Latest / Scripture Unscripted / Acts chapter 26
Transcript
- 0:01Acts chapter 26. Let us pray.
- 0:08Our Lord God Almighty, we thank you Jesus for another day.
- 0:12We thank you Jesus for life and life abundant.
- 0:15We thank you Jesus for your spoken word.
- 0:18We thank you Jesus for the complete authority, God, that we
- 0:22hold in our hands. Let us rightly divide the word
- 0:25today. God, I pray that your two edged
- 0:28sword would divide between joint and marrow, between spirit and
- 0:33soul. God, I pray in the name of Jesus
- 0:35that you'll help us, Lord, to wield the sword correctly.
- 0:40Father, increase our faith. Let us rise, God to new heights.
- 0:44Lord, I pray in the name of Jesus, we'll run this race well,
- 0:49to finish this race well. God, we stand on truth.
- 0:53You are the truth. God, we live the right way.
- 0:56Father, we're taking the gospel to the whole word, to the whole
- 0:59world. God, I pray in the name of Jesus
- 1:02that you'll help us to remember our salvation story.
- 1:05Remember our testimony for the edification of the Saints.
- 1:09Father, I pray right now, God, for a supernatural zeal.
- 1:12Holy Spirit, fill us today. Holy Spirit, heal us today.
- 1:17Holy Spirit, come in, fill us. God, I pray that you, Lord, will
- 1:21be well pleased with the reading of your scriptures.
- 1:24Bless us, God, as we bless your heart.
- 1:26God, we bless your holy name, and it's in Jesus holy name that
- 1:31we pray and that we ask all of these things.
- 1:34Father, we come in to the throne room of grace.
- 1:38God, we come in boldly, we come in running.
- 1:40God, we come into the holiest of holy places where the seraphim
- 1:45are covering their eyes because you're so holy.
- 1:47God, we lay prostate before you like dead men, Father, awaiting
- 1:52a touch. Lord, we want to touch the hem
- 1:55of your garment. We want to lay our head against
- 1:57your chest and hear your heart, Father.
- 2:01We want to know that You are for us and not against us.
- 2:04Your eyes like fire and hair like wool.
- 2:07With the voice of the many multitudes, God speak to us
- 2:11loudly and boldly. God, embolden us today With the
- 2:15still small voice. Let us be still and know that
- 2:19you're God. Let us sit and rest in the
- 2:21finished work of the cross. God, I pray right now for the
- 2:26church at large, the underground church.
- 2:29God, I pray for the church in the third world.
- 2:33God, I pray in for the church God all around this globe.
- 2:38Lord, I pray for every single pastor, every single congregant,
- 2:44every single person who is marked by grace and marked by
- 2:50your goodness and mercies and your love and joy.
- 2:53Inexpressible. Father, I pray in the name of
- 2:56Jesus for a supernatural zeal to eat us up.
- 3:00Lord, let us stiff arm materialism.
- 3:02Let us stiff arm consumerism. Let us stiff arm all of the
- 3:08traps and the snares of the enemy.
- 3:11Father, I pray against all of the demonic host.
- 3:14In the name of Jesus, deliver us from the evil one.
- 3:18Father, we pray in the name of Jesus for a hedge of protection
- 3:22around our families and around our ministries.
- 3:25God, I pray in the name of Jesus, for you to drive out
- 3:30every unclean and impure spirit from off of the families and off
- 3:36of the prodigals and off of the drug addicts.
- 3:39God and off of the Alcoholics. In the name of Jesus, I pray
- 3:44against pornography. In the name of Jesus, I pray
- 3:48against violence. God, in the name of Jesus.
- 3:52Lord, I pray that you will help the mentally unstable in the
- 3:56sick. God, I pray in the name of Jesus
- 4:00against all sexual perversions. God, I pray in the name of Jesus
- 4:05that you'll give us a sound mind, Father, that you'll rebuke
- 4:09the Devourer from off of our families.
- 4:11And Lord, I pray that we will serve you, Yahweh, and you
- 4:15alone, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the name of
- 4:19Jesus. God, I pray that you will help
- 4:22us. Lord, help us to run this race.
- 4:25Help us to finish well. Help us, God, to take the whole
- 4:30word to the whole world. Help us, Father, to be the light
- 4:34in the darkness, God, to be salt in such a bland world.
- 4:38God help us to love you more. Help us to understand these
- 4:45eternal words. God help us to hide them in our
- 4:48hearts. God, help us.
- 4:53Lord, help us. We need you.
- 4:55We desperately need you in this hour, at this time.
- 4:59Help us, God, to bless the nation Israel.
- 5:02Help us to stand with that nation Israel.
- 5:06Help us to understand, Father, that you are for them, God, and
- 5:10that you are moving everything along according to your plan,
- 5:15that you are moving at all. All of the prophecies, Lord,
- 5:18that this word contains, if we'll just get in the word, if
- 5:22we'll just understand, and your word, if we'll just hold on to
- 5:25your word and not call any of it into question, if we'll know the
- 5:28complete authority God, the infallible, inerrant word, God,
- 5:33then we will understand you that your ways are not our ways and
- 5:36that your thoughts are not our thoughts, and that God, you can
- 5:39do anything, Father. So we just say yes and Amen to
- 5:43all the promises contained in this book.
- 5:46And Lord, we are waiting expectantly, knowing that you're
- 5:49going to save to the utmost, knowing that you're going to
- 5:52snatch people out out of the fire today.
- 5:54God, I pray that today is the day of salvation.
- 5:57Your mercies are new every day. And as we woke up today, God,
- 6:01you have covered us in the blood of Jesus.
- 6:04And blessed is the man whose sins are never counted against
- 6:08them. And so, God, we're going to
- 6:09stand in your presence. We're going to gird up our
- 6:12loins. We're going to run boldly into
- 6:14the throne room, God, and we're going to come in and dine, God
- 6:17and Sup with you. Prepare a banquet for us in the
- 6:20presence of our enemies. Lord, lead us besides still
- 6:24waters. God, protect us with your staff.
- 6:27God, yes, we are in the valley of the shadow of death.
- 6:31But Father, we see your face. And Lord, we're running hard
- 6:36after you today. We look up and we see our
- 6:38redemption is drawing near. We see the leaves on the fig
- 6:42tree, Father, we want more God. We've tasted and we've seen that
- 6:47you are good God, but we want the fullness God.
- 6:49We want to behold your face in all of his beauty.
- 6:54King Jesus, we love you, we honor you, we exalt your holy
- 7:02name. Yeah, sure.
- 7:06I'm a see you and send your holy and precious honorable, an
- 7:12amazing and awesome name that we pray.
- 7:17Amen. Let's start in verse one.
- 7:24Then Agrippa said unto Paul. You are permitted to speak for
- 7:28yourself. Then Paul stretched forth the
- 7:32hand and answered for himself. Wow.
- 7:36If you've been following along for any amount of time, you're
- 7:38going to know that Paul has been falsely arrested and bound.
- 7:43He has been LED from court to court, from crowd to crowd.
- 7:48And here, old Agrippa and Festus and Bernie's, they've all come
- 7:53in with their pomp, with their garb, and with all of the
- 8:03rigmarole of royalty. It's all for nothing.
- 8:07Moth will eat it up, friends. Rust will destroy and thieves
- 8:12will break in. And we need to be storing up
- 8:15treasures for ourselves in heaven.
- 8:18Friends, send it ahead. Friends, don't hold so tightly,
- 8:23so tight fisted and clenched to the wealth of this world.
- 8:28It means nothing in the heavenly abode unless you were stewarding
- 8:32it for God and sending it ahead. And look at how these leaders
- 8:37think of themselves as better than they ought to.
- 8:43And we must esteem others as better than ourselves.
- 8:46And we must practice humility, friends.
- 8:49And here Paul has been humiliated in front of this
- 8:52crowd. He is bound with chains, but
- 8:55he's given the freedom to state his case.
- 8:59What do you have to say for yourself, Paul?
- 9:02And Paul stretches forth his hands, he's calling on the name
- 9:06of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's calling on the Holy Spirit,
- 9:10he's calling on the God of Jacob to give him words to speak in
- 9:15front of all of these leaders. Verse 2.
- 9:22I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because I shall answer
- 9:27for myself this day before you, touching all the things, whereas
- 9:33I am accused of the Jews. So here we go, Paul, bound with
- 9:39chains. He's been beaten, mocked,
- 9:46imprisoned. He says I'm happy.
- 9:50Can you say that today? Can you say that in your
- 9:55weakness Jesus Christ is made strong?
- 10:02Can you say today that the joy of the Lord is your strength?
- 10:07I pray that you can verse 3 especially because I know you to
- 10:12be an expert in all customs and questions which are among the
- 10:17Jews. Wherefore I beg you to hear me
- 10:22patiently. So he's speaking to the Son of
- 10:29the man who martyred the very first apostle James.
- 10:38He's speaking to the grandson of the man who had John the Baptist
- 10:45beheaded. He's speaking to the great
- 10:48grandson of the man who killed all the 2 year olds in Rama.
- 10:58And you're seeing here that Paul knows that this man is steeped
- 11:05in all of the Jewish traditions and heritage, and he would have
- 11:10been well acquainted with the prophets.
- 11:13And he is going to take him to task, take him to the woodshed.
- 11:18He's going to make him make a decision.
- 11:22And there is no neutrality when it comes to God Almighty.
- 11:26You are either for him or you are against him.
- 11:30And you cannot play both sides. And Paul is going to present the
- 11:33gospel to Agrippa and he's going to make him make a decision.
- 11:38And our refusal to make a decision is a decision against
- 11:43God. If we wait for a more convenient
- 11:46time, if we just marginalized the gravity of the gospel, we
- 11:56have made a love decision for the world and for mammon
- 12:00friends. Three, he's begging him to be
- 12:08patient with him. Four, my manner of life from my
- 12:12youth, which was at the first among my own nation at
- 12:17Jerusalem, know all the Jews. So he's saying that even though
- 12:24he was born in Tarsus, Cilicia, he immediately came to Jerusalem
- 12:29to be brought up in the school of Gamaliel.
- 12:31He was of the sect of the Pharisees, which is the most
- 12:36stringent of the Jewish sect. Perhaps he was part of the
- 12:42Sanhedrin because he cast his vote.
- 12:46And you can see here that Paul is making an accurate case that
- 12:53he is in his right mind, that he has been brought up to know all
- 12:59of these things. He's come to the Lord reasonably
- 13:03and honestly, and he's come to the Lord with all of the
- 13:07background. And he can say honestly that
- 13:12Jesus is Lord. 5 Which knew me from the beginning, if they
- 13:20would testify that after the most straightest sect of our
- 13:24religion I lived as a Pharisee. 6 And now I stand and am judged
- 13:34for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers.
- 13:38He's saying, go back and search the scriptures.
- 13:41God promised that the suffering servant would come on the scene
- 13:45and that he would have to be brutally murdered and hung on a
- 13:49tree and be cursed so that you and I could be covered by His
- 13:56perfect, innocent, holy blood from the top of our head to the
- 14:01bottom of our feet. And we're going to stand before
- 14:04God Almighty, not because of anything that we have ever done,
- 14:08but because of everything that Jesus did.
- 14:13An innocent life murdered and treated like a criminal.
- 14:17And Paul is saying go back and search the scriptures, think
- 14:21about it in the Hallows of your mind.
- 14:23And you're going to find in Isaiah 53 that he is to come as
- 14:28the suffering servant. You're going to see in the
- 14:30Messianic Psalms that he is to come as the suffering servant.
- 14:35You're going to see throughout the minor prophets that he is to
- 14:38come as the suffering servant. And they were waiting for a
- 14:42military commander to come and to knock the Romans out and to
- 14:48get them back to their autonomy, and they had missed the mark.
- 14:52When Jesus comes back in his second advent, he's coming back
- 14:56with eyes like fire and hair like wool, the voice of the many
- 15:00multitudes. You're going to see that he has
- 15:03a name on his thigh. He's faithful and true.
- 15:06He is the King of kings and the Lord of Lords, and he's coming
- 15:10back with A2 edged sword from his mouth, friends, to
- 15:14annihilate all of the opposition, all of the evil in
- 15:18the world and to establish 1000 year reign on this earth.
- 15:23And all the nations will flow into Israel.
- 15:27All the nations will flow into Jerusalem as Christ sits in the
- 15:32Ezekiel temple ruling and reigning for 1000 years.
- 15:36And the 900 year lifespan is reinstituted, friends.
- 15:40And we're going to see that there's people peace on this
- 15:44earth because the accuser of the brethren has been locked up and
- 15:48thrown into prison. The beast and the false prophet
- 15:51are done away with in the Lake of fire.
- 15:54And for 1000 years we're going to see this earth made new.
- 15:59We're going to see that all of the people and the whole world
- 16:03are going to take interest in the one world leader, Jesus
- 16:07Christ. But prior to that event, there's
- 16:09going to be hell on earth, friends, worse than it's ever
- 16:13been since the beginning of time.
- 16:15And Satan's going to have a seven-year heyday and he's going
- 16:18to take every Christian to task. He's going to persecute.
- 16:23He's going to throw them into prison and behead them.
- 16:26There's going to be the worst persecution for the Christian
- 16:32that has ever happened on planet earth.
- 16:34And when the Bible tells us many times over that we're going to
- 16:37have to go through those things. It is talking about those who
- 16:42are left behind, those who are still on this earth, friends,
- 16:46those who have to go through that.
- 16:48And as they give their life to the Lord, the beast system marks
- 16:52them and leads them off into destruction.
- 16:56And then we're going to have to stand before evil, wicked
- 16:59courts. But don't worry, that two edged
- 17:01sword is coming, friends. And we will come with him,
- 17:05friends. And we're going to check all
- 17:07that out as we keep moving through this New Testament
- 17:207 unto which promise our 12 tribes instantly, serving God
- 17:28day and night, hope to come, for which hope's sake, King Agrapa,
- 17:34I am accused of the Jews. It is the hope to come, friends.
- 17:39And if they would have come to the Lord Jesus Christ and His
- 17:43earthly ministry, honestly they would have known that He was and
- 17:48He is the Son of God. And there were some that did,
- 17:52but by and large, most of them wanted to hold on to the temple
- 17:57and wanted to hold on to the law, and they wanted to keep
- 18:01things in their power. And they were afraid, and they
- 18:05let fear drive them down into the depths of hell.
- 18:09The brood of Vipers, the sons of hell that Jesus said that they
- 18:14were, because they were holding on to their ceremonies and
- 18:19traditions and they would not come to the Son of God in the
- 18:23right way. But these things must happen.
- 18:26It pleased God to crush him. And you need to know that God
- 18:31right now, in this moment, that God is doing things that are
- 18:35counterintuitive to the carnal mind.
- 18:38They're counterproductive to the flesh.
- 18:43And God is moving everything according to the prophecies and
- 18:47the plans, and they will be fulfilled.
- 18:49And they are being fulfilled to the letter.
- 18:53And it would take retrospection. It would take looking backwards
- 19:00to understand that in the moment we couldn't see the forest
- 19:04through the trees. But as we get many years removed
- 19:07from the event and we can look back at it, we can see that God
- 19:12was moving everything in perfect alignment and in perfect
- 19:18accordance with His Holy Scriptures.
- 19:21And we can bank on these scriptures.
- 19:24We can build our lives on the chief cornerstone, and we'll
- 19:27never be put to shame. Heaven and earth shall pass
- 19:33away, but not one of these words.
- 19:34And God will not be mocked, and his word never returns.
- 19:38Void Friends 8 Why should it be thought a thing incredible with
- 19:49you that God should raise the dead.
- 19:54He's making Agrippa. Think back on all of the
- 20:00scriptures in Ezekiel, the Valley of Dry Bones, you can see
- 20:07that God can do anything. God is not limited.
- 20:13There are miracles that he can do today that He's never done
- 20:16before. And the greatest miracle that we
- 20:21could ever experience is the forgiveness of sins.
- 20:26You and I had $100 trillion debt that we could not pay back and
- 20:34it was only by Jesus snatching the keys to death and hell that
- 20:40you and I can get unlocked from that prison sentence.
- 20:45We were all destined for hell. We all deserved hell.
- 20:49Let every man be a liar. All of our righteousness is
- 20:53nothing but filthy rags, friends, and we desperately
- 20:57needed Jesus to set us free. Praise God.
- 21:00Hallelujah. We should not think it's
- 21:06incredible that God can raise the dead. 9 I truly thought with
- 21:11myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of
- 21:15Jesus of Nazareth. There it is.
- 21:18That's who we serve. We serve Jesus of Nazareth, and
- 21:23he is saying that he persecuted the early church.
- 21:25He persecuted Jesus himself. 10 Which thing I also did in
- 21:31Jerusalem, and many of the Saints did.
- 21:33I shut up in prison, having received authority from the
- 21:37chief priests, and when they were put to death, I gave my
- 21:41voice against them. Paul is showing that he approved
- 21:46of the killing of the church, of the early church, the Christians
- 21:52here. 11 And I punished them often in every synagogue and
- 21:57compelled them to blasphemy. And being exceedingly mad
- 22:02against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.
- 22:08So Paul is going to tell us later on in the New Testament
- 22:12that this was the sin that haunted him the most, that he
- 22:17forced the Christians to blasphemy the holy name of God.
- 22:21May we keep his name. Holy friends, May we exalt the
- 22:28holy name of God Almighty of Yahweh.
- 22:31May we never let that name come on our lips loosely.
- 22:37Let's keep the name of God set apart and holy.
- 22:45And you can see here that he followed them around everywhere,
- 22:51trying to persecute them. 12 Whereupon as I went to Damascus
- 22:56with authority and Commission from the chief priest, 13 At
- 23:00midday, O King, I saw in the way a light from heaven above, the
- 23:06brightness of the sun shining round and about, and them with
- 23:11journeyed with me. This she kind of glory, God's,
- 23:14she kind of glory, just showering Paul exuding from
- 23:19Jesus, just like on the Mount of Transfiguration, where the
- 23:22priest could not even minister, because it is so thick.
- 23:27It is the throne room and the the train of his robe filling
- 23:31the temple. And they cry out, Holy, holy,
- 23:35holy is the Lord God Almighty, and they cast their crowns.
- 23:39And Paul is getting a taste of this heavenly abode, and he is
- 23:44blinded by the light, friends. And he's going to give us detail
- 23:48after detail. He's going to give us the most
- 23:50complete detail of what happened on the road to Damascus. 14 And
- 23:57when we were all falling to the earth, I heard a voice speaking
- 24:01unto me and saying in Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why do you
- 24:10persecute me? It is hard for you to kick
- 24:14against the pricks. Jesus Christ is appearing to
- 24:19Paul personally and he's saying You're not just persecuting
- 24:24these men and women who are called by my name the way you
- 24:29are persecuting me personally. And it's hard for you to kick
- 24:33against the goat. It's hard for you to kick
- 24:36against the spikes. Every time you resist, it's only
- 24:40going to hurt you worse and worse.
- 24:43You cannot resist God, friends. Only resisting God leads to the
- 24:48pits of hell. Do not blasphemy the Holy Spirit
- 24:51when he's calling you friends. 15 And I said, Who are you,
- 24:58Lord? And he said, I am Jesus.
- 25:02When we persecute, Paul rightfully acknowledged Jesus as
- 25:08Lord Adonai. He is our Master, He is our
- 25:13teacher. He is our very breath and our
- 25:16lungs. 16 But rise and stand upon your feet, For I have
- 25:21appeared unto you for this purpose, to make you a minister
- 25:25and a witness, both of these things which you have seen, and
- 25:29of those things in the which I will appear unto you. 17
- 25:35delivering you from the people and from the Gentiles, who unto
- 25:40whom now I send you. 18 to open their eyes, and to turn them
- 25:45from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God,
- 25:50that they may receive forgiveness of sins and
- 25:53inheritance among them, which are sanctified by faith.
- 25:57That is in me. Jesus Christ is showing us.
- 26:04Paul was showing Agrippa and he's telling us and Paul was
- 26:10telling him what is the mandate in the call for the early church
- 26:15and for even for us now and for the Jewish nation at large.
- 26:20And it's all playing together and it is all congruent, this
- 26:24beautiful tapestry. And God is showing Paul.
- 26:28And this would have been very close to the time when Paul was
- 26:32on the road to Damascus. Peter would have been receiving
- 26:36the sheet let down three times with all the clean and unclean
- 26:40animals in Cornelius's house and all of its congruent and all of
- 26:44its working together. And the gospel of Jesus Christ
- 26:48is for the Gentile and the Jew alike.
- 26:51And we all must come unto the Father through His Son Jesus
- 26:55Christ. It is not by work so that any
- 26:58man can boast. It is not by the law.
- 27:01It is not by the temple, friends.
- 27:03It is by Jesus and Jesus and Jesus alone that we enter in
- 27:09Friends. And unless we accept Jesus as
- 27:13our Lord, we shall not inherit eternal life.
- 27:19And he's telling Agrippa that the Gospels for the Gentiles,
- 27:22He's telling us and telling Agrippa that he knows all the
- 27:26things that he was to suffer and that God was going to protect
- 27:30him all the way through until he finished running the course.
- 27:35And he ran the race very well, friends.
- 27:38And he trained his body like an athlete, friends.
- 27:41And you can see here that God wants to open up our eyes.
- 27:46God wants to turn us from darkness to light.
- 27:51God wants us to turn us from the power of Satan to himself.
- 27:56And God wants to give us forgiveness of our sins.
- 28:00He wants to give us an inheritance, and he wants to
- 28:03sanctify us through raising our faith.
- 28:07Friends, raise the shield of faith up over all your
- 28:10circumstances. 19 Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not
- 28:18disobedient unto the heavenly vision, 20 but showed first unto
- 28:24them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all
- 28:28the coast of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should
- 28:34repent and turn to God and do the works.
- 28:39Meet for repentance. That is our call as Christians.
- 28:44Confess that you have sinned. Confess that you are a Sinner.
- 28:48Confess that you desperately need a Savior.
- 28:51Turn towards God. Turn away from selfish, greedy
- 28:56gain. Turn away from this world.
- 28:59Do not love this world or the things of this world.
- 29:02Turn from them. Turn to God.
- 29:04Seek you first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will
- 29:07be added to you. And then as you walk in
- 29:10obedience, as you are consecrated and sanctified, show
- 29:14the people all around you be a good witness unto God.
- 29:18Do not live duplicious. Do not live as a hypocrite.
- 29:22Do not just play religion, friends.
- 29:28We must be found following hard after the Lord Jesus Christ and
- 29:33obeying all of the words that He's given us.
- 29:36Friends, abstaining from sexual immorality, abstaining from the
- 29:43love of mammon, serving God with a whole heart, loving others,
- 29:51loving our neighbors as our self.
- 29:56Fall in love with Jesus and everything will take care of
- 30:01itself beyond that. If you love the Lord Jesus
- 30:05Christ, you will obey him. 21 Four these causes.
- 30:15The Jews caught me in the temple and went about to kill me just
- 30:22because he was speaking the truth and they did not want to
- 30:26hear the truth. And don't be surprised today
- 30:30when conviction falls upon those that are steeped in idolatry,
- 30:36steeped in their sinful behaviors.
- 30:40Don't be surprised, friends, whenever they seek to take your
- 30:46life, to take your livelihood, to slander you, to speak all
- 30:53kinds of evil against you. Do not be surprised when
- 30:57persecution comes. 22 Having therefore obtained helped of
- 31:03God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and
- 31:08great, saying none other things than those which the prophets
- 31:12and Moses did say should come. So he is confirming the Law and
- 31:19all the prophets. He's confirming that Jesus
- 31:23Christ is the culmination of every type and shadow of the Old
- 31:29Testament. 23 that Christ should suffer, and that he should be
- 31:34the first that should rise from the dead, and should show light
- 31:38unto the people and to the Gentiles.
- 31:42So we know that the same power that raised Jesus Christ from
- 31:46the dead lives in US. Believer, as you had the down
- 31:49payment of the Holy Spirit deposited into you, friends, you
- 31:53will rise. And he was the first born, He
- 31:57was the second Adam, and we know that he fulfilled all the law,
- 32:02and he lived an innocent life and is by his innocence that we
- 32:07put on the righteousness of Christ. 24 And as he thus spoke
- 32:18for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, you are beside
- 32:26yourself. Much learning does make you mad.
- 32:30So here was an interruption from Satan.
- 32:35Satan used an opportunity to interrupt this beautiful sermon
- 32:42of Paul, and he was painting a masterpiece and Festus didn't
- 32:47want to hear it anymore. It was convicting unto him.
- 32:53And here he uses this opportunity to get Paul off his
- 32:59heels and he's saying that he's gone insane.
- 33:04He's saying that much learning has drove him mad.
- 33:09And the only thing Paul is crazy about his Jesus, the only thing
- 33:17that Paul is mad about is he's madly in love with our Lord
- 33:22Jesus Christ. And all the learning that he
- 33:26kept going back into precept upon precept, line upon line, as
- 33:32he searched the Scriptures, they all pointed to Jesus.
- 33:38From Genesis to Malachi friends, and from Matthew to Revelation,
- 33:43it's Jesus. Every single bit of the entirety
- 33:50of God's word is built upon the chief cornerstone that they
- 33:55rejected. 25 But he said, I'm not mad.
- 34:06Most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and
- 34:11soberness. Jesus Christ is the truth and we
- 34:16should not be given over to being intoxicated off of wine
- 34:24and intoxicated off of prescription drugs and
- 34:27intoxicated off of the narcotics and intoxicated off of rage and
- 34:35evil. We should approach God with
- 34:38soberness. Friends, do not be drunk, but
- 34:44approach God and approach His Word with soberness.
- 34:48And you're going to find that God is well pleased to
- 34:51intoxicate you with the Spirit and to fill you with the Spirit.
- 34:55And it is the thing that you've been searching for your whole
- 34:58life, but everything else left you empty and broke.
- 35:05And being filled with the Holy Ghost is what you're truly
- 35:11after. 26 For the King knows of these things, before whom I also
- 35:21I speak freely. For I am persuaded that none of
- 35:25these things are hidden from him.
- 35:27For this thing was not done in a corner.
- 35:34History, friends, secular history proves that a man named
- 35:41Jesus Christ, Nazareth, walked this earth and was brutally
- 35:51executed at the hands of the Romans, and that he appeared to
- 35:56many afterwards, and that his disciples went on to suffer many
- 36:03horrible deaths for that name, for that cause.
- 36:08History, secular history, proves this.
- 36:11This word of God was not put out in a corner, friends.
- 36:17It was not hidden. It's on full display.
- 36:20All of creation proclaims His name.
- 36:22The rocks will cry out. He can raise children to Abraham
- 36:27from the stones. Friends, just know that this is
- 36:32not done in a corner. This is not some religious
- 36:38teacher who came and said a bunch of novelty things.
- 36:43This is the creator of the universe, everything seen and
- 36:49unseen. There is nothing that is, that
- 36:52was not made by him, friends, and science is only thinking
- 37:00God's thoughts after God. Science is only coming behind
- 37:06God after God has put in place all of the structures and all of
- 37:13the threads and all of the strings that hold matter
- 37:19together. We're just coming afterwards and
- 37:23figuring out God's creation. That's all it is, Friends.
- 37:28The Bible interprets the Bible, and if we do not understand
- 37:32something in the Bible, perhaps we need to get on down the road
- 37:37to look back at it to understand it.
- 37:39Friends, the Bible in the book of Psalms told us that the earth
- 37:45was round even when they were all the people that believed
- 37:49that it was flat and you could sail off the edge.
- 37:52How ridiculous. 27 King Agrapa, do you believe the prophets?
- 38:06I know that you believe. So here Paul draws the line in
- 38:10the sand. He's already been interrupted
- 38:12and I'm sure he knows that his time is short.
- 38:16So he just holds no punches and gets straight to the point, and
- 38:20says, King Agrapa, would you believe on the Lord Jesus
- 38:23Christ? And he shows him by pointing him
- 38:27back to the prophets that he would have been well acquainted
- 38:30with, that showed that the Messiah must come suffering
- 38:35first, and then come back in all glory and power. 28 Then Agrippa
- 38:44said unto Paul, Almost you persuade me to be a Christian.
- 38:51Almost is the equivalent of not at all.
- 38:59There is no neutrality. Today is the day of salvation.
- 39:05Your life is but a vapor. It's here today and it's gone
- 39:10tomorrow. You must make a decision for the
- 39:13Lord Jesus Christ today. He's calling you.
- 39:17He is beckoning to you. He is desirous of a personal
- 39:22relationship with you. But we must not harden our
- 39:28hearts. We must not grieve the Spirit.
- 39:32We must not stiff arm the time of grace that we're in.
- 39:38Friends, if you take your last breath on planet earth, it'll be
- 39:44too late if you have not placed your faith in the Lord Jesus
- 39:48Christ prior to that moment. But we all gamble and think that
- 39:54we have plenty of time and then whenever something tragic
- 39:59happens, we realize that it was too late.
- 40:03Friends, don't take that gamble. Get right with God today he says
- 40:12almost 29 and Paul said how would to God that not only you
- 40:19but also all that hear me this day were both.
- 40:24Almost and all together, such as I am, except these bonds, he's
- 40:30saying, except for these chains that I find myself in.
- 40:33I wish you would become like me, madly in love with the Lord
- 40:38Jesus Christ, eat up with the zeal of his house.
- 40:46I wish you would use all of your academia, all of your
- 40:50learningness to come to the Lord honestly and see that Jesus
- 40:56Christ is the Lord. 30 And when he had thus spoken, the king
- 41:06rose up, and the governor and Bernice, and they that sat with
- 41:11them. So this was a show of, OK,
- 41:16show's over, time's up, we're done.
- 41:19This was them showing Paul that he had crossed the line and
- 41:28pushed them into a corner and backed them into a corner.
- 41:32And they realized that Paul, in this moment, was not interested
- 41:37in trying to get out of jail. He's not interested in trying to
- 41:43swindle his way into freedom. Paul is not trying to save his
- 41:49skin. He's not running scared.
- 41:52He's not worried about if he's let go or not.
- 41:57All his heart cares about is for the salvation of these men and
- 42:02women here in this court. And that should be our heart,
- 42:06too, friends. We should not be afraid of
- 42:10losing our job. We should not be afraid of
- 42:15losing our livelihood. We should not be afraid of being
- 42:20taken to court. We should not be afraid of
- 42:23losing our life. The only thing that we should
- 42:27fear is God and watch everything else bow before Him.
- 42:34Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
- 42:39Friends. We serve a holy God, glorious
- 42:46God, His glory shining all around us.
- 42:49Friends do not have the fear of man, but fear God and God alone.
- 42:56And watch how He leads you in paths of righteousness.
- 43:00And if you get fired, he'll open the door somewhere else.
- 43:07And if you have to go to court, he's going to give you the words
- 43:10to speak. And if you lose your life, Jesus
- 43:15will be there to welcome you home.
- 43:18Praise God. Hallelujah.
- 43:21If God is for us, who can be against us?
- 43:23Do not fear the one that can kill the body, but fear the one
- 43:27that can kill the body and cast your soul into hell. 31 And when
- 43:32they were gone aside, they talked between themselves,
- 43:36saying, This man does nothing worthy of death or bonds. 32
- 43:41will end here. Then said Agrapha unto Festus,
- 43:45This man might have been set at liberty if he had not appealed
- 43:49unto Caesar. But it was God's perfect and
- 43:52pleasing plan to give Paul a first class ticket unto Caesar
- 43:56unto Rome, that he must appear there and also be a witness.
- 44:02And Paul knew it all the way back there on Straight St.
- 44:06Aren't you thankful that God is so incredibly loving and
- 44:10powerful and that He is a good, good Father?
- 44:13And He knows exactly how to comfort us in our times of
- 44:17affliction and in this world? You will have trouble, but take
- 44:22heart. Jesus Christ overcame the world
- 44:26and He gives you peace, but not as the world gives.
- 44:31Just remember His ways are not our ways, thoughts are not our
- 44:38thoughts. We just say yes and Amen to Him.
- 44:47I hope you've been blessed by this chapter here.
- 44:51I know I sure have. I'm praying for you.
- 45:02I love you. We'll see you back here
- 45:07tomorrow. God bless you, yeah.