Now I know that Saul was trying to be a Jew, not a Christian, but it's, you understand it, God gave him the law, and he gives us the law too to bring us to Christ, the law in our hearts, the law in different ways, but here he is, he's under this tremendous burden, and now in chapter 7, I don't, I guess this all began before he met Stephen, but in chapter 7, he's, he's into Jerusalem now, he has just come in, he's perhaps come in about a few weeks or months before this point in the revival, but Jerusalem is all a stir with stories of healings, and tremendous power at work, and the Pharisees, his colleagues, are saying, I'm speaking against this whole new thing, and Saul is stirred up, and then there's this man, this young upstart, who's done so little, he knows virtually nothing, and he hasn't been to a Bible college like Saul had been, Saul had been to the, I suppose you'd call it the Oxford University of Bible Colleges, he'd been to the feet of Gamaliel, he'd done the best, and there he was, coming to Jerusalem, and now there's this young upstart, who not only pretends to know the Bible better, and to tell people about Moses, and this new prophet, Jesus, all this, but to everybody around him, especially Saul, Stephen was doing great miracles, and Saul hasn't seen a miracle in a long time, he hasn't seen the supernatural, and in chapter six, I assume that Saul was one of those who were arguing with Stephen, and it tells you in verse 10, they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke, and I've no doubt they argued strongly, but when Stephen spoke, I guess the words of Stephen must have not come just with argument, but with power, and truth, and conviction, that Stephen knew what he was saying, and he believed it, and he was living it, and they couldn't resist the wisdom and the spirit by which they had argued the Bible with him, it made them mad, and then, verse 11 of chapter 6, they riled people to say things that Stephen had said, they stirred the people, and the elders, and scribes, and came upon him, and they brought him to the council, and all this was taking place, maybe Saul was among those who were, who was called to talk against Stephen, to bring arguments that would destroy all this that Stephen was saying, but when they sat and looked at Stephen in this room, they saw his face, look at the end of verse, chapter 6, they saw his face as if it had been the face of an angel, serene, I don't know what you think the face of an angel is, serenity, real peace, he was at peace, he wasn't laughing with some kind of foolish joy that he was, he had joy, he had a clear conscience, you can read that on the thing, he had a clear conscience, he was holy, angel, because we're thinking here of an angel, one of God's angels, a holy angel, and look on this man with this Christian testimony, an outstanding example of a Christian shining face, now I don't think he had a sort of a fixed leer on his face, you know, pretending to be happy because he thought he ought to be, I think he was simply shining, radiating, a man right with God, and they looked at him, and they asked him this question, well of course they asked him, are these things so Stephen, they said, and they of course then Stephen launches into this great long, but long, it's long in terms of chapters, it isn't very long, it's only 60 verses or so, and he speaks for about half an hour, maybe 20 minutes, we don't know how long he spoke for, but he went into the history of Israel, and I thought it was a shock then that he knew his Bible so well, because he really did, and then as he came down, he spoke other things against the way the people of God have dealt with the Holy Spirit among them, look at this verse 51, this will not win you friends, if you speak like this to them, but he called them in verse 51, you wouldn't like me to call you this would you, this is the advantage of preaching, I can call anybody anything, and just say, well I was just speaking generally, but if I said you stiff -necked man, I didn't say woman, I said you ladies can feel it, you stiff -necked, and here's the terrible thing, you uncircumcised, now remember who he was saying this to, the Jews, you are uncircumcised, cut up from the covenant, you're not part of the covenant, translate that into our day, and of course I don't know if a Christian today, if you said this to a Christian today, whether they'd feel as shocked as they ought to feel, but they ought to feel terribly insulted by this, if I say you stubborn, proud and uncrucified in heart, the way you listen to God's word, you're uncrucified, you're still strong and vigorous and powerful, in the pursuit of your own agenda, he said you always resist the Holy Spirit, as your father did so do you, and one of the things in the New Testament is revealed is that the reason the Holy Spirit is so invisible, is because he is like oil and water to the human race, in other words he's all around us, but we can't, we're incompatible, we can't see him because we are so resisting the Holy Spirit, the human race is so resistant to the Holy Spirit, most of the human race don't even know he exists, the greatest tragedy is to go to a group of disciples and say have you received the Holy Spirit, were you baptized in the Holy Spirit when you were a young Christian, and they say well we haven't even heard of it, but that's what happened in Acts chapter 19, they said we haven't even heard of it, we didn't even know there was a Holy Spirit, how can there be such a thing as a Christian who doesn't know the Holy Spirit exists, but that's what you find in Acts chapter 19, he said that and he said more, he said you haven't checked the law, but in verse 54 their reactions were so, they were so angry, they were so scurred, they had no security, no peace, they were cut to the heart, they gnashed on him with their teeth, but he being full of the Holy Ghost, this is a wonderful verse, 55 of chapter 7, he being full of the Holy Ghost, and let me tell you something the Holy Ghost will enable you to do, it will enable you to do what Stephen did, but he being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up and one of the great gifts in the spiritual life the Holy Spirit imparts to all children of God, is that he gives us the power to look up, and he being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, he wasn't wavering, he looked up and he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and he said I see the heaven opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God, and then they cried out with a loud voice, stop their ears, no, no, no, and they ran upon him with one accord, Saul, while he was with them, and they cast him out of the city, out of a certain gate that is today called Stephen's gate, and they stoned him outside that gate, and the witnesses laid down their clothes, and the young man's feet whose name was Saul, Saul was there, he said come on, keep, bring your coats here, you're going to get sweated doing this job, take off your coats, bring them here, stoning, and they stoned Stephen, and there's Saul looking on, he watches Stephen calling on God, he watches him pray, and he sees Stephen say, Lord Jesus, he says, receive my spirit, and he died, dying with such assurance, with such confidence, and then I think the thing that absolutely stabbed the apostle, well he wasn't an apostle at this point, he stabbed this Pharisee to his heart, was when he heard Stephen kneel down and cry with a loud clear voice without a trace of bitterness, and he said, Lord Jesus, they're charged, and he died, in other words, he said, forgiven, and the way he prayed, they knew, he, Saul would have known, this man had forgiven, he can say whatever else had touched Saul's heart, the most provocative thing he ever saw or heard was a man with a shining face, absolute shock, his family, and his friends, and his neighbours, because he's full of a forgiving heart, he's forgiven everybody, and I think one of the most shocking things to your neighbours will be that you have a clear countenance, a shining testimony of forgiveness, you know, I read the biographies of different people, and I have different heroes in my, uh, when I, when I think of different people, one of the men I most admire was a man in, a German man, he was a great man of God, he, he was such a powerful minister, great miracles were done through him, he died just before World War II, he died about 1936, great miracles were done with him, through him, he was a mighty man of God, I think one of the greatest men of God who's ever lived, one day, um, he was preaching in a tent mission in, uh, Prussia, I think it was, or Pomerania, somewhere right in the east, and he, he was preaching down there, and there was a man in the region who was a, uh, nobleman, and he was, uh, a very, um, violent man, this nobleman, and he was very rough, apparently once it tells us that he's been riding along this road and he's knocked over, uh, a coffin in the funeral procession, didn't care, anyway, he was riding along this rough nobleman was riding along, and he suddenly saw a man pushing a wheelchair, and he said to him, where have you been, what, where, where, where's the sick man, where's the sick man, and he said, it's me, I was, I was a cripple, and I went down to that tent meeting with that evangelist, Jonathan Paul, and I was healed today, and this nobleman's jaw dropped, and he said, what, and he went down there like a lamb to hear this evangelist, and he gave over his great estates for people to use them for, for, for missions, and for retreats, and conferences, very wonderful, but when I read that man's biography, the thing that most hit me, and I think it was a wonderful biography, it was, these great things, of course, wonderful, but the thing that really hit me was the little one day, he'd been away preaching, he came back to his house in Berlin, and his neighbor had moved the, the, the fence over, taking over about a meter of his property, and he didn't say anything, he'd moved the, the, the, the stones that indicated where the boundary was, he'd moved them, and Jonathan Paul, this man, didn't say anything, he greeted his neighbor as if nothing had happened, he'd been kind to him before, and he continued to be kind to him in exactly the same way, one day, his neighbor came to him, broken back, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, gave him back his land, broken, how was he broken, because he'd met his match in a man who didn't bear any good, more stories about that man, but the thing is, it's just so, the thing about the man, and the constant, the reason I think he was such a great man is because he had a constant testimony of a man who he loved, his friends, his neighbors, and his enemies, he loved everybody, and you know that if you want to be full of the Holy Ghost, if you want God to work in your life, one of the things you're going to have to agree to is that you're going to have to forgive everybody, because I've talked to people that some people have got more to forgive than others, it isn't actually in relationship to how much you've got to forgive, you could tell me your story and I could hear something and I'd say well yeah I know it's really, I feel sorry for you, would I then say at the end of hearing all your reasons to begrudge somebody, would I then say well you're really right to be bitter, so I think you should continue, go on, be bitter, go a bit deeper, go on, moan a bit stronger, shout at God even about it, complain to God, write some stingy, horrible letters, and I told you that, you know what I would do, I would hasten your death, I'm convinced that bitterness was the cause of death of many unforgiving hearts, instead of the cause of spiritual death, when Saul saw this man die, the way he died, it would have shaken him to the core, he forgave everybody, I know that the testimony of the cross, which we're talking about, the testimony of the cross, how do I portray Jesus Christ and him crucified, there's only one way to portray that cross, I'm unforgiving, I am a contradiction, I am denying everything about the Christian gospel, if I can't forgive somebody, I am denying the whole gospel, you see a Christian is shining, radiant, a Christian is radiant, a Christian has been made right with God, filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with a life that's made him clean inside from drugs, and all the hurts, and the things that make the human race such a sick bunch of people, why is the human race so sick, you know all these things, but when Saul looked at Stephen, he would have said he's whole, I'm sick, but he wouldn't admit it, wouldn't admit it, instead he redoubled his efforts to stamp out the things that were stirring his conscience, if you look on, we won't look at all these things, but this man Stephen was filled with power, he was filled with faith, he was filled with all these things, but if you want to be full of the Holy Ghost, if you want God to work in your life, one of the things you don't have to agree to is that I've talked to people that some people have got more to forgive than others, it isn't actually in relationship to how much you've got to forgive, you could tell me your story and I could hear something, I'd say well yeah I know it's what you've written, I feel sorry for you, would I then say at the end of hearing all your reasons to begrudge somebody, would I then say well you're really right to be bitter, so I think you should continue, go on be bitter, go on note a bit stronger and shout at God even about it, complain to God and write some stingy horrible letters and I've told you that you know what I would do, I would hasten your death, I'm convinced that bitterness is the cause of death of many unforgiving hearts, it's certainly the cause of spiritual death, and when Saul saw this man die, the way he died, it would have shaken him to the core, he forgave I know that the testimony of the cross, which we're talking about, the testimony of the cross, how do I portray Jesus Christ and him crucified, there's only one way to portray that cross, I'm unforgiving, I am a contradiction, I am denying everything about the Christian gospel, I can't forgive somebody, I am denying the whole gospel, you see a Christian is a shining example, radiant, a Christian is radiant, a Christian has been made right with God, filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with a life that's made him clean in spite from drugs and all the hurts and the things that make the human race such a sick bunch of people, why is the human race so sick, but when Saul looked at Stephen, he would have said he's whole, and I'm sick, but he wouldn't admit it, wouldn't admit it, instead he redoubled his efforts to stamp out the things that were stirring him constantly, if you look on, we won't look at all these things, but this man Stephen was filled with power, he was filled with faith, he was filled with all these things, but the thing that most would have shaken every person that looked at him was he was filled with love, was filled with the love of God, and you know that this thing of is something you will have to maintain, there will be things that will happen, you know I suppose the strange thing is that we expect the rules to be different I suppose in all kinds of places, but we must learn the whole way of forgiveness, I said here that the Holy Spirit will cause you to look up into heaven, the Holy Spirit will also cause you to forgive, the Holy Spirit will cause you to believe, he will cause you to love, he will cause you to be kind, he will cause you, but someday you will disagree with the Holy Spirit, I'm not doing that, you won't be able to feel it very strongly, but something in you will say no, the Holy Spirit will persist, fail you, but then the Holy Spirit is grieved, and then when we turn away from the ways the Holy Spirit prompts us to, we find that our life grows dull and dark, and then to our greatest horror we get tempted to commit sins we never imagined we could even think about, but once darkness is unleashed on a soul the human heart is capable of the worst, the most tragic thing that we assume so much, but remember this, that the walk of a life freed from sin is a life living in this Spirit, walking in the Spirit, walking in forgiveness, walking in love, walking in faith, walking in the things that the Holy Ghost prompts us to, resist the Spirit you'll be in the flesh, and it won't be long before all the works of the flesh are being stirred in you, so then we've made to chapter 9 for a moment, here is this apostle, well this man Pharisee fighting all these things, and here he is, and he's now seen Stephen, and he's about, he's going to submit, we've seen already that he's on the ground, he's trembling, he's astonished, we're not going to spend a long time here looking at the conversion of souls, but I just want you to notice this, when he saw Jesus, and this sight of Jesus cut into the heart, and he was on the ground, he was dead, and this is what he said, who are you Lord, who are you, who are you, and the Lord said I am Jesus, we don't realize this, we assume things are all automatic, because they're so familiar to us, but you don't see this, but at this point Saul could have said no, go away from me, if he had, he would have been led to Damascus a broken man, there'd be no zeal now for being a Pharisee, he would have lived out his days a broken man, he would have stirred his heart sometimes to this or that, but he would have been not only disappointed, he'd have been an absolutely miserable man, he had the moment of choice, you know you can see it in different ones, if you look at the rich young ruler, what should I do, eager, eager, what should I do, learn a new life, Jesus told him, he went away sorrowful, and I am certain that man never enjoyed his money again, deep down in his heart, every time he looked he remembered the word of Jesus, give it away, give it away, and he'd sit with his friends eating expensive food, drinking expensive wine, planning expensive buildings, and in his heart he'd hear the word, give it away, give it away, and he wouldn't enjoy it, because once the word of Jesus has come to you, you are a ruined person, you're dead, and you need to know the resurrection life, but you only know it if you'll agree to die with him on that cross, because if you die you're going to lose your life, you know the most dreaded thing about this gospel is that I can lose my horrible self -centered life, I can let go of it and be made completely new, forgiveness is only possible by letting go, you can't forgive unless you let go of things that have happened, of events, of maybe money owed you, or something that somebody took, because you let it go, let it go, I want it back, no let it go, forever, because people will talk to others because there's something they got that they, you know this terrible thing of envy, of lust, all connected, and all things, let it go, let go from your life, I wanted that so much, let it go, you can't have it, he's got it, and he doesn't deserve it more than me, and I deserve it more than him, I want it, let it go, the most dirty thing you can ever do is compare yourself with another, you know I've heard people say this, I hate you because, one, because of something you've got, let it go, let it go, and when Saul let go his life, you remember, I think for three days he must have thought about this, three days he was blind, he was working it through, the Holy Spirit was poured over him on the third day, for three days he sat there, and as he, he said he'd abandoned himself to this, on the first day, I guess, he didn't say it in all his words, but he went like a lamb into the town, led by those who, he was led there, led by his companions, they went in, they didn't know what happened, he didn't eat or drink for three days, and I think as he was there praying, and the Bible says he was praying, as he was praying, suddenly it would come to him, what about all that career, you could be the high priest, if you follow this man, you're going to have to let go all your hopes for a future career, and suddenly he would say, can I do it, can I do it, can I do it, and then he would say yes, I'll do it, otherwise you can have it, and from him went away the ambition to be high priest, you could be like him anyway, you're the most respected Bible teacher, but if you do this, you'll lose it, let it go, let it go, you let it go, you could have been rich, I'll let it go, I'll let it go, if you do this, maybe Satan reminded him of all that he could lose, but on that journey there, three days he was there in the tomb, and I think Saul said yes, it can all go, I let go my life, one of the things you've got to do is let go your life, you've got to let go, you've got to let go the past, you've got to let go ambitions, you've got to let go everything, people you were so, you know so well, it might be a husband, it might be a wife, it might be a parent, it might be a child, it might be let it go, let everything go before Jesus, I think he saw that face there today, he was not remembering that, but he saw it, he said I want to know, and all the time that he was there, the choice was there, either or, either or, you can't have both, you can't have both, you can't have both, you want this, then let that go, you want this, let it go, let this go, let that go, and he let it go, he let it go, he let it go, and on the third day he was there praying, he'd released his hold on everything, he was dead, and Ananias came into him and said this by faith, Ananias came and said by faith, he said, I think he must have taken a deep breath when he went in, because he knew that Saul was an enemy of Christianity, he took a deep breath and he said brother Saul, brother Saul, you're my brother Saul, he had only got the word of Jesus to God, and he called him brother, you're my brother, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you in the way, has sent me to you, that you might receive your sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost, and he laid his hands on him, and it fell from his eyes, and it sailed, his sight was restored to him, he was a rose and was baptized, first baptized in the spirit, and secondly in water, I don't know where they rushed him to do it, but they baptized him in water, but he was baptized in the Holy Spirit, and I think that then Saul rose, you know, he began to witness immediately of this man, I think he was one of the most stubborn witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ that ever existed, he never stopped witnessing, he never stopped witnessing, wonderful isn't it, and Saul you see, he saw, as I said, when later on he was, when he was filled with the Holy Spirit, he was what, he was baptized, united with Christ in his death, he felt this whole life was being transformed, he was losing this whole self -centered striving life, he was released from the law, he was released from everything, he was dead, he was alive in Christ, he was a new man in Christ, wonderful isn't it, and he became a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ, a witness of the cross, and he became one who told the whole world about the glories of the cross, and most of what we know about the cross is from the pen of the Apostle Paul, he writes about how we die to self, we die to the world, we die to all the things I've mentioned, we die, and he spoke of it as the greatest joy, why, because then we live, we die, we also live, and he became a witness, a stubborn witness who would not take no for an answer, and I think this is what he saw in Stephen, an outstanding witness, a shining clear witness, you know that wherever there is witness, there is conflict, did you know that, wherever there is witness, there is conflict, Stephen gave witness, he gave his life, when Paul witnessed, he witnessed, now let him go out of war, I remember a story I heard in Germany again, about this man, he was a Jew, he was a, a, a, he was a Jew, he was taken to the camps, and he was on his way to be gassed, they were leading him down with all the others, and he at some point, he didn't know where he was going exactly, they didn't know always what was happening, and they didn't know, he didn't know, and he stumbled over his shoelace, something small like that, in his suit, to tie his shoelace, and whether the guard knew what was happening or not, the guard pushed him aside, and ordered him back to the barracks, to get back, and he laughed for a second, because he died with all the others, and he came out of this war, prison of war, this, this concentration camp in Germany, he went back to his town, hurt man, was all the loathe on him, all these things, and he got married, and then one of his neighbors was a Christian, I'm talking about this Jewish man, lived on the first, on the first floor flat, well like John Shaw, if you're not seen, you must visit Villa, Villa Shaw, Castle Shaw, go and visit the mansion, and if you go there, it was a flat, just like that, it was up some stairs, and you, there was a door, and this Christian went to him, and said to him, excuse me sir, would you come to a Christian meeting, the man said, what, Christian meeting, never, get out of my house, the next day, the man came back, he said, our meetings are continuing, would you like to come to our Christian meeting, he said, what, I told you never to come back, he said, if you come here again and invite me, I'll throw you down those stairs, go and see them, go and see them, not the very first day, but they're just like that, so the next day, he went back again, stood at the bottom of the stairs, and he said, would you come to our meeting, he said, ah, you're too big a child to come to our meeting, and he went to the mistress, became a great preacher eventually, he sat in the meeting, he realized what Christ had done for him on that cross, and he gave in, let go of all his life, all his hurt was made new, and his wife wasn't with him, when he was conversed, she was away, she came back, he didn't know how to say it to her, so they were living together there, quietly, he wasn't saying anything, and one day his wife said to him, you know I've been away for a few days, she said, I've got something I'd like to tell you, while I was traveling, I met a Christian, and I've given my life to Christ, we both become Christians the same week, wonderful story, you know I love such stories, I love the way God's grace worked, it's a very dark day, it never stops, I know men who were converted on the battlefield, hard German men, who broke down and wept, Nazis waiting the death penalty, who broke down and wept, being led to the Lord by people, who had lost sons by the Germans, you see, forgiveness, the power of forgiveness, God wants to make you a witness of the cross, later on when Saul, now Paul wrote his letters, and he wrote things, don't you know that as many of us will baptize into Jesus Christ, who will baptize into his death, you can almost feel a leap of joy when you read Romans, don't read it like that, don't read it like that, read it how it was written, to know Jesus, many of us will baptize into Jesus Christ, will baptize into his death, my God is still, live to righteousness, live for Jesus, you're dead, you're dead, and you expect somebody to say, you're dead, you're dead, you expect all the crowd to say, hmm, let me get my concordance, but you're dead, you're alive to sit with Christ in God, it's the best news ever, not that he'll catch you up, he'll just change you entirely from the inside out, baptism in the spirit, what a power there is in the cross, but what do we experience, misery, no release, joy, let's pray, all I know is that you'll pray and ask Jesus to fill you with this life, if you'll let go your own, he'll do it, the choice is you let go, let go, let go, let it go from you, and let the Holy Ghost come to you, let the bitterness go, let the hurt go, let your ambitions go, let your possessions go, let things that happen go from you, let it go, and let the Holy Ghost come, he's seeking entrance, the whole point of what we are here tonight for, the Holy Ghost is seeking entrance, the church may be weak, the preacher may be weak, but the Holy Ghost is strong, and he's knocking on your heart, he wants entrance, he wants to take over your life, he wants that, he wants it, he wants it, with all his being, he wants to fill you and change you, he wants to release you, let it happen, let it happen, let it happen to you, and you can say why me, Lord, it's so wonderful, plunging at you, hallelujah, the Holy Ghost is being poured out from heaven, like a flying fountain, he's never stopped flowing, since Jesus opened those floodgates on the human race, they've been poured out, and now on you, and you, and you, hallelujah,.