When Delay Hardens the Heart | Acts 24:22–27 | Alex Sands

Welcome to the Kingdom Life podcast.

What happens when that makes the truth clear?

We keep putting off our response.

24.

22.27.

I'll speak about control.

It is not a call to respond.

I'm going to make something clear.

The question is not whether you understand it.

The question is how we do keep saying now.

Now Pastor Alex with today's message from Acts 24, 22 through 27.

The book of Acts is the only purely historical book in the New Testament.

The genre is history.

It's the first 30-something years of the church's existence.

From Jesus ascending to glory up for 30 years, and the apostle Paul able to continue to teach unhinderedly, which we will get to when we get into Acts 28.

But it's about this advance, and we would not be able to call Jesus, be here today and call Jesus the Lord, except what the Lord did through Acts.

Because Acts is really the continuing work of Jesus through the apostles, the Holy Spirit, working through the apostles and continuing the work, seeking and saving those that are lost.

And that those who are lost could say, How great is our God.

Today we are in Acts chapter 22, excuse me, 24, verses 22 through 27.

Acts 22 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 24, verses 22 through 27.

Acts 24:22–27

That's what we're where we'll be today.

And one of the things about teaching, preaching is you can study and study, and you know what the text says, but that doesn't mean you have a message.

You have gone down and you've done all of the digging and all the exposition, everything else.

I know what the text says, I know what historically it meant, but Lord, what is the word today?

And God doesn't tell you when He's gonna give it to you.

And then also, okay, Lord, how do I deliver that?

That's another whole prayer, prayer thing, too.

So that's where I've been at up to about an hour and a half ago.

I know the message, I know all the points, everything else.

I just didn't know how to go to it.

And then the Lord told me, I'm like, please don't let me.

No, I don't want to do that.

I realize why God didn't tell me a week ago because I would have talked myself out of it.

But here it is.

Alright, gotta be honest, gotta be straight up.

And maybe you you will be able to relate to this.

Uh, I've been getting a call on my phone.

A call that I don't want to take.

And I have not been taking the call.

I'm due for colonoscopy.

How many of you have had uh colonoscopy?

Let me just get all right.

I've had two, at least two so far.

If you had one, you know sometimes your memory's foggy once it's but I've had at least two.

My first one was when I was 40 years old.

Yep.

And I that was, you know, good 15, 16 years ago.

And the experience, I know what people try to tell, but I didn't know.

Because see, when you do a colonoscopy, you gotta be flushed out.

So you can't eat during that period, and they gave me a gallon jug, add water, shake it, and drink very close to the bathroom.

All right.

Do they still do the the the gallon?

Oh, see, now I really don't want to go.

Oh, you shake it, you shake it, you drink, you have to drink the whole thing for the afternoon, and you you understand things loosen up.

Oh gosh.

You can't eat or anything else, and then you go, whenever it is in the morning, whatever your appointment is, you go, and and they give you some nice stuff though.

It puts you out and all of that.

But it's it's uh it's preventative, cold uh prevent colon cancer.

I have preached on it before years ago.

Do it.

Especially men, do it.

Take the time, do it, and so on.

But it it isn't pleasant.

And for me, it's very important because my my brother that was closest to me in age, Craig, he was nine years older than me.

He passed away 15 years ago from colon cancer.

He didn't get to 50.

I'm 56, I've had more years than Craig had.

He was my big brother, literally.

But he was like my hero, again, nine years older than me, and it took him out.

Hence, I've been getting them since I was 40 because I had an exemption.

I got them early.

But that again doesn't mean I really want to do it.

I know it's important, but this message comes in.

And have you ever just looked at a message, looked at who's calling or or gotten a bill in the mail or some kind of court?

You look at it and you just say, not now.

You're not saying no.

Just not now.

I've been getting these calls for at least six months.

Like you had come.

See, this is why I didn't want to say anything.

Is Shauna back there?

Oh.

I ain't telling her about these calls.

But I'm due.

And Brother Ken is like, you need to do this.

You need to do it, I need to do it.

But there's something about just saying, I don't want to, and it's real easy to say, not now.

Not right now.

I'm busy, I got this going on, not now.

And I believe everything's gonna be fine.

I'm going to do it.

Now I've had that extra conviction I'm going to get it done.

And it's really important for health reasons, physical health reasons.

But spiritually, we can tell God, not now.

Because it sounds better than saying no.

But the reality is oftentimes, not now is really no.

Maybe it's a difficult conversation you need to have with somebody and the Lord has been prompting your heart to do it.

It's real easy to say not now.

Just not now.

You can convince yourself that oh, I'm not, I'm gonna do it eventually, but just not now.

Maybe it's a relationship that God has told you has been pulling you away from him.

And you've got to have that difficult conversation with a person.

I don't want to let go, just not now.

That's not now.

The message for today is listen, the message for today is saying no today hardens your heart tomorrow.

Because underneath the not now is an assumption that your heart is going to be in the same place at some point later.

The reality is the more you say not now, the heart changes.

And so when it comes time, you still need to do it, and if you keep pushing it off, it doesn't get easier to do.

Delayed obedience doesn't mean easier obedience by any stretch of the imagination.

So let's just go to the quick uh kingdom truth.

Truth resisted today, hardens the heart tomorrow.

Uh again, you can check out the sermon notes.

This is all there.

You can fill it in.

Truth resisted today, hardens the heart tomorrow.

This is throughout scripture, you find this Old Testament, New Testament.

You can read Israel's history, you can read about them and their resistance to God, and a heart gets hardened, hardened, and more and more resistant to the Holy Spirit, to the Lord speaking and leading.

Here are a couple passages, Hebrews chapter 3, verses 7 and 8.

Hebrews 3:7

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness.

God's word to Israel.

And repeated and quoted in Hebrews.

Romans chapter 2, verses 4 and 5.

Romans 2:4

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.

God's patience through the seasons of no, not now, just not right now, right now.

God's patience in doing that isn't intended for us to continue to stay there in that no.

It's intended for us to experience and repent.

That we have time to turn, but it's not a license to sin.

Now, please don't misunderstand uh what I'm saying.

It's it's having a season or or being disobedient for a certain period doesn't mean the door's closed to grace.

Just because you're different, you you you may uh say no, it doesn't mean that no is permanent.

Even if you haven't if you haven't given your life to Christ, today is the day of salvation.

You've been given today.

Take advantage of today.

If you're even considering, considering today, that means God is still drawing you.

Today is the day.

So don't think that, well, I've just had so many notes.

Don't let the devil tell you that your heart is so hard you can't respond.

If you're even thinking about responding, that's the Holy Spirit.

So we don't want to go in that direction.

We don't, we also don't want to have in our hearts and in our minds, we will always have a chance tomorrow.

That's what we see today is we look at a man named Felix and how he responds in his head and in his heart over an extended course of time.

He's a perfect example, a perfect illustration of how truth resisted today hardens the heart tomorrow.

If that truth isn't responded to, there's a danger that over time just never will break through.

So today let's remember where we are.

Where we are is the Apostle Paul has been brought before governor Felix by the uh Roman commander Lysias for Paul's protection and also to keep there from being so much unrest in Jerusalem.

The the Roman commander, the head over all the troops, you know, in Jerusalem, he had him sent to Felix the governor.

And he told the Jews who were trying to, you know, move on and uh push him towards executing Paul.

Well, he told them, you're gonna have to present this to Felix.

They had wanted to kill Paul, you know, in the middle of the night or when he was being transported.

They tried to have this scheme and and God blocked it.

Then he's before Felix, and last time, as we talked about, you had the high priests who came, elders who came, basically the the big wigs of the Jewish religious high council.

They make the 60-some mile trip from Jerusalem to Felix, and they go and they go, and Paul is there, and they hired this high-powered attorney who was very skilled in rhetoric and how to present cases.

They paid top dollar for Tertulus.

And we talked about last time how all that he had said followed along the typical structure of how uh how cases were presented.

Tertulus comes and he uses flattery and he talks about, oh, your wonderfulness and your greatness and so on, the wonderful things.

He tries to flatter Felix to get it to sway him into finding Paul guilty.

Then they came up with all kinds of lies that Paul was involved in uh in rioting, sedition, subversion, and sacrilege.

He was leading people to riot, rioting himself, a ringleader of this nefarious sect known as the Nazarenes, and tried to profane the temple, and we saved the day.

See, the problem was they didn't have any evidence.

They had no eyewitnesses because none of it happened.

And Paul got up, he had his chance.

I'm so glad that I had this opportunity to share because you've been in your position for a long time.

No flattery, nothing like that.

And he says that basically they don't have any eyewitnesses.

I wasn't doing that.

This is what I've done, da-da-da-da.

But he interjects the core truth of the gospel, the resurrection, Jesus Christ.

That there was a resurrection, this is the hope that we've been waiting for, and all of the fathers, all of them and waiting for.

That's in essence, Jesus.

And he says the resurrection of the just and the unjust.

He didn't have to go that route, but Paul always took advantage of the moments that he had to interject Jesus, the hope of the resurrection, he would bring that into the conversation.

He's done that.

He he mentions again, this is what I'm guilty of.

He talks about this.

I'm only guilty of proclaiming the truth about the resurrection.

That's where we left off.

And now we have Felix.

He says in verse 22, but Felix, and listen to how Luke does this, Luke, the author of the Gospel of Luke and Acts, Felix having a rather accurate knowledge of the way.

Having a rather accurate knowledge of the way.

Put them off, saying, When Lysaus, the tribune, comes down, I will decide your case.

Lysaeus was the tribune, that Roman commander.

When he comes, then I'll decide your case.

Then he gave orders to the centurion that he should be kept in custody, but have some liberty, and that none of his friends should be kept in custody.

Excuse me, that he should be kept in custody, but have some liberty, and that none of his friends should be prevented from attending to his needs.

That sounds all well and good, and it is, in the sense of Paul being granted favor.

Once again, God is providing for his the man of God, God watches out for him.

He's in protective custody.

But our attention this morning is on Felix.

Felix has an accurate knowledge of the way.

And the way is believers.

We talk about Christians, they describe themselves as followers of the way because there's only one way to God.

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

They were followers of the way.

Well, Felix had an accurate knowledge of the way.

For one reason at least, we'll get to a second reason here shortly, but for one reason at least, he has been the governor of a region that included Judea for years.

So he's very familiar with the Jews.

Judea was the region that Jerusalem was located in.

So he was very familiar with the Jews and their hopes of the Messiah.

And there were thousands of Christians in Jerusalem.

Thousands got saved on the day of Pentecost.

Thousands more.

So he is very familiar with Christians.

He's familiar with the way.

Again, he's been around it for years.

And he knows enough to know that those folks aren't seditious.

Christianity is some 20 years old at this point.

They're not trying to bring riots.

He knows that.

He knows that there's no subversive work being done and motivated by Christians.

They think of themselves as having another king, but they're not trying to revolt.

And he knows the character of Christians, and he understands, look, Paul, if he was up to something, he would have done it a long time ago.

He knows it's all lies.

He's been told, look, Paul won the whatever you want to call it, a a case, a dispute.

It's over because they didn't have, they being the accusers, had no eyewitnesses.

There's nothing here.

And the the big, you know, the one piece, if he didn't have anything else, he had that letter from Lysias that said, there's no reason, there's no guilt in him, this is just a matter of their religion and nothing for me to intervene in.

They stayed away from religious debates.

So he had that word from Lysias.

He knows there's nothing to this.

So the right thing to do, especially considering that Paul is a Roman citizen, the right thing to do, would we say, dismissed?

Paul, innocent.

You haven't brought any credible, uh, any credible witnesses to this.

You have nothing here.

Case dismissed, Paul, you're free.

That was the that would have been the right thing to do.

See, Felix has a problem.

Because there are at least three options.

One is to let him go.

The problem with letting him go, though, is you have all of these high-powered Jewish leaders here, including the high priest, who are all present, and his one responsibility was to maintain the peace of Rome.

No riots.

His one job is to keep the tax dollars flowing, maintain the peace.

And the thing about those Jewish leaders is, especially you're talking about the high priests and the others, they have influence.

They could stir up something.

He doesn't want them on his bad side.

Politically, it's not a good move for him.

Politically, career-wise, to get on their bad side, who knows what will happen once they leave?

Who knows what they're going to say?

What the word is going to go out about me.

So that's the problem with letting Paul go.

Those political ramifications that could happen.

But then if he falls, the second option is to find Paul guilty, but if he finds Paul guilty, he's a Roman citizen.

He has certain rights and protections and etc.

What if that were to get out?

Because Lysias knew it and he included it in the letter.

The centurions knew it, the ones that were there that day when Paul had, you know, was beaten half to death, and that word has gotten out.

If it gets out that I found a man.

A Roman citizen guilty with no evidence?

That could cost him his head.

He could die for that.

Option number one isn't good.

Option number two isn't good.

What's the third option?

Do nothing.

Don't do anything at all.

Delay.

The phone is ringing.

You see who it is.

I'm not going to answer.

I'm not going to say, I'm just going to delay.

Not now.

Now's not a good time.

What did he do in verse 22?

He put them off.

Put them off.

Saying, when Lysias the tribune comes down, I'll decide your case.

Why?

Lysias is already given his verdict.

He wrote the letter.

There's no need for that.

It's just a convenient way of just saying, of saying, not now.

I don't want to deal with this right now.

To put off means to postpone, defer, or delay a decision.

We're going to suspend this right now for an indefinite season until Lysias comes.

Well, guess what?

Lysias never came.

He didn't get that invitation.

He didn't show up.

Because all of this was to pass it, is to delay, to move this down.

Don't want to talk about this now.

And oh, he gave, you know, nice, you know, gave orders, centurion.

Give him, uh, give him liberty, let folks come and take care of his knees.

You know, prisoners, they didn't have uh, you know, guarantees of food or anything like that, but let his partners come and so forth, don't hinder them.

The right decision would have been he's innocent.

But he knew that could cost him something.

And here is one thing I want you all to keep in mind.

Listen, Kingdom Life application number one is don't use delay to avoid costly obedience.

Sometimes the not now is we know that the right, we know what the right decision is, but we know that's going to be costly.

For Felix, these first two verses, it's all about what he knew.

That's why Luke emphasizes he had an accurate understanding or knowledge of the way.

But knowing doesn't mean you do what's right.

Just because you know what's right doesn't mean you do what's right.

He knew the right thing to do, but he didn't.

So he just delayed.

Now don't hear what I'm not saying.

There is great value in pausing before rushing into a decision.

There is value in taking more time to contemplate.

You know, what could be the ramifications?

There is value in extended time of prayer.

There is value in seeking wisdom from others.

But when you have enough light, i.e., knowledge to make the righteous decision, and you choose not to, that's not discernment, that's fear.

When you say not now, not now, and you know enough, the only reason we're asking for more time to pray is so that we have some more time.

Maybe God will change his mind.

There's a time where it's very clear.

Sometimes things are just very clear in the word, and we have a way of even contorting that.

Well, my situation is a little bit different.

Let's not put anything beyond ourselves.

I don't care how long you've been saved, there is nothing beyond.

There's no sin where, oh, I just would never, don't ever say that.

You just don't, you just haven't been experienced, you haven't had enough situations yet.

There is something out there that if God were just to let I'm done with saying, oh, I would never, oh no.

It's only by the grace of God.

Sometimes it's very clear what to do, but we put things off.

Put it off, put it off.

Again, maybe it's not, oh, maybe it's an apology.

You need to apologize to somebody, but it's going to be a difficult apology, and you don't know how they're going to take it.

I just uh just gonna have to, not now.

Again, might be a relationship, as I shared earlier, you know, opening.

It might be a relationship that you know is pulling away from the Lord.

And Jesus had said in Luke 14, 26 if any man come to me and hate not father and mother, wife, children, sister and brother, even his own wife also, he cannot be my disciple.

I e you have to love me so much that the love for anyone else looks like hate in comparison to the greatness of your love.

But you know, there's this relationship always pulling you away, and the Lord says, distance, ah, I just don't want it, not now.

Maybe shady, something shady happening at the workplace, and God placed you to be light in that workplace, giving you influence, but just not now, not now.

I don't want to do it right now.

That friends, fear operating in a spirit of fear.

Don't use delay to avoid costly obedience because the bottom line is when you do that, when you when you put that off, put it off, put it off.

Delayed obedience is not easier.

In fact, you can say it gets harder.

James 4.17.

Here's where Felix is stuck in between these two things.

James 4.17 says, So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Okay, he knows the right thing to do, not doing it, but the reason why is it's politically not the right thing.

He's I might lose my position.

That's the fear of man.

And scripture says that the fear of man lays a snare.

But whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.

Fear of man, if you get into that fear of man trap, fear of what man's gonna do, it won't let you go.

If you stay there, you you have got to choose this day.

And that's not just about money, that's about any idols.

Who are you going to serve?

Because there always will be a different audience for you to fear, and then you understand eventually they're gonna forget about that last time you did that.

So you the last time you made a compromise, so the compromise is what that just gets worse and worse, and before you know it, you don't even recognize who you are.

Fear of man is a snare.

But trusting in the Lord, and that means you've made God big and man small.

The man, the woman who trusts in the Lord is safe.

Will not get ensnared.

So don't call it discernment when it's really fear, and don't call it patience when the reality is it's just avoidance.

And you know what?

Honestly, you walk with the Lord long enough, you know when you're just deceiving yourself.

Now, maybe you're young in the faith, it'll become clear because the Lord wants you to do his will more than you do.

He'll make it plain.

He'll show you your heart more than anything else that we need.

We need the Lord to show us our hearts.

Now, the second part.

Verses 24 and 25, verses 22 and 23 were about what Felix knew in his mind.

Well, now let's fast forward.

After some days, Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish.

That's interesting.

And he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus.

Now, let me give you a little history lesson about Felix and Drusilla.

Drusilla was uh a young girl when she got married the first time.

She was about 15.

But apparently she was stunning.

Her appearance was just stunning.

Where a man uh married her, Gentile man married her.

And see, look, it's someone in politics, someone like in Felix position, unheard of to marry a Jewish woman.

But Drusilla apparently she had it going on.

Her first husband went and got circumcised.

Grown up man got circumcised so he could marry her and have her be happy and not violate her Jewishness.

I see you, brother.

He's like, uh-uh.

She put that whip appeal on him.

He he just, but you know what?

She wasn't feeling him like that.

Then along comes Felix.

She knocked him out, too.

He's like, I got to have her.

In some kind of way, her first marriage ended up being dissolved, and she became Felix's wife.

So she's still a teenager.

So she becomes Felix's wife.

Felix wanted her.

I've got to have her.

I'll move heaven and earth to obtain her, and she becomes his wife.

At this point, they've been married about four years.

She's still young.

But she has grown up understanding the law.

Because she's Jewish.

She understands what it means.

That's another reason why Felix had an accurate knowledge of the way.

His wife was like having an encyclopedia.

Look at why do y'all do that?

Why that?

Oh, that's the Messiah the Jews are looking for, and the Messiah is this, this, this.

Oh.

Well, apparently they've had a conversation by themselves, and Drusilla wants to meet Paul, and Felix wants to know a little bit more.

So they come.

We've moved away from a courtroom scene in verse 24.

Some days later, it's a private conversation.

You know, at this point, Paul, that's a whole nother day.

We'll talk about that later.

But anyway, this is a private conversation.

Felix summoned Paul because Paul can't come to Felix on his own.

He summons Paul.

And Paul, you know what Paul's going to talk about, right?

You know what to expect.

Heard him speak about what?

Faith in Christ Jesus.

What else is he going to talk about?

I'm sure he talked about man's sin, the sinner.

Talked about God's grace, talked about Jesus, his walk, his teaching, his death, burial, resurrection.

He probably sprinkled in his own conversion story.

I saw him.

I saw him raised from the dead.

But he has three main points to the conversation.

Listen, heard him speak as he did what?

Verse 25?

As he reasoned.

Reason means it wasn't a speech.

Reasons mean it was a dialogue.

He reasoned about three things.

What are they?

Do you see it?

You reasoned about first.

What was the first one?

Righteousness.

Righteousness.

What does righteousness mean?

It means what is right according to God's standard.

What he's talking about in terms of righteousness here, it's not about imputed righteousness, justification, all those things we understand that we have in Christ.

No, he's just talking about there is a right way to do things.

There is right and there is wrong.

Hey, notice, uh, 21st century folks, there is right and wrong.

It seems like a lot of people have lost sight of that.

What's right is to you is that's just personal.

Your truth is your truth, and my truth.

There is truth, and there is right or wrong, and God gets to define it.

Because he made everything.

We talked about this in Bible study.

Gravity.

Gravity wins.

Gravity is gravity.

You can't object to gravity.

Guess what?

You jump off of a building, you're going to fall.

It's a law.

God has laws.

There are spiritual laws as well as natural laws.

Paul talks about righteousness.

What's the second thing he talked about?

Second component of his uh his speech, his talk, is this dialogue, this conversation is self-control.

Self-control is mastery over our desires and passions.

It's not like you don't have desires and passions.

Doesn't mean you'll ever be at a point where you just don't want every, look, no one is Spock or anything, just I don't feel anything.

You do have passions and desires, but you have them under control.

That's self-control.

I gave you the backdrop of Felix and Drusilla to help you to see Paul's conversation is directed right at them.

Felix was known for his treachery and his violence.

I shared with you that he was called like a he had been a slave, but he had gotten his liberation.

And somehow he maneuvered his way up to having authority as a governor.

But what was said about him is that he was uh like a king with a slave's mentality.

He was brutal, he was ruthless, he was, he would easily take a bribe.

Paul talks about righteousness, God has a standard.

I.e., you haven't lived up to it.

Second one was was was self-control.

Felix didn't have any self-control.

He saw another man's wife and said, I got to have her.

And and and apparently, you know, Drusilla, she went along with it, and everything is self-control, not there.

And folks knew this was wrong.

Righteousness, self-control, and what was the third one?

Uh-oh.

Oh.

Oh boy.

The coming judgment.

My lord, my lord.

There is judgment coming.

You have authority, Felix, but there's coming a day.

Judgment is coming.

Well, you can see right here, Paul's not trying to save his skin, is he?

Righteousness, God has a standard.

Self-control, you can't do whatever you want to do.

That's that's idolatry.

But you have to exercise self-control, discipline.

You don't do those.

There's coming a judgment, an evaluation.

And you have authority as a judge, but there's an ultimate authority you have to answer to.

Now he doesn't come groveling before Felix and say, please set me free, because Paul knew he had an assignment.

And he gave them truth right where they were.

And he's like, got any questions?

Well, da-da-da-da-da.

Yeah, and da-da-da-da.

And let me get to my third thing, judgment.

Saints, can I tell you this that's what good preaching is?

Good preaching over a sustained period of time isn't just about how all God loves you and He wants everything to just work out for you, and da-da-da.

God, my good preaching is not where you just leave dancing all the time and getting your shout on.

It's not about your feelings.

Good preaching exposites the word, tells you the truth, and sometimes it's, ooh, hallelujah! And sometimes it's like, ouch! I remember one day, you know, criticism is it's not, you're always gonna get criticism, right?

You're gonna get criticism, it's just what are people going to say?

What are they being said?

What's being said?

Because sometimes a criticism is really a pat on the back.

I talked to a lady after service one time and I said, How did you like da-da-da?

She said, Well, it's okay.

I just didn't feel moved, didn't move me.

I said, Really?

Did I not teach her everything?

She said, Yeah, yeah, I just didn't move it.

I was like, okay, praise the Lord.

The goal was not, that was not in the text that morning.

There was nothing to shout about.

So if you came with that expectation, I'm glad I didn't do all of this.

But I'm telling you, I didn't tell her all of this, but understand some criticism, you want the criticism.

If your objective is always to be happy, God's word sometimes convicts, it confronts, and that is what that is the appropriate response.

If y'all feel good, you come every Sunday, 52 Sundays a year, and you always feel great five years later.

I'm doing something wrong.

I'm going through teaching through books and everything.

Oh, this is here.

God's word cuts.

It's sharpening two-edged sword.

We always have room to rejoice in God's grace, but we're confronted.

Paul, understand this is what the word does, and he's not afraid to tell him the truth.

Don't be afraid to tell folks there is judgment coming.

Everybody's not going to heaven.

Because God gives everyone free will.

You can choose to reject God.

If you didn't have a choice to reject God, then that's called, look, that's abuse when you imprison someone.

If he imprisoned you in heaven, that's abuse.

He gives you a choice.

The fact that there is an opportunity to choose another way is another expression of God's love.

Allowing all of us to choose.

Man, look here.

Felix hears this word.

Righteousness, self-control, the coming judgment.

Paul is like, You got any more questions?

What was his response?

What was his reaction?

Felix was what?

What's the King James say?

He trembled.

I like King Jimmy.

That one's a good one.

King James Version says, frightened.

Here is uh the Greek imphobos, phobia, fear.

This word means frightened or struck with fear.

This hit him.

First two verses, 22 and 23, he knew the right thing.

But here, verses 24 and 25, it's hit him in the heart.

Oh, you have head knowledge.

But his heart wasn't upset.

But oh, this got him.

You know the right thing to do, and you have not been doing it, and judgment is coming.

Saints, this is what's called conviction.

Conviction.

And basically conviction, you can think of someone being convicted about something.

It doesn't mean going away to prison, but someone has a conviction, means they understand what is right.

They understand that this is right, and I have a conviction about it that is true.

That's having a conviction.

To be convicted means you know, like you being convicted of something, you know something's right, and you know that you haven't had, when we talk about conviction in a spiritual sense, you know you have not been living up to God's standard.

Natural conviction is different than this spiritual conviction.

But a general conviction is you know you hadn't been right, but there's no permanence to it.

It doesn't last.

It's just I feel bad about it.

The Holy Spirit brings conviction.

When the Holy Spirit brings conviction, you can't stay there.

I mean, it becomes, it becomes just a stir.

You can't.

Here is a definition I found from the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, and I have the full reference to it in the sermon notes, but I really like this and I wanted to share it with you.

Conviction for sin, rebellion against God, involves the Holy Spirit awakening humanity to guilt and condemnation.

It extends beyond mental acknowledgement to engage the whole person, potentially prompting action.

This is the first stage of repentance.

So you have this awakening to guilt.

If it wasn't the Holy Spirit working in somebody's heart, they wouldn't even acknowledge that there is such a thing as sin.

But this acknowledgement of it and this guilt and this understanding of judgment coming.

I'm going to be evaluated by this.

I'm guilty before God.

So it goes beyond a mental acknowledgement and it envelops the whole person.

Felix had knowledge, but at this point, his heart is kicked in as well because he's fearful.

Paul has faced rejection before.

People have rejected the truth and they've laughed, they've scoffed.

We've seen it in Acts 17 when he was in Athens.

What does this babbler have to say?

None of them were afraid like this.

Because this truth has hit home.

Before we go further, I just want to share this part.

Oh, well, no.

Let's go.

I gotta continue.

All right.

What does he say?

He was alarmed, and then he said what after he was alarmed?

Go away.

Go away.

What does he say after that?

Go away for the present.

When I get an opportunity, then I will summon you.

Uh uh just go just go away.

Go back.

Not now.

Just go back.

When I'm ready, I'll summon you.

He had the authority to say, get just go, just go.

It hit him.

But not now.

Not now.

It's the phone ringing, you don't want to answer, and you put it down.

No, I don't want it, not now.

I know it's real, I just want to put it, not now.

That's that's Felix.

He's doing it again, just putting it off.

Saints, my my my encouragement to you, for all of us, is don't silence conviction.

Take the call.

It's God showing you mercy.

The conviction hits, that's proof that God loves you.

And it's enough.

He's phoning you in.

He's letting that conviction you've been doing wrong, and this is this judgment for it.

He loves you.

You've got that.

It's it is because he loves you.

Don't silence the call, don't put it away.

And certainly don't block the caller.

Answer the call.

Is the Lord showing you mercy?

There's more passages like Hebrews chapter 3.

Hebrews 3 · chapter mention

Verses 7 and 8.

Wrong one.

Lord have mercy.

Alright, that's enough.

That's the wrong one.

Let me read you.

Hebrews chapter 3, verses 7 and 8.

Hebrews 3:7

Lordy, Lordy, Lordy.

Got all excited and got ahead of myself.

Alright.

Hebrews 3, 7 and 8.

It says, Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness.

And 2 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 2, for he says, In a favorable time I have listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.

2 Corinthians 6:2

Behold, now is the favorable time.

Now is the day of salvation.

Today is the day of salvation.

You never read of someone saying, Well, just not now.

I'll be, no, no.

You never see where God says it's okay to say no.

When he's speaking, it's time to respond.

There was someone who came up to Jesus.

Jesus went to this person and said, Follow me.

And he just said, Well, no, let me go bury my father.

And look, no one who puts his hand to the plow, turns back, is fit for the kingdom.

And when the Lord calls, answer, the answer is yes, not someday later.

I'll be, I'll get saved another time.

I gotta do this first, my career first.

No, today is the day of salvation.

There's a difference between conviction and condemnation.

There's a difference in the source.

Conviction is, yes, you're wrong, but there's hope.

Turn to the Lord.

That's conviction.

Condemnation, the source is Satan to bring despair and hopelessness.

Conviction is good.

And I bring that out because I think our our world just kind of today, whenever you say something wrong or say that there's right and wrong, so often people take it so personal like you're attacking them.

Instead of saying that behavior is wrong, but there's still hope.

God loves you.

But in today's world, people will receive it all the same way.

No, it's not.

The fact that there is right and wrong, and the Lord telling you that is God's love for you.

He loves you and he wants you to turn.

And when he disturbs us, again, it's an expression of love.

Sometimes God disturbs our peace because we've made peace with something he wants to remove.

And we look, I have had to deconstruct this in my life and because it can just grow on you and you not realize it.

The goal in life is not to be comfortable.

And I think sometimes we have this idea of having a frictionless life.

Everything, if it's making life easier, then it's good.

If it's lack of friction, no friction, a frictionless life.

Some friction is good, some difficulty is good.

Sometimes the long way is the right way to go.

You understand what I'm saying?

There's value in being told this is wrong.

There's value in, like in sports, there's value in hard coaching.

That's not all the time, but hard coaching means I know you can do better.

You're not giving 100%.

Not everyone gets a trophy at the end.

Not everyone's the MVP.

But when you give your best, it's good to have somebody to say, keep pushing and to go, and you know what's right.

That there's great value in that.

So let's understand there's a difference between conviction and condemnation.

Condemnation says you'll never be worth anything.

And how could God love you?

And how could this, this, this, this, this?

Conviction is I have good plans for you.

But the path that you're on is a path towards destruction.

And when you say not now, it get the first time you say not now, like, okay, get a little distance from that heart prick.

You say it again and again and again, and eventually, eventually, you can become comfortable in your disobedience.

Watch it happen in Felix.

Look at verse 26 and 27, and we'll wrap it up there.

Verse 26 and 27.

We're gonna wrap up.

At the same time, he hoped that money would be given him by Paul.

Oh, yeah.

It hit him in the heart, but he's got another desire too.

He got a he's got his other heart.

I uh ching ching.

Why do you think you could get money from Paul?

Why would he say?

Why would he think that Paul had some money?

Well, Paul had just testified that he came to Jerusalem to bring alms for his people.

And remember, the whole reason he showed up in Jerusalem, he had been collecting this offering from Gentile churches.

So he brought this money for to give aways.

Well, Paul, I can see Felix, the wheels are turning.

He must have got something.

He might not have had a chance to give it all away there.

So he wants to meet with Paul and just kind of, mmm.

I could be persuaded.

But Paul's not playing that game.

He's interested in Felix's soul.

So he's not doing that.

Maybe even he's thinking, look, all these friends, they got money.

I keep seeing these dudes drop by, they always got food for him.

Clothing.

He's not going, man, what maybe he got, maybe we can work some out.

Then what happened next?

Verse 26, the second sentence.

So he sent for him often.

And did what?

Conversed with him.

Remember I said the reasoning was a dialogue?

Back and forth?

He continues the conversation.

But what's his agenda?

Here's the kicker, verse 27.

He sent for him often, multiple times.

Had conversations with Paul.

You know what Paul's gonna talk about.

Faith in Christ Jesus.

When two years, two years had elapsed.

Felix was succeeded by Portius Festus, and desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison.

My, my, my, my, my is right.

When he and Drusilla first showed up, and Paul elaborates on faith and so on, and righteousness and self-control, oh, it hit him.

But continued exposure to truth without responding, heart gets hardened.

Truth, truth delayed, truth denied, that turns in your heart getting harder tomorrow if you keep staying in that position.

You ste you stay you keep saying no, keep saying no.

Disobedience gets easier.

You can become comfortable with conviction.

It doesn't even feel like conviction anymore.

Oh, two years.

And to do the Jews a favor, he's still thinking politically.

He's still thinking about his next position, still thinking about his next step to do the Jews a favor.

Instead of doing the right thing, he left him in prison so I can get favor.

It didn't help.

The fear of man and all that, he was ruthless, and he did they they kept rebelling and he, I mean, he went off, and that's another story, another time.

But he ended up losing his position because of how he treated the Jews.

But he kept trying to curry their favor instead of doing what was right.

Not now, not now.

You can't even tell he had been that person whose heart was convicted.

His two years had passed and he kept saying no.

Last application point.

Don't get comfortable hearing what you refuse to obey.

No, but James said.

Deceiving yourselves.

There we go.

Be doers and not hearers only.

You can hear sermon after sermon.

Go to Sunday school.

If you call it Sunday school, or fulfillment hour, midweek Bible study, Bible studies throughout the way.

But if you make in your heart, I'm not going to do that, you can go all the Bible studies you want.

You can have all the devotion times you want.

But watch out.

If you get comfortable listening to the word and hearing what you refuse to obey, that's a bad place to be.

Because you can get into this cultural routine where you say amen to everything.

You know the right time to say amen, right time to raise your voice and everything and lift up your hands because you're doing the church thing.

Watch out.

Hearing the word doesn't is not the same as being obedient to it.

Having church, having an experience, feeling something, that's not the same as being a disciple.

And following after him and being obedient.

And if you if you sit under teaching and the teaching of the word and you just kind of push past where the heart has been convicted and you keep pushing it and pushing it, eventually you can be saying amen and have no intention at all of doing it.

I've had conversations in the years past.

Someone actually said, it was obvious this person was not going to be obedient to the word.

Alright, so I just said, Well, why do you come?

You're not gonna do it.

I mean multiple areas of his life.

And this was it was oh Dave, it was it was promise keepers, this conversation.

It was many years ago, oh many years ago.

You know what he told me?

He said, Well, you're not boring.

All the other places we went, the pastor was boring.

You're not boring.

I can pay attention with you.

How am I supposed to feel about that?

I said, so you're coming not because you believe what I'm teaching and preaching, but because I'm not boring.

All right.

I didn't tell him to stop coming because Paul kept showing up.

And I'm not saying I was necessarily thinking about Paul at that time.

I'm just thinking overall, you never know when the soil might be right.

So you keep throwing it and throwing it, even though he could be burying himself.

The more you resist it, the more, the more truth you're exposed to, and you and you push it away, the more punishment is going to come.

Because you are accountable for the truth.

Accountable for what you know, what the Lord has graciously revealed to you.

We talked about Romans 4 and 2, 4 and 5, presuming on the riches of his grace.

And Hebrews 10, 26 and 27.

If we go on sinning deliberately, after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

A lot of terminology there, but this speaks of someone who's deliberately.

Old Testament talks about someone sinning with a high hand.

Like sin for just rebellion.

I don't care.

Indifference.

There's not another sacrifice coming.

Jesus is it.

There's not another way.

That savior you continue to push away and the Holy Spirit that He has sent to bring conviction.

There isn't another way coming.

There's not another Savior, another Redeemer coming.

There no longer remains a sacrifice for sin.

The time to repent, the time to turn is when the Lord reveals it to you that it is wrong.

Don't ignore that.

It's time to take the call.

It's time to say yes.

Because that's an expression of God's grace.

Felix, he had the understanding, and the Lord brought him to a point where it hit him in the heart.

On the day of Pentecost, thousands were pricked in their heart.

And they said, What must we do?

Felix, he got pricked.

That frightened and fear, what I've got done wrong, leave.

Not now.

I'll call you when I feel like it.

Another day.

Again, Saints, the kingdom truth is that truth resisted today, hardens the heart tomorrow.

And continue, if you continue to live that way, the heart will get hard.

Alright.

So yes, I this week, may not be tomorrow, but this week, I'm gonna set an appointment.

It's the right thing to do.

God knows his children.

Because just me telling that, I've got pressure now.

You would think I would just want to do the right thing because it's the right thing.

Sometimes we can think that way about ourselves.

Just because we know the right thing to do doesn't mean we're doing it's not the same.

And sometimes just saying not now, I that's just uh things are real busy right now.

What you put off and keep putting off, there's gonna come a day you can't push it away.

All this week there's been a song in my mind, old school back in the day, the whinings had a song called Tomorrow.

I give my life tomorrow, I thought about today.

Oh, but it's so easy, much easier to say tomorrow.

Who promised you tomorrow?

And give your life today.

Oh.

Okay, tomorrow might be today.

That's how it works.

I know we get to the end there, but who promised you tomorrow?

Tomorrow might be today.

Too late?

It's too late.

Well, yeah, I just want to make sure y'all knew it.

Wherever you are, maybe your decision today is to follow Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Do it today.

Maybe it's something you need to do, a relationship, you need to reconcile, maybe you need to take a step, do it today.

You don't know that you have tomorrow.

And you don't know if God's still gonna be stirring your heart.

You might build up such a resistance, callousness, that a year later it doesn't hit.

While your heart is sensitive, while it is today, say yes.

Lord, thank you for this time.

I thank you, God, for the word.

Thank you, Lord, for your people hearing it and receiving it.

And Lord, help us to say yes, to take the call when you call us.

Help us not to be distracted and to go off to something else that's easier.

Lord, help us to do what you call us to do in faith, knowing you've given us the strength, you give us the ability to do it.

We love you, we thank you.

Lord, we have seen so much of our hearts.

Sometimes it's not right, but you still love us.

That makes us love you more.

Your love is amazing.

So we thank you.

In the name of Jesus Saints, let us say amen.

Thank you for joining us on the Kingdom Life Podcast.

Today's message reminded us that conviction is not something to run.

It is coming up to respond.