The LORD has designed the perfect niche for you.

Pastor/Teacher
John Farley
Sunday,
October 25, 2009

The Lord took Saul, the foremost of sinners and the persecutor of the Church, and produced Paul, the Lord’s specially chosen and finely crafted instrument!

The human author of the Book of Romans is the apostle Paul. The word “Paulos” means “little” in Latin.

Paul is the only Bible author who put aside his Hebrew name, which was Saul, and used his Roman name, Paul, instead.
This magnifies his unique calling as the apostle to the Gentiles.

ACT 13:9 is where the Bible takes the name of Saul off the apostle’s jersey and sews on the new name, Paul.

The whole book of Acts is a transitional book. It tells the story of how the Church Age got up and running.

ACT 13:9 is the FIRST time that the Bible calls our apostle to the Gentiles by the name of Paul.

The Holy Spirit still calls him Saul in Acts 9-12 even after he is born again and saved.

ROM 1:1 Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,

The Lord hand-picked Paul for a tremendous task, because the Lord elected Paul to the Lord’s highest and best for his life. He was called to great privilege and great blessing.

ROM 1:6 among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;

The Lord has hand-picked you for a tremendous task. If you are a believer in Christ, the Lord willed His highest and best for you.

PHI 3:14 I keep on pressing on toward the objective (ultra-supergrace or the ultimate objective in time, living in resurrection life) for the purpose of the reward belonging to the upward call of God [Father], by means of Christ Jesus.

As long as Saul was preaching primarily to the Jews, the Holy Spirit still calls him Saul.

GAL 2:7 But on the contrary, seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised

Paul has been set apart and elected in eternity past by God to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles.

The Lord brought Barnabas into Saul’s life to prepare him for his calling to the Gentiles and to be Saul’s partner in the endeavor.

Finally, the day arrives when the Holy Spirit moves to set apart and call out Saul and Barnabas to leave Antioch and begin their specific and unique ministry.

There is a geographic component to all this. Barnabas and Saul leave Antioch and sail west, first landing on the island of Cyprus.

The Lord will often confirm the direction He has called the believer to take through a striking and unusual event.

Here he brings two men, Sergius Paulus the Roman Gentile who wants to hear the word of God, and Elymas the Jew who opposes the word of God.

This gives Paul a vivid picture of Jewish rejection of the Gospel and Paul’s calling to preach and convert the Gentiles.

Until this episode he had been primarily trying to witness to the Jews. But from here forward he would live in his calling as the apostle to the Gentiles.

So it is no accident that it is here that the Bible stops referring to him as Saul and begins referring to him as Paul.

After this time in ACT 13:9, Paul is never known in the Bible as Saul ever again. The only time the name is ever used is when Paul recounts his Damascus conversion “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (ACT 22:7, 13; ACT 26:14).

Paul’s new name was a sign of his personal sense of destiny.

It’s another thing for the narrator of the book of Acts to use Saul exclusively up to Acts 13, and then Paul exclusively thereafter.

In ACT 9:4 we have seen that the Lord calls him Saul.

In Act 27 an angel of God calls him Paul!

ACT 27:23 “For this very night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood before me,
Acts 27:24 saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar; and behold, God has granted you all those who are sailing with you.’”

The name change occurs not at the moment of regeneration but at the time of promotion by the Lord.

1. Paul’s name change coincided with his movement into living in his personal sense of destiny.

2. The name change occurs not at the moment of regeneration but at the time of promotion by the Lord.

3. Paul’s personal sense of destiny had a geographic component to it. He needed to be in the geographic location that God called him to be.

4. Paul’s personal sense of destiny had a mental component to it. He was thinking the way the Lord wanted him to think.

5. Paul’s personal sense of destiny had an operational component to it. He was doing what the Lord willed for him to do.

3. Paul’s personal sense of destiny had a geographic component to it. He needed to be in the geographic location that God called him to be.

4. Paul’s personal sense of destiny had a mental component to it. He was thinking the way the Lord wanted him to think.

5. Paul’s personal sense of destiny had an operational component to it. He was doing what the Lord willed for him to do.

6. The Lord elected Paul to great privilege and blessing in eternity past, EPH 1:3-4. His personal sense of destiny is the vehicle that the Lord provided for Paul to live in the Lord’s highest and best for his life.

Election is the expression of the sovereign will of God under the principle of equal privilege accomplished for the believer by God in eternity past, EPH 1:4.

Under election, God wills His highest and best for every believer.

7. The Lord, as part of predestination, has designed the perfect niche for you personally to fulfill your personal sense of destiny.

Predestination is the grace provision of the sovereignty of God for each believer in eternity past, providing everything needed to execute God’s will, plan, and purpose for the believer’s life.

Predestination as the unique grace provision for the believer includes the two power options of the filling of the Holy Spirit and Bible doctrine, as well as the believer’s escrow account.

So God has prepared your very own niche for you to live in. But you won’t live there unless you adjust to God’s justice by daily commitment to your spiritual life.

It means a lifestyle of rebounding when you sin, studying the word of God and being obedient to what it says.

Niche orientation means you consistently adjust to the justice of God; that is your lifestyle.

ISA 30:18 Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.