And this is Leslie Curran saying hello and welcome in the Savior's name to our gospel broadcast. I'm glad you're joining us today and here to let the Bible speak is the Reverend John Greer. A word of thanks to Mr Curran for his kind words of introduction and may I also say that we're delighted to have you listening to our gospel program today.

We come to you in Christ's name. We come with a desire and the prayer that what you will hear in this program will be of lasting benefit to your soul. There is nothing that will benefit the heart of man but the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

That glorious gospel of grace, of mercy, the gospel that presents to us the long suffering of God and the marvelous patience of God toward men and shows to them that in Christ there is a sufficiency to save the soul. Now we find in scripture various incidents where the gospel was preached to individuals, not only to an entire congregation but on the personal level when face to face a preacher would have met with someone, some individual and brought the gospel to that soul. One such case is recorded for us in Acts chapter 24 where we have the Apostle Paul actually while he was a prisoner facing the Roman governor of Judea and bringing home to him the word of the Lord and presenting to him very faithfully the gospel of Christ.

And we might ask ourselves the question, well what was the outcome? Here is a man who is high up in the land, in the nation. He is a member of the Roman administration of that day. He is no mean individual in the sense of position or power but rather one who occupies a very prominent role.

And so what would he have to think about a preacher, a despised figure like the Apostle Paul talking to him personally about his soul? Well the answer is given to us in Acts 24 and verse 25 and we read here these words, as he reasoned, that is Paul reasoned of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come, Felix trembled and said, go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee. There are three features here of the situation which Felix found himself when Paul preached to him or spoke to him in such a clear way of his soul, his sin, his need. We notice to begin with the trembling of Felix.

Felix was trembling. It says in verse 25, Felix trembled. He trembled because of what he heard.

Here is the effect that the word of God had upon this man. This is the record of the Holy Spirit. Here is divine truth been brought to us that the word of God can cause men to tremble in their sin and feel deeply and very experientially their guilt, their shame, all that clings to them because of their sin.

They can be made to feel it and this man Felix, as we will see today, it certainly seems he never was saved and yet he trembled. He trembled powerfully, mightily and visibly beneath the sound of the word of God. So there is Felix's trembling, as I say, because of what he heard.

What did he actually hear? There are three words that sum up for us what Paul said to him. It says he reasoned, and I want you just to notice that term by the way, he reasoned, which means that he explained things to Felix. He set before him truth after truth in a clear logical fashion.

He was not there to use scare tactics. That is not the work of the preacher. The work of the preacher is to show to men who they are, what they are, explain to them what God's word says and present to them the remedy and this is what Paul does.

He says he reasoned with him or reasoned of righteousness, temperance, judgment to come. There are the three features of Paul's message to Felix which caused his trembling. He reasoned with him of righteousness, which simply means he showed to Felix that he did not have the righteousness essential to stand before God acceptably.

This is what the word righteousness means and so often portrays throughout the word of God. It is akin of course to the word justification or to justify. To justify means to declare righteous, to pronounce righteous and what it is as a legal term and we've got to understand this and Paul would have explained this to Felix.

Man is guilty, guilty before God, guilty of breaking the law, God's law, guilty of sin of every kind and therefore of transgressing God's holiness, God's righteousness, God's law which means that man is without a shred of righteousness, has no standing before God, is utterly condemned. Condemned is what the verdict of scripture is concerning man and his sin, condemned already. Oh I want you to think about this, you're not righteous before God, you don't have a standing, you're not accepted by him but rather you are already condemned in your sin and therefore you need a righteousness that will give you a standing with God and that righteousness

“In Acts 24:25, the Apostle Paul faithfully preached to Felix about righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment. Deeply convicted by the message, Felix trembled as he realized his sinful condition and his need for God's righteousness through Christ. Yet instead of responding in repentance and faith, he postponed the matter, saying, "When I have a convenient season, I will call for thee." This sermon highlights the danger of feeling conviction without conversion, the certainty of future judgment, and the tragic consequences of delaying salvation. It urges sinners not to put off God's call but to trust in Jesus Christ today, while the opportunity to be saved remains.”

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is the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

God's provision of righteousness for men is in and through Christ, is through Christ's perfect obedience. Christ came into the world, he lived a sinless life, he died an atoning death and thereby he provides a righteousness that covers man's soul, that removes his guilt, that leads to his pardon and his acceptance by God and his being no longer under God's curse or God's wrath. You need that righteousness and as Felix heard the message of his need for righteousness he trembled but also Paul reasoned with him about temperance.

The word temperance here would mean self-control, it's a word that has to do with the manner in which a person lives and certainly in the negative sense no man has temperance, he is rather out of control morally speaking. He lives in a fashion that is against the will of God and the mind of God and all that is right and true, all that is moral and all that is upright, man does not have this morality in the true sense of the term. He does not give to God's law the obedience that requires, rather he lives in rebellion against it and therefore Paul reasoned with Felix about his style of life.

Now Felix was an immoral man, we read here in an earlier verse about a woman called Drusilla and she and Felix were living together, they were an immoral couple, they had disregarded completely God's standards with regard to marital affairs and matters and therefore here's a man who is living a profligate life, a man who is living in an intemperate way and as Paul reasoned with him about this,
Felix began to tremble, he felt the impact of the word, he felt he knew he was wrong, he knew he was vile, he knew he was guilty and he trembled. Oh I urge you today to think about your lifestyle, whatever it might be, if it's not in submission to the word of God you have need to tremble, if it is not a lifestyle that is one of repentance over sin and a desire to turn away from sin then you would do well to tremble today because you face a holy God and you face the righteousness of God of himself and therefore you are guilty of sin and of wickedness. But then he also reasoned with Felix about a judgment to come and he takes him now into the future, he is telling Felix there is a future, he's telling Felix that there is life beyond the grave, he's telling Felix that there is a day of judgment, he's telling Felix that the tables are going to be turned, you see Felix as a judge here,

Paul as a prisoner but the tables are going to be turned and Felix will become the prisoner and he stands before not Paul but Paul's saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ because the judgment to come will be administered by Christ himself, by the saviour of men, oh he will wear a different garment as it were that day, today he's the saviour but tomorrow he will be your judge if you die in your sin and as Paul reasoned, explained all these things to Felix, Felix trembled, he trembled because he felt his sin, his lack of a standing with God, he had no righteousness, his evil lifestyle, his intemperance and especially as he thought about the judgment to come, oh sinner see these matters today, realize your great need, realize your emptiness, the insufficiency of your own works, the vileness of your life and your need of a saviour and hasten to that Christ with all your heart and with all your soul and trust him even this day for your eternal well-being, so here is Felix's trembling but then there is Felix's temerity, it says in their text, Felix answered, said go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee, notice that this is described as Felix's answer, here is how he responded, oh he trembled, he felt the truth, he was impacted by the truth but then comes in his temerity, his rashness in other words and how rash he was, go thy way for this season when I have a convenient or this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee, you see his answer is marked by temerity or rashness because he presumed, he presumed that there would be time and there would be opportunity and he presumed that there would be a preacher that Paul would still be around to bring him the word of God, indeed we actually find that Felix continued to commune with Paul as verse 26 says over a period of time but this statement, go thy way for this time, indicates to us that he was a very rash man, indeed history shows us that Felix never was saved, he died in a sin, he was overthrown from his office and he fell from favour and he perished in his misery, oh I urge you today not to be rash like Felix, not to say another time, another day but oh today come to Christ and trust him as your saviour and rest upon his work and thank God you will be saved, may the Lord write his truth on your heart today.