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THE KING’S BUSINESS
mind about God; about sin and especially about Christ; to change from a mind that loves sin to a mind that hates sin, from a mind that spurns God to a mind that yields joyfully to God, from a mind that rejects Christ to a mind that accepts Him as Saviour and as Lord. To turn to God is to turn our faces which are away from God in fear and dislike and' disobedience, unto God in trust and love and obedience. The “works worthy of repentance” are the works which He 'commends in His word. (See e. g. Luke 3:8, 11-14; 19:8, 9; Eph. 4:17-32). The turning to ,God is the inevitable outcome of repentance, and “works worthy of repentance” are the fruit and proof of the genuineness of the repent ance and our turning to God. Monday, May 7 . Acts 26 : 21 - 23 . “For this cause the Jews seized me in the temple, and assayed to kill me” : That was a strange cause for which to kill a man, but the heart of the Jew was “deceit ful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17-9), and the heart of the Gentile today, indeed of every one out of Christ, is just like it (Rom. 8:7). The man who preaches the plain unvarnished truth of God is bound to catch it in this God-hating and truth-hating world. (John 15:19, 20; 2 Tim. 3:12). But we can stand it if Paul did and Jesus did. Yes, we can not only stand it, we can rejoice in it too. (Matt. 5:11, 12; Acts 5:41). It is a'great Utterance that Paul gives in v. 22, “Having obtained the help that is from God, I stand.” . Angry, blood seeking Jews against him, a loving, sustaining God for him; that was Paul’s position, so he stood, and so can we. All that we need is the "help which is from. God" and that is at our dis posal. Hallelujah! (See also v. 17; Ch. 14:19, 20; 16:25, 26; 18:9, 10; Ps. 18:47; 27.T-3; Ps. 124:1-3, 8 ; '2 Cor. 1:8-10; 2 Tim. 4:17, 18; John 10:28, 29; Heb. 3:16). Paul was now standing before a governor, a princess, and a king, but he never forgot the little ones of earth and he tells them that his testimony was to “small’ as well as
Paul hearkened and obeyed. If Paul had been “disobedient unto the heavenly vision” he would never have been heard of again. The heavenly vision, the call of Jesus Christ, comes sooner or later, to every man. To hearken means blessing and joy and victory; to refuse to hearken, means wretchedness and ruin. (cf. Isa. 50:5). How Paul obeyed appears in Gal. 1 :15, 16. Jonah when the heavenly vision appeared to him, ran away (Jon., ch. 13), and what misery he entailed upon himself. Even Hoses faltered virhen, the heavenly vision came to him and got only half of what God intended for him (Ex. 4:13-16). Heavenly visions are not to be trifled with, but promptly, unquestioningly a n d exactly obey. Paul began his testimony right where he was. The apostles were to begin in Jerusalem (Luke 14:37); for that is where they were when the commission came to them; but Paul was in Damascus when the commission came to him, so he began right in Damascus. Paul was to become a foreign missionary, but he proved himself first on the spot where he was converted. It would be well if all for eign missionaries proved themselves at home before they ventured abroad. Do you wish to preach the Gospel to the regions beyond? Well, begin where you are, begin In your own home, then go to your neigh borhood. The substance of Paul’s message to Jew and Gentile was “Repent and turn to God and do works worthy of repent ance” (cf. Ch. 20:21). This was also the substance of Peter’s message. (Ch. 2:38; 3:19; 11:18). It was also the substance of the preaching of the Old Testament pro phets. (Isa. 55:7, Jer. 3:1, 12, 14, 22; Ez. 18:21-23, 30; 33:11). It was also the sub stance of the preaching of John the Bap tist (Matt. 3:1-28) and of Jesus Himself (Matt. 4:17). Many truths were preached, but they all led up to this, “Repent and turn to God.”' Especially did the Apostles preach the resurrection of Christ as the great reason for repentance (Act 2 :24-38; 3:15-19; 17:30,31). To repent is to radi cally change one’s mind; to change one’s
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