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Sunnyside Baptist Church Michael Dirrim
Lord, I thank You for these songs that we've sung together today, the prayers that have been prayed, and the Scriptures that have been read. I want to remind us of how Your glory and our good, determined by You, come together in Your Son, Jesus Christ.
And I pray that You would help us to rejoice in Him today as we consider the truth of Your Word. Help us to delight in Your goodness, to delight in Your grace. Pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Well, I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter nine, Acts chapter nine.
And we will be reading verses one through nine this morning. Acts chapter nine. We have been considering the acts of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of David, who by His blood, by His death and resurrection, brings in the new covenant, initiates the new creation, and builds the new temple.
And we've seen a running contrast between the old covenant temple and the new covenant temple. We've seen the jealousy of those from whom the kingdom is being torn away. A jealousy against Christ and those to whom the kingdom is being given.
A jealousy not unlike that of King Saul against the shepherd boy, David. And we've seen this jealousy break out into violent persecution against the followers of the way, against the disciples of Jesus.
And yet, every shot that is fired just keeps hitting the desired bullseye that God has ordained. Now, for example, in Acts chapter four, after Peter and John were arrested and threatened as they gathered back together with the church, in Acts chapter four and verse 23, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.
So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said, "'Lord, You are God, "'who made heaven and earth and the sea "'and all that is in them, "'who by the mouth of Your servant, David, have sinned.
"'Why did the nations rage "'and the people plot vain things? "'The kings of the earth took their stand "'and the rulers were gathered together "'against the Lord and against His Christ.'". Now, Psalm two is about Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Christ.
"'For truly against Your holy servant, Jesus, "'whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, "'with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, "'were gathered together.'". It's a conspiracy, a real conspiracy of evil and wrong.
"'To do whatever Your hand and Your purpose "'determined before to be done.'". And then they pray, "'Now, Lord, look on their threats "'and grant to Your servants that with all boldness, "'they may speak Your word "'by stretching out Your hand to heal "'and that signs and wonders may be done "'through the name of Your holy servant, Jesus.'".
And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God with boldness. So when the opposition became palpable, when they first experienced what it was like to be thrown into a jail cell and then taken before the court and then tried before men and threatened with violence should they continue to preach God's word, when they first encountered that, their minds went straight to Jesus Christ who suffered on their behalf upon the cross and yet God raised Him from the dead.
And though their brothers had intended it for evil, God had meant it for good. And having settled that, having ordained the most evil act upon the face of the planet in all of history, the murder of the Son of God, having seen that God takes that and uses it to accomplish the greatest good to the glory of His name, everything else is low-hanging fruit, small potatoes.
All the most difficult promises have already been kept and the momentum of the reign of Jesus Christ will not be stopped. Although there are some who will try. Example, Saul of Tarsus. I invite you to stand with me as we read God's word, Acts chapter nine, beginning in verse one.
This is the word of the Lord. Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus so that if he found any who were of the way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
As he journeyed, he came near Damascus and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord?
Then the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads. So he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what do you want me to do? Then the Lord said to him, arise and go into the city and you will be told what you must do.
And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no one. Then Saul arose from the ground and when his eyes were opened, he saw no one, but they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.
And he was three days without sight and neither ate nor drank. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. The stories our culture tells today are different than the stories that they used to tell.
By some degrees, but they are different. The stories they used to tell was that while justice and goodness were the norm, people were genuinely decent, and every once in a while a bad apple would emerge and bad Bart would move in and take over the town, pay off the sheriff and oppress the people.
But then a man would be chosen by destiny or by God. Something would happen providentially and he would ride into town and set things straight again and then exit making sure that the people would be all right on their own once the bad actor was removed.
That was the story that used to be told in many ways over and over again, sometimes on larger scales, sometimes on a smaller scale. The story our culture is now telling over and over ad nauseum brims with certainty that injustice is the norm that injustice prevails, that it soaks everything and the only solution is some sort of man's justice.
And this manifests either by personal vengeance or group vengeance, some kind of vengeance. It's either the vengeance of a man who has nothing left and there's nothing better than to destroy himself and even those that he knows in the course of destroying others in a worse fashion or some sort of special diverse and equitable and inclusive group who undoes the old injustice to put together a new form of justice.
And that's the story that's being told in our culture in our television shows and movies and songs and so on ad nauseum. That's the story that's told over and over again. The certainty is that there is injustice and the only answer is some kind of vengeance, reparation, something.
What is the story that God tells? What is the story that God tells? Of course, the thoughts of man's heart are only evil continually. Indeed, the heart is deceptively wicked, who can know it? And yet, justice is satisfied not by the wrath of man, but by the wrath of God in his good timing and that he has given us his son, Jesus Christ, so that God's wrath and justice will be satisfied in Christ at his cross for all who believe in him, thus receiving God's grace and mercy, or God's justice will be satisfied at Christ's coming and he judges all men.
And that's the story that God tells. And there is good news for us. There is good news as time and again, we are told about God's grace in his word. We are not given old news, antiquated news, strange news, blank news, we're given good news.
We're given good news that Jesus Christ has come into the world to save sinners. And as we consider God's grace in Acts chapter nine, we get to see how God in his goodness, in his power, in his sovereign planning, how he deals with a villain, how he deals with an evil man, how he deals with the tip of the spear against Christianity.
What does God do in dealing with somebody who deserves hellfire? God's grace. Grace is God's deciding and doing for his glory and our good. God's grace is his deciding and doing for his glory and our good, regardless of our merits.
That's what we see in our text this morning. In verses one and two, surprisingly, perhaps surprisingly, we discover that God's grace abounds more than a sinner's commitment. God's grace is greater than, more abundant than a sinner's commitment.
A sinner's commitment to himself, to his own plans, to his own principles. God's grace abounds more. You know, Saul of Tarsus is an interesting case study of those who hate Christ and hate Christianity and actively work against it.
A very interesting study. And Saul of Tarsus, as an example, that's a very biblical thing to do, as Paul himself would say later, he was an example. So we are to reflect on and think about his case in particular.
When I was in my undergraduate pastoral ministries class on evangelism, I was told by the professor that evangelism was essentially a process by which you worked to break down somebody's defensiveness against God to lower that wall progressively until it was low enough for the Holy Spirit to jump over it.
Verbatim, that's what I was taught. Poor Holy Spirit, he can't jump very high. I was told by chapel speakers that God is a gentleman and if you choose against him, he respects that and will not knock on your door anymore.
Yeah, but Saul of Tarsus is an interesting case study where sin abounded, grace much more abounded. And look at the vehemence of Saul, the vehemence against Christ. Then Saul, verse one, still breathing, look at this, breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.
He's breathing threats and murder against Christians, against the disciples of the Lord. He is inhaling threats and exhaling murder. He is inhaling menace and exhaling slaughter. A .T. Robertson said, Saul is like a war horse.
Who smells battle and snorts steam. Saul was exceedingly mad. He was raging and raving. He, as he tells the story, as he gives his testimony, he described himself in Acts 26, verse 11. He said that he punished Christians often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme.
It wasn't enough that he wanted them silent, he wanted them to blaspheme God, to say the opposite of what they were saying. Not enough to just be quiet. No, I want you to deny Christ, to deny God. He said, I was exceedingly enraged against them.
That's Saul of Tarsus. In 1 Timothy 1 .13, he said he was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man. We really need to bring the word insolent back into our vocabulary. The word means violently arrogant.
Violently arrogant. We have a lot of insolence in our day. He is vehemently against Christ. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. His heart was full of vehemence, anger against the followers of the way.
Why? Because Saul was so virtuous. Because he was so right. He was so pure and on track with the right way of thinking. That's why he was so vehemently against Christ. His virtue fueled his fire. Now we see that his zeal is so hot that he goes to the high priest and asks letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus.
The high priest is on his side. The most holy man in all of Judaism, the highest position, the entirety of the Sanhedrin, the council, everybody agreed with Saul of Tarsus. They were on his side of the matter.
They authorized him to continue his zealous work for God. Saul was, he thought of himself as incredibly righteous. Who could match the resume of Saul of Tarsus? You know that resume in Philippians 3 that he wadded up and tossed aside like a piece of dung?
He was virtuous. He had a moral mandate. He was very much like King Jehu. And he wasn't only known for his bad driving, but King Jehu was known for his zeal. As he was careening around the countryside in his chariot, trying to find all the descendants of Ahab and Jezebel and slaughtering them all down to the last man, woman, and child, he came upon a man named Jehonadab.
And after checking out Jehonadab's intentions and credentials, he says, "'Come up with me and see the zeal I have for the Lord.'. And he went off from place to place, slaughtering all who were of Ahab and Jezebel.".
And that is the exact same kind of zeal as Saul of Tarsus had. "'Come see my zeal. Let me show you what it looks like to be zealous for God.'". He is the epitome of what Jesus said in John 16 too when he warned his disciples and said, "'They will put you out of the synagogues.
Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.'". That was Saul of Tarsus. He was intensely moral. He was intensely virtuous. He was right and they were wrong. They were a cult.
They were a danger. And thus he committed violence against them. It began with Stephen when he witnessed the stoning of Stephen as he died under the hail of stones. Those who threw the stones at Stephen laid their cloaks at the feet of Saul of Tarsus.
This was the way forward. This was the only way to deal with this awful teaching called the way. These followers of Jesus of Nazareth who would demean the temple, who would move people away from the daily sacrifices and the feast days and the ceremonies.
This was the only way to deal with them was to destroy them. In Acts chapter eight, verse three, as for Saul, he made havoc, havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.
And again, prison, unlike today, prison was a temporary holding cell as you waited to be sentenced to death or possibly released or maybe beaten. So what is he doing? He is making havoc of the church.
He is busting down doors. He's the Sanhedrin's FBI with full long assault rifles in battle gear, busting down the door. You're a bad apple in our society. Time to make you pay. Entering every house, dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.
This Benjamin Knight truly was a ravenous wolf morning and evening, just like Jacob said. Can you imagine what that was like for the church? The tactics that Saul of Tarsus was employing. He's dragging off men and women.
How often would he start his raid before the dawn to catch the man at home before he went to the fields? Or he would return in the evening as the family was trying to have a meal together, perhaps more than one family as they ate together in the houses to rejoice together.
When he discovered the pattern that they would gather together in houses on the first day of the week so he knew when to go get them. How he would drag the woman when she was alone at home off to the prison so that someone would run and tell the man and then he would come and then they would get him too.
The chaos, the screaming children. Watch the arrest of Tim Stevens in Canada and watch his children scream and cry and try to get their hands through the bars of the Canadian Mounties vehicle as they haul daddy away.
This is Saul of Tarsus. He was evil, he was violent, he was hot, he was ready to take them all out. Inhaling threats, exhaling murder, inhaling menace, exhaling slaughter. He was all about killing Christians.
He was so hot he smoked with the heat of Hades. But Jesus said, upon this rock I build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. Because how can it when he holds the keys? When he holds the keys.
Very often as we hear stories like this, new examples of Saul's of Tarsus in our own day, sometimes we have little dreams of vengeance in our minds. Sometimes we just ask the Lord, why don't you just vaporize these people?
Why can't they just be gone, Lord? Why are they still here? Why are you allowing them to do these things? We take up the lament and the perplexity and the passion of the Psalms and say, why Lord? Why do you let this happen?
Remember what Jesus said about your enemy? Love your enemy? Well, that's a surprise. Love your enemy? Gave a few examples, what to do, man, why? He says, think about your heavenly father. Think about how he sends his reign upon the just and the unjust.
Think about how his grace is operative in this world today. What is Jesus doing? He's preparing us to think that, we should grandly suspect, given God's long suffering and his patience and his kindness and still giving breath to the likes of people like Saul of Tarsus, that he has a plan in his grace to do something far greater and far grander than vengeance.
We are to grandly suspect that God's gonna save some of these people, these people who are screaming and scheming and slaughtering Christians in our world today. You know, it would be very tragic if we, so conditioned by the bad news of our time and the speed at which the bad news travels, it would be tragic if we were ready for all of these conspiracies to be true.
And again, wicked evil men do conspire and they do try to do evil things. That is not news, that is not a surprise. But it would be tragic if we were ready for all of these conspiracies where tyranny prevails, where theft prevails, where tragedy prevails, where evil prevails.
It would be tragic if we were only ready for those kinds of conspiracies rather than this one that God is working all things together for the good of those who love him who are called according to his purpose and that he is so sovereign and so in charge and so powerful that he can save the likes of Saul of Tarsus.
Why? Because he just vaporized the wicked. He's got good plans for them and for us and his timing and we're going to watch what happens even as we labor in obedience to his commands. First Timothy chapter one, verses 13 through 17, Paul says, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor and an insolent man, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
Now that's not meritorious that he was ignorant. That is, that's a problem. He should have known. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees. He was an expert in the scriptures. The fact that he was ignorant is actually an indictment, not a benefit, not a bonus.
Look at verse 14, and the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant. Saul was exceedingly enraged against them, but God's grace was exceedingly abundant. The grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love, which are in Christ Jesus.
Faith and love traveling upon the winds of grace. Verse 15, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus has come into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief, the head, the worst.
However, for this reason I obtained mercy, not because he was wonderfully ignorant. Notice, he clarifies the reason. Look, that in me first, Jesus Christ might show all long suffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting life.
Now to the king eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever, amen. Salvation belongs to God and to the lamb who was on the throne. He gets all the glory.
He gets all the credit. And look, he made Saul of Tarsus an example for everyone who is going to believe upon Jesus Christ for everlasting life. Look, look, he saved the chief of sinners, which means what?
Which means when we lift up our eyes and we see evil and wickedness and conspiracy all around, when we see those who hate Christ and systematically work against Christ, when we lift our eyes and we see the politicians trying to undermine anything that is Christlike and good and wholesome in our world, when we see the pride parade, we see fields that are white under harvest, and we pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers.
Because Saul of Tarsus was saved. The chief of sinners got saved. And what should our expectations be? What story are we going to tell? Oh, our world is so soaked full of injustice and wickedness and evil, there's no hope.
Is that the story we tell? No, we're Christians. We tell a story that we call the good news. And this good news is about the person and work of Jesus Christ who came into the world to save sinners, and he already saved the worst one.
So my expectation has to be conditioned on that. God's grace abounds more than a sinner's commitment. What's impossible for man, oh, that's possible for God. With God, all things are possible. And verses three through nine, what do we see?
We see God's grace accounting for a saving confrontation, explaining why this happens. Now, Saul gets interrupted. As he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven.
Saul was 100 committed, he's on his way, he's fully convinced, he's fully supported. What happens if he keeps going? What happens if he keeps going? He makes it to Damascus, and he does his intelligence work, and he finds out where the Christians are hiding up and what houses they're in, and he's gonna go systematically from house to house, and he's going to continue his reign of terror and havoc and slaughter.
But he doesn't make it. He gets interrupted. The grace of God. What does Saul of Tarsus deserve? He deserves the wrath of God. He deserves for God to hand him over into his depravity, to keep doing these works of sin until he is destroyed by hellfire.
That's what he deserves. He deserves the wrath of God. But he gets interrupted, and that is God's grace, when he interrupts the sinner. And he gets indicted. Verse four, then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
So the Lord of heaven stops Saul of Tarsus, and he puts him on the ground in a blazing beam of light, and the weight of the situation comes crushing down on him. Saul of Tarsus, you're at war with heaven.
You are ignorant, you are insolent, you're striving against heaven. The followers of the way aren't the problem, Saul of Tarsus, you're the problem. Isn't it grace to know our sin? The fact that this is indeed wrong, and then there's an identification.
Saul doesn't know who he is at war with. He thinks he's taking out followers of a cult. He's persecuting, attacking Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Christ, the son of the living God, risen and ascended to the right hand of the Father.
He's at war with Jesus, and it is grace that he now knows this. What would it mean, what would it mean to fight and fight and fight and never know the name of the man that you were wrestling? That'd be terrible.
But then, you know, he pulls this muscle in your hip and you go down, and you walk with a limp the rest of your life, and he even changes your name. Not only do you know who he is now, but you are in him, are somebody else now.
That's grace, and then there's instructions to Saul. Hey, you need to get up, go to the city, and you will be told what you must do. Now, this kind of horrible, hate-filled, murderous slaughterer doesn't deserve these instructions.
If he was a character and an emblem of the systemic injustice of our day in the cultural story of our day, he would not get instructions. It would be, watch him burn, make him suffer, leave him blind, let him drown.
That is what our culture is saying is left for us. He deserves it, but God, but God. Christ gives this broken man instructions to go and wait for what he sins next. And Saul of Tarsus is now stuck. The men who were with him knew something happened, heard something, had no idea what was said.
All they know is that Saul was knocked to the ground by a great light, they heard the sound, now he's up, he can't see. He is blind, he has been absolutely stopped, he has been arrested by the glory of God, and it's a glory that is offended against him.
He can't operate as normal. Three days without sight, he neither ate nor drank, neither would any of us. God stayed him, God stilled him. No more normal, Saul of Tarsus. Come to grips with who you are in the sight of God.
When God interrupts you, indicts you, identifies who he is and who you are in his sight, gives you instruction and stops you cold so that you have nothing else to do but deal with who he is and all of your sin before his holy gaze.
This is grace, and there's no way out of it. You can't climb up out of it, you can't tunnel down away from it, you can't move from side to side, you are stuck. And there's no resolution in you. There's no prayer, no promise, no weeping, no deed, no act that you can do that can make it any better.
God's holiness, burning and burdensome, pressing down upon you, and you know, you know, you know that you're a sinner. And even your consideration of your sin is done in such a feeble manner that you know, you know, you know you're a sinner and there's no way out, and you can't ever make it up to him.
Where once you thought that you were virtuous, but now you know you have no righteousness before the face of God. When you come to the point, when you realize, I need a savior. God says, here's a savior, Jesus of Nazareth.
He is the Christ, and all day, in every way, savior. What story are we telling? What story are we telling? Those who are in darkness, those without bread. Those who are thirsty, the spiritually dead. What story are we telling?
That Jesus Christ is the light of the world. That he is the bread from heaven. That he gives the living water. And that he is the one who raises the dead. The story Christians tell over and over again.
The chorus of the hymn of history, which of which God is the author. The story we tell over and over again brims with certainty that God prevails. God prevails. That Christ's victory is the norm. That we have a free and sovereign God whose justice and grace, in his timing and in his fashion, is the solution.
Put to the perfect test in the death and resurrection of Jesus, and granted to us in vivid example in the life of Saul of Tarsus. Who will not long stay Saul of Tarsus. He will not long stay the fervent war horse against Christ.
He will become a faithful workhorse and the swords we beat into plowshares. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the day. We thank you for your word. We thank you for the grace that you showed in the life of Saul of Tarsus, so that we may know, that we may have this example, that we may have confidence in your power to save sinners.
Please, Lord, we believe, help our unbelief, increase our faith, that we would not be hopeless when we look upon the fields around us, but that we would speak and live in the hope of our risen Lord Jesus Christ.
And oh God, we pray for a harvest. We pray for a harvest. We need more than a political miracle, God. We need you to send a spiritual awakening and start raising the dead, to save men and women and children from their trespasses and sins, so that we would fear the Lord, fear you, and rejoice in your truth.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.