If you will, take your Bibles
and turn with me to Acts chapter 25. The book of Acts chapter
25. We'll be looking at our text, it'll
be found in verse 19, but I'm going to go ahead and lead us
up to verse 19, starting in verse 1. The title of the message this
morning is, A Bold Affirmation. A bold affirmation. Now in Acts chapter 25, in verses
1 through 5, we learn now that Felix has been relieved of his
command by Nero and been replaced by this man Festus. It says,
now when Festus was come into the province after three days,
ascended from Caesarea to Jerusalem. And he did this because he was
a good politician. Any good politician knows that
you have to get to the people. And so he went to Jerusalem because
these were the people he was to govern. And now as soon as
he got there, the Jews cared for nothing else. Nothing. but that Paul be put to death."
They wanted nothing but Paul's execution. And so they desired
him. They said, hey, bring Paul down
to Rome so that we could try him here. But they were really
trying to kill him. I would have us notice about
this that Paul knew nothing of this, did he? Paul was in prison
somewhere else. He had no idea. And yet the Lord
protected him. How many times has the Lord protected
us without us even knowing? Without us even being aware of
what He has done for us? Oh, the sovereignty of God over
wicked men is great, isn't it? He controls all things. Now in
verses 6-12, Moving along, he says, as soon as Festus returned
to Caesarea, he now brought Paul again to be tried. He brought
him again to be tried and judged. Now these Jews brought grievous
complaints of which they had no proof. They could not prove
that Paul was guilty of anything. They took him. They tried him.
He was not guilty. He was an innocent man. The only
thing he was guilty of was preaching the gospel. And they hated him
for it. And they wanted to kill him.
And so now these wicked men have brought him to trial again. I
believe this is the fourth trial of the Apostle Paul, of which
they found no proof or evidence against him. But this good politician
willing to have his people love him, he said, hey, why don't
you go, Paul, now down to Jerusalem? And Paul says, no, no, I appeal
to Caesar. Which was his Roman right. Paul
being a Roman citizen, he had the right to appeal to Caesar
to be tried. But he did this not because he
feared death, friends. Paul did not fear dying. What Paul wanted to do was he
wanted to be obedient to Christ. And if you remember back in,
I believe it was Acts chapter... I believe Acts chapter 23, the
Lord Jesus Christ came to Paul and He said, be of good cheer,
you must testify of me in Rome. So Paul knew he had to go to
Rome. And he says, aha, here it is. Here's the way that I
get to Rome. I appeal to Caesar. And Festus
in verse 12, he looked at all the books and he couldn't get
out of this. He couldn't do anything about
this. This was the law and he was required to do it. So he
says to Caesar, you must go. Now, in verses 13 through 21,
Festus now, he's in a fix. How in the world could I send
this man to Nero and he's not guilty of anything? Festus found
himself in a problem. He had a problem. What am I going
to do? How am I going to explain this to Caesar when I don't have
any charges against this man? And so he was afraid that he
would lose his position if he didn't have anything to write.
It's like if a man goes to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme
Court is ready to hear him, and he goes, OK, what do you got
against this man? He says, not really anything.
He would be out of a job, wouldn't he? He wouldn't be a good lawyer.
And he'd be laughed at. And Festus knew what this was.
So when this man Agrippa, look at this in verse It says, in certain days, King
Agrippa and Bernice, which is his sister, came to Caesarea
to salute Festus. Now, when King Agrippa came,
Festus found a way out. He found a way out. He says,
this man Agrippa, he understands something about religion. These two people, the Jews and
Paul, are arguing about religion and Festus has no idea what they're
saying. He has no idea about anything
about religion. Nothing. He's clueless. And so
he says, ah, Agrippa, he knows a little something. Why don't
I have Agrippa come and hear him? And that's what he begins
to do in verses 13 to 21 as he gets Agrippa. Now, I want us
to notice this, and this is the message. Now, that's just to
get you where I'm at. That's just to get you where
I'm at in the Scripture. In verse 19 and 18. Festus says this to Agrippa,
he says, "...against whom the accusers stood up, and they brought
none accusation of such things as I supposed." You see, they
thought he'd bring up that he's a bad man, an evil man, a robber,
a thief. He says he's none of those things.
But what did they bring up? Look at this in verse 19. "...and
had certain questions against him of their own superstition,
and of one Jesus which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive."
Now friends, Festus did not know much about religion, but he knew
there was a difference. He knew there was a difference
between what the Jews believed and what Paul believed. He knew
there was a difference in how they presented their case before
him. He knew there was a difference.
A difference. And friends, We as believers
in Christ, we should be like the Apostle Paul and men should
know there is a difference between our message and the message of
false religion. People should know there's a
difference. Well, let's see what he saw.
What did Festus see being the difference? Look at this in verse
19. He saw that the Jews had certain questions. But he noticed
that Paul affirmed. The Jews had questions, but Paul
had affirmations. Paul had affirmations. Friends,
this religious world is full of questions and is bent by the
every opinion of man. Isn't that right? False religion
moves with the times. False religion is always changing. It's always different today as
it will be tomorrow. If you have a certain opinion,
they'll change to fit your opinion. And then they'll change to fit
someone else's opinion. But true religion never changes. True religion never changes. Friends, a fool could ask a question
that ten wise men can't answer. Isn't that right? A fool can
always ask a question ten wise men can't answer. But in matters of the souls of
men, in matters of eternal life and death, We don't have matters
of questions, we have a declaration. We affirm the gospel of Jesus
Christ. Not meddling about with foolish
questions or debating, we boldly declare the gospel. Friends,
we don't debate this. We're not here to ask what you
believe, or what this other person believes, and then try to fit
what you believe. No. The Gospel is clear, it is
plain, it is bold, and we affirm it. We don't meddle with it.
We don't change it to fit men. We just declare it. Paul warns
this to Titus. He says, avoid foolish questions.
Avoid foolish questions. Friends, I'm here today to declare
to you the Gospel. I'm here to affirm without apology
and without question the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Questions only
try to move men off the truth, don't they? When somebody comes
to you with a question that they suppose they already have the
answer for, they're just trying to move you. They're trying to
change you. They're trying to make you get off of the truth. But friend, the truth never bends
for any man. If the truth bends, it's not
the truth. There is no shade of truth. There is only truth. There's only truth. And it doesn't
matter what you think or what I think. Truth is still truth. And a lie is still a lie. And Jesus has called us who believe
to be witnesses of this truth. He says, you are my witnesses
into the uttermost parts of the world. Now, what is a witness? What is a witness? Is it not
somebody who has seen and experienced something? And they're just telling
what they know. Isn't that a witness? A witness
cares nothing of science. A witness cares nothing of reason,
of educated fools. It only cares to tell the truth. Let me illustrate it like this.
A man's on the witness stand and he's witnessed a crime. He's
witnessed a murder. He saw the killer, who he was,
he saw he raised the knife, he saw him plunge it into the victim,
he saw the victim die, and now he's on the witness stand. What
is the defense going to try to do? They're going to try to ask
him questions, aren't they? They're going to start trying
to ask him certain questions so that they might move him off
of the truth. And I'll tell you, this flesh
and the religion of this day and the enemy will always ask
this question. Yea, hath the Lord said? Isn't
that right? The flesh and the devil and all
the hosts of hell and false religion, they'll always try to move us
off of this gospel, off of this book. They'll say, yes, did the
Lord really say that? Is that what it meant or is that
just your interpretation? What is that? Foolish questions. That's just a fool's question.
The witness on the witness stand that saw that murder, he doesn't
care about what that man would say. He said, I saw it. I saw
it, and I saw that man, and I saw him kill him. I don't care what
you say. And this is exactly what we do when we witness the
gospel. We say, I don't care what the world says. I don't
care about their questions. This is the truth. This is the
truth. God's Word is the truth. This
is what I'm going to affirm to you. My opinion don't count. My opinion doesn't matter. It's
what God says that matters. God's Word is the truth. The
Scripture says, let God be true and every man a liar. Every man a liar. In Isaiah chapter 8 and verse
20, It says, to the law and to the testimony, if they speak
not according to this word, it is because they have no light
in them. God says this, if a man does not speak according to my
word, he is a liar and he has no light. That's what God says. In Jeremiah chapter 23 and verse
8, it says, the prophet that hath a dream, let him tell his
dream. And he that hath my word, let
him speak my word faithfully." God says, what is the chaff to
the wheat? What is the chaff to the wheat?
I'll tell you what, friends, don't be discouraged by the wicked
false religion of this age. Don't. Their chaff... And what does chaff do? It floats
along the breeze, being moved about by every wind of doctrine.
In other words, somebody can come in and believe something
one day, and then the next day, somebody come along and tell
them something else, they believe another thing. And then somebody
tell them something else, they believe another thing. They're
moved about like chaff. God says, don't worry about them.
He says, you preach My Gospel, My Word faithfully, because it's
like wheat. Wheat profits a man, doesn't
it? We like to eat bread. I love
to eat too much bread. Bread is good. Where does it
come from? Wheat. Wheat profits a man. And I'll
tell you, only the Word of God can profit a man. Only God's
Word can profit a man. Only by the Word of God can we
know how that a man might be saved from his sins. And friends, where every false
religion fails to answer and only give questions, true religion
affirms the gospel, the Word of God. This is God's Word and
it's true. And if anybody preaches anything
other than this, he is a liar. He is a liar. Number two, this
Manfestus noticed something else. Look back in our text in verse
19. He said, but they had certain
questions against him of their own superstition. But Paul affirmed Jesus that
he had died and is now risen. Friends, false religion is all
based on the thoughts and feelings of men. All false religion is based on
the thoughts and feelings of men. Have you ever heard that
if you broke a mirror, it's seven years bad luck? You ever heard
that? What about if a black cat crosses your path, that that's
a bad thing? Have you ever heard that? Where
does that come from? Where do we get that? Friends,
men have made those things up by their own feelings and fears. They've used the fear of men
to make superstitious reasoning. Superstition. Superstition is
a fantasy. It's a fallacy. It doesn't exist. It's not real. And Festus, he
understood. These guys have superstition.
But Paul affirms something that's real. He affirmed a person, Jesus,
who died and is now alive. Every false religion is made
up of superstition. I'm going to give you a couple
of them. Listen to a couple of these false
religious claims of superstition. Dualism. Dualism. What is that? That's the popular
idea that God does only the good stuff and the devil does only
the bad stuff. It's a belief that God and the
devil are somehow fighting against each other, trying to conquer
men. That's dualism. And I'll tell you, this used
to be Eastern mysticism, but it is in the church today. The so-called Christian church,
they believe that. They believe that. I had a woman
talk to my wife the other day about her getting a flat tire. And she came in and she said,
oh, the devil is really after me today. He gave me a flat tire
on my way to work, What an absurdity! What an absurdity! What a superstitious thought
that is, that Satan could do anything without God's expressed
permission. You see, we don't affirm that
Satan and God are fighting. We affirm that God is sovereign
and God rules over all men. That's what we affirm. Go to
Psalms 115. I'm going to send you to a couple
of places of Scripture so you can mark them. Psalm 115, verse
3. This is what God's Word says. But our God is in the heavens
and hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. God sits on the throne of heaven
and He does with you and with me as He pleases. Is that not clear? Is that not
plain? Does not God say, I sit on the
throne? Does God not say, I rule all
things by the word of my power? Of course He does. When Nebuchadnezzar,
if you remember that old wicked king who God threw down to be
like a beast on the field, what did he say when God gave him
understanding? He said, I know this, that the
Lord God is in heaven and He has done whatsoever He pleases.
God does whatsoever He pleases. And no man can stay his hand
or say to him, what are you doing? No man. Think about these things. We
hear in the news obviously that that evil man was killed this
last couple of weeks and we remember what happened on 9-11. We remember
how those thousands of people were killed. Where was God? He's in the same place He is
now. He's on the throne. He did that. God allowed that
to happen. He purposed it. He purposed it
for His own good and glory. That tsunami that took over Japan
this last few months back. Who did that? Was that outside
of God's control? Was God taken by surprise when
those 300 people were killed by the tornado that swept through
the South? Was God taken by surprise? No,
He was not. God did it! God did it! God does whatsoever He pleases. And friends, if He pleases to
take your life or my life, He does so at His own pleasure. And you know how much we have
to say about that? Nothing. We have nothing to say about
it. Nothing. What will you do? Will you fight
against God? I'm sure you will if your God's
really small. I'm sure if you're God's some idol, you can put
Him where you want to, but that's not the God I affirm. I affirm
that God is sovereign over all creation and does whatsoever
He hath pleased. That's what I affirm. Why? Because that's what God affirms.
That's what God says about Himself. Number two, false religion. Superstition
believes that Jesus died for all men without exception. Superstition believes that God
really wants everybody to be saved, but He just doesn't have
the power to save anyone. They believe Jesus died for all
men, but unless man does something for God, God can't save him. Friends, that is no more superstitious
than the black cat in the broken mirror. It's just superstition.
Why? Because it's not what God says.
It's not what God says. I'll tell you, no wonder these
religious people are always in a panic. No wonder their lives
are in such disarray. Because their God is so small
that He can't do anything. Their poor God needs them and
they can't do anything themselves. What a weak, effeminate God they
serve. That's a weak God. A God of superstition. But we affirm, we affirm that
Jesus Christ was sent of God to save His elect people. God, from before the foundation
of the world, chose a people, a certain number of people that
He would save. And He sent His Son into the
world to die for those people. for those people. And friends, I affirm that he
was successful. I affirm that Jesus Christ did
not try to save anybody. I affirm that Jesus Christ saved
His people, redeemed His people. Go to Matthew chapter 1, verse
21. Matthew chapter 1 and verse 21, the angel witnessing to Mary
about her coming son, He says, and she shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus. I'm sorry, witness Joseph
here. Thou shalt bring forth a son, she shall bring forth
a son, thou shalt call his name Jesus. Here it is. For he shall. Shall do what? Save his people
from their sin. Now, I'll tell you what, if Jesus
didn't save His people from their sins, He is not the Savior. He is not the Christ if He did
not do that. Go to Luke chapter 22 and verse
37. Luke chapter 22 and verse 37. Jesus says this, "'For I say
unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me.'"
And here it is. This is what was written. "'And
he was reckoned among the transgressors, for the things concerning me
have an end.'" Friends, it was Jesus Christ who was reckoned among the transgressors."
By who? Well, men thought he was a transgressor,
but I'll tell you this is something greater than that. He was reckoned
among the transgressors by God. God took the sins of His people
and put them on Christ. And when God saw the sins of
His people on Christ, He executed Christ and poured out all His
vengeance and wrath for their sins. That's what Christ was
doing on the cross. When Jesus died on the cross,
He was not dying for His own sins. He was dying for the sins
of His people. that God imputed to His charge. And from that cruel cross, the
Lord Jesus Christ cried, It is finished. What was finished? Sin. Sin was finished. Where? At the cross. When God
killed Jesus Christ, He did it for me." He did it for me. He did it for my sins. He took
all my sins, and He put them on His Son, and God killed His
Son in my stead, in my place. Let me ask you this. If Jesus
died for all of the sins of all men, why is there hell? If God
punished the sins of all men in Christ, why is there a hell? Friends, He did not die for every
man. He died for His people. And He
was successful. He did accomplish what God sent
Him to do. And that was to die for the sins
of His people. And not only did He die. Paul
did not only affirm that He died. It says in our text of one Jesus
which was dead. He not only affirmed His death,
but what else? He affirmed that He was alive.
Friends, I affirm to you that this same Jesus who was crucified
is alive. He is alive. He is alive and
well seated on the throne of heaven. And friends, people always ask
the question, what do you do with Jesus? Friends, what would
Jesus do with you? That's the question you should
be asking. If He's on the throne of God and He rules all things,
what is He going to do with you? It is an absurdity for men not
to believe on the Son of God. It's an absurdity. And yet men
still will not believe. Why will they not believe? Even
because they cannot believe unless God does something for them. I'll tell you this, unless God
does something for you or does something for me, we cannot be
born again. We cannot believe on the Son
of God. Friends, it is a matter of sovereignty. God is sovereign and He does
whatsoever He pleases. And whether He saves you or damns
you is not up to you, it's up to Him. And I pray that God would open
the hearts of men to believe on Christ. It is foolishness
not to. Why will you die in your sins
and not believe on the Son of God and have life? It's an absurdity. What will you do when you stand
before God? What will you bring before Him
to be accepted? If you do not bring the blood
of Christ, you will have no acceptance with Him. This is what I affirm. This is
what God's Word affirms. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. That's wonderful for me. I believe
and God has redeemed me. I pray that you would believe
and God would redeem you. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Our Father, we thank You for this time. I thank You
for this message. I pray that You would bless it
according to Your mercies, that You, by Your grace, would touch
our hearts and give us strength. I pray for those who do not know
Christ, that You would please, by Your grace, reveal Him unto
them. Lead us and guide us in every
aspect of this other worship today. Father, I pray that Your
Spirit would be with us and guide us. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you.