The bulletin says I'm preaching out of Exodus, but I changed my mind this week, so I apologize for that. If you would open with me to the book of Galatians. Those of you overachievers that were already in Exodus, I apologize. Galatians chapter 1. I'm gonna pick up where I left off three months ago when I preached the introduction to Galatians. Picking up in verse six, and we'll be reading through verse 24. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. 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, 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. I and returned again to Damascus. There, 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. And what I am writing to you before God, I do not lie. Then I went to 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. May the Lord bless the reading of his word. Father, we come before you this morning and we give you thanks for your holy word. We ask, Father, that you would speak through this weak vessel to your people today and minister to the hearts and souls of your people as we meditate upon your word and what it is that you have for us to hear today. Speak to us, we pray, in Christ's name, amen. Paul wrote this letter to the churches in Galatia. Explicitly for the reason of directly contradicting a number of false churches who had moved into that area and started teaching things that were contrary to what Paul had initially taught them. They came in after Paul planted these churches and they were teaching their own so-called gospel. which was no gospel at all, but it was one that re-enslaved Christians under the law of Moses, from which Christ had already set them free. In order for them to be able to preach their gospel, again, which was no gospel, first they had to undermine the gospel which Paul had preached to them already. And in order to undermine Paul's gospel, they felt the need to undermine the apostle himself, and they were making certain accusations and slanderous lies about him, which Paul, we can read in this chapter, is correcting those lies. So Paul's response to these false teachers follows the same pattern that they themselves used. And it provides us with a simple outline of the book of Galatians. They started out by spreading lies about Paul himself, saying that he was not really an apostle at all, And what he did know about the gospel, he learned from other apostles. Paul began the main body of this letter by teaching the truth of his calling as an apostle of Jesus Christ. And he very clearly says, I did not learn the gospel from other apostles or from any man, but from Jesus Christ himself. Next, they taught that their so-called gospel, which was really a return to the law. And Paul responds to this their teaching in chapters three and four of Galatians, by reaffirming the true gospel of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone and Christ alone, apart from our obedience to the law, apart from our obedience to the law. Finally, they had been teaching the Galatians how it is they ought to live their lives, which is in accordance with the law of Moses, essentially telling the Gentile Christians, you have to become more Jewish to be a good Christian. And Paul responds to this false ethic in chapters 5 and 6 explaining how Christians who are saved by grace alone ought to really live their lives in light of that. So this false gospel which was being taught in Galatia is one that's actually rearing its head again in churches today all across the United States and the world. It's gaining astounding influence amongst many evangelicals as well. This movement goes by a variety of different names today, most common of which is the modern-day Messianic Movement or the Hebrew Roots Movement. And there's a few other names that they refer to themselves by. And it's a very dangerous teaching. And it's gaining a lot of popularity. And it's good for us to be aware of that. and to understand what it is that God's Word has to say about such teaching. Just like the false teachers in Galatia, the messianic movement teaches its adherents that true believers must be grafted into the vine, which is a biblical phrase. But when they say that, they mean that that vine is Israel rather than Christ that they're getting grafted into. And from there, they go on to teach that we are obligated to continue today to observe the law of Moses, that we have not been completely set free from obeying the Old Testament laws. Also, just like the false teachers in Galatia, the modern day resurrection of this false teaching, it seeks to undermine those who proclaim the true gospel of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. They spread malicious lies about the early Christian church. claiming that the, or I should basically say they kind of reinvent their own history, which makes themselves feel better. They claim that the early church and all of its ecumenical councils had all been led astray by pagan Greek philosophy. And because of this, they had perverted the supposedly pure Hebrew mindset way of understanding the gospel, which they promote themselves. But brothers and sisters, if you ever run across anything that claims that we must completely reinterpret the New Testament by adopting a Hebrew mindset first, I would plead with you to consider it suspect. And if you have questions about it, feel free to come and talk to myself or one of the elders. Baruch actually wrote a book dealing with this and it's on the table downstairs saying, come let us reason together. The first title of that book was Judaism is not Jewish, but the publisher thought it was too aggressive of a title. It's very helpful. It's a very helpful book explaining what the Christian's relationship to the Old Testament law is. So the main body of this letter is divided neatly into these three main sections. Paul gives a short biography of himself in order to establish that he indeed is a true and legitimate apostle of Christ Jesus. It has a section on theology and then the final section on ethics. And each section is two chapters in length. So among the lies that these false teachers were spreading about Paul, was that he desired the approval of man more than the approval of God, which is evident to us from verse 10. He had just previously stated, not once but twice, that anyone who teaches a different gospel than the one he had already preached to them, may he be accursed or anathema, given over to the judgment and wrath of God himself. Then he states in verse 10, which is dripping with thick sarcasm, 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. If Paul was seeking the approval of man, he would never utter such a strong and forceful condemnation against these false teachers. Calling someone anathema is not the best way to win friends and influence people, is it? He feels very comfortable saying things that he knows is true that need to be said if it is going to offend people. He still would say it anyway. He's not a man pleaser. He's seeking to honor the Lord. And these false teachers had evidently been claiming that Paul was not a preacher of truth. He was a people pleaser, more concerned with being politically correct than with being truthful. Seeking his own popularity. rather than pointing people to God. They likely said things such as, look, when he's with the Jews, he acts like a Jew. When he's with the Gentiles, he acts like a Gentile, teaching them that they do not have to be circumcised or keep the law of God, which is unbiblical. He's only interested in what people think of him. He changes his behavior depending on who he's around, right? So what about this accusation that they evidently had made about him? Was there something to it? They certainly seem at least somewhat plausible. For we know that Paul did strive to become all things to all people. And Paul himself admitted that in 1 Corinthians 9. When we read Paul's own words explaining why he strove to become all things to all people, we can see clearly that he was not doing it because he was a people pleaser. because he wanted whoever he was with at that time to be more happy with him. It wasn't about his ego, but rather he did this so that he would not needlessly offend some people in some way, which might lead them to not listen to the gospel that he came there to proclaim. In 1 Corinthians 9, beginning in verse 20, Paul himself writes, to the Jews, I became a Jew in order to win Jews. To those under the law, I became as one under the law, though not being myself under the law, so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law, not being outside of the law of God, but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak, I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I may share with them in its blessings. So we see here that in one sense, yes, Paul took great pains to not offend people. But two things are very clear. He did not do this so that people would think highly of him. He did it so that he might win some. so that they would think highly of Christ. And even while he was becoming all things to all people, he continued to live his life in a manner that was always consistent with the gospel. Paul began his, he continues his autobiographical section here by stating his thesis, or the primary reason for giving his testimony, if you will. He states in verses 11 and 12 that the gospel message, which he preached, was not a message that he received from any human being. Rather, he received these truths directly from the risen Lord Jesus Christ himself. Nobody witnessed to Paul. Nobody shared a tract with him. He didn't walk down an aisle at an evangelical crusade. No one explained to him God's plan of redemption, nor did anyone disciple Paul. Paul's conversion was anything but normal. And he's making sure that this is crystal clear because it's foundational to him holding the office of apostle in the early church. To be an apostle, one had to learn the gospel from Jesus Christ himself in person. So Paul explains in verses 13 and 14, who he was before being converted. He states how well advanced he was in Judaism, which was such common knowledge that he could write confidently in verse 13 that everyone reading this letter had certainly heard of his fame, so to speak, already. He was well on his way to becoming a very famous and respected rabbi in the school of the Pharisees. Paul also points out that He was utterly committed to Judaism, so much so that he was violently persecuting the church. Third, he states that his zeal and passion to obey the law and the traditions of my fathers was completely beyond reproach. These two verses not only demonstrate that prior to his conversion, prior to meeting Christ on the road to Damascus, that he was the furthest thing away from a Christian. but it also serves to remind these false teachers in Galatia who were trying to basically add Judaism back into the gospel. He's reminding them that not only did Paul understand the gospel of Jesus Christ better than they do, he's reminding them that he also understands the law of God in the Old Testament and its purposes better than they do. From what we know, the first century church, one of, if not the greatest threat, of the first century church to its survival in the earliest years was these Judaizers. Jews who wanted to have the best of both the synagogue and the church. They wanted Jesus and Moses, but their desire blended and confused the law and the gospel in such a way that it not only distorted the gospel, but destroyed it. Look what Paul says in verse 15. But when he had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles. God had set Paul apart since before he was born for this purpose, to be an apostle sent to the Gentiles. He was called, he was equipped, and sent to do this. And God set him apart before he was even born. Isn't that astounding, the wisdom of our Lord? It kind of makes me want to ask this question. If God set Paul apart for this task before he was even born, why did God allow Paul to be raised as a Pharisee in Judaism who would later even persecute the church? Why did Jesus not call Saul to be one of his disciples like he did all of the other disciples? Was it an oversight on God's part or did God have a plan? I believe God providentially placed Paul into the exact situation that he did for a number of reasons, but not the least of which is that Paul had been raised as a very well-educated Jew, knowing Jewish law and practices inside and out, so that he would be prepared to contradict this particular teaching, the teaching of these Judaizers. He understands Judaism better than they do. And he can go toe-to-toe with them and tell them that they are distorting and destroying the gospel of Christ. He was very well equipped for that. And I believe that God providentially prepared him for that. If any of the apostles truly experienced the freedom that we are given in Christ from the law, It was Paul, for he had dedicated his life to pursuing the strictest, most stringent obedience to the law and all of the rabbinical traditions that went along with it to a greater extent than almost anyone. And when Christ set him free from this bondage to the law that he had been spending his whole life pursuing, he understood, I believe, with greater clarity than anyone else, why it is that the law brings death. and only grace, and grace alone brings life. It's similar to how God gave King Solomon greater wealth and wisdom than any other man. We all know that as a fact. Who would you trust more to tell you that the pursuit of wealth, wisdom, and power is ultimately a futile pursuit? Who would you trust to tell you that more than King Solomon? I could tell you those things. You might agree with me and say, yeah, those things are probably true. But if King Solomon is saying those things, who's already had way more wisdom than me, and way more wealth than me, and all of these other things, and found that they are futile, it resonates better, right? It means more. It has more value and worth. For when Solomon says this, it carries much more weight. And in a similar way, for Saul of Tarsus, the Pharisee of Pharisees, to say that striving to please God by our own obedience to the law is distorting and destroying the gospel, who knows and understands that better than him? It carries a lot of weight because of the life that he had led formerly. The clarity in which he understands the relationship between the law and the gospel is unmatched. Paul goes on in verses 16 through 20, and he talks about how immediately following his dramatic conversion on the Damascus Road, that he did not consult with anyone. He goes out of his way to make that crystal clear. He's saying here that he was saved out of his sin immediately by Jesus Christ in person, not by hearing the gospel preached by anyone else. Nor did he go sign up for seminary classes or find someone to teach him more about this wonderful grace that he had received from Christ. But he went away to Arabia and then back to Damascus. It was while he was in Damascus that he was persecuted for preaching the gospel there. and the governor there wanted to kill him. We probably remember that story where he escaped from that city by being lowered down in a basket. In other words, he had already started preaching the gospel, he had already started winning converts, and he had already started planting churches before he had ever even met with another apostle and spoke to them. That's the point that he's making clear here. He even swears an oath before God in verse 20 saying that he is speaking the truth about these things Why would Paul swear an oath about these things because evidently Paul's opponents in Galatia were claiming that these things were not true They were claiming that they had come from they had come they came from Judea likely they came from the church in Jerusalem itself and where they learned underneath the great apostles, Peter, James, and John, and they were pretending to have their authority in what they taught. And they're saying, Paul isn't even an apostle. Whatever he does know about the gospel, he learned from the other apostles. You shouldn't listen to him. You should trust what we're telling you. He was mistaken. But here, Paul is saying, I absolutely did not learn the gospel from the other apostles. or from any other human preacher or teacher, but directly from Jesus Christ himself. He had been commissioned as an apostle by Christ himself. He had been actively working as a missionary for at least three years before he even met any of the other apostles. And then it was to see Cephas or Peter for only a time of 15 days. Now this is important because 15 days is not long enough to be formally trained by Peter, if that was his purpose in visiting with him, which it wasn't, but it is long enough to get to know someone else. If the gospel that Paul had been preaching was somehow deficient or lacking in any way, certainly Peter and James, who he also saw, would have made that clear to him, right? But they didn't. They supported him. They validated him. But his short visit with Peter confirmed that he had already been given the same gospel that Peter and all of the other apostles had already been given as well. But he was not instructed by Peter or anyone else in the gospel. He was instructed by Christ himself. It gives us a great amount of confidence in knowing that what we are reading in this letter and his other letters are They carry the authority, the full weight and authority of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Next, Paul states that he went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia, continuing to preach and convert sinners and plant churches, proclaiming the same gospel that had been entrusted to him by Christ himself. He states in verse 22, and I was still unknown in person to the churches in Judea that are in Christ. He hadn't even been to Judea yet. They didn't know his face. These Christians had certainly heard of Paul and what the Lord was doing through him, but they had never met him. He's again reaffirming, I haven't met and learned from other apostles. I learned from Christ. They didn't even know what his face looked like at this point. This too conclusively proves that Paul did not spend time in Judea or Jerusalem in order to learn the gospel from other men, but substantiates Paul's claim to have been taught by Christ. Consider this, in Corinthians chapter 12, Paul's writing here in the third person. He says, I know a man in Christ, speaking about himself, who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise. Whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know. God knows. And he heard things that cannot be told, which men may not utter. He's speaking of this vision. He's like, maybe, I don't know if I was physically transported somewhere, where I learned all of these things and I got these visions from God about all of the truth that I'm giving you. I don't know if it was a vision. I don't know if I was bodily there. I don't know. God knows. But he's giving his testimony here that God had given him many, many visions. Speaking of himself, he speaks honestly here and he says, I don't really know how to explain what happened. I just know I was caught up into paradise and I was taught these things that are not even lawful for men to mention. No Christian man ever received, in my opinion, a more impeccable seminary education than the Apostle Paul did when he was brought up into paradise to learn the gospel from God himself. He was taught the beauty, the clarity, the glory of the gospel to such a greater degree than we can even imagine, that God had to give him a thorn in the flesh just to keep him humble. I don't know about you, but learning whatever it is that Paul learned during those experiences is on my after bucket list, things I want to do as soon as I die. God set Paul aside from birth to be his number one apostle to the Gentiles, to plant churches all over the known world, to win souls for Christ, to preach the gospel, and to pen 13 of the books in the New Testament. Claiming to be set apart from birth was to set himself on par with the likes of the great prophets, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, John the Reformed Baptist. The gospel truth, he's a reformer, right? The gospel truth which Paul proclaimed was not conceived by his own fertile imagination, nor was it taught to him by any mere human being. At the same time, his gospel was the very same gospel proclaimed to the other apostles. We see Peter, for example, commending Paul's teaching in 1 Peter 3. Peter writes, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all of his letters. Paul received his gospel from God himself. And Paul also states in verse 16 that God was pleased to reveal his son to me. Looking at this passage as a whole, we see Paul here is providing his personal testimony, if you will, so to speak. And today in many circles, at least in some of the circles I grew up in, Someone's personal testimony is often given as though it is the gospel itself, or it's given in place of the gospel. I don't know if any of you guys have ever experienced that before. It's the gospel of my personal experiences. People say, look at my life. I was a drug addict and now I'm free of that. Jesus can do that for you too if you trust in him. Like I'm a living picture of the gospel is what they're telling you basically. And the more dramatic the change in someone's personal testimony, the better. And I think it's one of the reasons why a lot of people who grew up in Christian homes and are converted when they're four or five years old, as I was, were brought up thinking that their personal testimony is kind of boring. It's also why people who got converted at an older age, who did not experience an extraordinary, dramatic change in their life, often they struggle with assurance of their own salvation because they hear other people have this experience that they are not a part of. But those experiences are not the gospel. Your personal testimony and my personal testimony are not the gospel. It is a story about what the gospel has done to us, in us, and through us. But it's not about making people drug-free. It's not about making us better people. It's about the forgiveness of our sins because of what Christ did for us. Now, please don't misunderstand what I'm saying here. I'm not saying sharing a testimony with others is in any way a bad thing. Paul's doing that right here. I'm not saying that at all. In fact, it's a great thing. I love hearing people's testimonies when they join the church. Paul's personal testimony is shared with us in the New Testament three different times. Paul refers to it more times than that. But notice that as Paul is sharing his story here, he's not sharing it as the gospel. He's not sharing his experience in order to tell people that they can experience the same kind of change in their lives. It isn't about change. It's about what the person and work of Christ is. and how the cross and the empty grave can become our cross, where our sins can be dealt with, so that we too, like Paul, can say, I have been crucified with Christ. We can die with Christ and we can be raised to newness of life with him. The entire reason Paul gives his testimony here is to point to the reliability of the message that he received. He's sharing his personal experience here in chapters one and two to contradict the lies that were being told about him by people trying to undermine the gospel itself. In order to pave the way to sharing the true gospel of Christ is what his goal is, which he does in chapters three and four, where he says in chapter three, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. That's the gospel. Why then are you, you foolish Galatians, subjecting yourself again to that curse of the law from which you've been freed? That's the essence of his book here. Brothers and sisters, by all means, share your personal testimony with others, but share it in order to point to the message of the cross. Share it in order to point to who Jesus Christ is and what he did that means that we can have peace with God. and without whom we cannot have peace with God, but only condemnation. Share your gospel, or share your testimony to pave the way to point to Christ and to him alone. To Christ crucified, buried, and raised again from the dead. Will you bow with me in prayer? Father, we come before you this morning We do thank you for the person and work of Christ, first and foremost, and for the true, simple gospel. We know, Father, it is so easy to be led astray by false teachers. We pray that you would guide us and guard us. We pray that you would help us to understand how not to mix and blend the gospel with any of our own works. Help us, Father, instead learn to seek to obey you. out of gratitude for what we've already been given freely by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. Help us in these things, knowing our own weaknesses, we pray. In Christ's name, amen.