Let us turn this morning to the book of Acts. We will begin with a few verses there before moving on.
Acts 9, dealing with Paul’s conversion.
Acts 9:1-5:
Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest,
and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
And it came about that as he journeyed, he was approaching Damascus; and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.
He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
And he said, “Who art Thou, Lord?”
And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But arise, enter the city, and it will be told to you what you must do.”
Then, over in Acts 26, we find Paul’s testimony before King Agrippa after he had been arrested.
At the end of Acts 26, in verse 19, Paul has again shared his testimony. He has shared with King Agrippa what happened on the road to Damascus and what he had seen. Paul testifies:
Consequently, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision.
Finally, turn to 2 Timothy 4:6-8. We know that 2 Timothy was Paul’s closing letter, written shortly before his martyrdom. As he pours out his heart, he reflects upon his life:
For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;
in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.
Lord, we are so blessed to be able to gather this day. We are thankful, Lord, that You have prepared a table before us. As our hearts draw near to that table, there is a vastness to it that we touch every time, and we see a little more of You, a little more of Thy greatness.
Lord, it is the same way as we come to Your Word. Whether we are new to Your Word or have been in it for many years, whenever we come to Your Word in a new way, there is a freshness to it. We see another aspect of Your life.
Lord, today we would come as those hungering and thirsting after You. We are thankful that You have made the provision of the Holy Spirit, and we pray that Your Spirit would have great freedom in all of our lives today.
We are not here, as we often say, to gain knowledge. We are here to have an encounter with You. We want to see the living Word. We want the life of Christ to impact our hearts and our lives.
So we offer ourselves to You this morning, that You would have great freedom and liberty in each one of us. Lord, in Your wonderful name, amen.
Last October, I was asked to share a message at Harvey Cedars on redeeming the time as seen in the life of Paul. During that time, as I looked at it, I saw three aspects that impacted Paul. The more I considered it, I saw that it was really far beyond just this limited thing of redeeming the time. There were governing lessons within Paul’s life.
What I am desiring to do, by the grace of God, is to take that one message and expand it into three. Now, sometimes I can terrify people. But by His grace, we want to look at it a little differently this time, considering three points.
As we read these verses, particularly in Acts 9, Paul had that dramatic experience. We have to ask the question, because we are familiar with Paul’s life before he was saved. Now, I am not going to get into calling him Saul and Paul. He is always Paul this morning, okay? I will get confused if I try to do that.
Before he was saved, we know he was a great persecutor of the church. He had a great zeal. He loved the Lord, but it was misfocused. Yet on that day, on the road to Damascus, Paul had an encounter, and it revolutionized his life. He was captured by the Lord. After that, he was a totally changed man.
As we look at Paul in that chapter, we see how intense he was in persecuting the Way, the followers of Jesus. As he was going on that road, all of a sudden he was knocked off his high horse. He had this encounter, looked up, and said, “Who are You, Lord?”
In an amazing way, as you look back in Acts 9, Paul received the answer that totally revolutionized his life. When he said, “Who are You?” the Lord did not merely say, “I am Jesus.” He went on and said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.”
Paul was in a moment of perplexity. He said, “Wow, You are Jesus. But I am not persecuting You. I am persecuting the ones following You.”
By the grace of God, Paul saw at that moment that when he touched the followers of Christ, he was actually touching Christ. He saw that there was something more: Christ and His followers were one.
When Paul talks about this heavenly vision in Acts 26, we have to be really clear about what it is. Paul did not encounter a teaching. Paul did not encounter a truth. When Paul speaks of a heavenly vision, he is not speaking of a what or a thing. He is speaking of a Person.
Paul saw Christ. That is what Paul saw. Sometimes we can have a tendency to make this heavenly vision so complicated. I am sorry—it is simple. He saw Christ. It revolutionizes life, and that is all we need. I could sit down now, because all we need is to have an encounter with Christ.
Paul had this encounter. He was going the opposite way. He was actually working against the Lord. But when he saw the living God and it captured his heart, it totally transformed his life.
Paul saw that it was more than just Christ alone. He saw that there was this body, these believers, these followers. What Paul saw was that there was a oneness there.
One of the tragedies and traps we fall into is that we separate Christ from the church. We can separate Christ from the heavenly vision. Christ is the church.
For reference, look at 1 Corinthians 12. Most of the verses we will read today are familiar verses. In 1 Corinthians 12:12, Paul is speaking about the body of Christ and the functioning of the church:
For even as the body is one, and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body; so also is Christ.
Normally, we might think that verse would say “the church” or “the body,” but it says “Christ,” because Christ is the church. We are in Christ, Christ is in us, and there is a oneness there.
When these get separated, then you get into cults. If you look at the church without Christ in it, you have only a cult; you have a deception. If you do not see Christ with the fullness of Him and all His body—if you do not see that we are all one in Him—then you have merely an individual wandering around in the desert.
But when Paul saw on that day, he saw one life. He saw the life of Christ, and it revolutionized him. Throughout his life, what he saw there was Christ and His body, Christ and the church.
I am hesitant even to use the word church today, because we can separate it automatically. When we say “church,” we are speaking of that fullness of Christ: Christ as the Head and His life within it. This is what Paul saw.
Throughout his life, the more Paul experienced Christ, the fuller the revelation of Christ became. There became a height to it, a depth to it, a length, and a breadth. He came to those times when he could not describe the fullness of Christ, because there was such a richness there.
This is what revolutionized Paul’s life. This was the heavenly vision that he had: not a concept, not a teaching, not a doctrine, but a Person.
In these last days, we need to come back to that Person. This is what the Lord is jealous for. He is jealous for the life of His Son to be expressed and seen among the very people He has loved, the very people He purchased, as we remembered Him at this table today.
He is calling us to return to that simplicity and purity of devotion to Him. How we have made it so complicated.
We live one life: the life of Christ. Often we talk about having a church life, a corporate life, an individual life, a work life, and a social life. In many ways there is an aspect of that which is true, but it is actually false. There is one life that we live.
Whether we are at work, at home, or at school, we are still part of the body of Christ. We are still part of the church. When we gather together, there is an expression of that life—the oneness that we have in Him—but we are always part of His body, always part of the church.
We can distinguish various aspects of our lives, but let us not fall into the trap of thinking, “I have an individual life, and then I have a corporate life. I have an individual life and a church life.” It is one life.
He has called us to that life. This is what Paul lived. Paul lived one life, and it was manifested in many different ways and expressions. We are jealous that His one life might be lived out through us.
After this event, Paul was a captured man. He was no longer living for himself, but for Him who loved him, died for him, and rose again. Paul was captured by this.
That is why Paul could sing, “Jesus, Lord, I’m captured by Thy beauty.” Paul had that encounter on the road to Damascus. He was captured by the beauty of the Lord. All through his life, he testified of who the Lord is and of the greatness of who the Lord is.
He saw that Christ’s heart was to be all in all. He saw there was this desire within the Lord that each one of us would be conformed to the image of Christ.
It is not being conformed to a way of functioning in the church. It is not being conformed to a certain this or that. It is being conformed to the image of Christ—His life expressed through each one of us in the uniqueness and diversity of the way He has created us so wonderfully.
That is one of the things I enjoy when a worship time is so full: there is a uniqueness, a breadth, and many wonderful ways in which God expresses His life through us.
We talk a lot about being in these last days, and it is essential in these last days that this reality be recovered. It must go far beyond the truth or doctrine of the church, far beyond merely talking about the church or church life. There must be a reality of His life being expressed.
It is vital to know His life and the jealousy that He has for His life to be expressed among the people of God. It is also vital to know how precious this life, expressed through the church, is to Him.
Paul saw something of how precious this life was. He saw something of the cost the Lord paid so that we could be brought into this glorious life. He saw something of how precious this corporate expression of His one life was.
Look in Ephesians 5. Paul expresses something of God’s heart here, something of how jealous the Lord is and how precious this is. In Ephesians 5:25, since I am a husband, I will leave out the first part and just start in the middle of the verse. That is my prerogative.
Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing;
but that she should be holy and blameless.
Paul saw something of what the Lord was after. He saw that it was far more than merely being about Paul. He saw that God desired for the fullness of His life to be expressed.
Paul encountered life, and it transformed Paul’s life. I am going to say it again: Paul did not encounter a teaching or a doctrine. He encountered life. He encountered a Person, and that changed his life.
If we look around at the various testimonies of what changed our lives, it was the life of Christ that touched us in a very specific way at a specific moment, and we were never the same again. He might have used a book, other people, or the Word. There are various ways He works, but what these brought us to was an encounter with Christ.
That is when we were changed, and that is when we were captured. This is what Paul was captured by, and this is what God is so jealous for. He is always simply looking for His life to be expressed through the brothers and sisters.
As you look at Revelation 2 and 3, those seven churches, what is He looking for? He is looking for the life. He is not judging them by how correctly they can discern doctrine or by how they do this or that. He is simply looking for the life of His Son expressed through those dear believers.
That is what He is looking for among us in the days in which we are living.
To encourage us in this way, I would like us to consider not so much Paul’s teaching as Paul’s life. Really, when we look at him, his life is his teaching. There is a testimony there because Paul’s teaching came out of life.
When Paul said, “I will be a fool for Christ,” it was because he had experienced being a fool for Christ. What he shared came out of his experience with the Lord. His life reflected his teaching, and his teaching reflected his life. They were synonymous; they were the same. His life validated what he shared.
There was no separation and no contrast. There was a oneness there.
Paul was a captured man. On that road to Damascus, he was captured. Paul shares a wonderful testimony of how this impacted his life in Philippians 3.
In Philippians 3:4, Paul testifies of the great encounter he had with the Lord and how it totally transformed him:
Although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more.
Those words still ring true today. Paul had far more going for him than most of us have. In many ways, Paul had the whole world before him.
But once he saw the Lord, everything he had—everything that was precious to him, everything of great value according to the world’s standards, prestige and status—totally changed.
Continuing in Philippians 3:5-8, Paul shares something of his Jewish heritage:
Circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews;
as to the Law, a Pharisee;
as to zeal, a persecutor of the church;
as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.
But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ.
Paul was captured. He once desired and sought all the things of the world—not only the secular world but the religious world. He had far more attributes and success than many of his peers.
There were three main influences in the world during Paul’s time: Greek society, the Roman Empire, and the Jewish religion. Paul had all three of them.
As to Greek culture, Paul was born in Tarsus. He was brought up with Greek education and culture. Many cultures come and go, but we can still see today the influence of Greek culture upon education and society. I am not talking about the ruins in Athens. I am talking about the influence it still has upon society today. That is the power of that culture—what we call humanism today—and the way it has continued on.
Paul was also born a Roman citizen. We know how valuable it was to be a Roman citizen; some even paid for it. But Paul was born into it. This gave him legal privileges and status in society. He was a layer above many others in that empire because he was born a Roman.
At times, we see Paul exercising the rights of a Roman citizen; at other times, he does not. But as led by the Spirit, he used those rights. He had this privilege within his grasp.
As far as his religious heritage as a Jew, Paul had one of the highest heritages possible. His family was deeply committed to Jewish practice. He was circumcised on the eighth day. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews. He was not a Hellenist; Paul was a thoroughbred.
He had kept his identity. Many had lost it by that time, but Paul knew he was of the tribe of Benjamin. His family was so committed to Jewish tradition that they named him after the most famous person from that tribe: Saul. Wow—what a heritage he had.
He studied under Gamaliel. He had the best Jewish education available. He was a Pharisee, and as to zeal, he was a persecutor. Paul had all this going for him. He was a man of his time and a man of his age.
Many historians say that if Paul had not been captured by the Lord, we would be reading about him in the history books. He was powerful in that time. But once he encountered the Lord, there was a great transformation, and he was totally changed.
Paul literally was in a position to gain the whole world. Most of us are not in that place. We might gain a little bit here and a little bit there, but those little bits become so powerful to us.
But once Paul saw Christ, once he saw the Person of Christ, all of that became as nothing to him. Paul was a great specimen of mankind, but once he encountered the Lord, he counted it all rubbish.
Paul was not merely counting the so-called bad things as rubbish. He was not saying, “I will not cuss, smoke, or chew anymore.” No. He was talking about the good things. Many of these things were not evil; this was who he was. But when he saw Christ, everything went out the window.
Sometimes in our lives, good becomes the enemy of better. We look into the world and say, “Oh, that is good. That is not harmful.” But there is something better: there is Christ. This is what captured Paul.
The question we have to ask ourselves is this: Have we had this encounter with the Lord? Have we really come to that place of having this personal encounter with Him, so that as we look upon the things we value, we have counted them all rubbish?
I love Philippians 3:8 because I believe Paul, by the Holy Spirit, puts in some extra words so there are no loopholes for us. He says, “More than that, I count all things to be loss”—not most things, not some things.
He counts all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ, having that intimate, personal relationship with the Lord. He says, “For whom I have suffered the loss of all things.”
Paul admitted that he suffered loss. He was not trying to paint a rosy picture. He said, “It cost me something. These things were of value to me, but when I saw Christ, I was willing to suffer the loss of them.”
Sometimes we think that when you see the Lord, everything just goes away. No, there is a process within us. There can be suffering because that thing meant something to you. But all of a sudden, you see something better, and you are transitioning out of that and into the Lord.
Paul says that he counts them all but rubbish in order that he may gain Christ. There is a perspective there. The things that were at the top are now at the bottom. He has cleaned house. He has had a spring cleaning. He has a whole new perspective on life.
The things we value in the world—our careers, education, prestige at work, sports, entertainment, and on and on—how are we handling them today? Have they been counted as rubbish to us? Or do we still say, “Lord, I love You, but this is still nice”?
Stella and I read through the Scriptures every year, and we had started back in Genesis. We were reading the story of Abraham and Lot, and there is a little phrase concerning Lot that really jumped out at me. It showed me my heart at times.
When Abraham and Lot were getting ready to divide the land, Abraham said, “Go ahead, Lot. You choose.” Lot looked out and said, “Oh, this looks like the garden of God. This looks like Egypt.” He saw both. He saw God, but there was a mixture there.
Lot knew enough to know, “These are the things of God,” but he also saw the things of Egypt and wanted them both. He made that choice.
Abraham chose the Lord, and the Lord gave him a rich inheritance. Lot said, “Oh, this is good. Lord, I am choosing this for You, and I will take Egypt too.”
So often we choose the Lord, but we say, “Oh, I like this in the world too, and I like that.” We try to coexist. There is no peaceful coexistence between these two kingdoms. It will destroy us.
Paul saw this, and he gave it all up. He let it all go. Have we counted it all rubbish?
When Paul had this encounter with the Lord, he was with the brethren for a while and then went out to the desert of Arabia, simply to be alone with the Lord and to have that quiet time with Him.
During that time, as he was alone and set apart with the Lord, the Spirit of God began opening all the Scriptures to him. Paul knew the whole Old Testament through his training, but all of a sudden, as he looked through Genesis, he began to see Christ. He saw God’s heart.
As he looked at the tabernacle, he saw it speaking of the fullness of what Christ desires: a house, a habitation. As he looked through the prophets, he said, “Oh, this is who Isaiah prophesied of. This is who Jeremiah prophesied of.” Everything was Christ.
He saw the living Christ throughout the Scriptures. Paul had a great transformation as he was in the Word; the Lord opened his eyes.
It was similar to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. After our Lord had been crucified and rose again, some disciples were walking on that road, and the Lord came alongside them. They did not know it was the Lord at that time.
But as they were sharing and talking with Him, He began opening their eyes to all the things in the Scriptures. Through Moses and the prophets, He showed them the things concerning Himself.
Again, He was not introducing them to a new teaching. He introduced them to Himself, and that is what transformed them.
That is what Job had: “I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth Thee.” Have we had this? Do we know Him, or do we merely know about Him?
Paul had knowledge of God and knowledge of the Lord, but he did not really know Him. Then he came to know the living God. He had this eye-opening experience and encountered the very living God.
In that place of quietness, that place of being set apart, Paul learned his first lesson. He saw the absolute necessity of having an intimate, personal relationship with the Lord.
That is what we would like to consider today: Paul saw the absolute necessity of having this intimate, personal relationship with Him.
Lord willing, over the next couple of weeks we will look at the other two lessons. Today we are considering the intimate relationship. Next week, we will consider Paul’s insatiable desire for the Lord. The third time, we will consider how Paul saw that in Christ was an infallible life.
But Paul first saw that there was an absolute need for this intimate, daily, personal relationship with the Lord. It was not merely the starting point of a relationship; it governed his life throughout his whole being and the whole time he was on earth.
He was growing closer to the Lord and knowing Him in a fuller way. Last week, when our brothers were here for the youth time, they referred to this as a secret life, a hidden life. We use many ways to describe it.
The challenge of sharing about it is that when I speak on having an intimate relationship with the Lord, everybody says, “Amen.” We all agree. But when we are honest, do we have it? Why do we not?
This is why we are looking at Paul: to see whether he can encourage us and help us have this consistent life with the Lord, so that His life would be expressed.
Throughout Paul’s life, we see how he had encounters with the Lord. In each encounter, he came to know the Lord in the greatness and goodness of Himself.
The next time we see Paul in Acts is during the church at Antioch in Acts 11. Barnabas had gone there and realized what the Lord was doing. Barnabas said, “I need some help.” In the spirit of fellowship, he remembered Paul, searched him out, and brought him there.
What did they do there? They were teaching, yes, but they were allowing the life of Christ to be expressed. The wonderful testimony of what Paul and Barnabas imparted was that the believers were first called Christians at Antioch.
Who called them Christians? It was the world. The world looked upon these ones and did not say, “Look at the little Paulinians,” or, “Look at the little Barnabasians,” however you would say it. What they saw was the life of Christ expressed. They said, “Look at all these little Christs.”
That is what the world saw: a life expressed. That is what God is after. Paul and Barnabas were imparting not merely teaching and doctrines, but the life being expressed in fullness.
As you continue looking at the church at Antioch, Acts 13:2 says they were ministering to the Lord. This is the life of fellowship. This is the life of an intimate relationship: ministering to the Lord.
When the Lord spoke, they heard Him. They were in a place to hear the Lord’s voice. They were not so distracted or occupied with other things. As they ministered to Him, they were not doing so merely expecting to hear something; they loved Him and ministered to Him. Then God spoke and said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work.”
They knew Him. They knew His voice. It is critical in these last days that we know His voice, know His ways, and know what He is after.
If we do not know His voice and His ways, we will miss Him. We can be led astray by false prophets and false teachers, or we can miss Him because He moves in a way that does not fit our concept of how God works.
Jesus knew this. At the end of the Gospels, He was encouraging them in many ways to stay on the alert, to know Him, know His voice, and know His ways and heart.
Through the difficulties and trials of Paul’s life, he was able to continue faithful to the Lord because he knew Him. The Lord tells us that many will come in His name. There will be many counterfeits: “Christ is here. Christ is there.” In the midst of all the voices and confusion, are we going to know His voice?
There is a dear sister we have known for many years from the Bay Area in California. This happened years ago, but it remains fresh to my heart. She was taking us around San Francisco one day and said, “Do you hear that bird?”
We said, “The bird? No.” It turned out that at university she had studied birds. I mean, who studies birds? But some people study all sorts of things. Some people even study accounting or whatever. She studied birds.
She said, “Do you hear that bird?” We said, “No, we just hear music, noise, cars, horns, and buses.” She said, “Now stop and listen. Listen over this way.”
We strained our ears, and she said, “Do you hear it?” She told us to focus a little more. All of a sudden, we began hearing this voice.
Her ears were trained to hear the voice of birds. Wherever she went, she could hear the birds. That brought a spiritual lesson to my heart: Do I hear God’s voice, or do I become so caught up by all the noise of the world, even the counterfeit teachings that say, “This is Christ, this is Christ”?
Do I really know His voice? Can I hear His voice? She trained herself because she had a love for birds.
The Lord is calling us to respond to His love, so that the ears of our hearts would be open and trained. In the midst of the chaos, disaster, and everything of these days in which we are living, we would know that voice and be able to follow it.
If we do not know Him, and God moves in a way we are not expecting, we might miss Him. Last year, when I shared on the book of Habakkuk, we saw that the Lord told Habakkuk, “I am going to do something that you are not going to believe.” God worked in a very strange way. It appeared that He was using the enemy, but God was using that.
If we do not know God’s voice and are unable to respond, we can have such fixed concepts of how He will act that we miss Him.
Remember Peter at the house of Simon in Acts 10. He was on the rooftop, and Peter was a very righteous Jew. He had this vision of a sheet coming down, and everything in it was unclean.
The Lord lowered the sheet, and Peter said, “Oh Lord, I am so righteous. I am so holy. I have never eaten any of this.” He went through that three times.
But the wonderful thing about that story is that when there was a knock on the door, Peter responded. He went to the Gentiles. Peter learned the lesson. He had a concept of how God worked, and God shattered it.
The Lord used Peter to open the door to the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius. Praise God, Peter was teachable and correctable at that moment.
One of the things so misrepresented today is the Holy Spirit. There are so many thoughts, theories, opinions, and everything concerning the Holy Spirit. Our definitions can end up narrowing and limiting the Spirit.
I always think of Elijah in the cave. When the Lord was speaking to him, the wind came by, then the fire, then the earthquake, and the Lord said, “I am not in any of that.” Then came the still, small voice.
There are times when the Lord is a still, small voice. But I do not think we need to take that story and apply it universally. There are times when there is a great wind, like on the day of Pentecost, and that was the Holy Spirit.
There are times when the Lord is like a mighty wind. There are times when He is like a mighty fire. There are times when He is like a mighty earthquake, and He is in the earthquake. That earthquake set Paul free from prison in Philippi. The jailer was saved, and the church there was birthed out of an earthquake.
Sometimes, depending on our preferences regarding the Holy Spirit, we say, “Oh, the Spirit is a still, small voice. You are getting too loud.” Or another group says, “Oh, the Spirit is wind and fire and earthquakes. You are too quiet over here.”
It is not an either-or question. It is inclusive. The Spirit works as He chooses. We read in John 3 about the wind moving. God directs the Spirit as He chooses. At times He is a mighty wind; at times He is a still, small voice.
The question for us is this: Are we in such a relationship with the Lord that when He moves this way or that way, we know it is the Lord? Or do we have such preconceived ideas and concepts that we limit Him and then miss Him as God moves on?
As you continue in Acts, look at Acts 13. Paul is declaring the glorious gospel, telling of the death and resurrection of our Lord. Yet many of the Jews had such a fixed concept of the Lord that they were not open and rejected the very Word of God.
Acts 13:27 says:
For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him.
They had the Word of God presented to them every week. They had the prophets speaking to them. Christ was in their midst, yet they did not see Him because they had such a religious concept: “This is the way God works.”
We can unconsciously develop those concepts and totally miss the Lord. Paul had such an intimate, personal relationship with the Lord that he knew His voice. When the Lord said, “Go here,” Paul went there. When the Lord said, “No, Paul, I do not want you to preach right now,” Paul obeyed.
That sounds strange. We might think that the Lord would want Paul to preach all the time. But there were times when the Holy Spirit told him, “Do not preach here. Do not preach there.” Paul knew the Lord in such a way that he obeyed and kept going.
Do we know the Lord in such a way? Has He captured us as He captured Paul?
We have had the Scriptures shared with us abundantly: every Lord’s Day, every conference, many retreats, over and over again. The Word of God has been profusely poured forth in our midst over the years.
But do we know the living Word of God? Do we know that Person? We can hear it every day and every conference, but it is vital in these last days that we know Him.
There will be false prophets and false signs. Yet Paul had such an intimate relationship with the Lord that he could distinguish and discern.
When another gospel came into Galatia, Paul immediately said, “That is another gospel. Why are you listening to that? You have grown dull.” When heresy came into Colossae, Paul could discern. He knew the truth and knew the reality.
When writing to the Corinthians, Paul said, “You need to grow up and be able to distinguish between the flesh and the Spirit. This is carnal; this is the Spirit.” One who knows the Lord and is growing in relationship with Him can distinguish.
Paul could distinguish false prophets and false messiahs. It is critical in these last days that we be able to distinguish, or we will be led astray.
It is tragic how, throughout history and even today, false prophets and false teachers can sound so beautiful because there is always an element of truth mixed in. People are led astray, and we ask, “How could that brother get into that?”
One thing that amazes me is how believers who are going on in the Lord can go back to the Old Testament and fall into practicing Judaism. It is like, “Come on, let’s wake up.” But we can get trapped if we seek knowledge, experience, and this or that, while moving away from an intimate, personal, daily relationship with Him.
This is what He is after. This is what He is jealous for.
In Philippians 1:9-10, Paul encourages the believers to have a discerning heart:
And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,
so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ.
This is discerning love. It is tragic how love has been so misrepresented today. We confuse love and sentimentality: “Ooh, it is so sweet.” That is another topic, so we will not go there.
Paul says that their love should abound more and more in real knowledge—experiential knowledge of Him—and in all discernment. Why? So that they may be able to approve the things that are excellent.
The New American Standard says, “Approve the things that are excellent.” Other translations say that we may distinguish between the things that differ.
There is a life of Christ within us. There is a love of Christ that is able to distinguish: “This is of the Lord. This is not.”
We do not often equate knowledge and discernment with love. We think love is blind, and that gets us into trouble at times. But Paul is saying that in these last days, there will be false prophets and false teachings, and many things coming in His name. We must be able to distinguish what is of Him and what is not of Him.
The only way we can do that is by knowing Him.
We have to ask ourselves: Are we substituting a knowledge of Him for a relationship with Him? Are we substituting merely knowing about Him for a personal relationship with Him?
We want quick answers. We want easy answers. But are we really taking time to know Him?
Today we are in such a hurry. There is such an instant nature to life. We do not have time to be quiet or still. There are so many distractions. We try to have our quiet time, and then our cell phone beeps, and we say, “Excuse me, Lord, I need to answer this text.”
We cannot even put our cell phones aside during quiet time. There are so many distractions. But the Lord wants us to come into this place of knowing Him and being quiet before Him.
As we do this, there is a life that He wants to form within us. Too often, we substitute knowledge of Him for a relationship with Him.
We hear, “I read this. Brother so-and-so says this. So-and-so says this, or so-and-so says that.” When people share, it can sound like we are getting a book report.
We are not here to get book reports. We are here to hear what Christ is and what He is speaking to us.
We are thankful for the great heritage we have. There is richness in that heritage. But what are we passing on? Has it become reality to us, or is it just secondhand food? “Oh, I read this. This might be good for you.”
Has it really entered into our hearts and become real to us? Have we chewed upon it and then passed it on in life? It is easy merely to pass on knowledge.
Daniel says that one characteristic of the last days is that knowledge will increase. We see that happening. As believers, we can substitute this great knowledge for the reality of knowing Christ.
There is a wonderful richness in the books available to us. I will make an advertisement for a few minutes: pick up any of those great books out there. They are wonderfully priced, and you should buy them. But the richness in them should stimulate us toward the object: coming to Christ in a fuller way.
The Lord encountered this same problem when He was on earth. Look at the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. There are two little phrases throughout that chapter, and they form a great contrast.
In Matthew 5:21, He says, “You have heard.” Then He speaks concerning murder. But verse 22 begins, “But I say to you.” You have heard, but I say to you.
In verse 27, “You have heard”; in verse 28, “But I say to you.” In verse 33, again, “You have heard,” but “I say to you.” In verse 38, “You have heard,” but “I say to you.” In verse 43, “You have heard,” but “I say to you.”
We have heard much, but God is saying to us: What is He speaking to us? That is what He is after in these last days.
He wants us to hear His voice, know His voice, and enter into this personal, intimate relationship with Him, so that we can make it through to the end—not be distracted, not be knocked out of the race, and not rely upon others to feed us.
Rather, the Lord wants to feed us every day, day in and day out. This is why it is so essential to draw apart unto Him.
When I speak of having this intimate, personal relationship with Him, I am speaking of far more than merely a quiet time in the morning. Yes, that is part of it, but it goes beyond that. It is a life.
That time with Him equips us for the day, so that throughout the day there is a consciousness of Him, an abiding in Him, an awareness, and an alertness to the Spirit. Whether we are at work, taking care of children, in school, or doing whatever we do, there is a consciousness of Him and a being led and strengthened in Him.
This is what the brothers shared last week as they talked about David. He was a man after God’s own heart, and he had this hidden, secret fellowship.
The Psalms give us a glimpse into David’s personal, intimate relationship with the Lord. The Psalms are simply a testimony of David’s relationship with the Lord and of how he knew Him.
David said, “The Lord is my shepherd.” There was intimacy and reality there—not merely a concept or a theory. He went on: “The Lord is my rock. The Lord is my strength. The Lord is my shield.”
Then he said, “One thing have I desired.” He wanted to know Him more and more. This is what the Lord is after and jealous for in us in this day and time.
As we are beginning a new year, perhaps we can make a resolution—in a right way. I hate saying that; you can stone me afterward. Herb is already throwing the stones.
But may there be a desire in our hearts to come back to this intimate relationship.
Is this too simple for us? Do we want something more? That is the challenge of sharing this, because we all agree that we should have this daily, intimate relationship, but we do not always have it. Somehow, we come up short.
How was Paul able to maintain this? One thing I see in Paul’s life is that he was undistracted. He really did, literally, count all things as loss.
Sometimes we say, “Well, I have a free hour here. I can do this.” I think when Paul had a moment of freedom, he made a choice: “Oh, I have a free hour. I can get to know Jesus that much more.”
Paul had many desires. If you look at his heritage, he was an ambitious man and was interested in many things. He had been exposed to many things. He was not some naive, sheltered person. He had the whole world open before him, and he said, “I do not want any of it.”
Tragically, today many of us say, “Well, I do not want most of it. I still want my Yankees. They have to win the World Series.” But I have to come to the place of counting the Yankees as rubbish too.
The Lord is calling us, and it is really a heart cry of love to prepare us in these last days.
Paul was undistracted, and he was truly captured. To use the Lord Jesus’ words, Paul could have said, “I can do nothing apart from My Father.”
I do not think Paul had any confidence in himself. He said, “I can do nothing.”
When Paul writes in Romans 12 about being a daily living sacrifice, that was not merely a teaching. It was his experience of life. Every day he offered himself as a freewill offering to the Lord: “Lord, today I am offering myself to You, to be conformed to Your image.”
When Paul writes in Corinthians about dying daily, again, that is not merely a neat little phrase or theory. Paul literally died daily to his own selfish wants, his own desires, and even to the good things in life.
He put them aside. He died and allowed the cross to work in him, so that there was one thing he desired.
We will see this later in Philippians, and Lord willing we will touch upon it next week. But there was one thing that Paul was jealous for: he was pressing on to know Christ in a fuller and greater way.
Out of being captured, out of this intimate relationship, there was created within Paul an insatiable desire for Christ. That is what we will look at next week.
But I really want us, in the daily time that we have, to be jealous to know Him in a fuller and greater way, and to come into this intimate relationship with Him. He has called us to this.
We see that this table is a very intimate time. We share it with many, and we see what He is calling us to: not merely to know about Him, but to really know Him.
This is what prepares us to finish the race, continue on, and hasten His return.
Lord, we are thankful that as we look through the Scriptures, we see these ones who were captured by You.
We see David saying, “One thing.” We see Mary sitting at Your feet, and You saying, “One thing is necessary.” We see Paul after one thing. But this thing is not a thing; it is a Person.
Paul was captured by You. He had a personal encounter with You, and I believe that throughout his life he continued to have those personal encounters with You.
Lord, we really do pray that You would search our hearts. Where there are things in us that are not of You, where there are things we are counting as valuable, Lord, show us more of Yourself.
In Your light, in the perspective of who You are and what You are calling us to, may we come to that place of counting all things as rubbish for the excellency of knowing You.
Prepare us to be the testimony You are calling us to be in these last days. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.