Now to help us to understand
the circumstances and the situation
that led to this testimony of the Apostle Paul, I want us to
go back to chapter 21 of Acts, Acts 21, and read what led to
this particular testimony, why he
said what he did. Verse 27 of Acts 21, And when
the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia,
when they saw Paul in the temple, they stirred up all the people
and laid hands on him, crying out, Men of Israel, help us,
this is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against the
people and against the law and against this temple, this place. And further, he hath brought
Gentiles also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place. For they had seen before with
him in the city of Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed
that Paul had brought into the temple. And all the city was
moved, and the people ran together, and they took Paul and drew him
out of the temple, and forthwith the doors were shut. And as they
went about to kill him, tidings came to the chief captain of
the band that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. The chief captain
immediately took soldiers and centurions and ran down unto
them. And when they saw the chief captain
and the soldiers, they left beating of Paul. They quit beating him.
Then the chief captain came near and took Paul and commanded him
to be bound with two chains and demanded who he was and what
he had done. And some cried one thing and
some another among the multitude. And when the captain could not
know the certainty for the tumult, he commanded Paul to be carried
into the castle. And when he came upon the stairs,
and so it was that he was born of the soldiers, for the violence
of the people, for the multitude of the people followed after,
crying, Away with him! Away with him! And as Paul was
to be led into the castle, he said to the chief captain, May
I speak unto thee? The chief captain said, Can you
speak Greek? Are you not that Egyptian which
before these days made us an uproar and led us out into the
wilderness, four thousand men that were murderers? Paul said,
I'm a man which I'm a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a
citizen of no mean city, and I beseech thee, suffer me to
speak to the people. Let me speak to these people."
And when he had given him license, when the chief captain gave him
permission to speak to the people, Paul stood on the stairs and
beckoned with a hand unto the people. And when there was made
a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue, saying,
Men, brethren, and fathers, because the men They weren't acting like
men, they were acting like beasts, but Paul was compassionate and
full of grace. And he called them men. And he
called them brethren, because he was a Jew. He said in another
scripture, he said, my heart is heavy for my brethren according
to the flesh. I want them to be saved. They
were his brethren according to the flesh. And then he addresses
the older men there. This man, Paul, is such an example
to us, we who minister the gospel, after that ill treatment. Men,
brethren, you older men, you fathers, showing respect for
their old age. Here is my defense, which I make
now unto you. Here is my defense, my testimony. He spoke both Greek and Hebrew.
And when they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew tongue,
they kept them all silent. And he said, I'm a Jew. I am verily a man which am a
Jew. I was born of Jewish parents,
Hebrew parents. I was a religious man. He said,
in the city of Tarsus, I was born, a city of Cilicia, and
I was brought up in this city at the feet of a highly respected
Jewish teacher. If you turn to Acts 5, you'll
find a word about this man Gamaliel. Acts 5, verse 34. He was defending the apostles,
Gamaliel was. Then stood there one in the council,
a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation
among all the people and commanded them to put their fossils forward
into space. So Paul said, I'm a Jew, born
of Jewish parents. I was brought up in the city
of Tarsus, of Cilicia, and I was brought up a student sitting
at the feet. And that's the way students back
then studied. The professor was elevated, and
they sat at the feet of the professor. And they didn't jowl at him,
they learned from him. They sat at his feet, and he
taught them. And I was taught, he said, according
to the perfect model of the law, the scriptures, the Old Testament
scriptures. And I was zealous toward God,
as you all are this day. He said, I was a sincere and
serious man in my religion toward God. I hear people often say,
folks who do not believe in Christ and do not love Christ and do
not love the gospel, Are they serious? Are they sincere? Oh,
yes. Paul said he was. Paul didn't
love Christ. He didn't love the gospel. He
didn't know the gospel. He was an enemy of the gospel.
He was an enemy of everybody who believed in the Lord Jesus
Christ. But he said, I was zealous toward
God. And I persecuted this way. I persecuted this way unto death. Binding and delivering into prisons
both men and women. Paul believed that he was Saul
then, Saul of Tarsus, the city of Cilicia. But Saul believed
in God. Saul believed in the resurrection.
He was a Pharisee. The Sadducees did not believe
in a resurrection, but Saul was a Pharisee taught by Gamaliel. He believed in the resurrection
of the dead. He believed in heaven. He believed in judgment. He believed
in the condemnation of those who weren't Jews, but he did
not believe Jesus Christ was Messiah. He did not believe it.
He did not believe that Jesus Christ is God in human flesh. He did not believe that. He did
not believe that salvation and eternal life is the gift of God
by his grace in the death and obedience of Jesus Christ. He
did not believe that. He did not believe that he was
a sinner in need of a Savior. Your gospel which you believe,
cling to, hold to, love, rest in it, he didn't believe. Well,
what did this man believe? He was religious, he believed
in God, and this is Saul's way and your way. Now listen to this,
this is Saul's way, the way of ceremony. Your way is the way
of Christ. His way is the way of works.
duties, responsibilities, morality, keeping the law, that is his
way of salvation. Your way is for grace, the gift
of God through the righteousness of Christ. His way was his own
righteousness. Your way is his righteousness
and holiness. Silent way is a way of merit.
He merited her. God owed it to him because he
was a moral man and a religious man who fasted, who prayed, who
gave alms, who tithed, who went to the synagogue on the Sabbath
day. He earned God's favor. Your way is the way of mercy.
God be merciful to me, the sinner. I have no righteousness of my
own. No merit. Your love and mercy is free grace
in Christ. Saul's way was to come to the
altar, that's right, with his sacrifice. Your way is to come
to the cross, where Christ offered his blood. That's the difference.
His opposition to the way of salvation by free grace and sovereign
mercy? took him to the greatest extremes
of opposition against Christ, killed him, and put in prison
those who believed. A religious man, a sincere man,
a devout man, a moral man, a dedicated man. Listen to verse 5. The high
priest, as we witnessed, Saul was a member of the highest Jewish
poet, the Sanhedrin. He never was a high priest, but
he was next to him. He was a friend of the high priest.
As stated earlier, from whom I received letters unto the brethren,
the Jewish brethren, and I went to Damascus to bring them there
which were there bound to Jerusalem to be punished. Punished for
what? For believing God, believing Christ, believing the gospel.
one day would believe. Religious. All right, here's
his experience, verse 6. He came to Paris as I made my
journey. My journey where? He wasn't going
to church. He wasn't going to a prayer meeting. He wasn't under conviction. He
wasn't seeking the truth. He was walking in his own blind,
religious way. Serious and sincere, but his
own way. I've heard people say, Saul was
under conviction because he held the coats of those who stoned
Stephen. Later he wrote, I consented to his death. I consented to
his death. He said, I was making my journey. I was going where I wanted to
go. And he says, suddenly he came down to Damascus about noon,
and suddenly, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light
round about me. This is God now, the Lord God,
arresting a religious sinner, journeying his own way. God's
going to call one of his sheep. Saul belonged to him. He said
later, God separated me from my mother's womb. And then he
called me, by his grace. And I want you to see four things
about this call. Number one, it was sovereign.
Saul was not seeking God, seeking Christ, seeking truth. You know
what? He was in opposition to the truth.
But God sought him. Subtly. Subtly. Subtly. I'll have mercy on whom I will.
It's not of him that willeth or of him that willeth. It's
of God that showeth mercy. Subtly. Secondly, the call was
from heaven. They're shown from heaven. That's
where this call came from. No one on earth had the power
to change that man. He heard Stephen preach. I read
Stephen's message and it breaks my heart. It just thrills me. Saul heard Stephen's message
and consented to kill him, to stone him. So no power on earth
could change this man. No human being could change this
man. Even the death of Stephen couldn't budge his hard, ruthless
heart, religious heart. But God can. They're shown from
heaven. Sovereign from heaven. Thirdly,
it was a light. Now listen to me. A great light. What is this light? It's Christ
and his word. It's Christ and his word. It's
a light from heaven. But it's the life of the glorious
gospel of God. Now, let me show you that. Turn
to 2 Peter 1. I'm going to make a very important
point here. 2 Peter 1. In chapter 1 of 2
Peter, verses 19 and 20, Peter says, We have also a more sure
word of prophecy. 1. You do well that you take
heed. As unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day
dawn, and the day star rise in your heart, knowing this past,
no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation. For
the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but
holy men of God spake, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."
This rite is the presence of Christ, but it's also the word
of Christ. Why do you say that picture? I say it for two reasons. There can be no revelation without
a voice. A light can blind us, a light
can startle us, a light can cause fear in us, but only a voice
can teach us. Now, look back at my text, chapter
22, verse 9. They that are with me, there
are a lot of these pagans that are with me, these religious
hating, hateful, sincere, Christ-hating people with him. They saw the
light. They saw the light. And they
were free. The light had some effect on
them. But they didn't hear the voice of him that spoke to them. And that's the difference, you
see. They saw the light, but they did not hear. Some people
hear the word. But there is no revelation, they
don't hear a miracle. They are disturbed, they are troubled. Turn to 2 Corinthians 4, listen
to this. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4, verse
3. Our gospel be heard, it is heard
to them that are lost. 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 unto them." Verse 6. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Not just the
sight of it, There are some frightening revelation of it, but the knowledge
of it, you see what I'm saying? The knowledge of it, to get the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ,
the person. So this, this call, this religious
man, God made him. God made him sovereignly. And
God made him as he spoke and shined the light from heaven.
It was a heavenly call, it wasn't an earthly persuasion. There
was no debate or argument that convinced him that he was wrong.
It was the power of God from heaven. Along with this light,
there was a voice who spoke to him. "'Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me? Who are you, Lord? I am Jesus
of Nazareth whom thou persecutest.'" See what I'm saying? I know folks
talk about that. beginning and a birth and a quickening
and awakening of the power of God without the word of God,
it just can't be. It just can't be. A life frightens,
a life awes, a life troubles, but only the word of God can
teach. You see what I'm saying? Only
the word of God can get you an understanding of what that life
is all about. It's the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Christ Jesus. That's why we preach. If you're waiting for a spirit
and waiting for a feeling, you may sit around and wait a long
time. It's an understanding of who he is. That's what Saul asked
him. But here, let's look at verse
7. Let's follow this. The sovereign car, the firm heaven,
accompanied by teaching. And what did it do for this man?
Out fell to the ground. out there to the ground. Oh,
I tell you, a revelation of the majesty and glory of God will
bring all who see it and hear it to the dust. That's right,
to the dust. The Apostle Peter, one day our
Lord performed some great miracles, and Peter, the scripture said,
fell at his knees, so overwhelmed by the greatness of Christ and
the power of Christ, he fell to his knees and looked up and
said, Lord, depart from me. You've got no business having
anything to do with me because I'm a sinful man. And I'll tell
you, this man Saul of Tarsus is a big man, a powerful man,
an important man, but when he saw the glory of God, he became
a broken man, a humble man. You see, if God doesn't humble
me, he'll never exalt me. If God doesn't strip me, he doesn't
intend to clothe me. If God doesn't empty me, he'll
never fill me. I saw this light, I heard this
voice, and I fell to the ground. Religion can reform a man, change
him. Only God can regenerate him.
Religion can make people happy. Only God can make them holy.
Religion can justify a man in his own eyes by giving him something
to do. Only Christ can justify a man
in God's sight doing for him what he can't do. And a self-sufficient,
self-righteous, satisfied person, that's what Saul was, saw Christ
and became a broken man. out there to the ground. And
I heard his voice saying, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And
I answered, Who art thou, Lord? Who art thou, Lord? Think about this. This Pharisee, this man, right
under the high priest, member of the Sanhedrin, powerful, educated,
medical, religious man, was in a state of complete ignorance. He didn't know who Christ was.
A state of complete ignorance. Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? He didn't know. And our Lord said to him, I'm
Jesus of Nazareth, and I persecute you. And they that were with
me, they saw the light, and they were afraid, but they didn't
hear the voice of him that spoke to me. They didn't hear him.
And I said, well, Lord, what shall I do? What shall I do,
Lord? And the Lord said, go to Damascus, where the people of
God are. And you're going down there to
persecute and put in prison. You go down there where they
are. You're going to be identified with them, with these people.
And he said, down there you can listen to the Word preach. Somebody
said to me one day, what can a sinner do? What can he do?
I'll tell you what he can do. He can go where the people of
God are meeting, and he can listen to the word that's preached to
them, and he can seek the Lord, Cornelius did, Lydia did, and
he can cry for mercy. A sinner can do that, can't he?
He can go where the people of God meet. That's what God told
Saul. Go down there to Damascus. Stay on the journey, but go down
there to Bedlam, go down there to Jericho. Listen to the word
that they listened to. Seek the Lord. Call on him. And it will be told you of all
things which are parted for thee to do." Verse 11, And when I
could not see, the light blinded him. For the glory of that light
being led to the heads of them that were with me, I came to
Damascus. And one Ananias, God sent this
man, I just imagine that Saul of Priscus
knew more mechanically than Ananias did about the Old Testament.
I imagine he did. Ananias was a devout man, but
a common man, an ordinary man, just one of the believers. I
don't find much about him in the scriptures. But Saul was
a powerful man who memorized the Old Testament, who knew it
in word only. So God sent him a devout man,
a humble preacher of the gospel, according to the law, having
a good report of the Jews which dwelt there. And he came to me,
and he said, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour
I looked upon him. Now, I want you to hear what
this preacher said to this religious lost man. He gave him four things. Here they are. Number one, he
said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee. compromise the truth of God's
sovereignty and God's elective grace, he just came right out
and threw solid passes. God chose you. You didn't choose
God, he chose you. You're not here by your will,
you're here by his will. God chose you. And secondly,
God chose you that you should know his will. What is this will? I believe it's recorded in Hebrews
10, the will of redemption. the will of redemption which
was accomplished by the work of Christ, Hebrews 10. In verse
7, the Lord Jesus said, and this is Paul writing this years later,
Then said I, Hebrews 10, 7, Lo, I come, and the volume of the
book is written of me, to do thy will, O God. I come to do
thy will. Christ said that. When he said,
"'Sacrifice and offering, and burnt offerings, and offering
for sin, thy will is not, neither has pleasure therein which are
offered by the law,' then said he, then said Christ, I come
to do thy will, O God." He takes it away from the preface, and
there it starts, and it says, "'Second, by the rich will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.'"
That's the will of God, the will of redemption through Christ.
Saul didn't know this, and he said, God's chosen you, that
you might know his will, the will of redemption accomplished
by the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And furthermore,
that you should see the just one, see Christ, the just one. Over here in 1 Peter 3, verse
18, Isaiah talks about he's a just God and a Savior. Here in 1 Peter 3, verse 18,
Christ also has once suffered for sin, the just one for the
unjust. He was righteous in all things,
that he might redeem us who are unrighteous in all things. He
is the just one. He enables God to be just and
justify. And he suffered for sin, the
just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being
put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. Then
Romans 3, I want you to see this, along with this statement of
Ananias. But God hath chosen you, that
ye may know his will, and seek Christ, the just one, who enables
God to be just and justified. This is in Romans 3.25. Whom
God hath set forth to be a perpetuation through faith in his blood. to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that have
passed through the forbearance of God, to declare," I say at
this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him that believeth in Christ. This religious man
didn't know anything about this. He had been trying to establish
his own righteousness, and he said, God has chosen you to know
his will of redemption. With the eyes of faith, see Christ
the just one, dying for the unjust, enabling God by obeying the law
and by honoring the justice of God, to be just and justified.
You've got to see that in here. Believe that. All right, listen.
And he thought that you should hear the voice of his mouth,
the voice of the gospel, the voice of mercy. the voice of
love and righteousness and forgiveness, the voice of peace. That's what
Christ said, my peace I give unto you. That was the way of
giving, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. Hear his voice, my truth, hear
my voice. It's like I said, cried in a
prayer while the Lord, don't let them just hear my voice.
The voice of a man won't give faith, it won't comfort, it won't
heal, it won't bring peace. Peace you hear in his voice,
speaking through his word. You should hear Let me show you
a scripture here in 1 Thessalonians, chapter 2. Paul had heard prior
to this with the voice of a comedian, and the voice of his parents,
and the voice of his teachers, and the voice of the arguer,
and the voice of the high priest, and now he hears his voice. Look
at 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. For this cause also thank we
God without ceasing, because when you receive the word of
God, which you heard of us, you receive it not as the word of
men, but as it is in truth the word of God, the voice of God,
which in flesh and at work is also in you that believe." God
chose you that you might know the will of redemption in Christ. the will of redemption, by which
will we are justified and sanctified for the death of his Son, that
ye might see the just one, the one who enables God to be just
and even do business with us. People are running around talking
about, God loves everybody. No, no, God loves me and Christ. It's not fair to tell people
that they are under the mercy of God when they are under the
wrath of God. You're only under the love and mercy of God when
you're justified, when you're in Christ. And we see the Lord
has justified us, we give in to glory, and we've heard his
voice. My peace I give unto you, let
not your heart be troubled. Thy sins are forgiven you. Who
is this that forgiveth sin? It's only God who forgives sin.
He's God. I'll put it this way. How did
I know my sins were forgiven? He said so. Well, my priest said
so. Don't you believe him? When my
pastor says so, don't you believe him. My mama said, I say, don't
you believe her. You hear his voice. He had said,
I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you. So I can boldly
say, the Lord's my helper. He said so. I heard his voice. Well, he said last Sunday, Sunday
before, God didn't speak audibly to any man. That's right. He
speaks through his word. And for the believer, his word's
sufficient. His word is his word. And then he said, and you'll
be, verse 15, his witness unto all men. And there's only one
witness a witness can give, and that's what he's seen. You're going to witness not what
Moses said and saw. You're going to witness what
you saw and you heard. What you heard. What you saw. That's it. Now in closing, he
said, why do you tarry? Arise and be baptized. Wash away
your sins. Call him on the name of the Lord.
Give me a few minutes. Let me talk to you about this
first. Why do you tarry? Why do men tarry, especially
in obeying the ordinance of baptism? Why do young people tarry? Why
do women tarry? Put it off. He told Saul that
God chose you, that you hear his voice and know his will of
redemption, see the just one, and be a witness of what you've
seen and heard. Now, why do you tarry? Well, I'll tell you, I'll
give you five reasons why people put it off, tarry. Number one,
even though they believe they're converted, they're saved, they
know Christ, They're still bothered by indwelling sin. That's right,
they're still bothered, they're still troubled. Why do I think
what I think? Why do I say what I say? Why do I feel these passions
and so forth? Well, let me tell you something.
If you live 40 years, 39 years and 364 days, you're going to
feel the same thing. The day you die, you'll probably
be delivered from it. But you're going to feel the
same. That nature of sin will be with you until you die. That's right. So don't let that
postpone your confessing Christ that you feel the indwelling
sin. Secondly, people postpone and parry because of the weakness
of their faith, but my faith is not strong enough. My faith
is not the strength of your faith, it's the strength of Him who
is the object of your faith. I told somebody one time, you
see a great big vine wrapped around a tree, big vine like
that, And you don't wonder how it could stay there, you see
that vine is big, but here's a little old twig wrapped around
a tree. How does it stay there? Same way the big one does. Move
the tree and it doesn't fall. It doesn't matter if you've got
a little faith, a big faith, a small faith, a great faith,
it's not your faith, it's the strength of Him to whom you hold
and look. It's not going to change. It's
not going to change. Some days you're going to feel
like you bleed stronger, and other days you're going to, ah,
how weak is my faith. Thirdly, there's that fear of
failing and dishonoring God by something you do. I'll be baptized
and then six weeks later I'm going to have to fail. Maybe
sooner than that. Well, we're sinners saved by grace
and we're going to fail. We're going to fail. So whether you baptize or not
baptize, you've still got that nature that will fail. It's just
part you and you're just part others. But Christ is our Redeemer,
not us or others. So don't delay your baptism because
you're afraid of failing. We will fail. He'll hold us. Well, the fourth reason why people
delay and tarry, knowing Christ now, is awaiting for greater
assurance. waiting for more grace and more
affection. Well, let me ask you, if you
don't obey God in this matter, I expect him to give you more
grace. I mean, why should he tell you
to do something else when you don't do what he says? Why should he
give you greater grace and greater opportunity to be used with him?
When you're not obeying him in this central command, arise and
be baptized. Obey this and grow. And the fifth limb, I believe
these are the five reasons that folks contend with, is a timid
person. I believe the gospel, I believe
Christ, but I haven't followed here and back to it. I'm just,
I'm a private person. I'm a timid person. I just, I
just had scared me to death to come into the pool. God will
give you the grace to obey Him. He doesn't leave us alone. I
dread getting up there all of a sudden in front of all these
people. I've been doing this 49 years and it's still the hardest
thing in the world to do in the sea, so you've been around long
enough and it's still harder. But he gives you the grace. Luke Holmes, and now I think,
oh, how am I going to do this again? This is so awesome. And
I get up here and I forget that I even have any... He said, you're
not very shy, look like to me. Well, when God gives you the
strength and power, you're not shy. And so you walk into that
pool and follow your Lord in baptism, he'll give you the grace. This is the command of Christ.
What does he mean by rise and be baptized and wash away your
sin? Well, baptism doesn't wash away sin, we know that, that's
not what it means. It means baptism is a confession of faith in him
who does wash away sin. In the way that sins are washed
away. by death, burn, and resurrection of Christ. That's what he's talking
about. Arise and be baptized and confess
him who does what you have said. That's a religious man, for God's
sake. Tonight we'll talk about a worldly
man whom the Lord saved.