Well, good evening everybody. It's a true joy and pleasure to be here. My wife is particularly jealous of me being here because she misses Ryan and Rachel and Amelia and has never met Wyatt. So we did some FaceTime with her. She was beaming being able to see them. We miss the Heaton's so much. If we could have kept them in Florida, we would have. But it's a joy to see them back here and know that the Lord will prosper their work and their lives here. I'd like you to turn to Acts chapter nine with me tonight. We are working through the book of Acts in Naples. And we actually, the verse that Ryan read, It's an honor to have that introduction. That verse from chapter 11 is actually the next text that I'm coming to in the book of Acts. I love that story of Barnabas, and I pray that the Lord has brought a Barnabas in your life like that. We're going to be looking at Acts chapter 9 verses 1 through 4. I'll be reading from the ESV tonight. a little window into the conversion of the Apostle Paul. There are three landmark events in the book of Acts. The first one is Pentecost, the second one is the conversion of Paul, and the third one is the conversion of Cornelius. when the door flung open wide to the Gentiles, and we are reaping the benefits of all of those. Now, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the conversion of the Apostle Paul, because we're reading Every Lord's Day, almost, we read from some of his works and the conversion of Cornelius and the beginning of the Gentile, or the Gentile Pentecost, which opened the door to us, that we might hear the gospel ourselves and believe. So Acts chapter 9, we'll read the first four verses tonight. Hear the word of the Lord. But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now, as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him, and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Thus ends the reading of God's word. The grass withers and the flowers in the field fade away, but this is the word of God. God's Word stands forever. Let us pray and ask the Lord's blessing on His Word tonight to our hearts and the ministry of the Word. Let us pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we bow before you tonight in this room and we call on the name of the Lord as your people have done for thousands of years. Oh Lord, we need you tonight. We need your grace greater than our sin. We need your mercies greater than our needs. We need every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. We need the Holy Spirit to continue the work you've started in us. We need comfort and assurance from your word that not a hair can fall from our head except it be the will of our Heavenly Father. We need the presence and power of the Spirit to do what you've called us to do. O Lord, we need you to continue what you've started in us that we might be a faithful people. We are so prone to wander and stray from the God that we profess to love and the one who's come to save us from our sins. We pray tonight that you would open our eyes, that we might behold wonderful things in your word, Truly, Lord, we pray you would write these truths on our heart tonight that we would never forget them, that the life of the Apostle Paul, as described here in Scripture, would make a profound impact upon our own hearts as we walk among a people who don't know their right hand from their left hand, people who call what is good evil and what is evil good. Lord, burden our hearts for those who are far away, just like we were, who need to be brought near by the grace of God. Lord, would you use us to do that? So bless this time in your Word tonight. Help me, your servant, to faithfully proclaim your Word. We make our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. One thing Ryan didn't say about me is that I grew up in Iowa. One of the wonderful things about growing up in Iowa had nothing to do with cornfields and hog farms, but was because we lived in Iowa City, Iowa City, Iowa, a university town like Tyler. My dad was on the faculty at the University of Iowa in public health and communicable diseases, so we met people from all over the world that came to our home. We had Iranians who came to our home. This was before the Islamic Revolution. Chinese and Taiwanese and Lebanese and Europeans. People that came through our home with amazing stories. One man I vividly remember meeting was a man named Janusz Bardach, a professor in the School of Medicine originally from Poland. After I met him, my dad told me he wrote a book about his life during World War II and how he was sent to Siberia by the Russians to the Gulag and how he survived. It's called Man is Wolf to Man, Surviving the Gulag. So I went to Barnes and Noble and I bought the book. And I read the book. It's an amazing story. The title, Man is Wolf to Man, comes from a Polish idiom, a Polish saying that his mother used all the time to teach him and remind him about how evil people can be. The title became, or that idiom became the title of the book. Man is wolf. to man, meaning humans often act like beasts towards each other. Man often treats his fellow men like a wild animal. Janus Bardock writes that he heard his mother's voice repeating that phrase, man is wolf to man, as he was being tortured in the gulag. Bardoch gives an amazing description of the endless barrage of brutality from near-fatal beatings to the harsh conditions and slow starvation of the gulag existence. Man is wolf to man. Actually, that could have been said of Saul of Tarsus. From the description given here by Luke, a later friend of Saul's, who became Paul, Who would have imagined that the man spoken of here, breathing out threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, who would have imagined that Saul of Tarsus, described here in Acts chapter 8 and 9, would become the most important figure in the history of the Church after the person and work of Jesus Christ? If you would have asked those, if we could travel back in time and go to Jerusalem and ask those who had just seen their loved ones ripped out of their homes, summarily tried and convicted and executed, if you had asked them, what do you think of Saul of Tarsus? Wouldn't it be great if someone would share the gospel with him? Are you crazy? More than 20 years after the scene that's described here in Acts chapter 9, Paul would write this in what we call 2 Corinthians, in 2 Corinthians 5 chapter 16. Paul wrote, from now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come." We regard no one according to the flesh. No one. Meaning, from now on, we don't think of anyone from a human point of view. We don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We have a new perspective that refuses to evaluate people merely by their outward appearances. We regard no one according to the flesh, though we used to regard Christ this way, he says. Just before Hurricane Irma hit Naples, while Ryan and Rachel were still with us almost two years ago, I preached a sermon on that profound statement from 2 Corinthians 5. And I still find myself wrestling with that truth. Because it's so easy to do, isn't it? We regard no one according to the flesh. We look past what we see on the outside. We don't judge by outward appearances. though Paul confesses he did do that with Christ before he knew him. We no longer know or judge people by what we see, because he says, because if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. Behold, the old has passed away, the new has come. Because we know, that is, that God can totally change them by the gospel. One of the profound applications of that would be, don't look at someone from the outside and say, they will never become a Christian, like Saul of Tarsus. No way, no, no way, no how. You see, don't stand in the place of God and decide what he can and cannot do. But what about you? What if you met someone as wicked and evil as Saul of Tarsus? as he was before the Damascus Road event that we read here about in chapter nine. Chapter nine of Acts opens with these two words. I encourage you to keep your Bibles open tonight. Chapter one starts out, but Saul, but Saul, in contrast with all that had been going on. I think the NIV says, meanwhile. beyond what God was doing, the spirit of God was doing in the previous chapter in Samaria and along the Gaza Road through Philip, the faithful deacon, and this great outpouring of the spirit among the Samaritans, many people coming to faith, and that lone, high-ranking Ethiopian official who went off down to Ethiopia, taking the good news to North Africa. Luke says, but Saul, That is, the one who had previously been described, if you turn back to Acts chapter 8, look what Acts chapter 8 verse 3 says. Saul was ravaging the church and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. While Philip and the others scattered throughout Judea and Samaria were telling the good news, while the church was growing elsewhere, while vast crowds, great numbers of people were believing, Acts 8, verse 10 says, from all walks of life, from the least to the greatest, while the church outside Jerusalem was growing, Saul of Tarsus was still on a rampage, breathing What does that look like? Breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. The gospel was spreading, but Saul. So who was he? Who was this Saul of Tarsus? Well, he has two names in the Bible. Sometimes there's confusion about him because of that from people who don't know their Bibles very well. He was given a Hebrew name, Saul, like King Saul from the same tribe, the tribe of Benjamin, and he had a Greek name, Paul, or Paulos, probably given to him when he was young because he grew up in a Greek-speaking city. He was actually born with Roman citizenship, which proved to be an advantage. He was brilliant. He was learned, educated in the Ivy League schools of the day, first in Tarsus, a university city, well-versed in Greek language and literature and philosophy. That's why he's able to interact with the philosophers in Athens. And then he lived in Jerusalem and sat at the feet of Gamaliel, a famous rabbi where he became thoroughly trained in the scriptures. He himself writes he was a Pharisee of Pharisees, the son of a Pharisee. The conversion of Saul of Tarsus really is one of the most significant events in the whole history of redemption. He will be the focal point of the rest of the book of Acts, if you're reading through Acts. He will write much of the New Testament. He'll be instrumental in taking the gospel to the Gentiles. to the nations, but if you had met him, if you had been a first century Christian and come around the corner in Jerusalem and there is Saul of Tarsus whom you've seen at a distance and now he's right there in front of you, if you had met him in Jerusalem, you probably would have been terrified. And you would not have expected that the Lord would select him to be his chosen instrument to take the gospel to the nations. You see, in his own words, Paul would later say and write, Acts chapter 26, verse 11, I punished them, that is, Christians, often in synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in a raging fury against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities. In Galatians 3, he says, I persecuted the church violently and tried to destroy it. So while the gospel is growing outside of Jerusalem, Luke writes, but Saul still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. Still, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. There's actually considerable length of time between the stoning of Stephen and this event here. Paul will later testify before King Agrippa in Acts 26, I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth, and I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death, not just Stephen, but when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. Luke writes here that Saul was breathing out threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. There's an illusion, a picture that Luke is showing here of a snarling wild beast. Outside of biblical literature, this word is used for like a snarling wild boar, growling like a wild animal. breathing out threats and murder. Talk about bad breath, right? Breathing out threats and murder. He reeked, you might say, of death. What he did against Christians was his passion. One commentator said, it was the very air he breathed. That's the image that Luke wants us to get here. It was the very air that he breathed. He was consumed with threats, meaning he verbally threatened them. He sought to deter people from following Jesus, from believing that Jesus was the Messiah. The church was growing, so he used his power and the power of fear, threats to dissuade them in their faith. Not only threats, he was breathing out threats and murder. He was a conspirator to murder. Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul the Apostle, flagrantly violated the fifth commandment. He was responsible for the murder of both men and women, whose only crime was that they believed the good news of the gospel. It's interesting that Luke, a friend and later traveling commanding of Paul, he doesn't water it down at all. He doesn't try to make Paul look better in his life before he came to Christ. The church was growing, and that stoked the fury and rage of Saul against believers. You might say, why was he so angry? Have you ever thought about that? Why was he so enraged against Christians? J. Gresham Machen, who was mentioned this morning during the Sunday School Hour by Danny Olinger, Machen, who was a former professor at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia, where Ryan went, and one of the founders of our denomination, he said these things about Saul and his rage against Christians. He said it's because Jesus wasn't the kind of Messiah that Paul was waiting for, not at all. Like much of Israel at the time, Paul was waiting on a glorious Savior as a king who would sit on David's throne and crush the Romans. Instead, the Messiah of the Christians was, as Machen writes, quote, the Messiah of the Christians was a poor, weak man who couldn't even save himself from the executioner. The form of his death was singularly shameful. If that was the only kind of Messiah there was, then the hope of Israel was dead. The belief of the Christians seemed to be a horrible blasphemy against the precious promises of God in the Messiah. Secondly, what so enraged Saul of Tarsus? Machen says, well, these Christians saw that their salvation was to be gained not by obedience to the law, but based on faith in a crucified Savior. See, if Christians were correct or right, then the Pharisees' whole theology was wrong, and he was a Pharisee of Pharisees. The Pharisees were seeking righteousness by their own obedience, and that enraged Saul of Tarsus, that they were saying there was another way, that it wasn't through obedience to the law that you became righteous, it was given by God as a gift, and that stood against everything that Paul lived for. And thirdly, He had this zeal for protecting the law of God, and he would seek to eliminate lawbreakers one way or another. Outwardly, and he calls himself ignorant, ignorantly zealous for protecting the law of God. He says that of himself in 1 Timothy 1, that he was ignorant. Protecting the law of God, yet inwardly he was dead. Think of how Jesus described the Pharisee. Saul was not only a Pharisee, but the son of a Pharisee. Remember what Jesus said? Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. Within, full of dead people's bones. Saul was so full of death, it consumed him daily. Everywhere he went, it was the air he breathed, breathing out threats and murder, a snarling beast of a man looking for people, going into houses and dragging off men and women and committing them to prison and voting against them that they would be put to death. I remember the Jerusalem church was full of widows. Remember Acts chapter 6, the formation of the deacons? What was the big problem in Jerusalem in Acts chapter 6? There was the Hebraic widows and the Grecian widows, and the Hebrew-speaking, or the Greek-speaking Christians thought that their widows were not being treated as well as the Hebraic-speaking widows. There was a controversy, and they prayed and selected seven men, prayed over them, and they took on this role, and then the church grew even more. As Saul is going door to door in Jerusalem, dragging off men and women, you gotta know he's dragging off widows, too. He was a wicked man. And he also went to foreign cities. He wasn't satisfied in Jerusalem. Like Luke says here in verses two and three of chapter nine, he went to the high priest and asked him for the letters to the synagogues at Damascus. Now you could easily breeze right past this statement and miss the irony here. He went to the high priest. Now remember, Saul is a strict Pharisee and the high priests are Sadducees. These were opposing parties. It would be like, like Rush Limbaugh and Michael Moore or Nancy Pelosi joining hands. It's actually, though, the same coalition that opposed Jesus. They joined forces to seek to eliminate Jesus. Now they needed each other to stamp out the church. It's not mentioned by Luke, but I wonder if If news reached Jerusalem that this new sect of the Jews, that's the way they viewed Christians, as a new sect, I wonder if it reached the ears of Saul and his friends on the Sanhedrin that they had admitted Samaritans? Half-breeds into their number, baptizing them into their number, scores of them? Even though Damascus was not under the authority of Pontius Pilate, the synagogues of Damascus were under the jurisdiction of the high priest. So this was an official act of the Jewish Supreme Court. Paul would later say in chapter 22 that this decision was voted on by the whole council of the elders. And by the way, notice that it says, in verses two and three to the synagogues in Damascus. It's estimated that there were 10 to 20,000 Jews living in Damascus at the time. So Saul must put a stop to this. Or this Jesus movement would spread as Damascus was a historic commercial center. These early Christians still closely associated with the Jewish community, and they believed Jesus was the promised Messiah, so he needed to get to Damascus and stop this from spreading anymore. The letters were, as you see in verse two, so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound, or as prisoners, to Jerusalem. Luke uses a term here that's only used in Acts as a title for the church, those belonging to the way. It echoes Isaiah 40, verse 3, prepare the way of the Lord, which is what John the Baptist says in Luke chapter 3, verse 4. And Jesus described himself as, remember, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And the Gospels described in Luke's chapter 16 as the way of salvation. Think about this amazing irony. Saul is on his way to stop those belonging to the way when he's stopped in his tracks by the very one who is the way, the truth, and the life. He's headed for Damascus, 150, 160 miles away to arrest and bring them bound back to Jerusalem, men and women. That's what he was doing back in Jerusalem, going house to house, dragging off men and women. And now he's going off to Damascus to bring men and women. You see, Saul considered the women just as dangerous. They were very active in the early church. And if you read his epistles, his letters, he commends, like at the end of Romans, he commends many Christian women for their faithful and valuable service to God. He had to stop this. It was getting out of control. So he went wherever they were, even if it meant a five to six day journey on foot. What's happening here is actually just what Jesus said would happen. Matthew chapter 10, Jesus said, beware of men for they will hand you over to their councils and flog you in their synagogues. Or John chapter 16, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. That's why Saul did this. He thought he was offering service to God. Have you ever thought what service to God might Saul have thought he was doing? Where is the Old Testament precedent for this? As one zealous for the traditions of his father, educated at the first century Harvard of the day in the religion department under Gamaliel, he probably would have pointed to the story of Phineas in Numbers 25, where he's, as the grandson of Aaron, he takes up a sword and kills an immoral man at the entrance of the tent of meeting. But the problem with Saul of Tarsus, who is breathing out threats and murder, is that he was dead wrong. These were disciples of the Lord himself. So, as we wrap this up, back to where we started, Paul will later write, from now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. We regard no one according to the flesh. We don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look. From now on, we don't think of anyone from a human point of view. From now on, we have a new perspective that refuses to evaluate people merely by their outward appearances. It's so easy to do. But that's something we have to grapple with. Do we view those who are currently like Saul of Tarsus according to the flesh, do we view them with eyes of grace? Do we? What an example of God's great patience towards sinners. Jesus, what a friend for sinners. You see, if God can take the fiercest opponent and turn him into a faithful servant, then anyone can be brought to saving faith, right? Anyone. That ought to give you hope. And that ought to convict us, too, right? Because we so often write people off. I'm not going to bother with them. Don't be deceived by Satan that people are beyond grace, that someone, don't be deceived by Satan that someone doesn't deserve grace. That's what grace is, right? Unmerited favor. Don't be deceived by Satan that someone doesn't deserve to be saved by the grace of God. They don't deserve anything. I get that a lot. I took Ryan a number of times, well, almost every other week into the jail. I've heard people say, those guys don't deserve that. Yeah. And I didn't deserve it either. Right? And neither did you. You didn't deserve grace. If God can turn the fiercest opponent into a faithful servant of God, then anybody can be brought to saving faith. Paul writes of himself in 1 Timothy 1, the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost, but I received mercy for this reason, that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life, to the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever, praise the Lord, because He turned me, He used me, He sought me as an example of grace. You remember what happened as they were stoning Stephen, the first martyr? Chapter 7 of Acts, Saul of Tarsus is right there watching, guarding the cloaks. He was the cloakroom attendant for those who were throwing the stones on Stephen. So he was standing there as they cast their stones. Stephen cries out as he dies. Remember what he prayed? Lord? Probably wasn't that quiet. Lord, don't hold this sin against them. God in his infinite mercy answered that prayer. By the way, who do you think told Luke about that prayer? Who do you think told Luke about Stephen's final cry? Who was there? Peter wasn't there. The apostles weren't there. Paul was there, Saul. Saul told Luke about this. Stephen cried out, Lord, don't hold this sin against them. And God in his infinite mercy answered that prayer. So the persecutor, pursuing Christians to death, breathing out threats and murder like an animal against the disciples of the Lord, became pursued by God himself to give him life on the road to Damascus. Saul himself was arrested. He went to arrest people. He was arrested, stopped in his tracks by the grace of God. I want to close with just a final few applications. Maybe you know someone in your heart you have thought, I just wish they'd be gone. I just wish they'd die and get out of here. Well, how about you start praying for them? Because who knows what God might do and what he could do and how he might use them? Or maybe you know someone you love who is far off and it breaks your heart and you thought it's hopeless and you wished God would stop them in their tracks. How about tonight you start praying with hope, Lord, don't hold this sin against them. Save them, Lord, like you did Saul. Maybe you're sitting here thinking that you are beyond hope, that you're beyond grace, that you've sinned too much. God holds up Saul so you can see how great is the mercy of God. What does all this mean? It means that even the most evil, wicked person you know, even your enemies, even your enemies can be arrested by God's grace. It means the most hopeless case you know is not hopeless. Go after them. Love them. Go after them with the grace of God, even those who act like animals, like wolves. It means this is the way Jesus operates, right? Pursuing even the greatest sinners with love, and so that should be our mission too. That should be our mission. Jesus isn't here, right? But his body is. Who's the body of Christ? We are. That should be our mission, too. He said, go, go to the nations, go to the ends of the earth. In fact, go to the highways and the byways and compel them to come in. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. What does all this mean? It means it's absolutely true what we sing. The vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus, a pardon receives. How can I write them off as not worthy of forgiveness or as unforgivable? It means, all this means it's true salvation is of the Lord. It's by grace alone that Saul, who was dead, breathing out threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, was made alive. It means that the gospel is the power of God to save. So I'm not ashamed of the gospel. You shouldn't be ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of God to save even wicked, extremely vile, murderous, wicked people like Saul. That means there's hope for you and me. Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Don't despair. Jesus himself opens wide the door, right, and says, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Praise the Lord. Praise, be to God for the indescribable, as Paul calls it, the indescribable gift of his Son and his grace. I just want to encourage you all, go, go out and love them with the grace of God, that they would scratch their head and go, why do you love me? Why do you care for me? When all I've done has been mean to you. May God take the power of his gospel, the power of his spirit through the body of Christ to rescue those who are far from him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for your mercy to us in Christ. We know you've not dealt with us as we deserve, and it's all been of your grace. Oh Lord, we pray that you would use your church here in Tyler to take the gospel to those who are miserable and they don't even know why, who are far off, who are dead in sin. Lord, come with the gospel and break down walls of unbelief and bring them in. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.