All right, in chapter 22, verse number 1, we basically pick up with the speech. We saw
last week in chapter 21 where Paul is assaulted by this mob of angry Jews and he gets pulled
out of there just in time and he asks permission from the chief captain to speak unto the people.
He's surprised that he even knew how to speak Greek. And he begins to speak to the people
in the Hebrew language. They have to listen a little more carefully because that's not
their everyday language of discourse. It says in chapter 22, verse number 1, men, brethren
and fathers, hear ye my defense which I make now unto you. And when they heard that he
spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept to more silence. And he said, I am verily
a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at
the feet of Gamaliel and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers
and was zealous toward God as ye all are this day. Now, remember Gamaliel, we've already
seen him in the Bible in the book of John. Gamaliel was the one who stood up and tried
to kind of defend Jesus, but not really. He basically just got up and said, well, Jesus
might be a false teacher. Maybe he's telling the truth. Let's just wait and see. Let's
not act rashly. He was kind of a politician that was trying to have both ways. And it
says that he was a Pharisee also in the Bible. And it also says that he was very well respected
and well thought of of the people. And all the Pharisees had great respect for him. That
tells me that he wasn't preaching right or he wasn't believing right. If all the Pharisees
love him and think he's wonderful and he's so popular, just like the people today, they're
popular. Pretty much anybody who's popular is not right with God according to the Bible
because the Bible says that the world loves its own. Jesus said you're not of the world
even as I'm not of the world. He says they hated me and they'll hate you. They called
the master of the house Beelzebub. How much more shall they call them of his household?
And he said marvel not my brother and if the world hates you. And so Gamaliel was a man
who's not saved. An unsaved man preaching a false religion, teaching the religion of
the Pharisees. That's how Paul was brought up. He said he was zealous and he tells them,
he says you're zealous for the law today. But wait a minute, he said in Romans 10, brethren
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear the
record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant
of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not
submitted themselves under the righteousness of God. So wait a minute, being zealous does
not make you saved. Just because Gamaliel was very zealous and very strict about his
religion and just because Paul was very zealous and just because the Jews are so zealous and
passionate about what they believe, it didn't make them saved. And he said in Romans 10,
they're not saved. I wish they would get saved. They're trying to establish their own righteousness
instead of just believing on Jesus Christ because he said in the next verse, for Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And so we need to
just believe on Jesus Christ to be saved. I did that when I was six years old and I've
been saved ever since and I'll be saved forever because I have eternal life. But the Bible
says here that he was zealous toward God as ye all are this day, look at verse four, and
I persecuted this way, talking about Christianity, unto the death, binding and delivering into
prisons both men and women. This is the same thing he talked about in Philippians chapter
three when he said, if any other man thinketh that he might have, wherever he might trust
in the flesh, I am more. This is what Paul said in Philippians three. Circumcised the
eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin, of the stock of Israel, a Hebrew of the Hebrews,
as touching the law a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church. Touching the
righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, those I counted
loss for Christ. And I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and to count them
but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which
is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is
of God by faith. So Paul here isn't bragging, because later on in Philippians, or before
that, he's basically saying, I'm sorry, later on, in Philippians he's going to say that
was all dung. I count it dung. It was lost, it was worthless, all the accolades that I
had in the Jews' religion. But the reason that he's bringing this up is not to brag
about it, but just to tell them, look, I know where you're coming from, because I was brought
up in the false religion that you're wrapped up in right now. That's what he's basically
saying. It's kind of like if my wife were giving the Gospel unto a Catholic, she might
bring up the fact, hey, I was raised Catholic, and explain to them how she came out of that
and how she believed on the Lord Jesus Christ when she heard the Gospel. That's what he's
doing here. He's explaining to them, look, I used to believe like you believe. And he
says in verse number 4 that he even persecuted people unto death to where they were getting
thrown into prison, men and women. He says in verse 5, as also the high priest doth bear
me witness, and all the estate of the elders, from whom also I received letters unto the
brethren, and went to Damascus to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem, for
to be punished. He's saying, you can pass the high priest, because he worked with me
on this, persecuted Christians. And it came to pass that as I made my journey, and was
come nigh unto Damascus about noon, he's saying I was near unto Damascus about noon, suddenly
there shone from heaven a great light round about me. And I fell unto the ground, and
heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? So who's talking
in that voice? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And they that were with me saw indeed the
light, and were afraid, but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me. And I said,
What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus, and
there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed unto you. Now keep your
finger here, and go back to Acts 9. Keep your finger in Acts 22 there, and go back to Acts
9. There are people out there, atheists and so forth, who are always trying to say that
the Bible is filled with contradictions. And they claim that the Bible has all these contradictions,
and this is one of the contradictions that I've had them bring up unto me. And it's really
not a contradiction at all, but there are no contradictions in the Bible. So therefore
they have to really grasp at straws to find something that they can make seem like a contradiction.
And so this is one that they bring up. In Acts chapter 9, this is the part where Paul
is having the experience that he's later describing in Acts chapter 22. It says in verse number
3, And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him
a light from heaven. Sounds exactly like what he said in chapter 22, right? And he
fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? Still very consistent. And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus,
whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the bricks. And he trembling
and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him,
Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. Now this is
the part that they claim is a contradiction. Look at verse 7. And the men which journeyed
with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, get this, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.
So what does it say? They heard a voice, and they saw no man. Right? Go over to Acts 22
now. And look at what Paul says in Acts chapter 22. It says in verse 9, And they that were
with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid. Now, first of all, wait a minute. It says
in Acts 9, 8, that they saw no man. Does it say that they did not see a light? No. So
they did see a light. It just says they didn't see a man. They didn't see Jesus. Okay. They
just saw a light. In Acts 22, it says they saw no man. So that's not inconsistent whatsoever.
But look at Acts 22, verse number 9 again. It says they saw indeed the light and were
afraid, but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me. So in Acts 22, it says they
heard not the voice of him that spake to me. Who was the one speaking to him? Jesus. Did
they hear the voice of Jesus? No. Go back to Acts chapter 9, verse 8, it says, or verse
7, it says, the man which journeyed with him stood to be just hearing what? A voice. Is
that the voice of Jesus that they heard? No. Or, so it could have just been a different
voice, because just as they heard a voice, okay, or what he might have meant was the
fact that they didn't hear what was being said. They just heard a voice, but they can't
tell whose voice it is or what exactly is being said. And so people are just grasping
at straws there. It's just two different explanations of the same thing. Bottom line
is, they saw a light, they were afraid, they didn't see a man, they heard a voice, but
they did not hear the instructions that were given to Paul. That's the bottom line. I mean,
that's what he's basically expressing here. So in Acts chapter 22, let's pick up the story.
It says in verse 10, you know, what shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise
and go into Damascus, and there it shall be told of all things which are appointed for
thee to do. You say, wait a minute, why didn't God just tell him what to do? Because he says,
God, you know, what am I supposed to do? Both accounts, Acts 9, Acts 22, the same thing.
He says, you need to go into Damascus, and that's where you're going to be told what
to do. Why is that? Well, keep reading and you'll see why. It says in verse 11, 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. He's just throwing that in because
he's telling this to these angry mob of Jews right now. He's trying to make this guy sound
like a really good Jew. He says, he came unto me and stood and said unto me, verse 13, Brother
Saul received thy sight in the same hour I looked up upon him. And he said, the God of
our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that just one. Talking
about who? Jesus Christ. And shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. So he saw and heard
Jesus. The men that were with him did not see and hear Jesus Christ. And it says, shouldest
hear the voice of his mouth, for thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast
seen and heard. And now, why tarry his stuff? Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins,
calling on the name of the Lord. Now let me ask something. Was he getting saved there
if he's calling on the name of the Lord and washing away his sins? That's salvation. The
Bible says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Let me
ask something. Did he get saved three days earlier on the roads of Damascus when he saw
the light? No. Because three days later, he's told to call upon the Lord and wash away his
sins. Now, this is why this is significant, because in Acts chapter 8, we saw the Ethiopian
eunuch driving down the road, and he's reading his Bible, he's reading the book of Isaiah,
and all of a sudden, the Spirit of God leads Philip to go to that man. He was already busy
in Samaria, but God tells Philip, go to the desert to Geza. So he's walking through a
desert at God's command. Philip probably doesn't know why God's telling him to walk on this
desert, but then he sees a chariot coming, and he crosses paths with that chariot. He
comes up to the eunuch and says, understandest thou what thou readest? And the eunuch said,
how can I, except some man, should guide me? Now, this is what I'm tired of hearing.
I'm tired of this doctrine that says, well, if God really wants somebody to get saved,
he'll get them saved, and he'll find a way to get them saved. It's this Calvinist doctrine
that says, let's all sit around and do nothing, and God's going to make sure everybody gets
the gospel. No. God uses people. He uses man to preach the gospel. The Bible says he has
given us the ministry of reconciliation. Therefore, we beseech you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled
to God. The Bible said that Jesus said, as long as I'm in the world, I'm the light of
the world. But then he said, you are the light of the world. Ye are the salt of the earth.
Let your light so shine, therefore, that they may see your good works and glorify your politics
in heaven. It is our job to preach the gospel to every creature, and God is not going to
do it for us. He won't do it. Every single person in the Bible who got saved, got saved
because God used some human instrument to preach the gospel to them. The only time you
could even say that God did it himself was when he was in bodily form, because he was
man. He was God and man in one there, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ got people saved. And
don't get mad at me for saying got people saved, because I'll just use the Bible's term.
He saved them. And we go out and save people too, by the way. Because the Bible says, I've
become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Romans 11 14, if by
any means I might provoke to emulation them that are of my flesh and might save some of
them. What was the one, 1 Peter, no, 1 Corinthians chapter 7, or how knowest thou, O husband,
whether thou shalt save thy wife? Jude 22, of some that have compassion making a difference,
others save with fear. That's a command. Save them with fear. Pulling them out of the fire.
Hating even the garment. Spotted by the bush. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ is the Savior.
He died on the cross. He paid it all. He said, beside me there is no Savior. But let
me tell you something. He doesn't do it himself. He uses us to preach the gospel. He used a
man to give the gospel to the eunuch. He could have just come and given it to him himself.
No, he sent a man. When it came to Acts chapter 9, he used a man named Ananias to win all
the Christ. When he gets to Acts chapter 10, he used a man named Peter to give Cornelius
a Savior. He appeared under Cornelius. He said, your alms are heard. Your good deeds
have been come up unto heaven. He could have just given him the gospel right there. But
he said, no, send for a man named Simon Peter. He will tell you how to be saved. And then
Simon Peter came and preached the gospel. Look, this is consistent all the way through. Every
time God uses man to preach his word. It takes both elements. And people say, well, you don't
save anybody. God doesn't save. Well, what do you do with Jude 23? What do you do with
Romans 11 and 14? What do you do with 1 Corinthians 9? When the Bible says that we are saving
people. Because if we point them to the Savior, that's our job. That's our part in the matter.
And so the Bible is really clear on that. I don't apologize for that at all. And I'm
tired of this saying that basically takes the burden off us, takes the responsibility
off us, that says, well, if there's anybody in Phoenix that really wants to get saved,
God's going to make sure that gospel gets to them. You know what? Doesn't the Bible
say there's none that seeketh after God? Maybe there are a lot of people who are not seeking
after God. But if we go bring them the gospel, faith will come by hearing. Hearing will come
by the word of God that we preach. And they will call upon the name of the Lord and be
saved. And so this is an important truth in Acts 22 to not mix up the fact that Paul did
not get saved on the road to Damascus. Because the problem with that is if he got saved on
the road to Damascus, that would mean basically that Jesus, after he'd already been glorified,
you know, is just coming down and getting somebody saved. That's not what happened.
He appeared unto him, told him to stop persecuting him, and said, don't listen to what Ananias
has to say. And Ananias gave him the gospel. That's what really happened here. And that's
an important point. Now let's look at something else here. It says in verse 13, came unto
me and stood and said unto me, Brother Saul received thy sight. You say, well, why is
he calling him brother? Because of the physical relationship of being children of Israel,
read the next verse. Get the context. Verse 14, he said the God of what? Our fathers.
See, he's referring to the familial ties that they have as both being children of Israel.
That's why he refers to our fathers right there. Now, he says in verse 16, and now why
terrace thou? Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the
Lord. Now some people will take this verse and try to teach that baptism washes away
your sins and that baptism saves. Well, look at it carefully. It says, and now why terrace
thou? Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins. Does it say and call on the name
of the Lord? No. It says wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. That's how
you're washing away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord. You can't separate,
and just a little bit of grammar here will make this clear to you. The calling on the
name of the Lord is a restatement of the wash away thy sins. That's why there's no and.
It's just a comma there. It'd be kind of like if I said Stephen L. Anderson, our pastor,
is here tonight. That right there is just a restatement of who Stephen L. Anderson is,
our pastor, is here tonight. That's what this is. He's saying wash away thy sins, calling
upon the name of the Lord. That's how you're going to wash away your sins because all throughout
the Bible, think about this now, all the way back to Genesis 4, the Bible says that Enos
was born unto Seth, then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. All the way in
Genesis chapter 4. In Genesis 12, Abraham called upon the name of the Lord. We see Isaac
call upon the name of the Lord. We see Jacob call upon the name of the Lord. We see David
calling upon the name of the Lord. We see all these people throughout the Old Testament
calling upon the name of the Lord to be saved. I preached a whole sermon on that. I preached
an hour and a half sermon about calling upon the name of the Lord for salvation. In the
New Testament, he said that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and
shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation. For the Scriptures say, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be saved, for there
is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all
that call upon him, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
How then shall they call on him whom they have not believed? Now shall they believe
in him whom they have not heard, and now shall they hear without a preacher. That's what
I was just talking about. They can't hear without a preacher. How shall they preach
except they be sent? So wait a minute, where's baptism in that passage? I just quoted from
Romans 10. It said the heart believes, the mouth confesses, call upon the name of the
Lord. It's all faith. It's that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have
everlasting life. The thief on the cross didn't get baptized. Baptism doesn't save. Baptism
does not wash away your sins. Our sins are washed away by the blood of Christ, not by
water. The Bible says that who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own
blood and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. You see, baptism is a picture of salvation, but baptism is not
salvation. Baptism pictures salvation. You know, it pictures, of course, the death, burial
and resurrection of Christ. It also pictures the fact that your spirit, which was dead,
the moment that you believe on Jesus Christ, is quickened and made a new creature. That's
pictured in salvation. Now, there are a lot of things in the Bible that picture salvation.
Let me give you some examples. One of them was Noah's ark. Noah's ark pictured salvation.
That's why it only had one door. Jesus said, on the door, if any man enter in by me, he
shall be saved. It only had one door. And once Noah and his family got on the ark, that
door was slammed shut behind him. God shut him in, which is a picture of the fact that
once you're in Christ, once you're saved, you can't get us saved. Once you're in, he
seals you in. The Bible says he's given us the earnest of the spirit in our hearts. He's
sealed us and given us the earnest of the spirit in our hearts. So that's a picture
of salvation. But let me ask you something. Was the ark spiritual salvation? No. It was
a picture of spiritual salvation. But wait a minute. Noah was saved long before he got
on that ark. See what I mean? Getting on the ark didn't save him. Getting on the ark was
a picture. And I'll tell you right now, I don't have time to go into it. I've done sermons
because 1 Peter 3 and 4 makes it clear that there were people who died in the flood who
were saved. You know, people try to say, well, Noah preached for 120 years and nobody got
saved. That's pretty bogus. I mean, what kind of a preacher was he? You know what I mean?
Preached for 120 years, nobody got saved. No, people got saved. And who got him saved?
I mean, you can even look at these genealogies and see where some of his, at least one of
his ancestors died, probably drowned because his life, if you count it up, his life ends
right where the flood happens. Either he just coincidentally died that year or he might
have just not got on the ark. And the Bible says that many of them were judged according
to the flesh for their sins in this life, but that they were saved in the spirit. Not
everyone who drowned in the flood went to hell. I don't believe that because salvation
was not getting on that ark. That ark was a picture of salvation. No, it was physical
salvation. If you don't get on that ark, you're going to drown. But let me prove it to you
further in case you say, well, I don't know about that, that's very interesting. I think
there were only 8 people saved in the whole world back then. Well, I don't believe that.
I believe that there were only 8 people who got on the ark, who followed Noah. But wait
a minute, was everybody on the ark even saved? Now, I used to wonder about this when I was
a kid. Because I used to wonder, if everybody on the ark is saved, as soon as they get off
the ark, why are they building a tower of Babel and doing all these wicked things? And
they're all saved. And I just thought, well, you know, I guess they're just saved but they're
just back splitting or they're just doing wrong or whatever. But it just kind of made
it kind of look bad for Noah, you know. Everybody's saved and they're just corrupting themselves.
But wait a minute, I don't believe that they were saved. Because when they get off the
ark, Ham, if you remember, in Genesis 9, basically exposed her to the fact that he's a sodomite.
And look, I'm here to tell you that sodomy and homosexuality is not normal. It's not something
that normal people struggle with. The Bible says, there is no temptation taken you but
such as is common to man. And that is not common to man. Now, lusting after the opposite
of gender, that is a common temptation among men that we all need to be aware of. Stealing
is a common temptation. All the other, you know, we today, as men today, we don't have
to really try hard not to like guys. Because it's not something that we struggle with.
Because we're not attracted to men. Because we're normal. Okay? Something has to happen
in order for a man to lust after another man because it's deviant and twisted and bizarre.
And the Bible explains in Romans 1 exactly how men lust after other men. Because it says
they didn't want to retain God in their knowledge, they rejected Him, and He turned them over
to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. And don't tell me they're
born that way. Bologna. I remember when I was a kid is when they came out with that.
They came out with this thing. They said it was the gay gene. And by the way, I refuse
to call them gay because gay is a Bible word found in James 2 meaning happy or lively or
joyful. Okay? They said the gay gene. And there was this kid in our school that was
effeminate and we said, well, he's not gay but he's got the gay gene because he's so
feminine and girly. But you know what? We were just joking because it is a joke. It's
nonsense, this gay gene. And here's how they proved the gay gene. Well, we studied their
brain waves and their brain waves are different. Yeah, I'll say their brain waves are different.
That doesn't mean they were born that way. They were born a beautiful baby boy, a beautiful
baby girl that God created that could have grown up and been a normal person, that could
have grown up and got saved and believed in Christ. But they chose to go down that route
of depravity and wickedness and sin. They chose to do that. And so no, they were not
born that way. And so Ham was not saved. Ham was cursed by God for being a sodomite. Okay?
So what I'm saying is that things that, I'm kind of off on a tangent there. It doesn't
have anything to do with my sermon. But you know, things that picture salvation are not
salvation. Here's another thing that pictures salvation, the Passover. The Bible says Jesus
Christ is our Passover. Even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, 1 Corinthians 5. Sacrificing
the lamb and applying the blood to the doorpost pictured salvation. But was applying the blood
to the doorpost salvation? No. Because I guarantee you that there were people who put the blood
on the doorpost just to avoid the physical punishment that was coming with that death
angel. That doesn't mean that they were really saved. It didn't really mean that they believed
on the Lord and called upon him. Okay? And I guarantee you that there were others that
were saved and did not offer every sacrifice they were supposed to offer all the time.
Or maybe they didn't even live in Jerusalem or they didn't even make it out to Jerusalem
even though they were supposed to. So there are all kinds of pictures in the Bible of
salvation. Baptism is one of them. But baptism does not and cannot save you. And I always
say to people who teach that you have to be baptized to be saved. I always say, well how
did people get saved for the first 4300 years? For 4300 years there was no baptism. I mean
all throughout the Old Testament, how did they get saved? Well they got saved by calling
upon the name of the Lord. The same way that we get saved. They called upon a different
name because Abraham called upon the name of God Almighty. He didn't even know the name
of Jehovah. He called upon God Almighty. David later called the name of Jehovah. We call
upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament. But we're still not saved
by all works. We're still not saved by living a good life because none of us lives a good
life. Jesus said there's none that do with good but one and that's God. Okay so none
of us is good enough to go to heaven and nobody in the Old Testament was good enough to go
to heaven. It's always been by grace or else nobody would have ever made it into heaven
without the grace of God. And so we see here that baptism does not wash away the sins.
Calling upon the name of the Lord does wash away the sins. Baptism follows. Now here he
did both right then and there and that's the best way to do it by the way. Get saved and
get instantly baptized. You can't beat that. That's what happened with the Ethiopian eunuch
as well. That's what happened with Cornelius as well. So I always encourage people to get
baptized as soon as possible after being saved. You know after they finish a six week class.
No, no class. Just get baptized. That's what the Bible says. No catechism classes. But
the Bible says here in verse number 17. And it came to pass that when I was come again
to Jerusalem even while I prayed in the temple I was in a trance and saw him saying unto
me, make haste. So who did he see saying unto him? Jesus. Jesus, right. Exactly. It says
and saw him saying unto me, make haste and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem for they
will not receive thy testimony concerning me. And I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned
and beat in every synagogue then that believed on thee. And when the blood of thy martyr
Stephen was shed, I also was standing by and consenting unto his death and kept the raiment
of them that slew him. And he said unto me, depart for I will send thee far hence unto
the Gentiles. So Paul is bringing up to God in prayer about his bad reputation for what
he had done in the past and how he persecuted the church and everybody knew that. And so
basically God is telling him, well it's okay because I'm going to send you far away anyway.
To far away places. Now watch this. Verse 22. Sounds, everything sounds fine but the
people who were listening to him didn't think so. The Jews flip out when he says he's going
to the Gentiles. Look at this. And they gave him audience unto this word and then lifted
up their voices and said, away with such a fellow from the earth for it does not fit
that he should live. So why do they want him to die? Because he wants to go to the Gentiles.
Now wait a minute. If you want to, I mean if you want to talk about racism, okay, I
mean if you want to talk about racism, you know who's the racist in the Bible toward
everybody else? The Jews. It's that way in Matthew, it's that way in Mark, it's that
way in Luke, it's that way in John and it's that way in Acts. It's that way in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 2. I mean there are all kinds of places in the Bible where it explains how the Jews
thought that they were better than everyone else simply by virtue of being born into that
lineage, into that family, a child of Abraham. And John the Baptist rebuked it right away
at the beginning of the New Testament. Think not to say within yourselves we have Abraham
to our father. For I say unto you that God has enabled these stones to raise up children
unto Abraham. And so we see that throughout the Bible the Jews are the ones who are basically
very racist against everybody else, thinking that they're somehow better. This still exists
today. It does. I mean even today in Tempe if we knock on a door and somebody says that
they're a Jew, they literally expect us to get on our knees or something. I'm not kidding.
I'm a Jew and you're supposed to go, oh I'm sorry. Sorry I tried to give you the gospel.
And I'm here to tell you today that the Jews are not better than anyone else. The Bible
says there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. Over and over again he said
in Christ there's neither Jew nor Gentile. There's neither bond nor free. It does not
matter. God is not a respecter of persons. Now look, I don't know how to prove this
to you any more clearly than to say that the Bible says avoid genealogies. Did you get
that? Avoid genealogies. If it mattered whether you're a Jew or not, wouldn't you need a genealogy
to show that? Two thousand years later? Three thousand years later? Think about it. Do you
think today that everybody who's living over there in that nation of Israel is really a
bona fide full-blooded descendant of Abraham? No. I mean who knows at this point? They've
been so intermingled. I mean they've been dispersed all over the world. They've been
intermingled even in Bible days they were intermingled with all kinds of heathen nations.
Then they spent all kinds of time in Europe being intermingled. And let me tell you something.
Probably almost everybody in this whole room probably has some Jewish ancestor because
we all have thousands and thousands of ancestors. And if you're from Europe, there's a pretty
good chance that one of your ancestors is a Jew. And there's a real good chance that
those people living in Israel have got a whole lot of Gentile ancestors. So what do we do?
How do we know which ones to fall on our face and worship? How do we know which ones are
the chosen ones? We'd have to have a genealogy, wouldn't we? We're going to have to get out
that paper. Now wait a minute. In the Old Testament they did have genealogies, didn't
they? And when they came back, they were only dispersed for 70 years in Babylon. Do you
remember that? And when they came back in Ezra and Nehemiah, they got out the genealogies
and they made everybody prove that they were really a Jew. And a bunch of people were claiming
to be a Jew and they're like, nope, we can't find your genealogy. But guess what? In the
New Testament, God said to avoid genealogies. That was then, this is now. And if they're
supposedly the chosen ones, and here's what's funny. Just because you name a country Israel
doesn't make it the Israel of the Bible. I mean, what if we change Arizona and just
start calling it Israel? Does that mean if anybody attacks us or criticizes us, they're
going to be cursed by God? Because we're Israel. We're all Jews. You know, it's nonsense. And
look, people don't like this, but let me just pause here. Here's the bottom line. Why were
the Jews not allowed to enter the Promised Land with Moses when they first got there?
After they came out of Egypt. One word. Give me the one word. What is it? Unbelief. The
Bible says they could not enter in because of unbelief. So why did they not enter the
Promised Land? Unbelief. Okay, 40 years later, did they believe the ones who entered? Yeah.
They believed Joshua. They followed him. They went in there. They had faith. They went in.
Okay, when were they taken captive? When they worshipped other gods. When they did not believe
on the God of the Bible, but they followed other gods. They were taken out of their land.
They were there for 70 years. Then they got right with God. And what did God do when they
got right with God? He brought them back to their land. Okay? Then they were in their
land. Then they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. And what did he do? He took them out of their
land. And for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years, they were out of that land, weren't
they? They were dispersed for over a thousand years out of that land. And then in 1948,
they all believed on Jesus Christ. And that's when he brought them back to their land because
they all believed on Christ. Now look, either God has just totally changed, which I don't
believe that God ever changes, or God's not the one who put them in that land. Because
I mean, God wouldn't take them more unbelieving than they've ever been in their history. I
mean look, face it with me folks, 99.9% of the people in that country do not believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a fact. So why would he give them the promised land when
they never let them be there before when they didn't believe? Doesn't make any sense. And
so unless you think the United Nations is God, which some people might think that, you
know, maybe somebody else, maybe it was somebody else who put them there in 1948, like the
United Nations, which is not God, which is anti-God, which is anti-Christ, which is one
world government, which is against everything the Bible teaches. And so let's get off of
that. Let's hurry up and finish the sermon here. It says here that they just flipped
out because of their supremacy in their mind where they think that they're so much better
than everybody else and they don't think that he should be given the gospel unto the
Gentiles. I mean wouldn't you think they just want the Gentiles saved? I mean do you
hate anybody so much that you just want them to go to hell just because of their skin color?
It's nonsense. But that's how these people were in this chapter and they're the ones
that are in hell by the way, the ones who were saying that in verse 22 because they
didn't believe on Christ. But look at verse 23, it says, and as they cried out and cast
off their clothes and threw dust into the air, the chief captain, this is the Roman
official here, the chief captain commanded them to be brought into the castle and made
that he should be examined by scourging that he might know wherefore they cried so against
nothing. This is a messed up interrogation here. We don't know what you did wrong so
we're going to arrest you and we're going to scourge you to figure out what you did.
Can you imagine this? I mean what if the police arrest you and say okay we're going
to beat you until you tell us what you did wrong. What am I being arrested for? That's
what you're going to tell us. All right. Boom. Boom. You say that happened to a friend
of mine. Okay well that doesn't surprise me. But anyway, the bottom line is here, this
is really bad what they're going to do. They're just going to beat him until they figure out
what he did wrong. It says in verse 25, and as they bound him with thongs, so they're
binding him up, they're ready to beat him. Paul said unto the centurion that stood by,
not to the chief captain but to the centurion, this is the guy that he was talking to earlier,
is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondempt? When the centurion
heard that, he went and told the chief captain saying take heed what thou doest for this
man is a Roman. Then the chief captain came and said unto them tell me, art thou a Roman?
They gave. Now stop and think for a second. Do you think that it's right that he has to
be a Roman? Not to get this beating for no reason? Isn't that ridiculous? So if you're
a Roman, you have rights. If you're not a Roman, you don't have any rights. Now you
say, how does God feel about that? Well, back in Leviticus, the Bible's real clear. He said
ye shall have one law for the stranger as well as for him that is born in the land.
He said that over and over again in the Bible. One law for the American born and the one
who's not born in America should be the same law. The one who's born a Roman, not born
a Roman, same laws. Now there was only an exception with that, was that the king of
the land could not have to be born an Israelite. That's what the Bible said. He said do not
have a foreigner, Obama, do not have a foreigner as your king. He said he has to be one born
in the land. Not in Kenya. If you go back to the Hebrew of Mrs. Kenya, go to the Bible
code. But anyway, the bottom line is that you shouldn't have to be a Roman to have any
kind of rights. Because guess what? The government doesn't give us our rights. And we're going
to see that in the past. Keep reading here. He said art thou a Roman? He said ye. And
the chief captain answered with a great sum, he's talking about a great sum of money, he
said I paid a lot of money, obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, but I was free born.
He said I was born free. This great way they departed from him which should have examined
him. And the chief captain also was afraid after he knew that he was a Roman and because
he had bound him. So here we see that Paul is standing up here for his rights. People
say it's wrong to stand up for your rights. You should just roll over and just take whatever
the government does to you. Well here Paul is just reminding them of the law here and
just standing up for his rights. He does it throughout the book of Acts. We saw it in
other chapters, Acts 16 for example. But just looking at this passage here, he just
brings up the fact, hey this isn't legal what you're doing to me. I'm a Roman citizen and
so forth. He said I was born free. Now wait a minute, we in America were born free. Now
you say, well I don't feel very free. But you know what, on paper though, on paper somewhere
we're free. We have freedom. I mean we're born supposedly not slaves but we supposedly
have freedom. Now where did we get that freedom from? Did we get it from our government? No.
Even if you go to the founding document of our country, the Declaration of Independence,
it says we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and are endowed
by their creator by certain inalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness. So think about it now. If they were endowed by the creator, did he
only give them to us because we were born here or because we live here? If they're endowed
by their creator, you say well the Declaration of Independence isn't the Bible. No it's not
the Bible, it's still the law of the land. It's still our founding document of our government.
It says that the rights came from the creator. So people will often say this, well I don't
want to give so and so a group of people our rights. Well you don't have to give them our
rights because guess what, they were endowed by the creator. So according to the Constitution
and according to the Declaration of Independence, everybody has rights in the whole world. No
one should be beaten uncondemned. No one should be searched without a warrant. No one
should be inflicted cruel and unusual punishments upon them. And you say well that's not
the Bible. Yeah but doesn't the Bible say the powers that be are ordained of God? So
aren't we supposed to obey the law of the land? And doesn't the law of the land, the
Constitution say cruel and unusual punishments shall not be inflicted? And doesn't it say
that we're free from unreasonable searches? Doesn't it say that we have the right to freely
exercise our religion? Doesn't it say that we have the freedom of speech? Where do those
freedoms come from? Well no the government is really nice and they let us have those.
Everything is really just a privilege that they grant us. You know riding is a privilege,
flying is a privilege, being born is a privilege, living in America is a privilege. No, God
gives us freedom. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. God gives freedom.
God gives liberty. So if you're free today, who gave you that freedom? God. So who should
you thank for it? God. God. Thank God for it. Thank God that you're born in America
and that you have some degree of freedom. You could have been born in some other place
like Communist China or something where there's a one child policy. You can't even have the
kids that you want to have. I mean you don't have any freedom at all. And so we ought to
thank God for our freedom and should we just give up our freedom? No, we should stand up.
And it would be like Esau who didn't realize the value of what he was born with so he just
sold it off and it meant nothing to him. I don't despise my birthright as an American
so therefore I'm going to stand up for my rights and freedoms as an American. And I'm
not just standing up for them for myself, I'm standing up for them for everybody. Because
I might say, well my freedoms don't matter to me, but it might matter to you. Maybe I'll
say, well I don't own a gun, I don't need that right, but maybe somebody else does who
lives in a dangerous area and has people threatening them or something. They might need to defend
themselves. By the way, I do own guns, plural. But the bottom line is I was born free, thank
God. And you ought to thank God for that too. And so I'm not the government slave and I
don't want to be turned into a government slave and so I'm going to stand up against
that. And that's biblical for me to do so. And so freedom comes from God. Jesus said
you should know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Intellectual freedom means
knowing the truth. And Jesus is the truth. And it comes from the word of truth. So those
who don't know Jesus and don't know the word of God, they're not really intellectually
free. Their mind is being controlled by the world and the lust of the world. And so we
see here that Paul, he stands up for his rights, thank God he doesn't get a beating. Too bad
so sad if you're not a Roman, you know, if you don't happen to have that, if you don't
have the money to buy that or be born that way or whatever. And so this, he says I was
born free. And he said the straightaway they departed from him which should have examined
him. And the chief captain also was afraid. After that he knew he was a Roman and because
he had found him. Here's a quote from Thomas Jefferson. He said when the people fear the
government, that's tyranny. But when the government fears the people, that's liberty,
okay. And here we see that they're afraid, whoops, we did something wrong here by binding
this guy up when he hadn't done anything wrong. And then it says on the morrow because he
would have known the certainty wherefore he was accused of the Jews, he loosed him from
his bands and commanded the chief priests and all the council to appear and brought
Paul down and set him before them. So Paul in the next chapter, chapter 23, is going
to basically stand up and answer in basically like a court of law to the Jews and everyone
there a little bit more clearly what he's being accused of. All right, let's bow our
heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much for this great chapter and your word.
And thank you for the privilege and the honor that you give us of going out and preaching
the gospel to every creature. And thank you for committing unto us that ministry of reconciliation.
But help us not to be slack in our job because if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that
are lost and we know that God of this world has blinded them. Help us not to be remiss
in our duty of preaching the gospel to every creature, dear God, and not have some cop
out that says that you're going to appear unto people and give them the gospel without
us. God, help us to do the work that you've given us to do. And Father, thank you for
the freedoms that we have in America and I pray that we continue to be free, free to
have church, free to raise our children and free to preach. Please just continue to bless
us with those freedoms and help us never to take them for granted or to relinquish
them voluntarily. And we love you and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Alright, let's sing one more song before we go.