Let's turn to Acts chapter 24.
Acts chapter 24. When you are younger, sometimes
you have a tendency to think that this thing of the gospel
is not very urgent. You think that you have a long
life ahead of you, and so you think, I'll just sort of put
this off. And when I am a little older, and there's
not so much going on right now, you know, not so much going on
as it is right now, then I'll look into these things. But the
sad thing is, is the heart gets harder and harder and harder
in sin. And if you put off seeking the
Lord, you probably won't ever seek him. Most don't. Most don't. You ought to really try to set
yourself some time in the week to read God's word and to seek to understand the gospel. It's going to take God's grace
to make you do it. It's going to take God's grace
to give you understanding and faith to believe. But He has
given you some light in the fact that He's given you this gospel.
You've got some sermon notes and a website you can go to.
You've got articles and bulletins you can read. You've got the
gospel preached to you. Don't just come here because
mom and daddy makes you come here. Come here and hear and
then go home and apply yourself to what you heard. That's what
you do and anything else that's important to you. And we get our schedules so full,
so jam packed full of stuff that we become slaves to keep it up
and we have no other time for anything else. Satan I could
just see him just dancing and laughing at that and having a
ball with that all these things that you think are so very important
and They're not even the least bit important, but the one thing
that he is Is not even in the heart of the mind not even thought
of Our text tonight is a time when
Apostle Paul had been wrongfully charged and he had been brought
to this unjust judge named Felix. He was a governor, he was a judge,
and he put Paul in jail and he hoped that Paul would give him
a bribe for him to let Paul out of jail. And so he allowed people to come
in to see Paul and Paul to come back and forth and have a little
bit of liberty. But it was all for this purpose. He wanted to
be able to call Paul when he wanted him and in hopes that
Paul would give him some money and he would let him go. Let's
read here what happened. Through all that, God gave Paul
an opportunity to preach the gospel to this man and to his
wife. Now listen to this in verse 24.
Acts 24, 24. After certain days, when Felix
came with his wife, Drusilla, which was a Jewish, that means
she was a Jew, she was, they were unlawfully married. She
was married when they began having relations, and then they married,
and it wasn't lawful for her to be marrying him. He wasn't,
it was not lawful. So anyway, it says, they came
there and he sent for Paul and he heard him concerning the faith
in Christ. Paul preached the gospel to him.
And as Paul reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come,
Felix trembled. Felix trembled and he answered,
go thy way for this time. Just right now you go, go your
way for now. When I have a convenient season,
when it's convenient for me, I'll call for you. He hoped also
that money should have been given him of Paul that he might loose
him. Wherefore, he sent for him the oftener and communed with
him. He did call him again, but it
wasn't because he wanted to hear what was preached. It was because
he wanted Paul to give him money. He was trying to get Paul to
give him money, but after two years, Porteous Festus came into
Felix's room. And Felix, willing to show the
Jews a pleasure, willing to give them their way, left Paul bound
in prison. Now, our subject tonight is a
convenient season, a convenient season. And my greatest fear
for some of you who hear me right now is that you're going to wait
In your mind, you're thinking, I'm going to wait to believe
on Christ until I have a convenient season. Today is the day of salvation. That's the point of this message.
Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day of grace. This
right now is the convenient season. The best time to apply our hearts
to wisdom, the best time to open the book and compare what we've
heard with what's written in these scriptures is right now. It's not tomorrow, and it's not
in 10 years or 20 years down the road. It's right now. This
is the convenient season. Now, first, let me preach to
you like Paul preached to Felix. It's best to preach to sinners
where they are. It's best to preach to them pointedly
where they are. And I'm going to try to do that
tonight. I'm going to use you a whole lot more than I normally
do. Normally I say us and we. But I'm going to say you tonight
because I want to preach pointedly on purpose. That's what Paul
did when he stood here with this man and his wife. It says here,
Paul knew Felix was a man who didn't obey the law. He knew
he was a man who didn't uphold the law of the land. He knew
he was an unrighteous man. So the first thing Paul does
is he meets him right there at that point. And he reasoned with
him of righteousness, of righteousness. Now, everybody here that I preach
to are, as far as I know, you're upstanding folks. You're not
like Felix. Fairly obedient, fairly, you
know, not outwardly immoral, but outward morality is not righteousness. That's not righteousness. That's
not the righteousness of God. The problem with righteousness
is that we were born guilty. We were born guilty. We didn't
have to commit a crime. We didn't have to commit a sin
to become guilty. We were born guilty. Because when Adam sinned,
we sinned in Adam. Everybody did that. In Adam,
all died. In Adam, all died. By one man's
disobedience, every person that came from Adam's loins, which
is everybody on the top side of this earth throughout history,
except Christ. We all died, we sinned, we transgressed,
we became guilty, unrighteous in Adam. Now, everybody that's
not been made to rest in Christ, to rest entirely in Christ, to
trust Christ alone as our righteousness, everybody who's not been made
to rest in Him only, Right now, you are unrighteous. Right now, where you sit, if
you were to perish tonight, the wrath of God would abide on you. I don't know how to get to emphasize
the wrath of God. I don't know how to emphasize
it. I mean, you could try to think of just the worst, evil,
wicked person you could think of, and that don't even come
close. We're talking about just wrath. We're talking about righteous
wrath. The scripture says, He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. Right now, you that believe on
Christ, you have life right now. Everlasting life. And he that
believeth not the Son shall not see life. But the wrath of God
abideth. on Him. We're terribly bad to
compare ourselves with other people. We like to look at other
people and think, well, I'm not as bad as that person. But here's
the question. Right here, right now, do you
believe on Christ? This season, right now, this
time, right now, here's the question. Have you cast all your care on
the Lord Jesus Christ and rested entirely in Him to present you
to God the very righteousness of God in Him? Not any righteousness
of your own, not anything you've done, but only the righteousness
of Christ. Have you trusted Him alone? Confessed
your sins to God, confessed your works as nothing and rested in
Christ alone. Because that's the only way a
man's made the righteousness of God is through faith, through
trusting Christ. So it doesn't matter if you compare
yourselves to others and think, well, I'm not, I think I'm doing
pretty good. That's not even how a person's
made the righteousness of God. It's by God's grace. It's by
Christ doing all the work. It's by the Spirit giving you
faith to cast all your care on Him. And through faith, God says,
I'm imputing to you what this my son has made you righteous. That's the only way we can be
made righteous. Go over to Romans chapter 2 just a minute. If you
haven't confessed Christ, this is what the scripture says. Listen
to this. Listen to this now. It doesn't
matter how religious a man is or how much he's worked or how
much he thinks he's obeyed God. Listen to the scripture here.
Romans 2 verse 1. Therefore thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For wherein thou judgest
another, thou condemnest thyself. You think about that. When a
person looks at somebody and says, that person right there,
that person's a sinner. Look, that's awful what they
did. I wouldn't do what they did. No, by saying that's awful,
we're condemning ourselves. Do you see any sin in the world?
Do you see people in the world that are unrighteous, that do
things that you would say, that's just unrighteous? Yeah, all the
time. That's what the news is about. They ought to call it the six
o'clock unrighteousness, because that's what it is. It's just
unrighteousness. But by looking at that and saying,
that's unrighteous, we're saying, that's my condemnation. I'm condemning
myself. That's me. For thou that judgest, doest
the same thing. The same thing. That's why it
goes on in Romans 3, in verse 10, he says this. He says, we're
all alike, we're all under sin, as it is written, there's none
righteous, no not one. Everybody under the sound of
my voice, not resting in Christ, is not righteous. That's the
description of you. Not righteous. If you're not
trusting Christ, not resting in Christ, you push away this
word of grace and you say, I'll believe on it when the season's
convenient. If you pass from life tonight, God's going to
say, guilty, guilty. And then this is the other thing
about righteousness. God won't accept anything but
his son. He will not accept anything but his son. That's all. Christ was made under the law
for a reason. God came down and took human
flesh and made himself under the law for a purpose, to redeem
his people from under the law. And then Christ was made sin. He was made sin, which his people
was. He is that one man standing there
representing all his people with all the sin of his people on
him, owning our sins as his own, and God poured out everything
that his people deserved on Christ alone. And he bore it, faithfully
bore that wrath, separated from God, and suffered the condemnation
that his people ought to have suffered, and in doing so, condemned
death for his people. And now he's risen. And God says
to you and me now, because he's satisfied, his justice is satisfied,
he's justified his people, and he's saying now through this
gospel, now you listen up. This is the season. This is my
beloved son, God said, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. You hear what he has to say.
Well, then what does Christ have to say? This is what Christ says
right now, not down the road, not 10 years from now. He says
is right now, right now. Come unto me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. That ought to make us just, in
our hearts, just cast everything on Him. Lord, I'm coming to you. I'm burdened down. I need you to take this weight
of guilt and judgment off of me and tell me, show me I'm righteous
in you. He said, come to me. Take my
yoke upon you and learn of me. Wouldn't it be nice to trade
the yoke of the law and a yoke of burden and a yoke of sin and
a yoke of workmongers and all that burden, that whip and all
that burden, to have Christ's light and easy
yoke, who says, I'm meek and I'm lowly in heart. Come to me. Come sit down, son, and talk
to me. I'll hear you. and you'll find rest for your
soul. Only a fool would ignore that. Only a fool would say,
now go your way, I'll hear it when I have convenient time.
What haughtiness, what arrogance. The only way a sinner like you
and me can have the righteousness of God in Christ is through faith
in Christ. Now go to Romans 10. Romans chapter
10. Look here with me at Romans 10
and look at the first four. Romans 10, 4. Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth, only
to those that believe. If a man said you still got to
go back to the law of Mount Sinai for anything, he don't believe
Christ. He don't believe Christ. He hasn't
been given a new heart, sanctified, made holy, so that he looks away
from himself to rest entirely in Christ. He had been given
that, or else he'd cease from his whatever the vain requirement
is that he's been told he's got to perform. I'm telling you something,
when God makes this clear in your heart, you'll cease from
what... When men tell you there's something required of you, you'll
know that ain't right. That goes against what my Lord
has said. That makes his death vanity. That frustrates the grace
of God and declares Christ's death to be totally in vain.
That's not what I'm going after. Why? Because he believes Christ.
Look here. For Moses describes the righteousness
which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things
shall live by them. You can't ever have come into
this world in sin. And once you're in this world
under the law, you can't ever think a vile thought Do a vile
deed or say a vile word. Ever. Ever. And you can have
life by the law. That's impossible for you and
me. We come into the world guilty. But look at this now. But what
says the word of faith? Look here at verse 6. But the righteousness which is
of the faith speaketh on this wise. Say not in your heart who
shall ascend into heaven. Have any of you ever sat here
and thought when you hear the gospel preached, Who's going to take
me up to heaven? Or who's going to ascend into
heaven? Who's going to do that? That's to bring Christ down again.
Christ has already done that. That's unbelief. That's not belief.
Look, and it's not this, or who shall descend in the deep? Who's
going to die for me? That's to bring Christ again
from the dead. He's already done that work. See, that's still
to say there's something else to be done. What he's saying
there, faith doesn't say there's something yet to be done. Faith
doesn't say there's a requirement yet to be done. Here's what faith
says. What saith it? The word is nigh
thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is the word of faith
which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead, that is to confess that he's victorious. That's to confess that he really
did purge the sin of his people, accomplish our redemption and
make His people righteous. That's the only reason God raised
Him from the dead. That's what it is to believe.
It's not just to give a mental assent to the fact that I believe
He was raised from the dead. It's to believe He is the Savior
that accomplished salvation. Watch. You do that, He says,
and thou shalt be saved. You believe on Him and you'll
be saved. That's so simple, isn't it? It's so simple. It's not any harder than that.
Believe on Christ and you shall be saved. Look, for with the
heart man believeth unto righteousness. Believing on Christ, you're believing
unto righteousness. And with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. For the scripture says, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. You won't be ashamed
of him. You won't be ashamed to confess
him. You won't be ashamed to be baptized publicly confessing
him. You won't be ashamed of his people,
of his gospel. And you won't be ashamed for
trusting him. You'll never be put to shame
for putting all your trust in him. Now your friends will tell
you, don't do that. Your friends will tell you this
is all a, you know, don't get carried away in that. If you
want to go and attend and all that, but now don't, just don't
get too carried away in that. because they're ashamed of it,
that's why. But God's people aren't ashamed of it. They're
not ashamed of Him. And also then, Felix was unholy. He was an intemperate man. He
was there, sitting there with his adulterous relationship,
and he was sitting there before Paul, acting like he was a pious
man, and Paul began to talk to him about his intemperance. He
reasoned with him of temperance. Temperance is self-control. Temperance
is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Let me read you this. The works
of the flesh, the works that come from our flesh is adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulation, wrath, strife, sedition, heresy, envying, murders,
drunkenness, revelings, and all sorts of things like that. And
nobody that It's left in that shall inherit the kingdom of
God. But the fruit of the Spirit, now do you reckon Paul talked
about that? I guarantee you he did to Felix.
I bet you he sat there before Felix and said, a man who's intemperate
is never going to inherit the kingdom of God. And Felix got
the point. Felix knew exactly what he was
saying. But here's what he said now. But the fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. Against such, there is no law.
Whatever God creates, there's no law against it. Because it's
what God will have. It's what God purposed from eternity. But you see, that fruit is a
fruit of holiness. That fruit is a fruit of God
sanctifying somebody. And that's the point Paul's dealing
with here. This is a work that's got to
be done by God. God has to put the seed. You're
not going to have any fruit. We're talking about fruit here.
Temperance is fruit. Do you ever have fruit before
putting a seed in the ground? You got to put a seed in the
ground. What does the ground do? Nothing. The ground's got
to be broken. And the ground's got to have
the seed put in it. And the ground's got to have the rain, the showers
come down on it, and the sun come down on it. And it's got
to be tended to. And then the fruit comes. Well,
you're the ground. I'm the ground. Christ said that
in His parable of the four types of ground. We're the ground.
We're not going to bring forth anything but what, if it's good,
it's only going to be by Him. Christ the seed has got to be
put into the ground through this gospel. And then God will bring
forth the fruit from that. He's telling him, you've got
to be sanctified by the Lord. You've got to be created anew
in the heart by the Lord. That's the only time a sinner
is going to take sides with God against his own self. He won't
do it until then. Until he's been made holy. That's when he'll quit boasting
about his law obedience and his works of sanctification and all
his works whereby he's just getting better, better, better, better,
better. Then God will show him, you're the worst. And that's
when he'll quit boasting and he'll believe God. That's when
a man's been sanctified. That's when he's taken out of
that vanity and walking now in the Spirit. And that's what he's
telling him here. It's by God making Christ righteousness
and sanctification unto us. If he just made him righteousness
unto you, He couldn't do that without first making Him sanctification
unto you. He's got to give you a new heart
before you're going to believe on Him for righteousness. They
go together. And you can't be made sanctification without Him
showing you Christ is all your righteousness. He's going to
make His... He makes Christ's righteousness
and sanctification unto us. And when He does that, we'll
depend entirely upon Him. We'll look to Christ. We'll follow
Christ. We'll walk after Christ. We'll depend entirely upon Christ
for everything. Holiness of heart is created
when the Spirit of God reveals Christ in the heart. And he makes
you to know you're sanctified not by your works, but by election,
by redemption, by regeneration. Then and only then does the believer
yield to Christ to be the servants of righteousness. He said, he
said, no man can call him Lord except by the Spirit. Till he's
been sanctified in the heart, you can't call him Lord and bow
to him as your Lord and own him as your Lord. I didn't call my
daddy by his first name. I'm not going to call my savior
by his first name. I'm not going to call him Jesus.
He's Lord Jesus. And that can't be and truly be
in the heart that you bow into Him and serve in righteousness
rather than being the slave of sin until he's done this work
in the heart. And then when he does that, you
still, it's not this phony fake holiness. You're honest about
it. Listen to Romans. Turn to Romans 7. Listen to this. Romans 7.15. Here's a sanctified
man. That which I do, I allow not.
For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. If
then I do that which I would not, I consent it to the law
that it's good. The law's teaching me I'm doing
what I don't want to do. That's good. That's what the
law's for. The law's not to be a measuring
tool to measure how much better you're getting. The law is a
measuring tool to show you that you're not getting better. That's
what it's for. It's good, it's doing what it's
supposed to do. Now then, it's no more I that do it, though,
but it's sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is
in my flesh, and that part that's from Adam dwells nothing good. For the will is present with
me. That's in the new man, the will. But how to perform that
which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I
do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. You ever heard
of You ever heard a Presbyterian or a Baptist preacher really
say that? I haven't, ever. I don't think
I've ever heard a man say it. Most of them say Paul was not
even regenerated when this was taking place. This is a regenerated
man. He wouldn't have two natures
if it wasn't. They're talking about two different natures.
Listen, now if I do that, I would not, it's no more. I either do
it, sin it, dwelleth in me. I find in a law that when I would
do good, evil is always present with me. For I delight in the
law of God after the inborn man, but I see another law in my members
warring against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that
I am! Who's going to deliver me from
the body of this death? Who's going to do it right this minute?
Who's going to do it tomorrow? Who's going to do it the next
day? Who's going to deliver me ten years from now, twenty years
from now? Who's going to deliver me when I take my last breath?
Who's going to deliver me? You better go back to Sinai and
start cleaning that act up and doing some better works, obeying
the law. That ain't what he said. Look here. I thank God through
Jesus Christ, our Lord. That's who's going to deliver
me. So with the mind, I serve the law of God, but with the
flesh, the law of sin. But there is therefore now no
condemnation to me. I'm in Christ Jesus. I'm walking
not after the flesh, but after the spirit, because the law of
the spirit and life of Christ The law of the spirit of life
in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
That's what it is to be sanctified. You ain't ever been as miserable
as you're going to be unless God sanctifies you. That's opposite
to the world's gospel, isn't it? The world's gospel is if
God sanctifies you, you're going to have health, wealth, prosperity,
and everything's going to be good. You ain't going to know
how bad you are until God sanctifies you. And then everything's going
to be turned upside down. And you're going to realize there's
not a good thing coming out of me. Even that which men look
at and say, He's so good, that's so good what He did. He's so
full of sin and pride. God hates every bit of it. The
only thing that's ever good that comes out of a sinner is what
Christ produces Himself as our sanctification. That's it. Now once God's done this work,
then we grow. Everything grows that's alive,
but how do we grow? We grow in holiness? No. We grow
in grace and knowledge of Christ by the grace and knowledge of
Christ. That's how we grow. He's our
steadfastness. Peter said, Beware, lest you
also be led away with the error of the wicked and you fall from
your own steadfastness. And then he tells us who that
is. But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and
our Savior, Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory now and forever. He's our steadfastness. How are
we kept by the power of God? He's the one who keeps you steadfast.
That's not of us. That's of Him. That's of Him.
And it's done one way. He does it one way. Through the
gospel right here. Y'all came here tonight to be
grown in grace and knowledge of Christ. If you believe Him,
that's what He's doing right now. And then He'll send you
out and He'll give you some trials. But this is how He's going to
do it. Through this gospel right here. That's why Paul told the
Galatians, are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are
you now made perfect by the flesh? When these works were done in
you, he said, was it by the preaching and the hearing of the law of
what you needed to do? Or was it by the hearing of what
Christ has done? Well, however you began, that's
how you'll be grown and continue. In the grace and knowledge of
Christ, by the Spirit of God. It's not of us. It's of Him. Why do men hate that? They say
they hate it because they have such a high respect for the law. That's why they crucified Christ.
Exactly. That's why they crucified God
in human flesh. It was because they said we have
such a high regard for the law. Get Him down off the cross because
we don't want to break the law. You know what I say to that?
Dung. It's dung. Paul called it that.
And that's what it is. It's a man not wanting to say
Christ is all is what it is. It's a man wanting to say I'm
going to add something to it. I tell you what, God won't have
you. God won't have him. Now look,
Felix was an unjust judge and so Paul reasoned with him of
judgment. He reasoned with him of judgment. You think of how
many bribes Felix had probably taken. You and me take bribes
all the time. You know that. You have somebody
that, you know, they've done this or that, and there's, you
know, you deserve something from them because of what you've done.
Let's turn it around that way. And what do you do? I'll make
it up to you. I'll do this or that, the other thing. You're
just robbing them. And people do that to us. We do the same
thing, and we sweep it under the rug. Oh, it's not that big
a deal. And we do it in our courts, and we do it in the You know,
lately I'm thinking the dumbest thing we ever did was to send
lawyers to Washington to run, to make laws for the
country. That's crazy. But we, it's just all corruption.
That's what, that's what the super PACs are and all that junk,
you know, it's just, it's just bribes. And think how much Felix
had done that. Think how much you've done that.
God won't take a bribe. There won't be any pleading with
God in the day of judgment. No. No. He hath appointed a day in which
He will judge this world in righteousness by that man whom He has ordained,
Christ the Lord. And He's given us assurance,
all of us, in that He raised Him from the dead. All has been
given into Christ's hands to be the judge. I was going to
preach tonight on the resurrection. I'm going to preach on that Sunday,
Lord willing. But you and I are going to stand before God. Everybody's
going to stand before Christ. God's given it into His Son's
hand. We're going to all stand before Christ one day. You read
over there in Isaiah, he says whenever the Lord starts coming
and people behold, he's returning, that they're going to cast their
idols to the moles and the bats and hide themselves in the rocks
and plead for the mountains to fall on them. Scott and Christine
are out there in Oregon right now. There's some giant mountains
out there. And you go to that sea and you
see these big mountains sticking up out of the ocean. Men are
going to plead for the mountains to fall on them one day. Rather than having to fall on
Christ. Rather than giving themselves up to Christ to be broken and
confess what they are and beg him for mercy. They're going
to desire to die. To try to escape. You can't escape
it. We're going to stand before God in judgment. And He shall
judge the world in righteousness. He shall minister judgment to
the people in uprightness. We're going to be found in Christ,
having His righteousness and holiness, having walked in good
works of faith and repentance and love and mercy and longsuffering
and goodness and meekness and on and on and on, which were
all produced by the Spirit of God. We're going to be found
standing all alone, judged in our own works, whether good or
bad. I hear preachers preach on that
and well, this is the mindset of all depraved men. I got to
do more good and try to outweigh my bad. God's going to take all your
good deeds. And He's going to put them on
one side of the scale, and He's going to take all your wicked
deeds, and He's going to put them on the same side of the
scale. And Christ's going to be on the
other side. And you're going to be found wanting. You will
be found not having the righteousness required to come into God's presence.
I don't want that for you. It says, then God will cast them
out forever into outer darkness. That's what I thought of when
I saw that movie. Remember that movie where, which one of them
was it that, you know, went through space and just like went out
into darkness like this? George Clooney or one of them,
I can't remember. And I thought about that. I thought outer darkness.
That's not out of the darkness yet. That's still in this universe. Outer darkness. What is that?
I don't know. Outer darkness. It's being away
from Christ the light. I know that. And he calls it
wailing and gnashing of teeth. I've been watching these documentaries
on these prisons. Down in the Philippines, where
Debra Lynn's from, there's a prison down there that's about, it's
not as big as this room right here. Got 20 beds in it, and
they got 160 prisoners in it. Some of them sitting there for
16 years before they ever go to court and find out. One lady
sat there for 16 years, had numerous children die, and they finally
got her to go, took her to court, Finally, she got to go have her
sentence, and it was not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. And
she sat there for 16 years waiting just to go to court. And there's
all kinds of wickedness going on in there. Men can do, it's
so bad, the prisoners have given the clubs to the baddest of the
bad in there and said, y'all rule it. We're just gonna stay
out here and make sure you don't get out. And that's it, the guards
rule it. I mean, the criminals rule it. Can you imagine being in a place
where God removes his restraining hand and says, have at it? You
wanted it, have at it. You wanted your way, have it
now, along with millions of others that have theirs too. The fierce burning wrath of God
forever. Paul said, knowing therefore,
brethren, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. And I'm trying
to persuade you. I'm trying to persuade you. He
tried to persuade Felix to repent and believe on Christ. He tried
to persuade him to walk no more after the flesh but after the
Spirit. And I'm persuading you right now, this minute, if you
haven't cast your care on Christ, I'm trying to persuade you. You're
unrighteous under the curse of the law if you've not believed
on Christ. You're unholy with a conscience defiled by sin.
And you're going to be found guilty in the day of judgment
if you meet God outside of Christ. So will you be like Felix? What'd
he do? Look at there, Acts 24, 25 says,
Felix trembled. He trembled. He was probably
just angry. Proud, you know, here I am, a
governor, and who's this man, this little preacher coming here,
short little Jew fella, can't even talk good, coming here and
telling me about this man I'm supposed to believe on who we
crucified? Gospel offends if you don't know
him, if he hadn't done the work in your heart. But he knew he
wasn't righteous. Do you know that? Do you know
in yourself you're not righteous? He knew he was not holy. Do you
in yourself know you're not holy, outside of Christ, without a
work of Christ being formed in the heart? He knew he would be
guilty. Do you know you're guilty? But
look what he did. Go thy way for this time. When
I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. Except to get
a bribe, he never called Paul back and said, I'm casting my
care on that man, on Christ. I have to have Christ. I have
to have mercy. He never did it. That convenience season never
came. It never came. Now let's learn
from him. Scripture says, how should we
escape if we neglect so great a salvation? What is neglect? It's been such a long day today.
I'll get to it tomorrow. Well, today is another hard day.
I'll get to it next week. Well, I got ballgames this week.
I'll get to it next week. Well, I got a career I'm looking
out for now. I'll do it. I'll do it next year.
I'm going to get to it. Thou fool, this night you have to stand before Christ.
You neglect it. You didn't hear my voice. I sent
it to you. You didn't hear it. You neglected it. But if you
come to Him, I'll tell you this, He will save you. If you cast
your care on Him, He will save you. If you cry out to Him, Lord,
like David did, create in me a clean heart, oh Lord. I need
mercy. I need mercy. I need grace. I
don't need you to hold my feet to the fire. I'm guilty. What
kind of God is this we serve who pardons the transgression
of His people? He doesn't retain His anger forever.
Why? He delights to show mercy. He delighteth in mercy. Come
to Him, you'll have mercy. He's not like us. Now, we, you
know, man offends us and sometimes we just have a lot of trouble
forgiving. He delights in mercy. He delights
in mercy. Now, to you and me that believe,
let's don't ever let this gospel be a matter of convenience. Let's
don't fit the gospel in around our life. Let's fit our life
around this gospel. Whatever we're doing that's only
promoting us and our families and not promoting Christ and
His kingdom is an absolute, total waste of time and vanity. That's
so. That becomes more apparent to
me every day. Was it convenient for God to
give His only begotten Son? Was it convenient for Christ
to suffer and bleed and be separated from God on that cross? Was it
convenient for Israel to go all that long distance they went
and to worship where God said, I'll meet with you? Was it convenient
for David who said, no, I'm going to buy this threshing floor because
I'm not going to offer to God that which cost me nothing? Was it convenient for Paul to
be beaten and imprisoned and shipwrecked and to go through
all that he went through so you and I can have these scriptures
and have this gospel? It's not about convenience. If
it was about convenience, you know where I'd be? I'll tell
you where I'd be if it was about convenience. I'd be in South
Arkansas on a deer stand right now or at a duck camp right now,
getting ready to go duck hunting in the morning and not even be
anywhere around any of the Lord's people or anybody else. That's
where I'd be. Y'all just don't know how much
I loved it. But it's not a matter of convenience.
It's a matter of serving God in a world that is totally opposite
to Him and contrary to Him. Call on God now. Don't wait.
Call on Him now. Call on Him now. And for believers,
I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is
our reasonable service. Just reasonable. Amen. Let's stand together. Lord, thank you. Make your word
go forth with power. Plant that seed in the heart
and purge the heart and create a new heart and draw irresistibly make this an urgent matter make
it a matter that's got to be taken care of now we pray that
lord forgive us of our neglect and
forgive us of our putting importance on things that just are not important.
Make us serve you and promote your gospel. And Lord, if you're
pleased, use us to call out some of your lost sheep. Whatever
you do with us, do it for your glory and your honor. That's
the only thing. And make us, Lord, see that it's
reasonable for what Christ has done for us, what he's accomplished
for us. It's just reasonable. Thank you
for salvation, for righteousness, holiness, redemption, wisdom,
mercy, all the gifts you give us in Christ and by Christ. Thank
you for Christ our Lord. What an unspeakable gift. It's
in his precious name we ask it, our Lord, our great Lord, our
master, and our savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. All right, Eric.