It's chapter one. It's kind of
a bittersweet morning this morning. We're in our last meeting here
at this building that the Lord's given us now for 11 years. 10 years, something like that. We came in here in December of
2010, because we were here when the tornado hit in 2011. Our
police had started in December. So December of 2010 was when
we started meeting here. And the Lord has blessed us with
this place now for all this time. We will be moving back to a house,
Lord willing, starting next week and continuing on in our meetings. The building doesn't stop. The meeting place doesn't stop.
The meeting of the church, the church is the people, the members
of it, and we will continue on. But it is bittersweet. We are
thankful for this place that the Lord has provided, and actually
more than half of the time that we've been here, the Lord has
provided it even free of lease. that he had placed up on the
people that owned this to let us stay here for free and just
keep the utilities and the property up until they sold the building.
And we're thankful to the Lord for that, that we've had the
opportunities. We've had some good times through here. Matter
of fact, it's right after we moved in, it was the tornado
that come through and we was able to meet and have a people come and help clean up.
And we hosted that whole week, first week of that tornado coming
through here. We hosted several groups of people
that came to help, you know, from different churches, friends
of ours, donations that came in to help with the efforts and
everything. So it was a good time of memories there. Of course, we've had People come
and go that the Lord has brought through our lives and we still
love them and pray for them and pray that the Lord is taking
them to someplace where the gospel is being preached. Although he
may not have kept them here, we pray for them and we're just
thankful all of what the Lord has done since we've been here. We've had brothers and sisters
that has passed on, went to be with the Lord since we've been
here. And we surely continue to miss them and think about
them and cherish the times that we've had here together. And
we are grateful that the Lord has given us this time. And we
look forward to the days ahead and what the Lord has in store.
We don't know, but we do know that he's promised to continue
to be with his church no matter where we're at. Long as we're
meeting together, he's promised to be there with us. And so we
look forward to doing that. It may even be a little bit better
for everybody. Maybe, I don't know, being in
a little more intimate setting, getting to sit around in a comfy
couch instead of a old hard chair here at the place here. And I can definitely tell you
the coffee's better at my house than it is here. So that'll be
good. Of course, we'll probably pick
up back eating because we're gonna have kitchen just right
there in the meeting place as well. So, looking forward to what the Lord's
doing. Galatians chapter one. Ask everyone watching and listening
to be a prayer for us as we move into this new adventure here
with the Lord's church. Galatians chapter one. We looked
at verses 11 and 12 last week about Paul saying that his preaching was
not after man, that it was by the revelation of Jesus Christ,
that the gospel is something that is not learned or figured
out, but it's something that's revealed and that the preaching
of it is, by the power of God. And so Paul goes in today and
we're gonna look at verses 13 down through 15 or 16, maybe
15 is as far as we'll get, excuse me, depending on the time. But
we're gonna look at 13 through, 16, I'm gonna at least read that,
and we may not get to 16, except for just maybe mentioning it
a little bit, but we'll see how far we get. But Paul comes right
out of his continual press of the importance of the preaching
of the gospel and the denial or the turning away from repenting
of this gospel, which is no gospel that has been preached to them
by the Judaizers, which is a gospel of worship. works-based salvation. Anytime
you add anything to the gospel of grace, it is no longer grace,
it's works, okay? It just eradicates it out, okay? I mean, it's just like, you know, there is no other way. If it's
by grace alone, then there can't be any condition Okay, anytime I go to work and
I receive a paycheck, that paycheck is not grace, that paycheck is
wages. The wages was given to me because
I did something for that money. Okay, so if you have a job, you
get that paycheck not because your boss is gracious to give
you that money, your boss is hiring you for a job, them are
wages. You have earned wages, okay? And so salvation can never be
by any condition or work that man does because that would be
a work and then that would be a wage that you received. And
the Bible says that salvation is by grace, not by works. Now, with that being said, Paul
has said that there is no other gospel, that any gospel that's
being preached is a perversion of Christ, and that anyone who
is doing that, that they let them be accursed, and that anyone
who is preaching that type of gospel is a man pleaser and not
a God pleaser. that they are not the servant
of Christ, that the servant of Christ is one who preaches the
gospel of sovereign grace, imputed righteousness, unconditional
election, total inability of complete and total lack of ability
to come and do anything spiritual towards God the unconditional
election of God, His sovereign election, anything less than
Christ dying for His people, His specific people, His particular
people that He has chosen before the foundation of the world,
and that death is given to, or that death is for, and is given
to them as a gift, That's what grace is. And then that grace
that is given in the heart, that even though that we are rebels
against God, even though that we are at enmity with God in
our nature, that he comes in and he gives us spiritual life
and he takes out that heart of stone and puts in a heart of
flesh. so that we will walk in his statutes. And he causes us
to love him and to love his word and to, by faith, look to him
alone for our salvation and not depend anymore upon our works
or upon our performance. And so now Paul, in verse 11
and 12, says that this gospel that I'm preaching, this gospel
of grace alone, this gospel of sovereign election and sovereign
choice and sovereign dispensing, this gospel of Christ
dying for his people, and that not everybody is part of that. that everyone for whom Christ
died will be saved, and they will experience that faith that
is given to them to look on Christ alone. He says that that gospel
doesn't come from man. It wasn't thought up by man.
It can't be. accepted by man, received by man. Man doesn't
like that message. Man likes to be a part of something. Man likes to be given credit
for what he does. Man has pride and arrogance,
and that any gospel that appeals to the flesh, that appeals to
the nature of conditionalism, You know, just tell me what I
want to do. Give us the, what do we do to do the works of God?
You know, I just want to be a part of something. I want to make
a difference. I want to do this. I want to do that. Whenever you
do that, that's not the gospel. And so he says, the gospel that
I preached to you and that you received of me by the work of
God, by the way, that gospel is a mystery. That gospel is
something that is supernatural. That gospel is something that
not everybody understands, nobody knows. That gospel is something
that people cannot understand. receiving to themselves and for
themselves. That is not by nature what we
want to hear or want to be a part of. And so he says, the one that
I give you though, it came from Jesus. It came from him. And
it was given to me to tell to you. And I did, I faithfully
told it to you. And he said that, verse 13, He moves into his showing that
even he himself had to come to that place, that even though
as religious as he was, there come a place in time. where Paul
had to repent of those things. Matter of fact, I think what
Paul, and the reason why Paul goes into this in verse 13, that
we'll soon read here, is because he's equating that with what
these Galatian believers are experiencing. These Judaizers,
like Paul, was zealous in good works, zealous in religion, and
was preaching or propagating something that they thought truly
was the truth. And they were preaching this
very thing so that they thought they was helping somebody out.
And Paul is telling them, listen, there are people that are out
there that are very zealous for religion. And they'll come preaching
these other gospels zealously. But listen, you can't listen
to those things. You can't go by those things.
Even I was duped. Even I was duped, thinking that
these things were correct. But it always goes back to what
has been revealed by God. That's the only thing that matters.
And so brethren in the gospel, And I'll say this before we even
read, before we even get really into this, listen, and especially
you kids, there's gonna be a time you're gonna grow up and not
be in my house anymore. You're not be under me and your
mom. You're gonna be out in this world
on your own. You're gonna maybe be married
and have kids and you may even move off somewhere. And there
are gonna be times that you're going to experience and find
churches who is not preaching these very things. And I pray
that I can say, and I hope that I'm not deceived, that I can
say like Paul, that which I have delivered unto you, I did not
get from man, but was given to me by inspiration through the
Word of God, by the Holy Spirit of God, taught of Him, but comes
from the Word of God. and not from the traditions of
man, not from the things of the flesh, not from the conditions
that we must keep, and that whenever you leave from underneath me
and wherever you might go or wherever the Lord leads anybody
that's watching or listening, that the church that you find
and the preacher that is preaching there and the teachers that you
hear that those people, if they are not preaching this gospel
of free and sovereign grace, if they are not preaching this,
that preaching is anathema, it's a curse. It is a perversion of
Christ and that it is not pleasing to God, okay? It is not something that is given
by God and so we should, Turn from it, run from it, stay away
from it. And so, looking at verse 13,
Paul begins to tell of his experience. Read with me. For ye have heard
of my conversation, or my way of life. That word conversation,
kids, means a way of life. Now, in our vernacular here,
it means, conversation means the way we talk back and forth
to each other, you know. but the word means our walk,
our way of life, the way we conduct ourselves. For ye have heard
of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion. Now notice
that he says in the Jews' religion. Okay, at this time and the time
of Christ, the Jews religion is not the religion that God
give to Israel whenever he give the priesthood and the oracles
of God and the sacrifices to Israel. Okay, when the Levitical
priesthood was started and whenever all of the tabernacle and the
sacrifices and the law was given, that religion or that way of
worship, the way of doing those things, It was not what was happening
today. Matter of fact, those religious
leaders had moved away from what God had given to Israel to follow. That's why Jesus said, whenever
he mentioned those words, you know, the chastisement to those
religious leaders, whenever he said, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. You know, that wasn't Jesus sitting
on a hill crying over the city because he longed so much for
them to be saved, but they didn't, by their free choice, want to.
That wasn't, isn't what that means. That picture that we see
all the time of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem and everything.
No, Jesus was, was, he was looking at those leaders and was telling
them, listen, You have not been following what God has given
to Israel to preach. If you would have been preaching
what Moses preached, you would have been preaching about me.
You think that by searching the scriptures, you have eternal
life by following those things. You think that by the traditions
of your fathers, you are gonna be saved. But he said, that's
not what it was. He said, now, if I would have
been the hen protecting the chickens, I would have spread my wing over
and I would have protected them from that stuff. I would have
told them about where their salvation comes. You would have been telling
them about me. And so Paul here is telling them
that this Jews religion, that he was steeped in Jews religion,
not in God's. See, there's a difference between
God's religion, which is true religion, and the religion of
tradition of men. And so Paul was saying here that
he enticed past in the Jews religion, how that beyond measure, I persecuted
the church of God and wasted it. Now we all know that that
was Paul before as Saul, he persecuted the church of God. Matter of
fact, turn with me if you would back to Acts chapter eight. Let's
look at a few places here. about old Paul, Acts chapter
eight. Now, if you remember, whenever
the church was first getting going after the day of Pentecost,
there was some electing of, through the church, there was some calling
and electing of deacons. And many of those deacons also
were asked to teach and preach. And one particular man was Stephen,
and Stephen stood and he preached the gospel of Jesus. And if you
remember in chapter seven, the people stoned Stephen for what
he had preached and killed him. And this is where we are picking
up at verse one of chapter eight. And Saul was consenting unto
his death, meaning that Paul approved of that. That Paul was
there and that Stephen had preached that prayer and that Saul, as
a advocate of the Pharisees, of the religious orders of the
Jews religion, had consented to the stoning of Stephen. And
Saul was consenting unto his death, and at that time, there
was a great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem. And they were all scattered abroad
throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Look with me at Acts chapter
nine. and Saul, yet breathing out threatenings
and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high
priest and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues
that he found any of this, if he found any of this way, meaning
the people, the church, they were called the people of the
way, Whether they were men or women,
he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed,
he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shrined round about him
a light from heaven." And so that is where his conversion
begins, and we won't read that right away, but you'll see here
that Paul was going in and causing persecution upon the church. Now, back in Galatians, He says,
for ye have heard of my conversation in time past of Jews' religion,
how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted
it or destroyed it, and profited in the Jews' religion above many
my equals in my own nation. Now, so he wasn't not only just
a part of the Jews' religion, but he profited in the Jews'
religion above every one of his equals. that there was nobody
that was more steeped in the religion of the Jews than Paul.
I mean, he was their ace star. He was the man, okay? He had studied under Gamaliel,
and through that, he became very respected among all the religious
leaders because of his zealousness. Now look what it goes on to say,
being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. So notice here again, he says
in verse 13, the Jews religion and being more zealous of the
tradition of my fathers. He didn't say the traditions
of God. He didn't say that he was more
zealous in the law or in the Levitical priesthood. He didn't
say that he was more zealous even of Christ. Of course, the majority of the
Jews at that time were still denying Christ. But look what
he says here. He says, being more exceedingly
zealous of the traditions of my fathers. That word tradition
there. I wanna look at that just a bit,
because whenever we look at the Jews religion and the traditions
of my fathers, I believe that we see some things that even
today we still deal with. Now that word tradition there,
it's a paradosis in the Greek. It's translated tradition 10
times, traditions two times and ordinances one time. And the
Bible, The Bible warns us about these things. It warns us about
the traditions of men. We are to be very mindful of
these things. We are to be careful of these
things. We are to be warned that the traditions of men and the
gospel of Jesus Christ is not the same thing. Paul saying that
he is exceedingly zealous of the traditions of our fathers.
Somebody looked at that and said, well, he's just talking about
the Jews, what they did in the Old Testament, the Old Covenant.
He was zealous of the Old Covenant. No, friends, what Paul was doing
and what all those Jews was doing was not under the Old Covenant. It was a perversion even of the
Old Covenant. They had went far beyond what
God had prescribed, what Moses had written down, and the procedures,
and the way that things should be done, that they had added
laws upon laws, and commands upon commands, and these traditions,
and everything. And where that all went back
to was whenever the children of Israel was in bondage in Babylon,
and they learned from the Babylonians their Baal worship, their, all the things out of the Kabbalah
and the religion of the Kabbalists at that time. And so these Jews
who were in power now during the time of Jesus and Saul were
all these ones who had perverted even the old covenant system
of worship. And so Paul says that he was
zealous of these traditions. Now, the Bible tells us, turn
with me if you would, over to Mark chapter seven. Mark chapter
seven. Because brethren, today, and
the reason I'm doing this is because today, even among those
who claim sovereign grace even, and just like in Galatians, see,
there was a hint of grace being preached, but they were always
tying that back to the law. that yeah, we believe in sovereign
grace, but you have to keep the law. We believe that God sovereignly
saves, but you have to keep the law. We believe that God has
the authority and the sovereignty to choose to save, but there's conditions that you
gotta keep. You got to keep these traditions.
You got to keep these laws. And so there was this mixture
of law and grace among these people. And so that's going on
today, brethren. We have those among us. who preach
and teach and feel the same way, that yes, we believe that God
sovereignly saves, but we believe that you also have to keep the
law, that you must be part of the law system, that you must
continue to follow after the traditions of men. You see that
in the modern Hebrew Roots movement today. They continue to follow
in a lot of the feasts and the festivals, and actually, a lot
of some of the stuff that they even do now doesn't even follow
underneath the old covenant systems, It's been since that perversion
or that Kabbalistic Jewish system that even now that the majority
of Jews follow. These Jews that are out there
today are not following the same system that God gave them in
the Old Testament. They're following a perverted
system. But anyway, in Mark chapter seven,
Verse three, we read this. It says, for the Pharisees and
all the Jews, except they washed their hands off, eat not, holding
the tradition of the elders. Now, this is the place where
the religious leaders, you know, they were coming to Christ and
saying, you know, hey, your disciples aren't following after the tradition
of the fathers or the tradition of the elders. How come they're
not doing this and doing that, you know, especially here about
washing their hands. And says, and when they come
from the market, except they wash, they eat not, and many
other things there be, which they have received to hold as
the washing of cups and pots, brazen vessels and of tables. Then the Pharisees and scribes
asked him, why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of
the elders, but eat bread with unwashing hands? So here again,
who are they appealing to? They're not appealing to the
Torah. They're not appealing to the
word of God. They're appealing to the tradition
of the elders. Hey, how come you're not following
after the tradition of us? You know, they're appealing to
traditions and not to the word of God. And so we see that even
today, brethren, we have those among us who they form their
opinions, they form their understanding, they form their belief based
upon or partly because of the influence of those who have,
you know, some tradition or some commentary or some creed or confession,
and because these divines or because of some of these men
who are well-respected as theologians have said something, then obviously
that must be true. And Paul is saying, listen, I
was zealous for the tradition of the fathers. I was zealous
to follow that form or pattern of worship and belief that had
been laid down for many years. I mean, from the time of the
Babylonian captivity until there was a long time. And so there
was a lot of history of those Jews believing and teaching that
perverted system. And Paul, he said, I was zealous
for it. I thought I was doing God's service.
I thought that I was really believing the truth and teaching the truth
and standing for the truth. And listen, persecuting the church,
that was my top priority. Why? Because they are blaspheming
God. They're blaspheming God by saying
that this man became flesh was God, that this man who died was
God, that this man is saving people like the Gentiles. And
so we find that Paul was zealous for a gospel that was no gospel. Now you see why Paul is so adamant? about the beginning of this letter
and saying, it's important that you got your gospel right. Because
look, even me, the Apostle Paul, very smart, educated man. He wasn't a dummy. He was an
educated man and he was educated in quote unquote theology. But
yet even though he was educated in theology, he was influenced
by the letter and by tradition. And brethren, today we have all
kinds of men out there preaching in pulpits who are governed by
the letter and by the tradition, by the theologians and by the
strict letter of things. And they don't have the spirit
of the letter. They don't have the spirit of
what this is teaching. They don't have the jest of what
this is saying in spiritual terms. They have what it says in literal
terms. They might be able to break down
and conjugate the verbs. They might be able to break down
all the Greek and Hebrew. They might be able to give you
what the thesaurus said, I mean, the lexicons say. and the dictionaries
say, and the commentators say, and what the confessions of faith
might say, but they miss the spiritual application of what
this book is saying and teaching. They deny the spiritual teaching
of the Holy Spirit, and on top of that, they deny the liberty
that should be given to each believer who is being taught
of God, that we are to be taught of God, and as He teaches us,
We come into that truth and we understand it and we believe
it, but yet they press upon men a strict rigidity to their system,
to their understanding, and anything outside of that, then you're
anathema. You are anathema. You're a heretic,
or you're not even born from above, maybe. They even presume
upon someone's election. because somebody is not preaching
or teaching exactly according to their tradition. Now, brethren,
I'm not against tradition. Tradition is fine. We'll see
here in a minute that that's true, but there is a tradition
that we are not to follow after. There is a tradition that we
are to be wary of, and this is what we see here, the traditions
of man. Matter of fact, let's read on,
it says, and he answered and said unto them, well hath Esaias
prophesied of you hypocrites? As it is written, this people
honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. How being in vain do they worship
me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. See again
here, Jesus even is saying, listen, their appeal is not to the word
of God, but it's to the traditions of men, the commandments of men,
the way that men has interpreted the scripture and not the spiritual
understanding of these things. See, the Bible says that the
word of God is not my private interpretation, okay? That God is gonna reveal this
truth, yes, but he doesn't reveal it to everybody at the exact
same time or in the same, you know, not everybody gets it as
soon as you're born again, okay? There is a growth in the knowledge
and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. We grow in knowledge. We have to learn of him. Just like, as I've used in the
illustration before, just like Lazarus, whenever he was called
forth, He came alive by the command of Christ, but yet Christ said,
now start taking those grave clothes off. He's still bound.
You got to start taking those grave clothes off. We have to
be unraveled of those traditions of men, those commandments of
men, and begin to learn now that we have spiritual understanding,
we have to learn what the Bible is teaching in its spiritual
application. And if you, get down to it, everything
is about Christ. The whole word of God is about
Jesus Christ. We're to find Christ in everything. But if you're making it about
your tradition, if you're making it about you, if you're making
it about building up so many other things, like your faith,
then you're missing the mark. You're missing what it's saying.
And Jesus here are calling these men hypocrites. He said, you're
hypocrites. He said, you are more worried
about your tradition and not what the thing behind it is teaching
you. He says, how be it in vain do
they worship me? In vain do they worship me? Listen,
whenever you are worshiping God, preaching Christ, and you're
preaching it from the traditions of men, when you're preaching
it from the theologians and the creeds and the confession, if
that's what you're preaching and teaching and not the word
of God. then you're worshiping in vain.
You think you're worshiping, but you're not. You're worshiping
in vain. Jesus himself is saying that whenever you follow after
those things, well, we do it just because we've always done
it that way. Well, that's how we do it, so
I can't change anything, that's why. Yes, you can. You can change
it. Stop doing it. Stop doing it. If you're in a church and they're
not following the word of God, get out of it. Go somewhere else. But see, people don't do that.
You know why people don't do that? Because their heart is
not for the gospel. Their heart's not for the gospel.
Their heart is for the traditions of men. Their heart is for sentimentality. Their heart is for emotions. See, they can't break the tradition.
It's been my tradition. And Paul is saying, if you're
not careful here, at least this is how I picture what Paul's
thinking is and how he's writing this. Beware this gospel that's
being preached to you. You've been moved away from the
real gospel. Now you're listening to this other gospel that's a
cursed gospel. It's no gospel at all. Listen,
you heard the real gospel that came actually from the lips of
Christ, and you're rejecting that gospel now. You're listening
to these men who are preaching for themselves the traditions
of men, and that tradition of men is no good, and I'll tell
you why. Even I was steeped in that. I
did that. I thought that the traditions
of men is what we did, and listen, we studied it, we learned it,
we pounded it into our children, we pounded it into those who
were listening to us, that we need to follow the tradition,
the tradition, the tradition, to the place where tradition
becomes so sacred that whenever you hear the truth of God, you
can't receive it because the tradition is so ingrained in
your heart. Well, brother, nobody will accept
it, save God. change their heart and bring
him out of that. See, Paul would have continued
on doing what he was doing unless God would have not met him. We'll
see that here in just a minute, but look on what Jesus says.
He says, for the laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold
the tradition of men as the washing of pots and cups and many other
things. See, the Old Testament scriptures did not tell them
anything about the washing of the cups and the pots. That was
not even part of that. That's something that they added.
And now they were judging others because others were not keeping
their commands. They're added on things, okay? And he said unto them, full well
ye reject the commandment of God that ye may keep your own
tradition. Not God's tradition, your own.
You've rejected the commandment of God that ye may keep your
own tradition. For Moses said, honor thy father
and thy mother, and whoso curses father or mother, let him die
the day. But ye say, if a man shall say
to his father or mother in his Corban, that is to say a gift
by whatsoever thou mightest be profit to me, he shall be free.
See, they were trying to get out of their obligation to take
care of their family. See, the Bible teaches that we
are to take care of those who are of our household. Those who
are our family, we have the obligation to take care of them so that
it doesn't place a burden upon the churches. But if we or any
family doesn't take care of that person, then the churches have
a responsibility of taking care of those people. And here they're
saying that we can get out of that command by saying, Corbin,
My gift is, I've already allotted my gift or my money, my funds,
or my time to something else that is for God's health. And
he suffered him more to do ought for his father or his mother,
making the word of God, none effect through your tradition.
See, whenever you're preaching the traditions, you might as
well just close the Bible and just say, it doesn't matter what
the Bible says, because my tradition, my, Commandment of men trumps whatever
the word of God says. And brethren, I've ran into men
that's like that. I've talked with men that's like that. That
whenever you try to discuss biblical things, that may be to them,
may be a new concept. They've not heard that before.
And they say, well, I can't go with that. You mean to tell me
that, you know, you've got all these Baptist confessions and
every one of them don't say nothing about that. Well, those confessions
of faith are not exhaustive, number one. Number two, those
confessions of faith are not inspired. Neither are those theologians
who wrote them. Neither are the theologians that
write commentaries. Neither are the preachers of
old whose sermons are online. They are not inspired. I'm not
inspired. Matter of fact, I've preached
from this pulpit in times past. Since I've been here in Joplin,
I have preached certain things and had to go back and repent
of that because of further understanding and learning that the Lord had
given me upon that subject and found out that I was wrong. I was wrong about that. Brethren,
just because somebody is saved, quickened, converted, and even
called to be a pastor, doesn't mean that they automatically
know everything that this Bible says in the way that is rightly
to be understood. We are still growing. And Jesus
here is saying, you are making these traditions, the foundation
of what you believe. And in doing that, you make God's
word of none effect. Look, if you would, at Colossians chapter two. Colossians chapter two and look
down if you would. Chapter two and verse eight. It said, beware, beware. Lest any man spoil you through
philosophy. There's a lot of people that
want to add philosophy to the word of God. Matter of fact,
they try to understand the word of God through philosophy. There is a philosophy of men, but the Bible says, beware lest
any man, any man, whether it be a so-called pastor, preacher,
theologian, confession, whatever, Beware lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions of men.
See, brethren, I'm not just making this up. I'm not just, you know,
I'm not just beating this horse to death. We see that not only
did Jesus say this, but Paul is making it very clear in more
than one place to be aware of the traditions of men. That this
is something that we are going to encounter in the ministry
of the gospel. We are gonna encounter those
who are so steeped in the traditions of men, in the commandments of
men, that it is going to cause an issue. It's gonna cause a
riling up. It's gonna cause a division.
It's gonna cause problems. There's going to be, There's
gonna be contention between the preachers of grace and the preachers
of mixed grace and law. There will always be that, especially
whenever it comes from the traditions of men. He says, beware lest
any man spoil you through philosophy, vain deceit. After the traditions
of man, after the rudiments or the elements of the world and
not after Christ. Lest any man spoil you with the
traditions of men and the rudiments of the world and not after Christ."
Brethren, it's about Christ. It's about what he has done.
The gospel is about Christ. That's why Paul said that if
you preach another gospel, which the gospel is Christ, that it
is a perversion of Christ. You pervert Christ. But brethren, there is some positive
traditions that we are to look at. Look, if you would, at 2
Thessalonians 2. 2 Thessalonians 2. I want to start reading at verse
15. Therefore, brethren, stand fast
and hold the traditions which he had been taught, whether by
word or by our epistle. Okay? So, there is a tradition
that we are to keep, right? Now, someone may, if they cherry
pick this verse out, say, Now, tradition's not bad. Looky here,
Paul even says that we are to hold forth the traditions which
we have been taught. So it's okay if I follow after
the tradition of my mama or my daddy or my uncle or my aunt
or my grandma or my grandpa or my beloved preacher, whichever,
you know, my favorite preacher that I had, you know, for 900
years that I've sat under. So it's okay to follow that,
because that was the tradition that I've been taught. Brethren,
the context here is not following after any tradition, but it's
the tradition that's taught where? Whether by word or our epistle. Now that word is subjective.
Those epistles are not subjective. Those epistles are objective. The Word of God does not change. The Word of God is inspired.
It does not change. That's where we get our understanding. That's where we get our information.
But we're taught by the Holy Spirit. He confirms to us these
truths. And those who preach according
to God's Word, those are the traditions that you follow. We
follow the traditions found in scripture and preach from those
who are faithfully preaching the scripture. That's the traditions
that's okay to follow, not the traditions of men. You notice
here, he didn't say follow after the traditions of men. He said,
follow after the traditions, whether that you have been taught
whether by word or our epistle. He didn't say someone else's
epistle. He said their epistle. There are many writings outside
of the word of God, epistles. There's the epistle of Barnabas.
There's the epistle of Enoch. There's other epistles that are
out there by godly men, by men who were part of this, but they
were not inspired. So there might be some good stuff
in there. There might be some truth in there. I know a lot
of people that say, well, we need to listen to some of these
men like Polycarp. Go back and read Polycarp. He
was a disciple of John. You can't get much closer to
Jesus than that. But listen, Polycarp was not
inspired. John was inspired, but Polycarp
wasn't. Listen, Polycart could have listened
to John and misunderstood what John said. Polycart could have
went off into error and wrote down some things. And said, and
attributed even to John. Listen, I've been guilty of that.
I've thought that a preacher believed one thing and I even
told him, no, that preacher doesn't believe that. Then he come to
find out that preacher really did believe that. I said just
the opposite. Hey man, I think that preacher believes this from
something that I heard or read or misunderstood that he said.
And then come to find out, no, he didn't believe that at all.
And I had to apologize. Should have been talking about
it anyway. But see, the Word of God's inspired. The epistles
of God is inspired. And so those who faithfully preach
the Word of God, those traditions are the ones that we can say,
hey, that's all right to follow. Look if you want at chapter three
there, verse six. Now we command you, brethren,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourself
from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the
tradition which he received of us." So here again, we see there
is some tradition that we follow. And matter of fact, not only
do we follow it, but we defend it by anybody who comes in among
us who does not walk after that tradition, that we, what does
he say there? that we withdraw ourselves from
that road. If you go to a church and you
find out that that church is not walking after the tradition
that is preached in this Bible, then you need to remove yourself
from it. If it's not, if it's not conducting, if it's not preaching
the gospel that Jesus preached, again, that's a sovereign grace,
free grace, imputed righteousness, Election, predestination. Those
are the things that Christ preached. Particular redemption. Preservation
of the spirit. Those are the things that Christ
preached. If you're in a church, if you're going to a church,
or if you ever encounter a church and they're not preaching that,
Paul says, that's no gospel. And he says, don't continue to
follow them, withdraw, because it's not after the tradition
that you received of us. The tradition that we give you
was from the lips of Christ. That's why we have the little
phrase whenever we talk about us fellowshipping with other
churches, that we fellowship with churches of like faith,
that's doctrine. and practice, that's the way
that Jesus taught about the preaching of the gospel, how it is to be
administered, that's the ordinances, baptism, that how baptism is
to be of believers in immersion in water and not babies, not
sprinkling, not pouring, not to be saved, okay? And the Lord's Supper. That the
Lord's Supper was a ordinance given for the local church to
administer to remember Christ. So it should only be believers,
number one, who should be taking the Lord's Supper. And that when
that Lord's Supper is administered, that it should only be among
the members of that local church that take that. And that the
elements of that is unleavened bread and wine, not grape juice. Why? Because there is a picture
in the unleavened bread. There is a picture in the wine.
There is a picture in the members only. All those things show forth
Christ's death until he comes. There is a reason why we keep
that. Christ give us these things,
faith and practice. That's the traditions that we
are to follow. And if it doesn't come from God's
word, then we shouldn't do it. Look if you would at 1 Corinthians
chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Starting verse 1, Paul tells
these Corinthians who had went way off the track, They weren't necessarily following
any of the traditions of the fathers. They just completely
derailed off the tradition that Paul had given. But he said,
be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you, brethren, that
you remember me in all things and keep the ordinances as I
delivered them to you. Now, pay close attention, brother,
and I know you're probably wondering about, you know, what does this
have to do with our passage in Galatians? Because there is a
negative outlook on tradition in the scripture, there's a positive
outlook on tradition. There is a tradition to keep,
and that is the tradition that Jesus give us in the Word. So
don't equate man's traditions that Paul is warning us against
that Paul was involved in, zealously, over the top, abounding more
than anybody else, his equal. But he says here, I praise you,
brethren, that you remember me, saying I will get, hey, right
now, I'm not giving you much praise because you went off the
rails, but there'll be much praise given to you, brethren, If you
remember me in all things, all the things that I taught you,
all the things that I established you in, and keep the ordinances
as I delivered them to you. They had not been keeping those
things. And listen, brethren, there are churches out there
today that are following after the traditions of men and not
after Christ. And I know this is controversial.
I'm just going to use the, go back to the one about the wine
and the Lord's supper. The Lord instituted the Lord's
Supper with wine, alcoholic wine, not grape juice. But the majority
of churches in America today use grape juice in their Lord's
Supper, and that was because of the influence of the prohibition
back in the 20s. If you go before that, you can
hardly, I mean, matter of fact, you almost can't find, anywhere,
anywhere, in the writings of church history, whether it be
Baptist or any other denomination, where that was an option, that
they used something other than wine. Matter of fact, here in Corinthians,
whenever Paul was instructing them about how they were not
keeping the Lord's Supper correctly, and he was correcting them, and
how they were getting drunk at these Lord's Supper, what they
thought was the Lord's Supper, but it wasn't. They were getting
drunk. He didn't correct them about that. He didn't correct
them about using wine. He corrected them on how they
were doing it, but not about the wine. He could have easily said, your
main problem is you're using alcoholic wine. If you quit using
alcoholic wine, y'all wouldn't be getting drunk. But no, he
didn't say that. See, that's the tradition of
men. And now it's become so ingrained in society today, at least in
America, you don't hardly see this overseas anywhere. But you see it ingrained in our
society today that, ooh, Christians, you shouldn't be using wine in
the Lord's Supper. Well, how come? The Bible says that that's
what they eat. Oh, it couldn't have been alcoholic
wine because Christians aren't supposed to drink alcohol. Okay,
well, where does it say that? Ain't nowhere in Scripture that
says that. It says don't be drunk with wine.
It says don't be drunk. That's the thing. But the traditions
of men have been pressed upon the churches so long that now
if you go into a church and you bring up anything about wine,
you're immediately, hey, you're castigated. You're a wine bibber. You say anything about using
wine, you know, well, hey, we can't do that. We've had people
here that we thought was gonna become members of the church
here. Whenever we talked about the Lord's Supper, And everything
like that, it seemed that went away. They decided not to come
here. Don't know if that was the exact
reason, but it was after that discussion that they chose not
to become a member here. And I know people, I grew up,
I was raised under that mentality, thinking that, and teaching that
it was a different kind, that wine doesn't mean wine, it means
unfermented grape juice, you know? but see how it's changed? And
Paul here says, listen, the Lord delivered that ordinance to us
with its specificness and what he... See, remember, the Lord's
Supper was instituted after the Passover meal. He could have
instituted that with lamb. They ate lamb. With the bitter herbs. He could
have instituted it with the bitter herbs and the oil that they softened
in. They could have done anything. He could have
done it with water and not grape juice. You guys didn't say anything. It's
not grape juice, it's wine. I'm testing you. But he didn't. He used unleavened
bread and he used wine because the Bible teaches some things
in the wine and the unleavened bread. there is a symbol, and
the ordinance and its symbology must coincide with the substance
behind it. It's just as important, just
like in baptism. Listen, we Baptists are adamant
that it's adults who are baptized and that that baptism is by full
immersion. Why? Somebody tell me here, why
do we believe that you have to do it by immersion, besides the
fact that Jesus said so? What's the purpose of doing Under
and back up. There it goes. It represents death, burial,
and resurrection, right? It is supposed to show death,
burial, and resurrection. That we have died, that we've
been buried, and that we have rose again. It's to show our
union with Christ in that. There is symbology there. And
the symbol has to be equated, or the substance is equated with
the symbol. If you sprinkle, that does not
symbolize what that ordinance is meaning. If you pour, it doesn't
symbolize what that ordinance is meaning. If you're not a believer,
it doesn't symbolize what that ordinance is meaning, because
only those, every one of those who are died and resurrected
spiritually, those people are the ones who will be believers. And so whenever you sprinkle
your child in hopes that he's under the covenant and that one
day he will be a believer, mm-mm, or if you think that that was
gonna make him a believer, mm-mm, that's not how it works. You're
preaching a Armenian gospel through your baptism. Okay, I'm gonna get off my high
horse on the Lord's supper and the ordinances. But Paul made
it very clear and he, listen, this isn't just Baptist Mike
pressing his theological thing. Paul said it right here. He says,
keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you. And what did he
say about that? How were they delivered? Well,
look at verse 23. For I received of the Lord that
which also I delivered unto you. Where did that ordinance and
how it was to be kept come from? Not from Paul, even though it
did directly, it came indirectly from Jesus Christ through Paul. See, this goes all the way back,
brethren, again, to what Paul has been saying in this first
part of this letter to the Galatians is that, listen, what I'm delivering,
what I told you. You're thinking that it's just
up for debate. It's not up for debate. It's
not up for, well, I just choose to do this and the Lord will
be pleased. He knows my heart. Yeah, God does know our heart.
Know what he says about it? That our heart is deceitfully
wicked above all things and who can know it. The Bible says that
whenever he looks down upon us in our nature, who we are, he
says that we are evil continually. So yeah, God does know your heart.
He also knows that he has given the command to follow these ordinances
like you and traditions that he has given the way that he
has commanded, but you don't want those traditions like that.
You want to follow after your traditions of men. And so you
do what your heart wants to do because your heart is not for
the gospel. Your heart has not been given
for Christ. Because if it was, then that's
what you would want to follow. His sheep follow his voice. Now,
after saying all that, I think of my former way of life. You know, Paul here is saying, hey,
listen, I was exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.
So was I. So was I. Matter of fact, I think
that this experience that Paul is talking about here, what he
experienced on whenever he gives his, there's several places that
Paul gives his conversion experience. But here, I think we see that
every child of grace at some point can relate to this, that
we were steeped in religion. I often go, whenever we go around
in different churches, or whenever I'm talking to men on the internet,
I find that often they come from the same place, that they was
raised up in some denomination, they was raised up under some
preaching and teaching of some false gospel of something. And
I'm not talking about Catholic, I'm not, even though that's part,
that's one too, or more, I'm talking about under the umbrella
of Christianity, evangelicalism, that these men and women are
giving testimony of how they grew up and they were zealous
working in their churches and doing all this kind of stuff
until the Lord taught them the truth, till the Lord brought
them to the truth. And I think that we all are experiencing
that, but before the gospel of Christ is taught to us by the
Holy Spirit, we like Paul are steeped in zealous religious
activity. But praise the Lord, there's
verse 15. Look at verse 15. 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, and immediately I conferred an eye with flesh and blood. I was zealous. I was zealous for God. Listen,
I hated the doctrines of grace. I had this little book called
Chosen but Free by Norman Geisler. And listen, that was my Bible
next to my Bible. And listen, I was out there debating
the Calvinist. I was debating my uncle who believed
the doctrine was preaching the doctrines of grace. Me and him
had email exchanges back and forth, and I disagreed with him,
and he just kept giving me the scriptures. And listen, I was
adamantly opposed to this. My whole family was adamantly
opposed to this. Most of them still are. Most churches that I've ever
associated with are opposed against this doctrine, against these
things. But I was zealous for that. I
mean, listen, I was busy in church activity where I was at. But there came a time when I
pleased God who had separated me from my
mother's womb. He called me by His grace and
revealed His Son in me that I might preach Him And same thing with all children
of grace. There comes a place. Now, I think of this word pleasure
here, that it pleased God, but whenever it pleased God, notice
that, brethren. It wasn't when Paul chose. It
wasn't when Paul decided to come. It was whenever it pleased God. But when it pleased God to reveal
His Son in me, See that parenthetical break
there is just describing the fact that God had separated him
from his mother's womb. Now again, I think of my own
life. I think of the life of every
child of grace. Listen, brethren, this isn't
just about Paul and a few people spotted throughout the scriptures.
I think this is the account of every child of grace. Every child
of grace has been separated even from the womb. but it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal
His Son in me. Turn with me if you would to
Isaiah chapter 46. Isaiah chapter 46. I think about God's pleasure. The
Bible says this in verse nine and 10. It says, remember the
former things of old, for I am God and there is none else. I
am God and there is none like me. Declaring the end from the
beginning. It's predestination, by the way. He declares the end from the
beginning. He doesn't look down and see
what happens and makes a response. He declares it. And from ancient
times, the things that are not yet done. So from of old, he has declared all things that
are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand and I will
do all my pleasure. Now, brethren, God is gonna do
all his pleasure. And nothing is going to stop
him for he is God and there is none else. There is none that can stay his
hand. There's none that can thwart him. He will do all his pleasure. And if it pleases God to separate
someone unto himself, there is nothing that can stop that. And
Paul is saying here that, listen, even though I was steeped in
false religion, even though I was steeped and zealously active
in the traditions of the men, listen, it does not stop the
work of God that if it pleases God to separate someone for himself,
that word separate can also be sanctified, to sanctify for himself
a people, then nothing's gonna stop but even the most zealous,
religious, tradition man, tradition of man person that there is.
Listen, I was worse than all of them. I was even out killing
the real Christians. I was so zealous for those things
that I was out killing the very people that God loved and saved. Because I thought my tradition
was correct. I thought my, religion was correct. And he said, but listen, that
didn't stop the grace of God. Listen, brethren, it doesn't
matter how bad a person is or how down in the barrel they went. It doesn't matter how wicked
they are, how hard against God they are. Listen, I know brethren
and family that hate what we preach here. They are adamant
against it. They are actively involved in
organizations and people that preach against what we do, that
have rallies against what we do, that are trying to separate
themselves from other people that believe these things. And
they are adamantly against what we preach, and they hate the
doctrine of grace. They hate God being predestinated
over all things, and that man does not have a choice. They
hate that Jesus doesn't love everybody. They hate that Jesus
died for only his people. They hate that it is applied
sovereignly without conditions. But brethren, even that, the
hardest part against the gospel like that, can't stop the grace
of God. That's why we call it irresistible
grace. Because when God gives you spiritual
life, when God gives you a new heart, then you quit loving what
you used to love and begin loving what you didn't love. And see
what Paul is saying here? The very people that I used to
persecute, I've now become. Look with me, verse 17, neither
went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me,
but I went again 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. But other of the apostles saw
I none save James, the Lord's brother. Now the things which
I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not. And afterwards
I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, And here it is,
look at verse 22. And was unknown by face unto
the churches of Judea which were in Christ, but they had heard
only that he which persecuted us in times past now preaches
the faith that he once destroyed and they glorified God. Now we're
gonna get to those verses in a week or two. But notice that
Paul is saying that me, who was in my mind, the chiefest of sinners,
Paul claimed to be the chiefest of sinners. And the reason for
that is because he persecuted the church. He thought that he
was the chiefest of sinners because he persecuted Christ. That's
what Christ called him. When they told him, he said,
Paul, why persecuted thou me? And he's like, who are you? How
am I persecuting you? You're persecuting the church.
If you're persecuting the church, you're persecuting me. See, he
thought he was working for God. But yet all along, God's thoughts
about that is you're not working for me. You're working against
me. And see, Paul said that even
a person like me, who was so bent-minded towards the traditions
of men and to the philosophies of men and to the commandments
of men and the religions of men, to the point of even killing
people over it, that the Lord was gracious enough and that
grace saved me and turned me in a different direction. That's
why this gospel is important, brethren. is because it teaches
that God sovereignly changes the man, the woman, the child. God changes them. They can't
make a decision for that. Otherwise they would continue
like the Apostle Paul in their own traditions, in their own
thinking, in the natural thoughts of man. They would make a God
for themselves. They would bow to that God. They
would make that God not only like themselves, but bring him
down to their level. but grace pulls us out of that.
And grace converts us, just like Paul, it converted him. We talk
about the Damascus, you know, Paul's conversion on the Damascus
road. He was converted from false religion
to true religion, from false traditions to true traditions,
to false gospels to true gospel. He was converted from Saul to
Paul, He was converted from being a messenger of men to a messenger
of Christ. And brethren, whenever one is
born from above and quickened of God and then converted by
the Holy Spirit to believe the truth, listen, he turns from
that way and he goes the other way. He doesn't continue to walk. Listen, he didn't stay in the
synagogue at Jerusalem and continue on in his daily work as a Pharisee. He didn't continue on and say,
well, I'm just gonna stay here and try to reform the church.
No, what did he do? He came out from among them and
became separate. And what did he do? He followed
where Christ sent him. First of all, he sent him on
the backside of the desert to be taught. Second of all, he
taught him, took him to the Gentiles. After all that, then he came
back to the religious people and started talking. He didn't
go back into the synagogues and start doing his daily work in
the synagogues. He came out for a moment. Now,
did he go to the synagogues? Yes, but he didn't go in as a
advocate of the Pharisees and the religious Jews. No, he came
as a apostle of Jesus Christ to preach against what they were
doing. We have so many today that want to continue in their
same churches. They want to continue to fellowship with the false
gospels. They want to continue to say that everything's okay. I'm just going to try to reform
it from the inside. Ain't that what the reformers
tried to do with the Catholic church? Reform it from the inside.
Listen, God is the only one that can reform anybody. God is the
only one that can cause conversion. and it comes through the preaching
of the gospel. Now, spiritual life is given by the Holy Spirit
alone. It doesn't have anything to do with preaching or teaching
the gospel. The Holy Spirit blows where it
lifts us. It comes upon men immediately and regenerates them as what
they call regenerate. Remember, I don't think that's
a biblical term, but for the sake of people know what I'm
talking about, quickens them. But listen, whenever one is converted,
he's converted whenever he hears the gospel. He hears the truth. I've heard all this, but now
I'm hearing this and the Holy Spirit is teaching me and it
testifies that that's what's true. So I turn from that and
I go that way. That's what conversion is. And
Paul is saying, listen, the gospel is important. To preach the gospel,
teach the gospel, stand for the gospel, is to stand for that
very thing that the child of grace, when quickened, hears
and knows that that's true and that's not true so that they
might turn to what's true and become a disciple of Jesus Christ.
And when they become a disciple of Jesus Christ, that's when
we baptize them and bring them into the membership of the church.
That was the commission that Christ give to his people when
he left. That's the ministry of the local
church to do that, to make disciples. How do we make disciples? By
preaching the gospel. But if we're preaching a false
gospel, we will never make conversions. Now we don't make conversions
in the way that hopefully people thought I meant. We can't do
what God is doing. If we're preaching a false gospel,
that's never gonna convert any child of grace. We wanna be faithful
to preach them the very message that the Holy Spirit will take
and turn them from believing the false lie to believing the
truth. And it's hard to do that whenever
you're married to a harlot. It's hard to be faithful to the
one you're actually married to when you're messing around with
someone else. The Bible says that we are married
to Christ, we're His bride. And how can we be married to
Christ and faithful to Christ if we're over here holding hands
with the harlot that's preaching a false gospel, that's preaching
a perverted Christ? See, antichrist does everything
to mimic Christ, but to twist it. And so they have their churches
out there that looks like the Christ church, but it's not.
It looks like the gospel, but it's not. It sounds like the
gospel, but it's not. They may follow all the things
and make it look like it, but listen, it's not. So why are
you holding hands with it? How can two walk together unless
they agree? The Bible tells us to come out from among her and
be separate and have not anything to do with her sins. Yet there are people who continue
to follow the traditions of men. They follow the religion of men. And Paul here says those who are
separated are called and they were revealed. So we find Paul here expressing
that his being separated from the womb shows God's electing
pleasure. God elected him to that place. There was no way that Paul could
have not been the Apostle Paul because God had elected him for
that Paul was sanctified for God's purpose of election from
eternity. He was sanctified as a child
of grace. He was sanctified as a seed of
Christ. He was sanctified for grace.
He was sanctified for imputed righteousness. He was sanctified
for quickening. He was sanctified to believe
the gospel. He was sanctified to be converted
from the traditions of men. He was sanctified for apostleship. He was sanctified for preaching
the gospel to the Gentiles. He was sanctified to persevere
in the faith and sanctified to die a martyr's death. And he
was sanctified to be glorified with Christ. See, before Paul was even born,
that's what from the mother's womb means. Before Paul was even
born, his destiny had already been chosen. You say, well, what
about the time from the time he was born to the time he was
converted? Paul was lost. Paul was an unbeliever. God doesn't
have anything to do with all that. Well, yeah, he does. Paul
was sanctified for that purpose. He was set apart for that purpose.
Paul was set apart to persecute the church for a purpose of God. Now we see part of that purpose
is to illustrate to others the depth of sin that God brings
people out of, to show forth the fact that false religion
isn't real religion, to show forth that even the chiefest
religionist can be wrong. See, there was a purpose for
that. But yet Paul was preserved from the time he was born till
the time he was converted. He was preserved of God. Someone
said, well, what if he would have died before he went to Damascus?
Well, guess what? That wasn't God's purpose. There
was no way that he was gonna die before he was converted because
he had been separated before that. Now, brother, That apostle
Paul's experience, is that not the same experience of every
child in grace to some extent? Is it not? Let's read three more
verses and we'll be done. Psalms 22. Psalms 22. Look with
me at verse nine. Now, I know that this psalm is
a psalm of David. I know this psalm is also a psalm
about Christ, but I also believe that this psalm was something
that was actually on David's heart. God gave David these words,
and the experience of David here was also an experience that each
one of us might come into experience ourselves. But look, verse nine. But thou art he that took me
out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when
I was on my mother's breast. I was cast upon thee from the
womb. Thou art my God from my mother's
belly. Be not far from me, for trouble
is near, for there is none to help. Now again, first and foremost,
this speaks of Jesus Christ. But if you look throughout scripture,
you'll see in the Old Testament that a lot of these men who experienced
these things were types of Christ. David was a type of Christ. Isaiah was a type of Christ.
Jeremiah was a type of Christ. Moses was a type of Christ. Joshua
was a type of Christ. The ark was a type of Christ.
I mean, there's a lot of things in the scripture that shows Christ.
That's why we keep saying it's all about Christ. And here we see that the heart
of this man was saying, listen, before I was even born out of
the womb, you had already made me to seek you. Because we're set apart for him. Look if you would at Jeremiah
chapter one, Jeremiah chapter one, look at
verse five. Jeremiah is right after Isaiah.
You get lamentations, throw it in reverse and back up. Jeremiah chapter one, look with
me down to verse five. Now this we know, is speaking
to Jeremiah. He said, the word of the Lord,
verse four, then the word of the Lord came unto me saying,
before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. And before thou
camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, or set you
apart, or separated you. And I ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations. Then said I, O Lord, behold,
I cannot speak, for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, say
not I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee,
and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Be not afraid
of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the
Lord. Is that not a perfect, is that
not a perfect verse for preachers, especially? But to every child
of grace, Before I formed you in your mother's belly, child
of grace, I knew you. Doesn't the Bible say that he
loved us with an everlasting love? Those whom he foreknew,
he also predestinated. That he loves those and calls
those that he foreknew. He says, I formed thee in the
belly, I knew thee. Before I formed thee in the belly,
I knew thee. So God has an intimate knowledge of his people before
they were even existing. I don't know a lot of people
say, I don't see how that understands. Well, brethren, you need to understand
that we are in seed in Christ, that we are his people given
to Christ. We are his generation. We were given to Christ before
the foundation of the world and his people were his seed that
was found in him just like Eve was there. with Adam before Eve
ever existed. She was in Adam and then was
taken out and made manifest at God's allotted time. And so are we as Christ's seed,
his generation comes out and he says, and I sanctified thee
and ordained thee a prophet under the nations. Brother, he's called
us to minister the gospel and he did it before the foundation
of the world. One last one, Isaiah chapter 49. Isaiah 49. Look at verse one. He says, listen O Isles unto
me and hearken ye people from afar, the Lord hath called me
from the womb, from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention
of my name, and he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword,
in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and he made me a polished
shaft, in his quiver hath he hid me, and he saith unto me,
thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. Paul could have said, hey, that's
talking about me too. Now, what is he talking about
here? He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword. Isn't there a
reference? Now again, Christ is the ultimate
picture here that speaks of Christ and what he has done. But I also
believe it speaks of his people as well. But does it cry, in
Revelation the Bible says, that out of his mouth came a sharp
two-edged sword? It didn't say that. Well, here it
says, here he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword. Doesn't the Bible say that whenever
we preach the gospel, that it's gonna cause division like a sword,
cutting down even into the very marrow of the bone? What does that mean, whenever
it says that he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword? It
means that whenever we preach the gospel, whenever we preach
Christ, it's gonna be a harsh thing. It's gonna be tough for
some people to understand because the natural man receiveth it
not. And there's an enmity against it and hates it. That's why we
see so, that's why, you know, there ain't too many people that
just say, well, all right, whatever you wanna say. If you keep pressing
them about that, eventually they're gonna get upset about it. They're
gonna throw a lid. At some point, and the discussion
is going to turn from cordial to heated. And I've had a lot
of those conversations with friends and family. What does it mean that in the
shadow of his hand, hath he hid me? Well, that means that he's
protected me. He's kept me and preserved me
during all this. Says, he had made me a polished
shaft, in his quiver hath he hid me. What in the world is
that talking about? Well, he's talking about an arrow,
a polished shaft that's hid in his quiver. You take a little, take an arrow. Now this is, all you hunters
out there, this is before they had broadheads, okay? You know,
the fancy arrowheads that they have today. If you remember back
in those days, they had rocks and wood. And he says that he
polished the shaft. And then what they would do is
they would polish it where it was like so slick. And then they
would oil that so that whenever it shot, it would definitely
go through and not bounce off, that it would sink through into
their enemy. said he and made me a polished
shaft in his quiver hath he hidden me. And so, brethren, the children
of grace are called before the foundation of the world to be
his servant. And no matter how wicked we might
be, no matter how antithetical to the gospel, Antichrist to
the gospel that we might be when God calls us, that grace overcomes
us. And we turn from the traditions
of men. We turn from those commandments
of men and we are converted to the truth. just like Paul was
here. 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 among the heathens, immediately
I conferred not with flesh and blood. Listen, I grew up, my grandpa
was my pastor my whole entire life. I grew up in a household
where my mom and dad took me to church their whole lives and
they read the Bible and went to church and served within their
churches and all that stuff. And I still have family and friends
that are all like that. But listen, brother, whenever
it was pleased, when pleased God to separate me from my mother's
womb and call me by His grace to reveal His Son in me, at that
point, I didn't go to my mom and dad and say, hey man, I'm
struggling with this. Or I didn't go to my grandpa
and say, hey, I'm struggling with this. And what do you think
about? I didn't do that. The first thing I did, I went
to my Bible. I put away, listen, I put Norm
Geisler away. I quit listening to Norm Geisler
and I didn't pick up John Calvin. Matter of fact, after the fact,
after I began to see if these were the truth, I picked up John
Calvin and I went, ugh, don't like that either. No, the first thing I did is
I conferred not with flesh and blood, I went to God's word. To the word and to the epistle,
that's where we go. not to the traditions of men.
So brethren, I pray that if you're out there listening or watching,
I pray that you will go to God's word. Let God's word be your
guide because the gospel is not something that comes from the
philosophy of men or the traditions of men or the commandments of
men. It comes from the word of God. Get your understanding from
God's word, not from smart men. Get your understanding from the
Holy Spirit to teach you, who teaches you these truths. because
whenever God teaches you these truths and not men, then that's
something that we can say, hey, unless I be deceived, that's
the truth of God. And yes, brethren, we can be
deceived even after our conversion, we can still be deceived, truly
be deceived. Now we'll stop right there and
we'll pick up somewhere along verse 16, 17, 18, somewhere along
there as the Lord leads us. But anybody got any questions
or any comments or anything? Well, brethren, it's been a joy
to meet here. Glad that we were given the opportunity
to do so. Next week, Lord willing, we'll
be meeting at my house, which is 4205 Kentucky Avenue. My information's on the internet
all over the place. Joplin, Missouri. If you're coming
to visit, whoever might be watching or listening, you wanna call
me, my number's all over Facebook and all like that, you can call.
Church number's on our church Facebook page, if you're watching
right now, you're on our church Facebook page, you can find our
number there. And someone will answer the phone, hopefully. But anyway, call and we can lead
you in, but we, continue to meet and We'll get back to our eating
lunch together and all that kind of stuff as well start next week. So Wished all of our members
could have been here today on this last day, but if they're
watching or listening We look forward to seeing you guys again,
and hopefully We'll see you at our house next week. Forgot where
we live and how to get there. Just give us a ring but anyway,
that's Nobody has anything else that you'd like to say or anything,
then I'll close us in prayer. All right. Father, we thank you
today for your mercy and grace, and we thank you for the work
of Christ and salvation. We thank you for the Holy Spirit
applying that thing in our heart that Christ has secured for us.
We thank you, Father, for our conversion and for the gospel
that you have given Lord, we pray for our church that as we
leave this place today and as we leave this meeting house forever,
we ask, Lord, that you might be with us as we meet in our
home. Lord, I pray that you might continue to build your church
here. As you see fit, Lord, we surely don't want to do anything
apart from what you desire, and we know that you're controlling
all things. So, Lord, we just pray that if it be your will
that you'll bring others to meet with us, and Lord, we just ask
that you might help us to be a gospel light here in this community. Lord, I pray for our brethren
that are not here, that you might be with them today, that you
might guide them, direct them. I pray for wherever the gospel
is being preached today, Lord, that you might be with that person,
that man that is preaching. that you might edify the people
that are listening. I pray, Lord, that you've taken
what has been said today, that it has been of the truth, Lord,
and that if I've spoken in any error, I pray, Lord, that you
might just help us to learn rightly the things that you would have
us to know. But Father, I pray that the things that have been
said today has been edifying as the Spirit has worked within
the hearts of people, that you've taught them Lord, and above everything,
we just desire to glorify you in all that we do and say. Again,
Father, we give you much thanks for the provision that you've
given us and meeting in this building for all these years. And Lord, we just thank you for
those people's lives that's come and gone here that we've been
a part of and they've been a part of us and the relationships that
we've had throughout the years. for the loved ones who have died
before us that we no longer get to meet with, for their spouses
that stay behind that we still minister to. And Lord, we're
just so grateful for all the memories that you've given us
here. And we pray that the people that come in here, Lord, we pray
that you would raise them up in truth and that you would send
forth out of their mouths the true gospel. Father, that this
might not become a meeting place for the Antichrist. But Lord,
we just ask that you just might help and minister through us
this week as we cannot do anything without your help. We love you
and we thank you for Christ's salvation. And I pray Lord that
if there's any here today, that yet as your child that needs
to be converted, Lord, I pray that you might teach them the
truth and that they might respond in profession of faith in Christ
Jesus. And by baptism, Lord, that they
might follow you in obedience, that they might be added to the
membership of this church. And Father, we just pray that
you might be with our families and our friends, Lord, that you
might deliver them from their blindness and their error and
their truth or that they might turn from the false gospels of
this world and the traditions of men that they cling to and
that they might preach and desire to love and hear the gospel. Lord, I just thank you so much
for all that you've done for us and ask you to bless this
day in Jesus' name.