and showed them that there was nothing they could do to be sinless.

They were a sinful people.

And because of their sin, they were going to be judged.

But he says Jesus came and lived a perfect life and lived perfectly and kept the law.

And then he died on the cross.

And by the shedding of his blood, thank you, Jesus, for the blood applied, because it was applied to them, and now they could be freed from the bondage of the law because Jesus kept it perfectly and he died in our place.

He died in their place.

And then he arose, giving them life, giving them victory over sin and death.

And Paul proclaimed that message last week.

We saw him proclaim that message last week.

So now, after Paul proclaimed this message, they gathered around him and said, Hey, we want to hear more.

We want to hear more.

And as they left the synagogue, they were following, saying, We want to hear more.

Come back next week.

Come back next week.

And what they did is said, We urge you to continue in the grace of God.

But I want us to see when he says to continue in the grace of God, what does he mean in that?

Does he mean we could reach a point where we don't continue in the grace of God?

I mean, if they're if the urge, if they're pleading, hey, you need to continue in this, does that mean they're not going to continue in this?

What is he talking about here?

Well, I think to help us see that, to help us explain that, let's go to 1 John chapter 2.

1 John 2 · chapter mention

In 1 John chapter 2, verses 18 and 19, Paul says this, or John writes this, children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrists have come.

1 John 2:18

Therefore we know that it is the last hour.

They went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would not have con they would have continued with us, but they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

So so he's talking about here, not the Antichrist that we're going to see.

He's talking about Antichrists, plural.

This is people who are opposing Jesus.

Listen, if you are opposing Jesus, you are an Antichrist, okay?

You're against Christ.

And so these people are opposing Christ.

And he says they went out from us, but they were not of us.

And the fact that they went out from us demonstrated that they were never really of us.

We understand this as the doctrine of perseverance.

Millard Erickson defines the doctrine of perseverance as this: the teaching that those who are genuine believers will endure in the faith to the end.

So what he's saying here is in John, John is saying, if they endure to the end, we know for sure that they are true believers.

But those who don't, those who are in the church, but not really of the church, and they leave the church and go out and oppose Christ, they were never really of the church.

They were never really in the church.

They were never really true believers because if they would have been, they would have preserved until the end.

This is the doctrine of perseverance.

And so as we see this, as we come then here, then what he is, what is he telling them to do is to urge them to continue in the grace of the Lord.

And he's not just, but he's what Paul is saying there is not just about salvation.

He is talking about persevering and growing in that grace.

Similar to what he wrote to the to the church at Philippi in chapter 2, verses 12 and 13.

He calls the church and Philippi to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.

Now, he is not telling them to go earn their salvation.

That is impossible.

He just said, We're in bondage to the law, to our sin, because we can't get out of it.

But he's not telling them to earn their salvation.

What he is telling them to do is exercise, exercise their faith to work it out by allowing God to work in them.

And so the call here to continue in grace is the call to those who are truly believers here to work out their salvation, to grow in their grace and knowledge of God.

So what we're seeing here is after Paul preached this message, Paul and Barnabas, he encouraged the people to continue in this grace.

Now, as we receive this message, as we hear this message, we also must recognize that the grace of God at work, and we need to continue in that same grace.

So the challenge for us is the same challenge that Paul gave to these converts, to these Jews who heard the message, and to those who are faithful, who had been converted to Judaism, who heard in the synagogue, continue in the grace of God.

Church, the challenge for us is to continue in the grace of God.

So, so our so how are how does Paul challenge them in this?

I think today what we need to take a moment is we need to see how they received this message that Paul has just heard, that he has just preached to them.

And the way they received this message, the way they moved in this message, the way they grow in this message can be a challenge to us in how we receive the same message.

So our question that we want to seek to answer today is how did they receive the message?

Those who heard, how did they receive this message?

Well, first thing we see is an initial reaction.

What initially happened?

We catch that right there in verses 42 and 43.

They were excited.

They heard this message, they were excited to hear this message, and they followed them out saying, Hey, we want to hear more, we want to hear more, we want to hear more.

Come back next week and let we want to hear it.

Come back next week and teach us again.

We want to hear more.

It's an initial reaction.

But this reaction, it reminds me, it reminds me of a parable that Jesus told.

Back in Matthew chapter 13.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

If you go to Matthew chapter 13, that whole chapter is filled with parables.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

But in verses 3 through 9, Jesus tells this parable.

And he, that's Jesus, told them many things in parables, saying, A sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.

Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, and since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered away.

Other seeds fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.

Other seeds fell on good soil, produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

He who has ears, let him hear.

So Jesus begins and he tells them this parable, what I what I think we're going to see happening in Acts chapter 13 is this parable playing out.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

We're going to see it happening in front of our eyes.

Because Jesus goes on later in Matthew 13 in verses 18 through 23, and he explains this parable.

He explains that the seed that has been sown is the word of God.

The gospel message that Paul and Barnabas have just declared, it has gone out.

And he talks about soils that these fall this falls on.

He talks about how it falls on the road, and these are hearts that are hard, and it's immediately snatched away, is the word, just grabbed away by Satan and by his demons.

It is just taken away.

Then he talks about how it falls on rocky ground.

And it springs up.

People get excited about it.

But because there's no real root, they don't truly believe.

It withers.

As soon as persecution comes, or as soon as something doesn't go their way, it withers.

Some fall on among the thorns and it springs up.

But the thorns are there and they choke it out.

Prejudices and things come in our lives and they choke out this gospel message.

But when we it when it's not real, when this message is not real, it can be choked out, it can be extinguished.

But some fell on good soil and produced fruit.

See, we're I think we see that.

We're going to see that happen by the Jews' reaction.

The Jews are going to contradict this gospel message that has been proclaimed.

Now, see, it's not immediately though.

We saw that those who came out in verse 43 after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism, they followed Paul and Barnabas out saying, come back next week.

It was Jews who were asking them to do that.

But here we come a week later, they show back up to proclaim this message.

And here's what seems to have happened.

What seems to have happened is those who have been converted to Judaism, those you those Gentiles who've been converted, they heard, hey, guess what?

This gospel message is for us too.

It's for us too.

And it seems like the word spread among the Gentiles.

So the next week when they showed up, the synagogue was full of people, but not just Jews.

It was full of Gentiles too, wanting to hear this gospel message being proclaimed.

But the Jews began to contradict why.

It tells us right here in verse 45.

But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy.

They were filled with jealousy.

Say, Grant, how can that be?

I mean, they were jealous of people hearing the gospel message?

Yes.

Yes.

How dare God proclaim this message and offer this message to the Gentiles?

It reminds us back of the book of Jonah.

Go back and read Jonah sometime.

It's only four chapters.

It's not that long.

But here's what happened.

Jonah, God tells him to go to Nineveh to proclaim repentance.

And he doesn't want to go.

He runs away from God.

And so you know the story.

God flees him.

There's a big storm.

They throw him out of the ship, swallowed by a fish.

He goes and he proclaims to Nineveh repentance.

He calls them to repentance.

And what happens?

They repent.

And Jonah gets mad about it.

And he said, God, I knew this would happen.

This is why I ran.

He didn't run because he was afraid of the people of Nineveh.

He ran because he knew that if he went and preached a message of repentance to them, that they would repent and God wouldn't destroy them.

That God would relent.

He didn't want that to happen.

Same thing is happening here.

They're seeing people come to Jesus.

Gentiles.

They can't take it.

They become jealous.

They allow their jealousies.

They allow their prejudices.

They allow all of these other things to come and stand in the way.

And it says that they began to revile them.

In verse 46, it says they began contradicting what was spoken by Paul, reviling him.

Speaking abusively to him.

The word reviling, though, is really the same word that we get blaspheming from.

I mean, this is not just poking, hey, do you really know what you're talking about?

Are you sure about they are adamantly opposing the gospel message going to the Gentiles?

They are blaspheming the gospel message.

Contradicting because of their jealousies.

Because it wasn't what they wanted.

Because it wasn't happening the way they thought it should happen.

And then what Paul tells them is that they thrust aside this message.

Verse 46, and Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying it was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you.

And he says, since you thrust it aside and judge for yourself.

And judge yourself.

They take this gospel message and they thrust it aside.

They put it to the side.

Why would they do this?

Understand what's happening is they forgot they have forgotten their call.

Remember, we talked about this last week.

Remember the Abrahamic covenant way back in Genesis?

God promised Abraham He was going to give him land, he was going to give him descendants, and his descendants were going to be a blessing to the nations.

The blessing to the nations was that they through them, and we looked at this last week, Paul declared it to those who were there, that through them, through the Jews, God sent the message of salvation.

And I told you that later we would address how, why it had to go to them first.

Here it is.

He tells them right here in verse 46.

They spoke out boldly, saying, It is necessary for the word of God be spoken to you first.

Why?

Here's why.

Because the message of salvation came through them, and they were supposed to be the blessing to the world.

It was for the Jews to hear this message, to respond to the gospel call, and then for them to go and be lights to the world.

How do we know that?

Right?

Look at the next verse.

In verse 47, Paul quotes from Isaiah chapter 49, and he says, This I have made you a light for the Gentiles.

Isaiah 49 · chapter mention

He's talking to the Jews.

He's talking to Isaiah, and Isaiah is proclaiming this message to the Jews.

I have made you, Jews, to be a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.

It came to the Jews first because it was for them to go out and spread this message to be light to the darkened nations so that they could come to Jesus.

They were not supposed to hold it in for themselves.

Salvation was never supposed to be for Jews only.

Salvation was supposed to be for the world.

It was Jews were the Jews were going to be the vehicle through whom God used to spread his message.

And they forgot the call.

Jesus said, After that the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will be my witnesses.

In Jerusalem, all Judea and Samaria, to the uttermost part, to the end of the earth.

While they were supposed to be lied to the nations, we are supposed to be witnesses of the witnesses of the Messiah.

But we have to be so careful because we can become so inwardly focused that we forget our call to.

And we make up reasons why we can't be witnesses.

Instead of trusting the one who called us to be that.

And continuing in the grace of God.

May we never do that.

While they contradicted this message, while they blasphemed against this message.

Thank goodness not everybody did.

While the Jews contradicted, the Gentiles rejoiced.

Look down in verse 48.

And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord.

And as many as were appointed to eternal life, believed.

They began to glorify in the word of the Lord.

Again, hear the word of the Lord.

I know I've already gone over it once today.

We've sung about it already today, but we need to hear it again because we need to understand if we are going to continue in the grace of God, it has to be through the gospel message.

Here it is that we are in bondage to our sin.

We are enslaved to it because we cannot stop sinning.

We can't stop.

And then once we've sinned, we can't do away with it.

It's there.

But God sent his only son who came and who kept the law perfectly, who died on the cross and paid the ransom.

He paid the price for our sin.

He bought us back.

So now when we believe in him, when we place our faith in him, we are freed from the bondage of sin.

And the resurrection shows us that.

The resurrection shows that God has power over sin.

And so now that power has been applied to us, that has been applied to us that we can now live life and be the people that God wants us to be.

And the Gentiles glorified in that.

Listen, we need to glorify in the word of the Lord, not just because, not just for our salvation.

Listen, there are some here who are not saved, and you need to hear that message.

But there are many here who are believers and you need to hear that message.

Listen, how do we continue in the grace of God?

How do we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God who is at work within us?

How do we do that?

We never forget the cross.

We can never forget the cross.

We always have to go through it.

It is the cross that drives our every action.

It's got to be the cross that moves us forward.

It's got to be the empty tomb that shows us life.

We must be dependent upon the cross every day of our life.

What's the decision that we've got to make?

Be dependent upon the cross.

Where am I supposed to work?

Be dependent upon the cross.

Be dependent upon the cross in every aspect of our life.

That's how we continue in the grace of God.

We've got to move forward in that, and we've got to glorify in the word of God that Jesus died on the cross for us.

But then there's an interesting phrase here that we need to just take a moment on.

At the end of the verse, verse 48, he says this.

And as many as were appointed to eternal life, believed.

Now, what does he mean here?

Listen, this we've talked about it in Acts.

This is a discussion that we've already talked about in Acts.

It's a discussion that we'll see again in Acts.

That we'll it all the way through it.

And can I go ahead and tell you, I don't completely understand it.

I don't.

But but here he's working with, we're seeing two different things here.

He's talking about in the appointment to salvation, the sovereignty of God.

We must understand, church, we've got to understand that salvation is a work of God and God alone.

It is only God who can save.

It is only God who can give us the grace.

We are dead in our trespasses and sin, and a dead man can't choose anything but death.

We have to understand that it is the sovereignty of God that is at work in salvation.

But at the same time, at the same time, hear me.

We are responsible for the choices that we make, including choosing to believe in Him.

We got to choose.

You have to make that choice.

Listen, and it sounds like two different things.

I told you I don't understand it.

But here's what I believe scripture teaches both of them.

That God is sovereign and man is responsible.

And somehow they work together.

But because salvation is such a huge thing, you know what we have to do?

Just trust him.

Just trust him.

And continue in the grace of God.

And they did.

It tells us that many believed.

So we see the response to the message here.

The Jews they contradicted the message.

The Gentiles, they rejoiced in the message and they believed.

But what about Paul and Barnabas?

Well, Paul and Barnabas give us great examples of how to continue in the grace of God.

They continued.

See what happens back up in verse 46.

Paul and Barnabas go back to the synagogue.

They began to preach and proclaim the gospel message, and the Jews began to contradict them.

It would almost, please don't do this, by the way.

Please don't do this.

But it would almost be like if I stood up and preached on a Sunday morning and you began to heckle me.

Don't do that.

You began to heckle me.

Okay?

And calling and contradicting.

Alright?

That's what they're doing.

Listen, if you start doing it to me, I may leave.

But not Paul and Barnabas.

Hear what they did.

They spoke boldly.

They didn't stop.

They continued in the grace of God.

They continued to be witnesses that Jesus is the Messiah.

In Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and now to the end of the earth, they are being witnesses.

No matter what is coming against them.

They are proclaiming the gospel message.

They spoke boldly.

But then what we see happening towards the end, as you get down to verses 50 and 52, the Jews couldn't accept this still.

And it says that they began, look in verse 50, it says, but the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city and stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas.

Now this is not just persecution coming from within the church.

What they have done now is gone and found leading people in the city.

Outside of the church, leading people in the city, people of high standing in the city who are now coming to persecute Paul and Barnabas, who are trying to stop this message, which is always interesting to me when people try to stop the message of God.

You know what always happens?

Look through history.

You know what always happens when people try to stop the message?

It just becomes more vibrant and grows louder.

So they begin to try to stop this message of the gospel, but What we see here is in Paul and Barnabas is they left.

You think, well, Grant, I thought they were speaking boldly.

They were.

They were speaking boldly.

But time came that it was just, it was time for them to go.

Now, I can almost promise you that they're not leaving out of fear.

And they're not leaving a kind of, oh no, we're going to get arrested.

Next city, see what happens.

Go ahead and read chapter 14.

We'll get there next week.

Next city, see what happens to Paul.

He's not afraid here.

I think he's obeying the Holy Spirit, continuing in the grace of God, because see how they left.

In verse 51.

But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium.

Now this reminds us, if you go back to Luke chapter 10, verses 10 and 11, when it says they shook off the dust from their feet, it reminds us of these verses.

Luke 10:10

But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into the streets and say, Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off against you.

Nevertheless, know this that the kingdom of God has come near.

Now, what's happening in chapter 10 is Jesus has sent 72 out to just to tell people, the surrounding Gentile areas, to tell them that the kingdom of God is near.

The message is there to go out and spread.

And he says, as you do, if you go into if someone receives you in their house, just go to the house and stay there.

Don't move around, just go and stay.

Don't take anything, just depend on what they're gonna give you.

But if they don't receive you, wipe the dust off your feet and move on.

And and what became a Jewish practice from, not from this, but what was a Jewish practice of priests was when they would travel into gentile areas, when they came home before they would go into the to the in into Israel before they went in, they would wipe all the gentile dust off of them so they could be clean before they went into Israel.

Just had to get all that dirty filthiness off of them before they went into the Holy Land.

Now see what Paul and Silas are doing to the Jews because you're not receiving this gospel message, because you are not accepting.

We're gonna wipe your dirty filthiness off.

Because you've thrust aside this gospel message.

We're gonna go to an accepting Gentile people.

The picture is big.

The Jews contradicted.

The Gentiles rejoiced.

Paul and Barnabas continued.

What does this mean for us?

Listen, we could find our place in any of these places very easily.

We could easily turn our focus in on us.

And we could be careful here.

Let's be honest.

We could easily not like the way God is doing something in our place.

And contradict the gospel message because it's not working the way we want it to work.

There are people coming that we don't like.

There are things that are happening that we don't like.

So we're gonna oppose the gospel message.

Listen, I understand we're people and disagreements are gonna happen.

But may we never, may we never blaspheme the message of the gospel because of that.

May we instead rejoice in the word of the Lord and continue in the grace of God.

May we be not stony ground, not thorny ground.

May we be fertile soil that produces fruit by continuing in the grace of God.

We're about to enter into a time of decision.

If you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, I need you to hear this again.

You're enslaved to your sin.

You can't get out.

But Jesus came and he paid the price for your sin on the cross.

He died and he arose.

And to be freed, you just simply need to believe in him.

If you've never done that, I pray that today will be the day of salvation.

But if you have, pray that you continue in the grace of God.

Maybe this morning what needs to happen among us is there needs to be some repentance.

Because if again, if we're honest with ourselves, there are times even as believers that our hearts become hard.

There are times as believers that our hearts become stony ground.

There are times as believers that we allow weeds in the garden.

Things to choke out the gospel message.

Maybe this morning what we need to do is repent and allow God to work and make our hearts fertile soil to produce fruit so we can continue in the grace of God.

If that's you this morning, we invite you to come.

If you have a decision to make, I'll be here to receive you.

If you just need to come and kneel at these steps and make them an altar, spend some time with God in repentance.

However, God is moving in your life, we invite you to come.

Let's pray together.

God, I thank you for today.

I thank you for how you love us.

God, I thank you for the message of salvation.

And I pray for those who are here this morning who need to hear this message.

That you will work in their lives and they will believe.

But I pray for those who those of us who are here and need to repent this morning.

God, I pray that you move in our hearts.

As you call us to repentance, help us to obey.

So that we may continue in the grace of God.

We love you.

Jesus, it's in your name we pray.

Amen.

Thanks for listening to this week's sermon.

If you have any questions for our pastor, feel free to reach out at DeSotoHills.com.