Amazing Words: Grace (part 1)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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Father in heaven, we thank you for this time this morning where we have to look at your word I pray that this morning would be a time of blessing to those who are here

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Lord just let us look to your word and be encouraged by what you have told us that we might That we might learn that we might grow in respect to a life and godliness father bless each one here in Christ's name

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Amen Well, you know I thought when

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I was looking for New series for Sunday school. I just started thinking you know here's what

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I like to do. I like to find things that I Hate to be self -centered

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But that excite me and so I thought well, what would be a good series, and I have a future series planned about The humanity of Christ which

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I thought would be a unique thing to do, but I'm not ready to do that yet So we're gonna start a different series that I'm calling

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Amazing words, we'll see how it goes amazing words, which basically are one or two word phrases

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Can you hear me Bruce? Yes, okay? one or two word phrases that I think we tend to Gloss over and this is just gonna drive me nuts because I do think it's too low

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That we tend to gloss over in the Bible and so I wanted to bring out some of those because I think if we just take them and Just sort of blow them up a little bit not blow them up like with dynamite, but just blow them up a little bit

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We'll see that they're really Special I I don't want to slow your

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Bible reading down but I do think that there are some times where we should just pause a little bit and just kind of Get our breath taken away just a smidge

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Can I say smidgen? And so that's the idea amazing words and so this morning our first one is grace

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Grace and you say well, that's pretty easy. We all understand grace. What's the big deal? Grace is a very it's a very common word in the

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New Testament in fact as I was looking through this I found I think that there are 27 well

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I know this 27 books in the New Testament And I think maybe 15 of them in the opening say something to this effect grace and Peace to you, right?

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It's a greeting. In fact, just to give you a couple examples Romans 1 verse 7 to all those who are or in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints

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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ First Corinthians 1 3 grace to you and peace from God our

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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I Think it would be fair to say that You know, it is a common greeting

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You know If you're writing a letter to somebody in those days you would write something like this And have my wife on the way here, right, you know, just put dear

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Janet You know up at the top and she's probably like what's that all about? Because I was thinking on the way here

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Even if you wrote a letter just imagine I'm writing Janet a letter and I say dear

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Janet Now that would be pretty common now, let's take it a step further though.

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Let's say that for whatever reason I Thought I was never gonna see her again.

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And then I was able to write a letter to her that said dear Janet Do you think when

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I wrote Janet I would just kind of pause for a minute and go I can't believe I get to write her again

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I'm gonna suggest to you and even submit to you that when the authors of the New Testament wrote grace

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Especially in the in a greeting like this grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ to you or God the

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Father to you or what? Have you? that there's that little sense of ah

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That little sense of tingle that little sense of I can't believe I get to write such a thing to these people

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Why? Well this morning, I'd like to just have us look at the life of Paul for a moment.

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But first I want to give you some Definitions of grace and we'll kind of see which ones you like maybe we should vote

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This is I think this is a pretty good one Grace is the dimension of divine activity that enables

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God to confront human indifference and rebellion With an inexhaustible inexhaustible capacity to forgive and to bless

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God is gracious in action. I Think that's good here's another one the free and undeserved gift that God gives us to respond to our vocation to become his adopted children as Sanctifying grace

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God shares his divine life and friendship with us in a habitual gift a stable and supernatural

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Disposition that enables the soul to live with God to act by his love as Actual grace

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God gives us the help to conform our lives to his will Sacramental grace and special graces are gifts of the

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Holy Spirit to help us live out our Christian vocation How many like that one, please don't raise your hand.

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What's the source of that one? It's the

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Roman Catholic Catechism So that one's not really that good Here's another one

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For we labor diligently to write to persuade our children and also our brethren to believe in Christ and to be reconciled to God For we know that it is by grace that we are saved after all we can do.

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How many like that one? I don't like that one. That's from the

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Book of Mormon Not good, here's here's here's a better one

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Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines him to bestow benefits on the undeserving

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That's nice I Think this one's better. This is from Louie Burkhoff Grace is the unmerited operation of God in the heart of man effected through the agency of the

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Holy Spirit unmerited Another man writes grace is not merely unmerited favor.

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It is favor bestowed on sinners who deserve wrath Showing kindness to a stranger is unmerited favor

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Doing good to one's enemies is more the spirit of grace and isn't that what how the

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Bible would describe grace? And so when you when you think about that if you think if you're writing as a former rebel

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To people who are also former rebels and you say grace and peace of our

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Lord Jesus Christ to you It means something more and I think when Paul writes it it means a lot

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Let's open our Bibles to Acts chapter 9 Acts chapter 9 and I have the beginnings of an outline.

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We'll see if it ever turns into a real outline But you know, we're working on it My first point is

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Saul Saul, you know, that's Paul's pre -salvation name Saul was a seeker

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You want a seeker friendly church you want Saul in your church or maybe you don't

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Look at the first two verses I Mean, can you imagine? Yeah, we invite all seekers and there's

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Saul sitting in your church That'd be a problem but Saul still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the

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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 So he was a seeker

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I Mean this is you know, Saul the bounty hunter. There's a reality show, you know

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Right, I mean that's what that's what this is One man writes he says everything

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Paul thinks this is Saul but everything Saul thinks says and does is

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Dominated by his just desire to destroy the followers of Jesus. I Proceeded this

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Where Saul is still breathing these threats the

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Martyrdom of Stephen, you know just as an aside I remember the first time reading this the book of Acts as a believer and just thinking

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I never knew that acts or that Stephen was the name of the first Martyr of the church, you know until I was reading as a believer and just kind of going

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Oh, that's kind of a cool name that I have not that I want to be martyred But you know, I'm just saying he he he so hated the church

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What was he doing during the martyrdom of Stephen during the murder of Stephen when Stephen was stoned to death?

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And by the way, anybody really have you really ever thought about what stoning means?

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You know, they still do it in the Middle East, you know in these Muslim countries they'll stone

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Adulterers or blasphemers or whatever they want to and I mean it's literally where men pick up rocks and the the person who's being stoned is just either fastened there or However, they they do it or they just tie him up or whatever and they pick up these stones and they hurl them

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I mean you can listen to the person Dying right in front of you as you

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I mean, there's got to be a lot of Animosity in that I Compared to like firing squad a hanging or something like that I mean, it's barbaric and there has to be a lot of anger focused at this person

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So Saul witnessed the martyrdom of Stephen. In fact, what does it say? It says he was like the coatrack, right?

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Here I'll hold your coats guys, you know You don't want to be encumbered by your coats while you're hurling these stones at Stephen.

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So I'll just take care of that for you Still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the

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Lord Now his mentor Saul's mentor was a

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Jewish teacher named Gamaliel Remember what he what he said.

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Let's just look at acts 539 This is the wisdom,

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I mean I've heard this You've probably heard this verse. This would be a good sermon sometimes, you know like all the ways that this verse is abused and Misused acts 539 with somebody read that please

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Yeah, go ahead soon. So they took his advice.

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Yeah. I mean this is you know, they're trying to determine this is when they've got the Effect if we backed up Now let's back up just a little bit because what what happens is they get they've got the disciples in front of them and And they're going to they're gonna have a little trial and the high priest questioned them back to verse 27 saying

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We strictly charge you not to teach in this name yet here You have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us

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Talking about Jesus but Peter and the Apostles answered we must obey God rather than men remember all this

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The God of our fathers raised Jesus whom you killed by hanging him on a tree So he just proceeds to Peter does to preach in the gospel and look at their verse in or their response in verse 33

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When they heard this they were enraged and wanted to kill them the disciples But a

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Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel a teacher of the law. This is the one who? Was Saul's tutor his teacher?

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Saul was a pupil of his He eventually says, you know what if this is of God We can't stop it and If it's of man, it'll fall part of its own weight.

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Basically You've ever heard anybody use that verse Inappropriately I have

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I mean my favorite my favorite example is when one pastor said that about the

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Toronto blessing Which is a move of the charismatic church and he refused to take a position on it

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Even though some in his church believed it and others didn't he said you know what if it's of God We won't be able to stop it.

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And if it's not it will fall part of its own weight that's kind of a lame thing to say but But his his position was about Christianity he was like, you know what if it's of God we can't stop it and If it's not then it'll fall apart but Paul Saul then wasn't of the same mind as his teacher

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Paul's entire being is concentrated on destruction and murder Still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the

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Lord. Even after he saw this he goes to the high priest Saul unwittingly fulfilled

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Jesus words the Apostles and he said in John 16 to anyone who kills you

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Will think he is offering a service to God Remember how Paul would later write about his zeal

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That he was basically without equal He he was zealous for God or so He thought he thought he was doing a service to God by putting the

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Christians to death. Why why would he think that? It's kind of foreign to us. But what what did what was his reasoning?

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He thought there were heretics So he's gonna put them to death Drag them off and put them in jail

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Kissmacher says not satisfied with only with the Jerusalem scene Paul or Saul now looks to other places

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Where Christians reside? He's you know, he's not there aren't enough Christians in Jerusalem to persecute.

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So let's go find them elsewhere If we were to do a study we'd see that they're found mostly in these days in Damascus in Jerusalem and Joppa and Lydda So with authority from the

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Sanhedrin Paul intends to arrest Christ's followers in Damascus I mean really is like kind of like bounty hunting

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Religious bounty hunting I'm gonna go get me some scalps kind of thing The high priest was the head of the

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Sanhedrin It's a legislative body with jurisdiction over the Jews living in Jerusalem Palestine and the dispersion

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So the high priest had power to issue warrants to the synagogues to have

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Christians arrested and So he does that with regard to any Christians in Damascus?

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so Saul is a seeker and Now moving on in the text we see

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Saul was met by the seeker. We know that there's only one seeker, right? There's none who seeks after God there are plenty who seek after the brethren to destroy them

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But there's only one seeker and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's move on in our text here to verse 3 now as he being

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Saul went on his way he approached Damascus and Suddenly a light from heaven shone around him and falling to the ground.

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He heard a voice saying to him Saul Saul Why are you persecuting me?

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

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But rise and enter the city and you will be told what you are to do

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Now, I mean

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I thought of another title for this. It could be called, you know, the the wrath of unbelief I mean

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Saul represents I mean in a very good way Good way in a very illustrative way

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Saul represents physically What all unbelievers are inwardly?

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secretly Mentally they hate Christ. They hate Christians.

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It's just that Saul was not afraid to show it He wasn't afraid to act on what he what he felt inside.

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So I was like, you know the wrath of unbelief met by grace That's what this is When the one man said, you know, it's it's not just enough that it's unmerited favor or as pastor

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Mike likes to say demerited favor But it's met by a response and that response is grace

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Jesus brings Paul one Kismaker says Jesus brings Paul to conversion Saul to conversion by appearing to him in heavenly glory light

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Wouldn't it be wonderful if that would happen to some of our relatives? I Mean, I I have quite a few people on my list.

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I would like to see you know Them driven to their knees by the glory of the

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Lord that really doesn't happen all the time But he addresses

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Saul with his given name is earthly name and he asks why do you persecute me and it really is amazing because Saul is persecuting the church and Jesus so identifies with the church.

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I mean what let's put it this way If someone goes after my wife and I step in front and I say, you know, you can't attack her

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We would all expect that Now we would be I don't know

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I might be surprised if I said why are you attacking me? But that's what he's doing here.

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He's so identifying with the church. He's saying wait a minute. You're attacking not the church not

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Christians, but Me perfect identification with his bride as He was told by Gamaliel that maybe he ought not to oppose

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God now. He finds himself opposed by God The martyred Stephen the persecuted

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Christians driven from Jerusalem. I mean when we read if you read first Peter I think pastor

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Mike was preaching out of it last week read first Peter and there the Christians are scattered

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It says well, why are they scattered because they're persecuted by people like Saul. He wasn't the only one

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There were a lot of these zealots running around persecuting Christians because they saw them as heretics and they were determined to Stamp them out to put out this theological fire as it were but Paul has been fighting against Jesus and has

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Lost the battle now, it's interesting here because some commentators

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Prefer to translate it instead of who are you Lord? Who are you sir, because they don't think that he would have understood that he was dealing with Jesus Christ as the

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Messiah but think about the setting and What this suggests to us

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Saul is going off to Damascus. He could see the city. He's just about there He's just about to fulfill his goal his dream

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You know, he's gonna go grab some Christians and drag them off in chains back to Jerusalem and He's driven to his knees by the person of the

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Lord Jesus Christ Do you think when he's blinded?

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You know and here's this Voice and can't do anything. You think he's confused about what he's facing.

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I don't think so In fact,

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I think if we looked at some other verses we'd be able to see that He's he's he knows he's being confronted by the the risen

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Lord now Paul is probably confused, right?

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I mean what it Saul is Saul Paul. I mean, it's interesting He had to change his name.

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Why you know, I mean, it'd be like You know, who's a modern -day persecutor of the church?

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yeah, you have to be careful when you mention names, but you know, let's say there was somebody who just Endlessly mocked

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Christianity and then became a Christian I'm trying to think of one at one of the great atheists

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Dawkins Let's say Dawkins became a Christian and he just walked in here, you know in this

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British accent. He said hi. I'm Richard Dawkins Everybody would say aren't you the guy who wrote all that, you know?

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It would be it would be the you know, the focus would just be all on him And I think in the same way only to an even greater degree if Saul showed up at your synagogue

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I mean we we know this from later words of Scripture what happens, you know

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Isn't this Saul the persecutor of the church? Isn't he the guy who's running around killing people and throwing him in jail?

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Do we really want this guy in our church? so, you know I'm no longer

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Saul. I'm Paul. It just kind of It indicates a change and and shows all that I think

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Well, I don't want to go further afield on that But Paul or Saul up to this point thought that he was doing

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The work of the Lord. He thought he was doing the right thing. And now he hears Jesus voice telling him what?

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Everything that you believed Everything you've been taught everything you zealously pursued is wrong 100 % wrong.

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What did Saul heard what enraged him so much? He does anybody doubt at this point that he had heard the gospel before I Think he knew the gospel.

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I think he'd heard it before I think that's what bothered him so much Here are all these Christians running around and what do they say that Jesus Christ was?

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Crucified and then raised from the dead. That's blasphemy. That's why he's persecuting him

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Now here he is facing this resurrected Jesus he'd heard the gospel many times and He didn't believe not only didn't he believe but what he hated the gospel

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He hated Jesus. He hated Christians. My question would be this. How many times did you hear the gospel before you believed?

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I Know I heard it. I don't know how many times but I heard it many times before I believed It didn't make me mad

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But it didn't penetrate either. It just kind of bounced off me. I Was just like, you know, my typical attitude would be either when

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I was, you know active in the Mormon Church I'd be like, well, that's nice. But you know, you need to step up and play with the big boys

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Because we really are pursuing God with all our heart soul mind and strength and we're obedient We're doing stuff.

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You guys just think you know, you just believe and then you go to heaven but then

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I think you know I had a period where I wasn't really all that religious at all and I heard the gospel and my

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Opinion was probably more like this. Well, that's good for you guys But it didn't make me mad.

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It wasn't like this But he'd heard the gospel before but listen to how he responds now.

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He says, who are you Lord? And he says

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I am Jesus whom you are persecuting and again, he used his earthly name Jesus given to him on the day of circumcision and Jesus addresses

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Saul from heaven and Saul understands that the words are spoken that were spoken by Stephen are true.

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What did Stephen say in Acts 7? He said that he saw heaven open and the

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Son of Man standing at the right hand of God in Greek here.

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Jesus is actually saying to Saul. Yes indeed. Literally. Yes indeed. I am

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Jesus Whom you yourself emphasis on you

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Saul are Persecuting that's what Paul's been doing to the

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Christians. He's He's been doing to them and now Jesus says you've done it to me

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Twice he declares that Jesus or that Saul has been persecuting In other words Saul understands that he is sinned against Jesus, which he acknowledges repeatedly in his subsequent letters

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Jesus instructs Saul and says now get up and enter the city and you will be told what to do

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This is an amazing Portrait of grace and now I just want us to think for a moment because we know the rest of the story

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We know what Saul is going to do with his life But now when he sits down and he writes a church at Rome He writes a church at Corinth.

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He writes a church at Ephesus. He writes these different People whether it's

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Timothy or Titus And he says grace and peace I can't help but think that when he thinks of grace he thinks

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What did I deserve? Do you think about that in your own life Do you think about?

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What Christ has given you forgiveness of sins and what you did before salvation all the things that he should have

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Despised you for all the sin that you committed and yet instead of anger justice wrath you get grace and Saul all the more a murderer a

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Persecutor of the church and what happens Jesus meets him on the road of Damascus the seeker

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Out of all the people in the world he came to Saul and Confronted him and granted him salvation.

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Not only just salvation, but then subsequently he gives him this great ministry

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And look again at verse 7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless

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Hearing the voice but seeing no one Saul rose from the ground and although his eyes were open.

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He saw nothing So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. He arrived at his place the place where he was going and For three days.

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He was without sight and neither ate nor drank Verse 10 now there was a disciple at Damascus named

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Ananias the Lord said to him in a vision and Ananias And he said here

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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

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Saul For behold, he is praying It's a good response, right?

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be praying You've just met the risen Savior whom he says you've been persecuting you were wrong about everything in life

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You'd be praying too And he has seen in a vision a man named

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Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight but Ananias answered

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Exactly how we would all answer Lord I've heard from many about this man.

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How much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem and Here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name

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I don't want anything to do with this guy. Do you know who he is? This is the chief prosecutor of Christians.

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He's he's he's gonna get me, but the Lord said to him

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Go For he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the

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Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel strong instruction

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For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name So Ananias departed and entered the house and laying his hands on him he said brother

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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

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Holy Spirit and Immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight

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Then he rose and was baptized and taking food. He was strengthened. I'll tell you what if I was

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Ananias I would Who knows if I would have been obedient, but I would have had my hands on him, but I would like I would have been like this right

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You want it? You want to be ready to bolts because who knows what's gonna happen as soon as I take my hands off as soon as he can

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See again, you know, all bets are off but he was obedient Ananias was but it's interesting to look at and I Mean we see here physically what happened, but it was also spiritually what happened the scales fell from his eyes

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I mean this has already happened when he was confronted by the Lord, but we get a picture there and he regained his sight

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But I love this then he rose and what does it say next? Was baptized he hadn't eaten

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For a few days here. What's the first thing he does? He's baptized and taking food.

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He was strengthened. He gets baptized People are like, well,

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I don't want to get baptized You know, I can't speak in front of large groups of people

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I'll get nervous I won't know what to say I get embarrassed I just can't do it. I haven't heard anybody say by the way,

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I don't want to get baptized because I have to eat first but That would have been a reasonable thing to do right haven't eaten for three days get something to eat his first Response to faith to saving faith was to get baptized

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Now again, let's just think about what this represents. We know and we'll hear it tonight Baptism represents what new life?

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Yes Steven and you know, maybe

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I didn't phrase the question, right? But that's that's really the key point because what happens is a public proclamation a public identification with Christ So again, let's just think about who

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Saul is The great persecutor of the church the man who went and got warrants as it were who collected

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You know the the wanted posters and went out chasing the church Hated the church was seething with hatred for the church and his first response to saving faith is to publicly identify himself

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With the church with Christ Can you imagine?

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Being there for that baptism, you know, we we get sometimes we get testimonies where people say you know when

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I was 12 I started using heroin and you know, whatever, you know,

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I mean it goes on and on and you know, I shot so -and -so or you know I've Committed the sin of fornication, you know this many times or what?

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You know people want to give you a laundry list of all their sins so, you know, I I would have received

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Saul's email and You know start listing all the things and I would have gone, you know, it's all just cut all that stuff out

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Just tell us that you formerly hated Christ You hated everything about him.

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You thought that this was blasphemy and then he appeared to you on the road to Damascus Drove you to your knees made you blind

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Sent Ananias to you that you might see again. And now he has promised what a life of luxury and ease

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Good news. So so it's all is gonna testify tonight that God has promised him a lifetime of pleasure the

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Lord promised him that he would suffer Said I'm gonna tell you how much you have to suffer

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The implication is what it's gonna be a lot but that didn't deter him

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First thing he did was after he believed he was Baptized and then let's look what he does after that back to our text verse 19 .5

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for some days he was with the disciples at Damascus and immediately

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He proclaimed Jesus in the synagogue saying he is the Son of God And all who heard him were amazed and said is this not the man who made havoc in?

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Jerusalem of those of those who called upon his name. He was he disrupted us

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I mean the picture is, you know, basically of someone driving a chariot through the town square.

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This is what he did He was out to just lay waste to the church and Has he not come here?

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For this purpose to bring them bound before the chief priest Yes, he did but Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded.

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It doesn't mean physical strength Spiritual strength and wisdom and scripture as he started putting together all the things that he had suppressed an unrighteousness and Confounded the

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Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ How did he prove that will use the

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Old Testament? That would be the way he would do it, I mean he could testify yes

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But they'd have to know from the scripture that what he was saying was true Look at the response.

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This is fascinating because here he's gone from Pursuer to the pursued verse 23 when many days had passed the

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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

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But his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall Lowering him in a baskets this is the the response of unbelief to believers if you haven't had this response when you've come to Christ and I I Was just talking to somebody and I'm gonna continue

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This conversation because I know this man. Well I've known him for 30 years

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He thinks he's a believer He wrote to me the other day that he came to faith at the age of eight and you know how he knows he came to faith at the age of eight

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Because he wrote in his Bible The date that he accepted

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Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior now I have one reason for believing that he may not be a

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Christian like I said, I've known him for 30 years That means he's known me for 30 years.

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He knows about my past. Well, I know about his past and his current life He's been a homosexual as long as I've known him

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I Knew his boyfriend. I'm gonna just say

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How do you reconcile these two things? but what happens when as A new convert you present the truth claims of Christ to people who are unbelievers

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Do they go? Well, that's you know, Steve and what Steve says goes You know, he's always been our friend and he wouldn't lie to us and now we believe him the whole dynamic of your relationship changes

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The people who were your friends, maybe they don't like you so much anymore You know you drone on and on about this

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Jesus Well here they took it to another level They didn't just go.

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You know, what's all be quiet. They decided they were gonna kill him For the same reasons he wanted to kill

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Christians before now. He was the target And look at what it says in verse 26 because he leaves

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Damascus goes back to Jerusalem and when he had come to Jerusalem and attempted he attempted to join the disciples and they were all afraid of him

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For they did not believe he was a disciple You're just trying to worm your way in here

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But Barnabas took him and brought him in or brought him to the Apostles and declared to them

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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

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Lord and he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists the Greeks But they were threatening to kill him and when the brothers learned this they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus Now let's just again, let's just think about this

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This is Saul who had been persecuting the church zealous Running around all of Jerusalem and then he went off to Damascus and now look at what's happened.

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He preached in Damascus They were ready to kill him. He went back to Jerusalem. They were ready to kill him why because they saw the change that had happened and They didn't like it and as we just close here

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I just want to again bring us back to you writing down that word grace and I just can't help but feel

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That when he wrote grace There was this, you know I'm sure he just didn't sit there and pause and go

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I can't pass by that word without a five -minute prayer or whatever but I think there are plenty of times where he just wrote it and just kind of got that sort of Reminder that tingling where he just thought

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God has been very gracious to me God has granted me great things in spite of who

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I was In spite of the fact that I was a persecutor and a blasphemer That's grace

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Let's pray father for those who are

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Yours this morning we hear that word grace and we're reminded of who we were before you saved us

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Maybe we can even remember times that we heard the gospel and it meant nothing to us or defended us

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But father you are the seeker You transforms a lot of transformed lives

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Just as you did with Saul that day Maybe not the same drama and at the blinding light.

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Maybe not causing us to be blind Maybe not telling us that we're going to have to suffer for your sake

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But Lord you change our affections You change our nature you change our desires

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Father we praise you for that. We praise you for efficacious grace a grace that transforms a

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Grace that does not leave us where we were Even as we think about Saul and how you worked in him

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To where he was willing to risk his life. We see it over and over again in the book of Acts So the gospel might be proclaimed