Colossians 1 and look at verse 25. Whereof I am made a minister
according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for
you to fulfill the Word of God. If you have a center reference
in your Bible, to fulfill translates fully to preach the Word. The Apostle Paul said, I made
a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for
you fully to preach the Word of God. Verse 26, even the mystery which hath been hid from ages
and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints,
to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. whom we preach. We preach Christ. We don't preach a what, we preach
a whom. Whom we preach. Now here's what
I wanted to show you. Warning every man. Warning every man and teaching
every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect
in Christ Jesus. The apostle Paul said, I've been
called to preach every word in this scripture. Every single
word. More specifically, Christ in
every word of this scripture. And he said, I've been called
to warn every man and woman of the things that God has said.
I've been called to warn of the things that God has written in
this word. All right, now here's the second passage I want us
to read. Go with me to Ezekiel 33. Paul was a man that God called
to preach. Ezekiel was also a man that God
called to preach. And he says in Ezekiel 33 verse
1, Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of
man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them,
when I bring the sword upon the land, if the people of the land
take a man of their coast and set him for their watchman. And
that's what preachers are, they're watchmen. That's what they are,
they are watchmen. Verse 3, if when he seeth the
sword come upon the land, if he blows the trumpet. Now, when the apostle John penned
the revelation, Every word in here was written
by God's Holy Spirit, and these different men penned these words.
And when John penned the revelation, he said, someone came up behind
me talking, and it sounded like a trumpet. His voice sounded
like a trumpet. That's what he said in chapter
1. It's the words of Jesus Christ. It was Christ that came to John. And he said it sounded just like
a trumpet. That trumpet is this Word of
God. That's what it is. This is the
trumpet. So verse 3, If when he seeth
the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn
the people, then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet And
taketh not warning, if the sword come and take him away, his blood
shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet
and took not warning, his blood shall be upon him. But he that
taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman
see the sword come and blow not the trumpet, And the people be
not warned, if the sword come and take any person from among
them, he is taken away in his iniquity. That means he deserved
to die. He will die, and he deserved
to die. He was a sinner. He is taken
away in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman's
hand. So thou, O son of man, I have
set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel. Therefore thou
shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O
wicked man, thou shalt surely die. If thou dost not speak to
warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in
his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless,
if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, if he do
not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou
hast delivered thy soul. Therefore, O thou Son of Man,
speak unto the house of Israel. Thus ye speak, saying, If our
transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in
them. The word pine means dwindle. If we were all excited at first,
but then we start to dwindle. How should we then live? How should we then live? If we
don't heed the warning, if we know our sins and our iniquities
and we don't heed the warning, how shall we live? That's our
message tonight. That's our message tonight. I
have a word of warning for us, and it's a word that will cause
every true believer here to say, Amen. So be it. And I'm so thankful for the reminder.
Thank you for the reminder. All right, now go with me to
our text, Acts 24. The apostle Paul right here is
answering in his own defense before the governor Felix. We've been looking at his trial
and he just finished saying, we looked at it last week, after
the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers.
Now he continues in verse 16, he said, in herein do I exercise
myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and
toward men. He said, I have no desire to
be an offense, number one, to God, to His Word, offense to
His glory, disregarding those things. But Paul said, I also
have no desire to be an offense to men. I don't want to be an
offense to men. We don't either, do we? We do not want to be an
offense to men. Lord, don't let me bring a reproach
on your name. Don't let me bring a reproach
on your honor. Let me be an example that points
men to Christ. That's what I want to be. That's
what we all want to be, isn't it? An example that points men to
Christ. Verse 17. Now after many years
I came to bring alms to my nation and offerings. Paul had received
money, financial gifts from the different churches for him to
bring to the poor brethren that were in Jerusalem. Verse 18,
whereupon certain Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple,
neither with multitude nor with tumult. who ought to have been
here before thee, and object if they had ought against thee."
Now, the ones who assumed that Paul brought a Gentile into the
temple, this whole story we've been looking at, the ones who
started this whole mess and they stirred up this big mob by running
and saying, he's defiled the temple, they didn't even show
up to the trial. And the reason is because they
didn't have any proof. They knew they assumed the whole
thing, and they didn't even show up. And Paul said, They should
have been here to accuse me. My accusers are not even here
that saw me. So verse 20, he said, Or else let these same
here say, If they have found any evil doing in me while I
stood before the council, except it be for this one voice that
I cried standing among them. He said, I said one thing, this
is all I said. Touching the resurrection of
the dead, I am called in question by you this day. And when Felix
heard these things, having more perfect knowledge of that way,
this way that Paul just said, the resurrection of the dead,
the way that Paul cried about, everywhere he went, the way of
Christ crucified. Verse 22, Felix heard these things,
having more perfect knowledge of that way, he deferred them,
he put them off, and he said, When Lysias the
chief captain shall come down, I'll know the uttermost of your
matter. When he comes, I'll hear all sides of the story, and then
I'll be able make my judgment. Verse 23, and he commanded a
centurion to keep Paul and to let him have liberty and that
he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come
to him. So Paul was kept in prison and
he was allowed to have visitors. They gave him liberty. Anybody
who wanted to come and talk to Paul was free to come and talk
to him. Verse 24, 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 in Christ. Felix, this governor, this judge,
and his wife, Drusilla, they sat down and they listened to
Paul preach to them. They would go sit and go to his
cell and sit and listen to him and preach to him. And he preached
to them the necessity, the absolute necessity of bowing to and believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean the absolute necessity.
And that's what we do every time we stand up and open this Word. By God's grace and by His Spirit,
Whenever God sends a man with a message, a watchman with a
trumpet, what he's doing is he is crying the necessity of bowing
to and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Absolute necessity. The necessity of casting your
all on the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Cast it all on
the mercy of Christ. That is the trumpet that the
watchman blows. That's the trumpet. Cast it all
on Christ. We better let go of our religion.
we better let go of our rebellion and we better cast it all on
Christ. Every bit of it. Verse 24, 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 in Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness, Paul told them who God is. If
we're going to talk about righteousness, we're going to talk about God. He reasoned with them of righteousness,
what God demands for a soul to stand in His presence, what it
takes to be in the presence of God, absolute righteousness,
perfection, sinlessness, and we don't have it. We just don't
have it. There's none righteous. There's
none righteous. And we can try to attain it on
our own all we want to. And believers still struggle
with this. Believers still struggle with this. We want to obey this
Word, but somehow this flesh continually gets in the way,
and it causes us to, at every chance we get, look to ourselves
and not look to Christ. And it's never going to happen.
There is none righteous. All have sinned. Absolute righteousness
is God Almighty. And if I have any righteousness,
it's Christ my God. That's it. Verse 25, and as he
reasoned of righteousness, temperance, who God is and what he's commanded
of us. Paul talked about his command
of our obedience to him. The word temperance means self-control. And not a soul on this earth
has any ounce of it. Self-control. I think I'm going
to control what happens to me today. I can't do that. Not one
ounce of it. All have disobeyed his command.
All. Therefore, Paul told them about
something else. Verse 25, As he reasoned of righteousness,
temperance, and judgment to come. Judgment to come. Every soul
has sinned. And the wages of sin is death.
It's death. And it's real death. It's a death
It's a worm that does not die. It's an eternal death. And my prayer, I was thinking
about all this, and we tell these truths, and we
tell these truths, and we tell these truths, and my prayer is
that not only will they sink into my heart, but my prayer
is they will sink into the hearts of our children. That's my prayer. There is a death. There is an
eternal death. There is a judgment to come.
Verse 25 says, As he reasoned of righteousness, temperance,
and judgment to come, Felix trembled. And you can stand up and tell
men and women about judgment to come. Everybody's interested
in it. You can do a documentary on A&E
and everybody will tune in. And people tremble. That's a
scary thought. Felix trembled. Now I'll tell
you why he trembled. Drusilla, his wife, was married
to another man. This is a side note, but do you
remember Herod who stood up and gave a speech and they all said
it's the voice of a God and not of a man and he gloried in that
and God smote him with worms. He was eaten of worms and then
he died. He was eaten by worms and then
he died. That's his daughter. And her
brother is in the next chapter, Agrippa. But anyway, this woman
was married to another man and Felix wanted her. She wanted
Felix. So she divorced her husband.
They got married. And we know that this word caused
that adultery, right? They knew they were sinners.
Paul is, I'm quite positive, Paul was very clear on the truth
with them. And I'm sure they'd never heard
it like that either. They'd never heard the truth quite like that.
And Felix trembled. But listen to this. Listen to
this. And here's what I want our children
to learn. Knowing you are a sinner is not
salvation. That's not salvation. You know,
people in religion, they don't believe they're sinners. and
they're doing good, and they're doing right, and I'm just so
proud of myself, and I'm just so glad I'm not what I used to
be, and so they're not sinners. And then when God opens their
eyes to this Word, they start to realize, oh, I am a sinner. And that is a wonderful revelation.
But knowing you are a sinner is not salvation. Jesus Christ
is. Jesus Christ is salvation. And Felix heard the apostle Paul
in verse 21 talk about the resurrection of the dead. He talked about
a crucified Savior who died for this sinner. Knowing I'm a sinner
is wonderful, but salvation is knowing a crucified Savior who
died for this sinner. Paying the price for every sin
that I committed my sin, every sin of every soul that God gave
him. And if God gave him me, my sin. And the proof of the fact that
all that's finished and put away is God raised him from the dead. He raised his dear precious son
from the dead. In him we have life, don't we?
We have life. Now here is our warning tonight. Here is our warning. Paul preached
this glorious gospel, the truth that will uphold a man when he
goes and stands before God. Paul preached this glorious gospel. And it's miraculous news. When you think about the fact
that God Almighty did this out of the kindness of His own heart.
He showed mercy to sinners out of the kindness of His own heart.
That's miraculous. And Paul lovingly preached it
to this man and this woman and look how they responded. Now
here's our word of warning. This is Gabe Stoniker's word
of warning. Do not respond to the gospel
of Christ like they did. Do not respond to the gospel
of Christ like they did. Verse 25 says, 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. I don't really have time for
this right now. That's what he said. I don't really have time
for this right now. Other things are more important
to me right now. I've got some things in life
that I kind of need to get taken care of first. I just don't have time for this,
and I'm just not interested. Verse 26, he hoped also that
money should have been given him of Paul. He thought that
these visitors, that's why he said, let anybody who wants to
come to him, let them come. He thought they'd bring him some
money and pay Felix to let him go. Thought he'd be given money,
Paul, that he might loose him, wherefore he sent for him the
offener and communed with him. Yeah, let's get together. But
after two years, Paul sat in that prison cell for two years.
After two years, Porcius Festus came into Felix's room. He came into his office. He took
his place as governor. And Felix, willing to show the
Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound. He just decided to not let him
go. Just leave him in there. He never found that convenient
season. He never found it. He said, I'll
come back to this. I hear what you're saying. And I'll come back to this later
when it's a convenient season for me. I'm just too busy right
now. And he never found it. He never found it. May God not
allow us to put off Christ. May God cause us to seek the
kingdom of heaven, that's Christ, and his righteousness, that's
Christ, first. Seek ye first the kingdom of
heaven and his righteousness. And I'm not going to turn, I
was going to go to a couple of places that talked about That
one man said he was rich and increased with goods, and he
was filling up his barns. And he said, I'll tell you what
I'm going to do. I'm going to tear all these barns down, and I'm going to build
bigger barns. And I'm going to just let my soul, I'm going to
retire. I'm going to take my ease. I'm going to eat, drink,
and be merry. And I got years ahead of me,
and God said, thou fool, tonight thy soul is required of thee.
Over in James, He said, boast not of tomorrow.
You don't even know what tomorrow holds. What is your life? It's a vapor. It's just a vapor. We think it's a long life, don't
we? Until one of the days we turn around and realize it wasn't.
It just wasn't. And everything that I went after
is gone. It's gone. I made a pile of money. It's gone. I did this, I did
that, it's gone. And as a watchman, I'm telling
us all, the sword is coming. The sword is coming. Flee to
Christ. That's what I'm saying. Run to
Christ. Hide in the rock. Hide in the rock. I don't care
how little the amount of time is that we've been under his
gospel, and I don't care how long the amount of time is that
we've been under his gospel. Let's all right now run to him. Run to him. Now, in running,
we're going to give him all the glory for it, aren't we? No man
can come to him except the Father draw him. No man can believe
on Him except God gives him faith to believe. And no, you know,
look and live. Well, no man can look unless
he gives eyes to see. But He gives all of those things
through the commandment of His Word. Faith comes by hearing. He gives all those things through
the commandment of His Word. He draws His child by saying,
Come. That's how he draws him. Now,
turn with me to Ecclesiastes 12, and I'll be quick. Just before Isaiah. Ecclesiastes 12. Ecclesiastes 12 verse 1 says,
Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth. Now if any
of our kids are listening right now, you are children and God
made us and God owns us and we bow to him and the only hope
we have is his blood. All right, now remember in your
mind, in your heart, Remember now thy Creator in the days of
thy youth. That means right now. While the
evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say,
I have no pleasure in them. Before the day comes when you
say, I'd rather go do other things. Right now. God is bringing you
right now. And God is bringing us right
now. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth. This
is as young as any of us are ever going to be before we say,
I have no pleasure in them. Let's all cry out to God for
mercy today. This is the point of the warning,
today. I mean today. Look at Isaiah
55 with me. Turn over just a few pages to
Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55 verse 6 says, Seek
ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he's near.
He is so near right now, he said if two or three are gathered
right now in his name, he is in the midst of us. That's how
near he is right now. Now, one of these days, it's
going to be too late, and he's going to be so far, there will
be a great gulf fixed between us that we cannot cross. Seek
ye the Lord. He's bringing us right now. Right
now. call on him while he's near let
the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts
and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him
and to our God for he will abundantly pardon sinners the Lord Jesus will receive
soundest word of grace to all Man, he will abundantly pardon. He'll show mercy on him. Don't put it off. Don't put it
off. Let's seek him today. Psalm 111
says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If we
fear the wrath to come, and if we have a heart to run to Christ
today, then God is the one who gave us that fear. God is the
one who gave us that heart. And it means mercy's already
been shown. If we have an urgent heart to
run and cry, that means mercy's already been shown. We have a
heart to run because he's pulling on the cord. That's what it is.
Now, I'm going to close with Psalm 91. Go with me to Psalm
91, and we'll be done. I titled this message, Today
is the Day. Today is the day. Paul told Felix
and he told Drusilla the warning of righteousness, temperance,
and judgment to come. And they said, We don't have
time for this right now. We just don't have time for this right
now. And they died in their sins. They died in their sins. There's no promise of mercy tomorrow. There's no promise of mercy tomorrow,
today. Every soul that has a heart to
run to Christ today can rest on this promise. Psalm 91 says,
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, that
means he's there, not he that will dwell. Oh yeah, I'm planning
on getting in the secret place of the Most High. Get there.
run there. He that dwelleth in the secret
place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the
Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is
my refuge and my fortress. My God in Him will I trust. not
he will be my refuge. He is. He is. I want to be one place in Christ. That's the only place we're safe.
And if we're there, verse 3 says, Surely he shall deliver thee
from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence.
He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings
shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield
and thy buckler. Run to him. run to him, call
on him and beg him for mercy and do it while it's called today.
The only convenient season is today. That's it, today. You come crying, we just sang,
and this is how every sinner needs to come, this is how I
want to come. We just sang, just as I am without one plea, But
I do have one plea. Just as I am without one plea,
but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come
to thee, O Lamb of God, I come. I do it today. All right, let's
stand together.