And he was just getting out of college.
And so I know he looks really old, but he's not that old,
honestly. But I'm kidding, I'm kidding.
But I got into college and of course he was still on staff
there and, and we worked on the same bus route and some of the
same ministries. And then I graduated college and
worked for him for a year in the school there.
And then that's when I met my wife and she was a whole lot
prettier than he was. So I decided to, to go with her
instead of him and move down here to Virginia and became an
assistant pastor. But they in 2012 went down to
Belize and started a church down there as missionaries.
And of course, most of you know that that's the that's the
church that we are working with right now to establish a
missions hub down there in Belize and some amazing things
that things that God's doing with that.
But then God called them back in 2018-2019 to start a church in
Idaho. And I remember talking at the
time he said, I have no idea why God's calling us away from here.
I wanted to stay here for the rest of my life and start
churches in Belize. But God start called them to
Idaho and they were there for about 6 or 7 years.
I think they just had the 7th anniversary of the church and
turned that church over to his son.
And now they're going to Chicago to start churches in Chicago.
And boy, if there's any place that needs churches, it's
Chicago and some of the inner city areas.
And so they are, they're on deputation, they're raising some
support to, to start that church there in Chicago.
But I, I would get him to come anyway, whether he was on
deputation or not. And actually that's what he's
going to be doing tonight. He's talking to us a little bit
about that, that what, what God's called them to do in, in
Chicago there. But I'm glad he's here.
I'm glad he's my friend. Pastor Whitaker, if you come,
preach for us. It's really good to be here
again. And I enjoyed the presentation
on the history of the church and I preached for the church one
time when you were in the hotel and then preached here, I think
a year ago. And seems like there's been
other times I've been out here, but I don't remember.
But we've been friends. Friend.
The word friend is thrown around a lot too many times without
meaning. And but we've been friends,
sincere friends for for many, many years and I'm very
grateful. I'm also very stirred today
about the music. I've never seen such a small
choir produce such a great sound.
I told the preacher, you better get a a recording made of this
so I can listen to it when I drive down the road.
And anyway, I said about the young kids when they sang, I was
listening to him practice and I told pastor, can we have them
come to Chicago and sing just on our grand opening, You know, and
we can act like we have something, but don't overlook
what you have here. You have something really
special happening. So and then I heard the Misses
Sears speak. And I really want you to come
with us to Chicago. 6% approval rating right now for Brandon
Johnson. You could make it.
I hope you're going to spend time in prayer for her as she
takes on this awesome responsibility and the victory
that we know we need. We know that God, every time God
puts godly people in charge, it is his mercy upon a country that
has turned their back on God. And so we need this.
We need something done here. And really, Chicago is very
similar. We'd like to see as Chicago
goes, it leads a lot of the country in the wrong direction
normally and we'd like to see God do something.
But you know, there's a lot of people look toward Virginia and
you have a, when you went through the difficulties with
that transgender fella getting in the in the in the bathrooms
of the girls in the school, the rest of the country was
watching. And So what we do here and what
you're about to do and you can make an impact on a lot of
people in Virginia and around the region and certainly around
the entire United States. I want you to find in your
Bible. If you don't have one, there
should be a Bible nearby to the book of Acts.
Now the gospels begin the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke
and John, and then we have this book of Acts.
And when I was a little kid, I thought, well, that must mean
like an axe you chop a tree with wasn't too.
I wasn't too bright of a young kid.
Of course it means actions, actions.
It's it's it's full titles the actions of the apostles, the
Acts of the Apostles and what God did with these men who in
fear were gathered together after Jesus was crucified and he
rose again and then in fear they gathered together after his
ascension until the Spirit of God came down in chapter 2.
And from there the gospel went throughout all of the known
world of their time in preparation to spread throughout
the entire world. We'll never understand.
I don't think and exhaust its great words of this book.
I I love to read books. I'm reading through it.
My goal is to read it at least 10 times in a row.
I'm on number 7, and I've been just thrilled at what God has
done in this book. It's fascinating.
The entire Bible is a fascinating book.
I hope to get that across today. Go with me to chapter 26.
Chapter 26. We're going to take our text
from verse #2728 and 29 of chapter 26, Acts chapter 26.
I had requested that we would sing that song, almost
persuaded, in preparation of this message.
Verse #27 of chapter 26. King Agrippa, believeth thou the
prophets? I know that thou believest.
Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost Thou persuadest me to be
a Christian. That's pretty sad words right
there. They're amazing words though,
that one of the greatest leaders of their region would come to
the place where they were just about ready to fall before on
their face before the sovereign God of heaven.
I wish some of our leaders would do the same, but Paul's response
is our response in verse 29. He said I would to God that not
only thou, but also all that, hear me.
He said, I want everyone to hear this.
Hear me, this day we're both almost and all together, such as
I am, except these bonds. He was in prison.
He was a prisoner appearing before them.
Let's have word of prayer and we'll bring some thoughts out of
this passage today. Heavenly Father, I pray again
that you would work and do a work here in the message.
Use this time together Lord, with your Holy Spirit's blessing
and power to do what we cannot do.
Please bless this Lord in Jesus name I pray Amen.
We as we examine the narrative of this passage, which begins
with Paul be getting arrested in chapter 21 and.
He concludes. The book all the way to chapter
28 and he ends the book as a prisoner.
We believe in history and judging from the pastoral
epistles and the later ones that he wrote, that he was able to
get out of prison and to actually have another missionary
journey that took him apparently through Spain.
And then what we have a record of him visiting then was called
Londonium even all the way through the conquered kingdoms
of the Roman Empire and the gospel spreading where he went.
And then he's gathered and betrayed by Alexander the
coppersmith and looks like intro as carried back to Rome.
And there he's kept in the Mammoth Time prison, which was a
little cave dug there in one of the hills of Mammoth Time Hill
next to the Palatine hill where they had started that as a
cistern. So in this.
Damp. Dungeon.
The Apostle gathers his pen and ink and pens the last of his
books, specifically Second Timothy, and he finishes his
course. And Nero, in his craziness
decides in his persecution to get rid of this troublemaker and
beheads the apostle Paul. It doesn't end his message
because it wasn't his message, it was God's message.
His message then is carried throughout all of the world and
even today through the efforts of God's people.
This narrative is part of that traveling from where he was
arrested in Jerusalem and he's carried up north and in Israel
still in a place called Caesarea by the sea.
It was the capital of the Roman capital as a as as Israel as a.
Client Kingdom under the. The the umbrella of Rome.
And they? Ruled from this seaport city of
Caesarea by the sea. And in our story we have several
people that come together. The ruler of this area, known as
a governor of kind of of sorts, is a man named Festus.
He is Portius Festus, the Roman governor of Judea, and he's the
one that arranged for a visiting king of the next areas.
Several of those areas, one of the descendants of King Herod
the Great. Actually, he's a great grandson.
But he is a Roman. Peer creator.
He's a just a ruler. He has come to this office
recently. Having taken the place of a man
named Felix, Felix is a freed slave.
Freed I I don't remember. I didn't look it up, but if my
memory serves me by the Emperor Tiberius freed Felix and then
put him into power. And Felix?
Is actually married to a lady named Drusilla, who is a sister
to King Agrippa. And so this is kind of like a
very tight knit. Group of people.
And we get into the. Herod's man, King Agrippa, is
part of the Herodian dynasty. His great grandfather was Herod
the Great. He's the one you read about in
the story of Christ's first coming being born.
And he's the he's the ruler of all of Israel.
He's taken the title of king from the Roman emperor.
Then it would have been Tiberius.
And so he gets this opportunity to try to eradicate the coming
Messiah and. Kills all the babies.
In Bethlehem, that's the same that you're thinking of.
And then it was his great, his son at Herod Antipas.
That is a problem. He is stolen his brother
Philip's wife and and he is preached.
At by John the Baptist. And you read.
About that in the. Gospels where John the Baptist
is then beheaded by by this King Herod, and that's King Antipas,
named I think after his grandfather Antipater and then
we. Have.
Really. What is a nephew?
King Agrippa? In history we call him King
Agrippa the First and he is the one that in Acts chapter 12.
We find him killing James. The brother of John.
I mean, this is a bad family. I mean, this is this is no, no
play. You know, this is out for blood.
It is. It is worse than you think.
I mean, Herod the Great actually kills his wife Miriam and his
own son Aristobulus and his brother Alexander, all killed by
Herod the Great. And Aristobolus is, is Agrippa's
father. This is the kind of heritage
that these people have. The man that's in our.
Place here is is king. Agrippa, the second in history
and he is the then the great grandson, the son of King
Agrippa, probably that Agrippa name borrowed from named after
Marcus Agrippa, the great general who is the general who
wins all of the fights that Octavius is involved.
Octavius is not a general like his grandfather, his grand uncle
Julius Caesar. Octavius is the Caesar Augustus
of Luke chapter 2. They say what is this all about?
I want you to know who we're speaking about for good reasons.
This is historically fits perfectly in the setting of
secular history. We have Nero in the capital of
Rome, and he is followed the Claudius Caesar, who took over a
bankrupt country or empire from Caligula, who took over and
inherited that from Tiberius, a dirty old man who took over from
Octavius Caesar, who's Augustus Caesar, whose battles had won it
from Julius Caesar. What a history.
And here is Christianity. And one of the.
Darkest times of all of history, one of the greatest nations, one
of the greatest empires of the world, but an empire filled with
all sorts of garbage and sin and indefinitely a full of false
worship and world, a world that had totally turned its back on
God and. The only hint of true.
Worship was among the Jewish. People and they had added.
Their. Works and replaced the faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, the faith of old.
Time is where it says in Hebrews by.
Faith Enoch, and by faith Abraham, and by faith all of
these people. And then they replaced it by by
works by works by works. Instead of faith, ours all.
That you have to do to try to be good enough to get into.
God's presence never giving you the assurance, and it was never
intended by God himself. Breaking the silence.
Of 400 years of prophetic silence, the angels announced to
the shepherds the coming of the Messiah.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David.
The entire nation knew when the shepherds heard that after they
went and saw the child, they went and spread abroad all of
these. Sayings that it was known
everywhere then. Herod kills the babies in
Bethlehem, and having been warned, they go down into Egypt.
They come out back out of. Egypt, just as Herod has died,
and it is a sordid history. Christianity was not born in a
country like America founded on biblical principles.
It was born in dark times. Jesus has his ministry.
He does all that he does. He's crucified bears.
Our sins upon the cross. Rises again the third day.
And then sends his disciples who become apostles, sends them.
Away really to all the world to preach the gospel.
Paul is one of those apostles, not from the very beginning, but
in Acts Chapter 9 he comes to the Lord and has the Lord.
Appear unto him, and he becomes. One that is sent.
That's what the word apostle means.
It's a Greek word apostolos. It means to be sent.
You had the Lord's. Apostles and then you had Others
like Barnabas and Silas are called apostles, but they are
those that are sent by the. Church of Antioch at the time
ones that are sent. But here is this king.
He is pretty proud of himself. If you back up in the text, he
comes in and enters into. That area.
As it tells us with great pomp in the previous chapter, and he
comes in, it says with great pomp they came together.
And you know what it means is. He carried trumpet players.
And because trumpet, I play the trumpet, there's there's in an
orchestra, I hate to tell you this, but there are trumpets and
then there's accompaniment and, and we're.
We're glad you show. Up for us?
But he must. Have carried trumpet players.
That announced and his coming into the presence of.
This assembly together. For the purpose of hearing this
guy. That has caused all these
problems in Jerusalem. The entire city of Jerusalem is
in an uproar because of Paul and.
There are more than 40 people that have taken on them an oath
that they're not going to eat or drink until they've killed Paul.
That's a serious problem. Some time goes by and some years
actually, they had to break that oath, but they still want
they're out for his blood. And here's this King Agrippa.
He. Comes and there's an amazing
thing that happens, something that shouldn't happen to any of
the Herodian line. He is convinced of the truth of
God's Word. He comes to the place where.
When he is the invitation time of the message.
Was given. He's standing there.
You know, I know it's not a typical church service.
But if it were, if it. Were like in our day, we'd have
the piano playing a hymn of invitation and everybody
standing quietly with their heads bowed and their eyes
closed like we will at the end of the service and inviting
those that need to know about salvation and to receive Christ.
And he's standing there with one foot in the aisle saying, man,
everything in me believes this. I want this and there's there's
something to this and. Maybe there's some here?
That will by the. End of the service, you'll come
to that very point. It's an amazing thing.
Because he comes to that very point and then turns back.
What's amazing about that is he comes to the very brink of being
a child of God, having his sins washed away and knowing that
when he died, he would go to heaven for eternity.
And he gives all of that up for this earthly gain of what people
think about him and other things.
And he ends up spending his entire eternity.
In a burning fire of hell. And that's true about anybody
who rejects the Lord Jesus Christ.
What brought him to that place where he came so close?
I know we've had a lot of going on in this service and you've
been here a little while, but I'm going to point out just
three quick things that brought him to there and a couple things
I saw that drew him back. The first thing we.
See that brought him to this is the testimony of God's.
Word. It says here in our text, when
Paul was bringing him to that point, he said, King Agrippa,
believe us, thou the prophets, I know that thou believe us.
Then we know what he says. I've almost been persuaded.
Hey, my heart, my mind wants to believe this.
The prophecies of the Bible are an amazing group of scriptures.
It is a. It is a reference.
Of this that Paul is doing in his.
Sermon that he preaches if you go.
Back just as an example. In verse 22. 26. 22 Having
therefore obtained help of God, I continue to this day
witnessing both to the small and great, saying none other things,
and those which the prophets and Moses did say should come, that
Christ should suffer. That he should be the first that
should rise from the dead. And should show the light unto
the people and to the Gentiles. So Paul is in his sermon as
Peter does. In the in all of.
His preaching in the book of Acts, and he goes back to the
Old Testament and says the Old Testament predicted the coming
of the Messiah, and when the Messiah comes, this is what he's
going to do. And there are hundreds of very,
very important specific prophecies that are all
fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ.
In fact, when you go into the Old Testament prophets hundreds
of years. Now if you put a year to it,
like the Psalms were written by David.
David lived about 1000 BC and so 1000 years the Psalms are
scattered. But even before that, the book
of Genesis speaks about the coming of the Lord.
The seed of the woman would be there in Genesis chapter 3.
But then in Genesis chapter 5, we have the entrance of the
Gentiles dwelling in the tents of Japheth would dwell in the
chance of Shem. And we have in chapter 22 that
God said, I will provide myself a lamb.
And in chapter 48, Jacob tells his sons, hey, Judah is going to
be the lawgiver, the ruler until Shiloh, meaning peace until
Jesus would come. And all in the book of Genesis
and then throughout every single passage of Scripture is pointing
here comes the Messiah. And when Jesus came, he didn't
miss. One of those prophecies he was.
Born in Bethlehem of effort to like Micah 52 says he was born
of a virgin. Like Isaiah Chapter 7 tells us
He was given every single title given in Isaiah Chapter 9 and
the government was upon his shoulder.
It was him that fulfilled all things.
In fact, so many things were fulfilled in Jesus Christ by
those who didn't believe the Bible.
I mean, when he's hanging upon the cross, the fact that he
would be crucified is from Psalm 22.
The fact that he would be on the cross and against their normal
custom, they didn't break his bones.
I mean, those Roman soldiers now, Roman soldiers, they don't
care a lick about the Old Testament.
They don't know anything from the Old Testament prize
passages. They had no idea what they were
doing. But yet when they went to the
cross, Jesus in the middle, a thief on this side and a thief
over here on this side, and they broke the legs of this man
because he may not be dead, see? And if you let him down off the
cross, maybe he'll leave. So we want to finish the job.
So we're going to break his legs.
Isn't that gruesome? You see, the cross was.
Designed to be one of the worst kinds of death possible.
And when the Lord talked about that in Psalm 22, when it was
recorded as prophecy, crucifixion had not even been
invented. That's how amazing the Bible.
Is. And they, they broke this man's
legs. And then they skipped Jesus and
they broke this guy's legs and then they went back to Jesus and
here's this Roman soldier saying, I think.
He's dead already. Do you think he's dead?
I think he's dead. Already and they poke at him
with their spear. Is he dead?
Yeah, he looks. Dead.
Hey, don't worry about breaking his bones, the other guy said.
Well let's make sure. And he picks up his spear and
they Pierce the side. By doing so, they fulfilled the
prophecies about not one bone would.
Be broken and the prophecy you can, you will.
Look on him whom you have pierced.
I mean, these prophecies are so specific that nobody else could
accidentally have fulfilled these prophecies.
No charlatan could have arranged this thing.
No, no Roman soldier in this kind of specificity could have
been paid off to accomplish. These things.
We're dealing here with the very specific nature of Old Testament
prophecy from a Scripture that's been inspired by God, preserved
by God, empowered by God. And when you read it, it's not a
dead word. It's alive and powerful.
And the Bible speaks about not just today how to live, but
about your future and eternity. And when this man came under the
knowledge of God's Word, the Spirit of God spoke to him.
And in spite of being the leader among a very wicked class of
people, he says, I believe he. Came right to the very door of
eternal life because of the testimony of scriptures.
Second thing. We see is that he came because
of the. Testimony of the Saint we notice
in this passage. Go back if.
You will in chapter 26 and go up a little ways up to verse
number. I think you'd have to read
maybe? Verse 9, Verse 9.
Go to verse 9. We'll read just a little.
Bit of this narrative I barely thought.
Paul is speaking with myself. That I ought to do many things
contrary to the name of. Jesus and Nazareth so Paul was
going out at. 1st as a Pharisee to.
Destroy those who believed in Christ.
He. Said in verse 10, which?
Things I also did in Jerusalem and many of the Saints.
I shut up in prison. That's a shame.
Having received authority from the chief.
Priests and. And when they were put to death,
I gave my voice against them. Maybe he's got.
Stephen in his mind. And I punish them often.
Every synagogue and compelled. Them to blasphemy.
When, when? When Paul later in First
Timothy. Says that he is the.
Chiefest of sinners. You can identify 13 very
specific things that Paul did before he was saved by hauling
men out. Of out of the houses.
I mean, he just went in their houses and he dragged them out
of their houses. To prison.
Why? Because they believed in Jesus
and continuing. In verse 11 and being.
Exceeding mad against them I. Persecuted.
Him, even under strange cities. Where upon?
As I went to Damascus with authority and Commission from
the priests at midday, O King, I saw.
Somebody bigger than me. In the way a light.
From heaven above the brightness of the sun.
Shining about the sun, about me and them which journeyed with
me. And when we were all falling to
the earth, I heard a voice speaking on to me, saying in the
Hebrew tongue. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? It is hard for thee to kick
against the pricks. And he said, Who art thou, Lord?
And he said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest.
Wow. He goes on to talk about this
and we'll. Go back to verse 18.
In a moment. But the fact is, what this man
did in front of this assembly was to tell the king, Well, let
me tell you what. Happened to me.
I was a Sinner. I believed, and I was headstrong
in my own false faith. I was believing in something
that wasn't from the Bible. I was believing the traditions
of men and I was very zealous to persecute those who believed.
In this name. And he said, But then I met
Jesus, something happened to me. This is.
Originally recorded in Chapter 9, but it's kind of Paul's way.
When he stood before Festus, when he was before Felix, when
he was before Agrippa, every time he had a chance before all
of the Pharisees in the Sanhedrin, he would talk about
the day when Jesus saved his soul.
There's a lot in religion today that talks about being
religious. There's a lot that talks about
knowing the scriptures and and there's a lot that talks about a
lot of things, but there's also a lack of belief in God's Word
concerning a personal introduction to Jesus Christ.
I once talked called one of the pastors of the leading
denomination in our town. And I was talking.
With him and I said, before you go, I wanted to know what you
thought. Do you believe that people need
each of us to come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ as our
personal savior? Do you believe in a personal
conversion? And this man of a leading
denomination of one of the churches in town, he said no, I
believe that is wrong. We just come to know a little
bit about Jesus at a time. Well, let me tell you what the
Lord. Said when he was here.
He was talking to Nicodemus and he said, Except ye be born
again, ye cannot enter into the Kingdom.
Of heaven. Friend, if you want to get to
heaven, what Paul is testifying here is not only to the truth of
Scripture, but it is to the truth of a personal salvation
experience. If you never get saved, you'll
never go to heaven. You don't wake up after you die,
and you're given another chance. Well, now that you know the
reality, why don't you? Accept Jesus.
My friend, the Bible talks about that when you die, you wake up
where you're going to be with God in heaven, or you wake up,
as Luke 16 tells us, he opened his eyes and he was in torment
in the flame of hell. The decision for this has to be
made while you're still here in this life.
Paul is testifying of that fact. And the only reason that this
works is because when Jesus died upon the cross as a sinless
Savior with the Son of God among us, He was dying to pay the
price and penalty for your sins, every single one of them.
And from all of creation, from the time that Adam and Eve
sinned, all the way till the end, every sin was judged upon
Jesus Christ. And friend, He put his life
there and sacrificed and bled and died and he was buried.
But three days later he came up out of that grave and he got the
victory over our sin, forever making a way for you to be
saved. But you have to have a.
Personal testimony of salvation. You've got to know Jesus.
If you die without this, you're doomed for an eternity.
I want you to think about that because our king Agrippa is
still burning in hell. This is almost 2000 years ago.
He died, but. We think between 80 and 90 AD he
died really having lost everything, and then he lost his
soul in Hell's fire. So I said there are three.
Testimonies. Testimony.
Scripture Testimony. Of this St.
But if you go. Down to verse 26 where we had
our text. 1. Verse Before where we started,
you'll find that there's a testimony of the Savior for the
King north of these things, before whom also I speak freely.
For I am persuaded that none of these things were hidden from
him. For thee this thing was not done
in the corner. So the testimony of Jesus, I
love history. I think you can tell by our
introduction that I study history and I love history.
And what I have found from secular history is that
everything that's recorded here is 100%.
Accurate that that there really. Was a Rome.
There really was a king Agrippa. There really was his sister
Bernice and Drusilla and Felix and Festus, and there really was
a Nero. Sitting over in Rome and.
He hasn't. Burnt down the city yet?
But but all of this is true and I don't just know that, but this
man knew living there. That Jesus testifies of himself.
All across the Roman Empire these things were discussed.
And in fact, Claudius had cast out all the Jews from to be cast
out of Rome. And.
Sooner or later we're going to have Nero.
Not quite yet, but Nero's about to take all of the believers in
Jesus who are now called Christians.
I think after chapter 12 of Acts.
And he's going to burn. Them to death.
He's actually going to dip some of them in wax and put them on a
post and light them on fire to provide light for the streets of
Rome in in a way to testify. You better not believe in this
Jesus. But you can try to persecute the
cause of Christ. You can try to silence it, you
can try to get rid of all the Bibles, but you cannot silence
the testimony. You will die.
And this will still be being preached, he said.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word will not.
Pass away, Do you believe? So, I ask you, do you believe if
you died right now, where would you go?
Are you prepared for that to happen?
Do you believe? 333.
Things that caused. Him in the text.
To believe, and I'm going to point out just two that turned
him about face and ran him back into his wickedness.
The first one is sin. The first one is sin.
Boy, his sister's a wicked girl. She was married to their uncle
so she comes from a wicked family like a crooked man that
walks from a crooked house on a crooked Rd.
This Herodian family is disgusting.
When you when you. Study the family tree, it's a
real sordid group of people. Bernice divorced her husband,
Uncle Philip and was living in a relationship with her own
brother, full blooded brother, King Agrippa.
Oh, that's sick. It's a repugnance to us, isn't
it? By the way, she doesn't stay.
Even in that relationship by. 67 there's a.
Revolt and all of Israel will revolt against Rome and.
It takes three years. For that to.
Be put to put down and finally in 70 AD.
But first they send their great general, Vespasian and Bernice.
Leaves her brother. And becomes the mistress to
Vespasian when Nero dies from suicide.
He They had one year where they had four different emperors.
They call the year. 4 emperors and one general after another is
claiming the emperor's throne. And then when they all are
assassinated or killed and finally the last one left is
fighting a battle in Israel and they bring Vespasian back.
He's almost won the battle, he's surrounded the Temple Mount and
they call him back to become the emperor.
And so there's Bernice Stuck, and Vespasian puts his own son
Titus in. Charge of the.
Army and so Bernice. Becomes titus's mistress she is
a vile person of course, Titus then, after vespasian's death
and having destroyed the. Temple and come down.
And had his procession in in Rome itself.
He then becomes the emperor and is killed and his brother
Demetian takes over. Demetian is got the blood
dripping of thousands of Christians from his hands.
Sin. It is repugnant to us.
When we think of that incest, we sort of cringe like, oh, how
could people openly live like this?
By the way, that's what Rome thought of that at the time.
It wasn't accepted. It wasn't like, Oh yeah, that's
what we all do. We're all open minded.
I mean, we're all woke, you know?
Woke is an opposite. Word.
It's one of those things that are they're not woke, they're
blind. The present woke people are.
Blind to the truths of God's Word and those.
That have their eyes open are the ones whose eyes have been
opened by the light of. God's Word.
And here is this man whose sin is not enlightened.
It's wicked, and the people around him are cringing at it.
Sin, it's the word repugnant comes to my mind.
It's repugnant to us that a man would live with his own sister
as if she were his wife. It is a wickedness above all
wickednesses. But what we fail to see is that
the way that's the way God sees all of our sins, every little
lie, every little wrong thought, every proud look, every
deceitful thing the Lord says. That's repugnant to me.
And you cannot enter the Kingdom of heaven with that sin.
Now get this to get saved. You're on your way to hell and
you have to turn. I didn't say you had to do
anything. You just turn.
That's repentance. Repentance is not a work.
All you did, you were hating this way and you said I'm going
this way. What did you turn from?
Well, I turned from something I believe that wasn't true, and I
turned from sin. And if you don't turn from that,
you'll never be saved. Salvation involves first
repentance and then faith, believing in Jesus.
I look at verse 18, I mentioned that.
Earlier go back to 2618. In the.
Process of explaining. This Paul describes the
salvation. Experience.
He says, the Lord sent me for what?
To open their eyes, You know the Enlightenment to know, the
illumination to know. That you're a Sinner.
And that you need a Savior is God's work upon heart.
But look what he describes us as to open their eyes and to turn
them from darkness to light. That's that's the repentance and
from the power of Satan unto God, it's time to say, I want to
let go of that sin. And when Agrippa came to the
place where he believed what he was hearing was true, he looked
at his sister, looked at his sin and said, I am almost persuaded,
but I don't want to let go of my sin.
What is it that's going to keep you?
Keep reading? In verse 18, he says that they
may receive forgiveness of sins. Don't you want to be forgiven?
Finally, finally forgiven? Ever settled in heaven that your
sins are gone? Put not on my account, but on
the account of. Jesus Christ.
Who paid the price for you? But he says you have to turn to
him. And then he says you'll receive
forgiveness of sins and inheritance.
That means it's. Signed, sealed and delivered all
that I need for heaven right there in salvation, almost not
persuaded as me. He came to the very door of
faith and said, yes, I want to believe, but I don't want to let
go of my sin #1 #2. Is self man.
He kind of liked his money. He liked his proud position as
king. Not all of the client kingdoms
were permitted to. Have that title, in fact.
It was only. Given to three.
Of all the Herods. Many of them were called.
Tetrarchs and they weren't called.
Kings. It was only really given to
three of the Herods themselves. And, and this is the last one,
by the way, he is the last of the Herodian line.
But he wasn't willing to give up his pride.
I mean, he's a somebody in a great nation, an empire.
I mean, I, I, how would you like if you knew the king?
And he said, I'm a client king, but I'm a friend of the emperor.
I, I have seen him. I know him and I know the
senators in Rome and I know the important people.
I am a somebody and in this. Moment of decision when he
almost got saved, he. Turned from.
That and said I don't want to give up being a somebody and
instead he went to hell where he ends up being a nobody.
What are you going to? Be if you'll get saved.
The Lord transfers you from a child of disobedience to being a
child of His. In Ephesians 2, he raises.
You up to be in heavenly places. In Christ Jesus in Colossians 2
it says we are complete in the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is an invitation that he makes come up hit her to John in
Revelation chapter 4 and verse one come and see and chapter 22
he says come and see the lamb the the wife of the bride.
I mean come and see the city. It is the invitation of Jesus
that He will make you to be somebody.
But not of yourself in what he wants to do in you.
If you are almost persuaded, it could be your sin that you're
not willing to turn from. That will take you to hell if
you're almost. Persuaded it could be.
Yourself worried about your pride worried about what
everybody you'll think about you in fact, in a moment we're going
to give you a chance to come and talk to somebody about salvation
and there's a feeling like hey I can't step out and come forward
because if I. Come forward, everybody around
me. Is going to know and friend
listen if you will. Just listen for a moment.
Everybody here wants you to come forward.
Everybody here wants you to be saved.
Everybody here loves you and cares for you.
Nobody wants you to die and go to hell.
But think about Hell's fire and think about its cost and its
consequences. Think about the eternity and its
definition, that it'll never end and you'll never have a
reprieve. And like this man Agrippa, he
got almost to the point of salvation.
And he refused because of his self.
And it is a shame that such a trivial thing is ourselves, our
pride, our position and the price.
Man, if I get saved my whole family, I'm going to lose this
woman that I've been with, right?
He needed to. Everybody would agree with that.
But you know what? He lost her eventually, in just
a few years, she ran off with somebody else.
She was utterly wicked, and he lost.
He's the last of the Herod's kings no more.
After him ruled. He died childless.
He existed in this world with all of its pageantry, but he'd
left this world without a whisper.
Except the old king Agrippa has died.
He lost his position. He lost his posterity.
He lost the pride, he lost the pomp, he lost his possessions,
and he ultimately lost his person in the burning fire of
hell. So does anyone who rejects
salvation. So what we're talking about is a
very serious issue. If you're here and you died
right now, do you know if you're going to heaven?
And if you do not know and you need to be saved, don't be
almost persuaded, almost persuaded.
Think of the words that we sang earlier, almost persuaded now to
believe, almost persuaded Christ to receive.
Seems now some soul to say. Go, spirit, go thy way.
Some more convenient day on the alcohol.
Those are the words of Felix. Almost persuaded.
Come, come today, almost persuaded.
Turn not away. Jesus invites you here.
Angels are lingering near. Prayers rise from hearts.
So dear O wanderer, come. The last verse says, almost
persuaded. Harvest is past.
You don't even know if this is your last chance.
Don't play with God. Almost persuaded.
Doom comes at last. Almost.
Cannot avail. Almost is but to fail.
Sad, sad, that bitter wail. Almost but lost in hell today.
King Agrippa cries out. Almost, almost, but lost.
Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I pray that you
please bless this invitation and use it.
Pray for that soul that you're working on, hearts that you've
affected. I pray that we'd lose none today
with your heads bowed and your eyes closed.
If there's somebody here that says pastor, if I'd died right
now, I don't know if I'm saved, I don't know what'll happen to
me. I want to go to heaven, but I
don't want it, and I don't want to go to hell.
But I'm not sure. Would you please pray with
nobody looking around? I just want to pray for you.
My prayer can't save you, but I'm going to pray that God will
help you to understand it. And if you say, pastor, I need
to be saved, pray for me. Would you just lift your hand
up? I'm not going to call you out,
Just lift your hand up where you're at.
Thank you. I see that hand next.
Somebody else say put there. I see that hand.
Amen. You can put your hand down.
Anybody else, Pastor, pray for me.
If I died right now, I don't know if I'm going to heaven.
Anybody else, somebody else raise their hand, say I need to
be saved, pray for me. Include me in that prayer.
Don't be almost. I'm almost persuaded that I need
to be saved. Almost, but lost.