Now over to Acts. Acts chapter sixty. Sixteen chapter of Acts and verse six. Might mention that we could go tonight. We were speaking about the great door. I think our next door was open. On the many adversaries. We didn't get much beyond church letters. But tonight we want to get into the many adversaries that the Apostle Paul was confronted with when he sought to enter this great door that was opened under him. And that, of course, was the city of Ephesus. Think of that text about the devil as a roaring lion. And he's the great adversary, as the roaring lion going about seeking whom he may devour. Behind all other adversaries there is the adversary, Satan. And every Christian has adversaries of various kinds and characters. Paul says a great door, and a pectoral is open unto me, and there are many. not just one, but many adversaries. Well, the logical conclusion of human nature is this. Then I'll quit. If that's the case, if there are going to be many adversaries, a lot of opposition, a lot of obstacles, a lot of barriers, I'll take the path of least resistance, I'll get quit. God's stalwarts have never quit. In spite of the obstacles and the many adversaries, they've gone cold. The Apostle Paul is entering a battlefield here, and well, he knows. And the conflict is going to be strong. He doesn't take time to size up the strength, the power of the enemy, but he knows it's going to be a fact. and he doesn't quit. He says there are many animals. Now you'll notice in verse six of chapter sixteen that I drew your attention to. Now when they had gone throughout Persia and the region of Galatia and were forbidden out the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, and that's where Ephesus was. So God says, Paul, you're not going to Ephesus, not now. After they were come to Mithya, they are saved to go into Bethania, but the Spirit suffered them not. Now here is God putting barriers, shutting doors. George didn't want Paul to enter at the moment. And they passing by Mithya came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. there stood a man in Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us. And after he had seen the reason, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. God wouldn't let Paul go into Macedonia, or rather into Asia, where Ephesus walked. You'll notice verse in chapter eighteen and verse nineteen, something else. Chapter eighteen and verse ninety. And he came to Ephesus. Now Paul is going to stop by Ephesus, from Corinth to Jerusalem. And he came to Ephesus and left them there, but he himself entered into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. You can just see the Apostle, the moment he took the steps, the ground of Ephesus, he made for the synagogue. He had a love for the Jews. He entered into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they desired him to carry longer time with them, he consented not. Well, Paul, I thought you wanted to go to Ephraim. You wanted to go to Ephraim. Now you're here, and you won't stay. You only want to stay a day. He wouldn't consent for pressure. But they didn't care well, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Ruthen, but I will return again unto you if God will. And he sails another. If God will. Like you have over in chapter we read in chapter sixteen, if the Lord permits, it's a wonderful thing, and like the Apostle learned from experience, to always consider that one point, if the Lord wills. I'll do this, or I'll do that. The point is to be in the Lord's wills. And when the Lord does that, he blocks the person. He keeps them right where he is. And being in the Lord's will is to seek the true contentment and happiness. I trust you'll find that out. Just to be in the Lord's will. I'm right where God wants me. I'm doing what he wants me to do. Therefore it will need to be contentment. Ye have needed patience that after he has done the will of God, he might obtain the gospel. between getting that promise and obtaining the answer to that promise is the will of God. He has neither faith. How patient do we need to be that after you've done the will of God, after you've waited there so long, then eventually the promise is fulfilled. Now that happens so with the Apostle Paul. It is right to plan... His will, as far as we are at age, it has been said, Go as far as you can see, then see how far you can go. The great secret in living, whether a preacher or not, is to seek the Lord's will from day to day. He doesn't give June's grace in January for trial, and he doesn't give June's pathway in January either. It's the case time after time of a day at a time. The day at a time. As thy day, so shall thy strength be. And so often, a step by step. As thy day, so shall nightly be. Take the steps of voice. Act from the light you receive at the moment. And as you take that step, God will give you further light. And this is the experience of God's people down these centuries. And that's what we're going to be looking at tonight, how the Apostle Paul was in the will of God in this case. Many things had happened before that door opened. He'd noticed that. A lot of things were placed. Why Apollos had moved there and said, Aquila and Priscilla had gone there. a godly couple, and this very gifted young Macedonian, Apollos, he went there. Maybe, Paul, it's not God's will for you to go there. But the time came when the door opened, and as much as we have in our text, a great door, and effectually it's open unto me that the door is open. Well, strangers may seem Paul earlier had sent for Apollos. to come to Corinth, but he didn't. Now we find that Paulus, he leaves and goes to Corinth, and he's been at Ephesus. Now Paul moves into Ephesus. How remarkable are God moving of his service? It's nice to know God's time and God's timing. Well, God had a purpose for blocking Paul going to Ephesus. You think of that text in revolution, I and he that lived with and was dead, and behold, I'm alive forevermore, and have the keys of death and of hell. He has all the keys. He says, I can open, and no man can shut, and I can shut, and no man can open. When God opens a door, no matter how many adversaries, he'll see you through. If God shuts the door, no man can pry it open. It's just a case of waiting upon the Lord. And so the Apostle, time has come. He likely wondered why God kept him waiting. But now the time has come. Maybe he needs a refuge spirit to be toughened up for the battle that was awaiting him at Ephesus. If you think of the prison experience in Philippi in chapter sixteen, and how he was beaten by the magistrates. But also the songs in the night, when an earthquake shook the prison, the Harlem Silas, sang praises in the night. Amen. How God delivered them. And the very one, the prisoner, the one charged with the prison had to bathe their bleeding backs. All this, all this part of your trailer. He didn't expect that to be in his pathway. The trials at Philippa. And the deliverance. And then the uproar of Thessalonica. There also you have the scorn of the intellectual populace at Athens. All this had become before Ephesus. But it seems now Paul is ready. And Ephesus is ready. The plate is ready. And the servant is ready. And Paul enters. There's no better, more thrilling experience than any person's life, when God prepares a man and prepares a place. The door is open. You'll walk right in. You're on schedule. Paul would have missed it had he gone early. God had a plan, and he was preparing Paul for effort, and he was preparing effort. Paul. Paul is a very patient man by the time he hits empathy, and we'll see that as we go along. Because of us from Ephesus where he began his great work, and how the gospel from there went throughout all Asia. From there he established those seven churches of Asia, given us in Revelation chapters two and three. What a great work. the apostle accomplished in those three short-lived years in heaven. He had some sorrow coming to him. The time came when he writes, All they that be in Asia are turned away from me. Holy Luke is written. Paul had his joy. He saw those thousands saved in Asia. Those many assemblies, the outstanding I'd mentioned in Revelation, two and three, but there were hundreds and hundreds more. All the nations heard the gospel. And yet the time came when all those Christians turned again to the age of thought. He said, only Luke was it. God knows he needed Luke. He needed the doctor. The suit is weaving, aching fox. These are some of the sorrows of being in the will of God. It is not always called. He told us as Titans to get into the ship and go to the other side, and as they were going, a storm came down upon the lake, and they were tossed upon those angry waters. They could have said one to another, The Lord told us to get into this book. He told us to go to the other side. He did exactly what he told us. He obeyed them. And he's going directly where he told us to go on the other side. And they had their reports where they stopped. Try this storm. They were encountering adversaries in nature. Yet they were in the will of God. And at that time the Lord appealed. And that's when he calmed the water, quieted the waves, entered the boat, and immediately they were the other side. Strange, didn't they? Even when you're in this world, you encounter obstacles, adversaries. Things you can't explain, you can't understand, and there's no use trying to understand these things. And so you come now, the apostle, and I want to say this, when he did enter Ephesus, He certainly didn't fear verse for blessing. Nope. You'd expect after waiting all this time and all this preparation and planning right from the beginning to be a time of blessing. No, that was not the case. The gospel doesn't take hold after this. Paul, he begins to preach. And you'll find in chapter nineteen, and that's where we're going to spend most of our time from now on us, in chapter... These adversaries that Paul had, you might say the first adversary that Paul had was the city itself, the city of Ephesus. What a large wicked city, Ephesus was. That in itself was a big obstacle, a big adversary. There was that huge system of organized idolatry in the temple of the great goddess Diana. And it's strange that you read of the history about that great goddess. This is what one commentator, Unger's Bible Dictionary, he says the temple of Diana, ah, sure, one of the seven wonders of the world built in five fifties before Christ. Pure white marble. and at a hundred and thirty-seven column, sixty feet high, each a gift of a king of a country, another country of incredible wealth, and those great pillars were in the form of a many-dressed woman, emblematic of abundance of nature, believed to have fallen from heaven. This idol, this goddess, claimed to have fallen out of the heavens, came from Sanitya, something that splintered off from another body, heavenly body, and a cave to earth. Supposedly, in the beauty thus described, I just thought of before I came on the platform of what Aaron did. He asked the children of Israel for their earrings, of all the graceless and the gold. And he told them a waffle of a lie. He said, I cast all this into the fire, and there came out this golden path, just as it is. Later on he told the truth that he formed it. Yes, he had done a lot of work on that. And so these people had this thought that this wonderful island, Diana of the Apeed, came right down from heaven. in all that beauty, just as they looked at it. And that, of course, added to it. It's significant. It's important. This came from the top. And thus they worshiped. So the apostle had to confront that. That huge wicked system. That God, goddess, Diana of the Abusas. No matter where you go, in this world in the gospel, you're going to be confronted with huge systems. for this was a system. Systems of religion. If you take Buddhism, Muhammad, Hinduism, wherever you go in this world, you're going to take obstacles of new systems of religion. It's all over the world. These principalities and these powers that are in this world. But then you'll notice also Another, and I'm going to begin now at verse eight of this chapter nineteen. And he went into the synagogues and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. Now he comes upon a second adversary. But when divers or many were hardened and believed not, and spake evil of that way, before the multitude he departed from them, here he finds adversaries among his own people, the Jews. And they wouldn't believe they spake evil of that way, the way of salvation. So he runs into an adversary. Amen. ran into some of his own people, that is, of the Jewish nation. Then he goes to a classroom of a tyrant and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Puranus. And the word Puranus comes from the tyrant, a great philosopher. And now he's yet another adversary. And there he reads, And he reasoned, and he reasoned with this philosopher, and all who met him in that place of life. So the Apostle now is running into these adversaries. You wouldn't have any idea that he would run into them, but he did. Now you'll notice what happened in verse ten, and this continued by the space of two years, so that all they were dwelt in Asia, heard the word of the Lord, quote, Jews and Greeks. And God brought special miracles by the hands of Paul. So that from his body were brought unto the six handkerchiefs, aprons, and the disease that he brought from them, the evil spirits went out of it. This is an amazing thing how Paul, he goes in there and he runs into these obstacles, the first one, the great system that was there in the city. then antagonist with Jews, then this philosopher, and now he sees a principle, the gospel begins to take hold, and God is looking. You see the power of the gospel displayed in this remarkable case on how the spirit of God was working. All these miracles were taken place. The gospel's power is beginning to be felt within everyone. You know, it's remarkable the power of the gospel. I was reading only recently in a book, missionary work. And the missionary went in and started preaching and preaching and preaching. And the people began coming. And then the authority became disturbed because they got word that there were chieftains coming and men coming with their spears, their knives. their guns, their axes, and they were playing things, and they got the idea they were going to be a battle. And so they were praying for this. There was going to be a soda. They thought these people had come, these people who worship idols, and they were going to be baffled with the missionaries and the quong quong who would come to hear the missionaries. And before the authorities got there, they were met by one of the elders, and said, Listen, don't be disturbed. These people are coming to lay down their spirit. They're coming to lay down their thoughts. They're coming to lay down their guns and their knives. They're things they're bringing their story. Now they're bringing them back. They're given to the ones in whom they had stored. They have been saved by the power of the God. There you have the power of the gospel. Many a missionary witness is that. Paul has something similar to this. Those who oppose them, now they come. The gospel has done its work in the hearts of many new. Those who've been on the mission field to tell you story after story. Get the gospel. And beasts and groups of men who have been brought to their knees under the power of the gospel. become as meek to the land, the gospel as time. Paul saw that right here in Ephesus in those verses, grievance, reading, the power of the gospel. You'll notice also another adversary in verse thirteen. Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exalted, did you know that was in the Bible, that were sprang into light knowledge a few years ago, Exorcist, and that picture that was made that had distorted the mind of many people, a wicked face. And so here you have some of these men, Exorcist. They took upon them to crawl over them which had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We assure you by Jesus whom Paul Fisher and there were seven sons of one Shiva, a Jew, and chief of the priest. Now this priest had seven sons, quite religious fellows, and they were going to imitate the apostle. And the evil spirit answered, the evil spirit, it was in this man, and they were going to try and cast this evil spirit out by the name of the Lord. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you? Christian, you're up against... an adversary that knows. Here you have the knowledge of Satan. And this evil spirit was in this man. And the moment he saw these seven sons of the high priest, and they began calling the name of Jesus, commanding this evil spirit from out of this man, the spirit says, I know Jesus. And I know Paul. I don't know you. And don't forget The demons know you. The knowledge of Jesus. I know Jesus. I know Paul. And the demon knows you. The demons know the ones who attack. And he knows they know the ones not who attack. And you see what happens. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus, I know. And Paul I know. But who are you? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, for that they fled out of that house naked and moved. In other words, I was reading this couple of days ago. I thought, boy, they outran their clothes. He said they ran out of the house naked. They were scared to death. They outran their clothes. And they were wounded. It cost them. Now here's the fact of the devil. The power of the devil. But the devil overstepped himself. He caused a great pleasure. Notice verse seventy. 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 magnate. shapes, you overstepped yourself. You were going to mock the apostles' message. And you see what happened? God triumphed and looked at the blessing of God. In verse eighteen, and many that believe came and confessed and showed their deeds, many of them also refused to realize, brought them, and they were together and burned them before all men, and they counted the price of them that frowned, and found that fifty thousand people of silver, so mightily through the word of God and today, ten thousand silver dollars in the book. And so here you have how the devil tried to stop following the gospel, and yet the gospel triumph, the power of the gospel. You have in those words, Fear pen on them. There you have conviction. Many believe. There you have their confession. They burn their books. There you have their consecration. Sometimes I see Christians having books that might well be burned. They're not very good reading. And this is a good case of conversion. Fear pen on. That's the convicting power of the Spirit. Then they confessed, and then they showed their concrete face away with all those books. Those things I once read before I found the Savior, now I've got something worth reading, and it must have been some long time. And their rock of course today, and their literature should well be buried. It's a nice thing here they burn those things. They didn't bury them like Jacob did. Remember, Jacob's wife had some ivy. Jacob knew about it. He'd never had it. But he got stirred up about it, and he buried those ivy under Lord. Too bad, Jacob, he should have burned them. When you bury it, he'd go back and dig it up. And often Christians do. Well, I know I don't need it. I always couldn't have it. I just leave it there. But sometimes, if they begin to slip spiritually, they'll go back and pick it up. God wants us to burn. So he won't be tempted to take that bad habit back up again. So here you have another one of those temptations between the Apostle Paul and his adversities. Now you've got another adversity, and you've got another one. In verse fifty-four, and who is this? Here you have a man that in Amitius, Demetrius, and he's a trade union man. For a certain man named Demetrius, the Silversmith, which made Silvershrine for Diana brought no small game unto the craftsmen, to be called together with the workmen of light occupation, and said, Sir, do you know that by this craft we have our left? Eating at first this week, I thought of a few men in this world who could say that very same letter. Do you know by these cigarettes this tobacco we have our left? Never mind the damage it's doing to human beings. Don't you know, you liquor-makers, when they get together in their conferences? Yes, you know, brethren, you know, by this liquor we have our left. Well, what's that liquor doing with humanity? Other traffic and drugs they get together. You know, men, by this... We have our wealth. For what's the drugs doing to human beings? What do they care? Such is this man, the head of this union, care, that so right we're deceiving you, reprising the gospel of the grace of God. They didn't care about souls going to heaven or hell. It was their wealth they were concerned about, their job. So you have... the trade union coming to victory. Another add to that. And he said in verse twenty-six, Moreover ye see and hear that not alone in Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away what people say, that there be no gods which are made with hands. Now Paul, he had done a great work, hadn't he? Should they have said anything more complimentary about this Paul? He done and did a great work for me. Verse twenty-six. Ye see and hear that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that there be no God, but which are made with half. Paul had done a great work. And here and again you see his greatness surfaces, you see. As he's in this godless place known as that. And he says in verse twenty seven so that not only this our path is endangered, to be said of not, but also that the temple of the great God at Diana should be despised, and her magnificent should be destroyed. To all Elisha and the world is at it. When they heard these sayings, they were full of rats, and cried out so great was Diana of the Abyss. And the whole city was filled with complete, and having caught dear. How started, men and not, but only four companions and travelled, they rushed with one according to the theatre. When Paul would have entered into, unto the people, the disciples suffered enough. Paul wasn't afraid. he was going to face the crowd, such was his deal for the gospel, and certain of the chief of Asa, men of high strength, faith and rank, and rank, which were his friends, why Paul had his friends in high places, didn't he? Chief men in Asa were friends of the apostles, they sent to him, desiring him that he would not adventure himself into the era. Some therefolk cried one thing and some another, for the assembly would conclude, and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together. And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, and the Jews putting him forward, and Alexander decked him with the hand, and would have made his defense unto the people. But then they knew that he was a Jew, all which one voice made the mistakes of two of them, tried out, great, is Diana of the Ephesians. A howling mob, and they howled for two hours, demonstrated against the Apostle Paul and the power of the gospel. I tell you, things weren't going too well for Paul, wherever. There was one wonderful. Whenever the gospel was doing things, the devil stirred up a loud. And all that demonstrated All this demon activity, these trade unions, all because the gospel was beginning to change human hearts, and these men began losing customers. The gospel was doing that. This is the battlefield where the Apostle Paul labored too hard, and at the end could say, I fought with this fight. But here's one of the subtle adversaries. This man... Alexander the Apostle. He was a convert to Christianity. He denounced it and became an apostate. And here he tries to act as a friend of the Apostle. Paul tells us about him a little later on. In fact, if you want to read it, it's over in First Timothy, chapter one and verse nineteen and thirty. Paul says to Tenerife, holding faith and a good conscience, with some having put away concerning faith of maidshipw. Of whom is Hymenius and Alexander, whom I have delivered of the sick, if they may learn not the blasphemous of them in second Timothy, four and fourteen, Alexander the copper-smith here is, hid me not evil. The Lord reward him according to his works. Of whom be thou were also, for he hath greatly withstood our words. And yet here you have this adversary posing as a friend, trying to depend upon it. But after all, he was an enemy of Paul. Do you run into these enemies, these adversary, these tripper-trips, who pose one thing to your face, and stab you in the back. Paul had these adversaries. He met them at the parlor, at the effigies. There are other adversaries. The last one is the town clerk. The town finds what he did, the town clerk in verse twenty-four, as it is. On the south day twenty-four, first thirty-eight, Wherefore if, Dmitri, and the craftsmen which shall with him have a matter against any man, the law is open, that our deputies let them impede one another. For I, if ye inquire anything concerning other matters, it shall be determined in a lawful assembly. For we are in danger to be called in question for this day's uproar, there be no cause whereby we may give. account of this matter. And account of this matter. And that if ye be inquired of concerning the thing under this matter, it shall be determined in a lawful assembly, for we are in danger to be called in Christians of this day's uproar, there being no cause whereby we may give account of this concourse, and when ye had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly. Here he had the town clerk. He was a politician. He knew he had his position because of Rome. Rome had given evidence of certain measure of liberty. At the same time, Rome would step in if there were any disturbance and let that authority out of the hands of those men. And here is this town clerk. He's trying to appease them off. He's trying to quieten this thing down, suggesting it be settled in court in the lawful manner. It reminds also of Pilate. Pilate was afraid to come right out and contend over Jesus Christ. He wanted to appease the Jews. He wanted to appease his own country. But he also wanted to appease Rome. He knew if he couldn't handle that situation, Rome would take care of him. That's why he was in such a country. What shall I do then, he did? I tried every possible way to wriggle over this mouth. I've had Christ clogged and beaten and dropped before the Jews, taken that with a few, but silly way with this man will not hinder anyone. I've given them a choice between for others and Jesus. They've chosen for others. I'm still confronted with Jesus' son. Pirates were stuck. And he said when he asked the question, What shall I do then with Jesus? He was in a corner. He was afraid of his political position. He tried to please several parts. And he took his own life. in the end. These are adversaries. Here you have a politician. He believed in Christ is Diana of Lippes. Paul's faith was in that process of the Admiral love for Paul and the Gospel of Paul. And if Diana of Lippeson was so great, so wonderful, so magnificent, why did he worry about her being destroyed? Wasn't he did he not have enough faith in diana of the ephesians that paul's gospel couldn't destroy it he knew the power of the message paul preached and don't forget it the world knows the power of the gospel and secretly they may say they don't fear their system and they're set up but they do they know the power of the gospel And here there is this seventh adversary, a hostile town clerk. For tall triumph, he got the victory in Ephesus. Later on, he said, I have fought the good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the case. Henceforth, as laid up on me, a crown of righteousness, is the Lord the righteous judge of the communion that day. and not to be only, but also all them that love is appeared. Paul says, a great door, and effectually is open unto me. Paul is fresh, strong, gallant, ready for this great opportunity. Paul was wanting to rush into this city with his confidence in the gospel. God says, hold on, Paul. You need a little tough thing up. You don't know the size of the sitting or the power of the liquid one. And he put it through a few experiences. All right, Paul, go ahead. But don't expect the concert too quick. Don't expect that the gospel is going to mold down everybody without any resistance. It's still going to be a fight. It's still going to be a battle. And how well Paul knew it. A scarred warrior emerged from that conflict. He said, I fought for good times. I finished my course. And he had fought for good times. And Christian Europe up against an enemy. In very course. It's a battle here. Night is a battle here. All kinds of battles. They'll come at you from every point. Behind all, the devil. The great adversary. And you better be able to look both ways at the same time. Because the devil actually. If you're going to be aggressive, of course, if you're not going to be aggressive, the devil let you know. You try to be aggressive. That's when you run into these adversaries. That's how Paul ran into them. And Paul had sat at home, kept making tents. He wouldn't know anything about these advertisements. But Paul was the first. His desire was to make Christ Lord. He said, I'm willing to try for the Lord Jesus. Paul, with that determination or that deal, you're into it. You're going to see glory. You're going to get moved. You're going to get scarred. Well, that's all that. I'd sooner have scars to show when I meet my judge than have nettles. He said, I bear in my body the mark of the Lord Jesus. That was the Apostle Paul. And in the moment his head rose from the block on the Appian rail, the road takes the water. ended on a little part he had come to leave with a gospel and the gospel rolled off as the head rolled