Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 62 in your hardbacked hymnal. Number
62, crown him with many crowns. Let's all stand together. Number
62. crown Him with many crowns, the
Lamb upon His throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem
drowns all music but its own. Awake, my soul, and sing of Him
who died for thee, and hailed Him as thy bachelor's king through
all eternity. Crown him the Lord of love, behold
his hands and side. Rich wounds yet visible above,
in beauty glorified. No angel in the sky can fully
bear that sight But downward bends his wandering eye at mystery
so bright ? Lord of life ? ? Who triumphed
o'er the grave ? ? Who rose victorious to the strife ? ? For those he
came to save ? ? His glories now we sing ? ? Who died and
rose on high ? who died eternal life to great and lives that
death may die. Crown him the Lord of heaven,
one with the Father known, one with the Spirit through him given
from yonder glorious throne. To Thee be endless praise, For
Thou for us hast lied. Be Thou, O Lord, through endless
days, Adored and magnified. Please be seated. Good evening. Let's turn in our
Bibles together to Galatians chapter three. Galatians chapter
three. We'll begin reading in verse
six. Even as Abraham believed God,
and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore,
that they which are of faith, the same are the children of
Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before
the gospel unto Abraham saying, in thee shall all nations be
blessed. So then, they which be of faith
are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as many as are of the works
of the law are under the curse of the law, for it is written,
cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it is evident, for the just shall
live by faith. And the law is not a faith, but
the man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for
it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that
the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. want us to pray tonight for Dee
Parks. A lot of you all may have already
heard that he's been diagnosed with a very aggressive form of
cancer that he began treatments for yesterday, the last week,
and he's going to have them every two weeks. Dee was here back
in 1999, 2000. He was a student at at Full Sail and attended services
here. As a matter of fact, I baptized
Dee in 1999. And he now attends the church
where Chris Cunningham is. Dee's father is Moose Parks. He's a missionary down in St. Croix. So Dee's wife, Christy,
is Bob and Jeanette Morrell's daughter. And they've been here
many occasions. So anyway, the diagnosis is very
severe for Dee. But I got a text from Moose today,
and he said that Dee had the best attitude of everybody else
in the family. The one that was sick is the
one that is least least worried about it. So, Lord gives grace. Let's pray together. Our heavenly
Father, we thank you that once again,
you've blessed us with the opportunity to come to this place and to
open your word and hopes Lord, that you would be pleased to
open our hearts. Pray that you would. open the
windows of heaven and that you would reveal to us the glory
of thy dear son and that you would give to us what you gave
to Abraham, faith to rest our hope in his perfect faith and
in his perfect work of redemption. We thank you, Lord, in knowing
that the curse of the law was completely satisfied in the sacrifice
that Christ made of himself on Calvary's cross for his people.
Lord, we ask that you would forgive us of our sin and of our unbelief
and that you would grow us in your grace and in the knowledge
of Christ as we meet here tonight and as we open your word. Lord,
bless us for Christ's sake. Lord, we pray for Dee. We thank you for him. Thank you for the grace that
you've given to him and pray for the doctors that minister
to him. And Lord, we ask that you would give them knowledge
and wisdom and pray for your hand of strength
and healing. Lord, for grace as we with this dear family wait
on you for your mercies. And we ask it in Christ's name,
amen. Let's all stand together again.
We'll sing hymn number two in your spiral gospel hymns, hymnal
number two. Lord, we come before Thee now,
at Thy feet we humbly bow. O do not our suit disdain, shall
we seek Thee, Lord, Lord, on Thee our souls depend,
In compassion now descend. Fill our hearts with Thy rich
praise, Tune our lips to sing Thy praise. in thine own appointed
way. Now we seek thee, here we stay. Lord, we know not how to go till
the blessing thou bestow. Send the message from thy word
that may joy and peace afford. Let thy spirit now impart Christ's
salvation to each heart. Please be seated. Let's turn in our Bibles to Acts
chapter 25, Acts 25. It begins in Acts 24, 22, I'm
sorry, at the beginning of Acts 22 and
goes through Acts 26. So for five chapters, in the book of Acts, the Jews
are dragging the apostle Paul before the Roman authorities,
accusing him of insurrection in hopes that they could be rid
of him and silence the message of the gospel. So now we saw
Sunday the accusations that were made of him to Felix, the governor,
Felix has been replaced now by Festus, and the Jews are renewing
their attempts to try to bring the Apostle Paul under the law. And that's what I want to look
at tonight, that we are free from the law. I started to title
this message, I Appeal Unto Caesar. Caesar represented the law. The
Roman government is the representative of the law here. And so their
attempt is to bring Paul under the law. And I hope that the
Lord will teach us a valuable gospel lesson here tonight to
not be intimidated by the threats of those who would want us to
be under the law, including the arch enemy of God and every child
of God, Satan himself. He knows that the strength of
sin is the law, and he contends with us as the accuser of the
brethren over the body of Moses. And yet he's not contending over
the physical body of Moses, the body of the law. And so my hope
tonight is that the Lord will show us how the Lord Jesus Christ
has satisfied all the demands of God's holy law. and that we
have nothing to fear from God's law. That's how this story concludes. Paul said, I've got nothing to
fear. I'm not guilty. Only those who are not guilty
have no reason to be intimidated by the law. Let's read this story
together. Acts chapter 25, verse one. Now,
when Festus was come into the province after three days, he
ascended from Caesarea to Jerusalem. Paul's in Caesarea over on the
coast and Festus and Felix have this exchange of power and Festus
now goes up to Jerusalem to inspect his province that he's responsible
for. Then the high priest and the
chief of the Jews informed him against Paul and besought him
and desired favor against him that he would send for him to
Jerusalem, lying in wait along the way to kill him. So they
thought with the new sheriff's in town, maybe we can get Paul
now. Let's get Festus to send Paul
up to Jerusalem. We'll lie in wait on the road
and be rid of him. Now, these Roman governors, and
emperors and such were cruel men, but they
weren't stupid. They knew what the Jews were
doing. And so, verse four, but Festus answered that Paul should
be kept in Caesarea and that he himself would depart shortly
thither. Let them therefore, said he,
which among you are able, go down with me and accuse this
man if there be any wickedness in him.' And when he had tarried
among them more than 10 days, he went down into Caesarea. And
the next day, sitting on the judgment seat, commanded Paul
to be brought." Now Festus now has the full weight of the law. to wield the sword at his will. And the Jews are certainly hopeful
that the accusations that they're making will end in that. This is their hatred for Christ. This is their hatred for the
gospel of God's grace. And their desire to put those
who represent grace back under the law. And that's the struggle
that you and I have every day, to be put back under the law,
to lose sight of the grace of God in Christ and the freedom
that we have in that grace. And so we want to We want to
hear the Lord speak clearly to us. Stand fast in the liberty
wherewith Christ has made you free and be not entangled again
with the yoke of bondage. Don't go back to the law. Don't
go back to Egypt. Don't be intimidated by Caesar
or by Festus or by Felix or by Agrippa. These men represent
the law. You're free. You're free in Christ. There's no charge to be made
against you. Verse seven, and when he was
come, the Jews, which came down from Jerusalem stood roundabout
and laid many and grievous complaints against Paul, which they could
not prove. As I said Sunday, any form of
insurrection was a capital offense in the Roman empire. And the
Romans knew that there was rebellion among the Jews. That's been going
on for a long time. We're dealing with 55 AD now. That's the date of our text,
55 AD. In 11 years, 66 AD, a full-fledged
rebellion will break out from the Jews against the Romans,
beginning the Jewish-Roman War, which the Romans will put an
end to. the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Everything that the
Lord said in Matthew chapter 24 about that day, he's talking
about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. So these things are
already boiling under the surface. And Festus and Felix are wanting
to do anything they can to to squelch that rebellion lest they
lose their position of power. The interesting thing here is
that the Jews were accusing the Apostle Paul of the very thing
they were guilty of. Isn't that so typical? You know,
in Romans chapter two, verse one says, you that judge another
are guilty of the very same thing. Isn't it amazing how men will
point to someone else's and make false accusations against them
in order to divert the attention away from themselves? I mean,
we see that done in politics all the time, don't we? See one
party charging another of the very thing that they're guilty
of. And this is exactly what the lawmongering gospel does. They point the finger at those
who are free in Christ, and they call us antinomians, and they
call us libertarians, and all sorts of things. And they're
the ones that are violating the law. A man who preaches the law
is one who is covering up his own illegal activities. Isn't that just the way it is?
Somebody tells you, I'm a good Christian, you can trust me.
That's the last guy you want to trust, okay? Men will use
religion to cover up their wickedness and their, it's hypocrisy. It's exactly what they're doing
here. trying to put Paul under the
law as a rebel against the Roman government when they themselves
were plotting at the very time to bring about a rebellion against
the Roman government. Verse 8, while he answered for
himself, Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against
the temple, nor yet against Caesar have I offended anything at all. But Festus, willing to do the
Jews a pleasure, answered Paul and said, will thou go up to
Jerusalem and there be judged of these things before me? Festus' only concern is political. He's trying to smooth the waters
between him and the Jews. He knew that these Jews were
planning a rebellion against Rome. And so whatever he could
do to keep the peace, and if he had to sacrifice Paul to that
end, then that's fine. So he says to Paul, are you willing
to go up to Jerusalem? Paul knew that if he went to
Jerusalem, they were gonna kill him. And he says, I'm not guilty
of these charges. You know I'm not guilty. The
law knows I'm not guilty. There's no charge to be made
against me, not guilty. That's what every child of God
can say, standing before the holy law of God, not guilty. Verse 10, then said Paul, I stand
at Caesar's judgment seat, where I ought to be judged. To the
Jews, I have done no wrong, as thou very well knowest. So I
said, Festus wasn't stupid. He knew what was going on. He
knew that these charges were trumped up, just as Pilate knew
that the charges that they made against the Lord. 25 years earlier were trumped up
charges. For if I be an offender, if I'm
guilty of having broken the law and I've committed anything worthy
of death, I refuse not to die. You know, the child of God can
say, If Christ doesn't stand in my stead, if he's not my righteousness,
if his law-keeping is not my hope of salvation, then the judgment
of God will be against me. And I have no other charge, I
have no other defense. I deserve to die. Believers believe
themselves. to be held deserving outside
of Christ. Verse 11, for if I be an offender
or have committed anything worthy of death, I refuse not to die,
but if there be none of these things whereof these accuse me,
no man may deliver me unto them. I appeal unto the law. Let the law charge me. Turn to
me to Jude. I made reference to this a moment
ago, right before the book of Revelation, the little book of
Jude. There are two covenants, brethren.
There are two messages of salvation, and only two. There are thousands
of religions in the world, thousands of different doctrines and opinions,
but they all boil down to one of two messages of salvation. There's the message of works,
and there is the message of grace. Either our salvation is determined
by something that we do, A prayer that we pray, a life that we're
living, a work that we're... And what is religion? Religion
is always getting you to look at something that you did or
something that you're doing for the hope of your salvation. That's
what the law does. Look at your life. And then there's
the message of grace. Here's the message that says,
Christ is the end of the law for all righteousness, to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. And
we can say with the apostle Paul, I appeal to the law. I appeal
to Caesar, I'm not guilty. No charge can be made against
me. If I'd be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that righteousness, which is of the
Lord Jesus Christ, then I can stand confident before God almighty. I can come bare into the very
presence of God. I can enter into the throne of
grace with boldness, knowing that I'm not guilty. No charge
can be made. The law has been satisfied. That's
the believer's freedom. That's the believer's hope. Do
you have your Bibles open to Jude? Look with me at Jude 9. Yet Michael the archangel. And I do believe that this is
a prophetic reference to none other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
The name Michael means like God. And he's often presented in the
Bible as the angel of the Lord. And now he is spoken of here
as the archangel, the one who's over all the angels. And so,
yet Michael, The archangel, when contending with the devil, he
disputed about the body of Moses. Now in the margin of your Bible,
you may have a reference back to Deuteronomy at the death of
Moses when God, you know, took his body. That's not what's being
spoken of here. It's not the physical body of
Moses. There's no reference in Deuteronomy
about the devil and Michael disputing over the physical body of Moses.
This is a dispute that's going on in heaven. This is a dispute
that's like the one where Satan went up before God and accused
Job. It's over the body of the law. That's the body of Moses being
referenced here. So we've got the Lord Jesus Christ, and we've
got the devil himself disputing over the law. That's what it's
always about. And that's what this story, with
Festus and Felix and Paul and Caesar, that's what it is, it's
a dispute over the law. Am I guilty before the bar of
God's justice? So when the Lord Jesus Christ
is contending with the devil, disputing with him over the law, the Lord Jesus Christ says to
the devil, Durst not bring an accusation against him, a railing
accusation. The Lord Jesus Christ doesn't
say to the devil, I fulfilled the law. You can't charge me
against being guilty of the law. I lived up to the standard of
the law in perfection. I satisfied the demands of the
law. No, he doesn't say that. He says,
you go talk to my father. You go talk to the heavenly father,
see what he says about the body of Moses. Brethren, that's exactly what
we say. When the accuser of the brethren wants to put us under
the law, when those hypocritical lawmongers who are not themselves
living by the law, but want to put a heavy burden grievous on
you, or when your conscience begins to convict you of your
law breaking. And Satan wants to strip you
of the hope of your salvation because now. You see, not only
does looking at the good things in your life, if that gives you
assurance of salvation, the flip side of that coin is that when
you look at the bad things in your life, you lose assurance
of your salvation. That's the two sides of the same
coin. Is this not our experience? Is this not our life of faith?
We walk by faith, not by sight. We don't look to our lives or
to what we're doing or not doing for the hope of our salvation.
We don't contend with the devil over the law. We don't say to
him, oh, you're bringing false accusations against me. I kept
the law. No, we say, you talk to my heavenly
father. He's pleased with what my Savior
did in satisfying all the demands of God's holy law. And I'm not
guilty. These accusations you're making
against me are not true. Isn't that glorious? That's our liberty. That's our
freedom. You know, The truth is that misery
loves company. Those who are under the burden
of the law are jealous of those who are free. Those who are free. We see that
in politics as well, don't we? There's a lot of people in this
world that hate America because of our prosperity and our freedom. And they live under the rigors
of a dictator and want everybody else to be that way. Well, it's
true in religion as well. Those who are under the law want
everybody else to be under the law. These Jews were intimidated
by the gospel that Paul was preaching. They hated the gospel that Paul
was preaching because it exposed them for what they were. unrighteous
lawbreakers. The Lord Jesus Christ exposed
them for that. He called them whitewashed tombs. He said, you're laying heavy
burdens, grievous to be bare on the shoulders and the backs
of the people, and you'll not use one finger to lift it. And
you're demanding things of them that you yourself are not doing.
You're demanding that other people live by a standard that you can't
live by. You can't keep the law. That's
what's happening here. These Jews are looking at the
apostle, they're dragging him to the court of the law. And
you and I get drugged to the court of the law all the time,
don't we? Whether it be by our conscience,
Whether it be by Satan, whether it be by friends and family members
and the world and all these, you see, this walk of faith is
a daily fight as well. It's a struggle to walk by faith
and not by sight. We don't look at the outward
appearances. We don't get our hope from those things. The false gospel always gets
you to look at something other than the Lord Jesus Christ for
the hope of your salvation. A decision you've made, an experience
you had, a life that you're living, something you're doing or not
doing, dragging you back to the court
of the law. Turn to me to Matthew chapter
seven. Matthew chapter seven. Verse one, judge not that you'd
be not judged. Now that word judge right there
in that first verse means go to the law. go to the law. How many times
you had somebody, when you make, you make righteous judgments
as a believer, you make righteous judgments about truth versus
error, about evil versus good, about right versus wrong, you
make righteous judgments about those things. And as soon as
you do, somebody says, well, you're just being judgmental.
What are they trying to do? That's again, it's an attempt
to put you under the law. Come on, let me drag you back
up here to Jerusalem. And what did the Lord say about
Jerusalem in the book of Galatians? He said, that city is under the
law. They're in bondage even to this
day. It's not free. The new Jerusalem
that comes down from heaven now, that's the free city. But the
Jerusalem that now is, is in bondage to the law. And that's
where they wanted to take Paul. Let us take you back to Jerusalem.
we'll put you under the law. And if we can't get you back
there, we'll put you under the Roman law, but we're gonna put
you under the law. Judge not that you be not judged. Verse two, for with what judgment
you judge, you shall be judged. And with what measure you meet,
it shall be measured to you again. You can come to God on the grounds
of the law and you'll be judged by the law. Or you can come to God on the
grounds of grace and be judged by grace. He's not talking about making
righteous judgments here. He's talking about self-righteousness.
Talking about self-righteousness. When we make righteous judgments
about right and wrong, good and evil, we're not holding ourselves
up as more righteous than someone else. If we do, then we're guilty
of the very thing the Lord's saying here. By what measure
you judge, you be judged by. No, we're just making righteous
judgments about what's right and what's wrong, what's true,
what's a lie. And all along, we truly believe
ourselves to be the chief of all sinners. The Bible says,
to whom much is given, much is required. Who do you know? Who do you know that's been given
more light, more blessings, more opportunity, more truth, more
revelation of grace and remain as unbelieving as you are? Who
do you know? You see, every believer can identify
with that, beginning with the one who just said it. If to whom much is given, much
is required, then the standard is higher for those who have
been given much light. So when we make righteous judgments
about the gospel and about right and wrong, good and evil, we're
not being self-righteous. We're just Oh, we know that there's got
to be a, but that's what these Jews were doing. They were being
self-righteous. They were holding themselves up as the standard
of righteousness. We don't want to be judged by
the law. And here's the hope. Cursed is
everyone that hangeth upon a tree. You remember when Absalom was
fleeing from David's army and he was riding upon a horse and
he got caught in the limb of a tree by his hair? Now, hair in the Bible is a picture
of a man and a woman's glory. Baldness is spoken of as shameful
in the Bible. And so hair, and when the Lord
Jesus Christ is described in the book of Revelation, we see
him with this glorious raven head of hair. It's his crown
of glory. It's symbolic. We don't look
at that as a physical picture. It's a symbolic picture of it. Absalom was hung up in a tree
by his head. And the Lord Jesus Christ was nailed to a cross
by his glory, by his glory. And what did David's men do when
they found him? They pierced him through with
10 spears, 10 spears. They pierced him through. You see the picture there, don't
you? Absalom, though he was a rebel, like everything else in the Bible,
he's a picture of Christ. He's a picture of Christ. He
was hung up in a tree, pierced through by the law of God. Cursed
is everyone that hangeth upon a tree. We don't fear the curse
of the law. Only those people who are guilty
have reason to be afraid. You know a little bit about that.
You're driving your car, you're going over the speed limit, you
look in your rear view mirror, and you see a police officer
coming, a highway patrolman coming down the road. What do you do
immediately? You feel the fear of breaking the law. So immediately
you release your foot from the accelerator, don't you? Only
those that are guilty have any reason to fear the law. If you're
not guilty, you have no reason to fear the law. Child of God, you're not guilty. Let them drag you before Caesar.
Let Satan make all the accusations he wants. Let the false gospel
and the Jewish lawmongers make their accusations. The Lord Jesus
Christ is our righteousness. We walk by faith, not by sight.
He has fulfilled the demands of God's law and he has offered
himself to his father as a sacrifice for our law breaking. When the
law of God saw sin on the Lord Jesus Christ, when the law of
God saw your transgression of God's law on Christ, the law
of God had no choice but to execute justice and judgment against
this very son of God. That justice and judgment need
not be executed again. The sword's been sheathed. The
fire has been quenched. The law has been satisfied. We
have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous none.
We can say with the apostle Paul, I appeal unto Caesar. You talk
to my father. The law has nothing to say to
me. I am not guilty. Free from the curse of the law. He executed perfect justice in
satisfying and silencing the curses of the law for his people,
for his people. Tell me you that desire to be
under the law, do you not know what the law says? The law requires absolute perfect
obedience. How are you ever gonna satisfy
the demands of God's law? We love God's law. God's law
is perfect. It's holy, it's just, it's good. We don't look to the law of God
to make us holy. We don't look to the law of God
to justify us before God. And we don't look to the law
of God to make us good. We have the Lord Jesus Christ
who satisfied God's law. This story has repeated itself
over and over and over again in every believer's life since
the time of the apostle Paul. The lawmonger saying he's guilty. Paul saying, I'm not guilty. If I am, let me die. Let me die. If I bear any of the guilt of
my sins, I will go to hell. And rightly so. God will be just
in sending me to hell. But I have an advocate with the
Father. I have an Absalom that's hung in a tree and pierced through
with the law of God. And only those in Christ are
free from the rigors of the law. We delight in God's law. We love
God's law. We're grieved and convicted in
every transgression of God's law that we see in our hearts
and in our lives. We're not enemies to the law
of God. We're just not looking to our
law keeping for the hope of our salvation. We flee to Christ in faith because
we know. that we've never been able to
keep any part of God's law. The law is not burdensome to
the child of God. It's not a burden. We delight
in God's law. You don't have to put a loving
husband or a loving wife under the law to keep them faithful
to their spouse. You don't have to do that. Not
to put them under the law. One under the law of grace, one
under the law of love. They accused the Lord Jesus Christ
of being a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber. They said that
he was the son of Beelzebub. He was a lawbreaker. Standing in the very presence
of holiness and pointing their finger at the Lord Jesus saying
that he was a lawbreaker. We have no king but Caesar. He's
the insurrectionist. He's the one that's threatening
the empire. He said that he's a king and
he set up his own kingdom. What are you gonna do about that,
Pilate? What are you gonna do about that? You can't let that
go. You see, they're pointing their,
it's always that way. Ye that judge another are guilty
of the very same thing. So we don't stand in judgment
of other men as if we're not guilty. But we're not threatened by the
law. The charges of the law, the accusations
of the law, the threats of the law, We have one who has kept God's
law. Paul went with perfect confidence
before these Roman governors from Acts chapter 22, all the
way to Acts chapter 26, five chapters in this book. These lawmongers keep dragging
him before the court of justice and the court of justice knows
he's not guilty. He's gonna appeal all the way
to the Supreme Court. I'm gonna go to Caesar. You talk
to my heavenly father. See if I've not kept the law
in my savior. Our heavenly father, thank you
for your word. Blessed to our hearts. Thank
you for Christ and his accomplished work of salvation. For it's in
his name we pray, amen. 27 in the Sproul hymn. Now let's
stand together. Number 27. Free from the law's great curse,
in Jesus we are free. For Christ became a curse for
us and died upon the tree. The rituals of the law and all
the law's commands have been fulfilled in Christ the Lord,
established by His hands. No covenant with the law can
now with us exist. Complete in Christ we stand by
grace, both free and ever blessed. No more the dread of wrath, No
more constrained by fear, We worship and we serve our God
With gratitude and cheer. In Jesus we are free. In Jesus we are free. Free from all sin and from all
guilt, we live in liberty. we'll join the happy song with
all the blood brought from and sing the praises of the lamb
whose grace makes us his own