Open your Bibles to Galatians
Chapter 1, but also put your finger in Titus Chapter 3. Titus
Chapter 3, Galatians Chapter 1 is where we'll be going in
our study. Now many people have a false refuge for their souls. They are either trusting in themselves,
something they do or say, or some people are even trusting
in an organization, a church. for their salvation. The Catholic
Church, which I was in at one time, many Catholics are afraid
to leave the Catholic Church because they're told that salvation's
in the church, but it's not. Salvation's only in Christ and
him alone. There's no other place where
salvation is. It's not in a building, it's
not in an organization, it's in Christ alone, in him alone. That's the only place where salvation
is found, is in God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so man naturally bends to
something they have to do or something they have to say to
be saved. Now, if you tell someone that they have to do something,
they will run to it. They'll run to it. But if you tell them
that salvation is by grace alone, they throw their hands up and
say, what? How can it be so simple? Well, it's God's plan of salvation,
isn't it? But it's not so simple. It's
wondrous. It's simple. Just look to Christ.
but oh the cost and oh the planning and the purpose behind it. Oh
my, God sent his own son to be a sacrifice for our sins. God
did that. And his son is God incarnate
in the flesh. Now look at here in Titus chapter
three, Titus chapter three, look what it says here. And the name
of the message is a false refuge. Look what it says here in Titus
chapter three, verses four to seven. God's word says, but after
that the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, our
Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which
we have done. Look at that. So God's kindness
and love didn't appear by anything we do. It doesn't come to us
by anything we do. It's not conditioned upon anything
we do. But according to his mercy, Look at this. He saved us. And notice that, that's in the
past tense, isn't it? It's done. It's finished. He
saved us according to His mercy. How? By the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Ghost. You must be born again. You must
be born again. Which He shed on us abundantly
through who? Through Jesus Christ our Savior.
through the promised one, through the Messiah. That being justified
by his grace, we are justified people. We sit here, and I stand
here as a justified man, preaching to justified people, if you're
one of the lords. How? By his grace. It doesn't say anything about
us in there, does it? Have you noticed this whole passage so
far is all about what God's done for us? That being justified by His grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
What a wonderful portion of Scripture. But note in verse 5, not by works
of righteousness which we have done. That means anything we
can do. And again, it's past tense, but
according to His mercy, He saved us. He saved us before we were
even born, beloved. So anything we do doesn't even
enter the equation, does it? You see how you can, just from
scripture there, you can say, okay, anybody that says you have
to do something to be saved, and I don't care how little it
is, it's wrong. Because the scriptures, which
we believe, it's our final authority, right? The scriptures declare
so clearly, not by works of righteousness, which we have done. That's any
of us. But according to his mercy, he saved us. So let that sink
in this week. Let us meditate upon that very
fact. According to his mercy, he saved us. Saved by the mercy
of God, beloved. Justified by God the Father through
the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the mercy of God. When was
that shed upon us? in eternity. And let this word just sink into
your souls. He saved us. It's done. He did it. Christ did it all,
beloved. He saved us according to his
mercy and grace. And so many are trusted in a
refuge of lies for their salvation. I did at one time when I was
in religion, I thought God would, I even told someone, God will
weigh my good and my bad, and my good will outweigh my bad.
Oh, how I was so foolish. I had no idea about God's justice,
about God's law. But he didn't leave me in that
situation, praise be to God. And if you're a believer, he
didn't leave you in that situation either, where you thought your
own good works would give you merit and favor with God. But
so many are trusting in something they do. But we are not saved
by anything we do. It's all grace, which we saw
in that verse in Titus. It's all of grace. And that's
for every believer, too. You know, we look at Paul and
we see the extraordinary situation when he was saved. But every
believer, again, is a miracle of grace. We might not feel that
way, but we are. We are. It's incredible. Think of this, too. The same
power that raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the grave raised
us from our spiritual grave. Same power. God, the Holy Spirit. My. And think of this. Salvation's
all a grace. God's grace came up with the
plan of salvation, didn't it? God's grace executed the plan
of salvation. And God's grace applies the salvation. God the Father, by his grace,
chose us in Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, by his
mercy and his grace, died for us at Calvary's cross. And oh,
how gracious is the Holy Spirit of God coming to us and wooing
us to Christ, drawing us to Christ, beloved. Rebels at heart turns
a rebel into a saint. Oh my goodness, and I don't mean
them saints that people venerate and all that. I mean just a common
sinner like you and I, saved by the grace of God in Christ,
marveling for the rest of our lives. Me? Yes, according to
the mercy and grace of God. And I'll tell you, it's normal
for us to go, me? Why me? And I know it's the scriptural
answer, too, because it pleased God to do so. And we're still
in all that, aren't we? We're still in awe of that. And because
of God's grace, we have the full forgiveness of all our sins,
because Christ shed his blood to purchase our eternal souls,
to purchase us blood. We're bought with a price, and
that price is the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we are in awe that Christ did that for us, aren't we? We're
in awe that he did that for us. But never forget, he was sent
by the Father, too. The whole Trinity was in action
in our salvation, beloved. And you know what we have now?
Because of the precious, precious blood of Christ, we have a sure
foundation. We have a sure refuge. There
can be things going on all around us in this world, and we have
a sure refuge. We have a refuge, don't we? We have a hiding place.
And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. No matter what's going on all
around us, we are safe and secure in Christ. Oh, how that warms
our souls. And he's a sure refuge. He's
a shelter in a time of storm. You know, you see in the South,
Brother Tom, where you lived, I've seen some pictures sometimes
where people go into the cellars when a tornado comes through
or something. In Kentucky, they do all that. And they're safe.
They're safe in that refuge. They're safe down there. The
storm can be blowing all around them, and they're safe. Oh, my. what a shelter our Lord is. He's
the rock of our salvation, isn't he? He's the rock of our salvation.
Now let's go to Galatians, chapter 1. We're going to read the verse
we're going to look at in context. I thought we would get further,
but the more I looked at this verse and the more I looked at
it in the Greek, the more that came out. And I was like, oh
my, we're only going to get one verse done today. But that's
OK. The thing I love about this study is you guys are really
patient, too. And we're looking at this study verse by verse.
It's been wonderful to see what's in these verses. Look at verses
11 to 17, Galatians chapter 1. Paul writing, he's defending
his apostleship and the fact that he was not taught the gospel
by man. Oops, I lost my earpiece. Not taught the gospel by man,
but by revelation of Jesus Christ. And he says in Galatians chapter
1, verse 11, he says, 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,
and we saw last week that was manner of life. In times past,
in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the
church of God and wasted it. Here's our verse today. And profited
in the Jews' religion above many mine equals in mine own nation. be more exceedingly zealous of
the traditions of my fathers. And this will be next week's,
this verse, look at this. But would it please God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace. Oh my, that happens to every
believer, eh? called by the grace of God, to what? 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 to Damascus." Now in verses 13 to 14, Paul
is bringing forth the fact that he's not a stranger to the Levitical
law. He's not a stranger to the Jewish
customs. As a matter of fact, we're going
to see that he's a Pharisee of Pharisees. He's well-versed. And as I looked at this verse,
I was surprised at what the Greek bought out and just how well-versed
he was. He would be considered an expert
on the Levitical law at such a young age. Such a young age. Now, the works and deeds and
circumcision which the false teachers wish to add to the one
true gospel, in which they required of the Galatians, they were saying
to the Galatians, well, you must be circumcised and believe on
Christ to be saved. So they were adding works, a
work of man, to salvation. Again, anything that you add
that you think you have to do or actually do, works is something
you think you have to do or something physically you do, according
to the Greek. It's not just doing the work.
It's actually something you even think about. It's a thought action,
even. My oh my. So they were saying,
they were saying that you had to be circumcised to be saved.
And Paul was bringing forth the only hope for salvation is in
Christ alone. And we saw that already in the
verses which we studied above. Now Paul was born of Jewish parents.
Some commentators said that his dad was a Pharisee. I don't know
if that's fact or not, but some people say that his dad was a
Pharisee. But he definitely had a Jewish education, and he followed
the Jewish law to the letter. He lived as a Pharisee. And back
then, Pharisees, we think we meant religious folks. These
folks were. Probably what we would call ultra-religious people. I mean, they staple your head
to the carpet for doing something wrong. They were just strict
folks. Strict folks. But they were in
the blind leading the blind. And so Paul was born of Jewish
parents, Jewish education, followed the Jewish law. He actually sat
under one of the greatest teachers of his time in the Jewish nation at that time. But look
at Acts. Turn, if you would, to Acts chapter
26. And then also put your finger in Philippians chapter 3. These
two passages will show us Paul's background. a Pharisee and this is important
for our study here especially in this verse because Paul again
he was a master but think of this what does he what does he
proclaim later he says everything that I learned is done something I noticed though and
I was talking to young Jake about this last night and Jake from
Colorado we were talking about this about how Paul was prepared
by God to be able to go toe-to-toe with all these folks. But what
did he say? I'm determined to preach Christ
and Him crucified. He didn't get carried away with
all this. But now when these guys are adding works to salvation,
now he's on fire. There's the end of the line right
there. Right there. You're attacking
the one true gospel of God's grace. There's no wiggle room
there. Oh, he's just laying down. Look
at this in Acts chapter 26, verses 4 and 5. My manner of life, which
again in Galatians chapter 1, 13 is conversation, which is
manner of life. My manner of life for my youth,
which was the first among my own nation at Jerusalem, knew
all the Jews. So he was well-known. He was well-known. Acts chapter
26, verse 4. And then verse 5, it said, which
knew me from the beginning, if they would testify that after
the most strictest sect of the religion, I lived a Pharisee. So he was not just a Pharisee,
he's a strict Pharisee. He ain't letting nothing go.
He ain't letting nothing go. And now turn, if you would, to
Philippians chapter 3, and we'll look at verses 5 and 6, and he
brings forth his pedigree. as a Jewish Pharisee, or just
as a Jew. Now he come from the tribe of
Benjamin, a favored tribe. He came from that tribe, so he's
a Jew of, he's a Hebrew of Hebrews, he says here. Now look at this,
Philippians chapter three, verses five and six. He was circumcised
the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,
the Hebrew of the Hebrews. This touching the law of Pharisee,
so he's saying, You know, this is what I was. I was a Pharisee.
And he comes from the favorite tribe of Benjamin. And then look
what he says, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching
the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. He thought
himself absolutely blameless before God. He's going around
murdering Christians, or having them murdered, right, being associated
with it, and he thinks he's absolutely blameless. He thinks he's doing
God's work. Kind of reminds us of a time
when there was a thing called the Inquisitions, doesn't it?
And hundreds of thousands of our dear brethren were executed by the Catholic
Church, and they thought they were doing it for God. No, they
weren't. No, they weren't. Not at all. So we see here, and we've seen
in our past study last week, that Paul hated the church. He
hated Christ. He hated them. Why else would
you go and waste the church of God if you didn't hate it? And he even said his manner of
life was against it, persecuting the church. We see that again
in verse 13. For you have heard of my conversation,
again, which is manner of life, in times past in the Jewish religion,
how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted
it. He destroyed it. He tried to. Now God's church
will never be destroyed, will it? Many men through the years
have tried to destroy the church of God, but it's the people. God will always have a remnant.
Always. Always. And I'll tell you what,
it's a number that no man can number. We don't know. We don't
know who the Lord's people are and who they are. He only knows
that. He only knows that. So Paul hated
and persecuted the church and despised the gospel. which proclaimed
that salvation was by grace alone, through Christ alone, that the
work was absolutely finished. And we're gonna see that he was
so, he was opposed to the gospel, and he could come to Christ by
no human knowledge. He was so against. And that's
the same for us, beloved, in our natural state. We could never
come to Christ by human knowledge. Because the scripture says there's
none that understandeth. There's none that seeks after
God. And that was Paul's state, just like that was our state
when the Lord saved us. Now let's look at verse 13, again,
of Galatians chapter 1. It says, For ye have heard of
my conversations in times past of the Jews' religion, how that
beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it. I ask you this, is it any wonder
after the Lord saved Paul that he became a great defender of
the Lord Jesus Christ? Is it any wonder? and that he
sought to preach Christ and Him crucified every single time that
he had the opportunity. Is it any wonder? He knew what
the Lord saved him out of. He knew he had no hope. He knew
he had a refuge of lies before the Lord saved him. He knew that
Judaism couldn't save him, just like no religion can save. Only
faith in Christ and Him alone. And he knew that. marvel at this fact that God
had taken a persecutor, a waster of the church, and turned him
into a preacher of righteousness, that being the righteousness
of Christ. Isn't that amazing? Only God can do that, beloved.
Only God can do that. So it's no wonder. It's no wonder
that he had such a zeal to preach the gospel. Now let's look at
verse 14. Look at this. And he's speaking again about
this is in the same manner of what he was saying about what
his manner of life was, that he persecuted the Church of God
and wasted it. And then he says, and profited in the Jewish religion
above many mine equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly
zealous of the traditions of my fathers. Now, Paul's ability
to defend the law was above and beyond that of many of those
who were his equal in age. or those who were Pharisees. And that's evidently brought
forth in this verse here. He was their champion, beloved. They sent him out. Paul was their
champion. What'd the Lord do to their champion? Isn't that amazing? Well, he
was the cream of the crop, beloved. You know, I knew that before,
but in this verse in the Greek, what we're looking at, it brings
forth even more that he was the creme de la creme. He was the
champion for the Jewish religion. Oh, God turned him into a trophy
of his grace. He always was. He just didn't
know it. Oh, it's beautiful. It's absolutely
beautiful. Love it. And he was a champion
both in zeal, which we see here, zeal, and the traditions of the
fathers. He defended the Jewish religion.
Again, he was an expert in the Jewish religion. In other words,
the works and law. In other words, in the issues
of the works and the law, these Judaizers, they weren't dealing
with a novice. They might have thought, oh,
Paul's just a novice now. He's gone off his rocker now.
No, he hasn't. He's saved by the grace of God.
And he knows their religion better than they know it. You see how
God had prepared him? He says, it's all done because
it can't save him. But God's still given him that
knowledge. And now he can turn the tables on the Jews. Oh, my. It's incredible. No, he was no novice in the Jewish
religion. No. And Paul wasn't seeking Christ
before the Lord saved him, was he? No, he's going off to kill
Christians, gather them up and bring them bound back to Jerusalem,
whether they're dead or alive. And he had orders from the high
priest, go and do this. And Paul just, I imagine, because
it says it was his manner of life, he probably thrived on
that. It fed his ego. gave him power. We know what happens when people
get power and it's absolute power. That's what he had. He could
go and just rip open doors and haul people out, beloved. Oh
my. My oh my. So they weren't dealing with
no novice. They were dealing with someone who knew the the
Jewish law and customs better than they did. And he was a violent
persecutor of the church. We saw that last week. He was
persecuting the church of God. He was persecuting God's treasure.
You and I are God's treasure. Even though we don't always feel
that way, we are. We're his treasure, beloved.
Mine. And he was seeking to destroy
the body of Christ. Now marvel at this wonderful
fact that he that sought to destroy the people of God. Look at a
little further down in this chapter. This is beautiful. Look at verses
21 to 24. He that sought to destroy the people of God now preached
Christ. Now he preached Christ, beloved.
And him crucified. And look at the latter part here,
verses 21 to 24. He says in verse 21, afterwards
I came into the region of Syria in Silasia and was unknown by
face unto the churches of Judea which were in Christ. But they
had heard only, oh they heard something. What did they hear? That he which persecuted us in
times past now preaches the faith. One who used to haul us out of
our houses and throw us into jail, and some were murdered.
Now he preaches the faith. Notice that? The faith. Singular.
Now he preaches the gospel. Now he preaches Christ and Him
crucified. Could you imagine? Could you
imagine how they thought of that? They'd be in awe, wouldn't they?
Oh my. My, oh my. Now preaches the faith
which once he destroyed. And what did they do? They glorified
God. They gave all the glory to God.
Look what the Lord's done. Look what He's done. Oh, it's
wonderful. Oh, that's our God, beloved.
That's our Savior. He took the champion of Jewish
religion and made a trophy of His grace. My. There's hope for the hopeless,
isn't there? Oh, my. That's why we say, flee to Christ.
I don't care how black your sins are. Flee to Christ. He's the
only hope for sinners. My, he can make we who are crimson
red with our sin whiter than snow. He did that for our dear
brother, didn't he? My, oh, my. My, oh, my. It's wonderful. In marvel at
the wonderful grace of God, again, it takes a persecutor of the
church, a murderer, by God's people, by association, and saves
him by his grace. Now, marvel at the fact, again,
that what we see here, that salvation is not of him that willeth, right? Not of him that willeth, nor
him that runneth, but that God who showeth mercy. We see it
so clearly, don't we? Here's a persecutor of the church,
persecuting God's people. And it's not of him that willeth,
he's a chosen vessel. He's chosen by God in eternity,
just like every one of God's people are in Christ. My. And when the Lord died on that
cross, he died for Paul. As well as you and I, beloved.
In all the elect of all the ages. My. The Lord God had separated
them from his mother's womb. as the object of his sovereign
love from eternity. His love, God's love, God's sovereign
love has been set upon him from eternity, beloved. And it's the
same for you and I. Oh, my. And at the time appointed,
when it pleased God, he revealed Christ to him. Now let's look
at verse 14 again. It says, and profited in the
Jewish religion above many mine equals in mine own nation, being
more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. So
let's break this verse down here. And see the word profited in
verse 14? Right, where he says, and profited in a Jewish religion.
If someone asked us what that word meant, we would think benefit
or wealth. I asked Vicki what she thought
about it and Jake, and they both said benefit. I thought wealth,
right? Because when someone profits
in a business, they increase their wealth. So I thought, well,
he was increasing his wealth. He was already a rich man, we
knew that, because he's a Pharisee of Pharisees. He's already a
wealthy man. He has all that he needs. He
didn't lack for anything. He didn't lack for anything.
So right away we would think, you know, benefit, wealth. But you know that's not what
the Greek word means? No. You know what this Greek word
means? To drive forward. to drive forward. Weiss, the
Greek scholar, said, to blaze a path. Well, that totally changes
that, doesn't it? He blazed a path so fast in the
Jewish religion. And in the Greek, it means to
blaze a way through a forest to cut a pioneer path. He was
doing something no one else had ever done. Oh my, he pioneered in the studies,
cutting new paths ahead of his fellow students. He was a brilliant
pupil. He was a pupil like that teacher
had never had before. A pupil that would be remembered,
well, until the Lord saved him. Would have been exalted in the
Jewish nation. Well, he was, wasn't he? A Pharisee
of Pharisees. of the tribe of Benjamin. So
not only did he excel above others, but he was a Pharisee of the
Pharisees. And see the word equals? See where it says in Prophets
and the Jewish religions above, many mine equals there? Now we
think, when I think that, what I thought right away was our
peers. People our age, right? Don't mean that. It doesn't mean
that. It doesn't mean equals in position,
but it means older. He was blowing right by all these
older Pharisees who had been studying for so long, and He
was just flying right by them, blazing the path, increasing
and increasing and increasing in the knowledge of the Jewish
system like no one else. at that time living. My, it changes
it, doesn't it? It makes us realize he was a
champion for the Jewish religion. He was. He was the creme de la
creme. My, oh my. He passed by blazing
a trail in Judaism, passed by people who were far older than
him, passed by them in wisdom in the Jewish religion. He knew the Jewish religion better
than most Pharisees knew it. Some say he's probably in line
to be the high priest. I don't know. But some people
say that because of how he was. I can understand that more now
after studying this verse. Listen to how Weiss, the Greek
scholar that I use a lot, listen to how he interprets this word
in the Greek, actually this sentence. in the Greek. He says, and I
was constantly blazing a pioneer path, outstripping in Judaism
many of mine own age in my race, being more exceedingly zealous
of my ancestral traditions. And he was a trailblazer. He was a leader like no other
leader. He just rose up fast. And God is the one who gave him
that knowledge, even though He counts it all as done later on.
God's the one who allowed him to increase in that knowledge,
isn't he? See, God has a plan and purpose, doesn't he? Paul
didn't know that. He's just blazing his path through
Judaism. And he didn't know that he's
a trophy of God's grace. My, oh my. And he didn't know
that he would see all that stuff is done and see the sovereign
grace of God beside it. And no, that was all a refuge
of lies. He didn't know at that time, though. He could therefore
go toe-to-toe with anyone who was proclaiming circumcision.
Think of that. That's why he's going toe-to-toe with these false
teachers. Because he knows their religion better than they know
it. But he's been shown the one true
gospel, hasn't he? And now he's proclaiming it.
And he knows the difference between the two. Now see the words there, in mine
own nation, in our text? It says, and profited in the
Jewish religion above many mine equals, in mine own nation, being
more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my father. Well,
this shows us that he's writing to Gentiles, because he's differentiating
his time as a Jew, and he's writing to the Gentiles. So it shows
us even more so that he's writing, he's not writing to Jews, He's
writing to Gentiles. If anybody had any doubt, that
definitely would bring that forth. And the traditions of the Pharisees,
now they had engrafted their traditions upon the law too. So that their traditions outweighed
the law. They were just works mongers,
that's all they were, just works mongers. And they would look at more at
what people were doing or not doing according to their own
warped standards instead of weighing it against the word of God. But
they actually, you know what they did too, which most religious
people do. Vicki and I have experienced folks like this. They would use
the word of God as a weapon. Instead of it being a word of
comfort and mercy and grace, which it is to us, right? They
would weaponize it. Well, see, the Word of God says
you've got to do this. You've got to do that. You ain't
doing that. Well, it's because I can't. Can
you love God with all your heart, mind, and soul? No, but Christ
did it for us, right? Hallelujah. Praise God. Now, we still try to fill our
minds with things of the Lord, don't we? But no, I'm so thankful
God did it for me. Do we love our neighbor perfectly?
Nope. But Christ did it for us, didn't he? Isn't it wonderful? Does that mean we're supposed
to hate our neighbor? Nope. Not at all. Nope. Not at all. So the Apostle Paul,
before conversion, was more occupied with human legal enactments than
he was with the Word of God, which is the heart of religion,
what you do. And you know what the problem
is with religion, and I speak of this as someone who came out
of it, I'm not trying to just hammer on people, I've come out
of it, is they're so busy looking at each other that no one's looking
to Christ. And what the grace preacher,
what do we tell you? Look to Christ. Don't look at each other,
because we're going to let each other down. But look to Christ. He'll never let you down. Never. So Paul here is showing the Galatian
church that at the time of his conversion and up to that time,
human influence would not make a difference to him. The people of the way were probably
telling him about Christ, but he didn't want nothing of it.
Nothing of it. Shut your mouth. I can imagine
him saying that. Now he's proclaiming Christ.
Oh my. It's amazing. Only a supernatural
revelation by God could change. Only Holy Spirit conversion,
you must be born again, could change a man like that, right?
Just like you and I. To God be the glory. Great things
he had done.