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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/max-mclean/a-life-transformed-by-the-gospel/
What I just want to speak on is something that has happened in my life and in yours, and I'm not going to give you anything new. But you know, when you get old, you you get talking to yourself. And I've been reading in Acts chapter 9, and just going over some things in my life and yours just to refresh it.
I enjoy it. And you can too. A life transformed by the gospel. And here's this man, Paul. And little did he realize what was going to happen to him that day on that road. And I was a young man of 27 when I got saved.
The first time I ever heard the gospel in my life. And God saved me. And I had no idea, no idea what was going to happen. It says here in verse 4 and 5 of John, you can, or Acts, if you want to look at it, you don't have to, but 4 and 5.
And he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. I am Jesus. And he got saved.
And that's where we all started. Whether you were born in a Christian home or like me or someone else, but we got saved. Isn't a wonderful thing to be saved? April the 4th, 1960 is a young man of 27. I'll do the math for you, I'm 86.
And God saved me. And I thought that would be the end. If I could just get saved, that'd be the end. And then I found out that it was just the beginning, just the beginning. And verse 6 says, and he trembling and astonished said, Lord, who will, what will thou have me to do?
He was submissive. What do you want me to do, Lord? Are you as submissive as you once were? You know, it was kind of easy at the start. What will you have me to do? A submissive. I'll never forget. I didn't even know what an epistle was when they said, we'll read in the epistles.
And I was looking in the index to see where the epistles were. And then I found out what epistles were. And I wish I could brag about it today, but I got saved. And there was nights I had to get up. I worked at a factory and I had to get up at six in the morning and go to work.
And I'd start to read and I'd get to Galatians and I'd look and see how many chapters. I said, well, it's not too many. I'll read there. And then I'd read that one and the next one. And some nights it would be one thirty two in the morning when I go to bed.
But I will never forget. One night, about 11 o 'clock at night, maybe only saved a month, reading Romans 12 and one, I beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.
And I read it and I stopped and I read it and I read it and I put the Bible down and I walked around the room. I was shocked to read it for the first time in my life. And I said, he's not interested what I do for him or give him.
He wants me. He wants me submissive. And then what's it say? Verse 11. And the Lord said unto him, and rise and go in the street, cut his call straight and behold, he prayeth. Behold, he prayeth. I suppose one of the biggest lacks in my Christian life is behold, he prayeth.
But, you know, it's a wonderful thing to get down on your knees. I can remember in a I think I was in a doctor's office and I just picked up those magazines. It wasn't a religious magazine, but there was a little story in there.
And it was a story about a man. I think he lived out in the Dakotas someplace and he had a small business and he lived out in the country. And whatever his business was, he had to send away to get parts.
And when it came to the ordering in the catalog, he had, will you accept a substitute? And he'd say, no. But this one time, this people, they wanted this part, whatever they had, they needed it. And he sent away for the parts.
And he thought, would you accept a substitute? Reluctantly, he, yes. And a few days later, the part came in the mail and he went and he got it and he opened up the box and looked at, and he was, the first thing he saw was substitute.
And he said, oh, I didn't want a substitute. And he opened up the rest of the box and he looked and he was shocked more. He said, that's the part I didn't want. That's the most expensive one. Now I've got to go back to the people and tell them I got to charge them more.
And he opened up the bill to see what the bill was. And this is what he read. We are sorry that we could not supply the part that you wanted and we had to send a substitute. But the policy of this company is, if we cannot supply the part you ordered, we will send a higher quality part at no extra charge to you.
And ever after that, when he had to order parts, and when it came to that little square, will you accept the substitute? He got the red pen out. Yes. Why did I tell you that story? Most, a lot anyway, of the prayers that God has answered for me has been substitutes.
And at the time, it was just about exactly the opposite than what I prayed for. And sometimes it was two years, five years, 10 years that I got on my knees and I said, Lord, thanks for not giving me what I asked for back there.
What you said was far better. And I look around and I see young people here. Thank God for you being here. And most likely, you've been on your knees and I want to go to that university. It's important the rest of my life if I get that.
There's a partner that I'd like to marry. And you've prayed about it and it didn't happen. It might not see it today, but soon you'll see it. That if God sends the substitute, it might be better than you ask for.
That's what happened here. And then in verse 15, what do we read in this? But the Lord said unto him, go thy way for he is a chosen vessel unto me. God's side is always higher, chosen. Nice to be chosen.
I have a little poem here. I don't know if Mr. Albert Ramsey from Prince of Rhode Island was here much, but his youngest daughter is married to my son, Don. They live in New Brunswick. And when Mr. Ramsey went home to heaven, there was a lot of poems.
He had stacks of them, poems. But there's one I liken. You've sought maybe the worthless pebble. And Eunice took me out to the beach where her dad was. And when the tide goes out, it was about a quarter of a mile out.
Nothing but little round stones that have been washed with the sand. And she said, this is where dad was when he wrote this. And I'll just quote it for you. The worthless pebble. I was only a worthless pebble upon the beach of time.
Yet he stooped and he declared to heaven, I will make this pebble mine. And that is why I serve him as I think of that crowded beach and shudder to think when he was passing. I might have been out of his reach and left like the other pebbles to be never touched with his hand and tossed by the waves of life's ocean and buried at last in the sand.
You were chosen out of all the pebbles. And I stood there and I picked one up to chosen. And then we read verse 18. And immediately there fell from his eyes and scales and he received sight with forth and arose and was baptized.
Are you saved today? Yeah. Are you baptized? I hope there's no one here saved. This was saved for a time and not baptized. What a wonderful thing to obey the Lord and baptized baptism. I was baptized in the tank and the gospel hall in Sarnia.
And I was the youngest one. There was five baptized that night. I was the youngest. And I was downstairs waiting my turn. And you know what I was doing? Pacing. Come on. I couldn't wait to get in. And I find my turn coming.
I got up and big Bob Kember, big man. He looked at me and he wanted baptized. And I just, as he was talking to me, I looked up and I thought for 27 years, everything I did, God frowned upon. But tonight it's different.
And as big Bob put me back and I looked up, I thought he's not frowning tonight. He's smiling what I'm going through. And I just smiled back, baptized. I hope you're baptized. Then in verse 19, he was with the disciples.
And then he preached Christ in verse 20. And straightway he preached Christ. I got saved at 11 o 'clock at night. And Dave Kember, I got saved through him. And they teased that man at work. I'll tell you, it was, I said, I could never, never, never do that.
And I got saved. And I went to work the next morning and Bud Mitchell and I were working together and we just walked out the paint shop door. And Bud turned to me and he said, well, Max, what's new? And my little heart, I said, would you say, what's new?
What can I say? I said, Bud, about 11 o 'clock at night, last night, God saved me. And he turned, he looked at me and he said, well, isn't that nice? Wow. I preached to him all morning, not out of this.
I didn't know any of this, but I preached to him till noon. We worked together and I preached to him all morning what wonderful thing this God's salvation is. And then he wanted to join himself with them.
Are you an assembly fellowship? He wanted to be, but they said, who is this guy? And when I got saved, it was the same thing. But then it says he was one of them. I hope you're one. In chapters 17 or 20, I don't know if I can.
Verse 24, but none of these things move me, neither count my life dear unto me, that I might finish my course with joy. He wanted to finish well. And that's 25 years. The Bible dates 25 years after Acts 9.
I hope I finish well. I've been in the assembly fellowship for 58 years. I'd like to finish well. And you know, the last one over in second Timothy four and four and six, he says, I have finished the course.
He finished well. Last year I was here and I just finished, told you a little story and I can't think of anything better to do and tell it again. That I was near Boston in some assembly and a local man got up and, and he told a little story.
Said my father was in this assembly here pretty well all his life. My dad got old and he said we had to take him to the hospital and dad died. The Lord took him home to heaven. And the next morning I had to go to the neighbor or to his home and pick up some things for the clothing for the undertaker.
And as I pulled in his driveway, he said there was a man across the street, his neighbor was out working on his grass. So he said, I walked across the street and I said, I just come over to tell you. Dad went home to heaven yesterday.
And he said, the man stood up and he looked me in the face and he said, well, he didn't go far. He lived right beside it. All the years that I ever knew him finish well.