Galatians 1 (Part 3) - The Witness of a Changed Life

and we're in Galatians chapter one so if you're opened up there let's get into it here this is the third week of our first chapter we're gonna pick it up in verse 11 read through the end of the chapter so follow along with me as I read please it says 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 oh 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 father's but when he who had set me apart before I was born and had 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 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 the only excuse me 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 stop there let's pray Heavenly Father open our hearts let the Ministry of your word fill us Lord through the Ministry of your Holy Spirit teach us instruct us illuminate our hearts and guide us in directors through these verses we pray in Jesus name Amen amen what would you say to a brother or sister and what I mean by that is a spiritual brother sister someone who you knew to be in Christ a genuine born-again believer but who had started to go down a very dangerous path what would you say if you could say anything to them to help get them back where they needed to be with the Lord I'm talking about somebody who has started on a path that is a very life-and-death kind of a sort of a thing right I mean somebody who's really begin to walk into some areas of error as it relates to understanding the gospel and what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross and so forth well that's the very situation the Apostle Paul is facing here as he writes this letter to the churches in the region of Galatia as we said in the past there's probably about four or five churches that are involved here that Paul is writing to and they had been infiltrated by a group of Jews who came after Paul was there and they were now trying to convince the people that Jesus was not enough to secure a person's eternal salvation and what they were telling the people was that they needed to submit to circumcision and also the keeping of the Mosaic law in order to be saved and so Paul is saying whatever he can say in this letter to try to bring these people to a place of thinking through once again what they're doing where they're going and all the implications involved in this as he sees them beginning to move away from the pure gospel that he spoke to them while he was there and now they're taking on this idea that Jesus isn't enough there must also be these works and there must be this obedience to the law and and all that kind of junk and and Paul's doing what he can to try to resolve this issue you know there's something there's just something about us human beings we're an interesting sort there's something about us that just wants to well let me let me let me say it a different way there's something about us that feels uncomfortable about getting something for free it feels like we're kind of out of control you know if somebody's going to give me something and it's something that I know that I really need and somebody comes along and says hey it's free there's just something that makes us uncomfortable about that we are much more comfortable with the idea of having earned it having done something so that I can say there I did it I measured up I I you know I earned it I did whatever needed to be done and now it's mine you know and and and nobody can take it away from me because I know I did what they said I was supposed to do you know and and so now whoop-whoop careful here Paul get too animated you know that now it's mine and and so forth but what's interesting is that what the gospel does is that it takes that control out of our hands you know it takes it away it and we have to put our control completely in what somebody else did right it's kind of that feeling you get when you get onto an airplane you know it's like who is this pilot I don't know him or her I don't know his name I don't know if he had a bad day you know maybe he's got a headache and I'm going to be flying in his airplane he started a thing you know you guys get it it's the whole idea of just kind of trusting and and what it does is it it kind of smacks us right in the center of our self-sufficiency because I want to be able to do it myself you know and then to put it into somebody else's hands and just trust them to do it you know it's like you know and what it does is when I say it smacks us in the in the middle of our self-sufficiency what I'm saying is it smacks us in our pride because that's what self-sufficiency is essentially made of I mean that's the building blocks it's pride and have you ever noticed that to come to Christ you have to swallow your pride I mean if you're if you're like really prideful and you're kind of one of those I did it my way kind of guys or gals then the gospel is gonna be a tough sell for you you know because there's nothing you can do you can't do it your way your way is gonna wind you up in the hottest spot in hell just saying you know you gotta go yeah and they see that's the gospel you got to trust him you got to trust what he did you know and that's that's hard because the the basic message of the gospel is you aren't good enough and you never will be you know we've said many times you know in order to accept the good news you have to come to terms with the bad news and and and the bad news hurts it's uncomfortable it it offends us right the good news is Jesus is the Savior the bad news is you need a Savior you know the bad news is because you're a sinner you need a Savior and and so once we get past that you know but the the Bible has never tried to pull its punches related to trying to speak to you and I about the kind of people we really are and our need for for God and His and our need for His mercy you know let me gave you first of all an Old Testament example of this from the book of Isaiah on the screen here for you chapter 64 verse 6 all of us have become like one who is unclean now you and I we hear the word unclean today and it sounds like somebody just didn't use enough soap and warm water but this is a biblical term and those of us who have gone through the Old Testament we've heard this repeated over and over and over a person was considered unclean when they did various things under the Old Testament law that basically disqualified them from worship and actually even being around other people sometimes if you got unclean if you became unclean by touching a dead body or any number of other things you would have to leave the congregation or the peope if they were like encamped in the wilderness you'd have to go outside the camp and stay there for a period of time until you were once again declared clean and you could come back in and worship with the rest of the worshipping community that was how the Mosaic law dealt with that whole issue of clean and unclean but it basically means unacceptable unacceptable okay unclean so what is God saying here as he speaks through Isaiah the prophet all of us have become unacceptable right and then he goes on to define that kind of that position that unacceptable status and he says even the best acts he says your most righteous acts that means that means the best version of you is just like a filthy rag before God and the filthy rag thing has its own biblical meaning I won't get into it it's kind of gross but the point is were unacceptable okay and that's what the Old Testament has been telling us from the very beginning you're unacceptable now the Jews came to a place the point of believing that they were they were acceptable as long as they kept the law and they believed they could do it and so forth but anyway okay here's the bad news from a New Testament perspective most of you know this next verse Romans 3:23 I did a couple of highlights here in caps for all have sinned that means all human beings all humankind we've all sinned and we've all fallen short of the glory of God none of us like to fall short right I remember in high school during taking tests I constantly fell short I was frankly not a very good student because I'm not a good guesser and I don't take tests well and and it was particularly problem because my dad was the superintendent but anyway you know there I was you know falling short over and over and over again and nobody likes to fall sure you don't like to fall short at work you don't like to fall short in your marriage you don't like to fall short when it comes to test taking time but here the Bible says that all of us have fallen short when it comes to God's standard of righteousness and that sort of thing we've all fallen short so again the Bible doesn't pull any punches we're all unacceptable we've all fallen short there you go that is the bad news all right so what do we do when we realize we're kind of we've fallen short well I don't know about you but if I'm going to kind of think through this thing in my own man brain I'm probably gonna come up with a means by which I don't fall short in other words I'm gonna create a situation where I can be good enough and that is essentially man's solution man's solution to the problem of eternal life is to come up with a means by which he can do it I can do this I can measure up all right remember me telling you guys biblical Christianity is the only belief system where it says you're not good enough and you never can be all the other belief systems say here's what you got to do here's what you got to do to measure up and they have all the and there's different you know people who come at your door knock at your door or whatever they're out earning their their their points to be good enough they're trying to measure up okay well that's man's system you know and if I was gonna come up with my own religion I don't recommend it but I would come up with a system where I could measure up that's man's way that's we like to do that because it makes us feel good about ourselves it builds our self-esteem right to say I can do this here's what it takes and I can do it right so what does Paul say about the gospel that he brought to them when he came to the region of Galatia look at verse 11 in your Bible with me as we look at these verses again he says for first of all I would have you know brothers that the gospel that was preached to by me is not man's gospel okay it's not you know and what he the point he was trying to say no man came up with this and you know how you know because when man comes up with a gospel it always has things that man has to do and it is meant to it is designed so that he can measure up that's man's way of doing like I said other than biblical Christianity every other belief system which I believed was basically and essentially created by man has a system built into it where you have to do certain things in order to measure up even some aspects of Christianity have become that right there are certain sectors of Christianity that have begun to add things that you have to do in order to be forgiven or whatever the case might be here's what you got to do you go to somebody who's supposed to be in the know and they'll tell you alright here's what you need to do well that's not biblical Christianity because biblical Christianity is not man's gospel it's not man's way man's way is providing a way for man to measure up the biblical gospel says you don't measure up and you never will this is just that that's it you never will measure and it's offensive for us to hear that right we don't like hearing that nobody likes hearing that you don't measure up and you never will you know now God's not trying to beat you down he's just telling you the truth all right and it's really important that we hear it so what Paul is kind of saying here is you know that this gospel that I brought to you had to come from God because it's not man's way of thinking it's not the thing the kind of thing that man would devise do you guys remember in the Gospel accounts there's that story of that young man Jewish man who came to Jesus essentially who believed very strongly that he could measure up and he came to Jesus and asked Jesus what he must do to you're up he said teacher what must I do to have eternal life and and what he was saying is tell me what to do because see I believe that I can do enough I believe that I can be sufficient right to do what needs to be done in order to be safe so so teacher please tell me what do I need to do and then they had a conversation and and and and Jesus showed the young man that he didn't measure up and he could never measure up and that's why the man walked away sadly and so forth but then Jesus went on to talk to his disciples after that little conversation and and that's what gets really interesting let me put this on the screen for you it's from Matthew chapter 19 goes like this and Jesus said to his disciples truly I say to you only with difficulty will a rich person and this particular guy had a lot of money will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven again I tell you it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God when the disciples heard this they were greatly astonished saying who then can be saved but Jesus looked at them and said with man this is impossible what but with God all things are possible now let me we'll leave the scripture up here for just a little bit let me explain what's kind of going on here so this young man who apparently had a lot of money there have this conversation and so forth and Jesus speaks to him about the fact that he doesn't measure up he can't measure up he never will measure up and as he's walking away sadly Jesus begins to speak to his disciples and he says wow you know ice tell you the truth it is only with difficulty that a rich person could enter the kingdom of heaven in fact he goes on to say it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven now by the way he's talking about a real camel and a real eye of a needle people have tried to redefine that they've tried oh I've heard some fanciful interpretations no you see what they used to do is and they go through these things about how the needle was actually what they called this certain gate in the wall of the Campbells had to kneel down to get through it and you know what that cut you know what that interpretation is it's people trying to measure up they're trying to redefine these things so that they can come up with a system that says oh no no no no see we can measure up it start right no listen did you hear what Jesus said the disciples heard him because even though he was talking about a rich man he said it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle and they're thinking well if it's tough if it's like a camel going through the eye of a needle for a rich man what is it for a poor man is it like a dog going through the eye of a needle cuz that would be just as hard how about a kitty how about a mouse you ever tried to put a mouse through the eye of a needle hey just try putting a worm through the eye of a needle be pretty tough well if it be impossible and that's the point of what Jesus says the disciples understood him and they said what well who then can be saved they knew what he meant look what Jesus comes back and says with man this is impossible did you guys get that it's impossible you can't be saved on your own it's impossible but he doesn't leave us hopeless he says but with God all things are possible that's where we have to rely on mercy his plan his way not ours his work not ours not our way not our works not our plan you with me cuz it's impossible you know oh we Christians if we would just read stuff like this and understand what it means you know so after talking to the people here in Galatia as paulie's through this letter and telling them that this gospel is obviously from God because man would never come up with a message that said hey here's a way to be saved but you can't do it I mean we just wouldn't think that up right he goes on now in the latter part of these verses and he begins to talk about the ability that the gospel has to transform lives to change people okay look in verse 13 he says for you have heard of my former life and Judaism how I persecuted the Church of God violently and tried to destroy it Paul is wanting to remind them right here as he begins now talking about this that here they are being drawn into this law keeping by these Judaizers who've come to Galatia and he's saying you know they're telling you that you have to do these things of the law you have to be circumcised you have to keep the law of Moses and he's starting off here by saying you guys do remember my past right you remember that I was all about the law I was a Pharisee I was a Pharisee of Pharisees I was stricter than any of those guys whatever however strict they were related to the law I was on steroids compared to those guys right and he begins to look what he says in verse 14 he says 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 father's Paul is explaining to them that he was consumed by the law he was consumed with the law and keeping the law and the traditions that went along with the law that the Jews had passed down over time it was it was his life he ate it he slept it he breathed it he drank it this was everything he was totally consumed with the Lord so this is an interesting sort of a thing for Paul to begin to say because he's telling he's talking to these people in Galatia and he's saying listen you guys you guys who want to be you know follow the law you think you talked to somebody who doesn't understand the law you think you're talking to a newbie here as it relates to the law do you understand how focused I was on the law how consumed and I was with keeping the law and all of that and and and you might think here's what he's here's what he's trying to he's trying to get them to come to terms with when he was there in Galatia preaching the gospel to these people he wants them to remember his message did not contain the law as it relates to the means of salvation or the way that a person is saved he didn't throw the law in and he wants them to remember how obsessed he was with the law and he wants them to ask this question how does that happen how does a man who has a PhD in the law and was so zealous for the law he was willing to go to great pains to get rid of these Christians how does a man like that then completely turn around and do a 180 and begin to talk about the way to be saved that doesn't include the law in fact any reference to the law doesn't come into play as it relates to salvation and a righteous standing before God look what he wrote to the Romans from Romans chapter 3 he said no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by observing the law this is a man who was obsessed with the law just years before and now he's writing to people and saying the law doesn't come into play when it comes to salvation the law is not a mechanism by which we are saved and we're kind of sitting back and we're thinking are you joking see we we take statements like this by the Apostle Paul and we just go that's the Apostle Paul but some of these people I mean he's reminding them I wasn't always the Apostle Paul I was Saul of Tarsus in Cilicia I was a Pharisee I was a man who was so zealous for the law I was willing to do whatever it would take to get rid of these people and I was doing more than anybody right if you had known saul of tarsus if you had known him and then you came to hear that he was writing to people selling them that the law didn't come into play as it relates to our salvation you would say no that can't have been written by Saul of Tarsus I'm sorry I know Saul of Tarsus he's all about the law no no no no no he wrote that he read right there Romans his letter to the Romans right how do you do that how what what what has to happen in a person's life for them to have such an incredible transformation that they changed their minds on all this stuff that's what Paul's trying to explain here look at verse 15 he says 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 he begins to talk about some things that we're gonna deal with next time when we go through Galatians when we get into chapter 2 he's gonna talk about how he didn't immediately consult with anybody didn't go up to Jerusalem right away talk to the Apostles in fact he went to go spend some time in Arabia and then he didn't instead to go to Jerusalem he went back to Damascus hung out there for a while and then after three years he finally went up to Jerusalem hung out with Peter for about 15 days saw James and again when we get into chapter 2 we'll refer back to these verses and they'll tell you how they play in here's the point of all of this he says in verse 22 look with me there now verse 22 he says and you know and I was but still basically unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ because I was only there for 15 days I didn't have nearly enough time to get to know those people right look what he says in verse 23 they were only hearing it said he who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy and look what it says in verse 24 and they glorified God because of me if you have an NIV that you're looking at here this morning your Bible says and they praised God because of me but actually that's not a great translation because that's not typically the word that we translate praise this word specifically should be translated glorified because in the Greek listen to this this is interesting in the Greek it means to esteem someone as glorious here's what Paul's saying when they looked at the transformation that happened in my life where I went from being zealous for the law and willing to kill people - then preaching the very gospel that these people held dear when I went from being a persecutor of the gospel to being a preacher of the gospel they esteemed God as glorious because of the transformation that had taken place in my life right again we are so fixated in our culture on self-esteem and building self-esteem Paul makes note of the fact that when people looked at his life it didn't build Paul's self-esteem people esteemed God as glorious and they were like wow look what God did when they looked at the life of Paul because they saw in that transformation something that was miraculous they knew that they knew that they knew that that was something only God could do and so they esteemed him as glorious you know when we look at what happened in somebody's life and we see that it is unmistakably a work of God we can't help but glorify God we can't help but say wow look what God did you know you've probably noticed that we like to do that sort of thing in our advertisements we like to have comparisons we like to compare the old with the new or what was with what now is and with you know that's the way they sell diet programs you know look at Sally here you know she weighed balloon pounds and now after being on their something planned look at her now and we have this split screen where you know Sally is looking very sad and incredibly overweight and here she is you know looking and we all go who and we start sending spending our dollars you know to be on that same diet plan because we want to look just like Sally you know or you know I remember when I was reading comic books when I was a kid I was completely taken in by the drawings in the back of the comic book showing this 98-pound weakling getting sand kicked in his face and if you'll just do this you know sign up for the I don't even know it they're what they were offering because I couldn't afford whatever it was but then they had a picture of a guy you know who was buff and the girls were you know falling all over him you know and I was like yeah that's what I want and then again we see the before in the after picture of the 98-pound weakling and then this guy who's buff and cut yes the Bowflex for just ninety-eight simple payments of $1,000 you too can be buff and cut or we like makeovers sue and I used to watch that show where they would grab people on the street ambush makeover you ever seen that it's kind of funny you know people let me just walk along minding their own business and they're like they grab them and and they're usually looking very plain and very Haggard and whatever and then they bring them in and do their hair and new clothes and makeup and stuff like that and then again at the end of the show we see the split-screen with the old in the new and we're just like wow you know you know they're never gonna look like that again you know because nobody goes home and has that kind of resource you know to make that kind of magic happen but that's all right it's all part of you know what they're trying to accomplish but you know what when we come to Christ we get a makeover Jesus changes people and you and I have the precious privilege to be able to share with others the before and the after picture of what he has done in our lives and if I had the time to let some of you do that some of you would be able to stand up and describe your life before you came to Christ and the way it is now and if you're like me you don't even know that person anymore when you think about the person you used to be and you've heard me multiple times stand up here and give the testimony of my own life and and talk about how God took a young man who have vowed to never darken the door of a church again in his life and Here I am pastoring one that's God you know what I'm saying and and testimonies are just wonderful listen listen listen to this Pat's pastor Steve yet Chick Crystal Lake Illinois described his sister Judy as a party animal a big drinker with a self-contented lifestyle she was someone everybody loved because she just exude excitement and a thrill for life and when Steve tried to share Christ with her over the years she would laugh it off and just keep partying but at the age of 44 her world caved in when she discovered she was very sick she later learned her husband was having an affair he subsequently announced he didn't love her anymore and left her it was in that context that she began to ask questions of an eternal nature and later prayed to receive Jesus as her Savior from that time until she went home to be with the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word and purpose became her life her very priority with the same gusto she lived life as an unbeliever she now approached her new life in Christ her greatest aim was winning others to Jesus she boldly shared her faith even as she was undergoing surgery after surgery Judy ultimately came to see that the greatest miracle would be for her friends and family to come to know Christ she talked her way out of the hospital so that she could be baptized and publicly proclaimed Christ as the only way of salvation Judy invited everyone she knew to come to her baptism service and under the Holy Spirit's anointing she powerfully and urgently shared her testimony her 84 year old father came to Christ that night and was baptized along with her ex-husband a number of her nieces a college roommate who was a new-age cultist her aunt her sister and others ten days later Judy slipped into the arms of Jesus and when Steve her brother read the message that she had prepared to be read at her funeral service another 100 people prayed to receive Christ that day and that's just one testimony of a transformed life cut to the split screen Judy before probably with a bottle in her hand looking like she'd you know been living a hard life now the other side of the screen with joy radiating from her face doing everything she can spending every last moment she had to let people know what Jesus had done for her to her so that they too would be able to come along for the same ride that she had taken and that's just one testimony I share this with you because here is the Apostle Paul writing to people who are heading down a dangerous path and he begins to just talk about the difference that Jesus made in his life you guys know he said my previous life you know the kind of a guy I was you know how sold out I was to the law and you know the gospel that I preached to you you know the transformation that Jesus made in my life to make me into a completely different person I mean good grief you know I think we all ought to get a new name don't you think just like Saul and Paul I think we ought when you get saved you ought to get a new name you know because the transformation is that incredible that powerful I want to encourage you some of you guys have not been sharing your faith with others because you feel intimidated that you don't know enough of the Bible to really hold your own and I get that I do and I don't want to belittle you for that because you know we're all in the process we're all growing we're all learning and a lot of us feel incomplete at least in the sense of our ability to kind of articulate the Word of God at just the right time with just the right words I get that but you know what regardless of where you are in your walk with God you have a testimony you have a testimony of what Jesus did in your life and how he is present tense changing your life for the better I would encourage you to share that with people Paul thought it was worthwhile thing to do did you just start saying hey let me tell you about you know the kind of a life that I used to live you know I always kind of felt like I never wanted to I was always thankful that God never called me to go back to Minnesota and be a teacher of his his word there because everybody knew what a dweeb I was when I lived there and and you know I mean I was yeah not going there but was I was not the picture of a Christian not even close to living that kind of a lifestyle and I always kind of thought boy thank you God you know but you know part of me kind of would like to go back and let people see the transformation because that's not something that you and I can lay claim to to say look what I did with my life right all we can say is Wow look what God did you know he took this life and he transformed it and it's his life you

Channel: Calvary Chapel Ontario

Views: 14,315

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Keywords: Bible, Bible teaching, Thru-the-Bible, verse by verse, Calvary Chapel, Bible study, Christianity, New Testament, Old Testament

Id: BwDgeQ15KOQ

Length: 37min 45sec (2265 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 03 2017