Genesis chapter 12 for a little
while. Before we read this text, I want
us to think about now what we've seen so far in the
book of Genesis. Think about what God has written
in general terms. It's important and vital, I think,
to study the Scriptures verse by verse. It's also, I think,
important to have some perspective on the Word of God as a whole,
these books as a whole, and the way God has has written his book. In the book of Genesis we see
at the very beginning of beginnings the gospel, didn't we? In the
way that the earth was created, it was without form and void
and the Spirit of God moved upon it. That's my testimony. That's
the gospel. And life sprung forth from death,
from devastation and black darkness, life. There was light. God said,
let there be light. And Paul made reference to that,
didn't he? The God who said that, he said, shined in my heart.
That's the gospel. And from the very beginning,
before God ever made a man, he made a beautiful garden, didn't
he? Paradise. He made paradise and caused every
good earthly thing to grow there. Why? He was preparing a place
for a man, for his creature. And the Lord Jesus, when he went
to the cross, he said, I go to prepare a place for you. God
has been preparing a place for his people since the beginning.
In eternity, he prepared. He made a place for us. He planted
that garden for Adam and Eve, his children, so that they could
have a place to enjoy and to have fellowship with him. And
that's the greatest thing about that garden was that God walked
with them there. And that's true of this world
and the world to come. The paradise that he has created
and prepared for us, it's paradise because he's there. He said to
that thief, today you'll be with me in paradise. That's the definition
of paradise, with me. That's the greatest thing about
this Garden of Eden, was that God walked with him there. It'd
just be another place if it wasn't for that. But he told them to
enjoy all of his good provision, and they enjoyed his favor there
and his goodness. And he walked with them, and
God gave them the law, establishing his authority over man. And,
of course, he told them that tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, there not to eat of it. And being tempted of Satan,
Eve ate, and then gave to Adam, and he did eat. And the eyes
of them both were opened, and they fell from fellowship and
favor with God. Adam and Eve were naked and guilty
before God, but God did something remarkable. When they said we
were afraid because we were naked and we hid ourselves, God killed
an innocent animal, shed blood, the first blood that was ever
shed, and he put some clothes on them. The gospel from the
very beginning. He pronounced the curse upon
them and upon the earth and upon Satan, but he also promised them
that a redeemer would come. He spoke up to them of the seed
of woman who would crush the serpent's head. victorious. He'd be effectual. He wasn't
going to come try to do something. From the very start God has taught
the effectual, redeeming Savior to His people. And He taught
them to worship by blood sacrifice, didn't He? Cain knew what to
do. He knew what God had commanded. There's only one way to worship
God after the fall, and that's by blood. You've got to have
a sacrifice. And today that's our Lord Jesus
Christ. It always has been, spiritually
speaking. But we don't offer animal sacrifices
anymore. We look to the Savior as our
redeemer, as our propitiation, our sin offering. Own him as
such, offer him, plead his precious blood before the throne of God.
God taught them to worship, and they taught their children, and
then we have the story of Cain and Abel. Again, the gospel.
God had respect unto Abel and his offering. That's the only
way God can have respect into a sinner is if he has an excellent
sacrifice. By faith, Abel offered a more
excellent sacrifice than Cain. Cain offered the works of his
hands, and Abel offered blood an innocent victim, just like
God slew to cover his parents. And then after the earth became
populated, after the fall, They had sons and daughters and begat
and begat and begat. And you can read them, can't
you? So-and-so begat so-and-so. And the earth became greatly
populated. But God saw the wickedness of
man, that it was great in the earth. Well, it had been great,
hadn't it? When Cain slew his brother Abel,
that's great wickedness. And that was just one example.
But God said enough one day. He said to Noah, Noah found grace
in his eyes, and so he taught Noah. He spoke to him and said,
build an ark. And Noah built the ark. And again,
we have the gospel. Noah and his family entered the
ark, and the judgment of God in the form of that 40-day and
40-night storm fell upon the ark and not upon God's people. Gospel pictures so clearly the
substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. He took
our judgment. and we stay dry and comfortable.
And then after the flood wipes God's earth clean the earth begins
to be populated again. And again evil men rebel against
God and determine to make a name for themselves by establishing
a great city and building a great tower called Babel, a monument
to their rebellion, a stronghold. Think about the vanity and the
foolishness of man to build a stronghold against God Himself and the God
who can cause a little rain to fall and kill everybody on his
earth. They thought they could build a stronghold. I'm not sure
they didn't build that tower so that if God sent another flood
they could get above it. I don't know that, but it makes
sense, doesn't it? God sends you worst and we'll,
oh my, we ain't never seen God's worst. How can we be such rebels
against our creator? And God rejects them and confounds
them and immediately thereafter we have the account of God's
choice and calling of Abraham. Pink calls this the three great
beginnings in the book of beginnings. The word Genesis means beginnings
and we have the beginning where he created Adam and Eve and then
we have of course the one where Noah where he killed everybody
on the earth and then there's a new beginning. Noah and those
other seven walked out of that ark and it's a beginning isn't
it? And here in the text we're going to look at we see another
beginning. God rejected the mighty Nimrod
and finds an idolater among a family of idolaters, among a nation
of idolaters, and calls him of all people and says, in blessing,
I will bless you, and I will make of thee a great nation.
Now look at Genesis 12 and verse one, and we'll read these first
eight verses. And this is that third beginning,
if you will. Now the Lord had said unto Abram,
get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred and from
thy father's house unto a land that I will show you." Now, how
is this a new beginning? Here's man has populated the
earth again after the flood. And God goes to one man and says,
get out of there. The word sanctify means to set
apart. And that's not a physical thing.
That's a, that's a, an act of God's grace that God sanctifies
and makes holy. It means to make holy or to set
apart for God. But what God does spiritually
is pictured here. in him telling Abraham, get away
from this idolatrous nation, this idolatrous family, your
family, and you're going somewhere else where I tell you to go.
A new beginning. This is where God, Abraham is
called the father of all them that believe. At the time that God spoke to
Abram, I don't know this for sure, but Noah's gone, his family's
gone, there may not have been a a believer anywhere on God's
earth at that time. Maybe Job. Job could have been
alive at this time. I don't know. We know that his
writings are ancient and probably written even before the books
of Moses were written. So nobody knows for sure when
Job lived, but God said, I have a people and Abraham, I'm going
to use you. It's going to be your seed. I'm
going to make of you a great nation. I've chosen you and I'm
going to bless you. And that's what he says here
to Abraham. I will make, verse two, I will make of thee a great
nation and I will bless you and make your name great and you
shall be a blessing. You're gonna be blessed and you're
gonna be a blessing. That's the way, that's God that
does that. It's God that blesses you and it's God that makes you
a blessing if you are. And I will bless them that bless
you and curse him that curseth thee. and in thee shall all families
of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed as the Lord
had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was
seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And
Abram took Sarah his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all
their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that
they had gotten in Haran. And they went forth to go into
the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came."
And Abram says they passed through the land Verse 6, unto the place
of Sycam, unto the plain of Morah. And the Canaanite was then in
the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy
seed will I give this land. And there builded he an altar
unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. And he removed from thence
unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent
having Bethel on the west. on the east and there he built
an altar unto the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. Bethel is called house of God.
And so Abram was blessed. He lived in the house of God.
The house of God is not a location, is it? It's the place of God's
blessing. Wherever that is, that's God's
house. Abraham is called in the scriptures, as I alluded to already,
the father of all them that believe, in Romans 4.11, the father of
all them that believe. In James 2.23, we're told that
Abraham was called, and you think about this, how would you like
this title? The friend of God. Oh my, it's nice to have friends
in this world, isn't it? But to be the friend of God Almighty.
When Paul, in his great teaching in the book of Romans of justification
by faith, Paul needed an example of the kind of faith that saves
sinners. He used Abraham, didn't he? When
he's talking about justification by grace alone, through faith
alone, in Christ alone, as he's revealed in the scriptures alone,
and that's the message of the book of Romans, what did he do?
He said, what hath our father Abraham found concerning this?
Was Abraham justified by works or by faith? And then he talked
about it, didn't he? And he used Abraham as an example.
And he said there, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him
for righteousness. You see, when we believe God,
when we believe the record that God has given concerning his
son, then God doesn't look to us for righteousness. Faith unites
us to Christ and Christ is our righteousness. In verse 21 of
that same chapter, Romans chapter 4, it says, of Abraham, he staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith,
giving glory to God and being fully persuaded that what God
had promised, he was able also to perform. Do we have that kind
of faith? When God says, I'll save sinners,
my son's name will be called Jesus because he'll save his
people. Or do we believe he's able to do what he said he'd
do? when he said, Come unto me, and I'll give you rest. Do you
believe that what he said he could do, he can do? That's the
faith of Abraham. That's God-given faith. In Hebrews
11, where many of the faithful saints of God are mentioned,
it says in verse 8, By faith Abraham, when he was called to
go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance,
after receive, he obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whither
he went, By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in
a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob,
the heirs with him of the same promise, for he looked for a
city which hath foundation. He knew the spiritual aspect
of this. He knew that when God called him out of there, it wasn't
just taking him from one place on earth to another place on
earth. This is the blessing of God we're talking about. And
it says, he looked for a city whose builder and maker is God,
not the Canaanites and not anybody else. God built this city. And in verse 17 of Hebrews 11,
it says, by faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. We talked about how God tried
Abraham's faith this morning. This is a great example of it.
He said, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love,
and offer him unto me on Mount Moriah. And when he was tried,
he offered up Isaac. And he that had received the
promises offered up his only begotten, of whom it was said
that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting that God
was able to raise him up even from the dead. Do you see the
dilemma there? God said in Isaac, the promise
from the beginning was, I'll make of thee a great nation and
thy seed. And Abraham knew who that was. Paul said, he said
seed and not seeds because that seed is Christ. God blesses his
son and his people in his son. And Abraham understood that.
Abraham had faith in Christ, just like everybody God saves.
He gives them faith in Christ. when he's talking about that
seed he said he's going to come through Isaac and then God later
says I want you to take Isaac and I want you to kill him well
wait a minute you said no he didn't question God and Paul
says he knew he knew that that was no problem for God how can
a dead man produce a child God can raise him up if that's what
it takes raise him from the dead counting that God was able to
raise him up even from the dead from whence also he received
him in a figure. That's in a figure in a way, in a real sense, that's
exactly what did happen because in Abraham's heart, that child
was already dead. He was coming down with the knife
and God said, Abraham. And again, we see the gospel
because there was a ram whose horns were caught in a thicket.
And God said, don't kill your son, kill that innocent animal
over there. It's the same message in God's
word over and over and over and over. God sent his son to be
the propitiation, the sin offering for our sins, to take our place
under his wrath, to live for us, to die for us, to save us
in every sense of the word. And that gospel story is repeated
over and over over. That's why Paul said it's the
gospel concerning his son, which he promised a four time by our
fathers, the prophets. He's always had the same message
to sinners and it's Christ, Christ and only Christ. Now let's see
some things about the call of Abraham and let's see if we don't
see the same gospel that we've seen in the first 11 chapters
of Genesis repeated again in a different story. First of all,
what kind of man was Abraham that God would choose him? Why
did God pick Abraham? He must have looked around and
found, you know, the best candidate. Is that what God does? Well,
we know better than that, don't we? There's nobody in the Scripture
that's more highly acclaimed and more highly regarded than
Abraham, as we saw, the father of all men that believe, the
friend of God, strong in faith, Paul said. He staggered not at
the promise of God, but did God find him that way, or did God
make him that way? That's the question. Is faith
the product of the natural man's heart, or is it the gift of God,
not of works, lest any man should boast? Well, that's an easy answer,
isn't it, until you walk down the street here a little ways,
and then it's another story down there. How can, I say how, and
I know how, because I was blind too, weren't you? Blind, blind. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. Could that be any more clear?
That faith didn't come from you, that's not of yourself. It's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. We're
not getting any glory in this thing. And by grace we don't
want any. Nowhere is Abraham distinguished
from any other idolatrous sinner that lived in that day, in that
city, at that time, and yet God came to Abraham. Listen to what
Joshua said in Joshua 24, 2. It says, Joshua said unto all
the people, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, your fathers dwelt
on the other side of the flood in old time, Terah, the father
of Abraham, and the father of Nacor, and they served other
gods. That's where Abraham was when
God found him, serving other gods, just like most likely everybody
on earth at that time was. and yet God came to Abraham.
And listen to the way Stephen preached it in Acts 7.2. Listen
to the wording here. In Acts 7.2, Stephen said, Men,
brethren, and fathers, hearken, the God of glory appeared unto
our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia. You think about
that. We say, oh, God chose Abraham,
God appeared to Abraham, and it's just like, The God of glory
appeared to a sinner, an idolatrous, godless, rebellious, fallen,
vile sinner and said, I'm going to bless you. That was a good
day for Abraham. That was a happy day. God, the
God of glory. So Abraham is distinguished from
all others only. in this, that God appeared unto
him. But why did God appear unto him?
Can we answer that question? Can we trace this back even further
than the God of glory appearing unto Abraham? Nehemiah 9, and
I'm going to read you these scriptures. You jot them down if you want
to look at them later, or if you want to turn fast. But listen
to Nehemiah 9, 7. didst choose Abraham, and broughtest
him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham."
God did that often didn't He? In the Scripture. He changed
Abram's name to Abraham. He changed Jacob's name to Israel. Paul was Saul of Tarsus before
he met the Lord Jesus and now he's Paul, the Apostle Paul.
And that happened all through the Word of God. But notice here
the story of God's people. And this is the story of God's
people. Now, this is the beginning of the story. He's the father
of everybody that believes. This is a new beginning, sure
enough, isn't it? That God appeared to Abraham
and said, I'm going to have a people, I'm going to bless you, and I'm
going to bless my people through you, through the seed, the Lord
Jesus Christ. How does the story begin? Nehemiah
nailed it, didn't he? Thou art the Lord God who didst
choose Abram. Why did God appear to Abram?
Because he chose him. The story of God's people begins
with the electing grace of God. The word choose in Nehemiah 9-7
there means elect or decide for. Sinners don't decide for God.
God decides for them. And that's what he did with Abram,
the father of all them that believe. Aren't you glad he does that?
He's not waiting on you to decide something. God makes decisions. And I'm glad I can worship that
God. I can worship him. Second Thessalonians 2, 13. Second
Thessalonians 2, 13. I'm going to read that to you,
or you can turn there if you'd like. I don't want to discourage
you from turning to these scriptures, but I want to not keep you 50-something
minutes like we did the other night. But God chose Abram, and
listen to the language in Nehemiah 9.7. God chose him, and then
because he had chosen him, he brought him out. That's what
Nehemiah said. You chose Abram, and you brought
him out of the earth of Chaldeas. Now listen to the language of
2 Thessalonians 2.13. We're bound to give thanks all
the way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth whereunto he called you. He chose you and he brought you
out. He called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's exactly what he did in
the case of Abraham. He said, that one's mine. He
made a choice. He made a distinction. We call
it distinguishing sovereign grace. And then he said, Abram, come
here, get out of there. He called him. And that's what
Paul said he did for you, too, if you're one of his beloved.
God saves sinners the same way he always has. It had never changed,
has it? Now remember, the father of all
them that believe. This is Paul's example of how
God justifies sinners. by grace through faith in Christ
Jesus. And we find this example, this
father was chosen by God before anything else happened. Abraham
was chosen by God and everything that happened after that happened
as a result of God's choice of him, the electing grace of God. I've told you this many times,
but is it any wonder that in the scriptures believers are
called believers? Some they're called the children
of God. They're called sheep. But you
know by what name they're called more than any other in the Word
of God? The elect. That defines us, doesn't it?
We're defined by this. God chose us. Everything else that's happened
to us started there. God said, you're mine. You're
mine. We read that the other day in Ezekiel. Thou becamest
mine. Thank God we're His. We're worms,
but we're His worms. We're vile wretches, but we're
His vile wretches. That's the gospel, my friend.
David said that's all my salvation and all my desire that God made
a covenant with me. He didn't with my house And he
didn't his house was it was a horrible bunch of rebels But with me,
he said he made a covenant. He chose me and that's all my
salvation and all my desire And that's how paul describes The
people of god here. We're bound to give thanks to
god for you because he chose you the elect of god And then
notice that God having chosen Abraham, what did he do? He called
him. That's what it said there. You
called him, you chose him, and you brought him forth, you called
him. And listen to the language of
Romans 8, 29. This is the order, the proper order, and God is
exalted in this. For whom he did foreknow, that's
the love of God. Brethren, beloved of the Lord,
I give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord.
When he did foreknow us, that doesn't just mean he knew who
we were. That's that intimate knowledge. Like it talks about
Adam knew his wife Eve. That's love. That's union. The
union of souls, of hearts. Whom he did foreknow, he also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. If you're
ever going to be like Christ, it's because God said so a long
time ago. that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. God foreknew Abraham. He set
his affection upon him. Of all the people in the Ur of
the Chaldees and all over the face of the earth at that time,
God loved Abraham, and he called him. Whom he did foreknow, he
called. And whom he called, he justified,
and whom he justified, He also glorified God having chosen sinners
unto salvation by his free, sovereign, distinguishing, electing grace. Comes to those sinners, every
one of them. Not one have I lost, Christ said.
Not one. And other sheep I have, which
are not of this fold, I gotta bring them too. Isn't that what
he said? Them also I must bring. He will bring everyone that God
the Father gave him. He calls us all individually
in time he calls us by his grace whom he has chosen what do you
think abraham's testimony would have been if you'd asked him
what's your testimony abraham would he say anything about making
a decision for god or Or would he say, I was an idolatrous,
vile wretch, and one day God showed up and spoke to me and
said, I'm going to bless you. Now what's your testimony? I
made my decision for Jesus? You know how many people I've
heard stand up and say that? I've made my decision for Jesus.
I used to be a sinner, but now I've decided to follow Jesus. What? Steeped in idolatry, a godless
wretch. And one day the God of glory
appeared unto me. What do you think Saul of Tarsus'
testimony would be? Would it have anything to do
with the decision that he made? God knocked him off of his horse
and blinded him and said, I've chosen you and you're going to
preach for me. Paul recorded his testimony for
us in Galatians chapter one, verse 11 through 16. Let's turn
over there together. And I'll just quit early if I
have to tonight. We won't go too long. Galatians
chapter 1, I believe this will be... Paul, what's your testimony? You know, let's have a braggamony
service, no? There's not going to be any bragging
from a true sinner. But verse 11 of Galatians 1,
he said, I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached
of me is not after man, Neither received it, for I neither received
it of man, neither was I taught it. Neither was I taught it.
You think God saved Paul differently than he does anybody else? Do
you hear what he said? I was only taught it this way,
by the revelation of Jesus Christ. How about you? He uses means,
he uses a preacher, of course he does. But Christ has to reveal
himself to sinners. He said, Peter, flesh and blood
didn't reveal this to you. Flesh and blood can't do that.
We don't have the power to do that. Only God can do that. And
Paul said, Jesus Christ, God the Son, revealed himself to
me. Is that your testimony? That's
what he did for Abram, too. And everybody else he ever saved.
Everybody. He said, you've heard of my conversation
in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted
the church of God and wasted it. That's what he was doing
when God met him. And profited in the Jews' religion
above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly
zealous of the traditions of my father's. But when it pleased
God. You think Abraham's testimony
would be something like that? I was an idolater in a family
of idolaters in a nation of idolaters. But when it pleased God, he revealed
himself to me. The God of glory appeared to
me. When it pleased God who separated me There's God's choice. Nehemiah, you did choose Abraham. He separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by his good. He said in chapter nine, before
they had done any good and evil, he said, Jacob, I love. And he
saw a hate from my mother's womb and called me. There it is again. Separated me. He sanctified me
is what that means. He chose me and he called me.
and he was pleased to reveal his son in me that I might preach
him among the heathen. What a testimony. You'll find
it the same all through the word of God. And I guarantee you,
if you ask a real sinner that knows the Lord Jesus Christ,
it'll be real similar, real similar. God saved me. God was pleased
to reveal himself to me and he saved me by his grace. I was
vile and wretched when he found me and I still am, but he saved
me by his grace. In numbers 21, You remember the story there,
the people murmured against God, and God sent fiery serpents among
them, and many of the people died. And then they came to Moses,
and what did they say? What does God call us from, and
what does He call us to? Listen to Jeremiah 3.12, Go and
proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return thou backsliding
Israel, saith the Lord. I will not cause mine anger to
fall upon you, for I am merciful, saith the Lord. And I will not
keep anger forever, only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast
transgressed against the Lord thy God and has scattered thy
ways to the strangers under every green tree. And you have not
obeyed my voice, saith the Lord." If God's going to call you, what
does he call you from? Sin, from self. And he'll cause
you to acknowledge it, won't he? Acknowledge your iniquity.
You remember when he was talking with the woman at the well? And
they were talking about God and how God is worshipped. And he
said, go get your husband. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. And she's thinking,
I wonder which one he's talking about. Is he talking about the
man I'm living with now? He's not my husband, but I'm
living with him. Acknowledge your sin. And there are numbers
21. The people murmured against God
and God sent those fiery serpents and killed many of them. And
you know what happened? They came to Moses and they said,
we have sinned. Three words. We have sinned. And God said to Moses, make a
serpent of brass and raise it up on a pole. And everybody that
looks at it will live. You talk about clear gospel,
clear, simple gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ said to
Nicodemus, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
so must the son of man be lifted up. And whosoever believeth on
him shall not perish. Is that so simple and so clear
in that picture? Why make a snake? Make an angel
and put it on a pole. No, it's got to be a snake. He's
got to become what we are, and God's gonna hang him between
heaven and earth. He's gonna become a curse for
us. That's how he redeemed us from the curse of the law. He
became in the likeness of the problem, and God killed him. Why? To save you, to save me. Whosoever believeth on him shall
have everlasting life. As Moses lifted up that serpent
on that pole, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And you
know what we're gonna say when we see God's judgment, God's
law as it is, we have seen. And when God brings you to that
place, then you'll see the serpent. God said, make a serpent and
raise it up where everybody can see it. Everybody that looks
to it will live. Well, we've sinned. We've sinned. Only acknowledge thy transgression.
And you will, you will if God comes. Abraham, God said, get
out of your country. and get out of your father's
house. He calls us out of what? First Peter 2.9, but you are
a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation, a
peculiar people that you should show forth the praises of him
who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. He
called Abram out of darkness and he calls us out of darkness. He causes us to acknowledge we
have sinned. We're in darkness. We're blind. We're fools. Have mercy on us. That man said, God be merciful
to me. What? The sinner. That's who
God came to be merciful to. He said, I come not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. And I guarantee you, he won't
save a righteous man, not righteous in his own eyes. He may be before
God saves him, but when God saves him, he's going to be me the
sinner. That's what he calls us out of. It's a call from darkness
to light, from self to Christ. God called Adam and Eve to the
acknowledgement of their sin, didn't he? What did he say? Adam,
where are you? Why do you suppose God asked
him that? Because he didn't know where he was? No. He's causing
Adam to acknowledge where Adam is. And he calls us from there. I'm naked. I'm guilty. I'm shameful. God called Abram from idolatry
and blessed him in Christ, the promised seed. He called Paul
the same way, didn't he? Romans 7, 9, he said, I was alive
without the law once, but when the commandment came and sin
revived, And the commandment which was ordained to life I
found to be unto death. I knew that if the law is true
and he knew the law before the Pharisees knew the law better
than anybody. But he said one day I found out what the law
was saying and it killed me. It showed me that I'm dead before
God. I'm a goner because that law condemns me. And he said,
wherefore the law is holy and the commandment holy and just
and good was then that which is good made death into me, God
forbid, but sin that it might appear sin working death in me
by that which is good by the law, that sin by the commandment
might become exceeding sinful. It didn't make sin more sinful.
It made Paul realize how sinful he was. That's where God brings
us from. He turns the light on and we
see we're dead, we're dead, we're undone. And then he calls us
out. Before that, as a Pharisee, Paul
knew the law, but everybody else's sin was bad before that day came. But then when God revealed the
law to my heart, Paul said, my sin was bad, exceeding sin. In
Isaiah, you remember in the book of Isaiah, we won't turn there,
in chapter five of Isaiah, you read chapter five and you'll
find Isaiah saying, woe unto them, woe unto them, woe unto
them. He says it about five or six
times, woe unto them. And in chapter six, he said,
I saw the Lord, I lifted up. And you know what he said after
that? Woe is me, woe is me, I'm undone. When you see God, that's
what you'll say too. But God didn't leave Paul there,
did he? He said, I died that day. When the law came in power
and sin revived, I saw my sin to be exceeding sinful and it
killed me. But God didn't leave him there.
The Lord didn't leave him there. In Philippians 3, he said, I
put all that behind me. Those things I counted as gain
before now, I realize they're loss. Why? That I may win Christ. You look at that passage there,
and we won't take the time to look at it tonight, but in Philippians
3, 7 through 14, Paul said, I must know Christ, that I may know
him. And then he said, I must win
Christ, that I may win him and be found in him. I must be found
in Christ. And then he said, I must press
toward Christ. Those four things, I must have
Christ. Out of darkness into his light,
out of my bondage into his freedom, out of my sin and into his precious
blood. Paul, after God called him, you
know how he began The first epistle to the Corinthians, the first
two words of the letter are these, Paul called, Paul called. God chose me and God called me. Christ said to Ananias in the
book of Acts concerning Paul, he is a chosen vessel unto me. He chose him and then he called
him by his grace. Is that what happened to you?
Let me read you another poem. I said I don't use poems much
in my messages, and now all of a sudden, you know, I just can't
resist. Listen to this. This is exactly
what we're talking about. "'Tis not that I did choose thee,
for, Lord, that could not be. This heart would still refuse
thee, hadst thou not chosen me. Thou from the sin that stained
me, from the sin that stained me, hast cleansed and set me
free. Of old thou hast ordained me that I should live to thee.
To a sovereign mercy called me and taught my opening mind. The
world had else enthralled me to heavenly glories blind. My
heart owns none before thee, for thy rich grace I thirst. This knowing, if I love thee,
thou must have loved me first. Is that your testimony? I was
serving other gods with no hope in sight. Didn't even want any
hope. Didn't know what hope was. And
the God of glory appeared unto me. That's exactly what we're
going to be praising Him for forever. Because He chose us
out of every kindred, tribe, nation, and tongue under heaven
and redeemed us unto God by His precious blood. Now would be
a good time to start praising Him for that, wouldn't it? But
we'll praise Him throughout eternity for that very thing. Let's bow
in prayer.