Would you turn to Acts chapter
21? Let's begin reading in verse 27 of Acts chapter 21. And when the seven days were
almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, When they saw him,
Paul, in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands
on him, crying out, Men of Israel, help! This is the man that teacheth
all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this
place. And further brought Greeks also
into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place. For they had
seen before him with him in the city of Trophimus, an Ephesian,
whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.
And all the city was moved and the people ran together and they
took Paul and drew him out of the temple and forthwith the
doors were shut. And as they went about to kill
him, tidings came under the chief
captain of the band, a Roman centurion, that all Jerusalem
was in an uproar. who immediately took soldiers
and centurions and ran down unto them. And when they saw the chief
captain and the soldiers, they left beating a fall. Then the
chief captain came near and took him and commanded him to be bound
with two chains and demanded who he was and what he had done. It had brought on such trouble.
Now, after he's under the protection of the Roman centurion, he says,
I want to speak with the people who were trying to kill me. Look
at chapter 22, verse 1. Men, brethren, and fathers, hear
ye my defense, which I now make unto you. He's speaking to these
people who tried to kill him. And he says, I'm making a defense.
Now in verse 22 of the same chapter, after his defense is over, 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, that was their
response to his defense. He needs to be put to death. So the captain, the Roman centurion,
took him back into jail. And while Paul was in the prison,
His nephew came to him and told him, there are 40 Jews that have
made a pact. They've said, we won't eat, we
won't drink, we'll fast. We will not have anything to
do with food or drink until we've killed Paul. So what you need
to do, get him to come out and we'll ask him a question. And
as soon as we see him come out, we'll put him to death. We'll
kill him. Paul's nephew told Paul this. Paul tells the Roman
centurion. So the Roman centurion decides
he needs to be protected. And he sends him to the province
of Caesarea to hear for King Agrippa to hear him and to find
out what was going on. So look in chapter 24. Now this is after he'd been sent
to Caesarea, and Agrippa was going to hear him when his accusers,
the Jews who were trying to kill him, got there. He was going
to try to make a judgment. Verse 1 of chapter 24, And after
five days Ananias the high priest descended with the elders, and
with a certain orator, they hired him a preacher, I guess, named
Tertullus, who informed the governor against Paul. Now, look how thick
he lays it on. And when he was called forth,
Tertullus began to accuse him, saying, seeing that by thee we
enjoy great quietness, and that very worthy deeds are done unto
this nation by thy providence, we accept it always, and in all
places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness. He's in order,
isn't he? Notwithstanding that I be not
further tedious unto thee, I pray thee that thou wouldest hear
us of thy clemency a few words." And now he begins to talk about
the Apostle Paul. He says, we have found this man
a pestilent fellow, a disease. This man is a disease in our
midst. He spreads his infection everywhere. Furthermore, he's a mover of
sedition. He divides people. He creates
dissension. He doesn't bring people together.
He divides people and creates dissension and controversy among
all the Jews throughout the world. And he's a ringleader of the
sect of the Nazarenes. He's a part of a sect. who also
hath gone about to profane the temple. He's trying to profane
our religion. He also hath gone about to profane the temple,
whom we took and would have judged according to our law. But the
chief captain Lysias came upon us, and with great violence took
him away out of our hands, commanding his accusers to come unto thee,
by examining of whom thyself mayest take knowledge of all
these things, wherever we accuse him. And the Jews also sinned,
and saying, these things were so. They were right behind, Tertullus.
Then Paul. After that the governor had beckoned
unto him to speak, answer. For as much as I know that thou
hast been of many years a judge unto this nation, I do the more
cheerfully answer for myself, because that thou mayest understand
that there are yet but twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem
for to worship. And they neither found me in the temple disputing
with any man what they're saying it, and so neither raising up
the people, starting a riot, Neither in the synagogue nor
in the city, neither can they prove the things whereof they
now accuse me. But, I've got to confess to guilt here. I confess
to guilt of this accusation. After the way which they call
heresy, so worship I. And this is very important. He
didn't say that's the way I believe. He said, so worship I, the God
of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the
law and in the prophets. Now, obviously there was a great
difference between Paul and the Jews. Now, Paul was Jewish. But there was a great difference
between Paul and the Jews. They wanted to kill him. They
were so angry with what he believed that they wanted to kill him. And these men that wanted to
kill him were very religious. They represented the two religious
factions, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. If we would contemporize
that, we'd say they were the conservatives and the liberals.
The Sadducees were the liberals. The Pharisees were the conservatives.
And the Pharisees and the Sadducees were enemies with each other.
They didn't agree. They didn't believe the same
thing. But they were united together in their hatred of Paul and his
gospel. And they wanted to put him out
of business. They wanted to kill him. They
wanted to silence him. Now, They were different, weren't
they? My question is, where in did they differ? I've entitled this message, Where
In Do We Differ? Where in do we differ? I want to bring this difference
to the present. Wherein do we differ? Now I want to speak as carefully
as I can, and I want to speak as carefully as I can. There may be another church in
Lexington, Kentucky that believes what we believe and preaches
what we preach. There may be. I've not been in every church
and I can't positively say there's not. I couldn't say that honestly
unless I went into every church. There may be, but I don't know
of one. I do not know of one that preaches
or believes what we believe. Now somebody says, are you saying
you're right and everybody else is wrong? No, I'm not saying
that. But I am saying that if someone
does not preach the gospel that I preach, they are not preaching
the gospel. Now, of the churches I know of,
I don't know of anybody preaching what we preach. We are different,
and there's no point in pretending that we're not. No point in that. We do differ, and we know who
made us to differ. You just read it. He made us
to differ. But wherein do we differ? What is different about this
church and the other churches that I'm speaking of that don't
preach the same message that we preach? Wherein do we differ? Now this is a very important
subject and pray for me that I will preach this message as
it ought to be preached and pray for yourself that you'll hear
this message as it ought to be heard. Wherein do we differ? Well, first of all, it's not
natural character. We're not better than anybody. We're really
not. And we believe that. It's not
in the form, organization, structure of the church. That's not even
an issue. We don't differ in religious
dress. We look about like everybody else does. I imagine if you go
into any other assembly, they look pretty much like this. Well,
maybe dress down a little bit more with all the contemporary
stuff going on. It's not in the way we observe
the ordinances. We practice baptism by immersion.
We take the Lord's table pretty much the way other people do
that. Wherein do we differ then? If
we don't differ in these things, wherein do we differ? Here's the first point. We differ
in the God we worship. We differ in the God we worship. You see the God they worship,
and somebody says, who's the they? Everybody who doesn't believe
this gospel. That's who the they are. The God they worship is
not the God of the Bible. He's a weak God. He's a pygmy
God that doesn't even deserve the name of God. His will is
subject to man's will. He can't do what he wants unless
men let him. My friends, this is not the God
of the Bible. Psalm 110.3, David says, Our
God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Now that's the God of the Bible.
He's God indeed. He's the God who controls all
things. He's the sovereign God. That's
who God is, the sovereign God. Not a God who can't have his
will done unless men let him, but the one who rules and reigns
as the absolute sovereign. What's sovereign mean? That means
God has a will. There is such a thing as the
will of God. It means God has the power to make his will come
to pass. And it means that God always
does. make his will come to pass. He
always does. He is God indeed. He doeth, Daniel said, according
to his will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what
doest thou? God is as the Bible declares
him to be, and anything less than an absolute sovereign is
no God at all but the figment of man's depraved imagination. Wherein do we differ? A different
God. If the God you worship can be
pleased by anything you do, you don't have the God of the
Bible. That's a different God. And God's not holy. If he can
accept my works, he's not holy. The God of the Bible is other. That's where we differ. A different
God. Wherein do we differ? We have
a different view of the scriptures. Paul said, believing all things. which are written in the Law
and in the Prophets. That's what we believe. All things
which are written in the Law and in the Prophets. What we
believe, who we believe, is what and who this book declares. We believe the Word. Timothy, preach the Word. Whatever the Word declares, preach
it. Now, it would do no good to say
I believe the Word of God and reject or dismiss as doctrines
of secondary importance any portion of God's Word. Illustration. How many people
say they believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God and
yet reject predestination? When the Bible says, whom he
did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his son. Well, I don't believe predestination.
Well, you don't believe the Bible then. Oh, yes, I do. I believe
the Bible's inspired word of God. No, you don't. No, you don't.
If you did, you'd bow to it because what you think of God is seen
by how you view his precious word. You bow to his word. Whatever doctrine, whatever practice
God's word declares, you bow to. Now that is the difference. There's a lot of folks who use
the scripture. They'll use the scripture to prove stuff. I'll
prove this, I'll prove that by the Bible. We don't come to the
Bible to prove what we believe. We come to the Bible to bow and
find out what to believe from the Word of God. That's wherein
we differ. All scripture, all scripture
is given by inspiration of God. We believe all things that are
written. Wherein do we differ? Well, we
have a different view as to what took place in the Garden of Eden.
Now, you know what happened in the Garden of Eden. That's the
time of the creation. And Adam was created upright.
He had an innocent nature. He didn't sin. And he fell. Eve ate the fruit, he ate the
fruit, and he fell. Most everybody believes that.
Most believe Adam fell and became a sinner through that fall, but
few believe that he became dead in sins. Dead in sins. Now what does dead mean? Well,
you take a dead man, play him some beautiful music. He can't
hear it. He's dead. Give him the best
thing you've ever heard of to eat. He can't taste it. He's
dead. Show him a beautiful painting. Can he appreciate it? No, he
can't see it. He's blind, he's dead. Let him
feel something real soft. Does he feel it? No, he's dead. He's dead. He cannot perform
the functions of life. And a spiritually dead man cannot
perform the functions of spiritual life. And you hath he quickened
who were dead, D-E-A-D, dead, in trespasses and sins. The natural
man cannot see. He can't see the glory of God.
He can't see the preciousness of Christ. He can't see himself
for what he is. He can't. He's blind. He can't
hear the gospel. You may preach it clearly and
simply, but he can't hear. He has no appreciation of it.
He's dead. He can't smell the sweet savor
of the gospel. It doesn't even smell good to
him. It stinks to him. He's dead. He can't taste that
the Lord is gracious. He knows nothing of the grace
of God because he's dead in trespasses and sins. He can't feel he's
unmoved by the gospel. He is dead. John 6, verse 44,
the Lord said, no man can. That's all about ability. No
man can. No man has the ability to come
to me, except the Father which has sent me draw him. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto
him. Neither indeed can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. But the natural man is dead in
sins." That means, if God doesn't do something for me, if God doesn't
intervene, if He doesn't do something for me, I'm going to hell. Now
that's wherein we differ. We differ as to what took place
in the Garden of Eden. Most people would say, well,
Adam fell, but we still have the power of free will. We can
still turn things around and accept Jesus as our personal
Savior, and then we'll be saved. No, dead. Dead in trespasses and
sins. And we differ as to what took
place in eternity, before time began. Now, most folks believe
that God made a plan that he hoped would be carried
out in time But as to that plan being carried out, it was left
open-ended, dependent upon what men do. We believe no such thing. Known unto God are all His works
from the beginning. The Lord is called in Revelation
13, 8, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, before
time began. Now remember, we differ as to
what happened in eternity. Before time began, before there
was ever a creation, before time began, God chose a people to
be saved. Ephesians 1 verse 4 says, according
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
And that happened in eternity. But you know what else happened
in eternity? Not only did election take place in eternity when God
selected who would be saved, but all of salvation was accomplished
in eternity. Listen to this. Romans 8. As a matter of fact,
it's a familiar passage, but I want you to see it. Romans
8. Verse 28. And we know, we know, that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are thee called according
to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, foreknow
beforehand, know forelove. Them He also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be
the firstborn among many brethren, Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. And whom he called, them he also
justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. Past tense. Past tense. And that happened before there
was any time. What happened in eternity? Everything. You see, God's not bound by space
or time the way you and I are. What happened in eternity? Everything. Hebrews 4.3 says, The works were
finished from the foundation of the world. We differ as to
what took place in eternity. Everything did. And we differ
as to what took place on the cross. Most believe that Christ died
for all men without exception. Isn't that so? We believe no
such thing. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. He said to some, you're not of my sheep as I said unto
you. My sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me.
Most believe that Christ made salvation possible or potential. He made salvation possible if
you do your part. We don't believe anything like
that, do we? When He said it is finished, salvation was accomplished. Most limit the saving efficacy
of His blood. You know, we believe in what's
called limited atonement. But really, it's unlimited to
those God has limited it to. Most folks, what they do, they
limit the atonement of Christ to the power of man's free will.
I mean, it's limited by what men do with it. I don't believe
anything like that. That's a limit, yeah, that's
a wicked limit. I mean, that makes the power
of his blood, it's not even effectual. It depends on what you do with
it. That won't do me any good. Won't do me any good at all.
That won't save me. I need a salvation a saving efficacy
of His blood that is unlimited, that saves me completely. That's what we believe and rejoice
in, the power of His blood. Most people believe that on the
cross there was role-playing going on. God says, well, son,
I'm going to treat you as if you were a sinner. No, he didn't
treat him as if he was a sinner. Christ was made sin and God's
wrath came down on him. Because that's what he deserved
when my sin became his. Wasn't role-playing going on.
It was real. Most believe that there are people
in hell that Christ died for. I don't believe that for a second.
We don't believe that for a second. Would God punish somebody for
the same sin twice? Why, that'd be unjust, wouldn't
it? It'd be wrong. If Christ was punished for my
sin, and then God turned around and punished me again for it,
that would be unjust. Here's an illustration of what
Christ actually accomplished on the cross. There was a group
of people, I think this might be a true story, I read it somewhere,
there was a group of people that saw a brush fire coming at them.
And it was off in the distance, the wind was blowing it toward
them, and they knew they were gonna get Burned up. And so one wise man
said he burned all the ground in front of him and it started
going up and everything was burned up. So what they did, they got
into that place that was burned up. And you know what? The fire
didn't get to them. Because the fire cannot burn
where it's already burnt. The justice of God cannot smite
that one whose sins have already been paid for. The ground has
already been burned. We differ, oh how greatly we
differ, but we differ as to what actually happened on Calvary's
tree. When the Lord Jesus Christ said, it is finished, the salvation
of all of the elect was accomplished. Aren't you thankful for that?
It is finished. We differ as to what took place
on the cross. And we differ as to what happens
in a sinner's heart when God saves them. Some believe that the old nature
is changed and improved. We believe no such thing. I know
from experience it's just as bad. I know first from the Word
of God, but I also know from experience it's just as bad as
it's ever been. Many believe that faith comes
before life. You have to believe in order
to have life. I don't believe that for a second. There's not
a drop of truth to that. That salvation by works is all
it is. Nothing more. Some believe you can have life
without faith. You can have spiritual life, yet you don't believe the
gospel. Don't believe that for a second. Some believe you can have Christ
as Savior, but not as Lord. I don't believe that for a second.
If I've not bowed to His Lordship, He ain't my Savior. Whoever has
Him as Savior has Him as the Lord of their life. You see, when God saves a sinner,
He gives him life from the dead. a new heart that was not there
before. He now believes. He now becomes
a disciple, a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ really
is all to him. He really believes that Jesus
Christ is all. We sing that song, all that thrills
my soul is Jesus. He is all that thrills my soul.
He really is. He's all that thrills my soul.
And the fairest of 10,000 in my blessed Lord I see, that person
becomes a bond slave, a lover of Jesus Christ. He lives, he
believes, and he loves. That's where we differ. We differ
as to what happens in a sinner's heart when God saves him. Wherein
do we differ? We differ as to the content of
the gospel. We differ as to the content of
the gospel. Now, turn to Romans chapter 1
for a moment. Paul says in verse 16, For I
am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it, the gospel,
is the power of God unto salvation. to everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek. I'm not ashamed of the
gospel. Now, the gospel is the power
of God into salvation. And if the gospel is not preached,
if it's simply preached about, if it's not preached, no life comes from that. What
I thought of, what is one of the big political footballs and
controversies of our day? Same-sex marriages. It's in the
paper all the time. Same-sex marriage. Are they okay?
Are they not okay? Well, I know this. A false gospel
is like a same-sex marriage. No life comes from it. None at
all. It can't produce life. Paul said,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it, the gospel, is the power
of God unto salvation. No life comes from a works message. If you put works in it, in the
beginning, in the middle, or the end, no life. Now you put
works in the message in the beginning when you make man's will, the
initial cause. There's no life in that message.
No one's born again. No one's saved. No one's brought
to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. No one becomes
a lover of Christ. No one becomes an out and out
disciple of Christ by that message. If you put works in the middle
of salvation, if somehow during your experience you improve yourself
and you become better by your works and you become more and
more holy and less and less sinful through your works, that's a
message of salvation by works. No life in that message. If you
put works at the end of salvation, if you make it to where you can
earn a higher reward in heaven by the things you do, no life
comes out of that message. That's a message of salvation
by works. And where works is, there is no life. The gospel, the content of the
gospel is a declaration of what took place in eternity. Everything. It's a declaration of what took
place In the garden, men became dead in sins, subject to the
judgment of God, unable to save themselves. The gospel is a declaration
of what took place on Calvary's tree. Christ saved his people
from their sins. That's what took place. Remember
in Matthew 1.21, Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sins. Well, that's what He did. He
saved His people from their sins. The preaching of the gospel is
telling what happens in a sinner's heart when God saves him. He's
given a new heart. He's made a new creature in Christ
Jesus. He's something that he was not
before. He's now an out and out disciple
and follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. He really believes that
Jesus Christ is all in all. God does something for that person.
The gospel's not a plan. God's plan for you, it's a person.
It's not an offer. It's a command. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's the command
of God. Now, we differ from this religious
age. We differ. There's no point in
acting like we don't. No point in trying to. We do
differ from this religious age. We differ from these churches
and so on. There's a huge difference. Now, you know what I say about
that? I want to say what Moses said to his father-in-law. Listen
to this scripture. I'm quoting this from Numbers
chapter 11. He said to his father-in-law, we are journeying to the place
which the Lord said, I will give it you. Come with us. We will do thee
good. For the Lord hath spoken good
concerning Israel. Come with us. I'm not going to,
I'm not going to say, trying to make some kind of, the gospel
is not something to keep people away. When I'm talking about
these differences, that's not talking about trying to keep
people away. I want people to come in. Come in. Come with us. We'll do thee good. This is the Gospel. Yes, it's
different from human religion. I'll tell you what, I hate human
religion. I despise it. I hate man-made denominations
and all the trappings of human religion. I have no love for
it at all. I despise it. It's evil. And I don't want to
make any claim of having any affinity with it at all. I don't.
There is a difference. We know who made the difference.
The Lord made the difference. But we differ. Am I saying I
want you to stay away? Don't be part of my club? No.
Come on in. Come and welcome to the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is who he is. And this is who we rejoice in.
That is the difference. Let's pray together.