Well, once again, we direct your attention to the book of Acts, chapter nine. What a blessing it is to be here. I'm thankful for your fellowship and pray for one another and those who are not able to be with us today, if you'd remember them in prayer. Also, our brother up in Canada had a Zoom meeting with some folks presenting the gospel this morning. So if you'd remember brother Ed.

All right, in the book of Acts chapter 9, I want to begin reading with verse 10, and we're not going to say a lot about what's going on here, but we just want to review some of the things that have taken place that brings us to the place that we are for our study today.

Saul of Tarsus, a very angry man, has been saved by the grace of God on the road to Damascus. He's going to make reference to it two or three more times here in the book of Acts, and we find that he's also going to say, or write, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that he was a pattern of those that God saves. So it may not be exactly what happened to us in our salvation, in the sense of the physical things, but from a spiritual standpoint, these things are going to happen to the people that God saves.

So it tells us here that there was a certain disciple in Damascus named Ananias, and to him said the Lord, in a vision at Ananias. And he said, behold, I am 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 one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he prayeth." I was thinking about that verse, how much providence there was in God moving Saul of Tarsus by the hand of some of his friends to a place, a street called Straight, and there's a man by the name of Judas that has a house there that is willing to keep this rascal.

What a blessing, God opened up the doors for him. So it goes on, and he has seen a vision of a man named Ananias coming in, how God works on both ends at the same time. He worked with the Ethiopian eunuch, and he also worked with Philip. Go down and join yourself to this chariot. And he began at the same place and preached unto him Jesus. Well, here, as we follow this out, he has seen a vision of a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight. What a wonderful blessing.

God has already been dealing with Saul of Tarsus and preparing him for someone coming to him as Ananias. And Ananias answered the Lord, I have heard by many of this man. Now, it doesn't take very much. to find out what kind of history that this Saul of Tarsus had. I've heard from many, I've heard by many of this man how much evil he hath done to the saints at Jerusalem. News travels fast and yet we mentioned last week that he'd only been going on hearsay. He had heard about this man and God is going to give him the privilege of meeting this man who is a totally different man now that God has saved him.

And here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all that call on thy name. And at the top of that list, I'm convinced that Ananias' name was there. Saul had come down to arrest this man to take him back to Jerusalem and have him go through trial.

Verse 15, but the Lord said unto him, go thy way. for he is a chosen vessel unto me." And instantly we find that Ananias has a warm heart towards Saul. He is a chosen vessel. When God informed him that this man, that was such a mean guy, was a chosen vessel that God intended to save him from before the foundation of the world, His heart simply melted. And in fact, he gives him a term, he's gonna call him, the first thing that he meets him, he's gonna call him by a very special term. But the Lord said to him, go thy way for he is a chosen vessel unto me, verse 15, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how great things he must suffer for my namesake.

And Ananias went his way and entered into the house and putting his hands on him said, and these are the great kind words that Ananias used towards Saul of Tarsus, this extremely, very harsh, hard man that was there to arrest him, brother Saul. There was a relationship that Ananias had been shown that he and Saul of Tarsus now had. They were brothers in Christ. They were children of the Most High God. God had done with Ananias just as he had done with Saul of Tarsus, had saved him and gave him a new family. a family that agrees on the gospel, a family that agrees on Christ, a family that agrees on sin and the Savior. This is a family that is referred to by Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest has sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost.

And immediately there fell from his eyes, as it had been scales, and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized. I'd like to mention just a few things as we travel through here on this subject about the things that fell from his eyes. Now, there's no doubt that he had something over his eyes, some scale, something that God had put there.

But remember, turn with me if you would, keeping your finger right here, but turn with me if you would over to the book of 1 Timothy. In 1st Timothy, we find that the Apostle Paul was led to write to Timothy some words about himself and about what God had done for him. He has led to write that he is a pattern.

Now, we may have not done the same things that Saul of Tarsus had done, but our heart was just as corrupt. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Saul didn't know the desperateness of his heart. Neither does anybody else know the desperateness of their heart when God saves him. It is a heart that is full of sin. There is no remedy for it in all the potions of this world.

And yet we find out that the God that created the heavens and the earth is the same God that saves his people from their sins. Here in the book of 1 Timothy 1, beginning with verse 12, and I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me in the ministry.

Who was before a blasphemer? We find Saul of Tarsus, Paul, talking about what his life was before he was saved. He was a blasphemer. He was ignorant of the ways of God and a persecutor and injurious. Not one of those words that he uses as recorded here in 1 Timothy 1, in writing this letter to Timothy, a servant of God and one that had been saved under his ministry, not one of those words was a positive example. He says, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all expectation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Now Saul of Tarsus would have never said that about himself. But God granted him the mercy to say that about himself.

And then he goes on to say, how be it for this cause I obtain mercy that in me first Jesus Christ my show forth all long suffering. And then he uses this word for a pattern to them, which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. I am a pattern. of those that will be saved. I am a pattern of those that have been saved.

So if you follow the account of Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, you're going to find out that there is many similarities between what happened to him and what happens to everyone God ever saves. The first thing that we find out that happened to Saul of Tarsus that God had a plan for him was to hear the gospel. He stood in front of a man he's later going to consent to kill, but he heard the gospel from that man. When he was going through the Old Testament, Stephen was preaching Christ and him crucified.

This is the one all of that pointed towards. And it made Saul of Tarsus so upset that he consented unto his death. But you know what? The word had gone out. Stephen had preached the gospel. Now Saul of Tarsus may have heard the gospel somewhere else.

And let me put this very plain. God never saved anybody that he didn't bring the gospel to first. Never. It's not, I've had people tell me, well, I never heard the gospel and I trusted the Lord. That's too rare. The gospel is the seed that God uses. There must be a seed for a birth. We know that from a physical world. There must be a seed for a spiritual birth, and that is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the word that God sends out through somebody that knows something about how people are saved.

That man who brought me the gospel, you know, he was a man just like me. He'd been pastoring the church for a number of years and didn't even know the gospel. And when he said, I didn't know the gospel, I thought, now that's the simplest thing in the world to know.

It's right there in first Corinthians chapter 15. For this is the gospel, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scripture was buried and rose again, according to the scripture, that's the gospel. How can he not believe that? Well, he didn't believe it here.

God revealed Christ, the gospel, the good news to him. All right, that's what he does. He revealed Christ, the good news to Saul of Tarsus. He was a pattern. Now these scales were an emblem or a representation of a number of things that Saul was ignorant of by nature. They hid things from him.

There are scales on our eyes. There are spiritual scales. We just cannot see through them. When we're born into this world, we're born into the same world that Adam caused a great fall. And as a result of Adam's fall, we are blinded to so much. We just cannot see it. We cannot see the truth of the gospel. It's hidden from us.

It's in a very special language, and it's only revealed by the Holy Spirit. I may know a few words in Spanish, but I can't talk in Spanish. And you know, there's a big difference about fluently knowing Spanish and being able to say a few words. Now, if I went to Mexico, I could order tacos probably. But the gospel, when it comes to us, reveals to us an entirely new language. It's a spiritual language.

We find out that Saul was ignorant about himself and he was also ignorant about sin. He thought, he believed, and he's gonna share this in the book of Philippians. He believed that if he committed a sin, he could go to the temple and buy a lamb and give it to the priest and the priest could offer an offering and his sin would be resolved, taken care of. He was blameless. He always offered the right sacrifices. Well, we got that idea that we can offer a sacrifice too. He was blind to the fact that sin must have the special sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ, which all of those Old Testament pictures, types and shadows pictured. Saul was ignorant about true righteousness.

He believed his righteousness was in the law. I keep the law, I'm righteous before God. Well, he found out that he didn't keep the law. We cannot keep the law. It's not something that God gave to us to keep. The law is the only, it condemns us. He was ignorant of the gospel. He had no idea of what the good news was.

His good news was, if I do the best I can, I'll probably make it. I'm a Jew. My father is Abraham. Wow, I've had people tell me. You know, my grandfather went to the Baptist church. Well, so? Where are you in this whole scheme of things? It's not the grandfather.

He was ignorant of Jesus as Messiah and of his unbelief in him. He was ignorant of Jesus Christ. He had a hatred towards Jesus because if Jesus was right and he was the Messiah, then Pilate and all of those guys, including Saul of Tarsus, put to death an innocent man. I'm not going to have that. He was ignorant of the gospel. He was ignorant of his error. He was ignorant of his false doctrine. He was ignorant of his ignorance. What a strange thing. We, by nature, are ignorant of our very ignorance. We just cannot comprehend how ignorant we are until Christ is revealed unto us.

And that's what we find that the Apostle Paul, it takes the Spirit of God to enlighten us. And we find that that is brought out in the scriptures. Turn with me, if you would, to the book of Ephesians chapter one. In the book of Ephesians chapter 1, we find that there's a great statement made about being enlightened in Ephesians chapter 1. Here we read Ephesians chapter 1 beginning with verse 16. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 16, we have the Bible itself tells us about the Bible. Here we have in Ephesians chapter 1 that there's something about the eyes that God works on when he saves us from our sin.

Now we may not have physical scales over our eyes, but we have spiritual scales that cannot be removed by ourselves. It's an impossibility. We don't have the surgical hands to do that, the spiritual hands. Well, notice with me in Ephesians chapter one, beginning with verse 16. Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.

Saul of Tarsus, Paul the Apostle, writing to the saints at Ephesus, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened. Spiritual eyes of understanding. Eyes that God gives us in regeneration that allows us to see what God did when he sent his son to die for us.

He came on purpose. He was not taken by and captured by mistake. He was on purpose. The eyes of your understanding be enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us were to believe according to the working of his mighty power. What a growth is given to us immediately. Now, we may not, and it may take us a while to understand even some of the things that God has given us, but it's all ours.

I wish my dad had had a good gold mine, a productive gold mine, at the price of gold right now. It'd been very nice. And if he had have given me the gold mine, And I took out an ounce a day, but in that gold mine, there was a million ounces, an ounce a day. I couldn't even imagine how much still remains.

And you know, from a spiritual standpoint, I cannot comprehend of the spiritual blessings that I have in Christ. I have them all. They all belong to me. They're a promise God has given to me, but I cannot comprehend yet. all the blessings I have in Christ."

And here we have that the Apostle Paul, writing to Timothy many years later, said, there is an enlightenment. What's it say about the eyes? The eyes of your understanding being enlightened? Wham! That takes us right back to Acts chapter 9, when the Apostle Paul was there and there was great covering over his eyes from a physical standpoint, but also from a spiritual standpoint.

And he says, this God must take care of. Turn with me, if you would, over to the Psalm, Psalm 119. I don't mean to get into Mike's lessons, but those verses are really good. Psalm 119, would you join me in Psalm 119, verse 18, Psalm 119. 19 and verse 18. And there it says, open thou mine eyes. that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Now, Mike has brought out that there are 10 different words used in the Psalm 119 that have to do with the word of God.

Don't just say, oh, I know it's the 10 commandments. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about his word. He's talking about the word. Now, if you've been in on the 10 commandments, just come to the agreement, I can't keep them. It's an impossibility. Open thou my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy word, out of thy law. I want to see it, but you have to open my eyes so I can see it.

And then as God allows us to read it, as God allows us to hear it, as God sends somebody that knows something about the gospel and brings that word out to us, how it causes our heart to be warm, You know, I just think of those disciples on the road to Emmaus. Did not our hearts burn within us? When he brought up the word, did not our? Well, that's just the way God does it. How blessed it is. All right.

In the book of Acts chapter 16, going back to the book of Acts, Acts chapter 16, we read about a lady from Thyatira. Now I didn't realize that Thyatira and where she is now is a long ways away. She has gone a great distance to be where she is. Here in the book of Acts chapter 16, we find that Lydia, a seller of purple from Thyatira, there in verse 14, She's in, I believe it's Philippi, but she's from Thyatira.

She's a long ways away from home. You know, there's an Ethiopian eunuch we read about. He's a long ways away from home. He has a very important job down there in Ethiopia. He's been up to Jerusalem to worship, but he worshiped, he didn't know, have any idea what he was worshiping. He even had the Bible. I had a lady tell me one time, she had this great big family Bible and she says, Norm, I never put another book on top of it. I says, do you ever read it? It was not the best question to ask. But I never put another book on it.

Well, here in the book of Acts chapter 16 and verse 14, a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple. Now, I can go into St. Vinny's and buy purple clothes. I can go into the senior center and buy purple clothes. They're not that valuable anymore. But here, this was a very valuable color. It was expensive to make, and it was expensive to own.

And she was a seller of purple, clothes of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened. What a statement is made here about Lydia, a seller of purple from Thyatira. God had worked on her so that she knew something when she heard Saul of Tarsus, Paul the Apostle, preaching, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. How could she attend to the things spoken by Paul when he was preaching the gospel?

Because God had opened her heart, gave her an understanding that this is what it is. This is the gospel. what we have. In the book of 2 Corinthians, so join me there in 2 Corinthians. In 2 Corinthians we have these words recorded for us. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 4, it says here that there is a hiding, there is something that's been hidden.

It says, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. Well, you ever wondered what's blinded us before we're saved? Well, number one, we got this blindness, the propensity for it in Adam. He chose blindness over sight. He chose deafness over hearing. He chose eternal life. I mean, he chose death to eternal life. He just made some real bad choices.

God was not upset, perturbed, or overwhelmed. But listen to this, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. Now, what is this God of the world that hath blinded our minds? You know, to most people, they immediately put a capital G there and say, that's the devil that does that. Devil made me do that. Devil, it's the devil. You know what? That God of the world is our will. We have chosen in our will. I rejected Christ in Adam. I rejected Christ in Adam. And my rejection of Christ continued on until he gave me the light of the gospel, till he quickened me.

Somebody said, stop excusing yourself with Satan's name when the fingerprints are your own. That's whose fingerprints are left around the problem. And I liked what Adam Clark said, it is strange that by the general consent of man, Sin against God has been so ever considered so perfectly unnatural and so evil in itself that no man would commit it unless pushed or forced to it by the agency of the devil. Sin against God is so unnatural for a natural man that I wouldn't do it unless the devil made me do it? I'm sorry. Sin against God is our normal. Thankful to God that he makes it He saves us by His grace and it changes us.

Oh, the great God of heaven commanded the light. Verse six of that same chapter. Would you look at that for me? For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So, when Ananias came in and said those things, and the scales fell from Saul's eyes, it's a type, it's a shadow, it's a picture of what God does for us, and we will also. It is necessary that the God who commanded the light to shine, as we read here, The God that hath commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts. So he has commanded great light, an understanding about Christ, an understanding about the gospel, an understanding about sin, all the things that Saul was ignorant of. Now, with those scales gone, he had an understanding about them to some degree. He was willing to write in the Bible, I am the least of all saints. I am the least of all the apostles. I am, what was that? The chiefest of sinners. This is the same man that had no quickening about that at all. He wouldn't quibble with anybody over that fact before he was saved. So, as we look at this, he received his sight and arose.

He has been saved by the grace of God, and he's going to mention that several times, and it's going to be mentioned by others several times in the Bible about how God saves his people. Join me back there in the book of Acts chapter nine, verse 18, as we look at the next thing that took place there. In the book of Acts chapter 19, as we follow the life of Saul of Tarsus, later to become Saul the apostle, in Acts chapter 19, Acts chapter 9 verse 18, we read these words, the conclusion of that verse.

And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales, and he received sight forthwith and was baptized. He received sight, he arose and was baptized. This ordinance of God carried out on believers only is the public profession of faith. You know what he was declaring when he was baptized? I am of this way. All that I believed about God was wrong. All I believed about Christ was wrong. All I believed about sin was wrong. All I believed about heaven was wrong and hell was wrong.

You know, the Bible tells us that if we're in Christ Jesus, we're a new creation in Christ Jesus. Old things are passed away, and then there's a wonderful word, behold, all things become new. Now it doesn't say all old things passed away, does it? Because we still carry around this flesh. We still carry around sin in our flesh. But at that moment, when God reveals his son to us, everything spiritual becomes new. There wasn't a thing that we could comprehend rightly before he saves us. Behold, all things become new. Sin becomes new.

You know, it was the first time in my life that I deserved to go to a devil's hell. Now, I'd argued about it before. I'm not quite as bad as most people on that subject. If I just served the Lord a little bit longer, he'll welcome me into his stead, into his place, into heaven. But I learned that I deserved the justice that God has, and that is eternity in hell. I deserved it. I learned that.

I found out that Jesus Christ came to die for sinners. And you know, it's hard to admit that, oh, yeah, I'm a sinner. Well, what did you do? Oh, I stole from my mother's cookie jar. I went out to the cellar one time and found out my grandfather's jar of tobacco, and you know, I made a cigarette out of newspaper. And I smoked it.

That's not what God is talking about when he's talking about sin. Sin against God. He is the offended party. He is whom we have sinned against. So this baptism is symbolic and it is not effectual to salvation. There's only salvation in Christ. Not in water, not in matter, which way or whatever way it's applied. It's not there. There is no salvation in any form of baptism. There's no salvation in any of that. There's only salvation in Jesus Christ.

But once the Lord has saved us, he has, I like this. Baptism is voluntary but yet commanded. It is. saying, I am of this way. Jesus Christ is my Savior. It's not to join a church. It's not to make life better. It is a following the Lord in baptism is an answer of a good conscience towards God.

I am of this way. You know, the Apostle Paul was quite an example of that because he had been hunting people of this way. He had killed people this way. And now when he went down under the water and came up out of the water, he is telling the world, I am of this way. It's not going to be very long and there's going to be two or three different groups after him to kill him over that declaration that I am of this way.

Baptism is symbolic, it is not effectual. In John, turn with me if you would to the book of John, chapter four, John chapter four. I've had some good friends that said that the only way that I could be saved was to go down into the water. That's how God saves his people. Well, it's interesting when we get over here to John chapter four, it makes a mention about baptism and the Lord Jesus Christ. John chapter four, verse one, it says, when therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, aha, read the next verse.

Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples. Now, if it was so essential, Jesus would have had the most I'm out baptized." But he said, I baptized not. The Apostle Paul says, you know, God didn't send me to baptize, but he sent me to preach the gospel. And I baptized none of you. And then he got to thinking, you know, towards the end of his life, he had Alzheimer's or half Heimer's. Oh yeah, there were three or four I can remember that I did baptize, but it wasn't his main goal. His main goal was to preach the gospel. And then when God saved his people from their sins, there was a statement made that they are of this way when they submitted themselves to the watery grave. Going back to the book of Acts chapter 19 for just a moment, Acts chapter 19, excuse me, Acts chapter nine, verse 19.

After all of this happened, did Saul go back to the law? Did Saul go back to Judaism? Did he go back to the synagogues and said, it's the law that's important? Notice with me here as we read that in verse 19 of Acts chapter 9, And when he had received meat, he was strengthened.

Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus, and straightway he preached Christ in the synagogue, that he is the Son of God. Complete change. of his operation. And then it goes on to say, but all that heard him were amazed and said, is not this he that destroyed them which called on his name in Jerusalem and came hither for that intent that he might bring them bound under the cheap priests? Isn't this the same guy? But Paul increased the more in strength and confounded the Jews which dwelt in Damascus, proving that this is very Christ.

And after that, many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him. But their laying awake was known of Saul, and they watched the gates day and night to kill him. Then the disciples took him by night and led him down by the wall in a basket. What a change we see in Saul when God saved him by his grace. He went from preaching the law and teaching all of that ceremony that came by it, he went to preaching Christ.

What does that mean? Christ alone is the Savior of his people. It is not bound up in works, It's not bound up in law. It's not bound up in ceremony. It's not bound up in church. It's not bound up in what you believe. It's bound up in Christ. It's not a ceremony.

It's an act of grace upon God's people. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin. But the blood of Jesus Christ takes away all the sin of all his people. What a blessing we have in this. Yes, Saul of Tarsus was shown by God Almighty what grace is.

God had every right in this world to destroy that man on the road to Damascus or earlier. And yet he was a chosen vessel and God saved him at the appointed time. And you know, I can only say this, not from scripture, but from my own thought. Everyone that he'd ever killed that was in heaven could say, hallelujah. God has worked his work of grace there too. And except for the grace of God, there go I. We'll stop there this morning, and we'll pick this up