I've entitled the message for
this morning, Paul the Pattern. Paul the Pattern. This same word is translated
in 2 Timothy 1, verse 13, the form. The form. Now, what that lets me know is
if I am saved, I will be able to see Paul's
salvation and Paul's conversion experience as a pattern of my
own. If my salvation does not fit
this pattern, it's not real. That's how important this subject
is. Paul, the pattern. And you can
look at your salvation, your experience, and see if it fits
this pattern. Now first turn to Acts chapter
7. Remember, Paul says, I am the
pattern to them which should hereafter believe. That's me
and you. Paul is the pattern. In Acts chapter 7, verse 58,
and they cast him out of the city and stoned him And the witnesses
laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. Chapter eight, verse one, and
Saul was consenting unto his death. Verse three of chapter
eight, as for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into
every house and hailing men and women, committing them to prison. Chapter nine, verse one. 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 any of this
way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound
unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came
near unto Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him
a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth and
heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? And he said, who art thou Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus. whom thou persecutest, it's hard
for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and
astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord
said unto him, arise and go into the city and it shall be told
thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with
him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. 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 unto Damascus, and he was there three
days without sight, Neither did eat nor drink. And there was
a certain disciple of 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 unto him, arise, 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 has
seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting
his hand on him that he might receive his sight. Then Ananias
answered, Lord, I've heard by many of this man, how much evil
he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem. And here he hath authority
from the chief priest to bind all that call on thy name. But
the Lord said unto him, go thy way for he is a chosen vessel
unto me 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 hand on him said, 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 Ghost.
And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales. And he received his sight forthwith
and arose and was baptized. Now, here we have the conversion
experience of the Apostle Paul. And Paul tells us, if we're saved,
we're going to have the same experience. Now, would you turn
back for a moment to 1 Timothy chapter 1? Before we get into
Acts chapter 9, I'd like to read this passage of scripture, because
this is where Paul says in verse 16 of 1 Timothy chapter one,
how be it for this cause, I obtained mercy. Now he didn't say I asked
for mercy though he did, but he said, I obtained it. That's
spoken in the passive voice to let us know that the Lord just
had mercy on me. That's why I had mercy. why I
was given mercy because he decided to give it to me. How be it for
this cause I obtained mercy that in me first, Jesus Christ might
show forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should
hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. That's me and you,
if we're believers. Paul is the pattern. Now, look back into verse 12
of this first chapter of 1 Timothy 1, and let's see what led him
to make this statement. Now, he begins where every believer
begins, and I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord. He didn't say, I'm
thankful that the Lord gave me a free will, and I made the right
decision, and that's why I was faithful. He didn't say anything
like that at all, does he? He says, I thank Christ Jesus, our
Lord, who hath enabled me. Now, if you believe, you know
there's one reason why you believe. He enabled you. Is that your experience? He enabled
you. For that he counted me faithful
putting me into the ministry. Who was before? Do you have a before? This is what I was before the
Lord saved me. Do you have a before? I fear
there are people who do not have a before. Not Paul, who was before,
and here's his testimony about himself before the Lord saved
him, a blasphemer. That's all my religion was, blasphemy. And a persecutor of the gospel. And injurious, proud, arrogant,
and insolent. That's his testimony of himself
before. I was a blasphemer. I was proud,
arrogant, and insolent, a persecutor of the gospel, but I obtained
mercy. He doesn't say I asked for mercy
or I sought mercy. He said, I obtained it. And once
again, this is in the passive voice. God gave me mercy. He didn't do it because of anything
in me. He did it because he willed to do it. I obtained mercy because
I did it ignorantly in unbelief. Now, Paul is not saying Because
I was ignorant, God gave me mercy. I didn't do what I was doing
willfully, but I was ignorant and unbelief and therefore I
wasn't held quite as responsible because I didn't know any better
than what, not that at all. Paul is saying, I was so ignorant. I was so willfully unbelieving
that the only way I could have mercy is for God to just sovereignly
give it to me. Is that you? Does this fit your
experience? Verse 14, and the grace of our
Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ
Jesus. Now this is a faithful saving and worthy of all acceptation,
of all embracing as the best news they've ever heard, that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am
the chief. Let me tell you something. This
ought to be my favorite verse. It is my favorite verse. This
ought to be your favorite verse in all of the Bible. This is
a faithful saying. You can put everything on this. You can rely on this. You can
rest your soul on this. This is a faithful saying, and
it's worthy of all acceptation. Everybody in this room and outside
of this room ought to hear this as the best news they've ever
heard. And here's what it is, that Christ
Jesus, Christ, God's prophet, the one who said, I say to Christ,
God's priest, who didn't simply offer up animal sacrifice, but
his own precious blood. God's king, the one who is the
king of kings, the one of whom it could be accurately said,
the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of
water, he turneth it whether so ever he will. Christ, God's
prophet, God's priest, God's king, Jesus. Don't you love his
name, Jesus? Thou shalt call his name Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sins. That's his name,
his savior. Christ Jesus came into the world. Now he gives
us the mission statement of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why
he came. This was his purpose in coming. This is that faithful
saying that's worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. What if it said he came to save
the elect? That'd be true. What if it said he came to save
his sheep? That would be true. What if it said he came to save
those who believe? That would be true. What if it
said he came to save those who are repentant? That would be
true. But do you know if that's what
it said it would give me no hope at all. What does it say? He came into
the world to save, no adjectives, just sinners. How would that describe you? He came to save sinners. Now, what is a sinner? Well,
the sinner is the one who commits the sin. This is so important. The sinner is the one who commits
the sin. You know, I've heard people say,
God loves the sinner and hates the sin. That's on the Bible. And as far as that goes, God
doesn't put sins into hell, does he? He puts the ones who committed
them into hell. What is a sinner? Well, Peter
put it this way. Depart from me, Lord, I'm a sinful
man. I am full of sin. That means that's all there is
that's there. A sinner is somebody who all
they do sin because they're sinful. That's it. A sinner is someone
who cannot not sin. I cannot. I find this true. I cannot not sin. Somebody says, well, you have
problems. I admit it. Yeah, I do. You do too. Whether you know it or not, I
hope the Lord reveals this to you. But a sinner cannot not
sin. And a sinner is somebody who
their sin is all their fault. They're not a victim. They're
not blaming somebody else. They're not blaming God's sovereignty.
They're not blaming Adam. All my sin is all my fault, period. No explanations, no justifications. A sinner is someone who can't
judge anybody for anything. I can't look down my nose at
somebody and say, look what they did. I realize that I'm guilty
of the same things and worse. A sinner is someone who has no
claims on God. If God passes me by and sends
me to hell, just and holy is his name. Would that be you? No, it's not. I don't have any gospel for you.
You're on your own. Would that be you? I can guarantee
you Christ Jesus died for you because he came to save sinners. If you're a sinner, that means
he came to save you. Believe it. Rely on this. Rejoice in it. Christ Jesus came
into the world to save you. Let me tell you something. Whatever
he intended to do, that's what he did. If he came to save sinners, that's
exactly what he did. When he said, it is finished,
every sinner he came to save was saved. And don't miss this. Paul adds this editorial comment,
of whom I am the chief. the foremost, the worst man,
the most sinful man to ever live. Now, what if Paul had said, I
used to be the chief of sinners? I used to be. Man, I was a rascal. I was the worst man to ever live,
but God saved me. And by his grace, My life has
been changed so much. I just don't have the same struggles
of sin I used to. By his grace, I'm giving his
grace all the credit, but I'm different. I'm a changed life. What would you think if he said
that? Let me tell you what I would conclude. I must not be saved. That's the only conclusion I
could have from that statement. I think it's interesting that
religion generally has this mantra, a changed life, a changed life,
changed lives. I've seen quote ministries that
are called that changed lives. Now I'm all for a changed life.
I'm all for that. Don't get me wrong. I'm all for
that. But Paul did not say Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners of whom I used to be chief, but of whom I am. Present tense. The chief. The worst man to ever live right
now. Now, if you don't feel that about
yourself, it's just because you don't have any light. Lord's never really
spoke to you. If he does, you'll see this.
You'll see this for sure. There won't be any argument about
this. You know it so. Let's go on reading verse 16.
How be it? For this cause, I obtained mercy. And I love the way he says, I
obtained mercy. I mean, God just had mercy on
me. I was passive in this thing.
He just said, mercy. and I was given mercy. For this
cause, I obtained mercy that in me first, the chief of sinners,
Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, the long-suffering
of salvation for a pattern, for a form to them which should hereafter
believe on him to life everlasting. Now, Paul says, I'm a pattern. I'm a form. And if you're saved,
your salvation will fit that pattern. You can be poured into
that mold, that form, and you're going to see, yep, this is me. Now I want to look at this in
two respects. First, Paul's salvation. And secondly, Paul's conversion
experience. First, Paul's salvation. Turn
to 2 Timothy chapter one. Verse eight, be not thou therefore
ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner,
but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God who hath saved us. Now, who's the us? All the elect. He's speaking as the representative
of every believer. And here's our testimony. Here's
everything we believe. He saved us. And called us. Now, this is so very important.
Note the order. It doesn't say he called us and
saved us. It says he saved us and he called us. You see, my
salvation was accomplished by him saving me. The saving came
first and then the calling. Everybody he saves, he calls.
He calls by the gospel. He calls by spirit, but he saved
us. You know, when the Lord said it is finished, every believer,
their salvation was finished. That's our experience. He saved us and called us with
a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. Now here's Paul's pattern that
he sets forth for us, he saved us. And he called us. And it wasn't according to our
works. It wasn't in response to something we have done, but
according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. Now, I know this. My salvation was accomplished
by Christ. without response, without reference
to my works before the world began. I've always been united
to Christ. I was chosen in him before the
foundation of the world. Whom He did foreknow, them He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
He did predestinate, them He also called. Whom He called,
them He also justified. Whom He justified, them He also
glorified. What should we say to these things
of God before us? Who can be against us? Now, is that your
experience? You know it from the Word. and
you understand that your salvation has to be completely outside
of your works, it's what Christ has done. Now, in time, he came
and accomplished what was purposed in eternity. All his life, he knew this is
why he came, to save his people from their sins. He knew he was
going to be forsaken by God. And then in my own experience,
I was born into this world, dead in sins, just like Paul was,
an enemy of Christ, and he saved me. He revealed to me who he
is, who I am, how he's saved by Christ. I was given faith
to believe. Now, in our salvation, he justified
us, he sanctified us, he glorified us, he redeemed us, he calls
us, he preserves us, he does it all, he gets all the glory. And I'm so impressed with this
in my own mind, it relieves me because sometimes I hear preachers
say, he must have all the glory and yes, he must. Yes, he must. But I'm not, I hate saying this,
but it's so. The reason I desire him, for
him to have all the glory, yes, because he deserves it, but I've
got a more selfish motive in it. You see, if he doesn't get
all the glory, that means there's some work I gotta perform. And
if there's some work I gotta perform, I'm in trouble. So yes, I know he deserves all
the glory, but I want him to have all the glory because that
means salvation is all what he does and doesn't have anything
to do with what I do. I like it that way. I like it that way.
I love it that way. That is our experience. But his conversion is a pattern
of every conversion. Not everyone has a Damascus road
experience, every believer does. Every believer does. You see, his conversion experience
is not the exception, but the rule of all conversions by grace. Somebody says, well, didn't Paul
see a great light? Yeah, we do too. God who commanded the light
to shine out of the darkness. has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Didn't Paul hear a voice? Yes,
and we do too. The hour is coming, and now is
when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and
they that hear shall live. Didn't Paul get knocked down?
We do too. You ever see that light? You
ever hear that voice? You are coming down. Now let's
look briefly as we can back to Acts chapter nine. Paul's experience began with
hatred of Jesus Christ. 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 any of this way, whether they were men or
women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. Now, many people don't realize that
they hate Jesus Christ because they've never heard who he is. If he doesn't manifest himself,
nobody will know who he is. It's only when you hear who he
is that people manifest their hatred for Christ. Christ is the Lord. He is the
sovereign. He is the creator. He's the only
Savior, and listen real carefully, your eternal destiny right now
is in His hands. He can save you if He chooses
to and bring you to glory, or He can leave you to yourself
and let you go to hell. Now that, my dear friends, is
the truth. Your eternal destiny right now
is in His hands as to whether or not you're in heaven or in
hell, it's up to Him. Now, a Jesus you can control
and manipulate and cause Him to act one way or the other,
nobody's afraid of Him. Nobody fears him because he is
a non-existent entity. There's no such things as Jesus
Christ like that. Men, that's the way men present him. But
nobody's mad at that Jesus. Nobody's afraid of that Jesus.
Nobody hates that Jesus. But the one who has all control
and your eternal destiny is in his hands, that's the one who men hate. And this is the one Paul hated. He didn't like not having any
control. He wanted to stamp his name out. Verse three, and as he journeyed, he came
near Damascus and suddenly there shined round about him a light
from heaven. Now he was on his way to arrest
Christians. And he got arrested. Hail sovereign love that first
began the scheme to rescue fallen man. Hail matchless, free, eternal
grace that gave my soul a hiding place, against the God who ruled
the sky, I fought with hand up lifted high, despised the mention
of His grace, too proud to seek a hiding place. Enwrapped in
thick Egyptian night and fond of darkness more than light,
madly I ran the sinful race, secure without a hiding place,
but thus the eternal counsel ran. Almighty love, arrest that
man. I felt the arrows of distress
and found I had no hiding place. Suddenly, a light. And in Acts
26, it says a light above the brightness of the sun. Now, in
the first creation, what came first? Light. In the second creation,
what comes first? Light. Light. Darkness represents ignorance.
Light represents saving knowledge. You find out who God is. You
didn't know before, but now you do. You see all of his character
as he's revealed in the word. And you see this through the
light of the cross. You see his attributes. You see who you are
as nothing but sin. You see for the first time how
God saves by Christ. Christ, the light of the world.
Now here's how I can tell when somebody has light, they fall. They fall. They're knocked off
their view of their own ability and they fall to the ground.
Somebody doesn't fall, he doesn't have any light. If I still see
myself as having ability, I have never been lightened. by God. When someone is given this light,
they fall. Knocked down from his position
of pride, arrogance, haughtiness, insolence, knocked down. He fell to the earth and he heard
a voice. The hour is coming and now is
when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God. Now,
have I ever heard his voice audibly? No. But I've heard his voice. I've heard his voice in the authority
of the gospel. This is his word. I heard a voice. I knew this is God speaking.
This is not man's This is not Baptist, or Methodist, or Catholic,
or Presbyterian, or whatever denominational distinction. This
is not Calvinist. This is not Reformed. This is
not Arminian. This is the voice of God. And when you hear this voice,
he says, he fell to the earth, heard a voice saying unto him,
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Now he found out that what
his sin was, was against Christ. That's where the problem was.
You're persecuting me. And you know, in that statement,
we're given a glorious view of the union of Christ with his
people. Now, Christ was at the right
hand of the father and Paul was persecuting the people of Christ.
But the Lord says, you're persecuting me. I cannot be separated from
them. Verse five, and he said, who
art thou Lord? You know what that means? He
found out he didn't even know who he was. He didn't even know
who he was. Who art thou Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus
whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. You're only hurting yourself.
This is talking about ox goads. Every time you kick, all you
do is cause a prick to come through your flesh. All you're doing
is hurting yourself. You can't hurt me. I'm the Lord,
but you sure are hurting yourself. And he, verse six, trembling
and astonished, said, Lord, he now knows who he is. He's the
Lord. He's the Lord. He's Lord of creation. He's Lord of providence. He's
Lord of salvation. He's the Lord. And he trembling
and astonished said, Lord, what will thou have me to do? That's
the same thing as saying, what must I do to be saved? What would
thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, arise
and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou
must do. And the men which journeyed with
him stood speechless, hearing a voice. They heard a voice. but seeing no man. They heard
the speech, but didn't see the person. That reminds me that
there's a lot of folks that, well, they get some doctrine,
but they've not seen the person. You see, it's really seeing the
person that makes you really believe the doctrine, not before
then. If all you have is the doctrine
and have never seen the person, you really have no understanding.
These men didn't. ate, and Saul rose 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. When he saw the light, he was blinded. That's when he
became blind. You know, he used to be able
to see. He could see why God would save him. He can't now. He's been blinded. And he was
three days without sight, neither did eat or drink. And there was
a certain disciple of Damascus named Ananias. Now, what does
God do? He sends Paul a preacher. I love
it that he sent him Ananias. I would have sent him Peter or
John or one of the apostles, but the Lord sends him somebody
we never hear of before or after. Well, Paul's a big fish. No,
he's not. He's a little like me and you.
And the Lord sends him Ananias. And there was a certain disciple
of Damascus named Ananias, and said unto him, said the Lord
in a vision, Ananias. And he said, behold, I'm here,
Lord. And the Lord said unto him, arise and go into the street
which is called Straight, inquire in the house of Judas, for once
all of Tarsus. For behold, he prayeth." He never
has before. He thought he did. He'd stand
up on the street corners, he'd go into the restaurants and before
he'd eat that meal, he'd bow his head and start praying and
everybody could see how religious and devoted he was, but he never
prayed. He was going through a meaningless
religious exercise, but now he prays. Now he prays. And he has seen in a vision a
man named Ananias coming and putting his hand on him that
he might receive his sight. Then Ananias answered and said,
Lord, I've heard by many of this man how much evil he hath done
to thy saints in Jerusalem. And here he hath authority from
the chief priest to bind all the call on thy name. But the
Lord said unto him, go thy way for he is a chosen vessel unto
me to bear my name. Before the Gentiles and the kings
and the children of Israel, I'll show him how great things he
must suffer for my name's sake. And Ananias went his way and
entered into the house and putting his hands on him said, brother
Saul. Isn't that sweet? Brother Saul. The Lord, even Jesus, that appeared
unto thee in the way, as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou
mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.
And immediately there fell from his eyes, as it had been scales,
and he received sight. He saw how God could save him.
And he forthwith arose and was baptized. Now, in closing, turn
to Acts 22, because we're given a little bit more detail as to
what Ananias said to Paul. Verse 12, and one Ananias, this is Paul
giving his account of what took place. And Ananias, a devout
man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews
which dwelt there, came unto me, and stood, and said unto
me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. In the same hour I looked
upon him, and he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee. First thing he heard was election. God of our fathers hath chosen
me. Now I want to remind you something
about election. Election is a declaration of the character of God. This is who God is. He controls
everything and everybody. Election is a declaration of
who me and you are. The only way we can be saved
is if God chooses us. Election is a declaration of
what Christ was doing on the cross. He wasn't trying to make
men savable. He was saving the elect. He was
saving his sheep, and that's what he did. Election is a declaration
of the work of God, the Holy Spirit. He comes to those God
the Father chose and those the Son redeemed. He gives them life.
Election is a declaration of grace. Understand this. Understand
this. This is where, this is gospel
preaching. Somebody says, election's not
the gospel. Well, if all you talk about is
election, it's not the gospel. I'll tell you this, you can't preach
a gospel and not preach election. Anybody that, somebody that, well, I'm
not sure if my preacher preaches election. Well, God never called
him to preach, I guarantee you that. If he did, he'd preach
election. That's where it began, Paul,
isn't it? The God of our fathers hath chosen thee that thou should
know his will. Now he's not talking about knowing
his will of command and his will of redemption. It's his will
for everybody that Christ died for to be saved. And see that
just one, the one who's made a way for God to be just and
justify the ungodly, and that you should hear the voice of
his mouth, not just the voice of a man, but the voice of the
living God. For thou shalt be his witness
to all men. of what you've seen and heard,
not secondhand information. What you've seen and what you've
heard. And now what are you waiting on? Arise and be baptized and
wash away thy sins. Now the act of baptism didn't
wash away his sins, but what baptism depicts did wash away
his sins. Calling on the name of the Lord. And this is what everybody does
who follows this pattern. They call on the name of the
Lord. Name the Lord who he is. Lord, save me by who you are. Save me by your justice. Save
me as an act of your sovereign will. Save me by your grace.
Save me by your love. Save me by your holiness. You call upon all of his attributes.
Lord, save me. Save me. Everybody God saves
follows this pattern. Let's pray. Lord, I ask in Christ's name
that you would take these words and bless them for your glory
and our good. And we ask that by your grace
we might be enabled to follow this pattern. In Christ's name
we pray, amen.