Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Galatians chapter 1. Galatians chapter 1. I'm going to be looking at verse,
we're going to be looking at verses 15 again and 16. And then I think next week we'll
spend a little bit more time on verse 16 again, too. Touching on Paul's call to preach. This has been a wonderful study.
I'll tell you, I've profited very much from all the little
epistles that we're doing. I'm actually trying to preach
to the New Testament, all the New Testament books, so that's
why you see us going to Galatians and 1 Peter, 2 Peter, John. And
eventually I'm going to tackle one of the Gospels. We probably
won't go verse by verse when we do the Gospels. We'll probably
do sections that way. I do really enjoy the verse by
verse studies that we're doing right now and like this with
Galatians because we can really unpack what's in the verse. So
it's a real blessing. So pray for me as we We continue
our study through Galatians, and actually we'll be having
a Wednesday night study too in April again, starting that up
again. So please pray for me for guidance
for a book. I have three or four books in
mind that I want to preach, but I just pray the Lord will give
me a little more guidance to which one He'll direct me to.
Okay, Galatians chapter one. Again, we'll continue this study.
The name of the message is Christ Revealed. Open your Bibles to
Galatians chapter 1, where we read verses 11 to 17. 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 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 Jews'
religion above many mine equals in mine own nation, being more
exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased
God." Oh, look at that. 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, either when I upped Jerusalem
to them which were apostles before me. But I went into Arabia and
returned again unto Damascus." So the verse that we're going
to be looking at verses 15 and 16 today, but when it pleased
God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
His grace." Oh, God calls us by grace, doesn't He? It's the
mercy of God. He doesn't leave us where we
were. He doesn't leave us dead in trespasses and sins. He calls
us by His grace, calls us out of that deadness spiritually
that we were in. We couldn't even help ourselves
and He calls us out of that. In all of God's all of his enlightened
children have been born again by the Holy Spirit of God. Scripture
declares you must be born again. Christ Jesus our King, the Master
even said that. There's a lot of people who think
because they go to a church or because they belong to a church
that they're going to heaven. But that's not so, we know, because
the scripture declares you must be born again. And that's the
work of God, isn't it? That's the work of God. We become
new creatures in Christ, don't we? He who was dead or she who
was dead spiritually, now we become alive. Now we're alive
in Christ. My, oh my. And there's no exception
to this. You must be born again. You must
be. That's what the Lord said, right?
That's his own words. That's the master's words. It's
not the preacher saying that. We're just repeating what the
Lord said. And if the master said it, there should be even
more emphasis upon it, right? So no one will see God unless
you're born again. And what that does is it gives
all glory to God, doesn't it? Gives him all glory and honor
and praise in the fact that our salvation is of the Lord. It's
not of our doing, not by works of righteousness which we have
done, but according to his mercy, he has saved us. He saved us
according to his mercy. And we know from our studies
before that the mercy of God, you can't plumb the depths of
it, can you? And so every believer can say, God's mercy is amazing
because he saved me. Every believer can say that.
We've experienced the mercy of God, haven't we? And we might
have been steeped in false religious beliefs at one time. We might
have never darkened the church of God, but that doesn't change
the fact for God's people that you must be born again. Christ
must be revealed to you. Brother Tom, we've talked about
that many times. If Christ is not revealed to you, you'll never
know him. You won't know him at all. I didn't know Christ
before he revealed himself to me. I had no clue who he was.
I had a God of my imagination, you see. I had cooked up in my
mind who I thought God was, but you know what? It wasn't the
God of the Bible. It wasn't the God of the Bible.
See, the God that I had cooked up in my mind would put you in
a scale. Put you in a scale, and you're
good without where you're bad, right? This is the God of my
imagination. You're good without where you're
bad. And I thought, well, sure, I didn't kill no one. I haven't
done this and that. Oh, sure. But you know what I
found out? I was weighed and found wanting. I was weighed and found wanton,
beloved. I was dead in my sins and I couldn't
even pay for one. But praise be to God, the Lord
saved me by His grace and His mercy. And so for you, isn't
it, if you're born again? So for you. We were weighed and
found wanton. My, oh my. And all of us in our
unregenerate state, we're spiritually dead. We're dead in trespasses
and sins. See, this is the testimony of
Paul, too. We've seen that in verses 13 and 14. He's bringing
forth that he was dead in religion, spiritually, spiritually dead.
And he's using his testimony to glorify God. He's saying,
this is what I was. And notice he's not hiding his
sin. He says, I was a waster of the church. I was a destroyer
of the church. Now he's not glorying in the
sin, no, because we never want to do that. Right? Never. But look at what the Lord's brought
us through. So that's what the Scripture
means when we witness. We say, look what the Lord's
done for me. Look at the great things God's
done for me. Saved my soul. He saved my soul. And it's all
Him. It's all by His grace. It's all by His mercy. See, this
is a testimony of every believer, isn't it? And in our natural
state, we don't want nothing to do with God. We just go along in life thinking
we're doing fine, thinking my good will that way, my bad. Oh,
my. And the things of God were foolishness
to us. foolishness to us. But now they're
precious. Now they're incredible. God's people, people we didn't
want to be around. Well, I don't want to be around them. Now we
can't wait to come to church and be with the Lord's people.
Brother Charlie, you testified a lot this morning. We just want
to be here. We just want to be with the Lord's
people. We just want to rejoice in the wonder of salvation that
we have in Christ. Who made us to differ? Who made
that change? We didn't, did we? No, God made
us alive in Christ. You must be born again. We're
born again in the Holy Spirit of God. My, and we see in verses
13 and 14, when it says for, you heard of my conversations,
remember that's manner of life in the Greek. So his manner of
life was to go and destroy the church, to waste the church.
That was on his mind. Well, God sure changed things,
didn't he? He arrested him on that road to Damascus, didn't
he? He stopped him right in his tracks, didn't he? Did he do
the same for us? Yep. Not like he did with Paul,
but he sure intervened in our life, didn't he? And let me tell
you, if God doesn't intervene in your life, you will never
know him. Oh, he intervened, didn't he? He revealed himself
to us. And now we're the most thankful
and blessed people in this world, aren't we? Oh my, it's absolutely
wonderful. And now, what's happened now?
Now we've been shut up to God's mercy, haven't we? Charlie and
I were talking, you mentioned about your son talking about
preaching, and how Grace Preachers, we just preach what the Bible
says, and that's what we do, we just preach what the word
says. And I told Charlie something the old preacher told me when
I first heard the gospel, and I was in amongst Grace believers
for the first time, he said, Wayne, it was Brother Gene Harmon,
he said, Wayne, once you've heard Grace preaching, it ruins you
for everything else. You'll never be the same. And
I'm like, I've never been the same. All I want to hear is,
tell me about my Savior. That's all I want to hear. Tell
me about what he's done, because I can't do nothing to save myself.
Tell me about him. Oh, my. It's wonderful, isn't
it? It's absolutely wonderful. And
our Lord Jesus, in the person of the Holy Spirit, he's quickened
us, hasn't he? We're born again. We're made alive in Christ now.
And now we love the gospel. Now we love the Savior, whose
precious, precious blood was shed for us. Each one of us can
say, Lord Jesus, you shed your blood for me, to cleanse me from
my sins. And I was listening to a Spurgeon
sermon this week, and do you know how we overcome sin in our
lives? By the blood of the Lamb. By the blood of the Lamb. My,
you just plead that blood, beloved. If you're going through something,
just say, oh Lord, please, please, just plead that blood. There's
power in the blood. There's power in the blood of
Christ. It's wonderful. It cleanses us from all our sins,
beloved. All of them. And the scripture
says they overcome Him being Satan by the power of the blood
and the word of their testimony. Look what Christ has done for
me. And we should remember that when we're struggling with stuff,
just remember, Lord, you shed your blood for me. You gave your
life for me. Oh, my. And our new creation,
what does the new creation within us, Christ in us, right, the
hope of glory, what does that cause us to do? It causes us
to love God, doesn't it? It causes us to love his Messiah,
who is the Lord Jesus Christ. And now we're in love with Christ.
We didn't want nothing to do with him before. We were in our
minds enemies with him in our minds. Now, oh, I ask you, is
he precious to you? Is he precious? Is he more precious
than anything in this world? Is he like the Pearl of Great
Price where the diver went down and found this gigantic pearl
that they've never seen before? Is he like that for us? Right? I was talking to Billy this week,
and Brother Billy up north, and I said, you know, when I was
in religion, I never heard about the righteousness of Christ.
Never heard about it. And he goes, isn't that incredible,
Brother Wayne? He says, because the righteousness
of Christ is so important. And he goes, I said, yeah, I
was trying to establish my own righteousness, and I didn't even
know it. And he goes, isn't it peaceful when you find out that
all we've got to do is rest in Christ and his perfect finished
work? Oh my, it's wonderful, isn't
it? It's wonderful. And we struggle with sin all
the time, don't we? But what do we? We overcome by the blood
of the lamb, don't we? We just look to Christ. You did
this for me, Lord. Oh my. That's why we willingly
serve him, isn't it? You know, we're like the servant
that got their ear bored, aren't we? Now he wanted to be with
the master for the rest of his life. We're like, bore my ear,
Lord! We weren't like that before.
We were like a wild boar before that, weren't we? Oh my, we didn't
want to be, we were so caught up in our own thing, but now,
over my ear, Lord, please, by thy grace and thy mercy." And
it's Him that's made us willing to do that, too. It's nothing
in us. It's all by His mercy and His
grace. And think of this. The Scriptures
declare that God saved us. God saved us and called us with
a holy calling, not according to our works, So nothing we can
do in our minds, nothing we can do physically, but according
to His own purpose. If you're saved, God saved you
on purpose. Isn't that wonderful? It's on
purpose, according to His will. And it says, according to His
own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began. That's mercy, isn't it? That's grace, before there was
ever a world. You know, I know that truth in
my heart, but it still makes my mind go... It still does to this day, I
love it. It's just like, oh my gosh, Lord,
this is incredible. It's incredible. And then the
scripture says, but is now manifest, being Christ, he was manifest
by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished
death. See, death has no more sting
on us. No more sting. And hath brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. So here's Paul, he's going out,
he's wasting the church, right? Believers of Christ. And then
we see here in Verse 16, to reveal the son of
me that I might what? Preach him. Now he's preaching
the gospel. Paul didn't do anything right.
He's on the road to the mosque. I'm going to get them. And then
he said, that is in you with meekness and fear. We have a
hope now. I was thinking about that this
week. Even this morning, I woke up and I thought, boy, what a
hope we have. And there's so many people in this world who
have no hope. They have no hope. But what a hope we have. It's
the Lord Jesus Christ. God's our hope. Think of this. He's our hope. He's our salvation. He's our redeemer. He's our king. He's our preserver. It covers everything, doesn't
it? Paul summed it up by saying, He's my all in all. I like that. That's the summation of all truth. He's my all in all. He's everything.
He's my beloved. Think of how much we husbands
love our wives, and you ladies love your husbands. Think of
that. But he's our beloved. He's our
beloved. He's our king. And we have one
whom my soul loves, who has greater love for us than anyone could
ever have upon this earth, even our spouses. Think of that. He loves us with an everlasting
love. And he said, I'll never leave
you no forsaken. Now we leave each other in death, don't we? But he'd never leave us in life
or in death. Isn't that amazing? He's ever
with us. Oh, how that comforts my heart.
How that comforts my heart. Brother Bruce Crabtree, Sister
Jo went home to be with the Lord, and he is writing people and
writing stuff, and I saw some. He's just resting on the sovereignty
of God, saying, well, Lord, you're in control. I'm going to trust
you. So pray for him. It's hard. It's hard. But who's our only hope? Who's our only hope? Christ,
right? We don't hope in ourselves. We
may have used to, but we don't anymore. We can't really hope in anyone
else, because we all let each other down, don't we? I'll say to my wife, I hope I
can get this done, or I'll do that for you this week. And I
don't get to it. We let each other down though,
but Christ will never let us down. What a hope! Just cling
hold of that, beloved. What a hope that we have. And
the hope is within us, isn't it? Christ in us, the hope of
glory. It says again, to give an answer,
be ready to always give an answer to every man that asks you a
reason of the hope that is in you. Oh my! With meekness and fear. So a testimony A true testimony
for God, for God's glory, will boldly declare the unconditional
electing grace of God, right? We'll say, he chose me. He chose
me before the foundation of the world. I had nothing to do with
it. It's all his mercy. And all we're doing is quoting
the truth of scripture, right? Some folks might not like that,
but who are they ultimately disagreeing with? Not us. We were talking about election,
and I just flat out told him. He said, well, I can't believe
that. I said, well, you don't believe
the Bible. I'm just repeating what the word said. And he's
a biblicist. He looks at himself as a staunch
defender of the scriptures. And he's like, well, that's it.
I said, really? I said, listen. And I read the
passage that I was reading to him, Ephesians chapter 1. And
I said, that's what the word of God says. This is not my opinion.
You know, and when I'm preaching, like Charlie's son said, I'm
not going to give my opinion. I'm going to preach what the
Word says. Too many people give their opinion on things, isn't
it? But my opinion doesn't matter. It's what the Word of God says.
That's what matters. And so our testimony as believers
will agree with the Word of God. Right? We'll agree with the truth
of Scripture. And it brings all glory to our
great God, doesn't it? It gives Him all the glory. And
any testimony that is tainted by anything that man does is
a lie. I don't care how sincere the
person is, it's a lie. I will never give anyone a false
refuge. If anyone's trusting anything
that they do for their salvation, it's a lie. Because salvation's
of the Lord. It's all His doing. It's all
His doing. Right? We're born again by the
Holy Spirit of God. Did we have anything to do with that birth?
We didn't have anything to do with our first birth, did we?
Why do people think they have something to do with their second
birth? We didn't have nothing to do with it, right? We're born
again by the Holy Spirit of God. Christ died for us 2,000 years
ago. Do we have anything to do with
that? Nope. Scripture says, He obtained eternal
salvation for us 2,000 years ago. Well, I wasn't even around. But the scripture declares it,
and I believe it. By God-given faith, we believe what the scripture
says, don't we? People say, how can you believe
that? Because God gave me faith to believe it. And I believe
it. I'll tell you what, I'll hold
it. That's precious to me. When he says, I'll never leave
you nor forsake you, I'll hold on to that promise. Hold on to
them promises, beloved. Do you see them promises? Hold
on to them promises. Grasp them to your heart. You
heard me say, Spurgeon said, pray them back to God. Lord,
you said you'd never leave me. You said you'd never forsake
me. And I believe it. I believe it, Lord. I'm going to rest in
you. I'm going to trust in you. Even though I can see clouds
and storms all around me, I'm going to just trust in you. I'm
just going to trust in you. You'll be with me ever, ever
to the end, either to the end of my life or the end of the
age, right? Whatever one comes first, all mine. And last week, we looked at verse
15 of Galatians chapter 1. Paul continues to tell of his
personal testimony. Again, he was zealous. He was
a religious Pharisee. He was persecuting the church.
He was wasting the church. And he identified the Jews' religion
as a false religion by clearly distinguishing it with those
who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul stated
again that he persecuted the church. Let's read verses 15
and 16 again. It says, but when it pleased
God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
his grace to reveal his son in me, that I might preach him among
the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. Now,
the first thing we notice here with Paul's testimony is this.
Immediately after he confessed his sinful loss condition, which
he did in verses 13 and 14, notice how quick he is to give
God the glory for his conversion, for being born again, for his
salvation. He quickly transitions from that,
because he doesn't want to spend a lot of time on that, because
We don't brag about our former lifestyle, we're not proud of
it at all, are we? But God uses it, doesn't he? But notice how
quickly he transitions from that and gives all the glory to God.
He says, but when it pleased God, when it was God's timing,
the exact time when God had ordained that I'd be saved, he separated
me from my mother's womb, he called an eternity in Christ,
right? That's what that's speaking of. And I love this. Why did
God separate them? Why did God call them? Well,
because He had chosen them in Christ, right? To reveal His
Son in me. There was a time in every one
of our lives when God revealed His Son to us. And we've never
been the same since. We've never been the same since.
Now, He took that rebel and turn him into one who glorifies God.
That's the grace of God. That's a miracle of the grace
of God. It's absolutely wonderful. When
it pleased God, look at this. When it pleased God, who separated
me from my mother's womb has reference to when God chose Paul
in Christ in eternity. Think of this. Think of this. Let's just bring it right down.
Think of this. Our parents were ordained by God according to
his eternal purpose to be our parents. And the moment we were
conceived, the moment we were conceived in our mother's womb
was all ordained by God according to his will and purpose. See, the baby in the womb is
alive. It's a life, isn't it? It's a life. And think of this,
the exact moment that we were born, the exact second that we
were born, the exact second, was all ordained by God. All
ordained by Him. The exact second we breathed
our first breath was all ordained by God. Even the location that
we were born in, The hospital was all ordained by God. Any relocation during our lives
was all ordained by God. All of it. The place where we
were living when our Lord Jesus Christ brought us under the sound
of the gospel was all ordained by God. the moment we were born again
by the Holy Spirit of God, granted faith to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, was all ordained by God. All planned and purposed by God. And what did He deliver us from?
He delivered us from our sin, didn't He? He delivered us from
Satan, and He delivered us from ourselves. Oh my. And that was all ordained by
God. All planned and purposed to the exact moment. Isn't that incredible? That's
how involved in our lives our great God is. Nothing escapes
his eye, does it? Absolutely nothing escapes the
eye of God. And if God calls us by his grace,
it's all according to his purpose. He ordained. And what God ordains
is going to come to pass. We're going to see this morning
in the message that God promises the Messiah come and he comes.
And so just in that fact that the Messiah has come, we can
trust he's coming again, right? Because he said, I'm coming again. So we can lay a hold of that
fact. We can lay hold of that promise. And if God has called
us by his grace, It's because Christ appeared in this life
as a man. It's because if God calls us by his grace, it's because
Christ died for us 2,000 years ago. And he established a perfect
righteousness for us, that we could stand in front of God,
clothed in the perfect spotless robe of righteousness of Christ,
and be forever in the presence of God, all because of what he's
done. And think of this, that's all
according to the purpose and plan of God. And if we have eternal
life in Christ Jesus, it's because he died for us. It's because
he died for us. Because he rose again. Because
he rose again. And Paul's testimony harmonized
with the gospel truce. He said, I'm only a sinner saved
by grace. That's all I am. Now let's look
at verse 16 quick here. I don't think we would. If somebody was despising my
family and saying this and that about my family things, I always
say, you can say anything you want about me, but don't say
anything about my wife and my kids. Don't go there. That's when it gets, especially
our Lord. But isn't that true for every
man in here? Say what you want about me, I'll
just roll off. You know what Spurgeon said? You know what
Spurgeon said in the message, that message I was listening
to? He said, people who come against
gospel churches or gospel preachers, this was strong language, what
he said, I thought, but he said, He said, let them bark. It's in the dog's nature to bark. Just let them bark. Let them
say whatever they want to say. They're just acting according
to their nature. Isn't that wild? My, oh my. So for me as a gospel
preacher, I just go on preaching the gospel, right? And you all
come here, we rejoice together, we enjoy the gospel, we enjoy
each other's company, fellowship. And this fellowship here, it'll
be even sweeter when we get home. It'll be so sweet, beloved. We'll
be rejoicing with the saints in glory. It'll be absolutely
wonderful. My, oh my. But notice here too, Paul does
not merely say that he revealed, he's merely revealed to me, but
he said to reveal his son in me. That's Christ in us, the
hope of glory, beloved. We're new creatures now. We're
not the same as we used to be. Many hear of Christ. Many hear
of Christ. And they have an outward revelation
of Him. But Paul said, Every child of
God is born again, Christ in us to reveal his son in us. That's
the difference. Many people say, I love Jesus,
I love all, but they're not born again. They're trusting in something
they did for their salvation. That's why we say cast that aside.
Cast that aside, there's no hope in anything we do. And Job marked the vast difference
in his own experience when he said, I have heard of thee by
the hearing of the ear. And thousands of people hear
about him, don't they? They hear about him. And then
they don't go any further. But Job says, but now, saith
Job, now my eyes see you. Isn't that true with us, beloved?
We heard of him before. We heard of him. But when we were born again,
now I see Him by God's grace and mercy. Praise God, now I
see Him. Now I see my bleeding Savior
dying for me, cleansing me from all my sins, blotting out the
handwriting of ordinances that was against me, nailing it to
His cross. And what do we say? Hallelujah.
What a Savior. What a Savior is Jesus Christ,
our Lord. Heavenly Father, we thank You
for Your mercy.