Today we're looking at Acts chapter
17, and I want to try to bring the message from verse 5, 6,
7, and 8. In Acts chapter 17, I'm taking
the title for the message from what is said in verse 7. All
these, these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, that
is, Jason and the brethren. And, of course, referring in
that to the Apostle Paul, Timothy, and Silas, they're doing things
contrary to the decrees of Caesar. He was a king in Rome, the emperor
of Rome, saying that there is another king. and he is the Lord
Jesus Christ. That is the one who is King of
kings and Lord of lords. Now, what these men who were
called the base fellows, lewd fellows, who caused this riot
in this city, what they said of these men was meant to be
a mockery and a derision. But what they said is absolutely
true. The Lord Jesus Christ IS KING
OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. HE IS EVERY MAN'S KING, WHETHER
THEY KNOW IT OR NOT. HE IS EVERY MAN'S LORD AND GOD. IN REVELATION 19, 16, THESE WORDS
ARE WRITTEN, AND HE HATH ON HIS VESTURE AND ON HIS THIGH A NAME
WRITTEN, KING OF KINGS. and Lord of lords." And that's
speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is King and God of all the
earth. In Isaiah 45, remember these
words, there is no God else beside me, a just God and Savior. There
is none beside me. Look unto me and be saved all
the ends of the earth for I am God. I am the King, I am God,
your Savior, and there is none else. What's true of the Father
is true of the Son. As God is King, so is the Lord
Jesus Christ. For he said, I am my Father,
we are one. NOW PAUL AND SILAS AND TIMOTHY
HAD BEEN WITH THESE PEOPLE THERE IN THESSALONICA FOR THREE WEEKS,
AS IT SAYS THERE, PREACHING THE GOSPEL, REASONING WITH THEM OUT
OF THE SCRIPTURE, TEACHING AND PREACHING THE SOVEREIGNTY OF
THE LORD. NO WONDER THEY SAID THAT THEY'RE
PREACHING THE KINGSHIP OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. THERE WERE
MANY IN THAT CITY THAT WERE GRANTED FAITH AND GIVEN REPENTANCE. to
embrace the Lord Jesus Christ as all of their salvation. Notice verse 4 of Acts 17. The devout Greeks, there was
a great multitude of Gentiles and of the chief women, not a
few but many women like Lydia, whose heart God opened, were
given faith to believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. What
a miracle of mercy that the Lord would save one sinner, yet alone,
multitude of sinners like on the day when Peter preached on
Pentecost 3,000 souls were added and then on another occasion
4,000 souls were added it's great mercy that the Lord would save
one sinner and it would take the same sacrifice to save one
sinner but the Lord determined to save a multitude of sinners
that no man could number now why would he do that why would
he do that I tell you why for his own glory, for his own glory. That's the bottom line, and all
that God does in this grand scheme of redemption is the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Many were given faith to believe
the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ is a miracle.
We believe only according to the working of His mighty power. You remember back in Acts 13,
48, where Paul says, as many as were ordained to eternal life,
that's who believes the gospel. Paul, when he writes to those
in Thessalonica, says that they heard the word, he said, knowing
brethren your election of God, for you heard the word, not in
word only, BUT IN THE POWER OF GOD, THE HOLY SPIRIT. THE GOSPEL
CAME UNTO YOU NOT IN WORD ONLY, BUT IN THE POWER OF GOD. NOW
THAT'S WHEN GOD EFFECTIVELY CALLS OUT HIS PEOPLE, WHEN THEY HEAR,
NOT JUST WITH THIS EAR, BUT WITH THE HEART THAT'S OPEN, THE UNDERSTANDING,
AND THE WILL IS MADE WILLING IN THE DAY OF HIS POWER. VERSE
5, THERE WERE MANY THAT BELIEVED THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD JESUS
CHRIST, BUT THESE SELF-RIGHTEOUS Instead of hearing and believing
the gospel, they rejected it. They were moved with envy. Jealousy
is a great motivator, is it not? They were moved with jealousy,
and they took them to them. They hired these lewd fellows
and these base fellows, and they gathered a great company, and
they put the whole city in an uproar. much like we see going
on today in some of our cities, where they've hired these lewd
fellows of the baser sort, and they've set the whole city in
an uproar, and they assaulted the house of this believer, Jason,
and they sought to bring out the apostles to the people. And
when they didn't find them, they drew Jason out, and certain of
the other brethren, and brought them to the magistrate, the rulers
of the city, crying, these that have turned the world upside
down, they're in our midst. Some were given salvation by
the will and purpose of God. Others were left to their own
wicked will and hardened in their rebellion against God. Who makes
us to differ? GRACE WAS GIVEN TO SOME, OTHERS
WERE LEFT TO THEIR OWN WICKED HEART. THESE MOST RELIGIOUS JEWS
HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF HEARING THE GOSPEL CONCERNING THE LORD
JESUS CHRIST, AND THEY WOULD NOT HAVE THE WAY OF GRACE. REMEMBER
WHEN PHILATES SAID, BEHOLD YOUR KING? REMEMBER WHAT THEY SAID?
SAME JEWS. And what they said, we have no
king but Caesar. Away with him. Crucify him. We don't want anything to do
with him. So they went about because of
unbelief and hardness of heart and rebellion against God, they
went about to destroy the ministry of the Apostle Paul and to put
an end to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I thought about
this. Saul of Tarsus one day was exactly with that base crowd
who wanted nothing to do with the gospel of God, was he not?
Until he met the king on the road to Damascus and God took
him off his horse, put him in the dust and said, I am the king
who you crucify or who you rebel against. Remember what Saul of
Tarsus said, Lord, What would you have me to do?" He met the
king and bowed to the king. He says by his own words in Acts
22, I persecuted this way unto death, binding and delivering
into prison both men and women. And when they stoned Stephen
to death, Saul of Tarsus stood right there and he said, Bella,
let me hold your coat so you can get a good aim with those
rocks. And they stoned Stephen to death
and Saul of Tarsus stood right there and said, amen. This is man's natural response
to the gospel of the true grace of God. Now, I'm not saying that's
man's response to religion. Work's religion and man's religion
is popular. It's popular, just look today,
everywhere it's popular. But I'm talking about man's natural
response to the gospel of the true grace of God and the sovereign
lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ. Man's natural response is not
one of submission, unless God breaks him and makes him submit,
it's one of rebellion against God. The carnal mind is enmity
against God. It's not subject to the law of
God. Neither, indeed, can be. The natural man receiveth not
the things of God. They set the whole city in uproar. because there was no fear of
God before their eyes. As it says in Romans chapter
three, there is none righteous, no, not one. There's none that
understands. They've all gone out of the way. Their feet is swift to shed blood,
destruction and misery in their way. There's no fear of God before
them. That's natural man left to himself. And that's all of us, unless
God does something for us. They viciously attacked the household
of Jason, trying to find the preachers of the gospel who were
probably staying in his house. What do you think they would
have done to them if Paul and Silas and Timothy would have
been found in that house and would have brought them out?
What do you think they would have done to them exactly what they
did to Stephen? They tied him to a wall or a
post and picked up the biggest rocks they could find and dashed
his brains out. How wicked we are before God. Now, with that introduction,
look at verse 6. And when they found them not,
they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city,
crying, These that have turned the world upside down, they come here also. THEY TURNED THE WORLD UPSIDE
DOWN. WHAT THEY SAID WAS AN ATTEMPT
TO DISGRACE THEM, BUT IN REALITY, IT WAS EXACTLY WHAT THE GOSPEL
OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS MEANT TO DO. THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD
JESUS CHRIST IS SET TO TURN THE WORLD UPSIDE DOWN, AND IT DID. GOD TURNED THE WORLD. Remember
how they turn to God from their idol? This is exactly what the
gospel is meant to do. And it's still the dynamite,
the power of God into salvation to everyone that believes. To
turn us upside down, inside out, and to make us new creatures
in Christ. That's what happens when God doesn't work in us.
He's done a work of grace for us, but he also is doing a work
of grace in us. Now, I thought about this, has
the gospel, has the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ turned
your world upside down and caused you to love things and love people
and love the gospel, those things you once hated? Has the Lord
Jesus Christ made you a new creature in Christ? Old things are passed
away and behold, all things have become new. You see, the way
up, is down, down before God in submission and obedient to
the Lordship of Christ. Every knee's gonna bow, every
tongue's gonna confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. We must be put
in the dust before God. We must be emptied of all goodness
before we're filled with His goodness, right? He must empty
us of self and then fill us As we say with the Apostle, we count
everything else lost, dung, and ruined, that we may win Christ
and be found in Him. We must be stripped naked before
God, found as guilty sinners before we're clothed with the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He turns us upside down. That's what he does when he does
a work of grace in us. We must be stripped before he
clothes us with the garments of salvation with a robe of righteousness
that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Lord our righteousness.
Where there is no conviction of sin, there is no forgiveness
of sin. He convicts us. He's nigh them
of a broken heart. Save us such as be of a contrite
spirit. We must be broken, convicted,
and wounded before we are healed with his stripes. And that's
what he does. He turns the world upside down. All of our thoughts about ourselves,
even all our thoughts about God left to our own carnal, sinful
mind, are completely and totally wrong. Wrong. I remember Brother Walter Groover,
there in Mexico, he passed out a test to the young preachers
there, and he told them, he said, we haven't been over this material
before. This is kind of a surprise test.
But when you read the question, just write down the opposite
of what you think, and you'll probably be right. You see, all
of our thoughts about God and self are totally wrong, totally
wrong. Listen to these words in Isaiah
55. Esau, let the wicked forsake his way, the unrighteous man
his thoughts. Let him return unto the Lord,
and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon. For my thoughts are not your
thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For
as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. You see,
all of our thoughts about ourself, we think too highly of ourself,
and we think too low of God. As someone used to say years
ago, we need a checkup from the neck up, because all of our thoughts
about ourself are wrong. WE THINK TOO MUCH OF OURSELVES
AND WE THINK TOO LOW OR LITTLE OF GOD. HE IS NOT WHO WE THINK
HE IS. HE'S WHO HE IS AS HE DECLARED
IN THE WORD OF GOD. IN PSALM 50 THE LORD SAID, THOU
THOUGHTEST I WAS ALTOGETHER SUCH A ONE AS THYSELF, BUT I WILL
REPROVE THEE AND SET THINGS IN ORDER BEFORE YOUR EYES. YOU THOUGHT
I WAS LIKE YOURSELF. GOD'S NOT LIKE US. HE'S HOLY. WE ARE SINFUL. I REMEMBER THIS
STORY TO MAKE THIS POINT ON THIS THOUGHT WHERE IT SAYS, I THOUGHT. I THOUGHT. ALL OF OUR THOUGHTS
ARE WRONG. YOU REMEMBER THE STORY IN SECOND
KING CHAPTER FIVE ABOUT NAAMAN, THE CAPTAIN OF THE SYRIAN ARMY.
NAAMAN WAS A LEPER. and he heard about a prophet
down in Israel by the name of Elisha. And the little servant
that was held captive in Tyria, let it be known that there was
a prophet in Israel, Elisha, that could heal you. Well, when
he heard about that, he skedaddled down there to see the king of
Israel. And when he went to the king, the king said, I can't
do anything for you. You need to go down there and
see the prophet of God. But when he came to Elisha's
house, Elisha wouldn't even come out to see him. Here's this great
king with this great pomp and all the gifts that he brought.
And we come to Elisha's house. Elisha hears all the commotion,
and he said, servant, he sent a servant out. And he told the
servant, when he found out about Naaman the leper, he told the
servant to tell Naaman, the great captain of Syria, go down in
the River Jordan and dip seven times, and you'll be healed.
And Naaman, Naaman, he went away, Ross, And then one of his servants
said, if he would have told you some great thing to do, you would
have done that. Why don't you just submit and
go down to Jordan and dip seven times and you'll be healed. And
here's what Naaman, here's what he did. He said, I thought, that's
our problem. I thought he would come out,
Elisha would come out, he would strike the place, call upon the
name of God and he'd heal me. LIFE YOU WOULD EVEN MEET WITH
HIM, HAD YOU GO DOWN IN JORDAN BY THE WORD OF THE SERVANT, FINALLY
KNAM AND WENT DOWN, DIPPED IN JORDAN SEVEN TIMES, AND GUESS
WHAT? HE WAS HEALED. YOU SEE, ALL OF OUR THOUGHTS
ARE WRONG. ALL OF OUR THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD,
OURSELF, ABOUT THE GOSPEL, HOW GOD SAVES SINNERS, IS WRONG.
ALMIGHTY GOD, HAS HE TURNED YOUR WORLD UPSIDE DOWN, YOUR THOUGHTS,
Right now, by the grace of God, your thoughts about him have
been revealed from the word of truth. If he's turned your thoughts
upside down, turned you upside down, your refuge no longer,
if he turned you upside down, no longer your refuge is a refuge
of lies, no longer it's a refuge of truth. Your righteousness
now no longer self-righteousness, but the Lord Jesus Christ is
my righteousness. This is what he's done if he's
turned your world upside down and saved you by the grace of
God. Your way of salvation no more by work, but rather by the
grace of God alone. Neither is there salvation in
any other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Your hope of redemption
no longer by the deeds of the law, but only with the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he does when he turns
our world upside down. We're redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ. He turned us from falsehood to
truth. He turned us from lie to the
truth of the word of God. He turned us away from tradition
and fable to the word of truth, God of truth. He said, you shall
know the truth and the truth will set you free. May God come
and turn us upside down, inside out and show us the gospel. Now here's the second point,
verse seven. These that turn the world upside down are come
here also. They disturb these religious
folks, God save some, and disturb many others, whom Jason hath
received. This man Jason received the gospel,
received the Lord Jesus Christ. But these men, they do contrary
to the decrees of Caesar, saying, saying, Oh, there's another king. There's another king. Now, we
know that there's just one king, one God, and that's the Lord
Jesus Christ. The apostles were accused of
not following the rules and decrees of King Caesar, but rather the
decrees of the king of kings, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
God our Savior. Now, I hope it can be said of
this ministry and this preacher that we're following the instruction
and the marching orders of the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He said to go into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature, he that believeth and
is baptized SHALL BE SAVED. HE THAT BELIEVES WHAT? THE GOSPEL
OF THE GRACE OF GOD, SOVEREIGN GRACE OF GOD, REVEALED IN CHRIST. THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD JESUS
CHRIST IS STILL THE POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION. TO ALL WHO
ARE BLESSED TO HEAR IT, TO ALL WHO ARE BLESSED TO BELIEVE IT,
I'M DETERMINED, I HOPE YOU ARE TOO, DETERMINED TO PREACH NOTHING
BUT THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST Determined to preach the Lord Jesus Christ
in his lordship that Peter said this same Jesus whom you crucified
He's both Lord and Christ Determined to preach his lordship sovereign
in salvation Determined to preach the Lord Jesus Christ and his
atonement for sin as all of our redemption before God as all
of our atonement before God He is king of kings THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, WHEN HE
WAS BORN, GOD INCARNATE AND HUMAN FLESH, YOU REMEMBER THE WISE
MEN SAID, WHAT DID THEY SAY? WHERE IS HE THAT IS BORN KING? THAT LITTLE INFANT, THAT LITTLE
BABY IN THAT MANGER, GOD ALMIGHTY, HE WAS KING WHEN HE GOT HERE,
HE DIDN'T BECOME KING, WHERE IS HE THAT'S BORN KING? HE CAME
AS KING, HE LIVED AS KING OF KINGS, He calmed the storm that
day, raised the dead, gave sight to the blind, opened deaf ears.
He said, the Lazarus, the dead man who'd been dead four days. Someone said, you don't want
to do anything, have anything to do with that grave. He'd been
in there four days, and his body is corrupting, and it decaying,
and there's such a bad odor, he stinks. And the Lord said,
open that grave up, roll the stone away, And he said, Lazarus,
come forth. And he that was dead came forth.
You see, he came as king. He lived as king. He demonstrated
himself to be king. And not only that, he died as
king. Wasn't Pilate right and put it
over? You know, they put the accusation of the crime over
the victim who was crucified. If you were a thief, it would
say, this man was a thief. Pilate wrote, this is the king
of the jews and they got upset don't say that say that he said
he was pilot said what i've written i've written he is the king of
the jews and he is he came as king lived as king died as king
he ascended the third day out of the grave as king he said
i'm he that liveth and was dead behold i'm alive forevermore
i have the keys of hell and death why he's the king He ascended to glory as a king
when he by himself purged our sin. He sat down on the right
hand of the throne of God. Why did he do that? The throne
of God, the right hand of the throne of God is a place of authority
and power. He is the king in his kingdom.
MY FRIEND, HE'S COMING BACK ONE DAY AS WHAT? KING. KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, EVERY TONGUE WILL CONFESS. HE'S KING. HE'S
KING IN CREATION, GOD THAT MADE THE WORLD AND ALL THINGS, SEEING
THAT HE'S LORD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH, AS WELL AS NOT IN TEMPLES
MADE WITH HANDS, IN VERSE 24, VERSE 17. HE'S KING IN CREATION
AND HE CREATED ALL THINGS BY THE WORD OF HIS POWER. HE'S KING
IN PROVIDENCE TOO, ISN'T HE? But what is providence? Those
things that unfold in time, they do so because God hath from the
beginning decreed all things in time. Of him and through him
and to him are all things. King in creation, king in providence,
king in salvation. What do I mean by that when he's
king? What do I mean by that when I
say he's king in salvation? THAT MEANS HE WILL HAVE MERCY
ON WHOM HE WILL. HE PRAYED, FATHER, YOU'VE GIVEN
ME POWER OVER ALL FLESH, THAT I SHOULD GIVE ETERNAL LIFE TO
AS MANY AS YOU HAVE GIVEN TO ME, KING AND SALVATION. IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS, HE'S SET
FORTH IN HIS KINGSHIP. IN PSALM 2, IT SAYS, I'VE SET
MY KING UPON MY HOLY HILL ZION. In Psalm 44, David said, thou
art my king, command deliverances for me. And then in Psalm 47,
it says, God is king of all the earth. DON'T YOU OWN THAT AND
RECOGNIZE THAT AND BOW TO THAT AND LOVE THAT IN YOUR HEART THAT
GOD IS KING, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS OUR KING. AND WHAT HE DOES
AND WHEN HE DOES IT AND EVERYTHING HE DOES IS RIGHT. IT IS GOOD
BECAUSE THE LORD IS GOOD. This religious world has never
met the King of King and Lord of Lord. It says right across
the page there, when the Apostle Paul went to that city of Athens,
they said, verse 18, the philosophers and Epicureans and the Stoics
said, what will this babbler say, or others some, he seemeth
to be a setter forth of strange gods. because he preached unto
them Jesus and the resurrection. This religious world has never
met the king. And when they meet the king of
king who was sovereign over all things and absolutely, they say,
this is a strange doctrine. This is a strange God. But this
is the God that the Lord Jesus Christ is king of heaven and
earth. This is the God with whom we
have to do. We have to deal with him. Neither is there any creature
that manifests in his sight. All things are naked and open
unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." This religious world, I'm saying,
has never met the King of kings and Lord of lords. They know
a lot about sweet Jesus who wants to encamp, who's tried to and
failed. They know a lot about, they say,
God loves everybody. We've been studying through the
book of Acts so far in Acts chapter 17. How many times have we read
that word L-O-V-E? How many times did the apostles
Peter or Paul or any other mention L-O-V-E in all their sermons
throughout the book of Acts? You know how many times? Zero. The word L-O-V-E is not in the
book of Acts. What did they preach? They preached
His Lordship. They preached that He is King.
They didn't say, God loves everybody and He wants to do His best for
you, but you won't let Him. Poor God. My friend, that's not
the king. That's not the way the king acts.
The king doesn't ask our permission. The king acts according to his
wisdom, his will, his power, his authority. They know a lot
about a doormat named Jesus, a fire escape named Jesus, a
co-pilot named Jesus. They've never met the king. And
when they do meet the king and the sovereignty of God in the
preaching of the gospel, they say things like, well, that's
not fair. That's not right. They've never
met the king. If they've ever met the king,
they bow to his authority. They bow to the claim of King
Jesus. They've never met him. in whose
hands we are, in whose judgment we must stand. We're going to
see this in Acts 17, verse 31, because God's appointed a day
in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man
whom he hath ordained. All judgments committed unto
the Son. The Father judgeth no man, but
committed all judgment to the King, the Lord Jesus Christ. May God give us grace in our
heart to receive this King by faith, to rest in Him as God
our Savior, as our King. And kiss the sun. Turn to Psalm
2. Let's quit and I'll finish the
message by looking at Psalm 2. I quoted a portion of this a
moment ago. In Psalm chapter 2, Psalm 2,
we put it that way. Psalm number 2, how about that? Why do the heathen rage, verse
1, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth
set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against
the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bands
asunder, and let us cast away their cords. He that sitteth
in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them
in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet I've
set my king upon my holy hills, and I will declare the decree. The Lord hath said unto me, thou
art my son. This day have I begotten thee.
Ask of me. And I shall give thee the heathen
for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth
for thy possession. For thou shalt break them with
a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel. Be wise now therefore, O you
kings. Be instructed, you judges of
the earth. Serve the Lord with fear. Rejoice with trembling. Now look
at verse 12. Kiss the son. Kiss the son. He's the king. lest he be angry,
and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. Do you know
him as your king, your lord? Bow and submit unto him as such,
and love him as such. I love his lordship, I love his
kingship.