All right, go with me back to
Acts 26. Paul has been left in prison for over two years, being convicted
of nothing, nothing, for over two years. He has been tried and tried and
tried. He has been severely beaten on
many occasions once he was stoned and left for dead. It has been witnessed to him
by the Holy Spirit in every city that he goes to that bonds and
afflictions await him all the way to Rome. He has appealed to be tried by
Caesar. But this man Agrippa has decided
that he's going to try Paul too. Verse 1 says, Then Agrippa said
unto Paul, Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul
stretched forth the hand and answered for himself, I think
I'm happy. That's what he said, I think
I'm happy. Now let me leave preacher mode
for just a minute. There's no such thing as preacher
mode. But if there was, let me leave it for just a minute. I
want to tell you something. I sincerely want to tell you
something. I have been dying to tell you
this. This is a secret of life. And I'm serious. I mean, I am
serious. I'm about to tell us how to be
happy. And I'm serious. This is a secret
of life. People say, I'm just not happy. I get it. I don't condemn. I get it. I get it. You might say, I'm just not happy
with my job. I get it. I'm not saying that now,
but I get it. I sincerely do get it. There's
so many things and reasons and factors. I get it. But here's
the thing to realize. Our job was never meant to make
us happy. It was meant to pay the bills.
That's what it was meant for. You might say, well, I'm just
not happy with the state that I'm in, where I am in the world,
the things that I've accomplished and the things that I've accumulated.
And another way of saying that is, I'm not happy with how much
money I have. I get it. I get it. Our state in this world The things
that we accomplish and the things that we attain were never meant
to make us happy. Never. From minute one, they
were never meant to make us happy. A man makes $20,000 a year and
this is what he says, if I could just make $50,000. I remember when I was a teenager,
I had in my brain for years, when I grow up, And I'm a working
man. All I need to make is $30,000
a year. I'll be set. I made it. A man who makes $50,000 a year says, if I could just make $80,000
a year. A man who makes $80,000 a year
says, if I could just make $120,000. The $120,000 says, if I could just
make $250,000. The 250 says, if I could just
break half a million. And it never ends. It never,
never ends. Nothing in this world was ever
meant to make us happy. So, if we are unhappy, then what
it means is we are looking to something in this world. That's
what it means. Paul said, I think myself happy. And the reason is because he's
about to tell this man Agrippa, God saved my soul. God saved my soul. If you want to be happy, don't
take your eyes off of that. I'm serious. The older we get,
the more those things that we think will make us happy are
proven to us that, like Solomon said, they're vanity, and that
is off of our list now. Well, that didn't do it. That
30,000 didn't do it. If we want to be happy, don't
take your eyes, I need to not take my eyes off of the fact
that God saved my soul. As soon as we look to the left
or to the right, sorrow comes. I can be studying and just be
soaring above the clouds and something all of a sudden in
the world passes in front of me and I lose it all. As soon
as we look to something else, Pain comes, and tears come, and
grief sets in. It's nothing but affliction and
depression. That's what it is. Depression
is real, and I'll tell you what it comes from. Looking at things
in this world. Whether we're looking at the
things going on out there, or whether we're looking at the
things going on in here. Either way. Either way. As soon
as we take our eyes off of the fact that Christ has plucked
us from the fire, we lose it. We lose all our happiness. It's just gone. I thought that after the Lord
saved us, life became easier. That's what I had in my mind,
that as soon as God saved us, boom! Everything falls into place. Just a brick road to heaven.
And life just gets so much easier. Who told us that? Our Lord said, You are going
to suffer for My namesake. He said, In the world you shall
have tribulation. But do you know what He said
right after that? Be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. How did you do that, Lord? I
plucked you from it. I plucked you out of it. I saved
you from its fire. When God cast Satan out of heaven,
the scripture says, as a bolt of lightning. Do you know where
he cast him to? People think, hell, it's not
so. This earth. He fell to this earth
as a bolt of lightning. This is his home. This is his
domain. He's called the little g God
of this world. And he walks through this world
to and fro, seeking whom he may devour, and he has infected everything
on this earth with sin. every single thing. It is not
hard at all for us to see why our souls just plummet when we
look to something in this world. Everything in it is dripping
with sin. Every single thing is tainted.
But let me show us something that will make us extremely happy
to see and hear, all right? Go with me to Deuteronomy 33. The last book of Moses, Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 33. And look with me at verse 27. The eternal God is thy refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms. And he shall thrust out
the enemy from before thee, and shall say, Destroy. Israel then shall dwell in safety
alone. The fountain of Jacob shall be
upon a land of corn and wine. Also his heavens shall drop down
dew. Happy art thou, O Israel, who
is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy
help, and who is the sword of thy excellency. And thine enemies
shall be found liars unto thee, and now shall tread upon their
high places." He said, Israel, you're happy. You are happy because
there's no people like you. You've been saved by the Lord.
Saved by the Lord. If you want to be happy, don't
take your eyes off of that. I'm telling you, if I've ever
told the truth, I'm telling it right now. If you want to be happy, And
if I want to be happy, we need to never take our eyes off of
that. Go with me over to Isaiah 26. Isaiah 26, now this is the truth. I mean this is truth, this is
absolute truth. Isaiah 26 verse 1 says, In that
day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah. We have a
strong city. Salvation will God appoint for
walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates that the righteous
nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. thou wilt keep
him in perfect peace. Now, I'm going to read this verse
again. I'm going to start verse 3 again. And I'm telling you,
this is the truth. This is the truth. Thou wilt
keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because
he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever,
for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. If we want to be in
perfect peace, I mean perfect peace, quiet rest. If we want to be happy, if we
want to be happy, we need to stay our minds on Him. That song says, ìStayed upon
Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed.î Isnít that what it says? Finding
as He promised perfect peace and rest. Now the next time you
feel like your world is crumbling, The next time that you look around
and you literally see everything falling apart, get your hands
on God's Word. Take a break from trying to figure
it all out. All right? And get your hands
on the Word of our God. And as you open it, ask Him to
send you to the birth that you need. If you can't get your hands on
it, quote it, whatever you can remember, quote it to yourself.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green
pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness
for His name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of this shadow of death, I'll fear no evil. Thou art with me. Thy rod and
thy staff, they comfort me. You've prepared a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. You've anointed my head with
oil. My cup is running over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life, and I'll dwell in the house
of the Lord forever. That makes me happy. That just
makes me happy. Well, honey, we can't go out
to eat this week. It's all right. We're going to get to go to the
house of the Lord forever. I mean forever. If you cannot recall God's Word,
sing hymns. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
brain. I wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand.
And I'm telling you, everything else is sinking sand. Everything
else. Well, it turned out to be it
all fell through. It's because it's sinking sand. Thanks be to God, I'm not standing
over there. I'm standing right here on Christ the solid rock. When the bills start piling up
and it looks like your last dime is not going to cut it, sing
this. Oh, the unsearchable riches of
Christ, precious, more precious than gold. I may not have gold,
but I have Him. The next time your sin gets a
hold of you, and I'm going to tell you, if you belong to Him,
your sin is going to get a hold of you. I'm telling you. Sometimes
we just kind of float through the day and float through the
week and float through the year But sometimes God in mercy and
it's mercy that he won't let us just float on away God in
mercy shows us our sin And you feel so horrible and so wretched
and so guilty and so vile And the next time that happens you
sing only a sinner saved by grace and only a sinner saved by grace. This is my story. To God be the
glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. The only real happiness that
a believer will find in this world is knowing when sorrows
like sea billows roll whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to
say, it is well, it is well with my soul. It's well with my soul. We just sang, my sin, oh, the
happiness. That's what the word bliss means.
My sin, oh, the absolute happiness and bliss and joy of this glorious
thought. My sin, not just a little bit
of it, All of it is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Oh my soul. Now go with me back
to our text and let's listen to the Apostle Paul tell that
to Agrippa. Acts 26 verse 1. Then Agrippa said unto Paul,
Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched
forth the hand and answered for himself, I think myself happy,
King Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before
thee, touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews.
especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and
questions which are among the Jews, wherefore I beseech thee
to hear me patiently." Now, the message that Paul is about to
preach is, I believe, one of, if not the most powerful
message God gave him. As I read this, this is so clear
and this is so powerful, and he said, hear me patiently. May the Lord give us a heart
to hear this. Verse four, my manner of life
from my youth, which was at the first, among mine own nation
at Jerusalem, know all the Jews. They all know me. Verse five,
which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after
the most straightest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee,
and now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made
of God unto our fathers. unto which promise our twelve
tribes instantly serving God day and night hope to come, for
which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I'm accused of the Jews. Why
should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God
should raise the dead?" All that Paul was preaching was God raises
the dead. That's all he stayed on. That's why he was so happy. God
raises the dead. That's all we preach. Man is
dead, but God raises the dead. That's all we preach. Verse 9,
I barely thought with myself that I ought to do many things
contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. He said, at first,
I persecuted this way. Verse 10, which thing I also
did in Jerusalem and many of the saints did I shut up in prison,
having received authority from the chief priest, and when they
were put to death, I gave my voice against them. Let me tell
you what he's saying. I was ISIS. That's what he's saying. I was
ISIS. I killed them. I imprisoned them.
I forced them to blaspheme. Renounce your God or you're going
to die. And if God saved Paul, God can
save any of us. We really do think, not that
man, he is too bad. Paul said, I was the leader of
ISIS. Verse 11, I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled
them to blaspheme, and being exceeding mad against them, I
persecuted them, even unto strange cities. Whereupon, as I went
to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priest,
at midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven above
the brightness of the sun shining round about me, and them which
journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to
the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew
tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee
to kick against the bricks. And I said, Who art thou, Lord?
And he said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. But rise and
stand 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 into 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, and 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 works meet for repentance. for
these causes the Jews caught me in the temple and went about
to kill me. This is why they killed me. All he did is he went
and told how great things the Lord did for him. He just told
what God did for me. And they wanted to kill him.
Verse 22, Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto
this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none
other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say
should come. What he's saying right there
is, it was always about Christ. All I'm doing is repeating what
all those prophets and Moses said would happen. verse 23,
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. He said this Messiah came, he
died for the sin of his people, he rose again to brought newness
of life. It is so amazing to me how God
has purposed for that declaration to be the power of God unto salvation. Here a sinner stands up and declares
what Christ did and God uses that to open blind eyes, save
souls. Verse 24, As he thus spake for
himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside
thyself. Much learning doth make thee
mad. But he said, I'm not mad, most noble Festus, but speak
forth the words of truth and soberness. For the king knoweth
of these things, before whom also I speak freely. For I am
persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him. For
this thing was not done in a corner." Now, the truth is a secret in
the sense that men are blind to it, and men are deaf to it,
and they cannot understand it, and they cannot believe it until
God reveals it to them. But the works of God are no secret. They are no secret. This thing
was not done in a corner. Now, we're not going to go there
for the sake of time. I was going to have you turn
over to Romans 10, and we were going to read where he said,
Have they not all heard? This gospel has gone out. He
said Moses declared it, Isaiah declared it, and now we're still
declaring it. They've all heard, and they've
all rejected it. But this gospel has gone unto
all the world. So this thing was not done in
a corner. God has not hid his sovereignty. We talk about the sovereignty
of God and it's so shocking. It's no secret. He's been saying
from the beginning, I am God and there is no other. He has
not hid his wrath against unbelief. He has not hid his election. And he hasn't hid his Redeemer.
Thank God he didn't hide his Redeemer. This thing was not
done in the corner. Verse 27, King Agrippa, he said,
Believest thou the prophets? Do you believe God's Word? And
then this is interesting to me. This is what he told him. I know
you believe it. He said, King Agrippa, believest
thou the prophets? I know that thou believest. Then
Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.
Now there are going to be some who believe this word to be true. Listen to this carefully. There
are going to be some who believe this word is true. They will
believe this is the truth, but they will never have a heart
to bow to it and to love it and to look to Christ and to stay
on Christ and to follow Christ. And it's the difference between
a head knowledge and a heart knowledge. And it's the difference
between being saved and lost. That's the difference. There
are going to be some who can argue this word with you and
say it's absolute truth, but they have no heart for it. They
do not follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul, he preached
the clearest message that can be preached to any sinner. And this man Agrippa didn't do
anything for him, nothing for him. He said, Paul, you almost
persuaded me to be a Christian, almost. What that means is one
man cannot save another man. I cannot save anybody. I can have the clearest outline
ever written. And I can't save one man. It
takes the power of God to save a sinner. So, if we believe this,
if God has given us a heart to bow to it and to love it and
to look to Christ, And to trust Christ and to follow Christ,
then we have reason to be very happy. That's the point in this.
Paul preached this message and he said, this is why I'm happy.
God saved me. This is what happened to me.
And in spite of who I was, God had mercy on me. And he said,
King Agrippa, do you believe all this? And he said, no, I
don't. But if we do, we have reason
to be extremely happy. And the reason is because God
has done something for us. God has dropped that about 18
inches. Verse 29, Paul said, I would to God that not only
thou, but also all they that hear me this day were both almost
and altogether such as I am, except these bonds. And when
he had thus spoken, the king rose up, and the governor, and
Bernice, and they that sat with them. And when they were gone
aside, they talked between themselves, saying, This man doeth nothing
worthy of death or of bonds. Then said Agrippa unto Festus,
This man might have been set at liberty if he had not appealed
unto Caesar. God in his providence calls Paul
to say, I want to stand before Caesar. And Agrippa said, If he had not
said that, I would have let him go. Right now I would have let
him go. But Agrippa doesn't have any
authority in this. Thank God. Agrippa just stuck
himself in the middle of all this. So now Paul cannot be set
free. He has to go to Rome. Why? So he can stay in prison. Why? So he can write some letters. The whole time he had all that
time on his hands, while he was in Rome, all the brethren started
coming to him in Rome. Started telling him about things
that were taking place. He asked the chief officer there,
could I borrow a pen and some paper? And he wrote, Paul, an apostle,
not of man, neither by the will of man, but by Jesus Christ.
And God the Father, who raised him from the dead, and all the
brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia. Grace
be to you. Then he got another piece of
paper and he wrote, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the
will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus. Grace be to you. And then he wrote to all the
saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi. And then he
wrote to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ, which are
at Colossae. And then he wrote to Timothy,
my dearly beloved son. And then he wrote unto Philemon,
my dearly beloved and fellow laborer, I beseech thee on behalf
of my son Onesimus. Are we not so happy and thankful
for the fact that God put that beloved man in bonds and imprisonment? Don't you love Paul? Yes. What
do you want for him? Bonds and imprisonment. That's
what I want for him. Bonds and imprisonment. We can
see God's purpose in it. They didn't back then. Don't
go. That's what they told our Lord. Don't go back to Jerusalem.
But now we can see God's purpose in it. And I'm going to tell
you this, the same thing applies to us. The exact same thing. If God will give us a single
and focused eye on the fact that everything He does is for our
salvation and the salvation of those around us, if He will allow
us to stay on that, I believe we'll be happy. I really do. I believe we will truly, if we
can stay on Him, I believe we'll be happy. Paul said, I think
myself happy. And I'm going to tell you this.
I'm going to close with this. You can put your marker in your Bible
or write it down if you have a pen. Read these two passages
of Scripture when you get time. The first one is 1 Kings 10,
verses 1 through 9. First Kings 10, 1 through 9,
that's when the queen of Sheba came to see Solomon. And she
said, oh, happy are thy servants, which stand before thee. They're
so happy. They were happy. 1 Kings 10 1 through 9 and then
the other one is Psalm 146 that will bless your heart Psalm 146
verse 5 and that Psalm says happy is he that had the God of Jacob
for his help Jacob is the Happy is he that has the God
of sinners, the God who helps sinners. Truly happy. Stay on
that. Stay on that. It'll make us happy.
All right, you're dismissed.