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Book: Acts
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Acts 24:24,25 So Near And Yet So Far
I. Felix and his wife Drusilla.
A. Felix was the Roman governor of the province.
1. He had at one time been a slave, and the only slave in
the Roman Empire to rise to the position of governor.
2. His brother Pallas was a favorite of Nero, and through
his brothers influence Nero appointed him governor of
Judea.
3. The Roman historian Tacitus was very caustic concerning
him, and declared that "He exercised the prerogatives
of a king with the spirit of a slave.
4. At the time that Paul appeared before him he had been
the governor for five years. He was to reign as
governor for two more years until he was recalled. Had
it not been for his brother Pallas, he would have been
executed.
5. He had been married to three princesses one after
another. The name of his first wife is not known. The
second was the granddaughter of Antony and Cleopatra.
Drusilla was the grand daughter of Herod Antipas and
the daughter of Herod Agrippa the first. The Herod that
ordered the death of James the brother of John. Her
brother was Herod Agrippa the second.
6. Felix was the kind of man who ordered thugs to murder
his close allies.
B. His wife Drusilla was first married to Azizus, the King of
Emesa but Felix with the help of a magician named Atomos wooed
her away from him. Theirs was a sorted relationship at the
best.
C. They called for Paul and heard him concerning His faith in
Christ.
II. Paul reasoned with them.
A. The claims of the gospel are very reasonable.
1. Through the prophet Isaiah God said, "Come now let us
reason together."
2. A person who is living in sin is not thinking
rationally.
a. Sin is destructive, and is in the process of
destroying you.
b. "Be not deceived, God is not mocked."
1. Yet how many people are mocking God.
2. They are deceived as they think that
they are getting by with their evil.
3. Paul wrote to the Romans
ROM 2:3 Do you think that you shall escape the judgment of God?
ROM 2:4 Or do you despise the riches of his goodness and forbearance
and longsuffering; do you not realize that the goodness of God
is just giving you time to repent?
ROM 2:5 The hardness of your impenitent heart is just storing up wrath
against you that shall be revealed in the day of the righteous
judgment of God;
ROM 2:6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds:
ROM 2:7 To them who patiently continue in well doing as they seek for
glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:
ROM 2:8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but
obey unrighteousness, indignation, wrath, tribulation and anguish,
shall come upon every soul of man that doeth evil.
III. The things that Paul reasoned with them about.
A. Righteousness.
1. They were very wicked people.
2. They lived in open defiance of the law of God.
3. Felix was noted for his corruption.
4. Paul spoke to them about righteousness.
5. Righteousness is to live the right life, or do the
right thing. There is a right way to live and a wrong
way to live, the right thing to do and the wrong thing
to do.
a. In your relationship to God.
b. In your relationship to your fellow man.
6. Are you living in a right relationship with God? The
first table of the law.
a. God requires that you put Him first.
b. If He is not first in your life, they you are
living in unrighteousness.
7. Are you living in a right relationship with your fellow
man? The second table of the law.
a. God requires that you love your fellowman.
b. God requires that you do not lie to him, or
steal from him, or cheat him. That you do not
seek to seduce his wife.
c. God requires that you forgive his wrongs
against you.
d. God requires that you show mercy to him.
e. God requires that you be kind to him.
8. Felix and Drusilla were none of these things.
B. Of temperance. Moderate in indulgences of appetite or desires.
1. Self control.
2. Felix and Drusilla lived lives of debased excesses.
3. You have heard the phrase, "Living as though there were
no tomorrow."
a. That is how some people live, they never think
of the natural consequences of their abusing
their bodies.
b. They smoke and never think of the damage to
their lungs.
c. They drink and never think of the damage to
their liver.
d. They have promiscuous sex and never think of
the many sexually transmitted diseases.
e. This is not wise. Paul reasoned with them.
C. Judgment to come.
1. There is a pay day coming.
2. In Proverbs we read,
PRO 1:24 Because when I called, you refused to listen; When I stretched
out My hand, you did not regard it;
PRO 1:25 But instead you set aside all my counsel, and would you would
have nothing to do with My reproof:
PRO 1:26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when you become
terrified,
PRO 1:27 Because of the desolation which has come upon you, and
destruction which has come as a whirlwind; when you are filled
with distress and anguish.
PRO 1:28 Then you shall call upon Me, but I will not answer; you shall
seek me earnestly, but you shall not find me:
PRO 1:29 For because you hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of
the LORD:
PRO 1:30 Because you would have nothing to do with My counsel: and you
despised all my reproof.
PRO 1:31 Therefore you shall suffer the consequences of your own way, and
be caught up in your own devices.
PRO 1:32 For the turning away from Me by the simple shall slay them, and
the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
3. Tomorrow will come when you will have to pay for
yesterday.
ECC 11:9 You rejoice, young men, in your youth; and you let your heart
cheer you in the days of your youth, and you walk in the ways of
your heart, and in the sight of your eyes: but know this, that
for all these [things] God will bring you into judgment.
ECC 12:14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret
thing, whether [it be] good, or whether [it be] evil.
IV. The result of Paul's reasoning with them.
A. Felix trembled.
1. Because of the life he was living, he feared for the
future.
2. He trembled but he did not change.
3. You can have conviction of sin without repentance.
4. It is possible that at one time the Spirit so convicted
you of your sin that you trembled, but did you repent?
B. He deferred, "Go your way at this time, and at a more
convenient time I will call for you again."
1. His more convenient time never came.
2. So many making the same mistake. I want to continue a
little longer in my sin. One day I plan to change, one
day I will forsake my unrighteousness.
3. So often however it is like the rich man in the parable
of Jesus where he talked of what he planned to do for
the future, and God said, "You fool, this night your
soul will be required of you.
4. I wonder how many people are in hell today who planned
to one day at a more convenient time consider the
claims of Jesus Christ and give their lives to Him?
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