Open your Bibles, if you would, to Acts chapter 26. Acts chapter 26, we'll continue our study in this wonderful portion of Scripture where Paul is before Agrippa and his wife, Bernice, and also Festus. Also Festus, the Roman governor. And they're in Caesarea, where Paul's being held for two years. by Felix before that. The words of truth. Now last week's sermon centered on Paul's defense before Agrippa. We'll continue reading his defense today. Let's stand up and read verses 15 to 20 together of Acts chapter 26. Acts chapter 26 verses 15 to 20.

And I said, "'Who art thou, Lord? And he said, "'I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. "'But rise and stand up upon thy feet, "'for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, "'to make thee a minister and a witness "'both of these things which thou hast seen, "'and of those things in which I will appear unto thee, "'delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles, "'unto whom now I send thee. to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them, which are sanctified by faith that is in me. Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but showed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coast of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do the works meet for repentance.

My, oh my. So we see Paul preached repentance before God. Repentance is a turning to God. from how we were turning to God. And the Holy Spirit regenerates us by His almighty power. And we're turned to Christ, aren't we? We're turned to Christ. We're turned to see God in a different light. To see the gospel in a totally different light. To see Christ in a different light. He's now our Redeemer. He's now our Savior. He's now our shield. He's now our defense. He's our high tower, my oh my.

And last week we emphasized how through the book of Acts, we've seen God's sovereign will and purpose in orchestration of all events, haven't we? He is in control over all things visible and invisible, including Paul's persecution of Christians, which we looked at last week. and his dramatic conversion. God was in control of all that, wasn't he? And what's it for? For the glory of Christ and the salvation of sinners. We saw through Paul's testimony the radical transformation from enmity, remember? Hatred. He said, I was mad. It's just enmity. He hated God. He hated Christ. So God, by his almighty power, when he's born again, takes him from enmity, hatred towards God, to faith in Christ, love to God, love to Christ, love to believers.

Do you know we need each other? We need each other, beloved. We do. We're a bunch of sinners going through this world and see all these things happening in this world. And we need each other, don't we? We need each other, you know what, to encourage each other? Not to works, but to encourage each other to look to Christ. Just keep looking to Christ. Paul said, set your mind on things above, not on things on this earth. That's hard for us, isn't it? It is, isn't it? Let's be honest. Oh yeah. But that's what we got to keep reminding ourselves. Just rest in Christ. It's all right. It's all right. My. And Paul also affirmed the historical reality of Christ's resurrection. And the necessity of divine revelation. You must be born again. And if you're born again, you repent. Because God gives us faith and repentance, and we turn from our wicked ways, and we turn to Christ. Now, we're still sinners, but now we're safe sinners. That sin doesn't have as much power as it once had over us, does it? Now we mourn over sin. My, oh my.

And all that All that comes about, not by human effort, but by the sovereign power of God, the Holy Spirit. You know, modern religion has taken away, taken away the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. You know what they say now? And this is true. They say, pray this prayer and now you're saved. Where's the regenerating power of God the Holy Spirit? Repeat this prayer after me. Now you're saved.

Paul went into, he went into Ephesus. He went in there preaching the gospel. A bunch of idol worshipers, haters of God. And he preached the gospel. And God, the Holy Spirit, saved them, saved some. The church at Ephesus regenerated them. They were born again by His almighty power.

Paul didn't go in there and say, well, everybody bow your head now. And those of you who aren't saved, put up your hand. That's what I've been before I became a grace preacher. I've been in these churches. Bow your head and repeat a prayer. Eyes down. Put your hand up if you want me to pray for your salvation. You know, every time I was in their eyes, I wanted to look up. Did you? Hey, Chris? Who's got their hand up this week? And then they'd say, pray this prayer. And then they'd say this, which never sat right with me after the Lord saved me. They'd say, now you're part of the family of God. Just because they repeated a prayer.

Where is the Holy Spirit regeneration? I'm going to try to get some of these tracks. They're called decisional regeneration. They're put out by a group in Florida. And it's basically a tract that tells you that praying that prayer is what's called decisional regeneration.

There's no work of the Holy Spirit there. But we are not saved by our works. Not by works which we have done, but according to His mercy. And praying that prayer is a work, beloved. But according to His mercy, He has saved us. We were that lost sheep, Brother Travis. We were that lost coin. That lost coin is a dead inanimate object, isn't it? We were dead in trespasses and sins. Couldn't help ourselves.

And who found us? The shepherd found us. All glory be to God. My oh my. And the born-again believer is bought to see and recognize our own spiritual condition, aren't we? Lost and needy. See, before a sinner can be saved, they have to know they're lost. And what does God the Holy Spirit do? He shows us we're lost, doesn't he? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Paul was Lost and going around killing Christians. My oh my. And you know what? Even as saved sinners, we're still in just as much need of Christ as we ever were. When he found us. I need him every day, do you? I need his strength every day. Every day. I need to know that He'll never leave me. Nor forsake me. Mine.

And Paul's conversion to Christ was a miracle of sovereign grace. And you know, every single believer is a miracle of sovereign grace. Trophies of the grace of God. My. Called by the Holy Spirit of God through the preaching of God's glorious gospel of salvation in Christ alone, by his blood alone, through his glorious sin-atoning death alone, saved through his blood and righteousness. The preaching of the true gospel of God's sovereign grace exalts our great King in providence and in salvation. Paul did not know that Christ was the promised Messiah in his natural state, but he sure did after the Lord saved him, didn't he?

My, oh my, look at this. Saul hears a voice from heaven. He asks, who art thou, Lord? He's persecuting believers. Look how close the union is, Brother Brian, between a believer and Christ. So much so that when people are persecuting us, they're persecuting Christ. My, look at this. You heard these words, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. Now, remember this too.

Here, by the sovereign grace of God, according to his will and purpose, just like today, we're gathered here according to the will of God. Every one of us who's supposed to be here is here, according to the will of God. All those people that were gathered together, and remember, Remember, it wasn't just Bernice and Agrippa and Festus, it was all their counselors, all the people of their courts, because Agrippa was a king. He'd have an entourage following him, right, who helped him.

And they're all gathered there by the will and purpose of God. Remember that centurion? Remember Peter going to the centurion's house? And I can imagine Peter thought, I'm gonna go preach to that centurion. And he walks in there, and there's a whole room full of people. And the Lord saved a whole bunch of them. My, there's a whole bunch of people here. And every single one of those souls is there according to the will and purpose of God. Every one of them.

And Paul, Paul is gonna preach to those who have been gathered by the sovereign grace and power of God. And he's going to do the will of his new master. He's gonna preach Christ. He's gonna preach Christ. He'd received a commission from the Lord, right? Every preacher has his commission. Preach Christ and Him crucified. Go ye into the world and preach the gospel. Don't preach self-help. Right? Don't preach philosophy. Don't preach psychiatry. Preach Christ. Preach the gospel to every creature.

My, that's Paul's commission. Today we'll see that after Paul had just declared the truth of who commissioned him to preach, what he was commissioned to preach, let us read verses 16 to 18 now of Acts chapter 28, where we read these words from Jesus Christ to his ordained apostle. So the Lord is gonna tell him what he wants him to do. 16 to 18, Acts chapter 26.

But rise, this is on the road to Damascus, but rise and stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose. You see, God does everything on purpose, doesn't he? According to his sovereign will. You want to know what the will of God was for the world, for today? Read tomorrow's headlines. Right? He's allowed these things to come to pass. And lest anyone say God is the author of evil, He's not. Man, all He's got to do for us to sin is leave us alone. My, my oh my. And the born again believers bought to see and recognize our own spiritual condition again is lost, lost.

Look at this. for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen and of those things in which I will appear unto thee, delivering thee from the people," that's the Jews first, that's the Jews, they're the people, and from the Gentiles. We've seen that happen, right? We've seen our Lord deliver Paul from the Jews. We've seen our Lord deliver Paul from the Gentiles, both. Delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee. Look at that. He has a commission to go to the Gentiles. Now that would turn Jews upside down, wouldn't it? Remember when he said, I'm sent to the Gentiles? Remember how mad they got? Who's sending them?

The Lord. What are we here? Gentiles. Praise God he sent Paul to the Gentiles, eh? But was always part of his plan. Here we are born again now. Saved, redeemed by the blood of Christ. Isn't it wonderful? We have the same gospel that the apostle had. Sovereign grace of God. Look at this. To open their eyes. Now only the Holy Spirit can do this, but he's telling them, go preach the gospel. To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may Receive the forgiveness of what? Sins. How many sins? Amen, Brother Travis. All sins. All sins. And inheritance among them which are sanctified, that means to be made holy, by faith that is in me. My. Now the Lord's preachers, we must never be exalted to a priestly role. I appreciate you asking me to pray for you and I will pray for you anytime. But my prayers are no more effectual as yours. But I will gladly pray with you and pray for you.

Right? We preachers aren't priests. We're fellow sinners saved by grace. Oh my. We have no priest but Christ, do we? He's our high priest, isn't he? See, this is why you're not to exalt preachers to certain levels. I've seen this in every group I've been with. I've seen preachers exalted to a status that they shouldn't be exalted to. And I call it preacher worship. You ever seen that? Preacher leaves and half the congregation leaves.

Why? Because they were following the man. My oh my. And I'm not talking about the ones who left because of other things. I'm talking about the ones who leave specifically because that preacher leaves. My. And you know, Paul dealt with it too. You know that? You know Paul dealt with that? Read 1 Corinthians.

Some say, I'm of Apollos. I'm of this preacher. I'm of that preacher. That preacher's my favorite preacher. I've tried to stop saying that word favorite now. And just saying, I really enjoy that preacher. Seriously. Guys, I'm just a sinner saved by grace. I love you, and I know you love me. And we're knit together in love. But I'm just a sinner saved by grace. We have the same high priest, don't we? The Lord Jesus Christ. And let us look together. Let us encourage one another to rest in Christ. To rest in Christ. And I'll tell you what. You know what?

Grace preachers were the first preachers I ever heard that called themselves sinners. When I was in religion, man, you'd think that preacher never sinned. He's always saying, you sinners! I say, we. We're a bunch of sinners together, aren't we? Saved by grace of God. Oh yeah. And I love what Scott said. I'm going to keep saying it. The ground at the foot of the cross is level. Even with Paul. Even with Peter, even with John. My. No preacher can give sinners life. No preacher can give sinners faith in Christ. It's a work of God. It's all work of God. The Holy Spirit alone can give life. The Holy Spirit alone can give faith. The Holy Spirit alone can give repentance.

Now, do we exercise our faith? Do we exercise repentance? Absolutely, all the time. All the time. God uses the preaching of the gospel. He uses a saved sinner to preach to lost sinners and saved sinners. Isn't that amazing? clay vessels. He uses pots with holes in them. Isn't that amazing? We've all been broken by this world, haven't we? Born dead in trespasses and sins. But God heals the brokenhearted, doesn't he?

Oh my. And every God-ordained preacher has received this same commission that Paul received, to preach Christ. To preach Christ. Preach the word of truth. Oh my. We've received our marching orders. our marching orders from the same exalted Christ of God who commissioned Paul. And as all believers, we've received our marching orders, haven't we? We're marching to Zion, aren't we? My. And my hope is that you'd be comforted by these messages of God's grace as we tread along that way to Zion. Oh, my.

And how did Paul know the gospel? The same way we know the gospel, by divine revelation. That's the only way. One minute he's mad, just like almost insane with hatred towards Christ. The Lord says, I'm Jesus, whom thou persecuted. He's born again. And now they marvel that he who once persecuted the faith preaches Christ. That's a miracle. And so is every believer. A miracle of the grace of God. And no preacher places themselves in the ministry. It's a calling. It's a calling by God. God puts his preachers in, God equips his preachers, God makes his preachers who they are. Paul said, who's sufficient for these things? Travis said, don't we feel that? Who's sufficient? Who's sufficient to get up and preach the gospel? None of us. But yet God, in his mercy and grace, chooses some to preach the gospel.

And I'm just telling this, I'm just one sinner telling other sinners where to find bread. Like we're starving. There's bread here. The bread of life. Remember that song? Feed me. Feed me, feed me, feed me. Guide me, O thou great Jehovah. Feed me with the bread of life.

That's Christ. And preachers are equipped by God and ordained by God and sent by God to preach His gospel. And when the Lord Jesus Christ commissioned Paul to preach his gospel, we see in verse 16, he said this, I've appeared unto thee for this purpose. Look at that, that's amazing.

To make thee a minister. Who made him a minister? God made him a minister. You know, I've told you guys this, if you told me 30, 40 years ago I'd be a preacher, I'd have laughed you to scorn. I would have. And here I am. God makes the preacher. It's Him. We got nothing to boast in, do we? Nothing. Everything I know, everything you know comes by revelation of God through Christ, through the illuminating power of God the Holy Spirit.

Look at this, I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister. God makes his preachers preachers. And to witness both of these things which thou hast seen. So Paul's conversion to Christ, again, comes through the miracle of the new birth. He's born again, he's given faith and repentance before God. And we see here, it's purposed by God, for this purpose. It's purposed by God. Before the foundation of the world, Paul was delivered from darkness, but it was planned and purposed by God, and we see at this point here, Paul's delivered from the darkness and the depths of his depravity, from the power of Satan, because it was Paul's appointed time of love on the road to Damascus.

And that's equally true of every born-again, blood-washed believer. There comes a time of love. My, why does, I'll tell you this, why does the gospel message resonate with you? But if you hear something else and you know it's wrong, you're just like, oh my gosh. Because God's taught you the gospel. God's taught you the truth. I remember Henry saying, it's not what most of these preachers say, it's what they don't say. Right, sister? Yeah. It's what they don't say. My.

We boldly proclaim that Christ is all. Without Christ, you cannot be saved. You must be born again. You must be. By the power of God, the Holy Spirit. And when you are, you're going to praise Him. You're going to, you're going to, you're going to see, you're going to see gospel meetings in a whole different way. Not something you don't want to go to, something you want to be there. You want to hear.

Tell me about my savior. Karen and Travis, Karen wrote, you know, I just needed to hear that message on Thursday. And then today she come in with Travis and said, it's so good to be here. My, because of the weather, they couldn't come for what, three weeks? Three weeks, yeah. But it's a joy to come back, isn't it, brother? My.

I love Sermon Audio for that very reason, that folks can tune in. We had 23 people online with us last week. That's amazing. Listen to the gospel. Absolutely incredible. And Paul's, again, conversion is a miracle. Look at what the Lord says. He appeared to Paul with a divine purpose as well, to make Paul a minister and a witness, both of these things which he had seen and that he would yet see. He's seen the power of God at work. He's going to see the power of God at work even more. And our Lord told Paul that he was the one who would send him to preach. Look at that.

If one is sent to preach, they're sent by God to preach the gospel. To preach the gospel. And Paul was first to go to the Jews and then the Gentiles. And Paul was told that the ungodly Jews and ungodly Gentiles would oppose his preaching. But God would deliver him. God will deliver him. You just go, Paul, and preach the truth. You just go and preach salvation through Christ alone.

These people will manifest hatred towards you because of me. Remember, the Lord told his disciples, marvel not that the world hates you, they hated me first. And they hate Christ in us, is what it is. If you receive any persecution for what you believe, it's because of Christ.

And we don't have to do anything, do we? My, oh my. So Paul sent the preachers to the Jews and the Gentiles and told that they would oppose the preaching of the gospel, manifest their vehement hatred against Christ, manifest their hatred towards his truth, But Paul was assured that God himself would deliver him. Rest assured, beloved, God will never leave us nor forsake us. Never.

Let's look at verse 17 of Acts chapter 26. Delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee. So Paul is sent to preach the gospel, and God says, I'm going to deliver you. They're going to come against you, but I'm going to deliver you. Look at verse 18.

To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan. That's where we were. We were in darkness. Same thing that happened to these Gentiles happened to every born-again blood-washed believer. Look at this. To turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive, what? Forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. See, our faith has one center, doesn't it, Brother Zane? And that's Christ. That's Christ. And note that all the believer's sanctification is in Christ. Oh yeah. From an inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in me. Doesn't say mostly sanctified, does it? It says sanctified. That just means to be made holy. Do you feel holy? We don't feel holy, do we?

But God looks at us and sees Christ. Oh, it's just amazing. And those who hear and believe the gospel of Christ were once spiritually blind, spiritually deaf, dead in trespasses and sins. You know what Scripture says? We were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. That's where God found us.

Not a good person. A rebel. Praise God for his saving power. And I love that. Heaven forgiven you. I told Crystal this again this week. All sins, A-L-L. Everyone you know you did, everyone you don't know you did, and everyone you will do. That's glorious, isn't it? And we sin more than we want to, don't we? Oh, yeah. Because we have repentance before God now. And this is the cry. Repent. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Repentance is a change of mind, right? How we think about God. How we think about sin. How we think about Christ. How we think about the gospel. Look at Paul. He said, well, before the law, I was blameless. And then he says at the end of his life, I'm the chief of sinners. He's had repentance before God, hasn't he? He's had a change of mind of how he thought about himself.

My, it's a miracle, beloved. It's a miracle. Hmm. And under the preaching of the glorious gospel, the Holy Spirit gives true saving faith to spiritually bankrupt sinners, to spiritually bankrupt sinners who have absolutely nothing. We don't have anything to offer to God, do we, for our salvation? No. And he enables, by making us willing and by giving us faith to believe, Hell deserving sinners to receive Christ. It's glorious in this gospel. Paul was not ignorant of God's sovereignty, was he? No. He knew that God freely bestowed that mercy upon him and upon all his chosen people. How?

Through the merits of Christ alone. Through his perfect sin-atoning work. My, true saving faith is a gift of God. And Christ has obtained eternal redemption for us. Listen to this. Neither by the blood of goats or calves, but by his own blood, that's speaking of Christ, he entered in once unto the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. He obtained it. And he gives it to us as a free gift. How did he obtain it? Through his blood and righteousness. Sin is so bad, sin is so wicked towards God that he had to send his own son to die in our room and place. Now we look at that, he died for me?

This is glorious. This is amazing. Never let that become commonplace, beloved. Everybody's like, oh yeah, I'm saved. We're saved by grace, through faith, according to the mercy and will of God. That's incredible. That's amazing. And every sinner under Paul's preaching who saw the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ had their spiritually blind eyes open. They were born again. Those who were God's elect were born again. My, how by the enlightening power of God, the Holy Spirit. It's his work. It's not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. My.

And those who became true followers of the Lord Jesus Christ under the preaching of God's sovereign grace heard the life-giving voice of the resurrected, glorified God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And all who had been raised from a state of spiritual death under the ministry of Paul had been quickened by the Holy Spirit of God. They were born again. And Paul's preaching faith and repentance And God gives that gift.

Isn't that amazing? That's amazing. Jonah 2.9 says this, and this is how we can sum it all up. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pray that I have vowed salvation is of the Lord. Period. Look at that. Salvation. is of the Lord. Five wonderful words for every born-again believer. Five encouraging words. God will never leave us nor forsake us because salvation's of the Lord. Those he saves, he says, no one can pluck them out of my hand. No one.

And remember here, remember where Paul is. He's in a room full of hostile religious pagans, idol worshipers. And he's saying this stuff. These people are hostile to the gospel. We're going to see where Festus says, you're insane, Paul. All this studying you've done made you insane. No, it hadn't. You ever run into people who knew you before you were saved? And they're like, what happened to you? Well, the Lord saved me. Well, you seem a little different. Yeah, the Lord saved me. Hey, Travis.

Well, let's go out here and do this. No, I don't want to do that anymore. My, why? Because I'd dishonor God if I did that. I remember one guy told me, he said, did you get ahold of some new weed that we didn't get ahold of, Brother Wayne? And I said, no. Nope, I didn't get ahold of nothing like that. And my response back then was, I'm high on Jesus. Do we need anything but our King? He gives us all joy, doesn't he? We don't need those things. We have Christ. We have Christ. My.

So he's here in a group of people, they're hostile to the gospel. He's standing before Hephaestus and King Agrippa, and all it was to take to bring about Paul's execution was for them to go take his head off. But see, God told them, you're going to preach to the Jews and the Gentiles. They're going to hate you, but I'm going to deliver you. Because remember, he said, you have to go to Rome. If God says Paul has to go to Rome, can anybody thwart that?

Nobody. My. You know, when God saves, he keeps. He keeps. Lord, help my unbelief. Right? Oh, my. Paul had taught that absolutely nothing, Paul being taught by the Holy Spirit of God and by God himself, that absolutely nothing could happen to him. He has to go to Rome. The Lord told him that, didn't he? He told him that. So in confidence of God's sovereignty and according to his word, the word of truth, he rested in that. Paul preached the true gospel of saving grace with a sincere desire that his new master, the Lord Jesus Christ, would make the gospel effectual.

I always pray, God, make those messages effectual to the body here, and then when they go out on the internet, make them effectual to whoever will hear them, whether they be a lost sheep or a saved sheep. Comfort the saved sheep and draw the lost sheep to you. but feed your people. First and foremost, these messages are for us. And my prayer is that the Lord would feed you through the preaching of the gospel. D.J. Ward used to say, before you take the gospel out to other places, by visiting places, make sure you feed the sheep at home.

I love that. This is the most important place for me to be right here with you all, according to the will and purpose of God. Isn't that amazing? That's amazing. God planned and purposed what we have here in eternity. God knit our hearts together in love. My, it's glorious. Let's read verses 19 to 23 here and see what Paul says here. He says, Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient. He's not disobedient to the heavenly vision. So when the Lord told him, you're going to go, look at this.

But showed first unto them of Damascus and at Jerusalem and throughout all the coast of Judea and then to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God. Must repent. Again, that's a change of mind. And turn to God and do works, meet for repentance. For these causes, the Jews caught me in a temple and went about to kill me. Having therefore obtained help of God, look at that. Think of what you're going through, these different things.

You're getting help from God. Sometimes we don't feel that way, but we are. Oh my, he strengthens us. Having obtained help of God, we need to just underline that, don't we? I continue on to this day. The only reason we continue is because we have help from God. Isn't that wonderful? He takes care of his own, doesn't he?

Witnessing both to the small and great, to the poor and to the king, and everybody in between. Saying none other things than these, those which the prophets and Moses said, did say, should come. Christ is the Messiah. The prophets and Moses said the Messiah is coming. Paul said, here he is. Christ is the Messiah. Look at this. What did they say? That Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead and should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles.

Now, what is Paul preaching from currently in our text? He's preaching from the Old Testament, isn't he? This is why he says, saying none of the things in those which the prophets of Moses did say come. When I was in religion, they said the Old Testament was for the Jews and the New Testament was for God's people. But we see that's a lie.

Because Paul preached Christ to the Gentiles from the Old Testament. Isn't that amazing? And look at how plainly he declares this. Look how plainly he declares this. That what he experienced had come from Jesus, who's seated on this sovereign power, throne of power. My, look at the, look what it says here.

Repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance. So Paul's saying, this is the message My Lord Jesus sent me to preach. Repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance. Works that were fit for repentance not only consisted of turning away from a religion of self-righteousness, not only turning away from a lifestyle of sinful living, but also turning to the true and living God, the Lord Jesus Christ. who suffered, bled, and died for the sins of his people. My. And Paul was sent to open the eyes of those he preached to, to turn them from darkness to light.

But he knew that it was the risen Christ alone who could do that. So he preaches Christ. He preaches Christ. He's the only one who can take us from the kingdom of darkness, and God the Father takes us from the kingdom of darkness and puts us into the kingdom of God's dear Son. How? By the regenerating power of God the Holy Spirit. Look at that, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Salvations of the Lord. Oh my, it's wonderful. Christ is the great prophet who would rise up in Israel, whom sinners should hearken to. Shiloh, that's Christ, to whom the gathering of the people should be. He's both a light to the Jews and the Gentiles.

How? Well, through the preaching of the gospel. My. So Paul, like all of God's ordained preachers, used the Holy Scriptures. Look what he says here. For these causes the Jews caught me in the temple and went about to kill me, having therefore obtained help of God. Oh, praise God for his help. I continue on to this day, witnessing both to the small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come.

That Christ should suffer. He had to. To save us from our sins. That he should be the first to rise from the dead. By his own power. And should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles. We've been taken from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. We see he who now we see by faith he who is the light of the world. Now look at verse 24 and 25. Look at this. Look at this.

And as he thus spoke for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Festus wants everybody to hear him. Paul, thou art beside thyself. Much learning doth make thee mad. You're insane, Paul. Look at Paul. This is awesome. Look at Paul. But he said, I'm not mad. He's talking to a Roman governor. Look at the boldness and the fortitude God gave him. And in no way did he say it in an offensive way. He just said it how it is. But he said, I'm not mad, most noble Festus. Look at that. He's even in control of his words, right? Giving him honor where honor's due, most noble Festus. but speak forth the words of truth in soberness. You might call me mad, but I'm going to keep preaching the truth. Like when people say, what happened to you? The Lord saved me. He saved me. Now I preach the truth. My.

So we see Festus didn't believe. He didn't believe what Paul was preaching. Now, Festus knew absolutely nothing about the writings of Moses. He was a Roman. He didn't know anything about the prophets. But Paul, he's preaching to Agrippa and Bernice, and they know Agrippa has went through the law.

My! God's holy word was useless to these Roman Gentiles as any other book they had read. And that can be true of most unregenerate people in this world. Did you ever look at the Bible before you were saved? Nothing there. No value. But after you're saved, oh my, this is a word of truth. This book's alive.

Oh my. My, oh my. And Festus could not deny Paul's enthusiasm, his zealous spirit, or his bold preaching. And he said with a loud voice, thou art beside thyself. You're crazy, man. Oh. Saying, you're insane, Paul. You're not in your right mind. Much learning made you mad. Festus brazenly let Paul know that he's speaking of a heavenly vision of people coming back from the dead, of hearing voices. He says, this is ludicrous. That's how it was to him. Absurd in his mind.

But you know, to Paul, it was the power of God and salvation. The gospel gives life to some. and hardens others. But it always accomplishes God's will. It always accomplishes God's will. And Paul, knowing that the gospel was nothing but foolishness, the festus quickly directed his attention to King Agrippa, the man who knew the holy scriptures were God's inspired words. How do we know that? Well, next week, we'll see that. And the gripper's gonna say, you almost persuaded me to be a Christian, Paul. My, oh my. Praise the Lord Jesus Christ for saving our souls. Ain't it glorious? Just absolutely glorious. Brother Dan, can you close us in prayer?