Pick up in verse 11. We'll go through these verses. Paul is having to defend himself
and his ministry. And that is one of the most unpleasant
things to have to do. To defend yourself against a
lie. And this is what Paul's having
to do. Paul's prophets have come in, Paul's teachers, and said
Paul is not an apostle because he wasn't with the original group.
They're putting a big question mark on the apostle Paul's ministry,
his call to the ministry, his apostleship. And this has to
be dealt with. It has to be straightened out
because Paul wrote half the New Testament. He wrote about half
the New Testament, so it's extremely important that this be straightened
up. Of course, at that time, all
this wasn't written, but you and I know that he wrote half
the New Testament, pretty much. So what he's going to do here,
he's going to give an account of his conversion to let the
Galatians know that his gospel, the gospel that he preached,
is the gospel. and that it is the only gospel,
and in this he is dogmatic, and we have to be dogmatic when it
comes to the gospel, when it comes to how God saves sinners,
God's chief glory is the redemption of his people, we are dogmatic. There is no other room for another
gospel or another way at all, so he's going to let them know
that that he is called of God, tells about his conversion, and
he's truly an apostle. And to reject him is to reject
his message, and it's to reject God, it's to reject salvation,
it's to reject Christ, and there's no hope. There is no hope. I can quote what the Apostle
Paul says here. I'm quoting God. This is how
serious this is. And you can go out and quote
me. And you're not, you can say, you know, you're not quoting
God, you're quoting what I said or what the scripture said. But
now to quote what the Apostle Paul said is to quote what God
said, because Paul is writing under the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit. So this is how serious this is. Whatever he writes here,
what he writes here is of God. He's moved of God. This is God's
Word. He used men to write the Word
of God, but it's God's Word. It's His Word, and this is serious.
And he says in verse 11, I certify you, brethren, that is, I want
you to know and understand this, that the gospel which was preached
of me is not after man. All other religions are after
man. It's of men. It's works. You take any religion out there
and it's after man. But the true religion that's
of God, we get out of the word of God, is not after man. Man
did not come up with this. The way to God that men come
up with is works. Now, they may use the word grace
and mix in works. But the gospel that's of God
is all of grace. From Alpha to Omega, at no time,
at no time does it ever, ever depend on us to finish it, to
perfect it. We'll see that in chapter 3.
At no time. We looked last week, last Sunday,
in Hebrews 12, that Christ, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. He began it, and He will perfect
it. He will bring it to maturity.
So Paul's saying, the gospel that I'm preaching to you is
not after man. Not at all. It's not a man-made
gospel. Man had nothing to do with salvation
by grace. Man had nothing to do with salvation
through a substitute. Man had nothing to do with righteousness
by another. Man had nothing to do with that.
And I did not receive it from men. You know, Paul, in one place,
he tells us he sat at the feet of Gamaliel. And he learned under
the Jews' religion, and he learned as a Pharisee, he sat at this
man's feet. But when he learned the gospel, he did not sit at
another man's feet and learn the gospel. He literally sat
at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and received the gospel.
You have received the gospel through men. God sent men. God has sent pastors and teachers.
I stand here preaching the gospel. Now, the Holy Spirit takes the
gospel and applies it. He takes the gospel and gives
life. He takes the word of God. We are begotten again with the
word of truth. He takes that, but he sends men.
I sat under a man for you. Most of us here sat under a man
for many years, Pastor Henry. Paul didn't do that. Paul did
not go from the Damascus Road experience and then sit under
someone else, a pastor, for years. He sat at the feet of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So what we are getting from Paul
is directly what he got from the Lord himself. That's what
he's saying. I did not receive it from men.
Paul sat at our Lord's feet. And he learned the gospel just
as Peter, James, and John and the rest of the apostles did.
That's how he received it. And he gives them here his past
in verse 13. For ye have heard of my conversation
in time past in the Jews' religion. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
That's what he says over in Philippians chapter 3. How that beyond measure
I persecuted the church of God and wasted it. At one time, Paul
says, at one time, I was the greatest waster of the church. No one has ever lived that hated
Jesus Christ as much as the Apostle Paul. Saul of Tarsus, on that
road to Damascus, he wasn't going down there to a Sunday school
service or Bible conference. No, he was going there to have
some people put in prison and put to death. Just like he had
been doing in the past, and God allowed him to do this to his
church. And he says, and you've heard, you've
heard of my life in times past and the Jews' religion has it
beyond measure, beyond reason. That's what hate does. Hatred has caused you to do things
beyond reason. And he hated Jesus Christ so
much that he tried to stamp out that name. He tried to stamp
out that way, as it's called over in the Book of Acts. And
a prophet in the Jews' religion above many my equals, I was a
head and shoulders above many my equals. Oh, they were praising
him for what he was doing. You know, he was looked up to. They really looked up to this
man. what he was doing to the church. He was extremely zealous
of the tradition of his fathers. He was going to defend them. He believed he was right and
everyone else was wrong. And he wasted the church. He
consented to the death of God's people. But, weren't you glad for that? But God, oh it says over in Ephesians
chapter 2, but God who is rich in mercy, for his love wherewith
he hath loved us. Look over there in Ephesians,
look at Ephesians 2, let me just read that. Thank God for this word. It says
in verse 1 of Ephesians 2, and you hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins. wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath even as others, we were just like the rest of this lost
world." We were just like the rest of this lost world. Nothing
about us was any different. Just as lost, just as rotten,
just as depraved, just as mean. But God, there's the difference. God's the difference. The grace
of God's the difference. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ By grace,
you're saved, or you're being saved. You've been saved, you're
being saved, and you shall be saved. That's how it works. He
said, when it pleased God. I heard Henry preach a message
one time. When will a man be saved? When will a man be truly
saved? First, the first thing he said,
when it pleases God. It's not when you finally get
talked into a decision, you come down the aisle, it's when it
pleases God to save you. When it pleases God to call you
by His grace and reveal His Son in you. That's when a man is
saved, when it pleases God. It has pleased God, it says over
in the Old Testament, it pleased God to make you His people. That's
when a man is saved, when it pleases God to save him. And
it says here, Let me go back here and find it. Verse 15, but
when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, God's
hand was in my natural birth as well as my spiritual birth. No one is born into this world
by accident. I've had a couple of people tell
me they had some children and they said, well, it was an accident. Well, for you it might have been.
But no one, no human life comes into this world by accident.
God is the giver of life. He has to give life. And I'm
telling you, everyone that will ever come into this world is
known of God. God knows them. He knows them. He knows everyone by name, whether
they're His or not. I mean, whether they're sheep
or not sheep. All are His, really. When Christ died, he not only
created this world, it's his by creation, but it's his by
purchase. He owns it all. He doesn't just own the part
that he saves, he owns it all. It is all his. The saved and
the lost. They're all his to do with as
he will. That's the Word of God. That's
what the Word of God teaches. He says, can I not do with my
own as I will? Well, you know, the answer is
yes. All are His. Had not the potter power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel to mercy and
another unto wrath? Does God not have that right?
Does He not have that right choice? I've said this before, and it
just baffles me because men don't think. I mean, this human race
doesn't think. We send men and women off to
war, to fight and to die, that we might have the right to choose.
And yet, this human race turns around and denies God the same
right to choose whom He will, to do with as He will with whom
He will. When it pleased God, who separated
me from my mother's womb, and He says this on purpose, and
called me by His grace. You see, they were trying to
interject words. keeping of the law. And the whole
issue, and we'll see this as we go through Galatians, was
circumcision. And they were saying that these Judaizers who come
in, they said, well, you've got to do this. And it's just a simple
thing. It's not a big deal, you know. It's just keeping the law. We're not a bunch of lawbreakers,
are we? We're law keepers in Christ. In Christ, we've kept
the law. And that's been fulfilled. But
he said it here, he called me by His grace. He didn't call
me because of who I am, what I've done, or what I've accomplished,
or because I haven't been that bad. Grace! He called me by His grace to reveal
His Son in me. Salvation comes by revelation.
It comes by God giving. Now, that doesn't mean you're
seeing a vision. You know, you're not going to
see a vision or anything like that. But it comes by God giving. A
revelation is an enlightenment. It gives an understanding. You
say, I see. I understand the gospel. And you believe it. You believe
it. But it also is more than that.
Paul says that he revealed his son in me, not just to me. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. Christ formed in you. Paul says
this to the Galatians, I prevail again until Christ be formed
in you. It's Christ in me, to reveal
his Son in me. that I might preach him among
the heathen. He's our apostle. He's talking about us. Does that
offend you? That I might preach him among
the Gentiles, the heathen. He's our apostle. And immediately
when this happened, I conferred not with flesh and blood. I didn't
go to those who were apostles before me. I didn't go to them
and talk to them about the gospel. I didn't go to Peter or James
or John or the other apostles and sit down and have a conversation
with them about the gospel. Tell me the gospel. I say that
to you. You say that to me. Tell me the
gospel. Tell me the gospel this morning. Paul didn't do that. He was taken to sit at the feet
of the Master himself. I conferred not, he said, with
flesh and blood. Neither went I up to Jerusalem
to them which were apostles before me. But I went into Arabia."
And how long he was there, I don't really know. I don't know if
we really have a real date on that. But how long he was there,
the Lord took him to Arabia, took him to the desert and taught
that man. He saw the Lord. He received his gospel from the
Lord Jesus Christ. And after that, he said, I returned
again to Damascus. That's the plan. Where was he
headed the first time? Where was he headed when the
Lord stopped him? On the road to Damascus. He stopped
him. Gave him a new birth, a new life.
Took him to Arabia, taught him the gospel. Now Paul go talk
to the church of Damascus. Now go finish the journey. A
whole different person coming back. Radical change. The one he hated and despised
so much, now he loved. As much as he hated, he now loved
that much. He loved his master. His ear
had been bored and he wasn't going to leave. He loved his
master. He returned to Damascus and after three years, after
three years had gone by, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter
and abode with him for fifteen days, but three years had gone
by after he had come here to Damascus. Then he sat down with Peter for
about fifteen days and they discussed the gospel. I bet Peter learned something
too. I let Peter learn some things, too, as well as Paul. They sat
there and talked to each other, conversed with each other over
the Lord. My, what a conversation that
had to have been for fifteen days. But other of the apostles
saw I none, said James, the Lord's brother. Now the things which
I write to you, behold, before God, I am not lying. I'm telling you the truth. It's
like he's saying, listen to me. Listen to me, because as I said earlier, I can quote Paul here, and I'm
quoting God. I'm quoting what God says, right? This book is infallible. There's
no error in this book, even though God used men to write it, but
it's the Word of God. And he says, before God I lie
not. I'm telling you the truth. And
he said, afterwards I came into the region of Syria and Cilicia
where no man had preached the gospel before. And I was unknown by face until
the churches of Judea, which were in Christ. They didn't know
what I looked like in Jerusalem, the churches in Judea. What he's
doing right here, he's telling them, He's assuring them, he's
certifying that I received my gospel from Christ. I didn't
receive it from the apostles. I didn't go to Jerusalem and
receive it there at the churches in Jerusalem or Judea. I received
it from the Lord. And the gospel I preach to you,
the gospel of redemption, the gospel of grace, the gospel of
substitution, is the only gospel there is. Don't leave it and
don't mix anything with it. That's what he's telling them. But they had heard only that
he which persecuted us in times past now preaches the faith which
once he destroyed. You remember that Saul of Tarsus? You remember how he persecuted
the church and he wasted it? You know that man is preaching
the gospel now? That man is preaching the gospel
of grace. That man is preaching the gospel
he once tried to destroy. Boy, doesn't God work in mysterious
ways? His wonders to perform. God can take a rebel. Don't think,
listen, do not think that any man, any woman is past God's
ability to save. You and I are not tough. All he needs to do is speak a
word. In the Gospels, he'd speak a
word and the demons would come out. No arguing, fussing, fighting. No, he just spoke a word and
they would leave their victim. And he took Paul on that road
to Damascus. I mean, this man had hatred in
his heart. I mean, it was so full of hatred
to Christ and to the church. If you and I had known Paul at
that time, you would think that's one man going to hell. Instead, God saved him and made
the greatest preacher out of him. And he's our apostle. He's
our apostle. But they had heard only that
he which persecuted us in times past now preaches the faith,
or the gospel, which once he destroyed. And they glorified
God in me. Every time God saves a sinner
is another opportunity to glorify God. to praise Him and to recognize
His power to save, His grace, His mercy. God's able to save. He's able
to save unto the uttermost, says the old Hebrews, then that come
unto Him. See, He ever lived to make intercession
for transgressors. gives us his conversion here.
He gives it to the Galatians to let them know that this is
serious business. To reject Paul's message, to
reject Paul is to reject God himself, is to reject the gospel.
And he's telling them that if you do that, there's no hope.
There's no hope. Christ is the only hope we have.
If you reject that or if you add anything to that, as one
writer said, you unchrist him. As Paul said later in Galatians,
you've left grace. You've left it. Well, that's Paul's conversion,
and he lays that foundation before he goes on any further into this
epistle. Because if you don't believe
that, it's like you might as well shut the book and go home. You might
as well just quit and go home. Paul, an apostle of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Let's heed what he says. Let's
heed what he's written. It's God's Word. It's God's Word.