Okay, let's turn back there to
Acts chapter 26. We're starting to get close to
winding this book up. I've enjoyed it. I've enjoyed
it a lot. To see what the apostles went
through in the early church, what it went through, and how
they suffered. They stayed faithful, didn't
they? They stayed faithful. Paul now stands here before King
Agrippa, and he's allowed to speak for
himself. Paul spoke to the chief captain,
and he spoke of Christ. He spoke to Felix, and he spoke
of Christ. He spoke to Festus, and he spoke
of Christ. And now he's going to speak to
King Agrippa. At no time did Paul say anything
in his defense to try and get out of trouble, this trouble
that he was in. He always preached Christ to
them. He took it as an opportunity. He took it as an open door to
stand before them and tell them of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he does it again here. Paul says, I count myself happy.
Happy to do this, to be able to speak before you. Happy because
he has another opportunity to brag on his Lord. Happy because
he has another opportunity to tell sinners of the same. Happy. Happy to do that. We're happy
to do that. But he said he's also happy to
do this because he knew that Agrippa was an expert and their
customs, their laws, their ceremonies. He knew this king, knew their
religion very well. You see, King Agrippa was a descendant
of Esau. He was an Edomite. This was a
Jew. This man knew what was, he knew
history. If he didn't know anything else,
he knew history. He knew the prophets. He said, I know you
believe the prophets. You've read the scriptures. You
know what the scriptures say. You know what The book of Isaiah
says, you know these things. This was not done in a corner.
So he says, I think myself happy to be able to stand before you
and tell you of Christ. And so Paul starts out, and the
first thing he does, he tells Agrippa about himself. How that
he was brought up a Pharisee. A Pharisee was the strictest
and straightest sect of all their religion, a Pharisee. As one
person said, they were as straight as a gun barrel, just as empty.
But that was a Pharisee. Self-righteous, but he was strict. Paul from his youth up was brought
up as a Pharisee in a very strict religion. You know, Paul didn't
get out of here as a teenager and carouse around and carry
on. No, he was, from his youth up, he was brought up this way.
And he sat at the feet of Gamaliel and was taught. This man is very
well educated. That's what I heard one person
say once before. He didn't come into town in the
back of a pickup. This man is well educated. And he said, this
is my life. I was a Pharisee. And the Jews
know this. He said, these Jews know me. They know me. They know my manner
of life. They know who I was. They know me. And the problem,
O King, is this. is that now I stand and am judged
for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers." The
promise of a Messiah, that coming Messiah. The whole Old Testament
says that someone's coming. He said, and I stand in hope
of that one and of the resurrection of the dead, is what he's speaking
of also. They look for the promised Messiah. They look for him. They
look for the Christ. They looked for the Christ. Because
God said that one was coming and would deliver them from their
enemies. And they looked for him. Paul said, I look for him. And he's come. This Jesus of
Nazareth is that Messiah that we've been waiting for. He's
come. They're still looking for him.
He said, but he's come. He's the Messiah. He's the Redeemer
of Israel. And I stand in hope also here
being judged for the resurrection of the dead. The theme of the
apostles' message was the resurrection of Christ. They preached that
everywhere they went. He's risen. Everywhere they went
they preached He's risen. He's risen. Is that not our hope?
A dead Christ is not our hope. A risen one is. A risen Christ
is our hope. We serve a risen Savior. And he said, I stand in them
judged in hope of the resurrection of the dead. Not just our souls,
but our bodies. Our bodies. That's the way he's
saying it. The same body that we have now,
I stand in hope of it being raised from the dead. Don't you? You
stand in hope of that. I stand in hope that one day
I'm going to die. You're going to die. I'll visit
your funeral. You'll visit mine. One of us
is going to go first. But we are dying in hope. Not
just that our souls are going to be with the Lord, but our
whole man is going to be with the Lord. Christ redeemed us
body, soul, spirit. He redeemed the whole man. He's
going to have all of you. Christ is going to have every
bit of you. He said not one hair of your
head will perish. He said it won't perish. He's
bringing it back. I tell you, it's an amazing thought. This same body that I have now,
I am going to have again, except for sin. I'll look like me and
you'll look like you. We'll look just like we are,
except for sin. There'll be no sin. It'll be
a glorified body. It'll be this body. Job said,
in my flesh, I'll see God. I'll see Him with my eyes. These
eyes. There won't be any sin in them.
There won't be any contamination in them. But I'll see Him with
these eyes. In my flesh I'll see God. The
soul and body have been redeemed by Christ. And Paul says, I stand
in hope of the resurrection of the dead. This is what I'm accused
of, this hope here. This same hope that God gave
to our fathers of being raised from the dead. David spoke of
his, he said, thou will not leave my soul in hell. He said, well,
he's talking there about Christ. Right, he is. But he's not going
to leave ours there either. He's not going to leave us there
either. Now let me say this, this hope
here that Paul's speaking of, It's no new hope. It's no new
message. He said it was given to our fathers.
God promised this to our fathers long before we came around. This
is an old promise God gave to our fathers. And we believe it.
They believed it. We believe it. You know, we believe
the same hope and hold to the same hope that Abraham held to,
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. We hold to the same hope, don't
we? The same one. It's no new hope. Abel had it. Job had it. David had it. Daniel had it. All of God's children
have it. We all have that hope of being
raised from the dead. That first resurrection, that
spiritual resurrection. Then there's that resurrection
as coming of the body and be joined back together. We have
it. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15. You've
read this, I know, many times. We need to read it many more
times. Paul said in verse 12, 1 Corinthians
15, Now if Christ be preached, that he rose from the dead, how
say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not
risen? He is dead also. And if Christ
be not risen, then is our preaching in vain, and your faith is also
vain? Yea, and we are found false witnesses
of God, because we have testified of God, that he raised up Christ,
whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then
is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins. Then they also
which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life
only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from
the dead and become the firstfruits, the firstfruits of them that
slept. The harvest is going to follow. The harvest follows the
firstfruits. Then he says here now, O King,
why should it be thought, why should it be thought a thing
incredible with you that God should raise the dead. Why is
this thought to be such an incredible thing? If I were talking about
me raising the dead or you raising the dead, that would be an incredible
thing. There would be no credibility to it. But we're not talking
about me or you. We're talking about God. We're
talking about the One who created all things, first of all, out
of absolutely nothing. Everything you and I have ever
done or ever will do, we'll make something out of something. God
made all this out of absolutely nothing. Nothing existed until
He spoke it into existence. God, the Creator of all things,
is the one who's going to do this. He created the heavens
and the earth. He created the body. Can He not
bring it back? Does He not know where all the
scattered bones are? He says over there in Ezekiel,
can these bones live? And that preacher, God gave him
some wisdom. He said, you know, Lord, you
know, you know, you know if they can live. You know what bone
goes to which body. Ashes have been scattered all
over this earth. People have been cremated and scattered their
ashes. Every particle of those ashes will come back together.
You believe that? Does that sound incredible to
you? It does to the natural man. Natural man says, that's foolishness.
That's foolishness. That's credible to us, isn't
it? Because of God. God's the one doing this. God. No matter how impossible it may
seem, God can bring the scattered bones and body back together.
Our Father can do this. You know when you're, when you
was a little child, Father could do everything, couldn't he? Your
dad couldn't lose it anything. When you were just a little child,
before you became rebellious, before that rebellion set in,
dad could do everything. He didn't lose it anything. And
would to God we'd keep that childlike faith. God can do this. God can bring this body right
here back out of the grave. I'm going to go in the grave
one day. It's just a bed. That's all it is. It's just a
bed for this body to rest in. until God calls it out of the
grave. It'll come out of the grave and every part will be
there. Every part. Just consider who's bringing
the dead back. Consider who's bringing them
back. God. God. This is no challenge to
His power. Bringing this body back is no
challenge to His power. Why, He says, should this thought
be incredible? that God should raise the dead.
If you know who God is, you won't think it's incredible. If you
know who He is, you know Him, you won't think it's incredible. Then Paul reveals who he was
here before conversion, before his spiritual resurrection, and
then what God did for him. He said, I even thought I even thought to destroy this
name myself, old king. I thought like the rest of these
Jews. These people who are condemning me now, I would write in line
with them. I thought to destroy that name.
I thought to stamp it out. I went about trying to put it
away. He said, I even consented to
their death, which means more than Stephen. He stood there
and consented to more than just Stephen being put to death. I
persecuted the strange cities. I did everything I could to destroy
this name. Destroy this way. Hated it. Despised it. And then one day I met Him. One
day I met Him. I met the Lord. On my road to
hell, I met Him. I met him in the way. You notice
he said, I met him. He didn't say, I met him going
to Damascus. I met him in the way. That preordained way of
God. Before the world began, God had
preordained that Paul would be in the way. Just as He had preordained
that many of you would be in the way. And you'd meet the Lord. You'd meet the Savior. You'd
meet the Master. That's what happened. He said,
I met him in the way and he broke me. He saved me. He saved me. He did something
for me. He had mercy on me. He showed
grace to me. And he made a preacher out of
me. He made a master out of me. There are no loiterers in the
kingdom of God. Every one of God's children has
a position in the body and a business to do. Every one of them. There are no lawyers in the kingdom
of God. But He saved me and He made a preacher out of me and
He delivered me from the people. Speaking of the Jews, we ought
to hear the people. And He sent me to preach the
gospel to the Gentiles, to open their eyes and to turn them from
darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God. Paul was an
instrument in God's hand to preach the gospel to sinners, to his
sheep, that God might bring them to himself. It has pleased God
through the foolishness of preaching to save them that way, to do
what I'm just doing here, to create faith in God. It has pleased
God to use these means to do so. The first thing God does is prepare the preacher for his
place of service. You'll notice he broke Paul. On the way to Damascus, in the
way, he broke this proud rebel, this self-righteous Pharisee,
this God-hating Pharisee. You wouldn't have thought that
if you had known him back then. Boy, God revealed his hatred,
didn't he? When he heard the gospel, when he heard the gospel
of grace, That hatred of God came out. It came out. But God broke him. And now he
can preach to broken sinners. Now he can really preach to broken
sinners. This is how Paul has been enabled to stand before
all these people. It's been over two years now,
Paul's been in prison. And every time he stands there,
he preaches Christ to them, and desiring that they believe. Or
that God would save him. Because God broke him. And then he called him. Broke
him, then he called him by his grace. And now he can preach grace to
the guilty. Now when he preaches, he doesn't look down his nose,
you know, to the congregations. But now he preaches as one of
them. He said, I've drank of the water. I can tell you where
it's at. He revealed himself to Paul and
in him. He revealed himself to him and
in him. Now he has someone to preach.
Oh, I tell you, it's so good when you hear someone preach
a person and not a religion. And not just have what we call
a religious service, but to truly preach him. And then he taught him the message
of grace. You know, he spent three years with the Lord, personally. He spent three years with the
Lord, being taught the Gospel. Now he has something to say.
Most people I've heard don't have anything to say. I turn
the radio on, or TV, and most of what's going on out here today,
right now, at this hour, you could just trash most of it.
You can just trash it. They don't have anything to say.
Paul had something to say. God taught him. Man taught of
God has something to say. And then he sent him. He sent
him. Now he has someplace to go. He
has a mission. He's on a mission. God gives
him one. Now God prepared the preacher. Now He's prepared the
people. He prepares the people whom He sends the preacher to.
And He prepares them with the preaching of the gospel. to open their eyes. Open their eyes. Everyone's born
blind. Spiritually, everyone is born
blind. None can see God or truth. It
doesn't take long to talk to someone to see that they don't
see. Really, it doesn't take long
to talk to someone to understand They don't understand the truth.
They've never seen it. None can see their need of Christ.
They cannot see their need of His blood, of His righteousness,
until God, through the preaching of the gospel, gives them eyes
to see. One day they're blind, the next
day they see. Boy, how'd that happen? God gave them sight. One day you sat as a rebel, and
the next day you said, yes, Lord, what would you have me to do?
Well, how did that happen? God. God gave the spiritual resurrection. That's what happened. They see the truth because they
have been illuminated by the truth. The truth is spoken to
them. God has commanded the light of
the gospel to shine through their hearts to give the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. For the first time, you see something
of God's glory in the person of His Son. His redemptive glory.
His redemptive glory. You see something of it in the
face, in the person of Jesus Christ, God's Son. Before that,
you didn't see it. It was a good story. Oh, we like to sing it away in
the manger at this time of year, don't we? We like to sing those
songs about little Lord Jesus. But not now. Oh, now we see Him
who is Lord of lords and King of kings. We're not looking at
a baby in a manger. We're talking about one sitting
on the throne. Ruling and reigning all things. Religion likes to
keep him in the manger. We're glad he's on the throne.
I'm glad he's on the throne. And to turn, he says to turn.
to turn, turn them from darkness to light. The prophet said, turn
me and I shall be turned. Turn me and I shall be turned.
Talking here about repentance. You know, repentance is God turning
us, but it's also turning. The Holy Spirit doesn't repent
for me. He enabled me to repent, but I repent. He enables me to
believe. He grants faith. Faith is a gift
of God. But I tell you this, it's your
faith. According to your faith, so be it. I can't explain these
things. I can proclaim them, but I sure
can't explain them. Turn, and they turn from darkness
to light. All are born blind and all are
born in darkness. If you're born blind, you're
born in darkness, aren't you? If you've never seen the light of
day, you've never seen light. Turn from darkness. Men are born in darkness. They walk in darkness. Now, if
you had known Paul when he was a Pharisee in Jerusalem, you
wouldn't think that man was in darkness, would you? The Lord
said, the light that be in thee is darkness. How great is that
darkness? Men are born in darkness, walk
in darkness, die in darkness until or unless God turns them
through the preaching of the gospel and the power of the Holy
Spirit. That's the way we come into this
world. And Paul says, "...and to deliver
them from the power of Satan to God." Everyone, before conversion,
everyone is under the power of Satan. Everyone. You know, in the Scriptures,
I believe it was Mary Magdalene who said the Lord cast seven
devils out of her. I wonder how many he's cast out
of me, out of you, when he saved you. He has to take them out. He's
the one who cast them out. God must cast them out of us
if we are to be saved. A strong man must come in and
take over the house. He must come in and take over
the house and throw the others out. And notice here what comes with
conversion. Complete forgiveness of sins. Oh, that's music to
a guilty sinner's ears, isn't it? That's only good news to
the guilty. Pardon is only good news to those locked up. It's only good news to sinners. But it's complete forgiveness
of sins. When a man is turned from darkness to light, from
Satan to God, he receives, at that time, complete forgiveness
of sins. Not one is remembered, not one
is brought in. God said, I'll remember them no more. They're
gone. When a man repents, he receives complete forgiveness
of sins. When we receive Christ, we receive
forgiveness of sins. Listen, and here's something,
this is beyond measure, an inheritance among them which are sanctified
by faith that is in me. Think of what it is to become
an heir of God, to obtain an inheritance of God. We leave our children some things,
some inheritance. Some have more, some have less.
But it's all gone no matter what in a little while. It's all spent. It's all gone. But this inheritance,
as the Scripture says, is reserved in heaven for you. And it fades
not away. Eternity will not put a fade
on it. Not even a fade. You can keep
this jacket long enough. If I were to pass it down, it
would fade, wouldn't it? Moth-eaten. But boy, that righteousness
that we have in Christ, all the blessings that we have in Christ,
all that God's given us in Christ will not fade away. It won't
even have a hint of fade on it. Not even a hint. And what a joy. What a joy. to be numbered among such company,
sanctified ones. That you'll be numbered, Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, all those who have gone on before us, that great
cloud of witnesses. You're in that number, those
who are sanctified. What a joy to be among that number.
And Paul says to the king, he said, Now king, I was not disobedient
to the heavenly calling. I went and preached the gospel
first to Damascus and to Jerusalem and to Judea and then to the
Gentiles. And it is for this gospel that
I have been commissioned to preach, sent to preach, this gospel of
Christ crucified, this gospel of Christ risen, the Messiah,
this gospel of Christ ascended, this gospel of Christ reigning,
This gospel of Christ as all in all is the reason they want to kill
me. That's the reason I stand here, judged by these Jews. This is why they want to kill
me, King. They know what I'm saying. They know who I'm preaching.
This is why they hate me. They despise the one I'm preaching
and they despise his message. And he says, oh King, my message
is the same message that Moses And the prophet preached. No different message. Their message
was always about a person, not a religion. And he said, my message,
O King, is about the same person that Moses and the prophet spoke
of. They said you come. I'm preaching the same one. And
I'm telling you, he's come. He's come and he has suffered.
That's what they said. Moses and the prophets said that
Christ shall come and he shall suffer, and he must suffer many
things. Our Lord said that. He must suffer
many things as the elders and scribes, chief priests, and be
rejected. O King, you know what Isaiah
53 says. That one in Isaiah 53 is Jesus
of Nazareth. He's the Messiah. He's come. He suffered just as the Scripture
said he would. The Scripture said he would suffer.
It said the Messiah should be cut
off, but not for himself. That's what the Scripture says.
King, you know that. He says, you know what I'm talking
about. And he's the first to rise from the dead by his own
power. He's the first fruit. And all
the harvest is going to be just like him. Now we haven't seen
him with these eyes. We've seen him by eyes of faith.
But we are going to be just like him. And that's a glory beyond me
trying to describe. Can't put it into words. You
know, when Paul went to the third heaven, he said, I saw things
unlawful to utter. He didn't mean it wrong. He just
means there's no words for it. There's no words in our vocabulary
to explain what I witnessed. And there's no words for me to
describe the glory of our Lord. And we're going to be just like
Him. Now, old Festus, sitting there, said, Paul, you're a madman. You are an absolute madman. Much
learning has made you mad. Paul said, I'm not a madman. Oh no, for the first time in
my life, I'm sane. For the first time in my life,
I know what I'm talking about. I'm not a mad man. For the first
time in my life, I'm in my right mind. But then he turns and he looks
at King right in the eyes. I mean, Paul connected with him.
He looked him right in the eyes. He said, oh King, you know what
I'm talking about. Festus doesn't know. He doesn't
know. He's out there on the left field. But you know what I'm
talking about. These things weren't done in
a corner. The Old Testament is very clear. You know about Jesus
Christ. He knew about Him. He knew what
happened. He knew He was crucified. He
knew this message. He knew these things. I'm not
telling you something that you don't know about. You know these
things. You know what the prophets have
said? And you know what happened to
this man? King Agrippa? Boy, salvation becomes personal,
doesn't it? Not just preaching to a crowd here, preaching to
you. You. King Agrippa? Believest thou
the prophets? I know that thou believest. I
know you believe the prophets. Just false. You know, Paul believed
the prophets. He didn't believe Christ, but
he believed the prophets. And here's what I'm saying. He opened
the Bible, and he believed that Christ was coming. He believed
the Messiah was coming, but he didn't believe the Messiah that
came until the Lord made him in the way. A man told me one time, he said,
I believe everything that book says. He said, I believe every
word of that book. And he never even made a profession. He was
just a rotten rascal. Well, you know, you believe it
as a story. You know, you believe it as a
story. But you've never yet met Him and believed Him. There's
a difference in believing Him and just believing a story about
Him. I know you believe the prophets. I know you believe when you read
Isaiah 53 that this is speaking of a person and that the Messiah
is coming. I know you believe that, but
you don't believe Him. Do you believe Him? Do you believe him? And old Griffith said, Almost!
Almost! We're going to do like Felix
said. We'll talk about this when we have a more convenient time.
You know, Felix trembled. He stopped when he stopped. He
said, There's enough here. This is bothering me. And old
King of Griffith said, Almost! Thou persuadest me to be a Christian.
A Christ follower. Almost thou persuades me to bow
to Him. To receive Him. Almost thou persuades
me to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. But you know what
almost is? It's all lost. All lost. A man told me one time, he said
almost only counts in horseshoes and grenades. everywhere else
has passed. Almost is all lost. Christ said to a young man one
time, thou art not far from the kingdom of God, but not far is
not in. You could be standing at the
gate, but that's not in. You're standing at the gate. I know Paul What a change God made
in this man. What a change. What a change
grace makes in a person when it really takes place. Paul said,
I would to God. Oh, he said, I would to God that
you and all who hear me were not only almost, but altogether
such as I am. I wish you knew Him. I wish you
knew my Lord. I wish you tasted of His grace
and His mercy. Oh, I wish all of you, not just
you, O King, but every one of you sitting here listening to
me, could know Him. Except, He said, for these bonds,
I wouldn't wish this on you. I wouldn't want you to be bound
like I am, but I sure wish you knew the One I love. Boy, this
is how you preach to sinners, isn't it? This is how you preach
to sinners. as a sinner to a sinner. And I would to God, all about
this last night, I would to God that every one of us would come
to know Him. Every one of us.