21:1 And it came to pass, that after we were gotten from them, and had launched, we came with a straight course unto Coos, and the day following unto Rhodes, and from thence unto Patara:

2 And finding a ship sailing over unto Phenicia, we went aboard, and set forth.

3 Now when we had discovered Cyprus, we left it on the left hand, and sailed into Syria, and landed at Tyre: for there the ship was to unlade her burden.

4 And finding disciples, we tarried there seven days: who said to Paul through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem.

5 And when we had accomplished those days, we departed and went our way; and they all brought us on our way, with wives and children, till we were out of the city: and we kneeled down on the shore, and prayed.

6 And when we had taken our leave one of another, we took ship; and they returned home again.

7 And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, and saluted the brethren, and abode with them one day.

All right, Mr. Kramer, are you here? Is Mr. Kinman here? Is Mr. Gilley ....

Acts chapter 21. Had a good meeting in Memphis. Real good. Only it was a small church. Had a good offering, had a good crowd every night. And five people got saved, and they’re all grown men. One was a guy about 42, and one guy was about 30, and three of them were in their twenties. And one old boy came down and got saved, and when he finished praying, he said, “Just one thing is the matter. I’m worried about whether the Lord can save me or not.”

I said, “What is it?”

He said, “Well, I’m a Jew.”

I said, “Fine, man, that’s great!” I said, “Salvation is of the Jews, man. You just found the Messiah.”

A kid about 22 years old.

All right, Acts 21. Acts 21, verse 1. Have we been through this? Twenty-one, six. Yeah, we got a little ways down there, didn’t we? I thought I remember reading this, and we went to here, went to here, went to here.

{Someone in class shouts out “Acts 22.”}

No, we’re not in 22! All right, 21:1: “Acts 21:1 And it came to pass, that after we were gotten from them, and had launched, we came with a straight course unto Coos,...” you can find it on a map “...and the day following unto Rhodes, and from thence unto Patara: And finding a ship sailing over unto Phenicia, we went aboard, and set forth.” They’re sailing southeast, sailing from the tip of Asia Minor up around Ephesus down southeast past Cyprus.

Three: “Now when we had discovered Cyprus, we left it on the left hand, and sailed into Syria, and landed at Tyre.” So they’ve gone to Syria and landed at Tyre, which is north of Galilee.

“For there the ship was to unlade her burden. And finding disciples, we tarried there seven days: who said to Paul through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem.” Now there’s a clear warning, and that warning is through the Holy Spirit that he’s not to go.

And he’d been warned before. Look at Acts chapter 20, verse 22. That’s the second warning. We learn a little bit later, it’s not only the second warning, it’s the third warning. Because, later on, when he gives his testimony, come across here and pick up Acts chapter 22, verse 18. The last time he came down to Jerusalem was that feast of Ephesus that we found back there in Acts 19, the Lord warned him then. And in Acts 22, verse 18, and 22:21, the Lord told him to get out of there. So this is the third warning he’s had about going down there, and the Lord has warned him all three times.

All right, 21:verse 5: “And when we had accomplished those days, we departed and went our way.” “We” — it’s Luke with him.

“And they all brought us on our way, with wives and children, till we were out of the city: and we kneeled down on the shore, and prayed. And when we had taken our leave one of another, we took ship.” So to this day it’s called “shore leave” in the Navy. In another place it’s called “liberty” because he gave them liberty to go ashore. Here it’s called “leave,” and yet you can see in the passage concerned, it just means we just said goodbye to them. But, because it’s connected with ship travel, still to this day it’s called “leave” and called “liberty.”

“And when we had taken our leave one of another, we took ship; and they returned home again.” Is it “leave” for officers and “liberty” for enlisted men? Is that what it is? That’s what I thought. What do they call it in the Army? I’ve been out of circulation so long. Furlough? Overnight’s call.

We had a ship called the “General Morgan.” That came into Honolulu after World War II with all the old rejects and washouts on it. We all were with twenty-year men coming back over there, been over there two, three, four years. Washed out warrant officers, you know, and guys coming out, you know, and getting out ahead of time and were physically unfit and stuff. I was getting out ‘cause I was mad at the government.

That “General Morgan” got to Honolulu, and that guy stopped there, and gave the officers leave to go ashore and spend the night in Honolulu and kept enlisted men on board — which is a dumb thing to do, man, if you ever heard of it. And went on aboard, you know, and came back down, and, boy, came back the next night back to ship, and they liked to riot, man! Those guys had a time aboard that ship. And finally, he says, “Well, the thing to do is just let ‘em off one night.” The officers got off for about four nights, and went down to Hell’s Half Acre the side of the bridge, and went through the whole shnoo — those guys, those liberty guys got off and got liberty and came on shore for one night, and they came back on board the ship. They called officers back and made them check ‘em.

My job was to check and make sure there was no liquor on the ship — which is a waste of time giving me an order like that. I mean, that’s just silly, you know — a guy’s got to drink! I was unsaved — you know, I didn’t give a, back in those days.

And I got out there in front of those troops and I had to examine or search 500 colored troops getting aboard that ship. And I got up there in front of those guys, those 500 guys standing out there. I never will forget it. I went down there and made them open all their duffel bags and sacks and shaving kits, see if they had any liquor. They all had liquor. Every one of them had liquor.

And I remember I came to one old boy. He was standing, almost crying. And I could see the outline of a bottle in his shaving kit. You know, he had a Powerama Steven’s Shaving Kit. And I said, “You got any liquor on you, soldier?”

“No, suh!”

I said, “Zip open that shaving kit.”

He said, “Lieutenant, you-you ain’t gonna — you ain’t gonna —”

“Zip it open!”

“But Lieutenant, she isn’t gonna —”

“Zip it open!”

He zipped it open; you could see the bottle in there, you know. And I looked at him and said, “You sure you ain’t got no liquor?”

He said, “No, suh!”

I said, “OK, get on board.” He went on down there.

I must have put 500 gallons of liquor on that ship!

And I went on down mackintie, you know, and let the thing go, and came back the next day and we were going to sail that day. And I came back to that chief, and you could hear that ship a quarter of a mile from that mooring, man! I mean, they found out 45 downstairs, and bedswack going through those bulkheads down there. Came on board that ship and the officers are chasing the red coffiners up and down the companion ways, and people cussin’ and throwin’ bottles — you never saw a thing, man!

And that troop transport commander came around to me and came over to me and said, “Lieutenant, get down there and quiet those men!”

I said, “You go down and quiet them, man — I ain’t about to go quiet them!”

He said, “Go, or I’ll have you court-martialed!”

“Yes, sir, yes, sir.” I went on down.

I had a first lieutenant with me, his name was, something or other — we called him “Tex.” And he stood, man, he stood a good soldier, but no sense, you know, he was going to go down there and try to quiet ‘em.

That fool opened one of those companion way, hatched one of those doors and stepped in there and said, “Now, men —”

And some guy reached out from the bunk, you know, and BAM! — popped him over against the bulkhead. And he just got up and came back and pulled the guy out of the bunk, you know, he was going to knock his teeth out. And when he pulled the guy out of the bunk, the guy acted like he was drunk. “Ahhh, oohhh, swaaayyy” — walked around.

And so Tex threw him back in and came on back out. We went back up on A deck. And got up there, and I mean, that — you could just hear, that ship just going — BOOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BAAMMM! BEEEAAAAAUUUUUUWWWW! Bonk!

I never will forget it. That troop transport commander came up to me just livid. He said, “I told you to quiet those men!”

And I said, “Men, you can’t go after those men!”

I never will forget it, because, now that I’m saved and look back on it, it is such an illustration to me of the world system. I mean, that ship was doing everything short of sinking, and there was order on it at all, and just confusion. And I remember that troop transport commander turned livid and raised both his fists in the air and doubled his fists and he said, “I’ll have you know I’m running this ship!”

I thought about that a hundred times since then.

I mean, you know what these mayors and governors and kings, think they’re doing? They think they’re running this ship. They ain’t runnin’ nothin’, man! It’s just hell on wheels — a madhouse! They can’t control the thing.

Those guys in Washington, D.C., run around half drunk and run around in their undershirts — they don’t know what’s going on, how to fix anything up. The devil’s got this world.

So much for shore leave!

Seven. You ought to see the stuff off the fantail of that boat coming back. That thing was coming back and that guy was in that squawkbox, saying, “Now, hear this. Now, hear this. You’ll be held accountable for all your deeds,” you know, “and when you get to port,” you know — they didn’t care, dumping sandbrown belts and bayonets and overcoats and helmets and gas masks over the side of that thing. They just didn’t want to be loaded down and shaken down when they got home. Tell them they lost them in combat, or something.

Seven: “And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, and saluted the brethren, and abode with them one day.”

21:8 And the next day we that were of Paul’s company departed, and came unto Caesarea: and we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven; and abode with him.

9 And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy.

10 And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus.

11 And when he was come unto us, he took Paul’s girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.

12 And when we heard these things, both we, and they of that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem.

13 Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.

14 And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done.

“And the next day we that were of Paul’s company departed, and came unto Caesarea.” Now they’re coming down the coast. They’re coming to Tyre, then coming down to Caesarea, which is just about opposite Jerusalem.

“And we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist.” Now, it doesn’t say that’s the same Philip of Acts chapter 8. But that’s probably the same Philip of Acts chapter 8. And in Acts chapter 8 that Philip there is a deacon. So, evidently, he’s a deacon, “one of the seven,” see, it says, “which was one of the seven.” So there were seven deacons chosen back there, back in Acts chapter — what was it, 6? — and he’s one of them. So he’s evidently now an evangelist.

QUESTION: Couldn’t they refer in another sense too, that “Philip, one of the seven,” that there were seven Philips, like in John?

ANSWER: Well, yeah, but of course there are not seven listed in the Bible. There’s only one that’s an apostle. And there’s one chosen as a deacon. That one in Acts chapter 8, he might have been the apostle. But I don’t know.

“And abode with him. And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy.” So in 1 Corinthians, every woman praying there, prophesying, having her head covered, dishonors their head. Notice of the saying, “And had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy,” in a house there where they’re meeting, but it doesn’t say in the assembly. “Prophesy” in the assembly seems to be, “Let your women keep silence in the churches.” And the context of that thing is 1 Corinthians 14 is tongues and prophecy.

“The same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy. And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus.” He’s mentioned back in Acts 11:28.

“And when he was come unto us, he took Paul’s girdle.” And that girdle is like a scarf, except it’s about six feet. It’s wrapped around the waist two or three times and tied.

And “he took Paul’s girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost.”

QUESTION: I thought we read that the law and the prophets end with John, but it shows a prophet here?

ANSWER: I don’t know if there is any for awhile. It seems like, until the New Testament is complete, that prophets are in the local church. They’re all through the Book of Acts, and Ephesians chapter 4 says, “He gave some, apostles, and some, prophets” — in the New Testament church. So it looks like you have them, at least in the Book of Acts, you have them until the New Testament’s completed.

“And when he was come unto us, he took Paul’s girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost.” Now that’s important to mark, because up until now, when you’ve read that expression, what has it always been?” “Thus saith the Lord.” That shows you the Holy Ghost is Lord. And that’s a passage on the deity of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is representative of God the Father — God the Father in the Old Testament — “thus saith the Lord.” “Thus saith the Lord.” “Thus saith the Lord.” “Thus saith the Holy Ghost.”

“So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.” There’s the fourth warning. That guy’s been warned four times not to go down there.

QUESTION: This time he was warned by a prophet. The other three times he wasn’t warned by anybody special?

ANSWER: Well, verse 4, he was warned by disciples who evidently knew a prophecy. And then one time he was warned by God directly when he was in the temple. And then in Acts chapter 20, verse 23, the Holy Ghost talked with Paul directly. So he’s had a warning; he’s had all kinds of warnings. But he’s going.

Now, that’s a beautiful picture of a Christian out of the will of God, while he’s in the will of God. When he determines to go, look what they say in verse 14. See that? So folks pray, they say, “Lord, let your will be done in my life.” Well, don’t you worry, it will be. You don’t have to pray for that. What you have to pray is, pray to be submissive to His will. It isn’t, “Lord, let your will be done in my life.” It’ll be done. One way or another. But the thing is, “Lord, make me accept your will and be submissive to your will and be cheerful about your will and happy about your will.” That’s the prayer.

I mean, if you don’t know His will, you could pray, and it’s legitimate to pray that. And say, “Lord, so-forth-and-so-on, and have your will in this matter. And Lord, if you can do this, do this. And Lord, if it’s in your will to do this, then do this.” But the main thing is to be contented, like Paul said, “whatever state I’m in, I’ve learned therewith to be content.” That’s being submissive to the will of God.

Now, when they say, “the will of the Lord be done” (verse 14), they don’t mean the directive will of the Lord. The directive will of the Lord was for Paul not to go down there. But they’re saying, “OK, if you’re gonna go, then God’s will be done.” God has a will for that. That is, God has a will for if you do do it, and God has a will for if you don’t do it.

Technically speaking, a Christian can’t get out of the will of God. That’s a tough thing to say. But technically speaking, you can’t get out. All you can do is just “fall into various unfortunate situations.” In plainer words, when you’re not where the Lord wants you to be and doing what He wants you to do, then He has another will. And that will isn’t too pleasant.

And ol’ Paul is down there in jail and praying. You know what the Lord told him when he got praying? He said, “Fear not, Paul. Don’t worry about it.” After he had already messed up, He said, “As you bore witness to me here, you’ll bear witness to me in Rome.” And got him out.

And so that shows us that the most essential thing about the will of the Lord is the heart condition. The most essential thing about the will of God is not wondering, “What does God want me to do? Where does He want to be?” and then making a mistake, and thinking, “Oh, my God! I made a mistake! I messed up! I’ll never get out.” That isn’t it. The most important thing to do is make sure that you’re willing to do whatever He might want you to do. It’s to accept with a willing mind; what a man hath, not according to what he hath not. You make sure you’re willing. You say, “Willing to what?” Whatever He’s dealing with you about.

Now, if you’re willing. Well, you say, “Well, I’m not willing.” Then you ought to pray and say, “Lord, I’m willing to be willing. Make me willing.” Pray that one. See?

All right, when you pray that one there, then if you still don’t know and make a decision and make a move and it’s a mistake, the Lord’ll bless it. You may make a mistake; the Lord will correct your mistake. And the Lord’ll make the wrath of men to praise Him, and we know all things work together for good to them who love God.

But you can’t go through your life just kicking yourself and saying, “Oh, I messed up back there, and if I hadn’t done that,” and, “It’s too late now, I’ll never get over it —” You can’t live like that as a child of God. You’ll be living in the past. You’ll live in the past. And that’ll be a first-rate mess.

All right, verse 12: “And when we heard these things, both we, and they of that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem.” There’s another warning. There’s five of them.

“Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” Is he telling the truth? Sure, he’s telling the truth. His heart’s right. His head may not be right, but his heart’s right. I mean, his motive is love, right? All right, his motive is love; he’s doing it because he loves the Lord. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” But, you see, how sometimes in our zeal, to show our love for God, we can mess things up.

One time, Jesus says, “I’m going up to Jerusalem and suffer many things and be betrayed by the chief scribes and elders and be delivered to the Gentiles, and I’ll be scourged and mocked, and they’ll put me to death.” And Peter, with the right motive and the right heart, says, “Farbeit from me, Lord, this thing to be.”

And the Lord says to him, “Get thee behind me, Satan, for savorest not the things that be of God but the things that be of men.”

So sometimes, even our love for the Lord, see, can be misguided.

Fourteen: “And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done.” OK, if you’re gonna do it, go on and do it. That’s it. Against the word of God, but from now on, God’s in charge.

21:15 And after those days we took up our carriages, and went up to Jerusalem.

16 There went with us also certain of the disciples of Caesarea, and brought with them one Mnason of Cyprus, an old disciple, with whom we should lodge.

17 And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.

18 And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present.

19 And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.

20 And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:

21 And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.

22 What is it therefore? the multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come.

23 Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them;

24 Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law.

25 As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.

26 Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them.

“And after those days we took up our carriages.” Not referring to four-wheeled or two-wheeled vehicles, but what you carriage. Our common term is, “We picked up our baggage.” And the “carriages” is what you carry, and the “bags” are what you put in the bag. “Our carriages.” What they carry. “We took up our carriages.”

“And went up to Jerusalem. and went up to Jerusalem.” And “There” — I don’t why they raise such a fuss about that archaic word right there. They sit down there at the terminal, “Baggage Room,” the “baggage room” — they’re not picking up bags, they’re picking up suitcases. They’re picking up velises. They’re not picking up bags. You may see a duffel bag come through there. They’re putting it in a “baggage room.”

People find that much fault with words, boy, they’ve got a problem.

All right, verse 16: “There went with us also certain of the disciples of Caesarea, and brought with them one Mnason of Cyprus, an old disciple, with whom we should lodge. And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. And the day following Paul went in with us unto James.” Not Peter. James is the head of the church at Jerusalem. Paul is the founder of the church at Rome, and James is the head of the church at Jerusalem, and Peter is a roving evangelist. He has nothing to do with Jerusalem or Rome.

“And all the elders were present. And when he had saluted them.” In the sense of greeting. Like we say, “Greetings and saluations.”

“He declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry. And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe.” That’s in Jerusalem. They had a lot of converts in Jerusalem.

“And they are all zealous of the law.” Naturally they would be. They’re orthodox Jews. So, there are a lot of Jews that are saved, but they’re still interested in the matters of the law.

QUESTION: Which James is that?

ANSWER: That’ll be James, the Lord’s brother. Because James Zebedee had his head cut off in Acts 12.

Verse 21: “And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses.” So Paul’s been slandered to his brethren. While he’s been gone, they’ve been lying about him.

And teach “which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses.” Now Paul didn’t tell them to forsake Moses. He just said, “By Christ you can be justified from all things which you could not be justified from the law of Moses.” He didn’t tell them to forsake Moses. That’s slander.

There are many things that Moses wrote that are good for a Christian. In Leviticus it says to wash your hands under running water. You have no business denying that because it’s of the law. The physicians in America and Europe are Bible-rejecting fools. Catholics for a thousand years would wash their hands in a basin. And they couldn’t get their hands clean; they’d reinfect their patients. So the mortality rate from gangrene was something fierce in every war they ever fought. And it wasn’t until about 1840 that some Viennese physician began to wash his hands under running water. And he was considered as a radical and a heretic by the trade, and then somebody began to notice after an amputation, none of his patients got reinfected. So, about 1880, all the physicians finally woke up to Leviticus. A little bit behind the time there! Leviticus was 1500 b.c. and they finally woke up and began to wash their hands under running water, and to this day, when a physician prepares for an operation, he washes his hands in running water.

And so you don’t forsake the law of Moses. The law of Moses about eating pork, I’m sure, is a good restriction, according to what doctors say. About blood pressure and stuff. Of course, if you take pork away from a German, you know, is like taking spaghetti away from an Italian. But maybe some people’s stomachs can take it more than others, but the general rule is that stuff’s bad for is. And the general rule is stuff like shrimp and clams and oysters and lobsters and crayfish and clams and those things, without fins and scales, the general rule is those things produce an acid in you that can produce gout and rheumatism. I mean, the Lord just didn’t lay down those rules back there for nothing.

And then, the law of Moses, there are laws in the book of Moses to protect a woman after she has a child for a certain period of time.

So Paul’s not going around saying, “Forsake the law of Moses. Paul has been going around saying, “You can’t get saved by keeping the law of Moses.”

All right, then, “Saying” here’s what they quote him on — “they ought not to circumcise their children.” He didn’t tell them that. Paul said in Galatians, “Neither circumcision prevails anything, nor uncircumcision.” Galatians 5. Galatians 6, it is. Paul didn’t tell them to go around not circumcize the kid. He just told them circumcision couldn’t save them.

“Neither to walk after the customs.” He wasn’t telling them that. The Book of Galatians and Colossians are written to show them that keeping the customs can’t save them. They can’t count on observing days and times and months and years for justification.

That’s where a lot of hyper-Bullingerites get all screwed up. They keep thinking they get in Galatians about, Colossians about “touch not, taste not, handle not,” “you observe days and times and seasons, months and years, I’m afraid of you” — they keep thinking that because those things were Mosaic and they have nothing to do with salvation and justification, that you can’t tell a Christian that he shouldn’t touch anything or not eat anything, and you can’t tell a Christian to observe any kind of a day. That isn’t true. Those things in Colossians and Galatians, the lesson behind those is, is you can’t be justified by doing those things before you’re saved, and you can’t be justified by doing those things after you’re saved.

Don’t tell me it’s wrong to tell a Christian that he shouldn’t touch a pile of maggots if he can get around. Don’t be telling me it’s wrong to tell a Christian that he shouldn’t drink whiskey — it isn’t wrong to tell a Christian not to do those things — “touch not, taste not, handle not.” You have no business tasting strichnine. You have no business tasting arsenic. And those things in Galatians and Colossians are just pointing out that those things can’t be used to justify you. Now, as far as the observance goes, it’s safe to observe a lot of those things.

All right, verse 22: “What is it therefore?” That is, “What’s gonna happen?”

“The multitude must needs come together.” He says, “When they find you’re here, there’s gonna be a riot. There’s gonna be a crowd get together. “For they will hear that thou art come.”

“Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them; Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them.” That is, share the money to pay for the vow.

“That they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law.” Now, Paul’s getting in trouble, see. And that’s the guy that said, you know, all this stuff about the Mosaic law, now he’s going to have to be a Jew to gain the Jew, and under the law to gain those under the law. And here he is getting ready to shave his head and take a vow and go to the temple — verse 26 — for purification. That bird knows just as well as he knows his own name the temple’s in glory and the High Priest is in glory, and he knows to the pure all things are pure; he don’t have to be purified for nothin’!

So now he pays the first installment on getting out of the will of the Lord. And the first installment he pays is, that he has to do something which, although his conscience may not have killed him, it at least irritated him.

It would be kind of like, you going back home and trying to win your Catholic parents to Christ, and suddenly discovered you had to go to mass with them every Sunday for six months in order to win them to Christ. I mean, you’d be a trial, man! It’d be a lot of pressure on you.

So, that’s his first hitch. Now, why are they having him do this? Because they think he’s unclean. The Jews know he’s been hanging around with Gentiles. Gentiles are unclean dogs. And when those Jews find that guy’s come down there, they’re going to say, “He’s unclean. He has no business being in the Temple.” So, if he’s going to go to the Temple to be with them, then he’d better get purified before he goes. So he does all this stuff to show, “I’m clean.”

Verse 25. Now, you know he didn’t believe that. You know, as soon as he got on his knees and asked the Lord to cleanse him, he knew he was clean.

“As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication. Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them.” The cross reference will be in Numbers chapter 6 in the Old Testament.

21:27 And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him,

28 Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place.

29 (For they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.)

30 And all the city was moved, and the people ran together: and they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple: and forthwith the doors were shut.

31 And as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.

32 Who immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down unto them: and when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they left beating of Paul.

33 Then the chief captain came near, and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and demanded who he was, and what he had done.

34 And some cried one thing, some another, among the multitude: and when he could not know the certainty for the tumult, he commanded him to be carried into the castle.

35 And when he came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of the people.

36 For the multitude of the people followed after, crying, Away with him.

37 And as Paul was to be led into the castle, he said unto the chief captain, May I speak unto thee? Who said, Canst thou speak Greek?

38 Art not thou that Egyptian, which before these days madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers?

39 But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people.

40 And when he had given him licence, Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand unto the people. And when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue, saying,

“And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him, Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against —” here it comes “—the people.” There’s the expression. That thing right there: “the people.” That’s how you start revolutions. And if you want to get somebody on your side, you start hollering, “The people.” “We, the people, in order to establish a more perfect union.” Preamble of the Constitution, Declaration of Independence. Old Lincoln stands up there: “Government of the people, and by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.” Mao TseTung: “The people, the people, the people.” Castro: “The people, the people, the people.” Jimmy Carter: “I represent the people.” Ford: “The people need a voice.” Johnson: “We the people, the people.”

And when a guy says, “The people,” he means his crowd. When Mao Tse-Tung says, “The people,” he doesn’t mean the people on Formosa. And when Castro says, “The people,” he doesn’t mean the Cubans in Miami that are paying taxes to the American government. And when Martin Luther King and Eldridge Cleaver — thank God and got saved — and some of the rest of those fellows get up and rap about saying, “The people, the people, the people,” they mean the black people. They don’t mean the people.

“Against the people.” Who was? Wasn’t Paul “people”? What do you mean, “He stirs up against the people.”

That’s the old gimmick. Let’s go to Jeremiah. This is the famous gimmick that’s used throughout history. All politicians are adept at this one here. Now, if you want to just raise Cain, start hollering “for the people”; it makes people think that you represent them, when you represent yourself.

I read Mao Tse-Tung’s “Red Book,” and I must say, that is the most shallow, insipid, stupid book I’ve read, I guess, in fifteen years. I guess, as far as that, if he had dynamite for brains, he wouldn’t have enough to blow the wax out of his ears. That thing there is just, “We the people are the people, and the people should be for the people. I represent the people. The people represent me. If you’re against me, you’re against the people. If you’re against the people, you’re against me. The people should speak for the people. And if any man rebels against the people, the people have a right to get rid of him, of the people. Because the people should not rebel against the people. If you’re for the people, you’re for the people.” That’s all that thing is. I read fifty pages of that bunk! Just rubbish!

All right, let’s come to Jeremiah. Look what’s going on in here in the last days before Nebuchadnezzar comes in and takes things over. And Jeremiah’s still preaching the word of God, and they’re giving him a hard time. Get Jeremiah chapter 30, let’s see, Jeremiah — ahhh, let’s see — I want a verse here that says, “This man seeketh not the good of this people, but their hurt.” It’s about the third verse in one of these chapters. 38:4. That ought to be about where we ought to be. That’s it. Now, Jeremiah is preaching the truth. And in come the elders before the king, and they say this to the king. They say Jeremiah is saying this, three: He’s saying “This city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, which shall take it. Therefore the princes said unto the king, We beseech thee, let this man be put to death: for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto them: for this man seeketh not the ...” H.E. and W. ... “of this people, but the hurt.”

Now, that’s the charge that’s going to get thrown at you in the next ten years. The charge thrown against you is, you’re not for the people. You’re anti-people. The great religion coming up to prepare the way for the Anti-Christ is humanism, to glorify and deify man. And so, what you’re going to get accused of is not loving people, not helping people, not being kind to people. And, if you oppose any bill that’s put through, the bills are for the good of the people, and you’re against the people. And if you say people die and go to hell when they die, you deserve death yourself. Because you hate people, or you wouldn’t say that. I mean, you obviously hate people; the idea that you just want to see them scream in the pits of hell because God’s a torture master. Therefore, you’re against the people, and you seek their — your an enemy, and you give the little children psychotic complexes. You put this fear of God and this fear of hell into them. And this means you’re a psychiatric nuisance in the town where you live. You need psychiatric treatment. That’s how she goes.

COMMENT: Yeah, when I was over to Brother Wright’s preaching, there was a man over there that was telling me about a bill that they’re supposed to have before Congress now that says that you can’t preach on hell. If it passes, you can’t preach on hell because it’s detrimental to the mental health of the people.

That’s right. That’s right. That’s right. In Russia that’s called “psycho-politics” in Russia. And the people sent over here to put that through are called “change agents.” The way that thing works is, the Communists have coming to the universities, and all your left-wing media, they have people come through there who get into position as doctors, and they’ll be responsible for the teaching generally accepted abroad by the people through the press that anybody who witnesses or passes out tracts or preaches on the street or tells people they’re going to hell, they are mentally sick. And if they cause, they spread their evil disease, they must be confined to keep from spreading the disease.

COMMENT: What that guy told me is that he could preach on anything he wanted to; he just couldn’t preach on hell.

Wurmbrandt said in Romania before they got him, he said, “The instructions we had right before the Communists took over were simple. We were allowed to say that God was good. But we were not allowed to say the devil was bad.” So right before the whole thing breaks down, you’ll hear people say, “It’s all right to preach, as long as you preach on positive things.” That’s the first sign of the end of a country.

Jeremiah’s preaching negative. “Nebuchadnezzar’s coming in, going to burn the place, your daughters are going to be harlots, children going to starve in the streets, walls burn town, temple destroyed” — negative, negative, negative, negative, negative, negative. So he’s not “for the people.”

You know who was for the people? Jeremiah was for the people. And if the people would have listened to him, the temple would not have been burned and Zedekiah would not have been killed, and the people would not have been killed and raped and destroyed. A man who was a negative man was the man who had the love, and the fellows who had the positive thing were a bunch of wolves in sheep’s clothing. That’s the way you live.

Twenty-eight: “Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place.” There’s the final appeal to the Temple.

“And further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place. (For they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.)” Trophimus wasn’t in the Temple. They just had seen him in town.

Now, you see how the case builds? I mean, the slander starts, and people are after misinformation. And they get going, and they get going. A fellow told me this last meeting I was at in Memphis, he said, “I don’t know,” he said, “You know,” he said, “how well you’re known. But,” he said, “I have a friend who goes to Wheaton, and he comes in everytime I see him at Christmas, he tells me about what the professors have been saying in class about you. I just wanted to meet you because I heard a lot of things that this professor said about you in class.”

That’s Wheaton. I never been to Wheaton. Don’t know anybody there. Never met anybody there.

But you get these things going, where the rumor gets going and starts, then it builds and builds till it’s all out of proportion, see.

I went up into Detroit about two years ago in a meeting. A guy shook my hand and said, “Are you Pete Ruckman?”

I said, “Yes.”

He said, “I thought you were in an insane asylum.” He said, “I heard you been in for six months.”

I said, “That’s right. They’re as nutty as a fruitcake. See you around!” Went on down the road.

COMMENT: I heard you accepted the new versions and got saved a little over three years ago!

There you go! I got converted into a hyper-Calvinist. I’ve been preaching 26 years, and just got saved. That stuff gets going and going and going and going. You fellows have had your time at it. I’m not weeping on your shoulder. I’m just getting you ready. I mean, when you get out there, by the time you’ve been in one community for about ten years, they’ll have everything on you but calling you white, man. They’ll fix you up good. They’ll tar and feather you. And when they do, rejoice and be exceeding glad.

It’s wonderful to have people lie about you! I mean, it is! I mean, like one of my friends said, when somebody told him, “I heard about you, this and that —”

And he came up to this guy and said, “Boy, I sure am glad you heard that!” He said, “Boy,” he said, “if you knew the truth, you’d have a heart attack!” And then took the offering. That’s even worse!

I mean, I have been falsely accused when I was right. And I have been considered to be earnest when I was guilty. I’ve had both sides of the fence. And I’ve had people think I was innocent when I wasn’t. And I’ve had people think I was guilty when I wasn’t. And if I had to choose between the two, I’d much rather be innocent and have people think I wasn’t. That’s far preferable.

There’s many fellow who walked out of a court, you know, and the judge said, you know, acquit him, when the guy walked out of the court, you know, in his own conscience, he said, “Boy, he sure muffed it! He sure muffed it! I’m as guilty as hell!”

Many a fellow said that, you know.

And if you had to be in those shoes and go out and have a guy say, “You’re condemned. You’re sentenced,” when you knew you were innocent, you better take the innocence.

All right, first thing is spread. Now they’re got the Gentile in the Temple, who’s not there. And 30: “And all the city was moved, and the people ran together: and they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple: and forthwith the doors were shut.” They don’t want to be defiled by that preacher walking around in the Temple.

I’ve seen churches like that with the doors shut, trying to get rid of the preacher.

“And as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. Who immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down unto them.” Cavalry going right through the mob.

“And when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they left beating of Paul.” They’d have beat him to death if he hadn’t got rescued.

“Then the chief captain came near, and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and demanded who he was, and what he had done.” And he can’t explain it.

“And some cried one thing, some another, among the multitude: and when he could not know the certainty for the tumult, he commanded him to be carried into the castle.” So he’s carried up some steps.

“And when he came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of the people.” They’ve got him on their shoulders, carrying him away.

QUESTION: Would these soldiers be like the police?

Yeah, that’d be the equivalent of a police force or a sheriff’s deputies.

And, “For the multitude of the people followed after, crying, Away with him.” Meaning, “Kill him!”

“And as Paul was to be led into the castle, he said unto the chief captain, May I speak unto thee?”

And when he says that, the captain says to him, “Can you speak Greek?” Evidently he can, because he understood what he said.

“Art not thou that Egyptian, which before these days madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers?” He’s got the wrong man. He figured he’s capturing a brigand there or a revolutionary. And he got the wrong man.

“But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city.” It’s a Roman city.

“And, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people.” Now there’s a good way and there’s a beautiful example of using wisdom. Paul is wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove. You know what he wants? He wants a chance to preach. When he gets in this mess here, he says, “Let me talk to people.” And they give it to him again. I mean, if you’re gonna have a mob gathered to kill you, take advantage of it.

“And when he had given him licence, Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand unto the people. And when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue.” So he speaks in tongues. He speaks in Greek and Hebrew, and probably Latin and a couple of others.