To say this morning, if you would
open your Bible to the book of Acts, chapter 24. Let's begin reading
in verse 22, reading down through verse 27. This is mainly where I want us
to look at this morning, but I want to go back and look at
some things to see where we come to this point. Verse 22 of Acts
24 says, And when out and when Felix heard these things, having
more perfect knowledge of that way, he deferred them and said,
When Listius, the chief captain, shall come down, I will know
the uttermost of your matter. And he commanded a centurion
to keep Paul and to let him have liberty. and that he should forbid
none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him. And after certain
days, when Felix came with his wife, Drusilla, which was a Jewish,
he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness,
temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled and answered,
go thy way for this time. When I have a convenient season,
I will call for thee." He hoped also that money should have been
given him, Felix did of Paul, that he might loose him. Wherefore,
he sent for him the oftener, Felix did, and communed with
him, with Paul. But after two years Pontius Festus
came into Felix's room, and Felix willing to show the Jews a pleasure,
left Paul bound. Here we see Paul standing before
this man, this judge, Felix, and his wife, Drusilla. But how
did this come about? What transpired in providence
to bring God's man across the path of these two people? In
Romans chapter 15, it says that when Paul was writing to that
church, he said that he had longed to come to them and to see them.
But he had been hindered because God was using him to preach the
gospel to Corinth and Galatia and Philippi and other places. And he said that, I have a desire
to come and see you. But he said, before I come to
Rome, he said, I'm going to Jerusalem. He said, it's pleased those of
the churches of Macedonia to take up an offering. And they
were going to send that offering to the poor saints in Jerusalem.
And Paul goes to Jerusalem, I think it's in Acts 21, and as he's
there, these Jews come from Asia and they stir up the other Jews. They said, this man has defiled
the temple. And they laid hold on him. And
they would have destroyed him. They would have killed him. But
God spared him. God even used the Roman generals
to come in and take Paul. Or they would have killed him.
And when they would have scourged Paul, the Romans would have.
Paul said, I'm a Roman citizen, and it's against your law. You
can't scourge a Roman. So they all got afraid. In the
book of, I think it's in Acts 20, when Paul was getting ready
to leave the elders in Ephesus, you remember what he said? He
knew that one day he would go to Jerusalem. He said, and now,
behold, I go bound in the spirit into Jerusalem. not knowing the
things which shall befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost
witnesses in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide
in me, but none of these things move me, neither can I my life
dear unto myself, so that I may finish my course with joy, and
the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify
the gospel of the grace of God." I don't know what's going to
happen to me when I go to Jerusalem, and that's what happened to him.
He was arrested. He was banned. Why? For preaching
the gospel. The gospel has never been accepted
by modern day religion. These were religious Jews, Orthodox
Jews, who believed and trusted in the law for their righteousness.
They thought it was based upon their good deeds. And when Paul
came preaching the gospel, it caused an uproar. But what I
want you to see, if it hadn't been for the providence of God,
they would have killed him. God had another purpose for him.
In Acts chapter 23 verse 10, it says, and when there arose
a great dissension, the chief captain, fearing lest Paul should
have been pulled into pieces, of them. By the Sadducees and
the Pharisees, he commanded the soldiers to go down and to take
him by force from among them and to bring him into the castle.
Now watch this. And the night following, the
Lord stood by him and said, Be of good cheer, Paul, for as thou
hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also
in Rome. You're going to Rome. How's he
going? He's going down as a prisoner.
God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform. He plants
his footsteps on the sea and he rides upon the storm. All
these things that are happening are happening on purpose. On
purpose. On purpose. It also says, I think,
in Acts 23, that they were 40 men. that hated Paul so much,
they made this vow. They said, we won't eat or drink
till this man dies. We're going to kill him. We're
going to kill this man. And Paul's nephew, his sister's
son, heard of it. And he went and told Paul what
they were plotting to do. And he said, you go tell the
centurion. And the centurion, he told him. And he said, OK,
we'll take care of him. They meant to kill Paul, but
in Acts 23, Verse 22, listen. So the chief captain then let
the young man, Paul's nephew, depart, and charged him, see
thou tell no man that thou hast showed these things to me. And
he called unto him, what's this, two centurions, saying, make
ready 200 soldiers to go to Caesarea, and horsemen, three score and
10, and spearmen, 200, at the third hour of the night, and
provide beasts that they may set Paul on and bring him safe
unto Felix, the governor. You mean they did all that to
bring Paul to this Governor Felix? Yes, they did. God even used
that wicked Roman army to protect his servants. All things work
together for good to them that love God. to them who are the
called according to his purpose. So this is some of the things
that are going on. This is how Paul winds up here. A man named
Lysgius wrote a letter to Felix and said that I'm sending him.
These people have a quarrel with Paul. They say he's preaching
another gospel. That's what they said. He's preaching
another Jesus. Now look in verse 1 of chapter
24. Just bear with me. And after five days, Paul's now
in Caesarea, going to stand before this judge, Felix. And after
five days, Ananias, the high priest, descended with the elders,
and a certain orator named Tertullus, who informed the governor against
Paul. So you have the high priest,
and who the high priest was, and all the elders, and it said
this certain orator, this great speaker, what I think he was
was nothing more than a hired slick lawyer. See, the Jews,
they don't know much about the Roman customs, about the Roman
laws, but this man does. And see, they're going to present
their case before this wicked Judge Felix. And so they want
somebody who can speak and speak real well and can suck up to
the judge. to kindly get him to sway their
way, as I read in verse 26, that Felix hoped that Paul would give
him money or bribe him. And he said, well, if he gives
me enough money, I'll turn him loose. That's what's going on here. Who informed the governor against
Paul, verse 2, and when he was called forth to tell us began
to excuse him, saying, speaking to Felix now, seeing that by
thee we enjoy great quietness, and that very worthy deeds are
done to this nation by thy providence. We accept it always and in all
places, most noble Felix." He's almost making him out to be a
god. with all thankfulness. Notwithstanding that I be not
further tedious unto thee, I pray that thou wouldst hear me of
the clemency of few words. For we have found this man, Paul,
a pestilent fellow, he's a pest unto us, and a mover of seditions
among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of
the sect of the Nazarenes, where was Christ from? Nazareth. He's
a ringleader of this man, of these 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 Lilius 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
this man Paul. And the Jews also asserted, saying
that these things were so. Then Paul After that, the governor
had beckoned unto him. OK, this man speaks. He lays
his charges out against Paul. And he beckons or nods his head
to Paul and says, OK, Paul, now you can speak. Here's what Paul
says. For as much as I know, Felix,
that thou hast been of many years a judge unto this nation, he
ruled over Jerusalem. I do the more cheerfully answer
for myself. because they tell me I must understand
that there are yet but 12 days since I went up to Jerusalem
to worship. And they neither found me in
the temple disputing with any man, neither raising up the people,
neither in the synagogue nor in the city. Neither can they
prove the things whereof they now accuse me. They can't prove
any of these things because I didn't do them. He was not a debater. He was not somebody that was
trying to stir up trouble. He'd come just to bring these
alms to the nation of Israel. Verse 14. 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. That's the issue. After the way
which they call heresy, so worship I, the God of my fathers, the
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 have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward
men. Now, after many years, I came
to bring alms to my nation and offerings, there it is, whereupon
certain Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple, neither
with tumult, neither with multitude, nor with tumult, who ought to
have been here before thee and object If they have aught against
me, there are not any of them around. Or else let these same
here say, if they have found any evil doing in me while I
stood before the council, except it be for this one voice, that
I cried standing among them, touching the resurrection of
the dead, am I called in question of you this day? So he stands
standing before this man, Felix. And here's what Felix says. And
when Felix heard these things, having more perfect knowledge
of that way, he wasn't ignorant about what was going on. See,
what I want you to understand, this man was over Judea. It was his job to keep order
in Judea. If there was somebody causing
a problem, he stomped it out. Someone, I believe it's back
in chapter 21 or 23, when the Roman soldier got Paul, there
was this false prophet that they said that came from Egypt. And
he stirred up all these people and got people to follow him.
And you know what Felix did? Felix sent these bunch of soldiers
down and just did away with it. And the false prophet ran. And
when this man, this Roman soldier gathered Paul, you know what
he said? That's you. You're that Egyptian. You're
that false prophet. You're the one that we've been
looking for. That's what he was saying. He knew what was going
on. He was not ignorant of that way.
And he said, he deferred them and said, when Listius, the chief
captain, shall come down, I will know the uttermost of your matter.
He's saying, OK, we're going to postpone the trial for a little
while. We're going to wait till this man named Listius. He was
the one that wrote the letter to Felix and told him that he's
sending him to Felix, that these people were plotting to kill
Paul. And Felix says, when he comes, I'll hear you. But God
had other plans. In verse 22, he commanded the
centurion to keep Paul and to let him have liberty, that he
should forbid none of his acquaintances to minister or come unto him.
It's a miracle he didn't kill him. But he gave him liberty. His friends could come to him,
minister to him. He gave him some liberty. And what I want
you to understand, Felix is a wicked man. Very, very, very wicked
man. And after certain days, when
Felix came with his wife, Drusilla, which was a Jewish, he sent for
Paul and heard him concerning the faith of Christ. Sounds like he wants to hear
the gospel. What's all this that's going on? What is this thing
which they call heresy? What is this other Jesus? He
knew probably what the Pharisees and the Sadducees believed, and
they never caused any problems. If they got along with the Romans,
they got along with everybody else, there was never no problems.
But here comes this one preacher of the gospel, and they all get
mad. They get some man, they want to kill him. It's not changed
today. Man's nature's not changed. God's
gospel's not changed. They still hate the gospel. Who was this Felix? Well, I can
understand he was raised a slave. But through brutality and stepping
on anybody he could step on, he rose up in the ranks and now
he's Felix the Judge, this ruler. He's going to do anything it
takes. Step on anybody he can. He's all after Felix. And it
says his wife, Drusilla, who was a Jewish. Now what does that
mean? Now listen. She was a gorgeous Jew. who belonged
to a powerful family of officials working for the Roman Empire.
She became known as an immoral woman and an adulterer who was
unrepentant to the end of her life. Some believe she died in
Pompeii when that volcano erupted. That's what Josephus says, but
listen. Her father was King Agrippa I.
who was eaten of worms in Acts chapter 12. Remember that? They
said, it's the voice of a God. And God killed him. That's her
daddy. And she's sister to King Agrippa, who's mentioned in the
next chapter. And her uncle was Herod Antipas,
who ordered the beheading of John the Baptist. This is who
Drusilla is. You say, boy, how wicked. Oh,
it just pictures all of us. That's what it does. It just
pictures all of us. That's right. Self-willed. We're going to do
whatever it takes to please ourself. And we sit upon the throne of
our own making. Drusilla was the loveliest of
the youngest of three sisters. At the age of 15, she married
this king after she required that he become a Jew and be circumcised. And she soon became an unfaithful
wife, turning to Felix, who took her. She's living in adultery. She's just a cheap whore. That's
who this woman is. But what I want you to see is
God has brought his servant Paul to stand before these men to
preach his gospel. How would you feel standing before
this man? What I want you to see is this
man makes people today that rule seem like saints. That's exactly
right. And God arranges all things on
purpose. So this is what was going on.
I hope I haven't bored you, but I just thought that we needed
to know what was going on in the setting and everything that
God did to bring him to this point. And here Paul stands,
and he's going to preach the gospel to this man. The same
gospel he's always preached. He's not going to change his
message. He's not going to flatter this man. He's going to preach
Christ to him. Verse 25, and he reasoned of righteousness,
temperance, and judgment to come. Felix trembled and answered and
said, go thy way for this time. When I have convenient season,
I will call for thee. He says he reasoned of righteousness,
temperance, and judgment. What does it mean he reasoned? It's not saying that he stood
and argued with him. God's preachers don't argue with
me, and we preach the gospel and leave it in God's hands,
not debaters. I remember one time there was
a church called me, and they claimed to straddle the fence. They said they believed in grace,
but they also believed in freewillism. They said, we want to have a
conference at our church, We were on the radio preaching,
and been preaching on there for a while, and there's a guy that
came on after us. After we'd been on there a couple of weeks,
I think he'd got a hold of a book by John R. Rice, and he preached
a message, The Era of Election. That was his message. I'll never forget. It's been
probably 20 years ago. What I'm getting at, that church said,
we want you to come, and we want that preacher who preached that
message, The Era of Election, we want both of y'all to come.
And we want to see if we can't debate and talk this thing out.
I said, I'm not interested. When he says he reasoned with
this man, he's not debating with him. He's not asking him his
opinions. It's not up for reasoning. He
preached the gospel. The word here simply means he
discoursed as its root. mentioned other places in the
scripture in Acts 17 too. And Paul, as his manner was,
went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them
out of the scriptures. Felix and Drusilla probably called
Paul. They wanted to be entertained.
They wanted to be amused with this man, this preacher. But
they never expected their sins to be exposed. What I want you
to see here, Paul's not the one on trial. Felix is. All this is happening, has happened
for a reason. The Apostle Paul seized this
opportunity to preach the gospel. Seized it. He selected those
topics from the scripture which would lead this man to repentance,
to see his sin, and bow to Christ. As you said this morning in the
message, he preached as a dying man to dying men. God's giving
him this opportunity to preach the gospel to these men, to this
man and this woman. He's not going to flatter them.
He's going to preach Christ to them. He's going to, by God's
help, show their sin, their inability, and their need of Christ. He
hopes that God may show him mercy. You said, would God show mercy
to these people? Did God show mercy to you? This is just a picture of all
of us. That's exactly right. We're self-willed, adulterous. Say, oh, I would never do that.
Yeah, we set ourselves up as judges. Say, oh, we would never
do that. Yes, we would. He wants to arrest
their attention. It doesn't matter where he's
preaching to a king. It doesn't matter where he's
preaching to a governor. It doesn't matter who he's preaching to.
He's ready to preach the gospel. Why? He says, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel. I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
Not ashamed of it. He knew it. What I want you to
see, this man Felix had the ability and the power to turn him loose. All he had to do was say the
right things and he would have been set free. But he's not bound
by this man. He never one time said, I'm the
prisoner of Rome. He said, I'm the prisoner of
Jesus Christ. He told him one time, he said,
I endure all things for the elect's sake. All things. You think for a minute the things
that God had to do to transpire, to bring somebody across your
path, to preach the gospel to you. He seized it. He preached with
boldness. His boldness was remarkable.
This was not Paul. This was God's grace. His aim
was to preach the truth. He didn't spend his time trying
to turn these people away from their sins and make them good
moral citizens. That's all religion does. Get
rid of your sin, turn a new leaf. It was a whole lot, something
a whole lot more important. This is the issue of life and
death. Life and death. The three points of his message. was righteousness, temperance,
and judgment to come. Paul, the first thing he talks
about is righteousness. As I said, he said, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ because in that gospel, therein is the
righteousness of God revealed. God's righteousness. God is holy.
God is just. And God is righteous. And he
demands perfect righteousness. and he will not accept anything
less. Someone asked a preacher one time, said, how good do you
have to be to go to heaven? He said, as good as God. God
is holy. God is just. He's a just God
and a savior. He deals in justice. Because
God is holy, he cannot accept anything less than that which
is perfectly holy. You are, Felix, a sinful man
and without a righteousness or the ability to produce one. Righteousness. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. That is why Christ,
this Nazarene, came into the world to establish a perfect
righteousness as a man. And that's the only righteousness
God will accept. His righteousness. His righteousness. Not your patched up righteousness.
And listen, he didn't tell Felix, now this is something Felix you
have to do. Now if you'll do this and God do his part. Preaching
the gospel is declaring to sinners that for which has already been
done from eternity. He's a lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, finished before the world was made. Looking to
Christ and trust him, you'll have eternal life, and you'll
have a perfect righteousness. Perfect righteousness. The Shulamite
in the Song of Solomon, she said, I'm black. Becomely. Black. Becomely. Clothed in his perfect,
perfect righteousness. This world knows nothing of righteousness. Paul said, my heart's desire
and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved.
They have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. They're
going about to establish their own righteousness and have not
submitted themselves unto the righteousness of Christ. They're
busy. They're busy. But they're trying
to establish, make to stand their own righteousness, not the righteousness
of God. So Paul preaches to him about
righteousness. You preach about righteousness,
you've got to point people to Christ, who is the righteousness
of God. You must look to Him. It's not
looking in here. It's in Christ. And he preached to him about
temperance. This is just self-control. What
is this? This is yielding to Christ to
rule one's life. Man by nature says we will not
have this man to reign over us. There's nobody telling me what
to do. I'm going to do my own thing. This wicked Judge Felix showed
no self-control. Whatever he wanted, that's what
he did. Nothing or anyone would stand in his way. Does that not
sound familiar? When God saves a sinner, he brings
him under the rule of Christ. God sets up his throne in that
man's heart. And now that that man, person,
has a new nature, he wants to live for Christ and obey Christ. Here's what it says in Galatians
5, 19. And the works of the flesh are
manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanliness, lasciviousness,
Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife,
seditions, heresies, envying, murder, drunkenness, revelings,
and the such like of the which I tell you before as I have also
told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God, but the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness. temperance. Against such there
is no law. As a person grows in grace and
the knowledge of Christ, they grow in temperance. 2 Peter 1.5,
and besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith
virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance,
and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to
godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you
and abound, they make you that you should neither be barren
nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But
yet this temperance is something that requires watchfulness and
diligence. Here's what Paul said in 1 Corinthians
9 verse 24. Know ye not that they which run
in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may
obtain. and every man that striveth for
the mastery is temperate in all things. If they do it to obtain
a corruptible crown, we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainty,
so fight I, not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my
body, and bring it into subjection, lest by any means, when I preach
to others, I myself would be a castaway. A castaway. Not living for ourself, but for
him. We've been bought with a price. You're not your own. Not your
own. So what is Paul telling this
man? He must bow to the claims of Christ as a needy sinner.
Submitting to his dominion, his authority, his rule, his reign. Then Paul pressed home the claims
of Christ in his last point. And he preached and reasoned
with him of judgment to come. Judgment to come. The Bible says, knowing the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. There is coming a day when all
men must stand before God and give an account and stand before
this righteous judge. God hath committed all judgment
into his hands, the judgment seat of Christ. He says, Felix,
there's coming a day you're going to stand before him who is a
righteous judge. I can see Paul urging him to
repent and to turn to Christ. Except you repent, you'll perish.
This was Paul's message. righteousness, temperance, and
judgment to come. And what was the response from
this message? It said, Felix trembled. Trembled. He was under conviction. God shook his very foundation.
His very foundation. As I thought about that word,
trembled. the first time it's used in the scripture. I don't
know if it's exactly the same word, but it says in Genesis
27, 33, when Isaac, remember when he blessed Jacob instead
of Esau, how that Jacob deceived him and he blessed him. Well,
then Esau comes in and he goes, oh my goodness, what am I doing?
And he says, and Isaac trembled very exceedingly and said, who,
where is he that hath taken venison and brought it unto me? And I
have eaten all before thou camest. He trembled. Another time when
the children of Israel were standing at Mount Sinai, and it came to
pass on the third day in the morning that there were thunders
and lightning and thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice
of a trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people that were
in the camp and what they did, they trembled. I tell you this,
you may just always just hear the voice of a man, but if you
ever hear the voice of God and what you'll do, you'll tremble.
You'll tremble. Why? He's a what? He's a just
God. Go to Calvary and look. He spared
not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. How shall
we not with Him also freely give us all things? He spared not
His own Son. Why? The law of God is unbending. He spared not His own Son. And
when you ever see a glimpse of that, you'll tremble too. You
go to Mount Sinai, go to the law of God, the soul that sinneth,
it must die. Another incident, Isaiah, I mean,
1 Samuel 4, 13, remember Eli. God killed his two sons. And
the Ark of the Covenant had been taken by the Philistines. And
it said to him, when they came, lo, Eli sat upon a seat by the
wayside watching, for his heart trembled. for the ark of God. What trembled? His heart trembled. Psalms 18.7. Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations also of the hills
moved and were shaken because he was the wrath. In Matthew
27.50, when our Lord was hanging on the cross, when all the wrath
and the judgment of God was poured out on His Son. When He became
sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. And Jesus, when He cried again
with a loud voice, gilded up the ghost. And behold, the veil
of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and
the earth did quake and the rocks rent. You know what this world
did? It trembled. And Felix did what? He trembled. Trembled. Afraid. Something's happened as this
man, Paul, preaches the gospel to this man. Something happens
on the inside of this man. His heart begins to tremble. Just to shake uncontrollably. If God ever speaks to you, I
know what you'll do. You'll tremble. Doesn't it say
that when our Lord comes back, they will run to the rocks and
the hills and cry from the throne and hide us from the face of
Him that sits upon the throne. This sinner trembled at the very
presence of Almighty God. He dwells in a life that no man
can approach. I want you to remember this. This
man is convicted of his sin. I believe he sees his sin. He
sees it, not so much of what he's done, but who he is. That's what it is to see sin. But conviction is not conversion. He felt emotions, but believing,
but trembling is not believing. Remember how the Lord told the
parable of the sower that sowed the seed, and one seed fell upon
the good ground? And the only way that ground
is good, which represents man's heart, is for God to make it
good. And the seed fell upon that good ground, but there was
a stony ground, there was a wayside, and there was a thorny ground.
Remember, he said the thorns are the cares of this world that
grow up and choke the word and it become unfruitful, but that
stony ground. He said they received the seed
into the heart, into their emotions, and they endured for a little
while. And then they vanished away. That's what's happening
here. It fell upon his emotions. Listen
to me. Feelings come and feelings go. And feelings are deceiving. The
only thing fit to believe is God's word. Say, well, I don't
care what you felt. I don't care. This man, this
man trembled before God. He actually saw his sin in the
light of God. He heard God speak and trembled
and still perished. Can you read that without being,
without making you tremble? You mean a man could hear the
voice of God and tremble and be affected that much under the
power of God's Spirit and still perish? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. You know what it said in Hebrews? He said, you take heed. Talking
to us. The gospel was preached unto
the nation of Israel, just like you. You say, well, how did God
preach the gospel to the nation of Israel? In types, in pictures,
in prophecies. What do you think the Passover
was? Picture of Christ. He preached the gospel to them.
Okay, he brings them to a place called Kadesh Barnea. And they're
going to go take Canaan, which God had given them, which is
a picture of Christ. And they send out spies. Ten
come back and they say, oh, they all said, oh, it's a good land.
Oh, we can, but there's, but there's giants in the land. And
there was two. Caleb and Joshua were the only
two that said, we need to go up right now. We can take it. But the whole nation didn't believe
Caleb and Joshua. They believed the other 10. And
you know what happened to them? God slammed the door. And they
could not go in. He said everybody 20 years old
and upward will die in the wilderness. Because you know what Felix said?
It said Felix trembled. You know what he said? Go your
way. When I have a more convenient
time, I'll call for you. If you read that story about
the nation of Israel, the next day they said, we thought this
over, I think we'll go in today. No, they're not going in. The
Ark of the Covenant didn't go up with them, which is a picture
of Christ. And God let them die in the wilderness. This is a serious matter. It's
like you said earlier, when you hear the gospel and you hear
God's voice, you better listen. You better make haste. He said,
well, I need to wait. That's Satan's biggest lie. He
said, at a more convenient season. You may not have another season. That's exactly right. That nation
wandered in the wilderness. The Bible says, listen to me,
everybody listening. Today, if you hear his voice,
harden not your heart. as in the day of provocation.
What was the day of provocation? When they said, we choose not
to believe God. I'll ask you just like Joshua
did, choose you this day whom you will serve. And I'll ask you like Elijah
did, how long hold you between two opinions? If God is God,
you serve him. And he said, if he ain't, just
go on serving Baal. This man, Felix, trembled. I never see that he had a more
convenient season. It's said down in verse 26 that
he called Paul many other times in commune with him. But I never
read again that he trembled. That he trembled. You remember Esau? Now what's this? He so deliberately
and willfully sold his birthright. That means he made light of the
things of God. He rejected God's Son. And it said, I think it's in
the book of Hebrews, when he realized what he'd done, he sought
repentance carefully with tears and he was rejected. Rejected. I tell you, I've actually prayed
this before. Not being proud, I've said, God,
don't let me be an Esau. Don't let me be an Esau. Don't
let me reject the things of God and the things of Christ. Salvation is not upon your time.
It's God's time. God brought this man, Paul, to
stand before this man and preach the gospel. Today is the day
of salvation. Flee to Christ. Run to Christ. Bow to Christ. You say, no, I
don't want anybody telling me what to do. That costs me too
much. written these down, and I'm going
to read them again. It's the very scripture that our brother
used earlier this morning. He made some excellent, excellent
comments, preached Christ. What he said was enough, and
I'm just going to read it to you again. He talked about wisdom,
talking about Christ. Turn you at my reproof. Behold,
I will pour out my spirit unto you. I will make known my words
unto you. because I have called and you
refused. I have stretched out my hand
and no man regarded, but you have said it not on my counsel
and with none of my reproof. I will also laugh at your calamity.
I will mock when your fear cometh. Fear? But when your fear cometh
as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, When distress
and anguish come upon you, then shall you call upon me. You weren't
called before, now you want to call. But I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but
they shall not find me. And here's why. They hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They were none of my
counsel, and they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they
eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their
own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay
them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them." Putting it plain, Felix was a
fool. And if you leave here this morning
and God's speaking to you, and you said, I will not have that
man reign over me, On the authority of God's word, you're a fool. But whoso hearkeneth unto me
shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from fear
of evil. God speaks to you through his gospel. If God ever speaks
to you, don't delay. Bow to him. Bow to him. It pleased God through the foolishness
of preaching, the Satan which believed.