Have you ever known someone, and been so impressed that you wanted to be like that person? Have you ever heard or read something that you wanted others to hear and read too? Have you ever been so convinced of something that you wanted everybody else to be convinced of it as well? Or, do you think that that is too self-serving, too opinionated, and conceited as well? After all, we must be tolerant. Everyone is entitled to his or her own views and beliefs. What is right for one may not be right for another. Everyone must make up his or her own mind.

If this is your attitude, you are going to have a problem with the apostle Paul and his statement in Acts 26:29: "I would to God, that not only you, but also all who are listening to me today, were both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains." What did Paul mean when he said this?

To begin with, let's see these words in their context or setting. Paul had been falsely accused by the Jews, arrested by the Roman authorities, and given the opportunity to defend himself before Felix the governor. When it appears that he will not receive a fair hearing, he appeals to Caesar which is Paul's right as a Roman citizen. However, before he is brought before Caesar, he has another hearing before the new governor, Festus, who can't really find any fault with Paul. In the meantime, King Herod Agrippa and his wife come to pay their respects to the new governor. Governor Festus informs King Agrippa about Paul, as well as about his dilemma in not knowing what charges to write against Paul for his appeal to Caesar:

Then Agrippa said to Festus, "I also would like to hear the man myself." "Tomorrow," he [Festus] said, "you shall hear him." So the next day, when Agrippa and Bernice had come with great pomp, and had entered the auditorium with the commanders and the prominent men of the city, at Festus' command Paul was brought in. And Festus said: "King Agrippa and all the men who are here present with us, you see this man about whom the whole assembly of the Jews petitioned me, both at Jerusalem and here, crying out that he was not fit to live any longer. But when I found that he committed nothing deserving of death, and that he himself had appealed to Augustus, I decided to send him. I have nothing certain to write to my lord concerning him. Therefore I have brought him out before you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after the examination has taken place I may have something to write. For it seems to me unreasonable to send a prisoner and not to specify the charges against him." Then Agrippa said to Paul, "you are permitted to speak for yourself" (Acts 25:22-26:1a).

The context of Paul's statement comes in his defense before King Agrippa. What does Paul say to King Agrippa? Paul begins his defense with an account of his early life as a Pharisee and persecutor of Christians followed by the story of his conversion on the road to Damascus. During his defense, Paul challenged the King to admit that God, the Almighty Creator God, could raise the dead: "Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead?" (Acts 26:8). Now, Agrippa would have heard the story about Jesus' resurrection. Whether he believed it or not is another question. But that he knew about it Paul is certain: "For the king, before whom I also speak freely, knows these things; for I am convinced that none of these things escapes his attention, since this thing was not done in a corner" (Acts 26:26). Earlier Paul had referred to the Old Testament Scriptures and how they spoke of the coming Messiah:

"Therefore, having obtained help from God, to this day I stand, witnessing both to small and great, saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said would come-that Christ would suffer, that He would be the first to rise from the dead, and would proclaim light to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles" (Acts 26:22-23).

"But Paul," we can hear King Agrippa saying, "even if this were true, and I don't believe it for a moment, how do you know what this risen Christ commands?" Paul's answer was the vision of the ascended Lord which he received on the road to Damascus. It was a revelation of the truth which Paul stood ready to defend. Later, more truth would be revealed to Paul (cf. 2 Cor. 12). Concerning this truth, Paul wrote to his young spiritual son, Timothy: "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Tim. 2:15). That Paul was such a workman is indicated by Festus' excited response to Paul's defense: "Paul, you are beside yourself! Much learning is driving you mad!" (Acts 26:24). Festus had to recognize that Paul was presenting a scholarly and intelligent defense and tries to dismiss it by saying his great learning had gone to his head. Paul answers: "I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak the words of truth and reason" (Acts 26:25). It was the truth as spoken by the prophets as well as that revealed to him by the risen Christ which the apostle Paul so zealously and fearlessly proclaimed.

We, too, have the truth. The same Lord, who appeared to Paul, revealed Himself to all the writers of Scripture. We have our Lord's revelation of Himself and the truth in the Scripture. Jesus says: "Thy Word is truth" (Jn. 17:17). In modern church history, those Christians who have established a reputation for the most scholarly and intelligent defense of the truth, of the whole counsel of God, of all of Scripture, have been the sixteenth-century Reformers, whose sole objective was to reform the church according to the Scriptures. While liberalism and neo-orthodoxy has made inroads, the Reformed faith, as it came forth from the days of the Reformation, which was simply a return to the truth of God's Word, continues today as the purest and most faithful expression of the truth of God's Word. Please note that I did not say that only those who belong to the Reformed church know the truth. I am saying that the Reformed faith is the purest expression of the truth of God's Word. In defense, I only ask that you listen to the preaching and read and study the confessions. There is no other faith today that is as insistent upon grounding itself thoroughly upon the truth of Scripture and preaching all of that truth. It is that form of doctrine or faith that was once and for all delivered to the church (cf. Jude 3), and was rediscovered and re-emphasized at the time of the Reformation. It is the faith that had been revealed to the apostle Paul and which he so zealously and fearlessly proclaimed. That's why I am in the Reformed church. I trust that is why you are too.

Paul continues: "King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe" (Acts 26:27). Paul challenges the king to believe the truths which he proclaimed. King Agrippa's answer seems to suggest that he was nearly convinced: "You almost persuade me to become a Christian" (Acts 27:28). However, the Greek has a different sense which we can understand if we read King Agrippa's reply as one of sarcasm, i.e., "Ha, in so short a time you would persuade me to become a Christian fanatic like yourself!"

But that is just what Paul would do if he could. He wanted this king and all who heard his words to believe them. He wanted them to believe as he did: "I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me today might become both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains" (Acts 26:29). In other words, "Be like me, except for the chains." This is not the only time Paul expresses such a desire:

"For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Therefore I urge you, imitate me. For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church" (1 Cor. 4:15-17; cf. 11:1).

And now, what does it mean to be like Paul and what does this mean for the church, for the congregation, for you and me? Paul, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, wrote a major portion of the New Testament. It was Paul who wrote: "All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness" (2 Tim. 3:16). We don't have the time to cover all that the apostle Paul wrote, but certainly all that he wrote must apply to his statement that all who hear him be convinced of the truth as he was-the truth as it was revealed to him and to all the other apostles and writers of scripture. Surely it means that as Paul was convinced of the things he wrote, so, too, we are to be convinced and will want others to be so convinced. What are those things? The following are samples of those truths, some of which, according to the apostle Peter, "are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of Scriptures" (2 Pet. 3:16).

Total Depravity

"As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one'" (Rom. 3:10-12). "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as others" (Eph. 2:1-3). Man's depravity, as a result of the fall, is total. He is dead, blind, deaf, and unteachable in the things of God and ruled by Satan through his perverse heart and corrupt soul. He does not have the free will to come to God. God must first come to man with His electing grace.

As a further description of man's depraved condition the apostle Paul writes the following, which is actually a commentary on what had happened in the Old Testament cities of Sodom and Gomorrah:

"Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who changed the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men, committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting" (Rom. 1:24-28).

The men of Sodom had changed the truth of God into a lie! Today, men, rulers, and judges continue to do the same. According to Paul, "we wrestle against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Eph. 6:12). Marriage, which God made good and beautiful between a man and a woman, they have perverted and made vile. In the above passage the apostle Paul not only points out the immoral behavior but presents a practical and irrefutable argument from nature. Pardon the bluntness, but the very human anatomy of the male and female destroys any support for homosexual acts, nor can these acts produce offspring, another God-ordained purpose for marriage. Like Paul, we must be ready to speak and defend the truth before all men, including those in authority over us.

Unconditional Election

Praise God that He has not abandoned all mankind, but comes with His electing grace: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:3-6). "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Eph. 2:4-9). "For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.' So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy" (Rom. 9:15-16). That mercy and electing grace is also extended to the homosexual: "Do you not know that the un-righteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor. 6:9-11).

Limited Atonement

According to Paul, Jesus came to die and make atonement, not for the sins of everyone, but for a specific group of people. Writing about the duties of the Christian husband, Paul makes this comparison: "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her" (Eph. 5:25). Jesus came to lay down His life for the sheep, those given to Him by the Father. Hear Him tell it: "As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. . . . My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand" (Jn. 10:15, 29).

Irresistible Grace

All that the Father gave to Christ shall irresistibly come to Christ. The apostle Paul was himself a perfect example of this when, on the road to Damascus, he was irresistibly drawn to Christ and changed even while "breathing out threatening and murder against the disciples of the Lord" (Acts 9:1). Later Paul would write: "It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). And as Jesus Himself taught, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day" (Jn. 6:44).

Perseverance of the Saints

"And I WILL raise him up at the last day." That Jesus will surely do. As Paul writes to the Philippians, the Thessalonians, and the Romans: "Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6). "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it" (1 Thess. 5:23, 24). "Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:37-39).

This is a sample of those things of which the apostle Paul was totally convinced and for which he was zealous and enthused; truths from the whole counsel of God that Paul would not shrink from declaring (cf. Acts 20:27); these are the truths of which he wants you and me to be convinced, and for which he wants you and me to be equally zealous and enthusiastic. I trust you realize that these are truths we often refer to as the doctrines of sovereign grace, the five points of Calvinism, the doctrines of the Reformed faith. How zealous and enthusiastic are you for the Reformed faith? How zealous and enthusiastic for others to be so convinced?

Here we come face to face with the desire and motive for personal evangelism-for our witness in our communities. I trust we have a desire to witness to the Reformed faith wherever we live. Such a desire requires more than just the existence of a church building. It requires a personal zeal and enthusiasm for the Reformed faith by each one of us; a desire for others within our community, within our circle of friends, within our families to become as convinced of the Reformed faith as we are because we are convinced it is the truth and we long for others to know that truth. If each of us, singly or jointly as a family, would focus on a friend, a son, a daughter, a brother, a sister, an uncle, an aunt, a relative, another family, etc., those who know and trust us, and lead them to a conviction and love of the Reformed faith, our numbers would increase significantly.

Or, if the truth be told, are we simply content with a "mix and match" theology, with a bland sort of faith? Are we content to blend in with all the other churches and theologies, just believing it's "different strokes for different folks," "I'm okay, you're okay," and why "can't we all just get along?" If this is our attitude, then are we not doing with Paul's teachings the very thing the apostle Peter said many would do, i.e., twisting them to their own destruction?

To be Reformed or not to be Reformed: that is the question. If we don't believe the Reformed faith is worth defending and promoting, then let's be honest. Either we're content to remain the "frozen chosen," content with our own little clique or niche, or we don't agree with and are ignoring Paul and his conviction and desire: "I would to God, that not only you, but also all who hear me this day, were both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains." Let us BE LIKE PAUL .