Alright, go with me back to Acts
22. I have a very specific message
to deliver tonight. Very specific. My desire is to
be as clear and as brief as I can possibly be. That's my desire. I want to be as clear and as
brief as I can possibly be. I want to state my message and
then be done. All right? If God will allow
us to truly enter into this, if he will truly give our undivided
attention to this, I believe this will be a huge help to us.
This was a huge help to me. Paul is telling the Jews in Jerusalem,
The Jews that just severely beat him. He's telling those Jews
how God saved him. That's what he's telling them.
In verse 6, he said, It came to pass that as I made my journey
and 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 me? And I answered, Who art thou,
Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus
of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest. 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. And I said, What shall I do,
Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus,
and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed
for thee to do. And when I could not see for
the glory of that 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 a good report of all the Jews
which dwelt there, came unto me, and stood, and said unto
me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour I looked
up upon him." Paul said, God stopped me. He stopped, I was
in my little perfect religious world. I was doing my religious
thing. I was going about all my religion. I was my good man. And God stopped me. He stopped
all that religion. God blinded me to everything. All that religion. All that stuff
I'd been told. All that stuff I saw. And God
sent me a messenger. He stopped me. He blinded me. He sent me a messenger. And when
God did that, something happened. Now go with me to Acts chapter
9. This is the actual account that
Paul is recalling. Acts chapter 9. Look at verse 17. Acts 9 verse 17. And Ananias
went his way and entered into the house, and putting his hands
on him, said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared
unto thee in the way as thou camest 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 forthwith
and arose and was baptized." Paul said, when God gave me the
message Now Paul knew the message. He already knew the message.
He already knew it. He hated it. He absolutely hated
the message. The reason he was killing everybody
was because of that message. That was the reason. He held
the coats so they could all stone Stephen because of the message
he preached. But Paul said, when it pleased
God, God came to me. And when it pleased God, he gave
me, he sent me the message. Not them, me. And as soon as
he did that, he said, it was like scales fell off my eyes. Now, can any of us say that? I grew up under the truth. I've just never believed anything
other than what the scripture actually teaches. I've known it since I was a child.
Right there. I had it right up in there. And
I believed it. And the reason is because my
dad told it to me and I believed it. But there came a point in
time, and it wasn't a particular day, I don't know when it was. It could be any time over the
course of 20 years. I'm not sure when it was. But
I do know there came a particular point in time when all of a sudden
it was like scales fell off of my heart. And I do know there did come
a point in time when I realized not only do I know this, I think I love it. I think I
actually want to read it. I think I love Him. I think I
love Him. I don't just think I know who
He is and believe what He does. I think I love Him. It was like
scales fell off of my heart. Back over in our text, look at
Acts chapter 22, verse 12 says, 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, receive thy sight. And the same hour I looked up
upon him." God spoke individually. Individually. Paul said, the
message was directly to me. Brother Saul. You ever really, I mean, sometimes
we say, man, that was just for me. You ever really sometimes
think that was literally just for me? He said it was directly to me.
He said the commandment came forth, receive thy sight. Brother Saul, you receive thy
sight. He said the same hour. What that
means is immediately. I saw. I didn't have to do anything
first. I didn't have to accept it or
reject it. I just saw. Alright, now turn
with me to 1 Timothy chapter 1. 1 Timothy 1 and look at verse 16. Howbeit for this cause I obtained
mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering
for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life
everlasting. Paul said, everything about my
conversion was a pattern for every sinner who God would save
after me. Everything about it. And Paul
says back in our text, this is the message I heard. Go with
me back over to Acts 22. He said, this is the message
I heard. Verse 14, and he said, the God of our fathers hath chosen
thee. That's God's message. It's the only message of truth
and it's the only message that saves. It's the only message
that saves. God Almighty is God Almighty. We cannot do anything, you know,
what will you do with Jesus? We cannot do anything with Him. God Almighty is God Almighty. That's just stating fact. Our
Lord said in John 5, you won't even come to me that you might
have life. I'm life and you will not come. The songwriter said, tis not
that I did choose thee. Lord, that could never be. Why
could it never be? It's because even if I could,
I wouldn't. Even if I could, I wouldn't. This old, cold, stony, dead heart
right here says, I will not. I will not. God does all the
choosing. But here's the amazing thing.
He said in verse 14, the God of our fathers hath chosen thee. He chose you. That's the amazing
thing. I mean, if you stop and think
about it, If you stop and think about it, he chose you. Well,
he chose him and you're his wife. No, he chose you. Individually, each one, he chose
you. That's amazing. He chose you. Of everybody he could have chosen,
he chose you. Isn't that amazing? Verse 14 says that thou shouldest
know His will. He chose you to let you in on
His heart's desire. Look with me at Exodus 25. Exodus 25 verse 10 And they shall make an ark of
shiddim wood, two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof,
a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, a cubit and a half the
height thereof. That's the ark of the covenant. The ark of the
covenant. God said, I'm going to put something
inside this ark. And this is going to be a covenant
to my people. Verse 17 says, And thou shalt
make a mercy seat. I want you to put a mercy seat
on top of it. of pure gold, two cubits and
a half shall be the length thereof, a cubit and a half the breadth
thereof. Thou shalt make two cherubims of gold of beaten work,
shalt thou make them in the two ends of the mercy seat. Make
one cherub on the one end and the other cherub on the other
end, even of the mercy seat, shall you make the cherubims
on the two ends thereof. And the cherubim shall stretch
forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings,
and their faces shall look one to another toward the mercy seat,
shall the faces of the cherubims be. And thou shalt put the mercy
seat above the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony
that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee,
and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from
between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony
of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the
children of Israel. right there at the mercy seat. That's where you're going to
find out exactly what's in my heart. Right there at the mercy
seat. What is in your heart, Lord?
That all that the Father giveth me, I should lose none, but raise
every single one of them up at the last day. My will is that
where I am, there they may be also. Ephesians 1 says, He made
known unto us the mystery of His will according to His good
pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself. His own will. What is it? That in the dispensation
of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things
in Christ. Every elect child of God that's
in heaven, every elect child of God that's on the earth, every
one of them, they're going to be gathered together in Him.
All right, now go with me back to our text. Acts 22 verse 14 says, and he
said, the God of our fathers have chosen thee that thou shouldest
know his will and see that just one. Who is that? That's Christ. The just who was given for the
unjust. The God of our fathers has chosen
you to see Christ. Chosen to see Christ and to hear
the voice of his mouth. Now Paul physically did hear
the voice of his mouth. But through this word right here,
so does every elect child of God. Every single one. He said,
my sheep hear my voice. That's what he said, my sheep
hear my voice. You know what he says? Come. That's what he says, come. And they all follow him. Verse 12 in our text, 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, receive thy sight. And the same hour
I looked up upon him, And he said, 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, for thou shalt
be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard.
That's the message of God's word, cover to cover. We are his witnesses
of the things that he's caused us to see and hear in this word. That's what we do. We preach
this word. Now, Paul said he was a pattern for every soul
that would truly believe after him. That's what he said. Here
was the commandment that was given to Paul. And what we're about to read,
we read it just a minute ago over in Acts chapter 9, this
was his response. Here was the commandment, this was his response. It is the same command that is
given to us and it must be our response. Verse 16 says, And
now, why tariest thou? That means, what are you waiting
for? He said, arise. If God says come, then go. If he says arise, then we had
better get up. We don't move a muscle. But this
heart right here had better get up. Our Lord said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. Verse 16, and now why tarryest
thou? Arise and be baptized and wash
away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. I love that verse. I love that verse. Now we all
learned in school. We had elementary school, middle
school, high school. And in school we had English
class and we learned some grammar. I really wish I would have paid
a little more attention, but it was given to me. And we learned the fact that
when you say Gabe, comma, and Brandon. We're talking about
two different people, not one person, two people, Gabe,
comma, and Brandon, right? You go to a checkout at the grocery
store and you reach into your buggy and you put on the counter
bananas, comma, and potatoes, comma, and lobster. We're buying three items, right? Not one item, not two items,
three items. Now, how do we know it's three
items? The commas and the ands. Without the commas and the ands,
if I put up there bananas, potato, lobster, that could be one item. It could be a lobster that has
had some horrible flavoring added to it and it tastes like bananas
and potatoes. But because it's bananas, comma,
and, potatoes, comma, and, lobster, we're buying three items. All
right? Let's read verse 16 again. And
now, why tarryest thou? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, Wash away thy sins, calling on
the name of the Lord. You see that? Arise and be baptized. And wash away thy sins, calling
on the name of the Lord. Help me. Please help me. Wash away thy sins. Why calling
on the name of the Lord? It's because He's the only one
who can wash away my sins. Only His blood can wash away
my sins. Help me. Please help me. Please help me. No matter what
happens to me in this life, I need you to wash away my sins in your
blood. Help me. Please help me. This does not read, And now,
why tarryest thou? Arise, and be baptized, washing
away thy sins, and call on the name of the Lord. It doesn't
say that. It says, arise and be baptized and wash away thy
sins, calling on the name of the Lord. Romans 10 says, whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Acts 16
says, what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord, I believe. I do believe. I believe you're
all my salvation. I believe you're my only hope
of salvation. Lord, save me. Help me. Well, okay, then there's your
work. You want to work, there's your work. No, that's called
faith. And faith is not of yourself, that's a gift of God. Water baptism does not wash away
sins. The blood of Jesus Christ does. The Holy Spirit taking a sinner
and immersing that sinner in the blood of Jesus Christ. That's
what washes away sins. Now when God finally pulls a
sinner out of religion, so most everybody is in some form of
religion. And when God finally pulls a sinner out of religion,
and sends that sinner a true messenger and the scales fall
off of his eyes and he finally sees Christ as he is, the just
one. Should that sinner confess the
Lord in believer's baptism? Yes. Why? Because God said so. But baptism is not our message
tonight. That's not even what I want to
talk about. I'm done. But that's not our message. Here's
the title of tonight's message. Why wait? Call on the name of
the Lord. Don't put it off one more day. If He has revealed to you your
sin, then He has revealed to you your Savior. When we see
our Savior, that's when we get a good look at our sin. Call on Him. Call on Him, all
of us. If you've called on Him before,
call on Him again. Tonight right now Lord save me. I mean say it in your heart right
now Lord save me Help me Lord have mercy on me wash away my
sins in your precious blood There are many good reasons why I would
encourage a sinner to to wait and pray about water baptism.
Wait and pray about it. Wait and pray about it. But there
is not one good excuse for not crying out right now to the Lord
for mercy. Have mercy on me. Whoever calls
on the name of the Lord shall be saved. So what are we waiting
for? What are we waiting for? Let's
all from the depths of our soul cry, God, be merciful to me,
a sinner. And now, why tarryest thou? Arise,
and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name
of the Lord. May the Lord cause us to do just
that. All right, let's stand together.