May I please God to help us again
this evening as we continue our meditation in the Acts of the
Apostles in chapter 26. This evening we'll just read
verses 16, 17, and 18. That's the Acts of the Apostles,
chapter 26, and verses 16, 17, and 18. But rise and 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 and of those things in which I will appear unto thee,
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, from power of Satan unto God, that they may receive
forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified
by faith, that is it, me. Well, the apostle here is giving
his personal testimony. of the work of God in his heart,
the word of God which came to him so powerfully and so clearly
on that Damascus road. And there he was, as we know,
he'd fallen down under that exceptionally bright light, above the brightness
of the midday sun, and now as he'd asked the Lord what he should
do, and the Lord had come to him, And he said, rise, stand
upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose. Well, what an amazing fact that
was for the apostle. There he was, he'd been so against
the Savior, so against the people of God, and now, amazingly and
wonderfully, the Lord had come to him and spoke in these words,
I have appeared unto thee for this purpose. there was a divine
purpose. And what a blessing it is if
you and I in our little lives can also come recollect those
words perhaps which the Lord may have directed to us, may
have spoken to us for his purpose, that his purpose might be fulfilled.
And of course the purpose of the Lord for Paul was to make
him a minister, to make me 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." So there were those things which he had seen, there
were those things which were still to be revealed unto him. And yet he had this wonderful
promise that the Lord would indeed make him a minister. In fact,
it's so true, people don't make themselves a minister. it's God
that makes them a minister and it's God indeed that equips them
to be a minister as he speaks here to the Apostle and of course
in that ministry there is that setting forth as a clear witness
of the things which we have learned and have seen and been instructed
in to declare for the honour and glory of God and for the
wonderful salvation of eternal soul. So the Apostle here, in
just a few words, speaks this important aspect of the Christian
religion and the aspect that the Lord has in speaking clearly
to those whom he will have a minister in his name. And of course, it
applies in measure to everyone because we are all called to
serve the Lord. None of us are allowed to sit
back and hide in a corner. No, the Church of God are called
to serve the Lord. And so here we have these words
of instruction. And then he tells him, delivering
thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I
send thee. So what did that indicate? it
indicated that although he'd been delivered and he would be
delivered from the Jews which were attacking him and trying
to have a case against him so that he might be slain or at
least imprisoned but he's told that the Lord would deliver him
from the people that he would come in contact with there were
those people he would come in contact with who would desire
just to do this And so here we have the testimony, the Lord
has said to him, delivering thee from the people and from the
Gentiles, Jews and Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee. And how he had to prove that,
didn't he? As we've read through these chapters
in the Acts and we've seen how the Lord wonderfully delivered
him from the Jews and also from the Gentiles. But he delivered
him for a great purpose, and a wonderful purpose it was. It
wasn't just a deliverance so that he would be able to just
have a nice, easy, comfortable life. No, he would be delivered
to continue in that place the Lord had put him in, to serve
him. And so he comes and he tells
us, and he told of course Agrippa, and what words they were how
Agrippa did indeed marvel and how as we know he was almost
persuaded to be a Christian because the Apostle spoke these tremendous
words that the Lord has spoken to him how important they are
to open their eyes Jew and Gentile 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 is in them." Well, it's just
one verse. But what a fullness there is
in this one verse. He says that through his ministry
the eyes of those who are blind will be opened and they will
be turned from darkness which they were in to light, and they
will come out from the power of Satan in which they were held
unto the power of God, and that they may receive the forgiveness
of sins which they couldn't produce themselves, and an inheritance
among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me." Well,
I'm sure that those who were listening to what the Apostle
spoke, probably most of them didn't understand what he was
saying. It was mysterious to them. And
what a blessing for us tonight, if it's not mysterious to us,
but if we can indeed understand the great truths that it contains
and to be able to confirm in true humbleness that our eyes
have been opened and that we have been turned from darkness
to light. You see, this is a complete difference,
isn't it? One side darkness, the other
side light. And to know that it's God that has done it. It's
God that did it for Paul and it's God that blessed him with
a ministry to be used in this way to turn them from darkness
to light and also from the power of Satan unto God. Well, you
see, because of our sinful nature, because of our original sin,
we serve the devil. But we will be delivered from
that, from the power of Satan unto God with that desire then
not to serve Satan. We may fall, we shall fall because
of our sinful nature, but to realize that there is this power,
power from God, which brings us into this glorious position
from the power of Satan unto God. Satan's powerful. Oh, we're thankful that God is
more powerful and our God controls Satan. He can only go so far. He did with Job, didn't he? Satan was told not to touch his
life. He did all that he could to possibly
destroy him, but he wasn't able to, because God was with him.
And God was testing him, and God was trying him, and God brought
him to that condition at the end. where he recognised how
bad he was, he said, I am vile, and so on. But the Lord came
and blessed the latter end of Job. And so here we have this
statement, and from the power of Satan unto God. And as therefore the Lord delivers
us from the power of Satan, what is the great and glorious outcome? It must be this, mustn't it?
we may receive forgiveness of sins. We've been delivered from
the power of Satan by the power of God. It is to deliver us from
all our sins and to that we may receive forgiveness of sins. And of course the glory of the
gospel is that the Lord Jesus came into this world to die in
order that you and I might be forgiven of our sins, that he
might shed his most precious blood in order to wash away all
our sins. And so here the Apostle tells
us this great truth, and they may receive forgiveness of sins
The only way, of course, that you and I can receive the forgiveness
of sins is through the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as the Apostle wrote to the
Romans, there is therefore now no condemnation to whom? To those who are in Christ Jesus. To those for whom Christ has
died, yea, rather, is risen again. no condemnation, forgiveness. Here it is in these words that
the apostle was able to speak to Agrippa and all that company
that was with him. These relevant and tremendous
words and that they may receive forgiveness of sins and it doesn't
stop there of course because those who have received the forgiveness
of sins will be blessed with this inheritance and inheritance
among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. Now remember here the Apostle
is directing the people to the Lord Jesus Christ and it is he
that forgives sins. It's he that has provided this
great and glorious inheritance it is him that has gone to repair
a place for us and who said and if i go to repair a place for
you i will come again and receive you unto myself that where i
am there ye may be also and which are sanctified by faith that
is in me made holy in the faith that is in the lord jesus christ
we read together that chapter in the ephesians And there are
many beautiful words in the Ephesians and many, many words of good
instruction. And the apostle in the first
chapter to the Ephesians, he tells us this in the 11th verse,
which really agrees with what we just read, in whom also we
have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according
to the purpose of him, who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory
who first trusted in Christ. And then moving on to the fourth
chapter, and in the fourth chapter we read in the 18th verse, having
the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God
through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness
of their heart. Now that was the position that
these people that Paul was addressing were in. And yet what a blessing
it is to know that the Lord comes and delivers, and the Lord comes
and frees. And the Lord comes and blesses
his people with this great and glorious salvation. Therefore
we have these words. This 18th verse is a very wonderful
verse. It's a very full verse. You can
go home and you can read it and you can meditate upon it and
recognize how gracious the Lord is. what grace there is. We had
that first hymn tonight really because of the grace of God which
is so gloriously set before us in these words. To open blind
eyes, God's grace. To turn them from darkness to
light, God's grace. And from the power of Satan unto
God, God's grace. That they may receive forgiveness
of sins, God's grace. And inheritance among them which
are sanctified God's grace and forget don't forget by faith
remembering faith is the gift of God His grace, by faith, that
is in me, in Christ." Well, tonight, don't we have much to rejoice
in? Don't we have much to praise God for? Don't we have much to
thank God that the Apostle was, by the grace of God, able to
give such a good testimony before this august company, and especially
before King Agrippa, to be so faithful, and how the Lord gave
him succinct words to place before the King So there would be no
doubt as to the veracity and the great truth of the work of
God and that which the Apostle had been blessed with. Well,
may we all be blessed with this wonderful and great favour that
the Apostle speaks of here. Amen.