Open your Bibles, if you would,
to the book of Acts. We'll continue our study in this
wonderful book. We've been going through it.
Now we're in chapter 9. We saw last week Paul's conversion. The Lord met him on the road
to Damascus there, and he said, Lord, who art thou? And he said,
I'm Jesus, whom thou persecust. Is it hard for thee to kick against
the pricks? And then he said, Saul, Saul,
before thy, why persecutest thou me? Saul was persecuting Christians,
wasn't he? Well, Christians are part of the body of Christ. When something happens to our
hand, the head knows, doesn't it? When something happens to
our foot, the head knows, doesn't it? He's the head, we're the
body. That's how intimate our relationship
is with Christ. We are the born-again, blood-washed
saints of God. We're part of his body. So when
Paul was persecuting individual Christians, he was actually persecuting
Christ. Oh my. Let's stand up and read
verses 19 to 25 together of Acts chapter 9. It says, And when he had received me,
he was strengthened. Then we saw certain days with
the disciples, which were at Damascus. And straight away he
preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God. But all that heard him were amazed
and said, is not this he that destroyed them, which called
on his name in Jerusalem? and come hither for that intent,
that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests. But Saul
increased them more in strength and confounded the Jews, which
dealt at Damascus, proving that this is the very Christ. And after that many days were
fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him. but laying away
was known of Saul, and they watched the gates of the day and night
to kill him. Then the disciples took him by
night and led him down by the wall in a basket." Isn't it amazing? You can sit now. Isn't it amazing?
The one who was once a persecutor, the name of the message is from
persecution to preacher. The one who was once a persecutor
of the church is now preaching the gospel. And notice that?
The very people whom he served, the Jews, now they want to kill
him. And this is just a few days later, beloved. But he was their champion. And
now they want to kill him just because he's preaching Christ. Do you see how the world hates
hates the preaching of the word. They might not come out and say
it, but they do. They hate the preaching of, I
hated it before the Lord saved me. Did you? And you know, I might not have said,
well, I hate that. But in my actions, I sure did. Right? Did you want to hear about it?
No, Tom, we didn't want to hear nothing, did we? And then even
as believers, when we got severely backsliding, you know, I know
some folks that were backsliding, backsliding happens. What backsliding
is, is, and don't forget, God never leaves us, right? He never
leaves us. It's us who withdrawals. He's still with us as believers.
Oh my, but we won't hate God in that situation, but we won't
want to be around the preaching of the gospel. But he'll draw
us back, won't he? With loving cords. He draws back. Oh my. But I thought that was
incredible there. And after many days were filled,
the Jews took counsel to kill him. He was their champion. Now they want to kill him. But
there laying away was no one of Saul, so he was warned. Look
at this. And they watched at the gates
day and night to kill him. That was their intent. They weren't
going to just, oh, we're going to put Paul in jail. They wanted
to kill him, because now he's preaching the gospel of salvation
in and through Christ alone by the redeeming precious blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they want to kill him. So during our last study, we
looked at verses one to 18 of Acts chapter nine. We saw the
conversion of Saul by the sovereign power of God. We know that the
only way we can be born again, which is his conversion, is by
the power of God. There's no other way. We can't
make ourselves alive while being dead spiritually. God, the Holy
Spirit, regenerates us, and we're born again by the Holy Spirit
of God, right? Oh my, and we're changed, aren't
we? We're new creatures in Christ.
We're not the people we once were. Now, we hunger and thirst after
Christ. We desire to hear the gospel.
Now we know we're sinners. Not just those other folks are
sinners who we used to point and say, you want to hear a bad
sinner? Oh yeah, I can show you one. Now it's here. I'm the chief of sinners. I need
Christ desperately. And what do we do? We fled to
him, didn't we? See, you're born again in the
Holy Spirit of God. Paul was converted, and then he says,
Lord, who art thou? He's born again. He called him
Lord. What did the thief on the cross
say? Lord, remember me. What did the leper say? Come
unto Christ. He said, Lord, if thou will,
thou can make me whole. They called him Lord. God's people
call him Lord. He's our Lord, isn't he? We confess that. He's the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the only savior of sinners.
Oh my. So Paul was born again by the
life-saving power, he was saved by the life-saving power of God
the Holy Spirit, and now the one who he used to hate and speak
against, he's now being shown that Christ is the Messiah. He didn't believe. You know,
he didn't believe when he was in his unregenerate state as
Jew. He didn't believe Christ. Christ
was the Messiah. I mentioned in Sunday School,
I've been listening to some of these Jewish Christians on the
internet that are in Israel and they're talking to actually the
Israelite people. And they just say, well, he's
just a good person. He was just a good teacher. And one, I was mentioning this
Sunday school, one rabbi that he talked to, he said, well,
you've broken all the, the guy said, you're a sinner, the Christian
guy said, you're a sinner, you've broken the law of Moses. Do you
know what he said? I've not broken any of them. See? We don't think we're sinners.
before we're saved. And the context I talked about
it in was when Christ said, they that are whole do not need a
physician, but they that are sick. See, when we're born again
and given faith to believe, we know now we're sin sick sinners.
As the Holy Spirit's drawn us to Christ, he shows us, you need
me. You're a sinner, and I'm the
only, he says, he's the way, the truth, and the life, isn't
he? There's no other hope. Oh my. No other hope but Christ. You trust in anything else? Cast
it away. Saul was converted from being
a Christ-hating blasphemer to a born-again, blood-washed child
of God, and now he preaches the gospel. Isn't that amazing? In his religious times, he thought
he was doing God's work. Right? He thought he was doing God's
work. I was talking to a Catholic lady this week, and I said, do
you know any of the history of your church? And she said, no,
not a whole lot. And I said, you ever heard of
the Inquisitions? And she goes, no, I've never heard of that.
What is that? I said, well, the inquisitions, the Catholics murdered
many of my brothers and sisters in Christ because they wouldn't
convert to Catholicism. And some, like Vicky's relatives,
the Waldensians, they were literally hunted down like animals in the
mountains. She had no idea about the history
of the church. The scripture says that her hands
are covered in blood of the saints. And see, this is why. And what
did I do with it? I just pointed it to Christ. Just pointed it to Christ. I
said, there's no need to go to the priest. There's no need to pray
to Mary. Because I said, do you do the rosary? She said, yeah,
I pray. And I said, in being an ex-Catholic, I know the questions
to ask them, right? And she said, if you can, never
pray to her again. There's only one mediator between
God and man. The man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for
all. Right? Only one mediator. And this is
who Paul's preaching now. He's preaching that Christ is
now the Messiah. He's saying Christ is the Messiah.
He's the long awaited Messiah. And the Jews hate it. He's preaching
resurrection in Christ, and they hate it. He's preaching life for sinners
in Christ, and they hate it. Did not we before we were saved?
You see? Never forget the rock we were
hewn from. Never forget where we came from. Never forget the
pit we were in, and God took us out of that pit. Because it's
him that did it. in places on solid ground, which
is Christ. In Christ alone. But back in old eternity, back
in old eternity, before time began, Saul was a chosen vessel
of God. Do you know that? Oh my. To go forth into the Gentiles. Look at Acts chapter 22. Let's
turn to Acts chapter 22. This is wonderful. This is one of Paul's personal
accounts of his own conversion. And it was God's will that that
was the exact time when God was going to reveal himself to him.
All according to the will and purpose of God. Think back of
when we were saved. That was all, when you heard
the gospel, beloved, that was according to God's will and purpose.
Isn't that amazing? See, it just gives him all the
glory, doesn't it? And that's what we do. We praise his name
for saving us. Do we not go, me? Me? You saved me? I love that song,
How Can It Be. I never heard that till I came
here. I love that song. How can it be that God would
save a sinner like me? Do you all feel that way too?
Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing, isn't it? So let
us all be in awe at the wonder of salvation we have in Christ,
and let us proclaim it to a lost and dying world. My, oh, my. Look at this in Acts chapter
22, verses 12 to 15. In Ananias, a devout man, according
to the law, having a good report of all the Jews dwelt there.
came unto me, so this is Paul's personal testimony here, and
stood and said, Brother Saul. Now notice what he called him
right away? Brother Saul. Because God had
told him, he's a chosen vessel. He can go forth into the Gentiles.
Isn't that wonderful? Someone asked me, where do you
get where you call each other brother and sister? Brother Saul. You sisters are my sisters in
Christ, aren't you? You brothers are my brothers
in Christ who are regenerated. We're family. We're adopted by
God. Look at this. Came unto me and
stood, and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. In the
same hour I looked upon him. Look at this. And he said, the
God of the fathers hath chosen thee. that thou shall know his
will. See now as believers we know
his will, don't we? We didn't before we were saved.
And see that, look at this, I love this title of Christ, this is
one of the Christ titles, the just one. See we're unjust, we're
a bunch of sinners. But now, now we rest in the just
one. Right? And we're made righteous
by Him. When God looks upon us, He doesn't
see us as the unjust. He sees us as the just now. The
just shall live by what? Faith. Faith in who? Christ and
Him alone. You see? We're unjust by nature,
but in Christ, we're the just ones. It's a miracle. And the reason we're the just
ones is because He's the just one. singular. Notice the singularity
of that? The just one. Or that just one. Single. And should us hear the
voice of his mouth. He heard Christ speak to him.
Now we hear him through his word, don't we? Speaks to our hearts. We don't hear an audible voice. But he speaks to us through his
word, doesn't he? A.W. Pink said that, he said, we hear
the voice of the shepherd, we hear the voice of Christ through
the preaching of the gospel. Look at this, for thou shalt
be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard.
Now let's go back to chapter nine. So Saul, it wasn't Saul's
will that brought him to Christ because Saul We know in having
studied the first 18 verses, Saul's will was to go and slaughter
Christians. That's brought forth in the first
couple verses. His will was to go and kill as many people as
he can, or drag them back to Jerusalem in chains. He hated
them. But then something happens. Why do we love each other in
Christ? Because we're born again. Why do we love the gospel? Because
we're born again. See, Paul hated Christ followers,
he hated Christ, he hated the gospel. He's a persecutor. Now he's a preacher. Of that
Christ he hated, of the gospel he despised, of the people he
wanted to destroy, Now he's with them. That's a miracle of grace, isn't
it? Why are we here as believers? It's a miracle of God's grace
in Christ, isn't it? That's amazing. He takes rebels
and he makes them followers. God takes rebels. God the Holy
Spirit takes rebels and makes them followers of Christ. It's
wonderful. I'll tell you, it's the most
glorious thing, and it's all the work of God. We cannot take
any credit for anything. It wasn't Paul's will. His will,
again, was to go, but his will got changed, didn't it? Thy people
shall be made willing in the day of God's power. What happened?
God's power was evidently at work in chapter 9, wasn't it? And the rebel was made willing.
You know, that's what he did for you and I too, Brother Tom,
and Brother Brian, and my dear sisters in Christ. That's what
he did for all of us. He made the unwilling willing.
The unjust are now the just ones in Christ. That's amazing. Praise his name. So Paul wasn't looking to be
a follower of Christ. He just wanted to persecute those
who were called by unbelievers at that time, the followers of
the way, the followers of the way. And last week we saw that it
was God's will that brought Jesus Christ to Paul at our Lord's
appointed time, at our Lord's appointed place. Again, bring
it home, bring it home. My, we heard the gospel. We heard the gospel at God's
appointed time and place. That's incredible. That's incredible. So the reason,
Paul in his mind, he's thinking, I'm going to Damascus to kill
Christians, and God in his will and purpose says, you're going
to be saved on the way to that city. It's wonderful, beloved. It just
fills us with joy. Because remember, he's a pattern
of us. He's a pattern of all believers. My oh my. Our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd
of his sheep, was seeking Paul out, and Paul didn't even know
it. Didn't even know it. Because
he's one of his lost sheep. He's one who he shed his blood
for. He purchased Paul. Paul had no clue. Did we have
any idea before the Lord saved us that we were lost sheep? No idea. No idea that we were
heirs of salvation. Was Saul enticed to make a decision
for Jesus? Nope. The Holy Spirit worked
on him just like that. Now he had heard the gospel.
Do you know that? Stephen had preached the gospel. In chapter 7, remember, Stephen
preached the gospel. He heard the gospel. He heard it from a faithful preacher. Oh my. He was converted by God the Holy
Spirit. He heard Stephen preach the gospel
before he was martyred. And then when Paul saw the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ on Damascus Road, and remember,
he heard the life-given voice of Christ, didn't he? Oh my, did you hear the life-given
voice of Christ through the preaching of the gospel? Be amazed. Be filled with wonder. Be filled with awe. Because not
everyone hears. And not everyone sees Christ.
But if you've seen him and you've heard him through the preaching
of the gospel, give God all the glory. Give him all the glory
and honor and praise, beloved. Why do we now want to serve him? Why does Linda and Kathy and
Jill want to serve him? And why do the rest of us want
to serve Christ by doing things and by helping? Why? What's the
reason for that? Because we're new creatures in
Christ. He's now become our all in all. He's become everything
to us. And we don't seek to serve him
for the praise of man, do we? We seek to serve him because
of the overflowing love that's shed abroad in our hearts for
Christ and for God. Again, that's a foreign love.
We weren't born with that love. Scripture says it's the love
of God shed abroad in our hearts. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. And right after the Holy Spirit
moved Paul to pen and to write the words, he inspired him to,
listen to this, Paul wrote this in 1 Timothy 1.16, he said about
his conversion, a pattern to them that should hereafter believe
on him, on Christ, to life everlasting. So he's born again and he believes. And then listen to what he wrote
right after that in 1 Timothy 1.17. Listen to this declaration. Listen to this doxology that
comes out of Paul. Now unto the king eternal, immortal,
invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory Forever and
ever. That's springing out of a redeemed
heart. That's springing out of the new
man. Paul would never have said those words before he was saved,
would he? He's a pattern for us. We would
never have said these songs that we sing about him, the gospel
that we praise. of salvation in Christ. That
would never naturally be something we would do. But God again, now
think of this too, not only does he turn rebels into servants,
he turns blasphemers into ones who praise his name. We see that
right here with Paul. Isn't that amazing? Paul in one of his epistles,
he says, I was a blasphemer. But now he prays God. Oh, it's
wonderful. See, that's why the Lord said
you must be born again. You have to be. There's no salvation
unless we're born again. And that's the new birth. That's the operation of God within
us, Colossians says in chapter 2. It's God operating in us,
right? Operation of God. We are now
born again. We go, I've said this many times,
I probably say it every sermon, we go from the kingdom of darkness
to the kingdom of God's dear son in the twinkle of an eye. And then we're given faith to
look to Christ. Why do you and I look to Christ? Why don't we
look at the other, well, and those of us who came out of religion,
I was looking at Mary and all those other things. Why don't
we do that stuff anymore? Why do we believe the gospel?
Because of the grace of God. Because of the will and purpose
of God. If you're sitting here and you're a saved person, it's
all according to the will and purpose of God. Not because of
something you did. It's all because, and we give
Him all the glory, don't we sister? It's all because of what God's
done for us. My, we were taken from Canada
and brought down here. Did we think we were going to
hear the gospel? No. Not at all. Look what God's done. Look what
God's done. The literal version of the Greek
in 1 Timothy 1.17 says this, now to the king of the ages,
so he's king forever. Now to the king of the ages,
the immortal, invisible, only God. Honor and glory to the ages
of the ages. Amen. His kingdom will never
cease. His throne is forever. That's
our king. That's our savior. That's the one who Paul despised
and who we despised at one time. What mercy he's showing us. What
love He's showing us. And if you do not know Him, I
praise, I pray that God would reveal Himself to you. Because
He's the only Savior of sinners. There's no other Savior. And
we believers can testify of that, can't we? Again, in Sunday School it said,
they that are whole, those who are not sick. Christ didn't come
for them, He said. He said, I come for the sick. Not the whole. He says, I came
not for the righteous, but for sinners. Are you a sinner? Are you trusting Christ? Or are you saying, well, I don't
really need him. I'm good. Oh, this is a famous
one, too. I'll wait till I get older. You
might drop dead at any time. You don't know. You could be
driving down the road, get killed in a car accident. I've heard
so many people say it. My own daughter said, well, I
got so much to do. I said, sweetie, you need Christ
right now. You're not promised tomorrow.
None of us are promised tomorrow, are we? None of us. But we who are saved, praise
God, we know if we pillow our head or drop dead in the streets
or die in a car accident, where are we going? Somebody tell me,
where are we going? Right to glory, just like that. It's wonderful. So Saul of Tyre saw the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, heard
his life-given voice, And the Lord Jesus Christ made his gospel
effectual to him. Oh my. So let us praise and exalt
our great God, the one true living God. My oh my, he's absolutely incredible. If Jesus has given us true saving
faith to embrace him, right, instead of run from him, because
that's what we did at one time, Do you know scripture says there's
none that seeketh after God? That means there's none who come
to embrace him on their own. There's none good, no, not one.
But I'll tell you what, after the Lord saves, we run to him.
After the Lord saves us, we run to him. We want to embrace him,
don't we? We desire it. Oh, it's a miracle of grace,
beloved. Our reaction will be the same as what Paul said, he
said, for we are the circumcision which worship God in spirit and
rejoice in Christ Jesus. If we're born again, we're rejoicing
in Christ Jesus. Now we may have days like this,
right, all the time, don't we? We have, our week is like a mountain
top, boom, down the valley, up, or sometimes it's a little hills,
but it's always something, but let us rejoice in Christ. Let
that be the constant. Let us keep looking to the King. And I'll be looking with you,
because I'm like that, too. Oh, it's amazing. I'll tell you
why. It's absolutely amazing. So here's a at one time Christ-hating
blossomer, and now he's turned into a preacher. Oh, my. And as soon as Ananias had instructed
Saul in some gospel truth, as soon as he had received the sight,
he arose, he made a public profession, and he was baptized. We saw that
last week. He submitted to believers' baptism.
Now let's look at verse 19 now of Acts chapter 9. It says, And
when he had received me, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain
days with the disciples which were at Damascus. So Saul hadn't
eaten for three days. He was probably hungry. But it's obvious though that
his mind was more concerned with what had occurred than even eating. Oh my. He's a new creature now. Oh my, he's a new creature in
Christ. And it says there he spent certain days with the disciples. which were at Damascus. So the
very ones he went to persecute, he's sitting with them, breaking
bread. Isn't that amazing, Brother Brian? He's breaking bread with
them now. Do you not think they were filled
with wonder? They knew who Paul was. They had heard of him. Remember
our dear brother Ananias? He said, I've heard of this man,
Lord. He's wasting the church. Wonder of wonders, the persecutor
is now praising God in Christ and eating and drinking with
our brethren. What a miracle of grace. That's
the same thing that happens to us, beloved. To God be the glory. To God be
the glory. What a wonderful change had come
upon Saul. Now, he didn't do it himself. No, God changed him,
didn't he? God changed him. That applies
to all of God's born-again, blood-washed saints. It's God's Holy Spirit
working in us, making us new creatures in Christ, right? We
have a new heart, new spirit. And Paul now desired the fellowship
of the saints who he once persecuted. That's truly amazing. That leaves us in awe, doesn't
it? You notice he doesn't want to be in fellowship with those
he was with before. Now it doesn't mean he won't
preach them. He desires their salvation. But who's he fellowshipping
with now? God's people. That's amazing. Amazing grace. Amazing grace. And Paul still loved his unsaved
kinsmen. He writes about them in Romans
chapter 11 and Romans chapter 15, I believe. He writes and
he reveals his heart, how his heart's desires that they would
come to Christ. Let us never, we don't know who
God's chosen people are, so let us speak, talk to everyone about
the gospel. Right? We don't know who they
are. We didn't even know we were one
of them. So let's proclaim the gospel to a lost and dying world,
beloved. My oh my. And now, and he would have, Paul
would have went and spent time with them, but now he had preached
the gospel to them. Now he's not buddy-buddy saying
let's kill all those Christians. You know, could you imagine that,
Tom? He walks in the room, and he's like, just starts professing
Christ to them. And they're looking at him like,
what are you doing, man? And remember, he came with guards,
too, and everything. He came with guards. There was
a rather large entourage that was with Paul, because the high
priest had given him letters to go and persecute Christians.
So he wasn't by himself. He had people with him. And he
went to speak to them, probably went to tell them about Christ.
They hate him. What happened to you, Paul? You
ever had anybody ask you that after the Lord saved you? What
happened to you? Well, the Lord saved my soul. I'm born again now. My, oh, my. What happened? Well,
see, so now they despise him. He was once their comrade. He
was once a brother in arms. But God's changed him, hasn't
he? Now he's, you know, we're soldiers. You ever think of that?
All of us are soldiers in Christ. Brother Tom, you're still serving.
Now you serve Christ. He's the captain of our salvation. And when he appeared to Joshua
in Joshua chapter 6, he appears as a man of war with a sword
in his hands. And Joshua says, who art thou?
And he says, I'm the captain of the Lord's host. He's the
commanding general, or whatever you call the top of the top.
There's no one above him. And you remember he said to the
disciples, or he said when Peter chopped off that fellow's ear,
no, not that I can call, just come. Six legions of angels? Six times six is what, 36? 36,000 angels. That's enough
to destroy the whole world. My oh my. See, Christ isn't some
weakling going to the cross and dying. He's the King of kings and the
Lord of lords. You see, the first time he come
as a lamb, didn't he? Right? You know the second time
he comes? When he comes and it's all over?
He's coming as a commander in chief. He's coming as a lion
of the tribe of Judah. That's who he's coming as. Riding
a white horse out in front, leading, leading his people. Leading the
angels. He's king. The only, what you
read brother, the only potentate. King of kings and Lord of lords. And you remember, there's a,
there's a vesture dipped in blood that says king of kings and Lord
of lords. Dipped in blood for us. My, oh my, what a king. What
a savior. Can he keep us? Absolutely. He saved us, didn't he? He can
keep us, can't he? Can he take us home? Can he present
us faultless? Yes, he can. He's the only man
who never sinned. He's the sinless, spotless lamb
of God who shed his blood, shed his blood for his people. Matthew
121, he came to save his people from their sins. And he's done
it, hasn't he? And we testify of that, don't
we? Do you know God's love was manifested not only at the cross. To me, the cross is the greatest
manifestation of love that this world has ever seen, ever. A
sinless man dying for sinners, sent by the Father to bear our
punishment. And doing it by giving his life. But you know, God's love was
also manifested in the fact that he sent him. See, the Father's love was manifested.
And the Holy Spirit's too. Because all three had to be in
agreement, right? In the eternal covenant of grace. So the Father
and the Holy Spirit agreed with Christ. When Christ said, I'll
go. I'll redeem him. They agreed to that. And their
love, their love for God's people wasn't manifested. And in Christ,
did he not manifest his love for us when he cried, it is finished. The price for our sins is paid
in full. My, what a savior. What a redeemer
is our great king. What a redeemer is he. So now
Paul, he's sitting here. He's been turned from a persecutor.
Wonderful change. Wonderful change come upon him.
And he still loves his kinsmen with a sincere love, just as
we love our unsaved family and friends around us, right? We
desire that they would come to Christ. But it has to be by the
power of God, doesn't it? It has to be by the power of
God. And his desire now, look at this, his desire was to be
with a bunch of folks who were slaughtering Christians, and
now he's born again, and now his desire is, I want to be with
the blood-washed people of God. Why are we here together? Because we want to come hear
the gospel, and we want to be with God's people, don't we?
And there's a blessing to being with God's people. I receive a blessing seeing you
all. Isn't that wonderful? That's why the scripture says,
don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. Come. Now, if you can't make it, we
have the live stream, and that's wonderful. But if you can, come. Because you're not only a blessing
to me, you're a blessing to the whole congregation. Do you know
that? And God's made it that way. God's made it that way,
that we would receive blessings from each other. Isn't that wonderful? Just seeing you. and being able
to talk to you. It's wonderful. Brother Brian,
we talk about that all the time. How wonderful it is. It's amazing. God's so incredible. And he's
the one who wraps that in us, beloved. My oh my. Paul now preached and proclaimed
that Christ was the Messiah. The fulfillment of all those
Old Testament prophecies. He's now preaching, this is the
Messiah. He once believed that the Messiah
hadn't come. And that's one thing, listening
to that Christian fellow, the Christian Jewish fellow, our
brother, interviewing Israelites, and he said, well, who's the
Messiah? And they said, well, he hasn't
come yet. Just as blind as we were. Just
as blind as we were in our natural state. We didn't believe Christ was
the Messiah before we were saved. Now we proclaim as the Messiah,
don't we? He's the Messiah. He's the sent
one of God. Oh my. And Paul preached Jesus of Nazareth,
the true Messiah, the only one. Not a mere man, but a divine
person in the flesh. God and man, what's called in
theological realms, the hypostatic union. You know, I love theology,
but they always talk in these languages. Let's just bring it
home. He's a God man. He's God and man. That's what the hypostatic
union means. People like to use fancy words,
right? He's God, man. Somebody asks you, do you know
what the hypostatic union is? You say, yeah, God became a man. I'm a simple fellow. I like it
down on this level. One of the compliments, and I
count this as a compliment, One of those young men from Canada,
they said, it was so simple, that message. And I said, praise
be to God. The gospel's not complicated.
It's just men don't believe it. Salvation's in Christ alone.
Men don't believe that. Salvation's by the blood alone
in Christ. Men say, well, there's gotta be something I gotta do.
There's nothing you've got to do. We just look to Christ. We just look to Christ, beloved.
That's who we look to. And let us remember, too, that
absolutely, the scripture says all God's in heaven and he's
done whatsoever he pleases, right? No man, woman, or child can hinder
the purpose and will of God. So what comfort that can give
us as we see things going on in the world, right? You see, when God just releases
man to himself, we are the most dreadful beings, killing each
other. What we see now is restrained
by God. Imagine what it would be like
if God took his restraining hand off him. Now he won't, for the
sake of the elect. We will be preserved. We may
go through some things, but we will be preserved. Right? But imagine how gracious God
is that he hasn't taken his restraining hand off. Now think of this,
too. You know how that hymn writer
said, prone to wander? Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave
the God I love. Praise God for his restraining
hand upon us as believers. Don't ever forget that. Remember
how the shepherd with the crook and the staff preached on Wednesday
night? That crook and the staff just
to gently draw the sheep back to the shepherd. That's what
that crook is for. The staff is to beat off wolves,
but that crook is to put around the neck of the sheep and just
gently bring them closer to the shepherd. If they're wandering
off, Just gentle. Doesn't yank their head off.
Just gentle. Does not know what the shepherd
does to us when we start wandering? Gently brings us back, doesn't
he? It's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. So
Paul preached the coming Messiah. The Messiah had already come.
He was the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecies
about the Messiah. The one who was coming, and the
one who came by the sacrifice of himself would open a fountain
for sin and uncleanness. I believe it was Zachariah that
said that. And has he not opened a fountain for sin and uncleanness? It's his blood, isn't it? Oh,
we're washed in that blood, made whiter than snow. In the Old Testament scripture,
it says, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,
and the government shall be upon his shoulder. His name shall
be Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government
and peace, there shall be no end. upon the throne of David
and upon his kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth forever. The zeal of the Lord
of hosts hath performed this." God's done this. God sent his
son to save us from our sins. God did that. And that's just
one of the passages that they may have preached Christ from.
Isaiah 53, and remember, they didn't have the New Testament.
He was still being written. Paul's preaching out of the Old
Testament, isn't he? He's proclaiming Christ out of the scriptures
that he studied but didn't understand until the Lord saved him. Oh,
it's wonderful, I'll tell you. It's wonderful. And Paul would have used the
scriptures now to prove That what he was preaching, that Christ
is the Messiah, is truth. He would have used those Old
Testament scriptures. Right? Think of this. He was
wounded for our transgressions. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. And by his stripes we are healed.
Isaiah 53. He'd open that up and he'd say,
that's Christ. First he'd ask, and the really
neat thing to ask folks about that, is who is this? You remember
the Ethiopian? Is the prophet speaking about
himself or some other? And Philip preached Christ to
him. And he believed. He said, I want
to be baptized, remember? And Philip conditioned it. Do
you believe? He says, I believe that Jesus
is the Christ. Let's go in the water then. Let's
go in the water, then. Oh, my beloved. It's wonderful. You know, we say, thus saith
the Lord, as preachers. We say, thus saith the Lord.
And we take our hearers right into the... This is the truth,
beloved. This is the truth, right here. God's Word is the truth.
This is our final authority as believers in this world. Someone
says, well, I think this. I had someone say, well, I believe
in this, this. And I said, this is my final
authority. What it says, I believe. I do not understand it all, but
I believe this is the final authority. This is the truth. Right here. That's true, isn't it? Scriptures are the truth. Oh
my. My, oh my. Now let's read Acts
9 verses 20 and 21. And straight away, what did he
do? He preached Christ in the synagogue. See, this is why they hated him,
too, because he went right to where the Jews were. He'd not
been sent to the Gentiles yet. He goes right to where, he goes
right in that synagogue. Oh, that's wonderful. He preached
Christ in the synagogues, that he is the son of God. But all
that heard him were amazed, and said, look at that, I love this,
I love this. Is this not he that destroyed
them which call on this name in Jerusalem, and come hither
for that very intent, for that intent, that he might bring them
bound unto the cheap priests? They knew who he was. He had
a reputation. They knew why he even came to
Damascus. His intent, look at that, his intent, His intent
was to haul prisoners back, Christians back to Jerusalem to stand before
the high priest where they would be found guilty in a kangaroo
court. Right? They would be. They'd find something to get
them. My. And not freely going back, but
bound in chains just for being believers in Christ. Just for
being who we are. If you're born again. That's why Paul was going to
Damascus. And we see here, look at verse
21, but all that heard him were amazed and said, is this not
he that destroyed them which call on his name in Jerusalem?
And he came hither for that very intent, that he might bring them
bound unto the chief priests. They were amazed. In the Greek,
in the Greek, it's astonished. You ever hear anything astonish
you? We have that happen all the time. Something will happen
where we're like, You're astonished that that even
occurred or you hear about it and you're shocked, you're astonished. My oh my. And think of this,
they wouldn't have been astonished if Paul had been saying what
he thought the scriptures were without the word of God. There
are a lot of preachers out there who are preaching what they think
the word of God says, putting their own opinion. Flee from
people like that. Thus saith the Lord. Paul was
now preaching what the scripture said. He was now free in Christ. Remember
what he said, I count all those things as dung? That's manure,
beloved. All those things he learned,
he counted just as manure as a Pharisee. My, oh my. And now he's taking
the Word and remember, isn't it amazing how before he was
saved, God would have had him studying the Word, right? He
was a Pharisee, so he'd be looking into the Word, didn't understand
it all. But now he's born again. Now he's starting to understand
things. There's Christ. That's him. That's
him. That's the Messiah. He's the
fulfillment of the law. Paul even wrote, now get this,
Paul wrote in Romans, he wrote that he said Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness. How did he come to that conclusion?
God the Holy Spirit. He saw in the Old Testament that
those were just pictures. Even in Hebrews he says none
of those sacrifices could take away sin. And then he points
us to Christ and says Christ is the Lamb of God. He's the
fulfillment of all those types and shadows. See he knew the
Old Testament. He actually knew the Old Testament
better than a lot of the Jews. Oh my. And now though he's getting
a real understanding of it. Now he's getting, like we are.
We get an understanding now of the scriptures, Old Testament
and New, how they tie in together. The Old Testament points us to
Christ, right? His types and shadows in the
Old Testament, and the fulfillment is here in the New Testament.
He's come. And he's risen, and I'll tell you what, he's coming
again. You're not going to be three times he comes. He's coming
just twice. He rose from the grave, and then at the end, he's
going to come again, right? Isn't that wonderful? That's
wonderful. Look, look, look nigh, look up. Your redemption draweth nigh.
It's closer today than it was yesterday. I was telling someone,
I don't know the hour of the day, but I know it's a day closer
today. It's wonderful. Keep your eyes
on Him, beloved. Pray for me that I keep my eyes
on Christ, and I'll pray for you. Keep your eyes on Christ.
My, oh my. Not let us get carried away with
things going on. So again, Paul's whole intent
was to take these Christians, to bind them up, to take them
back to Jerusalem, and to bring them before the high priest.
And now these folks are amazed. And these are Jewish folks. These
are not our brethren. These are people who aren't saved
because he's gone into the synagogue. Excuse me. He's gone in the synagogue
to preach the gospel. And he says, but all that heard
him were amazed and said, is this not he that destroyed them
which are called on this name? They're not believing on Christ.
But they're amazed. They knew why he was there. He was coming here to destroy
them. And now he's calling on their name, too. He's calling
on the name of Christ, too. Oh, they were in awe, beloved.
They were actually probably bewildered. And Paul, at that time, was seeking
to stamp out Christianity. He wanted to destroy it. Now
he's being converted, and he's with the brethren, but you see
his heart? His heart is for the lost. Just like ours are. We pray for our family members,
don't we? We pray for our friends. We even pray for somebody. We
may go through drive-thru and say, Lord, please, drive away. Lord, if it be your will, I'll
never see that person again, but if it be your will, save
them. Right? God's got his elect scattered
all over, beloved. We just don't know who they are.
My, oh, my. So we clearly see that the people
knew in the synagogue, the Jews knew what Paul's intent was when
he came. Because he said, again, is this
not he that destroyed them which call on his name in Jerusalem?
And look at that, destroyed them. He was there at, he's consented
to Stephen's death. He rejoiced, remember consented,
was he delighted in the Greek? Was he delighted in the death
of Stephen? And now he's a preacher. The persecutor has become a preacher.
And he's going to write a whole bunch of books that we're enjoying,
aren't we? By the grace and mercy of God. Oh, he's a new creature
in Christ. The champion. The Jewish champion.
He's now on the other side. Oh my. It's wonderful. It's wonderful. The gospel he once hated, now
he proclaims. Now let's read verses 22 and
23. He turned from religion to God's
grace, beloved, and he was turned by God from the mere form of
godliness, think of this too, he went from a mere form of godliness
to worship in the one true God. And all by God's grace, just
like it is for us. All by God's grace. Look at this,
verses 22 and 23. But Saul increased the more and
strengthened and confounded the Jews, which dwelt at Jerusalem,
proving that this is the very Christ. And after that many days
were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him. Nice fellows,
eh? They once loved him. They once loved him. The Jews
once loved Paul. They thought, oh, good, man, somebody's going
to crush out that sect. My oh my. Hmm. Saul increasing more and
more in strength is not referring to the strength of his body. Not at all. But by the grace
of God, the Holy Spirit working in him, strengthening his faith,
giving him more knowledge. Does he not do that with us? He strengthens us. He increases our knowledge of
who God is through the teaching of the gospel. And remember what
I said last week. If you're sitting and hearing
a message by a gospel preacher and you're not getting anything,
the problem is not with the gospel preacher. The problem is with
you. And Paul, he increased more and
more. And they kept hearing him preach the gospel, and they rejoiced.
And I'm going to tell you something. If you go online and you listen
to Grace Preachers, don't be afraid to download a message
from a fresh gospel preacher who just started. Sometimes we
seek out those veteran preachers, don't we? Which is good in itself. They're wonderful preachers.
But this man over here, he's preaching the same gospel. And
I guarantee you, if you're a believer in Christ, you're going to get
a blessing out of both preachers. Because God's going to speak
to you through his word. Isn't that wonderful? It's wonderful. I'll tell you. So each passing
day, he's getting stronger and stronger in the faith. Right? Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. And our Lord tells us in 2 Peter
to grow in grace, grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. And that's by the power of the
Holy Spirit, but we're still told to seek and to grow in grace,
aren't we? So that's why we come and hear
the gospel. That's why we read the scriptures. That's why we
pray. We don't do those things as duties, do we? We get to read
the Bible. We get to hear the gospel. We
get to pray. See, religion says you have to,
have to, have to, have to. Grace says you get to. A big
difference, isn't it? It's huge. Huge difference. We desire now to do these things.
We desire to come and hear the gospel. We wonder in awe at what
Christ done to Paul. We wonder in awe. And every time
we hear the glorious preaching of the gospel of God's amazing
grace, you know, born-again believers, when we hear the gospel, we are
strengthened, even if we don't know it. We're strengthened by
the preaching of the gospel. Isn't that wonderful? We're strengthened
by it. And our spiritual knowledge of
Christ increases. Oh my. And our God-given faith
is not only reinforced, but it also increases for the glory
of God. As we hear the gospel preached,
our faith is increased. As we hear about our brethren
preaching the gospel all over the world, our strength, our faith is increased.
As we go through trials and tribulations in this world, looking to Christ
and Him alone, our faith is increased. As we even see others go through
what Dan and Kathy went through, our faith has increased at watching
and seeing what they go through. Sister Barb and Jim, seeing what
they go through increases our faith. Oh my. So Saul increased in spiritual
strength and he confounded the Jews, it says in our text. Do
you know what the word confounded means? To perplex. They were
perplexed. They were perplexed. What is
going on here? It also means to stir up, to
be in an uproar. Now we see that they were in
uproar, weren't they? They want to kill him now. My oh my. My, oh, my. Listen to this rendering in the
Greek literal Bible. And Saul kept on being endured
with power to a greater degree. So the power that God was giving
him, right, the strength that God was giving him, it says here,
to a greater degree in the Greek. And he bewildered Jews, those
residing in Damascus, proving that this very person is the
Christ. Isn't that amazing? And he did
it all by the power of God. My oh my. And those unbelieving
Jews, they couldn't deny the scriptures. He's preaching from
the scriptures. He's preaching from the Bible. They couldn't
deny what he was saying. They just didn't believe it.
It wasn't according to their interpretation. Do you know the
Bibles have no private interpretation? It says what it says. It says, Christ said, I'm the
way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. That's truth proclaimed, right? We believe it by the grace
of God. And others go, I don't believe
that. I don't believe that at all. And here we are going, praise
be to God. We're saved by the blood of Christ.
So they couldn't deny the Holy Scriptures Paul used to prove
that the crucified Jesus Christ was the one who the Old Testament
prophets spoke of, the Messiah. Again, they just didn't believe
the Word of God. They didn't believe what it said. And this
was true of all of us before we were saved. We didn't believe
what the Word of God said. God gave us faith to believe
now, didn't he? And it's wonderful. It's wonderful. Now we see the
preciousness of Christ. We see the preciousness of Christ.
We don't desire, at one time we didn't desire to hear the
gospel preached. Now we desire to hear the gospel preached,
we desire to read the word of God, we desire to be with God's
people, and we desire to pray. Remember, when you're praying,
if you're a believer, when you're praying, you're praying to the
one true living God. That's who you're praying to.
My oh my. And this truth, as we saw in
that Greek rendition, this truth perplexed the Jews. It confused
them. They didn't understand what was
going on. But then it stirred them up into
an angry uproar. Now I'll ask you this. Who made Saul to differ from
these unbelieving Jews? Saul was with them. Right? He's one of them. By the time
he's on the road to Damascus, he's with them. He's one with
them. Who made Saul to differ? Only God. Only God. Who made us to differ from those
who we grew up with, who those even around us right now? God
and God alone. Only God in Christ. You know
what? We're forgiven and we're showing
mercy only in Christ alone. No other place. No other place. My oh my.