Turn with me in your Bibles to
Acts chapter 23. Acts chapter 23, and we'll begin reading
in verse 12. Let's begin in verse 11. And the night following, the
Lord stood by him and said, Be of good cheer, Paul, for as thou
hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also
at Rome. And when it was day, certain
of the Jews banded together and bound themselves under a curse,
saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed
Paul. And they were more than forty
which made this conspiracy. And they came to the chief priests
and elders and said, We have bound ourselves under a great
curse that we will eat nothing until we have slain Paul. Now,
therefore, ye with the council signify to the chief captain
that he bring him down into you tomorrow as though you would
inquire something more perfectly concerning him. And we or ever
he come near are ready to kill him. You know, there's a lot of folks
looking for the place for a church. And the criteria that men use
to look for a church, a place where they'll meet, are things
such as, is there some activity going
on? Is there some zeal there? Are
the things, programs, activities, witnessing, discipleship, things
going on in the church that show some activity? People look for
things such as, are there some numbers there? Are there some
people in attendance there? Where there's a sizable group
of folks, some evidence that the Lord's doing something there.
Folks look for things such as, an eloquent preacher, somebody
that's been well-educated, somebody that knows or is highly esteemed
or is a man of renown or somebody that they can tell friends, we
go here, Pastor so-and-so, things of that nature. But it's a mistake
to look at the outward appearance to determine who God is with. That's a mistake. The believer
knows and searches for one thing. We know this way, and we search
for this, where the gospel of Christ Jesus is preached. That's how we know. I want you
to see that in our text. We know that the Lord was with
Paul. We see that here in verse 11.
The Lord stood by him. He had the Gospel. He had Christ
Jesus the Lord. Paul had the Gospel. And Paul
must preach that Gospel. And the Lord is going to deliver
him to preach this Gospel. And then we pick up here in verse
12, and it says, And when it was day, certain of the Jews
banded together and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they
would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. Now here's
the first thing we see. Zeal does not determine who God
is with. They were united. These Jews,
these men were religious. They were banded together. They
were united together. They bound themselves under curse. That means they were very zealous. They were probably imitating
what Phinehas did. Phinehas, you know, Balaam, had
compromised and he spoke truth in everything he said, but he
left out the gospel. And he calls the children of
Israel to go to the Moabites and to begin to worship their
gods and bow down to their gods. See, even so that one of the
Israel princes brought a Moabite woman into the camp of Israel
and Phinehas, saw it, and he got up and went into the tent
where this man and this woman were, and he took a javelin and
thrust them through. And God said in Psalm 106, He
said, He made atonement for Israel. Phinehas is a picture of Christ.
It's a picture of what our Lord Jesus Christ did. He took the
judgment of God and He made intercession for His people and made atonement
for His people. That's what our Lord did. But
these men are doing the opposite of that. These men are actually
siding with folks like that Prince of Israel and that Moabite woman
who would mingle religions and mingle all sorts of folks together
and everybody be one and united in one. We're all going after
the same cause. men will say. And that's what
these men stood for. They stood for a zeal that is
just a blind zeal, an imitation, trying to earn a righteousness
by the works of their hands. If they were indeed thinking
of Phinehas, the Lord blessed Phinehas for that. The Lord said,
your priesthood will be an everlasting priesthood. That too is a type
of Christ. And these men, no doubt, having
the Scriptures and being zealous of the Law of Moses and reading
that in the Law of Moses, probably thinking, by taking the Law into
our own hands, like Phinehas did, and by going and killing
this man Paul, who's a traitor and speaking against us, we'll
get what Phinehas got. The Lord will reward us just
like He did Phinehas. Well, turn over to Romans 10. Romans chapter 10. Here's why
they didn't like Paul. This is what Paul said about
these men in Romans 10 verse 2. I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, for they being
ignorant, ignorant of God's righteousness, going about to establish their
own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. Do you know what the righteousness
of God is? Do you know what the righteousness
of God is? Look at that next verse. For
Christ. Christ is the righteousness of
God. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. You've got to
be made righteous. Christ is the believer's righteousness. For Moses described it as the
righteousness which is of the law. There's the law of works
and there's the law of faith. The righteousness which is of
the law is this way. The man which doeth those things
shall live by them. That means you've got to do everything
in the book. You've got to cross every T and
dot every I in your thoughts, in your words, and in your deeds.
You can't leave anything undone. But the righteousness which is
of faith speaketh on this life. There's a law of works, there's
a law of faith. Here's what the law of faith says. Look down
at verse 8. But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in
thy mouth and in thy heart, that is the word of faith which we
preach. That's where, that's the law of faith. This is the
word that if any man, if thou confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus and shall believe in thy heart that God hath raised him
from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart, you
can't see that, can you? Can't see the heart. Can't see
it doing anything. You can't see, but with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness. unto righteousness, and with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation." The only tie
that's going to bind believers together is Jesus Christ. That's the only tie. But the
tie that will bind men together for evil for evil, like these
men were bound together for evil, is a hatred for the true and
living God, for Jesus Christ our Savior. And that's what these
men had. They had a zeal, but they hated
God, they hated Christ, and they hated His messenger. Now, that
tells me I don't necessarily want to go by zeal, do I? I don't
necessarily want to make my judgment by zeal. Alright, here's the
second thing. The number of people doesn't
determine who God is with. Look at verse 13. And they were
more than 40 which make this conspiracy. 40 men. They had 40 men and they were
against this one man named Paul. God is going to save a multitude
that no man can number. In glory, there should be a multitude
there that no man can number. It's an amazing amount of people
that our God will save. But in every generation, in every
age, God saves a remnant. God saves a remnant. Out of the
multitudes in Noah's day, you look in our land right now, just
in the US, and see the millions of people that live here. It
was just that way in Noah's day. There were millions of people
in the earth in Noah's day. And you know how many people
went into the ark? Eight. Eight people. Out of the millions who came
out of Egypt, And God delivered them out of Egypt. Millions came
out of Egypt. When it says they picked up and
they moved from one place to another in that wilderness, they
didn't just all hop in a chariot, take off to another place. It
took them days to move to another place. There was camps. Each tribe had thousands and
thousands and thousands of people in them. There was millions of
people. You know how many entered into Canaan? 2. Joshua, picture of Christ, and
Caelum, the faithful dog, picture of the believer, 2. Isaiah said
in his day, if God had not left us a remnant, if he hadn't reserved
a remnant, we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah. We'd
have been destroyed already if God didn't have a remnant in
the midst of this people. at Pentecost, 3,000 were saved
at one time. Now, if God doesn't work like
that and He saves 3,000 at one time, we got no reason to doubt
that. Because He's done that before.
He saved 3,000 at one time. It'd be wonderful in our day
if the Lord did that again. But He saved 3,000 at one time
in that day. But that 3,000 was was a little remnant compared
to the multitude that came up to Jerusalem, that was there
in Jerusalem, that did not believe. The Word of God tells us not
only that, throughout the Word of God that that's the case,
but the Word of God tells us that it will be worse and worse
as time progresses, and that it will be that way in our day. Look over at 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy
chapter 3, And look at verse 1. This know also, that in the last
days perilous times shall come, for men shall be lovers of their
own selves. Now this is the description,
brethren, of our generation. This is a precise description
of our generation. lovers of their own selves, covetous,
wanting to just have, have, have, boasters, braggers, just brag
all the time, proud, blasphemers, continually using the name of
God, continually using His name, making jokes about God, flippantly
using His name, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
without natural affection, in other words, men don't love women
and women don't love men, men love men and women love women,
and dogs and cats and everything else, without natural affection,
truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers
of those that are good, traitors, Heady, high-minded, lovers of
pleasure more than lovers of God. And in the midst of all
of it, look at verse 5, having a form of godliness. Religious,
religion is reigning more rampant than it ever has. Religion, Christianity,
flying under the banner of Christ is far and wide more than it
ever has been. having a form of godliness, but
denying the power thereof from such turn away. Look down at
verse 12. Yea, in all that we live godly in Christ Jesus shall
suffer persecution, but evil men and seducers shall wax worse
and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Paul says, But continue thou
in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured
of knowing of whom thou hast learned them. Now brethren, he
says to the Thessalonians, turn there with me, back just a page
or two. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Look at verse 1. Now we beseech you, brethren,
by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together
unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled,
neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter, as from us, as
that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you
by any means. For that day shall not come except
there come a falling away first." Now don't misunderstand when
the Lord says, when the Spirit of God speaking through Paul
says there's going to be a falling away first. Don't forget what
you just read Paul said in Timothy. They're going to have a form
of godliness. They're going to be calling on
the name of the Lord. But it's a great falling away. Here's the description. That
man of sin will be revealed. When it says that man, it doesn't
mean a particular man. When it says the son of perdition,
it doesn't mean a particular son. It means this form of religion
that men have. Speaking of the whole host as
if it's one man. The whole host of these formalists,
these ones that have a form of religion. Here's what they do,
verse 4, "...who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that
is called God, or that is worshipped." That's man's religion in a nutshell,
is worshipping man above God. It doesn't take but a casual
listen, and listen, who are they talking about? Man? They're talking
about man? They're talking about man's works?
Who are they talking about? I'm talking to you about what
God does. When I talk to you about man,
I'm telling you, don't trust him. I'm telling you, don't look
to yourself. I'm telling you, you're a dog,
dead, dying in need of God Almighty to save you. When they talk of
man, they're exalting man above God. So that he is God, sitteth in
the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. That's what men
are doing. Making themselves to be God.
So you see brethren, the multitude, the multitude. You can't go by
the zeal of the people. You can't go by whether they
have great numbers among them. You can't go by that. Now here's
the third thing back in our text. Men of high esteem. There's no guarantee that God
is with them. Look at verse 14. These men came
to the chief priests and the elders. They came to the chief
priests and to the elders. And they told what they were
going to do. And they didn't come to the chief priests and
elders and tell them what they were going to do because they
expected the chief priests and elders would rebuke them and
say, no, don't do that. They came to the chief priests
and elders because they expected the chief priests and the elders
would help them with their plan. You'll look over Acts 25 verse
2. Then the high priest and the
chief of the Jews informed him against Paul and besought him
and desired favor against him that it would send for him to
Jerusalem. And they were laying in wait
in the way to kill him." You see, these men were in with them.
They wanted to do this too. They wanted to do this too. Now
if you saw these men, you would see folks who everybody in the
land would tell you, that man believes God. That man knows
the Lord, trusts the Lord, preaches the gospel, knows God, stands
for the gospel, and will not compromise the gospel. That's
what these folks would tell you about these chief priests and
these elders if you saw them. If you were in that day, that's
what they would say about them. And they were men that the whole,
everybody esteemed. Everybody esteemed these men.
They were learned men. They were reputable men. They
were men of high respect. Let me tell you something about
the way God chose to send His Son into this world. He's equal
with God. It's nothing to be reached at
for the Son of God to be equal with God. He's equal with God.
But He made Himself of no reputation. He came lowly. He came unnoticed. Isaiah 53 says, He shall grow
up before him as a tender plant. You know, when you go outside
and you look around in the yard, I've got right now in my backyard,
especially I haven't mowed my backyard. And when you look in
my backyard, you see, you see the tall grass growing, but You
have to look very carefully or it'll go unnoticed. There's some
places that I've recently tilled up and seeded. And it's just,
I noticed it today, it's just full of grass. But it still looks
barren because it's only little bitty plants. I mean, just little
bitty sprigs of grass that you just wouldn't even notice if
you didn't know that it had been planted there. That's how he
came forth. He didn't come forth as a giant
in religion. He didn't come forth as a man
of renown in religion. He came forth as a tender plant. as a root out of a dry ground,
and there was no form about Him, there was no comeliness about
Him, that when we would see Him, we would desire Him because of
some form about Him or some comeliness about Him. God chose to send
His Son forth that way. That way. The Lord Jesus, when
He came forth, He chose men to reveal Himself in and to bring
with Him and to send forth into this world to teach the Gospel.
You know who He chose? I've looked this Scripture over.
He didn't choose any of these chief priests. He didn't choose
any of these elders. He didn't choose Dr. Gamaliel.
He didn't choose any of the schools of those that were teaching in
the day and teaching religion in the day. He didn't choose
those men. You know who he chose? He went down and found Peter,
and he went down and found Peter's brother, and some of the others,
and they were fishermen. They were down there working
on their nets, mending their nets. And people regarded commercial
fishermen in that day about like they regard them in our day.
They were just fishermen. He went to Matthew, Levi, who
was sitting at the receipt of customs, and you know what he
was? He was a publican. That means
he was a tax collector. And men regarded tax collectors
in that day about like they regard tax collectors in our day. That's
who he chose. That's who he chose. When they
saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they
were unlearned and ignorant men. That's what they were. And that's
who Christ chose. In fact, He prayed and He said,
I'm thankful, Father, that you've hidden these things, this gospel,
from the wise and the prudent and has revealed them unto babes. Why did God do that? Why did
He do that? Look over at 1 Corinthians 1.
1 Corinthians 1. Verse 19, for it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent. Look down at verse 26, for you
see your calling brethren. how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. The Apostle
Paul himself is about the mightiest, wisest man that the Lord called. And he's the very one that these
wise and prudent men that don't know Christ want to kill. They
want to kill him because Paul became ignorant. He became a
nobody and began to preach somebody. He began to preach Christ. And
when he did, they said, now you've turned things around. Now you're
making God to be God and man to be in the dust. And Paul,
we're not going to stand for that. Our gospel is man is as
God and God's beneath us. That's the gospel of man. This
is what God says. Verse 27, But God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God
hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which
are despised hath God chosen, yea, and the things which are
not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh
should glory in His presence. That's why he does things the
way he does. One of the questions that I got
on the internet there on our website from the young people
was this. They said, why do my friends
make fun of me when I tell them I meet at a firehouse? You want
me to tell you why? I'll tell you exactly why. Natural
man discerns with the natural senses. Natural man is impressed
with zeal. They're impressed with places
where there's a whole bunch of activity going on. It can be
just activity like the world does. It can be basketball games.
Just put a church name on it. Just do it all under the name
of God. No different than the world.
You're just attaching God's name to it. A natural man's impressed
with numbers where there's a whole bunch of folks. A natural man's
impressed with learned men Natural man loves to receive honor from
men and to justify themselves before men. That's what's going
on in places where the gospel's not preached, whether it's large
or it's small, whether they're learned or unlearned, if the
gospel's not preached there, that's all that's going on. Honors
being received of men and men are justifying themselves before
one another. That's it. Flying under the name
of God, but God's not in it. God's not in it. Now, all of
that doesn't mean that there aren't some assemblies that are
large assemblies where God is in it and God is working. Nor
does it mean that God doesn't have some men that are learned
men and intelligent men. And it certainly doesn't mean
that God's people aren't zealous for God. They are. They're witnesses
for Christ. They're setting forth the gospel
of Christ. But that's just it. They're zealous
for Christ and they're setting forth the gospel of Christ and
that's the difference. You remember this though, that
which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination with God. That which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination with God. Now I want you to stop and
think about it. We know by the Scriptures, we
know by the account given here in our text, we know that that
the Lord Jesus Christ is on Paul's side. We know that. And we know
he's not with these men. But you put yourself in that
place, in that time, right there with, in this situation. And
you've got the multitude in Jerusalem, and they're united, they're zealous,
the majority is with them, they've accomplished land and sea, making
proselytes, they've got folks joining them every day. And then,
here's this one man, Paul. And he's left them. And Paul
has said, they're zealous, but they've got no knowledge of God.
They're ignorant of God's righteousness. They're wheel workers. They worship
in their own hands. They're going about to establish
their own righteousness. This one man preaching against
the whole established, organized religion. If you were in that
day, now you just think about this. You're there and you see
this whole multitude that's crying on the name of Jehovah and are
impressive to the eye. And then you've got Paul who
appears to just have rebelled against everybody. How would
you know who's telling the truth? How would you know? Who would
you go with? Which direction would you go?
Would you go with the multitude or would you go with this one
man? Which way would you go? How would you know? We turn to
1 John chapter 2. Believers know where God is by
God's Word. That's how. That's how you'd
know. You'd know then the same way you'll know right now in
our day. Same way you'll know right now in our day. Look at
1 John chapter 2 verse 18. Little children, it is the last
time. And as you have heard that Antichrist
shall come, that's just these religious men and women we've
been talking about here that are impressed with what men are
highly impressed with. That is Antichrist. Antichrist doesn't necessarily
not use the name Christ. Antichrist will call the name
Christ and call themselves the name Christ. It's the height
of taking the Lord's name in vain. to call themselves Christians,
but it's anti-Christ. They shall come, even now there
are many anti-Christ whereby we know that it is the last time.
They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had
been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they
went out, that they might be made manifest, that they were
not all of us. But ye, now listen to this, ye
have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. I have not written unto you because
ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is
of the truth. Who is a liar but he that denieth
that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth
the Father and the Son. You know all things. You who
have the unction from the Holy One, you have been born of the
Spirit of God and have been taught of the Spirit of God, you know
all things. Now, we know in part. There's
no doubt about that. We know in part. But the believer
knows all things. The believer knows all things. We know and we believe the Father,
God the Father, is the God of truth. We know Christ, the Son
of God, who is truth itself. We know the Spirit of God, who
is the Spirit of truth. We know the Gospel, which is
the Word of truth. We know the Scriptures, which
are the Scriptures of truth. You listen to this carefully,
listen. Those who are born of God believe everything God says
in this book because God says it. Listen, believers no longer
use ourselves and our experiences or the precepts of men as the
filter to determine whether or not the doctrine is true. every doctrine which exalts our
sovereign God and our Savior Jesus Christ, we receive it. We rejoice that it makes salvation
not by our choosing, but by God's electing grace. Not by the will
of our flesh, but by the irresistible will of God the Holy Spirit.
Not by our running, but God's own works in the finished work
of Christ. And we believe these things because
they exalt our Savior. You know what the believer is
looking for? When it says we know all things, we know Christ. And what we're looking for in
the Word of God is a Word that exalts Him. That's what we're
looking for. That's what we come to hear.
We come to hear a Word that exalts Him. And every word that exalts
Him puts us down, puts us in the dust. And the believer desires,
he's willing, his utmost desire is for Christ to be exalted and
for him to be put in the dust. That's what a believer desires.
Those born of God know and they believe that Jesus Christ is
all. He's all our salvation. If you
know Christ is all, you know all things. If you know Christ
is all, that He's all salvation, that everything has been accomplished,
that He's God with us, the fullness of God in a body. If you know
Him, that He's satisfaction for our sins, God sent Him forth.
a satisfaction, a propitiation, atonement for our sins. He is
the atonement. He made atonement. He is satisfaction. That means He accomplished redemption. He obtained eternal redemption.
It means He put away our sin. He completely, totally completed
the work God gave Him to do. and we're complete in Him. If
He abides in us and we abide in Him, that's what it is to
be born of the Spirit. It means we've been created anew.
We've been created in righteousness and true holiness. We've been
recreated after the image of Him that created us, that image
we lost in Adam. We've been recreated in His image,
in the inner man, in Spirit. And that means, brethren, that
Christ has entered in and He is our sanctification. When He
enters in, you'll be separated from every from the lie. You'll be separated from the
lie into the truth of the gospel. And you'll know the truth. And
having these promises from Him, you'll wash your hands of everything
that is a lie. You'll know the truth. And the
truth will set you free from it. You'll know that by His one
offering, He's perfected forever His people. You'll know these
things. You'll know these things. When you behold Christ, you know
He is all. He is all. And we know that no
lies of the truth is the truth. No lie is of the truth. God foreseeing some good in me,
that's a lie. You know how I know it's a lie?
Because the Scripture says there's none good. No, not one. And I believe God because that
exalts my Savior, Christ Jesus, as the only good one. And I love
that. I love that. The free will of
man is a lie. You know how I know that? God
says there is none that seeketh God. But he said I came to do
the will of my Father. That glorifies my Savior and
it puts me down as not being by my will but by the will of
the Son and I love that. Man cometh to Christ by his own
intellect. I came to the doctrines of grace. I'm sick to my guts of hearing
men say that. Listen to God. There is none
that understandeth. I guess you didn't come to the
doctrines of grace, did you? Christ comes and He explodes
the heart, that adamant stone that is so wise in wisdom and
understanding and prudence and makes a man an ignorant fool
wallowing in the dust and makes him look up and He beholds wisdom
for the first time. That's when He beholds. That's
when He comes to Christ. And He knows all things. Righteousness
by man, that's a lie because God that justifies, yea rather
it's Christ that died that's risen again. Who does that exalt? Sacrification by man's works
is a lie. Why? Because as He is, so are
we in this world. He fulfilled all righteousness.
He's holy and I'm holy in Him. We believe, brethren, We really
believe that God said this, I will take one of a city. two of a
family, and I'll bring you to Zion." Not that dirt over there
in the Middle East. Heavenly Zion. I'll bring you
to Zion. I'll bring you to my church.
I'll put you in one of these mountains scattered throughout
the world where I'm preaching my gospel from heaven's glory
right into that place. I'll put you there. And he said,
and I will give you pastors according to mine heart which shall feed
you with knowledge and understanding. This is God who spoke the heavens
and earth. into existence, and it was. Now,
do you think He's able to do what He said He will? I believe
He is. And we believe Him when He says,
Behold, I'm against them that prophesy false dreams. They just dream up something.
And I'm against them that saith the Lord, and they tell these
things, they cause my people to err by their lies and by their
likeness. He said, I didn't send them.
I didn't command them, therefore they shall not profit this people
at all, saith the Lord." You won't be able to find one
lie in the things that are said by the false prophet. You may
not be able to. You may not be able to. Balaam
didn't say any lie. You can't find anything Balaam
said that's a lie. Search it. But Christ said he
is the chief false prophet. You know why? what he didn't
say. He wouldn't shut men up in the
dirt and say, you cannot do anything A to Z to save yourself. Salvation is of God in Christ
through the Holy Spirit alone. He would not say that. And that's what false prophets
won't say. That's what they won't say. I want to show you something
else here. John 2, 1 John 2, look at verse 24. Let that therefore abide in you
which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which you
have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also
shall continue in the Son and in the Father. And this is the
promise that he hath promised us, eternal life. These things
I have written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the
anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye
need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth
you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it
hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. Now let me ask you a
question. Which beginning? Hold fast that
which you have heard from the beginning. Let me ask you a question. If you made a profession under
a gospel that you now say is full of lies, can you really
hold on to that which you heard from the beginning? Can you? The believer's beginning is when
God enters in and teaches us in spirit and in truth. That's when the beginning is.
then you can hold on to that which you heard from the beginning. That's what Paul told Timothy.
Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in
faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. Paul's beginning wasn't
when He was taught the lie and believed that salvation was by
the will of man and the will of the flesh and by blood. That
wasn't the beginning for him. He thought it was. He made a
profession. He was zealous in it. He was
wanting to kill God's saints for it. He thought it was the
beginning, but the beginning came on the road to Damascus
when God revealed Christ in him in truth and in spirit. And then
he renounced, he repented of that other beginning. And he
began to hold fast the form of sound words from the beginning. And he was so zealous of it,
in fact, he told the Galatians not once but twice, he says,
though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you
than which we've preached unto you, let him be accursed. Let
him be accursed. Not one of the apostles preached
another gospel to those saints than the one I'm preaching to
you right now. John didn't preach man's goodness.
He didn't preach man's will. He didn't preach man's works.
He preached the Word of Life, Christ Jesus. And when he says,
hold fast that which you've heard from the beginning, he means
this Gospel of Christ, whereby you are saved, called, given
life. Now let me give you something.
When men hear that, those wise and prudent men hear that, hear
that the believer knows all things. The wise and prudent man, he'll
hear the first part of this message. When we're sitting here looking
that there's not many wise, there's not many noble, God chooses the
base things, and that wise and prudent man will begin to defend
his learning, and his wisdom, and his scholarship. Begin to
defend those things. and say, now you've taken that
too far. Now learning is very up for wisdom and begin to defend
those things. But then this interesting thing
happens when you come here and you start talking about the sovereignty
of God who is able to really teach a sinner all things in
the heart. Christ Jesus who is our all in the heart. You know
what He'll begin to do then? He'll begin to try to speak about
how little a man really has to know to know God. And you know what he's doing
in both cases? The same thing. The very same thing. He's defending
his own flesh. He's defending a profession he
made under a lie. He's seeking his own seeking,
his own learning, and he's denying the power of God. In both cases. Exalting manly wisdom when it
comes to just telling men that God don't choose the wise. He
exalts his manly wisdom. And when you tell him God's able
to teach a man the truth in the heart, he dumps down God's power
and ability to teach a man the truth in the heart. Which is
it? He want wisdom or not? He wants
man's wisdom. He don't want the wisdom God
gives. The Lord said, why don't you understand my speech? He
asked somebody that one day, why is it you don't understand
my speech? And he answered him, it's because you cannot hear
my word. Because you cannot hear my word. He said, all that ever
came before me are thieves and robbers. But the sheep didn't
hear them. You think of all the thieves
and robbers. You think all through the Old Testament, from Cain,
all the way through the Old Testament, all the thieves and robbers.
I'm talking about in religion, the false prophets, the liars,
the Balaams, the Korahs, all of the ones all through the scriptures. Think of how many there were
all through the scriptures. And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
not one of the sheep hurt them. Not one. You know what that means? Conversely, you know what that
means? The sheep heard His voice all the time and they followed
Him only. That's right. That's right. Well, here's what I want you
to take home with this. Look there at 1 John chapter 4. Here's what I want you to take
home. First of all, don't ever let anybody discourage you by
pointing you to those larger assemblies where they hold back
the truth of the Gospel or to those places where there's really
nice buildings and things, and all the things that appeal. Don't
let anybody discourage you because you meet in a firehouse with
a handful of folks. And don't let that be a discouragement
to you. To the law and to the testimony,
if they speak not according to this word, it's because there
is no light in them. It's what God said. If you've
got a place where the gospel of Christ is being preached,
you have something that's worth more than anything else in this
world. There's no place you could spend
your time better, and there's no way you could spend your money
better. Would you tell me one place you
could spend numbers of hours you could spend with your children
that would be better than one hour in the house of God under
the sound of the gospel. Will you tell me one place? One
place? There is none. There is no better
way to spend time with your children than having them under the sound
of the gospel. And if you don't, if you don't, When we don't do
that, we are throwing our children to the fire, and God will require
it out of our hands. You can be sure of that. You
might have spent a lot on them and did some wonderful things
for them, but every idle hour you spent and had them out from
the sound of the gospel, you'll give an account for it, every
one of them, every one of them. But here's what I want you to
see. Hear Christ, hear that He is all, Be shut up to Him, away
from yourself, and wherever you hear that message, you support
it, follow it, give your all to it, give yourself to it, and
follow Him. Follow Him. Follow Him. As long as it's in this place,
stay with it. If it ever leaves this place,
leave and go where it is. That's all you can do. Now, 1
John 4, and here's where we'll end with. 1 John 4. Ye are of
God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater
is he that is in you than he that is in the world. They are
of the world. Therefore speak they of the world,
and the world heareth them. That's religion in a nutshell. That's this whole world in and
out of religion in a nutshell. They speak of the world, and
the world heareth them. We are of God. He that knoweth
God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth
not us. Hereby know we the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error. That's how we know. And I say,
well, that's mighty arrogant of you to say something like
that. You act like you're the only ones that know the gospel.
It's no more arrogant than it is for John to say it. No more
arrogant than it is for John to say it. If you've been taught
of God, you'll say it. And whoever hears me, if they've
been taught of God, they'll say it. We know God. And those that
are born of God, they know us. They hear us. We love them. They love us. They receive us.
We receive them. And hereby we know the spirit
of truth from the spirit of error. Amen.