I'm back to Acts chapter 9. Acts chapter 9. I titled this message, Solve a
Pattern of Conversion. We have a pattern of conversion
of what God does when He saves a sinner. Three times This story
is told in the book of Acts, two times by Paul himself in
Acts chapter 22 and Acts chapter 26, and here by Luke in Acts
chapter 9. Saul's conversion is not any
different than anyone else God saved, except we don't hear an
audible voice or do we see a bright light shining about us, although
we do hear his voice. We do hear His voice. I want
you to look over in the Gospel of John, chapter 5. The Gospel
of John, chapter 5. We do hear His voice. In Gospel of John, chapter 5,
in verse... John 5, verse 25. Our Lord says this, "'Verily,
verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the
dead,' and he's speaking here of the spiritually dead, "'shall
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live.'" So we do hear His voice, but not audibly hear as Paul
did. But that's about the only real
difference. Now we have here, first of all, the center. You
know, last week we saw that Ethiopian eunuch, that heathen, who God
saved, the pagan. Now here he's going to save a self-righteous
man. There's none too hard for God to save. God can save whom
he will. You notice that God had no problem
saving that Ethiopian, and he had no problem saving Paul. As
soon as he heard the voice and the light shined about him, he
fell down. There was no resistance, no fight. He hit the dirt. He
hit the dirt. So we have here Saul of Tarsus,
a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He said that himself. A true
Hebrew from birth. His mother and father were Hebrews.
He was a law keeper. He was a very, very religious
man. Very religious. And highly respected
in town. This man was highly respected,
no doubt, in Jerusalem. But it says there in verse 1,
This Pharisee, this Hebrew, this law keeper, this highly respected
man was breathing out threatening to slaughter. That's this man. That's the heart
of this man. And that's religion without Christ.
Breathing out threatening to slaughter. He hated the Lord
Jesus Christ. He hated him. And I know this. Since he hated Christ, he hated
God. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
is God. Paul didn't realize at that time
that his hatred was really against God Almighty. He hated God. That's who he hated. The Scripture
said, He that honors not the Son honors not the Father. The enmity that was in his heart
all along came out against the Son of God. It just took the
right opportunity. It just took the right situation
to bring out what was really in him. And the Lord knows how
to do that. You know, it really does. It
really just takes the right situation to bring out who we really are.
And that's what happened here. Saul did all that he could to
stamp out the name of Jesus Christ. He persecuted the church, he
said, and wasted it. Wasted it. He made it his life's
mission to get rid of This way. That's the way it's spoken up
there in verse 2. He went after any of this way, this way of
salvation, this way of righteousness, this way that gives God all the
glory, this way that exposed Him for who and what He was,
this way that glorified God and laid all men in the dust, that
made Him equal with that publican, He went and persecuted all of
this way. Saul was like Jonah. He didn't
want to see those Gentiles be saved. Jonah didn't want anybody
to be saved. That's why he didn't want to
go up there. And Saul did not want publicans and sinners to
be on the same level with him. He hated any of this way that
gave God all the glory. It says in verse 3 that he journeyed.
He was on his way to Damascus, couldn't wait to get there, could
not wait to get there. He wanted to get there so he
could bring men and women bound to Jerusalem. He wanted to lock
them up in prison. He treated the women with indifference. And he probably treated them
a little rougher since they made an open profession of Christ. But he treated them with indifference. And as he journeyed near Damascus,
Hell-bent and hell-bound. That's the way he was. He's hell-bent
and hell-bound. Suddenly, that's the way it happens. Suddenly. Suddenly, without warning,
without being asked, without being given a chance, suddenly
there shines round about him a light from heaven. This is what I thought was so
interesting. Saul was on his way to arrest believers in Damascus
and throw them in prison. But instead, on his way, the
judge of all the earth arrested him. He came under arrest. When I looked at that, I thought,
Do you know that from that time forth the Apostle Paul always
called himself the prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ? He has
arrested me. I'm glad he has. I'm glad that
he stopped me on my road to hell. And many of you who believe the
gospel, he stopped us. He arrested us. Put us under
arrest. Took charge of us. Arrested us. And then it says there's a light,
a light shone from heaven about him, all about him. If we have
light, true light, true spiritual light, it'll have to come from
heaven. It'll have to come from the Father
of lights. It will. Now, the light it says shined
all about him. He was covered with it. He was,
I'll tell you what he was, he was illuminated. His understanding
was illuminated. The Lord revealed Himself to
him. He understands now who the Lord Jesus Christ is. If you
look over in 2 Corinthians, this is what happens. Over in 2 Corinthians
chapter 4, this is what happens every time God saves a sinner. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and
verse 6, For God, who commanded the light
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." That's what happened. God illuminated his
heart. God gave him an understanding.
And we too, everyone whom God saves, must have this same understanding. We must have this same illumination
of the heart. Now, I want you to notice something
else here in verse 4. The sinner is brought down. He's brought off his high horse.
He fell to the earth. God brought him down. And this
happens every time God saves a sinner. Christ must bring us
down first. We have to be brought down first
before He can raise us up. We have to come down off our
high horse. He does. He must dethrone us. Self has
to be dethroned. The Lord dethroned Paul. That's
what he did. He brought him down off himself.
He dethroned him. There must be a stripping before
there can be a clothing. We must get rid of our rags of
self-righteousness before we'll ever wear his righteousness.
Our Lord said to Zacchaeus, he came and Zacchaeus up that tree.
And he came over to him and said, Zacchaeus, come down. Come down. Today I must abide at your house.
I'm going to your house today. But you're coming down. Come
down. There is a breaking before there
is a healing. Breaking of the spirit, a broken
heart and a contrite spirit the Lord does not despise. That must
happen. And then there's a revelation
of sin. No one is saved that does not
have a revelation, an understanding, to some degree, of sin. He says here, Why persecutest
thou me? Boy, he pointed Saul's sin out. Why persecute us? He pointed
out the hatred to Paul that was in his heart against God and
against his Christ. Why persecutest thou me? The
charge is brought home to the heart. Sin is not just some kind
of word. It's actually what I am. It's
what I am by nature. I was telling this to my neighbor
yesterday. He and I had a good talk on the gospel. And he was
talking about smoking the sin. I said, sin is what you are.
It's what you are. It's who you are. And that's
what he is here. It's a revelation. It's brought
home. The charge is brought home. Nathan
said to David, Thou art the man. You're the guilty one. I'm guilty. I don't worry about others now.
I'm guilty. The charge is against me. And
this is what happened. The charge came home to Paul's
heart. Thou art the man. And then after
that happened, He had a revelation of the person who his sins was
against. Why persecutest thou me? And
he said, Who art thou, Lord? At this time, when he said that,
he didn't know. And then the Lord revealed himself. I am Jesus,
Jesus of Nazareth, the one you hate, the one you despise, the
one you're kicking against. That's whom you're persecuting.
Who are you, Lord? I am God. I'm Jesus of Nazareth. I'm God. I'm God in human flesh. That's who I am. And not until,
and I believe this, not until we see Christ, the Lord Jesus
Christ, do we really understand our sin. You really do not understand
sin and cannot comprehend the violence of sin until you see
Him. until God gives you an understanding
of who He is. Sin did not trouble Paul until
he met the Lord, until he saw Jesus Christ. Turn over to Isaiah
chapter 6. This is when sin will become
sin. This is when we'll have a real
understanding of sin. It's when we see Him. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted
up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims,
each one had six wings. With twain He covered His face,
and with twain He covered His feet, and with twain He did fly. And one cried unto another and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of His glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I," he never said this until this time, he
never said this, then said I, "'Woe is me, woe is me, for I am undone, because
I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips. For mine eyes have what? Seen
the King, the Lord of hosts." You'll never understand sin until
you see Him. Until God gives you a revelation
and an understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then you'll say,
woe is me. Woe is me. This is why sin does
not trouble people. I mean really, this is why sin
does not really trouble people. Because they don't know God.
And they've never met the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, sin
doesn't bother them. He's not real to them. He's a
historical figure, but he's not real. He's someone who lived,
not someone who lives. There's a difference. There's
a difference. And now we see here in verse
6 the sinner's submission. Here's his submission. Trembling
and astonished, it says in another place where Paul gives this account
that he fell down. He fell down, but trembling and
astonished. Lord, he said, what wilt thou
have me to do? He submitted. He submitted to that one whom
he once hated. That's grace. That's the power
of God and the power of grace at work in a man. He submitted
to the one he once hated, willing, willing to do his will. You know,
that's what Isaiah said. The Lord said, whom shall I send?
He said, send me. willing to do His will, willing. Thy people,
I preached from this just the other day, in Psalm 110, thy
people shall be willing in the day of thy power. That man asked
me yesterday, he said, doesn't every man have a free will to
choose? I said, let me tell you this,
thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. I said,
if we're going to talk about the Gospel, let's use Scripture.
Let's not use what somebody said or this is what I was taught.
Let's use the Bible. Let's use the Word of God. Thy
people shall be willing in the day of thy power. No one else
is willing. Christ said, you will not come to me that you
might have life. You won't do it. You can't do
it. Christ is able. He's able to
break the wild ass's I think that's one of the most beautiful
stories in the Scriptures. He told his disciples, he said,
you go into Jerusalem and there's going to be a colt full of an
ass tied up. And you get him and bring him
here. And if anybody asks you why you're taking him, you tell
them the Lord has need of him. And they did. And they brought him. That colt where no man had ever
sat on before. No man had broke this colt before.
This is a wild ass' colt. brought that colt and sat on
him and rode him right into Jerusalem. And that colt willingly, willingly
let him ride him right into Jerusalem. Didn't try to buck him, didn't
try to throw him. He just sat right on him and rode him. A
colt that no man had ever sat on before. Christ is able to
break centers. He's able to do it. And then
we have here a particular call that goes after this center.
No one else understood the voice but Saul. No one else. He had
some men with him so he could arrest and bring those people
back to Jerusalem. But no one else understood the
voice but Saul because that's the only one that the call went
to. That's the only one he was speaking
to at that time. That's the only one. The Lord
spoke to Saul's heart and no one else there. understood what
was happening. They just had no clue what was
going on. But Saul did. Saul did. He did not call the others. He
called Saul. Saul heard him and he became,
listen, he became very real to Saul. He became very real. Lazarus, come out of that grave. That's a particular call. Lazarus,
come out of that grave. It was a particular call. It was a convicting call. It
brought him down. Who are thou, Lord? It brought
him down. It was a gracious call. God didn't
owe it to him. That man asked me yesterday,
he said, doesn't God owe it to everybody to give him a chance?
And I told him, I said, no. I said, I'll tell you what I
heard a preacher say. It's not by chance, it's by grace. I said,
He's not saving men and women by chance, He's saving them by
grace. It was a gracious call. And I tell you this, it was a
call from darkness to light. Paul, all these years, read the
Bible, read the Word of God, kept the Law, and all these years
that man walked in darkness, lived in darkness. It was a call
from darkness to light, from sin to righteousness, from death
to life. What a call! What a call! When God calls, this is what
happens. This happens. Paul thought that
he was alive at one time, but he said sin revived. I understood
sin, and I died. It convicted me. It slew me.
The law, the very law I sought life by, slew me. And then we see in verses 8 and
9 a conviction of sin. He had a revelation. He was illuminated.
He had an understanding of who Christ is. He was given this
call. It was a particular call. And
now he has this conviction of sin. He could not see for three
days the people who were with him on that road to Damascus
had to take him by the hand and lead him to Damascus. For three
days he could not see, and for three days he sat in darkness. He sat in darkness. And I believe,
I believe this is what happened. I believe he was under a powerful,
true conviction of sin. For three days God left him in
darkness. I have no doubt for three days
He saw the faces of those he arrested. For three days he understood
something about the wickedness and wretchedness of his heart. He understood in those three
days that his righteousness was nothing but dung. I think he sat there for three
days in darkness under a strong conviction of sin. The Holy Spirit
revealed to him not just particular sins. We start out maybe with
some particular sins, but then it leads us to this. I am sin. That's what I told that man yesterday.
I said, that's who you are. You've got a wretched, wretched
nature. Born with it. Born with it. The
Pharisee of Pharisees. became the chief of sinners.
In those three days, sitting under that conviction of the
Holy Spirit, the Pharisees of the Pharisees became the chief
of sinners. Without this convicting work
of the Holy Spirit, there will be no salvation. There will be
no salvation. Now, I'm not going to try to
put some kind of degree of how bad I'm supposed to feel, but
there is a real conviction of sin. of who and what I am before
God, before God Almighty. The Lord said they'll mourn when
they look on Me whom they've perished. When we see Him, we'll
have some understanding of it. And now God's preacher comes
on the scene. God prepared and called Ananias
to preach to Saul. God had His man ready, just like
He had Philip ready for that eunuch. He had Ananias ready.
God always has His preacher and His people wherever they are,
wherever they are. They're going to meet. They're
going to meet. And God prepared and He called
Ananias to preach to Saul. God's going to use preaching
to save this man and give him some understanding. God prepares
the heart also. He prepared the preacher. He
brought the preacher. And He's preparing the heart
of Saul to receive the message. God's plowing the heart. That's
what He's doing. He's plowing the ground. He's
making this ground fertile to receive the gospel seed. That's
what He's doing. Because it says in verse 11,
Behold, he prayed. For the first time. Paul went
through his daily prayers. No doubt he went through his
daily prayers, his daily rituals. He did these things, but I'm
telling you this, for the first time, Paul the Apostle saw the
sinner prayed. For the first time, he actually
called upon God. Behold, he prayed. And I am sure
that he was praying for mercy. Don't you reckon that's what
he was praying for? I have no doubt that Paul was in anguish
and praying, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. No more of
that Pharisee standing there bragging on himself. Now he's
on the same level that that publican was on. Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, forgive me of my sins. That's the greatest thing God
can do for a sinner. Have mercy. And forgive me my
sins. Oh, my soul. He knew Saul of Tarsus knew this. He didn't
deserve now one ounce of mercy from God Almighty. He did not deserve it. He knew
it. He knew that God Almighty could
leave him alone. He knew that God Almighty could
crush him and kill him right there and be a just God in doing
it. He did not deserve mercy. Saul of Tarsus was in anguish
over his sinfulness. For three days, it says, he was
in that darkness. You ever been there? You ever
been there? There's a real conviction of
sin against God. Then God gave Saul a special
revelation here of Ananias. He's going to sit and listen
to God's preacher. That's what he's going to do.
You're going to sit and you're going to listen to my preacher. I said, I'm going to send you.
Now, I know this. I know that preachers are held
in a bad light nowadays. because of all the foolishness
and all the stuff that goes on in the name of preaching. I know
that. But one of the most important
persons that you'll ever know in your life is God's preacher. That's so. The man whom God sends to preach
the gospel to you. And a nice is going to preach
the gospel to Paul. And he says here, I want you
to notice this, Paul's reputation preceded him. Ananias said, Lord,
I've heard of this man. He's a notorious man. I've heard
of this man. How much evil he has done to
thy saints. Oh, I've heard about this man.
Ananias was a little bit afraid here, wasn't he? He had a drawback. When I read that, I thought we
should never doubt God's ability. to save the chief of sinners.
God created the heavens and the earth and all that's in it. He
sustains everything. We should never, ever doubt God's
ability to save the worst of men. You say, well, that guy,
man, he's gone. He broke Saul so quickly. You
don't even hear even a grumble from Paul. He broke him so easily.
Oh, the power of God to save. We should never doubt God's power
to save anybody. If He wills to save them, I promise
you, it'll happen. It'll happen. And He said to
this in verse 15, Go preach to him. He's a chosen vessel to
me. He's a chosen vessel to me. We do not preach hoping people
will accept Jesus. I don't preach hoping someone
will accept Jesus as their personal Savior or hoping that you're
going to let Him do something for you. We preach knowing that
the Lord has some chosen vessels out there. I don't know who they
are. He does. He does. He knows. He knows every
one of them. And he says, and I hear, this
chosen vessel to me must suffer for my name's sake. I know this. Everyone whom God says has a
place in the body of Christ and a measure of suffering given
them to do in the body of Christ. Every one of us do. Not all to
the same degree, but every one of us do. Every one has it. And
then Ananias went in and he put his hand on him in verse 17.
And this is so good. He put his hand on him and he
said, Brother Saul, Brother Saul, our true brothers and sisters
are those in the Lord Jesus Christ. Brother Saul. He's really my
brother. We who believe the gospel, whom
God has given faith to, that's my brothers and my sisters. That's
it. Brother Saul. And you know the
first message, the first message Paul heard from a preacher was
on election. You look over in, let me see
if I can find which one it was in. Look in Acts chapter 22 first. I didn't write that. Yeah, 22,
14, I believe it is. Here's Paul's account of it. Here's the Apostle Paul's account. It says in verse 13, that Ananias,
he came unto me and stood and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive
thy sight. And the same hour I looked upon
him, and he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee,
that thou shouldest know his will, see that just one, and
should hear the voice of his mouth." The first thing he heard
was, God has chosen you. God has chosen this doctrine,
which this gentleman I talked to yesterday. He said, I just
don't know about that. I told him this, I said, this
doctrine of election is a doctrine of praise. I said, I thank God
for it. I thank God Almighty for it. It's a great comfort. It is a
great comfort to me. It's a great comfort to a guilty
sinner. He chose me. You know what this means? This
assures me of my acceptance. It's assured. If He chose me,
He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. He chose me. He said, Brother
Saul, the Lord has chosen you. And then Paul received his sight. He now sees Jesus Christ as his
Lord. Not as an enemy, as his Lord. He now sees Jesus Christ as his
substitute. He now sees Jesus Christ as all
his righteousness. He now sees Jesus Christ, the
Lord Jesus Christ, as his all in all. All in all. And notice what happened there
in verse 19 and 20. He's fellowshiped with God's
people. The very people he went to take
and cast into prison, he's now sitting down and eating with
them. He's now sitting down. and fellowshipping with him.
And he began to preach the gospel he once sought and destroyed,
tried to destroy. He didn't do it. He tried. And
the people, in verse 21, the people were amazed at the change
that had taken place in Saul. They were just amazed. Salvation
makes a real change in a man. A man cannot be saved, a sinner
cannot be saved, and there will not be a real change take place.
and a real change to take notice of. And then it says in verse
22, and I'll close. We're here in verse 22. Paul
and Saul increased the Moor in strength and confounded the Jews
which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is the very Christ. This is the very Christ. Now
I want to end by reading in Philippians chapter 3. Over here in Philippians
chapter 3, Paul said in verse 3 of Philippians 3, We are the
circumcision which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in
Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might
also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that
whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. circumcised the
eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and
Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee, concerning
zeal persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which
is in the law, blameless. But what things were gained to
me, those I count as loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I
count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things and do count them but done, that I may win Christ,
and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness which
is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know
him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings,
being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might
attain to the resurrection of the dead, not as though I had
already attained, either were already perfect, that I follow
after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended
of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself
to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things
which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus." What a change! What a change the grace of God
makes when it comes in power.