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This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. Happy birthday to you! Alright, no anniversaries, nobody gets married in March apparently. I also wanted to said, well, there's a birth that took place last week. My grandson was born, my first grandson. So I'm very happy about that. Titus Aaron Thompson was born March 8th at 1045 PM. Weighing in at 8 pounds, 3 ounces, fighting out of the blue corner And length is 19 and a half inches long. There's a nice picture of him on the back cover of the bulletin. Remi, make sure you bring one back for your wife. And it's just a blessing to have grandchildren. That's my seventh grandchild born. And I'm not even 50 yet. So what will happen in the future? It'll be wild, like grandpa with 20 grandchildren or something. Anyway, that's all I got for announcements. Let's sing another song, and then we'll receive the offering. All right. Next song is a song number 14, New Life in Christ. Song number 14 in your blue hymnals, New Life in Christ. Song number 14, New Life in Christ. Let's sing it out there. New life in Christ, abundant and free. What glory shine, what joys are mine. What wondrous blessings I see. My past with its sin, the searching and strife. Forever gone, there's a bright new dawn. For in Christ I have found new life, new life in Christ. Abundant and free. What glory shine, what joys are mine. What wondrous blessings I see. My past with its sin, the searching and strife. Forever gone, there's a bright new dawn. For in Christ I have found new life. Amen. Good seeing you, brother Sean. Can you bless the offering for us? Dear Lord, thank you so much for this day. Thank you so much, Lord, for coming to your house. Thank you, Lord, for each Lord. I pray that you would feel so happy to come up with a spirit word, and you could appear to hear the message today. Lord, I pray that you would go. Amen. Amen. Amen. If I go ahead and turn to Acts chapter number 7. Acts chapter 7. If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand. One of the ushers will bring you one. Acts chapter 7. Acts 7, the Bible reads, then said the high priest, are these things so? And he said, men, brethren and fathers, hearken, the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charon, and said unto him, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and come into the land which I shall show thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Charon. And from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land wherein ye now dwelt. And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on, yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child. And God spake on this wise, that his seed should sojourn in this strange land, and that they should bring them into bondage and entreat them evil four hundred years. And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God, and after that shall they come forth and serve me in this place. And he gave him the covenant of circumcision, and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day. And Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs. And the patriarchs moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt, but God was with him, and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And he made him governor over Egypt and all his house. Now there came a dearth over the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers found no sustenance. But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first, and at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren, and Joseph's kindred was made known unto Pharaoh, then sent Joseph and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls. So Jacob went down into Egypt and died, he and our fathers, and were carried over into Sycam, and laid in the sepulcher that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Amor, the father of Sycam. But when the time of the promise drew nigh which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, till another king arose which knew not Joseph. The same dealt subtly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children to the end they might not live. In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding Pharaoh, and nourished up in his father's house three months. And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up and nourished him for her own son. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptians. For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them, but they understood not. And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, you are brethren, why do you wrong one to another? But he did that. But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the Egyptians yesterday? Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons. And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire and a bush. When Moses saw it, he wondered the sight. And as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold. Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place where thou standest is holy ground. I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt. This Moses, whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? The same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush. He brought them out. He had showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years. This is that Moses which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me. Him shall ye hear. This is he that was in the church, in the wilderness, with the angel which spake to him in Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received the lively oracles to give unto us. To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt, saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us. For as for this Moses which brought us out of the land of Egypt, he wot not what has become of him. And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness? Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Molech, and the star of your god, Remphan, figures which he made to worship them, and I will carry you away beyond Babylon. Our fathers had the tabernacle of the witness of the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen. Which also our fathers that came after, brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers unto the days of David, who found favor before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the god of Jacob. Solomon built him an house. Howbeit the most high dwelleth not in temples made with hands, as saith the prophet. Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. What house will ye build me, saith the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Had not my hands made all these things? Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised and hardened ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before the coming of the just one, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being filled of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God and said, Behold, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord and cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the young man's feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Brother Drew, will you pray for us? Amen. All right, let's take a look at verse number 57, where the Bible says, Then they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord and cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the young man's feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. So the title of the sermon is The Overview of the Life of Paul the Apostle. And I'm gonna preach two sermons about the Apostle Paul and just basically do an overview of his life because as I started to write this, and this has been on my heart to preach about the Apostle Paul, just about his life, I realized very quickly that there's so much in the New Testament about him. I mean, he wrote half the New Testament, right? And he wrote from the book of Romans all the way to the book of Hebrews. So it'd be a long series if he just preached everything that the Apostle Paul said. So I'm just gonna do as brief of an overview as I can, but I still wanna hit the highlights about the Apostle Paul because he was obviously a great man of God and the best Christian in the New Testament by far as far as what he did for God, the great mighty works that he did. I mean, basically, this is the introduction here of the Apostle Paul. Like in comic books, it'd be like the first appearance, like the first appearance of so-and-so. This is the first appearance of Paul in the New Testament, and he just comes on the scene, and what's he doing? Well, he's holding the coats for the men that are going to murder Stephen for preaching the Bible. And so, yeah, even in the New Testament, early on in the New Testament, people got killed for preaching the Bible. People got persecuted for preaching the Bible, and Paul, whose name was, it says Saul in verse number 58, it says, and they cast him out in the, out of the city, excuse me, and stoned him, and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. They're like, hold my stuff, Saul. And so he just, he was a young man at this time, but he is an accomplice to the murder of Stephen, if you think about it, because, you know, if he didn't want anything to do with it, he wouldn't have been like, oh yeah, here, I'll guard your stuff. And then he didn't want to get into the part of the stoning, and maybe God held him back from that, I don't know, but this awoke something in Saul that made him become the greatest persecutor of the early church at that time. And so Paul was a devout Jew, of course, and he, you know, he was zealously affected by this, and he, you know, he didn't get saved because of this right away, but I believe that what happened here wore on his heart over time. And I believe that, you know, when Jesus, you know, when he was thrown off his horse and he saw Jesus Christ and the light was blinding him, and I believe that when it says, it's hard for thee to kick against the pricks, I mean, I believe that that's what he's talking about, like Saul had done a lot of bad stuff. It wasn't just to Stephen, he did a lot of bad stuff, and I want to go through that a little bit today, just because sometimes people, we give Paul's past a pass, and we don't think it's as bad as it actually was, but the things he was doing were terrible, and the Bible actually sheds light on that as you read through the book of Acts, and later on in some of his epistles, he was, you know, he was a bad guy. He was as bad as you can get when it come to persecuting the church, but I want to begin by just saying what his early life was like. His early life, Paul was born in Tarsus, in Cilicia, and that today would be modern day Turkey. If you know anything about geography, it's modern day Turkey. I believe that's on the southern end of Turkey, and he was a Jew, and he was born a Roman citizen. So let's turn it over to Acts chapter 21. We're mainly looking in the book of Acts today, but I want to look at Acts chapter 21. So next weekend, I'll preach the second sermon on this. I'm just trying to stick with five pages and not go past that. So when I'd hit 10 pages, I was like, okay, this has to be like a two-parter at least. So anyway, look at Acts 21 verse 39. It says, but Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city, and I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people. And so I'm showing you this verse because Paul is telling us himself in the book of Acts that he's a Jew and that he's also of the city of Cilicia. In other verses, he says, and we'll see those where he says that he's a man of Tarsus, and so we know the city. And later on, well, go ahead and turn to Acts chapter 22 verse 27. We'll see where he proclaims the fact that he is a Roman citizen and he was born a Roman citizen. Acts 22 verse 27. So this is the early life of Paul, like just kind of his background a little bit. And Acts 22, 27 says, Then the chief captain came and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a Roman? He said, Yea. And the chief captain answered, What the great sum obtained I this freedom? And Paul said, But I was free born. So Paul was a Roman citizen and he was free born and that's why he probably had the ability to plead to Caesar and go to Caesar and actually be judged by Caesar because if he was not born a Roman, he would have never got that privilege because if you read the New Testament and you probably read the New Testament before several times maybe by now, but you'll notice that the people that weren't Roman citizens were not treated as well as the other ones, right? As the ones that were. And like when Jesus said, If they compel you to walk a mile, walk with them twain. And the Romans could say, Hey you, walk with my stuff, carry my stuff for a mile. And so what Jesus was telling them was, Hey, if they ask you to walk a mile, walk two with them, as an example. So the Romans, even like when Jesus was carrying his cross and they compelled the man to help him carry the cross, he didn't have a choice in the matter. If he would have said no, they probably would have beat him or killed him or something like that. So Paul had an advantage and we kind of have the same advantage as Roman Christians ourselves because if you believe that this is the revived Roman Empire, which I believe it is, that we have an advantage as Americans living in America over other people. And I'm not saying that sometimes we can use that card. Sometimes we can't. And Paul was in the same position. Sometimes they'd start beating him before he had a chance to tell him he was a Roman. And then he was like, he got thrown in that Philippian jail cell and they were like, Hey, you guys can leave now. They figured out he was a Roman citizen or whatever. He's like, no, but they can come get us. And so he was like making them come get them out of the jail cell to show before everybody that what they did to them was not right. So anyway, Acts 23 verse 6. Let's turn to Acts 23 verse 6. Acts 23 verse 6. The Bible says, When Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, of the hope and resurrection of the dead. I am called in question. So, and I'm just using this as an example to show that Paul was a Pharisee. You know, that's what he started out as before he became a Christian. And a Pharisee is like a sect of the Jews. The Sadducees were Sadducee because they didn't believe in the resurrection or miracles or anything like that. And the Pharisees were more strict to the biblical, they believed in the miracles and all that and the resurrection and stuff like that. But they were just basically gone off into the traditions of men and became basically like false prophets. But anyway, so he was apparently the son of a Pharisee. So he was, you know, in the line of, you know, it was kind of part of their duty. But the funny thing about that is, is that the Levites were the ones that were supposed to be the priests and the teachers amongst the Jews. But Benjamin, I don't know that God wrote anything about Benjamin being like these spiritual leaders. So the Pharisees were kind of like this, you know, it was an unbiblical position. You know, where does the Bible say you're supposed to become a Pharisee? Where does the Old Testament say you're supposed to become a Sadducee? You know, the Bible talks about the Levites and the things that they were supposed to do. But it doesn't say anything about, you know, people being priests and things like that from different groups. Now obviously I know that there was prophets that were called from different tribes and things like that. But these guys weren't prophets. These were like doctors of the law and they were taking stuff, verbal traditions of men and placing these on people that were not necessary for them to know. Like washing your hands before supper. Good idea sometimes, but does it make you defiled as in religiously defiled like the Pharisees were trying to say? So that's Paul's early life. He was born as a Jew in Tarsus in the city of Cilicia. Or yeah, in the city in Cilicia. And he was born free as a Roman and he was raised in a home of a Pharisee himself. But he did spend his life in Jerusalem. He was born in Tarsus, but he was raised in Jerusalem and he was trained by another man. And so let's look at his religious education. The Apostle Paul had two religious educations. The one was false religion basically. Some of it was good, but a lot of it was bad. But he had two religious educations and we're gonna see both of those today, but let's look at the first one. And so his religious education was as a Pharisee. Let's go back to Acts chapter 22 verse number three. Acts 22 verse number three. And the Bible says, I am verily a man which am a Jew born in Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, 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. So this is Paul trying to stand up and explain himself to the Jews that wanted his head. But the point of me reading this verse is to show you that he was brought up in this city. And so this is when he was captured in Jerusalem. And so he was talking about he was born, or he was born in Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, but brought up in the city at the feet of Gamaliel. And Gamaliel is mentioned in the Bible and it talks about him. He basically says, hey, stop messing with these guys because if they're of God, then you can't overthrow them and all that stuff. But Gamaliel was highly popular and sought after Pharisee. He was in good standing amongst them and obviously someone that would teach people how to be a Pharisee. And I don't believe he was saved for a second. And his advice really was not true because I kind of mentioned that a few weeks ago when I talked about, well, if we just left the Jehovah's Witnesses alone and didn't preach against them, then they would just be destroyed because they're false or whatever. That's not true. I mean, they've been around for a couple hundred years now and false religion, you know, the Hindus have been around for thousands of years or whatever and that hasn't been destroyed. So his advice is not true in that instance. But it seems like it might be good advice, but it's really not. So his religious background was that he was trained by this man Gamaliel, excuse me, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers. Now let's look at Philippians chapter three, verse four. Philippians chapter three, verse four. So we saw his early life in his, we're looking at his religious education. And so Philippians chapter three, verse four says, Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. And when he's saying trust in the flesh, I more, he's basically saying what the reality of being a Pharisee is, is that they trust in the flesh. You know, we look at things as Christians through the spiritual lens, but they look at everything through a fleshly lens. And so that's why it's so important in the Old Testament when we go through and we study the Old Testament that you look for the things that are a spiritual application also, and not just the carnal things, because underneath the surface of the carnal things is the spiritual application for us. So, and it says, he that whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more, circumcise the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. So he's saying hey, if you wanted to judge me by the, if you wanna be judging me by the flesh, hey, I got a lot of things I can glory in. You know, but when it talks about Abraham being able to glory amongst other people, but not before God, and that's the important thing is that there's a lot of people out there that just trust in the flesh. I was thinking this morning about the people that have this doctrine of repenting of your sins. You know, and when, we'll make videos about that, or I'll preach something about that, and people will go, well that's what the Bible says you're supposed to do, right? I mean, they're confused. But aren't they just trusting in the flesh? Aren't they trusting in what something they did? They repented of their sins, or so they say they did. But then it seems like whenever I ask somebody, well, so you're saying you don't sin anymore? Oh no, I mean, everybody sins. Well then you didn't repent of your sins. Okay, it's just that simple. So, but there's, so we have people that are Pharisees modern day that aren't even Jews today. They're called worst religion people. And there's, every religion is like that. I was talking to a Muslim guy last week when we were soloing up in Spokane, and he was trying to give me the gotcha questions. You know how these cults will have like little cards that they can, they'll have like a special Bible or something that has like all the questions you can stump Christians with in the back of it? Have you ever had that happen to you before? Jehovah's Witnesses usually do it. I've seen Pentecostal Russians do this before too. But this guy had like, he was like looking through his phone trying to look up stumping questions or whatever, like things from Chronicles and First Kings that might not seem to match up. And you know, I don't have all that stuff as a Rolodex at the top of my brain. But he was asking about Amaziah, and it says, well here he was a king when he was 21, and here he was a king at 42. And I was like, I know the explanation for that, but I just couldn't, I couldn't like think of it and go right to the scriptures about it. But he was just using that as a gotcha to me and trying to say, well, your Bible isn't true or something. But it's like, I know I've studied that before, but I just, you know, I said I think that maybe he was like a co-regent for his father for a part of the time that when he finally died or something like that, then he became the full-fledged king. And so, because David had the same things. It explains that he was a king after seven years, and then he became king of all Israel after a certain amount of time, and he ruled for 40 years, right? But when he ruled for 40 years, he wasn't king of all of Israel for that whole 40 years. He was king of, you know, Judah and whatever. So anyway, so people will try to stump you with these gotcha cards and gotcha questions and stuff like that, but, you know, the Muslims' real problem is that they have a pedophile as the head of their religion. What about that? You know, there's my gotcha question. Why do you follow a pedophile? I mean, that's the ultimate one, right? But it's funny that they believe that Jesus was sinless. They believe he was born of the Virgin Mary. They believe that he was translated up into heaven. So, I mean, they believe he was the Messiah, but they just think that there's a new prophet for every time period. And like, you know, he was like, why should I follow Christianity? I was like, you know, what is it that makes Christianity different? I said, well, number one, you know, we believe that Jesus did everything for us and he paid for our sins and all we have to do is have faith and believe in him and we know for sure that we're going to heaven. And I said, what about you? Because I know what they believe. I said, you believe that you can't even know until even the day you die, you don't know. You just wake up and you're like, did I make it? And that's what a lot of these worst religion people believe. And so he was saying, yeah, we just don't know. And I was like, let me, you know, just help you here. What about the fact that we can know for sure that we're going to heaven. We have a book that we can trust. Your book says to not to hurt Jews and Christians in one part and then it says, kill them without mercy in another part. That's a contradiction. And he's like, well, no, that's, and he started trying to explain it. He's like, no, that's what it says, buddy. I've checked into it. But, you know, his, how would you like to just live your life not knowing from day to day whether you were saved or not? Nobody wants to feel that. I was like, why is it better? Because number one, it's the truth. And number two, you know, we're not trusting in something we've done. We trust in something God did for us. And He gives us 100% surety that we're saved. You don't even know. And then I always bring up the scenario where, you know, I said, what if you, you know, you kept all five pillars of the faith. You've done everything that you're supposed to do. You pray three times a day, you know, with your head bowed to the ground and you touch the ground like this. And, you know, he said, the Bible tells you to do that. I was like, no, it doesn't. But anyway, I said, what if you did all that? Say you just did the perfect Muslim life and you still don't know whether you're going to heaven. I was like, and say on that perfect Muslim life that you're living, you went to the mosque that day. You did all the things you're supposed to do. You've gone to Mecca. You've walked around the GameCube. I didn't say that part, but you've marched around the GameCube seven times. You've done all this stuff, I said, and then on the last day of earth that you're alive, you crash and, you know, some guy cuts you off. You get mad and cuss him out and you flip him off and curse him out and then you smash into the back of a truck and your car blows up and you die. I was like, where are you going to go? Hell. I was like, well, after living that perfect Muslim life, all you have to do is mess up one time at the very end of your life and then you go to hell? I was like, I already know which one I want to follow. It's not yours. And I did tell him that, you know, in kinder words that Muhammad was a pedophile. I didn't want him to try to chop my head off right there or something like that, but he was like, what's the big deal about that? And I was like, she was six years old. He married a six-year-old and consummated the marriage at nine. He was like, well, who says it's weird? Where does the Bible say that that's wrong? I was just like, bro, just normality tells you that's wrong. I mean, if you're looking at little kids and getting some kind of weird arousal out of that, you've got something wrong with you. And so obviously he was a reprobate and they're following a whole reprobate religion. I don't know how I got off on that, but basically saying that, well, Paul thought the same thing. He was living his life by the flesh at one point and he was telling them, hey, if you match me up against anybody else, I have a good works resume. I'm a Pharisee of the Pharisees. I'm the Hebrew of the Hebrews. I'm of the tribe of Benjamin. I was even circumcised on the eighth day. How about that? I've kept the law from the time I was eight days old and that concerning the persecuting the church or touching the righteousness, which is by the law, blameless. So Paul understood that you couldn't be perfect, but he was blameless in the way that he probably offered the sacrifices when he was supposed to offer them and the atonements and all that stuff. And so he's making a good point here, but the main thing is that it's a works salvation. It's something of the flesh. If you want to trust in the flesh, but a lot of people can trust in the flesh that they're a good person, but that's not what gets you to heaven. And no other religion teaches you that except for Christianity. Now Paul spoke multiple languages also. So people talk about having the gift of tongues and what they think is gibberish where people are just like rambling off something that sounds like ancient Babylonian or something. It's just gobbledygook. That's what it is. It's just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's higgledy-piggledy, higgledy-piggledy or whatever. It's stupid. It's Pig Latin. Who knows what it is? But that's not the gift of tongues. The gift of tongues was a specific miracle that happened on the day of Pentecost where people would speak to one person in their language and they would understand it in their language. That was the gift of tongues. But the other gift of tongues is the fact that someone could just have the aptitude to learn and understand multiple languages. And obviously Paul had this gift and I'm not sure all the languages that he spoke but I know for sure that he spoke Hebrew and he spoke Greek. Let's look at Acts 22 verse 2. Acts 22 verse 2. Acts 22 verse 2 says, And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence and he saith. So it's obvious that he spoke Hebrew. But what was the New Testament written in? It was written in Greek. So obviously Paul was very fluent in the Greek language also because he wrote the New Testament in Greek. All the things that he wrote were in Greek. There was no Hebrew writings in the New Testament. And so you get these Hebrew roots people that say that that's true. It's just not true. There's no evidence to base that off of. So we know that he also fluently spoke Greek. And in Acts 21 verse 37 it says, And as Paul was to be led into the castle, he said unto the chief captain, May I speak unto thee? Who said, Canst thou speak Greek? So he's probably, I don't know what language he's speaking to him here when he asks him if he can speak Greek. It's probably like a German saying, Specken Sie Deutsch? Si habla Espanol? Or whatever. So I'm not sure what language he was saying that to him in. But obviously maybe it was Latin. So I'm assuming that maybe he spoke Latin because I know that the Romans spoke Latin. But so I'm thinking there's probably three languages for sure that he knew and probably more than that. But let's look at the next overview of the Apostle Paul. Let's look at the persecution of the Christians. So in the chapter that Brother C.J. read, which was Acts 7, let's look back at Acts 7, we'll see. So from his very introduction into the book, into the New Testament, into the book of Acts, he's doing something wrong here. So Acts 7, 54 says, When they heard these things that were cut to the heart, they gnashed on him with their teeth. So he was there listening to the sermon and Stephen just laid out everything about the Old Testament and kind of all the patriarchs and then he basically gets to the part about them not, they're getting the word of God by the dispensation of angels and have not kept it and they just freaked out. They got ticked off. They got TOed and they ran at him. Look at what it says in verse 55. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God and said, Behold, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. And they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord and cast him out of the city and stoned him and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit and he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. So the apostle Paul, again, I've already said this, but his origin stories are him doing something wrong. Him backing up these people that murdered Stephen. But like I said, I believe that it had a long-lasting effect on him, and I've preached about that before, so I'm gonna just move on here. Let's turn back to Philippians chapter three, verse six. Now, the apostle Paul was zealous. This became a point where he was zealous in persecuting Christians. Some people are enemies, and if you knock on their door, they'll kinda let you know by their look or by the way they answer you, but they won't say anything rude. There's complicit people. They're just like, they don't like us, but they're not gonna go out of their way to antagonize us and mess with us. But Paul was that guy that was hunting Christians down, getting orders to do things to them, torturing them, even causing them. He was like the first Roman Catholic or something at that point. He's persecuting them and putting them and making them recant their faith. Isn't that what the inquisition did? Recant your faith. Recant your Baptist beliefs or whatever it was that they were doing, and that's kinda what Paul was doing. Philippians three, six says, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. So his zeal was persecuting the church. Now he also talks later on about being zealous in the right things. Persecuting the church, that's not a good thing to be zealous about. So you wanna be zealous of your good works, but not persecuting the church. That's a bad thing to be blameless about. So let's look at Acts chapter eight verse one, and so it kinda continues on a little bit with the apostle Paul. So in these chapters, Paul is talked about just a little bit, and it kinda goes into some of the things he's doing against the church, and then it kinda jumps from Paul and back to Peter, and then it kinda skips back and forth, and then after a certain amount, I can't remember what chapter it is, but after a certain amount of time, he's just like, it's all about Paul. Everything's about Paul. So Acts eight, one says, and Saul was consenting unto his death, and at the 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. So the apostles stayed home in Jerusalem, but Jesus told them to go out into the whole world, so they're kinda not doing what they're supposed to be doing, but it says, 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. So he's like this bounty hunter, basically. He's just going in, kicking people's doors down. I heard you're a Christian. And we would have people doing that today if they were allowed to do it, and at some point they probably will be doing it. As a matter of fact, the Bible says that it's gonna happen. So when we say that we believe we go through the tribulation, sometimes we forget what that's actually gonna be like, but here's a little taste of it right here. People being zealous to destroy the church, and Saul was zealous to wreak havoc on the church. It says it was a great persecution in Jerusalem, and he hailed, and hailing men and women committed them to prison. So turn over to Acts 26, nine, and he's gonna kind of explain a little bit more about his persecutions of the Christians before he gets saved. So Acts 26, verse nine, you have these chapters where Paul's kind of defending himself in court. Paul was imprisoned and then left to rot for a couple years, has to explain it to all these different people, these higher courts. So it says in Acts 26, nine, it says, I barely thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. I was saying here I was against him. Verse 10, which things I also did in Jerusalem and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priest, and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. So Paul's saying that he is responsible for putting them to death. It wasn't just Stephen. Sometimes we can forget about that, but I gave my voice against them. What is that saying? He was a witness against them to have them to be killed, right? It says, and I punished them oft in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities. So Paul wasn't just persecuting a little bit. He was persecuting a lot. He was giving his voice for people to be put to death. He was punishing them in the synagogues. He was compelling them to blaspheme. How would you do that? By torture. I mean, you start torturing people, and they're going to say a lot of things. Not everybody is like a Navy Seal that can just go under the pressure of not being tortured or whatever, some CIA-trained agent or something. When your flesh starts getting tormented, people will say a lot of things that they don't mean, and so that's why they say that torture doesn't really work, but I don't think that they've gotten the memo on that yet. But anyway, being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities. So it's not just Jerusalem. Now he's like, well, the ones that are taking off and going to different places, I'm going to go track them down. I'm going to bring them back and destroy them too. And basically, that's what he was doing the day that he met the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 12 says, Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests. So he had the authority to do it, by the chief priests. He was commissioned to do it. That was his job. His job was to persecute Christians, and he had the law on his side to an extent. And they were under Rome's rule, so I don't understand how they were getting around the putting people to death things, but I'm sure if you want to do something evil, you're going to find your way, pay them off or whatever, to get done what you want to get done. But on his way to Damascus, something very special happened to the Apostle Paul. Let's turn over to Acts chapter number nine, and we'll see the testimony of his salvation, Acts chapter number nine. And I realize that a lot of people differ. Some people think that Jesus, you know, preached the gospel to him right there, and they got saved right there. And some people believe that he was instructed to go, and that Ananias was going to tell him, you know, what he has to do, and then he gets saved there. I'm of the second opinion. I believe that he was led to the Lord by Ananias. And here's the thing you got to understand. Just like, you can't, because you can't prove that he got saved when he got knocked off the horse. You can't prove that. But you also can't, you can't, you know, he didn't go through the Roman's road because Paul hadn't written it yet, okay? But some of the Roman's road was already in the Old Testament, right? And we know Ananias was some kind of prophet or something. It doesn't say what he was, but I believe that he was ordained in some way, shape, or form. Maybe he was one of, and I can't prove this either, but he was one of maybe the 70 apostles or, you know, the other apostles or something. But, you know, God spoke with him directly, so obviously he wasn't just, you know, and he was able to baptize. So this is where people will say, well, he baptized, and that's the proof that anybody can baptize anybody. It's like, yeah, my three-year-old granddaughter can baptize Eli, you know, because he got saved. I mean, that's just, that's not true. I mean, the Bible shows that in almost every example except for that one, you can't, you don't know for sure whether he was, whether he was ordained or not, but all the other people in the Bible that baptized were ordained. So anyway, Acts 9 and 1 says, and Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, sounds like a nice guy, right? Went unto the high priest and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And he journeyed and he came near Damascus and suddenly there shined round 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? It's a very interesting thing to say and this is obviously, if you have a red letter edition, this is the Lord Jesus Christ asking him this question. That's the first thing he says, he knocks him off, you know, this light, you know, shines on him and it's shining about him from light from heaven and he fell to the earth. So he fell off of his horse, heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? But was Saul persecuting Jesus or was he persecuting his followers? Well, it's both. He was persecuting his followers and so how does Jesus Christ look at it that they're persecuting him? And so that should take, you know, give you a little comfort when we're going through persecutions by people that Jesus still sees it for what it is. That they're actually persecuting us but by proxy, they're persecuting Jesus Christ. And so he says, 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 I personally believe and again, you know, you might not agree with me about this but I personally believe that the things that he was doing were kind of wearing on him in a way. The Holy Spirit's obviously dealing with him I believe and if he's saying it's hard for thee to kick against the pricks, you know, sometimes people get these, you know, these feelings like I need to get saved or I need to learn more about Christ or I need, you know, and that kind of leads them to salvation. So I didn't get saved by a process wherein I, you know, I'm still working on my salvation or something but the process that led up to my salvation was a process and I've talked about my testimony before and it was long so I'm not gonna go into the whole thing or whatever but, you know, I'm sure everybody in this room has similar things where they were thinking about things or they were searching for the right answers or maybe the religion they were in was not sitting right with them and they came to the conclusion that they need to seek out the truth and so if you seek out the truth, the truth's gonna find you and when you're earnestly praying, hey, what is the truth? What is the right religion? Because that's what the devil wants to do. He wants to confuse and blind everybody into making them think that there's all these different ways or maybe Christianity's just one of the ways but that's not true. It's the only way. So Jesus is saying, hey, it's hard for the kick against the pricks and he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what will 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 I take this for him saying, hey, someone's gonna show you how to get saved. That's what I believe and I think that I have some supporting scriptures to back that up but look at verse seven. It says, and the man which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no man and Saul arose from the earth and when his eyes were open, he saw no man but they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight and neither did he eat nor drink 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 and hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight. And Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by this, I have heard by many of this man how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem. So he's like, he's kind of protesting a little bit. He's like, are you sure this is the right guy because I've heard a lot of bad things about him. He's not a very nice guy. He's doing a lot of evil and it says in verse 14, and here he hath authority from the chief priest to bind all that call on thy name. So, you know, and when it says call on thy name, you know, you have to call on the name of the Lord to be saved, amen. It 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. So, now he was known as the apostle to the Gentiles, but what we have to understand is that he, Jesus Christ himself says right here that he must bear my name before the Gentiles and kings. Is Caesar a king? Yes, he is. And it says, and the children of Israel. So, he had a three-fold ministry, but you notice that number one was to reach the Gentiles and he did that. He did that. Did he testify before kings? Yes, he did. He testified, you know, Acts 25, 26, all those chapters where he's testifying in front of the different kings and then obviously appeals to Caesar, who's a king, he must testify before him and the children of Israel. So, what did Saul do? Every time, you know, this is after he gets saved here coming up, but he would go into the synagogue first and try to reach the people of the children of Israel first and then he would, if they would reject him, then he would go and preach the rest to the Gentiles. So, it says in verse 16, so look, we reap what we sow and I think there's a famous apostle that wrote that. His name is the apostle Paul, okay? So, he understands this doctrine very well. The apostle Paul, you know, is about to learn that he must reap what he's sown. So, he doesn't just get, we don't just get to get out of the things that we did in our past as far as like if you have a child out of wedlock, before you get saved, you still have a child out of wedlock while you're saved, you know, and whatever you have reaped or whatever you've sown into this world, it's gonna come back to you. Now, God will have mercy and long suffering and won't cause us to be punished maybe like we should, which is a blessing and so that's why you should have mercy. That's why you should have long suffering with people because, you know, if we're going around with this everybody's worse than me attitude, this hyper spirituality that you're better than other Christians, then when you screw up, which you're going to, then, you know, God's gonna cause you to be punished more severely than if you would have been a little more merciful with other people and more forgiving. So, what's he saying in verse 16? He says, For I will show him how great things he much suffer for my name's sake. So, he's not gonna get out of what he's done. He's gonna pay for it to a certain, you know, and he does, but he doesn't get, you know, God doesn't allow him to be killed, but as Paul punished other Christians and it was his mission to destroy the church, now he's gonna experience what he put other people through as a saved person, you know. So, being saved doesn't necessarily get you out of the things that you've messed up on before. Look at verse 17, And Ananias went his way and entered into the house and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales and he received sight forthwith and arose and was baptized. And what it doesn't say here is Ananias leading him to the Lord. And so, people will say, well, he was already saved when he got there, he was already praying, you know, and all that stuff and I see your point. Well, let's look at Acts 22, verse 14. Acts 22, verse 14. And very seldom do you see someone actually in the act of praying what we call the sinner's prayer. You don't see it very often. You don't see, you know, Jeremiah necessarily getting saved. You don't see Isaiah necessarily getting saved. You don't see, you know, Samuel getting saved. You don't see, you know, all these famous prophets, you don't see their salvation necessarily. Do you think Moses was saved before God called him out of the burning bush? I think he was. I mean, did he say, hey, you must believe on me or whatever? No, he was just like, you know, who are you? You know, but I could be wrong about that, but I do believe that Abraham was saved before he left his home. You know, God told him to leave there and he had faith and believed in God, so God counted it to him for righteousness. But look what it says in Acts 22, verse 14. It says, and he said, the God of our fathers have chosen thee, and thou shouldst know that thou shouldst know his will, and see that just one, and shouldst hear the voice of his mouth. For thou shalt be his witness unto all men out of what thou has seen and heard. And now why terriest thou? Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling upon the name of the Lord. This is why I think that Ananias got him saved, is because, you know, and obviously, this is a backwards, you know, you don't get baptized first and then it washes away your sins and then you call upon the name of the Lord. I don't think that that's, he's meaning it like that, because that would fly in the face of every other scripture that we know when it concerns salvation. He's just saying, what are you waiting for? Why terriest thou? You know, it says arise, be baptized, wash away thy sins, but see, being baptized doesn't wash away your sins. What washes away your sins? Calling upon the name of the Lord, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and, you know, Paul saw the Lord Jesus Christ, didn't he? He saw him on the road to Damascus, he appeared to him last, of all the apostles, he was the last apostle and Christ appeared to him last. So, he actually saw Jesus Christ, so he knows he's real, but then here, he's saying, what are you waiting for? Get saved, get baptized, call on the name of the Lord, be baptized, get your sins taken care of and so it says, and it came to pass, verse 17, that when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance, and saw him saying unto me, make haste and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me. So, Paul the apostle, he didn't just get to chill with the homies, you know, right after he gets saved, he's like, you need to get out of here as quick as possible. Because think about this, I mean, we're forgiving, but if someone that was tormenting us was getting our friends thrown in prison and torturing women and torturing men and pursuing them, getting them fired from their jobs, getting them, you know, just all this stuff, it's going to be a little bit like, I don't really know if I trust this person or not, you know. I mean, that's just a natural feeling, right? And that's how they felt towards the apostle Paul, and even Jesus says, hey, you need to make haste, that means hurry up, 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 be in every synagogue, them that believe on thee. And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by and consenting unto his death and kept the raiment of them that slew him. So what does Paul jog back to? What's his memory? Jog back to the memory of him consenting unto the death of Stephen. That's where he first started all this stuff. And so that's the first thing that comes to his mind. People love Stephen. It says they made a great lamentation for Stephen. And, you know, Stephen died too soon, didn't he? He preaches a great sermon and is murdered for it immediately. He had just become the deacon, basically, and he's preaching. He's filled with the Spirit, and then his life is snuffed out for preaching God's Word. And the Apostle Paul, you know, can't help but go right back to that memory because that's where he knows he started to screw up. And he said unto me, Depart, for I will send thee far unto the Gentiles. So the Apostle Paul is sent away. He says, Don't stay here. And so it's gonna take some time for people to learn to trust Paul, Saul, Paul, same thing. And so he now begins his true theological education, his true teaching of the Bible, his true knowledge of the Scriptures and of Revelation. And here we see that Paul begins to get taught by Jesus Christ himself. Look at Galatians 1, verse 11. So he was already educated as a Pharisee, grew up at the feet of Gamaliel. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He was, you know, the cat's meow when it came to the Jews' religion, right? But all that stuff and Paul talks about that, he said, I count that all but dung. It's nothing to me. It's, you know, something, you know, to be thrown on your plants later on or whatever, your tree. But look at Galatians chapter 1, verse 11. Here he begins to learn his true theological education. He says, but I certify you brethren that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. So he's talking to the Galatians and what's the theme of the Galatians? That they were starting to get Judaized by, you know, these Jews were coming in telling them they had to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses and all that. And he's trying to straighten them out. And he says, the first thing he says here in verse 11 is that I certify you brethren that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. He did not learn it from man. He learned it from who? Look at verse 12. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. So where did he get his education from? What's the Bible actually say? For I neither received it of man. Did the apostles teach him? No. Did Ananias teach him? No. I mean, maybe he taught him some stuff, but the gospel that he preached, he learned from Jesus Christ himself. It says, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. So there's a book called Revelation, it's called The Revealing, right? You know, that's what it means. Christ is revealing to us what's going to happen in the end times. But Paul also received revelation from Christ, and part of that was the fact that he was learning, you know, the gospel that he preached, and then all the 15 books that he wrote in the New Testament or whatever, it might have been more than that, I didn't really get an accurate count, but that all that stuff God gave him. Jesus Christ revealed that to him. And all this great doctrine that we know in the New Testament, you know, a lot of it is from the apostle Paul. And, you know, people, I'll wait till the end, but I want to talk about that for a minute. But I'll wait for a second, I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. So, it says in verse 13, I conferred not with flesh and blood. So, there's again another example of him saying, that's not who I was taught by. I wasn't taught by flesh and blood. Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me. So, did he learn it from the apostles? He's saying no. But I went to Arabia and returned again unto Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him 15 days. So, after three years, he goes up and sees him. But then the other apostles saw I none, saved 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. It was unknown by faith unto the churches of Judea, which were in Christ, but they had heard only that he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed. So, the rumors began to mount. Paul was preaching the gospel and getting people saved. He didn't go right away to Jerusalem. He would have probably gotten killed if he would have done that. That's why God warned him not to go there. He said, you need to just do some stuff up to the, far away amongst the Gentiles and do your thing for a while. And after a while people realized that they could start to trust him a little bit. And he's even sought out by Barnabas. Barnabas, he seeks him out to be a partner with him and to help him later on, but that'll be in the next sermon. But it says, and they glorified God in me. So, there came a point when they realized that Paul was legit, he was for real, and they glorified God in him. Because you couldn't just cast aside the facts that Paul was getting multitudes and multitudes of people saved. You just couldn't. So this guy that destroyed the church and was the church's worst enemy to start off with, basically, became the greatest man in the New Testament besides, of course, John the Baptist, which he was still in the Old Testament technically when he died. And Jesus Christ was still in the Old Testament technically when he died, right? So in the New Testament, Saul was the greatest man in the whole Bible, in my opinion. So, and I'll just list to you the books that Paul wrote in the New Testament, of course, on the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Well, he didn't write Acts, but his chronicles were written down by Luke of the things he said in Acts. So a lot of his things that he said, the places he went, the things he did, were recorded in the book of Acts. Romans is the first book that's written, and so just from there, from Romans to Hebrews, it just is all Paul. Romans, first and second Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, first and second Thessalonians, first and second Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and I believe Hebrews was written by Paul, even though it doesn't say that. It's still the same writing style. I mean, if you read Hebrews, it's basically how Paul writes. And I believe that he probably didn't put his name on there because it's written to the Hebrews, and they hated his guts. This is what he was preaching. You know, they're all mad. So, but the same guy that wrote, you know, Romans 1 is the same guy that wrote Philippians, same guy that wrote Ephesians, Ephesians 2, 8, and 9. Some of the most famous verses in all the Bible, Paul wrote. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, that is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. One of the greatest scriptures in all the Bible. I mean, flat out tells you that you're not saved by works, although all these other Christians will say, they'll just dismiss that verse. It's like, not of works! Not of works! Hello? Anybody home McFly? Hello, you home? It's like, good night. That's so clear. And you know, of course, he wrote the charity chapter. 1 Corinthians chapter number 13. And he loved people and he said, hey, the best way, you know, if you're doing anything you're doing, if you're not doing it with love, you're not right. It doesn't matter. It means nothing. How about 1 Corinthians 15? The resurrection chapter explains to us the resurrection. And he explains to us in 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus the duties and qualifications of a pastor. You know, and then also Hebrews, he explains to us the changes that were made from the Old Testament to the New Testament. It's a great book. And it helps people to understand. I think that's why he wrote it. That's why it's called Hebrews so the Hebrews can understand those ones that get saved are going to be able to understand. And we can understand the differences between the Old Testament and the New Testament too because people will try to confuse New Testament believers also. 1 and 2 Thessalonians, he's basically covering all the stuff about the end times and, you know, when those things will take place. And it says, let no man deceive you. But people will still preach a pre-trib rapture. And they love Paul, you know, but they don't even understand his writings. It's a pre-trib rapture. Show me. Chapter verse. I heard a great trumpet blowing. It's like, and it said, come up hither. Oh, that's real clear. That's super clear. Pre-trib rapture, right? Case closed. I mean, anyway, Colossians, great book. Romans. I mean, we have the Romans Road. I mean, that's what we use when we're out, you know, giving the Gospels, the Romans Road. And, you know, that's, Paul walked the Romans Road. That's what he did. And so, it's pretty interesting that, you know, and if you look at the history of the Romans Road, I mean, the Romans knew how to build some roads. You can still see those roads today. I was watching a documentary about it, and this guy is like walking where Paul walked, and he said, Paul assuredly walked on this road. And it's, I mean, we can't even get roads out here without potholes in them, but you got 2,000-year-old roads in, you know, in all these places where you can still walk. And that's how good they were at engineering roads, and those roads led to all the parts of their empire. And guess what? Paul utilized those roads and probably walked most of those roads. And when, you know, he needed to save some time, he would take a boat, which, you know, he got shipwrecked a couple times or whatever. He got cast in the sea a couple times. I wouldn't, I'll just avoid the boat, but I'll take the road, take the road more traveled. But anyway, so, and then, you know, people will say, well, you guys are so mean. You're always preaching about this reprobate doctrine. Paul brought the reprobate doctrine into the Bible in the New Testament. I mean, the reprobate doctrine already existed before then, but guess who taught it? The apostle Paul, Romans chapter 1. And then he brings it up several other times later. He's like, except you be reprobates. You know, don't think that I'm a reprobate, but, you know, you might be a reprobate. You know, it's like, he's the one that brought the reprobate, you know, people are like, the reprobate doctrine is true. You could be saved till your dying breath. Well, that's not what the Bible teaches, my friends. And you know who taught that? The apostle Paul. Made it very clear for us. And so you can't just throw out the negative parts about the apostle Paul. He was a great man. He loved people. He loved his churches that he planted. He, you know, basically gave up his sacrifice, his body for them. You know, he took time with them and spent time with them and taught them and would spend years with some of these churches just teaching them and helping them. And he loved his own people, the Jews of that time. He loved his people and wanted them to be saved even though he admits that they were blinded. You know, we get the blinding of Israel is from there. You know, there's so many doctrines that the apostle Paul just helps make so clear for us. He's a great man of God. And that's why I wanted to preach this overview of his life because sometimes, you know, I think we forget. The apostle Paul did a lot of great things. He was really bad at first, but then, you know, that just shows you you can be, you know, a rotten person and still move on forward, get saved and do great things for God. So, that's the end of part one. I'll preach the next sermon about it next week where we'll get into his missionary journeys. Let's have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for the apostle Paul and all the impact that he had on the lives of even the people in this room and the generations of the gospel that were passed from faith to faith through his preaching, Lord, and we thank you, Lord, for just showing us plainly in the scriptures the things that we can believe and trust in and that salvation by faith alone, by grace alone, and its eternal life. We thank you for that wonderful gift, Lord. We pray that you'd help us for the rest of the day and the services to follow. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. Our last song will be song number 17, Since the Savior Found Me in your blue hymnals. Song number 17, Since the Savior Found Me. Song number 17, Since the Savior Found Me. Song 17. Let's sing it out on the first. Since the Savior found me, pardoned all my sin, I have had the joy and living hope within. Gone is all the shame and sorrow of the past. There underneath the precious blood of Christ at last. Saved, saved, saved, I'm happy on the way. Saved, saved, saved, I love Him more each day. Saved, saved, saved, I know He's mine each hour. He saves and keeps and sanctifies me by His power. Since the Savior found me, all to Him I owe, for His precious blood has washed me white as snow. Now no condemnation, happy as can be, I'm glad that Jesus justifies and sets me free. Saved, saved, saved, I'm happy on the way. Saved, saved, saved, I love Him more each day. Saved, saved, saved, I know He's mine each hour. He saves and keeps and sanctifies me by His power. Since the Savior found me, I have perfect rest, living in the realms of joy and happiness, leaning on my Savior, looking for that day when He shall come to catch His waiting right away. Saved, saved, saved, I'm happy on the way. Saved, saved, saved, I love Him more each day. Saved, saved, saved, I know He's mine each hour. He saves and keeps and sanctifies me by His power.