Alright, if you will, take your
Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 24. Acts, the 24th chapter
this morning, we'll be looking at verses 24 and 25. Acts chapter
24, verse 24 and 25. The title of the message this
morning is, The Reasonable Gospel. The Reasonable Gospel. Thank you. Acts chapter 24 and verse 24
says, And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife
Drusilla, which was a Jewish, he sent for Paul and heard him
concerning the faith in Christ. And he reasoned, 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." Now, the first thing that I would
have us notice in just passing this morning is this, that these
wicked men were doing exactly as they wanted to do. These Jews, they attacked the
Apostle Paul just like they wanted to do. Lysias came and delivered
Paul from being killed just like he wanted to do. They brought
him before Sanhedrin, they brought him before the judgment seat,
and now they brought him before Felix just like they wanted to
do. But in all this time, they were
doing exactly what God had decreed for them to do. And they had
no idea they were doing it. They thought they were doing
what they wanted to do. They thought that this was their
will that was supreme, that they kept Paul in prison, they kept
him before the judges, they kept trying to kill him because they
thought they would have their way. In actuality, God was just
doing for His servant and His gospel exactly what He had determined
to do. And Paul, all the way through
this, was confident of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He knew that
whatever these men had determined to do, it was what God had determined
before to be done. He knew that he must preach in
Rome. He knew he must in bonds appear
before Caesar, and he remained confident of the gospel. You see, Paul didn't change his
message. Paul didn't change his gospel according to the circumstance. His gospel was the same. He was
constant and confident of this. And I'll tell you, because of
his confidence, this took this man Felix by surprise. He was
curious as to why this man would remain so confident. that he
wanted to hear something about faith in Christ. He said, I desire
to hear something from this man. And I'll tell you, if we are
faithful, if we are constant, if we are confident in the gospel
that we witness, we know this, that men will take notice of
us, and God will open opportunities for us to witness. God will open
those opportunities. The important thing for us as
believers, recognize this, remain confident, remain constant, but
don't open your own opportunities. Don't force yourself on others. It only ends in disaster. It
only ends in disaster. When God wants us to witness,
He will open that opportunity for us. And we'll know that.
We'll see that opportunity. What we don't realize, we have
opportunities every moment of every day just by how we walk.
just by how people watch us. That's a witness in itself. You
got up this morning and you went to worship, and people knew.
People knew where you were going. They knew. You know what? If a robber wants to rob my house,
he'll know on Sunday morning and Wednesday night every time
I'll be gone. He'll know exactly when I leave,
and he'll know exactly when I get back. So he'll know exactly how
much time to rob my house. Because I know He knows where
I'll be. And I'm a witness against Him.
We're witness against everybody. And know this, God will open
those opportunities. Don't stress to open those things
for yourself. Just when people ask, declare. Declare what you know. Jesus
Christ, Him crucified. Second of all, I want us to see
this. There are three things that Paul reasoned about this
reasonable gospel. He reasoned righteousness, temperance,
and judgment. Now, when it said Paul reasoned,
you've got to understand, this man had no idea of the Old Testament. His wife was a Jewish, but who
knows what she knew. He didn't know much. Paul reasoned
with him. Why? Because the Gospel is reasonable. The Gospel is just reasonable.
It's reasonable. Friends, to reason the Gospel
is just another aspect of preaching. Every time I preach to you, is
it not reasonable what I'm saying? Is the Gospel not just sensible?
Is it not logical in its execution and its words? Of course it is.
Friends, man was made a rational creature. You and I were made
rational beings. And so God in His Gospel appeals
to the rational man. I want you to see the condescension
of God in His language. Go to Isaiah chapter 1. Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 18. And I tell you, you could spend
a lot of time meditating on what God says here. Isaiah chapter
1 and verse 18. God says to us, to man, come
now, let us reason together. Now God says that. Now, I know
this, I would not tell you that unless God had said it. I would
not be so bold as to say God would condescend to reason with
us if God Himself had not said, let us reason. Let us reason
together. You say, Pastor, is not man's
mind and heart corrupted by the fall? Absolutely. Man is so corrupted
in his reasoning and his logic that he's irrational and illogical. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 3,
we'll read this for you. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 and
verse 2, Paul says that we may be delivered from unreasonable
and wicked men, for all men have not faith. To not believe in
Jesus Christ is both irrational and illogical. It is irrational
for a man to run in his sins when God has provided a righteousness
that he could be accepted by. That's irrational. It doesn't
make any sense. It's illogical. Well, pastor,
if man's heart is depraved, if he knows the law of God in his
heart, if he knows God... And you know what? When you witness
to people, you don't have to witness that there is a God. If a man
talks like that, leave him alone. He knows there's a God. He knows
sin is wrong. You don't have to convince a
man of that. He knows it. And if he's foolish enough to
not admit it, leave him alone. Leave him alone. He doesn't want
to know anything. Friends, what we should be reasoning
is man's standing. What is your standing before
God? That's important. And how it is you can be accepted
with God? That's important. Everything
else is not important. But how can a man who's depraved
and unrenewed in his heart and his mind and his will understand
the Gospel? Unless God opens his heart, renews
his mind, and changes his will. How can he know? How can these
things be reasonable to him? Go to Ezekiel chapter 37. Hold
your place there. You can mark that Scripture in
Isaiah 1. That's good. But Ezekiel chapter
37, verse 3. And He said unto me, Son of man,
can these bones live? And I answered, Lord God, thou
knowest. Again He said unto me, prophesy
to these bones. and saying to them, O ye dry
bones, hear the Word of the Lord." Let me ask you, does that sound
rational? Does that sound rational? Ezekiel,
I want you to go out to the valley of dry bones, and I want you
to speak to bones, and I want you to say to bones, hear bones. Now how in the world can bones
hear? How is it possible that dead men hear? You speak to those dry bones
and you say to those bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter
you and you shall live. It seems illogical to talk to
irrational and illogical men. It does if there's no command
from God to do it. If there's no command from God
to speak to dead men, then there's no promise of life, then there's
no reason for us to speak the Gospel. But we have both a promise
and a command of God to speak reasonably to dead men, to irrational
men. We must reason the gospel with
dead sinners because of the command of God. And by this gospel, we
know that God gives both light and understanding. By the gospel of Jesus Christ,
only the gospel of God who is the author of wisdom is reasonable. Come, let us reason together
about what? That though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as wool. That's what God wants to reason
about. He wants to reason about righteousness, doesn't He? You
can't preach the gospel without righteousness. If you ever heard
me preach a gospel that does not mention righteousness, close
your ears. Righteousness is a central theme
of the gospel. And without righteousness, we
can't reason anything. Paul reasoned about righteousness. Is it not reasonable to understand
that God is holy and just? Is that not reasonable? If God
is, He is holy and He is just. There's no other way to describe
God. A God who is without holiness and has all power, that's tyranny. A God who is without justice
and has all power, that's cruelty. But our God is both holy and
just. And so our God created all things
in holy perfection. He said of man, He said, that
is very good. In other words, that's holy.
That's right. That's good. He created man holy. And just as God is holy and righteous
and created all things, He also, it is reasonable for us to expect
Him to covenant with His creation. If He made a rational man, is
it not rational that He would covenant with him concerning
what he desired? And God did. God covenanted with
Adam. He said, Adam, that's My tree
and don't eat it. That's just reasonable for us
to expect God to have something that's His own. And what did
God keep from him? The tree of knowledge of good
and evil. Do you realize that only God could know good and
evil and maintain holiness? Only God. Only God. But man in disobedience ate of
the tree that God commanded him, and he died spiritually. Is it not reasonable for God
to command something and say, in the day thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die? Is it not reasonable that he
would have died? Of course it is. And so man no longer able
to please God, He lost his ability to please God, yet God, being
righteous, cannot accept anything less than righteousness. As Adam tried to make those fig
leaves for her to cover himself before God, even so does his
race continue being irrational to think that religion would
cover themselves. That's irrational. If God is
righteous, what can you possess that would keep you righteous
or make you righteous in this world? There's nothing. Everything
we touch is sin. Everything we do is sin. It's
irrational to think that you can earn your righteousness with
God. It's irrational to think that
God would accept anything less. Scripture says, by the deeds
of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight. And yet men try. That's just
irrational, isn't it? Let me ask you this, if you had
a judge and everybody said, oh, this guy is just, this guy is
a righteous judge, if he were to let murderers and pedophiles
go, would you call him righteous? No. He would be an unjust judge
if he let punishment go. Even so, God, it is just rational
to know God is holy and God cannot let sin go. You cannot let it
go unpunished. And so Paul here reasoned with
Felix about righteousness. He told him of the state of man
to be absolutely free from righteousness. How can we, who are full of sin,
face an absolute God? I want you to think of perfection
for a minute and think as far as you can. See as far about
perfection as you can. Far about sinlessness as you
can. And God is infinitely farther than that. And God doesn't accept anything
less than that. Where do you stand before God
in this matter of righteousness? I tell you that there is only
one way a man can be made righteous before God, and that is by the
person of Jesus Christ. The reason we preach faith in
Christ is because He is the only righteousness God will accept. The Scripture says, in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. In Jesus Christ is life. In Jesus
Christ is righteousness and nowhere else. You see, Jesus Christ, who is
God, became man so that he as a man could obtain righteousness
for you. Is that not reasonable? Man lost
righteousness. It must be by man that righteousness
is restored. And so God, in great grace, became
a man so that he might obtain righteousness by his deeds and
by his obedience. It's only reasonable to know
that sin must be punished and that no amount of new righteousness
on us would do. You take a man who has not bathed
in six years and you put some new clothes on him, I guarantee
you the clothes will smell in just a few minutes. It will permeate
through the clothes. And so if God gave us a righteousness
and He didn't take care of our sin, is it not reasonable to
think that that righteousness would be contaminated? Of course
it is. So then Christ must not only
provide a righteousness, He must also do away with our sins. And that's what He's done by
His death. He took our sins. And God put our sins on Him and
punished them in Christ. So that all who believe on Christ
can have His righteousness imputed to their charge and stand perfectly
holy before God. For Christ also has suffered
once for sin." Once. There are people in hell today
suffering in eternity and will never pay for one sin. He did
it once and accomplished all righteousness. Number two, Paul
spoke of temperance. He reasoned of temperance. All true faith and true believers
in Christ must and do live a life of self-control. Self-control. Is it not reasonable,
we who have been saved from sin, is it not reasonable that we
not continue in sin? Is that not reasonable? If we've
been saved from sin, why would we go back to sin? We have no
desire for it. Therefore, we have the Spirit
of God in us that gives us the grace of temperance and self-control
so that the natural man no longer reigns in this mortal body. Paul says, what shall we say
then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid
such a thing. How can we who are dead to sin
live any longer in sin? How's that possible? It's not
reasonable. It's not rational. It's not rational. John says this, he that doeth
righteousness is righteous. I can't add any more to that. I think that's the lowest common
denominator that you can possibly get. He that's righteous does
righteous. Is that not reasonable? Of course it is. This man Felix,
he hated righteousness. I imagine he didn't mind so much
about Christ giving him some righteousness, but if he had
to take away his sin, that's what troubles men, is that they
can no longer live in sin. When he spoke of salvation, He
spoke, it's reasonable for us to abandon our own righteousness. That's just reasonable. If I'm
going to take the righteousness of Christ by faith, I've got
to let go of everything I think about God and believe only what
God says about Himself. That's reasonable. That's rational. And I'll tell you what, it's
a good exchange because all I've got is garbage. I'm exchanging
garbage for gold. That's reasonable. Reasonable. I tell you this, it's reasonable
that a man should bow down to the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that
not reasonable? Had God not set Him high above
all things, had He not set Him on the throne of heaven to rule
all things after the counsel of His own will, is it not reasonable
that His creatures bow down and worship Him? That's just reasonable. It's not reasonable for us to
give up this life and hold it loosely. Jesus said, if any man
come unto Me and hate not his father and his mother and his
sister and his brother and his children and his own life also,
he cannot be My disciple. I don't care
how sincere he is. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how sincere
a man may be wanting righteousness. If God has not given him a heart
of temperance, he's not had righteousness. If he's not abandoning everything
that stands in his way to serve Christ. And you know what? His commands
are not grievous to us, are they? These things aren't grievous
to us. You tell me that something's wrong with me, that I'm not following
Christ, that Christ says to do this and I'm not doing it. It
would be unreasonable for me to continue. It's reasonable
for me to let that go and to follow Christ. And I shouldn't
be grieved about following Him. That shouldn't be like, I've
got to do this for Christ. No! No, I want to. I want to. It's just reasonable for me. Just reasonable. And third, he
speaks of judgment. Paul concludes this with the
judgment that is to come. He said, Felix, I tell you, there's
Jesus that I'm speaking about. He's coming again. And this time,
He's not coming in meekness and lowliness. He's coming in judgment.
You know what? I told you that men know there's
a God, they know there's sin, but they also know there's a
judgment. That's natural. Everybody knows that. Now, whether
they want to admit it or not, it's because they're irrational.
They won't even listen to their own conscience about it. Jesus
Christ is coming, and listen to me, He will judge you according
to my gospel. The gospel that I preach to you,
He will judge you according to my gospel. All who believe on Christ shall
forever When He comes back, they shall forever live with Him in
the presence of glory." That's just reasonable, isn't it? He
took away our sins. He gave us righteousness. Is
it not reasonable that He would accept us? Of course it is. All
who believe on Him shall have righteousness. In my Father's
house and many dwelling places were not so, I would have told
you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare
a place for you, is it not reasonable that I'll come again and receive
you to Myself? Of course it is. But I tell you this, all who
will not come to Christ and will not believe in Christ, they will
suffer the eternal wrath of God for their sins. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. That's just reasonable. It's
just reasonable God punish you for your sins. And Felix, he trembled. Friends, every time I preach
the gospel, I hope to press men to this point to where they will
return to Christ or refuse Him. Now, I have no power to do either. I can't make you do either. But
I know this, the preaching of the gospel will persuade men
to believe on Christ. Because it's just reasonable
to do so. It's just reasonable. Felix trembled. Felix trembled at the gospel. But he would not believe. He
said, you go away. Go away! Go away! I'll hear you
some other time. Just go for now. I'll think about
this and I'll come back later. Oh no, you won't. This man was
soon relieved of his command by Festus. And he was shipped
off to Rome where he committed suicide, never knowing Christ. Friends, trembling is not believing. Do you know that? Conviction
of sin is not faith. Felix trembled, and Felix, he heard the gospel, but he desired to have no part
with Christ. Oh, that sinners would come now
to Christ. Oh, that believers would continue
to come to Christ. It's just reasonable. I pray, Lord, to bless this to
your hearts. We're dismissed.