I covet your prayer as I attempt
to preach this message, that I would preach not my words or
my thoughts, but what God actually says in his word, and that you
would pray for yourself, that you would be given hearing ears.
We're looking at the second part of Paul's defense. We considered the first part
this morning. Look in chapter 21. And as they,
verse 31, and as they went about to kill him. Now that ought to
get our attention. They're going to kill him. As they went about to kill him,
Tidings came unto the chief captain of the band that all Jerusalem
was in an uproar. Look in verse 37 of the same
chapter, and as Paul was led into the castle, he said unto
the chief captain, May I speak unto thee? Who said, Canst thou
speak Greek? Art not thou that Egyptian, which
before these days made us an uproar and led us out into the
wilderness, 4,000 men that were murderers? But Paul said, I'm a man, which
I'm a Jew of Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, and a citizen of no
mean city. I beseech thee, suffer me to
speak unto the people. These are the people who wanted
to kill him. And when he had given him leave,
Paul stood on the stairs and beckoned with a hand unto the
men. And when there was made a great silence, He spake unto
them in the Hebrew tongue, saying, Men, brethren, and fathers, hear
ye my defense, which I now make unto you." Now, that is where
we got the title, Paul's Defense. Now, this is where the word apologetics
comes from, and people have made a cult of apologetics. trying
to answer, trying to answer the objections, trying to answer
people's claims against the gospel. And that is not what this defense
is about. We're not trying to answer the
critics of the gospel. We're preaching the gospel. And
I think it would be debasing to the truth to get down on the
level of debating with somebody about it. This is God's truth.
It's not up for debate. In that sense, this is not apologetics,
answering critics and answering opponents. This is not what this
is about. This is Paul telling these people why he preached
what he preached, why he did what he did. Now we considered
the first part this morning and he ended up in verse 16 in this
first part saying, why tarryest thou? Arise and be baptized and
wash away thy sins. Call him on the name of the Lord.
Now he talks about the second part of his defense. And this
is very important. Verse 17. And it came to pass
that when I was come again to Jerusalem, he's speaking to these
same people, giving his defense. It came to pass when I came again
to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance. Now we read of two trances in
the New Testament where Peter was in a trance. Remember in
Acts chapter 10? And he saw that vision of the
sheep let down from heaven with unclean beasts. And God said,
rise, Peter, kill and eat. And the point is nothing's unclean
in and of itself. Nothing is unclean. There's no
difference. You can't look at a Gentile and say he's unclean
and a Jew's clean. Can't look at things that way.
That's what Peter learned in that trance. Well, here Paul
is in trance and he's pretty much learning the same thing.
Verse 18, And I saw him, the Lord Jesus, saying unto me, Make
haste, Get thee quickly out of Jerusalem for they will not receive
thy testimony concerning me. Now, I think he's talking about
both the church and the Jews. The church was suspicious of
him. They were afraid of him. You know, he had just been killing
believers and having them thrown into prison, and they didn't
know much about this fellow. They felt shaky about him, and
the Jews certainly would not receive him. They hated his message. And the reason I think it's including
the church is because of the way Paul answered He said, Lord,
I understand why they would be afraid of receiving me. I'm paraphrasing
that, but you can see this. They know that I'm imprisoned
and beat in every synagogue, them that believe on thee. I
can imagine why they're afraid of me and won't receive me. And
when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was
standing by and consenting unto his death. AND KEPT THE RAINMEN
OF THEM THAT SLEW HIM. I WAS FOR HIS DEATH AND SUPPORTED
ALL THESE PEOPLE IN YOUR MARTYR STEPHEN'S DEATH. I CAN SEE WHY
THEY'RE SCARED TO DEATH OF ME. THE JEWS WON'T RECEIVE ME BECAUSE
OF WHAT I SAY WITH REGARD TO THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. THE BELIEVERS
ARE AFRAID OF ME BECAUSE OF ALL THE THINGS THAT I'VE DONE. NOW
HERE'S WHAT THE LORD SAID TO HIM AFTER THAT, VERSE 21, AND
HE SAID UNTO ME, for I will send thee far hence
unto the Gentiles." And they gave him audience unto this word. As soon as he said he was going
to the Gentiles, then lifted up their voices and said, away
with such a fellow from the earth for it's not fit that he should
live. They cried out and cast off their
clothes and threw dust in the air. This was the straw that broke
the camel's back. This is why they wanted Paul
dead. Because he said, the Lord is
sending me to the Gentiles. Now, what's the issue? That's what I want us to see.
What is the issue? Why did they get so upset that
they wanted Paul dead because he said he was going to preach
the gospel to the Gentiles? They said, it's not fit for him
to live. He ought not be on the earth.
We want to get rid of this fellow. Now, why did they have such a
strong reaction? First Timothy three 16, would
you turn there for just a second? Verse 16, first Timothy chapter
three. And without controversy, there's
no debating over this. Without controversy, great is
the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Isn't that a great mystery? God,
the eternal living God was manifest in the flesh. Justified in the
spirit. He was justified in what he did.
He justified everybody he did it for. Oh, justification is
one of the key words of the gospel. I can't hear enough of it to
think that by what Christ did, I stand before the holy law of
God and it can find no guilt. Perfect in Christ Jesus, justified. And then verse 16, it says, he
was seen of angels. And I love to think about that.
Angels looking upon the Lord Jesus Christ being nailed to
a cross and thinking, what's this all about? I mean, they
were ready to, do you want us to go smite him? Do you want
us to go kill him and deliver your son? I mean, they were just,
and you know, they watched every second of his life. I don't have
any doubt about it. During the 33 years of his life,
angels were just watching in amazement. You know, there's
a lot of other things going on that we're excited about that
they didn't pay any attention to. It wasn't even important,
wasn't worth thinking about, but oh, they watched the Lord
Jesus Christ. And look at this fourth statement,
the great mystery of godliness. He was preached unto the Gentiles.
Now, you know, that doesn't amaze us much. He was preached to the
Gentiles. That's the great mystery of godliness?
Yes, that people like me and you would hear the gospel. I hope you and I have some idea
that it's very mysterious that we're being allowed right now
to hear the gospel of God. This is part of the great mystery
of a Gentile, a Gentile, a non-Jew would hear the gospel He goes
on to say, believed on in the world. That's a great mystery.
Did anybody believes in the first place? And then he was received
up into glory. Now these people that Paul was
preaching to believe God's favor was to Israel, not to the Gentiles. They thought God's favor was
only to Israel. And God's wrath was against the
Gentiles. They'd heard that all their life.
They'd heard all their life that Israel is God's chosen people. They were brought up with that.
They believed in election. They believed they were the elect.
And they thought it started with Abraham. Abraham was the first
one who started our nation. And God has been with Israel. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter seven
for a moment. Deuteronomy seven, listen to
the words of Moses to Israel. When the Lord died, God, Deuteronomy
seven, verse one, when the Lord died, God shall bring me into
the land, whether thou go is to possess it and cast out many
nations before thee. The Hittites, the Girgashites,
the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites,
the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou. And when the Lord thy God shall
deliver them before thee, what are they called upon to do? 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 or
his daughter shalt thou give unto thy son. 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 them
suddenly, thee suddenly. But thus shall you deal with
them. You shall destroy their altars, break down their images,
cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. For thou art an 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 didn't 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. I think that's, you wanna know
why the Lord loved you? Because he did. No other reason,
because he did. And because he would keep the
oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought
you out with a mighty hand and redeem you out of the house of
bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Now, put yourself
in their place. The Lord loved you and he told
you to kill all these other nations, because if you spare them, they
will end up drawing you away from me. And that's why he said
to kill them. So they grew up thinking we are
God's chosen people. These other fellows aren't, but
we are. You know, it was Moses who said
in Exodus chapter 11, verse seven, against any of the children of
Israel, shall not a dog move his tongue? against man or beast,
that you may know that the Lord doth put a difference between
the Egyptians and Israel. Now that word put a difference,
he discriminates. Now that, he discriminates. He made a difference between
Israel and everybody else. to Israel, no favor to Egypt. Now they were brought up with
this. Turn to Numbers chapter 23 for
a moment. Numbers chapter 23 verse eight, How shall I curse whom God hath
not cursed? You'll remember Balak asked Moab,
the king of Moab, to have Balaam curse Israel. And he couldn't
do it. How shall I curse whom God hath
not cursed? Or how shall I defy whom the Lord hath not defied?
For from the top of the rocks I see him, from the hills I behold
him. Lo, the people shall dwell alone, talking about Israel,
and shall not be reckoned among the nations. They're not going
to be numbered among the nations. They stand by themselves as my
chosen people, my favored people. Who can count the dust of Jacob
and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the
death of the righteous and let my last end be like his. Now,
here he says Israel's not even counted as one of the nations.
They're so special to God. Salvation is in being a child
of Abraham. Now, the Jews had no spiritual
understanding They thought that being a physical Jew entitled
them to God's favor. We'd be children of Abraham.
We're of the seed of Abraham. And they thought that would get
them to heaven. And they looked down on Gentiles
as, for lack of a better word, scumbags. That's how they looked
at it. I think this is seen so clearly
when the Jews were seeking to perpetrate the greatest sin ever
committed in putting Christ to death. They were afraid of going
into a Gentile's palace, lest they should be defiled. They
were getting ready to commit the most monstrous sin, but they
didn't want to get around Pilate's palace and go in because that
would have defiled them. How would you feel about somebody
who believed that because of their ethnicity, they were superior
to you? And if you entered into their
house, it would bring you down and defile. Now, their hope of
God's favor was being a Jew. We be Abraham's seed. That's why we will be saved. That's what they're hoping in. Now, there were many scriptures
in the Old Testament concerning God saving the Gentiles. A whole
lot of them, a lot of prophecies with regard to the salvation
of the Gentiles, but they did not hear these when Paul said
that Christ was sending him to the Gentiles. So the Gentiles
would hear and be saved. The inescapable implication of
that is you mean they can be saved without being a Jew. Well, my hope of salvation is
being a Jew. And you're saying that that hope
won't save me. That's the problem. You're telling
me that that hope will not save me. Now, when they heard that,
that's when they wanted to kill Paul. because Paul was saying
what they're hoping in was no good. Christ is being sent to
the Gentiles to save him. Now, wait a minute. My hope is
being a Jew. You're saying that that is not
gonna help me? Well, that's exactly what he
was saying. I think of what John the Baptist
said. Don't say we be children of Abraham. God is able of these stones to
raise up children of Abraham. Now they put all their hope of
salvation in that. And that is when they wanted
to kill Paul. Now, if in my preaching, I present
the gospel. Oh, I want to do that. I want
to preach the gospel. I fear not preaching the gospel.
I sure do. I don't want to misrepresent
the Lord. I don't want to just give my own opinions. I want
to preach the gospel. Now, if in my preaching of the gospel,
I present the truth in such a way that somebody rejects what I'm
saying, but they're still saved. I'm okay, you're okay. I'm not
gonna upset anybody, am I? We just believe differently,
but we're all going to the same place. We're all going to heaven.
You can reject who God is, You can reject who man is as being
dead in sin. You can reject the work of the
Trinity and salvation, election by the Father, redemption by
the Son, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit. You can reject
this, but you're still saved. Okay, we'll just agree to disagree. We're still friends. I don't
agree with what you're saying, We're still friends. But if I
say to reject this, is to reject God himself. That's different, isn't it? And if you die rejecting this,
you will not be in heaven. That is when people will get
upset. Back to verse 18 of our text
in Acts chapter 22. Make haste, get thee quickly
out of Jerusalem for they will not receive thy testimony concerning
Me. Now, remember, this is our testimony. It's concerning him. You know,
I'm, I'm not interested in getting people to believe correctly.
Understand what I'm saying. That's just, okay. I get you
to believe correctly. So what I want you to know the
Lord. I want to know the Lord. And
I want you to know the Lord. I want you to bow the knee to
the Lord. I want you to understand and
to hear the gospel. Now, he said, what they're going
to reject is they're going to reject your testimony concerning
me. Now, we've looked at this earlier
this morning. Here's what it was. Verse 12,
and one Ananias, a devout man, according to the law, having
a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there, came unto
me and stood and said unto me, brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour I looked upon
him and he said, the God of our fathers. hath chosen thee, that
thou shouldst know his will, and see that just one, and shouldst
hear the voice of his mouth, for thou shalt be his witness."
That's his testimony. Thou should be his witness. And to all men of what you've
seen and what you've heard. Now, the first thing Ananias
says to Paul in telling him you're gonna be his witness As he says
the God of our fathers hath chosen thee He begins with divine Election
and I can't emphasize this strong enough If you want to preach
the gospel begin there Begin there Somebody says, well, that's
for mature believers. Baloney. It's what everybody
needs to hear. You begin there. This is who
God is. This is his character. He chose who would be saved.
That's Paul's testimony that they're not gonna receive. It
begins with who God is. God elected a people before time
began. And let me repeat what I said
this morning. You can't preach the gospel.
You can't preach grace. You can't preach Christ. You
can't preach the character of God and not preach holy, divine
election. According as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world. And he said in
verse 14, the God of our fathers has chosen thee that thou should
know his will. Now here's his testimony concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's God's will. This is not
talking about what's the will of God for my life. I like what
one fellow said, you're up to your neck in it. and you are,
that kind of thinking is just really contrary. Let's forget
thinking that way. He's talking about God's will
of redemption. He's not talking about God's will of command as
far as the Ten Commandments. Paul already knew that. He knew
it backwards and forwards. He could quote the Ten Commandments
and thought he'd kept them all. It's not talking about God's
will of command. It's talking about God's will of redemption. All God has for the sinner is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I came down from heaven.
These are the words of the Lord. I came down from heaven not to
do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. Now don't miss that sent me.
I love it in John 6, verse 29, when the Lord says, this is the
work of God, that you believe on him whom he hath sent. This is life eternal, that they
might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou
hast sent. God sent Christ. know, there's a lot of they have
known. When he's praying in John chapter
17 for his people, he said, they have known and believed that
thou hast sent me. I'm one of those people. I believe
the Father sent him, don't you? And I know what the Father sent
him to do. This is the will of him that sent me that of all
which he has given me, the elect, I should lose nothing. I'm coming
to save my people, and I will not lose one of them. This is the will of him that
sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose
nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. This is the
will of him that sent me, that everyone that seeth the sun."
Now, here's what's going to happen if you're elect. You're going
to see the sun. You're gonna see the Son as everything
in God's salvation. You're gonna see the Son as all
of God's salvation. You're gonna see the Son as all
your salvation. You're not gonna look anywhere
else but Him only. That's how you'll see Him. That's
what it is to believe on Him. That's God's will. Now, they're not gonna receive
that testimony. But that is the truth. That thou,
God of fathers hath chosen thee, that thou should know his will. And here's the second thing he
says, this is his testimony that they won't receive. See that
just one. Now that word just is generally
translated righteous. You'll see that righteous one. I like the one. There's only
one righteous one. There's just one. just one. And here's what this means. His
righteousness, His personal law-keeping, His obedience, His perfect obedience
to the Father is the only righteousness there is. There is none righteous,
no, not one. His righteousness is the only
righteousness. And the only way any man will
be accepted by God is if the righteousness of Jesus Christ
is their personal righteousness. You see, he's the righteous one,
and he was made sin, All the sins of the elect, God put in
him. He drank them up and gassed them
in his garden. And that's why God's wrath fell
down on him. And he put that sin away. He
could not be defeated. He put that sin away. And just
as truly as he took that sin to himself, His righteousness,
his personal righteousness, his perfect law keeping is given
to every believer as their personal righteousness before God. There's just one, just one who
made the way for God to be just and justify the ungodly. And next he said, you know his
will? See that just one and hear the
voice of his mouth. Now I've never heard him speak
audibly. You know, one time somebody wrote me a letter and they said,
Jesus told me to do this and I'm needing your support. And
I generally just throw stuff like that away, but for some
reason I couldn't resist it. I wrote the guy back, I said,
you're a liar. Jesus Christ never spoke to you. Nobody believes
that. You're a swindler. You're trying
to steal money from people. I don't know whether he ever
got it, but generally I just throw that stuff in the garbage.
But I just couldn't resist that time. I haven't heard him audibly,
but I'll tell you what I've heard his voice. I've heard his voice
and his word. And what that means is when you
hear his voice, you know this is his absolute truth. This is not up for debate. This
is not something we're going to argue about. This is His absolute
truth. This is His Word. This is not
Baptist doctrine. This is not Methodist doctrine.
This is not Catholic doctrine. You know, I wish all those denominations
would just be done away with. They're not in the Bible anyway.
This is the Word of God. You know what? If I preach that
such a way and say, well, this is God's word, but you're okay. If you don't receive it, what
am I saying? I'm calling into question. it
being the word of God in the first place. I'm calling into
question what the content, no, I'm not calling into question
the content of the gospel. I'm taking away the content of
the gospel in making statements like that. I'm not telling the
truth. There's no agreeing to disagree. This is the way the salvation
of the Jew and the Gentile alike comes forth. Because God chose
them, and here's what they, Come to understand, they know His
will. All of God's salvation is in Christ, amen? Every bit
of it. Everything God requires me to
look to Christ for. It was God's will that sent Him to save His
people from their sins. And see that just one. There's
just one, just one. His righteousness is the only
righteousness. Hear the voice of His mouth,
but if you reject it, you're still saved. That is so contrary
to everything in the Bible. What Paul was saying to these
people is what you're hoping in is not salvation. That's the point. It wasn't just
a, we love the Jews and we hate
everybody else. I guess they were pretty much
like that, but that's not the point. What Paul was saying when
he said, the Lord was sending Paul to the Gentiles, that means
that somebody can be saved. is not a Jew. And that's taking
away what we're hoping in. Now that, you see, when I preach
the gospel, I better preach it in such a way as if you're hoping
in something that's not the gospel, you're gonna find out it won't
do you any good. And that's exactly what was taking place in this
passage of scripture. And this is why they got so angry. Now, in conclusion, if I preach
in such a way that you cannot agree with, not perceive, and
reject what I said, and still be saved. I did not preach the gospel.
Now understand this, this is not about trying to get people
to believe the right doctrine. You can have to write this and
write that in pairs with all the other Pharisees in hell.
This is not about trying to get everybody straightened out and
getting their doctrine right. Now the reason I am so, with
the Bible's firm on it, I hope I am too. What I'm talking about
is the only hope I've got of being saved, that God chose me. And that he sent his son to work
out a perfect righteousness for me. and to put away my sin. And I mean to put it away. When
I hear people say, Jesus Christ died for the sins of everybody,
but it's up to you to accept him. Why, there's no gospel in
that. I'm not just trying to get people
straightened out in their doctrine. That ain't the gospel. The gospel
is the it is finished. Nothing less is gospel. And when
I hear stuff like that, you're taking away the only hope I have.
I take it personal. Somebody says, y'all don't take it personal.
I do take it personal. It's a person I love. It's a
person I believe. It's a person that's gonna save me. I do take
it personal. And the only hope I have is that
what he did is all that's needed for me to be perfectly justified,
accepted by God himself. Now, if I preach the gospel in
such a way as you can still reject the truth, well, I've just removed
the offense from the cross. That's what I've done. I've removed
the offense from the cross. Now, if I start preaching that way,
y'all ought to leave here. You ought to get out while you
can, if I start preaching that way. Pray for me that I won't
preach the gospel in such a way as take it or leave it. It's good
if you believe it, but you're still saved if you don't. A lot
of folks present that are not presenting the truth, but that's
what they're saying. And there is no salvation in that kind
of thinking. And it's, Paul, what did I want
to do? They wanted to kill him. They
said, such a man is not fit to live on the earth. We need to
get rid of him. Now, let me remind you in closing
of the Beatitudes. This is what a believer is. It's
what a believer is. It's not what a believer strives
to be. It's not what a believer ought to be. It's what a believer
is. He's poor. And what that means,
he doesn't have anything. I'm going to have to be brought
into heaven on the merits of Christ because I don't have anything
else. He's poor. He mourns over his sin. He's not indifferent about sin.
He mourns over his sin. He would never sin again. And he mourns because that's
all he does. all the time. He's meek before
God. You see, everything God does
is right and he knows it. And he's meek before God. And
he hungers and he thirsts after righteousness, Christ's righteousness. Oh, he hungers and thirsts. Don't
you hunger and thirst to simply be found in him having his righteousness? And he's pure in heart. You know,
I used to stumble at that. I don't feel very pure in heart
before I understood what it meant. The new nature is pure. The new
nature is holy. He's pure in heart. And he's merciful. He's merciful. His father is merciful. He's
merciful. If I'm not merciful, Lord's never
done anything for me. He's merciful. And he's a peacemaker. He's not trying to fight. He wants everybody to know the
prince of peace. He wants to preach the gospel of peace. He
wants God's people to be at peace. He's a peacemaker. But here's
the last one. He's persecuted for righteousness
sake. Now that doesn't mean he's persecuted
because of all his good works. It doesn't mean he's persecuted
because of the gifts he's given to feed the poor and to clothe
the poor and to seek to be a help to people. That's not talking
about being persecuted for that. He's persecuted for this one
singular reason. He believes, and he holds on
to this, the righteousness of Jesus Christ is the only righteousness
there is. My only hope. Now that describes every believer. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in the name of your
son that you will enable us. First, that you would cause us
to be in your son. Lord, we want to be found only
in him. We pray that you would enable
us to believe on your son. We ask that you enable us to
preach your gospel in this generation, in this sphere of influence you've
given us in whatever way. Lord, enable us to find our all
in thy son and deliver us, deliver us from removing the offense
from the cross. Lord, keep us, preserve us, enable
us, give us the privilege of being persecuted for the righteousness
of thy son's sake. Bless this message for your glory
and for our good. In Christ's name we pray.