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 Let's take our Bibles and turn to Acts chapter 9. Acts chapter 9, where we will be reading of the glorious transformation of the Apostle Paul when he was Saul and later became Paul. In fact, I've entitled my discourse to you this morning, "The Transformation of a Chosen Servant," this Rabbi Saul of Tarsus that later became the Apostle Paul.

Let me read the text to you since it's a historical narrative, it will be much easier to cover a lot of verses without great comment. So I want to read the first 31 verses that we will be focusing on here this morning.

"Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest,

“and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

“And it came about that as he journeyed he was approaching Damascus and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him;

“and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’

“And he said, ‘Who art thou Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting,

“’but rise and enter the city, and it shall be told you what you must do.’

“And the men who traveled with him stood speechless hearing the voice, but seeing no one.

“And Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing;

and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus.

“And he was three days without sight and neither ate nor drank.

“Now there was a certain disciple of Damascus named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, ‘Ananias.’  And he said, ‘Behold, here am I, Lord.’

“And the Lord said to him, ‘Arise and go to the street called Straight and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying,

“and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight.’

“But Ananias answered, ‘Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to thy saints at Jerusalem;

“’and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call upon Thy name.’

“But the Lord said to him, ‘Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel;

“’for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name's sake.’

“And Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming,  has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’

“And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight and he arose and was baptized;

“and he took food and was strengthened.

“Now for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus,

“and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogue saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’

“And all those hearing him continued to be amazed, and were saying, ‘Is this not he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this name, and who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?’

“But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ.

“And when many days had elapsed, the Jews plotted together to do away with him,

“but their plot became known to Saul and they were also watching the gates day and night so that they might put him to death;

“but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a large basket.

“And when he had come to Jerusalem, he was trying to associate with the disciples. They were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.

“But Barnabas took hold of him and brought him to the apostles and described to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had talked to him, and how at Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus.

“And he was with them, moving about freely in Jerusalem, speaking out boldly in the name of the Lord.

“And he was talking and arguing with the Hellenistic Jews; but they were attempting to put him to death.

“But when the brethren learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him away to Tarsus.

“So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase.”

May God add his blessing to the reading of his word.

Since the birth of the church at Pentecost, history is filled with examples of aggressive, violent hatred of the Lord Jesus Christ and all those who love and serve him. And the most vicious haters of Christ are typically those who have some other competing faith. They are typically other religious people. Because these people feel threatened, they feel exposed, they feel insulted that somehow others would dare think that their religion was wrong, that they were fools for what they were believing, that their hope was futile. And this is especially unnerving to those who have devoted their whole life to their religious system.

Because you see, all religions except for Christianity are religions of works righteousness, of human achievement, where you have to do things in order to earn your salvation and to be pleasing to their God. So, people who are a part of any religion other than Christianity will have a fastidious adherence to all of their works in their system. They will rigorously obey all of the rituals and all of the ceremonies, all of the life-dominating types of things that they must do: prayers, fastings, pilgrimages, ceremonies, requirements pertaining to clothing and diet, how to prepare your food, requirements pertaining to relationships and personal possessions, restrictions about where you live, who you associate with, what you think, what you do, so on and so forth. And millions of people have lived under the tyranny of religious legalism that makes their lives absolutely miserable, but they won't admit it. Because to admit it, even to themselves, would suggest that their whole life is a waste, that their whole system is foolish, and that the God that they're serving may not even exist.

Moreover, to admit such a thing - to admit that maybe they are believing a lie - might cause them to be killed by others who agree with them with respect to their false religious system. So they trudge on through the miry swamps of religious bondage with no certainty, no assurance that their lifelong slavery to all of their religious works will ever pay off. And of course, a key component necessary for that system to survive is to convince them that all other religious systems are wrong.

In order to understand this, maybe I need to remind you of Islam that we see today. The Muslims have a violent hatred towards any other faith. In fact, as you've seen, to even draw a cartoon of Muhammad results in murderous outrage around the world. In fact, the combination of racial pride and religious zeal produces a very unstable and violent, a very explosive kind of religion. It's kind of like nitroglycerin. The slightest little jolt can cause it to spontaneously detonate, and that's what you see in Islam.

Muslims especially hate the Jews, insisting that God's covenant promises to them came through Ishmael to Abraham and his descendants - therefore the Arabs; not through Abraham and Isaac and Isaac's descendants, the Jews. And therefore, all of the land, the promises about the land and the blessings and so on belong to them, not the Jews. And so, obviously, it's of utmost humiliation to see that the Jews have part of their land, so to speak.

By the way, if you understand this, you will understand the dynamic of what's happening in the Middle East and what will continue to happen until the Lord returns. Worse yet, the Qur'an promises that the armies of Allah will be victorious in all of their holy wars. Yet, in five wars with Israel, they have been absolutely devastated, soundly defeated, even though they outnumbered the Jews by many thousands to one. And, of course, such a humiliation utterly consumes them because it places the Qur'an in jeopardy and, likewise, the very existence of Allah.

Well, likewise, the Muslims hate Christians in the United States, especially the United States. We're allied with Israel, and yet another source of humiliation and threat to Islam because of our vastly superior power and prosperity. But it's important for you to understand, in light of that illustration, that the Jews in the day of Saul were just like that. They were absolutely obsessed with a twisted zeal for their Judaism, for their race. And their system of religion had gradually declined to nothing more than a bizarre system of ridiculous works that were crushing people under their weight. In fact, it's interesting, if you think about the legacy of legalism, what you will find is the more a person tries to earn their righteousness, the more frustrated they become, realizing that they can never be good enough.

And so what do they do? They find more works to do, more things to somehow impress God and impress others about how religious they are. The assumption being, if I can do just a little bit more, God will finally be impressed. My, what an enormous burden, what a debilitating, depressing, frustrating life that would be. Work, work, work. No end in sight. No assurance of salvation.

That's the way it was in that first century - in first century Judaism. And then along comes Jesus of Nazareth. Along comes Jesus claiming to be the Messiah, the incarnate Christ, the fulfiller of the law, the final sacrifice, the One who alone can forgive sins, offering salvation by grace alone, rather than all of the works. A free gift for all who will repent and believe.

Can you imagine how insulting that would have been to people who had spent their entire life in misery, trying to accomplish what Jesus said He accomplished for them? And yet Jesus said in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy, my load is light.”

Now, Rabbi Saul was the poster boy for apostate Jewish legalism. In fact, he later acknowledged in Philippians 3, beginning in verse 4, saying,

“If anyone else has a mind but confidence in the flesh, I far more:

“because I was circumcised the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;

“as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.”

Indeed, Saul was a violent persecutor of anyone who would dare suggest that his zeal was misguided and his religion was false.

Of course, such ferocious zeal is much more a function of pride than godliness in any religion. In fact, I believe that murderous rage against an opposing religion is certain proof that a person has serious doubts about his own. Saul later would stand before King Agrippa and describe his violent aggression in Acts 26, beginning in verse 9. Here's what he said:

“I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

“And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death, I cast my vote against them.

“And as I punished them, often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.”

But oh dear friends, isn't it wonderful to know that despite his wickedness, despite his unbelief, God had mercy on him and saved him? And here in this text we have before us the most dramatic account of a conversion in all of Scripture. For here we have this brilliant, Hellenistic rabbi that hated Christ, that had undoubtedly been defeated earlier by Stephen in debate, as we have studied. The same Jewish bigot that was in hearty approval of Stephen's stoning, even holding his robes.

This violent aggressor, this violent hater of Christ, this murderous persecutor of Christians, is now transformed by the power of the Spirit of God. What a miracle of miracles. And here we see another example of the process of divine regeneration, like we studied in the conversion of the Ethiopian nobleman last week.

You will recall that we were reminded last week that the author of regeneration is God, and we see that here again in Saul's life - that God orchestrates all of the events in Saul's life, down to the minutest detail, to draw him to himself.

And secondly, we learned that the agent of regeneration is the Holy Spirit, and indeed, here in Saul's life, we see the regenerating power of the Spirit of God working secretly within his heart, convicting him of the truth of Scripture that he knew so well as a rabbi, but had distorted it so profoundly. The very Scripture that he heard preached so powerfully by Stephen and the apostles and so on. And then we learned that the instrument of regeneration is the Word of God.

Indeed, the Word now is going to be unleashed upon Saul, and the proof of regeneration is joyful obedience, as we see as well in Saul's joyful, faithful, fearless obedience to Christ. So here we see the power of a sovereign God who sets His love upon a man who did not deserve it. Who, just like us, lavished His saving grace upon him and miraculously saves him, as he says in verse 15, “…for he is a chosen instrument of Mine to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel.”

Now, last week we focused on the new birth of this doctrine of regeneration from God's perspective, and this morning I would like to focus on it from man's perspective. We want to ask the question and answer it, “What is man's responsibility to God in salvation?” “What must man choose to do by God's empowering grace?” “What is the measure of genuine conversion?” And we find the answer to these questions in four observations that we will see in our text. The first one is this: if a man is to be saved, number one, he must humble himself to God's revelation of truth. He must humble himself to God's revelation of the truth.

Now, I want you to understand before we look at this text, that the pursuing, drawing grace of the Father in Saul's life was not at all hidden. God's revelation was not mysteriously obscured so that Saul had no way of seeing it. You see, the Old Testament promises of the coming Messiah were perfectly and literally fulfilled in Jesus. He would have seen that. He was very much aware and probably had seen some of the miracles of Christ.

He knew the testimony of Christ. He knew of His death and His resurrection. He knew of the empty tomb. He knew full well of the cover-up of the resurrected Christ. He knew of the miracle of Pentecost where the gospel had exploded upon the scenes and where people who had never known other languages were able suddenly to proclaim the glories of Christ in languages that they did not know to other people so that the gospel would spread. He was aware of all of that.

He was aware of the preaching of the Apostles. He was aware also of the brilliant and fearless preaching of Stephen. What more would be required for a man to come to repentance? Well, certainly the answer is a miracle of regeneration and yet he also has a responsibility in all of that.

Notice verse 3, “It came about that as he journeyed he was approaching Damascus and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him and he fell on the ground. He heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ And he said, ‘Who art Thou Lord?’ And he said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.’” In Acts chapter 26 we also read that this was in the very middle of the day and yet he sees a light that is even brighter than the sun.

Without a doubt this is a reference to the Shekinah - the presence - the glory of God that we have seen revealed many times down through history in the Old Testament and even early in the New Testament. And we know in that text that he falls to the ground and we read that he says, “”I heard a voice saying to me [in the Hebrew dialect] “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”’” It is hard for you to kick against the goads. In other words, it is foolish for you to oppose me, as foolish as an ox kicking against the sharp rods of the herdsmen that herd them along.

To which he replied, “’Who art Thou Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.’” But in this light, unlike his entourage, we see that Saul actually sees the glorified Christ. And you must understand that.

In fact, in verse 17 we read that the Lord told this to Ananias who in turn repeats it to Saul when he said, “’Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me.’” And likewise, in verse 27, Barnabas mentions how Saul had “seen the Lord on the road and that He had talked to him.” And in chapter 22, verse 14, we read that he was appointed to “see the Righteous One and to hear an utterance from His mouth.”

And in chapter 26, verse 16, we read again that Jesus appeared to him. And in 1 Corinthians 9, verse 1, Paul asks a rhetorical question. He says, “’Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?’” And in chapter 15, verse 8 of 1 Corinthians, he says again, “He appeared to me.”

Now, friends, think of this: what a dramatic demonstration of the sovereignty of God that initiates salvation in even the most hardened sinner. And to think that the last person who had seen the risen, glorified Christ was Stephen, whom he consented to bestow.

Well, God does not always initiate salvation in such a dramatic, miraculous way. Beloved, he always draws us, as we have learned, and he does so through similar means. I mean, think about it. We, too, have the revelation of God in the Bible. We have the prophecies of Scripture in the Old Testament and the New Testament, all of which have been literally fulfilled thus far. We have the infallible record of Scripture that testifies to the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we have all witnessed the miraculous power of the gospel to transform lives, our own especially. So what is the sinner's responsibility? Well, the answer is to humbly respond to whatever revelation God has given him to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And might I add, God's revelation for a person to believe is always enough.

In fact, in Romans 1, we read that man is without excuse because of reason and because of conscience. Might I add that no man will ever be condemned because God ordained him to be condemned. God will never require someone to respond to his initiation of divine revelation and yet not give it to him.

Thus, we understand that God is merciful in His revelation. But you must understand that sinners will be condemned because they rejected the obvious truth of divine revelation in both creation and conscience that God in His mercy has given every man. The Word of God says that “only the fool has said in his heart that there is no God.”

So I think about it, the only person who could possibly look at nature, possibly look at the world around them, possibly look at God's creation and conclude that there is no God is someone who deliberately chooses to deny that revelation, who deliberately chooses not to worship Him. Who, as the Bible says, “loves darkness rather than light.” Dear Christian, think of your own conversion experience. Once upon a time, you were also encompassed by light.

Not the dramatic, glorious Shekinah of His presence; you didn't literally see Jesu, but you saw the glorious light of the gospel. The Spirit of God opened your eyes. Suddenly your sin was exposed. You saw the truth of your sin and the Savior in light of Scripture.

And when you saw it and when you understood it, you humbled yourself before it. That's man's responsibility to repent and believe the truth about his Savior and walk in the light of Christ. We read, for example, in John 8, verse 12,” Jesus said, ‘I am the light of the world.

He who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness but shall have the light of life.’” And later in chapter 12, beginning in verse 35, again He warned, “’Walk while you have the light, that darkness may not overtake you. He who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the light, believe in the light in order that you may become sons of light.’” Now, by God's grace, this is precisely what Saul did. He could have said to Christ what most men say: “I hate you. I want nothing to do with you. I reject your claims that I am a sinner. I am a good man, and I refuse to be obedient to you.” He could have said that. He could have responded like we know many will respond during the horrific judgments that we read about in the time of the Great Tribulation.

That will be a time when the whole world will know that the wrath of God, the God of the Bible, is being poured out upon them. But rather than repent, we read over and over how they blaspheme God. In fact, in Revelation 6:16, we read that they will “cry out for the mountains and the rocks to fall upon them, saying, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come. And who is able to stand?’”

But Paul did not respond in that way. When Saul saw the Lord, he fell down to the ground in utmost reverent contrition and he said, “’Who art Thou, Lord?’” Lord being Yahweh, Jehovah God, reveal more of Yourself to me that I might worship You.

So first, beloved, you must understand, if a man is to be saved, he must first humble himself to God's revelation of the truth.

Secondly, he must commune with God in a contrite spirit. In Isaiah chapter 66, the first verse we read how God is in saying that all of your religious rituals and works don't impress Me. “Heaven is My throne, the earth is My footstool,” and so on. But in verse 2, He says something so profound. He says, “But to this one I will look, to Him who is humble and contrite of spirit and who trembles at My word.” And this is what we see in the life of Saul and every man and woman that has ever come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You see, the Lord has now appeared to Saul in terrifying glory. Saul's wicked, misguided zeal has been exposed, his pride has been shattered, and now, in an act of divine judgment, God blinds him. And we read in verse 9 that he was three days without sight and neither ate nor drank.

There, this Jewish rabbi, this hater of Christ, is now broken over his sin and he's consumed with a desire to know the will of God. And in total darkness now, he fasts and he prays.

God has his undivided attention. And in verse 11, the Lord tells Ananias, “’Arise and go to the street called Straight and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul. For behold, he is…’” what? “He is praying.’”

Dear friend, whenever the regenerating power of the Spirit of God causes a person to grasp the seriousness and the consequences of their sin, that person will always run into the waiting arms of the Savior in passionate prayer. Because there and there alone can they find mercy and forgiveness and fellowship and grace and rest for their souls and wisdom and comfort and hope and strength.

Yes, God initiates, but man is responsible to respond. Man must believe, he must repent in order to be saved. In fact, Saul, who would later become Paul, later wrote in Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.”

You see, I want you to understand, dear friends, men are condemned to eternal judgment because they refuse to believe, not because God refused to save them. Jesus said in John 3:18, “He who believes in Him is not judged, but he who does not believe has been judged already.” And tragically, many people follow the example of those Israelites in the Old Testament who were not allowed to enter into the Promised Land.

In Hebrews 3:19 we read why - because of unbelief. So, yes, indeed, the love of God is a pursuing love, but man is responsible to repent and believe.

I want you to also notice the intimacy of God's love here for a moment. Notice His intimate attention to detail. I was just struck with this as I lived with this text in the past few weeks.

He tells Ananias to go to a street called Straight. I mean, the Lord knew exactly where Saul was, He even knew the street. The street called Straight. He even knew the house. It's the house of Judas. And he even knew what he was doing. He was praying. You see, friends, God not only plans it all, but He sees it all.

And what a marvelous truth this should be to the soul of every believer. Do you think for one second that God is not concerned about your life? Do you think for one second that your prayers fall on deaf ears? Do you think for one second that He is not intimately involved in everything that goes on in your life? Of course He is. And can't you just hear Saul's prayer?

I was thinking about it. It had to be so different from the pharisaical prayers like he probably used to pray. Remember, Jesus gave an example of those prayers in Luke 18. “Lord, I thank Thee that I'm not like other people, swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax gatherer. I fast twice a week. I pay tithes of all that I get…blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Toot my horn, toot my horn. Don't you know his prayer was so different? Don't you know now his prayer was something like this? “Oh, God, have mercy on my soul. Oh, God, forgive me for my sins, my wickedness, my pride. Lord, I had all of this truth from Your Word. I heard the apostles. I heard Stephen. And yet, I suppressed the truth in unrighteousness. Lord, forgive me because now I understand that You were not impressed with my religious formalities. You were not impressed with my empty rituals. You were not impressed with my hypocritical veneer. You were not impressed with my vacuous prayers and my self-righteous attempts to somehow impress You. In fact, all of those things were a stench into Your nostrils. Oh, God, forgive me. All along, You wanted my heart. And now my heart is broken before You.”

Dear friends, what joy there is in heaven when someone repents and believes. And what joy there must have been in heaven when Saul said….Oh, what an answer of prayer it must have been to those early saints, some of which had lost loved ones to his ferocious violence.

In Philippians 3, beginning in verse 7, we read of what Paul had to say about this transformation that God brought within his heart. Let me read this to you because undoubtedly, these were the types of things that were beginning to develop in his heart and his mind, in his blindness those three days as he prayed and fasted and broke in a contrite heart. Here's what he said in Philippians 3, beginning in verse 7, “For whatever things were gained to me,” and that's, by the way, referring back to his racial and religious pedigree –

“Whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

“More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ,

“and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

“that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;

“in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

“Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which I also laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

“Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,

“I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

What a magnificent testimony of God's transforming power.

And I have to laugh. Ananias was astonished that Jesus would save such a wretched man. Isn't it interesting that in the text we read that he's basically terrified to even get near the guy? But God delights in such mercy, doesn't He? God is so glorified in such transformation. And so as the Lord's commissioning agent now, Ananias goes to Saul, lays his hands on him, he restores his sight, and in verse 17 we read that he was “filled with the Holy Spirit.”

So, convinced of his sin in the Savior, Saul fasts and he prays because he longs to commune with God in brokenness and contrition. This is always the proper response of a penitent sinner. In fact, Spurgeon has well said, and I quote, “Secret prayer is one of the best tests of sincere religion. Praying will make you leave off sinning or sinning will make you leave off praying. Prayer in the heart proves the reality of conversion.”

Well, certainly this was the responsibility of the penitent sinner, but it's also his choice, his act of worship, his joy. You see, this is the fruit of the new life. Might I add that when a person truly comes to a saving knowledge of Christ, they have no need to be prodded to pray because they love to come into the presence and to the presence of the lover of their soul. You think of anyone that you love dearly, and then ask yourself, is it an onerous thing, a duty to have to go and talk with them and spend time with them? Of course not.

My dear wife, my children, my family, grandchildren, when they call, it is the joy of my soul. When they come before me, it is the joy of my heart to interact with them. And so too it should be for all of us who love Christ. And I want you to notice, even though the Holy Spirit in some inscrutable way initiated His salvation through regeneration and caused Him to respond voluntarily without coercion yet isn't it interesting that God tells Ananias in verse 15 that Saul is a “chosen instrument of Mine.” Boy, there's the proof of his election.

If you want it, as if you haven't already seen it, it's all through the Bible. God is the One that is sovereign over salvation. And in Acts 22, verse 14, we read how Paul speaks of his undeserved election when he recites what God told him.

He said, “God said to me, ‘the God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will and to see the righteous One and to hear an utterance from His mouth.’” So all the way through this narrative, we see this amazing interplay between man's responsibility in God's salvation, God's sovereignty in salvation. An inscrutable mystery we will never be able to understand.

Now inevitably, whenever this idea of God's election comes up, someone will ask, “How do I know if I am a part of the elect? How do I know if God has chosen me?” Well, the answer is quite simple. Have you humbled yourself to God's revelation of the truth in your life? Have you seen the truth about your sin and the Savior? Have you acknowledged that in broken contrition? Have you repented of your sins and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, making Him your Savior and Lord? Have you communed with God in broken contrition? And do you still love to rush into His presence? Because you know that He alone is the lover of your soul? If the answer to those questions is yes, then you are part of the elect.

If no, then you need to repent and cry out for God's mercy before it is too late. If a man is to be saved, he must first humble himself to God's revelation of the truth. Secondly, he must commune with God in a contrite spirit. And thirdly, he must publicly confess Jesus as Savior and Lord. And certainly, this is an act of worship that validates genuine saving faith. Publicly confessing Jesus as Savior and Lord.

In Luke 12, beginning in verse 8, Jesus said, "...Everyone who confesses Me before man, the Son of Man, shall confess Him also before the angels of God. But he who denies Me before men shall be denied before the angels of God." Now, beloved, there are many people who publicly confess Christ, but not the Jesus of the Bible.

Well, certainly, Paul understood the truth of his sin and the Savior. And after he had regained his sight, we read that he rises, that he's baptized, which is a public proclamation of an inward reality of this inward transformation. He publicly now is saying to everybody, “I am a follower of Christ.” And in verse 18, we read that he took food and was strengthened, and then he stayed several days with the disciples who were at Damascus.

And then notice in verse 20, "...and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogue, saying, ‘He is the Son of Man.’" And I laugh, in verse 21, we read how that this is amazing to people. I mean, they're stunned with this. It's as if they're saying, “Who is this man and what have you done with Saul? Who is this guy?”

Verse 22, "But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ." You know, I love to watch the evangelistic zeal of new converts. Boy, they're on fire for Christ. And many people are able to maintain that fire by God's grace. And I might ask you, just for a moment, what happened to the fire in your life? Is it still there? So often I see people who once were ablaze for God, but now there's only smoldering embers that exist beneath the ashes of life. Why is that? I'll come back to that in a moment. But we learned something very interesting here.

We learn in Galatians 1, verses 17 and 18, that there's actually three years that elapse between verses 22 and 23 of our text this morning. In fact, in verses 17 and 18 of Galatians 1, Paul says that “I did not go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away to Arabia and returned once more to Damascus.” So he goes down. Arabia was an area south of Damascus. He goes down there and then he says in Galatians 1:18, “Then three years later, I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas” -  in other words, Peter – “and stayed with him 15 days.” So what happens here is Saul goes down into the wilderness to be alone with the Lord. He goes down into the wilderness of the Sinai to contemplate all that had transpired in his life over the last several days and weeks and months, to learn more of the truth that the Holy Spirit would now reveal to him. And then according to the text, he returns back to Damascus. He preaches the truth of the Gospel, which absolutely infuriates the Jews. They plot to kill him. The disciples see what's going on. Saul sees what's happening.

So his disciples let him down over a wall in a large basket, sneak him out of town. You see, unfortunately, Saul had not yet learned how to be seeker sensitive. He had not yet learned how to connect with people's felt needs and show them how to have a purpose-driven life and all of this. But rather, he was consumed with the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as offensive as it may be, because it alone can save men from their sins. So Saul goes to Jerusalem. The Christians are terrified.

We read how Barnabas has to intervene and bring Saul to the apostles and tell them in verse 27 “how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that he had talked to Him and how at Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus.” Don't you wish you could have been there when Barnabas brings Saul in and the apostles and all of the others are looking and saying, “Oh, my goodness, there he is!”

So as we observe Paul's conversion, we see not only God's work of regeneration, but also how He supernaturally enables a sinner to exercise His will. Dear friends, this is the stuff of genuine repentance. A man must humble himself to God's revelation of the truth if he is to be saved. He must also secondly commune with God in a contrite spirit. He must publicly confess Jesus as Savior and Lord. And as a result of all of that, as a fruit of all of that, fourthly, he must persevere in the faith.

Now friends, please understand something that is very important. True believers never recant their salvation. They never lose their salvation as some erroneously teach. Such an understanding frankly betrays a profound deficiency in understanding the doctrine of salvation.

You see, a newborn believer - a person who has been transformed by the power of the Gospel of Christ - has no power or desire to reverse their new birth. They have no power or desire to say, I was born again, now I want to be unborn again and go back to where I was. You don't read that anywhere in the Bible.

You see, we have no power or desire to annul our justification. We have no power or desire to repeal the imputed righteousness of Christ that has now transformed us and reconciled us to a holy God. That's the work of God, not man.

Having been made a partaker in the divine nature of Christ, we have no power or desire to retrogress, to degenerate, if you will, to revert back to our former state. Believers have been given eternal life. You see, friends, we have no more power to reverse what God has done than we had power to do what God did originally to save us.

When someone is born again, what an incredible analog, let me ask you, when you were born physically, what did you have to do with that? What contribution did you make? Absolutely nothing. You see, those who do not persevere, those who apostatize, were never saved to begin with.

Scripture is very clear about that, 1 John 2:19 for example. So please understand, genuine believers will persevere despite suffering.

And in verse 16, the Lord says, I will show him how much he will prosper. Right? Is that what it says? I will show him how much he will succeed in life as he becomes a Christian. I will show him how fulfilled he will be.

No, He says, “I will show him how he must suffer for My namesake.” My beloved, suffering is the inevitable price for following Jesus. Never forget that. Some suffer more than others, and by His grace, I have never had to suffer near like many people do even in our world today. It's interesting that Saul, who would become Paul, understood this. He later told Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:12, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

And in 2 Corinthians 1:5, he said, “The sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance.” You see, friends, he knew what it was to suffer for Christ, but like all genuine believers, he persevered. That's why he would say later in Romans 5, verse 3, “We exalt in our tribulations knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance, and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope. And hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

Now, back to our text. In verses 28-30, we read how Saul now goes back to Jerusalem.He boldly preaches the Gospel. He debates now with the Hellenistic Jews. He has been with the Lord these three years. He has now really refined his understand of the glorious doctrines found in the Word of God. So he debates with them. He argues with them.

He prevails over them. And what do people do when confronted with the truth? They typically reject it and hate it and fight against it. That's what they did. They plot to kill him so the brethren, it says, helps him escape once again. They take him down to Caesarea and then send him on to Tarsus. And all through that, what we see is the word “perseverance.”

Perseverance. Perseverance.

Verse 31, “So the church throughout all Judea in Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace being built up and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit and continued to increase.”

Now as we close this morning, dear friends, I want to challenge you - and there are so many ways that this Scripture challenges us - there is always but one interpretation of Scripture, but there are many applications and I have to leave that to the Spirit of God in your life, but I do want to focus on but one. I asked you earlier, have you lost your passion for God? And I want to ask that to you again. Have you lost your passion for God? Examine your heart.

Has the fire gone out? Were you once ablaze with zeal and worship and love of Christ, but now it seems like all of the ashes of life have piled up over what was once ablaze and now there's just maybe some burning embers way down below. Do you find that you really have no appetite for the Word of God? You really have no joy even in your own church? No joy in serving the Lord? No real fellowship with other Christians? No excitement? No enthusiasm? Have you lost your zeal for evangelism? My friends, has your song been silenced? You know what I mean. Nothing moves you to tears anymore like it once did.

May I tell you where you lost your zeal? May I tell you this morning where you lost your love for Christ? May I tell you where you lost your passion even for your marriage and for your family and for the lost in the world? Where you lost your love for the Word? Dear friends, you lost it in your closet of prayer. And only there will you find it once again. And may I encourage you to do so. With all of my heart, may I encourage you to get serious about your prayer life, even as Paul did.

And now may I address those of you who do not know nor love the living Christ - though you may be a very religious person, though maybe in some cases you might even have professed Christ, you do not pray because you have never been convinced of your own sin. So you have never been so amazed by God's grace that wild horses couldn't keep you out of that closet of prayer. You've never humbled yourself before God's revelation of the truth that He's given you. Therefore, you have never communed with God in a contrite spirit.

Therefore, you never publicly confess Jesus as Savior and Lord. And obviously, you don't persevere in a faith that you do not have. And so may I humbly plead with you as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to repent and to believe, because I warn you, unless you do, God will judge you someday as He has promised. You will someday be cast into a place of infinite darkness. The Word of God says that this is a place of eternal despair, of unrelenting pain, a place where you will experience the wrath of God forever. But may I give you the good news of the Gospel?

The Word of God says that the Lord is gracious, and He is full of compassion. And won't you run into His saving arms today before it is too late? Let's pray today that Jesus will accomplish this in the lives of those who do not know Him.

Father, how we thank You for the truth of Your Word. I pray that it will speak profoundly to the hearts of everyone that knows and loves You. But likewise, today, Lord, we would just cry out to You on behalf of those who are walking in darkness, even perhaps as Saul once did. And we pray, Lord, that by Your grace, You will cause them to believe that they will surrender their lives to You and come to You in repentant faith and trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord. We pray this in Your name and for Your sake, Amen.