It's always good to be where
the Lord's people are gathered to hear the gospel preached. I'm going to bring the message
this morning out of Acts chapter 22. Paul is facing a very, very different
crowd than what I'm facing this morning. He's facing a mob. reaching to this group of religious
people who are supposed to be believers. They are supposed
to be those who believe God. For the most part, they didn't. They were supposed to be the
most godly people in town. They were the meanest. I have
found out over the years Religion without Christ produces the meanest
people you'll ever come across. It will. This morning, I want us to look
at Paul's testimony of the grace of God to him in Christ. And you'll notice, as we go down
through these verses, how simply Paul preached the gospel to them.
He just told them. what God had done for him. You
don't have to be a theologian to tell people what the Lord
has done for you. You don't have to be. Just tell
them what He's done for you. If you have tasted that the Lord
is gracious, then just tell them that. When God saves a man or a woman,
that person Never gets over it. Never. Paul never got over the
grace of God to him. As he grew older, he said, I'm
the chief of sinners. Chief. That person whom the Lord
saves, whom the Lord graciously calls to Himself and has mercy
on, will never be the same again. Never be the same again. He is
a new creation. You know, when God began to create
the heavens and the earth and all these things that we have
now, it says in Genesis that it was without form, and darkness
was upon the face of the deep. But when God commanded light
to shine, and when God began to create, it's never been the
same since, has it? And when God makes a center,
a new creation in the Lord Jesus Christ, that person will never
be the same again. Never. That person has the life
of God in his soul. He is made a partaker of the
divine nature. It says in 2 Corinthians 5, if
any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. He's a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. So here stands Paul. His heart going out to this mob. That's what it is. It's a mob.
If you look back over in chapter 21, It says, this is after Paul was
in the temple and they ran him out of the temple. It says in
verse 31, and as they went about to kill him, to kill Paul, tidings
came unto the chief captain of the band that all Jerusalem was
in an uproar, who immediately took soldiers and centurions
and ran down unto them. And when they saw the chief captain
and the soldiers, they left beating Paul. Then the chief captain
came near and took him and commanded him to be bound with two chains
and demanded who he was and what he had done. Here stands Paul
on the steps of this palace in chains. They had him chained. And this mob that was listening
to him wanted to kill him. You know, I have a very comfortable
situation this morning. You have come here to hear the
gospel. You've come here because you love the gospel. Paul stood
before a crowd that was trying to kill him. But his heart, his heart went
out to these people because when he looked at them, you know what
he saw? Himself. Paul saw himself standing in
that crowd. I was just like you. I was where you are at. And he tells them what the Lord
had done for them, hoping, hoping the Lord would have mercy on
them just like he had mercy on him. And Paul identifies with
his audience, I want to hear someone preach the gospel to
me that can identify with me. I want to hear the gospel from
a sinner. saved by the grace of God. That's
what I want. I want to hear the gospel from
a man who has tasted that the Lord is gracious. And Paul here,
he identifies with this group here. He calls them brethren. He doesn't talk down to them.
He calls them brethren. After all they did to him, trying
to kill him, he looks them in the face and says, brethren.
He says, men, brethren, and fathers. He claimed kinship with them.
Grace, grace does not cause us to look down on anyone. If you
look down on someone, that's not grace. Grace will not cause
you to look down on anyone. Grace causes humility, true humility,
not a false humility. But grace causes true humility. Grace causes loneliness of mind. That's what it does. And as we
grow in grace, and in the knowledge of Christ, we grow in this humility. Paul looks at them and calls
them brethren. And then he identifies with them.
He said, I am a Jew. You go over to Philippians chapter
3, and he tells us, my mother was a Jew, my father was a Jew,
I was a Hebrew. He said, I'm a Jew, just like
you are. I was taught, I sat at the feet
of Gamaliel, the greatest teacher of that day. Paul said, I was
his student. I sat at his feet. And I was
zealous toward God just like you are now. Not according to
knowledge, that's why he says over in Romans 10.1, but I was
zealous of God just like you are. I can identify with you. I know where you're at. Paul
could identify with the crowd he's preaching to. He said, I
know, I've been where you are. He was very zealous. Paul was
very zealous in keeping the law. Paul, before the grace of God
came to him, before the Lord saved him and made him a new
creation, Paul really believed he was a good man. He really
believed he was a righteous man and that God accepted him on
that ground. He believed that. And he was
zealous for the law. He said, I persecuted this way
unto the death, this way of salvation, this way that gives God the glory,
all the glory, this way which is Christ himself. He said, I
persecuted it unto the death. He saw the gospel as being contrary
to the law of God. Paul says, I hated. This is what
he's saying to this crowd. I hated. I despised Jesus Christ
as much as you do now. Paul said, I know where you're
at. I know. I hated this message of salvation
by grace alone, Christ alone. He said, I hated it as much as
you do. The gospel that I now preach,
I once tried to destroy it. I tell you this, if we can, we
will, if God leave us alone. We would destroy it if we could.
We would if God would leave us alone. But thank God He doesn't
leave us alone. Thank God He calls some of us
by His grace. Paul knew that he was just like
them. He never, he never lost his sense
of who and what he was. He never lost. I am what I am,
he said in one place. I am what I am by the grace of
God. He didn't say I am what I am
by my instruction, by my teaching, by my upbringing. I am what I
am by the grace of God. And he says the high priest and
a nice, he said he knows what I'm talking about. He and the
elders know my manner of life. I received letters from them
to go to Damascus and to bring men and women to prison, to bust
up homes, to try and destroy the name and the gospel of Jesus
Christ. I did everything I could possibly
do to destroy that name. I was an enemy of the gospel.
No one hated him more than I did. And Ananias, the high priest,
and the elders know this. I'm not making this up. He said,
they know this. I'm not saying this just to get
along. I was on my way to Damascus, filled with hatred of the gospel. Now, I'm telling you, here's
a man that hated the gospel as much as it could be hated. Here's
a man that hated Jesus Christ as much as it could be hated.
Despised Him. Despised Him. And I was on my
way to Damascus, and I was going to do all the hurt and all the
pain that I could do to the church that proclaimed that name, I
was going to destroy it. And while I was on my journey,
and that's when we get in trouble when we're on our journey, but
when I was on my journey, suddenly, suddenly, the Lord does things
suddenly, doesn't He? Suddenly, He said, there shone
from heaven a great light round about me. Christ stopped Paul, not on his road to Damascus.
He stopped Paul on his road to hell. Paul was on his road to
hell. That's where he was at. And the
Lord said, stop. He said, this is enough. It's enough. Paul was not looking
for salvation. I was found of them that sought
me not. He thought he had it. Paul believed
that he had this thing wrapped up. That he was in no danger. But he completely missed it.
Completely missed it. He wasn't looking for salvation.
He was not going down to Damascus to inquire about Jesus Christ. He was going to destroy that
name, if at all possible. He's going to do it. That's what
he's trying to do. He's going to destroy that way,
that way that we love, that way by which God saves sinners. He
said, I was going to destroy it. I tell you, this is a picture
of every one of us at first, when the Lord saves us. Mad,
insane, insane. Going our own way, our own way
of rebellion, even if it's in a way of so-called righteousness. Paul thought he was doing a righteous
thing. He really thought he was doing a righteous thing. He was
doing one of the most wicked things that could be done. But
this is a picture of us, haters of that way, desiring our own
way, until Christ suddenly stops us. When it is time to be born again,
there's a time to be born, it says, over ecclesiastes, and
a time to die. And Paul, it's time to be born. God let him go and fill up the
measure of his rebellion and his ignorance in his own way,
but you know what? It was time. It was time for
a birth. And it was time for Paul to be
born again. It was time for this rebel to
be made a child of the King. Suddenly, the Lord stopped us. Paul said, when it pleased God.
I heard Henry say this in a message years ago and I've never forgotten
it. He said, when is a man saved? When it pleased God. That's when
a man is saved. when it pleased God, who separated
me from my mother's womb, called me by His grace, and revealed
His Son in me." Not just to me, in me. Christ was formed in me. That's why He said, suddenly,
God stopped me. And that great light that shone
round about Paul, Paul said, there was a great light that
shone round about me above the brightness of the sun, and this
was at noon. That great light that shone round
about him was Christ. Who is the light? He is that
light. And he's that light that shone
round about Paul. He's that light that God commands
to shine into the heart when it pleases Him to save a sinner.
He's that light. And then notice what happened
when the Lord suddenly met Paul on his road to hell. Paul said,
I fell unto the ground. I fell unto the ground. God must,
if we are to be saved, when He saves a sinner, that sinner must
be brought down from his high thoughts of himself. You know
that no one, no one, thought more highly of Paul than Paul.
And no one has ever thought more highly of us than us before the
grace of God came. Paul said, I fell to the ground.
Struck him down. Now Paul is going to learn who
he is and who the Lord is. Now he is going to learn something.
Now he is going to sit at the feet, not of Gamaliel. Gamaliel
didn't teach this. What he's about to learn cannot
be learned in a seminary. It cannot be learned in a Bible
school. It can only be learned at the
feet of Christ. That's my need of Him. You can
only learn your need of Him and who He is and what you are when
He brings you to His feet. That's when you and I will learn
of Him. And this is a lesson. This is a lifelong lesson. And let me say this, he's the
teacher and he's the lesson. He's the teacher and he's the
lesson. And then he gives Paul revelation here. He says, why
persecutest thou me? There in verse 7. Why persecutest
thou me? Paul's hatred was toward Christ. To persecute one of God's children,
and he lets Paul know this, to persecute one of his children
is to persecute him. It is a direct assault on Christ. The church is his body. If you smash my finger, John's
going to feel it. If you attack the body of Christ,
Or if any person attacks the body of Christ, Christ is going
to feel it. He said, why persecutest thou
me, Paul? That's my body you're touching.
That's my body you're trying to destroy. To slander one of
God's children is to slander him. And he'll deal with it. And then he gives a revelation
of who sin is against. It's against Christ. Paul said,
Who art thou, Lord? At this point, he didn't know.
He didn't know. He was struck down all of a sudden. And he said, Who art thou, Lord?
He said, I'm Jesus of Nazareth, that one. I'm Jesus of Nazareth
whom thou persecutes. I'm the one whom you despise. I'm the one that was despised
and rejected of me. I'm the one I'm the one that
who came unto his own and his own received him not. That's
who I am, Jesus of Nazareth. He used his name of humiliation
because this is the name Paul was trying to stamp out. Paul
was not trying to stamp out the name Lord. He was trying to stamp
out the name Jesus, that name Jesus of Nazareth. That's the
one he wanted to stamp out. That's the carpenter's son. That's not the Son of God. That's
what they thought. That's what the Jew said. We
know who you are. We know who you are. You are
the carpenter's son. Well, it's evident they didn't
know that. He was not the carpenter's son. He's the son of the living
God. That's who he is. And he says, Paul, I'm the one
you despised and I'm the one you persecute. I'm the one who
died and is alive forevermore. I am Alpha and Omega. That's
who I am. Paul was confronted, now listen,
Paul was confronted by Jesus Christ Himself. That's when a
man is saved. When the Lord of Glory confronts
him Himself. He was confronted by that way
which he was trying to destroy. Until we see our sins to be against
Him. Not just something we do, but
it's against Him. They will mourn when they look
on Him whom they pierced. When we see our sins against
Him, unless we see that, we haven't seen Him yet. Not yet. Salvation. Salvation is a revelation
of a living person, the Lord Jesus Christ. But not everyone
sees that when the Gospels preach. Not everyone hears Him when the
Gospels preach. You'll notice it says the others
heard not the voice. The others didn't hear that voice.
Were they deaf? No, they were dead. Dead in trespasses and sins.
This group of men that were with him were as dead as he was, but
God gave him life. God gave him ears to hear, eyes
to see. The others heard not the voice. Only those whom he calls by his
grace can hear his voice in the message. He said, my sheep hear
my voice and a stranger will not follow. My sheep hear my
voice and they follow me. When I first heard the gospel
back thirty years ago or so, somewhere around there, I heard
Henry preaching on television. I wasn't looking for it. I went
over to my mom and dad's to eat. I wasn't looking for supper.
I wasn't looking for Christ. And I went over there and sat
down and I heard the gospel. And I went back to the place
that I was attending, told them, told them what I'd heard, and
they ran me off. Because they didn't hear. They
couldn't hear the voice. I'm not talking about an audible
voice, you know that. I'm talking about that voice that speaks
to the heart. That voice that calls and draws and you can't
help it. You know why you believe God?
Because you can't help it. I can't help but believe you.
To not to say that I don't believe, I'd be lying. Because I believe
God. You believe God because you can't
help it. And that's what happened to Paul here. You know, the Lord
may speak to someone's heart this morning, and the person
beside you never know it. Never know it. Never know His
spoken. He spoke to Paul. And notice
what a change. What a change grace makes. What
a change when God puts grace in the heart. When God creates
a new heart. Paul became an obedient servant. And I said, what shall I do,
Lord? Boy, that's a different tune,
isn't it? What shall I do? I'm at your disposal. I'm your
subject. Lord, what would you have me
to do? The Scripture says, thy people
shall be willing, when? In the day of thy power. That's
when men and women are willing to come to Christ, when God makes
them willing. Christ did not ask Paul if he
would accept him as his personal Savior. He didn't ask him that, did he?
He didn't ask me that either. He didn't ask you either. He told Paul. You see, he's Lord. Now, if he was just a man like
me, He might sit down and we talk
about this, but he's the Lord. He's the sovereign. You and I
are the subjects. We are the servants. And he said,
Paul, this is what you're going to do. Here's what you're going to do.
He told Paul where he was going to go and that he would reveal
what he was appointed to do. You notice here, he said, And
the Lord said unto me, in verse 10, Arise and go into Damascus,
go ahead now, finish out your journey. There's someone there in Damascus
I have prepared to speak to you. And there shall be told thee
of all things which are appointed for you to do. This was all said. He's not asking Paul. This is
not a conversation going on. He's doing the speaking. Paul
shut up and doing the listening. And that's the way it ought to
be. Be still and know that I'm God. Remember what he says in
Psalm 120? Be still and know that I'm God. I'll be exalted
among the heathens. Be still. So he told Paul what he's going
to do. He's the Lord. We are his servants. So Paul
went as he was told. But Paul had a problem now. He
had a problem that he didn't have before he couldn't see.
And now he knows it. Before he thought he could see,
but he didn't know it. He didn't know he was blind.
He thought he could see. Now he's blind and he knows it.
But now he can really see though. He can see. He's got eyes to
see now that he never had before. God had to shut his physical
eyes to open his spiritual eyes. And Paul became totally dependent
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't the grace of God something
wonderful? Here is a madman trying to destroy
the church. People that believe the gospel
like you sitting here. Here's a man on his road to Damascus.
God had mercy on Paul, and I tell you what, he had mercy on the
church that day too by stopping Paul. And then Paul was brought to
God's preacher. Paul wasn't saved apart from
God's preaching and God's preacher. You know, he heard Stephen preach
the gospel. Paul heard the gospel preached through Stephen. And
now Ananias is going to speak to him. When God saves a sinner,
you're going to find four things present. The Spirit of God. the Word of God, the preacher
of God, and the sinner. Those four things are present
every time when God's pleading to save a sinner. Now, here's
the preacher, Ananias. Doesn't say a whole lot about
him, but it does say this, he's a devout man. God's men, God's
ministers are honest men. God does not call crooks and
put them in a pulpit. If there's a crook in a pulpit, That's not of God. His preachers are honest men.
And the message he preached to Paul was sovereign grace. He said, the God of our fathers,
there in verse 12, the God of our fathers, in verse 14, hath chosen thee. First thing he preached was election.
Now Paul believed election. He believed the Jews were it.
He believed they were it and nobody else. But now he's going
to really understand election. That it's not just a choice of
a nation, but it's a choice of individuals from all nations. The God of our fathers, and he
knew who he was talking about when he said, the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, hath chosen thee. Our Lord said this to the disciples,
you didn't choose me, I chose you. Let's get the order right.
The religion of our day has it backwards, don't they? They got
us choosing Him, us accepting Him. No, He chose us. And then here's the purpose of
His election, here's the purpose of His choosing Paul and His
choosing all of His children. That thou shouldest know His
will, that you should know His revealed will, His redemptive
will, that He should know how God to be a just God and a Savior. Do you know that? Do you know that? That you know
how that God through the atoning blood sacrifice and righteousness
of Jesus Christ, God can be a just God and have something to do
with me. And this is revealed to every
one of God's children. And here's the next thing, that
you should see, you should see that just one. Salvation is knowing and seeing
with eyes of faith, but it's knowing and seeing Jesus Christ. That's salvation. Salvation is
Him. It's being joined to Him. It's a vital living union with
Jesus Christ. That's what it is. Paul knew
the letter of the law. I mean, this man was well instructed
through the Scriptures. Well instructed. But he didn't
know Him. He wouldn't have hated Him so
much if he'd have known Him. He said if you'd have known who
He was, you wouldn't have killed the Lord of Glory if you'd have
known Him. Oh, that you should see Him,
that you should know Him, and that you should hear His voice,
not just hear about Him and accept the facts. No. That you should hear Him. that
He should speak to your heart. Not just hear me standing here,
but hear Him. Hear Him. God must speak to the
soul. God must speak life to the soul. That you should hear Him. This
is why God has chosen you, that you'll know His will, His redemptive
will, and that you should see the Just One, that you should
see and know Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and that you should
hear His voice, and that you should be His witness, His witness
unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. We are not our
own. We've been bought with a price. Every believer has been bought
with a price. We are not our own. It takes a while to learn that,
doesn't it? It takes a while to get those grave clothes off.
We're not our own. We are His witnesses. Every believer is to be a witness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then Paul confessed Him in
believers' baptism. Ananias said in verse 16, And
now, why tarriest thou? I'm sure we don't have all written
here what Ananias had spoken. But Ananias looks at Paul. Paul
is probably seated, listening to Ananias. He said, Paul, what
are you waiting on? Why tarriest thou? Arise and
be baptized as the Lord commanded. This is a command of the Lord.
Arise and be baptized. Now we know We know there's no
saving power in baptism. Christ is salvation. Yet I do
not believe, I do not believe a person who will not follow
the Lord's command to be baptized has yet been saved. I'll tell
you why, because he's still a rebel. He's still a rebel. The Lord
said that whosoever believes that is baptized. And to refuse
to do that, is to me, is rebellion. Not that there's any saving power
in it, but it's a sure evidence of, some evidence, of the condition
of my heart. And Anna and I said, Paul, arise
and listen, and be identified. This is what he's saying. Arise
and be identified with the Lord Jesus Christ and his people. And so that's what Paul preached
to them. Here, standing on these steps,
in chains, bleeding, because they had been beating on him.
He preached the grace of God to them. And he says over here in verse
17, and I'll close. And Paul says to this group,
he said, And it came to pass that when I was come again to
Jerusalem, even while I prayed at the temple, I was in a trance. And he said, I saw him saying
to me, make haste and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem, for
they will not receive thy testimony concerning me. Paul told the
Lord, he said, or the Lord told Paul, he said, you leave that
place because they're not going to believe the message. You can't
make them believe it, Paul. You can't do it. Notice what
Paul says here. Paul says, here he says, and
I said, Lord, they know that I am in prison.
and beat in every synagogue them that believe on thee. And when
the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing
by and consented unto his death and kept the raiment of them
that slew him." He said, Lord, they know who I am. When they
hear my conversion, they're going to listen to me. No, they're
not. They didn't listen to him. Why do you think they're going
to listen to you? When God of heaven and earth
spoke on earth, they didn't listen to him. Am I more impressive?
Paul said, Lord, when they hear about my conversion, they're
going to be converted too. No, they're not. Paul, I'd have to break them
just like I broke you. I'd have to break them just like
I broke you. Paul had some things to learn. But he says here, the Lord says
in verse 21, And he said unto me, Paul says,
the Lord spoke to him, and this is the message that made him
mad. They listened to Paul. They stood
there, Paul spoke to them in the Hebrew tongue, and they listened
to him. And he said unto me, Depart, for I will send thee
far hence unto the Gentiles. I'm going to send the gospel,
I'm going to send salvation to the Gentiles. I'm going to reject
this group of people. And they gave him audience unto
his word. And then after he said this,
and then lifted up their voices and said, away with such a fellow
from the earth, for it's not fit that he should live. The
message of grace will always be an offense to religious lost
people, no matter who God sends to preach it. It doesn't matter. It's offensive to the flesh. He said, Paul, you go to the
Gentiles. You mean God's going to say some
Gentile dogs? You mean He's going to let the
dogs in the house? That's what He thought. He's going to let
the dogs in the house? I said, we're not going to have
that. That's how superior they thought they were to us Gentiles. That's what self-righteousness
will do for you. It will make you look down your...
Stand by thyself. Come not near me. I am holier
than thou. It's over in Isaiah 64, I believe. That's why it's self-righteous.
Grace, though, grace makes you say, brethren, whether it's a
poor man or a rich man, grace will enable men to sit
down and eat with each other, no matter what station in life
or what class in life they're from. Grace will make you do
that. Grace will enable you to do that.
This man, they talked about Christ, this man receives sinners and
he eats with them. And that made those Jews, those
religious people so mad because of the company he kept. Sinners! Well, you know, he could come
over to our house and eat. Just think, he could be eating with
us and he's eating with sinners. Dogs! But I can sure identify with
that woman. who said, Lord, even the dogs
eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table. I like being
a dog. Oh, I'd rather the Lord make
me a dog, saved by grace, and leave me as a self-righteous
hypocrite. I would to God that He'd speak
to my heart and your heart this morning in power, in power, and
enable us to worship Him in spirit and in truth.