Good morning, everyone. What a difference a week makes, huh? Last Sunday morning, we had to cancel services because we had a blizzard and 17 inches of snow up our way. And this week, it's a beautiful, sunny, warm day. So we're thankful for that, very thankful. It's good for morale. 

We're going to be looking at Acts chapter 9 this morning. I feel like it's been forever since I preached just missing a week. I'm a little bit nervous this morning. We're continuing our study in the book of Acts this morning in chapter 9. 

And this is the amazing story of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. We saw last time the sovereignty of God in this stunning conversion on the road to Damascus, as well as the obedience of Saul to the heavenly vision, to the gospel, to Jesus Christ. 

Well, this morning, I want to focus in on the transforming power of Christ as demonstrated in the life of the Apostle Paul. When we look at the world around us, as Pastor was talking about this morning, we see trouble everywhere. People are hurting. They are experiencing all kinds of trials and troubles. There's pain and suffering everywhere we look. 

And the people of this world are constantly looking for a cure for what ails them, a solution to the problems that plague them and destroy their lives. From the drunk to the thief to the murderer to the abuser, everyone agrees that men need to change, that there needs to be a transformation. But the question is, how? 

How can a man be transformed? And men have come up with and tried many ideas, wisdoms of the world, from self-help books to 12-step methods to psychology to pharmaceuticals to the power of positive thinking to diet and exercise and yoga and motivational speeches. Many have even tried religion. 

And sometimes in these things, there is some mitigation of the problems, the symptoms, the sufferings. There can be a modicum of change in people. But there is no real transformation. Because the real problem is the very heart and nature of a man. The man in Adam, every man, is a sinner in his very core. And he is dominated by the sin that indwells him. 

And because of sin, there is death and pain and suffering everywhere in our world. And my friends, there's only one transforming power. There's only one solution to our sin problem. There's only one way to salvation from the very essence of who we are as men in Adam. And that way is Jesus Christ. 

And that's what we'll see in our text this morning in the life of a persecutor, an insolent man, Saul of Tarsus. 

Turn to Acts 9 with me, please. Let's look at verse 10. It says, now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias. And to him, the Lord said in a vision, Ananias. And he said, here I am, Lord. So the Lord said to him, arise and go to the street called Straight and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus. For behold, he is praying. 

And in a vision, he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him so that he might receive his sight. Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name. 

But the Lord said to him, go. For he is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake. 

And Ananias went his way and entered the house. And laying his hands on him, he said, brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales. And he received his sight at once. And he arose and was baptized. 

So when he had received food, he was strengthened. Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus. Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues that he is the Son of God. 

Then all who heard were amazed and said, is this not he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem and has come here for that purpose so that he might bring them bound to the chief priest? But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ. 

Well, I've given you five points on your outline for our text this morning. First, we're going to look at plan, second, purpose, third, position, fourth, picture, and fifth, practice. 

Well, in verses 10 to 12, we see the plan of God. God is arranging all the details of this conversion of Saul and his plan for Saul to become the great Apostle Paul who would take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentile world. 

And we see that he is using his faithful witnesses, the believers in Jesus in Damascus, to accomplish his will. Saul is at the house of Judas. We really don't know anything about this Judas, but here is the ferocious Saul of Tarsus who's been ripping apart the church, tearing at the flesh of the believers, as the word describes. The great persecutor of the church come to Damascus to haul off and jail those of the way, men and women, to persecute, to bind, even kill in order to stamp out this sect of Christianity. 

But something has happened to Saul on his journey in a moment of time. And we see that he is now blind at the house of Judas, praying. And God has given Ananias, another faithful believer, a vision to go to Saul, to lay hands on him, that Saul might receive back his sight. 

Like this is a welcome unto fellowship, a recognizing of the transforming work that God had done in Saul by laying hands on him. But can you imagine what was going through the mind of Ananias? We see a glimpse of this in verses 13 and 14. It says, then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard many things about this man, how much harm he has done. 

And he's here by authority of the chief priest to arrest and bind and to jail those who follow your name. Well, Saul had quite the reputation. And he was one man you didn't want to run into if you were a believer in Jesus Christ. 

As I was studying this, I was thinking, today it would be like living in one of these Muslim countries where ISIS is going about destroying Christians and torturing them and finding new ways to kill them and cause them to turn from their faith in Christ or denounce Christ. Can you imagine being a believer in one of those places and hearing these stories about ISIS going into villages and wiping them out and killing them and these awful things? 

And then God says to you, go to the leader, the leader of ISIS. Go to his house. Can you imagine how that would make you feel, how afraid you would be? Ananias must have had great trepidation about going anywhere near Saul. Yet God told him that he needed to go and to see the new Saul, the converted Saul, the one whom he needed to welcome to the fellowship of believers because he had a purpose for Saul. 

And we see that in verse 15. The Lord said to him, go, for he is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake. 

God chose Saul to be the apostle to the Gentiles, to kings, to the children of Israel. And Saul would become Paul. And he would be a powerful witness evangelizing the Gentile world, starting churches, strengthening them, correcting, teaching, loving with all long suffering, not to mention writing the bulk of our New Testament. 

And Paul would suffer many things because of his witness for Christ. God said he will show him what he must suffer. Paul recorded that in 2 Corinthians 11. Turn over to 2 Corinthians 11 with me, please. And let's just read Paul's testimony about his suffering because of the name of Christ. 

2 Corinthians 11 at verse 22, he writes, are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more. In labors, more abundant. In stripes, above measure. In prisons, more frequently. In deaths, often. From the Jews, five times I received 40 stripes minus one. 

Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A day and a night I have been in the deep. In journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in the sea, in perils among false brethren. 

In weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. And besides the other things, what comes upon me daily, my deep concern for all the churches. 

Paul's life as a witness for Jesus was largely a life of suffering and heartache and trial. But it was a life of tremendous fruit and joy and peace as well. God's purpose for Paul was to be a witness, to take the gospel to the world, to glorify Jesus Christ. And this is what Paul did. This was his life. 

But he was in many areas where that was not welcome. And he was persecuted everywhere he went, run out of the cities. He was consumed with the same zeal we saw him persecuting the church with, but now with preaching Christ. And Paul could say, for to me, to live is Christ, but to die is gain. 

And this all came about because of the plan of God, because of the purpose of God, and because of the transformational, positional change of Saul of Tarsus being taken from Adam and being placed into Christ. This is the profound truth that we must understand about this account of the conversion of Saul and the truth of the conversion of any man or woman from being in Adam to being in Christ. 

Look at verse 17 in our text, Acts 9, 17. It says, and Ananias went his way and entered the house. And laying his hands on him, he said, brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once, and he arose and was baptized. 

Well, something drastic had happened to Saul on the road to Damascus. A fundamental change on the inside in his spirit, his very nature, the essence of who he is, had been transformed from a great persecutor of Christ to a powerful preacher of Christ. From the terrifying pursuer of Christians to brother Saul, welcome into the fellowship. 

What in the world happened to Saul? I wonder, has anyone asked that question about you when you were converted, when you turned to Jesus in faith alone? Did you hear comments like that? As Peter said, they think it's strange that you no longer run with them in a flood of dissipation. 

When I started working for APHIS over 20 years ago now, a friend of mine that I met there, we trapped together, and they called us pigs. That was our nickname, Pig, Pig Noose and Pig Johnson, because I was a pig. That's why. But after working there for a couple of years, I was converted to Jesus Christ. I was changed. 

And those guys I worked with said, what in the world happened to Noose? What happened to Pig Noose? When I quit that job a couple of years ago, there was a guy I worked with. And when I quit, they gave me a little presentation and a plaque, and I had a chance to witness and make a little speech to everybody there. And I talked about the gospel, and I talked about Jesus and how he changed my life. 

And one of the guys I worked with there for 18 years was up after that trapping some wolves on a friend of mine's farm. And they were talking about me, and this man said, I don't know what he's talking about. He wants to follow his religion or something. They think it's strange. They think we got religion. They think we've gone off the deep end. 

But the truth is that we have, in a moment of time, by the grace of God, through faith in Jesus alone, been completely, fundamentally transformed by the power of Jesus Christ and his gospel of salvation. 

2 Corinthians 5.17 says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. 

That is, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. 

And verse 21 says, for he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. And this is what Saul became, the righteousness of God in Christ through faith, and he became an ambassador, then to go out immediately and preach Christ. 

This was the drastic change. 

Turn over to Romans 5.18 with me, please. I want you to follow through some verses in Romans 5, 6, and 7. Romans 5.18. This is a section where Paul is talking about Adam and Christ. He's talking about a man in Adam, a man in Christ, and the contrast. And in verse 18, he says, therefore, as through one man's offense, that would be Adam's sin in the garden, through one man's offense, judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation. Even so, through one man's righteous act, that would be Christ's death on the cross, through one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 

For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience, many will be made righteous. 

Look at 6.2. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Look at verse 6. Knowing this, that our old man, that man and Adam dominated and controlled by sin, our old man was crucified with him in order that the body of sin, and that's the physical body controlled by indwelling sin, might be done away with or rendered powerless. That we should no longer be slaves of sin, for he who has died has been freed from sin. 

Look at verse 10. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Turn over to chapter 7 at verse 5. Again, the contrast continues. The man and Adam in verse 5. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. Look at verse 6, the good news. But now, there's your contrast, but now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. 

When we believed Jesus, just as Saul was obedient to that heavenly vision on that Damascus road, when we believed, God transformed us. He made us new men, took out the heart of stone, put in a heart of flesh, gave us a new spirit, and he caused his Holy Spirit to live in us permanently. 

He changed us on the inside. And we are new men in Christ, dead to sin, dead to the law, released from the bondage of fear of death. And we no longer live under the law by the letter, but now by the Holy Spirit, by the very power of Jesus Christ living in and through us by faith. 

Positionally, he changed us. He took us out of Adam and placed us into Christ. He justified us. Listen to me. Actually, he also changed us. He recreated us. He made us alive together with Christ. He united us to him in his death, burial, and resurrection, and he released us from the controlling power of indwelling sin and the bondage of the law. 

Now we live by faith as we abide in Christ one day at a time. And biblical sanctification, being conformed to the likeness of Christ, living in holiness, is an outward confirmation to the inward reality of who we are. It is, in fact, living in consistency with who we now are in Christ, having been transformed by his power. 

What did Paul say about his new life in Christ? Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. 

Chapter 8, verse 10 of Romans, Paul wrote, and if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, when does he dwell in you? Now, right? If he dwells in you now, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. 

He will give life to your bodies now, today. He will produce righteousness through you. John 15, Jesus said, I am the true vine. My Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 

God is working in you. He has transformed you. He has fundamentally changed you, and now he's making you like Christ. John 15, 3, you are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 

I am the vine. You are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. Listen to what Jesus said. For without me, you can do nothing. 

Our new life in Christ, having been transformed, being made new, having a new nature, is a life of abiding, of faith, of one day at a time dependence on trust in Jesus Christ to live his life through us. 

I want to look at one more passage to help us understand this new life in Christ and biblical sanctification based on the transforming power of Jesus Christ that we see in the life of Saul of Tarsus. 

Turn to Romans 12 with me, please, at verse 1. Romans 12, 1 and 2, this is a familiar passage, but I never tire of looking at the treasures of this passage. 

Based on all these great doctrinal truths that Paul taught in Romans 1 to 11, in 12, 1, he says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. 

We've talked before about these two amazing words in verse 2, conformed and transformed. They are so instructive. And I'd just like for you to try to listen closely to Kenneth Weiss' comment on these words from his word study. He says that the word conformed means the act of an individual assuming an outward expression that does not come from within him, nor is it representative of his inner heart life. It is assuming an expression that is patterned after some definite thing. 

So how you live, how you act outwardly, if you're conformed to the world, is inconsistent with who you are. And it's patterned after a definite thing. The verb construction forbids the continuance of an action. So Paul is saying, stop assuming an outward expression that is patterned after this world, an expression that does not come from, nor is it representative of what you are in your inner being as a regenerated child of God. 

It's irrational for us to live in sin. It's inconsistent with who we are. The word transformed, metamorphomase, which speaks of the act of a person changing his outward expression from that which he has to a different one. 

Listen to this. An expression which comes from and is representative of his inner being. It's the same word used in Matthew 17, where it's translated transfigured. This was the event where Jesus pulled back his flesh, as it were, to show us the essence of who he is. 

Biblical sanctification, my brothers and sisters, is a changing of our outward expression, how we live, how we walk, how we act, into consistency with who we are inwardly, a new creation in Christ. And it's done by renewing our minds to the truth of God's word, knowing and reckoning what he says to be true. Not how I think, not how I feel, not what my experience was yesterday, but what he says to be true, to believe him. 

It's yielding our members as members of righteousness to God. It's living out who we are by faith, abiding in Christ. It's a life of faith, my friends, because the just shall live by faith. 

So we see in our text God's plan for Saul. We see God's purpose in Saul's salvation. We see Saul's positional and actual change when God saved him and placed him into Christ. And next, we see the picture of Saul's salvation in water baptism. 

Look again at verse 17. And Ananias went his way and entered the house. And laying his hands on him, he said, brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road as you came has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once. And he arose and was baptized. 

Ananias obeyed God's calling to go to Saul, to welcome him into the fellowship of believers, to lay hands on him so that Saul might receive his sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And we see, as we do throughout the book of Acts, that immediately after salvation, Saul was baptized in water. 

The Bible teaches that water baptism is a symbol. It's a picture of our union with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. This is why, as we saw with Philip and the eunuch in chapter 8, they went down into the water. Biblical baptism is never a sprinkling of water, but full immersion, because it's a picture of our death, burial, and resurrection. 

We go down into the water, and we are raised up out of the water. In Romans 6, 4, Paul gives us that picture, talking not about water baptism in chapter 6, but that picture of our union with Jesus, that we are united to Jesus in his death, burial, and resurrection when we're placed into Christ. 

And water baptism is a picture of that. It's a symbol of that. In 1 Peter 3, Peter calls it an antitype. The word means picture or figure. And he says that in verse 21 of 1 Peter 3, that in that act of baptism, God makes a pledge. He makes a promise to us that because of our union with Jesus Christ, because we've been saved by grace through faith, and we are united to Christ, that we can have a clear conscience toward God. 

It's an interesting passage. The word answer in that passage speaks of this promise or pledge. And the question I have when I read that is, is who makes the pledge? Because sometimes we think in baptism that we make a pledge, right? But the verse says, Peter says, God makes the pledge to you, that you can have a clear conscience toward him because of your union with Christ and his death, burial, and resurrection, because of his crucifixion on the cross, death, and resurrection from the dead. 

It's God who makes the promise. And Peter says this saves us. It gives us assurance, confidence, because we are in Christ. So we see that Saul was saved. We see that he was then baptized. He was placed down into the water and brought back out as a symbol, a picture of his union with Christ. 

This is always the pattern of biblical baptism, believer's baptism by immersion. We see the salvation of Saul and his obedience to Christ in baptism. But we also see this practical change, a change in his practice, how he lives. 

Look at verse 19 in our text. It says, so when he had received food, he was strengthened. Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus. Immediately, he preached to Christ in the synagogues that he is the Son of God. 

And all who heard were amazed and said, is not this he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem? And he's come here for that purpose, so that he might bring them bound to the chief priests. But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus was the Christ. 

It reminds me of Stephen that we studied before, that no one could refute him. He was confounding them. He was proving that Jesus is the Christ. Remember what we saw in Romans 12 too in the word transformed. 

Saul's conversion gives us one of the most dramatic examples of changing of outward expression from who he was in Adam to who he is in Christ. We saw Saul become Paul. And what an amazing manifestation of the transforming power of Christ and his gospel truth. 

Saul was pursuing the Christians. He was breathing out threats, arresting and hauling them to prison in chains, trying to stamp out Christ. And what do we see immediately after his salvation? We see Saul preaching Christ. 

He went into the city, confounding the Jews, proving that Jesus is the Christ. This was now the life and mission of Paul, to preach Jesus Christ, to persuade men, to prove Jesus is the Messiah. This was a changed life, my friends. Practical change in the way Paul thought, the way he acted, what his entire life was about, 180-degree change in his practice, how he walked, the new creation on the inside, the power of the Holy Spirit filling him, the desire that God poured into his heart. 

All of these great new covenant truths of salvation made manifest change, a practical, outward dramatic change in the life of Saul. And this is God's intention for every one of us. Did you know that, my brother, my sister in Christ? 

Sometimes I listen to men preach today in some circles of Christianity and I think, well, there really shouldn't be any change in my life. I'm just a vile, wretched sinner and I'm doomed to submit myself to the flesh continually and this is the normal Christian life. 

God saved you for the very purpose that he might transform you, to make you like Jesus. He has given to every believer all things that pertain to life and godliness. He has indwelled us with his Holy Spirit who imparts strength to our inner man. He has released us from the power of indwelling sin, from the bondage of the law and enabled us to express agape, self-sacrificial love toward God and toward man. 

My friends, God exhorts you in his word. He expects you to now live in light of who you are in Christ. He expects you to live a holy life. What are your expectations? What do you expect from your daily walk with Christ tomorrow morning? And what do you base those expectations on? Feelings, emotions, experience? 

Or do you choose to believe what God says is true of you in his word and trust him by faith to empower you to live it out? Do you expect each day to live a holy life, to be a witness and to bring glory to God? 

Do you believe Jesus? Do you trust his word and his promise that he is transforming you outwardly by his power into consistency with who you are inwardly because of what he's done in salvation? 

False conversion is an example to us, a stunning proof of the transforming power of Christ. And this example should be an inspiration to us to live a life worthy of our calling, to walk in consistency with who we are and consistency with what our deepest desire is as well. 

In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul wrote, Follow me as I follow Christ. Paul is a great example of one man transformed by Christ who lived in obedience to his salvation. And my friends, we need to understand our salvation in Christ. We need to believe what God says is true in his word, and we need to live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. 

This is the way to be fruitful. This is the way to live holy and to glorify God in all that we do. And this is the way to be a powerful witness of salvation in Jesus Christ. 

I'm thankful for this example, for the great Apostle Paul who was transformed in his conversion from that wretched Saul by the power of Jesus Christ. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we're so thankful for this great servant of yours, Paul the Apostle. And we're thankful that you've recorded and preserved the account of his conversion and the transforming work that you did in his life. 

And we're thankful that we see in your word that that's true of every man who will believe Jesus, who will turn from his own self-righteousness to faith in Jesus alone and what he did for us in our place on the cross. 

Father, help us to believe you, to trust you, to know your word, and then to live in light of the truths that you've given us. It's in Jesus' name we pray.