I want to ask you a question.
It's the title of my message. Is salvation of man or God? Turn with me in your Bible to
Galatians 1, if you would. This will be my text. Galatians 1. We'll begin in verse
11. Is salvation of man or God. Galatians 1 verse 11, But 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. Now most everyone, even a casual
student of the scriptures, knows that here in Galatians chapter
1, Paul is shocked that so many at the church here in Galatia
have turned to a perverted version of the gospel. But there's only
one gospel. Paul makes that very clear. There's
not another, he says. There's but only one way to be
saved. Not many ways. Not two ways. One way to be saved. There's
only one who can save. Salvation is of the Lord, not
man. It's by the revelation of Jesus
Christ according to verse 12. Now what does that mean? Just
what it says. And that's the point that Paul
is driving home here in our text. Matter of fact, the Scriptures
as a whole drive that point home. They make it very clear. Adam
and Eve. Adam and Eve sinned and God covered them. Who did? Who covered them? God did. Abel,
it says, obtained witness that he was righteous. He brought
a blood sacrifice, picturing the Lord Jesus Christ. Enoch
walked with God and God took him, took him alive, didn't see
death. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. The whole world Every thought
of their imagination, thoughts of their hearts was on evil continually. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Shem was blessed of the Lord. Abraham was called out of idolatry. He and his family were in the
idol business. They made idols. God called him
out. and he believed God. Sarah, through
faith in his wife, received strength to conceive. Isaac, their son,
was an heir of promise. Jacob, God loved, but Esau, God
hated. God makes the difference. Joseph,
it says, the Lord was with him. In the pit, after his brothers
threw him there, in Potiphar's house, where he was accused of
infidelity, in the prison, And on Pharaoh's throne, God was
with him. Salvations of the Lord. Moses
chose the reproach of Christ over Egypt because God chose
Moses. Joshua was made a faithful leader. God made him so. Rahab, by faith,
perish not with them that believe not, because she believed. She
said, we've heard about your God, how He delivered out of
the land of Egypt. She believed God by faith. Caleb,
holy, followed the Lord because the Lord led him. He was called
a faithful dog. Oh, that God might consider me
a faithful dog. Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah,
through faith subdued kingdoms. They were God's judges. God gave
them the faith to do so. Samuel was a prophet of the Lord. As you know, Hannah couldn't
have children and the Lord gave her Samuel and she gave Samuel
to the Lord. He was the Lord's anyway. Job, David was a man after God's
own heart. God gave David a heart for him.
Job was made to know that his Redeemer lived, but yet it was
God that said to Satan, hast thou considered my servant Job?
Do you see who it is that initiates this? Daniel, Hananiah, Mishah,
Azariah, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, their Babylonian names,
were made faithful in Babylon because God made them so. Then
we have the New Testament saints that the Lord chose to show love
and mercy and grace and pardon to. Zechariah sent Elizabeth,
Mary, the birth mother of Jesus, Joseph, her husband, John the
Baptist, Eleven apostles. I say eleven. You said there
was twelve. Well, Judas wasn't... The Lord didn't do anything for
him. He let him have his own way. The thief on the cross. Two thieves. God had mercy on
one, passed by the other. Mary Magdalene, Martha, Mary,
Bethany, Lazarus, Cornelius, Lydia, the Philippian jailer,
and also the Apostle Paul, who wrote these words that we're
looking at this morning. And Paul is writing here in our
text from experience. You see, he could say with Jonah
in Jonah 2.9, salvation's of the Lord. I love to say this,
I say it often. What follows that in the scripture?
A period. Salvation's of the Lord, period.
No further discussion is to be made. Salvation comes from Him. He could say with David in Psalm
3a, salvation belongeth unto the Lord. It does, it does. Paul believed the Lord through
the words of Isaiah in chapter 43, verse 11, where God said,
I, even I am the Lord and beside me, there is no savior. That's not hard to understand,
is it? Besides God doing the saving, there is no salvation.
There is no Savior but Jesus Christ. Truly, my soul waited
upon God, from whom cometh my salvation, the psalmist said.
John wrote concerning believers and said, which were born, not
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man. How then? But of God. It's in
your Bible, John 1, 12, and 13. John 6, 44, the Lord Jesus Himself
said, no man can come to Me, no man has the ability to come
to Me except, except, here's the exception, except the Father
which sent Me, draw him. Who's salvation of? It's of the
Lord. It's not of man. No man can. Ephesians 2, 8 and
9. For by grace are you saved through
faith that's not of yourselves. Not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. Not of
works, lest any man should boast. Romans 9, 16. So then it is not
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. Well, brother, I exercise my
free will. God said you didn't. God hid these things from the
wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father,
it seemed good in thy sight. Over and over and over again
in the scriptures, we're reminded that it's not according to our
works. He saved us with a holy calling, not according to our
works. but according to His own purpose and grace, given us in
Christ before the world began, not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. Look up at verse one here. Here,
Paul makes it very clear that his apostleship didn't originate
from human invention or authority. He says, Paul, an apostle. And then he says, not of men,
neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who
raised him from the dead. Now notice closely what Paul
said there. He said, neither of man, Neither
by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father. Who's salvation
of? Is it of man or is it of the
Lord? Salvation is of the Lord. God chooses whom He saves by
His gospel. God chooses the man who preaches
the gospel. Well, why would you choose that
profession, David? I didn't. God chose it for me. And I'm as shocked about it as
you are. Gospel preaching is of the Lord,
and salvation is of the Lord. Look down at verse 11. He says,
again, but I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached
of me or by me is not after man. God's gospel, the true message
of how sinners are saved, was not dreamed up by human reasoning. Now men dream up and conjure
up a lot of things, but this wasn't one of them. It's not
found in philosophy. It's not found in religious speculation. Man created religions that glorify
human effort. That's why we've got churches
on every corner. They accomplish a righteousness
attained by their own work, and they trust in that work and in
their own righteousness. The true gospel does the opposite.
It glorifies God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and His finished work.
It's of the Lord, it's not a man. Look at verse 12. He said, for
I neither received it a man, neither was I taught it, not
by man, but it was given to me by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, Paul, he didn't sit at the
feet of Peter or James or John. He received the gospel directly
from Christ. That's what Paul's talking about
in verse six here. Look at it. He said, I marvel,
speaking to the church of Galatia, that you're so soon removed from
him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another
gospel, which is not another. There's not another gospel. You
call it a gospel, but it's not. But there be some that trouble
you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or
an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than
that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. Well, that's not nice. That's
what God said. If any man preaches to you any
other message of hope, of salvation, apart from the one that we've
preached to you, let him be accursed. In verse nine, and as we said
before, so saying I now again, if any man preach any other gospel
unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I
now persuade man or God, or do I seek to please man? For if
I yet please men, I should not be the servant of God." And what
we have in most religious circles today is men pleasing men. That's right. That's right. These false teachings were man-made
distortions. They perverted the gospel, they
distorted it, which is typically a mixture of Christ plus something
else. That's where we go wrong, it's
Christ. Christ alone. Christ plus nothing. They say,
no, it's Christ plus keeping the law. They say, no, it's Christ
plus works. We've got to do something to
be saved. It's Christ plus circumcision. You've got to be circumcised.
It's Christ plus observing certain days and keeping certain feasts
and doing this and doing that. No! It's Christ. Christ alone. And it's the same
issue that we have today. These teachings please man because
they give man a role. And man likes that. Man wants
something to do. Had a man that attended here
for a long time and never was happy here. And he moved, and
I ran into him years later, and he said, I finally found a church
that I like. And I said, oh, well, that's
good. He said, they give me something
to do. And you know what I wanted to
say? I'm sure sorry. I'm sure sorry. Listen, I don't
want anything to do. I want one that's done it all
for me. Well, that's a little selfish.
Listen, if God doesn't do it for me, it won't get done, and
I won't be saved. Because everything I do is mixed
with sin, and everything I do is works of filthy rags. That word of curse, that's a
strong, strong word. How serious is this? Paul said,
though we are an angel from heaven, Preach anything else, let it
be a curse. And then he repeats that two
times. A curse means doomed to destruction. It means detested and loathed
of God. It means cut off from God's blessings. It means set apart for condemnation. It means devoted to destruction
under God's wrath. 1 Corinthians 16, 22 says, if any
man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. Set apart for condemnation, doomed
to destruction, detested and loathed by God. Biblically, a
curse does not mean unlucky. It doesn't mean, and it's not
just unpleasant, it's being set apart for God to destroy you. Eternal condemnation, serious,
serious business to mix God's gospel with human opinions. Is salvation of the Lord or is
it of man? Some say, well, you know, I think
as long as a man does the best that he can do and treats people
like, you know, they should be treated, everything between them
and God will be all right. Well, listen, I don't mean to
be ugly, just honest, but it really doesn't matter what you
think. It doesn't. Doesn't matter what I think either.
You know, Naaman came to be healed of leprosy from the prophet.
And the prophet didn't even go out to meet him. He just sent
his servant out there and said, tell him to go wash in the Jordan
River and to be dipped seven times. And what did Naaman, the
great Naaman, say? Well, I thought he'd come out
here and wave his hand over me and do some big hoodoo law, you
know, like they do, these televangelists do today. I thought I'd fall
back in the Spirit and wiggle around a little bit and that
God would heal me. You thought wrong. You thought
wrong. Your opinion is of no significance,
and your opinion's wrong. All that matters is what God
says. It really doesn't matter what we think. He is pleased
only in His beloved Son. Did you hear that? On more than
one occasion, when a dove ascended on the Lord, And he said, this
is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Then he said these
words, hear ye him. We better listen to him. We better
listen to what he said. It's the only opinion that matters.
There's no redemption, no reconciliation, no salvation apart from Jesus
Christ working out a perfect righteousness for us and then
imputing, that word means charging. We know what charging is. I was going to say, don't you
ladies? But I know better. Whoops, I said it. We know what
charging is. Men do too. We all use charge
cards. We know what charging is. But
Christ charged His perfect righteousness to our account. So when I stand
before God today, God says, perfect. He's perfect. He's as perfect
as my Son. Man on man. Now that's a charge,
isn't it? Look what verse 11 says. Paul says, but
I certify you. That's another strong word. It means I want you to know.
Paul here is giving a certificate of approval, but even more than
that, he's saying, listen carefully to me. This is a matter of life
and death. I'm making this as clear to you
as I can. I solemnly declare to you with
certainty and with authority that what I'm telling you is
so. You know, in 1600s English, the
King James translators purposely used this word certify. It's
got, it had a much stronger and broader meaning then than it
does today. You know, today we think of the
word certified usually means or makes us think of a stamp
of approval. You know, somebody just takes
one of those stamps and stamps, approved. An official paper,
a legal verification, some proof of authenticity. We've all bought
things before. And we said, well, is this the
real thing? And oh, yeah, I have a letter
of authenticity. Well, sometimes the very person
who authenticates something is what renders it worthless. You can falsify a certificate
of authenticity the same as you can a true one. Sometimes it's worthless. Thus the question is salvation
of man or of God? Is the gospel of man or of God?
Well, the answer is authenticated by who's answering the question.
What does God say? That's all that matters. What
does God say? Who saves sinners, man or God? God says man does, God does,
not man. In the 1600s, when the King James
Bible translators used that word certify, it meant to inform with
certainty, to make something clearly known, to declare a truth
with assurance that it was so. It was to tell somebody that
you knew something beyond a shadow of a doubt. You knew it to be
so. You had firsthand experience that it was so. You know, an
eyewitness, so to speak, it was giving a sure, authoritative
account of something you knew to be true. Not just a casual
telling. Did you hear, did you hear how
many times has that started at one end of the room and was totally
different when you got to the other end? Huh? Not just a casual,
not just second-hand opinion. It means you knew something by
experience. You knew with all your heart
that it was so. Paul is saying, I know, and you
should too, that the gospel which was and is preached of me is
not after man. Those of you who are here this
morning and believe the gospel, I ask you, don't you know this
to be so? And if somebody says, well, how
do you know? And you just say, I just know. His spirit bears
witness with my spirit that it's so. God's spirit bears witness
with mine that it's so. You know, man didn't come up
with this gospel. How do you and I know that? Because
God has borne witness to it in our hearts. Because it's divinely
revealed. Confirmed, sealed in our hearts
and in our spirits. That's what Paul said in Romans
8, verse 16. He said, the Spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirit. The Spirit he's speaking of,
capital S, the Holy Spirit, bears witness with our spirit that
we are the children of God. God's Spirit bears witness with
mine that I'm one of his children. You can't talk me out of it. God's Spirit confirms it within
us. This goes way beyond intellect. This goes way beyond education. It's not us trying to convince
ourselves that it's so. We have two witnesses that are
present. First, our own spirit, renewed by grace, producing faith
and repentance, creating love within us toward God, creating
a desire within us for holiness. And secondly, the Holy Spirit.
And that's the main witness. It gives us assurance, it strengthens
our faith, it gives us inward peace and rest, as Charis sung
about. that cannot be understood or
manufactured by anything within us or of ourselves. Now, in a
courtroom, you have a witness, and that witness stands up and
testifies, and it may be doubted. But if there's a second witness
that confirms the same thing, it's certified. That's what Paul
is saying here. With God's Spirit as our witness,
it is impossible to be doubted. It's established. It's certified. Paul said, I certify to you this
is so. It's not of man, it's of God.
We've all sent certified letters. You go down to the post office.
I want to make sure that the person I'm sending this to gets
it. Oh, you need to send it certified. And you fill out a card, and
they put it on there, and they've got to sign for that letter when
they get it. Proving, and they send that card
back to you, you know how it works, saying, OK, so-and-so
got your letter, so we know that they got it. Well, this is the
Spirit of God. that certifies this. It's the
Spirit of God that gives us that second divine confirmation that
we're God's children. That's good enough for me. I'm
a child of God because God says I am. And this witness within
us is rooted in Christ, not in our feelings. You know, sometimes
people will say things like, well, I feel like I'm saved,
or they'll say, I don't feel like I'm saved. Listen, it could
just be gas. It doesn't have anything to do
with feelings. It has to do with what God's Spirit says. And he confirms it with our spirit.
God's spirit always points to Christ and His finished work. He did for you, Christ did for
you, believer, what you cannot do for yourself. And it's accompanied
by the desire of holiness. The spirit never gives assurance
apart from us growing hatred of sin and a love for Christ's
righteousness. This witness produces peace and
joy, the inward calm, that inward calm. Do you have it? Oh, I do,
but I want it more. Don't you? That inward calm that
we experience is a fruit of that Spirit within that gives witness
to us. This witness is based on Christ
and not on self. A believer doesn't say, I feel
saved. He's resting in Christ's blood and righteousness. And
that's what proves that they're saved. This faithful witness
produces no empty confidence in any other message. The Pharisee
trusted in his traditions and in his law-keeping, but he was
blind. And it's through the Word of
God that our confidence and our assurance and our rest and our
peace comes. It comes through prayer. It's
crying, Abba, Father. Same as saying daddy. What an
endearing word that is. Boy, my children would look at
me when they were young and bat them eyes and go, daddy. It's
like, what do you want? I have a father. Gives us a childlike
confidence toward God. Well, my father can do anything.
My father can do everything. I remember I used to get in an
argument with my friends. My daddy can beat up your daddy.
Why would he want to do that? But, you know, we're trying to
say, my daddy can do anything. My daddy's the strongest. My
daddy's the best. My daddy this, my daddy that.
That's what is instilled in a child of God. My dad can do anything. My father is amazing. And our witness is confirmed through
trials. The triumph of our faith comes
through suffering, deliverance, comes from suffering and the
comfort that we've received from the spirit, which this world
cannot explain, comes through suffering. It's by the, patience has its perfect work
in us. It teaches us to be patient. It teaches us to wait on God.
It teaches us to thank God that he's working all things together
for our good in the midst of trouble. God's out to do us good. False assurance begins with man
and it ends in presumption. True assurance begins with the
Spirit of God and ends in holiness and peace and eternal life. Many
profess to be saved, yet assurance is rare. Two witnesses stand
in agreement. This confirms our adoption into
God's kingdom. Our spirit witnesses a new nature.
We know a change is taking place. Now listen, I know that I'm not
what I ought to be, but I also know I'm not what I once was. Our spirit witnesses evidence
of grace, growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus. Faith, repentance, love for God, hunger for holiness. I haven't arrived, to be more
like Christ. I so do, especially when I fail,
especially when I act like an idiot. Lord, help me to be more
like you. The witness of the Holy Spirit
applies the promises of God to our hearts. We have a Christ-centered
assurance. That's where our assurance is.
We have peace and joy. God's Spirit sheds abroad His
love in our hearts. Romans 5, 5, and hope maketh
not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost, that same Spirit, which is given unto
us. In other words, our confidence
comes from God. Isn't that where your confidence
comes from? It comes from God. Because our
gospel comes from God. Our message comes from God. Not
man. Not by works. Not by anything
that we do. Cain. Abel and Cain. Adam and Eve's children. Cain brought the fruit of the
ground. His labor. His sweat. His works. He brought the best
that he had. What'd God say about it? More
accepted. Abel brought a lamb, testifying
of Christ's blood. Did God accept it? You better
believe he did. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sins. God said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. The Jews boasted in the law they
were about to establish their own righteousness, not submitting
themselves unto the righteousness of God, which is in Christ Jesus,
Romans 10 three. The Pharisee bragged, he stood
in that temple, he said, I fast, I tithe, and I'm not like other
men. The publican stood in the back,
beat up on his chest. Cried for mercy. Which one went
home justified? The publican. He went home just
with God. God said, that's, that's the
one that knows me right there. Our gospel is not a man. I neither
received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation
of Jesus Christ." Paul's education and training did not reveal the
gospel to him. It actually blinded him to it.
You know, he was an amazing, intelligent man. He sat at the
feet of Gamaliel. He knew the law forwards and
backwards. He was zealous. He was a Pharisee. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was a Pharisee to other Pharisees.
Salvation doesn't come by human wisdom. It doesn't come by theological
training. It comes by the revelation of
Jesus Christ. I have a friend that had a friend
recently graduate from theological school, seminary. And he said
that all they taught him was how to build a church, how to
get members. Never taught him the gospel.
Never had training in the scriptures. The Lord called fishermen, unlearned
fishermen, to teach and preach the gospel. What do you think
Paul, educated Paul, smart Paul, would take for his Damascus Road
experience? Huh? He wouldn't take nothing
for it. No, it was there that Christ
revealed himself in blazing glory. So much so that afterwards, Paul
never saw the same again. He didn't see for several days
and scales fell off his eyes. Have the scales fallen off your
eyes? The salvation of God or is it
a man? Revelation means to cause or
allow to be seen. to make something known to the
ignorant. I'm not offended by being ignorant.
There's a lot of things I'm ignorant of. It's to be, something to be known
by divine or supernatural means. It means to take the cover off.
It means to remove the veil. That's what God has done for
His people. His people didn't do it for themselves.
No man can come except God draw him. The gospel is not of man. It's of God. Man cannot invent
it. Man would not invent it. Man
cannot discover it. Man can't add to it. It's God's gospel. It's revealed
in Christ. It's received by grace. It rests
in Christ's finished work. Another gospel, which is not
enough, it just leads to pride and eventually condemnation. The true gospel of God leads
to Christ and eternal life. Which one do you want? Huh? Which
one do you want? We say with Paul, God forbid
that I should glory, save or accept in the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now in closing, Paul makes it
very clear, certifiably clear, what the gospel is by showing
us what it's not. and how it came to him. Paul
shows us that there's no need for us to wrestle with the question,
is the Gospel he preached, or the Gospel that we preach, the
true Gospel, or just another man-made religion? And Paul here
reminds the Galatians of his past. Verse 13. I'll finish up. For ye have heard of my conversation. Now that word conversation doesn't
mean What he said, it means a manner of life. You've heard of how
my manner of life in times past in the Jews' religion, how that
beyond measure, I persecuted the church of God and wasted
it. He held the coats of those, Jeff, that stoned Stephen. He drugged men and women, mothers
and children. fathers out of their homes and
threw them into prison. Beyond measure, he said, I persecuted
church. Above and beyond what he was
called to do. And he said, and I profited in
the Jews' religion, verse 14, above many of my equals in my
own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of
my fathers. Paul wasn't neutral here. He
was violently opposed to Christ. He was advancing in Judaism. He was making a name for himself.
He was zealous for traditions. He was climbing that religious
ladder. If the gospel were of man, now listen, he would have
never embraced it. It was contrary to everything
that he lived for. You and I, left here ourselves,
would have never chosen Christ. Now I know there are folks that
say, oh, if I'd have been there when they crucified the Lord,
I would have stopped it from happening. No, you wouldn't.
Neither would I. We would have been there crying
with the rest of them, crucifying, crucifying. Our pride, our love
for sin, our devotion to self, and our rule would have kept
us away. Salvation is not man reaching
up to God. It's God reaching down to him.
Salvation is not man seeking God. There is none that seeketh
after God. It's God lifting a beggar from
the dunghill. You know what a dunghill is?
It's God lifting a beggar from the dunghill and setting him
among princes. Salvation is of the Lord, not
of man. And in verse 15, we see God's
sovereign intervention. We see proof that the gospel
is of grace. Look at it. But when it pleased
God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and what did he
do? He called me by his grace. Now there it is, salvation of
the Lord.