Acts chapter 24. In the year 1990, 24 years ago now, I was blessed
to the Lord to be in a Bible conference over in Bavard. There
were supposed to be four preachers. And two showed up, me and one
other. And the others had reasons, of
course, good reasons, or excuses. I'm not sure which. Y'all know
what an excuse is. That's what you use when you
don't have a reason. That's what an excuse is. It's when you don't
have a reason. So they had reasons or excuses,
one. But anyway, two of us showed
up. The other preacher was a man
by the name of Henry Mahan. And I got acquainted with brother
Henry that week and we preached morning and night for four days. And I preached about everything
I knew and some I wasn't sure about. But after hearing brother Mahan,
I was convinced that I didn't know much of anything. And he
became a great blessing in my life through messages and tapes
and now on the Internet through the years. But that week was
a monumental experience in my life. Brother Henry is now in
his upper 80s and he lives in Rocky Mount, Virginia. Not able
to go and preach anymore. But in one of those services,
in that conference in 1990, he used this passage of scripture
here in Acts 24 and took a thought from it. And I've thought of
it many times. So that's what I'm going to do
this morning for the thought. Acts 24. In this chapter, the
Jewish leaders. the high priest and the elders,
they bring Paul the Apostle to stand before Felix the governor,
and they bring a proper spokesman to represent them, a man named
Tertullus. In verse 1, he's introduced as
a certain orator, that is, He's a smooth talker. And in verses
two and three, he knows to heap praises upon Felix
to win his approval. That's what people try to do
when they come before a politician or a judge, try and get on their
soft side. And hopefully he'll be able then
to sway Felix's decision against Paul. And then on down in verse five,
he brings the charges. For we have found this man, talking
about the apostle Paul, a pestilent fella and a mover of sedition
among the Jews throughout the world and a ringleader of the
sect of the Nazarenes. who also hath gone about to profane
the temple, whom we took, we brought him in, and would have
judged according to our law." In verse 10, the governor beckons Paul to speak in his
own defense. And here's what Paul says. Then
Paul, after that the governor had beckoned unto him to speak,
answered, for as much as I know that thou hast been of many years
a judge unto this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for
myself, because that thou mayest understand that there are yet
but 12 days since I went up to Jerusalem for to worship. They
neither found me in the temple disputing with any man, neither
raising up the people, neither in the synagogues nor in the
city. Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse
me. But this I confess unto thee,
that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the
God of my fathers, believing all things which are written
in the law and in the prophets and have hope toward God, which
they themselves also allow that there shall be a resurrection
of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. And herein do
I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense
toward God and toward men. That's reading down through verse
16. And Paul says to Felix, he says, they've come with these
charges and they can't prove any of it. They've accused me
of stirring up the people, implying a political threat. But what these high priests and
elders were disturbed about was this. that the gospel of Jesus Christ,
which Paul had preached, was a threat to their religion. I
mean, when people were being set free by the power of God
through the gospel of Christ, then they could no longer control
or manipulate those people. Then they accused Paul of going
about to profane the temple, which was not true. But in Paul's speech here, he
left the cat out of the bag. He said, the real problem with
me is the message that I preach, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And for it, they accused me of
being a heretic. And he makes this statement in
verse 14. But this I confess unto thee. I do have a confession
to make. It's not the one they want me
to make, but I would like to confess something. And Paul says
that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I, the
God of my fathers. Not by any imagination or foolish
ideas of men, but I worship the God of my fathers like this,
believing all things which are written in the law and in the
prophets. The way men call heresy is how
I worship God. And that's my subject this morning.
The way men call heresy is how I worship God. They had called the Apostle Paul
and worshippers of Christ a sect of the Nazarenes. Nazarenes were
nothing. Remember, when the Lord Jesus
came on the scene, they asked, can any good thing come out of
Nazareth? Nazareth was a little village
of uneducated, supposedly unimportant nobodies. And they're called
here a sect of the Nazarenes, some little movement that's off
base and in great error. But Paul never called the preaching
of Christ or Christianity. He never called it a sect. He called it the way. The way,
which men call heresy, is how I worship God. Remember, Christ
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. And so Paul says, I'm not the
one off course here. I'm not worshiping a false God.
I worship the God of my fathers, the true and living God. the
God of the Old Testament. But the way I worship God, they
call it heresy. Now, heresy, you know, is the
embracing of an error, that which is false. But instead of seeing that they
were wrong, they called Paul a heretic. And of course, many
since Paul have been called heretics. Some of the greatest men who
ever lived, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Whitefield, Spurgeon,
you start to speak the truth and expose error, they'll say
you're teaching heresy. that which is false, that which
is not of God. That was the case here with Paul
the Apostle. He had the truth. He preached the truth about who
God he is, who Christ he is, what man he is, what salvation
he is, and they called him a heretic. And I love the boldness and the
plainness of speech from the Apostle here. He's not trying
to fit in. He's not trying to reach a compromise
that will make everybody happy. He just plainly states his mind,
what they call heresy, is how I worship God. And the difference
between them and me is not just a slight difference. We're a
million miles apart, is what he said, and says it plainly. I say amen to the Apostle Paul.
And nothing has changed from his day to ours. Nothing. The things which I love and find
in this Bible to be true, describing who our God is and what salvation
is. Most of the religious world around
us calls it heresy. And I don't mean a thousand miles
away. I don't mean a hundred miles away. I don't mean 10 miles
away. I mean, the religious world all around us calls what this
Bible teaches, they call it heresy. And we're going to look at some
of those scriptures in just a moment. Well, now, what is it about Paul
that has these people so upset? Why is it he's so different?
He's a Jew. He was a Pharisee. He was in
high esteem among them. What happened? Well, something
happened to him one day on the road to Damascus as he was on
his way to persecute those who believed Christ and who preached
Christ. And he was, before that time,
he was locked up in the Old Testament order, the old covenant and the
traditional order of worship of the Old Testament fathers.
And in his mind and heart, This new teaching about Jesus Christ
was wrong. And he was very sincere. He wasn't
called Paul then, he was named Saul of Tarsus. And he was very
sincere. He was very religious. And he
meant to do all he could to put a stop to this business of preaching
about this Jesus Christ. But on the road to Damascus,
And he tells the story three times, Acts 9, Acts 22, and Acts
26. He tells it three times. And
he says, Christ appeared to me. The resurrected, glorified Christ
appeared. And he said, I saw a great light
from heaven greater than the noonday sun. brighter than the
noonday sun, and it struck me to the ground." Now that was
Paul's experience. That's not mine. That's not yours.
That was his. Don't go trying to lasso God
that you have to experience what somebody else did or they have
to experience what you did. No, he's God. This was Paul's
experience. Through the years, I have heard
people testify to all sorts of strange, far out, wild experiences,
religious experiences that they've supposedly had. And I don't question
people. I don't argue with people. I
would just say this. Tell me about one that changed
your life the way this experience changed
Saul of Tarsus' life. And I won't have any trouble
believing it, okay? Most of the people that have
told me these wild somethings through the years are the same
as they've always been. I will tell you when God shows
up, things change in the heart and in the life. So the Lord
appeared to Paul and he revealed to him that he's the one in the
wrong. And those that he's on the way
to persecute are not wrong, they're right. And so Paul's mind and heart
was changed that day. And later he testified, I was
not disobedient to the heavenly vision. And I started preaching
Christ and I've preached Christ ever since. And he's saying to
these here in Acts 24, It's true. I don't still worship God in
those Old Testament and Old Covenant symbols, the animal sacrifices,
the Levitical priesthood, the brazen altar where they had slayed
the sacrifices. And then the priests would wash
their hands and enter into the holy place in their approach
to God. And then once a year, On the
day of atonement, you can read about this in Leviticus 16. Once
a year, the high priest alone would enter in. Not without blood,
he'd enter in with blood. And we'd go behind that veil
and sprinkle the blood upon the mercy seat and make atonement
for the sins of the people for one year. It was a ceremonial
thing. It was a symbolic thing. The blood of those animals never
really took away these sins, never really settled anything.
Atonement means covering. It just withheld the judgment
of God for another year. That's what it did. So Paul says, no, I don't do
that anymore. I don't have to. I don't have to approach God
that way anymore because he approached me. All that Old Testament system,
it spoke of what people would do concerning the sin question.
All those things, the sacrifices, the priesthood, the ceremonies,
the tabernacle, the temple, it's all fulfilled in God's coming
to us. in the person of His Son, Jesus
Christ. Paul's saying, I'm not holding
on to what I can do to go to God. I'm holding on to what God
did to come to me. And that's our position this
morning. I don't worship Him sitting yonder
in a far distance somewhere, waiting on me to do the right
thing and get to Him. I'll never do that much right
and you won't either. But I worship him in what he
did in coming to me. He did what it took to get to
me and he lives in my heart. Paul tells them this Jesus we
crucified. This is what he's preaching.
This Jesus we crucified was God. in human flesh. Isn't that what
the scripture said when he was born? Thou shalt call his name
Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. This Jesus Christ that we crucified
was God. He rose again and ascended. He's seated on the throne in
heaven. And on the day of Pentecost,
in the person of the Holy Spirit, he came back to live in my heart. He's the same God our fathers
worshiped. That's what Paul's telling Felix
here. I still worship the God of our fathers. Oh, yes. I'm not wrong. And he says to
Felix that what these fellas call heresy, is the way I worship
God, the God of my fathers, the same God they claim to worship.
But their worship is just of a traditional system. I'll guarantee you that crowd
said what so many say nowadays. Well, this is the way we've always
done it. I want to tell you the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ changed the way men had always done it. He changed everything. Oh my. But it's just the same now as
it was with this crowd. It hadn't changed all over this
country. Western North Carolina, folks
are in love with a system. Doesn't make much difference
what denomination you pick. just about the whole bunch will
point a finger in my face and say, if you're going to preach
that the will of God overrules the will of man, then you're
preaching heresy. That's what they say. God don't interfere with a person's
free will, they say. Well, this Bible teaches that
after Adam fell, man's will has never been free, but has been
in bondage to sin and to Satan. You say, well, I believe I can
come to God anytime I want to. Yeah, but you can't want to.
You can't change that want to. God has to do that. He has to
do that. They say if a person don't choose
to be saved, they can't be saved. No, if a person really chooses
to be saved, he or she is already saved. See, this business, it's
not God responds to us, it's we respond to Him. He takes the
initiative. He starts the work in the year.
And if He don't, it'll never be started. We didn't take the initiative,
He did. And of course, some would accuse me of making men a robot. Well, I accuse them of making
God a robot, which is worse, which is worse. Acts 17, 28,
for in him, we live and move and have our being. Well, who
does it sound like's in charge right there? Proverbs 16, 1, the preparations
of the heart in man and the answers of the tongue is from the Lord. Wow. A lot of people don't know this.
A lot of people don't believe this. But what that verse said is the things
you think in your heart that pass through your mind. and then
may come through your lips. It's all of the Lord in one of
two ways. He either put wisdom in your
heart to think right, understand and speak right, or he's left
you to yourself to think and to speak foolishness out of a
foolish heart. And when God leaves a person
alone, that's all that person can do. See, we're not talking about
the little God in the mind that people's made him out to be.
He's bigger than that. Proverbs 16, 9, a man's heart
deviseth his way, but the Lord directs his steps. You mean to say whatever I think
and whatever I decide and whatever I do, God's going to have His
way? That's what I've been reading
to you. A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directed
his steps. Proverbs 19.21, there are many
devices in a man's heart. Nevertheless, the counsel of
the Lord, that shall stand. I'm not reading to you out the
newspaper or something Dr. Bottle Stopper wrote or anything
like that. This is God's Word. This is God's Word. There are
many devices in a man's heart. Nevertheless, In spite of those
many counsels and all that intellectual thinking you do, nevertheless,
the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand. What he says is
how it's going to be. An illustration of that that
you're all familiar with from the lips of our Lord in Luke
chapter 12, he called a man a fool. Now he told us not to call anybody
a fool, but the Lord called a man a fool. It was a man who thought he was
running his life and all that concerned him. The ground of a certain rich
man brought forth plentifully, and he thought within himself. That is, All he perceived originated
in the selfishness of his own mind and heart. He thought within
himself. And the devices of his heart
are revealed. The Lord told what the man was
thinking. He said, six times in the next
few verses. This is all about me. I will
take of my goods, which I have got for myself, and I'll have
to tear down my barn, and I'll have to build new barns, and
oh, I've got it made. I'll lay back, eat, drink, and
be merry, for I have much goods. laid up for many years, and the
Lord called him a fool. Thou fool, this night shall thy
soul be required of thee. Not only was he not fixed for
many years, he wasn't even fixed for one day. The Lord said, this
is it, bud. You're done tonight. Why would
folks argue this? The little epistle of James tells
us Don't go shooting off your mouth
about what you're going to do regardless. And I'm bad for that, and I guess
some of you are. I'll tell you one thing. I want
to do this. I don't care what anybody thinks.
I want to do this. I don't care what anybody thinks.
The Lord said don't do that. He said you say if the Lord will,
I'll do such and such. That's the only way you're going
to do it. Daniel 4, 35. And this was supposed to be a
heathen man, but he wasn't. God had changed his heart. Nebuchadnezzar. He said that God has his way
in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
This was the king of Babylon said that. He said, I've been,
I've been bucking this thing long enough. He said, I've had
it. I'm just telling you how it is. God has His way. Ephesians 111, that's what Paul
said, that God worketh all things after the counsel of His own
will. But no, we're in a religious
society right here in our county. that's worshiping a false god. They've conceived in their minds
and they've got him backed in a corner somewhere, pleading
with humanity to let him have his way. He's having his way. I just give you all these verses
that said God's running this thing. It's not a matter of you leaving
him out. It's a matter of Him leaving you out. And He's just
if He does it. Everybody going to hell belongs
in hell. And everybody not going to hell
belongs in hell, for that matter. But Christ died for us. What men call heresy. is how I worship God. The God-man, Jesus Christ, after the resurrection said this
just before he ascended, Matthew 28, 18, all power is given me in heaven and in earth. I don't
need anything from anybody. People won't believe in a God
like that, but that's the God of this Bible. Eternal, self-sufficient, all-sufficient. It goes against the grain with
sinful flesh. And they say, but it just feels
good to be needed. Does a dog really need a flea? Then God don't really need me. But I really need Him. I really
need Him. That's the order. Nowhere in this book am I instructed to honor a man who won't talk
about God the way the Bible talks about God. Of course, I'm a hypocrite. I'm
nice to these birds, but nowhere am I told to honor these guys that lie about who
God is and what his word teaches. They prefer a feeble God of their
mind that can't even lift a finger without their permission. But the Bible don't teach any
such. Let me give you some more Bible.
Nothing, nothing wrong with the Bible, by the way. Do you know
that? Nothing wrong with the Bible. Psalm 33 11. The counsel of the Lord standeth
forever, the thoughts of his heart to
all generations. People don't believe that. They claim to believe the Bible
and love the Bible, When in reality, they hate it. There's men that we have great
respect for. And if I call names, you'd get
mad at me. But honey, they won't have anything
to do with the verses I've read to you this morning. I've read
nearly 20 of them. The counsel of the Lord standeth
forever. the thoughts of his heart to
all generations, his heart, for we own our wicked hearts, his
heart. There's things about who God
is, what he wants. They call me a heretic, but this
is how I worship God, Paul said. Jeremiah 23, 13. We can just
read the whole Bible if you want to. Jeremiah 23, 13. But he is
in one mind and who can turn him? You say, well, I pray to try
to get God to change his mind. Well, you're wasting your time.
Praying is to get you to change your mind. He is of one mind who can turn
him, and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth. Can you believe that? Whatsoever his soul desireth,
even that he doeth. God Almighty is the only one
who really does as he pleases all the time. And that's what
the Bible says. Psalm 115, verse 3, He hath done
whatsoever he hath pleased. Is that enough? Isaiah 14, 27,
For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? And
his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? Who is
it big enough to say to God, I don't want you to do that and
you can't do that because I say you can't. No, no, no. Proverbs 2130, there is no wisdom
nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord. Meaning there
is no counsel that can stand against the Lord. If today's religious thinking
is right, you just as well throw your Bible away. God's having it so hard. All these scriptures I've read
can't be right, but they are right. There's too much in here that
people hate and they'll hate you for talking about it. But
I say with Paul, this is the way I worship God. They won't know what you're talking
about, really who God is, his sovereignty, his power and authority.
Men call it heresy, but it's how I worship God. Nahum chapter one, verse three.
He hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm. I will tell you right now, you
let a tornado come through, whirlwind, storm, you're not going to have
your way. You're liable to be picked up by the seat of the
pants, land over yonder a mile somewhere with your head splattered
against a rock. But he hath his way in the whirlwind
and in the storm. Everything blows the direction
he wants it to blow and winds up where he wants it to wind
up in the condition he wants it to wind up. He does what he
wills, where he wills, when he wills, with whomsoever he wills. He worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will. Paul said, this is how I worship
God. About one more and we'll try
to quit. Isaiah 46, 9 and 10. Remember the former things of
old, for I am God and there is none else. I am God and there
is none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning. Now no other God's ever done
that. But He declared the end from
the beginning before there was a beginning. Declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things that are not yet done. Saying,
my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. Talking about a God. who does
as his wills. And yet many prefer a God they've
imagined in their minds who needs us to do something to save him
from failure. Paul said, I worship God for
saving me. I'm not trying to save him. He
don't need saving. I don't worship to do something
for Him. I worship for Him doing something for me. He's my God. All right. What men call heresy is the way I worship God. And if you miss some of those
scriptures and you're interested in them, some people are not. But if you're interested in all
these things that God said about himself, you can get a copy of
the CD or we'll get them to you. But lots of scriptures, God's
word, what men call heresy. what God has done in Christ.
That's how I worship Him. Bless His holy name. Let's stand
together.