It's a glorious thing, isn't
it? The glorious privilege, the glorious
grace of God that he has given us the privilege of having the
Lord Jesus Christ revealed to us and then preached to us and
then we continually are reminded of him. There's a lovely word
at the end of Acts. The last verse of Acts says of
Paul that he was preaching the kingdom of God, teaching those
things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ. With all confidence,
no man forbidding him. No one is going to stop the word
of God getting to its people. No one, nothing in this world
is ever going to stop the word of God reaching the sheep. They
will hear the shepherd's voice. But I love what that word concern
means. It's the word from which we get
our word perimeter. And it's a lovely description,
isn't it, of preaching. There is this glorious object,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and we turn him around and we look at
him from every aspect and every time we look at him we find something
more glorious. Every time we read about him
in the scriptures we see him more glorious. Everything concerning him is
glorious. And so in a sense we spend our
time just plucking a one-stringed instrument, don't we, and playing
one chord. We just preach the Lord Jesus
Christ and him crucified. Everything about him, everything
about the character of God is revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ
and him crucified. And so the book of Acts begins
with the Lord Jesus Christ preaching. If you turn back to Acts 1, you'll
see that there's a beautiful harmony, a beautiful beginning
and a beautiful end. Acts begins this glorious history
of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. going back here, that
all of what we read in Acts and all of what we happen to see
is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke says in the former
treatise, Have I made, O Theophilus? Theophilus means lover of God. It applies to all the church
of God. Listen to this. Of all that Jesus
began to do and to teach, has he finished? He hasn't finished, is he? He's
still doing, he's still the teacher, isn't he? Until the day in which
he was taken up, that after that he, through the Holy Ghost, had
given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen. To whom? Also, he showed himself alive
after his passion, after the crucifixion, by many infallible
proofs, being seen of them forty days. In 1 Corinthians 15 you
have a record of it, don't you, and the people that he met, and
500 brethren at one time. So there was no shortage of evidence
and no shortage of witness. But also we need to be reminded
And a salutary reminder it is, isn't it, that he only ever appeared
to his people. He only ever appeared to his
people. He had the most remarkable opportunity
to appear before the Romans and those Jews there in Jerusalem
and declare before Caiaphas and Annas and the whole Sanhedrin
and all the Jewish mob that had cried out crucify that he had
a great opportunity, didn't he, if he wished to do it. Who did
he appear to? appeared to some disciples. He appeared to his own and he's
still doing exactly the same thing. These are the things that
the Lord began to do and he's still doing them. He showed himself
alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen
of them 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the
kingdom of God. So when he came back, what did
he do? He proved who he was. He proved that all of the scriptures
are about him. But he came back as a preacher. He was a preacher. When he was
there with that 500 brethren in Galilee, what was he doing?
He was preaching. He was always preaching. And he's preaching himself. He's
preaching the King of the Kingdom of God. And so, Paul, at the
end of Acts, is here in Rome by promise. The Lord said that
you'll be a witness under me in Rome, and that's exactly what
the commission of all the apostles were, and it's the commission
of the church, isn't it? He says in Acts 1.8, but you shall receive
power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and you shall
be witnesses under me. both in Jerusalem and in all
Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. That's our task, isn't it? We're
witnesses unto him. We just say this is who he is.
We've met him, the children of God have met him. They meet him
in the preaching of the gospel. They meet him as he gathers with
his people. They meet him, so that we can meet with him.
So let's go back to Acts chapter 28 and we'll just read these
verses and then we'll have another hymn. The church is one foundation. So Paul, in verse 23, when they
had appointed him a day, Paul asked to see them and then they
organised for a time to come. There came many to him in his
lodging to whom, this is what he did, he was testifying, he
expounded. and testified the kingdom of
God, persuading them. He was testifying with a purpose. He wasn't just beating the air.
He had a purpose, and that persuading is the purpose. He was seeking
belief. He was laying out the evidence
of the Lord Jesus Christ before these people, such that they
might believe. And he did it out of the law
of Moses and out of the prophets. All of the Old Testament scriptures
just have one message. It's the Lord Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. That's all it is. It's a message
about Him. It is a hymn book from morning
till evening. What a day that must have been.
What a day that must have been. these Jews had to have the apostle
Paul sent by God to them have a whole day from morning till
evening preaching and we don't have any doubt about what he
preached. He preached the Lord Jesus Christ. He started in Genesis
1 and 1 and finished in Malachi chapter 4 and he preached the
Lord Jesus Christ out of all of those scriptures. He preached
the Lord Jesus Christ as Creator. He preached the Lord Jesus Christ
pictured in all of the sacrifices. He pictured the Lord Jesus Christ
walking with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. He pictured
the Lord Jesus Christ taking a lamb in the very presence of
Adam and Eve and stripping them of their fig leaves of self-righteous
works righteousness. and slaying a lamb in that garden
and clothing them so that their shame would be covered. He was
pictured in all of the blood sacrifices throughout the rest
of the Old Testament. He's pictured as a prophet, a
priest and king. He's pictured as a sovereign
creator over all things. He's pictured in union with his
bride. He's pictured as glorious in
all of these remarkable things. And the result of preaching has
been the result ever since man left the garden. Cain and Abel,
Ishmael and Isaac, Jacob and Esau, wherever the gospel comes,
there is this division, isn't it? And some believed the things
which were spoken, and some believed not. When they agreed not among
themselves, they departed after the Paul had spoken this one
word. So there's a departing in Acts 28-25, and I think the
departing there is a departing from the conversation they were
saying, this is it, we've had enough. of that particular Jesus Christ
that you have spoken. We don't hear about that Lord.
And then he brings that warning from Isaiah that these people
had fulfilled in their hearing. Well spake the Holy Ghost by
Isaiah, the prophet unto our fathers, saying, Go unto these
people and say, In hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand,
in seeing ye shall see and not perceive. For the heart of these
people is waxed gross. It's fat. unable to be touched,
and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed? Lest they should see with their
eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart,
and should be converted, and I should heal them. Be it known
therefore unto you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles,
and they will hear it. And when he said these words,
the Jews departed. This departing is a departing
out of the room. They departed twice, didn't they?
They departed from his words and then they departed from his
presence and had great reasoning among themselves. And Paul dwelt
two whole years in his own hide house and received all the trust. When people depart, they
depart from the words and they depart from the And all that come, all that come
are received, received with gladness. Okay. May we be made of God to
be coming people, to be received people. Thanks, Tom. We're going
to sing the Church's One Foundation. It's number nine in our hymn
books. Thank you. The church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ her Lord. She is his new creation, by water
and the bird. From heaven he came and sought
her to be his holy bride. With His own blood He bought
her, And for her life He died. Elect from every nation, Yet
one o'er all the earth, Her charter of salvation, One Lord, one faith,
one birth. One holy name she blesses, partakes
one holy food, and to one hope she presses, with every grace
endued. Mid toil and tribulation and
tumult of her war, She waits the consummation of peace forevermore. Till with a vision glorious,
eyes are blessed, and the great church victorious shall be the
church at rest. Yet she on earth hath union with
God the three-in-one, And mystic sweet communion with those whose
rest is one. O happy ones and holy! So let's come to Acts chapter
28, 29. And the Jews departed. That's
the title of this message. The Jews departed. The Jews. The Jews always depart. The Jews
are departing today. The Jews are this remarkable
nation, aren't they? They are pictured in the scriptures.
as a nation which is created especially by They are pictured in the scriptures
as a nation which is continually rebellious. They are a unique
people in so many remarkable ways. There was no other nation
on earth that was created like the Jews. They are a special
creation of God. Abraham was just an idolater
in Ur of the Chaldees. He was just an idolater. When
Jacob went back there and Jacob's wife left, she took Idols from
there, they were still idolaters years later. And Abraham was
called by God, wasn't he? They are a people who were unique
in so many remarkable ways. In Genesis 12, those remarkable
promises are made, aren't they? I will make thee a great nation. And in you will all, and you'll
be a blessing. All the families on the earth
will be blessed in him. They were a nation created by
God. They were a nation that were
to picture the grace of God and the glory of God and the power
of God. They were a nation which embodied
the promises of God. They were a separated people
throughout their history. The Jews would know that it was
Isaac who was the chosen son and not Ishmael, that it was
Jacob who was the chosen son and not Esau, that there was
a particular group of people that was the believing ones that
went into the promised land and the others perished. They were
remarkable. people, 450 years in Egypt they
were preserved and they still knew of God after 450 years. They had 70 years in Babylon
and then they were remarkably brought back to their land according
to the promise that God had made to them. They were a nation created
by a sovereign hand of a creator. They were a nation blessed with
the extraordinary grace of God. They were a nation who had promises. They were a nation who revealed
the election of God. They were a preserved people.
And as the Lord said to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4,
salvation is of the Jews. And Paul says to the Romans,
what advantage has the Jew? Much in every way. Much in every
way. What a remarkably privileged
nation they were. Much in every way, chiefly because
unto them the oracles of God. For 1500 years they kept by the
hand of God, they kept the oracles of God. And yet, and yet this nation is here before us portrayed in
this last apostolic word to these Jews. And it says, the Jews departed. Turn to Romans chapter 2 and
you'll see what Paul says of the Jews. The real Jews are the
faith children of Abraham. The real Jews are the promised
children. In Romans chapter 2 Paul says
to these Romans, and I can't help but think that some of these
Jews might have had a copy of the book of Romans, and certainly
there would have been plenty of them around. I imagine with
this, if Hebrews is just a short epistle, then Romans is a considerably
shorter epistle, and you think it is about the same length,
I beg your pardon, but it's still short in their understanding. And there were no restrictions
on copying it as they were copying the Old Testament scriptures.
And so these would have been around in those days. But Paul
says, For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is
that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew
which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of a heart. In the Spirit,
and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of
God, there are in this world some true Jews. We quote that
verse out of Philippians chapter 3 and it says, For we are the
circumcision. We are the circumcision. We Christians
are the circumcision. He's writing to some people in
Greece. He says, we, you and me together,
we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit and
rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. By the time the Lord Jesus Christ
had come along, the Jewish nation, the nation of those were so blinded
by their religion that even the plainest testimonies for 30 years
that this Messiah had come, even their own genealogies and their
history had shown them that the Messiah was due to come. And
none of the evidence regarding his birth, which must have been
quite well known, seeing Herod destroyed every two-year-old All of those events, none of
those events, and certainly none of the events of John the Baptist
coming and proclaiming the Lord Jesus Christ, none of the events
of the Lord Jesus Christ moved these people. No wonder John
again and again and again speaks of their festivals. He says it's
the Jews' Passover. It's no longer God's Passover.
It was God's Passover in Exodus 12. It's now the Jews' Passover,
and it's the Jews' feast, and it's the Jews' feast at the tabernacle. The Jews' religion in the Lord
Jesus Christ's day was a religion of works, a religion of self-righteousness,
a religion of pride in their knowledge, pride in And it was all just fleshly pride. If I go back to Acts, I want
to see how the Jews' religion operated in that day. And I want us to be reminded
yet again that the Jews are portrayed before us throughout the Scriptures
in the Gospel accounts and into Acts as a picture of the Church
that is legalistic, the Church that preaches anything other
than the Gospel of free and sovereign grace in God. If we just think
of them as a historic movement that has died, if we think of
the Pharisees as people who lived 2,000 years ago and none exist
today, If we think of the Jews as a historic group that no longer
function as they did in the Lord's day, we have missed the point.
We have missed the point of what the Scriptures are saying. The
Scriptures are living and active and they're speaking to us today.
The Jews picture all false religion, all false religion that claims
to worship God. No wonder in Revelation it's
called the synagogue of Satan. They say they are Jews and they
are not. This is how the Jews operated.
This is Paul and Saul. This is after
the death of Stephen. Threatenings and slaughter against
the disciples of the Lord went unto the high priest and desired
of him, that's what his name means, Saul means desired, and
desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he
found any in this way, whether they be men or women, he might
bring them bound unto Jerusalem. That's how the Jewish religion
operates. You go out and you bring people and you bring them
bound unto Jerusalem. If you turn to Galatians chapter
4 you'll see what this Jerusalem is. They bring them bound unto
Jerusalem. That's exactly what religion
does. It binds people, doesn't it? It binds people and takes
them captive. It takes them captive of their
works. It takes them captive. in ways that cause them to be
chained in chains much stronger than all the prisons in this
world. Abraham had two sons, one by
the bondwoman and another by the free woman. But he who was
of the bondwoman was born after the flesh. What's that after
the flesh? That's Abraham. Abraham and Sarah
saying that God has made a promise. And let's put our hand to the
promise, and the promise won't be fulfilled unless I do something.
That's what that was all about, wasn't it? After the flesh. But
he of the fruit-free woman was by promise. Which things are
an allegory for these are the two covenants, one from Mount
Sinai, which gendereth to bondage. That's the bondage that Paul
was in and that's the bondage that Paul wanted to put other
people in. That's what religion is doing all the time. It's bonding
people, isn't it? It's binding them. Binding them
to their systems and their understanding of things. For this Agar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia, which answereth to Jerusalem, which now is, and
is in bondage with her children. That's where Paul was taking
them, wasn't he? He was going and gathering these people and
bringing them back and putting them in bondage in Jerusalem. You might recall Elijah on Mount
Carmel was remarkably courageous and brave, and all of those people
were put to death, and the Lord revealed himself in that sacrifice.
And then in fear of Jezebel, he ran and ran and ran, and he
ran all the way down to Mount Sinai. And God three times confronts
him at Sinai and says, what are you doing down here, Elijah? You don't go to heaven, Elijah,
from Mount Sinai. You get out of here, you go back,
and you cross the Jordan, and a chariot from God will take
you to heaven. There is no path to heaven via the law. There is no path to heaven via
the works of man's hand. That's why we have to cast out
the bondwoman that says, she shall not be heir with the son
of the free. So that was the Jews' religion,
wasn't it? They had the clearest testimony
as these men had in this room in Rome. They had the clearest
testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ laid out before them all day
long. He took scripture after scripture after scripture and
showed them again and again in probably hundreds of circumstances. This relates to the Lord Jesus
Christ. You can imagine how much time he spent. in amazing books
like Solomon showing the glorious picture of the Lord Jesus Christ
and his bride. The wonders of all those psalms
which are all about the Lord Jesus Christ. Again and again
he would have shown them that Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 and a
passage and passage and passage after all of it could only ever
relate to one particular person at one particular time and that
he must come to Jerusalem. He must come to, he must be crucified. You see that's what Isaiah's
chapter The Jewish religion in the Lord's
day was divine people. They went over land and sea from
their Bible colleges and their mission organization. They brought
people back to Jerusalem. And the Lord says they're twice
the child of hell that they were beforehand. They were twice as
worse. And then the Jews religion infiltrates
the church. In Acts chapter 15 we have the
first mentions of this Jews religion coming into the church. And I
love what the Holy Spirit, how the Holy Spirit describes these
people in Acts chapter 15. It's the great council of Jerusalem,
a council that declared that God puts no difference between
we Jews and these Gentiles and he purifies their hearts by faith. by works. But I love what he
said of the Pharisees who were the cause of this. He says they
rose up, verse 5, they rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees
which believed. Isn't it fascinating that he
names their association with the Pharisees first. And then
he says they believed. What did they believe? They believed
in the Lord Jesus Christ and they believed in doing works
of law. Adding works of law, saying that
it was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep
the law of Moses. doing today, the sect of the
Pharisee, the Jews religion. So the Jews, this extraordinarily
privileged generation, this extraordinarily privileged nation, and the reality
is that the Jews out there The Pharisee that's inside of
all of us is far more dangerous than the Pharisee that we can
see on the outside. Again and again and again, the
Lord has to continually take us back and back and back to
remind us that salvation is entirely in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
entirely, salvation is entirely by grace and not by works. Salvation is 100% by God and
it's not a cooperative activity. Again and again and again, whenever
we're put under any pressure, the first thing we do The first
thing I do anyway is I want to modify something about my life
to make myself more acceptable to God by getting rid of some
of these things and doing some of these other things. We read
Romans 8 and we rejoice in it and we say, therefore there is
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Immediately, given a tiny little
bit of pressure, we'll look to our activities and we'll look
to the activities of the ones around us, won't we? And we'll
think, I've got to do something. I've got to do something. There's
a Pharisee. There's a Jew that lives inside of all of us and
that continually needs to be put to death and continually,
by the grace of God, is caused by the new creation that lives
within us that we actually look away. We look away in faith. There is right now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh
but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and
death. I am free for any obligations about my doing. That doesn't
mean that we don't do, but all of our doing and all of our activities
here are not the cause of our salvation in any way at all.
God looks to his Son. That's the eternal covenant.
He looks to his Son and he finds in his Son everything that he
ever requires from Angus Fisher or Saul of Tarsus or any other
believer. For what the law could not do,
and it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the
flesh. That the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us, of kept the law of God. By faith we keep the law, we
establish the law, we honour the law, by honouring the Lord
Jesus Christ, not by our doings. No wonder Paul warns the Philippians,
you beware of the concision, you beware of those circumcises,
you beware of those dogs who would bring you under that bondage. Paul preached sovereign grace
in the Lord Jesus Christ to these men from morning to evening.
In verse 25 they departed in their thinking and in verse 29
the Jews departed. Just want to look at a few things
regarding this departure of theirs. They departed, they went away.
They went away, they went away from these words. Verse 29, for
when he had said these words, when he had given them the warning
of Isaiah and told them, they departed. They departed from
these words. See, they weren't forced to go.
They weren't told to go. are 100% responsible for their
going. They departed with their own. They departed to others like
them. See, departing ones will always
have company. You'll never travel alone on
the broad There will always be others there
to reassure you. They went away from this, didn't
they? Like the Jews, after the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus
Christ, they went away from that, justifying themselves. They preached
sermons after the burning of the martyrs. back to church. They started in church condemning
them. They went out and burnt them
and they went back to church and preached a sermon justifying
themselves. The reality is that all of Adam's
children will be able to justify anything. They will be able to
justify anything and they'll find others who will justify
and support them in it. They departed. They departed
and they had great reasoning among themselves. They had great
discussions. They had great questions. They
had great disputation. The reality is, as much as it
seems honouring to the flesh of men and the men's wisdom to
be able to have debates about the things of God, I love what
Mr Trapp says, it is not the gospel but contempt of the gospel
that breedeth questions and quarrelings. It wasn't thus saith the Lord. what God said, it was putting
human wisdom above God. The Lord Jesus Christ spoke the
very words of God and his witnesses speak the very words of God.
The gospel is not put out there as a debate. The gospel comes
as a message from God to sinners. And that's what John says, doesn't
he? This is the condemnation. This is the judgment. This is
the judgment that light has come into the world and men love darkness
because their deeds are evil. The reality is the gospel comes
to people who are sitting in the court with the judge with
his black cap on. All the evidence is in. Guilty. Guilty. Hell deserving. and yet man in his darkness and
his blindness thinks that he can debate the things of God.
Paul received all that came to him, and I'm sure they came with
seriousness and with questions. He received them. As the Lord
Jesus Christ did, he received them. Paul had reasoned out of
the Scriptures, out of Moses and the He'd gone around every aspect
of the Lord Jesus Christ in type, in prophecy, in promise, and
again and again and again that it can only be him, it can only
be this one particular Lord Jesus Christ who came at this particular
time to these particular people. It's only the Lord Jesus Christ
who fulfilled, turn with me to Daniel, I love Daniel's description
of the Lord Jesus Christ and his work. Daniel chapter 9 beginning
at verse 24. Who else but the Lord Jesus Christ
could fulfil all of these remarkable promises? He says, Holy Spirit
says, 70 weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy
holy city. Listen to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ here
to finish the transgression. That's breaking all of God's
law, which you and I do all of the time and the Jews have done
all the time. To make it end of sin. Sin is what you are.
To make reconciliation for iniquity. Iniquity is for you trying to
do something to make up for what you have done wrong against God. It means to be equal. You're
wanting to equalise things by your activities. To bring in
everlasting righteousness. To seal up the vision and prophecy. put a stamp of the Lord Jesus
Christ over the top of it, and to anoint the Most Holy. No one but Him. Know therefore and
understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore
and build Jerusalem, they knew from the timeline that this was
happening at this time, this particular time. that from the going forth of
the commandment to restore and build, to build Jerusalem, until
the Messiah, the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and three score
and two weeks, and the streets shall be built again, and the
wall, even in troubleous time, and then after three score and
two weeks shall Messiah be cut off. See, Daniel was speaking
when there was no wall of Jerusalem. They were going to be sent back
by Cyrus, and they were going to build a wall of Jerusalem.
You can read about it in Nehemiah and Ezra. And after three score
and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off. That's the word that's used for
covenant cutting. You might recall in Genesis chapter
15, Abraham, there was a covenant cut, wasn't it? And Abraham cut
the beasts and laid them out, and then the smoking pot went
through them. God cut the covenant. What was
Abraham doing? He was asleep. for himself, and the people of
the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary,
and the end thereof shall be with the flood, until the end
of the war and desolations are determined. And he shall confirm
the covenant with many, same word, for one week, and in the
midst of the week he shall cause sacrifice and oblation to cease.
and for the overspreading of abominations you shall make a
desolate, even until the conservation that determined shall be poured
out upon the desolate. The Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled
all of that and no one else did. These men departed. It was their
responsibility for leaving. They came declaring that it was
a sect. They were claimed declaring that
Christianity was a choosing. That we've actually just chosen
our own little path here. That we've separated ourselves
because of our own willful choosing. May God protect us. May God protect us from ever
doing anything. When it comes to the preaching
of the gospel in this church, is anything a choosing of the time. And they departed. They came declaring it to be
a sect. And they departed with God's
words of warning. And they departed with their
own self-righteousness, didn't they? That they could reason
these things out. They departed with their reasoning
intact. Romans chapter 2 verse 17 says,
Behold thou art called a Jew. What do they do? They rest in the law. They find their rest in the works
that they do and they make in God all at the same time.
You can't do both. We rest in the Lord Jesus Christ,
not rest in the law and our obedience. So they departed from God's ambassador
to their souls. As Luke says, they rejected the
counsel of God against themselves. Paul meets a similar group of
Jews in Acts chapter 13, and he says of them in verse 46 of
Acts 13, he says, Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold. When there's
opposition to the gospel, gospel preachers just waxed bold. and
said, it is necessary that the word of God should first have
been spoken to you, he's speaking to the Jews in Antioch, should
first be spoken to you, but seeing ye put it from you, you put it
away, you put the word away, and you judge yourself, yourselves
unworthy of everlasting life. There's not a hint in any of
these passages or any of the works of the Lord Jesus Christ
recorded for us in the Gospels. He went chasing after them. He
preached the Gospel and let them go. See, they departed from the
Word of God with the Word of God ringing in their ears. They
departed with their religious self-righteousness. I departed
believing the lie. There are only two voices in
this world, aren't there? There is the voice of God and
the voice of Satan, and Satan begins all of his activities
by saying to you, hath God really said? Hath God really said? And then he continues with an
attack on the character of God. They believe the lie of their
own righteousness, their own worth, their own works. And they
believe the lie because they are under the very judgment of
God and the promise of God. God sends a strong delusion to
people that they will believe the lie. God sends a strong delusion
to people because they have no love of the truth. with all they perish, says 2
Thessalonians 2.10, because they receive not the love of the truth.
People can acknowledge the truth, but there's a very big difference
between acknowledging something that's true and loving it, that
they might be saved. And for this cause, They don't
love Him who is the truth, and they don't love everything about
Him who is the truth. God sends them a strong delusion
that they should believe a lie, believe the lie, that salvation
is by works, salvation is in some way cooperative. The Jews departed. They departed as all who depart,
not believing that God is as holy as he says he is. Not believing
that they are as sinful as they are according to the scriptures. Not believing that God justifies
his people. just simply by faith. I love what verse Acts 13 says
in that same message that we just read off before. And by
him all that believe are justified from all things which you could
not be justified by the law of Moses. They thought that somehow
their obedience to the law of Moses They believe that God's righteousness
will bend a little bit to accommodate their activities. Linguistic
people always create a structure that has a bar. over it. As someone said, I can
jump over a barn if I'm allowed to build it. They always set
a standard that they can jump over. The law was given to shut
the mouths of people and to declare them sinners. God's children
are grace children. I love what Ralph Barnhart said.
He said, I'm in the receptive mood. Eternal Life 1. Sins put away
not by my cooperative activity but by the Lord Jesus Christ
on Calvary Street 2000 years ago. He was the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. He will have a people. He will
have a people that he will call to himself. He will have a people
who will be saved by free and sovereign grace and they'll rejoice
in free and sovereign grace for the rest of their days. So that
was Paul's ambition, wasn't it? He was preaching that people
might believe. That was his hope in preaching
the gospel that God will be merciful to sinners because of his son's
work in free grace. To depart from free grace is
just to go back into the works and bondage. May God keep us
that we wouldn't depart from him, from his word. Let's
take a break.