Acts chapter twenty five. And verse one, Acts twenty five and one. Now when Pestas was come into the province after three days, he ascended from Caesarea to Jerusalem. then the high priest and the chief of the Jews informed him against Paul, and besought him, and desired favor against him, that he would sin for him, that is, for Paul to Jerusalem, laying wait in the way to kill him. Those of you who were here last week will recall the plot from the part of the forty to kill Paul in chapter twenty-three. But Festus answered that all should be kept in Caesarea, and that he himself would depart shortly thither. Let them, therefore, said he, which among you are able, go down with me and accuse this man, if there be any wickedness in him. When he had carried among them more than ten days, he went down unto Caesarea. And the next day, sitting on the judgment seat, commanded Paul to be brought. When he was come, the Jews which came down from Jerusalem, stood round about and made many, and grievous complaints against Paul which they could not prove. While he answered for himself that the Apostle, Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple nor yet against Caesar, have I offended anything at all. But Pistus, willing to do the Jews a pleasure, noticed that, answered Paul, and said, Will thou go up to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these things before me? Then said, Paul, I stand at Caesar's judgment seat, where I ought to be judged. To the Jews I have I done no wrong, as thou very well knowest. But if I be no tender, or have committed anything worthy of death, in other words, if I am guilty, I refuse not to die. For if there be none of these things, whereof these accuse me, no man may deliver me unto them. I appeal unto Caesar. Then Vestas, when he hath conferred with the council, answered, Has thou appealed unto Caesar? Unto Caesar, shalt thou go. And after certain days King Agrippa and Bernice came unto Caesarea to salute Vestas. When they had been there many days, Vestas declared Paul's case unto the king, saying, There's a certain man left in bombs by Felix, about whom when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews, informed me, designed to have judgment against him, to whom I answered. It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have license to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against them. Therefore, when they were come hither, without any delay on the morrow I sat on the judgment seat and commanded the man that is Paul to be brought forth. against whom, when the accuser stood up, they brought none accusation of such thing that I suppose, but had certain questions against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead through Paul affirmed to be alive. Because I doubted of such manner of questions, I asked him whether he would go to Jerusalem, and dare be judged of these matters. But when Paul had appealed to be reserved unto the hearing of Augustus, I commanded him to be picked till I might send him to Caesar. Then Agrippa said unto Festus, I would also hear the man myself. Tomorrow, said he, thou shalt hear him. and on the morrow when Agrippa was come, and Renisi, with great pomp, and was entered into the place of hearing with the chief captains and principal men of the city, that Vestus commandment Paul was brought forth. And Vestus said, King Agrippa, with all men which are here present with us, ye see this man about whom all the multitude of the Jews have dealt with me both at Jerusalem and also here crying that he ought not to live any longer but when I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death why didn't he let him go on that he himself had appealed to Augustus I have determined to send him, of whom I have no certain thing to write unto my Lord. That is to Caesar. Wherefore I have brought him forth for you, and especially before thee, O King Agrippa, that after examination had I might have somewhat to write. For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner. are not with all to signify the crimes laid against him. Ever since the beginning, right from the time of the entrance of sin, you have the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent mentioned, simply meaning the conflict began then between God and storm has raged ever since. Sometimes there have been periods of calm and apparent quiet, only for that storm to break out to become more fierce and more devastating than ever. You find it all through history, and here you have it in the book of the Acts, and also if you read through church history, the dark ages, again you have these mock trials, these pride judges, these prejudiced jurors and false accusations, and these men who would lie in giving their witness, these ungodly kings and emperors and popes, trying to persecute and to exterminate God's people. And that battle is raging right today. We hear about a measure of peace and religious liberty behind the Iron Curtain. I heard a tweet on my recent trip north. I was given by a man who had been behind the Iron Curtain, trying to get Bibles to Christians, and he visited a lot of Christians little groups of Christians meeting at old. And he says, don't let anyone tell you there is religious liberty in Russia. That's a lot of propaganda. He said, there's one big Baptist church in Moscow that is allowed a measure of liberty, but that's just for propaganda purposes. He says, right today, real Christians are being persecuted. and undergoing all kinds of suffering, some are being put to death for no other offense than that they believe the Bible. And this is going on all over the world, and I'm going to tell you the temple is stepping up as the last days are at once. So what you have here before you in chapter twenty-four and chapter five, you have a trial arranged. And as you read into it, you can only see the hypocrisy existing in these trials. We were noticing this morning some things in chapter four about the Apostle Paul, and his character, his remarkable character, this little man. But that's all he was, a little man. He wasn't a strong man. He had to have a physician traveling with him, Luke double-out physician. He was a man that had poor eyesight for him. And yet this little man was so full of character, partly character, that he withstood all the opposition that was directed against him. He wasn't afraid to stand up to the kings and to the governors. And so you see his character manifested in this courtesy. We notice that, I think, this morning. And also in this cheerfulness in chapter twenty-four, I most cheerfully speak before you or address you as he stood before Felix. I answer cheerfully for myself. makes you wonder how he could be cheerful in such a circumstances. This, knowing the whole thing was more or less rigged against him, then you see his tender, his steadfastness, and his conviction. The Apostle Paul had conviction, and he wouldn't deviate one iota from his conviction. And he had his confidence. The Apostle Paul had plenty of confidence. a man of confidence, and also a man who was conscientious, conscientious man, and a man of courage. These were characteristics of the Apostle Paul. Where did Paul get this character from? The right source of this character is God himself. For these attributes, these characteristics belong to God. Where is the standard for this character, your Bible. Where is the substance of this character? The Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ in you. That's the substance. And where do you get the strength of this character in Paul's constant faithful witnessing for Jesus Christ? And what's the secret of faith? Not faithing feeling, but faith. And today, as I listen to the tape about these Christians behind the Iron Curtain, and their suffering for Christ's sake, oh, the character of those men and women and young people. Character. Many of characters. Yes, there are many today, undoubtedly. Character similar to Daniel. and the three Hebrew children. They're not getting the publicity of God. But there is that character to stand for God. Do we not meet that today, young people in our educational institutions, in their colleges, and with these atheistic professors trying to ridicule the Bible and teach evolution and everything else? takes young men and young women with character to stand up and take their stand for Christ and speak out for their convictions. There no dead fish can swim or float with the stream, but it takes a live one to stand against the current of today. And so you see that manifested, demonstrated in the Apostle Paul. Paul's remarkable character, evidence manifested in chapter twenty four as we were speaking this morning, and again now in chapter twenty five. Can you have another conspiracy? I couldn't help in thinking, as I was reading this chapter before coming to the meeting, of verse one of chapter twenty four. And after five days, Ananias, the high priest, descended. I underline that word, descended. Because this man, occupying, as he did, a predominant place in connection with the nation of Israel, I'm not talking about his physical descent here, I'm talking about his moral. Decree, descent, he came down off his high officers, God's representative, down to the low level of these men, these corrupt men and women, with whom he was part-nobbing and using, trying to have the Apostle Paul put to death. What had he said, what had come down for the high breach of Israel? You notice this evil man, He's trying to make this conspiracy against Paul, his special interest. That's quite evident. You'll read these two chapters we've been reading together. He's taking advantage on this occasion of a change of governance. First of all, he was before Pestus, or rather Phoenix. Now he's before Pestus in chapter twenty-five. to have Paul condemned before Felix. Now that Pestas has come in and is in the place of the judge, the high priest is going to use Pestas. But of course, later on, if he could, Agrippa, he's trying to bring about the death, the assassination of the Apostle Paul. And one of his first tricks was very similar to what we noticed last week. We want you to have the Apostle Paul brought down from Caesarea to Jerusalem. Did he not ask the same request lastly when forty men were to be in wait and ambush and kill the Apostle? But the Romans overruled that. Now again Festus comes into the power of the governor or the judge. and the high priest tries it again. Won't you have Paul brought down to Jerusalem? Why? He says himself, we want to kill him. We want to kill him. Showing the hatred in this high priesthood is this man who held such a high ecclesiastical heart. He was like a savage beast upon a chain deprived or prevented from reaching the object of his mass. You've seen wild beasts on a chain. I've seen some vicious dogs on a chain. They can go so far that they're held in check. They don't reach the object of their piercings. Thank God that God lengthened the chain of this man. He could only go so far it is hatred of the Apostle Paul. All this hatred was Satan's hatred and bitterness toward the gospel of the grace of God than the one man who was propagating that gospel and preaching it throughout all the then old world. I went to the trouble the day before yesterday to look up some things relative to the characters that you have at these trials in chapter four and chapter twenty chapter twenty five we noticed this morning how felix he wooed rusella rusella had been married at the age of fifteen to our first husband along comes felix as he wooed her away from her first husband and factually forces her to live with him. Then along comes Agrippa. Agrippa is the herod you find in chapter twelve who killed Jay through the sword and then was eaten of worms. So along comes this man Agrippa and he happened to be brother-in-law to Felix and had come to Caesarea to greet Festus, the new governor. Grace wife of Agrippa was the sister of Pesta. So you see how it's all tied in, kind of a family affair. On the life of Agrippa, Bernice was a scandal of that time. Here you have these various characters. Bernice had forsaken her husband, not only had Lucilla been taken away from her first husband, via Agrippa, but the Ebenees had forsaken her first husband in order to live with her good. Now, if you want to see a little of this kind of thing that was going on back in the then-known world, just read the eleventh chapter of Daniel. And it also prefigures the last days. We don't have to wait for the last days. Talk about sin in high places. This Christ, were divorced and remanded and divorced a lot of wicked, corrupt, perverted individuals, these governors and their wives, these judges and their wives, and the high priests which trying its best to use this low-down, perverted crime to do what? Kill the Apostle Paul. That was a holy sick that could have been the one behind the scenes trying to bring this of us. I was thinking as I glance through the paper today, after reading this, about the political, the moral, and the religious corruption that's in the world today. And I happen to read Gray's editorial. I try and read it about every day, but always not a Christian. He is a smart man, and he begins to think and receive and observe the trend of things. And this is what he said. One word of truth shall outweigh the world. Of course, we differ in that one word. If he said that one word of truth, this Christ, I'd agree with him, but he didn't say that. But this is what he said in part of his article. Universally, not alone in this blessed land, moral decay, the deterioration of faith, the sundering of families, spread like a curse across the base of the planet. Devils are crawling across the whole world in front of our very eyes, investing countries where they could not have been dreamed of. That was in Gray's editorial. Just think of the state of things in this world. In our government, send in high places. Oh, yes, he's talking about these devils. creeping upon the earth. On these devils, on the last days, there will be plenty of doctrines of demons or devils, and the attack of all these demons, working through man-high places, to government officials, and to ecclesiastical personalities. The object of all at all is Christ. and the gospel of the grace of God. Satan knows he hath for a short time. Satan knows God's plan, that God's going to set up his kingdom here upon earth, and Jesus Christ is Lord, the rain. Satan says, no, I'm going to rain. That's why he's going to enter into the beast. That's why the beast is going to try and exterminate the Jewish nation. And things are moving and concentrating in that area today. The papers are amazing in this line of things. Scriptures being fulfilled. And the end time is upon us. There's no question about that. And Satan knows his day is coming, but he's going to try his very best to avoid that day. He'll meet his Waterloo at the Battle of Armageddon. When his earthly truths, the beast and the antichrist shall be cast into the lake of fire, then God will set up his kingdom, his son shall reign. And Satan doesn't want that. saying wants to reign through his man, but his man's going to be the treason. He'll try again at the end of the millennium, only to come to his final and eternal doom. When the dragons shall be cast into the lake where it burns the fire of crimson, where the beast and the false prophet are. Yes, the beast and the false prophet are going to be cast into the lake of fire before the millennium. and at the end of the millennium this language is used when the dragon is cast in where the beast and the false prophet not where they are present yet they're still there showing how God will see to it the way it shall be cast in their places of eternal punishment unlike the sun the full of flame out in the sky, ninety-three million miles away, been burning for millions and millions of years, and still burns. If it operated off oil or gas, if it long ago, have gone out. But there's a power that's keeping that burning, that sun burning blazing, spouting out its grimly snow, its waves of fire for three million miles. Yes, and God will see two of the sinner is preserved in that week with Barnabas with part of them still, which is the second day. So you see what's going on in our high places today. Is it any wonder the Apostle Paul on two occasions refers to his clear conscience. He said, I have a conscience. board of offense toward God and toward man. Why did he say that at these court trials? I think we might have touched on this this morning. He could look at that man, Felix, and his wife, Drusilla, were living in sin. Paul could say, I have a conscience, Lord of offense toward God and toward man. He could say the same before the next governor. Restedly, he could say the same before the next governor, Agnippa and Bernice, who also were living in sin in their lives of scanty. Paul says, I have our conscience clear before God and before men. and you but she could have said this every one of you are so guilty you're guilty you don't have a clear conscience before god neither before man and you're trying to touch me and i challenge you to prove one of your arguments two or three times he challenged them prove your point prove your point they couldn't do So we find on this occasion how God, you'd wonder how the Apostle Paul stood at chance, but here you have God overruling and delivering his servant out of the crutches of these men who acted like ferocious beasts. What chance did he have? All the chance in the world because God that's the only chance God's people have today we're not passing through anything comparable to what the Apostle Paul passed through finally he pulled me up this week once in a while she comes out to the chapel but this week something happened that could prove quite serious when I said to her well in times like these I said, you have to look to the Lord and trust in him. He said, I think he's let me down. I could have said if I wanted to be hard, how many times have you let us go down when Sunday morning has come and you've gone off, not giving a puff about coming, listening to his word. Sunday after Sunday, week after week, month after month, and year after year, when the sun is shone, everything's gone well. God's been out of your thoughts. And now when a cloud comes into your sky, God has let you die. Why don't you think about the times you let God die? I didn't say that. I didn't want to stab the wound and make it hurt any more than it was being hurt at the moment. but that's the attitude of people today when everything's going well. Oh yeah, God is not in all their thoughts. But then as soon as something happens, then they want to call upon God and if he doesn't come running to the raid, oh, he's left it out. He's left it out. He's left it out. Sad in that the human heart is so constituted The Apostle Paul was able to stand to these men and remind them he had a clear conscience before God and before men. Someone has said this in summarizing this chapter, I don't know who it was. He said, this scene is likened to first of all a drawing room of worldly glory. He's referring to the assembled nobility on this occasion, Felix and his wife, the Creed, so-called, Festus, Anaclitma, and Bernice. And here we see seated that some of the chief men of the city, it says, were there. He said it's like a drawing room of worldly glory. But he also said that this scene is like a lecture room of holy doctrine. Why did he say that? Because of the truth the Apostle Paul presented at this trial. And as we mentioned this morning, Paul emphasized these three things. Righteousness, difference, judgment to come. I tell you, he really laid it on the line to a cripple. Ah, that's Stockholm. Ah, yes, Sir Gipper. What about, or Felix, what about your unrighteous light morally? Your political unrighteousness. What about your intemperate? You're an intemperate man. You have no control over your passions. unless you get to know good righteousness unless you get control over your passions and know something of the temperance the Spirit of God gives the self-control the Spirit of God gives for that's one of the truth of the Spirit in Acts five unless you get to know this is the judgment that comes and Paul's defense his message on this occasion turned that drawing-room of worldly glory into a lecture-room of holy doctrine. Because that crowd heard enough truth to say the word that the world believed. And thirdly, that little room, that Judgment Hall, was turned into a Judgment Hall of Divine Majesty. because Felix trembled Felix trembled he was she he shook and he says when I have a more convenient season I'll call for you we stop there this morning we'll not continue there tonight maybe when we take up chapter twenty six we'll have occasion to refer to it previously he tried to dodge the issue when he says well the chief captain's not here we're just postponing then he asked for a special interview with the apostle paul between he and his wife and it was then that paul laid the issue on the line and he says well it's not convenient for me to settle that right now when i have a more convenient season i'll call That's the way that interview ended. There are five noticeable things in these texts, and I'm not going to read them, I'm just going to go over them. First of all, there was a sense of fair play in connection with the judge. Rome was just in some respects not to have a prisoner put to death unless the accusers were there and that he was hurt. His own testimony was given, and the evidence was to be weighed. But these men were men of such unrighteousness, spineless characters. Twice on two occasions they did something just to please the Jews. In order to do the Jews of pleasure, he left all bound, feeling to. Imagine that. he admitted himself he had no case against it. How can I send this man to Caesar? I have nothing to write about. I heard the cases of his opposition. With all this, I don't see this man has done anything worthy of death. I have nothing to write Caesar about. It seems unreasonable. Well, if that were true, Why did he leave Paul down? Yet he did. He left Paul down. But I'll tell you one thing. Paul may, Paul's body, Paul's body may have been bound, but his spirit was bound. Paul's spirit was free. I'll tell you whose spirit was bound, it was created. Yes. the spirit. Their spirits were bound, bound by sin and by sin. Oh, yes, their bodies might have been briefed. They were a power of authority. They could move around as they pleased. For Paul, his body was bound, he said. But Paul was far happier, more wealthy, more content, far better off than his body changed. but his soul free to enjoy the presence of his God, that they had a body that was at liberty, and a soul that was chained by sin and by sin. So you have, first of all, a little sense of some justice in the trial, because the king could have delivered all to be killed right there and then. But God had a purpose. God wants Paul to go and lift us before Caesar, which he did. And God wants some of his word written, some of the epistles that Paul didn't write till he got to Rome, where he spent two years. So God has his purpose. But still, you see, a little justice but a lot of of the Apostle Paul. You also find here that in verses eighteen and twenty, Festus owns up a little of his ignorance of the matter that was under dispute. Verse eighteen and twenty, and it says again, whom when the Achilles stood up, they brought none accusation of such things as I suppose, but if certain Christians against him fall of their own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive. In other words, Festus was almost admitting, I don't understand the situation. I'm not capable, I'm not qualified to make a decision in this matter. So what are their own religious superstitions, and I'm not very well alerted in that field. he admitted a measure of ignorance but he also was a little you might say sarcastic about this whole thing a little contempt of one gene whom paul claimed to be alive that was a slur almost an expression of contempt this paul he's teaching one Jesus. He claims he's alive, but I don't want to go about that. Well, Felix, I've got no, best as I've got news for you. That Jesus is not, and he's your creator. He can be your redeemer. And if you reject him as such, he'll be your judge. And that's true for every unsaved person. Jesus Christ is, Allah. There's also a measure of curiosity here, too, in verse twenty-two. And Agrippa said unto Festus, I would also hear the man myself. Tomorrow, said he, thou shalt hear. And so Agrippa, he got a little curious. I'd like to meet this man, Paul. I've heard something about him. Now you've informed me about him. He's going to Caesar. I'd like to give a man's testimony. He was a little curious. But it didn't lead to Festus getting saved. Not like the curiosity of one in the nineteenth of Luke, Zacchaeus. His curiosity led him to up a tree. You might get a look at this man, Jesus, who was coming. He was going to pass through Chedigo. Zacchaeus' curiosity led him up a tree, but the grace of God brought him down and saved him. But here, this curiosity of Festus didn't result in any blessing like that. And then again you have in verse twenty-three, the great pomp. And on the morrow, when Agrippa was come and Bernice with great pomp, and was entered into the palace of Geary, with the chief captains, the principal men of the city, at Vestas' commandment, all was brought forth. The great pomp, that great pomp, after a little while, turned out to be just a pile of ashes. dust, the dust. That ended all earthly pomp. Where was he, see, the end of earthly pomp and glory here in the death of Felix, Lucilla, Pestus, Agrippa, and Verdece. The testimony of the little man that we're trying to put to death lives on. I will live on forever. It shows you, doesn't it? Who to live for in this land? Why are these characters undoubtedly are weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth in a lost eternity? The little man, they judge, condemn unlawfully, in glory. And it says that Paul stood before Felix. I rather would turn it the other way. Felix stood before Paul. For Paul was the greater of the two. Not a case of poor Paul standing before great Felix. Though it was poor Felix standing before great Paul. That's the way God sees it. You know, the Christless can't seem to understand the Christian. They like he couldn't understand this man, willing to suffer so much, willing to endure so much, for someone that he claims is alive but couldn't see. and he is willing to pass through all this persecution and suffering and even death and glory in it the unsaved don't understand it they can't explain it there was a jew or not a jew and a italian working in railroad shops where i used to work before i came south and uh... we were talking one day And someone had died suddenly in the railroad shop where we worked together, and, oh, Joe was quite disturbed about it. Oh, he said, that's awful. That's awful. It was a man who was beating a lot of those big girders away up at the top of that railroad shop where a big crane, two hundred pound, two hundred ton capacity, cranes to carry those big local motors. And he was up above that, painting all this steelwork, crossword. And he lost his footing. And he came down. He bounced on the top of a great boiler, and then on the floor he was killed instantly. Joe and I were talking. A lot of men saw happens. Well, I said, Joe, you know, it's wonderful to be a Christian. What do you mean? I can't. Yeah, I said, but you know, if you're a real Christian, to die is to be with Christ. And I said, if I were to die now, the Bible says I'd be absent from the body, risen with the Lord, which is very far better. He said, why don't you kill yourself? It was going to be very far better. Well, I said, Joe, God has left me here for a purpose. That is, the witness, the management of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's the Apostle Paul. He seems to be getting the worst of it here, but no. He was getting the best of it. One who lives in fellowship with God can sense his will much more quickly in a crisis than one who lives at a distance. Was this a sudden decision Paul made? I appealed to Caesar. Sometimes in a crisis, when the pressure is bearing down, a person has to make a decision. Many times it's a wrong one. But one living He made a decision in a crisis. He said, I have been deceived. And under Caesar, he went. But God took him across the Mediterranean, as we have in chapter twenty-seven. And he appealed, and appeared before. That was a right decision. He made it in a crisis, because the Apostle Paul was living. post proximity to the Lord, and not at a distance. So you have, on this occasion, you have the conspiracy, you have also the consultation, a recritulation of more or less what you had in chapter twenty-four this morning, very much similar in chapter twenty-five before Festus, then you have the conclusion with this reclose this was our title for tonight's subject amid all the sin in spite of man God overrules and works his plan three things are clear in connection with the Apostle Paul in these trials before these judges that's it first of all his fellowship with his master. Second, his faithfulness to the will of God. And third, his faith in God himself. What he says later on in Second Timothy one, two, I know who I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that. And I trust these little lessons on the Apostle will stir our hearts and give us strength and courage to live as he lives. For he's gone through his blessed reward. The reward waits you and me too, who are faithful in this hour day, as he was. And to you who are not saved tonight, you don't now know Christ. You're living for this poor, poor empty, ungodly world. Only this week, you like we saw on the television the news, how Rome is crumbling, the great Colosseum and all those huge buildings that Rome said when these were built, this is the eternal city where this tumble, the world will crumble. Yes. And this week it said that the eternal city is crumbling. And how true the world is crumbling at that time. Indeed, we're upon. Are you ready for the coming of Christ? Morality and human goodness may keep you out of jail. But let me tell you only the blood of Christ will keep you out of jail. Will you trust the blood of Christ? Will you trust the one who shed it? The Lord Jesus Christ, will you trust them now? I trust you will. Shall we? Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus, we commend to thy presence. We ask thy blessing upon thy word. We thank thee for it. How we bow our heads. in shame when we think of the Apostle Paul, what he was willing to suffer for his Lord. He counted everything of earth but dross that he might gain Christ, to be found in him not having his own righteousness, but the righteousness which is of God by faith. O Father, we thank thee for the example he sets before us. May we profit. from this example, what thy word declares concerning him. Bless thy words when he unsaved and repressed, O the poor sinners, might open their heart and receive Christ, before their curtain of time falls, upon this poor ungodly