Note 4 at Acts 24:25: Paul reasoned with Felix of "righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come." Today, most people reverse this order when witnessing to the lost. They use God's judgment as the primary motive for repentance. They preach impending judgment if there is no repentance, holiness as a necessity for obtaining God's mercy, and then last of all, if at all, they mention that if the conditions are met, God will grant righteousness or right standing as a reward.

Paul started by explaining that righteousness was a gift from God with the only payment to be made on our part being that of faith. He explained temperance, or a holy life, not as a way to obtaining righteousness, but as a result of a changed life. Then he used the judgment to come as a closing argument for salvation.

If a person's motivation for calling on the Lord is to escape disaster, then that will continue to be the way they think after their conversion. Unless they are taught differently, they will tend to only depend on the Lord in crisis situations. But those who are drawn to the Lord because of the goodness of God (Rom. 2:4) have an advantage. The goodness of God will continue to motivate them in the good times and the bad.

By using the very compelling argument of eternal judgment as the primary, and sometimes the only, reason for accepting the Lord, we have unknowingly taught people that salvation is just for the life hereafter. But that is not true. If there was no judgment to come, we still desperately need the Lord. Only in Him can we find true happiness and peace in this life. Salvation is not just an insurance policy but it is the way to experience the supernatural life and goodness of God in our daily lives here and now.

Note 5 at Acts 24:25: The Greek word used for trembled is "emphobos" meaning "to fear" or "be alarmed." It is only used five other times in the Bible and in those cases it is clearly referring to fear (Lk. 24:5, 37; Acts 10:4; 22:9; Rev. 11:13). Therefore, we can say that it was fear that caused Felix to tremble.

Felix had much to be alarmed about. As mentioned in note 2 at Acts 23:24, p. ???, Felix was a tyrant with virtually no morals as exhibited in his seduction of Drusilla while she was still married to another man (see note 2 at v. 24). The fact that Felix trembled as Paul reasoned with him, shows that God was convicting him, but he chose not to respond positively.

Note 6 at Acts 24:25: Many people have this same attitude today. They want to finish doing "their own thing" and then when they're through they will turn to the Lord. But it doesn't work that way.

Jesus said, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him" (Jn. 6:44). No man can come to God when they get ready. They have to come at the Lord's invitation, and Gen. 6:3 says, "My spirit shall not always strive with man."

There is no record that Felix's convenient season ever came. Surly one of the torments of hell will be the memory of spurning the conviction of the Holy Spirit. If we could hear Felix today, he would cry out with the rich man that Jesus spoke of in Lk. 16:27-28, to heed the drawing of the Holy Spirit and not put Him off.