Acts 25. Let's pray together. Our Father, accept, for Christ's sake we
ask, our worship this evening as we hear Your Word. And Lord,
we worship in obedience to Your command to believe You. And we pray that You would bless
our understanding, cause us to truly rejoice, cause by Your
Spirit that we might be taught of the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. that we might fellowship with You in Him. Truly, our fellowship
might be sweet, personable, intimate. Cause us to hear. Cause us to
rejoice. Cause us to behold Him who is
altogether lovely. For Christ's sake, Amen. The Apostle Paul has been surrounded by great
controversy. Now, you know, it's always been like that. It's
always been. There's been controversy around
and surrounds believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if I just made that statement
and that was all you knew, that's all you ever heard, you'd never
heard me say any other statement, you'd say, well, everybody believes in the Lord
Jesus Christ. What is the controversy? Have
you ever thought about that? What is the controversy? What? I mean, When it comes right
down to it, what is the issue? Why? Turn to John 15, 19. I'll show you. Here's the answer
right here. If you want to know why, what is the controversy?
What is it that men despise? John 15, 19. Well, let's just read 18 and
19. John 15, 18 and 19. If the world hate you, ye know
that it hated me before it hated you. Okay? All right. Now, you know that.
The Lord told His disciples, if the world hates you, it hated
me before they hated you. Look at verse 19. Now, if ye
were of the world, the world would love his own. Now you listen
to this next statement, and I'm going to tell you right here,
this is where it's all about. This is where the contention is right
here. But, because ye are not of the
world, but because I have chosen you out of the world, therefore
the world hateth you. You want to know what the issue
is? The issue is God's sovereignty. That's the bottom line right
there. The bottom line is the sovereignty of Almighty God,
He who has the right to show mercy and compassion
to whomsoever He will, and to choose to elect to set apart
one vessel out of the same lump unto honor and to pass by another."
There's the issue right there. That's the reason that believers
and unbelievers don't walk together. Have you ever thought about that?
What is it? There it is right there. He said,
because I've chosen you out of the world. Go back in Acts 25. The Jews hate the Apostle Paul. They're mad at him because they
hate the Apostle's God. Now, just think about, without
going back, we wouldn't go back to, but think of what Paul has
been preaching. Paul has been preaching sovereign
grace, sovereign, electing, predestinating grace. Not by works of righteousness
that you've done, but according to His mercy He saved. What the Gospel does, it just
strips a man of any ability to be able. No man can come. Man by nature is told, you can
if you will. And the Lord told, no, no, no,
you can't. Let me ask you something. Who
are we going to believe? Who are we going to believe?
Almighty God or a liar? Now, one of the two is lying,
Neil. One of them. Somebody is lying
here. Now, Mitch, that's just the bottom line. Somebody is
lying. These Jews were so mad at Paul, It says in Acts 25, starting
in verse 13, this is where we left off. It says, After certain
days, King Agrippa and Bernice came unto Caesarea to salute
Festus. And when they had been there
many days, Festus declared Paul's calls unto the king, saying,
There is a certain man left in bonds by Felix, about whom, when
I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and elders of the Jews
informed me desiring to have judgment against him to whom
I questioned. It's not the manner of the Romans
to deliver any man to die before that he which is accused have
the accusers face to face and have license to answer for himself
concerning the crime laid against him. The Roman governor here
was completely ignorant of the controversy. And I'll tell you this, every
man born in Adam, this is the way we're all born. We're all
born ignorant of the controversy. Until the Lord opens a man or
woman's heart and gives them a heart of understanding, they
don't even know what the issue is. I'm telling you, I promise
you, there's people in this world, masses, that are just absolutely
ignorant of what is really going on. They have no idea the end
and the result of the end of this life without Christ. They just, I mean, just happy-go-lucky. Everything's just fine. I've
got a good job and I've got a good house. family, and I got this,
and we're that, and we're just, and they have no idea what's
going on. They're just ignorant. He said,
these Jews, you know, he said, they had this squabble, and he
said, they wanted to crucify, they wanted me to judge this
man, is what Festus was saying, and he said,
Roman law won't let me do that. He knew that there was a problem.
These Jews were mad at him, but he had no idea what the problem
was. I tell you, the problem, as I
just mentioned a while ago, is the enmity between light and
darkness, grace and works. This is what it's all about.
Somebody said, well, can't we just get along? Can't we just let these little
petty differences go? No, this is not petty differences.
This is life. Let God be true and every man's
a liar. No, no. No, this is for real. The true nature of false religion. Now listen to this. The true nature of false religion
is the evidence of gracelessness. There's no graciousness. There's
no graciousness. I want you to turn. I looked
at a verse of Scripture today that was very interesting to
me. Luke 4.22. Luke 4.22. And the thing that made it so wonderful is the explanation
of a word that I saw in this passage of Scripture. Luke 4, verse 22. The Scripture says... Oh, I'm in Luke 2. I'm sorry. It
is Luke 4, 22. I'm just in the wrong book. Oh, chapter. and
all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded
out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's
son? Now, what they heard him say,
you think of the word gracious, and you think, well, you know,
people can be gracious, we can be gracious, you can be kind,
you can be considerate. People can be gracious. We use
that word, gracious, and understand it. But this word right here
is a word that means words concerning God's distinguishing favor. Words of sovereign grace. Let me say it like that. That's
what that means. They wondered at His gracious words, Words
of distinguishing favor from Almighty God. There's only two
words really in the messages that we hear today. They're either
gracious words or they're words of works, man's works. They either
have their focus in the graciousness of God or in the works of man. When it comes right down to it,
the heart of the messages that are preached. It's either works
or grace. You know that. It's either that
God Almighty has done and it's finished. He chose. He purposed. He redeemed. The Spirit of God calls. He keeps. He takes. He has. It's done. Or it's He's trying. He's offering. He hopes it's
left up to Him. That's the heart of it. They
wondered at the gracious words. The true nature of false religion
is the evidence of there being no graciousness in the words. There's no grace to it. There's
no grace. Grace is sovereign. Grace is only sovereign grace. Only God Almighty can show grace,
graciousness, and salvation. I'm not saying people can't be
kind, but when it comes to the salvation of a sinner, that's
what I'm talking about. I'm talking about eternal things,
just like in the stoning of Stephen. Here was a group of people that
absolutely had a desire to just destroy. This man, Paul, and
Paul's desire, his hope, his plea was in the salvation of
God's people. I know that men hear the message
of sovereign grace and they'll say, but you're trying to be
so narrow. You're trying to make it where
it's only this big. I mean, we're trying to make
it this big But I said, yeah, but the problem is that Almighty
God said this is the way it is. And you can open up broad is
the way that leads to destruction. You can tell men it's this wide,
Fred, and they still can't come. They're still impotent. They're
still unable. Make it as wide as you want to
make it. without Almighty God showing
mercy. Man by nature hates gracious
words as words are set forth as being
gracious in the Scriptures. Man is going to shut his ears
to the only message of hope. It's like when our Lord stood
before Pilate and men said, crucify Him. I tell you, that still rings
in the voices of God's enemy today. They hate gracious words. Only those who know something
of grace exhibit grace. The second thing is that which
is the heart of a carnal man's resentment. The heart of resentment,
when it comes right down to it, what is the one event which actually
is not an event, I'll tell you that. It is Christ. But what is that
one thing that absolutely just raises up the heart of animosity? Here it is, the resurrection.
The resurrection. The resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the resurrection is the believer's
greatest joy and peace and comfort. Back in Acts 25, verses 17 to
19, it says, here's Festus still talking, he said, Therefore,
when they were come hither without any delay on the morrow, I sat
on the judgment seat and commanded the man to be brought forth.
Now what Festus is saying this, he said, OK, I'm going to, I
want to get down to it. What are you guys squabbling
over? What are y'all fighting about?
Here's a group of Jews that came down, you know, in Jerusalem,
and they're wanting... He says in verse 18, "...against
whom, when the accuser stood up, they brought none accusation
of such things as I supposed." He said, I figured the way they
were talking, this guy must have... there's no telling what this
guy had done. I mean, they must have caught him doing every kind
of heinous crime imaginable. But he said it wasn't anything
about things that I thought it might be. Verse 19, "...but had
certain questions against him of their own superstition of
one Jesus, which was dead, which Paul affirmed to be alive." He
said these guys were all up in arms over this one issue right
here. This one Jesus that had been
crucified. That they were saying He's been
crucified and Paul affirmed and affirmed and affirmed was alive. He said that's what the issue
was over, the resurrection. His resurrection, for a believer,
His resurrection is our assurance of life and life eternal. If there be no resurrection,
Paul says, then Christ is not raised. And if Christ be not
raised, we are of all men, we are most miserable. Absolutely
no hope. Why was everybody so mad about
Jesus of Nazareth resurrected? Why were they so mad? It is because
if He has been raised from the dead, and He has, then by His
resurrection all of the doctrines that He taught or so. You see what I'm saying? When
he came and he told them, he told those Jews, some Jews and
Pharisees, he told them, he said, when he preached to them, you
know, no man, no man, no man can come except he preached sovereign,
sovereign Sovereign grace. And they told him, they said,
how long are you going to make us to wonder? Why don't you just tell us plainly
what you're talking about? He said, I told you. And you
believe not. He said, you believe not because
you're not my sheep. Now what he's just done is he's
just excluded some people. He said, wait a minute. Are you
telling us that we're not of God? Is that what you're telling
us? If we don't believe on you, is that what you're saying? You're
saying we believe not because we're not your sheep. He didn't
say you're not my sheep because you don't believe. He said you
don't believe because you're not my sheep. My sheep hear my
voice and they follow me. He told them, he said, I lay
down my life for my sheep. No man takes my life. He said,
I have the power to lay down my life and I have the power
to take it again. He just told them, Gary, he was
God. Now here's the issue. The Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus
of Nazareth, the Word made flesh, He has distinguished Himself,
who He is. He's God. He has set forth His
sovereignty in election. He has set forth His sovereignty
in redemption. I lay down my life. You don't
believe because you're not my sheep. That means that God is
sovereign in election. I lay down my life. God is sovereign
in redemption. He told Nicodemus, He says, the
Spirit of God is like the wind. He blows whethersoever He will. What He's saying is, I'm sovereign
in regeneration. Now if that right there is the
message that He set forth and set Himself forth as God Almighty
in electing, redeeming, quickening grace, If God raised Him from
the dead, then everything He said was so. God accepted Him. And if that right there is the
Son of the living God, and He's come out of the grave, He's been
resurrected, the reason they hated that message of resurrection,
because if He was the one that came out of the grave, they were
guilty of crimes against God. Turn back to Acts 2, verse 22. You men of Israel, hear these
words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved, confirmed, set forth,
approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs
which God did by Him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also
know Him. Being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain whom God hath raised up, having
loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should
beholden of it." Why do men hate the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ? Because He set Himself forth
as God. Sovereign God. Sovereign in creation. Sovereign
in providence. Sovereign in salvation. God. Not trying to. God. If He came out
of the grave, resurrection by the power of Himself, then men
that do not bow to Him are criminals against God Almighty and will
stand before Him in judgment. Why did they hate the resurrection?
That's the reason. The Lord says, they hated Me
before they hated you. And the reason they hate you
is because I chose you. That's the reason. Men by nature don't
hate the resurrection of a Jesus that loves everybody and died
for everybody and desires to save everybody if they'll let
Him. But that's not who came out of the grave. He who came
out of the grave is the sovereign Lord, a resurrected Savior. One that came into this world
to save everyone that the Father gave Him. He said, of all that
you've given Me, I've lost none. Save the Son of Perdition, Judas,
that the Scriptures be fulfilled. The Lord Jesus. He who came to
this world to do the will of the Father. He who did it. That
resurrected and sacred. That is the one I'm talking about.
When I just say, Do you believe in the resurrection? Anybody,
everybody and their brother will say, oh yeah, I do. Do you believe in the resurrection
of Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved among God, He who declared Himself
to be as He said? See, these Jews were only concerned
about themselves, their religion, their heritage, their self-esteem,
their... Ephestus said it right here concerning
their own superstition. Man by nature, this is the way
we all are. We are concerned with my profession
of faith, my baptism, my denomination, my will. The Apostle Paul is
all true believers. He was concerned with the resurrected
Christ, the one that God had set forth. There is a distinction
here when we talk about the resurrection. The Lord said in Revelation 118,
I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.
Amen. And have the keys of death and
hell. Christ, he who truly died upon the cross, if he did not
die, justice has not been satisfied. This is what his death. His death
says that he actually put away the guilt of his people. He didn't
try to do anything. See, there's the difference.
If it's a Jesus that is trying to do something, that's not who
we're talking about resurrected. I'm talking about the resurrected
sovereign Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, who died according to
the Scriptures, who was raised According to the Scriptures,
the third day, literal, physical resurrection. Whenever he died,
there was the Lord Jesus Christ. When he died, he said, Father,
into your hands I commend my spirit. His human spirit, his
human spirit, he had a human spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the great mystery of
godliness. God was manifested in the flesh.
A man. The Word was made flesh. Man. His human soul. The soul of the man. Christ Jesus. The Son of Man.
And when He died, His soul was commended into the hands of His
Father. That's what He said, into thy hands. I commend my
spirit. And He gave up the ghost. He
died. And that body that was hanging
upon that cross was dead. He died. They came. They were
going to break His legs. And they saw that He was already
dead. They stuck a spear in Him. And
they took that dead body and they laid that dead body in the
grave for three days. And for three days, his spirit,
his soul, his humanity, his spirit of humanity was separated from
his body, commended into the hands of his Father. And three
days later, reunited. And he came out of that grave.
Stone was rolled away and he was resurrected. What did that
resurrection prove? What did it say? It said that
Almighty God accepted and was approved of Him who had absolutely
finished the work that He gave Him to do. He came into this
world to save all that the Father had given Him. He lived for Him
and earned as a man. as a man. He who grew. Here was this holy thing in the
words of Scripture. Holy Scripture says this holy
thing that is within thee, the Son of God. And here He came
forth made of woman, made under the law, was subject to every
jot and tittle of the law. In every word, every thought,
every deed, God Almighty scrutinized him. And here is the man, truly
man. And as a man, the God-man, as
a man, he obeyed God. I know how I think. Sometimes
I can remember thinking, Well, yeah, but the reason he
did all that was because he was God. Well, yeah, he's God. He's truly God. I'm telling you
this, he obeyed God as a man. He obeyed God as a... If he did
not obey God totally as a man, then he really wasn't my representative. I need one to represent me before
God who is a man. And as a man, He obeyed God and not one thought,
one word, one deed, one action, nothing was disrespectful. He said, I do only always those
things that please my Father. And here is the man, Christ Jesus,
the one who earned a righteousness as a man that is imputed to all
of his people. All those that shall believe,
they shall believe. And that righteousness that he
earned is their righteousness. That's the one that came out.
God accepted him. And these Jews right here, they
kept, no, no, no. And Paul kept affirming, he's
alive. He's alive. He's alive. We preach Christ. Alive, risen, reigning. We don't
tell men to come to the doctrines of grace. The doctrines of grace
didn't die for you. I'll tell you who you come to
Christ. You come to this resurrected Christ alive. The one we love
and preach and serve. The resurrected author and finisher
of our faith. Christianity. That is a living
union. with a living Savior. Christianity. Christ in you. The hope of glory. The resurrection. I tell you,
the angels declared His resurrection. Matthew 28, 5 and 6, And the
angel answered and said unto the woman, Fear ye not, for I
know that ye seek Jesus which was crucified. He is not here,
for He is risen, as He said. Come and see the place where
the Lord lay. He was seen by the women that spoke to the angel. Matthew 28, 9, And as they went
to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail.
And they came and held him by the feet and worshipped him. Grabbed hold of him. He said,
He's alive. 2 Corinthians 15, 5 and 6, that
he was seen of Cephas. Then of the 12, after that, he
was seen above 500 brethren at once. of whom the greater part
remain unto this present, but some are falling asleep." And
then Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, 8, and last of all, he was
seen of me also as one born out of due time. When was that? I wondered about that. When did
Paul say he saw him? When? When did you see him, Paul?
Here it is, Acts 22, 17, 18. It came to pass that when I was
come again to Jerusalem, even While I prayed in the temple,
I was in a trance, and I saw him saying to me, Make haste
and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy
testimony concerning me." Witnesses. The Spirit of God witnessed of
him in Acts 5, 30-32. Three things in closing that
makes the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ the one that
we've set forth God, human flesh, God in human flesh. Three things
are absolutely so concerning His resurrection. Number one,
God's elect are redeemed. Justice has been satisfied. Our sins are purged and shall
never be brought up again. When He came out of that grave,
this is what He said. God Almighty dealt with Him and
put away our guilt by His death. The soul that sinneth is going
to die. He was made sin and died. Now the death that I'm talking
about, the soul that sinneth is going to die, is eternal death. Now, we're going to physically
die unless we are remaining here at the second coming of Christ.
And I'm telling you this, that physical death is but a door. A door. From this life to eternal
life. A moment. Where's the sting of
death for the believer? Where's the victory of the grave
for a believer? Death is God's means to just
usher His people right into His presence. Can you imagine? To truly realize, I shall behold
Him by sight. I shall actually look upon my
Redeemer. This is real. The resurrection. declares that God's people have
been absolutely redeemed. Secondly, that all that were
crucified with Christ, and I'll tell you this, all that the Father
chose were, all that were crucified with Him, buried with Him and
raised with Him shall in time be regenerated by the Spirit
of God. This is the assurance. His resurrection
assures that absolutely everyone for whom He died are going to
be regenerated, born again. 1 Peter 1.3, Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His
abundant mercy hath begotten us again. That means regenerated,
born again. Unto a lively hope By or because
of is what the word by there means. Because of the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. He bought. Let me ask you this. For what reason would a man or
a woman be regenerated if there was no eternal life? For what reason would a man or
woman be born again, called out of darkness, given a new life?
For what? So that at the end of this life,
because there's no resurrection, they die? No. His resurrection
is the assurance of the regeneration of all of His people. You have
witnessed the first resurrection in regeneration. You're looking
at it. And here is a regeneration, a
new birth, new life, in which a man or a woman is still vitally
coupled with the presence of sin. Here's a brand new nature
coupled with that old nature. They don't mix, but they strive
against each other. But there's coming a time when
death is going to separate that body of death. and they're going
to see the Lord and live forever with Him. And thirdly, here's
the assurance of His resurrection, is that we're going to be resurrected
too. Last verse, 1 Thessalonians 4. 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 13, But I would not have you to be
ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that is,
those that have died in the Lord, Their bodies are in the ground,
and they're going back to dust, and probably many of them already
have, that you saw or not, even as others which have no hope,
for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so
them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For
this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are
alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent
them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with
the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. And
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall
we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these words." All that Paul affirmed. Unless the Spirit of
God opens a man's heart in regeneration, he's not going to believe that.
They didn't believe it. Then the Scripture says, and
I'm just going to read these verses 20 to 27. It was their
discussion after they heard what Paul said. They heard what the
Jews said. They heard what Paul said. They
heard what the argument was. And this was his summation. This is what he came to. He said
in verse 20, And because I doubted of such manner of questions.
He said, I just I heard what the issue was. I didn't know how to handle it. I asked him whether he would
go to Jerusalem and there be judged in these matters. But
when Paul had appealed to be reserved under the hearing of
Augustus, I commanded him to be kept till I might send him
to Caesar. Then Agrippa said unto Festus, I would also hear
the man myself. Tomorrow, said he, thou shalt
hear him. And on the morrow when Gripple
was come, Bernice with great pomp entered into the place of
hearing with the chief captains and certain principal men of
the city at Festus' command. Paul was brought forth. Before
I finish, I got to thinking about this when I read, he came in
with great pomp. Here was Paul the apostle with
some literal chains on him in bondage. And he was the only
free man there. Here he was free in Christ. He
was the only free man. If the Son of Man makes you free,
you're free. Here he was. And here's all these
others. Mike coming in with all the pomp
and the gaiety. And these are all in bondage.
Man by nature says, you're saying I'm in bondage without Christ? Yes, you are. And fast as verse
24 said, King Agrippa and all men which are here present with
us, you see this man about whom all the multitude of the Jews
have dealt with me, both at Jerusalem and also here, crying that he
ought to not live any longer. But when I found that he had
committed nothing worthy of death and that he himself hath appealed
to Augustus, I have determined to send him, of whom I have no
certain thing to write unto my Lord. Wherefore, I have brought
him forth before you." What he's saying right there is Except
I couldn't come to the bottom line of why this man was worthy
of death. So basically what I want you
to do is make judgment on this and kind of take the burden off
of me. That's what he's saying. Especially
I have brought me brought him forth before you and especially
before the old King Agrippa that after examination had I might
have somewhat to write where it seemed it to me unreasonable
to send a prisoner and not with all to signify the crimes laid
against him. This man, after he heard the
issue, it was all laid forth. Paul made a good argument concerning
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Bethesda said,
I just don't see what the issue is unless Almighty God gives
a man a heart to see what the issue is. He'll be just like
Festus. I just don't see what you're
squabbling about. But if Almighty God gives a man or a woman a
heart concerning the resurrected Christ, He is the issue. And you will not compromise.
You won't compromise on Him. You'll stand fast. You'll stand
firm. And the reason you will is because you're kept by the
power of God. unto the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. May the
Lord add His blessing to the reading and the preaching and
the hearing of His gospel. Amen.