And will you notice too, that Paul does not say Judah only, the two tribes. He says

twelve tribes; so the people who tell you ten tribes are lost are obviously wrong. Paul

knew nothing about their beings lost. He speaks of twelve tribes who are waiting for

their hope.

Now I want you to notice another thing which he says. He gives an account--this is

the third account we have in the Acts--of his conversion; and it is not just needless

repetition, because every time we have added details given us. We have it in Acts 9:, in

Acts 22: and now in the twenty-sixth chapter. So, if we want the whole story, we must

read these three chapters. There is one thing in this account in chapter 26: which we

do not find in the other two.  The Lord speaks to him and he asks Him first of all

(verse 5) "Who art thou, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. But rise

and stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared to thee for this purpose, to make thee a

minister and a witness both of those things which thou hast seen, and of those things in

the which I will appear unto thee". Now let us try to be very simple. `Both' must speak

of two things. Two things mentioned here: (1) the things that had been shown to the

Apostle by the Lord; (2) the things that would be shown to the Apostle by the Lord at

some time in the future. So, clearly, there is a two-fold revelation given to Paul by Christ;

once, at his conversion, and [another], at some unspecified date later on. Can we, when

we look at Paul's ministry, find another time when the Lord gave to him an additional

revelation to make known? The answer is yes. In the very next letter that Paul writes

after the completion of the Acts he tells us this very thing.

So, anticipating just a little, let us go to this letter, the Epistle to the Ephesians. We

will open it at chapter 3: He says (verse 1) "For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus

Christ for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is

given me to you-ward: how that by revelation He made known unto me the mystery".

Now he has not said anything about this in his earlier ministry for the simple reason it

had not been revealed to anyone, being hid in God up to this point. This secret, for that is

the meaning of the word `mystery'--is concerning a newly created company which is

called `one new man' (2: 15) and his aim now (verse 9) is "to make all men see what is

the fellowship (or as the R.V. reads--the dispensation) of the mystery--the dispensation

of the secret which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God who created all

things by Jesus Christ". After the Acts, when he ends up in Rome as a prisoner, the Lord

had already appeared to him and now gives him the commission to make known the new

revelation, and he does it in the first letter written afterwards, that to the Ephesians. We

repeat that it was something that had been kept hidden by God Himself, and when God

hides anything can anybody find it? The obvious answer is--"No". It is surely unbelief

to try and find it in any place until God reveals it! But He does reveal it at this juncture;

it is a secret no longer, He also refers to it when he writes to the believers at Colosse and

he makes the tremendous statement that, God wants to make it known; God wills to

make known what is this secret among the Gentiles.  God wants to make it known!

(Col. 1: 27). Do you want to hear? He wants to tell it! Do you want to listen? We pray

that each of us may have this desire, because in this secret we have the highest and the

most wonderful revelation that God has ever given, and if we miss this, we shall miss the

best.