Open your Bibles if you would
to the book of Galatians. The book of Galatians, we're
going to continue our study. This has been a wonderful study
going through this book. It's just been wonderful. And
I thought we were going to get through, we will get through
two verses, Lord will it. I took a little time there off
our study by my visiting with everyone. But hopefully we can
get through these two verses. Galatians chapter one. And we're
continuing our study in this wonderful book. The name of the
message is Persecuting the Church of God. Persecuting the Church
of God. Now Paul wrote this book, but
it was authored by the Holy Spirit of God. He's the true author. Paul was used by God to pen these
words. But as we read these words too,
and Paul's gonna give us a little bit of his testimony of what
happened to him on the road to Damascus, which we looked at
last week in Acts chapter nine. And we're gonna see a little
bit about Paul's conversion again. What he's doing here in the latter
part of this chapter, he's already given the gospel in verse four.
He's already contrasted the true gospel to the false gospel in
verses six to 11. actually 12 when he said he didn't
receive it of man. And now he's going in verses
12 to the end of the chapter, he's gonna go into his testimony
of how his authority comes from God. It doesn't come from man,
it comes from God. And that's true of every gospel
preacher, right? Every gospel preacher is a sent
man of God. God sends us to the place that
he wants us to be, and we are to be faithful to preach the
gospel. And as I said before, we see
Paul's servitude to the churches. God's preachers are also servants
to the church, too. And we see that in Paul's letters
and how he writes. Here he is calling other Christians
just brethren, like he's known them for years. And that's what
I love about Paul. And that's what I try to do,
too, in my ministry, as well, and I know other grace preachers
do, is I'm no better than you guys. We're all on the same level.
We're all on the same level. There's no preacher hill or nothing
like that. We're all, you know, a pitcher's
mound. They got a little pitcher's mound, right? A little raised
mound. There's nothing like that in the church of God. We're all
the same. We're all the same. I like what Scott said for years.
The ground under the foot of the cross is level. It's level. There's no... No rise from anybody. So let's read here, Galatians
1, verses 11 to 18. Paul writes this, he says, but
I certify you brethren, and look at that, look at the tenderness
right there, brethren. He's correcting them, and yet
he's in tender love, saying brethren, which is divinely loved ones.
And I love that, how he doesn't raise himself above them, he
just sits with them and talks with them where they're at. 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 revelation
of Jesus Christ. For ye have heard of my conversations
in times past in 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, separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace
to reveal his son in me that I might preach him among the
heathen immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood neither
when 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
15 days now last week we looked at verse 12 Well, we saw again
in Acts chapter 9, it was brought forth that Paul had the gospel
revealed to him by the revelation of God, by revelation of God. And this is true in God must
reveal the gospel. Sorry, I got tripped up on the
cord there. God must reveal the gospel to his people. He must
reveal it, otherwise we won't ever know it. We won't ever know
him. Unless Christ reveals himself
to us, we'll never know him. All we got to do is look at our
past. And before the Lord saved us, we had no clue about who
he was. We might have had a God of our
imagination cooked up, who we thought God was, but it wasn't
the God of the Bible, was it? Not at all. Not at all. So Paul
didn't receive the gospel from man, didn't originate with man.
It's God's gospel. It's God's gospel. It's God showing
grace to undeserving sinners. I'm looking at a bunch of folks,
like myself, who are undeserving sinners, who have received the
grace of God in Christ. Isn't that marvelous? That's
wonderful, isn't it? Oh my. And how did we obtain that salvation? By Christ, and only through Christ,
by his perfect finished work on Calvary's cross. He did it
all. Note even in our text here, I
like this in our text, Look at this in verse 15, but when it
pleased God, you know there was a, but when it pleased God in
all of our lives as believers, when he what? Look at this, who
separated me from my mother's womb, we were his before we were
even born. He knew us in the womb. He knew
us in the womb. And look at this, and called
me by his grace. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated, right? One a vessel of honor, one a
vessel of dishonor. My, and look at this, what, and
look, look, is there anything, think of this too, you know,
people get in religion, oh, I walked in hell, I accepted Jesus, I,
I, I, I, I, right? Look at what Paul says about,
look at what Paul says about salvation in Christ, to reveal
his son in me. Has he revealed his son to you? Rejoice if he has. He doesn't
reveal his son to everyone. Look at that. And I'm not saying
we don't come to Christ, right? Because I was thinking about
this this week again. When we're born again, we run
to Christ. You can't stop us. But it's because,
and think of this, I was thinking about this this week. It's probably
going to chew up some time, but I need to bring this out. I was
thinking about this this week. I was thinking about how Ephesians
chapter 2, it says we're dead in trespasses and sins. And when
you look at the Greek word there, it means a corpse. A corpse. And I was thinking that a corpse
can't say anything, can it? When someone's dead on the ground
in a corpse, They can't speak to you. They can't pray to God.
They can't cry out to God. They can't walk. They can't talk. They can't, they're a corpse,
right? You know what I was thinking about when we're born again?
Now, that corpse has life. That corpse has life, beloved.
Now, now it can walk. And now it can flee to Christ. Remember the value of dry bones
in Ezekiel? All them bones. Can these bones
live with the Lord? Oh, if you say so, Lord. If you
say so. So we were spiritual corpses,
beloved, walking around dead, a corpse, spiritually. And now
we're made alive. We're born again by the Holy
Spirit of God. Now we can pray to God. Now we can cry out to
God. Now we can rejoice in the gospel. Now we can labor in love
for Christ. We're made alive, beloved. And
of course, Ephesians 2 there is talking about spiritual death.
Spiritually, we're dead. And I believe it is in verse
4 of chapter 2 of Ephesians. It says, but God, who's rich
in mercy? And we have another but God right
here, don't we? Paul liked those words. But when it, please God,
who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace.
Oh, mercy! To reveal his Son in me, that
I might preach him among the heathen, the very one he's out
setting to destroy, the people he's setting to destroy. Now
he's preaching to them, and he's proclaiming Christ is the Messiah.
That's a miracle of grace, beloved. And you know, you and I are miracles,
trophies of the grace of God. Trophies of His grace and His
love, His eternal love, has been set upon us for eternity? My! It gets this old sinner excited.
Oh my, it's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. So
God's gospel finds its origins with God. It finds its origins
with God, beloved. And it's executed by He who is
God. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Word
of God, the second person of the Trinity. He's executed, obtained
eternal salvation for us. That which was planned and purposed
by God in eternity has been executed by Christ Jesus our Lord. It's
finished. Perfect. Oh, that's good news. That's good news. Now, in the
verses we will read today in this chapter, we see Paul, again,
giving us a history of how he was before conversion. Oh, how
we can see ourselves. We might not have been wasting
the church as he was, but I know I was shaking my fist at God
by my actions and my sinfulness. And to my shame, cursing God
with my mouth. It's awful. But when God saved
Paul, he became a different man, didn't he? Is that not true of
every believer? You're born again by the Holy
Spirit of God, Old things become new, right? Old things are passed
away. Things we loved, now we hate.
Things we hated, now we love. Oh, isn't God so good? Isn't
he so merciful to take a corpse spiritually and make him alive
and make him a vessel of honor? He's already a vessel of honor.
He's been chosen in Christ and before the foundation of the
world, Paul has been. And Paul's a chosen vessel, so
is every believer. A chosen vessel? My. Turn, if you would, to Acts chapter
22. Last week, we looked at Acts
chapter 9. We saw Paul testify of the fact
that he was saved by divine intervention. Do you know you and I are saved
by divine intervention? But God, when it pleased God. Oh my, there was a day when you
and I as believers, well, we may have known some things. Sister,
you were raised in a grace church. And then one day, the Lord revealed
himself to you. My, there's many here that the
Lord, Brian, you told me your testimony about driving in the
car after that message, and the Lord just revealed himself to
you. You believe, just believe. You're born again. The corpse
is made alive to cry out to Christ. Oh, it's wonderful. Oh, Dave,
you and I, we didn't have a care in the world about the gospel
or Christ or anything before the Lord saved us. Didn't have
a care. Now here we are worshiping him,
praising his mighty name for his goodness and his grace to
us. Oh, it's just incredible. Absolutely incredible. I'm gonna
read verses 13 and 14 again, and then we're gonna go to Acts
22. Now Paul knew he could not save
himself. He knew he could not justify himself. If we are saved,
it is because of the intervention of God. Every time God saves
someone, it's by divine intervention. It's his will, all according
to his will and his purpose. And he regenerates those who
Christ died for on Calvary's cross. Now, we had no clue before
the Lord saved us that we were one of his people. We had no
idea at all. I didn't even know what election was. I thought
that was voting in an election, right? And think of this, too.
This truth is all around people, and yet they hate it. In Canada,
we voted for prime minister. You vote, you choose. Here in
the States, you vote for president. You choose who you want to be
president. Well, cannot God choose whom he wills? Is he not, he is so much greater
than us, so far superior than us, cannot he choose whomever
he wills to be saved? And the amazing fact is he did
it in eternity. That's just, well, and you've
heard me say, people say, well, that's not fair. Well, I don't
want fair. I don't want fair at all, I don't. Look at what
Paul says here. For ye have heard of my conversations
in times past in 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. Be more exceedingly
zealous of the traditions of my fathers. Now a man or a woman
in Christ is not what they used to be. Not what they used to
be. And Paul brings this forth in
his testimony over here. Let's go back to Acts 22. I just
wanted to read the text that we were looking at today. And
at one time, Paul was a persecutor of the church. He sought out
violently, violently, the church. He sought out to destroy the
church, to waste the church. He tells us in verse 13, for you have heard
in my conversations in times past in Jewish religion how that
beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it.
That's in Galatians 1.13. Let's read how he brings us forth
in his preaching. Paul knew who saved him, and
he wasn't afraid to tell anyone his testimony of what the Lord
had done for him. And as we read this, just think, Paul's just
telling the great things God done for him. That's all witnessing
is, beloved. That's all. People complicate
it so much. It's just telling people, the
Lord saved me. all by his grace, all by himself. He did it. Look at what he says
here. Acts chapter 22. We're going to read a lengthy
portion here, from verse 1 to 22. Men, brethren, and fathers,
hear ye my defense, which I make now unto you. Now, what had happened was Paul
had been seized by the Jews, and they wanted to stone him. But a captain of the guard had
bought him away. Had bought him away. And now
he gave him audience. Paul asked if he could have an
audience with the people. And he said, yeah, you can have an
audience with the people. Look at this. And when they heard
that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence,
and he saith, I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Taurus,
a city in Sicily, yet brought up in this city at the feet of
Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the
law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this
day." So he's finding common ground with him, isn't he? He's
saying, look, I was a Jew. I was a Pharisee of Pharisees.
And look at this. And I persecuted this way. Remember
last week we looked at how we are called, Christians were called
the people of the way. The people of the way. Their
name was changed to Christian later on. And that was supposedly
a derogatory term. They didn't take it as a derogatory
term. They took it as a badge of honor. Oh, my. Look at this. And I persecuted
this way unto death, binding and delivering into prisons both
men and women. He was indiscriminate. Men and
women, he didn't care. If you were of the way, he was
after you. As also the high priest doth
bear me witness in all the estate of the elders, from whom also
I received letters unto the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring
them which were there bound unto Jerusalem, for to be punished."
Being punished just because they're believers. Being punished just
because they testify of faith in Christ. No other reason. And it came to pass that as I
made my journey, was come nigh unto Damascus about noon. Suddenly
there shone from heaven a great light round about me. And I fell
in the ground and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me?" Last week we, and I'm going to bring it
up again, last week we looked at the intimacy of the body of
Christ with he's the head and we're the body. Look at this,
he doesn't say, why persecutest thou my people? He says, why
are you persecuting me? He's the head, beloved, and we're
the body. You hit your finger. And your head's gonna let you
know that you just hit your finger. And it's gonna feel the pain
like your body feels the pain, right? Your mind is gonna feel
that pain. Mind, he's the head, we're the
body. Why persecutest thou me, he says. Paul's persecuting Christians. He's persecuting individual believers.
And I answered, who art thou, Lord? Right away he calls him
Lord. And he said, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.
You're persecuting my people, you're persecuting me. My, think
of that when people persecute believers. They're not actually
just persecuting the individual believer, they're persecuting
Christ. That's serious business, isn't it? My. And they that were with me saw
indeed the light and were afraid. They were terrified, we saw last
week. But they heard not the voice
of him that spake to me. And I said, what shall I do,
Lord? And the Lord said unto me, rise and go into Damascus.
There it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed
for thee to do. Look at that. God had appointed
some things for Paul to do. Do you know every believer is appointed
unto good works, ordained unto good works, works that will glorify
God? We don't know what they are.
And I think most of the times when we're doing them, we have
no clue. Because if a person's doing something to get a reward,
what are they going to do? Yeah, they're going to get proud and
boast about it, aren't they? You know, just giving your brother
or sister a cup of water in the Lord's name. Just being friendly
with your brethren. Bearing one another's burdens.
Mine. Appointed for thee to do. And
when I could not see for the glory of the light being led
by the hand of them that were with me, I came unto Damascus.
And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having
a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there, came unto
me and stood and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. In the same hour, I looked up
upon him. And he said, the God of our fathers
hath chosen thee. Look at that. Is that not true of every believer?
But now Paul had a special mission, didn't he? Ordained by God to
preach the gospel to the Gentiles. Our father has chosen thee. That
thou shouldest know his will and see that just one and shouldest
hear the voice of his mouth. That's true of every believer
right there. That verse is true of every single believer. My,
that's incredible. Look at that. The God of our
fathers has chosen thee. Read this personally. That thou
shouldest know his will. We know his will, don't we? We
know his will. It was his will and purpose to
save us in Christ Jesus our Lord. And scripture says all things
are working for good for those who love Christ Jesus, for those
who are the called according to his purpose. that thou shouldest know his
will and see that just one. Look at that. There's only one
who's just. And we see him by faith, don't
we? We've never seen him like we see each other. And we see
each other, we know we live, but here we believe in one who
we've never seen. We know he lives like Joseph.
I know my Redeemer living. I know he does. I'm gonna see
him. I'm gonna see him. We know that by faith, don't
we? By God-given faith. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. And should us hear the voice
of his mouth. Oh, he called us one day, didn't he? By his grace,
through the gospel. And he still speaks to us, but
he speaks to us through his word. I can't explain it to you, but
he speaks to me through his word. And I hear a preacher preach
about Christ, and it's so comforting. Oh, it's so comforting. Oh, it's wonderful. Look at that. He's given us ears to hear and
eyes to see. For thou shalt be his witness
unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. And now, why
tarryest thou? Arise, and be baptized, and wash
away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. And it came
to pass that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while
I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance, and saw him saying
unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem,
for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me. And
I said, Lord, they know that I Imprisoned and beat in every
synagogue them that believe on the he's saying he's saying Lord.
I they know I Persecuted the church. They know I wasted the
church. They won't believe what I have to say Well, not if it
was just of us, eh? Not if it was just of us And when the blood of thy martyr
Stephen was shed I also was standing by and consenting unto his death
Paul carried that stuff. He remembered what he had done.
My. And kept the raiment of them
that slew him. And he said unto me, Depart,
for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles. I'm going
to send you unto the Gentiles, Paul. And they gave him audience unto
this word. And they lifted up their voices and said, Away.
Look at this. Look at the hatred that the Jews
have for Christians. Look at this. When I read this,
I was like, oh my gosh, look what they're saying. I told you
there was one fellow that said this town would be better off
without this church. I told you about that one fellow
that said that. And I said, you're stepping on dangerous ground,
man. And it was all because we preach the doctrines of grace
here. That's all. That was the only reason. Because
we preach what the scriptures say. And the next day, he came
back over to me. He said, I'm so sorry. I said,
I should never have said that to you. And I said, well, I forgive
you. But what an awful thing to say,
not knowing any of us, not knowing Christ either. And this was a
professing believer. This is a guy who professed to
believe in Christ and said that. But look at this. These are religious
people, aren't they? These people here before us are
religious folks. Look what it says. And they gave
an audience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices and
said, away with such a fellow from the earth. Look at that. That's like, just kill him. We
don't even want this guy walking the earth. My goodness. And he used to be for them. He
used to be, he was sent out by them to persecute the people
of the way. No, they were sure, go Paul, go get him. Bring him
back and we're gonna kill him. We'll persecute him. We'll do
all kinds of manner of evil to him. And now, now that he's professing
Christ as the Messiah, now that he's on the way, they're saying,
away from this guy from the earth, just vanquish him. Oh, people change their tune
in a hurry, don't they? We see it right before us here. Look
at that, look what it says. Away with such a fowl from the
earth, for it is not fit that he should live. That's horrible. All he's doing
is preaching Christ. All he's doing is saying, the
Lord saved me. The Lord chose me. He saved me,
he chose me, he saved me because he chose me, he saved me because
he redeemed me. He's made me a minister. He sent
me out to preach and proclaim. That's all Paul's telling them,
isn't it? That's what we saw right there. And they, look at
that, away with such a fellow from the earth for it's not fit
that he should live. You just hear the indignation,
can't you? The hatred coming out in these
words. I was actually shocked when I
read those. I was like, oh my goodness, look at that. I shouldn't have been shocked
because I've heard other people say different things about the Lord's
church about the gospel that we proclaim here, the one true
gospel? No wonder Paul was hated. This
gospel brings no glory to man. None. It glorifies God. It exalts
God. And it puts us right where we
are to be, in the dust. In the dust, at the feet of Christ.
Where else would we find comfort? But at the feet of Christ. Where
else can we learn? But at the feet of Christ. Where
else do we find comfort but at the feet of Christ, at the feet
of the one who gave himself for us, who redeemed us with his
precious, precious blood. Now let's go back to verse 13.
I think we're only going to get 13 done here. Let's go back to
verse 13 of Galatians chapter 1. It says, 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. Now see the word conversation there. We think, oh, that means
like when he's talking to people and having a conversation with
them. No, not in the Greek. It means manner of life in the
Greek. Manner of life. So he's telling them, you see
what my manner of life was. I persecuted the church and wasted
it. And I was thinking about that. You ever get into a hobby
or something and you just get consumed with it? Or something
that you like to do and you get consumed with it? And you find
yourself laying down in bed, you're thinking about it at night,
and you wake up in the morning, you're thinking about it. Right,
it's on your mind. Whether it's a project that you're
doing, or Paul continuously, what he's saying is that his
manner of life was to seek to destroy the church of God. He
was consumed with that. God took a man who absolutely
hated him, and made him a trophy of his grace. Oh, my. Somebody says, oh, I'm
too much of a sinner. Look at Paul. I can never come to grace. Look
at Paul, man. Destroying the church of God,
trying to anyways. He probably thought in his mind,
I just want to wipe them off the face of this earth. The same
thing that those folks said to him was probably how he felt
about people of the way. The world would be better off
without them all. My, what a great change. What
a great contrast of how he was before the Lord saved him and
how he was after the Lord saved him. My. So in the Greek, it means manner
of life. Paul was telling, again, the Galatian church what manner
of life he conducted before the Lord saved him. He persecuted
the church of God and wasted it. Let's read verse 13 again.
For if you heard of my, we're going to say, manner of life
in times past in the Jewish religion, how that beyond measure, I persecuted
the church of God and wasted it. Wasted it. And note the phrase that we see
here. So actually, first of all, Paul
was bringing forth that he was a persecutor of the church. And
he had a habit of including in his preaching what the Lord had
done for him, catching him up to the third heaven in this testimony
here of what God had done for him. He wasn't ashamed to proclaim
what God has done for him. He rejoiced. He rejoiced. And
we saw that in Acts 22. Also note the phrase here, Jews
religion, in verse 13. For you have heard of my conversations,
and time has passed, and the Jews religion, how that beyond
measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it. Weiss,
the Greek scholar, brings out that the word religion is not
found in the Greek text. It's not found in the Greek text.
The Greek word for Jews, religion, is one. It's actually one word
in the Greek. And it refers to Jewish faith
and worship. Some think that the term was
coined by the Gentile world, just as the name Christianos
was for we Christians. And it was meant to be a derogatory
term. Even when they say the Jews'
religion, it was meant to be a derogatory term. But the Jews
took it as a badge of honor, just as the Christians. I'll
read Acts 11, 26. And when he had found him, and
he brought him on to Antioch, and it came to pass that a whole
year, they assembled themselves with the church and taught much
people. And the disciples were called
Christians first in Antioch. So the heathen folks, The pagans
had said, we're going to call these guys Christians, because
they follow Christ. And they meant it as a derogatory
term. The Christians embraced it. And that's what we're called
now, right? We're called Christians. I like
to call myself a grace believer now, because if you say Christian,
they think it's every single flavor of Christianity in Judaism. How that beyond measure, I persecuted
the church of God and wasted it. Wasted it. The Judaism which
Paul was acquainted with was nothing like those Jews who had
faith in looking to the sacrifices and looking to the Messiah, those
sacrifices as shadows and types. Now, there was always a group
of unbelievers amongst the Jews, but there was also believers,
too, who looked at the sacrifices as types and shadows and pointed
to the Messiah coming. But at the time of Paul, when
Paul was When Paul was a Jew, the religion was apostate. It
became a religion of works. A religion of works. And the
liturgical sacrifices were just outward expressions. They just become ritualistic.
But in the Old Testament, when a true believer sacrificed a
sacrifice, It was an outward profession of an inward conversion.
They were looking to Christ. They were looking at that as
the type and shadow of Christ, just as we look back to Christ. And they saw the Messiah as a
substitutionary sacrifice for their sins. And Weiss brings
forth again that Judaism in Paul's times was an ethical cult, he
says. They had gone down to just works. works-based religion, pretty
much. And yet the father still sent the son to the Jews, didn't
he? Oh, what mercy. What mercy. God had some sheep
in there. He had some sheep in there, didn't
he? Oh, my. And they were based their salvation
at that time on good works and observing the sacrifices in mere
form. And then when Paul, though, who was born again by the Holy
Spirit of God, when he was born again by the Holy Spirit of God,
he saw everything in a whole new light, didn't he? He saw everything
in a whole new light. My, he saw that those sacrifices
were pointing to Christ. And Saul, it says, beyond measure
persecuted the church of God and wasted it. The words persecuted
and wasted are in imperfect tense, which speaks of continuous action.
That's all he sought out to do, was persecute the church. Was persecute the church. This
became the course of Paul's life, the manner of his life, as conversation
brings forth in the Greek. It became the manner of his life
to persecute and waste the church of God. My goodness. was not merely an attempt to
devastate or to ravage, but to absolutely ruin them, to destroy it. And this Greek
word can be applied to cities and lands and also the people.
So when the army went in and just devastated. And back then,
they didn't do humanitarian things. They'd go in and just level a
whole city. And they did. And then they'd
take the women and children as slaves, and they'd kill all the
men from a certain age up. That's what the Romans did. They
knew they wouldn't have no resistance then. My. So think of this. What a great
change has been wrought in Paul. What a great change has been
wrought in Paul. He once destroyed the church, wasted it, and now
he's preaching the gospel Only God can do that, beloved. Only
God can take a man who's totally at enmity with him and turn him
in, a rebel, shaking his fist, and turn him in to one who's
praising God. And he gets all the glory, doesn't
he? He gets all the glory. Last thing we're gonna look at.
I got a few minutes here. Look at verse 15. For you have
heard of my former way in the life of Judaism. Oh, this is
the literal translation of this verse. The literal translation
of verse 13 is, for you have heard of my former way of life
in Judaism, that beyond exceeding measure, I was persecuting the
church of God and was destroying it. That's in the Greek literal
Bible. So he was attempting to destroy the church of God. And
I want to close with this. Note the words church of God. We are his people, beloved. And
the church isn't a building, is it? Church is the people. We're the church of God, beloved.
My, God has taken we who were rebels, shaken our fists at him,
if not outwardly, by our actions, and saved us by his grace and
by his mercy. What do we say? To God be the
glory. Great things he has done. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for this time that we can spend together. Oh, what a blessing
that we can come in here and worship you in spirit and truth
and gather together each week in freedom, and we don't take
it for granted, Lord. Pray you use the message as it
goes out and forth into the world, that you use it for your glory,
honor, and praise. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.