to transport him. I mean, he came in a caravan. They got Felix up out of the bed. He said, we'll put him down in Herod's holding room there, and I'll hear his case. when his accusers come. The accusers come, I'll hear the case. And that's where we left off on our reading last week. Verse one, and after five days, Ananias the high priest descended with the elders and with a certain order named Tertullus, who informed the governor against Paul. And when he was called forth, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying, Seeing that by thee we enjoy great quietness, and very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence, we accept it always, and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness, notwithstanding that I be not further tedious unto thee, I pray thee that thou wouldest hear us of thy clemency a few words. For when we found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes, who also hath gone about to profane the temple, whom we took and would have judged according to our law. But the chief captain, Lysias, came upon us, And with great violence took him away out of her hands, commanding his accusers to come unto thee, by examining of whom thyself mayest take knowledge of all these things, whereof we accuse him. And the Jews assented, saying that these things were so. Then Paul, after that the governor had beckoned unto him to speak, answered, Forasmuch as I know that thou hast been of many years a judge unto this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself. because that thou mayest understand that there are yet but 12 days since I went up to Jerusalem for to worship. And they neither found me in the temple disputing with any man, neither raising up the people, neither in the synagogue nor in the city, neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me. But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing that all things which are written in the law and in the prophets and have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust, and herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward man. And after many years, I came to bring alms to my nation and offerings, whereupon certain Jews from Asia found me, purified in the temple, neither with multitude nor with tumult, who ought to have been here before thee and object if they had ought against me. Or else let these same here say, if they found any evil doing in me while I stood before the council, except it be for this one voice that I cried standing among them, touching the resurrection of the dead, I am called into question by you this day. And when Felix heard these things, having more perfect knowledge of that way, he deferred them and said, when Lysias the chief captain shall come down, I will know the uttermost of your matter. and he commanded a centurion to keep Paul and to let him have liberty, that he should forbid none of his acquaintances to minister or come unto him. Let's pray together. Father, we ask, Lord, this evening in Jesus' name that you'd help us, Father, to stand and preach the word of God in a way that would please you. Lord, put far from our minds any will to please man or to bring honor to ourself. and just allow us tonight to share the word of God in a way that would please you and bring you honor. Bless us now as only you can and we'll thank you for all that you do in Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. I want us to look together at Paul before Felix. Paul, he's testified in front of governors. He's been before the city councilman or the city director over in Ephesus. He stood before some different government officials, but here he's standing before a procreator. It's going up. This man, he's like a judge, maybe above a magistrate. He's got words that he can say, and he could have Paul beheaded, or he can hold over the case. He's got a lot of jurisdiction in Rome. As a matter of fact, Caesarea, it's the capital of that providence of Rome that would encompass Jerusalem, and so Jerusalem would fall under his, let me say it this way, judicial jurisdiction. He's kind of like a, we'll say a Supreme Court, or not Supreme Court, put that aside, forget I said that. What's above district court? Superior court, a superior court judge. He's kind of like a superior court judge over that district. And so he's going to hear Paul's case, and that's what we're going to look at tonight, is Paul there before Felix. And this is going to be his first stop in a legal proceeding that's going to last him years. As a matter of fact, And it's not really evident by the scriptures that we read tonight, but what you'll find is that he's two years in Felix's custody. He's gonna be two years in Felix's custody at Caesarea. Matter of fact, Felix, and I don't wanna get ahead of myself, but Felix never does make a decision on Paul's case. He's replaced. later on down the line by another man, still having not done anything with Paul's case. So we'll see the arguments tonight as Paul has his day in court in front of Felix. Now, I'll point out a few things to you. I'll try not to keep you too long tonight. Number one, we see a lawyer involved. Look what the Bible said in verse one. After five days, Ananias, the high priest, descended with the elders, watch this, and with a certain orator named Tertullus who informed the governor against Paul. So we see that when the high priest comes down, they no doubt sent word, said Felix said that the accusers are gonna have to come down and testify against Paul. The high priest comes, but he don't come alone. He brings a lawyer with him. Now ain't that something? That shows you just how serious they are here about trying to get Paul in trouble. They didn't come down there to testify on their own. No, they brought legal counsel. The Bible calls him an orator, a professional speaker. And what we're gonna see is that he's a smooth talker. tongue devil, amen. That's old Lawyer shows up, no doubt looking the part. He's got the case together, and he's going to speak out against God's man. He's gonna speak against God's man. I'll say this to you tonight, it's always a dangerous thing when you set out to speak against God's man, amen. He come down here with it on his mind, He gonna speak against God's man. I see him walk in the courtroom. He's been there before. No doubt it's Ananias and those other elders, Brother Billy, come in. They probably had a smile on their face. They done hired the biggest, baddest lawyer in town. I mean, he's an orator. He talks for a living. And they're thinking, boy, we're getting ready to nail that old Paul. We gonna nail his hide to the wall. He ain't gonna know what hit him. Gonna be like a freight train. How would we come in here and take care? But I'm gonna tell you something. Two things they wasn't planning on. Number one, we'll see it in a minute, Paul was a lot smarter than they thought he was. And number two, Paul, maybe I get an amen, had God on his side, amen. I've heard that, I've heard them tell the stories about when Lester Roloff was facing trials down there in front of the court in Texas, and Brother Gibbs, David Gibbs Sr. was representing him. And boy, they said that trial was going bad. Looked like they was gonna lock Brother Olaf up. And there just wasn't no hope for it. It said one night, three o'clock in the morning, Brother Gibbs said there's a knock on his hotel door. He went and opened the door, and he stood there, and there stood Brother Olaf. And he said, how do you think it's going? Brother Roloff said, it's going terrible, that's how it's going. Said, the judge hates us, the jury look, they all look mean at us. He said, if something don't happen, I'm going to prison. And David Gibbs said, well, I'll have to agree with that. I believe you are going to prison. And he said, tell you what we gotta do. He said, we gotta get God in this thing. And they got down by their bed and went to praying. And he said, I heard Brother Olaf pray. First off, he prayed, he said, God, that judge hates me. He said, would you make him sick? Not death, Lord, I ain't a prayin' you kill him, but would you make him so sick he couldn't hear the case tomorrow? And he said, would you turn them lawyers on one another? Said the state had five or six lawyers sittin' across the big table. and said, would you turn them on one another? And David Gibbs, he tells the story. He said, I'm telling you. He said, the next morning we walked in, no judge. Said, the bailiff got up and said, hate to inform you, but the judge is sick. We don't know for sure what it is, but we'll be in touch. Long story short, the judge had some sort of a virus that's gonna last him days on end, had to find a replacement judge. and David Gibson said, I started scratching my head wondering about that prayer. I said, they got together next time to have court, and he said, I was just sitting over there, and he said, you could tell that when every lawyer that came in had a different idea than the other lawyer that sat and said they all had their heads together. Said, they's a-fussing. Said, finally the judge said, time to hear the case. Said, one of them lawyers popped up and said, Mr. Judge, could you give us a few moments? We're having trouble coming together on how we ought to proceed. Said, Brother Roloff punched him in the side and said, God's a-working, amen. And before it was over, they had to dismiss the case. I'm telling you, this old fella, He come down there and he really thought he'd show Paul a thing or two, a big time city lawyer, but he wasn't planning on Paul having God on his side. Now watch this. He starts out just like you would expect a lawyer to start out. Oh, Felix. Let me just take just a minute, if I may indulge the court. Let me take a moment and tell you how great you are. Felix, you're the finest feller. Now, it's all lies. We're gonna talk about the lies here in just a minute. Felix was notoriously corrupt. History tells us Felix was notoriously corrupt. But here we see the lawyer on the Jewish side. Look what he said now. He said in verse two, and when he was called, he began to accuse him, saying, See that by thee we enjoy great quietness, and the very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence. We accept it always and in all places, most noble Felix, with thankfulness. That's how he started that off. Oh, most noble Felix, you done scraped this. You're one of the best judges on the planet. We just wanted you to know how much, and I'd like to brag on you some more, but I'm afraid it'd get tedious. That's what he said. Look on that in that next verse. He said, notwithstanding that I may not tedious unto thee, I pray that thou wouldest hear of thy clemency, a few words. Now, if that ain't lawyer talk, I never have heard it. I walked in there, you're the greatest, you're a wonderful boy, we're so glad to be standing in your courtroom today, your honor. We love you and I'd like to brag on you more if wish time would allow, but I don't wanna get tedious. And if you'd just hear us just a few minutes and allow us to speak, we would like to present our case. Boy, don't you know how nice this is going. This old boy, they'll behead him before this is over. Look at our big city lawyer. They're punching one another, and that's good, ain't it? Yeah, boy, he's worth every penny, every penny. I'm glad we went down to the law firm of Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe, amen. And we got this fella, and he sure is great. He is a blessing. Now, just watch him talk. Boy, he's hanging $100 words out there, He's dangling his participles and he's saying everything just right. Felix is taking it in. He's heard the wind blow before. Now watch. First off, we see the lawyer. Then the very next thing we see is the lies. Now imagine the lawyers and lies would go together. That's hard to believe, ain't it? That you'd have lawyers and lying together, but it alliterates, so it's gotta be in the Bible. Lawyers and lies. Look, first, what's the case against Paul? Bring us the case here. All right, let's lay it out. We'd like for you to know about this old feller. Verse five, we've found this man a pestilent feller. First charge that they leveled is they've hired a big city lawyer, brought him down there, a professional talker, and Philip said, all right, what's your case against him? Well, we don't like him. He's a pest. That's the way to read your Bible. He's a pestilent fella. Now, your honor, we'd just like to say that we don't like this fella, and if you'd have held him long, you wouldn't like him either. He's a real pest, and he causes all kinds of problems. Okay, well, he's a pest, all right, charge number one. He's a problem, he's a pestilent felon. What else has he done? What's your other charges? Bring us some charges here, big city lawyer. Well, he's a mover of sedition. causes riots and such. Now, ain't the truth. Who was it that was rioting? It was the Jews. It wasn't Paul. Paul didn't start no, he didn't move no sedition. Them Asian Jews started the sedition. But they say, well, you know, he started that. Now that's, still use that same thing today. The left will get all up in a brawl, that bunch of liberals get all up in a brawl about something, and then they'll blame us for having started the fuss. They say he's a mover of sedition. Watch him. He's got everybody, all the Jews throughout the world. He got them all. Got them all just wound up. And not only that, your honor, but we want you to know he's the ringleader. He's a crime boss, sure as the world. He's a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. Now, this is a Roman court. It's a Roman court. Right here, that judge is going, Nazarenes, what in the world? What are they talking about? That ain't even in my law books here, Nazarene. What does this even mean? This is the dumbest argument. I wanna tell you something, Your Honor. He's a pest. He really is. He makes people mad everywhere he goes. There's bound to be a log in it. And there's a sect called the Nazarene, and this fella right here, ring later, ring later. By this time, Paul's sitting over there going, they ain't got much of a case, do they? Well, better come up with something else. Well, I'll tell you what he did, your honor. He went about to profane the temple. Oh, you ain't never seen such temple profaning in all your days. He just profaned the temple. And when he did that, we took him and we was gonna judge him ourself. We could have saved you all this time. But let me tell you, while we're talking, let me tell you about that Sauriel Alessius, the captain you've got running things up there in Jerusalem. Let me tell you what he did. He come, we was gonna get Paul, and he come with violence and took us away.