All right, now turn with me to
Acts chapter 25. Acts chapter 25. I have something
tonight that I believe is a very current message for the life that we are right
now living. As I read and re-read and re-read
through this text, one question kept popping into my mind, and
I'm going to tell you what it is in just a minute. I want us
to read through this text and see what's taking place, and
then I have a question for every soul that rebels against God's
Word. And then I have a word of comfort
for every soul that trusts in God's word. And then I have an
exhortation for every soul on earth. Every single soul, whether
he trusts, whether he rebels. It's an exhortation for all of
us. So look at first at Acts chapter 24 verse 27. But after two years, Porcius
Festus came into Felix's room, and Felix, willing to show the
Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound. Felix was the governor, and Festus
took his place. And Felix left Paul bound in
prison just to do it. You know, he'd been there two
years and he just left him in prison and that's where Paul
is right here in chapter 25, still bound in prison. Verse
1 in chapter 25, Now when Festus was come into the province, after
three days he ascended from Caesarea to Jerusalem. Then the high priest
and the chief of the Jews informed him against Paul and besought
him and desired favor against him, that he would send for him
to Jerusalem, laying weight in the way to kill him." Now these
poor fellows are still trying to kill Paul. Bless their hearts. They're doing it. They're just
laying in wait. They've killed more time. laying in wait, and
laying in wait, and laying in wait. And it's almost comical. It's just almost comical. They're
still trying to kill Paul. Now verse 4 says, But Festus
answered that Paul should be kept at Caesarea, and that he
himself would depart shortly thither. Let them therefore,
said he, which among you are able, go down with me and accuse
this man, if there be any wickedness in him. And when he had tarried
among them more than ten days, he went down unto Caesarea, and
the next day, sitting on the judgment seat, commanded Paul
to be brought. And when he was come, the Jews
which came down from Jerusalem stood round about, and laid many
and grievous complaints against Paul, which they could not prove. These men all came together,
They all came together in this council and they're in an outrage
of lies. They've been lying this whole
time. They're just in this outrage of lies. And they can't prove
any of it. They just cannot prove any of
it. Now you try to tell somebody
the truth. You just try to talk to somebody
about the truth of what the Word of God says,
and a person that you try to talk to when God has not prepared
their hearts. Sometimes God gives grace before
grace, and He makes a heart ready to hear the truth. But if that
person has not been prepared by God, once you lay into the
truth, they're going to fire back in an outrage of lies. That's
what's going to happen. An outrage of lies. They can't
prove any of it. But they will adamantly tell
you, it's my right. It's my right. I can do whatever
I want to do. Man has a choice. I don't care
what you say, man has a choice. Can't prove any of it. Literally
cannot prove any of it. But they get outraged in their
lives. Verse 8 says, while he answered for himself, Paul answered,
neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple,
nor yet against Caesar have I offended anything at all. But Festus,
willing to do the Jews a pleasure, answered Paul and said, Will
thou go up to Jerusalem and there be judged of these things before
me? He said, Are you willing to go
up to Jerusalem and be judged by me? You willing to do that? Well, let me ask you this, Mr.
Festus. Are you willing to go up to the throne of God and be
judged by God Almighty? If you're going to judge His
servant, are you willing to be judged by the Lord He serves?
Verse 10 says, Then Paul said, I stand at Caesar's judgment
seat, where I ought to be judged. To the Jews have I done no wrong,
as thou very well knowest. For if I be an offender or have
committed anything worthy of death, I refuse not to die. If
I deserve to die, I'll die. But if there be none of these
things whereof these accuse me, no man may deliver me unto them. I appeal unto Caesar. Then Festus,
when he had conferred with the council, answered, Hast thou
appealed unto Caesar? Unto Caesar shalt thou go. He
asked him, Are you willing to be judged by me? And Paul said,
no, I think I'm going to go above you. I want to stand before Caesar. And Festus said, fine, if that's
what you want, that's what you'll get. Verse 13, and after certain
days, King Agrippa and Bernice, their brother and sister, they're
the brother and sister of last week we were looking at Felix
and Drusilla, that's Drusilla's brother and sister. And they
came unto Caesarea to salute Festus. And when they had been
there many days, Festus declared Paul's calls unto the king, saying,
There is a certain man left in bonds by Felix, about whom, when
I was at Jerusalem, the chief priest and the elders of the
Jews informed me, desiring to have judgment against him. To
whom I answered, It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver
any man to die. Before that, he which is accused
have the accusers face to face and have license to answer for
himself concerning the crime laid against him. Therefore,
when they were come hither without any delay on the morrow, I sat
on the judgment seat and commanded the man to be brought forth.
against whom, when the accusers stood up, they brought none accusation
of such things as I supposed, but had certain questions against
him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus which was dead,
whom Paul affirmed to be alive." Now that's the issue. That verse
right there is the issue. That's the offense. Christ crucified. As long as you don't go on that,
everybody's fine. But once you make that the issue,
there's the offense. They hated Paul because of his
message. Men hate the message that gives
God all the glory, don't they? They hate that. Men hate hearing
that they need to be saved in the first place. You know that? They hate hearing that. Don't
call me a sinner. That's what this flesh says.
Do not call me a sinner. I don't want to be called a sinner.
That was Lucifer's problem. The father of free will. I will
not have that man reign over me. That was the problem. Verse
19, But had certain questions against him of their own superstition,
and of one Jesus which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.
And because I doubted of such manner of questions, I asked
him whether he would go to Jerusalem and there be judged of these
matters. But when Paul had appealed to be reserved unto the hearing
of Augustus, I commanded him to be kept till I might send
him to Caesar. Then Agrippa said unto Festus,
I would also hear the man myself. He said, I tell you what, I'll
judge him too. Now I can see these two guys.
We've got a king and a ruler here. And I can see them in the
brandy room after dinner, feeding each other's ego. And he's telling
King Agrippa about everything that's going on, and he said,
I tell you what, I'll judge him too. I know he's going on up to Caesar,
but I think I'll put in my two cents also. Verse 22 says, Then Agrippa said
unto Festus, I would also hear the man myself. Tomorrow, said
he, thou shalt hear him. And on the morrow when Agrippa
was come and Bernice with great pomp and was entered into the
place of hearing with the chief captains and the principal men
of the city, at Festus' commandment Paul was brought forth and Festus
said, King Agrippa and all men which are here present with us,
you see this man about whom all the multitude of the Jews have
dealt with me, both at Jerusalem and also here, crying that he
ought not to live any longer. But when I found that he had
committed nothing worthy of death, and that he himself had appealed
to Augustus, I have determined to send him, of whom I have no
certain thing to write unto my Lord. Wherefore, I have brought
him forth before you, and especially before thee, O King Agrippa,
that after examination had, I might have somewhat to write. For it
seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not withal
to signify the crimes laid against him." Now Festus just said, I
can't find any fault in him. That's what he just said. I cannot
find any fault in this man, but everybody wants him dead. They hate him. They hate what
he preaches. And who does that remind you
of? Our Lord stood before Pilate
and he said, I find no fault in him. None. But they all cried crucifying. We want him dead. Our Lord said,
as they've done it to me, they are going to do it to you. Men
hate the God who made them. They hate the God who gave them
their hands. They take those hands and they
make fists against Him with them. They hate the God that gave them
their tongue. They use that tongue to cuss
Him. They hate the God that gave them their mind. They use that
mind to be enmity against Him. They hate the God who came to
save sinners from that sin. Our Lord came unto His own and
His own received Him not. Now here's the question I cannot
get away from. Why? Really? Why? Why? Why are the hearts of men and
women so hard? The gospel is not hard. It's
not hard. Why is the will of man so rebellious? Why is it that when you tell
sinners about a merciful God who alone can save, why do they
plug their ears and shut their eyes and say, stop preaching
that mess to me? I hate it. I hate it. Why? Why? Now I want to finish out this
message in Psalm 2. Go with me over to Psalm 2. My question to every soul that
rebels to God being God and man being a sinner and Christ being
the only Savior, my question is, why? Why? My prayer is that this will
cross the path of somebody and cause them to look inside their
own heart and actually ask themselves a question, why? Why am I doing this? Why? When God has been so clear in
His Word, why? I'm just so headstrong on why. Psalm 2 verse 1 says, Why do
the heathen rage? People know they're sinners.
They have a conscience. God gave every man a conscience.
You know, kids do something. I remember I stole something
one time. I was about four years old. And my friends put me up
to it. Turned out to be some friends.
But the neighbor's back sliding glass door was open, and they
said, you have to go in there and take something out of their
dresser. So I went in there on bottom drawer, and there was
a red ski mask. And I got it. Well, you know
what I did? I came home wearing it. And my mother said, where'd you
get that ski mask? I don't remember even what I
told her at that point, but I had to return the ski mask, knock
on the door, apologize, I'm sorry, your door was open and I stole
this. I was four years old. God has given men and women a
conscience. They know they're sinners. They
do. Everybody tries to put up a front
in front of everybody else, and you could almost convince yourself
you're not, but you know you are. You know you are. just by declaring good news that
Christ came and by himself purged his people from their sins. You tell men and women that and
they get so mad. So mad. Verse 1 says, Why do
the heathen rage? And the people imagine a vain
thing? If a man is vain, it means all
he thinks about and all he cares about is himself. Where on this earth did man imagine
today's vain religion? Where did he get that? Where
did he get that? I saw something that somebody
posted on the internet a few nights ago, and I wrote it down. I just had to write it down. This is what it says, and we've
all heard statements just like this, and you're going to know
what I'm saying, but listen all the way to the end. It said,
God wants to open new doors for you Let go and let God have his
way Something about those last three
words, I don't know it just God wants to open new doors for you
Let go and let God have his way. I read that and I thought If
I do that then I'm God. If I have to let God have His
way, then I'm God. If He answers to me, and if it
all hinges on my doing, I'm God. God does not want anything. He does not want anything. Everything that God wanted to
do, He did. And He did it before the foundation
of the world. Known unto God are all His works
from the beginning of the world. That's Acts 15, 18. All of them. To say that I'm going to let
God have His way, that's a vain thing. That's a vain thing. Where did anybody imagine that? Verse 2 says, The kings of the
earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together
against the Lord and against His anointed. In our text, Paul
was brought before Agrippa, who was a king, and Festus, who was
a ruler, and they took counsel against him. But do you know
who men are truly taking counsel against? God. It's against God. Now they can get their hands
on his servant. They can't get their hands on God. If they could,
they would bring him and say, crucify him. But now they can't
get their hands on God, but they can grab his servant. But they're actually taking counsel
against God. They're taking counsel against
God's Word. And they're taking counsel against
God's Anointed, Jesus Christ His Son. Verse 3, they say, Let
us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from
us. We're going to take this down.
We're going to take this down. We're going to stop this message
of redemption. We are going to stop this message
of free grace. We're not having it. Verse 4
says, He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord
shall have them in derision. Now I enjoyed this so much. I
love our God. I just don't even know the word
to describe what this caused me to feel. But I just, I love
Him. Do you know what the word derision
means? It says in verse 4, He that sitteth in the heavens shall
laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision. Derision means to
laugh to scorn. He's going to laugh, but he's
going to keep on laughing, laugh to scorn. It means to mock on,
to keep mocking, as if imitating a foreigner to speak unintelligibly. You understand what they're saying?
He's going to make fun of them. He's going to make fun of them.
Every soul who rebels against His Word and takes counsel against
His anointing, He's going to make fun of them. Now let me
give you the perfect example. This is the greatest example
of this. The children of Israel were in
bondage to Egypt 430 years. Now think about this. They were in bondage to Egypt
for 430 years. And after that, God said, that's
it. I'm sending a deliverer. And then Pharaoh got wind of
it and he said, I'm going to put a stop to this deliverer
business. Every baby that is born, throw
him in the river. And then while Pharaoh gloried
in his own commandment and in his own authority and in his
own ability, while he was sitting there doing that, God sent his
daughter down to the river. And because of Pharaoh's commandment,
only because of the commandment that Pharaoh made, I want all
the babies to go into the river, because of that his daughter
found a baby in the river. And she took that baby home to
be her son, Pharaoh's grandson. And in trying to stop God's deliverer,
Pharaoh ended up raising God's deliverer. Isn't that amazing? He fed him. Other babies were probably starving
over there. I bet you they were treated so cruelly. So he fed
him. He clothed him. He nourished
him with everything he needed. Because of his hatred for God's
Deliverer, God made him bounce him on his knee. I love you. Oh, I love you. God
said, you're not going to stop my deliverer. You're going to
have to change his diaper every now and then. That's what happened. Pharaoh sent him to school. He
educated him. As a young boy, he sat him down
and taught him. He said, son, when you shake
a man's hand, you give him a firm hand grip. When you have something
to say to somebody, you walk straight up to him, put your
finger in his face and say, ìThis is how it is.î Pharaoh said,
ìThereís not going to be a deliverer.î God said, ìYouíre going to train
him up. Youíre going to teach him. Youíre going to teach him
how to lead the people.î He had him in derision. Verse 4 says,
ìHe that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have
them in derision.î Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath,
and vex them in his sore displeasure." We know what the end was for
Pharaoh and his army, don't we? They ended in the wrath of God.
May God cause every soul that rebels against God's Word to
ask the question, why? May God stop us. Stop us. and make us ask ourselves, why
are we doing this? We're fighting against God. Now
here's a word of comfort for every soul that trusts in God's
Word. Verse 6 says, Yet have I set
my king upon my holy hill of Zion. We just sang the song,
Though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet. Verse 6 says, Yet have I set
my king upon my holy hill of Zion. Even though the apostle
Paul was going through everything he was going through. It's almost
like every chapter is the same. He's still in prison. He's tried
again. Trial, trial, trial. That's this life. That's the
life of a believer. Trial, trial. But even though
he was going through everything, he was going through. Through
every bit of it, Jesus Christ was seated on His throne. Every
bit of it. Everything was happening according
to His will and purpose. It was all under His direct command. Verse 7 says, I will declare
the decree the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son, this
day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession." If we have Christ, do you know what
our inheritance is? Him. Him. It's everything that He is, and
it's everything that He has. Now do you know what his inheritance
is? He already has it all. Do you know what his inheritance
is? Verse 8 says, Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen. That's us. Everything we are,
everything we're dragging around with us in our outcast, heathen state. You want
to hear some good news? This is amazing. God the Father
said to God the Son, if you ask for William Watts, I'll give
him to you. God the Father said to God the
Son, if you ask for Roy Baldwin, I'll give him to you. While this
world is crying, do not call me a heathen. Those that trust
in His Word are crying, pick me. Pick me, I'm the heathen. I'm the chief heathen. Pick me. We've spent all this time asking
the question, why? Why? Why is this heart so hard? Why is this will so strong? For
every soul that trusts in the Word of God, here's the good
news. Verse 9 says, thou shalt break them with a rod of iron
thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel he is
going to break this hard heart and he is going to break this
strong will he is going to make his enemy his footstool Bow at
his feet. Lord, I'm so sorry. Would you
let me just stay right here at your feet? He's going to make
his enemy his footstool. Here's our word of comfort. If
God the Father has given us to God the Son, he will not leave
us in our rebellion. He won't leave us there. Aren't
we so glad? He will not leave his people
there. He's going to break us. I'll close with this. Here's
an exhortation to every soul on this earth, every single soul.
Whether the soul believes, whether the soul rebels, every soul must
heed this exhortation. Verse 10 says, Be wise now therefore,
O ye kings. Be instructed, ye judges of the
earth. King Agrippa, Judge Festus, every
soul just like him. Every soul that believes he's
going to judge Jesus Christ, I'll decide. Every soul that believes the
decision is in his hand, every soul on this earth, verse 11
says, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. What
that means is we're all going to stand before a holy God. There is one who will truly judge
us. These little men on this earth,
I'm going to make a judgment here. We're going to decide some
things. You know, the world would not
continue spinning without me. There is one who is truly going
to judge us. And we're either going to be
judged in Christ or outside of Christ. So verse 12 says, Kiss
the Son. Kiss thee, son, lest he be angry
and you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. Let the heathen
rage." I don't have an answer to why. I really don't. Sin, you know. But let the heathen
rage. God is seated on His throne. Let's just trust Him. Let's trust
Him. Let's bow to Him. Let's kiss
Him. Kiss His hand. Kiss His feet. That's our favorite thing to
do. Favorite thought. I can't wait.
Kiss Him. Kiss the Son. All right. Let's
stand together.