Alright, if you will take your
Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 24. Acts the 24th chapter. We'll be looking verses 1 through
21 this morning. And our text will be found in
verse 14. Acts chapter 24. Our text is
being found in verse 14 where the Apostle Paul says, But this
I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy,
so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things that are
written in the law and in the prophets. The title of the message
this morning is Seven Truths That False Religion Call Heresy. Seven Truths That False Religion
Calls Heresy. Now last week, we saw that the
Apostle Paul was brought before the Sanhedrin, and as he had
started to make his defense against their accusations, the high priest
smote him, and then he was delivered by Lysias into the castle. And when Paul learned of the
plot of the Jews to kill him, Lysias sent him to Caesarea to
be protected under Felix and to be tried under the governor
of Caesarea, which was Felix. And so we begin here in chapter
24, in verses 1 through 9, we have the Jews come and they are
going to deliver before Felix their accusations. Verses 10 through 21, Paul will
give his defense. Now the Jews, they come and they
bring some slick lawyer. They don't even speak for themselves.
They bring the slickest attorney that they could possibly find.
And he accuses Paul of three things, of being a pestilent
fellow in verse 5, a troublemaker. One that there were many troublemakers
in Jerusalem at this time, and so Felix would be inclined to
believe this, that Paul was a troublemaker. They accused him of being a mover
of seditions in the sect of the Nazarenes. And this was an accusation
against Paul that both Romans and Jews didn't like. They did not like Christians
because Christianity was growing at such a rate that they thought
they would lose power. The Romans thought that the Christians
would eventually take over the whole government, and the Jews
thought they would lose their power among the Jewish people,
and so they both hated them. And so this lawyer says, hey,
he's of Jesus, he's of the sect of the Nazarenes. And then he
accuses him of profaning the temple. But in verses 10-21,
Paul gives this. He says, I've got good conscience.
He says, you can't accuse me of these things. These things
are not true. He said, I was only in Jerusalem 12 days. How
can I be a mover of sedition when I was only there 12 days?
He said, and when I was in the temple, I didn't even talk with
anybody. How can I be a man of sedition
planning to overthrow anybody? And he says to these Jewish rulers,
he says, you know, these accusations, he says, prove it. He said, you've
not brought one ounce of evidence against me that is true. And
so in verse 14, Paul expresses to Felix the problem. He says, if you want to know
what it is, this is the problem. The way I worship God, they call
heresy, and this is the reason why they want to kill me. These
Jews had no real charge against Paul to kill him, other than
they hated the Gospel, they hated God, and they wanted to do away
with any word of Jesus Christ. Even so, friends, mainstream
religion will always oppose the sovereign grace of God. These Jews are no different than
any other religious sect in our day that hate the gospel of God's
sovereign grace. Now, they love to hear that God
loves all men without exception. Mainstream religion loves that.
They love to hear that Jesus died for all men without exception.
They love to believe that salvation is made possible to all men if
they will exercise their free will or perform some religious
ceremony. They hold that Christ desires
to save all men, but if man refuses, he cannot be saved. They believe
that man must sanctify themselves by their good works to prepare
themselves for heaven. They make themselves holy before
God by fasting, by rituals, or by works. They say that salvation
may come by something other than the preaching of the gospel.
All of these things are what the mainstream religion of our
day believes. And I'll tell you, if we would
preach any of those things, they would applaud us and they would
join with us. If we would concede on any one
of those points, they would love to have fellowship with us. But
we declare that none of these things are true. None of them. The gospel, when it is preached,
it will always offend the natural religious man. It will offend
man's pride because the gospel always exposes sin. It will offend man's intelligence
because salvation is never by education. You can't educate
yourself to know God. I was reading a book the other
day, and I love this statement. By a preacher, he said this,
if God does not reveal Himself to you, you will go to hell. If God Himself does not reveal
Himself to you, you will die in your sins and you will suffer
eternal wrath. And friends, this will offend
man's intelligence because salvation is by revelation. Jesus said
in Matthew 11, 27, All things are delivered to me of my Father,
and no man knoweth the Son but the Father. Neither knoweth any
man the Father save the Son, and to he whom the Son will reveal
Him. This Gospel is offensive to self-righteous
men, because it tells of all man's righteousnesses are as
filthy rags before God. It tells us that man can never
please God by his own works, but must have the substitutionary
atonement of Christ as all His perfection and righteousness.
Friends, hear me. There is only one true Gospel. There are not many Gospels. There's
only one. There's only one. The only gospel
that satisfies the law and the prophets, the only message of
hope and eternal life is the message we preach by Jesus Christ
and by His apostles. It is the only gospel that can
deliver from the wrath of God. And this message that we preach,
they call heresy. They call heresy. This morning,
I want us to see seven gospel truths. Seven truths about this
only true gospel that cannot be compromised. If we compromise
one of these seven things, it is no longer the gospel. It is
some other gospel. And Paul says, if we preach any
other gospel, let them be accursed. There's only one gospel. There's
only one to be found in the whole Bible. We that preach and believe
the gospel have no need for other words or writings to be proven
but from Scripture. There are many good books, friends,
but this is the first one I want us to see is that the Word of
God is the only source of faith and practice that cannot be compromised.
The Word of God is the only source of faith and practice. This gospel
that we believe comes only from this book. There is no other
book but this one that declares all the truth of the gospel of
God. This is the Word of God. Now there are many good books,
and I suggest you read good books. That's a good thing, to have
good books to read. But good books only make comments
on what this book says. And if their comments do not
match this book, then their comments are wrong. It doesn't matter
who they are. The Word of God is all the authority
of the Gospel. Now the Papists, the Roman Catholics,
they rely on traditions. The Mormons, they'll rely on
the Book of Mormons. Jehovah's Witness, they'll rely
on a book called Reasoning out of the Scriptures. The Reformed,
they will rely on creeds, on church confessions, on some historical
church history. I was reading an article in one
of Spurgeon's books This man was refuting him and he said
that Spurgeon was wrong according to church history. Who cares? Who cares what church history
says? If it's against the Word of God,
it is wrong, no matter who says it. This is why it's dangerous, friends,
for us to rely on anything like the Westminster Confession of
Faith or the London Confession of Faith, because if we rely
on some confession, eventually we'll try to make the Bible fit
the confession, and not the confession fit the Bible. It'll always work
out that way. This is why this church doesn't
have one. We don't follow any confession. We follow the written
Word of God. We don't yield to any confession
of men. We yield to the absolute, inerrant
Word of God. This is the only source of truth
in all the world. The only source of faith and
practice for believers. Our gospel must come from the
Word of God alone. For only by the Word of God does
God reveal His nature, our nature, And how it is that man might
be saved? Only by the blood of Christ.
Where is that found? That's found in the Word of God.
It's the only source of truth. Number two, the second truth
is the sovereignty of God in all things. Go to Psalm 115. Psalm 115 and verse 2. Psalm
115 and verse 2. The Scriptures say, "...Wherefore
should the heathen say, Where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens,
and hath done whatsoever He hath pleased." In other words, why
do the heathen rage and imagine a vain thing? Why do they question
us as to where our God is? I was reading an article this
week, the Pope had decided to answer some questions. So he
got on television in Italy and they were giving him questions.
And this one question, the very first question was asked by a
seven-year-old girl and he was stumped. He was stumped by a
7-year-old girl who asked this question. It was a 7-year-old
girl in Japan. She asked this question. She
says, why am I so frightened and why did so many children
have to die and suffer? And the Pope says, I don't know
why some suffer and others do not. He told that little girl,
he said, Jesus suffered and He was innocent just like you. Hmm, what heresy? This Antichrist
had no answer to the question, but God's Word has the answer. God's Word tells us the answer.
Where was God when that tsunami hit and killed all those people?
He was in the same place He was before the tsunami. He was in
the same place during the tsunami. And He's in the same place after
the tsunami. He's on the throne and He hath
done whatsoever He hath pleased. God is sovereign in all things. In all things. That tsunami that hit the coast
of Japan, killing those thousands of people? Our God was in the
heavens. The Scripture says in Psalm 135,
verse 6, "...whatsoever the Lord hath pleased, did He in heaven
and earth and in the seas and all deep places." Did God have power over that
thing? Absolutely. Who caused that thing to happen?
God did. God did. And He makes no apology. He makes no apology. In the eyes
of evil, wicked men, they would say, that's cruel! How could
God do such a thing? How could God cause so much suffering? Do you not think of all the infants
and small children that were ushered into the presence of
God, not having grown up in that heathen culture to die in their
sins? Isn't that wonderful that God had mercy on those small
children to kill them and to take them into His presence as
opposed to letting them die in their sins and grow up under
a pagan religion? I tell you, God had more mercy
on one of those infants killed in that tsunami than He had on
the Pope who has lived many years and will die and go to hell.
Friends, our God is merciful. And all the Christians that suffered
during that time, God has promised that that is for their good.
It will work out for their eternal good and His glory. And we believe
this because the Word of God says this, God is sovereign over
all things in providence and creation. He does all things
after the counsel of His own will. Our God is sovereign. Not only
over creation, but over grace and salvation. The gospel we
preach tells us that God, from eternity, has purposed to save
a people. The gospel we preach is not,
and He chose them not based on anything they would do, but He
unconditionally chose them out of mercy on some of Adam's fallen
race. And He in time is doing all things
right now to bring them to Himself. Do you realize that everything
God does is to have grace on His people? Everything God does. Everything God does is according
to His will, and His will for His people is that He do them
good all the days of their life. Number three, the third truth
that is necessary and cannot be moved from the gospel is that
all men by nature are depraved. Go over to Psalm 51 and verse
5. Psalm 51 and verse 5. Psalm 51 and verse 5 says, Behold,
David says, I was shapen in iniquity, And in sin did my mother conceive
me." Now what is David talking about? David is not talking about
that his parents were adulterers. They were married. They were
godly people. And the Scripture says that the
bed is undefiled in marriage. He's not talking about the sin
of his parents, but what he is talking about is the sin that
was passed from his father to him in his conception. When does
sin begin in a man? It begins at conception. Sin
does not begin with an action. Sin is passed down from father
to child. So that even as we are shapen
in our mother's womb, we are sin. We are sin. The gospel is clear, that by
one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death
passed upon all men for all have sinned. The religious world preaches
that man have some goodness. They'll tell you you have some
goodness, some gem of goodness in you, some life in you that
you might by your ability please God. They give you some false hope
as that you might recover yourself. But that's not to be found in
the Word of God. The Gospel tells us plainly that
man is dead in sin, enslaved to Satan, and can by no means
save himself. Jesus talking to His disciples,
He says, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. The disciples
said, who then can be saved? What did Jesus say? With man,
it is impossible. You cannot save yourself. But with God, all things are
possible. Salvation for man is not hard. It's not hard. It's impossible. It's impossible. And this is
because of the depravity of man's nature who goes about to try
to establish his own righteousness. This is why man is not subject
to the law of God, because he is carnally minded. He's carnally
minded. The Scripture tells us to be
carnally minded is enmity, hatred against God. Hatred. And Paul says in Romans 8, verse
8, he said, "...so then they that are in the flesh..." Here
it is. "...cannot please God." They
don't have any ability. By nature, man has no ability
to please God. This is the truth of the Scriptures
and we cannot and should not deviate from this truth. Number
four. The truth of eternal, unconditional
election. You see, false religion calls
the doctrine of election heresy. It's heresy to them to believe
God chose some and passed by others. To them, it's unfair. To them, they call God unrighteous
to choose one and to pass by another. They're appalled at such a thing.
That God would set His love on somebody and set His hatred on
somebody out of His own free sovereign will. But friends,
it doesn't matter how men feel about this or what men think
about this. This is the truth of God. This is who God says
He is. This is what God says He has
done. The God of the Bible and the
God that we worship is a God that elected a people, and this
is the only true God. Friends, if their God has not
elected anyone, He is not God. He is not God. In Romans 9, we can see this
very clearly. Romans 9, verse 10 says, And
not only this, but when Rebekah had conceived by one, even our
father Isaac, for the children not yet being born, neither having
done good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election,
might stand not of works, but him that calleth. He saith to
her, The elder shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob
have I loved, and Esau have I hated." When did God love Jacob? Before
they were born, not having done good or evil. When did He hate
Esau? Before he was born, not having
done good or evil. God chose one and passed by the other. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Is God unjust to do that? Is God not fair to do that? I'll tell you what's fair for
Him to throw all of us in hell. That's fair. If you really want
to know what's right, what's right and fair is for all of
us to die under the wrath of God for our sins. The glory of
the gospel is that God in mercy chose some that He would save. There was no difference between
Jacob or Esau. Both were sinners. Both were
children of Adam and both deserved hell. And yet God says, I will
have mercy on one. Why will men kick against this
doctrine? Why will they kick against this
truth? Even because they would try to obligate God to save them. That's the only reason. Man wants
to obligate God. He wants to make God fit to his
own will, rather than bowing down to the will of God. Number five, the fifth truth,
the truth that Jesus Christ effectually redeemed God's elect. In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 19,
it says, "...to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the
world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and
hath committed to us the word of reconciliation." And this
word, Paul says in verse 21, "...for He hath made Him to be
sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him." This gospel of reconciliation is summed up in
this. God was not willing to impute
the sins of His people to them. God was rather willing to impute
our sins to His own Son, so that we might be made righteous
by Him. Friends, Jesus Christ came to
be a representative man, to save His people from their sins. Let me ask you this, was He successful? Did He do what He came to do? The Scriptures tell us plainly
that He shall not fail nor be discouraged. The Scriptures plainly
tell us, Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save
His people from their sins. And when Jesus Christ bled on
that cross, our redemption was accomplished. Accomplished. False religion tells you that
your redemption is accomplished when you make some decision or
that you exercise your will in believing in Christ. It's then
that you're redeemed. No! That's not what the Scripture
teaches. It teaches us that Christ died
and He accomplished redemption on the cross. And this redemption is applied
to the charge. It is imputed to every one of
God's elect. His death and His blood and His
righteousness were all placed on our account and charged to
us. And in time, He comes and makes
that known to us what He has done. He gives us a new nature,
a new heart. And this leads me to my next
one, the sixth one, that God's grace is irresistible. False
religion tells you that you may reject the gospel of God. That
you may reject the Spirit of God when He comes in power to
save you. You may refuse Him or frustrate
Him. But this is not what the gospel
teaches. The gospel teaches us that when the Spirit of God comes
in power to save a man, There is nothing that He can do and
there is nothing He wants to do against the Spirit of God. When God came in power to save
us, was it not our experience that we were made willing in
the day of His power? When Jesus Christ stood at the
tomb of Lazarus, when He called forth Lazarus and said, Do you suppose there was any
chance that Lazarus would not have come forth? Do you suppose
that Lazarus would have debated as to whether to come out? No. When the Lord God calls a man
to life, he comes to life. And there is no resisting. There
is no resisting. We could not refuse our physical
birth. How then do we suppose we could
refuse a spiritual one? Number seven, the truth of the
gospel is that all who believe on Christ shall be preserved
in grace and faith. In other words, all those who
are chosen, all those who are redeemed by Christ, will be called
by the Spirit of God to life and faith. False religion believes that
faith is something that a man has by nature. When we were little
children, we believed in a lot of things, don't we? We believed
in superheroes, we believed in magic, we believed in frivolous
things, fairy tales. Man has a faith alright, and
man may even have a faith in a god of his imagination. But
in order to have true faith, a man must be given that faith
of God. Faith is a grace. It's not something
we can do of ourselves. For by grace you are saved through
faith, and that faith is not of yourself. Faith is a gift. of God. If any sinner is to be
saved, it must be by the unmerited favor of God, always through
the grace of faith and never apart from it." If we understand faith to be
a gift of God, to be of the grace of God, then we know that faith is not something
that we can produce, but it's something that God gives us.
And this is the truth. If God has given us faith, if our faith is genuine, true
faith, God will continue to give us faith all the way until faith
is lost in sight. Until faith is lost in sight,
Peter says this, who are kept by the power of God through faith. through faith, unto salvation
ready to be revealed. I tell you, I can understand
why this religious world is against the gospel of Christ, because
it robs Him of all glory. The natural man is robbed of
all glory. If those seven things are true,
then salvation cannot be accomplished by anything a man does. Salvation must be by something
God does for man. And so all the glory goes to
God. And if any of these things are
compromised, if any of these seven truths
are compromised, then it's not the gospel. And this religious world, they
may call it heresy, but friends, this is how I worship God. I worship God by His Word. I
worship a sovereign God. I worship a God who declares
my depravity and inability to save myself. I worship a God
who has chosen a people. I worship a God who has redeemed
a people. I worship a God who calls a people,
who saves a people, who gives them life and continues to give
them faith all the way until He brings them to Himself. For
Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of my faith, and none
of it is mine. None of it is my works. None
of it is from me. Every bit of my salvation is
from God alone. I pray this has been a blessing
to you. We're dismissed.