May we all be as children as
we sit before God's Word. Acts 19, let's read verses 21
through 23. For those of you who do not regularly
attend on Sunday nights or Wednesday nights, we have been studying
through the book of Acts, and this is where we have arrived
in our studies. I just want to read three verses,
and I may comment on the remainder of it later. After these sayings
were ended, Paul purposed in the Spirit, when he had passed
through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After
I have been there, I must also see Rome. So he sent into Macedonia
two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus, but
he himself stayed in Asia for a season. At the same time, there
arose no small stir about that way, and he goes on to tell the
story of this this great stir that happened
as a result of the preaching. No small stir about that way. Now, I say this in all sincerity,
that there's nothing I would like more than to see more people come
into this congregation and see it hear the gospel, receive it,
believe it, rejoice in it, become a disciple of Christ. Nothing
I would like more. There are people in this community,
I know some people in this community, quite a few, very fine people
as people go, nice people. As men go, good men, good women,
and so forth. People I like very much. I like
them. people whom I would love to see
in here with us worshiping, believing this gospel, rejoicing in the
gospel of God's sovereign grace. I don't want enemies. I don't
want to come across like that. We don't want enemies. We don't
want to be exclusive. You know, as the fellow said,
Lord bless us, me and mine and my wife and two children, us
four, no more. Not, we're not, we don't want
to be exclusive. Do we? And I don't want to be
hated. Who, who wants to be hated? Nor
persecuted. Do you? I don't want confrontations. I don't want an argument. I'd
do, I'd whole lot's rather talk to somebody and they, and they
agree with everything I say than get mad. And I don't want to
go out looking for a fight. and looking for an argument and
say, see, here's another heretic. Told you. I don't want that at
all, do you? But the fact is, all these things
happen. This is the way it is. Because
of the way we believe. Right? I really don't think it's
my personality. I hope not. But I don't think
it is. I try my best to be nice and
sweet and kind. And I admit, sometimes I turn
on a smile like these other guys when I don't feel like smiling
at some people, just for the sake of being nice. It's a whole
lot better to be nice than mean, isn't it? But it's sad but true that we
will be hated and persecuted and despised because of the way
we believe—the way. All denominations and organizations
that differ on so many things—these denominations, you take the different
denominations, Methodists, Baptists, they're so different, they're
poles apart in so many areas, so different—yet they all unite
in condemning That way. That way that, you know, central
Baptist down there preaches and believes. Don't they? You know it's so, you've run
into them. That way. Turn over to Acts chapter
24 with me. Acts 24. From the days of the
apostles until now, the declaration of the truth about God, the truth
about man, The declaration of salvation, how it is to be had,
what is salvation, has caused no small stir. But in the words of the Apostle
Paul here in Acts 24, verse 14, he says, Well, I confess, I must
confess unto everyone that hears me. Verse 14. I confess that after the way
which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my Father, believing
all things which are written in the law and in the prophets."
Isn't that a good statement of faith there? Is that what you
say? Is that your confession? that after the way, that way
that the world is calling, the world is calling heresy, that's
the very way I worship and believe. And I believe everything that
the Bible says. Don't question any of it. You see, this way we believe
and worship, and I'm just going to talk to you this morning. This way we believe and worship
is the only way to believe and worship. Isn't that what we read in Galatians
1? Didn't Paul say, now if anybody preach any other gospel than
that you've heard me preach, let him be accursed. It means
let him go to hell. Strong language, Paul. He's awful
dogmatic. There are a lot of other preachers
out there besides you, Paul, I know. But there's only one
gospel. And there's only one God, one
Lord, one Father, one faith, one hope of your calling. There's
only one, one way, one truth, and one way unto life. And unless
you believe and preach that, you're going to be cursed. You're
going to be damned. You don't care who it is, he
says. You don't care how popular they are. How nice they are if
they preach any other gospel than that one gospel. Let him
go to hell, and all those that hear him and follow him or her
are going to go right with him. Because there's only one faith,
one Lord, and the way—it is the way, the way we believe and worship
here—yes, here at Central Baptist Church in little old Rocky Mount,
Virginia. Franklin County, small town,
USA. The way that this little church
on the knoll, up above Pig River, what a, what a, you know, you
describe, where is your church? Oh, well, it's in Rocky Mountain.
Where's that? Well, Franklin County. Where's
that? Well, it's in Virginia. I don't know where that is. Well,
where's it located? Up on 40 West, up above Pig River. It doesn't sound like a metropolitan
tabernacle in London, England, does it? Nevertheless, the way
we believe and worship and preach is the way, the only way, set forth in the Scripture. The
way set forth by God Almighty in the beginning is the way transcribed
by the prophets It is the way they worshipped, the prophets
worshipped, believed and preached. All of them, without exception,
preached, believed what we preach. Not one variance. Joe, we're
not varying one iota, not one jot or tittle different. It's
the way that got them hated, persecuted, ultimately killed. It's also the way that later
on the apostles preached. I preached the same exact message
that the Apostle Paul, Peter, James, John, and so forth preached.
If I bury one bit, it's the wrong one, isn't it? It's a false gospel.
My wife said this to me not too long ago, a great deal of wisdom
in it. She said, you know, if we do anything in our services,
If we say anything, do anything in any way different than what
the apostles did, if we don't do and say everything we do in
such a way that the apostles themselves could come in and
sit and worship and feel like this is the way it's supposed
to be done, we are doing it the wrong way. Right? It's the way. There's one way
now. It's either one way, didn't the Lord say? Now, there's one
way. One way. One truth. The way that got the
apostles hated, persecuted, and killed. The way that later on
the martyrs cost them their lives. Brother Barnard used to say,
this is the kind of preaching that'll get your head cut off. Preaching of John the Baptist
and so forth. And it is still the most hated and persecuted
way on earth. And I smile. I didn't mean to
smile when I said that. We ought to weep. But it's just,
it was an ironic smile. The only way whereby we may come
to a holy God, yet men hate it. The way of grace not works. You don't do anything, it's done
for you. And men hate it. Don't understand it. I do, but
I don't. This is the way. This is that
way that causes no small stir. It's the way of a sovereign God.
I mean God who is God, who reigns and rules among the armies of
heaven. People will say amen to that. And among the inhabitants
of the earth. and worketh all things according
to the counsel of his own will, and none can stay his hand or
say unto him, You can't do that. Oh, yes, he can. He's God. And this is the way. This is
the God that you must free. It's the way of a sovereign God
as opposed to a God that man can manipulate, man can control. It is the way of God who will
work, and none can stay His hand. None can let Him. He doesn't
ask anybody's permission. He doesn't seek anybody's counsel.
He doesn't consult anyone. He does all things after the
counsel of His own eternal will and purpose, which was purposed
a long time before man was ever on this earth, and none of it
is going to change one bit. That way, as opposed to man's
will or opinion or later on his cooperation. Man does not cooperate
in salvation. He is in the way. He gets in
the way. He's got to be removed. He's
got to be killed. That's the way, as opposed to the way of
God's will, as opposed to man. The way of God saving whom he
will, God choosing whom he will, God electing a people, God choosing
to save whom he will, as opposed to those who let God save them. Now, isn't this modern theology? Isn't that exactly the way every
denomination and nearly every preacher preaches today? that
God wants to and can't, God is willing if you'll let Him. Isn't
that it? Doesn't that describe it to a
tee? And if you just dare to say God
doesn't want anything, God has all things. For of Him, through
Him, and to Him are all things. In Him we live and move and have
our being. God doesn't want anything. If
He wants something, that means something He doesn't have. You
dare to say you don't let God do anything. That means you're
more powerful than Him. Anybody you have to let do something,
they're underneath you, aren't they? You can't let God do anything.
And we need to pray that God will let us. We don't accept Him, but He must
accept us. That's the way they call heresy. It's unbelievable in its name. It's just the truth, isn't it,
buddy? I mean, if I've ever read a word in the Bible, that's the
truth. Because that's the way that causes no small stir. That's
the way. The way of sovereign mercy and
grace as opposed to works and morality. The Scripture says
so many times and too many times to mention them all. Not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy
he has saved us. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified. Doesn't it say that over and
over and over and over and over again? Huh? All your righteousness,
he says, are filthy rags. They're unacceptable to a holy
God. Doesn't it say that time and
again? Huh? Not by works of righteousness,
but by mercy. What kind of mercy? He says,
I'll be merciful to whom I will. Sovereign mercy. There ain't
no other kind. Huh? Sovereign and mercy go, they're
hand in hand. Mercy means you don't deserve
it. Sovereign grace, there is no other kind. He shows it, he
gives it to whom he will. Right? Ain't no other kind. Grace
and sovereign go together. And so it's the way of sovereign
mercy and grace as opposed to works and morality, but they
call that heresy. I confess. That's the way I preach
and believe. That's the way I worship God,
the God who had sovereign mercy. God's choice as opposed to man's
choice. Man's the way of preaching that
says man is hopeless, man is depraved, man is unable
to do anything. One of our ladies said, well,
Jeanette, said that during her recent piano recital that she
overheard a woman or man which reading that track we have downstairs. We preach not ourselves and in
that track it says we're not calling on men to do anything
for God but for God to do something for us. And it says we're not
begging men to do something to do anything for God begging God
to do something for us. And that person took exception
to that. They said, out loud, Jeannette heard them say, yeah,
I know what he's saying, but. I know what he's saying that,
you know, we can do nothing for God, but. Well, either Christ meant it
when he said, without me you can do nothing, or he didn't.
Huh? Either man died in the fall,
or he didn't. And that's where they miss it,
isn't it? That's what Spurgeon said. He said, if you go wrong
at the fall, You'll be wrong on it all. Man died in the garden. Man is unable to do anything
for himself. Man is, as the Scriptures say,
not as men say, man is dead in trespasses and sin, and he stinketh
like old Lazarus. Unless the Lord of life, the
Lord of glory comes by and calls him by the same call that called
Lazarus out of that tomb, unless he calls him by his grace and
mercy out of that death into his marvelous life, that man's
going to stay dead. And you can ask him, plead with
him, beg with him, do all you can to him. He's not going to
come. Right? He's not going to bleed.
Man is hopeless. Man is dead. That is the way. It is, isn't it? You see your
calling, brethren, don't you? Don't you see your calling, where
you were? Do you remember the pit from which you were dug,
John David? Sure you do. You better. One hope of your
calling, how's that? You called on it. Well, I called
on it. I went down front and prayed through. Is that the hope
of your calling? No. It's just one spirit that called
you. It's just one Lord that called His one Spirit to take
this one gospel and call you one way. How's that? Sovereignly,
effectually. Now that's the way it is, isn't
it? Huh? But that's what they call
heresy. Isn't it? Yeah, but a man's got
to believe. He's got a free will. He's got
to make his decision, his choice. That's after the fact. Faith
comes after life, people. Man isn't given life because
he believes. He believes because he's been
given life. Which comes first in the baby,
the cry or life? The realization of its life or
life? Well, that baby's born. Somebody gave birth to him, didn't
they? And then later on he realizes,
hey, I've been given birth to. That's the way spiritual life
comes, too. You realize it after the fact.
After you've been called, then you believe. After you've been
called, then you call. And the goodness of God comes,
then it leads you to repentance. Man does not have a free will.
It's dead. Man's will will only sin. You
know it so in yourself, don't you? The only thing you seem
willing to do is sin, isn't it? If you ever do anything in works
of righteousness because God made you willing, it's God that
worketh in us, both the will and the do. It is good pleasure.
John, that's what they call heresy. Well, I confess. Y'all want to
confess with me? After the way they call heresy,
that's the way I worship. That's the way I was called.
That's the gospel I preach. And I say with Paul, if anybody
preach any other, it's another gospel. I'm trying to present this message
as calmly and as matter-of-factly and as just so you can take it
to anybody. I'm not going to scream, I'm not going to yell,
I'm not going to get upset. I try not to. You know, I do want the zeal
of God's glory and God's house to eat me up, though. And Christ
got upset, didn't He, with those merchandisers? It's the way of
Christ's person and His work alone, not man's health. I'm telling you, any additions
to the person and work of Christ is a stench in God's nostrils. God said God had to send his
Son down here in order to save man. Man was in such a bad state,
such a helpless, hopeless, doomed, damned, hell-bound state, running
toward the edge of a precipice, walking over hell on a shoestring. In such a bad state, God Almighty
had to send His only begotten Son down here to work thirty-three
and a third year to establish a perfect righteousness that
God would accept, and then impute that, impart that, give charge
that to those people, and then turn around and put all the sins
of all of His people on the head of His Son and make Him a bloody
mass of flesh. Turn his back on him, send him
through hell for six hours. His own son. Make him the most
despicable sight ever seen by human eyes. He said his business
was marred more than any man. God had to make his son a piece
of raw meat. and make His soul, worse than
that, make His soul an offering for seeing His own Son. It took
the death and the putting of His Son through hell to accomplish
the salvation of His people. And we dare say that there's
anything we can do to add to that. God hates that. That's called
self-righteousness, isn't it? He said there's only one righteousness
that He will accept. the righteousness his son worked
out. There's only one offering for
sin he'll accept. The one his son offered. Anything
more or less is unacceptable. It'll send you to hell. Is that
too narrow? Straight is the gate. Narrow
is the way. That's the way. Christ said,
I'm the way. I'm the truth. I'm the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me and me only, not by us. He doesn't say, no man cometh
unto the Father, but by us, you and me. He said, but by me, right? Christ alone. Christ alone is
the essence of what we preach here. Christ alone for salvation. Well, that's what they say. That's
heresy though. They say that's heresy. Man has
his part. The only part man has in this
salvation thing is he does the sinning. That's it. The way called
the way of God's glory, that God gets A-double-L all the glory,
100 percent, not 99.99, but 100 percent. He said, all the way through the Old Testament,
over and over, time and time again, he says, I will not share
my glory with another. Huh? He said, I will not give my glory
unto another. I'm God. I'm the Lord. I'm the Savior. I'm the King. I'm the Provider. I'm the Sustainer. I'm the Creator.
I'm the All. You're the Nothing. He said it wasn't going to yield
him. You're the creature. I'm the creator. You're in my
hands. I'm not in your hands. I must save. You are lost. I get all the glory. You do all
the glorying. I get all the praise. You just do the praising. My
son gets all the worship. You bow and kiss his feet. Huh? How can anybody call that heresy? That's the way they call heresy.
God says that's the way it is. The way of God's glory, not man's. the way of Christ's preeminence. He must have preeminence. He must have preeminence. He
must, in all things. That's the reason I like that
statement she made, that if we don't do things exactly the way
God has handed it down in the Scriptures from the very beginning,
there's one way to worship God. If we don't do it that way, we're
doing it wrong, and God's not pleased with it. All right, today
is Father's Day, isn't it? Yes, it is. My Father in Heaven's
Day. Can you imagine—settle down now—can
you imagine, for a minute, the high priest of old coming out
on the Sabbath day? given express orders by God Almighty
that hell and judgment is in the waiting unless there be a
sacrifice offered of blood. And it's got to be exactly like
God said it. You've got to worship Him exactly
like He said to do it, right? Don't come without blood. Don't
come before the presence of my glory and my holiness without
that blood. Can you imagine the high priest some Sabbath day
standing up and saying, well, we're going to bypass the blood
atonement today in honor of our precious fathers, after all they've
done so much. What would have happened? Huh?
Fire would have fallen. Is it any different today? Has
God changed? Has the way we're to worship
Him changed? Huh? Is God now all love and grace
and therefore you can just come any old way you want to as long
as you're sincere? There's one way. If we come before Him attempting
to worship Him, we better come not with our blood, Not without
worship. Not without and through and for
and because of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Worship in
Him. Right? Now, I would give honor to whom
honor is due. And I love my Father and I esteem
Him and I'm thankful for Him and all that, but we're not going
to take God's time of worship to talk about my Daddy. That's
blasphemy. Right? Take dad out to dinner. Honor him. Buy him a tie. But we're not going to take this
time in here to worship dad, are we? And people, I guarantee
you, 99.99 churches out there today are doing this very thing. And they're going to say, if
they hear this, they say, well, you're awful hard, aren't you?
No. after the way you call heresy. That's the way I worship. That's
the way the Fathers did. That's the way the Prophets did. That's the way the Apostles did.
Can you imagine the Apostle Paul going into a place, going into
Ephesus and saying, now today's Father's Day, and I'd like to
have all you Fathers stand out there. He said, woe is unto me
if I preach not the gospel. Didn't he? Every Sabbath day
he went in and reasoned to them out of the Scripture. This Saturday
he honored Mama, and next Saturday he honored Daddy, and next Saturday
he honored Grandmama and Granddaddy, and so on down the line. I'm not being hard. I'm just
being truthful. Right? Everybody is zealous,
and I've got to quit. I've got about 14 more pages.
I'm going to quit. Everyone is zealous about their
religion, and equally zealous against against that way, this
way. All the world's religions—I've
already said this, but I'll repeat it—all the world's religions
and denominations join hands today in a great show of unity,
a great show of loving one another, and it's also a great show of
hating that way. I told you about that would-be
missionary that called me up. Sounded like a nice fellow. I'm
sure he was. He's some mother's son. Missionaries preach that we support. He asked me, he said, do all
the churches you know and pastors preach that way? That's what
made me think of it. He said, all the preachers, I
said, now I can give you some names, some other fellows that
you can call and all that, but this Sovereign Grace now is what
we preach, and the men that preach that are the ones we're going
to support. And he said, do all those preachers, what do they
think about this Sovereign Grace message? I said, that's the way
they preach. And if you don't, they're not
going to support you. I bet he didn't call one of them. But
maybe he did. I hope he did. Maybe he heard
it so much, maybe he just, whoa, man, called four or five of them
and said, wow, either I got it wrong or something. Maybe he
did do that. And let me repeat now my opening
comments, that there's nothing I would like more than for more
people to come in here and hear and believe and rejoice in this
message with us. people I know and people I like
out in the community, and I'd love to have a building full.
What makes you think, what makes anybody think we wouldn't like
to have a big crowd? Nothing against big crowds. Oh,
it delights me. I'd be delighted. But the Lord
said, it won't happen. And I tell you what, you just
about need to be wary when there's a big crowd around. Don't you? You just almost suspect. That
almost makes it suspect when you see a big crowd. You say,
well, that's Persian. I don't know, but I know a lot
of people came out to hear, because that's all they had to do, came
to hear the preacher. But the Lord said, as a matter
of fact, he said, you're going to be hated of all men, for my
name's sake. Well, for preaching Jesus? Henry,
they're going to hate you for preaching Jesus? Well, no. There
must be more to it than that, isn't there? They're going to
hate you for talking about God's love? Well, no, ain't nobody
going to hate you for that. Why would anybody hate you for that, Nancy? Tell
them God loves you. They don't want to hate you for
that. They don't consider that heresy. That's what everybody
believes, isn't it? God loves you and Christ died for you.
They're not going to hate you for preaching that. There must be more to it
than that, mustn't there? He said, they're going to hate
you for my name's sake. Here we go again. What's that name?
What does it mean? We're going to magnify that name,
aren't we? We're going to preach that name,
and the result will be the men hate us preaching that name.
It must be that we tell it like it is, that we tell that name
like it is, that we exalt and extol and honor and praise and
preach and proclaim that name like it is. What's that? Not you make him, Lord. That
doesn't, that's, that's, that's, what's the word? That doesn't
make sense. Lords never are made lords. Kings,
they're born kings, right? Scripture says he's Lord. That
means he's absolutely in control of the sovereign. Ruler over
all. Ruler. Not the ruled. The ruler. We're the ruled. He's the ruler. Lord. Jesus. What does that mean? Let's magnify it. All right? What does it mean? Well, he wants
to save you if you'll let him. That's not what the name means.
The angels didn't say that, did they? Call His name Joseph. That
holy thing is born, as in Mary's belly is about to be born. Call
His name Jesus, because He wants to save His people. He wants
to save everybody, so let Him. Is that what it means? No, it does not. It means He
shall save. He shall save. Does it let it? No. He shall
save his people from their sins. Anybody listen to this on tape,
listen to it. Call his name Jesus. What does
it mean? He shall save. He shall save. He shall save. How many times do we have to
hear it? He said, I'm God, over and over again. I am God. There's none else. I am the Lord. There's none else. I call his
name Jesus. He shall save his people from
their sins. That's what his name means. He
said, you'll be hated for my name's sake. We preach Jesus,
but not the one they're preaching today. And the way they call
heresy, the Jesus we preach, they call heresy. That's the way I preach. That's
the way you believe it. Christ. Christ. That means the only Messiah,
the only Savior, the only Sacrifice, the only Redeemer, the only Mediator. There's one Mediator between
God and man. One. One. Right? Not the preacher,
not Saul winner, not Mary, not St. Jude, St. Christopher, St.
who knows who. One. One mediator. One mediator. One intercessor. One high priest. One and no priest
anymore. One great high priest that we
go to. One sacrifice for sins forever.
You don't sacrifice him over again in the mass. There's one
sacrifice. Right? One. One way to worship,
how's that? In, through, believing, trusting,
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. One way. Any other
way is another way. Right? And in our story, and if I had
time, I'd take you through it and show you how that these people, they were crooks from the very
beginning. And they came to this conclusion. These fellows came to the conclusion. They said, now, if everybody
believes that way that this Paul fellow is preaching, our craft
is in danger. Look at it there in verse 26
and 27. I'll read this and quit with a short comment. He said, these fellows are talking
about Paul in this way, and they said, you see it here that not
alone at Ephesus, but almost all throughout all Asia, this
Paul had persuaded and turned away much people, saying there'd
be no gods which are made with hands, that these aren't gods,
that our gods aren't gods. You heard it. He said that we're
worshiping idols. God's made with hands. It's God
that's in our hands. He's no God. That's what he's
saying, that we can't let God do anything. And so, as I said,
and they got together and said, now, verse 27, now, our craft
is in danger. Our jobs are on the line. And isn't that what religions
are all about today? Huh? That sums it up. Hey, you know,
religion's a money-making business. Big churches, big business, big-name
preachers, big budgets, small gospel, small God, small
Jesus. Right? We got a little church
here. full of little low-body people
with a little preacher. We got a big God. We got a big
gospel. We got a big Lord, a big Christ. And I confess that that's the
way I worship. That's the way, the way they
call heresy. So worship I, the Lord my God, and believe everything
the Scripture says. All right, stand with me and
I hope this dismisses him correctly.