Take your Bibles and turn with
me to Galatians chapter 1. Galatians chapter 1, and we'll
be looking at verses 10 down through the remaining of this
chapter. We're really going to be focusing
on verse 10 and 11 this evening, but we will, Lord
willing, get to the end of this chapter this evening concerning
the things that the Lord has laid on my heart. The title of
the message tonight, it's not about you. It's not about you. Paul having in this chapter in
his greeting and in his statement of concern in verses 1-5 and
6-9, expressed to the churches here at Galatia, he expressed
the troubles that they faced, the troubles of the men that
had crept in unawares by these Judaizers that came in. They
had two main issues that Paul is addressing throughout this
whole book. Throughout this whole book, the main issues are his
apostleship and the gospel of Jesus Christ. You see, these
false teachers, they had came in shortly after Paul left. They
came in these churches trying to pervert the gospel of Jesus
Christ. And to give their teaching credibility,
they tried to discredit the apostleship of Paul. They tried to discredit
his apostleship. And last Wednesday, we saw that
Paul came out with full force. In his first opening statements,
he come out with the most plain and simple language, yet very
harsh. in his approach at the very beginning,
and he expressed his concern for these that profess faith
in Christ and who follow these false prophets who preach the
message of salvation by works. Dear believer in Christ, we must,
as Paul does here, contend for the gospel of Jesus Christ. We
must, as Paul did, denounce anyone who preaches another gospel. That is, who preaches a gospel
that does not originate with God. That gospel that does not
have Jesus Christ as its sole object, and it does not have
as its means grace. Any gospel that doesn't have
those things is another gospel. Anything that is not preaching
the Lord Jesus Christ It originated from God and by means of grace
is another gospel. And this heresy of our day is
not salvation by circumcision as was preached at Galatia by
these false prophets, but it is rather salvation by the will
of man or by the religious works of men. This is another gospel,
which is not another. And therefore, believers, let
us rebuke all who profess faith in Christ who hear such a gospel. We must rebuke them, not with
words of hatred, but words of love. The Apostle Paul here,
he's concerned about these believers. And I'm concerned with anybody
who professes faith in Christ and sits under such a ministry,
sits under such a false gospel as freewill works religion. And
my friends, we are to ask them, we are to tell them and command
them to come out from among them. Paul says, what fellowship has
light with darkness? What fellowship has the temple
of God with the works of iniquity? With Baal? What fellowship should
we have with those people? We shouldn't have any fellowship
at all. There should be no communion or fellowship between us. How
can two walk together unless they be agreed? Amos says, those
that preach such lies, we are to call those that sit under
those to come out from them. But we are to tell those who
preach such lies to let them be accursed, to let them be accursed,
let them alone, let them alone. Jesus said, let them let the
blind lead the blind. Both will fall into ditch. And
so will all of those that follow them. They will be accursed as
long as they sit under such a heresy as that. And so in verse 10 in
our text, after saying that, Paul comes to this point now
in verse 10 and he turns the issue from the gospel to the
authority by which he preaches this gospel. In other words,
What authority do I have to say such harsh things about these
others who preach this other gospel? Who gives me that authority? Why is my gospel the only gospel? How can I say that? So Paul turns
to this matter and this question of his authority and apostleship. And he says this in verse 10.
He starts with a question. He says, For do I now persuade
men, or God, or do I seek to please men." Paul says, am I
trying to preach the gospel to win over men or God? Am I trying
to change God's mind or am I trying to change men's mind? What am
I doing? How am I preaching this gospel?
Or rather, am I trying to preach how to earn the favor of men? Am I preaching for the favor
of men? Well, see, Peter and John had this same problem. When
the high priest called Peter and John before them after healing
that impotent man, they said, you shouldn't teach in that name
Jesus anymore. And they said, I'll tell you
what, why don't you judge this, whether we should obey you or
God. Which one should we rather obey?
Am I here to please you or am I here to please God? Paul said,
am I pleasing God or am I trying to please men? Which is it? Paul, like the other apostles,
you see, he was not given his gospel by men. He makes that
statement the very first verse. He says, Paul, an apostle, not
of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ. And so here he
says, my gospel that I'm preaching is not by men. It's not by men. You see, the apostles were neither
given their gospel by men, nor were they commissioned by men. Therefore, their gospel that
they preached was not for the use to teach men to win over God. He said, I'm
not trying to persuade you to win God's favor either. I'm not
teaching you how to do that, but rather to teach men of God. That's what Paul is saying. You
see, men by nature are blind and ignorant concerning God and
His commands. Man by nature does not seek after
God, and he cannot seek after God. He cannot know God. Therefore, God gave His gospel
to win men to Himself. That's the purpose. Paul says,
I didn't come here to persuade you, or I didn't come here to
persuade God, I came here to persuade you. God doesn't change. And God gave me His gospel so
that I'm not here to preach this gospel to please you either. You see, this gospel of God's
grace in Christ, it does not appeal to the natural man. It
doesn't. God's gospel does not appeal
to the nature of men. Our nature is one bent on law
and works. That's our nature. That's who
we are by nature. That's how we're born into this
world. We are bent with a mind to try to please the God of our
own making. You see, our minds are a God
factory by nature. Look at all the religions of
the world. Think of any religion you will. Buddhism, Islam, What do these religions have
in common? Free will works religion. What do they have in common?
They all have man trying to earn favor with God. That's what they
have in common. They have men thinking that there's
enough goodness and enough righteousness within themselves to earn favor
with God. All religions of man's making
are works plus deity or self equals salvation, enlightenment,
bliss, or heaven. In other words, a natural religious
man says, it's all about me. That's what our nature is about. It's about us. That's how we
feel when we come into this world. It's all about me. But you see,
the gospel of God's grace that Paul is preaching and that we
preach goes against the human feelings. It goes against human
nature. You see, the natural man, the
natural religious man asks this. He says, you mean to tell me
salvation rests solely and absolutely and completely on the work of
Jesus Christ apart from the work of man or the will of man? Yes. Yes, that's what we're saying.
You mean that God saves whom He wills and He chooses to do
so before their consent or knowledge is given to the person? That
Jesus died for them, rose for them, and that the Spirit is
calling them out by the means of this one single gospel? Yes,
that's what we mean. This does not please natural
man. This, in any sense of the word, does not please our flesh.
It doesn't please the natural man in any way that thinks that
he should have some part in salvation. You that are believers in Christ,
how hard do we have to fight against this? We still have to
fight against this, don't we? We still have to kick against
that nature that always thinks that, well, I didn't do this,
so I'm really not in favor with God anymore. How many times do
we feel down because we failed or that we hurt? Because we sin. We think, hey, you know, God's
cast me out this time. There's sure no way I can get
back in now. We still have to fight this old nature. See, to
the proud heart of man, grace is offensive. To the proud heart
of man, grace is offensive. Remember Jesus when He talked
to His disciples? He said, if you drink my blood, you shall
never thirst. If you eat my flesh, you shall
never hunger. Remember that statement in John 6? When He said that,
His disciples said, hey, that's a hard saying. What did Jesus
ask them? He says, does this offend you?
Are you offended by this? He says, it is the spirit that
quickeneth, the flesh profiteth what? Nothing. The flesh profits nothing. These words I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. The gospel is offensive
to the natural man. You know that Jesus Christ said
Himself, I've not come to set peace but a sword. The Gospel
is decisive. It's offensive. And when it is
spoken in such plain and simple language as that there is none
other name given among men whereby we must be saved, that Jesus
Christ is the only way of salvation and man cannot bow his knee to
Christ unless God by His grace gives him the ability. That's
just offensive to the natural man. It's offensive to him. And
this brings a sort of division. The flesh profits nothing. It's
not about you. It's not about us. It's not about
us. The flesh profits nothing to
our sinful nature if religion It does not profit our flesh,
we are offended. But only the true gospel of God's
grace gives life of the Spirit. The flesh doesn't profit anything. True preachers of the gospel
are not here to please men. This is not our purpose. This
is not our goal. This is not our object. A true
gospel preacher does not concern himself with the affections of
men if it violates the gospel. In other words, I am not going
to deviate as any gospel preacher would not do. We would not deviate
from the gospel no matter how men feel about this. We don't
deviate from the course. Because this gospel is not our
gospel that we made up. This is a gospel that was given
by God. And Paul says this in our text,
he says, If I please men, I should not be a servant of Christ. The message of the sovereign
grace of God is not entertaining to the flesh. It is never meant to profit the
flesh, but rather it is meant to quicken the souls of men and
feed their spirits. And we feed them by one meal. One meal. The blood and righteousness
of Christ. It is that meal we partake of
by faith. What is the question of modern
religion? What's God's purpose for me?
Have you ever heard that? What's God's purpose for me?
I went into the bookstore just the other day, and I mean, every
time I go in there, I really want to just throw up. I really
just get sick to my stomach reading some of the titles of these books,
how to help me. What can God do for me? It's got to be about me. How
can I help God? How about that book, you know?
What's God's purpose for my life? Instead of trying to figure out
what God's purpose is, they want to figure out what's God's purpose
for me. It's me. It's all about me. Man-centered
false religion centers itself around man and how they can help
God. It is filled with ritual and
ceremony. It's filled with plays and entertainment
and music. The modern church is nothing
more than an amusement park with a cross on the door and a clown
behind the pulpit. That's what modern religion is.
A place of entertainment. A place that's appealing to the
flesh. I read a sign on the way to pick
up Malcolm. I read a sign out there, our church is not boring. Our church is not boring! And
I thought about it. If they're not preaching the
gospel, they'll be not bored all the way to hell. My friends, we're not here for
entertainment. Boy, that's plenty of entertainment.
To please the flesh. My friend, we are here to feed
and quicken the souls of men. That's what the gospel does.
It feeds and quickens the souls of men. You don't know how many
flyers and pamphlets I receive concerning how to grow your church.
I fill up the trash can with them. That's what I do. And if
I can use them for scratch paper or to pick up bubble gum off
the sidewalk, I use them for that. Other than that, they're
useless. Why? Because what they want to
tell me is how to preach to demographics. How to preach to the people in
your community. How to change your message and
tweak it so that everybody can come in under the umbrella of
your message. They want to teach me how to
preach the socioeconomic status. Mark this down. Any church with
such ceremony and entertainment, any church that preaches to a
certain group of people is not preaching the gospel of Jesus
Christ. If they are tweaking their message
to please men, they are not a servant of Jesus Christ. They're not
a servant of His. Paul said, if I don't preach
Christ, if I please other men, then I am not a servant of Christ. I say the same of myself. If
I please men, I'm not a servant of Christ. I'm not here to please
people. I'm here to preach the message
of God's grace in Christ. The flesh profits nothing. The
flesh profits nothing. Therefore, the gospel is to be
preached, not to a demographic of what your income or how educated
you are or how uneducated you are. The gospel is to be preached
to one group of people. Sinners. Sinners. It is to be preached to the despised
and downcast souls that have no value before God, to these
that need salvation, not just a helping hand, but those that
need deliverance from the pits of sin and guilt before God.
I got any of those? You see, those are people I'm
preaching to. Those are people I'm talking to. That's the people
God's gospel speaks to. I don't speak to anybody else.
The gospel has nothing to say that's pleasing about our nature,
but rather it paints us in a very dark and dismal light, doesn't
it? I want to give us a couple of
passages to look at, and you know these. Romans chapter 3
and verse 10. Romans chapter 3 and verse 10.
Just listen to the sound of this message. Listen to the sound
of these words and tell me, does this paint a flattering picture
of human nature? As it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues have they
used deceit, and poison of asp is under their lips. Whose mouth
is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet is swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways, and the way of peace they have not known. There is
no fear of God before their eyes." Now, is that pretty flattering
of human nature? Does that sound all rosy? Smile,
God loves you. No, it doesn't say that, does
it? Doesn't paint a flattering picture, Isaiah 64. All of our
righteousnesses are as menstrual cloths. Now that's our best stuff. Flattering? Appealing? Matthew chapter 15, Jesus said,
Is it meat to give the bread, children's bread, and give it
to dogs? Is that flattering? Is that flattering? I'll show you one more. Ezekiel chapter 33. I love this.
I read this the other day. It's just totally non-flattering
to the natural man and to us who know Christ. That's exactly
the way we want our flesh to be, is in His true light. Ezekiel
33 and verse 13. God says, when I shall say to
the righteous that he shall surely live. That sounds pretty good. But if he trust in his own righteousness
and commit iniquity, all his righteousness shall not be remembered,
but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die
for it. Isn't that something? God says you can be a righteous
man all your life. And yet if you trust in your
own righteousness, it's iniquity. And all the good that you supposedly
did won't count for anything. That is not flattering to human
nature. It's just not. None of these
verses give the flesh any hope of acceptance with God, any comfort
in law and ceremony or will worship. None. The flesh profiteth nothing. Therefore, this gospel that we
preach does not tickle the ears of men. It does not please the
natural man, but it does quicken the spirit. Praise God. Praise
God, it does quicken the soul. For the gospel is the power of
God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Thank God, because
that's what we needed, wasn't it? We needed life. We didn't need someone to tickle
our ears. We needed someone to give us
life and forgiveness of sin. That's what we needed. And praise
God, that's what the gospel does. It's good news for sinners. For
it tells of salvation accomplished. Your salvation, believers, accomplished.
Don't do anything for our flesh. But it does a great deal for
our soul. It does a great deal for our
soul. It tells of Jesus Christ who
died in the stead of sinners, rose victorious from the grave,
and now sent forth His apostles and His preachers to preach this
gospel to all men Not to please them, but to call sinners to
repentance and to declare to the vile and hopeless, God will
have mercy to all who He calls. Isn't that a blessing? That's
good news for me. That's good news for me. This
gospel that I preach to you, it doesn't
please me and therefore, you know where it came from? It didn't
come from man. All the Gospels of men long to
please men. But this Gospel is different.
It came from God and it only pleases God. It doesn't please
the natural man. It only pleases God. And it comes
by revelation. Look at that 11 and 12. Paul
says, I do certify to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached
of me is not after men, for neither received it of man, neither was
I taught it, but by revelation of Jesus Christ. Paul says later
on in Galatians in chapter 5, he says, look, if I was preaching
the gospel of men, then why am I suffering so much? Why am I
in such pain? And why does everyone hate me
so much if this gospel were of men? If it were of men, they
would love me. They would love me. But this
gospel is not of men. Paul says, I'd rather obey Jesus
Christ who gave me this gospel than to preach any gospel of
man. And Paul here in these next few
verses, he tells us of his conversion. He says, you remember my conversion. Paul said, this gospel of God's
grace, I not only preach it to you, but I've experienced it.
I've experienced it. Wasn't that a beautiful picture
of all of our salvations and the Apostle Paul's salvation?
The Apostle Paul going to wreak havoc on the church and to kill
Christians. Hatred in his heart for Jesus
Christ and the gospel that they held up, and he was ready to
destroy it. He was on His way to kill and
to put them in prison. Was there any love in the Apostle's
heart at that time for God or Christ? Was there anything in
that Gospel that pleased Paul at that time? No. What happened? God happened. God happened. In the middle of the day when
they were riding on those horses, It came to a certain point, and
God says, you're going to go there and no further. And you
can imagine the sun in its noonday light, and all of a sudden, there
shone a light that was brighter than the sun, and knocked them
all off their horses. But yet, the others got up, and
Paul remained prostrate on the ground. And he heard a voice,
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? What will you have me do,
Lord? What will you have me do? The
grace of God happened to the Apostle Paul, his chosen vessel
to bear his name among the Gentiles. It pleased God, Paul said, who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me. When it pleased
God. Believer, when were you saved?
When it pleased God. When it pleased God. when it pleased God by His grace
to call us to Christ by His gospel. And this message of grace that
was given to the apostle Paul was given by the risen Lord Jesus
Christ. Paul testifies that three years
he spent in Arabia learning his gospel from Christ Himself. He
didn't even speak to the apostles after he was converted. The Lord
Jesus Christ called him into a far country. He went out and
the Lord Himself gave him the message. He said, I spent three
years before I even talked to Peter or James, John. He said, I didn't talk to those
guys. You see, I received my message,
Paul said, from the same person that gave them their message. Now, we do receive the gospel
from preachers. You receive the gospel from a
preacher. You that believe, you heard the gospel from a preacher.
Men of God sent to testify of His grace. But this message that
Paul heard, you see, he heard it not only from a man, he heard
it from the man. The God-man, Jesus Christ Himself. And this is why we cling so closely
to this book. This is why we cling so closely
to the Gospel that He preached. Because the Gospel that He preached
was given by the Lord Jesus Christ after He had risen from the dead
and ascended into heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
the Apostle Paul and gave him this message. And this is why
we do not cling to culture, or feeling, or emotion, or reason
by this world. We cling to the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. And that alone saves the souls
of men. and cling to the message Paul
preached, we stand fast on the foundation of the apostles and
hold fast the word of truth, grace, grace, all of grace, which
we have been taught. For it is the power of God and
salvation that every one that believeth. And my friends, not
to them that believe a lie. Salvation is not to them that
believe a lie. If a man's preaching the gospel,
of works or free will. Can a man be saved under that
gospel? If the man is lying, can a man
be saved under a lie? He can't be saved under a lie.
He cannot be saved under a lie. He must believe in Christ alone
and it must be grace alone through faith alone in Christ plus nothing. Man believes that gospel, he's
saved. A man believes that gospel, he's saved. Anyone trying to
please men is not preaching the gospel. Let him be accursed. True preachers of the gospel
are called to preach the gospel of God's truth in Christ. And therefore, all the glory
goes to God. It's not about us. It's all about Him. It's all
about Him. My friend, we are here and we
right now call all who profess Christ and believe the Gospel,
if they are sitting under another Gospel, call them out. Call them
out. If you really know Christ, come
out from underneath them. Stop trying to fix their religion.
You can't fix it. We can't fix it. Call them out. That's what we're to be doing.
Calling them out and letting them know that anyone sitting
under a lie, anyone sitting under another
gospel, if they follow that gospel to the grave, they'll follow
that man all the way to hell. My friend, the gospel of God's
grace is all about God. It's all about Him. His glory,
His honor, His justice, His mercy, His grace, His Savior, His blood,
His righteousness. It's all about Him. Any other gospel is not a gospel
at all. a stand will be dismissed in
prayer.