Voice of the Nazarene 4-19-26

Voice of the Nazarene 4-19-26

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Coming to you from North Central Ohio, we share with you the Voice of the Mazarine, a week-by-week venture into the Word of God sponsored by the Musiris Ohio Church of the Nazarene. We join our pastor, Reverend Ray Lassau, and the Voice of the Nazarene.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

I'd like to take you back across the years to a very unique scene more than 2,000 years ago. The writer to the book of Acts, chapter 24, verse 24, focuses us in on this scene. After certain days when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewish. He sent for Paul and heard him concerning faith in Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness and temperance and judgment to come, Felix trembled. And answered, Go thy way for this time when I have a more convenient season. I will call for thee. I want to talk to you about a Roman governor. Actually, by birth, he was a Gentile. Was married to a Jewish woman by the name of Drusilla. He ruled from Caesarea by the sea. Ruled over Judea, over Samaria. Herod the Great built Caesarea by the sea. Herod the Great was not great because of his character. He was a great builder. He had built Caesarea by the sea, that beautiful temple, the Messeda. The huge amphitheater, none like it in its time. He had built that harbor there at Caesarea by the sea, and nothing compared to the harbor on the waterways of Caesarea by the sea. Caesarea by the sea was the place where the first female convert came to faith in Christ. And I want to talk to you about Felix, about his wife Drusilla. There's three things that I'd like to point out primarily from these two verses. The very first thing, I want to talk to you about those circumstances surrounding all of this story. Felix, this man, should have never become a governor. A governor, a Roman governor. He was a Gentile. He'd been a slave. He was a slave under an emperor by the name of Claudius. Claudius really, he had a liking for Felix and his brother Paulus. Felix was kind of like a hard hand that if you needed someone bumped off, he knew how to get it done. If you needed some pleasures on the side, he could line you up and keep it under cover. He was a great backstabber, full of corruption, dirty deeds. Felix. Claudius liked him and made him to be governor. And uh Felix had been married three times. Drusilla was actually married at the time that he got with her. What's interesting, Felix, knowing a lot of players, had hired a magician to use his charms and his various dark secrets to win Drusilla away from a Syrian king. She was married. And to create something in her to love this man, this wicked man named Felix. Now he's at Rome, and from Rome to Caesarea by the sea was a 1400 mile trip. And he traveled that 1400 miles to become governor, traveling there to Caesarea by the sea. What is amazing! It was there that he heard the greatest preacher of all time, the great and the wonderful Apostle Paul. What an opportunity that God would allow him to hear this gifted theologian, Paul, to preach. Now, why was Paul at Caesarea by the sea? Well, he had been arrested there in Jerusalem. And the people were planning an insurrection and they were going to kill Paul. Some of the leaders said we'd better gather several hundred men and we've got to sneak Paul out of Jerusalem and take him up 65 miles to Caesarea by the sea if he's going to live to stand trial. Now, what's interesting, this Gentile governor said, I want to talk to Paul who's down there in prison. Now, why would a pagan Gentile governor want to talk to a Jewish preacher who's locked up in prison? Well, he's married to a Jewish woman by the name of Drusilla. You don't know who she is, but you knew and you know who her daddy was. Her daddy was Herod. Herod was the man who had met with wise men who told him that there was a Jewish baby born who was the king of the Jews. And Herod thought, I'm the king of the Jews, and I feel insecure and I don't want any challenge to my kingship. And so he had had all the babies from zero up to two years of age exterminated. It had him killed. Now I don't know the conversation that may have taken place between Drusila and Felix, but I suppose the conversation would have gone something like this. She probably said, Felix, the faith this man is preaching about, this Apostle Paul, this Jesus that he's sharing and talking and preaching about, I know something about him, you see. My daddy set out to kill this Jesus. He had all the babies down there in the Bethlehem area killed and destroyed. But somehow Jesus survived. And he has started a movement. And there's no movement like this movement that this Jesus Christ has started. Now, here's what I know. God will use a lot of things and circumstances so we can hear the gospel. Now you think you just showed up this morning, but in the plan of God, God brought you here this morning to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. God will use circumstances. I believe that God will use a friend day weekend, and I can go back in the past, I've been here 34 years, and tell you about friend day weekends when people came in here, never expecting to walk out as a Christian, but God turned them around. I believe that God uses totally Christmas programs and passion plays and upward basketball, sunshine preschool. We've got something coming up soon. It's everybody bring one, and if everybody will bring one, and I hope you'll try to invite at least ten so one will show up. They'll hear the gospel. God will use a wife, God will use a grandparent, God will use a husband, God will use a friend, but God is trying to put all these circumstances together so that you can hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Bible says in Matthew 13, verse 8, concerning the sower, sowing seed on four different soils. In the eighth verse, it said that he sowed some seed and it fell on good soil and produced fruit. Now, what would cause seed or the word of God to go into hardened, salty, unfertile soil and suddenly produce fruit? Well, I can tell you what softens the ground takes a storm. And when a storm comes and the rain begins to fall, things begin to soften up. And sometimes God will send a storm into your home and into your town and into your life to soften your heart. So a little bit of the seed of God and conviction will begin to grip your attention. God sometimes might send adversity. God may send some trials. God may allow difficulties to your life because God is trying to use circumstances so we'll hear the gospel. Ladies and gentlemen, that's what he does sometimes to bring us to him. But quickly, I not only see these circumstances, but I want to point out the clarity of the gospel. You'll read here the Bible said that Paul talked to him about his faith. Can I read it to you? And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Druselah, which was a Jewish, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. Paul stood there reasoning with him about faith in Christ. He reasoned with him concerning three things. The first thing he reasoned with him was concerning righteousness. Did you read it? He said, let me talk to you about righteousness. Do you know what's so important to be right with God? Righteousness is simply being right. Most of us are wrong. We need to get on the right side of God. We need to get right in our thinking and right in our living and right in our vocabulary and right in our finances and right in every segment and area of our life. So God gets all the twists and turns and crookedness out of us and gets us right. When we're not right, we're judgmental. We all have a tendency to kind of look at the other person and we see the great big telephone pole in their eye, and we don't see the one that's in ours. I'm as good as soul, so I'm I'm I'm better than them. I heard about a man and his wife, and they got up for coffee and looked out the window, and the neighbor lady had all of her clothes out there drying on the clothesline, and she said to her husband, that lady doesn't know how to wash clothes. Look how dingy and dirty they look. The following week they were having coffee and looked out, and there was those same dingy, dirty clothes. She said, That woman must have not had a mother to teach her how to wash her clothes. About the third week, she looked out the window and said, Look, they're white. Somebody's talked to her about how to wash her clothes. Her husband said, No, no, no. I wash the windows. Sometimes we get to say, I don't want to go down there to that church that's full of hypocrites. I was at Minard's about a year ago and looked up, and here comes a guy carrying a big box and he's running. I'd never seen anybody carrying something running. And I never thought to stick my foot out because I didn't know what was going on. He ran right by me, and then I looked, and here came a manager running after him. And I turned and looked, and the guy ran outside, threw the box in the open door of a car and jumped in, and the driver sput off. And Minard's got some hypocrites too. I don't put down everything that I buy there just because there's a hypocrite, I still go back and buy some more stuff. There may be a few hypocrites, and you can say, Well, I'm better than them, and I give more money, and I'm a good guy, and uh I do this and I don't do that. Paul reasoned with him concerning righteousness. I think he had to explain to him there in Genesis about Adam and Eve. And how they were naked and they were not ashamed. And you say, Well, preacher, why were they not ashamed? Because they'd never sinned. Know anything about sin and nakedness and any of that. But what happened to them after they sinned? Well, Genesis 3:7, the eyes of them both were opened. God will open your eyes too. And they knew they were naked and they sold fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. At least they were trying to do something. They were trying to cover. And we can go on and on with it. So the Bible says in Genesis 3.21, unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God. They tried to cover. But the Lord God made coats of skins and clothed them. Now, what did God do? God took something that had life and was innocent. And it had to die. And his blood had to be shed. And he took the skins of their coats and made clothes for Adam and Eve. And do you remember when Jesus went to the cross and shed his blood and died? Here's what it says in Corinthians, for he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. When we come to God, he gets our sin and we get his righteousness. And so he said, I not only want to talk to you about righteousness, but I want to talk to you about temperance. This thing of self-control. You ever get out of control? You know why a lot of people are behind bars? Because they can't control themselves. They got something in them they can't handle. Have to be locked up. It may be in your house, somebody can't keep control of their temper. It could be a nasty place. So he talks to them about self-control. He said, You persuaded that woman to marry you. You used a magician to twist her desires to become your wife. No self-control in your life. He said, I want you to know something, Felix, when when you're clothed in the righteousness of Jesus, you get the disposition of Jesus. You get the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. And you know, unless that which is within us. And that which is above us doesn't get in us, we'll soon yield to that which is around us. That's why in Galatians 5 22, with the fruit of the Spirit's love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and weight, self-control. Another word for it is temperance. It's when that old temper gets out of control. And he said, Against there's no, there is no law. So he said, I want to talk to you about righteousness being right. I want to talk to you about controlling your appetites and your wrong desires. But he said, Let me talk to you about judgment to come. Now I I know it's 2026, and people don't talk about this stuff anymore. Preachers aren't supposed to talk about crossing deadlines, not supposed to talk about hell. Nobody wants to hear it, Pastor. But the Bible still does. Hebrews 9 27 says, It's appointed unto man once to die, and after this, the what? The judgment. We are going to stand before God and we're going to be judged. Ray LaSelle, everyone in here. We're all gonna die, and we're all going to be judged. Now, at this season of my life, I'm more concerned about what God has to say to me than I am about what people have to say about me. It really don't matter. I'm not gonna hang around long enough to hear it. I'll be over here in Oakwood or someplace. But I'm very concerned what he has to say to me. Let me say this. If Jesus preached the gospel like preachers are preaching it today, he would have never been crucified. You okay with that? Well, moving along while you're shouting happy. We need to say what we mean. We mean to say, and we mean to say it, but we don't need to be mean about it. And see, we're all going to be judged. We're going to have to decide where that'll be at. And I don't know about you, I wanted to be the judgment seat of Christ. And here in 2 Corinthians 5.10 says, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. I'll be there. Now, there's five crowns given out. I don't really expect to get one. I'll just be real honest with you. I'll just be glad to be there. If I can get past that, I'll be in a great place. I don't want to miss that. But I'll be there. Why? Because I've accepted Christ. Jesus Christ is my Lord and personal Savior. And the only people that'll be there are those who have accepted the Lord Jesus as their Savior. But there's another judgment. Now I'll just mention this in passing, so you will say, Well, our pastor told us that. It's Revelation chapter 20, verse 11. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the heaven and the earth fled away. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. What does that mean? I saw the dead small and great. It matters not what your status is, it matters whether or not Christ is your personal Savior. Doesn't matter if you are on welfare or you're faring well, but it matters whether or not Christ is your Lord. And what's going to happen, Pastor? Well, look at verse 15. Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Now we have talked to you about the circumstances of Felix's time. We talked about the clarity of the gospel. Now I want to close out on the callousness. Paul reasoned with him concerning righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. And the Bible said Felix trembled. Now, if you don't know Christ, you have every reason, you have every right to tremble. He trembled. And then he said these words at a more convenient season. I'll call for you. Pharaoh said tomorrow, but he never had a tomorrow. The rich man. He said, many years, but God said this night, thy soul shall be required of thee. For two years, Paul was locked up. All kinds of opportunity, but it never happened. And verse 26 gives tremendous insight into the character of Felix. He said he hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul that he might lose him. He wanted a bribe. He wanted to be bought off. And while he was governor, he committed every act of extortion possible to commit until the emperor Nero was obliged to recall him. The Roman historian Taxis says he exercised in Judea the imperial functions with a merchantary soul. He was like a merchandise. He could be hired. No wonder Paul purposely selected righteousness to be the topic of the discourse. Drusilla was there. She had many charms of volumptuousness, unbridled. She and Felix publicly, shamelessly lived in lust. And Paul's last theme was judgment to come. No wonder Felix trembled. As all the embezzlement, the kids that he left on the streets without any money, widows without any money, those he'd stolen from, and uh all of the uh debauchery came to his mind. Can you imagine? No wonder he trembled. Can you imagine somebody out there in the eternities looking back and remembering it all? What in the world would your memory be like? What would your conscience be like? I sat alone with my conscience in a place where time had ceased. We talked of my former living in the land where the years increased. The ghosts of forgotten actions came floating before my sight, and things that I thought were dead things were alive with a terrible might. The vision of all of my past life was an awful thing to face, alone with my conscience setting in this quietly solemn place. Felix with his conscience. I've been here 34 years. I don't tell many illustrations around here because I'm so close to here. Been here 34 years. I walked into a place of business. Now I'll tell you where, don't ask. I'd no more than gotten inside, and it was rough. It was some of the roughest guys I think I've met since I have been in ministry. Somebody recognized me as a minister and began to cuss. And they began to use the word hell and all kinds of stuff. I I never felt in my life so out of place. It was as though I need to get out of here. And finally I looked up and I said, Men, if you don't mind, I'm leaving. I don't need any business done. I'll take my business elsewhere. I walked out, I felt dirty. I got in my car and I left. It wasn't a month until I got a call. A lady was dying in the hospital. Would I come? And I stepped into that room and I was there as she slipped into eternity. And suddenly I was aware of somebody standing behind me. And I looked around and it was the man that owned that business. And he saw his mom had just died in front of his eyes. And he looked over at me and he said, Preacher, I knew you were a preacher of the gospel. I should have never let those men treat you like they treated you. And I didn't say anything, I just looked at him. Something about the whole scene was dead. He looked at me, I looked at him, and I quietly slipped around him and out of the room. It was only a matter of months. A man here in town took a hammer and drove it through the back of his head. Killed three others just to steal off four men's money. Felix had a great opportunity and he missed it. So caught up in his sin and his debauchery and his wickedness, he trembled, he knew he was wrong, he had heard the greatest preacher that had ever lived. And I've often wondered what would have happened if Felix had responded to the invitation of the Apostle Paul. If he'd got his mind off of a bribe or being bought off. For right after that, Paul stood in the very presence of the brother-in-law of the Felix, whose name was Herod Agrippa. And when he got through reasoning with Herod, Herod wept and said, Almost, thou persuadest me to be a Christian. There's a little doubt in my mind that if Felix would have minded God and given his heart to Christ, it'd have had an impact on Agrippa. It'd been more than almost, almost might work in a horseshoe, but it doesn't work when it comes to your soul. I want you to know something. You'll never know the impact that your life can make on others when you give your heart to Christ. I'm saying to grandparents, you'll never know the impact that you can have on your grandkids. If you'll obey Jesus. Parents, you'll never know the impact.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Thanks for being a part of the Voice of the Nazarene. Visit us every Sunday at 9 a.m. with BNC's Pastor Ray Listalle. For more information regarding BNC, visit ducirusnazarene.org.