Verse 6, I marvel that you are
so soon removed from him that calls 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 are 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, so say I now
again. If any 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 please 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 neither received it of
man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ. For you 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 many my equals in my own nation, being more
exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. 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, 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. Afterward, 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 time past now preaches the faith which
once He destroyed, and they glorified God, in me. I want you to notice something
about the Galatian epistle in comparing it unto others. And
that is that the opening greeting of Paul unto the Galatian churches
is one of his shortest in all the epistle. Not only that, but
it omits some things that are said unto some of the other churches,
even a carnal one like the church at Corinth. And the reason is,
He intends to lay before them very quickly the contention which
He had against them, and that was their defection from the
gospel that He had delivered unto them. Some had come among
them, preaching another gospel and perverting the gospel, and
they had bore with them and had received them, and some, it would
seem, were in the process of being led away from the gospel
that Paul had preached unto them. He does one thing, and that in
verse 4, that he lays out in verse 4 the very essence of the
gospel, which is this, Christ gave himself for us that he might
deliver us from this present evil world. And this was done
in accordance with the will, the purpose of Almighty God. The Son had made an expiation
of our sin. He had purged our sin. He bore them in His own body
up on the tree. He gave Himself up to the death
of the cross. He gave Himself to death in order
that He might save His people from everlasting ruin and destruction. Now this is God's design in saving
sinners and it is the only way and the only gospel. This means
there is no other way, that there is no other gospel, that nothing
need be added to the death of Christ or the salvation of sinners. And this is what Paul preached
and this is what they had received And this is what their profession
had been based upon, that he preached Christ crucified unto
them. But sadly, after Paul's departure,
grievous wolves, if I may call them that, entered in among the
people, insisting that they must also add to Christ and the Gospel
such ceremonies as circumcision and such like. And a few of them
did fall into that trap and began to fall away from the Gospel. And to Paul, to Paul to spoil
the gospel when they brought anything in beside Christ and
Him crucified. So he stripped it of the name
gospel, saying it is not the gospel and it is not worthy of
the name gospel. He said he would count any accursed
that preached any other gospel than what he had delivered unto
them in the beginning. Notice he said, even if we are
an angel from heaven or any other. Now there are two things which
Paul found himself defending, not only here but everywhere
he went it would seem. Number one, his ministry. Defending
himself that he is a minister of Christ, that he is indeed
called and sent and that he is an apostle of the Lord. And the second thing that Paul
ever defended was the gospel that he preached here and there. Verse 11 and verse 12. He said,
it was not after man. It is not the invention of man.
It is not something that men have concocted up in their mind
or in their brain. It is not something made up.
Then Paul said, also, I never was taught it by any other man. It not only came from man, but
I did not learn it from men." And he said in chapter 2 and
verse 6, not even the Jerusalem apostles added anything to his
message or to the gospel that he preached. Now, he received
both. his apostleship and his gospel
directly from God by revelation. As to his apostleship, in chapter
1 and verse 1, it was not of men or by men, but by Jesus Christ
and God the Father. Now, as to the gospel which he
preached, chapter 1 and verse 12, it came by the revelation
of Jesus Christ unto him. John Eady wrote on the last phrase
of the 12th verse here in chapter 1, that the one and only medium
of him receiving the gospel was special revelation directly from
and through Jesus Christ. Now coming to verse 13, chapter
1, and we notice that it opens with a far, a conjunctive far,
which is significant. Such as, my becoming a preacher
of the gospel is not rooted in my past. I was not taught it. nor did I learn it, nor was it
a part of my past religion, for my preaching the gospel and heralding
the Lord Jesus Christ represents a great shift in my life, a great
shift from my earlier belief. thinking that it's not something
which I have always done, which I, on my own accord, decided
to do. This is not something that I
made a career choice, as we sometimes say. No man had any part in his
becoming both a believer, a Christian, and a preacher of the gospel. But also we notice that the word
far allows Paul to remind them of a historical fact concerning
his past life and religion. He reminds them, you heard of
my conversation. It was general knowledge. was
known far and wide. He reminds them, you knew my
manner of life. You knew what kind of life I
lived when I was in Judaism. Not a casual or not an occasional
attendee. Was I in Judaism? I was not just
a casual embracer or observer of Judaism. But he says on the
other hand, I was known as the most devoted fanatic and zealot
for Judaism and against the Christian church in my day and in my time. There in verse 13. Secondly,
what's more, I was not lacking in the fundamentals of Judaism. This is not why I left it. This is not why I flew off and
embraced Christianity. It's not that I was lacking in
the fundamentals of Judaism. And look at verse 14. I progressed,
I advanced, I pushed ahead of others who were my own age in
Judaism. The fact that such a radical
change that came over me cannot be laid to the fact that I was
a half-hearted Judaist when I was that. It could not be that I
was lacking in the knowledge of its doctrine, that I was unacquainted
with the ancestral tradition of the fathers passed down. I
knew them minutely and I practiced them minutely. Now, as for his
familiarity with Judaism, as for his orthodoxy, a passage
in Acts 22 and verse 3, Paul says before the chief captain
who came rescued him out of the riotous crowd, And standing up
on the steps there, in the hearing of the chief captain and of many
Jews who were there in audience, Paul said something like this,
I am truly a man. a Jew born in Tarshish, a city
of Cilicia, brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught
according to the perfect manner of the law of my father, and
was zealous toward God." Now Gamaliel was a Pharisee who was
held in high esteem by many in that day. The Jews held him in
high regard as a scholar and as a teacher. And young Saul
received a part of his religious upbringing and training and indoctrination
from this man Gamaliel. So none could say that he fell
away or that he left Judaism of any ignorance of its precepts
or lack of devotion at all. He was both a zealot of Judaism
and a persecutor of the Christian church at the same time. None could accuse Paul of being
uncommitted concerning zeal against Christianity. Look what he writes
in Galatians 1.13, beyond measure I persecuted the church of God
and I wasted it. In Acts 8, And verse 3, we read,
as for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every
house, hailing men and women, and committed them unto prison. In Acts 9, in verse 1, we read,
Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples
of the Lord, came with letters that he might take those He found
worshiping in the way. Interesting in Acts 26 and verse
9 through verse 11, Paul now is in the court before Agrippa. And there in that passage in
the court before Agrippa, he said this, I barely thought with
myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of
Jesus of Nazareth. Many of the saints I shut up
in prison. When they were put to death,
I gave my voice against them. I punished them. I compel them
to blaspheme, being exceedingly mad against them." In Philippians
3 and verse 6, concerning zeal, he said, persecuting the church
of God. Yes, I was a zealous man at that
time. I used it to persecute the church
of God. Now Paul does not mention it
here in Galatians 1, but his defection from Judaism also was
not the lack of a good pedigree. It was not because he was not
a well-pedigreed Jew that he fell out of Judaism. In fact,
in Philippians 3 and verse 5, he descended from the stock of
Israel He was circumcised on the eighth day, the right day. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews, and
he lived as a Pharisee. That was the manner of his religion. Acts 23 and verse 6, the Pharisee,
a son of the Pharisee, which was Acts 26, 5, the straightest
or the strictest religion there was to be found in all of Judaism. It not only was the most exact,
it was the most rigorous, it was the most demanding, it was
the strictest sect of all. So it was not that he lived loosely
as a Jew. But back to Galatians chapter
1, where Paul in effect writes this, that his embracing of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ was neither from his education nor any dissatisfaction
with Judaism. What then is behind this great
change in his life? Well, as John Brown put it, quote,
in the succeeding verses, he shows how he came to entertain
his present view That is, how he came to believe and espouse
the gospel. He attributes it as a work of
God. No, let me say it this way. He
attributes it to a sovereign, irresistible work of God that
was wrought in his life. that unknown unto him. Until
then, God had actually pitched upon him from his mother's womb,
and at the appointed time called him by his grace and converted
him to be a preacher of the gospel. Now, we also notice the but in
the beginning of verse 15, which marks a contrast, or a turning
point, as Paul writes. as he was engaged in those things
described in verse 13 and 14, even while he was a madman against
the church, even while he persecuted it and wasted it and hailed men
and women to prison and gave his voice as a witness against
some of those that went to death. What I'm trying to emphasize
is that it was while he was still a zealot for Judaism, while he
was still persecuting the church, Then, in that state, in that
condition, God sovereignly intervened in his life, calling him by the
grace of God to be both a Christian, an apostle, and a preacher. Now this reinforces the fact
that Paul's conversion to Christianity was not a self-made decision
on his part at all. It's not a thing that he would
ever have done. It's not a thing that he would
ever have considered doing if left to himself. He did not,
as the Armenians love to describe it, accept Jesus or make a decision
for Christ. He did not invite the Lord into
his heart and life. He did not make a conscious decision
to give his life over to the service of Christ. He did not
open the door of his heart. The Lord Jesus Christ tore the
door off of the hinges like a mighty Samson when he came. So let's
be sure that we notice that Paul not only attributes his calling
and his conversion to the grace of God, he said, he called me
by his grace, but he says that he was marked out, he was appointed
ahead of time, even from His birth, even when He was born,
having separated me from my mother's womb. And He brings in election
and predestination as being the forerunner or the foundation
of His calling. God had pitched upon me from
the moment that I came into this world. This is the same way that
Paul lays it out in that great passage in Romans chapter 8,
28 through verse 30. In the 28th verse there we read,
"...called according to purpose to those who are called according
to the purpose of God." But then look at verse 30, Romans 8, "...whom
He did predestinate, them He also Call. We see it clearly. In the case of the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 4 and
verse 5. Remember that passage that goes
like this. The word of the Lord came unto
me saying, Before I form thee in the belly, I knew thee, and
before you came forth out of the womb, I sanctified you and
I ordained you a prophet unto the nations." Let's notice a
few words and phrases in all of this, all relating to him
prior unto his birth and seen in the statements there. Number
one, before I formed thee, Jeremiah, before you were put together,
before you came together, before you were formed in the womb. Number two, before you came forth,
before you were born, Even then, A, I knew you, and B, I sanctified
you, a prophet unto the nation. Now, note the word here, I knew
you. I knew you before I formed you
and before you were ever born. They're not restricted, I knew
you, to what God knew about him, or even that God had looked ahead
to gain knowledge of him, or I know what you would do, or
things like that. Rather, the word to the prophet,
I knew thee, are equivalent to foreknowledge. whom he did foreknow. This knowing, therefore, is like
foreknowledge in the New Testament. A. W. Pink noted in an article
on the subject of divine foreknowledge that foreknowledge is not to
be considered or restricted to knowing beforehand, or knowing
either by omniscience or knowing by observation. And that this
divine foreknowledge is not of actions, it is of persons. And Pink emphasizes that, I think
it is good. In other words, it's never what
God did foreknow, whom God did foreknow, so that the emphasis
is not upon their action, it is upon the person. It is not
what he did foreknow, whom he did foreknow. When Arminians
are very sorely pinched with the doctrines of foreknowledge,
of election, of predestination, and of sovereignty, then it seems
that the very best that they're able to do is only to admit,
yes, this applies in special cases. Special cases like Jeremiah,
or like John the Baptist, or like the Apostle Paul. However, Romans 8 and verse 28
and verse 30 concerns the saints. All of them, not specially done
in the case of one or two or a few, but all of the saints
of God. Now if we can go back to Galatians
1, 15, and 16, see how the verses are laid out. Syntax is what
theologians would call it. First, however, it behooves us
to remember what they have a relation to, and to keep in mind the overall
argument. that Paul is making in this chapter,
which is, as James Haldane wrote in his good and profitable commentary
on the Galatian epistle, he said, the great object of the first
two chapters of this epistle is to establish Paul's contention
in verse 12 that he received the gospel by direct revelation. Not from men, but by revelation
and from Jesus Christ. Now this has far-reaching consequences. First of all, It validates his
claim to apostleship. And in doing so, it gives him
equal standing with the Jerusalem apostles. He does not lack anything
with regard to them. He is in no wise behind them,
either in knowledge our authority, our calling, our commission.
And His came directly to Him from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, look at the construction
of verse 15 and 16. When it pleased God, or when
it was His good pleasure, The question is now, what does the
phrase, it please God, refer to as we look at that question? Separate me from my mother's
womb? Is it that? Call me by His grace? Is it that? I submit for your
consideration that the last two phrases of verse 15 are explanatory
and almost parenthetical. and that the connection is this,
when it pleased God, verse 15, to reveal His Son in me, verse
16. And notice the mention and intention
of the revelation, that I might preach Him among the heathen. So we need to consider the meaning
of revealed His Son in me. when it pleased God to reveal
His Son in me." And whether by this Paul means that he revealed
his Son to him, to Paul, or whether he revealed him through Paul
and unto the heathen. or whether he is emphasizing
through me or to me as an instrument to make Christ known unto others. Of course, there will not be
the second, apart from the first. Christ must be revealed personally,
consciously to Paul, that he might make him known unto others. But should we expect Paul then
to say something else like this, God was pleased to reveal His
Son unto me, that I may know Him in the power of His resurrection. that I may have fellowship with
him and with his suffering, that I might have in me the hope of
eternal and everlasting life. Now all of these are true as
Christ is revealed to anyone, but in the overall context of
Galatians chapter 1, Paul is not discussing first and foremost
His personal salvation, though it is a factor in his work, but
his object is not to prove that he is a Christian. His object is not to prove to
them that he is indeed a true Christian. but to convince his
readers that he received the gospel that he preached by divine
and direct revelation from Christ. Hear it again in verse 11, I
certify you brethren, that is, I make known unto you, I declare
it, clearly unto you that the gospel I preach is not of man."
Look in verse 20, he says it again. What I write before God,
I lie not. I lie not. in telling you these
things. As God is my witness, calling
God to his record that these things are true, that he received
the gospel by direct revelation from Jesus Christ. True it was, Paul had brought
the gospel True it was that he had not brought the gospel which
he preached with him from Judaism, nor had any man taught him. It
was not learned when he was a student, yonder, around the feet of Gamaliel. It was not learned in any school
of theology. I received it directly from Christ,
and Paul will be content with nothing less than that. Now we
must bear in mind what Paul is contending here, as expressed
by the Scotsman John Eady, that the revelation of the Gospel
to Paul was not confined for his own private, individual luxury,
not just for his own comfort and hope, not just for his own
personal salvation and no further. But the revelation to Paul of
the gospel of Jesus Christ was to fit him to preach Christ among
the heathen, here and there, and declare Christ far and wide. That would be his calling in
Acts 9 and verse 20. God said, I will show him how
he must suffer many things and bear my name. before the Gentile. There's a very helpful passage,
I think, on this, though Paul comes at it from a little different
angle, in Ephesians, the third chapter, where the apostle discusses
there at length his ministry among the Gentile. and the opening up of the mystery
of the Gentiles being made near by the blood of Christ and made
joint partakers along with the Jew. And that point, which shows
beyond dispute in the New Testament, that it was the good pleasure
of God And I want you to hear this particularly. I think this
is important and really bears on this study. And that is that
in the wisdom of God, the admission of the Gentile into the covenant
grace, into the church, required a special apostle to the Gentiles. A special man for that task. One fitted, equipped, chosen,
trained, and all of that. And remember that Paul several
times refers to himself as the apostle unto the Gentiles. I, the apostle of the Gentiles. for the purpose of admitting
them to gospel privileges, bringing them into the church. That apostle was Paul, and he
several times referred to himself as that Gentile apostle. But looking now at the last part
of verse 16 of our text, which reads, immediately, I conferred
not with flesh and with blood. Methinks that this resumes the
contention of the apostle from back in verse 11 and verse 12. And let me show you how they
fit together by reading them again, verse 11 and verse 12. 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, verse 16, immediately I conferred not with flesh and
with blood. I had no consultation with men,
with flesh, with blood. He means no man taught him the
gospel. He did not learn it in school
or by instruction. Clearly stated again in verse
12, I neither received it of men, neither was I taught it. He contrasts revelation with
education or human instruction. What was revealed to him, not
what was taught unto him by another. Consider 1 Corinthians 15 and
3. He uses much the same language. I delivered unto you that which
I also receive. That is, the gospel and the Lord's
words to Simon. After his great confession in
Matthew 16 and verse 17, when he confessed the Lord, the Lord
said unto him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, flesh and blood,
have not revealed this unto you, but my Father which was or is
in heaven." This is not a human revelation. My Father has revealed
this unto you. Now does the question come into
our mind, considering all of this, why is this so important
to Paul? Why is he constantly defending
his gospel, defending his apostleship, and therefore his ministry? Why does he put such emphasis
on it, not only here, but in Ephesians? also to the Corinthian
church. Why is it such a big deal with
Paul? Why does he insist that they
must understand that this is so? There is a clue, I think,
in Galatians 1. In his opening words, I, Paul,
an apostle, not of men, neither by men, but by Jesus Christ. so that the genuineness of his
gospel and his apostleship stand or fall together. Destroy one,
the other comes down, and vice versa. So he insists that both
are the divine works of God. Furthermore, notice he adds in
verse 17, he did not go to Jerusalem to consult with those that were
apostles and in the ministry before he was, but instead of
going to Jerusalem, he went to Arabia and then back to Damascus. Look at verse 18. Only after
three years did he then make a visit to Jerusalem, and he
saw none of the apostles except Peter, and spent a mere 15 days. And while he was there, he saw
James also. But look at chapter 2 and verse
11. He tells us how he rebuked the
apostle Peter. He had the authority to stand
face to face and rebuke the apostle. He tells us in chapter 2 that
when he did come 14 years later and meet with the Jerusalem apostles
who seemed to be pillars, he said this, they added nothing
to me. They added nothing to me at all. So let's close with a look at
Galatians 1, 21 through 24, that after a short Jerusalem visit
with Peter and James, he went into Syria and Cilicia where
he was not personally known or acquainted to the churches, except
they had heard of his violent persecution of the people of
God. And what they had heard was,
he that once persecuted the church is now preaching the faith that
he once devoted his energy to destroy. And look at verse 24,
And they glorified God in me. They praise God. They did not
praise Paul. They praise God. And they praise
God for the work of grace in the Apostle Paul for saving their
chief tormentor and their vilest persecutor. Paul was a trophy
of God's amazing, sovereign, saving grace. Paul was a trophy
of God's grace when he was saved. It was indeed a bran plucked
out of the fire and a vile religious sinner was saved by the grace
of God. A persecutor became a dear Christian
brother. And a faithful servant was put
in the vineyard of the Lord to labor and toil, and there to
preach the gospel. And while his enemies reviled
him from place to place, it says here the churches glorified God
on account of him. Yet even today, we praise and
glorify God for the work that He did in the Apostle Paul, and
for His part in the New Testament, the writing, the preaching of
the Gospel, the defending of the truth of the Gospel as it
is in Jesus Christ. Yes, Paul was given a special
ministry, the Apostle to the Gentile, to admit them into covenant
grace and direct that the gospel be preserved in its purity and
in its original form even through that time. And Paul, let me say
in closing, is perhaps the greatest champion of the gospel that we
can imagine or that we have a record of. in the scripture. Thank God
for his influence upon Christianity and it came as a direct work
of God.