Alright, let's turn to Acts chapter
18. Acts chapter 18, verse 12 says, And when Galileo
was the deputy of Achaia, now the deputy, this position, was
one of great authority. The deputy was much like what
we would call a governor of a state. He had that much authority, that
much power, but he was the supreme judge over civil matters. And
it says here, when Galio was the deputy of Achaia. This word,
when, has some significance, I think, because the Jews hadn't
done this prior to Galio coming into office. They did this when
Galio came into office. They may have viewed him as somebody
that they thought they could have some persuasion with, somebody
that they thought they could turn to their way of thinking. Galeo was a man who was, historically
he's known for being a mild-tempered man of a good disposition and
what have you, but Galeo's a politician. That's what he is, is a politician.
And the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul
and brought him to the judgment seat. This judgment seat is like
bringing him to court. They brought him there to Gallio
to court. And this was their charge, verse
13, saying, this, the word fellows added, this fellow persuadeth
men to worship God contrary to the law. They tried to show as
much disdain for Paul as they could, saying this, persuades
men to worship God contrary to the law. The Jews did the same
thing to our Lord Jesus Christ. You remember they said, this
is the son of Joseph. He's a carpenter's son. Where
does this get such wisdom? Where does this get such understanding,
never having been taught? They wouldn't even call him by
name or just look down on him. But they said, this fellow persuadeth
men to worship God contrary to the law. the Jews began originally. We know what the problem was. The issue was Paul came preaching
that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, that he's the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And
it offended them, because he took salvation out of the hands
of men, away from the works of righteousness which men have
done, and said, there's no way to God but through Jesus Christ
of Nazareth. And they hated him for that.
But when they came here, they said, this fellow persuadeth
men to worship God contrary to the law, and they just sort of
left it open. They left it open. And I believe
that they, when it says here that they made insurrection with
one accord, I think they had developed a well-laid plan that
will be ambiguous about this charge. And whichever way the
judge goes, that's the way we'll go. If he thinks we're talking
about the law, we'll talk about the law of Moses. If he thinks
we're talking about the law of Rome, we'll talk about the law
of Rome. But what they were gradually doing, and we'll see as we go
along, is what they started doing back in Thessalonica. Look back
there with me. in verse 7. They said in Acts 17.7, Jason
hath received these fellows, and they said, These all do contrary
to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus. And this is one of the things
they start laying a charge against Paul concerning is that through
his preaching he was saying that he was preaching something that
was against what the decree of Caesar was. Now, basically what
that means is, is the Jews had freedom of religion from Caesar. They could worship according
to the Jews' religion as long as they didn't raise any kind
of opposition to Caesar. And as long as they didn't start
trying to convert Romans to the Jewish religion. And so, as far
as Roman law was concerned, Roman law didn't make any distinction
between Judaism and Christianity. And so, the Jews wanted their
own religious freedom, but they wanted to use Roman law in the
court system to get the courts to say to Paul, you can't preach
this Christ anymore. And thereby, they could go on
in the Jews religion and Paul would have to quit preaching
Christ. That's what they were wanting to happen. Well, so they
go there, but Galileo is well aware of the Jews doing this
sort of thing. He came from Rome to this position,
is where he came from. And we know, we saw back in Acts
18.2 there, that Aquila and Priscilla had lately come from Italy because
Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome. That's why
they had to leave Rome, was because they kept on fussing about this
about the law and about About this one named Christ and about
they kept on raising all kinds of problems Amongst the Rome
amongst Rome and so finally Caesar said you got to go and he made
them all leave there. Well Gallio He's come down and
he's the deputy now and he knows that he knows what they're all
about. He knows what's going on So he wasn't he wasn't unaware
of this, but he thought it was just a disagreement between folks
in the Jews' religion. It would be like somebody that
don't know anything about Christianity. And to him, he thought this was
a difference between denominations, between folks arguing over doctrine
and things like that. And he didn't care anything about
it. He didn't care nothing about it. And so it says here in verse
14, And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Galileo said
unto the Jews, if it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness,
O Jews, reason would that I should bear with you. But if it be a
question of words and names and your law, look ye to it, for
I'll be no judge of such matters. And he draved them from the judgment
seat. Then all the Greeks took Sothenes, the chief ruler of
the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat, and Galileo
cared for none of those things. Gallio, he not only dismissed
the case here because he told him, you got no case. This is
nothing in my jurisdiction. This is nothing I should be judging.
This is not a civil matter. This is a matter of your religion.
Look ye to it. But he shames him in this. because he said this is something
you ought to be handling amongst yourselves. You shouldn't be
coming to court. Paul said that to the Corinthians.
He said brother doesn't go to law against brother and this
before the Gentiles, before unjust persons. And here's a man who's
a Gentile, who's a Roman, who doesn't care anything whatsoever
for God, doesn't know the Word of God, doesn't have any regard
for the Word of God whatsoever, and he's telling these Jews,
this is something you ought to be handling yourself. You shouldn't
be coming into court dealing with this thing. You ought to
be handling this yourself. So he shames them in this thing.
And then he says, clear the court. Clear this whole bunch out from
the judgment seat. And when he does that, It says
that he drove them from the judgment seat. In verse 17, I believe
what took place here, then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the
chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment
seat. I believe what took place here is that Sosthenes, who's
the ruler of the synagogue, was so unruly before the judgment
seat. He wanted to make his argument
and he wasn't going to leave. You've seen cases where the judge
throws it out and the people And the lawyer stands up and
he wants to continue arguing, or somebody that's wanting to
prosecute, they want to say something. And Galio said, no, get out of
here. And these Greeks, I believe,
were probably like the police in the courtroom, that were just
getting them to leave. They were driving them out. And
Sothenes actually had to be hit. He had to be smitten to make
him go on and get out of there. And so that's what they did,
and Gallio cared for none of those things. He was so put out
with them in wasting his time that he didn't care for the fact
that they had to be beaten or whatever had to be done to them.
He just wanted them out of his sight. He didn't care about any
of the matter. He wanted it gone. So, I want
to look at three things here now from this, and just kind
of go through this verse by verse, but look down now at verse 14. They came in, they made this
accusation, and the first thing we read here about Paul is when
Paul was now about to open his mouth. And here's the first thing. Sanctify God and be ready to
give an account. This is a reoccurring thing.
We talked about this last time. And we talked about it the time
before that. And we're going to talk about
it next time and the time after that. Because as we go here,
we're going to see time and time again, the Lord gives Paul His
Word. And the Lord continues to give
Paul His Word. And He had given Paul His Word
here. He had said here to him, that
we saw last time in verse 9, he said to Paul in the night
by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace.
For I am with thee. No man shall set on thee to hurt
thee, for I have much people in this city. And Peter tells
us in another place, he said, If you suffer for righteousness'
sake, What is it to suffer for righteousness sake? Just what
Paul was suffering for. He preached Christ the righteous. He was preaching the righteousness
of God in the face of Christ Jesus. And he is suffering for
this. But Peter says, be happy. Don't
be afraid of their terror, neither be troubled, but sanctify the
Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer
to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is
in you with meekness and fear. That's exactly what the Lord
Jesus Christ had just told Paul in the night by vision. Be not
afraid of them, Know that I'm with you. Go forth and speak. Be ready always to give an answer
to every man of what a reason of the hope that's in you. This
is the gospel, not just that of the, it is the gospel. Be
ready to, if a man asks you, be ready to tell him, declare
the gospel to him. And don't be afraid of men, but
sanctify the Lord God of glory in your hearts. and do this with
meekness and fear toward God, mainly. Because if we have meekness
and fear toward God, you'll be meek toward a man. Paul's standing
here, in all this group of folks, Paul is standing here totally
helpless. He doesn't have any numbers on
his side. There's not a group of folks.
He's outnumbered by everybody. He is standing before Roman law. who you know, no telling which
way they're going to go on this thing. He's standing there against
the Jews of the synagogue who he knows has freedom of religion
and has some favor with Rome. So it's not like he was raising
up himself in a haughty spirit here. He's He knows where his
protection is. He knows his protection is of
God, is of the Word of God. And so he sits here, meek before
these folks, but meek in that he trusts God. And so he's determined
to set forth the Word of God. And he had the Lord's Word on
this, and just as he goes to open up his mouth to say something,
Galio begins to speak. The Lord Jesus Christ, in His
vision, has made this, given Him His Word, that He doesn't
have to be afraid to go speak the Gospel, speak the truth,
and the Lord's showing right here that He's faithful to His
Word. No sooner has Paul begun to open
his mouth to speak, and Galileo starts speaking in his place.
And so Paul just hushed, he just shut, keeps his mouth shut. The flood of the accuser came
at Paul, but God used the mouth of Galileo to swallow it up.
You know what Revelation 12, 15 says? The serpent cast out
of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, after the bride,
after Christ's people, that he might cause her to be carried
away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman.
And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood which
the dragon cast out of his mouth. This is a pretty good illustration
of that. Before Paul could say a word, the earth opened its
mouth. Galileo began to take up the
cause and reprimand the Jews. The Lord is faithful who called
us into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ. He'll keep
us. He gave Paul His Word. We saw this last time. He gave
Paul His Word in the night by vision. What's He given you?
You who believe Him, what's He given you? He's given you His
Word. He's given you His Word. Just
as real, just as sure, He's given you His Word. And He's faithful
to His Word. Now here's the second thing.
Though charged, be not chargeable. Look at verse 12. And when Galileo
was the deputy of Achaia, and the Jews made this insurrection
with one accord against Paul, and they brought him to the judgment
seat, they said, He persuades men to worship God contrary to
the law. I've mentioned this a little
bit, but when they would say things about the law, they were
including everything. But Paul in another place covers
everything that they meant. Look over to Acts 25 verse 8. Verse 8, while he answered for
himself, this is what Paul said. They had made an accusation against
him in another place. We'll see it when we get to it.
But look at what he says. Paul says, neither against the
law of the Jews, I haven't offended this law, neither against the
temple, their ceremonies, I haven't offended this law, nor yet against
Caesar, nor Roman law, have I offended anything at all. So Paul, when
he answered, he knew where they were coming from. He knew they
were mad because they realized that Paul was saying Christ is
the end of the law of Moses, he's the end of the ceremony,
and they were accusing him as often as they could of being
against the law of Caesar and trying to get the Roman law to
go with them and side with them against Christianity against
Paul furthering this thing so the Jews could go on in their
freedom of religion and Paul would have to hush So Paul says
here. I had defended them. I had spoken
against any of these not any of these Now Paul was a sinner
in his flesh. Paul was born of Adam's seed
and in that Adam nature he was a sinner. Paul said, this is
a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. He said in Romans 7.18, I know
that in me, that is in my flesh, that which is born of Adam dwells
nothing good. There's a will to do, but how
to perform it, I don't find it. He said to the Ephesians, Unto
me who am less than the least of all saints. But in Christ
Jesus, by faith in Christ, Paul could say with all certainty
that he hadn't offended the law of the Jews or the law of the
temple at all. Look over at Romans 8 chapter
1 with me. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. who walk not after the flesh
but after the Spirit. That's what it is to be in Christ
Jesus. To be a believer is to walk after
the Spirit, to be led of the Spirit, to walk after Christ,
to be ruled by the Spirit of Christ, to be under the power
and dominion of Christ. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and
death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through
my own flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit. But, look back there with me
now, there's something else, verse 14, Acts 18, 14. But listen to what Galileo says
unto the Jews. If it were a matter of wrong,
verse 14, if it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness,
O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you. It wasn't
a matter of wrong. It wasn't any misdemeanor that
Paul had done. It wasn't a matter of wicked
lewdness. There was no serious crime that
Paul had done. Now, if he had done one of those,
do you think the Jews would have accused him of that before, Galileo? Sure, he would have. But, they
would have. But he had not done one of those.
Look back over there at Acts 23 with me just a second. I want
to show you something. Acts 23 and verse 28. This is what one of
the rulers said, When I would have known the cause wherefore
they accused him, I brought him forth into their council, whom
I perceived to be accused of questions of their law, but to
have nothing laid to his charge worthy of death or of bonds.
Now look down at chapter 24 and look at verse 14 Paul said this I confess unto
thee that after the way which they call heresy So worship either
God of my father's believing all things which are written
in the law and the prophets and have hope toward God which they
themselves also allow that there should be a resurrection of the
dead both of the just and the unjust and listen is verse 16
and herein do I exercise myself This is how I live and go about
my business. To have always a conscience void
of offense toward God and men. Is this necessary? Is this important? It's absolutely important. Because
anywhere that these fellows could lay a charge to Paul, they're
going to lay a charge to Paul. Is it any different in our day?
It's no different in our day. Anywhere men... What you find
is folks who are the most zealous for the law of God. When it comes
to the gospel of Christ, they'll become so enraged at the gospel
of Christ that they will break the law they claim to be zealous
of to get you charged in a court of law or before some council
or before some judgment seat. The Jews prove it to us. When
they couldn't find an accusation against Paul, they had to make
one up. Well, let them make it up, but don't let them be able
to just come at you and find an accusation. Though they may
charge you, don't be chargeable to anybody. Now here's the third
thing. Know that the Lord Himself shall
deal with our accusers. The Lord Himself will deal with
our accusers. Now I want you to see this in
verse 15. Galileo says, but if it be a question of words and
names and your law, look ye to it, I'll be no judge of such
matters. Now Galileo has nothing but contempt for the Jews, for
God, for the Scriptures, for Paul, for everybody that's standing
before him. To him, all that religion consists
of is a bunch of bickering and striving of questions and names
and Scriptures and these things, and he says, I don't care about
any of it. I don't care about any of it. But as the Jews are
bringing this charge to him against Paul, as I said to you a while
ago, he shames them. Here's a Gentile who doesn't
have the oracles of God, who knows nothing of God's Word,
and this man says, you folks ought to have enough decency
to look to these things yourself. This is not a civil matter. This
is not a legal matter. This is a matter of your law,
of your Word, God's Word. This is a matter of names. And
this is a matter of your law. Look ye to it. He said, if it
be a question of words. But see this, how he says, look
ye. It's something that struck me about this. He says, look
ye. What was it that the Jews wouldn't do when they heard Paul
preach? They wouldn't look to these things. They sought to
find a way to have their way by the legal system, by Roman
law. They sought to find a way using
accusations. They sought to get their own
way by all manner of really unlawful, unimmoral, lewd ways. These are the fellows who didn't
want to hear Paul, didn't want to hear about Christ because
they wanted to come to God in their obedience to the law. He says, if it be a question
of words, we saw, we spent two Thursdays ago, we spent the whole
time looking at how Paul, when he preached, he took the Scriptures. And we went through his letters
and we saw how he took Old Testament Scriptures and we looked at what
he said about those Old Testament Scriptures and what was written
in the letters in the New Testament. Galileo says, if it's a matter
of God's Word, look ye. I know he's just he's just shaming
him. He's just he's just saying get
out of here I don't want to hear anything from you, but he's saying
these words if it's a matter of God's Word look ye He says if it's a question of
names Paul declared the name of Jesus of Nazareth That's who
he declared to them He said this Jesus of Nazareth is called Jesus
because he's the Savior. He's the Messiah, the Christ
of God. This is Hosea who loved his bride. who even though she turned her
back on him and played the harlot and was brought down to the slave
block and nobody wanted to have anything to do with her because
she was just a harlot. He yet went and paid the price
of redemption and bought her to himself. This is Hosea, Jesus. This is Joshua who led his people
to the land of promise, into the land of promise. This is
Joshua. This is Jesus, for he shall save
his people from their sins. Galileo said, Look ye. If this
is a matter of names, look ye. This Jesus of Nazareth is the
one who shall be called Wonderful. You know what the name means?
Miracle. Wonderful. Miracle. The seed
of woman promised in the garden. That would be a miracle. birth,
who would bruise the serpent's head, who would perform the miracle
of delivering his people from their sin. This is the promised
seed of Abraham who will be born of a miraculous birth, not of
man's strength, not of man's doing, but of God's promise.
Wonderful. This is that holy thing conceived
of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin. Wonderful is His
name. If it's a matter of names, look
ye. This is Jesus of Nazareth called
Counselor. The Counselor in whom the three
in one rested all the counsel, all the purpose of God before
the world began. This is the Counselor to whom
all power in heaven and earth is given so that He turns all
men to accomplish His purpose. This is the counselor who counsels
in the heart, in the spirit, turning the hearts even of wicked
men to do whatever his will is. This is the counselor who casts
down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against
the knowledge of God, who brings into captivity every thought
to obedience to him through his gospel, through faith in the
new heart that he creates. This is that kind of counselor.
This is Jesus of Nazareth, the mighty God. That's who He is,
the warrior God, the champion God, the all-victorious, almighty,
omnipotent God who does as He pleases. If it's a matter of
names, look ye to it. This is Jesus of Nazareth called
the everlasting Father. For as in Adam all died, so in
Christ shall all be made alive. As it is written, the first man
Adam was a living soul. He was the father of all men.
The last Adam was made a quickening spirit. The first man is of the
earth, earthy. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. And as we've borne the image
of the earthy, full of sin, corrupt, conceived in sin, We, loved of
God everlastingly, redeemed by His blood, shall bear the image
of the heavenly, holy, harmless, undefiled, incorruptible, everlasting. He's the everlasting Father.
He's the second Adam. If it's a matter of names, look
ye to Him. This is the name of the Prince
of Peace. I, the Lord, will be their God,
and my servant David, a prince among them. I, the Lord, have
spoken it. My servant David shall be their
prince forever." Now look, fellas. Come here with me to the book
of Ezekiel and look at this. We know King David's dead. He's
dead. But he said, Thee, Lord, said
to my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies
thy footstool. If this is talking about David
being the prince forever, we know he's dead, we know he's
buried. This is talking about Jesus of
Nazareth, the King David, our prince, the prince of peace,
the one who's brought peace to his people through the blood
of his cross. You fellas see that? If it's a matter of names,
look ye to it, Galileo said. And he said, if it's a question
of words and names and of your law, Paul declared the righteousness
of God which God requires, which God declares in His word, in
His law. They imagined that God requires
an outward conformity to the law only. And they thought that
sin was merely in things you do and things you don't do. Is
that what sin is? Is sin things you do and don't
do? Well, it is, but where does that
originate? It originates in the heart. Sin
is a heart matter. Sin is a matter of the heart.
Paul said this is what the law says. This is the righteousness
of God. God requires righteousness in the heart. The righteousness
of the law is God requires a holy nature. God requires that a sinner
must have never even been conceived in sin. That's how righteous
God is. You can't enter into His presence
if you were conceived in sin. A man's got to be holy in character,
holy with a new holy nature if he's going to come into the presence
of God. God requires heart obedience in thought, word, and deed from
the first breath to the last breath. And the fact of the matter is,
is if we're born of a righteous nature, conceived in incorruptible
seed, and every thought and intent of our heart is holy, In all
our thoughts, in all our words, in all our deeds, there'll be
a first breath, but there won't ever be a last one. Because that's
the definition of everlasting life. And if we got eternal life, it
means we have a righteous nature. And we've done only that which
is holy and righteous before God in thought, word, and deed. and will never die. Now that can't be said of this
part of me that's born of Adam. It's perishing. It's going to
die. But that part of me that's born of the Spirit of God, by
the obedience of Christ Jesus, who in thought, word, and deed,
who is that holy thing, that righteous nature, that divine
nature, who in thought, word, and deed never did any sin, nor
was any hypocrisy in Him, no guile in Him whatsoever. Because
of Him, that's what you are who believe Him, who are born of
His Spirit. That's the righteousness of God
that God requires by His law. And the righteousness of God
declared in the Gospel is this. Christ had to come. And Christ
had to manifest the righteousness of God before this whole world.
No man had ever done anything whatsoever in accordance with
the law where God could say, there's my righteousness. There
it is. It's manifest right there. No man had ever done that, nor
has any man ever done it since. God had to send His own Son. God came in the person of His
Son to manifest His righteousness. To manifest everything that the
law and the prophets bore witness to. Perfect righteousness. perfectly holy in nature, in
character, that holy thing, in thoughts, words, deeds, holy,
righteous before God, and goes to the cross and takes the sin
of His people. I don't know how to enter into
it, but there is so much this law of God speaks of. It speaks
of if a man fulfills it, he fulfills it like Christ fulfilled it.
in love, in laying down your life completely unto death so
that others might live. And that's what Christ did. He
is the manifestation of the perfection of the law of God. He is the
holiness of God. He's the righteousness of God. He's Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord
our righteousness. When it says that Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness, it's not just that He's the end
of the law for justification. It's not just that now Christ
brings us to the end of trying to be justified. Now we run headlong
into trying to be sanctified. It means Christ is the righteousness
that God requires. He is everything God requires. And if we're born of Him, then
He says this, David describeth the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed
are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Just won't charge him with sin.
None. It's gone. It's gone. But back in our text, he says,
but if it's a question of words and names in your law, you look
to it, for I will be no judge of such matters. But this would turn for a testimony
against Gallio himself, too. He cared for none of these things.
Not only did he turn a blind eye to the ruler of the synagogue
being beaten, but he turned a blind eye to the gospel of Christ.
He's got God's ambassador sitting right here. And as far as God's
Word says to us, he didn't inquire of these things. Historically,
men say they think he might have talked to Paul some, but what
we have in God's Word is he didn't inquire of these things when
he had the opportunity. He was more concerned with politics.
He was more concerned with being a good deputy and saying, I'm
going to be a civil judge. This has no bearing on me. You
fellas get out of here. I don't have anything to do with
it. But the Jews and this Deputy Gallio and even the Greeks who
were present, all of them ultimately had one idea in their heart. Let us break their bands asunder
and cast away their cords from us. That's the one chief motive
of everybody involved here in this situation. The Lord said,
why do the heathen rage? Why do the people imagine a vain
thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, the rulers, take
counsel together against the Lord, against His anointed, saying,
let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from
us. And that's exactly what everybody was doing here. Let's cast their
cords away from us. Well, this is what the Lord Jesus
Christ said. The Lord is seated in the holy hill of Zion. God
said, I've sent my king in my holy hill of Zion. And this is
what he said, beware of men. They'll deliver you up to the
councils and they'll scourge you in the synagogues and you'll
be brought before governors and kings for my sake. But it will
be for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. Well, here's
the conclusion. I thought about this and as I
thought of this, judgment seat before whom they all stood and
on which Galileo resided. I thought, you know, everybody
sitting here in this situation that day are all going to stand
before the bema of Christ, before the judgment seat of Christ.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that
everyone may receive the things done in his body. According to
that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Now that day
in Corinth, at this earthly bar of judgment, the Jews thought
they were doing a good thing for the glory of God. That's
why they were there. Gallio did a good thing by not
sliding the earthly law of Rome or siding with the Jews as far
as doing his job. He did a good thing. But everybody
there was trusting in their own works. You know how I know that? They didn't confess Christ. They
didn't cry out for mercy to Christ. They didn't ask Paul to preach
this gospel to them and bow to Christ and cast their mercy on
the care of the Lord Jesus Christ. And any man that don't do that
is trusting himself. The only reason we don't is because
we trust something we've done. But each had this in common.
Everybody present who was speaking was speaking against God. speaking
against Christ, speaking against His anointing that day. And none of them bowed. They
all were full of enmity against God and full of love for self. Everybody involved. Now, if they left this world
with that same enmity in their hearts, if they left this world
without God intervening. Without God offending their will. Without God arresting them. They'll all stand before the
judgment seat of Christ. Look over at Revelation 20. Verse 12 says, And I saw the
dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were
opened. And another book was opened,
which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out
of those things which were written in the books according to their
works. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it. And death and hell delivered
up the dead which were in them. And they were judged every man
according to their works." Out of the books they were judged. Every ungodly word that was ungodly
spoken in unrighteousness that day was written down. It was recorded. Every one of
them. And the books were opened. And
they'll be judged out of the books. And it says, in death
and hell were cast into the lake of fire. They died a second time. This is the second death. They
died once already, went to the grave, but then they were resurrected,
stood in judgment, and then cast out. This is the second death.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast
into the lake of fire. Now look over to Revelation 21,
verse 27. It says there, this is speaking
of holy Jerusalem. There shall in no wise enter
into this holy Jerusalem anything that defileth. Neither whatsoever
worketh abomination or maketh a lie. What's the opposite to that?
but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." That's the other book. That's
the other book. This is the book of the Lamb,
slain before the foundation of the world. This is the book that
contains the works of one, the works of the Lamb. And if his works are your works,
and his works are my works, and my name's in his book, and he
said, I know them that I've chosen. He said, I know them whose names
are written in my book. I know every one of them. You
know, that day that they stood there, Sosthenes led the charge,
and he probably thought he was doing the very best work out
of all the people there. But he was the worst of all of
them there. He was doing what he did as a leader of the people,
a leader of religion, a ruler of the synagogue, leading the
charge in this accusation against God and Christ and His ambassador. Now, I don't know if this is
the same Sosthenes or not. I tend to think it is. But Paul
says in 1 Corinthians 1. He says, Paul called an apostle of Jesus
Christ through the will of God in Sosthenes, our brother, unto the church of God which
is in Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called
saints. You know what it is to be a saint?
You ever hear somebody say, well, I'm no saint. You're going to
have to be to get to heaven. Perfectly holy. a saint, snow
white inside and out, as good as God, perfect. You see, salvation is not gained by politics. It's not gained by legislating
religious freedoms. It's not by keeping the Ten Commandments.
It's not by ceremonies. It's not by having a form of
religion or keeping the tradition of our fathers. Salvation is
by the grace of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Grace takes a Saul of Tarsus
and makes him a saint. Holy, separate from sinners in
Christ Jesus, who's holy and separate from sinners. Grace
takes the Sosthenes from ruling in the synagogue of Satan, from
opposing God. His Christ and His ambassadors
in power says to him in the heart, look ye. Look ye to it. Look ye to it. I pray tonight he'd again use
the words that he recorded here. I just wonder. I just wonder
if he used this Word. Look ye to it. To prick Sothenes
in his heart. To cause him to go and look to
it. It's a common name. It may not be the same man. It
was a common name. But I think there's a good reason
why Paul mentioned it when he wrote to the Corinthians. I hope
it's him. I hope it's him. It may not be,
but I hope it is. Wouldn't that be a trophy of
God's grace? But I'll tell you this, when
God makes you look, when God says, look ye, and He says it
into your heart, you know what you're going to find when you
look? You're going to find that you've
been washed, that you've been sanctified, that you are justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God. Not might be. Not going to be. Not maybe if you do something.
Paul said, such were some of you, but you are washed. You are justified, sanctified
in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Holy Spirit. And one
day, if that's the case with you, one day, you know what you're
going to hear Christ say when you stand at the judgment seat
of God? He's not going to say then, like
Gallio, get out of here, I don't care about any of this, be gone.
Not to those that he died for. He's going to say, come, ye blessed
of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. Look ye, look ye, look ye, If it's a matter of the word,
look ye. If it's a question about a name,
look ye. If it's a question about the
law, look ye. And I pray God will give us eyes
to see. Look ye.