Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service, number 13, in the hardback hymnal. Number 13, praise ye
the Lord, and please stand. praise ye the lord the almighty
the king of creation oh my soul praise him for he is the health
and salvation all ye who hear now to his temple draw near join
me in glad adoration praise ye the lord who are all things so
wondrous Shelters thee under his wings,
yea, so gently sustaineth. Hast thou not seen how thy desires
e'er have been granted in what he ordaineth? Praise ye the Lord, who with
marvelous wisdom hath made thee. Deck thee with helten, with levée,
and guide it and stay. ♪ How often grieved ♪ ♪ Had not
he brought thee relief ♪ ♪ Spreading his wings for to shape thee ♪
♪ Praise ye the Lord ♪ ♪ O let all that is in me adore him ♪
All that has life and breath come now with praises before
Him. Let the Amen sound from His people
again. Gladly, for I, we adore Him. Thanks. evening. Let's open our Bibles
together to Genesis chapter 45. What comfort we have when the
Lord reveals Christ to us through different characters of Scripture.
And I don't suppose there's any maybe other than David that points to the Lord Jesus more
than Joseph. Joseph's name means Jehovah has
added. And this, this passage is so
full of gospel. And I hope the Lord will show
us that. Genesis chapter 45, verse one,
then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that
stood by him. And he cried, cause every man
to go out from me. And there stood no man with him,
while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren." The Lord
Jesus Christ has only ever made himself known to his people. He's never made himself known
to anyone other than his elect. And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians
and the house of Pharaoh heard. What tender compassion the Lord
has for his brethren. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
I am Joseph. Doth my father yet live? And
his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at
his presence. That word troubled actually means
terrified. And the Lord brings us into his
presence. There's a There's a reverential
fear that grips our hearts in joy and in love and in reverence
as we are brought into his presence. Joseph said unto his brethren,
come near to me, I pray you. And they came near and he said,
I am Joseph, your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. The Lord Jesus Christ went down
into Egypt when he came into this world. satisfied the demands
of God's law, and he was sold there because of the sins of
his people. Now, therefore, be not grieved nor angry with yourselves
that you sold me hither, for God did send me before you to
preserve life. For these two years hath the
famine been in the land, and yet there are five years in which
there shall neither be earing nor harvest, and God sent me
before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth and to save your
lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent
me hither, but God. God the father sent his son into
this world to accomplish a great deliverance for his people. Pray
the Lord will show us more of that tonight from his word and
enable us to bow and worship to him. Caleb and Bobby are leaving
in the morning to fly out to Montana to preach for the brethren
in Great Falls. I checked the weather. I think
it's gotten above zero, so you guys should be OK. Actually,
it's above freezing, I think. So it was 31. below a week or
so ago, but pray the Lord will bless you all and give you safe
travels and give you clarity and compassion as you preach
to the brethren there, Caleb. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, we thank you for our Joseph, the one you sent before
us, to fulfill all the demands of your holy law, to satisfy
your divine justice, to put away our sins by the sacrifice of
himself on Calvary's cross. We thank you, Lord, that you
are full of mercy and compassion toward your people and that you
separate us from the world and call us unto
yourself and show us your mercy and your grace. We pray that
you would do that again tonight. We pray your Holy Spirit would
enable us to see Christ in the scriptures and that you would
put into our hearts a desire to worship and to bow and to
rejoice in the glorious person of our successful Savior. Father,
we pray for Caleb and Bobby. We ask that you'd give them safe
travels out to Montana. We pray for Caleb, that you'd
give him the ability to speak and to preach the gospel and
pray for our brethren out there, Lord, that you would give them
ears to hear and that Christ will be lifted up and glorified
in the services there this weekend. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Would you turn to number 10 on
your spiral handbooks, and we're going to sing this acapella.
There is a Redeemer. You could please stand. There is a Redeemer, Jesus Christ,
God's Son, precious Lamb of God, Messiah, Holy One. Thank you, O our Father, and making sure the work for
sinners was completely done. Jesus Christ, Redeemer, name
above all names. Precious Lamb of God, Messiah,
hope for sinners slain. Thank you, O our Father, ♪ For giving us your Son ♪ ♪ And
making sure the work for sinners ♪ ♪ Was completely done ♪ ♪ When
he rose to heaven ♪ ♪ To his throne on high ♪ He sat down,
His work was finished, Chosen ones He can't deny. Thank you, O our Father, ♪ For
giving us your Son ♪ ♪ And making sure the work for sinners ♪ ♪
Was completely done ♪ ♪ When we stand in glory ♪ ♪ We will
see his face ♪ Then we'll worship Christ forever in that holy place. Thank you, O our Father, for
giving us your Son, and making sure the work for sinners was
completely done. Well, that's glorious, isn't
it? The work that God requires for sinners was completely accomplished
by the Lord Jesus Christ. It is finished. I love the way
the Lord finished the canon of scripture when he said that if
you add two, the words of the prophecy of this book, the curses
of this book will be added unto you. And yet that's what men
do. They add to the finished work of Christ, either a decision
they make or a work that they perform or some kind of wisdom
that they've achieved. I pray the Lord will keep us
completely dependent upon Christ for all our salvation. Will you
open your Bibles with me to Acts chapter 19, I've titled this
message, The Sons of Sceva, The Sons of Sceva. The Lord was pleased to use the
ministry of the Apostle Paul's preaching in the house of Tyrannus
to bring the gospel into the city of Ephesus. And the scripture
says that in verse 10, and this he continued by the space of
two years, so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word
of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks, and God brought special miracles
by the hands of Paul, so that from his body were brought unto
the sick handkerchiefs and aprons, and the diseases departed from
them and evil spirits went out of them. There was a great outpouring
of God's spirit and God's power in the city of Ephesus. And as is always the case, whenever
the Lord is pleased to do a work of grace among his people, he
allows Satan to counterfeit that work, to prove the people. Those who are deceived by the
counterfeit prove themselves to have no understanding of the
gospel. Those who see the difference
between the counterfeit and the genuine are brought to fear God
and to rejoice in Christ Jesus. So he always does that. The Lord
allows Satan. Satan is by profession a counterfeiter. That's all he can do, is counterfeit
the things of God. And the Lord allows it for the
sake of proving his people. Some, most, cannot see the difference
between the counterfeit and the legal tender, the real thing.
And others, you know, I understand when, Bank tellers are trained
to handle money. They become so familiar with
the feel and the look of legal tender that if a piece of counterfeit
passes their hand, they sense that there's something wrong
with it. And we're not going to spend our time trying to look
at all the counterfeits. There's too many of them. if
the Lord could make us so accustomed to and so used to the Lord Jesus
Christ and the truth of the gospel that we would sense there's something
wrong. Kevin, who was just here, Kevin
Thacker, contacted me a year or so ago, I think it was, There
was some reformed guy out there in California that he was wanting
to try to have some fellowship with, and he asked me about him,
and he told me all about him. And I said, well, I went online,
listened to the guy, called him back, said, Kevin, he's not preaching
Christ. And Kevin said, that's it. That's so simple. So simple. He got all of his doctrine right,
but he wasn't lifting up Christ. And so here's the, Here's the
counterfeit. Look at verse 13. Then certain
of the vagabond Jews, exorcist, took upon them to call over them,
which had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus. They were
using the name of Christ. Save, we adjure you by Jesus,
whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of
one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priest, which did so. And
the evil spirits answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul
I know, but who are you? The demons know who Christ is. You remember when our Lord went
over to the Gadarenes and that man was possessed with a legion
of demons and they saw the Lord Jesus coming and they said, they
said, son of man, son of God, what do you have to do with us?
Have you come here to torment us before our appointed time?
And they begged him to cast them into the swine. They know who
he is. And they knew who Paul was. They
know, they know the true gospel. And, but they're going to do
whatever they can to counterfeit it. Look at verse 16. And the
man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them and overcame them
and prevailed against them so that they fled out of that house
naked and wounded. And this was known to all the
Jews and Greeks also dwelling in Ephesus and fear fell on them
all. And the name of the Lord Jesus
was magnified. Oh, if the Lord enables us to
discern the difference between the gospel of God's free grace,
the truth as it is in Christ. And the counterfeit lies that
Satan would try to pass off, there will be fear in our hearts
and they will be great rejoicing in Christ Jesus. That's what
I hope the Lord will do for us again tonight. It is important
that we discern the difference between these two things. The Lord has told us to try the
spirits to see whether they be of God, for many false prophets
have gone out into the world. And the Sceva family is very
much alive today. The sons of Sceva are just as
prevalent today, more so. We were talking about that. Satan,
the scripture says that he presents himself as a angel of light and
a minister of righteousness. He gets a whole lot more mileage
in deceiving men into hell with morality and with religion and
with false gospels than he does with, you know, with some sort
of evil outwardly pagan practice. And so just as the house of Adam
is very much alive in the world today, the house of Sceva is
very much alive in the world today. And our Lord has made
it clear. He said, come ye out from among
them and be separate, saith the Lord. And I remember years we
always thought, well, that meant, you know, get away from all the
bad behavior that's taking place in the world. And certainly we
ought to do that. But he was talking about separating
yourselves from the sons of Sceva, those who are pretending to be
preaching Christ, those who are counterfeiting the gospel. And as is true with counterfeit
money, some of the most Deceitful counterfeits are the ones that
look most like the real thing, and those are the ones that we
have to be very, very careful of. A very well-made counterfeit,
I'm talking about someone who's promoting the doctrines of grace
but not preaching Christ, is just as worthless as the monopoly
money of Pentecostalism or some other crazy form of religion. So I pray that as the Lord has sent
these counterfeits into the world, that he will enable us to see
the difference and that fear will fall on us and that we will
find ourselves rejoicing in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and that his name will be magnified. The pattern is the same, isn't
it? Hasn't changed. Go back with me to verse 13. What is it about these sons of
Sceva that we can see the contrast
of in the gospel. I don't want to spend a whole
lot of time on looking at the sons of Sceva, except for how
they are different from the sons of God. But the first thing that
the Lord tells us about them is that they're vagabonds. And this word means that they
were aimless. They were without purpose. They
were without position. They just drifted around here
and there. They were opportunist. They were short-sighted. They
were devoid of the truth, wandering to and fro, trying to find a
place to land. That's what a vagabond is. It's
a homeless person that just is moving about trying to find someplace
to live. And that's such a description
of the false gospel. Men who have been convinced of
one thing, and some of us have been there. Some of us spent
a lot of time there. And so we know from experience
that we were aimless and without purpose, and we didn't have anything
that we really knew for sure was true. We had convictions
that we had learned from other men, and then someone more persuasive
would come along and persuade us in another direction. A vagabond,
a religious vagabond. That's the false gospel. testing
the direction of the wind and setting ourselves in that direction,
and shifting ourselves as need be in order to be pushed along
by the wind, bouncing around from here and there, one opinion
to another, one doctrine and one denomination to another,
ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the
truth. Our clothes would wear out, they'd get dirty, they'd
get They'd get holes in them and we'd just take off that set
of clothes and put on a new set of clothes. Now, in contrast
to that, we're just like the children of Israel in the wilderness
for 40 years. The scripture says their shoes
never wore out, their clothes never wore out. And what does
that mean? That's where we are. We're in this wilderness world,
but we're not changing our clothes. Our clothes aren't wearing out.
We're not getting holes in them. We're not having to take off
our shoes. No, the Lord, we have the same rope. When God teaches
us the gospel, he robes us in the righteousness of Christ,
and we've got no interest to get rid of that. And that robe
never wears out. And we have our feet shod with
the preparation of the gospel. And in contrast to just moving
about here and there like a vagabond, we're settled. We're not moving. There's the contrast. There's
the difference. Like I said, the Lord has allowed
Satan to present a counterfeit because most people can't tell
the difference between a vagabond and one who is settled in Christ. One who cannot move and will
not move away from the gospel. One whose feet are planted firmly
on the rock of ages. One whose face is set like flint
towards Jerusalem and towards the cross of Christ. We're not
going to move. This is a counterfeit. And the vagabonds are always
adjusting their message to fit the culture or the congregation
that they're preaching to. Matt, you and I were talking
about this last night. We know a preacher up in Kentucky who
came to Todd's Rogue Grace Church and talked to Todd and heard
the gospel. I talked to him on the phone
and Todd went over and preached in his church and he Southern
Baptist preacher. And he finally admitted, I really
see what you guys say and I believe it's true, but I can't preach
that in my church. I'll lose my job. A vagabond. Just adjusting the message to
appease the people. Not standing firm. Not preaching
the word in season and out of season. And they won't preach anything.
You know, I've had, I've had men tell me, you know, just don't
preach anything controversial. When I hear that, I want to,
I want to preach from first Peter chapter three, verse 16, without
controversy, without controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness. Don't you love what Chris said
about godliness? Godliness is not, Being like
God, godliness is acknowledging and bowing to Jesus Christ as
God. That's godliness. And godliness
with contentment is great gain. And great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh. This is the opposite of a vagabond. We just keep strumming the same
note. And it's a certain sound. We preach Christ and him crucified. And wherever we are in the scriptures,
whether it be in Genesis, as we just read tonight, or whether
we're here in Acts chapter 19, looking at these vagabond Jews,
these exorcists, we see it in light of the gospel. Because
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is the message. Paul said in Philippians chapter
three, verse one, finally, brethren, rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in Christ Jesus. For
to write the same thing to you, to me, is not grievous. It's not redundant. But to you,
it is safe. And that word safe is the word
certain. And so, You want to have, you
want to be safe and certain in your convictions, don't you?
And for that to happen, you've got to hear the gospel again.
You've got to hear about Christ, who he is and what he's done.
And you're not interested in moving away from him. The only
time we really have full safety and full assurance and full comfort
is when we're when we're met together in worship and hearing
the gospel and brought once again to his feet. Isn't that, is that
your experience? You see the contrast between
the vagabonds, Paul said, I determined not to know anything among you
save Christ and him crucified. He's the subject of our message.
He is our message. Christ is all, and he is in all. We just keep coming back to him. We just keep looking to him as
the sovereign, successful surety, substitute and savior of sinners. He's the son of God. He is our
life and he is our hope. Christ in you is your hope of
glory. Tell me what the Lord Jesus has
done for me. Tell me about the finished work
of redemption. There's enough vagabond spirit
left in my old man to wander around in this world and I need
to be brought back to that one place where I'm not drifting
around, I'm settled and I am sure. So we keep asking the same question,
what think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? Well, he's the
son of David. Well, if he'd be the son of David,
then why did David call him Lord when he said, the Lord said unto
my Lord, sit thou here at my right hand until I make thine
enemies thy footstool. God has made his son Lord over
the living and the dead. And he sat him down at his right
hand. And he's taking those who are
by nature at enmity with him. and bringing them to his footstool,
the sit at his feet. We're not vagabonds. Satan's
a vagabond. The false prophets are vagabonds.
Always wandering about, always trying to find something new,
always trying to find a way to apply what they know, to appease
to the flesh. God's people won't have it. God's
preachers won't have it. God won't have it. He will have
us to be settled and to be sure and to be set. That's why the
Lord said in Matthew chapter six, if the eye be single, the
whole body shall be full of light. But if the eye be evil, and that
word evil means full of labors, If the eye be evil, if the eye
be a vagabond eye, if it be looking here and there to and fro, trying
to find some other means of salvation other than the single person
of the Lord Jesus Christ, then the whole body is filled with
darkness. And then he goes on to say, if the light that you
have be darkness, how great is the darkness thereof. You see,
these vagabonds think that they have the light. They think they
have some truth. And the Lord said, you know,
what he's saying is that the man who thinks he can see when
he can't is the most blind man of all. And that's what the vagabonds
are. They think they can see, but
they're blind. Their eye is evil. Their eye
is full of labors. Their eye is drifting here and
there, to and fro, looking for this and that. We have one rock on which we
stand, one God, one Savior, one Lord. Notice also that not only were
these sons of Sceva vagabonds, but they were Jews. They were
Jews. They were just like those Jews
who said to the Lord, our Father, we'd be the children of Abraham.
The Lord said, if you were Abraham's children, you'd believe on me.
No, you're children of the devil. And these They had the oracles of God,
they had the scriptures, they had the word of God, they had
doctrine, they had theology, they had history. They could
have told you all about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and they
could have told, they could have quoted, I'm sure, much of God's
word. But like those Pharisees, they
searched the scriptures because they thought in them they had
eternal life, and they did not know that all of this book speaks
of Christ. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me. And from the beginning to the
end, it points sinners to their Savior. And they didn't know
that. And yet, that is the way it is
with the sons of Sceva today. They're not promoting, the sons
of Sceva aren't promoting immorality. They're promoting religion, and
they're using God's Word to promote it. And here's what happens. You've seen it with your own
family and friends. I've seen it many times. People
will come and they'll listen to us preach, and they'll listen
to us talk, and they'll pick up on words. They'll say, well,
I heard the word Jesus Christ, and I heard the word grace, and
I heard the word faith, and I heard the word even sovereignty. And they'll pick up on these
words, and they'll leave, and they'll say, well, they're preaching
the same thing we're preaching. They can't tell the difference.
There's no fear. There's no rejoicing in the name of Jesus Christ. You know, there's a sense in
which preaching is defining the words of the Bible. That's what
we're doing. And so, but people will just hear the words and
they'll attach their own definitions to them. That's what these sons
of Sceva capitalize on. The true Jew is circumcised in
his heart. And to be circumcised in your
heart doesn't mean that all the sin of your life has been cut
out of your heart. The heart is deceitful and desperately
wicked. Who can know it? I mean, you
know your own heart and how prone your heart is to go places where
you ought not to be. No, the circumcision of the heart
is to have all confidence in the flesh cut out of your heart
for the hope of your salvation. That's the circumcision of the
heart. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. When he calls you
to see that I can't have any confidence in the flesh, I can't
present anything that I've done or any achievement that I've
made, or anything I know, or any decision I've made to God
for the hope of my salvation, that's the Spirit of God that
cuts away from the heart all hope and confidence in fleshly
means of salvation. And that's only a work of grace
that God does for His. Those are the true Jews. Those
are the ones who are circumcised in the heart by the Spirit of
God. We worship God in the spirit. We rejoice in Christ Jesus and
we have no confidence in the flesh. There is one pearl of
great price that we mine the scriptures for and we just keep
looking for that pearl. He's the one. He's the one that
gives us hope and salvation and forgiveness and sanctification
and justification before God. Oh, just show me Christ and tell
me about Christ. That's the true Jew. The sons
of Sceva were Jewish, but like most Jews today, and I'm not,
and I'm speaking religiously, you know, when we think about
the Jews are the religious people and the Gentiles are the irreligious.
And so if you look at most people who would be religious today,
they would go to the Bible, but they would not know Christ. Everything else that we do is
wood, hay, and stubble. The Lord Jesus Christ is the,
he's the, he's the precious stone. And he, as I said, is the pearl of
great price. Look at, look at what else this
says about these, about these This is for those who are able
to discern the difference between the vagabond Jews, who are called
the sons of Sceva, and the work of God, which was done through
the Apostle Paul to the glory of Christ. The Bible says that
these men were exorcists Now, we think about, you know, and
I'm sure they were. They were doing some sort of
incantations, trying to exorcise demons out of people's lives.
But let's think about it in a broader sense, because the vagabond Jews
today are exorcists. They really are. That word exorcist
means to extract or force an oath to make a demand. That's what the word exorcist
means. I'm going to exorcise this demon out of you by forcing
a demand on you. Isn't that what the free will
gospel is? I'm going to demand that God save me. I'm going to
obligate God to save me. I'm going to exercise the demons
out of your life and out of my life by praying this prayer,
by, you know, by exercising this, this ceremony or this tradition,
whatever it is, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna get it right. We're going to extract or force
an oath. No, we're not. It is not of him
that willeth nor of him that runneth. It is of God that showeth
mercy. No, we're not gonna force anything
on him. We're gonna bow before him and
we're gonna become mercy beggars to him and plead with him for
his grace. You see, the religious, the vagabond
Jews today, and there's plenty of them. Like I said, the house
of Sceva is very well alive today. And they're still exorcist. Let me show you another place
in the Bible where that word is used. Turn with me to Matthew
26. Matthew 26. This is very enlightening. Very
enlightening. Look at Matthew chapter 26 at
verse 62. And now the next day, that followed
the day of the preparation. I'm sorry, I'm in Matthew 27.
I knew that wasn't the right text. Matthew 26, verse 62. And the high priest arose and
set unto him, speaking to the Lord Jesus. They're interrogating
him. They've already flogged him.
They're looking for charges against him to justify their actions
of crucifixion. And the high priest arose and
said to him, answerest thou nothing? We ask you if you were going
to destroy the temple and in three days rise it again. We
ask you if you thought you were the son of God. Are you not gonna
answer us? See, this goes back to Joseph
only revealing himself to his brothers. The Lord is not obligated. He's not gonna be obligated to
your demands and your request. The greatest judgment he gave
to these men was silence and that aggravated them. It's like
Pilate. Pilate said, don't you know that
I have the authority to crucify you or to release you? And what'd the Lord say? You
have no power at all except for that which is given to you from
my father in heaven. The Lord's not, he's not moved
by men's demands. Look what he says. Answerest
thou nothing? What is it which these witnesses
against thee? We want your response to the
accusations that have been made against you. Are you going to
defend yourself against those accusations or are they true?
In verse 63, but Jesus held his peace and the high priest answered
and said unto him, I adjure thee. You see that word adjure? It's
the word exorcist. Same word. Here's the high priest trying
to demand something from the Lord Jesus Christ. How is that
any different than what the vagabond Jews do today? Well, I'm going
to pray this prayer. I'm going to, I'm going to cut
these things out of my life. I'm going to start going to church.
I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. I'm going
to learn some things. and God's gonna be obligated to save me.
I'm going to, I adjure you, God. How is that different from how
we come to Him? As you receive Christ Jesus,
the Lord shall walk in Him. How did you receive Him? As a
mercy beggar, a sinner, one who knew that you had no claim on
God, that if He sent you to hell, He'd be perfectly just in doing
so. You come to him as pleading for his mercy. What did this
high priest say? I adjure thee by the living God
that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the son of God. I'm exercising you. I'm demanding that you respond to me. You see how there's, I mean,
it'd be kind of like going to a store and buying something.
You put your card in the machine, you paid for it, and the person
behind the counter says, OK, thank you. That's in our account
now. No goods for you. You know, you're welcome to leave.
We're not going to give you what you just paid for. And what would
you say? Wait a minute. I just paid for
it. It's mine. You owe it to me. Isn't that what men do with God? I paid for that. You owe me. That's what the vagabond Jews
do. I injure you. You answer me. I've done my part. Now you're
obligated to do yours. The vagabond Jews, which are
exorcists, are just as alive today more so than they were
in Ephesus. And they still have their incantations
and their formulas and their rituals and their prescriptions
and their prayers and their ceremony and their eye-walking and, you
know, whatever it is, you know, lighting of candles. I mean,
I'm relating to things that we can relate to in the, and I use
this word very broadly, Christian sense, but you think about it
worldwide. You know, and you've got the
Hindus doing things and the Muslims doing things and, you know, the
Jewish people doing things and they're all exercising God. I paid my dues. Now you owe me. That is so contrary to the gospel,
isn't it? We don't come like that. God
doesn't owe me anything. I'm not in a position to demand
anything from him. But the vagabond Jews, who are
by nature exorcist, that's exactly the way they do it. Notice, go back with me to our
text. Then certain of the vagabond
Jews, exorcist, took upon them, They presumed to be able to come
and exercise the power of God by their own words. They took
upon themselves. Kind of like Uzzah was a good
king. And the scripture says that when
he was strong, his heart was lifted up and he went into the
temple with a censer to make intercession for himself, which
was only to be done by the sons of Aaron. And the Bible says
that 80 priests got ahold of him, four score priests, and
drug him out of the temple, knowing that he was trying to approach
God without a priest. And God struck him with leprosy. he died in a, the Bible says
a several house, a leper's colony he died in, shamefully. Or you think about Nebuchadnezzar
who was lifted up in his heart and thought look at this great
nation that I have built and God turned him into a beast and
then he came to himself. Now Uzzah and Nebuchadnezzar
are examples of me and you who take it upon ourselves to approach
God without Christ and who become proud in our hearts. And God
humbles us. He humbles us and he causes us
to see, Lord, that's exactly what I did. I tried to come into
the presence of a holy God. without an advocate, without
Christ as my surety and as my intercessor. I became proud and
thinking that I achieved something. Lord, you humbled me. He humbled
us. He humbled Nebuchadnezzar. But
what about the millions who have done that and God has left them
to themselves? He didn't strike them with leprosy.
He didn't turn them into beasts. That's what he does to his people.
He makes us to be lepers from head to toe, not a square inch
of clean flesh on us. And David said of himself, he
said, I am a beast before thee. When I find myself in the presence
of God, I'm nothing but sin. That's a mercy that God would
do that for us. But how many people presume to
come into the presence of God, and the Lord just leaves them
to themselves. And they die in their deceit,
separated from God for all eternity. That's the vagabond Jew, who
is an exorcist, who has taken it upon himself. Turn to me quickly to Jeremiah
chapter 23. Jeremiah chapter 23. Look at verse 16, thus saith
the Lord of hosts, hearken not unto the words of the prophets
that prophesy unto you. They make you vain. They speak a vision of their
own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord. They are speaking on their own.
They're not speaking. If they speak not according to
the law and the testimony, it's because there's no light in them,
no light. They've made these things up
on their own. And the Lord's saying, don't listen to them.
It's coming out of their own heart. It's not coming from God.
They say, still unto them that despise
me, the Lord hath said, you shall have peace. And they say unto
everyone, that walketh after the imagination of his own heart. No evil's gonna come upon you.
They speak peace, peace when there is no peace. And they assure
one another of their salvation when God hasn't given them that
assurance. They've taken it upon themselves. We all have done it. But in God's
mercy and grace, he treats some of us like Uzzah. and Nebuchadnezzar,
and most, he just allows them to live in their deceit, taking
it upon themselves. Not even the Lord Jesus Christ
could take it upon himself. Let me show you that, Hebrews
chapter five. No man can take it upon himself
to serve God or to come into the presence of God. God has
to call him. God has to enable him. Look at
Hebrews chapter five, verse one, for every high priest, take it
from among men is ordained of men in things pertaining to God
that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. who
can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the
way, for that he himself also is compassed with infirmities.
And by reason hereof, he ought, as for the people, so also for
himself to offer for sins. And no man taketh this honor
unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron."
He's talking about this priestly function of Aaron. He said Aaron
didn't take this upon himself, God called him. So also Christ
glorified not himself to be my high priest, but he that said
unto him, thou art my son, today I begotten thee. As he said also
in another place, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord Jesus Christ could not
take that place on himself. God had to give it to him. If that's true of him, how much
more true of it is of us? We can't take it upon ourselves
to come to God. Lord, turn me and I'll be turned. Call me and I'll come. Lord,
change my heart and I'll believe. Give me faith and I'll believe.
But Lord, I can't take these things upon myself. That's what
the vagabond exorcist Jews do. These men were charlatans. They were taking advantage. Let's go back to our text in
Acts 19. They were merchandising men's
souls for their own profit. They were using the name of Jesus
to make a name for themselves, promoting themselves, taking
advantage of the hardships of men in order to line their own
pockets. Has anything changed? No. You remember Satanist counterfeiting
what Paul was doing and what Paul was a tent maker. And I
can just see these disciples coming into where Paul's working
and picking up some of his old sweat rags and carrying them
off to wherever these people were that were sick and touching
them with them. And they were healed. And then
what did they do? You know what they did. They
wanted to know where that came from. And they came back to hear
what this man had to say. Paul wasn't promoting himself.
The Bible says these things this is the things that that God had
done. And yeah, the word Sceva translated
means mind reader. And you don't have to have a
PhD in psychiatry to see what it is that men are interested
in as far as appealing to the needs of the flesh. You know,
you'd be People want to have a better marriage. They want
to be able to raise their children. They want to be happy, healthy
and wealthy and wise, you know, they, they, they mind the things
of the flesh. And if you appeal to the things
of the flesh, oh, you'll just, that's what the sons of Sceva
do. And they, you know, they, they
use the name of Christ. In other words, Jesus for them
is a means to an end. That's what he is. You just think
about religion today. You know, inviting Jesus into
your heart and coming to Christ, that's a means to an end. The
greater end is a happy life. Oh yeah, we got heaven taken
care of, that's settled. Let's go on to something bigger
and better now. Let's figure out how to be No, the Lord Jesus
Christ is not a means to an end. He is the end. You know, this
church down the road here called Journey. I think I mentioned
this a couple of weeks ago. I can just imagine the kind of
preaching that goes on there. You know, it's not the destination,
it's the journey. And they're just all about telling
people how to live a better life and how to be more happy and
how to be more productive and how to be more satisfied and
how to be more content. That's what it's all about. That's
what all religious, that's what these men were doing. They were
using the name of Jesus as a means to a greater end. Not knowing
that the Lord said, I am thy shield. I am thine exceeding
great reward. I am the means and I am the end. It doesn't get any better than
me. Christ in you is your hope of
glory. And, oh, if we have him, we have
everything. If we have him, we can bear anything,
anything, whatever he sends our way, however difficult life gets
if we have Christ. You see the difference, don't
you? Every time God is doing a work
of grace, he allows Satan to counterfeit it in order to try
the people. Because the majority of people
can't see the difference between the sons of Sceva who are exorcists. By the way, there were seven
of them. And you know what that number is, the number of perfection.
And this religion of the exorcist sons of Sceva is perfectly permeated
every area. Well, Satan is called the prince
of this world. Is there any doctrine that he
has not perverted? Is there any religion in the
world? Only God's people, only God's people. can see the difference
between what God's doing and what the seven sons of Sceva
are trying to do. Our heavenly Father, bless your
word. Give us a discerning spirit. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. 228, let's stand together, 228.