(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Men, this chapter in Acts chapter 24 is Paul. He's been arrested and he's going to stand before these various rulers and officials as he's on trial because he had preached in Jerusalem. The Jews had attacked him and then the Roman centurion delivered him out of the Jews hands because they were just going to probably just kill him right there with their bare hands. And so he's going through the justice system and sort of appearing in court or appearing before these different officials. And each of these officials that we read about in this part of Acts, they reject the gospel in a little bit different of a way. We've got Festus, Felix, Agrippa, and tonight we're going to talk about Felix specifically. Of course, Agrippa is the one who famously said, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. So he is almost there, but ah, he's just not ready to go all the way and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And then of course Festus, his response was just to cry out in the middle of Paul's sermon and say, you're beside yourself, meaning you're crazy. Much learning doth make thee mad. You know, you've studied too much and you've lost your mind, Paul. You're crazy. And then Felix has a unique response here in chapter 24. And the title of my sermon tonight is Felix trembled, Phoenix trembled. What does it mean to tremble? We're talking about someone who's shaking in fear. They're so afraid that they're actually physically shaking. And I'm sure if I asked for a raise of hands, most would acknowledge that they've gotten so scared at some point in their life where they started shaking. And we know what that is like to tremble, but let's look at this passage together because what I want to show you is that even though Felix trembled at the preaching of God's word, God's word did not really make an impact on him and he was very insincere. Look back if you would at verse number 22. So we just read the whole chapter, but the apostle Paul has just been preaching about Jesus Christ and about his testimony and what he's been through and how the Jews had assaulted him and so forth. And he closes on this note in verse 21 that the big thing that he's in trouble for is preaching the resurrection of the dead, the resurrection of Jesus Christ specifically. Now look at what verse 22 says. And when Felix heard these things, having more perfect knowledge of that way, he deferred them. Now this makes absolutely no sense because if Felix had more perfect knowledge of that way, meaning that hearing about this from Paul isn't the first time he's heard about it. He actually knows a lot about the subject of Jesus Christ, Christianity and these various issues. Having had more perfect knowledge, he defers them, meaning that he basically just kind of pushes them off, delays them. He doesn't actually deal with the issue or make a judgment. He just kind of decides to kick the can down the road and said, when Lycius, the chief captain shall come down, I will know the uttermost of your matter. You know, the narrator just finished telling us that he pretty much already knows what's going on. He already knows the situation, but he's pretending not to. So he's pretending that he doesn't know the situation and that he has to wait for, you know, this captain Lycius to come down and I'm going to get his side of the story. But really, according to the narrator here, it's just a delaying tactic to just defer them and just push things aside. And it says in verse, and we're going to see why he did that in a moment. And he commanded a centurion to keep Paul and to let him have liberty and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him. So you know, he keeps Paul in a, in a decent setup as far as his imprisonment. And after certain days when Felix came with his wife, Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. So after this court appearance where he hears about the incident in Jerusalem and a little bit about the resurrection, he then calls and gets like sort of a private sermon from Paul with his wife because his wife is a Jewess and so they're interested in these things or she's interested or whatever, but he brings them in and he listens to a sermon from Paul concerning the faith in Christ. Then the Bible says in verse 25, and as he, that's Paul, reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled. Now what does that mean? That means that this sermon that Paul preaches has such an impact on him that he's literally shaking in his boots. I mean, he's scared when he hears Paul preaching about the judgment to come. You know, Paul's preaching that hell fire and damnation kind of sermon and this has got Felix literally trembling and he answered, go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. Okay. So, uh, same thing he did earlier in the chapter, isn't it? Where he deferred them. And then now he says, okay, you've preached the word of God to me and it's really scary and I'm literally shaking. Let's just, let's talk about this another time. But the next verse is kind of shocking because when you're reading this, it seems like the guy sincerely maybe wants to know about Christ and the sermon really has an impact on him, but he's just not ready to make a decision right now. So hey, let's do this another time, but then look at the next verse. He hoped also that money should have been given him a what? Doesn't that seem like kind of a strange plot twist there. All of a sudden he also hoped that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might lose him wherefore he sent for him the offener and communed with him. Now that's pretty strange because we thought that he's trembling, the preaching has had an impact and so therefore he's not ready yet, but that he wants to revisit this later because he's so shaken by it, can't get it out of his head. He just, he needs to hear it again. But in reality, the reason that he wants to have another sermon from Paul and another conversation with Paul again and again, and why he sent for him the offener over and over again is because he's hoping to be bribed by the apostle Paul. He's hoping that Paul will give him money so that he can get out of jail by giving money to this man who has the power to release him. And of course, Paul never ends up giving him any money. And so he just sits in prison for these two years. Felix visits him a bunch of times and Felix doesn't get what he wants. He doesn't get any money. And so then after two years, Felix is not in office anymore. And it says that Portia Festus came into Felix's room. So this guy takes his position. Felix is no longer in power and Felix, willing to show the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound. So on his way out, he could have done those like midnight presidential pardons as he's leaving office where the presidents of the US, for example, will pardon a bunch of horrible criminals that they've been dealing with behind the scenes and, you know, all the bribes that they take and whatever. But basically, he doesn't do that. He just leaves him bound, leaves office and just pushes him off to the next guy, which is Festus. And then Festus is the guy who's going to say that Paul is just totally insane. And then Agrippa is going to say, you've almost persuaded me to become a Christian. But of course, all three of these men are in hell tonight for three different reasons, right? One of them just kept kicking it down the road and he wasn't even sincere about the message at all. Another one said he's crazy. Another one seemed to have admired and respected Paul and was this close. But no cigar, right? You got to go all the way and believe on Jesus Christ. Close isn't good enough. But what I want to talk about tonight is this idea of Felix trembling at the preaching of Paul because sometimes we could look at this example of somebody, you know, literally shaking and emotional and scared and upset and think that this means that somehow the Word of God's really having an impact on them and that they're really getting it. But what we see in this story is that this man is the same man before and after the trembling. He didn't change at all. He is insincere. He's lying and kicking the can down the road at the beginning of the story. After multiple sessions of hearing the Word of God preached, he is still the same lying insincere politician wanting a bribe, kicking it down the road to someone else. Do you see how nothing has changed? And yet in the intervening time, we had hard preaching from the Apostle Paul and we have Felix literally shaking. That means he's emotional. That means that he's feeling something. He's scared. He's upset. But yet it had no impact on him whatsoever. Now if you would go to Hebrews chapter number 12, Hebrews chapter number 12. And what you have to understand is that when it comes to salvation, salvation is not an emotional experience and an emotional experience doesn't necessarily lead to salvation. And you can have salvation without having an emotional experience whatsoever. I could preach the Gospel to someone and they could be trembling and I could say, oh God is really at work in this person's heart. This person's really sincere but Felix wasn't sincere at all even though he's trembling. Other people in the Bible have other emotional responses that are not sincere. We think about Judas Iscariot in Matthew chapter 27. When Judas had betrayed Jesus, he brings back the 30 pieces of silver that he betrayed Jesus for and he actually brings it back and tries to get a refund or give them a refund I should say. And he wants to give them the money back and he says to them, I've betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, what is that to us? See that or that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple. So when they won't take his money back, he just throws it on the ground in the temple and he runs out and he went and hanged himself. Now if you look at Judas Iscariot, the Bible says he repented, right? Matthew 27 three, then Judas, which had betrayed him when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself. So there's no question that Judas repented because of the fact that the Bible says that he repented. He felt bad about it. He was sorry. He changed his mind about what he'd done. And remember, he had wanted that money, that 30 pieces of silver. Now he doesn't even want it anymore. And you know, here's the proof that he repented. He gave the money back. He threw it on the ground. He got rid of it. He got it away from him. Is there any question that this man is emotional when he bursts in, throws money on the ground and goes out and hangs himself? Very emotional, very repentant. Felix was emotional to the point where he's physically shaking. But yet Judas Iscariot, like Felix, is also burning in hell tonight. Because it's not being sorry or repenting or repenting of your sins or getting emotional or feeling bad that gets you to heaven. It is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. It's not about sadness, fear. It's not about any of these emotional feelings. It's about believing in Jesus. These men did not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. They might have felt bad because remember, one of the things that made Felix tremble was that the Apostle Paul was preaching to him, not just about Jesus. You know, he wanted to hear about Jesus and the faith of Christ, but he ended up bringing up righteousness, temperance and judgment to come. So Felix is thinking about the fact that maybe he hasn't been very righteous in his life and that he hasn't been very temperate in his life and that there's a coming judgment on the wickedness that he's been doing in his life. And that's got him scared to death about all the bad things that he's done. Judas is worried about the bad stuff that he did and feeling bad about it, feeling guilty, repenting of his sin. But yet either way, these men are both damned because salvation is not about these emotional responses or about these kind of feelings. Here's another example of somebody who got emotional and it didn't fix anything. It didn't help because this person was insincere. I don't believe that Judas was sincere. I think he's just freaking out, throwing money on the ground, hang himself. That doesn't mean that he actually had a godly sorrow or that he's actually sincere or that he actually believes in Christ now or something. That's absurd. Felix was clearly not sincere since he's looking for a bribe. Let's see if this third example is sincere. The example of Esau. Look at Hebrews chapter 12 verse 15. Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. Now the Bible comments on this back in Genesis by saying thus Esau despised his birthright. So the narrator in Genesis is criticizing Esau saying, what an idiot. He despised his birthright. This man blew it big time. Yeah, Jacob tricked him, but it only works because he despised his birthright. And so God is criticizing him in the book of Genesis in that way. And it says for one morsel of meat, he sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward when he would have inherited the blessing, meaning at that time when he was supposed to have inherited the blessing from Isaac, he was rejected for he found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears. And so the Bible says here that Esau sought repentance carefully with tears and did not find it. Sort of like Judas who sought repentance carefully with tears and did not find it. Let's go back to that story in Genesis 27. Go back in your Bible to Genesis chapter 27, Genesis chapter 27. You see, just because someone is crying and sad or even shaking and trembling, it really doesn't mean that they're sincere. You know, you'll see politicians go through this whole song and dance when they get busted where they do a bunch of crying and they're sorry and they're sad. Does that really mean that they're necessarily sincere? I mean, this isn't even in my sermon, but we could talk about King Saul crying and he's sorry and he's sad and upset about what he'd been doing to David. But then what does he turn around and do in the next chapter? He's doing the same thing again. He's chasing David again. So was he really sorry? Was the fact that he was crying an emotional proof that he was really sincere? Hey, we don't need to worry about Saul. He must have really meant it because he was crying. Can't you see that he's crying? This man is clearly sincere and then he does it again. He gets emotional again and David walks away saying, this is never going to stop. This guy's never going to stop pursuing me because tears and trembling and emotion and breaking down doesn't necessarily mean that you're sincere and it doesn't mean that God is going to acknowledge that or even respect that because it might not be real. Look at Genesis chapter 27 and let's see how sincere Esau was with his tears in Genesis 27 verse 30 it says, it came to pass as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father that Esau's brother came in for his hunting. So of course Isaac is dying. Of course he's going to live for a few more decades, but they think he's dying. So they think he's dying. It turns out to be a false alarm, but they think he's dying and so he can't see. He's really old and he says, okay, I'm going to bless my oldest son before I die. I'm going to give him the blessing that was passed down to me from my father. And so he tells Esau to go out hunting and go get that savory meat that my soul loves and then I'm going to bless you. So Esau goes out to hunt for it and Rebecca, Jacob and Esau's mother has this idea because she likes Jacob better. She wants Jacob to get the blessing and so she explains to Jacob how he should trick his father into thinking that he's Esau and how she can duplicate Esau's recipe and she knows how to cook stuff too. And so basically instead of going out and getting wild game, she knows that if they just take some of their home raised meat and just season it right, he's not going to know the difference. It's all about the seasoning. And so that's what they do. Of course Jacob disguises himself as Esau, puts hair on his arms to seem like he's this hairy dude like Esau and so that he'll smell gamey like Esau and they feed him the meal. The spices do the trick and Jacob ends up getting the blessing and then Jacob leaves. Now Esau in the meantime has actually done the hunting, actually killed the animal, actually prepared the food and now he's coming in to get the blessing and of course Isaac's very confused because he's already been talking to Esau so he thought. But he'd actually been talking to Jacob impersonating Esau. And so it says in verse 31, he had also made savory meat and brought it unto his father and said unto his father, let my father arise and eat of his son's venison that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac his father said unto him, who art thou? And he said, I'm thy son, thy firstborn Esau. And Isaac trembled very exceedingly and said, who, where is he that had taken venison and brought it me? And I've eaten of all before thou cabest and have blessed him. Yea, and he shall be blessed. And when Esau heard the words of his father, don't miss it, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, I mean he's wailing, he's crying with a great and exceeding bitter cry and said unto his father, bless me, even me also my father. And he said, thy brother came with subtlety and hath taken away thy blessing. And he said, is not he rightly named Jacob for he had supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, which isn't really true. He purchased the birthright because you were an idiot and sold it to him. And behold, now he had taken away my blessing and he said, hast thou not reserved a blessing for me? And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, behold, I've made him thy Lord and all his brethren have I given to him for servants. And with corn and wine have I sustained him. And what shall I do now unto thee my son? And Esau said unto his father, hast thou but one blessing my father, bless me, even me also. And Esau lift up his voice and wept. So he's seeking repentance carefully with tears here. Now what did the Bible say in Hebrews chapter 12? Why is this happening to him? Because he might just think this isn't fair, it's Jacob's fault, why is this happening to me? Jacob came in and lied and said, but why is this happening? According to Hebrews 12, it's happening because he despised his birthright. When he sold that birthright to Jacob and he showed that he had no appreciation for what was being handed to him, what was being delivered to him from his parents, then God is going to allow this other chain of events where he's going to lose the blessing also. You see, that's how sin is. You end up paying more than you thought that you were going to pay. He thinks, oh, I'm just giving up the birthright. He didn't realize, oh, you give up the birthright, you're going to lose the blessing too. He ends up losing everything and so now he's sad, he's crying, he found no place of repentance, meaning that he couldn't fix what had been ruined and it says, though he sought it carefully with tears and we see as we look at the story that he is seeking it carefully with tears and not finding it, his dad's just telling him sorry. So then he says, bless me, even me also, my father and Esau lift up his voice and wept. So Isaac tries to pull some kind of a blessing out of his hat. Verse 39, and Isaac his father answered and said, behold thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth and of the dew of heaven from above and by thy sword shalt thou live and shall serve thy brother and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck. Of course, he doesn't like this blessing at all and it says in verse 41, and Esau hated Jacob. Now what we see here is that Esau's tears and Esau's so-called seeking a place of repentance is not a righteous sorrow, it's not a righteous repentance because what did he do wrong? He despised the birthright, he doesn't acknowledge that. Instead he just blames everything on Jacob and said, well Jacob has tricked me twice. That's what happened, I'm a victim, none of this is my fault, it was all Jacob and I'm just an innocent victim here. But not only that, look what he's going to do. It says in verse 41 that Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him. And what does the Bible say about that? It says whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. And so this is not a godly response for him to hate his brother. And then right after that it says, and Esau said in his heart, the days of mourning for my father are at hand, well think again buddy, the days of mourning for my father are at hand, then will I slay my brother Jacob. So he says, I'm going to kill Jacob. I hate him and I'm going to kill him. This is not a godly sorrow, this is not repentance, this is not getting right in a good way. It's not sincere. He's just feeling sorry for himself is what it is. And it's so funny how he says, you know, as soon as dad dies, I'm going to kill that sucker. So then God's up in heaven like, I can make this guy hang on for a long time. And he ends up literally living for decades after this. And by the time he finally dies, Esau's had like decades to cool down. And by then he's forgiven Jacob and Esau and Jacob both go to the funeral of Isaac when he finally dies. So you know, yeah, they thought he was about to die. Sometimes that's the way things are, right? Because we, you know, we think, hey, this is it for grandpa, but then you know, 20 years go by, you never know, right? So that's what we see in the story here. And you know, maybe God's allowing him to hang on just so that he doesn't execute this plan of killing Jacob. And you know, because obviously God's got a plan for Jacob, Jacob is going to become Israel, he's going to become the father of the patriarchs and so forth. And so we see here again, an example of a guy who's crying and he's sad, he's emotional, but that doesn't make him right. That doesn't make him sincere. It doesn't mean that what he's feeling or doing is, is of God at all. Go to the second Corinthians, chapter number seven, second Corinthians, chapter number seven. What am I trying to say tonight? That reading people's emotions is not an accurate way to determine who really believes in Christ and who doesn't, who is really sorry for something that they did and who isn't, who really loves Christ. I mean, somebody could come to church and be just crying and talking about how much they love Christ. You know, maybe they're sincere and maybe they're not. And somebody else could be totally stoic, not getting sad, not getting emotional, not trembling, not getting worked up and actually have a sincere faith in Christ and a love for Christ in their heart. His emotions vary from person to person and they're not a reliable way to judge who is sincere and who isn't because we have all these examples in the Bible where if we were standing there watching the interaction between Paul and Felix, we would have read it one way. We wouldn't have been thinking to ourselves, here's a guy who's looking for a bribe. Here's a liar who actually knows all about Christianity and all knows all about the history of Paul and he's pretending he doesn't know about it because he doesn't want to make a public stand and he actually is just interested in money and popularity, making the Jews happy, making his constituents. That's all he cares about. But if you were there, you wouldn't have thought that. You would have thought, oh man, the Holy Spirit's really working on this guy. He's right there, man. He's like a gripper. He's right there. You know, he's about to get saved or something like that. Look at 2 Corinthians 7 verse 10. The Bible says, for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. So there's a godly sorrow that can lead to true repentance. And then there's the sorrow of the world that worketh death. You know, you think about Cain and Abel. When Cain disobeyed God and brought the wrong sacrifice and then God corrected him, it talks about how his countenance was fallen and he was sad. And God is saying, you know, why is your countenance fallen? Why are you upset? Because that was not a godly sorrow. That was a feeling sorry for himself kind of sorrow, the same kind of sorrow that King Saul had, the same kind of emotion that Esau had and so forth. And so here's the thing, when you're out soul winning, when you're out evangelizing, don't make emotion a prerequisite for salvation. And I, you know, that might even sound silly to even say that because you're thinking like, why would I do that? But I'm telling you, I've grown up in churches and heard people talk about how, you know, when I'm giving somebody the gospel, you know, I'm looking for that godly sorrow and I want to see that sorrow. I want to see the Holy Spirit's conviction. You know, I want to see the fact that God's working on them because I want them to get emotional. And so if I'm talking to somebody and they don't have any emotion about it, well then, you know, they must just not be getting it or something. Folks, that is not accurate. That is not true. Because you could be talking to somebody who's very emotional, who's not getting it at all and who doesn't believe what you're saying. They could be trembling, they could be crying. That doesn't mean that they're sincere or that they actually believe. And on the flip side of that, you could be talking to somebody who isn't sorrowing or shaking or scared or any of those things at all. And yet that person is truly being worked on by the Holy Spirit and God is at work in their heart and they truly do believe what you're saying. And so we don't want to have this prerequisite for salvation that's emotion. And a lot of preachers get up and say, you know, there's got to be conviction. If there's no conviction, there's no salvation. And you know, what they mean by conviction is this guilty feeling. Because if you look up the word conviction or convicted, being convicted, we're talking about a guilty feeling. In fact, the word convicted is only used one time in the whole Bible. You know, because it's so funny how many preachers have said, this is necessary for salvation. Well, you'd think the Bible would talk all about it then if it's so necessary for salvation. But I did find the word convicted in the Bible. And it's when the Pharisees are going to stone the woman who's taken in adultery. And Jesus says, he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And the Bible says that they were convicted by their own conscience, not by the Holy Spirit, says they were convicted by their own consciousness, consciences. And so they put the stones down and walk away, because they had a guilty feeling. They felt guilty. They were convicted by their own consciences. So they put down their stones and walked away. Let me ask you something, are we going to see those people in heaven? I don't believe so. I mean, I hope one or two of them might have gotten saved. But by and large, the Pharisees didn't get saved. By and large, the Pharisees rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. And so chances are, those guys who got convicted, they're in hell too. You know, we don't know. But the bottom line is that conviction, a guilty feeling, sadness, sorrow for sin, you know, these are not the prerequisites for salvation that the Bible teaches, because salvation is not necessarily an emotional experience. Now being saved could be an emotional experience. But we can't require it to be an emotional experience. Some people will be emotional and not get saved. Some people will get saved without being emotional, because these are two totally different things. And you know what? I've been out of Sony for many years, and I've seen a lot of people just matter of factly just hear the gospel, believe it. Call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. And you know, as time went on, it was evident that those people truly got saved, even though they weren't emotional. And then you'll see other people that are crying and carrying on at a great rate, and yet they turn out later not to have been saved. Because that's not the real indicator, is it? Go if you would to Acts chapter 8, Acts chapter number 8. So this guilty feeling, sorrow for sin, sorrow for having offended God, fear, trembling, you know, these are things that very likely could be felt by someone who's hearing the gospel or not. Or they could be felt by people that are hearing the gospel and that are totally insincere and totally not moved by the message and walk away being exactly in the same boat as they were when you started talking to them. That's what we see from these examples in scripture. Now here's an example of a guy who truly did get saved, right? Acts chapter 8, beginning in verse 35, the Bible says, then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came into a certain water and the eunuch said, see, here's water, what does hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, if thou believeth with all thine heart thou mayest. If you get sorrowful, if you are sorry for your sins, and if you repent of all your sins, and if you have an emotional experience, and if you're trembling, let me take a look, look me in the eye, I want to see the conviction happening on your face right now. No he just said, if thou believeth with all thine heart thou mayest. And he answered and said, oh from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet, I'm just believing so hard right now. No he just said, he just said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. And you know, the beauty of this statement is the simplicity of this statement. What a beautiful statement. I love it. I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. I mean what a statement of faith. What a powerful, concise, just matter of fact, straight to the point, there's no fluff, there's no, there's nothing extra. Just I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Of course, if you don't have a King James Bible, this verse isn't even in your Bible, because it's one of the ones that the modern versions removes. But then it says in verse 38, he commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized them. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, but the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing. So the first time we see any emotion here is after the whole conversation's over, after he believes on Christ, after he gets baptized, and after Philip leaves, now all of a sudden he's excited, and he's rejoicing, saying, ah, all right, great, I'm saved. So where's the crying? Where's the sorrow? Where's the sadness? Here's the thing about the Gospel, the Gospel's good news. The word Gospel literally means good news, good tidings, glad tidings, that's exactly what it means. And you can even just derive that from the Bible, because you can compare where the Bible quotes the Bible, and it'll quote glad tidings as gospel, because that's what it means, good news, glad tidings. So let me ask you this, if I'm preaching to someone good news or glad tidings, why would I require or expect or demand them to be scared about it or sad about it or upset about it or, you know, weeping and crying? I mean, wouldn't it make sense that some people that I give the Gospel to are going to be happy about it, you know, because here's the thing. Let's say that you went to the doctor and you thought everything was fine, and you get to the doctor and the doctor's like, you have stage four cancer, set your house in order because you've got just a very short time to live. Now that would be some pretty bad news, wouldn't it? It'd be devastating news. Oh man, this is terrible. Okay. But what if I'd already known that I had cancer for years and I show up at the doctor and he says, you know, great news, I'm looking at the type of cancer that you have, I'm looking at your situation and we've got this new treatment and, you know, I think this is going to be a slam dunk that we can actually just take care of this for you. You know, five years ago I would have told you that you have no chance, but, you know, now we've got this new treatment and I'm looking at where you're at and it's a perfect fit. You know, that's great news. There's a solution to the problem. You're not going to be like, but I have cancer. It's like you already knew that years ago. Okay. Well, guess what? People in this world, most of them are already familiar with the fact that they're a sinner and most of them are already familiar with the fact that there's going to be some kind of a reckoning, that there's going to be some kind of a punishment or a judgment. And so when we're bringing them the good news about the treatment, about the solution, about how to fix the problem, you know, they might not all of a sudden just start weeping about stuff that they've already done in the past that maybe they already thought about that stuff. They already felt guilty about that stuff. They already knew that they had a problem. They already, I mean, look, I've talked to people and I said, do you know for sure you're going to heaven? And they said, I think I'll go to hell. Some people just come out and say, I'm pretty sure I'm on my way to hell. I don't think I'm going to heaven at all. Now look, I'm not like, okay, well I got, I got really bad news for you. People who've sinned are going to go to hell and they, they're like, yeah, no kidding. I know. Well, guess what? A lot of people already realize that. A lot of people already know that the big thing that you're presenting them with as a solution, that Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And you're giving them the good news because a lot of people think, oh, I'm too sinful to be saved. And then you're telling them, no, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. A lot of people are thinking, you know, you don't know my past, but, but the Bible says that if they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they shall be saved. And a lot of people think like, well, in order to be saved, I would have to, you know, reform my life and turn from all my sins and I'm gonna have to join the church and change everything about my life. And you're telling them, no, no, it's so easy. Jesus already paid everything. All you have to do is just believe in Jesus to be saved. You just have to look and live. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. I mean, you could see how somebody could get pretty happy and pretty joyous. Now here's the thing, I've been out soul winning before and I've seen people with no emotional response and I've seen other people be just really happy, really joyful. And I have seen people crying, like I've given people the gospel and they start crying or maybe after they pray the prayer, they start crying. I don't walk away and say, well, that person really got saved, you know. I mean, you know, we won three people to the Lord, but that one person cried. So I mean, that's the for sure. The other two, you know, I don't know. Folks, whether they cry or don't cry, it doesn't affect anything as far as I'm concerned, okay? That's not what it's about. It's about what they believe in their heart. I can't see their heart, I can only go by what they say with their mouth and we'll find out when we get to heaven who was sincere and who wasn't, okay? We have no way of necessarily knowing that on the spot, do we? And just because they cried, that's no guarantee, okay? Just because they trembled when they heard about hell, that's no guarantee. And so I've seen people cry when I was out soul winning many, many times, more times than I can count. But typically when people are crying, when you give them the gospel or when they pray the prayer to get saved and they're crying, usually it's tears of joy anyway. It's not like, I just got saved. People cry for a lot of reasons. You know, when your body is overwhelmed by emotion, you start crying even if it's not a negative emotion. It's just when you're emotional, you could just become overwhelmed and start crying. And so typically what I see people crying when they hear the gospel or get saved, I think they're crying tears of joy like someone would cry at a wedding or something like that. They're not crying because of how sad they are that they offended God. Now look, I hope that at some point in your life, you have been sad about offending God. And I know that even as saved Christians who've been saved for years, when we go out and do something that's sinful or wrong and we feel bad about it, then we might have some tears of sorrow just that we've offended God. But I'm telling you, there are so many preachers out there that are making this part of salvation, a requirement for salvation is that you have to have sorrow for your sins and you have to be sad about the fact that you offended God. You have to have these feelings of sorrow and sadness about offending God. I'm so sorry that I kneeled you to the cross, Jesus type of feelings or something like that. But hold on, you're adding to the gospel, okay? That's not what it's about. It's about believing in Jesus. You know, one of the things that I had to adapt to when I started going soloing on the Indian reservation is just the cultural differences on the Indian reservation because a lot of the people on the Navajo reservation, they don't always show a lot of emotion. So they're just sort of like, you know, just like how, you know, and no, they don't say that or do that. But I'm just saying it's that, it's that really, you know, that stoic kind of Indian mentality sometimes where they're just kind of just stone faced. And you know, when you're talking to somebody, you kind of feed off their energy. It's sort of like when I'm preaching up here, you know, when I can tell that people in the pew are listening and engaged with the sermon, then that kind of helps me preach because I'm kind of feeding off your energy. But if I preach to like a really dead crowd, then sometimes it's a little harder because I have to bring all the energy myself. And have you ever had a conversation with someone, just a one-on-one conversation where you had to bring all the energy? Because you know, sometimes you'll talk to somebody and it's kind of like a back and forth and you're kind of feeding off each other's energy. But then there's some people where you bring all the energy. Well, some of these soul-winning encounters on the res, you bring all the energy. And it can be a little bit tiring because you're looking for some feedback, you're, right? Oh yeah. And they're just kind of like, yeah, right, you know. And so, I've had that experience. Then when I went on the Apache reservation, it was almost the opposite experience where every door they're breaking down crying. Like I'll knock like five doors in a row, five fits of crying. And it's just like, wow, you know. I thought you guys were related, you know, but it's just differences. And obviously I'm stereotyping because obviously, you know, you're going to find all kinds of people on both tribes. But I'm just saying, you know, when you go to a culture that you're not familiar with, you can sometimes be taken aback by these kind of cultural differences. And so, you know, I've seen people go soul-winning on the res before and the person is just not giving them any feedback and it's like they just can't bring the energy. And then they just walk away saying, well, I don't think that person cared, I don't think that person was receptive. And I'm thinking like, no, I think that that person cared deep down somewhere, we just can't see it because it's so deep. But it's in there somewhere, you know, they care. You don't know. And so we need to stop looking at people's emotions and judging their salvation based on emotion. And look, I have to work on this too, as a pastor when I'm preaching, sometimes I can misjudge people who are listening to my preaching. I've gotten up and preached and just had somebody just like glaring at me angrily the entire sermon. And I'm like, I just keep preaching harder because I'm like, man, what is this person's problem? Like, you know, oh, you don't like that? Well, let me just take it up a notch, honey, you know, and I'm just like, and I'm just like preaching harder and harder. And then after the sermon, that person walked up to me and just be like, I absolutely loved your sermon, you know, like, thank you so much. And then I have other people just smiling and happy the whole time. And then afterward, they told me what a piece of whatever I was afterward, you know, because of the fact that you can't always read people, especially if you don't know them. Especially if it's a first time visitor, you don't really know. And when you knock on somebody's door, you don't really know. So don't let somebody's emotion stop you from preaching the gospel to them. You know, if I asked someone if they want to hear the gospel, and they say yes, I don't care what voice they say it in, I don't care how they act, I'm going to give them the gospel. And I have, you know, I've been talking to people that sometimes seemed bored or out of it. And I'll ask them like, hey, I got about five minutes left, you know, would you like to hear the rest of this? Or are you good for now? And they'll if they say, I want to hear the rest of this, I'm going to keep going. And I'm not just gonna be like, well, they're clearly not ready to get saved, because they're not getting emotional enough. And part of the reason why this is so important, if you would go to Matthew chapter 13. Part of the reason why this is so important is that it leads to a lot of false doctrine. Because when you start hearing all these stories about people shaking, and you hear these stories about revivals of the past and the Great Awakening and the Second Great Awakening, and oh, man, people would walk out of that sermon with Jonathan Edwards, and they're shaken and they walk out of that sermon from Charles G. Finney, and they're just shaking in their boots and everything. And you hear all this stuff, and you can develop this expectation for all this emotional outpouring. And then it ends up affecting your doctrine, because here's the doctrine, my friend. What does it take to be saved? Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. We are saved by grace through faith and not of works. That's the doctrine that matters most, right? Salvation by faith alone in Jesus. But if you start bringing in this emotional component, the trembling component, the sorrow component, now it's like, well, I want to see conviction because I want to see sorrow for sin, and if you're sorry for your sin, that means that you must not want to do it anymore. That must mean that you're ready to turn from your sins, so you have to give up your sins in order to be saved. And this is the process that logically people go through. Why so many people teach this garbage that says, well, you have to be willing to give up your sinful life in order to be saved. Folks, that is a works-based salvation, okay? Salvation is by believing in Jesus. It's not by turning over a new leaf or reforming your life or getting emotional and promising to reform your life and intending to and being really sorry and I'm going to fix everything. No, the Bible doesn't say, be sorry and thou shall be saved. It doesn't. It doesn't say be sorry and believe in Jesus and that's obvious. It says believe in Jesus. He didn't say, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and I am really sorry for all of the bad things I've done. Now look, obviously when we preach the gospel to people, you know, we explained to them that they're a sinner. We want them to acknowledge that they're a sinner because if they don't, if they're not a sinner, they don't need to be saved, right? And guess what? Everybody's a sinner, so everybody needs to be saved, but they need to see that they're a sinner, that they deserve hell, that that's why Jesus even had to die for them because they need to understand that Jesus is the only way because you can't get there by being good because you've sinned and you're already condemned to hell unless you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and get forgiveness through that faith in Christ. It's his death, burial and resurrection that has purchased our salvation and we just have to believe and look and live, right? That's what the gospel is, but it's not like, are you sorry for what you did? Salvation's not this parole board where you have to convince the parole board that you're sorry for what you did so that you can get out of jail a little bit early. You don't get let out because of good behavior, okay? You get saved because of faith in Christ, not good behavior because our behavior is just not good enough. And so we want to make sure that we understand that emotion isn't part of the equation because then that could lead us into false doctrines where we're requiring people to be emotional and requiring people to feel a certain way when they're not. So that's why it's so important with regard to salvation, okay? But also in other areas of life, we need to understand that emotion does not necessarily make you spiritual either because we can say, hey, it doesn't necessarily guarantee salvation. It also doesn't make you spiritual or unspiritual just because of emotions that you do or don't have in a certain situation. And when it comes to the Christians that are going to be in it for the long haul, you know, people that are still going to be serving God five years from now or 10 years from now, being emotional isn't necessarily going to cut it. Are you there in Matthew chapter 13? Look what the Bible says in the parable of the sower. It says in verse 18, hear ye therefore the parable of the sower when anyone heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the wayside. That he that received the seed into stony places, the same as he that heareth the word and anon with joy receiveth it. Now notice this particular person is having an emotion when they receive the word of God. They receive it anon, anon means immediately, anon immediately with joy, they receive it. So this person is joyfully receiving the word. Find out he not rooted in himself, but doereth for a while, for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word by and by, he's offended. By and by is also synonymous with anon and immediately, straight way. A lot of people misunderstand by and by because it sounds like it's later, but actually means immediately. Okay. And it says, he also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becometh unfruitful, but he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word and understandeth it which also beareth fruit and bringeth forth some a hundredfold, some sixty and some thirty. Now there's a parallel passage, we're not going to read the whole thing, but in Luke chapter eight verse fifteen, you're looking at verse twenty three, I'm going to read for you Luke eight fifteen from the parallel passage, but that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience. Now notice, the successful Christian long term that actually brings forth fruit, that actually is multiplying and being fruitful and reaching some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred, the Bible says that that person has an honest and good heart and that that person brings forth fruit with patience. So picture two kinds of people. You got one person who's all excited and fired up, woo hoo, and then as soon as any persecution or tribulation comes, I'm out of here. Then you have the other guy who receives the word of God, no emotion is mentioned, but he's got an honest and good heart and so he just patiently just keeps on going. Patience right, plugging away, it's like the tortoise and the hare basically and so you've got what has often been called Roman Candle Christians where somebody gets saved and truly gets saved and they get in church and they're so excited, they're so fired up and it's like bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, and then the second layer is just smoke. What happened to that guy? He was so excited, he was so pumped up, you know, but then you got the people that are there year after year after year just plugging away, sincerely. Why? Because emotion does not work long term to keep you serving God long term. It can get you excited in the beginning and look, I'm not, I don't want you to misunderstand this sermon, I'm not against being emotional. I'm for you sorrowing for your sins. I'm for you trembling in, you know, serving God with fear and trembling. I'm 100% for you rejoicing like the Ethiopian eunuch and receiving God's word with joy. I'm for you being excited, happy, sad, angry, fearful in all the right context, in all the right situations. You know, I'm not telling you to become like, you know, chief no emotion, but I want you to understand that at the end of the day, none of these emotions are required for salvation. These emotions are not the test of godliness in yourself or others. Don't judge other people based on their emotions because different people are, have different emotions and feel differently. And that emotion is not what's going to keep you going in the Christian life. There's going to have to be a deeper commitment, honesty and goodness in your heart that's going to keep you going, not just excitement. If you're just running on excitement, it's only a matter of time before you're gone. How about your marriage? You expect your marriage to run on excitement for the next 50 years? I mean, uh, brother Alex was showing me a book that he'd been given and it was, it was like a, uh, some kind of a Christian self-help book about being manly or something. And in the back it kind of read like an infomercial in the back and it talked about how like if you buy this other book, it's going to give you the secrets to marriage where basically you're going to have this marriage that will consistently increase in intensity over the years. Like just a consistent continual increase in intensity. And you know, we, we both said, you know, well eventually it sounds like it might become too intense if it just, you know, if it just, it just can't stop increasing in intensity. It's just like, it's like, all right, we got to one up, you know, we've been at this thing for 20 years and it's time to one up last, you know, we guys got to keep on going and it was like, wow, that's, you know, but this is the typical ShamWow type of marketing giving you all these crazy promises that there's no way that they can deliver on. But you know, is that what you think the Christian life is going to be like? Just this continual increase in intensity. You know, your marriage is going to be always increasing in intensity. You know, you're going to be a little disappointed if that's what you expect, okay. At the end of the day, and look, obviously marriage has its ups and downs and there are great times in marriage and some of those great times in marriage do come 10, 15, 20 years in. Okay. It's not like, oh, it's all downhill. That's all I'm saying. I'm saying if you think it's just going to be a consistent increase in intensity, you're crazy. That's bizarre. Okay. There are going to be ups and downs. There are going to be peaks and valleys. That's life. Well guess what? Your Christian life is going to be peaks and valleys. Okay. And you know what's going to keep you married for 10, 20, 30, 40 years is a good and honest heart. How about commitment? How about patience? Diligence, patience, commitment, duty. That's what's going to keep you there through the low points and then you can get to the high points. But to sit there and think that emotion is, but folks, there are churches out there, they are going to just fuel you on emotion. You show up on Sunday morning and it's emotional experience. Not a lot of Bible doctrine, but it's an emotional experience on Sunday night. Actually, you know what, most of these churches only go once a week because it's so emotional you can't handle it three times a week. You're going to get adrenal fatigue doing it three times a week. You need a whole week just to recover from the chemical release that you experience in this place of just the intense, you know. I mean you see some of these, it's like, yeah, don't ask me to come back for the evening service. Didn't you see me flopping around this morning? I got to rest. Midweek service? I can't do this on Wednesday night, I got to go to work tomorrow morning. I can't flop around with you and roll in the aisles. It's a school night. Folks, emotion isn't necessarily going to keep you going. Emotions are the icing on our spiritual cake. I'm for emotion, I'm not against emotion. We should love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. We should fear the Lord and serve the Lord with trembling. We should rejoice evermore, amen. But you know what, stop judging other people for their emotions and stop requiring it in yourself and others. You know, just be who you are, let them be who they are. And so, you know, and by the way, you know, if somebody dies, different people have different ways of grieving. You know, some people are going to be very demonstrative and they're going to be crying and visibly upset. Other people might handle it more stoically. Are you going to judge them and say, oh, you must not have loved that person because you didn't cry enough, you were too happy at the funeral, you're enjoying it too much. Well, you know what, we don't mourn like those who have no hope. So you know, some of us might go to a funeral and celebrate that person's life and think about the good times that we had. And you know what, it's okay. Some people are going to grieve and be sad and crying and that's okay too. You know, we want them to go through that and let that out and experience those emotions. You know, people are going to feel all kinds of, you know, let people feel what they're going to feel. You know what, God is not dictating to us how we have to feel all the time and he's not dictating a feeling as a requirement for salvation. And we need to just banish this preaching of, you got to have sorrow for saying a conviction and if I don't see that conviction, then I know that person's not ready to get sick. You don't know jack about what's going on, you know, in, in old sitting bowls face that you're talking to because you know what, maybe he's just not that expressive and that's okay if he's not expressive because you know what, maybe he feels it deeply and he's just not showing it. Let them be who they are, right? Let us be who we are. And you know, I'm sure in Arizona we are more emotional than some cultures and less emotional than others. Who cares? You know, quit making emotion the test of Christianity, whether it's about salvation or the Christian life, you know, it's really all about goodness and honesty in your heart and serving the Lord with patience and emotions are just the icing on the cake. Let's borrow words and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much Lord for your word and we thank you so much for the free gift of salvation and that the gospel is good news and that we're not going around necessarily giving people a cancer diagnosis because they already know that they have a cancer that's called sin and uh, and condemnation and Lord, they're condemned already. And most people already realize that on some level, but Lord, thank you for the opportunity to bring them the good news of the gospel so that they could be saved. And Lord God, I just pray that every single person that's here tonight, Lord would, would love other people and want to get other people saved. And Lord, I pray that as we go out and preach the gospel to the lost, we would understand that everybody's different and different people have different levels of emotion and that's okay. And Lord, please just help us to focus on the word and on doctrine and on the faith and not get caught up in this trap of emotionalism and in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.