Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Galatians chapter 1. We're actually going to finish
chapter 1 today. Last week we did a message about
Paul going up to visit Peter, which it says in the text in
chapter 1. And now we're going to finish this chapter. But again, chapter 2 actually
is continuation. So next week you'll find we're
still being familiar ground. as Paul talks about, after 14
years, then he goes back up to Jerusalem again. So that'll be
a really neat passage to look at too. So Galatians chapter
one, Again, last week we looked at verses 17 to 20 where Paul
went up into Arabia. We do not know for how long.
I was looking at some commentators. Again, people speculating like
crazy. It doesn't say. It doesn't say how long he was
in Arabia. It just says he went to Arabia,
and then he went to Damascus. And we know he was there for
three years. He was in Damascus for three years. Because we're
going to see that's what the text says. And during that time,
what did Paul do? Well, we see in verse 16, we
see in verse 16 that he preached among the heathen. So that was Paul's calling, we
know that. That's every gospel preacher's
calling, to preach the gospel, isn't it? To preach the gospel. And remember, when it says heathen
in the scriptures, that's speaking about anybody outside of Israel.
Because the Israelites looked at everybody else as Gentile
dogs. They looked at us as heathens.
That's just how they did. The Romans were nothing but heathens
and pagans in their eyes. Look at Galatians 1.16, it says,
to reveal his son in me, Paul speaking of his conversion, that
I might preach him among the heathen. Immediately I conferred
not with flesh and blood. And then look in verse 18 of
Galatians chapter one, we see that after three years in Damascus,
Paul went up to Jerusalem and was with Peter for 15 days. It
says in Galatians 1.18, then after three years, I went up
to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him 15 days. Let's read verses 11 to 24 so
that we have the context of the verses that we're going to look
at today, which will be verses 21 to 24. We'll start in verse
11. Paul writes, 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. For ye have heard of my conversations
in times past in the Jewish religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted
the church of God and wasted it. And remember, wasted there
in the Greek is destroyed. He tried to literally destroy
the people of the way, the people of Christ. And profited in the
Jewish religion above many mine equals, My own nation, remember,
profited there was he's a trailblazer in the Greek. So he's far ahead
of people, his contemporaries, and he's far ahead of people
who are older than him. He's further ahead than his peers,
and he's farther ahead than Pharisees who have been part of that religion
for 20, 30 years. He had far exceeded everyone.
It says here, and profited in a Jewish religion above many
mine equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous
of the traditions of my fathers. So he was consumed with the Jewish
religion. He was consumed, and that's what
he wanted to forward. That's why he hated the people
of the way, because they were a threat to Jewish religion. Look at this, but when it pleased
God. You know, every believer has
that in their life. But when it pleased God, look
what it says, who separated me from my mother's womb and called
me by his grace, every believers called by the grace of God. Oh,
it's wonderful. And look at this. Why does he
call us to reveal his son in me? He said, Paul says, that's
why he calls us to reveal Christ to it. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. To reveal his son to 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 fifteen days. So he was there for two weeks
and a day visiting with Peter. And we're going to find out he
also was visiting with James. But other than apostles saw I
none save James the Lord's brother. Now there's a reason why it says
that, but other than the apostles saw I none. We're going to look
over in Acts later on. They were terrified of him. They
were terrified of Paul. They had heard of his conversion,
but they were thinking that it was fake, that he was a pretender and he
was looking to hook people in. Several commentators said that
they were probably terrified that it was just a plot to draw
them in. Now the things which I write
unto you, behold, before God I lie not. Afterwards I came
into the regions of Syria, and Cecilia and was unknown by the
face unto the churches of Judea, which were in Christ. So they
had never saw him. They had heard of him though,
because look what it says, but they had heard only that he,
which persecuted us in times past now preaches the faith,
which he wants destroyed. Oh my, the miracle of God's grace,
beloved. One who sought to destroy the
church now preaches the faith. Only God can do that, beloved.
Only God can do that. That's a miracle God, just like
every believer is a miracle God, a trophy of God's grace. We don't
always feel it, but we are, just like Paul was. And look what
they did. They didn't glorify Paul, did
they? They glorified God in me. What was Christ's end? We started
looking at John 17 this week. And Christ desired to glorify
the Father. We saw that in the text. That
was his whole desire to be here, was to glorify God the Father.
In doing so, and how did he do that? By saving his people from
their sins, by his perfect work. my oh my so we see in verse 21
that paul's visit with peter and james he goes to the re after
that he goes to the regions of syria syria and sicilia and he
went to those regions After some of the brethren of Jerusalem
had lowered him down from one of the walls of Jerusalem in
a basket, some of the Jews in that city, they had heard Paul
preach and, oh man, they were what we used to say madder than
a wet hornet. They just wanted to kill him.
They wanted to destroy him. Think of that. They were cheering
him on a few years before that, weren't they? When he was their champion, they
were cheering him on. And now that he's preaching the
way, now they want to destroy him. And you know why? Because
he was confounding them. He would go in the synagogues
and preach. He knew their religion better than they did. And isn't
that neat that what he calls dung that he learned, the Lord
actually used that to have him be able to dissect and tear apart
what they believed. Remember, his whole foundation
is being destroyed. We looked at that last week.
The whole foundation, that's why he went into Arabia, the
whole foundation of his religion, it had just been destroyed. It
had been torn apart. Everything that he believed was
wrong. Everything he believed was a
foundation of lies. And now he finds out who the
real God is, the one true living God. He finds out that Jesus
is the Messiah, didn't he? And God called him to preach,
he was a chosen vessel, wasn't he? Just like every believer,
he was a chosen vessel. Oh my. Some of these Jews though
in that city had heard Paul preach, they plotted to kill him. And
when it was made known by the providential hand of the Lord,
he escaped for his life. Turn, if you would, to Acts chapter
9. It was after that that he went
into the regions mentioned in verse 21, Syria and Sicilia. Acts chapter 9, look at verse
26. And when Saul was come to Jerusalem,
he was saved to join himself to the disciples. But they were
all afraid of him. Well, no wonder he only saw Peter.
No wonder he only saw James. Like I said, they were terrified. This guy was killing Christians.
They were killing their brothers. I ain't going near him. Peter,
that's fine. You want to talk to him? That's
fine. I ain't going near him. Look at that. And some of us
might be in the same boat if that happened to us. Oh, my. We know Peter was pretty bold,
wasn't he? And so was James. Peter chopped that ear off that
guy. He's like, I'm going to talk to him. Oh, my. Yeah, look at this. And why were they afraid of him?
Look at this. And believe not that he was a
disciple. They thought it was a false profession. They thought
he was trying to trick them, that it was a plot to get them
near and then destroy them. Now, that's something men would
think, isn't it? That's definitely something men would do, something
men would think. That ties in again. with verse
22 in our text, and it says, was unknown by faith unto the
churches of Judea, which were in Christ. No, they didn't want
to have nothing to do with it. But look at this, look at verse
27. But Barnabas took him in, and brought him to the apostles,
and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way,
and that which he had spoken to him, and how he preached boldly
at Damascus in the name of Jesus. Look at that. There's Barnabas,
good old Barnabas. See, Barnabas probably went over
and talked to him. And he gave his testimony to Barnabas like
he did in Galatians there. Well, I was on my way to Damascus
and the Lord arrested me, saved me by his grace. And I went into
Arabia because my whole belief system was in tatters. But there,
I looked at the Old Testament scriptures and I saw Christ everywhere.
Because that's all they had, right? They didn't have the New
Testament. And think of this, when Paul's
preaching to the heathen, what's he preaching out of? The Old Testament
scriptures, isn't he? He's preaching Christ, beloved.
So anyone tells you that Christ, that the Old Testament's for
the Jews and New Testament's for the believers, I used to
say that foolishness, just look at them and say, no, Christ is
everywhere in the scriptures. The law and the prophets, they
testify of him. He said me, that's what he said. Look at this. And he was with
them coming in and going out of Jerusalem. So for that two
weeks, he was going in and out of Jerusalem. And he spake boldly in the name
of Jesus and disputed against the Grecians, but they went about
to slay him. Which when the brethren knew,
they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him to Taurus. Taurus
is actually in Syria. So that ties in with Galatians
1.21. Then had the churches rest through
all Judea and Galilee and Samaria and were edified, walking in
the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were
multiplied. Look at that. They which feared
Him are now glorifying God in Him. Why? Because they're being
edified and built up by the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. Don't you think they must have
just marveled? But here was a guy who was going into people's homes
and pulling them out. And he had papers from the high
priests in Jerusalem to do that, and pulling people out of their
homes, and sending them to prison or
having them put to death. Remember, he was there when they
laid the coats at Stephen's death before his feet. And now he's preaching the faith.
And it says here, Look at verse 31 of Acts chapter 9. Then had the churches rest. Rest. They didn't have to be terrified
anymore of Saul the persecutor. I bet you word spread all across
the known church. Beware when you hear Saul's coming.
And there was no rest, right? They didn't know when he was
coming. Now we see there's rest. There's rest amongst the church.
And that's God's people, right? The church is God's people. And
then had the churches rest, we're at all Judea and Galilee and
Samaria, and we're at a five. Now they're being edified and
built up by the preaching of the gospel, not just by Paul,
but by other gospel preachers sent by God. And walking in the
fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, we're multiplied.
Oh, may God give us the ability to walk We know we do walk in
Christ and walk in the Holy Ghost, but to be at rest, that's the
hardest thing for us to do. But may God give us the grace
to just be at rest in Christ, no matter what's going on all
around us. And Paul went into Syria, we see in verse 21, he
went into Syria. of which Antioch was the capital.
Now we see Antioch mentioned quite a bit in the Acts of the
Apostles. And that's why, because it was
the capital of Syria at that time. And this was the area,
this area, this district was the scene of Paul's first apostolic
work among the Gentiles. And Cilicia was a southeasterly
province of Asia Minor directly bordering Syria, so it was very
close to where he already was. And it was separated by Mount
Pyrrhus in a mountain range of Ammanus. It was bordered by the
Mediterranean on the south. And this was Paul's native province,
because the capital of that province was Taurus. That's where Paul
was from. That's where Paul was from. So
he was very familiar with this area, wasn't he? Because Taurus
was Paul's birthplace. And our Lord had already established
a local body of believers in the region of Syria and Sicilia
under the preaching of some of his other apostles and early
New Testament preachers. And those saints in those areas
did not know Paul, right? Look at verse 22 of Galatians
1, and was unknown by face unto the churches of Judea, which
were in Christ. So they had heard of him, but
they'd never seen him. They'd never seen him. And they had heard how Paul,
who once destroyed the faith, was now preaching the faith,
preaching the way. And who is the way, beloved?
The Lord Jesus Christ. See, early Christians were called
the people of the way. I like that. Because there's
only one way. When you're going one way, you're
only going one way, right? And beloved, there's only one
way to glory, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. I like that,
people of the way. My oh my. We follow the one who
is the way, don't we? The Lord Jesus Christ. And they
also had heard that Paul was now preaching the faith which
he was trying to destroy. Look at verse 23, but they had
heard only that he which persecuted us in times past now preaches
the faith which once he destroyed. Now look at that. That's a miracle,
beloved. That's a miracle of the new birth. He once sought to destroy the people of the way And now by
the grace of God, and by the grace of God alone, he's now
preaching the way. He's preaching Christ. He's preaching
the true way. He's preaching that Jesus is
the Messiah. He's preaching that Jesus is
the one true and living God. He's preaching that there's salvation
in no other. Oh my. In one of the cities which Paul
went was Taurus, the city in which he was born, and that's
where Barnabas went seeking Paul. They were wondering where he
was, and Barnabas went out, he went to Taurus, and there's Paul.
What's he doing? Preaching the gospel. He's preaching
the gospel, beloved. It probably wasn't very hard
to find Paul. You just went to the synagogues. And there he
was, preaching the gospel. And not always just the synagogues,
right? Because he was sent to preach to the Gentiles. So he'd
preach to anyone. If he had an audience, he'd preach
to them. And I don't mean an audience
like when someone's doing a play, either. I don't mean that. But
if he had a sheep to preach to, he'd preach to them, wouldn't
he? Dave, I was telling you about that the other night. Just one
sheep, man. There's just one sheep. Donny Bell told me, you
preach the gospel, and you preach it like there's a thousand of
them sitting there with you. You just keep preaching the gospel,
man. That's what he told me. That
was his charge to me when the Lord called me to preach. And
man, I've never forgotten that. Just one sheep. Oh, my. My, oh, my. In Barnabas, we saw
in our text in Acts chapter 9, Barnabas strongly defended Paul,
didn't he? He told the brethren, he said,
he's preaching Christ. He's preaching the faith which
he once destroyed. Now think of how the Pharisees
thought of that. And this is what made them so
mad. Again, their champion. He was their champion, beloved.
He was the Pharisee of Pharisees. And now he's preaching Christ?
Now he's preaching the way? Oh, my. And again, he's taking apart
any arguments that the Pharisees have because he knows their religion
better than they know it. Oh, my. And you know what Paul
did, though, when he stopped them in their tracks? He just
showed them the scriptures. Here's Christ. Here he is. There's a picture of him. There's a picture of my dear
countryman. There he is. There's a type, and he's the
substance. There's a shadow, and he's the
substance. And so Barnabas strongly defended
Paul because the saints, again, we saw they were in doubt of
him, right? They were probably thinking, well, he's trying, this is just
a false profession, he's just trying to plot us. He's got a
plot going, he just wants to kill us. No. What do you think,
how do you think they felt when they first heard him preach?
Because Paul, like every grace preacher, preached about the
sovereignty of God. preached about the free and sovereign
grace of God in Christ. Preached that salvation is in
no other, he said, right? There's salvation in no other.
No other. He went to Mars Hill and he preached
on the unknown God. And he preached Christ. Oh, they
must have glorified God. Because look what the scripture
said. In verse 24, after they heard that he now preaches the
faith, they glorified God in him. Look at that. Look at that. Now we saw in the
previous verse, when it pleased God to reveal his son in me, immediately he conferred not
with flesh and blood, but he went and preached among the heathen.
And now it says, they glorified God. That's the people of the
way. They're glorifying God in him.
And this is not a contradiction. Jesus Christ is God Almighty.
The Holy Spirit is God Almighty. Our Heavenly Father is God Almighty.
And if we say Jesus dwells in us, it's a true statement, right?
He lives within us, right? Just as the Holy Spirit does.
And if the Spirit of God dwells in us, the Holy Spirit of God,
that's a true statement. It's confirmed by the scripture.
It said that the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the
dead dwell in you. He that raised up Christ from
the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit,
which dwelleth in you, Romans 8.11. My, we're guided by a new nature
now, aren't we? Not an old fleshy nature. And
brethren, there's only one God. You can't separate one divine
member of the Godhead from the other. And this wonderful truth
is so precious to know that the fullness of the Godhead dwelt
in Christ bodily. That's what the scriptures declare,
right? My. My oh my. Now, we've not seen Christ with
our physical eyes, but we've seen him with the eyes of faith,
haven't we? We've seen him by faith. We've heard his voice
too, haven't we? We haven't heard the audible
voice of God. I wonder about these modern folks
that say they got a hotline to God. You know, they say, well, God
talked to me the other night, told me to do this. I'm like,
God didn't tell you to do that. He didn't. We know, Vicki and
I know a lady and she professes to be a Christian. She's a very
religious person. She said, well, God told me to
move. And I was sitting in the restaurant
one time, and Vicki, another waitress, comes by. And she says,
man, I'm so confused by this. And she keeps telling me that
God's telling her to do things. I said, that's not God telling
her to do that. God don't talk to people in an
audible voice. He talks to us through his word.
And I was able to tell her about Christ. He talks to us through
his word, beloved. That's how he talks to us. My oh my, we're going to see
him one day. We're going to see him face to
face one day, aren't we? But what are we going to be doing?
Are we going to be waiting for him to talk to us? No, we're going to be
going, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who is and was
and is to come, thou hast redeemed my soul. We're going to be singing
hallelujah with all the great hosts of heaven, aren't we? Oh
my, what a day that'll be. What a day that'll be, beloved.
Oh my. So we've not seen the Lord with
our physical eyes or heard the audible sound of his voice. We've
heard his voice through the preaching of the word. And Christ revealed himself to
us, didn't he? He's revealed himself to us.
through the preaching of his gospel, all by the power of the
Holy Spirit. And under the preaching of his
gospel, our God has given us what? True, saving faith. It's
a gift of God. You must be born again. And when
you're born again, he gives you faith to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. See, people got the cart before
the horse when they say, you got to have faith, and then you're
born again. Nope. Can a dead man make himself alive?
Nope. How can you breathe unless you're
alive? You got breath in you, right? We're dead spiritually,
beloved. How can we believe if we're dead?
Can't believe when we're dead, can we? Dead spiritually. But when we're
made alive, and when we're given the gift of faith, we cast ourselves
wholly on Christ. Don't we? We're made willing
in a day of whose power? God's power. That's what happens. That's what happens. Oh, now
we see the face of Christ, don't we? By faith. We were once blinded
to Christ. Remember Joseph and his brother?
I know I keep going back to that, but remember Joseph? They didn't
have a clue who he was. And he reveals himself, and they're
all crying, rejoicing. Then they thought he was gonna
kill him. But he has mercy on him, doesn't
he? See, we've sinned against God, right? But he has mercy
on us in Christ. Oh my. He has a right to destroy
every one of us, doesn't he? Because of our sin. But he didn't
do that. we're going to look at this morning,
that the wrath due us, the full wrath due us, fell upon our King,
beloved. Oh my. And under the preaching
of the gospel, God's given us true saving faith to see the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And if we've been raised
from that state of deadness, we've heard the voice of Christ
saying to us through the preaching of the word, come, follow me.
Follow me. Look and live. Come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. I will. There's the general call,
right? Oh, my. And Paul didn't receive
the gospel from man. No, he was not taught by man. And neither were we. We heard one of God's sent preachers
preach the gospel, didn't we? God gave us ears to hear, didn't
he? Oh, yeah. Some ambassador from God told
us about Christ. What do ambassadors of country
do? Well, they tell about that country, don't they? They may
even tell, most of them tell about the ruler. Well, we're
going to a far country, beloved. And let me tell you about the
king. He's the king of kings. He's
the Lord of Lords. He's so merciful that he came
to this earth and died in the room and place of his people.
I've never heard of a king doing that, you see. But he did it.
He did it. He humbled himself. In his humiliation,
he became a man. set aside his glory, beloved,
and became a man, and he was spit on, and he was despised,
and he was rejected, and all we like sheep went astray, didn't
we? Scattered. And he went to that cross willingly,
and he gave up the ghost, gave his life for you and I, beloved.
That's what our King did. That's our king. Oh my. And you know what else? We were
chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the world.
We had no clue. God himself chose you and I as believers in Christ
before the foundation of the world. We had nothing to do with that
choice. There was nothing in us that made God choose us. As
a matter of fact, there was only in us that which would cause
him to reject us. And oh, the mercy of God, beloved. Let us think about that this
week. Oh, the mercy of God. See, this is what Paul preached.
Remember, Paul said, I've obtained mercy. I didn't get what I deserved. I obtained mercy. So have we,
haven't we, as believers. We've obtained mercy. And this
is not just mercy from a man. This is mercy from God. This is God's eternal love and
grace and mercy set upon us from eternity. And you know who's done that?
It's not some fake God that people have to move around. It's the
true and living God that's done that for us. It's the one true
living God. And remember, as we go through
this world, and every day can be a struggle, can't it? It can
be. And a lot of times it is. But
remember, I am what I am by the grace of God. I have God by my
side. I have to remind myself that
all the time. I've got God with me all the time. He said, He
said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. Never. He said, I'll be with you when
you go through the waters. I'll be with you till you grow
old. Every day I've been with you from I've been with you from
when you were in the womb. and I'm going to be with you
until you breathe your last breath and then I'm going to take you
home with me. My, and who's saying that? Our
sovereign, majestic God. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? I know I've been saying that a lot but it's so true.
Is anything too hard for our Lord? Nothing, beloved. Nothing. Now, we go through things
in this life. We do. We go through some strong
trials in this life. But let us never forget that
He'll never leave us nor forsake us. He's ever with us. Oh, my. And if the Spirit of
Christ dwells in us and bears witness with our spirit, we're
His children. Oh my. Now think of this. Paul gave evidence of true saving
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the saints of God received
him, didn't they? They received him into their fellowship. And then they glorified God in
Paul. They glorified God in Paul. That we who are the people of
God glorify God that he saved us. and let us glorify God that
he saved our brothers and sisters in Christ. That's why our fellowship is
so sweet, beloved. We have the same Father, we have
the same Spirit, and we have the same Savior who shed his
blood for us to redeem us. We come from all different walks
of life, don't we? Different countries, but we're
one in Christ, beloved. Isn't that wonderful? And it's
by God's divine providence that we're here today, right now. Think of this. Think of this. Oh my, I love this. Our lips
didn't praise him before, but now we're gonna get up, we're
gonna sing praises to him. Let's sing praises to our King.
We never did that before we were saved. So as we're singing, rejoice,
give God glory for the great things he's done for us. Heavenly
Father, we thank you again for allowing us to be here, allowing
us to gather together. Oh Lord, you're so incredible. We can't even comprehend your
grace and your mercy which you bestowed upon us, but the little
bit we know, we marvel. We marvel that you've had mercy
upon we who are sinners to the core, by birth, nature, and choice,
from the top of our head to the bottom of our feet. And yet,
yet our great Lord Jesus Christ, you came here to redeem our eternal
souls. And we glorify you, Lord. And
we thank you and praise you for saving our brothers and sisters
in Christ. We pray you be glorified by the
messages as they go forth. May you use them to draw in your
lost sheep and edify your people, Lord. We'll give you all the
glory, honor, and praise in Jesus' name. Amen.