Transcript
No doubt he had convinced himself that what he was doing was something that God approved of doing, but it wasn’t.
You can imagine the tremendous shock that Paul had as he stood before the figure in that blazing light and heard the words, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?”
And when he said, “Who art thou, Lord?” the answer, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest,” must have been a veritable revolution, a veritable earthquake in his soul.
That leads us to a question that I want to ask you tonight. Maybe you have always assumed that you knew the answer. Then was Saul born again? When was Saul born again?
And the answer that I feel we have to give to this question is simply this. He must have been born again right there on the Damascus Road at approximately the time that the voice said to him, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.”
After all, the Bible says,
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.
And the Gospel of John says,
These are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through his name.
And don’t misunderstand me. I know that you could walk down one of the streets of Oklahoma City and stop a random passerby and say, “Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ?”
And they might even look at you rather strangely. “Why, of course he’s the Christ. Isn’t his name Jesus Christ?”
We have to keep in mind that the name Christ was more than a name in the days of the Bible. It was a title. It stood for the Messiah of God. It stood for the Savior that God had promised to send into the world.
And for a man to believe that Jesus was the Christ was to recognize that Jesus was God’s Savior who had come to bring God’s salvation.
And don’t forget that the Apostle Paul was a man who was persecuting Christians. He knew perfectly well that the Christians claimed that Jesus was the Christ.
And undoubtedly he must have known that Christians based their hope for eternity upon this one named Jesus. And though he had felt that they were wrong, when he heard the words, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest,” he realized surely that they had been right after all.
And that Jesus was God’s Christ.
Not only that, according to Acts chapter 26 there were some other words that Jesus spoke to him on the Damascus Road.
Because when Paul recounts his conversion in that chapter he says that Jesus said to him, “Arise and stand upon thy feet. For for this purpose I have appeared unto thee, that thou mightest be a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee.
Delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.”
All of those words Paul heard on the Damascus Road.
And I believe that we cannot avoid the conclusion that when Saul left the road to Damascus he realized that Jesus was the Christ.
And that he realized that he belonged to Jesus from that time and forward.
I would suggest to you therefore that the answer to the question, When was he born again, must be on the Damascus Road.
But that leads to a harder question then. Did Saul get the forgiveness of sins? When did Saul get the forgiveness of sins?
Last week we studied the experience of Cornelius. And as we reviewed it just a few moments ago, when Cornelius believed in the Lord Jesus Christ his experience is the experience that you and I have.
And three important things happened to him. Distinct things but important things. He received eternal life. He was born into the family of God. He received the forgiveness of sins. And he received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
He received all of these things at one and the same time. And this is easy for us to understand because we understand that this is our experience as well.
What was Paul’s experience? May I suggest to you that even though the Apostle Paul must have been born again on the road to Damascus, he did not receive the forgiveness of sins until three days later.
How do I know this? From the words that Paul himself quotes from Ananias in Acts chapter 22.
For when Ananias comes in to him, Ananias says, “Brother Saul.” Notice the word brother.
And in the context of Acts we can hardly doubt that Ananias is calling Saul a Christian brother.
“Brother Saul, receive thy sight.” Then he tells Saul that he is to be a servant of Christ.
And then he says these remarkable words, “And now why tarriest thou? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.”
If I were to walk out the front door — I’m still a little turned around here. Is this the front door back here? — if I were to walk out the front door onto 50th Street and meet an unsaved man, would that unsaved man be a man who had eternal life? No.
Would that unsaved man be a man who had the Holy Spirit? No.
Would that unsaved man be a man who had the forgiveness of sins? No.
And if that unsaved man died unsaved, he would go to hell without eternal life, without the Holy Spirit, and without the forgiveness of sin. That’s the way he would go to hell.
But think carefully with me. Which of those things would cause him to go to hell?
Well, it couldn’t be the fact that he did not have the gift of the Holy Spirit. Because the gift of the Holy Spirit was never given to anybody before the day of Pentecost.
Abraham and Moses and David and Joshua didn’t have the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says the Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.
An unsaved man would surely go to hell without having the Holy Spirit. But that would not be the basic reason why he went to hell.
That leaves two other things. Does he go to hell because he does not have eternal life or because his sins are not forgiven?
May I suggest to you that the answer to that is because he does not have eternal life.
Let me give you some scriptural reason for thinking so. Will you turn with me briefly to Revelation chapter 20?
Now I’m sure that you’re probably familiar with this chapter and that you are aware that the opening part of the chapter describes the first resurrection, a resurrection that Jesus once called the resurrection of life.
We read in verse 5, “The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.” That is what has been described in the early part of the chapter.
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. On such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
And then a thousand years pass. And now we begin reading at verse 11. For here is the second resurrection, a resurrection that Jesus once called the resurrection of damnation or the resurrection of judgment.
Let’s read it carefully.
And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it. And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged every man according to their works.
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
This is the final judgment. Dead unsaved men and women are standing before God. And the books that contain the record of their life are open. And they are judged out of the things that are written in those books.
You know and I know that there are many unsaved people who are quite convinced that their lives are good enough to earn their way to heaven. They are convinced that if anybody goes to heaven they will be among them.
But they have never trusted Christ for salvation. And people like that, as well as everybody, will get their day in court. Their lives will come on review.
And obviously it will be proved that they have no claim on the salvation of God on the basis of their works. And equally obvious it is not only good things, if they may be called good things, that they have done. But obviously evil things that they have done which are a part of the works that are on review.
And for all of those evil things they remain unforgiven.
But notice carefully then, according to Revelation chapter 20, there is no statement that anyone was sent into the lake of fire because of anything that was written in those books.
There was another book that was opened as well. And this was the book of life.
And the final disposition of the man’s destiny is determined not by the works that are written in the book that records his life but by the book of life.
Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
What one book of the New Testament tells us that it was written for the purpose of bringing men to saving faith? What one book is that? The Gospel of John.
Good. Second question. How many times does the Gospel of John refer to the forgiveness of sin? Can you quote me from the Gospel of John one verse that refers to the forgiveness of sins?
Maybe you can because I think there is one verse. Far as I am aware that is the only verse. And it is not in a context that has anything to do with personal salvation.
Does the Gospel of John tell us anything about life? Over and over and over and over again.
He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation. But is passed from death unto life.
I’ve had the good fortune at times of speaking to children. And sometimes when I have spoken to children I have liked to illustrate this.
I’ve said to the children, “We’re going to roll two imaginary circles up here. And you folks I’m sure will be able to follow this.”
The children world. I find that when I get down to children’s level I understand things too.
We have two circles up here, imaginary circles. And we’re going to call one of these circles the circle of death. We’re going to call the other circle the circle of life.
And every man and woman and every boy and girl is standing in one of these circles. If I am standing in the circle of death when I pass out of this world I’m going to stand before God in judgment.
And I must be sent away forever into the lake of fire because my name is not written in the book of life.
If I am standing in the circle of life I don’t even have to stand before God in judgment. “Shall not come into judgment.” I already have the life that determines my eternal destiny.
Now if I am standing in the circle of death, how do I get from this circle into the circle of life? Very simply by hearing the word of the Lord Jesus Christ and believing.
And when that happens I have stepped out of the circle of death and I have stepped into the circle of life. I have passed out of death into life.
And that, my friends, was the basic question that determines the eternal destiny of men. Do we or do we not have life? Have I passed out of death by faith in Christ into life?
And that is why the Gospel of John concentrates on this crucial, basic, determinative issue between man and God.
Let’s get back to Saul, shall we? Evidently Saul was born again on the Damascus Road. Born again on the Damascus Road.
He passed at that moment out of death into life. He became a brother of Ananias and of the other Christians. His name was written in the book of life.
But he did not receive the forgiveness of sins until after Ananias came to him and after he was baptized. “Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.”
Now this has to be sharply contrasted, doesn’t it, with the experience of Cornelius?
When Peter came to Cornelius he said nothing about baptism in connection with the forgiveness of sins to Cornelius.
He said to him, “To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.”
And while Cornelius was listening to that the Holy Spirit fell on Cornelius and all of those that were gathered with him.
And it was only after that that Peter apparently even thought of baptism.
Cornelius therefore received the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit and of course life before he was baptized with water.
Paul, although he received eternal life on the Damascus Road, waited for the moment of baptism in order for his sins to be washed away.
And we are face to face with the fact about the book of Acts that we cannot avoid and need not avoid. And that is this. That there are different kinds of experiences in the forgiveness of sin and in the reception of the gift of the Holy Spirit recorded on the pages of Acts.
This has been often noticed by expositors and commentators. And it’s something that we must notice and take account of.
Cornelius received all three of these blessings that we have mentioned before water baptism. At least he received the forgiveness of sin after Ananias came.
Cornelius was a Gentile. Saul was a Jew of Palestine.
And in the message that I want to give to you next week I shall try to stress why that is an important consideration.
But for the moment will you be satisfied just with this distinction? Cornelius provides us with a pattern for the salvation experience of Gentiles. Paul is a pattern of the experience of Jews of Palestine.
Does this seem strange to you? It should seem strange to all of us because it is contrary to our own experience in salvation.
And yet what I would like to suggest to you is that it is really not as strange as it strikes us as at first.
You know I can still remember the night that I got saved. I was in between grade school and high school. And I was attending a gospel meeting on the grounds of Greenwood Hills.
And after the message was over and a final appeal had been made, in between the verses of two hymns I trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior.
My younger brother was sitting next to me. And he told me later that he noticed that I sang louder in the last part of the hymn than I did at the first.
I wasn’t aware of that. But the obvious reason was that in between the two verses I had trusted Christ.
You know I can still remember going home from Greenwood Hills back into Chambersburg that night. I was sitting in the backseat of the car.
And I can remember looking out the window at the night sky, at the moon. And I can still remember that picture of the night sky and the moon as clearly as if it was yesterday.
And my, they were beautiful. You know I’m sure they were no more beautiful that night than they had been the night before. But to me they were beautiful because my heart was happy.
I had joy. Why? Because you see the moment I trusted Christ not only did I get eternal life but I began at that very moment an experience of peace with him, a fellowship with him, of joy with him.
God had not only written my name in the book of life. He had removed the barrier of my sins that kept me from having fellowship with him.
He had brought me also into his church by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And all of those things began the very moment I was saved.
And I was enjoying it while I was singing the last stanza of the hymn. But it didn’t happen that way for Saul.
And those three days in Damascus were not days of joy and fellowship with God. Apparently in those days Saul was blind. In those days Saul ate nothing.
He prayed. But he did nothing in the service of God. And it was not until after Ananias came that the blindness was lifted, that service began, and the joy was possible.
May I make a very simple suggestion to you here? Receiving eternal life brings us into the family of God. Receiving the forgiveness of sins brings us into fellowship with God. Receiving the Holy Spirit brings us into the Church of God.
And although Saul had eternal life from the very moment that he recognized Jesus as the Christ, God waited three days before he showed Saul the way into fellowship with himself.
In other words those three days that Saul spent were days not yet spent in fellowship with God.
And that is not so strange. Because even though it is true for you and me that we enter into the joy of our salvation, that we enter into real fellowship with God at the moment that we trust Christ, do we not recognize that it may be even the very next day if I commit a sin and fail to confess that sin the joy that I was having with God can be lost?
The experience of fellowship that I was having with God can be lost. Whenever I as a Christian, a member of the family of God with my name written in the book of life, allows sin to interpose itself between me and God, that sin can disrupt my fellowship.
And in reality, in reality therefore the experience of the Apostle Paul in Damascus for three days is no different than your experience and mine when we are out of fellowship with God. Only in Paul’s case the fellowship had yet to begin.
What was that experience like? Saul was physically blind and saw nothing. Saul ate nothing. Physically he did not serve God. Spiritually.
And there is in this I think a parable of sorts, an illustration of sorts, of what it means to you and me to be out of fellowship with God even though we have eternal life.
For if I am out of fellowship with God I am living in the dark, living in the dark. If I am out of fellowship with God I cannot be nurtured properly and fed properly from the pages of the Word of God.
If I am living out of fellowship with God I cannot have a vital Christian experience and a vital witness for God.
And as soon as Ananias came the darkness passed. Baptized, the Apostle Paul goes out and he begins that vital life of testimony to the Son of God for which he is so very well known.
Straightway in the synagogue he preached Christ, that he is the Son of God.
Now every once in a while someone asks this question. All right, I am born again. But what if I die with unconfessed sin? What if I die with unconfessed sin?
Suppose I commit a sin and I walk out this building and I’m hit by a truck and I pass into eternity before I have confessed the sin of which I am guilty. Do I go to hell?
And I’m sure that you must realize that the answer to that is no. Why is the answer to that no? There are two basic reasons why the answer is no.
The first reason is found in the cross of Christ. For even an unconfessed sin was paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Remember that when the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross we hadn’t committed any of our sins yet. And yet he paid for all of them. Not only the sins that I committed before I was saved but for all of the sins that I would ever commit. For all of these he died and paid the price.
But listen, he did that for everybody. The Bible says,
He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. The whole status of the world in relationship to God has been dramatically changed by the cross of Christ.
And that is why no man really goes to hell because his sins are unforgiven. Men go to hell unforgiven. But they do not go to hell because they are unforgiven.
Jesus is the satisfaction for the sins of all mankind. And now the issue between man and God is the issue of life. Will you have my Son or will you not have my Son?
Whosoever’s name is not written in the book of life is cast into the lake of fire.
And if you have trusted in this God’s Son you have this life. You are in the family of God.
You may die with unconfessed sin. But if you do you die in the family of God in the possession of eternal life.
And that is also the reason why when a Christian dies with unconfessed sin he does not go to hell.
You see what God requires of us to maintain fellowship with him is openness to him in our lives.
If we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.
Every moment that we walk open before God we are under the effective power of the blood of Christ making our fellowship possible.
If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And if I am out of fellowship with God tonight the reason is that I am not being honest with God about my sin.
But if I die that way I’ll wake up in the presence of God a perfect person. And there will be no question of honesty at that moment. There will be no hiding of sin when we step into his presence.
But the sin which I had not confessed nevertheless is a sin for which Christ died. And the life which Jesus gave me is a life that cannot be lost.
I came down from heaven, said Jesus, not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the last day.
It is the possession of life that guarantees our eternal destiny.
What if Saul had died in Damascus before Ananias reached him? He would have gone to heaven. But he would have missed a life of rich, fruitful fellowship with God.
A couple of weekends ago our little group in Dallas had the campout. That was the last week in January. And that struck me as being a strange part of the year to have a campout in.
We did fortunately have a lodge in which we could stay. And when Friday evening came I felt that I was coming down with a cold. And it was sort of drizzly and cool outside.
And so I temporarily chickened out and I phoned a couple of people and said, “I’ve got to protect this cold. I’ve got to go up to Oklahoma and preach next week and I can’t afford to lose my voice. I’m not coming.”
And then I stepped out on my porch and it was so miserable outside and so rainy. And I thought to myself, “It’s so ridiculous for anybody to go on a campout tonight. But I think I’ll go.”
So I went. And I almost say we had a pretty good time. But we were inside the whole time. It rained all Friday night and it was still raining on Saturday morning.
About the middle of the morning we all packed up our gear and went back home. And I think everybody who went on that campout would admit that was a campout. So that was not an ideal camping experience.
When you trust Christ that’s salvation. But if you walk out of fellowship with him it will not be an ideal experience of salvation.
What we really needed on that campout was a lot of sunshine so that we wouldn’t be cooped up in that lodge. So we could get out in the woods and roam the woods and hike and do all of the fun things that we associate with a campout.
If I take the life that God has given me, Saul very freely, lock it up in an experience of disobedience, I’ll miss the sunlight. I’ll live in a rainy day, would be more precise. I’ll walk in darkness.
When Ananias looked up at the light of the sun disobediently the sun blinded him and cast him into a world of darkness.
And if you’re a Christian tonight God is shining into your heart with the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And that’s a brilliant light.
And it’s so brilliant that if you live disobediently it will cast your world and experience into the darkness of night.
If we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another.
Songwriters put it well. “When we walk with the Lord in the light of his word, what a glory he sheds on our way. While we do his good will he abides with us still. And with all who will trust and obey. Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey.”
Shall we pray?
Father, for that rich and glorious salvation that you have so freely bestowed upon us we thank thee for life in Christ Jesus, a life that he bought for us on the cross. We thank thee so much.
And Father we pray that we may follow him and have the light of that life, that we may no longer walk in darkness but have fellowship with him.
We pray that we may go out of this place determined more than ever to experience the light of his countenance and the realization of his love in our own personal experience. For we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.
It has been suggested to me that since I have a tendency to finish a little early I might put the remaining minutes open for questions. And I would be most happy to do that if there are any questions that you would like to ask about what I said tonight.
Well last week if by any chance it is something that I’m intending to answer next week or the week after I might dodge the question for tonight. But I will be happy to hear any that you might wish to ask.
Yes sir. Well Paul once said that he was in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better. But on the other hand if he continued with them this was more fruitful.
Yes. And so he decided that he would after all remain behind. Ultimately I think we’d have to say that in the final analysis it is better to be there than here.
But it is better to be there after a life of fruit than to be there before a life of fruit. And I think that is the reason God leaves us behind so that we can bring into that future glory the kind of life that will enrich it.
Yes sir. Or Ananias? But at one point we fly and then following that we would be forgiven. In solving that mean that they try to follow me but rather than they have.
That’s an excellent question. And let me try to address myself to it. There are two parts to it to the answer.
The first, my first answer is no. I’m not trying to say that. I am saying in fact that our experience as believers in Christ is precisely identical with the experience of Cornelius in Acts chapter 10.
And as I understand that experience all three of these things happen instantaneously, simultaneously. So that it is fruitless to try and separate them in terms of time.
We might say that the logic of it would be life, forgiveness, and the coming of the Spirit. But that is only the logic of it and not the temporal character as I understand it.
So for Cornelius and for us these three things are instantaneous, simultaneous upon faith.
On the other hand I am saying for Paul that the experience of eternal life was separated from the experience of the forgiveness of sins by three days.
So in his case I am saying yes there is a temporal sequence.
We will have more to say about this temporal sequence and the way it bears on some of the other problem passages in Acts next week.
But I do want to say that there is a temporal sequence here. And the reason I take Paul next is because in his case the temporal sequence is the longest we can find and therefore the clearest to illustrate this fact.
Yes sir. No I said logically perhaps they were high. You’re talking about in our own experience then in Paul’s experience they are temporally separated also.
So that the experience of being born again occurs on the Damascus Road. The experience of forgiveness occurs three days later in Damascus.
Therefore there is a temporal separation between them which is not true of us and what’s not true of Cornelius.
We have not as yet explored fully why that should be true. We’ve only tried to illustrate the night that it was in fact true of Paul.
Next week we hope to address ourselves a little bit more to why it should be that way for Paul and others.
But it’s very important in order to grasp what we’re trying to say. It’s very important however to keep in mind that it’s the gift of life that is the basic fundamental thing that establishes the relationship with God.
That is why the definition of these three experiences is of vital importance in order to distinguish them properly.
Yes sir. Yes the baptism in other words in Cornelius’ case was obviously it was obviously intended because he had already received these.
You remember that Peter says, “Who can forbid water that these should not be baptized who have received the gift of the Spirit the same as we?”
So in that case they were baptized because these realities had already taken place.
The baptism in Cornelius’ case therefore pointed to realities that preceded that just as it does with us.
When we go down to the waters of baptism and come up out of those waters we are signifying to people that prior to our baptism we have been linked with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. We have new life and new experience with him.
Baptism therefore points back to something for us. However, and we didn’t go too deeply into it tonight with regard to Paul, the baptism necessarily preceded the forgiveness of sins.
“Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.”
We will explore this obvious problem somewhat more in detail next week.
My time is up. Thank you.