Our text this morning is in Acts chapter 22, verses 22 through 29. They listened to him up to this statement, and then they raised their voices and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live. And as they were crying out, and throwing off their cloaks, and tossing dust into the air, the commander ordered him to be brought into the barracks, stating that he should be examined by scourging, so that he might find out the reason why they were shouting against him that way. But when they stretched him out with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman and uncondemned? When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and told him, saying, What are you about to do, for this man is a Roman? The commander came to him and said, Tell me, are you a Roman? And he said, Yes. The commander answered, I acquired this citizenship with a large sum of money. And Paul said, but I was actually born a citizen. Therefore, those who were about to examine him immediately let go of him. And the commander also was afraid when he found out that he was a Roman and because he had put him in chains. Well, let me start off on a light note. As a disclaimer, if at some point in the sermon I have to clear my throat and get some yucky stuff out, it's because I was at a basketball game last night with some of the men from the church, and I spent a lot of the game yelling, cheering on the St. Louis University Billikens. So I woke up this morning and said, that's new. So it's not because I have any sort of virus. It's just because I'm a big fan of sports and don't know how to keep my voice to myself. Well, here we are in Acts 22, coming to the end of Acts 22, and we see a kind of unique story. Again, I'm not really sure why I say that, because it seems like every week in Acts, there's a new, unique story. It's amazing, the stories that we have here in the book of Acts. You know, I might eat these words later because you might come up to me and say, well, actually, Pastor, I remember seeing this, but I don't know if I recall ever seeing a movie produced by Hollywood that's about the Bible that's ever been 100% accurate. Have you? There's a lot of movies that have been coming from biblical themes or stories, right, even in the past five, six years we've seen these things, and they get some things right, they get a lot of things wrong. I'm kind of amazed that there are no movies that I'm familiar with that are about the stories that happen here at the latter part of the Book of Acts. I mean, these are really dramatic events that kind of challenge this notion of what on earth is going on. And there's intrigue here, that if you haven't read on, if you don't know how the book of Acts ends, and you don't know what's about to happen, then you could read this and say, my goodness, what's going to happen here? How is this going to shake out as it were? I think this has the perfect setting for a really good Hollywood movie, though I don't want to get any ideas to them because they mess it up. But the amazing thing that we see here is that the story of Paul continues, and I think one of the most dramatic aspects of this section is whereas we would expect things to start getting easier or at the very least better for Paul, it doesn't. Last week, if you remember, we've just come out of the cusp of Paul was about to be killed by this Jewish mob in Jerusalem. He's saved by a commander, a Roman commander, the most unlikely person to save him. He's then given an opportunity, through trials, to present the gospel, giving a defense, using his testimony, speaking about Jesus saving him and his story. We would expect, okay, good, it's finally getting better for Paul. He was saved from death. Things are gonna get easier. He's gonna go back to the gospel proclamation that we've been seeing in the first, second, and third missionary journey. And if any of the previous chapters have taught us anything about Paul, is he goes through a lot of difficulties, then he leaves that area and goes somewhere else and preaches the gospel. But yet, that's not quite what we see in our text here this morning, is it? That's not quite what we're gonna see in chapters 23, as we'll start next week and following. The idea here is, is the difficulty that Paul is experiencing doesn't go away, it just changes. Takes a little bit of a different form that we're gonna see this morning. And so what we're gonna be talking about, as you can see based off of the title of my sermon in your bulletin and on the slides in front of you, what we're gonna be talking about is the truth that divides and frees. divides and unites in freedom. And here's where we're going with this. I always want to give, at the very beginning, this indication of, hey, this is what I think the passage is saying, and here's how we should understand it. This is the idea. Truth, by necessity, first divides. It's going to divide. That's what truth does. The very first thing about truth, it doesn't unite, it divides. And we're gonna see two expressions of that divide in our text here this morning. We're gonna see division based on understanding the truth and rejecting the truth. Secondly, a rejection of the truth through an ignorance of the truth, not understanding the implications of what it means. We're going to see the division that comes by the truth, and then we're going to end with the unification. The truth, after it divides by necessity, then must unite. it must unite people to God, if they're in Christ, and then God's people to one another. So this is the strategy that we're gonna be taking to the text in this narrative account, and this is how we're gonna understand this text before us. So before we jump in here, let me pray that the Lord will illuminate our minds, that he will challenge us and grow us in gospel truth this morning. Father, we come before you humble, And if we're not humble, will you humble us in this moment? I know if everyone is like me, that there is much, much failure in my life. Every day I give renewed reasons for why I fall short of the glory of God. I bear evidence in my life of why I am not adequate for salvation, I'm not adequate to receive your blessing of salvation and gospel truth. And yet, in your glory, because of your good purposes, you have saved me, quite literally, from myself. And so, Lord, as we take that theological underpinning into this text, will you help us to step out of the way? Will you help us to have new eyes as we read this text and as we consider these rich gospel truths? We will help us to not be distracted by anything that Satan might bring into our minds to distract us or anything going on around us. But instead, may we determine right now to be devoted to you, Lord. Because of who you are, may we seek to praise you through the preaching and the listening to and from your word. So Father, may you be glorified as we consider your word to us this morning. In your name, amen. The first main point that we're going to see in our text comes from the first two verses of our text. From verses 22 and 23, we are going to see the rejection of the truth that divides. Rejection of the truth that divides. The amazing thing is, and I mentioned this just a moment ago here in the introduction, is remember the context that we're in. The Men's Discipleship Group met yesterday, and men, if you're not part of the Men's Discipleship Group, I would highly encourage you, first Saturday of the month, we get together, we're taught by different guys in the church, and we talk about key things that are going on in our hearts, in our lives, and what the gospel has to say about that. And one of the things that we mentioned as a side item is context is king. to help us understand what's going on and how we ought to understand the text before us. And so remember, as we jump into verses 22 and 23, we're at the cusp of Paul ending the defense of the gospel. He's just concluded defending the gospel, and verse 22 gives us the answer, or I should say the response, to the gospel. Paul's just talked about the Damascus Road. He's just talked about Jesus saving him. And the question that's going to come upon us is, how is it received? Is it received well? Is it received lukewarm? What's going on here? Well, notice verse 22. We quickly see the response. It was read to us a moment ago. We see that the crowd of the Jewish people who, in chapter 21, had wanted to take Paul's life They raised their voices. Again, this is getting into more of a mob mentality. They declare that Paul should be killed. Away with this rotten fellow. Get rid of him. He shouldn't even live any longer because of what he has just said. Now, I don't know about you. Maybe you've taught a lesson at some point. Maybe you've had an experience preaching. I've never had an experience preaching where after the sermon, people stood up and said, away with that fellow. He shouldn't even live because of what he just did. I don't know about you, but I've never had that experience. Please don't do that after the service, by the way. I just have in my mind this realization that people are going to come by and say, you rotten fellow, which is true, but that's beside the point. I've never had an experience like that. This is a very, very trying event. They're not warmed to the gospel. They're continually rejecting it. And then notice what happens in verse 23. A little bit of a strange account. They cry out. Again, this is a loud, boisterous event. Notice then what they do. They throw off their cloaks. Right? Does that remind you of another time when a murderous Jewish crowd was wanting to kill someone who proclaimed the gospel, and at that time there was a young man named Saul who held the coats that were thrown off from the ones who wanted to take the life who proclaimed the gospel? If you're thinking of Stephen in Acts chapter seven, that's the parallel. That's the idea here. They're throwing off their coats, and this is weird. They get down and they get dust, and they throw dirt into the air. We're not exactly sure why, what exactly that means. On a lighter note, it's possible that they're wanting to stone Paul, just like they stoned Stephen, and so they're reaching for anything that they have to throw at him. There's no rocks, so they're throwing all that they have. They're throwing dust. That's possible. Far more likely is this is a description of them communicating this is heresy. That's the idea here. Throwing off our clothes and throwing dirt in the air, this is the idea that what we have just heard is not right, and it's heretical against God. I think that's what's being communicated in verse 23. They believe what they have just heard from Paul is heretical. Now we have to ask ourselves, what did they just hear from Paul? I think this is an important point. Because notice how in verse 22, how it begins this way, they listened to him, they were listening to everything that he said, up to this statement. What was this statement that they listened to and until they heard that statement, they said no more? And then went through all this rigmarole of yelling and throwing coats and dust into the air. What was this statement? What's the antecedent of this? It's verse 21, isn't it? What was the last thing that Paul said? Isn't this amazing? The last thing that Paul said was saying what Jesus had told him. Jesus had said to Paul, if you have a red letter Bible, this is in red letters, go, for I will send you far away to whom? The Gentiles. And when they heard that, they heard this statement, they said, no more. That is heretical. And here's the point that we have to see here in this first main point. These people did not reject Paul because they didn't like him. They didn't reject Paul because they had heard rumors about him and therefore, based off of the rumors, they didn't like him. They didn't dislike and reject Paul because he was not a nice man and was very abrasive with the way he spoke. They rejected Paul and what Paul said because he communicated God's truth and they didn't like it. Do you see that the rejection of Paul has strikingly little to do with Paul and has everything to do with the truth that Paul was proclaiming? Is that becoming clear in verses 22 to 23? It's striking to me that they heard literally the gospel. They heard the good news that brings salvation, not only to the people of promise from the Old Testament, but now to all people, including the Gentiles. They heard the gospel of truth, and they rejected it. Why? Why did they reject it? I don't think it's because they didn't understand it. I think that these people rejected the gospel of truth because they did understand it. They understood the implications of what truth is. And they understood that if they accept and follow what is being communicated to them by Paul from God, then that means their lives have to change. And if they don't wanna change, the only recourse that they have is to reject it completely. Friends, the reality here of verses 22 and 23, though you and I are in different situations of life, though likely you and I will not be in front of a mob in the same way that we see this happening here, this is still the modern day reality for Christians living in a sinful fallen world. We can say, like Paul said, that holding to God's standard of truth will lead to rejection. This has not changed. The reason it has not changed is because the world is not getting progressively more godly. The world is progressively getting more sinful, more rebellious, away from the Lord, and away from anyone who proclaims the truth. And again, here's what's happening in the story, and it happens still today. When you hold to God's standard of truth, it will be rejected by some because they understand that truth means they must change. That truth means they are not okay on their own. That truth means something is deeply wrong to the very core of who they are, and the world wants nothing of that. The world wants a church that will say, come in, come into our midst, and we're gonna pat you on the back and say, just the way you are is perfectly fine. Don't change anything. Add Jesus to your life and just go on being a good person. That's what the world wants. They don't want the gospel that says there's something deeply wrong with you. And I can say that because I know there's something deeply wrong with me. I have a virus, a cancer that is called sin and you do as well. There's an antidote and it's Jesus Christ. The world doesn't want that because that means they must change. The world, not all of the world, and we'll see the other aspect here in a moment, but there is a large section of the world, and dare I say there's a large section of people who are sitting in pews right now across the city and across the state and across this country who they reject the gospel of change so they go to a place that doesn't preach a gospel of change. holding to God's standard of truth will lead to rejection. We live in a morally relativistic society. We want to do what we want to do and we want no one else to tell us why they think that we're wrong or why we shouldn't do what we want to do. Even in the new members class this morning, we were talking about this idea that we do not self-determine who and what we are. We don't have the right, if we did not create ourselves, to say, I am blank of whatever I want. The only thing that you and I can say about who I am, your identity is not in what you self-determine, but your identity is what God has spoken to you about who you are. He tells you who you are. He tells you what you must be, and only Jesus Christ can make you into who you must be. That's why you must be saved. But our world wants none of that. They want to determine for themselves who they are. So friends, make no mistake about it. I'm going to great pains to say the world rejected Paul because they understood the implications of the truth, and the world will continue to do this today as well. Do not expect for people to love you more because you tell them that there's hope to change from who they are. The world wants nothing of that. And lest we think that the world might eventually want to come to our side and maybe be kinder to us, I would encourage us to look to truth. Jesus in John chapter 18, he was before Pilate. This is an amazing account. with Pilate is determining if Jesus is going to live or if Jesus is going to die. Notice what we're told here in verse 37. Jesus answered Pilate, and this is what he said. Notice what Jesus says here. You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born. Why did Jesus come, fully God, fully man, into this world? This is one of the descriptions. For this reason, I have come into the world to testify to what? The truth. Jesus is before the chief magistrate who determines whether he's going to be crucified or not. And what is he speaking about? The truth. Yes, I am a king. And yes, I came to proclaim the truth. Well, how did that end for Jesus? Did Pilate say, oh, thank you. We've been waiting for someone to give us the truth. Finally, the darkness is passing away, and here the light has entered into our midst. Is that what happened? Did the Jewish ravenous mob sitting outside those doors who were chanting, crucify him, crucify him, did they say, finally, our king has come, our messiah? In verse 40, three verses later, they want Jesus put to death. Why? Because he proclaimed truth and they didn't like the implications of that truth. Friends, do not be mistaken. Those who hold the truth will be rejected because of the truth. So let me ask this question in application before moving on. If you are a Christian here and your identity is no longer in the sins that you once committed, you are no longer an enemy against God, but you are now a friend of God and not only a friend, you are a child of God and co-heirs with Christ to the eternal covenant for the eternal glory of God. If you are a Christian, are you prepared now to count the cost of being biblically faithful? I don't ask this question lightly, but I really think we have to ask this, and we have to challenge ourselves to really consider, what does this mean? It's really easy to sit in a church on a Sunday morning, and Sadie prayed this earlier, nobody stopped you from coming in. No difficulties except getting out of bed was maybe the only difficulty you had this morning. There were no other difficulties coming into church. But what if there is someday? Wonder if the emotions that you feel feel more powerful than doing what you know is right and good. Wonder if you start to feel really bad about yourself because someone you love dearly says you're crazy for holding to the gospel. Are you prepared to count the cost, literally picking up your cross, putting to death the things of this life and your life that are like the world for the sake of being biblically faithful to truth? It comes at a price. It comes at a steep price. But it also comes with the greatest reward. Isn't that amazing, by the way? Nowhere in chapter 22 do we see any reward for Paul. Look high and low, it's not there. Chapter 22, here in this text, does not tell us Paul receiving anything really good. Just not there. But yet, we know that there was an eternal blessing, an eternal inheritance for the Lord. Why? Because he was faithful to the end. Are you prepared to be faithful to the truth regardless of the cost? So yes, we see in verses 22 and 23 this first depiction of rejection to the truth that divides. It's rejection because it understands the implications of the truth. It hears the truth and says, I want no part of that. because I don't like what it means to my life. But I think there's a second rejection, and this is gonna be really the great, the broader aspect of our text. It's verses 24 through 29, this is the second main point, and this is a division, a rejection of the truth based on ignorance. Ignorance of the truth that divides. And this is an amazing thing to me, because when I first considered this text, considering that it's narrative, it doesn't have any sermons, it doesn't have really these deep theological statements in it, we have to ask ourselves, what is going on here? Is this just a good story, now we move on? We saw rejection based off of understanding the truth, but then we're gonna see this commander who interacts with Paul, and he's gonna be ignorant in what he does. Notice what we see here in verses 24 to 29. It's no longer about the crowd, but it's now an interaction between this Roman commander, and remember, this is the same Roman commander who, in chapter 21, had saved Paul from being murdered by the crowd. We don't know how much this Roman commander understood of what Paul had just said to the Jews. Remember, if you remember at the very beginning of chapter 22, Paul was speaking to the Jewish crowd in a Hebrew dialect, likely Aramaic. That's the idea going on here. So we don't know, did the Roman commander understand this language? Did he have a translator that was telling him? We don't know. But I don't know that that's the most significant thing here. Because the idea here is this commander has no idea what's going on. If you read the end of chapter 22 as we're doing today, and then if you go into chapter 23, this guy is trying to figure out, who is Paul? Who is this guy? I thought he was an Egyptian assassin. That's not him. We're going to find out today. He finds out that Paul's a Roman citizen. That knocked his socks off, as we'll see in a moment. And then he doesn't know what to do with them. What do I do with this guy? He's completely in ignorance, even when the truth is all the way around him. Well, notice what happens here. The commander doesn't know what to do. So in verse 24, the commander says, for Paul to be flogged, for Paul to be bound, scourged, and whipped, Now, if you're thinking of an Indiana Jones, Harrison Ford-like whip, right, the big, what is that, a bull whip, I guess? It's really, really long. That's a good start, but that's not the type of whip that's going on here, right? If you're thinking more of the cat o' nine tails, that's getting a little bit closer. If you think about a whip that has little pieces of glass, pieces of rock, pieces of metal, sharp objects woven into the lashes, so that when it goes on a person's back, what happens? Pulls back flesh. The idea here is that this was a form of what they considered examination, a way to get the truth out of someone through very serious means of interrogation. This is good cop, bad cop, only it's the bad cop extreme. They're trying to get information out of this man. The likely thinking is the commander is saying, look, I don't know who this Paul is. I am going to beat him to an inch of his life so he'll tell us. And then I'm going to know what's going on because I'm going to get to the bottom of this whole mess. Now, there's another thing of particular note that you need to know about Roman law. If we don't understand the historical context, then the rest of this story is going to be a little bit weird. This flogging, this scourging that is about to happen to Paul is something that cannot be done to a Roman citizen who has not been condemned. A Roman citizen can only be beaten severely in this way if they have gone before some sort of trial and been declared guilty of some sort of heinous act against the emperor or the empire. Otherwise, a Roman citizen cannot have this type of beating. Now, if it's somebody of some other ethnicity or some other living, then they can do that. But if you're a Roman, you can't be beaten in this way. Now look at verse 25. Kind of amazing, isn't it? Bearing in mind that a Roman can't be beaten in this way unless they've already been convicted of some heinous sin against the emperor of the empire, Paul asks a question, and it's almost a very just soft question. Is it lawful, Paul asks. for you to scourge, to flog a man who is a Roman and uncondemned? It seems just so simple, almost passive. I mean, think about this. He's tied down. He's about to get beaten severely, right? People can die from this. And he just says, hey, before you do that, Can you, is it lawful? Or are you guys gonna get in big trouble if you go against Caesar's law? Notice how this sets off a lot of reactions. A chain of reaction starts here. Notice in verse 26, the centurion who had been tasked to beat Paul all of a sudden says, wait a second, this guy's a Roman? If he beats, if the centurion beats a Roman, then the centurion is now against the law and could then be flogged, right? So this is, he's not gonna touch Paul if he's a Roman. He gets the commander and he says, what on earth are you doing? I'm paraphrasing, of course. Did you not know that this man was a Roman? The commander then says, what? He's a Roman? Well, I have to find out for myself. So we see that the Roman then in verse 27 goes to Paul, asks, are you a Roman? And Paul says, yes, likely there was some type of a seal that Paul had to indicate that he was a Roman, but there was some way that he could prove his Roman citizenship. And then verse 28 almost gives us a humorous moment here. There's a couple of moments in scripture, actually quite a few moments, that really, it almost seems like there's humor here, and I think this is one of those. Notice how in verse 28, the centurion, or the commander, is kind of frustrated. It kind of comes across, especially in the original language, Greek. He more or less mumbles, I acquired citizenship, I became a Roman, with a large sum of money. That seems like a weird thing to say, unless you hear it in the light of, I had to pay a lot of money, but now anybody can be a citizen. Look at this guy. He's about almost put to death by some Jewish mob. I had to pay a fortune. They're obviously giving it away for next to nothing. And there is some historical truth to this. There are some historical documents that say in the first century, near the beginning of the first century, if you bought your citizenship into the Roman Empire, this was a fortune. And then as it progressed, there were some dirty governors who they would give it away for just a little bit of money, just because that was their side thing of making more money. So this is historically accurate. But all of a sudden, everything gets blown away when Paul says, notice this, he says, but, end of verse 28, I was born a citizen. Okay, now so much of this is lost on us, because we just aren't in the first century. And I promise, we're going to an application here. But Paul, by virtue of being born a Roman citizen, check this out, was more Roman than the commander himself. That's what's being said here. Paul is saying, because he was born into the citizenship of Rome, that he had almost the sense of a higher authority, not in the military, but he was more Roman than this man. That should make verse 29 make a whole lot more sense to us. They're terrified of this guy. Wait a second, we almost did something deeply unlawful by beating a Roman and not only that, but he's more Roman than we are because he was born a Roman. This is an amazing account of what's going on here. Paul is so close to possibly even losing his life again, and yet his life is being spared. And this time, it's not because a Roman is saving him, it's because he is a citizen of Rome. Not because of religiosity, but because of Roman citizenship. Now there's a question that I asked myself when I was studying through this and I was thinking through this, and the question that came to my mind is, why at that time did Paul decide that it was most appropriate to say that he was a Roman citizen? Why wouldn't Paul have said that earlier? I mean, no doubt, in chapter 21, when the Romans first arrived, if Paul, in the midst of this crowd, about to die from the mob, had said, hey guys, I am a Roman citizen, the Romans would have come in here and beaten anyone who had been around Paul at that time. And they would have let him go, no problem. They would have said, hey, he's one of us. But he didn't do that. He didn't say that he was a Roman when he was getting beaten by the Jews, almost killed. He didn't say that he was a Roman when the Romans took him away. And he didn't even say that he was a Roman in his defense of the gospel. He didn't say that he's a Roman until literally, quite literally, the very last possible moment. Why? Why wait? Paul, what's your endgame here? I think. that the reason why Paul waited to the very last second to share that he was a Roman is because Paul knows what you and I must consider, and that is Christians are more interested in proclaiming truth than self-preservation. Christians are more interested in proclaiming truth than self-preservation. That is what's going on here. Paul determined that he was wanting to speak the gospel of truth, the good news of salvation, and if people knew nothing else about him, that's what they were going to hear. It wasn't about his power and authority in society. It wasn't about a platform that then he deserves the right over the rest of the people to speak to them. It wasn't about some other outward identity. Paul did not see himself primarily as a Roman. Did you catch that? Paul did not see himself primarily identified by an external thing. What was his primary identity? What was the identity that he proclaimed without relenting? Jesus Christ. He's been made new in Jesus. Therefore, because of what Jesus has done, he's going to boast of that identity and boast of the one who gave him that identity. It wasn't until the very end, the very, very end, that he says, wait a second, don't do what you're about to do because it would be unlawful. The amazing thing is, is he was more interested in proclaiming truth than self-preservation. And friends, that must be the same for us as well. I'm shocked because if I were in Paul's shoes, I don't think that that's what I would have done. I would have been far more concerned about my physical well-being and less concerned about what are these people thinking about the gospel. I'm thinking of self in that situation. But Paul didn't do that. Friends, we must learn what does it mean to put aside our own personal well-being, physical, mental, emotional, put it aside for the sake of the gospel. And so, I think this understanding of why Paul waited until just the very end helps us see that while there are those who will understand the implications of truth, and they will reject it because they understand the implications of truth. I think this Roman commander, this Roman centurion, the rest of these soldiers are a prime depiction, a prime picture of those who have heard the gospel, but they don't understand what it means. Paul had been proclaiming the gospel all the way up until the very last moment, and yet they still have no idea. They still do not understand what's happening here. This is the point of the second point. Ignorance divided Paul from these Romans, and it wasn't Paul's ignorance. And it wasn't for lack of the gospel being declared and proclaimed. It was that these Romans didn't understand what the gospel was. And by not understanding what the gospel was, they didn't understand Paul. And by not understanding Paul, there's this whole mess happening at the very end of chapter 22. Now let me drive this home to a broader theological theme. So that's the picture that I think drives this theological theme. This means that there are many in this world, yes, who reject the gospel because they know what it implies and they don't want it, but there are many in this world and there are many in our churches today who do not understand the gospel and they're divided from the truth because they don't understand what it means. Their hearts and their minds have been so darkened by sin, they can't even reason with what the gospel means. Let me demonstrate this to you from Scripture. Acts 3, verse 17. This is Peter, again, preaching earlier in the book of Acts. Peter would say, and now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance. just as your rulers did also. An egregious sin of putting Jesus to death. What does Peter attribute this to? At least in part, to ignorance. Jesus, when he was dying on the cross in Luke chapter 23, he said these powerful words, Father, forgive them. Why? They do not know, they don't understand what they are doing. They're ignorant. They couldn't possibly understand the truth. Ephesians 4, 17 through 18, and I think this gets into the powerful understanding of what we're gonna talk about next to understand this theme. Paul would say, so this I say and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walked. Don't be like the pagans, the unbelievers. You used to be like that. in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of what? Somebody tell me. Because of ignorance that is in them because, and notice what ignorance is tied to, it's tied to the darkened understanding, futility of their mind, and the last one, hardness of their hearts. So the picture from the commander and Paul, I think, gives us this theological understanding, which tells us that sin has so adversely affected you and me and everyone as a human being, that without God's work in our hearts, we can't even understand the implications of the gospel. Our minds do not think the way that God created us originally to think. You know that, right? If every part of you is affected by sin, then therefore your mind, your heart, your understanding has been deeply, irreversibly affected by sin unless God does some amazing work. Theologians call this the noetic effects of sin. Your mind is so affected by sin, you cannot, we cannot on our own understand what the gospel means and the applications and implications of it. So we could say and make this statement, the noetic effects of sin have darkened every sinner's heart to understanding truth. Our minds, our hearts are so darkened in ignorance because our hearts are darkened by sin that for many in this world, there cannot even be an understanding of what this means. They hear the gospel, but their heart is close to it. They hear the logical reasoning of what the gospel means, but yet they just have no interest in it. Why? Because they and you and I, apart from Christ, are adversely affected by sin. So this should lead us to empathy if we are in Christ. I think that that's what it did with Paul. I think Paul had an understanding that the people that he interacted with, such as these Romans, were so affected by the effects of sin, the anoetic effect of sin, that they couldn't even understand the gospel that he was proclaiming. Is it possible that your lost family members are so deeply, deeply affected by sin, so given over to the darkness of sin that's in their lives, that they can't understand why you love Christ? They can't understand why on earth would you give money to a church and get nothing back in return, at least not that they can see. It shouldn't surprise us that your coworkers think you are so crazy for not sleeping in on Sunday, the one day you can sleep and watch football and watch basketball and just live the good life. Why would you go to church on Daylight Savings Weekend? Just stay home. Just stay home. No, the world doesn't understand the gospel because they have rejected the gospel in ignorance. The divide of the truth separates us. If you want to know more about the noetic effects of sin, I would encourage you to read Romans 1.21. I'm going to skip past that passage. It talks about how our minds are darkened because of sin. Romans 1.21, 1 Corinthians 2.14 really get into those effects. Let me just say this quote from Albert Moeller, the president of Southern Seminary. This is what he says about the noetic effects of sin. He says, the unregenerate mind cannot understand regenerate things. The unsaved mind cannot understand saved things. It is not an educational problem. No amount of education can solve this problem. No manner of communication, illumination, seminars, classes, studies, or degrees will lead one to salvation because the unregenerate reason is opposed to God. Our thinking is opposed to God. The unregenerate mind sees the gospel as foolishness and folly. Friends, don't be surprised if you speak of truth, that there will be some who understand the truth and reject it because of the implications, and don't understand those poor souls, or don't be surprised, those poor souls who can't even understand it because God hasn't worked in their hearts, and their minds are so darkened to the reasoning and the truth of the gospel that they can't even understand what's going on. Well, there's a third point. that I don't think is explicitly here in the text, but I think it's implicitly here and then explicitly throughout all of scripture. Truth divides because there are those who reject by understanding, and then those who reject through ignorance. But then we also need to say this about truth, and this has exploded all throughout scripture. This is the last point, really a point of application, and that is there's freedom in the truth. Freedom and the truth. I originally had said truth divides and unites, and that's certainly true. It first must divide before it unites, but then as I started thinking about what being united with Christ means, I came to this word that's first in this point, and that is freedom. The amazing thing that's implied in this story, and I know that I'm reading a little bit into it, what happens in verse 29? There is a physical freedom from the chains and the beating that Paul was about to be given. There is a physical freedom there. I don't think that that's the ultimate freedom that the gospel talks about, though. Because your difficulties in life might not be that somebody's going to beat you, right? Hopefully that's not the case. But you might have sickness in your life. Your loved one might have sickness in your life. You maybe have been fired from your job. Your finances might be a significant issue. You might have a whirlwind of difficulty that if we think the gospel is going to free us from the physical difficulties of this world, we are going to be severely disappointed. You might never get a husband that loves you the way that you want to be loved. You might never get a wife who supports you the way that you want to be supported. You might never have children who respect you the way that you desire to be respected. You might never, ever have those friends that love you the way that you just desire to be loved. You might not have those things, but the gospel never promises that type of freedom. The gospel never promises that in this life, that truth will give you the things that you desire right now in your heart for right now. What the gospel does promise, the freedom that the truth does give, is that you are no longer a slave to sin. I really thought I'd get an amen on that. You no longer are under the curse of sin that has so darkened your heart and your mind and your understanding that you can't even see reality. Because of grace, you now have an eternal hope, and that's all because of truth. You are no longer under the eternal effects of sin and damnation because of your sin. You have new life in Jesus Christ. As many of you know, I teach as an adjunct for Missouri Baptist University, and I once graded a student's paper. The student was reviewing and journaling over Psalm 3. And I love the honesty that was in this journal because the student was concerned about whether Psalm 3 is true or not. Because in Psalm 3, the psalmist communicates, I trust in the Lord that no matter what happens in this life, God is sufficient. And the student said, but what about all the terrible things that happen to Christians? Is this accurate that God watches over his people when Christians are murdered, when Christians go through horrible, terrifying realities, when our brothers and sisters in Christ all across this world today are being persecuted for the faith? Is God there? Is there freedom for the believer in the midst of the greatest difficulties of this life? The answer is unequivocally yes. Truth divides the world from God, but the truth unites us to God and freedom. Let me give you this passage from John chapter eight. This is a long passage, but I want you to hear the word that Jesus uses on repeat to demonstrate what knowing him means. This is John 8, 31. Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed him, If you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine. Okay, so catch who he's talking to. You are believers if you follow in my word. Verse 32. And you will know the truth. And everybody who's been to church knows this next expression. And the truth will what? Yeah, you know it. You know it, brothers and sisters in Christ. The truth will set you free from what? from sin, from difficulties. from hardships, from disappointments, from the curse of sin that's upon you. They answered him, we're Abraham's descendants, never had been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say you will become free? Jesus answered them, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever, the son does remain forever. So if the son makes you free, you are free indeed. Christian, this is what ultimately I want you to hear from this text. You have been separated from the world, and that is the best possible thing, because you know what's in the camp of the world? It's slavery. It's slavery to the things of the world, of sin and death. But because of the truth that has been exploding into your mind, into your heart, to change your heart, now you are free, so you're no longer under the sin and slavery of sin. You are now under Jesus Christ. And there's freedom, there's hope, There's joy, there's peace, there's long kindness from the Lord. You have all of it in Jesus Christ because the truth has united you with Christ. So the last thing that I want to say, if you have been united with Christ, you must now be united with one another. So the last question of application, does truth divide or unite you to other believers? If you're united to Christ, then you must be united to those who are in Christ. I have a desire for this church. I think about this church a lot. I pray for this church every day or almost every day. This church means, in a very real way, almost my whole world apart from my family. I love this church deeply. I can say this with all certainty, that whenever Christians are together, Satan always wants to divide by lies. Always wants to divide by not the truth. but a church that pursues the Lord faithfully, continually. The church that loves truth above all else isn't divided, but is united in the freedom of the gospel. And the beautiful thing about a unification of a group of people is they work for one purpose, for one goal, for one end game. Our goal is to be faithful to the truth of Jesus Christ. So Christian, are you united because of the truth to Jesus and to other believers? Or are you divided from other Christians? And if there's a division between you and other Christians, is it possible that there is something wrong in your heart? Let's be united to Christ and to one another for his glory towards his end for his good. Let's pray. Father, as we conclude this message this morning, there's really one thing that I ask, and that is that you bring unification and freedom to this church, that you help us to be closely knit to one another. not because we're just so similar, not because we come from the same backgrounds, not because we look the same way or we talk the same way or for any of these other external similarities that we might have. But Lord, because we're united with Christ and because we have been made co-heirs with Christ, now we can be co-heirs together with one another for your glory. Father, will you bless this church? Will you help us to be committed to serving you? Will you keep us free from the effects of sin around us in this world and help us to pursue you in all godliness, in all biblical truth, and help us to be faithful to your calling. Lord, what a grace it is to be with these brothers and sisters. May your hand of mercy be upon us. We ask this in your name, amen.