Just a few verses here from Acts chapter 26. We're getting Paul to Rome, and he's going to be taken off here real soon, for those of you who've been with us in this long study that we've had in the book of Acts. But here at the beginning of Paul's testimony before Agrippa, there is something here in verses 2 through 3 that is so wonderfully in line with what we've already heard tonight. Acts 26, verse 2, we got through verse 1 last time. Paul says, I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee, touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews, especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews. Wherefore, I beseech thee to hear me patiently. My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among my own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews, which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straightest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee. Father, speak to our hearts tonight. Show us the Pharisee in us. Show us, Lord, that though we have religion, That is not a relationship with Jesus Christ. For it's in His name we pray. Amen. In the late 1800s, George C. Stebbins was helping Dr. George Pentecost with an evangelistic meeting in Worcester, Massachusetts. As we listen to Dr. Pentecost paraphrasing from John chapter 3, especially verses 3 and 7, he imagined the words that he heard the preacher say as the refrain to a hymn that he felt needed to be written. I verily, verily say unto thee, ye must be born again. The simple gospel so wonderfully stated in John 3.16 was part of God's explanation, Christ's words to Nicodemus as he had asked a question about what it meant to be born again. Now, Paul is standing before this Jewish king, Agrippa, who knew all about Judaism, all of its customs, all of its questions, all of its practices and all the disagreements that people had about what it meant is what he said there. And Paul gives to Agrippa that same message. He says, in essence, we, we must be born again. We must have new life that it can only come from God. God has to do a work in us. Listen to me patiently, he says, King Agrippa, as I explain to you what you already know, what you now need to understand about that relationship. And here he makes clear in this sermon the message that Christ made clear that it's not about religion. It's about relationship with God himself through Jesus Christ. In this second verse, we see that Paul indeed was delighted to give a testimony about this accusation that the Jews had made toward him. He considered himself happy, fortunate indeed is what that means, to have this wonderful opportunity. I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee touching all these things whereof I am accused of the Jews. Paul says this is a wonderful opportunity that God has given me and I am happy to give you what the truth is about these accusations they have made. What were the accusations? Why, they had accused Paul of proclaiming that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. And Paul says, I'm happy to verify that I'm guilty. In essence, yes, that is exactly what I've been saying. And I want to show you how that reality is a fulfillment of everything that we believed before we heard it. All the things in the Old Testament and all the promises that were given, they're fulfilled in Christ. And listen, that's the message all of us need tonight. Everything that we know about our religion, everything we know about Christianity, all the rules, all the regulations, all the requirements, everything that it takes to be an effective Pharisee, all those things point us to Christ. But the great tragedy that Paul wants Agrippa to avoid is that you can learn all those things and miss Christ. You can know a lot about the Bible. You can even know a lot about Christ and not really have a relationship with Christ. That's what we spent the last couple of days being reminded of in some wonderful ways. And we have been convicted in our hearts about how our religion gets between us and the Lord and how our religion can be corrupted by that part of our nature which wants the ugly things of the world. It wants self on the throne. And Paul says, I'm happy to be able to talk to you about this. I believe he considered himself fortunate or happy, not only because he had the opportunity to stand before the king and this august body, but because he had the opportunity to stand there and talk about the king of kings. to talk about the God of glory who came to this earth and took on human flesh and died because he loves us. And all he wants in return is for us to love him and to trust him. Paul considered himself happy, but he also considered himself carefully as he was going to respond to this wonderful opportunity. He said, I want to talk to you touching all the things where I am accused of the Jews. I want to pull together every thread. I want your thinking to change. King Agrippa, I want you to be rational. I want you to put it all together and let your thoughts be focused on the one that you've heard about but have never realized. King Agrippa knew all about Judaism. He knew all about the promised Messiah. But he says, I want you to think with me to the point where you can see that Christ is he. So he considered himself and he was very, very careful. I have a dear friend who had the opportunity some years ago to participate with a couple of others of us in a roundtable discussion which was filmed for a presentation that was eventually shown on the public broadcasting system and the BBC, literally around the world. This man, whom I'll say more about in just a moment, is not only brilliant, he's very godly. And in the course of the testimony, he earned the admiration of those who were debating with us. And in the course of the discussion, there was an illustration that we used about a particular Lutheran belief. And this man said, I'm very familiar with that. I was a Lutheran before I was saved. And the man who had been smiling at him with admiration now smirked at him in arrogance, and his attitude changed in an instant. And he said, oh, you weren't a Christian when you were a Lutheran? And he said humbly, no, I wasn't. And he said, in essence, I knew about Christ, but I did not know Christ. What a powerful testimony he gave. This scholar was unable to accept it and didn't respect it. And so here it was, as we see the life of this man, Paul, greatly admired for his zeal as a Pharisee, now angrily rejected and nearly torn asunder by a lynch mob because he has the audacity to say that this despised man, Christ, whom these Pharisees had put on the cross, had been raised from the dead, and was indeed the Messiah. They couldn't tolerate it. That's why Paul stood before Agrippa. That's why he was in chains. That's why he was on his way to his execution in Rome. Because he came to see something that he wanted others to see. My friend, when you see something, that changes you from a mere man of religion to a person who has a living relationship with the Savior. Your life won't mean as much to you anymore either. You'll be willing to die for what you've seen and for what you need to say. Paul was delighted to give this testimony. Paul was determined to give a clear testimony about this promise to the Jews. Verse 3, he said, especially so, particularly because I know thee to be an expert in all the customs and questions which are among the Jews. Wherefore, I beg you, hear me patiently. Listen carefully is what he's saying. Here is an opportunity to point to the person behind the promises. Agrippa knew the promises. But he didn't know that person. Paul wanted him to see that person. Do you know a lost man can be an expert in the ancient languages, an expert in the archaeology of the Bible, an expert in the Bible itself? I have books on the shelves of my study that were written at great scholarly depth about the scriptures by lost men. How can that be that a person could spend his life getting such an education and learning to analyze the technical aspects of the text and never see the Lord? Because if a man's heart is not open and a man will not yield the throne of his will to the Lord Jesus Christ, he will not be saved. That man can reject the Lord while talking about the Lord. He was an expert. Gnostis is the word. It's where we get the word gnostic. It's from the word gnosis or knowledge or experience with is what the idea means. The customs. All the things that the Jews were required to observe Agrippa knew about them and tried to some degree to observe them. But he also knew about the questions, all the controversies, all the debates, all the arguments, all the various points of view between the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the other factions within Judaism. He was well versed in all these things. And Paul is going to say to them, listen, there are those among the Jews, the ones who are accusing him, the Sanhedrin, made up mostly of Sadducees, who did not believe in a resurrection at all. Therefore any concept or possibility of that component of the gospel they had already rejected ahead of time He's going to explain that to him Here is an appeal though for the king to have a hope an open heart. He says I beseech thee to hear me patiently What an interesting word that is It literally means with a long spirit of It means with an open heart. Listen to me with an open mind, we would say today. Don't reject what I have to say. Just listen to what I have to say. Hear me. Listen to me. Think about what I'm going to say, King Agrippa. Let your own heart be opened. He wasn't giving evidence in a trial. He was giving a testimony to a man who needed Jesus Christ. These Jews had erupted in anger. Paul was making an appeal. This is not the same word beseech that we find in Romans chapter 12. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, that's the word parakaleo. It means to put your arm around someone and appeal to them as a friend. This is the word I beg you. Please, I'm asking for your indulgence for just a moment as I give you this truth, he says. They had made mere accusations. Paul was making a reasoned argument, an unfolding truth that this man needed to understand. An effective testimony always has a point. A Christian testimony has Christ as its point. That's an important thing right there. The next time you have an opportunity to give a testimony, don't let us see self in the center. Let us see Christ as these men did tonight. What has Christ done for them? What has Christ shown them about self? You see, when the testimony is over, you should be left with the kind of an impression that Paul's testimony leaves with us. Glory to God. Praise the Lord for what He has done. You see, it's no real testimony for Christ if we only leave an impression about ourselves. Paul knew that, and he made the point. Jesus Christ. Here in verses four and five, we see that he was not only delighted to give this testimony, not only determined to make it clear, but he deflected the attention that made him so well known because this testimony was not just about him. It was about the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul's testimony was not just a matter of his own personal character. He says here in verse four, my manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among my own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews. They know me. They know how I was raised. They know where I went to school. They know that I sat at the feet of Gamaliel. They know that I was a rising star, as it were, among the Pharisees. Who was it? as a young man who was invited with this same lynch mob to the spontaneous and illegal execution of Stephen. Not every young Jewish man was along to watch. Not everyone was close enough to hold the coats of those who threw the stones. Paul was. Not every young man was on a deputation from the high priest to go up to Damascus and arrest the Christians and bring them back for execution to Jerusalem. Paul was trusted. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, he tells us himself. They knew who he was. He had made many impressions. He was not only a promising young Pharisee, he was a prominent Pharisee by this time and chosen above others. That man of whom I spoke a moment ago was. And he would not want me to to promote him, Dr. David Shoemake. By the time he sat with us in that discussion, he already had his undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt in political science. He had his Juris Doctor from Harvard. His Master of Divinity from Bob Jones University is working on his Ph.D. in Old Testament interpretation. I wish you could have heard him as he gave his testimony. He didn't talk about his credentials. He didn't talk about himself. He humbly and sweetly talked about what Christ had done in changing his life. He had a marvelous education. He had a marvelous reputation. He had an upbringing in a well-known religion. But he came to Christ and that changed everything. It changed his attitude. It changed his words. It changed his focus. And the power of that kind of change is what all of us need. It's what testimonies are all about. He defected this as he said, look, they know me. They know who I am and they know what's going on. And in that subtle statement, he went on to say, which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify that after the most straightest sect of our religion, I lived to Pharisee. And now he's going to explain all the prophecies and how they're fulfilled in Christ. He's not going to say the reason they despise me is the same reason they despised Christ. The reason they want to shut me down is the same reason they wanted to shut him down. He doesn't go into all those kinds of things. He just wants to say, look, they know me. Now they're angry with me. But let me tell you the truth. I'm here because I'm talking about who Christ really is. Let me show him to you. That's what this is all about. His religious zeal was very well known and that's what caused him to oppose Christ so effectively as a Pharisee And now his spiritual power, that which came from God alone has replaced that which came from his personality. And that's what causing him to proclaim Christ with such dedication. You think about the things that he said to us in the scripture. In the book of Philippians, chapter three, let me just read these to you, just just listen as I read them. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust the flesh, I more circumcise the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and of the Hebrews, as touching the law, a Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless." That was Paul's pre-salvation testimony. That was Paul before he came to know Christ. What did Luke say to us in chapter 18? Recording here. The words of Christ in verses 11. The Pharisees stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you that I'm not as other men are extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Paul had been a man whose attitude, no doubt, must have been, I thank thee that I'm not as other men are. I'm doing all the things that I'm supposed to do. I'm tithing. I'm obeying. I'm zealous. But on the Damascus Road, it is as though he became a publican. God be merciful to me, a sinner. Paul made a progression in his life, if you will study it in his epistles, where he became less than the least to the chiefest of sinners. Paul understood the more he walked with the Lord, the depth of the depravity from which he had been saved. And Christian growth requires that of all of us. Here he stands before Agrippa. claiming that he had been a Pharisee, an effective Pharisee, a Pharisee who was a leader among the Pharisees, more like all the Pharisees wanted to be. And thereby, by giving that testimony, he not only indicated that he understood what the Jews were so angry about, but that Agrippa should also understand what the Jews were so angry about. Because it was the words of Christ himself that indicted what it meant to be a Pharisee without the Savior. You remember what he said in Matthew chapter 23. Paul, no doubt, therefore, was a man who bid others to do what he himself knew in his heart he was not doing. He must have been a man who would bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born and laid them on other men's shoulders while he himself would not move them with one of his fingers. He must have been a man who loved the greetings and the markets and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. We don't think of Paul that way. But Paul said, I was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. Paul must have been a man who understood that woe that came on him for being a hypocrite because he had shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. He himself would not go in and he would not suffer others to go in either, but arrested them and brought them back for trial. Living as a hypocrite while claiming his own religion would get him to heaven. He must have been the kind of a man who would devour widows' houses and, for a pretense, make long prayers. He must have been the kind of man who would compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he's made, make him twofold more the child of hell than himself. He must have been the kind of man who would swear by the temple and say it was nothing, but swear by the gold of the temple and say that he was a debtor. He must have been the kind of man who would pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and then omit the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. He must have been truly a blind guide who would strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. For this is the description of our Lord Jesus himself, of what Paul told us he was before he met Christ on that road to Damascus. He was like a whited sepulcher, which indeed appeared beautiful outwardly, but within was full of dead men's bones and full of all uncleanness, full of hypocrisy and iniquity. He built the tombs of the prophets, garnished the sepulchers of the righteous, And said, if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. And yet he had. And so did his accusers. Now he stands in bonds as one of the prophets. Standing, speaking for Christ, and suffering the consequences like all the ones the Pharisees had put to death before. Paul is happy to be in that number. He was able to rejoice in his persecution, knowing that they persecuted those who came before. What a transformation had occurred in this man's mind. What a transformation had occurred in his heart. What a transformation had occurred in his testimony because he had seen Christ and his life had been changed. If you have seen Christ, your life will be changed. And if you have seen Christ, your life must be changed. And the only reason for you tonight not to be living differently than you were living before you were saved is for you to have taken your eyes off Christ, for you to have forgotten That when you met Christ, you were born again. That new life came into you. And that you are now to walk, as we heard said tonight when these young folk were baptized, to walk in newness of life. You may have had religion. You may have it now. Do you have Christ? Do you want Him? Will you listen? Patiently. Do what He has to say to you. And let Him change you. There may be men here who are at the conference who are struggling. You know you need to be able to give the kind of testimony these men gave tonight. Lord, I want this change in my life. But you're resisting. You're hesitating. You're saying, I don't know if I'm ready for all the things that that will involve. Consider the consequences. Consider the alternative of saying, I think I'll be OK. You know you won't. Some of you may never have been closer. All you need to do now is say, Lord, I surrender. Take my life. I give it to you. Take control. Your religion. will not do. You have to have a relationship. You have to come to that place where you may say, I was a Pharisee, but now I've seen Christ. Isn't that what you want? Why don't you come and get it tonight? Father, thank you for what you've shown us from this simple introduction to Paul's sermon, his testimony before Agrippa. Lord, let that be our testimony. Let us be able to say I was a Pharisee. I had religion, had self-righteousness. What I need is Christ. I need him as the center of my life. I need him to flow out into all these other parts of my activities and personality and my thinking. And I know what it will take is long thinking and long realizing and long loving as a result. And Lord, that's what I need. I pray, Father, that as that prayer is prayed by some here tonight, that they would indeed see Christ. Lord, they got a glimpse. They may have even yielded themselves, but now they need to publicly proclaim it by responding in this invitation. Or if they got a glimpse and then went back to the old routine, bring them close tonight, Lord. Cause them to realize that what is needed now is a submission of the will, an agreement with God about what they are, and a plea for transformation that can only be accomplished by the Spirit of God. In Jesus' name.