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Acts chapter 9 in the Bible reads, And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went into 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. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined around 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 pricks. And he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into 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 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. There was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias, and he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. The Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street, which is called Straight, and acquire in the house of Judas, for one called Saul, of Tarsus, for behold, he prayeth. And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and put in 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 thy saints at Jerusalem, and here he hath authority from the chief priest to bind all that call on thy name. 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 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 cameest 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 scythe forthwith and arose and was baptized. When he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then when Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus, and straight away he preached Christ in the synagogues that he is the Son of God. But all that heard him were amazed and said, Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests? But Saul increased the morn strength and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ. And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him. But their laying await 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. When Saul was come to Jerusalem, he is said to join himself to the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and that he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. And he was with him, coming in, and going out at Jerusalem. And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians. But they went out about to slay him, which when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Caesarea, and sent them forth to Tarsus. Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria, and were edified, and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied. And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda. And there he found a certain man named Aeneas, which had kept his bed eight years, and was sick of the palsy. And Peter said unto him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ, maketh thee whole. Arise, and make thy bed, and he arose immediately. And all that dwelt at Lydda and Sauron saw him, and turned to the Lord. Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas. This woman was full of good works and alms-dees, which she did. And it came to pass in those days that she was sick and died, whom when they had washed, they laid her in an upper chamber, and for as much as Lydda was nigh to Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent unto him two men desiring him that he would not delay to come to them. Then Peter arose and went with them. When he was come, they brought him unto the upper chamber, and all the widows stood by him weeping, and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas made while she was with them. But Peter put them all forth and kneeled down, and prayed, and turning him to the body said, Tabitha, arise, and she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. And he gave her his hand, and lifted her up, and when he had called the saints and widows presented her alive. And it was known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord, and it came to pass that he tarried many days in Joppa, with one Simon a tanner. Let's pray, dear Lord God, thank you for this church you've given us, thank you for your word, Lord, and we pray that you fill pastor with your Holy Spirit right now, Lord, as he preaches out of your word, Lord, and just pray that us and the congregation are edified by the preaching, Lord, and just bless all this time and every aspect of this service, Lord, we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Okay, we're in Acts chapter 9 this evening, and what I want to preach on tonight is the conversion of Paul, the conversion of Paul. I want to go through the three accounts that we see in the book of Acts talking about Paul and his salvation, and some of the events leading up to his conversion and these are three accounts that are found in chapter 9, chapter 22 and chapter 26. So we're going to cover some of the content of those chapters, but also I'm going to explain some of the seeming discrepancies that people will try to pull out and claim that possibly some of these accounts are contradicting one another, and of course we know that they're not. There is obviously a reasonable explanation for some of the variations that we see in these accounts, and I'm going to cover that in just a bit, but the Apostle Paul is obviously a great Christian of the New Testament churches. He was used mightily of God, and in fact, he was used in such a great way that he essentially kind of supersedes a lot of the other apostles not because he's more talented or because he has more knowledge of the Bible, but simply because he actually decided to put more work in than the other apostles. Now the other apostles walked with Jesus Christ while he was here on this earth, and they were part of that three and a half year ministry, yet the Apostle Paul, though he wasn't even saved during that time, did way more than the apostles did because of the fact that he chose to go into the Gentiles, and that was something that was really important to the Lord. We see that when he gives the Great Commission, how he wanted them to go into Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. And the problem with the apostles was the fact that they essentially just stayed in Jerusalem, they were preaching to Jews, and quite frankly, there's nothing necessarily wrong with that because people need to be edified, there's churches that are being started there, people are getting saved. However, there's people in other regions that were also receptive to the gospel and nobody was reaching them. And so the Apostle Paul was selected by God in order to go and be an apostle to the Gentiles. Not to say that he wasn't reaching Jews, but essentially he was selected particularly to go and reach people in the uttermost parts of the world, which is why he was able to reach different nations and different peoples, and churches began to get started in Greece, in Asia Minor, and areas like that, and he was used greatly. In fact, the book of Acts is essentially a story about the Apostle Paul. I mean, we see the apostles being covered there in the very beginning, but after a while, the attention turns to the Apostle Paul only because he's doing so much work, and then of course he writes a lot of the epistles that are found in our New Testament. So he's a great man of God, and I do believe he is a special case in the Bible, he is a unique case, he's the exception to many of the rules that we see when it comes to the other apostles, and we'll cover that in just a bit. So let me mention a couple things regarding him. First and foremost, let me just say this, is that Saul is Paul, and Paul is Saul. You say, well yeah, obviously. Well here's the thing though, is that a lot of times churches, and I think they probably get this from Bible college, and these seminaries, where they'll claim that he was Saul, but then after his conversion, he became Paul. And honestly, when I think about that concept, I can see where they're getting that from, because that is something that is very common in the Bible, where you have people that have one particular name, but then they have this encounter with the Lord, and God ends up changing their name, and it's almost as if God is making them a new person. He's changing who they are, he's recognizing them to be a best one to the Lord. You think of Abram, who's changed into Abraham. You have Sarai being changed into Sarah. You have Jacob, who becomes Israel. You have Cephas, who becomes Peter. Jesus literally names him Peter. I mean, Jesus was notorious for giving his disciples nicknames. You have James and John, who are the sons of thunder, Boanerges. And so that is definitely a concept in the Bible, however, it's not about that's not what's taking place with Paul. How do we know that? Well, look at Acts chapter 13, we'll come back to Acts chapter 9. And this is not to say that God wasn't working in the Apostle Paul, we obviously know he was, but he didn't rename Paul. It wasn't like, you know, your name was Saul and thou shall be called Paul from here on out, or something like that. And again, I know that's something that takes place in the Bible, but this is an instance where it did not take place. Look at Acts 13 and verse number 9. Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him. So clearly it's telling us that his name is Saul, but he is also called Paul. Now you say, well, why is it that he has these two names? Well, Saul is essentially his Hebrew name. Because the Apostle Paul is a Jew, he is an Israelite, he is of the tribe of Benjamin, he's raised in an Israeli Jewish home, and although he is Jewish by nature, he's part of the children of Israel, so to speak, from a fleshly standpoint, he was born in a Roman province. He was born in Tarsus, which is run by the Romans, and so if he's born there, he has a Roman name, and Paul is a Roman name. You have Saul being his Hebrew name, and then Paul being essentially his Greek or his Roman name. Now, when you read the book of Acts, you'll see that Saul is used, but then there's instances where Paul is with, among Gentiles, he's amongst Greeks and Romans, and he decides to use the name Paul. Now why is that? Well, let me read to you from 1 Corinthians 9 and verse 19, and I'm going to explain to you why I think that is. It says in verse 19, For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain them all. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew. So when he's witnessing to Jews, he's probably going by the name Saul. To them that are under the law as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law. To them who are without the law, as without law, not being not without law to God, but under the law of Christ, that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak, I have made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And so I think he's using his names, the duality of his names, to his advantage based upon the audience that he's speaking to. Now I have some I feel like I do this sometimes. Because when you look at my name, I have one of the widest names, but I also have one of the most Mexican names. Because my Mexican name, my first name is actually Delfin. And that is like straight Mexican. You know what I mean? That's like Delfin. Not Delfin by the way. If you're going to say it, you better say it right. Delfin. But my middle name is actually Bruce. Now Bruce, in my mind, when I think of the name Bruce, I think of an old white man. In fact, I feel like I've only known older white men with that name. Like I've never met a young person named Bruce. I'm actually the only Bruce I've ever met who's a Hispanic or even young. Other than that, it's only been like older man. And the reason John's laughing right now is because I always get this, every time I think of my name as being older and white, he always gives this impression of like, you know, an old white man just saying, how the hell are ya? You know, he just kind of talks like that. And I was like, you know what, that does fit that description actually. You know, I just feel like Bruce is a really white, old name. Now I can give you the history of why my name is Bruce, it doesn't really matter, but I actually really like the name Bruce. I mean I feel like it's a strong name. And I use it to my advantage. Because people see me like he's a pastor, he's Mexican, oh but his name is Bruce though. So he must be Americanized or something, you know? But you know what, when I'm in different countries where they speak Spanish, like Mexico, or even when I went to Aruba, Ghana Belize, I will use the name Delphine. Just to kind of say, hey, I'm like you guys, you know, I'm a Hispanic. Or I'll say, Pastor Mejia, which is also a very Hispanic name, last name. And so obviously, you know, I just use these names to my advantage. But I'm both Delphine and I'm also Bruce, okay? And so I think the Apostle Paul is also doing this. He's using both names. And this concept that, oh, no, no, no, he was Saul before salvation and Paul after salvation is a complete contradiction because even after he's saved, Jesus is referring to him as Saul. So how can that be? If he's the one who named him Paul, when he's talking to Ananias about the Apostle Paul, he's telling him about Saul, you understand? And so obviously it has nothing to do with his spiritual standing if he's just a different transformed person and it's reflecting in his name. He just named Saul and Paul, okay? And I get why people will try to have that narrative that, oh, you know, he's just a different, now he's the Apostle Paul. But you know what? His works speak for him. You know, he doesn't need a name change for people to know that he is the Apostle Paul. Now I will say this is that, you know, if his name is Saul and Saul is associated with him being a Pharisee, it's associated with him persecuting and it's associated with like the historical figure Saul, you can see why maybe he might want to go with Paul instead of Saul. Okay? He just like has like a blemish of a name and, you know, I'm trying to think of a current name who would have that type of connotation where it's just like, yeah, this name is just kind of negative. You know what I mean? And so I don't really use this particular name. I'd rather be called whatever. You understand? And so, no, not Hitler by the way. Okay? I don't know who would name their kid Hitler. I think that would be a stupid name to choose. And so that's why, okay? So he's Saul, but he's also Paul. Saul is his Hebrew name. Paul is his Roman and or Greek name. Let me read to you from Acts 22 verse 3. I am barely a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God as he are all this day. And so even though he was born in Tarsus according to the Bible, he was raised practically in Jerusalem at the feet of Gamaliel, which is why he ended up becoming a Pharisee. And so that is the reason for his name. Now turn with me if you would to 1 Timothy chapter 1. 1 Timothy chapter 1. Hold your place there in Acts because we're going to come back to that in just a bit. So you have Saul. You have Paul. And the second thing I want to mention is that Paul was not a murderer. A psychopath murderer, as people want to make him out to be. And this is a common misconception about the Apostle Paul, and it seems as though this has been repeated so much that Christians just believe it. And any time me or one of my friends or anybody just exposes some rotten, false prophet, reprobate, cannibal, sodomite, just the worst scum of the freaking earth. They're like, yeah, but the Apostle Paul murdered people. It's like, well first of all, the Apostle Paul was not a serial killer. And the last time I checked, he wasn't being a homo and cannibalizing his victims or something. It's like to compare him to such an animal as Jeffrey Dahmer is just complete disrespectful, it's despicable, it's not the same thing. It's not the same parallel. But you know, it's these liberal Christians who attend these liberal fund centers that always want to make that parallel. And you kind of wonder, are you saying that you're like that or something like that? Or what's the deal? And so they're always pointing to the fact, well Paul killed Christians. And I always tell them like, where does it say that he killed Christians? And I'm not saying that the Apostle Paul was completely innocent, because obviously the Bible tells us that he held the coats of them who stoned Stephen. He was consenting unto their death. He didn't care if Christians died or not, but he himself was not going about murdering people and killing Christians. He was arresting them, and he was persecuting them, but he wasn't killing Christians which is completely different. Murdering people is completely different than arresting them, or whatever, for their faith. Look at 1 Timothy 1 verse 12. He says, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelief. So we see three things here that he states. He says he's a blasphemer. Now this doesn't mean that he blasphemed the Holy Ghost, because what does it mean to blaspheme? It means to speak evil of something. That's literally what it's referring to. And obviously in the context of blaspheming the Holy Ghost, it means you're speaking evil of the Spirit of God, which is something that the Apostle Paul did not do. And in fact, the very verse is telling us that he did these things ignorantly and unbelief, meaning that he thought what he was doing was right. He thought Judaism was correct. He thought he was actually serving God. It's not because he hated the Lord. Reprobates hate God. Reprobates blaspheme the Lord because they actually know who he is and they actually despise him. Whereas the Apostle Paul didn't think that prior to salvation. He's speaking evil of that way because he just thinks it's a fringe group of Jews who have created this sect and this cult of followers or whatever it may be. That's what it means there, to be a blasphemer. He's a persecutor, it says, and then he's injurious. And what does it mean to be injurious? It means he hurts people. But here's the thing, folks. If you're arresting people, you're going to hurt people. If you're hailing them and you're grabbing them, you're probably going to hurt a couple people. He's shackling people up and he's probably hurting people, but this is a far cry from murdering people. And so it's very much different. And, of course, it says that he obtained mercy by the Lord because at the end of the day, he did it ignorantly and unbelief. And this is what separates the reprobate from the person who believes wrongly is the fact that he's ignorant about it. The person who is in, for example, a Jehovah's Witness church and doesn't know any better, or the person that is in a Pentecostal assembly but doesn't know better, they think what they're doing is right, but they've just been deceived. That's different from a reprobate. That's different from a false prophet. That's different from the guy who's actually behind the pulpit teaching the false doctrine. You understand? And so he's doing it ignorant and unbelief. He thinks what he's doing is right and this is why he's persecuting them. Go back to Acts, if you would. Look at Acts chapter 8. And again, I'm not excusing his behavior. He was obviously doing a lot of bad stuff. He was persecuting the church of God. He basically was a part of the problem. Right? And it didn't help him, the fact that he's a Pharisee, because Pharisees obviously have bad history with Christians. They're the ones who crucify the Lord Jesus Christ. It says there in Acts 8 verse 1, and Saul was consenting unto his death, referring to the death of Stephen. 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. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church entering into every house and hailing men and women committed them to prison, the Bible says. So I want you to notice that it says that he made havoc of the church. So he's part of the reason why, listen to this, he's part of the reason why the disciples in Jerusalem are scattering. So you can basically say he's single-handedly, and I'm sure there's others who are involved, but the one who's being highlighted is the Apostle Paul, he's like single-handedly creating problems for the believers. Now why is he doing that? Well it's because he's really zealous, which I think is one of the reasons why God selected him. And this will be one of my last points, but you kind of wonder like why did God specifically select the Apostle Paul? Like why did he reveal himself in such a way, a miraculous way on the road to Damascus, why is that? Like what is it about the Apostle Paul that made him so special and unique that God, that Jesus Christ would choose to do so? Because he didn't really do that for a whole lot of people, in fact he's probably one of the only ones that he did that to after the ascension. He obviously reveals himself to the Apostle John to reveal to give him the contents of the book of Revelation, the apocalypse, but the Apostle Paul is a very unique case in this instance, so why is that? Well I personally think aside from the fact that he was zealous, here you have a man who thinks he's serving God, and obviously he's not, he's very zealous, and as an unsafe person, he's willing to go throughout all the cities, even to the point where he's willing to go to Damascus, so he's willing to inconvenience himself to leave Jerusalem, Peter, John, other Apostles, you know, he's willing to do this and actually go to Damascus, get authority from the chief priest, from the Sanhedrin or whatever, to actually go to different, the Bible actually says he went to strange cities outside of Jerusalem for the sake of persecuting people. Now you say, what's the deal with that? Well I think God just sees the fact that this man is actually serious about his business, if he really believes it. So once the Apostle Paul buys into the truth, he actually believes the truth, he becomes a great instrument in the hand of God, and is it any coincidence that after salvation, he's doing the same exact thing, the only difference is he's preaching Christ and him crucified. But he's going to strange cities, he's going throughout all the world, the difference now is that he's not persecuting Christians, he's actually confirming the disciples and winning other people to Christ. So it's one of those things where it's just like, you know, there's certain people that just have a lot of potential, and I think maybe the Lord saw the potential that the Apostle Paul had, he's obviously a man who has no quarrels with traveling far and wide to accomplish that which his zeal is causing him to do, but you know, if he's saved, he believes the Bible, he is a Christian, he can also be effective for the kingdom of God as well. And it's probably one of the reasons why the Lord specifically selected him. He says, look at chapter 9 and verse 1, it says, And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went into the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether there were men or women, he might bring them bound into Jerusalem. So first and foremost, chapter 8 says that he's willing to get men and women. He's like, I'm no respecter of people. Anybody who claims this way is getting it. Second of all, chapter 9 says he's breathing out threatenings and slaughters. So that means he's just, he's talking a lot of crap is what he's doing. He's like, I'm going to get these Christians, and these people are a part of that way. So he's not only talking the talk, but he's walking the walk. Right? And he's even getting the authority from, you know, the high priest, he's getting letters so he can go to Damascus, he's willing to go to the synagogues to find these people, and he's looking for people, men and women, to bring them bound into Jerusalem. Just like, he's like a bounty hunter. Okay? Now this kind of makes me think of like, you know, obviously there's unsafe people out there who are in a cult, but it kind of makes me mad when they work harder than Christians sometimes. You know what I mean? Where you have Mormons or whatever that are willing to just learn different languages and become fluent just so they can preach their damnable heresy in some other country. But Christians aren't willing to put in the work, amen? To learn and to be a formidable Christian soul winner to win people to Christ. You have Saul who is not saved at this point, and yet he seems to have more zeal, you know, albeit not according to knowledge, but he has more zeal than Peter. He has more zeal than John and all these other apostles who are sitting on their rear ends in Jerusalem only wanting to preach to Jews. You understand what I'm saying? And so it says a lot about, and I don't think this information is placed in these chapters on accident just to be filler. I think it's showing us that he is a very zealous person, and look, I'm not the type to believe, oh man, if we could just get this one celebrity saved or something, he would have so much influence or whatever. You know, that's stupid, okay? And you know, oh, if we could just get a celebrity to say Jesus and say God or something, just mention the Bible, he has such a following, you know, oh man, Kanye West did so much for Christianity, or something, he's like, I don't believe in that nonsense. But you know, there are normal human beings who are zealous for the things that they are zealous about in this world, and you know what, often that passion is transferred over once they get saved, and that's how it should be. You know, whatever you gave yourself to in the world as passionately as you did, you should give yourself to the things of God after salvation. You know, instead of, you know, staying up late on Friday partying, wake up early on Saturday and go soul winning, amen? That transfer of passion should be, you know, into the things of God, doing the things of God, being zealous for the things of God. You know, if you're willing to wake up at a certain time to go to some stupid football game and paint your belly or whatever, and be all crazy there in the stadium for your stupid football team or your stupid, you know, whatever, you know, be stupid for the Lord, amen? Be a fool for Christ! Be crazy for the things of God, okay? You know, Saul obviously was a lot different prior to salvation, but you can see kind of a lot of the similarities though. He's still kind of acting the same, the only difference is now he's serving God, okay? But he's just as zealous, he's putting his life on the line after salvation, I mean, he's being shipwrecked, he's fasting, they're stoning him, I mean, he's living a crazy wild life, okay? But it's not that much different from what he was doing prior to salvation, the difference is now he's on the right side, okay? And let me also say this, lest anybody should think that I'm saying something different, and that is I'm not saying that if some pastor who's some Pentecostal tongue flapping pastor, you know, he gets saved, hallelujah, but he needs to step down from being a pastor. You don't just continue being a pastor after you've been a freaking Pentecostal for years on end, you know, flapping your tongues and believing you could lose your salvation and all that other nonsense of Pentecostalism and the charismatic movement, and all of a sudden you just continue to be a pastor, and you're using like a wrong Bible version, you believe the wrong doctrine, I mean, there's so many wrong doctrines about Pentecostals, you kind of wonder, like, what do you still believe? And so if you have some, and look, praise God if, you know, there's certain pastors that come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, but you know what, you're an unqualified person, because the Bible tells us not a novice, and a novice is someone who is newly saved. You say, what about the apostle Paul? Well, first of all, he's an apostle, and you know what, if Jesus came down, and you had an experience which is not going to happen, then that would be a different situation. And again, this is a unique situation with the apostle Paul, and you know, you don't see it repeated thereafter. But you know what, there's a reason why the apostle Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, is writing to Timothy about the qualifications of a pastor. And I'm not down on anybody who gets saved, because praise God, hallelujah, when someone gets saved, even if it's a pastor. It's better to have a pastor who gets saved than a pastor who splits hell wide open. So thank God for that, but you know what, okay, let's get into reality though, you shouldn't be a pastor. Okay, because of the fact that you're still a babe in Christ according to the Bible. And it doesn't matter if you're ordained as a pastor, and even if it was a saved person who's been a pastor for a long time who ordained you, you don't deserve that. You're violating clear scriptures, and you should be sitting in the pew with everyone else, learning the word of God, because you're teaching salvation as an unsaved person, and you're wrong this entire time. Anyways, and so by the way, you know the apostle Paul didn't put himself in this situation, God put him there. Like he's calling him to be an apostle. And let me just back up a little bit here, because you know sometimes people have this misconception that as soon as the apostle Paul got saved, he's like full blown an apostle, he's starting churches, he's like doing, he's like a leader in the church, he has all this authority. No! He actually spent years just serving the other apostles, did you know that? He was a water boy for a while. Him and Barnabas. They're just, they're like errand boys. He just sent him to go do tasks, and you don't see him complaining about anything. He's just like content, serving the Lord, just serving the other apostles, just doing what he's told, until the Holy Ghost said separate me Saul and Barnabas for the work whereto I have called them to. And at that point he's like alright, now it's time to kick it up. Now you can start serving God. But that was years after he got saved my friends. So it's not like he just got saved and then just got ordained to be some pastor in the church. Wrong. Wrong. It wasn't until years after when he's been humbled, when he's faithfully serving God, and he has been tried and true, and the Holy Ghost is selecting him for the work years after that he's actually doing all those works. And so yeah, he's a unique case, but even in his situation he had to wait years before he can actually be a person of authority where he's writing these letters, and he's starting these churches, and he's winning people to Christ, years later. No microwave ordination. No drive-thru ordination. Okay, I know they have drive-thru marriages and drive-thru divorces, and you know, drive-thru whatever. There's no drive-thru ordination. I know there's pastors that offer that. But it's not in the Bible, and you know what? People, if you just got saved, you just need to sit down, shut up, and learn and humble yourself, and wait until God exalts you and elevates you to a position of authority, okay? And so let me move on from that. Let me read to you from Acts 26 in verse 9, it says, I verily thought with myself that 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 that I shut up in prison have not received authority from the chief priest, and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them, and I punished them often every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme, and being exceeding mad against them, I persecuted them even into strange cities, the Bible says. Galatians 1 13 says, For ye 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, and mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my Father. So what's the point that I'm trying to make here? The point that I'm making is that the Apostle Paul was not a rapist. He's not like some serial murderer rapist who's molesting people and taking advantage of churches, so don't compare them to those people, and you know, people out there need to just shut up when they want to defend their favorite faggoty convert or whatever, they always bring up the Apostle Paul, and it's just like a straight face palm, like how can you compare the Apostle Paul to Sodomites when he wrote Romans 1? Hello? It's like crazy! It's wild! He was a murderer! No, he never actually murdered anybody. He arrested them, yeah, he consented unto their death, yes, he was injurious, he might have hurt some of them, but he's not just a serial killer walking around cannibalizing people, stop saying that narrative, it's a stupid doctrine, it's not in the Bible, it never happened, okay? Now you're in Acts chapter 9? Acts chapter 9, so let's look at his conversion here. So the Apostle Paul is on his way to Damascus to go arrest believers and bring them back to Jerusalem, and this is where the Lord Jesus Christ decides to intervene and have this supernatural encounter, or the Apostle Paul has this supernatural encounter with the Lord, look at verse 5, 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 pricks. Now that's a pretty unique statement there, what does that mean? Well, I think what this is referring to, because when you look at the term pricks in the book of Acts, or just throughout the Bible, and specifically in the book of Acts, it's often referring to God just like pricking the heart, okay? He's basically using the word of God to kind of touch the heart, and what is the Apostle Paul doing? He's kicking against the pricks, so he's like fighting against it. So it seems to indicate that the Apostle Paul, obviously he knows the Bible, he's interacted with believers because he's arrested them, and at the end of the day, Jesus knows the heart, so he's saying, it's hard for thee to kick against the pricks, meaning don't resist me working in you, okay? And harden not your hearts is another way of saying this, right? Don't kick against the pricks, you know, don't do that, don't resist the Holy Ghost, don't do it. He says in verse 6, And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Now we'll talk about this later on in the sermon about his conversion, who it is that won the Apostle Paul to the Lord, which I personally believe is Jesus, and we'll look at Acts 22 to compare to see if that's true or not. However, you know, you do have this statement, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And obviously, when we go get people saved and we're preaching the Gospel, that's not a good enough answer for us, right? Like, it's like, oh, you know, he's the Lord or whatever. It wouldn't be sufficient for us to confirm if that person is saved, because we're in the day and age where we have the entire Word of God. There's enough information to give out to instruct people on how to be saved, right? However, this would be sufficient. He said, well, how do you know? Well, because of the fact, you know, there's someone who is crucified next to Christ who said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And apparently that was enough because he said, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. He didn't say today I give you eternal life, today you're saved. He said today thou shalt be with me in paradise, meaning he's saved. And it was based upon that confession that he made. And so obviously, if the Apostle Paul is saying, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? If he's calling him Lord in this context, he's obviously views him as the Savior. And I'm going to prove that later on. He says, And the Lord said unto him, Arise, go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with them stood speechless. So keep in mind that the Apostle Paul is accompanied with individuals who are helping him arrest Christians, right? And these men are speechless. Hearing a voice, but seeing no man. So I want you to remember that. They hear a voice, but they don't see anybody. It says in verse 8, Saul rose from the earth, and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man. But they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus, and he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink. Now hold your place and go to Acts 22, the second account of the Apostle Paul's conversion. So keep in mind that when he has this encounter, the Bible tells us in Acts chapter 9 that the men who accompanied the Apostle Paul, they heard a voice, but they saw no man. Okay, look at Acts 22 verse 6. And it came to pass that as I made my journey was come nine to Damascus about noon, suddenly there were shown from heaven a great light round about me, and I fell into the ground and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest. And they that were, verse 9, 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. So what do we see here? Well in chapter 9, we see that it says that they hear a voice, but they see no man. In Acts 22, we see that they see indeed a light, but they hear not the voice of him that spake to Saul. So when you look at those, it's just like, well that seems kind of like a contradiction. How is it that it's saying in chapter 9 that they hear a voice, and then in chapter 22, they don't hear the voice? How is it that they don't see the man, but then they definitely indeed see the light? And people who are opposed to the word of God, they always want to pull out these examples, right? Because they want to shake the faith of Christians into thinking that what they have in their hands is not the word of God. Because if the word of God had contradictions and discrepancies, it would not be the word of God. Because if God is the author, whatever he produces should be perfect, right? Without error, and it is. And so they'll point to passages like this where it seems to be some sort of discrepancy, and say, see it's not the word of God because you have these two accounts, and they're in opposition one to another. They hear the voice, but it says here they don't hear the voice. They don't see a man, but here they say they indeed see the light. So what is actually that's taking place here? Well, it's not a contradiction, it's another way of illustrating a spiritual truth, in my opinion, between the Apostle Paul and the men who are with him. Because you've got to keep in mind that they're both essentially experiencing the same thing. And according to this, they do see the light, but they don't actually see the man in the light. And they hear a voice, but they can't discern who the voice belongs to. So what is the spiritual truth? Well, go with me if you would to John chapter 9, if you would, John chapter 9, hold your place here in the book of Acts, and go to John chapter 9. Now I also want you to remember that after the encounter, the Apostle Paul is physically blind, right? He can't see for three days. He's physically blind, the glory of the Lord obviously blinded him, and so he literally cannot see physically. However, the men who are with him who saw the light, they still could see. And in fact, the Apostle Paul needed them to guide him by the hand to lead him to Damascus because he's blind. But they could see. Well, look at John chapter 9, verse 39. It says, And Jesus said, For judgment I am coming to this world, that they would see not my sea, and that they which see might be made blind. Some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If you are blind, you should have no sin, but now you say, We see, therefore your sin remaineth. So what is being illustrated here? Well, I think this is a perfect example of what we see in the book of Acts when it comes to the conversion of Paul. Because when you think about it, the Apostle Paul was spiritually blind. He's part of Judaism. He's persecuted in the church of God. And it's not until he gets saved that essentially he's made blind by the glory because he actually sees the Savior. But the other men who see the light, they're not blinded. So they can walk away and say, We see, okay then, therefore your sin remaineth. You see, in the world in which we live, people will look at people like me and people like you in churches like us and they'll say, Well, you guys are so blind. You guys are just so blind. But here's the thing. No, no, we can see. In fact, we see way better than you. You can look at us and say, You guys are just blinded by religion and the white man's religion and the Bible. But the truth is that we've been enlightened to the truth. We actually see better than anybody else. And these people can walk around and think that they can see, but the Bible says that they're actually blind. The Bible says that their sin remaineth. And why is that? Well, because of the fact that when they saw the light, they didn't go to the light. The men saw the light but could not discern the man in the light. When you and I saw the light, you know what happens is we went from blind to being able to see. I once was blind, but now I see. It's not referring to like a physical healing. It's referring to the fact that like the scales fall from our eyes and we see the truth for what it is. And you know what? Man, it feels good to see. It's great to see. It's great to be able to read the word of God and understand it. It's great to not live in deception, to be blinded by the false religions of this world, the wicked ideologies. And you know what? You know what the great thing about seeing is? The great thing about seeing is that it doesn't matter what new false doctrine comes out, it'll never blind us. Doesn't matter what the government is doing, doesn't matter what new false flag they're putting out, it doesn't matter what new thing that they're doing and what Satan's plan is, at the end of the day, we will forever see. We permanently have sight now. And people can walk away, read the Bible, listen to preaching, and see the light and walk away and think that they're seeing, but they're actually still blind. Their sin remaineth. You see the Pharisees walked away from the light of the world which is Jesus. He is the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world and they viewed him and they walk away and they're still blind. And in their minds, they're like, no, no, we can still see. But Jesus said, no, you're still blind because you think you can see. And you know these people can say, no, we're not blind, we can open our eyes, we see everything that's going on. And you know what, I'm so sick of these conspiracy theorist type believers out there that are not even Christian and they're always exposing all of these crazy things that are happening in Hollywood but it's like, dude, you're not even saved though. You don't even have the right salvation. So you're just like, I see everything. It's like, no, you're blind. You don't have any vision. You need one of those walkers or something. You might see men as trees walking. You might be close to the truth, but you're not there. Because at the end of the day, in order to be fully healed of your blindness, you have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And once you do that, I mean, it's a whole new world. You're enlightened to the truth. And so this is not a contradiction, this is just a deeper spiritual truth that people who are blind can't really see. So when an atheist looks at these verses, they think they can see the discrepancy, they can see the contradiction. The idiots can't see the spiritual truth behind it because they're blind. So it's not even worth explaining to them. Explain color to a completely blind person, someone who is born blind. Try to do that. It's the same thing of trying to explain color or, sorry, brother John. John is color blind, but he can see some shades, you know what I mean? John is color blind, he's not racist, amen? You know, try to explain color to a person, someone who's born completely blind. I mean, you would have a better chance explaining color to someone who's completely blind from birth. You would have a better chance doing that than explaining the word of God to someone who's just not saved. They'll never understand it. And look, there's a lot of deep spiritual truths in the Bible. And there's some truths in the Bible that people can twist into meaning that you can lose your salvation, or twist into saying some false doctrine, and it's really not even worth trying to explain it to them. Right? Because they're blind. So it's just like, what is the word trying to explain this deep spiritual truth to you if it requires the Spirit of God to actually enlighten you to these truths? The Bible tells us in Ephesians 1 18, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, the Bible says. The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 14, but their minds were blinded, for unto this day remained the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. And it is a grief sometimes to be on social media, and you see so many people who are just so close to the truth. They know so much about health, and they know about all the evils of this world, and it's just like they're right there. And they feel like the truth of salvation should be just as deep. But the thing is, it's not. Salvation is so simple. But because they spend their life excavating the deep evils of this world, they think that's how much it requires to find salvation. It's not going to happen. It's sad, really. I know people like that on social media, and they hate evil, and they despise the works of Satan. They know that Satan is the god of this world, but they're just not saved. And it's sad. They're blind. And they'll look at someone like me and be like, this poor pastor, he's so blind to so many different truths. He's so blinded, he still believes that the earth is round or something. I can see the curvature. The Bible says, whom the god of this world had blind in the minds of them which believed not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine into them. So those men who were on the road to Damascus with the apostle Paul, yeah, they were speechless. Yeah, they saw the light, but they just never saw the Lord in that light, though. Just never saw Christ. And you know what? People can search for the light all they want, but if it doesn't bring them to the foot of the cross, it's never going to help them. If it doesn't bring them to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, it's not going to happen. They can watch Alex Jones and Infowars all they want. They can look at all the conspiracy theories who are right about some of the evils and ills of this world, but if it doesn't bring them to the foot of the cross, it means nothing. And you know what? Plenty of people have watched Alex Jones and these other people, and they have come to the saving knowledge of Jesus, and amen to that. But you know what? I don't accredit Alex Jones to that. I accredit the person who, when they looked at the light, they saw Jesus in the light. Other people are like, they see Jesus as like, nah, it can't be. There's got to be something more other than that. You know? It's just like, no, it's supposed to bring you to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I mean, if you really want to be awake, if you really want to know the truth, it has to come, it has to bring you to Jesus. And then, you know, after you get saved, you're just not endlessly chasing this imaginary dragon. It's like you're satiated because you have salvation now, and you can calm down and you can chill out. You don't have to stress anymore. You don't need to be anxious about what's going on. It's just like, you can breathe and be like, you know what? I have Jesus. He is the way, the truth and the life. Okay? And so, it's not a contradiction. And also, I want you to notice go to 1 Corinthians, chapter 14, that in chapter 9, they hear a voice, but then it says in chapter 22, but they heard not the voice of Him. Major difference there. Now, how can that be? How is it that in chapter 9, they can hear a voice, and in chapter 22, they don't hear the voice of Him? I'll tell you why, because they're not saved. My sheep hear my voice. The Bible says in John, chapter 10. And the funny thing about that passage is like, he's preaching to the Pharisees, and he's just like, my sheep hear my voice. A stranger will they not follow? And then it immediately follows up with but they understood none of those things. Referring to the Pharisees. So he's like preaching, and they're just like, I don't know what he's saying. It's because you're not saved. Because here's the thing folks, two people, a saved and unsaved person can still get the same powerful word of God and it will only benefit one. Only one person will actually hear the voice of God, the person who saved. Now the desire is that the unsaved person would hear the words of life and that their hearts would be pricked and that they would get saved. And then they can hear the voice of the shepherd, amen? And this is why it's great. One of the great things about being saved, being a saved person is that we always know the voice of the shepherd. Like we know when truth is being spoken to us. And we know when there's deception. You're just like grieved in your spirit if you ever hear false doctrine. You know, you're on social media, YouTube or whatever and you hear some fool out there saying some stupid retarded crap and it's just like, this is not the voice of the shepherd. This is like, this is a bad spirit. I claim no bad vibes from this video. People say that now. It's just like, this person is not of God. And you don't even need like a high level of knowledge of the Bible to know that. You just need to be saved. Because we have the spirit of truth within us. We prove all things hold fast that which is good. We can try the spirits to see if they are of God. And sometimes you just automatically know. And look, the closer you get to the truth, and let me just say this, the closer you get to the truth, the closer you get to the King James Bible. And you know what, when you read the King James Bible, you hear any other version, you're like, that's not the voice of the shepherd. Because he doesn't speak with bra and you know, he doesn't use these modern terms in his Bible. He doesn't blaspheme the word of God. This doesn't sound powerful. You know, and it gets tiresome to see these videos and some people are just well intentioned, but you know these videos pop out of men who are taking stands against like liberalism and sodomy, but then they quote these NIV verses and it's just like, you just ruined this video. This video could have just done something great. You could have sown a really good seed there, but already throwing his Legos into the mix and it's not going to produce anything. You know, because it sounds lame, it sounds wack, it sounds just weak, it sounds effeminate. This is not a shepherd. Who is this imposter trying to play off as a shepherd? The shepherd Jesus the bishop and shepherd of our soul. So when you read the King James Bible, it's like you know this is doctrinal. This is legitimate. Look at 1 Corinthians 14 verse 1, it says, follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts but rather they may prophesy, for he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men but unto God. For no man understandeth him, howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mystery. Skip down to verse number 7, it says, and even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is pipe or harp? For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? So likewise he except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? For he shall speak into the air. So in other words, he's saying if someone comes with a revelation, with a prophecy, but the recipient doesn't understand it, it's not going to benefit them. So it could be the most powerful truth ever but if the person doesn't understand it, it's nothing. No matter how powerful the word of God is. And so at the end of the day, you know the word of God is definitely powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword but you know what, it does not help the unsaved person at all. It doesn't. They can't get anything from it because they don't know the voice of the shepherd yet they can hear something, they know that something is being said you know, an unsaved person comes to our church, they can maybe even agree with some of the things that are being said, but if they're not saved, it doesn't do anything for them. They're just like, they just hear it gladly, they're just like, oh that was good. But it doesn't really affect them unless they're saved. And so it's important for us to understand that just like these men, yeah they heard the voice but they couldn't make the distinction that it was Jesus. And this is one of the reasons why it's important to be King James only. And that we push King James only-ism. It doesn't matter how much of a bad rap it catches with the liberal Christians, who cares what they think. They're the problem with Christianity. We feminize Christianity so bad and they are destroying doctrine and so who gives a rip what they think? With their plethora of Bible versions that makes no difference in anyone's life. No one goes to a liberal church wanting to be like the pastor who's preaching. Like oh man I wish I could just be a faggoty looking dude like that too, you know? Man that's inspiring. Won't happen. Because obviously aside from the fact that he looks like that, he's preaching from like five different versions of the Bible that have no power whatsoever. Can't make any changes. Let me read to you from John chapter 10 verse 2 it says, But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep, to him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers. This parable spake Jesus unto them, but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them. So he's basically proven the point there. Now go back to the book of Acts chapter 9 if you would. Acts chapter 9. Let me just cover this briefly here before I finish up. And that is let's talk about the Apostle Paul's conversion. Okay? Referring to his salvation. Who got Paul saved? And there are differences of opinion when it comes to this. And at the end of the day, it honestly does not matter, because in either case, he got saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Amen? But I do take the position that it was Jesus who won him. And I don't know why people have a tendency to kind of like have a knee-jerk reaction to that, because Jesus won a bunch of people to himself while he was here on this earth, right? And it's just like, yeah, but someone needs to priest the gospel to him. Well, Jesus did. I mean, that's what Jesus did. He is salvation. Okay? And so I don't think it's a novel thing to believe that Jesus won the Apostle Paul to the Lord. I think it's completely normal. I do understand that people can have an issue with that, because maybe they think this will cause people to, you know, in 2024, to claim that, oh, they got saved because they saw a vision from Jesus or something. Like, Jesus led me to the Lord. But here's the thing with that, is that these events that are taking place in the Book of Acts and even the epistles that are written thereafter came before the written gospels. So the gospels, the events of the gospels took place prior to this, but they weren't actually penned down until afterwards. And the reason I make that a point is because after all this takes place, which is essentially the inception of the New Testament churches, you have the gospels being written down where Jesus says, hey, if they say lo, here is Christ or lo, he is there, believe them not. Because there comes a point in the first century AD where all this stuff kind of comes to an end as far as the supernatural occurrence is concerned. Because now the Bible's been canonized, now we have the complete revelation of God, and Jesus Christ doesn't need to show up on the road to Damascus to ordain an apostle, which is an office that no longer exists, because now we have the entire written word of God. And so I think that's the case there. Now let's talk about how he got saved. Look at verse 12, if you would. He says in verse 12, And it hath seen 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 thy saints at Jerusalem. And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name. 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 name's sake. So he's explaining to Ananias, there's going to come a guy, he's got a vision for me to go to you. And this is where people get the misconception that like, oh okay, he's sending him to Ananias so Ananias can get him saved. But really there's no reason why Jesus Christ couldn't get him saved. The only people who are of celestial status who can't get people saved are angels. Okay? They actually had to send people. That's what happened with Cornelius, right? But Jesus is not an angel. Jesus is salvation. So he's telling him like, this is going to happen. And Ananias is like, I'm sorry, Saul? You mean the guy who was coming over here to arrest us? You want me to like help this guy? And then he's just like, well he's a chosen vessel unto me. Okay? And so I'm going to use him greatly is what he's telling him. Verse 17 says, and Ananias went his way and entered into the house and putting his hands on him said, listen to this, brother Saul. That's a good indicator that Saul was already saved. Okay? Because people just don't go around calling each other brother, unless you're a believer. Okay? Brother Saul, the Lord even Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, had sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost. So there's no mention there of Ananias even mentioning giving the apostle Paul the gospel. His task, the task at hand for Ananias is to help Paul receive his physical sight to lay hands on him and so that to help him to be filled with the Holy Ghost. Okay? Which is something that you see consistently throughout the book of Acts is believers having other people lay hands on them so they can be filled with the Holy Ghost. Not to be saved. We don't get people saved by laying hands on them. You understand what I'm saying? Verse 18 says that immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales and he received sight for with and arose and was baptized. And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus. So obviously, you know, the fact that he's blind is figurative of his salvation and the fact that, excuse me, the fact that he received his sight is figurative of his salvation. The scales fall from his eyes but this is something that literally happened. Now, that is the account in chapter 9. Go to chapter 22. Because chapter 22 is a very good argument from the opposing position to claim that Ananias was the one who got him saved. Okay? It's pretty good but there's some problems with it and I'm going to explain to you my interpretation of what we're going to look at here. Look at Acts 22 and verse 12. It says, In one Ananias, a devout man, according to the law, having a good report of the Jews which dwelt there, came unto me and stood and said unto me, Brother Saul received thy sight. In the same hour I looked up upon him. And he said, The God of our fathers had 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 a witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. Verse 16 is that verse. Look what it says. And now, why terriest thou? Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. Okay? Now, this is the argument that the opposing position would take and I can definitely see how that would be valid, right? Because the way you wash away your sins technically, as far as salvation is concerned, is by calling upon the name of the Lord. Right? No one will argue that. And in fact, I've used this verse to reinforce that. And I don't think that's a bad thing to do so. It's a good secondary application in my opinion. But let me give you the primary interpretation of what I believe it to be. Because if it's referring to salvation, you do have an issue. Because he says, Arise and be baptized. So the chronology is off if it's referring to salvation. You know, instead of saying, Wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord and be baptized, which is the chronology of what's supposed to take place, you get saved and then you get baptized. The sequence that we have here is be baptized, wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. So you would have an issue there with the sequence of what's supposed to take place with every believer. Right? So the question is, then what is he referring to? Well, go to Matthew chapter three, if you would. Matthew chapter three. Matthew chapter number three. What I believe took place is that when he was on the road to Damascus, and he had this encounter with the Lord, he got saved there. And I'm not saying that the Lord gave him a full gospel presentation. There are certain things that were probably stated on the road to Damascus during that particular incident that are not recorded in the Bible. And in fact, many of the things that took place in chapter nine are not stated in chapter nine. They're actually stated in chapter twenty six of things that Jesus said to Saul. Okay, so it's kind of proof that there's certain things that may have been said that was left out. Later on, it was said in chapter twenty-two or chapter twenty-six, or just the fact that he got saved. We know that a presentation of some sort was given to him. He understood the gospel because he saved. Now the question is this, is that what is this referring to then? Well, I submit to you that when he says be baptized and wash away the sins, calling on the name of the Lord, washing away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord is not talking about salvation. It's just talking about getting right with God. Okay? And you say, what do you mean by that? Well, you know, when you get saved, you get forgiven of past, present, and future sins. But there's certain things like, you know, you have to get right afterwards, too. You do have to repent of your sin afterwards. Not to confirm salvation, not to make sure that you're saved, but just by mere virtue of just getting right with God. Now let me ask you something. Do you think the apostle Paul did some stuff that, you know, maybe he had to correct a little bit before the Lord? Yeah. You know, he was a blasphemer, he was a persecutor, and he was injurious. And I think what Ananias is saying, like, get baptized and you need to wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord. And let me say this, when we confess our sins daily, that's what we're doing. Obviously, the phrase calling on the name of the Lord is consistently used to talk about salvation, but there's other instances when it can be used just talking about calling on Him to forgive us today of our daily sins. Now look at Matthew 3, verse 1. It says, in Jordan, confessing their sins. So, does John the Baptist have a different gospel than everyone else? No. We know that the baptism of John, the baptism to repentance, is that he was saying, believe on the Lord and ye shall receive remission of sins, right? But he received it after that, after he's preached to them, he's baptizing them and they're confessing their sins. Now obviously this isn't something we do, but if someone were to literally get baptized and get right with God there on the spot, there'd be no issue with that. Especially because we're a church that is thorough in our gospel presentation, and we explain to people what it takes to be saved, right? This is just an example of people getting right with God. And so when he says, be baptized, confessing wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord, he's kind of telling them, like, you need to correct some things before the Lord. Because when we get saved, we get forgiven of sins that we don't even know we have, right? Past, present, and future sins that we don't even know. But you know thereafter, we have to kind of think about what are some things that we just need to get right and start confessing those before the Lord, okay? The Bible tells us if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You know, wash away thy sins, cleanse us from all unrighteousness, wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord, as God, to forgive you. And last scripture, go to Galatians 1. Galatians chapter 1. I'm going to skip my last point. My last point, I was just going to talk about, like, what is his ministry? And his ministry was essentially really focused on the Gentiles. That's what it was. He called himself an apostle to the Gentiles, and it goes back to my previous point that obviously he's already willing to go to strange cities, to Damascus, going abroad to do what he thought was serving God, but now he's a safe person and now he's doing that. So I believe now he has that zeal and it is according to knowledge. He understands the importance of going far and wide, going the extra mile, you know, putting in the extra work, which is why God used them so much the more thereafter. But here's my last point regarding his salvation. Look at Galatians 1 verse 10. So he's specifically saying that he was taught the gospel by Jesus himself, not by Ananias. And again, if you believe it's Ananias, there's actually nothing wrong with that because we see consistently believers winning other believers unto the Lord. I just believe that this is referring to Jesus winning him to Christ. And the reality is this, is that the fact that he had a road to Damascus type of experience was really big because he actually talked about it two separate occasions thereafter in the book of Acts, and really it caused him to have more credibility with the apostles thereafter. Because even when he's amongst the disciples, they're like, hey, he's cool, you know, he had a vision from the Lord, this is what happened. And so that kind of like eased them because obviously he was a persecutor before. And so obviously there was, it was strategic, it was a strategic vision in the sense that God knew that if the apostles knew that he appeared unto the apostle Paul, which by the way was another qualifier for him to be an apostle, you know, that the apostles, the other apostles would confirm him, they would accept him, they would, you know, train him, and they would eventually lay hands on him and ordain him so we can go and accomplish the work. And so, you know, the story of the apostle Paul is an amazing story. The book of Acts is such an amazing book, and you know, I like the other apostles, but man, Paul was used greatly, and he just lived an exciting life. And so this is not a sermon, or that point is not to say, hey, people can get visions today or something. And let me say this, that's important because you have a bunch of Muslims, ex-Muslims, who supposedly become Christian, and let me say this, they always say that they had a dream of Jesus or some vision of Jesus. They always do that. Okay? And in fact, I remember I won a Muslim to the Lord, and she thought she was saved because she had that vision. But it's really common amongst Muslims to say, oh, Jesus appeared to me in a dream. And I remember I had this Christian tell me, like, what are you going to say about that? You know, these Muslims that have these visions. And I told him, oh, they're lying. Or a delusion or something. Because what do you think, is God to respect our people? Yeah, but what about the apostle Paul? The apostle Paul's vision came during a time when the Bible was not canonized. And so, you know, drastic measures needed to be taken in the first century AD, big stuff was happening. That's not now. But these Muslims out there, you're like, oh, ex-Muslim turned to Christ. Like, and then you find out about his testimony, and he's like, I saw him in a vision. In a dream. But then you, it's like, okay, scratch all that. So how do you get saved? It's like, by repenting of your sins. I repented of my sins. And it's just like, oh, okay, so you saw the devil! Is what you saw. Because there's no exception to this rule, my friends. You know, we have the canonized Bible and Jesus is no longer appearing in visions to anybody today. You know, in the end times, people will come to visions, they'll be prophesied, the old men shall dream dreams, but we're not in that time right now. This is not the tribulation. Okay? And you know what, here's a surefire way to make sure if you want to be convinced that they did not see Jesus, have them describe him to you. Like, what did he look like? Oh, he was beautiful. Oh, that's not Jesus then, because he was not comely, to look upon according to the Bible. What kind of hair did he have? Long hair. Did he have a robe? Yes! How did you know? They will literally describe that which is not Jesus. 100% of the time. You talk to any Pentecostal, any Charismatic who have seen Jesus just have them describe him to you and you can just tell them, oh, that was a demon! You didn't see Jesus, you saw a demon! Because that's not what Jesus looks like according to the Bible. You know, and I don't care how convincing the dream is, I've had some pretty convincing dreams. Have you ever had one of those dreams where you wake up and you're like, I gotta call my mom, I dreamt she died or something. You know what I'm talking about? But at the end of the day, you know it's not legitimate. And so, it doesn't matter how convincing the dream is, at the end of the day, we need to place our faith in the Bible, in the Word of God. Hey, there are many devices in the heart of a man, but the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand. That's what the Bible tells us. Your mind can create some crazy imaginations, but at the end of the day, you're supposed to cast down imaginations. And every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God. Dream or the Bible? The Bible. Don't be a Pentecost, don't be like dream or the Bible. Oh, the dream. Oh, the vision. No, go with the Bible. Amen? That's right. Father, we thank you so much for your word, and we're so thankful for the Apostle Paul and what an exciting life that he lived, and what an example he's been to us, even to us 2,000 years later, Lord. And I pray that you'd help us as your people to also step out in faith and give it all we've got, this side of eternity, Lord, and just to serve you, Lord, and win as many people to Christ as possible. And I pray that you bless us as we go on our way, as we fellowship. Bless our week to come, Lord. We love you. We thank you. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.