Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: You know, that one of the most popular verses in the whole Bible. The reason it's popular cuz man, it's spells it out so simply. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Mether acknowledging it's because of the work of Jesus on the cross that we receive salvation.

Brett Meador: Romans 10 9 and 10. If you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. That's a pretty final and clear statement.

Guest (Male): In Acts chapter 24 we read of Paul preaching a powerful three-point sermon to Governor Felix that leaves him unwilling to take action. But as Pastor Brett Mether examines each point in depth, there's much we can learn from today's word, not only of the essential truths about sin and salvation, but the danger of delaying a decision for Christ when called to respond.

Brett Meador: Turn with me to Acts chapter 24. I'm going to introduce you to a character named Felix. Not Felix the cat, but actually Felix the rat is what I'm going to call this guy. Felix the rat. Who is this guy? Well, this Felix is pretty dastardly and he's kind of a minor Bible character, but it's an interesting thing. We're going to see here in in Acts chapter 24, Paul the Apostle is going to stand before Felix and his wife Drusilla and he's going to give a three-point sermon and we're going to get his three points. We don't have the the in between the points and what he shared about those points.

We just have the three points given, which I find interesting. But if you're wondering what Paul was talking about those three points, read the rest of Paul's writings. You'll kind of know probably what he was teaching. So we're going to take a look at that. It's Acts chapter 24 starting in verse 24. It says and after certain days when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled and answered, go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season, I will call for you.

What happens here? Paul is saying, I got a little sermon for you. And And Felix trembles at his sermon. This You might call this a bit of a fire and brimstone sermon. It's a sermon that deals with righteousness, with you know, temperance and also with judgment that's coming. This is one of those sort of fire and brimstone sermons and and he's trembling. The Greek word for that word tremble is interesting on which means to be thrown into fear and terrified, to shake involuntary from fear. That's this word And it's interesting that sometimes a sermon should probably do that from time to time.

I'm concerned that there's not a lot of preachers preaching those kind of sermons anymore. Why? Well, the big mantra today when you hear a pastor podcast, hey, let's just talk about what we're for, man. Let's only give the stuff that's positive. Well, that's not You might want to check into Jesus on that one. If you read Jesus's teachings, he got fiery a lot and pretty prickly and pointed because that's the right way to do it. I'd say Jesus was the best preacher that ever walked the earth. Would you agree with me? And we should probably use him as a model, not our own dumb ideas like not offending people.

If you preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, will people be offended? That's a promise of God's word. You can bank on it. But it doesn't mean you shouldn't preach the gospel. Paul is preaching one of those sermons of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come and I'd like to kind of do a deeper dive into those. And we know what Paul probably said cuz he wrote so much about righteousness, temperance, and the judgment to come. So let's take a look. Point number one of Paul, righteousness, and it speaks of yesterday's sins. Felix and Drusilla were sinners to say the least.

I'll show you that more as we get into it. But when it comes to this idea of righteousness, if you kind of know about this word, the word righteousness, it means rightness or you know, everything is pure, good, all together right, righteousness. Question for you. Are you in and of yourself able to be righteous? Is anyone on the planet other than Jesus in and of themselves able to be righteous? Nope. Bible's clear on this one. In fact, would you keep your finger here and go to Romans 3? This is where I think Paul maybe gives us the commentary on what he's talking about to to Felix and Drusilla because chapter three of Romans is all about this idea of righteousness.

And here's where he starts. I bet this is where he started with Felix if I could guess in this idea of Romans chapter three starting in verse 10. Romans three verse 10. He says there, as it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no not one. By the way, that's um Paul quoting from Psalm 14. So this is a a theme the Jews would have should have known about.

But that's the bad news. The bad news is man, no one's righteous, not even one person, nobody. And that includes all of us. However, he he goes on and gives sort of the answer if we fast forward to verse 19 of chapter three. He says now we know that what things so ever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law. But it goes on. He says that every mouth may be stopped and that all the world may become guilty before God. What's Paul saying? He says the law was given to shut everybody up.

You know, hey, that's not right of God. We We're good people. You know, I'm I'm a nice person. And God would say, oh well, have you kept my 613 laws of the Old Testament? And no one in the history of the world can say yes to that. No one was ever saved by keeping the law. That's what the Bible teaches. And so the law was meant to close people's mouths and also that last phrase and and all the world may be become guilty before God. Now you might say, well Brett, that's mean, God making everybody feel guilty.

No, that's part of his loving plan. Before you can be saved, you have to recognize your need and your problem. You have to recognize I'm a sinner and I am unrighteous. And it gets to that word repent, which means to change your mind that God is right and you're wrong, that your behavior has been sinful and God is right when he says there's no one righteous. And repentance is saying God, you're right. My sins are bad and wrong and contrary to you and admitting that. But check out. This is where it gets really beautiful. It says verse 20.

Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified. There's a doctrinal word just as if you'd never sinned, washed clean, perfectly justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifest or made known being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Verse 22, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. For there is no difference. Question, what separates the person that's under the law and doomed versus the person that's going to be justified and saved?

He says there's a group, there's people that will be justified without the law, not doing works of the law. But instead, it says it'll be manifest even the righteousness of God which is by going to church every Sunday? Tithing? Nope. Being kind to people? Nope. It says here which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that go to church every Sunday, tithe and offerings? Nope. Be nice to everybody? No. Unto all that believe is what it says here. For there is no difference. For verse 23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God being justified, doctrinal word again, freely by his grace through the redemption.

That's a doctrinal word. Means to be purchased back. We sold ourselves out to sin. He bought us back. That is in Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, another fancy doctrinal word which means to be the satisfaction of the penalty, the the required penalty payment that's due is satisfied. That's the word propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission. There's another doctrinal Do you get a sense that Romans is a little bit doctrinal? It is doctrine 101, man. The book of Romans is like the handbook. It's the you know, cliff notes of all theology of the Bible.

It's so rich. But right in this verse 24 and 25 there's already four major doctrinal themes that are talked about. So verse 25, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which goes to church every Sunday, tithe and offerings, nice to everybody? No. To those that justify of him which believeth in Jesus. You see, Paul just goes extra effort, energy put into this idea of what is righteousness?

Well, first thing is nobody's righteous, not even one. We've all sinned. We all fall short. We're toast except for one good thing. God loved us so much that he sent his son Jesus to die on the cross for the sins. He, the righteous one, his righteousness is then put upon us. It's It's another doctrinal word in the book of Romans called imputed righteousness. Imputed just means to superimpose over whatever's here to impute righteousness, our unrighteousness and filthiness. God says I'm going to cover that and impute my righteousness over you which will make you then righteous, not by your good deeds, not by your works of the flesh, but by believing in Jesus Christ.

That's how you're made righteousness. Now this idea is you know, he's the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Now there's a current trend that's horrifying to me because it's just false teaching and it's out there and it's becoming sort of popularized. Some of these guys out there saying, well you what are you going to do? You just say a prayer? In fact, I saw a guy on social media posted a a preacher that sounded really good, really cool preacher and big voice and you know, had everything going on except for what he was saying was what do you say?

Just say a prayer and believe in Jesus and become a Christian? He said no, you know, it's a walk. You got to walk with the Lord and it's a process. Is Is you becoming a Christian instead of going to hell and going to heaven? Is that a process? Well no, the Bible says if you repent, that means change your mind, then if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Trying to put works with faith is already a big mistake.

A lot of churches do this. Catholic church tends to do this pretty badly where you start to say, well if you go to mass and the Catholic church has kind of a horrifying history of this like indulgences. Remember where you used to have to pay money to try to you know, help your loved ones or yourself or whatever and by doing money and giving, that's one of the ways you'd get sort of out of purgatory or whatever. No. All that stuff, you're not saved by works. What's interesting to me is people try to confuse some of the things and they I can see why they confuse it because the Bible does teach we are to be about good works.

You and I as Christians, if you're a Christian, then man, there's going to be good works. It's got to be fruit of your salvation. It's not what saves you though. You can't add to the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. If it was, well you got to believe that Jesus died on the cross and to save your soul, you also have to do a b c and d. You're already off course. I love it. You know, the Bible talks about this even in the Old Testament, you know, this idea of imputed righteousness where it says come now, Isaiah 1:18, let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.

Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Now some of you say I've seen sheep wool and it's brown. Well, when I was in 4H as a kid, we had sheep and and in the sheep 4H one of the things that we would do before the fair is we get out the shampoo and just start shampooing up those Man, they are white as snow. When you It's an amazing thing when you start washing up the wool on a sheep and and that's the idea. That was one of the whitest things they had in Bible times as wool and snow to compare it to.

But imputed righteousness is about this, that righteousness that covers your sin. Now some of you might say, Brett, I don't know about this imagery of your sins are like red or scarlet. They shall be white as snow. How is that? Well, it's kind of interesting because the blood of Jesus is that which washes away our sins. We learn from the scriptures. Well, how does red turn red into white? I'm not sure I know the answer to that other than there's a great story and and this is a true thing. Back in the 1800s there was a parade going down the street in London and a father and his son were watching from their flat up there in in London looking down on the street.

You know, all the different groups went by, but when the Red Coat Army came by, they were marching with the drums and everything. And the father said, oh look how amazing those Red Coats look. And the son said, Daddy, those are white coats. And the dad looked at his seven-year-old son thinking, man, my my son doesn't even know colors yet. That's horrible. Son, those are red coats. Nope. No dad, they're they're white. Well, the dad got down at his kid's face, said, son, you see? And he looked out and he realized what had happened. You see, it was one of those old-fashioned windows that had a trim of stained glass around the perimeter.

His was actually was clear, but at low there was a red glass all the way around the perimeter of the window and the little boy was looking through the red glass to the Red Coats. And do you know what happens when you look at through a red lens into something that's red? What color is it? White. It's kind of a weird optical illusion. And I I heard that once and I thought, man, that's exactly what happens to you and me, the red sins. Though your sins be as scarlet, though they be red like crimson, they will be white as snow.

They will be white as wool. Why? Because the red blood of Christ covers us. This is what imputed righteousness is. So watch out for false teaching when it gets to be saved. You need to do more in addition to believing in Jesus Christ. Don't you think on those major scriptures where it says, okay, if you want to be saved, here's what you do. Like even in Romans three here, don't you think Paul would have said, oh yeah, you got to you know, believe in Jesus, but you also need to clean up your act and stop smoking and chewing and and stop doing alcohol and you know, meth and all that stuff.

Got to stop this and that He didn't do that all that. He didn't even talk about those lists. He said God's love is manifested in his son when he died on the cross and whoever believes You know, that one of the most popular verses in the whole Bible. The reason it's popular cuz it's man, it's spells it out so simply. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. Don't you think that's irresponsible if there's more to do than that?

Because that's a pretty final and clear statement. Whosoever believes in Jesus Christ will not perish but have everlasting life. I'd call that saved. Romans 10 9 and 10. If you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. It doesn't even say in those verses to believe and be baptized. Baptism, I got to say it again because I get a lot of heat and letters from this one from some of you that were raised in some liturgical churches. One of the things that churches wanted to do is have you baptized into their church.

That's not biblical. When you get baptized, you're being baptized into Christ and you're part of his church. The Bible says repent and be baptized. Well Brett, that's pretty clear. Yeah, but don't confuse what saves you. You're saved by what Jesus did on the cross, that Jesus said it is finished when he died on the cross. What's finished? The work of salvation to anyone that will believe. And then once you say I believe and express that and believe that, then out of obedience you'll go get baptized cuz that's part of being a Christian to go get baptized.

Don't misquote me. I've heard I had people say Brett says you don't have to get baptized. I didn't say that. To be saved, you don't have to be baptized. If you died on the battlefield and as you're gasping in your last breath and you say, Lord, forgive me for my sins and from your heart you repent and say I've sinned all my life and I accept you and I believe in your son Jesus and he dies, would he go to heaven or hell? The The Bible tells us that guy goes to heaven. Well Brett, he didn't get baptized.

Exactly. Neither did the thief on the cross that that very day would see Jesus in paradise. So be careful on this stuff. Sure, baptism is essential to a Christian. It's important to be obedient to God and do what his word says. And that's one of the good fruits you'll see cuz see those that teach that, you can't just say a prayer and you can't just be believing and stuff. They're the ones quoting James chapter two where they're saying, you know, faith without works is dead. And they act like it's a disagreement between Paul and James.

It's not a disagreement. Paul would agree with James because you know, what Paul said, should we continue in grace and let sin abound? He says God forbid. In other words, out of obedience to Christ, one of the things once you become a Christian, if you're saved, then you'll you the Lord will start to change your heart and change your actions and slow but sure you're going to start being a work in progress. And this is where it's so important to see that. Jesus taught this message too. Probably the biggest example of that was the sermon on the mount.

It's almost like Jesus said, okay, I gave you the law in the Old Testament, but I'm going to give you the sermon on the mount in the New Testament. And you know, I remember hearing an old guy once say, I just live by the sermon on the mount. And I And I thought, no, you don't. Because the whole point of the sermon on the mount is none of us can do it. It's impossible. Like And I think that's what Jesus meant to do. He started, you know, with Matthew 5:20 in the sermon on the this notion like this.

He said, for I say unto you, except your righteousness, Matthew 5:20, except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case or no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now what would the people think in those days? Well, you have to understand the Pharisees were known to be trying to keep the law as best as anybody on the planet. They went nuts trying to be holy and pure. They weren't cuz they failed like everybody else in the world, but they were the best the world had to offer.

They would like you know, I've told you before, they would sit at their dinner table and they'd take out their pepper and pour it on a table and they'd get nine pieces of pepper for us, one piece of pepper for God, nine pieces of pepper for us. And then they get out their spices of cumin and thyme and all that stuff and just divvy it up and give a tenth to the Lord, a tenth belongs to the That's how crazy level the Pharisees were at trying to be holy before God. So when Jesus says to the average ordinary people, he says, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you will in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

So the point is everybody think, well who's going to heaven then? And then he even upped the stakes. Maybe Maybe that's a hard one for you to relate to, this righteousness of the Pharisees. But how about this one? Jesus went on to say, you've heard that it's been said of old, prophets of the Old Testament, thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you, if you even look at a woman with lust in your heart, you've already committed adultery. And all the ladies are like, yep, that men are not going to heaven. But it goes on, ladies, and says Jesus said, you've heard it been said of old, thou shalt not kill.

But I say unto you, if you even have anger in your heart towards someone, you're already guilty of murder. Do you see how impossible the sermon on the mount is? And Jesus did that on purpose. Why? Well, I love to remind us and see if you all remember. Jesus gave this sermon on the mount that everybody would have said, who's going to heaven then? And then you you ask, well Jesus preached the sermon. Did he give the solution to the sermon? And the answer's no. He only preached this hardcore sermon about basically why you're not going to enter into the kingdom.

And Jesus didn't give the answer to the sermon on the mount. Why? Anybody remember? Because he is the answer to the sermon on the mount. Jesus knew that nobody in that group could do it nor could you or I. And so Jesus willingly with joy set before him endured the cross despising the shame. And what happened? Because of his work we get to enter in not by our righteousness cuz there is no righteousness within us. Paul made that really clear to us. But we enter into heaven because of his righteousness. You know, Jesus will be the answer to the sermon on the mount.

And by the way, Jesus is the answer for everything, for anything that you have need of. You can't add righteousness to the the righteousness that Christ imputes towards you. You can't add to that to be saved. Colossians 3 verses three through four, it says for you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye appear with him in glory. How are you going to appear in glory? Only with him at your side if you would. You can't just go by yourself and say, I've been heaven.

Hello, I'm here. And I it'd be like shut the door on you. But because Christ, you're hid And I love that language. Remember what we talked about from John 16:33? He said, these things I've spoken unto you that in me you might have peace. And he said, in the world you shall have tribulation. He said, but be of good cheer. It is I. I have overcome the world. It's the same deal because he overcame. We are in Christ. That's this idea of we're in Christ in God hidden with him. Same idea of Colossians here. And because of that we get to enter into heaven.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Mether drawing a great reminder from Paul's encounter with Felix and Drusilla that what the law could not do, God did by sending Christ his son. And there's more to come of this message titled A Sermon for Sinners next time on Today's Word. And stay right there as Pastor Brett will share some interesting stats about reading the Bible. But first, if you missed any portion of our time today, you'll find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com. Also, if you'd like to share your story of how these daily messages have had an impact on your life, just email us.

That email address is info at todayswordradio.com. Again, tell us your story by emailing to info at todayswordradio.com or you can go to our website which is todayswordradio.com. Well, Pastor Brett is with me now. You know, you recently read some stats about how often we read the Bible and how it determines how much of an impact it has on our lives. Brett, can you share that with us?

Brett Meador: Yeah, there was a huge study conducted a couple years ago by the Institute for Biblical Research and they studied the effect of reading the scriptures on somebody's life depending on how many days a week they read it. And what they found was that if someone reads their Bible only one day a week, it had almost no effect on their life at all. And that kind of surprised me. If somebody reads their Bible two or three days a week, you can see it, but the difference is negligible. But when someone crosses the threshold of reading their Bible at least four times a week, they found that that person is 228% more likely to share their faith with someone else, 407% more likely to memorize scripture, 59% less likely to view pornography, 30% less likely to struggle with loneliness, depression, anxiety.

And And see, here's the big thing that I think we see out of this is when the word and not the world becomes the majority of your week, then your life begins to change. And the power of the word is obvious when you open it and read it for yourself.

Guest (Male): Those stats about how often we read the Bible and the impact it has on our actions are really amazing. And it does indeed show the power of God's word to change us. Thank you for that encouragement, Brett. Well, for more information about Today's Word or Pastor Brett Mether, you can visit our website at todayswordradio.com. Well, next time Pastor Brett will share what we can learn from a confrontation the Apostle Paul had with the governor of Judea. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Mether is an outreach of Athe Creek Church in Westlin, Oregon.