Okay, turn in your Bibles to the book of Acts. We're about to wind up the book of Acts. Chapter 26. And then we're going to the days of Noah. Everybody's getting anxious about that. I think it'll be an interesting study. If you know somebody that doesn't come to a Sunday school class, I don't want to take anybody out of a class, but if you know anybody that's not attending a Sunday school class, tell them about our next study, and hopefully we can get some people to get informed. It's going to have a lot to do with what's going on in the world today, what we're all faced with, what we see in the news, what's happening. People are interested in that right now. People seem to be so concerned about our times, and they very well should be, because we are living in a time that humanity has never been at before. So anyway, that's enough said. We'll get into the details when we get into that study. Chapter 26, the Book of Acts. We're about to wind up the Book of Acts. Here the Apostle Paul is before King Agrippa there and Festus and Felix. He's been there and he's kind of in a trial situation. In chapter 26 it says, Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched forth a hand and answered for himself. That was kind of a gesture in those times when you were permitted to speak before some big aristocratic figure that you would put forth your hand as a thank you. That's kind of a gesture that they used then. And Agrippa says, hey, Paul, go ahead. Be your own defense. I thank myself happy, King Agrippa, because I shall answer, or I get to make my own defense, for myself this day before thee, touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews. He's thanking Kima Gerpa for letting him be his own counsel. I can answer for myself. Especially because I know thee to be an expert or that you have knowledge, really. I don't think King Agrippa was an expert. I would call him knowledgeable. You've got to remember he is the third Herod who has ruled Israel or Judea at that time. So he has a great knowledge of Jewish customs because I know thee to be an expert in all the customs and questions which are among the Jews. whereof I beseech thee to hear me patiently." He says, King Grepo, I know that you understand our customs and our laws, and I'm glad to get to appear before you and give my defense of why I'm even here, being arrested. My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among my own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews. If you remember, Paul really, as his name saw that time, went to Jerusalem. He studied under Gamaliel, which was the foremost teacher at that time in that area. So he studied under him. He was a Pharisee. All these people here in Jerusalem are still living there at Paul's time, knew who he was. They knew what he stood for. They had all that knowledge. which knew me from the beginning. If they would testify that after the most strictest set of our religion, I lived the Pharisees. Now Agrippa was very well aware that if when you said Pharisee, you were looking at a guy who tried his humanly best to live exactly to all of God's laws, all the Old Testament, the ceremonies, the rituals, the fastings, Agrippa knew all this, and those Jews down there knew Paul did it. And I now stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers. Here's his defense. The reason I'm here, Agrippa, is because I believe the Old Testament. I believe what Moses wrote. I believe what the prophets wrote. They talked about a resurrection. They talked about a coming Messiah. and I believe those things, and because I do, that's the reason I'm here before you. I'm being accused of believing these things, yet they claim that they believe them as well. Let me give you an example of what it would be like today. The example would be this. If we in here, and we know that there is a second coming of Jesus Christ, we know He's coming for His church sometime in the future. We don't know exactly when, but He is coming. What would happen if somebody came to your door and arrested you and took you into jail right now because you believed in the second coming of Christ? Now right now in our country and other places we're being ridiculed for that belief. I mean that's already going on. But what if the groups together got together in this country and made a religious group that said we don't believe in that and anybody that's teaching or preaching or we hear anybody out here witnessing to this, they're going to get arrested. This is what happened to Paul. Paul said, I believe the prophets, I believe Moses, but yet I've been arrested for it. Now this is the same thing that would happen in our day and time. Don't be surprised if it doesn't happen, okay? unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I'm accused of the Jews." They're accusing me and arresting me for the very same thing. They claim to believe. If you go out here today on the streets of any city in the United States of America, And if you ask people first question, are you a Christian? Large majority of them are going to say yes, because they really don't even know what being a Christian is. But they'll say yes. And then you ask them a second question, well, tell me about the second coming of Jesus Christ. And I'm going to tell you right now, 90 something percent of them could not tell you one thing about it. And that's pitiful. Because that's the next greatest event that Christians are looking forward to. And the largest majority of people who say they're Christians don't know a thing about it. It's just like the Jews. We're in the same position today. Just like the Jews at the first coming of Christ, the prophets had written about it. Even told where he was going to be born. Gave many details. But guess what? When he came, they didn't recognize him. They didn't know he was here. Herod tried to kill him. This is the same thing. They were ignorant of God's Word. The largest majority of Christians today, I'm sorry to say, are ignorant of the next coming of Jesus Christ to this world. They don't know what you're talking about. Or they have some kind of twisted idea about it, if they do know anything about it. Any questions? Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead? He said, Agrippa, with all you know about the Jewish law and the customs and the writings of the prophets, you know a lot about it, why is it surprising, why should it be a surprise to you that God's going to raise the dead? There's a coming resurrection. The Jewish people believe it. We teach it. I have verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, which thing I also did in Jerusalem. Many of the saints did I shut up in prison." He said, Gripper, let me give you a little background on me in case you don't know. I'm sure you did. He said, I'm going to refresh your mind. Let me tell you what I did. When I was in Jerusalem and I found out about this This group of people here that bleed in this Jesus of Nazareth, here's what I did. I shut them up in prison. Having received authority from the chief priest, the very ones that were accusing him now and having him arrested had been giving him documents to arrest these Christians. Authority from the chief priest. And when they were put to death, Paul even had these Christians put to death. You wonder why in Paul's writings of the epistles, and you read them, he is under such conviction that he is such a low person in God's esteem and in his own esteem because he actually had Christians who he was now preaching to and trying to convert the Gentiles into Christianity. He had killed them. He had had them tortured, arrested, persecuted, and put to death. Now that's how extent of Paul's life against the church was. So that's why he always talked about himself the least among the apostles. I gave my voice against them. I appeared in court. I said things against them. Put them to death. I rooted for it. And I punished them oft in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme. I made them renounce Christ. This is the kind of stuff I did under torture and under persecution. Paul's life, we don't know all the details. If you could just think of and realize all the details of what Paul did to the church, I mean it's astounding that God would ever choose him and make him an apostle to the Gentiles. And being exceedingly mad against him. He wasn't mad, he had a veminous hatred. of the early church before he was a changed man. Paul would be equivalent today to the Islamic movement of destroying the Western culture. He had that kind of a veminous hatred against Christianity. Now that's the kind of hatred Paul had before he was converted. Just like the Islamic Jihadis, and I'm not afraid to say it, our president won't, and our government won't, but I'm going to call them what they are. They're Islamic terrorists, murderers, and they hate the Western culture. Anything that has to do with Western culture, they are out to destroy it and take over this world. And anybody think it's anything less, you're kidding yourselves. Being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities." I even went so far as to go to the cities that are just small cities. They're not big, grander cities, but I even pursued them into the small villages, Paul says. Whereupon, as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priest, At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven." Now he's going to tell us for the third time of his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus. And he's telling it to the king face to face. I saw a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun. Now you well know how bright the sun is. You can't look at it. You have to use special glasses if you're going to look directly at the sun because of its brightness. Well, this brightness of God, the Shekinah glory of God, is brighter even than the sunshine. You know, there's a lot of talk about the Star of Bethlehem. I've got to make a comment about that, okay? That star, as they call it, the word star in the Greek just means an luminous body. That's what, it doesn't mean the star like we think of as an astronomy, as a star out there like our sun. That's not what it means. It means an luminous body up there. Now when they saw it, it was about two years before they got to Bethlehem there to see the baby. So what does that mean? These people come with all these scenarios of, well, it's an alignment of Saturn and this and that and on and on and on. It was a comet. Listen, this thing lasted for two years or it came into being. It started guiding these wise men. And then when they got to Jerusalem, it appeared over the child's house, which is about two years of age, not in a manger. So it did not, any kind of alignment would be gone. It's not that. I can tell you what it is. It's the Shekinah glory of God that followed the Israelites in the desert. It was the Shekinah glory of God that was in the temple when Solomon dedicated it. It's the Shekinah glory cloud, the brightness of the cloud that departed in Ezekiel's time and went to the door and then went up to Mount Olive and then went into heaven. And God used that as his reference point that the Messiah had been born. That's what it was, okay? That's my idea and nothing else will explain that except that. Shining round about me and them which journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth, we all fell down because of the presence of Christ, I heard a voice speaking unto me and saying in the Hebrew tongue, That's a language I wish I could speak and I think it will be probably in the millennial reign of Christ, it will probably be the world's known language like English is today. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks or the goads. Let me tell you what a goat is, in case some of you don't know. It's a long stick that the guy that's doing the plowing would have, and it usually had a sharp point on the end of it. Someone would put a metal point, someone would just sharpen the stick off. And it was used for two things. If the oxen got lazy and they wouldn't plow anymore, then you poked them in the back part of their legs and they would kick. Any of you that's ever plowed with mules or anything, I have, if they would stop and got lazy on you, you either had a whip that you popped them on the rear end with or you had a stick and you got them going again. And usually when you did that, they'd kick at you. And that's what it's talking about. It also used this long stick if the plow that you were using got filled up with wet dirt. Anybody in here ever plowed with mules? A few of you have. You know what I'm talking about. I have too. You take that stick and you would get the dirt off that plow so you could go back to plowing. That's what a goat is. Jesus said to Paul, hey, it's hard for you to kick against this gold. And I said, who art thou, Lord? And he said, I'm Jesus whom thou persecutest. But rise and stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen and of those things in which I will appear unto thee. You've seen this event with me here one-on-one. Now there's going to be some other things I'm going to reveal to you. And I'm going to turn you around 180 degrees from persecuting my church to propagating my church. And you're the guy that I want to do it. You know they talk about the predestination of people. If there ever was an example in the entire Bible of predestination of somebody that God chose to do something, it's the Apostle Paul. He made a 180 degree turn from prosecuting the church to going and preaching to the church. And believe me, he didn't have any mindset other than going to Damascus and to arrest everybody there that was of the Christian faith. It was God's doing, God's timing, and God's purpose that he chose Paul. There's no other reason behind it that you can ever come up with. So God does choose his people. And he does it in his timing and in his way. So if he has chosen you to do a certain thing in your life, then, hey, be thankful that he chose you to do it. Any questions on that? There seems to be a lot of confusion about that. So many people out here are teaching, well, you're the person that has to do it. Well, God has a purpose in there too. And I don't care where you are or what you're doing, what position you're in, if God has a specific purpose for you in His ministry, be aware He can get your attention many ways. Verse 17. delivering thee from the people, from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee." This is going to be your mission, Paul. I'm sending you to the Gentiles. To open their eyes. Here's what you're going to do. You're going to open their eyes and to turn them from the darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me." That is a huge stake. I don't want to rush over what Christ is telling Paul here now. Listen to this. Let's go back over these points. It's important. You're going to deliver these people here, the Gentiles who don't know anything about me, you're going to go to the Gentiles. He was the apostle to the Gentiles. I'm sending you there now. This is your mission. I want you to open their eyes, to turn them from the darkness to light. Anything other than Christ is darkness. All of these religions, philosophies, theologies, and everything else that is in the world is darkness. There's no light in any of them. And from the power of Satan, these people are held in the grasp of Satan. And the one thing he wants mankind to not do is to find the truth. You know, I tell people all the time, I sat with a young man in my office, in my study at home the other night, And we were talking about this very thing. And he's in college. And I said, you know, one of the greatest things that Satan does is he's not out here in the bars. He's out here trying to take people like you and keep you from growing in grace and knowledge. He doesn't want you to learn about Christ. He doesn't want you to become spiritually strong. He wants to keep you weak and in darkness and not knowing the truth of his word. That's Satan's purpose today. So if you think you're getting hounded by him and his little dominions, you're probably right. You probably are. And we talked about some of the things that are going on in our colleges today. It's incredible. Darkness is there. Power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, that's the only way you're going to get it, and inheritance among them which are sanctified, or set apart, set aside, by faith that is in me. Christ says, if the faith is in me, I've set you apart and you have an inheritance coming sometime in the future. This is where it's going to come from. It's not going to come from any of these cults. It's not going to come from any of these other groups or from any other theology. It's only going to come from me. Think about Miss Lillian the last time I saw her. She was so weak and so little and so frail. Poor little thing. But I think about now what a grander environment she's living in today and the things that she knows and the things that she sees. If the Lord would let her come back right now, she'd tell all of you, listen, this is truth. Hang on to it. Live for it because the glory is there. But it's only in Christ. Anybody have any questions or comments? Okay. Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but showed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coast of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, and turn to God, and do works meant for repentance. When you turn to God, when you turn to Christ and you make an acceptance of Him as your personal Savior, people should see a change in your life. They should see the difference, how you behave, how you act, how you talk. Everything that you do should start reflecting His glory and not your old life. There should be evidence of it. You know, James said in his book, he says, you show me your Christianity basically by your life is what you've got to do. And I'll show them by my works of my life. So you've got to change. For these causes, the Jews caught me in the temple and went about to kill me. Now, Agrippa, this is the whole reason I'm here, for these things. this vision that I've had, the truth I believe of the Old Testament, as we call it today, writings, this is the reason I'm here before you. That's what I'm accused of. Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue on to this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than these which the prophets and Moses did say should come. He said, listen, because of the grace of God, I'm still here. I'm standing before you right now. I'm not dead. God has protected me to this point, and I'm here now declaring these things of the old writings of the prophets and the new revelation that Christ has given us today that we're going about spreading through the Roman Empire. that Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead and should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles. Now remember, the resurrection of Christ had not been long, probably 30 years or so from the time we're talking right now. Those people who lived in Jerusalem knew all about it. King Agrippa knew all about it. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Sanhedrin council knew all about this doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They knew all about it. It wasn't something that was kept in the dark. It was widespread. Any questions? So Agrippa knew what he was talking about. And as he thus spoke for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Thou art beside thyself. Much learning doth make thee mad." And old Festus there, he couldn't hear anymore. He says, Paul, you're talking like a mad man. My goodness, what you're saying is just so far out. You have lost your mind with this thing that you're carrying on. Let me tell you something. When I became a Christian and I started studying the Bible and I started witnessing to my sister and my dad and my mother, My dad made fun of me and he said the same thing to me. I never will forget the day he told me. He says, you are going to drive yourself insane studying that Bible. You will go crazy. And he told all my friends, he said, he's lost his mind. He's absolutely gone off the deep end. My sister did too. I called her one day and I said, sis, let me tell you, I finally found the truth. I've been looking for it. I've tried everything you can think of. All the cults, all the... I studied them. I studied all the religions of the world, the Buddhism, Confucius. I've studied all of them. But I never could... I could always find something wrong with them. I called my sister one day, and now we'll get to the conversation. I said, hey sis, I finally found the truth. She said, oh no, you don't know one of these tangents. Let me hear what this one is. I said, sis, this is not a tangent. I said, I finally found the truth that I knew existed in this world. But I finally found, I want you to listen to me. So she did. And I kept talking to her and finally, a couple of months later, she made a commitment to Christ. And I will tell you today, she's one of the sweetest witnessing Christian ladies living today. If you could meet her. You would just love her because she is as sweet as she can be. Loves the Lord. Witnesses to everybody. But it changed her life too. But my dad, I know what this is like because my dad called all my friends. I had them call me. What have you done now? What are you into now? I said, let me tell you something. I found the truth and I'm not turning loose of it right now. So anyway, Fessler accuses Paul. I said, Paul, you're just going to go crazy. But he said, I am not man, most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness. I'm going to have to stop for time's sake right now. Does anybody have any questions or comments over what we've covered? I mean, it's amazing that Paul's life, there's so much about him that we don't know, but there is a lot that we do know. And we see the change that God wrote in his life, just like every one of us can look back. You wouldn't be sitting here today if there hadn't been a change in your life somewhere. You'd be doing something else or somewhere else rather than sitting in here and listening to a teaching of God's word. But we're here because we made a change in our life. Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for this lesson. All the many blessings that you have granted us. especially the truth of your word. Lord, help us to take it and spread it among the people that we meet, the ones that you bring our way, Lord, for all these ones that are in the dark. Feel so sorry for them, Lord, that they don't know the truth. But use us in any way you see fit. Be with our sick ones and our needy ones, Lord. Thank you for listening to us. In Jesus' name, we ask these things. Amen. Y'all have a great week and call me if you need me.