Galatians chapter 1. We're going to continue our study
in this wonderful book. We'll read verses 11 to 16 together. Scripture says 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 in the Jews' 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 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. So he didn't consult anybody. He just went out and preached
the gospel. He went out and preached about Christ. And today I'd like
us to finish looking at verse 16. We looked at a little bit
of it last week. And I'd like to just look at
a phrase that's in this, that I might preach him among the
heathen. That I might preach him among
the heathen. Look at verse 11. when it says, but I certify you,
brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after
man. Here we see the rise of the gospel within Paul's life. He says, but I certify you, brethren,
that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. Note
the gospel of salvation in Christ. It's not man-based. It's not man-made. Its origins
come from God. It's God's gospel, isn't it?
It's his gospel. It's his gospel, and it's concerning
his son, isn't it? It's concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's the immutable gospel. And
think of that. It can't be after man because
it's immutable. It doesn't change. Everything
we do in religions of this world, they change things all the time.
One of the things that turned my dad off from the Catholic
Church is one minute they said you could do this, and the next
minute they said you couldn't do this. like eat meat on Fridays. Even though he was religious
but lost, he held to that. He ate fish every Friday until
they changed it to where you could eat whatever you want.
Well, he just didn't think that was right. And you know what?
He had a point, didn't he? Even though we know that you
don't have to follow food practices that way for your salvation. But things with men change. But the gospel is unchanging.
It's concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. It's called the everlasting
gospel, isn't it? It finds its roots in eternity,
when God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit covenanted
to save a people by their mercy and their grace. It's not a human invention. Even
its character is divine. Even its character is divine,
beloved. Its content, its content is divine. The gospel is the message of
God's mercy to sinners. God's unmerited, unearned mercy
towards we who are sinners, who are undeserving of that mercy.
And it's a message, think of this too, it's a message of a
completed work. There's nothing for man to do.
See, man-made religion is always about what we have to do. But
the gospel says it's finished by our master's own words. And
remember when we looked at that Greek word, it's to be completed
to perfection. It's absolutely finished, it's
perfect. You can't get it, you can't add anything to perfection,
can you? Especially perfection performed and obtained by a perfect
man. by a sinless man, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And you know what it is? It's
a salvation perfectly finished for God's elect. It's already
done. I preach about a gospel that's
already done, a salvation that Christ has obtained for his people. I proclaim to God's people and
to God's sleeping elect, who will be regenerated in God's
timing by the power of the Holy Spirit, a completed, finished
work. Now that brings a sinner joy,
doesn't it? That brings us sinner joy, because
there's nothing I have to do. It's wonderful, I just have to
look to Christ. And it also, the immutable gospel
also opposes man's pride. It leaves no room for man to
boast in anything. And therefore it offends the
pride of man. It slays the pride of man, doesn't
it? It opposes human pride and it
gives no place for sin, does it? No. It says, the cell that
sinneth it must die. The wage of the sin is death.
The payment for sin is death. That's talking about a soldier's
script that was given to them each month. In the Greek, that
payment is a soldier's wage that they earned. They earned it.
See, we earned, you know what we earned? We earned wrath and
judgment. That's what we earned by our
sin. We've earned the fact that God
could pour out his wrath upon us because we've rightfully earned
it. But you see what happens for
God's people? We don't get that, do we? We receive mercy. We receive grace. You know why?
Because that payment due us, see, that payment that was justly
due us fell upon our sinless Savior, fell on him. And he cried, beloved, it is
finished. And that's what the gospel, I
preach a finished work, good news. The gospel's glad tidings,
isn't it? That's glad tidings for sinners,
isn't it? The work's done. Our wages, our deserving, have been
blotted out. So that there's the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, that's what we deserved,
right? Death. Wayne Boyd deserves death. The
law of God and the justice of God said, and Christ said, I'll
pay it all. Put your name in there. Oh my. And God's people are bought
and paid for, redeemed by the precious blood of the lamb. Even
the conception of the gospel of God's free grace is divine.
Because it comes from God's, it originates with God in eternity. With no human intervention. No human intervention at all.
And also think of this, the gospel of God's free grace, the one
true gospel, proclaims a righteousness that comes from another. As the old time preachers used
to say, an alien righteousness, because it's not ours. All our
righteousness is what? Filthy rags in the eyes of the
Lord, isn't it? But what did God say about his
son? This is my son. This is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased. So anyone in him, he's well pleased with him. Did a drop of rain fall on Noah or his family in that ark? Not
a drop, not a drip, not even a little microcosm of water fell
through that, right? And that rain, that represented
the wrath of God. And it beat upon that ark, didn't
it? It beat upon that ark, eh? Oh, it beat upon the ark, didn't
it? That ark represents Christ. God's wrath and judgment beat
upon the ark, beat upon the ark of our safety, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And where are we safe? In Christ,
under the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And remember
that pitch that they pitched the ark with to seal the ark?
That represents the blood of Christ, beloved. We're sealed
up. We're sealed up in Christ so
that not a drop of God's wrath will ever touch us. Never. Oh, what a Savior we have. See,
this is a gospel of divine origin, isn't it? Man would never think
this up. A king would never—man would never think that a king
would die for all his servants. Man would never think of that.
And oh, the humility. when God the Son left glory. Oh, the humility to come to this
sin-cursed world and to become bone of our bone and flesh of
our flesh. Oh, the humility, beloved. And
yet he did it willingly. And see, this is the gospel Paul
preached and proclaimed, isn't it? This is the one true gospel,
salvation in and through Christ alone, no other way. And note
in verse 12 the reception of the gospel. Paul says, I neither
received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation
of Jesus Christ. God revealed the gospel. He didn't
consult Peter and James and John. Now later on he went and saw
them, but he didn't at first. No, he was taught the gospel.
by God himself. And someone may say, well, preacher,
we realize that the gospel is from God, and its origin is in
God, but we claim that its reception is of man. No, it's not. Thy
people shall be made well in the day of thy power. Even the
reception of the gospel is of God, beloved. Because in our
natural state, we don't want to have anything to do with that
gospel. But oh now, tell me, keep telling me this good news
about what Christ did for me. Tell me about my wonderful, merciful
Savior. He's the only one I want to hear
about. He's so wonderful. So Paul did not receive this
gospel from his parents. He did not receive it from Gamaliel,
his teacher. He did not receive it from the
other apostles. He didn't even receive it of
his own free will, did he? No, he was going off to kill
Christians, wasn't he? That was what his will, his will
was tied to his nature, and his nature, and deep down in his
nature, he hated Christ, he hated the people of the way, and all
he wanted to do was waste the church. Remember that conversation,
his manner of life? So that was his manner of life.
That was his drive in life, was to wipe the church from the face
of the earth. Well, someone didn't say, well,
if Paul didn't receive it of his own will, if it wasn't of
his origin, that he said, yeah, I'm going to take that. How did
he receive it? By revelation of God. How do
we receive the gospel? By revelation of God. Not the
same way Paul did, but we sure do when the Holy Spirit illuminates
the scriptures, doesn't he, and teaches us the things of Christ
and gives us eyes to see and ears to hear, we go, oh my gosh,
he's my savior. Because we've been made willing
in the day of His power, again, salvations of the Lord. It's
of His planning, it's of His execution, and He finishes it
all, doesn't He? Because He's going to take us
home to glory one day. He who begun a good work in you will
finish it. He's going to finish it. And that finishing is us
up in glory with no sin. Oh, that'll be glorious, won't
it? So there's only one way in which men will receive the gospel
by the revelation of Jesus Christ. It's only by the sovereign illuminating
work of the Holy Spirit that the dark abyss of our minds,
the dark abyss of our hearts, right, were made new creatures
in Christ, were born again by the power of God, the Holy Spirit,
and given faith to believe. We were in such darkness, we
didn't even know the darkness we were in. And what's happened? The light of the glorious gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ has shined in our hearts, hasn't
it? And I'll tell you why. You've been praising his name
ever since, right? Just like me. Isn't that amazing? That's the work of God, beloved.
That's a miracle of God's grace. Oh my. Now let's go back to verse
16 here. And we see that this phrase in
verse 16, that I might preach them among the heathen. Now,
Paul did just that, didn't he? He did that. These churches in
Galatia, they were the heathens. You know, that's the stock we're
from. That's the stock we're from. We're Gentiles in this room.
Unless we have someone who has Jewish descent, but even the
Jews can't trace back what tribe they're from. They've been so
scattered, they don't even know what tribe they're from. But
as far as I know, we're all Gentiles here. So we'll have the same
stock as the Galatians. I might preach them among the
heathen. Think of this, too. We're reading Paul's words here. I often think of this. We preachers
get up and we proclaim the gospel, but Paul's preaching to you too. Matthew's preaching to you when
we're going through Matthew. When one of the men's up reading,
they're reading the words of Christ, they're reading the words
of the gospel, they're reading whatever scripture. The words
are being proclaimed, isn't it? My, oh, my. Jeremiah preached
in the Old Testament, right? We read his words now. He's still
preaching to us, isn't he? As far as we know, there was
never a convert in Jeremiah's life, but I'm sure the Lord saved
some folks through the reading of Jeremiah. I think Fahs, our
buddy out west, he was saved by reading Jeremiah in a hotel
room. Some people say, well, there's no preacher there. Jeremiah's
preaching to them, wasn't he? Yeah? See, we complicate things
so much, don't we? Oh my. The word has power, beloved. And we'll see this when we go
over to 1 Thessalonians. This word has power. And Paul
did this. The scripture says here that
I might preach him among the heathen. Remember, the true author
of these words is God the Holy Spirit. So he's telling us what
Paul was called to do. And Paul did all of this. He
preached to the heathen just like every preacher that you
know and I know. We preach the gospel by the strength
and the grace of God. It's not something we can do
on our own. I know what Paul means when he says who's sufficient
for these things. There's no one sufficient for
these things, but as Brother Henry said, God makes the preacher.
He builds us up in Christ. He gives us the gifts to proclaim
the gospel. And he uses things that are from
our past to help prepare us for that time when he calls us into
the ministry. It's absolutely incredible. Before
the Lord saved me, when I was a teenager, I was kind of an
introvert. I had a lot of friends, but I
was introverted. Then in my 30s, I got a job at
a Fortune 500 company when I moved down here and I was a salesman.
Well, I had to talk to people every day for eight hours a day. My wife says now I never met
a stranger. I think part of that came from being able to talk
to people real easily as a salesman. I was very successful at it because
I was just myself. And I'm still just myself. You
guys know what you see is what you get. I'm a preacher called
by grace, by God, but I'm still just Wayne. But I'm saved by
God and now I want to proclaim the great things he's done for
me. But I can see how he took me from being introverted to
being extroverted and to being able to talk to people. and then
put me in the ministry, too. But he uses all those things
in our lives, too. Don't think that things in your
lives didn't matter because he's used those things in your life
to bring you to the point that you're at now. Every believer,
I believe that happens with every believer, too. It's incredible. So we can look back and go, look
at the mercy that God had on me. Look how merciful, look how
full of grace he was with me. Look how long-suffering he was
with me. It's absolutely incredible. It's amazing how involved in
our life our great God is. He knows the very hairs of our
head are numbered. I can't number my hair. But He knows every one of them,
and it's the same for you too. Every hair on our head He knows.
That's an intimate knowledge, isn't it? That's incredible,
just incredible. So Paul preached Christ among
the heathen, and Christ was the subject of this one. Now, are
we to try to fight sin? Yes, they overcame him by the
blood of the lamb, by the word of their testimony, right? We
fight sin with the blood of the lamb, like I said last week.
But Christ is our sinless sacrifice. He's our savior. He's our redeemer. So the thrust, the main message
of a sent gospel preacher is Christ. Everything centers around
him. Everything. He literally becomes,
as Paul says, my all in all. And I'm sure any grace preacher
you talk to would say the same thing. He's everything. You take
Christ away, I have nothing. Nothing. Nothing for my eternal
soul. Nothing. And the gospel centers around
Christ, doesn't it? It proclaims who He is, what
He's done, and where He is right now. He's not hanging on the
cross. He's gone home to glory, beloved.
And that same Jesus who went up that way, He's coming back
the same way, beloved. We just don't know when. But
he will return. Sure as the sun rises, he's gonna
return one day. And he preached, Paul preached
that Jesus Christ was very God of very God. He was God incarnate
in the flesh. And he preached the things respecting
Christ's office too, that he is prophet, priest, and king,
right? He covered it. He covered, Christ was the main
teaching in his messages. He preached the doctrines of
grace, which center around Christ, right? How we're justified by
Christ, by him, he rose for our justification. He preached about
the blood of Christ, how we're redeemed by the precious blood
of Christ. He purchased our eternal souls, and he obtained eternal
redemption by the shedding of his blood. He preached all those
things, didn't he? that we have the total forgiveness
of sins, the blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that
was against us, that was contrary to us, he took it out of the
way, nailing it to his cross. That was Paul in Colossians,
he wrote that. And then he also wrote in Colossians,
Paul wrote, and you are complete in him. And that complete again,
I'm going to tell you again, because I love this, in the Greek,
that means you can't fill it up any further. It's filled to
the brim. You can't even add a drop. We're
so complete in Christ that not even a drop or a pinprick of
our works could be added to it, because then there's no more
grace, is it? See, that's the message that's being brought
forth there. Salvation's all of grace, from its planning,
to its execution, to the glorification of God's people. Salvation's
all of grace. Turn, if you would, to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1. And Paul preached redemption
through the blood of Christ. He preached eternal salvation,
a complete salvation, not one that man can get and lose and
get and lose, no. A salvation that's sure in Christ
and him alone. And where did Paul preach these
truths? Well, he preached the good news in the gospel and glad
tidings to sinners, to those who were sinners by birth, nature,
and choice, right? Just like us. Just like us. Wherever the Lord opened the
door for him to proclaim the gospel, he proclaimed Christ. And Christ called him, and we
saw in that text, he sent him to the heathen, right? So here
we are, we're gonna look at 1 Thessalonians. Now, Thessalonica, in Thessalonica,
there's a bunch of idol worshipers. They were full-on pagans, they
were heathens. And there's still people who
are idol worshipers. I came out of that. People bow before Mary's
statues. That's idol worship. I'm not going to pull back on
that, because that's exactly what it is. It's nothing but
idol worship. And I came out of that. But I
can have empathy with the Thessalonian people, because what happened
was, when the Lord saved them and they came out of that idol
worshiping, they were persecuted heavily by their countrymen,
the scripture says. So, it'd be like the Lord saving
someone out of Catholicism, and then his whole family turning
against him. I heard that happen down in Mexico. Young man, the
Lord saved him. And he was, they were steeped
very much so into, in Catholicism. And one day his
dad came home and he had all these statues that his dad bowed
before on the table. And they were all smashed but
one of them. And his dad said, son, what have you done? He said,
they couldn't stop me. Because they're worthless pieces
of stone, dad. Well, he was ostracized and cast out by his family. But he was trying to show his
dad that these were just worthless pieces of rock, stone that could
not help. They couldn't do anything. So these Thessalonians, they
had been persecuted heavily by their countrymen. Because they
were staunch idol worshippers. The people in this area were
staunch, just like all the heathen were. You ever watch a movie
about the Romans or centurions and them, and they always have
these little idols that they carry around with them. Same
kind of stuff, just a different name. Still a piece of rock,
right? A piece of stone that somebody's
bowing down to. Now look at this here in 1 Thessalonians
1, verses 4 and 5. Paul's going to bring forth two
truths here that are just incredible. He said, knowing, brethren and
beloved, your election of God. So right away, the young church. And what's he doing? People say
you shouldn't teach young converts. About election, Paul's doing
it right here, isn't he? He's not holding back on any
of the truth. Knowing your election to God,
that's choosing the Greek. They've been chosen. Look at
this, I love this. For our gospel came not unto
you in word only. So they didn't just hear it as
words from Paul. You've heard me often say, and
I'm quoting Henry when I do this, that if my words are the only
words you hear, it's not gonna profit you anything. But if it
comes in power, the Holy Spirit of God, it'll have an effect
on us, won't it? It'll have an effect on us. So
he says here, for our gospel came unto you not in word only,
but also in power. And look at this, and in the
Holy Ghost, there's where the power comes from. There's where the power comes
from, the Holy Spirit of God. Holy Spirit of God. He's just
as much God as the Father. He's just as much God as the
Son, isn't He? And just because some groups
have taken Him out of context, it doesn't mean that He's not
God and that He's not all-powerful, is it? And we see there. So,
us preachers, our words have no power. If you receive a blessing
from the words of the preacher, it's because God, and think of
this, it's because God the Holy Spirit's given you ears to hear
and eyes to see Christ. And he illuminates that, like
Donny Bell said, somewhere from me speaking into your ears and
into your heart, the Holy Spirit gets ahold of that. I like that,
because it's true. And he blesses us with it, right?
Just as I sit and listen to sermons, and I get excited, and I get
my soul, I get tears streaming down my face at the wondrous
things that Christ has done for me. My, that's because the Holy
Spirit's taken those words, isn't he? See, in my natural state,
I've just said, ah, it's the Bible thumper. Not now, though. Not now. These are words of mercy
and grace, aren't they? Wonderful words, so it didn't
come as the words meant, but it came in power, and then the
Holy Ghost, and I like this next part, in much assurance. What an assurance we have in
Christ. Our salvation is not based upon what we do. Our salvation
is wholly dependent on and in Christ Jesus our Lord. So therefore,
we have much assurance, don't we? Now, do we get rocked around
in life? Of course we do. I am not gonna
lie, we do. We get rocked around, don't we?
But who's the anchor of our soul? Christ Jesus. We're anchored
to him. Here's a good illustration. There
was two men that were floating down the river in Niagara Falls.
And if you've been to Niagara Falls, there's a big river that
flows down. Two men were floating down this river, and
they were screaming for help. And people on the shore noticed,
so they threw a rope out so that the rope would drift to them.
And they both grabbed a hold of the rope at the same time. And so they started pulling in
those two. And one looked and he saw a log,
big log, gigantic log. So he let go of the rope and
he grabbed the log. Well, what happened? He perished. He went
over the falls and died. But the one they pulled in because
he was connected to the shore. Who are we connected to, beloved?
The Lord Jesus Christ. We won't go over them falls,
right? We won't go over those falls.
No, no. We're in the king of kings, right? We're his body. And he has a
grip on us, beloved, that he'll never, never let go. Oh, it's
wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. So
these two verses here. Look at that. And in much assurance,
as you know, what manner of man we were among you for your sake.
Now Paul was a tent maker. When he came, he didn't ask for
any money. He continued to do his trade while he was in the
city. Didn't ask anything of them.
Being a new church, he didn't ask anything. And it's amazing
what the Lord did there. There's a church established
amongst a bunch of heathens. Think of us, here's a church
established in Elmont, Michigan. People all around us have no
care for God at all. And here we are, in here, loving
the gospel. Who made us to differ? It wasn't
us, was it? It's God that made us to differ.
Give us a love for Christ and a love for his gospel and a love
for his people. It's amazing. It's just amazing. So we clearly see here in these
verses that the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace of salvation
in and through Christ must be preached. It must be preached
because what happens is we preach the gospel and it goes out in
the power of the Holy Spirit if he so takes that and he uses
it, he uses it to regenerate his people. those for whom Christ
died for. How shall they hear without a
preacher, right? And how shall one preach except they be sent?
So Paul was a sent man of God, just like every gospel preacher.
We're sent by God to wherever we're supposed to be to preach
and proclaim the gospel. That's what we are to do, is
to preach Christ. That's the main thrust of why
I'm here. Number one, to preach the gospel.
Number two, to serve you. Because I believe a preacher
is a servant of the church. Just as much as anyone else. You know, I'm not sent here to
lord over you all, not at all. I'm sent here to preach the gospel,
to lead, but also to be a servant of the body. And that's how it's supposed
to be. And that's how Paul, Paul was like that. When he had to
speak sternly, he did. And he's doing that to the Galatians,
right? Because of the error that's crept
into the Galatian church. But later on, we're going to
see, as we go through this book, just the love that he has for
these people. And how he just brings the gospel
alive, and the message of God's grace alive for these people.
And here we are, 2,000 years ago, and we're still being blessed
by it, aren't we? My, oh my. I had a whole bunch
more, but I got off on a few things there. But isn't it wonderful
to think that the Lord saved us by his grace and his mercy,
and he saved us on purpose because it was his will to do so? And
then, again, think of the love of Christ. Think of the humility
of Christ. You know, I've been thinking
more and more about that as I've been studying in Matthew and
in preparing for Wednesday nights. And the love that Christ had
for his people is absolutely amazing. We can't even fathom
it. But the humiliation is what's
really standing out to me. The fact that the King of Glory
came to this earth and he did it to save us. That's a wonder, beloved. Think
upon that this week. Meditate upon that this week.
The fact that Christ humbled himself, left heaven to save
your soul. It'll bless you. It'll bless
you. Oh my. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for your mercy and your grace.