IT IS FAITHFUL TO DELIVER

David Wilkerson

May 24, 2017

Paul had the opportunity to preach to Ephesus, a city that worshiped the goddess Diana. The goldsmiths of Ephesus had made a fortune by selling small replicas of the goddess. But when Paul came, he preached: "Your god is a fake. There is only one true God. And His Son lived and died so that those who died in sin may live. "

In anger, the goldsmiths realized that their livelihood was in danger. Then they excited a riot to seize Paul, determined to kill him (see Acts 19: 24-31).

Paul was convinced that he was about to die, and at the gates of death he confessed: "We have been exceedingly overwhelmed, beyond our strength, so that we even despair of preserving life" (2 Corinthians 1: 8) He explains: "And we regarded our judgment of death as certain, so as not to put our trust in ourselves, but to place it in God, who raises the dead" (1: 9).

Tell me, have you ever felt really dejected, as Paul was, far beyond your own strength? Have you already found yourself without any strength, so dejected that you even despaired of preserving your life? When Paul said, "I despaired of preserving life," he said that he was confronting a sentence of execution: "We regarded our sentence of death as certain."

But God came on the scene and delivered him. Having experienced a miracle, Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus: "I was raised from the dead. The Lord brought me out of the grave. I looked hell in the face, but God raised me up! "

Paul testifies, in substance: "The Lord has delivered me from death - He continues to deliver me - and He will be faithful to deliver me in the future."