May I please God to bless us
together this evening as we continue our meditation in the Acts of
the Apostles, chapter 24. This evening we'll speak from
verse 22 to the end. And we'll just read those verses
from verse 22. And when Felix heard these things,
having more perfect knowledge of that way, he deferred them
and said, when Lycius, the chief captain, shall come, I will know
the uttermost of your matter. And he commanded the centurion
to keep Paul and to let him have liberty, and that he should forbid
none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him. And after certain
days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess,
he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith of Christ.
And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come,
Felix trembled and answered, Go thy way for this time, when
I have a convenient season I will call for thee. He hoped also
that money should have been given him of Paul that he might loose
him, whereof he sent for him the offener and communed with
him. But after two years Porcius Festus
came into Felix's room and Felix, willing to show the Jews a pleasure,
left Paul bound. Well, the Apostle Paul had spoken
before Felix and the people that were there with him and the result
was that as we read in the 21st verse except it be for this one
voice and I cried standing among them touching the resurrection
of the dead I am calling question by you this day that was as far
as the Apostle came with his words and then we read and when
Felix heard these things having more perfect knowledge of the
way he deferred them and said, when Lycius, the chief captain,
shall come, I will know the uttermost of your matter. Again, from these
words, it would seem that Felix was, we know he was a governor,
and that he was operating in fairness so that he wanted to
be sure that those accusations which Totalus had made were in
actual fact true. And that's why he asked that
They should wait until Lysias, the chief captain, should come
down. Because we know it was Lysias,
of course, who had sent Paul to Caesarea. And when that came
down, then he would know the details. He said that I will
know the uttermost of your matter. and he'd heard Paul's reasoning,
and he now wanted to know the truth, also not from Totalus,
who he probably recognised was not telling the truth, but from
the chief captain. And so, having come to that conclusion,
he then commanded a centurion to keep Paul and let him have
liberty, and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister
or come unto him. It would seem therefore that
really Felix was recognizing that what Paul had said was not
worthy of death or imprisonment or anything like that, but hadn't
enough courage to free him. And therefore he made this position
that he was to be kept and to have his liberty and that his
acquaintances should be able to come and minister unto him. And then we read, and after certain
days, when Felix came with his wife, Drusilla, which was a Jewess,
it would seem, therefore, that either Felix had gone off to
find her and to fetch her and to bring her, or she'd come by
herself. But anyway, when she came, and being a Jewess, of
course, she would have known the law of the Jews and been
familiar with it, because all the Jews really were brought
up to know that situation. We understand from Josephus that
in fact, Drusilla had been married before, and that Felix had really
come and taken her to be his wife. So he was really living,
they both were living in adultery, which was a duess he sent for
Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. No doubt,
Drusilla was an influence in this, wondering what Paul had
to say. Well, he was able to come and
he was able to speak then the truth and it's important to notice
as he addressed them and he reasoned of righteousness, temperance
and judgment to come and how important were those things.
He was setting before them there the necessity of a righteous
life to live uprightly and in accordance with the law, and
to be temperate in all those things which were to be done
in an outward way. And no doubt he was aware that,
of course, Felix was not operating under these guidelines. He was
operating a different way. And then the Apostle was told,
he said, and judgment had come. How faithful was the Apostle,
no matter who he was addressing. whether they were eminent people
or just people in the marketplace. He was so faithful in the truths
that he set before them. And so here he was then, addressing
this governor, an important person, but he didn't hold back. He addressed
him in honesty, and he reasoned of righteousness, temperance,
and judgment to come. Well, what was the effect? Felix
trembled. Felix trembled. Well, it's important
to notice that Felix trembled but it was only really with an
outward trembling because it did not have a good effect. You know, we read in Acts of
two other occasions when there was trembling. We can read of
the Apostle Paul in his life when he was on that Damascus
road, and we're told on that time what happened. And this
is what happened. And he trembling and astonished
said, well, what did he say? Lord, what will thou have me
to do? You see, the effect of that which
had come upon him was to cause him to tremble, but it had caused
him also to come in this way, seeking that he might be directed
by the Lord. Trembling and astonished, he
said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? There was a submitting
himself to the will of his God. There wasn't turning away from
it. And then also in the 16th chapter,
We read about the Jailer, remember the Philippian Jailer as we refer
to him. And in the 16th chapter and the
29th verse we read about this man. Then he called for a light
and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and
Silas and brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to
be saved? Well, here was In these two accounts
there was a God given trembling and what a blessing it is if
we know what it is to tremble before God and to desire that
the Lord will look upon us, the Lord will have mercy upon us,
the Lord will direct us. How different was the occasion
here of this man Felix. Felix trembled He'd heard the
truth of God. He'd heard the faithful preaching.
And what was the result? What did he do? Did he fall down? No, he said, he wanted, he said,
go thy way. For this time, when I have a
convenient season, I will call for thee. He wanted to be shot
of the truths that the apostle had brought before him. He didn't
want to have to consider them. He obviously desired that they
might disappear from his mind and that he might not be troubled
by them. And that's a very solemn thought,
isn't it? Because there may be those times
when the Lord comes and it may be in this way addresses us.
And perhaps we may tremble. We may fear because of what our
sins deserve. We may fear because There is
that judgment to come. We may fear because we know there
is a judgment, and then we must stand before that judgment seat. But are we like Felix, just going
away? We're just hoping we'll forget
these things. We don't want to be involved
in them. What a blessing if we are like
Paul or the Jailer. that this gracious trembling
has a real effect upon us. Now, you know, you and I this
evening will fall into one of those two categories, won't we?
We'll either hear the great truths of God and we'll tremble and
we want to get rid of them. We want to occupy ourselves with
the things of the world. We want to turn away from them,
hoping that they'll disappear from our mind. and won't trouble
us at all, just like Felix. Or blessed with the favoured
Spirit of God, to seek, as the Apostle Paul did, to be directed
by God what he should do. It was a real desire, wasn't
it? It wasn't just words, his concern
was what the Lord would direct him in. And then of course with
the Jailer, in a similar way, He cried out, what must I do
to be saved? And we know that the result was
that the apostles, Paul came and he said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house. And it's
quite clear from the account we have in this 16th chapter
that the apostle had clearly spoken to him and to his household
of those things which they had been doing wrong and therefore
Here was the result, by the Spirit of God, the trembling, the effect
of the Word of God, the trembling upon this man and the blessing
it brought forth. Well, I hope tonight that you
and I can trace out in our lives perhaps a time when we trembled
before God, when we bowed down before God, and our real desire
was Straight from our heart, Lord, what would they have me
to do? And the apostle was obedient,
wasn't he? And you know the Jada was obedient. They weren't weasel
words, were they? They desired to do that which
was right and to truly be affected by the words they'd heard. And
so we have this solemn position here of Felix who had been wonderfully
blessed to hear these great truths. but had not had any saving effect
upon his soul. And then we read, Go thy way
this time. When I have a convenient season,
I will call for thee. He hoped also that money should
have been given him of Paul. You see, the love of money, the
root of all evil, not money itself, but the love of money. root of
all evil and here was this man probably a wealthy man and yet
wanting more money and he perhaps but he did know that the apostle
had come to Jerusalem with funds to give to the poor and he may
have thought he had a lot of money that he would give to him
and therefore we see this sad situation only looking at earthly
things only wanting to gain financial input, not concerned about the
judgment to come. He hoped also that money should
have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him, whereof
he sent for him the offener and communicated with him. So very
often you see the Apostle Paul was clearly in the presence of
Felix and no doubt Felix discussed many things with him, but we
see that had no real effect upon his soul. No, he was hardened
and he was far off. And so we're sad to read the
accounts of this Governor Felix who was wonderfully blessed to
hear the truth of God's Word from the Apostle himself. And
we today are wonderfully blessed to hear the Word of God and to
read the Word of God but my friends know that it may have a wonderful
effect upon us, so that as we read it we may tremble, recognising
how we deserve eternal hell, we deserve to be cut off, tremble
because of our sins and yet flee to the Saviour. Bow down, pray
for forgiveness, pray for the humble heart, pray that we may
be directed and blessed by God. And then we read after two years. So he was sometime the apostle
Paul was in this place of freedom, being able to entertain his friends. But after two years, Paul's festus
came into Felix room and Felix willing to show the Jews a pleasure
left Paul bound. You see the heart of man left
himself. They'd heard the great truth
of the gospel. He should have esteemed Paul as a great servant
of God, but no, he was more concerned about to receive honour from
men. And therefore the result was,
willing to show the Jews a pleasure, he left Paul bound. Well, may
the Lord instruct us from these things. Amen.