I turn to the book of Acts, chapter 7, the 5th book in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts.
I turn to Acts, chapter 7, and today I want to preach about the Apostle Paul,
and we're going to go through a little bit about his life,
and we're going to start at the first time that the Apostle Paul's ever mentioned in the Bible.
Look at Acts, chapter 7. This is the first time that the Apostle Paul's mentioned.
Now, his name was originally Saul. Later on, his name has changed to Paul.
But in chapter 7, we have a story about Stephen, who basically preaches this great sermon.
He stands before... basically he's been arrested because he's been preaching the Gospel.
He's been teaching people about Jesus Christ.
Well, he gets arrested, and he's taken before this courtroom of the Jews,
and they basically give him a chance to speak, to give an answer for himself.
So he stands up, and he basically goes through this whole big thing
where he tells the whole history of the Old Testament,
and then he preaches to them, and look what he says at the very end.
This is in chapter 7, verse 51.
He says,
You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears.
So until this point, he's just been really nice, just explaining this Bible story.
And then he says,
You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears.
You do always resist the Holy Ghost.
As your fathers did, so do ye.
Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?
And they have slain them which showed the four of the coming of the just one,
of whom ye have now been the betrayers and murderers,
who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it.
So when they hear this, they're mad.
It says,
When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart,
and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven,
and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,
and said, Behold, I see the heavens open,
and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.
Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears,
and ran upon him with one accord,
and cast him out of the city and stoned him,
and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet,
whose name was Saul.
This is the first mention of Paul in the Bible.
And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying,
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice,
Lord, lay not to sin to their charge.
And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Look at verse 1 of chapter 8.
And Saul was consenting unto his death.
And at that time there was a great persecution against the church,
which was at Jerusalem,
and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria,
except the apostles.
And devout men carried Stephen to his burial,
and made great lamentation over him.
Watch this.
As for Saul, he made havoc of the church,
entering into every house,
and hailing men and women committed then to prison.
So flip over to chapter 9.
So the first time we see Saul,
he's basically standing by witnessing,
while Stephen, this great preacher,
is being stoned to death.
And Saul basically approves of what they're doing when they're stoned him.
And then he goes on further to begin to persecute the church that's at Jerusalem.
And he's basically having people arrested.
He's going into their house.
So this is not a good guy.
He's very religious, but he's in the wrong religion.
He's part of the Jews' false religion.
And by the way, the Jews have a false religion today.
And a lot of people today, a lot of Christians today,
think that the Jews are somehow believing in the same God that we believe in.
But I'm sorry. It's not the same God. It's not the same Bible.
And people say, well, the Jews believe the Old Testament.
It's not true.
Jesus Christ said to the Jews,
He said, how can you believe in Moses if you don't believe my words?
He said, Moses spake of me.
Moses is not the one who wrote the Bible.
It was God's word.
And Jesus Christ told them,
He said, if you would have believed in Moses, you would have also believed in me.
And the Bible says, who is a liar but he that denied that Jesus is the Christ?
He's anti-Christ that denied the Father and the Son.
He that acknowledges the Son, the same hath the Father.
But he said, he that denied the Son, hath not the Father.
You can't sit there and say, well, I just believe in God.
I believe in the God of the Old Testament, but I don't believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah.
And that's what the Jews believe.
And let me tell you something.
They're waiting for their Messiah to come, and He is coming.
It's called the anti-Christ.
One day the anti-Christ will come, and they're going to receive Him as their Savior.
And that's why the Bible says, who is a liar but he that denied that Jesus is the Christ?
He's anti-Christ.
Someday there's going to be a real anti-Christ, and the Jews will believe on Him.
I'm talking about the religion, not the people.
Now, people call you a racist where we preach against a religion,
but it's a false religion, Judaism, just like it was back then.
Well, Saul was very zealous about his religion.
I mean, he was very militant, he was very devout, but he was wrong.
And so he was persecuting Christianity, he was persecuting the true believers.
Flip over if you would, you're in chapter 9, look at verse 1.
And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord,
went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues,
that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women,
he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.
So basically, he's not even content persecuting the Christians in Jerusalem.
Now he wants to go to this other city, Damascus, round them up,
and bring them back to Jerusalem, and bring them on trial.
And it says,
And as he turned, he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined about him a light from heaven,
and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him,
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
And he said, Who art thou, Lord?
And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest.
It is hard for thee to kick against the prince.
And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.
And Saul arose from the earth, and when his eyes were open, he saw no man,
but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.
And he was three days without sight, and neither did he eat nor drink.
Now watch this.
Let me grab one of these phony Bibles that I've got here in the pulpit.
This is the NIV.
And this represents all modern Bibles, because pretty much all modern Bibles are the same.
You've got the King James Bible that's been around for 400 years,
and it's based on texts that Christians have been believing and preaching for centuries and centuries before that,
all the way back to the time of Christ.
But now we have all these new versions that are newer and better,
and people will try to say, oh, it's the same thing.
It just makes it a little easier to understand.
It just gets rid of the these and the those.
Well, let's see if it's the same.
I'm going to flip in the non-inspired version, the NIV, to Acts chapter 9.
And this is the most popular Bible in America right now.
This is what most Baptist churches are using.
This is what most people are using.
You look down at the real Bible.
You look down at the King James Bible, and you tell me if this is the same thing.
I'm going to start reading in verse number 4 of the NIV.
You're looking at the real Bible.
He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him,
Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?
Who are you, Lord? Saul asked.
I'm Jesus, whom you persecuted.
That's all the way through verse 5.
Did you notice that about two-thirds of it is missing?
I mean, look down at your Bible. Listen to it again.
It says, he fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him,
Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?
So basically, it is hard for you to kick against the pricks.
It's totally removed.
Basically, the part where he trembling and astonished said,
Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
That's totally gone.
So it leaves out literally like half the text.
Look at Acts 8.37, if you would, just while I'm here.
In Acts 8.37, the Bible says,
And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.
And the answer then said, I believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
and he commanded the chariot to stand still.
And they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch in baptizing.
In the NIV, verse 37 is completely gone.
So in the NIV, verse 36, he asks, what do I need?
What's stopping me from being baptized?
Verse 38, he just baptized.
That's great if you're a Roman Catholic and you want to baptize babies.
That's great if you believe in all these false religions
that say that baptism is what saves you,
or that you just baptize an infant, baptize a child that doesn't even know what they're doing.
No, the NIV is a corruption and a perversion of God.
It's taking out whole sentences, it's taking out whole thoughts, it's taking out whole verses.
And that's just one little part of the Bible here, chapter 8 and 9.
I could show you many places.
But basically, when Paul is on the road to Damascus,
he's going there to persecute the church even more.
Well, Jesus Christ basically appears to him in the way and says,
Saul, why persecute us thou me?
And basically, Paul falls on the ground, he's blinded by the light,
and he says, Lord, what do you want me to do?
And he says, go to Damascus, and that's where you're going to find out what you're going to do.
Well, watch what happens when he gets to Damascus.
It says in verse number 9,
And he was three days without sight, neither did he nor drink.
And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias.
And to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias.
And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.
And the Lord said to him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight,
and enter in the house of Judas for one Saul of Tarsus.
For behold, he prayed.
And at the scene in a vision, a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him,
that he might receive his sight.
Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man
how much evil he hath done to the saints of Jerusalem,
and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on my name.
But the Lord said to him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel to me
to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel,
for I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.
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, as it had been scales,
and he received sight forthwith, and arose and was baptized.
Now flip over, if you would, to chapter 22. You're in chapter 9.
I'm going to show you something in chapter 22.
This is basically where Paul is recapping the story.
He's explaining the story of what happened later on.
He gives a little bit more detail.
So basically what happened is Ananias, this preacher that's in Damascus,
God gives him this vision where he tells him.
He says, There's going to be a guy named Saul coming.
He's like, I want you to go and basically talk to him, give him the gospel,
get him saved, baptize him.
And he says, Wait a minute, this guy is bad.
I mean, this is the guy who's coming here to arrest people like me and so forth.
So God has to kind of reassure him, because he's a little bit nervous about
just going and confronting this guy, because this is the enemy.
So he goes and confronts him, and basically Saul is totally blinded by the light
still three days later.
Hasn't eaten or drunk, he's just basically freaked out by the whole thing.
And so Ananias basically takes him, preaches to him, lays his hands on him,
baptizes him, and so forth.
But we get a little more detail in chapter 22.
Look at chapter 22, verse number 5, actually verse 6.
And it came to pass that as I made my journey,
and was come nine to Damascus about noon,
suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me.
And I fell into the ground and heard a voice saying unto me,
Saul, Saul, why persecute is thou me?
And I answered, Who art thou, Lord?
And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, who thou persecute is.
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 for thee to do.
And when I could not see for the glory of the light
be led by the hand of them that were with me,
I came into Damascus.
And one Ananias, a devout man according to 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 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,
and 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 terrorize thou?
Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins,
calling on the name of the Lord.
Now, some people will try to take this verse and say,
Well, baptism is what saves you.
Well, wait a minute. If baptism is what saves you,
then how do people get saved for 4,000 years
all the way from Adam until John the Baptist?
Nobody baptized anybody.
So that doesn't make any sense.
When the Bible says in the book of Acts chapter 15
that we're saved the same way that they were saved.
We're saved by the faith of Christ, like as they were.
The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 4 that they were saved by faith.
All throughout the Bible, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Abraham believed God and it was counted for righteousness.
How did people get saved for 4,000 years?
And not only that, if baptism is what saves you and washes away your sins,
then why did Jesus get baptized?
He didn't have any sins. He didn't need to be saved.
He was the Savior.
So if baptism is what saves you, then why did Jesus get baptized?
If baptism is what saves you, then how did the thief on the cross get saved
who was hanging next to Jesus?
He was a thief his whole life.
He's crucified next to Jesus.
He looked at Jesus.
He acknowledged him as the Lord, as the Savior, as God in the flesh.
And he said, Lord, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom.
And Jesus said to him, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
How did he get saved, if you have to be baptized to be saved?
He was never baptized.
If being baptized saves you, why did Paul say in 1 Corinthians 1,
For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.
Why did he say, I thank God that I baptized none else of you,
save the house of Cephas, lest any man should say that I baptized in my own name,
if baptism is what saves you?
It's not what saves you.
Look at 1 Peter 3.
Look over to 1 Peter 3 and I'll show you why.
Look at 1 Peter 3 and look at verse 21.
You see, mankind is always looking for something that they can see,
something that they can touch, something that they can put their hands on,
instead of having faith in God's Word.
They can't believe that a person is saved because of what they believe in their heart.
And yet the Bible says,
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.
And yet the Bible says,
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
The Bible says,
He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
The Bible says,
Verily, verily, I say thee, he that heareth my word,
and believeth on him that sent me,
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation,
but is passed from death unto life.
Over and over again, the Bible says,
For by grace are you saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves is the gift of God,
not of works that any man should boast.
So salvation is just by believing.
It's just by faith.
If you believe, you're saved.
Even John 3.16, the most famous verse in the whole Bible,
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but hath ever last died.
It doesn't say whosoever is baptized,
whosoever goes to church,
whosoever lives a good life,
whosoever quits sinning.
No, it's whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but hath ever last died.
That's it.
It's faith alone for salvation.
But look at 1 Peter 3.
Here's where he explains it.
In verse 20 he said,
Which sometimes were disobedient,
when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah,
while the ark was a-preparing,
wherein few, that his eight souls, were saved by water.
The light figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us,
not the putting away of the filth of the flesh.
You see that?
But the answer of a good conscience toward God
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The Bible says we're not saved by baptism.
Baptism is a figure or a picture,
look at the last few words,
of the resurrection of Christ.
So we're really saved by the resurrection.
Now look what he said about Noah.
He says wherein few, that his eight souls, were saved by water.
Is it the water that saved them?
When they were in Noah's ark?
No, it was the boat that saved them.
You see what I mean?
And so that's the same thing as saying,
well, the water is what saves you when you get baptized.
No, you don't have to be baptized to be saved.
Baptism is a figure or a picture of the resurrection of Christ.
That's why when you get baptized, you stand up in the water,
and then basically you go down into the water,
and then you come up out of the water,
that pictures the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ,
which is what saves you.
You are saved by the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
You're not saved by dunking in water.
That is just symbolic of what really saves you.
But then people take the symbol and they say, well, that's salvation.
Yep, just be baptized and you'll be saved.
Or you must be baptized.
No, baptism pictures salvation.
The ark was not salvation.
The ark pictured salvation.
The water pictured God's judgment.
Yes, it was literal water and a literal boat,
but not everybody on the boat was even saved.
Ham was an unsaved man on that boat,
and there were many people who were not on the ark,
according to chapter 4 of 1 Peter, that were saved,
but they didn't get on the ark.
And so the point that I'm trying to make is that
baptism is just a picture of salvation.
It's not salvation.
It doesn't wash away your sins.
Bathing in water can't wash away your sins,
but it's a picture of the resurrection which does save you from your sins.
So it's symbolic, just like this ring on my finger.
What does this ring mean?
That I'm married.
If I were to take it off, am I still married?
I'm not married anymore.
And then I put this on him and suddenly he's married my wife?
It's only symbolic.
Now is it to show me that I'm married or to show other people that I'm married?
Other people. I don't need a reminder that I'm married.
I'm not going to forget that.
Oh man, what am I doing? I'm married. I've got to go home to my family.
Every time I see my ring.
No, it's a symbol. It's a picture, right?
To show other people, hey, I'm married.
I didn't even have this for the first couple of weeks I was married.
I didn't have this. I got this a couple of weeks later.
But I was still just as married during those two weeks.
And so it's symbolic. Well, baptism is the same thing.
Just as right after you get married, boom, you put on the ring as an outward manifestation,
that's the same thing with baptism.
Now go back to Acts chapter 22.
See, he said that baptism was not the putting away of the filth of the flesh,
but the answer of a good conscience toward God.
See, once you're saved, that's the only way you can have a good conscience toward God.
All your sins are pardoned and forgiven.
You have that clean slate.
The answer to that, the next thing that comes, is baptism.
That's why he says in Acts chapter 22,
look at verse 15.
Hey, verse 16.
And now my terriers thou, arise and be baptized,
and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.
So his sins are going to be washed away when he calls on the name of the Lord,
and he's going to be baptized.
Now, Paul happened to get baptized and saved at the same time.
But that doesn't mean it was the baptism that saved him.
It was the calling on God, because the Bible says,
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
So you believe on Christ, therefore you call upon him.
His baptism took place at the same time.
I got saved when I was six years old.
I didn't get baptized until I was nine.
But I was still saved.
His baptism has absolutely nothing to do with salvation.
It's just a picture.
It's a figure, the Bible says, the life figure of baptism.
And so that's what I want you to see.
You say, well, why is this so important?
Well, turn to 1 Timothy chapter 1, where we started reading this morning.
Look over to 1 Timothy 1.
You say, why is it so important to look at Acts 22 and see that?
Because a lot of people believe that Paul got saved on that road to Damascus.
But he did not get saved on the road to Damascus.
He got saved when Ananias preached him the Word.
That's when he called upon God and got saved,
and that's when he got baptized right after.
And the reason that that's so important is because,
look what it says in 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse number 12.
It says, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me
for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry,
and this is Paul talking, who was before a blasphemer,
and a persecutor, and injurious,
but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love,
which is in Christ Jesus.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief,
albeit, watch this, for this cause I obtained mercy,
that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering,
for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
So you believe on him to life everlasting,
and Paul said, my conversion, me getting saved,
even after I'd persecuted the church, even after I'd committed a lot of sin,
even after I'd blasphemed God,
hey, that could be a pattern to show other people that they could be saved too.
Even other people that are in the Jews' religion,
and persecuting Christianity, and worshipping a false god,
it's a pattern that they could be saved too.
But wait a minute.
What kind of a pattern would it be if to get saved,
you know, God's going to appear to you in a light,
and you're going to fall on the ground?
That's not the way people get saved.
I mean, how many people has Jesus Christ personally come to them
and give them the gospel?
Zero.
The last person, according to the Bible,
to see Jesus Christ after he rose from the dead
was the apostle Paul.
He was the last person.
He was the final apostle.
There are no apostles today.
He was the last person to see a vision of Jesus.
We were out soul-winning, Victor and I,
what, a week ago,
and we knocked on the door of this guy,
and he was just crazy,
like he was literally just out of his mind.
He was like a psycho.
And so we knocked on the door,
and we said a few things with the guy,
and I said to this guy, I said,
well, it's obviously crazy.
And I said, I don't have time to talk to crazy people.
And Victor looked at me like, huh?
Because the guy hadn't really said anything that weird yet,
but I could just tell he was crazy.
When you've been doing this for a long time,
you can tell when people are nuts.
And so I just said, well, you know,
I can tell you're crazy,
so we don't have time to talk to crazy people.
Because the guy was just mad.
And he basically just started saying,
I'm an apostle.
And he had his big beer bellies and a sweat suit
and a pair of flip-flops.
I'm an apostle.
And I was homeless for Jesus for 26 years.
The guy was just crazy.
He was just raping and saying all these weird things.
And I asked him the question.
I always ask everybody the same question
whenever they say, like, I saw Jesus or I saw a vision.
I said, really, what did he look like, give long hair?
And they said, yeah.
I'm like, that wasn't Jesus, man.
That was some long-haired hippie or something, you know?
That was some queer.
Because the Bible says that it's a sin
for a man to have long hair.
That's what the Bible says.
And that women should have long hair
and men should have short hair.
And so I said, you didn't see Jesus.
You saw some painting by Michelangelo.
It was a homo.
That's why I painted Jesus with long hair.
And so basically what I'm saying is
that nobody's ever seen Jesus since this time,
since that time.
The Bible says that the next time anybody sees him,
every eye shall see him
when he comes in the clouds at his second coming.
That's in the future.
But until then, nobody sees visions of Jesus.
If you want to know what Jesus has to say,
it's in the Bible right here.
It's God's Word.
But what happened was he saw this vision
on the road to Damascus.
Jesus did appear to him,
because he was the last apostle.
And then he had to go to the town.
That's where somebody was going to tell him
what he needed to do.
That's all that Jesus told him.
He just said, look, go to Damascus
and you're going to find a man named Ananias.
He'll tell you what you need to do.
The same exact thing happened in Acts chapter 10
when the angel appeared to Cornelius
and told him, hey, send to Joppa
for a man named Peter
and he'll tell you what you need to do.
He said like the exact same words.
Why?
Because it takes a man to give you the Gospel.
Because God has committed unto us
the ministry of reconciliation.
Sometimes people have this idea that,
well, if somebody's going to get saved,
God's going to get them saved.
God's not going to get anybody saved.
The Bible says God gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
He uses us to preach the Gospel to them.
God is not going to go knock every door in Tempe
and physically appear to people
and say, I'm Jesus.
Let me tell you the Gospel.
Let me show you what the Bible says.
No.
He sends us to do that.
He gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
If we don't go tell them, nobody's going to tell them.
If we don't preach the Gospel to them,
they're just not going to hear it,
according to the Bible.
That's why we even care about doing it.
Otherwise, we'd have much better things to do with our time.
We'd be hanging around with our family.
We'd be working.
We'd be making money.
We'd study the Bible.
No, we'd go out and preach the Gospel
because we believe that there really is a heaven.
There really is a hell.
People need to be saved.
And if we don't preach in the Gospel,
they're not going to hear the Gospel.
And so it's our job to do it.
God's not going to go appear to them.
We have to go do it.
And that's what this is teaching us here.
Paul had to hear the Gospel from a man.
And at first, that man didn't even want to talk to him.
And Ananias said, no.
But once God persuaded him,
then he went and preached the Gospel to Saul
and got him saved
because he had to have somebody preach in the Gospel.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3,
Who is Paul?
You don't have to turn there.
Who is Apollos?
Who is Cephas?
Are they not only ministers by whom he believed,
even as God gave to every man?
So according to Paul,
and he ought to know,
since he's the one who got saved like this,
he said, there's a minister by whom you believe.
Some guy, not necessarily a pastor,
but just any other Christian who takes the Bible
could be man, woman, boy, or girl
that shows you how to be saved from the Bible.
Look at the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter 8.
He's reading the Bible.
He said, you know, I want to know the truth.
But he said, how can I accept some man should guide me?
And that's when Philip came and showed him.
That's when he got saved.
Then once you're saved,
you don't need anybody to show you
because you've got the Holy Spirit living inside.
You can understand the Bible for yourself.
And so that's why it's important to understand this.
So let's recap real quick.
Saul is persecuting.
He's doing all these bad things.
But the Bible says he did it ignorantly.
He thought he was doing the right thing.
He wasn't trying to be evil.
He was zealous, but he just was wrong.
And so basically God,
because he sees this guy who's zealous,
but he's just wrong,
he basically appears to him and shows him this.
He goes and talks to Ananias.
Ananias gives him the Gospel,
gets him saved, baptizes him.
And watch what happens next.
We're going to flip back to Acts chapter 9.
Acts chapter number 9.
So he got saved.
He got baptized.
And now you know he's a Christian.
He believes on Jesus Christ.
He's baptized.
He's ready to serve God.
And watch what happened.
Verse 18,
Look at verse 19.
And look at this.
And straightway.
Straightway means immediately.
It means right away.
Just immediately.
He says straightway.
Let's see.
I lost my place here.
Verse 20.
But all that heard him were amazed and said,
Now look.
He didn't wait around
before he went and preached the Gospel
and got somebody saved.
Right after he got saved,
the next thing he did was get baptized.
And then right after he got baptized,
it said straightway he went out and preached
that Jesus Christ was the Son of God
and tried to get people saved.
You see, a lot of people have this idea.
Well, once I grow more as a Christian,
then I'll start giving people the Gospel.
Once I've been in church longer and learned a lot more,
maybe I'll be in church for like a year or two.
And then once I feel confident with it,
then I'm going to go out and talk to people
and give them the Gospel.
Wait a minute.
Paul, right away.
I mean, he got saved,
and the first thing he does
is go out and start preaching the Gospel to other people
to get them saved.
Because let me tell you something.
If you know how to be saved,
then you should know how to give somebody the Gospel.
Just show them the same verses
that you saw when you believed.
Show them John 3.16.
Show them John 5.24.
Hey, right away, don't make an excuse.
Don't say, Well, I don't know enough.
I'm not educated enough.
I'm not smart enough.
I need to grow more.
You need to get out there
and do what God has called you to do.
Give people the Gospel.
Preach the Gospel to every preacher.
It's the command of God,
because look what happened.
He grew after he did that.
Look at verse 20.
It says,
Straightway he preached Christ and the synagogues,
that he is the Son of God.
Verse 22,
But Saul increased the more in strength,
and confounded the Jews which dwelt at the masses,
proving that this is very Christ.
And after that many days were fulfilled,
the Jews took counsel to kill him.
But their laying away was known of Saul,
and they watched the gates day and night to kill him.
Then the disciples took him by night
and led him down by the wall in a basket.
So basically,
Paul wasn't wasting time.
He just jumps right into it.
And he didn't know everything he needed to know.
He didn't know all the doctrine.
He didn't know all the scriptures and everything like that.
But he just right away said,
You know what?
I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior.
I know that it's believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved.
So, boom, he just jumped into it and started right away.
Didn't make excuses like,
Oh, I don't know enough.
Hey, he learned as he went.
It doesn't take much to get somebody saved.
It doesn't take much knowledge.
You just have to know how to be saved.
And if you're saved,
you must know how to be saved.
Just believe on Jesus.
That's it.
And show him the scriptures.
Show him how he died on the cross for their sins.
Show him that we're all sinners.
Show him by heaven and hell.
I mean, you can learn that in a very short amount of time.
And you learn it by doing it.
By going out with somebody else and doing the same thing.
And that's what Paul did right away.
He just jumped right into it.
Well, look if you would now.
Flip over if you would to...
Let me see here.
The part that I was looking for.
Look at verse number...
I actually turned to Galatians chapter 1.
I'm sorry.
Galatians chapter 1.
Go forward a few books in the Bible.
About halfway through the New Testament.
Galatians chapter 1.
Galatians chapter number 1.
Watch what he says here in verse number 10.
Galatians 1, 10.
For do I now persuade men or God?
Or do I seek to please men?
For if I yet please men,
I should not be the servant of Christ.
That right there is why Paul was such a great preacher, by the way.
He wasn't trying to please man, he said.
I'm trying to please God.
He said, I don't care what man thinks.
But I certify you, brethren,
that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.
For I neither received it of man,
neither was I taught it,
but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
For you have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion.
How that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it.
And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in my own nation.
Being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.
But when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb
and called me by his grace to reveal his son in me
that I might preach him among the heathen,
immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.
Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them,
as were apostles before me,
but I went into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus.
Then after three years I went to Jerusalem to see Peter
and abode within fifteen days,
but other of the apostles saw I none save James, the Lord's brother.
Now the things which I write unto you behold, before God I lie not.
And he explains the rest of his life,
he goes into different stories.
But what's the point?
Right away he said,
he said I got saved so that I could preach the gospel to others.
And that's what he said too when Jesus told him,
Adonaios, to go talk to him.
He said I want you to show him what thinks he must suffer for my sake
and that I've chosen him to be a vessel to bear my name before the Gentiles.
Look, God didn't save you just so you could do nothing and just go to heaven.
Now if God just saved us so that we could just go to heaven and that's it,
then we might as well just die right now.
We might as well just go sooner rather than later.
I mean what's the point of living this life
and all the pain and sorrow and all the hardship?
If we're going to go to heaven anyway,
we might as well go the sooner the better.
But the reason that God has left us here on this earth,
he saved us so that we could preach the gospel to others to get other people saved.
And what really comes down to you is this.
Is the Bible God's word or not?
Do we truly believe that the Bible is the truth?
If we do, then we believe that there's really a heaven and that there's really a hell.
And if we believe that, we believe that he that believeth on him is not condemned,
but he that believeth not is condemned already
because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And if we truly believe that, we will want to preach the gospel to every creature
because whosoever shall come upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
How then shall they call on him whom they've not believed?
And how shall they believe in him of whom they've not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach except they be sent?
That's why you come to church so that you can be sent out to go preach the gospel to get people saved.
And many churches today are nothing more than a social club.
People come because they want to feel good.
They want to get a little encouragement, a little pick-me-up to get them through the week.
They want to hang around with their friends and chit-chat and get together.
It's like a little club.
You get together and hang out. It's like the Elks Lodge or something.
It's like the Masonic Lodge.
It's like the water buffaloes or the mountain bears or whatever stupid animal, you know.
You get together in some little club and play games and hang around.
And you know what? A church that's not winning souls, a church that's not preaching the gospel, that's all it is.
What's the difference?
You get together, we sing a few songs. It's like the Boy Scouts or something.
We get together, we sing a few songs, and they have their little fundraiser.
And they play games and they have activities and they go camping together.
Hey, our church goes camping. Our church gets together.
We might eat food together, but this church is not a social club.
Hey, this church is where you go to be set to do something for God.
And that's why this church has more percentage of people that go out and do something for God
than any church I've ever been a part of.
Because we're not a social club.
We don't just get here and gather around and look at each other.
No, we're here to get together to learn the Bible, to get equipped, to get armed up, to go out and do something with it.
Not to be a hearer of the Word, but a doer of the Word.
And so we've got to come to church, basically, just to get the plan.
Just to get in the Bible and just to see what we need to do.
Okay, what do I need to do, God? What do I need to preach?
What do I need to learn so that I can go out and get people saved and serve God with my life?
That's what matters. That's why we go to church.
We don't just go to church just to make ourselves feel good.
If you want to feel good, just go get on the couch with a tub of ice cream or something.
You'll feel great.
Come to church because you want to learn something.
Come to church because you want to be strengthened, like Paul said.
And by the way, you're never going to be strengthened until you do the work.
Think about it. What if a guy came to me and said,
I want to get in shape. I want to get strengthened.
They're talking about physically.
I want to build up a little more muscle, bulk up a little bit.
And I said, okay, well, let me give you a list of all the foods that you need to eat.
And I gave them all the different foods and they followed it exactly.
It was a really high protein, a lot of amino acids or whatever.
And I gave them this big, long diet.
And then I said, also, not only that, but you're going to sit down with me
three times a week for one hour.
And I'm basically going to explain to you all the different exercises.
In fact, I'm going to demonstrate them for you.
I'm going to show you the bench press. I'm going to show you the leg press.
I'm going to show you the curls. I'm going to show you all these different exercises,
all the different techniques. I'm going to explain to you how many repetitions,
how many sets you need, what to eat, what to drink, how much to sleep.
I'm going to go through this with you and teach you three times a week
and then you're going to eat all this diet that I give you.
But yet that person never actually did the work.
Are they going to grow at all? No.
Well, they might grow, but it's not going to be the way that they want to grow.
Just from all the eating and everything, they might just grow.
But they're not going to grow the way they want to grow.
Are they going to get any stronger?
The only way to get stronger is to do the work.
You're not going to get stronger by sitting in church.
Think about it. You just sit in church and just listen, right?
And, man, I feel stronger.
And then you read the Bible, man, I'm getting stronger and stronger.
Now, look, is reading the Bible necessary?
Just like eating food is necessary if you want to get physically strong,
if you want to grow muscle, you've got to eat a lot of food.
Anybody who knows that's been lifting weights with a seriousness,
you've got to eat extra food in order to grow.
I mean, you've got to eat a lot in order to put on that muscle.
And you've got to eat a lot to get strong in the Lord
by reading the Bible every day, by coming to church and hearing the preaching.
But many Christians, they are just spiritually obese
because they're just eating, they're just eating,
they're just constantly taking it in, taking it in,
and they're never putting out, no output.
Just, oh, man, Bible study, Sunday morning, Sunday night.
And, you know, they're just this huge...
I mean, if we could look spiritually at a lot of these Bible professors
and seminary professors, if we could put on spiritual glasses
and see what they really look like, you know, just be like,
hey, you want to come to my class?
Hey, we're going to teach you the Bible.
And you'd be like, man, I want to be like you.
You know, that's not my goal.
I'm not trying to be Dr. Fatbottle, you know, with all the degrees
and the THD and the DD and the BS and the BA and the MA
and the, you know, the ABCDEFG, MIC, KEYMO, USE,
after their name, all their stupid degrees.
And they're just so cute, oh, they know so much.
But according to the Bible, the way to learn, the way to grow,
the way to be strengthened is to be a doer of the work.
He said, if any man be a hearer of the word and not a doer,
he is like unto a man, beholding his natural face in a glass,
for he beholdeth himself and goeth his way
and straightway forgetth what manner of man he was.
But who shall looketh into the perfect law of liberty
and continueeth therein, he being not, watch this,
he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work,
this man shall be blessed in his deed.
So the Bible says, if you're not doing the work,
you're going to be a forgetful hearer.
You're going to come to church, you're going to hear the preaching,
it's going to go in one ear and out the other.
You're going to read the Bible,
it's going to go in one ear and out the other.
But if you're a doer of the work,
that's where you're going to retain it,
that's where you're going to remember it.
Think about on your job.
If somebody just told you, do this and that,
this is how you do it,
you're not going to remember that a week later.
But when they say, okay, now do it,
and then you do that activity,
that's what you're going to remember,
that's what you're going to learn.
Christianity is the same thing, it's work.
The Bible says about the pastor, his job is to work.
He said, he that desireth the office of a bishop,
desireth a good work.
Not a good office, not a good title,
not a good position.
He said you desire a good work.
My job as a pastor is to do work.
Not just, oh, he's the pastor.
No, it's to work.
It's to go out there and win souls,
it's to preach the word,
it's to serve God, to work,
to not read the Bible, but to read it and do it.
And to use it and to put it into practice.
That's the only way you're going to learn,
that's the only way you're going to grow,
that's the only way you're going to get strengthened.
That's why Paul was such a great man of God.
Because right away he got baptized.
Right away he went out and started serving God.
He didn't know everything,
but he just went out there and started preaching it.
He even said what we just read in Galatians 1.
The first thing he did wasn't to go to Peter,
James, and John and get educated.
He said the first thing I did is I just went scolding him.
He said I didn't have to get it all from man,
I was just reading the Bible,
just going to church in Damascus,
getting people saved, preaching the gospel.
He said 14 years later when I finally met all those guys,
he said they added nothing unto me.
I mean they believed the same thing I believed,
they preached the same thing I preached,
I didn't need that.
He said I got it from God, I got it from the Bible.
But more importantly he got it from doing the work.
He was a doer of the word, that's why he learned so much.
And that's why he became probably the greatest Christian of the New Testament.
From being somebody who persecuted the church,
who was a blasphemer,
who was a persecutor, to then get saved,
and then later on, decades later,
he's getting people saved all over the world,
he's traveling around, he's speaking other languages,
preaching the gospel, he's learning foreign languages,
so he can take the gospel into Spain,
so he can take the gospel into ancient Greece,
so he can take the gospel into all these different places.
Why?
Because he's a man who got saved,
he took the next step, boom, got baptized,
next step, go out and get people saved,
preached the gospel, and God used him.
Why did God use Paul more than Peter, James, and John?
Who were even the disciples that were right there with Jesus.
He said, I labored more abundantly than they all.
That's why God used him more,
because he said, I labored more abundantly than they all.
And so Christianity is not just a religion
where we come on Sunday and just kind of put in our time,
kind of check it off, hey, I went to church.
You really think you're going to get to heaven
and God's just going to reward you for all the times you went to church?
Thank you so much for coming and sitting in church.
I mean, think about it.
What if I went to my job and I just showed up,
and I was always there, I was always on time,
I was always in uniform, but I never did the work.
You know what I mean?
I mean, I never broke the rules.
Everybody else had their shirt untucked,
my shirt was tucked in.
Everybody else came sloppy.
Hey, I was clean-shaven, I was clean-cut, tucked in.
Other people would show up 30 seconds late,
a minute late, two minutes late, hey, I was on time.
In fact, I was early.
There was no, you know, I never violated any of the rules,
but I never did the work.
I'd just show up, clock in, and just put in my eight hours, clock out.
You think I'm going to get paid?
And yet you think you're going to get to heaven to get paid.
Now, if you're saved, you're going to heaven,
because you don't get saved by working.
You get saved by belief.
And then once you believe, you're born again,
you're a child of God, you're going to heaven.
But if you expect to get there, and you're going to get rewarded,
because, oh, you didn't drink, oh, wow, you know,
oh, you went to church, wow, great, you know,
oh, you wore nice clothes, yeah, you looked good,
yeah, looking good.
Is that what you expect?
No, you're going to be rewarded, the Bible says,
every man according as his work shall be.
It's just like anything else in life.
You work, and you get rewarded for the work that you do.
You get paid for the work, you say,
well, God doesn't have to pay me because he already saved me,
and that's enough.
You know what?
Him saving you is so big that it's not,
you can't work that off.
That's a gift.
The Bible says the gift of God's eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
That's a gift.
Any work you do, God's going to pay you for it,
because he doesn't want you to try to pay off the gift.
No, it's a free gift.
Jesus already paid for it on the cross with his blood.
He won't accept any other payment.
And so the Bible says that every good work that any man doeth,
the same shall he receive of the Lord,
whether he be bond or free.
We're going to be rewarded for the works that we do.
But to get that, we're going to be rewarded for the works that we do.
I mean, what good is it if somebody just comes to church,
and they're here Sunday morning, Saturday night, Wednesday night,
and yet they never go out and do any work for God?
What did it profit anybody?
What did it help anybody?
Nothing.
I mean, just like you're doing me or this church a favor
just by being here?
Yes, another person fill a chair.
Yes, let's fill it up with people.
And then we can have to spend more money on a bigger building.
And then we can have more building to clean.
And then we can have more song books.
And wow, wouldn't that be great to just get a big crowd?
Maybe we can even have a bigger crowd like Joel Osteen,
have like 25,000 people.
And we can be all in a big stadium.
But let me tell you something.
It's not about how many bodies we can get in one room.
I mean, if we wanted to get a bunch of bodies,
we'd just have a rock concert.
We'd pack it out.
Just announce some Christian rock singer and we'd be packed.
Next Sunday, we'd be packed.
All we have to do if we want a crowd is just, you know,
have a football game.
I just flew into Tempe last night on my airplane was landing in Sky Harbor
and I saw the stadium was packed at the Sun Devil Stadium.
Wow, that's a big church.
No, it's nothing to do with church.
It's nothing to do with serving God.
It's just people watching a game.
And that's what a lot of church is, is people watching a game.
People watching a sport.
You know what I mean?
Some guy gets up and waves his arms around and does all this stuff
and screams and yells.
And you say, oh man, that's a great church.
It's exciting.
No, it's not exciting unless somebody's getting saved.
It's not exciting unless we're baptizing somebody.
It's not exciting unless we're going out and doing something for God.
I've been in churches where they'll swing from the chandeliers.
But that's not exciting.
What's exciting is when they're doing some work for God.
It's not a circus.
You know, oh wow, Pastor Anderson's a really dynamic speaker.
I mean, look at this.
He's doing all the stuff.
Oh man, it's crazy.
No, that's not what it's about.
Hey, I'm preaching loud because I believe in what I'm saying
because I'm excited about it because I'm trying to get you fired up
so that we can do something, not just so we can listen to it.
And that's exactly what God told Ezekiel.
Ezekiel was preaching, and God came to Ezekiel and told him,
he said, you know what, when you preach, Ezekiel,
he said, all these people that are listening to you,
he said a lot of them, it's just like a show for them.
They just think it's fun to listen to you preach.
But he said they don't really believe in it.
I mean, they're really not doing the work.
And you know what, that's not what we ever want to be
where it's just all about coming and listening.
It's all about just feed me, feed me, feed me.
No, it should be about you taking what you learn,
taking what you know, taking the gospel that you've been taught.
Hey, thank God somebody gave you the gospel so that you wouldn't go to hell.
Why don't you take that now and pass that on to somebody else
and not just say, well, I'm saved, so to hell with everybody else.
No, say, you know what, I'm saved, and I'm going to preach the gospel to somebody else.
I'm going to take what I know, and I'm going to use it for something else.
And look, you can do whatever you want with your life.
You can go out and say, well, my life's all about making money.
But you know, your money's going to perish with you.
Your money's going to turn to dust one day.
It's going to be worthless. You can't take it with you.
We brought nothing into this world, and certainly we carry nothing out.
You can say, oh, well, my life's all about political change.
We're going to save America.
You know what, we're probably not going to save America.
America's probably doomed.
You know, hey, it's a great thing to work on, but you know what,
why don't you work on something eternal with your life and say, you know what,
the most important thing, yes, I got to make money, you know,
to pay my bills, to take care of my family.
Yes, I want to go out and be a good citizen and all that.
Yes, I want to do this and do that.
But you know what, the most important thing that I'm going to spend my time on
is preaching the word of God, because heaven and earth shall pass away,
but God's words shall not pass away.
And one day, all this world's going to be dust anyway,
and our life is like a little vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
It's like the steam that comes off a stove.
Pretty soon you see it, and then boom, it's gone.
Same thing with our lives.
Life's going to be over before you know it, and at the end of your life,
you don't want to get there and say, I wasted my life.
But the Bible says, be ye therefore steadfast, unmovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord,
for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
I've had some times where I've worked and wasted my time.
I've shown up at a job before, installed a complete fire system, and never got paid.
Now, I walked away and said my labor was in vain. I lost money.
Not only did I make money, I lost money, because I had to buy the materials.
It was in vain, but the Bible says that when you're serving God, though,
your labor is never in vain.
I mean, you could work and work and work and put all your money in the stock market,
and then it's going to crash.
Put all your money in the bank, the bank system crashes.
Look, the only thing that's for certain is that one day,
you'll be rewarded by God for the work that you do for God.
You can put your assets in whatever, guns, gold, bombs, portfolio, whatever,
but you know what? The truth of the matter is that you're not going to be able to take it with you.
And so you ought to labor for the meat that endureth the Bible.
It says this by our heads in that Word of Prayer.
Father, please just help us to take an example from the life of the Apostle Paul.
He had a bad start. He started out in a false, phony religion,
doing the exact wrong thing, arresting Christians and throwing them in jail.
But Father, thank you so much for allowing him to be saved for a pattern
to those which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
Other people that would realize that even though they're in a false religion,
even though they're doing a lot of wrong and sinful, wicked things,
all they have to do is believe on Jesus Christ to be saved and have everlasting life.
And then God, help us to follow this example.
If there's anybody here today who's saved who hasn't been baptized,
help them to follow Paul's example and get baptized.
If they want to grow, if they want to be like Paul, if they want to be a great man of God,
why don't they get baptized?
And then God, help them to take it to the next level after that and say,
you know what, I want to go out and preach the Gospel and get people saved.
And I'm going to go out and maybe just be a silent partner,
just tag along with somebody and just listen and learn
so that very soon, you know, one day I could be doing it.
I could do the work.
And Father, just bless our church and thank you that we do have a church full of workers
and people who are serious about Christianity and serving God.
Help to always stay that way.
Help us never to degenerate to being just a social club, God.
And we love you and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.