We're going to Galatians chapter
1. Galatians chapter 1 and we'll
read from verse 11. But I certify you, brethren,
that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of
man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ. For ye have heard of my conversation
in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted
the church of God and wasted it. and profited in the Jew's
religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more
exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased
God to separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace
to reveal his son in me, that I might preach him among the
heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. It has been to the heart of the
church of Jesus Christ from the very beginning to be beset by false teachers. Satan has maintained, it seems,
a three-pronged assault. He attacks believers, he attacks
preachers, and he attacks the doctrine of the Gospel. Now we
know from our previous studies the way that the Thessalonians
were persecuted physically, and from Paul's encouragements to
them in the letters that he wrote. We know from the Acts of the
Apostles and the Apostle Paul's other writings, other letters,
how he himself was often physically abused and persecuted. And here we see another aspect
of Satan's work, to infiltrate the churches with false doctrines,
to send false teachers amongst the saints. Teachers that would not only
malign Paul's character, but contradict his gospel message. They preached a gospel that was
no gospel at all. Gospel isn't good news if it
requires any contribution from man. Flesh is helpless in spiritual
matters. Sin spoils and corrupts our best
intentions, our best endeavours. and the long reach of Adam's
rebellious nature extends to us all, not only to judge us
guilty before God, but to render us impotent to meet any and every
divine demand. If there's anything required
of us, then it shows the fact that we cannot supply whatever
it is that's required. It must be gospel. It must be true sovereign grace
if it is going to meet the need that we have. As weak, dead,
impotent sinners we need good news. Good news is what we require. We need a gospel that is powerful
to save and that's the gospel that Paul preached. He had no
time for anything less because he knew if it wasn't powerful
to save it wasn't fit for purpose. It was futile to preach a false
gospel and it's damning to believe a false gospel. We often use
the phrase, don't we, sovereign grace gospel, or even free grace
gospel. But the truth is, there's no
gospel if it isn't sovereign grace. If it isn't God who is
doing the work, if it isn't God who is taking the initiative,
if it isn't God who is accomplishing the end, then there's no gospel
in it. And that's what Paul means when
he says in Romans 11 verse 6, if by grace then it is no more
works. he emphasises what he means,
he says, otherwise grace is no more grace, but if it be works
then it is no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. The point
is you cannot have grace and work together because they are
mutually exclusive and this is what Paul was fighting against
amongst the Galatians. Here there were false teachers
who were trying to come in and spread a teaching that certainly
looked to God for some extent of holiness but also looked to
man to make up the difference. If grace isn't free from all
human contribution If something is required to be done by man
to obtain and merit God's blessing, then that act, whatever it may
be, makes grace conditional and salvation so-called a team effort
or a partnership between God and man. And if that were the
case, man would have reason to be proud reason to boast and
the Lord won't have any of that. So Paul's gospel is the true
gospel because it is good news to needy sinners and to emphasise
its divine pedigree, the apostle insists that the message he brought
to the Galatians and the message that he preached among them was
Christ's own message. Literally, the revelation of
Jesus Christ. Not only the revelation about
Jesus Christ, but the revelation by the Lord Jesus Christ that
Paul had directly, personally and first hand received from
the Lord himself. So this is the gospel that the
apostle is contending for here. But I just want to notice a little
thing as we're passing through some of these verses. I think
it's wise and useful for us to note that Paul persists in calling
the men and women of the churches of Galatia brothers
and sisters. He calls them brethren. And I
think I may have alluded to this previously, but Paul's heart
was for the believers in Galatia, of whom he retains a good hope
that their spiritual life and faith, despite their being deceived
by these false prophets, nevertheless was true and good. His anger, his resentment, if
you like, is against the false teachers, not against the deceived
believers. He'd called down a curse, an
anathema, on those who lead God's little ones astray, but he continues
to harbour hope that the Galatians are indeed born again of God
and heirs of grace and therefore as belonging to God's family,
his brethren in Christ. And he's writing so that those
who have been deceived will be recovered and brought back to
the way of truth and understanding. And I think we should always
hold out this hope. We should always hold out this
hope in our own dealings with the people around about us, even
when we have to, in a sense, contend for the faith. It ought to encourage us to be
gentle, if not generous, with those who profess Christ but
have no clear gospel understanding. We state the truth, we testify
of our faith, we are clear about what it is that we believe. But
there's no value in figuratively or metaphorically beating up
the deceived. Paul's affection for these folk
is evident in his writings here. even though they had given a
welcome hearing to men who were maligning him and despising the
gospel that he preached. And Paul insists that his gospel
is distinct from every other pretender because it's not of
human origin or of human wisdom. It is the wisdom of God. It is
the mystery revealed of covenant grace. Grace long hidden in the
eternal purpose of God and yet ordained before the world for
the salvation and glory of God's loved and chosen people. This
message that Paul preached, it was distinctive, it was unique,
it was extraordinary. It was a message that had been
glimpsed in past times, revealed in stages by the ministry of
the prophets, but now fully revealed by the coming of Jesus Christ
into the world. by his sufferings, by his dying,
by his rising again for the forgiveness and deliverance of his bride,
his people, his church. And that's why Paul says in 1
Corinthians 2, he says, we speak wisdom among them that are perfect. This is the gospel that he's
talking about. This is this unique and extraordinary
gospel, this powerful gospel. It's wisdom among them that are
perfect. Now, That's not to say that we're
perfect in the sense that we're sinless. It's that we're perfect
in righteousness in Christ. And we are endowed with faith
to understand truth. And when we have been given that
quickening life to hear and understand the gospel, then it's wisdom,
it's God's wisdom. Paul goes on in that little passage
actually to distinguish this gospel from that gospel which
is preached. So in a sense he's writing to
the Corinthians with this verse but it's the same message as
was going to the Galatians. He says, not with the wisdom
of this world, nor of the princes of this world, whether that's
an allusion there to these false teachers, these Judaizers who
imagine themselves as princes of this message, this false gospel. But it's not of the princes of
this world that come to naught, but we speak the wisdom of God
in a mystery. even the hidden wisdom which
God ordained before the world unto our glory. This is covenant
grace, this is the sovereign purpose of God to win a people,
bring a people to himself, the people of his love and the people
of his choice. Paul had not received this Gospel
second hand. He hadn't learned it from men.
This was not the wisdom of the Pharisees or the religious leaders
amongst the Jews. This had not been discovered
by studying rabbinical writings or mastering the traditions of
the Fathers. This was a message personally
revealed to Paul by Christ on the Damascus Road. and thereafter
by divine guidance and visions that conveyed to him all the
heavenly truth and divine authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
I think Paul's comments here help us to understand the nature
of the doctrine of the false teachers. They were trying to
combine the Christian message of grace with the Jewish veneration
of the law. They were trying to meld together
a system of Christ's righteousness to save and man's righteousness
to keep. They acknowledged the need for
God's help while insisting on man's obligation and duty to
do his best. and thereby minimising the need
to draw on Christ's blood and righteousness, except on those
few occasions where we come up short. A bit of my works and
a bit of God's grace. But Paul says don't be distracted
by the message of these false teachers, these princes, this
wisdom of the world. He reminds them of his own desperate
experience which they had heard of either from him as he spent
time with the churches in Galatia or from others whom he had persecuted. How that he had once been an
ardent student of Judaism under the best teachers, more zealous
amongst his peers, but thoroughly unregenerate and totally opposed
to Christ. The Jewish faith of works righteousness
is removed so far from gospel truth, it hates, reviles and
tries to exterminate the true gospel. as Saul of Tarsus as
was, had endeavoured to do. So there is no mixing these foes
together, and that's the point that Paul is making. His story,
however, did not end with him as a persecutor of God's true
people, but one who by divine grace was restrained and convicted
and converted to Christ. And this transforming work of
conversion, he attributes entirely to God's own will and God's timing. And here we've got a beautiful
summary just in conclusion of Paul's conversion, which he again
attributes entirely to grace. It's God who takes the initiative
in salvation and in conversion. And Paul shows how even from
his mother's womb, God's hand of providential care and redeeming
love settled on him for good, notwithstanding even the wickedness
of his earlier life. The work of God is to reveal
Christ in his people. And this shows the true sense,
I think, of conversion. We do not become Christ's when
we are converted. Rather, by God's electing purpose,
by his everlasting love and justification founded in God's covenant purpose
of grace, and sealed by the blood of Christ on the cross, we are
eternally viewed in our surety and by the blood of our substitute. The saints' everlasting union
with Christ is revealed in them at conversion. It's manifested
in time and it's evidenced as we grow in grace and in a knowledge
of the truth. And God calls his elect to experience
Christ and reveal Christ in and to this world. And that was what
Paul was called to as well. To experience grace and then
to carry the message of grace and redemption and mercy. to
the heathen and to those among the heathen. And this he had
done to the Galatians and to others, and this he would continue
to do. Today, church life, often in
many churches and congregations, seems to be a constant churning
of energy and effort to gain converts and add to the numbers
of a fellowship. However, Paul's experience is
that when the time was right, without the intervention of men,
the Lord brought this object of grace to a knowledge of himself
and he revealed himself to his lost sheep and in his lost sheep. We preach the gospel of saving
grace, not to make converts, but to gather in those to whom
Christ is pleased to make himself known in the preaching of the
word. and is pleased to call by his
grace into the knowledge of sins forgiven. This is the Lord's
work and we are but tools in his hand. May the Lord continue
to bless his work then and apply this gospel of power, this gospel
of grace to the hearts and souls of those men and women, boys
and girls that he is pleased to gather in and separate out
from this world. according to his purpose in grace. Amen.