Saul and Paul
As for Saul, he made havoc of the church. — Acts viii. 3. Feed the church of God which He hath purchased with His own “blood. — Acts xx. 28.
The Saul who made havoc of the church became the Paul who said Feed the church of God.” Remember well the identity of the man if you would understand fully the import of the doctrine. Saul had not been a merely indifferent spectator of the christian movement; he had been the foremost persecutor of Christians, he had entered every house, and had committed men and women to prison: Many of the saints did I shut up in prison, and when they were put to death I gave my voice against them: and punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme -, and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.”” Beyond measure I persecuted the church of Godj and wasted it.’’’’ blasphemer a persecutor, and Such is the account which Paul gives of himself, as he was in heart and conduct before his conversion. Nothing is absent which could add to the blackness and hideousness of the picture. Truly, Paul was right in saying that he was chief of sinners! What he afterwards became we remember well. Foremost of persecutors, he became foremost of apostles; chief of sinners, he became chief of saints 1 All lives may be divided thus broadly. We should leave our former selves behind us. Our life should be a daily resurrection.
We shall now meditate upon this great change, in the hope that we may find in it much that will encourage us in the way Christward.
This change in the heart and life of Paul shows: —
I. The maevellous power of the grace of God. The marvellousness of this power is not always so conspicuous. Every operation of grace is beautiful, but in some cases it is startling and most sublime. When a child of godly parents lays its young and loving hand upon the holy cross, it is a sight most touching to the heart, yet it is in the right course of things, as is the dawn or the early spring-flower: it is like the realization of the divine promise which is hidden in the hoping heart of saintly parents. But when the madman prays — when the persecutor’s heart is softened — when the ferocious enemy repents in tears and agony of self-remorse — heaven itself thrills under the announcement, “Behold, he prayeth,” In the one case you have the growth of a flower: in the other you have the winning of a great fight: in the gentle child you have a home-sick voyager turning his skiff into the sunny bay where his father and his mother have been waiting for him; but in the case of the persecutor you have the pirate turning his deviPs ark into a house of prayer. “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible,” Herein let us magnify the grace of God. “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” “Ye who sometime were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.“” “You, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.-” This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.
The occurrence of such marvellous instances is most valuable on two grounds: —
1. It inspires hope even for the luorst. Pray on! Hope on! The hardest rocks have been broken. The most battered and torn ships have come to port. —
2. It renews our sense of the sufficiency of divine grace. Great victories gladden nations. Great conversions make the cliurcli joyful. Put on thy strength 0 arm of the Lord!
This change in the heart and life of Paul shows —
II. The difference between sanctifying human
ENERGIES AND DESTROYING THEM.
Saul was undoubtedly characterised by peculiar energy what will Taul be? You will find that the Christian apostle retained every natural characteristic of the anti- christian persecutor. “VTio so ardent in lovO;, who so unswerving in service as the apostle Paul? Was he an active sinner but an indolent saint? How did he himself bear the treatment which he had inflicted upon others? Hear his words, and feel if they do not quicken the flow of your blood: — ‘^ Are they ministers of Christ? I am more; in labours more abundant,, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I sufiered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings
p2 often, in cold and nakedness.” How a man’s sins come back upon him! How sure is the discipline, and how terrible is the judgment of God! Can a man step easily from the rank of persecutor to the honour of apostle? Never! Hear Paul: ‘^ Even to this present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place: being reviled, we bless being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we intreat; we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day,” We feel in reading such words, how inexorable is the law — “With what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again,”
But notice the energy of the apostle as being the same as the energy of the persecutor. Christianity does not destroy our natural temperament. We become sanctified, not deadened.
1. Christians will differ in the tone and measure of their service. He who has had much forgiven will love much. How does an escaped slave talk about liberty? So with preachers. The memory of their past lives will determine their preaching. Do not bind down all men to the same style.
2. Is our christian energy equal to the energy with which we entered upon the service of the world? How often were you weary of indulgence? How much did you spend upon horse-racing, amusement, fine living.
vicious pleasure? When were you kept back from gay engagements by wet, damp,, or foggy nigMs? When did you complain that you could never go to the theatre without paying, or tell the devil that his service was costly? In the light of such mquiries let us examine our christian temjper and service.
This change in the heart and life of Paul
suggests —
III. The possible geeatness of the change which
AWAITS EVEN THOSE WHO AEE NOW IN ChRIST.
The moral distance between Saul and Paul is immense, but what of the spiritual distance between Paul the ivarrioTj and Paul the crowned saint? It is the distance between earth and heaven. Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be.^^ ^’^Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.^^ “As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.^’’ Great as was the change which took place in Paul, he did not stand still, saying, “It is enough.^^ On the contrary, he said,” Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended,^^ etc. (Phil. iii. 13, 14.)