The Miracles of Conversion (Acts 9:1-31, Jeff Kliewer)

He was a high school dropout, and yet without any credentials, without any qualifications, he at various times served as a university executive, as a psychology professor, as a

Trappist monk, an assistant warden of a Texas prison, and a

Canadian Navy surgeon in Korea. How did he do this? In his role as a surgeon,

DeMera actually did tonsillectomies. He amputated limbs and even removed a bullet from someone's chest.

All of this without being trained in any of these fields. What he would do is he would fake his way through.

He would forge papers, forge documents, falsify evidence, and just brazenly feign or simulate what needed to happen in order to perform the functions that he desired.

He was the great imposter. Charles, I'm sorry,

John MacArthur tells the story of this Ferdinand DeMera. And what's interesting about DeMera is that he at one time taught in John MacArthur's school.

MacArthur was there at a time, and the students at the school said that DeMera was the best teacher in the school.

I don't know how he landed that job. But after all of these years of faking his way through life and being a scammer, a con artist, one day after living a long and very exciting life, he walked into John MacArthur's father's office.

You know, John MacArthur Jr., his dad was a preacher too. And he walked in to talk to MacArthur about Christianity.

MacArthur gave him a two -volume set on systematic theology, and within just a few days, he had read it through and through.

DeMera was converted. He came to believe in Jesus Christ and began, rather than deceiving and being deceived, he began to live a genuine

Christian life. And what a picture that is for us. It is possible to go through church without being converted.

It's possible to raise your hands while songs are being played. It's possible to sit in pews, to read the

Bible, even to pray, and yet not be converted. Genuine conversion is a miracle.

In order for DeMera to be a surgeon, rather than reading a few books, he really would have needed to do university classes and medical training and then be trained in the art of medicine.

Yet he faked his way and looked the part without ever actually receiving that. Well, what does it take to be converted?

What are the true qualifications of what it takes to be converted? At least two things. Number one, the miracle of illumination.

The eyes of the heart need to be opened miraculously to see

Jesus Christ for who He is, to love Jesus Christ, to value Jesus Christ, to recognize

Him as the Son of God who bears your sin. And so to trust in Him, to believe in Him, the first miracle that happens in conversion is illumination.

A person is able to see who Jesus is. But the second miracle is equally as important, and that is repentance.

A person must turn away from sin and turn to Christ who they now see and savor and love.

These works of illumination and repentance are miraculous. Whenever it happens, it's a miracle.

Even if it happened to you when you were a little kid and you were raised in church, but at some point, as a youngster, you began to love

Jesus Christ. You began to savor the Word of God, to know

Him and to love Him. And you turned away from sin and you walked in the light. That was a miracle.

You might have been too young to recognize it, but there's some people that have more dramatic testimonies, aren't there? That they've lived in the world for a period of time and perhaps have been involved in crimes or drugs or whatever it was, and yet miraculously,

God rescues them and converts them. And the conversion is dramatic. The difference is obvious and easy to see.

Whether dramatic or not, conversion is necessary to be saved. You cannot become a

Christian just by doing Christian stuff. You have to actually become a

Christian. Well, we're in the story of Acts chapter 9, the conversion of Paul today.

Probably the most dramatic conversion story in the Bible, because this is the man who stood by for the stoning of Stephen and was intent on persecuting and dragging

Christians to prison. And yet, in this story, he is converted to become what he once hated, to become a

Christian. This is the story of the Apostle Paul and his miraculous conversion.

Our God is able to convert a sinner. I can testify to that because I am a sinner, and yet I am converted.

I've been changed by the blood of Jesus. And all of us who believe in Christ have that testimony. And God is able to convert even the most unlikely, maybe there's somebody in your life, that you would say, there's no way that this person will ever come.

God is able. God is still able to convert them, to illuminate their hearts, to bring them to repentance.

Don't give up, continue to pray. Let's look into the text. Acts chapter 9. 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 this story goes back a couple of chapters to the stoning of Stephen. Saul was involved with that, being from the synagogue that dragged

Stephen before the council. Saul stood by as Stephen was stoned to death.

And in that, the church was scattered to the ends of the earth, far out away from Jerusalem, especially

Philip to Samaria. Stephen was dead, but the church and the gospel continued on.

Saul was standing by, giving approval to the killing of Stephen. And now he's on a rampage.

Joe Foch, the pastor from Calvary Chapel, likes to say that if you throw a stone into a pack of dogs, the one that yelps the loudest is the one that got hit.

Stephen was preaching the gospel, and Paul is yelping the loudest.

Look at chapter 9, verse 1. But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the

Lord, went and asked for letters to the synagogue of Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

This man is on a rampage. This man is angry. He's been hit.

Hit by what? Hit by the Word of God. Cut with the sword of the

Spirit. Thumped with the Bible. Stephen has preached the gospel of Jesus Christ, and Paul saw that something was different about this man,

Stephen. His face glowed like an angel as he preached. Even while he was being stoned, he looked to Jesus and he prayed for those who were killing him.

Paul saw some light that day, but his heart was suppressing it.

He was unwilling to repent. He himself was still an enemy of the cross, and so he's a persecutor of the church.

Look at verse 3, though. 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?

And he said, who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do. This is the first miracle of Saul's conversion.

In the flesh, Saul is angry and hateful and rejecting

Jesus, not believing that Jesus is the Christ, not believing he is the Messiah. But here, a physical light shines from heaven, so bright that it blinds him.

And a voice comes, it's the voice of Jesus saying, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Who are you,

Lord? I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Illumination comes to Paul.

Now what is happening to Paul in our text, narrated for us, is an example for us and for all time.

If you remember in the Old Testament, the things that happened to Israel serve as an example for us.

The exodus, whereby the Israelites come out of slavery and Egypt to the Promised Land is an example for us.

First of all, it points to Christ because of the Passover lamb, which takes away the sin of Israel and allows them to go free.

But their wanderings serve as an example and a warning to us of what not to do, to shrink back in unbelief.

And when they go into the Promised Land, they're setting an example for us of conquering in the name of Jesus.

So the Old Testament stories serve as an example for us. In the same way, Paul's conversion is about him, but it's also about us.

Every one of us need this kind of illumination. Paul was enlightened.

The light burst upon him and he was physically blinded, but his mind and his heart saw the truth.

He heard the voice of Jesus. Everybody who's born a son and daughter of Adam is born in darkness.

And there's a veil that covers the mind, the eyes, the spiritual eyes and the heart of those who are born sons and daughters of Adam.

Only in Christ is that veil lifted. Only through Christ is that veil taken away.

What we have in narration form here, I want you to see in 2 Corinthians chapter 4.

In didactic form, in a teaching language, 2 Corinthians chapter 4.

We'll just spend a minute here. Paul has been telling about Moses and how when

Moses saw the glory of God, his face shone brightly. But it was a temporary light.

But that light that was in the face of Moses was fading. And because it was fading away, it was almost embarrassing because it wasn't permanent.

And so Moses wore a veil over his own face so that people would not see the fading nature of that glory.

In the same way, those who don't yet believe in Jesus have a veil that covers their heart and their mind.

And only in Christ is that veil taken away. There needs to be this miracle of illumination. Chapter 4 verses 1 through 6.

Second Corinthians 4, 1 through 6. Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.

But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word.

But by the open statement of the truth, this is by the way how enlightenment comes, by the preaching of the word or the sharing of the gospel, the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord.

With ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Moses' face was enlightened with the glory of God, having spent time with him, but that glory in the face of Moses was fading.

It was waning, and so he wore a veil. The glory in the face of Jesus is permanent.

And it's eternal. It's far brighter than the glory that shone on Moses' face.

And so it is with each of us who know Christ. Our light shines out of us as we're conformed into the image of Christ.

But look at verse 6. This is the miracle of illumination. Unless this happens, no one will see

God. Unless they see the glory that is in the face of Christ, they will never stand in the presence of God, unjudged.

You need to see the glory that is in the face of Christ in order to be forgiven, in order to be converted.

Look at verse 6. For God who said, let light shine out of the darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

That is to say, in the book of Genesis, chapter 1, God creates the heavens and the earth.

And at some point he says what? Let there be light. And all the universe lit up by the very word of God.

So it is with conversion. God must miraculously speak to the heart of a sinner like me and speak into the darkness of this heart and say, let there be light.

And that light is a conversion of heart. Where the darkness of this heart now sees

Jesus Christ and begins to value and love him. He's turned and changed by light.

Henry Martin was a godly missionary to India. And as he walked around and saw the

Hindu temples, he noticed that the people of India were bowing down and worshipping idols.

Worshipping all these unknown gods, millions of gods. Henry Martin, his heart broke.

And as he saw those people prostrated before Hindu gods, he says it excited more horror in me than I can well express.

I could not endure existence if Jesus was not glorified. It would be hell to me.

Watching Hindu worship, the bowing down to false gods, was hell to Henry Martin.

He couldn't endure it. It was a horror to behold. Because his eyes had seen the glory of the king.

His eyes had seen the true beauty. And his heart so valued the glorification of Jesus, that that had become the purpose of his life.

The first miracle of conversion is when a heart is opened and light floods the soul and you begin to see that Jesus Christ is the son of the living

God. He is God in flesh. He is the creator of all things.

He is the value against which nothing else compares. Illumination, true conversion, is not only an intellectual kind of knowledge where you could sign on a dotted line and say, yeah,

I think Jesus is the true one. He fulfills the prophecies. He's done all the miracles.

More people worship him than any other God. Okay, there's enough evidence. Fine, I'll sign on the dotted line.

It's not enough. True conversion is to look upon the glory that is in the face of Christ and to value and behold glory.

To see him and treasure him. It's when your eyes are open to love and treasure

Jesus Christ. This is what happens to Paul. He encounters the risen

Christ. Now, look at verse 7. The men who are traveling, this is

Acts chapter 9. Back to Acts 9. Give it a second to get there. Paul now has seen the light.

He's been enlightened to see who Jesus is. He's heard the voice of Jesus himself. In verse 7, the men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one.

There have been people who have attacked the Bible as false or contradictory.

In fact, I remember my professor when I was in college, Eckerd College in Florida. There was a professor named

Tim Beal who said that there are contradictions in the Bible. He says, let me show you one. Here in Acts chapter 9, verse 7, it says that the people traveling with Paul stood speechless, hearing the voice and seeing no one.

He says, later on, when Paul tells the story, flip over to Acts 22, verse 9, the travelers were told saw the light but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to him.

The same word here is used there. The word is akuo. They heard the voice.

We're told in one place they heard the voice. We're told in another they did not akuo the voice. And so this professor attacking the

Bible says, this must be a contradiction. What he didn't understand is that when

Luke wrote this book, he's the same author writing Acts chapter 9 as he is in Acts chapter 22.

Luke himself writing this did not consider this a contradiction. And the reason it's not is because the word akuo can mean to hear with understanding or it could just generally mean to hear.

So in Acts chapter 9, what we have happening is a booming sound, a voice coming from heaven.

And perhaps it's in a different language. Paul speaks both Greek and Hebrew, but the traveling companions hear the sound, they akuo it, but according to chapter 22 verse 9, that's not with understanding.

They don't know what the voice is saying. There's a lot of people who see and hear

Christianity. They hear our message, but they don't really hear with understanding.

There's not an enlightening of the soul. There's only the hearing of a sound.

Paul both hears and understands and the companions don't. They're not being enlightened in their soul.

Back to Acts chapter 9, verse 8 and following, Saul rose from the ground and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing.

So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight and neither ate nor drank.

Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision,

Ananias. And he said, here I am, Lord. And the

Lord said to him, rise and go to the street called straight. And at the house of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus named

Saul. For behold, he is praying. That expression, he is praying is very telling.

Here is a man who's been physically blinded by light and for three days he refuses to eat or drink.

This is a broken man. This is a man who is recognizing that his killing of Stephen was not righteous religion, but rather pharisaical judgmentalism.

And in fact, it was an unjust killing. He is so broken, he's processing the fact that he is a murderer.

His own sin is exposed to him. He's so disgusted by who he has been that he refuses to eat.

He refuses to drink. He couldn't have gone on much longer. You can hardly live much more than three days without food and water.

This is the picture of a broken man. But that expression, he is praying. He is praying.

That expression indicates repentance. He's not only broken,

Judas was broken and realized what he did, but he didn't repent.

He went and hung himself. The kindness of God leads us to repentance.

Repentance has become a dirty word in our culture. People don't want to hear repent.

In fact, that sounds so bigoted and judgmental. And yet repentance is a beautiful kindness from God.

When we call people the first words that Jesus spoke about the gospel, he says, repent and believe the good news.

And then told the message of the kingdom. Repentance is the mercy of God offered and then received by a sinner.

Repentance means you can be forgiven no matter what you've done. Here is a murderer. Here is a broken murderer.

Come to the end of himself and yet he prays. He calls out to God who he knows to be forgiving and compassionate, slow to anger, quick to forgive.

Behold, he is praying. Repentance is a kindness of God offered to any one of us.

What sin stains your conscience? You know you're guilty and so you want to run.

Like Adam and Eve hiding in the garden, like Jonah running from God. The natural human impulse is to run.

We don't want to come into the light for fear our deeds will be exposed, John chapter three. But if you turn toward that light and you begin to pray, you confess your sin, which just means you agree with God.

I agree, God, with what you say about my sin. I'm a sinner. You look into that light even though it burns your eyes blind.

The glory and holiness of God, you look into that light and you come to him in prayer.

Behold, he is praying. You find him to be a merciful savior.

His kindness meets you there. You're led to repentance. You turn away from sin and you find yourself new.

The light floods your soul, you're born again. This is the second miracle of conversion.

The light must shine and break forth into your heart, but you cannot run. You must turn to that light, turn away from sin, and trust in Christ to save you.

He alone can save and he is good. He's willing to forgive you. What sin has entangled you?

Don't hide from him in it. Turn to him, turn to him and pray.

Verse 12 to 15, and he has seen a vision, a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.

Now how would you answer? You know who this man Saul is. This is a pretty natural human reaction.

Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard many reports about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem.

And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.

But the Lord said to him, go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the

Gentiles and kings and children of Israel. Brothers and sisters,

God doesn't choose only the wise and the powerful and the strong to carry his name before kings and Gentiles and Jews.

No matter what you've done, if you be converted, if you be enlightened, and if you repent of your sin, no matter who you are,

God can take that life and use you even as he did here. I love the story of the

Apostle Paul because this was the most wicked among us. And yet God chose him to carry the gospel.

A token of his grace, a trophy of God's grace to take a weak and broken thing and to use that instrument to bring his gospel and to bring light into the world by a clear statement of the truth.

Paul would be willing to commend the gospel to others, to preach the gospel to others. He didn't deserve to be an instrument.

That's why Paul says, 2 Corinthians 4, we do not preach ourselves, we preach Christ as Lord. He'll go on to say, we are jars of clay.

In these broken vessels, these jars of clay, God has chosen to give and put the all -surpassing treasure.

We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the all -surpassing power does not come from us but from God.

I know there's probably someone here that thinks, you know, I'm just not spiritual enough to go take the gospel to my friend.

I'm glad you know that you're not good enough to do that. Well, I'm not smart enough to convince my friend to believe in Jesus.

Good, you're not. I'm not strong enough to stand up to someone who might make fun of me.

You're not strong enough. That's good that you know that. But recognize from the text that God chooses the foolish things and the weak things.

Look, conversion is going to be a miracle anyway. It's not going to be based on your wisdom, how smart you are, how strong you are, how persuasive you are.

It's not the great orators and the great preachers who have the gifts of ability. You know, Paul was not even an eloquent man.

He compares himself to the super apostles who could speak so much better than him. And he says,

I don't have that. I just have the power of God. He preaches

Christ in the power of God. Now, listen, if you go boldly to your friend, trusting not yourself, you're just the jar of clay, but trusting that God is able to convert a sinner, his power will manifest in that.

The more you preach, the more you share the gospel, the more you will see it's his power, not yours.

And you will be the very kind of vessel that God uses. And you say, well, I'm not worthy of that. I'm not good enough to go preach

Christ. You're right. Neither was Paul, neither am I. He chooses the weak things to be strong through that weakness.

Verse 16, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.

There's two miracles in conversion. One, illumination. Your eyes have to be open to see who

Christ is and what he's done. Two, repentance. You have to turn away from sin and turn to the light.

If that happens, if you've been converted, there will be an ongoing evidence that this supernatural thing has taken place.

That supernatural evidence is that you will be submitted to the Lordship of Christ. The Puritan Philip Henry put it this way, speaking about conversion, conversion turns us to the word of God as our touchstone, to examine ourselves.

As our glass to dress by, as our rule to walk and work by, as our water to wash us, as our fire to warm us, as our food to nourish us, as our sword to fight with, as our counselor in all our doubts, as our colder, as our cordial to comfort us, as our heritage to enrich us.

Philip Henry speaks of the word of God. A converted person will be submitted to God through his word.

Here Paul will be willing to suffer shipwreck, being beaten and left for dead outside of Lystra, receiving three times the thirty -nine lashes, being stoned, being pummeled, in danger from thieves, in dangers from his own countrymen, the

Jewish people. Willing to suffer all of this for the sake of the name.

What that tells me is that a converted heart is willing to submit to whatever the

Lord says. The converted heart sees this word as the will of God.

To wash by, to dress by, to fight with, to love with, to cherish, to enrich us.

The converted heart is submitted to Jesus Christ. It's an ongoing miracle.

So conversion happens once, when you're enlightened, supernaturally you repent, but the ongoing submission to the

Lordship of Jesus Christ shows that that conversion really took place. It's the evidence of it. So you see that in Paul.

Back to Acts chapter nine, verse seventeen and following. So Ananias departed and entered the house.

And laying his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the

Holy Spirit. Now last week we talked about the filling of the Holy Spirit. Once you've been converted, you have

Christ in you, you still need to be filled again and again. We're kind of leaky in that way.

We're filled at once, but at times we begin to leak that and we need to be filled again. Ephesians 5 18, be being filled, remain filled.

An email I sent this week, I entitled it important and sent it out to the congregation.

And one of the things I said in that short email is that if we will get this right, if we will be filled with the

Holy Spirit, everything else will fall into place. The man who is filled with the

Spirit will delight in the Word of God, will love to pray, will love his neighbor, will have the fruit of the

Spirit, will be glad to witness. What we need is what Paul gets here.

It's after his conversion, he's believing this is a fruit of it and he's filled with the

Spirit, we're told in verse 17. Now verse 18, and something like scales fell from his eyes.

You can picture the scale of a fish, peel off a scale of a fish and those could be used as eye patches if somebody was blind.

It's as if there was a scale covering his eyes and boom, the scales fell off and now he was physically healed of blindness.

The scales are gone, the veil is taken away. Then he rose and was baptized, this baptism follows his conversion as an evidence that it's genuine.

Now he's making public what had happened inside of him. And for some days, well he takes food, he's strengthened.

For some days he's with the disciples, that's a picture of fellowship. The Christian who's been converted will be glad to gather in church.

I've been going to church since I was little. And I used to sit there and color on the back of the offering envelopes.

Remember how they used to have offering envelopes and they had little pencils in the pew? I remember growing up and just drawing little pictures of basketball hoops and the

Duke basketball team and then as I kept growing, as I've been converted and my love for Christ has grown, my love for church has grown with it.

I can't imagine ever living apart from the church and yet there's many who are outside of Christian fellowship.

They name the name of Christ but they don't gather. Doesn't Hebrews 10 say, do not neglect the assembling together of the saints as is the habit of some?

In evidence that you're born again, one of the evidences that you've been converted is that you love the people of God. You belong to the bride of Christ so you love to be a part of that body.

Here he's fellowshipping, he'll be a churchman for the rest of his life. He'll be a church going man.

Verse 20, immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogue saying he is the son of God.

And all who heard him were amazed and said, is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon his name?

And has he not come here for this purpose to bring them bound before the chief priests? But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the

Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. Listen guys, as witnesses you need to grow in your strength and knowledge of the word.

Even though conversion is a miracle, there is still the proclaiming of truth and the defending of that truth.

Notice here, he's proving that Jesus is the Christ. I'll bet he's using Old Testament prophecies to do that.

Look at verse 29, in this next context, he's actually disputing, just a word about debate.

Is debate good or bad? Good. To the Christian, debate is good, why?

Because we have a correspondence view of truth. We believe that truth is something outside of ourselves and a true statement corresponds to a reality that's outside of ourselves.

The world in which we live in has abandoned a correspondence view of truth and they have a privatized view of truth, it's postmodern.

That means whatever a person believes to be true is true for them. And so it makes no sense to debate if you have a privatized postmodern view of truth because who are you to say that your truth is better than my truth?

Because truth is just whatever you make it, it comes from within, not from without. But Christians understand that truth is

God's truth and it's true because he says so and so it is good and right to defend the truth.

So don't allow this culture to shame you into silence by saying that you're trying to impose your truth on other people, not my truth.

I don't have a truth of my own, all I have is what he says, it's all

I have to give you. You guys wouldn't come listen to some guy talk for 45 minutes or an hour when

I go long because you just want to hear what I think, would you? Who cares what

I think? I wouldn't come listen to you either. But if I come here and proclaim to you what

God says, there's value in that. This truth is what you're here for, this is what drew me, this is what draws me to church.

And so look at Paul, he's disputing, he's proving because he believes in truth. Verse 23 and following.

When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him.

You may have to suffer, but his disciples took him by night and led him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

Nothing can touch a hair of your head apart from what God allows.

And here God rescues him from all danger. Verse 26, we're almost done, last little passage here, last pericope.

And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples and they were all afraid of him for they did not believe that he was a disciple.

Brothers should have one another's back. Good thing for this young man named Barnabas, the son of encouragement,

Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the

Lord who spoke to him and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.

So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the

Lord. And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists, but they were seeking to kill him.

And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus where Paul was born.

The brothers accept them. And brothers, we need to have each other's back in this battle.

Now there's a time of peace, last verse 31, so the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up.

And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. Does that mean once Paul stopped disputing, things were peaceful because he wasn't so aggressive, he wasn't stirring up the hornet's nest?

No, actually this refers back to the conversion of Saul. Chapter 9 verse 1, you no longer have a man breathing out murderous threats and trying to imprison everybody.

Why? Because the persecutor was converted. And so now there's peace.

Now they can live freely. Now they can preach openly. Paul back to Tarsus, and so the gospel is being multiplied.

My closing thought, have you been converted? Are you like Ferdinand Waldo de

Mera? And you go through the motions and you do the things that Christians do, but you've never been illuminated and you've never repented.

If that's you, cry out in your own heart for mercy. Say Lord illuminate my eyes that I can behold the light of the gospel of the glory of God that is in the face of Christ.

Let me see who this Jesus really is. Open my eyes Lord, I can't see. Because unless you behold his glory, unless you see the

Son of God, you can never stand before the Father. If you're not sure that you can value him above yourself, if you're not sure that you love him, if your eyes have not been opened, you need to be crying out for mercy, saying

Lord open my eyes. If you haven't repented, turn into the light.

You'll find him to be merciful, you'll find him to be forgiving. It also speaks to us that as Christians who have been converted, we should go out with boldness.

If it takes a miracle for someone to be converted, don't think that you can massage somebody into the kingdom.

Don't think by your methodology or whatever the newest modern movement is for witnessing, don't think that that's how it's going to happen.

Here's how conversion happens. Someone tells someone about Jesus. The plain open statement of the truth, that's the instrument that God then takes and uses to convert a soul.

So be bold, be willing to dispute, to defend the truth in a spirit of love and gentleness and respect.

But recognize that conversion is of the Lord. It is a supernatural work.

And if it's happened to you, be thankful. Worship team come on up. Let's close with the word of worship. We're going to sing a song.