text tonight 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 that I might preach him among
the heathen and immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood Now
one of the practices at my home when we get up in the morning
to have coffee is it seems like our TV is automatically on Fox
News. And one thing that I've noticed
a lot lately is that there's opinion polls for everything. They have opinion polls for this,
they have opinion polls for that. They even have opinion polls
on opinion polls. That's right. And I got to thinking
about that. You don't have to talk to men
and women long these days to find out what their opinion of
God is. Their opinion of God, and I find
that most, their opinion of God is all wrong. If your opinion
of God is wrong, friends, in your religion, your beliefs,
your salvation, there will be no profit to your soul. Salvation
is according to the Scripture. A man recently told me that he
and the man upstairs, they had a mutual understanding that they
had a good thing going on. And just from those comments
and that statement, it was obvious to me that he didn't understand
anything about the God of this Bible. Many have the opinion
that God is begging and pleading sinners to let Him save them. If you think that, then your
opinion of God is wrong. And it's contrary to the Bible. Many think that God has made
salvation possible. And it's up to you to decide
if you will accept it or reject it by something that you possess
called a free will. If you think that way, dear friends,
then your opinion of God is wrong. Your opinion of Christ, your
opinion of yourself is wrong and it's contrary to the Scriptures.
And it's sad but very true that the majority of people in this
world have the wrong opinion of God Almighty, the wrong opinion
of Christ, and the wrong opinion of themselves. Their opinions
of God are way, Way too low. How does the holy scriptures
reveal God? What do the scriptures say concerning
the creator of the universe? And I will add this very quickly
that those whose opinion of God is wrong, have you not read the
Bible? Have you not read the Bible?
Have you not read from the inspired pages of scriptures who God is
and what we are? Well, I know this, you'll never
see it unless God gives you eyes to see it. Now, our opinion of
the president, our opinion of the government, our opinion of
the economy or anything else, they're personal opinions that
have no consequence to your soul. But your opinion of God, It's
a matter of eternal life and death. Your opinion of who He
is, what He did, what you are, will either lead you to life
everlasting or eternal damnation. If your opinion is that God needs
for you to do anything, then you've got the wrong opinion
of God. If your opinion is that Christ died for everyone in the
world, your opinion of God is wrong. If you think that God
has left salvation up to a decision that you make, to your will,
your works of righteousness, your opinion of God is wrong. I could read you scripture after
scripture that proves these opinions wrong, but tonight, I'll only
use these two verses. And I'm convinced the way that
they read, that it would be impossible for me to even mess them up. You remember years ago, I don't
see them so much anymore, but there was a bunker sticker and
it said, God said it, I believe it, and that settles it. But that's wrong. That's having
a wrong opinion of God, isn't it? Friends, God said it, that
settles it. It don't matter if I believe
it or not anymore. This book you hold in your hand tonight
asks the most important question ever asked. Mortal man, what
think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He? If your opinion of God is wrong,
in order to be reconciled, in order to be saved, in order to
find that redemption Brother Darwin talked about, you're going
to have to repent. And that word repent, as you
well know, means to change one's mind. To change one's mind. You're going to have to change
your mind about who God is. You're going to have to change
your mind about who and what you are. You're going to have
to change your mind about how God saves sinners. Sinners must
repent. God doesn't repent. Men preach
a God today that repents. It's not God that needs some
repentance, it's us. It's to change your mind about your course
of life. Now let's look at verse 15. I
have just a few points. But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace. In this single verse, the divine
work of salvation is laid out plainly. God's salvation, dear
friends, always, always begins with God. It always begins with God's will,
God's pleasure. If you hear a message that gives
recognition, honor, credit to man in the least, it's not a
gospel message. The foundation of salvation never,
ever begins with the will of man. Never. Salvation is of the
Lord from start to finish. I was reading earlier today,
and I read across Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3. You don't have to
turn there, but just reiterated it to me in a special way. It
said, when He, Christ, had by Himself purged our sins, He sat
down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Paul wrote in
Romans 9.15 what God said to Moses. You know what God said
to Moses? He said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on
whom I have compassion. Does that sound like a God that's
trying, wanting, pleading to do something? That sounds like
a sovereign God to me. One who works all things after
the counsel of his own people. Amen. The apostle concludes in
the very next verse, and he says, so that it's not of him that
willeth, it's not of him that runneth, but of God that shall
have mercy. Friends, if we're ever to receive
mercy, it's going to have to be from God and from Him alone. Mr. Spurgeon once said, salvation
doesn't begin with man's obedience and then proceeds onward to the
purpose of God. It's backwards. The first cause
of salvation is, and this is my first point, it pleased God. That's the point. It pleased
God. This is the foundation of all
divine grace. The Apostle Paul wrote these
words by the inspiration of God. And He was saved and called to
be a preacher Himself only because it pleased God. You can see that
in verse 1. Look at it. Paul, an apostle,
not of man, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father
who raised Him from the dead. And notice verse 2. And all the
brethren which are with me. That's how God saves His people.
It's by the will and purpose of God. It pleased God. And I'll
tell you what, the apostle Paul, to say that of himself. I tell
you, it wasn't by his merit. He would have been quick to tell
you that. Why he hated God and the people of God. Well, he held
the coat of those that stoned the beloved Stephen. He persecuted
the church with great passion. It was against the disciples
of Christ that Acts chapter 9, verse 1 says, he breed threatenings
and slaughter. I thought about that, Brother
Darwin. And I find it interesting that it says he breathed out
threatenings and slaughter. Why it comes by us so natural
that by nature we breathe threatenings and slaughter against God. And
we say in our hearts, we will not have this man rule over us. Sin is so much of what we are
that we breathe it in Job 15, 16 says, how much more
abominable and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like
water. Now I don't know about you, but
on a hot day, and if I'm out and I'm doing anything strenuous,
which my wife would tell you that's probably not the case,
but if I am, there's nothing that quenches my thirst more
than a cool glass of water. iniquity by cool water. You want to see something about
yourself, there it is. Well, my second point is still
found right here in verse 15. commonly known in the Bible by
the name of election. Our text tells us that this occurred
and took place in our mother's womb, but actually, it took place
before the foundation of the world. Before we were born. Before we
could have done anything whatsoever. Now you think about this, to
win or to merit God's He chose us in Christ. What a
God. What a God. What a God of mercy. Now, some of you will tell you,
well, now, brother, you know God looked ahead in time and
He saw who was going to be good and who wasn't. And He chose
them based upon, that's salvation by works. That's what gives everything
this book teaches. Tell you what, let's just take
a minute here to turn to Romans 9. And boy, you know right where
I'm going. I know you do. Romans chapter
9. Look at verse 10. And not only this, but when Rebecca
also had conceived by one, either by our father Isaac, for the
children being what? Not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to what
election might stand. Not a word. It's not a word. But of Him, they call it. And it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. Oh, there's those that'll say,
How could God hate Esau? But God's people said, how could
He love Jacob? And we see what we are by the
grace of God. Oh, friends, our text in Galatians
1 is clear about this thing of election. God separated us from
the earliest part and time of our being. Yes, even before the
foundation of the world. Before He spoke this world into
existence. He had chosen and separated His
people and given them to Christ. Before God said, let there be
light, there was a Savior, didn't it? A lamb slain before the foundation
of the world to redeem a remnant according to what? The election
of grace. Long before God piled the mountains
up long before the oceans were ever formed. In God's eternal
purpose, he set his people apart for himself. For himself. Oh, I tell you, there's many
that hate the doctrine of election. I love it. I love it. The beauty that elect center,
the elect center sees in God's election, His foreknowledge,
His predestination, His predetermining us to be what? Conformed to the
image of Christ. I think in our text next we see
the calling of God. In this divine separation by
God comes the effectual calling of God to the center. What does
it say? It pleased God, who separated
me from my mother's womb and what? Called me by His grace. I sadly say that what most people
call grace these days is no grace at all. And I believe that it's needful
to distinguish between what God calls grace and what most religionists
call grace. We call it sovereign grace. We
call it free grace. But when you really think about
that, there is no grace that's not sovereign, is there? There is no grace that's not
free. If it's not free, then it can't
be grace. And it becomes worse. We need
to understand that the calling also does not cause the election. The election springs forth from
the divine purpose of God Almighty, and that's what causes the calling. Old Paul has them right in line
here. He pleased God to show mercy and grace. He separated
me, as only God can do, and He called me by His Well, why did
He call you by grace, preacher? Well, it's right there in verse
16. To reveal His Son in me. That's why. To reveal His Son
in me. Christ is revealed in me. If it doesn't please God to elect
me and call me by His free and sovereign grace, Good friends,
Christ will never be revealed to me. See, not only is Christ revealed
to me, but He's also revealed or formed in me, as Scripture
says, and conformed to the image of Christ. For whom He did foreknow,
Romans 8 tells us, He did also predestinate to what? To be conformed
to the image of His Son. that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Those who put man's will first,
they don't know what they say. It's most assuredly not the will
of man. God did foreknow. God did predetermine us, His
people, to be conformed to the image of the Son. And you can
be assured of this, dear child of God, that the salvation of
any soul is a display of the eternal purpose and sovereign
will of God. Well, what is the gospel? Well,
we know it to be good news. Well, who's the good news to?
Good news to sinners. Are you a sinner? If you are,
this is mighty good news, isn't it? Those that are well have
no need of a physician. for those that are sick. Are
you sick? Are you sick? Are you a sinner? Then this is good news. You know
what this good news is? Well, there again, right in verse
16, it's there for all to see. God gives us to see. Paul says,
to reveal His Son in me that I might preach what? Him! Him! Isn't that what we preach? There's nothing else worthy of
speaking of. I say all the time, and I probably
copied this from Don or someone else, this is a hymn book, H-I-M.
It's all about hymn. Every page of scripture God decides
to say is hymn. Some of those Old Testament studies
you do, man, I see hymn. I see Him. And I've also come to see that
the same message of Christ and Him crucified, the same message
converts and it comforts. We don't have to preach a message
for sinners and a different message for believers. The same message
converts and it comforts. It converts the lost and it comforts
the redeemed. The same message of Christ and
Him crucified. The same message of Christ pronounces
judgment and it pronounces acquittal. The same message. Paul says simply and plainly
here that I might preach Him. The message of the Gospel is
in a person. In whom? That's not my stomach, by the
way. Christ, the crucified Lord. It's not even to preach the doctrines
of grace. Did you know that? Are the doctrines
of grace a person? No. Now, I know that when you preach Christ,
the doctrines of grace are set forth. But I've heard men preach
the doctrines of grace and never once said anything about the
redemption that's in Christ, preached Him. Paul said, I'm
determined not to know anything among you, just one thing, Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. What make you Christ? Whose Son
is He? Well, let me just close with
these words. In election, dear friends, we see, believers see,
only by the sovereign grace of God in Christ, we see the salvations
of the Lord. That's our message. Salvation
is of the Lord. If He elected me before the foundation
of the world, what did I have to do with it? Salvation's of
the Lord. In His predestination, in His
forearm knowledge, we see the salvation's of the Lord. In His
effectual calling, we see that salvation is of the Lord. And justification, redemption.
salvations of the Lord, and substitution, salvations of the Lord, and preservation. What did Christ say? My Father
is greater than all, and no man can pluck them out of my hand.
That's God's doing. He's greater than all. I can't
even jump out of His sovereignty. And I would if I could. Prone
to wonder, Lord, I feel prone, prone to leave the Why, even in total depravity,
we see our inability and we know the salvation is of the Lord.
No man can come. Doesn't have the ability. No
man can. Well, Paul said a lot in these
two verses. And he says at the end of verse
16, he said, immediately I conferred, if not with flesh and blood.
I guess there's been so many times I've read over that and
never gave it much thought. But what that means is just this.
Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you. Flesh and blood
didn't reveal it to you. That word confer means consult. This wasn't by any consultation
with man, was it? No, this is by divine revelation. Confer and sow. And I think of
that day when our Lord Jesus walked along with His apostles,
and He asked a general question. He said, who do men say that
I am? And they began one right after another. Well, one said
that you're Elijah, and the other says you're Elijah. Some even
say you're John the Baptist. And then He asked this question.
And Brother Don, it was a personal question. He said, who do you
say that I am? I ask you tonight, who do you
say that he is? Well, if God give us grace, we'll
answer just as Peter did. He said, thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. And what did our Lord say to
him? He said, flesh and blood. Did not reveal this to you? No, flesh and blood didn't reveal
it unto you, but my Father, which is in heaven. Oh, brother Darwin,
it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me. Oh, that I might preach Him among
the heathen. Immediately, I will confer the
flesh and blood. If you've been taught these things,
you've been taught and learned of the Father. Friends, if you're saved tonight,
it's God's doing. It pleases Him to do so. That's
why our message is nothing other than the Lord Jesus Christ who
is. I reiterate who He is for salvation. Trust Him. Thank you.