I ask you to open your Bibles
with me to Acts chapter 24. Let's begin with verse 1. Acts
24, we're going to read the first 14 verses. After five days, Ananias the
high priest descended with the elders and with a certain orator
named Tertullius who informed the governor against Paul. And
when he was called forth, Tertullius began to accuse him saying, and
Tertullius is certainly not one short on words here, he says,
he says, seeing that by thee we enjoy great quietness and
that very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence,
We accept it always in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness. Notwithstanding that I be not
further tedious unto thee, I pray that thou wouldest hear of us,
thy clemency, a few words. For we have found this man a
pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews
throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.
who also hath gone about to profane the temple, whom we took, and
would have judged according to our law. But the chief captain
Lysias came upon us, and with great violence took him away
out of our hands, commanding his accusers to come unto thee,
by examining of whom thyself may take knowledge of all these
things, where have we accused him? And the Jews also assented,
saying that these things were so. Then Paul, Paul, after the
governor had beckoned unto him to speak, consider the ridicule
that Paul took here, but he kept his silence. He kept his silence
until he was asked to speak, but then he says, for as much
as I know that thou hast been many years a judge unto this
nation, I do more cheerfully answer you for Myself. I can
speak for Myself, because that thou mayest understand that there
are yet but twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem for to
worship, and they neither found Me in the temple disputing with
any man, neither raising up the people, neither in the synagogue,
nor in the city, neither can they prove the things whereof
they now accuse Me. But this I confess unto thee,
that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the
God of my fathers, believing all things which are written
in the Law and in the Prophets." Now the title of the message
this morning comes from this passage of Scripture. What men
call heresy. What men call heresy. Paul says,
I confess unto thee that after the way that they, the way that
they call heresy. Now, I look this up. This word
heresy, it means a belief or an opinion that's contrary to
what most believe, to what most people believe. It means to be
at odds, to be at odds with what is generally accepted. And if you'll notice, most people,
most so-called religious people, if you talk to them about good
works, you bring that up at lunch, at work, you talk about good
works, or reading your Bible, or going to church, or praying,
or getting your heart right with God, nobody gets upset. Nobody's going to kick you out
of the lunchroom for that, are they? In fact, they all seem
to be in agreement. They can all agree and get along
and hold hands and sing and be just fine with those things. You're not going to be contrary
at odds with anybody on those topics. Those things that, listen,
those things that take away from man's glory, those things that
take away from man's pride, man's arrogance, man's self-righteousness,
those things that give God all the glory, that's what men in
our time and in Paul's time call heresy. That's what they call
heresy. It goes against man's pride. A couple examples of this are
found in God's Word. I want to look at this morning. Back in Daniel 3, if you remember,
Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar the king, he made that image
of gold, and it was a dandy. It was three score cubits high.
I read that's 90 feet, about 90 feet tall. It was a dandy. It was something for all to see.
And he told the people, he said, when you hear the music, when
you hear the music play, you bow down before that golden image.
And to not do so, to not do so, it would go against the common
practice because that's what the people did. They bowed down
to that false image. To do so would mean that you
were at odds with what was generally accepted. He said, if you don't bow down,
if you don't bow down, you're going to be cast into the fiery
furnace. But Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
they said to the king, he brought them in, and they said this,
they said, listen king, we're not going to be careful. We don't
need to be careful considering this matter. That kind of sounds
like heresy, doesn't it? Those three men, of all those
people, we read of three men that said, we're not going to
bow down. And they said this, they said,
if our God, if our God whom we serve, He's able. He's able to deliver us. He's
able to deliver us from the fiery furnace and He will deliver us
from your hand, O King. But if not, if He doesn't, be
it known unto you Be it known unto you, King, that the God
we serve, we're not going to bow down to your gods. We're
not going to worship this golden image which you've set up. Just
a few chapters later in Daniel 6, remember that story of Daniel? Those other rulers, they said,
if there's a way that we can find fault with Daniel, there's
one way we can find fault with him, and that'll be concerning
his God. So they come up with this plan
and they convince the king in his pride to come up with a rule,
to make a decree that if any man was to bring a petition or
a prayer to anyone but the king, it would be cast into the lion's
den. And we read of one. of Daniel. Daniel didn't change anything
he was doing, did he? He went back to his home and
he opened up the windows and he bowed down to God in prayer. He didn't close the doors. He
didn't go in and hide. He went in there and he prayed
to his God. And you know the rest of that,
you know the rest of that story. They took him and again what
he did, what he did was contrary to the popular belief. It went
against what others were doing at that time. the common practice in that time.
It was to worship the false god. It was to worship the creature
rather than the Creator. And to do anything otherwise
would be considered heresy. Paul says here in our text, he
says, "...the way which they call heresy, the way which the
world calls heresy, so worship I the God of my Father, believing
all things. All things, and again, where
is it found? In God's Word. All things written
in the Law and in the Prophets. What we believe, what God's Word
declares, are not things that are commonly, they're not commonly
believed. And they shouldn't be. That shouldn't
be surprising, should it? God's Word declares that there's
a way. There's a way that seems right
unto man, but the end thereof, the end thereof are the ways
of death. Paul writing to the Corinthians.
Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Look
at verse 14. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 14. The natural man, the natural
man, he receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto
him. Neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. They must be revealed. They must be revealed. By God's grace, through the message
of the Gospel, this Gospel, it doesn't conform
to the natural mind. So, quickly, this morning, I
want us to look at just a few things And this is just a few,
but a few things that men in Paul's time called heresy. And they haven't changed any.
Men call these things heresy in our day as well. And the first
one is this. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. Now men, men say that the earth
started as a small singularity. It must have been an atom or
something like that. And over the period of 13, I
looked this up, over the period of 13.8 billion years, it turned
into what we know as the earth today. Think about that. Think about
that. But you know what? The Epicureans, The Epicureans,
back there in Paul's time, they were present when Paul preached
at Athens. And they believed the same thing,
that the earth, it just came by chance. That it just happened. Paul said this, God that made
the world and all things therein. God created the heavens and the
earth. Our brother John Chapman back
home, I'm pretty sure this was him, he said this. He said, if
what man says about creation and about evolution is true,
if that's true, then you could take a set of four Michelin tires
and an engine block and put them in an empty garage and shut the
door and wait about 20 million years and then go back and you'd
have a brand new Cadillac sitting in there. It's absurd, isn't
it? We laugh about that, but think
of the absurdity of that. Genesis 1 verse 1 says this,
"...in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Men
call that heresy. My friends, we believe that to
be true. We know that to be true. It's revealed in the Scriptures. What else do men call heresy?
Here's another one. The fall of man. the fall of
man. Men want to say that man slipped,
that he stubbed his toe. They'll agree with you that man
was injured by the fall. But listen, they say this. He can make a decision. He can
take a first step. He can do all these things. But
God's Word says this. God's Word says he fell. that
man absolutely fell. God told Adam, He said, "...in
the day that you eat thereof, thou shalt surely die." My friends,
we are dead. We are absolutely dead in trespasses
and sin. Man was ruined, absolutely ruined
by the Fall. God's Word says this, "...the
wages of sin It's death. It's death. And give me, if you've
got time, we'll take time after the service, give me a list of
things that a dead man can accomplish. A dead man can do nothing. You
sit in these churches and they've got a place up front for, they
say, come up to the front or do this or do that. You take
the first step. My friend, a dead man can do
nothing. Only God can give life. Only
Christ can speak life into the heart of a sinner. Turn back
to Genesis 3. Look at beginning with verse
9 of Genesis 3. And the Lord God called unto
Adam, and he said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard
thy voice in the garden. I was afraid, because I was naked,
and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that
thou was naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded
thee that thou shouldest not eat? Now you think about that. One command. One command. Don't eat. Don't eat. In the day that you eat, thou
shalt surely die. This is what happens when a man's
left to his free will. You see that? One command. Don't eat. The man said, and
this is what we do, isn't it? The man said, the woman whom
thou gavest me to be with me, she gave me the tree and I did
eat. Huh? It's not my fault. We blame Listen,
He blamed the woman, but He's blaming God. You see that? And the Lord God said unto the
woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said,
The serpent beguiled me. It just continues, doesn't it? It's never our fault. And the
Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this,
Thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the
field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all
the days of thy life. I'll put enmity between thee
and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, and it shall
bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. And unto the
woman, he said, I'll greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception,
and sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thy desire it shall
be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam,
he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and
hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou
shalt not eat of it, Cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow
shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns and
thistles shall it bring forth to thee. Thou shalt eat the herb
of the field, and in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread
till thou return to the ground. Death, death, for out of it wast
thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Over in the New Testament, we
read, for as in Adam, all die. All die. And my friends, we are,
listen, we're sinners. We're dead in trespasses and
sin. We're sinners by birth. We're born in sin. We're sinners
by choice. And we're sinners by practice.
It's what we are. It's what we are. It's not what
we do. It's what we are. We are sinners. Well, third. Third point. What men call heresy,
the sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God in all
things. In all things. In creation, God's
sovereign in creation. He's sovereign in providence
and He's sovereign in salvation. We read earlier from Genesis
1, in the beginning, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the
earth. God's sovereign. No question
about that. God is sovereign in creation. He's sovereign in providence.
Turn to Daniel chapter 4. Look at verse 35 of Daniel chapter
4. Let's read a few verses here. Daniel chapter 4. Listen to what
Nebuchadnezzar has to say here. The beginning at verse 34, "...and
at the end of days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven,
and my understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most
High, and I praised and honored Him that liveth forever and ever,
whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is
from generation to generation." And listen here, "...and all
the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, nothing. And He, Almighty God, doeth according
to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What
doest thou? You know, about a month ago,
about a month ago, my mother-in-law was scheduled for a back surgery. And it's something that she suffered
with for some time. And we'd been waiting to get
her into the doctor and they finally had scheduled an appointment
for this surgery. She'd consulted with the doctor
and they'd scheduled the surgery and her date had been set. That date had been set. And we
were relieved. We were so looking forward to
that procedure, getting her some relief. Well, that Thursday night,
before the surgery, she got a call from the hospital. And in their
operating room, they had found, I read this in the paper later,
some kind of dust. Dust, you know how small dust
is. A little bit of dust. on some of that equipment. And
you know, they cancel every surgery, every elective surgery in that
hospital, they cancel for a week trying to get those things clean.
And we were pretty devastated. I mean, to be honest with you,
we were kind of upset. You know, we think, what would
be wrong? What would be wrong with her
having this procedure? That night, that night, Jackie, my mother-in-law, her
mother had been ill for some time. She passed away that night. Now, had she been in that operating
room, the recovery for this was at least a day, she wouldn't
have been able to sit there with her mother and be with her dad
as her mother passed away. And we talked about that, me
and Abby and the boys, we kind of talked about that afterwards.
And you think, that's certainly no accident. She wouldn't have been with her
mother. She couldn't have went to the funeral. I mean, there
are just so many things. And that's just one event that
we were able to just kind of see a glimpse of. Think about
all those things that occur We have no clue what's going on. Even the things we see, we don't
know what we think we know in the matters. But I think about
this passage of scripture, and so often we go to it and we say,
all things work together for good. How often do we miss those first
two words? We know. We know. We know all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them that are called
according to His purpose. He has a purpose in these things.
His will is going to be accomplished. And all how we forget, how we
lose sight of that, but God's sovereign. God's sovereign in
providence. Listen, some men will go along
with you on God being sovereign in creation. Some men will go
along with you on His sovereignty in providence. But this is the
one, this is the one they get hung up on. This is the one that
just angers them to no end. He's sovereign in salvation. Almighty God is sovereign in
salvation. Turn to Ephesians 1. Ephesians
1 verse 11. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11.
Here we read, in whom we have an inheritance,
being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh
all things after the counsel of His own will." My friends,
salvation, and this is declared throughout the Scriptures, salvation
is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. And
nothing, we read this, we read this in Romans, nothing, nothing
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Jesus Christ our Lord. Turn to Luke again. This is something that just,
I mean, men get red in the face over. But look at Luke chapter
4. It shouldn't surprise us. It certainly shouldn't surprise
us. Look, beginning in verse 25. We read this last night, but
let's look at this again. Luke chapter 4, verse 25. This is our Lord speaking. He
said, I tell you the truth. Consider what he spoke. What
he spoke was truth, right? He said, he said, I tell you
truth. There were many widows, many widows in Israel in the
days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six
months, when great famine was throughout the land, but unto
none of them was Elijah sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of
Sidon, unto a little widow woman there. All those people, God sent His
prophet to one. Let's read on. There were many
lepers in the time of Elisha the prophet. Many lepers. But what's it say there? None
of them were cleansed, saving one. The Lord purposed to save
one. He purposed to save Naaman, that
Syrian. And here we see, here we see
man's reaction to God's right to save whom He will, to save
them by His power, how He will. How do people react to that?
You know, when you consider that God would, you would think, if
we knew anything, if God was pleased to save one, we'd rejoice,
wouldn't we? You sure would think so. That's the thing. You know, men
say God's not fair. It's not right. Why would He
save any? Why would He save any? All they,
all they in the sin of God. Verse 28. Now these are, again,
these are the religious people. These are the church-going people
here. When they heard these words, oh, they weren't filled with
rejoicing, were they? They weren't filled with thanksgiving that
God would save one. They were filled with wrath.
and they rose up, and they thrust him out of the city, and they
led him under the brow of the hill whereon their city was built,
that they would cast him down headlong." Boy, they weren't
going to play around here, were they? Not even a chance of landing
on your feet. They were going to cast him down
headlong. Over what? God's right to save
whom He will. God's being merciful to whom
He will. Men want to say that salvation
is by man's will or man's work. Look at Luke 4. You see that
again? You see that again? Again, this
is what infuriates man, that God saves whom He will. Turn to John 1. What's this say here? Look at
beginning with verse 10 of John 1. He was in the world. He was in the world. The world
was made by Him. That's His sovereignty and creation. And the world knew Him not. He
came into His own. His own received Him not. But
as many as received Him, To them gave He power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on His name, which were born."
Listen, not of blood. Not of blood. Not of the will of the flesh.
What's that say? They're born of God. They're
born of God. God's sovereign. God's absolutely
sovereign. He's sovereign in creation, He's
sovereign in providence, and He is sovereign in salvation. Fourth point here. The sufficiency,
the sufficiency of Christ, Christ blind. Men will talk about the
blind. They'll talk about the blood.
They'll put a sign out in front of their building and they'll
say something about the blood. But listen, they say it's Christ's
blood and there's always something in addition to that. It's Christ's
blood in their works. It's Christ's blood in their
giving. It's Christ's blood in their baptism. It's Christ's
blood in just Just draw your little blank there and fill it
in. What false preachers declare
is a blood that's not sufficient to save. It's not. If it was
sufficient, there wouldn't be anything added to that. And it's
a false gospel. And as Paul said, it's no gospel
at all. Paul, speaking to the Galatians,
he said, I marvel, I marvel that you're so soon removed from Him
that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel,
which is not another gospel, because there's only one gospel.
There's only one true gospel. And he says, there be some that
trouble you, and they would pervert Anything else, anything else
apart from Christ's cleansing blood, it's a perversion of the
Gospel. It's not the Gospel. What's 1
John 1? Turn over to 1 John 1. We can
look at these, or read these, but I think it's good to look
at. 1 John 1, verse 7. If we walk in the light, as He
is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And listen,
the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. It's not Christ's blood plus
or minus. It's not what we do or what we
don't do, what we abstain from. The blood of Jesus Christ alone
cleanses us from all sin. From all sin. What men call heresy. They call God creating the heavens
and the earth, they call that heresy. They call the fall of
man, man's ruin, man's deadness and trespasses and sin, they
call that heresy. They call the sovereignty of
God in all things heresy. They call the suffering or the
sufficiency, the sufficiency of Christ's blood in what they
say and what they do, they call that heresy. And listen, and this has become, I think,
more profound in our day, the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ
was made sin. Men in our time, they call that
heresy. They won't have it. They won't
have it. Turn to 2 Corinthians 5 verse
21. I love this passage of Scripture. Our pastor has it on our bulletin,
and I don't know that there's a message that I've heard in
recent times in which this passage of Scripture doesn't show up. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord
Jesus Christ who knew no sin, He was made sin for His people. Our High Priest became us. He
is, listen, He's holy, He's harmless, He's undefiled, He's separate
from sinners, He's made higher than the heavens. Habakkuk said
this, he said, "...thou art of pure eyes than to behold iniquity." Consider this, that He should
be counted unholy. That He should have all the iniquity
of all His people laid on Him. He that's one with the Father,
Almighty God, one with the Father, He is God. God in human flesh
should be made a curse. That He should be made sin for
His people. And here's what we truly love
about this verse. Listen to the rest of it. That
we, that we might be made And He's talking about His people
here. We who are nothing, listen, nothing but sin. That we might be made the very
righteousness of God in Him. He said this, look unto Me. Look
unto Me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth. For I'm God. I'm God and there is None else. Now back to our text, back to
Acts 24. Look at verse 14. Paul says, This I confess unto thee, that
after the way which they call heresy, This that men, this that
men call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing
all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets."
What are some of those things we read? What are those things
that are declared in the Law and the Prophets? God created
heavens and earth. Man's dead and trespasses in
sin. Man's fall. Man's absolute deadness. God's
absolute sovereignty in all things. The sufficiency of Christ's blood. And this, that Christ was made
sin. You know in those things, who
gets the glory? That's the test, isn't it? Who
gets the glory? Is it me for something I've done? Or is it Almighty God? who did
all things." Read on there. Listen, Paul says, "...and we
have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow that there
shall be a resurrection of the dead." Our brother spoke of that
this morning. Both of the just and of the unjust. Judgment's gonna come. Judgment's
gonna come. This I confess, after the way
they call heresy. So worship I, the God of my fathers. All right. I pray God will be
pleased to bless his word.