May it please God to bless us
this morning as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
Acts of the Apostles and chapter 26, and we'll read verses 22 and
23. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 26, and reading verses
22 and 23. Having therefore obtained help
of God, I continue unto 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. This 26th chapter of the Acts
of the Apostles is a very instructive chapter for us all to think upon
and to recognize the truths that it contains. And of course it
is an account which we refer to as the Apostle Paul's apology
to the king and the other people that were there with Agrippa.
And it's interesting and important to note how he addresses the
king and the testimony that he gives. And what he does, he gives
a very clear testimony of his life. And it's good, isn't it,
to be able to read such accounts. It's always good to be able to
read an account of a person's life. And it's very good when
that account always directs us to what the Lord God has done. And here, in the life of the
Apostle Paul, it is very, very clear that God worked wonderfully
in this life of Paul. And he doesn't beat about the
bush, he doesn't pretend that he was a good person, he doesn't
pretend that he lived a wonderfully right life in accordance with
what he now knows as the Gospel, but he tells us how he kept the
law, how he lived as a Pharisee he'd been brought up as a Pharisee
and how he lived it to the best of his knowledge and he did everything
therefore to try and dissuade people from worshipping the Lord
Jesus Christ and then he tells us how the Lord came to him on
that Damascus Road in that wonderful and amazing way. And there are
details in this which are really so instructive for us. He tells
us, he says, he was on the road to Damascus and with authority
and commission from the chief priest and he says, at midday,
O King, I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness
of the sun. Now that's instructed to us as
a little detail because well this was of course in the Middle
East and in the Middle East the sun is very powerful and here
he's telling us that it was at midday the sun shone but what
he saw now was a light that was above the brightness of that
midday sun well here in our country the brightness of the midday
sun is very strong and we've seen it in the last week thankfully
we've had some beautiful weather and seen it but I think that
the brightness that he now saw was above that and it must have
been a long way above that to be able to make such a statement
because there was no discussion It was very clear and again that
demonstrates to us something of the greatness of God. We do
need always to have great views of God that he is far far above
us. far, far superior to what we
are, and to realize he, the great Lord and ruler of the universe,
does reign still today, because he is the Lord, as he says, I
change not. This God does not change, and
we have the same God today that the Apostle Paul had, when he
lived and that's why he was able to give this great and wonderful
testimony and also that God came and spoke to the Apostle Paul
in this personal way. You may say well this of course
was a very amazing occasion and so it was remarkable and unusual
but nonetheless still today God does come and speaks to hearts
he speaks through his word perhaps not in the same way the same
great and powerful way but nonetheless the Lord does still come and
applies his word to our souls and that surely is the great
evidence that we possess the life of God in our souls we don't
want to just wander on and aimlessly through life, just hoping, well,
hope it'll be all right in the end of my life. We do want to
have the evidence that we are a child of God, that we are one
whom God has a love towards, one who God is mindful of, and
one that we are mindful of. you see it works both ways to
know that God is mindful of us and to be mindful of God that
great and glorious God that we might have right views of this
God and something of his greatness and so we have the Lord speaking
to Paul we're told in the Hebrew tongue Paul was a bit of a linguist
and he could speak languages but here the Lord deigned to
speak to him in the Hebrew tongue and spoke to him very clearly
and told him it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks what
does that mean? what it means of course he had
pricks of conscience that he wasn't doing the right thing
in persecuting the Church of God and he obviously put it from
his mind he obviously didn't want to listen to the pricks
which were coming into our mind to correcting him and telling
him he shouldn't be doing it and so the Lord comes and speaks
in that very direct way that it was hard for him to kick against
the cricks. It may be in our lives that we
may have been doing those things which were contrary to God. You know, Paul thought he was
doing God's service. And sometimes we may think that
we're doing God's service, but it may be that we've been in
opposition to God. That's what Paul was. He was
in opposition to God. But bless God, the Lord had mercy
upon him. And bless God when the Lord has
mercy upon us, when the Lord shows us that we are walking
contrary to God that we have been sinners against the great
God that we've been pleasing ourselves that's what the Apostle
Paul did he pleased himself but what a mercy it is in our lives
when God comes and as he did the Apostle Paul he brings us
as it were to a halt We think perhaps, well perhaps I'm not
doing the right thing. Perhaps I haven't been doing
the right thing. And what a great blessing it
is then to have the evidence that the Lord is merciful to
us and gracious to us. And the Lord then gave him a
great and a wonderful commission. What a mercy it is when God speaks
to us and directs us as to what we should do you know you young
people those of you at school and at college and university
we do really desire that you might be led by God to do that which is right
not to just go around pleasing yourself and as the The Lord
spoke here to Paul and he said, But rise and stand upon thy feet,
for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose. There was a
special 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 delivering thee from
the people and from the Gentiles unto whom I now send thee to
open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from
the power of Satan unto God and they may receive forgiveness
of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by
faith that is in me. Well that was a wonderful commission
that the Lord spoke to the Apostle Paul and of course it produced
a wonderful change in this man's life. He about turned, as we
know, he was persecuted in the Lord Jesus and he was turned
around to preach the Lord Jesus. There couldn't really be a greater
change, could there, in a person's life. And it would be good in
measure in our lives. It may not be in the same way
as we read here in these few verses. The Lord knows what purpose
there is for you and me to do in our lives. But if we are true
believer, if we are a true child of God, there will be something
the Lord has ordained for us to do in our lives. It may be
what perhaps appears to be something fairly trivial, something quite
small. It may be something very great. The Lord knows. And what a mercy
if we then have the evidence of God coming to us and speaking
to us and directing us. And we read then what, in actual
fact, the reaction of Paul. And he tells us this. Whereupon,
O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient, unto the heavenly vision again
that's a very direct and very personal statement isn't it but
it's good for us in our lives if the Lord God speaks to us
and directs us and we're not disobedient we should realize
that in the Apostle's life this was a dramatic change and what a blessing it is in
our lives if there has been a dramatic
change and we realise it's the power of God which has produced
that change in our lives whereas we were an enemy of God now by
His grace we are a friend of God well may it be so in all
of our lives and you and I stand before God and you and I have
to examine ourselves and to see whether we are an enemy or whether
we are a friend of God well thankfully the Apostle Paul here was not
disobedient unto the heavenly vision but showed first unto
them at 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 you see this is the
gospel people don't like to be told really that they need to
repent and yet you see it's throughout the Word of God and the Lord
Jesus himself as we can read in the beginning of Matthew and
Mark where when the Lord commenced to preach he preached the gospel
of repentance without us repenting of our sins there's no evidence
of the work of God in our hearts and what a blessing therefore
if the Holy Spirit brings us to that place to repent of the
things that we've said wrong, the things that we've thought
wrong, the things that we've done wrong, that we realise before
a holy God, we are a great sinner and we need a great Saviour. Well, we have a great Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a blessing, therefore,
if we can come to Him praying that He will look upon us and
bless us and forgive all our sins. You see, the words here
are very clear, aren't they? The Lord directed the Apostle
to open their eyes. Now, we know, of course, that
he couldn't physically do that. That was through the work of
the Holy Spirit of God. But nonetheless, he was to preach
the Gospel and give them a right understanding. The preacher is
to give people a right understanding. so that the Holy Spirit may indeed
open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from
the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness
of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by
faith that is in me. That's only a few words. It's
only one verse. but it contains a great depth
of instruction and a great need that all of us need to come to
and to understand that every one of us needs to be brought
from darkness to light from the power of Satan unto God that
we might receive the forgiveness of sins and the inheritance among
them which are sanctified, that means made holy by faith. Faith is the gift of God and
we all need to receive the gift of faith to believe these things. Now, just in a few words, here
in this verse is set before us the spiritual testimony and experience
of a true believer. And all of us need to be able
to trace out in our spiritual life the evidence of these things
having occurred. We do want to know that we possess
the wonderful favor and blessing of God. And so the Apostle Paul
was not disobedient. He obeyed the word of God and
he preached the gospel. And it was because of that, he
tells us, for these causes the Jews caught me in the temple
and went about to kill me. The devil wanted Paul out of
the way, but God was with him. And my friends, you and I will
find there are much to oppose. The devil is still very active
today. He will try and turn us away
from the simple truths of the gospel. We'll try and tell God
the way we want, what we want. God's told us very clearly in
his word what we need and what we should desire and what a mercy
it is then if the Lord is gracious to us and grants us his favor. And so the apostle having given
that account to Agrippa and a very clear account it was He didn't
waste words. He was very direct. And then
he comes and says, having therefore obtained help of God. You see, he very clearly tells
us, told Agrippa that he had received help from God. It wasn't his ability. It wasn't
his wisdom. It wasn't his skill. But it was
God that had been with him and God indeed had helped him. And he was able therefore to
testify. And it is good if we can testify. We speak about testimonies, don't
we? And it's good to be able to testify
the great truths. Having therefore obtained help
of God, I continue unto this day. Well, you and I stand before
God and I hope that we might be able to say the same words. Having obtained help of God,
God has helped me to change my lifestyle. God has helped me
to pray. God has helped me to confess
my sins. God has helped me to read the
Word of God, the Bible. God has helped me in my daily
life. You see, the Apostle wanted to
acknowledge what God had done. And I'm sure the true believer
desires to acknowledge what God has done. We don't want to claim
glory ourselves. our own nature perhaps wants
to but as the Holy Spirit shows to us we will want to honour
the Lord in those wonderful words we read come and let us exalt
his name together the true believer is blessed with a spiritual experience
so that they may be able to exalt the Lord. Your life and my life
is for that reason. It is to exalt the Lord. He is worthy of praise. He is worthy of exaltation. Ponder the great and glorious
work of God. Well, what a mercy it is then
if the Lord brings us to that concern, to realize that the
work of God in our heart is to enable us to exalt the Lord. And so the apostle says here,
having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this
day. Well, what a blessing that is,
my friends, if you and I come to that place and being brought
to that scene that we can acknowledge the work of God within us. He says, having therefore having
therefore obtained help of God, well, I wonder, can we today
say, yes, by the grace of God, I have obtained the help of God. That's a great blessing. That's
a wonderful favour, isn't it? If God has helped you, as I've
already said, to pray, to read, to confess, it's all a grace. It's a wonderful blessing. It's the evidence of the favour
of God towards you. Because naturally, we don't do
these things. naturally we look to the things
of this world and we want to involve ourselves in all the
things of this world but when the Holy Spirit comes and shows
us the greater joy the greater blessing which has to be found
in the amazing comfort of knowing that we have a God who has looked
upon us and brought us to see ourselves and brought us to see
himself. We have to come and say, and
I hope we do, we have to, it is all of grace. It's all because
of the free unmerited favor of almighty God. And so the apostle
goes on to say, having therefore obtained help of God, I continue
on to this day, just before we just move on, just to refer to
David in the 121st psalm, which is a very wonderful short psalm. It's not long, but it has such
great and glorious truth in it, because the psalmist says, I
will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord,
which made heaven and earth. Well, as you and I look in our
lives, I hope we can confirm such a truth that our help does
come from the Lord. Yes, what a wonderful blessing
that is. And the last verse in this short
psalm, the Lord shall Preserve thy going out and thy coming
in from this time forth, even for evermore. This is the greatness
of our God. And so having therefore obtained
help of God, I continue unto this day. And then he goes on
to say, witnessing both to small and great, there is a tendency
to think that such an operation only belongs to ministers or
preachers of the Gospel. The truth is, as we read in Isaiah's
prophecy, ye are my witnesses. Every one of us, if we are a
true believer, are a witness. And the Apostle Paul is able
to say, before Agrippa, This was his testimony, witnessing
both the small and great. It didn't matter what kind of
people he came in contact with. His concern was to testify of
the things of God, to be a true witness of what God had done
for him, of what a sinner he was, and what a great saviour
he had. This is the central core of the
gospel. And he wasn't hiding it. He didn't
hide it. My friends, we live in a dark
day, but we are not to hide the gospel. The Apostle Paul tells
us, witnessing both small and great, saying none other things
than those which the prophets Moses did say, should come. He didn't say things that he
made up, wasn't figments of his own imagination, it was the truth
of God, the truth of God displayed in the Word of God. Yes, well
the Apostle of course was wonderfully blessed to have the The Old Testament,
he'd be able to know it. He'd be brought up at the feet
of Germanial. He was equipped in the Word of
God. And prior to his conversion, he'd be using it in the wrong
way. But now he was a changed person. And now his desire was
therefore to witness these things and to not be ashamed of the
Gospel. of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus
Christ. Well, it's a very tragic thing,
isn't it? If we are ashamed of Jesus. Well, some of us, yesterday we
had a baptising service where we sang this hymn for 27. And the hymn writer says, ashamed
of Jesus. Ashamed of Jesus, soon afar,
let evening blush to own a star. He sheds his beams of light divine,
o'er this benighted soul of mine. Ashamed of Jesus, just as soon,
let midnight be ashamed of noon. Tis midnight with my soul, till
he Bright morning star bids darkness
flee. And then he says, ashamed of
Jesus, that dear friend. You see, as the apostle had been
the enemy, but now the friend. And that's what we have been,
an enemy. Today, we are either still an enemy, or we are a friend. Ashamed of Jesus, that dear friend
on whom my hopes of heaven depend. No, when I blush, be this my
shame, that I no more revere his name. Ashamed of Jesus, yes
I may, when I have no guilt. to wash away. Will all of us
have guilt? No tear to wipe, no good to crave,
no fear to quell, no soul to save. Till then, nor is my boasting
vain, till then I boast, a Saviour slain, and oh, may this my Glory
be that Christ is not ashamed of me. Well we're thankful that
the Apostle Paul was not ashamed of his Saviour and therefore
he was given that grace to witness both the small and great saying
none other things than those which the prophets and Moses
did say should come. And then he outlines the great
truth of the gospel in just a few words. And remember, it relates
to those words of Moses and the prophets. And this is what he
says, 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. You see, in a nutshell, he was
able to summarise the glory of the Gospel and to exalt the Saviour,
the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And he tells King Agrippa. You see, he was before the king
and all those very able men. He didn't hide the gospel. And
he knew there was much hatred to the gospel. He knew, perhaps,
that by saying these things, he would be put to death. But these things were very precious
to him. were very real to him. And what
a good thing it is for you and me today, if likewise, they are
very real, they are very true. And the apostle could testify
as he did here and said, having therefore obtained help of God. well we can read a very similar
word of that in the book of Samuel hitherto hath the Lord helped
us well it's a great strength for us as we press on to realise
yes hitherto hath the Lord helped us and I hope he has in many
ways in our lives to pursue the narrow way to him I view yes
we're not in the broad way we're in the narrow way but the narrow
way leads to eternal life what a blessing it is therefore and
that narrow way hedges us up it's a narrow way and we're in
that way and what a blessing it is because it's a way which
leads to eternal life we're on this journey to this inheritance
and we hope to obtain this inheritance through what the Lord Jesus Christ
has said and done. And so Paul says that Christ
should suffer. Yes, he would suffer. And you can read through the
Old Testament and numerous occasions we have the picture typified
with various illustrations that the Lord Jesus Christ would suffer. We preached, as some of you know,
last Thursday morning on that glorious word of John the Baptist
when he said, behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin
of the world. And of course that Lamb of God
was represented throughout scripture as that animal that was sacrificed,
which typified the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the Apostle is
able to say, very familiar, he was of course with the Old Testament,
very familiar with that wonderful picture of the Lamb of God that
takes away the sin of the world. and able to therefore be able
to say that Christ should suffer and that he should be the first
that should rise from the dead. And so he was. As we know, the
Savior, the blessed Lord, was crucified upon that cross in
order to pay the price for all our sin. There was neither good
enough to pay the price of sin. He only could unlock the door
or gate to heaven and let us in. Yes, it was only the Lord
Jesus Christ who could pay that enormous price for your sin and
my sin, but he willingly suffered. He willingly gave his life and
then gloriously he rose from the dead. Yes, the first that
should rise from the dead. We have the evidence of it. The
apostle had the evidence of it. He knew the truth of it. And
this was what he preached as he went around. This is what
he witnessed as he went around. That Christ should suffer and
it should be the first that should rise in the dead and should show
light unto the people. what a light that was you know
the apostles I've just meditated on had seen that great and glorious
light shine from heaven but my friends in measure you and I
see the light when the light of God opens our eyes to observe
the great and glorious plan of salvation and to realise that
though we are a sinner vile, a sinner black. Yet the Lord
Jesus Christ died to take away all sin, all of our sin. When he died upon that cross
at Calvary, when he shed his most precious blood and should
show light unto the people, the light of the gospel. Well, I
hope and I pray that all of us may see the light of the gospel. and that light shines in our
heart to show that we have our faith, God-given faith, not in
ourselves but in the great finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ
and should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles. Of course, he was there preaching
to the Jews, his people, but also this light was to shine
to the Gentiles, to the whole Church of God worldwide. Well,
we have this wonderful account, really. It's so simply stated. And it's good as a wonderful
example for us today to realize the Apostle was able to begin
at the beginning to show his life was contrary to the life
of a child of God and how the Lord had come and changed him
changed him from an unbeliever to a believer shone light into
his life into his heart so that his desire now was under the
blessed influence of the Spirit of God to be a true witness a
true witness to small and great as he went about well what a
mercy for us today if the glorious work of the Holy Spirit has come
upon us so that we have been brought to the light of the gospel
and it shone into our hearts and we can rejoice in what God
has done and praise him and desire to exalt his name because he's
had mercy upon us and that we have a good hope through his
grace that one day we shall be with him in glory and that for
eternity.