Welcome to the InTouch podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, November 20th. The world is full of people who are openly hostile to the gospel, but no one is ever beyond the grace of God. Here’s a reminder about the reach of God’s love to those who resist the gospel. Have you ever met someone, been around them a little while, and thought to yourself, I don’t think they’ll ever get saved.
I just don’t know how in the world God will ever get through to someone who has that kind of attitude. They seem to be so bitter about God, so hostile about the church, so unbelieving about the Bible, so blasphemous about Jesus Christ. I don’t know that they’ll ever be saved. Well, probably all of us have met people that we wondered, Lord, how could you ever reach someone like that? But one thing that’s very evident from the scriptures, there’s not anybody so bad, so evil, so wicked, so vile that it’s hard for God to save them. They may
run, they may defy him, they may fight against him, they may be angry toward him, they may be even hostile toward his people. Nobody is beyond the reach of a loving father. And it’s interesting in the scriptures when you read the gospels that most of the people that Jesus brought to himself were those people who came to him.
Now there was of course Zakius who was up a tree. When he saw him there he said Zakius come down. I’m going home with you today. Blind Barameus was sitting by the highway side but he called out to Jesus and asked him to heal him. And then of course the rich young ruler came to him and fell down and said tell me how to inherit eternal life.
A woman touched them on the hem of his garment and he realized that uh power had gone out of him and so she was healed. And then the woman at the well, it appeared to be a chance meeting. Of course, it was not. But most of those people are people who came to Jesus. But what about those people who just defy God? I mean, they absolutely deliberately, willfully resist any opportunities about salvation.
Don’t want to talk about the Bible. Don’t want you to talk about about it to them. In fact, they are just absolutely downright hostile about it. Well, what about God’s reach toward that person? Does it extend toward those who are so angry at God, hostile toward him in his church? Yes, it does.
So, I want you to turn, if you will, to Acts chapter nine. Because here is a perfect example of how God works in the life of a person who indeed hates the Lord Jesus Christ and will do anything in his power to rid his name and everything he stands for from the face of this earth. I want us to read these first nine verses, though what we’re going to talk about takes care of almost 31 verses in this passage.
And this is the account of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, whom we know as Paul the Apostle. So the scripture begins, “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 synagogue at Damascus, so that he may, 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, and 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 rise and enter the city, and it shall be told you what you must do.
And the men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one. And Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing. and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight and neither ate nor drank. Now, what I want you to see for just a moment is what happened to this man who was such an antagonist of the church.
Because once in a while, we’ll meet somebody. We’ll say, “Well, Lord, you know, I know the grace of God’s great, but but” and we’ll say, “Yes, I know that God can save anybody, but Lord, I’m not too sure about soand so.” Well, here’s someone who is a perfect example of one whom God loved in spite of everything he did and everything that he was.
And I want you to see how God begins to work in his life. Because the way God begins to work in his life is the way he works in every person’s life who’s saved. And that is there begins a deep conviction. Conviction, listen, conviction is a feeling. It is a feeling of a sense of need. It is a feeling of a sense of need that a person needs something they cannot do for themselves.
