If you have your Bible, be turning
to Acts 17. Today I'm going to be bringing
the third message of a five-part series on the message that turns
the world upside down. We'll be looking at that message,
that is, the gospel message, in the context of Acts 16 and
17 where Paul brings the gospel to Macedonia. that is, present-day
Greece, on this, his second missionary journey. And I've titled this
third sermon in this series, The More Noble Bereans. The More
Noble Bereans. And that's the description attributed
to the Bereans that we're going to be looking at in today's text,
verses 10 through 14 of Acts 17. You know, that scriptural
commendation there that says the Bereans were more noble,
it causes most preachers and teachers to suggest to men that
the Bereans are models worthy of our imitation. And that's
true. They are. But we know if we're
to imitate or emulate the noble Bereans, it's important we correctly
understand that virtue. That is, why or on what basis
are they deemed to be more noble. That is what we are going to
consider today. Recall we began this series with Paul and Silas
in jail in Philippi in the middle of Acts 16 and then upon his
release he proceeded to Thessalonica. That we saw in the first part
of chapter 17. And today we're going to pick
up with Paul's departure from Thessalonica and his arrival
in the nearby town of Berea. So look with me at our text and
we'll just read it quickly beginning in verse 10 of Acts 17. It says,
And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night
unto Berea. They were leaving Thessalonica.
Who coming further went into the synagogue of the Jews. These
were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received
the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures
daily whether those things were so. Therefore many of them believed,
also of honorable women which were Greeks, and of men not a
few. But when the Jews of Thessalonica
had knowledge that the word of God was preached to Paul at Berea,
they came thither also, and stirred up the people. And then immediately
the brethren sent away Paul to go, as it were, to the sea. But
Silas and Timotheus," that's Timothy, abode there still. You'll
recall that the unbelieving Jews of Thessalonica in the earlier
verses of this chapter had troubled the people. They moved with envy,
we read, and this had prompted the fellow believers there to
send Paul and Silas away under the cover of night, as we see
there in verse 10. As a side note of interest, I
guess Timothy apparently must have followed or accompanied
Paul and Silas because we see down in verse 14 that he stayed
there. Either he accompanied them or he came shortly thereafter.
But there's an interesting pattern that we see here that I want
to make mention of again. And that is that those who hate
the truth, the light of the truth, which the Scripture says is true
of all of us by nature. That's where we all initially
start off, because men love darkness rather than light, as we read
in the Scripture. Just as these unbelieving Jews,
these men who hated the light, they would stir up the crowds
against Paul. If you go back and study Paul's
first missionary journey, he was run out of town, so to speak,
on three different occasions. for the very same reason. And
here in just these five verses of our text today, we see twice
that taking place as he's run out of Thessalonica and then
again out of Berea. In Matthew 10, 16, Christ told
his disciples this. He said, Behold, I send you forth
as sheep in the midst of wolves. Now, this is the disciples who
God commissioned, Christ commissioned to go and preach the gospel.
And he said, This gospel I command you to go preach. He said, they
that believe it shall be saved. It's a specific message. And
he says, they that believe it not shall be damned. And we'll
be looking, of course, at that message in this entire series
that turns the world upside down, as I say. But Christ continues
there. He said, I send you forth as
sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents
and harmless as doves. Now I want you to keep that phrase
in mind, because I think we see, when we see something of this
nobility of the Bereans in Acts 17, you're going to see, I think,
them heeding that admonition. You'll see an aspect where it
requires being wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But Christ
continues there in Matthew 10 and on down in verse 23, He says
this, But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into
another," just as Paul was doing here in Macedonia. The implication
there was not just for their own safety, but it was God's
ordained means of getting the gospel where he intended for
it to go. So he's in charge, and he brings
all things about after the counsel of his own will. So we see in
this the manifold wisdom of God, how the persecution that is inspired
by Satan that's designed to stop the progress of the gospel actually
is overruled by God to have the exact opposite effect. Instead
of stopping it, it furthers it. And so we see that taking place
here as the gospel is brought to Berea as a result of the Thessalonians
running Paul out of town. And so just as we studied how
the imprisonment of Paul and Silas, as you'll recall, on trumped-up
charges, led to the gospel being brought to that Philippian jailer
and his family. And just as the enemies of the
gospel, these unbelieving Jews then, though unwittingly and
certainly unwillingly, they were instruments of God to bring the
gospel here to the Bereans. The point is this simply, God
will get his gospel to his people, for he chooses to save those
He says, by the foolishness of preaching, under the sound of
that message, the message Paul said in Romans 1, the gospel
that is the power of God unto salvation, for therein is the
righteousness of God revealed. A specific message, you see,
and we'll be looking at that more. We're going to spend most
of our time concentrating here, though, on verse 11, as the title
of my message would suggest. These in Berea are said to be
more noble than those in Thessalonica. Now, in the context of the verses
we looked at today, I believe the comparison of these in Thessalonica
is referring to these unbelieving Jews that he mentions again down
in verse 13, for they're the ones that came to stir up the
people. We know here that there's a contrast. He doesn't just say
the Bereans are noble, he says they're more noble than the Thessalonians. He said that I believe he's contrasting
these believing Bereans, for they believed, we read in verse
12, with the unbelieving Jews. That is, the same ones who we
had studied earlier moved with envy to incite trouble that caused
Paul and Silas to have to leave Thessalonica. So what we have
is a contrast, if you will, of a virtue that we should emulate,
nobility, and we're going to be looking at what that nobility
consists of. It's a virtue that's attributed
to these believers, these Jews in Berea, but it's not attributed
then to those to whom they're being compared. There must be
an opposite vice, that which is not commendable to be found
in those with whom he's making the contrast. So what we see
here is that There must be, if we're going to understand it
right, we need to understand that contrast. That's my point
there. The word noble sometimes refers
to our pedigree or our birth, our breeding, as in princes,
kings, royalty. And certainly from the context
we can see that's not what is meant here. No, but it also may
refer to a noble-mindedness. That is a commendable virtue
we should seek to emulate, and it's obvious that's what's being
spoken of here. Turn to 1 Corinthians 2, just
a few books over in your Bible. 1 Corinthians 2. We know, see, from the context
of Acts 17, that first of all, the nobility for which these
Bereans are being commended, that first, it's not a result
of their earthly bloodline. It's not like Paul when he said
in 1 Corinthians 1, He said, not many noble, not many mighty,
not many noble are called. He was talking about the princes
and rulers of this world, those who are noble by birth. We know
that's not the case from its immediate context. But I want
to show you that this nobility of mind could not be a product
of their natural mind. So look with me there in verse
7, verse of 1 Corinthians 2. Paul writes, but we speak the
wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained
before the world unto our glory. It's a wisdom that's hidden,
which none of the princes, none of the nobility of this world
knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified
the Lord of glory. But then look in verse 12. He
continues and says, Now we have received not the spirit of the
world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the
things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also
we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which
the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual,
but the natural man." That's the state we come into this world.
The state that's called being dead in trespasses and sin. That
is without spiritual life. If you're not alive, you don't
have the faculties of life. Dead men don't see, they don't
hear. Spiritually speaking, that's what the scripture says of us
all. That's the natural man being spoken of here, and it says,
the natural man, what? Receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God. That is, we won't do so by nature. For they are foolishness unto
him, and neither can he know them. He's got to be made alive
to know them, see? Because they are spiritually
discerned. So it's not the princes of this
world that's being referred to back in Acts chapter 17, nor
can it be this noble-mindedness, which is clearly intended, be
the product of our natural mind, our natural assumptions. As the
writer of Proverbs put it, of what we imagine when we first
approach God in an interest in eternity, a way that seems right
to us, but the writer of Proverbs says is the way that ends in
death. See, our world really does have to get turned upside
down. And that's what this message of the gospel does. In verse
11 here of Acts 17, we don't have to wonder. He tells us very
clearly wherein lies this nobility. And he says it consists of two
things. First, they receive the Word with all readiness of mind. And they search the Scriptures
daily whether those things were so. Now, I want you to notice
something right from the get-go. They received the Word, he says,
but they searched the Scriptures to see if those things were so,
those things spoken in the Word. See, the Word is used in the
Bible sometimes to refer to the written Word, to the Scriptures
itself. But it can't be the case here, for they're actually going
to the Scriptures to see whether the Word is so or not. It can't
be here, it's not intended here to be the incarnate word of God. That is what Jesus Christ himself
is called at times. But as it's often used in Scripture,
the word here is a very specific message found in the Scriptures.
You see, not all Scripture is true. This is our standard of
truth. And yet we know the Scriptures
tell us themselves that even the devils believe that God is. They believe many of the truths
of Scripture. But to believe the gospel is
not just to believe any truth. The gospel, see, is a very specific
truth. And we know this is the word
that they readily receive from Paul, because Paul only had one
message. You know, Paul is like they say
of these artists, one hit wonder, so to speak. And to be found
in that company, that's a good company to be found in. For he
said in 1 Corinthians, One, excuse me, two. He said, I've determined
not to know anything among you save, that means anything but
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. So what we know here is this
word here is referring to the gospel he preached. That is the
gospel of salvation by God's sovereign grace as we discover
it through all the scripture. This is the same, I believe,
and if you recall the message on the Philippian jailer when
he said, he went to Paul and Silas, he got interested in religion,
he said, what must I do to be saved? And they corrected his
assumption that was embodied in that. that there is something
you can do to be saved. They said, oh no, you've got
to believe on, rely upon the Lord Jesus Christ, His doing
in dying. And he didn't just leave them
with that, but it says in verse 32 there, he spake the word of
the Lord to them. Now, Paul's one message was that
righteousness, as he said in the book of Romans, that gospel
wherein that righteousness is revealed. So we know that was
his message. You see, these Jews of old, they
only had the Old Testament here. So can you imagine, they were
looking at the book of Isaiah, chapter 28 possibly, where they
would read that righteousness is laid to the plummet. You see,
that's our plumb line. At the end of Acts 17 in a future
message, you're going to hear even more about how God says
through Paul in preaching on Mars Hill that that's the standard
by which he's going to judge the world. He says, I've called
on men everywhere to repent because I'm going to judge the world
in righteousness. And we need to find out what
that righteousness is, because that is key to a right understanding
of this word that must be received if we're to emulate the nobility
of the Bereans. I want you to see this, that
first then, this embracing of the gospel, this specific message,
it is part and parcel to their designation as being more noble. We'll see later on when Paul
goes to Athens in the latter part of this chapter, it's not
just that they were open-minded, which is part of their nobility
here, but the Athenian philosophers, they were open-minded to everything.
Now, there's a difference about the nobility here, and that difference
is the specific message of the gospel is what they received
with all readiness of mind. There's an important word there,
too, in verse 11, that little conjunction, and. And as such,
we see that these two noble aspects of the Berean nobility, they're
not to be separated. It says they really received
the word and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were
so. So what that means is, yes, they
were commended. They were open minded. They were
teachable. But it doesn't mean they were foolish or gullible
or just believed it because some man told them that's the way
it was, and neither should we. They depended not on any man,
but they searched the Scriptures to see if this gospel that Paul
spoke of, as he said in Romans 1, 16 and 17, that really is
the power of God and the salvation for therein is this righteousness
revealed. That is this requirement that
must be met for God to be reconciled to a sinner. He says, they check
to see, is this so? Is this what this scripture testifies
of? This book that is the standard
by which we're to judge true and false. You know, you may
have, like me, have heard this message preached in times past.
By some, and you know, it's always dangerous, I guess, to question
men's motives, and I don't have a particular man in mind when
I say this. But I have heard it where I felt like it was offered
in such a way with such an emphasis on this latter part of the verse.
That is, you better check them out now. You better, as if you
do so with an attitude of seeking to find fault. That it will promote
really a suspicious, a hard-hearted mind and attitude rather than
a teachable spirit. that would be receptive to the
gospel as the Bereans were. You see, we should be discerning.
We should, as Paul told the church at Ephesus, not toss to and fro
and carry it about with every wind of doctrine. But if we take
that to and misconstrue it to mean a stubborn, unreasoning
determination to never hear or learn anything else, then We
shouldn't justify it by disguising it as if it is this commendable
virtue, for it's not. It's not the commendable virtue
of a discerning mind such as we should have. So if we emphasize
that this Berean nobility, see, consisted exclusively, if we
forget the little n there and just said exclusively of their
scriptural scrutiny, of their determination Actually, if it's
presented as if it's to find fault rather than an eagerness
to find the truth, you see, we risk fostering a resistance to
the truth of the gospel. Now, this is an important point.
It may seem rather obvious, but consider what the message is,
the message of the gospel that is so foreign to be upside down
to our natural persuasion. Just as it was to that Philippian
jailer when he says, what must I do to be saved? If we get serious
about eternity, don't we all ask that question? Just tell
me what I've got to do. And it carries a sinful assumption
that's totally contrary to what the gospel reveals to us as to
how God saves sinners, for we think there is something we can
do. Just don't put me in a place
where I've really got to be begging for mercy. We talk like we want
God's mercy, but we really don't want to be in a position where
we find out there's not a thing we can do to save ourselves,
you see. And so, when you consider that that's the message, as that
writer of Proverbs says, that the way that seems right to me
is a way that ends in death. that most go down a way, that
means a religious way, that Christ called a broad road that leads
to destruction, and many there be that go in there at. When
you consider that, then, boy, this is a very, we see the seriousness
of not taking such a hard-hearted, skeptical, unhealthy skepticism,
I'll call it, approach to hearing the gospel because He calls on
men everywhere to repent. The scripture says, except you
repent. That means a complete reversal of what I thought. I
got to find out something that a dead man couldn't know. And
that's what happens when we're made alive. And so we need to
be brought to that repentance. So such an attitude of, oh, we're
going to check it out, find fault. I'll find some way to show this
isn't true. with a neglect to the other part
of this nobility is certainly detrimental and look it's detrimental
to a born-again regenerated believing center one who one who was made
noble. If he read to receive the gospel
who was given life but if he hardens his heart then with the
determination that OK, one note, one hit wonder. I heard what
you got to say, and I know that I got that covered. You see,
then it inhibits our growth in the grace and knowledge of the
Lord Jesus Christ as we're commanded to do, because living things
grow. You see, so it'd be detrimental to us as well. Well, in the context
here, we see that this virtue, it couldn't be solely that they
checked up on the preaching of the apostles with a with an eye
towards finding fault. You see, keep in mind now, we
start off with is the contrast, right? It's not just the noble
Bereans, it's the more noble Bereans. So the opposite vice,
if that were the case, we'd have to conclude the opposite vice
and the Thessalonians must be that they received it too quickly. And we know that's not the case,
because we're talking about the Thessalonians who moved with
envy. And if we imagine that it was those Thessalonian Jews
who actually did believe, as we saw in the first part of chapter
17, well, keep in mind, as it says there in verses 2 and 3,
Paul reasoned with them out of the Scriptures three Sabbath
days in a row. No, they too searched the Scripture
there to see whether those things be so. No, what you see here
is that the contrast between the Bereans and the Thessalonians,
it has to include both aspects of this nobility. It has to include
that they received the word, the gospel, with all readiness
of mind. So they listened. They listened
with an objective, an open mind, a teachable spirit, even with
an eagerness, to know the truth that in contrast to the use of
that will not be moved within the who who didn't want to hear
it. So we see they were teachable
they were receptive to the gospel message and and they search the
scriptures to see whether they be so. We all know that their
research there was not lack of a leader was it says they search
the scriptures daily. You see They were determined
to get to the truth, and that's certainly a virtue we should
all strive to have. Note here that that discipline
to search the Scriptures, that will serve us all well. Doesn't
the Bible say the Word is a light unto my feet, a lamp unto my
path, or the other way around? I may get that wrong. But just
as God spoke to the prophets in the Old Testament, He speaks
to us in his word. This is his revelation. We can't
exhort one another enough to be in this word. You know, they
perhaps saw Isaiah 820. At least it seems they took it
to heart in manifesting this nobility, because there we read
to the law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to
this word, there is no light in them. So we see that this
open-mindedness was one that was restricted. In other words,
it was based on a standard. There was some rationale. It
wasn't just objectivity. It was objectivity according
to a standard, and the standard was the Scriptures. An openness
to receive anything that is found here. and to reject anything
that would be excluded as non-biblical. So they tried or tested the Spirits,
as we're commanded in 1 John 4 in the New Testament, to see
whether they be of God. So didn't Paul warn? They'll
come, and in Corinthians he said, they'll come and they'll preach
another gospel, and there's not another. In other words, there'll
be a counterfeit. And he even said there, another
Jesus. In other words, they'll describe what he did In such
a way that he's altogether different to the Jesus who came as a savior. In other words, he's an idol
of their imagination. And so these Bereans, they checked
out whether this spirit was of God. So we see that their nobility
consisted of both those things. They readily received the word.
And they searched the scripture to see whether that word, that
gospel, was true or not. And then look at verse 12. We
read, Therefore, therefore many of them believed. So here, seeing
that because they're believing sprang from this nobility, you
can conclude that this noble virtue is a necessary grace for
one who's going to come to grips with and embrace love with the
heart the gospel message. And again, we need that grace,
don't we? Because it's a message that's
upside down to the way that seems right to us, but the way that
leads to death. And I want to suggest to you
today that this is a grace that born-again believers should also
try to continually cultivate because it's necessary, again,
for our growth in grace and knowledge. Consider in the Sermon on the
Mount Christ said, Seek and ye shall find. If you recall our
study of that, you'll recall that our problem is that none
of us will seek salvation God's way. It takes a miracle of God's
grace. And yet, we're responsible to
seek. And likewise, you're responsible to not reject the true gospel
message when it comes your way. And yet, we can do no other as
natural, fallen, sinful man apart from God's grace. Consider in
Romans 3 those words when Paul says, There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. He's describing the natural man
by nature, all of us. They have all gone out of the
way, he said. So it requires a miraculous work
of God's Spirit. We have to be made noble And
without this gift, this gift of grace that is a fruit and
effect of what Christ finished and merited for his people in
establishing righteousness at the cross of Calvary, there's
nothing, nothing noble about any of us when it comes to this
issue, when it comes to the nobility of the Bereans. But oh, isn't
it good news that God is pleased and grants you eyes to see. and ears to hear, and heart and
mind to understand. If he, as the Scripture says,
makes you willing in the day of his power, then like the Bereans,
therefore we believe." We see Paul and Silas, they didn't have
anything to fear by their listeners going and checking them out in
the Scripture. And you know, it ought to be
that way with all true gospel preachers, because it's not my
words that the psalmist wrote quickens you. It's God's word. You see, it's by the power of
his word in the hands of the Holy Spirit. And people who preach
and teach the true gospel, they're just messengers. They're just
mouthpieces. But you're in good place today
because this is where God is pleased to reveal himself. Under
the preaching of the gospel, he said, by the foolishness of
the preaching of the gospel. He saves them that are lost,
and it is indeed, as we saw, foolishness to the natural man.
In verse 13 again, we see that this message incites the enemies
of God, and so they stirred the people up. Verse 14, Paul was
essentially run out of town, but as we said, all in accordance
with God's purpose, he needed to get the gospel to Athens next. And in verse 15, you see that
Silas and Timothy, they stayed behind, presumably to minister
to those new believers in Berea and to help establish a church
there. But I want to make some closing comments about this seeming
conflict here. How are we to emulate these noble
Bereans consisted in the framework of the gospel of grace and the
gospel of grace that is based on salvation, that where Christ
alone met every condition and requirement for a sinner's salvation. There we know that no virtue,
no virtue that we have nor any gift, virtue, grace that's given
to us plays any causal role in our salvation. We can't save
ourselves. No, it's because that those for
whom Christ lived and died, for whom he satisfied law and That's
what righteousness is, satisfaction of law and justice. You see,
they, as a result of a finished work, that's what he said on
the cross, it is finished. As a result of that, they're
given life because righteousness, the satisfaction he made, demands
life. The front of the bulletin, the
verse there says, is grace, as sin reigns unto death, the wages
of sin's death. Sin demands death. And sin, when
it was put upon our substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, it demanded
his death. But the good news is righteousness
demands life. That's why he came out of that
grave. And Christ said, All that you gave me, Father, I'm going
to raise them up at the last day. So what we have in the gospel
is this wonderful transaction where we find out that as sinners,
we come with nothing to offer. That God would be just to condemn
me, for he's holy. He requires a perfection. Christ
said, except your righteousness, what you can produce exceeds
the very best of the best, the scribes and the Pharisees, who
were the most moral men that ever lived by many historical
accounts. If it doesn't exceed them, you
will in no case, he said, enter the kingdom of heaven. And he
goes on, he tells them how far it must exceed it. He says, be
ye therefore perfect, even as your father, which is in heaven,
is perfect. He's God. He cannot commune with any imperfection
or sin. We must possess a righteousness
that equals that of the Lord Jesus Christ. So God sent the Son as a substitute
for people. The Scripture puts it this way.
It said he was made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law. He had to be put under the jurisdiction of God's
requirement of perfect perfection, perfect obedience if he was going
to be a substitute. He had to take on humanity to
be our substitute. And that's what Paul meant when
he was telling those Thessalonians in the earlier part of that chapter
how Christ must need die. He didn't just tell them the
facts that Christ died and rose again and if you believe that,
no. He brought them to see the necessity of it. And when we
see the necessity of that, we don't dare put anything in rivalry
with it and approach a holy God as if it's something that I could
do. If I'll just make a decision for Jesus or walk an aisle or
pray a prayer or if I'll accept it, you know, we dare not do
that. But we see what it took to satisfy
a holy God. It took a perfection. The law
had to be satisfied in its precept and its penalty, because here
Christ was a substitute for a people. But the people he substituted
himself for were sinners. And God's unchangeable, immutable,
or else he's not God. Because if he changes, he had
to get better or worse, and that wouldn't be God. No, he's immutable. And so how can he commune with
a sinner? Oh, their sin had to be dealt
with. The law had to be satisfied in
penalty also. Precept and penalty. And so,
2 Corinthians 5.21 tells us of that great transaction where
He made Him who knew no sin, that's the spotless, perfect
Lamb of God, who knew no sin in His humanity, Jesus Christ,
the only man who, as the Scripture says, offered Himself up without
spot. He who knew no sin was made sin. That is, he was legally
constituted to have the demerit of all my sins, of all the sins
of all his sheep, all those that God gave him before the world
began, my past sins, my present sins, my future sins, even my
condemnation in Adam, who was my representative as the first
man. He took all of that, and he bore
the demerit. And God killed him on the cross
of Calvary by hands of evil men. And it says that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. God judicially took the
merit of his perfection, his obedience, even unto death. And
he imputed it, charged it to the account of all those for
whom he lived and died. And how do you know if you're
one of them? He causes you to love this truth. You see, he
purchased for every one of them life, because righteousness demands
life. That's why he came out of that
grave. At the end of chapter 17, we'll see that. He says,
I've given assurance unto all men that got the job done, and
that I raised them from the dead. Righteousness demands life. And
so, in each successive generation, all those whom he represented,
He'll give them life to cause them to look there and nowhere
else. He will bring them to faith and
repentance so that they turn away from ever having imagined
the anything, the audacity that I would think something done
by me, in me, or through me could rival what it took, the blood
of my substitute. Well, I got off track there a
little bit. I've got to find myself in my notes. So what we
see here is that this word of the gospel, is the word of grace. It's the
message of salvation conditioned solely on the Lord Jesus Christ,
on his doing and his dying. And so, therefore, it's not conditioned
on me meeting any requirement in any way to any degree. There's
nothing you can do to save yourself. You really do need mercy. And
now, so I stand here and I tell you that apart from God's grace,
you cannot emulate the nobility of the Bereans. So the natural
man, what do we do? What do we cry out? What do we
say to that by nature? What are you telling me? You're
telling me to seek, but you're telling me I can't. You're telling
me to believe, but you're telling me I can't. You tell me to be
more noble, and then you tell me I can't and I won't apart
from God determining to do so and moving in the day of his
power. And so our tendency is to say,
I don't believe that because I know the scriptures commands
me to do those things. And I don't see any valid motive
for me at all to seek the truth, to have a to be ready to receive
the gospel, to even spend the time checking it out in the scriptures
if I'm not going to get something for it. You see, and that itself
is an indictment that shows how self-absorbed, what sinners we
truly are. That mindset, see, says there's
just not any, I can't come up with any motive that would make
me want to do something, for you see, unless one has a reason
to be grateful, he can't act just out of gratitude. We only
will act in accordance with, I can get something for it. You
see how self-serving that motive is? And so we don't. But that's the religion of man. That's the way, see, when men
say that, they say, well, if that's the case, I'll just go
home. I won't do anything. I'll throw up my hands. Most of them don't
mean that. They mean what you're saying
is not true, because that's what the implication would be, because
they can't imagine another motive. But, oh, one who God has bestowed
grace upon, so that they see a way that a holy God could be
just, not dispensed with his justice, and still save a sinner.
Isaiah called it, Look unto me, a just God and a Savior. And
when they see how God can, how a sinner can be saved there,
and they look there, oh, they're grateful. And be it ever so feeble,
because we're sinners, And with remaining sin, they act in gratitude. And until you've beheld that,
you can't know anything. You have nothing to be grateful
for, really. You can only be grateful for your decision, for
whatever condition or requirement your particular religion or denomination
suggested to you. We get the job done, and many
of them call it grace, but that's not grace. That's just a cleverly
disguised system of works. for that makes it conditioned
ultimately on you. And they'll say, praise Jesus,
thank goodness for what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary. And they walk away and they'll
say, now, here's the crowning event if you'll just do this.
He's done 99% of it if you'll just reach out your hand. But
in our minds, let's face it, when we all thought like that,
the crowning event, my destiny was in my hand. I really wasn't
pleading mercy. I was pleading my act of faith,
my decision for Jesus, whatever it might be. And that's man-centered
religion. The gospel, this message that
the Bereans received with all readiness, it's God-centered. You see, the question isn't,
will you accept Jesus Christ? The question is, how can a holy
God accept me and you sinners? That's the question, and when
we see the answer to that, my goodness, our world is turned
upside down. It's a wonderful thing. And listen,
if we imagine that this virtue found in the Bereans, this open-mindedness,
and we should try to be, and don't get me wrong, but if we
imagine it has merit, that it contributes toward my finding
favor with God or avoiding His disfavor, in any way, then consider
the scripture that says, if righteousness, that is, it's meeting the requirement
for salvation, righteousness. If it comes by the law, that
means by your meeting a requirement or a condition, it says Christ
died in vain. You can say praise Jesus all
day long, but in your mindset, in your spiritual darkness that
we all start in, that's what we all said. And that's why when
God gives life, men come to him in faith, but they repent. That
faith is a coming to which involves a turning away from the sin that
deceives us all. You see, we all know that murder,
stealing, all those things, we know those are bad lying, cheating.
It doesn't take any revelation of God to teach us that those
things are wrong. are bad, but there's a sin that
we just won't recognize as spiritually dead men, and that is the sin
of imagining that something other than the righteousness that Christ
brought out will cause me to find favor with God or some way
appease His wrath. Well, we see by this dynamic
that God is just in leaving sinners in their position of condemnation,
because he's leaving them to our own sinful deserts. You know, in any other area of
life, when you consider this noble-mindedness, and there is
noble-mindedness of like kind outside of religion, but do you
ever hear of reasonable men applauding someone who's bullheaded, who
refuses to listen to maybe even vital, life-saving information?
And they ignore it, refuse to it, they shut it off, they don't
receive it readily. And you know, if they suffer
the consequences, what do we accurately, properly say? We
say they deserved it. They got what they deserved.
And likewise, if any man is so gullible that he'll take what
any con artist comes along and sells them without even checking
it out, with no due diligence whatsoever, If you come and try
to sell me some swampland in Florida, and I say, well, I need
to really ought to check into this property, but I haven't
got time. I'm really just too lazy. It's just not important
enough, and I sign away my life savings to you, and I lose everything. Well, I deserved it. We wouldn't
applaud such foolishness, but when it comes to the gospel.
Listen, don't men do that on the thing that has to do with
eternal life? Instead of searching to see if
this is the gospel, We don't give that kind of due diligence
while we'll decide, okay, my gospel, I think I'm going to
go with this one over here because they've got a good choir at that
church. Or I'm going to go with the message
they preach over here because of the children's program. Or
I'm going to, I just kind of like that guy. You know, he entertains,
tells good stories. You see, we don't go to the Word
of truth by nature. We won't do that. And think of
how many countless thousands of people stake their eternal
destiny on such lack of due diligence. But when it comes to spiritual
reasoning, the most reasonable men in the world, you and I also,
men perhaps with reasoning powers beyond any of us here, when it
comes to this, by nature, they'll be anything but reasoning. You
see, the very vices that we would condemn in other areas of life
when it comes to this, because We're dead, see, and we can't
see any different. We don't see it. We may excuse
it, but we don't see it, and instead we manifest that vice
rather than the virtue of these noble brilliance. This teachable
spirit, this call to due diligence here, these two aspects of this
nobility, is far more important than any other area of life.
We're talking about eternity, our eternal destiny. And so we
would do well to strive. And you know, God, under the
sound of this gospel message, wherein that righteousness is
revealed, he gives that nobility. And so I'm encouraged, I'm encouraged
that we have that message preached here week in and week out. We
see that if lost sinners, they remain obstinate. and unwilling
to hear and embrace the good news of how God saves sinners
based on Christ's finished work alone, that righteousness, the
merit of what He alone accomplished, then He would be just in leaving
us to our own consequences. And likewise, if we're so gullible,
if we're so lazy, if we just say, I'm going to look into that
someday, when it comes to our eternal salvation, well, Think
about it, as any other area of life, wouldn't we say, well,
God's just to leave us to our own deserts, to the consequences,
as we cling to whatever just seems right to us, instead of
measuring against the standard of truth, God's Word. Well, in
closing, consider part of the scriptures that they search,
having the Old Testament at that time. When God said through the
prophet Isaiah in chapter 1, verse 18, Come, let us reason
together, saith the Lord. Though your sins, he said, be
as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though you find
under this message of the gospel a hopelessness, if salvation
is conditioned on you in any way, for you find out that God
really does require perfection, he says, well, you find they're
not your sins. Though they be as scarlet, they're
made pure in Christ. The scripture says of that, it
goes on to say, though they be red like crimson, they shall
be as wool. White, pure. You see, if Christ
put them away, that's what takes place. This thing of imputation
is so real that Jesus died for sins He didn't produce. And so
therefore, that righteousness, the imputation of that, the accounting
of it to all those for whom He lived by it, is just as real.
It's so real that they shall have life. You see, and it'll
be put away. And so though naturally none
of us are noble minded as these Bereans, yet in Christ as we're
told, we're unreprovable, holy, unblameable. Me a sinner? Unfortunately, most of you know
me too well. Not a chance. But all based on a righteousness
I didn't produce, just as he bore the sins that he didn't
produce. That's great news. So though none are naturally
noble yet, In Christ, his sheep are made more noble. And, you
know, I see I'm running out of time, so let me just close with
this. We know in this context that he's speaking of noble mindedness,
not nobility. And I haven't done a study on
this, but I imagine that the word noble, if it's attributed
to being an attribute of the mind, a noble-mindedness, I suspect
it probably was derived from olden days when kings and princes
perhaps were the more educated folks in society, and so they
perhaps were more objective or whatever, and they considered
them noble-minded as well. And that's not what is intended
in this context, but there's a connection if you think about
it, because only children of the king. nobility will be brought
to be noble-minded. And think of that. They're heirs,
heirs of the Prince of Peace, all that he could purchase for
you. If you received, if you were
an heir of the richest man on the face of this earth, you could
live lavishly your whole life and never spend it all. You think
of the The scripture says he'll supply all your needs according
to his riches and glory. We're talking about what the
infinitely valuable blood of the God-man could purchase. Isn't
that great news? That's what awaits these who
are brought to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, my prayer
for you is that likewise God will bless you as he's blessed
the noble-minded