Let us turn to God's Word and
we turn to the portion we were considering this morning here
in Galatians chapter 1. I'll read verses 15, 16 and 17. Galatians 1, 15, 16 and 17. 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. Immediately I conferred
night 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." And we remark that this is a single
sentence according to the punctuation as we find it here in our authorized
version. So we sought to say something
with regards to the content of these verses and especially I
was speaking of that mystery of Christ as he is revealed in
the soul of the sinner, the inward revelation of the Lord Jesus. He is that one, of course, who is the fullness of the revelation
of God. No man has seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father,
He hath declared Him. And He is that one who has not
only come to reveal God, but He is the only Mediator. between
gods and men, the man Christ Jesus. And we are to worship
God through that mediator. Worship God then in His Son,
there His love and there alone. But what a blessing to know that
revealing of Christ, Christ made real in our own souls. Well this morning I remarked
on those several mysteries that we have said before us in scripture
first of all that great mystery the greatest of all the mysteries
which is God himself the truth of the trinity that God is one
Lord here in Israel the Lord our God is one Lord and yet that
one Lord subsists in three persons God the Father, God, the Son,
God, the Holy Spirit, not three gods but three subsistences in
that glorious truth of the Godhead but then what a mystery there
is when we think of the relationship between the persons Isaiah asks
the question concerning the Son of God who shall declare his
generation. He is that one who is eternally
generated. He is the only begotten of the
Father, full of grace and of truth. What a mystery! What a
mystery is the eternal Sonship of the Lord Jesus. The Son and
yet in no sense inferior to his father God, Father, Son and Holy
Spirit the three persons are co-equal as well as being co-eternal
no superiority or inferiority between those three persons and
then we remarked also on that other mystery the mystery of
the incarnation how in the fullness of the time God sends forth his
son, made of a woman, made under the law. Without controversy,
Paul says, great is the mystery of godliness. God, God, was manifest
in the flesh. He who was the eternal Son of
God becomes the Son of Man. But really, we were concentrating
most particularly on what He has said before us in these verses,
which is that of the mystery of Christ revealed in the sinner's
soul. But when He 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, 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." And I said, there is a relationship
between that mystery, the mystery of Christ revealed in the soul,
and the first and greatest of the mysteries, which is the doctrine
of the Trinity, because that work of revealing Christ in the
soul involves all the persons. All the persons in the Godhead.
There's a sovereign revelation that is really from the Father. It pleased God. It pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal
His Son in me. It is all from the good pleasure
of God. He has predestinated the people.
And remember the words of Ephesians 1.5, having predestinated us
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will. It's all the good pleasure of
the father. It's the outworking of that that
the father had purposed from before the foundation of the
world. And as it was when the fullness
of the time was come that God sends forth his son in the incarnation,
so there's that sense in which in every regenerate child of
God their new birth is also according to God's eternal purpose when
the fullness of the time was come for this individual, for
that individual all is to be traced back to that great decree
of God that that he had purposed in the eternal covenant it is
in a sovereign revelation that is from God the Father But we
said also that it is a spiritual revelation in that it comes by
and through the gracious working of the Spirit of God. It's a
revelation, and who is the one who reveals? Well, Paul tells
us, doesn't he? 1 Corinthians 2.10 God hath revealed
unto us by His Spirit. By His Spirit. For the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. who can trace
out those workings of the Spirit of God in the soul of the sinner,
as he comes in accordance with those words that the Lord Himself
speaks. When he comes, he comes to reprove,
to convince of sin, of righteousness, of judgment. But he doesn't just
come as that one who will work conviction in the soul, he comes
as the comforter, he comes to reveal Christ. He comes in all
that gracious power of regeneration. The sinner is born from above,
he's born of the Spirit of God. It is a spiritual revelation,
in that it is the working of God, the Holy Ghost. And then also we said this morning,
it is a saving revelation. Who is the one that is revealed?
It's God's Son, His Son. the only name under heaven given
amongst men whereby we must be saved. Who is that? The Christ.
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And so we see and of course we
sang that lovely 34th hymn this morning as our final praise.
All true Christians this may boast a truth from nature never
learned that Father, Son and Holy Ghost to save our souls.
We're all concerned, we're Trinitarians. There used to be those who went
about and called themselves Jesus people. We're not just Jesus
people, we're Trinitarians. We believe in Him who is the
only true God. Father, Son and Holy Ghost. This morning consider this revelation
as it were from God's perspective. The perspective of the three
persons in the Godhead. I want us now to try to look
at it from man's perspective. And we see how personal a revelation
it is. It's in me, says Paul. That's
how personal it is. It's inward, yes, and it's personal. So that's what I want to try
to say a little about this evening. A revelation that is inward,
and a revelation that is personal. First, this word, this preposition
that we have, in, in. Now, it's important to note that
I remember many years ago I was at the minister's conference
and one of the speakers made this remark he was speaking on
some aspect of the epistle to the Romans another Pauline epistle
of course and he says when you're reading Paul's epistles or when
you're reading the scripture in general he says he said take
account of the little words take account of the little words.
He said there's a great deal of theology in the little words. Now that is the case here, of
course there is that sense in which there is a revelation to
men. There's a revelation to men. And that's what the Bible is. It's a revelation to men. and it's an external revelation. It's before us now on the page
of Holy Scripture. And we believe that all Scripture
is given by inspiration of God. Yes, there are various authors
of the 66 books of the Bible and men would have their own
distinctive style, their particular way of writing but we believe
that each and all of them spoke as they were moved by the Spirit
of God. And what is spoken by the prophets
or the apostles is that that is also now recorded in scripture. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God. The language of Paul, there in
2 Corinthians 3.16. And as I think you're aware,
or some of you I'm sure are aware, that that expression, given by
inspiration of God, is simply one word really. It's God's breathing. The Bible is the breathings of
God. and of course in order to speak
and to say certain words we have to aspirate it we make sounds
well here God has spoken in his word it's remarkable is it not? God has given us a revelation
he's revealed himself to us and ultimately that revelation centers
in the person of his only begotten son it centers in him who is
spoken of as the Word in the beginning was the Word and the
Word was with God and the Word was God and the same was in the
beginning with God and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among
us and we beheld his glory the glories of the only begotten
of the father all of the scripture is leading up to that and we
can think of the language particularly of the apostle when he writes
to the Hebrews and remember what he says there in the opening
words of that epistle He refers to what God did in times past,
God who at hundred times and in diverse manner spake in time
past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last
days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of
all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness
of his glory and the express image of his person. God has
spoken once and for all now And Christ is the image of the invisible
God. And you hardly need me to say
that Mohammed is a false prophet. Because there is no prophet after
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the fulfillment of the
prophetic office. He says himself that all of the
scriptures really are bearing that testimony to him. Search
the scriptures. In them ye think that ye have
life, and these are they that testify of me. Lord Christ, Christ in all the
Scriptures, the Scriptures and the Lord, bear one tremendous
name. The written and incarnate Word
in all things are the same. And how God has magnified these
words in Holy Scripture above all His name, how we are to come
then to God's words with all due reverence. Or say, Christian, wouldst thou
thrive in knowledge of thy Lord against no Scripture ever strive,
but tremble at his word, to revere the sacred page, to injure any
parts, betrays with blind and feeble rage, a heart, a haughty
heart. There are those, you know, they
call themselves Christians, they're all about us. There are still
a multitude of denominations, aren't there, different denominations,
but how many of them really believe that the Bible is the Word of
God? How they rally gate it. Now they're quite pleased to
have any sort of old perversion of it. Thank God He has given
to us His Word in a faithful translation. And all the good
providence of God's, that Word that came into our own language
at the time of the great movement of the Spirit which we call the
Protestant Reformation, the work of William Tyndale. And so much
of our authorized version of course is based on Tinder. And
God in His goodness has preserved it to us through the centuries. We're to reverence God's Word
because here we have a revelation from God, a revelation to us. And the person who stands so
eminent in all of that revelation is none other than Him who is
seen to be the Incarnate Word the Lord Jesus. But it's not
enough, is it, just to have the Bible here before us and to ascend
to it with our minds, to have an intellectual understanding,
even an intellectual appreciation. What is Paul saying here with
regards to himself? Doubtless, before ever he was
a Christian, when he was a Pharisee, he had a wonderful knowledge
of of the Old Testament. He would have been schooled in
the Torah and the writings of all the prophets. He'd sat at
the feet of Gamaliel, one of the great Jewish rabbis. But
no, here is something special, it's personal to him, there was
a revelation to him as an individual. It pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal
His Son in Mary. In Mary. And how personal it
was. I remarked on it this morning. What is the outcome? He says, I conferred not with
flesh and blood. Neither went up to Jerusalem
to them which were apostles before me. He goes off into Arabia. He returns
into Damascus. It's some three years. before
he goes up to Jerusalem to see Peter. All of this is so personal
to him. He says, back in verse 11, I
certify you brethren that the gospel which was preached of
me is not after man, for I neither received it of man, neither was
I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. It's all revelation. It's so, so personal to this
man. And it must be the same with
all those who are to know anything of the grace of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ. How does the Gospel come to us?
How did the Gospel come to those Thessalonians? Paul says our
Gospel came not unto you in word only, but in the Holy Ghost. and in much assurance the language
that we have there in the opening chapter of that first letter
but then remember how it goes on in 1 Thessalonians chapter
2 verse 13 it says for this cause
also thank we God without ceasing because when ye receive the word
of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the word of
men but as it is in truth, the word of God which effectually
worketh also in you that believe." Now as they received it, they
received it into their hearts, it had an effect upon them. You turn to God from idols, he
says, to serve the living and true God. It had a profound effect
upon them. It was more than just a matter
of assenting to a certain body of doctrinal truth. They knew
that efficacious grace of the Spirit working in their hearts.
All we read of some having a form of godliness but denying the
power thereof. It's not enough to have a form,
it's good to have a form that's right and scriptural It's good
when we come together to worship God that things are done decently
and in order. But we want more than outward
order and forms. We want to know something of
the power of these things and that is so very essential really. There must be something more
than just a fight in the head, a notional assenting to the truth
of scripture. And of course this revealing,
this inward revealing that he's speaking of here is necessary
because of man's condition by nature. Where are we by nature? We're dead in trespasses and
in sins. And you know it was so soon after
the fall of our first parents that the whole world was lying
in wickedness. God saw that the wickedness of
man was great in all the earth, and every imagination of the
thought of his heart was evil continually. Every imagination
of the thought of his heart, we're told that's a Hebrew, it
means everything about the way in which the man thinks and functions,
everything about the man is in a state of alienation. His heart
is deceitful. Above all things his heart is
desperately wicked. And he doesn't know it. He doesn't
know what state he's in. That's the condition of men by
nature. So there must be that that heart
experience, that inward experience of the grace of God. This is
how he came to this man Paul. How the Spirit begins with him.
Remember in Acts 7, he's there at the stoning of Stephen. He witnesses this, they lay their
garments at his feet as they take up the stones and they kill
that man, the first Christian martyr, Stephen. But how poor,
how it is troubled when the Lord does come and arrest remember how in Philippians 3
he talks about being apprehended of Jesus Christ the Lord laid
his hand upon him and rested him there when he was at the
very gate of Damascus and the Lord challenges him and what does he say? who art
thou? I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. You see, in all their affliction
He was afflicted, in all the afflictions of His people, all
that they are suffering at the hands of this arch-persecutor.
In all their affliction Christ was afflicted. I am Jesus, whom
thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. The Spirit is dealing with this
man. he's under that awful conviction of his sins all there was that experience
in his heart the work of the spirit that blessed work when he has
come he will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, of
judgment of sin because they believe not on me of righteousness
because I go to my father and you see me no more of judgment
because the prince of this world is judged Oh, what a reproof
is this. He's convincing men of their
own belief. That sin which doth so easily
beset us. That sin that lies at the root
of every sin. If we could but live truly as
believers, you know, we'd never sin again. We'd never sin again
if we could but live that life of faith that we're called to.
What was the sin of Adam and Eve? It was unbelief. It was
not believing the truth of God's Word but embracing the lie of
Satan. When God says thou shalt surely
die, Satan says thou shalt not surely die. And Eve believes
that. But she proves the truth of God's
Word, she partakes of the fruit and she's dead. Adam partakes
of the fruit, he's dead. They're dead in trespasses and
in sins. And the Spirit reproves men of
unbelief. But He doesn't just reprove of
unbelief, He reproves or convinces also of righteousness, says Christ,
because I go to the Father and you see me no more. Oh, what
a blessing is that! Christ, the Righteous One. how
the Father has raised him from the dead, how the Father has
received him into the very heavens. That's where our righteousness
is. I know, I think I've told you this before, you've probably
read it yourselves, in Bunyan's spiritual autobiography, Grace
Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. And when poor Bunyan, so tormented
in his mind, he wants a righteousness. And he knows he's a sinner. And
he looks into the heavens. and then he understood. That
was where his righteousness was. His righteousness was there in
heaven before the throne of God. Why? His righteousness was the
Lord Jesus. Jehovah's, He came. The Lord's,
our righteousness. And when the Spirit comes, He
reproves men of righteousness. They have no righteousness of
their own. but there's a righteousness for sinners in heaven. And if
he proves also of judgment, the prince of this world is judged.
Or that one who is the liar, the liar from the beginning,
he is judged. Christ has vanquished, not only
sin, he's vanquished Satan himself. Oh, what a comfort there is,
you see. But how necessary that these things are brought into
a man's heart. That's how the Spirit was dealing
with Saul. He's troubled. He's convicted.
His conscience pricking him. He's goaded. And he feels these
things. But there's an inward revelation.
Behold, says Christ, the Kingdom of God. is within you it's in
what it's personal it's so personal it's the blessed in shining of
the gospel I like that expression I can't remember where I first
read it but I I think it was a sermon it was some sermon I
was reading on those words in 2nd Corinthians 4.6 that God
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness a shine in our
hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face, or as the margin says, in the person of Jesus
Christ. And I think the sermon bore that
title, the enshrining of the Gospel. Oh God, lifting up the
light of His countenance upon us, the smilings of His face,
the sun of righteousness arising with healing in His wings, Here
then is something that is so personal, but it's inward. This revelation is an inward
revelation. And what of the effect? What
of the effect? Well, Ralph Erskine, one of those
great Scots divines from back in the 18th century, speaks of
a fourfold effect. He says, where there is this
inward revelation, there will be hard persuasion. there will
be heart persuasion. What does that mean? Well, one
will believe the scriptures and what the scriptures say concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. We think of the words of John
there in that first general epistle, chapter 5 and verse 9, If we
receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater, for
this is a witness of God's which he hath testified of his Son.
He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave
of his Son." Oh, but if we know that heart's persuasion, that
real persuasion in our hearts, concerning what God has testified
with regards to his son. The trustworthiness of the testimony,
the things that are written here in the scriptures, where there
is that revelation there will be a heart persuasion. But then
secondly, Askin says, there will be heart approbation. we'll realize that this Savior
is worthy of all acceptation. We won't just believe the record, but more than that, we'll embrace
the Savior that he's being spoken of, the faithful and true saying,
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Here is the Saviour, you
see, for the chief of sinners. Or do we embrace it and believe
it? There's no bar, you see. There's
such a fullness of salvation. Not just hard persuasion, not
just believing the trustworthiness of God's testimony in the Scriptures, but embracing the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then, thirdly, the good minister
Mr. Erskine speaks of heart satisfaction
heart satisfaction all this saving the Lord Jesus
Christ why what is it to eat his flesh to drink his blood
he's not the Lord Jesus Christ when we come to any appreciation
of his person and his work when we read these things and think
upon these things and meditate in all these glorious truths
isn't this something that's sweeter than honey and the honeycomb?
Oh taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that
trusteth in Him says the Psalmist who we taste and as we taste
we're made to see the truth of Him It's food for our souls. This gospel that was revealed
to the apostle. Revealed so wonderfully by God
himself. He says, I neither received it
of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of
Jesus Christ. Have we known that? Such a revealing
of Christ that is meat and drink to our souls. And then the fourth
effect, says Erskine, is heart purification. Purifying their
hearts by faith, we read in Acts 15. Purifying their hearts by
faith. How is that? Well, it's really
a new heart, isn't it? It's the great promise of the
New Covenant. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit
will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out
of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh. It's a
heart to believe. It's a heart to worship. For
the sacrifice of God a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite
heart God doesn't despise. Or do we look forward to this
day, the Lord's Day? Is it the best day of the week,
really the best day? It's the first day of the week,
but is it to us the first and the best of days? Because we
join together with God's people to worship His great name. And
we long for that. Or we want to offer that sacrifice
of praise. We want our hearts to be purified,
we want to know that sanctifying effect of the Word of God. Where
there is this revealing, this inward, this personal revelation? And all that precious Word that
we have here in verse 16, Me, Me. God revealing His Son in Me and
in you. Real religion is a personal thing. Said William Tiptoe. It's true.
It's so true, isn't it? It is personal. I know there's
a place for corporate worship and we see the importance of
that. And I trust we've learnt our lesson when we think of all
the nonsense of the lockdowns. We're not to forsake the assembling
of ourselves together. and we don't want to forsake
the ascending of ourselves together but ultimately it's each one
of us as an individual and God that's how personal it is when
it came to Peter's experience and he made that confession thou
art the Christ the son of the living God O blessed art thou
Simon Peter. You see it's personal. Thou,
the singular pronoun. Blessed art thou Simon Peter.
Flesh and blood have not revealed it, but my father. And Thomas
also. What does he cry out? Doubting
Thomas he wasn't there when the Lord first appeared to the disciples
on the day of the resurrection but then on the following first
day of the week when they're assembled together again in that
upper room and the Lord appears and he cries out my Lord and
my God. That's how personal it is. It's
a language of appropriation. Mine. It's life eternal to know Thee.
the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent, it's a knowledge
but it is a personal knowledge and of course we see it so remarkably
in Paul's testimony there in Philippians 3 verse 8 he says, I doubtless
I count all things but last for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all
things and do count them but done that I may win Christ and
be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of
the law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness
of God the righteousness which is of God by faith that I may
know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship
of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death."
It's the same apostle, isn't it? He writes those words to
the Philippians. He also writes here, in our text today, when he pleased God who separated
Mary, 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. Immediately
I conferred not with flesh and blood, nor not even with the
apostles, neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were
apostles before me. But I went into Arabia and returned
again unto Damascus. Oh, it's such a personal matter
this. Can we say in the language of the psalm, Come and hear all
ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for
my soul, yea, what he hath done in my soul. Oh, the Lord grant
then that we might know such personal religion and such personal
inward revealings of our God and Saviour. The Lord be pleased
to bless His Word to us.