Galatians chapter 1 the book of Galatians chapter 1 as is our custom we'll read the entire chapter
beginning in verse 1 please read along silently with me Galatians chapter 1 beginning in verse 1
Galatians chapter 1 Paul an apostle not of men neither by man but by Jesus Christ
and all the brethren which are with me unto the churches of Galatia.
Grace be to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ,
who gave himself for our sins,
that he might deliver us from this present evil world,
according to the will of God and our Father,
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."
I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him
that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel.
Which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be a cursed.
As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be a cursed.
For do I now persuade men or God?
Or do I seek to please men?
For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
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 ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond
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 when I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me,
Then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him 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.
Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia and was unknown by face unto the
churches of Judea which were in Christ, but they had heard only that he which persecuted
Now preacheth the faith which once ye destroyed, and they glorified God in me." Brother Sean, would you pray for us?
Alright, well last week in chapter number one, same chapter, I basically just discussed how there's no other gospel besides the gospel of salvation by grace through faith.
And so if somebody preaches another gospel,
it's not really another gospel, it's just a false gospel.
And so that's why I said, there's just no other gospel.
The gospel means good news or glad tidings.
It means good news isn't, hey,
you gotta do a whole bunch of work to be saved.
Or good news isn't, hey, you never know
until the end of your life and then surprise,
you're going to hell.
That's not good news.
Good news is,
you know you're going to heaven because you believed on Christ and it's eternal life.
You can't lose it. So it's not like, it's not like a Calvinist, you know, salvation like,
well, I'm not one of the elect, so I guess I'm destined for hell, you know, or, you know,
somehow you are one of the chosen people, you just happen to be one of those people,
but then you have to persevere to the end, or maybe you weren't really one of the chosen ones.
So,
But I kind of covered all that last week and so salvation by grace just means that you're saved for free and that God
when he saves you he saves you because you put your faith in Jesus Christ and that's the only prerequisite that it takes
for a person to be saved and
So any other gospel is not a true gospel. It's just phony and that is the gospel of God
That's the gospel that's preached in the Bible
That has always been the true mode of salvation,
and there's no other gospel.
So there's a lot of different religions in the world.
There's a lot of different modes of salvation
within the Christian community
or different sects of Christianity.
But just because they're saying
that there's something different
doesn't mean that that's the true gospel.
So a lot of Christian churches
don't even follow the Bible.
They don't even believe it's true.
They believe it's allegory or, you know, it's just a.
a story that was made up to help us have a like a lesson or something.
But we believe that the Bible is absolutely 100% true
and that it has no error as long as you're using the right one.
So anyway, we're going to pick up in verse number 11.
And my sermon title tonight is when was Paul saved?
So it's kind of a question mark.
So look at verse number 11, it says,
But I certify you brethren,
that the gospel which was preached of me
is not after man.
So just number one,
he's saying that the gospel he preaches is not of man.
And a lot of the gospel,
Gospels that you'll hear is after man.
Man made them up,
somebody else gave them that gospel,
and it wasn't from God.
So, it's not, you know, what Paul is preaching is not something that he came up with, somebody
else preached that to him, somebody else gave that to him, and it's not man.
It's not a man-made gospel. It's not a man-made salvation. It is straight of God and
man made
Religions to glorify man somehow man is the hero of the story in most religions
You know what I can do what I can achieve and they make man's works part of salvation
Hey, if you just you know are a good person
you'll get to go to heaven. That's the number one answer we get when we go out and knock on
people's doors and say, hey, what do you think it takes to go to heaven? They'll say, well,
just be a good person. That's, you know, if you're playing Family Feud, Christian edition,
it'd be like survey says, dun, number one answer. And, you know,
I understand why people think that,
but that is not the answer,
because nobody is good enough to get to heaven.
So even the best person on this earth
still has sins that they have to account for,
and so nobody's good enough to get there on their own,
so being a good person will never get you to heaven,
because we have sins that we have to pay for,
and so if you have sins on your account,
then you can't get there by being a good person.
Someone else had to be a totally
100% perfect person for you and that's why Jesus came.
If we could do it on our own,
Jesus would have never had to have come
and so why would we need Jesus?
So obviously being a good person is not the answer.
And another thing that they like to say is doing good things,
doing good deeds, being a good person
and then feeding the homeless or walking old ladies
across the street with their groceries
You know, well, I hear a lot of answers that people say.
Why was a school teacher for 30 years?
You know, I mean, that could be a good or a bad thing,
it depends on what kind of teacher you were.
Because everybody had those, if you were in public school,
you had those teachers that you liked,
and you had the ones that you couldn't stand.
And they were the mean ones, right?
The ones that flew into the school on their brooms
or whatever.
My Spanish teacher used to throw erasers at us,
you know those big ones that,
they were like the square ones,
and they were really floppy.
You know anybody know what I'm talking about?
And like if you were just messing around,
you were talking or something to somebody else,
so you just like, you get a chalk.
A chalk full of eraser just would hit you in the face.
You'd have like a poofy chalk mark on your face.
I don't think you can get away with that anymore
in public schools, but he was named Senor Gomez.
And yeah, we'd like see Senor, we'd be like,
okay, we're done goofing around.
But anyway.
So so doing good deeds is not going to get you to heaven either now. It's good to be a good person
It's good to do good deeds
But that's not good enough to get you to heaven because it's not of works the Bible says it's not of works
So that's any man should boast
It's by faith that we're saved through grace
It's not by repenting of your sins a lot of even Christian churches would say
Hey, you got to repent of your sins.
Well, a lot of people try to do that.
You know, but repenting of your sins is a lot harder than people realize.
And especially, you know, it's like when you try to go on a diet or something.
And it's like the first thing you crave is the thing that you're not supposed to eat.
Why is that?
That's because our bodies are just deceitful.
And they just want to want the things that we're not supposed to have so it's like
You know, it's like you get it on the side. It's like chocolate cake
I just all ideas just one piece of chocolate cake or whatever, you know, just it's whatever we're not supposed to have
It's like I'm just gonna go carb carbless this week and it's just like carbs carbs carbs like you can't stop thinking about
You know carbs or whatever
But it's just because
We can't you know if it was self-reform that could get us into heaven. We would fail every time
Giving money is another thing that people think you know you got these Hollywood people
They're like
Philanthropists or whatever or even just these famous people even billionaires like Warren Buffett
Oh, he gives billions of dollars away or whatever or he gives millions of dollars away. That's not gonna get you to heaven Warren
It's not gonna, you're not gonna go to heaven
because of how much money you give
and what Bill Gates, you know, he gives money
so that we can depopulate the world.
I mean, I don't think that's scoring points with God
to kill people with vaccinations or whatever.
So it's like, I think we can get the population down
by putting all these vaccines out.
It's like, yeah, I don't know
if that's like scoring any points.
So, and then sacrificing, you know, the end of a lot of religions around the world is sacrificing and then becomes human sacrificing
Which is just ah, you know
So, you know Paul's gospel is none of these things Paul's gospel is not after man
Look at verse number 12. It says for I neither
Received it of man neither was I taught it by the revelation
but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
So this kind of gets to the main point of this sermon
and this is where people would say,
well see, he didn't receive the gospel from man
and he wasn't taught it by man,
but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
So like when a lot of people will say that
when Jesus got, or when Paul got saved
was when Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus.
That would be what a lot, that's what a lot of people's answers are.
Most people believe this, that Paul was saved on the road to Damascus by Jesus himself.
So, but you know, here's the thing, at SFBC, at Sure Foundation Baptist Church,
we believe that it takes a saved, spirit-filled believer to get other people saved.
Jesus is a saved, spirit-filled believer, isn't he?
He's also...
God manifests in the flesh, you know, it's not like Jesus can't get people saved
I mean, I just want to throw that out there right now. It's not like well, Jesus can't get people saved
That's kind of a dumb thing to say, right?
But Paul does in fact solidify the concept of the fact that it does take spirit-filled believers to get other people saved
so I'm kind of just gonna present this from both sides and
I think that if you know
But I think that Paul teaches this concept so is it either Paul was not saved in this way
And he was saved by Jesus and he's the exception to the rule or
Jesus told him to go to somebody else that could get him saved and he did appear to him
But he wasn't saved until a few days later
so
That's the two views that basically I'm presenting to you, so let's turn to just keep your finger here or ribbon or a bookmark
We're gonna come back here, but we're gonna go to Romans 116
So remember Paul the Apostle Paul wrote half the New Testament and so since he wrote half the New Testament
There's a lot of statements. We're gonna get just from the Apostle Paul himself
So, if we're asking the Apostle Paul, well, you know, how did you get saved?
Well, we're going to see some statements that he made directly about his own salvation.
And then we're going to see some statements that he says about other people getting saved
in the Bible.
Things that he wrote that's doctrine that we're supposed to believe.
Look at Romans 1.16.
It says, for I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.
This is the Apostle Paul writing to the Romans.
I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.
to everyone that believe, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. So it's the power of God
to everyone, right? Well that's everyone, right? Now look what it says in verse 17,
for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written,
the just shall live by faith. So
One person gets the faith they pass that faith on to somebody else. That's how Christianity has gone from
2,000 years to now is that someone gets another person and just
exponentially exploded during the time of the Apostles and with the sign gifts and all that stuff and
turn the world upside down and
It's passed on if Christianity was stomped out in the first century. We wouldn't be here tonight
But no, it's passed on from faith to faith.
This is what the apostle Paul is teaching.
Is that not clear enough?
Well, let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter three,
verse number five.
I think this one is very clear.
And he would have to be saying it's everyone but me.
Look at 1 Corinthians three, five.
It says, who then is Paul?
And who is Apollos?
But ministers by whom you believed.
even as the Lord gave to how many people?
Every man, so every person that's saved
has had someone that was a minister to them
that they believed by.
So you don't just get saved by osmosis.
You don't just get saved by reading a tract
or reading the Bible.
If you could get saved by reading the Bible,
there'd be a lot of people that were saved
just because they picked up a Bible and started reading it.
It takes people that are filled with the spirit
to pass that on to the next person.
This is what Paul teaches.
So what are we talking about here?
Who got Paul saved?
Did Jesus save him right there?
Did he leave to go to heaven
and leave us to get other people saved?
And so if he did that, I mean, is it possible
that Jesus got him saved on the road to Damascus?
I believe it's possible, absolutely.
Also, I believe it's possible that he sent Paul to the right place to the right person
And not only did he send Paul to the right place, but then he sent that person to Paul as we'll see in the story
So we obviously know that Jesus saves
But he does use human ministers to preach in order for people to believe and get saved
That's in the Old Testament and in the New Testament think about Jonah. I mean
Could God have just appeared to the people of Nineveh and got them saved?
I mean, he could, but that's just not what he does.
He uses human beings, he used Jonah.
And first he had to slap him around a little bit,
have him get swallowed by that whale,
spit up on the beach, and then Jonah was like,
okay, I'll go wherever you want me to go.
But then Jonah got that city saved.
And even though he didn't wanna do it, he still did it.
But that happened in the Old Testament,
people got saved in the Old Testament,
people get saved in the New Testament.
It's just more clear to us in the New Testament
how you're supposed to do it, okay?
So there's again, there's these essentially, there's two camps on the opinion of whether Paul was saved by Jesus himself
on the road to Damascus and he just sent Paul to Ananias to regain his sight and be baptized. That's one opinion.
Or did Jesus reveal himself to Paul, blind him and send him to Ananias so that Ananias
could lead him to Christ. Recover his blindness.
which, you know, that picture's salvation.
I think Brother Bill just brought that up recently
in a sermon where he's like saying that, you know,
when you see Jesus healing people in the New Testament,
that is a picture of that they're getting saved.
So when they're blind and he heals their blindness,
their faith is making them whole.
That is them getting saved.
So when he heals the lepers and only, you know,
nine come back and the 10th one doesn't come back
or whatever, but.
So it says and then how you know
What does he do he has him call upon the name of the Lord and then he's baptized is what Ananias does with Paul
so again, I want to fairly represent both sides as much as I possibly can and
Of whether Paul was saved which way he was saved or whatever so
So, again, I have my own personal belief and, of course, our church has an official stand
on our belief on how people get saved, but I will say this, if someone believes that
Paul was saved by Jesus on the road to Damascus, I would not label them a heretic or some sort
of a fool, okay?
We are the minority on this belief.
So, but the vast majority of Christendom does believe that Paul was saved by Jesus on the
road to Damascus, which in reality means nothing to me though, because the vast majority is
wrong about a great many things, too.
So let's look at verse 12 again though, it says,
for I neither received it of man,
neither was I taught it,
but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
So this is the verse of why people believe
that Jesus saved Paul, not Ananias.
And it seems pretty straightforward,
like to, you know, the first glance or whatever,
but now is it possible?
Did Jesus say, Paul, of course it's possible?
I mean, again, he's God and he's the son of man.
And of course it's possible he's born out of due time.
You know, he could be the exception to the rule
and all that, he is the last apostle.
He didn't have the prerequisite the other apostles had
because they said, well, you had to have had
your ministry with him and whatnot,
but that's not what Jesus's rule was
because obviously he picked him
and didn't have all those prerequisites
they said that they had to have.
other apostles when they picked Matthias. So, but also, when I preach the gospel, I'm not
preaching man's gospel. I'm, what gospel am I preaching? Well, I'm preaching the gospel according
to the revelation of Jesus Christ that I find in the Bible. So it's not like I'm still preaching,
I'm not preaching man's gospel just because I didn't get it right from Jesus. You know what I mean? So,
Could it be said that Ananias is preaching of the gospel,
that it was not of man, but of the revelation of Jesus Christ?
So could Paul, like if Paul got the gospel from Ananias,
I mean, who's the one that gave him the gospel to preach?
Jesus is the one that gave us the gospel to preach.
God is the one that gave us that gospel.
Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 12.
2 Corinthians chapter 12.
I mean does that make sense because we didn't who would we learn the gospel from you know
Obviously someone taught us to preach the gospel
But where do we get that from we get it from the Bible who wrote the Bible?
Man wrote it down because God you know
Spake through his prophets and he spake through spirit filled men. They wrote it down
2 Corinthians 12 5 says, for though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool, for
I will say the truth, but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me, above that which
he seemeth me to be, or that he heareth of me, and lest I should be exalted above measure,
I'm the messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure."
So Paul is talking about the sword and the flesh that he's asking God to take away from
him.
But why?
Because of the abundance of the revelations that he received.
So did he just get revelations about the Gospel or did he get revelations about a lot
of different things?
I mean, we got a lot of doctrine from the apostle Paul.
He teaches us a lot of things.
So was Paul given a lot of revelations?
Yes, yes, he did. Did he teach those things to other people? Does he teach him to us in the Bible?
So if he teaches them to others,
himself in the place of Jesus, are they still the revelations of Jesus or are they of men?
They're revelations of Jesus. So Paul isn't, there's nothing special necessarily about Paul.
Even though God greatly used him, the revelations that Jesus gave Paul are still revelations
of Jesus.
So all I'm saying is that that verse where it says that he didn't receive it of man,
he received that revelation from Jesus, it doesn't mean that a man didn't teach it to
him.
Obviously, Jesus taught him things directly through revelation.
I mean, you're not necessarily directly getting that from Jesus, but you are still getting
the revelation from Jesus.
Anything that you read in this book, if you read the book of Revelation, it's called the
Revelation of Jesus Christ, right?
So who are you getting that from?
Jesus Christ right so do you see what I'm talking about like for someone to just and I'm not trying to just like
Cancel that verse out or something. I'm just saying there's just another way to look at it
so
There's another way to look at that verse and the gospel is not just necessarily also the death burial and resurrection of Christ
But you know, I think that in this verse in the context that it's talking about that it is what it's talking about
But, you know, it doesn't mean that Jesus didn't reveal it through a man.
Especially in light of the Scriptures that I've already shown you that the Apostle Paul taught himself.
I mean, he said it's from faith to faith.
He said that we've all received the Gospel from ministers by whom we believed.
So let's look at actually the story of Paul's conversion as it is in the book of Acts and
see who got Paul saved.
We'll see how clear it is.
So look at Acts chapter 9.
So there's three different times when we see the conversion of Paul in the Bible in the
first chapters in Acts chapter number 9.
We'll see how clear it is.
Acts chapter 9 verse number 3. And this is being told from the perspective of Luke as he's telling
it and the narrator of course is the Holy Ghost, but this isn't Paul's narration of it. This is Luke
Putting all this down, right? It says as he journeyed verse 3 he came near Damascus and suddenly it's talking about the Apostle Paul
They're shined round about him a light from heaven and he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him
Saul Saul why persecutis down me if you have a red letter addition Bible. That's Jesus talking to Saul or Paul
Why I persecutis down me? Why are you persecuting me Saul and he said who art thou Lord?
And the Lord said, I am Jesus, who now persecutist.
It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
So what does that mean?
Well, I believe that it means that the Holy Spirit
has been pricking the apostle, or the pre-apostle.
He's not the apostle yet, but he's pricking
against Saul's heart and trying to bring him
to the point of salvation.
He's probably feeling this conviction or or just feeling like he needs to get saved
But he's kicking against it
He's he's kind of fighting this this this thing about getting saved
And it says any tremble 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
So does Jesus right here preach the gospel to him?
Have you heard any point where he is like,
you gotta believe in me, Paul,
or you gotta believe in me, Saul?
This is what you gotta do, call upon me, Saul.
I mean, he just says, arise, go into the city,
and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
And then men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seen no man,
and Saul arose from the earth, and when his eyes were opened 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 eat nor drink, nor drink, excuse me.
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 unto him, arise,
and go into the street which is called straight,
and inquire in the house of Judas,
for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he prayeth.
So is this the Lord?
He's saying this in a vision to him,
but is he about to send him to Saul right now?
Yes, he is, right?
And he has seen a vision of a man named Ananias coming in
and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight.
Then Ananias answered, Lord, I've heard by many
of this man how much evil he hath done
to thy saints at Jerusalem.
And here he hath authority from the chief priests
to bind all that call upon thy name.
That's an interesting thing to say.
that call upon my name. Who would that be? That would be Christians. He's rounding
up Christians. He's doing all manner of evil against them. He's putting his name
against them to be killed. He's compelling them to blaspheme and he's on
his way right now with letters in his hand to try to you know have people
arrested and have them put to death. So verse 15 says
But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto 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 namesake.
And Ananias went his way and entered into the house, and putting his hands on him said,
has sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight
and be filled with the Holy Ghost."
So notice that he isn't already filled with the Holy Ghost,
but he's going to be filled with the Holy Ghost.
And his mission is to what?
That he might receive his sight.
At this point, Saul is blind.
He's been blind for three days
because when he saw that light, it was brighter than the sun
and he lost his vision, he lost his ability to see.
It says, and immediately there fell from his eyes, as it had been scales, and he received sight forthwith and arose and was baptized.
Now here it doesn't say, well he called upon the name of the Lord, it doesn't say that, it doesn't say, it doesn't necessarily say that he got saved, but he did.
But he did get filled with the Holy Spirit. He received his sight, which I think is kind of like a metaphor
for him getting saved.
But it doesn't specifically say that. Okay, I'll admit that.
So the context isn't super clear, but it is clear that
Christ sent him to Ananias to do these things and it's clear that he was not
indwelt by the Spirit.
So Acts chapter 22 is turned to Acts chapter 22
So the first account was Acts chapter 9
Now this is the second account and this is when he's arrested by the Romans and they try to beat him in the temple
and then he comes and talks to the people in the Hebrew tongue and
then he is telling the story about
how he got saved and how the Lord appeared to him on the way to Damascus, on the road to Damascus.
So he's telling them this story, the Jews.
It says in verse number three, Acts chapter 22. It says,
I am verily a man which I'm a Jew born in Tarsus, a city in Silicia.
Yet, brought up in the 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.
And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.
So he's not a very nice guy at this point, is he?
And also the high priest doth bear me witness in 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.
And it came to pass that as I made my journey and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon
and I fell unto the ground and heard a voice saying unto me,
Saul, Saul, why persecutus thou me?
So this is Saul.
So the last time it was Luke giving the account,
this time, Luke is recording Saul,
what he's saying to the people.
This is Saul's own words saying to the people, okay?
And I answered, who art thou, Lord?
And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth,
whom thou persecutist.
and they that were with me saw indeed the light and were afraid.
But they saw not the voice, or 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 shall be told the of all things which are appointed for thee to do.
So again, the second account is this pretty much the same thing that Jesus told him.
This is what you just go to Damascus.
This is what you're supposed, and it's going to be told you what you have to do.
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 devoted man according to the law, having a good
report of all the Jews which dwelt there, came unto me and stood and said unto me, Brother Saul
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 has seen and heard
So we're getting more details in this account, right now look what it says in verse 16
And now, why terriest thou, this is Ananias saying this to him, arise and be baptized
and wash away thy sins, calling upon the name of the Lord.
So this is something added that Paul is telling us here.
Now this is not exactly how we would say something and we would say this in the opposite order.
We would say, hey, you need to call upon the Lord.
and, you know, your sins will be washed away
and then you need to get baptized.
But, you know, obviously this is Greek
being transliterated into English
or translated into English.
And so it's not really reading how we would read it,
but nobody is saved by being baptized.
You don't get, it says arise and be baptized.
He's just saying it in a weird order,
but it doesn't mean that, you know,
cause he's saying, cause even though
he's saying it in a weird order,
It's still saying calling upon the name of the Lord.
Wash away the sins calling upon the name of the Lord.
So you call upon the name of the Lord
and then you're saved and then your sins are forgiven.
So what does this tell you though about previously three days ago?
Had he called upon the name of the Lord yet?
Had his sins been washed away yet?
And had he been baptized? Of course not.
So what does this tell you?
that he was not saved until this moment, right?
Were his sins forgiven?
What happens when you get saved?
All your sins are forgiven, past, present, and future.
To me, this is the verse that kind of nails it
and just makes it very plain that Saul was saved
or Paul was saved by Ananias.
And I'm not saying that Ananias is the savior, okay?
He's the minister by whom he was saved, okay?
Jesus saves everybody.
I get that, everybody understands that.
But anyway, let's look at verse 17.
And it came to pass that when I was coming in to Jerusalem,
yet while I prayed in the temple,
I was in a trance and I saw him saying to 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 am prison and beat in every synagogue, them that believed on me.
So it sounds like he beat them too.
So Paul kind of was a torture person.
Or at least he was having someone beat them.
Maybe he kind of did it too, I don't know, but it says he beat them.
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.
I personally believe that that was a big reason
why Paul ended up getting saved.
Because now he's recalling that immediately
right after getting saved that he had something
to do with it.
He's consenting unto the death.
He wanted him to die.
He's just like, here, I'll hold your coats, yeah.
Unleash on this guy.
And he said unto me, depart for I will send thee
far hence unto the Gentiles.
Now, I mean, I believe, I mean,
Verse 16 really just it does kind of just put the baby to bed puts the baby in the basket
You know
He gets saved there. He calls upon the name of the Lord. That's how you get saved
You know, you believe on Christ you call upon him and ask him to save you
But let's look at acts 26 just in case you know, you want to be a glutton for punishment here
Acts 26 verse number nine. So this is in front of Felix
This is in front of the Roman government
that are trying to determine whether he's gonna go
to Caesar or not.
He's appealed unto Caesar after he talked to the Jews
in chapter 22.
Now he's been held, I think, for a couple years in prison
just to kind of, you know, make the Jews happy or whatever,
because they love to beat up on Paul.
But Acts 26, verse nine, it says,
I barely thought with myself,
What I ought to do, many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth,
which thing I also did in Jerusalem and many of the saints did I shut up in prison,
having received authority of the chief priest, and when they were put to death I gave my voice against them.
So he's bearing witness against people and having them killed, and I punished them off in every synagogue,
and compelled them to blaspheme. It sounds like torture to me.
and being exceeding mad against them,
I persecuted them even unto strange cities,
whereupon as I went to Damascus
with authority and commission from the chief priest
at midday, O King, I saw in the way a light from heaven
above the brightness of the sun,
shining round about me and them which journeyed with me.
And when they were all fallen to the earth,
I heard,
a voice speaking unto me and saying in the Hebrew tongue,
Saul, Saul, why persecutist thou me?
It is hard for thee to kick against the prick."
So there's some added information there
that everybody else fell to the earth also.
And Jesus is speaking to him in the Hebrew tongue.
That's pretty interesting also.
But anyway, it says, and I said, who art thou, Lord?
And he said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutist.
And then here's extra information that wasn't in the other two accounts.
It says, but rise and stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose,
to make thee administer, and to witness both of these things, which thou hast seen, and
of those things in which I will appear unto thee.
delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me."
So all those three sentences there were not in the previous two accounts, but it's very interesting that he said that.
But even there, do you see him preaching the gospel to them?
No, you don't see him preaching the gospel to him. You don't see him saying call upon me. So
He you know, he still sends him to Ananias ultimately so
And so Paul says whereupon old King of Grippo. I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision
So he still went forward and did everything that Jesus said for him to do. I mean in any of those accounts
Does Jesus preach the gospel to him?
No, he doesn't he doesn't preach the gospel to him like and say, you know, I mean he does call him Lord
He does obey him. So though that is true
But in which chapter do we hear the clear testimony of Saul being told that?
He needs to call upon the name of the Lord and who says it and
Ananias right
So, and then what does the Bible teach about calling upon the name of the Lord?
How long have people been calling upon the name of the Lord to be saved?
Since Genesis chapter 4 verse 26 where it says, go ahead and turn to Psalm chapter 116.
I'm going to read for you Genesis 426.
Genesis 426 says, And to Seth, to him also there was born a son.
then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.
So in the second generation or the third generation
after Adam, there was Enos and men began to call upon
the name of the Lord.
Now people get this weird idea that we don't have to call
upon the name of the Lord for salvation,
but for some weird reason,
we call upon him for everything else in our life,
except for just not to be saved,
which is really a strange doctrine.
It's like, oh, nope. You don't have to call upon them to be saved. Don't ask them to be saved
Just you know just ask them to bless your food ask them to bless your health ask them to
You know for the dog to get better and whatever else you want to call upon them for because you know if he's
God and he's our father then you know just like your parents you'd ask them for stuff
Well, you can ask God for things too. Just don't ask them for salvation because that's not required
What a weird thing to say it's bizarre
Psalm 116 verse 13 says I will take the cup of salvation and
Call upon the name of the Lord. I mean, that's pretty plain and clear, isn't it?
You know, I mean Jesus said it's you know, it's the Bible teaches that it's so easy to be saved
It's like drinking a cup of water
You know Jesus said, you know
That it's like, you know, he said if you would take this, you know, if if good night
John chapter 4 he's talking to the woman at the well, and he said if you knew who you were asking
If he knew who it was that you would ask of him and he would give the living water
So she's getting water out of a well and he said hey if you knew who you were talking to right now
You would ask me and I would give the living water
That living water he's talking about is like the Holy Spirit, you know, a well springing
up into everlasting life.
So when it's saying here in this verse, I will take the cup of salvation and call upon
the name of the Lord.
I mean, wouldn't it make sense that if you're taking, you know, it's kind of giving us a
metaphor here that you just drink that cup of salvation, you call upon the name of the
Lord, you ask Jesus to save you.
You know back in the Old Testament Jesus's name wasn't known so they just called upon the name of the Lord that they knew at that time
You know, whatever it was capital LORD, Jehovah God, whatever
Definitely not Yahweh, but like whatever the name of the Lord was the Lord God
You know the Lord of hosts or whatever
So but now we know that the name that we call upon is Jesus
so
Romans chapter, let's turn to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. So again,
here's the apostle Paul teaching about this doctrine. He teaches this doctrine
very clearly and then yet these bozos out there, they're like, no, Romans chapter
10 is talking about physical salvation. You call upon him for physical
Thousands and thousands and thousands of people
have been saved by the Romans road of salvation
where you just, you know, you go through the scriptures
and show people how to be saved.
And Romans 10 is like the finale.
This is the closer.
This is the closing deal.
This is where you show people, hey,
if you believe in Jesus, you believe in your heart,
confess with your mouth,
you call upon the name of the Lord.
You ask him to save you, you know?
You can,
You can say, hey, here's a free gift,
and if someone doesn't take the gift,
then it's not theirs, is it?
So someone has to receive the gift to be saved.
It's pretty simple.
But Romans 10, verse eight says,
but what sayeth it?
The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth,
and in thy heart, that is the word of faith,
which we preach.
So what does Paul preach?
The word of faith.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead
You might be saved. It could be possible. No, that's not what it says. It says thou shalt be saved and
Then it says for with the heart man believe with under righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation
For what this for the scriptures sayeth whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed
Let me ask you this if you pray if you call upon someone that you that you've never seen isn't that faith?
So people are like well. Yeah, but you know praying a prayer doesn't save you or whatever. It's like well
How about calling upon someone you've never seen before?
But you have faith in him because you know that the Bible is true
You believe the Bible, and you're like, yeah, I believe this, and then you ask that God that you've never seen before to save you.
That's called faith. That's not works. That's called faith.
And it says, for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek.
for the same Lord, overall is rich unto all that, what's it say?
That call upon him.
Now yes, that could be calling upon him to save you from a bad situation.
Once you're saved, you can call upon him for any situation that you're in.
You're about to crash and you're like, Lord save me.
Who's ever seen where that lady's driving through the wildfires of California and like
everything's burning up around her and she's going through this tunnel?
That was scary. And she's like, just Lord save me, Lord help me, Lord.
I mean, she's just, she's crying out to God to save her and help her get through there.
And she lived, but it was a pretty freak. I mean, it freaks, freaks me out just watching the video
because how scary is that?
But I'm sure you've been in situations where you're just scared and you call out to God
and ask Him to help you.
You can call upon Him for anything, but this is talking about salvation, okay?
This is not talking about, you know, you're driving through a snowstorm or something.
This is talking about salvation.
And then it says, for whosoever, which means anyone, shall call upon the name of the Lord,
shall be saved.
So did Paul call upon the name of the Lord?
All right, which chapter was it in?
Chapter 22 acts chapter 22, right verse number 16, right?
Okay, so did Paul get saved there?
That he that his sins get washed away so to speak was it in the baptismal waters that it got washed away?
No, it's because he called upon the name of the Lord and once you do that you pass from death unto life
There's no condemnation from there on out and then Paul is teaching this doctrine
right here
so
Again, whether he's the exception to the rule and Jesus did save him which you know people believe that
It still doesn't mean that this isn't true. Jesus isn't gonna pop out of the clouds and save you okay
When I say he's the accept he would be the exception to the rule that would be the exception to the rule
because Paul says he's the last of the apostles,
one born out of due time.
That was an event.
So John, the apostle, saw him, but John had already seen him.
John had already seen him transfigured before the revelation.
He saw him on the mount of transfiguration.
So Paul is the last one to see him
that was not one of the other apostles.
You're not gonna see him until he comes back
and everybody sees him at the same time.
What does the Bible say in Romans 10 13 for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved
So once people believe in Jesus they call upon him. They're saved
So how then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed and
How shall they believe on him and whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a preacher?
So these are questions that Paul's asking and it's like well, what's the answer to those questions?
How should they call upon him and who they have not believed?
Nobody's gonna call upon someone that they don't believe in and
Then how shall they believe in him and whom they have not heard well that they can't believe in him because they've never heard of them
And it says, and how shall they hear without a preacher?
Someone has to preach to them.
This is what, so here's another passage that's teaching
the same exact thing that I already showed you in Romans
chapter one verse 17, that I already showed you
in First Corinthians.
And it says, and how shall they preach except they be sent?
Ananias go to the street that is called straight and go to the house of Judas and find a man called Saul
He's praying go and talk to him. I
Mean did he get sent there? He did
Why would he do that if Jesus had already saved him like what's the point? I mean just so you can get baptized
No
Could if Jesus saved him, I'm just giving a theoretical here, which he could have but I'm just saying
Why didn't Jesus give him the Holy Ghost? He did that with the other apostles?
He blew he breathed on them and said receive you the Holy Ghost before he left. How come he didn't do it right then?
Well, how come Jesus didn't baptize him he could have but Jesus didn't baptize anybody so
according to the Bible so
But it says, as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace
and bring glad tidings of good things.
But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah says,
Lord, who hath believed our report.
So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
So the word of God has to be preached.
It's not just your story.
It's just not some dumbed-down version of the gospel.
The hearing of the Word of God has to be preached.
So again, Paul does call Jesus, Lord, on the road.
He seems to believe he's Lord,
but has he called upon him and asked him to save him?
Until that point when Ann and I said,
I mean, it doesn't appear that's part
of the three different stories that we read.
So, in all the accounts Jesus tells him to go find Ananias, or at least two of the accounts
he tells him to go find Ananias and he will tell him what he must do.
So another thing is that should be observed from each story is the blinding of Paul.
So in the Bible again, literal blindness is also a picture of spiritual blindness.
So Jesus, you know shines the light this bright light upon him, but then he's blind. He's not he doesn't see
He doesn't see for three days. So that would just kind of picture that he's in darkness
You know that he's not saved until he actually sees again
You know, I don't know it just doesn't the picture doesn't seem right until he sees again
So he's telling him I'm sending you to these people
That are in darkness so that you can
You know make them be able to see and wake them up from the devil
Who is blind to them so?
So Jesus heals the blind by faith in the Gospels, but in the places where there was no faith
He didn't do many miracles. He didn't do a lot of miracles in places that were just faithless.
So in Paul's case, he is blind three days, and for the picture of salvation to be complete, it makes sense that he is healed from the blindness when he gets saved.
And the day he gets saved, he gets healed from the blindness.
to heal his blindness, give him the Holy Ghost,
and then he ultimately kind of tells him
what his ministry is and sends him out.
He kind of reiterates what Jesus has already kind of told him,
but he still does those things.
So, and you know, the picture of maybe Paul
being saved on the road to Damascus is a powerful one.
I'll admit that too.
But, I mean, I just don't think that it stands up
to the other verses that I've...
looked at, and actually what Paul is preaching in other verses doesn't make sense either
if Jesus is the one that saved him on the road to Damascus.
So obviously he led him on the path to salvation,
and he ultimately is the one that saves everybody,
so technically Jesus saves him anyway, right?
But I do stick with the belief that he was led to Christ by Ananias and
Paul says it out of his own lips acts
2216 and this is what he teaches in Romans 1 Romans 10 and 1 Corinthians
So this is what the Bible teaches overall believe the but the Paul called upon the name of the Lord and
Then his sins were forgiven
not before so
Now, um, yeah, that's about all I have time for so I just kind of want to show that
You know, that's the case.
But I don't have time to finish all the notes that I have,
so we're just going to have to call her done there.
So I'm letting you off lightly tonight.
So but anyway, hopefully that makes sense.
If there's any questions or if you have anything to add,
I mean, if there's something that you feel like I missed
or that didn't make sense or something like that,
I'm definitely open to hear different perspectives on that.
Well, I might not agree with you, but...
I would agree with you, but then we both be wrong.
So that's the problem with that.
So I'm just kidding.
All right, let's pray.
Lord, we thank you so much for the lessons
we can learn in the Bible,
and especially this great book in Galatians
and great leader Paul.
And Lord, we thank you for salvation.
We thank you for making it so easy for us
that all we have to do is put our faith in you
and call upon you.
And it's just a done deal.
We're saved forever.
And Lord, I pray that if there's anybody here
that's just not saved, I pray that Lord,
Pick today to be that day of salvation, Lord,
and it's just super easy, super,
and nothing that people have to do besides just believe
and call.
So pray that you just bless us as we go our separate ways,
protect us, and bring us back into church on Sunday.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, hearing about Paul makes you think about the time you got saved.
All right, and 379, bringing in the cheese, 379, we are closing song.
the time of reaping, we shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
bringing in the sheaves, we shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
bringing in the sheaves.
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,
sowing in the sunshine, sowing in the shadows,
fearing neither clouds nor winter's chilling breeze.
By and by the harvest and the labor ended,
the sheaves bringing in the sheaves bringing in the sheaves we shall come rejoicing bringing
in the sheaves bringing in the sheaves bringing in the sheaves we shall come rejoicing bringing
with weeping, sowing for the master, for the loss of stain, our spirit often breathes.
When our weeping's over, he will bid us welcome. We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the shea-
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves.
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.