and we should be very thankful
for it, to realise that he was an honest man in the statements
that he made and he tells us in this account what his life
was and then the change in his life. What is good for us today,
if you and I realise that we had a life, a life that was,
And then God changed that life. He changed the Apostle Paul's
life. And what a blessing if he's changed
our life. Now the Apostle thought before
he was converted that he was doing God's will and serving
God. He was confident that he was
living a very good life. He was a a Pharisee and a very
good Pharisee and yet you see what he was in reality doing
he was fighting against God we know that in another place the
Lord said to the Apostle it was hard for him to kick against
the pricks and we can understand that as the pricks of conscience
that he had and how often that is true And it will be good for
you and me in our testimony, our lives, to realize that we've
been carrying on and yet we realized that we haven't perhaps been
doing it in a right way. Perhaps we haven't had a right
motive. Perhaps we haven't done it for
the honor and glory of God. And it's good to realise that
God moved the Apostle Paul and watched over him and allowed
him to walk contrary to the rules and will of Almighty God until
this amazing day on the Damascus Road. A time when Almighty God
was to call him by his grace. We have this account of the Apostle
Paul. We should not always think that
our personal spiritual experience should be the same as the Apostle
Paul's. The Apostle Paul gives us one
example of how God comes and awakens sinners into spiritual
life. But I always like to draw the
analogy with that woman called Lydia, who again listened to
the Apostle Paul's preaching, but we're told that God opened
her heart to receive the things that the Apostle spoke. There
was no great demonstration of the power in the same way it
was in the Apostle Paul's life, but both was the work of the
Holy Spirit and both brought about spiritual life. So as we
may consider ourselves, and it is good to consider ourselves,
we're encouraged to examine ourselves as to whether we are in the faith
or not. And you may say, well I've been
a believer for a long time and I needn't do that. It is in fact
strengthening to our souls to sometimes go back in our life
to what we might term the beginning. When God first gave us a concern
about the condition and the state of our never-dying soul. All of us need it. All of us
must have it. And therefore, it would only
be encouraging to you and to me to go back and to trace out
a beginning in our spiritual life. Well, there's only one
person that can examine yourself, and that is yourself. Because
it's only as you and I stand before God. It doesn't matter
what other people may think about us. Some people may have a very
high opinion of us, and it may be very false. Some people may
have a very low opinion of us, and it may be very false. But
what we want to have is the evidence of God's work in our heart. And so we read this account,
which we read together this morning, where the apostle tells us, at
midday, I saw in the way a light from heaven. above the brightness
of the sun shining round about me and them that was journey
with me. In another place he refers to
it as above the brightness of the midday sun and of course
in the Middle East the sun is very bright and therefore the
bright light from God was above that, brighter than that. There was no mistaking in his
life that this was something supernatural and what a blessing
it was and the effect upon him was he fell to the ground along
with those that were with him and he had a voice he heard a
voice a voice which asked him a question why persecutest thou
me? it is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks well His response was, who art thou Lord? And Jesus said, I am Jesus, whom
thou persecutest. A very pertinent, direct statement. I wonder whether you and I feel
like that. Whether you and I have stood
before God, the Lord has said to us that we have been persecuting
the Saviour. We may never have thought about
it. We may never have realised it. And yet you see it may be
because we have not been doing those things which were right. We've been pleasing ourselves. We've been working to our own
agenda. We've been working to our own
time scale. And in reality, we've been working
against God. Well, the time had come in the
Apostle's life when God spoke to him and gave him a commission
and told him what he got to do. Yes, he was to go and to deliver
thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I
send thee. And this was the purpose, to
open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from
the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness
of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by
faith that is in me.' Well that was a very clear statement given
to the Apostle Paul. Now we know of course that in
his case the Lord had a special work for him to do. But my friends
the Lord has work for all of his people to do. We are God's
witnesses and we are not to think, well I can just jog along in
my little life without any desire, any concern about other people's
souls. We should be concerned for every
opportunity that God gives to us to speak well of Christ and
to speak about Christ. And the Apostle Paul, as he spoke
to Agrippa, he said, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly
vision. Well, again, I wonder whether
we could say that. Can you say that this morning?
Well, I've not been disobedient. Perhaps we have been disobedient.
Perhaps we are being disobedient. God knows where we stand. And it's only between our soul
and God as to whether you and I are being disobedient. What a mercy it is. Therefore,
if we are doing God's will, if we are testifying of that which
he has commanded us to do, And he tells us what he did. He showed first under them at
Damascus and at Jerusalem and throughout all the coast of Judea
and then to the Gentiles. What did he tell them? That they
should repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance. People today, they don't want
to hear words like that. They don't want to recognise,
first of all, that they're a sinner. Secondly, that they need to repent.
And thirdly, that they must repent. Well, here was. the word that
God had given to Paul, and he spells it out here, doesn't he,
very closely. He tells us who he'd gone to,
what he'd done, he tells us that they should repent and turn to
God and do works meet for repentance. Let us be very clear. Every believer
must be amongst those who have been blessed with repentance. That means to be sorry for our
sin. That's to seek to God that he
will indeed forgive us of our sins. There is no unrepentant
sinner in heaven. There will not be any unrepentant
sinner in heaven. So we have to ask ourselves the
question, am I a repentant sinner? Have I? repented of my sin. It matters not, as I already
said, what people think of us. We may be very proud, perhaps,
of what people think of us. But my friends, the great question
is, what God thinks of us. What God thinks of us. Have you
stood, as it were, before God? as that great judge. And have
you had God ask you the question as to whether you have repented?
What's been your response? What's been your response? Well,
it was clearly the thrust of the gospel that the apostle was
taught to preach and he was able to speak to Agrippa and Festus
and those with him of this. He wasn't ashamed and he was
able to speak it freely and openly. What a mercy then for us today
if we're amongst those who've been blessed with this wonderful
ability. God-given to repent and again
Tendency is sometimes for people to say, well, of course I repent,
I can't repent and therefore I haven't repented. My friends,
that will never stand up when you stand before the judgment
seat of God. You will never be able to make
an excuse. We have the word of God. The
word of God tells us, the Lord Jesus tells us, when he began
to preach the gospel, When he began to preach, you know the
first words he said? Repent and believe the gospel. That was the first words that
Jesus spoke. my friends, you and I should
never think that we can hide under our inability. We should pray earnestly that
God will give us the gift to repent earnestly and honestly
as you and I stand before Almighty God. Well, The Apostle tells us that he
preached this, and for these causes the Jews caught me in
the temple and went about to kill me. And if you want an account
of what Paul passed through, you can read it in the second
epistle of the Corinthians and the first chapter. Sorry, I think it's the 11th
chapter. Sorry, it is the 11th chapter, you can read it. And
it's the 23rd verse, etc. And he gives there a wonderful
account of all that he had to suffer. for the sake of the Gospel. And it's good sometimes just
to think and analyse that with your life and my life. And as
we think, well, what does the Gospel cost me? What's it cost
me in my life? Compare it with what it cost
the Apostle. You and I may be very surprised.
to realise it's perhaps cost us very little it may have cost
us nothing it may have cost us nothing well
what a blessing if we can join with the apostle and understand
his path and then he comes down to these verses we read for a
text having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto
this day. He's not testifying here of what
a great person he was in and of himself. He gives the glory
to God. And let me emphasize again, as
I often try to do, our lives are for the honor and glory of
God. And therefore he's able to come
and say so clearly Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue
unto this day. Well, can we say that? Can you
say that you've obtained help of God? Help of God to live a
Christian life, help of God to confess what God has done for
you, help of God to repent from all your sins. God gives us help. My friends, we want a religion
that is able to testify of what God has done for us, the help
he's given us, not a religion which doesn't bring the honour
and glory to God. Oh, how necessary it is for us
to be able to testify of what God has done for us and we are
told to always be ready to be able to give an account of
what God's done and to never turn away from it, never turn
away from it. Some people think they can hide
under a statement like, well, of course I'm not somebody that
says very much and that's why I haven't really said. That's
not an excuse. God doesn't accept an excuse like that. Your life
and my life is not here to make excuses. Our life is to testify
of what God has done for us. And so says the apostle, having
therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day. Oh,
he was so glad, wasn't he, to give all the credit to God. Didn't
claim anything himself. Having therefore obtained help
of God, I continue unto this day. And he tells us then what
he did. Witnessing. Witnessing, you know,
we perhaps don't hear very much about witnessing, do we? People
are often very cowardly and don't like to be those who witness
of their faith. But here the apostle tells us
He'd obtained help of God to witness, both to small and great,
saying none other things than those which the prophets and
Moses did say should come. So what was his testimony? His
testimony revolved around the great and glorious work of his
saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. What does Christ mean to us today? What does he
mean to you? What does he mean to me? We spoke a little while ago about
the testimony of the bride of Christ in the Song of Solomon. She was able to give a good testimony,
a good explanation of what the Lord Jesus meant to her. And
she was able to conclude in the fifth chapter of the Song of
Solomon, this is my beloved, and this is my friend, O ye daughters
of Jerusalem, the church of God she was speaking to. What a wonderful
thing it is. for you and me today, to be able
to have such a testimony. So the Apostle says, witnessing
both to small and great saying, none other things than those
which the prophets And Moses did say, should come. Again, it's good if you and I
just try and analyze a little word like this. He didn't talk
about the weather. He didn't talk about the football
match he'd been to recently. He didn't talk about other things. He talked about the things of
Christ. What a good thing it was, wasn't
it, eh? saying none other things than
say about anything else anything else you know the devil wants you
and me to be silent the devil doesn't want you and
me to testify to be a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ And
yet the Apostle Paul was able to give this wonderful testimony
to King Agrippa. We could say, couldn't we, he
was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. And so what did he
say? Well, we read it in the 23rd
verse, that Christ should suffer and that he should be the first
that should rise from the dead and should show light unto the
people and to the Gentiles. He laid it out before King Agrippa
so clearly that Christ should suffer. We know that Christ should
suffer. Do we know why he should suffer? Do we know why he did suffer? And do we know that he suffered
to take away our sin? Our sin. When the Holy Spirit
works in the heart of a true Christian, he shows him or her
that they are a guilty sinner before a holy God. And they deserve
eternal punishment for their sin. They stand guilty. They stand condemned. It's the
work of the Holy Spirit. And it's a work which occurs
in everyone who is truly born again. You know, the dying thief
who was converted the last hours or so of his life, just remember
there's only one dying thief, but he confessed that he was receiving the due
reward of his sin. Yes, he knew he was condemned. And he knew that he came before
the saviour of sinners, and he pleaded that the Lord would remember
him. That's what you and I will need.
When we stand before God, and you and I will stand before God
on this earth, when we are convicted before
him, and to indeed look and realise
that the Lord Jesus Christ suffered, suffered, died in our place. He bore the punishment instead
of us. We had, we have a debt to be
satisfied, a debt to be paid. A debt to be removed. And you
and I can't remove that ourselves. We have no ability to it. We
haven't got the right currency to pay the price of our sin. But we must have it removed. We must have it taken away. So
how is that going to occur? If you and I are going to go
to heaven, it must be removed. And it can only be removed through
that great and glorious death and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That Christ should suffer. Yes, He had to suffer. to take
away our sin. He had to suffer to redeem us
from the curse of sin. That curse which said the soul
that sinneth, it shall die. Oh, bless God. If you and I have stood guilty
before God. And we've prayed and pleaded. The Lord would indeed show us
that he suffered for our sake. He's died for us. That Christ should suffer. He had to suffer. He had to die. The apostle goes on that Christ
should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise
from the dead. Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ had
to rise from the dead. He had to demonstrate that he
had conquered sin, death, hell and the grave, that he had done
the will of his father in giving his life as a sacrifice to atone
for the sins of his church. Oh, blessed be God. when the Holy Spirit reveals
this to you and me. And we are brought to have faith
to believe that the great and glorious Saviour, the Son of
God, none less, condescended to die in our place to take away
our sin. Oh, my friends, what a great
and wonderful truth that is. And then you see he's now ascending
into glory there to intercede for us. It's just an unbelieving
great truth, isn't it? To think that God should intercede
with God for such an unworthy sinner. as you and me, but it's true. If we are born
again in the Spirit of God, if God has given us that light,
that light which shone into the Apostle's heart, that light which
shone into Lydia's heart, that light of the glorious Gospel
that shines into every believer's heart, to have the evidence of
it, that it shone into your heart and my heart. And the effect
is this. We're a new creature. We're a
new creature. We possess spiritual life, whereas
we were dead. Now, by the grace of God, we're
alive and it's through the wonderful death, resurrection of the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore, as we come to
Him in prayer, to believe that He, the wonderful Advocate, presents
our prayers to His Father. And the result is, that we are
accepted, not because of ourselves. We're accepted in the Beloved. We're accepted through what Christ
has done and that he should rise from the dead and should show
light unto the people and to the Gentiles. When he was speaking,
of course, to the Jews, But we're told, and to the Gentiles, and
you and I are a Gentile. What a wonderful blessing. What
a wonderful, wonderful favor it is if the Holy Spirit comes
and shines that light into our soul and gives us the wonderful
blessing. The Apostle, when he wrote to
the Corinthians, says some glorious truths. in the second epistle
in the first chapter, he spoke to them in this way, and he said,
For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble,
which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure,
above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life, but
we had the sentence of death in ourselves. that we should
not trust in ourselves but in God which raises the dead so
my friends when you and I come to God in prayer don't look to
yourself don't think what a good prayer it was but friends trust
in the Lord God and I sometimes think and it's worthy of thinking
one of the most glorious prayers In the Word of God recorded is
that prayer of a publican when he, we're told, he couldn't lift
up his eyes, smote upon his breast and said, God, be merciful to
me, a sinner. Was that prayer accepted? The
Lord said, I tell you, that man went down to his house justified
rather than the other. That means just with God. God had made him justified. So
what a good thing if God has really brought you and me to that position where we've
fallen down before God. And we prayed, God, be merciful
to me, a sinner. If you and I, by the grace of
God, have truly prayed that prayer, it is because the light of the
gospel has shone into our hearts. It's not the words of a man. It's the words of Almighty God.
And my friends, it'll be between you and God. It'll be a real prayer. And you'll
be brought to an extremity to come there. Because you'll be
as the hymn writer said, no hope in self I find, yet oft have
sought it well, knowing there's no good, there's no help in ourselves. But there is hope. in the great
and glorious love and mercy of Almighty God. So this is really
a wonderful account in this 26th chapter of Acts, and I think
it incorporates one of the saddest statements in the Word of God,
when King Agrippa responds to the question that David says,
Believest thou the prophets? Agrippa says, almost thou persuadest
me to be a Christian. My friends, may that not be our
case. May we not be amongst those who
have been almost persuaded, but gloriously blessed with God-given
faith to be fully persuaded And there's no hope in ourselves,
but our hope is in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that we cling to, in that
we rejoice in, with that great and glorious truth that there
is forgiveness with God. Glory to his precious name. Amen. Closing hymn in worship this
morning, number 19, to the tunes of Stephen, 229. Hymn number 19. Behold the glories
of the Lamb amidst his Father's throne. Prepare new honours for
his name and songs before unknown. And we read the seventh verse.
with sweet hope, if not assurance. Thou hast redeemed our souls
with blood, has set the prisoners free, has made us kings and priests
of God, and we shall reign with thee. Hymn number 19. We have the glories of heaven,
and its truth of the soul. Let him that worship at this
place, let him that worship at this place, let him that worship at
this place, let him that worship at this place, let him that worship
at this place, ? The best of all saints ? ? Can
be truly fully praised ? ? Jesus is mighty ? ? And complete ? ? In
love's jubilee ? His word will follow you, Shabbat,
into the sacred field. When the house of Judah will call you, and you will hear, ? Is the word with my mouth ? O'er the ramparts we watched,
were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the
bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag
was still there. Now that David was a Timber,
and set the beaten trail, let me ? Come rain and wind ? ? Come rain
and wind ? ? Come rain and wind ? Now may the grace of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ, and the love of God our Father, and
the fellowship and communion of the Eternal Spirit rest and
abide with us each, now and for evermore. Amen.