[0:00] Please take out your copy of God's Word, which I pray you have with you, that it's well read and treasured in your hearts this morning. And turn with me to the book of Acts, chapter 25.
[0:19] If you were with us last spring and then not for the summer and you're back now, yes, we are still in the book of Acts. We are hastening our way to its end, however, moving rather quickly, not because we are tired of the book of Acts, but because the story hastens us to the end.
[0:39] Back in chapter 21, Paul's back in Jerusalem and he's arrested there for no good reason. But the Jews bring up charges against him, blaspheming the temple, causing false worship of God.
[0:54] And the Romans, evil men that they were, are used by God to rush in and to rescue Paul from certain death at the hands of the Jews. And we've been walking now through the subsequent chapters, looking at various trials that Paul is standing.
[1:10] Different places have been. Last week, chapter 24, he stood trial before the Roman governor, Felix. And they concluded there was nothing really he could be charged for, but he held him anyway for two years.
[1:24] And at the end of chapter 24, Felix is, he wasn't a very good governor, so he's removed from his post. And he's replaced by a man named Festus. So we saw that at the very end of chapter 24, verse 27 says, When two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Portius Festus.
[1:42] And desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison. And so today we're going to look at chapters 25 and 26.
[1:53] Yes, both chapters all together, although we'll come and focus in on just a few verses. But I am going to read it for our benefit. It only takes about eight minutes, so hang with me in the text.
[2:08] I'll pause from time to time and just make some comments, some clarifying comments, hopefully to keep you on the same page. You're understanding what's happening in this episode of Paul's life.
[2:19] But before I do that, let me just introduce to you, in real brief, three characters that you're going to hear in this story. Obviously, we have Paul as a primary character.
[2:32] Festus, who I already mentioned, Roman governor of Judea, successor to Felix. We have King Agrippa, who was the Jewish client ruler of Judea.
[2:43] And that is to say, he ruled the region that was ruled by a higher power, which in our story is Rome. He was granted power by Rome to rule the religious life of the Jews in Judea.
[2:56] He would have appointed the high priest, and he would have judged matters of Jewish law. So he's underneath the authority of Rome, but still holds quite a bit of power for Jewish worship.
[3:09] And then we're also going to see Bernice, who is Agrippa's younger sister. Just as an interesting historical aside to you, it's most likely that they were also lovers.
[3:20] So you, King Agrippa, but this is what's happening. This is why she's probably with him at this trial. So, beloved, this is God's word to us.
[3:31] It was written for his glory and for our good. We would all do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises and to obey its commands. We see in Acts 25, verse 1, Luke writes, Now, three days after Festus had arrived in the province, he went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea.
[3:51] I'll stop for a moment here to remind you that Caesarea was the Roman capital of Judea, but Jerusalem is still the center of Jewish life.
[4:01] It's in a higher elevation, so everything goes up to Jerusalem or down from Jerusalem. And he travels there to earn favor with the Jewish population.
[4:12] Festus, as a governor, a Roman governor, was charged with keeping the peace in the province. And so he goes to pay his dues, as it were.
[4:24] We also will see that he's apt to grant favors to the Jews to gain their approval of him being there in that region. Verse 2, And the chief priests and the principal men of the Jews laid out their case against Paul.
[4:41] And they urged him, asking as a favor against Paul that he summon him to Jerusalem, because they were planning an ambush to kill him on the way.
[4:51] Festus replied that Paul was being kept at Caesarea, and that he himself intended to go there shortly. So, said he, let the men of authority among you go down with me, and if there's anything wrong about the man, let them bring charges against him.
[5:07] After he stayed among them not more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea. And the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought. But when he had arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many and serious charges against him that they could not prove.
[5:26] Paul argued in his defense, Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar, have I committed any offense.
[5:37] And this is a duplication of Paul's previous trial before Felix, which was two years prior. Standing in the same place, he's now again having to defend against these same false accusations.
[5:50] Verse 9. But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and there be tried on these charges before me?
[6:01] But Paul said, To Caesar you have appealed.
[6:33] To Caesar you shall go. Now, Paul's appeal to Caesar was his right as a Roman citizen. Although Festus did not have to grant the request to Paul, the complication of the matter and his charge to keep the peace in Judea made Paul's appeal a convenient out for Festus.
[6:55] It was his chance to say, Oh, well then okay. Festus was a fairly unseasoned governor. He was very young. And you'll note in verse 12 that he confers with his council.
[7:08] Is this a thing we should do? Is he within his right as a Roman citizen? They say, Yes, he is. And he uses it as an opportunity to escape what could happen if he doesn't put Paul on trial.
[7:20] Now remember that after Paul's trial before the Sanhedrin in chapter 23, when he's experiencing a great discouragement, Jesus shows up and encourages him with the following from Acts chapter 23 verse 11.
[7:36] Luke records this, The following night the Lord stood by him and said, Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.
[7:51] So Paul has been given clear instruction by Jesus himself, right? Jesus encourages him by saying, I'm going to preserve your life unto Rome. I still have a purpose for you to go to that place.
[8:02] And Paul seizes the opportunity to bring this to pass. He exercises his Roman right and he says, I appeal to Caesar. Verse 13.
[8:15] Now when some days had passed, Agrippa the king and Bernice arrived at Caesarea and greeted Festus. And as they stayed there many days, Festus laid Paul's case before the king saying, There is a man left prisoner by Felix.
[8:30] And when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews laid out their case against him, asking for a sentence of condemnation against him. I answered them that it was not the custom of the Romans to give up anyone before the accused met the accusers face to face and had opportunity to make his defense concerning the charge laid against him.
[8:50] So when they came together here, I made no delay, but on the next day took my seat in the tribunal and ordered the man to be brought. When the accusers stood up, They brought no charge in his case of such evils as I supposed.
[9:03] He's saying they brought silly charges. That wasn't what I thought they were going to be. Verse 19. Rather, they had certain points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus who was dead, but whom Paul asserted to be alive.
[9:19] Being at a loss, how to investigate these questions, I asked whether he wanted to go to Jerusalem and be tried there regarding them. And I love what he basically says is, I don't have a way of affirming whether or not Jesus is alive.
[9:31] So I asked him if he wanted to go to another trial. Verse 21. But when Paul had appealed to be kept in custody for the decision of the emperor, I ordered him to be held until I could send him to Caesar.
[9:42] Then Agrippa said to Festus, I would like to hear the man myself. Tomorrow, said he, you will hear him. So on the next day, Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and they entered the audience hall with the military tribunes and the prominent men of the city.
[9:57] Then at the command of Festus, Paul was brought in. And Festus said, King Agrippa and all who are present with us, you see this man about whom the whole Jewish people petitioned me, both in Jerusalem and here, shouting that he ought not to live any longer.
[10:12] But I found that he had done nothing deserving death. And as he himself appealed to the emperor, I decided to go ahead and send him. But I have nothing definite to write to my lord about him.
[10:25] Therefore, I have brought him before you all and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after we have examined him, I may have something to write. For it seems to me unreasonable in sending a prisoner not to indicate the charges against him.
[10:39] So it's interesting to note at this point that Festus isn't even sure under what charges he would send Paul to Rome. It's very vague, the charges that are placed against him.
[10:50] He's hoping to gain some clarity in matters of Jewish religious law. All of the injustice that Paul is experiencing is due to his proclamation of Jesus as the Christ.
[11:03] And this is not inconsistent with Jewish belief. They believed in a Messiah, particularly the part of Judaism that he was, a Pharisee. They believed in the resurrection of the dead. He's just saying, this has happened.
[11:16] The thing that you guys believe, I believe, but I believe it rightly because Jesus is the Christ. And this is infuriating to them. Just as Jesus was unjustly tried and crucified, Paul is being held for crimes that he did not commit.
[11:35] The student is certainly not greater than his master. Chapter 26, verse 1. So Agrippa said to Paul, you have permission to speak for yourself.
[11:48] Then Paul stretched out his hand and made his defense. I consider myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa, I'm going to make my defense today against all the accusations of the Jews, especially because you are familiar with all the customs and controversies of the Jews.
[12:05] Therefore, I beg you to listen to me patiently. My manner of life from my youth, spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem, is known by all the Jews. They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion, I have lived as a Pharisee.
[12:24] And now I stand here on trial because of my hope and the promise made by God to our fathers, to which our twelve tribes hope to attain as they earnestly worship night and day.
[12:35] And for this hope I am accused by Jews, O King. Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead? I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
[12:50] And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them.
[13:01] So he's saying, I was a Pharisee, the strictest order of Jews, looking to the promise of the Old Testament that the prophets had made.
[13:14] And I was zealous against what's called the way, against Jesus of Nazareth. We know that Paul was present at the stoning of Stephen, the first Christian martyr.
[13:27] It would appear that he voted for the death of others as well that may not be recorded in the book of Acts. He possibly, quite possibly, was part of the Sanhedrin, part of that ruling group of Jews.
[13:40] Well known. He's saying, these men know the kind of Pharisee that I was. So it's likely that he's amongst his peers in Judaism being accused.
[13:53] Verse 11. And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme. And in raging fury against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.
[14:05] In this connection, I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. At midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, that shone around me and those who journeyed with me.
[14:18] And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.
[14:30] And so that you're not distracted by that. Goads were sharpened rods used to prod cattle. So all that Jesus is saying to him, and he would have understood, is that it's futile for you to resist God's will in the world.
[14:41] What a silly thing for a cow to do to kick against a stick made to make them move forward. Verse 15. And I said, Who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
[14:55] But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.
[15:21] Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.
[15:39] For this reason, the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. To this day, I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying, both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets of Moses said would come to pass, that the Christ must suffer, and that by being the first to rise from the dead, He will proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.
[16:02] And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, you are out of your mind. Your great learning is driving you out of your mind.
[16:13] But Paul said, I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words. For the King knows about these things, and to Him I speak boldly.
[16:25] For I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner. That is to say, the spread of the gospel, the teaching of the gospel, wasn't hidden from him.
[16:37] He was fully aware of the teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Verse 27, and we're almost there. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets?
[16:48] I know that you believe. And Agrippa said to Paul, in a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian? And Paul said, whether short or long, I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am, except for these chains.
[17:09] Then the King rose, and the governor and Bernice, and those who were sitting with them. When they had withdrawn, they said to one another, this man is doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment. And Agrippa said to Festus, this man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.
[17:27] So, I have posited to you before that I believe it is correct to think of Luke's account, most often referred to as the Acts of the Apostles, as the second of a two-volume work.
[17:46] The first, we call the Gospel according to Luke, is an account of Jesus' earthly ministry. The second is an account of Jesus' ascended ministry in the life of His apostles by the agency of the Holy Spirit.
[18:05] This is why I prefer to call this work the Acts of the Holy Spirit or the Acts of the Ascended Jesus. I'm sure I never will, but if I ever work as a Bible translator, that's the way my suggestion would go.
[18:18] In Matthew 28, verses 18-20, before Jesus ascended, He said, I hope you're familiar with this, He said to His apostles and to us, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.
[18:34] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.
[18:45] He says, in essence, I possess all power over all things, and I want you to go and make disciples. Don't be troubled in your making of disciples, for My power, My provision, and My presence will be with you.
[19:04] We often misread this, right? The Great Commission, the command for us to go on, to go and work for Jesus, and miss that He so carefully sandwiches in the middle of us going and making disciples that the authority belongs to Him and that He is with us.
[19:25] He's made these beautiful promises for us in the process of our disciple-making, of Paul's disciple-making. And how is it that Jesus' promise is accomplished?
[19:37] How is it that He is with us? His authority and His power is with us. Acts 1.8. Again, before Jesus is ascended, He says, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.
[19:58] The early disciples received the Spirit in a unique way on the day of Pentecost. And now, all who place saving faith in Jesus Christ have been given the Spirit.
[20:12] And that Spirit produces in us obedience to Jesus' commands. Observe Paul's immediate obedience from our text today.
[20:22] Chapter 26, verse 19 and following. He says, Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.
[20:33] But declared first to those in Damascus. This is where He was, right? He was in Damascus, and He began immediately to be a witness to who Jesus is. Then, in Jerusalem, so catch Acts 1.8, in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, which would be to say, to Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
[20:58] That's an immediate obedience to what Jesus said would happen in Acts 1.8. So, Jesus' earthly ministry is continued in His ascended ministry in the lives of His followers by the agency of the Holy Spirit.
[21:16] Beloved, that's where we find ourselves today, in the continuation of that ministry. Luke ceased recording at the end of Acts 28. But the church lives on and carries the ministry of Christ as He is with us and as He has all authority.
[21:35] So today, let's observe six things that Jesus works to do through Paul and us. So this is your outline for today.
[21:47] Six things that Jesus works to do, aims to do, through Paul, and through us. Number one, to go and tell.
[22:06] To go and tell. Chapter 26, verse 16. In the middle of verse 17, Jesus says, But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose.
[22:21] To appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen Me and to those in which I will appear to you. In verse 17, the middle portion, to whom, the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you.
[22:38] Jesus sent Paul and He sends us to be a servant and witness to what He had done and to what He would do.
[22:49] Jesus emptied Himself of the glories of Heaven to become a man in order to be a servant and a witness to the Father. And He said in John 20, verse 21, As the Father has sent Me, even so, I am sending you.
[23:09] So, go and tell. This is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. And in our going and telling, Jesus intends to save all who call upon His name, all who believe in Him for their salvation, all who He died to save.
[23:29] Jesus' ascended ministry is the justification and sanctification of His church. So we can have a great confidence in our going and telling as we are merely tools in the hands of Him who all authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given.
[23:47] We can join with Paul in saying, Romans 1, verse 16, For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
[24:00] In Paul's telling of Jesus' words to him on the Damascus road, he presses further that confidence. Look at the following things that Jesus works to do through Paul and through us.
[24:14] That was number one, to go and to tell. Number two, to open the eyes of unbelievers. Jesus works to do this through Paul and through us.
[24:28] The first part of verse 18, to open their eyes. Paul was made blind on the Damascus road to later be given sight.
[24:38] In the same way, Jesus makes those blinded to the truth able to see and live. Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4, In their case, those who don't believe, in their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.
[25:07] So, unbelievers have darkened vision, darkened hearts. They cannot see the glorious truth of the gospel. But, our text this morning tells us that Jesus aims through our evangelism to bring about spiritual sight, to take the spiritually blind and give them sight.
[25:34] But how? How is it that He works this? Paul goes on in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 6, and saying, For God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
[25:52] Paul states that the all-powerful God who spoke light into existence, said it and it appeared, births believing faith into the hearts of men.
[26:06] So, when Jesus says to Paul, I am sending you to open their eyes, we should rightly understand that we are instruments in His saving purpose.
[26:18] God saves people through the proclamation of the Gospel. So, we go and proclaim as God works to make the blind see. Jesus also works in the life of Paul and in our lives to turn unbelievers from darkness to light.
[26:38] the second part of verse 18. 18b, if you will. To open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light.
[26:54] The heart of an unbeliever is dark. John writes in 1 John 1 verses 5-7, this is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
[27:12] If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. So, these metaphors are being used for the way of righteousness and the way of wickedness.
[27:27] The light is righteousness and the darkness is wickedness. John goes on to say, but if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
[27:43] So, Jesus works to make the unbelievers see with spiritual eyes so that they will not walk in the darkness in the evil ways of the world but in the light of the truth.
[27:56] And it is good to be in the light. Jesus also works works to open the eyes of unbelievers. Number four, to deliver unbelievers from the power of Satan.
[28:12] We'll call it 18c, verse 18c, so that they may turn from the power of Satan to God. The unbeliever is turned from the power of Satan to God through the giving of spiritual sight because Satan's only power is the power of deception.
[28:35] In John 8, verse 44, Jesus calls Satan the father of lies. In Ephesians 6, verse 11, Paul instructs believers to, in order to avoid the powers of the world, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
[28:59] And he lists as the first and last metaphorical items to put on as the armor of God. In verse 14, the belt of truth. In verse 17, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, which is the Scripture.
[29:16] Scripture. Gospel proclamation has such great power because by it, Jesus makes people believe the truth. He unbinds them from the many varied deceptions of Satan and turns their hearts toward the truth.
[29:34] If you are in Christ today, if you have believed in Him, it is because belief has been worked in you. You have believed the truth because you are a child of God and no longer a child of the devil.
[29:46] Well, Jesus works this through the life of Paul and in our lives as well. He also works to bring about, and we are going to take five and six together, to grant unbelievers forgiveness of sins.
[30:06] Five. Number five. And number six, to give unbelievers a place in the kingdom. The last part of verse 18. 18D.
[30:19] That they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. That is to say that by believing in Jesus Christ, they would be justified.
[30:34] To be justified is to be declared righteous. But it has two components to it. It's a legal declaration. We stand before God and we're declared justified.
[30:47] And the two sides of that are the forgiveness of sin, this infinite debt that we could not pay because of our infinite disobedience against an infinite God.
[30:59] The darkness not able to dwell with the light. We needed forgiveness of sin. There's nothing we could do in order to gain that forgiveness. forgiveness. But we have it in Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf.
[31:14] He was put forth as a propitiation, as a replacement sacrifice for us. He stood in our place. In our stead, He died. He was the only one that could accomplish this.
[31:29] That could bear the infinite wrath of God against our sins. That's one side of justification, right? The infinite debt of your sin has been dismissed if you've been declared justified.
[31:41] Now, that's not enough. You're just brought up to zero now. But we must also keep the law to be found right before God. We must be righteous before God. And so, the granting of righteousness is also part of justification.
[31:55] That Jesus came and lived a perfect life was necessary for us. He fulfilled the law that we might have His righteousness. And so, when we believe in Christ, both things are imputed to us.
[32:12] It's called double imputation. Our sin cast off onto Christ, His righteousness given to us. Wonderful verse that sums this up so well.
[32:23] 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. For our sake, God made Christ to be sin who knew no sin so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
[32:39] So, believers are granted, unbelievers are granted forgiveness. They become believers and they're given a place by righteousness in the kingdom.
[32:50] 5 and 6. So, Paul, right, Paul believed. Paul believed in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[33:02] And we see him as one character in this story responding to the truth proclaimed. He tells us of it proclaimed to him by Christ Himself.
[33:13] Right? And he responds in belief. Right? His belief which is evidenced by his obedience. What does he do?
[33:24] He immediately goes and does the thing that Christ commanded him to do. And in the same way, beloved, in our day, we can't simply say, right, when I was a child, I prayed a prayer.
[33:38] I can't with confidence when my young children say to me, I believe in Jesus, go, yay! I go, I really hope so. Let's see. Let's see.
[33:48] Is there an evidencing of your faith in Jesus Christ? Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Make your calling and election sure.
[33:59] And I don't want to make this extra complicated for you. I'm not trying to make it mystical for you. How do we ever know if we're a Christian? You obey. You find in yourself the desire to pursue holiness.
[34:14] If you find that your life is entirely bent against the commands of God, then you're not a Christian. If you come to church and you find yourself offended because you don't want to change, you may not be a Christian.
[34:30] If you find rather yourself gladly submitting yourself to the Word of God, going, God has given me good commands. I want to please Him. And I don't do so perfectly, but oh, I want to.
[34:41] Right? My sin grieves me and it grieves me the more I mature in Christ. What a wicked, horrible thing that I've been set free from sin and yet I still, like a dog, return to my vomit.
[34:55] You'll find that impulse within yourself. Make your calling and election sure. Measure it out by your obedience.
[35:05] Not that you're perfectly obedient, you hear me say, but that you are striving for obedience. This is an evidence that the Spirit of God lives within you and He's working to bring about obedience in you.
[35:17] We're caught up in our American Christian culture of decisionism. Right? It's wicked. It's deceptive. And if it's deceptive, you know who it belongs to?
[35:29] Amen. We see another character in our text today. Festus. Who thought that the gospel was absolute foolishness.
[35:42] Right? He doesn't even entertain the idea. He says to Paul in verse 24, Paul, you're out of your mind. Your great learning is driving you out of your mind.
[35:53] He saw Him as absolutely crazy. And beloved, we're going to deal with people like that in the world. That's not changed. There's no new thing under the sun.
[36:04] People are going to think that the way of Jesus is insanity. Right? These people have turned the world upside down following Christ is the world right side up.
[36:19] Take a confidence in that. What a great benefit it is that we can gather as a church and we can all look around at each other and say we're not crazy. Right? We're not alone in this world.
[36:30] Right? These fantastic stories that we believe to be true, we believe together that they're true. I'm so thankful that Christ saved me as an individual, but He saved me to a church, a people for His possession.
[36:46] I am increasingly encouraged that other people are crazy like me. Festus thinks it's absolute foolishness.
[36:57] And then Agrippa. I think Agrippa is the most sad to me because he had knowledge but not belief. And I think that many people in our day fall into this category of person, the way they respond to the gospel.
[37:13] They have knowledge. They're aware of it, but they don't believe in it. Or they say they believe in it, but they don't believe. It doesn't actually change who they are.
[37:25] Verse 26, Paul says, For the King knows about these things, and to Him I speak boldly. For I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped as noticed, for it has not been done in a corner.
[37:35] He's aware, he's informed about this way, this way of following Jesus Christ. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies, which is why he asks him, Do you believe the prophets?
[37:47] I know you believe. I know you're standing. You have to believe the prophets. And Agrippa's response to him is in such a short time, would you persuade me to be a Christian?
[37:59] It's particularly sad when people have access to knowledge of the truth, but don't place believing faith in it. On your bulletin today, there's a Spurgeon quote as I like to use.
[38:14] He said, Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal and are all the greater fools for it.
[38:26] There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool, but to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom. So, in conclusion this morning, believe the exhortation this morning to you.
[38:45] If you have not placed saving faith in Jesus Christ, find in this moment the day of your salvation. You don't need for me to lead you in a prayer.
[38:55] Cry out to God that He would save your soul. Believe that He is the only Son of God, made man in order to live a sinless life. Sacrifice on a cross for the forgiveness of your sin.
[39:07] Risen and ascended, exalted at the right hand of the Father. Open your eyes so that you may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God that you may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ.
[39:24] If you have believed in Christ for the salvation of your soul, evidence that belief by obedience heartily agree with Paul's response to Agrippa, I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am.
[39:47] Let's pray together.