Galatians 1v10-2v10
Pauls gospel is true
One of my favourite gospel preachers is a man named John Newby. He tells the story of a lady who approached him after one of his gospel sermons. He had preached about justification by faith; that we’re accepted by God, not through our own righteousness, but through the righteousness that comes from God, the righteousness of Jesus that gets credited to us.
After the sermon this old lady came up to him and said, “You know John. What you said today is wonderful..if its true?”
Maybe you share that sentiment in your heart.
You would love to believe that your sins can be forgiven.
You would love to know that God really loves you
You would love to be sure that you are on your way to heaven.
But if you are honest, there’s this nagging doubt, it just sounds too good to be true.
Well as we mentioned last week, this is the 500th year since the reformation.
And so we are celebrating that by studying this key reformation book; the book of Galatians.
We are focusing on this key reformation truth: Justification by faith.
Our aim is to fulfil the words of Martin Luther: “It’s most necessary that we should know this truth well, that we should teach it to others and that we should beat it into their heads continually.”
I heard an illustration this last week describing what my job is as a preacher.
This is how Tim Keller’s wife describes his job to him. She says:
You know that vending machine in the hall. You’ve got to put a penny into the vending machine and then out pops your chips or your cooldrink. But normally what happens is the penney gets stuck. And then you need to beat your fist against the side of the vending machine until the penny finally drops. Only then does your cooldrink come out.
That’s the job of the preacher. The message of salvation by grace is so counter intuitive, so contrary to how we naturally operate. We are conditioned to rely on our performance. We need this truth to be beaten into our heads until the penny finally drops.
This morning we are just going to focus on one obstacle that might prevent this penny from dropping in your heart.
Is it really true?
Yes it sounds wonderful. Yes it’s a comforting thought.
But isn’t it just too good to be true.
Like those adverts on the internet: Click on this link and you’ll win a million rand. No strings attached. No conditions.
Who would be so gullible so as to click?
Well aren’t we being gullible believing Paul: Saved by grace …apart from works. A free gift?
Isn’t that too easy?
Isn’t this the message of false teachers who say what itching ears want to hear? They just want people to like them and so they teach a message of grace?
Well that’s not just a modern day accusation. That’s exactly what people were saying about Paul in his day.
His message is too easy. He’s a people-pleaser. He wants the approval of man. That’s why he preaches this message of grace.
And so look at how Paul defends himself in chapter 1 verse 10.
“For am I now trying to win the approval of man, or of God?” “If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
Paul defends himself in the strongest possible way. He puts his own relationship with Christ on the line. If my aim is to please people then I’m not a servant of Christ.
That’s the message you need to hear this morning: Serving people and serving Christ are mutually exclusive. If your main aim in life is to try and please people then that’ll prevent you from serving Christ.
Proverbs 29 verse 25 says: “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.”
Maybe you need to go home this morning and evaluate your motives? Are you focused on God? Or are you pleasing man?
May God free us from the fear of man.
But that’s not the motivation for Paul. He’s not trying to please man.
And you can see that at the end of our passage in chapter 2 verse 6. When Paul meets the church leaders, Peter and James and John. These are the most important people in the church. Look at what he says about them:
“As for those who seemed to be important – whatever they were makes no difference to me; God doesn’t judge by external appearance”
You see Paul isn’t intimidated by prominent men. He isn’t impressed by appearances. What matters to Paul is the judgment of God.
So why is Paul preaching this message of grace? If it isn’t to please men, then what is it? The answer is because it’s the truth. Paul is convinced that this is true. And the reason he’s so convinced is verse 11.
He received it directly from Jesus:
“I want you to know brothers that the gospel I preached is not something man made up. I didn’t receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.”
I wonder if anyone’s ever come up to you and said: God told me . . .
God told me that we must get married.
Or, God told me you must sell your house.
Or, God told me that one day you’ll be rich.
That’s a massive claim to make. In the Old Testament, if you made a false claim to bring revelation from God, the punishment for that was death.
And so we mustn’t just accept a claim like that. We need to evaluate it. We need to be convinced that it really is true. Paul’s words equal the words of Christ.
Its not like those Bibles where the words of Jesus are in red and the rest of the words are in black, as if Jesus’ earthly words have a special power and authority. No! If Paul’s statement here is true then his words should also be in red because they also come directly from Christ.
This is just as relevant today as it was back then. It’s popular amongst some theologians today to say that Paul’s message contradicts the message of Christ.
Basically they say that Jesus taught about loving people and giving to the poor and doing good. That’s how we bring God’s kingdom. But according to Paul its all about justification by faith.
According to Reverend Holmes-Gore:
“The teachings given by the blessed Master Christ which the disciples John, Peter and James tried in vain to defend…, were as utterly opposed to the Pauline gospel as the light is opposed to the darkness.”
On the screen there’s a picture of a more famous theologian: Soren Kierkegaard.
This is what he says about Paul’s message:
“In the teachings of Christ…: Jesus is the prototype and our task is to imitate him…. But then through Paul came a basic alteration. Paul draws attention away from imitating Christ and fixes attention on the death of Christ…. Paul threw the Christianity of Christ away, completely turning it upside down, making it just the opposite of the original proclamation of Christ.”
We need to be prepared for these kinds of arguments so that even a prominent theologian like Soren Kierkegaard with all his qualifications won’t be able to shake our conviction: Paul’s words are the words of Christ.
Or to put it a a bit more personally: Imagine you’re going through a tough time in your Christian life. You are struggling with sin. Your prayers aren’t being answered. You go to bed feeling far from God.
In the night you have a vision. It’s not like any other dream you’ve ever had. It’s clearly a vision. In your vision you see an angel coming down from heaven and he says, “There’s a reason why you feel far from God. It’s because you are following the perverted gospel of Paul. Yes, Paul says you have fullness in Jesus. But according to the rest of the Bible you need to obey rules. You need to observe the Sabbath. You need to pay your tithes. Those are crucial rules if you want full acceptance from God.”
I hope we’ll be so convinced this morning that we’ll be able to respond to that angel with the words of Paul himself,
“Even if an angel from heaven preaches a gospel other than the one I preached to you, let him be eternally condemned.”
That’s how convinced Paul was. That’s how convinced we need to be.
And so this is a massive claim Paul is making. We need to see the reasons why it is true.
What’s the first word at the beginning of verse 13? It’s a crucial word for unlocking this passage. The first word in verse 13 is… “for”.
That shows us from verse 13 onwards Paul’s giving arguments or reasons for his claim in verse 12.
Let’s look at those arguments that he presents together.
Firstly, Paul’s message must be from God, because it changes his life so radically.
Verses 13-14 describe Paul’s previous life before Jesus. You couldn’t imagine someone more opposed to Christianity.
Think of Richard Dawkins today with his anti Christian literature.
Think of Alu Bakr al Baghdadi, the militant leader of ISIS.
Think of Kim Jong Un, persecuting Christians in North Korea.
These are the great opponents of Christianity today. If you think of the early Christian church, who was the prominent persecutor? It was Paul.
Look at verse 13: “For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it”
We know from Acts chapter 8 that Paul approved of the killing of Christians. He was breathing out murderous threats. In his obsession against them he travelled from place to place, even going to foreign cities to capture them and put them in prison. And then he would vote for the death penalty.
In his own words in Acts 22 verse 4: “I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death.”
So to steal a phrase from my kids: Paul was a “baaad guy”
I mean how bad can you get? Killing people. Not just killing any people. Killing God’s people.
Remember the cry of Jesus on the road to Damascus: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
Paul was fighting against God Himself.
But do you know what’s the worst thing about Paul’s previous life? Its not just his violent deeds. It’s the source from which those deeds arise. Just look at verse 13 again. Notice the source of Paul’s persecution. Where does it come from? Verse 13. For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism…. beyond many Jews of own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.”
You see, on the one hand Paul was incredibly bad. But on the other hand, he was incredibly good. He was a devoted Jew. His whole life was set apart for obedience. He was committed to the Old Testament law.
But what did it produce? Persecution of the church.
And so this is the shocking truth: A zeal to be good can make you incredibly bad!
What a shock: A zeal to be good can make you incredibly bad!
In Romans 10 verse 1 Paul writes: “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them they are zealous for God,...”
What a tragic statement: that you can be zealous for God and at the same time be unsaved.
What’s their problem according to verse 3? There’s something they don’t know. Verse 3:
“They did not know the righteousness that comes from God and they sought to establish their own,...”
Now we are getting to the heart of Paul’s badness. Where does it flow from? It flows from the zeal of self-righteousness.
You see what is the great factory that produces this persecutor of the church?
It’s the zeal of self-righteousness.
It is a theme throughout the history of the church.
The message of grace is most offensive to those who pursue self-righteousness. So often the most severe persecution comes from religious people. Whether its zealous Jews or zealous Muslims or even zealous so-called “Christians”. The message of grace is most offensive to those who are self-righteous.
That’s Pauls previous way of life; a man who was incredibly bad because of his great zeal to be good.
But in verse 15, his life is completely turned around.
The main subject of verse 14 is “I”. It’s all about Paul and his religious achievements and his advancement in Judaism.
But notice the change in verse 15. Now the main subject is God.
Look at what God does to Paul:
He sets him apart from birth. So even before his conversion, God had a plan for Paul’s life.
Secondly, He calls him by His grace. In spite of his badness, God has mercy.
Thirdly, He reveals His Son in him so that him so that he might preach Him among the Gentiles.
What a radical change! You can see it summarized for in verse 23. This is what the Christians hear about Paul: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”
And notice who they credit for this radical change in verse 24: “They praised God because of me.”
You see that’s precisely Paul’s point. My message must come from God.
How else can you explain such a radical change? Surely it cannot come from man. It must be the work of God.
That’s the first argument. Paul’s message must be from God because it changes him so radically.
Now secondly,Paul’s message must come from God, because he receives it independently.
Just go back up to verse 16 and notice what happens immediately after Paul’s conversion.
God calls him to preach to the Gentiles. And so what would you expect him to do?
Surely he should go and visit the other churches? Visit the leaders? Visit the apostles? Get some training? Do a crash course on this gospel he’s been called to preach?
But that’s exactly what Paul doesn’t do.
Verse 16: “....when God was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.”
This is the point; Paul starts preaching the gospel without consulting any man.
It’s only three years later, after 3 years of gospel preaching that he visits Jerusalem. But even then his visit is very brief.
Look at verse 18: “After 3 years I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and I stayed with him 15 days.”
And in verse 19 we read that He sees none of the other apostles. He only sees James, not the apostle, but James the brother of Jesus; and in verse 22 that He’s unknown to the churches of Judea. They only hear this report, that he’s preaching the gospel.
Then he heads off to Syria and Cilicia. He continues with gospel ministry. Jump down to chapter 2 verse 1. It’s 14 years later when he visits Jerusalem again. So you do the maths; 3 years before his first visit and another 14 years before his second visit. That’s 17 years since his conversion. 17 years of preaching the gospel.
Throughout that time, he’s only spends 15 days with Peter and James. So the question is: Where does he get his message? Surely its not from the church. Surely its not from the apostles. Surely it doesn’t come from any man. He receives his message independently by revelation from Jesus.
That’s the second argument.
And then finally, Paul’s message must come from God because it agrees so entirely.
In chapter 2 verse 1, Paul eventually returns to Jerusalem. And the reason he returns is because of false teachers.
You can read about them in Acts 15. It should be on the screen. Acts 15 verse 1: ‘Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses you cannot be saved.”’
Verse 5: “Some of the believers who belong to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, the Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses.”
In other words, they are saying that Paul’s gospel isn’t the full picture.
Its great to believe in Jesus. But also … get circumcised.
Its great to believe in Jesus, but also… don’t eat pork.
Its great to believe in Jesus, but also… keep the Sabbath.
They adding laws to the gospel.
And you can imagine how persuasive it might sound. Notice these teachers come from Judea. That’s where Christianity started. Its where Jesus lived. Its where the church originates from. You can imagine the doubts rising in the Gentile’s minds: Maybe Paul isn’t the real deal. Maybe he has perverted the message. Now we are getting the full picture straight from Judea.
That’s why Paul travels to Jerusalem. Look at verse 4:
This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.”