Let's turn back in our scriptures
to Acts chapter 25 and I want to just focus on verse
19 which is Festus declaring that
he'd understood what Paul was talking about, and Paul was speaking
of one Jesus, one particular Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul
affirmed to be alive. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we pray that you might bless your word to our hearts. Heavenly
Father, that you might cause them to be spirit and life, that
we might find your son, to be glorious, sufficient, successful,
sovereign Saviour. And most of all, Heavenly Father,
that we might find Him alive to us, as He really is. We pray in his name, pray your
spirit's blessing upon us, Heavenly Father, take these words and
apply them to our hearts. We have no ability of ourselves. We come as mercy beggars and
we thank you that you delight to show mercy. We pray in Jesus'
name, amen, in his glory. Okay. As we said earlier, Paul was
promised that he would go to Rome. You must bear witness. I love the musts of the scriptures,
Acts 23, 11. You must bear witness also. So
Paul stands here in chains to be judged before men, to be judged
before secular men. to be judged before religious
men. Let's not forget that the offenses
that the Jews accused him of were capital offenses. But Paul has so much declared
the Lord Jesus Christ to all that would hear him that Festus
admitted that Paul spoke always of this one Jesus who was dead
and who is now alive. The scriptures, the preaching
of the gospel is a preaching of a person. The gospel is a
person, so the gospel is personal. It's about a person. It's about
this one person, this one Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth. The
gospel preaching is really describing him again and again. describing
him in his very being as God, describing him in his very being
as man, describing him as a substitute for sinners like us, describing
him as the savior who is successful. See, this was the thing that
caused such great offense to the Jews. They knew he was innocent
of their charges. They knew that they had no reasonable
charge to bring before a Roman court. And they didn't bring
witnesses. They still didn't bring witnesses.
After two years, they still want a court case. And they say, well,
turn up in court and we won't bring any witnesses. Look what it says of them in
Acts 25. Verse three, they desired favor against him. They desired
a favor of Festus. This new governor had come to
this land. Felix had gone and Festus has
arrived. And so immediately, as soon as
they can get an ear to him, they go and desire a favor. We Jews
will be peaceful with you. We'll submit to you. We'll make
sure your governorship is successful. We just want one thing. We just
want the death of Paul. But listen to him, listen to
what they did. the desired favour against him that he would send
for him to Jerusalem, laying in wait to kill him." Look who's doing this. What they're
saying to the Roman governor is that we want to have a court
case. We want to have a court case against this man, Paul.
But really, in our hearts, listen to that. Look at the The quality and the character
of these people. Verse two, the high priest and
the chief of the Jews. They're the ones, the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin who stand before
men to say this is our God. They stand before men. And this
is what they want. They want the death of Paul,
and they're happy to deceive a Roman governor so they can
commit murder. And then they'd go back and they'd
preach sermons in their church. And so this is a righteous thing.
It's exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ said in John chapter 16.
They will think that they're doing God's service when they
put you to death, he said to his apostles. There is, to go back over to
those glorious verses that Paul had as his commission from the
Lord he says in verse 26 verse 17 he's going to deliver thee
from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom I now send
you I'm going to send you to them and I'm going to deliver
you from them and this is what he's going to do this is what
salvation is isn't it to open their eyes open blind eyes and
to turn them from darkness to light and and from the power
of Satan unto God, that they may receive the forgiveness of
sins and inheritance among them, which are sanctified by faith
that is in me." So these men are pictures, aren't they? Pictures put before us throughout
the scriptures of the darkness of men prior to their conversion. The darkness of men in religion. The darkness of men in religion. See, what offended them so much? What offends religious people? You can't believe, we have no
conception of how religious these people were, how devoted they
were, how they went to the temple morning and evening to the sacrifices
and how they had their Bible colleges and they sent their
missionaries out and they brought them back. We have very, very
little in our world which would indicate how extraordinarily
religious these people were. And what offends religious people?
What offends? What offends all people in darkness. The one thing that offends them
is Christ enthroned. The one thing that offends men
most of all is you being dethroned and me being dethroned. That's what Satan told us in
the garden, didn't he? He said, you shall be as gods
and you come forth from your mother's womb and you live in
this world as if you are God. and you'll live as God to yourself
until you meet the one who really is God. See, it's just pride,
isn't it? The pride of life, the lust of
the eyes, the pride of life, the lust of the flesh. How God
meets that pride by the revelation of himself. He's saying to all
humanity, isn't he, in the preaching of the gospel, I am God and you
are not. I am righteous and you are not. I remember people being offended
by the words of God when we read those verses out of Isaiah. It
says, your righteousnesses are filthy rags. And I said, no,
they're not. No, they're not. Look what my
righteousness have earned for me. Your righteousness, your
enthroning yourself. That is the darkness, isn't it?
And Paul, again and again, when he meets this darkness, there
is just one solution to the darkness. You can't debate with the darkness.
You just preach the gospel of the darkness. There's only one
solution to darkness, and that is light. This is what Paul did,
didn't he? Wherever he went, he preached
the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. The Lord Jesus Christ
and him crucified, the Lord Jesus Christ risen, exalted, reigning. The Christ who fulfilled the
promise, you shall call his name Jesus, he shall save his people
from their sins. It was Paul's determination,
even before these people, with no charges laid against him,
He brings to the notice of this court, as he does in the other
courts, he brings to the notice of the court the one thing that
offends them the most, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ and
him crucified. I love what 1 Corinthians 2 says,
for I determined, I determined, he said it in concrete, I determined
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Whenever we're talking to people,
whenever we have opportunity before people, we have one purpose
in mind. Let's get straight to the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's describe his character,
and let's describe his character as revealed in what he did on
Calvary's tree. This is what the preaching of
the gospel is, isn't it? It's declaring who he is, declaring
what he has done, declaring the character of God as revealed
in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. So any sermon, any sermon
that's not full of the Lord Jesus Christ is a wasted sermon and
a wasted time. And if you walk out of here today
thinking about all the things that you must do to get right
with God and how you must clean up your life and get your act
together and stop doing the things that you shouldn't be doing and
start doing some things that you should be doing, If you walk out of
here, that's how you walk out of here, I have failed my appointed
task from God. If you walk out of here thinking
about the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, the wonder of who he
is and the wonder of what he's done. That was the purpose, isn't
it? A Christless sermon is a useless
sermon. So Paul here in court does as
he does previously. He just declares a resurrected
reigning saviour. That's what all of this book's
about. This book is about that. It's about him. It's a hymn book.
It only speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you can't find
him there, it's only because the Lord hasn't opened your eyes
and you wait and pray and use your inability to understand
as a prayer stool and the Lord will reveal it in time. That's
what he said to those people on the Damascus Road, isn't he?
Luke chapter 24 beginning at Moses and all the prophets he
expounded under them in all the scriptures the things concerning
himself the things of Genesis concern himself the things of
the Psalms concern himself the things of Proverbs concern himself
the things of all the prophets to Malachi they all just concern
himself and he's the only hope he's the only hope for sinners
he's the only He's our motive. Preaching the gospel is our motive
and our guide. Paul just kept preaching him,
this sinner's substitute. One Jesus that was dead. One
Jesus that was dead. It is now alive. So he preached
the Lord Jesus Christ reigning. The Lord Jesus Christ ruling.
He preached the Lord Jesus Christ that he'd seen. That's what a
witness is. A witness is someone who's seen something. He preached
his life now is by Christ's death. Christ liveth in me. The life
I now live in flesh. I live by the faithfulness of
the Son of God who loved me and gave himself to me. He speaks
of his salvation. He was saved by a crucified substitute. He was saved by blood atonement.
He is justified. He was justified by the Lord
Jesus Christ. He was put to death because of
our sins and he was raised because of our justification. And he
preached grace. As we said earlier, there's absolutely
nothing in Paul's life on the road to Damascus that would commend
him to God in one tiny little way. He's a trophy of grace. God saves because God saves.
God loves because he loves. So because of this, Paul was
hounded by these men. What extraordinary hatred. There's
someone who is your bitter enemy. He's hardly been in your presence
for any more than a few days in Jerusalem and you find him
so offensive you have to get rid of him. And when he's gone
down to Caesarea and he's been locked up unjustly, And he's there for two years,
and immediately, when there's a tiny, tiny opening in the door,
the first thing these guys want to do is, let's get him killed
again. We've got a guy who's ignorant of all of that, and
he's ignorant of our plots and our schemes. Let's get him while
he's fresh, and let's kill him. What extraordinary, extraordinary
darkness. What extraordinary hatred there
is in the heart of the natural man against the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul just affirms that Jesus
Christ is alive. And it seems like such a little
thing, doesn't it, to say that he's alive. And all the churches
that gather in the world on so-called Easter Sunday, they all say he
is risen and he's alive, and they all make a great celebration
of it. But is he alive? Is he alive
to us? Is he alive as the God man? Is he alive as the sovereign
who rules over all? Is he alive as our prophet, the
one who speaks the word of God to us? Is he alive as our priest,
the one that takes his sacrifice and takes us with him into the
holy of holies? Is he alive as our king? Our
King who rules over all things. Is he alive right now as a man
in glory bearing the wounds of his testimony? You can see them
now in heaven. This same Jesus Faithful unto
death, this same Jesus is alive. He's coming back as a living
Savior. He's coming back as a Savior
who gathers His people to Himself. He's alive. He's alive. And He lives in His people as
He does in revelation of Himself to the Apostle Paul. See, what
did Paul see? Let's turn over to Acts 26, verse
13, and just think about this journey from darkness to light,
and this journey from him being someone who is dead to someone
who is alive. And there is one way for people
to be brought alive in this world, isn't it? It's a sovereign act
of God by the preaching of the gospel. You're born again through
the word of truth. And what happens, verse 13 of
Acts 26, O King, I saw a light from heaven. If the Lord Jesus
Christ reveals himself to you, he will reveal himself in shining
glory. For we preach not ourselves but
Christ Jesus the Lord, 2 Corinthians 4 verse 5. And ourselves your
servants for Jesus' sake, for God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So Paul saw a light from heaven.
Verse 14, he heard a voice. In salvation you'll hear God
speaking to you. You might hear a man's voice,
because that's all you hear, and it'll do you no good. You'll
hear the words of scripture. You'll hear the words of the
gospel as a word from God. I heard a voice, and you'll hear
a voice that speaks personally to you. Listen to it. I heard
a voice speaking unto me. Unto me. You'll hear a voice
which will both expose your sin, but also your sin will only ever
be seen in the light of the character of God. You see, that's why false
religion, that's why Satan wants to diminish the character of
God all the time. Obviously, he hates him, but
in his purposes of being a deceiver and a murderer, The very first
point at which he must begin is to diminish the character
of God. That's what he said to Eve in
the garden. God's withholding some good from
you, and God didn't tell you all the truth. The two glorious
things that God had revealed in faithfulness to them, Satan
came and caused them to deny. You see, if you diminish the
character of God, you necessarily enhance the character of men.
So that's what Satan did in the garden, isn't it? God's withholding
some good from you. You're going to be better off.
You can be better off than you are now if you take this. You
can be better off than you are now if you actually take the
things that I have promised you. You'll know good and evil. And
knowing good and evil, you'll be able to choose good and evil.
It's about free will. There is. It's like a great seesaw,
isn't it? A great seesaw with the most
unimaginably strong bar you can imagine. And you enhance man. Man can stand in judgment of
God, is what Satan said to Eve. You can stand in judgment of
him. And you necessarily diminish God. You see, if you diminish
the character of God, you diminish the reality of sin, because sin
is only ever really seen as sin in light of who God is. And that's
what Paul saw, didn't he, as he fell to the ground. He saw
himself as a sinner. He saw himself as a sinner completely
undone. He saw himself as a sinner completely
undone because he saw a savior who is holy, holy. He saw a light, the brightness
of the sun. He saw a glimpse of the glory
of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. And he had an accusation, didn't
he? Why are you persecuting me? all of your sin and all of this
persecution and all of this rage and all of this rebellion is
against me personally. So sin is a personal problem
against God. That's what David said, against
thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in my thought.
You can see why it's so important for us as the Lord might enable
us to preach the character of God in the fullness that the
Lord would allow for us. to preach his character high,
to preach Christ glorious, to preach Christ sovereign and reigning
and ruling, to preach Christ the successful saviour, that
he's now gone to heaven. He's gone into the holy of holies
and he carries his own blood and he carries his own people
with him. He carries them in there. And he sent the blessed
Holy Spirit. He sends the blessed Holy Spirit
in regenerating grace. And he calls these people to
himself and he gives them gifts. He's ascended on high to give
gifts for men. He's gifted his church, he's
gifted his maid. Look what it says about Paul
there. He says in verse 16, He says,
you arise and you stand on your feet. I've appeared to you for
this purpose, to make thee a minister. See, it's God's creative act,
isn't it? If you are a Christian, you are
a new creation. It's a creative act of our God. And the creative act of our God
is that he both makes ministers and he makes witnesses and a
witness is someone who has seen and someone who has the Lord
Jesus Christ revealed to him through the gospel. Our God reigns
in heaven. He's alive in heaven right now.
This earth and this church and all the churches of his in this
world are perfectly secure. His angels are camp around us.
He watches over us. in every little tiny thing. And
there he is in heaven. He says, I've gone to prepare
a place for you. He's gone to prepare a place. There's a place
in heaven when we leave here. There's a place in glory thereafter. There's a place in the new creation
where we'll be made. Once again, it's a creative act.
I love what John says. He declared the fact that he's
seen him and touched him and felt him. It's a reality, isn't
it, for John? It was a reality, the risen Lord
Jesus Christ was a reality for them. He says at the beginning
of 1 John, that which was from the beginning, which we have
heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked
upon, and our hands have handled the word of life. for the life
was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show
unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested
unto us. And then he goes on and says
it again, verse three, that which we have seen and heard declare
we unto you that. This is what the declaration
of the gospel is about, isn't it? That. that you also may have
fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father
and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And these things we write unto
you that your joy may be full. And the culmination of that,
First beginning of chapter 3, 1st John. Behold what manner
of love. Behold what manner of love. You
gaze upon it. You look and look steadily and
carefully at it. Behold what manner of love the
Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the sons
of God. Therefore, if you are a son of God, therefore the world
knoweth us not. Therefore, As a result of you
being the sons of God, the world knoweth us not. Don't be disturbed
when they don't know you. We pray for them, we seek opportunity
to witness them, we pray the Lord would give us a door of
utterance. But the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
Beloved, now we are the sons of God, and it does not yet appear
what we shall be, but we know. Do you know this? Believers know
this. Those who are in fellowship with
the apostles know this. Those who are the sons of God
know this. We know that when he shall appear,
we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. I don't have a clue about the
depth and the breadth and the wonder of that. I can't try and
put it into terms that we could understand in any way at all,
but I believe it. I believe it. Do you believe
that? That's what God's people know. This is not speculation,
you see. People can speculate when things
aren't serious. When things are serious, speculation
is no good, and supposition is no good, and debate and argument
is no good whatsoever, Paul just declared this living Lord Jesus
Christ. He's coming again. He rules all
things right now on behalf of his chosen. He's gonna come with
great power and great glory and he will consummate his great
work. Our God shall not fail. When he begins a work, he completes
a work. He completes it perfectly and he finishes it. I love what
Hebrews 7, 16 says, that he operates as this high priest with the power of an endless
life. power of an endless life, never
to be humiliated in this world again, never to be put down.
What a glorious saviour we have. What glorious life he brought
into this world when he became incarnated. What a great source
of comfort it is to believers. How blessed it is for us to know
that he was touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
The troubles and the trials that you've gone through and the troubles
and trials that are around now and the ones that are ahead of
you, the Lord Jesus Christ is touched with the feelings. You
see, he's alive. He's not a dead priest, he's
a living priest. He's not a dead savior, he's
a living savior. He's touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. He has a task, a glorious task,
and that is to present his church, this glorious bride that he shed
his life's blood for. He loved the church and he gave
himself for her. And he has a task, doesn't he?
A task that he will gloriously complete. And we keep reading
it because it's so special. to present you, Colossians 1.22,
to present you holy and unblameable and unrepugnable in his sight.
And how did he do it? In the body of his flesh through
death. See the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ is our redemption. His death as our sin-attaining
substitutionary sacrifice is our hope before God. And we have
a living hope. We don't have a dead hope. Our
hope is alive and as powerful as he is alive and powerful.
It says in Hebrews 9 verse 12, he's obtained, which means he
has in his hands, he's obtained eternal redemption for us. The law and its great curses
has been satisfied and we look at the law of God and we love
the law of God. And we look at the law of God
and all of its glorious commandments and we can say I've done it.
In him I've kept it. I've kept the law of God perfectly. Our saviour doesn't try. Everything our saviour does is
an us. Therefore, as John says, we shall
never die. You'll never die. The worst that
can happen to you is the best that can ever happen to you.
You get rid of this body of flesh, which is where all of our troubles
lie, now, don't they? And we go and meet with him in
glory. He came into this world as a
man. as us. For an us, he lived in righteousness
before God. For us, he was a perfect spotless
sacrifice. For us, he died on the cursed
tree. For us, he's risen. He's risen after his death and
burial. For us, The whole of the truth
of God, the whole of the gospel, the whole of our faith, the whole
of our salvation, the whole of the glory of the triune God stands
and falls on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
can read about it in 1 Corinthians 15. There is no hope. We are of all men most miserable. Our God, our God takes the weak
things of this world and the frail things of this world and
the things that are counted as nothing. And he gets great glory. Just read 1 Corinthians 1, verse
18. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness. That's what it was to these Jews.
And that's what it was to Festus. He says to Paul, you're out of
your mind. You've been doing all this study and all it's done
is cause you to be mad. There was just one sane man in
all of that room. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness but unto us which are saved it
is the power of God. For it is written I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and I will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. He's talking about religious
people here. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of the world? Now listen to verse 21 with me.
It's a really, really, it's become a significant verse to me in
this last 24 hours. So why doesn't the world believe?
Why aren't there hundreds of people? Why don't we have hundreds
and hundreds of churches that believe these simple things about
the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified that we proclaim? Why? For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. You get the import of that verse?
According to the wisdom of God, the world which holds onto its
wisdom knew not God. See, God is not dethroned by
unbelief. God is not dethroned by opposition
to the gospel, God is not dethroned. The darkness, the light shines
in the darkness and the darkness doesn't understand it and can't
comprehend it. The light just overcomes the
darkness so simply that after the wisdom, that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. to save them that believe. For
the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom,
but we preach Christ's crucified. Under the Jews, a stumbling block,
and under the Greeks, foolishness, but under them which are called,
both the Jews and the Greek, Christ, the power of God and
the wisdom of God. See, why is Paul in this place? He defends his integrity, and
he immediately, when he's given opportunity, he'll preach the
gospel to them. he preaches the gospel to them. The Lord Jesus
Christ took his special servant, Paul, and made him to seem so
frail and helpless, two years in jail, Jews plotting and scheming
his murder, deceiving the Romans. And all of these events, all
of these events are just so that we would have another testimony
to the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and these
men would have a testimony. Don't forget the bookends of
this, Felix trembled, and he went away and justified himself.
Agrippa, Agrippa said, you almost persuade me to be a Christian.
We have two men who've had the most remarkable opportunity to
hear the very words of God, and they went away. Let's briefly
look. at what causes him to be dead.
And I'll just run through these quickly and we can close. But
unbelief causes him to be dead, doesn't it? Unbelief causes him
to be a dead man. When he was asleep in that boat
in Mark chapter four, they thought, well, he doesn't care about us
anymore. We are lost. He'd already given them a promise.
Unbelief sees him as dead. And what a blessed gift true
faith is. What a dreadful enemy to peace
and comfort assurance to aiding and comforting and loving our
brothers and sisters is unbelief. When the Lord Jesus Christ is
dethroned, we do damage to ourselves and we do damage to others. How much harm have you and I
done to those we love through our unbelief? No wonder the apostles
cried out as that man did, Lord increase our faith. Lord I believe,
help thou mine unbelief. Unbelief dethrones him and treats
him as someone dead. Prayerlessness treats him as
someone that's dead. You've got someone who is alive
and communicates with you, you can talk to him. You just lay
your case out before him, this is what I am. This is what I
am and these are the circumstances of my life. And we wait. Impatience causes him to be seen
as dead. Thanklessness. This is the will
of God, according to Christ Jesus, isn't it? That you be thankful.
Be thankful. Thankfulness, thanklessness treats
him as dead. The love of this world and the
things in this world treats him as dead, and nothing more evidently
treats him as dead, as religion, as religion where he is dethroned
and his character is changed and manipulated, that men might
still sit on their throne and have all of their glory. You see, no amount of evidence, no
amount of evidence will help a dead man. That's why Paul preached
the gospel to these people. See, if he's dead to you, there's
no hearing of him. There's no seeing of him. There's no tasting and seeing
that the Lord is good. There's no smelling the sweetness
of his sacrifice. There's no touching. There's
no feeling. There's no coming, and there's
no loving. I love the commands of the gospel,
because only life from above will give you life here. He must
be born again, says the Lord Jesus Christ, to see and to enter
into the kingdom of God. Paul declared a person. The gospel is a person. The gospel is revealed in a person
personally. So we must begin. If we have
love for the souls of others around us, we must begin where
Paul and all the saints began, with a simple and clear, as simple
as we possibly can, a simple, clear declaration of the living
reality of the Lord Jesus Christ. God crucified, God alive. God crucified in weakness, God
reigning in power. God in union with his people.
God in union with his people. loving them, caring for them,
nurturing them, making promises and fulfilling those promises,
and carrying them over. We must go over the other side. If you're in the ship with Him,
you are as if you are already there. Such is the power of our
great Saviour. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we pray that you might bless your words to the hearts of your
people, that we might have our unbelief drowned in the glory
of your dear and precious Son. May you make his sacrifice on
the cross precious to us, Heavenly Father. May you cause him to
be revealed to us in saving knowledge. Give us, Heavenly Father, the
joy and peace of believing. For we pray in Jesus' name and
for his glory. Amen. I'm going to finish with
those words that we Read at the end of the book of Jude, now
unto him, now unto him that is able to keep you from falling
and present you faultless before the presence of his glory with
exceeding joy. Don't forget the exceeding joy
that he does this with. To the only wise God, our savior,
be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. And for all of you who
are here with us, we look forward to seeing you soon. And the Lord
bless you and keep you. Amen. Thank you.