Okay, you can be seated. Couldn't
sing that sitting down, could you? Told us twice to stand up. All
right, go back with me to Acts 24. Brother John Sheasley 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 truth you rejoice in. Let's read
verses 10 through 16 again. Then Paul,
after the governor had beckoned unto him to speak, answered,
Forasmuch as I know you've been many years a judge unto this
nation, I do more cheerfully answer for myself. Because you
may understand, there are yet twelve days since I went up to
Jerusalem 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 promise,
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 herein do I exercise myself
to have always a conscience, boy, of offense toward God and
toward men." Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ. called, chosen,
sent by God, 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.
He still hates God. It's still true today that the
man who preaches, who declares, who simply declares what God
said about himself, true and living God, truth of God, God
is God, truth about man, that he's not God. He's worthless,
helpless, hopeless. The truth of salvation is 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's 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's no persecution, there's
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. He 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.
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 I was going to have you
turned Isaiah 59 you don't have to it's you've heard it before.
And. But it says over there the truth.
He's fallen in the street and cannot enter. They won't have
it. Men won't have it. Truth faileth. He that departed 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. And 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. But like that blind man you know
John chapter nine they liked him just fine. He started confessing Christ.
They preferred him blind and. And man believes a lot he
loves a lot. And the fact is that now the
truth the truth. God's work 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 devil. And they call what they have
made up, which is the doctrine of devil. 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. God of the Methodists
are 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, OK? The God of our father, Moses'
God, that is. God of our father, 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 we, 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. 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
And he predestined all things, all people, all events according
to that eternal purpose, ordered in all things. And it's sure. 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 changes 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, 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 powerful. 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. 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, a God of
all grace. But once again, It's 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.
A 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, Believing
I believe all things which are written in the law and in the
prophet. I say with David of old, in Psalm
119, 128, I believe it is, he said, I esteem all thy precepts. Speaking to his God in prayer
and pray, he said, I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things
to be right. And therefore. I hate every false
way. I hate everything that goes against
it. I hate everything that's 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 it is God 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 work there's
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 Prophets. The Law and the Prophets, in
the volume of the book, it is written of one person chiefly,
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's 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, author
and the finisher. To him give all the prophets
with. 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 at me. 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. And after 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, that's just what I believe. I believe Jesus Christ called
his name, and I quoted this to them. like water off a duck's
back. Call 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, Emmanuel, God with us, the same God who was
in the beginning by whom all things were created without him
was not anything made. If he's not he's the biggest
imposter. 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. Only God can forgive sins 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. He came, 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, you want to read it sometime for yourself. 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. It 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. 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 say. It's 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. 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 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'd 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, that is his heart, like the priest
of old. But he said, I've 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's the wood, here's
the fire, where's 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 a burnt offer. Yes, he did. God himself was that lamb. The church of God, which he purchased
with his own blood. Church of God. And 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 who Jesus Christ
went to Calvary tree to pay for their sins. He actually paid
for he put them away by the sacrifice of himself on Calvary tree. He
actually obtained eternal redemption for his people for ever. He paid
the price in full and there's not one charge laid to one of
his people because Christ paid it off. 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 overruling a ruling over
and over 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, south. I'll say
to the north, give up. I'll say to the south, bring
my son 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. Not possible. Because their hope
And my hope, like Paul here in verse fifteen, 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. And verse fourteen fifteen goes
on to say and we believe there's a resurrection of the dead both
of the just and the unjust. And I believe and I confess and
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 allowing 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. Oh, 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, the 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. You're dismissed.