If you want to open your Bibles
again to the Book of Acts, chapter 28, it says in verse 24, and
some believe, And some believe. Our Lord said,
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth
on the Son of God hath life, and some believe. Consequently,
we're saved. They believe the things which
were spoken. But here's the sad commentary,
and some believe not. And some believe not. Now, let's
establish Paul's audience, first of all. Paul's audience on this
occasion was made up of religious men. Yes sir, the people of whom
it said here some believed and some didn't believe were religious
people. Paul described them in Romans
chapter 10 as having a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. In other words, these men, Paul
is the apostle, Paul is the preacher. We know he's sent of God, we
know that. We know that God raised him up
to be an apostle and a minister of the gospel to the Gentiles,
that God used Paul to write most of the New Testament. We know
who's speaking, and the people to whom he's speaking here are
religious people. They're people like ourselves
who believed in God. Now these men, the chief Jews,
were not what you would call infidels, that is, who didn't
believe in God. These men believed in God. And
I'll go one step farther. These men believed the Bible
was God's Word. I didn't say they believed the
Bible. I said they believed it was God's
Word. I hear people say, well, I believe the Bible, but I'm
not saved. You don't believe it. You may
believe it's God's Word, James, you may believe it says to you,
but you don't believe it, because if you believe the record God
has given concerning his Son, you're suffering. You see what
I'm saying? If you believe the Bible. So
the next time somebody says to you, well, I believe the Bible.
Well, are you a redeemed person? Are you a child of God? Well,
no, but I believe it. You don't believe the Bible. You don't
believe the Bible. If you believe the word of God.
Christ said, had you believed Moses, you'd believe me, Moses
wrote it. Hey, you don't believe Moses.
That's why he accused him. He said, you don't believe Moses.
That is, you don't believe the word of God. That's what he said
to them. You do not believe God's word. You believe it, that the
Bible is God's word, but you don't believe it. That's the
difference. These people here, to whom he
was speaking, believed in God. They believed God is. They believed that the Bible
is his revelation. They believed in the moral law.
These were moral men. These weren't a bunch of rabble-rousers
and drunks. and terrorists and so forth. These were honorable men to whom
he was speaking. They were men who were concerned
about the law. One of them asked our Lord one
time, he said, Master, which is the greatest law? Which is
the greatest law? He was concerned about which
one was most important. And these men, if we were living
today, we would have said to them, they went to church on
Sunday. They went to church on Sunday. Now brethren, I believe
in going to church on Sunday. I really do. I believe that the
place to be on the Lord's day is in the presence of the Lord,
worshiping the Lord. You can be the most faithful
attender to the services of the Church and perish in your sins. These men kept the Sabbath days
and the holy days and the special days. They were men who were
dedicated and devoted to the traditions of their religion
and to the ceremonies of their religion. They were devoted,
consecrated to those things. But these men, the apostle knew
that these men did, in spite of all their theology, in spite
of all of their understanding of the, of uh, of scriptural
facts, in spite of their orthodoxy, in spite of their morality, in
spite of their enthusiasm for religion and morality, these
men did not know God. Now Christ said as much. He said,
you know, you neither know the Father nor me. You don't know
God. They said, God's our Father.
He said, the devil's your father. The devil's your father. In other
words, my friend, you can be here this morning. Now listen
to me carefully. You can be sitting right here
with all of the other people in this congregation and give
mental agreement and assent to facts regarding spiritual matters
and not know God. In other words, you can believe,
as I have believed all my life, that there's a God. Haven't you
believed that all your life? There's a God. I haven't. The
heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament showeth His
handiwork. God is understood or known by
the things that are made. My conscience bears witness to
the law and the presence of God. I believe that Jesus Christ came
into the world, and that he died on a cross, was buried, and rose
again. There's so many evidences of
that fact. I believe this Bible, I believe
the moral law is a good law. I believe the Bible is a good
book, and its precepts and principles are precious and true, and you
believe those things. You believe in morality, and
God, and home, and country, and mother, and all of these things.
But the devil believes those things. That's what James says,
you believe there's one God, you do well. The devil believes
there's a God and trembles. And he not only believes there's
a God, he believes he's sovereign. The devil in theology is a Calvinist. He believes in ordination of
all things, because the demons said when Christ came into that
city, they said, had you come to torment us before our time.
That's orthodoxy. That's demon orthodoxy. But here's
where the devil comes short. He believes in God, that there
is a God, but he doesn't approve of the Lord God. He doesn't love
Him. He doesn't bow to Him. He doesn't
bow to Him. He resists. He rebels. See what I'm saying? The devil
believed Jesus Christ died on the cross. He did his best to
keep him from going there. He tried to get him to cast himself
off the temple, off the pinnacle, you remember? He tried to get
him to do anything but not to go to the cross. He believed
that Christ died on the cross, that he was buried, and that
he rose again, because he led the religious people to tell
the soldiers to lie about his resurrection. Don't tell anybody
he arose. We'll back you up in your lies. The devil believes those, but
he doesn't approve. You see what I'm saying? He doesn't
approve. He doesn't love those things. He doesn't approve of
them. And that's the way that most
religious people are today. You say, you hear a man preach,
and he preaches the Bible is God's word. He preaches that
God is sovereign. He preaches that Christ died
on the cross and was buried in Rome again and shed his blood.
He may preach those things, but not approve, not in his heart,
love. As one of our young men said
in the Sunday school class this morning, he doesn't love to be
saved by Christ. He doesn't love to be saved by
Christ. He doesn't give him his preeminence, and his glory, and
his place of honor. He doesn't bow to him. If thou
shalt confess with our mouth Jesus to be Lord, the devil's
never done that, and most men have never done that. And believe
in thy heart, God raised him from the dead, set thy approval
upon him, thy love upon him, to trust in him, to rest in him,
to embrace him, thou shalt be saved. But just a mental agreement
with these facts does not consist of salvation. Now this is a serious
charge. It's a serious charge to stand before people who have
preached in his name and done many wonderful works and cast
out demons in his name and say, you're not saved, you're not
a child of God. It's a serious charge and it's
not one to be taken lightly. How did Paul know so much about
it, Jay? He was with them. He was one of them. Like Ezekiel
said, he sat where they sat. And some of you this morning
sitting right here, you know what it means to be religious
but lost. Very religious and very lost. Some of you sitting right here
know what it means. Paul said, I was a Hebrew of
Hebrews. I was a Pharisee concerning the
law, I was brainless. He said, my mama was a Hebrew,
my daddy was a Hebrew. I'm not a half-breed, I'm full-blooded
Jew. And from my youth up, I've exceeded
many my equal. I've done more religiously, he
said, than all of you. But I count those things but
dawn, that I may win Christ and be found in him. Paul sat where
they sat. He knew from the scriptures that
no man knows God except in Christ. Christ said, No man cometh to
the Father but by me. The Apostle said, None of the
name given among men whereby we must be saved. No man knoweth
the Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal
him. Paul knew that redemption, wisdom, sanctification, righteousness
is all in Christ. And he knew these men were not
in Christ. They've never been brought to
embrace Christ, to approve of Christ, to love Christ, to enthrone
Christ. On the back of the bulletin this
morning is a letter that I wrote to a certain lady, and I think
you might read it. Two or three times, if you will.
I think some thought went into it. But she said, I realize salvation
is of the Lord, but I believe that something's expected of
me. And I told her, you're absolutely right, something is expected
of you. You're absolutely right. If what you say is so, something
is expected of you. You're expected to believe the
Word of God. And that doesn't mean just to
give mental agreement to it, that means embrace it. To believe
something is to act upon it. To act upon it. And you're to
receive Christ, consciously, intelligently, willingly, lovingly,
receive Christ. Receive him into your heart.
Bow to him. Submit to him. Submit. Barney
used to say, receive me. Submit! Submit! To the Son of God. Commit your
past, present, and future to Christ. Come to Christ as you
are. Let not conscience make you linger.
Don't fix yourself up for Christ. It's his blood that cleanses.
It's his grace that forgives. It's his righteousness that covers.
It's his love that forgives. You say, well, I'm going to become
a Christian someday. As soon as I get this straightened
out and that straightened out and the other straightened out,
why don't you just go on and do it all? And then when you
get to heaven, tell God you did it all and see how he responds
to that. Christ Jesus is the only Savior,
just as I am right now, without one place. God doesn't promise
you a tomorrow. I'm going to do so-and-so. You're
not going to do anything but die in your sins, except God
willing, huh? Right now, come to Christ. Confess
Christ publicly before your family and your friends. Follow Him
in believers' baptism. Worship Christ with other people
like yourself. Yes, there's something for you
to do. And that's the way Paul addressed these men. Here they
sat in their orthodoxy and theology, morality and knowledge and so
forth. They'd never set their love upon Christ, their approval.
Never embraced him. So three things here quickly.
The message he preached. He brought a message to them.
And secondly, where did he get that message? The material he
used. And thirdly, the results. Or
what was the message, look at it, verse 23. When they had appointed
a date. Alright, we have appointed a
date. We're here by the grace of God, by the providence of
God, we're here. I lay claim to the fact God sent
me to preach his word, I believe that. I believe that, I'm persuaded
of that. Some of you are too, you've called
me to be your pastor. Alright, you're here, it may
be you fit into that category. Well, here's the message that
Paul preached, and here's the message I'm preaching. When they
had appointed a date, there came many to him, into his lodging,
to whom he expounded and testified, the kingdom of God. The kingdom
of God. What is the kingdom of God? God
is a king, and God has a kingdom. Our Lord is a king. He has a
kingdom. What is the kingdom of God? This
is what Paul preached to them. Well, let me tell you the first
thing he told them. He told them that God's kingdom is a spiritual
kingdom. A spiritual kingdom. That is,
his kingdom is not of this world. It's not in the ceremonies and
the systems. It's not in the nations. It's
not in the earthly programs. His kingdom is not of this world.
Let me show you that. Turn to the book of John, chapter
18. His kingdom is not of this world. That's one of the first
things we've got to learn, that men are regenerated and born
into God's kingdom. It's not of this world. His kingdom
is not of this world. You don't get into the kingdom
of God by getting into a nation, because you're an American. or
getting into a denomination, or getting into a system of doctrine,
or getting into a ceremonial ritualism, or getting into anything
else. His kingdom is not of this world.
Look at John 18, verse 36. And Jesus answered, My kingdom
is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world,
my servants would fight. That I should not be delivered
to the Jews, but now is my kingdom not from hence. My kingdom is
not of this world. If our Lord's kingdom was of
this world, we'd, uh, and don't let me offend you, I'd put one
of those flags over there called a Christian flag there. Christ
is our banner. There ain't no such animal as
a Christian flag. Now this is a flag of the United
States of America. It is a nation of this world,
and that's all. When this world's ended, it's
ended. The United States of America consists of a government, state,
land, that's its banner. God's kingdom is not of this
world. It's not of this world. It's
a spiritual kingdom. And our Lord said, except a man
be born again, he can't enter into that kingdom. And what's
the second thing in Romans 14? His kingdom is not meat and drink.
Now, I know a lot of people put a lot of stock on what they call
the Old Testament dietary laws and so forth. And if you want to plan certain
ways to eat for your health's sake, that's your business, but
it's got nothing to do with your relationship with God. Nothing. A man's not defiled by what he
puts in his mouth, but what comes out of his heart, and a man's
not saved by what he puts in his mouth, but the condition
of his heart, his relationship with Christ. In Romans 14, verse
17, he says, "...the kingdom of God is not meat and drink."
No cow. It's not meat and drink. It's
righteousness. Whose righteousness stands? Christ's
righteousness. That's whose righteousness it
is. The kingdom of God is not meat and drink. It's not... And this thing has swept this
whole nation. It's organization. It's churches
banding together. Unification programs. keeping
certain days, wearing certain kind of clothes, black clothes,
or bald hats, or not having modern conveniences, or not eating meat
on Friday, or having a time of the year called Lent where you
abstain from something that you generally like during the year,
or burning candles, or going through certain rituals, the
kneeling, the crossing, all of this, or keeping religious pictures
and statues, None of this has anything to do with God's kingdom.
I don't like to be offensive, and I don't want to offend, but
this is what Paul preached to his people, his religious people,
he preached the kingdom of God. Because they thought that God's
kingdom was a Jewish kingdom. They thought God's kingdom was
a kingdom on the earth. They thought God's kingdom consisted
in their ceremonies, in their meets and drinks and fastings
and washings and abstaining from certain things and doing certain
things. They do these things that please God. If they don't
do them, they displease God. That God looks with favor upon
those who are in the right system, that he looks with disfavor upon
those who are not of the right system. Paul says his kingdom
is a spiritual kingdom. And his kingdom is not meat and
drink, but righteousness and peace. I wish there was some way. Our
Lord gave this illustration about the king that gave the great
peace. And he said they came from everywhere. And the king
came in. And there was a man sitting there
who had not on a wedding garment. He had provided his own dress. Now here's what somebody said,
and whether it's not so, and I don't think it is anyway. They
said when they had this kind of feast, or wedding feast, they
provided, the king provided the garments for the people. When
they came in, they received his garment, when they came into
his place. They put, the garment was put
upon them, and they all wore the garment provided by the king.
This fellow wore his own. And when the king came in, so
he had not on a wedding garment, he said, how did you get in here
without a wedding garment? The man was speechless. They
said, bind him hand and foot and cast him out of darkness.
Now what Christ is saying there is this, that God provides the
righteousness, the robe of righteousness for his people. He provides our
righteousness, he provides our sanctification, he provides our
holiness. We don't provide it. His kingdom
is not of this world. It is not in meat and drink. It is in righteousness. And that's
His obedience and His holiness and His righteousness. In other words, I don't gain
any credit with God by wearing a black suit instead of a white
one. I don't gain any credit with God by wearing my sleeves
long or short. I don't gain any credit with
God by wearing my hair long or short. I don't gain any merits
with God by doing without my favorite food on Friday. I don't gain any merits with
God by bending my knees six times instead of one time, or counting
Hail Mary's twelve times instead of no time. I don't gain any
favor or merit with God by the deeds of this flesh. His kingdom
is the righteous. All of my merit with God is Christ's
merit." You say, my soul preacher, you turn people loose to live
like they please. That's exactly what I'd like
to do. I'd love for every religious person to quit being a hypocrite
and live like he pleases. I wish you would. I wish if you
didn't want to be here, you'd stay home. I sure do. If you wanted to cuss, you'd
cuss. Go right ahead. That's what you want to do. Cut
loose. If you want to blaspheme God,
blaspheme Him, because in your heart you're already guilty of
it. You see, when the Lord Jesus
Christ redeems a people, when they fall in love with Christ,
He changes their pleas. He changes their want to. They
don't give because they have to, they give because they want
to. They're not honest because they have to be honest, they're
honest because they want to be honest. They don't tell the truth
because they have to, to keep from going to hell, they tell
the truth because they love the truth, you see what I'm saying?
They don't love their neighbor and forgive their neighbor because
the preacher told them they had to, or God would frown upon them.
They do it because they want to! God's kingdom is not meat and
drink. It's not the things of this earth.
It's righteousness! His righteousness, His holiness,
His love, His relationship. He's the King! It's the kingdom
of His dear Son. Look at 2 Peter. 2 Peter 1. Listen to verse 10 and 11. 2
Peter 1, verse 10 and 11. Wherefore, the rather, brethren,
give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you
do these things, you'll never fail. For so an inference shall
be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It's His kingdom. One of the men said last night
in the message, he said he read somewhere, some poll was taken
by somebody in which it was indicated 75% of the people have some kind
of hope or refuge for eternal life. 75% of the people. And most of this hope and these
refuges consist in outward deeds of religion. I'm convinced of
that, too. And Paul equates the kingdom
of God with these things. The kingdom of God is a spiritual
kingdom. We're born into it. We're citizens
of another kingdom. Our conversation is in heaven
from which we look for his Son. Conversation, somebody says,
is lifestyle. You see, God changed. When God
saves a man, and redeems him, when he brings him to know Christ,
and brings him in that person, man or woman, into a vital union
with Christ, I know we retain an old nature, and I know we
have conflicts with the old nature, and I know we have a battle with
an old nature, and I know the old nature remains, and must
be defeated and crucified daily, and that we are bathed in Christ,
and we grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but he gives us a new nature, a nature that loves him, loves
his Word, loves his people. loves the things of God, longs
to be like Christ, loves the means of His grace. And we do
not depend upon what we do and what we say for acceptance with
God or rejection by God. My daughter is my daughter, whom
I love. She loves me. When she does things
to please me, that's good. I love her. If she does something
that doesn't please me, I still love her. I still love her. Not going to disown her. Still
love her. Maybe love her a little more,
because I see myself in that. Huh? If you being evil know how
to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly
Father give good gifts to those who love Him, who ask Him? Huh? We've got this thing, I just,
it's getting tough to preach. Folks are so dumb on the Word
of God. They don't know beans of that God's Word. It's getting
hard to communicate. That's why it's getting hard
to communicate. Everybody out there, I preach to on TV, is
religious. They all love Jesus. They don't know who He is, but
they love Him. They just heard the name, you know. He said He'd
take them to heaven, and they love Him. They all believe the Bible.
Yes, sir, I preach. I believe the Bible. Don't know
beans about what it says, but they believe it. They go into
heaven when they die. I wish we knew. The kingdom of
God is a spiritual kingdom. It is not meat and drink. It
is righteousness and peace. And that in the heart, in the
heart, peace with God. And it's the kingdom of God's
dear Son. Listen, go on a little further. And Paul preached to
them and persuaded them. And brother, let me tell you
something. Young, you preachers here this morning, he didn't
just stand up and give them some facts and say, well, I've told you
the truth and walk out. He loved them. He wept over them. He persuaded
them. He just didn't want to let them
go to hell. He said, My heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. He said,
I could wish myself a curse from Christ for my brethren. He persuaded
them, Richard. I persuade men. I persuade men. I won't let them go. I won't
let them go. And then he says he persuaded
them concerning Jesus Christ. Now, brethren, the Bible says
in Romans chapter 1 that the gospel of God is concerning Jesus
Christ. It's concerning who he is, not just who he is now, but who
he always holds to him. He always has been God. He is
God. I am. It's concerning His birth,
supernatural incarnation, God in the flesh. It's concerning
His life, perfect, holy, His work, the redemptive work, His
death, substitutionary, His resurrection, His ascension. His intercession,
His glory, His mediatorial work, it's concerning His Son. And
it's concerning why He came into this world. Why did Christ come
into this world? Christ didn't come down here
to make an effort to do anything. He came to save His people from
their sins. He came on a mission that His
Father sent Him to accomplish. He said, My Father, that I come
to do My Father's will, not My will, but the will of Him that
sent Me. And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that of
all He had given Me, I lose nothing but raise it up at the last day.
Why did He come? That the justice of God might
be satisfied, that the righteousness of God might be fulfilled in
Him. He accomplished what He came
to do. And Paul, you see what he did? He stood before these
men. And he told them about the kingdom of God, the true kingdom
of God. It's not in your works and your
ways. It's not in your systems and
your doctrines. The kingdom of God's a spiritual
kingdom. It's in men's hearts. We're born
into the kingdom of God. It's concerning His... It's the
kingdom of His dear Son, and the Gospel's concerning His Son.
Now the material, quickly, where did Paul get his material? Read
the next line. And he persuaded them and he
expounded and testified the kingdom of God and concerning Jesus out
of the law of Moses and out of the prophets. Modern day preachers, especially
the Pentecostal and holiness people and the free world people
who refer to the Old Testament as the Old Bible. And they say
we're New Testament Christians. Now listen to me, I wouldn't
offend you, but I would try to get you to think. When Paul preached,
what you call the Old Bible is all he had. I," writes Cecil,
that's all he had. Because the New Testament, he
wrote the New Testament, the Holy Spirit, because God breathed,
God inspired, he wrote it, God gave him understanding. But he
preached the kingdom of God and he preached Christ from what
you say is discarded. Preached it out of the Old Testament.
You see, the Bible is not two books, it's one book. It's not
two Bibles, one Bible, Old Covenant and New Covenant, Old Testament
and New Testament. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
message of both. Moses wrote of me, Christ said,
Genesis through Deuteronomy. He said David wrote of me. David
said, it wrote concerning Christ, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit
thou on my right hand. Isaiah wrote of me, Christ said.
Jonah, if he was three days and three nights in the belly of
the fish, so shall the Son of Man. If Moses lifted up the serpent
and the widow, that rock was Christ. Christ is our Passover.
You see, in the Old Testament, the subject of the whole Bible
is Christ. The subject of the whole... I'll
turn to Acts 2, verse 25. Let me show you something here. Acts 2, 25. This one I was talking
about a while ago. You see, David spake concerning
him. You see that? David spake concerning
him, Acts 2.25, concerning Christ. Turn to Acts chapter 10, listen
to this, Acts 10.43, Acts 10.43, to him give all the prophets
witness. You see that? To him give all
the prophets witness. Who are the prophets? Nehemiah,
Jeremiah, Habakkuk, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Elijah, Elisha, they're all told
about Christ. If you take the whole Bible,
Old and New Testament, and just compress it down until you get
one single word, just compress it, get the substance, and the
essence, and the heart, and the life of the whole Bible, it's
correct! That's what it's all about. And you see in the Old
Testament, He's presented in threefold ways, in prophecy,
Genesis 3.15, the seed of woman, Genesis 12, God said, Abraham,
I bless the world through you and your seed. That's Christ.
Genesis 49, when the old man said, the scepter shall not depart
from Judah till Shiloh comes. That's Christ, Jesus said so.
Christ, Shiloh. Isaiah 7.14, behold, the Lord
himself will give you a sign, a virgin shall be with child.
That's Christ. Isaiah 9, 6, under us a child
is born, a son is given, the mighty God, the everlasting Father,
that's Christ. Isaiah 53, he shall grow up as
a root out of dry ground, that's Christ. Wounded by transgression. Malachi said, you'll be born
in Bethlehem, that's Christ. Prophecy. Now, types in the Old
Testament are either typical or relative. Personal or relative? Personal. How are types personal? Melchizedek is a personal type
of Christ. Without the priest, Melchizedek,
you remember? Without father, mother, and so
forth. Adam. Adam is a type of Christ. The
first man, the second man. As in Adam we died, so in Christ
we made a life. Adam was a representative man,
John. We stood in him. Christ is a representative man.
We stand in him. Adam was a federal head, so is Christ. You go on
through. Isaac is a type of Christ. Moses
is a type of Christ. He's the prophet. Aaron is a
type of Christ. The priest. Every high priest
is a type of Christ. That's personal. All right? Relative. The ark is a type of Christ.
It relates to Christ. The ark, in which Moses was saved
from the judgment. The rock, when Moses smoked the
rock. That's a... That's relative to Christ. It
relates to Christ. The Passover, when you put the
blood on the door, this is what Paul's telling these religious
fellas. He's saying, fellas, come on now, the kingdom of God
is not meat and drink, it's righteousness. The kingdom of God is not of
this world. You go and build your temples, God's going to
tear them down. You go and establish all of these institutions and
organizations and systems and all these things. They're nothing!
The kingdom of God has not had this will! And you go on regimenting people
and ordering people and organizing people. God's kingdom is a right
kingdom. It's the righteousness of Christ. And it's not your kingdom, it's
his dear son's kingdom. And it's concerning Christ. And
he went back through the Old Testament out of Moses and the
prophet and preached Christ. The city is a refuge of Christ,
relative to Christ. God didn't establish those cities
of refuge just to show off his power or something like that.
He established those cities of refuge so that a sinner who was
guilty could flee to Christ and the avenger couldn't touch him.
That's what he was saying. And then the ceremonies. There's
a third way in the Old Testament. Christ is pictured threefold,
prophecy, type, and ceremony. Look at the tabernacle. That
incense burning in there before the veil, that's the prayers
of Christ, intercession of Christ. That table of showbread and the
ceremony. When the priest went under the
veil to take the blood into the Holy of Holies, that Christ went
into, not the place made with hands, but into heaven itself,
now to appear in the presence of God and offer not the blood
of animals, but his own blood. over the mercy seat. Yeah, there
was that mercy seat. It wasn't very big, about this
long, about that wide, about that high. But it was overlaid
with gold. That was the art. The mercy seat
was overlaid with gold. And that priest would go in there
and put the blood on that mercy seat. In that art was the broken
law, the tables of law that were broken. And they were in that
art. And when that blood of that animal
sacrifice was poured over that mercy seat, That blood of that
animal couldn't forgive sin. A sheep can't die for a man. The blood of an animal has no
effectual delivering power. What that blood was saying is
the Lamb of God's coming, the Lamb of God's going to die, the
Lamb of God's going to shed his blood, the Lamb of God's going
to cover our sin, the Lamb of God's going to cleanse us from
all sin. And God saw that blood, it was a picture, it was ceremonial,
and that's what But Paul said to these fellows, gentlemen,
and this is the same thing with baptism. I hear these Church
of Christ fellows saying, if you don't, you make your profession
and you get baptized and that saves you, you get into the kingdom
of God by baptism. It ain't so, no word to it in
it. Baptism water can't wash away sin anymore than animal
blood can put away sin. It's a picture. Him who died
was buried and rose again. The Catholics line people up
and dip those little wafers in wine and slap it on the extended
tongue. You might as well slap a donut
on that. I'd rather have a donut, it's
sweeter. That's right, I'm not being smart, I'm just trying
to get you to get away from this ceremonialism and form and outward
show of religion and look to Christ in your heart. and embrace
him and love him and approve of him and receive him and submit
to him and trust him, you'll go to hell with a wafer on your
lips and your tongue. And don't say I didn't tell you.
Paul said, I warned you day and night with tears. You go on in
your regimentation and orthodoxy and systematic theology and baptisms
and washings and abstinences and laws and rules, you've ruled
people right out of God's kingdom. And it's tiresome, it's wearisome. It's wearisome. Those things
are pictures. We preach Christ to them. Well,
what was the result? And I'll quit. Verse 24 said,
Some believed him. Some believed him. What did they
believe? They believe the things that
were spoken. They believe the word of God.
That's what I want. I don't want you to believe me.
I don't want you following me. I want you to believe his word.
Be like the Berean. Search the scriptures to see
if these things are so. You receive this not as my word,
but as it is the word of God. Now, I've read to you how the
scriptures And they believed God's Word. They believed their
sin and their need. They believed God's remedy was
Christ. And they believed the record God had given of His Son.
How did they believe? They believed in their hearts.
For that's where a man believes, isn't it? Why did they believe? That's a good question, isn't
it? It's just some believed and some didn't. Why? Well, let's
see. It wasn't the preacher, because
they all heard the same preacher, didn't they, Joseph? So it wasn't
the preacher. They all heard Paul. Some believed him, some
didn't. They all heard, alright, it wasn't a sermon. John, they
heard the same sermon. Huh? That's right. They heard
the same sermon. Well, it wasn't their goodness,
because all had seen him, and come short of God's glory. They
had all seen him. There wasn't a good man there.
None good, no, not one. It wasn't their merit. But it
must have been God's will that did it. Huh? That's what it must
have been. It must have been God did something
for us. Some of them believed. God opened their hearts. Because
Paul said about them when he closed, he said, Isaiah talked
about you fellas. In verse 26, he said, Isaiah
talked about you, he said, go to the people that are hearing
and say, hearing you shall hear and not understand, seeing you
shall see and not perceive. In other words, people who listen
to us preach, they hear our words, but they don't understand the
meaning. That's the problem. They hear
you say, Christ is the fulfillment of the law. Christ is the fulfillment
of all that God requires. Christ satisfies God's justice. Christ is the fulfillment of
the prophecy and the ceremony. Do you hear those words? Do you
hear them? Do you understand them? You see God's wisdom in this,
God's righteousness in this? Do you approve of them? So as
you can say, I believe. Well, now that's salvation, as
I understand it. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath life. As I understand it, that's the
way a man's saved. He's saved by believing. He's
saved by believing. As one of our young men said
last night, the people were bitten in the wilderness. They were
dying and Moses lifted up the cell phone and he said, And those
who look live. And today I lift up Christ and
I say, look. Look. It doesn't require anything
of you except one thing. Look. One thing. Believe. One thing. Trust. One thing. Make Christ your Lord. That's the only thing. Just look
to Him. And you'll find in Him all you need. His life flows.
The people are healed when they look to Christ. Let's pray. Now Father, make this message effectual to
my heart. I will tremble when we think
of being religious but lost. I will tremble when we think
about the table becoming a snare, and all of these ceremonies a
stumbling block. and us busy, busy, busy about
the business of God and never knowing the grace of God. Reveal to our hearts the things
that Paul has written to us and spoken to us by the authority
and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Help us to see and understand
and approve our, the kingdom of Christ, and the things concerning
the Lord Jesus, to embrace Him and believe on Him. For it's
in His precious name we pray, Amen.