All right, brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Galatians chapter one. I am going through the epistle
to the Galatians with the brethren in the Philippines. And so I
will try to bring a message from Galatians from time to time here.
And first let me say I apologize for having to cancel Thursday
night. This was not well last week at
all, but I hope I'm on the mend. And let's ask the Lord's blessing
before we begin. Our Father, our God, Lord, thank
you for all the blessings you've given us so richly and so freely
by your grace in Christ Jesus. Thank you for your son. Thank
you for giving your dear son to be our prophet, priest, and
king, our savior, our acceptance, our all. Lord, we pray today
that you'd be honored in the message. We pray that you would
exalt your own name in our hearts and make us to truly worship.
We pray for our brethren that are not with us this morning.
And Lord, you know the need of your people as only you can,
only you know, and only you can provide. We pray you do so for
Christ's sake. And we ask you now, Lord, to
forgive us our sins and turn all our attention, all our focus,
our affection to Christ above. In Christ's name we ask it, amen.
All right, liberty by revelation of Christ. That's what we're
looking at here. This whole epistle is dealing
with how the Lord delivers his children out of bondage into
liberty. And Christ is our redeemer. Redemption
has to do with liberty. He's our redeemer. Our Lord Jesus
redeemed us from the curse of the law by his blood, being made
a curse for his people. He comes in the day of his power
at the appointed hour and he frees us from our sin nature,
giving us faith and repentance to trust him, believe him, keeps
us believing him. And one day he's gonna free us
completely from the presence of sin. He's gonna redeem us
out of this world into his presence. All the way, our Lord's leading
us and he is our liberty. He's our redeemer, our keeper,
keeps us sanctified to him. And that's what I want us to
see here. Paul had said there in Galatians one, he had said
there in verse six, I marvel that you're so soon removed from
him that called you into the grace of Christ into another
gospel. He says in chapter five, he said, this persuasion cometh
not of him that called you. Who called? Who did the calling?
Well, that's his first question in verse 10. Let's begin right
here. He said, for do I now persuade men or God? Am I the one with
the power to give a new heart and persuade men to believe Christ
or is it God that does it? Who does the calling? Who does
the calling? And he said, or do I seek to
please men? Am I seeking to please men? Am
I taking the offense out of the cross to try to please men persuade
men to come to Christ, make a profession, for if I yet pleased men, I should
not be the servant of Christ. We can't be men-pleasers and
be the servant of Christ. This is bondage to think that
we have the power to persuade, we're trying to please men by
crafting the gospel just so. That's bondage that the Lord
has to deliver us out of. He said, verse 11, he answers
these questions concerning, do I persuade men or does God? He
said, I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached
to me is not after man. For I neither received it of
man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ. Now that's so if everybody got
saved. It's the Lord who reveals Christ. He's the one who persuades us
in the new heart. He said, verse 13, concerning
this craftiness and this bondage that Paul had been in, he said,
verse 13, you've heard of my conversation 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 mine own nation, being more exceedingly
zealous of the traditions of my father. Now that was the bondage
he was in, false religion. but not now. Why? Why not now?
Who persuaded him? Was it man or was it God? He
said, verse 15, 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. He said, am I trying
to please men? He said, when the Lord did this
work in me, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. I've
stopped worrying about what men thought and try to please men.
I didn't confer with flesh and blood. And he goes on to say,
I didn't go up to the apostles. He went to the desert. He went
and was alone with God. God worked this. God worked this. And the brethren that heard about
it knew. He said, I wasn't known by face to them. They didn't
know me. They had never seen them. They'd
never seen me. Verse 23, he said, They had heard only that he which
persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once
he destroyed, and they glorified God in me. They gave God the
glory. They knew God did this. So we'll
talk to you now about liberty by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Liberty by revelation. When a
man's been delivered from bondage by the power of God, that's when
he will trust the Lord alone to deliver his people. When you've
experienced the power of God delivering you, persuading you,
giving you a new heart, a new will, new desires, faith to trust
God. When you've experienced his power,
you'll stop trying to persuade men by crafting the word and
all these other means and methods. Paul said, do and I, I persuade
men, or am I trusting God to persuade men? You know, a man
can become religious without God. He can become religious
without Christ. But if that's the case, then
he's gonna preach a different message than these scriptures.
He's gonna use different methods than what the Lord's preacher
uses. Paul said, he said, if I preached
circumcision, I gave them one thing to do, I wouldn't be suffering
persecution. He said, but then would the offense
of the cross cease? And when men are trying to craft
the gospel just so that they can persuade men, they take the
offense out of the gospel. Think of the pride of that now,
to think that rather than just preaching the word of God as
it is, that I can craft it and take some things out and take
the offense out and I can please men with it and persuade men
through that. But if I'm not preaching Christ,
if I'm not preaching the gospel, all that a man has persuaded
another man to do is to take on a false religion. And that's
double bondage. That's more bondage. That's what
Christ said when you encompass land and sea. He told the Pharisee,
you're going through land and sea to make a proselyte, and
when you've made him, Across the light you made him a twofold
more child of hell than when you found him. He's in double
bondage now. How does a man take the offense
out of the cross? You've heard it. We've all heard
this. A man preaches election. That's
where salvation begins with God before the world was created.
But a man will craft the word and say, see God looked down
and saw who would believe. That's why he chose him. That doesn't offend anybody.
That pleases men. but that's not the truth. The
truth is, God chose whom he would, because he's God and he's sovereign,
he can do with his own what he will. And he chose his people
by grace, not based on anything in us, he did it in Christ. That's
the truth of election. I used to, a long time ago, I
don't know, I don't think men probably say this now, but a
long time ago, this was the gospel of men The other gospel that's
not another, this is what they would say. The devil voted against
you, God voted for you, now it's up to you to cast it aside and
vote. No, no, no. Election is God choosing whom
he will by grace. Depravity, and this is what it
comes down to. Men are, they're changing the
word to basically say men are not depraved. Men are not ruined.
There's a little good in them, a little spark in them. They
just got to fan the flame. You take the first step, God'll
take the, he'll do the rest. We were ruined. When Adam's sin,
death entered, we became dead in our nature. Adam had walked
with God, he had communed with God, he wanted to be with God,
and when sin entered, he hid from God. And we're guilty before
God, under the law, the curse and condemnation. Our sin nature
and our guilt, we can't change that. That's the truth of depravity. That doesn't please men, but
that's the truth. And that's the word God will
bless. Men preach particular redemption, or redemption. They don't preach particular
redemption. They try to say there's some sense which Christ died
for everybody. That takes the offense out. That makes it pleasing to men. But the truth is, For Christ's
glory, for God's glory, for the very purpose for which God sent
his son, we preach that Christ accomplished redeeming his particular
people. He laid down his life for his
sheep. He justified his people from our sins. His blood justified
us. He finished the work. He made
atonement. He reconciled us to God. That's
the truth, he did that for his elect people. I laid down my
life for the sheep, he said. Men will preach regeneration
and they're gonna give you the ABCs of how to be born again. They're gonna tell you there's
something you can do to be born again. Some make water baptism
to be how man's regenerated. When Christ said you have to
be born of the spirit and of the water, he's talking about
the spirit of God and the gospel, the word of God, the washing
of the word, it's the word That I speak, Christ said, that quickens
you. My words are spirit and life.
The flesh profits nothing. We have to be born of him and
when Christ sends the spirit, the spirit's not gonna be frustrated.
He's not gonna fail to quicken and regenerate. He always accomplishes
it. And the one that if it were possible
they would deceive the elect is sanctification. In some way,
they make it up to a sinner. And that's the main thing being
preached in Galatians. They came down saying, it's okay
that you believe Christ, but except you be circumcised and
keep the law of Moses, you cannot be saved. That made it so that
Christ was of no effect to them. Paul said, if you're circumcised,
you're a debtor to keep the whole law of God, because you're saying
that that's necessary for salvation. An exception, you're saying except
you keep it, you can't be saved. Truth is, no sinner's ever kept
the law. Christ is the only one that ever
kept the law. To keep the law is to do it perfectly,
with a perfectly holy heart and perfect righteousness. Christ's
the only one. He's the only one. God the Father
sanctified us when he chose us in Christ before the world was
made. That's Jude 1.1. perfected us, he sanctified us,
made us holy by fulfilling the will of God, fulfilling the law
for his people by his one offering. One time, he did it, he accomplished
it. And the spirit of God quickens us, gives us a new holy heart,
Christ is formed within us, and when that happens, we have been
made meet, fit to partake of glory with our brethren in heaven
already. The message of the gospel, that's
the truth of sanctification. That doesn't please men, but
that's the truth of God. And that's the message he'll
use to persuade his people. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
not of me and you. We don't get any glory at all.
The only thing we bring to the table is sin. And it's God who
does the saving beginning to end. He gets all the glory. But
not only will a man try to persuade men by his corrupt message, he'll
try to do it by his methods. He will make men fearful. They'll strike fear into men
using the law. Or they'll bribe them with rewards.
They will use strict disciplinary measures. They'll come to folks'
houses. All these different things that
men do. They use the Lord's table as a means of discipline. That's not what it's for, it's
to remember Christ. But they use all these different,
Paul said, I persecuted the church, I wasted it. He was trying to
strike fear into men so that when he came to them, they would
turn from this thing of trusting Christ and he would persuade
them and he would please them so that they would start being
his disciple. That's what Paul was trying to
do when he was in bondage. But as he said in Galatians 6,
they're trying to constrain you so they don't suffer the persecution
for preaching Christ. But he said, they don't keep
the law. They're trying to persuade you to do things and they're
ignoring what they made you do. But then he asked this question,
verse 10, he said, do I seek to please men? If I'm pleasing
men, I'm not a servant of Christ. Listen, look at John 5, I want
you to see this. This is what a vain religion
creates. It creates phony religion, a
message that where a man's trying to persuade men and a man's trying
to please men, crap from his words, it creates an atmosphere
of men-pleasers. It's a phony religion. Men are
trying to appear holy to one another. It's all a superficial surface
religion trying to be seen so they get the honor and applause
and stay in the good graces of men. That's bondage. That is
bondage, brethren. Liberty is being brought out
so that you're not living to men anymore. You're living to God. But look
at what Christ said right here in John 5, 41. He said, I'm sorry,
John 544, he said, how can you believe which receive honor one
of another and seek not the honor that cometh from God only? A
man can't, he can't believe on Christ, he can't believe God
and be a man pleaser. The two can't happen. If your
desire is to seek honor from men, you can't. And so, you know, that's why
those parents rejected their own son. When the Lord gave him
sight, they rejected their own son, because they were fearful
they'd be kicked out of the synagogue. They're trying to receive honor
from men, stay in the good opinion of the Pharisees. But Paul said, when the Lord
called me, I didn't confer with Thessalonians. You know, you'll
hear men, they'll start hearing the gospel, and it appears the
Lord's working in them. And maybe they'll even tell you
they want to make a profession, they want to be baptized, and
then something happens and they back out. What happens? Somebody got the ear. Why doesn't
a family member want you to follow Christ? Somebody that has a nominal
religion, somebody that you know, made a profession years ago,
and sometimes they go to church on Christmas or Easter, but they're
not really religious, or even if it's somebody who's very zealous,
why don't they want one of their family members to submit to Christ
and trust Christ alone under the truth of the gospel and unite
with God's people under the truth of the gospel? Why don't they
want that? Because it makes them look bad. You ever heard men
say this? If what you're saying is true,
then I'm lost. That's the reason. And if a man
has not been called by God, he will hear that, he will give
ear to that, and he'll try to please men rather than God. He'll seek the honor that comes
from men rather than the honor that God alone gives his child.
That's what he'll do. That's what he'll do. What'll
make the difference? Go with me to Romans 2. I'll
show you what'll make a man not do that. Look here, Romans 2. Romans 2, look down there in
verse 28. He said, he's not a Jew which
is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward
in the flesh, but he's a Jew which is one inwardly. Circumcision
is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter,
watch, whose praise is not of men but of God. See, when God
has given a man a new heart, when God has come in and he's
quickened a man and made a man a new creation and given you
faith, that's how a person stops conferring with flesh and blood.
That's how he stops listening to men and trying to please men,
and that man has the honor of God. God says, I'm pleased with
him. His praise is of God, not of
men. He gives God all the praise, but God receives him and gives
him honor because God did all the work. God's pleased with
him and his son because Christ made him righteous. The spirit
of God regenerated. God saved him. God's pleased.
God will receive him. And that man now He's living
to God, and he's only conferring with God. He's not conferring
with flesh and blood anymore. That's what has to happen. That's
what has to happen. Let's see that now in this next
thing. The only way a sinner's delivered
into liberty is by divine revelation, by God revealing Christ in the
new heart. Verse 11, Paul said, I certify
you, brethren, 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. You see that? It was by the revelation
of Jesus Christ. A lot of people saw the Lord
Jesus. A lot of people heard the Lord
Jesus preach, and it had no effect on them whatsoever. What has
to happen? Christ has to be revealed. God has to reveal Christ in us,
and he's the only one that can do that. That's why Paul, that's
when a man will stop being ashamed of the gospel. Paul said, I'm
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ because it's the power
of God and salvation. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. Christ is revealed from the faithful
one to the faith he's given. And that's when those justified
by Christ, that's when they began living by faith, trusting Christ. When does that happen? He said
in verse 15, he said, let me get back. He said, when it pleased
God. When it pleased God. That's when,
when it pleased God. God sets the time. He said in
Ephesians 1.5, God predestinated us to the adoption of children. It's by Jesus Christ, by whom
you believe. He set the time according to
his will, his good pleasure. He set the time. And Christ,
because you're sons, God sends forth the spirit of his son,
and he brings you to cry, Abba, Father, wouldn't it please God? Wouldn't it please God? That's
why it's totally false to say God foresaw we would believe
and chose us because of that, God not only chose who he'd save,
he predestinated, he set the time when it pleased him to give
us a new heart and faith to trust Christ. It's all of the Lord. God alone separates us, he sanctifies
us. Verse 15, he said, who separated
me from my mother's womb. What's he mean by that? He means
from eternity, before I was even brought forth. before I had any
understanding, even natural understanding. God chose his people in Christ.
He sanctified us in Christ, and that's who Christ died for, and
he perfected us. He made us perfectly holy before
God by his offering, perfectly righteous before God, and then
the Spirit of God entered in and gave us a new heart. He separated
us. He told Jeremiah, before I formed
you in the belly, I knew you. Before I formed you. In the belly,
I knew you. And before you came forth out
of the womb, I sanctified thee. And I ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations. And because it's all of God,
God brings to pass what he's pleased to do. He brings it all
to pass. He sanctified. And it's all of
grace. He said he called me by his grace
when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by his grace. Everything about salvation is
by grace. It's by grace. You ask a sinner,
sinners hear us say, we're not under the law, we're under grace.
What does that say? Grace is our rule of life. Grace
is what rules us. Grace is the reason sin won't
have dominion over us. Grace, it's the grace of God
constantly giving us favor that we haven't earned, that
we don't deserve, it's grace that's leading us, it's God's
grace. All of grace. And he revealed
his son in me. He revealed his son in me. Look
at 1 Corinthians 2. To your left there, just a few pages.
1 Corinthians 2, 9. As it is written, I hath not
seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man
the things which God hath prepared, God hath prepared for them that
love him. But God hath revealed them. He's
revealed them unto us by his spirit. He revealed it. The spirit searcheth all things,
yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things
of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him? Even so the
things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. 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. And because of that, Paul said,
we preach these things, we speak these things, not like the world
preaches. We're not crafting this word,
we're speaking the word as it is, and we're trusting the Lord
to persuade men in the heart. Comparing scripture to scripture. Scripture to scripture. Why did
the Lord do this work in Paul? Look back there at Galatians
1 verse 16. He said, when it pleased God
who separated me from my mother's womb, called me by his grace
to reveal his son in me, that I might preach him. That I might
preach him among the heathen. Remember when the Lord sent Ananias
to Paul? He said, he's a chosen vessel
unto me to bear my name to the Gentiles, to go to the Gentiles
and preach me. That was why Christ sent him.
No more is Paul gonna try to persuade men to follow Paul.
He's been saved out of that liberty by the revelation of Christ,
out of that bondage by the revelation of Christ. Now he's gonna preach
Christ. Sent me to preach him, to preach him. He said, unto
me, who am less than the least of all the saints, is this grace
given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ. That was his message. And so,
look with me again back there, 1 Corinthians 2. Look there again. That's why he quit trying to
persuade men himself, and he quit trying to please men using
certain word, taking offense out, Verse one, I, brethren,
when I came to you, I came not with excellency of speech or
of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. I determined
not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ whom crucified. And I was with you in weakness,
and in fear, and most trembling, and my speech, and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom. What is that? That's
trying to craft the word to take the offense out so it's pleasing
to men so that you can persuade men to do whatever it is you're
trying to get them to do. But how did he preach? I preached
in demonstration of the spirit and power. What's that? That's
declaring what the book says. That's preaching what the book
says. Even if men's gonna reject you, even if you're gonna suffer
because of it, the spirit of God makes you preach what the
book said, declaring God, Glory, giving Christ all the glory,
and taking all the glory from a sinner. You preach Christ as
high as you can preach him, and preach man as low and ruined
and depraved and helpless as you can preach him. Why do you
do this? That your faith should not stand
in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. He's the only
one that can reveal this gospel in our hearts. And so Paul said
there, back there in verse 16, he said, when this happened,
I quit being a man pleaser. He said, immediately I conferred
not with flesh and blood. I didn't, that's it, brethren. The Lord's gonna turn you to
Him. And you're gonna start listening to Him. You're gonna start obeying
Him. You're gonna follow Him. And you're not conferring with
flesh and blood anymore. You're not conferring with that. And you can't be compelled by
men anymore. Look down now at chapter two,
verse three. He said, you know, and I'm just
gonna give you the summary of it without reading all of the,
what he says here, but he's talking about how, I didn't go up to
the apostles, even though they had a reputation, and they were
called, and they were some pillars, and he said, I didn't go to them. Christ got him alone, and Christ
taught him the gospel, and he quit conferring with flesh and
blood. That's what he means there. I wasn't going up there trying
to get their favor, and trying to, you know, win their honor
and their applause. And then he said, I went up again
because he said, Look here, verse three, neither Titus, Galatians
2, 3, but neither Titus who was with me being a Greek was compelled
to be circumcised. There's those vain methods a
false preacher used. They compel you, they try to
force you into a profession to obey in their commandments or
obey and attend commandments or whatever it is, traditions
of men, they try to compel you and that's not That's not a man
trusting the Lord to save. Paul said they tried to compel
him to be circumcised. They were false brethren brought
in unawares who came in privileged to spy out our liberty which
we have in Christ Jesus that they might bring us into bondage.
To whom we gave place by subjection, know not for an hour that the
truth of the gospel might continue with you. See, when the Lord,
this is how powerful the Lord works. You're not gonna be compelled
by men anymore. You're not under the thumb of
men anymore. And until the Lord brings a sinner
there, till he brings us to be persuaded in our heart by the
power of God, by divine revelation, till he brings us to where the
only one that we're seeking to please now is our Lord Jesus,
God who saved us, till a man's brought there, he's in bondage. He is a man pleaser, he's in
a false gospel, he's trying to persuade men and convince men
and get the applause of men, it's a phony, bondage he's in. The bondage is real, but his
religion's phony, everything about it. The Lord has to bring
us out of that so that now we're submitted to Christ and Christ
alone, and him alone. Go with me to, I could read Philippians
3, you know, Paul said, all the things I was put confidence in,
no more, Christ only, Christ only. We're the circumcision,
we worship God in the spirit, the new heart, we rejoice in
Christ, we have no confidence in our flesh. But here's where
I wanna go, 2 Corinthians 4. Paul here's saying here's why
we don't use those vain methods anymore. He says, verse one,
seeing we have this ministry, as we've received mercy, the
same power and grace and divine revelation by which we receive
mercy is how we faint not. But we've renounced the hidden
things of dishonesty not walking in craftiness, not handling the
word of God deceitfully. That's the phoniness I'm talking
to you about. We're not trying to take the
offense out of the cross and please men and persuade men by
our power. He said, but by manifestation
of the truth, preaching the truth of the Lord, we commend ourselves
to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our
gospel's hid, it's hid to them that are lost, in whom the God
of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine to them. We preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. How did this happen? Liberty
by divine revelation, for God, who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness, shined in our hearts to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God, the face of Jesus Christ, but
we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of
the power may be of God, not of us. When the Lord has revealed
Christ in the heart, that's when a man has liberty. That's when
he lives to God, believes God, trusts God, preaches the Lord
Jesus Christ, doesn't try to change the word, he's not trying
to persuade men, he wants men's faith to stand power and wisdom
of God, and the strength of God, and that man has liberty now. He's serving Christ. That's when
you finally begin to live to God. That's liberty. Let's go
to him, brethren. Father, thank you for your word.
We pray you bless this. We pray our great prophet, priest,
and king now would do the very things we've heard in this message,
speak to our hearts in power, reveal unto us our dear Redeemer,
Reveal unto some you've chosen, Lord, if it pleased you, if it's
the hour appointed, we pray you give them the heart to know Christ
and believe him, and give them this liberty to keep us free,
trust in Christ, live of Christ, believe in Christ. Thank you,
Lord, for your grace, your mercy, for this divine revelation of
our Redeemer. Thank you that salvation is prepared
entirely by you. and reveal to us so that we are
given faith to trust you and follow you. Forgive us our sins,
Lord, we ask it in Christ's name, amen.