Revelation chapter 1, and I want
to begin reading here in verse 13. 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 I profited in the Jews'
religion above many of my equals in my own nation, being more
exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. 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, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. Neither
went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me,
but I went unto Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. Then after
three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with
him fifteen 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. Afterwards I came
into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and was unknown by faith
until the churches of Judea, which were in Christ. But they
had heard only that He which persecuted us in time past now
preached the faith which once He destroyed, and they glorified
God in me." I want to encourage you, and I hope I hope that you do
this, but I do want to encourage you to read the Scriptures, to
read the Word of God. Let the words of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom. Desire the sensual miracle of
the Word that you may grow thereby. We can't always be hearing preaching,
but we can be reading. You ladies at home during the
day or when you get finished working, take time to read. And
you men, take time to read God's Word. Read it. David said, Thy
Word is a lamp unto my feet. It lets me know where I'm at.
It shines the light on my feet. I don't know where I'm at. I
don't know how I'm walking if I can't see my feet. David said,
Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet. And it's a light to my pathway.
It not only sure shines on my feet, but it shines me where
I need to go. left or right. Let the words
of Christ dwell in you. Richard, I'm not saying get you
a commentary. I'm not telling you go by your
set of commentary. I'm not even telling you get
a concordance. Though it's difficult to read much without a concordance.
But I'm saying this. Read God's Word. Read the Word
of God. It's His Word. If you're here
this evening and You read and value the Bible? Then when I
ask you this question, I know your answer already. If you're
here this evening, and you value the Word of God, I mean, it's
helped you, it's instructed you, it's encouraged you, it's comforted
you, I already know the answer to this question that you'll
give. But let me ask you this question. How difficult would
it have been throughout the Gentile ages where Christ turned to the
Gentiles, throughout all the Gentile churches from the first
century up to now, how difficult would it have been for those
Gentile churches, and how difficult would it have been for you and
for me, if you and I had not have had the epistles of the
Apostle Paul. Look at the heresy that's been
dispelled because of this man's epistles. Look at the darkness
that light has been shined into. Look at the errors that has been
corrected because of this man's epistles. I love the epistles
of John. Brother Glenn is teaching through
the gospel of John now. I love the book of James, Brother
Larry. I love the epistles of Peter
and Matthew. But you know the apostle Paul
is the apostle to the Gentiles. And he deals with issues that
only he dealt with concerning the Gentiles. I love those other
epistles. They're profitable for the Gentiles.
I can't estimate the value we should put upon those other epistles.
But Paul is our apostle. And he deals with issues that
only concern the Gentile churches. These Jews, these legalist Jews
were coming here and seeking to put the Gentile churches under
the ceremonial law of Moses. And many of them had left Jerusalem
and come here and followed this apostle around, and everywhere
he went and preached the gospel of the grace of Christ, they
followed him, and this was their message. This was their message. You cannot be saved. It doesn't
matter that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you cannot
be saved unless you're circumcised and keep the ceremonial law of
Moses. Now that's what they were saying.
That's what they were saying. You cannot be. You cannot. They didn't say you need to keep
the law, but they said you can't be saved. Then nobody's going
to be saved, brothers and sisters. Nobody is going to be saved.
If we have to keep the Law of Moses to be saved, ain't nobody
going to be saved. Peter said, you're seeking to
put a burden upon us which neither we nor our fathers were able
to bear. We can't keep it. We can't keep
it. And the only thing that stopped
these Jews from gaining their end was the preaching and the
writings of this man right here, the Apostle Paul. That's the
only thing that stopped them. I'd say if it had been left up
to Peter, they'd have gained their ends. If it had been left
up to James or John, they'd have gained their ends because they
were up in Jerusalem. These men came to the Gentile
churches and were spreading this heresy. But if they gained their ends,
which they sought to bring the Gentiles under the ceremonial
law of Moses, they were going to have to prove that Paul was
just a mere man. And his writings is just the
opinions of a mere man. And Paul rose up and defended
his authority as an apostle, and that's what this first chapter
of the book of Galatians is about. Is Paul an apostle by the will
of God? He seeks to prove that he is.
He defends his authority. It's as though he piled up this
pile of rocks and every objection that they raised against his
authority, he took a big stone and he threw at it and hit it
in the head and killed it. Every objection they raised and
every perceived objection that he could think of that they might
raise, he answered it in this epistle. Now why did these Jews
withstand the Apostle Paul? Why were they so against him?
Well, let me give you two reasons. The first reason they were against
him was this. They were scared to death of
the gospel. They were afraid of the success of the gospel. You see, the gospel is a lively
thing, ain't it? It's a lively thing. Its doctrines
are lively. It talks about forgiveness of
sins. If you're a guilty sinner and
you're concerned about forgiveness of sin, this is a lively gospel
to you. It tells you how you can have
your sins forgiven freely. through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The gospel preaches to us eternal
life. It tells us how we can have a
righteousness that we can go into God's presence in, to clothe
the shame of our nakedness, a robe of righteousness, pure and white,
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. These are lively
doctrines. And these Jews, they knew, if
this doctrine, if this gospel ever gets a foothold in the Gentile
world, we've lost it. We've lost it. They were scared
to death that they were going to lose their authority, they
were going to lose their position, they were going to lose their
job, their occupation, and their wealth, and their status. The
Lord Jesus had raised Lazarus up from the dead. And many Jews
began to believe on Him. They got their counsel together.
They said, what are we going to do? If we let Him alone, that's
what they said to us, remember that? If we let Him alone, everybody's
going to believe on Him. And then what's going to happen?
The Romans are going to come. And they're going to take away
our place. They're going to take away our position, our authority. They were scared to death of
this Gospel. The success that it was apt to
have. And when the Lord Jesus went
back to heaven, He sent His apostles to preach it. And there was 3,000
saved. It scared the Sanhedrin council
together. They got together again and said,
what are we going to do? Let us threaten them and make
sure this gospel does not spread any farther. And here the apostle
Paul, God called him and sent him out to preach the gospel,
and these Jews, it scared them to death. They said, he's going
out there in the territory where we've got our synagogues. Some
Jews are listening to him, and Gentiles are listening to him,
and droves are going to be saved if we don't put a stop to it.
And that's what their aim was. They were scared to death because
of the excess of this gospel. And they followed Him around.
Look over here to your right, just a minute, in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. Look here, 1 Thessalonians chapter
2. They were scared to death of the success of this gospel.
They were going to lose their place, lose their authority. And there was no end to what
they would not do to stop Him from preaching the grace of Christ.
Look here, 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. Look in verse 13. For this cause thank we God without
ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard
of us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is
in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you
that believe. For ye, brethren, became followers
of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus. For ye also have suffered like
things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews."
Now look at what the Jews did, who both killed the Lord Jesus
and their own prophets. and they persecute me, us, and
they please not God, and they're contrary to all men, forbidding
us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved." They just
followed him around in an attempt to forbid him to preach the grace
of Christ, the gospel. And when he did preach it to
them, they came behind him and said, that's not enough to save
you. It's alright to believe on Christ, but you're going to
have to keep this ceremonial law. You're going to have to
be circumcised. But they were scared to death of the success
of this gospel. I tell you, you let the gospel
start having success in our day, and some of these TV evangelists,
they're going to be scared to death. If they start losing,
I know a man right now, years ago, he was a very popular evangelist
in this area. You know him. Most of us here
know him. And he began to preach God's grace, some of God's grace,
and he started losing his financial support. And you know what he
did? He quit preaching. He quit preaching. That's what
men will do when they start seeing the success of the gospel. It's
going to interfere with their position, their wealth. I'm telling
you, they'll withstand it. They'll withstand it. But here's
another reason they withstood the gospel and reason they withstood
the Apostle Paul's preaching of it. They were self-righteous
people. These Jews were legalists. There's
four different kinds of Jews. One of them didn't care at all
about the gospel. He didn't care if there was a gospel. He just
lived his life and he died and went to hell. He didn't care.
He had no interest in it whatsoever. There was another kind of Jew.
He sought to keep the law. That was Paul's profession, you
know. I was blameless. in the law. I sought to keep the law to be
justified before God. Then there were those Jews who
believed in Christ and wouldn't let go of the ceremonial law.
They said, we believe in Christ, but you've got to be circumcised
to keep the law of Moses. And then there were those Jews
who forsook that ceremonial law and said, we believe in Christ
to be saved. Christ did all our salvation. We believe that we,
through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, shall be saved.
And this is the message Paul preached. We're justified by
faith in Christ alone. How are we justified? We believe
in Christ. We believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. What must I do to be saved? Have you ever been circumcised? No. It doesn't matter. Are you
going to bring a sacrifice to the priest? No. You don't need
to do that. What do I need to do to be saved?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. That's
the gospel end. All the blessings come through
this channel of faith. Paul preached everywhere that
the ceremonial law was shadows. It was types. It was pictures
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But now that the Lord Jesus Christ
had come, He had died, He had fulfilled all those shadows and
all of those types, and now those weren't to be practiced anymore. They fled away. They decayed.
They waxed old. Don't practice them. We just
read them to find Christ in them. But we don't practice the ceremonial
law. That physical temple there at Jerusalem where God's presence
dwelt, that meant nothing anymore. It meant nothing anymore. The
Lord said, they are going to tear it up, didn't He? Not one
stone left upon another. Where is it now? You know what
is sitting there where the temple used to sit? The Muslim mosque. The Muslim mosque. What does
that temple mean today? Nothing. God was in Christ. That is what Paul preached. And
God's in every believer. You're the temple of the living
God. God dwells in you. And He's your
Father. And we're His sons and His daughters,
saith the Lord. And those priests, Paul said,
that ministered there in the temple, they were only pictures
of Christ. They are the priests forever
after the order of Melchizedek. Those priests there can't do
you any good, Paul said. We've got a high priest. He's
there in God's presence for us. A priest over the house of God.
And those animal sacrifices which they offered all the time, he
said they can't take away sin. They're just shadows. They're
types of Christ who took away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And that holy place that that
high priest goes in every year, Paul said, Paul said, it's just
a shadow. It can't help you. It's just
a shadow. It's just like having a picture of somebody. It won't
keep you warm. We want the real person, and
Paul said the real person has come, and he's entered God's
presence and offered his blood to atone for our sins. You don't
need those sacrifices, just picture it. He went everywhere preaching
that this Jesus was the Christ. And he was able to save all of
those that come to God by him, whether he be Jew or Gentile,
and the observance of these holy days and feast days and being
circumcised and offering animal sacrifices had been done away
with. Jesus Christ was all and in all. And those legalists had two choices.
These Jewish teachers had two choices. Number one, they could
bow to his authority and believe what he was preaching, and submit
to the righteousness of Christ. Or, they could try to prove that
Paul was just a mere man, and his preaching was nothing more
than his own personal opinion. And that's what they tried to
do. That's what they tried to do. Is Paul a mere man? No, he's
no mere man. Somebody said, you're going to
exalt the apostle Paul. Yes, we are. He's an apostle. by the will of God. Look here
what Peter said about it. Look here what Apostle Peter
said about it. Look what Peter said about his
writings. I'll get to my text here in just a minute. I won't
keep you long when I do. Look here in 2 Peter chapter
3. Here's what Peter said about
the writings of the Apostle Paul. Here's why we value his epistles,
his writings. He was talking about the Lord
coming us having false prophets in our day. In 2 Peter 3, verse
15, account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation, even
as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given
unto him, hath written unto you, as also in all his epistles,
speaking in them of these things, in the which are some things
hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable,
they rest them, they twist them, as they do also the other Scriptures."
Do you see what he just said? Do you know what he just said? He said Paul's epistles is Scripture. Ain't that what he said? They
rest Paul's epistles as they do the other scriptures. Paul
wrote by divine inspiration. Everything he wrote was from
the breath of God. It's truth. And Peter said they
rested. They don't understand what he's
saying. How can God be just and justify the ungodly? That's what
Paul answered. And they said they don't understand
what he's saying. Through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus. And Paul said, no, they twist that and say,
no, you've got to be circumcised. And back here in our text in
Galatians chapter 1, Paul goes on here in verse 17, and I'm
not going to comment on these verses, but you can read them
yourself. Beginning in verse 17 of chapter
1 all the way down through verse 10 of chapter 2. And Paul continues
to prove. that he wasn't an apostle. Not contrary to those apostles
up at Jerusalem. He wasn't contrary to Peter and
James and Matthew and John. But he was independent of those
men. When the Lord saved him, he didn't go back up there and
sit at their feet and learn the Gospel from them. He said, I
didn't even see Peter until three years after the Lord saved me.
I went off into Arabia. That's where the Lord revealed
the Gospel and taught me. And he said, I went back up to
Jerusalem in chapter 2, verse 1. Fourteen years later I went
back up to Jerusalem. And these churches didn't even
know me by face. They just heard that the Lord
had saved me. And now I preach the faith that
once I had destroyed. And they glorified God in me.
And what he's telling these Galatian churches here, I didn't learn
the Gospel from Peter. from James and John. I am the
apostle independent of thee. That's an important name. That's
very, very important. He's an apostle to the Gentiles.
Now, in verses 13 through verse 16, and I'll just say a few things
about these and I'll let you go. Paul makes some statements
here that had to really irritate these Jewish teachers, these
self-righteous Jews. And what you notice as you read
this book, you'll notice he's always got his eye on these false
teachers. He's always got his eye on them
to answer any objections that he thinks they're going to come
up with. And he's always shooting at them, as it were. He's always
doing that. And he does this. And here's
the first thing he does. Did you ever wonder here in verse
15? In verse 13 and verse 14. Did
you ever wonder this? Why Paul, this sort of interjected
in this passage here, his former false religion. Do you ever wonder
why he even mentioned that? He said there in verse 13, you've
heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion. Verse
14, I profited in the Jews' religion above many of my equal, my own
country being more exceeding, zealous of the traditions of
my father. Why did he even stop and tell them that? Well, for
this reason. I imagine these Jews told these
Galatian believers, Paul has no idea where we're coming from. He has no idea what we believe
or what we're saying. He don't know how serious our
religion is or what it requires. He don't know how good it is.
He don't know how profitable it is. So Paul comes here and
he says, oh yes I do. I know what your religion is
all about. I used to be one of you. That's what he's saying.
Don't let them tell you, I don't know where they're coming from.
I've been there myself. I came out of that mess. And
you know what he said about once he come out of it? You remember
what he called it? He knew what the religion was.
He would say, I know more about your religion than you do. I
practiced it more strictly than any of you ever have. I profited
above many of my equals. I know what you do. I know what
you think. I know what you believe. I know
what your motives behind what you do is. I know you're deceived. I know you're ignorant. And I
know some of you are nothing but blatant hypocrites because
I was there myself. And I know why most of you do
what you do. To be seen of men. To be seen
of men. He knew it, didn't he? And he
wrote to this church and he said, those guys are nothing but flesh,
flesh, flesh. Everything they do has to do
with the flesh. They desire to have you circumcised that they
may glory in your flesh. They don't keep the law themselves,
he said, but they desire to have you circumcised. The Lord Jesus said, everything
you do, you do to be seen of men. That's what he told them.
You give tithes of all that you possess. but only after you blowed
your trumpet where people can see you giving it. You go to
widows' houses and you pray long prayers just so you can take
collections from them and rob them. Flesh to be seen. That's all their religion, Bob.
Paul said, I know it. I know where you're coming from
because I was there. Don't let them tell you I don't
know their religion. I know it. And boy, I tell you, it don't
make false religion any madder than when the Lord converts somebody
out of it and they come out and tell what's going on with them.
I know what goes on among the free willed Baptist. You know
how I know that? I was among them. I know what they believe.
I know why they believe it. I know the shameful things of
some of the things they believe. And boy, it makes them mad. It
makes them mad. Martin Luther, the Lord saved
him out of Catholicism, and the reason they hated him more than
anything was because he exposed what was going on in Catholicism.
I was reading him just last night, and he was talking about what
went on in the monasteries, and he said it was full of sodomy
back then, and adultery and uncleanness, all kinds of abominations going
on then. And he came out and began to
expose it. Here's what's going on, he said,
they're in secret. Boy, it made them mad. It made
them mad. And don't you think it irritated
these people here, these Jews, when Paul said, I know where
you're coming from. I know what's in your religion.
He said, it's nothing but your religion. The Jews' religion. The Jews' religion. It ain't
based upon God's Word. It's the traditions of the fathers. You don't believe Moses. He said,
if you believed Moses, you'd believe Christ. He wrote of Christ.
You say you love Abraham, and Abraham loved Christ. You talk
about David, won't you talk about David's Lord and believe Him?
Won't you believe the Son of David? You don't believe Isaiah? Isaiah had a Savior that you've
rejected. Their religion wasn't based upon
the Scriptures, and when Paul came out from them, he said,
I know it's not based on the Scriptures, because I was there.
I was one of them. And I kept those traditions much
stricter than they did. And boy, they gritted their teeth
when they prayed. They gritted their teeth. That's
the first thing. The second thing is found here
in verse 15. 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, when
it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb." What's
he saying? Sometimes it's difficult for
us to know some of these things, but I tell you, when these Jews
read this, they knew exactly what he said. You know what he
said? For God to separate him from his mother's womb meant
God ordained me to be an apostle for my mother's womb. This wasn't
the first time this happened. Look over here in Jeremiah. Look
in a couple of places. Look in Jeremiah chapter 1. God ordained me to be an apostle
from my mother's womb. That's what He said. Look here
in Jeremiah chapter 1. Look in verse 5. Look in verse 4. Then the word
of the Lord came unto me, saying to Jeremiah, this young prophet,
Before I farmed thee in the belly, I knew thee. And before you come
forth out of the womb, I separated you, I sanctified thee, and I
ordained thee a prophet unto the nation." That's the same
thing Paul said. Paul said, I was an apostle when
God separated me from my mother's womb. That's what He had ordained
me for. That's why He brought me into
this world, to be an apostle. I lived in rebellion. I was ignorant
of Him. I was a child of wrath by nature.
But that didn't change what God had ordained for me. Look over
here in Acts. He tells us this. Look in Acts
chapter 22. This is where Paul is given an
account of the Lord. Acts chapter 22. The Lord is
saving him on the road to Damascus. And the Lord Jesus sending Ananias
into him. Look at this in verse 11. Look
here what he says. The Lord smote Paul Saul down
there on the Damascus road and converted him, revealed himself
to him. And the glory of that light,
he couldn't see for it. So these soldiers got him, but
the hand was going to lead them into Damascus. In verse 11, 22
verse 11. And when I could not see for
the glory of that light being led by the hand of them that
were with me, I came to Damascus. And one Ananias, a devout man
according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews
which dwelt there, came unto me and stood and said unto me,
Brother Saul, receive thy sight. In the same hour I looked upon
him." And look at verse 14. And he said, verse 14, "...the
God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know
His will, and see that just one, and should hear the voice of
his mouth. For thou shalt be a witness,
his witness, unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard."
See what he's saying. God's chosen you. Now, not to
salvation. We know that. He wasn't talking
about salvation. But He's chosen you for another
reason, too. What was that? You're going to bury my man by
the name of Christ. You're going to preach Christ.
You're going to be an apostle of Christ. And he was a chosen
vessel. When did God ordain him for this?
Paul said, from my mother's womb. From my mother's womb. He separated
me from my mother's womb, and he says, right there is my apostle.
There he is. And boy, as he began to grow
up, the angels looked at him. They said, my, my, that's your
apostle? That's yours? And God said, yes
he is, and you watch over him. You minister to him. And you
keep the devil from him. Don't let him kill you. He's
my apostle. That's your apostle? Look at
him. He's a killing Christian. He
hates Christ in his heart. You sure that's your apostle?
That's my apostle. I'm going to break him upon him.
I'm going to break him. I'm going to reveal my Son to
him. And when I do that, you'll see then. He's my apostle. He's
my apostle. Now why does Paul bring this
out anyway? Why is this so important? Paul
is telling them why he's an apostle. He said, I know these Jews. They're false apostles. They're
false teachers. And they say they're apostles
and they're teachers and they're preachers because they're wise.
They're so educated. They're so smart. They've got
their degrees. They've got their PhDs. They've
been to the seminars, and they say they're apostles because
they've earned this. And they're smart men, and they're
brilliant men. They're teachers of the law.
Didn't they brag about this all the time? Instructors of the
babe. We're a light to those who sit in darkness. We're teachers
of the foolish. We're just so smart, they said.
That's why we're teachers. That's why we are. You know what
Paul said? You know why I'm an apostle?
He said. You know why I'm an apostle? Not because I'm smart. Not because I said it to feed
the Gamaliel. I've thrown all that away. You
know why I'm an apostle? Not because of who I am. I'm
an apostle because God ordained me to be an apostle from my mother's
womb. Boy, that put a stop to some
mouths, didn't it? You don't make yourself an apostle. You
don't go to school to learn how to be an apostle. You don't even
go to school to learn how to preach. If God had called you,
you did. That's why He said that. He said, don't let these fellows
come down here and tell you how smart they are. It don't matter
how smart they are. It don't matter how wise they
profess to be. It don't matter what gifts and
skills they seem to have. That doesn't enter into this.
This comes by calling. God called me by His will to
being an apostle from my mother's womb. Thirdly, look back over in our
text again. Galatians chapter 1. Here is something else. Thirdly,
and look at this. That verse I read to you again.
When it pleased God. When it pleased God. These Jews were always concerned
with how they could please God. How can we please God? And that's
important, man. Boy, I want to know how to please
God, don't you? I want to know how to walk and to please God.
I want to please my God. Nothing wrong with that. That's
fine. But there's one thing they never did think about. Never
did dawn upon their mind. What does God do to please Himself?
They never thought about that. What can we do to please Him?
What's He done to please Himself? That's important, man. Our God's
in the heavens, and He's done whatsoever He hath pleased. Whatsoever
the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven and the earth and all
these places. It pleased the Lord to make you
His people. That's important. What pleases
God? Whatever He pleased, that's what
He did. It pleased Him to make you His people. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him, to bruise his son. It pleased the Father that in
Christ should all fullness dwell. And it pleased the Father by
the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. What
pleases God? I want to please Him. But I tell
you, there is something more important than my pleasing Him.
What pleases Himself? What does He do to please Himself?
It pleases Him to save sinners by the foolishness of preaching.
That's what pleases Him. These Jews couldn't tell. Oh,
it just grabbed them when a sinner came to Christ. If this man had
known what man or woman that was, he wouldn't let her touch.
She's a sinner. But it pleased the Lord to save
sinners, didn't it? You know what it pleases God
to do? To forgive great sins. To show mercies. That's what
pleases God. I didn't come to receive a sacrifice
at your hands, he said. I come to show mercy. I come
to have mercy. Go learn what that means. I'll
have mercy. Humble yourselves as a little
child and receive mercy at His hands. Receive forgiveness of
sins at His hands. Bow down and humbly and graciously
and lovingly receive everything you need into your heart. Jesus
Christ is full of grace and truth and mercy and love and goodness. Everything you and I need, He's
full of. Just bow down and receive it at His hand. That's what pleases
Him. That's what pleases Him. Oh,
I've got to do this and I've got to do that. Oh, what pleases
Him? That's what we want to know. Paul said it's pleased God. to
make me an apostle." And I tell you, who can stand up and fight
against that? Let anybody fight against that. You're fighting
against God if you fight against that, aren't you? These Jews
come down here and say, that man's not an apostle, he's just
a mere man. Paul said, you better take it
up with God, because it pleased Him to make me an apostle. And fourthly is this. He said
there in verse 16, "...when it pleased God, who separated me
from my mother's womb, to reveal His Son in me, in order that
I might preach Him among the heathen." There is one thing
that irritated these Jews, not only that the Apostle Paul preached
Christ. That is bad enough for them. And he preached Him so boldly. But what really got their goats
was this. He preached them from the Scriptures.
He preached them from the Scriptures. They'd go to the Old Testament
Scriptures and they'd preach. And they'd make men legalists.
They'd run off and circumcise themselves and start keeping
holy days and all of that. When Paul preached the Old Testament
Scriptures, he preached Christ. And he made new creatures. And
it just killed them. And they couldn't see Christ
in the Old Testament Scriptures. They could not see Him there.
They didn't preach Him because they didn't love Him, but they
couldn't preach Him because they didn't know Him. And they didn't
know Him because God never revealed Him to their hearts. He never
opened up the Scriptures so they could see Christ in the Scriptures.
Paul just preached Him everywhere. Everything that the Apostle Paul
preached, He backed it up from the Old Testament Scriptures.
I don't know, you'll have to check me out on this, but I don't
know if you find one single thing that the Apostle Paul preached,
but what you can find his doctrine in the Old Testament Scriptures.
And I know one thing, whatever the Apostle Paul preached, you
won't find anything in the Old Testament Scriptures that's contrary
to it. He preached Christ. And when
the Lord first saved him, He went into Damascus, and Ananias
came in, laid his hands on him, and he received his sight. And
the Scripture says, straightway, he preached Christ, that he was
the Son of God. And proved to the Jews, out of
the Scripture, that's what got them. He opened up Isaiah chapter
53 and said, let me show you Christ. And he preached Christ
out of the Scripture. And you know what the Scripture
said. They went to kill him. They sought to kill him. They
hated him. Because God had revealed Christ
to him out of the Scriptures. Brother Jim Byrd, I was talking
with Brother Jim not too long ago. There was a group of preachers. They have some kind of a preacher's
meeting there in Michigan. They invited Brother Jim to come
up. They wanted to meet him and wanted him to preach to them. And he went up and preached and
the title of his message was Christ in the Old Testament.
Christ in the Old Testament. And he said a bunch of the preachers
got around him after he finished and said, we don't believe that. We don't believe that. Most of
those guys were farm preachers. Can you believe that? Can you
believe that? You're going to preach Christ,
you've got to go through the New Testament. Paul preached Christ out of the
Old Testament. And you know why he preached Him? God revealed
Him. God revealed Him. Everywhere
we go in the Old Testament, don't we see Christ there? Saw Him
this morning in that ark, didn't we? He's the ark. The song and substance of Paul's
message was Christ, because God revealed Him to us. He preached
on giving. You know what he said about giving?
You know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Though He was rich,
yet for your sake He became poor. What's that got to do with giving?
Well, Christ is our perfect example. You cannot improve on Jesus Christ
as a motivating force. He preached love and He preached
it like this. If He so loved us. We are to
love one another. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life. He preached that we should
forgive one another, and he preached it like this, even as God, for
Christ's sake, hath forgiven us. He preached self-denial,
and Peter preached it like this. All these apostles preach Christ. Peter said he suffered for us.
leaving us in the center that we should follow His step. Why should I follow Christ? Why
should I deny myself and take up my cross and follow Him? Because
He suffered for me. He suffered for me. These Jews knew nothing of a
heart revelation, heart faith, heart love, heart humility, because
they didn't know Christ. They didn't know Christ. All
they had was laws and ceremonies, circumcisions. You and I talk about who we know,
don't we? We talk about who we know because God has revealed
Christ to us. Bless His Word to your heart.
Let's pray.