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Imagine for a moment that you’ve gone
to see your doctor for a routine examination. You feel fine. But when
the doctor finishes his exam, he sadly gives you the terrifying news. You
have cancer, and if this cancer is untreated you only have a few months to
live.
In the book of Acts, we
find the account of a man named Felix who received some terrifying news,
not concerning his physical health, but con-cerning his spiritual health.
Paul examined his heart by the preaching of the gospel. His spiritual
condition was revealed. He trembled when he saw it! (Acts 24:24-25)
Examine your own heart by applying the same message that he heard to your
own life. Paul discussed:
1) “Righteousness”- Paul spoke
of the need to be right in God’s sight. Man cannot live as he pleases and
be right in God’s sight. God has a fixed, objective standard of
righteousness, His Word, which man must live by in order to have a
relationship with Him, a Righteous God. Felix was terrified because he
realized that he, like all men, had sinned by not obeying God, and so was
“unrighteous” and therefore, spiritually “dead” or separated from a
Righteous God (see Rom 3:9-10,23; 6:23). Have you sinned? Do you
under-stand what your sin has done to your relationship with God? Can you
think about this without trembling?
2) “Self-control”-
Paul made a specific applica-tion from God’s standard of righteousness.
It was widely known that Felix was a greedy man |
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who would stop at nothing to get what
he wanted. He even hired assassins to eliminate those who stood in the
way of his desires. When Paul told Felix that God expects men to live
with self-control, he was terrified because he knew that he was not living
this way. A lack of self-control is seen in so many ways- when men let
the emotions of hatred, ill-will, jealousy, greed, and anger rule them,
filling their lives with sinful speech and actions - when men’s unbridled
lust leads to sexual rela-tionships outside of marriage- and when men’s
minds are controlled by substances that also de-stroy the body (e.g.
alcohol, tobacco, and recrea-tional drugs). Have you exercised
self-control? Do you understand what a lack of self-control has done to
your relationship with God? Can you think about this without trembling?
3) “The
Judgment to Come”-
Paul told Felix that one day he, like all men, would face God’s judg-ment
for all that he had done in his life (2 Cor 5:10; Heb 9:27). At the
Judgment, He would re-ceive either the sentence of eternal life (an
eternal relationship with God in His presence in heaven) or the sentence
of eternal punishment (eternal separation from God in the torment of hell)
(Mt 25:46, Mk 9:43-48). Felix knew where he stood in regard to
“righteousness” and “self-control”. Therefore, he knew at the Judgment,
he was hell-bound! He was terrified! You may ignore God’s standard of
righteousness including His require-ment of self-control all you please.
Live like you want and fulfill every desire. But, know this, God’s
judgment is coming! Are you living in sin? Are you hell-bound?
Shouldn’t you be terrified?!! |
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Imagine for a moment that you’ve gone
to see your doctor for a routine examination. You feel fine. But when
the doctor finishes his exam, he sadly gives you the terrifying news. You
have cancer, and if this cancer is untreated you only have a few months to
live. But, there is good news! Your cancer is treatable and
curable. The doctor urges immediate treatment. But, you respond, “This
is not a good time. It’s fall. We’ll be spending a lot of time up north
at our cottage enjoying the beautiful leaves. We’ll call you to arrange
treatment when it is convenient.”
We could not imagine postponing life-saving treatment for
our physical health. But, perhaps we are as foolish as Felix and let our
separation from God linger, though a remedy is available. In speaking
about “faith in Christ Jesus” (Acts 24:24), Paul would have told Felix the
good news of the cure for his sin. God gave Jesus to die on the cross for
his sins so that he could be forgiven and reconciled to Him. Jesus’
wounds could heal him. (2 Cor 5:20-21, 1 Pet 2:24). If he believed in
Jesus and confessed Him (Rom 10:9-10) and repented and was baptized (Acts
2:38), he would receive the cure of Jesus’ blood.
Felix was
terrified that his sin separated him from God and that God would send him
to hell at the Judgment. But he said, “Go thy way for this time: when I
have a convenient season, I will call for thee.”
(Acts 24:25, KJV) That |
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convenient season never came for
Felix. He continued to call for Paul from time to time, but only to look
for a bribe so that he could set him free. (Acts 24:26-27). His terror
was short-lived. Man is not made to live day after day in such terror.
Either he will obey Jesus to receive forgiveness and let his terror be
replaced by peace or he will let his terror fade away by putting his
soul’s condition on “the back-burner” until it does not trouble him any
more.
Do you realize that your soul is
separated from God because of your sin and that, if the Judgment were
today, you would be sent to hell? Why not partake immediately in the cure
of Christ’s blood? If you knew you had cancer, you would seek treatment
immediately if a cure was available. You would “drop everything” and not
delay until a more “convenient season”. Why jeopardize something far
greater than your physical life- your soul. Don’t let your concern and
your terror fade away. And remember, life is short and uncertain.
Tomorrow may be too late! (Js 4:13-15)
“Today, O friend may be the last, Stop now and count the
cost; You stand condemned before the throne- Your soul forever lost.
Lost! Lost! O what a cry from souls along the shore;
In darkness to go, In sorrow and woe, And be lost, lost evermore!”
-- Tillit S. Teddlie |
