with me to 1 John chapter 5.
1 John chapter 5. We'll read the
first 12 verses. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. and everyone that loveth him
that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we
know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep
his commandments. For this is the love of God,
that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not
grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world,
and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our
faith. Who is he that overcometh the
world? but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God.
This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ,
not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit
that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there
are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word,
and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. There are three
that beareth witness in the earth, the Spirit, and the water, and
the blood, And these three agree in one. If we receive the witness
of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness
of God, which he hath testified of his son. He that believeth
on the son hath the witness in himself. And he that believeth
not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the
record that God gave of his son. And this is the record that God
hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life." We'll end our reading there. All right,
let's stand together as Chris leads us in singing our call
to worship. My shepherd will supply my need,
Jehovah is His name. In pasture, friend, He makes
me feed. Beside the living stream, Beside
the living stream, He brings my wandering spirit back From
life forsaken place. And lift me for His mercy's sake,
In paths of truth and grace, In paths of truth and grace,
When I walk through the shades of death, The sound of my supporting breath
drives all my fears away, drives all my fears away. Your provisions, O my Lord, attend
me all my days. This heavenly house in my abode,
and all my work is framed. And all my work is framed. Okay, if you would, while you're
getting your seat, take your hymnal and turn to page 70, and
we'll sing Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty. Page 70. Early in the morning our song
shall rise to thee. Merciful and mighty, God in three
persons, blessed Trinity. All the saints adore thee, casting
down their golden crowns around the glassy sea. Cherubim and seraphim, falling
down before thee, Holy, holy, holy, though the
darkness hide thee, though the eye of sin foam in thy glory
may not see. Only thou art holy. There is none beside Thee, perfect
in power, in love and purity. ? Holy, holy, Lord God Almighty
? All thy works shall praise thy name ? In earth and sky and
sea ? Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty ? Every person blessed Trinity
? If you would turn your Bibles to
Acts chapter nine. Pastors ask us to read from verse
1 to 22. And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings
and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high
priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues,
that if he found any of this way, were men or women, he might
bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came
near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him a light
from heaven. And he fell to the earth and
heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecuteth thou
me? And he said, who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus,
whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. And he trembling and astonished
said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto
him, Arise, go into the city, and it shall be told thee what
thou must do. And the men which journeyed with
him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And
Saul rose, And Saul arose from the earth, and with his eyes
were opened, he saw no man. But they led him by the hand
and brought him into Damascus. And he was there three days without
sight, and neither did eat nor drink. And there was a certain
disciple at Damascus named Ananias. And to him said the Lord in a
vision, Ananias, he said, behold, I'm here, Lord. And the Lord
said unto him, arise and go into the street, which is called straight,
and inquire into the house of Judas for the one called Saul
of Tarsus, for behold, he prayeth. He has seen in a vision a man
named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he might
receive his sight. And Ananias answered, Lord, have
I heard? I have heard by many of this
man how much evil he has done to thy saints at Jerusalem. And
there he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all
that call on his name. But the Lord said unto him, go
thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before
the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I shall
show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.
And Ananias went his way and entered into the house and put
his hands on him, said, brother Saul, The Lord, even Jesus, that
appeared unto thee in the way thou comest, hath sent me that
thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost.
And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales,
and he received sight with, and arose and was baptized. And when
he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Paul certain
days with the disciples, which were at Damascus. And straightway
he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God. But
all that heard him were amazed and said, is this not he that
destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem and came
hither for that intent that he might bring them bound unto the
chief priest? But Saul increased the more in
strength and confounded the Jews which dwelt Damascus, proving
that this is very Christ. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, this is
a blessing this morning for us. To read these most precious words
that you have laid before us to read and study and learn.
We're thankful, Lord. For your mercies. For being such
a merciful God, a God who delights in mercy and showing forth that
mercy by the way in which only you can do that's in power and
in spirit. Showing forth your love for us,
manifesting that love to us by this gospel in which we have
preached to us and what a blessing it is, Lord. That we have this
true place of worship, a place in which we can come and hear
your word preached in a way in which it was already this morning.
And to hear these words with an understanding. So we pray
that same blessing again. Lord bless our pastor this morning.
Bless him in those words in which you have given to him. Let him
bring him to us, in a way in which only you, once again, can
bring forth. Bring forth in the way that light,
that light that shined what we read this morning on our apostle
Paul, that light that shined on him. Let that light shine
on us this morning, Lord. Let that light shine in the way
of the gospel that we hear and have preached to us. Keep us,
Lord. Keep us by your restraint, looking
to him as we've been told. We pray, Lord, for those in whom
you have brought into these very difficult, troubled times. We
pray for those, Lord, who suffers these afflictions of these bodies.
We have these in the church and in our families, Lord, that suffer
these terrible things. We pray, Lord. We pray that you
teach them, show them, show us all, Lord, how to look to Him,
look to the one in whom can and will heal these infirmities,
these afflictions. Now, all these things we ask
in Christ's name, Lord, and for His sake only, amen. All right, keep your Bibles open
there to Acts chapter 9, that will be our text this morning. I titled the message this morning,
What Wilt Thou Have Me To Do? I took my title from verse 6,
and he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have
me to do? I'd like to answer that question
for each of us here this morning. You know, none of us are like
the Apostle Paul. We won't be used of the Lord
like the Apostle was. But there are several truths
that apply to every believer here in our text. There are things
here that the Lord tells Paul to do that he tells all of his
people to do. You know, that's something that
we would all like to know, wouldn't it? What would the Lord have
me do? My dear wife, Janet, has said
so often, I wish the Lord would come down here and sit at my
kitchen table and tell me what it is we're supposed to be doing. And you know, I don't know. I
don't know in many situations in your life and many decisions
that you have to make, I don't know what you should do. But
I can tell you with a great deal of certainty, with all certainty,
let me rephrase that, with all certainty, there are four things
that the Lord tells all of his people to do. Number one is this. What am I supposed to do? Lord,
what would you have me to do? Go where the gospel is preached.
Look at verse six here in Acts chapter nine. And he trembling
and astonished said, Lord, what will thou have me to do? And
the Lord said unto him, arise and go into the city and it should
be told thee what thou must do. Now the Lord told Paul, you go
wait in a specific place in this city. And he didn't exactly know
it yet, but the Lord was going to send Saul a preacher. who
would tell Saul what to do. Now that's pretty simple, isn't
it? Go to the place I told you and
wait there. I'll tell you what to do. That's so simple. And
you know, the Lord tells all of his people this very same
thing. You go to the place where Christ is preached. You find
a place where the gospel of God's grace is preached and you go
there and you sit and you listen and you wait. And I'll send you
a message. Sooner or later, I'll send you
a message. I'll send you a message specifically
for your heart. You go sit there and wait. I'll
send you a message. Now that's a blessing, isn't
it? I read to open the service. The Lord's commandments to us
are not grievous. This is God's commandment to
his people. You go sit under the sound of the gospel and I'll
bless you. I'll give a message for your
heart. That's not grievous. That's a blessing. The Lord tells
us you go to the pasture that I provide for my sheep and you
eat there. My brother Jonathan has said
this several times, that the sheep should be fat and happy,
just eating the grass and the pasture without worrying about
all this other junk. Just come eat. That's what the
Lord tells us to do. You know, one of the wonderful
things about God's salvation is he tells his people, I've
taken care of everything. I've done everything that's necessary.
I've provided your entire salvation. I've done everything that's necessary
to give you salvation in both justice and grace. I've done everything that's necessary.
And the same thing's true about feeding God's sheep. The Lord
has provided a specific man who has prepared a specific message
for you, for your heart. The Lord's gonna give all of
his people a message of Christ for you. He's sending it to you,
to your heart. The Lord's gonna see to it that
all of his people, wherever they're found, they're gonna hear the
message that the Lord has for them. Now, I know God's let come
to hear the gospel in many different ways, don't we? Maybe you're
born in a home where your parents are believers and they bring
you to hear the gospel, whether you like it or not, they bring
you to hear. Maybe a friend invites you to
come here with them. Maybe your boy likes a cute girl.
You come to the service with her because she wants you to
come and you want to make her happy. Maybe you stumble on a
message that you hear on the internet. It's the message of
God's grace in Christ Jesus. The Lord's gonna unhorse you
and throw you down in the dust, makes you physically helpless
like he did Saul of Tarsus. But one way or another, however
he's pleased to do it, if you're one of God's sheep, the Lord's
gonna see to it that you hear the gospel preached. He's gonna
bring you to hear it, and he's gonna give you the faith to believe
it and to feed on it. This is what the Lord will have
all his people do. You go to a place where the gospel's
preached. and don't go someplace where the gospel's not preached.
Pretty simple, isn't it? All right, number two. Now look
over at Acts 22. Here, Paul is telling us about
this very same incident on the road to Damascus. He gives us
some other details. Here's the second thing we're
to do. This is what the Lord have all of his people do. Believe
a specific gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Acts 22, verse 12. This is Paul saying what has
happened, how he came to know Christ. Verse 12, and one Ananias,
a devout man, according to the law, having a good report of
all the Jews which dwelt there, came unto me and stood, and said
unto me, brother Saul, I love that, brother Saul, there's no
probationary period, there's nothing Saul had to do to prove
that he knew the Lord. Brother Saul, receive thy sight. At that same hour, I looked up
upon him, and he said, now this is his message, the message of
God to Saul, the God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest
know his will, and see that just one, and shouldest hear the voice
of his mouth. Now here's how Ananias opened
his message to Saul of Tarsus. He opened it with God's electing
love. That's how he began. He didn't,
you know, Tell him some other things and try to sneak election
in there later on. He started with God's electing
love. The God of our fathers has chosen
thee, has elected you unto salvation. Now this is a fact from scripture.
The only people who have ever been saved, the only people who
ever will be saved, are God's elect. You see, God had to elect
a people. He had to choose a sinful people
to save Because left to our own sinful nature, we would never
choose God's way of salvation. Never. Our carnal mind is enmity
against God. We would never choose God's way.
Left to our own nature, we'd never even know we're sinners,
would we? We would never even know that we must be forgiven
of our sins, much less beg for it. We'd never beg for God's
mercy. Left to our own nature. Left
to our own dead minds, and you know this is true. We would think
we're righteous enough on our own so that I don't need Christ.
Now that's what we think, left our own dead minds, isn't it?
That makes me so thankful for God's electing love. Even though
I just described my nature, my sinful, dead, rebellious nature,
Almighty God chose to save me anyway. I love to think about
God's election of a people. I love to preach about God's
electing love because without God's election, no sinner would
ever be saved. You see, as far as old Saul knew,
God didn't start working on him until God threw him down there
in the dust. And the Lord Jesus came to him and started speaking
to him. That's when Saul thought God started dealing with him.
But in reality, that's not true, is it? God's purpose of grace
for Saul of Tarsus began way back there in the council halls
of eternity when the father elected Saul of Tarsus unto salvation.
He chose to save that self-righteous rebel, and God's son agreed to
be surety for that sinful, wretched man. He agreed to come into flesh
and make Saul righteous through the obedience of Christ. He agreed
that he would come and redeem Saul of Tarsus from all of his
sin by the blood of his sacrifice. That was God's eternal purpose
for Saul of Tarsus. But Saul didn't know it. You
know how Saul found out about it? God had to put him in the
dust. He had to make him blind. He
had to make him helpless so he'd sit still. And then God sent
him a preacher to tell him all about God's purpose of grace
and mercy for him. See, the elect always hear the
gospel. The Lord made it so that Paul, Paul knew Saul, Paul, whichever
way you wanna call him, he didn't know the first thing about God's
electing love until God sent him a preacher and told him all
about it. And I know for sure, I mean, the Lord said Saul's
one of his elect, I mean, I know that, but this is such a good
illustration of this. In that group that was going
with Saul to Damascus to throw those believers in jail, Saul,
was the only one that heard the voice of God that day. Look up
at verse nine here in Acts chapter 22. And they that were with me
saw indeed the light, and they were afraid, but they heard not
the voice of him that spake to me. That's election. There was a whole group of people
there. One of them heard. Saul of Tarsus heard. The rest
of them said, well, something's going on. I don't know what.
Isn't that the way it is before the Lord gives us ears to hear?
We come to a religious service like this. A man gets up, preaches
the gospel. Hopefully, we pray in the power
of God's spirit. We know something's going on.
People around me are being blessed, but I don't hear it. I don't
see what the big deal is. God's elect, always here, always
here. And let me go back to my first
point for just a second. Somebody is here this morning,
I just described, I promise you. You know something's going on,
but you don't hear. You don't get it. God's not speaking
to you. Don't be discouraged and don't
quit. Keep coming under the sound of
the gospel. Keep coming here to hear the
gospel preached. This is how God speaks to his
people. If God's ever gonna speak to you, It's gonna be, he's gonna
speak to you by doing what we're doing right now, by the preaching
of the gospel. Keep coming, keep coming to hear,
keep asking God to speak with you. If you belong to Christ,
he's gonna speak to you. I promise you he will. See, Ananias
came to preach to Paul, to Saul, because he knew for sure Saul
was one of God's elect. You know, at first, Ananias heard
all Saul, he said, Lord, you sure about this? I don't know
how I'm gonna go preach to this man. And Lord said, Saul's one of
my elect. He's a chosen vessel unto me.
And Ann and I said, let me at him. Let me at him. This is God's
elect. I'm gonna go preach. I can preach
with some confidence to him. I can preach with some confidence
to you. God's elect are gonna hear. I
know they are. God's elect are gonna hear, and
they're gonna be blessed by the sound of the gospel. Now you
might wonder, all right, God's elect are gonna hear. Only God's
elect are gonna hear. The only people ever gonna be
saved are God's elect. Now, I at least can give you some mental
agreement with that. I see that in God's word. Here's my question.
How do I know if I'm one of God's elect or not? How do I know?
I wanna know that, don't you? Well, there are three words here
that tell us. Know, see, and hear. Know, see, and hear. Ananias
told Saul this. Almighty God has elected you
into salvation. He chose you so that you would
know God's will. Now if you're one of God's elect,
God's gonna make it so that you know God. You're gonna know God. Now I know there's some things
that we're never gonna fully understand and fully know, but
if God saves you, you're gonna know some things for sure. The
Lord's gonna teach you so that you know who God is. You know
that God must save you in a way that is both just and merciful. You're gonna know that. God's
justice must be satisfied and his mercy must be satisfied.
You're gonna know who God is. And you're gonna know how God
saves sinners. There's not gonna be the slightest question in
your mind. God saves sinners by the obedience of Christ and
the sacrifice of Christ. That's how God saves sinners.
That's how their sins can be forgiven. That's how their sins
can be paid for. This is what I know for sure.
God's will is that his people be saved by the doing and dying
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not your works, it's not
your will, it's God's will and it's God's word that Christ did
for you. You're gonna know that. You'll
know that and nobody will ever be able to tell you otherwise.
However, that being said, now that's true. Salvation is a whole
lot more than knowing facts. Salvation is knowing a person. It's knowing a person. If the
Father elected you unto salvation, you won't just know how God saves
sinners. You're going to know that salvation
is a person and that the Lord Jesus Christ is your salvation. Not just nameless faces of a
number that no man can number. You're going to know that the
Lord Jesus Christ is your salvation. In his great song of praise after
the Lord delivered his children of Israel from Egypt, Exodus
15 verse two, this is what Moses said. The Lord is my strength
and my song and he is become my salvation. I love the way
Moses said that. He didn't say God saved me. He
said, God is become my salvation. Isaiah said the same thing. Isaiah
12 verse two, behold, he said, God is my salvation. Not just that God saved me. That's
true. But God is my salvation. And since I know God, since I
know that God is my salvation, Isaiah said, I'll trust and not
be afraid. I'm not trusting. See, if God
is the one that saves you, you're gonna be able to say with the
Apostle Paul, I know whom I have believed. I know whom. And since I know who I have believed,
since I know Christ, I know he is my salvation, I'm gonna entrust
the entirety of my salvation to him. Now I know, we can't
know everything there is to know about God, but you don't have
to know everything that there is to know about God in order
to be saved. You don't have to know that. Here's my question
to you. Have you been taught enough to
know that, I mean, you know and really believe this, that the
only way you can be saved is in, by, and through the Lord
Jesus Christ? That he had to save you or you'll
be lost forever. If your answer to that question
is yes, you're one of God's elect. The second word is C. Now, if
you're one of God's elect, You will see Christ with the eye
of faith, by the eye of faith. We won't see him bodily, but
with the eye of faith. You'll see the Lord Jesus Christ
is the just one. That's what Ananias told Paul,
he'd see, you'll see the Lord Jesus Christ, the just one. Not only is the Lord Jesus the
only man who ever lived, who earned a righteousness by his
own personal obedience to the law, but he's the one that justifies
his people. He is the justification of his
people. He's made on us wisdom, righteousness,
justification, and redemption. Christ is my justification. And everyone that God sees, the
Lord Jesus Christ is their justification. Justified means having no sin.
Now this is what I know. Going back to that first word,
know. I know this. I believe this. I am rock solid
on this. The only way Almighty God can
see me as having no sin is if he sees me in his son. If he
sees me in Christ, he's my justification. Look back at John chapter six. If you're one of God's elect,
you'll see Christ so that you believe him, so that you believe
him. Seeing Christ is believing him. John 6, verse 40. And this is
the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the
Son and believeth on him. If you see the Son, you'll believe
on him, may have everlasting life. And I'll raise him up at
the last day. Everyone who sees Christ has
everlasting life. Now, I can agree that that's
true, but here's what I wanna know. I bet here's what you wanna
know. Do I see Christ? Do I see him? Well, let me ask
you a few questions. I'll answer your question by
asking a few questions. Do you see that the only way
that you can be saved is by the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you see
that? I can't remember a day in my
life that I did not believe that salvation has been accomplished
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Not a day in my life that I can
remember that I did not give mental agreement to the fact
that's true. But I was in darkness. I was in the darkness of unbelief,
the darkness of spiritual death, the darkness of ignorance, and
one day God turned the light on, and you know what I said? I see. Now I see the only way
I can be saved is in the Lord Jesus Christ. I always believed
the only way you can be saved is in Christ. But when the Lord
turns the light on, this is what I see. The only way I can be
saved is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see the only way you could
ever be righteous is if Christ obeyed the law for you as your
representative? Do you see that? I see I became
a sinner in Adam because I was in Adam. He was my representative.
I did what he did. I see that. Do you see that the
only way you made righteous is you were in Christ when he obeyed
the as your representative. Do you see that? Do you see you
can't make yourself righteous by what you do? It's got to be
Christ. Do you see that the only way
your sin can be forgiven is by the blood of Christ? His blood
cleanses us from all sin. Do you see that? If your answer
to that question is yes, my friend, you're one of God's elect because
the Lord makes all of his elect see Christ that way. So there's
no, there's see, and the third word is hear. Now the way that
the Lord teaches his elect so that we know him, the way he
teaches us so that we see him and believe on him is by hearing,
by hearing the gospel. It goes back to what I said earlier.
If you don't believe on Christ, you don't see, you don't see
what the big deal is. You're not hearing it. Keep coming,
keep hearing, keep hearing, keep hearing. And don't come just
hear any gospel now. Don't just come hear any man
that stands up behind a pulpit, wearing a suit and tie and has
a Bible open in front of him. A lot of them don't even have
Bibles open in front of them anymore. Don't just go listen to any guy
that sounds religious. It's not just any preaching that
saves. It must be the preaching of the gospel. It must be the
preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, if we're gonna believe
on Christ, somebody's gotta tell us who he really is. Don't they just stand to reason?
Somebody's got to tell us who he really is. I will never be
saved sitting under a gospel that tells me Jesus loves everybody
and died for everybody. I'll never be saved because that's
not the savior. Somebody's got to tell me who
he really is. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. Look at Romans chapter 10. Many of you could quote this,
but I want us to read it. Read it from God's word, see
it for ourselves, and pray that he applies this to our heart.
Faith cometh by hearing. By hearing a man sent from God
with a message from God for you. Romans 10, verse 13. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then
shall they call on him in whom they've not believed? And how
shall they believe in him of whom they've not heard And how
shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be seen? See, faith comes by hearing.
Hearing a man sent from God with God's message for you, for you. And this spiritual knowledge,
the spiritual knowledge so that we know Christ. Now how is it
that I can come to know Christ? How is it that I can be sitting
with a group of people, hearing the voice of a sinful man, reading
words written on a piece of paper, and hear from God. How is that
possible? How is it possible that a blind,
dead sinner like me can come to know Christ? It's by divine
revelation. Now, you're not gonna have this
Damascus Road experience where you hear God speak to you audibly. like he spoke to Saul of Tarsus.
God spoke to the fathers that way. He hath in these last days
spoken us by son, by his word. You're not gonna hear audibly,
but you're still gonna hear by divine revelation. It's just
as miraculous as the Lord Jesus Christ coming to that road, throwing
Saul down on the ground and speaking to him. It's just as miraculous.
Maybe more miraculous because you're gonna hear it from the
lips of a sinful man reading words written with ink on a piece
of paper. And you're gonna hear from God.
It has to be by divine revelation. Knowing God, seeing him, hearing
him, it has to be by divine revelation because I don't care how intelligent
we are, none of us can figure this out for ourselves. You're
never gonna be able to know Christ or see Christ or figure him out.
by human intellect because our intellect is dead. Faith in Christ,
being able to see Christ, being able to hear Him, being able
to believe on Him, comes to us by divine revelation. And it
comes while Christ is being preached. Now you're not going to be able
to explain this divine revelation exactly, but you're going to
know. I used to not know Christ and
now I do. I used to not know who he is. Now I do. I used to not know how God could
save a sinner like me. Now I do. I know his character. I know what he's done for sinners.
I know what he's done for me. This is what I know. The only
hope of salvation that I know, that I could ever have, I know
this, is in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's him. I fully, completely
trust him to do all of the saving for me. I know that. I believe that. I see that. I
love that. I didn't used to love it, now
I do. I didn't used to see it, now I do. How'd that happen? Well, I don't know exactly. When
was the moment it happened? I don't know exactly. Here's
what I know. I know whom I have believed.
That came to you by divine revelation. God himself showed you Christ
from his word, from the gospel. Now, I ask you, have you heard
the gospel? Now, every person here has heard
the gospel with these ears. You're here every week. I preach
it to you. These other men that fill in
for me preach it to you. A couple Sundays ago, Jonathan
and Dan preached it. Thursday night, Mike Walker preached
it to you. This morning, I come to you knowing I'm preaching
the gospel to you. You've heard it, but have you
heard it? Have you heard it in the heart,
with the ear of faith, so that you believe Christ? Do you believe
Him? If you believe Him, if your answer
to that question is yes, you're one of God's elect. Now I want
to stress how precious this is. The holy God chose to save sinners
who sinned against him, who were his enemies, like Saul of Tarsus.
That's who God chose to save. The Lord Jesus Christ, God's
son, came to die as the substitute for God's elect to put their
sin away. Christ died the death that all
of God's elect deserve. He died the death they deserve
so that they could live. The father elected a people.
And I'm telling you, the Lord will have all of them saved.
He will have all of them know him. He will have all of them
glorified together with him because the sacrifice of God's son is
not gonna go to waste. The Lord will find all of his
lost sheep. He will give them life. He will
give them faith through the preaching of the gospel. The shepherd's
gonna find every one of his lost sheep and he's gonna bring them
home and he won't lose one. I know that's true because that's
what God said in his word. And I love that. That makes me
so excited to preach the gospel of God's grace, to preach Christ
to people, knowing this, God will save his elect by it. He
will feed his sheep by it. Ooh, that gets me excited. That
just makes me excited. If God chose you to salvation,
he's gonna save you. I don't care who you are. You
could be a self-righteous religionist like the Saul of Tarsus, the
most unlikely man that God would say that any of us could imagine.
He's gonna save you whether you're a man who's lived a lifetime
of crime and murder, like the thief on the cross. He's gonna
save you whether you're a hard-hearted, hard-working man like that Philippian
jailer, or whether you're a child like Timothy. If the Father chose
you unto salvation, The Son died for you, the Spirit's going to
give you life. He's going to give you faith in Christ. Somehow,
someway, the Lord's going to cross your path with the Gospel,
and He, by divine revelation, is going to reveal Himself to
you the same way He did Paul when he was down there in the
dust on the Damascus Road. He's going to have you. He will
not let you go. He paid a price too high to redeem
you. The blood of His Son. This is what we're to do. We're
to go where the gospel's preached. We're to believe a specific gospel,
the gospel of God's Son. And here's a third thing. What
am I to do? Lord, what would you have me to do? Arise and
be baptized. Look in verse 16, back in our
text. No, I'm sorry, in Acts 22. I got my places confused here.
Acts 22, verse 16. This is Ananias speaking
to Saul. And now, why teariest thou? Saul, what are you waiting for?
Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling on the
name of the Lord. Arise and be baptized. Now, baptism
is the way that our saviors commanded his people to confess him publicly. Baptism is a picture of what
the Lord Jesus Christ endured in order to save a sinner like
me. Christ had to suffer and die the death that I deserve. And when he died, I died to God's
justice in him. I was in him. When he died, I
died too. And Christ was buried. Just like
when we take that person we're baptizing, dunk them all the
way under the water, they're out of sight. Christ was buried
in a tomb and they rolled that stone in front of the door and
walked away, leaving a dead body in that tomb. Christ was buried
because he truly died for my sin. He'd satisfied God's justice
for me. And then three days later, he
arose from the dead because his sacrifice put my sin away. See, sin is what causes death,
isn't it? Well, there is no sin, there
cannot be death. The death of Christ, the blood
of Christ put away all the sin of all of his people, so he must
rise again from the grave. And when Christ arose, I arose
in him. I rose to new life in him. When
Christ arose from the dead, that was the guarantee. God's gonna
cause me to rise from the dead spiritually. Give me spiritual
life. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only expectation, the only
reason I have any hope of spiritual life. His death, his burial,
his resurrection for me. I know Christ died for you, but
what I'm confessing is Christ died for me. That's what we confess
when we're baptized. Now I got another question for
you. If the Lord has made it so that you know Christ, so that
you know who he is and how he saved sinners, and how he could
save a sinner like you, why haven't you confessed him
in baptism? Why tariest thou? What are you
waiting on? What a joy to confess Christ this way. Now this is
God's commandment. This is what God would have all
of his people do, confess him in believers baptism. Now that's
joyful. That's not grievous. It's joyful. If Lord saved you and you're
struggling with this issue of baptism and you finally come
and say, Frank, I'd like for you to baptize me. I want to
confess Christ in baptism. You ask yourself the same question.
After we baptize you and it's all over, you'll say, why'd I
wait so long? Why tarryst thou? This is a joy. If the Lord's given you to see,
eyes to see, Christ crucified for you, why would you not want
to confess him? If the Lord's given you ears
to hear him in the gospel, the gospel of your salvation, of
course you want to confess him. It's a blessing. to be able to
confess our Savior this way. And I say that again because
I want us to see His commandments are not grievous. This is what
the Lord would have you do. Confess Him publicly in baptism. And number four, what is it that
the Lord would have us do? We're to join to God's people
and we're to love Him. Look back in our text now, Acts
chapter nine, verse 19. And when he had received meat,
he was strengthened. Then with Saul, certain days with the disciples,
which were at Damascus, and straightway, he preached Christ in the synagogues,
that he is the son of God. Now Paul immediately went and
joined himself to the people of God. He was traveling to Damascus
to find these people that believe this gospel, the people of this
way, and arrest them. Now Paul went to join himself
to them, and he preached Christ to them. that Jesus is the very
Christ. He went and joined himself to
the people of God there, and he loved them. He loved them. I know he loved them, because
no matter what it cost him, Paul preached Christ to him, didn't
he? Even if it was gonna cost him his life, Paul was gonna
preach the gospel of God's grace in Christ Jesus. He was gonna
tell sinners about Christ, no matter what it cost him. Now,
the only reason a man would do that is love. It's the only reason. Love for God, love for Christ,
and love for people. That's the only reason Paul would
endure everything that he endured in his ministry, is because he
loved people. Now, the Lord may not call you
to preach. Most of his people he does not.
But he has called you to this, to love one another. This is
my commandment, that you love one another. is I have loved
you that you love one another. And we show our love one to another. We show our love for Christ by
serving his people, by serving one another. Now again, that's
not grievous. That's a blessing to show love,
not hate to somebody. To have them show love to you,
not hate. To have kindness and mercy and grace instead of hard
feelings. That's a blessing, isn't it?
Now that's not grievous. Now those are the four things
that God would have all of his people do, but quickly in closing,
I'm gonna give you two things here, kinda for free, that you
can chew on. You know when the Lord saves
a person? He makes them submit. Now if God's gonna save us, we're
gonna submit. We're gonna submit ourselves to the righteousness
of God. We're gonna submit ourselves
to his will. We're gonna be made willing in
the day of God's power. when he gives us a heart of submission.
That's what happened to Saul. Look back here at verse one,
Acts chapter nine. And Saul, breathing out threatenings
and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high
priest and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues,
that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or
women, he may bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And it wasn't
just to throw him in jail, it was to kill him. He was threatening
and slaughter. Slaughter. Where did the story
end at Damascus? With Paul preaching Christ to
them in love. He had to submit himself unto
the righteousness of Christ. God met him at his point of rebellion. Paul, Saul of Tarsus, hated the
Lord Jesus Christ. He hated Jesus. He hated anybody
that preached to him. That's why he held the coats
of those men that were Stone and Stephen. He hated him. Who
met him on the road to Damascus? Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth. See
that verse five? And he said, who art thou Lord?
And the Lord said, I'm Jesus, whom thou persecutest. And you
know what Paul did? He submitted himself to the man,
Christ Jesus. He submitted himself to the righteousness
of God that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if God's gonna save
us, brother, we're gonna submit. Now we're gonna submit. We're
gonna submit to God, we're gonna submit to his gospel, and because
we love one another, we're gonna submit to one another. Where
there's no submission, there's no salvation. Now let me give
you this one more thing quickly. Verse 16, Acts chapter nine.
This is part of what Ananias' message From God to Saul was,
for I will show him how great things he must suffer for my
namesake. Now more than likely, you and
I will not suffer physical affliction in these things like the Apostle
Paul did. We may be called upon to do that,
to suffer for his sake. But even if we're not called
to suffer like this, like Paul did, every believer is going
to suffer loss, every believer. And I don't say that with a frown
on my face. This is good news. Every believer
is going to suffer loss for Christ's sake. You know what we're going
to lose? We're going to lose the rags
of our self-righteousness. And you know what we're going
to gain? The perfect righteousness of
Christ. But I've got to suffer the loss of the glory of this
flesh, the glory of earning my own righteousness, before I gain
the righteousness of Christ. We're gonna lose any credit for
ourselves. But you know what we're gonna
gain? So we can give Christ all the glory. We're gonna lose any
confidence in our flesh. And to the flesh, that's horrible.
That's a horrible loss, not having confidence in our flesh anymore.
But you know what you gain when you don't have any confidence
in your flesh? You gain full faith and confidence in Christ. Now that's what he's commanded
us to suffer the loss of those things. for our gain, for our
good, and for the glory of Christ. That's not grievous, is it? That's
glorious. And it is my hope and prayer
that that is the description of you and me, those four things.
All right, the Lord bless you. Let's bow together. Our Father, we thank you for
the plain teaching of your word. We thank you for this passage
of scripture that gives us a picture of how you reveal yourself to
your people, power, mercy, and grace. Give us life and faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ, that you give us the life that Christ
earned for us by his death as our substitute. Father, we're
so thankful. And Father, I beg of you that
you'd be pleased to take these words and that you would apply
them to each heart here by divine revelation, by the very power
of God, the Holy Spirit, that you'd apply these words to our
hearts, enable each one of us to leave here this morning, trusting
in, rejoicing in Christ our Savior. Father, it's a great blessing,
a great undeserved blessing. that we would ask that you would
be so merciful to sinners like us. But Father, we ask you that
you do it for Christ's sake. Do it for the glory of Christ.
If you would be pleased to save the likes of us, to bless our
hearts and feed our hearts and keep us by your mercy and grace,
it all has to be because of the Lord Jesus Christ, because of
the power of his blood, because of his perfect righteousness,
that he get all the glory and all the praise for it. Surely,
we give it to you. Father, it's in Christ's name.
For his sake and his glory, we pray. Amen. All right, Chris. All right, in standing, if you
would, take your hymnal and turn it to page 132. He lives. One,
three, two. I serve a risen Savior, He's
in the world today. I know that He is living, whatever
men may say. I see His hand of mercy, I hear
His voice of cheer. And just the time I need Him,
He's always near. He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus
lives today. He walks with me and talks with
me along life's narrow way. He lives, He lives, salvation
to impart. I ask He and I know He lives. He lives within my heart. In all the world around me, I
see His loving care. And though my heart grow weary
and ever with despair, I know that He is leading through all
the stormy blare. The day of His appearing will
come at last. He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus
lives today. He walks with me and walks with
me along that feral way. He lives, He lives, valuation
to impart. You ask me how I know He lives. He lives within my heart. Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian. Lift up your voice and sing. The hope of all who seek Him,
the help of all who find Him. My mother is so lovely, so good
and kind. He lives, he lives, Christ Jesus
lives today. He walks with me and walks with
me, a long life there away. He lives, He lives, salvation
to impart. You ask me how I know He lives,
He lives within my heart.