Today we're going to be starting into Acts chapter 25. Yes, Acts chapter 25 already. And today we're going to be looking at the arrival of the new governor. There's a new governor in town. We're going to be looking at Festus. Where we ended in verse 27 of chapter 4, we see that for two years, Paul was left by Felix. Governor Felix in confinement there in Caesarea. So we pick it up here, we have a new governor in town, a new regime, a new people in town who are going to straighten things out for Nero. So let's turn to chapter 25. And today we're just going to be covering the first probably 12 verses will be today. But let's read the entire chapter and we'll get the context. Starting with verse number 27 of chapter 4. says, but after two years, Portius Festus came into Felix's room, and Felix, willing to show the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound. Now, when Festus was coming to the province, after three days he ascended from Caesarea to Jerusalem. Then the high priest and the chief of the Jews informed him against Paul and besought him, and desired favor against him that he would send for him to Jerusalem, laying wait in the way to kill him. But Festus answered that Paul should be kept at Caesarea, and that he himself would depart shortly tither. Let them therefore, said he, which among you are able, go down with me, and accuse this man, if there be any wickedness in him. And when he had tarried among them more than ten days, he went down into Caesarea, and the next day, sitting on the judgment seat, commanded Paul to be brought. And when he was come, the Jews which came down from Jerusalem stood round about and laid many and grievous complaints against Paul, which they could not prove. While he answered for himself, neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Caesar have I offended anything at all. But Felix, willing to do the Jews a pleasure, answered Paul and said, Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these things before me? Then said Paul, I stand at Caesar's judgment seat, where I ought to be judged. To the Jews have I done no wrong, as thou very well knowest. For if I be an offender, or have committed anything worthy of death, I refuse not to die. But if there be none of these things whereof these accuse me, no man may deliver me unto them. I appeal unto Caesar.' Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, Hast thou appealed unto Caesar? Unto Caesar shalt thou go. And after certain days, King Agrippa and Bernice came unto Caesarea to salute Festus. And when they had been there many days, Festus declared Paul's cause unto the king, saying, There was a certain man left in bonds by Felix, about whom, when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, desiring to have judgment against him. To whom I answered, It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have license to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him. Therefore, when they were come tither, without any delay on the morrow, I sat on the judgment seat and commanded the man to be brought forth. Against when the accusers stood up, they brought none accusation of things as I supposed, but had certain questions against him of their own superstition and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive. And because I doubted of such manner of questions, I asked him whether he would go to Jerusalem and there be judged of these matters. But when Paul had appealed to be reserved unto the hearing of Augustus, I commanded him to be kept till I might send him to Caesar. Then Agrippa said unto Festus, I would also hear the man myself to-morrow, and he though shall hear him. And on the morrow, when Agrippa was come and Bernice with great pomp, and was entered into the place of hearing with the chief captains and principal men of the city at Festus' commandment, Paul was brought forth. and Festus, and King Agrippa, and all men which are here present with us, ye see this man about whom all the multitude of the Jews have dealt with me, both at Jerusalem, and also here, crying that he ought not to live any longer. But when I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death, and that he himself had appealed to Augustus, I have determined to send him, of whom I have no certain thing to write unto my Lord. Wherefore, I have brought him forth before you, and specifically before thee, O King Agrippa, that after examination, had I might have somewhat will to, for it seemed to be unreasonable to send a prisoner and not withal to signify the crimes held against him." And Lord, we just pray that you would add your blessing to your word this morning, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So the story seems to be the same story wherever Paul goes. No matter what, the Jews are after him, no matter what. So we look at verse number one. Verse number one, Festus came down into the province. After three days, he ascended from Caesarea to Jerusalem. So we see this quick action by Festus. He is no sooner takes the seat of Felix and immediately after three days he goes to Jerusalem. Caesarea was the political capital of the region of Judea and yet Jerusalem was what we would call the religious capital. The state of New York always comes to my mind. What's the capital of of New York, Albany. A lot of people would say New York because it's the financial capital of Albany. But New York, New York is that financial center and Albany is the provincial capital. You know, much like Quebec, Quebec City, or not Quebec City, that's not the capital of Quebec. It is. Ottawa, that's Ontario, that's the capital of the whole country in Ottawa. But the reality is here was this pressing notion that was taking place that Festus would immediately go and leave his place and go up and find out what was going on in Jerusalem. Evidently, he had gotten word of these problems with the Jews and Felix hasn't taken care of it. Felix, as we saw last week, was incredibly corrupt. He left Paul in lockup, I'll call it lockdown, for two years or so, but he would come and visit him often, and what did he try to do? He tried to extract the bribe from him. This was how Felix operated. Felix was as corrupt as anything. Now we enter here, we have Festus. who was only in power for about two years, it was kind of like two years of lawfulness actually in the region, for about two years before he died. And then he was taken, his office was taken over again after that. So Felix Felix had been taken out of office. Notice it says later in this chapter, it talks about Augustus. Augustus is long gone at this time, but evidently, like a lot of things, how many people have ever traveled over a bridge that's named after a politician? So we have this seat that's named now after Augustus, you know, in his name. So we have, when it says Augustus, at the end of the chapter, Augustus is gone, the emperor is Nero, who's in office right now, but he's on the seat of Augustus. Just like it happens in a lot of occasions here. We go to memorial this and memorial that, things that are named on behalf of politicians and leaders. So we have that going on. Nero had taken Felix out of office. He said, listen, you haven't gotten this thing done like you were supposed to do. This problem with the Jews keeps on coming up. So what did he do? He did like a chicken would do. He just hid Paul for two years and said, it's going to go away. This problem is going to go away. If they'll forget, we'll just keep them locked up. The Jews will forget about Paul. Certainly. What happened, we see later on, they didn't. Right away, they're going after Festus, that he needs to take care of him. Get Paul to come here. So we can hear him better, and what were they doing in verse number 2? Or verse number 3, they were lying in wait in the way to kill him. Same old, same old problem that Paul has always faced from these rejecters of his message. So we have Felix being gone, Festus taking over, and still the Jews had this conspiracy to kill Paul. So after two years, the Jews still harbored this hatred and bitterness toward him, if not more so. This bitterness, this hatred they had for Paul wouldn't get better, it would only get worse and worse until they had their man and he was out of the way. That's how bitterness works out. Bitterness. The book of Hebrews. Let's go to Hebrews 12. That's what we're going to look at. Why did the Jews continue to reject Paul, reject the message of the Gospel? Well, number one, Christians were given to provoke Israel to jealousy. That's one thing that happens. Let's go to the book of Hebrews for a second. Hebrews 12. Hebrews chapter number 12. Look at verse number 12. Think of this, the Hebrews going through trials. It says, wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees. In other words, think of what's happening. Lift up your hands. You have hope. You have security in Christ. And make straight paths for your feet, lest thou which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. Verse 14 says, follow peace with just your favorite people. Now, follow peace with all men, even those that would persecute you, even those that would kill you, even those that would have you brought into the courts and judge you unlawfully, unrulefully. Is that a word? Unrulefully? It is now. So follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord." You know, it's a good principle right there that's available, even accessible for us. The only way that we can treat even the enemies that we have is with grace and with holiness. I still immediately, if I'm wrong by somebody, I immediately want to punch them in the nose. That's our natural instinct. But yet, as we grow in the grace of God, we realize that's not the way we deal with things. We deal with things with grace. Our speech, seasoned with salt. We do good, as in Romans chapter 14, we do good even to those who hate us. And what does that say? By doing good to those that despise us. It's like putting heaps of coals on their heads. That is so true. I've done that quite often. And when people are looking for a rise out of you and you give them grace, they don't know what to do. They're held back. They're like, wait a minute. I'm looking, I've got my hands up, I want to go here and what are you doing to me? I don't know how to take this. So this is the attitude that they would have. So follow peace with all and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. By grace are ye saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not that any man may boast. We're all equal in this. game called life that we have. But v. 15, look at this, "...look indiligently, lest any man should fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing above trouble you, and thereby many be defiled." So this root of bitterness, I like how the term root of bitterness, because what do roots do? Roots are good at taking root. Do you ever wonder why the good plants have roots that you can access and there's weeds that you can keep on pulling them out of the ground and they'll keep on coming? Because those roots take root. And a good tree with good fruit has good roots. So here's what was happening with the Jews. They had bitterness. This bitterness wouldn't disappear over this two-year period of time, so they still held all of these things against the Apostle Paul. It was a rejection that they had deep-seated in their hearts for him, for his message. And perhaps, I was reading through Psalms the other day, and I'm thinking, perhaps Paul had a psalm in mind. I think Paul knew his Old Testament pretty well. He was scholarly. I heard a while back ago, there was a quote, allegedly by Gamaliel, talking about how Paul, no matter where he went, he was like this. He had his nose in reading, and he had such a collection of books, of scrolls, that it was hard to get him out of it. He had such knowledge of so many different things. That's why Paul could address the things of Rome. He understood Roman law. And we see the use of Roman law here in chapter 25 as well, which is also where a lot of our law is derived, where Paul went before his accusers. But let's go over to Psalm 64. And while we're in Psalm 64, think of what Paul is going through here. It's a short psalm. Now if I were to say that Psalm 119 was a short psalm, you could throw something at me, but Psalm 64, And while we're here, think about where Paul is and what he's dealing with. He says, Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer. Preserve my life from fear of the enemy. Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked, from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity, who wet their tongue like a sword and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words. that they may shoot in secret at the perfect. Suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not. They encourage themselves in an evil matter. They commune of laying snares privily. They say, Who shall see them?" Obviously, Paul knew that these guys were going to be lying in wait for him, even outside of when he was leaving Corinth and now here. They search out iniquities, they accomplish a diligent search, both the inward thought of every one of them and the heart is deep. But God, I like that, but God shall shoot at them with an arrow, suddenly shall they be wounded. So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves, all that see them shall flee away, and all men shall fear and shall declare the work of God, for they shall wisely consider of his doing. the righteous shall be glad in the Lord and shall trust in Him, and all the upright in heart shall glory." Even with all that going on, Paul, knowing his enemies who had been tracking him throughout all of his journeys, he knew that one day that he would be glad in the Lord. Let me rephrase that. Let me go backwards. He was glad in the Lord, and shall trust in Him, and all the upright in heart shall glory. That's an interesting thing, no matter what happens. See what was going on with Paul? He could glory in the Lord. Not in himself, but in the Lord. We can take that to 2,000 years later today. The righteous can glory in the Lord. We don't have to look back and look at the bitter opposition that's there, but we can glory in what Christ has done in making us, sealing us, making us complete in Christ Jesus. Let's go over to the book of Romans. Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. You can stop me from reading the whole chapter. if you want. Romans 3. By the way, if you were to read chapters 1-4 of the book of Romans, you would be armed enough to preach the Gospel to anybody. You would lay out the sins their sins and lay out the justification by grace through faith. But let's look down at verse number, let's go to verse number 9. What then? Are we better than they? No one know-wise, for we have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips. whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." Cursing and bitterness together. James would say, can cursing and blessing come from the same fountain? No, it can't happen. But that's how people were acting. whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known? There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth shall be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." So he had these people here with bitterness, trying to hold fast to the law and trying to keep the law without faith, so they would naturally continue to hate the message of the Apostle Paul. The root of bitterness. It had taken root and there was no stopping. Have you ever been bitter with somebody? You might be able to understand. Somebody did you wrong and bitterness crept in. And until that bitterness is rooted out, taken out of the way, you're miserable. People are miserable when they're bitter. It affects themselves more than it affects the people they're bitter against. It's a dangerous thing. And it can easily take root. And it will grow unless it's cut off. How is that root of bitterness cut off? We touched on it before while singing. It's cut off by the Gospel. Knowing the completeness that we have in Christ Jesus. Let's go for a second. Let's talk about these These men who wanted to kill Paul, let's go over to Romans 11. It's another section of Scriptures, Romans 9, 10, and 11. Paul takes a brief look at the hope for Israel. The hope of salvation for Israel, which will come. Romans chapter 11 and verse number... Now I want to go to 28, but let's go back to 25. For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles become in. I think that fullness, we won't take the time here, there's different aspects. When all the Gentiles that God is going to save is saved, or after the rapture of the church happens, when that fullness is realized, that hope of glory is realized, and then finally, the program for the Kingdom of Israel will be back commencing. So the fullness of the Gentiles shall be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved that it is written, This shall come out of Zion, the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. See, that verse is why I lean to the rapture and the church will be the fullness of the Gentiles. The church is out of the way and then Jesus Christ is going to come and He's going to deliver His people. He'll deliver the kingdom unto His people. Verse number 27, for this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins. Jeremiah 31, 31, the new covenant takes place when Jesus Christ returns and fulfills that covenant. The new covenant created out of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants together, that new covenant will be for them. Verse number 28 is where I wanted to go to. As concerning the Gospel, they're enemies. Whose enemies? Who are the enemies? Israel. The Jews. Think of those people, those Jews that have been persecuting Paul all along. They're enemies of the Gospel. But there's a reason for that. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes, but as touching the election, they are beloved for the Father's sakes." Don't let a Calvinist get a hold of that verse, because they're going to say, that election is you, the church. That election is the nation. That election is also the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and the elect nation, the elect city of Jerusalem, all wrapped together. Verse number, the end of 28, says, Beloved, for the fathers' sakes, for what fathers? My Bible has a small case F. It's not the father, not God the father, it's the patriarchs. For the fathers' sakes, to where all the promises of the kingdom were given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Verse number 29, one that we like to apply to whatever gifts we have today, but right here, for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. God will fulfill his promise with the nation of Israel. All that he promised to the patriarchs will be fulfilled in the millennial kingdom. of God. Let's finish this in the next few verses. For as ye in time past have not believed God, yet have not now obtained mercy through their unbelief. Praise the Lord for the Jews being set on the side they didn't believe, so God set up this program where the Gentiles could simply believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. What a time it is. What a day of rejoicing. Not that that will be, but what a day of rejoicing we have today that we who were enemies or enmity with God have been made nigh by the blood of Jesus Christ. Even so, have these also now not believed that through Your mercy they also may obtain mercy? The book of Ephesians, chapter number one and chapter two deal with Jew and Gentile becoming one new man. Today there's no separation between Jew and Gentile. Jew and Gentile can be saved in the same way by grace through faith alone. I heard a great analogy, I can't even remember who I heard it from. Why did God separate Jew and Gentile? So He could show them that they are one, eventually. They will all come together through the Gospel, and eventually, in the Millennial Kingdom, they'll come together as one as well. So God separate them. Made the Jew and the Gentile separate to show that they are one. in Christ. That's a miracle right there. Because if it weren't for the rejection of Israel, we would have no hope. We'd have no hope in this world, but our only hope would be to be converted to the Jews' religion and enter that way. That's going to happen during the millennial. If you want to get saved, you need to join Israel. If you want to be an American, Today, you need to have an American passport and you need to go through the proper channels in order to do that, unless you do it illegally. But with God, there is no illegally. There's one way today, it's through Christ alone. In the millennium, there'll be one way, it's through faith in Christ alone as well, but it'll go through the nation of Israel. Amen? I wasn't gonna go there, but I did. Verse number 32, and we'll end here in Romans chapter 11. For God hath concluded them all in belief that he might have mercy upon all. There's no difference. Jew or Greek, Paul has mercy upon, not Paul, God has mercy on all. no matter what. That's the age we're in today. God has mercy upon all that all may believe. The Jews will one day, all Israel will be saved. Does that mean every single person who is a Jew today is saved already? Not at all. I got it. Let's go and let's look ahead to or back to Acts chapter 3. I know we've covered this before. Acts chapter 3, Peter's sermon to these Jews here who are actually rejecting the message of Peter. Rejecting that message of repent and be baptized now because the Lord at that time was thought to be coming back immediately. Thought Jesus would be coming. Get right. Repent. Let's look at Acts 3. Look at verse 19. Actually, let's go back up a little bit more. Let's go to verse 11, then we'll go to end with verse 19. And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's Greatly Wondering. And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people. Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus, whom ye delivered." You guys delivered him. You guys rejected. The Lord of Glory, which actually is a great chess move by God because a chess move in that He got them to crucify the Lord and thus fulfilling His will for the message of salvation to go to all the world. It's a neat ploy that God actually used in this. hath glorified His Son Jesus, whom ye delivered up, and denied Him in the presence of Pilate, when He was determined to let Him go." What did the people say in the presence of Pilate? Crucify Him! Ultimately, that was God's plan. If God didn't plan for Jesus to be crucified, He wouldn't have. The people would have gone along with the program then and rejected Him still. But ye, you Israelites, but ye denied the Holy One. and the just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses. And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see, and know, yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of y'all. And now, brethren, I want that through ignorance you did it, as did also your rulers. But these things which God before had showed by the mouth of all His prophets that Christ should suffer, He hath so fulfilled." Now what should they do? This is the fulfillment of prophecy? Verse number 9 says, Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. When are they going to be blotted out? It says it right here. When the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. See, their sins will be blotted out when the times of refreshing comes from the Lord. When are the times of refreshing? The Pentecostals would say, we're in that time of refreshing. We need a refreshing wave of the Spirit. That time of refreshing is when Jesus Christ comes, touches down on the Mount of Olives, and then brings in the Millennial Kingdom after His judgment. This is the time of refreshment. There are so many scriptures dealing with this throughout all the prophets. about the Lord's return, the Lord's coming, and establishing His kingdom. And He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things. That restitution of all the things, that goes hand in hand with the time of refreshing. The restitution of all things. Read the end of the book of Revelation. Everything that was lost in the fall will be restored. The world will become, as the New Seekers used to say, and the world will be a better place. That will not happen until the Lord comes and establishes His kingdom in His perfect justice. Boy, I hadn't heard that song in a long time. Where was I? Verse 21 again, "...whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began." You can't get around it. Read the prophets. You see this notion of the restitution and times of refreshing when Jesus comes all through the pages. It's amazing how much that stuff is neglected today in the church. It's amazing how everything is about me, myself, and I. About how you can do things and have these blessings, but it all points to the nation of Israel being the head, not the tail, and ruling as God's chosen people once again with their King on His throne in Zion. Verse 22, for Moses truly said unto the fathers, a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me. Him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. Did they listen to him? No. They rejected him. Just as Israel rejected God in the wilderness, so too did His people reject the One that would be a prophet like Moses and God in the wilderness. So too, they would reject this One, this prophet made, that would be like Moses. They rejected Him. But one day, they will not reject Him. They will hear. They will listen. They will obey. I believe that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, there will be those that will supernaturally be able to obey those things in the kingdom. They will be there. They will follow those things that the Messiah brings. Verse number 23, And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed among the people. They're not going to get into the kingdom. They're going to go into outer darkness. They're not going to go in when all the other people are going in who hear that message. Yea, all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after as many have spoken have likewise foretold of these days. Ye are the children of the prophets. Are we children of the prophets? No, the children of the prophets were the nation of Israel. Because unto Israel were the oracles of God given. If you hear a guy claiming, a guy, an American here, claiming on TV that he's a prophet of God, he's a liar right away, even if what he says sounds good. The prophets were all from the nation of Israel. That's written in the Bible. Ye are the children of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, and in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Thy seed. Abraham's seed, which would ultimately be Christ Jesus. Verse number 26, unto you first. Who first? Israel first. Unto you first, God having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you in turning away every one of you from His iniquities, if they had only received Him then. But God knew that He wouldn't. What foreknowledge He wouldn't. If the nation had received Him, they would have immediately gone in to the days of fibrillation. They would immediately see the full fulfillment of Joel 2 and chapter 3 if they had believed Peter's message in Acts 2. Let's go back to our text. Back in Acts 20. You know what I've learned through the years? That pronouns are important. We need to know who we and they and us are talking to because we and they and us aren't always us. We and they and us are speaking to specific audiences. Back to our chapter. Back to our chapter, yeah. Back to chapter 25 of the book of Acts. So the Jews in chapter 3, they were looking for favor. Their bitterness was so much harbored still against Paul that they wanted to have a pretense of them wanting to do the right thing and they go immediately to Festus, but they were at the same time lying in wait to kill him. In verse 4, And five, we have Festus being very, very reasonable with how he responds. But, Festus answered that Paul should be kept at Caesarea and that he himself would depart shortly tither. Let them therefore, said he which among you are able, go down with me and accuse this man if there be any wickedness in him. So Paul says, no, I need to meet with him first. If you guys have something, you need to face him yourself. You need to accuse him to the face in a public setting. And we'll see what happens. Festus goes on the bema seat, the seat of judgment. He becomes, the Catholic Church uses the term ex cathedra. When a priest puts on his collar, he now becomes the power. And so too, when the governor sat on that BEMA seat, he was there for business. Court has adjourned. Remember the old, the British judges, they put on the white hat, the white wig, and once they put that wig on, they were here. They meant business. They were going to go into the judging that needed to be done. Verse 6, this has all been repeated before. And when he had tarried among them more than ten days, he went down into Caesarea, and the next day, sitting on the judgment seat, commanded Paul to be brought. So here he is on that bema seat, on that seat, and as the official, as he's doing business, he commands Paul. After ten days, he came back to Caesarea. So he spent some time in Jerusalem. Verse number 7, And when he was come, the Jews which came down from Jerusalem stood round about and laid many and grievous complaints against Paul, and look at the end, which they could not prove. They had circumstantial evidence as they had before back in Jerusalem. We saw Him in the temple. He brought a Gentile in the temple with Him. He faced the temple, all which were lies. He's telling people to hate the law of Moses. All lies. And they were keeping on with the same old lies that they could not prove. There's an old adage about lies. When somebody lies, you have to keep on telling more lies to keep up the original lie. So you have lies, lies, lies, lies. So look at verse number 8. Here's Paul, his answer to them. While he answered for himself, Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Caesar have I offended anything at all." He said, I'm innocent before you. You guys know that you're lying and keep on bringing up the same lies. Then Festus jumps in in verse number 9. But Festus, willing to do the Jews a pleasure, He wanted to satisfy their concerns. He wanted to do the Jews a pleasure. Answered Paul and said, wilt thou go up to Jerusalem and there be judged of these things before me? What do you think Paul's answer was? No, because Paul knows exactly what's going on. Paul knows they've laid in wait for him on various occasions or were going to kill him. So Festus tries to, you know, nip this whole situation in the bud. Placate the Jews. If I make the Jews happy, I'm happy, Nero's happy, everybody's happy and we can move along. But Paul did the right thing and said no. Today, Much like Felix failed and that he just tried to dish things out of the way, Festus tries to placate the Jews, tries to make them happy. You know, there's no way that you can make everybody happy. You ever tried to make people happy? Wives try it all the time. You find out you make five people happy and two people aren't happy, right? It happens all the time. By placating different groups as being most favored to have more rights, you do a disservice to all. We see the same thing happening here in the United States. Founded upon law, don't follow law, let's make new laws that favor other people. Thereby making the people who you're not favoring, you make them as the wrong ones. Same thing can be said too in church, in ministry today. I can't think of the last time I did any kind of five-week message on how to overcome debt or overcome things. See, these are different problems that take place among believers. All of us have different problems. Amen? All of us have different good things going on. There's not a single one of us that are completely the same. Dare I say that? We're all different. But what happens is there are many churches, religions that will set about to solve people's problems. Well, let's solve the problem with debt. Let's have Financial Peace University and we'll do a five week service about how you can be debt free. Let's have three or four weeks we're going to do about overcoming stress. That makes me stressful, by the way. All these different things. I think I told Matt I was going to talk about Matt Imbodie. I'll talk about you if you want. Matt Imbodie has been sharing on Facebook about his struggles with the loss of Denise. And he wrote one, he wrote one he hadn't written in a while. You don't mind me saying this, I already mentioned it the other day that I was going to, right? It's on Facebook, it's in public. If you go on Facebook you can see and I replied and everything this morning to him, I just read it this morning. But the conclusion that Matt has in going through this is that everybody goes through grief in totally different ways. There's no one stop, there's no one cure-all of overcoming grief. Everybody's different. And grief isn't something that you overcome. Grief is chronic. No matter what, people show it in different ways. Same with other things in our Christian walk. We all have problems. We all have different problems. So the thing that we need to do as believers, as Bible-believing Christians, is not to try to analyze the individual problems and come up with a solution. But you know what the thing that we need to do? Is stick with the Word of God. The Word of God, it just does something. When you grow in the Word, we can't explain exactly what happens, but you have this peace that passeth all understanding. Even among the clouds of despair and gloom, we have hope in that this light shines through. That's what we ought to be doing. Study. Paul told Timothy, preach the word. Be instant in season and out of season. Rebuke. Exhort. I can't remember the rest right now. I'm having a senior moment. That's one of my problems right there. But all of us are totally different. But the Word of God is what we need. At the beginning of the year we set out, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understandings. In all thine ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct our paths. Every person has a unique walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. So what we need as believers, as people who minister the Word, is to just teach the Word as it is. Without an ulterior motive of trying to fix people's problems. No matter what you try, people are going to have problems. But in this life, how to deal with it. I told Matt, grief is chronic. It's something you may have or will have with you all the time. Different people deal with things different ways. Some people respond in different ways. So it's not our duty to try to solve that, but the Lord Himself can. You know, all of us as well, no matter what, is add your own chronic disease, your chronic problem that you have, And it's the same answer no matter what. We're all there. Some of us have problems, physical problems, that'll be with us. I was talking to Matt at the same time. I keep on bringing you up here, too. I think of my dad. I don't think my dad has shown any signs of of really missing my mom who passed away in 2007. He shows, he does, but he just shows it differently than others. He has chronic problems. He has chronic, he's kind of getting old age. He has chronic problems that I go, I've had those problems for years. You're 86. Get over it. It's wrong of me to do that, but that's how I feel. But we all have chronic things that happen. And the remedy we have to deal with those chronic issues is sanctification. And knowing the Lord more and more, growing in Him and growing in His Word, that's the only solution we have. And the only thing that we can present. Amen? I know one thing, one chronic disease that's been eradicated actually. That's the disease of sin. Our old man is dead. He's been crucified on the cross. Yet, and so we have this power to live according to that. Yes, our flesh is still with us. Our flesh still aches, it still grieves, it still is in pain. But yet, one realizes that the old man That man of sin has been crucified with Christ and we can live in the power of that resurrection as new creatures. We can get over. Get over it's wrong too, but we can. We can get through it all. So we live with the hope and the expectation that Jesus Christ. Is. are going to deliver us physically as well. Amen? So stick with the Word of God. We all have our own problems. God has one solution. It's to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So closing it up, verses 10 and 11 says, Then said Paul, I stand at Caesar's judgment seat, where I ought to be judged. To the Jews have I done no wrong, as thou very well knowest. For if I be an offender or have committed anything worthy of death, I refuse not to die. But if there be none of these things whereof these accuse me, no man may deliver me unto them. I appeal unto Caesar. I'm innocent. If I were guilty of their accusations, I deserve death, as we all deserve death for our sin. In verse 12, in closing, then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, hast thou appealed unto Caesar? Unto Caesar shalt thou go. He got his cabinet together and said, what do you guys think? Yeah, let him go to Caesar. So we leave Paul there. Yet, with the bitter enemies of the Jews still around, he appeals to Caesar, and the miraculous trip to Rome will begin shortly. Be boarding a cargo vessel full of wheat in the upcoming days, after he meets with both Festus and King Agrippa in the next chapter and a half. What do we have? We have this reliance upon God, reliance upon His Word, and that's what we have to get through. Paul's reliance was his revelation of Christ that told him he was going to go to Rome. How he gets there, God knows. He will use his next trip there, providentially, to do his purpose. Amen.