Good evening, everybody. If you
will, let's open to Acts chapter 9. Acts chapter 9. Just as a reminder, if anybody's
interested, if they're willing and able, September 27th, 28th,
and 29th, Brother Clay Curtis will be up in Yuba-Sutter, where
Rick Warda is pastor, and he'll be preaching that Friday, Saturday,
and Sunday in September. Acts 9, we'll be looking at the
conversion of Saul today. Those headings in the Bible,
a friend of mine brought this out in this message, same text.
Sometimes they're really good, it gives just a plain, that's
just what it means. And sometimes they're terribly wrong. Those
aren't inspired words of God, that's just Not even the translators
put them in there sometimes. It was just whoever made the
Bible. But this is whenever the Lord
dealt with Saul of Tarsus. Here in Acts 9 verse 1, 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 of any of this
way, those that believe Christ, Whether they were men or women,
he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. Who was Saul? It says here he was breathing
out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the
Lord. Do you know the difference between a rebel and a revolutionist? Do you? I've said this before.
Who's side drawing? Now let's get that. It's easy, so easy, and as Paul
said, I speak as a man. I thoroughly understand that
history is more complex than what I have to say. It's a shame
I have to say things like that. But many refer to Saul of Tarsus
as Adolf Hitler. I can't believe Spurgeon didn't
use that as an example, that's so clear. I speak as a man. That's very true, that's a good
thing, but he wasn't one that just walked around and kicked
chairs and spit in little old women's faces and cursed all
day. A lot of people loved him. A lot of people loved him. Saul was not some sharp-toothed
maniac. Just, ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh. No,
he was pious, he was serious. He knew the word of God inside
and out. Didn't understand it. Boy, he knew the scriptures.
I want to understand the scriptures, do you? I want to know them,
too. I want to understand them. He was zealous for the traditions
of his father. He was a hard worker. In the
politics of the day, Saul of Tarsus was an up-and-comer. The
average person doesn't vote a raging lunatic, a raging animal, into
office. This man, he started early, before
he was 30. He was born about 5 AD, and so
as our Lord walked this earth, he's about five years younger
than the Lord. And before he was even 30, he was already working,
already serving. There's some waivers somebody
signed to let this happen. He said in Galatians 1, he told
of himself, and that's something common between all of God's people.
Todd Norbert did something. I was gonna have somebody ask
so, you know, they had some questions, but I asked Todd. Todd handled
that. And I thought, that's really, I probably shouldn't have said
that. That's really embarrassing for Todd. He'll tell you the truth. He
was wrong. Paul did too. He said, you've
heard of my conversation and time passed in the Jews religion.
You've heard about me. He was known abroad. How that
beyond measure, I persecuted the church of God and I wasted
it. and I profited in the Jews' religion above many mine equals
in mine own nation." He was moving up the food chain. This wasn't
some just raging lunatic. And I've seen this happen too.
I see men or women, they go to God's preacher and they give
them correction and they berate them and they beat on them and
they think, boy, I soared that fell out, I did God a favor. It's a shame. They'll have to
answer for it one day. I'm doing God's work. I can put that into our perspective. You ready? Imagine a person that
persecuted a church that we could all call a false church, okay?
Maybe for older people, the Catholics. Maybe somebody was, I mean, going
against the Pope and just tearing down the Vatican City, just like
Martin Luther. Martin Luther did that, right?
That German man. He was a monk in a monastery.
He went against them, didn't he? What about my generation?
Muslims, that's dangerous. For a society, leave God out
of it, that's dangerous, it is. I went to war against them. Chris
Kyle, that famous Navy SEAL, had 160 confirmed kills. First
thing I think of, buy that man a beer if he's still alive. You
think about that. You think how many American lives,
if you had sons or daughters that grew up to be men and women
that went and served their country, you're why. Imagine how many
American lives he saved. 100? 1,000? 1,500? A lot, isn't
it? Do we spit on him when he walked
through town? Hold that man in high regard, don't we? And that's
just carnal things. I speak as a man. We understand
that, right? Saul of Tarsus. He was just like
his teacher, Gamaliel. He was. Do you remember back
in Acts 5, Gamaliel, he was a good, if somebody's just listening,
I'm doing air quotes right now. He was a political theologian.
He was good. He was smooth. He even defended
the apostles. You remember that in Acts 5?
It said, this man, they took counsel to slay the apostles,
and there stood up in the council a Pharisee named Gamaliel. He
was a doctor of the law, and he had a reputation among the
people, among all the people. They said, oh, hold on, he's
talking. Let's hear what he has to say. This man knows a lot. This man's experienced. He's
been tried. He's been through the wringer.
Let's hear what he's got to say. And he told them, he said, you
remember all these other false prophets that come up, and they
got people behind them, and it faded away, didn't it? And he
said, they all perished. And he said, now I say unto you,
refrain from these men, these apostles. Leave them alone. Let
them alone. For if this counsel or this work
of men, it'll come to naught. If this is just man's work, it'll
come to an end. That's true in our day too. Right
here where we sit, if this is man's work, it's going to come
to an end. But if they be of God, it cannot be overthrown. You can't overthrow it. Lest
happily we be found even to fight against God. Saul's about to
find this out. He's kicking against pricks.
Gamaliel said, you're fighting God. Let it run its course. If it's man, it'll fizzle out. What a good teacher. He's looking
out for them apostles. I don't know about all that.
And they agreed to him. It says in Acts 540, and to him,
they agreed. He makes good sense. He put up
a good argument. That's good logic. Paul was well respected. These
men that seemed like revolutionists were just rebels, weren't they?
They were doing the work of God, was doing the works of their
God, of their father, the devil. Something has scales. I'll save
that for later. He has scales fall from his eyes.
Why? He was seeing things through
Satan's viewpoint. The Lord removed it. Paul said in Philippians
3, he said, we're the circumcision which worship God in the spirit
and rejoice in Jesus Christ. We have no confidence in the
flesh. And then he immediately says, though I might also have
confidence in the flesh. You think you got confidence
in the flesh? If that was a thing, I have it. He said, if any other
man thinketh he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh,
I more. You think you've done something special? Let me tell
you about me. I was circumcised the eighth day of the stock of
Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin. That's the most preferred one.
And Hebrew of Hebrews as touching the law of Pharisee. Say something
bad about solitarsis. You can't do it. That's so. As far as men's concerned. Isn't it? As far as outward appearances.
He said concerning zeal. I'll tell you how serious he
was about attending the services and obeying the word of God.
He said, I persecuted the church. You know what? A good illustration
of this too. Inside the church, he went around
and said, you ought not be doing that and you need to start doing
this and you stop dressing that way and you stop doing this.
I've seen some of those, ain't you? Touching the righteousness,
which is in the law, blameless. They ain't a charge that could
be, a man has to be blameless to be God's preacher. First charge,
you gotta be blameless. How are you paying it out? How
am I? A man told me one time, he said,
well, I would preach. He said, but I've been divorced.
And so that disqualifies for me being a preacher. And I said,
well, the fact that you think that's what that means is the
proof that you ain't supposed to be God's preacher. You're
looking at these things through carnal eyes. It's a spiritual
understanding. And Paul said, all those things
that seemed so good, but what things were gained to me, I count
them for loss for Christ. Throw it away. It's poop. It's dung. It's manure. And yea,
doubtless I'll count all things but loss for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. I want to know a person.
I don't want to be in the right doctrine, I don't want to be
in the right systematic theology, I don't want to be in the right
church, I don't want to be in the right person. And until God teaches us that,
we're lost and we'll die and go to hell and perish in our
sins. And I care for people's souls, and I want them to know
Him. Paul wanted to know Him, and he wanted others to know
Him. So much so, you talk about flipping, I'm doing a 180. This
one that went to persecuted church, he said, if it were possible,
I'd count myself cursed for my brethren. I spent some serious
time, I ain't done that. I ain't experienced that. Paul had a very unique experience.
He said, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things that do
count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him. In him. When did Saul have this
conversion? Books are written about this,
about a time frame. What foolishness? I'll tell you
exactly when Paul was converted. It's easy. when it pleased God
in his time. I pray for people and I get frustrated
and I get sad and I get upset and I get downtrodden or I get
angry or whatever. It don't make a difference. When
God's pleased, if God's pleased in his time, he'll do what he
wants to do. And he said, when it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb, They can give me physical birth, they
can give me spiritual birth, and call me by his grace. Grace
is involved. To what? To save me? And now
I got my church card. To reveal his son in me. Here's when that happened. Verse
three, Acts nine, verse three. And as he journeyed, he came
near Damascus. And suddenly there shined round about him a light
from heaven. You can read this event from
Paul in Acts 22 and in Acts 26. But this was midday. There's
different things you can piece all this together. It was high
noon. The sun was as bright as it was going to get. They didn't
have Ray-Bans and Maui Jim sunglasses back then. It was bright. It was the middle of the day.
And this brightness came and it was brighter than the sun.
It was noonday. Saul saw the light of the S-O-N
was shining brighter than the S-U-N. What if we saw that now? We pray for God's spirit to be
with us. What if he was? I'll tell you what happened.
It'd be awful bright. He is light. Remember looking
through that in 1 John? This then is the message. You
want a message? Here it is. This is the message. which we have heard of him, and
declare unto you that God is light, and in him is no darkness
at all." Light and dark, dark and light. That's what we're
talking about. We're about to see it Sunday, the ninth plague in
Egypt. Darkness that can be felt. I'll tell you what, that ain't
a prophecy, that's a reality in this nation, in this county,
in this city. It's so. It's a darkness that
can be felt. And everything seems so normal
in low light. Did you know that? That's fine,
right now. Yeah, no, I can see. You can
see, you're not alarmed. We have some light, we're fine.
But when that sun, S-O-N, shines on you, you realize just how
dark you've been walking in. Have you ever been in darkness?
We was doing all right, we had a flashlight. Or were we the
darkness that could be felt? Well, the only way you're gonna
see that is if the S-O-N's brighter than the S-U-N. Let's see him
high and lifted up, blinded by the light. And then immediately
we understand equally. And the inverse reaction, we're
darkness. Darkness isn't something out
there. Darkness is what I am. So in Mammoth Caves, we read
a thing recently. Me and Cameron have been there
several times. It was voted the worst national park in America. Well, I think that's just hogwash.
I've been to lots worse than that. It's a real nice place.
And they leaned into it. They didn't get upset and get
their underwear in a wad and start pitching a fit and suing
people. They said, come have the worst experience you can
have at a National Park. That's a good attitude, isn't
it? I wish I had a good attitude. But me and Karen was there, and
they take you deep down. You're about a mile underground. And they turn the
lights out. There's no physical light can get in there. And you
talk about a darkness, you can be felt. And we were in there,
and all of a sudden, she said, cover your watch up. My mother
was very kind to me and got me a Iridium watch, an expensive
one, but it had that nuclear stuff, radioactive stuff that
glowed. Well, it still charged up from being up ground hours
ago. And it looked like I had a lightsaber
coming out of my wrist. You'd almost hear it. Light,
you can hear light. We just figured that out 100
years ago. God said in Job, the oldest book in the Bible, said
the stars sing. Spectrum analysis. He might know something, huh?
To see Christ the light is to see how dark we are, to be blinded
by that light, because we're lovers of darkness. We're lovers
of self. That's judgment. That's God's
judgment, is what that is. And I tell you what, it's better
in this life than in the life to come. Finding out now is what
salvation is. May God show us. People say that
the S-U-E-N is going to engulf the earth one day. It's going
to keep growing and it's going to burn it up. Well, I'll tell
you what, the S-O-E-N is too, with a fervent heat. The climate's
gonna get real hot. Gold's gonna melt. Gonna be burnt
up. Well, in verse four, it says,
and he fell to the earth. Here's the reaction to this judgment.
Christ is light, there's purity, there's no darkness in him. Holiness,
holiness is what this is showing us. And we ain't fell to the
earth, just like all the other ones. I hid in my face, woe is
me. I'm a man of unclean lips, I'm undone. And he heard a voice
saying unto him, Saul, Saul, Called him twice because that
was his child, wasn't it? Who else did the Lord call two names
to? Martha, Martha. One day I heard Kevin, Kevin.
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? He didn't say, why are you
persecuting them? He didn't even say, why are you
persecuting us? He said, why are you persecuting
me? We're one. We're one with him. And he said,
who art thou, Lord? Who art thou? That's a teachable
spirit, isn't it? Does he want to learn something?
He asked a question that only the Lord can answer. Who art
thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus,
whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. In another place it's recorded,
he said, I'm Jesus of Nazareth. That's important. You know what
that means? That's the God man. The God-man. That's the very
one that Paul the Apostle did not esteem as the Son of God
or the God the Son. He didn't want nothing to do
with him or anybody that believed in this person. And they said,
I'm him. I am. I'm Jesus of Nazareth,
the Godhead in a body, God in human flesh. He said, I'm Jesus
whom thou persecutest. It's hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. Giving him some information.
This is a proverbial saying. It's an old saying. And Saul
understood exactly what he was saying. To kick against the pricks. Lord's asking, how's that working
out for you? That's an old saying for cattle, for oxen. It was
a device that they would make up, either to prod them along
to get them to going, or it was on like, now we have it in dog
collars, right? Them choked collars. And they
got spikies on them. And if that dog pulls against
you, and the harder they pull against you, the tighter it gets,
and the more it hurts. They used that for slaves, too.
If they resisted, it didn't hurt the master. It didn't hurt the
one holding the reins. It hurt the beast. It hurt the
one that was being driven. Nothing's changed. This ain't
just dogs, and this ain't just oxen, and this ain't just slaves
from thousands of years ago. Paul learned this. This is the
word of God. The written word and the word,
cross the word. And you're fighting him. And
he told Timothy, he said, in meekness, instructing those. Go teach people that oppose themselves. It ain't hurt nobody but you.
I told y'all before, that fella called me and he was all upset.
And then 30 minutes later, he's yelling at me. And I said, stop. We started this conversation.
You was upset, and I was fine. And now you're just mad. And
I'm still fine. You're opposing yourself. You're
contrary. You ever met somebody that's
contrary? Just no matter what you said, they said the opposite. Sky's blue. It's green. It's
gray. That door's to keep bad people out. No, they're keeping
us in. Whatever it is, it's something opposite. You're posing yourselves. And that's what the Lord's saying
to Saul. I printed it out and I didn't bring it. The Lord has
to get us here and show us we're the ones opposing ourselves.
I'm the problem. It's not just sin, not just Adam,
not just the law. Me, all by myself, I'm the problem. And the Lord said, is it hard
for you to kick against the pricks? This is the word of God and the
capital W word of God. You're fighting Christ and not
just his messengers. When you fight his messengers,
you're fighting him. It's so. Isaiah said, woe unto him that
striveth with his maker. Let the pot-shirts strive with
the pot-shirts of the earth. You won't be in contrition all
the time. Even Gamal knew that wasn't possible
in Acts 5. He said, if it's God can't overthrow
it. You're fighting God. This is
foolish. Jonah, the Lord said, Jonah, do you do well to be angry
because of the gold? Jonah's real hard-headed. I love
reading Jonah. I see myself in it so much. And
he said, I do well to be angry even unto death. The Lord ended
up teaching him a little bit more than asking him a question.
You know what the answer was? Jonah wrote the book of Jonah.
He said, this is all the stubborn things I did. I bet he's a whole
lot different at the end of that, don't you? Then in verse six, and he trembling
and astonished said, Lord, what will thou have me to do? We've
heard that before, haven't we? What must I do to be saved? Paul's
still, they said, well, he's fearing the Lord Jesus Christ.
No, he ain't. He's scared to death. He's still under that
mindset of work, isn't he? And the Lord said unto him, arise
and go to the city and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
A preacher's gonna come tell you what to do, Paul. He's gonna
send a preacher. And the men which journeyed with
him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. They
didn't see. And Saul arose from the earth,
and when 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, yet without sight, neither did he drink. Paul started his
day high upon a horse. This is what's going to happen
to all of us, Lord's people. He was high up, wasn't he? He
finished the day in the dirt. He was leading men, and by the
end of the day, he was led by somebody. Somebody led him, showed
him the way. He was breathing out threatenings.
By the end of the day, he's praying to God. Isn't that something? There's a fear put in Saul, and
that's good. It's not the be-all and end-all to wisdom, but it's
the beginning of wisdom. That's what the scriptures say,
isn't it? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
but a fool despises wisdom and instruction. You ain't gonna
teach me nothing. You're a fool. Paul was later on writing about
the unrighteousness of all humanity outside of Christ. He says in
Romans 3, there's no fear of God before their eyes. He didn't
have fear of God because he didn't know God was afraid of him. If
left in this state of fasting, they come to him, Paul eats,
I can't. You ever been that way? You ever been just so mortified
of what you are? Drink some water. I just, I can't
swallow. I got to beg God for mercy. Water ain't important
right now. You see that you're the darkness. If left there in
that state is absolute misery and that's hell on earth and
that's undue punishment to somebody. But we must come to that. I'm
not setting a degree on what that has to look like. It's got
to be three days. I'm not doing those things. But to some measure,
that's the ground. Our Lord's plowing, and he's
preparing to put his seed in. He's preparing the water. Then
the Lord sends a seed broadcaster. Once the Lord plows, he sends
somebody to tend that field, labor in the harvest. Look here
in verse 10. And there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias.
And to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias, and he said, Behold,
I'm here, Lord. And the Lord said, 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, and hath seen a vision of a man named Ananias coming
in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.
Like at reference, many of yous have throughout time Adolf Hitler.
I just thought if the Lord spoke to me and said, Kevin, Adolf
Hitler's in a house down the road, go to him. Preach to him. Verse 13, and Ananias answered
and said, Lord, I've heard by many of this man, he's popular,
how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem. This
ain't a revolution, this is a rebel. And here, he hath authority from
the chief priest to bind all that call on thy name. The whole
government's on his side. There's a fear involved in preaching
to anyone. There is. There's a trembling
that's involved, and there ought to be. If somebody's real eager
to preach and get in a pulpit and they always have a message
in their hip pocket, that's a good proof they ought not be preaching.
Moses was reluctant, wasn't he? at that weight of being the Lord's
prophet. He said, my mouth don't work. What'd the Lord say to
him? He didn't say, well, okay, I'll
find somebody else. He said, who made the mouth?
That's my mouth. I'll put my words in it. You
go talk. Therefore go, I'll be your mouth. I'll teach you what
to say. Jeremiah Lord said, gird up thy loins and arise and speak
unto them all that command. I command thee. You go talk to
everybody. And he says, and be not dismayed at their faces.
There are going to be people gritting their teeth, and I'm
not a fool, and Jeremiah wasn't a fool. I got teenagers. I know
if somebody's happy with me and when they're sad at me, and when
they're happy, I can tell. I ain't an idiot. And the Lord
said, it don't matter. I don't care if it makes them.
That's my business. Ain't your business. Your business. Go tell
them what I told you to tell them. I'll handle the fallout,
now get to it. That's what I told Jeremiah.
He said, fear not their faces right before that. That's cause
he was afraid. He was shy, I gotta get up and
look people in the face. Ananias, I gotta go talk to this
fella. This is Saul, I'm scared. Lord said, I understand, I understand
you, Ephraim, now go on. Look at the power and grace the
Lord gave Ananias here. I thought this was precious,
verse 17. Or verse 15, the Lord's patient. And the Lord said unto
him, go thy way, for he's a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name
before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For
I will show him great things. He must suffer for my namesake. And this power of the grace here,
verse 17, and Ananias went his way and entered into the house,
putting his hand on him. He just went in and touched him.
Brother Saul, Brother Saul. Could you do that? Could I walk into a place and
say, Brother Adolf? I got a message for you. Brother Pope. Brother Muhammad. Brother Transgender. Somebody had, there was a low
life one time. A man went to preach to them
and he said, Brother Kevin. Hmm? You the low life? You a sinner? That's who God came to save,
wasn't it? You a dog? Gentile dog? He's the master,
he's got a bunch of dogs. We're gonna be brought down that
peg, too, won't we? How could Ananias say such things? How
could he go into Saul, who had killed Stephen? He knew Stephen.
Killed a bunch of other people. Took women from their children
and put them in prison. How could he go in and say, Brother
Saul, how could he go in and preach to them? I'll tell you
how, because Ananias knew he wouldn't want one lick different
than Saul of Tarsus. If Lord took his hand off me,
I'd have been his boss. Knowing that, I can go in and
say, Brother Saul, Brother Saul, I'm no different than my enemy.
I'm no different than Adolf. I'm no different than John Paul
II, whichever one it is now. I'm no different than Muhammad.
Outside of Christ, outside of his grace, I ain't no different
and neither are you. I hope this hits home to me.
I hope this hits home to you. I mean, get us, cut us to the
bone. God may save somebody. He may keep us. Here's part of
Ananias' message. The Lord, even Jesus, that appeared
unto thee in the way, as thou camest, hath sent me. I'm sent
of God. That thou must receive thy sight.
You blind? You want to see? Saul now, before
he wouldn't say, I ain't blind. So Tim Ferriss, he said, you
saying we're sinners? You saying we're blind? You saying I don't understand
these scriptures? He knew he was blind now. He said, you want
to see? God sent me to give you sight. He did. And to be filled
with the Holy Ghost. Do you want God's Holy Ghost
in you? Do you want the Spirit in you? Let's turn over to Acts
22, and let's see the rest of this sermon, this message. Ananias
was a good preacher. I'm just going to tell you what
he said. Now that he's with the Lord,
I can say, at one time, Brother Henry stood up, and it wasn't
one time either. And he said, you know, Brother Spurgeon made
a point about that. And that was a wonderful message. Henry
preached about 35 minutes. And I thought, I'm gonna go look
up what Old Brother Spurgeon wrote. And you know, it was almost
verbatim. I mean, in modern English, to
the letter. And Henry said, well, if it's
good, I'm just gonna tell it. I don't care who come up with
it. It's an old, old story, isn't it? Here in Acts 22, verse 12. Paul's giving his own account.
And one Ananias, Acts 22, 12. And one Ananias, a devout man
according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews
which dwelt there. He came unto me, and he stood,
he stood up on his hind two legs, and he said unto me, Brother
Saul, receive thy sight. That's simple, isn't it? See,
what's a prophet supposed to do? Pay dry bones, live. Hey,
deaf ears, here, lame, walk. You that's dead, live. Live. Well, who's gonna do that?
God has to. We just tell you what he said.
He said, have your sight. And the same hour, I looked up
upon him. Look at verse 14 with me. And
he said, the God of our fathers hath chosen thee, Saul. He said,
you look at me. This is in person. He put his
hands on him. And he said, now you look at me. He said, the
God of our fathers has chosen you. What's he telling you? He's
a God of election. Everybody ought to die. You're
the darkness. You got that lesson this morning. But God's going
to save somebody. God's going to save somebody.
Election ain't a bad word. That's a good word. Somebody's going
to be saved. I want that to be me. Don't you
want that to be you? He's gonna save somebody. The
God of our fathers hath chosen thee. That thou shouldest know
his doctrine and his history and his church history and we'll
know Tulip and what? You'll know his will. We know
what God's doing. Don't we? He's glorifying his
son. He's doing things for our good.
and everything that pleases Him. That's what's coming to pass.
Now, we don't know exactly how it's going to pan out. I can't sit
here and tell you what's going to happen with the stars or whatever. That's a soothsayer. I tell you
what, no matter what comes past, Christ's going to get glory for
it. I know that. Don't you? You want it any other way? You're
going to know His will, Saul. And see that just one, capital
J, capital O. You're going to see Christ. You're
going to see his person. Person, the just one. You're
going to see his blood. You're going to need his blood. You're going to see it. You're
going to see his throne, where he is now. That tomb's empty.
He's successful, it's finished, he's on his throne. And he's
interceding for us. You're gonna see that, Saul.
I've seen it. I'm gonna tell you what I've
seen and what I've heard, and this is it. And you're gonna
see him high and lifted up. You're gonna see him on his throne.
You're gonna see that everything that's took place is him ruling and reigning. Just
when he separated you from your mother's womb, ain't one bit
different. You're gonna see the just one and just hear the voice
of his mouth. You gonna hear him. Now, Paul
actually was physically gonna hear from the Lord Jesus Christ,
but we hear him, don't we? You ever been throughout your
day and something happened in your life, and then all of a
sudden you remember a scripture, and it's just like the Lord's speaking
to you? You know, yeah, that's right. We'll be okay. That's what the Lord says. You
gonna hear from his mouth. That's neat. Everybody does.
In our hearts, my sheep hear my voice. and I know them, and
they follow me, they go wherever I go, and I give unto them eternal
life. You're gonna tell somebody about
it too, Saul. Verse 15, for thou shalt be his witness unto all
men of what thou hast seen and heard. You're gonna tell somebody
about that. You ain't going to get this lot
and then hide it in underneath a jar and stick it underneath
the bed, underneath a bushel, and it's going to come out. You
ain't going to be able to do that. And it ain't going to be
on a cardboard sign down some corner acting like a heathen
and fool either. Lord will open opportunities. for Paul a lot,
for each of his children. I was talking to a brother the
other day, and they was talking about bringing somebody to the services,
and I said, that's good. And I said, as the Lord opens
the door, as he allows, I've always said, you can take a horse
to water, but you can't make a drink, but you can drown one.
You can hold its head under. And I'd heard a fellow one time,
they went to somebody's house, and they said, years ago, and
they said, can I get a glass of water? That's a simple question,
isn't it? And that person came back and
said, yeah. They said, you know Christ is a living water? All right,
easy, buddy. You don't need to kick every
door you see open, but it'll be obvious whenever. We don't
open our own doors, but when the Lord opens one, it's going
to be simple. We'll be to the point and we ain't just shoving
the gospel down people's throats. And that's something I had to
learn years ago about visitors. I used to hound people when they'd
show up 13th Street with 50 questions. Where'd you go church? Where'd
you do this? And I'd have all this stuff just waylaying them.
And I used to, I used to, I used to know that person, but they're
wrong. And I used to do this and they're wrong. And you're telling them all the bad things
they've ever done their whole life. I was that weird kid on the playground
that didn't know how to talk to other kids. You know, you've
seen that. The Lord taught me some things
over the years and he taught me to, to be calmed down a little
bit and keep my mouth shut. And then we was in New Jersey,
a whole nother state. And some new people come back a month
after we moved there. A new couple starts sitting behind
us. And Clay said, hey, why don't you take him out to lunch? I said,
buddy, let me tell you something. I ain't your PR person. I'll
smile. I'll say, hi, how you doing?
Hey, that's a nice car. All right, we'll see you later. I ain't
here to court folks and entertain them. I'm the wrong. I just had
got out of the military. It's hard to believe I'm real
calmed down now. This is the watered down version.
And I said, I ain't your welcome party, buddy. I'm the wrong dude.
Something come up the next week, and we went out to eat. Greg
Cooper texts me or calls me every week. I love him. Here, I wasn't
trying to do those things. I wasn't a weirdo. I wasn't the
strange kid on the playground. I was doing everything but that.
And the Lord just did our hearts together. That's my buddy. I'm
just telling you what I've seen and what I've experienced. I
can't tell you what somebody else has. I can just tell you
what God's done for me and what he showed me. We're not required
to witness, to give account, to tell what we do not know. We're so prone to have an answer
to everything, ain't we? We're not required to do that.
We just tell what we've seen and what we heard. That's it.
That's it. What have you, child of God,
seen and heard? If you're a child of God, what have you seen and
what have you heard? Well, Tulip, I'll start there.
Shut up. That's what I used to do. I get
it. The Lord told those disciples of John, he said, go your way
and tell John what things you've seen and heard. That's exactly
what Paul saw. How that the blind see, the lame
walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised,
and the poor have a gospel preached to them. That's a miracle. If God's with us tonight, if
he's blessing a child of God right now, you're witnessing
a miracle. I'm witnessing, I don't know
what's going on. I'm witnessing a miracle. And blessed is he whosoever not
be offended in me. I ain't offended in you. Peter
wrote this, he said, you're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, a peculiar people. And there's a colon. that well
i thought we're just gonna be the cool kid on the block and
we're good to go now we're gonna do something that you should
show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light that's first peter 2 verse 9 i was darkness
he called me out of darkness show me he's light and i'm telling
you everything god did I haven't put a huge question mark on people
that say that they found the Lord and they did this and they
did that and they accepted Jesus and all that. I worry about them.
I worry about their souls. God needs to work in them. They
sorted it out. They sat down and locked themselves
in the basement with the scriptures and a couple old dead men commentaries
like Mordecai Ham back in the 1800s and they come out knowing
the gospel. God sent a preacher. That's so, and he found Saul,
Saul wasn't looking for him, Saul was looking to kill everybody,
thinking he was doing a god some service. That's what Peter said. We're gonna go say what we've
seen and what we've heard. He pulled us out of our darkness
into his light, into his holiness, he did. Which in time past were
not a people, but now are the people of God. Which had not
obtained mercy, I didn't know what mercy was, I thought I deserved
it, but now we've obtained mercy. And we'll tell somebody. He says,
now get after it, verse 16. Why are you terriest thou? What's
wrong with you? Why are you waiting? Get after
it. Get up early. Go, hustle. Why are you terriest
thou? Arise and be baptized. And wash
away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. He delights
to show mercy. Publicly profess it. You profess
him, he'll profess you. If you love him, you'll tell
folks. If I was married and I never wore a red and wing, I know some
electric, they make rubber ones now, so they got excused. If
I wouldn't tell nobody I was married, well, I love my wife,
but I ain't gonna tell nobody I'm married to her. You got 30
minutes, sit down, let me tell you how wonderful she is. Look
back in our text, we'll see that sermon again from Ananias in
Acts 9, verse 17, I'll quote. Acts 9, 17. Ananias went his way and entered
into the house, and putting his hand upon him, said, Brother
Saul, the Lord Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way as thou
camest hath sent me. God sent me to tell you this.
that thou mayest receive thy sight. You quit being blind,
you can see. And be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately
there fell from his eyes as it had been scales. He didn't see
nothing. What has scales on it? Snakes. Snakes do, don't they? Them old
serpent scales fell away. I see now. He was blind, and
now he sees. I didn't know that meant that.
All these years we've been reading this and that's what that means.
You ever had that happen to you? How long has that been in there?
The scale just fell off. Just fell off. And he received
his sight forthwith and arose and was baptized. He was baptized. He was allowed to. He got to.
What a privilege. What a privilege to profess the
one you love and just say it's what he did. Paul sat there for
three days not eating and drinking. I thought, oh, that's rough.
And I thought, well, the Lord was in a tomb. And then I was
so thankful. This may seem odd. I was so thankful.
Ain't you glad you don't have to go underneath that water for
three days in the baptistry? We don't have to go through those
pain and we don't have to have those nails drove in our hands. We
don't have to have that. spear put in our side, and I thought,
that's just carnal. We don't have to have God forsaken us.
What an easy thing. Just say what we've seen and
heard, isn't it? What a blessed thing. I hope that's a blessing
to you.