Number 292. 292. We'll save that
high part for the very end. A pilgrim was I in the wandering
In the cold night of sin I did roam When Jesus the kind shepherd
found me And now I am on my way home Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days, all the days of my life. He restoreth my soul when I'm
weary He giveth me strength day by day He leads me beside the
still waters He guards me each step of the way Surely goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my
life. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days, all the days of my life. I'll walk through the dark, lonesome
valley My Savior will walk with me there And safely His great
hand will lead me To the mansion He's gone to prepare Surely goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my
life. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days, all the days of my life. And I shall dwell ? In the house
of the Lord forever ? ? And I shall feast at the table spread for
me ? ? Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me ? ? All the days,
all the days of my life ? ? All the days, all the days of my
life ? One page over, we'll sing hymn
number 295. 295. He leadeth me, O blessed thought,
O words with endly comfort brought. What e'er I do, where e'er I
be, still tis God's hand that leadeth me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me
By His own hand He leadeth me His faithful follower I would
be For by His hand He leadeth me ? Sometimes where Eden's flowers
bloom ? High water still or troubled sea ? Still tis God's hand that
leadeth me ? He leadeth me, he leadeth me By His own hand He
leadeth me. His faithful follower I would
be, For by His hand He leadeth me. Lord, I would clasp thy hand
in mine, Nor ever murmur, nor weep. I'm content whatever lot
I see, Since tis by God that leadeth me. He leadeth me, He
leadeth me By His own hand He leadeth me His faithful follower
I would be For by His hand He leadeth me And when my task on earth is
done, When by thy grace the victory's won, In death's cold grave I
will not flee, Since God through Jordan flees. He leadeth me, he leadeth me
By his own hand he leads me This faithful follower I would be
For by his hand he leads me Acts chapter 24, Acts chapter
24. And y'all ladies, it's first Friday
of the month, so you have a ladies' luncheon Friday, is that right?
Friday, ladies' luncheon Friday. I'm going to read down to verse
16 and 17 and deal with it a little as I go. And after five days
Ananias the high priest descended with the elders and with a certain
orator named Tertullus who informed the governor against Paul. And
when he was called forth, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying,
Seeing that by thee we enjoy great quietness, and that very
worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence, we
accept it always and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness. Notwithstanding that I be not
further tedious unto thee, I pray thee that thou wist hear us of
thy clemency a few words. For we have found this man a
pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews
throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes." who also hath gone about to profane
the temple, whom we took, and would have judged according to
our law. But the chief captain, Lysistris,
came upon us, and with great violence took him away out of
our hands, commanding his accusers to come unto thee by examining,
of whom thyself mayest take knowledge of all these things, whereof
we accuse him. And the Jews also assented that
these things were so. Then Paul, after that the governor
had beckoned unto him to speak, answered, Forasmuch as I know
that thou hast been of many years a judge unto this nation, I do
the more cheerfully answer for myself, because thou mayest understand
that thou art yet but twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem
for to worship. And they neither found me in
the temple disputing with any man, neither raising up thy people,
neither in the synagogues, nor in the city. NEITHER CAN THEY
PROVE THE THINGS WHEREOF THEY NOW ACCUSE ME. BUT THIS I CONFESS
UNTO THEE, THAT AFTER THE WAY WHICH THEY CALL HERESY, SO WORSHIP
I THE GOD OF MY FATHERS, BELIEVING ALL THINGS WHICH ARE WRITTEN
IN THE LAW AND IN THE PROPHETS, AND HAVE HOPE TOWARD GOD, WHICH
THEY THEMSELVES ALSO ALLOW, THAT THERE SHALL BE A RESURRECTION
OF THE DEAD, BOTH OF THE JUST AND THE UNJUST, And herein do
I exercise myself to always have a conscience void of offense
toward God and man. Now, after many years, I come
to bring alms to my nation and offerings." Just remember Brother Bill and
Fran and Tippie, she's gone down there with them, being so sweet.
Our Father, in the blessed name of Christ our Lord, We bow in
thy holy presence. Our hearts, I pray, are humble
before you. And they're certainly empty without
you filling it. There is, without the Holy Spirit
filling our hearts with the things of Christ and filling our souls
with the things of Christ, we'd certainly be empty vessels. But
Lord, I pray you fill us with your spirit tonight, give us
your presence, give us the word of God, give us some liberty,
give us some understanding. And I thank you for those that's
come out. Please be gracious and merciful to them, feed them,
food convenient for them. And Lord, we pray for those who
are watching tonight who couldn't come and weren't able to come. I pray your mercies and grace
upon them. And now we especially pray for
Bill and Fran. Lord, all we can ask is, Lord,
that you give them grace. Just give them grace. They need
grace whatever comes, whatever happens in their life, whatever
the news is, they'll need grace. You told us your grace is sufficient. It's made perfect in weakness.
And Lord, I know you're their strength. I know you're their
help. But I also know that this flesh
produces fear and anxiety, weary. It goes and thinks of things
that never happened yet, always thinks the worst. But Lord, the
worst, the worst would just be to go home to be with you. But
Lord God bless these dear saints. Give them grace to whatever comes
their way. Enable us all to be like Job.
The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of
the Lord. And we just sung the song. Lord help me never to murmur
or repine. So bless these dear saints. Bless
and encourage Tippie for going and being with them. standing
by them, taking them, watching over them, providing their needs. We thank you for her. We thank
you for them and their faithfulness through all the years. For Christ's
sake, amen. Amen. Hymn number 266. 266. Fade, fading earthly joy, Jesus
is mine. Break every tender tie, Jesus
is mine. Dark is the wilderness, has no resting place. Jesus alone can bless. Jesus is mine. Take not my soul away, Jesus
is mine. Here would I ever stay, Jesus
is mine. ? Flames of flame ? ? Born thy
full glory be ? ? As from thy heart away ? ? Jesus
is mine ? Tell me dreams of mine Jesus
is mine Lost in this dawning prime Jesus is mine All that
my soul Jesus is mine. Farewell mortality, Jesus is
mine. Welcome eternity. Welcome, sweet seeds of peace. Welcome, by Savior's grace, Jesus
is mine. Let's review just a little bit.
You remember that they had 40-something men had taken a vow to kill Paul
and tried to figure out a way to get him back down in front
of the council so they could kill him. Well, the young man,
his nephew, found out and went in and told the captain. And
this man, Lasicious, And Lysias took Paul, and he took 200 soldiers,
foot soldiers, 70 horsemen, and 200 spearmen, 470 men, took Paul
out of Jerusalem and took him down to Caesarea. Now that's
how he wanted to protect this man. And so when they left there,
he sent a letter to the governor. Felix was the governor. He sent
a letter to the governor and said, Now, these fellows, everything
they've said, there's no reason for this man to be killed or
slain or even be in jail. And so they took him down, and
they all went back to the castle, and look what it says down here
in verse 33 of chapter 23. When they came to Caesarea and
delivered the epistle or the letter to the governor that the
captain sent, they presented also Paul before him. When they
left the letter, they said, here s the man that they re after
right here. And when the governor read the letter, he asked what
province he was, and he understood that he was Cilicia. And he said,
I will hear thee, said he, when thine accusers are come. And
He commanded him, now listen to this right here. And He commanded
him to be kept in Herod's judgment hall. You know the last time
we saw anybody in Herod's judgment hall, you know who it was? It
was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. It was in Herod's judgment hall
that they put the scarlet robe on Him. It was in Herod's judgment
hall when they put the crown of thorns on His head. And then
they brought him out and they bowed the knee to him and slapped
him and done all kinds of things to him in her judgment hall.
And so here's another one of Christ's servants, a servant
of Christ, one who knows the gospel, one called of God. He's
kept in the place where his master was kept, where his master was
mistreated in a violent, cruel, wicked, malevolent way. And so And then after five days,
it said here in verse 24, and after five days, the high priest
had already been there once, back up in Jerusalem. And so
he slipped him out of Jerusalem, and it's 60 miles from Jerusalem
down to Caesarea, 60 miles. And after five days, Ananias,
the high priest, ascended. Again, he comes with those elders,
and with certain orator named Tertullus, who informed the governor
against Paul. And you know, I tell you this,
when Paul was brought back down to Caesarea, the Lord knows how
to deliver the godly out of temptation. He knows EXACTLY how to deliver
the godly out of temptation. And I hear they come, and all
this great big entourage of people, the high priest and all them
elders and all these people and all the hangers-on were there
to accuse Paul the prisoner. And I tell you what, here s what
he said, and he started out. He come to Tertullius who informed
the governor, and watch what it said, Against Paul, against
Paul. Everywhere he went there was
revival or he was in trouble, no middle ground. And when he
was called forth, the governor let him speak. Tertullius began
to accuse him, saying, and this is the first thing he done, he
flattered the governor. He had to flatter the governor,
make the governor feel good about himself. He flattered the governor. The first thing he said, Seeing
that by thee we enjoy great quietness, and that very worthy deeds are
done unto this nation by your providence. God ain t got nothing
to do with it. You, Felix, you ve done great
deeds for our country, for our nation, and oh, look what He
said. And we accept it as always in
all places most noble Festus, Felix, with
all thankfulness. Notwithstanding that I further
tedious unto thee, I pray thee that thou wast hearest of thy
clemency." Be careful to let us speak for a while. Now look
at the accusations he makes. He makes some awful accusations
against Paul. He said in verse 5, For we have
found this man a pestilent fellow, You know what a pestilent fellow
is? Everybody knows what a pestilence
is. It's an awful disease that breaks out. It's like a... a
drought that comes, it s like a bunch of locusts that come
and eat all the green up, the pestilence, and that s what a
disease that comes along and wipes out a lot of people, and
that s what he s saying to Paul. He said, This fellow, he s a Pestilent fellow! He s a diseased
man! He s a Pestilence to the nation
of Israel! He s a Pestilence to us! He s
a Pestilence to God! He s a Pestilence in our side! He s a Pestilent fellow! He s got disease! He s diseased! He just brings horrible things
wherever he goes. And oh, look what else he says
about him. And then he said, A mover of sedition among all
the Jews throughout the whole world. Then you call it a mover of sedition. You know, sedition is when you,
really it amounts to treason. It means that you're trying to
overtake the government, that you want to overturn the government. You want to rise up, and it's
called an uprising, it's called a treasonous act. Sedition means
to split the nation, take a bunch after where you stand. And that's
why he called him a mover of sedition, and that's what he
said among ALL the Jews, no matter where they are in the world.
You reckon every Jew in the world knew who the Apostle Paul was?
You're talking about a fellow being hyperbole, and I mean EXAGGERATING
and making things bigger than they really are. There's Jews
all over the world that didn't have a CLUE who the Apostle Paul
was. I'd say I know several Jews right now that if you said, do
you know anything about the Apostle Paul, said, well, all I know
is that he is somebody in the New Testament. They couldn't
tell you a thing in the world about him. And that's the way
they were in this time. But oh, a mover of sedition.
He disturbs the peace. He disturbs our national peace.
He's an enemy of the Roman government. He's the enemy of the Jews. And
I listen to this accusation he makes of him. A ringleader of
the sect of the Nazarenes. That's what they call a sect
of the Nazarenes. Oh my, that's the worst thing
he could be. He could be a ringleader of the
Nazarenes. What they're saying is he's a
religious fanatic. He's a religious nut. He's following
this Nazarene and he even started, he's a ringleader of all these
people. Oh, religious nut, a religious fanatic. And oh, look what else
they say about him. And oh my, he's gone crazy over
this man named Jesus. He's gone crazy with him. And
oh my, and then this Jesus who was crucified, he's a ringleader
of them people. We know that that man was worthy
of crucifixion. And then look what else he says
down there in verse six. who also hath gone about to profane
the temple." Oh, my. Profane the temple. A man who
has, what he's saying, he has no true regard for the worship
of God. He has no regard for the place
that God set apart for the Jews to meet and worship together.
And I tell you the charge that here's a man that didn't care
for the temple, didn't care for the worship of God, didn't care
for the traditions of the Jews, didn't care for all the things
concerning the law and the way you conduct yourself in the temple. That's an awful, awful charge
that they made against this man. And they brought all these things
against Paul. And you know it starts out, this
says here up in the margin, it says up at the top of your Bible,
it says, it does it in mine, Paul is accused before Felix,
the Roman governor. And you know they say Paul s
before Felix, but let me put it back this way, Felix is before
Paul. I mean, you know, Felix is the
one that's before the apostle Paul. Felix, we wouldn't even
know his name if he hadn't been the governor when Paul was an
apostle. We would not have any idea who this fellow was. So
here's, Paul is the man. Paul is the one anointed of God.
Paul's the one who's representing Christ. Paul's the one who's
witnessing for Christ. That governor, that governor
is just a guy that's got an office for a while, and he's gone. Paul's
gonna endure forever, and he's still enduring. He's still in
glory today. And oh my, all these things,
he made all these accusations against him. made all these horrible,
horrible accusations, and there s no truth to any of it, none. And then look what he goes on
to say, Whom we took, and what he s saying, we got hold of him,
whom we took and would have judged according to our law. He'd already
be dead if He's left up to us. We'd already killed Him. We'd
already stoned Him to death or crucified Him. We'd have done
something with Him. We'd have got rid of Him. We
sought to kill Him twice and we did not get the job done.
And we would have judged Him by our law. By our law. But listen to what he goes, so
you're talking about a fella just going overboard here now. You know, that's why they call
orators. They make things look bigger
than they are. And look what he says, but the
chief, verse seven, but the chief captain, Lysias, came upon us,
and listen to what he says now, with great violence, took him away out of our hands. And he said, with great violence,
they took him away from us. You recognize, they just saw
them down there and they run down there and saved him. They
said they was gonna kill him, but I mean, with great violence,
he says now. He didn't just walk down there
and say, now you fellas back up. Let me take this man up here.
And I tell you, Paul got up and began to defend himself on those
stairs. You remember that very well.
And look what happens now. And I tell you what, He told
us to bring all the accusers, that you may take knowledge of
all these things. And verse 9, the Jews of Sinai
saying that these things were so. All of them agreed that what
Tertullius is saying is so. They agreed with everything he
said. And then Paul, after that the governor had beckoned unto
him to speak. And all listen to what he says. Now, he don't
flatter the governor. He don't make no flattering remarks
to the governor. He don't brag on the governor.
He don't do anything at all. And for as much as I know, I
know that there has been of many years a judge under this nation. And all listen to what he says
now. I do most cheerfully, cheerfully answer for myself. I don't need
a lawyer. I don't need a narrator to come
and defend me. I most cheerfully, most cheerfully
speak for myself and answer for myself. And then he starts telling
about what happened. And oh my, because thou mayest
understand, he tells everything that happened up to the time,
this time right here. because thou mayest understand
that thou art yet but 12 days," just 12 days, since I went up
to Jerusalem for the worship. 12 days, oh my. And he told the king, said, do
you know the things? You've been a judge of this nation for many,
many years. And they further, and they neither,
now watch what he goes on to say. He denies the charges, everything
they got against him. And they neither found me in
the temple, They didn't find Paul in the temple, didn't find
him at all. They didn't find him disputing
with any man, didn't find him in an argument with anybody.
He just said, you didn't see me rising up the people, raising
up the people, trying to do sedition and causing trouble. They didn't
even see me in the synagogue or in the city. THEY DID NOT
SEE ME ANYWHERE DOING ANYTHING THAT'S AGAINST GOD, AGAINST CHRIST,
AGAINST HIS SCRIPTURES, AND AGAINST THE WORSHIP OF CHRIST, THE WORSHIP
OF GOD. NOW LISTEN TO WHAT HE SAID IN
VERSE 13, AND THIS IS WHAT HE SAYS, AND NEITHER, NEITHER CAN
THEY PROVE THE THINGS WHEREOF THEY NOW ACCUSE ME. THEY ACCUSED
HIM OF FOUR THINGS, FOUR THINGS. HE SAID, YOU CALL ME A PESTILENT
FELLOW, PROVE IT. You call me a seditious man,
PROVE IT! You call me a ringleader of the
sect of the Nazarenes, PROVE IT! You call me a profaner of
the Temple, PROVE IT! He says, and that s what He says,
Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse Me. Oh,
I tell you, He denies the charge, and I tell you, He just turned
their words right back upon them. You can t prove ANYTHING that
you ve accused Me of. You can't do it, it's an impossibility
because I didn't do the things that you've accused me of. And
oh my, and look at what he says, and I bless the heart, bless
the Lord for what he says right here. This is the gospel. Oh,
what a gospel, verse 14 and 15. But this I confess unto thee,
I'm gonna make a confession of my faith right here in your presence.
Oh, Governor, and all these Jews that's gathered here, and a nice
and a high priest, and all the elders. This is what I confess
after the way they call heresy. They call it heresy. Heresy means
that you've left the true doctrine. I got excluded from a church
and the charges they laid against me was heresy. They said, after
the admonition of twice, reject them as a heretic. And they excluded
us from a church because they accused me of being a heretic.
And I got excluded from that church, called me a heretic.
But here he says, I make a confession unto you. After the way they
call heresy, they call it a departure from the faith, a departure from
the worship, a departure from the things of God. So worship. The God of my fathers. I worship God after they call
it heresy, but I worship God. That's the first thing I do,
I worship God Almighty. And I tell you what, and here's
the thing about it, you know, whenever you start preaching
God's sovereignty, God's absolute utter sovereignty, He's the first
cause of everything that happens in this world. Not the second
cause, but the first cause. And then you start preaching
man and his utter, utter inability to do anything to be accepted
of God. That God's got to give him life
before he can believe. God's got to give him life before
he can repent. Start preaching election, unconditional
election. Start preaching particular redemption
of everyone for whom Christ died. And you know what they'll call
you? A heretic! I've read the Life of Pete I
think I'm on my fourth or fifth time, but back in 1929 and 1930, he preached in Australia for
years, and I mean he had a big hearing, 2,000 people come here
and preach, out in California and down in Australia. But after
he got to preaching, a whole bunch of preachers got together,
And after they heard what he preached, and they all come heard
what he preached, and they said, We can't listen to this man anymore.
We can't listen to him anymore. Now this is in 1929, 1928 and
1929. Men stood up and said, Listen,
we cannot accept this idea of God being sovereign over everything.
WE CANNOT ACCEPT THIS BELIEF THAT THERE'S AN UNCONDITIONAL
ELECTION. WE CANNOT ACCEPT THE BELIEF THAT
YOU PREACH THAT MAN HAS NO ABILITY TO DO ANYTHING TO PLEASE GOD
OR COME TO GOD OF HIS OWN WILL. AND THEY DROVE HIM OUT OF AUSTRALIA. shut every door that he had open. He was open for seven months
ahead with preaching engagement. And he wasn't preaching, you
know, just here and yonder. When he preached, he had preached
for three weeks, twice a day, sometimes three times a day. And I'll tell you, after the
way we say call heresy, now that happened back in the 20s. Now
you imagine how bad it is now. Oh my, and I tell you, He makes
confession of His faith in the Word of God, that I worship the
God of my fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the
God of the living, the God of election, the God of sovereignty,
the God who chooses, the God who calls, the God who separates
unto Himself and calls them by His Name, Abram, Abram, Jacob,
Jacob, Isaac, Isaac, name Him Isaac. I have to name them all. And I tell you, He said, and
I'll make this confession unto you. And look what He says. Believing,
believing, what? God's Word, no matter where it's
at. And listen to what He says. Believing
all things which are written in the law. The law is, as far
as the Jews concerned, the first five books of the Bible. And
then all the prophets. That's exactly what our Lord
told his disciples before he ascended back to glory when he
was with them. The scripture said, O fools and
slow of heart to believe all the prophets and all the Psalms
and Moses and all the things written concerning me that I
should enter into my glory after that I've suffered. And Paul
said, listen, all I believe is what God said. He said, I don
t believe ANYTHING ELSE but in what God said. And Paul knew the verses, and he could
take them to the verses about the law, and oh, he makes a confession
of his faith in Word of God. And beloved, I m telling you,
if we cannot trust the Word of God, we can t trust If we can't
trust God and what God done and what God said in His Word, we
can't trust nothing in this world. It's all in just black and white. That's a book that's in black
and white. You can read it. It?s in black and white. It?s
got chapter divisions, which we didn?t have before, but it?s
got all these things in it, and it all talks about the very first
five verses of the Bible is the Gospel, God! The Word of God starts with God
Almighty, He didn't try to convince anybody
who he was. He said, no, listen, I want to
prove my existence. He just said, God. In the beginning,
God. Darkness was upon the face of
the deep. Darkness was on our souls. Earth
without form and void. And I tell you what, our minds
and hearts and souls were without form and without void. We're
dead and aliens. But God commanded the light. And here comes the lone God,
he commands the light to shine out of that darkness. And oh
my, then he takes that, then that spirit begins to brood,
come over that and brood, and the Holy Spirit comes over us
and broods over us, broods over us. And then the light comes
in. And then you know what God said?
I'm gonna separate the light from the darkness. I'm gonna
make these folks over here in the light, and I'm gonna let
everybody else be in the dark. He separates us, light from darkness. And that's what He done, He separated
us right out of the darkness. That's what Paul said, I believe
all things that God said. In the law, in the prophets,
concerning His blessed Son. And I tell you, I don't believe,
and none of these fellas can tell you that. Oh my, then look
what else he said here now. And have hope toward God. What hope did he have? The resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The resurrection of Christ himself. Hope toward God. You know, we
have exactly the same hope that Paul had. He believed in Christ
who rose again from the dead, who ascended in God's right hand.
He said, oh my, he said, I have hope towards God. Oh, what a
blessed hope we have, and they themselves also allow for this
hope. And I tell you this, that there
shall be a resurrection of the dead. He said, I've got a hope
that past this life right here, I've got a hope. I mean, you
know, since Christ raised from the dead, and the dead's gonna
be raised again, and resurrection of the dead, both the just and
the unjust, he said, I'm telling you, he said, I've got a blessed
hope. I got a hope beyond this world.
I got a hope because of Christ being raised from the dead. And
I tell you, there's gonna be a whole multitude of people raised
from the dead. And oh my, and then look what
he goes on to say. Then he talks about how pure
his conscience is, and like we dealt with this last week, this
is just, he said, herein do I exercise myself. I guard myself. I exercise my heart, my mind,
my soul to have always a conscience void of offense, especially toward
God Almighty and men. And I don't want to be offensive
to these men. I don't. I just want to honor
God. And oh, look what He says here
now. And He said, Now after many years I come to bring alms to
my nation and offerings. He brought a lot of money for
the poor people in Jerusalem. And oh, then He tells exactly
what happened. You know, the truth will always
stand You know the truth about ourselves, you cannot deny the
truth, and this is what Paul is saying right here. He tells
exactly what happened and how he was brought to this place
right here before Felix. Whereupon certain Jews from Asia,
from Ephesus, found me purified in the temple. I wasn t with
a multitude, and I was no tumult, I was causing no trouble, I was
causing no uproar, and these people who found me and caused
all this trouble who ought to have been here before you, these
fellows that found me and accused me of all this and brought all
this situation together, said they ought to be here before
you and OBJECT if they have off against me. The ones who started
this whole thing ought to be right here. That's what he's
saying. And oh, else let these same here
say, if they have found any evil doing in me while I stood before
the council. And he said, this is the only
thing that things say against me, except it be for this one
voice that I cried standing among them, touching the resurrection
of the dead, I am called in question by you this day. Oh my. He tells the SIMPLE, PLAIN TRUTH
and SIMPLE LANGUAGE. The fellas that caused all this
trouble that come and caught me and said that I took a Gentile
in, they ought to be here. The ones that started this whole
thing ought to be here right now. And oh, and then look what
happens. He DEFERS this thing, and we'll
deal with it next week. And when Felix heard these things,
And listen to what he said here, having more perfect knowledge
of that way. He understood clearly what was
going on here. He had a perfect knowledge. He
had a perfect knowledge of what Christ was, and what the Jews
are, and the argument between the two. He deferred, saying,
When Lysias, and then this is what he said, When Lysias the
chief captain shall come down, I'll know the utmost of this
matter. He'll tell us exactly what happened.
He'll tell us what was happened, what accusations was made. And
he commanded Satorian to keep Paul, and listen to this, and
let him have liberty. Don't put him in jail anymore.
Don't put him in jail. Don't put him in there. And that
he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister and
come to him. So let everybody knows him, wants
to come and visit him, you let him come. Don't stop anybody
that wants to visit. When anybody wants to come and
see Paul. And oh my. And then next week,
you'll see after certain days, Felix came with his wife, Drusilla. and which was a Jew, he sent
for Paul and heard him. And oh, this is what's gonna
be so good concerning the faith in Christ. Oh my, you know, people
will tell lies on you and the lies, I was talking to my neighbor
the other day and he remembered all the newspaper articles he
used to put in the newspaper. And I remember I put an article
in there on four things, the lies that the devil's told. And
one of them was the love of God. One of them was Christ died for
everybody. And one was Christ loved everybody. And fourth one was that I believe
that it's up to you, your will. But I said there are four lies
the devil told. And he said, but you know, I said, I remember
that Lantana Road Baptist Church down here, they took you to task
over there. I said, I remember. And they did. I had, you know,
had a bulletin article about size of a bulletin. This church
down the road down here, they bought a full page ad, if you
remember. And four trues. And they tackled
every one of them. God does love everybody. Jesus
died for everybody. And they took a full page out
of that to prove that I was wrong. I tell you, you know, it's a, I wish people believed the gospel.
I've talked to two men, there's a man here recently, and you
know, we got just a handful here tonight, but he said, you got
more people, twice as many people on Wednesday night as I have
on Sunday morning. And he got to get up Sunday morning and
preach to half the people that's here. That takes some grace,
wouldn't it? That would take some grace. It
really would. Our Father, in the precious name
of the Lord Jesus, thank you for your precious word. Oh Lord, we're like the apostle.
We believe in all things written in the law and the prophets.
all things written in the Law and the Prophets concerning our
Lord Jesus Christ. And because of that, we have
a blessed hope toward God Almighty. We have a blessed hope in the
resurrection. Oh, Lord, we shall not all sleep. The dead in Christ shall rise
first, and we which are alive and remain shall be changed in
a moment in the twinkling of an eye. and we'll be caught up
with them to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever
be with the Lord. Oh, what a blessed hope we have.
Thank you for giving us this hope. Thank you for giving us
faith. Thank you for giving us repentance.
Thank you for giving us the love of God in our hearts, shed abroad
by the Holy Ghost. Bless these dear saints, and
do remember Oh, God, we remember Bill and Fran and Tippie. They'll
be spending the night down there. I hope that you'll give them
some rest in their bodies. Let them have a good night's
sleep. And whatever news comes, Lord, we know you'll uphold them
and give them grace, give them strength. Uphold them by your
blessed hand. They're your sheep. They're your
children. They're your blessed people.
You love them. You died for them. And we know
that you'll keep them. And bring them peace of heart,
peace of mind, and peace of conscience. And do it for Christ's sake,
we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, let's say 327, and
we'll go home. 327. We've done, just done 266,
I think. 327's what I want. 327, yeah, we done, oh, 23, nope. Yep, that's what I want, yep,
that's what I want, yep. Let's stand together. All right,
we're saying this to Majestic Sweeten, I think. Oh, for a faith that will not
shrink, though pressed by many a foe, that will not tremble
on the brink of any earthly woe, of any earthly woe, That will not murmur nor complain
Beneath the chastening rod But in the hour of grief or pain
Will lean upon its God Will lean upon its God A faith that shines
more bright and clear when tempests rage without. That when in danger knows no
fear, in darkness feels no doubt. In darkness feels no doubt. LORD GIVE ME SUCH A FAITH AS
THIS, AND THEN WHAT E'ER MAY COME, I'LL TASTE IN NOW THE HALLOWED
BLISS OF AN ETERNAL HOME, OF AN ETERNAL HOME. Cody Hensel will be here preaching
for you Sunday. And I'll see you next Wednesday.