into a little personal history lesson. And then even over in chapter 2 he continues there about 14 years. going again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and so on and so forth. Now, if you want details of Paul's journeys, you can see them in the book of Acts. That's what the Acts of the Apostles is all about. It's about what the Apostles have done in their church planting and missionary journeys. And so, I'll read this, we'll talk about it a little bit tonight, and I would encourage you to go to the book of Acts and read through those journeys. Verse 11. For I would have you know now, 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 to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. And what I'm 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." Now this does continue over in chapter 2 really down through verse 10. But there's a point in all this and some people are puzzled by the fact that Paul would put all of this out and here is why I am puzzled at their bewilderment. Because if we read the scripture, if we read the letter to the people of Galatia, We'll see that it's very logical for Paul to talk about the gospel of God, the gospel sent by God, the gospel of Christ sent by the Father, the gospel that belongs to God that's not of man, and that if any man preaches a gospel contrary to the one that they have preached that came from God, let him be accursed. And then he asked the questions, as we closed out last week, if I'm seeking the approval of man or God, what am I doing here? Or am I trying to please man? If I were trying to please man, I could not be a slave of Christ. And so, in our day, let me just put this in perspective for a second. In our day, it's very easy to see someone's spiritual lineage in the evangelical world. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, there's James Tippens, and the guy who trained him is this guy, and the guy who trained him is this guy, and so on and so forth. Because there are always some type of mentoring relationship in the Word of God, I mean, in the work of God. Because Paul, an apostle, teaches that to pastors. Pastors, Timothy specifically, he says, you take and find reliable men who are trustworthy. Reliable men who are trustworthy. And you teach them, and then you teach them as you teach them to teach others that they also can teach. And the succession of the gospel ministry will continue. But that's not the case for Paul, is it? That wasn't the case with the apostles in that sense that they had spiritual fathers. Jesus Christ taught them, and as we'll see in John 17 in the few weeks on Sundays, that the Holy Spirit gave them all the knowledge they needed to remember everything He'd ever taught them. And even to have perfect confidence and knowledge of that which they had forgotten in their earthly minds. You hear me say often, now I'm a reader, I don't want to say that I'm well-read, but I've read a lot. And there were several years where I would read 50 to 100 books before the end of the spring. And there's some years that I've read 200 books and some years that I've read 20 books. And nowadays, if I can say it that way, I find myself not interested in reading much of anything. And if I do, for the first time in my life, I think I'd rather just read journals, history, and ever so, ever so, what's the word, in the last few months I have found myself wanting to read fiction. for the first time ever. So write that down, that on January 15th of 2020, James Tiffin said that he has been inclined to read fiction. So order me a couple of fiction books, and I'm gonna take a stab at that in the weeks and months to come, if I have time. They'll still be in the cellophane by the end of the year. But moreover, I wanna spend and have spent my time in the last few years, I'd say eight to ten years more specifically, and in the last three to five years, intimately with the Bible. with the Bible more than anything. And so when I say what I'm about to say, I'm not frowning on reading, I'm not frowning on extra-biblical sources, I'm not frowning on commentaries, and I'm not frowning on theological teachings. I'm frowning on the fact that so many young and old men alike in the ministry have usurped sola scriptura, has usurped the Word of God, for the study and preparation of man. And the irony behind that is that I'm writing a commentary presently and have been for two years. Writing a commentary. But it is a pastoral commentary on the Gospel of John. So there's a place for those things. But commentaries and theological studies are not to ever, get this, not to ever be the source of our learning about the Gospel. They're to never be the source of our learning about what the Bible teaches concerning its words. And there is a disease, an epidemic right now of people who would rather study historical theology and peripheral sources than spend time in the Bible because they want instant knowledge. Years ago, I taught a college course. I taught many college courses, but I taught a college course. And the title of the course was Critical Thinking. And I would start out my first day in the class with my students. And I would have them write down something on a card that they knew was true without fail. That they knew was true. And then as the semester progressed, we would go back to that a couple of times and we would ask the question, then, how do you know this is true? And of course, no, you get some philosophy there, you get some other things, logic. This course was just strictly in having a critical mind, thinking critically. And what I found is that most people would say, I know this is true because, and they would quote a source They would have source material for that assertion, for that truth claim, and oftentimes the source material that they came from, or that they were so confident with, was not even original. It was usually somebody read something to me when I was a child, or I read this in a book, and you go to that book and you find that book and you read the book and it's a quote from a quote. So you go back to the next one. Then you go back to the next. You kick the can all the way back until you cannot go any further. And this is what's wrong with our theological training and our biblical training in our culture today is that we are putting before men who feel the call of God to the ministry all of these secondary, tertiary, and beyond sources and telling them that's what the original source is saying. What is the original source? The Word of God. And so there are two fields at work here. There is historical theology, and I know that that is an actual place of study. That's an actual discipline. And people who study that, like me, they would argue with me, that's what you're about to say, this is not historical theology. I beg to differ. If there is anyone who's not an apostle, who has written anything concerning the doctrine of scripture, in any time in history, that source is historical theology. That source is historical theology. Because it is their walking with the Word and their application and illustration, etc., explanation of the Scripture. Just like when I open the Bible and I read this text and we talk about it, I am giving you commentary, exposition, illustration, application, and we're walking through the Bible together, and you could take what I say, you could write it down, you could print it in a book, and it could be a source material for your knowledge of Galatians. But is what I say supposed to be your knowledge of Galatians? Or is the letter to the Galatians supposed to be your knowledge of Galatians? Because right now, I can think of some, you know, when I say internal debates, I'm talking about peers of mine and we have these conversations of things that we're just sort of trying to work out between us. Friendly debates. I'm not talking about gospel issues. I mean just, it's all historical stuff. And I often get tickled, we'll be in a particular text, we'll be in a particular thing, even if we get, in a technical sense, to like Greek grammar, which I don't do often at all. But we deal with English grammar, make sure it matches if it's something that is up for discussion. And then halfway into our conversation, let's say we're talking for an hour, we get halfway more, then all of a sudden, what I'm trying to assert contextually, or argue contextually, then this person or person sometimes they come, well, you know what Calvin said, or you know what this person said, or you know what they thought here, you know what the synod of, or this or that or whatever. And they begin to show these sources, and I think, wow, okay, we're changing our conversation now. We're now discussing history. So let's move the Bible, and let's close it. We're going to talk about history, or are we going to talk about the context of Scripture? Because we cannot do both unless we're just studying a history lesson based on the theology of what these historical theologians and pastors and other people say. And we're dealing with that as a discipline that is completely divorced from the context of Scripture for the local church and for the individual believer and for the assembly of the saints in time. People go, well, well, well, I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill. I was doing some math, don't laugh, and as of today, I can find record of having preached 5,700 sermons. Thank God only 732 of them are published, and probably half of those need to be wiped out. But just 5,700 sermons that I know I've prepared and preached, that doesn't count the teaching of Scripture in my youth. Does it count before I was ordained and in the gospel ministry? That's a lot of teaching. None of that qualifies me to know what I'm talking about. None of my education qualifies me to know what I'm talking about. As a matter of fact, if you ever hear me moving into quoting people more than quoting scripture, please call me on it. I pulled that yesterday in one of my classes, and because it just really was a one-two punch, I found this text by chance, because somebody sent it to me. And I thought, wow, that's perfect for last week's teaching in Hebrews. So I took it into class yesterday and spent, what, 12 minutes on it? More than that? and just totally wasted the time. It was cool, I should have just read it and moved right along. And it was so out of character, everybody's looking at me like, what's he talking about? Are we gonna teach the Bible today or is he just gonna rant all day long about what this man had to say? Even though what this man had to say concerning James, chapter two, and concerning true faith, which is where we're about to be in Hebrews chapter 10, moving into chapter 11, It was very relative, but I was just so excited about what this man had to say and the wording that he used that I made much to do about it. And I usurped the glory of God for 12 minutes. Now, it came down, it came together, and we pushed it aside and we could care less now what this man said. I just enjoyed the process. Because I could teach history all day long. I could teach all sorts of stuff all day long. I love to teach. But as I do that, and as men preparing for the ministry are taught from my commentary, then after a while you'll be able to put your finger on it and say, okay, those are the James Tippin's theologians. They believe that pretty, that little thing that he believes. Or these are the Calvinists over here. These are the such and such's over here. And these titles and these names, these labels, they don't really mean a whole lot anymore. They used to, but now just. What does it mean? You can't even tell, but I can go to Galatians one and I can tell you what it says and you can read it for yourself and you can agree with me. And then it can become your study and your answer and your sermon and your proclamation of the truth written right there. And you don't have to take notes. You don't have to follow an outline. Because what I've had to do in my preparation, in my reading of the scripture, is exactly what you have to do in your preparation, your study for scripture as well. And so that's the problem we have today is that we've always got these middlemen in the midst of preparation for teaching of scripture for pastors. And it's not impressive at all. It's not impressive if I walk into a art gallery, and I love to go to art galleries. I don't care if the person can paint or not. I just love to see it. I love to see expression. I love to listen to people play music and write music. But you know what, I can't stand, I don't want to go to an art gallery and look at a picture of the Mona Lisa taken from an iPhone. Or worse, see the artist paint the Mona Lisa from a picture she took at the Louvre. I'm going, you're a great photocopier. You got talent, but I've already seen the Mona Lisa. I don't want to see the copy. Or look, and I wrote a new song. It's called Tippin's Fifth. I don't want to go to a concert and hear an original material that's a cover of Beethoven. I'm underwhelmed. I wanted some originality. But we don't need originality when it comes to understanding scripture. We don't need creativity. We don't need to look at what other people have said concerning this. God is saying it to us right now. We are learning because we are in the Word of God. And our job as a family spiritually, and my role as a shepherd overseer for you, is that we walk together in our understanding. We work through these nuances together within the text. So you want to be well-read, read Paul. Don't read works concerning Paul's theology. I've read seven. And you know what I've learned? I had to wipe that crud from my mind when I studied Romans. To wipe it. Yes, sometimes you can be stumped. Sometimes you're thinking, what does somebody else think about this? I believe pastors ought to have camaraderie enough to work through these things together rather than having to go to the shelf. You can tell what commentaries most pastors use because they have the same outlines, the same keywords, the same thing that they're taught to do, and they punch it out. And there's no personal approach to the scripture in the context of shepherding people Or worse, it's so creative that it's something that I can't see in the context of Scripture. People could accuse me of that all day long in our culture, couldn't they? People can accuse any pastor today of that. Well, who do you believe? Do you believe in the justification like this guy, or like this guy, or like this guy, or like this guy? Do you believe in the definition of faith by this man, by this man? Do you understand redemption in the context of this covenant, or this covenant, or this covenant, or this covenant come from this man? You get the point. And Paul is saying this is the gospel that comes from God alone and any other gospel which is no gospel is wrong. And the accusation could easily be said, well who taught you your gospel, Paul? Who taught you this, Paul? Where are you getting this stuff from, Paul? Paul is saying it's not man's gospel. This truth, God's Word does not belong to man to manipulate. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, we do not twist scripture. We do not take scripture and manipulate it and smooth it over with flattery or any other type of talking. We don't do that, but we boldly proclaim the truth. And if people can't see it and believe it, it's because the God of this world has blinded the eyes of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel. That's a direct quote from Paul. We don't lose heart because the God of this world has blinded their eyes. We don't lose heart over that. For God who says, let light shine out of darkness, he says, has shown in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And there's my sermon from Sunday. John 17 5. So Paul wants to make sure they know who he is. and from where the message came. Jesus, in His earthly ministry, continued to do one particular thing over and over again, and it always was this, I do not do my own will, but the will of one who sent me, that I may glorify Him. So it was the glorification of God the Father, because He came from God, therefore He is God. And the revelation concerning Him from God is eternal life because He is eternal life. And no one else had to get in the middle and try to explain where Jesus got this doctrine from because it came from God. In the same manner, God Himself wrote the Bible through the minds of the apostles only And when they preached the gospel, they weren't going off over to seminary to learn peripheral subject matter and saying they were learning the Word of God. They proclaimed it straight from the Lord. And so to kick in the teeth of that accusation, that's what these next 20-something verses are for Paul in Galatians chapter 1 and 2. Let me give you my story. It is not man's gospel. It's preached by me. Verse 12, For I did not receive it from any man. What was Paul's gospel on the road to Damascus before God saved him? Judaism. So much so, as he says here, he was zealous for the traditions of his fathers. To the point, as you see there in verse 15, or at 14, to the point that he was elevated to a place that very few people his age had ever been. He was part of the 70 rulers. He was part of the Sanhedrin. He was part of the elite of Israel. And he didn't get there through politics, he got there through passion. He got there through being able to say what he was taught from his Jewish mentors, from the rabbis that taught him. He could reiterate this foundation of theology. So he learned what he knew about God from men, and it was wrong. He knew everything the Old Testament had to say about Messiah, and he was wrong. But when he got the Gospel, God Himself gave him the source material. I received it not from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. I want you to understand in Paul's conversion, Paul's zeal and passion against the way, against Christianity, was justified according to the truth. according to the Jewish tradition of truth. Because Christians blasphemed God in their mind. They knew the way, and Jesus came in and says, I'm the way. They knew the truth, and Jesus came in and says, well, I'm the truth. They knew what life was about, but then Jesus comes in and says, I'm the life. They knew what the bread in the wilderness was all about, and Jesus says, I'm the bread. They thought the mercy seat and the blood there would establish something for them, and Jesus says, I'm the mercy seat. My blood and my flesh, this is what matters. Well, who are you to tell us what the Bible says? Unless you believe that I am. See, Jesus claimed to be the source. He claimed to be the source of the truth. Now Paul is claiming that Jesus himself taught Paul the gospel. Carry this. The revelation of Jesus Christ on Damascus. Paul is going and to arrest so that they can kill the apostles that are there. And Jesus stops him and says, why do you persecute me? And he wasn't asking for an answer or explanation or an excuse. He was showing in this regenerative work of his. Paul was wrong. And immediately Paul knew Christ. Paul wasn't given, as some cults say, this revelation. Then Paul later got saved when he was baptized. That's a cult that believes that. By the way, there's one in Claxton. Paul was saved through the finished work of Christ and granted a new mind through the gift of faith. And he knew all things concerning Christ. because God gave it to him through revelation. How do we get that revelation now? From Paul. By the Spirit, same way, but we hear the words by reading Paul. So Paul then begins to tell them about his life. You heard of my former life? I persecuted the church, tried to destroy it. I was advancing beyond my own age, zealous for the traditions of my father. But, you know what the word but means? It's a contrast. Verse 15, but when he, now this is a recapitulation of the same phraseology that Paul has used already. It should ring in your ears if you're reading this text. 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." And then we see the causality there of what that produced. He says, and I'm skipping that second part there, I didn't immediately consult with anyone. So, let's get some doctrinal stuff out of that little sentence and then let's pull it back together and show you some stuff. So, He set me apart before I was born. This is the eternal decree of God to save His elect. Paul is saying, before I was born, God had set me apart from Himself in decree. At the death of Jesus, my sins were paid for. And on the road to Damascus, God granted me the faith to believe it. Gave me the faith to believe in it, when I could believe in nothing but the opposite. How did I believe? In the same way. He set me apart. I have been sanctified in Jesus Christ for the foundation of the world. And he says, who called me by his grace. Paul introduced this letter in that same language, didn't he? Verse six, I'm astonished that you're so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ. It is by grace you have been saved. It is by grace and mercy and kindness and love, it is the love of God, it is the mercy of God, it is the grace of God that saves us. It is the grace of God that saved Paul because if God had not intervened and snatched Paul out of the darkness of world religion, out of the darkness of self-righteousness, out of the darkness of historical theology, out of the darkness of my teacher taught me, then he would have never known the truth. called me by His grace. And that means, verse 16, was pleased to reveal His Son to me. See, the revelation of Jesus Christ is the calling of God, the revealing of the Son. So Paul had knowledge of the gospel of free and sovereign grace supernaturally because God, the Son, taught him. Then Paul writes it down as he preaches. And now we have it. And the words of Christ given to Paul and the other apostles are now penned and preserved by God, and we have them in our language, many variations of our language. And in the language of our own ears, by the will and the mercy of God, we have heard the Gospel, the good news concerning the Son of God, who is God the Son eternally, Jesus Christ, who by His grace called us to life. We now have been revealed, or Jesus has now been revealed to us. We can see. We can see. And God has saved Paul and taught Paul the Gospel, and given Paul the commission to go and to preach the Gospel. He saved Paul for this purpose, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles. So this reiteration of Paul's testimony focuses on the gospel origin, the source of his knowledge of Christ and the good news therein. And he says, I did not consult with anyone immediately. I didn't just get with the other apostles, like, I'm with y'all now, teach me what you know. You know what's crazy? There was a time in my ministry where just philosophically, in a rational way, I thought, you know, Paul probably did have to learn some stuff. He says otherwise. I mean, he had to learn some stuff, but it wasn't the gospel. Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those apostles who were before me, who spent time with Jesus. I did not go to them. I did not hook up with them, and we just become this bandwagon of brothers. I didn't hang out with them. I didn't travel with them. He traveled with John Mark. He traveled with Barnabas. And then he traveled with those people that he equipped to be ministers of the gospel with him, men and women alike. But for the most part, the other apostles dealt with a Jewish culture and a Jewish people and the Jewish assemblies. God saved Paul that he might preach to the Gentiles. And he's saying, this gospel that I have is not man's gospel. It's not even my own gospel. It's the gospel of God and he gave it to me directly and I was saved and given this knowledge so that I could preach it to you. So I went away into Arabia and then I returned again to Damascus. Then three years later, verse 18, I went up to Jerusalem and I met with Peter. And I remained there for two weeks and one day. Fifteen days with Peter, but I didn't see anybody else except James the Lord's brother. And then he asserts this, in what I'm writing to you before God, I do not lie. Paul puts his entire reputation on this. That if I'm lying about the source of my gospel, if you think I'm just another fanboy of Christianity, and I'm just like all these other people that are preaching, and going out and trying to become something in the name of Christ, and get a name for themselves, and be heralded as orators, and just sort of like movie stars amongst believers. Sound familiar? It's disgusting. He reiterates, my whole reputation's on the line here. I'm not lying before God. He makes an oath and swears before God that he's telling the truth, that the only person he saw for three years was Peter, and that was two weeks, and he saw James during that time there. Then I went to Syria and to Cilicia. And even in that time, he says, verse 22, I was an unknown person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. I did not come back to my people to become something. Listen to that church. Paul is establishing that this gospel is not man's gospel, but it's God's gospel. And that Paul came to them a nobody amongst his own people. A nobody. Nobody even knew him. He wasn't famous. He wasn't popular. Could you imagine what Paul could have had had he went back to Judea, to that region, and began to preach Christ and say to his fellow kinsmen, once a Pharisee, now what? Now Christ is Meshach. Christ is the one come from God. I know. That wasn't what God called him to. I mean, he'd have been set up. Those people who believed would have taken Paul under the wing. I mean, these other guys who were apostles of Paul, they had no recognition amongst the people of Judea. What was Peter? A nasty fisherman. What were these men? They were nobodies. That's why Paul can preach the way he did when he goes to Corinth. And so for the Gentile people, Paul was a nobody. And to the Jewish people, the apostles, the other apostles were nobodies. The reputation of the one whom Christ loved, to prevent becoming famous in that way, John would not even use his own name in his writings. People didn't have this nepotism of, yeah, I'm so-and-so, and I used to study with Jesus. I mean, how cool would that be, right? I mean, I'm a martial artist, and I know the lineage of all of my teachers, and all of their teachers, and their teachers. And now, as of the last year or so, I know the secondary lineages. I know other systems. I know how it all goes all the way back to the 1960s. All the way back. to Hong Kong, all the way back to Peru. And there's something amongst martial artists where you go, you know, so-and-so was my teacher. And everybody goes, oh, he learned under this guy who was right there with the master, with the grandmaster, who brushed up the dog hair of the grandmaster's grandmother. Oh, my gosh. Woo! I mean, you know. It gives us steam, but the men who were preaching the gospel, the apostles of Christ, were not in that business. Beloved, that is why the gospel iterations, all of these continual, just sickening separations of truth happen so quickly. It's because men aren't learning from the Word, and they're not learning under men who are willing to be nobody, teach them to be nobody, so that they can do something. about preaching the gospel by the power of God. Paul says God uses the nothings of the world to bring to nothing the things that are. He's telling these people, I didn't bring this gospel from anybody but God. I brought this gospel directly from Jesus Himself. Just like the other apostles. Now why was that important? Because Paul never knew Christ in his earthly ministry. He never met him. Never worked with him. Never sat under his teaching. So his apostleship was always being called into question. But the risen Christ met with Paul and sent him out. And the only way that he was known amongst his own people in Judea is this, verse 23, they were only hearing these words. He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy. See, Paul didn't have to put that verse 24 in there. Because when I hear that statement, when I hear that quote from his mouth, see, I hear the word when I read it. And I read it out loud to myself because I like to hear it. Because I read too fast, I can hear it and it slows down for me. All I can think about when I heard that. Imagine his Jewish brothers and sisters in the flesh who had come to the knowledge of the truth and they heard about the work of God to save His people through His Son. God the Son and His good news. And they could talk about the one who used to persecute them. now preaching the faith that he once tried to destroy. Who gets the glory for that? God does. Why? Because it was not a man who twisted the arm of Paul and who convinced him and mentored him to change. It was God. It was the Son of God. It was the Gospel. It is the Spirit of God. And they glorified God because of me. So they weren't even esteeming Paul, when they heard ambiguously that he was now with them. They esteemed God. You want a distinction on the difference between a gospel that cannot save, and will not save, and does not save, and has not saved, and the true gospel? The true gospel always stays close to the cuff of Scripture. And all of its theologies, and all of its doctrines are contextually driven, not historically driven. ever, because even when it's goodly transposed on paper, we skip over the glory of God and we skip to the glory of man. Man will be glorified when history is his banner. Don't believe me? Think of some famous theologian or famous pastor if all of a sudden said, yeah, he's coming tomorrow. Oh, wow, that's neat. Or I learned under him for five years. Oh, wow. Wow. Why is that impressive? I've been reading the Bible for six months straight. That ought to make your mind go, oh God has taught that boy. That should be more impressive. That's the problem. Man comes in and swoops in and begins to take some type of credit or creed and manipulate people into looking at someone other than Christ and then Christ no longer gets the glory even if the doctrine is the same. Beloved, if you esteem me, Instead of Christ in my teaching, you missed the point of it. And I'm at the end of my rope. I'm being serious. I'm at the end of my rope with self-glorifying men. And I've decided that I will no longer give time or audience to them. Ever. Because what happens if someone argues with you about something and they throw other people into the loop as sources, you spend your time in those sources to refute them rather than with Christ. When someone throws a false gospel at you, it goes, boom! And you spend your time trying to refute the false gospel. You're not teaching Christ. So-and-so believes this, so-and-so believes that, so-and-so believes that. I'm glad to hear it. What does the scripture say? In its context, let's go there. Remember one of the things I said last week that this book, this letter will do for us from a practical point of view, is it will give us an anchor to throw around the necks of heretics when they come swimming up next to our boat trying to get in. We just put it on their necks and drop it. What is it? Galatians. Let me read this to you, sir. Not heretic, but sir. And you read it to him. And you drop it, that's dropping it, it's dropping it. And they go to the bottom of the sea. And only by the mercies of God will he let them out of that watery grave. Our debating and argumentation has never saved a soul in the history of humanity. And it never will. Christ has saved all the souls that will be saved and have been saved, and He's the only one that will save the ones who are going to be saved. And His Word is the only source that we need. And as a man who's given up his life for the sake of teaching the gospel, I am thankful by the mercy of God that I got out of the rut of that. and hopefully and prayerfully with you by my side, we will never ever be there again. Because you don't know what it's like, maybe you do, maybe you remember, to be stuck with man-made glory and calling it Christ. Let us look at Christ. I've got just a minute or two, let me read the first 10 verses of chapter 2 in closing. Then after 14 years, see Paul continues here, I went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up because of a revelation and sat before them, though privately before those who seemed influential. the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery, to them we did not yield in submission even for one minute, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. And from those who seemed to be influential, what they were makes no difference to me. God does not care. I like to say it that way. Those, I say, who seemed influential had nothing to me, added nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised, for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry of the circumcised also worked through me for mine to the Gentiles. And when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised, only they ask us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do." And then he continues, he continues, talks about the condemnation of some of them. And so what we'll do next week is we'll see that there was things that Paul did learn. There were things that Paul did interact with other men, but the source never changed. The root of Christianity is the Word of God come from God. And only for His people who have been given ears to hear will they hear. So that is my prayer for us tonight. That we would hear the call of the Lord to His Word and that we would see as we'll see next week, that we are to accept those who are like-minded with us, even on that issue, so that we might walk in unity in the faith. Let's pray. We thank you, Father, for this letter, for what you did. by your power and by your mercy thousands of years ago to preserve the truth of Christ and how you in your power work so beautifully with your people to show us the truth of Christ through those apostles who wrote it down by your spirit. And Lord, would you help us just to be encouraged by the truth? To be encouraged by the gospel, to be encouraged by the word, And that we never lose heart. Because we can be intimate with Jesus Christ, your son, by opening these pages and together sitting in one accord. Knowing that you are with us. And it's in his name we pray. Amen.