If you would turn with me to
the book of Galatians chapter one, I want you to consider two verses
with me here in the book of Galatians, verses 15 and 16. Galatians one,
beginning in verse 15. but when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace."
I want you to listen closely to what I'm about to say. The
divine purpose of God in the salvation of His people is clearly
laid down in this single verse of Scripture. This is the foundation
of divine grace. The salvation of a sinner is
found in the will and in the pleasure of God when it pleased God. That's where
it all begins. The foundation of salvation is
not found in the will of man. I don't know how any man, woman,
or sinner can read this book and come to that conclusion.
It is not of him that willeth. Isn't that so plain? Is there
anything about that that we don't understand? It is not of him
that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth
mercy. Do you believe that salvation
is of the Lord? We say that, most people give
a mental assent to that. Oh yeah, I believe salvation
is by grace. I believe the salvation is of
the Lord. But then you listen to them talk and pretty soon
they reveal that they believe and think that they had something
to do in the matter of their salvation. Do you believe that
you have to contribute to your salvation in some way? Do you
believe that salvation has nothing to do with your will? Or do you
believe that it does? We saw last week that God will
not share his glory with another. God gets all the glory in the
matter of salvation. God told Jeremiah, he said, let
not the wise man glory in his wisdom. You see, many today think
that they have God figured out. Yet they've heard nothing more
than just enticing words of man's wisdom. And man's wisdom will
cause you to glory in how much you know. Man's wisdom will cause
you to glory in how much you do. But God says, if any man
think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he
ought to know. Our Lord said this, he said,
there are many who search the scriptures and in them, the scriptures,
they think that they have life, eternal life, but they don't. He said that the scriptures testify
of me. And folks search the scriptures,
they give mental assent to what the scriptures say, yet they
don't see their need of Christ. God told Jeremiah, he said, don't
glory in your strength. Don't glory in your might. Don't
glory, friends, in some freewill decision that you made years
ago. Don't glory in the giving of
your heart to Jesus. Folks say, I gave my heart to
Jesus. God doesn't want your wretched
heart. Don't take pride in your will, your way, and your work. You'll wind up glorying in your
will, your decision, and your doing. But a dead sinner has
no strength or might. God told Jeremiah, he said, don't
glory in your riches. You know, all our possessions,
all of them, will one day soon be gone. They're gonna rust.
They're gonna corrupt. They're gonna be eaten by moths.
They're gonna be stolen by thieves. The Lord Jesus said, lay up for
yourself treasures in heaven. What are those treasures? Well,
God told Jeremiah what they were. God said, let him that glorieth
glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me. What a great
treasure that God would enable a sinner, a dead dog sinner,
to understand and know him. That's whatever believer glory's
in it. God said, this is what you must glory in. Let every
man and woman understand and know that I am the Lord. There's
only one Lord that I exercise loving kindness here in his love. Not that we love God, but that
he loved us. And he sent his son to be a propitiation
for our sins. That's love. That's love. The true believer understands
and knows that God exercises judgment and righteousness in
the earth. God is holy and just, and he
exercises judgment and righteousness. And these are things, Jeremiah
said, in which God delights. These are the things that pleases
God. But when it pleased God, this
is the foundation of the believer's salvation. Salvation doesn't
begin with man's obedience. It doesn't begin with man's will,
man's way, or man's work, as I said. It simply pleased God. Now listen to me. It simply pleased
God to make you His people. And He did so for His own great
namesake. 1 Samuel 12, 22. The reason Paul
was saved and the only reason that you and I will ever enter
heaven must be this. It pleased God. That's it. There's no other reason. And
that's what Paul told the church over and over again. His salvation
was not the result of any merit done by him. Paul was a blasphemer. Paul was a persecutor. He was
so thirsty for the blood of God's chosen people that he guarded
the clothes of those who murdered Stephen. He committed men and
women to prison, and using his own words, Paul said that he
compelled Christ's followers to blaspheme. He made them openly
deny that the Lord Jesus Christ was the Messiah. He made them
to call Christ a fake and a phony. He said that he was exceedingly
mad against God's people, like a raving mad animal with rabies. Only harm was on his mind and
in his heart against believers. So much so that he persecuted
them even unto strange cities. He'd follow them wherever they
ran to persecute them, according to Acts 26 11. And we're also
told in Acts 9 that his every breath was full of threatenings
and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord. What am I trying
to say? There was nothing in Paul, absolutely
nothing, in which could be a reason why God would or should save
him. And there's no reason that God
would save any other than it simply pleased God to do so.
No cooperation with the sinner, no collaboration with the sinner.
There was no co-action in Paul's conversion. You remember the
scene and the story, riding upon his high horse toward Damascus
while he had in his possession letters which he treasured more
than gold. These letters gave him the permission
by the high priest to seize the believers at Damascus and bind
them hand and foot and bring them back to Jerusalem. And let
me tell you, Paul enjoyed his work. He rides on proudly with
only fury on his mind. Who can stop him while he's a
man on a mission? But Christ knocked him off his
high horse. Has Christ knocked you off your
high horse? Paul was arrested by the mercy
and grace of God. Has God arrested you? I remember when Christ arrested
me. I remember when he asked me what he asked Paul. Why do
you persecute me? You who are yet without Christ.
Oh, how I pray that God would arrest you. God still saves sinners. Did you know that? Over the years,
there have been many who have entered into this place of worship,
skeptics. But by the mercy, compassion,
grace of God, they've left as sincere believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And if you would ask them the
reason for this mercy and grace, they would simply say, it pleased
God. It pleased God to save me by
His grace. I think so much of our dearly
departed friend Winford Cavanaugh. As many of you know, Brother
Mahan was on television for many years and God enabled this church
to put him on locally. And I forget what night, he was
on maybe two nights, Tuesday and Thursday. But Betty, Winford's
wife, would Tune in the Brother Mahan on the television and Winford
would come in and he'd look at the television and see and just
walk on out the door, shaking his head. Came again the next
time for the program to come on and Winford would maybe stop
and stay for a few minutes and leave again. And each week as
the program came on, he stayed a little longer. You see, God
was arresting him. Finally, one night, I remember
Betty told me this personally, one night at seven o'clock, she
didn't turn the program on, she did this on purpose. Winford
walked in the room and stood there for a moment, and then
he looked at her and he said, well, are you gonna put that
preacher on or not? Wasn't long after that, that
one Sunday morning as she was getting ready for church, she
saw Winford was getting ready. And he said, I'm gonna go to
church with you today, but I'm gonna tell you right now, I'm
not gonna join He came, and then he came again, and he came again.
You see, the Lord was arresting him. He said, I'm gonna go, but
I'm not gonna join. And then I remember Brother Montgomery
telling me the rest of the story. He said, one Sunday, Winford
came up to him, and he said, Brother Montgomery, if this church
would have me, I'd like to join. You see, God's got a way, doesn't
he? God's got a way of arresting a man and causing him to fall
in love with Christ. Two sinners sit side by side
in a worship service. They hear the same gospel preached. One hears the word audibly, but's
not moved at all. And the other hears the words
inwardly, and their heart is broken. Oh, that's God arresting. Who caused them the difference?
What's the reason for this difference, Lord? There can be no reason
but this, that it seemed good in his sight. It simply pleased
the Lord to make you his. God has a right to do what he
willed with his own. Hath not the potter power over
the clay of the same lump to make one a vessel unto honor
and another unto dishonor? You better believe he does. And
if any man, woman, or sinner says, why hast thou made me thus? The answer is simple enough.
God has the absolute right to do what he will with those that
he created. Do you find animosity in your
heart to the doctrine of God's sovereignty? God's people don't. They rejoice in it. For they
know that if God had not divinely intervened and imposed Himself
on them, they would have never come. They would have never believed. They would have never bowed to
Christ. And let me tell you without any reservation that God's sovereignty
is never displayed apart from His perfect righteousness. Let
me say it again, God's sovereignty and his right to save is never
exercised apart from his absolute holiness and righteousness. You
see, God cannot do an unrighteous thing. Therefore, we must bow
to whatever he wills. No sinner that is lost will ever,
ever be able to blame God's sovereignty for it. God elected no one to
hell. Perish the thought. If a sinner
goes to hell, it's by their own doing, and their own sin. The sinner that perishes shall
justly perish because of their sins, for God is just and he
can by no means clear the guilty. And yet, the saints in heaven,
though saved by the result of God's sovereign choice, can boast
in glory and the fact that God never violated his divine justice. Before God could rightly redeem
one of his chosen elect, he gave his son to bleed and to die for
them that the demands of holy justice be fully met before that
elect sinner was ever saved. He does all things well, all
things well. And I've come to see that in
most cases the opposition to the doctrine of divine sovereignty
springs simply from a misunderstanding of God. Some misrepresent God
as though he's some almighty tyrant. Perish the thought, couldn't
be further from the truth. God is compassionate, God is
gracious, and God is plenteous in mercy. God says to the sinner,
come, let us reason together. How long will you halt between
two opinions? If a sinner perishes, we cannot
lay their blood at God's door. If a sinner has lost their ruin,
was caused by themselves, and it can never be laid to the charge
of our ever gracious God. And yet, At the same time, if
any are saved, the glory of their salvation must be ascribed to
God. Why? Because it pleased God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Well, preacher, how
do you reconcile those two things? We don't. No, sir, we don't.
We don't argue. We don't debate. We simply proclaim
them as the truth of God, the truth that salvation is of the
Lord. That's plainly revealed in the
scriptures on every page, if God would enable us to see it.
Yet if a sinner be lost, God cannot be blamed for it. Why?
Because every man and woman apart from the mercy and grace of God
in Christ deserves nothing but wrath, condemnation, and eternal
judgment. It's only by the grace of God
that every sinner is not judged, condemned, and forever lost in
hell. The grace of God. is what made
them to differ. I love what Paul said in 1 Corinthians
4, verse 7. It makes such sense in the light
of God's sovereign right to choose and to save his elect. And Paul
asked three questions. You know the verse, let me just
give it to you. The first question is, for who maketh thee to differ
from another? The answer, God does, for only
God can. It pleased the Lord to make you
his people. The second question, what hast
thou that thou didst not receive? If God saved you by his grace
and by his mercy and he enlightened your eyes to see, what do you
have that you did not receive? The answer is absolutely nothing
except our sin that we earned by our own doing. And the third
question, now, if you received it, why dost thou glory as if
thou didst not receive it? And the answer is this, God's
people don't. We don't glory. We glory in the
Lord who saved us. Every believer will agree the
only explanation for the salvation of a sinner is the same as Paul's,
it pleased God. And again, verse 15, but when
it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by his grace. So next, secondly, after the
sovereign will and good pleasure of God comes the act of separation. commonly known by the name of
election. Now in our text, this act, this
separation is said to have taken place before our birth. He separated me from my mother's
womb. Now, does this not prove that
we could have nothing to do whatsoever with our salvation, that we did
nothing to earn, to merit, or deserve our redemption? It pleased
God before we were born. And that's exactly what Paul
said in the book of Romans 9, verse 11, election proves that
salvation has nothing to do with man's will, work or way. Speaking of Jacob and Esau, you
know the passage well, unborn twins, we're told for the children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil that the
purpose of God, did you hear that? The purpose of God, according
to election, might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. And I speak to those of you whom
God has called by his grace. You know it to be so. God separated
you from your mother's womb. That word from here is what is
called a primary preposition, which denotes and designates
origin In the context of the verse, it means really before
you were in your mother's womb. For we know that the origin of
our separation, the origin of our election, was before the
foundation of the world. Before the mountains and the
hills were piled. Before the oceans were formed. Before light shined on this dark,
void, formless world, God chose and separated his people. Notice
the orders of these things. This is so important. God first,
by His sovereign purpose, set His affection on His elect. It
simply pleased God to do so. That's the only explanation that
Scripture gives. Secondly, God separated us. God
elected us, chose us to be His when He gave us to Christ to
redeem before the worlds were ever framed. And then thirdly,
God called us affectionately by his grace. Isn't that what
Paul says? Look at it again. But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace. The salvation of any soul is
a display of the eternal purpose and sovereign will of God. Why
did God set his affection on some wretched sinners and not
others? Well, we've already answered that. It pleased Him to do so. Why did God choose and elect
these undeserving wretches to be affectionately called by His
grace? Paul tells us in verse 16, to
reveal His Son in me. That's the only way that any
sinner can be saved, by the divine revelation of Christ. Remember
again what God told Jeremiah. He said, child of God, glory
in this, rejoice in the fact that by divine revelation, the
divine revelation of God in Christ, that you understand and that
you know that I am the Lord. The calling of God does not cause
the election. But the election, springing from
the divine purpose of God, causes the calling. The calling comes
by reason of the divine purpose and the divine separation of
God, the revelation of Christ, who he is, and what he's done
comes by reason of all three of those things. And let me say
this so you don't misunderstand. I mean to be redundant. I mean
to be repetitive. Again, what are they? First,
God's divine purpose and sovereignty. For no other reason outside of
himself, it pleased God to save some. Secondly, God's election
and separation of the sinner. For no other reason other than
it pleased God to do so, God chose some and gave them to Christ. Thirdly, God's effectual calling
of that sinner out of death and darkness because of his divine
and sovereign purpose and his election of grace, God effectually
calls and causes chosen sinners to trust in Christ alone. You
know why I find such comfort in that? It's not dependent upon
me. Not dependent upon me. It's not
dependent upon my faithfulness. Oh, I'm so glad it's not. I'm
so unfaithful by nature. It depends upon His faithfulness
to me. And in that, I can have great
hope and comfort. And then after these things comes
the divine revelation of Christ. Because God sovereignly purposed,
because God sovereignly separated, because God affectionately and
irresistibly called, Christ is revealed to the sinner. And Jesus
Christ is salvation. Am I justified? If I am, then
I was called by God's grace. Am I called? If I was, then I
was predestined to be called. God set his love upon me. God
separated me into himself. And being called, God revealed
his son in me and to me. Do you see how this works? God
does it all. It's all of him. Paul here is simply referring
to what he wrote in Romans chapter eight. Let's turn back there
and look at it in our own Bible. Stick your marker here in Galatians
if you like, but Romans chapter eight. Look at verse 29. We're talking about how God saves sinners.
Why God save sinners? Verse 29, for whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Now listen,
you cannot You cannot be conformed to Christ. You cannot be made
like Christ, made perfectly righteous, just and holy, apart from Christ
being revealed to you and in you. You just can't. Isn't that
what Paul said in our text in Galatians 1? Would it please
God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
His grace to reveal His Son in me? You cannot be conformed to
the very image of Christ, made likened to Christ, apart from
seeing, understanding, and knowing how you are conformed to Him. How are we conformed to the image
of Christ? Are you interested? By divine
substitution. By being made one with Him. By
Christ being revealed in you. By Christ doing for us what we
couldn't do for ourselves. By Christ giving us what we could
never achieve on our own. That being perfect righteousness. You see, for anything that we
offer God, it's got to be perfect to be accepted. Got to be perfect. To you who are yet lost and without
God, I ask you, Can you keep the law of God? Let me rephrase
that. Can you keep the law of God perfectly? To offend and fail in one point
makes you guilty of the whole law. For whosoever shall keep
the whole law and yet offend in one point, he's guilty of
all. He's guilty of the whole law,
James 2.10. If you insist on being saved
by the keeping of the law, then you've got to keep the whole
law, and you've got to keep it perfectly. Believe me when I
tell you, you can do it. How do I know that? Well, I know
it by experience. I tried all my life. I had a
man tell me all my life growing up, do the best you can. It's not good enough. Never good
enough. It's got to be perfect to be
accepted. And I know this by the revelation
of God's word for what the law could not do in that it was weak
through the flesh. And that's talking about the
weakness of our flesh. our inability and our unwillingness
to keep God's law. God, here's the good news, God
send him his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh. Romans 8.3. And this is how sinners
are conformed to Christ, by God sending His own Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He came in the likeness of sinful
flesh. Key word there, likeness. For
He was without sin, and being without sin, He condemned sin
in the flesh. Christ was the only man who was
ever sinless. The law could only be fulfilled
by a sinless man. God's justice can only be satisfied
by one who had no sin. God punished the sins of his
elect on this sinless man. And he's the saved sinner's substitute. He's the saved sinner's sacrifice. And the law of God along with
God's divine justice says, you've got to let that sinner go free. His sin is gone. It's been put
away. He's perfect. He's perfect. And this is how Christ condemns
sin in the flesh. Being without sin, He took the
punishment of the law. Being without sin, He satisfied
God's divine justice. Being without sin, He paid in
full the wages of sin, which is death. And because of that,
and what Christ did, the sinful sinner who is now in Christ has
no sin. That's so hard for us to get
ahold of. Why? Because we live with ourselves. Oh, I tell you that the things
that sometimes go through my mind right before I stand up
and preach. If they could be played on a
movie screen, I'm telling you, I'd run out of here in total
embarrassment. Mr. Spurgeon once described God's
salvation like this. He said, on one side of the bank
of the great river of time and eternity, there's found the divine
foreknowledge and predestination of God. And on the other side
of this sacred bank is found the glorification of the saints
of God. How can the two be linked together? How can we get from God's predestinating
power and foreknowledge to being glorified as the saints of God? Well, here's the first link of
the chain. Are you in Romans 8? Look at verse 29. whom God did foreknow and predestinate
to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He, Christ,
might be the firstborn among many brethren." That's the first
link. And this is God's doing without any cooperation from
the sinner. The chosen sinner had not yet
been born. And then in verse 30, we see
the rest of these links. And this is sovereign chain. Moreover, whom He did predestinate. Those whom He predetermined,
them He also called. And whom He called, them He also
justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. That's how we cross over. That's
how we get from this point to this point. It's all in Christ
and by the powerful work of God. People are so intimidated, so
confused, and even angry about the predestination and the election
of God when there's no reason at all to be. If you want to
know the saved sinner's relationship to predestination, how it applies
to you, you just look back to the beginning before the beginning.
You look at your calling, you've been called, and you simply look
back and you see that your salvation is linked to God's predetermined
choosing before time was. Am I predestinated? Am I one
of God's elect? Are you trusting in Christ? You
see, in Christ I was saved. And if you want to know if you'll
one day be glorified, you can know that you will be because
today I know that I'll be glorified because I know that today, right
now, I'm justified. God called me and God justified
me. And in Christ, I am right now
saved. Right now saved. So as the believer
stands in Christ, they see that they're linked with the past
and the future according to God's purpose. So linked is the believer
in the purpose of God that neither time, life, nor death, nor hell
itself can ever break the bonds that chain me to the predestination
of the past and the glorification of the future. I'm able to rest
in that. I'm able to do the rest of that.
I know that it pleased God before the foundation of the world to
separate, elect, and choose this undeserving sinner. And I now
know that it pleased God in the fullness of time to call me by
His grace. And I now know that it pleased
God to cross my path with the gospel. It pleased God to show
me Christ and Him crucified. so that I may know how such a
sinner as I can be reconciled to God. It's only by the perfect
righteousness and holiness that's given to me in Christ that I
have life. You see, it simply pleased God
to reveal His Son in me and in you. Because of the work of Christ's
perfect righteousness, and now having Christ to dwell in me,
I've been conformed to that image of God's perfect Son. And like
Him, those who trust in Him have no sin. When God looks at me, He sees
His beloved Son. Such is our union. that God sees
Christ when He sees me. And friends, that's my hope of
eternal glorification. That's my hope of one day possessing
a body that's without sin. Oh, we can't even imagine that,
can we? Everything we do is so intertwined
with sin. Our prayers, our preaching, everything
is so mixed with sin. But one day, oh, Well, I was
saved in Christ, I am saved in Christ, and I will be saved in
Christ, and I call that good news. I call that the gospel. Let me say this in closing. Again,
to those of you who are yet without Christ, I don't know who you
are. God does. But to those of you
who are yet without Christ, oh, how I pray that God might enable
you to believe this glorious message of how Christ died for
the ungodly. I know this, it pleased him to
do so. I know this, he separated that
sinner. before the foundation of the
world unto Himself. And He gave them the Christ to
save. And I know that He calls them
by His grace, and it's an effectual call. Oh, who can resist the
call of God? No one. Oh, that God might intervene
in your life and reveal to you how Christ died, the just for
the unjust, that He might bring you to God. The only reason that
He'll save you, it's not at all found in you. And I'm so glad
that's so, because if something good had to be found in me in
order to be saved, then I'd never be saved. Isn't that good news? The only reason God saves a sinner, can you tell me how it pleased
Him to do so? May God be pleased to save you.