Well good morning all. These
are unusual times and this is an unusual circumstance for me
but we trust that the Lord will bless his word to our hearts
and he will comfort us by the gospel of the free and sovereign
grace that flows to sinners like us through the finished work
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome Let's turn in our scriptures
to Psalm 34 and begin our time together. This is the Psalm of
David, Psalm 34, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech,
who drove him away, and he departed. Psalm 34, let's hear from our
great God. I will bless the Lord at all
times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord, the humble shall hear thereof and be glad. O magnify
the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. I sought
the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto him, and were
lightened, and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried
and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encampeth around about them that fear him
and delivereth them. O taste and see that the Lord
is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him. O fear the Lord, ye his saints,
for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions
do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall
not want any good thing. Come, ye children, hearken unto
me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is
he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil and
thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil and do good.
Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are upon
the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. The face
of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance
of them from the earth. The righteous cry, and the Lord
heareth. and delivereth them out of all
their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto them that
are of a broken heart, and save as such as be of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth
all his bones, not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the
wicked, and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.
The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servant, and none of them
that trust in him shall be desolate. What a glorious prayer that our
Lord Jesus Christ prayed as a young man and throughout his life.
What a glorious description of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
his faithfulness and his obedience. I will bless the Lord at all
times. His praise shall be continually in my mouth. That's the mouth
that that praise is in. And all who are in him find him
to be delightful. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof
and be glad. And I love this next verse, isn't
it? O magnify the Lord with me, and
let us exalt his name. There are so many troubles befalling
this world of ours, and they cloud out in our thoughts and
in our minds so much of the glory of the Lord. And he seems so
distant, and many might ask, where is he? Well, our God is
on his throne. To magnify him is to take something
which is very small and almost unseen and insignificant and
bring it into view. and bring it into such a view
that it consumes all else that we might see. May he, may he
cause that to be answered amongst us today as we meet. They looked
to him, verse five says, and were lightened. They looked to
him, and that word means they sparkled, they looked to him
and they were cheerful and their faces were not ashamed. This
poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all
his troubles. The angel of the Lord encampeth
around about them that fear him and delivereth them. O toast
and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father
you have brought upon this world, this pandemic, and you have caused
it to be the case that your people must shelter and miss out on
the sweet fellowship of communion that we have in church. And we
pray, Heavenly Father, that in these dark days and troubling
times, that you would cause us to look away from the things
of this world and have our eyes fixed on our Lord Jesus Christ,
who sits on the throne of heaven and reigns and rules and he's
made these glorious promises to us, Heavenly Father, that
we might taste and see that he is good. We might know that he
never ever leaves nor forsakes his own. Not a bone of his can
be broken. His church, like Eve in the garden,
has taken from him. Not a bone of yours will be broken. Our precious Savior, we praise
you for your promises. Our Father, we pray that you
might Comfort your people throughout this world that you might send
your Holy Spirit and cause us to see the Lord Jesus Christ
and see him in his glory and know that in him he does all
things well. We pray you might bless us this
morning Heavenly Father in these unusual circumstances that you
might cause your word to be spirit and life to our hearts that we
might find the Lord Jesus Christ the comfort and the rejoicing
of our souls in these times for we pray in his precious name
and for his glory. Amen. These are times that are difficult
and by the looks of things going to be more difficult for all
of us and as we try and work through these things we're so
thankful to the technology that allows us to at least communicate
in these small ways and We are thankful that we can still, in
some small way, gather together around the Word of our God and
sing praises to Him in the solitude and quietness of our homes. Then
one day, one day soon, we will see that the Lord has done all
things well and that in His bringing of this virus and His controlling
of this virus and where it goes, He will He will camp around those
that fear Him. He will protect us. He will encourage
our faith. He will cause us, in the circumstances
of this world, to look away from the things that we see and look
to things that are unseen, that we might find ourselves at rest
in Him. So I do pray the Lord might keep
you safe wherever you might be and He might bless you with these
quiet times from the world that we might have quieter times and
more fruitful and pleasant times with him. I was going to sing
one of the hymns, read one, not going to sing, dear oh dear,
Beth will be horrified she's just about to get up from the
floor. We're going to read one of the hymns that we sing on
Sunday mornings. This is a hymn called A Matchless
Condescension by William Gadsby. Oh what matchless condescension
the eternal God displays, claiming our supreme attention to his
boundless works and ways. His own glory, His own glory,
He reveals in gospel days, He reveals in gospel days. In the
person of the Saviour all His majesty is seen. Love and justice
shine forever, and without a veil between. Worms approach Him,
worms approach Him, and rejoice in His dear name, and rejoice
in His dear name. Would we view his brightest glory,
here it shines in Jesus' face. Sing and tell the pleasing story,
O ye sinners saved by grace. And with pleasure, and with pleasure,
bid the guilty him embrace. bid the guilty him embrace. In his highest work redemption,
see his glory in a blaze, nor can angels ever mention, or that
more of God displays. Grace and justice, grace and
justice, here unite to endless days. Here unite to endless days. True to his sweet and solemn
pleasure, God to view in Christ the Lord. Here he smiles and
smiles forever. May my soul his name record. Praise and bless him, praise
and bless him, and his wonders spread abroad, and his wonders
spread abroad. I'd like us to turn in our scriptures
to Acts chapter 21, and we're going to spend most of our time
in Acts chapter 22. And we have been following the
works of the Lord Jesus Christ as we go through the book of
Acts. We've been seeing his work in revealing himself, his work
in witnessing to himself through the work that he's done in his
servant Paul, mostly in these last weeks. And in Acts chapter
22 we have this remarkable testimony that Paul, chained like a prisoner,
protected and carried out of a maddening crowd of Jews by
the Romans, stands like a prisoner. And the Lord caused there to
be a great silence upon this crowd, and Paul gave his testimony
in Acts chapter 22. It's a great testimony. Paul's
testimony is given many times in the scriptures. It's given
in Acts chapter 9 as recorded by Luke. It's given here in Acts
chapter 22. It's given again in Acts chapter
26. It's given in Galatians 1 and it's given in Galatians 6. It's
given in Philippians 3. It's given in 1 Timothy chapter
1 to give an encouragement. We have much of the biography
of Paul in the scriptures and his biography is a pattern. Let's turn in our scriptures
before we go to Acts chapter 21. Let's turn to 1st Timothy
chapter 1 and verse 12. Paul Thanks God, he says, and I thank
Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me for that he counted
me faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was before
a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained
mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of
our Lord was exceeding but abundant with faith and love which is
in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause
I obtain mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth
all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter
believe on him to everlasting life. Paul has now gone back
to Jerusalem, as we saw some weeks ago, He's gone back to
Jerusalem. He's gone back there with some
fear and trepidation. He's gone back there taking the
trophies of grace from the churches across Asia and into modern day
Greece with him. And he was warned all the way
along that journey to Jerusalem that troubles were going to befall
him. And he comes to Jerusalem and he greets the elders in Jerusalem
and he gives them a history of what has done what the Lord has
wrought in his ministry and he meets in Jerusalem with James
and the elders of the church and we looked at this a few weeks
ago he looked he meets with them and they arranged for him to
take on a Nazarite vow to help four men in a Nazarite vow and
this this vow This vow ends in a blood sacrifice. Let's read
from verse 27 of Acts 21 and just get some context for Paul's
speech here. And when the seven days were
almost ended, it's wonderful to see the sovereign hand of
God in all of this. The Jews which were of Asia,
when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people. The
Jews of Asia were the Jews probably from Ephesus. Alexander the coppersmith
did him much harm and stirred up all the people, then laid
hands on him, verse 28, crying out, men of Israel, help, this
man teacheth all men everywhere, against the people, and the law,
and this place. And further brought Greeks also
into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place. For they had
seen him before in the city with Trophimus and Ephesians, whom
they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple. And all the
city was moved, and the people ran together, and they took Paul
and drew him out of the temple, and forthwith the doors were
shut. And as they went about to kill
him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all
Jerusalem was in uproar, who immediately took soldiers and
centurions, and ran down unto them. And when they saw the chief
captain and the soldiers, they left. beating of Paul. Then the chief captain came near
and took him and commanded him to be bound with two chains and
demanded who he was and what he had done. And some cried one
thing and some another among the multitude. And when he could
not know the certainty for the tumult, He commanded him to be
carried into the castle. And when he came up upon the
stairs, so it was that he was born of the soldiers, for the
violence of the people, for the multitude of the people followed
after crying away with him. And as Paul was to be led into
the castle, he said unto the chief captain, May I speak unto
thee? who said, Canst thou speak Greek? Art thou not that Egyptian which
before these days made us an uproar and led us out into the
wilderness four thousand men that were murderers? But Paul
said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city of Cilicia,
a citizen of no mean city, and I beseech thee, suffer thee to
speak unto the people. And when he had given him license,
Paul stood on the stairs and beckoned with the hand unto the
people. And when there was made a great
silence, he spoke unto them in the Hebrew tongue. We have seen in previous weeks
that Paul took this vow. He took this vow at the suggestion,
at the command as it was of James and the elders there because
they were concerned about the commotion that might come in
Jerusalem. There had been in some way that
we're not 100% sure of, but there had been some sense in which
the Jerusalem church had grown and there was peace and these
men that took this vow upon them were able to go into the temple
and do a vow that the Jews would have done. And we saw a few weeks
ago in the Sovereign Hand of God, it says in verse 27, when
it was almost ended. When it was almost ended. I don't
have time to go back and look at the issues of the vow, but
let's just remind ourselves that this vow is something that Paul,
I believe in Acts 22, is wanting to put into some context I believe
it's his confession in a sense of repentance from that I think
Paul like Peter when he fell in Antioch I really do believe
that when Peter picked up that plate and moved tables in that
church in Antioch and Paul stood up to rebuke him Peter in a heartbeat
knew that he was wrong And I believe that when the centurions ran
down into that crowd, when the crowd was about to kill him,
verse 31, and they picked him up and they bound him in chains
and they carried him above their heads, out of this crowd and
away from this crowd, I believe that Paul knew that the hand
of the sovereign providence of God had kept him, kept him and
those others, and kept his testimony to the fact of the Lord Jesus
Christ. has completely fulfilled the law, and that all of God's
people have obeyed the law, and have obeyed it to the satisfaction
of God the Father. We do not set aside the law,
but we fulfill the law by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So
some of the reasons for me thinking and proclaiming to you that this
vow was something that Paul was later to to repudiate in many
ways. And the first thing is that Paul
never wrote, never wrote any scriptures commanding this, never
wrote any scriptures that gave any reason for anyone to think
from anything that he had wrote and written. And you must remember
that when he wrote, even when he wrote of rebuking Peter, he's
writing scripture. When we read the words of Paul,
we hold them alongside the words of Moses, the words of Isaiah. So Paul never wrote any scriptures.
commending it. There's not a single word in
the New Testament that commends this action. And there's no word,
there's no record of Paul and the apostles practicing it. He
did take a vow in Acts chapter 18, but there's nothing more
said about it. But the wonderful thing is that
our Lord stopped Paul from doing it. He shut the door, there they
were with their blood sacrifices, an atoning offering for sin,
you can read about in Numbers chapter 6. And God caused this
uproar, He caused this riot, and God closed the door, the
very door at which they were to bring their offerings. And God, in His sovereign hand,
preserved the testimony. preserve the testimony and here's
Paul in Acts chapter 22 with this enraged crowd at his feet
held captive by the Romans with chains. It's remarkable isn't
it? I love what verse 40 says and
there was made a great silence there was made a great silence
so there was this man on the stairs speaking to this crowd
and he spoke to them in the Hebrew tongue He spoke to them in the
Hebrew tongue, and he speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. For
all of their plans were thwarted. James and the elders, and Paul
joined with them, had plans to keep the peace in Jerusalem,
and all those plans were dashed. And all of this, all of this,
by the sovereign hand of our Lord Jesus Christ, our great
God, all of this was so that Paul could in Jerusalem proclaim
this particular message? So let's turn to Acts chapter
22 and hear the Word of God. And remember, remember the circumstances
that Paul is speaking. The priests and others which
were to receive that atoning sacrifice for sins were there
in this crowd. And Paul begins He begins testifying. He says, men and brethren and
fathers, hear ye my defense. And as we go through this defense,
it's good for us to be reminded that that word defense is the
word apology, the word from which we get apologetics. And if the
apologetics ministries of the world would have the same apologetic
ministry that Paul had, We wouldn't have so much the nonsense that's
going on. Paul is testifying, simply testifying
to what he has seen and heard. Paul is witnessing. He's witnessing
of the Lord, witnessing to him. He's witnessing of the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is his defense. The best
apologetics and the only apologetics is a proclamation of the Gospel.
These Jews, they're as lost as he was as he walked on that road
to Damascus. As lost as he was. One thing
they needed, and one thing we need, is to hear the Gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he gives his testimony, this
testimony, which is a pattern. Men and brethren and fathers,
first one, hear ye my defence which I make now unto you. And
when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them,
they kept them all silent, and he saith, I am verily a man which
am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in
this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect
manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God as
ye all are this day. And I persecuted this way unto
death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women,
as also the high priest doth bear me witness." That's in the
present tense. The priests and the high priests
were there to witness this. And all the estate of the elders,
they were all there. from which whom I also received
letters unto the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring them
which were there bound unto Jerusalem for to be punished. And it came
to pass, that as I made my journey and was come nigh unto Damascus
about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round
about me. And I fell under the ground,
and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me? And I answered, Who art thou,
Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus
of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest. And they that were with me saw
indeed the light, and were afraid, but they heard not the voice
of him that spake to me. And I said, What shall I do,
Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus,
and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed
for thee to do. And when I could not see for
the glory of that light being led by the hand of them that
were with me, I came into Damascus. And one Ananias, a devout man
according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews
which stood there, came unto me and stood and said unto me,
Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour looked up upon
him, and he said, The God of our fathers has chosen thee,
that thou shouldst know his will, and see that just one, and shouldst
hear the voice of his mouth. For thou shalt be his witness
unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. And now, why
tarriest thou? Arise, and be baptised, and wash
away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. And when it
came to pass that when I was come again to Jerusalem, even
while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance, and I saw
him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem,
for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me. And
I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every
synagogue them that believed on thee, and that when the blood
of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I was also standing by and consenting
unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him.
And he said unto me, Depart, for I will send thee far hence
unto the Gentiles. And they gave him audience unto
this word, then lifted up their voices, and said, Away with such
a fellow from the earth, for it is not fit that he should
live. And they cried out, and cast off their clothes, and threw
dust into the air. It's a glorious testimony. in the face of this crowd that
was enraged against him. This crowd enraged, this crowd
that they had consorted together to take these four men and do
this vow to bring peace, to allow them to continue as they did
in Jerusalem, in peace with the Jews, It's one of the glorious
things about the gospel, isn't it? It comes with a power from
on high. And as much as no one, and Paul
testifies, doesn't he, that he wept with tears when he wrote
Romans 9 over the Jews. He had a great love for these
people. But nevertheless, when the gospel comes, the gospel
comes and brings a division. He said, the Lord Jesus Christ
said, please don't think that I came to bring peace on the
earth. I didn't come to bring peace. He came to divide. There is a great division among
humanity. So let's go back and look at Paul's
testimony and contemplate him wounded and bleeding in chains,
speaking to a mob down below him who would have torn him limb
from limb. if it wasn't for the sovereign
hand of God. It's wonderful to think how God shut the doors,
that God brought the riot, God brought those Romans down there
and God carried Paul out of all of that trouble and out of all
that was about to befall him. He was carried above the heads
of these Roman soldiers as the Jews were grappling with him.
What a great picture of the sovereign hand of our God. taking his people
through the trials of this world and rescuing them out of it and
carrying us above the things that are around us and the things
that would bring us great harm. But also God in sovereign grace
preserving his testimony to his Son in this world and in the
lives of believers. It's wonderful to think, isn't
it, that the Lord keeps the feet of his saints. We have a God
who is so absolutely sovereign that there's not a thing that
wriggles in this universe, there's not an activity nor a thought
of man that he is not in absolute sovereign control of. And if
you object to that, he's in sovereign control of that as well. in times
like the ones that we face here in this world and all of what
looks before us as a nation and as believers in all of this.
It's always, it's always like the circumstance that I live,
it's always too big for us. We need a God who is big. We
need a God that we can rest in and look to, who controls everything
that happens around us. And we need a God that shepherds
us and hedges us, to maintain His witness in us. The Lord chastises
His children. I love what he says in Hosea
chapter 6. He hedged Hosea's way with thorns. He hedged her path with thorns.
Hosea had her heart set on running from the Lord and being wickedly
disobedient to her husband. It's a great picture of the gospel,
isn't it? God hedging the way of his people. And I believe when Paul stands
up there and looks down on that crowd and looks down on those
priests, he has no question about what is going to be said. He
has no question about what the response will be. He has, I believe,
turned. He has, in the words of Psalm
80 verse 19, says, turn us again This is Paul's testimony. It's great, isn't it, to know
that our testimony is what we have seen and heard. Paul just
gives this testimony. He says, verse 3, he says, I'm
a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet
brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught
according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and
was zealous towards God as you are this day. Paul had the most
extraordinary pedigree. You can read about it in Philippians
chapter 2. It's repeated several times in
the scriptures. Paul was of that tribe of Benjamin. He was brought up in this city,
in Jerusalem, at the feet of Gamaliel. Gamaliel is mentioned
in Acts chapter 4, and such was his standing. He was one of the
great teachers of Israel, along with Nicodemus. Gamaliel is the
one that calms the crowds, the Sanhedrin, as they plot murder
for Peter and John and others. And he says, if you men see yourselves
You leave these men alone, you'll find yourselves fighting against
God if you fight against them. Gamaliel would have remembered
his words, and these priests would have remembered his words.
But Paul had the most extraordinary pedigree, wasn't he? He was taught
according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, he
was zealous toward God, and he acknowledges that his zeal was
like theirs this day. And Paul was no idle zealot. He was active, wasn't he? Verse
4, and I persecuted this way. Throughout the New Testament,
the scriptures describe the Christian life as this way. It's a reflection
of the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ himself is the way, the
truth, and the life. It's the way of righteousness
and it's the way of truth. It's the way of peace. It's the
way of reconciliation with God. It's the way. It is the way. This way. There are many ways
in the thoughts of men and the plans of men. Paul and James
and the elders there had planned a way. And here we see God revealing
his way. I persecuted this way under death.
Paul was zealous. The Lord said, before he was
crucified, wasn't he, to his apostles, he said, they'll put
you to death and think they're doing God's service, binding
and delivering into prisons both men and women. And also the high
priest does now bear me witness, you could read that, he bears
me witness now, and all the estate of the elders, they all bear,
now, these elders, these elders, to whom there was about to be
a Nazirite vow, just a little while beforehand, at those doors. these elders, from which also
I received letters unto the brethren. I went to Damascus to bring them
which were there bound into Jerusalem for to be punished." Paul had,
as all natural men do, he had a hatred for the gospel. And
now that our Lord Jesus Christ sits in heaven, that hatred towards
the gospel is expressed in the way the religious people of this
world treat the children of God. Paul called himself, as we read
in 1 Timothy, he was a blasphemer, a persecutor and injurious. That was his description of his
religion. So how do you get from that to
being a child of God? What is the path? What is the
way? What is the pattern? I love I
love that phrase in Acts chapter 22 verse 6, and it came to pass. That phrase is used 21 times
in Acts, 17 times in Luke, and if ever we could get our minds
around and come to some understanding of the depth of that word, it,
it might be like the word of the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't
it? It is finished on the cross. It is all the sovereign purposes
of God. It is everything that God has
decreed from all eternity. It comes to pass. Everything
that comes to pass. Everything that comes to pass
is coming to pass of an It. God's eternal covenantal purposes. God's sovereign hand over all
things. God's determination. God's foreknowledge
and God's counsel. It all comes to pass and it must
come to pass. And the saints and children of
God find great comfort in it. I love the fact that it comes
to pass. Not what I want comes to pass,
but it comes to pass. God's purpose comes to pass.
God's purpose comes to pass. And as I made my journey, There is a way that seems right
to man, doesn't it? But the ends there are, are the
ways of death. There is a way that seems right
to man. He made his journey. He was zealous. He was zealous toward God. He was zealous towards God. He
had the same murderous heart that that crowd that he was speaking
to had over him, toward him. As I made my journey as I made
my journey you see the journey that Paul and the four men who
took the vow and James and the elders they had a journey they
had a way didn't they they had a way to mitigate and suppress
the anxiety and the animosity of the Jews towards Paul but this is what God has done and as it was come nigh unto
Damascus. Out of all of that comes this
testimony. About noon, when the sun was
at its brightest, suddenly, suddenly there shone from heaven a great
light round about me. I love that word suddenly. So much of modern religion seems
to be centered on programs and systems and methods of getting
people. And they bait a hook. They entice
people with all sorts of ways. And they are anxious, they are
anxious to get people to get to this stage where they can
call them saved because they've saved a sinner's prayer or done
something like that, walked down the Roman's road. But I love
the suddenness of it, isn't it? I love what the Lord Jesus Christ
said to Nicodemus. Nicodemus, who may well have
been there witnessing all of this, Nicodemus was like these
men, religious and zealous. And Nicodemus came, came to the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ reveals
to Nicodemus that as much as he knew the scriptures and probably
knew them off by heart, as much as he had lived an extraordinarily
zealous and moral life, he had absolutely no clue who God was. He had no acquaintance with the
real and living God. Jesus said to him, John 3.3,
Verily I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot
see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said unto him, How
can a man be born when he is old? How can he enter a second
time into his mother's womb and be born? The Lord Jesus Christ
was talking spiritual things, and Nicodemus was taking him
back to carnal things, which is where he had always been.
and may have stayed unless the Lord intervened. Jesus answered,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That
which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee
that ye must be born again. The wind the wind, the spirit,
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit." Paul had seen the Lord Jesus Christ witnessed
to his great promise, wasn't it, that the gospel is the power
of God and salvation. Paul had proclaimed this gospel
faithfully. We proclaim the gospel and we
wait. We proclaim the gospel and we
wait for the Lord to do His work alone. It's a marvellous work. It's a marvellous work. It's
a glorious work. And it comes suddenly. It doesn't come by human exertion. It comes by spiritual revelation. That's what he says, doesn't
it? Suddenly there shone from heaven a great light about me. He says down in verse 11 that
this is the glory. There was glory in this light. There was a great light, a great
light round about me. You see, on that day, the Lord,
as he did on the Mount of Transfiguration, the Lord unveiled himself before
Paul. You see, there were two lights
that day, weren't there? There was, it was about noon,
there was the light of the sun. there was the light that shone
on all those other men and then there was the light the light
that shone round about me and the distinction is that Paul
from that light heard a voice speaking to him the others saw
the light they saw indeed the light verse 29 says and they
were afraid but they heard not the voice light I have on my desk a gift from
Jenny many many years ago and I'm forced delightfully to read
it on a daily basis and it's a great verse from Psalm 18 verse
28 and you can read the rest of this great psalm in verse
in 2nd Samuel chapter 22 But Psalm 18 verse 28 says, For thou
wilt light my candle, the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. The first thing we see in this
pattern of Paul's conversion is that there was a suddenness
and there was a light from heaven. It's a great light from heaven. The first words we hear in the
scriptures, aren't they, come from Genesis chapter 1. And we
don't have time now, but it's a glorious picture of the conversion
of God's people. And it says how scriptures begin,
doesn't it? In the beginning God created
heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void,
and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the spirit moved
upon the face of the waters, And God said, let there be light. And there was light. Let there be light. God commands
and the light shines out of darkness light be it says light be and
light was and God saw the light and it was good and God divided
the light from the darkness there is a light there is a light that
shines shines gloriously see there were two lights on that
road to Damascus there were two temples when the Lord Jesus Christ
was there he said to the Pharisees isn't he you destroy this temple
destroy this temple there is the temple of the Lord Jesus
Christ the meeting place between sinners and God is a meeting
in him There are, as you can read in Galatians, there are
two Jerusalems. There's a Jerusalem that now is, and there is the
Jerusalem above, which is the mother of us all. These men have
been trying to keep the peace in the Jerusalem that was there,
but the Jerusalem above, which is the mother of us all, caused
this stirring and this division. There are two Christ's in this
world, aren't there? There is the Christ that Paul
and Gamaliel and all of those Jews were anxiously waiting to
come and to restore their earthly kingdom and to restore them and
to bring them to a place of power and prominence over the people
of this world. There are two gods, aren't there? There is the real God, the real
and living God, who is known and only known by the revelation
of himself and then there is the God of man's imaginations. I love the picture of the ark
before Dagon and Dagon falls and he breaks his arms and Dagon
falls and he breaks his head. There is the true and living
God and there is the idols that men create. There are two Gospels
These men, these men that stood before Paul were zealous. He acknowledges their zeal of
God. And in Romans 10, he speaks of
them, doesn't he? Verse 1, he says, Brethren, my
heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might
be saved, for I bear the record that they have a zeal of God,
but not according to knowledge. They didn't have a knowledge
of who God was. They didn't have a knowledge
of how holy he was. The knowledge that Paul received
is a knowledge that comes by revelation, by God, in sovereign
mercy and grace, revealing himself. Revealing himself to chosen sinners,
and Ezekiel 16 calls it the time of love. The time of love. For they, verse 3 of Romans 10,
for they being ignorant of God's righteousness, they thought that
their activities, they thought that their activities under the
law, they thought all of that zeal that Paul was a part of
with all of them, they thought, they thought that they were establishing
some righteousness of their own. The real animosity comes, doesn't
it, from the religious people. is raised up in them when the
Lord Jesus Christ is presented to them as the only righteousness
before God, and that their righteousnesses, all of their righteousnesses,
no matter how polished and clean and honorable and moral they
appear before men, all their righteousnesses are filthy rags. They're ignorant of God's righteousness
and going about to establish their own righteousness. have
not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. Paul had written that letter
not long, written those words not long before he embarked on
his journey back to Jerusalem and to these events. There is
a light, isn't it? That light shines that light
shines in the darkness that light shines in the hearts of God's
people. So turn with me to 2nd Corinthians
chapter 4 we read these verses often and when you realize the
promise and the power of these verses you realize why Our aim and God's decree is that
we might just simply preach the gospel. We might simply raise
up the Lord Jesus Christ before men as a sovereign God and a
saviour, as a just God and a saviour, as a holy God and a saviour. He says in verse 3, but if our
gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. in whom the God
of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not."
You see, these people in Jerusalem, these people in Jerusalem had
one hope that God would open their blind eyes. So that word
believe not means that it's an active unbelief. These people
had now had 20 plus years of the witness and the testimony
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They had it before them, their
unbelief was an active unbelief. They weren't ignorant of the
history The God of this world hath blinded the minds of them
which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
who is the image of God, should shine upon them. For we preach
not ourselves, but Jesus Christ the Lord, and ourselves your
servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. That phrase, who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness, is a description of our God.
It's a description of what we just read in Genesis chapter
1. So you can read that verse that the Lord has caused Paul
to pen, you can read it this way, without any Distraction,
really, for God has shined in our hearts. You see, it's Christ
in you, brothers and sisters, the hope of glory. When Christ
shines in our hearts, He gives the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And we have
this treasure. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels. There are earthen vessels when
we were made in Adam, and there are earthen vessels in this world
and they're made to seem like they're earthen vessels by all
the trials and troubles that we have brought upon us by all
of the circumstances of our lives and in these troubled times that
lay before you and me and seemingly the rest of this world, we will
be made to see so often that the vessel is very, very earthen.
But our God, our God, dwells in his people. It is a great
light, a great light, a glorious light. It shines round about
me. Those pictures in Revelation
are glorious, aren't they, in Revelation 21 of this city. It says in verse 23 of the book
of Revelation, and the city had no need of the sun, neither of
the moon, to shine in it. For the glory of God did lighten
it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them
which are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings
of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. And the gates
of it shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no
night there. and they shall bring the glory
and honour of the nations. And there shall no wise enter
into anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination,
or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book
of life. We go down to the next chapter
in verse 5. There shall be no night there, they need No candle
need the light of the sun for the Lord God giveth them light
and they shall reign forever and ever. Our prayer in preaching the gospel
is the Lord would come and reveal himself. We don't have to get
on a horse to go to Damascus as Paul had been doing for this
light to shine. This light shines when the Lord
God, the blessed Holy Spirit, takes the things of the Lord
Jesus Christ and reveals them to you. A great light round about
me. A great light. There shone from
heaven a great light. And when this great light comes,
Paul verse 27, and I fell unto the ground. This great light
which comes is a light which is going to humble. It's going
to humble the pride. It's going to take from Paul
all that it had in that one particular moment it had taken from him,
all of his righteousness, all of his sustain, all of that religion,
all of what he had thought was honoring God. That's why in Philippians
he just says, all of those things which I thought would gain unto
me, I count them loss. I count them loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord. for whom I have suffered the
loss of all things." So if you have the Lord Jesus Christ, you
can suffer the loss of all things and not lose anything whatsoever. And I do count them but done. All of his religious zeal and
all of his obedience to the law, he was so zealous that he actually
had, he had an ability to say, that he, touching the law, touching the
righteousness within the law, he was blameless. See only a
light from heaven, only a light from heaven can take that blameless,
that blameless life before the law and seen of men, seen of
Gamaliel, seen of those elders that he was now speaking to,
seen of those Jews, and take that light, take that and turn
it into dung. See, there is a created light.
As I said earlier, there are two lights on that road to Damascus. There's a created light that
reveals the glory of God in creation. It doesn't bring salvation, it
brings men responsible, as does the light that comes into their
consciences. There are, they are, there are
no people ignorant of God. But only this uncreated light,
only this great light from heaven can reveal the glory of God.
in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see him, as Hebrews
2 says, crowned with glory and honor. We see him as the Christ. And that was Peter's confession,
isn't he? Thou art the Christ. And the Lord Jesus immediately
said to him, flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you, Peter.
My Father in heaven revealed this to you. We know God by revelation. So he created like can reveal
man's work and their worth and their wisdom and their ways which
seem good to them. But only this uncreated light
reveals all this as filthy rags. Paul was the apostle, appointed
apostle to the Gentiles. And one of the remarkable things
is when you read the Old Testament scriptures you find again and
again that if the Jews, you wonder how gamaliel explained the passages
in the scriptures which talk about the glory of the Gentiles. And he does. He does talk in
so many ways about the glory of the Gentiles will be like
a flowing stream. If you turn with me quickly to
Isaiah 66, there is in this contrast that's only seen by spiritual
light, there is in this great contrast, a contrast between
the religion of men and the religion of our great God. In Isaiah 66 it talks about their
religion. It talks about their God. It says, The heaven is my throne,
thus saith the Lord. Heaven is my throne, and earth
is my footstool. Where is the house that you build
unto me? Where is the place of my rest?
For all those things hath my hand made, and all those things
have been, saith the Lord. But to this man I will look,
even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth. at my word. So Paul was preaching
the very words of God to this religious crowd. He'd gone there
with a blood sacrifice, and the Lord then goes on in Isaiah to
explain that they're sacrificing an ox as if you slew a man, you
sacrifice a lamb as if you cut off a dog's neck. He that offers
an oblation as if he offers swine's blood. He that burneth infants
as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own
ways. and their soul delighteth in
their abominations." They didn't see them as abominations, and
God says, I also will choose their delusions and will bring
their fears upon them, because when I called, none did answer. When I spake, they did not hear,
but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which
I delighted not. He goes on to say, hear the word
of the Lord. That's how this gospel age begins,
isn't it? Pope Peter stood up and said,
hearken unto me brothers, listen, listen. Paul is now declaring
this gospel in Jerusalem and he does it by declaration of
the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you go down with
me in that same chapter to verse 12, for thus saith the Lord,
behold, I will extend peace to her like a river. He's talking
about the Jerusalem above. and the glory of the Gentiles
like a flowing stream then shall you suck and be born on her sides
and dandle upon her knees and as one whom his mother comforted
so I will comfort you and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem God sets his preaching as a sign
go down to verse 18 For I know their works and their thoughts,
and it shall come that when I gather all nations and all tongues,
they shall come and see my glory. Gamaliel, what did you make of
this? And I will set a sign among them,
and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations to Tarshish,
to Put and Lud, and that draw the bow to Tubal and Javan, and
to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have
seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory
among the Gentiles. The Gentiles shall flow in. The Gentiles will be there. Glorious. Glorious. See only a light from heaven. Only an uncreated light can reveal
the religion of men. the religion that so many in
Paul's day and the religion that so many in these days are clinging
to. Only a light from heaven, only
a revelation of God through the preaching of the gospel will
come. See, created light sees the words,
and created light knew the history. They knew the history of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and they saw nothing. They saw nothing spiritual. They saw no beauty in Him. They saw no glory in Him. But this light from heaven illuminates
the Word made flesh, our glorious Saviour, and makes His words
to His people, spirit and life. They have a life all of their
own. You see, when the Lord reveals
himself, you'll hear, you'll be humbled from your religion,
verse 7 of Acts 22 now, and you'll hear a voice. God will always
reveal himself in glory through the preaching of the gospel. You'll hear a voice, and you'll
hear a voice that's a particular voice. saying unto me, Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou me? You'll hear a voice. You'll hear
him. He speaks to his own, doesn't he? You can read about it more
in John chapter 10. They know his voice, a stranger
they will not follow. He is the good shepherd. His
sheep hear his voice and they follow him. They follow him. The other thing that Paul is
made to realize immediately, that the Lord Jesus Christ is
one with his people. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? There is that glorious union
between the Lord Jesus Christ and his own, bone of his bones
and flesh of his flesh. No harm, no harm can be done
to the child of God without the Lord Jesus Christ being there
and being aware of it. Paul's no doubt heart was burning
that these people not experience the things that he experienced
on that Damascus road as he proclaimed the Lord Jesus Christ to them.
So Paul answered, verse 8, in this pattern, Who art thou, Lord? So Paul now had to reveal before
God that all of his religion had left him as ignorant as he
was when he began. completely ignorant. The Ethiopian
eunuch arrived in Jerusalem with all of his zeal and all of his
morality and all of that desire to learn and to know and had
bought the scriptures and it wasn't until Philip spoke to
him and the Lord revealed himself
to that man. Who art thou Lord? Who art thou Lord? Who art thou
Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus
of Nazareth. In all the other accounts that
Paul gives, don't forget Paul was there in the temple helping
these four men to fulfill their Nazarite vow. In all the other
accounts, this is the only time the word Nazareth is used. Paul is saying to those people
there, This is the true Nazarite, the true Nazarite. He drank no
wine of the fornication of the adulteries of false religion.
His hair was not cut. His union with his people was
unbroken and he touched no dead body. Brothers and sisters, We
like Paul are going to cry out again and again, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? We are touching death all the
time. We are touching a dead body.
There was just one Nazarite. There is just one Nazarite. He
has fulfilled the law. He's magnified the law and he's
made it honorable. Who art thou Lord? It's very interesting, isn't
it, when Paul quotes those words of the Lord Jesus Christ, he
uses that great word of our God, the great word, I am, which is
throughout the New Testament Scriptures, it was the I am that
people found offensive. He says, I am the good shepherd.
He says in John chapter eight, unless you believe that I am,
unless you believe that I am John 8 24 unless you believe
that I am God he's taking on the very name of God that Moses
was asked he asked didn't he ask the Lord who met him at the
burning bush he asked him in Exodus 4 who shall I say has
sent me to these people who who's who is it that's sending me and he says I am Exodus 3 verse 14, God said unto
Moses, I am that I am. You tell them that I am sent
you. It can also be translated, I
will be that I will be. It's in the future tense. It
is a description of our great God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And
Paul is declaring the Lord Jesus Christ to be the God. He's declaring
that the Lord Jesus Christ is the God that these men claim
to worship. He is the self-existent one. He's the self-sufficient one.
He's the all-sufficient one. He is the inexhaustible fountain
of all being. It's a declaration that he's
eternal, he's unchangeable, he's always the same. It's a declaration
that his name is wonderful. And we like Joe might say how
little a portion is heard of him how little do
we know of him he's saying to this crowd that
Jesus Christ is God God over all and Paul now fallen to the ground
having seen a light heard a voice speaking to him personally, the
voice of the shepherd. He acknowledges the ignorance
of his religion, that he was as ignorant of God as that crowd
that he was speaking to, unless the Lord brings light and brings
himself to reveal that light. And then he says in verse 22, And verse 10 of Acts 22, what
shall I do, Lord? What shall I do? I've gone my
way. What shall I do? What shall I
do? And the Lord said unto me, Arise
and go into Damascus, and there it shall be told thee of all
things which are appointed for thee to do. We have a great and sovereign
God and there is an appointed end and there are appointed things
for us. We delight, don't we, to declare
with pause, he wrote to those Ephesians, he says, by grace
are you saved through faithfulness, not of yourselves, it's the gift
of God, the grace is the gift of God, the saving is the gift
of God, the faith is the gift of God, and it's not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God, not of works, not of works, not of your
legal works, not of your moral works, not of your religious
works, lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them it came to pass it came to pass
says Paul recorded by Luke it came to pass God's ordained works
that we should walk work in them God ordained all things. It's great. It's a great comfort,
isn't it, to rest in the fact that our God has appointed things. There is an appointment for all
of his people. There's an appointed meeting
with him. There's an appointed meeting
with him in this time. It's called the time of love.
It's that time when the Lord comes and speaks personally and
powerfully to the hearts of his people. There's a time when that
light will so shine in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ that
he will be magnified in such a way that we'll be caused to
gaze upon him and we'll be led by the hand. I'll
just read what Paul was going to do and may the Lord willing
look at it again some in future weeks. He came into Damascus. He was led by the hand. Paul,
who had led his own way now, was a blinded man and he's being
led on God's path. He came into Damascus, verse
12, and went in and asked a devout man, according to the law, having
a good report of all the Jews who dwelt there, came unto me
and stood and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And
the same hour I looked upon him. So he's now a brother. He'd gone
there to be a murderer and now he's a brother. And the first
thing that he says to him, he says, the God of our fathers
has chosen thee. Our God is an electing God. There's an election unto salvation
that thou shouldst know his will and see that just one and shouldst
hear the voice of his mouth. Paul is standing before that
crowd testifying to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, as
God, as Jesus of Nazareth, as the Christ, the God and man in
one, the God in union with all of his own, the God who is an
electing sovereign God, the God who has a will it must come to
pass, the God who is just, just and glorious, the glorious justice
of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and a God who speaks a
God who speaks you should hear the voice at his mouth Paul knew
his testimony he knew his testimony now is restored to someone rather
than doing the will of man is there boldly proclaiming the
Lord Jesus Christ in the face of this crowd who wanted his
life. We'll just read the words of
the Lord Jesus Christ to him. In verse 18 it says, make haste,
he said to him, make haste and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem
for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me. And
the light shines The Lord Jesus Christ shines in the hearts of
His people as a testimony of Him that's received. And there
is no surprise to our goal when that unbelief, that testimony
is rejected. They reject Him, says the Lord
Jesus Christ. They believe not because they
are not of His sheep. You believe not. Your believing
not is an active unbelief, He says to them. in John 8 26 because
you are not of my sheep my sheep hear my voice and I know them
and they follow me there was no surprise to our God that his
testimony was not received in verse 21 he says depart for I
will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles Paul was proclaiming
that this God this God was the God of the Jews and the God of
the Gentiles and in this glorious church he was going to reveal
himself. He was going to be known to his
people. He was going to make a church of Jews and Gentiles,
sinners. A place of his dwelling, a place
of his revealing, a place of him speaking to his people through
the preaching of him. We bear testimony like Paul. to the witness that the Lord
has made himself to us. A glorious God, a glorious Saviour,
a glorious Sovereign, and glorious in his union, and glorious in
his oneness with his people. I pray in these times you might
find, like Paul, in the midst of turmoil, you'll find great
comfort in standing before what seems extraordinarily difficult
circumstances. And may God grant us the faith
to simply look to Him and trust Him and be comforted by the reality
of His being. May He make His face to shine
upon us. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we thank You. We thank You for the revelation
of Yourself. We thank You that You are revealed
in speaking through your word to the hearts of your people,
Heavenly Father, that we see the Lord Jesus Christ. We see
him high and lifted up, and we see him glorious. We see him
sitting upon the throne of this universe. We see him shedding
his precious life's blood as his heart was broken, bearing
the weight of our sins in Gethsemane's garden and on the cross of Calvary. Oh, Heavenly Father, only revelation
from on high A light, a great light from heaven can reveal
the greatness of your dear and precious son. In these times
of darkness, Heavenly Father, we pray that you might shine
your light upon your people here and throughout this world, that
they might be made by you to be found faithful in these times,
and that you, in the midst of the weakness of our flesh and
the depths of our unbelief, Heavenly Father, you might get great glory
in the way that you restore your people to relationship with you,
that we might sit at your feet and hear your words and just
rejoice in who you are. Bless your words to the hearts
of your people, Heavenly Father, for we pray in Jesus' name and
for his glory. Amen. Lord willing, we'll see you all
next week.