It is so sweet to trust in Jesus
Just to take Him at His word Just to rest upon His promise
Just to know the Saint, the Lord Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him
How I've proved Him o'er and o'er Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus
Oh, for grace to trust Him more Oh, how sweet to trust in Jesus,
just to trust His cleansing blood, just in simple faith to plunge
me deep thus. cleansing flood. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him,
how I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious
Jesus, oh, for grace to trust Him more. Yes, tis sweet to trust in Jesus
Just from sin itself to cease Just from Jesus simply taking
Life in rest and joy in peace Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him
How I've proved Him o'er and o'er Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus
Oh, for praise to trust Him more I'm so glad I learned to trust
Thee Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend, And I know that Thou
art with me, Will be with me to the end. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him
How I've proved Him o'er and o'er Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus
Oh, for grace to trust Him more be seated we'll sing hymn number
357. 357. We'll skip the third verse. Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer
to Thee. Even though it be a cross that
praiseth me, All my songs shall be nearer,
my God, to Thee, nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee. The sun gone down, darkness be
over me, my rest a stone. dreams I'd be nearer, my God,
to Thee, nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee. with my waking thoughts bright
with thy praise. Out of my stony crease ever I raise,
so shall Nearer, my God, to Thee, Nearer
to Thee. For if on joyful wings Breathing
the sky, Sun, moon, and stars for God
A bird I fly Still all my song shall be Nearer, my God, to Thee
Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee. Acts 26. Acts 26. I'll read down to the 12th verse. Then Agrippa said unto Paul,
Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched
forth a hand and answered for himself. I thank myself happy,
King of Gypra, because I shall answer for myself this day before
thee, touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews. Especially I know thee to be
expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews, wherefore
I beseech thee to hear me patiently. My manner of life from my youth,
which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem,
know all the Jews, 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, hoped to come, for which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I
am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing
incredible with you that God should raise the dead? I verily
thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to
the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 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, and I punished them oft in every
synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme. And being exceedingly
mad against them, I persecuted them even under strange cities. were upon as I went to Damascus
with authority, and commissioned with the chief priest, or from
the chief priest." Alright. Our great and terrible and God of grace and also God of
judgment, God of mercy and God of wrath. Lord, you're a God
that's not just one-sided. You're a God that has lots and
lots of attributes. And Lord, we understand that
as what little we understand about Him, we know so little
about you. We truly, truly see through a
glass darkly when we think of things of you. when we try to
understand some things about you, your glory, your power,
how you judge, how you quicken, how you express your wrath, how
do you make yourself known in this world, and how you hide
yourself in this world from multitudes of people. And Lord, we've gathered
out here this evening to worship, gathered out here to study your
word, And I pray now for those that's gathered out that you
would enable me to be a blessing to them, to be an encouragement
to them, to be a comfort to them, to build them up in their most
holy faith. And Lord, I pray for those who
are not with us through your providence, through sickness,
through weakness of body. I pray that you'd please be merciful
to them, uphold them by your blessed grace and mercy for Christ's
sake. And our Father, We pray especially
for the sick among us, Bill and Fran. God, please be merciful
to them, gracious to them. And oh Lord, we look to you for
all things. Oh, we look to you for all things.
We understand, oh God, that this flesh profits nothing, absolutely
nothing. So give us of your spirit tonight.
Enable us to speak to your glory. and bring glory to your blessed
son, who has these things in his holy name. Amen. Amen. Hymn number 290. I think it's been about a year since
we've sang this one. See how it goes Be still my soul The Lord is on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief
or pain. Leave to thy God to order and
provide. In every change, ye faithful
will remain. Peace to my soul, thy best, thy
family, friend. Through thorny ways, leads to
a joyful end. Be still my soul, thy God doth
undertake To guide the future as he has the past nothing shake. All now mysterious shall be bright
at last. Peace to my soul the waves and
wind still know. His voice to And while He dwells below Be
still, my soul The hour is hastening on When we shall be Forever with
the Lord Grief and fear are gone. Sorrow for God was purest joy. Oh, what a beautiful hymn. Goodness, that's beautiful. Be still and know that I am God. I wish I could practice that.
I really wish I could practice my soul to be still. Well, Paul has had to defend
himself several times, his gospel, and defend himself against the
accusations of the Jews. The first one was in Acts 22,
you know. Now, we're in Acts 26. You know, they was trying to
kill him, and he was up on the steps, and he gave a defense
of himself. And when he got to the point
where he was going to be sent to the priest of the Gentiles,
they throwed the dirt in the air and said, ìItís not fit that
this man should live.î And they had to, soldiers had to take
him out away from them. Then they did it again when the
Jews came down from Caesarea and accused him of some Festus
and then he had to defend himself then then Felix come along And
and he had to defend himself with Felix and now Festus and
King Agrippa So Festus informed now look over here with me in
chapter 25 And it says in verse 13 after certain
days King Agrippa and Bernice and came unto Caesarea to salute
Festus, the new governor. And when they had been there
many days, Festus declared unto Paul s cause, unto the king,
saying, There is a certain Jew, a certain man left in bonds by
Felix, about whom I was at Jerusalem, and the chief priests and elders
of the Jews informed me, desiring to have judgment against him.
And look what he goes on down to say in verse 18 and 19 about
what happened about that. Now, he s talking to a king and
a queen here, telling them what happened, why Paul is being held.
He said, Against whom, when the accusers stood up, they brought
none accusation of such things as I supposed. The way they talked
about him, this man s some kind of an awful, awful criminal and
needs to die. But watch what he says. but had
certain questions against him of their own superstition." That
s what he said it was, their own superstition, and they accused
him of one Jesus which was dead, whom Paul affirmed was alive. So that s what happened. And
now so King Agrippa comes and his wife Bernice, and you remember
he appealed unto He appealed unto Caesar because they wanted
him to go back to Jerusalem, and he knew that if he got back
on the way to Jerusalem that they would kill him, they would
kill him. And of course, remember our Lord
said, You've got to testify of me at Rome, so that's why he
was going on to Rome. So he appealed to Caesar, and
then Festus thought, Now what in the world am I going to be
able to charge him of when I send him up to Caesar? What am I going
to say against this man? but there has been no charge
against him that's bounced anything. So if he appears before Caesar,
what crime am I going to say? What am I going to accuse him
of? What am I going to say about him? What will I write Caesar
and say about this man? So Agrippa said, Well, I listen,
I'll listen to it again and see what he's got to say. And okay,
And I tell you, look, well, first thing I want you to see tonight
is the pomp, the gathering of the great. Look back over here
with me then in verse 23 of chapter five. Paul Festus told him, said, I'll
hear him tomorrow myself. And on the morrow, when Agrippa
was come, and Bernice, listen to this, with great pomp, and
was entered into the place of hearing with the chief captains
and principal men of the city, and Festus commanded Paul to
be brought forth." Now hold, listen, they said they come with
great pomp, great pomp, great pomp. And here is the powerful. You imagine all these people
that's gathered there. Here's a king and here's his
queen. They're dressed as a king and
a queen. as Agrippa, and then there was,
they were the Jewish king and queen, they were actually Jews,
and they both were the king and the queen. Then there's the governor,
he's there, Festus is there, the Roman governor, he got power
over all that providence there, and then look what it says about
the chief captains, high-ranking military people, high-ranking
military officers, They had military people all around them, the chief
captains. And they didn't say one or two
or three chief captains. So you got a king and a queen,
you got the governor, you got all these soldiers standing there,
these military officers, and watch what else he says, and
principal men of the city. I mean, these were everybody
there was anybody. You know what the principal men
of the city was? The people had the money. People had the power. People had all the businesses.
People had the best clothes. People had the finest jewelry. People had the best of everything.
All these folks are powerful people. Great people. Principal
men of the city. And I tell you what, here they
are. They're all important. They're the most important people
around at that particular time. Nobody could have been more impressive.
Nobody could be more powerful. Nobody could be more important.
Nobody could be greater than this bunch right here. And they
come in there and here they come in there in all their glory and
all their pageantry. They got on the best clothes
that money can buy. I mean, they're all looking so
good. Everything about them is just
wonderful. And then look what it says there
in the last part of verse 23. And Festus commanded Paul to
be brought forth. Now here's all these people,
all this group of people, all this pageantry, all these powerful,
important people, all that the folks bow down to and count down
to and wanna be on the good side of them. They bring out this
little man. Paul was a very small man, by
all accounts. Very, very small man. He himself
said, my bodily presence is weak. When you look at me, you see
a weak looking man. You see a frail man. Very, very
small man. A man of great self-denial. And
here he is, they call him out. He don't know who he's gonna
be in front of. They're gonna bring him out of jail. And he
stands up there and all of a sudden he looks and sees, oh, everybody,
who's all these people? Who's these people? Here's this
little, small Jew, a man mightily loosed of God, one man against
all these people. One man standing up with everybody,
that's anybody being there. That'd be like being brought
out before the Senate and the Congress and the President and
the Vice President and everybody's anybody. And they're bringing you out
and this is what they're going to accuse you of. Oh, and they didn't even
give him time to prepare. Well, listen, you're gonna go
in front of the king, you're gonna go in front of this, that, and
all these people. They didn't say, well, this is who you'll
face, so get ready to get prepared to do it. They didn't even, oh
no. What a scene here. You're talking
about a scene. What a scene here. One little
man, very small man, standing, before a king and a queen and
a government, the governor, and people with the most great positions
of power that's ever, ever been at that particular time. And
it says Pomp. Here's Pomp on one side, and
here's this little man over here on the other. You know what Pomp means? You
know what the word means? It means you've got an imagination
that you're somebody. That's exactly what it means.
It's just a fantasy that you are really somebody. That's why
it's called palm. It's imagination. You look it
up. A man imagines and he's got this fantasy that they are the
best and the brightest and the most powerful people that ever
was, so they come in with all this pageantry to let everybody
know how great they are and how everybody ought to pay attention
to them. My when you talk about it's a
fantasy and it's an imagination. They imagine that they are Something
light that means something light Something fleeting something
passing Some something of momentary interest only And all of these
people with all their power and all their positions and all their
pomp all on display You know what, all it says is, is it's
a fantasy. It's not reality. It's a fantasy. You know, you go watch all these
kings, you watch the king of England, when he gets, they come
down through this great big chariot and all these horses and let
everybody know how great he is. And I tell you what, he's a man.
What is man that you're mindful of him? Who in the world is man? That's what God says about these
people. He said their imagination's only evil, and their imagination
was, I'm the greatest thing since anybody. And oh my, and let me
tell you something, all these people have passed away. Agrippa's
gone, Bernice is gone, the chief captains are gone. All those
men, principal men of the city, they're all gone. They're all
gone, they're passed away. Their flags and all their pomp
is gone. The Roman Empire no longer exists. But the gospel of Christ that
Paul was called to preach and to witness to and carries on
right now, that gospel still goes on. That gospel that Paul
preached to these people here I'll tell you what, it's existed
for centuries with people like this trying to stomp it out.
People like the Jews trying to destroy it. People like the Romans
trying to destroy it. King after king after king has
tried to destroy it, but the gospel still exists. The gospel still being preached
and God's not going to leave himself without a witness on
this earth. and it'll continue, the gospel
will continue, till all of us, one of these days, enter into
glory, and we won't need it anymore. Huh? Oh, my. Oh, I tell ya, the
gospel prevailed the day that Paul stood there and declared
the truth, and there's a grip on his throne. He ain't got a
throne anymore. Christ's on his throne, and you
know how long his throne lasts? Huh? Caesar! That man worshiped
and had to appear before. He no longer even exists. But
our Lord Jesus Christ sits on his throne and he's the only
one worthy of worship in this world and the world to come.
Huh? Oh my. Oh, see the big difference
there? Here's all these people. They're
gone. Gospel goes on. Christ still on his throne. They
ain't got a throne. They ain't got nothing. They're
like Pilate when he said, I'm gonna wash my hands of this.
He's still washing his hands in hell. Oh, and then Paul, Paul,
look what he says now. And he says in verse starting
in chapter 26, look what happens now. Then Agrippa said unto Paul,
you're permitted to speak for yourself. In other words, he
said, I'm gonna give you permission to talk. Here's this man that God chose
and God used and the best preacher says Christ himself. And here
they said, you're permitted to speak now. You can talk, we'll
let you talk. And then Paul stretched forth
his hand and he answered for himself. And here's the first
thing he said. I was looking for this message today. I thank
myself happy. I remember preaching it. Thirty
years, thirty-five years ago, I think myself happy in all the
things, reason why, but that's what he said. The first thing
out of his mouth, and there's kings, queens, chief captains,
principal men of the cities. I'm as happy as I can be. Oh, listen, you fellas ain't
botherin'. You ain't got my heart shook
up the first time. I ain't gonna have to take no
baby aspirin. I ain't gonna have to do. I ain't gonna bite my
fingernails off to the quick. Oh, listen, you people ain't
nothin'. Said, God whom I serve. Oh, listen. He said, look what
he said. I thank myself happy. And you know what I would've
said? I sure hope I say the right thing to get myself out of this
mess. Paul said, I thank myself happy. Then look what he said, and I
shall answer for myself. I don't need a lawyer. I don't
need nobody to stand with me. I don't need nobody to stand
for me. He said, I'm going to answer for myself this day before
you. And listen to what he said, touching
all things, everything that the Jews accused me of, I'm gonna
tell, I'm gonna go right down the list of them, and I'm gonna,
wherever, everything they accused me, I'm gonna go through them.
And oh my, and then he goes on to say, and in verse three especially,
I'm glad to stand before you because I know you to be an expert. and all customs and questions
which are among the Jews. He s a Jew himself, so he knows
what s going on among the Jews. So hear me patiently, hear me
patiently. And the first thing he does,
he starts talking about what he was before God saved him.
He said, Oh, my! And then verse 4, My manner of
life from my youth, which was at the first among my own nation
at Jerusalem at the Jews, and everybody that knowed would testify,
I lived after the straightest sect at all. I was a Pharisee.
He talks about what he was. I was a Pharisee. That's the
straightest and strictest of all the religions that the Jews
had. Oh, straightest and strictest
of our religion. They would be the fundamentalist
of our days. But our Lord condemned them everywhere
they went. They were great, great believers
in the law. and all, but they rejected God
s grace. They were great believers in
works and long prayers and paying tithes. They were great believers
in all those things, great believers in setting in judgment upon the
Lord s people, great believers in that, but they did not know
anything about mercy. nothing about mercy. And I tell
you, you find folks that's a Pharisee today, you find folks that's
really into works and being saved by the works. You know what?
They don't know nothing about mercy and they won't show you
any grace. They won't do it. Now, I know
there's people just won't do it. Oh my. And then look, he
said, listen, he said, I'm going to tell you what my hope is.
And they tried to get after my hope. And he says now in verse
6, I stand and judge for the HOPE of the promise made of God
unto our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That s what he s saying. And Israel served God day and
night, the 12th time. For which hope, saith King Agrippa,
I am accused of the Jews. You know what the hope was? all
the Jews looked forward to the Messiah coming, the Christ coming. And God told Abraham the first
thing, Of thy seed, of thy seed, he said, Aunt, you re going to
be the father of many nations. And Abraham didn t even have
a child for 25 years. And as he said, That s the promise
that God made, that there was going to come one out of my seed
that would be the Savior, be the Christ, be the Messiah. And
he said, That s what we lived in hope of. That was our hope
that Christ would come, that He would be our Savior, that
He would be our Redeemer, that He would come through the seed
of Abraham. And oh my! And you know what I said, Abraham
believed God, didn t stagger in unbelief, didn t consider
his body being a hundred years old. And he said, Oh, yes, I
ll even serve God. This is the hope they accused
me of, because I believe the same thing that God said to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, same promise. And oh my, and listen to what
he said here now, in verse eight, why do you think it incredible
with you that God should raise the dead? He's telling the king
now, and everybody there, surely, surely, if you know anything
about God at all, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the
God of promise, the God of life. If you knew anything about God,
you wouldn�t think it�s NOTHING for God to raise somebody from
the dead. That�s not nothing credible about that. You know,
God raised somebody from the dead. If He could park the Red
Sea and everybody would go through on dry land. If He could get
in a furnace with three men. If He could make Himself known
out of a burning bush. If he can stand and say, oh,
Moses said, show me your glory. My glory is, I'll have mercy
on whom I'll have mercy, have compassion on whom I'll have
compassion. So listen, how could you possibly think that God couldn't
raise the dead? And oh my, didn't look what he
said. He said, oh my, I was against Christ myself one day. I have
early thought myself that ought to do many things to the contrary
to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know where I
started at? I started at Jerusalem. I started
at Jerusalem. And I tell you, I took many of
the saints and I put them in jail, I put them in prison. And
listen, it says there in verse 10, he said, and when they were
put to death, and that means murdered, they were murdered.
When they were put to death, Paul said, they got it coming. I'm glad I delivered them up.
He gave approval of every single one of them that got killed.
That's how mean this man was. That's how mean and cruel this
man was. So he's just telling them, he said, I thought I'd
be against him too. And I punished oft, oh my, I
punished oft in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme.
compelled them to, made them to. And all my being exceedingly
mad against them, I persecuted them to strange cities. And he
said, and I received my authority. And then verse 10, he said, I
received my authority from the chief priest. I got authority
from people that's somebody in the Jews religion. And all punished
them off, compelled them to blaspheme. So here was a man, tell him how
bad he was. how awful he was, how he hated
Christ, how a Pharisee he was. And oh my, and then you know
Agrippa, he knows all this. He understands what he's talking
about. Then he talks about God saving him, talks about his conversion. And he says it in verse 13, at
midday, O king, everybody remembers this story, as the light from
heaven. And how bright was it, Paul? Above the brightness of the sun.
We were coming to church tonight, and you couldn't see out your
glass because the sun's so bright. You know, you can't see. The
sun's so bright in your eyes, you can't see. He said, you think
the sun's bright and it blinds you? He said, this light that
I've seen was greater than the sun ever shall be. How's this supposed to show you
the glory of Christ compared to anything in this universe,
huh? Oh my. And then he went down
and told his glory. And he said, oh, and I fell to
the earth and somebody was speaking to me in the Hebrew tongue. Oh,
Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And oh, our Lord told him
who he was. And then he said in verse 16,
rise, stand up on your feet. get up. Christ began to talk
to him. I appeared to you for a purpose.
I have a purpose for you. And I'm here meeting you on purpose. And that's again, we always believe
that God does things on purpose. And look what he said, I've got
a purpose for you. This is what I appeared to you for. To make
you a preacher, a minister. And not only a minister, but
a witness. What do you want me to witness to? Things that you
see, and things that you hear, and the things that I'm gonna
show you later. He said, that's the only reason
I appeared to you right now. I've got a calling on you. And oh, look what he goes on
to say. And then he says, delivering you from the people and the Gentiles,
and I'm gonna send you the Gentiles, to open them in verse 18, to
turn them from darkness to light. That's exactly what happens when
God saves a man, turns him from darkness to light, from the power
of Satan under God. And this is the reason he does
it, that they may receive, first of all, forgiveness of sins.
And then not only get forgiven, then you get an inheritance after
you forgive sins. An inheritance with them that
are already sanctified by faith in me. And oh boy, he talked
about his contortion, his ministry, and he said, oh, King Agrippa,
I wasn't disobedient under that heavenly vision. Oh my, I wasn't
disobedient. And I tell you, he goes on down
here and says, now watch what he says. He said in verse 20,
the last part of the verse is that they should repent and turn
to God and do works worthy of repentance to show you that you've
repented. And for these causes, everything
that I've told you about, the Jews caught me in the temple
and went about to kill me. Oh my, they wanted to kill me.
And I tell you what, he says, he told them to repent. And I
did, and oh, they preached to him that they should repent and
do works made for repentance, to show you've been repentant.
But now I love this next verse here, in verse 22. Oh my, listen
to this. Having therefore obtained help
of God, Oh, therefore having obtained
help of God. Who helped you? Paul, God did.
Who held you up? Paul, God did. Who's standing
beside you? Paul, God is. We sung that song,
Be Still My Soul. Here was a man, knew what it
was to be still before God. Knew what it was to be still
in his soul. And look what he says. Having
therefore obtained help from God. Listen to what else he gonna
say. I continue today. I�m still going on. You guys
thought you put me in jail, you�re going to stop all this, didn�t
you? He said, I continue this day.
I�m right here. I�m continuing to this day. What
are you doing this day, Paul? What are you doing? Witness both
to nobody�s And somebodies, he said to small, that means people
that don't amount to nothing, the poor people like us. And
then they come turns around and said, then these great people
like he's preaching to right there. All you great folks and
all that, listen, it don't make no difference who you are in
my side. I'm gonna preach the gospel. I'm gonna preach the
gospel. Written in both the small and great. And listen to what
he said, and listen, this is what his message was, saying,
none other things than those which the prophets in Moses did
say should come. I just went back to the law.
I showed you from Moses in that five first five books of the
Bible considered the writings of Moses, the law of Moses and
the things of Moses. he says, The prophets, and all
the prophets, and Moses, I ll just preach to you and witness
to you the things that they promised that would happen and that should
come. That s what our Lord did when He preached it to His disciples.
He said, Starting at Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms, He
opened their understanding, the things concerned in Himself.
And oh my, he goes on to say this, and this is what they said.
This is what the prophets said and this is what Moses said,
that Christ should suffer. That's what the Jews couldn't
take. They could take a king coming.
They could take a king coming and setting up his throne in
Jerusalem. A king coming and delivering them from the Roman
Empire. They could stand that. But oh
my, to have a suffering Savior? that Christ should suffer. He
suffered in his flesh, man acquainted with grief. Suffered at the hands
of men and mistreated horribly. And then he suffered death, suffered
death. And oh my, and then look what
else he had. And that he should be the first
that should rise from the dead. Ain't nobody ever rose from the
dead until God brought him up, or Christ raised him from the
dead, or some prophet did. But Christ rose from the dead
by His own power, that He should be the first that should rise
from the dead. Oh, my. And look what He says. And that when He rose from the
dead, He's gonna bring light. He's gonna bring revelation.
He's gonna bring understanding unto the people and unto the
Gentiles. Oh, my, how do you reckon these
folks are going to react to that? How do you reckon they're going
to act? Look at the response. Look what old Festus said, verse
24, And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said with a loud
voice, Paul, you're beside yourself. Your much learning has made you
a lunatic, drove you insane. That's what he said. He heard
all this stuff, and he said, now, you know what he said here?
There was so much more said. We're just getting the highlights
of it. And old Festus, he jumped up
and said, Paul, Paul, what in the world's the matter? You've
done went mad. You've lost your mind. You're
insane. All the learning that you've had has drove you crazy.
But he said, I'm not mad. I'm not a lunatic. I'm not insane.
And then look how he addressed him, most noble Festus, but speak
forth the words of truth and soberness that you ought to pay
attention to what's being said. And then he said about Agrippa,
for the king knows the things before whom I speak freely. Now
I'm persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him, that
Agrippa knows exactly what I'm telling. And this thing was not
done in a corner. Now look what he applies the
gospel, look what he does now. And he's talking to a king now.
He's not talking to somebody like a king Agrippa. Believest
thou the prophets? I know that you believe. He said, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe, I know
you do. Look what Agrippa said now. Then
Agrippa said unto Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. Now he wasn't saying that in
sincerity, he was not. He was saying that to belittle
him. to say, boy, you might be a persuasive preacher. And God
fessed us all shook up. But he said, you think you could
persuade me to be a Christian? Is that what you're saying? And
Paul said, I would to God that not only you, but also that all
that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as
I am, and what he means, what I am right now before God Almighty,
the hope that I have, the gospel that I have, the Christ that
I have. He said, I want y'all to be like me, but I just don't
want you to be in the bonds that I am, held as a prisoner as I
am. And oh, my. So they'd got together and they
had to make a decision. In verse 30, he says this, and
when they'd spoken, the king rose up and the governor, Bernice
and they that sat with them, they all got together. And they
were going aside, they got over here and had a conference over
here and had a big powwow, a big talk. They talked among themselves
and this is what they said, this man does nothing worthy of death
or even being bound right now. Then said Agrippa unto Festus,
this man might have been set free today if he had not appealed
unto Caesar. He said, if you hadn't appealed
to Caesar, I'd let him go right now. Right now. Well, I don't know, we don't know anything
about anything like you fellows went through. And I'm grateful. I'm grateful. I don't know that
I could be like that, even come close to that. But I like to
see how other people act. I really do. Oh, our great, great, great,
great, great and blessed God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, our Savior, our Redeemer, our Mediator, the very lover
of our soul, who loved us and gave himself for us. Oh, loved us and gave himself
for us. Lord, we thank you for your word.
Nothing like it in this world. It does something for us that
nothing in this world can do. It speaks to us in the depths
of our heart and soul. It speaks to us in special, glorious
ways. And Lord, we pray that this gospel,
this message tonight was a blessing and be an encouragement and an
enlightenment. And Lord, truly, truly, as we
sung tonight, be still my soul, be still my soul. Oh Lord, to
be able to do that, we thank you and pray that you would enable
us all to be that way. Forgive us of everything that's
unlike you. Bless these dear saints as they go their way.
Be a blessing, be an encouragement, and be comforting, and give an
abundance of grace to those who are sick, being greatly tried
right now. We ask it for Christ's sake.
Amen. Well, I'll see you Sunday morning,
God willing. Good night, and God bless you. you