In Acts chapter 9, I'm going
to read starting at verse 4, and I'll go through verse 11,
which is probably as far as we will get, maybe verse 12. And we'll see how we fare with
our outline and our material. Verse 4, and he fell to the earth. Let me start at verse 3. And
as he journeyed, that is the apostle Paul, came near to Damascus.
And suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven.
And he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him,
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, who are you,
Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus,
whom thou persecutest. It is hard for you to kick against
the pricks. And he trembling and astonished
said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto
him, Arise and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what
thou must do. And the men which journeyed with
him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth,
and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man. But they led him
by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. And he was three
days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink. And there
was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias. And to him said
the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, behold, here am
I, Lord. And the Lord said unto him, arise and go into the street,
which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas,
for one called Saul of Tarsus. For behold, he prayeth. and hath seen in a vision a man
named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he might
receive his sight. Let me go on a little bit further. Then Ananias answered and said,
Lord, I have heard by many of this man how much evil he hath
done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he hath authority from
the chief priest to bind all that call on thy name. But the
Lord said unto him, Go thy way, For he is a chosen vessel unto
me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children
of Israel. For I will show him how great
things he must suffer for my name's sake. And we'll stop right
there. I doubt very seriously if we
get too much further into our text around that portion. If
you guys remember last week, we worked through fairly diligently
and carefully the opening verses of chapter 9 as we regarded the
fervor and the passion and the zeal on the part of Saul to persecute
and to destroy the church. And I shared with you that it
was prophetically rooted in his genetic makeup being a Benjamite
prophesied by Jacob in Genesis 49 that he would be a ravening
wolf destroying the prey. Indigenous to the nature of the
Benjamites was war. Indigenous to the nature of that
group of Israelites was their capacity to be proficient in
war. And thus they would be ready
to go against and oppose everything that they thought was wrong.
This tenor is seen in the book of Judges. It's seen in King
Saul. It's seen throughout the Book
of Kings where the Benjamites played a major role in advancing
wars and winning battles. And then Paul himself stated
in Philippians chapter 3 that under his delusion of self-attainment
that he was of the tribe of Benjamin. that he was of the seed of Abraham,
that he was circumcised the eighth day. And he took great stock
in being a Benjamite because the legacy and history of the
Benjamites was that they were warriors. They were warriors. And I think I worked that through
enough for you to understand that we don't see that much difference
today in the realm of people who are zealous for their own
ideology, particularly in the Middle East. both with Islam
and with Judaism, that there's a strong underpinning of war
that follows their agenda to sustain their own worldviews. And that when you honestly and
openly work through history, church history, you find that
war is very much attached to religion. War is very much attached
to religion. If we follow church history prior
to the Enlightenment period, prior to the Reformation, the
whole period of the Byzantine and the Constantinian period
where the Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic Church was the
prominent religion in the West, war was constantly taking place.
Islam rose up out of the paradigm of a kind of imperialism, slash,
sort of theomonarchy dominion over the world, which is what
Constantinian Christianity was. It was a hybrid of Roman imperialism,
endorsed by a Catholicism that fundamentally integrated itself
into the body politic. the Roman Empire and from that
point on Christianity ceased to be true Christianity because
now its power was the sword rather than the gospel and that paradigm
followed itself all the way through to the 6th century AD where Islam
was adopted by Muhammad as you know and they took up the old
Judaistic construct Islam is a sort of a distorted and modified
Old Testament paradigm. They have taken many of the Old
Testament models calling themselves the children of Abraham on the
side of Ishmael and built up a sort of theocratic system as
well to go against the world. And theirs has exceeded Judaism
to this point in that they are indeed presently seeking to develop
a caliphate over the whole world. a neo-religio-political system
of dominion over the whole world if they can have their way. This
is Benjamin's sort of motto and modus operandi, you know, 10
times over. And what I'm saying to you, as
we now look into the text, what you're going to see, as we've
been working through this model from the beginning of our study
in Acts, are two kingdoms at war. The kingdom of darkness
and the kingdom of light. The kingdom which is represented
by a ministry by which the gospel is preached. and a kingdom represented
by a pseudo religious model and a political affirmation that
is syncretistic, that if it could, it would swallow up the Christian
agenda to go into all the world with the gospel. And what you're
seeing in Acts chapter eight and nine is the beginning stages
of that war in its more virulent, but early form. virulent meaning
that Saul has received letters from the high priest to go after
Christians and To take them bound wherever they are and bring them
back to Jerusalem so that they might be punished Now you may
read into that elliptically What would be the consequences of
the Christians being brought back to Jerusalem? Well, they
would suffer the same fate Jesus did So you have a biblical model
here and this model becomes a grid for interpreting the true gospel
from the false gospel if you want it. And the true gospel
is a gospel that is hallmarked by power proceeding from preaching
rather than power proceeding from politics. The true gospel
is hallmarked by power proceeding from preaching rather than power
proceeding from politics. Are you guys hearing me? This
is the book of Revelation. My class knows this, that you
have two streams of power existing in the world, the power of politics,
and then the power of truth. And the power of politics basically
governs the world. It's called beast one, beast
two, Revelation 12 and 13, the beast of politics and the beast
of religion. And whenever religion capitulates to and becomes subsumed
under the control of religion, of politics rather, then that
religion now loses its identity. And the best it can do is simply
endorse the agenda of politics. And we've seen that actually
happen here in America. where we have seen Christianity
basically amalgamized with the political right for many, many
years and seek to actually infiltrate and dominate through politics. It's sort of moral agenda and
it never works because you cannot actually convert people through
politics or legislation. Now this is an aside, but I want
you to see how When God actually intervenes to arrest this man,
Saul, he is showing us the radically different approach that Christianity
must take in order to bring men and women captive to the gospel.
And that what you may be seeing in our text may appear to you
as incidental. It is not, it becomes the paradigm.
And I'm hoping to prove that tonight as we work this through.
Suffice it to say that if you and I do not actually believe
in the power of the gospel to penetrate people groups, and
change hearts and minds and bring them into a knowledge of God
in such a radical way that they are converted, that they are
transformed, that they are built up, that they're made new creatures
in Christ, that they now as new creatures in Christ live personally
and domestically and societally and as a body politic different
than they did before the gospel came into their life. You don't
believe that the gospel works. If we don't believe that the
gospel is able to penetrate people groups like Levin and change
the life from the core of their being outward, then you don't
believe in the power of the gospel. Am I making some sense? But if
we do believe in the power of the gospel being able to go into
people groups who heretofore were pagan, barbarian, wild,
heathen, destructive to self and others, and is able to illuminate
their mind, change their mind, change their ethics, change their
morals, make them now vertically moral and vertically conscious
of the reality of God and Christ. If we believe that, then we'll
continue to preach the gospel incessantly and see lives changed. If we don't believe that, we
will default to political means by which we subdue the people.
Are you guys following me? So what I want you to see tonight
as we work through our outline is the radical power of God as
a model for radical change of the most heinous sinner on planet
earth. If God can change Saul, he can
change anyone. This is why Saul owned for himself
being the chief of sinners. You're a bad sinner. If you are
a profligate, drunk, adulterer, fornicating individual who is
given over to base lusts that are destructive to people around
you, you're a bad sinner. But you're not the baddest sinner.
The worst sinner is the religious sinner. The men are the woman
that puts on the fig leaves of self-righteousness when internally
they are still angry, both with God and man. Remember we learned
last week, the apostle Paul was mad. Saul said, I was mad. I was mad. And this is part of
the psychosis going on in Islam, where it's able to adopt and
bring into its numbers, young men who are mad, mad and want
to vent their testosterone in a very destructive way, cause
they're mad. Saul was a, he was a mad man. He was a mad man. But look at God's grace to intervene
and stop him in his tracks. And this will be a model for
us of the nature of the gospel. So I do want to say this, that
we can be far worse in the sight of God in terms of our impact
on people's souls. If we are religious hypocrites
and charlatans by way of faith, so that we destroy souls, when
the common sinner is only able to destroy lives. This is why
Paul said, I am the chief of sinners. So we're gonna work
through our outline. You notice Paul was pursuing
the Christians as far as where? Damascus, you in PowerPoint number
one. So he was pursuing them as far
as Damascus. And as far as Damascus, the apostle
Paul is pursuing them. Damascus was 150 miles away from
Jerusalem. That's a long way to walk or
ride a camel and pursue Christians. That meant he was serious. But
as he was pursuing them, God was pursuing him. So the proposition
now begins to come into play, and I want you to grasp it now.
I want you to grasp how God works. We are at war, saints. Heaven
is at war with hell. The emissaries of both are either
people in the kingdom or out of the kingdom. If you're in
the kingdom of God, you are an emissary of heaven. You receive
your marching orders from King Jesus. He is our captain. Our
charter is the gospel. Our object are the souls of men.
Our aim is their salvation. Our methodology is truth and
love. Their goal is to destroy everything
that's like God. That's the kingdom of darkness.
And that's the battle that's being waged everywhere. Whether
that battle is in the domestic sphere of human relationships
and family, or whether it's on the job, or whether it's in school,
or whether it's in the political arena, or even in churches. That's
the battle that's going on. And by the way, you're in that
battle, whether you think about it or not, you are in that battle.
You are in the battle of the kingdom of darkness pursuing
you to drag you to hell, destroy your capacity to live for the
glory of God and to affirm your salvation. You are in that battle
and both sides are taking captives. Hell is taking captives and Christ
is taking captives. Today we will see captivity lay
captive. That's what we're dealing with.
So now you notice Saul has authority to go get these Christians and
he's headed there and we learned how that Heaven opened up and
a great light In conference Paul and he fell to the earth in verse
4 and he heard a voice saying Saul Saul why persecute is out
me you guys remember that so I told you last week that Christ
never depicts himself in his redemptive purposes as being
separate or distinct from his body and that this phraseology
underscored the reality that there is a present ontological
union between Christ and the church so that if you persecute
Christ's church, you have persecuted him. Now, if you wanted, if you
and I wanted to swerve off the road and argue what is the church,
that'd be another discussion. But let's assume we all know
what the church is, and we'll leave that discussion to another
day. If we all understand what the church is in a more theoretical
sense, it is the blood-bought members of Christ's body from
the beginning of the world to the end of time. Everyone for
whom Christ died, they are the body of Christ. The body of Christ
is the church, and that number is still increasing. Are you
guys accepting that proposition? So while we accept that proposition,
understand then when that entity called the church is persecuted
by any individual inside the church or outside the church,
you are persecuting Christ. Christ made it plain to his disciples.
I have sent you into the world as my father has sent me into
the world. He that receives you receives me. He that receives
me receives him that sent me. That's how ontologically bound
I am to Christ. Are you guys following what I'm
saying? So that when he says to Saul, Saul, Saul, why are
you persecuting me? You and I don't have to buy into
that proposition, a mere psychological sort of framework that in Saul's
mind, he was trying to kill Jesus who he hated hearing preached.
Well, that's true. Because the name Jesus is going
to be a big issue for the Jews in the book of Acts. And it's
a big issue for Paul. But what Christ was saying is,
when you kill one of my members, you're killing me. Now this is
to the comfort of God's elect. That Christ would view himself
as one with us as we are with him. That presently this risen
reigning Lord who is speaking to Saul of Tarsus is on his throne
in glory experiencing the answered prayer that he yielded in John
17 when he said, Father, make them one as you and I are one,
make them one in us. For Christ, we are so one in
him that when a thing happens to me, it happens to him. That's
profound. Now, if I actually buy into that
doctrine of union between me and Christ, It's going to actually
change my ethics, my moral, and my behavior. It's going to modify
and inform how I act towards others. Because it would imply
to me that I am more than what appears to be to me. Because
I am nothing in myself. And I am nothing to my fellow
man. But to Christ, I am much more than I could personally
imagine. And that ought to actually change my perspective of me. That requires faith. This is
why it's faith that overcomes the world, not feelings. It's
faith that overcomes the world, not circumstances. It's faith
in Christ that overcomes the world, not my giftedness, not
my capacity, not my ingenuity, my knowledge of who I am in God. So let me make this proposition
to you and may help you. To the degree, child of God,
that you come to know Christ more profoundly, more deeply,
more accurately, more personally, more conjugally, you come to
know yourself. Because all you are is who you
are in Christ. And so to the degree that you
are lacking a knowledge of Christ, you are lacking a knowledge of
yourself. Am I making some sense? And so
this is critical. Your comfort, your joy, your
strength, your power, your zeal, your passion, your mission is
in your knowledge of yourself in him. As the father has sent
me, so send I you. And so when our master makes
this statement to Saul, what he was doing is convicting Saul
of the primary sin of unbelief. You remember what Jesus said
to the disciples in John 16 13 and when he the spirit of truth
has come he will convince the world of what? Sin because of
what they do not believe on me The efforts and labors of Paul
are Saul to kill the Christian church was because he was an
unbeliever at the root of all sin is unbelief Do you understand
that right at the root of all sin is unbelief? So what Christ
was doing was convincing him of sin. Remember, in order to
bring a man to conversion, he must know his guilt. You never
convert someone by merely giving them the proposition that God
loves you. That does not convert anyone. We have to resolve why
he loves us if in fact he does. And we have to understand the
necessity of that love if in fact he does love us. Because
that love now has to be a response to a predicament of which I am
in desperate need. But if I'm not told that I am
a sinner, then I am left with a great ignorance on my part
in terms of my urgency of getting right with God. Am I making some
sense? So the first work of the Spirit
of God, when the Word of God is taught properly and proclaimed
properly, is to convince the world of sin and then of righteousness,
and that being the gospel of justification freely by the grace
of God, and then of judgment, and that is the announcement
that there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus.
It's a good news message, but it's only a good news message
to sinners. Are you hearing me? It's a good
news message, but only to sinners. See, Saul was fighting against
his conscience. He was kicking against the pricks. God had already began to work
in his life. We call it in theology, prevenient
grace. It's the grace that goes before
the grace that actually subdues you. Some of y'all will get that a
little bit later on down the line. It's the grace that watches
over you from a sovereign God who has not made himself known
to you in your life yet, but takes care of you in the course
of your darkness and ignorance from the time you are born until
the time that he reveals his glory in you. While he may allow
you to go through some things in your life, they are all only
prerequisite to subduing your nature and bringing you to a
place where you say yes to Jesus. Am I making some sense? That's
called prevenient grace. He has his hand on us. He has
his hand on them. As you're going to see, When
he calms his other servant down, all right Ananias, listen, he's
mine. He has always been mine, so chill. Okay. And so it's so critical
for you and I to understand how the gospel works. It must first
bring a man low. At this point, Saul has been
knocked to the ground. It's from the ground that Saul
is hearing the indictment from Christ. This is what we learn. as we work through theology,
that you're not going to come into the presence of God with
your chest puffed up and your head high. God only receives
the humble man or the woman. To this man will I look, even
to him who is of a contrite heart and a broken spirit, Isaiah chapter
57, 15. And if you and I are puffed up
now, you're not in the presence of God. I can tell you right
now, God always resists the proud. So he's going to deal with Saul
in a personal way as he's doing now, right? But Saul is in the
dust. Is he not? He's with his face.
He hasn't even gotten up yet. He's talking to God from the
very place where we must talk to God, from the dirt from which
we were made. And he said, who are you, Lord?
And the Lord said, I am Jesus. Like he did not know. Whom you
persecute, it is hard for you to kick against the goal. That
last clause there I am stating is that Saul had been struggling
with the revelation of the gospel while as yet he was still running
Christians into prison. And this is a good insight to
those of you who are serious about the conversion of lost
sinners. Sometimes our friends, loved ones, and relatives are
bucking against us while at the same time crumbling on the inside.
Do you believe that? Let's keep going. verse 6 and
he trembling astonished said what Lord what will thou have
me to do all right we move into our new outline my outline says
the call and conversion to a Paul the mouth opens in acknowledgement
of his lordship do you see that The mouth opens in acknowledgement
of his lordship romans chapter 10 9 and 10 go there with me
briefly I just want to show it to you not to do a a lengthy
exegesis on this but to show you the connection here What
did Saul just call Jesus of Nazareth? Lord, do you understand how profound
that is coming from a jewish perspective? Where christ was
both? uh, uh, um, he was both a a sect
leader a ring leader of a sect He was a heretic. He was born
of fornication and demonically possessed. And Saul is now calling
him Curios. Something has happened in his
heart, hasn't it? And we make the claim that when God actually
begins to work with grace in your life, he will cause you
to believe on him and publicly acknowledge his lordship. That's
what God will do. And salvation is nothing short
of calling Christ Lord. a way of life not just as a mere
act of profession of faith as a way of life verse 9 here it
is that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus
and shall believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from
the dead you shall be what now follow this line because this
line again is the substratum for our historical context in
Acts chapter 9 what do you mean substratum pastor pastor Saul
grew up under the law. He knew the Torah. He knew the
Tanah. He knew the law in and out. He
was a scribe. He was a lawyer. He understood
scripture. But more than that, he understood
the gospel because he had it preached to him every day from
the New Testament Christians, Mary, Martha, James, John, Peter,
and Stephen, whom he had consented to his death. He was hearing
the gospel of the risen Christ every day. He heard it. He heard
it. He heard it. This time it had
a saving efficacy in his life so that now he's bowing the knee
and calling that one that he was persecuting, Lord. Do you
see it? Lord. So this is not a quick, sort
of quick, superficial manipulation technique that we do in church
where we get people to come up and cry and whine and repeat
after me. We're talking about a profound
work of grace that goes on in the heart. It is deeply personal. It is deeply personal, where
the soul capitulates and makes allegiance to King Jesus. Allegiance
to King Jesus. Did you get that? The monarch. The monarch. That's what we're
dealing with. Kyrgios, the clear term for the
monarchy of Christ rule over the hearts of men. When you call
him Kyrgios, you're acknowledging a kingdom. When you call him
curious, you're acknowledging authority base. When you call
him curious, you're acknowledging his crown rights over your life.
Are you following me so far? I know we're Western Christians
and we're all sovereigns. I know that. But I'm just saying
in biblical terms, when Christ is Lord, he's sovereign in your
life. This is where false Christianity
will not make it in the day of judgment. When in biblical Christianity,
we are submitting to him as Lord you're gonna see that as we work
through our outline. He is Acknowledging the right of Christ to direct
his life now He's acknowledging it by virtue of believing the
claims that Christ rose from the dead for with the heart man
What is this not a heart matter that we're reading in Acts 9
is a heart matter. I For with the heart man believes
unto righteousness with regards to righteousness. That proposition
means that his belief is in the doctrines of the gospel that
explain what constitutes righteousness from God's standpoint. How can
a man be made right with God only by faith in Christ? and
faith in Christ being the whole body of doctrine by which God's
holiness demands perfect justice for the transgressions of sins
committed against him and the broken law which we have violated. Those things have to be rectified.
Righteousness has to be established and made available for men and
women to be right with God. Am I making some sense? to be
right with God. And the sinner who is persuaded
of God's plea for trusting Christ comes to understand that the
proposition, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, is a great grace. To simply believe on Christ merits
for me a righteousness that allows me to be accepted before God
with the same standing as his son, Jesus Christ. I am therefore
possessor of the righteousness of God in Christ. That requires
the conviction of the heart around the claims of the gospel. And
again, ladies and gentlemen, this is no superficial thing.
See, when the gospel is explained, you and I are going deep into
the character of God. We're going deep into the character
of God and deep into the offenses of men and deep into our own
Rebellion against God when we explain the gospel. We're going
deep into the reality of who God is You're going deep. This is not superficial See now
now what you're not about to see tonight is a conversion Okay
about a conversion, a conversion at the triple. You know what
that means? The whole course of this man's life is going to
change. So stay with me for a second. Now, you know, bear with me for
a moment. How many people, you know, over
the course of a lifetime whose lives have actually radically
changed. Don't give me religion. Don't
give me religion. Don't give me the hit and miss
stuff that folks do. Don't don't give me that that
moment that time that they play church and learned a few Bible
verses. That's not conversion That that's not a radical change
Of course a projectory of life that leaves an individual away
from a pattern of life That was opposite of where they were for
the rest of their life. I'm talking about a way of life
Are you hearing me? This is what I'm talking about
This is I'm talking about a way of life See what Paul was trying
to destroy. They call this new way. And all those that were of that
way, we were killing, we were killing people up that way. That's
what he was talking about. And so in Romans chapter 10,
when it says a man believes in his heart unto righteousness
and with his mouth, confession is made unto what? That's right. So what's taking place in this
text is that no longer is the individual operating out of the
hypocrisy of duplicity. Stay with me for a moment. The
hypocrisy of duplicity. We have learned by now, if you're
12 years old, you have learned that people can say one thing
and do another. By the time you are a middle schooler, you have
learned that people can trick you into talking a good talk
And yet their lives are diametrically opposed to what they say. And
you're scratching your head because you're trying to figure out how
can that be? Well, here's how that can be. You can say one
thing with your head and be actually operating out of something totally
different in your volition, in your will, in your heart, the
inner man driven by things that are contrary to what he's saying.
We call it hypocrisy. It's the duplicity of not walking
in an integrated way. Integration is when you bring
your mind and your heart into unison. So that the life now
is brought into conformity to the will that is subject to the
will of God. And now you're walking whole.
Am I making some sense? It's called integrity. Integrity.
And integrity is when you and I are now talking and walking
in the same direction. This is what I'm talking about.
And what I'm talking about has nothing to do with religion.
Because religion is the biggest fraud on planet Earth, with the
exception of politics. Both of them are such a smoke
and mirror system. Smoke and mirrors, three-card
molly, is nothing but a whole system of tricanery. Religion
and politics makes people look one way, when in fact, they are
totally different. Are you hearing me, ladies and
gentlemen? But when the gospel gets a hold of the light and
the crown rights of Jesus Christ are stamped on the soul of a
man or a woman, their projector is changed. And we won't get
into sanctification right now. I'm simply talking about conversion
because this is what's happening with this man. This man has been
humbled by God. And he's been made to acknowledge
Jesus as Lord. It's come out of his mouth, hasn't
it? It's already come out of his mouth. Did it come out? Lord,
what would you have me to do? Now you and I are getting ready
to see if it came from his heart or his cranium. Am I making some
sense? We're getting ready to find out
whether it came from his heart or his cranium. So when folks
get baptized and people make confessions of faith, all you
have to do is wait. We'll see whether or not they
got on the train to Georgia or glory. Let's go back to our text and
begin to work through some of this. Show you some real interesting
dynamics here in our account. Saul is going to apprehend, bring
captives, slaves back to Jerusalem. He got another thing coming.
Verse six tells us that he was in the presence of the true and
the living God and the person of Jesus Christ. And he trembling
was astonished. See that? He trembling was astonished
and said Lord, what will you have me to do? What a clear acknowledgement
of the absolute rule of Christ in his life and the Lord said
unto him Arise and go into the city and it shall be told thee
what you must do. I love it Here's a wonderful
process about to take place. So under your first point, let
me quickly get through these a profoundly personal event of
the soul We talked about that, right? Sustained testimony of
Christ revelation what I'm talking about here is this when I talk
about conversion I'm talking about a projectory of life that
is consistent with that punctual punctiliar event that happened
by which your life was changed Proverbs 418 says the path of
the just is as a shining light that shines more and more unto
the perfect day so the day that the light began to shine and
for the rest of your life when Christ is in it, is a gradual
development and increase of that revelation to the soul. Are you
following me? It's gradual. Now I'm giving
you some implications in the area of sanctification. It's
gradual. It's not all at once. Paul had
to learn a lot of things. For every believer, we got to
learn a lot of things. But the light is on at the point
of Saving knowledge and from there it illuminates more and
more. Is that true child of God? Has that been the case for you
all your life? Absolutely. It's a process where the lights
are cut on more and more and the light is penetrating the
darkness and the darkness is scattering by and by And here's
an impacting truth. I want you to get Paul said it
himself in Galatians chapter 1 verse 15 mark this Galatians
1 15 watch how Paul explains what happened And I want you
to ask yourself, is this what happened to me? Because this
is critical in the area of whether or not I have had a saving experience
with Christ. Now watch this. He explains once
again how he persecuted the church and wasted it in verse 13. For
you have heard of my conversation, lifestyle, in time past, chapter
one, verse 13, in the Jews' religion. Notice how he now defines what
once he loved as the Jews' religion. That means he no longer owns
it as his, right? And watch this, how that beyond
measure, I persecuted the church of God and wasted it. She has a very clear view of
the destructive nature of his efforts to completely dismantle
God's church and profited in the Jews religion above many
my equal. You know what he said? He was
far better. He far excelled all of his peers
in his pursuit. being more exceedingly zealous
of the traditions of my fathers. Got it? As I told you, religion
will make you angry. Verse 15. This is your Allah,
you Greek students. Here's your Allah. But, you got
it? This is your Allah. It's your
contrasting conjunction. Here it is. But, when it please
God. Do you see that? So here's a
question we can raise. When does God save a sinner?
When it pleases him. Not when it pleases you. Salvation
is the work of God in God's way at God's time. You know, some
of us have said, now God saved me early. But some of us have
said, I wonder why God took so long to come get me. Have some
of y'all ever said that? I wonder why God took, cause
you know, we messed it up. Did we mess it up? I wish God
would have saved me in the womb like John the Baptist or saved
me as a little child. Cause we wouldn't have messed
up so much. God, I mean, when you look back at it, you feel
so bad. I do. I get ashamed of the stuff
I did in my ignorance and rebellion against God. I get ashamed. But it's designed for you to
do that. You and I are supposed to be ashamed of our past so
that we don't go back. so that we don't go back. Read
it for yourself, Ezekiel 20 through 22, and then Ezekiel 36, just
in case you don't understand the benefit of shame as a component
to keep you moving forward and not backwards. See, because unbelievers
are not ashamed of the stuff they do. I'm ashamed of the stuff
I did, let alone I do. Did you get that? I did. I wake
up in cold sweats some night. Lord! I'm so glad you saved me. That was 30 years ago. I'm still
sweating that thing. You know, cause you know how
we do, we build if, ands and buts around what we did. And
then we kind of extrapolate on it and we go, man, if I would
have actually done that thing, I would have been told. And it
just brings about a sense of appreciation and reverence for
God for keeping you. When does God save a person?
Listen to it. When it pleased him. Now watch what we mean by
the comprehensive nature of an infinite god working all things
together According to his will in the salvation of his people
that god doesn't show up to save you the day. He saves you That
god was already in the process of saving you before he created
the universe The apostle paul said this when god Was pleased
he separated me from my mother's womb Do you see the acute awareness
of the apostle in God's hand of bringing him into the world?
He's now giving God glory for being brought into the world.
You see, our atheistic and our agnostic friends don't even acknowledge
that it's the glory of God that brought them into existence.
Paul is owning the fact that not only did God bring him into
existence, he brought him into existence with purpose. After
all, the only way you and I can be saved is if we are first born. Do you see that? There is no
salvation without first being born. And both of them are as
secure in the hand of God as is God's own nature. It was impossible
for you not to be born. when you were born, where you
were born, how you were born, by whom you were born, and the
circumstances that led to the day when you bowed the knee to
Christ. They were all part of the sovereign hand of God. Are
you guys following me? Paul takes comfort in this, maybe
for a thousand reasons, but it's enough for you and I to know
that when a man or woman says yes to Jesus, that yes was determined
before the world began. Listen to what it goes on to
say. But wouldn't it please God who separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by His grace? Do you see it? Called! called
me by his grace. So these are critical realities
in the matter of explaining the gospel. We continue to tell men
and women that this matter of salvation is a work of God on
a deeply personal level where the voice of God must be heard
in the soul of the man or the woman that's coming to God. He
says, God separated me from my mother's womb, kept me until
I got old enough. And then I heard the voice of God. Well, we see
it in Acts chapter nine. Saul! Saul! Is that God calling him? That's
exactly right. We talk about three calls in
this church. The call to life. You're not born by accident,
you're born by call. You're called into this world.
And then the gospel call. Some of us hear the gospel call
effectually, others of us don't. We saw that last week, right?
The brothers that are hanging around Saul, they saw the light,
but they heard no voice. Specifically, Christ did not
talk to them. He only talked to Saul. Are you
hearing me? He only talked to Saul. So frequently
in our churches where the gospels preached in power, he'll speak
to one and not the other. And that's God's sovereign prerogative.
Are you hearing me? I think I shared with you last
week, several times in the gospels, Jesus would talk to the master,
to the father, and the father would speak from heaven to Jesus,
right? And no one would understand,
but Jesus, are you guys following me? You know what that means?
My sheep hear my voice and they follow me. Another they will
not follow for they know the voice of their master, their
shepherd, and him only will they follow. They said it thundered
or Isaiah spoke or Elijah spoke. That means they didn't hear from
God. Because when you hear from God, you hear from God. And God
speaks to us by his word in such a crystal clear fashion, almost
by name. And he calleth them by name and
they follow him. And this is what Paul says in
verse 16. Are you there? He called me by his grace to
reveal his son to me. Is that what it says? Do you know
there's a huge difference between the preposition to and the preposition
in? One of them is a penetrating
preposition. When a thing is in, it's in.
When a thing is to, that means it has objective, it has purpose,
but it hasn't penetrated yet. So in a peripheral way, they
heard something, but Saul heard the voice of Christ. The difference
is what one hears with the carnal ear and what one hears with the
spiritual ear. The difference is between one
hearing the word of God as God himself speaking to you with
the authority that changes your life. It makes you do what you're
supposed to do. And hearing the words of a man
speaking from the Bible and you having the option as to whether
or not you agree with that. Are you following what I'm saying?
That's the difference. That's the difference. Well,
I don't think I agree with that. What you didn't hear from God.
If I actually told you the word of God, And I didn't distort
the truth. And I was faithful in my exegesis
and my exposition. And you say, well, I don't agree
with that. You did not hear from God. Are you hearing me? You
did not hear from God. You didn't hear from God. God
spoke. You didn't hear. The other person
got up and obeyed. Their heart was broke or their
heart was made happy. You had an option to determine
whether or not you was going to listen to it. You didn't hear
from God that day. I've been telling our saints here at Grace
for the Longest, be expository listeners. Expository listeners,
come listening for God's voice. Don't play church. Stay home,
watch the football game. Go take a walk on the beach or
do something else. Don't go to church and not hear
from God. Don't go to church and not hear
from God. You're going to perish that way. So listen to what he says. He
separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace
to reveal His Son in me. This is what we mean in theology
by what we call a saving knowledge. A saving knowledge. 2 Corinthians
chapter 4, verse 4 through 6. Go with me there. 2 Corinthians
chapter 4, verse 4 through 6. This is the difference between
the superficial hearing of the ear that is basically still untouched
in the soul and the soul gripped by the power and omnipotence
of God speaking through the lowly means of biblical preaching and
teaching. 2 Corinthians 4, are you there?
Verse 4, verse 3. If our gospel be hid, it's hid
to them that are lost. One person is sitting by you,
the gospel's hid from him. Another person sitting by you,
the gospel is just like the lights being cut on and everything can
be seen. in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds
of them which are not believing, lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them. Watch this. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord. Now, ladies and gentlemen, just
in case you don't know, when Christ is not the subject of
the preaching, the gospel was not preached. Please know that. I don't care how tantalizing,
how emotionally moving, how manipulative the preaching was. If Christ
is not the subject of the preaching, the gospel was not preached.
And if the gospel was not preached, you may be moved emotionally,
but you cannot be moved spiritually. It requires a revelation of His
glory to move your soul. You guys understand that? This
is the difference between what you used to hear before you heard
the gospel and what you hear now when you hear the gospel. That's the difference. Are you
hearing rules and regulations, pragmatisms, anecdotal stories,
nice soliloquies, jokes and fables and Little quips by the preacher
to entertain you for 30 minutes because he has no capacity To
go into the Word of God and break it up and open it up and feed
the sheep the knowledge of the gospel Are you hearing me? And
so you go away deep down inside intuitively, you know Something
was missing It was Christ that was missing it was the Lord Jesus
Christ who is the sum and substance of this book and Lo, I come in
the volume of the book is written of me to do thy will you are
searching the scriptures and in them you think you have eternal
life, but they are they which testify of me and you will not
come unto me that you might have life until Christ is preached
in all of his glory and all of his offices as Lord and as Savior
as Servant as King as Redeemer and captain of our salvation
You haven't heard the gospel This is what Saul is saying.
This is what Paul is saying. This is what happened to him now watch
it. I He says in verse 5 for we preach not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants for Christ's sake
For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness Here
is the preposition in have shined in our hearts You see it have
shine in our hearts Have cut the lights on for tits out It's
like a camera when you have a flash camera and you take a shot and
that that that flash lightens up everything That's what happens
when the Word of God comes in power Internally, there's an
internal revelation without it. Nothing's happening We're just
going through the form and mode of religion Notice what he says for God who
commands the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our
hearts to give the light Isn't this the metaphor in the very
mouth of the apostle paul of which was the nature of his conversion?
Isn't he using that language light language light language? Listen to what he's saying the
light of the what knowledge see it the light of the knowledge
of the what glory of god Where in the person of christ see the
term face as a synonym for person? Old Hebraic phrase, which means
if you see the face of God, you have God's favor. You see God
for who he is. And Christ is the face of God.
Are you making, am I making some sense? Because God in his ontological
nature is invisible. He's unapproachable. He dwells
in a light. He possesses a light that is
incomprehensible on our part. We cannot ever even comprehend
God apart from revelation. And that revelation is only in
Jesus Christ. Jesus is the revelation of the invisible God personally. So to the degree that I come
to know Christ, I come to know God the Father through him and
only through him. And that dynamic, that symbiotic
relationship, which takes place through teaching, through meditation,
through devotion, through reflection on your part of the knowledge
of Christ, that's what brings you into communion with God.
That's, by the way, the only way you're going to affirm your
salvation. If you don't have time for Jesus, you're not saved.
Be sure. If Jesus is just like an addendum
to your studies, you're still not saved. Am I making some sense? If Jesus is just an addendum
to the vast volumes of anthems of information that you are acquiring
so you can let people know how knowledgeable you are, you're
still not saved. Because see, once you know Christ,
every other form of knowledge is subsumed under him, if not
thrown away for the excellency of the knowledge of God in Christ
Jesus. This is what the text is teaching.
This is what Paul experienced. Go back to me, go back with me
to our text. We got about 15 more minutes. Am I boring? Okay.
I just want to see, cause we are in some days where, you know,
people can't handle more than 20 minutes of teaching and preaching.
We're in some bad days. I don't listen. We are in bad
days. Do you hear me? We are in bad
days in the church is in woeful condition today because it's
not able to endure sound doctrine. Just as Timothy said, Paul told
Timothy, Timothy, the time is coming. when men and women will
not endure. Hupomeno, remain up under sound
doctrine, but they will heap to themselves teachers having
itching ears, speaking to them things that they want to hear,
turning away from the truth and buying into lies, fables, mythos. And that's where we are today.
So I often ask the question. I ask it sincerely. When I look
up and it's been 45 minutes, I, I want to know, you know,
if my audience or auditors are falling asleep yet, because if
you haven't, then God has given you grace because it doesn't
take grace to watch a three hour television program, but it takes
grace to sit under biblical teaching and preaching. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? It's very important for you to
know whether or not you are redeeming the time and whether or not God
has built you up enough for you to be vitally interested in biblical
teaching. Or whether or not I'm sitting
up here pontificating and not telling you the truth. You ought
to be able to pick up on that too. Because if I'm not telling you
the truth, you should be walking out of here. Right now. I'm telling the truth. You should
be walking out. Pastor, what should I do? Is he telling the
truth? No. Walk out. Listen to what it says. I'm in
chapter nine. Listen to what it says In verse six and seven
and we're going to move to our further points. I got two points.
I want to develop This is quite interesting. We'll jump into
it more deeply next week He says in verse six the latter part
when he says lord, what would you have me do? He says arise and go into
the city And it shall be told you what you are to do Do you
see that? I love it point number two quickly
the life directed by christ Wonderful. So you guys don't see it. Saul
just got letters from the high priest to go to Damascus. Where are those letters at now?
Who is he receiving this instruction from now? King Jesus, the true
high priest, the high priest in glory. What letters do he
need now? None. because the highest authority
in the universe has given him his instructions. This is how
you know you've been converted. The Word of God now is the Word
of God to you. That's what happened to this
man. Saul said, what must I do? I'm submitting to you as a bond
slave, a do-off. And the master says, you're right.
You're my bond slave. Here's what you do. Go on to
Damascus. I love it. I love it. Go on to Damascus. What are you
talking about preacher? Watch this now. Damascus is where
God had intended Paul to go. Not Saul. Did you hear that? Saul was headed to Damascus under
the delusion of the devil, but God intended for him to go to
Damascus so that he can become a servant of Christ. So when
the proverb says a man devises his way, but God directs his
step, So when the Bible says, again, the preparation of the
heart of man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord,
God's sovereign. Listen, Saul was going to Damascus
no matter what. He was headed to Damascus to
do evil and God meant to do good. This is heaven fighting against
hell, the kingdom of light fighting against the kingdom of darkness
and the kingdom of light prevailing. This is why the way I'm opening
up my message is the superior intelligence of the kingdom of
God. Do you see point three the superior
intelligence of heaven at work? So saw as an emissary of the
devil receiving papers from the high priest to go against god's
servant He has a whole strategy. He has a whole plan. He has a
whole methodology But the proverbs tells me there's no wisdom nor
counsel nor knowledge against the lord He set out to capture
Servants for hell and he ended up being a slave for christ Do
you see that? Do you see that? This is what
we talk about sovereignty. And then what I'm jazzed about
right now is this. God has converted this man and
he's bringing this man into the process of conversion and they
are now having an intelligent, cogent, reciprocal relationship. I mean, verse six and seven is
more than many Christians do in their whole life. Lord, what would you have me
to do? This is what I want you to do.
Go do it. Do you see it? Do you guys see it? Do you see
the irony, the serendipity, the paradoxical nature, the supremacy
of the rule of God? And do you see the gracious manner
in which a sovereign God now intercepts a servant of the devil
whom he had chosen for himself before the world began, and now
changes his whole paradigm, restructures his whole agenda, and still sends
him into the city? Saul was headed to a city who
was already set up by the kingdom of God. There was no way Saul
was going to win that battle. The superior intelligence of
the kingdom of God had already situated itself in Damascus.
Damascus was already taken by Christ. Damascus already had
many soldiers in Christ, many captains, many generals in Christ,
many warriors in Christ already fighting the gospel battle. Saul
was out of his mind to think he was going to take captives
from Damascus. Saul didn't know it, but he was
going to Damascus to get saved. Do you see that, Michael? Do
you see that? He should have just told it back
there when he came to the high priest. The high priest said,
Saul, what are you going to do? I'm going to Damascus to get saved,
man. Those Christians says, I'm going to get saved at Damascus.
Why? Because the Lord is sovereign.
He rules in the kingdoms of men. He does whatsoever he wills in
all deep places. A sovereignty, a sovereignty. The life directed by Christ because
he's a bond servant. That's the term Paul used. The
life directed by Christ evident by the obedience of faith. Look
at it. Going back to the previous point.
The obedience of faith. What do you mean by the obedience
of faith? Here's how God works in the humility of the new believer. Are you ready? Verse 7. And the
men which journeyed with him stood speechless. Hearing a voice,
but seeing no man. Remember, we already learned
by looking at the three forms of this testimony in chapter
22 and chapter 26. They heard a voice, but it was
unintelligible because it wasn't personal. And they didn't see
anything. And Paul, Saul rather, is now
blind. When he was leading the group,
he's the one blind now. Look at verse eight. And Saul
arose from the earth. And when his eyes were opened,
he saw no man. What is God doing here? God is
teaching you and me how he brings a man or woman or people into
submission to the reality of their spiritual condition, especially
when they're proud religionist. See, Saul thought he was a teacher
come from God. He thought he was an educator
or teacher of babes. He thought he had the knowledge
of God having the knowledge of the Torah and that he could guide
people He was leading the group See when you're a teacher, you're
supposed to be able to show people things they can't see That's
wrong with chapter 2 Are you a teacher of the law? Do you
boast in the law of God? Do you know what the Word of
God says? Are you a guide to the to babes? Remember that?
Do you take men and women by the hand and catechize them and
tutor them because they are blind to the biblical precepts of scripture?
If you are a teacher, that's what you do. Saul here is now
depicting the role of an utterly blind babe who must be led by
the hand into the kingdom of God. Is that true? Yes, it is. The high-horsed Saul
is now the humble blind servant who must be led into Damascus
with the humility of not being able to see or do anything. This journey is going to demolish
him to life. However more the distance is
between where they are and where he has to go, every step is humbling. Every step. But they led him
by the hand to Damascus. Who's the slave now? Who's the
captive now? Who has let captivity now? Who is sovereign now? Who's in bondage now? Who's exalted
now? Who's glorified now? As Saul,
this great one, everybody knew, Told you the superior knowledge
of the kingdom of God had already given insight to every one of
the saints in Damascus. Isn't that what Ananias said?
Isn't that what he said? Listen to it. Go back now because
I want you to see it. Verse 11 and 12. Sorry, verse
13. Then Ananias said, Lord, I have
heard by many of this man, intelligence, how much evil he had done to
thy saints at Jerusalem. Intelligence. Watch this. And
here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all that
call on his name. What? Intelligence. You win battles
by intelligence. Everybody in Damascus already
knew what he was up to. He was not going to surprise
them. They all understood the strategy.
They understood the lurking danger. They understood the imminent
danger. This is why Adam and I said what he said to God. Now,
that's an irony itself. Next week, we got to talk about
that. I love it. Authentic conversation with God. Authentic conversation
with God. What do you mean, preacher? You
talking to God as if he don't know what he's doing? You got
to help him out. You got to share intelligence
with God. Now, God, now, now, now, this dude, this dude just
want to help you now. Now, we on a roll now. We on
a roll. But this dude here, And I love the Lord. I love the Lord
because he allows us to talk to him like that. Do you understand
that? He allows us to talk to him like
that. We'll fully develop that next week. But Saul is operating
out of what we call the obedience of faith. And what do I mean
by the obedience of faith? When once you submit yourself to the
crown rights of Jesus Christ, there are areas in your life
you close your eyes. If you keep your eyes opened
too much in too many directions, you will fail to obey Christ. The just shall live by faith. And faith is the substance of
things hoped for. The evidence of things what?
And we walk by faith and not by what? That's right. For true
believers that are gonna do it with God, there are things we
must learn to close our eyes to and simply hold God's hand.
And if you don't, you will never see the promises of God fulfilled
in your life because God is not going to answer your prayers
with your eyes open every time. Are you hearing me? It's not
going to happen. Close your eyes and follow me. Just submit to what my word says. Let it come to pass and you will
see that I am a faithful covenant keeping God always keeping my
word. And I would submit to you, children
of God, that the reason why lots of Christians are not advancing
in their walk with Christ and accomplishing the goals for which
God has called them is because they're not walking by faith.
I would submit that to you. I got five minutes. And so it's
really critical for us to see the paradigm, the model of developing
faith in the life of the Christian, starting that conversion, capitulation,
yielding to breaking with Christ from the ground up. He gets to
stand up now, but he's blind. He has to acknowledge that he's
not coming to the kingdom represented by Damascus as a teacher, as
a leader. He's coming now as one of the
disciples through the front door, the straight gate, the narrow
gate of affliction. so that he might give glory to
God in terms of his salvation. He's not coming in with some
honors, some accolades, some accomplishments. No, there's
no office door with Apostle Saul on it in Damascus. He's just
a disciple. He's just a disciple like the
rest of us. Point number C and D under our
second topic, the life directed by Christ. He's a bond servant
and slave, the obedience of faith led Blind by the hand captured
by grace. Is that a good way to put it?
Captured by grace the divine irony the divine irony Damascus
was God's will in the first place. Do you believe that? It was God's
will in the first place Saul woke up one day said you know
what? I'm going to Damascus to get them heaven said you sure
are You sure You sure, this is why we believe
in the sovereignty of God. We don't ever leave it up to
chance. We do not leave, point number
three, I'm done. Look at it. The superior intelligence of
heaven at work. So human counsels are futile against God. You guys
believe that, right? And so again, the context in
which you and I are now discussing the Saul-Paul paradigm is that
Saul is working for the enemy, and the enemy is always seeking
to thwart the cause of the gospel. But because God's intelligence
is just super, super superior to all intelligences, every intelligence
actually aids and abets God's own agenda. If God allows a man's
strategy to succeed, it's gonna always succeed for God's glory.
even the devils. You meant it for evil. God meant
it for good. How on earth is Joseph going to get on the throne
as co-regent with Pharaoh in Egypt? if it wasn't for God allowing
the evil hearts of his brothers, the liars and Potiphar's wife
and Potiphar and many other crooks and cons to actually catapult
Joseph into his position. While Joseph had to walk by faith
every day, trusting God, closing his eyes to the contradictory
of empirical evidence that seemed to say the very opposite of what
God was saying, which is what is meant to walk by faith. See,
he had a dream, didn't he? Did that brother have a dream?
He had a dream, and that dream came from God, that he would
rule over his brothers, that he would rule over the stars,
and he did. Only his course was a course
of faith, and that was a model and representation of the rule
of Jesus Christ. Joseph is a great type of Christ.
Egypt, Pharaoh is a great type of God the Father. Only in the
throne is Pharaoh greater than Joseph. Is that right? Only in
the throne. But Pharaoh says the only way
you can get the blessing is through Joseph. And the father says the
only way you can get the blessing is through Christ. Am I making
some sense? The corn of heaven, which is
stored up for hungry souls in Egypt, is only open to sinners
through Christ. There is a famine in our world.
And it's not a famine of bread nor of water, but of hearing
the words of the Lord. But God has a storehouse of redemptive
truth, corn from heaven, that feeds the soul and nurtures the
soul and strengthens the soul and actually gives light to the
soul. And they are in the storehouses of Christ's grace and redemption. And only he can open them up
to you. You have to go to Christ to have
your soul met, your soul's needs met. Human counsels are futile. Co-laboring with our captain.
I love it. Now what I did with this point
and I'm gonna stop here is I actually launched over into Ananias because
I was just so happy With the divine drama that's taking place
here now listen to what it says over in chapter 9 verse 9 Through
11 and I'm just gonna touch on it. I'm done. Okay, so So Saul
arose from the earth when his eyes were blind. He saw no man
and they led him by the hand of Damascus. And he was three
days without sight. I want to come back to that next
week. Neither did he eat or drink. Do you understand what's going
on in the soul? Three days without sight. And
he was compelled into fasting. That's true fasting. That's not
the manipulative fasting that religious folks say we're going
to start today and end on this day. That's not fasting. Do you
understand that's not fasting? especially when your mind can't
wait to eat. You ain't fasting. You're playing
church. And especially if you sneak and
get a little something. That's over with. You might as
well walk by grace and enjoy your meal and call it a wrap. And understand you saved by grace
anyway. You're not going to lose your
inheritance. And listen, if you 10, 20 pounds heavier than you're
supposed to be, all that's going to drop off when you head up
anyway. On your way up, you're going to be the perfect weight. You're going to be the perfect
weight. Lord, I don't know if I'm ready yet. I need to drop
a few pounds. No, you don't. No, you don't. Glory is going
to strip all of the unnecessary stuff off. You're going to be
glorious in your weight when you get to glory. Everybody's
going to be saying, you look good. You look good. You look gloriously good. That's
right. And there was a certain disciple
at Damascus named Ananias. Now watch this now and to him
said the Lord in a vision. Powerful! Powerful! See the Lord ain't sitting on
the throne like a Maytag man just trying to find something
to do. He communicating with his people
all over earth. He'd given assignments here and
assignments there, revelations here and visions there, insights
here, dreams there, and preparing his servants to do his bidding.
This is the superior intelligence of heaven. Are you hearing me? There was no way Saul was gonna
win this battle. The Lord's talking to his servants.
Mighty. He said to him in a vision, Ananias,
And he said, behold, I am here, Lord. You see that? See, these are the soldiers who
are on watch. These are not your AWOL Christians.
He ain't talking to no AWOL Christians here. This is not, you know,
the folks we don't see. There's not. I want you to hear
this now. I know this is going to hurt. I'm going to tell you.
Can I tell you this truth? Then you can go home. You can
come back if you want to next week. Ananias was not an AWOL Christian.
He was not somebody on vacation. He wasn't missing in action.
He was not an MIA. He was on point. He was ready
and he was available. And God uses those people for
his purpose. This booty, B-O-O-T-Y, this plunder,
this spoil here called Saul is going to be a major captivity
of which God had to choose a select servant ready for the task. Ananias, whose name means gift
of God, will be the one ready for the task. And only such as
are waiting are such as are ready and no other. Father, thank you
for this time. Thank you for my brothers and
sisters. Thank you, Spirit of God, for arresting our hearts. Thank you for captivating our
souls. Thank you for Blessing our souls. Thank you for quickening our
spirits with your word for a season Thank you for opening the the
portals of heaven so we could see a little bit that you are
absolutely in control There's nothing out of control nothing
out of order You are having your way in this world back then as
you are now May this be to the comfort of every soul here tonight. Give us traveling mercies. We
pray in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you