Recounts Paul's conversion and subsequent experiences as detailed in Acts chapters 21 and 22, emphasizing his transformation from a persecutor to a devoted apostle. It highlights the blinding light on the road to Damascus, Jesus' direct commission to Paul, and the role of Ananias in restoring his sight and calling him to ministry. The message also touches upon the opposition Paul faced from Jewish believers who struggled to accept the inclusion of Gentiles in the gospel, illustrating the tension between the law and grace. Ultimately, it underscores Paul's unwavering commitment to his calling despite persecution and imprisonment, portraying his life as a testament to God's power and purpose.
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Now shall we turn in our Bibles to Acts chapter twenty-two. Acts chapter twenty-two. I'm not going to read chapter twenty-one, but we'll read chapter twenty-two and the occasion to refer to chapter twenty-one. Men and brethren and fathers hear me hear my defense which I make now unto you. When they heard that, he spake in the Hebrew tongue, to them they kept the more silent. And he said, I am verily a man which am a Jew born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel.
and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God as he are, all are this day. And I persecuted this way unto the death binding and delivering into prison both men and women. As also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of the elders, from whom also I received letters unto the brethren, and wed to Damascus, to bring them which were therebound unto Jerusalem, for to be punished. And it came to pass that as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about it.
And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? He said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecute. They that were with me saw indeed the night and were afraid, but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me. And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, arise and go into Damascus, and there it shall be fully of all things which are appointed for me to do.
When I could not see with the glory of that light being led by the hand of them that were with me, I came into Damascus. Now, in case we do not have time to refer to this text during our message, we have often wondered, what the affliction was, the thorn in the flesh that the Apostle had, that he referred to later on when he prayed for God to remove that affliction three times, and God said, My gracious addition. And there are those who believe that Paul's eyesight was impaired because of this experience, and I believe they have some ground foot in verse eleven.
And when I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of them that were with me. In other words, he couldn't see, had to be led. It must have been a brilliant light above the brightness of the sun, he says, elsewhere. And you can't look straight at the sun with a naked eye on a brilliant day. And so here's a light more brilliant and bright than the noonday sun. What was this life? It was the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And evidently, as so affected his eyes, he was never the same afterwards.
And he wrote his letters, his epistles, in large letters because of the impairment of his eyesight, because he got a glimpse of the Lord. And all I can say is this Christian, if all of us who are saved got a glimpse of the glory of the Lord, our eyesight would be dim for things here in this world they wouldn't have the glitter and the glamour they do have if we were affected by the glory of our this and what first well and one ananias a devout man according to the law having a good report of all the jews which dwelt there came unto me and stood and said unto me brother saul receive thy sight in the same hour I looked up upon him.
He heavenly received a measure of sight. And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee that thou shouldest know his will, and see that just one, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. And now, why tarryest thou? Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. And it came to pass that when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance, and saw him saying unto me, Be haste and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me.
And I said, Lord, They know that I am imprisoned and beaten every synagogue, then that believed on thee. And when the blood of thy Mark of Stephen was shed, I also was standing by and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him. He said unto me, Depart, but I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles. And they gave him audience. I want you to notice this. The council... gave him audience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices and said, Away with such a pebble from the earth. But it is not fit that he should live.
That's familiar language when you go back to the early chapters, when they said, Away with this man will not have him deranged over lots. And it was when the chief priests and the council heard Paul make reference of the Gentiles. That's when they... said, Away with this man will not have him to reign over us. And restrained that, and then they brought. And they gave him an audience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth, for it is not fit that he should live. And as they cried out and cast off their clothes and threw dust into the air, the chief captain commanded him to be brought into the castle, and made that he should be examined by scourging that he might...
know wherefore they cried so against him. As they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman and an uncondemned? When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, Say, Take heed what thou doest for this man as a Roman. Then the chief captain came and said unto him that is Paul, Tell me, Arthur, a Roman, he said, yes. And the chief captain answered, With a great sum, obtained I this freedom. Paul said, But I was free war.
He was a Roman citizen of my birth. Then straightway they departed from him, which should have examined him. And the chief captain also was afraid, after he knew that he was a Roman, because he had found him. on the moral, because he would have known the certainty, wherefore he was accused of the Jews, he loosed them from his band, and commanded the chief priests, and all their counsels would appear, and brought Paul down, and set him before them. God willing, when we return, about the first of September, we'll take up chapter twenty-three on to the end of the Book of Acts, and we trust in the Lord's will.
will be alive then, I trust I am. While I'm away, I trust you to pray for me, and I'll pray for you. And move us over to continue this Lord-willing when we return around September. Now, in reference to this wonderful book that we've been reading and studying, and also the activities of the Apostle Paul, we find them in this passage, and it speaks up as third missionary journey. He took three missionary journeys, and this one is the third and the last. It concludes in chapter twenty-one that we did not read.
In verse one to fourteen in that chapter, you see the thick clouds that are overing in the path of the apostles, things that are going to befall him, the persecutions, the trials he's going through. and also the bitter persecution he's going to experience. Then you find in the next section of chapter twenty-one, from verse fifteen to twenty-four, why a concession made, a concession to meet certain circumstances, in other words, an expediency, because the difficulties had arisen in Jerusalem, and so...
The expediency was made, and more or less a concession. Then in verses twenty-five to forty, you see the city in a tumult, and they would have called Paul to pieces, and not been for the Roman governor, who went down and delivered him. Thus you see Paul's suffering for the namesake of his blessed Lord, and here he have God's wonderful deliverance, of his faithful servant. And what was this trouble at Jerusalem? Well, the trouble of Jerusalem was simply this. Quantitudes of Gentiles had found Christ through the preaching of the Apostles.
And this aroused the Jews, because there were thousands of Jews also who had believed. But they had been steeped and trained and taught in the Jewish religion, and it's very difficult for them to make a clean cut from Judaism to Christianity. Judaism was in their very bones, in their very veins. They've been born up this way, and subject to all the traditions and customs of Judaism. Now they've accepted Christ, and they're thankful for that, but they can't seem to make a break with Judas, for Christ came to fulfill all of the predicted concerning him under Judas.
And so when these many thousands of Gentiles got saved from the preaching of the gospel, these Jews, they couldn't understand why these Jews, for these Gentiles were not keeping the law. they felt that why the Gentiles should keep some of the law at least unless you have the trouble here in this chapter or chapter the end of chapter thirty one and twenty two the report got out about the Apostle Paul he's the one to blame this Paul he's the one that's gone out preaching the gospel to the Gentile.
Why didn't he stay within the Jewish hold? Why didn't he preach the gospel just to the Jews? Why did he go to the Gentiles? In our sight the Gentiles are dogs, and they certainly were to the Jews. They can understand how Paul had gone out and won so many of these Gentiles to Christ, and not only has he won them to Christ, He has told them plainly they are not under law, they are under grace. And so the hatred of the Jewish believers against the Apostle Paul under an attempt to arrest them and even have them killed.
And so Paul, like his master, the Lord Jesus Christ, made it very plain that the gospel is the fulfillment of the law. And you know these Jewish believers, they were very legal, you find more about them in Galatians, and if you want to understand this passage, you'll have to study the Book of Galatians. They were not Catholics. They had Christ, yes, but Christ and the Lord. Then let me say this, there are no ams or pluses. When you have Christ, you have all you need to take you to heaven. And so these people were saved by grace, but it didn't sink in.
They were still legalized. Legalized. So they're going to take out their vengeance now upon the Apostle Paul. And the Apostle Paul makes it very plain in this writing that justification could not come by the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. You know, there are people today, I believe real Christians. and they're still legal. They haven't yet been delivered from the bondage of the law. And Paul said, Why do you, fellas, try to put a yoke upon us? Neither we nor our fathers were able to bear that yoke.
We didn't keep the law, we broke it constantly. And Christ has come when he has delivered us from the curse of the law. That was the preaching of the apostles. And also he says circumcision is now no more a matter of any real meaning because circumcision now is spiritualized. It's circumcision of the heart and not of the flesh. And he teaches that over Philippians chapter three. It's a matter of indifference now. But these Jewish believers are no, we still got to go by the Old Testament and be circumcised.
Paul says, no. Circumcision means nothing now. There is circumcision of the heart, and he says, we are the circumcision which worshiped God in spirit and in truth. And so that further infuriated these youth. And also Paul points out to depend on circumcision now for salvation is faith. Christ shall profit you nothing. And Paul says, we're not under grace. We're not under law, rather. We're under grace. Christ is the school of the law.
It's our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. That's a wonderful thing. We're not under law. We're under grace now. When I say we're not under law, I'm not referring to the law of the land. I'm not referring to the law of the land. of God. Now the law in the Old Testament was divided into three sections, the Decalogue, meaning the Ten Commandments. Then the ceremonial law that means the offerings and circumcises and all its. Then there the Jepless or the laws governing the civil life of the nation. And so Christ fulfilled the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments.
He fulfilled the ceremonial law because the ceremonial law was built around the sacrifices of animals, the shedding of the blood to thousands of animals, Christ hath made one sacrifice for all. No need now for the sacrifice of the bulls of goats and so on, that one sacrifice of Jesus Christ hath fulfilled all those sacrifices. So we go back to the law. And as to your life, as a nation or as an individual, you don't need all those instructions over in Exodus and in Numbers and Deuteronomy.
You have Christ announced up to you to live Christ. Let Christ come out in your life. And if the Spirit of God is dwelling on dream that in your heart, then Christ will be saved. And you're not under law, the tenth amendment. You're under grace. You've got Christ. And Christ is the end or the consummation of the law. The wonderful thing when you see that. Christ is the end and the consummation of the law. The law is our schoolmaster that brings us to Christ.
And when the law has taught us how helpless we are, no man can look at the Ten Commandments and say, I commit it. kept every one of them. Oh, you have it. If a man were to tell me today that he's kept all the law, I did not say, friend, you'll excuse my bluntness, but you're lying. No man has kept the ten commandments. Only one person did that, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He kept the law in his life. He bore the curse of a broken law in his debt.
And so we're not under law to under grace. I remember about thirty some years ago having a campaign out in Raleigh, North Carolina. A family of Piper's got saved. That was their name, Piper. Now, Mr. Piper and Mrs. Piper and Kathleen Piper, and they were great Christians. all bubbling over because they'd found the safe. And they had an old board and went into town once a week. And this day, about a week or two after, they got saved and going into town, and Mr. Pipe, who was at the wheel, and he went right through a red light. And his daughter counted, and he said, Dan, didn't you know you broke the law?
You went through that red light. Oh, I said, I'm not under law. I'm under grace. I'll have a stolen song. He is under law. I need to pay the fine. We're not talking about the law of the land. We're talking about the law of God. And I say this, if you let Christ live through you, you not only keep the law of God, you keep the law of the land. Christians won't be law-breaking. I know it's difficult sometimes to keep within the limit. You're driving along a nice car that can go ninety, hundred miles an hour, and you see somebody coming up behind through your mirror, and you look at your speed meter and you're going just exactly what the speed limit calls for, sixty-five miles an hour.
And I know the spirit of competition rises up in you. Well, he's not going to get past me. And along comes this car right alongside. You take a look at, and of all things, it's a woman drunk. Not only in pacify your cup or penitent of a nature, she's not going to get by me. But what says the law? The Bible tells us... will pay the laws of that. And if you break them, you're going to pay a fine. And that's the point. And I've got to keep that in mind when I leave for Canada the morning, get on some of those highways.
Of course, you can go seventy miles an hour, some of them seventy miles. But in this sense, Paul is bringing home these Christians. You're not under law. You're under grace. Well, there were three groups back in that time. Do you read the book of Galatians? First of all, were these zealous, bigoted Jews, and they wanted not only themselves to adhere to the law, but they wanted these Gentiles who professed also to come under the bondage of the law. And these Judaizing Jesus went down to Galatians, who read in the book of Galatians, and tried to get them back under the law. That was this one group, these zealous Zealots, these Jews.
Then you have the second group, and that's the group for the Apostle Paul. And he says, No, neither Jews nor Gentiles are under grace. Christ broke down that middle wall of partition between us and half of himself, made one new man, so making. And so we Jews and Gentiles can both get together in a happy fellowship, a happy unity, and enjoy the person of Christ and the bond of the spiritual fellowship that exists in him. Well, that was Paul's ministry, and it was the right ministry. But then you have another group here, came under the influence of James, which is a compromise.
Remember, Peter? He was fellowshiping with Gentiles, reading from the book of Acts, enjoying a new fellowship in Christ. He was at June, the name of Gentiles. And James came along. And now there's a little sense here. Peter begins to move away from the Gentiles and only meet Anitha to Jude. Was he afraid of James? Well, there was some there ungodly beside James who suggested that Paul do this.
Paul, you're not realizing too much with these Gentiles. Remember, we're too. James also was carried away with this dissemination. It's all right for the Jews to adhere to the strict demands of the law and... He believed that the Gentiles should. But if they both, and it should have been settled at the countenance of his book on chapter three, then we'll absolve the Gentiles. For don't let us become defiled by fellowshiping with those Gentiles. We'll make a compromise between what we believe and what Paul teaches.
fifty situation. James was carried away with the situation. I want to say that one thing, a compromise, if by a compromise of policy can be served without compromising principle, that's good. Now, why did they want a compromise? In this case, it did involve control. not Paulus. Why did they want to compromise? They were afraid. They said, Paul, if you don't take a stand, remember you're here in Jerusalem, we want you to take a bow, you're going to take the Nazarite bow, get his hair shaved and lock the boat today to take that bow too.
anyway here's the Apostle Paul and he's told to take these other men and carry out the Nazarite vow you couldn't be a Nazarite the Nazarite means separate separated and he couldn't take that vow unless he shaved his head and this was going back under the ceremonial law the customs of Judea Paul was compromised trying to satisfy these Jews the same time he didn't very well as a Christian and enlightened as he was and made a thing, a new thing like that. But he did it anyway. Why did they want Luke?
All that you go through that, you're going to set this city on fire. There'll be a great revolution. Oh, I'll tell you, it'll be something if this city grows up. No way in the frame of buying these Jews are in toward you. These Gentiles and Paul, avoid a clash. And if you avoid such a situation, a demonstrator, just swore and take to this point. And he did, and it was accomplished, did he prevent demonstration and violence? No. The very thing that they wanted to avoid is what happened.
fall to the Lord. You notice that? We read it in chapter twenty-three. Or in verse twenty-two of chapter twenty-two. And they gave him audience unto this word. What was it that was the spark that set the thing on fire? In verse twenty-one. And he said unto me, God said unto Paul, Depart, but I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles. and they gave him audience unto this man. Paul, why did you come out of that? That you were going to give the gospel to the Gentiles, and that's what God called you to do, to be the apostle of the God.
And they gave him audience to there, and then the Jews, Christ, taking it to, they couldn't take it any longer. And thus you see the uproar? Paul was apprehended, he was beaten, and they were going to take him to jail, and it hadn't been for the intervening hand of God, they'd likely have pulled him, pulled the boat. The very thing they wanted to avoid was by compromise is developmental. It developed. So there you have the situation relative to the Apostle Paul.
and his treatment of his enemies because he treats the gospel and because of compromised principles you notice something else in this chapter chapter uh chapter twenty three and also elsewhere in the book of the acts the apostle paul first of all is seen as a pioneer he's seen also as a prisoner he had three missionary journeys behind them. It's wonderful to be a missionary, whether it's a home missionary or a foreign missionary. Paul went out for the first time and went to the various places that we've mentioned time and time again during these studies.
And here is this pioneer, going into places he knew nothing about. A wonderful pioneer. This is exploration. He's exploring the land, he says. flooring city. He's bringing the gospel. Almost every place he went to he left behind him a wonderful thriving church. Then when he took the second missionary journey, he covered very much the same area and the same places, but this time it wasn't exploration. It was expansive. I want you, Christians, now to expand. Expand. get the gospel out and get other assemblies back.
Then when he went around this area the third and last time, when he only made three missionary turns, he went around the same area taking in an odd place here and there that he hadn't visited before. This time it was exhortation. The first missionary journey, exploration. The second missionary journey, expansion. third missionary journey, exorcism. He exhorted them to the singleest of all who lived on the earth. And as they grew and matured, they needed this exhortation. Now you see Paul the prisoner.
He's apprehended. He's brought to jail. And he becomes a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Remarkable to read about Paul and his being in prison. He acted just as faithful as a prisoner as he did when he was a pioneer. You see his treatment as a prisoner from Jerusalem on to Rome, if you want to read this story, the rest of the book of Acts. You see his triumph as a prisoner. Not only his treatment, but his triumph. Did he triumph as a missionary?
He certainly as a prisoner. He certainly did. What did Paul do when he was put in prison? Do he sit down and sob and say, well, this is something. I thought the Lord would prevent me here having a experience of this nature. Here I was out preaching the gospel and I'm passing the prison. What can I do in the prison? Yes, that's about the way of the human heart. argue sometimes. But you see the triumph of the Apostle as a prisoner in chapter twenty four and thirty six. In fact, verses twenty four and twenty six, you'll find it.
He was brought before kings as a prisoner. He was brought before men such as Felix, men of that kind, testes of different. who got before these men as a prisoner. And even when he went to Rome, some of those of Caesar's household were saved to whom the Apostle Paul was. He was in prison. Yet he reached some of the members of Caesar's household. That was remarkable. And while he was in prison at Rome, that's when Onesimus, the slave of Pilemon, Polymon went and looked up the apostle Paul because the apostle Paul had led Polymon to Christ and this slave had run away from his master and he heard that Paul was at prison and he went to Paul and Paul led him to the Lord and he wrote a letter back to his master what a wonderful story that was.
While Paul was in prison what was he doing? He was writing you have his prison in prison epistle to Ptolemon, Colossians, Ephesians, Philippians, Paul enraged his time. Maybe he wouldn't have read it, written those epistles, had he not been in it. Listen, you know that remarkable book, Pilgrim's Progress, next to the Bible. Do you know when Bunyan wrote that wonderful book, when he was in prison? C. H. Bertrand wrote one of the Mao's masterful works of his time, and it was his remarkable treatise on the psalm.
You can get it in six big volumes. When did he do that? When he was confined, he wasn't well at that. He couldn't get out to do the preaching he wanted to do, but oh, how God used that time. Thus we have that remarkable work of heard him on the song. And here our people laid aside. Put aside the Apostle Paul permitted to go into prison. Oh, we wouldn't have these lovely epistles today had he not been in prison. These prison epistles. So you see the triumph of Paul as a prisoner. He was very truthful as a pioneer, but he was more fruitful as a prisoner.
his triumph as a prisoner. Then again his travels as a prisoner. He was taken from Jerusalem to Rome. You have that in the latter chapters, chapter twenty-seven, twenty-eight. You find Paul in his own hired house for two years under house guards, house arrest. Two years later, the Apostle Paul sealed his life with his blood. He was a martyr in sixty-eight AD. That's when he was martyred.
And you know what happened two years later? Two years later, that beloved city that Paul loved so much and suffered so much in, he loved Jerusalem, he went to with the gospel he was brutally treated. Oh, yes, he loved to. So even though he was an apostle to the Gentiles, he still loved Jerusalem and old Jews. Two years after the death of the Apostle Paul, when he was martyred in sixty-eight, eighty-seven, the Roman army under Titus destroyed that city and there wasn't left.
One spoke upon another. Paul didn't live to see that. He would have broken his heart. He had since that time the Jewish nation had been scattered throughout the world. The fine Jews in every nation under heaven. God says in the latter days I'm going to bring that scattered nation, my people, back to the land of their fathers, back to Palestine, back to Jerusalem. And you lived in the day to see it. That's one of the miracles. think that God has brought his scattered people back, they wouldn't receive Christ, for the first time he came they received when he fell into the dead.
And so we see how near we are to the end time. The number of things very simple, what I've been saying may be a little deep for some, but here are some things that are very simple you'll find in the book of Acts. You find about nine or ten great things. If you were to turn to chapter four, you would read about great grace and great power in first verse three, I think, of chapter four. Great grace and great heart. You've got to know something of the greatness of God's grace, and we're going to know something of the greatness of his power to keep him. Then you have great fear.
Why this fear? Because Ananias and Sapphira had lied, and God smitten them, struck them dead, and they were believed. They lied to the Lord, and God struck them dead, and fear fell upon them, or the early church. They have great fear, great grace, great power, great fear, and a great number of the priests believed. Those men who were persecuting the early gospel, many of them were reached and saved. Yes, you have a great number of the priests that obeyed him with obedience.
Great obedience. Great joy when the gospel went to Samaria. Oh, there was great joy in that city. And you know nothing of true joy. It is great joy unless you know Christ the source of all. Then the great sheep that was let down from heaven in chapter ten when Peter had that vision, then you have a great number of the people that, the vacant pile, believe in chapter eleven I believe. Our great number believe. And then again in chapter forty, our great multitude turned to the Lord.
But I want you to notice the great light. In verse six, we've already heard of chapter twenty two, believe it. Here's the great light. And the Apostle Paul now is going to tell his conversion. You notice what happened in the first fourteen verses? The shadows that confronted him that fell across his path. Then we find the Apostle Paul, and here we find him in the temple, and find him being persecuted at Jerusalem. Now we see the Apostle Paul, and he's giving us conversion. The Roman official wanted to know about Paul.
Well, I rescued you from that mob that was upon you that he suggested. I want to know the cause of all this promotion and excitement. Paul says, well, I'm happy to give my testimony. And we'll see it later on in Rome. Or in Acts. So Paul gave his remarkable testimony. And you know what's wonderful to see in verse one, his plea and also his conciliatory attitude, but also his informative attitude. He was a true Jew. He tells them that. He said, I'm a true Jew. I'm by burden, by training, and by conviction. And he said, I am self, just as you are this day.
It's nice to see that at the end of verse three. I'm zealous. Well, verse four, you fellas are zealous for your law. You people are zealous for the tradition of your father. You know, I was just as zealous as you are. I apprehended Christians who believed in Jesus Christ, and I hated them. I have letters from the high priest and from the authorities who have to him them and bring them into prison. Even when Stephen was martyred, that brilliant priest said, I was standing by what's in the whole pursuit of that consenting unto his death, and they actually made his foes at night.
I was zealous for the very things that you men are zealous for today, the counsel you pray. But he said, I found out one day that all my zeal was spent for naught. I was traveling down to Damascus Road and there appeared a great light. He tells it elsewhere was above the brightness of the sun. And he said, A living Christ, a living man in heaven said, Saul, Saul, I persecute you. How am I persecuting you? You're persecuting my people. And if you touch my people, you touch the apple of mine eye.
These are members of my mystical party. For all of you are persecuted. And the apostle Paul had his eyes open to see his sin. How beautiful are those words in verses fourteen and fifty. Every Christian ought to read these things, these verses. He speaks of seven things. Verses fourteen in chapter twenty-two and fifty. And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen me, that's the first. That thou shouldest know his will, that's the second. See that just one, that's the third.
And shouldest hear the voice of his mouth, that's four. For thou shalt be his witness, that's five. unto all men, that's sick, not just you. What thou hast seen and heard, that's sick. Here are the seven points. The Apostle Paul pleads these points before his enemies. God called me, God chose me, and I'm only telling what I see us all, what I experience. This was my conversion. This is what turned me on that. Remarkable when you read this passage, we'd like to have more time, but our time tomorrow.
How Paul stood before the same counsel that twenty-eight years before had condemned the Lord Jesus Christ today. The same counsel that condemned Stephen. The same counsel that some think he was a part of at one time. the same council that also tried to exterminate the early church. At every turn, Paul's standing before the same council. Reading the same call, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You have Paul's conversion. In fact, he takes up three parts of his life, the past, the present, and the future.
When he was saved, when he was saved, after he was saved. Friend, let me ask you, is your life divided up? Do you think of before you were saved? From the present, now you are saved, and the future. What's your future? Our future is bright, the glory is the plan. Our future is to be rich and light to Christ. And you say, well, my life is like that. In the past, I was a sinner, a religious sinner, just a church member, but I didn't know I was saved.
And God stopped me. Now I know I'm saved. What about the future? For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. I was telling somebody this week that I was in Canada before I came serving. I worked for an Italian. And, of course, he was a Catholic, and he didn't understand about the Sabbath salvation. He hardly knew anything about the Bible. An American fell from one of the girders, seventy-five feet up while painted. And he fell on one of those big engine boilers and was killed, isn't it? Joe and I the next day were talking about it. I said, Joe, you know, we're once a Christian.
And that thing happened. He goes to be with Christ. And I said, if I was to die, I'll get killed. The Bible says for me to live is Christ, the die is gay. He says, why don't you kill yourself? If the die is gay. And if the die has to be far better, why don't you kill me? See, the poor fellow was ignorant of all that. There's something better than what we got here. He said, I killed myself. Get out of this place. Something like that. But I, this is, now in conclusion, you'll notice our word here, the word great is not associated with us, a great word.
It's the word chosen. Verse forty of this. Chosen. That's a lovely word, isn't it? Chosen. Here's a great vessel, a thousand men on board, women, children. It's an iceberg. And the word comes over the public address system. Get the knife boat. Well, there are only about three in service. And they only hold about a hundred of feet. You've got to make a choice. The man in charge, he says, only women and children first.
And then he begins lifting down as the free life force begins to lift him up. Oh, it's nice. And so he said, what does I have to do? Friend, this poor world is like a sinking ship. Christ is the life force. Are you going to get into it? say, well, how do I know if I'm one of the chosen? I'll tell you. You believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and accept him as your Savior and your chosen. That's the way you know whether you're chosen or not. You accept Christ. And you'll be among the chosen.
The draft comes along. And all the boys in that age bracket. And the draft comes out. They put on that list of names. My in love. Am I included in the graph? Am I in the screen? Why did he find out they're not in it? Unless they're very pity on their society. Friend, it's nice to be true, isn't it? This is true in marriage. Marriage is a choice that's got to be made. Not a choice of just one part.
A choice of two-part. A young man was showing off his lovely bride one day after the wedding, and he said to an old friend of his, What do you think of my choice? And he would plead with joy. She turned to her husband. She said, I had to choose me. I may be your choice, but you and I should. I hadn't. when Christ made his choice nineteen hundred years ago. He chose you. If you would accept them as your Savior and believe what he did on the cross for you, you would have everlasting life.
He chose his choice when he died for sinners. He died for the ungodly. But you will not benefit by that unless you have killed your children. You say, Lord Jesus, I will trust thee, trust thee with my soul, and look thee lost. Thou can't choose me. Choose ye this day whom ye will serve. Jesus Christ for nineteen hundred years has tried to get this message into the hearts of men. I've chosen you by dying on the cross. Now will you choose me. Only those who say, yes, Lord, I'll choose you. Only such will be saved.
So it's up to you to make your choice now. Tell God. Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, come into thy presence. We ask thy word, blessing upon thy good. May we as Christians learn from these incidents, profit from this ministry from the apostle. Those who are unsaved, may they be awakened. realize the responsibility rests upon them to make that choice. May they choose Christ the Son of God. We ask it. It is worthy and precious name. Amen. Shall we sing number two-forty-two.
That's not the first time I went over my time. The light won't be the last. Two-hundred-and-forty-two. Out of my bondage sorrow and night, Jesus, I come. Jesus, I come. Into thy freedom, gladness, and light, Jesus, I come to thee. Let's stand and sing. Two-forty-two of your trusted Christ come. Amen. Oh, my God is now at thy time. Jesus, my God, I call me to have saved one