We turn back to Acts chapter
28. This evening we're going to observe the Lord's table together. And the Lord said, this do in
remembrance of me. And every believer ought to do
this. The Lord said to, this do in
remembrance of me. Now I wanna read verse 24 again.
And some believed the things which were spoken,
and some believed not. Now I've just described me and
you, haven't I? We're in one of these two groups.
All the world is divided into one of these two groups, those
who believe. and those who do not believe. I've entitled this message, The
Two Responses to the Gospel. Some believed, oh, I wanna be
in that number. And some believed not. Now Paul is now in Rome. And
he's telling these people why he was incarcerated. And look
what they said in verse 21. And they said unto him, we neither
receive letters out of Judea concerning thee, neither any
of the brethren that came showed or spake any harm of thee, but
we desire to hear of thee. what thou thinkest for as concerning this sect.
Now these were Jewish people who were not believers and they
looked at what is called Christians or believers as a sect. We desire to hear of thee what
thou thinkest for as concerning this sect We know that everywhere
it's spoken against. I mean, nobody has anything good
to say about this sect and we wanna hear what you have to say.
Three things regarding these people who were interested in
hearing. Number one, they were not believers. They didn't claim to be believers.
They were not believers. And they wanted to hear. We want to hear what you have
to say. That's a good thing, isn't it? They wanted to hear. And they knew with regard to
this, what they called a sect, everybody was against it. And
you know, that stirred up their interest. They wanted to hear
what everybody was against. Why are they against it? We want
to hear what you have to say. And then Paul's message is summarized
like this. Verse 23, and when they had appointed
him a day. On this day, we're gonna come
and listen to what you have to say with regard to the set that
everybody is speaking against. When they appointed him a day,
there came many to him in his lodging, to whom, here's what
he did. He expounded and testified. Now anytime there's true preaching,
that is what is being done. Expounding from the word of God
and testifying. One is objective. I'm giving,
if I'm preaching the truth, I'm giving what God says, not my
opinion. And number two, I'm testifying. I'm speaking of things
which I know, which I have been taught. Now that's what's happening
in true preaching, both expounding and testifying. And if either
one of those are absent, you really don't have the preaching
of the gospel. expounding and testifying the kingdom of God,
persuading them. Now that's involved in preaching.
I want to persuade you to believe. Everybody in this room, I want
to persuade you to believe. Persuading them concerning Jesus. both out of the law of Moses
and out of the prophets from morning till evening. And some believed. Some heard
what he said and they were persuaded is the word. They were persuaded. And some believed not. They said,
we don't believe this. They rejected what they heard. Now, like I said earlier, me
and you are in one of those two groups. And I pray God that everybody
in here, if you have not been persuaded up until this point,
will be persuaded by the grace of God to believe. Now, here's the first thing I
would notice about Paul's message. Verse 23, and when they had appointed
him a day, there came many to him into his lodging, to whom
he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them
concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the
prophets. Where did Paul begin? The scriptures. Now at the time, there was no
New Testament written. This was the Old Testament Scriptures. Now let me remind you, you cannot
separate the Old Testament and the New Testament. They go together. You don't have one without the
other. And all he had at this time was the Old Testament Scriptures
now, let me remind you what the Lord said about the Old Testament
scriptures I want to read a scripture from John chapter 5 verse 39
He said you search the scriptures for in them You think you have
eternal life and they are they which testify of me? Not me and other things me That's
all the Bible has to say nothing else me He said in verse 44 of
this same chapter, How can you believe which receive honor one
of another, and seek not that honor that cometh from God only?
Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one
that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom you trust. For had ye
believed Moses, you would have believed me. He wrote of me. That's it. You know, people want
to have these big long documents about, uh, what we believe, trying
to show what we believe. And you'll have 400 pages to,
uh, fruit. Gospel's got one message. That's
not needed. Everything in this book is concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. Every word. And that's what he
brings to these men. Listen to this scripture from
Luke 24, 27, and beginning at Moses, and all the prophets,
he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning
himself. And he said, all things must
be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the
prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. That's so clear. You're in Acts 28. Just turn
over the page to Romans 1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which
he had a promise to for by his prophets in the holy scriptures. Now this message is the message
of this book. The Bible is God's inspired word,
and we will not know God nor his character apart from this
book. The gospel is the religion of
this book, and this book only has one message. I think of what Paul said in
1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse three. He said, the gospel is
how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. His only appeal, this is the
message of scripture. Old Testament scripture. New
Testament had not yet been written. And Paul says with regard to
scripture, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. Now, the Bible is either the
inspired Word of God or it's a worthless production of men. Somebody says, well, I believe
we can learn good things and it contains the Word of God.
No, that's no good. It's either the inspired word
of God or it's a worthless production of sinful men. One of those two
things. And all we have is the Bible. This is not what Todd's Road
Grace Church believes. This is not what some denomination
believes. Yeah, I wish there wasn't any
such thing as denominations. That's so confusing and silly,
man-made. What does God's word say? That is all we care about. Now notice it says he expounded and
testified from the scriptures. And you know what scripture I
believe he probably began with? Genesis 1.1, in the beginning, God. This
is with regard to God. That's where we begin, not with
you. Not with you. Drew, you sang that somehow in
that song you were singing. This is his story. It's not your
story. This is not about you. This is about God, in the beginning,
God. And I think of him going into
the fall and how that the Lord Jesus Christ slew a lamb and
took the skin of that lamb and replaced their fig leaf cloth
of human works with his own righteousness. That's what that represented.
He talked about Abel coming into God's presence with the blood
of that lamb and how that God respected Abel and his offerings. And he explained to them the
reason God respected Abel and his offering is because of what
the offering was or what it pointed to, the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ and what God's, the blood of God, the blood of Christ actually
makes it to where everybody he died for, God respects. To have the respect of God, And
the only way any sinner will have the respect of God is if
their sin has been put away by the blood of Jesus Christ and
they have the very righteousness of God as their personal righteousness. He went into all the, it's a
long sermon, morning to evening. So I have no doubt that he mentioned
Noah's Ark. Everybody in that ark was saved.
Everybody outside of that ark was lost. Christ is that ark. He talked about Joseph. Everything
in his life points to the Lord Jesus Christ. You meant it for
evil. God meant it for good. That's
the gospel. He talked about that burning
bush representing the perfect humanity and the absolute deity
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He talked about that Passover
lamb when God said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you.
And he went through all these different Old Testament types
with regard to this being the message of scripture. The message
I'm bringing you is the message of scripture. He expounded the
scriptures, the manna. That's Christ the bread from
heaven. The smitten rock with water coming out. Scripture said
Christ is that rock, the law. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. He went from morning till evening
demonstrating that Jesus Christ is the one and only message of
this book. He expounded. He gave the meaning
of the scriptures. Now not only did he expound,
he testified. He testified. When Ananias came
to him, he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that
thou shouldst know his will. See that just one, hear the voice
of his mouth, for thou shalt be his witness. you're going to give testimony
to what you have seen. And if I am preaching the gospel,
not only am I expanding the scriptures, I'm telling you what I know.
I'm telling you what I've experienced. You can't preach what you haven't
experienced in that sense. You can't really do it. I'm telling
you what I know. I'm telling you the salvation
that I've been saved with. if I'm testifying. Now, the only
way to preach is first to expound what the Word of God says. When
I'm talking about testifying, I'm not talking about I'm giving
you my personal testimony. Somebody says, I want to give
a personal testimony. I'd really rather not hear it.
I want to hear what God's Word says. All this stuff about people's
personal testimonies, you're just making up stuff to make
you look better. No, I don't want to. I want to
hear the Scripture. what God's word says, and I want
to hear somebody that God has taught something and they're
testifying what they know. And notice, I love what he, back
to our text, verse 23, and when they had appointed him a day,
there came many to him in his lodging, to whom he expounded
and testified, what? the kingdom of God. Now that is the message of scripture. You said, well I thought you
just said Jesus Christ is the message of scripture. Jesus Christ
and the kingdom of God are the same thing. He is the kingdom
of God. Jesus Christ is the kingdom of
God. He's the king of this kingdom. Now, when we speak of the kingdom
of God, I wanna remind us of this. The kingdom of God, whatever
it is, and I hope we're gonna know real soon, whatever it is,
the Lord said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Now, the kingdom of God is that
which is to be sought first, first. Everything else way takes a backseat
to this. And what I love with regard to
the kingdom of God, there's a lot of things I love with regard
to the kingdom of God, but the Lord said my kingdom is not of
this world. This is just, it's not of this
world. I love it when the Lord said
the kingdom of God cometh not with observation. You can't say,
there's the kingdom of God. No, it's a spiritual kingdom.
It's not something you can see in the world and say, yep, there
it is. No, this is a purely spiritual kingdom. And it's not of this
world. Now I want you to turn with me
to Romans chapter 14. I think this is such a glorious
definition of the kingdom of God. Verse 17. Romans chapter 14 verse
17. For the kingdom of God is, now
that ought to catch our attention. The kingdom of God is not meat
and drink. It's not rules and regulations
that you need to learn to keep. It's not do's and don'ts. You hear that? That's what most
religion is about. Here's what you do, here's what
you need to avoid. That's how you please God. The kingdom of
God is not meat and drink. It's not do's and don'ts. It's
not what can I do to please God or what can I avoid doing that'll
please God. It's not do's and don'ts. Well,
what is it then? Righteousness. Peace. Joy in the Holy Ghost. Well, if it's not dos and don'ts,
why are you saying it's righteousness? Righteousness is not something
you do or you don't do. It's His righteousness being
your righteousness before God. Have you ever learned that? The
only righteousness there is is the righteousness of Jesus Christ
the Lord. Now, how can I have His righteousness?
Only one way, if He gives it to me. I can't earn it. I can't do something to get it.
Here's the only way I'm gonna have His righteousness. If Jesus
Christ took my sin and made it His own and put it away as my
substitute, doing something for me and taking His righteousness
and giving it to me to where it really is mine. The only righteousness that I
have is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, that righteousness
that he worked out when he walked upon this earth and perfectly
fulfilled God's holy law. Remember, seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness, that's what he's talking about.
His righteousness. Now the only way that I have
peace, he says, the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but
righteousness and peace. The only peace that I have is
having the righteousness of Jesus Christ as my righteousness before
God. That's all God sees because that's
all there is. And you know what? That gives
me peace. If you tell me that there's something
I need to do in order to please God, I don't care what it is,
if you put works anywhere in my salvation as something I need
to do before God can do this for me, I have no peace. If you tell me that everything
God requires of me, I have in Jesus Christ right now, Peace. Peace with God. That's what Christ
accomplished for his people. Perfect righteousness. That's
what justification is. Therefore, having been justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, if I'm justified, what that means is I have never sinned. If you're justified, you have
never sinned. Somebody says, how can you say
that? I have. Christ made it to not be. When he said it is finished,
all sin was gone. Everybody he died for. That's
why, for folks to, preachers to say,
Christ died for you, but now you need to do something in order
to make what he did work for you. There's no gospel in that.
That's not gospel. That's bad news. There's nothing
good about it. No, everybody Christ died for
must be saved. Their sin is put away and they
have perfect righteousness. That's the only thing that gives
any sinner peace. Righteousness, peace, and joy. Unparalleled joy. The joy of
having his righteousness. and the peace that comes from
that. Now that's what the Kingdom of God is. It's righteousness,
it's peace, and it's joy in the Holy Ghost. Now, let me make
these statements regarding this kingdom I'm talking about, or
that Paul's talking about, that the Bible's talking about, the
Kingdom of God, Jesus Christ. Number one, The Lord said, except
your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven.
You're gonna have to have a righteousness better than any human production
of righteousness. Or you will not enter the kingdom
of heaven. The only righteousness that is,
is Christ's righteousness. Have you ever seen the absolute
filthy rags of your own personal righteousness? It's what Isaiah
said. Our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. The only way you'll enter the
kingdom of heaven is if you have a righteousness that far surpasses
any human righteousness. In Matthew chapter seven, verse
21, The Lord said, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of
my Father, which is in heaven. Now what's that mean? Well, he
goes on to say, many shall say unto me in that day, Lord, we've
done your will. Why? We've preached in your name. In your name we've cast out demons. In your name have we done many
wonderful works. I mean, we got quite a resume.
What do you mean we haven't done your will? Then shall I say unto
them, depart from me, ye that work iniquity, I never knew you.
Now what is this thing of doing his will? I want you to look
at this with me, John chapter six. John chapter six. Verse 28, they said unto him, What shall
we do? What shall we do? What shall
we do to do His will? Give me something. What shall
we do to do His will? What shall we do that we might
work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto
them, this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom
he hath sent, period. Not this is the work of God that
you believe on him whom he hath sent and This is the work of
God that you believe on him whom he hath sent, period. Trust Christ alone. Nothing else. You don't have anything else.
Somebody says, well, what about our works? Yeah, what about your
works? You better hope it's this way. Trust Christ alone. And that's what you're called
upon to do. If you want to do God's will, trust Christ alone. Don't look anywhere else. I'm
telling you the truth. And this is expounding and testifying
with regard to the kingdom of God. Trust Christ alone. And then in John chapter three,
verse five, it says, except a man be born of water and the spirit,
he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. For you to enter the
kingdom of heaven, God's gonna have to birth you into his kingdom.
You read about it, Ezekiel chapter 36, a new heart I'll give you.
For you to get into the kingdom of heaven and for me to get into
the kingdom of heaven, God's gonna give me a new heart, a
new nature. You see, this old nature will
never believe the gospel. Faith doesn't come from the old
nature. Faith comes from the new nature. That's the nature
that believes. That's the nature that loves.
You're gonna have to be born again. And the Lord said in Matthew
chapter 18, verse three, except you be converted and become as
little children, you shall in no case enter the kingdom of
heaven. Now, I wanna read one passage
of scripture with regard to the kingdom of heaven. If you would
turn to Matthew chapter 22. I think this illustrates the kingdom of heaven. Verse one, and Jesus answered
and spake unto them again by parables and said, the kingdom
of heaven is. Now that ought to get our attention. The kingdom of heaven is like
an uncertain king which made a marriage for his son. Now understand
this, the kingdom of heaven is about God doing what he does
for the glory of his son. Somebody told me about a fella, he's a TV guy, and he
said, If God is the God of the Bible, he's the most egocentric,
narcissistic being there is, because all he does is for his
own glory. Well, yes, that's right. That doesn't
make him narcissistic or egocentric, although I guess he does what
he does for his own glory. The damn problem with that? He's
God. He's like a certain king that
made a marriage for his son. This truly is his story. Well, he sent forth his servants
to call them that were bidding to the wedding and they wouldn't
come. And again, he sent forth other servants saying, tell them
what you're bidding. Behold, I prepared my dinner. My oxen
and my fatlings are killed and all things are ready. You don't
need to do anything. Just come into the marriage.
You don't need to bring anything. But they made light of it. They made light of it and went
their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise. And
the remnant took his servants and treated them spitefully and
slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth,
and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers,
and burned up that city. Then saith he to his servants,
the wedding is ready. But they which were bidden were
not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as
you shall find, bid to the marriage. Command them to come. That doesn't
mean invite them. Tell them to come. Call on them.
So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together
all as many as they found, both bad and good, and the wedding
was furnished with guests. And when the king came in to
see the guests, he saw a man which had not on
a wedding garment. Now understand this, in those
weddings, you didn't try to figure out what to wear. You were given
the garment at the door. Everybody makes big plans about
how they're gonna look, weddings and so on. Now listen to me.
These weddings, there was only one garment that was acceptable.
The one the king supplied. And someone had the presumptuousness
to go into that place without a wedding garment. And what did
the king spy out? And when the king came in to
see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding
garment. And he saith unto him, Friend,
how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. I bet
that's the first time I never took place with this guy. He
didn't have anything to say. Then said the king to the servants,
bind him, hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer
darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen. You know,
it's only the chosen that have the wedding garment on. The one
who didn't have the wedding garment on, he made a choice. He thought,
I don't need that garment, mine's good enough. He felt real good
about his garment. Now in this kingdom, The only
ones who enter in are those who have on the wedding garment. Now, back to our text, Acts chapter 28. Verse 23, and when they had appointed
him a day, there came many to him and to his lodging, to whom
he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them
concerning Jesus. Now, if I'm testifying the kingdom
of God, I'm persuading concerning Jesus, who he is, what he did, where he is now,
and what he's doing. And any preaching that does not
have that as its sum and substance is not gospel preaching. Who he is, what he did, where he is now, and what he's
doing there. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
one, because this passage of scripture answers all those questions.
Remember, I'm not giving you my opinion of who Jesus is. I'm
not telling you what I think he did or where I think he is,
but what God's word says regarding the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Hebrews
one, God who at sundry times and in
divers manners, spake in times passed into the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken
to us by, and I like the way his is pointed out in italics,
he's spoken to us by son. He's the son of God. He is the
uncreated Son of God equal to the Father because He's God.
Jesus is God. He's not simply a great man,
a great prophet, a historical figure. Jesus of Nazareth is
God Almighty. Now look what the writer goes
on to say with regard to him. He is the one, in verse two,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made
the worlds. He's the creator, who being the
brightness of his glory and the express image of his person,
all you will ever see of God, is Jesus Christ. He's the one who upholds all
things by the word of his power. The very reason you're breathing
right now is because he's willing it. You're utterly in his hand,
in his control. You see, he's your Lord. Somebody
says, he's not my Lord. Yeah, he is. He's everybody's
Lord. You are utterly and completely in his hand. He upholds all things
by the word of his power. You know, there's something so
comforting about that right now, knowing everybody in here, you're
in his hand. He's gonna do with you whatever
he's pleased to do. I'm thankful he's merciful. Do you need mercy?
Do you need grace? He's never turned aside anyone
who needed mercy or grace. If you want to come on the footing
of your works, he'll meet you there. It won't be good. But
if you come for sheer free mercy, he'll meet you there. That's
who he is. He upholds all things by the word of his power. Here's
what he did when he had by himself purged our sins. That's what he did. He made an
end of my sins on Calvary's tree. He purged them. He put them away
so that I have no sin. Everybody he died for has no
sin. That's what he did. He did what
he came to do. The scripture says he came into
the world to save sinners. Did he? Yes, sir, he did. He purged our sin. Where is he? sat down on the right hand of
the majesty on high. He sat down because he finished
the work. Wasn't anything else for him to do. He finished the
work. What's he doing there? Ruling,
reigning, in absolute control of all things, and making intercession
for those he died for. That's what he's doing there
from the throne. He rules. As Isaiah said, I saw the Lord
sitting on a throne, high and lifted up. And if you haven't
seen Jesus Christ in that manner, you haven't seen him at all.
This is who he is, high and lifted up. What's he doing there on
the throne? Well, he's reigning. He's reigning. He's in absolute
control of everything, and he is representing everybody for
whom he died. Hebrews 7.25 says, wherefore
he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God
by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
Now, what was the response? Here's what we're gonna close
with. Back to our text in Acts 28. And when they had appointed him
a day, there came many to him into his lodging, to whom he
expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning
Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets,
from morning till evening." And here's the response. Some believed
the things which were spoken, and some believed not. Now, the word believed is persuaded.
Paul was persuading them, and they were persuaded. Paul said,
I know whom I have believed and am persuaded. I'm persuaded. Now, if you're persuaded, somebody
persuaded you. And if you're persuaded to believe, it's not
because I talked you into it. If I talked you into it, somebody
else talked you out of it. God is the one who does the persuading.
When he persuades, you're persuaded. You're plum persuaded when he
persuades. And some believe they were persuaded
the things which were spoken. Now, I believe, I've been persuaded
that Jesus Christ is God. I believe he controls everything
and everybody. I believe that he worked out
a perfect righteousness and that's my righteousness before God,
that's the righteousness of the kingdom. I believe that when
he said, it is finished, the salvation of everybody he died
for was accomplished. I believe that. I really do. I believe that. I believe when
he was raised from the dead, God raised him from the dead
because he was satisfied with what he did. He was seated at
the right hand of the father, right now ruling and reigning. I believe that. I hope everybody
in this room does too. Would you be one who believes?
I believe that. And some believed not. To not believe who he is, why
that is evil. That's all it can be called.
He's the son of God. Do not believe him. To trust
your works over his works. To say that what he did is not
enough and you wanna add your two cents to it to make it better
and make it complete? Why, that's criminal, that's
evil. To believe not? Some believed and some believe
not. I pray that me and you are in
that number who believe. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for who
you are, how we thank you for your kingdom, how we thank you
for your blessed son, how we thank you for what he did, what
he accomplished, how we thank you for his righteousness. Lord,
I ask in Christ's name, that name that's above every name,
that by your grace, you will enable each one of us. to be persuaded to believe your
gospel. In Christ's name we pray, amen.