That's His people, which is His
body. That's we that believe, which
is His body. That's the church. But listen to this, the fullness,
describing her, Carl, the fullness of Him that filleth all and in
all. Boy, that's a bunch to take in
right there. This is His bride, the fullness
of Him that filleth all and end all. Let's pray together. Our Father, tonight we ask You
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, help us Help us as we come together to
worship and to hear. Bless, I pray, the preaching
of Your Gospel, the hearing of Your Gospel. Teach us, settle
us comfortably, Lord, we ask for Christ's sake. Amen. Acts 26. Acts chapter 26. I'm going to
begin in verse 16. In just a moment, the Apostle
Paul has answered for himself. That's what Agrippa said in verse
1. Paul, you're permitted. Now it's
your turn. It's your turn to speak. Whatever you've got to say in answer of all these things that's
been said. And Paul told Agrippa, he said,
I'm glad, I'm happy that I've got this opportunity to be able
to stand and give evidence of the hope that I have in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And as he spoke for himself,
what he actually spoke was what the Lord did for him on the road
to Damascus. And while he was explaining,
while he was setting forth what happened to him, three things
that he told Agrippa. First of all, he told him about
his religious, carnal religious life while he was in spiritual
darkness. He related to him that, I made
a mockery out of those that were claiming to be his disciples. I took them and compelled them
to blaspheme. Then he told Agrippa how He was arrested by the Lord Jesus
Christ on the road. He stopped him. He called him
by his grace. And then he told him of his willingness
to obey how the Lord had given him a heart, a new heart to follow
after. What Paul did was he told Agrippa
and those that stood by that day how the Lord appeared to
him. Now tonight I'd like to pick
up where we left off last time and consider why, why the Lord appeared to Paul. Now the reason I'm saying that
is because the Lord Himself, look in verse 16, the Lord told
him why. Acts 26, 16, But rise and stand
upon thy feet. For I have appeared unto thee
for this purpose." This is the reason, Paul, that I've called
you. It was a fact that the Lord had
loved him before the foundation of the world. It was a fact that
the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world and paid the debt,
as Brother Scott was telling us a moment ago, being made sin
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. But here's the
Lord's telling Paul or Saul of Tarsus at that time, why? This is why I called you. He
did it according to his own will. That we know. But why did he
call him? He said, for this purpose, I
have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister
and a witness. both of these things which thou
hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto
thee." The Lord told Paul, I made you a preacher. Men don't call preachers, not
true preachers, not God's preachers. No man calls another man I mean,
you can go to school if you want to. You can take all the courses
you want to. You can do all the Bible studies
that you want to. You can do anything you want
to do. You can go through all the motions. God calls preachers. They're called. The Lord has been pleased to
use the means of men to speak to men. Now here we are tonight. Now
we're human beings. Frail creatures. We're dust. Dust. Failing. Life's a vapor. And this is how Almighty God
is pleased to speak to His people. This is how He does it. He sends
a preacher. He sends an earthen vessel that
calls Him by grace, that gives Him a heart, a desire, a longing. I want to talk about this. This
is what I want to talk about, friend. This is it right here.
This is what I want to talk about. I want to talk about Him. I want to say what He says. I
want to set forth what He says set forth. When Paul says, I'm
not ashamed of the Gospel, the reason he wasn't ashamed of the
Gospel is because the Lord gave him a heart to not be ashamed
of it. He gave him a heart to preach
because he gave him a heart to love Christ. He gave him a heart
to love Him who loved Paul and all of God's people first. He
wanted to be there. I have called you. I will give
you pastors according to my heart. This calling is not by chance. I have appeared unto you for
this purpose. If the Lord would have left Paul
to himself, now what do you think Saul of Tarsus would have done?
He would have just gone right on doing what he was doing. Why
did he stop? Why did Saul of Tarsus stop? Well, you know why. The Lord
stopped him, knocked him off his high horse just like He did
everyone that is sitting in this congregation tonight that God
has called out of darkness. He stopped you. He just stopped
you. Almighty God is going to save
His people. And He's going to put them exactly
in the body that He's desired and been pleased and He's purposed
to place them. We're not all eyes. We're not
all ears and noses, hands. We're put together, a body. God called Paul. I have appeared
unto you to make you a preacher, to make you a minister. It's
not an offer. The Lord didn't negotiate with
Saul of Tarsus and say, you know, just think about it, pray about
it. And if you feel so led, Paul
stopped him. This is why I called you. This
is what you're going to do. I've called you to be a minister.
And that's what you're going to be. Ask Jonah. When God's purposed
to call a man or a woman out of darkness, they're coming.
Irresistible grace. That's what we believe. This
is not an offer. I'm not offering somebody something.
This is not a suggestion. This is a declaration of truth. I have appeared unto you for
this purpose. to make you a minister, a witness, I'm going to teach
you. God calls. God equips. God keeps. They're witnesses. He said witnesses
both to the things which you've seen and those things which I
shall make to appear unto you. Things that I will. They'll all
be taught of God. And God's people want to be taught
of God. Wouldn't it be wonderful to learn
something tonight? I want to learn something. You say, well,
I've heard this so many times. The Scripture sets forth that
Almighty God who is our hope, the Scripture declares to Him
to whom coming, to whom coming, You are coming to the Lord Jesus
Christ, always coming, always hungry. The carnal mind is enmity,
hatred toward God, but not God's people, not that new man, not
that new mind. Always coming, always longing. I am going to make you a minister
to those things which you have seen, things that you shall see. And this is another thing, Paul,
I'm going to do for you. Look at verse 17, delivering
thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I
send you. I'll keep you. But Scott, how many times do
you think if somebody could have had their way over these last
50 years, how many times do you think if they could have taken
you out, how many times do you think they'd have done it? Probably,
yeah, that's what I thought. Why did they not? Delivering
thee from the people. I made you. That's what He said. I called you. If you were of the world, the
Lord said the world would love His own. But because you're not
of the world, because you don't preach the world's gospel, because
you don't preach the world's freewill religious lies, but
because I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world
hates you." The world hates the truth of God's sovereignty. So Paul the Apostle related to
Agrippa why he was called, what his message was. This is my message,
the Gospel of God. And look at the effect of his
calling, verse 18. to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to
light, 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." Man by nature is spiritually
blind. You know that. He's dead. And
it's not It's not the minister. This is what the Lord told him.
He said, I appear to you, make you a minister, make you a witness. Those things that you've seen,
those things that I will appear unto thee, I'm going to keep
you from the people, from the Gentiles unto whom I send you,
to open their eyes. Now you know that no man opens
the eyes of the blind. No man causes the spiritually
lame to walk. but they're the ministers of. They're God's chosen vessels. I have sent you that the Lord
might open their eyes. Now just stop and think how many
are sitting here this evening who were the recipients of the
grace of God from a God-sent preacher that God put you, made
you to be born in this place, put your mom and daddy together
and here you were born and kept you in this area right here and
sent a preacher and opened your eyes and taught you of the unsearchable
riches of His grace and turned you from darkness Think how the
Lord brought you to this place right here. Now who's going to
get the credit for that? Is it going to be the man that
God used as the means? Though God's preachers are worthy
of respect. But Almighty God's called you
out of darkness. It was that you heard His voice
through His means. When a sinner is given eyes to
see, it's just what you said just then. He sees his need of
Christ. That the eyes of your understanding
being opened. You know, before God opened up
my eyes or your eyes, you thought that you had all of this figured
out. Turn to Romans 3.23. Let me show
you something. Here's the thing. When God opens
up the eyes of our understanding, we see two things. We see our
need of Christ, and we see Christ who is our need. Romans 3.23,
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now
there's my need right there. All have sinned and come short. I've missed the mark of the glory
of God. But here's Christ who is all
my need. Verse 24-25, being justified
freely by His grace. Being declared innocent of any infraction against God's
law. That's what justified means.
That we committed the sin is right, that we committed it is
right. If we say we have no sin, we
make God a liar. We're sinners. But justification
is to be declared innocent for this reason, listen to this,
being justified freely without a cause in us by His grace through
or by the means of redemption. The payment. You know what a
redemption center is? There's something there and you
redeem that or you pay the price of it. You bring something to
a pawn shop. And now that pawn shop owner
holds it until you can pay the redemption price. What's it going
to cost for me to get that off the shelf right there? How much
for that right there? Three hundred dollars. Okay, I'll take it. Being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation, a satisfaction. God's going to
have to be satisfied. through faith or by the means
of faith in His blood to declare His righteousness for the remission,
for the forgiveness of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. Almighty God, Paul says, made
me a minister and sent me to preach the gospel, to open their
eyes. Not Paul, the Lord. To turn them
from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God,
that they may receive forgiveness. This is God's purpose for all
that He's everlastingly loved. To forgive them freely by His grace, through
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God is just. And inheritance
among them which are sanctified, made holy by faith that is in
me." Paul says, God's called me to turn Him. Turn me, Jeremiah 31, verse 18
says, and I shall be turned. For thou art the Lord my God. Lord, you change my mind. You
grant me repentance. You turn me. A changing of mind. You turn me and I'll change my mind. Lord, You
don't turn me, I don't change my mind. I can't change my mind. This changing of mind, it begins,
that conversion. God calls a man out of darkness
and He keeps him. He keeps that mind. Stayed on
him. Fixed on him. I said a while
ago, to whom coming as unto a living stone, lively stone, disallowed
indeed of men, chosen of God and precious. Paul says, God sent me to be
the means by which men are turned from the darkness to the light. And the power of Satan has kept
us bound. Almighty God, please to forgive
sin and to grant an inheritance among
them that are sanctified by faith that is in me, that in Christ. What grace! What mercy! I pray
that the Lord, while we are looking at these Scriptures tonight,
Lord, keep us from just You know, just, Lord, if you
don't take this and burn it within my heart, this will be the attitude
that I'll have. Well, I've heard that before. Yeah, I've heard those words
before. Yeah, I've heard that preached before. Yeah. Okay, what's the next word?
Stop me. Settle me down. And Lord, bless
this to my heart. Cause me to hear. Turn them that they may receive forgiveness,
full forgiveness. Isaiah 43, 25, I, even I, am
He that blotteth out thy transgressions. Listen to this, for my own sake. I am the recipient of the grace
of God. The Lord has forgiven me. I'm
convinced of this. I believe this. I believe He's
forgiven me my sins. But you know why He did it, Mark?
He did it for Himself. You think about that. All that
we have, all that we have in Christ, objects of His mercy
and grace, He did this. Somebody said, He did all this
for me. Oh, my friend, He did it for Himself. That's what He
said. I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine
own sake." I did this for my honor. I did this for my glory. I did this for my praise because
He's deserving. And He said, I will not remember
thy sins. That's good news. One of these days, I'll know
it fully. Everlasting, irrevocable. forgiveness. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin, iniquity. It won't charge him with it. The other reason God's opened
up the blind eyes, turned men from darkness, they might be sanctified by faith,
set apart. That's in me. Receiving that
inheritance That's what he said among them. Fear not, little
flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the
kingdom. He who is all in all to give them the kingdom, declared by God's grace that they are what they are by
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then the evidence of this
effectual calling and teaching. What's the evidence? That's what
he told him. He told him this in closing.
That's what he said. Paul, verse 16, I want you to
get up. I knocked you down. Now you get
up. And I appeared unto you for this
purpose, Paul. This is the reason. to make you
a minister, a witness. I'm going to take care of you.
I'm going to deliver you from the people. And I want you to
preach the gospel. I'm going to open up their eyes.
I'm going to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan
unto God, that they might receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance
among them which are sanctified by faith. And here's the evidence. that God has called a man. Now, if you want to know whether
or not Almighty God has called you, I'm about to tell you what
the Scripture says concerning the evidence of one that's been
called out of darkness. Here it is. Verse 19. Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the
heavenly vision, but showed first unto them of Damascus, and at
Jerusalem, and throughout all the coast of Judea, and then
to the Gentiles, that they should repent, and turn to God, and
do works meet for repentance. For these causes, because I was
obedient, because God had made me to be obedient, because the
Lord had turned me. For these causes, the Jews caught
me in the temple and went about to kill me. Having therefore obtained help
from God, the Lord told him, he said, I'm going to deliver
you. I'll keep you. I continue until this day, witnessing
both to small and great, saying none other things than those
which the prophets and Moses did say should come. 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. I was not disobedient. The evidence of the effectual
calling of God is that God's people are obedient. They're obedient. When Almighty God, by His Spirit,
through the preaching of the gospel, saves a sinner. He makes them, the Scripture
says in Psalm 110, verse 3, willing in the day of His power. Now,
when I say God's people are obedient, let me just sum it up with about
four or five little statements right here. They're obedient.
They're willing to agree with God. That's the first thing. They're obedient. When the Scripture
says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, a
believer says, well, I can enter into that. They're willing to
agree with God. They agree with God that God
is sovereign in salvation. They're willing to believe. Now, you think about this, before
God calls a man out of darkness, that man is unwilling. I will
not, I will not, I will not have that man rule over me. Why do men not believe Christ? Because the Lord hasn't given
them a heart to believe Him. If God calls a man out of darkness,
they believe Him. He asked His disciples, He said,
will you go away? After some had gone away, there
were some hard sayings. Will you go away? And Peter said,
Lord, where are we going to go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And we're sure that You're the
Christ. Let me ask you this. Why do you continue to come? Why do you come here? Why do
you come here? Why? You know why? You say, I believe
that the Christ that I hear preached here is the Christ. I believe
that's God's Christ. Sovereign Christ willing to come
by faith. And I'm telling you, you keep
coming, and you keep coming, and you keep coming. You wake
up every day. You wake up coming. You wake
up before you For you get up. In your heart, you're coming.
You think on Him. I know you do. I know you do. You wake up in the night. In
your heart, you're coming to Christ. Calling on Him. Coming by faith that He's given
you. Willing to be a servant. Lord, what would you have me
to do? That's what Paul said. What would you have me to do?
You that believe this is your attitude, what would you have
me to do? Lord, you guide me. Lord, you show
me. Lord, you keep me. Lord, I'm an ignorant person. Is that hard to grasp hold of? No, it's not. Lord, I don't know
what to do. Lord, You guide me by Your providence.
You guide me by Your Spirit. You said that the steps of a
good man, and there's none good but God. But Lord, You've made
me what I am by Your grace. And there's no goodness in me,
says Christ. And You see me as He is. That's the way we are. Lord, You order my steps and
settle my heart. If you put me here and kept me
here, Lord, that's what I want to do. That's where I want to
be. Willing. Obedient. I was not
disobedient. Willing to love Him. Willing
to love Him. He who has everlastingly loved
me. Willing to come. Willing to believe. Willing to trust. God's people. That's what they are. I wasn't
disobedient. Why? Because God gave me a heart
of obedience. That's the reason. I have nothing
to glory in save Jesus Christ. Paul said, Him crucified. What
am I going to boast in of myself? I have nothing to boast in. He called me. He taught me. He kept me. And by the grace
of God, I've been obedient, faithful, faithful, faithful because He
is able to keep me from falling. That's the only reason. That's
why God called Him. And to you that believe, the
reason that you're here and the reason you stayed, the reason
you're being maintained is for His sake. And you're glad to
have it so. You're thankful. Lord, thank
You that for Your sake, for the sake of Christ, for the sake
of the honor of Your grace and Your mercy, You made me a recipient
of Your blessing and Your compassion. Lord, thank You for that. Teach
me for Your sake.