Acts chapter 9. As we behold the power of God
conquering Saul of Tarsus, we behold how the Lord used Paul
to bring salvation to the Gentiles. We behold the power of the Gospel
to break down any and every wall which separates sinners from
our righteous Savior. The title of the message tonight
is, Fire in the Wall. Fire in the Wall. We begin in
verse 20 of Acts chapter 9. Saul's been converted. And straightway
he preached Christ in the synagogues that He's the Son of God. But all that heard were amazed
and said, Is not this He that destroyed them which called on
this name in Jerusalem? It came hither for that intent,
that he might bring them bound unto the chief priest. But Saul
increased them more in strength, and confounded the Jews which
dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ. After Saul's
conversion, he tells us in Galatians that he went to Arabia to preach
the gospel of Christ. And while there, by divine revelation,
the Lord Jesus Christ grew him in wisdom and understanding concerning
Christ Jesus the Lord. It's that spiritual strength
which is mentioned here, it's not physical strength, it's spiritual
strength when it says, Saul increased the Moor in strength. Paul told
the Corinthians, that knowing, knowing that Jesus Christ will
raise us up together, knowing that, nobody can defeat me. Nobody can persecute me. There's nothing that men can
do unto me. And Paul said, for this cause
we faint not. We don't faint. But though our
outward man perish, it's perishing daily, but if it be destroyed
at the hands of men and die, Yet the inward man is renewed
day by day. It can't die. Light afflictions. These light afflictions work
an eternal weight. They anchor us in eternal things. The eternal weight of glory.
For they cause us to realize that the things that we see are
just temporal things. But the things that are real,
significant, established, never fading are things that are eternal.
So physical healing can come and it can go. And a believer's
happy if he has physical health, he's happy if the Lord takes
it away from him. But spiritual strength, spiritual
blessings, spiritual abundance in Christ Jesus, that's what
the desire of the believer's heart is, that we be raised up
spiritually. Saul increased in spiritual strength. And we're going to see that that's
what it's talking about because otherwise he would not have had
the boldness to stand for the gospel as he did. And then after
three years he came back to Damascus and he confounded the Jews which
dwelt at Damascus proving that this is very Christ. Verse 23. And after that many
days were fulfilled the Jews took counsel to kill him. But
their laying awake was known of Saul. And they watched the
gates day and night to kill him. Then the disciples took him by
night and led him down by the wall in a basket." Now Paul mentions
this another time when he's talking to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians
chapter 11 in verse 32. He says, In Damascus the governor
under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascus with a garrison. Desirous to apprehend me and
through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall and
escaped his hands Saul was a chosen vessel unto Christ to bear his
name to the Gentiles through the gospel of Christ And through
this fiery gospel that he had preached, the Lord would call
out chosen Gentiles from among their oppressors in the Gentile
world, beginning in Syria, in Damascus. And therefore, the
Gospel of Paul is the fire that God kindled to breach this middle
wall of partition between Jew and Gentile. As we see Paul let
down in a basket here, we see a breach in this wall that would
protect this great city, Damascus. The Gentile world. There's a
breach made in this wall. And it's a breach kindled by
the Gospel through Saul of Tarsus. And herein we see how God breaks
down the wall. Any and every barrier that separates
individual sinners from Him. That is, He does it through the
Gospel. That's the fire in the wall.
Now, if you'll turn with me to Jeremiah 49. The prophecy that I'm about to
read you from Jeremiah had its physical fulfillment in later
days, in the days of several of the kings in Israel. But it
may be that the beginning of the spiritual fulfillment of
the prophecy delivered by Jeremiah is what we're seeing tonight
in our text when Paul was let down in a basket over this wall. Let me show you, verse 23. Concerning
Damascus, Hamath is confounded and arpid, for they have heard
evil tidings. They are faint-hearted, their
sorrow on the sea. It cannot be quiet. Damascus
is waxed feeble and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized
on her. Anguish and sorrows have taken
her as a woman in travail. How is the city of praise not
left, the city of my joy? Therefore her young men shall
fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off
in that day, saith the Lord of hosts. Now catch this last verse. And I will kindle a fire in the
wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benedict. A fire was now kindled in the
wall of Damascus. The fire of God's gospel was
ablaze, kindled in this man, Saul of Tarsus, who literally
breached the wall by being let down in a basket in the wall
of Damascus, a symbol of what the Lord would do through His
gospel throughout the Gentile world in breaking down this wall.
By the gospel of Christ, the Lord of glory would have conquered
and delivered His people, such as those vessels of mercy in
Antioch, Antioch is the place where they were first called
Christian. That's in the same country as Damascus is in. The
sword of the gospel had entered into this great wealthy city
called Damascus, even as it entered the Gentile world, and it entered
through Saul of Tarsus. This message of accomplished
redemption by Christ the Lord is the fire. This is the fire
because it was evil tidings to those who trusted in their own
strength. It burned up their refuge. Hearing the truth of Christ made
them faint hearted, made them troubled within like the raging
sea because this one whom Saul preached is the one whom they
had rejected. Why was the message offensive
to them? Why did they want to kill Saul? They had just been
confederate with him. They had just been on the same
side with him and companions with him and he with them. Why
now did they want to kill him? This message which declared Christ
to be all a man's wisdom? it belittled them because it
made them out to realize they had no wisdom. By searching the
oracles of God, by searching the law and the prophets, they
hadn't come to any wisdom at all. This message was that declared
their righteousnesses as filthy rags and declared Christ to be
the believer's only righteousness. It disannulled and took away
every righteous deed that they had worked and heaped up for
themselves all their lifetime. And this message was declared
that they hadn't separated themselves, they hadn't made themselves holy
by their self-sanctifying, but that Christ is all the believer's
sanctification. The great price that they had
paid, that they considered that they had paid within themselves
to buy themselves out of debt to their creditors. And now Saul
is coming and telling them all that that price they had paid
had just sunk them deeper and deeper into debt because Christ
is the only one that buys His people out from under sin and
death, that redeems His people. And the young strong men and
the valiant men of war wouldn't be able to stop Christ the King
from having His way in their midst. They couldn't stop Him.
The fire in the wall rages, and the fire in the wall conquers
all the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ. All pretense of devotion
is left desolate by the captain of our salvation. He's the man
of war. And those chosen children of
God who in themselves thought themselves kings in the Gentile
world, in the palaces of Benidah, they thought themselves kings,
they're going to be destroyed. Their refuge is going to be consumed.
And they're going to be conquered by Christ and brought to behold
Him as Lord. This is a great breach in the
wall. And therefore, fear seized the hearts of these religious
men, of these Jews. It seized their hearts. They
were like a woman in childbirth. They were like the sea tossed
with waves. They couldn't be quieted. And
so therefore, we read in verse 23, the Jews took counsel to
kill him. They wanted to kill Saul because
of this. through the fire in the wall.
Believers can expect the Lord shall burn down all false refuge. Therefore, listen now, therefore
we must never, ever try to smother the fire by watering it down,
by toning down the message whatsoever. Because it's only by the power
of God, the fire of the Gospel, it's only by the power of God
that we'll be saved from the power of darkness. Scripture
speaks of the power of the sword, it speaks of the power of the
dog, the power of the grave, the power of the flame, the power
of evil, the power of darkness, and the power of Satan. And in
each of these cases, it takes the power of God to save sinners
out from that evil power. Saul of Tarsus was captive under
the power of Satan, which resulted in him fearing men rather than
fearing God. That's what it is, brethren.
Whenever a man or a group of people that claim to believe
Christ, whenever they belittle God our Savior and belittle His
power, it's not because of a fear of God. It's because of a fear
of men. That's exactly what it is. because of a fear of men. Paul
told the Galatians there, right in I think the 5th chapter after
what you just read, he told them that these men that want a glory
in your flesh, they preach the law, they preach circumcision,
lest they be persecuted by the people. They fear the persecution
that will come by preaching the truth. But when he was saved
by the power of God, when Saul was saved by the power of God,
from the power of darkness and protected from the people by
the Lord's power, by that same power that saved him. He was
saved and protected so that he might go forth with all confidence
preaching Christ the Lord who alone saves from the power of
Satan and the power of men. He turned into Acts 26. Let me
say that again. Saul was saved by the power of
God from the power of darkness and protected from the power
of the people by the Lord's power so that he could go with all
confidence and preach, this is how folks are saved. And not
be afraid to go preach it. Now let me show you that in Acts
26.16. This is what Paul is giving the account here of when he was
converted on the road to Damascus. And he says, the Lord told him,
rise, stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for
this purpose. to make thee a minister and a
witness, both of these things which thou hast seen." What had
he seen? He had seen the power of God,
knocked him off his horse into the dust, had blinded him so
that he might be able to see Christ Jesus the Lord. He saw
that power. And the Lord said, "...and of
those things in the which I will appear unto thee." Now he's going
to show more power than just saving him on the road to Damascus.
The Lord said, I'm going to appear to you in more power than this.
And he said, delivering thee from the people and from the
Gentiles unto whom now I send thee to open their eyes and to
turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto
God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among
them which are sanctified by faith that's in me. You see what
I'm trying to get across here is there's no doubt about it,
brethren, that the same power which arrested Saul and brought
him to behold Christ Jesus the Lord by faith is the power and
grace which strengthened him to stand fast in the liberty
wherewith Christ had set him free. The same strength. If we
attempt to extinguish the fire, in the wall by watering the gospel
down, then we're the very ones whom the Lord promises to save
His people from. You realize that? If we attempt
to water it down, to extinguish the fire so it doesn't burn quite
as hot when men hear it, then we've become the very ones whom
God says He'll save His people from. I'll just read you some
scriptures here. You can jot these down and look
them up at your leisure. But listen to this. Exodus 7,
5. The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch
forth mine hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel
from among them. Listen to Jeremiah 12, 14. Thus
saith the Lord against all mine evil neighbors that touch the
inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit."
You know what that inheritance is? What did we find in Isaiah
54? The Lord is our righteousness
and this is the inheritance of the saints. It's Him. You touch
Christ. But little Christ, whom I've
promised to my people, He said, Behold, I'll pluck them out of
their land, and I'll pluck out the house of Judah from among
them. And it shall come to pass that after I have plucked them
out, I will return and have compassion on them and will bring them again,
every man to his heritage, every man to Christ, and every man
to his land. to the place of rest, to Christ
the Lord. In Jeremiah 23.3, he said, I'll
gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries, whether
I have driven them. And I'll bring them again to
their folds, and they shall be fruitful and increase. And I'll
set up shepherds over them which shall feed them, and they shall
fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking,
saith the Lord. The Lord saves us out of and
from among these evil workers. He saves us out of and from among
people who would deny the gospel of Christ, who would deny the
truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, who would deny the full and complete
redemption that Christ accomplished Himself. And may we learn what
Paul learned by that. Paul beheld very quickly that
God had put a difference between him and these Egyptians that
wanted to kill him. Have you experienced rejection
by those you once thought believed on Christ? Have you continued
with them? Or have you left them and come
out from among them? Have you and your Redeemer been
rejected by? Why? Why? Amos said, can two
walk together except they be aggrieved? Can they? The Lord
Jesus Christ told Paul that the things which he must suffer for
Christ's sake. Look with me at John chapter
15. We're beholding here the beginning
of Saul, the Apostle Paul's suffering, that he must suffer for Christ's
sake. But we can expect the same thing. We can expect the very
same thing. John 15, 20. The Lord said, remember
the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than
his Lord. If they've persecuted me, they
will also persecute you. If they've kept my saying, they'll
keep yours also. That's cut and dry, the reason. If they've persecuted me, they'll
also persecute you. And if they've kept my sin, they'll
keep yours also. But all these things will they
do unto you for my name's sake, in the name of Christ Jesus the
Lord. Because they know not Him that sent me. If I had not come
and spoken unto them, they had not had sin, but now they have
no cloak for their sin. Those who hate Christ, hate the
continual message. that exalts Christ because Christ
uncovers the disguise they wear to cloak their sin. Didn't He
do that for you and me? When we first heard Christ preached,
we didn't like hearing it because every time we heard Christ preached,
He's tearing away our disguise. He's tearing away this cloak
that we've put on to mask our sin and make ourselves appear
righteous before men. And a man may endure this message
for a while. He'll listen to it for a while.
But if the message doesn't come back around to our own self-sanctifying
hands, then they become conscious of the sin of refusing to submit
to Christ for their full and complete standing before God.
That's what a sinner will always do. He'll listen for a while. I've seen folks listen for years
to this Gospel. And one day, It's as if all of
a sudden they realize what's being said. And they don't like
it. And they flee. They leave. Because
you're telling me that Christ Jesus is all? You're telling
me that I can't do anything to make myself more accepted than
what Christ has made His people? Well, that's just going to make
a man sin. No, it doesn't. But that message does divide
the sheep from the goats. That message does divide those
who God purposed to save from those whom He's left alone. Because
the man whom He's left alone will never enter into the blessing
of Christ having done it all. He never enters into it because
we by nature want a part of it. And these Jews that sought to
kill Saul wanted a part of it. and a sinner will find fault.
He'll find fault with the building, he'll find fault with the pews,
he'll find fault with the piano playing, with the singing, with
you and me, whatever he can find fault with, so he can justify
himself for leaving. I'm not leaving because of what
you preach. I don't like how the preacher handles things.
I don't like how the church is set up. It'll be some outlandish,
crazy thing. Nothing can separate Christ and
His people. Nothing. We behold one another
and the faults within one another, and yet we see our own selves
when we behold those things, but those things aren't enough
to separate us from Christ the Lord. They could never separate
us from Him. And not only this, brethren,
but I'll tell you another thing that these fellows that wanted
to kill Saul, what their problem was, was religious men will not
have Christ to take away their dominion over sinners. These Jews had beheld at Pentecost
that once this gospel is preached, once it comes in, They can't
stop it. There's nothing they can do about
it. They couldn't keep God, no matter how they couldn't keep
Him from working His purpose of grace in calling out sinners
from among them. No matter how they tried to satisfy
the flesh, of the people to whom they ministered. No matter how
the Pharisees and the Jews tried to pamper the flesh and give
the people exactly what they wanted with rules and laws and
regulations and things that they must do. No matter how they did
that to try to satisfy their flesh and keep them under that
yoke. When the Gospel came in, the
Gospel unharnessed them, broke all the ties that bound them
and the chains that bound them and created life within them
and brought them out of it. And they knew it. They knew it.
These fellas knew. Our power is at stake here. If
Saul goes and preaches the gospel, this gospel of Christ, Christ
is going to continue to save people from our midst, just like
He's already done. And our power is getting weaker
and weaker. The Lord said, this is how I'm
going to destroy Damascus. I'm going to bring the gospel
into their presence. And I'm going to save a people
from among them. And all their valiant men of
war and their strong young men that think they can fight against
Me, He said, I'm going to leave them laying cut off in the street.
They can't fight against Me. They can't fight against Me.
Esau and all his people, eat them. this evil generation that
have come up against my people and have warred against them
and have taken them captive in religion and carnal sin and rebellion
against me. He said, I'm going to destroy
them. And I'm going to destroy them one way. Through the gospel
of my Son. Through the gospel that exalts
my Son. And in doing so, I'm going to
exalt Him in their hearts. Giving them a new heart to where
they behold Him And they follow Him. They hear His voice and
they follow Him. And no matter what these other
people can say to try to turn them to the left or to the right,
they're going to follow Him right out of this midst of these people. And the Jews knew it. So under
the dominion of Christ, instead of compromise the Gospel for
the sake of some sentimental show of graciousness, Saul stood
for the truth of his Lord against these very men who he had once
been in agreement with. And he encouraged his brethren
to always do the same. Look at 2 Timothy 3. This is
what he told Timothy. Verse 12. 2 Timothy 3.12. Yea, and all that will live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Not those who call
on the name of Christ Jesus, but those who live godly in Christ
Jesus. Those who believe the Lord Jesus
Christ as He is, the Son of God. Those will suffer persecution.
Those who declare Christ to be all salvation. But evil men and
seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and
hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned." Of
whom hast thou learned? That's the question. Of whom
hast thou learned? Paul told the Galatians that
he said, I didn't receive this Gospel by man, neither was it
taught to me by man, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. You
and I may not have a direct face-to-face revelation with Christ, of Christ,
as Saul of Tarsus did on the road to Damascus, but just write
it down, that if we're taught of God, It's going to be through
the Holy Spirit, and we're going to be taught of Him, and Christ
is going to be revealed in our hearts, so that we behold Him
by faith just as real as Saul beheld Him in a vision, by faith. Of whom hast thou learned? If
Christ has taught us. If it's Christ that's taught
us through the Spirit, then it's Christ we've learned of. And
if it's Christ by whom and of whom we've been taught and learned,
then we can be assured that it's Christ who shall protect us by
that same power with which he saved us. That's what he told
Saul. He arrested him in power and
he said, I'm going to show you the things you must suffer and
I'm going to protect you from the people that you may go forth
and preach this in boldness, boldly. That's why And someone
that's been through this and sees that the Lord Jesus Christ
will not let his people go, that he will not allow them to be
taken captive, unless it be like he did Paul, to bring him into
a place where he'd preach the gospel. These things aren't going
to move us by His grace, by His strengthening us. And that will cause us to go
to somebody like the Hebrew brethren and say, call to remembrance. Remember that great fight of
affliction which you endured when you first believed. Call to remembrance that. And
don't cast away your confidence. How did you endure it? Who caused
you to endure? From the very beginning, who's
caused you to endure? It's Christ the Lord. He's our
confidence. He's our confidence. Don't cast
Him away, He said, because it's great recompense of reward to
you. And after that you've done the will of God. You shall receive
the promise of God. The will of God is for us to
cast all of our care in salvation, in temporal things, everyday
things, everyday matters. Cast all our care on Christ Jesus
the Lord. That's the will of God. And he
says, after you've done the will of God, you'll receive the promise
of God. And the promise of God is salvation
by Christ Jesus the Lord. It's Christ Himself. The end
of God's will and the promise that God's made to us is Christ
our Lord. And He'll come. He'll not tarry.
He'll come shortly and save us. That's what the Scripture said.
Now, those who the Lord enables with the fire of this Gospel,
they justify that they have truly been born of the Holy Spirit
and truly believe Christ is Lord by simply declaring the truth.
We see it right here in our text. Look at verse 26. When Saul was come to Jerusalem,
he assayed to join himself to the disciples. But they were
all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple. Rightfully
so. I'd be afraid of him too, wouldn't
you? They just saw him consent to
Stephen's death. And so they didn't receive him
because they couldn't believe that he was truly been saved
by God's grace. But notice here how they were
convinced to receive Saul as a brother. Look. But Barnabas
took him and brought him to the apostles and declared unto them
how he had seen the Lord in the way. And that he had spoken to
him. The Lord had spoken to him. Called
him out. And how Saul had preached boldly
at Damascus in the name of Jesus. and thus they receive Saul without
doubtful disputings." We're accused, brethren. Here's what we're accused
of. We're accused of preaching too much doctrine of Christ and
not enough practical Christianity concerning what a man ought to
be doing and not doing. Well, I'm going to give you a
most practical example of faith working by the love of Christ
and love for the brethren. Here it is right here. A man
may say, thou hast faith and I have works. Show me thy faith
without thy works and I'll show thee my faith by my works. I'm not interested in whether
or not a man goes and does some outward benevolent deeds in the
community. I know a host of people that deny Christ Jesus the Lord
that do the same. That doesn't prove anything to
me. The Lord said, you'll know them by their fruits. You ever
thought of that? He said, you'll know them by
their fruits. Can a fig tree, a thorn tree bear figs? You'll
know them by their fruits. And I think on that now, you
see professing believers to be doing many wonderful works. but denying the Lord Jesus Christ. So are those the fruits that
we're going to know them by? Is that the fruit we're going
to know the Lord's people by? Barnabas told the apostles at
Jerusalem that Saul not only believed the Lord Jesus Christ,
professed to believe Him, followed Him in baptism, professed to
believe Him, but that he could not be turned from Him to compromise
with his enemies. That's the fruit. That's the
fruit that Christ produces. Saul professed to have repented
from the evil which he was determined to do toward the saints at Damascus. He professed that when he professed
to believe Christ, that he repented from that false way, from the
hidden things of dishonesty, and that he believed Christ.
And he justified his claim by walking into that very synagogue
and preaching Christ boldly at Damascus. You want to prove to
me you believe Christ? Do you want to bring forth some
fruit, meat for repentance, to prove and justify what you claim
to be the case in your heart? Don't back down from telling
men the truth about Christ. You can go out and do a bunch
of deeds, but then turn around and deny the Lord Jesus Christ.
But the man who will stand boldly and preach Christ, That's the
fruit. And there'll be many other fruits
by Christ Jesus working in him as well, as we'll see with Saul
as we go on. But this is the fruit whereby
you're going to know what does he preach, who's his Savior,
who's his Lord, who's the one that he sets forth continually. The brethren profess to believe
the Lord's power to save. And you know how they manifested?
You know how they justified that they truly did believe the Lord
was all-powerful to save? When this one named Saul of Tarsus
came to them, and it was made known to them that the Lord had
saved him, and he had gone and preached boldly to the Lord Jesus
Christ, they opened their arms and said, Brother Saul, These
are fruits, Fred. This is practical Christianity
I'm talking about. This is what true fruit of work
by Jesus Christ is. Verse 28, And he was with them
coming in and going out at Jerusalem. And he spake boldly in the name
of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Grecians, but they
went about to slay him. Here's some more fruits. Saul
professed to be one with his brethren. You know how he justified
that? You know how he was justified
by his works? proved by his works that his faith was genuine by
continuing with his brethren coming in and going out at Jerusalem. Well, it's got to be something
else a man can do. A man can't do that but by the power of God's
grace. He can't stay with the Lord's people where God's message
of his son is proclaimed. He can't make himself stay there.
He can't anchor himself, chain himself there, and make himself
stay there. He'll find some way to break the chains and get out
of there. But when God arrests him and
brings him in power, he'll continue with them. And then it says here,
Saul professed that he denied himself and trusted Christ that
he was able to keep his eternal soul, which he had committed
to Christ. That's what he claimed to believe, that he trusted Christ
to protect him and keep him no matter what, come what may, and
that he had denied his own self for Christ the Lord. That's what
he professed to believe. You know how He justified Himself?
You know how He proved that He truly believed Christ to be His
sovereign Lord and Protector? You know how? Though the Grecians sought to
slay Him, He spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, disputing
their lies. This so-called fruit of love
and graciousness, which accepts anybody that calls on the name
of the Lord Jesus as a brother, it just hasn't arrived to the
lofty platitude that we've come to. That's not grace. That's not the fruit of grace.
That's compromise. That is compromise. Paul, though
they sought to slay him, he preached Christ boldly to them, disputing
with them. Not just arguing with them. In
the process of preaching Christ Jesus the Lord, he disputed every
lie that they could throw up at him. Any argument they could
bring up simply by preaching Christ and Him crucified, every
argument was made null and void. Every one of them. the fruit of the Spirit of our
Lord. If He's in us, He said, when
you're brought before the rulers and before the councils, I'll
give you the words to say. If He don't give them to us,
we won't have them. We won't have them. But He said, I'll
give you the words to say. And He'll give us the words.
And there's nothing that the game-sayers can say against it.
They can slander you. They can ridicule the place where
you worship. They can come up with everything
they can come up with. Just like these Jews went to
the rulers and said... And they knew Saul. They knew
what a good reputation he had. But you see how fast religion
had turned on its own? You see how fast the carnal man
had turned on its own? The moment he started preaching
the truth, they said, something's happened to Saul. He's turned. And we need to arrest
him. And the king laid wait around
the whole city to arrest him. But he couldn't prosper in it.
He couldn't prosper in it. The Lord made a mockery of him. And that's what he'll do. How
I wish we could behold that. How I wish we could behold and
truly grasp and truly understand and truly enter into this fact. That if we be the Lord, born
of His Spirit, redeemed by His blood, called out of darkness
by the power of God, we'll be kept by Him. That we can stand
and just say the truth. Just say the truth. And people
may get mad. That's okay. That's okay. They're either going to get mad
at us right now for telling them the truth, or they're going to
get mad in the Day of Judgment and accuse us of not telling
them the truth when we had opportunity to. They're going to get mad
either way. And they're going to get mad
at you either way. Everybody we come in contact with, all
we're sent to do is be a witness of what we've seen and heard.
And the one we've seen and heard is Christ Jesus the Lord. I can't
witness to anything else. We like to copy the benevolent
deeds of men. And that's a good thing. That's
a good thing. We read of some great charitable
act, a great charitable act performed by men of great wealth. And we
admire it. We admire it. And we desire to
show the same love and kindness. You know, you read of of somebody
that had riches or somebody that didn't have riches, that did
something just out of an act of kindness. And you think, man,
I want to do something. That's the heart I want. I want
to have that kind of heart. Believer, what was the greatest
act of love ever performed towards you? Christ sent the Gospel to you. and gave you a heart to understand
Him and a heart to believe Him. That's the greatest benevolent
act of love and grace ever performed to a believer. And how great
is the One who performed it? It's Christ Jesus, the King of
glory, and there's none greater. There's none greater. And the
man who has experienced that act of benevolence firsthand,
this loving graciousness of our God and our Savior, has experienced
it firsthand, knows he has nothing better that he can give to anybody. Nothing better. I don't possess
anything better than Christ Jesus the Lord. Nothing. Nothing. If sinners shall find rest from
all their striving and be purged from the evil conscience which
keeps them working for acceptance with God, the one way it's going
to happen is the gospel of Christ. That's how He's going to give
them himself, their rest. That's how it's going to happen.
If a sinner shall be edified, healed from the sickness of sin,
made rich in the midst of temporal poverty, raised up in spirit
when they're cast down in the flesh, edified, then this is
how our Lord shall perform it. through a sinner saved in power
and grace declaring the Lord Jesus Christ by whose power and
grace he was saved. The Lord saved Saul of Tarsus
by power and grace and protected him by power and grace so that
he would go and preach the power and grace of the one who saved
him. Just that simple. Just that simple. If God comes to a man in power
through that gospel, He will reform a man. He's the Reformer. He's the Reformer. He'll recreate
him in His own image. He will recreate a sinner after
the image of God. in holiness and righteousness. Not this fake thing that's called
holiness and righteousness by carnal men, but in true holiness
and righteousness in Christ Jesus. And He'll behold Christ as He
is. And He won't go back. And He will consider you the
best friend He ever had. the best friend he ever had. Because you're the only one who
cared enough for his eternal soul to tell him the truth and
not try to take advantage of him like every other huckster
he'd come in contact with. He might not like it at first.
Probably won't. But if God's pleased to save
him, He will. This is the Lord. by which we
ourselves and all other enemies are conquered and protected forever.
And here's the result of this fire in the wall. It's sure and
certain. And here it is. Here's the result.
Verse 31. Then had the churches rest throughout
all Judea and Galilee and Samaria and were edified. And walking
in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost
were multiplied. The Lord conquered their worst
enemy and used their worst enemy to preach the Gospel and sent
him out from among them to go down to another place and preach
the Gospel. He is happy to go down there. Word got out that
this man had been saved. And when they heard it, they
brought him down to Caesarea and then on to Tarsus. And he went and preached because
he's happy to go wherever the Lord sent him with that one message
the Lord sent him with. I hope you're emboldened by the
Spirit to speak the truth of Christ. Simply hold forth the
gospel by which our Redeemer made the breach in the wall and
brought this fire upon the Gentile world." If you get right here, this is
a turning point in world history right here. is right here in
the saving of this man and in making this breach in this wall
and letting him down in this basket. Something that seems
so simple. This very act, God changed the
world forever. That's how he and you came to
hear the gospel because of what took place right here. Now, if
he's pleased to do that with a man With this one message,
why would we look anywhere else or expect any other method or
means to accomplish what He's accomplished before our eyes
and in us? And we expect Him to. We expect Him to accomplish the
same miracle of grace He accomplished in and through Saul of Tarsus
in this world that we live in. Isn't that right? And he will. He's able. And that's how he's
going to do it. I hope that made some sense to
you.