We're going to be in the book
of Galatians chapter one. Galatians chapter one. Thus far we have seen Paul's
admonishment to the Church of Galatia, giving his calling out
of darkness into light, giving the Lord all the glory for his
calling, giving the Lord all the glory for salvation, telling
us that it's not of man, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And he's continually talking, he's continuing to talk about
that. And here, the first verse that he says in our text is God,
when it pleased God to separate me from my mother's womb. He's
pointing out the facts that it wasn't just in salvation that
the Lord purposed all things, but it's in all creation as well,
it's in everything. God purposed that the appointed
time that we would be born. There's a time to be born, the
scripture says, there's a time to die. It is appointed unto
men once to die, and after this, the judgment. There's a time
for war, there's a time for peace. There's a time for dancing, there's
a time to stand still. There's a time for laughter,
there's a time for crying. So that's what we gather from
what Paul's saying here. When the Lord was pleased to
separate me from my mother's womb, then he called me by his
grace at the appointed time. He's given the Lord all the glory
and all the praise. And if we could enter into the
thought of our great God and Savior, his awesomeness, if I
can put it that way. and everything that he's done,
his creation and the beauty and the splendor that we have that
we see with these eyes, but more so what we see by faith, our
substitute surety that saved us from our sin. Then we can
read and understand Revelation 5, 8, 5, 14, that at the end
of all time, when everything is said and done, Everyone will
confess, everyone will glorify God. This is what it says, Revelation
15, 13, and every creature which is in heaven and on the earth
and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that
are in them heard I saying, blessed and honor and glory and power
be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and to the lamb forever
and ever and ever. Well, why is everyone going to
praise the Lord? Well, because he's absolute. He is absolute
in his sovereignty. He is absolute in his holiness.
He is absolute in his justice and his judgment and his love. He's absolute in his mercy. He's
absolute in his grace. He's God. And besides him, there
is none other. He alone is worthy of all praise.
And this morning, if we're enabled, if the Lord would be our teacher,
we'd be enabled to see Him, be able to see that eternal life
must depend upon His doing to save wretched, vile creatures
such as us. It must hinge upon His will,
not ours. It must hinge upon His choice,
not ours. Because if we can not only see
the magnificence of creation, but realize we can't create anything
like that. We can't create anything. Yeah,
we men create computers. I understand those things. Computers
that get outdated. Computers that need to be updated. Computers that need this and
computers that need that. The bee's still doing the same
thing the bee was doing from creation. It never did need an
update. It's still gathering pollen. It's still baking honey.
The deer that roam the woods, they're still doing the same
thing. They're foraging. They live their lives. What man makes has
to constantly be repaired, constantly be fixed. Not God's creation. Not God's creation. It doesn't
need our help. Why would the Lord save us creatures
that mess up everything we touch, that taint everything we touch
because of our sin, who only has thoughts of evil continually?
Why would he save something like that? Because it pleased him
to do so. That's the message this morning.
When it pleased God, that's my title. That's the cause and effect
of eternal life. See, it pleased God to do so,
therefore it was done. But what about me? What about
my responsibility in it? What do I have to do? Nothing.
God was pleased to do it and he did it. That's how salvation
works, salvations of the Lord. Let's read this in Galatians
1.15. I'm gonna read the rest of the chapter because the remainder
of the chapter is just him giving information as to his travels,
him meeting apostles and what he was doing. It's not necessarily,
it's just communication. So, our text, Galatians 1.15. 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 Gentiles, among
the heathen rather, immediately I conferred not with flesh and
blood. Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them that were apostles before
me, but I went unto Arabia and returned again unto Damascus.
Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter.
and abode with him 15 days. But other of the apostles saw
I none, save James, the Lord's brother. Now the things which
I write unto you behold before God, I lie not. Afterwards I
came into the region of Syria and Sicilia, and was unknown by face unto
the churches of Judea, which were in Christ. but they had
heard only that he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth
the faith which once he destroyed, and they glorified God in me.
I didn't write this down to say, but the Lord revealed to me just
now the fact that they would never have rejoiced in anything
Paul had ever done prior to this time, but because he preached
the gospel, because he preached the faith, if your worst enemy,
if the Lord saves your worst enemy, The person that hates
you the most, the person that's been rude to you the most, done
the worst things ever to you in your life. Would you not rejoice
in the Lord, knowing that that individual is now a believer,
a brother, a sister in Christ? Would you not be able to hopefully
reconcile all that with them? And it would just be, it would
be glorious, wouldn't it? Our worst enemy, if the Lord
saved them, they wouldn't be our enemies anymore, they'd be
our brethren. That's what they're saying here, is this man was
their worst enemy. He was persecuting, and not only
persecuting, he was murdering, he was killing them by order
of the church, by order of Rome, by order of these higher powers. And yet, when he preached the
gospel, is it not true with all of us that when the gospel is
preached, we rejoice in it? It's not the vessel that we value
that's up in the pulpit, it's the gospel that we value, it's
the person, the Lord Jesus Christ. If that's the message, it's in
its simplicity, we rejoice, we rejoice. Paul's bringing to our attention
here that every single detail pertaining to time and eternity
is ordered and sure by the Lord. Everything, everything, everything
pertaining to time and eternity. Everything is ordered and sure
by our Lord, from the appointed time of birth to the appointed
time of death. And I've already mentioned this
before, but everything, everything is ordered and sure by the Lord,
everything. You believe that he's purposed
every single drop of water to fall from the sky at the appointed
time and place? Yes. Why? Because he's God. The next time you're walking,
This has happened to every one of us. You'll be walking and
it hasn't rained yet, but it's going to rain, we think, or maybe
we don't know it's going to rain. All of a sudden, a raindrop just
smacks you right on the head. God purposed that. Remember that.
Rejoice. Let that be a reminder. My God
caused that to happen. Rejoice in his absolute sovereignty
right then. Rejoice in your heart, knowing
that he caused that drop to fall for your good and his glory,
for your good and his glory. purpose the rising of the sun
every single day in order to illuminate this earth, which
would be in darkness had it not been for that, because the moon
is just the reflection of the sun. It gives no light on its
own. Sun doesn't come up, we would all die, wouldn't we? Die
of, we'd freeze to death. Gotta have the sun, gotta have
the heat, gotta have the warmth that brings forth life and it
gives nutrients to plants to be able to grow. God purposed
that. He didn't touch it, though. He spoke it into existence, all
of these things. That's our God. He spoke it all
into existence. Scripture says this, he measured
the waters in the hollow of his hand. And that's a metaphor. I mean, is it factual? Well,
I certainly would not doubt the magnitude of our God, but that
would not even begin to describe the magnitude of our God truly.
We're told these things in order for us to understand he's other
than we are in every way. He don't think the way we think.
He doesn't do the things we do. His ways are higher than our
ways. His ways are high above the heavens.
He doesn't plan. Somebody said God has a plan
of salvation. No, God has purposed salvation. I love that, don't you? He doesn't
have a plan. A plan can falter and fail. A
plan can mess up. If I make a plan, we're going
to have a plan here in a few weeks. May 17th, we're going
to have a plan. Some kind of a plan to get the place cleaned
up. We're going to do this and this and that. That's our plan.
Well, if there's things that can happen that could stop us,
But when God does it, it's not just a plan that can be stopped,
it's a purpose that none can stay his hand or say unto him,
what doest thou? None can challenge him, he's
God. He's God. He purposed it and it's done.
From the caterpillar to the hurricane, God has purposed everything.
God has purposed everything. All things are made by him and
for his glory. We were watching a nature documentary
the other day about monarch butterflies. Anybody ever watch anything about
monarch butterflies? Them little critters, they, I
am mind blown by what I discovered. And I don't want this to be a
geographic lesson today, but understand what I'm, I got a
point to make. These butterflies travel 3,000 miles to migrate. 3,000 miles. And I don't know
what a top speed of a butterfly is, but they don't fly very fast.
You've seen them. They travel 3,000 miles, but the amazing
part is they go from the north most, even up into Canada, all
the way down to the middle of Mexico. This takes five generations,
not just one. It's not one butterfly flying
from Mexico to Canada. It takes five generations from
the time that they start in Mexico to reach all the way up in Canada,
and then they have to make the full circle back. So how is it
that an egg hatches into a little worm that eats leaves and then
gets into a chrysalis and becomes a butterfly and then says, this
is the direction I'm supposed to go and I know it? How does
it not get lost? How does it not get confused?
How does it not go a different way, east or west? How does it not,
why doesn't it go back south? How does it know? God purposed
that butterfly to do that. You and I could never have come
up with something like that. Or if we had an imagination where
we could, there's no way we could implement it in real life. He's God. He didn't, think about
this though. He didn't put his hand to that
butterfly. He didn't touch that butterfly and mold it. The only
thing that he touched in creation was man. That's all he touched
was man. The only thing he formed out
of the dust of the ground. Most amazing part to me is these
butterflies started out as a worm. Who taught them that? Oh, well,
evolution and mother nature and there's no such thing as evolution
and mother nature. There's God. And there's man
that wants to do anything they can to detract from God, to distract
you from God, to give them glory and praise. They get glory in
evolution because they say, I have made the discovery. That's what
men do by nature. And a lot of religious men do
the same thing. I've made this discovery about the Bible. It's
man's intellect. It's man's ego. It's man's pride.
It's not of the Lord. It's not of the Lord. It took time, six days for God
to make everything in this world, everything, everything in this
world, our creatures on the planet, the sun, the moon, everything.
Yet he only sent his son for one purpose, one purpose, and
it was to redeem his people from their sin. He only sent his son
for one purpose. Call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sin. If not one sparrow falls to the
ground unnoticed, that's what the scripture says. Not one sparrow
falls to the ground unnoticed by God. He sees all, he knows
all. If not one atom is ever out of
place, think about that. Atoms are the smallest fragment of matter. I'm having
trouble getting words out there. I'm not a scientist. I just know
that that's how scientists describe it. Atoms are the smallest form
of matter. If that's the case, not one of them is out of place.
How do you know? Because God's seated on his throne. Not one of them
is out of place. He's put them all exactly where
they're supposed to be. Yet God sent forth his only son
to save his people from their sin. Isaiah 53 says, it pleased the
Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief, and
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed.
He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. The Lord knew The Lord purposes
all things. The Lord, you think the fall
caught God off guard? No, Christ is the lamb slayed
from the foundation of the earth. The Lord had already had a remedy
for what he, I mean, this was all for his glory and for his
purpose, every bit of it, every bit of it. If that is all true,
and it is, Christ Jesus successfully redeemed his people, that God
was satisfied with them, why do we have fears? If not one atom is out of place,
and the butterfly that flies the way I just described it,
and God's the one that purposed that, and he notices every sparrow
that falls to the ground, they don't go unnoticed, why do we
have doubt? Why do we have fears? Why do we have anxiety? Has he not promised good for
his people? Yes, he has. Has he not purposed to make everything
in our lives be for our good and for his glory? Yes, every
bit of it. Well, this doesn't feel good.
He didn't say it's gonna feel good. He said it's gonna be for
your good. What can touch the elect of God
who are kept by his power? Well, the greatest miracle is
not the butterfied. It's not the salmon that they
travel thousands of miles from the sea back to the place they
were born in order to lay their eggs. Who taught them that? God.
That's not the greatest miracle upon the face of the earth. Even
a baby being born is not the greatest miracle upon earth.
You wanna see the greatest miracle, you have to go to the cross.
You have to go to the cross and see how God saved his people
from their sin. That's the greatest miracle that's
ever been. That he could take a wretched, vile creature such
as me and such as you, send forth his own son, lay the iniquity
of us all upon him, make his soul an offering for sin, And
God be satisfied with that insomuch that we've been declared justified.
We've been declared righteous. We've been declared holy. He
didn't do that for any other creature. He did it for the worst
ones. He did it for the most sinful,
depraved, decaying ones. The ones that would have never
chose him. The ones that could not come to him because of their
own will. They would never have. That's who he did it for. Why? Because it pleased the Lord to
do so. You won't find anything in yourself,
you won't find anything in yourself that calls God to save you. We
cannot constrain him, we cannot restrain him, and there's none
good but God. Can't find anything in ourself. I like what he said in Isaiah
42, the Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake. The Lord is well pleased for
his righteousness sake. You know what that means? If
you're in the Lord Jesus Christ, he's well pleased with you. The righteousness that Christ
has given unto you. That was a transaction that took
place on the cross of Calvary. The Lord took our iniquity. He
took our sin unto himself. And what did he give us in return?
What did he give his elect? What did he give his people?
Perfect righteousness, holiness, justification, sanctification. He gave us all of that at one
transaction. One transaction, it was done. You must ask yourself, why did
it please the Lord? to make the very soul of his
son an offering for sin. Why did it please the Lord to
do that? Why did it please the Lord to
do that? For his own glory, for his own purpose, which was given
to his people before time ever began. Is there any way that
they are not redeemed perfectly? What is there to fear? You have
no sin no more. There is no sin anymore. There's
no condemnation anymore. There's no judgment anymore.
There's no death waiting for you anymore. Somebody said, well,
yeah, we all have to die. That's true. The flesh does have
to die, but the soul, no, the Lord came to save us eternally,
eternally. You wouldn't want to live on
this earth forever and ever. Body would decay, get older and older.
Some of you, as we get, well, I can't say as we, I get made
fun of every time I say this, but I do have some understanding
about some things I didn't 10 years ago. A little bit, just
a little bit. Some things hurt more than they
used to, you know, and they're like, oh, just wait. I don't
want to. I don't want to wait. I don't want to find out. The
older we get. The more we long for heaven and
home, the more we long to see our savior, but it's not because
our body's deteriorating and we can't do the things we formerly
did, it's because we see the sin that's in us more and more
and we loathe it, we hate it. We long to be clothed in his
righteousness. We long to be glorified, made
in his likeness. That's what we desire, to shed
this body. Somebody said, how do you tell
your people to live? And I said, I tell them to live
how they want to, look to Christ. And they said to me, I don't
know that I believe that. I don't know why I'd say that.
Well, if I could live how I wanted to live, it would be perfect.
I would never sin against my Lord. I wouldn't. I don't desire
to sin. I don't desire to do anything
that would be against his law or against his gospel. And Lord's people don't. We just
don't. And we don't look to our what we do as our righteousness,
we look to Christ. But the desire is Lord, one day
whenever I'm glorified, I'll never sin again. I'll never I'll
never commit one trespass. Everything I say will be perfect,
perfect praise and honor and glory as a trophy of your grace. That's the greatest miracle.
That's the greatest miracle. Knowing this, why do we get discouraged?
Why do we become... I use the example with my children
pretty often. A lot of us think that we have
an ocean, like our lives are just a huge big ocean and sometimes
it's calm, sometimes it's really we're just a little mud puddle.
It's not that big. We always think we're bigger
than we are. It's just facts. and you throw a little pebble
in the mud puddle and you get a ripple. Well, that's a little
bit of chaos happening in there. You throw a bigger rock and you
get this. We get angry when we get a little pebble in our pond.
I'm telling you, we do. Every ripple that we get, we
become frustrated. It immediately causes us, if the Lord doesn't
keep us and allow us to keep our eyes upon him, we immediately
turn and look at that ripple. Who purposed the ripple? Who
purposed the ripple? You can use that analogy for
your health. You can use that analogy for your life. You can
use that analogy for your relationship, your job, all you want. I mean,
whatever it may be, your children. My children throw a lot of rocks
in my pond, I'm telling you. Who do I look to in those times?
Myself? Usually myself first, and then,
Lord, save me. I shouldn't look at myself. Lord,
save me. I can't save my children. I can't save myself. How am I
going to save my children? Oh, the good news of the gospel
is that the Lord saved his people from their sin, that salvation's
not dependent upon your performance. It's not dependent upon your
effort. It's not dependent upon your decision. It's not dependent
upon your will. It's dependent upon his performance, his decision,
his will. And he successfully redeemed
everyone he died for. That's good news if you're a
sinner, if the Lord's made you a sinner. He promised to keep his people.
He set his eyes on the sparrow. Not one of them fall to the ground
unnoticed. How much more you're worth? He said, you're worth
more than many sparrows, many sparrows. How much more will
your heavenly father keep you? He promised to keep his people.
He promised not to lose one. And who's going to challenge
him? Who's going to threaten him? What being exists? or hypothetically doesn't exist.
I mean, what could challenge him in any way? Nothing. No one. He's God. He's God. The armies of heaven and earth
are reputed as nothing, nothing to him. None can stay his sand
or say, what doest thou? Psalm 135 said, whatsoever the
Lord hath pleased, that did he in heaven and in earth and in
the seas and all the deep places. Whatever he pleased. Whatever
he pleased, he did in heaven and earth and under the earth,
in the ocean and everywhere. That's what we're looking at.
This is what he pleased. He pleased for us to meet here
this morning. The time he was pleased the most is whenever
the Lord Jesus Christ pleased him on the cross of Calvary for
his people. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. You and I will never get that
seal of approval unless we're in his son, unless we're in the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way. He alone could bring about the
salvation of his people. He alone, by his own blood, could
purge our sin. He alone is the only one that
could perform every aspect of salvation, to satisfy God's law,
to satisfy God's justice, to fulfill every requirement that
you and I, we couldn't fulfill one requirement. So he had to
do it all. And he did. And he did. Why would he do that to save
wretched, vile creatures as us? Well, he tells us one reason
is this, Micah chapter six, will the Lord be pleased with thousands
of rams? If I'm going to the Lord, why would he, why would
he save us? Well, if he don't, we're doomed
for one, because he says here, will the Lord be pleased with
a thousand rams, 10,000 rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transaction? Will that fix
it? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul. We're born
in sin and we're shaping in iniquity. Why would he save something like
that? Why would he? Because it pleased the Lord. Because it pleased the Lord to
get himself some glory. To get him all glory and all
honor and all praise. For the Lord will not forsake
his people for his great name's sake, because it hath pleased
the Lord to make you his people. It pleased the Lord to make you
his people. That's 1 Samuel 12, 22. One of the most comforting things about
our God, who is pleased to create the world, pleased to save his
people, pleased to keep us all the way, pleased to bring us
to glory one day with him, is that he cannot lie. He cannot
lie. Not only is he God, not only
is he completely sovereign, not only is he completely holy and
righteous and true and faithful, but he cannot lie. If he could
lie, we'd be in big trouble. We wouldn't know what truth was,
but he cannot lie. He is the way, he is the truth. He's not only the definition
of truth, he's the embodiment of it. He's the truth. He's the
truth. Therefore, that's what he speaks.
That's what he speaks to us. And he's well pleased with his
son to look on him who is truth and pardon us. Second Peter 117
says, for Christ received from God the father, honor and glory. And when there came such a voice
to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. There's but one that pleases
God. There's but one that pleases God. He says, the question is
this morning, Why did it please the Lord to save you and I? Because he was well pleased with
his son. He doesn't look upon us. He doesn't look upon what
we've done in our sin. He doesn't look upon what we haven't done.
He looks at the son and we're declared righteous right then
and there. When he looks upon the son on
our part, he's not looking you and I for anything. He's looking
to the son and he declares us righteous. Let's read our text one more
time here. I'll just read verse 15 and 16. 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, I immediately,
immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. You'll notice
the pattern is God was pleased to separate. God was pleased
to call by grace. How did he do that? Revealing
his son in me. That's salvation. That's what he does for his people.
That's the good news of the gospel. When it pleased God, what's God
pleased with? He's pleased with righteousness.
He's pleased with holiness. He's pleased with justice. He's
pleased with judgment. He's pleased with his son. He's
pleased with his son. He's pleased with perfection.
He will not acquit the guilty. I heard somebody this week tell
me, well, I'm not that bad. And I thought, no, you're a lot
worse than you think you are. And I got to be careful how I
talk to people, because I'm not looking for a fight. But I have
to tell them the truth if they ask me. We're talking about church
and things like that. And it's like, well, we're just
a bunch of sinners that meet together to hear the good news
of the gospel. They're like, well, I'm not that bad. And I thought,
you're worse than you can possibly. We can't fathom how bad we are. Because we're in it. We're in
it. The good news is, is we'll never
know really, because once we become glorified, we won't have
any former memory of the sin that we were, it wouldn't be
heaven. We won't have any memory of the grief and the pain, the
sorrow, all the stuff that comes along with that, the death. No
more fear, no more doubt, nothing like that will be in glory. So
we'll never truly know how bad we really are, but what the Lord
does do is he gives repentance and he gives faith. And the more
we see of Christ, the more we see how bad we are. And if we
really saw how bad we really are, I don't think we'd come
out of our bedroom. We would wish for death. I really believe that. But the
Lord's merciful even in that, isn't he? And he says, here's
my beloved son. The sin is gone. There's the
good news. That sin is gone. Why? Because it pleased the Lord
to do so. God looks upon the heart, brethren.
He don't look upon our attributes. He looks upon the attributes
of his son. The Lord looks at the heart. He doesn't look upon
the life that we live. He looks upon the life of his
son. He doesn't look upon your sacrifice. He looks upon the
sacrifice of his son. He looks upon God, how God pleased
God, how God saves sinners, how God saves sinners. Our hope is in this. Our hope
is in this text right here. It's the same as Paul and every
other elected sinner that Christ died for, that he would choose
to call me by his grace alone. That it would please him to call
me by his grace alone and to reveal Christ in me. That's your
hope, and that's my hope. That he would call me by his
grace alone. Because if he calls me, that
means he's already saved me. and he would reveal Christ in me,
the hope of glory. That's our hope. That's our hope. When it pleases him in his appointed
time, he will call every sheep he has out of darkness into his
light. That's what he promised. All that the father give me shall
come to me and them that cometh to me I'll in no wise cast out.
Christ in you is the hope for glory. He reveals his son is
the only hope we have of eternal life. And one day, When we leave
these corpses behind, that's what they are, we're walking
dead men. I'm a dying man preaching to dying men and women. When
we leave these corpses behind, we'll awaken his likeness. That's
what the scripture tells us. Brethren, we don't know what
we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall
be made like him for we shall see him as he is. That'll be
a happy day. This is all by his doing, not
ours. All by his grace, all by his purpose, all by his power,
all by his will. Why? It pleased him to do so. Let's pray. Father, we come to
you asking that you would take this and bless it according to
your purpose and will. Allow us to find rest in your
truth, Lord, that it was all because it pleased you to do
so. Thank you for your son who pleases
you on our behalf, in Christ's name, amen. Let's take a break.