Apprehended and Apprehending

I want you to turn back, if you
will, in your Bibles to the book of Philippians, the third chapter. I'd like to read verse 12 through
verse 16. Verse 12 through verse 16. Philippians 3. Not as though I had already attained,
either were already perfect. but 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. Let us therefore,
as many as be perfect or mature, be thus minded, and if in anything
you be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk
by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Do not know that
I've ever preached a sermon on this text of scripture before. I've mentioned it, I'm sure,
a number of times, but I want this morning, I feel impressed
of the Lord, to talk to you about Paul being apprehended and apprehending
him being apprehended of Christ and him apprehending himself,
the thing for which Jesus Christ had laid hold of him. Now, first
of all this morning, I want us to notice the Apostle's condition.
when he wrote these words. I think this is very interesting,
it was to me, and I hope that it will kind of set the stage
for our message this morning. But I want to talk about his
condition when he wrote these words. We notice in verse 3 he
says, for we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit
and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Now I for my part would be satisfied
to be just as Paul was at the time of this writing. I certainly would be satisfied
if I could be in the same position that he was in when he spoke
these words. He was in I believe a position
of conscious safety. I believe that he was in Christ
Jesus and he was a saved man and he knew it and he was rejoicing
in the Lord Jesus Christ and he had no confidence in the flesh. Now this is a very difficult
lesson to learn for anyone to come to the place where they
have no more confidence in their flesh. But Paul, I believe, was
happier in Jesus the more he discovered that he could have
no confidence in his flesh. And I do not believe that you
can both be a lover of Christ and a lover of yourself. I think
that before you can be fond of Christ, You must come to the
place where that you have no confidence and where you loathe
your own self, where you understand something about your flesh nature,
something about your condition in this body of flesh. Now then,
I think also that he knew that he was justified by faith, he
knew this, and I think also that he knew that he was in Christ,
and all of his works which he had, which formerly were the
ground of his trust, Paul used to trust the fact that he was
a Hebrew of the Hebrews as one who was obedient outwardly to
the law as a Pharisee and he was a zealous man. You remember
that he was so zealous that he persecuted the church. In other
words, whenever Paul, wherever you find him, you find him alive
and you find him on fire. And even when he was lost in
a state of sin, he was persecuting the church. He was a zealous
man. And touching the righteousness which is the law, he said he
was blameless. But there came a time when he counted those
things to be lost. When he come to the place where
he could see that these things were not worth a poo-poo, they
were nothing. He counted them as dung that
he might win Jesus Christ. They're nothing. And I'm telling
you about the position that Paul was in when he spoke the words
of our text this morning. He was in Christ. And he believed
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He trusted Christ and he was
saved. And I don't believe that he,
I think he very seldom ever doubted that his relationship with the
Lord Jesus. He believed he was saved and
he knew it with all of his heart. But yet, I find in the text this
morning that he was in a state of conscious imperfection. He understood that he had not
attained as yet to all that the Lord had laid hold of him for. And he also understood that he
was not at this time perfect. He understood that there were
some things lacking in his life. Now, he had not yet reached his
own ideal of what a Christian ought to be. Paul had a vision
of what he ought to be in Christ, and he didn't feel that he had
yet reached that ideal. He didn't feel that he had yet
attained to that which the Lord had laid hold of him for. And
I doubt seriously this morning that there's anyone here that
feels that they have reached their own vision of what a Christian
is. Have you become everything that
a risen Christ, that the risen, enthroned Lord Jesus Christ can
make you? Have you become that? Well, Paul
didn't feel that he had attained and that he was already perfect.
He had not yet reached this. He had not yet obtained from
Christ all that he had expected to obtain from Him. Now, but
he was not sitting down to rest. Now, I know that sometimes he
was still, I think like Paul here, was hurrying on, he was
reaching after something which was yet beyond him. Paul was
reaching out. He was pressing on. And that's
the language of the day. He wasn't sitting down. He wasn't
saying, well, I'm not perfect. I'm not yet attained. I'm not
all I want to be. I'm not all I hope to be. But
I'm just going to sit down here and think about a little while,
meditate on that, and kind of just be a little bit relaxed
here about my situation. No, he could not say, soul, soul,
take thine ease. Thou hast much goods laid up
for many years. Paul couldn't say that. No, but
he felt his own spiritual poverty, and he cried out, as we read
here in verse 12, I have not already attained, and I'm not
already perfect, but I follow after. I'll follow after. I'm pressing on out here. I'm
pressing on. But don't let that be any excuse,
my friend, to you when you hear Paul say, I'm not, I've not attained,
I'm not already perfect. Don't let that be any excuse
to you for even though this morning we are consciously imperfect,
And we ought to have this consciousness. There oughtn't be anybody here
this morning that would say, well, I'm through growing. I've
come to the place where I've already reached everything that
I've reached all the height that I expect to reach as a Christian.
And I'm not expecting to grow anymore. My friend, we must not
let this be an excuse for our laziness because Paul was making
progress. Look at verse 14. He said, I
press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus. In other words, I don't use this
as an excuse, but my friend Paul says, I'm pressing on. I'm pressing
on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus, and then he went on to say, let us therefore as
many as be mature in the Lord, we that have a mature mind in
the Lord, let us be thus minded. Let us be of the same mind. And
in verse 16, whereunto we have already attained, let us walk.
Let us walk by the same rule. Let us mind the same thing. Let
us go on here as the people of God. Now this, I don't believe,
beloved, that even when we know our imperfection, that we ought
to be satisfied with that state. I think we must press on and
be dissatisfied as Paul was. Now as long as any trace of a
sinful nature or a sinful tendency remained in Paul, it made him
cry out like he did in Romans chapter 7, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Now it
was not because that Paul was dead in sin that he cried in
that way, my friend, no. Because it was because he was
largely delivered from sin that he felt that way. It was because
the reigning power of sin had been broken in his life. Therefore,
he felt the burden. Any time he fell into sin or
any time that there was any sort of contact with sin by his life,
he felt the burden and he felt his imperfection. Now, a man
that's underwater, he does not feel the weight of the water. But bring him out of the water
and put a tub of water upon his head and you'll see what a weight
it is to him. And so while a man is in sin
as his element, while a man is lost and in a state of nature,
and while a man is rebelling against God and living in that
rebellion, then sin is of no burden to him whatsoever. Sin
is no burden. And that's one of the ways you
can tell whether you be in Christ or out of Christ. If you're in
Jesus Christ, sin will be a burden to you. Sin will be bothersome
to you. And you will hate sin and loathe
your sin. But when you're brought out of
that and you're not under His power, then you feel the weight
of sin and it grows weary. You grow weary under it and you
long to be free from it. And I believe that was Paul's
statement. I believe Paul wanted to be free from the body of sin. And I don't think he wanted to
ever grow satisfied where he was. but he longed to be free
from it and to go on in his life. Now also in describing his condition
at this time of the writing, I think also he was in a state
of anxious aspiration, and I mean by that that he desired that
he might be found in Christ and that he might know Christ and
that he might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Paul knew that this body had
to be put off. He knew that it was going to
be put off. And he knew that just as sure
as his body was put off, he knew that there was going to be a
resurrection. And he wanted to attain unto
the resurrection of the just, unto the resurrection of the
righteous. And he believed that he was laid
hold of by the Lord to this end that he might attain unto the
resurrection of the dead. And this was his feelings, this
was his aspiration. I want to die the death of the
righteous and I want to be resurrected in the first resurrection. Now
then, I want to talk to you this morning about this being apprehended
of the Lord. and are apprehending what we
have been promised in the Lord Jesus. Now, there are two forces,
I believe, that are working in the child of grace. There are
two forces. One is the power of Jesus Christ
which lays hold of us. when we're lost. There's a power
that lays hold of us and apprehends us. And then there is the new
power, the new life of God-given faith in us by which we in our
turn seek to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold
of us. Now there's two things there.
Us being laid hold of by Christ and then we, by that God-given
faith which God has given us, seeking to lay hold of everything
that is in Jesus Christ for us. Those two things. Now then, Christ
has apprehended us for a purpose. He's laid hold of us for a purpose,
and we hope to realize that purpose even to the full. We hope to
finally realize why it was that Jesus Christ has had to do with
us. Why did he lay hold of me? Why
has he touched me? Why has he put his hand upon
me? Why? Well, that is the intent,
I believe, of these verses here that we read this morning. Now
then, there's three things that I want to talk about in the rest
of our time here. Number one, Paul's apprehension
by Christ Jesus. Number two, Paul's desire to
lay hold of that for which the Lord had laid hold of him. And
third and last, to give you the lessons that Paul here is teaching
us in this text. And there's about three of them,
it won't take me long to give you those. But now number one,
Paul's apprehension by Christ Jesus. Now we do not often use
this word apprehend now in the sense of which it is used here
in this text. It might be a new word to some
of you, but mainly we use this word when
we speak of a policeman apprehending a person that is laying hold
upon a person, seizing a person. We speak of the law officer apprehending
a criminal, laying hold of a criminal, seizing him, taking him into
custody. So at Paul's conversion, Paul
had been apprehended, Paul had been laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Now then take the word apprehend
in the sense of arresting him. The Lord Jesus Christ had arrested
Paul. Now you remember the story of
this desperate rebel Paul, Saul of Tarsus, and of course he was
converted and given the name of Paul. He was going down to
Damascus to persecute the saints of God and nothing was further
from his mind than being converted. He certainly didn't have it in
his mind that he was going to be taken into custody by the
Lord Jesus Christ, that he was going to be arrested by Christ. Now turn back in your Bibles
to the ninth chapter of the book of Acts and look at verse 3.
And as he journeyed Paul was on his way to Damascus. He came
near Damascus and suddenly there shined around about him a light
from heaven and he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying
unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, who art
thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus,
whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against
the prince. And so we see Saul being struck
down here and he fell to the earth as this light shined round
about him from heaven. Now then, we see that this was
his being laid hold of. This was him being apprehended
by Jesus Christ. This is his arrest. And the song,
the old song says, Thus the eternal counsel ran Almighty Grace arrest
that man. And Almighty Grace did arrest
Paul. He was apprehended by Christ
Jesus. And he well says that he was
apprehended because that's exactly what took place. He was on his
way to Damascus, he had no intention of being saved, he had no intentions
of cooperating with Jesus, but he was laid hold of by Sovereign
Christ and he was converted under the purpose of God here on the
road to Damascus. Now, there was no officer of
the law who came to arrest him, but Christ came himself and took
him into divine custody. That's exactly what took place.
Now, an altogether changed man here then, here he is, he's been
apprehended, laid hold of, he's a changed man. And now he will
go forth and preach that faith which once, a poor time, he had
sought to destroy. He'd been out to destroy the
people of God and to lay hold of them and put them in prison.
And the sovereign Christ has now arrested and laid hold of
him and he is now the bondman of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
you may not all here this morning be able to remember a special
day. This special day when you were
laid hold of by Jesus Christ. But some of us do. Some of us
remember when the Lord Jesus Christ laid hold of us, and when
we became new creatures in Christ Jesus, and when the Spirit of
the Living God came to live into our souls, and when our hearts
could rejoice in full forgiveness in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
when we could hope eternally in our souls of eternal and pure
heaven. But other days that are very
notable days of great events, we forgot. We forgot. Many things have happened. I
can't even tell you when man first walked on the moon. I don't
know for sure that I could even hit the year, much less the day. But my friend, let me say this.
Not the day when we were laid hold of by Christ. Not the day
when we were arrested by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, then,
this day is stamped upon the memory of the child of God forever
unto eternity. Now, you may not go back to the
very hour, but you can go back to a time period in your life,
I'm sure, when the Lord had to do with you, and when he laid
hold of you, and when he touched you. Well, this is exactly what
happened to Saul of Tarsus. The Lord laid hold of him, and
Paul felt that grip. He felt that grip. He was in
the grasp of the Lord Jesus Christ and he never got away from that
one arrest. He never got away from it. Now
then, nor we. We are prisoners this day. That is, if we're children of
God, if we're children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, if
we've been born again, if we've been changed, if we've been translated
out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear
Son, if we have experienced the resurrection power of Christ
in our life, begetting us unto a new spiritual and heavenly
life, then my friend, we're prisoners. this day under Christ who alone
has set us free by capturing us. He set us free by capturing
us. Now the day came when I saw one
hanging on the tree in agony and blood who fixed his languid
eyes on me as near his cross I stood and I never got over
it and never expect to and that's exactly what happened to Paul.
He never got over it. He said that he was apprehended
of Christ Jesus. He was laid hold of by the Lord
Jesus. Now it turned everything upside
down in Paul's life. It changed the right into the
left. It made the bitter sweet and
the sweet bitter and the light darkness and the darkness light.
And beloved, where it has been experienced, this arrest I'm
talking about, podium of the life that he experienced
and my friend listen you might have tried to imitate the Christian
life you might be going along for the ride but I'm going to
tell you this you don't have any impetus and you don't have
any force and there's nothing behind it unless you have experienced
this arrest if you haven't been apprehended by Christ there ain't
any force in your life to go on and serve the Lord and do
what the Lord would have you to do. I think it made him live
differently. Paul lived as a man who was apprehended. He lived like a man who was laid
hold of. He said to himself, I cannot
call the world for Christ has laid hold of me. and crucified
me with himself. And I cannot find my life in
this world. I cannot find it here. I am crucified
with Christ. He would say, I cannot cease
to preach the gospel. I know I once tried to destroy
those who loved the gospel and those who stood for the gospel.
But he said, now I cannot cease to preach that gospel because
I've been laid hold of. I've been apprehended. I've been
arrested. I cannot become a self-seeker in this world living for myself
because Paul said he died for all that those for whom he died
and those that are alive that they might not live unto themselves
but live unto him who died and rose again. I cannot do anything
but live for him who died for me. Paul would say for the master
has laid all on me and he has put me under parole. to keep
me close to Him forever. And I've got to live near the
Lord. I've got to walk with God. I've got to stay in fellowship
with Him, and I must not, I cannot, I dare not, I would not leave
Him because He has laid hold of me. I am His apprehended one
now and forever. And the question comes to me
is, can we say this? Can we say this? Think it over. Was there a time when the Lord
laid hold of us and he changed us and he has put us in a position
where we must live for the Lord? And there's so many discouragements,
there's so many trials, there's so many difficulties in the way,
there's so many ups and downs, more downs it seems to me like
the older I get than there are ups. And we wonder about how
in the world we're going to continue on. But my friend, if this we
have to look back to a time when the Lord laid hold of us and
when we were rescued by Him and changed by Him, then my friend,
I do believe that we can say with Paul, I have been apprehended
by Christ Jesus. And that will be the motive and
the impetus of our Christian life. Now then, the second thing
is Paul's desire to lay hold of that for which he was laid
hold of by Christ Jesus. Now, I do believe that there's
a purpose in God laying a hold of his people. But why did Christ
apprehend Paul? Why did Christ lay hold of Paul?
And I believe that when you find the answer to that question,
you will largely have the answer to why the Lord laid hold of
you. Why the Lord apprehended you? Why he took you into custody? Why he arrested you? And let
your friends and let some others, members of your family, go down
the road of their rebellion, but he arrested you. Why did
he do this? Well, number one, it was to convert
him completely. That's what it was for. It was
to convert him completely. And I done quoted it, 2 Corinthians
5 and 17 to you, where they were made new creatures in Christ
Jesus, old things pass away and all things become new at the
time of conversion. Has your conversion affected
your whole life? I know some people that are converted,
but I wish their temper was converted. I wonder this morning if if you're
a fourth converted, if you're half converted, if you're three
quarters converted, or if you're wholly converted. I believe that
God lays hold and arrests his people, that they might be 100%
converted. And I believe that this process
is going on in the lives of God's people. I do believe that we're
changed immediately when the Spirit of God comes in and regenerates
our soul, and the principle of righteousness is planted there.
I believe we're changed then, but I believe there's some growing
and some developing in the Lord, and there's some progress that
is to be made in the things of God. And I believe that Paul
made that progress, and I think you and I must continue. We must
press on and follow on. Now, number two, why did God
lay hold of Paul? Paul said, I want to apprehend
that for which I was apprehended. I want to lay hold of what the
Lord, why did He lay hold of me? Well, then I want to lay
hold of that for which He laid hold of me. Now then, secondly,
I think the Lord wanted to make him like Christ. Make him like
himself. And this is the great design,
my friend, of electing love. You can read it in Romans 8,
verse 29, where Paul says, For whom he did foreknow, he also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. This is the great
object of divine love. Now you hear me out. For years
after I made it a profession of faith, after I believed the
Lord saved me, I did not fully understand, I did not even partially
understand what it was, why it was that God had laid hold of
me. Well, my friend, if you listen
to what I'm saying this morning, you won't have the same problem
I have. Number one, it was to convert Paul. And number two,
it was to make him like Christ. God's intention is to make you
like Jesus Christ. That's why he laid hold of you.
That's why he apprehended you. That's why he arrested you and
took you into custody. I want to make you like Jesus
Christ and make you like my son. And so whatever the Holy Spirit
does in us, it does with His aim to make us like the firstborn
among many brethren. That's exactly what God is up
to in your life, making you like His Son. God likes His Son, my
friends. God loves His Son. And whenever
God looks upon His Son, and He looked upon Him one morning in
eternity past, and said, everybody I save is going to be just like
Him, I'm going to make them just like Him. He's going to be the
pattern, and everybody's going to be just like He is. And that's
why God laid hold of you. God means for you to be like
his son. Now, this will be our satisfaction in eternity. That
we're going to be just like Jesus because he's going to be the
one that's popular in eternity. He's going to be the only one
in eternity that's going to get any attention. And wouldn't it
be wonderful if you walked into a big room and there's one person
there, he's dressed a certain way, he looked a certain way,
and he was getting all the attention in that room? Wouldn't it be
wonderful if you look at yourself and go, why about my coach is
like his coach? Why I mean, I'm dressed just
like he is I look just like he looks and would that be a marvelous
thing? But my friend just think about
it now an eternal glory here We are a symbol with that great
mass that innumerable host of men and women that's been converted
out of sin out of the out of the Adamic race and been brought
into eternal glory and here we are in heaven and there's Jesus
and we're like him We're like him Now my friend, that's the
very end that God has in mind in your life. That's why he laid
hold of Paul, and that's why he laid hold of you. And it was
David that said in Psalm 17 and verse 15, that I'll be satisfied
when I awake with thy light. Be satisfied eternally because
I'm gonna be like Jesus. Now then, third, it was to make
him a witness of that which he had seen and heard. Turn to the
26th chapter of the book of Acts. Acts chapter 26. And I want you
to notice here, if you will, verse 16. And Paul was given here his testimony,
his conversion experience to Agrippa. And he's telling him
how the Lord Jesus spoke to him, verse 15. And what Jesus said
to him, and he goes further to say that he said, but wise and
stand upon thy feet, in verse 16, 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
into which I will appear unto thee. Now then, Paul was to be
a witness Now the prophets of the Old Testament were called
seers because they had seen some things. And my friend, you must
see for yourself. You must see for yourself. And
the Lord said to Paul, he said, I'm going to make you a minister
and a witness both of these things. And do you know that prior to
Paul being struck down on the road to Damascus, He believed
to that very time when he heard the voice of Jesus speak to him
out of heaven. He believed to that very time
that Jesus Christ had been an imposter and a fake. He believed
that Jesus Christ that he had said that he was God and said
that he had made himself God. He believed that he had made
himself God. He believed that he was lying. And that all these
people that were following Jesus, and that were worshiping Jesus,
and that were trusting Jesus, that they all were fools! Because
he thought that Jesus Christ was an imposter and a traitor.
And he didn't believe in the resurrection of Jesus until he
heard these words on the road to Mass. He didn't believe that
Jesus was Lord until he heard these words. I am Jesus! We like to just fade. Here's
here's this man who believed that Jesus was an imposter and
a fake and that he lied to the people and deceiver of the people
And here he is speaking to me out of heaven. This jesus is
god and he's alive And and jesus said that you're going to be
a witness of these things if you these things which thou hast
seen These things which have went on right on the road to
damascus. You'll be a witness of these
things Paul never was hesitant to tell his experience what God
done for him. You read it over several times
in the scriptures where he gives the witness of what the Lord
done to him and how the Lord appeared to him. Now then, my
friend, you must see for yourself. Do you know what happened when
God saved you? Do you know what happened? Do you know what happened
at the fall? Do you know what happened at
Calvary? And do you know what happened
when God saved you? I think that's a three-point sermon that everybody
ought to be able to preach. That every Calvinistic Baptist
ought to be able to preach. What happened at the fall? What
happened at Calvary? And what happened in me when
God saved me? Those three things. And if you
ever have a chance to get up and speak to people, use that
as your message. And tell them, at the fall I
fell in my daddy Adam. At Calvary it was restored. Everything
I lost in Adam was restored to me in Jesus Christ. And when
God saved me, when God saved me, my friend, He made me new. He planted in me His own nature
and His own life. And God now lives in me. And
that's what happened when the Lord laid hold of me. Now then,
pray that you may see all that is in the Word, that you might
be a witness of that. That's why you ought to be reading
the Bible. That's why you ought to be trying to digest the Scriptures. That's why when you see a word
in the Bible and you don't understand what it means, you ought to get
you a book and begin to read about that word and find out
what it means. Pray that you will see all that's in the Word
so you can bear a faithful witness. Pray that you may see the movements
of God in providence. Lord that I'll be able to see
what you're doing in my life the lives of others I can see
your hand in providence and also pray that you may see the hand
of God in your own heart and in your own experience that you'll
know what God's doing in your own life you'll know what's going
on I called you to be a witness And wouldn't it be marvelous
if you'd be able to talk to somebody else and say, now this is what
God's doing in your life. I can see the hand of God working.
Well, how do you know that? Because God worked in my life
in a singular way. God's done this in my life. He's
done that in my life. God's worked this way and that
way. And I know that God works that way. Well, how do you know?
Because the Word says this. The Bible says that. This is
what the Scripture says about our God and the way He works.
And so my friend, we need to understand that God has rested
us to be his witness, his witness. Now then, he was also in the
fourth place to be the instrument of the conversion of others.
And here in Acts 26, the verses we're reading, look at verse
17 and 18. Now this is very important. He was to be an instrument, delivering
thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I
send thee. to open their eyes. Well, you
say, well, I thought God opened people's eyes. He does. But he
uses incidents. He uses men to preach the gospel.
He uses men to spread the story of salvation through Jesus Christ
and to turn them from darkness to light. This was Paul's work. And from the power of Satan and
of God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance
among them which are sanctified by faith, that is in me. Now,
beloved, I believe that there were a certain number of souls
for whom Paul... And that God will use us to that
end. And it is so with us. Now, you
will not say that you might go to heaven alone. You must keep
this in mind. But you were saved that you might
take others there with you. And there's a certain number
of souls that God would have you to affect in this world.
And the Lord said to Paul, he said, now I'm going to send you
to these Gentiles and I'm going to deliver you from them. Because
they'd kill you if they could, but I'm going to deliver you
because you're going to be an instant. in my hands to open
their eyes and turn them from Satan and to turn them from the
power of Satan and sin and darkness unto God. I'm going to, I'm going
to be, you're going to be my instrument. And that's why God
laid hold of me. That's the purpose that God had
in laying hold of me. And my friend, God has a purpose
and that should be in your own life a blessing to think upon
that God had a purpose in laying hold of me just like he did in
Paul's life. Now the fifth thing is that he
might suffer for Christ's sake. That he might suffer for Christ's
sake. Now don't wince at this. I want
you to turn back to the 9th chapter of the book of Acts again, and
look at verse 15 and verse 16. Verse 15 and 16 of the 9th chapter
of the book of Acts. But the Lord said unto him, that
is to Ann and I, who went to speak to Saul when he was Ever
after his conversion when he was blinded and and and I said
to him go by way for The Lord said you tell him this that he's
a chosen vessel and to be to bear my name Before the Gentiles
and the Kings and the children of Israel for I will show him
how great things He must suffer verse 16 for my name's sake I
will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's
sake Now, usefulness by suffering is a great honor. And we read
in Philippians 1 in verse 29, for it is given on our behalf
not only to believe on the name of Jesus Christ, but also to
suffer for his sake. Now, who knows what ministry
God has called us to? as God called us to, I'm sure
that He means for us to be useful. And God would know how we could
best be useful. But who knows what we must finally
encounter and suffer in this life for His sake. Now, I want
you to notice that it's for His sake. For His sake. God laid a hold of Paul to suffer
some things for His sake. for Paul's sake, but for Christ's
sake. My friend, listen to me, and
this is something that comes home to you after a while. A man just dare not follow the
ministry for the sake of the ministry. It ain't worth it. It's not worth it. There is nothing
that you and I are called upon to do that the doing of it is
worth it. It ain't worth it. It's not worth
what you've got to suffer. It's not worth what you've got
to go through. It's not worth what you've got to put up with.
It's not worth the trial. It's not worth the test. But
it's who you do it for that makes it worth it. It's who you do
it for. You do it for Christ's sake.
You suffer for Christ's sake. You do it for His sake. And that
makes it worthwhile. But you better settle it in your
mind If you've not settled it yet, you better settle it in
your mind before you start anything. It's business of being a Christian,
you better settle it. I'm going to follow the Lord
wholly and I'll follow Him to the death for His sake. Not for any good I'm going to
get out of this. Not because of the comfort that's going to
come to me along the way. Not because the good friends
I'm going to make in the church. Not because of the way that things
are going to fall out to me. Because my friend, You're going
to be tested with this thing. Things are not going to fall
out to you. You're not going to find maybe in the church what you
thought you might find. And things are not going to work out for
you. And the rewards is not going to be there you thought was going
to be there. And eventually, it's going to come to a place
where you're going to say, well, I just give it up. I heard Red Berry
down in Bozeman say on a tape here just a while back, he was
talking about Count conquering mountains for in our lives the
mountains in our life on occasion. He said that there was 6,000
Southern Baptist preachers 6,000 preachers connected with the
Southern Baptist Convention that quit in 1988 just quit and give
it up Now why is that true? My friend because they didn't
have it settled when they started that this is for Christ's sake
It's not because it's going to be comfortable, and it's going
to be rewarding for me, and it's just going to be a happy life,
and I'm just going to say, oh, if I can just be a preacher,
that's going to be what? No, my friend. No, my friend. I'm sorry. It is not. And if
you've got the idea of this business of being a preacher, this business
of being a Christian, that is comfortable to the flesh, and
that is something you're going to enjoy and be satisfied with
as you go along, you're, my friend, you're mistaken. There ain't
no truth to it, none whatsoever. It's a life of affliction and
trial and test. And it's a life where the truth
of God must be burned into your life by you dying out to yourself. It's a life of death, is what
it is, to the flesh. It's exactly what it is. And
you've got to become willing to wholly follow Christ for Christ's
sake. For Christ's sake, do it for
His sake. And if it wasn't for Jesus Christ, take it and just
take it. You can do with it what you want
to if it's not for Christ. I love you dear people, but I
would not preach to you for your sake or for my sake. I wouldn't
do it. But I'll do it for Christ's sake.
I wouldn't put up what I have to put up with for anybody's
sake but Jesus' sake. That's the only one I'd put up
with what I have to put up with in order to preach. I wouldn't
do it except for His sake. And so there's some suffering
for his sake. But why the Lord laid hold of Paul? That he's
gonna suffer some things for his sake. For his sake. You keep that in mind and nobody
ever be able to turn you around in the road if you're willing
to suffer anything for his sake. Nobody ever turn you around.
But if you turn around for any reason, That reason will come
in your life. It'll come. It'll be there sooner
or later. It'll be there. And you'll turn around if you're
not willing to suffer for His sake. Well, that's why the Lord
laid hold of Paul, said there's some things that I must show
him how great things he must suffer for my sake. Paul said,
I die daily, and he was. He was dying out to himself every
day. He was dying out to himself. Well, the time's getting away from
me. I'm going to skip a couple things here and get to the last point. The
last point here was the lessons which Paul's teaching us for
this text. What are these lessons? Well,
I think they're number one, this. Make sure of your apprehension
by Christ Jesus. Make sure that the Lord's laid
hold of you, so that you can talk like Paul about it. That for which I am apprehended. Make sure that the Lord has laid
hold of you. Pray that the Lord, that you
may feel His hand upon your shoulder. Pray that you may feel His grace
upon your life. That you may feel His grace in
your heart, His feathers on your feet. and his divine handcuffs
on your wrist. Pray that you may feel these
things. Because my friend, if you don't feel these things,
then you'll never have the impetus to go on. You'll never have the
force. You'll never have the ability
to continue to face everything you must face and to keep on
pressing on toward the mark. for the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus. Pray that you may have no doubt about it, but that
you may know of a surety that the Lord has arrested you, that
the Lord has laid hold of you. Say, Preach Amen now. Pray and
seek the face of God. Read the Scriptures. Study the
Scriptures until you know in your own heart that the Lord
has laid hold upon you. He sees you. He's laid hold of
you. Well, this being known then, by us. Do not let it make you
idle. Don't let it make you just say,
well, I know the Lord's laid hold of me and that's all that's
necessary. I'm saved. Nothing more is necessary. Nothing more is needed. I'm just
going to sit down along the road here until the Lord comes and
takes me to glory. No, no. He has arrested you for
a purpose. What is it? What is it? Well,
for the same reasons that we've discussed with you already, but
let it not make you idle, but let it be your encouragement.
God has called me, he's arrested me to be holy, and I ought to
be willing to cooperate, ought to be willing to mortify the
deeps of the body that I might live, as Don was talking about
last week. I ought to be willing to put on, as the elected God
vows of compassion, I ought to be able to put on the garment
of Christ in my outward character. I ought to cooperate with the
Lord Jesus Christ. I'll sit back in idleness. Now,
if Christ is resting you for usefulness, be confident in seeking
it. If you feel that you ought to
be, and surely we ought to be useful, then, my friend, seek
it. Attempt to be useful. Do something
to be useful in the hands of the Lord. Use what you've got. If Christ has arrested you to
make you an eternal monument of his grace, believe that he
will do it. believe that he will do it and
press forward toward the bar for the prize of your high calling
and learn something about what you were when the Lord got ahold
of you and what you are now in grace and be able to talk about
it that you might be able to show people that God has made
you a monument of his grace how he went about doing it and finally
let this lead you to hope for the salvation of others. Go forward
hopefully in your service for others. Because whatever you
say about it, my friend, God never laid hold of you for you
to in some way or another make it through this life without
being involved with other people. God means for you to affect and
touch other people in this life. He means for you to do it. And
sometimes I think we deliberately avoid other people. We deliberately avoid. We just,
we stay away from other people. We don't want to get involved
with anybody talking to anybody. We want to just stay away. And
we don't want anybody to come close to us. We just want to
live for ourselves. And we don't want nobody to bother
and intrude. My friend, I want you to understand this. We should
go forward hopefully in our service for whatever it be. Do not be
doubtful about it. This is the purpose of God. And settle it in your mind. This
is the purpose of God that I would be useful, that I would be of
some help to somebody along the way. And so reach out there and
tell people what you know. And tell them about your experience
in grace. Tell them what God has done and
try to be of some help. I read this story one time about
a fellow who had doves. And he had just one dove. He wanted more. And he didn't
know how to get them any other way. So he took this dove and
he smeared perfume on it. And he really doctored this dove
up and he sent it off. and some sort of scent and stuff. I mean Rita made it strong on
this dove. And this dove went off and in
a day or two that dove came back and she had all kinds of doves
with her. All kinds of them. I mean a dozen
of them. or more and so he he had then
he had to he had to make it and so so he of course he took them
into captivity and because he wanted and I believe this my
friend that if you want to affect somebody if you want to touch
somebody's life if you want to be useful then my friend smell
like Jesus go out here in this world smell like him and go out
here in this world and May the fragrance of the Lord Jesus Christ
in your life, in your attitude, and in what you're about, may
it come through to the point where the other people will be
attracted. I believe that Jesus Christ is the need of other people. I believe that people need Christ
just like I need Him. I do. I don't think there's anybody
that needs Christ any more than I need Him, but I think everybody
needs Him as much as I do. I do. I believe that.

Apprehended and Apprehending

Sermon Transcript

Comments

Joshua

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

Apprehended and Apprehending

Sermon Transcript

Comments

More from John R. Mitchell

Same Scripture

Joshua

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book