Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Galatians chapter 1. We're going to continue our study
in the book of Galatians. Again, you've heard me say this
many times. I'm going to say it again. This
has been an absolutely wonderful study, going through the book
of Galatians. And we're only in chapter 1.
I think we're finished Chapter 1, Lord willing, next week. So
I think we've got two more messages in this chapter this morning
and one for next week as well, Lord willing. And then we're
moving to Chapter 2, which is basically a continuation of Chapter
1. Paul's still dealing with the same subjects, and we'll
see that as we transition into Chapter 2. So let's read the
first, or let's read verses 11 to 24 of Galatians chapter 1
to get the context of what we'll be looking at today. Paul has
been proclaiming the one true gospel. He showed the difference
between the gospel of salvation in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ, in Christ alone, and that which the Judaizers were
teaching. He dealt with the Gnostics and
Colossi. And now he's dealing with the Judaizers here in Galatians
who say you must be circumcised to be saved along with faith
in Christ, which is, we know, another gospel. So Paul writes
here in verse 11, 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 ye have heard of my conversations
in times past, and remember when we looked at that, that was manner
of life in the Greek. So as manner of life in times
past of the Jewish religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted
the church of God and wasted it. And profited in the Jewish
religion above many mine 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. Verses 17 here to verse 20 is
what we'll be looking at today. 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. Afterwards I came
into the regions of Syria and Sicilia, 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 preaches
the faith which he once destroyed. I love that. Don't you love that?
And they glorified God and me. That's what we're looking at.
Not next week. We'll look at those those last two verses next
week and that verse twenty one to twenty four. But but last
week we looked at verse 17 where we saw neither will I have to
Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me, but I or
I'm sorry, last week we looked at verse 16, to reveal his son
in me that I might preach him among the heathen, and immediately
I conferred not with flesh and blood. So we saw last week that
Paul was sent to preach to the heathen. Peter, we know, was
sent to preach to the Jews, and Paul was sent to preach to the
heathen, which is what we are. We're Gentiles. All of us here,
we're not of Jewish descent, not that any of us I know, and
so we were heathens, considered heathens by the Jews, Gentiles. They considered anybody outside
of the nation of Israel as Gentile dogs. And that's why it was such
a big issue to them when guys like Matthew and others collected
taxes for the Romans. Because they just looked at them
as traitors to the nation. They were turncoats on their
own nation, collecting taxes from an invader who levied taxes
upon them. Now let's look at verse 17. We're
going to go right up into this right away. Look at verse 17.
He says, neither when I up to Jerusalem to them, which were
apostles before me, but I went into Arabia and returned again
onto Damascus. See the, the phrase there went
up, went up. It was used in times and reference
in those times in reference to visiting Jerusalem and Jerusalem
was situated on the highlands of Palestine. It wasn't in the
lowlands. So when they went to Jerusalem,
they went up to Jerusalem. And that's where that phrase
comes from. They went up to Jerusalem. And the religious position of
Jerusalem also is the seat of the temple and the mother city
of the church, and its geological position on
the central heights of Palestine, where the factors and the reasons
why they use the expression of going up to Jerusalem. And in
leaving Jerusalem, they were going down to Damascus, or going
down to Syria, because they were in the heights. So just a little
historical thing there for us. And we see that Paul went next
into Arabia, right? He went into Arabia. Now Paul
doesn't state his purpose in going into Arabia. He doesn't
state his purpose at all, right? Not at all. It says here, neither
went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me,
but I went into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus. So before
he went up to Jerusalem, he went down into the desert. And Arabia
there just means the desert area. It covers a vast area, too. One
commentator said he could have just went a few miles outside
of Damascus and he was in Arabia. So we don't know, we don't have
any idea. Some say, well, he went to Mount
Zion, but I actually looked at something about that, and one
Greek scholar said at that time there was a war between the Romans
and another nation, so it's very unlikely he went there. It's
all speculation. Even how long he was there. Some
people say, oh, he's there for three years. It's all speculation.
The scripture doesn't tell us how long he was there. It just
tells us he went into Arabia. There's no timeframe for it.
And I heard for years, oh, it was three years he was in the
desert. But that's not what the scripture says. It just says
he went into Arabia. So we have no idea what the timeframe
of that was. And he doesn't state his purpose
in doing it. But I like what Weiss said. I was reading Weiss
about this. He's a Greek scholar. And another
thing, he didn't consult with anybody. Notice that? He didn't
consult with anybody and say, well, I'm going off to Arabia
for sabbatical. He didn't say that, did he? He
just, off he went. Off he went. He went into Arabia.
And I like what Weiss, Weiss had a theory, and again, this
is not scriptural, this is what his theory was, that his whole
religion had been torn to shreds. The foundation of everything
he had in his life had been absolutely destroyed, beloved. So imagine
us in that situation. What would you do? You'd want
to get alone somewhere with God, wouldn't you? Because everything
you had learned, everything that you had thought was right, you
find out, was dumb. So his whole foundation, beloved,
is destroyed. And what's going to happen here?
And it doesn't even tell us what he did while he was there. And
again, the word Arabia is a transliteration of a Hebrew word meaning an arid
and sparsely populated place. So he was in a place where there
was not a lot of people. Not a lot of people at all. And again, Paul was a—remember
in our study earlier we found out that Paul was a trailblazer,
that he was way above his equals? which he said in this chapter
that he, he had, and we looked in the Greek and the one word
meant trailblazer, that he had, he had far surpassed the other
Pharisees in knowledge. Pharisees, older Pharisees too,
and he'd become a Pharisee of the Pharisees. Well, he now needed
to be alone with God, didn't he? Could you imagine your whole
foundation of what you were trusting in is torn apart? absolutely leveled. Leveled. I'll tell you what, if that,
you know, and that does not not happen to each one of us, too.
Our foundation of lies, our refuge of lies, when the Lord is bringing
us to Christ, He levels that on us, doesn't He? You all know
I came out of Catholicism, and when the Lord saved me, He absolutely
leveled my trust in all that junk. There's only one mediator
between man and God, right? The man Christ Jesus. You don't
have to go to no priest. That got leveled on me. I'll
tell you what, the foundation was destroyed. And this, I believe,
is what happened to Paul. That he needed to go think about
what happened. And what else needs to happen?
Well, since the foundations are blasted away, he needs a new
foundation, doesn't he? Who's the one who's gonna teach
him? The Holy Spirit of God, right? He's gonna teach him about Christ,
isn't he? And so, remember that Paul was a student of the scriptures,
right? Because all they had, remember
whenever it says the scriptures in Paul's times and Peter and
James, they did not have the New Testament, beloved. All they
had was the Old Testament. So he got alone with God and
started reading the scriptures. And you know what happened? I
believe that's the Holy Spirit started to illuminate that scripture
to them. and teaching them the things of Christ. And he learned. What did he learn? All the promises
of God are yea and amen in Christ. All these promises, these beautiful,
precious promises in the Old Testament, all find their fulfillment
in Christ. He also learned that all those
types and shadows were but shadows, but Christ is the substance.
He wrote that in Colossians, remember? So all these things
became revealed to him by the Holy Spirit. He's the only one
who can. And who will the Holy Spirit reveal to us? Christ,
won't he? That's who he's going to reveal to us, is Christ. Scripture
says he won't speak himself, but he'll reveal Christ to us.
So all that pharisaic thought structure was just gone. It destroyed in runes, in absolute
runes. And then the Holy Spirit with
skillfulness builds him up. teaching him the things of Christ,
right? Because he didn't learn the gospel from man, did he?
We've seen that in our studies. Who taught him the gospel? God
taught him the gospel, didn't he? Who teaches us the gospel? I'm just a mouthpiece. I'm just
proclaiming the report, beloved. The Holy Spirit's the one who
teaches you the things of Christ. As Donny Bell says, we're amazed
that somewhere between us speaking and you hearing, and it goes
to your heart, and the Holy Spirit takes that, and you just rejoice,
and I'm rejoicing too, because I'm a saved man, and I'm just,
then we're all rejoicing over Christ, aren't we? And it's wonderful,
it's absolutely wonderful. So the revelation of Christ that
God gave him, is the starting, right, of a sure foundation,
a new foundation. And the Holy Spirit's just building
him up, preparing him. And we know Paul was a student
of the scriptures, as I said already, but had no knowledge
because he was reading the scriptures with an unregenerated mind. But
now he's born again by the Holy Spirit of God. Now the Scriptures
are alive. Now he sees Christ on every page
in the Old Testament. And that's evident in his writings
in the Pauline epistles, isn't it? Because he said, I'm determined
to preach who? Christ and Him crucified. I'm
not going to get caught up in this issue. I'm not going to
get caught up in that issue. I'm just going to preach Christ.
And that's what every gospel preacher is sent to do. Not get
caught up on side issues, right? But to preach Christ and Him
crucified. I remember one preacher friend of mine, Norm Wells. He
was in landmarkism. In landmarkism, they put a huge
emphasis on the Lord's Supper being only for people of the
landmark church and that they're the only true Christians and
everybody else is just friends of the bride and all this. Henry
Mahan came to preach. And Norm, he was a landmark preacher,
unsaved, didn't know Christ, knew the doctrines of grace like
the back of his hand, right? He's sitting there with Henry,
and he says, well, what about the Lord's Supper? And Henry
says, that's not the issue, Norm. And he says, well, what about
the Bride of Christ only being the landmark church? He says,
that's not the issue, Norm. He looked at him and said, the
issue is Christ. What think ye of Christ? All that other stuff
is just window dressing, isn't it? What think ye of Christ? That's the thing. That's why
we have to preach Christ. That's why we stay centered by
God's grace on the preaching of Christ in him. So now Paul's
foundation is built on nothing less than what? Jesus Christ
and his righteousness. His foundation was the Jewish
religion before in his works and what he'd done and his zeal.
And now all that's gone, it's being destroyed. But God didn't
leave him there. He doesn't leave us there, does
he? He doesn't tear us down and leave us there, does he? No,
the balm of Gilead is applied, isn't it? Oh, it's so sweet,
beloved. It's so sweet, just fills our
hearts with joy. thinking about our Lord and Savior. So the replacement of the rune
structure starts to take effect. Right? The rune structure being
Paul's pharisaic foundation. It's in the runes. So now the
replacement starts. And that's all by the power of
God, the Holy Spirit, building us up in Christ. And so Paul's alone in Arabia.
He's isolated. Think of this. He's isolated
from all human contact, as far as we know. He probably had to
get food and stuff here and there. But as far as we know, he's isolated
himself and says he's alone in Arabia. And the great apostle,
he restudied the Old Testament, didn't he? He restudied the Old
Testament with new eyes and a new heart and a new spirit, not with
the old pharisaic traditions which corrupted his thinking.
Now he has the mind of Christ. Now the Holy Spirit is teaching
him the things of Christ all through the scriptures. And now
he realizes that the central fact and the central point of
the scriptures is Christ. They all center around him. And so now, now Christ becomes
the central factor in his meditations, doesn't it? Because he's doing
a lot of thinking. That's all meditation is. He's
doing a lot of thinking out there, isn't he? He's out in the middle
of nowhere. He's doing a lot of thinking,
probably doing a lot of talking to God. But now his central thoughts,
his central meditation, is the Lord Jesus Christ. He has a new
focus. He once wanted to destroy the
people of the way, which we know now, in destroying the people
of the way, he was persecuting Christ himself, right? Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou me? Now he's part of the body of
Christ, isn't he? The faith he once destroyed,
now he preaches. He's being prepared for his future
ministry. And out of all the study emerged
the Pauline system of doctrine as we see in the Book of Romans.
Just shall it by faith. Justified by faith in Christ. Christ is raised for our justification. Christ is the great substitute.
All the world is guilty before God. There's none righteous,
no, not one. There's none that understand
it, there's none that seeketh after God. But praise be to God,
he sent a propitiation, the Lord Jesus Christ to die in the room
and place of sinners. And now, now Paul, Paul's all
in all is God's Passover lamb, right? And how do we know that? Well, because he wrote that Christ
is his all in all. See, we can see by his own words
what he learned and what he was taught. Now he sought to glorify
God. He rejoiced. He rejoiced that
those who, who, who, that, and we see, we see him rejoicing
in that, in verse 23, but they had heard only that he which
persecuted us in times past now preaches the faith which he once
destroyed, and they glorified God in me. You see, his whole
goal was to glorify God now. That was his desire. to glorify
God in his preaching, to glorify God in his life. He knew he was
a sinner, right? Because you just read Romans
7 and 8, the autobiography of every believer is right there,
right? Oh, wretched man that I am, who can deliver me from
this body of sin? But Paul knew in Romans chapter 8, there is
therefore now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus who
walk not of the flesh, but of the spirit. See, he knew, he
knew, he'd learned something, hadn't he? He'd been taught by
the Holy Spirit of God, the gospel being revealed to him. It's been
wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. And
here, we get to read about this. Now let's look at verse 18. It
says, then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see
Peter and abode with him 15 days. So he was in the Arabia Damascus
area for three years. We don't know how long he spent
in Arabia alone, but he was in that area because it said he
went back to Damascus. So we don't know how he was there.
We know that for three years there. And what was he doing
for those three years? Well, we know part of it was
he was preaching the gospel, right? Because it says here in
verse 15 to 16, 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. So it says in verse 17, but I
went into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus. We don't
have any time frame of how long that was. But we know that when
he came out of the desert, he preached the gospel, beloved.
He preached the gospel to the heathen, didn't he? I'm so thankful
he did that, because I'm a heathen. I'm a saved heathen now. But, oh my, it's good news for
us, isn't it? For us sinners. Oh my. People
think we're holier now. We're like, no, we're a bunch
of heathens. Saved by the grace of God. That's what we say. They
get talking to us, we find out real fast. We don't believe that
way. Oh my goodness. Oh my. Oh. So we see here in this verse
that he went up to see Peter and abode with him 15 days. So
Paul is recognizing the apostleship of Peter. He's recognizing that
Peter's an apostle. He's recognizing the authority
that he has. But he sees him as an equal because
Paul is also an apostle. He's an apostle as well, so he
doesn't see Peter as vaulted up amongst him, and we're gonna
see Peter doesn't see that way either. The disciples, they didn't
vault themselves up from other believers. If you read the Pauline
epistles, it's really neat, because Paul always includes people who
were with him, and he includes them on the same level, beloved.
That's why I always tell you guys, we're all on the same level.
The Lord called me the preacher. There's no little hump where
the preacher's a little higher than everybody else. There's
not that at all. We're on level ground before the cross of Christ,
beloved. And Paul recognized that. He
knew that. He'd been humbled, hadn't he?
That foundation, that pharisaical foundation had been literally
made into runes. And remember, too, in that pharisaical
Traditions and everything. There was a lot of pride. There
was a lot of, you know. Oh man, look at my vaulted position. Paul doesn't have that mind anymore,
does he? Oh no, he's. Oh no, he doesn't anymore. That'd
been taken out. Now we all deal with pride. I'm
not gonna say we don't, because we all still deal with pride.
We're sinners. But you can see the humility in Paul now when
he includes other people with him in the same sentence as equals. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. And even with the Galatians,
he's speaking to them as an equal. He's bringing forth his apostolic
authority, of course. But the reason he's doing that
is to combat the false teachers who say that his authority didn't
come from God. That's the only reason he's doing
that. And all through here, he's showing us here that his gospel
didn't come from man, right? We're seeing it right in the
scriptures before us. The proof that his authority
did not come from any man, any council, anything like that at
all. So after three years of seclusion,
Paul, I would imagine Paul was yearning for fellowship. I would
imagine he's yearning for fellowship like all of us do. He's yearning
for fellowship. He wants to have fellowship.
And he wants to go see Peter. So this was not a visit for knowledge. This was not a visit for knowledge.
He wasn't going up there to learn something from Peter because
they preach the same gospel. And this was a visit of pure
friendship, beloved, of pure friendship with Peter and Christ. So what's the lesson we can learn
here? Well, that this friendship, this fellowship is all embracing.
It receives each other where we're at. It doesn't vault one
over the other. They receive themselves as equals.
Paul never disparaged Peter. Now we're gonna see, there's
a time when he confronts Peter, when Peter's an error. We're
gonna see that in this book. And he really, he uses strong
language with him. I was listening to today, I was
listening to the first four chapters of this book this morning, and
they hit on that where Paul just, boy, he just, but he does it
in love, but he's sure firm. Peter was an error. right? Dissimulating with the other
Jews that had come, and leaving the Gentiles all by themselves.
But the scripture says, and think of this too, in light of that,
him seeing that, and he writes in Colossians, there's neither
Jew nor Gentile in the body of Christ. He's seen the divide,
and then now he sees the coming together. Isn't that wonderful?
So we can look at pieces of scripture that way and things that occurred
and see how Paul's being taught these wonderful truths and then
he's just expounding on them by the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit of God. And this fellowship is all-embracing.
It includes differences of ranks or giftings, culture and temperament. You know, Paul's not only a Jew,
he's a Roman as well. So he's of both nations that
way. And no one could be more diverse
than Peter and Paul. Right? They're like opposite
poles, aren't they? You know, Peter's a fisherman. My father-in-law's a fisherman.
Now, he's not a dumb man. He's an extremely intelligent
man. But he's a common fellow, like you and I. Now Paul had
come from a learned, you know, like higher up, but now that's
all gone, isn't it? That's been destroyed. Now they're
meeting on the same level, but I'll tell you what, personality-wise,
there's a big difference, isn't there? They're one in Christ,
but they have different personalities as well, which each one of us
do, see? But we meet together and embrace
each other in love, and rejoice when we see each other again,
and have a fellowship again. It's wonderful. So Paul could
meet as an equal with Peter. He'd heard of him, but he'd never
met him. He'd heard of him, but he remembered, too. Here's the
great persecutor of the church meeting one of the great apostles
of the church. Isn't that incredible? former persecutor, meeting one
of the greatest apostles in the whole church. Could you imagine the stories
they swapped? About the things of Christ? Could you imagine
Peter going, oh, you know, I denied the Lord three times. Three times,
and he told me I would. And then when he saw me again,
he didn't condemn me, brother. He didn't say, Peter, you blew
it, and I'm not going to forgive you. He said, Peter, do you love
me? And he said it three times, Brother Paul. Three times he
said it to me. And Paul said, yeah, I met him
on the road to Damascus. And he arrested me right there.
And I couldn't even look up. I was blind for three days, Brother
Peter. But they sent me to Ananias,
and Ananias prayed over me, and the scales came off my eyes. And then Peter telling about
the, let me tell you about the ship. Paul would say, well, I
was caught up in the third heaven. Right? Could you imagine? But now Paul
wasn't able to utter about that. He wasn't able to tell anybody
about that. My, oh my. Pleased that they could talk
about the wonders. Here, Paul's talked all the miracles. Now, think of this, too. Here,
Paul's talking to someone who saw the miracles, right, Peter?
Peter'd be like, oh, you should have seen some of these miracles.
They just, they were incredible. He walked on water. And I tried
to walk out to him. I started sinking. Because I
had, my arm got the storm. And Paul says, I saw the risen
Christ. You saw him on earth, but I saw
the risen Christ. He appeared to me in his glory, his majesty. So they both, what would that,
they both be, I like saying, when I'm talking to another preacher,
I feel like I'm getting hooked to a battery and I'm getting
all charged up. Could you imagine the two of
them? They'd come flying out of that house, wouldn't they? They'd be so excited. Oh, my. And then we see Peter showing
hospitality to Paul, too, don't we? Just accepting him. What's the nature of their fellowship?
Well, the same as all Christian fellowship, it's a fellowship
in Christ, right? They both have a fellowship in Christ Jesus.
He's their Savior, just like He's our Savior. He's their Redeemer.
He's the one who's completed their salvation perfectly by
the shed blood. And could you imagine them talking
and reasoning over the scriptures together? And again, all they
had is the Old Testament, and say, oh, look, here's Christ.
Oh, my. And then they had a fellowship
of love now, didn't they? He who persecuted the church now
loves the church. My. He who heard about this one who
persecuted the church now loves the one who was the former persecutor
of the church. Oh my. And their fellowship is in the
gospel, isn't it? And the gospel centered around Christ and him
alone. So let's read that verse again.
Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter
and to bowl with him. 15 days, three years after his Damascus
road experience. And Paul had not saw any of the
Lord's apostles but Peter and James. He'd been preaching the
gospel as far as we know here, well at least for a few years,
right? Again, we don't know how long he was in Arabia, but it
says in the scripture that he started preaching the gospel. And he was taught this gospel
by the revelation of Jesus Christ. He's a chosen vessel. Remember
the Lord said to Ananias, don't fear him, he's a chosen vessel
of mine. He's going to suffer for my cause,
and he's going to take the gospel to the Gentiles. And who taught him the gospel?
The Holy Spirit of God. Right? He's the revealer of Christ,
isn't he? Who taught us the gospel? The
Holy Spirit of God. Who made us well in the day of
his power? The Holy Spirit of God. He's just as much God as
the Father and the Son, isn't he? It's wonderful. We, by grace,
are given ears to hear and preaching the gospel. We've heard the preaching
of a man, a man standing up and preaching, but it's God who's
given us hearing ears. If you get a blessing from the
gospel as a believer, it's because God's given you hearing ears. I'm just repeating a report,
but that report means so much to me, too, as a believer. And I get just as excited as
you all do when I'm studying and when I'm preaching. Oh my,
it's wonderful. We should never be looking to
a man. We should never be looking to
a certain preacher. Never, ever. A mere preacher, we shouldn't
look to a mere preacher to teach us. And we ought to guard ourselves
as believers from saying, I can't learn from that man. or I can't
learn from this preacher. That's what they were doing in
class, remember? They said, I'm a Paul, and I'm a Paulos, and
I'm a, basically they were saying, I can't learn from Paul, and
I can't learn from Paulos. And then some of them said, well,
then they bring the Lord down to the same stature as these
men, which these men would absolutely despise, because they're preaching
Christ, they're vaulting him up. Don't bring the God-man,
our Savior, down to mere man's level. No. No, not at all. Let us always remember that it's
never the responsibility of the preacher to make the Scriptures
effectual. That's the Holy Spirit's work,
isn't it? That's His work. He's the one who makes the Scriptures
effectual as it leaves my mouth, the preacher of the gospel, and
comes to your heart and your ears. He's the one who makes
that effectual. Isn't that amazing? Think about
that. That's a miracle, isn't it? We had stoppers in our ears at
one time, didn't we, Brother Dave? We had stoppers. I don't
want to hear this. It would basically hit our fingers.
I don't want to hear this. Now, tell me more. Tell me more. That's all I want to hear now.
Oh my. The Holy Spirit makes the preaching
effectual. And if we're not learning from the preaching of the gospel,
then we should be on our face, shouldn't we? We should be on
our face asking the Lord, what's going on, Lord? Teach me, please. Teach me about you through the
preaching of your word. And that doesn't excuse the preacher
at all from not studying. A preacher has to study diligently.
Right? But there's a responsibility
on both sides, isn't there, for the preacher to preach the word
faithfully and for us to also be hearers of the word, right,
when we're hearing the gospel preached. That includes me too.
When I'm listening to Donny or Norm or whatever preacher I'm
listening to, I have a responsibility as a listener to listen. Oh my. So think of this, Paul and Peter
spent 15 days together, and they talked about the Lord. They probably
reasoned in scripture, talked about the Lord, and they each
had the same knowledge of Christ because it's the same faith,
right? We're both given the same faith. But they've experienced
it in different ways, right? Peter would walk with the Lord,
talk with the Lord. heard him teach, saw his miracles. He was
an eyewitness to the majesty of Christ. Just think of that.
He was an eyewitness to the majesty of Christ. That's incredible. When he put his hand on that
leper and said, be thou clean, he saw that, beloved. Oh my. We read about it and get excited,
don't we? But he saw it right there. Saw that leprosy leave
that man. He saw the gathering demoniac
tearing at himself in chains. And then he saw and he heard
that gathering say, those demons inside that gathering demoniac
say, we know who thou art, thou holy one of God. He was an ear
witness of that and an eye witness of that. And then he saw the
Lord cast those demons out. And then he saw that man sitting
in his right mind, clothed at the feet of Christ. That pictures
us in our right mind after the Lord Jesus regenerates us. And
where are we? Sitting at the feet of Christ.
And now we were naked before in our own... Well, we were clothed
in our own righteousness, which basically was leaving us naked
before God, right? And now we're clothed in the
righteousness of Christ, beloved. Oh, my. My oh my. So Paul was relaying
his experience as someone who had never met Christ in the flesh,
but he had a much different interaction because he saw Christ as the
resurrected Savior. Now we can speak as someone about
a common friend and you can see them in your mind's eye. Like
if we talk about someone we both know, we can see that person
in our minds, can't we? We know how they talk, we know
how they walk, we know what their voice sounds like. But if you
talk about someone you don't have in common with someone,
they don't have that recollection of the same person you're talking
about. They don't have a common frame
of reference, do they? And Peter and Paul both saw the
Lord. Peter saw him in the flesh and
his earth. And Paul, he appeared to him on the road to Damascus
in his glorified state. And think about it again how
Peter would tell Paul of all his missteps. Oh, Paul, you don't
know how many times I just blew it. I stuck my foot in my mouth
more times than you could ever think. And Paul would be saying, he'd
be saying, oh, man. All those people I persecuted
are brothers and sisters in Christ. He'd mourn over that, wouldn't
he? But then you know what they do? They both rejoice that it
was all forgiven, washed in the precious blood. That's why the
words of Paul when he writes that the blotting out of the
handwriting of ordinances that was against us, Christ took it,
that were contrary to us, he took it away, nailing it to his
cross. So think of that, when we read those sections, think
of that more. All that stuff Paul had done to the church,
and he's writing that, it's all blotting out. I'm forgiven. And remember those words, because
Christ speaks them to us, too. Peter, do you love me? Yeah, Lord. Peter, do you love
me? Lord, you know. Peter, do you
love me? He's on his face, isn't he? Oh
God, so good to us, beloved.