At Todd's Road Grace Church,
we'd like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. I want us to look this morning
at the second part of what is known as Paul's defense. Now, in Acts chapter 21, some
people tried to kill Paul. And he is rescued by Roman soldiers,
and he then gives his defense to the people. This is where
the word apologetics comes from, and men have made a cult of apologetics. These people who are trying to
defend against the critics and opponents of the gospel, that's
not what apologetics is. That's what men have made it,
but that is not what it is. You don't defend the truth, you
preach the truth. It recommends itself. You defend
the truth when you preach the truth. It's not up for debate. I feel a need to say that because
of such an emphasis on what people call apologetics, Christian apologists. That's not what Paul was doing. Now, he had already given his
experience of grace when Ananias came to him and said, Brother
Saul, receive thy sight. The God of our fathers hath chosen
thee, that thou shouldst know his will, see that just one,
and hear the voice of his mouth, for thou shalt be his witness
unto all men of what you've seen and what you've heard. Now, why
tarryest thou? Arise and be baptized, and wash
away thy sins, calling upon the name of the Lord. Verse 17, now
this is the second part. He's still giving his speech
to these people who tried to kill him. And he says, and it
came to pass that when I was come again to Jerusalem, this
was sometime after his initial experience of salvation on the
road to Damascus, and he now comes to Jerusalem. And even
while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance." Now this
is similar to Peter being in that trance in Acts chapter 10
where he was praying and a vision came to him while he was in a
trance. A great sheep was let down from heaven and it had all
sorts of unclean beasts. And a voice said to Peter, rise,
Peter, kill and eat. And Peter said, not so, Lord.
Nothing unclean has ever touched my mouth. And the Lord said,
what God has cleansed, call not thou common. Now, what Peter
was being taught at this time was that there was no difference
between the Jew and the Gentile. The Jew didn't have some kind
of corner on God. He thought he did, but he didn't. And Peter always had a hard time
loving Jews, I mean loving Gentiles. He just had difficulty with it.
But the Lord was teaching him, nothing is calm or unclean if
God cleanses it. Now he learned that in this trance,
and Paul is in this trance, and the Lord speaks to him while
he's in this trance, Verse 18, And I saw him saying unto me,
Make haste, this is the Lord Jesus speaking to him, make haste,
and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy
testimony concerning me. Now, this is speaking of the
Jews. They're not going to receive
that testimony. And this is also speaking of
the church. They were afraid of Paul at that time. And the
reason I know he's also speaking of the church is because of what
he says next. He's saying, I can understand
why they would be afraid of me. He says in verse 19, and I said,
Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them
that believed on thee. They know that. And when the
blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by
and consenting unto his death. You can read about that in Acts
chapter seven. And kept the raiment of them that slew him. He's saying,
I don't blame them for not being able to receive my testimony.
Look at the blood stains on my hands in killing your people.
And he said unto me, Depart, leave Jerusalem, for I will send
thee far hence unto the Gentiles, the non-Jews. And they gave him audience, he'd
been giving his defense, and they gave him audience unto this
word. and then lifted up their voices
and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth, for it is not
fit that he should live. And as they cried out and cast
off their clothes and threw dust in the air in opposition to this
man even being alive." Why did they make this objection? They had listened to what He
had said up to this point, but when He said that the Lord Jesus
Christ sent Him to the Gentiles, These Jewish men objected so
greatly that they said it's not fit that somebody like Paul should
even be on the earth. They wanted him exterminated. Now, why did they have such a
strong reaction? In 1 Timothy 3, verse 16, Paul
said, great is the mystery of godliness. Oh, it is a great
mystery. God was manifest in the flesh. Jesus Christ is God manifest
in the flesh. justified in the Spirit. You see, His work was the great
work of justification. And this is what the Spirit gives
testimony to, that all that believe are justified. They stand before
God without guilt because of what Christ did. Great is the
mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the Spirit, seen of angels. You know, the whole
time the Lord walked for those 33 years upon this earth, you
can bet the angels were peering in amazement. thinking, what
is he doing? They found it greatly desirous
to look into these things. And I try to think of what the
angels must have felt when they saw him being nailed to a cross.
And they were just wanting to come down and smite. They were
kept from it by the father. But don't you think that they
would have come and rescued him? Didn't he say, don't you know
that I could ask for my father and he'd send me 12 legions of
angels to wipe this out if he wanted to do it? But the fourth
thing that is called the great mystery of godliness was preached
to the Gentiles. That's the great mystery of godliness,
preached to the Gentiles. Now there are two types of people.
Jews and Gentiles in the New Testament. That's the two branches,
Jews and Gentiles. Now, these people believed that
God's favor was to Israel and not to the rest of the world,
and they had heard that all of their life. We are God's chosen
people. It begins with Abraham. God called
out Abraham, and that is the way the nation of Israel began. God's special call of Abraham. I want to read a few scriptures
from the Old Testament that gives us some idea of what they were
thinking. But in Deuteronomy 7, this is
Moses' word inspired by God to the children of Israel. "'When
the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land "'whither
thou goest to possess it, "'and has cast out many nations, "'he
brought them in and cast others out, "'the Hittites, the Girgashites,
the Amorites, "'and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, "'and the
Hivites, and the Jebusites, "'seven nations greater and mightier
than thou. "'And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before
thee, "'and thou shalt smite them.'" And this is what God's
saying to do to these other nations. Thou shalt smite them, and utterly
destroy them. Thou shalt make no covenant with
them, nor show mercy unto them. Neither shalt thou make marriages
with them. Thy daughter thou shalt not give
unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
And here's why. For they will turn away thy son
from following me. That they may serve other gods,
so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you and destroy
you suddenly. But thus shall ye deal with them,
these other nations. You should destroy their altars,
break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn
their graven images with fire. For thou, Israel, art a holy
people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee. to be a special people unto himself
above all the people that are upon the face of the earth. The
Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because
you were more in number than any people. For you were the
fewest of all people, but because the Lord loved you. There's the
reason. Because the Lord loved you. He made a difference. Now, you can't read the Old Testament
and come up with anything else. Do you remember when Moses said
to the children of Israel with regard to the Egyptians, against
any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue?
against man or beast, so that you may know that the Lord doth
put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel." God put
the difference. I want to read a passage of Scripture
from Numbers chapter 22. Balaam says, How shall I curse
whom God hath not cursed? Remember, Balaam said, Curse
Israel. And Balaam said, I can't do it. How shall I curse whom
God hath not cursed? Or how shall I defy whom the
Lord hath not defied? Far from the top of the rocks
I see him, and from the hills I behold him. Lo, the people,
talking about Israel, shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned
among the nations. For who can count the dust of
Jacob in the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the
death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." Oh,
God made such a difference with Israel over everybody else. I think of the Lord saying to
the woman at the well, you don't know what you worship. We know
what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. And He said to
the Syrophoenician woman, I came not but for the lost sheep of
the house of Israel. Now the Jews had no spiritual
understanding. They thought all of this was
about them being physical Jews, and they thought this entitled
them to heaven. They had no understanding of
the gospel. They didn't know what this was symbolic of. They
thought the fact that they were physical Jews entitled them to
heaven. We be Abraham's seed. We're the
children of Abraham. And they thought that that is
why they would go to heaven. And they looked down upon the
Gentiles and considered themselves superior to the Gentiles. We're God's chosen people. They're Gentile dogs. I think
this is seen most clearly when the Lord was being crucified.
The chief priests who were perpetrating the greatest sin to ever take
place when they had Christ to be nailed to a cross, yet they
wouldn't go into Pilate's hall unless they'd be defiled. If
they got around a Gentile, that would defile them. They could
murder the Son of God, but oh, we don't want to be defiled and
they looked down upon the Gentiles. Now how would you feel about
somebody who believed that because of their ethnicity they were
superior to you and you would defile them if they were even
in your presence breathing the air that comes out of you? Well
that's the way the Jew was with the Gentile. Their hope of God's
favor was in them being a Jew And you know, there are many
scriptures in the Old Testament that said God's mercy is going
to be to the Gentiles, but they seem to overlook all of those
scriptures. And when Paul said that Christ
was sending him to the Gentiles, so the Gentiles would hear and
be saved, the inescapable implication and conclusion they reached was,
he's saying that what we're hoping in is not salvation. If those
Gentiles are saved, if Christ is sent to those Gentiles, that
means us being Jews doesn't count for being saved. He's taking
away our hope, what we're hoping in, of being saved. Now, if in my preaching I present
the truth in such a way that somebody who hears me And I preach
the truth. God is God. The Bible is the word of God.
God is absolutely sovereign. He controls all things. Men are
dead in sins, unable to save themselves. I give the work of
the Trinity in salvation. God elected a people. Christ
died for the elected and accomplished their salvation. The grace of
the Holy Spirit saves. He doesn't offer to save. He
saves all the Father elected and Christ died for. And those
people will persevere all the way to the end. And if I preach
that in such a way as, well, if you don't believe that, that's
okay. We're all still going to heaven. We just believe differently.
If I preach it in that sense, nobody is going to be offended.
Okay, as long as I go into heaven, that's fine. Nobody will be offended. But if I say, if you reject this,
you reject God Himself, and you will not be saved. That is when
people get upset. Now, remember what the Lord said
to Paul in verse 18, they will not receive thy testimony concerning
me. Now, this testimony is concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. And it must be received, and
if somebody doesn't receive it, they will not be saved. Now,
what is this testimony? Well, we know in the context.
Ananias came to Paul and said, the God of our fathers hath chosen
thee. that thou shouldst know his will,
see that just one, and hear the voice of his mouth, for thou
shalt be his witness unto all men of what you've seen and what
you've heard." Now, this is the testimony concerning the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, let's begin where Ann and
I began with Paul, and this is a part of the true gospel preaching. The God of our fathers hath chosen You know, I love to begin, and
it's scriptural, I love to begin with election. God electing who
would be saved before time began. Now, there's something about
that that just gets under people's skin. They don't like it, by
nature. They know it's true. As a matter
of fact, if you're listening to me, and I say that God is
in absolute, complete control, you may not like it, but deep
down, you know it's true, it's logical. God is in control, and
salvation is in His hand, not yours. Now, if you believe in
a weak God, you might not believe that, but if you believe the
God of the Bible, Yes, God elected a people, and that's where gospel
preaching should begin. The true character of God, and
nothing demonstrates the character of God like election. That means
He controls everything. That means salvation's in His
hand. That means you can't save yourself.
It's up to Him to save you. Well, that's a good way to begin
gospel preaching, and that's exactly how Ananias began with
Paul. I'm not ashamed of God electing
a people. You know, there are people who
say they believe that, but they won't preach it publicly. It's
because they're ashamed of the truth. They're afraid it'll offend people.
But if you really believe the truth, you're going to preach
it publicly, and you're going to glory in who God is. And that's how
he begins this message. God chose you for three things. This is his testimony that they
won't receive, but God's people will, to know his will, to see
that just one and to hear the voice of his mouth. Now, here's
the testimony that I must preach. And I'm not preaching it in such
a way as, well, if you reject it, that's okay, we'll all be
in heaven anyway. And let me say this, when I'm
preaching the truth, it's not because I'm right, I wanna tell
what's right. Well, I trust I am right, but
that's not my point in preaching the truth. It's because I love
the people I'm preaching to. If I'm preaching the truth to
you, the reason I'm doing it is because I love you, and I
want you to know the Lord, and I want you to be saved. I want
you to glory in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not just trying
to my way or the highway. That's not the right attitude. That's not what we're trying
to do. Listen to this. All of God's will, all of God's
saving purpose, is in the Lord Jesus Christ. God will not speak
to, nor be spoken to, apart from His Son, Jesus Christ. This is my beloved Son, in whom
I'm well pleased. Hear ye Him. All of God's saving
purpose is in His Son. If you're saved, if I'm saved,
it will be for Christ's sake. It will not be because God responded
to you doing something. It's God's response to His Son. If I'm saved, it's because Christ
represented me. It's because Christ worked out
a perfect righteousness for me. It's because Christ died for
my sins and put them away. It's because Christ was raised
again for my justification. All of God's saving will is in
the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember when he was in Gethsemane
in his garden and he prayed, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from me, this cup of drinking the sins of my people and being
made sin. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thy be done. You see, salvation is God's will
being done. He said, I came down from heaven
not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And
this is the Father's will which sent me, that of all which He
hath given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again
at the last day. Now understand this. All of God's
saving purpose is in Christ Jesus the Lord. God saves those in
his Son. Everything he requires of a believer,
he looks to Christ for. Who Christ is and what he did.
Salvation is according to the will of God. Not man's will. Somebody says,
well, man's will lets God save him. That's ridiculous. Salvation
is according to the will of God. The God of our fathers hath chosen
thee that thou should know his will and see that just one. There is just one, just one. That means that righteous one. Now, what's the point? The Lord
Jesus Christ is merciful. Do you know no one that's ever
come to him for mercy has he ever turned away? He's merciful. He's gracious. He's kind. He's forgiving. He's meek. He's
lowly in heart. He says, come unto me, all ye
that labor, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and
learn of me, I'm meek and lowly in heart, and you'll find rest
for your souls. He is all those things, but when
you see him, you see him as the righteous one. Now you know what
that means? That means there's only one righteousness,
the righteousness of the righteous one. Now the righteous one is
the one who made the way for God to remain consistent with
His character, absolutely just, one who will by no means clear
the guilty, and yet save guilty sinners by what Christ did, the
Just One, in a way that honors His justice, where the very justice
of God demands your salvation, where the law of God says He
has no guilt. Now, that's what it is to see
the Just One. It's to see how God can be just and justify the
ungodly through what