I'd like you to turn in your
scriptures to the book of Acts chapter 24 and we are Lord willing
continuing our journey with the Apostle Paul and it's very poignant
the verse that I'd like us to spend most of our time on this
morning is in verse 14 of Acts 24 and Paul says in his defense He's not guilty of all the other
charges that they've brought before him, but this is his confession,
that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I, the
God of my fathers, believing all things which are written
in the law and in the prophets. in the blessed sovereignty of
our God. Paul's imprisonment and protection
by the Romans has given us another opportunity to witness him testifying
to his Saviour and his Lord. And Paul's confession is in extraordinarily
simple terms, isn't it? I pray that this is the confession
of us as a Church And I pray that this is yours as a believer. Paul went on to say in verse
15, And I have hope towards God, which they themselves also allow,
that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just
and the unjust. And herein do I exercise myself
to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and man. It's very prescient and poignant
that we're actually meeting here in this pergola of our farm,
which is where we began here the best part of 12 years ago.
And it's particularly poignant to me that in these verses, in
this passage of scripture and throughout all of the scriptures,
we have a very stark and very real contrast between the religion
of man and God's work of grace in the hearts of his children. And again and again throughout
the scriptures, this difference is magnified. This difference
is pointed out in extraordinarily stark ways and terms. And the Lord God has made a difference.
He's made a difference between His people and the religion of
this world. He's made a difference between
us and the religion all around us. And this particular verse
is particularly personal for me, and therefore it's personal
for all of you who join with us here. in what we believe is
the true worship of our God. You see, I'm considered a heretic. You're listening to a public
heretic this morning. The religious world around about
us has declared us a sect, declared us a cult, declared me a false
teacher, and still even today some of them see it as their
duty to warn anyone that might listen to what we say. saying,
these people, these people that gather there at Tererra, that
little group of people, are a sect, which is what Paul was called
and told to belong. God makes a difference, and in
our flesh, and this religious world wants to minimize the differences. It wants to say, well, let's
all just get together. I met someone at the coffee shop
a little while ago at the end of the drought, and all of the
churches in town had gathered together for a prayer meeting,
the Catholics and the Pentecostals and all of the others. And she
asked me the question, why weren't we there? She said, this was
the most wonderful witness, when all these Christians gather together,
when all the religion of our land is gathered together, what
a great witness it is. But here, in this passage of
Scripture, we have the Apostle Paul standing as one man, standing
chained by the Romans, standing there bearing testimony to who
the Lord Jesus Christ is and necessarily bearing testimony
to the emptiness, the emptiness and the deceitfulness of the
religion of the Jews. You see, Always, throughout all
history, the true people of God have been seen to be heretics. They accused the Lord Jesus Christ
of being a terrorist, didn't they? That he was subverting
the nation. That's the accusation they made
against Paul. These accusations they made against Paul are serious
accusations. They are capital offences under
the jurisdiction of the Romans. The reality is that we all follow
people. We all follow people. Either we are followers of the
Lord, we are worshippers of God here, and only worshippers of
God here will worship Him into eternity. And the scriptures,
as this scripture is here before us, is just full of the warnings
of God. It's full of the warnings of
God. We have a they in this verse,
the way which they call heresy. The they represents religious
orthodoxy of 2,000 years ago, and the they of our days represent
the religious orthodoxy. And the Scriptures on every page
warn the children of God to test the spirits, to keep yourselves
from idol. Beware of those of the circumcision. Beware of those who claim to
be Jews, to be true Jews, but are of the synagogue of Satan.
We are told again and again to examine ourselves, to see that
we are in the faith. We are to examine ourselves before
we have the Lord's Supper that we don't drink damnation to our
souls. The scriptures are full of the
warnings. This is an open rebellion of
these particular Jews against the Lord Jesus Christ. But the
rebellion that the religious world carries on and that we
are warned against over and over again in the scriptures is the
rebellion of that testimony that names the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that dishonours him. Paul said to
the Corinthians, he said, I am jealous over you with a godly
jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband that I may
present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by
any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so
your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that's in
Christ. See, Paul's confession is really
simple, isn't it? They call it heresy. I worship
God, believing all things that are written in the law and the
prophets. The simplicity that's in Christ. For if he that cometh
preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you
receive another spirit which you have not received, or another
gospel which you have not accepted, you might well bear with him. you might well bear with him."
Another Jesus, another gospel. One of the fascinating things
about the names of these men is that Ananias had spent his
whole life and he had climbed to the top of religion. And you
know what his name means. Ananias means one whom Jehovah
has favoured. and all of his religious life,
and all the time that he was greeted by others, they were
basically saying, you are one whom God, Jehovah, has graciously
given to us. And here you are, you've risen
to the highest pinnacle of Judaism. And there you are, bringing these
accusations. You have denied the clear and
open testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet you would claim
to worship the God of our fathers. You would claim to worship his
Messiah. These religious leaders, this
one, Ananias, died. He was stabbed to death just
a few years after this. But these religious leaders stayed
in Jerusalem in their opposition and enmity against the Gospel
of God. And this, as I've said before,
is the last time that Paul speaks to them. This is the last apostolic
testimony to these people in Israel. Peter called them builders, and
they'd built a theological system. They had these ecclesiastical
structures, you can read about it in Matthew 23. They had their
Bible college, and they had their mission organizations, and they
had their people that traveled over land and sea, and they brought
these people back to Jerusalem, and they had them living in all
sorts of outward, physical, carnal obedience. And the Lord Jesus
Christ said, they're twice the child of hell. And these people
followed them. These people followed them. And
within less than a decade of these events we're talking about,
these Jews followed these religious leaders and 1,100,000 of them
died of the sword and famine and died, died in the most appalling
ways. We follow people. We are given
in these verses a clear, clear confession of a true child of
God. And quite simply Paul says that
I'm just believing everything the law and the prophets say.
I believe the word of God. We are told and commanded of
God to test the spirits. We are told that we are to test
the people that speak to us. You are commanded of God to test
the things that you hear. Because there is another God
and he has the name like Ananias had the name. but his hearts
are far from him. There's a Christ that's the creation
of man-made religion. There's a gospel, and it's another. As Isaiah said, if they speak
not according to this word, these scriptures that you have before
them, there is no light in them, Isaiah 820. Isaiah speaks of
them, he says, He feedeth on ashes, a deceived heart hath
he turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor
say, Is there not a lie in my right hand? We know from the
testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ that countless multitudes, countless
multitudes will meet Him, they will go through this life and
go through this life in their religion, and they will meet
Him on that great day when they leave this earth. And they will
meet Him there, as Matthew 7.21 declares, and they will declare
all of their good works, the quantity of their good works,
the quality of their good works, and the works that they've done
in His name. And what does the Lord Jesus
Christ say? He says, I'll say to them, depart
from me, you lawless ones. I never knew you. Paul. is forced and made of our
great God in his sovereign work to stand before this religious
crowd and declare quite simply that he stands with the Lord
Jesus Christ and he has this confession. And our confession,
our confession is a person. Our confession is a declaration
of that person. Our confession is a declaration
of him in the fullness of who he is. in the truthfulness of
who he is and what he declares himself to be. And we don't step
back for a moment. We find the character of our
Lord Jesus Christ delightful. And we want for his character
to be magnified. See, it is possible to tell truth.
to tell a lot of truth, a lot of scriptural truth, and still
not tell the truth about who the Lord Jesus Christ is. You
might recall when Peter and James and John were brought before
the Sanhedrin, this same Sanhedrin, after the man had been healed
by the grace of God at that step. Peter stood before them and he
says in Acts chapter 4, If we this day be examined of the good
deed done unto the impotent man, by what means he is made whole,
by what means he is saved, be it known unto you, all the people
of Israel, But by the name, he could have said, couldn't he?
Peter could have stood up there and said, by the name of God
Almighty, by the name of the God of the fathers, Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, by the sovereign God, this man stands before you
whole. They would have been telling
the truth. and they would have been lying to people about who
the Lord Jesus Christ is. Listen to what Peter says. Be
it known unto you, people of Israel, by the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from
the dead, even by him does this man stand here before you whole. God's servants tell all the truth
and they don't hold back. And if men are offended, they
preach on. They just preach on. They keep
declaring Him. The people of Nazareth in Jesus'
hometown had witnessed the wonders of that man, God Almighty in
human flesh with them for all of those possibly 30 years. And then he stood up in that
synagogue after having come back from the desert, being tempted,
he stood up in that synagogue and they wondered and they marveled
at the gracious words that he spoke to them out of Isaiah chapter
61. And then the Lord Jesus Christ reveals the character of God,
the true character of God. And what's the response of those
people that had witnessed this and declared those words gracious
and a marvel? They took him out to the brow
of the hill to cast him off. The point simply is, isn't it,
the religious world will accept a God and will accept Jesus. But when he is revealed in his
true character, in the glory of his sovereignty, in his electing
grace, his predestinating sovereign rule over all things, people
find him offensive. Throughout the Gospels we find
that, don't we? In John 6, a crowd of possibly
20,000 people followed him until he declared who he was, and they
all went away. And Peter said to the apostles,
well, you can go as well. There's the door. It's wide open.
And Peter turns and says, we have nowhere else to go. You
alone have the words of eternal life. The others had somewhere
to go. In John chapter 8, there's a
group of people in Jerusalem who claim to be believers. And
you will think, this is wonderful with all the opposition. Here
are some believers. And once again, the Lord Jesus Christ
declares the true character of who He is and who God is. You
can read it in John chapter 8, and how He works in the hearts
of people. Those people at the beginning
who were declared to be believers took up stones to stone Him. The religious world, quite simply,
of every generation declares the witnesses of God, whether
it be the Lord himself or his servants. It declares those witnesses
to be heretics. Paul stands as one man. Who makes the difference? Who
makes him to stand? Who makes you to stand, brothers
and sisters? Who has made us to stand? The
religious world stands like these Pharisees did, trusting in the
arm of flesh. We stand because God made a difference. God separated his people. God
revealed himself to his people. You see, Paul didn't make the
difference and the servants don't make the difference. The door
is wide open. I trust in our hearts and I know in our church.
The door is wide open for all. All. All that might come and
hear. See, Paul didn't make the difference.
Paul went to Jerusalem because he cared about his people. He
cared about his nation. He cared about those people.
And it was God who makes the difference. And it's God who
causes Paul to stand. Paul stood there in chains before
his Jewish accusers. Who was the free man? Who's the one that had liberty? Who's the one that was resting
and trusting? It doesn't matter what men do,
and it doesn't matter what men say to the true children of God. When the Lord stands beside us,
when the Lord stands with us, when the Lord stands amongst
us, it doesn't matter at all. Only one thing matters. Only
one thing matters. And that is the testimony of
the Lord Jesus Christ. One thing matters. The glory
of our great God. So throughout, to conclude this
section, throughout time, there has always been a challenge for
all the people in religion in this world. Who do you believe?
There you are in Jerusalem, you've got all of the amazing religious
machinery that's built up in that remarkable temple and that
amazing priesthood. Who's right? Who do you follow? Do you follow Jeremiah who says,
go to the Babylonians with a white flag and you'll be safe and God
will be a sanctuary for you amongst them? Who do you follow? Do you
follow Moses? Or do you follow Korah, Dathan
and Abiram? Those princes who had their senses. Who do you follow? David or Saul? Who do you follow? Noah? Or the millions or billions that
mocked him? The Lord Jesus Christ says, You follow me. You follow me. I'll stand with you. I'll stand
beside you. We're going to sing again so
I can rest. We're going to sing hymn number 44 in our hymn books,
which is nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can wash away
my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Who can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Love can make me whole again. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow. That makes me white as snow. Oh, of the fowls I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. All my cleansing, this I think. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow. No other fount I know, Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. ? Nothing can foresee a tone
? ? Nothing but the blood of Jesus ? ? Lord, how good that
I have done ? ? Nothing but the blood of Jesus ? ? How gracious
is the flow ? ? That makes me white as snow ? nothing but the This is all my hope and peace,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes Paul is beckoned to speak before
the Roman governor. I love the fact that in the scriptures
the apostles are invited to speak. Almost invariably we struggle
sometimes, don't we? We think, I've got to find a
way to talk to people and I've got to force the door open. But
the door is made open by our gracious God. I love what he
says to these people. Paul says in verse 11 of chapter
Acts 24, he says, that you may understand that they are a bit
yet but 12 days since I went up to Jerusalem for to worship. There wasn't time for me to stir
up a mob and create all this dissension they talk about. They
neither found me in the temple disputing with any man, neither
raising up the people, neither in the synagogues, nor in the
city. Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse
me. But this I confess unto thee,
that after the way which they call heresy, this I confess unto
thee, after the way that they call heresy, so worship I the
God of my fathers, believing all things which are written
in the law and the prophets, and have hope towards God, which
they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection
of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. And herein do
I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offence
toward God and toward man. Now, after many years, I came
to bring arms to my nation and offerings, whereupon certain
Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple, neither with the
multitude nor with tumult. who ought to have been here before
thee and object if they had ought against me. Fancy going to a
court of law without a witness. Fancy going to a court of law
with a fancy lawyer. Fancy going to a court of law
with murder in your heart. Fancy going to a court of law
knowing that you've got 40 people who are now very, very hungry
in Jerusalem and extraordinarily thirsty because they promised
not to eat or drink until Paul had been put to death. They ought
to have been here, or else let these same here say. It's extraordinary, isn't it,
that these religious leaders have no confession. They have
no confession. if they found any evil doing
in me while I stood before the council, except that it be for
this one voice that I cried among them, touching the resurrection
of the dead, I am called into question by you this day. And
when Felix heard these things, having a more perfect knowledge
of that way, he deferred them and said, when Lysias the chief
captain shall come down, I will know the uttermost of your matter. And he commanded a centurion
to keep Paul and let him have liberty, that he should forbid
none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him. Paul was back in Caesarea. Who was in Caesarea? Philip and
his four daughters who prophesied, and the church that had been
there for all of those years. We aren't recorded what those
meetings were like, but if they had freedom of access and freedom
to care for Paul, it would have been a time of great joy. We
have, once again, a reminder that the things that are recorded
for us are recorded for our learning. They were recorded for us that
we might, as we face exactly the same things in this world
that Paul faced in that world, that we might see the sovereign
hand of our God upon these events. So Paul stands, doesn't he, in
that verse that we're looking at. He says, I confess unto thee. That word confession means to
say the same. To say the same. We say the same
as God about God. We say the same as God says about
man. We say the same as God says about
his Son. This is his confession. And he's
happily confessing this. I stand ready. These are capital
offences that Jews have brought against him. He says, I'm standing
here ready to die on the basis of this confession. You see,
a confession, a saving confession will take you in this world to
a place where you will be prepared to die. You will be prepared
to meet God on that day of judgment with this confession. Any confession
that doesn't take you through the trials of this world and
take you to the judgment of God, where you can stand before Him
as the Apostle said in 1 John 4, and stand there with confidence,
with boldness, on that day of judgment. We've just sung the
reason, isn't it? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Paul is saying to these religious
Jews, isn't he, my confession has not changed in these last
20 years. I take you to record, brothers and sisters here, as
our confession, as our testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ changed.
It hasn't changed. The scriptures say don't meddle
with those that are given to change. If it's a testimony from
God then God will own it and it won't change. Lord helping
us. Paul says my confession has not
changed in these 20 years in every place I've been. I make
the same confession before Gentiles, I make the confession before
Jews, I make the same confession before Romans, I make the same
confession before the church. I don't change my confession
wherever I go. And my confession is the confession
of a witness that God has made to me. That God has revealed
his son. It's a confession of someone
that I've met. He personally met the Lord Jesus
Christ. We don't meet him in the same
way that Paul did. But when he reveals himself in
the preaching of the gospel and he reveals himself to have taken
up residence in someone and taken all their sins away, and to manifestly
reveal himself as their Lord and Saviour, they have the same
confidence and the same confession that Paul had. Paul's confession
hasn't changed because his confession is testified by the word of God
from Genesis 1-1 to the end of Malachi chapter 4, Paul had no
reason in anything that he ever read in the scriptures, nor anything
that he ever witnessed in this world, to bring that confession
of his undone. All of the Lord's activities,
Paul will say later on, to Festus, this hasn't been done in a corner.
All of God's activities are done openly, and his word is open. His Word is sealed to those who
are His enemies, but His Word is open to them. And we go to
the Scriptures again and again and again, and what do we find?
We find the same confession from God about His Son over and over
again. Our confession hasn't changed
because the Scriptures reveal the Lord Jesus Christ from the
beginning and all through all of the Old Testament Scriptures.
Now, confession doesn't change because it's built on a rock.
It's built on a rock. As Isaiah 28 says, it's a sure
foundation. It's a tested, a tried, it's
an unmovable and unshakable foundation. And God's people, I love what
I read someone write a couple of weeks ago, he said, the storms
and the waves of this world will wash you up and leave you marooned
on the rock, Christ Jesus. It's lovely, isn't it? We don't
look forward to the storms of this world and we grieve and
lament. over the trials and the pains
of our brothers and sisters, but if at the end of those trials
you're washed up on the rock of the Lord Jesus Christ and
you are marooned there and you can go no further, then the trials
will work for your good. Paul's confession hasn't changed
because your opposition to it, the religious world's opposition
to it, is just more confirmation of it. I love what Martin Luther said.
Here I stand. I stand on the testimony of God's
word. Here I stand, I can do no other. So help me God. But both Felix
and Paul called it the way. It's a great description, isn't
it? It was the way the early church described itself. They
are called the way, and obviously the way is a reference to the
fact that the Lord Jesus Christ said, I am the way, I am the
truth, and I am the life. And it's lovely, the first mention
of this way is called in Genesis 3.24, when
God drove the man out and he placed at the east of the garden
of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way. It's hard to picture this but
there are these cherubim, two cherubim on either side of this
way and it's the way of the tree of life and they are guarding
the way of the tree of life with whirling swords. The issue is
If you're going to have eternal life, if you're going through
this life, you have to get to the Tree of Life. And these cherubim
guard the Tree of Life. And there is just one way to
the Tree of Life. We just sang about it. Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Those wearing swords will destroy
every human work and every religious attitude and attribute that causes
men to be proud of themselves. It's the way of the tree of life. And those cherubim are pictured
again when Moses had that ark built after that pattern that
was in heaven. And there are the cherubim on
either side of the Ark of the Covenant. And what are they looking
on? They're looking on the broken law of God and they're looking
down on the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the way into
that Holy of Holies was restricted to just one person on one day
of the year and that was not without blood. And he went through
that curtain. And what was on the curtain? That extraordinary
curtain in that temple had cherubims on it. And that curtain picture,
didn't it? The top of that curtain was blue,
the blue of heaven. The bottom of that curtain was
red, the scarlet of red earth, and the middle of that curtain
was purple. Our Lord Jesus Christ typified
that that way, that curtain that was split upon his death, the
way is now open. There is a way. There is just
one way, and it is as narrow as the Lord Jesus Christ. And
there are many ways, aren't there, that men devise, isn't it? Proverbs
warns us, doesn't it, in 14.12, and it's repeated in 16.25. There
is a way. There is a way that seemeth right
unto a man. Ananias was on a way. The Jews
were on a way, and it seemed right to them. But the end thereof
are the ways of death. You see, there are many ways
of death. There is just one way. There is just one way. The Old
Testament Scriptures warn us, don't they? It says in Jeremiah
6, 16, that verse that I love quoting, he says, thus saith
the Lord, stand in the ways, there are many ways around, stand
in the ways and see and ask for the old paths. That word old
means everlasting. There's a way that has no beginning. Ask for the old covenant. Ask
for the eternal covenant. Ask for a way which is eternal
in the past, for want of a better word, and eternal in the future. Where is the good way? And walk
therein and you shall find rest for your souls. This was Jeremiah's
plea to these people. Paul is pleading to these people
in Jerusalem. The Lord Jesus Christ is your
God. The Lord Jesus Christ is your Messiah. To turn from Him
is to turn to the ways of death. What did they say in Jeremiah
6.16? You can read it, can't you? We
will not walk. We're not going to walk that
way. You see, those who don't walk An aunt taken by a sovereign
hand of God to walk in His way will be fully responsible for
the way that they take. It's called the way of salvation.
It's the way of peace. The way of peace. And Peter declares
it to be the way of truth. The right way. The way of righteousness. Paul has a confession. The Lord
has put him on a way. That word way means a road. All of the Lord's children are
on a road. It's a good road. It's a road
of peace. when it leads us into the arms
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to sing again, number
11. Just as I am without one plea,
but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come
to thee, O Lamb of God, I come. ? As I am without one plea ? ?
But that thy love was shed for me ? ? And that thou bidst me
come to thee, O Lamb of God ? ? I come, I come ? Just as I am and waiting not
to rid my soul of one dark one, to Thee whose blood can cleanse
each fallen Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, though
tossed about, with many a conflict, many a doubt, fightings and fears
within, without awareness of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, for riches blind,
sight reaches ceiling of the mind, may all I need be to find,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, thy love
unknown, hath broken every barrier down, how to be thine, be thine
alone, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Let's return to our verse. Isn't
it lovely to hear singing again? We used to sing acapella in this
shed years ago and it was just delightful. We had a man who
came and said that he agreed with most of what we said here,
but he didn't like our singing and he offered to spend a thousand
or more dollars on a fancy machine that would play the tunes for
us so we could have some music. But then he also wanted us to
change our understanding of the scriptures and he said he couldn't
join with us unless we put people back under the law of Moses. It was a tragedy to watch what
happened as that man went his own way into all sorts of religious
nonsense, basically. We stand, as Paul did, declaring
that the Lord Jesus Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.
And we look to the Lord Jesus Christ, and I look to the law
of Moses, and I find it delightful. And we honour the law and we
magnify the law as He did because everything that our Lord Jesus
Christ did, He did as an us. And all of the blessings and
all of the promises of God are wrapped up in Him. In Him. So when it comes to this religious
world, I'm a happy heretic these days. I have looked over the
fence. I've looked over the fence into
their paddock to see if there's a blade of green grass. And for
the last 12 years, I haven't seen a single one. I haven't
seen in the scriptures, nor in the witness in the lives of people
that stand opposed to the gospel we oppose. any reason to think
that this is not of God. You see, that's what they're
saying, aren't they? The people that sort of pose to us is that
Angus Fisher has got himself in a little sort of, I don't
know, on an ego trip, I was told, that I just wanted to make a
name for myself, that I wanted a following for myself. But Angus
Fisher was a heretic. That word heresy means to choose. to choose, to prefer, to take
for oneself, to gain for oneself, to decide in favour of something,
as if somehow we made a decision. You see, what an extraordinary
thing, isn't it? I love the fact that when they
accused the Lord Jesus Christ, all of the accusations turned
out to be a blessing for his people. He saved others, but
he can't save himself. Come down from the cross. They
accused him of being a friend of sinners. They accused Paul, and they accused
all of the servants of the Lord Jesus Christ and all of his witnesses
throughout time. They accused him of being a heretic.
But they have made a choice. They've stood there and they've
looked at all these things and they've made a choice. Let me
remind you, brothers and sisters, what decision did Paul make?
Did Paul make a decision for Jesus? Did Paul pray the sinner's
prayer? Did Paul ask the Lord Jesus into
his heart? What happened on the road to
Damascus? Paul was a pattern. He didn't make a choice. He didn't. He wasn't offered to make Jesus
Lord of his life. He didn't come forward at some
religious meeting. He didn't pray the sinner's prayer. It's amazing, I checked last
week and the week before on almost every website of the churches
around him, and they're still having people pray the sinner's
prayer. And they tell people if you pray the sinner's prayer
that someone else has written for you, and you pray it with
sincerity, You can be guaranteed, they say, these people in Anglican
churches here in town. You can be guaranteed that God
has heard your prayer and God has taken away all of your sins. They send them home with the
peace of men. See, Paul didn't make a choice.
God's salvation is not a choice that we make. God's salvation
is a choice he makes. God's salvation. It's a revelation
of the Lord Jesus Christ and when you see him, when you see
him as Paul did on the Damascus Road, when you see him as Paul
had seen him at other times, when you saw him as Paul did
stand beside him and say, you're going to be my witness in Rome,
Paul, when you've seen him, when you've seen him through the eyes
of faith, there is one thing that comes, isn't it? It's not
a choice. You delight in the fact that
he has made a choice. You call it heresy. I've met
him and I worship him. So worship I the God of my fathers. I worship him, Paul says. I worship him. I worship the
God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I worship him. I worship the
God that you claim to serve. I worship the God that you claim
to worship in your temple, morning and evening, day in and day out.
I worship the God that you claim to serve with all your obedience.
I love what the Lord Jesus Christ said to that Samaritan woman,
that one that was rejected by the Jews. It's a glorious picture of the
Lord coming and revealing himself, isn't it? And he says in John
4, 23, but the hour cometh, and now is, now is the hour of worship. Now, this right now. Now, when
the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth,
for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. See, there was one
that did the seeking. What does he find when he seeks? He doesn't go seeking because
he can't see. He's omniscient and omnipresent. He knows all and sees all. He
seeks such to worship Him. And he goes on to say, our Lord
Jesus Christ, to this woman, God is spirit, and they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. All worship, all true worship,
is spiritual worship. And the less of the flesh of
man that's seen and involved, the more true the worship is. All worship is spiritual worship. We behold the Lord Jesus Christ
through the eyes of God-given faith. The Holy Spirit takes
the things of the Lord Jesus and He reveals them to us, and
when He reveals them to us, there is worship, there is spiritual
worship. But also the Lord said, there is no worship of God without
worship in the Spirit. That's a noun. And in truth,
and in truth, there is no worship of God where His truths are denied
diminished or clouded or nuanced in any way. Our God is not ashamed
and He's not embarrassed about His character. He magnifies His
name. It says in Psalm 138, He magnifies
His name above all of His character. He magnifies His name. He magnifies
His word. He magnifies Himself in His Son. The son delights to declare the
glorious attributes of his father and the wonderful attributes
of the Spirit of God. See, Paul is saying to these
Jews, his last opportunity to speak to them here, in Israel,
he says Christian worship, the worship that we Christians have,
the worship that the Gentiles have, is the same worship as
throughout the scriptures. We worship as Abraham did and
Isaac did and Jacob did. We worship with them. We worship
as Abel did. We worship as Noah did. We worship
as David did. They worshipped God in the spirit
of looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. When Abel came to church
that morning, he brought the Lord Jesus Christ. And God accepted
it and found it delightful. And Cain, who represents all
the religious of this world, was offended. He was offended. He brought the works of his own
hands and he was offended. See, our worship is old worship. We worship the same way Abraham
did. We worship that God that was a substitute. We worship
the One who stood as that substitute instead of Isaac. We worship
the same way Moses worshipped. We worship the same way those
Israelites worshipped. When they had that lamb brought
into their houses and they sacrificed that lamb. And what did God say? the most glorious words in scripture,
aren't they? He says, when I see the blood,
when I see the blood, not when I see your faith, not when I
see your obedience, and not when I see your moral behavior, not
when I see your witnessing, when I see the blood, I'll pass over
you. See how worship is consistent
with all the worship of God's people throughout all time. That's
a poor saying. These Gentiles, these Gentiles
are worshiping Cornelius is worshipping the God of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob. He's worshipping Him in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Our worship goes back as far as time on this planet
goes. And our worship goes forward.
Our worship is the same as the worship in heaven. They're worshipping
the Lamb in heaven right now. They're singing the songs of
redemption in heaven right now. You can read about it, worthy
is the Lamb. Not worthy is man or anything
he does. When we leave here and go beyond
this place of time and space, our worship won't change, brothers
and sisters, and our company won't change. We'll realise that
we've always been there. That's why Paul reminds them
of resurrection. If your so-called obedience and
your so-called worship now is just for this world, and it lies
in the esteem and the praise of men and doesn't take you through
and beyond the resurrection, throw it away. Throw it away. God makes a difference. So worship I. Show worship I,
the God of my fathers. This is another great description
of worship, isn't it? If you're going to worship God,
you're going to believe all things. See, there's no worship of God
without the worship and without the delight in the Word of God.
And we have to be extraordinarily careful about making any distinction,
because God doesn't, between the Word made flesh and the Word
that we have written before us. You cannot honour the God of
this Bible and not honour his word. See, there is no worship
of God where his character is denied. There is no worship of
God when an idol is put up and bears his name. What did Aaron
say? He said, these be the gods. They
miraculously popped out of a fire. He lied. These be the gods that
brought you out. This is the God that brought
you out of Israel. Paul believed all things, and
in his confession, in his testimony before many, he says, I kept
back nothing that was profitable to you. Everything about the
character of God is profitable to you. Everything in the word
of God is profitable to you. Paul declared the whole counsel
of God And he was prepared to stand again and again against
the they, the religious they. Whether they were the ones in
Acts chapter 15 that said that believers have to be circumcised
and put back under the law of Moses, whether it was the Galatian
false teachers, whether it was the Jews in Jerusalem, he stood
against the they, whatever stripes they bore. I love that picture
on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection. And he said to
those people, who were despairing over what happened and I still
for the life of me can't understand why they were walking away from
Jerusalem rather than walking to Jerusalem and staying in Jerusalem.
They'd heard the testimony of a resurrection and they walked
away. Oh dear, what a gracious God
we have who comes after his wandering sheep. And he said to them, oh
fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not the Christ have suffered
these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning with
Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the
scriptures the things concerning himself. We believe all things. That doesn't
mean that we understand all things, but we believe all things. This
is God's word that we have before us. We don't dare for fear of Him
change it, adulterate it, diminish it in any way whatsoever. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness. We look into the scriptures and
we look for the Lord Jesus Christ and we find Him everywhere. We
look into the scriptures and we find the Lord Jesus Christ
and Him crucified everywhere. And every passage of scripture
has a road that leads directly to Calvary's tree and the glories
that must come after. The law of the Lord is perfect,
says Psalm 19, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord
is sure, making wise the simple. We have a simple faith. We have a simple trust. Blessed is the man that maketh
the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor turn aside
to lies. Paul could say in his confession
at his death in 2 Timothy, he says, I know whom I have believed. I know whom I have believed,
and all these scriptures bear witness to Him. And I'm persuaded
that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him
against that day, against a day of resurrection, against a day
of judgment. You see, you cannot be a worshipper
of God and disagree with His Word. You can't be a worshipper
of God and choose which parts of God's Word you accept. You
can't be a worshipper of God and find parts of his character
offensive. If you've seen him and know him,
nothing about him is offensive. You can't be a worshipper of
God and find his way of saving sinners, his way of saving particular
sinners, offensive in any way at all. See, we delight to magnify
a God of election. We delight in the fact that he
chose one, his elect, and in his elect were all the other
elect because of our eternal union with him. Election is a
glorious doctrine. We love to declare his predestination,
that everything that happens and everything that wriggles
in this universe is under his absolute sovereign control. We
delight to declare his holiness, One of the things that really
fascinated me when I went through all those confessions, those
statements of faith in this last week or so, is one of the things
that is never mentioned. I hardly ever see it anywhere,
is the idea of judgment and justification. We love the fact that God justifies
his people through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. But
we'll suggest A just act. We delight in a God who is just. We delight in a God who is just
in all that he does. All things that are written in
the law and the prophets. Paul was told And Paul is the
pattern, again I remind you, Paul is the pattern. And he was
told and promised in Acts 22, 14. He says that Paul was promised
to hear his voice. Hear the voice of the just one. Hear the voice of his mouth. It's really interesting, I looked
up what that word voice means. It means to bring forth to light. And that's what happens when
the Gospel is preached, isn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ is
brought forth to light. We actually hear His voice. That
was the accusation that Paul made against the Jews, isn't
it? These Jews that stand before him as accusers now, isn't it?
He says in verse 27 of Acts 13, "...for they that dwell at Jerusalem
and their rulers, because they knew Him not, nor yet the voices
of the prophets which are read every Sabbath day." They have
fulfilled them. They're going to be fulfilled.
God's Word is going to be fulfilled. God's purposes will be fulfilled.
They knew them and they read them every day and they never
heard a voice from God. They never heard a voice from
God. That verse in 1 Peter has become
very dear to me. It's become very dear because
it's become so very true. It says in verse 22 of 1 Peter,
seeing that you have purified your souls in obeying the truth
through the Spirit. That's what Peter said on that
day of that council in Jerusalem, unto unfeigned love of the brethren. See that you love one another
with a pure heart fervently, being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and
all the glory of man is the flower of the grass. The grass withereth. And the flower thereof falleth
away, but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is
the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. See, where
there is a denial of the character of God, where there is a denial
of the perfect finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, where
there is a denial of his gospel, There are many words spoken and
many words remembered and many words memorized, but there is
no voice from God. I want to hear from God. I want
to hear God speaking to him. The scriptures reveal a way,
a way of truth and a way of righteousness and a bloodstained way into the
presence of God. to be saved to worship this glorious
God in spirit and truth. That blood that was shed in the
garden, that blood brought by Abel, that blood that was in
the ark. They had their animals to sacrifice in the ark. That
blood of the substitute on Mount Moriah when Abraham took his
knife and had it, as it were, plunged into the heart. of Isaac
and he believed that God was going to raise him from the dead.
Because God had made a promise to him. The blood of the Passover
lamb. The blood. And God sees the blood
of his son. You see, we are different. We have fundamental differences. And time precludes me from talking
about all of them today. But we have a difference about
what happened in the garden. We declare, as Peter just did
before us, that man was dead. Man didn't have the opportunity
to do anything. You can take anything to a dead
man and he can't do it. You can take him beautiful music
and he can't hear it. You can take him beautiful words
and he can't hear them. You can take him beautiful food
and he can't taste it. They're dead. And yet the religion
of this world, the religion that calls us heretics, says that
man has two ways, has a choice that he can make. Dead people
don't make a choice. God makes a choice. Graveyard
dead, as someone called it. There is no free will with a
dead man. There is no moral ability with
a dead man. We declare sinners to be dead,
and we declare a God who gives life. We declare what happened in eternity. We declare again and again that
blood of the eternal covenant, the God of peace. The God of
peace, in Hebrews 13, that brought again from the dead our Lord
Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood
of the everlasting covenant. There is no understanding of
this book. There is no understanding of
the work of God without an understanding of what happened in eternity.
that God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit entered
into a covenant of grace and peace, an eternal covenant, a
covenant of love, a holy covenant. And in that covenant, the Father
elected a people in His elect, His Son. And the Son, as the
surety of them, took responsibility for them. And He says He delights
in them because the Father gave Him. He delights in them because
they're His by creation and they're His by redemption. He delights
in them and he hovers over them, he watches them and he guards
them and guides them on their path through this world and his
job is to present them before the Father, holy, spotless, unblameable,
unreprovable in his sight. He'll take them to resurrection
glory because of a promise he made in eternity. The just men,
spirits of just men made perfect, made perfect by His obedience
and shed blood. And the Holy Spirit covenanted
to come and bring them life and light, and to reveal the Lord
Jesus Christ to them, to have them born again. New creations
created in righteousness and true holiness. We disagree when we stand as
heretics in this world. regarding what happened on the
cross of Calvary. We cannot, we cannot have any
confidence and faith in a God who tries and fails. His blood,
that precious blood that was shed on Calvary's ground, was
shared with the purpose. It was that particular blood.
It was the blood that God the Father says, when I say I'll
pass over you, a particular people. Only a particular people had
that blood over their doors in Egypt. Only a particular people
had that blood shed for them in all of Israel's wanderings
and their times before the Lord Jesus came. And all of that blood
pictures this successful particular atoning work of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We stand on the basis of what this book
says, that he shed his life blood for his sheep and he didn't shed
it for the goats and he didn't shed it unsuccessfully. We stand
opposed to this religious world when they say that God loves
everyone and God wants to save everyone. We don't have a God who tries.
We won't find in this book a God who tries and fails. And we don't find many other
things that this religious world speaks of which, Lord willing,
we might talk about next week. But all of what we want to say
and all of what we want to do is just declare what this book
says. That your comfort and your peace is in a written word. A
promise sealed and signed by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And let them call it heresy.
Let them call it whatever they like. But so worship we, the
God of our fathers. believing all things written
in the Law and the Prophets. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we thank you that you make your worshippers, and you make your
worshippers by revelation of your Son into the hearts of your
people. And not only do you make your
worshippers, Heavenly Father, you keep and preserve the testimony
and the witness of your worshippers in this world. And we praise
you, Heavenly Father. that you have seen fit to come
to us as you've come to your people throughout time to reveal
your glory in the face of your dear and precious Son. We praise
you, Heavenly Father, that we have these promises written down.
We praise you that they're signed and sealed with the blood of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Bless us, Heavenly Father, with
a simple confession A confession that allows us to
worship you in spirit and in truth. A confession that causes
us to believe all things that you have written. A confession
that is eternal, Heavenly Father, that's unchanged by the circumstances
of this world and our circumstances in it. A confession that takes
us through all the trials of this world into resurrection
glory. where we'll be made to be like
Him, because we'll see Him as He is. Help us, Heavenly Father, to
rejoice and to glorify Your Son. We pray in His name and for His
glory. Amen.