Acts 22:1-15: "Men, brethren, and fathers hear ye my defence which I make now unto you. (And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence: and he saith), I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day."
And to prove my correct teaching and upbringing and parentage and my zealousness:
"And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women."
I did all of this to uphold what I had been taught, to defend my tradition, and to be true to the religion of my fathers and yours.
"As also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of the elders: from whom also I received letters unto the brethren, and went to Damascus, to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem, for to be punished. And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me. And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? And I answered, Who art Thou, Lord? And He said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, Whom thou persecutest."
I am the One Who your fathers stumbled over when I was here in My flesh; they looked Me over and heard Me and said: "We will not have this man to reign over us."
"And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of Him that spoke to me. And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do. And when I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of them that were with me, I came into Damascus. And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there, Came unto me, and stood, and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour I looked up upon him."
Notice carefully verses 14 and 15 that God did this, God is responsible for this. It wasn't an accident, God laid His hand on you, He picked you out, He chose you. And here is a description of salvation: verse 14: "And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know His will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of His mouth."
In the Bible, salvation and service cannot be separated. It was God laying His hand upon you Saul; it was God Who was that light, that was above the light of the noonday sun, so bright that it blinded you. It was God in Jesus Christ Who spoke to you; it was God Who revealed Himself to you, it was all on purpose. God has chosen you that you should know the will of God; that you should see that Just One and that you should hear the voice of His mouth. Verse 15: "For thou shalt be His witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard."
That and only that, for only such a person will have anything to say that this old weary world needs to hear. God has determined, God has fixed it: thou shalt be His witness of what thou hast seen and heard. What a calling. This is the effectual call. Certainly this is not limited to an Apostle; this is true of everyone God calls. To separate being saved from being a God-called, God-anointed and God-sent witness of the supreme God, is deception. For thou shalt be His witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. Salvation is a seeing of Christ by faith with a spiritual eye, and a hearing of Him. God is responsible for you seeing His Son, and God is responsible for you hearing His voice. Right then and there the Apostle Paul's doctrine of what we call electing grace was born and that's the only way it can be born in your soul. If you seek to go from the doctrine of election to experience, you will go wrong. Paul went from experience to the doctrine. It must ever be that way with us. When I say in election, evangelism, commission, service, obedience; I am saying the same thing with different words. And when I say election and Gospel I'm saying exactly the same thing. I want what Paul received, and I want to keep on trying to preach a Gospel that is full; and that the salvation a man claims he receives when he meets Christ included the giving to that person right there a vision of a God whose purpose is to save, and a vision of a waiting world who cannot be saved apart from hearing and believing that message. God deliver us from making a god or a place of refuge out of any doctrine. But, Oh! God give us afresh again and again truth in doctrine born out of experience of meeting a living God. That's what we want. Election is the Gospel. When a man says, "I am one of God's elect," he is not bragging on himself; he is describing the character of Almighty God, whose purpose is to save. He is glorifying God; he is simply saying, "God saved me"; "God laid His hand on me": "Glory to God He saved me." That's what he is saying. I long by the grace of God to preach the Gospel of a saving God, and in order to preach the Gospel of a saving God, I've got to preach a God Who sets out to save, Who saves on purpose, and I have to preach it. I must preach the Gospel of God's electing grace.
I must say that the bare unadorned doctrine of God selects that man and passes the other by, will kill everybody it touches and that's not it. But the Gospel of a God Who chooses men in Jesus Christ because God purposes to save; will bless everybody it touches. And that is the reason when Paul found out from the lips of Ananias that what had happened to him was nothing more or less than God laying His hand on him, that God changed him right then and there. The program of the greatest missionary this world ever knew was born in all of its fullness. And Paul got up off his face and knees there, rejoicing in the high honor of being selected as God Almighty's witness. We have this treasure in earthern vessels, but praise God, we've got it. Amen!
Paul went out from there a flaming missionary, it was settled right then and there. They didn't have to have a meeting six months later and get him to surrender to full-time service; they didn't have to have a study course to teach him missions. Brother, the Lord prepared him for missions and sent him out to be His witness of what he had seen and heard. Oh! that's what we need. I am interested in men and women meeting Jesus Christ and getting up from that meeting with a vision of a waiting world, and with a heart full of the grace of a God Who would select me and you to be His witness in this world of sin and woe. So I come with that introduction to the text of Ephesians 1:4: "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundations of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love."
That wasn't a dry doctrine when Paul could write to the saints at Ephexus; he was writing out of experience. He found out the Lord laid His hand on him. He went away from there with some things settled as far as his relationship to the will of God, as far as him keeping his eye on the Just One and as far as him fulfilling the qualifications of a Christian. My sheep hear my voice, and a stranger they will not follow. My sheep listen to me. Those are the marks of election, and the marks of a child of God, that you should know the will of God. Who does except those who have been called by God? Who else spends his time looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith and serving Him by doing the will of God? The Scriptures say we shall look on His face and we shall serve Him in the new Jerusalem.
Oh! how we need the full Gospel which will face men with the whole Christ and demand full surrender like Paul did and receive from Him our commission to be His witness of what we have seen and heard. That is it. So when Paul writes to the church at Ephesus, he said, "You have been blessed according as he hath chosen us in Him." Now I have been preaching nearly thirty-six years, and I've been looking at that verse of Scripture more than any verse in the Bible. I still don't know how to handle it. I would worship here. I would beg men and women to never lose sight of the fact that election can never be separated from Jesus Christ. The act of God in choosing men was not apart from His Son, but was in Him. That is the reason I say that the Gospel and God's election are one and the same thing. It is God laying His hand on a man and putting him in Christ, joining him to Christ, that's what it is. That is a blessed truth instead of an area of controversy. Do you get it? According as He hath chosen us in Him. If you preach election, that way back yonder God made a decree, then way down here somewhere Jesus Christ came along, you are wrong. However God worked it out, Christ was right there. It was in Christ; it was in reference to Christ.
So I can preach that Christ is God's only remedy. I can preach that Christ is the Way, the Truth and the life, and that no man can come unto the Father but by Him. I can preach that election is nothing on God's earth than a God of purpose, laying His hand on a man and changing him and it is all in Christ. And that humbles me so that if you ask me if I understand it, I would say certainly not. But I want four things to be the result in my life of a heart belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. Glory to His Name. I can say God laid His hand on me.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever else it is, it is the act of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and whatever He does I want to say "Praise God," "Praise the Lord." And since I have no way of finding out that I've had God's hand laid on me except to experience His hand on me. The only reason I believe that God chose me in Christ is because God saved me. I heard Him, I saw Him, I felt His impact; I didn't find out that meant election till a long time later. Amen! But don't get discouraged. Paul didn't find out till Ananias told him and then you see, he could write to the church at Ephesus and it wasn't a cold doctrine; it was just a matter of rejoicing in the act of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I tell you, God chose you in Christ. Isn't that wonderful?
And there are four things that will do for anybody that comes to it out of experience. (1) It will breed confidence in you, and we sure need confidence in this day. Brother, everything that is vital for time and eternity is subject to the most vicious powerful attack from the demons of hell this world has ever known. I am the weakest Christian, I guess, that ever lived; but I don't know that I am in much worse shape than you are. If I am, I'm a little bit sorry for you. Unto God I have to cry and pray and walk the floor and plead and weep to keep from being scared out of my wits these days, If I didn't have some heart belief in a God Who seeks men and Who purposes to save men; and proved it by seeking me and saving me; I wouldn't have anything that would stand me instead, when through the night hours the heavens are black and all hell is popping on my pillow, and the accusations against me and the failures I've made ring in my soul. I think I would go crazy if I didn't have some heart belief that despite hell and all accusations; God is still on the throne and He is a God of election and He is a God Who purposes to save and He saved me.
That breeds confidence and it has a tendency to remove doubts. I thought by the time I got as old as I am I would be perfect, but I'm getting meaner all the time. The battle is getting worse all the time. I have to pray more than I use to; I weep ten times more now than I did ten years ago; my heart is broken ten times more than it was five years ago. Oh! my God, the awful burden of seeking to preach and teach and witness and live in the icicle atmosphere of the very demons of hell today. It is awful.
I look in myself and I see nothing there to give me the slightest assurance that I am a child of God and if you take away from me the blessed privilege I have, that praise God at the last resort, I am not shut up to my choice of Christ. I'm shut up, thank God, to His choice of me. That gives me hope in Christ. God laid His hand on me and I am His witness of what I have seen and heard. It is blessed to read, "Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you." Oh! my sin and battle storm tossed child of God, if you are not tossing today, it means you are a disgrace to the Name of Christ. If you are not in battle on every side today, it means you are a traitor to the commission of Christ. You can't be on Christ's side now without going through hell, because this world hates Christ, and the very spirit of Antichrist is everywhere. Hear me, let no doubt within you; let no criticism from without you destroy your quiet assurance or make you question the reality of your experience. It is the eternal will of God in His decree that nothing less than that on which your new life rests. Alleluia! God thinks a lot of me – confidence. He laid His hand on me, He chose me. I am His.
The second thing that results from a heart experience of what I am talking about – not a head knowledge that will ruin you and everybody it touches – but a heart experience will result in a certain amount of boldness. Paul said, "I am a witness for Christ, He sent me forth." One king said, "I had rather face a marching army than one convinced Calvinist with the Word of God." They might have been wrong in lots of things, but they were convinced that they were messengers of Almighty God. Oh! how this generation needs some people who have seen Christ and heard Him and been filled with the Holy Ghost and they became a faithful witness of what they have seen and heard.
This generation doesn't need to know about your doctrine, they need to know about the Christ that you say you have seen and Whose voice you've heard. God's children need to abide in the doctrine of Christ and tell men and women what they have seen and heard. Most church people today have never seen Christ and they have never heard His voice. If revival comes, I'd love to spend a day in it before I die. I would love to see God's children with a holy boldness as witnesses of God of what we have seen and heard. If a man has Holy Ghost conviction, he has been apprehended of God; he has been chosen of God; he has been appointed a witness of God, and there will be some boldness in there. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:1: "Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not."
Moffit's translation says: "As I hold this ministry by God's mercy, I never lose heart in it." Boldness. Moods change, don't they? Feelings come and go, don't they? Difficulties arise, don't they? But behind all is God Who by His mercy gave us the ministry of His witness. Boldness.
The third thing that will affect a person who has a heart belief in what I am talking about will be amazement. I don't want to be in the presence of anybody who wants to argue about God's Word, but I like to be in the presence of somebody that hasn't yet got over being amazed that God saved him. Paul would look you in the face and say, "I am amazed that God would have mercy on a sinner like me." God has never called anybody to be His witness of dry truth; we are called to be His witness of what we have experienced of Him. Amen! I am amazed that He should ever save me. In God's Name don't ever get to where you can talk about God saving you without a sense of amazement that He selected you, that He arrested you, that He laid His hands on you. I am amazed. I am amazed.
Then there is the last thing that will be true to some extent at least. When it dawns on you that what has happened to you is God's doing, His electing grace, it is His salvation. Not only confidence, boldness and amazement, but for Paul a passion gripped him, a passion took charge. A passion to lead all men to the same source of blessing where he drank of the water of life. I look you in the face and say that a person who claims to be a Christian who is not gripped by such a passion is a disgrace to the God of election. Election simply means: God's purpose to save. Oh! Paul was literally seized and gripped by a passion to lead all men; not just some, but all to this same fountain of living water that had refreshed him. Paul said: "Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." A passion gripped that man. God help men and women chosen to be witnesses of what they have seen and heard, to work at the job of keeping alive that passion that God gave you when He saved you, to lead men and women to the same source of blessing that you've been brought to. "Ah! If God would select me, He wouldn't have any trouble saving anybody else," Paul said, "and the rest of my life is going to be spent seeking to lead everybody I can to drink at that fountain." A man who met a redeeming God found out that God sought him before he ever sought God; found out that God chooses whatever He touches, and he went forth from that experience with a confidence, a boldness, and amazement gripped by a passion.
This old world is dying on its feet because it has become popular not to believe anything much today lest you get hurt. But oh! what we say we believe, if it is true, it is of utter necessity, and I covet for you what I covet for me: to have something of the awful necessity, the utter necessity that we find in Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 9:16, which says: "For though I preach the Gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the Gospel!"
It is necessary. I can hear his heart breaking; I can see him looking at a waiting world for whom there is no hope outside of Christ. If he was here tonight when they are saying that God speaks to men through every great religion on earth and that Christ is no longer unique. If he stood tonight in this congregation living in a world where the doctrine of universalism that God is so good and man is so worthy, that all men will finally be saved. That is the fastest growing doctrine in the world, but it is false and a lie of hell. I think I could see Paul stand here and lift up his hand and say he has committed this ministry of reconciliation to us and we stand in Christ's stead and let our hearts bleed over a waiting world and say: be ye reconciled unto God. It is an utter necessity. Let us pray:
"Our Father, in the Name of Him in Whom You chose us, we commit the message. We will have to answer for how it was delivered and the people will have to answer for how it was listened to. Do things in the heart of the preacher who deliveredit; and the people who heard it, that will count in the kingdom of God. Lord, have Your way in somebody's life here that You may be speaking to. Glorify Christ even now. Amen!"