Good evening, let's all stand
together and sing hymn number 45. Hymn number 45. Ye servants of God, your master
proclaim and publish abroad. His wonderful name, the name
all victorious of Jesus extol. His kingdom is glorious. He rules over all. God ruleth on high. Almighty to save And still he
is nigh His presence we have The great congregation His triumph
shall sing Ascribing salvation To Jesus our King Salvation to
God Who sits on the throne Let all cry aloud and honor the Son. The praises of Jesus the angels
proclaim. Fall down on their faces and
worship the Lamb. Then let us adore and give him
his right, all glory and power and wisdom and might, all honor
and blessing with angels above, and thanks never ceasing and
infinite love. Thank you. Be seated. Hymn number
512. 512. Someday the silver cord will
break, And I no more as now shall sing. But, oh, the joy when I
shall wake, within the palace of the king. And I shall see him face to face
and tell the story by grace, and I shall see him face to face
and tell the story saved by grace. Someday my earthly house will
fall, I cannot tell how soon't will be, but this I know, my
all in all, has now a place in heaven for me. And I shall see him face to face,
and tell the story saved by grace. And I shall see him face to face
And tell the story saved by grace Someday when fades the golden
sun Beneath the rosy-tinted west My blessed Lord will say, well
done. And I shall enter in to rest. And I shall see Him face to face. And tell the story saved by grace. And I shall see him face to face
And tell the story saved by grace Someday till then I'll watch
and wait My lamp all trimmed and burning bright That when
my Savior opens the gate, My soul to Him may take its flight,
And I shall see Him face to face, and tell the story saved by grace. And I shall see him face to face
and tell the story saved by grace. Acts 25, Acts chapter 25. We're going to deal with the
first 12 verses this evening, Lord willing. Now when Festus was come into
the province, after three days he ascended from Caesarea unto
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 in wait the way to kill him. But Festus answered
that Paul should be kept at Caesarea and that he himself would depart
shortly. 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, setting 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. While he answered for himself,
neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple,
nor yet against Caesar have I offended anything at all. But Fistus,
willing to show the Jews a pleasure, answered Paul and said, Wilt
thou go up to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these things
before me? Then said Paul, 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, being
an offender, have committed anything worthy of death, I refuse not
to die. But if there be none of these
things whereof these accuse me, no man may deliver me unto them. I appealed unto Caesar. Then
Festus said, when he had conferred with the council, answered, Hast
thou hast appealed unto Caesar, unto Caesar shalt thou go. Let's
be sure and remember Bill and Fran. Our father, oh, our father. What a blessed name, what a blessed
title that we can come and call you our father. You're our father
through your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. You're our father who
began us again by the word of truth. You're our father who
saved us by blessed grace. You're our father who sent your
son into this world to redeem us and pay for us with his precious
blood. And, oh, as a child talking to
his father, we come. Oh, Lord, we come. And we trust
that you hear us. And, Lord, we come with troubled
hearts, weary hearts, fearful hearts, not for ourselves, but
for others. Lord, we are troubled for Bill
and Fran. trouble for their situation.
And oh Lord, we know that you'll see them through this, and that
you'll uphold them, and you'll meet the needs of their hearts,
you'll meet the needs of their homes, you'll meet the needs
of their souls. And Lord, you've already provided
for the needs of the soul, so they got a blessed hope, and
we're thankful for that. And we pray for those, and I
fear for those, have such little interest in the gospel, have
such little interest in the worship of God, have such little interest
in the fellowship of the saints and gathering with the sheep
of God. That troubles me, causes fear in my heart. So Lord, I
leave that in your hands. Lord, you know who they are,
you know where they are, and you know why they are. So Lord,
we'll leave that with you. And Lord, we pray for those who, have hearts and their troubles
in their home and in their heart. God bless them. Lord, strengthen
and encourage them. Meet with us tonight. Bless us
in your precious word. Beat the needs of every heart
here. We ask in Christ our Lord's name. Amen. Amen. I don't know if I turned that
on. Let me see. Let me turn it on. Hymn number 127, 127. Man of sorrows, what a name for
the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah. What a Savior! Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned He stood, Sealed my pardon with His blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Guilty, violent, helpless we,
Spotless Lamb of God was He, Full atonement can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior! Lifted up was he to die, In his
finished was his cry, Now in heaven exalted high, Hallelujah,
what a Savior! When He comes, our glorious King,
All His ransomed home to bring, Then anew this song we'll sing,
Hallelujah, what a Savior! Amen. What a Savior. Well, let's look together here
in this chapter that I read, but I want to go back up and
make a few comments from verse 24 in chapter 24, and then go
on with my message this evening. You know, Felix was the governor,
and Festus came into Felix's room, came into Felix's was no
longer governor, but after certain days when Felix came with his
wife, Acts 24, 24, Drusilla, which was a Jewess, so she was
a Jew married to Felix, a Roman, who sent for Paul and heard him,
listen to this now, concerning the faith in Christ, concerning the faith in Christ,
Boy, wouldn't you love to be able to preach to the governor
the faith in Christ? And as he reasoned, Paul reasoned
before Felix and his wife, he reasoned of righteousness, talked
about righteousness, how desperately men need righteousness, and they
talked about temperance, and that word temperance means moderation
before God Almighty, and he also priest judgment to come. Felix,
you re going to have to face the judgment. You re going to
have to face God Almighty one of these days. You re going to
have to face Christ Himself. And then, oh, Felix trembled.
He trembled. It really, really got to him.
He trembled. This message got to him. He said,
Now go thy way this time, Go on back where you was, I'll let
you go back to where you were, and when I have a convenient
season, when it's convenient for me," that's what he's saying,
when it's convenient for me, I'll call for you, I'll call
for you, don't you worry about that. He said, when I'm ready
to hear you, and that's what most people feel like, when I'm
ready to listen, when I'm ready to listen. He hoped, and listen
to this, he hoped also that money should have been given him of
Paul. Paul, if you come up with enough money, look what he says,
I'll turn you loose. He wanted to be bribed. How much money you reckon it'd
take for me to get you out of jail and set you free? Oh, how
wicked men are, how wicked they are. Wherefore he sent for them
the more oftener and communed with him, So I tell you, him
and Paul, I tell you, Paul got to preach before him. And that's
why I said last week, it's Paul before Felix, instead of Felix
before Paul. Paul was the one with all the
authority. Paul was the one with all the
power. Paul was all the one that make Felix tremble. Paul was
the one who knew about righteousness. Paul was the one who knew about
judgment. Paul was the one who knew about Christ. And oh my,
and this says in verse 27, but after two years, Porcius Festus,
another Jew, came into Felix s room, in other words, he became
the new governor, and listen to this now, And Felix, willing
to show the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound. And now look
what happens here in verse 1, it says, Now when Festus was
come into the province after three days, He ascended from
Caesarea to Jerusalem. Now, there s three types of people
here, three types of people represented here in this verses I read to
you. There s the accusers, that s
the Jews. And then there s the judge, that
s Festus. And then the accused, that s
the Apostle Paul. And then it says there, Then
the high priest and the chief of the Jews informed him, when
he s up at Jerusalem now, informed him against Paul, and besought
him, and desired favor against him, that he would send for him
to Jerusalem, lying in wait in the way to kill him. Now here
s the first people that we see, the Jews, they re the ones accusing
Paul. They re the ones that hated Paul.
And I tell you, you know, and here's the thing about it, they
desired favor. Ain't that what it said in verse
3? They desired favor. We desired you to listen to us.
We desired you to look at us and deal with us better than
you could anybody else. And I tell you what, the Jews
illustrate corrupt influence of religion without God. This
is religion, they represent religion without God Almighty, that s
exactly what they do. And I tell you, they claim God
s authority, and you know they claim God s authority to even
crucify people, they claim God s authority to put people to
death. And I tell you, most, most, and that's what, that's
all religion's fit for. Without Christ, it's corrupt.
Without Christ, it's looking for favor from the world. Without
Christ, it has nothing but rottenness and corruption. And these Jews
are corrupt. And I tell you what, not, you
know, most people look on religion as a good thing, as a very good
thing. You know, do you go to church
anywhere? Are you saved? Has you been led to the Lord
yet? If you accepted Christ into your heart, religion's a good
thing to most people. And I think it's a good thing
because God uses religion to keep people moral and to restrain
them from being worse than they normally would. That's why you
see so much, a lot of these places in town have to have two services
or three services a day. They have them from the little
bitty youngins to the old, old people. And I tell you what,
I think that religion, God uses it to restrain people, to keep
them back from being as bad as they would, and oh my! But I tell you, and also, this
is the thing that corrupts. A lot of people don t want anything
to do with religion because of all the evil that s been done
in the NAME of religion. Now you look at how the Jews
treated Christ, look at how the Jews treated the apostles. And
I tell you there's been a lot of meanness, a lot of corruption
and evil on account of religion in this world, and there's a
lot of people that detest it because of that. And history,
history abounds about how evil and wicked men are in religion
and hate it and how they detest it. It says over here in the gospel,
it said they'll kill you thinking they're doing God a service.
They'll kill you thinking they do God a service. But you just
look at what's happened. Look at what happened in Israel
just recently. You think man ain't wicked? You
think man ain't cruel? You think man ain't full of hatred?
You think man ain't a racist? You think man ain't a bigot?
You think man ain't prejudiced? When they go in and kill babies,
Go in and kill old people. It don't make no difference who
they kill, just want to kill them. And that's religious people. They're religious. They're so
religious they're killing people in the name of their religion. That's what they're doing. This
is our religion. This is it. And you go through
history, and I tell you what, you talking about the holy wars,
they had holy wars for over a thousand years over fighting over Jerusalem. The Muslims come in and they
took it, and the British, and a whole bunch of people all over
Europe, they took ships and went back over there, and they fought
a holy war for decades over Jerusalem, and they?re still fighting over
Jerusalem! And oh, my! And then there was
the Spanish Inquisition. What they done in that is the
The Catholics ruled and reigned. And if you confess faith in Christ
and wouldn't become a Catholic, you know what they'd do to you?
They'd put a horse over here and a horse over there and a
horse on your leg and they would make them horses pull in every
direction until they pulled your body plum apart. They'd put you
on the rack and start twisting like this here until they pulled
you all apart and your whole body got pulled in too. if you
didn't become a Catholic or you confess faith in Christ. And
they done that to thousands and thousands of people. Go back
and listen to it. And Martin Luther, the Pope pursued
him to death like pursuing a rabbit. And then Martin Luther turned
around and he despised Baptists. He hated Baptists. He fought
against the Anabaptists, our forefathers. Because you know
why? Because they baptized infants,
they still stayed in the Roman church, baptized infants, and
Anabaptists didn't believe that baptism was for believers. And
they preached that baptism was for Christ's people AFTER they
confessed faith. And LUTHER HATED THEM! So everybody's fighting everybody! And that's what religion these
Jews represent, false religion and all of its corruption. Oh
my, and then look what the Jews did to all the prophets. Oh my,
what they did to the prophet, what they did to their own Messiah.
Their Savior came, their Messiah came, the Christ came. And what
did they do? Killed him, crucified him. And
I tell you something, Biblical Christianity, Biblical Christianity
has always, always suffered at the hands of false religion.
Always has and always will. So that's the Jews. They're representative
of false religion, false religion. And I tell you, there's plenty
of it around. I was talking to a fellow today, or he was talking
to me. He was talking to me. All I done
was listen. You know, when somebody does
all the talking, all you can do is listen. But anyway, to
make a long story short, he said, God has to give you a new heart.
You're dead in trespasses and sins. And he said, you know,
and God elected a people, chose a people. And then he turns around
and talks about being led to the Lord. He said, so-and-so
led somebody to the Lord, and these people led them to the
Lord. And he told all these illustrations of all the things that God done.
So how in the world can you believe in totally, you know, being dead
in sins, believe God has to give you a new heart, and believe
in election and turn around and talk about leading people to
the Lord? You reckon that's a contradiction? And I've done made up my mind
the next time he talks like that, that's what I'm gonna tell him.
I've done made up my mind. I can't take it anymore. But oh my. But the judge, here we've seen
the Jews. Now look at the judge. Look here
at the judge. And okay, the high priest and
the chief Jews informed him against Paul and besought him, and desired
favor against him, that he ascend to Jerusalem. So they bring him
up to Jerusalem and kill him. But now here's the judge now,
but Festus answered that Paul should be kept at Caesarea, and
that he himself would depart from Jerusalem and go down to
Caesarea, 60 mile journey. Let them therefore, and He told
all these Jews, He told all the chief priests and all them fellows,
He said, Let them therefore, said He, which among you are
able, go down with Me, you go down there with Me, and you accuse
this man, if there be any wickedness, you prove there s any wickedness
in this man. And when he stayed up there and
got around all the people and talked to all the people and
got his bearing straight, and then he, more than 10 days, then
he went down to Caesarea and the next day sitting on the judgment
seat. And listen to what it says. He
didn't say, y'all need to bring Paul. He commanded. That's what
people in authority do. He commanded Paul to be brought.
Commanded him to be caught. And oh, my! 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. Oh, my! Festus, the judge, he was a man
who had rat to work. He hadn t been in the country
but three days, and he had rat to work. right to work, went
up to Jerusalem, went right to work, went into his, went and
sat on his throne, went and sat on his judgment seat. And after
10 days he come down, and you know he was in Jerusalem, and
Jerusalem was the religious capital of the world. And it, most people
think it still is. Most people really think that
Jerusalem is the religious capital of the world. If they could just
get to Jerusalem where Jesus was buried, if they can get to
Jerusalem where David was, get to Jerusalem where all the kings
live, get to Jerusalem, oh my. But I tell you what, there's
a heavenly Jerusalem, that's the one I'm interested in, and
oh my. And so they went down, and he
was a Roman, And he conferred with the leaders what was facing
him, and so he stayed ten days, and he came down. Now, he was
a good governor in the sense that he did things as they arose. Whenever something come up, he
dealt with it. And he told them, If you got
anything accusation against this man, you come down with me to
Caesarea, and you come down here and accuse this man. And then
look what happens now. He had Paul brought down And
they laid many charges against him. Verse 8, we ll get to this
in a minute, While he answered for himself, Neither against
the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against
Caesar have I offended in anything at all. So he sat on his throne,
sat on the judgment seat, and he called Paul, and he had a
conversation with Paul. And I tell you what, he had favor
as a judge, showed favor. Now listen to what he said, and
I said, Festus did exactly the same thing. But Festus, willing
to do the Jews a pleasure, answered Paul and said, wilt thou go up
to Jerusalem and there be judged of these things of me? He already,
look what it said, and that's what Felix done the same thing,
willing to show the Jews a pleasure, and then Festus willing to show
the Jews a favor. In other words, willing to be
bribed, willing to do what I need to do, and oh my, and I tell
you he was, but he had a favor, he was willing to show the Jews
a favor. willing to show, Is this what you do when you govern
along with other people? Now, in politics, they compromise,
but when you're a judge, there's supposed to be no compromise.
When you're a judge, you're supposed to judge righteously. When you're
a judge, you're supposed to hear the prosecution and the defense,
and whichever one got the best evidence, that's the one that's
going to win the case, and that's what happened here. And oh my,
look, I want you to look with me in Luke 27, excuse me, Luke
23, 25. This is what, talking about Him
willing to show the Jews a pleasure. Willing to show the Jews a pleasure. And Pilate, and he released unto
them that for sedition and murder was cast into prison whom they
desired. But listen to this now, but he
delivered Jesus to their will. That's what everybody's gonna
do. They're gonna deliver Jesus up to the will of man. And that's
what preachers do today. They deliver the Lord Jesus Christ
up to the will of man. Oh my. But this is a legal matter
here. And as a judge, he's not supposed
to show favor. He's not to be perverted. He's
supposed to render justice or not abuse this innocent man.
But that's exactly what he done, willing to show the Jews a pleasure. and that's what they wanted to
do. So we had the Jews corrupt religion without Christ, the
judge willing to show the Jews a pleasure, wanting to show favor
to the Jews, and then he also asked him, Will you go up to
Jerusalem? Because Paul knew that if they took him to Jerusalem
he was as good as they would kill him. they would kill him,
and that's what they said they would do, that they might kill
him. And now here we have the accused, the apostle Paul. Oh
my, you had the trial, you had the trial, verse seven and eight,
you know, they brought all these grievous things, and Paul answered
for himself. Paul answered for himself. He
said, They laid many and grievous complaints against Paul, which
they could not pray. I don t know what all they done
to him in Acts 25 and verse 8, but oh my, laid many, many grievous
complaints against Paul. Oh, how they despised him! But
look what it says in verse 8, He said, While he answered for
himself, Every time he'd done that, he said, I most cheerfully
answered for him. But he didn't hear, he said,
I answered for myself. He didn't know Festus. It never
met Festus until he sat on his judgment seat and he come in
front of him. And there laid many, and he answered
for himself. He didn't have a lawyer, said,
now, don't say a word. He didn't have a lawyer, said,
shut up. He didn't have a lawyer, don't you say a word, unless
I'm sitting right beside you. He didn t do that, no. He answered
for Himself. But I tell you, He did have an
advocate. And you know who that advocate was? Jesus Christ the
Righteous. He had one standing with Him
better than anybody in the universe, rather than Christ Himself. And
look what He said. He had an advocate with the Father.
And He says, listen to this, Neither against the law, neither
against the temple, nor yet against Caesar have I offended anything
at all." Now, here s what the charges that they brought here
would amount to. Heresy, you re against the law. They called him a heretic, and
he says, You know, if I m against the law, you re saying I m a
heretic. And when He talks about the Law, we re not talking about
the Ten Commandments. When He talks about the Law,
He s talking about the Old Old Testament. He s talking about
EVERYTHING! You know, David says, Show me
wondrous things out of thy law. Now, he doesn t talk about showing
him things out of the Ten Commandments. Show me things out of your blessed
Book! Show me things out of your Word! And that s what he s talking. And so here he is, he said, heresy, he s against the law.
And then secondly, they charged him against sacrilege, that he
went against the temple, that he was in the temple, propaning
the temple and making things awful in the temple of God. And
then thirdly, they accused him of treason, because if you spoke
against Caesar, If you spoke against Caesar, and Caesar was
the world ruler at that time, it cost you your life. They'd
kill you. You couldn't speak against Caesar.
He was the emperor. And oh, so that would have been
treason. And these are the charges. Let me tell you something. Every
one of these things is what they charged our Lord Jesus Christ
with. That's the very thing. You know,
how many times did it say, he keepeth not the Sabbath? He broke
the Sabbath. He healed somebody on the Sabbath. Why did you heal him on the Sabbath?
You had Monday to do it, you had Tuesday to do it, why do
you do it on the Sabbath? And they despised him for healing
people on the Sabbath. You remember our Lord said, which
of you had a sheep caught in a ditch that you wouldn t go
out and pick him up out of the ditch? If it's on the Sabbath
or some problem happens, you'd go out and fix it. So what are
you holding against me that I heal somebody on the Sabbath? And the Sabbath, I'll tell you,
there's no such thing as a Christian Sabbath. Let me tell you that
right now. I've been reading a lot about people talking about
the Christian Sabbath. Sabbath means rest. And I don't
need one day in particular to rest. I rest every day in the
Lord Jesus Christ. I don t need a DAY to set apart
to REST in Him! And that s what God meant by
Sabbath, a day of REST. And I tell you, Christians don
t have a Sabbath. Christians don t have one, never
has had one, and never WILL have one. You know, they say, Well,
when you know, you get up on the I know, I read about people
that their wives cooked everything on Saturday, so they wouldn t
have to cook on Sunday. And then they had their Sabbath
all day, didn't do a thing. Wouldn't even have company in
the house. Wouldn't let nobody come in the house to even speak
to them and visit with them. That'd be a pitiful situation,
wouldn't it? But oh my, that's what they accused our Lord of.
He broke the law. He kept not the Sabbath. And
oh my, and he committed sacrilege. You know, our Lord said, destroy
this temple, and in three days, I'll raise it up again. And they
said, that's what they used him, said, didn't he say that if he
destroyed this temple, he'd raise it back up in three days? And
they said, see, he wants to destroy God's work, he wants to destroy
the temple. He wasn't talking about that temple, he was talking
about his body. And oh my, they held that against
him. And then treason. He made himself a king. And that's
what them Jews said, we have no king but Caesar. We have no
king but Caesar. And they used that against Paul.
And those are the very things that they accused our Lord Jesus
Christ of. And I'll tell you something,
beloved, and I'll wind it up here. Oh, so many accusations
are made against believers in almost every country where people,
people feel free to attack them. Oh my. I tell you, you know, if you're
not accused of something, you know, and we used to really have
a lot of accusations made against us, but they finally just figure
they just wasting their breath now. But here's why they hold
it against people, the Lord's people. They say they disregard
the laws and customs of the nation they live in. And they despise
it that believers have another Lord. You know, we don't have
a Lord in this country. We don't have nobody we bow down
to in this country. We don't have anybody that we
submit to in this country. We don't have anybody that we
have to do that to. Oh, nah, we have another Lord,
and I tell you something else about believers, what they don
t like is they don t see things the way the world sees them.
We look at everything different. We view the world through the
eyes of God s blessed book. I don t view the world through
the eyes of politics, economics, economy, or anything else. We
view the world through God s book. I have a worldview as of Christ,
and I'll tell you this, the world's going to hell, we know that.
It's been doing that as long as I can remember. But guess
who's on the throne? Guess who's running this world? I haven't watched the news in
over about three years, and I'll tell you why this made me so
proud. You know, all I have to do is
just, you know, you can read two minutes or something and
find out exactly what's going on. But here's the thing about
it, and I'm so thankful for this, I told that, we was talking today
and I told that fellow, I said, every day we get up, we're subject
to the will of God in Christ. Every day of our lives, when
we get up, we're subject to the will of God. I mean, we may not know what's
going to happen to us that day, but it's the will of God for
us that day. If it's quiet and peaceful, it's
the will of God. If it's bad news, it's the will
of God. If it's good news, it's the will
of God. If it's death written on our houses, it's the will
of God. And I tell you what, most of
the time He lets us have a little peace most of the time and quiet
in our homes, in our lives, and in our hearts. But oh my, we
don't look at the world the way everything else, everybody else
does. God separates us from the rest of this world. And I tell
you what, And we don't have the religion that people, among most
people, live with. I don't want the religion that
the folks down the road have. I don't want the religion that
folks have up the road. I don't want to have my whole
salvation depend on baptism. I don't want my salvation to
depend upon the free will of man. I don't want my salvation
to depend on somebody leading me to Christ. I don't want my
salvation dependent upon some preacher telling me what I should
or should not do, how I should or should not dress, where I
should or should not go. I've got one person to tell me
that, and that's God's blessed book. And I'll tell you what, and then
the scripture says here, Paul says, you know, they could not
prove, there in verse 7, they could not prove. They couldn't
prove anything about Paul, couldn't prove anything. And Festus, he's
a double-minded man, and a double-minded man's unstable in all his ways.
And it says there in verse 9, but Festus, willing to do the
Jews a pleasure, want to please these Jews, answered Paul, and
said, Will thou go up to Jerusalem, there be judged of these things?
Oh my, Paul understood exactly what was going on. Then Paul
said, I stand at Caesar s judgment seat where I ought to be judged.
To the Jews have I done no wrong, and you know it very, very well.
And oh, my, he said, Oh, I know what's going on, I'll appeal
to Caesar. And that's another thing, we're able to appeal to
a higher court. You know, that's the highest
place you can go in this country. You start out with a magistrate,
then a judge, then a Supreme Court in a country, you know,
in your state, and then you can go to the federal level, and
then you can go all the way to the Supreme Court. If you feel
like you've got a case, and that's what Paul said. He said, listen,
I'm not going to let the judge, the Jews judge me. I'm not going
to let the Jews set in judgment on me. I'm not going to do that.
I'm going to appeal to Caesar. That's the highest place you
could appeal to. And oh my. And I'll tell you then what he
said. He said in verse 11, Paul said,
if I have been an offender, And I have really done all the things
that they say, or have committed anything worthy of death. I refuse
not to die. I'm not afraid of dying. He himself
said, the time of my departure is at hand. But if there be none of these
things where they accuse me, no man may deliver me unto them. And that's what he knows. Nobody,
none of y'all can deliver me to them Jews. Them Jews hate
me, they intend to murder me, they intend to kill me. I appeal
unto Caesar." Huh? Oh, my. And then he says, then
Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, ?Hast
thou appealed unto Caesar? Unto Caesar shalt thou go.? How
did he end up doing this and saying these things? How did
Paul face such hard, hard circumstances? First of all, he knew God, he
knew the Lord Jesus Christ, and remember, Christ had already
appeared to him in Acts 24 and said, Paul, be of good cheer,
because thou must ALSO be a witness of me in Rome. How is he going
to get to Rome? going up to Caesar. So why did he do this? Because Christ said, You've got
to witness to me in Rome. You're going to stand before
Caesar and you're going to witness of the Lord Jesus Christ and
His salvation. You think about standing in front
of the highest, highest emperor in the whole world at that particular
time, standing in front of him, and preaching the gospel of the
grace of God to him, preaching the blood and righteousness of
Christ. Oh, my. Wouldn't I love to do that? Oh, my. And I tell you what,
you know, you talk about stability and fearlessness. Oh my, that's
what kept Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego in the furnace.
Christ was in there with them. When you go in the furnace, Christ's
gonna be in there with you. When you suffer, Christ's gonna
suffer with you. Oh my, and here's another why
he appealed on how he dealt with these things. He knew the word.
He knew the word of God. He knew the scriptures. And he
was true to the word, and he was true to God. Paul was innocent,
but yet, He's got to go up to Rome and face Caesar. So I'll
tell you what, we've got these corrupt Jews, we've got this
corrupt judge, and we've got a fearless believer, a man who's innocent, but he's
got to go to the highest court known in the world at the time. Oh, our blessed Lord Jesus Christ,
our great God and Savior. Oh, the true and blessed God. Oh, Lord, we're thankful that
you're God. We're thankful that the Holy Spirit is a person and
comes and takes the things of Christ and shows them to us.
And, oh, Lord, keep us from the corruption of our own heart.
Keep us from the corruption of this, oh, sorry flesh. Keep us
from ourselves. We're the worst enemy we've got.
Oh, Lord, we've got a traitor in the castle. So, Lord, keep
that traitor subdued, and please forgive us of everything that's
unlike you, and meet the needs of these dear saints that's gathered
here this evening. Strengthen them, encourage them,
and bless them in their bodies. Father, I thank you for their
good attention. Thank you for their love of the gospel. Thank
you for their faithfulness. And Lord Jesus, please meet the
needs of our dear brothers and sisters who are sick, who are
being greatly, greatly tried, and help us to always do what
we possibly can to make life easier for them, for Christ's
sake. Amen. Amen. Turn your eyes upon
Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. and the things of earth
will grow strangely dim in the life of His glory and grace. Amen. See you Sunday, God willing.
Lord bless you.