I'm speaking to you on this subject,
Paul, an example of mercy. Paul, a pattern of conversion. And our text is 1 Timothy 1.15. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. It's a true saying. of being
accepted by every person. But Christ Jesus came into the
world. He existed before He came. He
could not come into the world if He hadn't come from somewhere.
But He came into the world to save sinners. Not the righteous,
but sinners. And He came to effectually save
them. He didn't come to make an effort.
He didn't come to make them savable. He didn't come to enable them
to saved themselves, He came to do the job Himself. He came
to save them. That's why He came. He came into
this world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Verse 16, Howbeit
for this cause I obtained mercy. I obtained mercy. Didn't earn
it. Didn't merit it. I obtained it. That in me first
Jesus Christ might show forth all patience, long-suffering,
for a pattern, watch this word now, for a pattern, for a pattern,
to them which should hereafter believe on Him, to life everlasting. Now let me read that in the Amplified,
just that one verse. Paul said, I obtained mercy,
I obtained mercy, that in me, as the chief, or foremost of
centers, Jesus Christ might show forth and display all of his
perfect long-suffering and patience for a pattern or an example to
encourage those who would later believe on him for eternal life. Now, I know that we're not apostles. I hear preachers saying, Paul
did this, you ought to do it. Paul had this, you ought to have
it. Paul knew this, you ought to know it. But I'm not an apostle.
I'm not aspiring to be an apostle. There are no apostles. The apostles
are all dead. These apostles were selected
personally by our Lord. Peter, James, John, Matthew,
twelve of them. And these apostles were chosen
personally by the Lord and they saw His face. They saw Him physically
in the flesh. They heard Him. They touched
Him. These apostles were given a revelation
of His glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. These apostles
saw the empty tomb and they saw the risen Lord. They saw the
risen Lord. He appeared to them personally.
They were witnesses of his life, of his death, of his resurrection. They were witnesses of his ascension. And they were given unto them
special gifts, special power to work miracles. I cannot work
miracles. God works miracles every day.
But I cannot, I do not aspire to work miracles. I don't seek
any power to lay my hands on any person and heal them. I don't
have to. There's no reason for it, except for the glory of God. But I don't have to have any
credentials that I'm preaching the gospel. The Word is my sign
or proof. The Word of God. We preach the
Word of God. These apostles did not have the New Testament scriptures. They wrote it, inspired by God. God breathed. So they needed
these credentials. They went into a place to preach
with nothing but the Old Testament, the writings of Moses and David
and Isaiah and Jeremiah and the other prophets. They said to these people, Christ
is the fulfillment of this law. Christ is the fulfillment of
these types and sacrifices and so forth. They said, what proof
do you have? Well, if you ask me that, I say
Paul said it or John said it or it's written in the scriptures
in the New Testament. And they said to those men, what
proof do you have? And they raised a dead man. They
gave sight to a blind man. One time a snake, a coral snake
or some highly poisonous snake bit Paul and he threw him into
the fire and they stood there and waited on him to die. And
Paul didn't die and they said he must be a God. Well, he was
from God. And our Lord said, you go and
preach the gospel and take up serpents and you'll not be harmed.
Drink any deadly thing, you'll not be harmed. Lay hands on the
sick. Heal the sick. Raise the dead. The apostles
did this. They had special gifts and special
miracles and special powers for credentials. God bearing them
witness. I'm not an apostle. You're not.
There's not going to be any apostles. Not anymore. Now, we're evangelists
and we're missionaries, we're ministers, we're pastors sent
to preach the Word of God. We need no proof but the Bible.
And when men aspire to be apostles, they're showing their ignorance
and their foolishness. Now, if God is pleased to bring
the gifts back into the church, praise the Lord. If God is pleased
to bring back the gift of speaking the gospel in other languages,
thank God. But I don't want to speak any
gibberish. When I was standing down in Mexico a few weeks ago
preaching to those people, I had to use an interpreter. Don't
you know that I prayed while I was preparing that message,
Lord, I'd give anything to be able to speak Spanish. I'd give,
well, I say anything, I'd like to think I'd give anything to
be able to speak Spanish. But I wanted to so badly, but
I couldn't. And what good would it have been
for me to stand up there and talk in this unknown tongue to
those people? They wouldn't have understood
me. They wouldn't have received any gospel. And I don't hesitate
to say, John, that's foolishness. And that's all it is. But if
I could speak in Spanish, or when I went to Germany, or if
I went to other countries and speak in French, when I was standing
in France a few years ago, Bill Clark had to translate every
word I said. because I couldn't Charlie speak
French. And he could. He preaches the
gospel in another tongue. But the apostles could. When
the apostles preached, everybody heard them in their own language.
They didn't hear Paul or John or James or Peter rolling off
a lot of gibberish that nobody understood, that you had to call
on some feeble-minded person over here to give a translation
or interpretation that he got out of his own brain. Those men
heard the gospel in their own tongue. We're not apostles, but
we are believers. We are believers. And while Paul
is not a pattern to me as an apostle, because I can't be an
apostle, I've got to be what God made me. But he is a pattern
as a believer, because I'm redeemed by the same mercy, I'm redeemed
by the same grace, the same mercy and grace that reached down and
lifted Paul from religious bondage. is the same mercy and grace and
love that reached down and lifted me from the same bondage. And
the same grace and mercy that lifted Paul from under the curse
of the law, from the bondage of the law, and from the wrath
of God, and from the condemnation of sin, is the same grace and
mercy that lifted me. In that, Paul is a pattern. He
is a pattern of mercy. He is a pattern of redemption.
He is a pattern of grace. He is an example of God's love
for sinners. Now, it's doubtful, and very
doubtful, and I thought about this a little while when I wrote
it down. It's doubtful that his day was any more religious than
our day. I doubt that it was. Doris and
I got up this morning, prepared our coffee, you know, and got
ready to eat breakfast, and I went over, and I turned on the TV. I listened to these fellas. I
listen to them on purpose. I want to hear what they're saying.
And I'm telling you, you can go, I've got 12 channels, I think,
and there's a preacher on every one of them. Every single one
of them. But every one of those preachers saying the same thing.
No, you did work, brother. No, they're saying the same thing.
They're saying sinners saved thyself. God's done all He can
do. That's up to you to save yourself.
They're all saying the same thing. It's doubtful that Paul's day
was any more religious than our day. We're living in a religious
generation. Everybody's talking about religion. And they're zealous. Brother,
they're zealous. They're sincere. You say, was
Saul of Tarsus sincere? He surely was. He was sincere. He was zealous. He had a zeal
for God. He was zealous for his traditions.
He was zealous for his denomination. He was zealous for his theology.
He was zealous for his righteousness. He was zealous for his morality.
He was zealous for his traditions. And he was a man with much assurance.
He knew he knew God. If you had asked Saul of Tarsus
before he was saved, do you know God? What are you, some kind
of fool he'd say? Well, I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews.
My mama was a Hebrew. My daddy was a Hebrew. Why, he
said, I was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel. Why, I'm a
Pharisee. And you take the law and charge
me with any violation of the law. I keep the law, he said.
Of course I'm one of God's own. Of course I'm one of God's people. But I'll tell you this. One day
that man met Christ. One day that man met Christ.
One day that man was broken under the hand of God. One day that
proud, self-righteous, overbearing, haughty, evil, religious, traditionalist
was brought under the hand of God into the dust. He was a broken
vessel. God Almighty smote him and one
day He called Jesus Christ Lord. One day, Doris said to me, after we listened
to one of the preachers this morning, she said, I hadn't heard
that in a long time. I said, what's that? She said,
that statement he just made, I know you've accepted Jesus
as your Savior, and that's great, he said, but most of you've never
bowed to him as your Lord. That's what they're preaching.
You don't need to bow to Christ. He saved you from hell. Now you
may lose your yo-yo in heaven. You may not get a yo-yo to play
with. You may not get a reward. You
may have to live in a slum district in heaven. You may have to live
in the ghetto, but you'll get there. You may not be as high
up as some of the other folks up there, but you just want to
get there, don't you? That's all. You just want to
miss hell. It's just that close. Just want to miss hell. I want
all that's coming to me here and nothing is coming to me there. But one day Paul, one day Saul
of Tarsus met the Lord. He met the King. He was broken
down at the feet of Christ. He was smitten. A light shone
round about him. A voice spoke to him. And he
was smitten in the dust. blinded at the feet of our Lord. And he tells us in Acts 22 all
about this. You want to turn over there again
to Acts 22? And I want you to watch the pattern of his conversion.
And this is the pattern of our conversion. Paul is a pattern. He said in our text that God
might show forth his long-suffering as a pattern to those who will
later believe. Now, what's the pattern of conversion? It's repeated so many times in
this generation, it was repeated in my life, in John, in your
life, I know in Bob's life, I know in Paul's, I know in Charlie's
life, and I know in Cecil, he was a religious lost man, and
Ed Ballard, every one of you, I know this has been repeated
again and again and again, and it's better be repeated in some
of the rest of your life. Now, here's the first thing if
you look at verse 3. He said, I am verily a man which
am a Jew. I'm a Jew. In other words, I'm
one of God's people. That's what he said. I'm one
of God's people. I was one. I thought I was. I was born in
Tarsus, a city in Cilicia. I was brought up in this city
at the feet of Gamaliel. Now, this same thing as a fellow
saying today, I'm a Baptist. I'm a Southern Baptist, or an
Independent Baptist, or a Landmark Baptist, or a Hardshell Baptist,
or a Pivoted Baptist, or a Free Will Baptist, or an Old Regular
Baptist, or a United Baptist. We got all kinds. But I'm a Baptist. And I was brought up in this
city, and my pastor, now get this, my pastor is so-and-so.
That's who, I was converted unto so-and-so. He was my pastor.
And I was converted unto him. And I was taught, Paul said,
according to the perfect manner of theology. I was taught. I know, I believe in the virgin
birth. I was taught that. I believe the Bible's the inspired
word of God. And I believe Jesus Christ died
on the cross and was buried and rose again and ascended to heaven
and he's coming back. And I believe in the tribulation
and I believe in the millennium and I believe in the restoration
of the Jews and I've been taught in all these things. I'm all
taught in these things. I believe in, I know the difference
in the baptism of the Holy Ghost and the filling of the Holy Ghost.
And I know all these things. Boy, I knew every one of those
four I saved. Every one of them. And there are multitudes today
that know every one of them who never met Christ. This is what
Saul is saying now. This is a pattern. He's telling
us that he's just like us. He said, I was educated, I was
taught according to the perfect. He was a fundamentalist. He was
orthodox. The perfect manner of the law
of the fathers. I didn't veer to the right or
the left from the orthodoxy of my father's, the tradition and
fundamental truth of my father's. And I was zealous. I was a soul
winner. One preacher said this morning
that we all ought to be ashamed of ourselves if we hadn't won
a soul to Jesus in the last 72 hours. Now, brother, let me tell
you something. This is getting serious. That
man's zealous. Have you won a soul to Jesus
in the last 72 hours? You haven't saved anybody in
the last 72 hours? You haven't? Well, what's wrong? Well, the
first thing's wrong is I can't save souls. I never have saved
a soul. I never have won a soul to Jesus. I've been around near when the
Holy Spirit's won two or three. They talk like you go into a
home with a book and you say you believe this, this, this.
Yes, I believe. Shake my hand, you're saved.
Praise the Lord. Amen. Come down, we'll baptize
you. That's winning soul. But that's not sinners being
saved. And Paul said, I was zealous,
zealous. Look at that last line in verse
3. As you are, as you all are this day. Now brother, I can
say this same thing. I've been going, I was on, like
J. Wembley said one time, I was enrolled in a Baptist kindergarten
before I was born. On the cradle row. They were
waiting on me when I came into the world. And then I went from
there, you know, to the nursery, and then from there to the primary,
and let's see, nine years old. That's when I made my profession.
I was expected to. You don't get out of the primary
department without making a profession of faith. And then into the juniors,
and then into the Bible school, and into the RAs, and into all
the other things you know, and all the services, a five-star
Christian, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, Sunday
school, and BTU, five-star Christian. Somebody said, after three professions
of faith, and two baptisms, and 117 rededications, and membership
in four churches, I finally met Christ. And that's the way it
is. That's exactly the way it is.
And brother, folks are zealous in these things. They're traditionalists,
they're fundamentalists, they're orthodox, they have these things.
Saul of Tarsus, and I'm serious with you, he said, I was a Jew. He said, I sat at the feet of
the greatest theologian of my day. He said, I was educated
in fundamentalism and orthodoxy and I was zealous. I'd have died
for what I believed, and I'd have killed somebody else that
didn't believe it. That's the difference. As you all are this
day. But now look at verse 4. The
second thing he says is this. I was religious, but I hated,
and I was an enemy of salvation by grace. Oh my, I tell you,
look at it, verse 4, I persecuted this way. What's he talking about
this way? What is this way? The way of God's sovereign mercy. The way of God's grace in Christ. The way of God's redemption,
not by my works, or by my decisions, or by my deeds, but by the pure,
unmerited, mercy and grace of God, undeserved, unsought, unearned. God gave me his gift, his unspeakable
gift, the gift of his Son. God awakened me and quickened
me and called me and regenerated me and revealed Christ to me
and brought me to faith. I hated that. Substitution, Righteousness
by the obedience of Christ. In my hands no price I bring,
simply the cross of Christ I cling. Saul hated that. I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy. He hated that. All that my Father
giveth me will come to me. He hated that. Jesus said, I
and my Father are one. He hated that. Christ said, destroy
this temple. In three days I'll raise it up.
He hated that. I'm the way, the truth, and the
life. No man cometh to the Father but by me. He hated that. No one's an enemy of God's grace
and substitution and the effectual satisfaction of Christ quite
like a religionist. No one. You know who's the enemy
of God's grace? Religionist. You know who hates
the way of mercy? Religionist. Do you know who
despised the way of divine revelation? Religionists. Do you know who
hates and despises the Lordship of Christ in a believer's life? Religionists. They want to miss
hell, they want to gain heaven, but they don't want to bow to
Jesus Christ. No, sir. We'll not have this
man reign over us. We'll let him make an effort.
We'll let him make an offer. We'll let him make an attempt.
Salvation's in our hands. We'll do what we will. No one
is an enemy of grace and substitution like a religionist. And let me
tell you this, and I believe this with all my heart, no believer
is an enemy of grace. No believer fights the Word of
God. Now let me tell you something. I was sitting, I was down in
Jacksonville, Florida this past week in a meeting and I preached
Tuesday morning and went over to the community center for lunch
and there were some visitors there from in another part of
Florida and a lady and I got in a conversation about the grace
of God and she said, well, she said I was saved when I was an
Arminian. You know what an Arminian is? Most folks, not an Arminian,
an Arminian. A true Arminian, and I know some
of you don't even know what that word means because I don't use
them very much, those terms, because they're not Bible terms,
but what she's saying is this. Back in the days when I did not
believe in man's fall and depravity and original sin, back in the
days when I did not believe in God's sovereign mercy and grace,
back in the days when I did not believe in the effectual sacrifice
of Christ, I did not know that He and He alone was the Redeemer,
that redemption was through Christ, by Christ, and for Christ's glory
alone, plus and minus nothing. Back when I did not believe that
the Holy Spirit must quicken and awaken dead sinners and regenerate
and give the new birth, back when I did not believe that by
the grace of God believers persevere, I was saved. I said, oh, hang
on there now. Hang on there just a minute.
Yes, she said I was. She said I fought the grace of
God for a year. Now listen to me. God's people
don't fight God. Saved people don't fight God,
Charlie. That's foolishness. A saved man is a broken man. A saved man is a submissive man. A saint man is a man with a broken
spirit and a contrite heart. He says, Lord, what will you
have me do? Now, I said to this dear person,
and she loaded my gun for Wednesday night. I preached Wednesday night,
and they was all there, and we had us a good time. I'm not going
to let anybody rest in a false refuge. I'm going to operate
on them. Now, that's all there is to it. You might have been awakened.
You might have been troubled. You might have been religious.
You might have been seeking like Cornelius or the Ethiopian eunuch
or even Saul of Tarsus. Let me tell you something. As
long as your arms are lifted in rebellion against God, you're
not saved. Now you can just put that down. I don't care who you are. As
long as you've got enmity in your heart against the living
God, as long as you're unwilling for Him to have all the glory
for whatever is accomplished, you may be troubled, and you
may be awakened, and you may be devout, and you may be zealous,
but you're not saved, see, so now that's all there is to it. And we're unfair to people. Was Saul of Tarsus saved here?
He believed in God. He was a theologian. He was a
purely moral man. He was religious. He was zealous.
He was sincere. He was reading the Psalms. But he wasn't broken. And I'll
tell you when he was saved. When God broke him. When God
broke him. And when God enthroned Christ
in his heart. And brother, when he came to
the place, when he said, Lord, what will you have me do? Now,
Lord, there's some of this I'll believe, and there's some of
it I won't believe. No. The Lord told him to, like a
little child, to go sit down. He'd send him a preacher. And
that preacher would tell you what to do. And I'll show you
something else. The third thing, if you'll read
verse 6 through 8, Paul didn't, Saul of Tarsus didn't change
from works to grace by the arguments of men. Now this is where you're
wasting your time. You got a fella, you got a person,
a man, woman, boy or girl in what we call this fundamentalist
religion. You've got them in this fundamentalist
morality. You've got them in this easy-believism,
you've got them in this decisionism, you've got them brought up in
the traditions of their father, like all of us were, as Saul
said, as all of you are this day. He heard Stephen preached,
and then he said stone him, didn't he? He heard the arguments and
the reasoning of the first martyr, of one of the chief deacons,
of a man who spoke for God. He heard a man's arguments and
reasons who went from being stoned to their presence of Christ.
He heard the arguments of a man who, while he was dying, and I hear a lot of folks say,
if we could just, you know, Brother Mahan, when old Brother Smith's
mother died, if you could just say some things at the funeral
over his mother's body, it'd convince him. I never found that
to be so. Saul was standing over the body
of Stephen who saw Christ, didn't he? While he was dying. And it didn't move old Saul. It didn't move him. It didn't
move him from his tradition. It didn't move him from his zeal.
It didn't move him from his hate for the grace of God. It didn't
move him from his hatred for Jesus Christ. It didn't move
him from his orthodoxy. It didn't move him from his self-righteousness. He held the coats of the men
that stoned that dear man. So he didn't change from works
to grace by the arguments. And by the reasoning, somebody
says, I hope you say something this morning to convince my son.
Let me tell you something. Ain't nobody going to say anything
to convince that little rebel. Same thing going to have to happen
to him that happened to Saul of Tarsus. God dealt with him. That's right. Look, verse 6.
And it came to pass as I made my journey and came near to Damascus
about noon, there was a light from heaven. That's where the
light's going to have to come from. The light of revelation,
the light of the mystery of the gospel, the light of the truth
about Christ, the light of the truth about your depravity and
wretchedness, the light of the truth about His holiness and
righteousness and grace. It's got to come from heaven,
it can't come from here. No light originates here. No
revelation of truth originates here. It came from heaven. The light that lighteth the darkened
understanding comes from God. And he said, verse 7, and I fell
to the ground. And I'll tell you this, if you
ever hear somebody speak besides a man, you'll fall too. That's
right. You'll fall. He said, why didn't
everybody around there fall? Well, Paul said they saw the
light, but they didn't hear him speak. They didn't hear him speak. They heard a voice, but they
didn't see Christ. Oh, God dealt with Paul. God
dealt with him. Oh, that God might deal with
sinners. I listened to a preacher this
morning, and he bowed his head and said, Lord, convict men of
sin. Lord, cause men to see their
sinners. Lord, cause men to receive Christ. Then he closed his prayer, and
he turned to the television audience, and he says now, It's up to you. Will you open your heart and
let Him in? Will you? Now what are we going to do?
Are we going to wait on God to do it or are we going to depend on the Senator
to do it? Are we telling the truth when we pray or when we
preach? Which? But I pray and somebody's going
to catch on to this thing after a while. I'm surprised more people
haven't. Somebody, some smart person,
somebody with a little intelligence, that's not sitting like a dumb
root, or not on a log in a congregation, is going to start listening to
these preachers someday. When they say, Lord save Bill,
and then they turn right around and tell Bill to save himself.
Now somebody is going to see a discrepancy in that. Not many
folks have. But I did. Because I think I've
got a little spiritual sense. Somebody's going to see the discrepancy. Somebody's going to catch on
to these fellows and say, this is a work of faith. Now, if you
don't send a dollar, we're going off there. Now, somebody's going
to see a discrepancy there someday. I don't know who, but somebody
is. Most folks don't. And when we
say, Christ died for our sins, He redeemed us to God, and then
turn right around and say, He did the same thing for folks
in hell. Now, somebody's going to see something wrong with that
one of these days. And they're going to walk up to that preacher
and say, Preacher, let me ask you a question here. You said
that Christ saved me, and He died for my sins and put them
all away. And then you turn around and said it's no good unless
I do something about it. Now, He didn't save me at all.
I'm the one that saves me. Somebody's going to see that.
But we can't, can we? We can't unless God gives some
light from heaven. We can't unless God gives some
light from heaven. So, solitarsis. Nobody sat down
and argued him into grace. Nobody sat down and argued him
into the doctrine of substitution. Nobody sat down and argued and
reasoned and preached and converted him from his self-righteousness
to trust the righteousness of Christ. God spoke to him. God broke him. God knocked his
foundations out from under him. God stripped him. God shut him
up to blindness, to grope around, and depend on somebody else to
lead him. You're proud. I am too. Our popular songs tell us how
proud we are. I'm going to do it my way. You
heard that song? My way. People like that. My
thing, you know. My rights. Well, when God whittles
a fellow down, he starts talking about God's glory. God's glory. And then the next thing about
this, verse 12 and 13. And one Ananias, a devout man,
according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews
which dwelt there, he came to me. And he stood and he said
something to me. Now, I wish I could stress the
importance of preaching. I know we've discredited it in
this day, and I'll be perfectly honest with you, what we hear
that's called preaching, we can do without it. Brother Barnard
said one time, the question is, will the churches of today survive? No, he said, that's not the question.
The question is, should they survive? You catch it? Most preaching I don't blame
people for not listening to it. They're not saying anything. You know, you say, why do men
have all this entertainment on these religious televisions?
Because their message won't get a hearing. They're not saying
anything. They've got to have somebody sing. They've got to
give away a book. They've got to have all these
special Hollywood stars. Nobody's going to listen to them
preach. If they have a show and Johnny
Cash is there, that'll get the crowd. The gospel won't get the
crowd, but Johnny will. Billy Graham went to Birmingham,
my hometown. He had Barry Bryant sit on one
side of it and Joe Namath on the other, brother. I tell you,
everybody in Alabama would come here and meet. Because Barry
Bryant's the governor and Joe Namath, he's the messiah of the
University of Alabama football team. That's all you gotta have.
Why do they do this? I'll tell you why they do it.
because their gospel has no power, it has no authority, nobody wants
to listen to it. This is the truth. It's time
somebody said it. And I wish I could stress the
importance of preaching the gospel, not only to those who preach
it, but those who hear it. Saul of Tarsus came out of his
religious bondage and his religious phony profession and his religious
corruption into the glorious liberty of redemption in Christ
and grace, because God spoke to him. But God spoke to him
through a man. And you turn to Romans chapter
10. Let me read you something. And this is just as so as it
was when it was written 2,000 years ago. Romans 10, 6, 13. Romans 10, 13. How? Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord, the Lord, not a Savior,
not a doormat named Jesus, not a fire escape named Jesus, whosoever
shall call on the Lord shall be saved. How shall they call
on Him in whom they've not believed? You're not going to call on Christ.
Do you believe He's your only hope? That's the day you'll do
it, when you see He's your only hope. And how are they going
to believe in him of whom they've not heard? You've got to hear
the truth about Christ. The name Jesus is not going to
save anybody unless it's the name of Jesus the Lord. That's
right. You just don't use the name because
there's too many little Mexican boys named Jesus, J-E-S-U-S,
and can't one of them save a flea. But we've got to find out who
he is. Who is this Jesus? You've got to hear who He is. What does He do? Why does He
do it? Where is He now? What does He demand? How shall
they believe in Him of whom they've not heard, and how are they going
to hear without a preacher? And how are they going to preach
except they be sinned? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. Oh, I tell you, when Saul opened
his eyes and saw Ananias, he could have hugged him. That's
God's messenger. He's come to tell me the truth.
He's not some fellow that's going to come past our church so he
can have an easy life and not have to work much and live in
a nice home and get his bills paid and stand up and say a few
nice things on Sunday. No, this man came to bring me
God's message. And he's not trying to get along
with this one or that one or the other and please me, and
he's trying to preach the truth to me. and how beautiful are
the feet of them that dare to preach the gospel, who are not
covetous, who are not making merchandise of the souls of men,
but who have come to bring a message and are going to preach that
message. They are going to preach that message. I never will forget,
thirty years ago next month, thirty years ago next month,
I had already been to Ashland. One time, as a religious entertainer,
I think I could say like Saul is saying here and most of you
can say, I've brought up in the church. I worked with the young
people when I wasn't old enough to do anything, fittingly. I had Sunday school teachers
didn't know any more about the Bible than I did. That's what's
tragic. But I was always there, won all the medals and the pins
for going to Sunday school. I was the pastor's little boy.
I was called to preach when I was 14 years old, I thought. Went
into the Navy and did a little preaching on the ship and came
back and went to school and got married. Working in the Baptist
church as one of the youth leaders. Didn't know beans about the gospel.
I was sincere. I was sincere, and I was like
Saul of Tarsus. I was trying to live a moral
life, and I had a good background. Some of the greatest preachers,
so-called in America, Hyman Appleman, E.J. Daniels, Lee Robinson, Marvin
Cole, John R. Rice, all the rest have been
to my church, our church, in my home, ate with us. I never
heard of one of them preach the gospel. I didn't know the gospel. I was zealous. Religious. And this church up here, Pollard
Baptist Church, invited me to come up and be their youth director. I never led a song in my life.
The assistant pastor, after we got the call, taught me how to
lead the singing. I'd beat the 4-4 time, the 3-4
time, the 6-8 time, you know, nothing. I picked it up real
quick. Came up here and led the young people of this church,
some of you now that are Older than I carried a state. We were
about 13 years old then, 12, 11. I wasn't much older. I was
21. They ordained me to preach the gospel over here at the Apollo
of the Baptist Church. Some of you men that are here this morning
were there when I was ordained. And I knew if I was going to
preach, I had to have a little more schooling. So I went to Chattanooga
and started school the first of September. The president of
the school sent me to Second Baptist Church and the Gospel
Tabernacle and several other churches. I was busy every Sunday
and about a month later I was preaching, pastoring my own church,
21 years old. And I was so troubled. I'd prepare
sermons that had no power and prepare messages that had no
convicting spirit, talk about Jesus and the blood, as orthodox
as you please. But I'd sit in my study, and
I'd look at the cards of the people that made Professions
of Faith. Man, I was getting them down the aisle. I didn't
have one church in that community, and I was it. I was the only
pastor, and we had an orchestra, an organ, a piano, filled that
little old church up. It wasn't but 500 people in the
community, and half of them was in church on Sunday at our church.
And I'd plead with people. I had the best evangelist. Herman
Cobb and Ed Arundel, and I had Ralph Field, I'd bring them in,
we'd have revival meetings, and we'd line the front with professors
of member of the arts, decisions. Every time we had a funeral,
the fellow whose mother died would get saved. Every time a
child died, a mother and daddy would get saved. We'd get folks
saved. Nobody was being saved, but they
were getting saved. And I'd sit and look at the cards
of those members and say, why don't they come to church? They
made a profession, I baptized, pick up another card, Why don't
these people love Christ, they're offended, they don't worship
the Lord? I pick up this card and I say,
I wonder what that fellow stays mad about all the time. I just sit and wonder why they
don't come to prayer meetings. I didn't know it, Paul, but they
didn't know God. That was their problem. They'd
made a profession. I didn't know. I had the religious
zeal and all like Saul did, but I didn't know that God must save,
that we can't save people. They can't save themselves. Salvation
is a work of grace. And I came back. You invited
me to come back up here as your assistant pastor, 1950, April
the 17th. And I hit town. And the same
day I hit town on a Monday, April the 17th, as a fellow called
Ralph Barnard hit this town to hold a two-week meeting over
at this church. And you'd be amazed at the way he came here,
quite by accident. The Southern Baptists were having
a simultaneous revival crusade east of the Mississippi. Every
church was supposed to have a meet. Brother Wells, the pastor, didn't
have an evangelist. So he called Charlie Stevens,
old Piedmont Bible School, and he said, you got anybody over
there that can preach? He said, I got a fellow over here named
Ralph Barnard that's a pretty good country preacher. Don said,
send him over. Never seen him, heard from him,
heard him preach or anything else. And he got up on Sunday
over here at the Apollard Baptist Church and he peeled our hides. He laid our ears back. He told
us we was all religious but lost. And Tuesday morning, I said,
we had morning services and evening services, and I really never
understood the book of Romans. Doris and I were reading through
the Bible, and we got the book of Romans, and I said, let's
skip that, and I don't understand it. Let's go to one that's easier
and one that fits my theology, you know. And I was sitting on
the second row that morning, and Barnard got up in the pulpit,
and how beautiful are the feet of somebody that will tell you
the truth. And he looked down at me, And
he said, quote Romans 8.28 for me. And I got up and I said, all
things work together for good to them that love God. And I
sat down. And he just stood there. And he looked at me. And he said,
what's the rest of it? Do you know the rest of it? I said, yes, I think I do. I
got up and I said, all things work together for good to them
that love God. to them who are the call according
to His purpose." And I sat down and it must have been 30 seconds,
seemed like 30 minutes. He let out a scream. You could
have heard Him down here on 13th Street. Purpose! Everything God does, He does
on purpose. And He said and fell out, If
you ever learn what that means, it'll open that book of Romans
for you. I don't know how he knew I didn't understand that
book. Somebody, God must have told him. He said one time, God,
the devil, or somebody told him. But he said, you get hold of
that word purpose. Everything God does, he does
on purpose. There are no accidents with God.
And brother, I couldn't wait. I got, as soon as they said amen,
I ran over. Doris wasn't up here yet. We
hadn't found a place to lay up. I ran over to Don Wells' study. Brother, I got that book of Romans
out and I started reading. And about that time the door
opened and Don and Barnard and this male dibble and Jack Gladwell
and somebody else came to us and said, ìWeíre going out to
eat.î I said, ìYou just go right ahead. Iím going to find out
if he told me the truth.î And I stayed there all afternoon
and Charlie, he told me the truth. He told me the truth. And I found
out that salvation is of the Lord. And I've been, by God's
grace, I've made a mess out of a lot of efforts and opportunities
and responsibilities, but I can guarantee you this, Since that
day, I've quit trying to talk people into professions of faith
and preach them the gospel and wait on God to save folks. Now,
if He saves one, I'll praise His name. If He saves a hundred,
I'll thank Him. But I went out of the saving
business. I went out of the religious business, and I went out of the
business trying to get along with religious folks. And I went
out of the business of putting salve on sores, and I went into
this thing, this business of shooting at the heart. And I'm
going to keep doing it by God's grace until He calls me home.
And if you don't belong to Christ, I hope my message makes you so
miserable you can't stand it. I do. I hope it'll trouble you
like nobody's business. You know, until God, until He
does something, Something you can't do and I
can't do. Not a decision, it's a regeneration. It's not just walking an aisle
and accepting some facts about Jesus Christ. It's coming to
a living, vital, personal union with Christ and bowing to His
Lordship, enthroning Him on your heart. And then you don't have to sit
and look at your church rolls and wonder why they don't come
to church, wonder why they don't pray, wonder why they don't give,
wonder why they don't love one another. No. You say, thank God
for that old boy. He's young in grace, but he's
growing. Yes, sir, he don't know much
what he's hearing, but he's coming. And you know that infancy and
young men and old boys, they love Christ. They love Christ
because they know Christ. What was the message he heard?
Verse 14. I've preached too long, but you'll
probably get stuck going home anyway, so I'll stay here. Verse
14, Acts 22. Here was the message. Here was
the message that Ananias brought to him. First thing he said,
he said, God elected you. Somebody told me you weren't
supposed to tell sinners that God elected people. Here's Saul,
religious to the hilt. He'd just been brought by God.
into a place where he listened to somebody. And the first thing
this fellow God sent said to him is, The God of our fathers
hath chosen you. That's the first thing he said.
In other words, what you are is not by your own doing, God
did it. The fact that you're fixing to
hear the gospel is not because you wanted to hear it, it's because
God wanted you to hear it. The fact that you're just about
to have a revelation of who Christ is, is not because you've been
seeking it and longing for it. It's because God, back before
the foundation of the world, made you an object of His grace. He who loved Jacob loved you. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord, and bud, let me tell you this. You found grace
in the eyes of the Lord, just like Noah, just like Abraham,
just like David. Think about it! You didn't decide
anything. Any decision you made would be
wrong. Christ said, let one come in
his own name, and him you will receive. I come in my Father's
name, you won't receive me. You didn't decide it, God decided
it. God chose you. The next line, he said that you
should know His will. Paul knew the will of command
from the law, but he didn't know the will of redemption. There
are a lot of folks who know the will of command, but they don't
know the will of redemption. The will of redemption. How God
can be just and justify. How God can deal in mercy with
sinners who ought to receive His justice. How that the blood
of Christ is the fulfillment of every type and picture in
the Old Testament. Ah? His redemptive will. And that you should see the Just
One. Look at the capital J-U-S-T, capital O-N-E. Who is that talking
about? That's Christ. He's the Just One. Just because
He's eternal God. Just because He's righteous man.
Just because He enables God to be just and justifier. Just because
He reconciled the people of God being obedient to God's perfect
law. and obedient to God's righteousness
and God's justice, the just one who will someday deal with sinners
in justice. He's the just one. God Almighty didn't, in order
to save you, cut the edge off His law so you could keep it.
God didn't whittle His law. It still says the same thing.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind,
soul, and strength." That's not changed. Christ didn't come down
here and alter the law, discredit the law. He came down here and
fulfilled it as my representative in human flesh. I got a perfect
righteousness. You say, when did you get it?
When Christ obeyed the law and gave it to me. And he said, you see the just
one, and see him how? With eyes of faith. He that seeth
the Son, and believeth on him, hath life. And hear the voice
of his mouth." Our Lord, He said, My sheep hear. Listen to me now.
I don't know why we don't believe the Bible. I do too. But He said, My sheep hear My
voice. You know what He said? My voice. Now you better be careful about
following a man. You've got to be careful. We're living in the
day of hero worship. Hero worship. Everybody's got
to have a hero. Religious people, they've got their heroes. Well,
let me tell you something. That preacher or deacon or elder,
God bless them, I love them, but they're human beings just
like you. Last Sunday, I'll never forget this, last Sunday, Cecil
prayed. I thought about this prayer all week. Lord, our pastor
is just a man. But Lord, if we hear from you,
we're going to have to hear through him. So the Lord gave him a message. Do you remember saying that?
And that's all he is. That's all you are. That's all
anybody. That's all Billy Graham is and all the rest of them.
And you better quit worshipping men and following men and exalting
men. Elder is worthy of double honor.
And I know a laborer is worthy of his hire. And I know if we
minister to you spiritual things, we're supposed to partake of
your carnal things, but not your worship. You worship God. And the reason I know so much
about you is I'm dug out of the same pit, I'm made out of the
same clay, I have the same thoughts and the same desires and the
same needs. And that's the reason I can tell you about Christ.
A man can't preach repentance who's never repented. A man can't
preach a revelation of Christ who's never seen Him. And what
I'm saying this morning, an angel couldn't preach the gospel. He
couldn't do it. God put an angel right here. He doesn't know anything
about the gospel. He's never been where we are.
Couldn't do it. But I can. I can tell you about
this thing. I can tell you all about that
religious fundamentalism. I was right where you were the
first time he started writing me. He is so pious. That's right,
John. Oh, he put P-T-L at the end of
his name. I never mentioned it, but he
kept watching me on television. One day he wrote me a letter
and that P-T-L was gone, Charlie. Oh, he's so pious. That's the truth, isn't it? God
has to. Well, if He doesn't do it, it
won't be done. You'll be perfectly satisfied
in your going through the motions, You go to church down at the
certain first church and serve on the board, you know, and go
through your religious business meetings and arguments and plan
big things, you know, and have big revivals, win big souls and
all this sort of thing, you know, and live for yourself. But someday
God just might send you an Ananias or a Barnard or somebody that's
got the courage and the grace and the message that'll operate
on you. operate on you. And when He does, by God's grace,
you'll have something you never had before. And it'll be of the
righteousness of the Son of God, the glory of the Son of God,
the redemption of the Son of God. And I'm saying this, it's something that'll never
be taken away from you. My sheep hear my voice, and they
follow me, and I give them eternal life, and they'll never perish.
And when you see Christ, you'll never meet anybody more wonderful.
I know some of these little girls around here, they come to church,
they get to be 18 years old, meet some knot-headed boy who
doesn't love the gospel, and they go running after him, you
never see them again. They never met Christ. If they ever saw
Christ, all the men in the world wouldn't be near as beautiful
as Christ. I'm just telling you that's so. I know there's some
men come here before and they haven't had a very good living,
you know. They just made wages like all the rest of us do and
get long fine, but one day they struck it rich. They got a better
job. They disappeared. Oh, when you
know the riches of His grace, all the riches in this world
won't wean you away from Him. That's true. Ain't nothing in
this world could pay me like God pays me. Nothing. Nothing. And I've known folks to come
here, and they were just one of us, you know, but then they
got elected to an office, and then somebody said, that's Mr.
So-and-so there. Well, bless your heart. How do
you do? And he couldn't associate with
the peons anymore because he had his name in the paper. My
name's in the Lamb's Book of Life. And if it appeared in Newsweek
magazine, I don't believe I'd buy one. It don't matter. That's right. I'm not being smart.
I'm telling you the truth. Our Lord said, don't rejoice
that the devil's a subject to you. Rejoice that your name's
written in heaven. If you ever see Christ,
then nobody will ever turn your head. If you ever see the glory
of His grace, the glory of His person, there's no sight this
world could give you that would take you away. If you ever walk
with Him, you'll never want to walk with this outfit. If you ever become a son of God,
these movie stars won't thrill you anymore. You wouldn't walk
across the street and see some of these bombs. Because you're
a son of God. Huh? Son of God. Beloved, now are we sons of God. I'm a son of God. I know we bow
in humility before Him, but we walk with our heads high among
the sons of men. I'm a son of God. Oh, Barney,
you say, I'm somebody. I don't look like much, but I'm
somebody. I'm a son of God. That's real. And that's real. Paul said, I'm a pattern. Like
I said when I started this message, I'm not trying to be an apostle.
But that's the pattern of conversion.