Let us turn once again to the
Word of God, the portion we were considering this morning in Galatians
chapter 1. We were considering those words
at the beginning of verse 16. And we please God, says Paul,
to reveal His Son in me. I'll read the two verses, 15
and 16, again, 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 not with flesh and blood." We were considering then
the subject of the Gospel revelation as it was granted to the Apostle,
the wonder of the manner in which God was pleased to call him by
his grace. And how different is that revelation
that we have in the Gospel to what we have in the Holy Lord
of God. When Moses is recounting to the
children of Israel the Ten Commandments reminding them of all that they
had experienced when they came to Mount Sinai. After those 40
years of wilderness wanderings, we have, as it were, the repetition
of the Lord in Deuteronomy. And there in Deuteronomy 5.24,
he reminds them, he said, Behold the Lord our God hath showed
us his glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice out
of the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God
doth talk with man, and He liveth. Now therefore, why should we
die? For this great fire will consume
us. If we hear the voice of the Lord
our God any more, then we shall die. for who is heir of all flesh
that have heard the voice of the living God speaking out of
the midst of the fire as we have and lived." How dreadful that
was, the experience when God descended upon the mount. And what is the language of the
Lord of God? It says to men, it says to these
sinners, stand back! or they were kept from the man,
they were not to approach. We have the context of it all
set before us, of course, back in the 19th chapter, that chapter
previous to God speaking, the Ten Commandments. And see how
Moses was to ensure that no one came too near, lest they die. Thou shalt set bounds unto the
people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go
not up into the mount, or touch the border of it. Whosoever toucheth
the mount shall be surely put to death. There shall not a hand
touch it, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through, whether
it be beast or man. It shall not live. When the trumpet
soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount. They were to
draw near, but they were to come carefully. They were not to approach
too close. They were to stand away from
the mount. All the revelation that God gives
of Himself there in His Holy Law is so different. Also very
different to what we have in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Doesn't God say, there comes
no man see my face and live." These words address to Moses,
that man who was the meekest of men, that man who was so favoured
of God. Thou canst not see my face. No
man shall see me and live. No man hath seen God at any time. Oh, but then the Gospel that
Gospel that has come, that revelation that we have in the person and
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father,
He hath declared Him. He is the image of the invisible
God. Worship God then, in His Son
there, His love, and there alone. this revelation then that was
granted to Saul of Tarsus. Oh, he pleased God, he says,
to reveal his son in Mary. And so we were considering something
of that revelation this morning. It's the Gospel. And that Gospel
that centers in the person and in the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. When we think of his person,
what a mystery there. He is God and he is man. The mystery of his eternal sonship
who shall declare his generation. He is the only begotten of the
Father. O eternally begotten of the Father,
the eternal Son of the eternal Father, the Son of the Father
in truth and in love. There is a mystery then when
we think of the person of God the Son. in the great mystery
of the Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And then there's
the mystery of His Incarnation. Without controversy, great is
the mystery of Godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
All the eternal Son of God becomes the Son of Man. He is the Man
Christ Jesus, the real Man. Oh, here we're told that it was
in the fullness of the time that God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman, the seed of the woman that was promised back in Genesis
chapter 3, the great mystery of God's manifest in the flesh. Oh, we cannot of ourselves begin
to understand any of these truths. There must be a revelation. God
must show us these things. And this is what Paul experiences. He pleads God to reveal his Son. His Son in me, he says. And so this morning we thought,
as it were, of the Godward aspect of that revelation. I said, All
of the persons in the Godheads, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are
involved. All true Christians, this may
boast a truth from nature, never learn that Father, Son and Holy
Ghost to save our souls are all concerned. Although it is the
Son, the Eternal Son, who becomes man and is the Savior, yet we
have to recognize the involvement of the Father and of the Holy
Spirit, and there we have it here, this revelation to Paul. It is a sovereign revelation
by the Father. He pleased God, he says, at the
beginning of verse 15. It was God's good pleasure, and
that good pleasure in an eternal purpose, the eternal predestination
of God. having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to
the good pleasure of his will. Oh, it's the good pleasure of
God's eternal will that is involved in what Paul experiences. And that is
true not only in the experience of this man, it's true in the
experience of all those who know the grace of God. If we know
anything of the grace of God, it's according to God's eternal
good pleasure. It's what was purposed from eternity
that comes to take place in time in that effectual calling of
the sinner. a sovereign revelation by the
Father, we said, and then also we observed how it is a spiritual
revelation, because He comes through God the Holy Spirit. He is the One who reveals, to
reveal His Son it says, in me. Oh, what does Paul say, writing
elsewhere, God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. This is the peculiar
ministry of the Holy Spirit, to take of the things of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and to make them known to sinners. This is
why we have those chapters in John 14, 15, 16, It is expedient for you that
I go away. If I go not away, the Spirit
will not come. But if I go, I will send Him
unto you. And what is the Spirit's ministry? He shall testify of
me. Although He be God, He doth not
speak of Himself. He takes of the things of Jesus
Christ and reveals Christ to sinners and reveals Christ in
sinners. It's a spiritual revelation that
the Apostle is speaking of. And then also, of course, ultimately,
we see that it's a saving, a saving revelation, because it centers
in God's Son. And we please God to reveal His
Son, or the Eternal Son, who in the
fullness of the time, made of a woman, made under the law,
to redeem them that were under the law. That's his work. He
comes to accomplish that great work of salvation, that that
he had engaged to undertake in the covenant, the eternal covenant
of redemption. And so we considered something
this morning of that revelation as it involves God. And having considered it from
that perspective I want us tonight more especially to consider it
from man's position and to observe two very basic and simple points. First of all to observe that
it is something that is internal, it's something that takes place
in the soul of a man. It's the life of God in the soul
of man that we're reading of. And so it is also a personal
revelation how the Lord God deals with us as individuals. He deals
with us in a very particular and personal fashion. I just
want to follow for a while that simple division then. First of
all, the fact that it is something that is internal. In a sense,
I suppose you might say, I just want to concentrate this evening
on these two words in me. Two words, four letters, and
yet, what remarkable truth is to be found in this short portion,
to reveal His Son in me. Now, I said this morning there
is of course a revelation to the sinner. There is a revelation
of God to the sinner. an external revelation. There's
an external revelation in that sense that we have here in the
Word of God. The Holy Scripture is a revelation
of God. We sometimes observe the fact
that there is a revelation of God in all that God has done. All His works are a revelation
of Himself. The psalmy speaks of that in
terms of creation, the heavens, the great firmament that God
has made, the vastness of the universe. The firmament declares
the glory of God. How the wonder of creation is
such a remarkable revealing of God in all his greatness and
all his glory. But then we think more particularly
of the Scriptures, His blessed book. And what is it? It's a
revealing of God. It's God declaring Himself, telling
us of Himself. And it all ultimately brings
us through to the New Testament and the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ, as a God in His last days hath spoken unto us by His
Son. Or the Lord says to the Jews
during the course of His earthly ministry, search the Scriptures.
In them ye think that ye have eternal life. These are they
that testify of mine. He is that One who is the Eternal
Word. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word
was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
John says. We beheld, or we saw, we viewed
His glory. The glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace, and truth. What a revelation
it is that we have then here in Holy Scripture. The wonder
of the book. Oh, it is a truth that God has
magnified His words above all His name. That's what the psalmist
says there in the 138th Psalm at verse 2. Thou hast magnified Thy words,
that is the Scripture, above all Thy name. Why? Because it is a revealing,
it is a declaration of Himself. And so, we are always to treat
Scripture with the most profound reverence. Say, Christian, wouldst
thou thrive in knowledge of thy Lord against no scripture ever
strive, but tremble at his word? Revere the sacred page, to injure
any part betrays with blind and feeble hearts. What is it? A hard and haughty
heart. That's what we betray when we
don't reverence the page of Holy Scripture. We are to recognize
that this book is God's revelation, and it's God's revelation of
himself, and it's God's revelation of himself to men. And so it
stands so prominent, of course, in all our services of worship. And that revelation, as I said,
ultimately brings us to the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we come
to the Word of God, we should desire that we might ever behold
Him, that we might see Him, that we might hear His voice. I remember reading, I think it
must have been in John Wilberton's Mercies, accounts of his spiritual
experience, mercies of a covenant God and he refers to the first
occasion that he went to hear William Gadsby preach and as
he entered he really despised the man in the pulpit he thought
he was rather a clownish man but then when he began the sermon
I can't remember what the text was now. I think he does refer
to the text as he gives the account, the Warburton. But he said, oh,
how that man ransacked the Bible to bring forth the Lord Jesus
Christ. He was determined that he would
set before those sinners Christ. and he would go through all the
scripture in order that he might show something of the glories
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is that revelation to us
there. And it's here in Holy Scripture,
but what's being spoken of in the text is not so much that
revealing truth. It's that inward revelation It's
that inward revelation, 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 not with flesh and blood. It's that gospel of the
grace of God, not just coming to the sinner in an external
fashion, when we come under the word of God when we hear the
preaching of the word of God there is of course an external
call of grace as it were but it's more than that it's that
efficacious call It's that inward call that comes into the soul
of the sinner. It's that that was experienced
by the Thessalonians when they heard the preaching of the Apostle
Paul. And he reminds them of that fact
both in his first and in his second epistles. How God's Word
came by his preaching. What does he say there thinking
in especially of what he writes in the in the first of his two
epistles to the Thessalonians he says there in the first chapter
our gospel came not unto you in word only but also in power
and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance as you know what
manner of men we were among you for your sakes. The Gospel came
then, not in word only. It wasn't just the external preaching. No, it comes in power, he says.
It comes in the Holy Ghost, it comes in much assurance. And
then again, that same epistle there in the In the second chapter
he says for this cause also we thank God without ceasing because
when you receive the word of God which he heard of us you
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. It was an effectual work. It
was the word of God coming into their hearts It was that Word
of God taking hold of their souls. And that's what is spoken of
here. This was the experience of Paul
when he pleased God to reveal his Son in him. It's not just the form. Or we
read of some having a form of Godliness. but denying the power
thereof. It's good to have a form that
is right and proper. It's good to do all things in
the church decently and in order. But it's not just a matter of
doing things the right way. We want to know the power of
that Word of God as it comes into our soul, something internal.
And it is necessary, of course, that it comes in that fashion
because of what man's condition is by nature. This is why it
must be an inward revelation. Because man in his nature is
totally deprived. We are born dead in trespasses
and in sins. That's the awful condition of
everyone. Their solemn are the words of
Holy Scripture, God saw that the wickedness of man was great
in the earth and every imagination of the thought of his heart was
evil continually. And we have that language just
in Genesis chapter 6, just a few chapters into Holy Scripture,
God has made all things good. God has made man on the sixth
day of creation and looked at his creation and pronounced it
to be very good and yet we come on just a couple of chapters
and there in Genesis 3 we have the record of the entrance of
sin, the fall of our first parents and then we move on just a few
more chapters and we have those awful words God saw that the
wickedness of man was great in all the earth, every imagination
of the thought of his heart's evil continually. The Lord Jesus himself tells
us from whence sin proceeds, it comes out of the hearts of
men. You know how the The scribes and the Pharisees
were so concerned about external things, the traditions of the
fathers, the various washings that were to be observed after
one had been in the marketplace. But what does the Lord say? In Matthew 5.17, Do not ye yet
understand that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the
belly, and is cast out into the draft? But those things which
proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they
defile the man. For out of the heart proceed
evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
blasphemies, These are the things which defile a man, but to eat
with unwashing hands defileth not a man. Not that which goeth into the
mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of the mouth.
This defileth the man, because it is out of the abundance of
the heart that the mouth speaks. Oh, this is where the trouble
lies. It's here. It's in the heart
of men, the heart deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And so there must be an inward
experience, a heart experience of the truth of the grace of
God. And this is what Paul is writing of. He pleads God to
reveal His Son, not just to me, Well, thank God there is a revelation
to us, but what do we know of a revelation inwardly, a revelation
in our hearts? We read those words in the 17th
chapter of Luke's Gospel, Behold, the kingdom of God is within
you. God's kingdom is an inward kingdom. My kingdom is not of this world,
says the Lord. If my kingdom were of this world,
then would my servants fight. The Lord's kingdom is a spiritual
kingdom. It's the reign of Christ. Oh,
when that reign of Christ comes into the soul of the sinner,
it subdues, it subdues all his iniquities. It delivers him from
all his sins, scatters from him all that unbelief, the reign
of grace, or do we cry to God that we might know that, how
we need it, friends, that God would come and subdue us, subdue
our iniquities within us. God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness, shining in our hearts, giving the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
It's that inward shining. Have you known that? The inward
shining of the gospel. Or when the gospel comes into
our hearts. And there's an effect, you know.
There's an effect where there is this inward experience. And
there are at least four aspects to it. First of all, there is what we
might term heart persuasion. We believe what the scripture
says concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. When we have this inward
revelation, we believe what the scripture says concerning the
Lord Jesus Christ. Look at what John writes there
in chapter 5 of his first general epistle. Do you mind John chapter
5, verse 9? If we receive the witness of
men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God,
which 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." When we believe the record, that God has given
to us of His Son, when we believe the Scriptures, when there's
that inward persuasion, that heart persuasion concerning the
Lord Jesus, the trustworthiness of the testimony that God has
given to us here in the Scriptures, there's heart persuasion. Secondly,
There's what we might term heart approbation. We see then that the Savior is
worthy of all acceptation. Or we believe the record. We're
persuaded of the trustworthiness of the record, but it's not enough. This is a faithful saying worthy
of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners and at whom I am chief says Paul. There's approbation you see. All we see that this wine is
worthy of us accepting that truth that is declared concerning Him. and so thirdly we might say there
is a heart satisfaction Christ then becomes sweet and
precious we know that God's words is sweeter
than honey and than the honeycomb but remember what is true of
the of the words as we have it in scripture must also be true
of the word of God incarnate. And the psalmist says, O taste
and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in Him. Taste and see their satisfaction. Here is that that is sweeter
than honey, sweeter than the honeycomb, When we have that
inward revealing of the Lord Jesus Christ, it satisfies the
soul. It satisfies the soul. All God
has made is for Himself, you see. And we can only find true
satisfaction when the Lord Himself comes and reveals Himself in
our souls. There's that heart persuasion,
heart approbation, heart satisfaction, and there's heart purification. When we read in Acts 15 of the
Gospel that has gone to the Gentiles,
remember Acts 15 is that council at Jerusalem, the early church
having to gather for a council over the whole business of the
calling of Gentiles. This gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ is not for the Jew only, it's for the Gentile also. And
there they speak of that ministry that Paul was exercising with
Barnabas, purifying their hearts by faith. That was the conclusion
that they came to. These sinners of the Gentiles.
What is the consequence when the Gospel comes to them? The
Gospel as it had come to the Apostle Paul himself when he
comes to them, when there is that inward revealing of the
Lord Jesus Christ purifying their hearts by faith. Oh, what does God say? What is
the great promise of the New Covenant? A new heart also will
I give you. and a new spirit I will put within
you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh,
and I will give you a heart of flesh." Oh, there is that, you
see, that is purifying. There is something that is so
wondrously effected in the soul of the sinner. And that worship that is given
now to the Lord, the sacrifice, or the sacrifices of God a broken
spirit, a broken, a contrite heart, O Lord, thou wilt not
despise. Or there is this inward revealing
then, and all the consequence that comes when there's that
blessed enshrining of the Gospel, that spiritual ministry of the
Holy Spirit Himself in the soul of the sinner, revealing His
side, the revealing of his son in Mary says Paul and so also
we see here that as it is something inward as it is something that
affects the the heart, the soul of a man so we must recognize
that it is also personal real religion is a personal thing
now there is of course a the place
for that that is corporate whilst religion is personal and
what Paul is writing of is very much personal to himself we're
not saved in isolation the Lord sets the solitary in families
in scripture we do have the doctrine of the church the doctrine of
the local church, how the Lord calls out a people and gathers
them together in local congregations. And we see how that was the pattern
in the Acts of the Apostles. And when Paul writes his various
epistles, some of them are personal, yes, they're written to individuals,
but in the main they're written to churches. And what we have
here, of course, He addresses himself unto the churches of
Galatia in the second verse. There is a corporate aspect to
Christianity. We're not to forsake the assembling
of ourselves together as a manner of some ease. We value Christian
fellowship, or we should value Christian fellowship. as we gather
together on the Lord's Day in this fashion, is it not an encouragement
to us when we see one another's faces? We're to exhort one another
in our psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. These are the sort of
exhortations that we find the Apostle giving in various epistles. But ultimately it still holds
true that real religion in the first place is a personal think
when Peter was favoured with that revelation from the Father
in Matthew 16 how personal blessed art thou the
singular pronoun blessed art thou Simon Peter flesh and blood
hath not revealed it to the personal pronoun but my father
which is in heaven it comes to an individual oh yes the Lord
is addressing all his disciples but it's Peter who makes that
lovely that bold confession thou art the Christ the son of the
living God and Peter is told by the Lord that he is blessed
as an individual oh when the risen Christ reveals himself
to Thomas who was not present of course at first occasion when
the Lord showed himself to his disciples in the upper room and
he was so full of doubts or he needed to see something and then
the Lord comes the following the following first day of the
week it's on the first day of the week is on the Lord's day And there is Thomas and his presence
now. And what is Thomas' confession
when he sees Christ? He says, my Lord and my God. It's personal. Or can we use
that language, that blessed language of approbation? Can we really
say, my Lord and my God? Yes, He is mine. Because I've
known that inward revelation by the Spirit of God, that light
shining into the darkness of my poor, sin-benighted heart,
that blessed enshrining of the Gospel, the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. Why it's life eternal. It is
life eternal to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom thou hast sent and how this was this was so much Paul's experience
he pleased God he says to reveal his son in me as I said this
morning we have here in the opening chapters of Galatians one of
those portions in his epistles in which he writes of himself
he writes of his own experience it's very much an experimental
portion But we have it in other parts. We have it also there
in the third chapter of the epistle to the Philippians. And remember
the language that he uses there in Philippians 3 verse 8. He speaks of the excellency. 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
dung 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 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 onto his death. Oh Paul you see, he knows his
experience. Oh friends, what do we know of
it that's that gracious in shining, that inward revealing, that personal
revelation in our own souls and the effect of it all. Why he
goes on to tell us here at the end of the second chapter, I
am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. Is that our life? Is that my
life? Is my life the life of the Lord
Jesus Christ in me? Or is that your life? O God grant
that we might know the reality of these things. It pleased God
who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace
to reveal His Son in me. The Lord bless. To us His Word.