Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 944
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, August 7, 1870
“Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he has done to Your saints at Jerusalem: and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on Your name. But the Lord said unto him, Go your way: for he is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: for I will show him how great things he must suffer for My name’s sake.” Acts 9:13-16.
THE conversion of Saul of Tarsus was one of the most remarkable facts in Christian history. Perhaps there has never happened an event of equal importance since the days of Pentecost. It was important as a testimony to the power and Truth of the Gospel. When such a man, so violently opposed, so intelligent and well-instructed, could be converted to the faith of the Nazarene by the appearance of the Lord from Heaven, it was a testimony alike to the fact of our Lord’s Resurrection, and to the power of His Word.
Paul also occupied a high place among the defenders of the faith when the Gospel had to struggle for a footing against Judaism and philosophy. Being well-versed in the Scriptures of the Old Testament and in the traditions of the Jews, and possessing great argumentative powers, he became a leading apologist for the faith. In the synagogues and the schools he overthrew those who opposed the doctrines of Jesus. In addition to this, the conversion of the Apostle Paul gave a great impetus to the missionary spirit of the Christian Church. Here he shone preeminently.
Into what lands did he not carry the Gospel? Ordained to be the Apostle of the uncircumcision, he proclaimed in the utmost ends of the earth the name of Jesus Christ. The Apostle, moreover, as a writer takes the highest place in the Christian canon. It pleased God to select this most remarkable man to be the medium of Inspiration by whose writings we should receive the most thorough and complete exhibition of the Gospel of the Grace of God. Turn to the New Testament and see with astonishment how large a space is occupied by the letters of one first called Saul of Tarsus, but afterwards Paul, the servant of Jesus Christ.
It is a matter of fact that Paul not only directed the energy of the Christian Church of his own day, but he shaped its mode of action. In addition he so toned the thought of the Christian world that to this moment I suppose he exercises, under God, a greater influence over the theology of Christendom than any other man. We claim him as the great Apostle of the Doctrines of Grace. Heading a line of teachers, among whom Augustine and Calvin stand conspicuous, he remains unrivalled as “a wise master-builder.” Even the things hard to be understood which he was not afraid to grapple with have continued to have their effect upon Christian theology.
The Pauline mark will never be erased from the page of Church history. That, however, is not my business this morning. I would rather remind you that the conversion of the Apostle Paul was, in itself, instructive. It was not only operative upon the Church, but as a narrative it is instructive to us. We are not to look upon it as a strange phenomenon to be only gazed upon, and wondered at—it is a lesson book for all time. It contains a world of teaching within it, and principally teaching upon this point—the fact of the Divine interposition in the Church of God.
God has been pleased by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. This is the era of instrumentality— Christ bids His disciples go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. And it is by the communication of one earnest heart to another that men are usually converted. Such, however, was not the way by which Paul was converted. He was called into the Church by an interposition of the living Christ out of Heaven, speaking directly to his soul. And we doubt not that the same Jesus has still His own ways of reaching human hearts when human instrumentality is not available.
Paul’s conversion is a type, or as our version reads it, a pattern, and it is natural to believe that the pattern has been copied. I shall look upon his conversion as being typical of some others that have occurred, and that will occur till the last hour of the Christian dispensation. Certain men will be brought to God not by manifest instrumentality, but more secret means. The Church has reason to believe that while she industriously uses all the power committed to her, there will be interpositions of a power far higher than her own which will work for her great successes and bring to her great additions of strength.
While Barak fights below, the stars in Heaven shall also fight against Sisera. That is the point I want to speak upon, this morning, for the glory of God, and the encouragement of any desponding spirits among us.