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9. This morning we will be looking
at the first nine verses. Acts chapter 9 and verse 1. Thus says the word of the Lord,
Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples
of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from
him to the synagogues of Damascus. so that if he found any who were
of the way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to
Jerusalem. As he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly
a light shone around him from heaven. And then he fell to the
ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you
persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord? And then the Lord said, I am
Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against
the goads. So he, trembling and astonished,
said, Lord, what do you want me to do? And then the Lord said
to him, arise and go into the city, and you will be told what
you must do. And the men who journeyed with
him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one. And
then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened,
he saw no one. But they led him by the hand
and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without
sight, and neither ate nor drank." Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we thank you for the Word of God. We ask you, Lord, this morning
that even as Saul saw the glorious light of Jesus Christ, that through
your word this morning, we would likewise see the glory and the
brightness of it. Lord, help us to understand what
you would have us to see from your word. We know that you have
brought us here to this passage this morning to show us what
a dramatic conversion experience of this man named Saul. But Lord,
it is not only about a man named Saul, but it is about each one
of us. It is about the person who is sitting here this morning
who has never trusted in Jesus Christ. And I pray, oh God, that
they would see Jesus this morning, that Christ would be exalted,
that he would be glorified, and that every mouth at the end of
this service would say, Lord, what would you have me to do?
And I ask this in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. I hope this morning that you
will show me grace as we say the words Saul and Paul, and
I will intermix those, I am sure, so much grace will be needed
this morning. I want to begin this message
here entitled, The Salvation of the Chief of Sinners. And
it is pointing us to this glorious narrative and this glorious experience
that this man Saul had when Jesus Christ met him on the road to
Damascus. In 1 Timothy 1, I wrote there
for you in your notes, you can see that there, we read this
personal testimony of the Apostle Paul, and I believe it is very
helpful and instructive for us, and it will begin to guide us
on our way as we head into chapter nine. the book of Acts. And so
I will quote first Timothy here and read Paul's own testimony
in which he says, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled
me because he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.
Although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent
man, but I obtained mercy. because I did it ignorantly in
unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was
exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are in Christ
Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom
I am chief. However, for this reason, I obtained
mercy that in me first, Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering
as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting
life. Now to the King eternal, immortal,
invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever
and ever. Amen. I'd like for you to note
four things about this passage and this testimony of the Apostle
Paul, and I underline them for you there. Number one, I want
you to notice how he describes himself as formerly a blasphemer,
a persecutor, and an insolent man. I also want you to note
how he describes God's grace towards him, exceedingly abundant. I want you to note how he saw
himself as a worse sinner than everyone else. He describes himself
as the chief of sinners. And then fourthly, note that
he understood that his life before and after conversion was going
to be used as a pattern regarding the mercy of God to those who
were going to believe on Christ for salvation. I bring that up
specifically because I want you to understand as we're reading
this testimony of Saul, the conversion of Saul, and how God saved the
chief of sinners, and how by his sovereign grace he redeemed
him, that we need to understand that this is not just us coming
before God's word to read a miraculous and wonderful story about a man
named Saul. But what he tells us in his own
testimony is this, that in me first, Jesus Christ might show
all longsuffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe
on him for everlasting life. That's you. that's me. So this has personal application
for us as we consider the life of Saul and the conversion of
Saul on the road to Damascus. So I do not want us to miss that
very point. And so I read this passage in
1st Timothy because our passage in Acts is actually the historical
account of this testimony. And this is why I find this section
of the Book of Acts to be so fascinating and amazingly instructive
for us here this morning. We are given here a case study the depravity of man and his
utter inability and unwillingness to save himself and at the same
time we are shown the sovereignty of God and the grace of God intermingled
in the salvation of sinners. Though it is true that very few
throughout history have had such a dramatic experience in their
salvation. Many would like to have something
like this. They would love to have a great light shine from
heaven and say, I am Jesus. But it has never happened again
that we know of. And so, I want you to understand
though that the grace needed to subdue your rebel heart and
to bring you to salvation was no less remarkable and no more
exceedingly abundant than was the grace of God demonstrated
in the salvation of this man named Saul. Your conversion is
as much a miracle of God's grace as what we read here in the book
of Acts chapter 9. And if you see that any differently,
you don't have a right understanding of what it took to save you.
And in fact, when you read the title, The Salvation of the Chief
of Sinners, you were thinking of someone beside yourself. We are all the chief of sinners.
At least that's how we should see ourselves. Because without
the grace of God, every one of us deserve hell. every one of
us. And so when we consider, I think
Paul, he says this of himself because he had a right understanding
of who he was before God without Christ. He was the chief of sinners. You see, the only difference
is is that we are not so ready to acknowledge the exceeding
sinfulness of our sins the same way that Saul or Paul was. But
keep in mind Paul's personal testimony in Philippians chapter
three in verse four. He says, though I also might
have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he may
have confidence in the flesh, I more so. circumcised the eighth
day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew
of Hebrews, concerning the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal,
persecuting the church, concerning the righteousness which is in
the law, blameless. But what things were gained to
me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also
count all things loss, for the excellence of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all
things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ, and be
found in him, not having my own righteousness which is from the
law, but that which is through faith in Christ. the righteousness
which is from God by faith, that I may know him, that I may know
him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings,
being conformed to his death, if by any means I may obtain
to the resurrection from the dead. Who was this man Saul? Well, first I want to show you
in verses one and two, that this man Saul was a religious man
who was raging against Jesus Christ. We read this in verses
1 and 2, and then Saul, still breathing threats and murder
against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest
and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so
that if he found any who were of the way, whether men or women,
he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. What we see here are
the words, first of all, in verse 1, the words of an evil man. The Bible tells us that he was
still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the
Lord. Don't pass over that little phrase, still breathing. don't
want us to miss the importance of this phrase. This gives us
the picture that this is not the first time that Saul was
threatening the life of the disciples of Jesus Christ. We remember
the death of Stephen, we just came off that just a few weeks
ago, preaching about the death and the martyrdom of Stephen.
And this also shows us that the fire of Saul's rage against the
disciples was not dampened in any way. He was still breathing
out threats and murders against the disciples of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The blood of the martyr Stephen only wet his appetite
to do more harm and to wreak more havoc among the church of
the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, he is still breathing
these threats and murders. You know, I feel it difficult
for us to get a sense of this because so much of what we have
and what we have learned throughout our Christian life is of the
beloved brother Paul. And when we read the Bible, we
read the words of Paul, we read the testimonies of Paul, we think
about his chapter in 1 Corinthians 13 on love, we think about all
of the beautiful things that Paul says to us, and I think
sometimes, at least I do, I sometimes minimize in my thinking exactly
who this man was before Christ. You see, we love his teaching,
We're challenged by this beloved apostle's example to us, as he
even tells us, be imitators of me as I am of Christ. But just for a moment, I want
you to see the anger and rage and the hatred that this man
had towards the church before he ever loved the church. If
I told you this morning of some radical Muslim cleric in northern
Nigeria who led a group in March to abduct 100 Christians in Adunu,
some they imprisoned and some they murdered, and now this cleric
is on social media threatening to murder more Christians, breathing
out threats and murders, what would you think? of this man
and of this picture that I have just painted for you, part of
which is true, part of it is not. Do you get the picture of what
this man was like? In much the same way, this was
Saul's attitude. He was a zealously religious
man, passionately going after the Christians and the disciples
of the Lord Jesus Christ, threatening them with threats and murder. This word threat here means just
to declare harm to another person, to threaten them strongly and
formally. And the murders that he breathed
out. He was already an accomplice
to murder. He was there holding the coats, or the coats were
set at the feet of this young man named Saul. And he was, even
as Paul Carrington preached to us last week, guilty of murder,
even though perhaps his hands did not partake in the physical
act itself because of his anger and rage towards the Christians. In Matthew 15, Jesus said, are
you also still without understanding? Do you not yet understand that
whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated,
but those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the
heart? They defile a man. For out of
the heart proceeds evil thoughts and murders, adulteries, fornications,
thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile
a man. When we read about Saul the man,
we are reading about a blasphemer according to his own testimony.
We're reading about a murderer according to his own testimony.
We're reading about an insolent man according to his own testimony. But now, not only did he have
words of an angry man, but he had the schemes of a religious
evil man. In the latter part of verse 1
and then into verse 2, the Bible says, he went to the high priest
and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus. Now, I want you to understand
and think about how bad this man Saul was. He was not content
with the death of Stephen. He was not content with all of
the disciples fleeing because of the persecution out of the
city limits of Jerusalem. He wasn't satisfied with that. This man, he was scheming at
how to go after them in the places in which they fled. These disciples of our Lord had
fled from Jerusalem because of the persecution and now Saul
was so consumed with stamping out this new sect that he dedicated
his time and his energies to destroying them even in foreign
cities. Damascus was not a short walk. Saul was a bad man. He was much like us. before Christ. The purpose of this religious
evil man is shown to us in the latter part of verse 2. Notice
the purpose statement that we're giving here, this little phrase,
so that. So that, it tells us the purpose.
So that if he found any who were of the way, whether men or women,
he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. This of the way, this
is the description of those who were followers of Christ. We read in John 14, 6, Jesus
himself testifying, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me. This term is also
used later in the book of Acts regarding Paul himself in Acts
19.23. He says, and about that time
there arose a great commotion about the way. This was this
descriptor of speaking about the disciples of Jesus Christ.
Those who had seen Jesus Christ as being the way and they were
in the way because they were following Jesus Christ. So his
purpose here was that of a singular purpose. He was after those who
followed Jesus Christ and it seems that he would stop at nothing
until he had his way over those who were in the way. In fact,
I've mentioned this before and I'll mention it again, both men
and women, neither were safe and neither were removed from
the crosshairs of this man, this religious man, Saul. The point needed for us to understand
is that Saul had no compassion for the weaker sex. He had no compassion to the cries
or the tears or the pleadings of a wife or of a mother who
was in the way of Jesus Christ. He was an equal opportunity destroyer,
if you will. He was after both men and women. It didn't matter to him if you
were a man or a woman. His purpose was to destroy this way. And the pleads of women did nothing
to move his heart. Boy, what a picture. Have you
ever imagined Paul being like this? His desire was to bring them
bound. Though He wanted to bring them bound, His purpose was not
to leave them bound. His testimony, again in Acts
26, He says this of Himself, This I also did in Jerusalem,
and in many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received
authority from the chief priest. And when they were put to death,
I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in
every synagogue, compelling them to blaspheme. And being exceedingly
enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.
This was Saul. He was a man enraged against
the way and the people of the way. In fact, he didn't want
only to have them bound. He wanted them to be put to death.
And if not put to death, he wanted them to blaspheme by denying
the name of Jesus Christ. This was the man Saul. An evil man who thought he did
the will of God. Boy, can man be confused. about the will of God. In John
16-2, Jesus tells his early disciples, they will put you out of the
synagogues. Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you
will think that he offers God service. How great is that darkness of
the depravity of man without the light of the gospel. to think
that they worship God by killing others who will not follow their
way. I want you to consider something
this morning, you, specifically you who sit here week after week
in the presence of the worship of God. You who have involved
yourselves with the people of God and even into the midst of
the service of God, but who do not truly know God. Consider Saul, the man who was
zealous and passionate about religious activity, a man who
believed that he was right with God because of what he did, because
of his moral value and his adherence to the law of God, a man who
trusted in his own righteousness, a man who dedicated his life
to following the law of God and yet did not know God because
he did not know Christ. He believed that he did God's
service and yet persecuted God's people. He thought that he was
fighting for God, but in fact found that he was fighting against
God. I want you to know that you can
be as sincere in your beliefs as anyone else and be sincerely
wrong in your belief. Sincerity is not equal to truth. Sincerity is a condition of your
mind, but it is not the conversion of your soul. I want to plead with you this
morning. If this describes you, I'm pleading with you. Do not
just continue to sit here week after week thinking that you're
sitting here under the preaching of the Word of God, involved
in the religious activity of God, and somehow this makes you
right with God. It does not. If you do not humble
yourself and you do not repent of your sins and trust in the
saving work of Jesus Christ, you will be undone in the day
of judgment. Do not trust in your religious
activity to make you right with God. There is only one way to
be right with God, and that is through faith in our Lord Jesus
Christ. And if you deny the Son, you
do not have the Father. You must have the Son. Now you
may be thinking to yourself, I'm not raging against God. I'm
not persecuting the church. I'm not killing people. I'm not
threatening murders and all of these things. But I don't want
you to fool yourself. If you have not submitted to
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible says you're actually an enemy
of God. Those are strong words. If you're sitting here this morning
and you're not trusting in Christ alone, have you ever considered
to think that you're an enemy of God? Ephesians 2, 3 says,
Among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature children of wrath, just as others. James 4.4 says, Adulterers and
adulteresses, do you know that friendship with the world is
enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be
a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 1 John says, and this is the testimony,
That God has given us eternal life and this life is in His
Son. He who has the Son has life.
He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These
things I have written to you who believe in the name of the
Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. and
that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God."
Think about this just for a moment. The big issue here with Saul
was regarding the name of Jesus Christ. That's what they were
all railing against. Throughout the book of Acts,
the high priest there and all of these council members, it
was by what name or by what authority do you do these things? Do not
preach in his name, he said. But if you do not accept the
name and believe in the name, there is no salvation except
through his name. That is a side note just as a
warning to anyone who may be sitting here this morning trusting
in anything other than the name of Jesus Christ and what he has
done. You know, you may wrap your life
in as much religious activity as you like, but religious activity
will no more save you than it would this man Saul. There was
no one more religious than him. He was zealous to the nth degree.
His credentials of his religious activity and his pedigree were
bar none. No one had anything on him. And
yet he was hopeless without Christ. It was not until he was humbled
by the realization that trusting in his own righteousness was
utter foolishness. All of his striving after the
law to make himself right with God was vain. All his zeal for
religion was only a man hoping in the futility of self-righteousness. but once cast upon that rock
and living in the righteousness of another, then his zeal that
he had in striving to commit his own self-righteousness was
turned to the purpose of knowing the will of the Lord Jesus Christ
as what we see in the rest of the book of Acts. This passage
is a hinge point in this man's life and it is a miraculous event
and it will be a miraculous event in your life too when you humble
yourself and fall to the ground before Jesus Christ. and pronounce
him as your Lord and Savior. It will be a turning point like
you've never even dreamed of. And that's what we see here.
We see in verses 3 through 6 a proud man humbled before Jesus Christ.
It says in verse 3, and as he journeyed, he came near Damascus,
and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. And then he
fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul,
Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you,
Lord? And then the Lord said, I am
Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against
the goads. So he, trembling and astonished,
said, Lord, what do you want me to do? This is without question
the most clear sovereignty of God and salvation narrative in
the Bible. Unmistakable, undeniable, Saul
was not seeking after God. Saul was not praying, Saul was
not hearing preaching, Saul was not humble, Saul was on his way
to destroy Christians and then Jesus Christ met him on the way. He was meditating on murder and
God saved him. Jesus Christ himself, a heavenly
light. Think of that. The only seeking
Saul did was to seek to persecute Jesus and his church. And what
he found out was that not that he was seeking God, but God was
seeking him. And I want you to know, every
one of you who are saved, that is the way it is in your life.
You may see it differently. You may think, well, I was going
to church and I was reading my Bible. But let me tell you something,
you would have done none of those things if God was not seeking
you. And He found you. And He will
receive all of the glory. The light of the world shone
on this man. And it shone in his heart. In
Acts 26, 13, Paul says it this way. At midday, O king, along
the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun
shining around me. Those who were sitting in darkness
have seen a great light. And Saul was a man of darkness
until Jesus Christ met him on the road to Damascus and he turned
from darkness to light. The light of the glory of Jesus
Christ and His grace fell upon him and he was set on the right
way. I'm telling you what, it was
a turn so quick that it would make your head spin. He was going
one way to destroy the people of God and then instantly he
was the people of God. What a glorious picture this
is, and it is the same with you. You may think, boy, it's taken
me years and years and years, but I want you to know something.
In the reality of it, you have gone from being a hater of God
to instantly being a lover of God. You may not think that you
were as bad as Saul, but let me tell you something. The Bible
tells us in the book of James that if you've broken one commandment
of God, you've broken them all. You are a lawbreaker. And I am a lawbreaker. And Jesus
Christ came to save sinners of whom I am chief. Paul says this,
he understood this. He was a proud man until Jesus
Christ met him on the way. And then he was a humble man.
I want you to notice something here in verse 4a. Back to the
dirt from which he came. God created man from the dirt.
And before he remakes man, he throws him in the dirt again.
And that's just metaphoric for saying God humbled this man to
the very dirt from which he came. He was right down into the ground.
It's believed that Saul and these men were riding horses because
of the great distance that they were going. I don't know if that's
the case or not, but either way, Paul did not find himself on
a horse. He did not find himself on the feet. He found himself
on the ground. And I want you to realize that
when you come before the glory of Jesus Christ, that's where
you will be. You will be on your face before a glorious, holy,
righteous, omnipotent God. He fell to the ground. This proud
man, he needed to be humbled. And do not think for one second
that God cannot humble who he wills. There is no one that can resist
God's will. Saul was on his way, no doubt,
meditating on how he would find and arrest the followers of Jesus
Christ. And now the hunter has become
the prey. Jesus humbled him to the ground.
In Acts 26, 14, Paul says, and when we all had fallen to the
ground, reminiscent of what we read in John 18, now when he
said to them, I am he, they drew back and fell to the ground.
When Jesus tells you who he is, the whole crowd went to the ground.
It wasn't just Saul that went to the ground. All of them went
to the ground. before the glory of this man, Jesus Christ. All men will bow the knee when
he wills them to bow the knee. Hopefully this brings into some
clarity for us in Philippians 9 through 11. Therefore God also
has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every
name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those
in heaven and those on earth and those under the earth and
that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. God has no problem making every
knee bow. You may ask then, why does he
not do that now? And all I can say is, this is
hidden in the providence of God. It's hidden in his sovereign
will. He doesn't have to tell us why and when and how. His
purposes and His ways are past finding out. God does whatever
He wants, whatever He wants. Psalm 115 verse 3 says, But our
God is in heaven, He does whatever He pleases. Why does He not bow
every knee now and have every tongue confess? Because He is
not pleased to do so yet. Psalm 135, 6, whatever the Lord
pleases, he does in heaven and in earth, in the sea and all
deep places. So the humbling of all people
before him is only on hold until he pleases. He is God and he
will do it according to his will. It is a point of note that God's
design for Saul was one of great importance. He would be an apostle
and a teacher of the church. He must be humbled before he
could be exalted. You know, Matthew Henry has a
helpful statement here. He says, as a step towards this
intended advancement, he is designed not only to be a Christian, but
to be a minister, an apostle, a great apostle, and therefore
he must be cast down. Note, those whom Christ designs
for the greatest honors are commonly first laid low. Those who are
designed to excel in knowledge and grace are commonly laid low
first in a sense of their own ignorance and sinfulness. Those
whom God will employ are first struck with a sense of their
unworthiness to be employed. What is the sense of yourself? What do you think of yourself? The Apostle, before he was the
Apostle, thought very highly of himself. The Lord confronted Saul about
some things that he was doing. The light of his glory shone
around him. He's on the ground. Get the picture. Do you see it? A religious man on the ground
before a great shining light brighter than the noonday sun.
And in that position of humiliation, Jesus confronts him. And Saul
heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting
me? Can you imagine this scene? A
proud man heading on his way to do his will, and now he is
on the ground confronted by the one in whom he was persecuting. I've been thinking about this
for some time. You know, there are different places in the Bible
in which God confronts evil men by different means. Sometimes
he uses an angel. to confront and to rebuke. Sometimes
he uses the means of nature, maybe through a storm or a fire
or some other way, an earthquake or some natural phenomenon. Sometimes by his prophets he
rebukes the wicked and sometimes by an invading army, sometimes
by a donkey he rebukes the prophet, the false prophet, sometimes
He uses different means. But Saul was of such a sort and
his heart was so hard like granite that the Lord Jesus himself confronts
Saul. For Saul it took a divine revelation
of Jesus Christ to humble him to the ground. To think that
this man was so set in his ways to do evil that no humble means
would turn him from the air of his way. He heard that fabulous
sermon of Stephen. One of the greatest sermons in
the scriptures. And his heart was set to kill
him. You know, with some men, the sermon just makes them sour
and it makes them madder. But when Jesus Christ reveals
himself to you, you will be humbled. To think that this man, again,
was so evil and hard that only the divine hammer of God's glory
would break his heart of stone. And God was not slack, he would
break it. Calvin says, for what other thing
can befall man but that he must lie prostrate and be as it were
brought to nothing? When he is overwhelmed with the
present feeling of God's glory, and this was the first beginning
of the bringing down of Paul, that he might become apt to hear
the voice of Christ, which he had so despised so long as he
sat haughtily upon his horse. Jesus calls him by name. He confronts him, he calls him
by name as to arouse him as if he was asleep and dull in hearing,
Saul, Saul. I don't know how he used it and
how his voice was, but I can imagine it may have been a still
small voice, Saul, Saul. and awakening to the fact that
he, like his namesake, was now persecuting the son of David,
like his namesake persecuted David, to awaken him. However, I also believe that
this is a sign even of tenderness. Calling the name twice, Saul,
Saul. If you ever had a rebellious child
and your heart goes out to them because you love them, they're
your child. You want to stop them from their rebellion. You
want to stop them from what they're doing. They're headed in a way
that they should not go. And in one sense, you're calling
their name is a rebuke. And yet at the same time, calling
of their name is something that is a form of tenderness to stop
them from where they are. Saul, Saul. A call of disappointment of his
actions, but a call of encouragement to God's purposes. He asked this question, why? You know, there are some comforts
for the saints found in this question from the Lord. Let's
read it again. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting
me? Well, we know and we've read
that he was on his way to persecute those who were of the way. He
was wanting to throw men and women in prison. He was wanting
them to blaspheme. He was wanting them to be put
to death. He was willing to cast his lot
against them. But yet Jesus Christ, when confronting
Saul, said, why are you persecuting me? Just a couple of little things
as by way of encouragement here. The Lord knows when his saints
are persecuted. There's no persecuted saint anywhere
that Jesus Christ does not know. He is king of kings and he is
omniscient. He's omnipotent. He is omnipresent. He's with them. He knows them.
Why are you persecuting Saul? Also, the Lord feels the sufferings
of his saints. Why are you persecuting me? For we do not have a high priest
who does not sympathize with our weaknesses. And also the Lord owns the sufferings
of his saints. Why are you persecuting me? What an amazing statement. When
the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is persecuted, Jesus Christ
deems it as he himself is being persecuted. And this is understandable
because the fact is we are his body. We are his bride. Can you imagine the anger of
the Christ when someone touches his bride? What would you do
if someone came after your bride? Well, a million times more righteous
and more holy and more powerful, Jesus would come after those
who harm his bride. He loves his bride. He knows
his bride. He feels the sufferings of his
bride. And we see now in this humbling
of Saul when he acknowledges his ignorance of the situation.
When Jesus Christ confronts him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting
me? And he said, who are you, Lord? Who are you, Lord? One of the
hardest things for a proud man to ever admit is that he doesn't
know something. Oftentimes, men of pride will
lie when they don't know something, just look as if they know something. They will avoid the question
or they will make up some high-sounding statement. But here we have Saul,
this proud man, being humbled to the very ground, and he says,
who are you? This man who had dedicated his
life from a very young age to the Scriptures, he knew the Word
of God. And yet he says to this glorious,
bright, shining light, who are you? He was admitting that he didn't
know something. Saul was the type of man who
always knew the answer. He was the best in his class.
He prided himself in it. But not now. The Lord had brought
him to the ground and Saul asked this humble question, Who are
you, Lord? Now the word Lord here does not
necessarily acknowledge Jesus as being Lord of Lords and being
God, but it is a term used for master. It is a term that is
a sign of respect. It's the word that is used in
the Bible regarding Sarah calling Abraham Lord. It's this respectful
terminology. He's humbled, he's speaking,
and he's saying, who are you, Lord? Obviously, I am not in
control of this situation. I don't know that we can consider
this the moment of conversion, but it is definitely the beginnings
of it. Humility. Humility is always in the beginnings
of conversion. It is never lacking from conversion.
Saul here acknowledges that whoever this is, he does not know him.
But the question begs the answer. Saul wanted to know who this
was because this was a power that he was not equipped to handle. He had never experienced something
like this before. Who are you, Lord? Jesus leaves
him not in ignorance, though, but terrifies him with the answer.
Where was Saul headed? He was heading to do harm to
those who were of the way. He was headed to do harm of those
who called upon the name of Jesus. And what does Jesus tell him
in verse 5? These terrifying words, not to us, but to him.
I am Jesus. Can you imagine? Can you imagine
what was going through his mind at this moment? The very one
upon whom Paul's rage was aimed. at least all those who followed
him. I am Jesus. What must have gone through his
mind at the hearing of this? That name, that name that was
professed by the apostles in the healing of the lame man in
Acts chapter 3. That name that had turned many
away from his beloved religion in Acts chapter 4. That name
that was professed to provide the only way of salvation in
Acts 4.12, that name that gave the apostles such boldness before
the council in Acts 4.13, that name that had commanded not to
be used in Acts 4.18, that name that was bringing healing to
so many sick and lame and demon-possessed in Acts 5.16, that name that
was being continually preached in Jerusalem in Acts 5.28, that
name which Stephen called upon and his death at the hands of
Saul in Acts 7.59. And that name by which Saul was
casting both men and women into prison, Acts 8.3. That name that
now spoke to him, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. That name. That name which was
above every name. That name by which he now was
humbled to the ground. Saul is now pressed even lower
in his humility. If Jesus would have said, I am
Yahweh, but he didn't. He said, I am Jesus. I am Jesus. And this statement, the statement,
if you will, for the ages, Jesus gives to him. In the latter part
of verse five, Saul says, who are you, Lord? And the Lord said,
I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. And then this statement for the
ages, it is hard for you to kick against the goads. What in the
world is he talking about? Now many of you may have an understanding
of this. You may be well informed about
the goad and when you're plowing your fields or not. The goad is the point, a pointed
implement that a farmer uses as a plowman. He uses it to poke
the animal when it is going in the wrong direction or moving
too slowly. It's a sharp on the end. It's
almost like this sharp steel rod that would poke them. If you've ever been around a
horse or a cow, you will know that oftentimes when the animal
is prodded with the goad, that the animal's natural reflex is
to kick at the goad at that which poked it. You don't want to be
too close when you poke it, lest you be kicked. But I want you
to understand something, this natural reflex of trying to kick
the goad is utter foolishness. If being poked by the goad hurt,
what would kicking a goad feel like? One, it's nearly impossible to
hit. It's a sharp metal object pointed straight at you. If you
did hit it, the pain in which that animal would feel and would
be inflicted upon it would make the goad doubly painful. But
such an action of stubborn rebellion, they kick at the goads. And Jesus
asked this question to him. This statement, it is hard to
kick against the goad. This tool which was intended
to put them in the right way is seen as an offense to Saul.
Throughout history, the enemies of God and those who have not
submitted to His will have kicked at the goads of God. Saul was
like this, but the question for us today is, are you like this? Are you kicking at God's goad? Remember that scripture is for
our instruction and our example and our admonition. Be admonished. Are you kicking against the goads? Well, the simple answer is stop
it. Your child ever do something
really dumb? What do you say? Stop it. You don't give them
the whole big reason. Stop it. Stop kicking against the goad.
The goad is that which God is using to bring you into a line,
to bring you to salvation, to bring you into obedience. But
the question is there for us, are you kicking the goad? Submit
yourself to the instruction of the Lord. Submit yourself to
His teaching. He's teaching you this morning.
Perhaps you're kicking it even now. Is the Holy Spirit speaking to
you through His Word? And you reject it? You minimize
it? You think this is for so-and-so,
I wish they were here? No, it's for you. You're here.
Stop kicking against the goad. Why keep doing the same dumb
thing over and over? That's the definition of insanity.
Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different
result. Stop. Why kick against your parents
who are trying to help you? Why kick against your wife who's
trying to help you? Why kick against your husband
who's trying to lead you? But more importantly, why kick
against God who's trying to save you? Why reject the counsel of
His will? Saul's submission to his Lord
though is seen in verse 6 and it's glorious. So he trembling
and astonished. You know Proverbs 1.7 says the
fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise
wisdom and instruction. I believe it is at this point
that Saul was truly beginning to understand just what he had
done. trembling and astonished. He was beginning to realize that
the very one that he was persecuting was the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And it was the same Lord Jesus
who stood before him now in that great shining light. He now understood
the great evils of his persecutions because they were against Jesus,
the one standing before him, who is the Savior and who is
the Lord. What would the Lord do to him now? He knew that he deserved judgment
and death and he trembled. And at the same time, he was
astonished. How can this be? I've dedicated
everything against this way. And he stood astonished. How
can it be that I, Saul, a man so devout and zealous for God,
could be fighting against God? How can the one I thought to
be an imposter is actually the genuine Lord? How many things
must have been going through his mind at this moment? More
than I could imagine and more than I could tell. But suffice
it to say that this proud man who once, without fear of persecuting
the church, was now on the ground before Jesus, the Lord of the
church, trembling and astonished at what he was experiencing. I believe that right here in
the middle of this statement, in Saul's question, we have conversion. Saul's question, Lord, What do
you want me to do? What a wonderful question. Have
you ever asked that question? I hope that you have. If you
haven't, you should. If he's your Lord, that question
should be on your lips regularly. Lord, what would you have me
to do? Isn't it interesting? Do you
see this rapid turn from a hater to a lover, from a persecutor
to being the persecuted very shortly, to being the man against
the church, to becoming part of the church, to abusing the
bride, to being the bride? Lord, what would you have me
to do? This question is an acknowledgment
of all that he had done that was wrong and ignorant and also
an acknowledgment of his willingness to be taught and to do whatever
Jesus tells him to do. Saul was ready and willing to
change his master. He was ready to do the high priest
bidding And now in a moment he is ready to do the great high
priest's bidding. May I say to you now, though
you may be on the way of doing some great evil. Though you may have a heart that
is ready to serve the God of this age, the devil. Though you
may have sin in your heart bubbling over, there sits one at the right
hand of God, ready to turn you from the error of your way. Change
your master! Be done with the master of the
world and of this age. Bid that old devil, the slew
foot, that destroyer, that accuser of the brethren, bid him farewell
and fall on your face before the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord
of glory. And do it now and say, Lord,
what do you want me to do? Be done with the old master and
be for the new master, Jesus Christ. Lord, what do you want
me to do? Do not delay. Why delay? His yoke is easy and his burden
is light. He will tell you what you must
do. One commentator said, but when as the Lord doth mortify
our flesh, he subdues us and brings us under as he did Paul. Neither is our will one hair
readier to obey than was Paul's until such a time as the pride
of our heart be beaten down and he have made us not only flexible
but also willing to obey and follow. Therefore, such is the
beginning of our conversion, that the Lord seeks us of his
own accord. And when we wander and go astray,
though he be not called and sought after, that he change the stubborn
affections of our hearts. To the end, he may have us to
be apt to be told. In other words, he makes us willing.
He made you willing. He will make you willing. And
when you are willing, the words of your mouth would be, Lord,
what would you have me to do? Now, on this last point, verses
six through nine, I won't take much time just because of the
time. And we'll pick up with it next week. But think of this.
We went from this religious angry man to a proud man who was humbled. And now we have a humble man
who's waiting on Lord Jesus. Lord, what do you want me to
do? And Jesus said to him, arise and go into the city and you'll
be told what you must do. How many of us would have said,
Lord, could I have a little bit more? Like, what's the next step? What about after that? But not
Saul. It says, and the men who journeyed
with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no one. And
then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened,
he saw no one, but they led him by the hand and brought him into
Damascus, and he was there three days without sight, and neither
ate nor drank. The Lord did not leave him, and
nor will he leave you without instruction. When you pray, Lord,
what would you have me to do? And you actually mean, Lord,
what would you have me to do? He will not leave you without
instruction. Though he did not tell him all, he did tell him
something. He told him what he needed to
know at the moment. We don't need to know all that the Lord
has for us. You only need to know what he
has for you right now. That next step that he has for
you. We're walking with the Lord. We're in the way. We're not in
front of him. You see, he will show us a step
at a time. And his next instruction will
be forthcoming after, after the first obedience is fulfilled. Some of you are sitting here
wondering this morning, what should I do next? Perhaps you should
ask the question, what did he tell me to do last? and do it. We want to know what's next.
And God says, think about what you haven't done. Are you obeying
the very clear things that God has told you to do now? Obey
the Word of God, obey the will of God as revealed in His Word.
Perhaps you don't know, but guess what? Obey the Lord in what you
do know. Don't expect more light if you've
not obeyed the light that you've been given. You know, one little funny thing
here, at least in my mind, and again, you've heard me say things
like this before. I see things that are funny in
the scriptures. Imagine that. I laugh. We have seeing men who
could not see and a blind man who could. It amuses me at times. The very
man who cannot now see was the only man who could see, and the
men who can see are those who cannot see. In John 9, then he
said, Lord, I believe, and he worshiped him. And Jesus said,
for judgment I have come into this world that those who do
not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind. And
then some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these words
and said to him, are we blind also? And Jesus said to them,
if you were blind, you would not have sin. But now you say
we see, therefore your sin remains. I cannot fully understand, and
I often wonder about this passage here, Saul was not alone on the
road. He was not alone in being humbled
to the ground, but he was alone in being called by the Lord. God had more than enough ability
to bring all of them into light. He had all the power at his disposal
for all of them to hear. They heard something, but they
couldn't make it out. And yet we're not told anything
else about these men other than they led him to Damascus. This is one of the mysteries
of providence, why God saves some and passes by others. And
here's my answer. I don't know. Except this, it
is hidden in the will of God because God does all that he
wills. His will is never thwarted. His will is always perfect and
it is always timely. His providence over the hearts
and eyes and ears of men is all that it needs to be to bring
them to conversion. I can't help but consider how good
it was for his soul to be in such a helpless state. We don't
like those states. We prefer the young, strong,
healthy state. But you know what? Consider with
me just for a moment and then we'll close. God had him in a
blind, hungry, helpless state. Have you ever done anything for
three days straight? If I'm doing something for three
days, that's okay. Have you ever sat quietly without
the ability to see and not eating or drinking for
three days. My friends, that would seem as
an eternity. You know, one of the things that
they do to people in prison, especially when it's torturous
prisons, they put them in solitary confinement in a dark place because
after a very short period of time, you lose track of time
and you don't know if it's been a day or a month. And it's torturous
to the mind. But here God had Saul for three
days in a blind, helpless state, but I want you to realize and
recognize what good that was for his soul. What good it was to spend three
days and three nights without sight. All screen time was gone,
left only to his thoughts and prayers. we should consider more of how
we might assault the throne of grace and less on how we might
assault our own soul through all that enters through our eye
gates. It's just a thought. By way of
application, six things very quickly. I'll just read them
and you can write them if you like. What kind of person Do
you see yourself as apart from Christ? If you are apart from
Christ, how do you consider yourself? Are you like Saul who thinks,
I'm good, I'm going forward, I'm establishing myself? If you are a Christian, consider
it as before you came to Christ, how did you consider yourself
now that you are in Christ, what were you? Think about what Paul
says of himself. I was the chief of sinners. Number
two, do you believe that it took more grace to save Saul than
it did to save you? Saul's experience, this is number
three, Saul's experience was a pattern for us to see God's
sovereignty over our salvation. I want you to consider it in
that way because Paul himself says his conversion was a pattern
for us to demonstrate the long-sufferingness of Christ. Number four, are you
changed since trusting in Christ as your Lord? There's no doubt, no question,
Saul was changed. That's a changed man. If you're
not changed, I would have to say you've not
trusted in Christ. Number five, are you willing
to say, Lord, what would you have me to do? then do it. And lastly, what do you think
the spiritual benefits would be if you spent a lengthy amount
of time meditating and praying on the things of God? What benefit
would that be for your soul? Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we We rejoice in Jesus Christ, our
Lord and Savior. We glory in you who died for
us, who redeemed us by the power of your grace. Father, I pray
that these things, these truths, these glorious truths, Lord,
would so impact our thinking and our believing, that it would
change us. We've often said, Lord, that
we would leave this place changed. And Lord, my desire is that I
myself would leave changed, that I would not only say, Lord, what
would you have me to do, but I would be willing to do it. God help us. Help us to see your glory. Help us to see the joy in obeying
your will. We love you and we praise your
holy name. Amen.
The Salvation of the Chief of Sinners
Series Acts
| Sermon ID | 12625171133472 |
| Duration | 1:09:13 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Acts 9:1-9 |
| Language | English |
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