What The Blind Man Saw

Introduction

I hope you have brought your Bibles with you that you’ll open with me to the reading found in the ninth chapter of the book of Acts. Kind of a lengthy text this morning. I want to read the first eighteen verses of Acts chapter 9. I’m reading from the English Standard Version. Acts 9, verses 1 through 18. The story of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, who we better know as the Apostle Paul. The scripture says, But Saul, still bringing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him, and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

And he said, Who are you, Lord? And he said, I’m Jesus, whom you’re persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do. The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus, and for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank. Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said unto him in a vision, Ananias, and he said, Here am I, here I am, Lord. The Lord said to him, Rise and go to the street called straight. And at the house of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus named Saul.

For behold, he is praying. And he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight. But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard many about this man. I’ve heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name.

For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. So Ananias departed and entered the house, and laying his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me so that you may again may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized, and taking food, he was strengthened. One of the outstanding stories in the Bible, of course, is the conversion of this man, who is first introduced to us by the name of Saul, his Hebrew name. But said, whom we better know as Paul, the apostle, the Lord called, who went to the Gentiles and preached the gospel to them.

This morning I want to talk about the conversion of Saul of Tarsus or of Paul. I’m calling the lesson what the blind man saw. For he was blinded by this vision. And it is important the things that he saw are understood. Blindness, of course, is considered a handicap. Indeed, I treasure the ability to see. Yet it is true that there are some who have taken the handicap of blindness and have in fact turned it into a blessing. You may not have noticed, but every song that we were led in this morning was a song written by Fanny J. Crosby, a woman who was blind. I asked for the gem to pick those kind of songs. Fanny J. Crosby actually was born in 1820. She was not born blind.

She actually had sight, but as an infant, had some kind of infection in her eye, and they didn’t have the specialists that we have today. And in fact, even the regular doctor that would be in that area was away. There was a quack who came and said, Oh, he could heal her, and he prepared some kind of hot poultice and put on her eye to draw out the infection. But instead it left her blind. Indeed, they ran the quack out of town, they said. She could have grown up and bemoaned her condition and complained that, you know, she didn’t need to be blind, but she didn’t take that attitude. In her 95 years, she wrote over 9,000 hymns. Songs that we all know and have sung many times.

Safe in the arms of Jesus. We sang this morning, Blessed Assurance. Praise him, praise him. We sang this morning, All the way My Savior leads me. Indeed, tell me the story of Jesus, redeemed. And our imitation, Jesus is calling. And of many others. What that really says is that blindness can be turned to a blessing. In fact, in another vein, I have even challenged some to make me blind, that I might see. There are so-called faith healers of our day, the many of the Pentecostal type churches who claim that they can work miracles of healing. And I challenge that if indeed they can work the kind of miracles that we read the apostles and early disciples performing in New Testament times, then blind me. That’s what the Apostle Paul did in Acts chapter 13, where in verses 9 through 13, as he was teaching a man, the proconsul of the Isle of Crete, Sergius Paulus, there was a man named Elamus, a sorcerer, who tried to turn Sergius Paulus away from the faith.

And Paul blinded him for a season. I said, you know, blind me for a season that I might see. If indeed you can work these kind of miracles, that’ll sure make me a believer. I’ve yet to have one even attempt to do that. And I really say that all they can do, therefore, is only perform the kind of miracles that through psychosomatic kind of healings. They don’t work the kind of miracles that we read about in New Testament times. But I would count that as a blessing, if indeed they can actually blind, because I would then understand that maybe they do have the truth, when in fact I protest that they do not. They’re preaching a doctrine that is not true. But so it was with the man of our text.

1. Being Good Morally by Itself Is Not Sufficient

He learned some things by being blind. And I want you to consider what do you think that Saul understood or saw while he was blind. Well, as we look at this, I want to suggest to you that he learned, first of all, that some things alone will not save. I put in parentheses with our text on this chart that not only have we read from Acts 9, verses 1 through 18, the story of his conversion is really found three different times in the book of Acts. In Acts 9, as we’ve read, it’s from the point of view of Luke, the inspired historia. But when you read in Acts 22, verses 1 through 16, or in Acts 26, verses 1 through 23, it is in the words of Paul himself.

After now he has preached the gospel and really being arrested at the conclusion of his third preaching journey. Acts 22, he’s making his defense before the Jewish High Council. And in Acts 26, he’s making his defense before King Agrippa. So in those two references, he retells a story, as we’ve just read in Acts chapter 9. But in all of these, we find that really he understood that there were some things that standing alone will not save by themselves. For example, he learned that being good morally by itself is not sufficient to save.

You hear funerals where indeed people are sort of preached right into heaven because they’ve been pretty good people. May not have been religious at all. But if they’ve been good morally. The Apostle Paul could say, as he wrote in Philippians chapter 3, verses 4 through 7, if anybody could count up statistics or you want to know the character, then Paul could say, I can I could stand even more than they. He said in Philippians 3, beginning in verse 4, though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. Circumcised 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.

But what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ. What he says by this is if you want to, if you want to count really characteristics or credentials that are fleshly, I’d stand at the top of the list. I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. I wasn’t a proselyte to the Jewish faith. I came of the right lineage of the stock of Israel. And in fact, I was of the tribe of Benjamin. That’s one of those that stood faithful with Judah at the time that the kingdom divided between the northern and the southern. And they stood yet to worship at the temple in Jerusalem. In fact, you want to talk about one who really was righteous. As touching the righteousness of the law, as men would count it, I stood blameless.

2. Having Religious Zeal Was Not Enough

That didn’t mean he was without sin. But it certainly means he was no hypocrite, and others knew that he was not a hypocrite. If you want to know about zeal, I had zeal for God, and it’s proven by the persecution that I set against the Lord’s people, believing it to be wrong. He was a good moral man. But he was not saved. As the Lord indeed approached him in the vision, proves that he needed to change. But not only did he understand being good morally by itself was not enough, he also learned having religious zeal was not enough. As we just commented from Philippians 3, he said, uh concerning zeal, he persecuted the church. Now when you look at his credentials, in his own defense in Acts chapter 22, when he stood before that Sanhedrin council, he recounted how that though he was born in Tarsus of Cilicia, yet he was raised or brought up in the city of Jerusalem near near the temple.

In fact, he was there because he went to, you might say, the finest schools of that day, the religious schools. He said, I was 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. You couldn’t uh you could not challenge Paul as as being a hypocrite. He said, I had the finest of teaching. Gamalia was a doctor of the law. And I was brought up by Gamalia. I was taught according to the strict manner of the law. In fact, in the passage we read first in Philippians 3, he said, I was a Pharisee, the straightest or the most conservative of the Jews regarding the law of Moses.

Back in Galatians 1 and verse 13, he even said of himself, he profited, or he advanced beyond many his own age in the Jews’ religion. Beyond measure, I persecuted the church of God and wasted it. You see, at this point in his life, he really believed that Jesus was an imposter. He believed that Jesus stood like others who during that period of time and even before had claimed to be the Messiah of whom the prophets had predicted would come. And so Jesus, like the rest, being a false prophet, or himself claiming to be the Son of God when Saul didn’t believe that he was.

And yet just being religious by itself was not sufficient. I doubt our zeal today would measure up to Paul’s or to Saul. He was on the road to Damascus when he had this vision. You have any idea how far that was, what kind of a trip that was? It was like only about 150 miles if we count miles, but you know today you get in an air-conditioned car and drive on an interstate and 150 miles isn’t that far. But in that period of time, they traveled maybe 20 miles a day. That’s like seven and a half days one way. To go find people who claim to follow this imposter. Talk about zeal. He had zeal for the Lord, out of religious zeal for what he thought was right.

3. Sincere Following His Conscience Was Not Enough

Did that make him saved? Well, we recognize that that zeal for God didn’t save him of itself. God wants us to be zealous, but that by itself isn’t sufficient. Not only that, he he saw that sincere following his conscience was not enough. There are those who think, well, just follow your conscience. I sometimes say the devil never invented a better slogan than the slogan, it really doesn’t matter what you believe. It is preached and said many times from many pulpits today. Join the church of your choice. It really doesn’t matter what you believe. Just so you believe Jesus is the Son of God, that’s all that matters. You never find that statement in the Bible, not once. I tell you, you think about it. If you were the devil, could you invent a better slogan than that?

You think about it. Jesus described the devil as a liar and the father of lies. And you know, all that he wants you to do is to say, it doesn’t matter. Close your Bible. Don’t make a, don’t make an intense study of it, because it doesn’t matter what you believe. But you don’t read that in the Bible. Jesus Himself said in Matthew chapter 7, verses 21 through 23, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. He went on to say, Many will come in that day and will say, Lord, did we not, did we not prophesy in thy name? Teach in the name of Christ, religious zeal.

And in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name have done many wonderful works, and then will I profess unto them, depart from me, I never knew you, you workers of iniquity. It’s important that we be zealous for God. It’s important that we follow our conscience. It’s necessary that we be good morally. But these alone is not what will save us. Paul, in fact, after he was arrested, as he stood before this council in Acts chapter 23 and in verse 1, he said, I have lived in all good conscience before God unto this day. All good conscience. It’s important that we follow our conscience. We must never violate it. But conscience alone can be misguided, Paul said. He had been honestly mistaken. In fact, in the 24th chapter, when he’s before Felix, the Roman governor in verse 16, he says, I have always a conscience void of offense toward God.

I haven’t violated what I understood God wanted me to do. But look at chapter 26, even more clearly in verses 9 and 10, he could say, I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, which thing I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints 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. You mean Paul, when Stephen, the first martyr, was stoned to death, you were there saying, Go, do it. Stone him. Well, they could say, I thought I ought to do that. I followed my conscience in that. You mean when women were even put to death, you were, yes, I was there saying, because they were wrong religiously, and it mattered to God.

4. The Tragedy of Believing a Lie

I was zealous for God. But honest is important. But if we really are honest, we like Paul have to come to a crossroads when truth is presented. You see, he was honestly mistaken while he was persecuting Christians. But when he saw this vision on the road to Damascus, he had to make a choice. Either he continued mistaken or he continued honest. But he could not continue honestly mistaken. He either would continue following the way of Judaism and rejecting Jesus as the Son of God. He’d have been mistaken, wouldn’t he? But he had no longer been honest after this vision. In fact, what else he learned was the tragedy of believing a lie. He had done all what he’d done, honestly mistaken, but it was a lie to deny Jesus as the Son of God.

In 1 Timothy chapter 1, in verses 12 through 16, he said, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious. But I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. How be it for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

You notice the last phrase in that verse 16. Paul serves as a pattern, as an example, one translation gives it. God is full of mercy. If he could forgive Paul, what does he describe himself being in verse 15? The chief of sinners. Oh, we probably wouldn’t list him that way. We could probably think of some others far more wicked, a Nero or others that we would account as not even believing in Jesus at any point in time. Not zealous for God at all. But said Paul said, I am chief of sinners. Why? Because he had put Christians to death. He had opposed the way of Christ. But notice he’d obtained mercy because he did it ignorantly in unbelief, verse 13. But he had to come to a crossroads with a vision.

He had to make a decision. Should he continue on like he was, or does he make a change? You know, sometimes we’ve illustrated it. Paul was walking this way, persecuting Christians, and he made a complete about face and became a Christian who was himself being persecuted. That doesn’t really illustrate it right. That’s the outward Paul. But inwardly, he was always serving God. He never changed that way. Well, he made honest conscience before God. Though it may look outwardly to be made a change, he really did it because of his zeal for God. Because he was a good man morally, because he did have zeal for God, and he did always follow his conscience. When he came to see the truth, he obeyed the truth. You see, the fact is that the same emotion that is produced by a lie is the same emotion that is produced by truth.

You can believe a lie and be just as fully convinced it’s right as if it were the truth. You probably remember the story in Genesis 37, whenever the sons of Jacob, out of envy of their brother Joseph, took him, sold him to the Ismaelites, but took his coat of many colors and dipped it in the blood of the goat and took it to their father Jacob and said, Is this thy son’s coat? They didn’t say your son is dead. They didn’t tell Jacob. Jacob assumed, my son is dead. And he could not be comforted. He mourned for a son that was still alive ever bit as much as fathers who have mourned for sons who really were dead. In fact, many years later, when finally his brothers go down into Egypt and discover Joseph makes himself known, he’s now seconded to Pharaoh.

He is now spared that land of the famine. And in fact, his own brothers are sent down in order to buy grain. And finally, when Joseph makes himself known and they go back and tell their father, Genesis 45 and verse 26, the first reaction when they come and tell him, Your son Joseph is alive, he believed them not. It just couldn’t be so.

We understand truth to be. But when we read the Bible, the word of God, if we discover that we’ve not been following what it says. We, like the Apostle Paul, need to be honest and make the necessary changes. In fact is, Saul had been taught by a leading theologian. Gamalia was a doctor of the law. Somebody says, Well, wait a minute. Can a man like Gamelia be wrong? Well, it didn’t matter that he had been taught by this leading theologian of his day. He had advanced in the Jews’ religion. We read from Galatians chapter 1 and verse 13 how that he had persecuted many. He said, I prophet in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in my own nation, having more exceeding zealous of the traditions of my father’s.

He said, Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. And they being ignorant of God’s righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. It’s important that we submit ourselves to the righteousness of God, and where we find it is in the Bible, the Word of God. Just because there may be some who are trained in certain seminaries or theologically educated, they also may not know the truth. You see, we have to say the truth is set by the standard of the Bible, the Word of God, not by what some school or some religion may teach.

The church has no right to teach any doctrine. People sometimes ask, Well, what does the church of Christ teach about this? And my answer is it doesn’t teach anything. We don’t have the right to make any law. We have to say the Bible says. And you need to be able to say, book, chapter, and verse, this is why I believe what I believe, because the Bible says it. That’s what Jesus said when he we quoted from Matthew 7, not everyone that says, Lord, Lord, but he that doeth the will of my Father. Shut down to the kingdom of heaven. Do you know the most difficult words in the English language to enunciate? Somebody said those three words, I was wrong. That’s hard. We don’t like to be wrong.

Nobody wants to be. I don’t want to be. You don’t want to be. But I’ve seen people who, when you begin to read the Bible, the word of God, they can say, Well, that’s just not the way I see it. Now the Bible may say that, but I’ll tell you what, you can have some help in believing the lie. In fact, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verses 9 through 12 are some of the most fearful passages I believe in the Bible. For it speaks how that even him who’s coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, and them that perish. Listen, because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

For this cause, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned, who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. God allows men, he doesn’t force you to understand and believe truth. We can come with a mind made up, and I’m not going to do anything different because I’ve always done this, and I’m going to believe this, and that’s it. Brethren, we must not be of that attitude. We must be ever with an open mind and an open Bible. And if we find that what we’ve done is not really what’s recorded in the Word of God, we need to be willing to make changes. Paul understood the tragedy of believing a lie. He had been wrong.

5. He Needed to Do Something More to Be Saved

But he was not too proud to admit he needed to make a change. When he came face to face with the reality, Jesus is the Son of God. He was willing to make a change. You know what he said? What wilt thou have me to do, Lord? Acts 9 and verse 6. And he was told to go into the city. And there it would be told him what he must do. You see, he saw that he needed to do something more to be saved. Being good morally, being honest of heart, being zealous for God. All of these are important. Consider when you start adding up. Today there are some who say, well, he must have been saved. He was morally good. Saul said, that’s not true.

Well, he was zealous. He’s religious. What about the Muslim? What about the Hindus? What about the Buddhists? They’re zealous for what they believe to be God. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man coming to the Father except by me. John 14 is it. It matters what we do, what we believe. He had a sincere conscience. And added to all of that, he had seen the Lord in a vision. Many would say he certainly should have been saved at this point. But not true. Though he had seen the Lord in the vision, he had to obey that vision. In Acts 26 and verse 19, he said, I obeyed the vision. The Lord had appeared to him for the purpose of making him a witness.

In his own recounting of that story in Acts chapter 26, verses 16 through 18, he as much as said. That was the very purpose. He became an apostle. But an apostle had to be one who had witnessed the Christ even after his resurrection, that he could testify. He knew that Jesus had been raised from the grave. And if this man now is going to go preach to the Gentiles, he needed to have the authority. He was a genuine apostle by the calling of the Lord. That was the purpose for the vision. Nowhere do you find that the vision was the time at which he was saved. In fact, we’ll read later how that it was true that he had more to do.

That’s proven by his response.

He would not have gone into the city of Damascus and there for three days fast and pray had he not believed. So we don’t question the credentials that he had. We could also say he certainly repented. He grieved that he had persecuted the church of God. Manifested by his fasting. Fasting was a Jewish form of certainly expressing their own sorrow. More than that, he prayed.

You know, a common statement by many preachers today when they ask the question, what to do to be saved, they’ll just say, say the sinner’s prayer. And I’ve heard several different versions of it, but all of them go something like you know, express that you’re a sinner, that you believe in the Lord, you love the Lord, and by his grace you ask for mercy to forgive you of your sins. You never once read of that in the Bible. Those prayers are made up by men and what their understanding of a sinner’s prayer ought to be. You never once read in the New Testament where any of the New Testament preachers ever told an alien sinner, pray for forgiveness. What do you suppose Saul was praying? Surely in the depth of godly sorrow, he would have asked for God’s mercy and forgiveness.

I’m convinced here was a sinner prayed. Three days fasted and prayed.

6. Faith That Saves Is a Faith That Obeys

That’s why he was praying. Fact is, faith that saves is a faith that obeys.

By whom also we have access by faith into this grace, wherein we stand and rejoice and hope of the glory of God. By the grace of God, we are saved. Not grace alone. By the grace of God, he provided the means of forgiveness through the gift of his only begotten Son, who died on the cross. We did not deserve that. We’ve done nothing to earn that. We could never have earned that. We have sinned against God. But by the grace of God through his mercy, he provided that means of forgiveness. But God provided that means we’re everybody. The Bible says he wants all to be saved. The grace of God that bringeth salvation had appeared to all men. Titus wrote, or Paul wrote in the letter to Titus.

But the grace that saves, we have access by faith, Paul wrote in Romans 5 and verse 2. The part that separates the lost from the saved is that the saved by faith have access to the grace. We enter into God’s grace. We accept God’s grace. We accept the pardon for sin by faith. But what kind of faith is that? You know, Paul could have stopped there on the road to Damascus. What if he had said, now, Lord, I know you’re the Son of God, and I truly believe I’ve accepted you into my heart, and now I’m a saved Christian. He believed at that point. Was he saved? Had he accepted the Lord by simply believing in his heart that he was the Son of God. At that point, there are many to say, well, this must have been a saved man.

They not only would have called him saved with being good morally and being zealous for God or being of clear conscience, some would say, when you look at this, after the vision, after believing, after repenting, after praying, surely must have been saved. But Saul, when you look at the text, understands differently. If you’re open to Romans 5, look at the next chapter in Romans chapter 6, where he says in verses 17 and 18, God bethink that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. When you obeyed, where? From the heart. That’s an act of faith. When you obey from the heart, if God said do it, you do it.

That’s an act of faith. You don’t earn salvation by doing what God said. He didn’t earn salvation. It didn’t nullify grace when he repented, nor when he prayed. What he did was, as he wrote and said in his own words, Acts 22, 16, when Ananias came, Ananias said, Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins. Why? He took the cross of Christ, the blood of Christ by which we are redeemed through his blood. But the fact is that he needed to reach that blood. To wash away sins was not done by the water. Nor is it today by that means. But as in Romans chapter 6, we just read, when you obey from the heart, that form of doctrine delivered you. What is that form of doctrine?

Well, back up in the same chapter. Romans 6 verses 3 through 4. He says, No, you not, don’t you know? That so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death. That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. In the act of baptism, he was baptized into the death. That’s where his blood was shed. And that’s why it was in the act of baptism that he was to wash away sins. As Revelation 1 and verse 5, he’s loosed us or wash us from sins in his own blood. Not by the water, by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

Was Paul or Saul saved before this? If he were, why did Ananias say, arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins? He yet had sins that needed to be forgiven. He yet needed the blood of Christ for the forgiveness of his sins. I asked you, dear beloved, would you see what Saul understood? Do you accept Christ as a Son of God? Would you be willing as a believer in him then to arise and be baptized and wash away sins? Because that’s what this blind man saw. And that’s what he did. He arose immediately and was baptized. That is not always preached from many pulpits. It isn’t the most popular doctrines. But I’ll tell you, when you read the Bible, that’s what the Bible says. And that’s why we extend that invitation to you.

If you’re a person who’s never been immersed for remission of sins, you need the blood of Christ. And that’s found by being baptized into his death. Our invitation song number 294. Jesus is tenderly calling thee home. Calling today. Why, from the sunshine of love wilt thou roam farther and farther away. You’re not a child of God. Won’t you yield your heart to Him? Simply do Him what we find Saul did. And later what he preached. That men might come to the knowledge of Christ and be saved by His redeeming blood. If you believe in Him, willing to repent of your sins, won’t you even now rise and be baptized to wash away your sins? Won’t you come while together we stand while we sing?