Come with me, if you would, over to 1st chapter of Galatians. We're going to read a few verses there and then we're going to move over and finish the reading in Acts. It's mainly going to be in Acts, but Acts chapter 9. But I wanted to start reading this morning in Galatians Galatians chapter 1. Galatians chapter 1. Of course we know the book of Galatians is a letter that Paul, the apostle, wrote to the churches there in Galatia. There were more than one church there in Galatia. to the churches there in Galatia. And specifically Paul was writing a letter that was to correct and to exhort the Galatian churches in their walk in faith. had been seduced by the Judaizers that had come in from Jerusalem and other places to try to encourage them and to move them away from free grace that we just sang about. To move them away from free grace which is in Christ Jesus to back into the law. And Paul is opening this letter and in some of the parts of the opening here, he begins to talk about his life before his conversion, or as he was being converted, what happened in his conversion. Today we hear in popular Christianity, I should say, quote unquote Christianity, popular churches, modern day religion. We hear that salvation is something that Christ has, that he has made possible by his death, that whenever he died on the cross, he made salvation open and available for all people. And that there is this offer of grace to every man, woman, child that ever has lived and ever will live. and that by this great and wonderful salvation that Christ has made for everybody, that we all have the option to either choose Him or to not choose Him. Whether we are to accept Him as our Lord and Savior, or we are to bow before Him as our King, as we are to accept Him into our heart and into our lives, choose him, whatever the phrase you want to use, the notion is that this salvation is available, but it doesn't do anything for you unless you do this, that, or the other. Whether you accept him, whether you believe on him, whether you pray to him, whether you come to church, whether you're baptized, whatever the case might be, it's a conditional thing that is available to all to do whenever they want. Now on the flip side, we believe, and we believe the Bible teaches this very vehemently, very clearly, very thoroughly, and in my opinion, to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ more than anything else, the Bible teaches that Christ's death actually accomplished salvation. It didn't make salvation possible. And I don't know if people even understand the difference that what I'm saying if they're even understanding the meaning of what we're saying whenever we bring that up. There's a difference in salvation being done and made possible and available and salvation being finished. As Christ said, it is finished. That salvation was what we use, the big term we use is effectual or efficacious. meaning that Christ's salvation actually did save the people that he died for. On one hand, you have people that preach salvation is a plan and a purpose that God had, and Christ came and did everything for the provision of that plan and purpose by dying on the cross, but that No actual person was actually saved by that death. The salvation comes later whenever you trust in Him, believe on Him, accept Him, receive Him, those things. So salvation is kind of like something that is there for your taking but is put on hold until you reach out and come and get it. You've got to come and get it first. So that means you, for one, have to have your mind set on, I want that. Second of all, you have to be determined to do whatever the condition is that you think God has put down for you to do to receive that. And then, therefore, you start engaging in that condition so that salvation will be yours. And once you do that, then God is gracious to you to give you that. That system is completely and totally contrary to grace. The word grace in and of itself means unmerited favor. It's getting something that you do not deserve, something that you did not earn, something that you did not work for. Grace is something that is freely given. That's why we just sung that hymn. The last thing that we're going to sing whenever we stand before the Lord is praising Him For free grace, free grace. Free grace is what God has given to us. And if it is something that is contractual, that I have done this, you must do that. If I do that to get this, then that's not grace. That's wages. I've just earned some wages. And how do you earn wages? How do you earn wages? Work. Work. Okay. How do you earn wages? Work. All right. We all earn wages by working, right? Well, what does the Bible say? For by grace are you saved, not of works, lest any man should boast. Salvation doesn't come from any works. And if I do something to get something, then that is not grace, that is works. And the Bible clearly says that if it is of works, it is no longer of grace. And if it is grace, then it is no longer of works. So it can't be both. It can't be grace and works. And that's what Paul was trying to get through to the Galatians about, is that whenever I came among you, I preached free grace. But now your mind is being moved away from the truth that is in Christ that you believed and that you held to and that you love. And now it is being moved away to a false gospel that is saying, yes, grace, but also worse. You've got to have both. And so Paul is clearly saying that this gospel that I have preached to you is a gospel of free grace alone and it didn't come from my own understanding or my own thought. Now, what did Paul say here? Look at Galatians chapter 1 because I really think that when we look at the conversion of Paul or Saul of Tarsus, whenever you're reading the Scriptures and you're reading through, you'll read in Acts, you'll read about Saul of Tarsus That's who Paul is. Paul's name was Saul of Tarsus, but after his conversion, the Lord began to call him Paul and not Saul. So, you can sometimes get confused and think it's two different people maybe, but it's Saul of Tarsus who is also the same person as Paul the Apostle. And Paul, whenever he wrote here to the Galatians, he told them a little bit about his conversion. And I think when we look at Paul's conversion, we see clearly the gospel and in that hymn that I chose for us to sing this morning, or should I say, the Lord led us to sing this morning, in that hymn, it talked about how God's grace is irresistible. And whenever we talk about the doctrines of grace, especially you kids that have heard me in earlier days, talk about the five points of the doctrines of grace, or the acronym TULIP. You guys ever heard of the acronym TULIP? Okay, if you spell out TULIP, T-U-L-I-P, that is an acronym for the five points of the doctrines of grace. The doctrines of grace being total depravity, unlimited, or excuse me, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints, a preservation of the saints. That's what the acronym TULIP meant. Now, the I in that, irresistible grace, that was an issue that I hated, and I've mentioned that to you guys before, that I hated irresistible grace, the notion that God causes people to be saved apart from their will. That God makes people save when they don't want to be saved. And I hated that. I didn't like that at all. That and limited atonement, those two were the biggies. I didn't have a problem necessarily with total depravity. I didn't have a problem with perseverance of the saints. The unconditional election, I didn't like that either. So that U, that L, that I, that was the ones that I hated. Whenever I finally seen what the Bible taught about irresistible grace, I finally realized that this right here is something to rejoice in. Because without irresistible grace, there would be literally no one saved. The only way that we are saved is by God's overcoming grace upon us. That's the only way that we're saved. That's the only way, and I should say saved, it was by His mercy and by His work of atonement that we were saved. That's the ground of salvation. But our coming to understand and to know, to come into the knowledge of our salvation, the being made spiritual, to know spiritual things, that comes by irresistible grace. And a lot of people say, well, I don't like that. I don't like the notion that God can save somebody against their will. That God can make somebody, you mean God brings them, drags them to Him, kicking and screaming. Well, no, that's not what we say when we mean that. Irresistible grace is not that. Irresistible grace just means that there is nothing that you can do to stop God giving you grace. That's what irresistible grace is. His grace is irresistible in the fact that we cannot keep Him from showing grace to somebody. You know, we think that somebody is beyond saving. We think somebody is beyond being redeemed. That someone is beyond salvation. That, oh, they're too bad. They've done too much stuff. They've done too much wickedness. They've gone too far, you know. You really don't know that person. They are so bad. and that God could never save somebody like that. Well, listen, brethren, it doesn't matter who you are and what you've done and how much you've done and how wicked and evil and to the very bottom of the sin bag you went, that does not stop God from giving you grace and saving you. Now, we sometimes think that that's not right. You know, especially whenever we see some evil person out there that we don't like, for all of a sudden God to save them and now they become A Christian, they begin to talk about price and they begin to do all these things. In the back of our minds, it's like, yeah, we really know who you are. Yeah, we know what you're capable of. Yeah, we know all about you. And I don't see how God could do that. Or they even think, well, that's not fair. Why should God do that to that person? That person gets to go to heaven for all the nasty things that they've done. But brethren, that just comes from the prideful prideful throne of our heart because every one of us is no different than those other people that we look at out there or wherever. Because every one of our hearts are deceitfully wicked above all things. They're evil, though the Bible says that God looked down upon the heart of every man and they saw wickedness and evil continually. That's who we are before God. And so every one of us is undeserving of grace. Every one of us is undeserving of God's mercy and love. And every one of us is just as wicked in the eyes of God as anybody else is. Now, we have our levels of standards where we say, well, that guy's a bit worse than this guy, but this guy's worse. But when it comes to Christ's holiness, every person falls short. And therefore, every person falls guilty before the throne of God, and every person in that guilty state is deserving of the wrath of God upon them. Well, Paul is no different than some of those ones that we looked at and say, well, there is no way that God can save that person. But if it wasn't for irresistible grace, Paul never would have been saved. Paul never would have come to Christ. Paul never would have, and neither would you. If you're a child of grace, you would never have come to Him and began to believe on Him and began to love Him and to love His Word and to love His people. You would never have done that had the Lord not first intervened and overcome your carnal nature and gave you spiritual life, and in that spiritual life, give you the knowledge of your salvation, the love for your Savior, and the love for your brethren. You would never have had that. You say, well, I've always had that. I grew up in church. I've always had that. No, you've had a religious experience of loving people on your level. You've had a religious experience of loving a God that is being taught to you. You've had a religious experience memorizing scriptures and quoting scriptures, most of the time out of context, if it was like me. But we have never been able to. And the reason I say that is not because I know your experience. I don't have to know your experience, know your heart or know your mind to tell you that you would never have done that because the Bible says that. There is none that seeketh after God. The Bible says there is none that is righteous. The Bible says that we are not lovers of God. And if we're not lovers of God, then we're definitely not lovers of the brethren. Because you have to have a love for God to have a love for the brethren. So brethren, I can tell you from God's point, none of us would ever have come to Christ had it not been for God's overcoming grace. Look with me in Galatians chapter 1 and verse 13. Here Paul is going to give the account of his conversion to these Galatians. It says, for ye have heard of my conversation in times past in the Jews' religion. That word conversation oftentimes doesn't mean verbal talk. It means how we walk, our walk, our actions. For ye have heard of my conversation or my walk or my actions in times past in the Jews' religion. Now notice he said in the Jews' religion. He's making a distinction here. The Jews' religion was not the religion of Christ. And Christ's gospel and Christ's kingdom is not the religion of the Jews. So that should tell you something about a little bit of what's being said and pushed today and what you see out there in the modern churches and in this Zionist movement for everybody who's just head over heels in love with the Jewish nation over in Israel. The Jewish religion is anti-Christ. The Jewish religion is not Judeo-Christian religion. It is anti-Christ religion. The Jewish religion of today is not the religion of the Bible that God had given to Moses. It is anti-Christ. I don't know why Christians are so hot and heavy to hold hands with haters of Christ. They hate Christ. If you go preach in Israel to them about Christ being their Messiah, being the Messiah, being the only way of salvation, you will be persecuted in Israel, the land of the free, the wonderful people of Israel that everybody loves. You will be persecuted. They will kick you. They will throw rocks at you. They will tear you limb from limb. He says, you have heard of my conversation in the time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure, I persecuted the church of God and wasted it. So see, he's contrasting the Jews' religion and the church. There's a difference there. Don't mix them, okay? But he said how he used to persecute the church of God. So whenever he was in the Jews religion, which by the way is a religion of works, okay? So whether it's the Jews religion or whether it's the Mormons religion or whether it's the Jehovah's Witnesses religion or whether it's the Buddhist religion or the New Age religion or the Islam religion or whatever other religion you want to name off, Everything in all of those religions has two things in common. Number one, it's all about your will. And number two, it's all about your works. The religions out there are all about works. And I would even say modern Christianity is in the same exact boat. Modern Christianity today and what is being preached in modern churches today is nothing different than old Babylonian works religion, no different than Jew religion, no different than Islam religion, no different than anything else. They may have different tenets and doctrines, they may have different leaders, but the same organization is there. You must do this to be favored. You must do this to stay in relationship. You must do this to go to heaven. It's all about works. There's only one true religion that is out there and that is the religion of Christ Jesus and his religion says there is no work. It's by faith alone that we receive Christ. Not that that's what saves us. It's what keeps us from wrong knowledge about Christ, but it is by faith that we receive Christ, and by faith that we walk. We walk, not in our faith, getting out there and working, by our faith, trusting Christ in what He has already done, and living by that faith, living in that faith, living every day, knowing that my salvation has nothing to do with what I wake up and do today. Or what I wake up and don't do today. Or who I am. Or what I'm not. It has nothing to do with that. Our salvation has everything to do with the accomplished work of Jesus Christ. That's what saved us. God elected before the foundation of the world a people. That people in Adam fell and became sinners by nature. And we continue to be sinners by nature as long as we are in this tabernacle in this temple, this body. And in that tabernacle of sin, Christ had a people and that people was redeemed on the cross that he hung on. And by his blood, his forgiveness of sin, his redemption, his justification and his sanctification were all grounded right there so that every one of his sinful children could be saved. That's what saved us. And the knowledge of that comes whenever God quickens us, gives us spiritual life, and gives us spiritual understanding, and reveals that to us. And once that is revealed to us, we believe in that, we believe on that, and we walk in it. We continue to walk. I don't get up every morning and say, You know, now surely my conscience gets to me. The Holy Spirit convicts me of my sin. The Holy Spirit convicts me of my downfalling and my unholiness. The Holy Spirit does all that stuff. I'm not saying I walk around just clueless or cold. And irregardless of God's Word and irregardless of righteousness and everything like that and just don't care, live life to the fullest and just eat, drink and be merry and do whatever you want to do. It doesn't matter. Go out and sin as much as you want to sin because you're saved eternally. That's not what I'm saying at all. And if you think it's what I'm saying, you just wanted to pick straw men out and cause a debate or do something. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that All the things in our life that we do is not what saved us, is not what keeps us, is not what's going to get us to heaven. It's what Jesus did that does that. Now that that has happened, Jesus' people has His Spirit in them and Jesus is working in them the works that God ordained from the foundation of the world. And that too, I can't control. I can't get up every morning and say, I'm going to do all the works that God's ordained for me today because I'm going to determine to do it. I'm going to will to do it. I'm going to yield myself. I'm going to give up my life. I'm going to whatever, take up my cross and follow Him. Listen, all those things are things that we are enabled to do as God works in us. See, all those exhortations and admonitions that we see in the scripture, Those are written to the child of grace that the child of grace might know the actions and the way that we are to be. However, it is not a rule book to tell you, now you get out there and try to start doing that because we can't. God is the one who works in us to will and to do His good pleasure. God is the one who enables us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. He's the one who is at work in us doing these things. And so Paul, whenever we look at Paul here. Paul was in the Jews' religion, and he was zealous in the Jews' religion, and he was going out, and he was killing those Christians who they thought was against their God. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the great Jehovah, the I Am, the one who delivered them from Egypt and brought them into the Promised Land, who destroyed all their enemies before their face, and gave them all this land and all this promise and all this inheritance. They thought, hey, this is our God, this is who we are, and those people are preaching about this Jesus guy, who claims to be God, and now everybody in the world is starting to believe on that stuff and go after that stuff, so the Jews began to persecute these Christians, and Paul was the chief ringleader of them all, and he was zealous, and he'll even tell us he was zealous more than anybody else about it, and he was going out and he was rounding up all these Christians, and they were bringing them back to Jerusalem, trying them and killing them, throwing them in prison, taking all their stuff away from them, and Paul said, I did this and I persecuted and wasted it. Now listen, you can't get more bad than that. Here was a man that was going out and killing God's people. Man, I would think that that guy would be too far to be saved. I would think that that guy was beyond help, beyond mercy, beyond grace. You can't do nothing to this guy. Listen, this guy is so steeped in Jewish religion. This guy is so steeped as a Pharisee in that old covenant law and that old twisted form of the covenant. This guy is so twisted in all the father's traditions, or their father's traditions, that this guy's beyond saving. Look at him. He's so callous that he's going out and killing Christians. And yet we think just because this person over here is bad, or doesn't do like we like, or has done this or done that, listen guys, you can't get much worse than killing God's people. Persecuting Christ himself, he said. We'll see here in a minute. But yet God saved him. See, that's irresistible grace. See, we don't think God should save somebody like that. It's not really that we don't think God can save, see. We always will say that, well, I don't think God can save somebody that bad, when in actuality, in our heart, we're like, I don't think God should save somebody bad things that they've done, how horrible of a person they've done, especially whenever that might have been something personal to me, that God, that person's done something to me, you know? So you can imagine whenever Paul, being who he was, came in view of Christ, look at verse 14, it said, and profited in the Jews religion above many my equals in my own nation." He said, I was a Jew above every Jew. Listen, I was the shining boy of the Jews religion. He said, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. Listen, he wasn't doing it out of spite. He was doing it out of zeal. He loved it. He thought it was great. Hey, I'm doing this for my God. But look what he says in verse 15, and thank God, brother, that this Word is here. But, three letters, most of the time don't mean much to us, but whenever you're reading through Scripture and you see what we've just seen before, how wicked and evil and treacherous and murderous and conniving and deceived Paul was, Saul was, for there to be this interjection, but it reminds me, just kind of hold your place there. I'm going to kind of get off track here just a bit, but it kind of reminds me of, I believe it's, Oh, here it is. It's in Ephesians chapter 2. This is what this reminds me of here. And we see the same word being used. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1 says, And you have he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Listen, if you're dead in trespasses and sins, there ain't no way for you to get yourself out, right? Can you raise yourself from the dead? Has anybody raised themselves from the dead except for Jesus? Has anybody raised themselves from the dead? Nobody. Huh? Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1. It said, and you have he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. That means that was it. You're stuck in trespasses and sins. If you're dead in trespasses and sins, there's nothing you can do to get out of it because you surely can't raise yourself or heal yourself from it. He says, where in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. So we, by nature, are children of disobedience. You say, well, I don't think I'm a child of disobedience. I try to do what's right. I try to follow the Ten Commandments. I try to keep the law. I try to go to church all the time and do this and do that. And I think you should teach y'all disobedience, because you know why? You know what obedience is? What does obedience mean? It's kind of like you obey everything, and you're like perfect, but nobody is perfect. Right. What do you think it means? It means just to let people do what? Do what? It means like to do what the parents say or like to hate. Right. To obey. What do you think it means? Well, I kind of know what it means because it's in the Bible. St. John verse 20, it says to always obey your parents. Right, you're always to obey. Well, so yeah, obedience is to do what you're told. OK, that's basically it, right? But the Bible says that obedience or adherence to the law what you're told, that you are to do everything that you are told, always, and if you ever not do it one time, then you've broken every law, and you're now a transgressor, or a trespasser, as it says here, a trespasser, and a sinner. So if you have even done one sin, you're now guilty before God. And even that one sin, let's just say it was just one sin. You did it before God. That one sin now qualifies you for the full wrath of God. Not just the partial wrath of God, but the full wrath of God. Because you have missed the standard of righteousness. That's what God requires, is righteousness. He doesn't require a good try, good efforts. You're not gonna get an E for effort A for trying to do the best that you can. No, it's either you do it all or you don't do it. So that's why I'm saying we're the children of disobedience because we are trying to keep the law and we're not keeping it, therefore we are continually in a state of disobedience because we're trying to keep something that we never can keep. And instead of trusting in Christ Jesus and what He has done, we're trying to trust in our own righteousness to exceed or to do the righteousness that only God looks at. We're trying to make our righteousness be equal to that of Christ. And Christ said that's not going to happen. We're trying to let our righteousness be what God says, well done, good and faithful servant, but our righteousness can never attain to that because we are corrupt people. We cannot keep the law 100%, 100% of the time. You have already entered into this world as sinners and there's nothing you can do about that. Therefore, you are hopeless and without any kind of help outside of Christ. You have no hope of being saved outside of Christ. His righteousness is the only righteousness that God accepts. Therefore, you continue to be a child of disobedience unless God intervenes and gives you salvation. God has to be merciful and gracious to give it to you, otherwise you can't do anything to get it. And that's what he's saying here. In times past, we walked according to the course of this world, according to the lust of our flesh, as the children of disobedience, verse 3, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath. meaning that we're wrathful towards God. We don't like the God of Scripture. Listen, I can tell you right now, some of y'all may not realize this because you probably, I don't want to be presumptive, but I can just tell you, you preach the true gospel, God has before the foundation of the world predestined everything, or you preach that God has elected some to salvation and others not to salvation, You preach that Jesus didn't die for everybody and that God doesn't love everybody. You preach that, which the Bible does, but you preach that, you will be hated by church people. You won't be necessarily much hated by the world. The world don't really care. But you will be hated by religious people. You will be shunned. You will be hated, ridiculed, made fun of, and he said, We were by nature children of wrath, even as others, but here it is, verse four, but God, but God, who is rich in mercy and for his great love where he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, have asked you if he can quicken you. Is that what it says? You might want to follow along a little closer. He has quickened. God has quickened, but he didn't ask you if he can quicken you. He didn't ask you if he could save you. He didn't give you a choice whether or not he could save you. He did it. When you were dead in trespasses and sins and a God-hater rebellious, a child of disobedience, God looked at you, if you're His child, if you're His little children, He looked at you through all of the sin, and the evil, and the rebellion, and the hardness, and the deadness, and the self-righteousness, in everything that you are in your corrupt nature, and in love gave you grace and quickened you." Meaning He gave you spiritual life that you did not have, that you could not earn, that you could not buy, that you could not find anywhere because it comes from above. It is not of this world. It is not of this earth. It is not in natural man. It is a gift of God and that gift comes down from the Father of Lights who is the Father of all good gifts. It comes down from Him and that gift of quickening brings you into the understanding and the knowledge, not only of your sinfulness and inability before God for righteousness, but it brings you into the glorious understanding and knowledge that Christ was your righteousness for you and He's given it to you You evil person, you sinful person, you God-hating person, He's given that righteousness to your account. So when God looks at you, as evil as you are, as wicked as you are, as depraved as you are, God only sees Christ's righteousness. That's why those two words are amazing. But God. See, if it wasn't for but God, We would still be walking in the course of this world after the lusts of our flesh and the deadness of our sin and trespasses in the nature of our first father, Adam. But God, that's irresistible grace. That's irresistible grace. Whenever you hear us talk about irresistible grace, it is that there's people out there that wants to come, but God says, no, you can't come, because there is nobody that wants to come. That's the problem. It isn't God saying, now, oh, wait a minute, you're not one of my elect, so I can't let you come. Even though you want to come, I'm not going to let you come. That's how some people believe our doctrine, what our doctrine is preaching. That's not what we're preaching. We're preaching there is none that wants to come. There is none that's seeking after God, no, not one. Nobody. Because all of us are dead in trespasses and sin. Nobody cares. Nobody wants it. They want religion, but they don't want God. They don't want Christ. They don't want a righteousness done for them because they feel that they have a righteousness of their own. They've not been given to see their inability before God. But then there's some that say, Will you be able to tell me that there's people out there that don't want to come to Christ, but he's going to drag them anyway? Well, let me ask you. Go to any person who you think is a true child of God and ask them, are you mad that God saved you? Are you upset that God quickened you without your permission? Are you upset that God has taken wrath away and giving you heaven against your will? I don't know one person that would say, yeah, actually I'm a little tipped about it. Matter of fact, I'm pretty sad that I'm gonna have to do that. I don't think anybody's done that. Why? Why is nobody mad because God saved them against their will? Because God changed their heart. The Bible says that his children shall be made willing. People shall be willing in the day of His power. Whenever His power overcomes them and exerts upon them and gives them spiritual life, the power to raise them from spiritual death to spiritual life, whenever they're given spiritual life, they no longer think, I don't want that. I do want that. They no longer see themselves as, hey, I can make it on my own. I cannot make it. I need Christ. And then they look to Christ and Christ alone. They trust in Christ. They realize that God is predestined to everything and working it according to His purpose for His glory and that it's all about Christ's glory and not our glory. It's all about Christ and who He is and not us. See, salvation out in these other churches is all about making us important. It's all about you. And don't take my word for it. Turn on the radio, turn on the TV, open up a book, go to any Christian bookstore and walk down the aisles and what are you going to see? It's all about you, you, you, you, you. How to be a better person, how to do this, how to do that, how to accomplish this, how to be more spiritual, how to be more evangelistic, how to be this. It's all about you. And then you get into the pulpits and you hear everything about, you need to get out and do this and do this, come to church and give your time, do this and pray, read your Bible, memorize your verses, love your brothers and sisters. It's all about do, do, do, do. All this stuff is about you doing something. But brethren, the gospel is a declaration of what Christ has done. And what Christ has done is the but God part. The but God part is God intervening in a child who is a child of disobedience and is depraved and is evil and is wicked and undeserving of God's love or redemption or heaven and God giving it to him anyway. Not because of anything the children had done, whether they had done anything good or bad, because before the children were even born, having done anything good or bad, God's choice of one and not the other was determined upon His purpose, which is election. God's purpose for the foundation of the world, to glorify Himself in showing all of His creation His grace and mercy, and you can't have great... Listen, if God gives salvation to everybody, Would that be grace? No, because everybody has it. If grace is something that is default before the foundation of the world, then everybody will have it and then that's not grace, that's just everybody's already got it. Grace is God showing something to somebody who doesn't deserve it and giving it to them. But see, for God to glorify himself We also learn, as the Bible has revealed, God also is a God of wrath. He is a God of justice. He is a God of holiness. And how do you show the glory of His wrath and justice and holiness, if there is not sin, to judge and to have wrath upon? So therefore, as God has said in Romans, He has made one vessel for honor, He has made another vessel for dishonor. One to show His glory in the salvation and the redemption out of wickedness, and the other to show for those who are wicked that God is merciless in His judgment. and His righteousness, that God doesn't wink at that. He doesn't let it slide. Nobody's going to slip by. Not one sin is going to go unnoticed. God knows every sin, and every sin is accounted for. And so Paul here experienced the but God. Look back in Galatians. It says in verse 15, But when it pleased God, You notice that? It said, but when it pleased God. Paul didn't say, but whenever I made up my mind. Paul didn't say, but whenever I made a decision. Whenever we say, just as I am, or, you know, wherever he leads, I'll go. Or whenever we say, I have decided to follow Jesus. No, he said, but when it pleased God. My people will be willing in the day of my power. When will they be made willing? When will they come to the understanding? When will they love Christ? When will they love the gospel? When will they repent of their wrong thinking about my righteousness comes from me trying to do all this stuff? When will they repent of sin? When will they hate themselves and bury themselves in dusted ashes and mourn over their own rebelliousness and know their inability? When will they know that? In the day of my power. And here, Paul uses the phrase, but when it pleased God. See, there was a specific time, there was a specific point So that tells me that from the time that Paul was born until the time that Paul was coming to this conversion experience on the road to Damascus, that this point was a point that was set by God. It was determined by God that this point would be the point in which God would do something for Paul that Paul didn't deserve, but would do something for Paul that would change the whole course of Paul's life, that would change the whole course of Paul, everything. And it was his pleasure, not Paul's. Paul didn't volunteer for this. He didn't go to seminary to learn how to do it. Paul didn't have a mother and a father that raised him up and told him this is how you need to be or influenced him enough to make him do that. They didn't have no influence on him. No, it was whenever it pleased God. So that also tells me that from the time that Paul was born until the time that this happened, God had predestined that Paul walked through everything that he'd walked through. God had ordained that Paul grow up in a household under Jewish traditions. God ordained that Paul would walk in false religion and zealousness to the Father's traditions. God ordained that he would become zealous in killing the Christians. God ordained that Paul would experience and walk through everything that Paul walked through clear up to this point. and beyond, but up to this point was God's specific purpose for Paul. And I look back on a lot of us and the testimonies that we have, like mine, I grew up under an Arminian system of teaching that teaches that we have a free will and a free choice, and that God loves everybody and that Christ died for everybody, and that it's up to us to choose whether or not we want to accept Christ or deny him, and that's up to our free choice. I grew up underneath a system that taught that. But God had purpose and design for me to come through the family that I came up under, the church that I came up under, the denomination that I was in, the influence that I had around me, and to even put me into a quote-unquote ministry that was going out and spreading that false gospel. God had a purpose in it. And listen, I was zealous. I can say just like Paul, I was zealous in what I was doing. I really thought that I was serving that God. But I was serving the God of my own imagination. I was serving the God, not of the Scriptures, but of a God of the Southern Baptists. I was serving a God that is not the God of Scripture, who is a God that is predestined to all things. He has sent His Son to save His people, and saved His people He did, And not one of them will be lost. And that grace is free grace. Paul said this came whenever it pleased God at a specific time. Listen, the stuff I preach and teach right now, I did not love. I did not hate. And listen, my family doesn't love it. They don't love it. They hate it. They kick against it. They defend against it. But listen, I hated it too. Probably a lot of it was because I heard what my family said about it. But whenever the time came that God was pleased to show something to me, to show His Son in me, there wasn't nothing that I could do about it. I couldn't change what God had put in my heart. I couldn't change what God had caused me to believe. I can't change what God... I can change my mind about a lot of things, but I cannot change the inherent person that I am on the inside that God has shown something. I can't change that. And Paul was the same way. He said, listen, I was so zealous for all that other stuff, but when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb. That right there is an important phrase. I could preach on that for a long time. God separated Paul before his womb. Listen, Paul didn't have a choice in all this. God had already done this before Paul was even born. Had chosen this route for Paul before he was even born. Did Paul have a say-so in it? No. Just like you don't have a say-so in your salvation either. It's by grace. 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." See, He revealed Christ in Paul. When Christ is revealed in us, it's whenever that makes the difference. "...to reveal His Son in 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 15 days. And so here we see the account of Paul. Now, turn if you would to Acts chapter 8, because I want you to see, excuse me, Acts chapter 9. I want you to see a couple more things here before I conclude. Now this is the account of the Apostle Paul. Luke is writing this in the book of the Acts. This is what happened. Saul. That's Paul, remember, before he was converted. And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord. Acts chapter 9, verse 1. And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughters against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest and desired of him letters to demand to the synagogue that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, He might bring them bound unto Jerusalem." Now, look, He's bringing them bound unto Jerusalem, but look at verse 1. He said, "...breathing out threatenings and slaughter." So yes, Paul was killing these. Matter of fact, just, I think it was the chapter before, chapter 7, the Apostle Stephen, or excuse me, the Deacon Stephen, the Evangelist Stephen, was stoned to death. And the Bible says that they all laid their coats as they went to stone Stephen to death. They all laid their coats at the feet of the apostle Paul or Saul of Tarsus. It was Saul who had sent them there and brought him out, tried him in front of the people, and they all stoned Stephen to death, killed him. So yes, Paul did kill the Christians. He wasn't just rounding them up, throwing them in jail. They were killing them. And he says here, he said, and as he journeyed, he came near to Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Now, Paul is hearing a voice. And obviously, he's probably realizing if this voice is coming out of heaven, this must be God. This is the person that I've been serving. This is the person I'm going to round up the people that are against him. I'm going to kill him. At least that's what Paul's thinking, right? And all of a sudden, this voice says, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Paul said, who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. Whenever Paul was killing those Christians, he was persecuting Christ. He said, and it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. Now, that's the kind of terminology we don't hardly use today, at least in the vernacular that is used here. This word here is this word pricks here. It's talking about those things kind of like spurs, but it's the things that you have on ox Never, whenever you're working cattle and stuff and they're just little spikes, whenever those cattle get a little rumbuxious, you can pull on those spikes and those goats would keep them, they would keep them walking and keep them going just like on a horse. You're walking on, getting a horse and you're wanting that horse to go a little bit faster, you got them spurs and kick them spurs in that thing, getting it to go. It's to cause something to get to going really fast or to, head in the direction that you wanted to head in. And so that's what that is. Another term for that you might hear is the word goads. That's what those little spikes are called, the goads. He said, it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. That was a common saying. Whenever an ox would start kicking against the pricks or the goads that was coming against it, all he was doing whenever he was kicking against that was causing it to shove into him even more. It was even more making him do what he was being told to do. And here the Lord is saying, why persecuteth thou me? I am Jesus whom thou persecuteth. He said, it is hard for thee to kick against the prairie. He said, you keep coming and persecuting me and it's just making it more tough on you. It's making it rougher for you. And he trembling, astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, arise and go into the city and it shall be told thee what thou must do." Now, here, not one time did the Lord ask Paul, what do you want to do? Would you like to be a preacher, Paul? Would you like to be an apostle? Hey, I got an opening for a Gentile apostle. Would you like to fill that position? Well, if you would, send in your resume to me. Let me know what seminary you went to and let me know what training you've had and how many hours of service you've had, and we'll consider your thing. And then once we consider your resume, then, We'll discuss your salary." No, that's not going to happen, right? It said, And the man which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing no voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth, and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man, but they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink. And there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias, And to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. And the Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus. And behold, he prayeth, and hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight. Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man How much evil he hath done to thy saints, said Jerusalem. So Ananias is saying, wait a minute, Lord. You want me to go pray over this man? This man, we've heard all about this guy. This guy's been coming down and killing all of us. Rounding us up, taking us to Jerusalem and killing us. And you want me to go? He'll end, make him sin. Verse 14. And here he hath authority from the chief priest to bind all that call on thy name. But the Lord said unto him, now pay close attention to what he says here. Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me. See, God was the one who did the choosing. Paul didn't choose this line of ministry. Paul didn't choose to be saved. Paul didn't choose to be converted. Paul didn't choose to be put into the apostleship or to be put on the evangelistic trail to go out to all these Gentile nations. Paul wasn't the one who signed up to go get persecuted. Beat. The Bible says that he was beat many times with a cat of nine tails. Y'all know what a cat of nine tails is? It's the same thing that they beat Jesus with before they put him on the cross. It's a whip. It's got nine leather leather straps that come down on it, and on the ends of those straps, they either have glass or sharp bones on that, and they slash your back and around your gut, and it just rips your flesh off. And they beat you to that 40 times. They give you 40 lashes. So basically, whenever you're done, you're dead. It's ripped all your meat off, you can see bones. Well, Paul had that happen to him, I think, three times, he said, he was beaten with a catamount of it. The Bible says that he was shipwrecked and was in the sea for several days. In the ocean. The Bible says that he was thrown in prison multiple times. Did Paul sign up for that? Did Paul say, hey, sign me up for that one, I want that one. I want that job. You know? No. Paul was a chosen vessel. God chose that. See, it's not about your will. It's not about your decision. It's God. He said, go thy way for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. See, that was determined all beforehand. Listen, God is telling Ananias this before he even tells Saul this. Saul don't even know this, but he's telling Ananias, hey, you're gonna go tell this guy who's been trying to kill you, by the way. You're gonna tell him that he's a chosen vessel unto me and he's gonna be my preacher to the Gentiles and he's gonna stand before kings and the children of Israel. It don't sound like as much the children of Israel part because he's a child of Israel, right? But remember, he was their darling boy going out to persecute the Christians. Now he's about to switch sides and go out and preach Jesus to the Gentiles. He's preaching Jesus. That's one strike. He's preaching to the Gentiles. That's two strikes. And three, he's denied the faith. according to them. So now he's going to stand not only before kings, but he's going to stand before his own people that in their eyes is a betrayer, is a traitor, is a blasphemer. So yeah, Paul didn't sign up for this, brother. It was chosen for him. He said, for I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. And Ananias went his way and entered into the house and putting his hands on him said, brother Saul, The Lord, even Jesus, that's who he was talking to on the road, that's who Ananias heard from whenever the voice came from heaven. Even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes, Paul's eyes, as it had been, scales, and he received sight forthwith and arose and was baptized. And when he had received me, he was strengthened. Then was solved certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus. And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God." And straightway, that means immediately. After all this transpired, Paul went and Ananias healed his side, fed him, And then he stayed there a certain number of days with the disciples in Damascus, and then straightway he preached Christ in the synagogue, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He was killing everybody who said Jesus was the Son of God. He was now preaching to those people that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. It didn't take him long. He didn't have to go to school. He didn't have to sit under a tutor. He didn't have to sit under another preacher. to tell him what to believe. How in the world did Paul go from being a hater and a despiser and ignorant of the things of God to all of a sudden standing up before his own peers and saying, we had this all wrong, that is the Son of God, and begin to preach Christ in these synagogues. Remember the synagogue, this was the place where they went to worship and to be taught, to be preached. He went before the teachers of the law and to tell them Jesus is the Son of God. And He did that within a short time. He didn't have to have, you know, a degree or Master's of Theology or anything like that. No. What was it? Would it please God to reveal His Son in me? That's what changed everything. That's how we know anything. That's how we understand everything. But Saul, excuse me, but all that heard him were amazed and said, Is not this He that destroyed them which called on His name in Jerusalem and came hither for the intent that He might bring them bound unto the chief priests? But Saul increased them more in strength and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving this is very Christ." Brethren, listen. Grace is irresistible. It cannot be stopped, and whenever it does, come to a child of grace, they don't need anybody or anything to tell them the truth. They don't need somebody to preach to them all the time and they have to get it all down in their mind. No, if it's something that you've got to get all down in your mind and it hasn't really been taught to you, you've only just memorized it. You're parroting it. I used to parrot things all the time. All the preachers that I used to love to listen to, I parroted all their little slogans, all their little things, all their little theologies, you know. I used to parrot that. It made me sound smart when I wasn't smart. It made me sound studious when I wasn't studious. It made me sound sanctimonious when I wasn't sanctimonious. It made me sound like I knew something when I didn't know something. But whenever a child of grace is revealed Christ, and Christ is his teacher, and the Holy Spirit is revealing Christ, more and more as we grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, we begin to learn truth in the inner man and not in the outward wisdom of man. But so much of the wisdom of man in the outward way is being preached today And that's why we have these differences in doctrine and why we have some people saying, oh yeah, I'm preaching out of the Bible. I'm preaching the gospel. Jesus died, was buried, and was resurrected on the third day. I believe in the Lord. I believe in the resurrection. I believe that He's coming again. But what does that mean? What's intended in all that? How did it happen? See, that's where we get off track in some cases. People begin to say, well, Jesus died for everybody. God loves everybody. Because they're taking the things of the wisdom of man and the knowledge of man, and they're looking at the Scriptures, which are spiritual words for spiritual people. And they're trying to apply carnal reasoning, carnal knowledge to it. But brother, whenever the Lord is revealed unto us, it's an irresistible thing. He begins to teach His children. He begins to show His children. They begin to believe on Him. They begin to walk in faith, trusting Him, and it's something that they cannot stop and they cannot do, nor would they want to, because they've been made willing in the day of His power. All right, everybody got any questions? Come in. Yes, sir. So about the thing about the grace. About the what? The thing about the grace. When He said, if everybody has it, it's not really grace, but if not many people have it, it's grace. So it's like, you chose either everybody's chosen or a few people's chosen. And for a few people it's chosen, that's great, but when everybody's chosen, it's just like everybody has it. It doesn't really mean anything. It's like a few people have it, it's rare. Everybody have it, it's like common. Exactly. That's exactly right, Andrew. Out of the mouth, babe. Sorry it took me so long to say. It's alright. It's alright. Alright, anybody else got anything? Father, we come to you again thanking you for all that you are and all that you've done. Lord, we pray that you'd be with the Phillips this morning and that you might heal them and their sickness. We thank you, Lord, for the way that you've taken care of all of us here through all the sicknesses that we've had coming through our house. Lord, thank you for all the time that you've given us the opportunity to meet. We're glad today that the weather that came in last night wasn't so bad that we couldn't get out this morning. We pray, Lord, that you would guide us and direct us throughout this week. We know that you've got a lot of snow and ice that's supposed to be coming in this week. May you keep everybody safe. And Lord, we ask that more than anything, though, that you help us to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we pray that you'd be with us in those things that are spiritual, because these things that are carnal or temporal are going to soon vanish away. But Lord, we do thank you for all the spiritual things that you've given to us in Christ Jesus. Thank you again for this day. Lord, we cannot say thank you enough for the grace and the mercy that's in Christ Jesus, salvation that comes through him. We thank you, Father, that despite the fact that we are no different than anybody else and deserve everything that the wicked will receive. Father, you have given us your mercy and your grace and your salvation through Christ. And Lord, we just want to praise you, glorify you. And we know that it's nothing within us that deserves that, but you've given it to us freely. So thank you once again, and may we never be I'm tired of hearing that message of the finished work of Christ on our behalf. In Jesus Christ's name, we pray these things. Amen.