["Pomp and Circumstance"]
All right, thanks for coming everybody this morning.
If you would please go ahead and take your seats.
We'll begin the service.
We begin the service by singing the song number two,
a glory to his name.
That'll be song number two in your hymnals this morning.
Glory to his name, song number two.
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
We're going to spend our word of prayer.
The Lord again, thank you for this time
at the beginning of our week together.
We appreciate your word.
I pray that you'll be with us this morning
in the holy spirit.
Lord, we give the blessing of the singing
and the services to come in Jesus' name, amen.
Let's go to song number 100, day by day.
Song 100.
One, zero, zero, day by day.
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
This time we're going to go to our announcements very quickly.
And if you'd like to bullet it, just put your hand up.
If you'd rather add them, we'll get you one.
As always, the service time is the same.
We have 1030 at Sundays a.m.
and then we have the 530 p.m. service every Sunday.
And then we got Thursdays at 7.
We'll be in Acts chapter 10 this week.
We've got Churchwide Soul Wading a couple of times beneath that.
Also, if there's ever a time that you want to go that's not within that
and you have a specific time to work better for you,
I'm very flexible in my schedule.
I can definitely make that happen.
So don't feel like those are your only opportunities to go soul wading.
That'd be more than happy to take people out as needed.
We have the Salvations and the Captains, excuse me, below that,
as well as the upcoming Sunday schedule for this Thursday and next Sunday.
Don't forget next Sunday as well is the Birthday Donut Sunday for everybody,
celebrating the month of July.
So we're going to have donuts here at 10 a.m.
If you know how that works, show up and you get to pick the litter.
Below that is the mega conference schedule taking place up to 10 p.m.
So that's kicking off next Sunday with Pastor Jason Robinson.
Of course Pastor Anderson will be preaching at the respective churches
when these pastors are here preaching at 10 p.m.
I have the sign-up sheets back there for each of the Wednesday night services.
So if there's a Wednesday night service that you would like to attend,
just go ahead and sign up for it back there.
Even if it's the last one, there is a sign-up sheet there for it.
But you can just go ahead and mark your space there.
And just remember that we're going to be leaving at 5 p.m. promptly.
We need to leave here at 5.
So I know it's kind of, you know, in the middle of the work week,
it might be kind of hard to get here exactly at that time,
but if you want to go, that's as late as we can push it out
and still make it there in service.
On the back, we have a couple announcements regarding soul winning.
We have a Navajo reservation trip coming up.
And the Note About Mexico Monday, they're zooming in August.
That will be taking place in July.
And some expectant ladies up in Tempe, part of our church.
We pray to them that they have a safe and healthy delivery
and some other upcoming soul winning events going on as well.
That's going to do it for announcements.
We'll see one more song before we get to the preaching this morning.
We'll hear a song under 138.
That's song 138, Haven at Rest.
It's on the way.
Jealousy, moistly, in your juice,
Wherever the rain, in your face,
I've made with my soul, with the rain in your breast,
Where I stand on the white sea is no more.
Oh, said this, may sleep the love of my soul,
In peace, my Savior, Lord.
When we hold ourselves to His generous grace,
When we hear of the word of God,
I've made with my soul, with the rain in my breast,
Where I stand on the white sea is no more.
I've made with my soul, with the rain in my breast,
Where I stand on the white sea is no more.
Oh, said this, may sleep the love of my soul,
In peace, my Savior, Lord.
Oh, said the Lord of my soul,
In peace, my Savior, Lord.
Jesus, who saved us from heaven and earth,
I've made with my soul, with the rain in my breast,
Where I've made with my soul, with the rain in my breast,
Where I stand on the white sea is no more.
Jesus, who saved us from heaven and earth,
I've made with my soul, with the rain in my breast,
Where I stand on the white sea is no more.
Jesus, who saved us from heaven and earth,
I've made with my soul, with the rain in my breast,
Where I stand on the white sea is no more.
I've made with my soul, with the rain in my breast,
Where I stand on the white sea is no more.
Oh, said this, may sleep the love of my soul,
In peace, my Savior, Lord.
All right, this time we'll go to our announcements.
Excuse me, we'll pass you off on a plate.
And if you need, well, we'll be turning to Acts, not Acts.
Where are we going? Romans 10.
Okay, let's bring it back together, the three groups.
We're going to Romans 10, and we're passing off on a plate.
I'll be right back.
Romans 10.
Verse 1, the Bible reads,
For I bear the record that they have the zeal of God,
And have the strength of knowledge.
Today, being ignorant to God's righteousness,
And going about to establish their own righteousness,
Have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
For Christ, at the end of the law,
The righteousness of everyone not believing,
The road that describes the righteousness of the law,
And the man which doeth those things,
Shall live by them.
For the righteousness is updated,
Speaking of this one.
Say, Now, my heart, who shall ascend to heaven,
That it is to bring Christ down from above?
Or, who shall descend to the deep,
That is to bring down Christ again from the dead?
But what saith me, where is God,
Even in thy mouth, and in thy heart?
That it is worth faith, which we preach,
That thou shalt confess with thy mouth,
The word Jesus, that it shall believe in thy heart,
That God bringeth from the dead,
Thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart, thou believeth unto righteousness,
And with the mouth, thou shalt mayest be salvation.
For the scriptures say,
Whosoever believeth on him,
Should not be ashamed.
For there is no difference between a Jew and a Greek,
The same Lord for all,
The richest of all that call upon him.
But whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord,
Shall be saved.
How there shall they call on him,
Whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in him,
Whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear,
Without preaching?
And how shall they preach,
Except they dissent?
As it is written,
How beautiful are the feet?
Of them who preach the gospel of peace,
Bring glad hiding and good things.
They have not only faith,
But a gospel.
For it is high as say,
The Lord, who hath believed,
Out of a fork.
So then faith cometh by hearing,
And hearing by the word of God.
But I say,
Have they not heard?
Yes, verily,
They are sound unto all the earth,
And their words are at the end of the world.
But I say,
Did not Israel know?
I was first provoked to say it.
I will provoke you to jealousy.
By then there are no people.
And by a foolish nation,
I will anger you.
But the sighs are very bold to say it.
I was found unto them,
At the soggy mountain.
I was made manifest unto them,
That asked not after me.
But did Israel say it?
All of them.
It came long,
I was stretched forth my hand,
As a disobedient,
And gaining the same people.
For that I am a great person.
I am a great person.
Amen.
So we'll be back there in Romans 10 a little bit later this morning.
But if you would, go back to Acts chapter number 9.
Acts chapter 9.
Of course we were in Acts chapter 9 this last Thursday.
And there was a lot there in that chapter.
And I wanted to just kind of touch on something again.
Maybe a little bit more thoroughly that I mentioned on Thursday night.
And that is Saul's salvation.
That's what I'm preaching about this morning is Saul's salvation.
And very quickly just review in chapter number 5.
Of course you have the famous conversion of Saul.
Where he's going with letters in hand to haul away the believers.
And cast them into prison.
He's making great havoc of the church.
And there in verse 5 it says,
And he said, Who art thou, Lord?
So if you remember the story.
The great light appears.
He hears a voice from heaven.
And the Lord himself has appeared unto Saul.
And Saul is having this dialogue with him.
And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.
It is 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 that city,
and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
Verse 17 of course, then the Lord appears unto Ananias.
And tells him to go and preach to Saul.
And he's a little hesitant at first, understandably so.
But it says there in verse 17,
And Ananias went his way and entered into the house,
and putting his hands on him, said, 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, and it has been scales,
and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.
So we see there in verse 18, the salvation of Saul.
Now a lot of people will say, and it's out there,
and I'm not going to say that it's necessarily the worst error you could ever make, of course.
But a lot of people will preach and teach that he was saved when the Lord appeared
unto him.
That that was the moment of his salvation.
But that really doesn't congeal with the rest of scripture.
The rest of scripture tells us that we have to be the ones that preach the gospel,
that every man has a minister given to him of the Lord.
And if it was as simple as the Lord just appearing and getting people saved,
then why wouldn't he continue to that, even to this day?
The Lord has given us the ministry of reconciliation,
and it's no different in Saul's case either.
So again, I believe that his salvation took place in verse 18, in verse 17 and 18,
when Ananias comes to him and essentially tells him this is the Lord Jesus,
and tells him to call upon the name of the Lord, to be baptized,
and that's the moment of his salvation.
In fact, if you would go to Acts 22, we're done in Acts 9,
but in Acts 22, where Saul is actually recounting this story
to the council that he's been being persecuted by.
And so in Acts 9, you know, we kind of get the narration, right?
We get the Holy Spirit's take on this salvation.
But then in Acts 22, you get to hear it from Saul's, who is now Paul, of course.
You get to hear it from his perspective.
So we get a little bit more insight into his salvation in Acts 22,
and it says in verse 8,
And I answered, Who art thou, Lord?
So he's telling the story about how he went to Damascus and everything that we just
read unfolded.
And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.
Interesting, you left out that last part.
It's difficult really to kick against the pricks, you know,
and he's like, well, I'm not going to tell you that I was resisting God,
but it's kind of an interesting thing that he chooses to leave out.
But he says in verse 9, And they that were with me saw indeed the light and were afraid,
but they that heard not the voice of him that spake to me.
And I said, What shall I do, Lord?
Lord, send unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus, and there shall be told thee of
all things which are appointed for thee to do.
And when I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of
them that were with me, I came into Damascus.
And one 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.
And the same hour I looked upon him, and he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen
thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that just one, and shouldest hear
the voice of his mouth.
So he's explaining to him, this is Christ, right?
Now you could say, well, he already knew it was Christ, because back in Acts 9, he's
calling him Lord.
Yeah, but, you know, Lord in the Bible can also just mean sir, right?
You know, Sarah called Abraham Lord, the Bible says.
You know, and when you have a bright light showing, and you're being blinded, and
you're hearing a voice from heaven, you know, you're probably going to address whoever
that is as sir or Lord, okay?
That doesn't necessarily mean that he was calling him the Lord Jesus Christ at that
moment, right?
That's what I kind of see in the story, and Ananias is kind of further explaining
it.
I'm pretty sure Saul had a good idea that that's who that was, okay?
He says, I am Jesus, right?
But now he's got to go through three days, he's fasting, he's not eating, he's
blinded.
That's the time where he's kind of mulling these things over, and deciding, is this really
what's going on?
Eventually you have Ananias showing up and saying, he has chosen thee, and you have,
you will see that just one, and should hear the voice of his mouth, right?
He's saying, that's who appeared unto you, the Messiah, the just one.
That's whose voice you heard.
For thou shall be a witness unto all men that thou has seen and heard, and now why
terriest thou arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling upon the
name of the Lord, okay?
So if he's already saved, by the time he gets into Damascus, why is Ananias sent to
tell him, hey, you need to call upon the name of the Lord, okay?
Because that's how a person is saved, by calling upon the name of the Lord.
The Bible's very clear about that, that we must call upon the name of the Lord
in order to be saved, okay?
So let's just look at a few things this morning about Saul's baptism, okay?
One is just the timing.
When did it happen?
Was it on the road to Damascus, or was, what, three days later in Damascus when Ananias
came and actually told him to call upon the name of the Lord?
Well, I believe it's the latter, okay?
But the other thing I want to point out here, because this can just be a point of
confusion, and I'll just touch on this very quickly, is that he says, arise, verse
16, and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.
Of course, there's a very popular heretical teaching that's out there that we have
to be baptized in order to be saved, okay?
That if we don't get dunked in water, that somehow we're not going to heaven.
As I was driving over this morning, I was just thinking about that, I was thinking
about the fact that how silly it is when people want to add things to salvation, because
most people will admit, even people who believe that you have to be baptized will
say, oh yeah, you got to believe on Jesus, but you also have to be baptized.
You have to believe in the death and the burial and the resurrection of Christ.
You have to put your faith in the shed blood of Christ, but you also have to be baptized.
You have to believe in Christ's sacrificing, his sacrificing himself, his atoning work
upon the cross.
Yeah, you got to put your faith on that, but you also have to repent of your sins.
I don't think people realize what they're saying when they say that.
How ridiculous it is of a notion to sit there and try to put anything on level with
the shed blood of Christ and say, oh yeah, I'm going to go to heaven because Jesus
died for my sins, but I also got baptized.
How are we going to put getting dunked in a barrel of water on par with the blood of
Christ?
How are you going to put, I gave up my drugs, I gave up my alcohol, I had a changed life
on par with the shed blood of Christ?
You can't.
You can't put anything on par with it.
It's ridiculous to even suggest that there's anything you could add to the shed blood
of Christ that's going to somehow warrant you salvation.
As if that's not enough.
You're going to get to heaven and God say, well, I know you trusted in the sacrifice
of my son, but did you also start going to church and reading your Bible and living
a good life?
Our works don't save us.
Baptism is a work.
Baptism does not save.
Now, is baptism something he should do?
Absolutely.
Ananias was right to tell him, hey, you need to be baptized.
The Bible says that we should be baptized.
That's something that we should all do after salvation.
But people want to isolate verses like this and twist it and say, oh, see, you got
to do all these things in order to be saved.
That's not what Ananias said.
He just gave him a list of things, a litany of things to just say, hey, here's some
things you should do.
Right?
Because what did Jesus tell him on the road to Damascus?
Go to Damascus and it shall be told thee all that thou shouldest do.
Right?
He's telling me, I'm going to tell you everything that you're supposed to do.
Because Saul's asking, Lord, what will thou have me to do?
Well, you should call upon the name of the Lord.
You should be baptized.
Right?
But baptism does not save us.
Whether it's by sprinkling or immersion, baptism is not salvation.
Go over to 1 Corinthians chapter number one, 1 Corinthians chapter number one.
And Paul, the guy who's being told this, understands this very well because he makes
this point throughout the epistles very clearly that salvation does not save.
Another verse that people like to isolate while you're going to 1 Corinthians one is
Mark 16.
This is one you can kind of stumble on.
And he said in verse 15, and he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.
And look, if you do any soul winning, you know, if you obey the first part of that
command of actually going out and preaching the gospel, you're going to run into people
who will isolate Mark 16, 16.
You're going to run into people from the church of Christ who say, well, you've
got to be baptized.
Mark 16.
Right?
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.
And it's funny, they always leave off the latter half of that verse because the latter
half of the verse explains, you know, what's meant here, okay?
Is it true he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved?
Yes.
Because he that believeth and doeth anything shall be saved.
He that believeth and chews bubblegum shall be saved.
He that believeth and maketh a ham sandwich shall be saved.
I should have had breakfast this morning, all right?
He that believeth and doeth anything does a handstand.
That, you know, I'm glad that's not part of the curriculum.
Otherwise, I'd be out.
I can't do a handstand.
He that believeth and does anything shall be saved.
That's why the latter half of the verse, I know you're in 1 Corinthians 1.
It says, but he that believeth not shall be damned.
It doesn't say, but he that believeth not and is not baptized shall be damned.
The only thing that's going to damn you is whether or not you've, if you have
not believed, right?
He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already
because he hath not believed the name of the only begotten son of God.
You know, that's, that's what Jesus said.
It's belief only.
We understand that here.
But this is something that they like to twist.
And we're looking at the salvation of Saul this morning.
One of the first things I want to point out is that when Ananias tells him to be
baptized, he's just saying, look, this is something you should do because you're
going to be told all that you should do, right?
And we probably don't even get the full, you know, conversation, obviously, of everything
that was told him.
But, you know, people might get, might choke on that.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 14.
This is written by Saul, who became Paul at this point.
I thank God that I baptized none of you.
I mean, if baptism is necessary in salvation, that's kind of a cold-hearted thing to say.
Right?
If you have to be baptized in order to go to heaven, you have Paul saying, well,
I'm glad I didn't baptize a single one of you.
He says, you know, he would essentially be saying, I'm glad you're all going to hell.
Right?
Well, which we know is not the case, right?
You know, he said, woe is me if I preach not the gospel.
Right?
He wanted to get people saved.
He's saying, I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius, lest
any should say I had baptized in my own name.
I baptized also the house of Stephanus.
Besides, I know not whether I baptized any other.
For Christ sent me not to baptize.
He's saying, I didn't come to baptize people.
He said, he sent me not to baptize.
So if baptism is necessary in salvation, why is he being told to go,
why is he not being sent to baptize?
He's saying, Christ sent me not to baptize, verse 17, but to preach the gospel.
So you can see how the gospel, preaching the gospel and baptism are two separate things.
They're not two parts of salvation.
You know, being baptized is something we do after salvation,
but it is preaching of the gospel that brings salvation.
Not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
Keep something at 1 Corinthians for a little bit.
We'll be there until close to the end of the sermon.
1 Corinthians chapter number 6.
You know, the only thing that washes us from our sins is the blood of Christ.
People say, oh, you've got to be baptized.
Because, you know, again, he says, wash away thy sins.
That's what Ananias told him, right?
Be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling upon the name of the Lord.
And you could attempt to say, well, the baptism is what washes away the sins, right?
Because, I mean, just think in your mind, we just associate water with what?
Bathing, with washing, right? At least probably most of us.
There's probably some little boys in here that haven't figured that out yet, right?
And avoid water like the plague.
But, you know, that's something we might as make that association, right?
Oh, be baptized, washing away thy sins.
But what's the last half? What's the last thing he was told?
Calling upon the name of the Lord.
So what's going to wash away sins?
Is it the baptism or is it the calling upon the name of the Lord?
It's the calling upon the name of the Lord that's going to wash away sins.
And you see that in scripture.
You're going to 1 Corinthians 6, I'll read you from Titus 4, it says,
But after the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
not by works of righteousness which we have done,
but according to his mercy he saved us.
Can we do works of righteousness? Yes, we can.
We can do righteous things.
Is getting baptized a righteous work?
It is, right?
Because you're obeying a commandment of God.
It is a righteous thing.
God commands us to do that which is righteous and holy and just, right?
So if we're being baptized, you know, that's a work of righteousness, isn't it?
The Bible says not by work of righteousness which we have done.
But according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.
What washes us? Is it baptism? No.
The washing is the washing of regeneration.
It's the washing and renewing of the Holy Ghost.
Salvation is what washes away our sins.
Calling upon the name of the Lord is what washes away our sins.
That's what makes all things new.
That's what causes all the old things to pass away.
That's being renewed, washed, and made new in the Holy Ghost.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter number 6, verse 11.
And such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, you are justified by baptism.
Is that what washes us?
No.
But ye are washed in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
That is what washes away our sins, not getting into a tub of water,
not having some man in a dress sprinkle water on our forehead when we're an infant.
That does not wash away sin.
Only the blood of Christ does that.
You're washed, you're justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Go to Romans chapter number 6, Romans chapter number 6.
Again, we'll be back in Romans 10 a little bit later.
We'll be back in 1 Corinthians again later as well.
We go over to Romans chapter number 6.
The Bible says in Revelation chapter 1, verse 5,
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness,
the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth,
unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood.
He washed us from our sins in his own blood.
That's what washes away sin.
That's how Saul had his sins washed away.
It was the same way anybody else has ever had their sins washed away,
by the blood of Christ, by calling upon the name of the Lord, not by getting wet.
You tell me that salvation is as simple as just climbing into a tub.
It's not.
And that would be a work of righteousness.
And it's such a measly, you know, insignificant work to put on par with the blood of Christ.
It's an insult.
It's a slap in the face of God to say that,
Well, my baptism assisted in some way in me being saved.
I was washed thoroughly and completely from all my sins for all of eternity through Christ's blood and his blood alone.
Nothing else.
And it's the same way for anybody that's ever gotten saved.
We are baptized in Christ.
The Bible teaches this.
Baptism is a picture of what's happened to us spiritually.
The Bible says, For as many as you have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
We are baptized into Christ.
Look at Romans 6, verse 3.
Knowing not that so many of us, as we're baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death.
We're baptized into Jesus Christ.
Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like us, Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so we also should walk in newness of life.
And I believe part of the picture of baptism is that we go down into the water, we are buried like Christ was buried,
and then we are raised to what?
Walk in newness of life.
I mean, that's what we say when we baptize people.
I baptize you in the name of God the Father, God the Son, the Holy Spirit,
buried in the likeness of his death, raised to walk in newness of life.
And what we're doing is we're showing, hey, this is a picture of what's happened to you spiritually.
You've been buried with Christ.
You've been baptized into his death.
You've been raised to walk in newness of life.
And that's an important concept, and it's a deep picture, and one that we should wrap our heads around,
because what it's showing us is that our lives are in Christ.
When you got saved, the Bible says you are not your own, but you are bought with a price,
as with the price of the blood of a lamb.
We are no longer our own.
We have been redeemed.
Christ has purchased us with his own blood, and we're not our own,
so we should walk in newness of life.
That's what saves us, the blood of Christ, the calling upon the name of the Lord.
That's what Ananias was getting across to Saul.
That's what Saul believed, is that it was the calling upon the name of the Lord.
That's what saved him. It wasn't some baptism.
Should he get baptized? Sure.
You know, if somebody believes, they call upon the name of the Lord, they get saved,
and they never get baptized, they're still going to go to heaven.
Go to Romans chapter number 10, Romans chapter number 10.
Calling upon the name of the Lord is what saves.
And look, this is something that can't be emphasized enough these days.
This is a doctrine that just continually comes under attack.
There's just, from every time to time, there's always people popping up
and trying to go after this doctrine.
And it's such a weird thing to have to defend it, because it just seems so simple,
so just plain, just right on the surface of the word of God,
not hard to understand, that you must call upon the name of the Lord to be saved.
And it's all throughout scripture. I don't even have time this morning to go through
all the scripture that teaches this, Old Testament and New.
We'll just look at one of the first mentions in Genesis 4.
I'll read to you, verse 26.
And to Seth and Tim also was born a son, and he called his name Enos.
Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.
Men were calling upon God's name all the way back in Genesis chapter number 4.
Now, God has had different names revealed throughout time, I understand,
but they've always been calling upon the same Lord in some way, shape, or form.
They've all been confessing with their mouth the Lord.
Psalm 116, I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.
I love that verse because it shows you that they're kind of the same thing.
Being saved, taking that cup of salvation, and calling upon the name of the Lord,
they're intrinsic. They are connected.
Because some people make the argument, well, what if I believe but never called?
Then you're not saved. It's as simple as that.
Because you have to call upon the name of the Lord.
And then people like to get into these hypotheticals and get real pedantic
and start splitting hairs and start talking about what if a person's mute?
What if you don't do it with your mouth and only with your heart?
Well, obviously that's calling upon the name of the Lord.
You can call upon the name of the Lord in your heart.
Because what is calling upon the name of the Lord? It's communicating to God.
If I were to say, hey, I'm going to call so-and-so on the phone, what would you expect me to do?
Sit there with my hands in my pockets and not say anything?
If I said, hey, I'm going to call upon so-and-so,
you'd expect me to pick up and pull out my phone, go to my contacts,
hit their number and say hello and actually have a conversation.
That's what calling upon the name of the Lord is, essentially.
It's just you communicating to God.
Whether you do that verbally with your mouth or whether you do that inwardly with your heart,
it's still calling upon the name of the Lord.
The point is that you have to do that.
And here's the thing, who wouldn't do that?
You're going to sit there and tell me you believe there's a God in heaven who will hear your prayer,
who will hear you ask for salvation, but you're not going to do it?
Anyone who's believed will naturally call upon the name of the Lord.
That's why I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord,
our great picture of these things being one and the same.
Oh, I know, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, I believe he died for my sins,
I believe he was buried and rose again, I believe that if I just ask, he'll give me salvation,
but you know, I'm not going to ask for that.
But I'm still saved. Wrong.
The Bible says you have to call upon the name of the Lord.
Look at Romans 10, verse 8.
But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart.
That is the word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth,
not if thou might, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus,
and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
So what do we see there? You have to confess with your mouth and you have to believe.
Obviously, if you don't believe it, you're not going to confess it.
What I'm saying is if you really believe it, you're going to be compelled to confess it.
It's just going to happen.
Look, the people that we win to the Lord, they confess because they believe.
We preach them the Gospel, we explain things to them, we take time, we explain how to be saved,
and then it's just like, they just want to call upon the name of the Lord.
And the people that don't want to do it, I wonder if they've even really believed at all.
That's the conclusion I come to.
Say, what if you have a person you're preaching the Gospel to and they're saying that they believe everything,
but then they don't want to call upon the name of the Lord.
They don't really believe it, in my opinion.
Because if you've really believed this,
if you really believe that all you have to do is believe and call upon the name of the Lord, you will do it.
He's saying, look, you have to call upon the name of the Lord.
Thou shalt confess with the mouth of the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised,
and that thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth in him shall not be ashamed.
For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek,
for the name Lord overall is rich unto all that call upon him.
You see how believing and calling upon him are just synonymous, practically.
He's saying, hey, in verse 11, whosoever believeth, he's rich, verse 12, unto all that call upon him.
It just happens.
You believe, you're going to call.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
So you can't just isolate belief only and say it's only belief.
There has to be a calling upon the name of the Lord.
And that's important, because doesn't that help explain Acts 22 to us?
When he said, arise, be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling upon the name of the Lord.
Now you can understand, you know, what it means to call upon the name of the Lord, how that is what washes away our sins.
Now, that's the first part of Saul's salvation that I kind of looked at.
Just kind of the doctrinal, you know, nuts and bolts here that we see there.
Dispelling the notion that it's by baptism, understanding that we're saved through the blood of Christ, through believing on him and calling upon his name.
That's how we receive the washing and regeneration of the Holy Spirit.
That's how we're sanctified, we're washed through the blood of Christ and nothing else.
And then kind of explaining just very briefly, because that's a dog we've kicked many times from this pulpit,
that you have to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved.
And not just believe that they're intrinsic.
I'm not going to go on that. So that's kind of the nuts and bolts, right?
The practical application I want to make this morning is that in this story of Saul's salvation,
the other thing that we see that is critical and is important for all of us to understand is that God uses men to save men.
God uses a man, or women, to save others.
God uses man to save man.
I mean, here you have this great picture of, you know, well rather just this great event, right, where Christ is literally showing up to the apostle Paul.
He's literally manifesting, he's blinding him with his glory and speaking to him.
And you think, well that's, you know, case closed, he's saved. No.
Even in light of that fact of Christ himself showing up, he still has to send a man to preach the gospel.
He still has to have Ananias come and say, hey, call upon the name of the Lord.
This is Jesus. Let me explain to you what happened. This is the just one.
This is the Messiah. You need to call upon the name of the Lord and wash away thy sins.
He still needed a man to do it.
In light of the fact that Jesus just showed up to him three days earlier and said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.
He still needed a man to preach the gospel to him.
You know, and all the times I've been out soul winning and talked to people,
I've never once met somebody who said, you know, it's funny three days ago Christ showed up to me and manifested.
I mean, how much more so is a man necessary, if he's needed in the case of Saul to get him saved,
how much more so today does God need men to go out and preach the gospel to get other people saved?
This is a really important point. God uses man to be saved.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 3.
Actually, are you in Romans 10 right now? Just stay there. Let me get there with you. Romans chapter number 10.
Ananias led Saul to call upon the name of the Lord. That's a great picture of the fact that even today,
we need people to still go out and preach the gospel in order to get other people saved.
If people do not go out and preach the gospel, people are going to die and go to hell that otherwise would have gotten saved.
That's an incredibly powerful truth that cannot be reiterated enough from this pulpit.
If people refuse to preach the gospel, there's people out there that are going to die and go to a literal,
eternal lake of fire and be punished in God's wrath forever if we don't go and reach them.
And otherwise wouldn't have to go there. We're not Calvinists.
And this is something that's crept into Baptist churches. It's something I heard in the church that I came up in.
Oh, if God really wants them to get saved, they will be. God wants everyone to get saved.
The reason not everyone's getting saved is because not everyone's getting the gospel preached to them.
If you would, look at Romans chapter number 10. Let's look at verse 13 again.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Isn't that great? It's great news.
That salvation's simple, that it's easy, that all people have to do is go out there and hear the gospel,
and they'll just call upon the name of the Lord and they shall be saved.
I mean, if you're saved this morning, you know how the simplicity that is in Christ,
how simple it was to just believe and call upon the name of the Lord.
That's the thing people struggle with the most, isn't it?
They don't get it that it's that easy, for God so loved the world.
We just read right over those verses, those words.
No, that's how much God loves us. He made it that simple.
Christ did all the hard work, and whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord,
whosoever shall believe in the heart and confess with the mouth, shall be saved.
Praise God for the simplicity that's in the gospel.
Praise God for his love towards mankind, that he made it that easy to go to heaven,
that he didn't make it some hard, winding path to get there,
that he didn't make it some difficult way into heaven,
that it's not a process like we looked at Thursday night,
that we're in the process of being saved.
That's something we have to put a lot of effort into. Thank God that he made it easy.
Yeah, living the Christian life is hard, yeah.
Having to fight the flesh every day is hard.
Having to mortify our members, yeah, that's difficult, that's hard.
But you know what? Salvation's easy, and praise God for it.
But notice that it goes on there in verse 14.
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in him in whom they have not heard?
And Paul's really starting to bring it home, isn't he?
He's starting to lay it right on our lap.
He's starting to show us it's our responsibility to get people saved.
He's saying, in whom they have not heard.
And how shall they hear without a preacher?
Look, you can't believe on the Lord.
You can't call upon his name without believing on him.
And you're not going to believe on him if you've never heard of him.
And you're not going to hear about him without a preacher.
Say, no, no, if people really want to hear about Jesus, they just will somehow.
Just somehow it'll just happen.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3, I'll just read to you.
Who then is Paul and who is Apollos?
By ministers by whom you believed.
He's saying, remember in 1 Corinthians, in the church they had to split.
I am of Paul and I of Apollos.
I am of Cephas. I am of Christ.
He's saying, look, who are any of us? We're just men.
Who is Paul and who is Apollos but ministers?
We're just ministers by whom he believed.
He's like, we're just the people that preach the gospel to you, that's all.
We're just doing our job.
Even as the Lord gave to every man.
Every single person that got saved had somebody that preached the gospel to them.
There's no other way around it.
That's what Paul said.
He gave every man a minister by whom he believed.
That's what he's saying in 1 Corinthians, chapter number 3.
And that's why he's reiterating it over here in Romans 10 as well.
He's saying, look, how are they going to hear without a preacher?
I mean, Saul knows this pretty well.
We just read about his conversion in Acts 22.
And he had Christ show up to him three days early.
He said, I wouldn't be saved if Ananias hadn't come here and told me to call upon the name of the Lord.
And preach me the gospel.
And I had Jesus show up.
How much more today do we need men to preach the gospel?
How much more necessary is it that people fulfill the Great Commission?
Because Jesus isn't just showing up to every other person.
That's the only time you really see it.
Look at, go to 2 Corinthians, chapter number 5, 2 Corinthians, chapter number 5.
And you say, well, why is it then, if that's just such a clear command, you know, Mark 16,
go ye into all the world.
That means everybody.
Look, soul winning is for every single person.
Every believer is commanded to win souls, to preach the gospel.
There's no way around it.
I'm not going to sugarcoat it.
And I'm not trying to give people excuses so they can go, oh, it's not my gift, or whatever.
Because Jesus said, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
That's, you know, everybody.
Not, hey, just a few of you.
Just a small handful.
Just the people who really are into it.
That's kind of their thing.
Look at 2 Corinthians, chapter number 5, verse 14.
For the love of Christ constraineth us.
Because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead.
And that he died for all.
I mean, let those words sink in.
If one died for all, then we're all dead.
Look, the unsaved out there, they're dead.
They're spiritually dead.
And Christ died for all.
Christ died for every single person that you see out there in the world.
For every single person that you see out there in traffic.
Every single person that you see out there in the grocery store.
Every single person that you see out there running your errands.
Christ died for them.
All of them.
He died for one, then he died for all.
If he died for Saul, if he died for Peter, if he died for Hugh, he died for everybody.
He's saying, look, if one died for all, then we're all dead.
Christ didn't die just for some people.
Hey, Christ didn't just die for you.
News flash.
Jesus didn't come here and die just for you.
Or just the people in this room.
He died for everybody.
You know, it's not just you that he wanted to get saved.
It's you and everybody else that he wants to get to heaven.
He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
For God, again, we read right over those words, don't we?
For God so loved the world.
He's the propitiation not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world.
So it's not just you.
Now look at verse 15.
And that he died for all.
That they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves.
Everyone will agree that Christ died for all.
It's kind of hard to deny in the face of just a mountain of scripture.
Everyone agrees with that.
Everyone will say, yeah, he died for everybody.
But then why is it that so few are actually trying to reach those people that Christ died for?
Why is it just this small church?
And why is it in a church this size that's just even a smaller group of people?
And part of the reason I'm preaching this, and I'm just going to kind of get real for a minute,
because you have to do this from time to time,
is the soul winning in this church has gone down.
It's gone down over the last five years.
Not up.
And not just in salvation.
I'm saying in people going out and preaching.
And I've talked about this with other people.
And I understand different pastors have different takes on how to try to get people motivated and things like that.
And I've tried it.
I've tried the inspiration route.
I've tried the motivation route.
And I certainly don't like to just lay guilt trips on people.
Because if they do things because they feel guilty because I'm disappointed or something,
then who are they doing it for?
They're doing it for me.
I can't.
But sometimes you just kind of got to tell it like it is.
We're coming up on our five year anniversary.
And I can count on one hand how many people in a church of 60 plus people
I would count as faithful soul winners in this church.
One hand.
And by faithful I mean people who show up week in, week out and go soul winning.
And I understand that things come up,
and people have life going on and sometimes they can't always make it.
They can't get out there for that hour or week or whatever.
But when that becomes the norm and not the exception, you have a problem.
And that becomes the vast majority of the case for a church,
that church has a problem.
They're losing sight of their first love.
They're forgetting what it is we're here to do.
We're here to serve Christ.
That's what we're here to do.
We're here to preach the gospel.
This is a gospel preaching church.
This is a soul winning church.
It's set right next to the door that you walk through.
And that's why I'm emphasizing it.
Because we need to get back to this.
And we need to get out there knocking doors and winning souls.
Why don't people do it?
Verse 15.
They which live should not henceforth live unto themselves.
I'll tell you why people don't go soul winning.
Because they are more busy and more concerned with the things that they have going on in their own lives.
They can't be bothered.
They can't be inconvenienced.
They can't get their priorities right.
They're not interested.
They don't want to do it.
It's selfishness.
I mean I don't know what else to call it.
It's just being selfish.
And look, I know it's hard to go out there and knock doors.
Especially in triple digit heat.
Especially when there's not a lot of people wanting to hear the gospel.
This isn't, I'll be perfectly honest, Tucson is not the most receptive town I've ever knocked doors in.
But you know, I've knocked doors in a lot less receptive areas.
Anyone who went to Huachuca knows what I'm talking about.
This is no Huachuca.
This is White Mountain Apache compared to Huachuca.
White Mountain Apache reservation is one of the most receptive areas you could ever go preaching in the entire world.
And I've said it before, if your love for souls is waning, if you are having a hard time going soul winning,
why don't you take a day trip and go up to the White Mountain Apache and knock doors up there and get people saved.
It'll happen.
And on the way there, you'll go through the Salt River Canyon and go jump on the river.
I mean that in the best way possible.
Go jump in the river, right?
Go down to the bottom of Salt River Canyon, it's a beautiful drive.
Go take a dip in the Salt River and then go up to White Mountain Apache.
And this is just a suggestion.
I mean, I'm just trying to get people back on board with soul winning.
If that's what, you're just like, well, I go and no one gets saved.
It's like, well, if you really want to go and get people saved, that's a great place to do it.
Look, you'll get people saved in Tucson, you're just going to have to go more consistently.
You can't just go every once in a blue moon and expect it to happen.
I mean, I got, I've been soul winning consistently down here.
I got my first person saved in Tucson yesterday for the year.
For the year, not forever.
Not in five years.
It's not that bad.
I'm saying this year.
Yesterday.
And it was just like, you know, brother Tom and the guys were there with me, right?
And it was just like I had preached earlier.
You know, I preached a couple services ago.
If we go consistently, God will just put people in our path.
And I'll tell you what, that guy was put in our path.
Really, Tom will tell you.
He was telling me afterwards, he sat down and talked to the guy after we continued on,
and he just had a conversation with him.
And he said, yeah, the guy saw, he said that he saw us coming and he thought about going inside,
but something told him to just stay there and listen.
You know, and this guy, it was just like low hanging fruit.
But you know what, I had to knock a whole bunch of other doors before I got to that guy.
Okay?
And we'll win him.
Unless we don't recognize verse 15.
They which live should not henceforth live unto themselves.
And if we're just going to make our lives all about us and just about us and not others,
you know what, then you're never going to experience that.
You're never going to get people saved.
And it's not even about you being able to, you know, chalk one up.
Okay?
That's not what it's about.
Think about it.
You're saving somebody out of the pit of hell.
That's really what's going on.
You're saving somebody out of hell.
You're pulling a firebrand out of the fire.
You're getting somebody, like that guy that got saved yesterday,
if we hadn't gone there, I mean, there's a very good chance he would have just ended up going to hell.
I mean, think about that.
I mean, isn't, is hell real to us?
Is it a real place?
Do we think about it?
I'm not very motivated to go solo any more.
Why don't you just go read about hell for a while?
Why don't you download some sermons on hell?
Why don't you sit there and dwell upon hell, the reality of it,
and that there's people dying in this city every day
that are going to end up going there,
that we could pull out of that fire
if we wouldn't just be so selfish and just so self-obsessed
and not live unto ourselves as much.
We should not live unto ourselves but unto them which died,
unto him which died for them and rose again.
So don't do it for me.
Don't do it because of this sermon.
Do it because of him who died for you.
Do it for Christ,
because he commanded you to do it.
You know, we're indebted to Jesus to do his will.
People treat the Christian life as if it's an option that's on the table.
Like, you get saved and it's just like,
well, and if you feel like serving God, you know,
God would sure would appreciate it.
No, you're indebted to do the will of God.
I believe this is still in 2 Corinthians 5, we're still there, verse 16.
Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh,
yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh,
yet now henceforth we know him no more.
Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature.
Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new.
All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself.
By Jesus Christ, and hath given unto us the ministry of reconciliation.
What's he saying there?
You know, we've been reconciled unto God by Jesus Christ.
I mean, it's a great thing you're saved,
it's a great thing you're reconciled,
it's a great thing that you've got salvation, isn't it?
But we're indebted to do his will.
Yeah, he's reconciled unto us,
and hath given unto us the ministry of reconciliation.
Boy, some of us would just like to cut that last part off,
and just say, well, I'm reconciled, that's good enough.
That's all I care about.
But the Bible says, he's given unto us the ministry of reconciliation.
Meaning this, if we don't take up that ministry of reconciling sinners to God,
to a holy God, they're not going to be reconciled.
Jesus isn't going to come down here and do it.
Look, Jesus came down and preached us all.
It said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest.
And he still needed a man to come to him and preach in the gospel,
and tell him, hey, call upon the name of the Lord.
How much more so today.
He's given unto us the ministry of reconciliation.
Now, you know, we can sit there and say, oh, this ministry, what a burden.
What a burden to have to go out there and preach the gospel,
and I get that it's work.
That's why it's called the work of the ministry,
that's why it's called the work of an evangelist.
He said, oh, it's just so heavy.
That's one way to look at it.
To me, it's an amazing opportunity.
Think of how unique you are.
Think about a unique opportunity that you have
that the rest of the world doesn't even, it's not even open to them.
The unsaved can't do what we do.
They can't reconcile people to God.
That's been given unto us.
You know, people have all kinds of different problems out there,
and they're trying all these different things,
all these man-made solutions that are out there,
and I'm sure they're getting some relief,
but there's no self-help book out there,
there's no podcast, there's no guru out there
that's going to be able to pull them out of the pit of hell
and reconcile them to God.
No one else can do it, except me and you.
You know, and in this town, I don't know how,
I mean, there's other Baptist churches out there,
I don't know how much of actual door-to-door soul winning they're doing.
So far, I know of none.
I mean, I know there's Baptist churches that believe right,
that have a King James Bible.
And they're big.
They're even big churches.
And I hope they're doing the actual work
of going out and preaching the gospel,
but you know what?
Even among people who have that unique ability
to reconcile people to God,
there's even a smaller segment of people that actually do it.
In a town with, you know, half a dozen Baptist churches,
maybe there's one, maybe two
that are actually doing the work of the Great Commission.
Well, that's why it's jokingly called the Great Omission,
because it's what most Christians leave out of the Christian life.
It's what most churches, you know, set by the wayside.
It's what most churches replace with a bunch of activities
and other stupid things,
rather than preaching the gospel.
Say, well, we're not gonna go actually preach the gospel, people.
We're just gonna do X, Y, and Z.
It's like, fine, you wanna do those other things,
go ahead, but don't leave off preaching the gospel.
You got other things going on in your life,
you got other things, other hobbies, other things you wanna do?
Fine. Let's say you gotta be down here 24-7.
But don't leave off preaching the gospel in your life.
It's for everybody.
And if you'll be consistent at it,
if you'll get good at it,
if you go and do it,
you're gonna save people from hell.
You say, how do you motivate people to go soul winning?
I don't know.
That's the best way I know how.
Hey, if you'll go, people won't go to hell.
How about that?
There's people that are gonna go to hell
that won't if you'll go soul winning.
I mean, I don't know what else to say.
If that doesn't get people motivated,
doesn't get people wanting to serve God,
you know, I give up.
I'll just move on to some other preaching.
He's committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Look at verse 20.
Now then we are ambassadors of Christ.
I love Paul's take on it.
I mean, Paul was told, hey,
you're gonna go and witness before kings,
you're gonna take the ministry into,
you're gonna take the gospel into the Gentiles,
you're gonna go, oh, oh, I guess if I have to,
I guess if I have to, I'll do it.
He said, no, we're an ambassador.
Wouldn't you like to, I mean,
that's kind of a cool job, right?
That's got some prestige about it.
You know, you could kind of say,
well, I'm an ambassador.
That's kind of a cool title, right?
A dignitary of some sort,
you know, some kind of an emissary.
Not everybody gets to do that.
I'm sure if, you know, one of us
is gonna go and try to be an ambassador
of the United States, you know,
they're not just gonna look over your,
you know, few years of work history
on your resume and say you're hired.
They're gonna see how you stack up to the job.
They're gonna say you're either qualified or you're not.
And that's probably a job
I doubt any of us in this room can get, right?
Not that any of us would want it.
Go be an ambassador of the United States.
Promote what?
A bunch of faggotry.
That's what we'd be out there promoting.
It's a joke.
But you know what?
I am an ambassador for Christ.
You say, how'd you get that job?
I got saved.
Oh, did Jesus come down and check your credentials,
look over your resume?
No, I got saved.
That's it.
I got saved and became an ambassador.
I got put on the front lines.
And it's not a volunteer army.
You've been conscripted.
Now we are ambassadors for Christ.
What a great...
I mean, that's just a great way to look at it.
Now we are just the downtrodden slaves of Jesus.
Now we're just the overburdened, overworked slaves of Christ.
No.
We're ambassadors for Christ.
And when we walk up and down these streets
and knock these doors,
whether or not those people recognize it or not,
it doesn't matter.
God ignores that that's what we are.
I'm not just out there, you know,
punching them in the clock.
I'm out there carrying the truth of the gospel.
I'm carrying the light of God's word
into a dark and dying world.
That's what I'm doing.
That's what you're doing
when you're out there soul winning.
He said, we are ambassadors for Christ
as though God did beseech you by us.
I know we know this verse.
But let it sink in.
You know, when we were preaching
and getting him saved,
God was beseeching him by us.
That's a powerful thought.
Now Brother Tom's probably sitting there thinking,
it didn't sound like God when you were talking.
Right?
Hey, we have this treasure in earthen vessels
that the glory may be of God and not of ourselves.
You know,
I might have stuttered and stammered.
I might not have been the most eloquent.
I might not have said everything just right.
But all the same, God besought that young man
through me and he got saved.
Now we pray you in Christ's head,
be ye reconciled to God.
You know, you learn how to go soul winning
by going soul winning.
Go to 1 Corinthians 2.
We'll close there.
Because some people have that excuse,
well, I would go, but I just don't know how to do it.
Okay, well, you know, we've got multiple sermons
up on soul winning.
I mean, I'm giving sermons on it.
Verity's got a great seminar
up on their website.
I mean, there's resources to teach you
how to go soul winning.
YouTube, soul winning demos.
I mean, there's just, not to mention,
there's scheduled times where there's
seasoned soul winners that go out every week.
And there's another guy that'll go
any time of the week that works for you.
That's how you're going to learn.
Here's the great thing about soul winning.
You don't have to be some eloquent,
silver-tongued orator
in order to get people saved.
It wasn't the wisdom of my words yesterday
that got a guy saved.
No one's ever gotten any saved
just because of how well-spoken they were.
The Bible says, Paul said in Romans 1,
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
why?
For it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth, the Jew first
and also the Greek.
The gospel is the power of God unto salvation.
What do you gotta preach when you're out there?
The gospel, that's it.
Yeah, but I don't know how to explain
to a Mormon, you don't have to.
Yeah, but what if I run into a Jehovah Witness
and I gotta, you don't have to.
All you gotta do is preach the gospel
and if they don't want to hear it, move along.
That's it.
That's the only thing you have to know
how to do is preach the gospel.
You know, a dozen, two dozen verses,
you can mark your Bible and go out there
and that's not the hard part.
The hard part is people going.
The gospel's simple, the gospel's easy to preach.
Most people understand like the first point or two.
You're a sinner, there's a place called hell
that sinners go to.
Most people say, yep.
I've had one person in all the years
I've been soul winning tell me they've never sinned.
And I just said, well, you're sinning right now
because you're a liar and I left.
You know, I'm exactly how I put it,
but I mean, if anyone says that and actually believes
that they got some screws loose, right?
The cheese done fell out the sandwich.
The lights are on, no one's home, right?
Motor's running, no one's behind the wheel.
Because everyone gets that part, right?
I mean, the gospel's easy.
It's simple.
You know how many people explain,
I don't know how to thoroughly explain the deity of Christ.
Most people believe it.
I mean, that's one of the great things
about living in Tucson, an area that's been heavily influenced by Catholicism.
You know, it has its upsides and downsides, obviously.
There's two sides of that sword.
Well, you know, a lot of people understand the deed of Christ
if they're Catholic.
I don't think I've ever been a Catholic that says,
well, no, Jesus isn't God. They all get that.
It's easy. It's the power of God.
Look at 1 Corinthians 2, verse 1.
And I, brethren, when I came unto you,
came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom.
And look, Paul is somebody who could have come
with excellency of speech and of wisdom.
I mean, a very learned man in the Scriptures.
I mean, an intellectual.
A man who spent a lot of time in higher learning.
But he made a point of saying,
look, when I came to you, I didn't come to impress you with the way I spoke.
He said, I came unto you declaring unto you this testimony of God.
So that's what I preached.
For I determined not to know anything among you,
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling.
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words
of man's wisdom, but a demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
We don't have to be in these great orators.
We don't have to come with excellency of speech.
We don't have to come with a bunch of wisdom.
We don't have to come with a bunch of man's wisdom.
All we have to do is preach the gospel.
That's one of the best things about getting somebody saved.
Not only did you get somebody out of hell,
but you walk away saying, wow, that was a demonstration of God's Spirit.
That was a demonstration of God's power.
When somebody gets saved, it's because God is working in their heart.
I mean, people would love to just see God work and move, wouldn't they?
They would love to see God do some miracles.
You know what? There's miracles that can be done every week on the streets here in Tucson through salvation.
Yesterday was just one example.
It can happen every week, and it does.
That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
What have we seen this morning about salvation?
We looked at the doctrinal nuts and bolts.
Salvation, you don't get saved through baptism.
You get saved through calling upon the name of the Lord.
But what's the real applicable part of that story?
The fact that somebody had to come and preach to him.
Ananias was a necessary part of that equation.
Even in light of the fact that Jesus showed up and spoke to him,
Ananias still had to come and preach to him.
Look, there's people out there,
look, what did he say in Acts 9?
It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
We looked at that Thursday night how God was already working and moving in Saul's life.
Look, I'm telling you, God is working and moving in people's lives out there,
trying to get people to a place where they would hear and receive the gospel.
There's people out there that are kicking against the pricks in their own lives,
that God is working and prodding and trying to move them in the right direction in order to get them saved,
because God wants everyone to get saved.
The soul winning isn't down because of a lack of sinners.
It's not down because there's a lack of unsaved people surrounding us on every hand.
The problem is, there's not enough Ananiases to really just go.
Ananias was a little hesitant, wasn't he?
He's heard how this man is destroying the faith and hauling men and women off to prison,
and God's like, go anyway.
I'm not asking you to go preach to somebody who's trying to haul you off to prison.
We're trying to go reach people who, in many cases, would be open to hearing the gospel who want to get saved.
They're out there.
The question is, will we go?
Hopefully that's an encouragement to you to go soul winning.
Just make sure you're doing it for the right reasons.
Make sure you're doing it because we're commanded to do it.
Make sure you're doing it because you have a love for the lost,
and you want to see souls saved.
You want to partake in that great ministry of reconciliation.
Be an ambassador for Christ.
Let's go ahead and have a word of prayer.
Let's pray.