The Family Altar Audio Devotional - Day 175

And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. (Acts 9:1-5) 72 That road to Damascus changed Paul. Going down, about eleven o’clock, perhaps, in a day, that he was stricken down. And he heard a Voice, saying, “Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” And he looked up. And looking up, being a Jew, and knowed that Pillar of Fire was the Lord that led the children of Israel, because he knew that’s what It was. 73 Remember, this Hebrew would have never called anything “Lord,” capital L-o-r-d, Elohim, unless he had been satisfied that that’s what It was, because he was trained scholar. And when he looked up, and he seen This, a Light, a Pillar of Fire that had led his people through the wilderness, and he said, “Lord,” Elohim, capital L-o-r-… “Lord, Who are You?” 74 And what a surprise it must have been to this theologian, to say, “I’m Jesus,” the very One that he was so against. What a—what a turnaround! Oh! Oh! It must have been something terrific for this man, that all of his ambitions that he had, to find out, all at once, he had been persecuting. His ambitions had drove him to—to farther away from the main thing that he meant to do. And what a—a great shock it must have been, for this apostle, when He said, “I am Jesus,” the very One that he was persecuting. “Why persecutest thou Me?” 75 Another little quotation we might drop in here. You see, as they make fun of the Church, they’re not really making fun of the Church, they are making fun of Jesus. “Why persecutest thou Me?” How could Paul then, with all his intellect, believe that This was…that this Group that he was persecuting was the very God that he claimed to be serving? I think that’s, without going into details, I think we’re all well trained enough to know what I mean here. The same thing is happening today. 76 Paul, through ignorance, was yet intelligent and smart, much smarter than those uneducated Galileans that he was persecuting, that had already in their humility accepted this Man as Lord. But, Paul, in his great teaching and his intellectuals, could not accept That. And what a turnaround it must be to him, on this road. And he was stricken blind, so he would not carry out his commission, but was led down to a place in a street called Straight, and the house of one. 77 And then come the prophet down there, by the name of Ananias, who saw in a vision, him coming down, saw where he was at, went down to where he was, and went in. And said, “Brother Saul, the Lord appeared to you on the road down; sent me, that I might lay my hands upon you, and you receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost.” 78 See where he was. What a—what a thing it must have been for Paul! See? All that he had been trained to do was vice versa. So now, with—with all the education he had, it—it was just become naught to him. 79 Now, he knew that he had an experience. So here is another good lesson for us, that, experience alone isn’t enough. It’s got to be experience according to the Word of the Lord. So, him seeing this, and know that It was a great Something, then, that somebody else had received It before him, he took three years and six months down in the—the desert in Arabia; taking the—the Bible, as It was then, the Old Testament, and going down there, to—to compare this experience that he had had, and see if It was Scriptural.