I please the Lord to bless us
together this morning as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
Acts of the Apostles, chapter 9, and we'll read verse 18. Acts of the Apostles, chapter
9, I'm reading verse 18. And immediately there fell from
his eyes, as it had been scales, and he received sight forthwith. and arose and was baptized. The life of the Apostle Paul
is very blessed and very remarkable, and we see through that life
much instruction and guidance for us today. Although he lived
many, many years ago, of course, yet we see that gracious work
of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Apostle Paul is needful
today in all of our lives, perhaps not in the same dramatic way,
but nonetheless we all need to know that we possess the work
of God in our hearts. And here was the Apostle then
set on doing those things which were contrary to the truth, contrary
to the Word of God. And yet you see, he thought he
was doing those things which were right, and yet you see he
was far off, far off from the mark. And when he gave his testimony
before King Agrippa and those other important people, he spoke
about this and explained something of it. And he said, I very thought
with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name
of Jesus of Nazareth. So you see, that's what he felt.
And that's what he was doing before this remarkable occasion
on the Damascus Road. And I suppose many people today
think they're serving the Lord. But in actual fact, they are
not. Many people in Christendom think
they're serving the Lord, but in fact, they're not. And the
great issue is whether what they're doing is for their own gratification,
for their own pride, for their own benefit, or is it for the
honor and glory of God? Well, the apostle, of course,
gave a vivid account of what God had done for him that we
read about in his ninth chapter when he was before King Agrippa. And the effect was quite marked
because the king said, very sadly, almost, thou persuadest me to
be a Christian. Well, it's not sufficient. to have an almost religion. Poor
man. He'd heard the testimony of the
apostle, but it had almost convinced him that the Christian life was
the right one. And yet you see, he didn't embrace
it, he turned away from it. Again, how many people today
do exactly the same thing? But he gives us a very vivid
account, the Apostle, as to what happened and he elucidates it
a bit clearer so that we understand what a wonderful light it was.
He said, At midday, O King, I saw in the way a light from heaven
above the brightness of the sun shining round about me and them
which journeyed with me. So it was an amazingly powerful
light. and how good it is to realize
that the light of God is far more powerful than even the light
of the sun. And here we have the testimony
of the apostle, and he heard the voice speaking in the Hebrew
tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutes thou me? It is hard for thee
to kick against the pricks. And the apostle had to come and
say, Now, who are thou Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom
thou persecutest. Well, perhaps in our lives, we
have been, perhaps we are today, those who persecute the Lord
with our lives, in our lives. Might not be quite in the same
dramatic way as it was with the apostle, but nonetheless, if
we are walking contrary to God we are really persecuting the
Lord and what a sad situation that is. But we're thankful indeed
that the Apostle was able to give this a good testimony before
King Agrippa and he tells us the effect was to open their
eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of
Satan unto God. They may receive forgiveness
of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by
faith that is in me. So we have in those few words
really a very clear description of what the apostle found in
these words that we read immediately there fell from his eyes that
had been scales, and he received sight forthwith. And this was,
of course, natural sight, but also, more importantly, it was
spiritual sight. And therefore, as he speaks in
these words, to turn from darkness to light, and from the power
of Satan unto God. Well, all of us have been there,
Some of us may be there. The Lord knows this. We ought
to, all of us, examine ourselves whether we are in a faith or
not. It's a gracious exhortation. The word of God sets before us
and we should not think it is irrelevant to us. It is very
important because if we do examine ourselves and we're able to discover
that we have passed from darkness to light and from the power of
Satan unto God, what a blessing that is, what a wonderful favour
it is. And as the Apostle says, that
they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among
them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. The scripture
is so wonderful, in a few words giving a complete picture and
here we have just a few words that these who are blessed with
this light and this sight therefore receive forgiveness of sins and
inheritance among them which are sanctified because they also
are sanctified and it's by faith that the apostle was blessed
with. And so as we think of this occasion
and what it brought to the Apostle, what a wonderful favour it was. It brought light and life as
these scales fell, as it were, from his eyes. They fell from his eyes as it
had been scales. Well, the very clear picture
we have is that The Apostle was struck down by the Spirit of
God. And he was there for, in that
situation, without really sight for those three days. You may think of another person
who was three days in a difficult situation. That was Jonah. Remember
Jonah. Well, what had Jonah done? He
walked contrary to his God. He disobeyed his God. It's a very sad and a very solemn
thing to disobey God. And it's very easy for you and
me to disobey God. Jonah had been commanded to go
and preach the Ninevites. He didn't fancy it. He didn't
want it. He thought it might be difficult, and therefore he
went a different way. Perhaps God has spoken to us
with regard to certain things, and we haven't liked it, we haven't
wanted to do it, and therefore we've turned away from it, and
we've gone a different way. In Jonah's case, everything appeared
initially to be all right. But of course, God's eye was
upon Jonah. God's eye is upon us and God's
eye was very tolerant to Jonah. God's eye had been very tolerant
to the Apostle Paul. Perhaps God's been very tolerant
to you and me and hasn't dealt with us as our sins deserve. Although we are quite aware of
what God has said to us and spoken to us and yet we don't want to
get involved. Perhaps it is that we don't want
to take up our cross and yet we don't realise what
a blessed position it is to be found taking up our cross because
we're walking with the Saviour. Well, Jonah was three days and
Three nights in the whale's belly, complete darkness. He couldn't
see, the Apostle Paul couldn't see. He was in darkness. Until in both of their lives
the Lord came and granted a deliverance. In Jonah's case, he was cast
out of the whale's belly onto the dry land. And you know, the
wonderful favor was in his situation, we see the great grace of God
towards Jonah. And surely we see the great grace
of God toward us, because as he came to the end of those three
days, he then prayed to God. The effect was he was blessed
with repentance. He saw unto the Lord, And he
came to that tremendous conscious realization when he was able
to declare, salvation is of the Lord. Now, the Lord perhaps may
bring us into days of darkness. And we need the Spirit of God,
which it was, to come upon us, like it came upon Paul, like
it came upon Jonah, and to bring us to that humble and wonderful
realization that salvation is of the Lord. It means this, it's
God's work, it's not our work, and it's a gracious work, and
it's a glorious work, and what cause we have really to thank
God for it, do we not, you know, we sing together, in that hymn
just now, and they were wonderful words that Daniel Herbert said.
In the fourth verse he said these words, Why me? Why me? O blessed God! Why such a wretch as me? Who must forever be in hell? Were not salvation free? I'm sure such sentiment, such
expressions, are not confined to Daniel Herbert. I'm sure as the Spirit of God
works in our hearts, we can echo those words, realizing the truth
of and how amazed we are that this great God should have looked
upon us. Well, the great God looked upon
Jonah, the great God looked upon Paul, What a mercy today if we
have the evidence that God has looked upon us. So here we see
that the Apostle Paul was struck down and led by the hand into
Damascus. He didn't know where he was going
and there he was in the place that the Lord would have him.
But we see again God's powerful work in directing this man Ananias
to go to him and again it's instructive just to think of how this was
worked out because we're just told about Ananias the Lord spoke
to him and in a vision and he said arise going to the street
which is called Straight and inquire in the house of Judas
for one called Sword of Tarsus. For behold, he prayeth." And
he's seen the vision, one Ananias coming in and putting his hand
on him that he might receive his sight. Well, we see Ananias'
initial reaction. Well, he was pretty fearful,
wasn't it? And clearly he didn't want to do it. But we see again
the work of the Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit moves
us to do His will. Moves us to do that which He
would have us do. And so Ananias spoke and told
the Lord about the situation. The Lord answered it in a very
clear way. Go thy way, for He is a chosen
vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings,
and the children of Israel. And I will show him how great
things he must suffer for my name's sake." And we shouldn't
forget that. The apostle was called to do a great work, but
he was called also to suffer greatly for the Lord. And we sometimes only look on
what we might think is the rosy side, but you see there's always
two sides and the Lord graciously works through these ways. He did so with the Apostle Paul. Again here was Ananias then and
what did he do? He didn't prevaricate, he didn't
ask any more questions, he went his way and entered into the
house and it's instruct him how he dealt with this man. Now remember
he'd only heard about him, how bad he was and what he was doing,
but you see under the influence of the Holy Spirit he comes to
him, puts his hands on him and says, Brother Saul. No, he addressed
him in a wonderful way. He was a brother in the things
of God. What a favour it is to be blessed
with this unity and it teaches us lessons you know sometimes
we can look at people and judge people and think well they are
terrible people and they've done this and they've done that. We
may not know therefore how the Spirit of God may have worked
in their hearts and may have changed them and therefore we
are not to judge people in a wrong way because perhaps the Lord's
done a great work in their souls as it was here and there was
no hesitation Ananias came and said brother Saul the Lord even
Jesus again he pointed in the right direction didn't he the
Lord even Jesus that appeared unto thee in a way as thou camest
and sent me thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with
the Holy Ghost." What a blessing that was, what a favour it was.
Were those words in vain? No, they were not. God directed
them and therefore the effect was on the Apostle that, as it
were, his eyes scales fell from them and he received sight forthwith,
spiritual sight. What a blessing that is, my friends,
when in our lives the Lord comes, perhaps through the preaching
of the gospel, perhaps through the conversation of one or another,
but if it's the Word of the Lord, if it's the Word of God, then
it's like this. There's power in it. There's
power in the Word of God. It's directed to us. You see,
Ananias went to Saul. No doubt many more people in
that place. But the Word of God came to Saul.
What a blessing when the Word of God comes to you and comes
to me. And we do need it. We do need
to know that God's Word has come to us and has given us that wonderful
view of the blessed salvation that is to be found in the Lord
Jesus Christ. The truth is that here Ananias
directed Paul to this great truth. It was the Lord, even Jesus,
that appeared unto thee in a way, as I came as hath sent me, Thou
mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost. Sometimes the Spirit of God may
have moved us like it did the Apostle Paul and yet you see
we don't understand things, we don't see things, we don't have
any clarity. Well what a wonder it is if the
Spirit of God comes and it's as though the scales fall from
our eyes And we see things spiritually, the great truth of the gospel,
that we never saw before. We never realized before. Perhaps
we knew the elements of it in our own mind, but when the blessed
spirit comes, oh, what a wonderful effect it has upon us. What a
wonderful effect the work of the Holy Spirit has. No man can
stop it. No man can resist it. We might
try, but you see, when the appointed time comes, like it was in the
Apostle's life, and he tells the church at Galatians what
it was when the Holy Spirit came upon him, and he speaks, and
he says, but when it pleased God, who separated me from my
mother's womb and called me by his grace. That's where we get
the expression from, called him by grace. It's here in the Galatians. And called me by his grace to
reveal his son in me. You see the light shone, the
scales fell from his eyes and there was the Lord Jesus revealed
to him. the all-sufficient Savior to
reveal his Son in me and of course in the Apostles case it was like
this that I might preach him among the heathen immediately
I conferred not with flesh and blood now you see the Apostle
was to be taught by the Holy Spirit and he tells us neither
went up to Jerusalem to them which were Apostles before me
but I went into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus and after
three years there he was you see in Arabia with the Lord teaching
him and instructing him. The good thing of course was
in the Apostle's life that he'd been brought up at the feet of
Gamaliel. He understood in a natural way
the great truth of God and it may be In our lives, we may have
a natural understanding of the truth of God, but it's not until
the Holy Spirit comes and the scales fall from our eyes that
we see the great and glorious truth, the great and glorious
plan of salvation like it was in the life of the Apostle Paul. And indeed, what a time that
is when the light shines Yes, all the theory then. It comes
together as it were. And the Apostle was there for
those three years in Arabia. And well, no doubt the Holy Spirit
instructed him so much in all the ceremonial law and that Christ
was prefigured in all those things in the tabernacle and the temple.
And of course, we are thankful indeed for the Apostle as he
wrote to the the Hebrews, that wonderful epistle which sets
before us such a glorious illustration of all those ceremonies which
directed him and us to the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, therefore,
may we perhaps be able to again look into our lives, and if we're
not, seek that you may, seek that the scales may fall from
your eyes, that you and we may behold wondrous things out of
the law of God, things that encourage us, things that thrill us really.
As you read the glorious plan of God revealed to us in the
Word of God, oh it's the most amazing truths that we read,
how soul fulfilling they are. And we see these things are not
just of men, they're the greater glorious work of God. It couldn't
be the work of man, it must be the work of God, and it is the
work of God. Therefore, does it not fill our
heart with true joy and peace in believing? see then it is
you see the spirit truly comes in this way and is a wonderful
favour and a wonderful blessing to us and we can then be really
thankful the lord has had mercy upon us and come to us and touched
our hearts and done us good i remember there was a a case of a blind
man in the word of God and the Lord Jesus came to Bethsaida
and they bring a blind man unto him and besought him to touch
him and he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of
the town and when he had spit on his eyes and put his hands
upon him he asked him if he saw all he looked and said I see
men as trees walking He didn't really see the picture very clear,
did he? You imagine if you saw people walking down the road
and it didn't look like men or women, it looked like trees.
Wasn't very clear, was it? Just an outline. And you see,
this man needed God to come. The Lord did come. We need God
to come, perhaps. And after that, the Lord put
his hands again upon his eyes and made him look up. and he
restored and saw every man clearly. This is the blessed work of the
Holy Spirit when the scales fall from our eyes and the truth of
the gospel is revealed to us. And what does it do? It elevates
the Lord Jesus Christ. It directs us to our great need
of the Savior. And it shows to us that our need
has been supplied by that which the Lord Jesus Christ did. Yes, it was a wonderful work,
it was a glorious work, it was a most blessed work, and it was
a most necessary work. Oh, have the scales fallen from
our eyes? Do we then really rejoice in
the work of the Holy Spirit which has come upon us? It's a wonderful
thing, you know, to rejoice in this. And I do tell you sometimes,
and you should remember this wonderful text, easy to remember,
2 Corinthians 2, The fourth chapter, four, and
the sixth verse, so 2-4-6, remember that. And what it says is this. For God, who commanded the lights
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Now, if the scales have fallen
from our eyes, then bless God, if we rejoice today in such a
tremendous statement as this is. And the Apostle Paul knew
what it was. He'd experienced it in his own
soul. It wasn't just a theory. It was
a reality. And it's a blessing when these
things are a reality in our spiritual lives so that we can say, yes,
God, God commanded the light should shine. So unless God commands
it, it won't shine, it won't happen, it doesn't just occur
because you and I are extra diligent or think we're extra good. It's
the command of God and here it was The Apostle directs us to
the truth of it and he of course spoke by this testimony, this
experience that he had when Ananias came to him those three days
after being struck down on that Damascus road. Who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts. This
is the difference you see. You and I can have a natural
understanding of the Word of God. That's good and very good
and very commendable. But we need the Word of God to
come with power into our hearts. Hath shined. Yes, hath shined. It's not darkness now, it was. Hath shined into our hearts to
give the light. And what is this light? The knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It sums it up,
doesn't it? The glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. So have we had those scales fall
from our eyes so that we today can indeed rejoice wonderfully
in the glory of God which is displayed in the face of Jesus
Christ displayed in the wonderful work that was performed by the
Lord Jesus Christ. It was a work beyond man's natural
comprehension to think that almighty God should condescend to come
into this world to pay the price required to redeem and to save
our souls, we're utterly unable to save ourself. Well then, to
look to Jesus, to have our spiritual eyes opened, to behold the Lamb
of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Oh what a a great
and glorious view it is to behold this great and blessed Saviour.
Then, you see, we rejoice. We can thank God for His great
work, as the Apostle said, called Him by His grace, revealed Christ
to Him. Well, in our spiritual lives,
has Christ been reveals to us as the hope of glory. There's no hope outside of the
finished work of Christ. No hope at all. May if we must
come and say, give me Christ or else I die. How we need the
revelation of the Saviour as the light shines into our hearts
and we can indeed come we can indeed bless God for it and thank
God for his wonderful work and the apostle he speaks to the
about the Jews in the in the previous chapter the third chapter
the second epistle to the Corinthians he speaks about their situation
really we're the same until he tells us this but their minds
were blinded. This is speaking to the Jews.
For until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in
the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. Yes, but even until this day,
when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless,
When it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that Spirit,
and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face, beholding
as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same
image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. The work of the Holy Spirit is
a most blessed work. It's a most powerful work. The
work of the Spirit never fails. And therefore it's a great blessing
if you and I possess in our hearts the wonderful work of the Spirit
of God which has revealed to us the Lord Jesus Christ as the
only way of salvation. Bless God this morning. If therefore
scales have fallen from our eyes, that means our eyes have been
spiritually enlightened and we do behold the great truth of
scripture. We do look to the Lord Jesus
Christ. We see there the wonder of his
work and we see there the great cost of our salvation. You know,
it's the effect of that which truly humbles proud hearts. It's the effect of that which
brings us right down when we think of this great God who was
willing to give his life. It's really so tremendous a thought,
isn't it? To think that God should give
his life for wretches Like you and me. Give His life. Stand there in our place. And
not only just give His life, it wasn't as though He was given
some poison to drink. Oh, my friends, He suffered enormously
in order to redeem our souls. Oh, praise God, the work was
done. Yes, He gave His life, willingly,
so that we, you and I, might receive life. And that eternal
life. And so that by His death, we're
united to Him. And that eternally. Eternally. Oh, what power. What power there
is. What power there is in the blood
of Christ. to cleanse from all sin, every
sin, every sin, however bad they are, however evil they are, however
wretched they are, from every sin the blood of Jesus Christ
cleanseth from all sin. Now if the scales have fallen
from our eyes that we view this great truth and we recognize
and appreciate it and the Spirit of God applies it to our hearts
Well, do we not go on and we're rejoicing and thankful to know
that we come today to worship such a saviour? And immediately,
immediately, yes, when the when the Lord comes it's an immediate
blessing. Immediately there fell from his
eyes as it had been scales And he received his sight forthwith. And it's just important to just
realize, what was the effect of that great and blessed realization
in the Apostle's life? We're told, and it's this, and
he arose and was baptized. He arose and was baptized. There
wasn't any shedding, was there? There wasn't any big questions
being asked, well now, what should I do now? My friends, Christ
was revealed to his soul. Christ was precious to his soul. Therefore the automatic action
was to arise. and be baptized. Now, these are not my words. These are the words of God. Such words are recorded in the
Word of God for direction to all of us. We should not think,
well that only applies to the Apostle Paul. We have the various
examples in the Word of God to instruct us, and here's a very
gracious example. And it's obviously important,
otherwise the Spirit of God wouldn't have placed it there. And who
are we to argue with the Word of God? Who are we to say, well,
it's not very important? Surely it comes down to this.
As the Apostle, when he wrote to the Corinthians, he said this,
The love of Christ constrains us. And that's true. And this is love. This is love
to the Apostle. Bless God if that love has come
into our hearts. We realise that this great God
that loved us so much, gave his life, that we might have life. What a cost. And therefore, oh
may all of us All of us be concerned then to take up our cross, the
little cross that God gives us by comparison. Take it up to be a true follower of such
a blessed and glorious Saviour. Let us not deny Him. We don't want the Saviour to
deny us, do we? Let us not deny Him. Remember those words, so
important. Those that honour me, I would
honour. The living Church of God who
take up their cross and follow the Lord, know the truth of those
words. And they've been blessed with
the presence and favour of God. And if we walk contrary to God,
He will walk contrary to us. And many people have done just
that and have found how miserable and painful it is. Well, may
we see and recognize the great Word of God. And may we have
the evidence that scales have fallen from our eyes and that
by faith we behold the Lamb of God who has taken away our sin. And therefore, may we be amongst
those who rise up and are baptized. Amen.