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ACTS 26:18

"FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT"

Intro: Paul is recounting his conversion experience to Herod Agrippa. Many times this is  the
       best and most powerful witness.

I. PAUL'S COMMISSION: "TO OPEN THEIR EYES, AND TO TURN THEM FROM  THE POWER OF SATAN UNTO GOD."
        A. In Universe today, two kingdoms or spheres of government.
                1. Kingdom of God, light and life.
                2. Kingdom of Satan, death and darkness.
                3. Every man is governed by one or the other.
        B. Originally just one kingdom, the Kingdom of God.
                1. "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." All the
                        creatures within it were subject unto God.
                2. A glorious kingdom of light and life.
        C. One day, one of the created beings of the highest rank rebelled.
                1. His former glory described in Ezekiel 28:12 -19.
                2. His rebellion and fall in Isaiah 14:12 -16.
                3. Through his rebellion, a second kingdom was born.
        D. God desired a creature like Himself with whom He could have meaningful  fellowship.
           So God made man in His likeness and image.
                1. God's chief emotional attribute is love, so He created man with
                        capacity to love.
                2. God's chief moral attribute is self-determination, so He made man  with the
                   capacity of choice.
        E. When God created man, He created him in His kingdom of light and life.
                1. He created an ideally beautiful world and placed man in the garden of  Eden.
                2. Their God communed with man as he lived in harmony with God and  nature.
        F. God the superior trinity, man the inferior trinity.
        G. Within the garden, God placed the tree of life and a forbidden tree of
                knowledge of good and evil.
                1. Why would God place that tree there?
                        a. What is the value of choice if nothing to choose?
                        b. For love to be meaningful, choice must be involved.
                                1. The alternate must be desirable and attractive.
                                2. Robots may do your work someday, but they will never  be a
                                   good lover.
                2. Satan was allowed to come into garden to lure man into his kingdom.
                        a. He called Eve's attention to the fruit.
                                1. The lust of the flesh - good for food.
                                2. Lust of the eye (pleasant to the eye..
                                3. Pride of life (desired to make man wise as God..
        H. Man's action a double action. Not just disobedience.
                1. By man's choice he left kingdom of light and entered kingdom of
                        darkness.
                2. To his dismay, he found the door only swung one way. No matter  how good he
                   was, or how hard he tried, he was still in circle of death  and darkness.
        I. God in the fullness of time sent His only begotten Son to make a way back to  God.
        
                1. Through His death on the cross, He provided a just basis for
                        forgiveness of sin.
                2. Man again had the choice of one of two trees.
                3. As man chose to leave, so man must choose to return.

II. THE RESULT OF THE GOSPEL.
        A. Forgiveness of sin.
        B. An inheritance in His Kingdom.
                "Come ye blessed of the Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from  the
                foundation..." "An inheritance incorruptible, undefiled..."

III. HOW TO RECEIVE THE GOSPEL.
        A. Jesus talking to Paul said, "To those who are set apart by faith in Me."
                1. By believing in Jesus Christ, John 3:16.
                2. He prepared a road that leads to His abode, tis a road marked by
                        blood, but it leads us home to God.