This morning's sermon comes to us from the book of Galatians, chapter one, verses 10 through 17. For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God, or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it. But I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people. So extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. But when he who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone. nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia and returned again to Damascus. Please join me once again in a brief moment of prayer. Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, Lord, we pray that as we begin to look into this text, Galatians 1, 18 to 24, Lord, we pray that you would be our teacher and our guide. We pray that you would Help us to understand this passage as it was meant to be understood by you and by your Holy Spirit and by the Apostle Paul. And Lord, we pray ultimately that you would cause us to focus upon you and upon your son. Strike from our mind any things that might distract us from the world around us. We pray that you would make us more like your son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. So this morning we are looking at Galatians 1, verses 18 to 24, as we continue on this Paul giving his testimony. And there he says, then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him 15 days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. In what I am writing to you before God, I do not lie. Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only were hearing it said, he who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy. And they glorified God because of me. One of the most devastating teachings, I hesitate to use the word doctrine, but one of the most devastating teachings that has negatively impacted the church, possibly more than any teaching, is the doctrine, as it is called by some, of the carnal Christian. Some of you may be familiar with that teaching or that doctrine, and some of you may not. But it is the idea, it is the idea from 1 Corinthians 3 verses one to four, primarily, but it's the idea that the world can be divided into three groups. There are essentially three different groups in the world. One is the natural man. The natural man is your unbeliever, right? Your lost unbeliever, born lost in a natural state of unbelief. The second are spiritual Christians. And that is those that are saved and they are growing in their sanctification and in their knowledge of God and in their desire to live a life of obedience. But then the third category are what are called carnal Christians. And these are individuals who are saved, they're on their way to heaven, but their life looks exactly like the rest of the world. They live in blatant and open sin. And frankly, they have no real desire to change the way that they are living. But nonetheless, they are saved because salvation is by faith alone after all. And so how you live doesn't really matter. And believe it or not, there are a great, great, great many Christians and churches and denominations that believe this stuff. And it was first popularized in the, it's probably been around for 2,000 years in bits and pieces here and there. There really is no new heresy under the sun. Every heresy that we come across today is just some old heresy that's been repackaged under a new name. But this was really first popularized, at least in the Western world, in the 1909 Schofield Study Bible by Cyrus Schofield. And it was the first study Bible. And one of the reasons it really became popular is because the Schofield Study Bible in 1909 was the first study Bible, that is, a Bible that has marginal study notes regarding the text. It was the first study Bible since the Geneva Bible, which was published in the year 1560. So this was new to most Christians. It was hugely popular, sold over two million copies before World War II. Most Christians in the early part of this century had a Schofield Study Bible. And by the time you get to the last part of the 20th century, if you didn't have a Schofield Study Bible, then you had a Ryrie Study Bible, which was just the updated version of the Schofield Bible and wasn't much better, honestly. But this doctrine primarily comes from Scofield's notes on 1 Corinthians 3-4. And let me read that to you, just so you know what we're talking about. 1 Corinthians 3-4 says this, but I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, You are not ready for it. And even now, you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, I follow Paul, and another says, I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human? So here's what Scofield says in his study Bible on this passage, and this is a direct quote. He says, quote, Paul divides men into three classes. Quote, natural, that is, i.e., the Adamic man, unrenewed through the new birth. And then he puts in, quote, spiritual, i.e., the renewed man as spirit-filled and walking in the spirit in full communion with God. And then he puts in, quote, the carnal or fleshly man, i.e., the renewed man who, walking after the flesh, remains a babe in Christ. Now, on the surface, that may not sound too bad, except for how people understood that text and the fact that this view was further popularized by the late Dr. Bill Bright in the 1960s, who was the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ International, which is still around today. He wrote a tract in the 1960s that in it, it was a gospel tract. It was supposed to be a gospel tract. But in it, there are these three circles. And the reader is asked to identify which circle represents you or your life. And in one circle, there is this little throne inside the circle, and there is an E on top of the throne, and the E represents ego, stands for ego, and so that is you, right? You're the unbeliever, that you are on the throne of your life, and you don't have any knowledge of God, and don't really care to have any knowledge of God, and so that's all unbelievers. Then in the second circle, There is the throne, and the E is still on the throne. That's you, you're still on the throne. But inside the circle is a little cross. See, that circle represents the person who has Christ in their life. He's inside the circle. He's in their life, but he is still on the throne of his own life. Jesus is in his life, but Jesus is not on the throne. That represents the carnal Christian. The person who has Jesus in his life is on his way to heaven. but still is governing his own life and is on the throne of his own life. And then in the third circle, there's a little throne with the cross on the throne. The little E in front of the throne representing the spiritual Christian who has Christ on the throne of his life and he is now at the foot of the throne and he is governing his life or ordering his life based on the rulership of Christ and based on the Word of God. These drawings, unfortunately, I went back and looked. These drawings and this teaching is still on the website of Campus Crusade for Christ International. There is a full-length article explaining how you can be saved and on your way to heaven and still live like the devil. Now it's not wise, much better to live by the Bible, there's a lot of wisdom in the Bible, but ultimately you don't really have to follow God's word. Thousands of professing Christians and churches have been negatively impacted by this teaching. They may not have heard of the phrase, But there are many, many Christians and churches out there who believe this, and they live that way. And if you live in the Bible belt, you know what I'm talking about, right? I mean, I've grown weary of trying to witness to people who believe that, you know, if you ride a horse and own a Bible, then you're saved. I live in Texas. Don't tell me I'm not going to heaven. People who live like the devil. They're in the bars getting drunk on Saturday and they're in church on Sunday. Maybe they're in church on Sunday, but even then, not likely. So I'm talking about this as a way of introduction. not because Paul is going to directly deal with this, because the passage that we're looking at is not a didactic passage. In other words, Paul is not really doing any direct teaching as of yet. He is still recounting his testimony. He is still recounting his conversion story. He is still really responding to what he says back in verse 10. If you remember from last week, verses 11 really all the way down to chapter 2 verse 10 is Paul responding to Acts chapter 1 verse 10 where he asked this question that he anticipates his Galatian readers are going to ask. Because here comes Paul saying look Salvation is not by works, and it's not by faith plus works. It is only by faith. I gave you the gospel, which is faith alone. And so he says in verse 10, but am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? Am I just trying to be a man pleaser by saying this, by preaching a doctrine of easy believism? Of course, Paul never believed. taught that or believed that, and we'll see that when we get to Galatians chapter five. Paul rejected the idea of easy believism, which is another way of talking about the carnal Christian. You know, that you can put faith in Christ, live any way you want, and still go to heaven. Paul rejects that idea, but he understands that the church in Galatia might be thinking, well, you know, Paul, you're just trying to gain popularity with people. You're just trying to make it easy. You're trying to be a man pleaser. And so he says, if I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. Paul says, I wouldn't be a believer. I wouldn't be a Christian. I would still be in Judaism and be a Pharisee. Because when I was in Judaism, I was popular. People liked me. I had friends. I was rising through the ranks. Life didn't become hard for Paul until he became a Christian. So Paul says, look, if I was trying to be a man pleaser, I wouldn't be a Christian, first of all. I would still be living the life that I lived. And so he's talking about his own conversion and he's responding to his question in verse 10 by relating to his own conversion and say, look, understand how I got saved. I didn't get saved, Paul says in verses 11 down to verse 17. I didn't get saved because I was looking for Christianity. I wasn't trying to understand the gospel. I wasn't a Jesus seeker. God simply saved me. The gospel that I preach isn't one that I made up. This message, I didn't make it up to try to be a man pleaser. It didn't come from me. It didn't come from another man. It came from God. God did this. And so last week he talked about his conversion, but now he's gonna talk about the effects of his conversion. What happened after his conversion, because that is just as important to Paul wanting the Galatians to understand, I am not a man pleaser. And so he says in verse 18, then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him 15 days. Now to understand this rightly, we have to go back to at least verse 16. We'll look at verse 15 and following to kind of give it context. So in verse 15, he says, when he who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles I did not immediately consult with anyone. So after Paul gets saved, he says, I didn't go and talk to anyone about this, nor did I go to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. Right. So he's talking about the original 11 and then Matthias for Max chapter one. Right. He says, I didn't go to talk to them. But I went away into Arabia and returned again to Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him 15 days." So what Paul is talking about, that whole event here that's kind of more condensed, is what is really discussed in greater detail in Acts chapter 9, if you want to turn there with me. Acts chapter 9. Beginning in verse 19, this is after Paul's conversion story at the beginning part of Acts chapter nine. And beginning in verse 19, the middle of verse 19, Luke writes this. For some days, he, talking about Paul, was with the disciples at Damascus, right? So he gets saved on the road to Damascus. Jesus stops him in his tracks. And he becomes a believer. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues. Immediately. He is the son of God, saying he is the son of God. And all who heard him were amazed and said, is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon his name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priest? But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. So Paul immediately begins proclaiming the gospel. Where did he get this gospel understanding from? Well, it may be that Jesus revealed it to him, but if what we have at the beginning part of Acts chapter 9 regarding his conversion story, if that is all the information, if nothing was left out of that account, then Jesus never specifically gives him the gospel message. So how does Paul know what gospel to proclaim? Well, it may be that all of the pieces of the puzzle simply fell into place for Paul. Remember, Paul was a Pharisee, a rising Pharisee. During the ministry of Jesus on earth, three years, Jesus was immensely popular. There's no way of knowing how often Paul may have come in contact with Jesus, heard him teaching, seen him perform miracles. Certainly Paul would have been aware of who Jesus was, and all of his following and everything that was said about him. Certainly he would have been aware of the fact that the Pharisees contrived and conspired to have him put to death. Paul may have been in the house of the high priest when Jesus was going through that mock trial. Certainly Paul would have been aware. of the plan that they hatched to hide the resurrection of Christ when the Pharisees paid the Roman soldiers as they tell everybody that his disciples came and stole him away in the middle of the night. You know, Saul himself might've been scratching his head that whole time, wondering what did happen to the body? I mean, we paid the disciples, but what did happen to the body of Christ three days later after he was crucified? Well, on the Damascus Road, that question got answered in a big way for Paul, right? Now I know what happened to the body of Christ. He was raised from the dead, and he has appeared to me on the Damascus Road. Clearly, the Holy Spirit simply caused all of the information that Paul had to fall into place. And suddenly, in the face of the resurrected Christ on the Damascus Road, it all made sense. Who Jesus was, he was the Messiah. He was who he claimed to be. His disciples didn't steal his body. He really did rise from the dead. He is the resurrected Christ. the Son of God, the legitimate heir to the throne of David. And then we read in Acts chapter 9 verses 23 and following. It says, when many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, but his disciples took him by night, and they let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket. At this point, this is when he flees from Arabia. So he's in Damascus, he immediately, after the scales fall from his eyes, he goes into Damascus, he begins preaching, he makes all of the Jews, the Orthodox Jews, upset. They try to kill him, so they let him down over the Damascus wall in a basket, and then he flees to Arabia, and that is what Paul is referring to back in our passage in Galatians 1.17. Nor did I go up to Jerusalem, to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia and returned again to Damascus. Then after three years, he went up to Jerusalem. So just trying to put the pieces together to get the historical time frame of what's going on. After three years, he goes up to Jerusalem. We read that in Acts chapter 9, verses 26 to 30. So understand that when you're reading Acts, between verse 25 and 26, there is a three-year break. according to Galatians chapter one. There's a three-year break. We don't know where Paul spent most of that three years. Was it mostly spent in Arabia and a short time in Damascus? Or did he flee to Arabia just until things settled down in Damascus, and then he comes back and spends most of his time in Damascus? We're not really sure. But there's a three-year break between verse 25 and 26 in Acts chapter nine. And so then it goes on to say, and when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists, but they were seeking to kill him. And they brought him down to Caesarea, and they sent him off to Tarsus. So Acts 9, 26 to 30 is what we are talking about in Galatians 1, 18 to 24, but in more detail. But I saw none of the other apostles. So after three years, he goes back to Jerusalem, verse 19 of Galatians 1, but I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. In what I am writing to you before God, I do not lie. Paul is basically saying, look, as outlandish as this story sounds, as fantastic as it sounds, I am telling you the truth. I do not lie. Before God, I do not lie. Essentially, Paul is swearing an oath. With God as my judge, I am telling you the truth. Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only were hearing it said, he who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy. So this is the same event that we are talking about. Now there are several things that are worth noting about Paul's post-conversion story, right? So this is now his post-conversion story. And the first is this, is that he immediately begins proclaiming the gospel. We see that in Acts chapter nine, verse 20. Nobody communicates the gospel to him. He doesn't go and check with anyone. He simply goes and proclaims what he knows. We see this many times in the Gospels, right? Where Jesus heals people and then he tells them, don't tell anybody what just happened. And then what's the first thing they do, right? They go and they blab it all over everywhere, right? Because this is what happens when people encounter the resurrected Christ in their lives. When people come to an understanding of who Christ is and what he has done for them, they cannot help but tell somebody the good news of Jesus Christ. Even if they don't know much, again, we don't know exactly what Paul understood about the gospel. But here's what we do know that Paul knew. I was lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I'm saved. Christ is the resurrected Messiah prophesied from the Old Testament. He understood that much and proclaimed it. People have got to know. And he goes out and he proclaims the good news of Jesus Christ. Secondly, second thing worth noting about his post-conversion story is that they're all afraid of him, right? And they don't believe him. They're questioning whether or not he's telling the truth. We see that from Acts chapter nine, right? And in light of Acts chapter nine, we now know that it's only because Barnabas was willing to vouch for him that the apostles in Jerusalem were willing to give him the time of day. Barnabas goes with him and says, no, no, I spent three years with this guy. It's genuine. I know that that was my experience, maybe the experience of many of you. You know, I lived a hellish lifestyle growing up, was not raised in a Christian home, and gotten in a lot of trouble and did a lot of things that I regret. And my wife likes to tell the story quite often of when I did get saved, because we were dating at the time in high school, and shared the gospel with her and was excited and on fire about God and wanting to go to church and wanting to read the Bible. And she thought to herself, this is a passing phase of his. Surely, surely he'll get over this. So I'll humor him for now until he gets through this religious phase of his. Well, of course, it never wore off. But she wasn't the only one who wondered, how do you go from living like the devil to all of a sudden only wanting to talk about God and read the Bible and go to church and go to Bible study? God does that. It's the transforming power of the gospel. The third thing that is worth noting from Paul's post-conversion story is that once they see the transformation in Paul's life, they become convinced. Once they see that Paul is going out and preaching the message, the gospel, the faith that he once tried to destroy, now they're convinced. This is because transformation of a person's life is the only legitimate evidence of saving faith. It doesn't matter what you say. It doesn't matter what your words are. It doesn't matter what you believe. If your walk doesn't match the talk, then your talk is empty and hollow words. They're meaningless. Because while salvation is by faith alone, don't misunderstand me. The Reformers were right in saying that salvation is by faith alone, but it is never by a faith that is alone. Genuine saving faith is always followed by a transformed life. Paul will deal with this more directly in Galatians chapter five. Galatians five, Paul will say this beginning in verse 18. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident. sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Those who live this way, those who practice these things on a regular basis, those whose lifestyle can be described by these terms, Paul says, will not inherit the kingdom of God. He goes on to say, but the fruit of the Spirit, the evidence of the Holy Spirit in a person's life is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law. And those who belong to Christ, he says in verse 24, and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If you belong to Christ, if you have been saved, if you are in a saving relationship with Christ, Paul says, you have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. You have died to that old way of life. Which means that if you're still living in that old way of life, then you haven't died to that old way of life. And if you haven't died to that old way of life, then you don't belong to John will use even stronger language. 1 John 2, if you're following along, 1 John 2, verses 3 to 6, John will write this, by this we know that we have come to know him, by this we know that we have come to know God, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says, I know Him, I know God. Whoever says, I know Him, but does not keep His commandments, listen, is a liar and the truth is not in Him. Those are strong words. Whoever says, I know God, but does not keep His commandments, John says, you're lying. You're lying to the world. Minimally, you're lying to yourself. He goes on to say in verse five, but whoever keeps his word in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may be sure that we are in him. This is how we can know with certainty that we are in Christ. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. That's how you know you're saved. Because you're living your life in obedience to the Word of God and for the glory of God. Now, not perfectly. It's not what John is talking about. And we know that from verse one. John says, my little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. So John understands that Christians are going to sin. If anyone does sin, look, be encouraged. You have an advocate. But nonetheless, anyone who says, I know God, and is not striving to live their life in obedience to the word of God, John says, you're lying to yourself. Those are strong words. And I'm not just being harsh, but I say this because John says it, and because I care about you. If you're living your life like the devil, then according to John, you belong to the devil. if you're not striving to live your life for the glory of Christ. Thus, the way we know that we truly know God is that we read his word, we hear it read or proclaimed, and we have this natural internal desire to want to live in obedience to the word of God. Why? Because this is what the Holy Spirit does within us. Look at 2 Corinthians 3. 2 Corinthians 3, verses 16 to 18, Paul writes this, but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. When one turns to the Lord in repentance, the veil that hides our eyes from the glory of Christ, from the gospel of Jesus Christ, is removed. When one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, listen, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. When the Holy Spirit opens your eyes to the glory of Christ and removes the veil, the very next thing that He starts doing is transforming your life into the character and the image of Jesus Christ from one degree of glory to another. So if that is not happening in your life, If you do not see your life being transformed more and more into the character of Jesus Christ, you're not saved. You're not saved. And I pray that you will be, because this is what the Holy Spirit does. Because as Paul says in Romans chapter 16 verse 6 for example Paul says this in Romans 6 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves you are slaves of the one to whom you obey? Either of sin which leads to death or of obedience which leads to righteousness So Paul says if you present your bodies to be obedient to sin then you are a slave of sin. But if you prevent your bodies to be obedient to righteousness and to the word of God, then you are a slave of God. The slave does whoever is in control of his passions and desires. But in fairness, Let's look at 1 Corinthians 2. I started by talking about that passage. I probably should deal with it just a little bit. So 1 Corinthians 2, we'll start in verse 14, and then we'll go down to 3, chapter 3, verse 4. So what is Paul talking about? Well, he starts in verse 14 and says, the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. So he's talking about unbelievers, the natural person. So Schofield had that category right, the natural man. Verse 15, the spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. For who has understood the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ. But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food. For you were not ready for it, and even now you are not ready. For you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, I follow Paul, and another, I follow Paulus, are you not being merely human? Two points to make about this. First of all, in verses one through four, Paul is not describing two types of Christians. He's not describing the carnal Christian and the spiritual or mature Christian. Rather, he is describing two stages of Christianity, the infant stage and the mature stage. the infantile Christian and the mature Christian. But he's not talking about a carnal Christian. Paul is not saying that it is legitimate for someone to be saved and not care about living their life in obedience to the Word of God. And he's not accusing the church in Corinth of doing that either. And we know that because in 1 Corinthians 7, verse 1, 1 Corinthians 7, verse 25, and then also 1 Corinthians 8, verse 1, there we see that this letter is Paul responding to questions that the church in Corinth had written to him. Not everybody knows this, but 1 Corinthians was written because the church in Corinth wrote a letter to Paul first, asking him certain questions. How do we deal with marriage? How do we deal with food, sacrifice to idols? How do we deal with divorce? How do we deal with these things? And Paul points it out. So obviously they cared. The church and Corinth cared about how they lived, and they were trying to live the right way. They were trying to do church the right way. And so Paul responds to that. Secondly, here's an important rule of interpretation that you need to remember. Always interpret the difficult passages in light of the clear ones. Always interpret the difficult passages in light of the clear ones. Admittedly, 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 1 to 4 is a difficult text. A little confusing as to what Paul means by fleshly Christian and spiritual Christian. What is he talking about? So that's where you have to focus on the clearer texts. What are the clearer texts? Well, 1 John chapter 2 verses 3 to 6 are pretty clear, weren't they? I thought those were clear. Here's an even clearer one, John chapter 14, verse 15. This is an easy one for you to memorize because it's only one sentence and it's John 14, 15. It goes in order, very simple. John 14, 15, Jesus says this, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Could Jesus have been any clearer? I mean, there is absolutely no way to interpret that sentence in any other different way. Jesus is saying that if you truly love me, you will seek to live your life in obedience to the word of God. That love for God will always manifest itself in a life of obedience to God, a desire to please God, a desire to glorify God, which means that Jesus is also saying that if you are not living your life in obedience to the word of God, if you're not striving to live your life for the glory of Christ, you don't love God. You don't love him. You may say that you do. You may even think that you do. You may have convinced yourself that you love God, but according to Jesus, you do not love God. And my friends, no one will be allowed into heaven who does not love God. So Paul back in Galatians 1 is responding to the question that he anticipates him asking. He provides his testimony. As a way of showing them, number one, the gospel message did not originate with him, nor from man, but from God. And number two, if he wanted to be a man pleaser, he would have stayed in Judaism. And number three, his transformed life. His transformed life is proof that he is telling the truth and is the evidence of the transforming power of the gospel. That's what Paul wants them to understand. How does a man go from breathing threats and murder against the disciples? That's an exact quote from Acts 9.1, by the way, that when Paul was going to Damascus, he was going there breathing threats and murder against the disciples. He was seething with anger and hatred against Christianity. What in the world happened? He leaves Jerusalem hating Christianity. By the time he gets to Damascus, he's preaching the gospel. So Paul is saying to the Galatian church, just look at my life and you'll know that I'm telling the truth regarding the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because Paul's story is all of our stories, right? Romans 8, 7 says that the unbelieving mind is at enmity against the things of God. Unbelievers by nature hate God. Many of them won't admit it. They don't know it. But the proof is when you invite them to church or Bible study, right? All of a sudden they've got something else better to do. God causes us to love him. That's the miracle of salvation. He changes the desires of our hearts, so at one moment we hate the things of God, and in the very next moment, all we want is God. We desire to know him. That is the transforming power of the gospel. But why? What is the point? Why does God save sinners? Why did he save Paul? And if God is sovereign in salvation, then why not save everyone? Last week I said that The correct question is not, why doesn't God save everyone? Rather, the correct question is, why does God bother to save anyone? When we understand our own sinfulness and we understand the fact that we deserve to go to hell, no one forces us to sin. The devil made me do it, doesn't fly. The devil doesn't make you do anything. You choose to sin. It's been rightly said that when you sin, whatever the sin is, it's because at that moment, your desire to please yourself was greater than your desire to please God. We deserve help. So why does God save us? Look at Galatians chapter one, verse 24. Paul then says this, and they glorified God because of me. They glorified God because of me. God saves sinners so that he might be glorified and worshiped. It's the same reason God does anything. Everything that God does in this universe, in all of creation, is always done for one single reason, his glory. His glory. That is why God created us. You know, God didn't create people because He was lonely. God didn't create people because He wanted someone to love Him or He needed something. You know, it may come as a shock to some of you, but God doesn't need you. He doesn't need me. God doesn't need anything outside of Himself. So then why did God create humans? to worship Him. We were created to worship God, to glorify God. So if you profess to be a believer, and you're not living your life in worship to God, you're not living your life with the glory of God, then you are wasting your life. And you are not living for the purpose for which God created you. Because there is nothing that causes us to worship God more or to glorify God more, and there is nothing in this world that brings more glory to God than the transforming power of the gospel on people's lives. That is what glorifies God the most. So if you want to glorify God, I'll give you two things to do. One, live your life for the glory of God. Show the world the power, the transforming power of the gospel in your life. And number two, I would say, share the gospel with the world. If you wanna change the world, the world is only gonna be changed by one transformed life at a time. And that comes through the proclamation of the gospel. You want to change the world? Share the gospel with somebody. And that's how we change the world. And that's how God receives the greatest, greatest glory. Let's pray. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for sending your son, Jesus Christ, into the world to do for us what we could never do for ourselves. We thank you for the transforming power of the gospel in our lives, the lives of your people. Father, we pray, if there are any here this morning who do not know you, or who profess to know you, but it is evident from their life that they truly do not, Lord, we pray that you would open their eyes to the glory of Christ, just as you did with Paul. Irresistibly call them to be your own, and so bring yourself great, great glory. We pray these things in Christ's name, amen.