Galatians 1, the end of verse 15, he speaks about it, please God, who called me by his grace. Galatians 1, 15, the hymn we were just singing, wonderful line in it, or lines, when free grace awoke me by light from on high. And that's exactly what happened to the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus. Let us look to the Lord in prayer. Father in heaven, as we think of these great words, that it was the grace of God that called Paul, how we thank thee for the reality of the new birth, for conversion, and that the grace of God is still able to work in people's lives. Oh, we pray that thou would bless us and encourage us tonight in our Savior's name. Amen. Paul, a testimony of God's grace. Paul was constantly giving his testimony. It's recorded three times in the book of Acts, once the historical event in chapter nine, and then on two other occasions when he was in a court of law before dignitaries and he was asked to defend himself, he would give his testimony. how he opposed the gospel and opposed the name of Jesus of Nazareth, but how God shone that light into his life, and how he was changed dramatically, and how his goal was to preach Christ among the Gentiles. He invariably was telling his testimony. He had a personal testimony to the saving grace of God. Now, of course, his testimony is remarkable. In some ways, it's unique. It, of course, is one of the most important, if not the most important, dramatic conversion in world history, because what an influence the apostle Paul has been. Under God, of course, he would say, I am nothing. I am what I am by the grace of God. I am the least of the apostles. I am a sinner. But yet God took up Paul and chose him and saved him and used him dramatically to write half of our New Testament. and greatly used. Yes, there are some unique things about his testimony. The shining light above the brightness of the noonday sun, an audible voice from the Lord speaking to him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest I me? Now, don't expect those things to happen in lives today. Those were unique. But yet, in other ways, his conversion is a pattern. We know that because in 1 Timothy chapter 1, he describes his testimony, how he had been a blasphemer and injurious, he persecuted. And then he talks about the grace of God being exceeding abundant in his life. And he gives the glory to the Lord in that chapter, and he said, I am an example, or an example we'd say today, I am an example. He's a pattern of conversion. I'm saying some of the features are unique, obviously, but yet in other ways, he's a pattern. God uses him as a pattern of what it is to be converted. And if you go to Acts 9, read the details about his conversion, you can see some of those examples. And over, of course, in chapter 1 of 1 Timothy, preached that quite a number of years ago, those signs of a true believer praising God, humility in his life, that it's the grace of God did this, I'm just a sinner, and so on. So he's giving a personal testimony. And every child of God is a testimony. And we ought to want to give it. For Psalm 107 says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. But Paul's giving his testimony here for reasons. That's the point. He's giving it for reasons. Number one, he's defending his position as an apostle. For these false teachers had come up and said, Paul, he's not one of the 12. He's not really authorized. He's not a proper apostle. So Paul is writing and saying, I am. God called me directly. It's not that he was proud or. trying to pull rank or anything like that, but for the sake of the gospel and the sake of truth, he's saying, I am an apostle. God did appear to me. God saved me. So he's writing to prove that he is a true preacher of the word of God. And then secondly, secondly, and this is what we're after, because we've been thinking some weeks about the grace of God. He is giving his life story just in brief, brief overview, as a testimony to the grace of God. What he's saying in these verses is just what he said over in 1 Timothy, just what he says in some other places. It's the grace of God changed me. It's not by works. It's not because I deserved to be an apostle, or I deserve to be saved. I deserve, no. It's all of free, sovereign grace. Grace, God giving us what we don't deserve. The very opposite of what we deserve. The only thing we deserve from God is eternal hell. But God, what we describe when he comes and blesses us, and he can save us, And many of us tonight say he has. If you're not saved, he can save you tonight. And he can make you to sit among kings. Take you, as it says in one of the Psalms, from the dunghill, the city dump, and set you among princes. What a wonderful, wonderful salvation. The wonderful grace of God, amazing grace, how sweet the sound. Three things about his testimony. Obviously, you have his past condition, his past condition. Every child of God has a past. You have a past before you were saved. Well, just let me say here, thank God when you're saved, the past has passed. Isn't that obvious? Isn't it wonderful? If you're saved, the past is past. In God's eyes, it's past. It's gone. You'll not be held accountable or judged for it. It's over. Your sins are forgiven. But Paul had a past, and he wanted to tell about it. Why? Not to exalt himself, but to lift up the wonderful grace of God. And look at his past condition here. In verse 13, he says, look, you've heard all about it. You heard of my conversation. The word conversation is a word that means behavior. When the King James was written, that's really what it meant, behavior. It's the idea of your way of life, your lifestyle, how you behave every day. And he said, here was my lifestyle before I was saved. This is how I lived in times past. In the Jews' religion. how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it. He's saying, in my past life, I persecuted the Christians. I persecuted the church. Paul was a devout Jew. He followed Judaism. And the very thought to him that this man, Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified as a criminal, who died in public shame, put to death by Gentiles, for any fellow Jew to suggest that such a person could possibly be the promised Messiah. To him it was blasphemy. For any fellow Jew to say something like that, he's a traitor. He deserves to be put to death. God's Messiah promised in the Old Testament's coming to be king and to destroy the Romans and to reign over everything. Don't try and tell me he died in shame and agony on a Roman tree. He was maddened. He was furious. He was angry. And look what it says, he wasted the church. He persecuted it, and he wasted it. That word wasted means to root out, to root out. Have you started weeding yet? The weeds are coming up, aren't they? Notice that, they're beginning. Good weather's coming, and you go out and you root it up. You know what to do with the weed. Trouble is when they're hard weeds to root up. But you root it up. I wanted to destroy this sect of what they call themselves Christians. I want to destroy it. It was used of armies that would go in and destroy a city. That's what he wanted to do with Christianity. Not just kill a few Christians, it's more than that. It wasn't that he just wanted to go to Damascus and, well, we'll persecute a few of the Christians. He wanted to root up the whole Christian church. Of course, we know that's impossible. Because the king and head of the church said, I will build my church in the gates of hell, shall not prevail against it. And Paul, before his conversion, Saul of Tarsus was in a long line of people that tried to destroy the people of God, be they Haman, be they Pharaoh, be they in more modern days, persecutors who tried to wipe out, do you think of the Roman emperors, there's one Domitian, wasn't it, or Diocletian, one of those men. Both of them persecuted the church, but one of them said he had destroyed every Bible that exists. No, he doesn't. You have one in your hand. Actually built a monument that there were no more Bibles left. Said he had wiped out Christianity. Well, he's long gone. You might never have heard about him. I've only read about him in history books. But thank God the name of Christ marches on, and the Church of God is still being built. But Paul attempted to waste the church and to root it out. He was a persecutor, a persecutor, and yet, yet. He was converted. That's amazing. That's amazing. I'm going to come to more details about his conversion, but I have to say at this point, that exalts the grace of God. You see, some of our testimonies here tonight would be we're born into a Christian family. Thank God for that great privilege. And we were brought along to church. And we loved to be there and sing the hymns. And we learned the hymns. And we loved to hear about the gospel. And we loved to hear testimonies. And critics would say, oh, you only profess to be a Christian because you were indoctrinated, because you were influenced by your church attendance. Isn't that what the critics say, the liberals, the left-wing people and all? It's only parents that have indoctrinated children. Of course, it's nonsense. I had someone say to that to me about a year ago. Children shouldn't be allowed to read the Bible. You're only indoctrinating them. Well, parents, by the way, and grandparents, if we don't teach our children, the world certainly will, and they'll indoctrinate them with sin. But I'm saying that's what the world would say if we give our testament. But you were brought up in Christianity and you tell them, but listen, that didn't make me a Christian just because my parents were saved. And you try and tell them, no, no, it's personal. But They couldn't say that about the Apostle Paul, because he hated the gospel. He hated, hated the very name of Jesus, our Savior, and yet God saved him. What a past, what a past. Not only was he persecuting the church, but look, he was pursuing religion, verse 14, and this is interesting, and profited in the Jews' religion above many of my egos. Now, see that word, Jews' religion? I looked it up in commentaries, you know what's interesting? Profited in, it's one word, I know in our version to read it, Jews religion, literally it's the word Judaism. Judaism. Now, it's something important here to point out. Paul is not saying here, and I think this is very important to point out, he's not saying he was pursuing the faith of Old Testament saints, that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, others, no, no, no, no, that's not what he's saying. He's saying, I was actively involved in Judaism. Now, Judaism is not The faith that Jewish Old Testament saints have. We've been looking at the tabernacle in the morning. Now they're Old Testament saints who saw the types and they looked forward by faith to the coming Messiah. Abraham was saved just the way we're saved. He had a testimony just like ours. He rejoiced to see Christ's day. But when Paul says here, Jews, religion, or Judaism, Judaism at the time of Paul, it was not faithful to what those the Old Testament saints believed. Because if it had been, they would believe in Christ. What they had done then is they had added different books, teachings of elders, teachers of rabbis. Under the 318 commands, what we call the Torah, the law of God, they had added so many more. And that all these rules and regulations, and Christ said to the Pharisees of his day, you've put burdens on the people. So when Paul says here he's following the Jews religion, don't just say here it's more than, oh yes, I'm following the Old Testament practice. No, no, he's following what had become a works religion. Oh yes, there were features of the Old Testament faith, which of course was the true faith. Isaac and others I've mentioned all believed. They're saved. We'll sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in heaven. We'll sit down with them. But he means how the religion had twisted the teaching. And that added all these Jewish foolish notions about what's breaking the law? What's breaking the law? I think I went through that some time ago. We're talking about that, how you can dip an egg on the Sabbath into some salt and eat it, a hard-boiled egg, but if you left the salt cellar and put it on, you've sinned. Because you're actually, you know, that's a burden to lift the salt cellar. Must be a very big salt cellar. But anyway, that's what they taught. All these silly things. That if you follow these all, so we'll just leave that there then. This is what he's teaching. He's man-made religion. Look what he said here. He said, I profited in it. What that word means, I advanced in it. Above my equals. Remember he said in the Philippians, I'm a Pharisee of the Pharisee, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. In other words, Saul had become a top theologian. He could argue all the rules and regulations, all the different rituals you have to go through to please God and to get to heaven. He could tell you them all. He's saying, look, I was not just a believer in Judaism. I was one of the top. And by the way, verse 14 brings out what we mean. I was exceeding zealous concerning the tradition of my fathers. See, it's what the rabbis had added that added to God's word and made these rules. So here's a man and his past conduct. He's religious, he's persecuting the church. He's pursuing a religion of works, of self-effort. You say, what an unlikely convert. Well, thank God, look at the powerful change. Look at the powerful change. And that's wonderful in verse 15, but when it pleased God, but when it pleased God, I was thinking of those words this afternoon and went to search out a book. I finally found it. A little book I have by a man called Raymond Edmond. Some of you may have heard it. He's a whole series of very short devotionals on but God. There's 45 of them in the New Testament. Now, this isn't one of them, but it doesn't actually, the words don't actually join each other. There's but, when it please God, but he took verses in the Bible that has but God. When we were dead in trespasses and sins and so on, but God who is rich in mercy. and so on. There's a wonderful text in scripture, but God, isn't this tremendous? Now, there were two words, God and but are separated here, but it's the same thought. Here was Paul's past persecuting the Christians, so zealous in his religion, but God, that's the powerful change. That's the grace of God. God intervened. God intervened. Paul was a sinner, but God. Paul was persecuting the church, but God. Paul was not looking for salvation through Christ, but God. Paul here, or Saul, we keep using the names, he wasn't looking for new life, but God. Wanting to kill Christians, but God. That's what we mean by the grace of God. It says there, when it pleased God. Isn't that amazing? That's the sovereign grace of God. Paul said, I wasn't seeking salvation. I wasn't praying that Christ would save me. God just intervened in my life. It's all of him. He did it all, sovereign grace. When it pleased God, God moved. You see, Paul spiritually was as Lazarus was physically. Lazarus was dead in the tomb, his body. Do you think Lazarus in the sepulchre was calling out, oh, I wish Christ would come and resurrect me? No, of course he wasn't. You see, Paul, in Ephesians 2, says, I was dead. So is everybody, of course. All the Senate were dead. But it's God that took the initiative. That's what we mean by grace. God took the initiative. God didn't ask Paul's permission. Salvation is of the Lord. Look, another one here. He separated me from my mother's womb. Isn't that tremendous? He set me apart. Isn't that amazing? It says that about Jeremiah as well. He was set apart. God knew all about Saul, even before he was born. Remember, the psalmist said that, Psalm 139. God knew all about me. And God was overseeing everything about my life when I was a child. When I was a teenager, when I was a student at the university under Gamaliel, when I went out to persecute the Christians, God already had separated me. He was watching over me. Believer, you can say that about your life. Even before you were saved, God knew all about you. That's what the grace of God's about. That's hard to take in, isn't it? Don't think for a moment that God only started to love you and work when you decided to turn to him. That's not the teaching of scripture. You turned to him because God sought you. God did the seeking. Adam, where art thou? Adam was hiding. And even before Paul came to know Christ, God's eye was on him right from his mother's womb. And I, of course, that's one reason we're totally opposed to abortion. You could give case after case of parents told to abort the child. And I know there are difficult situations. I'm not a doctor, but my, we could talk of many where Child has been born with serious difficulties and yet the family would say, oh but God has worked in their lives. There's a history book of the church in Down and Mourne. Some of us got it there a week or so ago. The little boy, well he's not a boy now, Ray Hannah, he can't speak, can't use his hands, can't walk. You see him in the services in the wheelchair. Sometimes he'll grunt out, make a noise. Then they discovered he could look at things, and his mother would know what he's looking at. And then they talk about this machine where if you look at it, it could sound out words. And then when he went to the special school at Fleming Fulton, someone told him a computer works with your feet. He's one that he can work with his head. By the way, he's a degree from the Open University. Isn't that amazing? He's saved, and he gives us testimony of how he came to Christ. If you see him in the church, I've gone over and took him by the hand different times, and he's able to write out his testimony or get it there and then print it out. What a testimony. But I'm just saying, God knows. Now, I don't understand the disability. I'm not God. I don't understand it all. But I do believe this. God knows all about us, right before we're born. And thank God that lad, Ray, knows the Lord. You smile and maybe let somebody read it sometime and get a copy of it and he talks about well I know I'm different than most people they walk on two legs I go on two wheels in the wheelchair. What a testimony to God's grace. Well I want to get back this wasn't it just came to mind there as I was speaking It says there, he knew me, separated me from my mother's womb and he could look back on his life even before he was saved and see God's fingerprints in his life. By the way, one that jumps to mind is when Paul studied. as a rabbi. Oh yes, he wasn't saved. A lot of it was intellectual, learning it by rote, but you know, years later that helped him. That helped him. There's a famous preacher in America, I think he's died now, same name as myself, Johnson. Dallas Theological Seminary, and he loved golf, so he got a scholarship to a university playing golf, and to do that, he had to study Greek. He didn't really love Greek, but to get the scholarship and to go to university, he studied Greek. No interest in religious things, no interest in Christ, and then the Lord saved him. Do you know what he taught in Dallas Theological Seminary? New Testament Greek. He would say in his writings how God was working in his life even when he was far away. Well, what I'm saying is Paul was like that. He could look back and say, oh, there's things in my life even before I was saved. I can see the hand of God. Let me quickly on. He called me by his grace. Isn't that wonderful? Called me by his grace. There's Saul on the road to Damascus. He's no interest. In coming to Christ, he wants to wipe out, remember, root out the whole teaching. And all of a sudden, the Spirit of God stopped him. I know some of the things physically we don't expect in conversions today, the light falling to the ground, the voice, but we can say Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God, he to rescue me from danger interposed his precious blood. It was not by accident. It wasn't an accident that the Lord appeared to Paul that day. God called him. Have you been called? Maybe the Lord's calling you tonight. The still small voice. Do you feel that call? I would love to be saved. I know I need to be saved. Is the Holy Spirit calling you tonight? With Paul, it was a sudden, dramatic thing. God called him. God, as it were, just stepped in by his grace and knocked him to the ground. Just in case somebody says, well, where's human responsibility in this? Of course there's human responsibility. I like the song, you ever heard it? God does not compel us to go against our will, but he just makes us willing to go. In other words, the hornets, you remember he sent hornets to the enemy in the Old Testament? Ah, God worked on his heart. He overcomes our reluctance. From our side, I accepted Christ. From our side, oh, it was that night I found the Savior. And we're not criticizing that. But just to let you know, you found the Savior because he found you. That's what we're saying. He sought you. He sought you out, and thank God, God gave you the grace to respond. Well, it was a supernatural change in his life, and it was an internal powerful change. Look at verse 16, to reveal his son in me, in me. Now, yes, the outward, God spoke to him, yes, or the Lord spoke to him, the risen Lord Jesus Christ, but it says to reveal his son in me. You know what happens, the powerful change of a true conversion? Christ is revealed to you. What that means is, here's a person not long saved. They may not, and they could not answer theological questions, but to say, I know this, once I was blind, I know Christ is my savior, and he walks with me and he talks with me. That's what I mean about revealing to us. Salvation is having Christ within us. Christ in you, the hope of glory. And Paul's saying, I had a powerful change in my life. The one whose name I hated to hear mentioned, God revealed him to me. And Paul would commune with the Lord and speak to him. It was internal, and it was evangelical. It was, look in verse 16, that I might preach him among the heathen. Do you know a good sign of a change in his life? And this is a sign of a change in a believer. He hated the name of Christ, and now he wants everybody to know the name of Christ. He hated Christians, now he wants everybody to become a Christian. That's a good sign somebody's saved. But the point I want to emphasize that I just mentioned a moment ago, to reveal a son, we can look at somebody else's life and say, there's the marks of a Christian, but only the person, only the individual knows, and the Lord, that they're truly converted, because you have that relationship, you have that fellowship, the revelation of Christ. Very quickly then, a last point, there's the past conduct. There's this powerful change. Look at the personal contacts he had just after he was saved. You see, his testimony didn't stop just when he was converted. I was reading Martin Lloyd-Jones this week, where he said he's tired of hearing conversions, or somebody said it was saved 40 years ago, or 50 years ago, or 30 years ago, but they never tell anything what happened after. In other words, they have no fellowship with the Lord. You know what he's getting at? Of course we never forget that time. But Paul goes on what he did in verse 16. Look at this first contact he had. What's that about? Paul's saying, I didn't go and talk to any leaders. Now again, there's nothing wrong with getting advice from mature people, mature Christians. But Paul's saying, no, I went into the desert and I got alone with God. Now remember, Paul knew the Old Testament back to front, but it never made any difference in his life. But now he's alone with God, and as he begins to look again at the Old Testament scriptures, you see, he's saved now. And as he gets alone with God and prays and talks with God, God opens up the Old Testament. You see, now Christ has been revealed in Paul. And when he looks at those passages he's read, he begins to see it. It's Christ. I wonder, did he study the tabernacle there? Would have been great to get Paul's, well, I believe Hebrews, I suppose, as well as some of Paul's comments on the tabernacle. The Bible comes alive. I was reading a quote of George Whitefield. It was on the Daily Reading just this morning. Grace James, if any of you know it, comes through the email. And Whitefield said, I began to read this after he was saved. I began to read the scriptures upon my knees, laying aside other books and praying over the passage. over each word, and this proved meat and drink to my soul, and I received fresh light, life, and power. I got more true knowledge from reading the book of God in one month than I had ever acquired in my whole life from the writings of men." Isn't that the similar experience Paul had? He went away into the desert with the Old Testament scriptures in his mind, and he came back with the book of Galatians and Ephesians and Colossians in his heart. He's alone with God. This is a sign that he's truly saved. He's in the Word. He's alone. By the way, Moses went to the desert, didn't he? He went for 40 years. Elijah went down to the desert to meet with God. The fire, the wind. But the Lord spoke to him in a still, small voice. Oh, do you get it? Do you like to get alone with God's book and study it? If you want to, you say, well, I find it hard to study the Bible. Well, get a concordance. They're easy to get. Look on the internet. Why don't you look up all the but gods? But God, what I mean is that expression, it'll thrill your heart. Just look them up and read the context, but God. You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. That's Joseph's life. Look them up. It'll bless your heart. You'll find the time going by quickly as you get into the book. Well, he went there, but look what he went to next in verse 17. He went back to where he had been converted. He went back to Damascus. That's where he'd been going with letters to put Christians in jail, and that took courage, didn't it? That took courage to go back, to go back there. Well, they, back to Damascus, the Jewish leaders there, they wanted to kill him. So they had to let Paul down, remember, in the basket over the wall to get him to escape. And then he went down to Jerusalem. See that? Then after three years, I went up, sorry, up to Jerusalem first. You always go up to Jerusalem in the Bible, not down, but it's down on a map. But verse 18, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him 15 days. He didn't see any of the other apostles save James. You know, that's a good sign that he's saved. He wants to fellowship with other Christians. Wouldn't you like to be in the fly on the wall in those 15 days? Peter, would you take me to where Christ was crucified? Peter, tell me what it was like at the Sermon on the Mount. James, tell me what it was like to know the Savior. Oh, I'm sure he was full of questions. Fellowshiping with other believers, talking about the things of God. That's a sign of conversion, isn't it? Sign of conversion. Then in verse 21, I went to Surrey and Cilicia. That's where he was from, by the way, the province of Cilicia, Tarsus. He went back home to where he was brought up and he preached. Not a good sign of a testimony to go back and tell. Tell the friends, fellow countrymen, that he was saved. You know, wonderful last verse in the chapter. Look at it. And they glorified God and me. When Christians heard about it, they glorified God in Paul. What does that mean? They glorified the grace of God that had saved a persecutor and dramatic change in his life. When Christians heard about it, they said, isn't the grace of God wonderful? I wonder if anybody said that about you or me. Why? the grace of God in that person's life. Look at how they're changed. Glorify God. Two encouraging things. Now finish. Wonderful encouragements here. Tremendous encouragement. Well, salvation is by grace. Salvation is a real thing. It's not just being influenced by your background. Salvation's more than that. It's not just how you were brought up. I know I'm not in any way belittling the great influence of Christian parents and friends, but salvation is a work of grace. And whether you're brought up in Christian circles or somebody's never entered a church door, it's the same grace. And as a quote was put up this week, Paul Ferguson, he called me today in WhatsApp from Singapore, I was speaking to him. This is what Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, you're either a Christian or you're not a Christian. You can't be partly a Christian. You're either dead or alive. You're either born or not born. We all know that, but isn't it good to think about it? Are you a Christian? I looked up Martin Lloyd-Jones when I read that, a few other of his quotes. You know what he said? The ultimate test of a person's spirituality is the measure of our amazement at the grace of God. Are you amazed tonight at the grace of God? Or do we come blase about these things? The wonderful grace of God that saves sinners. It's grace at the beginning, he wrote, it's grace at the end. So that when you and I come to lie upon our deathbeds, the one thing that should comfort and help and strengthen us, and there's one thing that helped, the same thing that helped us at the beginning. Not what we've been, not what we've done, but the grace of God and Jesus Christ our Lord. He wrote, the Christian's life starts with grace, continues with grace, it ends with grace. Grace, wondrous grace. And then Lloyd-Jones quoted by the grace of God, I am what I am, yet not I, but the grace of God which is with me. One last encouragement. Thank God, the grace of God that saved you will keep you. It'll keep you. There's dying grace for the people of God. It'll bring us safe home. But listen, here's another encouragement. Those we think could never be saved. They're too hard. They're too difficult. There's no interest in the things of God. They hate the things of God. Well, there's nobody hated the gospel and the message of Christ more than Saul of Tarsus, but the Lord's grace saved him. So I'd encourage you, keep on praying. Even though you say, but listen, I've prayed for years. And they only seem to get harder. God saved Saul of Tarsus. He can save today in Utenards, in our families, among our friends. God called me by his grace. Let's pray. Lord, call, you put the name in. Call so-and-so by your grace. Do it again, Lord.