Galatians 1. This morning we'll
be looking at verses 13-16. Galatians 1. Verses 13-16. The title of the message this
morning is simply, The Grace of God. The grace of God. The Apostle Paul writes in verse
13 of Galatians 1, For ye have 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 my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly
zealous of the traditions 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 not with flesh and blood." Now,
the last couple of weeks we have looked at this chapter and we've
seen, first of all, clearly that Paul speaks of only one gospel. That there is only one true gospel. And that is the gospel of God's
sovereign grace in Christ. There is no other gospel. That this Gospel speaks to us
and tells us that no man has righteousness in and of himself. That no man by nature can merit
the favor of God. And so the only hope for sinful
man is to be saved by the unmerited, eternal, irresistible grace through
the death of the Son of God, by the resurrection of the Holy
Spirit, and anything else than that is not the gospel. Anything
added to or taken away from the gospel of grace is not grace
and it is not the gospel. Therefore, all messages of works
plus grace are false Gospels and are to be condemned." There
are to be condemned those who preach it. In Titus, you remember
that Paul told that pastor who was to set an order at Crete,
he said that their mouths may be stopped. How are they stopped? We don't violently stop people's
mouths. We stop them with the Gospel.
When God is sovereign, men have nothing to say. There's nowhere
else they can go. God is sovereign, and He must
be saved by grace alone. And any who receive it and will
not repent, Paul said, let them be accursed. Let them be accursed. And last week we saw the source
of this immutable gospel of grace, and it was by the revelation
of Jesus Christ. You can see that in verses 11. He says, "...but I certify, brethren,
that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man." Verse
12, "...for neither received it of man, neither was I taught
it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." This gospel of
grace is a gospel of the revelation of Jesus Christ. I remember when
I was taking a Bible class in college, that I was reading the
textbook they had gave, and they were trying to separate the message
of Jesus Christ from the message of the Apostle Paul. They're
trying to separate it. They say, well, Jesus taught
this, but the Apostle Paul taught something different. No, he didn't.
The message of Christ, the message that Christ preached, is the
same message Paul preached because it was received of Christ. Now, if Paul did it himself,
then surely we could say it would be a different message. But Paul
says, I certify, I testify to you that I did not receive this
of men. but received it only of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The only distinction between
Paul and Christ is that Christ was the Lord and Paul was his
servant. That's the only distinction.
The message is the same. The message was the same from
Genesis as it is to Revelation. Grace. That's the message. That's
the message. The grace of God in Jesus Christ.
Therefore, we had received this message of Paul because it is
truly the message of Jesus Christ." Now, this morning, we're going
to be looking at verses 13 down to verse 16. And I want us to
look how it is that Paul came to receive this message and how
it is he came to preach this message. Go to Acts chapter 9. Acts chapter 9. Acts 9, verse 13. This is the
Lord speaking to Ananias, His disciple, and telling him how
that Paul is going to be used of the Lord. And He says, "...Then
Ananias answered and said, Lord, I have heard many things of this
man, how much evil he hath done to the saints of Jerusalem."
And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind up
all that call on thy name." Ananias, he was scared. He was scared
of the Apostle Paul and he had good reason to be. The Apostle
Paul wasted the church. He ravaged the church. He had
orders to haul off disciples of Christ. But the Lord, notice
his answer, he said, "...Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel
unto me." to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the
children of Israel, for I will show him how great things he
must suffer for My name's sake." How it is, how is it that this
man who was a destroyer of the church, how is it that this man
who had done much evil, Ananias says, how is it that he was appointed,
chosen to be the apostle to carry the message of God's grace? How is it? How is it? That's not what we would expect,
is it? We usually wouldn't expect the
worst man to be chosen. We would expect, by nature, we
expect some of the best men to be chosen. We look at people
who are moral, who are upright, and you say, well, surely, maybe
God's going to use that man. Probably not. Probably not. And you look at a vile, sinful
man, a wicked man, And you say, oh man, I just don't think that
man would be saved, much less used. That's what Ananias thought. But Paul was chosen. He was blessed
to be an apostle and he was to declare the gospel of God's grace
to the church. Notice what Paul does as this
chosen vessel. The first thing that he does
is this. He denounces his own merit of this. Look at this in
verse 13. For you heard of my conversation
in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted
the church of God and wasted it. These Galatians, they heard
of this. They heard of this. How that
Paul was in the Jews' religion and tortured those in the church.
The heart of Saul of Tarsus, friends, was set on the destruction
of God's church. Make no mistake. The Apostle
Paul, he was not pretending in the Jews' religion. He was real
about this. He wanted nothing more than to
destroy Christ. to stamp his name out of any
book, the heart of man. And he was zealous more for the
law of God than any of his peers. Look at that in verse 14. He
said, For I profit in the Jews' religion above many my equals
and my own nation, more exceedingly zealous for the tradition of
my fathers. Paul says, Hey, even you know
this, and also those people who are teaching this false doctrine
of grace and works, they know it. They know who I am. They
know where I came from and what I did. And this is also telling
them, saying, look, if you think you have something to say about
the works and the law of Moses, I have more to say about it.
I have more confidence in the flesh than any of you would.
Go to Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3 and verse
2. Paul tells the Philippians, beware
of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision or the
Jews. For we are the circumcision which
worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have
no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh, if any other man thinketh he have whereof that
he might trust in the flesh, I more. And he goes through that
litany of things. Circumcised the eighth day in
Hebrew of the Hebrews. as touching the law, blameless,
a Pharisee. He said, no man could look at
my life and tell me any sin that I committed. You couldn't look
at the Apostle Paul and see any sin in him on the outward side. And he said, so if any of them
who come in wanting this false religion to be preached, he said,
look, I understand more about the law of Moses than they forgot.
I forgot more about the law of Moses than they understand,"
is what he was saying. If anyone knows the law, the
Apostle Paul said, I more. I know about the law. I know about works. He was saying to these Galatians,
if there was any salvation and righteousness which came by the
law, I should have found it. But he confesses that he found
no righteousness by the law. He says, why then was I converted? Why then did I give up all of
that? Why did I count this flesh and
my works as dung if there was any righteousness in it? Why? He says, but now I preach not
the law, but grace. And that's what he's saying.
Look at this. But when it pleased God who separated me from my
mother's womb and called me by His grace. Grace. Friends, like Paul, we
by nature deserve nothing but the condemnation of God. We deserve
nothing but hell. And it matters not if you were
the most moral and upright person in all the earth, or you were
the most evil man that ever walked the face of the earth. Both equally
deserve God's judgment. And everybody in the middle. We all deserved hell. But God
in sovereign grace chose some. He in grace chose Paul. He said, it was God who separated
me. It was God who called me and
revealed His Son in me. I didn't learn that by the law.
Now let us look at this grace that separated the apostle Paul
and called him to be an apostle. And see that it is a pattern. It is a pattern of how God saved
us. The Apostle Paul's conversion
is not an exception, it's the rule. It's the rule. How Paul was converted is exactly
how we are converted. By grace. That's how. By grace. And I want you to see three aspects
of grace this morning. First of all, preceding grace,
preparing grace, and preserving grace. Preceding grace, preparing
grace, and preserving grace. First of all, preceding grace.
But when it pleased God to separate me from my mother's womb and
called me by His grace, Friends, the sovereign grace of God is
electing grace. It's preceding grace. This preceding
grace was called by some, pervenient grace. Pervenient grace. All that means is that there
was grace before. Grace before what? Grace before
everything. Grace before anything. There
was grace. And this is the preceding grace
of God's election. Remember in Romans 9 it says,
"...the children not yet being born, neither having done good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand. For he saith unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger, for Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated." When Paul was yet unformed in
his mother's womb, Before He existed, before He was brought
forth, it was God by grace who called Him and purposed His salvation
and apostleship. That term there, but when it
pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb, that word,
it could be translated, He who ordained me from before my mother's
womb. And we who are saved, we must
confess. We must confess that God before
has chosen us, not by our merit or our family or our knowledge
or will, but by sovereign preceding grace. We say with Paul that it was
in eternal electing grace that saved every one of us. who believe
on Christ. And He not only ordained our
salvation by grace, but He accomplished our salvation in Christ. That
was proceeding, wasn't it? You see, He put us in Christ
from all eternity. And Christ was as the Lamb slain
from before the foundation of the world. Our sins in the purpose
and mind of God were complete. They were accomplished, they
were taken care of, and we were righteous. When? In eternity. In Christ. Preceding grace. And we were in Christ by the
grace of the Father, and at the appointed time He sent His Son
to accomplish what He purposed. And Jesus Christ, by His obedience
and by His death, has forever forever taken away all the sins
of His people. He has redeemed them. He has
nailed them to His cross and taken them out of the way. He
has taken them out of the way. He has redeemed us by offering
His body and soul to God. 1 Timothy 2, 5 and 6 says, For
there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus. who gave Himself a ransom for
all to be testified in due time." Believer in Christ, our Lord gave Himself a ransom
for all the elect of God. And it was manifested in due
time. And preceding grace also is a
grace that keeps us until our time of conversion, doesn't it?
Who was it that kept Paul during that time that he was doing all
this harm to the church? Who was it? It was God. God, even when we were yet sinners,
Christ died. And even so, when we're born
into sin, when we come forth from our mother's womb, God has
separated us. He separated us and He kept us
by grace until the time that He had appointed to save us. Think of all of the times in
your life that you were kept from death. All of the things
that happened to you and brought you to the place where you knew,
where you heard the gospel and believed. Think of that. Who
kept you all that time? Who watched you? Who made sure
that you were at the appointed place at the appointed time?
Who did that? God did. God did. He kept us. just as He kept Paul and reserved
Paul all his life to that one appointed time on the road to
Damascus. God in preceding grace, who separated
us from our mother's womb, kept us. Why? That He might show a
pattern of grace in Paul and that we might see our own salvation
and see what God has done for us. Even before our conversion and
faith in Christ, it was ordained that He would bring us to a pointed
time of grace and manifest to us what He has already done for
us. When I was in sin, I had no idea
what Christ did for me. Oh, I heard it. I thought I believed
it. I didn't. But God brought me to an appointed
time, a time of love, and then He opened my heart. And this is what we call preparing
grace. Preparing grace. If you remember
the parable of the sower. who went forth to sow, and some
seed fell on the wayside, some seed fell on the stony ground,
and some fell on the thorny ground, and some seed fell on good ground."
Well, friend, ground is not good for seed unless it's prepared,
unless it's pulled up, unless it's broken up. And that's what
preparing grace does, is it breaks up our hearts. It breaks up the
hard soil of our hearts so that we might receive the gospel. It prepares us. Think of all
of the providences that brought us to that place. You think of
all of the things that you might have heard, or the guilt you
might have felt, or all of the sins come over and overwhelm
you, and you need a Savior, and you rush to Christ. Who did that?
That was a preparing grace. God prepared you for that. To
receive the Gospel. He had to break us down and tear
up our pride. And by that, we received the
Gospel. He prepared our hearts. The Apostle Paul's heart was
prepared in an instant. When Christ came down and He
revealed Himself, immediately the Apostle Paul was on the ground
saying, what do you want me to do, Lord? What do you want me
to do? I know some of us may have been
out a little longer. Some of us may have went through
a lot more difficulties, but I'll tell you this, it was God
preparing us for the appointed time to receive His grace. He broke down and stripped us
of all of our self-righteousness and sinful pride. You see, Paul was once secure
in his righteousness like we were, until God tore it down. and brought him to see that Christ
was the only hope for his soul. Is that not our case? Is that
not our state? That God prepared grace, preceding
grace, and then He prepared our hearts, and then we received
Christ. Why did you receive Christ and
the person next to you didn't? Why did you hear the gospel and
the person next to you didn't? Why is that? God prepared grace. He prepared it. He prepared your hearts and you
received the gospel. Last is preserving grace. Paul was not only saved, but
he was also called to be an apostle. He was given a calling. And it
was God who kept him all the days of his life to fulfill His
calling. He was an apostle. None of us
are apostles. None of us are called to that
office particularly. I am called to an office. I am
called to be your pastor. But friends, every one of us
who are saved by grace are given gifts of God. You are given gifts. What is your gift? Don't ask
me. That's something you and the Lord should ask. You should
ask Him what gifts you have. And whatever gifts you have,
serve Him with those gifts. All the while recognizing it's
His grace that keeps us in the performance of our Christian
duties. It's His grace. Paul said this in 1 Corinthians
15, he says, "...by the grace of God I am what I am. And His grace which was bestowed
upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than
they all, Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me."
You see, Paul labored, but he recognized this. It was God's
grace that kept him. And so whatever gifts we have
to serve God, whatever things He gives us to do, we should
do that in recognition of His preserving grace, that He keeps
us and uses us at His own pleasure. And friends, He will keep us
till the end. His grace that is preceded, His
grace that prepared and His preserving grace will keep us until the
day of Jesus Christ. Until He comes and receives us
again. Do you see that salvation is
wrapped up in grace? It is wrapped up in this thing
of grace. God gives salvation and He keeps
us in this saving faith until He
comes. Friends, God's grace is wonderful. It's marvelous. It's undeserved,
unmerited, and altogether glorious. I pray that God blesses to our
hearts.