Fritha Dinwiddie 12/19/25 Fritha Dinwiddie 12/19/25

THE COURSE OF SELECTIVE GRACE

#781/027 THE COURSE OF SELECTIVE GRACE

Scripture Acts 9:1-9, 17-18, NIV Orig. 3/4/1962

Rewr. 8/25/1977

Passage: 1Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

Vv 17-18

17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized,

Purpose: To define the careful selectivity of God’s grace coursing through the lives of people who are open to Him.

Keywords: Conviction Gospel Grace Revival Saul/Paul: Biography

Introduction

Human discretion takes a strange course sometimes. Our minds, even redeemed minds, can play tricks on us. We can conceive of something in a totally different light than it actually is.

I remember a story told by Paul Harvey on one of his programs some years ago. It seems that this man was awakened in the dark hours of the night when something hairy crawled onto his skin. I suspect many of us have been through that experience and we probably remember causing quite a commotion. This man will never forget the night he made the Paul Harvey program. He jumped out of bed with a start, half yelled, and half shoved his wife off the bed on the other side, and then went to work. He grabbed up the bed covers with the thing inside, and headed for the front door. On the way he spied his son’s baseball bat and grabbed it up. Reaching the front lawn he threw the bed covers to the ground and began flailing away at the thing.

After several minutes of this commotion, with neighbors attracted by it, he ceased his death dealing blows. Satisfied that his mission had been accomplished, he carefully turned back the covers until he found “it.” As it turned out, “it” was one badly mangled hair curler. He went back to bed, having given his family and friends the best laugh they had had in some time.

Human discretion often takes strange courses. God’s discretion takes carefully plotted courses. His purpose is to see His grace establish itself in our lives with transforming effect. The simple illustration from our text is taken out of the life of a man called Saul of Tarsus. The effect of grace on his life was that he became the apostle Paul.

I. Grace Brings Conviction. Acts 9:1, And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord. You will note first of all that the initial activity is God’s activity. How often this is confirmed in the scripture. Acts 9:15, He is a chosen vessel to me. John 15:16, Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain. Matthew 25:34, Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

But Paul’s initial reaction was to get busy with things with which he was secure. You see, Paul found in life, much as we do, that it is easier to be religious than it is to be godly. No matter how busy he may get, sooner or later he is going to have to deal with the hard issues of repentance, and faith.

Illustration: Saul is following in the footsteps of Moses and many others in learning the course of selective grace. After Israel’s sin with the calf, God isolated Moses. God’s men go through those experiences of isolation. When He spoke to Moses He said (Exodus 33:19), “I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” What Moses had to learn of the “goodness” of God, and his surrender to that “goodness,” Saul would also have to learn. That’s where repentance and faith storm the gates of our souls.

It is often in that area of our lives that we know best that God chooses to manifest His grace. See Moses with a “shepherd’s staff” in his hand, and watch as that staff becomes an instrument. See David with a crown on his head, and watch as that crown crumbles to insignificance before the Lord of glory. See Isaiah with contempt for the nations, until Uzziah, and behold Isaiah seeing “the Lord” and saying “here am I, send me.”

II. Grace Brings Compulsion. V6, And he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, What will thou have me to do? It is God’s compulsion to a full and happy life for the one chosen. There are two warnings to consider: a) not to grow prideful in the fact of our choice; b) not to become arrogant at the thought that some are not chosen. It is God’s will in both. Illustration: “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious; I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” It is one thing to believe that this is what God wants and intends for His children. Philippians 4:19, My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Jesus Christ.

Illustration: I heard (see also #195) the story of an old farmer who only had a mule and an ox, and for ground-breaking often had to plow them together. The ox decided he was working too hard and determined to play sick. The mule would not agree and had to plow alone. The farmer brought hay, feed, and water to the sick ox. “What did Farmer Brown say?” “Nothing.” Second day. “How’d it go?” “Not too good. We’re worn out.” Third day. “What happened today? Did the old man say anything about me?” “I didn’t hear him say anything, but he did stop and have a long talk with Butcher Jones.”

Illustration: In the gospel account, Jesus went to the fig tree and found it barren. He then placed a curse on it. You remember, however, that this was not an expression of anger on the part of Jesus, but contempt. It was contempt for what had ceased to perform its natural purpose. The same kind of contempt was placed upon Adam in the form of the curse. He would now work for what he could have owned by faith before.

It is in this compulsion for a full and happy life that we are set apart to serve. Illustration: Saul, without this setting apart, was a dedicated religious fanatic. Nothing more. Aside from this, however, this setting apart likewise is God’s means of making His grace operable in the world. Through this, others are selected as recipients of this grace. Illustration: The same salt that seasons our food, and freezes our ice cream, preserves flesh from decay. And the “salt of the earth” is meant to preserve a society dying in sin. Christ came into our tightly organized, dying culture to save us, to preserve us from the wrong choices, from the decay of carnality.

III. Selective Grace Brings Constraint. Vs. 17-18, And Ananias went his way . . . and putting his hands on him . . . immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received his sight forthwith. . . . It is important that we understand the major factors called truth. Saul had spent the first thirty years of his life in the courtyard of truth. He knew the all-encompassing issues of the life-giving Jehovah God. He knew also, from personal experience, the death-dealing temptations of sin.

But Saul, as a religious Jew, was lost. Philippians 3:5f, . . . of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

There is a major factor called truth that permeates this sensual century. That truth still proclaims Jesus, Lord. Truth as a philosophical discussion is without redeeming value. One and one is two. Hydrogen and oxygen in proper mixture do form water. Jimmy Carter is President of the United States. Evangelical churches have stood through the long years on the principle of the authority of the scripture.

But the constraint of the gospel message is to the individual to share and to receive. Ananias was under constraint to share: He was the Lord’s vessel. Saul was under constraint to receive the message: To believe. To repent. To become what only he could become—Paul, prince of the apostles of the first century congregation of believers.