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Paul's Revelation

By Herb Roush

Transcribed as I heard it from an MP3 file from Jesus Loves Me Library, by Sheila Savage- April 30, 2008.

This is the 87^th message in a series on the personal word of the Lord Jesus Christ and our subject tonight is Paul's Revelation and our text is in the 26^th chapter of the Book of Acts beginning Chapter 26, Verse 13.

Paul's Gospel that he preached which he refers to over and over as his gospel once he calls it the gospel which was committed unto me and he speaks of it as though it were distinctive and it was personally his gospel.  Now we know Paul preached the gospel of Grace .  He was the man Christ chose called on Damascus Road and saved and enlightened in the deserts of Arabia and along the way of his earthly pilgrimage in a new gospel which had never before been preached.  Up until the time of Paul, the gospel of the Kingdom had been preached.  John the Baptist preached it, the twelve preached it, Jesus preached it, the seventy preached it, Peter preached it on the day of Pentecost .  Stephen preached it when he stood before the Sanhedrin.  It had to do with an earthly Kingdom.  It had to do with a fulfillment of promises made to a nation.  It had to do with the establishing of a King upon his throne.  It had to do with the covenants which had been made with Abraham confirmed to Moses and then to the house of David, but Paul came preaching a new gospel.  This gospel was not directed to the Jew.  It was directed to all men everywhere.  Paul's gospel declared there was no difference.  Jew and Gentile were both sinners in the sight of God and since all had sinned and come short of the glory of God, God had found a way in the cross for the remission of Sins to all men whether they be Jew or Gentile by faith in the gospel Paul preached.  Now in Galatians' as we have explained, Paul's gospel was revealed to him .  He states it was revealed to him by the Lord Jesus Christ .  The word revealed as you will remember means "To Take The Lid Off, Or To Uncover" and Christ Uncovered, or Took The Lid Off The Gospel of Grace and Showed to Paul the real meaning of the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. I think this future Revelation of the gospel was hinted in Paul's Commission on Damascus Road.  Here  in the passage we have read as he gives his version  of what Christ said to him on Damascus Road  he says that the Lord appeared to him explaining his appearance by these words: "I have appeared unto thee for this purpose (Verse 16) to make thee a Minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen and of those things unto which I will  appear unto thee.  Now what had he seen?  He had seen that Jesus was alive.  He had seen that Jesus was the Christ.  He had seen that the Jesus he had persecuted was alive.  He had seen  that it was Jesus in Stephen that he had persecuted.  He had seen that it was Jesus against whom he had kicked.  He saw in a moment on Damascus Road that he like the

Nations  of which he was a member, had crucified God's Son, The Lord of Lords.  He saw that the Nation had made a horrible mistake, and committed a terrible sin.  They had crucified the Son of God.  I think he saw what the Nation will see one day when Jesus comes.  He saw him whom they had pierced.  He mourned for Him.  He saw the wounds in Jesus hands and realized they had nailed the Savior to Calvary's Cross.  Jesus appeared to him that he might be a witness of these things that he had seen, and he immediately began to witness to those things in the Synagogues in Damascus.  For it states in Acts 9  that straitway in the Synagogues he preached that He, Jesus, was the Christ.  He preached the Christ, the Son of God so the first preaching Paul did was of those things which he had seen .  He preached what he knew….that Jesus was the Messiah.  Jesus was the Christ…..But later his message changed and he preached Christ Crucified.  How that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures…How that he was buried and raised again the third day according to the scriptures.  His message changes gradually from once a strictly Jewish application that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, the Old Testament Messiah.  Later his gospel is Christ was crucified to bear away the sins of the world.  God had imputed to Him the sins and iniquities of all mankind and all sinners had a way to be saved by faith in Him. 

Now our subject tonight is Paul's Revelation.  And it's a thrilling story.  I used to, before I was saved, fill up my mind with stuff like Science Fiction and I always liked to read those little paperback books about somebody who dropped into the time machine and disappeared….come out in Alley Oop's Day and all of his adventures and so forth, but if I was thinking about this story  today and studying it, my its one of the most thrilling stories in the Bible.  It's a Ghost Story.  If you happen to like Ghost Stories, and yet it's not altogether the story of something that happened to another man as you will hear at the end of this message tonight.  The Revelation of the Gospel which was given to Paul is something that we all of us share in to a measure as you will all come to understand tonight.  I'd like for you to turn with me to your Bible to Corinthians at the Twelfth  Chapter.  Chapter 12 of Second Corinthians.

I want to first read a little of this thrilling story to you and then tell you all about it.  Verse 1, Paul is speaking here of himself although he uses the third person.  He uses the third person in this story because he will not glory in himself.  He tells it as though he were talking about another although he plainly states in this experience that it happened to him. 

Second Corinthians Chapter 12

I'd like to tell you about this story first of all to raise the question.  When did Paul have this experience? He gives the time as fourteen years ago or above fourteen years ago.  If you will trace this back in your New Testament you will find that this places Paul back in the City of Lystra.  When Paul came to the city of Lystra he came to preach and he and Barnabas were received as Gods from outer space.  To one they gave the name of Jupiter.  And they received them as gods throwing garlands in their space and welcoming them to the city.  But soon when Paul begins to speak of Christ, when he begins to proclaim the gospel things changed.  And when he openly declared the gospel he preached, men rose up against him the Jews of that city despising him stoned him and drug him outside the city gates and left him for dead.  If you will turn back to the Acts, the fourteenth chapter you will read two strange things that happened to him there.  Verse 19 tells what happened to him. 

First of all the disciples and the Jews believed Paul to be dead.  The Jews stoned him according to their law which was death to the blasphemer by stoning.  When he gave faithful witness to the gospel they apparently decided he was a blasphemer and stoned him under the law.  Now Stephen was stoned to death as you will recall by the Jews of Jerusalem.  And when they stoned a man to death they made sure that he was dead.  Have you ever stoned to death a serpent, a snake??  Well, I have …You have too I expect and you never quit throwing stones until you make sure they are dead  and when he quit moving you were satisfied and like the serpent they stoned Paul and I am satisfied they were sure that he was dead before they ever took him outside the city.  They drug him outside the city like they would any common garbage,  like any common trash meant to throw him on the dung pile or the garbage heap and left him there supposing that he was dead.  The disciples obviously thought he was dead.  Those are disciples that he made there in that city for Christ, they obviously thought he was dead too for they followed him outside the city and there stood round his body.  But a miracle takes place and don't discount this miracle.  Paul was not merely stoned and dazed.  He was not stunned.  He was not unconscious.  Paul was dead and he was carried outside the city and left there because he was dead.  The disciples stood round about him wondering what to do but while they were looking (strange language for it is the phrase in the original for "Resurrection")  Paul stood up , and when he rose up he came into the city and the next day he and Barnabas went down the road together.  I fully believe that Paul was dead for all intents and purposes.  I fully believe he was dead because I think this was the incident he refers to in second Corinthians 12.  Something happened to him at one time in his life about fourteen years previous to the writing of this letter whereby he left this world and went to heaven.  He went to the Third Heaven to the very Paradise where God Himself is and there he heard unspeakable words that it is not lawful for a man to utter.  He himself was never quite sure whether he went there in his body and heard those things or whether his body still lay there on the dung pile and he himself went there by the Spirit to the Third Heaven but this much is sure.  Paul  is satisfied that he was there.  Isn't that what he said?  That he was "caught up" into the Third Heaven into Paradise and there he heard unspeakable things not lawful for a man to utter.  Wonderful experience isn't it!!  He died but he was resurrected again…Caught Up and this will perhaps ring a bell "In a Moment, in the Twinkling of an eye" into the presence of the Lord.  Now there is a couple of little extra things I'll throw in.  My subject is The Revelation of Paul.  There's a couple of little gems I can't afford to miss.  First of all it may be that we have here a little picture  of what happens to the Believer at death.  Why its nothing but a repetition of Stephen's death.  Doesn't that sound strange to our ears.  This man that gave his consent to the death of Stephen now experiences in just a few short years the very thing that Stephen was exposed to.  Stephen  was stoned to death by the Jews.  He was left for dead which he definitely was but he died seeing Jesus at the right hand of the Father and praying that Jesus would receive his spirit and having so said, he falls asleep in Jesus.  What does it mean to fall asleep in Jesus.  I think it means what Paul says, to be "caught up" into Heaven into Paradise into the very presence of God.

The fear of death is the biggest lie Satan ever worked in the hearts of man.  If we know the Lord Jesus Christ there is nothing in death to fear.  Death has lost its sting, the Grave has lost its Victory.  When we are absent from our bodies we're at present with the Lord.  When we leave this bodies, in a moment in the twinkling of an eye we are at home with Jesus.  Jesus is in the Third Heaven.  Jesus is in Paradise.  Jesus is at the right hand of God tonight and the very second we depart from this body that very second we are "caught up" and caught up to the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself to hear unspeakable things that it is unlawful for a man to utter.

And I know you'll understand that in view of what the scriptures teach concerning the Believer's death, how wonderfully we should look forward to that time when we are called forth to the Presence of the Lord.  What a Joy to close our eyes upon earth and to open them in the Third Heaven.  What a Joy to close with the faces of our friends and loved ones in our earthly vision –to open our eyes to look upon the faces of the Saints.  What a privilege, what a joy, what a blessing…and I've said this so many times in my preaching in years past.  I say it again.  When we die or when we fall asleep in the Lord we will discover in that moment that it is life's crowning experience of fellowship and joy.  It is the acme of all our Christian experiences.  It is the highest possible experience given to man this side of heaven is to pass from death into life, to pass from earth into heaven, to pass from time into eternity, from the presence of friends into the presence of Christ.  I firmly believe you will be persuaded in your own mind that I am fully convinced that Paul died at Lystra.  I believe that those Jews did a thorough job…that they would never have quit with their job unfinished.  I am satisfied that they stoned him to death.  I am satisfied that the disciples in Lystra believed him to be dead.  I am satisfied they were standing there in dismay wondering what to do with the battered bleeding body of the Apostle.  When suddenly—he rose up.  How would you like to have been there.  I dare you Brothers.  I bet you could have scraped their eyes off with a stick.  Standing there staring at poor old Paul, wringing their hands and saying "Paul's dead, he's dead, they've stoned him to death and all of a sudden someone says "He's moving" and indeed he was moving and with a little effort, he raises himself up to one knee to one arm to one leg to two legs to shake the dust which was one of his typical gestures, to shake the dust off his garment –look around and say "Barnabas, we better hit the road, we've got a lot of preaching to do yet." (Laughter)

And what I like about this arrogant little man is that he wasn't just satisfied with escaping death.  He has to go back down to the City and show himself.  I just wonder if  he didn't walk up and down the streets of Lystra saying "What About Them Grapes"?  (Laughter)

Well they probably never heard that saying in Paul's day but they likely had one like it don't you imagine?

What do you think of that?  Why else did he go down to Lystra?  He didn't preach.  Boy I tell you if they ever stone me to death in Parkersburg and God raises me from the dead I'll be tempted to go right down Market Street (laughter) wouldn't you?  I see Paul….he goes right back down into the city ---stays all night---and the next day he takes Barnabas and they depart and continue their preaching as if nothing happened.  Wonder why he didn't tell Barnabas about it.  Apparently he didn't.  It's not recorded in the book of Acts where his travels are recorded and the things that happened to him.  It's told later when he feels that he's able to at least partially tell what's happened to him.  Sometimes Believers have experiences that are unspeakable.  They can't be told.  No one would believe them.  Supposing he had stood up there in the rubble at Lystra and said "Oh Brethern, I've been to Heaven".  They might have dismissed him as a fanatic.  He had to wait until the season was right and then he broaches this most sacred subject and the sacred subject is simply this.  That when he died at Lystra he was caught up into the presence of the Lord and there Visions and Revelations of the Lord were given to him.  There unspeakable words were spoken to him and made plain to him.  Words too sacred for a man to just tell any Tom Dick and Harry that comes down the road.  Precious things, made clear to Paul.  Wonderful things revealed to him and although he does not identify them, I am sure that the precious things are unfolded in his Epistles.  Some of those precious things  are no doubt the subjects of the Ephesian Epistles.  No doubt some of those precious things find their way into the Colossians Letter and some of those Precious things were most assuredly in the Corinthian Epistles where he writes of the great revelation of the Gospel…How that Christ according to the scriptures died for our sins, was buried and was raised again the third day…and then one little extra thing for the Believer before  we go on with Paul's experience.

In his last Epistle to Timothy, he writes to him about his life, not Timothy's life but his own life and he says you recall the persecutions that I suffered in Antioch, in Iconium and at Lystra?   And then he says But God delivered me out of them all.  I went back just out of curiosity to see exactly what those persecutions at Antioch, Iconium and Lystra were and what they had in common.  And what they had in common was that they all involved stoning apparently.  In Antioch they threatened his life although the means are not divulged but in Iconium they threatened to stone him.  In both of these instances which were second and third in succession, he was led out of the city before they lay hold of him and stoned him.  In other words he was delivered out of their midst and delivered from stoning.  But the third time which the experience immediately following the experience at Antioch and Iconium, when he went to Lystra he was not delivered from the stone.  But he was delivered through it.  The Lord spoke to me again today about how some go through the fire and some go through the flood.  All through the Blood.  Some are saved from the trial.  Some are saved through it.  Some go through the fire because they need it and it is only God's way of purifying them and bringing out of their experiences some Glory and Praise to the Lord Jesus Christ, while others are delivered. Only God in His Wisdom know why some are delivered and others are saved through the trial.  But here we see as Paul the great example for the Age of Grace –Two times saved from the trial.  But not always.  We are not always saved from the trial are we?  Sometimes the fiery trial does try us.  We do go into the Lions Den  We are delivered into the Inner Prison.   We are placed into the Stocks and Bonds and Beaten and Lashed and Stoned.  Read the book of Hebrews and you will see that some quenched the violence of the sword, put enemy armies to flight, waved the dead, conquered and were victorious but others were scourged, burned at the stake, torn asunder, sawn in two, persecuted, torn by Lions, killed—their possessions and their goods taken from them….their families were destroyed.  And why were some saved from the trial and some put through the trial.  It is just simply God's Way.  He delivered Peter from prison, you will remember by an Angel who came down and opened the iron gates, loosed his chains and let him out in the middle of the night.  He loosed Paul by an Earthquake at midnight but John the Baptist died in prison and later Paul himself died in prison.  No earthquake shook down the prison walls.  No angel came at the midnight hour to save him.  There are times in our life when God delivers us just in the nick of time just at a strategic  time all for the glory and the praise and the testimony of Himself.  Othertimes He sees fit to wait until the darkest hours of our experiences and then into our trouble He comes, lifts us up,  like he did with Paul at Lystra when all human means have failed, and when the world and the flesh and the devil are sure they have had their victory then God intervenes and He raises us up and He delivers us out of our trial and through our trial for His glory and for His praise.

Now, back to Paul.  Fourteen years before he wrote his Second Corinthian Epistle, Paul apparently at Lystra left for dead and for all intents and purposes dead itself, where did he go?  In Second Corinthians Twelve he states that he went into the Third Heaven.  In the fourth verse he refers to this place as Paradise.  Now this is strange because if you had read the New Testament continuously from Matthew down to Second Corinthians you would always wonder  how Paradise got into the Third Heaven.  Lets take that statement back and say if you had read the Bible back from Genesis to Second Corinthians Twelve you would wonder how Paradise got into Heaven.  Paradise when you begin reading the Bible is on earth.  It's in the Garden of Eden.  It is the Paradise of God and it was made for Man, but after the fall we don't hear anymore about the Paradise of God.  The only thing we hear about is Hades.  Hades is the unseen Spirit World.  The Old Testament declares it is beneath the earth.  A word to describe it is a word that means Subterranean Retreat.  It's Sheol in the Hebrew.  It is Hades in the Greek.  It's the underworld to us and Paradise was beneath the earth in Old Testament times.  It was beneath the earth until the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.  When Jesus was on earth he recognized Paradise as being a part of Hades.  You remember he told the story of Lazarus  and the Rich Man, how the Rich Man went down into torment in Hades for it was in Hades that he lifted up his eyes being in Torment, but across the gulf he could see into Paradise into Abraham's Bosom where Abraham was where Lazarus had been carried by the Angels where all the Blessed, the Redeemed of God were at that time.  Paradise is beneath the earth, across the gulf from the Torment Section in Hades, and this is where it was the last time we heard about it for on the Cross Jesus promised the Thief, this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.  And then on the day of Pentecost, Peter tells that Jesus at His death went into Hades.  Thou wilt not leave His soul in Hell or Hades nor suffer thy Holy One to seek corruptions and He spoke of Christ descending into the deep at His death.  In Ephesians 4 and in Romans 10:7 we read that Christ indeed at His death went into the Pit.  He went into the lower parts of the earth.  Paradise was still in the heart of the earth at the death of Christ.  But now Paul says so many years on the other side of Calvary that when he died he was Caught Up, not descended, but caught up into the Third Heaven and there he saw Paradise.  Paradise was there.  That means Abraham was there and it means Lazarus was there and it means all the Spirits of Just Men who died by faith in the Old Testament Revelation were now there in the presence of the Lord because it was there in the Third Heaven in Paradise where the Lord Himself reveals these Unspeakable Words to Paul.  Now there's another interesting thing.  He calls it the Third Heaven and I learned something today I've never known before.  In Genesis 1:1 it says in the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth.  That word is a dual noun and it means and refers to two Heavens…that is when God created the Heavens and the Earth, He created two Heavens.  But Paul speaks of the third Heaven.  The question is:  Where did the Third Heaven come from?  How did Paradise get in it?  How is this change made.  The change was made at the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Why?  Paradise was in the heart of the earth before the Cross because men were not Justified.  Their Sins had not been Removed.  Their Sins had only been Covered from year to year by the sacrifices down through the history of the Tabernacle and the Temple.  The Lamb of God whose job it was to take away the Sins of the World in a Judicial Manner had never come.  From year to year, Israel re-signed her Promissory Note of Sin, Nothing ever paid on the Principal, the Interest Only paid from year to year and her sins only covered from One Year of Atonement To the Other, but when Jesus came all of those Sins which were done aforetime, Paul says in Romans were laid to the Account of Christ and the Sins of the entire world were charged to Him and in His death and in His burial, He cancelled, He paid for, He took away, He buried and completely removed from the presence of God the sins of the whole world.  When the Sins of the World were removed.  When God was Satisfied.  When the penalty for Sin was paid, there was no reason why the Saints of God NOW could not come into the presence of God or to sit in the presence of God for their Sins had been Removed.  And so Jesus in His Resurrection led Captivity Captive Paul says in the Fourth of Ephesians.  The Psalmist spoke of it in the 68^th Psalm and spoke of the Resurrected Lord leading  Captive those who for so many years had been in Captivity in the Heart of the Earth.  What did He do at His Resurrection?  He emptied Paradise.  He moved it all of its contents to the Third Heaven..that is the Third Heaven was created by the Presence of Paradise at the Resurrection of Christ.

They were the First Fruits of His Resurrection.  He brought them to the Presence of God to show as the very proof positive that His work was finished, His blood was acceptable.

Now, when Paul died, he was the example for all Believers.  What happens to Christians when they die?  Well, it is very plain.  They are absent from the body.  They are present with the Lord.

They leave earth to enter Paradise.  Paradise is a word which has a very definite meaning to us.  When we think of Paradise it may be very vague in our mind.  You couldn't draw a picture of Paradise.  Everyone's picture would be different if we were all to draw a picture here tonight.  Yours may have a stream in it.  Mine might not.  Yours may have a road in it.  You may say "I don't want to go anywhere when I get to Paradise, I don't want a road in it".  Yours may have flowers in it.  Mine may not.  Yours may have trees.  Mine may not.  All of us would paint a different portrait if we were painting a portrait of Paradise tonight.  Mine would have trees, for I love trees.  Mine would have grass.  I love grass, in spite of the fact that you have to cut it.  I like flowers.  Mine would have flowers and mine above all would have water in it.  Mine would probably have some horses in the grass, and standing by the water.  Mine would have little children in it.  Mine would have everything that I know and love here and am capable of knowing and loving here.  My Paradise picture might be different than yours but we all have an idea in our minds of what Paradise is like and I'm so glad that the Bible leaves Paradise just that vague to our minds tonight.  We are simply told that the Third Heaven is Paradise.  It's everything the heart desires.  It's everything that's good for the soul and comes from God and everything that we desire for the Glory of God and for the good of ourselves will be in Paradise because first of all it is where Jesus is and this is what makes the Third Heaven Paradise.

Now, how did he get there?  Well, he was "caught up" The word "caught up" a wonderful discovery is the same word used in First Thessalonians 4.  We shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air.  It is the same word used when the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away in the eighth chapter.  It's the word Harponzo and it is our word for the Rapture.  It has four meanings and this further strengthens my belief that Paul was dead at Lystra.  Listen to the meanings:  The four meanings of this word are these:

To carry off by force

To rescue from danger

To claim for oneself eagerly

To snatch away and up

If Paul was not dead why would it be necessary for the Lord to snatch him out and away, to rescue him from danger, to seize him eagerly for Himself and to carry him off by force?  He claimed him eagerly at Lystra for he had died and he was crushed.  He carried him off by force, rescued him from the danger of the atmosphere for the Prince of the Power of the Air holds sway in the very atmosphere around us and He snatched him out and away to the Third Heaven and to Paradise.  I wonder how long it took Paul to travel all that distance.  It took him a Moment, the Twinkling of an Eye.

He started to breathe his last breath at Lystra.  He exhaled it in the Presence of the Lord.  I'm thankful for that.  It's no long trip to the Presence of the Lord.  It's no long trip to Paradise.  It's just the Twinkling of an eye, it's just One Breath, it's just one Heartbeat.  It's just a brief Atom of Time.  This moment we may be in our Lystra and we may feel all of the bruises and all of the hurts of the stones of our circumstances.  The next breath may find us in Paradise, in the Third Heaven, in the Presence of the Lord, to enjoy Unspeakable Revelations, so sacred, so Holy we'll not even be able to speak about them for the first Million Years…..we'll just sit and enjoy them.  What a wonderful Hope and what a wonderful Promise for the Believer.  Now, when Paul was caught up into Heaven, he wasn't sure, he wasn't sure fourteen years later after thinking back –he couldn't say definitely if he was in the body or out of the body….he didn't know.   All he knew…………….he'd been to Paradise.  He'd been to the Third Heavens.  He knew what he had heard.  He knew what Revelations and what Visions had been given to him but he never did stop to worry about whether he was in the body or out of the body, he was so much involved in that which was going on at that particular time.  So who can decide?  I cannot decide.  I'm satisfied myself although it seems very egotistical that I should know something that Paul didn't know.  He didn't know whether he was in the body or not.  It seems to me he must have been out of the body for they stood around his body at Lystra, those disciples did…………nevertheless I don't discount a miracle of the Lord taking his body to heaven and leaving it there at the same time.  That's turning the grindstone the same way at the same time .  The Lord could do that.  Nevertheless he was never sure, not even fourteen years later whether he was in the body or out of the body.  Now what happened to him when he went to Paradise?

He was caught up into the Third Heaven, into Paradise in a Moment, in the Twinkling of an Eye…and this is what he said happened to him.  He said that Visions and Revelations of the Lord were given to him.  They consisted he said of Unspeakable Words which he qualified later as being Unlawful for a Man to Utter.  The Greek brings out that his word is that they were so sacred that he couldn't talk about them to anybody.  At the time he couldn't reveal to other men the things he had learned.  It was too sacred.  Too sacred.  He did later but not at the time.  Now the word Gazes. I want to examine that because I want you to know exactly what happened to Paul.  It's from a root word that means to Gaze with Wide Open Eyes.  I first became acquainted with this word years ago in the study of the book of Hebrews.  Where it speaks of those who look for Him shall He appear apart from sin unto salvation and it tells the Believer in that verse that when Jesus comes we're going to seem to gaze upon Him with wide open eyes and realize, the very first thing we're going to realize when we see the Lord is that our sins are gone.  He's apart from sin.  No sin is found in Him to our wondering gaze and most of all we can't find our sins.  They are gone.  Now this  precious word here……Paul uses it……………..He said I will come to Visions and Revelations of the Lord.  The word Visions means to gaze with Wide Open Eyes.  It's never had anything to do with Imaginations or conjured up something in the mind.  It doesn't have anything to do with Hallucinations.  This word and its use in the language of the Greek was limited to that which was seen with the eye.  Paul saw with Wide Open Eyes what he saw.  It wasn't conjured up in his mind.  It wasn't worked in his imagination.  It wasn't something he thought while he was in a trance.  He was actually in Paradise.  He was actually in the Third Heaven.  He actually saw the Lord.  Actually gazed upon Him with Wide Open Eyes, and saw the things which were revealed to him.  Now the word Revelation.  It's our old friend Apocalypse…..To Take The Cover Off It.  To Unveil or To Uncover.  And the proper order actually is this.  When Paul was caught up into the Third Heaven these Revelations and these Visions he said were "Of The Lord".  Jesus took the Cover Off.  He Uncovered of Uveiled some things that had been veiled to the eye of man until that time and He showed them to Paul and Paul saw them and gazed at them With Wide Open Eyes, and he heard from the Lord of Glory Himself Unspeakable Words about that which Paul saw with wondering eyes.  Isn't that a thrilling story?

Now it bothered me as I was thinking about it today, just what process the Lord might have used to reveal and then show to Paul openly these precious things and I think I know the answer to that tonight and I want to share it with you just for your thoughts and your consideration.

Now when John was on the Island of Patmos he saw the Lord. He confided that he was in the spirit on the Lord's day and he heard a voice.  It was behind him and he turned to see that voice –strange thing—but he turned to see the voice and lo and behold when he turned about he saw Christ.  He saw Him in all the garments of Glory….he had apparently all His High Priestly Robes on.

Read that description sometime in the first of Revelation, how His feet burned like burnished brass, how His voice was as the sound of many waters and so forth.  John does not speak of the words he hears or of the Visions he sees, nor of the Revelations that were made to him.  He says "I saw the Lord"  It was the Revelation of Christ that was given to John.

John saw the Lord, but Paul says that it was the Lord who revealed some Unspeakable things to him or Unspeakable Words, showed him some things, made him to see them with Wide Open Eyes …things that have been hidden and veiled to the eyes of man before.  Now how do you suppose the Lord revealed these precious things to Paul for remember that Paul in Galatians refers specific to the Gospel as being one of the things that was revealed to him by Jesus.  He says this Gospel was by Revelation of Jesus Christ.  I think in the Third Heaven, In Paradise, Jesus uncovered, unveiled the Gospel of Grace and Paul saw it.  He saw it with Wide Open Eyes for the first time and it was such Unspeakable Words that it was too Sacred to even utter for a time.  Now you remember us talking about the Gospel having to be revealed to a man.

It had to be revealed to Paul too.  He saw it, and I think he saw it all in a Moment, in the Twinkling of an Eye when he was caught up into Paradise.  I tell you one trip into Paradise, a man wouldn't have to be there very long to find out that "Works" didn't have anything to do with Salvation would he?  He wouldn't have to be there very long to find out the true meaning of the Death, Burial and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now there's something else more specific than that.  Back in the Gospel of Luke after the resurrection of Christ, when He appeared on Emmaus Road, the Emmaus disciples were going down the road, they were discouraged and they were sad and the Lord Jesus fell into step with them, you remember, and they walked along the road with Him.  And He asked them why are you so miserable, why are you so wretched, why are you so sad…and the began to tell him…haven't you heard?  Jesus was crucified.  It's the third day now since He was crucified.  Are you a stranger that you don't know about these things that happened in Jerusalem?  The point is these men didn't know a thing about the true meaning  of the Death, Burial and Resurrection of Christ.  All they saw in it was a travesty and a miscarriage of justice.  And Jesus immediately said to them "Oh you fools and slow heart to believe all the prophets have written and beginning with Moses and the psalms and the writings of the prophets He began and He continued to expound and he kept on expounding as they went down the road of Emmaus all those things that were written in the scriptures concerning himself.

In the last of that chapter when he met with the Disciples, He started in to do the same thing opening their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures.  The word "opened" is a peculiar word there which means to open as the first born opens the womb of his Mother.  It means in a way it has never been opened before.  What am I saying?  Well if you're not with me I'll explain.

The Lord Jesus in Paradise opened Paul's understanding.  He did more than that.  He opened the Scriptures to Paul in a way they had never been opened before, and Paul saw in them what Man had never been privileged to see in them before.  Do you know what Paul saw?  He saw with Wide Open Eyes.  The Scriptures must have come into place like an Optical Illusion and he saw the meaning from the Word of God of the Death, Burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Now I know that I haven't even begun to get across to you the tremendous thing that there is in this message tonight.  We can't first of all truly appreciate it and I'm too dumb to make it plain enough to appreciate it.  But we have Saul a man who was as familiar with the Scriptures as he was with the garment that he wore about his shoulders.  He knew the Old Testament Scriptures like the inside of his hand.  His life had been devoted to understanding them.  He had pored over them, mastered them, studied them, questioned them, traced their meaning….sat at the feet of Gamaliel.  I'll bet Gamaliel was glad when Paul graduated.  Paul must have asked him so many hard questions Gamaliel had an Excedrin headache every day.  This man's mind wouldn't quit.  He had one of the most inquiring analytical searching minds of any man in his time.  He had as far as human beings were concerned mastered the Old Testament Scriptures.  And he had never seen the Cross in the Scriptures.  He had never seen the meaning of the Death of Christ….The Burial….The Resurrection.  He had seen the Kingdom.  He had seen the Glory that was to come, but the sufferings never came into focus.  The Cross never appeared but through the Revelations that the Lord Jesus gave him, Paul saw with Wide Open Eyes and it must have been a tremendous Revelation to him when suddenly the whole Scriptures collapsed.  Everything he had thought about the Scriptures collapsed before his very eyes and his heart was filled with wonder as he saw in every prophet and every psalm and every word of the Law, Christ crucified for the sins of the world.  Wouldn't that be a wonderful Revelation?

No wonder that he said that his gospel is dead. How that Christ died.  That wasn't hidden in the Old Testament.  It was HOW that He had died for the Sins of the World According To The Scriptures.  And How that He was Buried, and How that He was Raised again the third day according to the Scriptures.  And he writes later to Timothy.  Thou hast known the Scriptures from thy youth, referring to the Old Testament Scriptures and then he said something that no Rabbi of his time knew.  They are able to make thee wise unto Salvation that is in Jesus Christ.  But only when they are unlocked and Paul had the key.  The key was Christ Crucified.  He saw in these wonderful Revelations of the Lord---- He saw in those wonderful Visions in Paradise the Old Testament Scriptures come to life.

I can't get away from the Word Visions and I don't want to read too much into it but there was another Man "caught up" on the Mount.  He didn't get into the Third Heaven or the Paradise of God but he got up to the Mountain of God.  His name was Moses…and he too was "caught up" you remember and when he was caught up to the mount there was some Revelations given to him there.  The Law of God was Revealed to him.  Moses saw The Tabernacle.  I don't think Moses had the slightest idea what that tabernacle meant.  But hey, Paul wrote the book of Hebrews.  Where do you suppose he saw the true meaning of the tabernacle if he didn't see it in Paradise in the Third Heaven.  And Moses, when he came down, he brought with him the Law and the Blueprints for the earthly Tabernacle and his face shone with such great Glory that they had to hang a veil over it.  It was too bright and to brilliant for the people to look toward.  Paul was caught up into Paradise and the Third Heaven.  He didn't bring the Law back.  The Law was brought by Moses.    Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ and when Paul came back, he brought Grace and Truth with him and he saw the true Tabernacle.  Saw the old Testament Scriptures Unfold, Saw the meaning of that Brazen Altar, that Laver of Cleansing, that Sin Goat, that Mercy Seat, that Arc of the Covenant, that Great Day of Atonement and its Sacrifice.

When Paul came back he saw a Revelation much more Glorious than Moses.  Why didn't they have to hang a veil over Paul's face?  They didn't have to do that but God did have to send him that Thorn in The Flesh, that messenger of Satan to buffet him--- to keep him from being too exalted…keep him from being so puffed up and elevated and so exalted by the things he had seen.  The superior nature of his Revelation would have exalted him above measure had God not sent a messenger of Satan, allowed a messenger of Satan to come to him and humble him…keep him down where he needed to be.  In other words He didn't have to hang any veil over Paul's face.  Had to tie his shoe strings down to keep him from going straight up.  So grave and so wonderful were these things.  Now I think that it was the Scriptures that were revealed to Paul because of the fact that he refers to them as Unspeakable Words.  It was Words that were revealed to him.  Words that he saw.  It was in the "Words" that he saw the Vision and his Revelation took place and these "Words" were from the Risen Lord Himself.

And from that time on Paul began to preach Christ and Him Crucified with words men had never heard before.  So abundant as I have said were these Revelations with the Thorn in The Flesh was given him to keep him from being exalted above measure, I'm not sure yet and I never have been sure whether the Lord gave him that thorn to keep him from exalting himself or to keep others from exalting him, which is an equal danger in a man's life who has received any truth from God.

He may be able by walking in the Spirit to keep from exalting himself, but what will he do with his Brethern who insist on exalting him above measure, and say Oh what a great man you are.  So God gave to Paul a Thorn in the Flesh and so this leads me to believe too that a Thorn in the Flesh was of such a nature that it not only kept Paul conscious of what he was but by the Grace of God kept others conscious.  It was something others could see in Paul, something they could take note of.  And it might be why the Corinthians spoke of him as being weak in bodily presence and his speech contemptible.

Now one last thing.  We hear such a thrilling story.  A man dies, dies by the hatred of the world, dies at the hand of those who reject the gospel he loves to preach.  A man dies a brutal death, a tragic death, a stone death---drug out to the garbage pile and left for dead – sound like a sad story?-----------------But he's not left dead.  The world is finished with him.  They're satisfied he's dead and most glad but he raises from that dead….he ascends into the Glory…he hears Unspeakable Things ..caught up in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.  We hear that story and wonderful story and we think Paul was a privileged man.  We think he must have been a special case, but the Scriptures also say he was an example  to those who would afterward believe.  And one of the most interesting aspects of this story is he begins it by saying "I knew a man in Christ"…and he just leaves it hanging there.  We knew it was him and yet it could have been us for all who are in Christ are also described by such a phrase are they not?  I knew a man in Christ.  I'm in Christ, are you in Christ?  You will experience the same thing.  You know one day if Jesus does not come first, the world will be satisfied and happy that you are dead and as far as they are concerned, they will deposit you on the garbage pile of their minds and leave you there.  They'll be glad that you are dead and they will drag you outside their city and be finished with you.  But that will not be the end.  Though they leave you for dead you will be "caught up" in a Moment, in the Twinkling of an Eye to go on right where you left off only you will be in the Presence of the Lord, In Paradise, In the Third Heavens.  You will just begin to hear Unspeakable things, not lawful for a man to utter.  Oh when I think of what Paul said in his First Corinthian Epistle, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, what wonderful things God has prepared for them that love Him".  He wasn't referring to Heaven in itself, he was referring to the Unspeakable things yet of the Word of God to be revealed in a man's heart, and I think back now over the times I've known the Lord and I think of the times when the Holy Spirit has made the truth of God so plain to me that's left me speechless.  I haven't been able to tell anybody else what I've seen in the word, what Vision I've had of the things of Christ.  We try (that's what preaching is for) but just like tonight, I'm so confident tonight that these are Unspeakable Things.  I can't get them out.

And if this is what's happened on earth what will it be like when we are in the presence of the Lord?  I think one of the blessings of Heaven has been revealed right here.  I think we're all going to be speechless.  He speaks of the unsaved every mouth being stopped.  I tell you our mouths are going to be stopped for a million years or so in heaven too, aren't they?  Just one glimpse of Him in Glory is going to leave us speechless for a long time and that's going to be good because by the time we get to heaven, we're all going to be tired of hearing our own mouth as well as everybody else's.  No flesh will ever Glory in His Presence and since we won't have anything to Glory in of ourselves, we're either going to have to say something of His Glory or we're going to have to keep still.  Sounds like a winner doesn't it?

Let's Pray

Thank you Father when that day comes no Thorn will be needed in our flesh to keep us from being exalted above measure.  We Thank You that in that day it will be impossible to exalt ourselves and that all of the energy and power and love of our hearts will be released to exalt you, glorify you and praise you. Father we were conscious tonight that these are indeed unspeakable things, too sacred to make plain or even give in an understandable manner.  Father we are satisfied that Paul was caught up into your presence, into the presence of the Lord Jesus and there Jesus took the cover off and revealed the precious word of God and Paul saw them with Wide Open Eyes and by Grace you raised him from the dead and enabled him to come back again to tell those things he saw.  Let us hear this man Father and believe the message which your Son has given through him, and oh so glad that when he came back from the Mount he came  back with a message much different than the message which Moses came.

End of Tape

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