Acts 22:22 – And they gave him audience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live.

Hello readers, away with such a fellow from the earth. That’s what the religious mob was crying out against Paul after he gave his testimony. They didn’t want to hear any truth, they just wanted him dead. Never underestimate the hatred for truth and light that this world has. For it is not fit that he should live! The more you think about it, the more incredible it is. This unbelieving Christ rejecting world has always had the same cry. And that’s what this world, including religion, cries out. They’ve always been like this and it’ll always be like this until Jesus returns and sets things right. Are you an enemy of truth like they were? They hated Paul because he told the the truth.

Before he was killed by being pelted with stones, Stephen said this in Acts 7:52 – Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers. See, the whole way through history they persecuted God’s prophets. They’d persecute anyone who told them the truth. They’d persecute any righteous, good, faithful, and true. Look through the Bible, this world has always been after faithful men of God, even just anyone of true moral integrity and character. From the blood of Abel… just as Jesus said. It’s a long running pattern of evil.

So today we are following this theme. Truth is the enemy of this world. Light is the enemy of this world. People love lies and darkness, they embrace it. They have such a twisted morality though, these were the guys who desired a murderer and rebel like Barabbas to live while the only sinless man to ever live… Jesus Christ… they wanted him crucified. They made Jesus the bad guy, but they really were the bad guys. These guys crying out against Paul, they had murder in their hearts, they were full of sin and evil inside. That was what was really going on here.

This world doesn’t even know who you are. Just like they didn’t know who Jesus was and where he was from. in Acts 21, the chief captain mistook Paul for someone else. See, we need to get the facts, we need to get the truth. Problem is many people do not want the truth. That’s why they don’t have it. Because they’ve rejected it, they’ve turned away from it.

People who stand up for truth, the godly, the good, the holy… they’re the enemy of this world. You see it everywhere today. Not only that, but they make the good the bad and the bad the good. They find moral grounds to hate on someone who has true morality. They twist and distort the truth, because that’s what Satan does. Isaiah 5:20 – Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Are you part of that woe? We are living in this kind of world. Look at our society. You’re persecuted if you’re a Christian, if you stand for what’s right, if you stand by the Bible… you’re the bad guy, you’re the enemy, you’re the guy they want dead.

Paul had just spoken in the ears of the Jewish mob that wanted to kill him. They wanted to kill him because they hated him. He’d been one of them, but because he got saved… now they hated him. See, it’s Jesus Christ who they’re really after. And we don’t want him on this earth! That’s what this world is like. Cain didn’t want a guy like Abel on the earth, that’s why he killed him. All because Abel was a reminder of Cain’s sin. Abel doing right is what convicted Cain’s wrong, and the solution instead of repenting of his sin, was to away with such a fellow from the earth.

Paul copped a fair bit for sharing the gospel. He knew what that felt like though. He’d been after people who were preaching the gospel before his conversion. But now he was the persecuted one. It took guts. It took the power and grace of God. Fear is one of our biggest problems in sharing the gospel, in proclaiming God’s word. Fear is a giant. We can have fear of what people will think, fear of their reaction, fear of their faces… it’s a big unknown sharing the gospel with people. We don’t know what we are going to get. We can be like Esther, we don’t want to go in and see the king because we might get killed. But she was accepted, when she trusted God and went in to see him. Sharing the gospel can be quite controversial. It created riots and controversies in Acts when they preached God’s word. What they were doing wasn’t wrong, just their preaching shone a light on the darkness of the hearts of unrepentant sinners… who then persecuted the light. People would dob on the apostles, they ran and told on Paul. They’re like Doeg. Paul was persecuted for Christ’s sake. They hated Christ, and they will hate Christ in you.

You know, it’s a sad state of affairs when you’re saying away with this fellow from the earth. Who were they saying this of? Paul. A man who had risked his life to tell people the gospel, so that they could be forgiven and saved from hell and receive eternal life. The guy that’s helping you, the guy that’s truly for you… that’s the guy they want killed. Paul had had it all… the birth, the religion, the education, the status… he had it made, but he forsook it all to follow Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is why they wanted him dead. Paul risked life and limb to share the gospel. He had guts, he was courageous, he was faithful. He was salt of the earth. He was a light in the world. He was telling people the truth in love. He wasn’t a dope head, he wasn’t a pervert, he wasn’t a manipulator, he wasn’t trying to make money out of people, he wasn’t a drunk… but this is the guy they deem not fit to live. Away with him!

We are living in a world that is increasingly wanting away with anyone who is good, anyone who is godly, anyone who is a Christian. We are seeing this in all realms. We are seeing it in the political sphere. People hate Donald Trump, but would vote for the Democrat party which is as ungodly and anti Bible, anti truth, anti right, anti holy as it gets. But sure… they do have their own morality. You see, people hate truly good people on moral grounds. See, these guys thought they were being moral trying to kill Paul. They couldn’t see they were the guys who were morally bankrupt. They were the ones with murder and rebellion and bitterness and pride in their hearts. After all, all those sinful traits, the fact they were owned by sin, was why they hated a godly man like Paul. They sure twisted the story didn’t they. Paul is the bad guy here, he’s the guy getting arrested, he’s the guy against God right.

This world doesn’t want the truth, the Bible, the light on their earth. They’ll find religious and moral grounds, destitute of truth of course, as their reasons for so. They’ll accuse someone who is doing good of everything. They’ll twist the story. It’s all Satanic tactics. It’s the devil’s distortion. It’s amazing how it all comes back to what you’ve done with Jesus Christ. If you’ve rejected him, well you’ve rejected light, you’ve embraced the darkness. So it’s no surprise how this Christ rejection world and religious system behaves. They are in darkness, they hate the truth. They don’t love the truth, they don’t want it and they’ll demonize someone like Paul, someone like Jesus, they’ll behead a John the Baptist. Which of the prophets have your fathers not persecuted? They were after each one in turn. Are you relentlessly against truth reader?

Paul had turned away from a life of ease, he’d surrendered his high position in religion and society… all to go and warn people not to go to hell, to tell people how to be saved, to preach God’s word. We live in a world that hates the truth, and it’s religion hates the truth as well. They hate light. And that’s what Jesus said…. John 3:19,20 – And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. People judge themselves by what they do with the light, what they do with truth. They had their twisted moral compass, they had their upside down view of right and wrong. Sin will do that to us, it’ll mess up our mind. Rejecting Jesus Christ, that’s rejecting truth and light… so all you get from that point is delusion and confusion. These guys were deluded, they were the guys who were murderers and rebels, they were the guys with a big sin problem… and here they are condemning someone else, someone who is actually doing good, someone who actually has some substance and moral fiber.

We are seeing this pattern of behavior in the world today. In all spheres of life, people that are doing good are the ones demonized and persecuted. They’re the ones on trial. If you are saved, if you tell others the gospel, people aren’t going to be happy. They feel convicted by your life, by the light in you, so even though you do people no wrong, they hated you for it, they hate you enough to celebrate you being dead.  People that pride themselves on their goodness, but enough hate to like in Revelation, party when the men of God are dead. When their bodies lie on the street. To be that messed up in the mind, it’s because you’re reprobate. A reprobate mind is a mind that has rejected Christ, it’s dark, it’s blind. You can’t think clearly when you’re in sin, when Satan is your master, you’re all messed up. It’s not God’s fault, remember that possessed man of the Gadarenes, Jesus put in in his right mind. See, a right mind comes from Jesus Christ. Saul’s mind got messed up, and he got an evil spirit, because he really didn’t love God, he really didn’t value God’s word. Strong delusion is coming to this world, and is already here, things are so upside down as Isaiah says, and the woe is here. It truly is a woe in a society that has completely departed from truth, that hates and despises God’s word and any reminder of it.

Look at Paul’s life. Was it really fit that he should not live? 2 Timothy 3:12 – Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. We look to Christ, the only sinless man to have ever walked the planet. They made up lies about him, they tried twisting his words, they accused him of everything they could think of, they endlessly plotted to murder him, they demonized him… all because he was the light of the world. They showed their true colors. They revealed their hearts by their rejection of truth. God is letting all this happen to sort sheep from goats and wheat from tares. What are you? Jesus Christ is your salvation, or he is your stumblingblock. He will be the rock you fall on or the rock that falls on you. We are living in a world that calls good evil and evil good. We are in a world that celebrates sin and condemns righteousness. That’s how it is. Are you messed up in the head? Is Paul your enemy, because he tells you the truth? Is thine eye evil because Christ is good? You will be so totally messed up by the time sin and Satan is done with you, you won’t know up from down. You talk to people today, and you can just see how in darkness they are… and it’s because they rejected Jesus Christ. He is the light of the world, if you’ve rejected him, you have no light… because there is no light in you or me. Light comes from Christ. Jesus said while you have the light, believe in the light… because night is coming, when no man can work. Darkness is enveloping this Christ and truth rejecting world, it’s messed up.

A right mind comes from Jesus Christ. Saul’s mind, his very thinking was so distorted that he was visiting a witch by the end of his life. There was a guy possessed by Legion, who because Jesus found him, because he ended up sitting at the feet of Jesus… the Bible says he was clothed and in his right mind. These guys accusing Paul, who wanted Paul dead… they were messed up in the mind. Our mind is a battleground, and Satan has won the minds of many. He’s blinded their minds. He’s corrupted their ability to see and understand. Sin does that, self righteousness and lust and pride will so corrupt and pervert your mind, you’ll be like these guys. We need pure minds, we need minds made pure, made alive by indwelling Holy Spirit… minds restored, illuminated and enlightened.

If you are a Christian, you need to stir up your pure mind by way of remembrance as 2 Peter 3 says. That’s what the Bible is for, to lighten our minds, to cause us to think on and remember what counts, to enable us to know what is true and him who is true. As Isaiah 26:3 – Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. You want a right mind, you need Jesus Christ. The Bible says we have the mind of Christ. You can have the mind of Christ. A mind that was minded to know, will to do and obey his Father. A mind that was holy, pure, full of truth and light and goodness and holiness.  The Bible says the carnal mind is enmity against God (Romans 8:7)… and ultimately that’s what we see here. A carnally minded mob that really just hated God. They thought they were good and spiritual and righteous… but they were morally bankrupt and destitute of truth. They were messed up, and so will you be when you reject Jesus Christ. He is the light of the world, he has the light of life, believe in him today, and he will lighten you, he will quicken your mind, he will take away the delusion and darkness and deceit. For free, salvation is a free gift, God loves you, a love so much he endured sin and the world’s worst to save you from the eternal hell that we all have coming to us. The Bible says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.

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