Okay, open your Bibles, if you
would, to the book of Acts, chapter 22. Last week, we finished chapter
21. Paul was arrested by a Roman
chief captain, and the unbelieving Jews could not agree on what
Paul had supposedly done. Remember, they were fighting
over, well, what did he say? What did he do? And one part
said he did this, another part said he did that, and they were
just squabbling amongst each other. They couldn't even agree.
Well, what was Paul doing? He was just standing in the synagogue
preaching Christ as the Messiah. And then some Jews from, unbelieving
Jews from Asia Minor, which was in the Ephesus area, so they
would have heard him preach in Ephesus, said, well, he's preaching
that you don't have to follow the law, and that he's against
it, which he wasn't. He was preaching that Christ
fulfilled the law in the room and place of sinners. That's
what he was preaching, that the law was fulfilled by Christ in
the room and place of his people. He's the substitute, and he's
redeemed us out from under the law of God. So the law doesn't have a claim
on us. It's still there, it's still holy, it's still righteous,
but Christ fulfilled it in our room and place. You ever think
of this? We can't love God with all our heart, minds, and soul,
can we? Christ did it for us. Isn't that amazing? Because the
scripture says he honored the law. He fulfilled the law and
made it honorable. And in doing so, he glorified
God, beloved. It's wonderful. And Christ did
that for his people. And we also saw last week that
God in his sovereignty rescued Paul from unbelieving Jews who
wanted to kill him. They wanted to kill him. And
so God used the chief captain of the Romans, an unbeliever,
and he came over with a bunch of centurions. And remember,
a centurion is a man over 100, so it doesn't say how many centurions
were with him, but he probably had at least 200 men, minimum. These are Roman soldiers. Tom
and I talked about this. Professional soldiers. I mean,
they are the best of the best during that age. And here they come. And what
did they say right away? They let right off of Paul, didn't
they? Because they knew, what were those Romans famous for?
If there was an insurrection in a town that they were at,
they'd put people to the sword and that insurrection would stop
real quick. So here they come. They rescued
Paul by the grace and mercy of God, all according to the, isn't
that amazing? God is using unbelieving men
take Paul out of harm's way. You see, he rules over everything. He's sovereign. And then now Paul is going to
get the chance to speak his defense in chapter 22. Let's stand up
and read verses 1 to 5 of Acts chapter 22, where we see Paul
brings his defense forth of what he preaches before the people.
What a door of utterance the Lord has opened to him. The whole
city is before him, not the whole city, but a lot of people in
Jerusalem are before him. Look at this in Acts 22 verses
1 to 5. Brethren and fathers, hear ye
my defense, which I make now unto you. And when they had heard
that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept more silence,
and he saith, I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Taurus,
a city in Sicilia, yet bought up in this city at the feet of
Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the
law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this
day. And I persecuted this way unto
death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women,
as also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the
estate of the elders, from whom I received letters unto the brethren,
and went to Damascus to bring them which were there bound unto
Jerusalem, for to be punished.'" Oh, my. So part of Paul's defense
is going to be, we see in those first five verses, he is telling
them about his past. Now he's not telling them his
pedigree to impress them. I love what he said. I love what
he said in verse three, where he says, and
taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers
and was zealous toward God as ye all are this day. See, they have a zeal yet without
knowledge. That's where I was before the Lord saved me, and
that's probably, if you were in religion, that's where you
were. We were zealous before God, but
yet without knowledge. And if you were raised in a church
where the gospel was preached, you're no different than us.
who were in religion, because we're all just a bunch of sinners
who need to be saved by grace, right? Through Christ alone. You were blessed in the sense
that you were able to hear the gospel, even though you didn't
know it, it still was there, which is wonderful. We pray God will make it effectual.
If you're sitting here and you've heard the gospel for years and
years and years, we pray God will make it effectual, won't
we? Don't we? We pray that you'll see Christ. God, the Holy Spirit
will regenerate you. You cast yourself upon Christ
as the only... Because he is the only saviour,
the only one for sinners. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ had
equipped Paul as he does all of his ordained preachers and
as he does of all his people. He equips us. to make it through
this world, right? We're soldiers for Christ. Brother
Tom, you never stopped being a soldier. You're a soldier for
Christ. And we are soldiers, and we battle
not against flesh and blood, right? But we're gonna see in
Ephesians, when we start studying that, we battle against princes
and principalities, spiritual wickedness in high places. But
Paul envisioned himself and looked at himself as a soldier. That's
what we are. All of us who are believers.
We're in a warfare. We're in a battle. And the battle's
not against other humans, right? The battle is spiritually. But
let me tell you this. We serve the conqueror. We serve
the one who's already won the victory, right? And what do we battle
with here now on earth? Well, we have the helmet, right,
of salvation, which is in Christ, right? Our salvation's in Christ.
We have the breastplate of righteousness, right, which is the righteousness
of Christ, right? We have the shoes of the gospel, which is all about Christ. We have the girdle of truth,
the belt of truth. Christ is the way, the truth,
and the life. We have the sword of the spirit,
which is the word of God, which testifies of who? Christ. It's all about Christ. And we
have the shield of faith. Who's that faith in, Brother
Charlie? Christ alone, amen. See, we are equipped in Christ. And the scripture doesn't tell
us to go backwards, it tells us to stand. Stand your ground. How do we
do that? We're so weak in Christ. In Christ. And that's what we
do. We rest in Him, don't we? We
stand in Him. And when, back in the old days, I love studying
history, you guys know that, but back in the old days when
the general moved forward, all the troops moved forward. When
the general came to a standstill, the troops stood in a standstill.
And the Romans would lock their shields together. That's what
we are. We got our shields locked together,
beloved. And we are going through it. That's why we need to encourage
each other, because we come in here. And remember, you know,
I did a sermon this week, or last week, about how the preacher's
like a medic, and this is a hospital for sinners. Right? And how are we getting patched
up by the gospel? It patches us up. Because I'll
tell you what, you come in here, you're weary, aren't you? We've
been beat up by the world for a whole week. Oh my, we come in here to hear
about our Savior, to hear about our King. And think of this,
the same way that God protected Paul in our text is the same
way God protects us. Look back on your life and see
how he's taken care of you before you were saved and even after
you were saved, in times of great peril and in times of peace. He ever watches over us and takes
care of us. That's amazing. That's God's
grace. And we see here, remember this
too, Paul's been equipped by the Lord. Before he was saved,
he studied the law. Now, some might say, well, that
was a waste of time. No, actually it wasn't. He knows
the law now better than most Jews. And he takes the law and points
them to Christ. That's what he does. He doesn't
get in debates with them and arguments about the things. He
points them to Christ, beloved. That's what he does. And Paul's well-educated. He
could have went toe to toe. He's got an ability to speak
in multiple languages. We saw last week he spoke in
Greek to the chief captain. The chief captain thought he
was the Egyptian guy that had gathered 4,000 murderers and
left the city. And he was still on the run,
and so this guy thought, the chief captain thought, oh, this
is the Egyptian fellow. No, and he looked at him and said, you're
not Egyptian? Well, he's going to find out
he's Roman and he's a Jew. My. And we see, what do we see
here too? We see Paul's love for his kinsmen. We see Paul's love for the Jewish
nation. And how we ought to have a love
for our kinsmen here. Praying for the people in America.
You know, everything's so divided. Vicki and I have been talking
about how everything's so divided. Why don't we pray for the other side?
Why don't we lift them up in prayer? Because remember that
scripture? Remember that scripture? I like
what you said, sister. We're all American, or we're
all, you know, Andy and I are Canadian, but we're, you know
what I mean, though. We're all. And Paul, never forget this,
Paul wrote, I can't remember which letter it was, it's one
of my, I should know it by heart, but he's writing to them, and
he says, he writes all this stuff that they were in their past,
and he says, and such were some of you, but you are washed. Don't
ever forget where we came from. We're no different. We may have
different ideologies and different views on things, but we're still
all a bunch of human beings, aren't we? And you know what? It's man who's
divided the so-called races. Do you know that? I've said that
many times. We're the human race. That's what we are. No matter
what the pigmentation of your skin is. We are the human race. Right? It's man. Man who has
divided the races, or divided people into races, my, it's awful. You know why? So they can feel
superior to each other. We're all the same, just dead
dog sinners, no matter where we come from, eh? I'm a dead
dog Canadian sinner who's saved by the grace of God. Praise his
mighty name. Isn't that wonderful? My, my, God's so good to us.
And I like this too, out of every tribe, tongue, kindred, and nation.
My, it'll be amazing when we get to heaven. But I like this,
even though they just wanted to kill Paul, they just wanted
to kill him. And he asked the chief captain, can I speak to
them? And think of what a door, this is God who's opening that
door for him, isn't it? giving him an opportunity to
address that large crowd. Remember, people came from all
over Jerusalem because they thought something was wrong at the temple. Oh, no, they're being drawn there
by God. They're being bought there by God to hear his sent
preacher. And what Paul going to talk about?
Well, we see here, first of all, he's going to talk a bit about
how he was before the Lord saved him. And Paul, Having been just
like them, he told us that in text before he was born again,
knew that these unbelieving Jews would have thought, hey, I'm
doing God a favor by wiping this Paul guy out. Think of how many of our brothers
and sisters were slaughtered by the Catholic Church in the name of God. slaughtered, hunted down like
animals. Now I'm not just talking the
Inquisitions, I'm actually talking the things that they did to the
Huguenots and what they did to the Waldensians. Folks who believe like we believe. And you know what, they did it
in the name of God, didn't they? Thinking they were doing God a favor. Oh, what men will do. And you
could put the Catholic Church right there along with the Muslims
and all them that killed in the name of their God. They think
they're doing God a favor. My, oh my. So they would have killed him.
We saw in chapter 21, they wanted to kill him. But God used those
Roman soldiers coming, and that stopped them. So marvel that,
because our Lord Jesus Christ had been so patient and long-suffering
with Paul, and how had he been long-suffering with Paul? Paul
was going around killing Christians. Consenting to their deaths. Going
and hauling them, we saw in the text there, and bringing them
to Jerusalem, where they could be punished. And he says, I did
it zealously. He was thinking he was doing
what was right. And you remember what our Lord
said to him? Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Well, Paul had never seen Christ until
that time. Who was he persecuting? The church? The body of Christ? He's the
head, we're the body? Remember, we talked about if
you burn your hand, your head's gonna tell you you've burned
your hand. Why persecutest thou me? What
a union. Isn't that amazing? And let us
take comfort. The world beats us up all week.
It just comes at us from all different angles. What's going
on in the world? We are united to Christ. We are
one with Him. One with Him. Isn't that amazing? My. We have a dear sister who
went through some things during the pandemic. And I'm not gonna
mention her name, but she went through some things with her
coworkers, and she just held tight with Christ. And I thought
about this. I thought, when I was putting
this together, they weren't persecuting her. They're actually persecuting
the king. And she's the one they're gonna
go through to get to him. Isn't that wild? Actually happened to two of our
sisters here. Supposed profession Christians
going at them. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? See, this will give us a desire
to give more grace to our brothers and sisters in Christ, won't
it? Right? Because just like a family, things
can happen even within a body of believers, and people can
get mad at another person. We have to be really careful,
aren't we? See, I look at you, you're my
brothers and sisters in Christ. Sinners saved just like I'm saved.
By the same grace, hey Sister Carol, same mercy. That causes
us to love each other, and to pray for each other, and to lift
each other up. And that's comforting, too, for
us when we come in here, to know that our brothers and sisters
in Christ, saved sinners just like us, love us. So Paul here,
Paul's showing his heart as an evangelist, too. He has a desire.
He doesn't know who God's elect. Everybody knows he got them out
there. And he asks this chief captain, can I speak? And God
opens the door so wide. Oh, my. And we see here that when the
chief captain gave Paul permission to speak, he addressed these
Jews in the Hebrew tongue, and that silenced them. They were
shocked. So he just spoke Greek. He just
spoke Greek to the chief captain. He's speaking in Hebrew. And
I would think that because he was Roman, he probably knew Latin
as well. Well, here's two languages for
sure he knows, Hebrew and Greek. My. And when he spoke in their
native language, this silenced them. Silenced them. And mark this
too, Paul's not ashamed of the gospel, is he? He even told us
that in Romans, didn't he, Brother Chris? He's not ashamed of the
gospel. He's gonna let it fly. He's gonna proclaim Christ to
them, because he told us, and we know he's serious about it,
because the Holy Spirit had him penitent, and we know this is
from the Holy Spirit put in Paul's heart, I'm determined to preach
nothing but Christ and him crucified. Again, how do you know if a man's
preaching the gospel? Ask, as you listen to them, who
gets the glory? Is the man glorifying themselves?
Or are they glorifying God in Christ? That's the key, I'm telling
you. That's the key right there. God's
preachers, we will glorify Christ. Because he's the only one you
and I need, right? My, you already know I struggle
with the same things you do all week, right? Something might come at you in
a different form, but I'll be struggling with something too.
And we're all struggling. We're all going through this
world. Some things might be fine. And this is how we can have joy,
is realizing to be content, like we looked at in Sunday school,
in whatever situation the Lord has us in. Just to be content.
I was mentioning in Sunday school, it's not hard for us to find
things to murmur about, is it? We're professional murmurers.
Right? We are. Let's admit it. We can
murmur at stuff all the time. Amen. It's sure not like the
old days. Back in the day, people had this
and that. No, back in the day, there was nothing new under the
sun. We may have just been more sheltered. Right? It may have been easier. I remember
the nice thing when I was younger, and some of you may even be able
to do this still if you live in the country, we never locked
our doors. It was amazing. Dad would take
the keys, stick them under the seat, and we'd go in the grocery
store. No one'd steal your car. Everybody
knew their keys were in the car. Nobody touched them. Well, that
was wonderful. But we can murmur about stuff.
Let us be content. Let us be content where God's
got us, right? Where we are, our station in
life. No matter what we're going through, let us just be content
looking to Christ. That's the key, looking to Christ.
See, Paul knew that God had opened this door for him. Paul knew
that where he was was according to God's will and purpose. And
let's think of this, no matter what you're going through, beloved,
I know it's gonna be heartbreaking stuff, God's with you. He's with
you. He's right beside you. He said,
I'll never leave you nor forsake you. That's the truth. That's the truth. That's where we can find peace
amidst the storm, right? Joy amidst the sorrow. We can
be crying and still have joy in Christ. Our hearts can be breaking. Let us look to our King. Oh,
and I know, I'm not, trust me, I'm not just telling you to do
that. I've shed tears over my family
members, my friends, my children, things that have happened in
the church. But we still have a constant
joy in Christ, don't we? A peace that passes all understanding.
And keep praying for those around you. Keep lifting them up. Paul here has a sincere desire
for his countrymen, his kinsmen, to be saved. But first he's going to bring
part of his personal testimony. Look at verses 1 and 2. Men and
brethren and fathers, hear ye my defense which I make now unto
you. And when they had heard that
he spake in Hebrew tongue to them, they kept a more silence.
They took notice. They took notice. Oh, my. And we see here before
us, we're going to, as we read through the scriptures, take
note of how Paul's speaking to them very simply. Very simply, remember I told
you I was looking at the scriptures with someone in John chapter
three, and I said to them, notice how the Lord speaks in one and
two syllable words. Notice how Paul here speaks to
them. Paul is one of the most educated men. He sat under the
best teacher of that time. And take note of how he speaks
to them. And he wrote this over in Corinthians, and we're going
to see it come alive. He said this to the Corinthians.
He said, and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing
words, not with fancy words. No. Not with enticing words of
man's wisdom. but in demonstration of the spirit
and the power that your faith should not stand in the wisdom
of man, but in the power of God. So we see in this dramatic moment
before us, because remember, I was thinking about this too
this week, we are getting a picture of being with them and seeing
from an overview of what's occurring. Isn't that wonderful? This really
happened. Paul was really standing before
the people of Jerusalem. It's not just a story in a book. God's given him this opportunity
to speak. And he's gonna simply tell him
the story of his conversion in the simplest language possible. He's not gonna use words of man's
wisdom. He's gonna tell him what God
has done for him, all according to his free grace, God's free
grace in Christ. And you know what preaching is?
Preaching is simply telling others what we know, what God's showing
us, how God saved us by his precious blood. Job said this, he answered
and said, whether he be a sinner, or John said this in John 9.25,
there's a man who's who's being bought before the
council, and it was in that message I preached on, Now I See. He's
being bought before the council, he was born blind, and now he
sees, and he's being bought before this group of Pharisees, and
they ask him, they're grilling him, well who, this man's a sinner,
this man, and listen to his reply to them. Look at this, I love
this. He answered and said, whether he be a sinner or no, I know
not. One thing I know, that whereas
I was blind, now I see. Isn't that our testimony? Well,
we know he's not a sinner. We know he's the sinless, spotless
Lamb of God. But we know this, I was blind,
now I see. Praise God, I see now. Isn't
that wonderful? Oh my, my. Let's look at verse
3 of Acts chapter 22. He says Paul continues with his
personal testimony of what the Lord's done for him. in this city at the feet of Gamaliel
and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers
and was zealous toward God as ye all are this day. So he's
letting them know, he's bringing, and notice how plainly he's speaking
too, right? Just speaking plainly. He's taught
in the perfect manner of the law. He could stand up there
and give them a theological dissertation about what he believed. But Paul's
not like that, is he? He's not like that. He wants
to preach Christ. That's in his heart, to proclaim
to them what the great things that God has done for him, and
in him and through him, by the Lord Jesus Christ. And him alone,
the Messiah, sent by God to save his people from their sins. And
Paul is setting here before them that he's aware of their religious
zeal. He's saying, yeah, I'm aware
of your religious zeal. I totally am. And in his natural
state, he had the same zeal, didn't he? And we've seen that.
We're gonna see that again. He had the same zeal. Now he'd
stop at nothing in his natural state to promote the law of God. the law of Moses, believing it
was God's will for him to do so. And there's nothing new under
the sun, is there? Men are still doing this today, trying to yoke
believers under the law. Paul said, be not again entangled
with the yoke of bondage. Don't be entangled again in the
yoke of do, do, do. It's already done. And you know
what? This is the thing I was listening to this morning, too.
It was wonderful. Because it's already done, and because we're
born again by the Holy Spirit of God, we want to be obedient,
don't we, brother? Because of what God's done in
us. And our salvation is not dependent upon our obedience.
It's dependent upon what Christ has done. but we are willing
and obedient servants, aren't we? Because God's changed us. We are not the same people. We
may have the same exterior, the same tent, right? But inside
we're born again. We're new creatures in Christ.
The things that enticed us in this world don't entice us anymore.
Do you ever notice that the older we get in Christ, the more the
world loses its luster? The more the things in this world
don't matter, the more homesick we get for
heaven. Isn't it amazing? It's absolutely
incredible. So there's nothing new under
the sun. There's still self-righteous people who have deluded themselves
into thinking and deceived themselves into thinking that they are God's
children because of their own sinful works. They have a zeal for God, but
not according to knowledge. Just as Paul wrote to the church
at Rome. And just like solitarists, they
will stop at nothing to promote their ungodly views. And they
actually hate the truth. I was there. Now let's read verses
4 and 5 of Acts chapter 22. He's going to tell us what he
did here. Look at this. And I persecuted this way. Now, we would be called
back in day, if we were alive that time, we would be called
the people of the way. That was one of the names for
God's people. Followers of the way. We know
there's only one way, right? That's Christ. We're still people
of the way, aren't we? My. The way, the truth, and the
life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me, the Lord Jesus Christ said. And I persecuted this way
unto death. Look at that. Unto death. He
consented at the death of Stephen. And we say that he consented
here. He persecuted this way unto death.
Binding and delivering them to the prisons, both men and women. Look at that. He didn't care
if it was a man or a woman. Take him to the prisons. It's also the high priest that
bear me witness, and all the estate of the elders, from whom
also I received letters unto the brethren, and went to Damascus
to bring them which were bound unto Jerusalem, for to be punished."
Look at that. To be punished. Why? Because
they believe on Christ. Could you imagine that? If somebody
comes to your door nowadays, opened your door and said, You're
coming with me. You're a follower of that way. And they bound you up and bound
me up and took us and threw us in prison. And then eventually probably
kill us for it. Thinking they're doing God good.
Meanwhile, they're killing his people. My oh my. That's what happened.
That's what happened. Paul would go into the city,
he'd collect anyone who they'd already collected, and he went
after whoever was in that city. My, look at that. To bring them which were bound,
so those who were already bound, already found guilty of preaching
the gospel or teaching the gospel, or even following the way, and
brought them bound into Jerusalem. Damascus is in Syria. Go all that way and just bind
up Christians and haul them back. My. What hatred they had for
the gospel. What hatred they had for Christ.
It's manifested right here. And this is Paul saying, this
is what I did. In my natural state. This is
his supposed jealous spirit that he talks about. My. And he told the gathered unbelieving
Jews that he had persecuted Christians, consenting unto their death,
and putting men and women in prisons. And he told them that
all this came by order of the high priest and by the council. They sent me, he said. But you
know, Paul willingly did it. My. And the elders and the high priests
were all witnesses. They gave him letters, permission
to persecute Christians at Damascus, not even in their own country.
You know, you think they probably
thought, well, we're safe over here, we're in Syria, they won't
come get us. They're marching right in there. My, that's called hunting them
down. That's what that's called. Hunting
them down like they're animals. Now, isn't
it amazing that the one who is a champion for the Jewish religion
is transformed by the power of God the Holy Spirit and born
again and becomes a champion for Christ? That's the grace
of God, isn't it? And that miracle that happened
in Paul's life is the same miracle that happens in every believer's
life. We're brought from darkness to light. We're brought from
death to life. We're brought from being servants
of sin and Satan to being servants of Christ. Willing and obedient. Oh my. God's grace is just amazing. It's absolutely amazing and it's
all in Christ. It's all wrapped up in Christ.
What we believe is Christ-centric, isn't it? Everything we believe
focuses and finds its center and it's whole in Christ. My. You know, you ever think of this?
Religion tells people what they gotta do. But the believer who's saved
by Christ wants to do those things and desires to do those things,
and they don't have to be told to do those things. I tell you, you must be born
again. You must be. Isn't God so good? Now let's
read verses 6 to 9, okay? Oh, we just read that, didn't
we? Or no, let's read verses 6 to 9 in Acts chapter 22. Now
he's going to give us a little more of his testimony. And it
came to pass that as I made my journey, it was come nigh unto
Damascus about noon. Suddenly there shone from heaven
a great light round about me. And I fell unto the ground and
heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou? Look at that little word, me. And I answered, who art thou,
Lord? And he said, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.
Who is he persecuting? He's persecuting the people of
the way, right? See, the union of Christ and his people are
so, so close that he says this, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom
thou persecutest. This union is what we have in
Christ, who are believers. That's amazing. And they that
were with me saw indeed the light and were afraid, but they heard
not the voice of him that spake to me. So this was God's appointed time
of love for Paul. This was the appointed time when
God would have a face-to-face with Paul. And Paul would be
regenerated right on the spot by the Holy Spirit of God. How
do we know? Notice what he called him. Lord. Just like that. Just like that. My. And this was the exact place
at the exact time that our Lord Jesus had purposed for Paul's
conversion to occur. Isn't that amazing? And when
the Lord saved you, it was at the exact time that God had appointed,
and at the exact place. And we may not be able to put
a time, I can't put a time on mine, I can't put a date on mine,
but I know I was brought from life, or from death to life,
I know that. I know around when it occurred,
I think I do, I don't know. But all I know is right now I
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and the saving of my soul. And
I always say, don't worry about what you said 20 years ago. Who
you believing right now? Who you trusting right now? Now
you can look back and say, look what the Lord did. He carried
me through all that stuff. But is he not more precious to you
and I now than he ever has been before? Isn't that amazing? That's God's grace. And they that were with me saw
indeed the light and were afraid, but they heard not the voice
of him that spake to me. God only speaks to his people
through his word. My. Ever think of that? When God called us by his grace,
it was through the preaching of the word or through reading
the scriptures. And he speaks to his sheep through
his word, doesn't he? Through his gospel. My. And Paul saw the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ with his physical eyes, which again was
one of the qualifications for being one of the Lord's ordained
apostles. He saw by true saving faith the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And we see that Paul
heard the audible voice. Christ is revealing himself to
him. Tom, you and I have talked about that. Unless God reveals
himself to us, we'll never know him. Paul goes from one second
not knowing who Christ was to the next second God revealed
himself to him. And he went from a Christ hater, a Christian persecutor, to one
who said, Lord, who art thou? And then became a champion. for the Lord's gospel and for
the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that amazing? God took
one of the highest ranking champions of the Jews and turned him into
a believer. God took one of the vilest of
men and turned him into the believer. Right here too, right? God took some of the vilest men
and women in this world and turned us into believers. Praise his
mighty name. And if we ever think we're not
that vile, just think of your dreams. Think of the thoughts that can
come into our minds through the day where we go, where did that
come from? Right, Charlie? But we're saved by the grace
of God in Christ. My. And I love this. Paul knew that
the light he heard and saw was God because he said, who art
thou, Lord? And I love this, and our Lord
Jesus Christ, he reveals himself to them. I am Jesus. It's a great I am. Remember Moses, the burning bush? I am what I am. I am Jesus of
Nazareth, whom thou persecuted. Oh, these God-honoring truths
set before us, beloved, are absolutely wonderful. Just wonderful. And these truths apply to all
born-again, blood-washed believers, saved by the sovereign grace
and glory of God through Christ, the merits of Christ alone. Because
God's appointed a time for every one of his lost sheep to hear
the gospel. Even the ones we look at and
think, how could they be saved, Lord? You ever think people might have
said that about us? In our natural state. Here we are. Look what God's done. Glory to
his name. Right? Hey. Amen. My oh my. He's appointed that time for
his people to hear the gospel. And we don't see the glory of
Christ with physical eyes, right? We've never seen him with our
physical eyes, but one day we will, beloved. We'll see him
face to face one day. It's amazing. Now let's read
verses 10 to 14 of Acts chapter 22. And I said, what shall I
do, Lord? Again, he calls him Lord again.
God's people call Christ Lord. We don't make him Lord, we call
him Lord. Because he is Lord. And God made him that way, right?
This is wonderful. And the Lord said unto me, arise,
and go into Damascus, and there shall be told of thee all the
things which are appointed for thee to do.' And when I could
not see, for the glory of the light being led by the hand of
them that were with me, I came into Damascus. And one Ananias,
a devout man according to the law, having the good report of
all the Jews which dwelt there, came unto me and stood and said
unto me, look what he calls them. Now, This was the same fella that
when the Lord told him about Paul, he says, I've heard of
him. He's going around killing Christians. And the Lord said,
he's a chosen vessel. That's true of all of us, isn't
it? He's going to go to the Gentiles. And so now, look at how Ananias
greets him. Because the Lord said, go. And
look how he greets him right away. Brother, look at this. Brother Saul. He goes from being a persecutor
to being a brother in Christ. He's one of the lost sheep Christ
died and bled for, and he didn't even know it. He's going around
collecting Christians up, taking them to their death, and little
does he know, he's a lost sheep of God. Don't ever say when we see someone
so wicked, and we say, oh, the Lord can't save them. If the
Lord saved me, John Newton said this, and is this not true? Do
we not feel this? John Newton said, if the Lord
saved me, he can save anyone he wills. Anyone he pleases to
save, and that's what he does. He pleases those, or he saves
those to whom it pleases him to do so. And we don't know who
they are, so we pray for our families and our friends. And
when the gospel's proclaimed, it's proclaimed out. Come to
Christ. He's the only hope for sinners.
The only one. Brother Saul, I love that. Receive
thy sight. In the same hour I looked upon
him. And he said, the God of our fathers hath chosen thee.
Now should us know his will and see that just one, look at that
singular, that's Christ, and should us hear the voice of his
mouth. Paul being made willing to come to Christ, hadn't he?
And that road to Damascus, now he calls him Lord. Oh, Lord. He's given a true testimony of
why he preached grace. and why he did not preach the
law as a means of salvation. He said, "'The Lord said unto
me, "'Arise and go into Damascus, "'and there it shall be told
of thee "'all the things which are appointed for thee to do.'"
So, Paul's blinded by the sight of Christ's glory. So much so that he has to be
led by the hand of another into Damascus. We see in verse 12 that the truth
of Paul's testimony was witnessed by a man who had a good report
among the Jews, named Ananias. But these Jews who are hearing
this, they have no desire for that. They have no desire for
the truth. And note, the wonder of God's
grace is Paul had a reputation of wasting the church. He told
us that in Galatians when we looked at that study, which means
to destroy. Paul was trying to destroy the
followers of the way. He was trying to stamp out the
way. He didn't know that the way was
God, the Lord Jesus Christ. My, and he didn't know that when
he's persecuting those followers of the way, he's actually persecuting
Christ. My, oh my. In other reports,
we read where Ananias, when he was told by our Lord Jesus Christ
to go and talk to Saul, that he was reluctant to do so. as
I mentioned earlier, because he had heard how Paul persecuted
and hunted down Christians. But Ananias, being an obedient
servant, went ahead and goes to Paul and
calls him this, Brother Saul, letting Paul know that he recognized
Paul as a born-again, blood-washed believer and part of the family
of God. Isn't that amazing? Do you imagine the grace that
God gave Ananias even to go and talk to him and to do that? Same
grace we have, beloved. Isn't that amazing? Oh my. And he gives us grace to help
what? In times of need. That's why we're to come boldly
to the throne of grace. To receive grace to help. Do
you need help? Do you need help right now? Let us go boldly to
the throne of grace. Right? I'll pray for you. You
lift me up, we lift each other up, right? Even though our hearts might
be breaking, let us come boldly to the throne of grace to find
grace to help in time of need. And he gives it to us, I'll tell
you why. Oh my. And that's why we need to come
here. That's why we need to hear the gospel, isn't it? Because
it uplifts us. It points us to the King. It
comforts our souls. It's wonderful. And Paul, again, was spoken to
directly by the Lord Jesus Christ. And why did the Lord have Paul go to Ananias? Well, as a prophet of the Lord,
he was one of the Lord's ordained preachers, wasn't he? He was
one of the Lord's ordained preachers. And as a point of interest, Jesus
Christ spoke personally to the Saul of Taurus on the road to
Damascus. And one may ask, why didn't he tell Paul what Ananias
told him in verses 14 to 16 of Acts chapter 22? And here it says this, and he
said, The God of our fathers has chosen thee. Thou shouldest
know his will, see the just one, and shouldest hear the voice
of his mouth. For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of
what thou hast seen and heard. And now, why tarryest thou? Arise
and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name
of the Lord. Acts chapter 22, verses 14 to
16. Why didn't God just tell him
that himself? Some might say that, right? Well,
the answer is God has ordained men, sinners saved by the grace
of God, by his amazing grace as instruments to preach the
gospel. Turn, if you would, to 2 Timothy. See, he takes sinful
men, turns them into trophies of his
grace, still sinners, but saved. And now those sinners proclaim
the gospel of the grace of God in Christ to other sinners, praying
that God would use it to save his people and to build up his
people. That's my heart. When I preach,
I pray that it'll be a blessing to you all. build you up, but
I pray also that if anyone here that doesn't know Christ and
that all the Lord would save your soul. He'd save your soul. And as the message goes out,
same prayer. Build up your people, Lord. Save
your lost sheep, if it be your will. Right? See, we preachers are more concerned
about your soul than anything else. That's how it should be. My. Look at this in 2 Timothy
1. 2 Timothy 1. Look at verses 8 to 16. Paul's writing to Timothy,
a young preacher. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony
of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel according to the power of God, Look at this, who
has saved us. See, who saved us? God saved
us. We don't save ourselves, do we?
Not by a prayer or walking an aisle or doing something that
someone tells you to do. I love this. Who has saved us,
God saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works. Well, there goes man's works
out the window, right? For salvation. And works there
is anything you can do with your mind or anything you can do physically. Anything we can contrive up in
our mind that would save our souls or anything that we think
we could do to save our souls. Not. according to our works,
but according to all, look at this, his own purpose and grace,
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus
Christ, who has abolished death. He defeated death in our room
and place. We're gonna die, but death is not death for us. Death
is a doorway to heaven. For we who believe. and hath
brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher
of the Gentiles. For the witch cause I also suffer
these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed.
See, he's going through all these trials we've seen. You say, I'm
not ashamed of preaching Christ. I'm not ashamed of proclaiming
Christ. No. For I know whom I believed. Do
you know who you believed? Oh, I'll tell you what I believe. Jesus Christ is my all in all. Jesus Christ is all my salvation. Jesus Christ is all my righteousness. Jesus Christ is everything. Jesus
Christ, who saved my soul, is the one who upholds this world
by the word of his power. Jesus Christ, my Lord, is the
one who gives us very breath that we breathe, lost and saved. Jesus Christ is the King of Kings
and the Lord of Lords, and He's my Savior. Is He yours? I pray it would be so if He's
not. My. He says, for I know whom
I believe, and I'm persuaded that He's able to keep. See,
we can't keep ourselves, right? But He can keep us, can't He?
Oh, I love this, that He's able to keep. that which I've committed
unto him against that day." What have we believers committed to
him? Our eternal souls. He's able to keep us, isn't he,
Brother Tom? He can take us home one day. He's able. We're not able, but he's able,
because Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, and we're saved through
his blood and righteousness. Oh, he's the only one who's able
to save sinners, right? A sinner can't even save himself,
let alone any other sinners. But Christ is the one who can
save all who come to him. By faith. Oh my. Look at this, it gets even, this
is amazing. Hold fast the form of sound words. Hold fast, Christ. Hope fast
to the gospel that preaches Christ, that lifts him, that exalts him.
Hope fast to that truth, the free and sovereign grace of God
in Christ, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love, which
is in Christ Jesus. There's the key right there.
In Christ Jesus. I will tell Jesus. I will tell
him all our sorrows, all our sadness, all our cares, all our
woes, Casting our cares upon him for he careth for us in that
wonderful And he says I will give you rest Remember come you
weary come are you burdened come? Christ said I'll give you rest It's wonderful beloved My oh my And let's read again
verses 14 to 16 of Acts chapter 22. We'll save this for next
week, but let's read this here. And he said, For thou shalt be his witness
unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. And now, why
tarryst thou? Arise and be baptized, and wash
away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. So we'll look
at these here next week, but in closing, let us consider the
biblical truth concerning the miracle of Paul's conversion
by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a picture of all who believe
on Christ. Listen to what Paul wrote in
1 Timothy 1, 16. Hallelujah for this cause, I
obtained mercy. See, every believer can say that.
We obtained mercy, didn't we? That in me, first, Jesus Christ
might show forth all the longsuffering for a pattern to them which should
hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. Marvel, beloved,
at how longsuffering God was with us before we were saved.
Just dwell on that for a little while. How long suffering our
King was with us. My. And what Paul experienced
in the miracle of the new birth applies to every sinner who's
saved and born again by the power of God, the Holy Spirit, looking
to Christ by God-given faith. And marvel that now through the
eye of faith, We see ourselves as bankrupt, hell-deserving sinners,
don't we? But we rejoice that God had mercy
on us. He had mercy on us, beloved. Oh my, let us go forth into this
world equipped in Christ, the helmet of salvation, knowing
that we're clothed in the righteousness of Christ, with a girdle of truth,
Christ being the truth, with the breastplate of righteousness,
shoes shed with the preparation of the gospel, with the sword
of the Spirit, with the shield of faith, which finds its center
in Christ, in Christ alone. Let us focus upon Christ this
week and keep our eyes set upon him and rejoice at the same miracle
he performed for Paul in the new birth he done for us. Glory
to his name. Isn't he wonderful? Isn't he
wondrous?