Grace Chapel Bible Ministries
worship call 1191 The blinded Saul - 2024/12/02
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO] >> Welcome to Worship Call with Bible teacher Buzz Lullbeck. Buzz is the pastor of Grace Chapel Bible Ministries located in Duncan, South Carolina. This ministry is dedicated to the verse by verse teaching of God's word and discipleship programs aimed at strengthening the faith of God's people. Now here's today's message. >> A person may be blinded in many ways. He could be blinded by his mission as noble as it may be. One may be blinded by their careers and things that they're focused on. Because of that focus, you lose track of everything around you, including your family or your marriage or family. It may be arrogance in itself that will blind a person. But in this case, the great Saul of Tarsus, and I'd say great and fearful and fearsome Saul of Tarsus, have been knocked to his knees. He's been blinded. And he's been given time to reflect on and to open his blind eyes to where he is in his situational awareness. This is the second day of the week in God's created order. It's the second day of the 12th month, the 2024th year of our Lord. And this is another fine day in the Lord. Let us turn to him in prayer. Father in Heaven, thank you for this opportunity. This morning, too. Fellowship, thank you for a new week to serve thee. And I pray, Heavenly Father, that you opened up our hearts to the things that we continue to study as we continue to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord's Savior, Jesus Christ, and whose name we pray. Amen. Now Saul still acts 9, 1 through 7. Now Saul still breathing threats and murder against disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked for letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus so that he, if he found any belonging to the way, both men and women, he might bring them that bound to Jerusalem. As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus. And suddenly a light from the Heaven flashed around him. And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" Can God speak to us in audible languages? Can God actually speak in words that can be heard? And look at the times that we find in the Bible that Jesus actually spoke and people heard him. He began praying all the way back to the beginning with Adam in the garden. And he apparently heard something to respond to, and he spoke to him, even came, spoke to an audible voice. This is not something that Saul preached and woke up in the morning. And his sermon said, "Well, God spoke to me this morning." But these are actual audible voice. Abraham spoke with God. Isaac spoke with God. There were those that a Joshua spoke with God and on through. The people heard a voice from the mountain when the mountain was thundering and the cloud was on top of it. Was this a voice that if you had a handheld recorder and you pressed record, could you have heard the voice of God? When he heard the voice of God, he said it sounded like thunder. And what does the voice of God sound like? So all these questions go through my mind, and the question is, can God speak in an audible voice? My question is, why not? And does he? I've actually heard a missionary. I don't have any room to believe, or he's talking out of his mind that he was at an airport. He was at an airport and flew in, and I believe this was Samaya. All right, back at it, excuse me. But it was Cal Ripton, and I believe it was Samaya. It's been a while since I read the story, but he came in and he wasn't sure what to do at that point, where to go. A van shows up with a couple Arab-looking men and said that we're here to pick you up, and apparently God had spoken to them, told him what this American, what he would look like, and that they were to pick him up, and these specific instructions. And I've heard stories in such a manner, so can God speak in an audible manner. And I do believe he can, and if he chose to do so, could he? And I believe absolutely he could. So I believe that there are those occasions God still directs the course of one's life by vocal means. Does that mean that I expect God to speak to me? Does that mean that I'm sitting around waiting for the voice of God to speak out of nowhere to me and give me specific instructions? No, I don't. Would I be surprised if he did? No, I would be surprised, but would I still, would I say that God couldn't do that? Absolutely. And I believe whatever he says spoken horribly, I would salute and say, "I, sir, I would have to think that if God spoke to me." If God said, "Do this and do that." If it was important enough for the Lord to single me out and speak to me, I think I would be, "Yeah, all right, sir, I'll do what you want me to do." How could Peter have possibly, this is Peter was on amount of transfiguration. Peter saw Christ transformed and he heard God speak out of heaven and say, "This is my son whom I'm well pleased." Listen to him. How could Peter, after that, deny Christ three times? Oh, but wait. Should I be so concerned with how God speaks to me rather than that it is God who's speaking to me? What am I saying this? Does it matter the means by which God addresses me? Does it matter that unless God speaks to me in a certain manner like a voice out of heaven that I'll go about my business until I hear that voice? Does it matter that his instructions come in verbal form or in written form? See, God speaks to us in an audible term and in written form. Just because God speaks to us in written form, does that make God's word any less important than what he should speak to us in verbal form? As I've often said, the first hurdle that we as Christians need to get over is the fact that this is God's word. And within God's word, there are imperatives that are commands that we are to follow. So, do the spoken words of the Lord hold higher authority than the written word? I should say not. Go to Acts 9 verse 5. And he said, "Who are you, Lord?" And he said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting." And I am Jesus. There is that name, Jesus. And it was given to the Saul of Tarsus. Think about it in terms of this. This name that sets Saul into a murderous rage, he was like this judge in Texas some years ago. I believe it goes all the way back to when, when I say years, I mean back when Clinton was still in office, maybe Obama. But there was this judge, I think it was Clinton actually, there was this judge in Texas. There was this commencement of the graduation class. Graduation class is coming up and you know in graduation class when I graduated and I believe this was either, it may have been a college or high school. Actually, I got this from Russia's brother's book, one of his books, David Limbaugh. But he talked about this in his book. But the judge made a ruling. He said that there will be no talk of Jesus or the Lord or any of this and any of the speeches of commencement class. And they graduate in class. And he ruled out, he ruled that and he made a law. The judge made a law to himself. He said if anyone dares to speak the name of Jesus, he's going to wish that he was never been born. And then that particular class and when they've gotten the rules of the law handed down to them, well on cue the entire class stood up and recited the Lord's prayer or the disciples prayer, as I call it, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. So, what are you going to do, arrest the whole class? And I'm sure if Saul and light fashioned would say if anybody even mentions the name Jesus, he's going to wish that he has never been born. So, when Saul heard the voice, I am Jesus. Think about this way, Saul now comes, I would say face face, but he blinded at this point, but he comes to the very one and you have been persecuting me, the very one that he was so opposed with, toe to toe and stuff. He's out of sight, out of mind, now we've talked about Paul. Paul is going to be a cross over believer. He's not an unbeliever. He thought that he was doing the right thing, but he hated this name Jesus because Jesus wasn't part of the equation. He was about a man that people were worshiping. So, Saul figures, so now he is face to face. I want you to remind, and Saul, fortunately for Saul, the Lord in his grace and his mercy contacted him, knocked him off his horse, bribed him, sent him to the ground. And that was the best day of Saul's life. To be called in, you see, sometimes the Lord will break your leg in order to put you on the right path to walk the right path that you need to be on. This voice associated with the flash of light, the fact that he was laying on the ground, the chilling reality of the voice may just be Jesus himself. There is a number of rude awakenings in the Bible. This is one of them. Paul was rudely awakened to the reality that this audible voice was Jesus himself. And how many people is accredited to him that he murdered. The audible voice was real. The light was real. And without a sight, he was helpless. In God's written word, there are instructions. There are imperatives. Now that you know who I am, now that I had properly identified myself, Jesus said, now there are some commandments that you are to follow. And that's the same way with us. There was a time when we had received the Lord Jesus Christ for our eternal life. It was a time when God caused light to shine out of our dark hearts. And now that the Lord has shined light in our hearts, he says, I've got some commandments for you. See, our lives, we were created for good works that we should walk in them. And so it is not the fact that, as I've often said, we're not waiting at the bus station to be waited to cart at home to heaven. There are commands that we are to hear given to us through the written word and imperatives that we are to follow. So we are to do what the word says, what the word says, because it is the word of God. And we are to refrain from what the word says, don't do, and we are to do what the word says to do. And if you are willfully ignorant of God's word, if you're willfully ignorant of God's written word, and some people say, well, I'm not smart enough. I can't read good. I don't know. I don't have a high school graduate. I don't even have a high school diploma. I can't read. So if that's your excuse, it's the most flimsy excuse that you can have. There are ways to get around that too, if you're totally illiterate. But if the sovereignty of God is speaking to you and speaking to me through the word of God, then we owe God a hearing. And willful ignorance of God's word is tantamount to the rejection of God's word. It's tantamount to the point that if you were in the room with Jesus himself and he was speaking to you, and you just walked out the door and shut it, that's the same way it is with your willful ignorance of God's word. So God gives Paul some verbal instructions, Acts 9.6. But get up and enter the city. Go on, you were headed that direction, continue the course. It will be told to you what you must do, stop. He doesn't have to say anything else. He doesn't have to explain where you're going to go, all that he all he simply says is go into the city. Now the men heard and they witnessed just what happened. They were privy to this. If anything, the fear of this person that spoke out of this light, and within that light, you heard the phrase, "But in the fear of Jesus and a person," they had a fear. And they're going to do what they heard. They didn't have to be spoken to directly. They just heard that he's going to have to go, and these guys are going to help them to there. So Acts 9.8, 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 to Damascus. And he was there for three days outside, neither eight nor drank. Saul followed the instructions, and waited in the dark for three days. He waited. You know what this reminds me of when we send the kids to the room, when they got in trouble, you know, and go to your room. And it gave them time to think. It gave them time to think. I want you to think about what you did, everywhere those words. I want you to think about what you did. I'll be in there shortly. And this is, to me, this reminds me that this seems like this, what Jesus does to Paul. Go to Damascus. I'll be there. I'll be along here a little bit. So I've got some points of doctrine here. Point of application. Number one, God knows this better than we know ourselves. And God knows perfectly how to deal with every personality type. There's no hard head that God could not get through, too. And there are those who are malleable. There are those that -- and listen, we all have different personalities. It doesn't make someone worse than others, or -- but some will -- some will immediately -- I've heard people getting saved. And they were immediately in the service of the Lord -- and we're all in full-time sources of service -- but -- but they were immediately malleable to the Word of God. They were -- they were in God's Word. They were learning God's Word. And they had a -- they had a rapid maturity, you know. And it took them relatively a short time. Other people are a little harder. And God will deal with them. And God will deal with us where we are in our personalities. It's like kids, going back to kids again. You will have one child that -- and if you have children, especially if you have more children, you'll know that they all have different personalities. And you have to deal with them differently. God knows us better than He knows ourselves, and God knows perfectly how to deal with every personality type. And He's dealing with Saul, and the way that Saul can respond. And that's through grace and mercy again. Number two, we can humble ourselves, or we can be brought to a humble state. That was -- you know, we can have a Jonah moment. I said, "I don't know, I ain't going to never." But God can change our circumstances real quick. He can break our leg. Like our pastor, you know, the colonel was probably going to have a football career. Do you remember that? And God broke his leg. Changes the course of action. Changes the course of where you're going. And number three, if God is our strength, and He is, He can choose to remove the strength. He can remove everything. Actually, if God is our strength, and should be our strength, He can remove every crutch. And this is what I should be saying this morning. He can remove every crutch, everything. He can remove -- He can take us from our arrogant state and bring us to the most humble state. We can either humble ourselves, or we can be humble. But if God chooses, you can run all day long, but there are those that -- God says, "No, you're not going to run no more." And like I said, He can break your leg and bring you right into it. Number four, I put up there. The fearless and fearful Saul, mighty man to all, was now reduced to a blind envelope. That great man, that great ambitious man who had all going for him, properties, health, and everything else. And by the way, there's blindness. Some say that Paul will never really fully recover from this blindness. Some speculate that this is the thorn that he will have to put up with for the rest of his life. Here it is that this axe is written by Dr. Luke, who accompanied him through his missionary journeys. And so, again, have you ever experienced God's providential hand in your own life? And I'm sure you have. Did God ever break your leg, and figuratively speaking, or redirect you? And so oftentimes we want to pray, and we want to say, "God, take it away. Lord, take this away." When he breaks our leg, when he blinds us, when he does whatever it is, let's just say when he infirms us, when he humbles us. Rather than getting on the line on a prayer chain and going to church and telling everybody to pray for you, you're going through this and going through that, for yourself and others, it might be a good time to pray. Lord, why did you bring me into this situation? Give me wisdom. Everything happens by your either providential, permissive, or sovereign will, and I want to know your will. What is your will? What do you bring me through on this? So for three days, Paul sat in the darkness. He does not say if the Scripture doesn't say that he has a companion. So this, for three days, Saul sat helpless, and what might be considered a fast. Like he's fasting. You know, when you fast, a fasting is setting aside the regular activities, routine activities to focus. The things to address the spiritual side of yourself and set aside those physical things that you often adhere to from today to today. I don't know if this is it or not. So he sets aside the normal ordinary daily routine in order to focus strictly on the matter of who God was. I'd say who and what God is and where he is in God's plan. So the things he may be doing, we know he's praying. We're going to find out that he's praying in these three days to let this experience sink in, to go back over the after action report. What just happened to think on the words to meditate on the words what Jesus said. I'm sure those words came over to his mind over and over and over again. I am Jesus who you are persecuting. Self-reflection on how he could be so wrong for so long. And he sat in darkness to see the tortured faces of those whom he slew indiscriminately. Those whose death is on his conscience. And those who Jesus said were his. To wonder if this, to wonder where this path is going to lead is the Lord going to bring the hammer down on him. Or to wonder what God's plan is for him. He's still alive. There must be a plan. Was he were to wait for judgment? And in the darkness he would receive a vision of a disciple who would come and guide him on the next step of the great journey. I think through all this, Saul only knew what was revealed to him. Go here. Go into the city. Wait, you're to go here. You see this man named Ananias and he will restore your vision. But not much. All Saul had to do was to obey the commands. So it was time for Saul. It was time for Saul to be afraid. Remember what Proverb says that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It was time for him to be worried. How may he be put in this position? Because now in the same fear that he brought upon the people, he was now experiencing greater fear, the fear of the Lord. Meanwhile, you have back on a ranch, Hebrews chapter 9, verse 10. Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias and the Lord said to him, "In a vision, Ananias." And he said, "Here I am." I think he did. I think he says that. "Here I am, Lord. Behold, this word up here is idu. It's just idu. Behold, Lord." This is the same thing that Mary said. One of my favorite lines in the Christmas narrative when Mary says to the angel Gabriel, "Behold the slave of the Lord." Here is a disciple. He is ready to do what the Lord would have to say. How many times has the Lord spoke to Damascus? He spoke to Ananias because he hears the voice and says, "Where does the voice come from?" Anani says, "Here I am." But this was a vision. A vision is one that happens during the daytime. Dreams happen at night. And Acts 9, 11. The Lord said to him, "Get up. Go to the street called straight." I never noticed that. I read over this. They named the streets back in those days. A street named named Straight. I may cover that tomorrow. It just hit me today on this one. Any choir at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul. For he is praying, and he has seen in a vision, a man named Ananias. Let me see what he says here. And this was a few earlier. Do not contain a vision. Okay. Says here that earlier manuscripts doesn't contain this word right here. For he has seen a man named Ananias come in and lay hands on him so that he might regain his sight. Here's a couple points of application concerning being a disciple and being on the ready. Number one, Ananias was a disciple. Number two, a disciple readies himself for service by hearing God's word. If you want to be ready for God's word, if you want to be ready to do God's will, some people have neglected many Christians and neglected the word of God altogether. And I guess they're waiting for a voice to come out from a bright light or something for Lord to speak to him verbally. But remember when God speaks to us, he speaks to us through his word. And as a disciple, we ready ourselves for service to God by our taking in God's word, to learning God's word, by equipping our hearts with God's word. And that's pushing out the garbage that's within there and replacing it with God's thoughts, his ways and making us malleable. A believer that is stuck on world viewpoint, world viewpoint, they're not ready to obey God. It is the word of God and the intake, the application of the word of God that softens our heart to make it malleable for instructions. Number three, a disciple proves himself a disciple in doing God's word. Are you a disciple of God's word? Are you, like James says, to be a practitioner of the word and not just a hear, but to learn it and to apply it. I think that's it for that. Yeah. And not always will the Lord make sense to us. Isaiah 55, 9. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. You see, this is one thing that Ananias is going to have to realize because he's going to, during this time in this vision, he's going to remind the Lord. I've heard of this guy. I've heard of this guy. He really saw you. Lord, do you know what you're doing? Maybe the Lord was busy or maybe the Lord was, maybe the Lord didn't know. Do you know what you're doing, Lord? And it's kind of like that. But actually, I think they, I think Ananias was actually pondering the question to his own soul. Maybe to the question is, he knows the Lord is doing it. He knows his instructions, but he's going over the details within his own heart. Okay, Lord. Okay. Your ways are higher than my ways. Your thoughts are greater than my thoughts, so I'll do what you're going to, what you instructed me to do, Lord. With that, we'll close it out for the day. Father, in heaven, thank you. For this exciting time is greatest conversion, which is the conversion of Saul. To become the greatest Christian of all times. He who would be so graced, who is graced out so greatly, and who's shown most mercy, will be one who has done the most. For the thank you, Heavenly Father, for your word. Help, help us and guide us, and these things we pray in Christ's name, Amen. All right. Another fine day, Lord. Keep your armor on. Keep fighting a good fight of faith. Lord, the will of spirit, guide, raptor pen. We'll be back here in the A.M. Thank you for joining us. You can hear this message again, as well as previous lessons. And get note by visiting us online at www.gchapel.org. www.gchapel.org www.gchapel.org www.gchapel.org www.gchapel.org [ Silence ]
sometimes the Lord has to knock us down and blind us to the world and our current direction to redirect our paths