The Transformed Life, Part 4
Acts 9:20-31
Father, we thank You that we now can approach your truth. What a joy Lord, what a privilege to meet like this. To be able to open the Book. God help us to consider carefully the privilege that is ours to set our hearts to learn. May we hear with spiritual ears. We pray the Spirit of God will be our teacher, keep the human voice from error. May only that which is true and from thee be spoken. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.
We're continuing our study in Acts Chapter 9 this morning. The study of the transformation of Saul of Tarsus and because of the character of this man and the nature of his transformation, he sets for us what is a pattern for the transformed life that can really be followed by every man. The characteristics that we in his life become really the features of all the transformed lives that God is transforming.
When Lord Nelson reported to the British Admiralty the great victory over the French Fleet in the battle of Nile, in his report he said this. "Victory is not a large enough word to describe what has happened." And when the apostle Paul spoke of that which he had enjoyed through Jesus Christ having been saved and redeemed and transformed, even the greatest of all victory words, the word conqueror was inadequate and so he said in Christ we are more than conquerors. And more than conqueror has to be the only phrase which really does justice to the apostle Paul. All his life he had been in battle only before the Damascus Road it was a losing battle. After the Damascus Road, it was a winning battle so much so that he is more than conqueror.
The man was transformed. We know little about him before, but enough to put together some pieces to see what the transformation was like. Before the seen on the Damascus Road that we encountered here in Chapter 9, we know that he was Saul of Tarsus a city in Cilicia. A city of academics. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He was also a Roman citizen. He was a pupil of Gamaliel, and that means that he had studied at the feet of the finest Jewish scholar in the world of his day. He was a student of Jewish tradition. He was a man who was all wound up in a passionate clinging to the hopes and expectations of Israel. He was like other Jews looking for the Messiah and the kingdom that he would bring.
This, I believe, was a sacred hope within him as it was with every zealous Jew. And then when traveling preachers began to announce to him and the rest of the world that a nary do well carpenter from Nazareth was the Messiah, this man began to convulse in antagonism. So much so that he began a one man war against Jesus of Nazareth. And Acts Chapter 29 reflecting back he said, "I sought to do many things to the name of Jesus of Nazareth." And the next verse he begins by saying, "which things I did." He became the great persecutor of the heresy connected with Jesus. His mind literally smashed to pieces the thought that this man was the Messiah of Israel.
And so he fought and it was hard to fight and it hurt and there was guilt. But he did it any way, and he did it without success. But after the Damascus Road, he continued to fight, only his battle switched and he became more than a conqueror. And it wasn't just a temporary change, and it wasn't superficial. It was deep. It was total and it was forever. He know longer righteously fights against Christ and His message, but he takes up for Christ and the gospel. He no longer on the side of Satan and evil fights the light, but he on the side of the light fights Satan and evil.
In one day the history of the whole world was changed when that man was transformed. The blasphemer became the preacher of Christ's love. The hand that wrote in anger, the execution paper for Christians, now writes in love with tears, the letters of the redeeming of love of God in Christ. The heart that beat with thirst for the blood of Christians now desires that the blood of Christ be applied to every heart for sin. He's a changed man. And it happened in a moment. From a volatile, energetic, dynamic enemy of Jesus Christ, persecutor, blasphemer came the greater part of the New Testament. Came the noblest statements of Christian theology. Came the sweetest songs of God's love. And he became the most saintly, heroic person whoever named the name of Jesus Christ. What a transformation.
Because of that, he serves as the greatest and classic example of the power of the resurrection and the greatest illustration of the Christian life. And he sets for us the living and permanent pattern for the transformed life. The features which characterize him in the 10th Chapter are applicable to every transformed life. So he's the pattern. It all began on the Damascus Road when he surrendered his will to Christ. He was broken. He was recreated a new man. And that was the beginning of the transformation.
Now, we've already studied this for several weeks and it's some important that we have spent time on it and we found at the very beginning that there were to be seven qualities of the transformed life. We have already discussed five of those and we'll just very briefly mention those in review and then we'll move on to the final two of the seven.
First of all, the transformed life begins with faith in the Savior, faith in the Savior. Now in verses 1-9 of Acts, that is what we learned. On the Damascus Road, Saul, fire-breathing, moving toward Damascus to bind Christians as prisoners and haul them off to Jerusalem was confronted face to face with the blazing glory of Jesus Christ. And having been confronted with Jesus Christ, he fell on his face and through the circumstances of conversation at that point, he believed. And having believed, he yielded to Jesus Christ and said, "Lord what wilt thou have me to do?"
At that point, the transformation took place. The transformation, the recreation, the new birth that occurs at the moment of salvation is, in fact, an actual miracle that takes place in a moment. And he was changed that fast. He was recreated. By faith in the Savior, the transformation took place. Now let me hasten to say this. That was the positional transformation. That was the change in his nature. That was the change in his standing before God. That's what gave him new capacities, spiritual gifts. The gift of the Holy Spirit. All of that happened then. That changed his nature.
Then in rapid fire succession came six other features that were the practical features of the outworking of that inner transformation. And so while saying that salvation is a momentary total transformation that is true in terms of a man's nature. Then it takes a while for the practical changes to reach his life and his living pattern. So one is positional and the remaining are practical. The first changed his nature and his eternal destiny and the series that followed it changed his living patterns and his effect on the world.
But to begin with transformation starts with faith in the Savior, putting your faith in Jesus Christ to be who he claimed to be and to have done what the Bible claims that he did. It is simply faith in an historic person and in a historic redemptive plan. Secondly, and immediately upon the heels of faith in the Savior came fervor in supplication. One of the characteristics of a believer is that he prays. That he communes with God in this new life. He lives in an atmosphere of the presence of God and he breathes the very air of God. A believer who is transformed in his nature will find the first reaction to be prayer. The desire to commune with the God he has just met.
And that's exactly what happened. Beginning in verse 10 and through verse 12 we find Saul in the house of Judas at one of the street called Straight in the city of Damascus and he spends three days blind, without eating or drinking, praying, communing with God and Christ. In Romans Chapter 8, just to add a dimension to this, in Romans Chapter 8 we have the indication that prayer is the natural response to the new birth. In Romans 8:14 it says, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." So we want to just pull the phrase out, "sons of God."
Verse 15, "For ye, that is ye who are sons of God have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear." In other words, before a man becomes a son of God, he approaches God in fear and trepidation. Men are approach God in kind of a fearfulness, not really having the right to approach God, fearing what God may do to them. In fact, around the world religion is basically built on fear. And men approach God out of fear, but when a man becomes a son of God he is no more an alien. He is no more a stranger. He's no more an outsider. Something else happens, "Ye have received the Spirit of adoption." He becomes a what? A son. "Therefore, we cry Abba Father."
What's it saying? It's saying this, to be a child of God means you receive the Spirit of adoption which means you cry out in a personal way to God. One of the first characteristics of salvation is prayer. Part of being adopted into God's family is the immediate knowledge that you have access to His presence as a child. And you cry in response Father. And so we see the same thing, I think, in Luke Chapter 11, verse 1 where Jesus having chosen His disciples and meeting with them and this is what they said. "Lord, teach us," what, "how to pray." You see the first cry of new life is for sustenance. And so prayer follows immediately on faith and the Savior.
Third thing that we've already seen is faithfulness in service. The transformed life involves a commitment to serve. Saved to serve as the phrase goes. "Lord what wilt thou have me to do?" Right on his lips immediately. And in verses 13-17, Ananias came and said you've been saved to do this. You're going to go and you're going to preach and that's going to be your commission. The transformed life, beloved, involves faithfulness in service. It involves a commitment of your life to do the thing which God calls you to do. To use your spiritual gift to accomplish what God designed it to do.
Restricting your service is restricting the transformation. Get lost in the Lord's service and you'll be changed. So the transformed life involves faithfulness and service as well as fervor in supplication and faith in the Savior. Then the great practical key and the one we spend a lot of time on last time was the filling of the Spirit. The key to the practical life is the filling of the Spirit in verses 17-18. The end of verse 17 it says he was filled with the Spirit.
The filling of the Spirit means that the Spirit of God controls you. We saw this last week. And when you're controlled by the Spirit of God, then you're going to see something happen in your life. Trying to live your life without the Spirit of God is trying to live with an engine, but no ignition key. He's there, but you've got to find out how to turn it on and that is to yield to the Spirit of God to submit yourself.
The apostle Paul all his life and all his ministry, from the time that he was Saul right here in the house of Judas lived a life under the control of the Spirit of God. Oh there were times, of course, like any believer when he wavered from that, but that was the commission and the commitment of his heart. He began at the start to do the bidding of the Holy Spirit. Now the filling of the Spirit of God is a simple thing. We've gone over it before. The Spirit lives within every Christian being filled with Him is yielding to Him and letting Him control you. That's all it is.
And incidentally, in your life you either are controlled by yourself or by Him. That's the only option you have, so figure it out. It's that simple. The Christian life is not complicated. All we must do is submit to the Spirit and incidentally, the Spirit filled life moves by definition. Once you're filled, you go. Now we saw in the filling of Saul that God then having filled him refined him. Remember? We talked about the fact that he had leadership, strong will power, he was self-sufficient. He was independent. He was self-disciplined. He was extremely motivated man. He had some kind of persistence that just never said die. He was kind of inflexible in his convictions. He was very practical. He was very bold. He had a lot of great qualities the Spirit of God didn't eliminate, He only refined them.
That's part of the Spirit filled life. You'll find that the good things that you posses, God will never eliminate, he'll only refine. So you don't ever need to fear to do God's will. You don't never need to fear to be filled with the Spirit. He'll only eliminate the bad. He'll refine that which is usable. Secondly, in the case of Saul, he did eliminate some things. For hatred, He gave him love. For pride, He gave...for pride, He gave him humility. For meanness, He gave him gentleness. And for restlessness, He gave him peace.
So He did some replacing as well, but He changed him and then he became effective. The Spirit filled life then when yielding to the Spirit, the Spirit of God begins to change and to refine. Now, let me add a footnote here that I think is very, very important, because I want you to be clear on this. Many Christians, and this is a very practical thought, many Christians are reluctant for some strange reason to really believe that they are being transformed. People say to me, "well, I'm a Christian, but I don't see the changes. I don't see God doing anything. I have the same old problem. And I see the same thing, I can't get over the hump and I can't get over the hump." And they become very discouraged. And you know what happens, they fail to believe God for the work that He is doing.
Then to not believe God is sin. To sin is to eliminate the filling of the Spirit. They're trapped in a vicious circle of their own unbelief. Friends, you must believe God for the process of change and expect not that it's an overnight thing. I mean, now we change in a physical sense, but we don't see the change do we. Only when we're just brought face to face with it thanks to photography. Lenny, for Christmas, gave me a picture that he took of me all framed and everything when I was a freshman in college. Go ahead it's funny. It was hilarious. You know, you have all outdated clothes and you don't have any wrinkles and you have lots of hair and lots of wonderful things and it's great. And you know, but then you say to yourself oh have I changed. I'm old see.
But it's only because you're brought face to face with then and now, not because you can see the process. The process of change is imperceptible. Believe me Christian, you will believe God that the process of Christian maturity is imperceptible and will you not doubt God because you don't see drastic things happening every moment of your life. The people who live their Christian life trying to see one great giant zap from God every so often don't ever grow any way. You live daily on the diet of the word of God and you will grow though you won't even perceive it. And you know, one of the reasons that Christians doubt the transformation very often is that because as you grow you become infinitely more sensitive to what? To sin.
Consequently you think you're worst than you used to be. Let God have the privilege of changing you at His own pace and realize that when He changes your whole nature, when He does the work of recreation that's instantaneous. That's a whole new miracle. That's bang and it's done. But changing you into the image of Christ while you've still got the cruddy flesh that you have and that I have takes a little more time. Give God the time to do it. Don't disbelieve Him for the process. You were created into Christ...in Christ Jesus unto, what, good works. Now let God have the right to take His time to do it. And incidentally, the faster you yield, the easier it'll be. As I've always said, some of you eat mold, some of you eat chips and chisels.
That's up to you. But the changes are coming and they're going on. Let God change you, but don't disbelieve God for the change. Just yield to the Spirit, accept what's going on in your life as change and yield on a day by day basis, believe God for it because if you don't believe Him for it, you're sinning. If you're sinning, you eliminate the filling of the Holy Spirit and you're trapped in a vicious circle.
I know 2 Corinthians 5:17 says "All things will become new." But the all things has to do with the nature of a man with the recreation of that which is his nature and his capacity in Christ. It doesn't mean that the minute you're saved you never lose your temper or you're perfect from then on. Of course not. A Christian with a bad temper...or a man with a bad temper gets saved and you know what you have? You have a Christian with a bad temper. You take...take for example, a fear prone Christian and this is the case that comes up so often. A fear prone individual, he gets saved, okay? He spent all of his life worrying about everything. All of his life doubting everything. He's got negative thinking from clear through him. It's just completely negative thinking. Negativism, anxiety about everything, he gets saved.
He desires to get filled with the Spirit. He yields to the Spirit. Then he begins to think negative. Well, I'm not changing. I wonder if the Spirit's really there. I wonder if God loves me. I wonder if things are going...what happened? Mental attitude sin filling ins and his back in a vicious trap. Believe God. Even when filled with the Spirit some people feel insecure. They feel insecure even when they're under the control of the Spirit, because they can't believe God. Let Him take His time at His own pace as you yield to Him to make the changes.
I'm changed. I've changed in the last few years, but I can't see that change, but I know it's true because I believe it's true. You got it? And I will continue to believe that because God says so. You say well, I don't notice it. Well, that's your tough luck. I believe I'm changing. I don't want to talk to you. Now you've got to look at the Christian life in a very practical way, you see and it's by faith that we live it any way. Why can we believe God for salvation and yet we can't believe God for the things of our lifetime. We can't believe God for little things that come and go in our life. We don't really believe He's changing us. Believe Him will you?
Let me just put it practically. I'll give you four little simple steps to trust in the Spirit filled life. Number one, make the filling of the Spirit a priority every day. I mean, you've got priorities. Number one is to get up and make sure you get your breakfast and then you get to work