May I please God to bless us
together this evening as we continue our meditation in the epistle
of Paul to the Galatians and the first chapter. And this evening
we'll speak from verse 20 to the end. The first chapter in
the epistle of Paul to the Galatians and the first chapter from verse
20. We just read these last verses.
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 face unto the churches
of Judea which were in Christ, but they had heard only that
he which persecuted us in times past now preached the faith which
once he destroyed, and they glorified God in me. It's good to read a testimony
in the Word of God of the work of God. And here in this opening
chapter, the Galatians, the Apostle Paul speaks very clearly of those
things which he had been blessed with and the things that he'd
been enabled to speak to the people. And in the verses we
read together from the 13th verse it gives a little account as
we thought on last prayer meeting how that he was very satisfied
really with the Jewish religion which he had been brought up
in and he tells us he was more exceedingly zealous of the tradition
of my father's but when it pleased God who separated me from my
mother's womb and called me by His grace. And that was the time
when the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostle Paul and brought
about a wonderful change. And that change was such that
rather than going on his own way, satisfying his own ego,
the blessed Spirit of God touched his heart so that he was a changed
person. And as we know in the account
in the Acts of the Apostles, when the Lord came and blessed
him, and then when he received his sight and the scars from
his eyes, what did he do? He preached Christ, the one who
he'd been persecuting. And that, my friends, is the
mark really of a wonderful change, the Spirit's work, when we may
not perhaps outwardly persecute Christ, but we may inwardly,
we may indeed turn against the things of God. And we may inwardly,
not like the things of God, we may turn away from them. We don't
mind a few interesting historical accounts, but when it comes to
a personal knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, then our old nature
rises up against such things. But here we see the apostle able
to tell us that he was called by the grace of God. God had
come, the appointed time had come, not to propose, but to
call by grace. And what a blessing that is.
When the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts and calls us, a call
that we cannot but hear, a call that must have an effect, a call
that does have And so the apostle tells us what occurred then to
reveal his son in me that I might preach him among the heathen.
Immediately I confirmed not with flesh and blood. Flesh and blood,
of course, means people. And then he tells us what happened,
where he went. And it's very clear from these
verses that he was taught by the Holy Spirit. He was led into
all the truth contained in the Old Testament and was able to
understand the wonderful words of life which it contains. And therefore, we realize how
God used him in this way. And as we know, we have the epistles
he wrote, we also have the wonderful epistle to the Hebrews which
speaks so gloriously really of the Lord Jesus Christ and how
His example, His sacrifice was set before the people throughout
the Old Testament but for the most part their eyes were blinded.
Bless God today if our eyes have been opened as our brother said,
whereas I was blind now I see. And it's an amazing mercy, and
it's an amazing blessing, when the Holy Spirit produces that
in our heart, just as He did in the Apostle's life, just as
He does in every true born-again Christian. There is that change. And therefore, the Apostle, now
as he comes to the end of this, what we call the first chapter,
of course there weren't any chapters in the original letter, But nonetheless,
it's a suitable place to pause. Here we have what the Apostle
says, Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God
I lie not. And it's a wonderful blessing
to have an honest conscience before God and able to proclaim
such a truth with an honest heart and with a clear conscience and
not to be left to embellish anything or to change anything. but to
be totally truthful. And you see, if we are truthful,
we would have to honor the Lord. The apostle didn't hide the blessings
of God to him. They weren't put aside. He declared
plainly how the Lord had called him, how the Lord had instructed
him, how the Lord had led him, how the Lord had blessed him.
You only have to read through his epistles. And it's very clear.
the glorious work of God in his soul. And so he desired, therefore,
that they might understand that he was not lying. And then he
tells us, following on from really the previous verses, when he'd
been up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode within 15 days, but
other than the apostles saw I none save James, the Lord's brother.
Afterwards, I came into the regions of Syria, and Cilicia, we don't
read very much about what he did there at all, and was unknown
by face under the churches of Judea, which were in Christ. So he never met them, they hadn't
seen him, and yet very clearly the word of life had been passed
on. It didn't have any of the media
that we have today, but there was the word of mouth, and the
word of mouth spoke one to another, And what did they say? This is
what they said about they had heard only that he which persecuted
us in times past now preach the faith which once he destroyed. And it's important that we recognize
the wording, but they had heard only. This was what they'd heard. They'd heard about the amazing
grace of God in the Apostle's life. They heard that here was
a man who had persecuted the Church of God, who had done all
he could to turn men away from following the Lord Jesus Christ
until a great time when the Lord came and changed him. And there was then that desire,
rather than to follow the way of Satan, but to desire to truly
be instructed and follow the way set before him by the Saviour
Himself. And that was the message which
had got through. And that was the all-important
message. And it's still the all-important
message today. Because what does it show to
us? It shows to us that, left to
ourselves, man, left to himself, persecutes the Church. but man
left to himself and then converted by the grace of God is a changed
person. And in the case here of the apostle,
what happened? He tells us, now, now preaches
the faith, the faith of God, the faith given to him to believe
the great truths, the truth of God set before us in his word,
the faith which once he destroyed. But of course he didn't destroy
the true faith, but no doubt he endeavored to destroy it if
he could. And no doubt there were many
who were turned aside and turned away from the way of God. But now the apostle was concerned
to try and put things right, to change the things that he'd
spoken against, and now to come and to preach the faith. And this is what the people heard.
This is what they'd heard. This was the message which had
passed on. And so here the Apostle now tells
us about they heard only that he which persecuted us in times
past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed. And
what was the effect? It's wonderful to see the effect
of the work of God. And the effect of the work of
God must bring about the same result. And what is that? The name of God lifted up. The name of God honored and glorified. And therefore, in very simple
words, we read, and they glorified God in me. That means they glorified
God because of the grace, because of the faith given to the Apostle
Paul, and therefore the name of God was lifted up and honoured
and glorified. And it's good to observe this,
and this should be our concern today, that as we hear of one
another being born again, one another turned from darkness
to light, one another blessed under the preaching of the Gospel,
then surely our desire, surely our reaction should be to glorify
God. to praise his name, that he might
be lifted up and honoured and glorified. This was the Apostle's
concern, wasn't it? He didn't want to have any merit,
any glory himself, and left to ourselves, we would desire, left
to ourselves, we will follow the way of the world, but blessed
with the wonderful spirit of God, we would desire to walk
in the same way as this, and to see and to observe that the
Lord God is glorified through his work, in the souls of his
people. Well, it's a very simple account
really, but it's a very true account. And although it was
written many, many years ago, the essence of it is still the
same today. And we should therefore thank
God for his great grace, and thank God for his great love,
and thanks God for his great mercy, which he had to the apostle
Paul and which he has to every child of God. Is that not humbling
to think? An almighty God that came and
called Paul is the same almighty God that today comes and calls
his people. And may you and I have the wonderful
evidence in our lives that there has been this change and that
because of this change, and the evidence of this change, and
people are able to observe it, The result is, and they glorified
God in me. They glorified God in us. They didn't glorify the person.
They didn't glorify Paul. They glorified God. May there
always be our great concern that he might be lifted up and honored
and glorified. Amen.