Delaware. Oklahoma that is. Not the state. One brother. Had one brother mention that
to me this week. He's seen that I've been there. Time before
and thought it was Delaware State. Delaware, Oklahoma just about
an hour from here. Anyway, it's good to be back. Continue to
pray for them. They might find the pastor over there. Galatians
chapter one, Galatians chapter one. All right, we are back in
our exposition of Galatians. We've been working our way through
verse by verse. God's Word is to go through verse
by verse, see how this letter is and these letters to these
churches, these books of the Bible to us, how they are within
their contexts. A lot of times we like to pick
out verses here and there and lay them to whatever topic it
is that we want to lay them to. But sometimes we'll find out,
and there's nothing wrong with topical preaching. I've said
that here before. I do topical preaching as well as verse by
verse. Sometimes you'll preach on a
certain subject and it'll be a topical where you'll pull several
verses from all over the place, showing a particular doctrine
or a particular teaching of the scriptures. But whenever you're
preaching through a book, verse by verse, you'll begin to see
that there's a context to the passages, and then you can pull
from other places in scripture to validate exactly what's being
said, because the Bible doesn't contradict itself. But thinking
this week as we came into these next two verses, we looked last
time we were together at verse 10, And we look to being either a
man pleaser or a God pleaser. In our preaching, we're either
a man pleaser or a God pleaser. It's one or the other. The gospel
that you preach either is a gospel that is pleasing to God, that
is centered in God, that comes from God, or it is a man pleasing
gospel, which is no gospel at all according to Paul's verses
eight and nine. That is no gospel at all, but
that is a gospel of works, gospel of law keeping, a gospel of building
your own righteousness, a gospel of decisionism, free willism. All those things are false gospels. And Paul has made very clear
here in our passages that this is not the gospel. And we've
seen the importance of that because whenever you preach another gospel,
whenever you teach another gospel, whenever you hold to another
gospel, it's not the true gospel and it's perverting Christ himself
because it is the gospel or the good news of Christ and what
he has done. So we've seen that over the last
few weeks, and we looked last week that if we are a man-pleaser,
if we are preaching a gospel that is centered upon conditions
that man must keep, and the reason that's a man-pleasing gospel
is because that's what feeds the pride of man. The natural
man and his pride feeds off of building your own righteousness.
We want to be a part of something. We want to have something, some
part in there. We want to have our backs patted. We want some kind of an accolade,
some sort of a acknowledgement that we've been part of that,
that it couldn't have been done without us, that we are the deciding
factors. And so many people today in the
gospels that are being preached today have a gospel that preaches
that Christ has done all that he can do, and all that he would
do, but he won't transgress your free will. So you have to make
a decision either to accept him or to reject him. And by that
acceptance or rejection is where the destiny, whether you go to
heaven or whether you go to hell lies. Your salvation is dependent
upon your choosing either Christ as your savior or continuing
in your own way in your own devices and however it is that you want
to live. Now, the gospel is not that. The gospel is not that. And men who preach that, they
are doing that to be man-pleasers and not God-pleasers. And Paul
said, look in verse 10, he said, if I yet please men, I should
not be the servants of Christ. So all those preachers that are
out there that preach this gospel of conditions to be saved, you
must repent, you must believe, you must. Now, brethren, again,
now I'm making this very clear and I hope that this comes through
and I say it over and over again because sometimes people that
are watching or sometimes people are going to sermon audio and
listen to single sermons. may not have heard what I've
said in other sermons, so I try to reiterate this again for their
understanding. We are not saying that repentance
and faith is not important and that it is not something that
is gonna be there, okay? Whenever one is born again, They
will repent and they will believe upon Christ. They will come to
Christ as John chapter six says, they will come to Christ. They will come believing, they
will come receiving Jesus Christ. They will come acknowledging
that he and he alone is their salvation, that they will not
be looking to their righteousness. They will turn from their law
keeping and turn to faith in what he has done. This is all
evident from one who has been born again. So we are not slighting,
we're not denying the importance of repentance and faith. However,
what we are saying is that the repentance and faith is not what
it takes to get you saved. You are not saved because you
repented and believed. You repent and believe because
you have been saved. Salvation is of God. Salvation
was completed by Christ and His work alone. That saved you. That put you in a state of salvation. It put you in a justified state
before God being not guilty of all the sin that you ever commit.
Okay, so your salvation is not hinged upon whether or not you
choose or don't choose. The fact is that everyone for
whom Christ died will choose Jesus Christ. They will come.
They will come to him. But the gospel is that that is
the case. It will happen. And it will only
happen for those whom Christ died. And so we looked and seeing
that if anybody's preaching something other than the sovereign grace
gospel, the doctrine of grace gospel, you know, these are terms
that we use, but the Bible just calls it the gospel. If we are
not preaching that, then we are not a servant of Christ. And
those are hard words, very hard words, because there's a lot
of friends and relatives and good folks that are out there,
humanly speaking, that are zealous for a God that they have in their
mind that they think that they're serving and doing well in that
service, but here God is saying that if you're preaching anything
besides the finished work of Christ alone and His choice,
His application of His salvation, then you're preaching another
gospel and all you're doing is pleasing men and you're not a
servant of promise. And so today we come in and we
wanna look at verses 11 and 12. And I was thinking about this
this week. We hear a lot of times in discussions,
theological discussions that go on and everything, men that,
and I've heard this said to me many times, but whenever you
talk about looking to the word of God alone, and not looking
outwardly to creeds and confessions and things like that. A lot of
times men will say, well, you mean it's just you and God? You
know, you don't have any accountability by any creed or confession that's
out there to hold you accountable. You know, what about all these
men in the past that have preached all these things? What about
all these men who have held to this certain doctrine? You're
saying that all those men, that you're smarter than those men?
There's the accusation that if it's just you and your Bible,
then you're saying that you're the only one that God is speaking
to and you're the only one that knows that. See, that's not the
things that we're saying, brethren. We're not saying that we're not
to be held accountable. However, we're not held accountable by
the works of men. We're not held accountable by the wisdom of
man, by the philosophies of man, by the doctrines of men, by creeds
and confessions and commentaries. I love to read John Gill. However, I've found as I've read
through John Gill, there are many things that I disagree with
John Gill on whenever I look into the Word of God. And I see,
I don't see that that's what that is saying. Now, I can only
know the things that I've been given to know of God. I can't
know what I don't know, all right? I've said that here before. I
can't know what I don't know. I can only know what's been given
to me to know. And I can only know what I see
in the Word of God. I can't go out. Now, I can go
read John Gill all day. I can go read F.B. Meyer. I can
go read Charles Spurgeon, all these men that are out there.
And I'm saying that I read those guys. I'm just throwing out names
there, by the way. But I can go read all these commentaries. I can go look at all these confessions
of faith. And if I go to them and say,
oh, well, that's what that guy says. So that's obviously what
this word means. So I have to believe it because
this guy says it. Well, what's my basis? Whenever
I go to that man and I say, okay, he says this is what this is
meaning. So that must be what it means.
So I'm gonna believe what he says. We're now putting our trust
in what He says and His thinking and His thoughts. And listen,
they're no different than you or I, brethren. Those men have
the same anointing that we have. They have the same Spirit of
God that we have, if they're the children of God, they have
the same anointing that we have. The Bible says that we have an
anointing from above, and that anointing is the Holy Spirit
of God that teaches us. Now, they have the same thing
that we got, so that doesn't mean they have some greater knowledge
or some greater ability to ascertain the scriptures, okay? They are
just as susceptible to error as I am, as you are. That's why
we search the scriptures. We read the scriptures. That's
one of the good things about being in a fellowship together,
because as the Lord teaches us, we have each other to hold each
other accountable to the word of God. But brethren, the spirit
is the one who teaches us. And so often we hear in preaching
and theological discussions, we hear men appealing to confessions
and creed, and because somebody has held a creed for so many
years, then obviously, because it stood the test of time, it
obviously must be the truth. Well, brethren, listen, the Catholic
doctrines, have stood the test of time. They've held to some
of their doctrines for centuries, you know? And does that mean
just because the vast majority of people, because the Catholics
are the vast majority of people, Do you think that because for
thousands of years, it was like what, around 400, that the Catholic
church really began to come to life and to become what it is?
And so from 400 until now, The Catholic church has held
to a lot of the same doctrines, preached the same things, taught
the same things. So should we listen to them because
of the vast majority of writings, the vast majority of people that
has agreed with that? And because that doctrine has
been the same and held the same for centuries? No, why? What's
the basis that we do not agree within? I believe everybody that's
listening and watching and here would probably say, well, because
it doesn't line up with the word of God. Okay, so what does that
mean? That means that we have to be
taught the word of God, right? And that there can be people
that are holding to scriptures, but holding to scriptures not
right, not true, not faithfully, okay? As the Bible says, they
rest the scriptures, they twist the scriptures, okay? Same thing
with any other cult, you know, any other false church. They
take the scriptures and they apply it the way that they want
or they add to it like the Catholic church. They don't believe that
this Bible is the only rule of faith. So they have the traditions
of the fathers, the church, the dictations of the church. And
same thing with like the Mormons, you know, they have the Book
of Mormon that goes along with the Bible. They have the writings
of their elders. So you see all these things and
people are appealing to things outside of God's word. Well,
the Bible says that all scripture is given by inspiration of God
and is profitable. So the Bible is the inspired
word of God and the Bible is given to us for all things to
prepare us for the works of the ministry. We take the word of
God over everything else. even though there may have been
good intended faithful Baptist men who made these confessions
of faith to 1643 and the 1689 and the Philadelphia confession
of faith and all these other confessions of faith that are
out there, you know, there's some good in them, okay? but
we do not appeal to them as the line of orthodoxy. We do not
appeal to them for what is true and what is not true, because
those people, those men, just like any other church, can become
errant. They can become, just like this
Galatian church, if the Galatian church would have wrote a confession
of faith during this time of error, then we would have a confession
of faith that we'd look back on and say, well, hey, they said
that it's of law and of grace. And so they're just susceptible
to error, the Galatians were. The Corinthian church was susceptible
to error. Well, brethren, those seven Baptist
churches in England who wrote that First London Confession,
they're susceptible to error. So are the ones from the 1689.
the Philadelphia Confession. Not to mention that some of those
confessions of faith are built upon each other. They just take
one confession and change it around a little bit. So we don't
use confessions of faith. We don't use commentaries of
men. And Paul is making that clear here in what he is about
to say today. to the question of, so you mean
to tell me that you can just have your Bible and the Holy
Spirit and that's all you need? Absolutely, that's what I'm saying.
That's exactly what we're saying. Matter of fact, that's what the
Bible teaches in many, many places, is now, again, that doesn't mean
that God has not given us preachers, pastors, teachers for, Confirming
these truths to the sheep, feeding the sheep with these, we declare
the truth. We declare that, and what you, what, we listen to
that. I preached a sermon last week in Delaware, and we talked
about the reason why we meet. And what's our message? And the
reason that we come together is we preach the message or declare
the message of the scriptures and that feeds the sheep, the
sheep feed off of that message. But there are some that don't
wanna hear that message and it doesn't feed them and they go
away. We are fed by the message of
the gospel. And so whenever we, Get with
just us and the Bible and the Holy Spirit. It will teach us. He will feed us. He said he would
send a comforter to comfort us by the word of God. Remember,
comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Tell them what the Lord has done.
The Holy Spirit is gonna come and remind us of what Christ
has done. He's gonna teach us. He's gonna
lead us into all truth. And you don't have to look to
the, commentaries and the theologians and decide, hey, we gotta believe
this because there's too many men back here and they call them
divines. There ain't no divines out there. Reverend, divine, all those words,
they shouldn't be using those words. So let's look today at
11 and 12 and see what Paul has to say because Paul here is not
only given an account of himself, but he's also, I believe, given
an account of every child of grace in how we come to understand
and know the gospel, and then how we are to preach the gospel,
okay? So let's look at a few things
here today before our time is up. Starting in verse 11, and
I'll read down through 12. It says, 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." So Paul, remember in verse one, he proclaimed that
he is an apostle. And he said, not of men, neither
by men, but by Jesus Christ. And we've hashed this out now.
He is not a messenger because some man made him that and not
by. He wasn't sent by some man. He
wasn't made a messenger by some man or sent by some man, but
by Jesus Christ. And now he's saying that the
gospel that he has preached is not after man. It didn't come
from man. He wasn't sent by man. It wasn't made up by man. This
gospel is a gospel that is not after man. So we see that Paul
is still in the same theme as how he started this letter. He
is making the point to these Galatians. You've gone off into
error by looking at the Judaizers who are saying, you must still
keep the law for righteousness. You're in error, that's not the
gospel and it's of utmost importance because if you believe that false
gospel, if you preach that false gospel, the Bible says here,
let him be accursed. If you're preaching a false gospel,
believing a false gospel, you're not a servant of Christ. But ultimately he says there
in verse seven, if it's another gospel that you believe or preach,
you are perverting Christ himself. It's all coming down to the importance
of who Jesus Christ is and what Jesus Christ has done. That is
the center of the gospel. That's the center of our message.
And so whenever we preach, Whenever we teach, whenever we declare
the gospel to men, we are declaring a finished work of Christ, not
an act or work of man. The gospel is not what you must
do, but what Christ has done. And again, I say, there are places
all over the country that today they are preaching the gospel
and their gospel is accept Jesus Christ. Receive Jesus Christ
in your heart and make Jesus your Lord and Savior. Come down
in front of this church and confess your sins and pray this prayer
and, you know, follow this Roman road of salvation. But listen,
that is not the gospel. Brethren, the gospel is preaching
the person and work of Jesus Christ alone. And we're gonna
see that's what Paul is saying here. That's what Paul was told
to do by Jesus. So let's look here, verse 11.
Paul says, but I certify you. What does that word certify mean
now? In our English today, the word certify still means pretty
much the same. It's not as clear, I don't think,
as it was back then. But the word certify there means
to declare or to make known. Matter of fact, in our King James
Bibles, the Greek word behind this word certify is translated
make known 16 times, declare four times, certify one time,
and give to understand one time, do to wit, W-I-T, one time, and
wat, W-O-T, one time. It basically means, as I said
to declare or to make known. So Paul is saying here, but I
make known to you. I declare to you brethren. And notice he's talking to the
brethren here. He calls the Galatians brethren. They have fallen into
error, but he's still them, brethren, he doesn't just cut them off
soon as they say something in error. No, he is, he is coming
to them with instruction. He is coming with them with correction
from the word of God. See, he didn't appeal to, he
didn't appeal to the Sanhedrin. He didn't appeal to the Pharisees.
He didn't appeal to even the law of Moses. He didn't appeal
to the, to the religious leaders of the day but he appealed to
Christ. He went back to Christ. He took
them back to Christ, but he called them brethren. He didn't say,
okay, you've went off into error, so you obviously are not born
again. You're unregenerate. Unregenerate, again, that word
is not the correct word, but that happens a lot today, brethren.
That is going on all over the place, especially on the internet.
So many men are quick to relegate somebody as unsaved because they
might speak something that what they perceive is erroneous, without
listening to them through, without not investigating what their
claims are, or because they are holding to some long line of
theology that has been held out in decrees and confessions. See,
brethren, I've found, especially coming in, since I was brought
to the Doctrines of Grace several years ago, I've come to find
that a lot of the major denominations and theologies that are out there
that you find in books and old confessions and things like that,
that a lot of these things are passed down, boom, boom, boom,
boom, boom. They catechize kids. And how
do they do that? They take those same things and
they say them over and over and over and over again, till it's
riddled in their heads. And I'm not saying there's nothing
bad about teaching your, training your kids in the Word of God.
You need to teach them the Word of God, not teach them a catechism.
Teach them the Word of God. Have them memorize scripture.
Have them learn the Word of God, okay? Now that's not gonna make
them saved, but it is gonna do what the Bible tells, raise your
children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. But what
do we do? We want to run to all these men
to tell us what this means. But here Paul says, I declare
to you are certified brethren that the gospel which was preached
to me is not after man. And so, yes, there are gonna
be brethren who go off into error and we have to, by meekness and
love and patience, we have to tell them the Word of God, correct
them with the Word of God, rebuke them with the Word of God, reprove
them with the Word of God, take them to the Word of God, and
discuss these things. And listen, sometimes it may
not be just an overnight thing. Again, the Holy Spirit has to
teach. The Holy Spirit has to be the one. If those brethren
are believing the gospel, but yet they might be off on something
that you might deem unreasonable and everything, you need to lead
them to the Lord. Don't think that it's your job
to change their mind, because it's not. It's your job to declare. It's your job to declare. It's God's job to elect, to quicken,
to convert, and to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's God's job. Our job is
just to declare and to love the brethren. preach the gospel and
love the brethren. That's our job. And that's what
Paul is getting at here. Look at verse 11, he says, but
I certify you brethren that the gospel which was preached is
not after man. Again, that word certify is to declare or make
known. It isn't to convince. He didn't
say that I'm here to convince you, right? He didn't come here and say,
I'm here to offer you. He said, I came here to make
known, to declare. Now Paul has said this several
times already throughout his ministry. Look if you would with
me over at 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Now remember whenever he wrote
to the Corinthians, here again is another church that went into
some serious errors. They had some serious problems
at Corinth, but yet Paul never did cease calling them brethren.
Matter of fact, most of the people that we see and how they were
acting at Corinth today, we would have already kicked them out
of our churches. Most people would have. We would have already
said, that's enough, we're kicking you out. Now there was one man
that should have been kicked out, that incestuous man, he
should have been kicked out. But there's a lot of misunderstanding
about things. and people have to be taught.
Remember in the commission, remember in the commission, Jesus told
the church to go make disciples with the gospel, okay? So that
is... making followers of Jesus Christ.
Those who have been born from above, they hear that message,
they become followers. They're converted by the gospel.
They change from going in their direction, thinking of their
own righteousness, and they realize because they've been born from
above and been given spiritual leaders, hey, it's not my righteousness,
it's his. And so they go and they follow,
and then the Bible says that we are to baptize those who are
made disciples, those who turn from that and turn to Christ
in the gospel, that we're to baptize them. And then those
who are baptized, the Bible says that we are then to teach them
all things whatsoever Christ has commanded. Now, in that,
in that of itself, supposes that there is gonna be a length of
time that these people are gonna have to come under the preaching
and the teaching of the word of God and hear the word of God
being declared to them. And as the Holy Spirit teaches
them in their heart and in their mind, the truth of God, according
to the scripture, and as that pastor or that teacher is teaching
those things, it will confirm it in their heart that this is
the truth, this is correct. And as they hear that it is correct,
they will then by faith begin to believe and to follow those
things. See, it is apparent that we have a knowledge of how
God is working. He is working by quickening,
by converting, and by growing, and growth is a process. Now,
I'm not talking about progressive holiness. That's not what I'm
talking about. We are progressing in the understanding
of how we are saved. We are progressing in our understanding
of grace and in our knowledge of Christ and how he has done
this and how he is working in us. We grow in those things. And so there are gonna be people
that are not gonna understand and they're gonna be at different
levels, but yet so many people think that if you become a child
of grace, that all of a sudden now you are, just immediately
inputted all the knowledge of the Word of God into that. All
you have to do is just read it one time and then you completely
understand it. But yet all I can do is follow those people that
say that over a course of a period of time, you're gonna see there's
gonna be a change of mind and attitude about certain things.
As the Lord teaches them, they're gonna change their mind about
certain doctrines and about how they are understood. They're
gonna change their mind about how things are done. I'll take
myself for example. At the very first, I was one
of those belligerent guys that just liked to attack people,
and I was very coarse and curt with people. I wasn't very patient
with people, and I may still not be. I don't know. You have
to ask people on Facebook whether or not I am. I like the sport of debate. I like the act of proving somebody
wrong and me right. And see, that's not right. That's
not right that we do that. That's not how we do things.
So if somebody may have been following me over the time, I
would hope that they've seen, at least I feel that I've come
a little ways from how I used to be to the place now where
I realize that it's God that has to teach them. And I just
declare the truth and present it, and then the Lord, if He
either gives them light or He doesn't give them light at that
point in time. And so I just trust the Lord
to continue to do what He's doing, and so we become more patient
and more gracious in our deliberations with each other. in our talks
and in our discussions and things. And so Paul here is doing the
same thing with these Corinthian brethren, these Galatian brethren.
He is coming to them and correcting them by the word of God, knowing
that Christ will teach them and they will be corrected as he
does such. Now, look if you would, 1 Corinthians
11, verse 23. Again, we're looking at this
word certify in Galatians 1.11, where Paul said, but I certify
you, brethren. I declare unto you, or I make
known unto you, Verse 23 here, Paul is teaching them about their
Lord's Supper debacle, okay? They were not conducting the
Lord's Supper correctly. And he says, for I have received
of the Lord that which also I, here's the word, delivered unto
you or certified unto you, okay? That I made known unto you. For
I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you. So notice here that Paul received
this doctrine from the Lord and he delivered it to them as the
Lord had instructed him, okay? So the Corinthians received the
doctrine from Paul as the Lord had instructed Paul, okay? And so Paul was given a message
or given a doctrine or teaching by God. And then he in turn,
made that known to the Corinthians and established them in the faith
once delivered to the saints. That same faith that Christ preached
to the first apostles and then to Paul. And so we see that Paul
makes it clear that this wasn't something that he received of
men or the traditions of men or the wisdom of man, but he
received of the Lord and that's what he delivered. He didn't
deliver to them what John Gill said. or in Paul's instance,
what Gamaliel said, okay? He delivered unto them what the
Lord said. Brethren, we must preach what
the Lord gives us to preach. If we preach something, and see,
I'm often hesitant and very cautious to preach something. Now, at one time I wasn't. I
didn't have any problem pulling off the shelf some sermon some
other guy preached and just preaching because he preached it and I
just trusted him, right? We need to be very careful to
preach things because of other men have said it. We ought to
get into the word of God and when God speaks to us preachers,
let that be what we preach. Let that be what we taught and
then be held accountable by the brethren and sisters in the churches
with the word of God. But we need to preach what we
have been given of God. And I know some men are gonna
say, well, that's just mysticism. That's just, you know, hocus
pocus. You're just thinking that God's
gonna reveal this thing to you. Well, the scripture says that
he will. The scripture says that he will.
Look with me at 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Verse one, Paul wrote, moreover,
brethren, I declare, there's that word there, certify, the
word behind certify, that word declare unto you, moreover, brethren,
I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which
also ye have received and wherein ye stand. Verse three, "'For I delivered
unto you, first of all, "'that which also I received, "'how
that Christ died for our sins, "'according to the scripture,
and that he was buried, "'and that he rose again the third
day, "'according to the scriptures.'" Now, here again, Paul is saying
that this gospel, this message, is something that he received
from God and not from man. and that it's that gospel that
he certifies or declares. And again, I make known, this
is not an offer. This is not God making a plan
or an offer for you to follow. This is a declaration. It is making known what already
has been. It's making known or giving to
understand what already has been done. The gospel is about what
has already been done. And Paul here says, I declare
or I make known to you the gospel which I preached or declared
unto you. Again, that word preach means
to declare. It doesn't mean to anything else besides declare.
Which also you have received and wherein you stand. But notice
the gospel that he preached. I delivered unto you, first of
all, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Now, I've heard people mention,
and I've mentioned this to you guys before, I've heard people
say that this is the gospel in a nutshell, that Christ died,
was buried, and rose again. If you're preaching that, you're
preaching the gospel. False. False. The Mormons preach that Christ
died, was buried, and rose again. Jehovah's Witnesses preach that
Christ died, was buried, rose again. The Catholics believe
that Jesus died, was buried, rose again. The gospel, in a nutshell, is
not just Christ died, buried, raised. Look, Paul says, according
to the Scriptures, how he died according to the Scriptures.
That doesn't just mean that we look to the Scriptures because
the Scriptures tells us that he died. Remember the Scriptures here,
whenever this was being written and Paul is talking to them,
the Scriptures had not yet been written. The New Testament Scriptures,
all they had was the Old Testament Scriptures, right? And so he's saying that the gospel
is how Christ died according to the scriptures, the Old Testament. How did he die? Well, in Isaiah
53, the Bible tells us that he died as a ransom for many, not
all. That he justified the many, not
all. That everyone for whom he died
They would be justified and that God would be satisfied because
not one would be lost. He's preaching particular redemption or what the Calvinist might call
limited atonement. He's preaching that his death
is for a certain amount of people and those certain amount of people
are gonna receive every benefit from that salvation regardless. They're gonna receive it. It's
gonna be applied to them. And God's gonna be satisfied
with that. We see in the scriptures that whenever he died, that he
died the way that he died, it was according to the scriptures
because he was sent for a people to die for those people. And
so we have to take this according to the scripture, not just as
a historical fact that Jesus died, but the doctrinal teaching. He died according to the doctrinal
teaching of the Old Testament. The gospel is what did the Old
Testament teach us about his death? Well, his death was a
substitutionary death. That's what the whole entire
Levitical system was about, was a substitution. There was a substitution
on your part. When you sin, the priest made
a sacrifice on your behalf, and a goat, a lamb, a dove, whatever
the case might be, was sacrificed on your behalf and was slain,
and that blood was in place of your blood. And it pointed to Christ, who
by one sacrifice had perfected them forever. Who by his one
sacrifice has saved his people to the uttermost. By that one
sacrifice and his blood shed has forgiven their sins, has
reconciled them to God, have been a propitiation for them. See, brethren, whenever we say
that Christ died according to the scriptures, it's Christ died
according to the doctrine of the scriptures. What does the
Bible teach about that death? Not just that he died. It's not
the fact that he died. It's the teaching of what purpose
did he die for? the accomplishment of that death.
You shall call him Jesus for he shall save his people from
their sin. Father, I have done all that
you've told me to do. I have not lost one. It's finished. Everything is wrapped up in that
and that how he was raised according to the scriptures. Again, it's
not just the fact that he raised from the dead, but the whole
doctrinal teaching behind that resurrection. That resurrection
proved that everything that he did in that death, doctrinally
and physically, spiritually, was accepted of God. God accepted
that that payment was enough for God's justice. And so God
raised him from the dead. And in raising him from the dead,
we also realize that Jesus is raising himself from the dead,
declaring him also to be the son of God. He is actually God. See, there is a teaching behind
the death. a doctrine behind the dead. And
so whenever Paul here is talking in Galatians, that I certify
you that this gospel that I'm preaching isn't by man or comes
from man or is about man, it's about Christ. And any other gospel
that's being preached is a perversion. Let them be an anathema, let
them be accursed because they are perverting the work and ministry
and person of Christ. That's why it's such a strong
opening here in Galatians. And he's certified, he's declaring
this to them. The gospel isn't about your works. It never was. Whenever I heard
it from Christ, whenever I taught it to you, it wasn't ever about
you plus Jesus. It's never about what you have
to do and what Jesus has done. It's only about what Jesus has
done. And the Judaizers that are coming
to you telling you that you still need to be circumcised, that
you still need to walk according to the law of Moses, that you
still have to walk in a righteous way to be accepted of Christ,
to be saved and accepted and kept and eventually glorified
in heaven. You have to hold a righteousness
of your own. That's not the gospel. And we're gonna learn what the
gospel is and how we walk by that gospel as we go through
Galatians. But brethren, just to tell you,
it's walking in faith of what Christ has done. That is the
law that we walk by. We walk by the law of faith,
by trusting what Christ has done. And Paul is reiterating, not
only to the Corinthians or the Galatians, but the Corinthians
and telling them, he said, listen, the gospel that I preach is a
gospel of finished redemption by one man and one man only,
and that's Christ Jesus. And here we see it wasn't delivered
to him by man, it was delivered by God. And whenever he preached
it, he preached it, not according to man, but as God did it. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
eight. 2 Corinthians chapter eight. Look with me if you would
at verse one. He says, moreover, brethren,
we do you to wit, that word wit there is that same Greek word
that we got certified in our passage in Galatians 111. Moreover,
brethren, we do you to declare of the grace of God bestowed
on the churches of Macedonia. We declare unto you of the grace
of God. We declare the grace of God.
We don't declare the works of men, the works of law. We declare the grace of God,
not the law. And so we see here that Paul,
again, is saying that not only is it a declaration, again, it's
not an offer, it's not an invitation, it's not a begging them to come,
it's a declaration. It's a declaration. And those
who have ears to hear, when they hear that declaration, if God
has opened up their heart, given them a spiritual mind, spiritual
ears, spiritual eyes, they will hear that declaration of grace. And that grace will become precious
to their ears because they have come to know the inability of
themselves to keep the law of God. Now again, this gospel that
he certifies, back to Galatians, if you would, he said, brethren,
I certify you that the gospel which was preached of me, the
gospel that was preached of me, again, we just seen in 1 Corinthians
15, that gospel is a gospel of what Christ did in his death
and resurrection. But brethren, if you remember,
If you remember this gospel, the word gospel means glad tidings
or declaring good news, okay? Back in 1 Corinthians chapter
two, start reading in verse nine. If you'll remember, Paul also,
before he even got to chapter 15, delivered unto them really
what the gospel is. He said in verse nine, but as
it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man the things which God had prepared for them
that loved him. That's why I say, listen, God
has to give us spiritual eyes and spiritual ears. put in that
heart of flesh. That's the new birth. That's
what we're referring to. Those phrases right there is
referring to the new birth, being born again. Unless a man is born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. We have to be born again
before any spiritual activity can be done because we have no
ability because we are spiritually dead. So that's why I said at
the beginning of this, anybody that preaches that you have to
do something spiritual, repent, believe, those are spiritual
activities. Anybody that preaches that you
have to do that to get saved doesn't know the gospel because
the gospel tells us that Christ alone has saved us. So we're
not saved by a work that we do of conditions, repenting and
believing, but the gospel also tells us that we, are wicked
and evil and in the flesh natural and the flesh cannot do anything
to please God and that it needs to be born again. And that the
repentance and the faith that that is a gift of God. It's not
a works. It's a gift of God. And that. The spiritual gifts that God
has given to us. The spiritual gifts of God, love,
joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance,
faith. These are gifts of God. We believe
because of that. The faith, the believing comes
after we're born again. And in Corinthians here, he says,
I have not seen, ear nor heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that
love him, but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. See, the gospel and the word
of God is revealed by the Spirit of God, not by a man, not by
a preacher, not by a teacher. And again, that doesn't mean
get rid of the preachers and the teachers, okay? That doesn't
mean, all right, you can just stay at home in your own little
house because God has commanded us to assemble. God has commanded
us to assemble together. God has within that assembly
laid forth roles and given officers within the congregation of pastor
and of deacon. Okay, so that's not to negate
those things, but to understand that if anything that those men
preach and teach is to be received and understood, they have to
be taught of God first. The Spirit must teach them, and
that's what Paul's saying. God hath revealed them unto us
by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, Yea, the
deep things of God, for what man knoweth the things of man
save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, the things
of God knoweth no man. Okay, no man. Verse 12, now we
have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit
which is of God that we might know the things that are freely
given to us of God. So again, what was the gospel
that Paul preached? and declared that one that was
revealed by the Spirit, this gospel is something that is free
to give, free to give. It's not something that you work
for, not something that there's a condition upon. We spent a
lot of time on that a few weeks ago, so I won't harbor on that
much, but I just wanted to remind you that if it's not the gospel
of free grace, And when I mean by free grace, I mean sovereign
grace. I mean free grace that God chose
you, that God quickened you, that God converted you, that
God keeps you, and that God will glorify you, and there's no conditions
that you must meet for all that to happen. Jesus had to die,
that's the only condition on your part. Jesus had to die for
you, and that's the only condition for you to have that met. but no conditions for man to
keep. And so we see it's by revelation. So that's why back in Galatians,
if you would, Paul says, but I certify to 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 by man, but by
the revelation of Jesus Christ. Look with me if you would at, I believe it's Acts chapter 22.
This is the account at Paul's Damascus
road experience of Christ. And then whenever he goes to,
see Ananias and what Ananias says to him. Look at verse 14,
if you would. Now, remember, this is Paul's
account. And I would say that while this
is Paul's actual experience, I think it also shows forth the
experience of every child of grace. Maybe not as direct, you
know, Jesus spoke directly to Paul. I mean, Paul saw Jesus,
spoke directly to him. I mean, it was a direct thing.
Christ isn't speaking directly, audibly, physically to us in
person like he did Paul. But I still think that this whole
scenario is the same. Look at verse 14, he says, and
he said, this is Ananias speaking to Paul. And he said, the God
of our fathers hath chosen thee. What's the message that Ananias
told Paul? Well, he spoke of election. Here
Ananias, listen, the gospel hadn't been proclamated very long in
Jerusalem and in the surrounding areas. Now, obviously this is
after the dispersion because we're in Damascus and we got
Christians believing Jews out in Damascus. But here, what was
one of the messages? One of the very first things
that Ananias preached to Paul, you were chosen. There's a lot
of people that says, well, you don't need to be preaching election.
Don't be preaching election. That's for the more mature Christian. That's for the mature Christian.
After years of learning other stuff, then you get into the
deep things like election. The very first thing Ananias
preached to Paul after his conversion was you've been chosen. He says, the God of our fathers
have chosen thee that thou shouldst know his will. Now that's just
exactly what Paul told us, right? He said that we've been given
the spirit that we might know the things that is freely given
to us. The will of God, that we might know the will of God.
What is the will of God? Your salvation. The will of God is your salvation.
He has set you apart, your sanctification for his purpose. He has saved
you, justified you. But we can't know the things
of God, save the spirit of Christ be in us, right? That's what
we just read in Corinthians. So here he's telling Paul exactly
what Paul was telling the Corinthians. The God of our fathers have chosen
thee that thou shouldst know his will and see that just one. Who did he point him to? Did
he point him back to Jerusalem, to the church? No, but that's
important. I'm not negating the church.
The church is important, but who did he point him to? The
just one. Did he point him to Moses? He didn't point him to
Moses. He pointed him to the just one,
because there's only one who's just. Moses wasn't just. None
of those Pharisees who claimed to keep Moses wasn't just. Paul wasn't just. Who was the
Pharisee of Pharisees? Gamaliel's right-hand man, his
star child. He wasn't just, but Christ is
the one who he's talking about. So we're chosen of God, we're
given to know his will or the spiritual things of God and to
see or to look upon the just one and see that the just one,
to see that just one and should hear the voice of his mouth,
his word. God has chosen us, given us the
ability to know his will. given us the ability to look
to Christ and to hear the voice of his mouth. And that's what
Paul, what God had done to Paul. But yet the Bible says that we
have the same anointing, the same anointing from above, that
same spirit teaches us. And who does the spirit always
refer to? It always refers to Christ. It
always points to Christ. It never speaks of itself, it
speaks of Christ. Why? Because it's the spirit
of Christ. He's always gonna speak of Christ
because it's Christ's spirit. He's not gonna speak of himself
as someone different than Christ. He's gonna speak of Christ because
it's Christ himself in the form of his spirit that has been said
to us. Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit
is one and the same. We learned that, didn't we? Just
a few weeks ago, whenever Jesus said that I want to send you
another comforter, the spirit of truth the world can't receive,
but I'm going to send that spirit of truth unto you. And what did
Jesus say? He said, and I will come to you.
Wait a minute. I thought you were sending the
spirit. Aren't they two separate people,
separate and distinct individuals? No, he said, I'm going to come
back to you. I'm going to come to you as the
comforter. My spirit will ascend to you.
I'm going to send my spirit. It's coming from me. It's my
spirit, but it's me. It's me, but it's my spirit that
I'm sending. Now, how does all that work?
I don't know, brother. It's above and beyond my understanding and
recollection. But I just take the Bible to say what it says,
that Jesus said he would be the one that comes to them in that
form as the Holy Spirit, their comforter. And here it says that
we are given that spirit that we might know the things freely
given to us. that we might know his will,
that we might look to the just one. What does faith do? What
does Christ in us and that gift of faith do? It causes us to
look to the just one, that we should hear the voice of his
mouth. Jesus said, I'm a good shepherd.
The shepherd loves his sheep and he gives his life for his
sheep. But he said that the sheep hear my voice and they follow
me. Another's voice they will not hear, they will not follow.
they'll hear my voice and they will follow me. Doesn't mean
they might get sidetracked, doesn't mean that something might catch
their glimpse and they might kind of trot over there and take
a look at it, but whenever the shepherd calls them, they'll
follow him. So we see here in Acts 22, 14,
that Paul's experience is an example of our experience. Now look with me, if you would,
at 2 Corinthians 12. 2 Corinthians 12, we're just
about done. 2 Corinthians 12. Look at verse two. Paul said, on the road to the masses, he's
seen Christ, right? Then the Bible talks about Paul
going somewhere. And he begins to speak of being
revealed things by Christ. And look at what he says in 2
Corinthians 12, look at verse two. Paul says, I knew a man
in Christ above 14 years ago, whether in the body I cannot
tell or whether out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth. Such
a one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, whether
in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell, but God knoweth,
how that he was caught up in paradise and heard unspeakable
words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such a
one will I glory, yet of myself I will not glory, but in my infirmities. For though I would desire to
glory, I shall not be a fool, for I say the truth, but now
I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which
he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. Now here it is,
verse seven. And lest I should be exalted
above measure, though the abundance of the revelations that were
given to me, a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet
me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing
I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And
he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength
is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in mine infirmities, that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Now, here we see that Paul was
given revelations, okay? He was given revelations by Christ. Now, up in verse two, he says,
I knew a man in Christ above 14 years ago. And in verse three,
I knew such a man. He's speaking of himself, brother.
He's talking about himself who went into the third heaven, the
paradise. He was caught up in the paradise
and heard unspeakable words. These were the revelations that
Paul is talking about here, okay? That things were revealed to
him, okay? Now, with that in mind, let's go back to the second
chapter of 2 Corinthians again. 2 Corinthians, chapter two. Let's look at the
passages that preceded those ones that spoke of knowing freely
what God has given, what Paul said. Verse two, he says, for
if I make you sorry, I think I wrote down the wrong passage
here. Yes, sorry, it's 1 Corinthians
2. Start in verse 1. And I, brethren,
when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or
wisdom, declaring unto you, and there's that word again, declaring
unto you, the testimony of God. So he's declaring the testimony
of God. What did God testify to him? See, it's not what did the religious
leaders testify to him, not what the school books or the theological
books or all the wisdom of man teach him, not what is the testimony
of God. What did God testify about himself? That's what he's declared. He
says, I did not come with excellency of speech or of wisdom, and he
means by the wisdom of men, but declaring unto you the testimony
of God, for I determined not to know anything among you save
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. So Paul here in that revelation
was given to know that it is a testimony of God, the revelation
of Jesus Christ, by Jesus Christ, about Jesus Christ. So we are
given a testimony of God by God. Paul received that, right? So
it's not of man, but by revelation. It's by the testimony of God
to Paul. Paul didn't preach what other
men taught him to preach. Paul preached what Christ taught
him to preach. Now, Ephesians chapter three.
Look with me down to verse three. I'll start with verse one. It
says, for this cause, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ, Jesus
Christ, for you Gentiles, if you have heard of the dispensation
of the grace of God, which is given me to you, how that by
revelation, he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore
in few words. Whereby, when ye read, ye may
understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other
ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now
revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit." You see that, brethren? It is revealed not only to him,
but to everyone else by the Spirit. See, it was hidden in ages past.
The gospel was surely preached in ages past, but its fullest
revelation wasn't seen until afterwards. Types and foreshadows
preached the gospel. They knew that it pointed to
the Messiah, but how that would be accomplished and the fullest
extent of it They was not, they didn't know it. Paul here is
making that very clear. And the mystery is that it would
include not just the Jews, but all the Gentiles. The mystery
included the Gentiles. Look at verse six, that the Gentiles
should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of
his promise in Christ by the gospel. whereof I was made a
minister according to the gift of the grace of God given unto
me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less
than the least of all saints, is this grace given that I should
preach or declare among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery,
which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who
created all things by Jesus Christ. to the intent that now under
the principalities and powers and heavenly places might be
known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the
eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in
whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith
of him. Wherefore, I desire that ye faint
not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this
cause I bow my knees under the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would
grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened
with might by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell
in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded
in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth
and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ,
which passes knowledge that ye might be filled with all the
fullness of God. Now unto him who is able to do
exceedingly abundantly above all that we may ask or think
according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the
church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end,
amen. You see, brethren, it is by revelation
that we receive these things, that we know these things, that
it's hidden unless Christ reveals it. And He reveals it by His
Spirit. We are taught by the Spirit. Now, the last verse I want to
read, and we've already read it, and you don't have to turn
to it if you don't want, because we've already been there once,
but I want to turn to it once again. That 1 Corinthians 2.10
says, that God hath revealed them unto
us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the
deep things of God. And so Paul, he says, I certify
or declare unto you, brethren, he's not making an offer or an
invitation, he's making a declaration that the gospel or the good news
about Christ, which was preached or declared of me, is not after
men. It didn't come from men. It wasn't
made up by men. It doesn't have anything to do
with men. For I neither received it of men, neither was I taught
it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." Now, brethren,
we have ample scripture that teaches us that we are taught
of God. We have, it is in one John. when John chapter two and verse 25, he says, and this is
the promise that he had promised us even eternal life. These things
have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you, but the
anointing which he had received of him abideth in you. Again, that anointing is speaking
of the Holy Spirit. But the anointing which he had
received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man
teach you. You have not any need, and ye
need not that any man teach you. But as the same anointing teacheth
you of all things and is truth and is no lie, and even as it
hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." See, as the Holy Spirit teaches
us, brethren, we learn and understand and know. And so Paul here, whenever
he comes to the Galatians, He says, this gospel is a gospel
that is revealed. It is not one that is just picked
up by man. It is not one that is propagated
by man. It is a gospel that is taught
in the heart by the Holy Spirit. And those who are taught of this
or revealed this, they in turn turn around and declare this.
What's Paul doing? What's Paul doing here? He's
setting up the fact of showing that these Judaizers must not
be born from above or at least converted of the gospel because
he's telling them those who are born from above have been revealed
the gospel. That gospel is revealed to them
in their heart and they in turn are gonna declare what they have
been taught. They're gonna declare the truth. They're gonna declare what Christ
has told them. Just like Paul, I declared unto
you the gospel, which was preached of me. And
it's not after man, but it was by the revelation of Jesus Christ. So brethren, it all goes back
to what I've said before here, that those who are born from
above will preach the gospel of sovereign grace. That's why
we don't call those who don't preach that gospel brothers and
sisters in Christ, is because we don't know. Now, again, we
don't know whether they're elect or not, but they have not been
converted. They have not been made believers
yet. And until that point, we can't call them brothers because
they hold to another gospel that perverts Christ. And Paul says
that the revelation of Jesus in the new birth by Christ is
the gospel of those things freely given to you. And it's of utmost
importance because if you preach something else, you're not a
servant of Christ and you pervert Christ himself. Does anybody
have any questions or any comments? All right, well, we'll pick up
verse 13 next week, Lord willing. which by the way is our last
week here in this building. Unless something changes with
the people between now and then, but it will be our last week
here in this building. And so hopefully we will rejoice
one more time here, brother, before we move into a house.
But we will pick up Lord willing with verse 13 and begin to look
about Paul and what happened with his experience from Christ.
All right, let's bow and go to the Lord in prayer. Father, once
again, we do come to you and we thank you so much for the
word of God and thank you for the spirit of Christ that has
been given to us to teach us the word of God, Lord, to guide
us in all things and to be our only rule of faith and practice.
And so, Father, we pray that the Holy Spirit would give us
understanding of those things that you've taught us in this
word. Lord, I pray for each one that's here that you might speak
and minister to their hearts, Lord, that you would quicken
and draw them and convert them, Lord, to the gospel. Father,
I pray that they might, if they believe upon you and have come
to know their sin and their need for Christ, Lord, I pray that
they might trust on you and that they might come and be baptized,
added to the membership of this church. Father, I pray, Lord,
that you just might help us to minister this gospel to this
town as we can, Lord, to those that we are around. Father, we
just thank you so much for all that you've done for us, and
we thank you for that salvation that is in Christ Jesus, that
finished work, Lord, that no man's hand can be put upon, but
only Christ and what he has done. Father, I pray for our members
who are not here today. I pray that you will be with
them wherever they're at, that you might keep them, minister
to them, Father. And we pray, Lord, that you'll
just be with us this week and that you'll keep us safe and
that you'll guide us and direct us, Lord. Until we meet again
another day, and Lord, we just lift all these things to you
and pray that we've been pleasing in your sight today as we have
worshiped, that it's been by your spirit, that it's been in
truth, Lord, that it's been edifying to the brethren and glorifying
to Christ. And it's in his name that we
pray, amen.