Okay, open your Bibles, if you
would, to Galatians chapter 1 again. Galatians chapter 1. The name
of the message is, When It Pleased God. When It Pleased God. Now Paul, as we have seen in
this study so far, is so certain of the gospel of
God's grace and salvation in Christ is the only gospel for
sinful men that he's prepared to pronounce an anathema on all
who preach any other gospel. And that's a curse. He's so sure
and so certain that there's only one true gospel, again, that
he's ready to pronounce an anathema on all who preach any other gospel.
And lest it be supposed that he took up this to the world
intolerant position, because to the world that's a very intolerant
position, and even to religion it's a very intolerant position.
When you tell them you believe there's only one true gospel,
and that's salvation in and through Christ alone, as Brother Tom
said, when we bring nothing to the table at all, folks don't
like that. They don't like that. They call
you intolerant. Surely there's something I must
do. No, there's not. There's nothing you must do.
Salvation's in Christ Jesus our Lord and Him alone, period. End
of story. And we are God's people who rejoice
at that, don't we? It's wonderful. Praise God that
it's in Him and not dependent upon anything that we do. He
now proceeds, Paul proceeds to give a short autobiography in
which he shows how he had received the gospel. We saw that in verses
11 and 12 of Galatians chapter 1. And then we saw through the
text what a hold it laid upon him. Paul's a new creature in
Christ, isn't he? He's born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. He's a new creature in Christ. And let us notice the
salient parts in this narrative. We looked at verses 13 and 14
of Galatians chapter 1. We saw Paul's life as a Jew before
his conversion. And he was the most zealous persecutor
of Christianity. We saw that he was the champion
of the Jews. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees.
He was a zealous persecutor of the people of the way, the people
who follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And he was a strict Pharisee,
beloved. He was full of self-righteousness like every religious man is.
And even as Sister Diana and I were talking, we can even fall
into self-righteousness as God's people. Lord, keep us from that.
Oh, we pray, keep us from that. May you receive all the glory
in the preeminence. Christ must receive all the preeminence,
whether we're here at church or whether we're at home. in
our lives. He must receive all the preeminence. So Paul was a strict Pharisee.
He had a zeal for the old religion, which is called the Jewish religion
in verse 14. And therefore he did not hesitate
to persecute to death the followers of Christ. Those who would embrace
this, what they called new religion, because it was new to them. Even
though it's the everlasting gospel, It's new to the Jews. And he was zealous, wasn't he?
He was zealous in destroying the church. But you know, it
was according to zeal, but zeal without knowledge. It was zeal
without knowledge. And it was none other than the
Lord Jesus Christ who appeared to Saul and who undertook Saul's
conversion, too. On the way to Damascus, Jesus
appeared to him in a dazzling and overwhelming radiance and
revealed to the persecutor not only his existence, right? Christ revealed his existence
to him. Think of that. He probably thought,
oh, this is a false religion. Well, Christ revealed himself
to him, didn't he? We saw that in the book of Acts. He revealed
that he was real. And not only did He reveal that
He was real, but He revealed His sovereign power, didn't He?
By saving them by His grace. His sovereign power was manifested
there, wasn't it? And that's the risen King, beloved.
That's our Savior. We're going to see this morning,
He's got all power and all authority. Everything is subject to Him.
Everything. My, oh my. in this manifestation
of the Lord Jesus Christ changed Paul's life, didn't it? The persecutor
became a preacher. A preacher of the very people
and the very way that he persecuted. That's a miracle of grace, beloved. He's a trophy of God's grace,
isn't he? Just like every one of God's people. Think upon that,
meditate upon that this week. If you're a believer, you're
a trophy of God's grace. Just let it sink in. I know what
you're gonna say, the same thing as me. Me? Yep. My, it's true. Paul was a trophy
of God's grace, and he was granted faith to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and his life changed, didn't he? He became a new creature.
The things that he, think of this, the things that he hated,
now he loves. He hated Christ. He hated the people of God. Now
he loves them. Isn't that amazing? He hated
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and now he preaches it. Only God can do that, beloved.
Only God can do that. That's a miracle of God's grace.
Let's read Galatians chapter one. We're going to read verses
11 to 18 but verse 15 will be our
verse for today Verse 11, but I certify you brethren That the
gospel which was preached of me is not after man for I neither
received it of man Neither was I taught it but by the revelation
of Jesus Christ For you have heard of my conversation When
we know that's manner of life and time passed to the Jewish
religion how that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God
and wasted it Destroyed it. Tried to destroy it. And profited
in the Jewish religion above many mine equals, in mine own
nation, being exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my father.
So we saw last week that he was trailblazing. Oh my. He was passing by Pharisees
that were older than him in knowledge. And it says, look at this beautiful
verse. But when it pleased God, Do you know that in every believer's
life there's a, but when it pleased God? Oh my. Who separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by His grace. to reveal a son to me that I
might preach him among the heathen. Immediately I conferred not with
flesh and blood. Neither went I up to Jerusalem
to them which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia and
returned again unto Damascus. Then after three years I went
up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days."
So the verse we'll look at today is verse 15. Let's read it again. But when it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me, by his grace. Now it's quite clear in the verses
in context of our text today that Paul did not hear the gospel
from any man. He wasn't taught it by man. He
didn't receive it from man. No, it came by the revelation
of our Lord Jesus Christ to him. And we see in verse 15 that Clearly, very clearly that Paul
brings forth that his conversion is a work of God, beloved. He
brings forth so clearly in these verses that his salvation is
of the Lord. Clearly, just like Jonas said. And this is true of every man,
woman, and child who's born again by the Holy Spirit of God. It's
true of everyone who's saved. My oh my. Let's look at verses 15 along
with verse 16. And we see here the work of God
in converting Saul, who became Paul, and saving him. And remember this as we read
this. He's saved by the almighty grace of God. Same grace as you
and I are saved by. Isn't that amazing? Same power
was exercised on Paul as exercised on us. to bring us from that
dead state we were in to be alive in Christ. Look at this. But when it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace, oh, beautiful,
beautiful, to reveal His Son in me. We're going to look at
that next week. That, to reveal His Son in me,
is something that was concealed before. See, the gospel was concealed
from us before we were saved, beloved. Sister, you grew up in a gospel
church, but it was concealed from you, the truth, until the
fullness of time was come, when God was pleased to reveal the
gospel to you. And it's true for every one of
God's people, is when the time comes, the time of love, the
scripture calls it, He reveals Himself to us. And it's so beautiful,
beloved. It's so beautiful. And he says,
to reveal a son in me. Why? That I might preach him
among the heathen. Immediately I conferred not with
flesh and blood. My. So note who separated Paul. It was God, wasn't it? Paul didn't
say, I want to be separated now. I choose to be separated. No,
he was on the road to Damascus ready to kill Christians. And remember, that was his manner
of life, conversation there, his manner of life. So the whole
drive of his life was to destroy the people of the way. He was
consumed with it, beloved. You ever get consumed with something?
Sometimes we get working on something, we just get consumed with it,
don't we? And we kind of forget about what's
going on around us. And we can spend days working
on things. Or even go to work, come home,
and, oh, I want to get right back to that. Well, Paul was
just consumed with destroying the people of the way. And note here, it's God who separated
him. But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace.
Why? To reveal his son in me. God
did this. It's God who did this. Paul again,
Paul had no care for God. He was dead in trespasses and
sins, in a false religion, And he had zeal without knowledge.
He was persecuting the body of Christ. And you know, if God
had left him in that state, he still would have done it, right
to his dying day, probably. Oh, my. But he was separated
from his mother's womb. He was separated before he was...
And that doesn't mean when he was born. He was separated way,
way, way back. Just like you and I, beloved.
Way back. My, oh my. And so it was God
who set them apart. And we know that was in eternity. And also note it's God who called
Paul by his grace. Look what it says here. But would
it please God who separated me from my mother's womb. And the
word separated there is actually a derivative of a word used for
predestination. We're going to see what that
word means in this study. Separated me from my mother's
womb, and then called me by his grace. See, it's God who called
him by his grace. Was Paul looking for Christ?
He wasn't, was he? Were we looking for Christ when
he saved us? Nope. Nope. I was perfectly content
doing what I was doing, and the Lord plucked me, and I believe
he plucked you all like a brand of the fire. Didn't he? And the things we once hated,
now we love. Can we do that on our own? No. It's a miracle of grace, beloved.
It's a miracle of grace. God's done that. God's done it. It's just like Paul here. God's
done it. We see salvations of the Lord.
It's so clear in this verse, isn't it? It's so clear. So clear. God's the one who's doing this.
And then look in verse 16, to reveal the Son in me. So God
is the one who reveals Christ to us. And the reason he calls
us by his grace is because we're his from eternity. And when he
calls us by his grace, what does he do? He reveals Christ to us,
right? And then what do we do? After
we're born again and given faith, what do we do? We run to Christ,
don't we? See, we don't say people don't
run to Christ. God's people run to Christ. We
flee to Christ. He's our only hope. But we would
have been like Paul in our natural state, right? Heading off to
Damascus. You know, if it had been us with
Paul dead in our state, we would have just kept right on going,
didn't we? And those guys, as far as we know, the guys with
them were never saved. Let's hope they were down the
road. But being Jews, they probably wanted nothing to do with Paul
after his conversion. But we don't know. We don't know. God will do what's right, won't
he? We don't have to worry about them things. God will do what's
right. He'll do what's right. So God sent him to preach to
the Gentiles. And who equipped him to do this?
Who made Paul a preacher? God did. Henry Mahan used to
say, he said, God calls a man to preach and then he equips
a man to preach. I totally believe that. He calls him and he equips
him. It's all God doing all the work.
It's Him working out His good pleasure in each one of us. And
we all have different giftings. We all have different giftings
within the body. My. Now, we see in these two
verses so clearly that salvation's of the Lord. It's so clear, isn't
it? And if salvation's of the Lord,
then it's of His sovereignty, isn't it? Because He's a sovereign
God. The Lord's sovereign. He's sovereign over all things.
Therefore, salvation comes to us by the free and sovereign
grace of God in Christ. And Paul's salvation, like every
born-again, blood-washed believer's salvation, is all of grace. And
we can say the same thing, can't we? It's all of grace. My salvation
is all of grace. All of grace. So we see here
that Paul begins to relate his conversion, his call, which is
by God, the revelation of Christ in his heart, and the direct
revelation of the gospel to him, all comes from God. And God chose
Paul the Salvation. He chose him to be an apostle all before he was born. All before
he was born, before the foundation of the world. I'm going to read
a few verses here. If you want to write down the
addresses, I'm going to go through them pretty quickly due to time
constraints. But if you want to write down
the address, I'll read them and give you the address. The first
one is Jeremiah 1.5. The scripture says this. Before
I formed thee in the belly, this is the Lord speaking to Jeremiah,
I knew thee. I knew you before you were even
formed in the belly. This is true of every believer. I knew you. Isn't that wonderful?
That's God saying that to Jeremiah. And before thou camest forth
out of the womb, I sanctified thee. I made you holy. How? In who? Christ Jesus, chosen
in Christ from before the foundation of the world. My, oh my. I sanctify thee and I ordain
thee a prophet unto all, unto the nations. And then Ephesians
chapter 1, verses 3 to 6 ties right in with Jeremiah 1 to 5. It says, blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings. in Christ in heavenly places
in Christ according as now listen listen to who's doing all this
listen to who is doing all this according as he has chosen us
in him before the foundation the world that we should be remember
Paul it's a Jeremiah was sanctified which means to be made holy right
in Ephesians Paul tells about us as believers that we should
be holy without blame before him in love sanctified in Christ
having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.
Oh my, this is wonderful. To the praise and glory of his
grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, in Christ. And in another scripture is 2
Thessalonians, I'm losing my tongue here, verses 13 to 14. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. Because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit, born again, made holy in Christ. This one's 2
Thessalonians 2, verse 13 and 14. And belief of the truth. Now
listen to that again. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you. We saw that. Paul was separated
from his mother's womb. to salvation, to reveal Christ
to him, God did that to reveal Christ to him, through sanctification
of the spirit, called by the irresistible grace of God, by
the power of the Holy Spirit of God, born again, and belief
of the truth, granted faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Salvations of the Lord, beloved. See how these verses all tie
in? See how the scriptures, they support each other? It's incredible. And then in verse 14 of 2 Thessalonians
2, it says, Weren't ye called by our gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ? My, oh my. And then 2, when it pleased God
in God's own time, He stopped Paul, didn't He? He stopped Paul
on that road to Damascus. You know, Paul couldn't walk
another step, man. He didn't have to walk no aisle, did he?
He just fell down. He said, Lord, who art thou?
Oh, my beloved. Oh, my. My. Paul was in his rebellion,
and God, the Holy Spirit, regenerated him. Listen to this. Romans 8, 8, 29, and 30. For whom he did foreknow, the
golden chain of redemption, For whom he did foreknow, chosen
in Christ before the foundation of the world, he did also predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his Son. We're being conformed,
beloved. We're being made holy in Christ. We're being conformed
to the image of Christ. That he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them
he also called. How? By his grace. By his grace,
beloved. And whom he called, them he also
justified. Just as if I never sinned. in
Christ. In whom he justified, them he
also glorified. It's all past tense. In God's
eyes, it's already done, beloved. We're just spending time here
in time and space, aren't we? See, he's calling his people
out, isn't he? That's why we rejoice when the gospel goes
all around the world. That's why we rejoice. That's
why we praise our mighty Savior for what he does. And in 1 Timothy
1.9, it says, who has saved us and called us to the Holy Call,
and not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. My. Now let's read verse 15 again
and unpack this verse. Hopefully we can do it. Yeah,
we got 15 minutes. Hopefully we can unpack this
wonderful verse in this time here. See what it says here. But when it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace, So we
see here that it pleased God to choose us in Christ in eternity. That's wonderful. And this grace of God is boundless. It's truly amazing. And the more
we hear about it, the more incredible it becomes. The more you can't
plumb the depths of it. It just gets deeper and deeper
and deeper, doesn't it? Just leaves us in awe and wonder.
And see the word. pleased there in our text, when
it pleased God? That word in the Greek means
this. It seems good to one. It seemed good to God to choose
us in Christ. My poor, wretched sinners. It seemed good to Him to choose
us. It also means this. Is one's
good pleasure? Is one's good... Remember in
Ephesians over there? We saw that we were chosen according
to God's good pleasure. You see how again it all ties
in? Just, oh my. And then it also means this, to think it good. Think it good. To choose, to determine, to decide,
and I like this. You know, there's only one free
will in all this whole universe, and that's God's free will. Our
wills are bound to our nature. But the underlying, the last
definition for this word is to do willingly. It pleased him
to choose us, and he did it willingly. Oh my! I tell you, I got so excited
putting this message together. This is wonderful news. This
is wonderful news, because I know I'd never choose Christ. I was
like Paul. So were you. We were all like Paul, just going
on in our way, weren't we? And he arrested us. God arrested
us, didn't he? Saved us by his grace, all according
to his goodwill and pleasure. He thought it was good to choose
us in Christ. Oh, my. My, oh, my. Again, God's grace
then, it just becomes more boundless, doesn't it? When we hear these
truths, it just becomes more boundless. You can't measure
it. And now, see the word separated in our text? It says, I'll read
the text, but when it pleased God who separated me from my
mother's womb. Now that word separated there
in the Greek means to mark off from others. To mark off from others. We often wonder, Lord, you saved
me and you passed by my family members. And I still pray for
them. Don't ever stop praying for your
family members until they breathe their last breath, let me tell
you that. There's always hope until they breathe their last
breath. But as far as my family, I'm the only one in my whole
family that I know of who the Lord saved. And when I read this in the Greek,
that it means to mark off from others, my oh my. And that he did it willingly
because it pleased him to do so. What's it do? It puts us
right in the dust, doesn't it? Oh my. Just praising God, but
with tears flowing from our eyes, beloved. My oh my. It also means to limit, to separate,
to appoint. We've been appointed to be separated,
beloved. And it also means to set apart,
listen to this, to set apart for some purpose. This work is God's work. In every one of us, have been
set apart to have a purpose in it. I couldn't preach without
God equipping me to preach and calling me to preach and without
him bringing you all together and for the work to be supported
prayerfully too, more important prayerfully, but also financially. And the gospel goes forth from
this place, I was talking to Diane about this, the gospel
goes Think of this, little wee Almonte. Small town, right? People fly right by here, don't
they? They can come into town and they can be out of town,
what, within five minutes, not even not. They get stopped by
the lights, it can be about five minutes. But then they blow right
through here. And here we are, a little group
in Almonte. Set apart by God. And the gospel, or that then
when you zoom out, we're a little wee town in Michigan, you zoom
out to the US, we're not even a dot, are we? You zoom out to
the world, you can't even see us. And yet the gospel's flowing
out of here, beloved, going all around the world. Isn't that
amazing? God has set us apart, beloved,
for a purpose here, that the gospel might flow right out.
Isn't that wonderful? And what an honor to be a part
of it. What an honor. What an honor, beloved. Oh my,
just put me in tears this week when I was thinking about that.
Just incredible. And we know Paul, we know Paul
was set apart for a special purpose, wasn't he? He was set apart to
preach the gospel to the Gentiles. Listen to these verses in Isaiah.
Again, I'll read them because of time-wise. If we go to them
all, I'm not even going to finish today. I like to get this one
done because it's just wonderful. We'll get into a few more words
here. Isaiah 44, 21. This theme is brought forth in
the Old Testament, too, that God is the maker of all things.
He's the one who saves us by His grace. Isaiah 44, 21. Remember
these, O Jacob and Israel? for thou my servant, I have formed
thee. He formed us, beloved. I have formed thee, thou art
my servant. God says, you're my servant to
his people. Oh, Israel, thou shall not be
forgotten of me. Oh, my God will never forgive
us. We can get old and we can forget people. I forget more
things than I know. We've probably all forgotten
more things in our life than we know currently. But God says,
I'll never forget you. You're mine, he says. You're
mine from eternity. I formed thee. Oh, and I redeemed
thee. And you're going to be with me
forever. Oh, my. In Isaiah 44, 24 says
this, Thus saith the Lord, that's Jehovah, thy Redeemer, and he
that formeth thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all
things, that stretcheth forth the heavens
alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself. My, oh my,
that's our God, beloved. He's absolutely sovereign. And
if He's sovereign, then salvation's sovereign, isn't it? It's all
by His grace. And if He's sovereign, then His
grace and mercy is sovereign. My, oh, my. And this theme is brought forth
where a child's destiny is clearly fixed by God before birth. Think
of Samson. Judges, chapter 16, verse 17,
says this, Then he told her, All his heart and said unto her,
there hath not come a razor upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite
unto God from my mother's womb. I shall be shaven, then my strength
will go from me, and I shall become weak and be like any other
man. But see, he told them, or he
told her, Delilah, he told her, he said, I'm a Nazirite from
my mother's womb. And in John the Baptist, look
at him. Scripture says this in Luke 1 15, For he shall be great
in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor
strong drink, and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even
from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel
shall he turn to the Lord their God. So being clearly set apart, right? A boundary set. Look at verse 11 and 12 here
in our text. And Paul, he states that his
apostolic office is independent of man. Look what he says in
verses 11 and 12. He says, But I certify you, brethren,
that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. No, it
didn't come from no man. For I neither received it of
man, neither was I taught it but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ. Now let's read verse 15 again.
We see here Paul that God called Paul by his grace, and beloved,
this is true of every one of God's people. If you're born
again blood-washed believer, God called you by his grace.
And that call's an irresistible call. I don't care what people
say. You can resist the Holy Spirit of God, not if he's drawn
you to Christ, you can't. Can anyone resist God? Is anything
too hard for God? No. Oh my, my oh my. Look what it says here. But when
it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by his grace. So marvel at this, that he who
appoints the time of our birth in nature from our mother's womb
of his children, they're also marked for the new birth. According,
but when it pleased God, And what happened? God revealed
Christ to him. So the time of our birth is marked,
beloved. The time of our regeneration
is marked. Think of that. When you heard
the gospel, it wasn't lucky. It wasn't by chance. It was ordained
by God. Now some folks Can't put a finger
on the date. There's nothing wrong with that.
I'm one of those folks. Can't put an exact finger on
the date. But I know I was dead in trespasses and sins. I know
I was, following religion. And I heard Henry Mahan preach
the gospel so clearly for the first time. And one of my friends
even said, well, surely you were saved back then. No. I said,
no. And he said, surely you were. No, I'm the one who knows. I
wasn't saved. Now I am, though! Oh, my! Oh, it's wonderful, beloved. It's wonderful. So marvel that
we're called by God. We're placed into his mystical
body, right? The body of Christ, who Paul
at one time, thinking this was the very one who was persecuting
the body, now a part of the body. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my. So we see here, then, that the
fullness of time has come for the recovery of Christ's members
from the Adam nature of sin. We're born dead in trespasses
and sin, and there comes a time appointed by God, right, when
we're regenerated. And then think of this, too.
There's a time appointed by God, and remember this, God said,
I'll never forget you. So even in our time of death, he'll not
forget us. He's gonna carry us across that water, isn't he? Into the promised land, beloved.
All by His power and His mercy and His grace. And we'll be with
Him forever. Forever. He said that He would
do that. My oh my. It's wonderful. Standing in awe
at how minutely the Lord is involved in our lives, beloved. It's incredible. And the more we learn about this,
the more that the Holy Spirit reveals to us these precious,
precious truths, the more we're just in awe. Think of this. Think
of where you were when the Lord saved you. All right? Now, go back in your family.
Start tracing back as far as you can. All right? And think of this. Your
great, great, great grandparents were moved to a certain place.
Then they decided, oh, I want to move here. I want to move
here. And I want to move here, and
then, you know, generations pass, right? Comes to your generation,
you're born here, and that's right. Then maybe you grew up,
you leave home, maybe. Everyone's different where they
hear the gospel, but you were taken to the exact place where
you'd hear the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. And
you're born again by the Holy Spirit of God. How minutely he's involved. And
rejoice. He said, and never leave us,
nor forsake us. Never. See the word there in the text,
called by his grace? When it says, but when it pleased
God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
his grace? That's one word in the Greek. That's one word in
the Greek. The Greek language often does
this. We have multiple words, and they have one word. Or they
have four different words for one word. We use love. They have
four different words for that. My. So it's one word in the Greek,
and it means to call aloud, to utter in a loud voice. And it's
pictured as a shepherd calls his sheep. Come on. You know what, all that shepherd
has to do, they say that, Charlie, if you and I had a bunch of sheep
and Brother Brian, and we put them all in one pen, that you
all could open the gate, and I could stand back here, and
I have whatever word I need, whatever it is, hey, I'm Canadian,
let's just use hey, right? And my sheep come flying out
of there, right? And your sheep are still in there.
Isn't that amazing? That's incredible, isn't it?
They know the shepherd's voice. This call here, the underlying
Greek word has the same thing. And it's the same Greek word
that's used when the Lord called James, the son of Zebedee, and
John. It's in Matthew 4, 21 and 22. It says, and going on from
thence, this being the Lord, he sought two brothers. James,
the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother in a ship, with Zebedee
and their father, mending the nets, and he called them. And that call was irresistible. And what'd they do? Now, think
of this. They're fishermen. They're fishing. And they just dropped their nets
and they walked away. Could you imagine if we were
working with them? We'd be like, where'd John and James go? And you look
and you see them walking away with somebody. What in the world
just happened? That's an irresistible call,
isn't it? Same thing when God calls us by His grace, beloved.
It's irresistible. And you know what? His grace
is sovereign, it's eternal, it's irresistible. And you know what
we do? Once the Lord saves us, we'll
be praising Him for the rest of our life on this earth, and
then we're gonna be praising Him in glory forever. Oh, it's
wonderful.