I might just read chapter 1. Paul, an apostle, not of men,
neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who
raised him from the dead, and all the brethren which are with
me under the churches of Galatia, Grace be to you and peace from
God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself
for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world,
according to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory
for ever and ever. Amen. I marvel that you are so
soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ
unto another gospel, which is not another, 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. As
we said before, and so say I now again, if any man preach any
other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be
accursed. For do I now persuade men or
God, or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should
not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren,
that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man, for I
had neither received it of man, neither was I taught it. but
by the revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my conversation,
my life, in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond
measure I persecuted the Church of God and wasted it, and profited
in the Jews' religion above many my equals in my own nation, being
more exceedingly zealous of the tradition of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace
to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the
heathen, immediately I conferred a knot 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.
But other of the apostles saw I none save James the Lord's
brother. Now the things which I write
unto you, behold, before God I lie not. Afterwards I came
into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and was unknown by faith
unto the churches of Judea which were in Christ. But they heard
only that He which persecuted us in times past now preaches
the faith. which he once destroyed, and
they glorified God in me. The Faith The faith comes from
the faithful God and is delivered by the faithful operations of
the faithful God in the faithful lives of his faithful servants. It is the most important thing
in all the world, isn't it? To hear the Gospel. There is
nothing more important. There is nothing more dangerous. Let me read these words from
our bulletin written some 200 and something years ago by Horatius
Bonar. On true doctrine rests the worship
of the true and living God. From error in doctrine springs
the worship of a false god. There is a tendency among many
religious people to undervalue true doctrine, to exalt morality
at the expense of the character of God and the teachings of our
Lord, and to deny the importance of a sound creed. I do not doubt
that sound creed has often covered an unsound life, But when I hear
it said, such and such do not believe the doctrine of sovereign
grace and substitution, but they love the Lord and are saved,
I wonder and ask, what then was the Bible written for? Is it
no infallible expression of the mind of God? Is it no standard
of truth? Are we to believe what appeals
to us and deny the rest? God forbid. God's word declares
the oneness of truth and condemns every departure from the truth
as a direct attack on God himself. Do not tell me that a man's heart
is right with God when his head contains a creed of error and
denies the person and work of the Redeemer." So, so true. So, so relevant. As you read,
the writers from the scriptures and the writers in the last 2000
years, they all looked around their world and looked at the
religion of their world and they all complained of what a degenerate
world it was in. And you just wonder if you could
bring them back and let them see Western world in 2015. Might they want to rewrite what
they witnessed in their day? which was always the case. And
in this letter of Galatians, Paul is calling the people of
God, calling them to come back and worship God in spirit and
truth. And he's causing a division in
his letter. He would wish for all of them
to come back, but history and the experience of his life showed
that many didn't. You just read 1st John which
was written maybe 50 years or 60 years after this book. You'll
see in that same region the false teaching had proliferated. And there they were prepared
with the Apostle John, an old, old man. to deny his witness
of God, to deny what the Lord had done in saving him, deny
what the Lord had revealed to them and in them. What a remarkable evidence. of
the hardness of the heart of unregenerate man. What a remarkable
testimony this book is to the need for a heart of stone to
be removed and a heart of flesh to be given. A heart moved and
energized by God to love Him, to worship Him, to live for Him,
to honour Him, to rejoice in Him as Abraham and Isaac did
as they went back down that mountain. What rejoicing there must have
been in substitutionary atonement. What rejoicing there is in heaven
in substitutionary atonement and successful, powerful, amazing
redemption, the unsearchable riches of Christ unfolded before
us in His life and His death and His resurrection and His
glorification. So you touch our God and you
touch His people in the same way, don't you? Which is why
Paul is so passionate and so enraged. And it's why, by the
grace of God, we've been given this amazing letter and this
amazing testimony of his life. He lays his life out before us. with great clarity and great
purpose. He lays it out that we might
see, as 1 Timothy 1.16 says, we might see, as we saw last
week, we might see a pattern, an outline, an outline of God's
saving grace. We read about it last week, didn't
we? But when it pleased God, who separated me from my Mother's
Word." There is wonderful grace, isn't it? Grace is like our God,
it's unchanging, it's immutable. The grace that we receive in
salvation is remarkable grace, but there is a grace that is
called prevenient grace. There is a grace that God's children
have from their mother's womb, a grace that was given them before
the foundation of the world. He was separated from his mother's
womb and he was called by grace. You see, God's children are called
by grace. They hear the shepherd's voice
of grace. They don't hear the workmonger's
call of law and works and religious morality to be provided and paraded
before men. And the Son, by His grace, the
Son is revealed in His people, that I might preach Him. And
the Son is revealed, God's people speak of Him, they proclaim Him,
and they immediately confer not with flesh and blood. They don't
need man's opinion. When God has done a work in their
lives, they don't need the affirmation. They don't need men to tell them
this is true. God has spoken truth to their
heart and they confer not with flesh and blood. Neither went
I up to Jerusalem. These are the verses that we're
looking at today. Neither went I up to Jerusalem.
to them which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia and
returned again to Damascus." has given the history of his
conversion, his life, and he gives us more and more. We see
so much of his life unfolded before us in the pages of scripture.
But also he gives us his history after his conversion. He gives
us the history of his commissioning. See, Paul was converted and commissioned
at the same time. You see, in verse 16, the Son
was revealed in him. Immediately I conferred, not
with flesh and blood. Neither went I up to Jerusalem.
See, he didn't need, he didn't need the approval even of the
apostles for what he believed. God had shown it to him. He'd had the revelation which
is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Gospel. The Lord had laid his hand upon
his servant Paul. The Lord had called him by his
grace. The Lord had converted him. The
Lord had commissioned him. The Lord had gifted Paul by his
grace, and he's gifted his church. Most of the New Testament is
written by this remarkable man. And it's wise and good for us
to know his history, to know that life. It's lovely to know,
isn't it? It's lovely to contemplate what
Romans 11.29 says. The gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. They're irrevocable. When God
gives, the giver gets the gift. When God gives, He gives forever. The gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. It was the revelation of the
Son. The Lord Jesus was just gloriously
revealed to him. Revealed to him as God. Revealed to him as the Christ
of God. Revealed to him as the substitute. Revealed to him as the one who
had taken away all of Paul's sins and taken them away by his
death on the cross and never to be remembered. He preached
Him. He just had one tune for the
rest of His life. He just had one tune to play
over and over and over again. He never tired of it. Like Abraham
and Isaac going back down that mountain, what must they have
thought? What conversations must they
have had about God? When we've been rescued, when
we've been redeemed, When the Lord has been revealed in the
hearts of His people, they are captivated. They are captivated
by His glory. They are captivated by the wonder
of who He is. It's a revelation. He preached
Him. He did not confer with flesh
and blood. How many sad circumstances have
we witnessed in this last years that we've been together of people
who the seed, the Word of God has come and it looked as if
it was flourishing. It looked as if it had taken
root and it was growing and it looked from our perspective as
if there was a bountiful harvest. And then they consulted with
flesh and blood. Is this word true? And it was
manipulated. They consulted with flesh and
blood, they consulted with their wives, they consulted with other
people in religion. And we have borne witness. We
have borne witness to the sad testimony of where those people
have gone. May God cause us to take deeply
and seriously the example of our brother Paul. May God cause
us to consult with God. Not consult even with our own
thoughts and our own wisdom. Consult with God. Just go to
his words. Go to his word. Go to his son. Seek our comfort and seek our
rest and seek our security in he who is the rock, the tried
and tested one. and blood, he didn't need to
go up to Jerusalem to consult with the apostles. He didn't
need Peter's approval or James' approval of his gospel. He'd
been taught by God himself and he'd been commissioned. But he
says in verse 17, I went into Arabia and then returned
unto Damascus. Some people think that he went
into Arabia to learn the Gospel and spend a few years contemplating
the Gospel. It seems to me from the context
of it that he had the Gospel, he didn't need to consult with
flesh and blood, not even his own. He was immediately commissioned. When people are taught of God,
They are taught by God and they have all that is sufficient. But what a remarkable time it
must have been for Paul as he sat in his quiet moments of meditation
and he thought back and he saw in the Scriptures He saw in the
scriptures as revealed by God, He saw the Lord Jesus from Genesis
to Malachi. He saw Him gloriously as the
great Saviour and Redeemer in Isaiah 53. What must those words
have meant to Him? They meant nothing to him beforehand. Before the Gospel they were just
bits of ink on a piece of paper, some words that he had memorised
and all of a sudden the light was shone upon them and he saw
that they were all about the Lord Jesus. He would have just
had the most remarkable time. God in His grace had brought
him to know so much of the Old Testament and now He brought
him to know the Saviour and the Old Testament was glorious. He didn't need to go to Jerusalem.
He went into Arabia. Arabia, we might think he went
all the way down to what we call Saudi Arabia now. But in fact
Arabia was the region just on the eastern side of the Jordan
River. And it wrapped around Israel
and down to the south. So he didn't have to go very
far from Damascus. He just went into Arabia. Then
after three years, after three years of preaching in Arabia
and Damascus, he finally went up to the apostles. I went up
to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him for 15 days. It's interesting the word that's
used when he went up to see Peter. He actually went up to give history,
to give an account, to bear witness, to become personally acquainted
with him. And he abode with him 15 days. It was enough time for him to
be acquainted with Peter and it was enough time for him to
raise the ire of the Jews in Jerusalem. Turn over to Acts
chapter 9 and we have this description of him. We might read from verse 19 down.
He was, when he received meat and was strengthened, this is
after Ananias had come to him and baptised him. Then Saul was
certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus and straightway,
immediately, verse 20 of chapter 9, he preached Christ. in the synagogues, that He is
the Son of God. But all that heard Him were amazed
and said, Is this not He that destroyed them which called on
His name in Jerusalem and came hither for that intent, that
He might bring them bound unto the chief priests, but saw increase
the more in strength?" When the Lord's people are persecuted,
they grow in strength. increased more in strength and
confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this,
this Jesus, is very Christ. And after that, many days were
fulfilled. The Jews took counsel to kill
him, but their laying awake was no one of Saul, and they watched
the gates day and night to kill him. Then the disciples took
him by night and let him down by the wall in a basket. And
when Saul was come to Jerusalem, this is after this period in
Arabia, he assayed to join himself to the disciples but they were
all afraid of him and believed not that he was a disciple. But
Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared
unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he
had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus
in the name of Jesus." And he was with them coming in and going
out at Jerusalem, and he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord
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 forth to Tarsus. just 15 days in Jerusalem,
acquainted with Peter. He didn't see the other apostles,
verse 19 of our chapter in Galatians, save James, the Lord's brother. James, I believe, is the half-brother
of the Lord Jesus, and he, he like Paul, had received his revelation
and his commissioning directly and personally from the Lord."
James, the Lord's brother. The Lord's brothers, we are told
in John 7 verse 5, neither did his brethren believe in him.
It just shows you again, Paul is giving this history and he's
mentioning James to remind us of the way God comes sovereignly
into the lives of his people at that time, that time of love. Think of James' history, the
Lord's brother. He had 25 years or more living
with him. Never once did his brother ever
sin. What remarkable, remarkable life
he lived in those years. And then James, like others in
his family and others in Israel, he had three and a half years
of witnessing his deeds, his miraculous, his mighty deeds.
He was the talk of Israel for those years. What remarkable
things, thousands, storms stilled, the dead raised, healed, people
miraculously dealt with by our great God. And he'd heard about
all that. He had no doubt, as a devout
Jew, been down in Jerusalem and witnessed in some way the crucifixion,
either physically or by report. He would have known about his
brother's crucifixion, his burial. He would have heard the reports
of his resurrection, him coming in that glorious resurrected
body to visit his mother and his mothers, his aunts and his
uncles, his cousins, 500 at one time, all of that. and still with a stony heart." And then it says in 1 Corinthians,
Paul describes himself as one unnaturally born, and he lists
James, the apostles and James, and then himself. Born from above. Paul has described what it is
to be born from above. John describes it in his gospel,
but as many as received him, to them he gave power to become
sons of God, even to them that believed on his name, which were
born, not of blood, nor the will of flesh, nor the will of man,
but born of God. born from above, remarkably transformed,
converted, commissioned, all in one go. Paul is so passionate
about this that he actually makes a very bold declaration in verse
20. He says, Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before
God I lie not. This is a very, very solemn thing
for a Jew to do. He's calling on God as his witness. He's calling on God as his witness
of his life, And of all that he writes, what Paul is doing is saying,
I am staking my whole standing before God, my eternal standing
before God on the truthfulness of what I have just written.
It was a solemn, solemn thing. If you remember the trial of
the Lord Jesus before the high priest, The religious people
finally had their hands on him. They judged him as unworthy of
death. And then the high priest held
him there, had him there bound. And Jesus, they brought these
witnesses, all these false witnesses, they couldn't agree. And finally
the high priest, in frustration, says, I adjure you. I put you
under oath before the living God. that you tell us whether
thou be the Christ, the Son of God." The Lord Jesus was now
under earth and He said to them, Thou hast said, Nevertheless
I say unto you, Hereafter shall you see the Son of Man sitting
on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. he had throughout his public
ministry revealed who he was. And now he takes these people
to that remarkable passage in Daniel chapter 7. Let me read
it to you from verse 13. I saw in the night visions and
behold one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven
and came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before
him and there was given Him, there was given Him dominion
and glory and a kingdom that all people, nations, languages
should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion which shall not pass away and His kingdom that which
shall not be destroyed. That's where the Lord Jesus took
Caiaphas and all of those religious people. There He was, standing before
them, declaring Himself to be God, declaring Himself to be
the Christ. What a glorious thing it is for
us to know Him. and love him to have him as that
king, isn't it? His dominion, an everlasting
dominion, which shall not pass away. He has a kingdom that shall
not be destroyed. He has given him given to him
dominion, absolute sovereignty over all this world and all things
in it, absolute sovereignty over all this universe, dominion and
glory and a kingdom. Paul was under solemn oath, as
the Lord Jesus was. He was under solemn oath to declare
the truth of God and nothing more and nothing less. He didn't come down there to
seek the Apostle's approval. And as we read in Acts chapter
9, after he'd spent those 15 days and after he had been persecuted
again in Jerusalem by the Grecian Jews, after he had confounded
them by proving from the Scriptures that this Jesus is the Christ,
He was sent away. He came into the regions of Syria
and Cilicia. They sent him off to the coast
at Sea of Syria to catch a boat up to the north. They brought
him down there and this is where Barnabas in Acts chapter 11 finds
him. Syria and Cilicia is that region
up there near Tarsus. They sent him back into that
region up near Antioch. and he was unknown by the face
unto the churches of Judea which were in Christ." What a lovely
description of the churches. Throughout the scriptures God's
people and the churches are churches that are in Christ. True believers
and true churches are identified by their relationship in Him,
in Him. It is the most common expression
in the New Testament to describe the children of God. Almost a
hundred times it's used, a hundred and seventy times it's used,
but when it's relating to us in Him, it talks of relationship
in Him. in eternity, in Him as a surety,
in Him as our mediator, in Him as our sacrifice, in Him as our
sanctifier, in Him who perfectly kept the law of God and honoured
it, in Him who is perfectly righteous before God, in Him on the cross,
in Him and with Him in the tomb, in Him and with Him resurrected,
in Him glorified. You cannot separate the Lord
Jesus from His people. You cannot separate the head
from the body and have it all to live. I love what that word
surety means. Some of you will go a garand
tour for your children when they buy things. And it's a shared
responsibility, a garand tour, isn't it? If I go a guarantor
for one of my children to buy something, the bank will go to
them. And if they default, then the
bank will come to me and say, where's the $10,000 or whatever
you asked. So there is a shared responsibility. Assurity, brothers and sisters,
is a different thing altogether. It's a precious thing. It's the
surety of the Eternal Covenant. And when a surety arrangement
is made, The one who has to repay is the surety in His entirety. God the Father no longer wants
the Christ, our Lord Jesus, was surety on our behalf in that
eternal covenant. From that moment on, God the
Father looks to the Lord Jesus. He looks to Him alone. He takes
100% responsibility. 100% responsibility for our sins. He calls them mine, Psalm 69,
Psalm 40 and many, many other places. He calls them His because
He's a surety. And he takes 100% responsibility
for our righteousness before God. And he takes 100% responsibility
for our lives in this world. He takes 100% responsibility. That's what it is to be a surety. What a remarkable surety we have. He has a kingdom. A kingdom that
is everlasting. A dominion that is unchangeable. That's what it is, to be in Him,
to be in Him, is to be one with Him. Nearer, so very near to God,
nearer I cannot be, but in the person of His dear Son, I am
as near as He. And the beautiful hymn goes on
to say, Dearer, so very dear to God, dearer I cannot be, that
in the person of his dear son I am as dear as he. Brothers and sisters, that's
why Paul was passionate, wasn't he, to attack The person is to
attack the saviour, to attack the saviour is to say things
about the redeemed, to say that they are not complete in Him,
to say that they are not perfect, to demean the Saviour by saying
He started a work of redemption and He started a work of sanctification
and if you add your little bit to it, you add your bit of law
keeping, you can actually polish up what the Saviour has done. Paul called it blasphemy, and
nothing has changed. It was blasphemy 2,000 years
ago, it was blasphemy when Cain took the work of his hands to
supposedly worship God with his own activities and his own work,
just out of the garden. It was always the same. That's
what they heard. They'd heard Paul's reputation
had gone out. They'd heard only that he that
persecuted us in times past now preaches the faith which he once
destroyed. He persecuted us to persecute
the Church. The Church is one with its Saviour. Saul, Saul, why do you persecute
me, says the Lord Jesus on the Damascus Road? To touch His Church
is to touch Him. I am Jesus, He said, whom thou
persecutest. And I'd like to finish with this
wonderful statement. Paul has outlined his amazing
Gospel of free and sovereign grace in the Lord Jesus. five verses, he outlines the
wonder of that Gospel, a Gospel of grace, a Gospel of peace,
a Gospel of the Lord Jesus who gave himself for our sins and
he delivered us from this present evil age, a Gospel that declares
the will of God and the sovereignty of God and our Father, and a
Gospel which gives all the glory to God. to Him, to whom be glory
forever and ever. So it's called the faith, the
faith. There is just a wonderful declaration,
it's called, the gospel is called the word of faith. It's called
the mystery of faith. It's the faith of the Gospel.
It's a common faith. All of God's people believe a
common faith. All of God's people are united
around a common faith. It's called the most holy faith. It was a faith that was once
delivered to the saints. Once delivered to the saints,
once delivered by the apostles, delivered perfect, delivered
complete, nothing to be added to it, nothing to be changed
from it. Even if Paul comes back and changes
it, let him go to hell. If an angel comes and preaches
something else, let the angel go to hell. It's a gospel, it's
a faith, that contains things to be believed about God and
about His Christ and about His glory of salvation. It's a Gospel
that can be obeyed and disobeyed. Paul in 2 Thessalonians describes
those that know not God, that obey not the Gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ. You see, the Gospel is Him. The
Gospel directs our attention to Him. The Gospel describes
Him. It outlines the glorious character
and work of our Lord Jesus. He is the object and the sole
object of faith. He is the faithful one. He is the faithful witness. He is, as Hebrews 12 says, the
author and finisher, the author and perfecter, completer of faith. God commands. There's no need to consult with
flesh and blood. We don't have to consult with
anyone. When this Gospel comes, when
this Gospel is heard, we don't need any other warrant, just
God revealing the faith, the faith. I love our Galatians, and we've
got some many wonderful precious verses to look at as we go through
Galatians. I'm excited about them before
I get to them, and I have to hold myself back and think, oh
dear, I've got weeks before I can get to these amazing verses.
But when it comes to faith, I'd just like you to look at chapter
3, verse 23, because faith is a description of our Saviour,
isn't it? He is that triumphal one, triumphant
one, faithful and true in revelation. And this is what Paul describes
as he describes the history of the Jews. But before faith came,
before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the
faith which should afterwards be revealed. See, the faith is
a description of Him. The faith is a description of
what He does and how He does it. It's a description of Him
coming. In 2.16 it says, knowing that
a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the
faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ. So what sort of faith do you
need to get into heaven? If faith is an activity of man,
what sort of faith do you need? It's got to be holy faith, brothers
and sisters. It's got to be perfect faith.
When did God's children live a life of perfect faith before
God? 2,000 years ago, I was perfectly
obedient to God. I loved God with all of my heart,
all of my soul, all of my mind. I loved my neighbour as myself. I looked at God's law and found
it delightful and I perfectly obeyed it. Perfectly faithful. And so was every other child
of God. perfectly faithful. The life I now live, says Paul,
in that wonderful verse in 2.20, I live by the faithfulness of
the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. See, we
believe, if you go back to verse 16 in that same chapter, we believe,
isn't it, we're not justified by any works, any works of any
sort that you do, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we
have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by
the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law, for by
the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. To be justified,
to be righteous before God, you must be as holy as God. He is, in Deuteronomy 7 verse
9, He is God, the faithful God. As Paul says in 2nd Timothy,
he abides, he remains faithful. Even if people deny him, he remains
faithful because he cannot deny himself. When the Lord Jesus
was coming into this world, it says, righteousness shall be
the girdle of his loin and faithfulness of his reins. He'll be adorned
with faithfulness. Titus says he cannot lie. His word is perfectly faithful,
Thy testimonies which Thou had commanded are righteous and very
faithful. Psalm 119. He is faithful and
He makes promises. He is faithful that promised. Hebrews 10. He is faithful. He can be relied upon. We can
have confidence in Him. We can act and we can live upon
His word of power. a wretched man that I am," says
this same apostle. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? Someone's delivered him from
a body of death. I thank God through Jesus Christ. See, he's faithful. He's faithful
in revealing his character in the Lord Jesus. He's faithful
in revealing his purpose and His plan and His eternal covenant. He's faithful in declaring what
man is in his true state. What we really are, ruined by
the fall, dead and blind and captive, unable and unwilling,
in our hearts an enmity against God. And we have no possible
way or power or will to change it. The only way, the only hope
for sinners is in the Lord Jesus and Him crucified. He's faithful
in revealing that He is that Saviour, that Redeemer. He's
faithful in revealing all of His promises. He's faithful in
revealing that all the promises are now yes and amen in the Lord
Jesus. He's faithful as we see in Galatians. He's faithful in raising up His
servants, His ambassadors, His witness. He's faithful in bringing
these witnesses to bring the true Gospel. He's faithful in
exposing the false. He's faithful in showing the
paths to walk. As Jeremiah 6.16 says, the paths
these faithful paths of rest and peace and truth. He's faithful
in his warnings, as we see in Galatians. He's faithful in warning
the people of God. It is the faith. You see, it's
called a common faith. All of God's people have a common
faith. When we meet our brothers and
sisters from the other side of the world, we sit down with them
and it's a common faith. We don't have to go through a
whole bunch of issues and things. We just sit and have communion,
common union with them, fellowship, fellows in the same ship with
them, which is why Paul calls it there is a unity of the faith.
There is just one faith and he wants people to be established
in the faith. And the scriptures warn for us
not to meddle, not to meddle with them that flatter other
people with their lips, and not to meddle with those who are
given to change. The faith, the faith that Paul
declares is an encouragement for his people to stand fast. In the midst of his persecution,
in the midst of what these people in the Galatian churches with
all of their morality and all of their legalism and all of
their niceness and all of their counterfeit appearance like Paul
and all of their scripture reading, he's calling on his people to
stand fast in all of what they said about him in the way they'd
denigrated his character. He wants people, He calls on
His people to strive together. He talks about this faith, this
way of faith that is once delivered. See, the faith is a description
of the faithful one. The faith is a description of
what the people who have the unity of the faith hold together. It's the faith of God's elect,
says Titus, the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of
the truth which is after godliness, in the hope of eternal life,
which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began. It is
an acknowledging of this truth. It's a reception, a recognition,
and it's a participation in what has been revealed. It's the hearing
of faith. The hearing of faith is hearing
the shepherd's voice, hearing that voice, him calling his sheep
to himself and God's children. hear that
voice and they know it to be true. They follow the shepherd's
voice, a stranger's voice they will not follow. What a great
shepherd we have. What a great shepherd we need
brothers and sisters. Prone to wander, Lord I feel
it. Prone to leave thy courts above.
Here's my heart Lord, take and seal it. Search out your wandering
sheep. good, good shepherd, and he does. He can't lose one of them. They can't ever be lost. No one
will pluck them out of his hand. He saves once and he saves forever. It's the hearing of the faithful
one. It's hearing him declared in
what he's done and how successful it is. the wonderful glorious
gospel of substitution, the wonderful glorious gospel that describes
a surety, describes a covenant, describes our great God now sitting
on that throne, sitting because the work is finished, sitting
on a throne because he rules all things. What a privilege, what a remarkable
thing it is for this great God to come into the hearts of sinners
like us and give us faith in Christ. Faith that just simply
looks to Him. What's the evidence of faith?
The evidence of faith is just believing, isn't it? The evidence
of faith is faith for says, I know whom I have believed, I know
whom I have trusted, I know whom I have faith in and I am persuaded
that He is able. I am not able but He is able
to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. What
have you committed unto Him? Brothers and sisters in Christ,
you commit absolutely everything. I commit all of my life, I commit
all of my eternity, I commit all of what it is to stand before
this glorious, infinitely holy God who is a consuming fire. Everything. All our eggs are
in one basket. All of our hope is just in one
place and one person. I know whom I have believed. Faith is the evidence. And the evidence of faith is
faith. And the result of God working
that, in one of His people and that becoming proclaimed to others,
in verse 24, and they glorified God. They hear about a messenger,
they hear about God's amazing saving grace in the life of one
of his people and they glorify God in me. They see Him and they
are amazed at the glory of God. If He can save the chief of sinners,
brothers and sisters, if He can save the chief of sinners when
He's riding proudly on His steed to Damascus with all of the religion
of the world telling Him how wonderful He is and how much
of a service He's doing to God, He can save the chief of sinners. What a glorious God we have to
look forward, look forward with expectation that He might save
more and more in our day. He will. He has His sheep. He knows them by name. He must
call them out. Their sins have been taken away. He has prepared a time when their
heart of stone will be removed. And a heart of flesh must be
given. A heart of flesh that believes. A heart of flesh that rests and
trusts in who he is and what he's done. Let's pray.