Paul's life

I'll ask you to turn to the Acts, chapter 9 of the Acts. We'll read at verse 1. And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, that's how the Lord's people were referred to in that day, that way, that way. If he found any of this way or that way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven, and he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the bricks, the goads. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Notice that, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

Now look down to verse 11. The Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the street which is called straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one named Saul, a man of Tarsus, for behold, he prayeth. Verse 15, But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.

Verse 18, And immediately there fell from his eyes, as it had been scales, and a received sight forthwith, and he arose and was baptized. Verse 19, When he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples, which were at Damascus, and straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues.

Now look down to verse 26, And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples, and they were all afraid of him, but Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. Verse 28, And he was with them, coming in and going out at Jerusalem. Now go over with me please to chapter 20, chapter 20 of the Acts.

Verse 17, chapter 20 and verse 17, And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church. Look down to verse 22, And now he's speaking to the elders, Behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things which shall befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I myself near unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy.

Now finally, 2nd Timothy and chapter 4. Verse 6, 2nd Timothy 4, For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I fought the good fight, I finished the course, I've kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

And we know God will bless the reading of his word to our hearts. My exercise this morning in coming to the conference is to try to encourage young believers who are here. My dear brother Jim Smith often prays, and as he prays, he thanks the Lord for young Christians that God has given to us.

That's an interesting thought. Given to us, and his exercise in his prayer is that we may be able to encourage them, to help them. You see, older people are hard to change, but what we would like to do is to try to encourage young believers so they won't make the same mistakes that perhaps we made in earlier days.

Now, very simply, from chapter 9 of the Acts, I want you to think of the commencement of Christian experience for this great man, Paul, Saul of Tarsus, that God made choice of and raised him up to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. The commencement of it, the very, very beginning. Then in chapter 20, I want you to think of its continuance.

What was it that impelled him, compelled him actually, to blaze a trail up and down Asia Minor for 32 or 33 years? What was it that caused him to be so on fire for God? His continuance. And then in 2 Timothy chapter 4, of course, it's the completion. He's there in the Mamertine prison about to lay his head on Nero's block, and he looks back over those years and he says, I've done the best.

I fought the good fight. I finished the course. I have kept the faith.

Ever wonder how you and I will finish? There are some, and it can be said of them, they did run well. I'm thinking right now of a young man that was saved years ago, making progress in God's things. And one day I was up on a ladder painting the house.

I wouldn't do it today. Old people are afraid of heights. You know that.

I don't even like airplanes anymore. Used to like them. Used to like to stall them.

Never spinned. But there's something about heights that old people don't like. And I was up on the ladder painting the house and this young brother came to me weeping.

He said, Eric, I'm in big trouble. He got himself involved morally with a young woman and a young man that was making progress for God failed. And the sad part is he never, never made recovery.

So we would say right at the very outset to young believers this morning, young people, keep thy self pure. We're living in a very, very immoral world. Everything is thrown at our young people today.

Young people 10 and 12 years of age know more of this godless lifestyle than some of us did at 20 or 21. And so what we're trying to do is fortify. Now here's what Paul says.

At the very beginning of his Christian experience, journeying to Damascus with letters in his pocket to bind the people of God. I don't ever read that Paul murdered anyone, but he was likely an accessory to the crime. He arrested them and he would have them bound and imprisoned.

And suddenly he says, down in verse 3 where we read of chapter 9, there was a light from heaven and his whole life changed. A little later on in this same book, chapter 22, he says, it was a great light. And then in chapter 6 he says, it was a light above the brightness of the sun.

So as Paul got closer to heaven, he appreciated his salvation more than he ever had before. Now that's true in Christian experience. My brother Lavery has been reminding us of that.

We need to get to know God. To know him. I'm sure he knows, he was talking in Exodus chapter 12 about taking a little lamb, but if you read it closely, you'll see it could have been a kid or a lamb.

And so the more you read the word of God, the more you get to know God. The poet says, the more I get to know him, the more I find him true. And the more I long that you should know or can know what he can do for you.

And so Paul's whole experience changed. What characterized it? Well the first thing was, he prayed. This man was told, Ananias, to go into Jerusalem and he would find this Saul of Tarsus and it said, behold, he prayeth.

Now I ask myself, and you can ask yourself the same, how much time do we spend in prayer? I venture to say, if you're like myself, it's not very much. There was a well-known Scotch preacher years ago named Welsh, and he said, I've got so much to do today, I have to spend six hours in prayer. Now here's how you and I think.

I've got so much to do today, I might spend six minutes, and even that's a lot. You know it's hard to get into the presence of God, isn't it? You go into the room and close the door, and you long to get into the presence of God, and there's all kinds of things bombarding you. Your wife asks you to do something, you haven't got it done yet.

All kinds of inputs. It's hard to get into the presence of God. But we need to cultivate prayer in our experience.

The man that was preaching when God saved me over 70 years ago now, the late David Craig, the greatest preacher I ever heard. He said he went to see an old brother on his deathbed, an old servant of God, and he put his hand on his head and he said, David, see that you spend more time in prayer than you do on the platform. You see, prayer is an area that you and I neglect.

We need to pray, to cultivate it, to know something of getting into the presence of God. We know sisters that know God, and when they're in a gospel meeting, you can feel the presence of God seems to be near and real. And when they're not there, there isn't the same liberty to preach.

They seem to be able to bring the presence of God right into the gatherings. And so sisters, we would encourage you to continue in your exercise to pray. The man that was saved that I referred to and was preaching when I was saved that I mentioned, he used to tell of a way down in the mines in Scotland when he was about 14 years of age, and he was working with a hard-living, drinking, fighting Irishman.

His name was Barney. And he was afraid of him. And the lunch break came and he thought, I should give thanks for my lunch, but Barney will laugh.

I've heard him tell this. But when the lunch break came, they were sitting facing each other in the narrow confines of that coal mine. He said, I took off my cap and I gave God thanks for his son and for a mother that pointed me to Christ and for my lunch.

And then he said, I prayed for Barney. And when I opened my eyes, the tears were coursing down his cheeks. He says, David, are there any gospel meetings in the area? And that man went to hear the gospel and God saved him because a boy prayed.

What do you do in the lunch room at school? You give thanks for your lunch? Ever bow your head in a restaurant and give thanks for what God has given you? You see, God wants us to be exercised in his presence. He prayed. Notice again, down in verse 15, Paul says he was, Luke says, the writer about Paul, he was a chosen vessel to bear my name before the Gentiles.

Now, as I have said, it's been estimated that he traveled 12,500 and some miles up and down Asia Minor, likely on mule or camel by foot, lots of it aboard ship. There were no jets from New York to London in those days. It was all hard labor chosen by God.

When he writes the Galatian epistle, he says that God made choice of him from his mother's womb. This chapter where we read tells us that it was Christ that chose him, a chosen vessel by the Lord. And in chapter 13, he tells us that it was the spirit of God.

Paul and Barnabas, you remember, vessels that were marked out by the Holy Spirit that were let go. You see, they were engaged in the work of God before they were commended. Now, that's a point for young brethren to get hold of.

If you have an exercise about God's things, get involved. There's not going to be any big flashes of light to say, go down to Mexico. You know, everybody's going to Mexico.

But what about our country, the state of Wisconsin? The only man laboring full time here right now is my brother, William Skates. Right across this land of ours, there are whole states, no testimony to the name of the Lord Jesus. And dear young brother or young sister or young couples, where are young men and women that are filling in the ranks? Some of us know we're not going to be here too much longer.

Naturally speaking, we need laborers. And I would encourage your heart to go in for God's things. You see, God wants your best.

Someone has wrote these words many years ago, give of your best to the master. Give him the strength of your youth. Glad in salvation's full armor, join in the battle for truth.

Don't get the idea in your head that when you retire, when you've made your bucks, or when you get the golden handshake from some company after working 30 years, that then you'll give something to God. God wants your best days, your youth. And so Paul recognized that.

God made choice of him. Then in verse 18, very quickly, he's obedient to the word of God. He was told to arise and be baptized.

And he went into the city, and God delights in obedience. He was baptized. The late Oliver Smith that I preached with in earlier days, a real soul winner, he was the greatest student of human nature that I've ever met.

In about 30 seconds, he could size up an individual and be able to speak to them about their soul. He'd roll into a farmyard, and the man wasn't interested. He'd start to speak about his cattle or his hogs.

And after a while, the man would say, what did you want to tell me? And then he would have his ear. He knew how to approach people. He would speak to them.

Well, when he wanted to get baptized, when he told his wife, she slapped him across the face. She was just a little mite, about that high. He was afraid of her at that time.

And one day he said to an old preacher, Mr. Keller, at a stout conference, he said, I want to ask you to pray for my wife that God will save her. And he said, you want God to do great things for you, and you won't go through three feet of water for him. Well, Mr. Smith made up his mind.

I'm going to get baptized. I don't care what she says. And so he did.

She said, when you come home, all your clothes, everything will be on the porch. You're out. Well, when he got home, everything was just as usual.

And in two weeks, God saved her. Wasn't it good that he obeyed God? He was obedient to the word of God. Then down in verse 19, it says, he was certain days with the disciples.

He appreciated the fellowship of the Lord's people. And down in verse 28 of the chapter, it says, he continued with them. You know, we're living in a day when there are numbers that are turning away from the assembly, turning their back on the truth of God.

I knew a young man. In fact, Mr. Lavery and I went out with him for lunch when we were in Vancouver years ago for meetings. And he had been in an assembly in Winnipeg and he moved to Vancouver and he went to a more liberal assembly.

And when Billy Graham was in the city, the place that he went, a lot of the brethren were counselors and he told us about it. He said one day at lunch with Billy Graham and Mr. Graham said to him, Ken, if anyone ever leaves an assembly, they'll never be happy. Never be happy.

Now put that in the back of your mind and remember it. Things will never be perfect. You'll never find a perfect assembly.

You see, human nature is the same no matter where you go. And this man appreciated the fellowship of the people of God and he stayed there. We read in verse 28, he continued with them.

And in chapter 20, he's continuing now. He's going bound to Jerusalem. He said, I don't know what will befall me there.

But he says, I sought to serve the Lord right from the start. And now he said, I'm going into an unknown area. He ended up in prison.

I could remind you this morning of the Levites, the Morarites, the Gershonites, the Kohathites, those sons of Levi. The Gershonites and the Morarites had wagons and oxen to carry the vessels of the tabernacle. But when it comes to the Kohathites, they carried the holy vessels on their shoulders.

And Numbers chapter 4 tells us their service was linked with a burden. And those that go before the flock of God know what it is to bear burdens. There are burdens that those in leadership know.

If you don't want to know anything of burdens or criticism, don't do anything. But here's man raised up by God and we thank God for every one of them. The writer says, these are their burdens.

And so Paul continued. But at the very end, and I'm going to finish in two minutes, chapter 4 of 2 Timothy, he's now waiting for the executioner's block. His head's about to roll and he looks back and he thinks of all of the victories of the past.

I have fought the good fight. I have finished my course. And he's thinking of a vision of the future.

I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. As a good soldier of Jesus Christ, as a faithful witness, a faithful runner, a good steward, it was all out of devotion to the Master.

So the Lord help us, particularly young believers, get your priorities sorted out. You can go through life. You can pile up lots in the bank.

I said to a lawyer friend of mine recently, I said, what's going to happen to all of the multiple funds that people have laid up in bank accounts? And he's a Christian. I said, what's going to happen when the Lord comes? Where will it all go? He says, a good question. He said, probably the state will get involved and everything will be under their control.

Well, the Lord help us to go in for what is pleasing to Him. Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last.

I look back 54 years ago now, the day I made the last deposit in the bank, and when I walked out, the devil said, you'll never buy your two little girls another ice cream cone and you'll be living on cornflakes from now on. And I thought, that's got to be the devil. That's not the God that I know.

Well, you know, God has met our needs, not always our wants, but our needs. And you put God first and you'll find that God will bless you. The Lord bless His word and what will follow for His name's sake.