If you'll turn back to Acts chapter
22. Now Paul's conversion is the pattern
of everyone's conversion. Now if you have found Acts chapter
22, you can just hold your place there and turn over to 1 Timothy
chapter 1. And we'll see that. Paul says
that his conversion is the pattern for everyone. What happened to
him happens to everybody that's been called of God. He says,
but for this very reason, that is, that he is the chief of sinners,
for this very reason I was shown mercy so that in me the worst
of sinners Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience
as an example, that word means a pattern, a form, as a pattern
for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. They say, well, I never did see
a light near noon brighter than the sun. I never heard the voice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I was never stricken blind. Well,
understand this. Paul was not converted on the
road to Damascus. He was confronted on the road
to Damascus, but he was not converted there. He was converted in a
room somewhere in Damascus. We read here in chapter 22 of
Acts, in verse 16, it says, And now what are you waiting for?
Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away. calling on his
name. So what Ananias is saying to
Paul, and this is after the confrontation with Christ on the road to Damascus,
this is, I believe it was three days later. Ananias comes to
him, preaches the gospel to him and addresses him as one who
yet needs to have his sins washed away. I've seen paintings, Paul's
conversion on the road to Damascus. Well, I understand why they say
that, but that's really not when he's converted. Here's when he
was converted. Christ confronted him and put him in the dust and
began the work of grace in him, but it wasn't finished. This
work of conversion wasn't finished until here in Damascus. And the things that happened
to Paul there while in Damascus happens to all of God's people.
Paul had been convicted of his sin. He had been convicted of
it, not so much as a transgression of the law of Sinai, Not so much
for any act of immorality as we normally think of immorality,
but because of his hatred of the Lord Jesus Christ, because
of his unbelief, because of his going about to establish his
own righteousness. And anybody who tries to establish
his own righteousness has set himself against God and against
Christ. Now, I know that sounds unusual.
Everybody thinks God's all about righteousness and God wants everybody
to be good. And the best thing we can do
is be good enough that he'll be pleased with us. I suppose
if we could be good enough for him to be pleased with us, that'd
be the way to go. But God has something different in mind.
His plan, his will, as we'll look at here in just a few minutes,
his will is contrary to that. His purpose is contrary to us
establishing our own righteousness as any kind of reason why God
would show us any good. Therefore, anybody who tries
to be good in order to gain things from God, in order to, as it
were, buy the blessings of God with his goodness, that person
is running directly opposite the will of God. And that's what
Paul was doing. Christ confronted him on the
road to Damascus and said, Why are you persecuting me? Why are
you against me? Why are you troubling me? Paul had been convicted. And
in the midst of his conviction, God sent a gospel preacher to
him. And this gospel preacher told him the truth and told him
what he ought to do. And Paul did it. He believed
and did what he was told. And you know something? That
is the pattern that happens in every conversion of a sinner
to God. The Holy Spirit convicts them
of their sin, shows them Christ, by way of a preacher tells them
what they ought to do, and they do it. There's no conversion. without conviction. That's just
so. I mean, why would anybody be
saved or have any interest in salvation if they did not first
learn of their condemnation? You don't go to a doctor until
you get sick. And so no one who has not learned
something of their sin is ever converted. There is no conversion
without instruction in the truth. Our Lord said, you'll know the
truth and the truth shall set you free. Paul says in another
place, he said that you were saved after you heard the word
of truth, the good news of your salvation. Why do I preach? Why do you all give money to
support me in preaching? If it were not for this, without
the truth, no one is saved. Without the truth, no one grows
in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why the scriptures say,
buy the truth and sell it not. Nothing more important to you
in this world than the truth. So there's no conversion without
conviction, no conversion without instruction, and there's no conversion
without obedience. There are some who know their
sinners and have heard the truth, but they have never obeyed the
truth. They have never called upon the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. They've never done that. They've
never confessed it. They think that mere knowledge
of guilt and knowledge of the gospel is enough. But knowledge. without obedience
is nothing but presumption. So all these things are found
in Paul's experience. Let's look at these things, what
Ananias said to Paul, what he told him to do, and apply it
to ourselves. Now, he comes to Paul and he
says, the first thing he does is give him sight. Paul's blind. And Ananias comes in and stood
beside Paul and said, Brother Saul, receive your sight. And
at that very moment, I was able to see Him. Now, I believe here
we have illustrated for us the work of the Holy Spirit. Ananias
is a kind of a picture of the Holy Spirit as He works with
His people. And the first thing God does
by His Spirit is to give a person sight. And then He shows him
something to see. Some might say, well, sometimes
people hear the truth before they ever see it. I know. I understand
that because God sends his preachers out. I preach indiscriminately.
By that, I don't look and think, well, I think that's one of the
elect. There were churches that used to do that. They were so strongly Calvinistic
in their theology that when people came to church, those who professed
to believe sat on one side and those who had not yet professed
to believe would sit on the other side and the preacher would preach
in this direction. lest they accidentally preach
the gospel to one of the non-elect, thinking, you know, it wasn't
appropriate to do so. I preach indiscriminately. Whoever will
sit down and tolerate listening to me, I'll tell them the truth.
But me telling you the truth won't make you know the truth
in a spiritual way. That the Holy Spirit must do.
And He works life in His people. He gives them sight and then
shows them the truth that they might see it. And so Ananias
comes in and he says, Paul, receive your sight. and then gives him
something to say. Now, the gospel preacher, as
he preaches the gospel, note what he says. Verse 14. The God
of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the
righteous one and to hear words from his mouth. Here, the gospel
preacher begins with the doctrine of election. God has chosen you. Now, there are some people that
outright disbelieve this doctrine. Of course, most of you were raised
in religions that held this doctrine fast. Though I'm surprised that
many of the churches that continue calling themselves reformed no
longer hold to this doctrine, or if they do, they don't count
it very important. But notice this, the first thing
out of Ananias' mouth as he preaches the gospel to Paul is this, God
has chosen you. Why was this so important? Because
it was obvious that Paul wasn't choosing God. Oh, this gospel
that says God's done all He can and now it's up to you. Won't
you choose Jesus? What a nonsense gospel. We come
into this world with our face set against God, our heart set
against God, and all it takes is a little time, a little growing
up, and we prove it. All it takes to prove that man's
heart is set against God is for him to come in contact with God
or some of God's people. Right away. I don't like that. Men will not choose God. There's
none that seek God, says the Scriptures. Therefore, the beginning
of the gospel to Paul was this. God has chosen you. Some outright
disbelieve it. Others believe it to be a non-essential
doctrine. In fact, they say, well, it's
true, but we shouldn't trouble people with it. I believe this. Find that doctrine which troubles
a man most. That is, that doctrine of the
truth. which troubles a man most. And that's where God's going
to meet him and win the day when that man will never be saved.
That's just so. Now, it might be different for
different people, some people raised up in a tradition of of
sovereign grace, such as many of you were. These doctrines
may never be any trouble to you because you were raised up believing
in unconditional election and limited atonement and irresistible
grace and all that. They aren't trouble to you. But
maybe it was a trouble to you at one point to believe that
aspect of the gospel. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. It may be that God will confront
you on this part where Ananias says to Paul, and now what are
you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash
your sins away, calling on his name. That may be one of the
points God's got to confront you on and win the day. But if
God does not win the day with you, it's because there was no
grace towards you. God will win or you will be lost. It's just so. Some men deny this
gospel, excuse me, this doctrine of election. Others will say
it's non-essential, we shouldn't trouble people with it. It's
a doctrine suitable only for mature believers. Well, here's
an unbeliever, Saul of Tarsus, an outright unbeliever, and the
first words out of the gospel preacher's mouth was the doctrine
of election. God chose you. You know, the
doctrine of election is troublesome only to those who think they
have the power within themselves to choose God. Nobody is truly
being convicted of their sin by the Holy Spirit of God has
any problem with the doctrine of election. They rejoice in
it. But we find out that we're totally depraved and there's
nothing in us that we can do. In fact, there's no will in us
to do God's will. When we learn that, We're so
glad, so happy to find out that our salvation does not begin
with our will, but His. Oh my, if He left it up to us
to choose, I know where every one of us would be within a few
years. Can you not own the truth of
that? God chose me. And, you know, He chose me and
He's revealed His will to me. He's shown me Jesus Christ. I've
heard from Him. All these things are true. And
even to this day, I know if He were to, at this moment, leave
me to myself, I would immediately choose to depart from Him. Don't
think that election is a singular event in eternity that has impact
only on one singular event in our lives. when we first believe
God. His election of us, His choice
of us, is first revealed when we believe, but is revealed through
all His persevering grace because His choice of us is eternal. Paul, God has chosen you. The first good news words, the
first gospel words Paul ever heard were this, God has chosen
you. So is it any wonder that Paul
makes such regular mention of the doctrine of God's election? Look over here to Ephesians chapter
1. It says in verse 3 of Ephesians
1, if you understand this chapter, my friend, you understand the
gospel. It really doesn't take a whole lot of words to describe
the gospel. Paul's done it pretty good here. He says, verse 3,
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing
in Christ. That's a summary of the gospel
right there. But notice how he begins to detail it. For he chose
us in him. before the creation of the world,
to be holy and blameless in his sight. Paul cannot get into the gospel
30 words before he says, God chose us. And I think maybe that's
because the first words of the gospel he ever heard was, God
chose you. Do you think Paul had any problem
with the doctrine of election? I think he loved it. Look over
here at 1 Thessalonians 1. In verse 2 and 3, he's talking
about how thankful he is for them and how he remembers them
in prayer. And here's what prompted that
thanks and prayer, verse 4, for we know, brothers loved by God,
that he has chosen you. First time he mentions the gospel
in the book of 1 Thessalonians, he talks about God choosing those
believers. And then 2 Thessalonians, chapter
2, verse 13. But we ought always to thank
God for you, brothers, loved by the Lord, because from the
beginning, God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying
work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. Before God ever made any aspect
of this universe, He laid out the decree of all
that would come to pass. And part of that decree was this,
who he would save. Election is not hard to understand.
It's simply this, God chose whom he would save. It may be hard
to swallow, but it's not hard to understand. And if someone thinks, well,
it's not fair that God should choose some and leave others
behind, let me say this, God was under no obligation to choose
anybody. There's nobody. They can lay
claim to God's salvation. Therefore, he may choose to save
whom he will. If I came up on a, I can't think
of any other illustration of this, kind of silly, but you'll
see the point. If I came up on a boatload of sinking hamsters. I know, I don't know what else.
You're all going to drown. I'm under obligation to save
none of them. But if I want to, I can save 1, 2, 50, 50,000, whatever I want to. All the much more if those hamsters
had bit me. Would I be under no obligation
to do them good? And if God, in His grace, looking
down and through history, so to speak, seen the rottenness
and depravity of the entire human race, was pleased to choose out
some of them to be gracious to, the glory of it belongs to him.
Not any contempt on him because he didn't save everybody, but
a glorious awe and wonder that he bothered to save anybody.
God has chosen you. Now, this election is unto salvation,
but it's described under three points. To know God's will. We've been chosen to know God's
will, chosen to see the righteous one, and to hear words from His
mouth. Now, what is it to know God's
will? Well, that word, know, means more than to be aware of.
It's the word commonly used in Scripture to indicate an intimate
knowledge, an understanding of. It's the word commonly used when
we talk about knowing a person. It's applied here to knowing
something. Of course, knowing this something
involves knowing someone, the Lord Jesus Christ. But if you
look over to Ephesians chapter 1, we'll go back there and we'll
get a summary of what God's will is. When I was a teenager in church,
if anybody mentioned anything about the will of God, here's
what they meant. They meant, well, what does God want me to
do with my life? Do you know the will of God?
Well, I think God wants me to. The will of God doesn't have
anything to do with what you do. It's not the will of God
we're talking about here. We always agonized, am I doing
the will of God? As though God has this plan laid
out, and I know he does, but he's got a plan laid out and
we could mess it up. I really wanted you to be a millionaire,
but you goofed up, you know. Or I wanted you to be a scientist,
but you decided to be a musician. Boy, I had great plans for you,
but you took plan B, so I'm not going to be able to get... That's
nonsense, people. It really is. When we're deciding
what to do, we're supposed to use the brain that God gave us,
and the information He's laid out in His Word, and walk according
to His truth, and God will see to it that you're where you belong
at the time you belong there. So when we talk about knowing
the will of God, we're not talking about knowing what plan God has
for our career, or whether or not we're supposed to get married,
or whether or not we're going to have children and all that. God's
will is much more important than that. And here's the summary
of it. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 9,
beginning of verse 9, And he made known to us the mystery
of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed
in Christ, to be put in effect when the times will have reached
their fulfillment, to bring all things in heaven and on earth
together under one head, even Christ. That's God's will. To
bring everything in creation from the time He said, let there
be light, until finally He extinguishes that light, then everything that
happens in between there, everything in heaven, earth, and hell be
brought under one head, Jesus Christ. That's the will of God. And everything in history is
made subject to that will. Everything that's happening right
now. is happening to bring this to pass, that everything will
be brought under the headship of Jesus Christ. Now, what does
it mean to be brought under his headship? Well, this word was
used to describe a heading. You know, when someone has, you
have a ledger, and you've got a check ledger. You've got, you
know, deposits, and then the checks you write. And those deposit
and checks, that's headings in a column. Here's what Paul is
saying. Here's the will of God. That
in all of history, there's only going to be one column. And that
column is going to be Christ. And everything that happens is
going to be by His will, for His pleasure, and for His glory. Everything. That means Whether you go the
science route or the music route, you will in some way or another
redound to the glory of God. You know what else that means?
Whether or not you ever trust the Lord Jesus Christ, you will
still be to the glory of Jesus Christ. For Him to be the head
over all things means He's the Lord over all things. The one
supreme potentate. Jesus Christ. That's God's will. Now here's the grace of His will.
Look in verse 5 of Ephesians chapter 1. He predestined us
to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with
His pleasure and will. Now here's the will of God that
Christ should be head over all things. And here's a gracious
aspect of that will. that this chosen people have
a destiny laid out for them to be adopted as God's children.
And that doesn't simply mean brought into the family. Adoption
was a process by which someone was made a full heir. It says
if you are in Christ, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs
according to the promise. If you are adopted, If according
to the predestinating grace of God, you've been adopted, that
means that you're written in God's last will and testament. If we put it that way, you're
an heir of God and joint heir with Jesus Christ. That gracious truth is part and
parcel of that overarching will of God in the glory of Christ. And here's the power of His will.
Verse 11. Ephesians 1, in him we were also
chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him
who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.
Now I've got some will, purposes. I've got a will, don't you? And
I don't mean a will over at the law office for when I die. I
mean, I've got a will about tomorrow. I've got plans. Bonnie and I
have been out at Newton Hills this weekend, and we're booked
up through tomorrow morning, you know, tomorrow. And after
the evening service, we're going to go back over there. And we
got a will that tomorrow we're going to go to Sioux Falls and
do some things. But you know something? It might
be that none of it happens. Because I don't have power to
carry out my will against all obstacles. I have big dreams. But small
muscles, so to speak. Here's God. His will and history
are exactly the same. No deviation. Everything he has
willed, all the flow of history is brought into conformity with
that. Down to the smallest items that
you and I don't even know are going on, including all the items that
we wish weren't going on. Includes all the items that we
cannot see. How in the world that could ever
come out to the glory of God? It will. It will honor Christ. We cannot escape the news that
goes on in our day. Isn't this something, when you
read the newspaper, and then you read, is it Psalm 2? How
the heathen raged and how the people imagined a vain thing.
They set themselves up against God and against His anointed
one. And those fools over there in
the Middle East think they're going to cause trouble to the will of
God. They won't. And you know what? And understand the context in
which I'm saying this. The fools that are fighting them
are going to bring glory to Christ too. That whole mess. And I know that, you know, I'm not going to say what I think
about what's going on over there, because it really doesn't matter
what I think about it or what anybody else thinks about it.
I know there's war in every case is a revelation of the depraved
violence of man. It's called a necessary evil,
and sometimes it's necessary, but it's always evil. It's just
not as evil as what might happen if you don't go to war. But I
want you to know this. While it's evil, it will glorify Christ. And all those leaders over there
that shake their fist in His face will be brought to bow to
Christ. And all of those that go over
there with crosses hung around their neck and think they're
good enough that God is pleased with them, they're going to bow
before Christ too. And God may send some of His people over
there to fight in that war. And they may get killed. And
that will be to His glory. And some wicked men that you
might wish would have been killed might come home. And that will
be to God's glory. I don't know what's going to
happen. But I know this, whatever is happening, God is making it
happen to bring glory to Christ. The details of His will, are
this, in Isaiah 53.10, and if you want to just write these
down and look them up later, I've got to move this along.
It is the will of the Lord to crush him. In bringing Christ
to a glorious end, God brings him to a contemptible
death. All God's ways are not our ways.
Would you ever look at a cross and count that the road to glory? That's what God did. It was His
will, part and parcel of His divine purpose for the Lord Jesus
Christ, to crush Him, not for His sins, but for the sins that
He bore. For God, as it were, just as you see a bug walk across
the floor, and if you can get to it, you crush it. So the Father
looked upon Christ and crushed Him, snuffed His life out, made
His soul an offering for sin. That was God's will. And it says in John chapter 6,
verse 39, the Lord says, And this is the will of My Father
which sent Me, that of all that He has given Me, I would lose
none. but raise it up in the last day.
Now, I can easily see how this will lead to the glory of Christ,
and it's why I believe that doctrine called particular redemption.
God chose a people, and He gave them to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He says, Thine they were, and You gave them to Me. And He says,
All that you give to Me, I'm not going to lose one. They were
committed to the care of Christ, to live for them, and to die
for them, to ascend to the right hand of God for them, and to
intercede for them always. Now you commit something to my
care. I'll do the best I can. But I cannot guarantee you that
you will get back 100% of what you gave me. I might lose something
of it along the way. But back there in the eternal
covenant of grace, God gave a people to the Lord Jesus Christ, put
them in his hands. He carried them through this
world. And He carried them back to the Father. And as the book
of Hebrews says, the Lord Jesus Christ before the Father says,
I and the children you gave to me. And not one of them is lost. Not one. At the Father's will. And it's also this in John 6
verse 40. And this is the will of my Father
which sent me, that of all who see the Son, and believe in Him
and look to Him, I'll lose nothing, but raise Him up on the last
day. Men couldn't see the will of God in crushing Jesus Christ.
And the will of God, so far as election and committal to Christ
is concerned, we didn't see that. Here's where we begin to see
the will of God impact our own lives. Everyone who, through
the preaching of the gospel, can see Christ and trust Him. Christ will not lose you. The Father has committed His
people to the Son. And everyone who in turn commits
himself to the Lord Jesus Christ, of them not one shall be lost. So good is the Lord Jesus Christ
to keep in His people that not death nor hell, not things present
nor things to come, Not death, not famine, not sword, not even
our stubborn tendency to jump out of his hand will keep him
from delivering us safely into the presence of the Father. It's the Father's will. His will is the subject of our
worship. For Paul prays that our understanding, that we would
achieve a greater understanding of the will of God. And it is the parameter of answered
prayer. Let's look over at 1 John 5,
verse 14. And I'm going to have to close
here. We barely got started. 1 John 5, verse 14. This is the
confidence we have in approaching God. that if we ask anything
according to His will, He hears us. Now, that's commonly been
interpreted, and I interpret it this way. It's really not
like it's bad, but, well, you ask what you want of God, and
if God wants that to happen, your prayers will be answered.
Well, true. But I think that there's something
a little more basic involved here. His will is the glorification
of Jesus Christ. And anything you ask that is
in accordance with that will, God will grant it. God will grant
it. And can I bring that down to
where the rubber meets the road in this spiritual thing? Do you want God's salvation? Well, I can guarantee you one
thing. The salvation of every sinner, or shall I put it this
way, every salvation of a sinner will redound to the glory of
Jesus Christ. And you can be sure of this,
if you ask God to save you, He'll do it, because it will glorify
His Son to do it. All what promises we have, God
has chosen you. You who believe, God has chosen
you. Not because you believe, you
believe because He chose you. As the scriptures say, as many
as were ordained to eternal life, believed. But your faith is a
revelation of God's choice of you. And He chose you to know His
will. You understand what's going on, even when the rest of the
world doesn't know. Well, I'm going to finish this
message. I don't know whether it will be tonight I'll just finish it tonight. I had another one in mind for
tonight, ready to go, but we'll just put that one off until next
week. But there's some blessed things in here. I hope you'll
come back tonight and listen to the rest of this. It'll bless
your soul. Albert, you come lead our closing here.