Are you saved? If so, how did
it happen? What happened? What do you mean
by being saved? When were you saved and how?
If you look with me at the book of Galatians chapter 1, Galatians
chapter 1, perhaps you are listening to this program this morning,
you're a church member, you're religious, and you claim to be
saved, claim to be a Christian. Many do. All professing Christians
claim to be saved. Listen to the words of Paul the
Apostle in Galatians 1 verses 13 through 16. He says, you've
heard of my conversation or my life in time past in the Jews
religion, how that, beyond measure, I persecuted the Church of God
and wasted it, and profited in the Jews' religion above many
my equals in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the
traditions of my father. But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace
to reveal His Son in me." Paul just spoke of his salvation,
how the Lord saved him. To be saved means that you were
lost and now are found. You were captive. You were in
bondage to sin, to Satan, the god of this world, to yourself,
and to this world, but now are delivered. You're saved. You've
been ransomed, bought with a price. To be saved means you were helpless,
you were hopeless. Scriptures describes those that
were saved as being blind, that is, they had eyes to see but
did not see, they had ears but did not hear, they were deaf.
Lame, could not walk, could not come. dead in trespasses and
sin. So then, if truly saved, someone
found you. If saved, someone delivered you. If saved, someone rescued you. Someone saved you. To be saved
means you were unrighteous, and now someone has made you righteous. You were unacceptable, and now
someone has made you accepted. You were guilty, and now someone
has made you innocent. You were condemned, but now someone
has justified you. You were dirty, but now someone
has washed you. That's what it means to be saved.
Salvation is of the Lord. Now, if someone saves you, what
did you have to do with it? If someone saved you, did you
let them save you? Or did they come and find you
and save you? Did you decide to be saved? Was it your will? Was it your
choice? Was it your works? That's ridiculous, isn't it?
If you're lost and someone came to find you, you had nothing
to do with it. So it is. So it is with true
salvation. But yet most claim to be saved
and yet attribute it to their will, their choice, their decision. When salvation, Scripture says,
is of the Lord. Scripture says, salvation belongeth
unto the Lord. It's His prerogative. It's His
will. It's His power. Scripture says,
by grace are you saved. Not grace offered, but grace
bestowed, a gift of life. Scripture says according to his
mercy he had saved us When God said to Mary About the giving
of his son. He said call his name Jesus for
he shall save his people from their sins he shall say his people
from their sin Salvation is 100% by the will the choice the power
the work of God A dead, lost sinner has nothing to do with
it. Nothing. Salvation is to the praise of
the glory of God's grace. Grace means unmerited favor. He will not share his glory with
another. If you had something to do with
your salvation, you have something to glory in. Your will, your
decision, your choice, you let go and let God, you exercised
your faith, something you did, but no, If saved, if truly saved
by someone else, if saved by God, by Christ, by the Spirit
of God, you know God did it all, and God gets all the glory. God the Father chose His people,
elected, purposed to save them, sent His Son to save those elect
people. Christ came, lived for them as
their covenant head, died for them as their lamb slain, as
their burnt offering, as their sin payment. He made his people
righteous by his righteous life. He made them accepted in himself. They were dead in trespass and
sin, and he paid for their sins by his death. And God the Holy
Spirit, sent by God the Father and God the Son, comes through
the preaching of the gospel, quickens them, implants the word
of life, the seed, the gospel, calls them by that gospel, by
the word of truth, gives them life, gives them repentance,
gives them faith. causes them to hear, believe,
and call. That means the Lord did the saving. That's how all of God's people
are saved. And if the Lord saved you, if the Lord saved someone,
they will say so. They will say, the Lord saved
me. They will not say, I got saved. They will say, the Lord
saved me. The scripture says, let the redeemed
of the Lord say so, and they do. All of them say so. The Lord saved me. You will say
with Paul that the Lord revealed himself in man. Saul of Tarsus,
Paul the apostle, that is, in his own words said that he was
the most moral, righteous, blameless, blameless according to the law,
keeping the Ten Commandments. He was religious. He was the
most religious person around. He was zealous. He was outspoken.
He was a witness for God. He believed the God of the Bible,
the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But he didn't know God. He didn't know the true God.
He didn't know Jesus Christ. He didn't know the way to God.
He didn't know the truth. He thought God accepted him because
of his Faith because of his works. Paul didn't have life. He needed
to be quickened. He was only religious. Is that
you? But God had chosen Paul before
the foundation of the world. Yes, that's Paul's own testimony
in Ephesians 1. That's what he wrote of with
rejoicing. Listen to his testimony. He said,
I was zealous. I was zealous in the Jews' religion,
and I profited. There's great profit in religion.
There are many favors to be found in religion, much advantage in
religion, but he didn't know God. When is a man saved? When was Paul saved? He said
in verse 15, when it pleased God, who separated me from my
mother's womb, that is, gave me life, put me in the womb and
brought me from it, when he called me by his grace. When is a man
saved? Not when he decides, but when
God decides. When is a man saved? Not when
he gets pleased, when he gets ready, but when it pleases God. It is not when we make our choice,
make our decision, or decide for Jesus. Saul of Tarsus wasn't
even calling, wasn't seeking. He thought he was already saved.
But God, but the Lord Jesus Christ came to him in power, in glory. and laid hold of him, quickened
him, opened his blind eyes, opened his deaf ears to hear his voice. And so it is with all of God's
people. In verse 15, Paul said, it pleased
God who called me by his grace. It's a powerful call, an effectual
call. It's not an offer, but a life-giving
call, like when God called Lazarus from the grave, Lazarus, come
forth. And God called Saul of Tarsus. Saul, Saul. Saul wasn't calling
on the Lord, but the Lord came and called on him. Called him
by his grace. The call of the sovereign gospel
of God. The call of sovereign grace and
sovereign mercy that's in Christ Jesus. The powerful call of the
gospel. Paul told the Thessalonians that
they were called by the gospel, and so it is. All of God's people
are called by his gospel of grace. It's not an offer. Grace doesn't
mean an offer that you must accept, but a gift. You don't accept
life, you're given life. You don't accept repentance,
you're given repentance. You don't accept faith, faith's
not of yourself, it's the gift of God. And the gifts and calling
of God are without repentant. Paul said, I was called by His
grace. Unmerited favor, unearned favor,
an undeserved call, an unsought call, an unwanted call. Paul
thought he was Saul of Tarsus, thought he was already saved.
But God called him by his grace, a call that says, come. And it
was against his will. Yeah, that's right. God saves
everyone against their will because no man will come. It's not of
him that willeth, not of the will of the flesh, not of the
will of man. And no man can come except the Father which had sent
Christ draw them. Yes, salvation's against our
dead, hell-bound, selfish, rebellious will. But God's people, Psalm
110 verse 3 says, they are made willing in the day of his power. Philippians 2.13 says, it is
God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. We will not come unless God makes
us willing. We will not call unless God calls
us. We will not repent unless the
goodness of God leads us to do so. After the fact, after God
calls, we will call. After life is given, we hear,
we believe, we will call, we will come to Christ. Yes, Paul
says, when it pleased God to reveal His Son in me. That's when Paul was saved. Saul
of Tarsus was chained when he revealed Christ in him. It doesn't
say to him. Reveal His Son in me, for with
the heart man believeth. It's revealed. Christ is revealed. It's not a choice. It's not a
will. It's not praying through. You found him, but he revealed
himself to you. Jesus Christ, whom Paul didn't
know, came and revealed himself to him. Salvation is to see the
Son, to know, to understand who Christ is, the Son of God, the
Son of Righteousness, Lord, Light, Life, the Way, the Truth, the
Life, Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, Redemption, the
Prophet, the Priest, the King, the only Redeemer, the only Redemption,
the only Mediator. You know, there are millions
all over the world that confess their sins to men. Behind a little
booth confess their sins, but there's only one high priest,
and he must reveal himself to you. We have some folks that
were Roman Catholics and did just that. They confessed their
sins to sinful men, but God, rich in mercy, must have loved
them, called them by his grace, called them by the gospel, revealed
Christ, the only mediator between God and man, to those people. And now they pray to Christ.
Many pray to God, they think, through a woman, through Mary,
when there's only one mediator, one intercessor, one to whom
we pray, to whom the Father hears. That's what happened to Saul.
That's what happened to Simon Peter. That's what happened to
Andrew, Mary Magdalene. All of the Lord's people are
called by His grace. What about you? Are you saved?
If so, the Lord did it. Until next Sunday, may the Lord
bless His word to your understanding. Amen.