In Sunday school, we looked at how the verse, we can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. And the context of that verse is Paul being content no matter what situation he's in. And so, if people ever ask us, how can you guys keep going on amidst all the things that happened to you in your life? We should answer, it's Christ who strengthens me. It's Christ who keeps me going. I like what DJ said, and I was listening to him yesterday. Mentioned it in Sunday school, I'm going to mention it again. He said, we will stumble and fall in this life as believers. We will. But we'll never fall away. True believers will never fall away. Because it's God who keeps us. And our God is sovereign over all things. That includes us. Ain't that wonderful? Oh my. It's wonderful. Now Paul, we're going to see Paul being strengthened here. He's going to face the council again. He's going to face the Sanhedrin, the who's who of the religious people in Israel. He's going to stand before the council once again. The Roman chief captain brings him before them. And remember, as we're reading this, it's Christ who strengthens Paul. Some people say, well, what'll happen? I don't know how I'll be when I die. God will strengthen you. He'll give you grace. I don't know how I'll be if I'm witnessing to someone. I might get all confused and I might say something. God will strengthen you. Just tell him what God's done for you. He saved me by his blood and clothed me in his righteousness. Saved me from all my sins. My. So open, if you would, your Bibles to Acts chapter 23. We'll be in a new chapter today. where we will see that Paul is bought before the council. Now, as I said last week, we're gonna read verse 30 of Acts 22, because I believe it goes with verse one. Remember, in the original letter, there's no chapter breaks. Those were put in by the translators. And you'll see how verse 30 flows with verse one to seven. Let's stand up and we're going to read Acts 22 verse 30 to Acts chapter 23 verse 7. We'll read this together. On the moral, because he would have known the certainty whereof he was accused of the Jews, he loosed him from his bands and commanded the chief priest and all their council to appear. and bought Paul down and set him before them. And Paul, earnestly beholding the counsel, said, Man and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth. Then said Paul unto him, God smite thee, thou whited wall, Forsittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law? And they that stood by said, Revilest thou God's high priest? Then said Paul, I was not, brethren, that he was the high priest, for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people. But when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, of the hope and resurrection of the dead. I am called in question. And when he said so, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the multitude was divided. My, wonder of wonders! Now remember, it's God who's gonna give Paul the words to say, and he brings to his mind right away, there are half Pharisees and half Sadducees here. My, oh my. But the one who brings them to the council is the Roman chief captain. Now he's found out he's a Roman. And he says, this is out of my hands. I already bound the fellow and I'm already in trouble that way. But Paul's not seeking to have him killed. Not at all. God told Paul he's going to Rome. He's going to Rome. And in his providence, God had that chief captain come with the centurions and all those other soldiers and take Paul out of that mob, right? Because they wanted to kill him. Remember they said, this man will wipe him off the face of the earth. He's not even fit to live. Remember they said that? My, that's awful, isn't it? Shows the depravity of mankind. My. So they disagreed on something, they wanted to kill him. My, oh my. and what he had said that got them so fired up. And here we are, a bunch of Gentiles. I'm thankful for this. What got them so fired up was he said, I'm going to preach to the Gentiles. God sent me to preach to the Gentiles. Whoa, my, you mean they're part of this? That's blasphemy. No, it's not. God has a people and a very tongue-kindred tribe and nation. And that's wonderful, isn't it? Isn't that wonderful? You know, it's funny, eh? Because we'd be witnessing someone and we're thinking, oh my, Lord, please save them. And we should be praying for them. We should be. We should pray for them earnestly. But if they're one of God's sheep, he's going to get them, isn't he? He will. He will. He'll get them. We just got to stand back, keep giving them scriptures, keep telling them about Christ, keep telling the wondrous things that he's done, that he saved sinners, and let God do the work. Let God do the work. That's the hardest thing for us to do. That's how we should be. So we looked at the reaction of the unbelieving Jews after Paul had given them his personal testimony and then told them, I'm going to the Gentiles. that the Messiah is the Messiah of the Jews and Gentiles. What? My, yeah, it's true. That's wonderful news for us, because we're just a bunch of Gentiles. Isn't it amazing? So the reaction of the unbelieving Jews at the true gospel of God's salvation through the merits of Christ alone started to flare them up. And this is the hatred that self-righteous religionists have when you tell them the truth, when you say this to them, that there's nothing you can do to save yourself. Like you said, brother, it takes everything off the table for them. You know what it offends? It offends a sinner's pride. Because we think we can do something to be saved. There's nothing we can do. God is the one who saves us. He draws us. He gives us faith, doesn't he, Tom? The faith we have that he gave it to us. To flee to Christ. To look to him as our savior. To cling to him. He's our hope. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. What does that mean? That means Catholicism is sinking sand. That means Buddhism is sinking sand. That means Hinduism is sinking sand. That means what the Muslims believe is sinking sand, Islam. That means all the other religions out in the world are sinking sands. There's no salvation in them. But God himself in the flesh, God, the word of God, who came to save his people from their sins and did it. When he cried, it is finished. He came to save sinners, his people, from what? From our sins, eh, brother Chris? From our sins. That's the greatest news this old sinner's ever heard, isn't it, sister? That's the greatest news we ever heard in our life. Christ saved me. When'd he do it? We did it 2,000 years ago. Well, I wasn't involved in that. No, we weren't, were we? He did it all by himself. He hung on that cross. And the wrath of God that was due you and I. Now think of this. I was talking to Zane about this this week. Think of this. God's wrath is eternal. It's eternal. It's never ending. People who say, well, I'm going to go to hell and party with my friends. No, you're going to go to hell and the eternal wrath of God's going to bite on you forever. And we don't like to think that way. So that's why groups like the Seventh Day Adventists have come out with an alliation where they say, well, people don't suffer eternal wrath. They just vanish after a while. Oh, that's a lie from the pit of hell. But think of this. I want us to think about this. So all my sins, billions of sins, billions of sins in my life that I've already committed and all the ones that I will commit, all the wrath that was due those sins from God for me, Christ bore it all and extinguished it. He extinguished the everlasting wrath of God that was due us, that was to fall upon us. He extinguished it. So much so that God says, your sins and iniquities I will remember no more. Why? Because the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. But think of that, the eternal wrath of God. You know that song we sing on Christ's, or what's that one about? He hideth my soul. He hideth my soul. I remember one of our studies, I think it was Colossians we were going through, one of them anyways. But one of the illustrations I used, and I still love it today, is of, say, we're a bunch of travelers going through the desert, right? And all of a sudden, we see in the distance a sandstorm coming. You could see them in the distance. You can see them. And we all see this huge rock. We think, if we can only get behind that rock so that the storm's hitting the rock and not us. And we get up there and we get behind that rock and this sandstorm comes and it's just, it had killed us. And after the storm you go and you see that the other side of the rock just got beaten. All this sand poured. You know, you ever watch somebody that does sandblasting? You sandblast, then that sand will go into those rocks. Go into whatever you're blasting. So when that sand is blasting against that rock, that pictures the eternal wrath of God. Just wave after wave after wave hitting that rock. And where are we? We're safe. That rock is Christ. That wrath of God due us fell upon him, wave after wave. And he cried, it is finished. Having obtained eternal redemption for us. Right there. Isn't that amazing? And all that wrath that was due all his elect, that eternal wrath of God that was due his people, he extinguished. Now, we say, how can a man do that? Because he was God in the flesh. He's the God-man. He's not no mere man. He's the God-man. That's our Savior, sister. We are safe in the cleft of the rock. And all that wrath that was due us fell upon Christ. Someone asked me yesterday, well, why? Why did God do that? And I gave them the answer from Ephesians chapter one, because it pleased him to do so. It pleased him to put us in Christ. It pleased him to send his son to die in our room and place. And Christ says, it's talked about Christ with the joy that was set before him. He joyfully went to the cross. You remember he met those Israelites that were weeping, and he said, weep not for me. Why? He's going to redeem his people from all their sins. Don't weep for me. I'm going to save my bride. I'm going to save a multitude that no man can number. And I'm doing it willingly, all according to the Father's will. He says, weep not for me, but weep for yourself and your children. My, my, oh, my. He willingly went to that cross. He set his face like a flint to Jerusalem, said of the Messiah in Isaiah. Here, set his face like a flint to Jerusalem. He willingly went. And this is the one who Paul's preaching. This is the one who Paul's proclaiming, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's saying, he saved my soul by the shedding of his blood and through his perfect righteous life. Now, remember last week, we saw that the Roman captain, when he found out Paul was a Roman, my, he was afraid. And he wouldn't have even bound him because it was illegal for him to even bound. And he was afraid. And the centurion was afraid. Oh my, we bound a Roman. And we would have escorted him. We would have beat him. But God's hand of providence didn't allow that, did it? And Paul must go to Rome. He's not going to die at the hands of those Jews, because God told him, you're going to Rome. And he's resolved and he's set in God's providence that he's going to Rome. My, now let's read verses 30 from chapter 22 to verse 5 again. And we see on the moral, because he would have known the certainty where he was accused. So the chief captain wanted to know why. Why is he being accused by the Jews? What did he do? All he did was preach Christ, right? And all he did was say, well, the gospel's going to the Gentiles. And then he got so mad. Look at this. He loosed him. So he loosed him. He loosed him from his bounds. Oh my, you're not gonna keep him tied up because he's a Roman. And commanded the chief priest and all their council to appear and brought Paul down and set him before them. Now note, this Roman chief captain has got some power. He commanded the priests and the council to gather. Some people say, well, how could he do that? Because Israel is under siege by the Romans. They're a colony now of Rome. They've not been given Roman status, but they are part of the territories that they've now taken over. And remember, the Roman Empire went all the way from Spain down to Carthage, all the way across, all the way around Egypt, all the way over to India. Eventually they hit that area there, and they stopped. And then all the way up to Britain, and they stopped once they hit that wall they built. because they didn't want to fight them Picts. The Scotsman, my, and the Britons, they didn't want to fight them anymore. And then it went all the way up through Germany, and they got stalled near the Rhine, a little bit over the Rhine, not a whole lot, but into that area there. So it's a huge empire. It's a huge empire, and they are in control of their empire. So we see he tells, he commanded the chief priests and all the council to appear and brought Paul down and set him before him. So they made haste to get there. That chief captain said, you gather together and I'm bringing Paul. And look, we see and said, and Paul earnestly beholding the council said, men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth." Now, Paul hasn't been convicted of anything, has he? Nothing. Well, that's against the law. That's against the law of God for the Israelites. And Paul, verse 3, then said, Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall. Now, that's an insult. He's calling him like a dead man's tomb. You're all white on the outside, but inside you're a raven wolf. For since thou didst judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law, so what he's saying here is, you're accusing me of breaking the law, and you're breaking it yourself. You see how hypocritical religious people can be? I was there, I was one, I know. How can that person be a Christian and do that? Oh my, now I'm like, oh my. There go I, but for the grace of God, please restrain me, Lord. My. So what he's saying, he's saying, you're telling me that I'm breaking the law, and then you command them to hit me, and you're breaking the law. See, Paul knows the law better than them. It's like I told you weeks earlier, and I got this, I think I got this from Hawker. The Lord had taken their champion. Paul was their champion. He was going around hauling Christians. He was their champion. Our champion took their champion, and made him into a preacher. Oh my. And he knows the law better than them. And so he said, you hit him. And Paul goes, you're telling me to follow the law, but you're going to break it right in front of me. And what does James tell us? If you break one point of the law, you broke it all, right? My, so this just shows you the self-righteousness of do as I say, not as I do. Right? My. Verse four, and they that stood by said, Revised thou God's high priest? Then said Paul, I was not brethren that he was the high priest, for it is written, Thou shall not speak evil of the ruler of thy people. Oh, there's a little nugget in that verse there. We'll get to that later on. There's a little nugget in there. But look at verse one. He says, he tells these Pharisees that I've lived in all good conscience before God until this day. He says, I've lived before my God in good conscience. And until this day, we know that it's Christ who strengthens him, right? So Christ gives him the strength and the ability to do that. And so our king, he's given him strength to stand before this council. And Paul's making a true statement. Even in his unregenerate state, he had godly principles. He was moral. He was moral, but he was a sinner. But he was moral. He thought he was doing right, and as a self-righteous Pharisee, he was a moral man. He was a man of integrity. And these unbelieving Jews knew what Paul was saying about himself. They knew it was true. Now, they thought he was a lawbreaker now, but he's not, because Christ fulfilled the law for him. in his room and place. And he preaches Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. How do we know that? What's in Romans? Which he penned. And look here in verse two, Ananias the high priest commands those who stood by Paul to smite him on the mouth. And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth. Look at that. The rage that is inside Ananias, the self-righteous man, the rage that is inside him for Paul, he right away says, smite him. And they didn't just go. No, they attacked him. They may even had mail on or armor on just. But God restrained them, didn't he? He restrained them. My, so we see in his rage and the knives, he's so, he's so, he's so angry that he goes against Jewish law. He does that which is contrary to the law of God. It just shows you that none of us can keep the law of God. You ever gotten mad at someone? Like I mean raging mad at someone. Or it says you killed them in your heart. Pretty convicting, isn't it? Yeah. My, oh, my. So, Jewish law prohibited any kind of punishment to be opposed upon any Jew. Now, remember, he's a Roman and a Jew by God's providence. And until that person had been given the opportunity to speak in his own behalf, they were not to be struck, and they were not to be beaten, and they were not to be put to death. But in his rage, Ananias says, just hit him. Just deck him. Shows you his hatred for Christ, his hatred for the gospel, his hatred for Paul. And who is Christ? He's the long-awaited Messiah. He's the one God promised. Right? He's the promised Messiah. Now let's look at verse 3. Look at this. Look at this strong language Paul uses. God shall smite thee, thou whited wall. For sinnest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law? Now by calling him a whited wall, Paul was letting Ananias know, you're nothing but a self-righteous religionist. Ever found any of those people? Someone very dear to us. had someone tell him during COVID that if you take the COVID vaccination, you took the mark of the beast. That is so ridiculous. That is so self-righteous. That is so awful. And I told that dear saint, you tell him you're already marked. Because the scripture says that we're sealed by the Holy Spirit of God. You know what that means in the Greek? Marked for ownership. We're already owned by God. We're already marked by God, beloved. Isn't that wonderful? My, oh my. Self-righteous religions can be some of the most terrible people in the world. I had someone this week, sitting there talking about Christ, and they said, you're a false prophet. And I said, really? He said, you're a false preacher. And I said, well, why? He said, because you believe that Calvinism stuff. And I said, well, I believe in God's sovereignty, and I believe in the doctrines of grace. I don't believe everything Calvin believed. I don't at all. But as far as salvation, I believe totally like he believed. Yeah, yeah. It's called believing what the word says, right? He says, well, you're a false prophet. You're going to be condemned. I said, there's therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, who walk not of the flesh, but of the spirit. I said, I won't be condemned. You know what I said to him afterwards? I'm afraid for you. I'm afraid. This is a religious man. This is a guy who said he bowed ahead and repeated a prayer, and the Lord saved. This same fellow that said this town would be better off without this church. Imagine that. Self-righteous religious people are some of the worst. And you know how I know? Because I was one of them. For the Lord saved me. Isn't God good? So what do I do about that man? I pray for him. Please save him, Lord. please save them and people say well why do you keep going and talking to those fellas because they're me before the lord saved me i'm looking in a mirror of how i was and someone bought me the gospel by the grace of god isn't that wonderful Don't ever give up on our friends, even if they're kicking and screaming against you. Just keep praying for them and keep giving them the Word. Keep giving them Scripture. Keep telling them Christ is the only Savior of sinners. There's no other hope. And this message of grace, of salvation through Christ and not by the works of man and not by the merit of man and not by the will of man is the most hated thing that's proclaimed, but it's truth. And I was talking to someone again about how Christ came into the world not to condemn the world, right? He didn't come into the world to condemn the world. We're already condemned by our sins, right? He came to save the people from their sins. And when he said it is finished, He obtained eternal redemption for us, beloved. And then where'd he go? Up to glory, where he is right now. And you know what? Where he is, we're soon gonna be, aren't we? Oh yes, we will. Because where the head is, the body soon falls, right? He's the head, we're the body. My head don't go anywhere my body don't go. And my body don't go anywhere where my head doesn't command it to go. You ever think of that? Why are we all here together? The providence of God. Why are we here today listening to this specific message? The providence of God. Say, well, I chose to come here. Yeah, because God bought you here. Isn't that wonderful? to hear the truth of the gospel of salvation through the merits of Christ, and by Christ his work alone. And we're just receivers of this beautiful, wondrous grace. And we're saved through the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. My, this is why Paul's standing before these people, and he says to this self-righteous hypocrite, he says, you're pretending to be one who judges people, and you're judged by the law yourself. You're saying you gotta keep the law, and yet you're breaking the law. You say you gotta do this and you gotta do that, and you can't even do it yourself. I remember going to church, the church I went to, I'd go in there feeling pretty good. And I come out feeling like I was a piece of dirt. But not because of the fact that I'm a sinner, but the fact that I wasn't doing things right. You ever experience that? You get beat up. That's not what we do here, is it? We lift up Christ. We say we're a bunch of sinners who need salvation. We need to be saved by the grace of God. And you know what? Now we are willing servants of Christ. Now we willingly serve Christ. You ever think of that? We come here willingly, don't we? To hear the gospel. We're willing bond slaves. Isn't that amazing? We've been given ears to hear and eyes to see when so many around us haven't been. Does that make us special? No. Because there's nothing in us that would merit that. It's all the grace of God. Grace, grace, wondrous grace. Grace to cover all my sins. Every one of them. Oh my. We'll sing that next week. Beautiful song, beloved. Beautiful song. And we have these hypocrites with us today still. Self-righteous men who pretend to live by the law and yet judge others according to the law. They're hypocrites. You know what they are? They're masqueraders. They're masquerading as Christians, saying you can't do this and you can do that, and yet they do it themselves. My, oh my. You know, someone asked me, can I bring a cup of coffee in here? I said, yeah. Can I bring a water bottle in here? Yeah. If you get thirsty, then you can have a drink. And there was people before who wouldn't let anyone bring anything in here. But yet, they had all their own stuff. They were allowed to have everything, and none of us were. Well, that's just hypocritical, isn't it? That's just wrong. That's being, that's saying, do this, but I'm gonna do this. That's exactly what this fella's doing. He's saying, you gotta do this, you're breaking the law, and then he goes contrary to the law, right, just like that. Just like that, just breaks the law, just like that. That's called a hypocrite. That's, I like what Paul says, that's a whited wall. Nice and clean on the outside, but full of dead man's bones. That's what the Lord said, remember, the Pharisees? He said, you're whited sepulchers, you're whited graves. You're all fancy on the outside with all your togas and whatever, not togas, but they're long things so that when they go out, you know what we have today? Them fellows that put them collars on, look how religious I am. And people actually look at them and go, oh my. And some people sneer at them. I just shake my head. They're showing people how religious they are. And they're no different than the worst sinner in this world. As a matter of fact, we're all the worst sinners in this world. But grace, grace, wondrous grace, grace to cover all my sin through the Lord Jesus Christ. My, what a Savior! And then, notice verse 4 here. Someone answers right away and said, Reviles thou God's high priest? Now, this is after Christ has died, right? Who is Christ? You know where I'm going, Chris. He's the high priest. after the order of Melchizedek. And this guy says, you're reviling the high priest? Now Paul only has one high priest, just like we have one high priest, right? That's the Lord Jesus Christ. I was reading this next verse. And different commentators have said, one commentator said, well, he didn't know who the high priest was. No, I read several other commentators went, no, no, he knew who he was. He knew who he was. This is sarcasm he's using. He's saying, you ain't the high priest. He says, I don't know. I didn't know you were the high priest. No, he's saying, you're not the high priest. We have one high priest, beloved, and that's Christ. That's Christ. Look at verse 5. I wish not, brethren, that he was the high priest. For it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people. Who's the ruler of God's people? Christ is. He's the high priest. Paul's not going to speak evil of him because he's the just one. He's the holy one. He's God in the flesh. This man who says he's the high priest is not the high priest. He's a high priest made by man. But see, there's no need for high priests anymore, is there? There's no need for high priests. Christ is God's people. He's our high priest. Do you know that over in Israel, people are clamoring and sending money to rebuild the temple? to try to escalate God's timetable. They figure if they can get that thing built, then they can escalate the timetable of God. Number one, there's no need for that temple. You know why? Because there's no need for sacrifices. You know why? Because Christ is the final sacrifice. It's a sham. And if they could ever do animal sacrifices again, you know what it would be? I've said it many times. That would be an abomination in God's eyes. Because there's only one sacrifice for sin. There's only one sacrifice for sinners. The Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, our great high priest. Oh my! It's wonderful, isn't it? It's wonderful. Turn, if you would, to Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7. Let's turn that. Hebrews chapter 7. Put my thing in here. Hebrews chapter 7. Let's read verses 24 to 28. Look at this. It's talking about... Actually, let's go up to verse... Let's go to verse 21. Now that's speaking of Christ. He's the priest forever. That man that's standing before Paul is a sham. Paul's high priest and our high priest is Christ. And now he's the high priest of the true Israel of God, right? Oh yeah. It's wonderful. It's wonderful. The Lord swear and will not repent. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better Testament. And they truly were many priests, that's speaking of the high priests from before, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death. So they weren't allowed to continue because they died. Now Christ died, but he rose from the grave, didn't he? He's alive right now. He's the high priest forevermore. Wherefore, he is able to save them to the othermost that come unto God by him. Oh, I skipped, didn't I? I skipped a bunch. Verse 23. And they were truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death, But this man, this being Christ, because he continueth ever, he rose from the grave, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Oh my. Wherefore, he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him. Look at that. Christ is able to save to the uttermost, no matter how black our sin is, no matter how wicked we are, He's able to save to the uttermost all who come down. And anyone says, you ever hear somebody say this? Well, my sin's too great. I got an answer for that now. Is your sin greater than God's grace? Is your sin greater than God's blood and righteousness? Not at all. And when a person says that, they're self-righteous. That's a self-righteous person. Because look what it says here. Wherefore, he is able also to save them. Who? Those who come to him. To the uttermost that come unto God by him, come to God through Christ and Christ alone, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest become us, who is holy, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, who need us not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's. So the high priests at that time, they had to offer up, first they had to offer up a sacrifice for their sins, and then they had to offer up a sacrifice for the people's sins. But Christ is sinless. He's the God-man. He's God in the flesh. He didn't offer up anything for himself, because he's sinless. But Brian, he offered up for us, didn't he? He offered himself up for you and I. Oh, and all who believe on him. My. who needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then for the people's. For this he did once, once, once, when he offered himself, for the law maketh man high priests, which have infirmity. They're sinners. But the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated forever. He is the sinless one. He's the word of God in heaven before he comes. He's God. He's God in the flesh while he's on earth, the sinless one, the holy one. He offers himself up without spot. He's offering himself up, sinless, for you and I, beloved, to save us from our sins and from the eternal wrath of God that's due us. What a Savior! And he does it willingly. Willingly. Father, be thy will, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done. And it was God's will that he die in our room and place to save us from our sins. And what can we say but hallelujah? What a Savior! What a Redeemer! You see why I want to proclaim it from the rooftops? Christ is the savior of sinners. We're proof. You and I, beloved. We're proof. And he does it all by himself, doesn't he? My. It's absolutely wonderful, beloved. So Paul's words in verse five have a tone of sarcasm to them. It's like he's saying, him, a high priest, pfft. He no high priest. He's just a man. You ever think of that? You see these priests walking around with their, pfft. They're no priest. They're just a sinner like me. And I don't mean that, pfft, to be condescending. I'm saying, they're nothing. They're just like me. Never forget the rock we were hewn from. Never forget the pit we were in that God pulled us out of, beloved. We're all hewn from the same quarry of humanity, aren't we? And the only one who made us to differ is God, God alone. And we say, praise his name, what a savior. That's my king, the almighty one, saved my soul. I'm not saved by some mere man. I'm saved by God in the flesh. who gave his life, he was a real man. And yet God in the flesh, and he shed his blood, the blood of the sinless one to save a sinner like me. And he's able to save all who come to him, isn't he? That's what the scripture just said. That's wondrous. Man, and Paul, he's quick to give the honor and praise to our great God, because look what he says. He says, him, a high priest? If he was a high priest, he's saying, I wouldn't speak evil of him. Christ is our high priest. You know, in my shame before I was saved, I spoke evil of him. I used his name in vain, and I spoke things I shouldn't have said. But that was all done in ignorance, wasn't it? And now his name is the name above all names to me. Is it so for you? It's a precious name. And when we hear someone use it in vain, you're like, oh my. It bothers us. It bothers us. That's the name above all names. Paul is saved from his sins through the Lord Jesus Christ. And he knew, because he knew that Christ was his high priest forever, so he knew that the man standing before him is not a high priest. Not God's high priest. There's no need for high priests anymore. Right? Hence, there's no need for the temple. There's no need for sacrifices. I tell you, someone's making a lot of money. My, so sad. And the part that drives me crazy is people who think that they, by sending money and by doing all this thing, they're going to speed up, and this is actually true, you can find it on the internet, they think they're going to speed up the return of Christ. That's, what? So it's like, you ever hear this? Reverend Jim, you probably heard this in religion. Well, if we get enough people praying, God'll change his mind. Don't ever believe that. Why do we all pray together? Why do we mention prayer? Well, because we love the people we're praying for. And we love the loved ones of the ones we love. And we pray for them. Because we have a real concern for them. But we always say, Lord, if it be your will, whatever your will is, Lord, whatever your will is, we leave it in God's hands. But we pray, and we are told to pray. And we pray to our high priest, don't we? The Lord Jesus Christ. And Vicki and I were talking about this. Nothing is too small to bring to the Lord. Absolutely nothing. Zane and I were talking about it too. Absolutely nothing is too small, too insignificant. How do we know that? Consider the birds. They don't They don't, your heavenly father takes care of them. Consider the flowers, they're arrayed, what that means is they're clothed, they're arrayed, they're clothed better than Solomon was. Solomon was the king of Israel, who had everything. And the Lord says, those little flowers are arrayed with more splendor than he ever was. We all love growing flowers now, we're getting older, right? Things you love when you get older, you start to love birds and you love flowers. Things you never had nothing to do with before, right? But isn't it amazing as we look at those things and see the beauty in them, and we can see our Lord's provision, and if He provides for those things which are here in the spring and the summer and then gone, and come back again, how much more is He gonna care for you and I, beloved? My. And so Paul here, even though he's being bought before this council, he has a peace and contentment. He has the peace that passes all understanding. It keeps your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus. That's why you hear us grace preachers constantly say, keep your eyes on Christ, keep your mind on Christ. That's what's most vital, most vital for us. Keep listening to the gospel. Paul wrote this under divine inspiration about the false teachers at Galatia. He says, but though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we have said, and so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you that you have not received, let him be accursed. Paul knew this high priest wasn't a high priest. He hated the gospel. He hated the gospel. He hated the Christ of the gospel. It's evident. My, now let's read verses 6 to 9 of Acts chapter 23. But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, of the hope of the resurrection of the dead. Oh, we have that, don't we, in Christ. I am called in question. Oh, my. And when he had said so, there arose a division between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the multitude was divided. For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit, but the Pharisees confess both. And there arose a great cry, and the scribes that were of the Pharisees' part arose and strove, saying, We find no evil in this man. God uses these unsaved Pharisees. to deliver Paul out of the council. This is amazing. We find no evil in this man, but if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him, let us not fight against God. So Paul perceives, and God gives him this wisdom, that half of the group is Pharisees and half the group is Sadducees. Now, they hate each other. They do not like each other at all. Not at all. And as we read there, one group believes that we'll rise from the dead, and the other group thinks, like Seventh-day Adventist, that you just become nothing, eat and drink and be merry and, you know, live however you want. My. So the Lord gave Paul some wisdom, didn't he? not only to show Paul that Ananias was Israel's so-called high priest, because the high priest of the Israel of God is Christ, but he also knew the doctrinal differences between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, because he was a Pharisee at one time. The Sadducees denied the resurrection. In other words, they believed in getting all you can in this life no matter what it takes, no matter who you gotta step on. And they believed that there was no life after death and no judgment day. Now there's people in our day that believe the same thing still, still. Get what you want, get what you can out of life, eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die. That's what the Romans used to say and it's still thought of today. And then they think that's the end, but it's not. It's not. Now, when they go through the doormark death, all of them have a rude awakening, don't they? All of them have a rude awakening. Turn, if you would, to Job. Job, chapter 18. Do you know why they have a rude awakening? Because they meet another king. A king who has reigned from the fall of Adam. And a king who reigns still today. And a king who will reign until the Lord Jesus comes back. And that king's name is death. You know what he's called in the scriptures? The king of terrors. The king of terrors. Look at this in Job chapter 18. Here's a description of a wicked man dying. Job chapter 18 verses 11 to 14. You know, I used to foolishly say, oh, when I die, I'm going to go party with all my friends in hell. Oh, awful thing. I used to say that. I had no clue what's awaiting a man after they die without Christ. And this is what the scripture says. Verse 11, terror shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet. His strength shall be hunger bitten, and destruction shall be ready at his side. It shall devour the strength of his skin. Even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength. His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors. That's a description of a wicked man dying in their sins, or woman. Death is a king. It has a large empire. The whole world. Its subjects are numerous. High, low, rich, poor, weak, strong. Great, small. And the duration of its reign is long. It's reigned since Adam fell. It rained from Adam to Moses. It rained from Moses to the coming of Christ. And it rained from Christ's death to this day. And it'll rain until Christ comes back again. The king of terrors. My. It rains with an irresistible power. In this king, death is the king of terrors to wicked men and women. Salvation for sinners is only in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, who has defeated death. So death for you and I, beloved, is but a doorway to glory. Isn't that wonderful? The king of terrors for us has been... Death has no more sting for the believer. The second I die, I'm in glory. If you're a believer, the second you die, you're in glory. Death has no sting. We will not... We will not see the king of terrors the same way as a wicked man or woman. And who's made us to differ? Only God and God alone. That's why we give him all the glory, brother Brian. That's why we give him all the praise, because it's only him and him alone who saved us. Glory to his name. Again, grace to cover all my sins. righteousness to stand in the presence of God justified by God himself so that the king of terror has no sting for the believer a minute the second I breathe my last breath in the presence of the Lord that thief on the cross today today thou shalt be with me in paradise." And all he said was, remember me, Lord. Just remember me. Today, thou shalt be with me in paradise. Now, I got a good, I got to tell you something. Did that, did that, did, here we go. Did that man, did he have the ability to say, well, I'm an Armenian or I'm a Calvinist? He didn't, did he? Did he have the knowledge to say, well, I believe this, and if you don't believe this way, you're not saved. Now, there is a difference between Arminianism and Calvinism. But the truth of Calvinism is Christ is the Savior. The falseness of Arminianism is that man supposedly has a will to save himself. No, he doesn't. But who do we preach? Amen, brother. You just hit the nail on the head. Christ and him crucified. That's who we preach. That's who we hold out to a lost and dying world, Christ. Now, as we grow in grace, we're gonna learn truths, aren't we? And we're gonna learn that some of the things we thought we knew were wrong. And some of the things we thought we knew were right. And the things that we find out were right, it's because God the Holy Spirit showed us. And the things that we found out were wrong, was because we were taught a man. Right? But all I'm gonna do, beloved, as God gives me breath to preach, and as I'm here, is to preach Christ to you, and to hold Christ before you, and to hold it before this lost and dying world. And I love the fact that you men pray for the messages as they go out into the world, that God would use them to draw his sheep, use them to save souls. And if someone's here that doesn't know, I pray God will save you. Because we just read what happens. And that's not, I didn't read that to scare you, because no one can be scared into the kingdom. But God, the Holy Spirit, can take that word and show us, man, what you believe about death is wrong. And in preachers, we just hold up Christ. That's who I'm gonna keep preaching. I'm gonna preach Christ who's sovereign, I'm gonna preach Christ who's successful? Anybody ask who your preacher is? Just say he's a sovereign grace man. I believe in the sovereign grace of God. That's what I believe. Right? D.J. Ward said, I'm a grace case. And I said to Vicki, well, what's that mean, I'm a grace case? I said, well, instead of being a head case, I'm a grace case. I'm a grace case. So are you. All believers are. Right? We're saved by the grace of God. Period. Period. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that glorious? See, we can leave here rejoicing, beloved. We can leave here in the joy of the Lord. He saved, the Almighty saved my soul. In His blood, His grace covers all my sin, past, present, and future. And all I want to do now is serve Him. Somebody says, well, you think like that you can do all you want? No, I don't want to go out there and do all I want. I don't want to bring shame on my King, do you? No. No. No, we want to praise Him. We want to worship Him. We want to adore Him. And by the grace of God, we'll do that. Aren't you thankful we're born again? Aren't you thankful He saved our souls, beloved? Didn't leave us where we were. Why? Why didn't He leave us where we were? Because He saved us according to His will and purpose. Hallelujah. What a Savior is Jesus Christ, our Lord.