Click here to view listing below for Psa 138:4
I. AND HE CONTINUED THERE A YEAR AND SIX MONTHS TEACHING THE WORD OF GOD AMONG THEM.
A. Paul was teaching the word of God.
1. I feel that the most important ministry of the church is to teach the word of God.
2. Somehow the church has become sidetracked into many other ventures.
a. Many have become family social centers.
b. Sermon topics are:
1. How to better communicate with your spouse.
2. Living with rebellious teens.
3. Developing a more attractive you.
4. How to combat fear.
c. A scripture is quoted now and then to authenticate the pop psychology.
d. I believe that in many Sunday morning sermons there is far more psychology than scripture.
3. Life exists on two planes, the vertical and the horizontal. Most churches today deal only with the horizontal plane, and the church has been robbed of its power.
a. Jesus said that if we would seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, that these other things would be added to us.
b. Basically, get a right relationship with God and everything else will fall into place.
c. It is the teaching of the word that gets us into a right relationship with God.
d. Why is it that people have terrible relationships with others? Because they do not have a right relationship with God.
B. There is really no substitute for the teaching of the word.
1. For the cleansing of our hearts and minds.
a. Jesus said, "Now you are clean through the word that I have spoken unto you."
b. David asked, "How can a young man cleanse his way? He then answered his own question by saying, "By taking heed to the word of God."
2. It brings power to our lives.
a. The word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than a twoedged sword.
b. Luke said,
LUK 4:32 And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.
3. It feeds the spirit of man.
a. There are many things that feed our flesh.
b. Many people who go to church receive soulish experiences.
c. They can be moved emotionally, but their spirit is not touched.
d. The soul and spirit are so closely akin to each other, it is often hard to discern between the two.
e. The word of God is able to divide between the soul and spirit.
f. The disciples who Jesus met on the road to Emmaus said:
LUK 24:32 one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?
JOH 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and [they] are life.
4. God's word will not return unto Him void.
ISA 55:11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper [in the thing] whereto I sent it.
a. In
Psalm 138, God said that He would honor His word above His name.
5. God's word brings saving faith.
ROM 10:17 So then faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
1PE 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
6. The word of God equips us for good works.
2TI 3:16 All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
2TI 3:17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
7. The word of God is enduring. Fads and fashions will pass. Philosophical and psychological theories constantly change. Science needs constant revising, but the word of God remains.
ISA 40:8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
MAT 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
a. Peter spoke of the word of God that lived and abided forever.
II. NOW WHEN GALLIO WAS DEPUTY OF ACHAIA.
A. Gallio has often gotten a bum rap from ministers because of the miss reading of this account.
B. According to his brother, Seneca, he was one of the kindest men who ever lived. He said, "No one is ever as sweet to one, as Gallio was to all." Again He said, "He that loves my brother to the utmost of his ability, does not love him enough.
C. The Jews who have given Paul a bad time in Europe, for they are the ones that stirred up the crowds in every place against him, are now stirring up trouble here in Corinth. They have brought Paul to the judgment seat of Gallio.
1. They brought the charge that Paul was persuading men to worship God contrary to the law.
2. Paul was about to defend himself, when Gallio said to 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]."
a. In this he was perfectly correct. The secular courts have no right to seek to judge in the affairs of the church.
b. I do believe in the separation of church and state. If the majority of the people in an area desire to have prayer in school, I do not believe the courts should interfere in that matter.
c. If they do not want prayer in school, we should not force them to have prayer in school.
d. Separation of church and state should go both ways. The church should not seek to run the government, and the government should not seek to run the church.
D. He drove them from the judgment seat.
III. VERSE 17: THEN ALL THE GREEKS TOOK SOSTHENES, THE CHIEF RULER OF THE SYNAGOGUE, AND BEAT [HIM] BEFORE THE JUDGMENT SEAT. AND GALLIO CARED FOR NONE OF THOSE THINGS.
A. This is where Gallio gets the bum rap and is accused of being a cold-hearted, impassionate judge.
B. Sosthenes who was the instigator of all the tumult, and the ruler of the synagogue is being beaten up by the Greeks, and he doesn't care.
1. I believe that those who bring frivolous suits should have to redress to those against whom they have brought charges.
2. An attorney sought to bring a suit against our church because a pastor in Tacoma gave bad advise to one of the ladies in his church.
Verse-Reference
Square — [Jhn 1:1 KJV]
Abbreviate Books
Use SBL Abbrev.
