Okay, you can be seated. Couldn't sing that sitting down,
couldn't. Told us twice to stand up. Alright,
go back with me to Acts 24. Brother John, She easily read Ephesians 1 tonight,
and that blessed me so much. And same old scriptures that
we've been hearing for years and never tire of. And all that
you'll hear tonight you've heard before, but the truth you rejoice
in. Let's read verses 10 through
16 again. Then Paul, after the governor
had beckoned unto him to speak, answered, For as much as I know
you have been many years a judge unto this nation, I do more cheerfully
answer for myself, because you may understand that it are yet
twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem for it to worship. They neither found me in the
temple disputing with any man, neither raising up the people,
neither in the synagogues 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, and have hope toward God, which they
themselves also allow. that there shall be a resurrection
of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. And herein do
I exercise myself to have always a conscience of offense toward
God and toward men." Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ, called,
chosen, sent by God, a true man of God who spoke the truth of
God. And yet he was hated, he was
reviled, he was persecuted, and all manner of evil was spoken
against him for the truth's sake. Just as the Lord said it would
be as they persecuted the prophets before him, so they persecuted
him now. They said of Elijah, long before
Paul, they said of Elijah, he's one that troubleth Israel. And
that's what they brought against Paul at this time and all the
apostles. They trouble Israel. Well, since
God hasn't changed and the truth hasn't changed, man certainly
hasn't changed, has he? He still hates God. It's still
true today that the man who preaches, who declares who simply declares
what God says about himself. True and living God. Truth of
God. That God is God. Truth about
man. That he's not God. That he's
worthless, helpless, hopeless. Truth of salvation. That it's
in Christ and Christ alone. From start to finish. That man will be hated. and persecuted
and maligned today for the truth's sake. But he is not a troubler
of the people. He is actually the best friend
they ever had. And as it is with the preacher,
so it is with every believer, every disciple, whoever, man
or woman or young person who believes and confesses the same
through God and his Christ will be hated and persecuted. Because
when the true God is exalted, man's enmity comes out. Where
there is truth, there is persecution. If there is no persecution, there
is no truth. So be it. Can you say that? So be it. And we say with Peter,
Simon Peter of old, who was threatened by his accuser, they said, don't
you dare speak that name anymore. Don't go out preaching this anymore.
And he said, we cannot but speak the things we've seen and heard.
And he said, you tell us, should we obey you or God? So we cannot but speak the things
we've seen and heard. And we must confess. And I ask you, I want you to
examine yourself. Is not this your confession?
What Paul said here. I must confess before this untoward
generation that after the way which they call heresy, that's who and what I worship. the way they call heresy. Now,
because, and I was going to have you turn to Isaiah 59. You don't
have to. You've heard it before. But it says over there that truth
is fallen in the street and cannot enter. They won't have it. Men won't have it. Truth faileth. He that departeth from evil.
He talked about them lying against the Lord. lying on God, says
they conceive and utter words of falsehood about God, about
Christ, about man and so forth, about salvation. That's what
they want to hear. But he that departed from that,
he becomes a prey, or that is, he's the one that they go after.
He's the one they all hate. About like that blind man, you
know, from John chapter 9. They liked him just fine until
he started confessing Christ. They preferred him blind, didn't
they? And man believes a lie. He loves
a lie. Scripture said. And the fact
is that now the truth, the truth, God's Word, the truth, is called
heresy. And man now calls good evil,
and evil good. And man now calls what is the
doctrine of Christ the doctrine of devils, doesn't he? And they
call what they have made up, which is the doctrine of devils,
they call that the truth. And it's so strange. The truth
is so strange now. And the unknown God, God of the
Bible that men don't know, is a strange God to this generation. But I must confess that this
strange God is the God I worship. And this strange doctrine that
they attribute to Calvin, he didn't start it. That this is
how I worship. We confess the God, look at our
text says, Paul said, After the way which they call heresy, so
worship I the God of my fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. In other words, Jehovah. Jehovah. There is no other God. There
is no other God. All the gods of the people are
idols. made up, man-made God. The God of the Muslims is an
idol. The God of the Hindus, they're
certainly idols. The God of the Roman Catholics,
all their gods and saints are idols. The God of the Methodists
are idols. The Southern Baptists, they're
all idols. There are no gods at all. But
now the God of our Father, here He is, and I'm just going to
quote Scripture after scripture to you, okay? The God of our
fathers, Moses' God, that is. God of our fathers, Moses' God.
Daniel's God, He is God. Moses' God is God. God of gods,
even that pagan king had to say. King of kings, Lord of lords,
God of gods. Nebuchadnezzar said it, didn't
he? Daniel's God is God. Our God, the God of our fathers,
the one whom we worship, all this the scripture says of him
that they call heresy, this is what we believe. We believe the
God who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,
his own will. We believe he doeth according
to his will among the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth. He does according to his will. We believe and worship the God
who declares the end from the beginning, things that are not
yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand. I will do all my
pleasure. Our God, far from standing outside
our hearts door, is in the heavens and he hath done and is doing
and shall ever do whatsoever he hath pleased." They call that
heresy, don't they? Our God will work, and who's
going to let him? That's our God. Our God is the
one in whose hands the King's heart is, like the rivers of
water, he turneth it with us, whoever he will. The heart of
man. Our God is the one in whose hands
our breath is. He giveth it, He withholdeth
it at His will and all our ways. Our God is the one who purposed
all things before the world began. Yes, known unto Him are all of
His works from the beginning of the world, before the foundation
of the world. And he predestined all things, all people, all events
according to that eternal purpose, ordered in all things, and it
should. And our God is so holy, this
God is so holy that the sun is not pure. And he charges his
angels with folly. He is first and foremost and
principally and preeminently holy. That's his chief attribute,
and all other attributes are found under that. This is our
God. They call it heresy. He's not
that holy. Yes, he is. Our God is a, how
holy? A consuming fire, dwelling in
light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor
can see. Our God is the one who will by
no means clear the guilty, who will punish sin, who is the God
of Malachi, the God of judgment. Our God changeth not. They call this heresy, but this
is who I worship. Our God is love. Yes, He is. But it's not what they say. It's
not what they say. Our God loves sovereignly. He
loves whom He's purposed to love. He loves whom He willed to love. And whoever He willed to love
or set His love upon before the world began, that's when He did
it. He loves them forever with an everlasting love. And that
love is sovereign and it's It is a saving love. Whoever He
loves, He saves. That's real love, isn't it? And
whomever He loves, He loves eternally. He never stops loving. Since
our God is love and love never faileth, His love won't fail. That's our God. Our God is merciful. Yes, He is. He is merciful. But
it's His sovereign right to show mercy to whom He will show mercy.
Mercy, by definition, means not getting what we deserve. Therefore,
it is of necessity it be sovereign. His mercy is sovereign. He is
merciful to whom He will. But He is merciful. Our God is
gracious, infinitely, wonderfully, amazingly gracious, the God of
all grace. But once again, it is His divine
prerogative and right as God. to be gracious to whom he will
be gracious. It's infinite grace that he's
gracious to one. But he is gracious, infinitely
gracious. Our God is the one who saves
all whom he chose, whom he elected and purposed to save before the
foundation of the world, and gave to his Son, who is the Christ,
who is the Redeemer, to come to this world and redeem them.
And he did this electing, this choosing of these people before
the children were born, before they had done any good or evil
that the purpose of this God, according to election, must stand,
before the world began. And he wrote every one of those
names of those whom he had chosen, of people that no man can number,
but he has them numbered. Their names were written in a
book called the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of
the world. And that book was sealed up,
John. Sealed up. Not to be opened until the end
of time. And when he opens that book,
every name will be in there. Not one missing. All the children
that God chose. And I must confess that this
is the God that I worship. How about you? the way they call
heresy. And verse 14 says, ìBelieving
I believe all things which are written in the law and in the
prophet.î I say with David of old, in Psalm 119, 128, I believe
it is, he said, ìI esteem all thy precepts.î Speaking to his
God in prayer. He said, ìI esteem all thy precepts.î
concerning all things to be right. And therefore, I hate every false
way. I hate everything that goes against
it. I hate everything that is contrary
to it. I hate everything that twists this and perverts it.
I hate it, he said. And I say with him that let God
be true. Everything he says, I believe,
is true. And everything man says is a
lie. I believe that as God said in
Isaiah 8, he said, to the law and to the testimony, whoever
it be, though it be an angel from heaven, to the law and to
the testimony, if they speak not according to this book, this
word, there is no light in them. God didn't send them. The law and the testimony, in
the volume of the book, it says that he believed all things written
in the law and the prophet. The Law and the Prophets, in
the volume of the book, it is written of one person, Chieflet,
the Lord Jesus Christ. It is concerning, in The Law
and the Prophets, the things concerning Jesus Christ. From Genesis to Malachi, Genesis
to Revelation, this book is about Christ, who is the first and
the last, the beginning and the end, the author and the finisher. To Him give all the prophets
witness. They are they which testify of him." That God that
was manifest in the flesh, the same God that I've been describing
walked this planet. I was accosted by four of those
Russellites the other day, four women, pulled up in a car. They called themselves Jehovah's
Witnesses. You need to quit calling them
that. They're Russellites. They follow this man who started
the whole thing named Charles Russell, I believe his name.
And I was accosted by four of them. They pulled up in my driveway.
And when I found out who they were,
I began to immediately tell them, I believe that Jesus Christ is
God Almighty, and you do not. Therefore, you are anti-Christ. And you should have seen their
four sets of eyes look amazing. And they handed me their little
pamphlet, you know, with their idolatry all over it, you know,
and a graven image on the front of it. And I ripped it up and
threw it back in their face. And I began to tell them who
Jesus Christ was as much as I could from God's Word. And all they
could do was argue. Called it heresy. That's the
way they call heresy. They believe he's just a man.
One of them said, well, who made Jesus? Somebody made Jesus, didn't
they? Well, after the way they call
heresy, this is what I believe. I believe Jesus Christ called
his name, and I quoted this to them, and they, like water off
a duck's back, called his name the mighty God, the everlasting
Father. He said, he that hath seen me
hath seen the Father. before Abraham was, I am." This
God was manifest in the flesh. I believe Jesus Christ is very
God of very God, Immanuel, God with us, the same God who was
in the beginning, by whom all things were created, and without
Him was not anything made that was made. Don't you? If He's
not, He's the biggest imposter that ever lived. If he's not,
we're idolaters, we worship him. If he's not, we're yet in our
sins. He said, if you believe not that
I am, you'll die in your sin. Only God can forgive sins, right?
Right. Jesus Christ is God. He is that
God who came to earth, of whom Isaiah wrote, it'll be said in
that day, lo, this is our God. We've waited on him. He'll save
us. I told those ladies, I said,
Christ is Jehovah, our shepherd. He said that. I am the Lord,
the shepherd of the sheep. Christ came to do the will of
God. I don't understand this completely,
but I believe it. That though he was God, yet he
became a man, manifest in the flesh. He came to earth to do
the will of God, glorify God as a man. He came with a mission
to accomplish, and He did. He did that work. I love that
in Isaiah 59, if you want to read it sometime for yourself.
If you go on to read, it says in verses 16 through 18, it says,
God saw there was no man. A bunch of liars and so forth. It says, so His arm brought salvation
unto Him. He says he put on righteousness
as a breastplate. He put on the garments of vengeance.
He saw there was no man who was going to glorify Him. No man. So God became a man. He came
to do the work Himself. To fulfill His own law. Oh yeah,
when Christ came down here, he, like the judge of the earth that
he is, they brought in a woman guilty of breaking Moses' law,
they says. Moses' law? No, they brought
her to the one who wrote the law, who gave it to Moses on
Mount Sinai that day. Boy, she was blessed, wasn't
she? And they said, what do you say? And he said freely, complete
of his own will, right there before them all, without any
regard To what that law said, right there. He said, she's clear
of all charges. With a word, he justified her.
Who shall lay anything the charge of God's elect. That's right.
And God was standing there and he said, no, there's no accuser. Neither do I condemn them. He came to fulfill his own law,
the law he wrote. He came to establish a perfect
righteousness and holiness as a man for some
people, not all. For those he had chosen before
the world began, those whose names he had in his book, he
also had, Scripture says, written on the palms of his hands. I love that passage, don't you?
He had them written on the breastplate, or that is his heart, like the
priest of old. But he said, I have engraved
thee on the palms of my hand. And this was Jehovah Jireh, of
whom Abraham and Isaac rejoiced coming down the mountain that
day, Mount Moriah. Well, when they were headed up,
it was Isaac who asked his father, Father, here is the wood, here
is the fire, where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham
uttered those great, wonderful words. He said, My son, God,
Jehovah, God will provide Himself a lamb for Bernard. Yes, He did. God Himself was
that lamb. The church of God which He purchased
with His own blood. The church of God whom God came
to redeem for himself. Jehovah Jireh, that's who Christ
is, the Lamb of God. And he went to Calvary's cross
to die as a substitute for his people. Not all. They call this heresy, but this
is what I confess. That everyone whom Jesus Christ
went to Calvary's tree to pay for their sins, He actually paid
for them. He put them away by the sacrifice
of Himself on Calvary's tree. He actually obtained eternal
redemption for His people forever. He paid the price in full and
there is not one charge laid to one of His people because
Christ paid it all. He nailed the handwriting of
ordinances that were against His people to His cross. Every law he kept perfectly fulfilled
on their behalf. And he put away all the sins
of all of God's elect by the sacrifice of himself. He lived
their life, died their death, arose from the grave, and ever
lives to make intercession for them, reigning, ruling, seated
on the throne right now. He's ruling over and looking
over this very meeting in which we And then that same Lord and King
of Kings and Lord of Lords sent his Holy Spirit to this earth
to regenerate every single person whom God chose, every single
person whom Christ died for, to call them by his gospel and
they will hear his voice. He said they would. To bring
them all, he said, bring my sons from afar. From the north, I'll
say to the north, give up. I'll say to the south, bring
my sons from afar. That everyone whom the father
gave him shall come unto him, shall believe him. The people
whom he died, I believe they will all be there in the end.
But none of them is lost. It's not possible. Because their
hope And my hope, like Paul here in verse 15, he says, I have
hope toward God. Their hope, all of God's people
hope, their hope, Paul's hope, and my hope toward God is this. My hope is built on nothing less,
nothing more, nothing less, than Jesus Christ's blood and righteousness. Period. And verse 15 goes on to say,
and we believe, there is a resurrection of the dead, both of the just
and the unjust. And I believe and I confess in
all my hope toward God, a holy and righteous God who will by
no means clear the guilty, who must punish sin. I believe those
sins were paid for and punished in Christ Himself, enabling God
to be just and justifier. and that God Almighty has completely
justified me through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
that I will be in that resurrection of the just because I will be
in Christ the just One. Because He shall stand for me
in that great day. He'll stand for all of His people
whom He stood for on this earth. He will stand For again, in that
great day, and say, Behold I and the children. And the gates of heaven will
open and the King of glory will come in and His train are those
who are connected to Him, His people. Yes, I must confess.
How about you? That the way they call Harrison
is the way I worship, the God I worship. I worship the God
of my Father. and believe all things written
in the law and in the prophets and have hope toward God that
I'll be in that resurrection of the just because of Jesus
Christ, because of God's eternal purpose, because of God's sovereign
and God's almighty and powerful and cannot lie, God's sovereign
electing mercy, grace and purpose that He made in Christ Jesus
before the world began is my hope. and my confession. Okay, stand with me. Our Lord, thank You, thank You,
thank You for the sure mercies of David, the same mercies that
we enjoy, the same mercies we rejoice in, that God hath made
with us an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure.
And these mercies and this covenant are all in Christ the head of
that covenant, surety of that everlasting covenant. O God,
we thank you that thou hast made these things known unto us, revealed
them unto babes. And this is all our hope, all
our plea and our confession by thy grace. And so it is in the
name of Christ we have met here tonight, for the glory of God
the Father, His blessed Son and through the help of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.