Acts chapter 9. What we have here is an example or even a pattern of God saving
a sinner. God saves every sinner the same
way. Now, I'm not saying that we hear
an audible voice as Paul did. We don't hear that audible voice,
but we do hear His voice. We do hear the Lord's voice in
the message when He speaks to our hearts. And we don't have
a light shining about us, but we are given light. We are illuminated
as Paul was illuminated. Now what we have here starting
off is the sinner. God takes this hard religious
Pharisee and makes him to realize that he is nothing but a sinner
in need of mercy. And that's the greatest thing
God could ever do for me and you. is to make us to realize
our need of the Lord Jesus Christ. To strip us, to lay us in the
dust, and take every hope from us except Jesus Christ alone. That is the best position to
be in. That is the best that God can
do for you, is to bring you to that place like He did Paul here. Here we have Saul of Tarsus,
as we know, turned into, his name was changed to Paul, but
he's a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He's a hardcore Pharisee. A true
Hebrew from birth, a law keeper, a very religious man, highly
respected in town, Breathing out threatenings and slaughter.
Here's one of the most respected men in town, breathing out. And it has the meaning, you ever
see someone so mad that they're just breathing hard, their chest
is, I mean they're just, you can almost see smoke coming out
of their nose, they're breathing. That's the meaning of here, of
Paul, breathing out in such anger. in such hatred of Jesus Christ
and those who followed Him, He's breathing out threatenings and
slaughter. He wanted to slaughter, not just
lock up, He wanted to slaughter everyone who proclaimed the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He tried His best to stamp out
that name. that way, which they called it
then, that way. He hated the Lord Jesus Christ
so much that if anyone breathed his name, he wanted to put them
to death. And that being so, having so
much hatred for the Lord Jesus Christ, it is evident he had
that much hatred for the real and true living God, because
that's who Jesus Christ is. That's who He is. He's the true
and living God, so to hate Him is to hate God. He that honors
not the Son honors not the Father, the Scripture says. The enmity
that was in His heart all along came out against God's Son. It
came out against the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was
there. It just took the right situation
to bring it out. That's all it takes. The right
situation to bring out what's really, really in us. In this situation here of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the preaching of Christ, the redemption by
Christ, salvation by grace in Christ, the saving of Gentiles
by Christ, this just brought out that enmity, that natural
enmity that was there all along. Saul did everything he could
to stamp out that name. He persecuted the church, he
said, and wasted it. Wasted it. He made it his life's
mission to get rid of that way. That was his one mission in life. It was to stamp out that way. He hailed him that bad. And he
went after any, there in verse two, he went after any that was
of this way. Look over in chapter 26. Paul
gives his own, see Luke's given it here, but then Paul gives
it himself in a couple other places. But he gives it in chapter
26. Let me read a few verses here
in Paul's words. Paul said in verse 9 of chapter
26, remember he's before Agrippa, he says in verse 9, I verily
thought with myself. He said, I sat around the house
and this was my thoughts. It never left his mind, he was
obsessed. He was obsessed with stamping
out that name. I verily thought with myself
that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus
of Nazareth, which thing I also did in Jerusalem. And many of
the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from
the chief priest. And when they were put to death,
I gave my voice against them. I consented to it. I signed off
on it. After reading this today, I realized that Paul, Paul really
came to the point and realized that he was guilty of murder.
He was guilty of the murder of God's saints. He stood there
and held the coach of those who stoned Stephen. He signed off
on those who were put to death. Can you imagine? Can you imagine
being guilty of that? He was guilty of it. He went
after any of that way. He says there, he said, and when
they were put to death, I gave my voice against them and I punished
them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme.
I compelled them to blaspheme and being exceedingly mad against
them, exceedingly mad beyond measure. He was a madman. He
became a madman in this situation. I was mad against them. I persecuted
them even unto strange cities. Wherever I heard they were, I
went after them." He said, I was trying to destroy
this way, this way of salvation, this way of righteousness, this
way that gives God all the glory, this way that exposed Him for
what He was and who He is. It exposed him. This way that
glorified God and laid all men in the dust and made all men
equal, the Pharisee and the publican were both none good, no, not
one. The Pharisee wasn't any better
than the publican. And he hated that. In verse 3,
we see he takes his journey. He's on his way to Damascus.
He's got signed papers that he can bring, that he can arrest
men and women. He can go into their home and
he can take a mother, take her from her children, take her from
her husband, take her from that house and put her in prison. So on his way to Damascus to
bring men and women bound to Jerusalem, he did not treat them, the men
or the women, with any difference. He hated that name so much that
he treated the women just as bad as he treated the men. But
as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and someone said, hell-bent
and hell-bound. He got near Damascus. He's like foaming at the mouth. He is so mad and angry and so
full of hatred of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he gets close to
Damascus and suddenly, suddenly, You know, that seems the way
the Lord works. A person can sit and hear the
gospel, and they can hear the gospel preached, then all of
a sudden, one day, they see it. It's like someone flipped the
light on. And they did. The Lord. He gives light. He gives understanding. And just
like here, suddenly, without warning, without being asked,
There shined round about him a light from heaven. Paul says
in one place, it was brighter than the noonday sun. And it's
happened at noon. And it was brighter than the
noonday sun. Saul was on his way. This is what's interesting. Saul was on his way to arrest
believers. Instead, the judge of all the
earth arrested him. He was arrested. And from that
time forth, Paul always called himself, what? The prisoner of
Jesus Christ. The Lord arrested him on that
road to Damascus, stopped him, arrested him, and from that time
forward, he said, I am a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
never called himself a prisoner of Rome, or a prisoner of anyone
else. I am a prisoner of the Lord Jesus
Christ. If God ever saves a man, The
first thing he'll have to do is arrest that man. He has to
arrest him, stop him, handcuff him, so to speak, by his power. He's got to stop him. Secondly,
if we have light, it must come from heaven, it must come from
the Father of Lights. I can stand here and preach and
preach and preach, and I can preach under the power of the
Holy Spirit, but there has to come a time when the Lord gives
you light. In thy light we see light. There
has to come a time when He commands the light to shine into your
heart to give you the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And the light shined round about
him. He was covered in it. He was illuminated. His understanding
was illuminated. There must be an illumination
of the heart before we can see and know the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's got to bring us out of darkness. He's got to command the darkness
to leave because it's only in the light we can see Him. It's
only in the light we can learn something of Him. It's only in
the light that we can understand spiritual things. And He's got
to command that light and He's got to give us light, illuminate
us. And you see in verse 4 that He's
brought down. When the Lord stopped him, and
that light shined round about him, the first thing he did was
what? He fell to the earth. He fell
on his face. God laid him in the dust. There's
got to be a strip in here. He fell to the earth. Christ
must bring us down before He can raise us up. He's got to kill us in order
to give us life, so to speak. There's got to be a stripping
before there can be a clothing. Zacchaeus, come down. Come down. There's got to be a breaking
before there can be a healing. There's got to be a broken heart
before he can heal the broken heart. And then there's got to
be a revelation. There's a revelation of sin. The Lord says to him, Why persecutest
thou me? Here's the sin. All my sin is
against Him. David said, Against thee and
thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. There's
got to be a revelation and understanding. Not that I have done some things
wrong. I have sinned against God. I've
sinned against God. God who is holy. who are just,
merciful, and gracious. I have spit in His face." That's
what I've done. Isn't that what they did when
they crucified the Lord before they did? What did they do? They
spit in His face. That's exactly what we do. When
we sin, we spit in God's face. David said, I have done this
evil in thy sight, with God looking on. That is the offense of sin. We do it right in the face of
God. Why persecutest thou me? The
charge is brought home to the heart. He said, Paul, why are
you persecuting me? And Paul felt that. Paul felt
that. Everyone whom God saves feels
the sting of sin against God. Everyone He saves. And he says here in verse 5,
there's a revelation of a person. First in verse 4, there was a
bringing down, there's a revelation of sin, and then there's a revelation
here in verse 5 of a person. And he said, Who art thou, Lord?
Who are you? And the Lord said, I'm Jesus.
You see, when He first struck him down with the light, he didn't
know that was the Lord Jesus doing that. And then he said,
Who are you, Lord? There's one thing he knew, that
whoever's doing this to him is Lord. He knew that the one doing
this has the power over him. And then he said, Who are you?
And the Lord said, I'm Jesus, whom thou persecutest. And over
in Acts, when Paul's given this account, he said, I'm Jesus of
Nazareth. When he said that, he knew exactly
who the Lord was. That one that was crucified.
We have to understand one of the things here. Paul, when the
Lord Jesus Christ was crucified there in Jerusalem, Paul was
28 years old. He was 28 years old. He was born five years after
the Lord's birth. He was 28. He knew all this. He saw the Lord. He had to have
been in the temple to hear Him speak. He had to know something
about all these miracles. He knew all this. And so when
he says, I'm Jesus, Paul knew exactly who it was. He knew exactly
who He was. He was 28 years old when the
Lord was crucified. But listen, there's got to be
a revelation of who the Lord is. And not until we see who
the Lord Jesus Christ is can we really understand our sins
against Him. We really can't understand sin
until we understand something of who God is. Not until we understand
who God is and have an understanding of who Christ is that we really
have some understanding of sin. And that's what I am. Sin didn't trouble Paul until
he met the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord revealed to him,
you are persecuting me. You are persecuting me. You have
slaughtered You have put to death, you have consented to the death
of many of my saints, my children." Paul wasn't in trouble until
he met the Lord. You know, Isaiah did not cry,
woe is me, until you get to, I think it's chapter 6. He didn't
cry, woe is me, until he saw the Lord high and lifted up and
His train filled the court. Then he cried, Woe is me. Up
to those first six chapters, he was crying, Woe, to everybody
else. Then when he saw the Lord high
and lifted up, he said, Woe is me. I'm undone. I'm undone. The reason sin doesn't trouble
people is they don't, first of all, they don't know God. They
don't know God. And they never met the Lord Jesus
Christ. They've never had to deal with Him. They've never
dealt with Him. He's not real to them. I realize this. Outside of Christ, those who
have not been saved by the grace of God in Christ, God is not
real to them. They believe there is a God, but He's not real to them until
they meet Him. And Paul, when he met the Lord
Jesus Christ, that's when he became real to Him. Now he saw
Him walking the streets, but to really, I mean to be real
to Him in his heart, not just somebody you see out in front
of you, but someone that lives in you, someone that's in you,
in your heart. And in verse 6 here, we see the
sinner submitting. In verse 6 here, he says, and
he trembling and astonished, he said, Lord, what would Thou
have me to do? Up until this time, he wouldn't
submit to anything. But now he submitted to that
one whom he once hated. Now he's willing to do his will.
You know why? Scripture says in Psalm 110,
thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. That's
why he was willing. He was one of the Lord's sheep
and the Lord made him willing by work of his grace. Our Lord is able to break the
strongest center. Our Lord's able to break. There's
nobody too strong for the Lord. I think John Newton said once,
he said, since someone was talking to him and he was surprised that
some certain person had been saved, and John Newton said,
since the Lord saved me, I haven't been surprised that He saved
anyone since He saved me. And then here in verse 7, there's
a particular call that goes forth. And the men which journeyed with
him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man."
And Paul says over in chapter 26 that they didn't even hear
the voice, but what it is, they didn't understand. They didn't
understand the voice. They didn't understand the conversation
that was going on between Paul and the Lord Jesus Christ. But
no one else understood that voice but Saul. You know, it's interesting. I've seen this happen over the
years. People come in and hear the gospel.
You're sitting there side by side. And in one day, a person
says, I believe, I believe. And the person beside him doesn't
believe anything, didn't hear anything, still doesn't hear
anything. But yet the person here hears. They hear. Didn't
you hear that? I heard the gospel. I can hear the Lord speak through
His Word. And yet the person sitting beside
Him can't hear a thing. No one else could understand
that voice but Saul. The Lord spoke to him. He spoke
to his heart. No one else could understand
what he was saying. He didn't call the others. He
called Saul. He called Saul. Saul heard him. He became very
real to him, just like, Lazarus, come forth. Come forth. Someone said if he
hadn't said Lazarus, all of them would have come forth. Lazarus,
come forth. It was a particular call. It
was a convicting call. A gracious call. It was a call
from darkness to light, from sin to righteousness, and from
death to life. It was a powerful call. It was
a call of God. And it was an irresistible call. It was an irresistible call. These other men, they didn't
hear. They heard something. They heard a voice. They heard
something, but they didn't understand it. And after that, they just
went on their way. But Saul was never the same. And it tells us in Philippians
that he lost all things for the excellency of the knowledge of
Jesus Christ. He never turned back. He followed
the Lord wholeheartedly throughout the rest of his life, as you
well know. But he called him powerfully. And then here in verse 8 and
9, We see something of a conviction
of sin. And when He had declared all
these things to them, He sent to them to Joppa. Wait a minute,
I'm on the wrong page here. 9 and 10, here we go. I'll turn
to chapter 10. He was three days, in verse 9,
He was three days without sight. And neither did eat nor drink.
For three days he didn't eat or drink. And up here in verse 8, And Saul
rose from the earth, and when his eyes were opened, he saw
no man. He was blind. They led him by the hand. You
know how humbling that was? Paul hadn't been led by the hand
since he was a child. But God humbled him. Now, if
God's gonna save you, he's gonna humble you. I promise you, he's
gonna humble you. He's gonna humble me. If he's
gonna save us, he's gonna humble us. They led him by the hand
and brought him into Damascus. Boy, that's a different way of
entering town, wasn't it? And he was on his way to lock them
up and put them in prison, and here he is being led into town
by hand, by somebody's hand, and blind. Blind. Three days without sight. He
sat there in darkness. He sat there in darkness and
he couldn't eat and he couldn't drink. I believe, I do believe
this, I believe he sat there three days under a strong conviction
of sin. You know, all those he consented
to their death stood there. You think maybe when his eyes
were sitting there in darkness, you think maybe the face of Stephen
came to his mind, calling upon the Lord. You think those women
and those men that he hauled off to prison, that he took them
out of their house with his children screaming, you think they came
before his mind? All those things he did against
Christ, all that hatred he had for the Lord Jesus Christ, that's
why he could not eat and drink. He couldn't do it. He was so
distraught over his sinfulness and not only what he had done,
but what he was. What he was. It says he breathed out threatening
and slaughter. The Holy Spirit revealed to him
sin. Sin. You ain't gonna see no way of
walking down the aisle smiling and laughing and going up to
the front of an altar. No conviction in that. There's
no conviction in that at all. Conviction of sin is painful. It's painful. And I'm not gonna
try to put some kind of, you know, say, well, if I don't feel
this much. I just know this, it's painful. It's painful. The Pharisee becomes the chief
of sinners. He becomes the chief of sinners.
Without this convicting work of the Holy Spirit, there's no
salvation. There is no salvation without
this. But notice here, the Lord struck him down, the Lord made
Himself known to him, but the Lord sends a preacher to him. God prepares a preacher. This thing is not going to be
complete until God's preacher comes to Him. God is going to
send Him a preacher. In verse 10, God prepared and
He called Ananias to preach to Saul. God is going to use this
preacher to preach to him the truth. God is going to use preaching
to save His elect. He has pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching what I'm doing. to save them that believe. The
preacher and the sinner must meet, as well as the Lord and
the sinner. God's not going to save without
His preacher. And God prepares the heart of the sinner for the
seed of the gospel. He prepares him to hear the gospel.
Look there in verse 11, And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and
go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the
house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus. For behold, he
prayeth." God has prepared his heart. What do you think he's
praying for? You think he's praying for his eyesight? He ain't praying
for his eyesight. He's praying for mercy. He's
praying for forgiveness. He's praying, Lord, be merciful
to me, the sinner. You see, the Pharisee who said,
Lord, I thank you I'm not like other men. I thank you I'm not like that
publican, now has become the publican. He has now taken his
seat as a sinner. Behold, he prayeth for the first
time in his life. He prayed. All other times, it
was hypocritical. All other times, it was a form.
It was just formality. He liked hearing himself. He
liked for other men to hear him. But this time, he prayed. And
he prayed for forgiveness and for mercy. And for the first
time, he prayed as a sinner and not as a Pharisee. Behold, he said, he prayeth."
And God, it's amazing. It's like you and I are getting
to stand up here and look at this. We're getting to watch
the Lord. The Lord works like this all
the time. He's still working like this.
This is still how the Lord works. And then he gave Paul, there
in verse 12, he gave Saul a special revelation of Ananias. You're
going to sit, and you're going to listen to God's preacher.
He said, there's going to be a man come, and he's going to
preach, and you're going to listen. That's basically what he's saying
to me. I know preachers are held in
a bad light nowadays, and I don't blame people. Preachers, for
the most part, are jokes. But you know the most, and I've
thought about this before saying it, I started to say one of the
most, but probably the most important person that God's going to bring
into your life is His man. The most important person that
God brought into my life was Henry. And taught me the gospel
through Henry. Taught me the gospel. And he's going to bring Ananias
into Paul's life and preach the gospel. And you'll see there in verse
13 and 14, Ananias, then Ananias answered, Lord, ooh, he said,
I've heard about this man. He said, I've heard about, I've
heard by many of this man how much evil he's done to thy saints
at Jerusalem. His reputation precedes him. I've heard about him. He wasn't too anxious about going
there because he knew he was there in town with the authority
of the high priest behind him to arrest those who called on
the name of the Lord. And he said, I've heard about
this man. We should never doubt God's ability
to save the chief of sinners. I've heard about this man. I've
heard how wicked he is. Yeah, but have you heard about
the grace of God? Have you heard about the power of God to save?
That's far greater than any man. His grace is greater than our
sins. His power is greater than our rebellion. Have you heard
about his power and his grace and his mercy? Go preach to him. Go preach to him." He said, don't
worry about it, you go preach to him. Go preach to him, he's
a, listen, verse 15, he is a chosen vessel. Oh my, my. He's a chosen vessel unto me.
Every one of us are. Everyone whom God saves is a
chosen vessel. We do not preach hoping people
will accept Jesus or let Him save them. We preach knowing
that the Lord has chosen vessels. They are out there. They're in
here. They're in here. And he says here in verse 16,
he must suffer for my name's sake. He's a chosen vessel unto
me. He's going to bear my name before
the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, and I'll
show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.
Everyone whom God saves, now listen, everyone whom God saves
has a place in the body of Christ and a measure of suffering to
do for Christ's sake. Every one of us. Every one of
us. we have a measure of suffering
for Christ's sake. It's not only given to us in
behalf of Christ to believe on Him, but it's also given to us
to suffer. We like the believing part, don't we? But I tell you what, as we mature
in the grace of God, we like the suffering part too, if it's
for Christ's sake. We are glad to suffer for Christ's
sake. For the gospel. Glad to do it. Glad to do it. And notice in verse 17, Ananias
calls him Brother Saul. Brother Saul. He just went in
and said, Brother Saul, our true brothers and sisters
are those in Christ. And the first thing Paul heard
from the preacher that God sent to him was about God's election. God has chosen thee. That's the
first thing he heard was the doctrine of election. God has
chosen thee. This doctrine of election is
a source of comfort to God's people. God has chosen thee. That comforts me. If God has
chosen me, He'll never let me go. Never let me go. It's a source of comfort to a
guilty sinner. He chose me. And then Paul in verse 17 and 18
received his sight. He now sees Jesus Christ as his
Lord and Savior. He said it right the first time. What will you have me to do?
That's the first thing. The first thing he did was call
him Lord and submitted to him. He now sees him as his Lord and
Savior. He sees him as his substitute.
He sees him as his righteousness. He sees him as his all in all. And you know what he did? He stood up, the scales fell
off his eyes, and he was baptized. He was baptized. He followed
the Lord and baptized. He identified with the Lord Jesus
Christ. Anyone who will not identify
with the Lord Jesus Christ does not love Christ, does not believe
on Christ. Paul got up and he went and said,
I want to be baptized. And Ananias baptized him. He
was ashamed of the Lord Jesus. He wouldn't acknowledge Him as
Lord and Savior before. Before, he was embarrassed of
Him. Before, he hated Him. But boy,
when God saved him, I tell you this, here's a true confession,
here's a true profession of everyone whom God saves. I want to follow
the Lord at baptism. I want to identify with Him,
I want to identify with His people. That's how we confess Christ.
And then we confess Him the rest of our lives, from then on. And then you'll notice there
in verse 19 and 20, He fellowshiped with God's people. When He had
received meat, He was strengthened, Then we saw certain days with
the disciples which were at Damascus." Can you imagine the conversation
that was going on at that time between them? I would have loved
to have sat there and listened to that conversation of Paul
after God saved him. That would have been something
to have heard. In a straight way, he preached Christ in the
synagogues, that he's the Son of God. He went to the synagogues
and started tying in those Old Testament types. I guarantee
you, he started tying in those Old Testament types, pointing
them to Christ. Because if you're going over
into Acts, where he gives the account of it, he preached Christ,
he ties in all those, the Passover, the high priest, the priesthood,
the tabernacle, he ties them all in and proves that this is
the Messiah. And all those types are fulfilled,
and all those types pointed to Him. And he went to there, and
he fellowshiped with God's people. And he began to preach the gospel,
what he once tried to destroy. And the people were amazed, but
all that heard him were amazed. In verse 21, they said, Is not
this he that destroyed them, which called on this name in
Jerusalem? He destroyed them, and came hither
for that intent. That's why he's here, that he
might bring them bound unto the chief. Is he pouring one on us?
That's what they're, I'm telling you, at first they think he's
pulling the trick here, you know, get him to come out and confess,
now I got you. But after a while, after a while,
they listened to him, you know, the Lord saved him. The Lord
saved him. And then in verse 22, Paul, where
Saul increased the Moor in strength and confounded the Jews which
dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is the very Christ, this
is the Messiah, spoken of all the way back there in Genesis,
the seed of the woman. But this is how God saves sinners.
You know, Paul's conversion is an example of how God saves sinners.
Brings them down, reveals Himself to them, sends them a preacher.
gives them light, illuminates them, and they follow the Lord. They
follow them in believer's baptism. They take the Lord's table. They
follow the Lord and follow His commands. All right.