11¹ø±Û		I'm "one of them" by Tom Sexton		2006-02-13		4388°Ç Á¶È¸
I’m “One of Them” By Rev. Tom Sexton Pastor, Gulf Coast Baptist Church, Cape Coral, Florida The story that is continued in Acts 24 begins in Acts 21. The apostle Paul, stirring up some things for the Lord, has been arrested and beaten. Over forty Jews have vowed to kill him. They will not eat or drink until he dies. What did the enemies of Paul think of him? “We have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes: “Who also hath gone about to profane the temple.”—Acts 24:5,6. “Then Paul, after that the governor had beckoned unto him to speak, answered, Forasmuch 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, neither raising up the people, neither in the synagogues, nor in the city: “Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me. “But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets: “And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. “And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.”—Vss. 10–16. My subject is “I’m ‘One of Them.’” Reading through the Bible, we find some exciting things. I think of the woman at the well. When the Lord saved her, she brought the whole city to see Christ. God had a great revival in Samaria. I think you would say, “She’s ‘one of them’!” Through the Bible, God says some people are “certain” people. They’re unusual, a little different. In John, chapter 9, a man got saved and got excited for the Lord. He rejoiced. He became “one of them.” The disciples became followers of Christ. Each was “one of them.” In Acts 3, a man was begging at the Gate Beautiful of the temple. When God saved him, he walked, leaped and praised God. We could point at him and say, “He is ‘one of them.’” I too am glad to be identified with that crowd. By the way, the Sword of the Lord is of that crowd. We want to be a little different. God says we are “a peculiar people” and ought to be a little peculiar, different from this world. The Bible says when people get saved, God changes their lives. When Paul took the Lord as his Saviour, he got excited and surrendered to serve God. So he was “one of them.” Follow with me and see what God says we ought to be. I. God Worshipers “But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers.”—Acts 24:14. I belong to that crowd of God worshipers. I got saved in an old-fashioned, Bible-believing, Gospel- preaching, independent Baptist church. I’m not ashamed to be identified as an independent Baptist. When we started Gulf Coast Baptist Church, we put on the sign Gulf Coast Baptist Church. I want people to know I’m “one of them,” that I belong to that crowd. I got saved at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Fort Myers, Florida and got a dose of the old-time religion in my heart. The night I got saved my brother preached on Andrew’s finding his own brother, Simon Peter, and bringing him to Christ. There are now thirty-two men in the ministry out of that church. I’m glad to be one of them. The pastor, Dick Riley, loves God and believes the Bible. He encouraged me in the Lord when I got saved and taught me many things. I needed a Bible, so I bought a Berkeley Edition of Good News for Modern Man, lime-green to match my lime-green leisure suit, which I bought at K-Mart. Dr. Bob Gray was to preach on a Monday and Tuesday night. I went to hear him. Dr. Bob Gray preached like a house afire! I sat there with my wife and grunted my heart out with my pastor. After the service my throat was so sore, I told my wife, “Tomorrow night I’m going to say ‘amen’ like some others.” I went back Tuesday night and sat right down front. Dr. Gray preached against every known sin of mankind: mixed bathing, smoking, drinking, dancing. Even thinking about them was a sin! It stirred my heart! I said, “Amen!” He preached a little further, and I got even more excited, and it came out: “Amen!” Some of those men were getting right with God! I jumped up in the pew, wearing my lime-green suit, and began waving my lime-green Bible and saying, “Amen! Glory to God! Brother, preach it!” Then I thought, I’ll never be able to go back to Emmanuel Baptist Church again! When he gave the invitation, I surrendered to do whatever God wanted me to do. That night I became “one of them.” I’ve never been, nor will I ever be, ashamed to be identified with the people who know how to worship God. We ought to do what the Lord Jesus said do in John 4:24—worship God “in spirit and in truth.” I like to preach when I know there are people present who are lost and on their way to Hell. When we started Gulf Coast Baptist Church, we decided to be a church that loves God and knows how to worship the Lord. I was preaching once on getting right with God, having a Christian home—“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church,” and, “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands”—and following the plan of God. A little ten-year-old boy said, “Amen! You’re helping us, preacher!” I thought, Praise God! Even he is “one of them”! Paul said, “After the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers.” I can remember when you could go to almost any independent Baptist church and hear folks “amen- ing” the preacher. I can remember when the choir sang and you could understand the words. When there were specials, you could understand the words. How people were blessed! Let’s get back to worshiping the Lord “in spirit and in truth.” Music should set the mood for the message. Good gospel singing, Spirit-filled music, will stir the hearts of people and prepare them for Spirit-filled preaching. “After the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers.” I’m glad to be identified with that. The Bible says that God inhabits the praise of His people. We use a little expression sometimes: “God showed up in the service.” People want to know, “What do you mean by that? I thought He was everywhere.” He is everywhere, but sometimes you don’t know He is there. Oh to be in a service where God seems to manifest His presence! The Bible says in I John 3:8, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” When you can sense God’s presence in a service, He is going to do something wonderful. The Bible says He inhabits the praise of His people. When we started a church, we wanted to get some who could sing. All kinds of folks were coming to visit who knew how to sing. One man, a missionary to southwest Florida, had been praying for years about starting a church. On loan to a missionary organization, he was doing the preliminary work to get a church planted. For five years he had been praying about it. One Sunday he and his wife showed up. They were like death warmed over! She wanted to play the organ. I said, “We don’t have one.” He said, “I’m an experienced song leader. I know how to get people to sing. You need to get an overhead projector and put the words on it. Don’t have people hold songbooks; just let them lift up their hearts and sing to God.” I said, “I don’t think that will do down here.” This missionary didn’t hang around very long. You know, when you start a church, every kind shows up. A guy came one Sunday with his shirt unbuttoned all the way down to his belt. He was wearing a cross with a crucified Christ. I thought, Here’s a good soul-wining opportunity. We’re going to win this old boy to the Lord! My wife and I went to see him and his wife. We were sitting in the living room trying to talk when he said, “Hold on a second.” He went back to the bedroom, opened the door and began to blast this music, like a rock concert. Then he started singing. I never heard anything like it in my life! He came out and asked, “What do you think?” ”That’s interesting,” I answered. He said, “I have another one.” I thought, What’s this guy doing? He went back, then came out and said, “What do you think of that?” I replied, “That’s interesting too.” I didn’t know what he was doing nor why. He asked, “Do I get the job?” “What job?” I asked. “I’m looking for a part-time job, and you need a song leader.” Can you imagine! But some will hire such people and put them in charge of the music programs! It’s so sad. Paul said, “After the way which they call heresy, so worship I God.” Let’s get the old “amen!” back in the house of God, “amen!” back in the worship service. Someone has said, “When Brother Amen and Sister Wet Eye show up, we’ll have revival again in America.” Learn how to worship the Lord. God inhabits the praise of His people. There is healing in His praise. There is holiness in His praise. A little lady who got saved a few weeks ago brought some of her family members and set them right down front and said to them, “You’re going to be in a service here.” (They had been Catholics all their lives.) “This is different from the Catholic Church,” she told them. She was excited! She went on to tell them, “This is different. This preacher tells it like it is. And that choir can sing! Then you will hear a quartet or a trio. It’s different from what you’ve been used to, but you’ll like it.” They liked it enough to get saved. They wanted to get in our church too! If you will get people in a worship service where God is lifted up and where the Bible is preached, God will do something. Amen! A good, old-fashioned, Bible-believing church will run the Devil off too. Have you ever been in a church service where God did something? Well, He wants to do something every time, not just some of the time. At our missions conference, forty-eight people got saved, many of them adults. Missionaries and some nationals came. One was a preacher from Mexico. He could speak just a little English. He learned how to say “no” in English. Then one preacher couldn’t hear. Both were scheduled on Monday night—a Mexican preacher who couldn’t speak a word of English and a deaf man! Talk about putting God to the test! I thought, We’re going to put Him to the test tonight. So many came. Several Spanish people were there. We had an interpreter. The Mexican preacher and his wife sang a beautiful song. I don’t know what it said, but it sounded beautiful. Then that Spanish-speaking preacher got hold of the pulpit, opened the Word of God and preached on “What Is That in Thine Hand?” We couldn’t understand a word he said, but someone was interpreting it in English. “What’s in your hand? God wants to get hold of you, wants your hand to serve Him.” Right in the middle of the message the interpreter said, “Time out! Time out! Oh, thank You, God! Oh, thank You, God!” The Mexican preacher was preaching his heart out. I thought, Man, we’re having a meeting! In twenty-five minutes it was over. I thought, We have to give an invitation since there are unsaved Spanish people here. So we gave an invitation, and many Spanish folk came forward and got saved. Some other folk came and got right. What a meeting! Then the deaf preacher was to preach. (Though he is deaf, he speaks.) He said, “God is not through.” Then he said, “I’m going to sign to the deaf; Brother Interpreter, come and interpret to the Spanish, since I will preach to the English speaking.” He turned back to the same text and read it again, then said, “I’m going to preach on ‘What’s in Your Other Hand?’” He began to tell us what is in your other hand. “God’s got one of them, but you’ve got two; He wants the other one.” Brother, before I knew it, I was up and in the aisle! I think twenty-four people were saved in that service. Some young people also surrendered to go to the mission field. Some moms and dads got right with God. In this service, God showed up. Among other things, the deaf preacher had said, “In that manner that some people call heresy, praise God, that’s the way we are to worship the Lord!” We ought not change our services so Catholics will feel comfortable. We ought not change our services so the contemporary Southern Baptists will feel comfortable. We ought to present an old- fashioned, loving God, preach the Gospel and sing praises to the Lord. I want to reach back and say, “Thank God, I’m ‘one of them’!” Amen! Dr. Curtis Hutson was with us in a Sword Conference just after he found out he had cancer. He was very ill, but I said, “Dr. Hutson, won’t you come? We’ll take good care of you. I believe you could really help our church and this area.” He came. God blessed us. On Monday night he preached for the first time that message on giving your life for the Lord Jesus and the Gospel’s sake, the message where he explained that the purpose of God’s leaving us here is to get out the Gospel. He preached his heart out. God worked. When he had finished, he said, “I believe I’m going to sing.” My son-in-law plays the piano and heads up our music program. Tim knows “I’m on the Winning Side.” Dr. Hutson began to sing that, then another. Then we had another meeting! We kicked the honey bucket over and went through both ends and sucked it all out! He preached all he could preach, sang all he could sing, and we shouted all we could shout. And there are men in southwest Florida who will tell you that God changed their lives and their churches that night. And others are going to Heaven because of that service. ‘After the manner which some people call heresy, so worship I God.’ In such services, God does something. Go back to your church and say, “I’ll tell you what, at that Sword Conference we heard preaching! Man, we heard them tell us how to live; we heard them tell us what we are to do; we heard what standards are. Praise God, I want you here in this church to know I’m ‘one of them’!” II. Bible Believers Not only that, but Paul said, “So worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written.” Isn’t it amazing that one has to come to a meeting like this to hear some preacher talk about the King James Bible? I appreciate the comments this week about how you ought not bring into your classes the material that uses the NIV or any other version. Paul said, “They call me a heretic because of the way I worship God. I belong to that crowd.” I believe like that crowd believes. I’m an old-fashioned, Bible-believing, Gospel preacher. This is the Bible that got me saved. This is the Bible that got the Devil out of me. This is the Bible that is going to take me to Heaven. And this is the Bible we’re going to use here in our church— the King James Bible! I loved to hear Lester Roloff preach. I remember the last Southwide Fellowship where he and Dr. Bob Gray preached in Tennessee. What a meeting! So many attended, they had it in two auditoriums. Dr. Gray was in the main auditorium, and Brother Roloff was in the gym. Dr. Gray was preaching on “Stay With the Book.” Some folks went to hear Brother Roloff in the gym. He said, “Stay with the Book.” Then they swapped. Brother Roloff went to the auditorium, and Dr. Gray went to the gym. Both preached the same message they had previously preached, but in different places. Thank God for men who believe the Bible and stay with the Book. I was invited to a breakfast for preachers. Some of the pastors said, “Brother Tom, you ought to go. Let’s just go and see what they do.” I said, “I don’t know. Every time I go, I end up making trouble.” “Come on. It’s a free breakfast.” “Amen, brother!” So I went. The speaker was sponsored by Nelson Publications. They gave every pastor a brand-new, leather-bound NIV. I’m sitting over there thinking, It’s coming on me again! Breakfast is not worth this. I got mine and walked out the door and said, “I’m out of here, fellows!” I dropped that NIV in the garbage and said, “I’m through with this crowd. I’m of the other crowd.” We started a church. My wife and I figured out how much it would cost to move to Florida. I told her, “Get rid of everything you don’t want.” So we had a big yard sale. We got together all the money we could and rented a U-Haul truck, loaded up our family and headed to Florida. I took my wife out of the Promised Land down to Lo-debar. We had moved out of a beautiful 2,700-square-foot parsonage into a 600-square-foot apartment. I said, “Don’t put everything we have in here because we will have church here sometimes.” We had just enough money to live thirty days, then I was going to have to get a job. The Lord knows, I didn’t want to do that! We printed gospel tracts. We secured a building. We got everything squared away. We got moved in. We started knocking on doors. We started inviting people to come. Four weeks went by. We had our first service. Thirty-six people showed up. Eight were family members who came to see what was going on. I watched them as they came in the door. They were carrying Catholic Bibles. My immediate family and two other people had King James Bibles. We had Sunday school. We had church. We had Sunday night service. Ten came Sunday night. The next Sunday we had fifteen; the next Sunday, eight. I said, “Honey, something’s wrong here.” I started telling those present the page number: “I’m preaching today out of the Book of Amos. If you don’t know where that is, that’s page 657 in a good investment” (the old Scofield Bible). People started asking, “How do I get one of those good investments?” Soon everyone had an old Scofield King James Bible. The Bible has the message for the hour. God will take care of us if we will do His will. I was a bricklayer when I got saved. I was a bricklayer the day after I got saved. I surrendered to preach so God wouldn’t allow me to lay bricks anymore. But I preached my first sermon and went back and laid bricks again Monday. I looked for the day when God would say, “Brick no more, son. Brick no more.” I have a message, “From the Brickyard to the Mountain.” But if I had to, I would go back to laying brick. I told those precious people, “I don’t know how God will take care of us, but I know He sent us here, and I know He wants a church in this town. I believe the Bible, and it says, ‘My God shall supply all your need.’” From that first Sunday to this Sunday, God has met every need. We’ve never missed a bill or one payment on anything. Glory to God! The Bible is true. Just jump on it and say, “Dear Lord, I believe You.” Paul said, “What some people call heresy, that’s the way I worship the Lord; I belong to that crowd. I believe all things.” III. Soul Winners Then notice verse 16: “And herein do I exercise myself” (this is the way that I behave). I exercise myself and “have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.” In other words, I’m trying to make sure everybody gets saved. That’s the way a Christian is to behave. I belong to that crowd. I believe what that crowd believes. As my wife and I were driving up here, I said, “Honey, you know, I’m disappointed with where our church is. But I’m not disappointed with the people.” I was knocking on a door and was invited inside. I had the opportunity to lead a man and woman to the Lord. They came to church and got baptized on Sunday morning. Sunday night they brought their daughter with them. I led her to Christ. She got baptized. The son came and got saved and baptized. Some other friends in their neighborhood were led to the Lord. I was talking to the man this past week. Tears were coming out of his eyes as he said, “Preacher, I love this place! I can’t believe I’m saved and going to Heaven. You know, since I got saved, I’ ve invited thirty-four people to church. A bunch of them have been saved and baptized. I love this place!” Saved just six weeks, he had already brought thirty-four visitors to our church. Many of them had been saved and baptized. Glory to God! I’m glad we can exercise ourselves. Not only do we belong to the right crowd and believe the right things, but we ought to behave ourselves the way God wants this crowd to behave. He wants us out telling people about Christ. I say, “Glory to God! I want to shake your hand, Paul. I belong to that crowd. I behave myself like that.” They accused Paul of polluting the temple (Acts 21:28) when he brought somebody into the temple who was a little different. Aren’t you glad that the Gospel is for all! Aren’t you glad the Lord wants everybody to know Christ! We ought to leave this meeting saying, “Dear Lord, thank You that I’m ‘one of them.’” You don’ t have to run to all the events all over the country and listen to all the seminars. Find you a crowd and belong to it. I belong to this crowd, the Sword crowd. I’m not ashamed of the Sword of the Lord. I’m glad to be identified with it. I’m glad for what they believe. Oue body're not all perfect, but thank God, I’m “one of them”!
¸ñ·ÏÀ¸·Î