My Life Is a Witness of the Gospel | Galatians 1:11-24

All right, Galatians 1.

Before I read, just to give you an, an idea again of what is going on

here, the Apostle Paul seems to be, uh, constructing an argument for

s- uh, being saved by grace, right?

And not adding a bunch of other things to it on how to be saved.

And one of the things if, if you were here last week, you remember, is he was saying

that people were perverting the Gospel.

They were maybe adding to it.

And again, we don't have exactly what that is.

We have to kind of, uh, deduce it from the scriptures as we read, 'cause we

only have one side of the argument.

And one of the things that the, uh, Apostle Paul made clear was that his

gospel that he has is from God, uh, unlike the people who have been coming

to the church and who have probably, uh, a little bit been, uh, besmirching

his character and his ministry.

And so he's gonna go, he's gonna begin to go into a defense about

his, his life and his ministry.

Uh, hold on one second.

I printed last week's message.

That's not good.

Now I gotta go digital.

I hope.

Sorry, guys.

Now we're waiting for the internet to update but while it

does that, and hopefully it does

Or wait, do you have my message, Adele, back there?

No.

Okay.

I don't know what happened.

Hold on a second.

Well, let's, let's read and then I'll go from there.

I've never done a, a s- a teaching by memory, so that's not good

This is like, mm

Do you have a hotspot?

Yeah, it's like a bad connection here for some reason.

Hold on.

Let me see if I can do something else.

Oh, there we go.

Just had to turn…

All right.

Whoo.

Remind, I just said, "Aaron, come back and worship a little more," 'cause I am

not gonna remember all this stuff I have.

So Adele, whatever I gave you, just disregard it, I guess, the, the add-on.

So, uh, but the chapter I gave you last night is good.

All right, so let's read.

Start in verse 10 just so we can get an idea of, uh, the

Apostle Paul's argument here.

He says this: "For I am not seeking the favor of men.

For am I now seeking the favor of man or of God?"

That's his…

He's like, "Am I seeking God's favor or man's favor?"

He says, "Or am I striving to please men?

If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ."

And then he goes on.

He goes into his argument here.

He's gonna back up what he's saying here.

He says, "For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was

preached by me is not according to men."

Again, his argument is that I got the gospel from, from the

Lord Jesus in his revelation to me, which he's gonna say next.

"For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it

through the revelation of Jesus Christ.

For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to

persecute the Church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it.

And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my

countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.

But when He who set me apart, even from my mother's womb, and called me through

His grace was pleased to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the

Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up

to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia,

and returned once more to Damascus.

Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with

Cephas, and stayed with him 15 days.

But I did not see any other apostles except James, the Lord's brother.

Now in what I am writing to you, I assure you before God that I am not lying.

Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

And I was still unknown by s- by sight to the churches of Judea which are in

Christ; but only, they kept hearing, 'He who once persecuted us is now preaching

the faith which he once tried to destroy.'

And they were glorifying God because of me."

So in this passage, as I mentioned, Paul is continuing to defend the

gospel he preached by explaining what that true gospel is.

And he points to a few things here before we get into it,

kinda give you an overview.

He point, he points to its divine origin, explaining that he

received it from God, not from men.

Because many people believe that these, uh, people that have come into the church

were saying, "Well, the Apostle Paul, you know, um, he didn't get this from God.

He got it from some other people and, and he's not as authoritive

or authoritative as he's making him out, making himself out to be."

So in this argument, he's, he's gonna be defending himself, which is why he

talks about himself so much here in the first ch- in the first chapter So he's

pointing out that, hey, I've received it from the Lord and not from men.

He also points that there's a transforming power of that gospel

that's demonstrated in his own life.

Well, we can't stop short, as we'll see.

He's like, "Well, I believed in the gospel, and that's it."

Right?

God saves us unto something, and we'll see that.

Thirdly, we'll see as we examine Paul's testimony, we'll, we'll see

that the gospel he preached was not merely a message he proclaimed,

it was a message that he lived, that it transformed his life.

And so in the same way, when we get to our application, we're gonna see

our lives should serve as a witness to the transforming power of the gospel.

Right?

It's just not an intellectual exercise.

There's a, there's a transformation that takes place.

So the question we, we want to consider when we go through this is, is how do

we demonstrate that we are servants of the living God, which is what the

title of this message is, now that I have the right one on my phone.

Okay.

So Paul, what's Paul's claim at the very beginning here in verses 11 and 12?

Look at the text again.

He's making a very, uh, powerful claim.

He's saying that this gospel that I preach to the Galatians is not from men.

It's divine in its origin.

He didn't receive it from anybody.

He wasn't taught it by anybody, right?

And that's why we'll see in a few moments, he goes to the extent of

saying he didn't even see the apostles, because many, uh, commentators believe

that one of these accusations against him was that, hey, he had to go sit

under the apostles and they taught him, or his message isn't as authoritative

as the gosp- as the apostles, and maybe it's a little different.

And we'll see that as we go through this book.

But he's gonna argue that his message, his gospel that he's bringing is divine.

It has no human auth- it has no human authority, and neither was

it a product of his own reasoning.

He didn't make it up

So what's the evidence for this claim?

'Cause it's a powerful claim, right?

If somebody were to tell you, "Hey, I, I got this message from God," how would

we determine if it was from God or not?

Well, what's Paul's evidence?

His evidence is found in verses 13 through 14.

His first part is he's gonna talk about that his life demonstrates that

he did not already know the gospel.

It wasn't s- he, he wasn't even aware of the gospel.

He wasn't a student of the gospel.

He wasn't a student of Christ.

In fact, he rejected the witness of the apostles, and that's

the important thing, right?

Because if he's being accused of learning it from the apostles,

he said, "You know what?

I rejected their message at first."

Look at verses 13 and 14 with that understanding.

He says, "For you have heard of my former manner of life and Judaism."

So before he was, uh, presented with the gospel.

He says, "How I persecuted the Church of God beyond measure

and tried to destroy it."

So it wasn't that he just rejected it.

He wanted to destroy the message that was being proclaimed by the apostles, right?

He sought to destroy it.

Instead, he's, in verse 14, what did he do?

He said, "I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among

my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions."

He goes, "Contrary to learning the gospel and focusing on, on the, the

gospel of Christ, I was focused on Judaism, my ancestral traditions.

That was my main focus."

So once the gospel was delivered to him, look at verses 15

through 16, what did he do?

He says, "But when he who had set me apart, even from my mother's womb,

and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me that I

might preach Him among the Gentiles."

When he finally got confronted where, where Jesus revealed

himself to him, he was transformed in that very instant, right?

He said, "I was transformed, and I was not only transformed,

but I was called to preach."

He was given a ministry to proclaim the gospel.

There is a hint here that Paul seems to be emphasizing that it was nothing, as

we've sung about, that he didn't deserve.

Nothing he deserved.

Nothing that he earned from his life, right?

He says, "Through His grace, He revealed His Son in me."

It wasn't like the Lord said, "Oh, look at the Apostle Paul.

He's learned so much of my doctrines that I'm going to use him."

No, it was after his calling, uh, to come to Christ where the Lord revealed

himself to him, that he became so powerful in his presenting of the

gospel and preaching His Son, right?

He understood, "Hey, God's called me to reveal Hims- His Son to the Gentiles."

That was Paul's ministry.

If you remember going through the Book of Acts, that's what he was called to do

And ultimately, just on a side note here, just thinking of, of some personal

application here, ultimately it is God who calls each and every one of us, is it not?

It is through the Spirit of God that everybody comes to know the Lord.

It's not the works of men.

Now, God now uses men by proclaiming His Gospel to, maybe to argue for

the Gospel or give you a, a, a, a presentation in such a way that it makes

sense, but it is ultimately the Spirit of God that brings men to salvation.

Right?

It's not like, "Hey, I got saved by such and such pastor."

You know, they might have led you to the Lord, but it was the Spirit of God

working in you through that message to bring, to reveal Himself to you.

And let me give you a couple examples in scripture.

In 1 Corinthians 1:26-30, the Apostle Paul says this to the Corinthian church.

1 Corinthians 1:26–30

He says, "For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many

wise according to the flesh, nor many mighty, not many noble; but God has

chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the

weak things of the world to shame things that were strong, and the base

things of the world and the despised.

God has chosen the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that

are, that no man should boast before God."

This goes to the point of, like, He didn't call somebody because

they were so great or so noble

It goes on to say in verse 30, "But His doing…"

Excuse me.

"But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus."

That's the important thing.

By His doing you became saved.

That's what the, that's what the Apostle Paul was emphasizing here at the church

of Corinth and in his presentation of his testimony to the Galatian church.

It was God that has revealed himself to me, not anybody else.

It wasn't like I was attracted to such and such pastor.

I'm following that pastor.

I'm following that pastor's teaching.

No, it's God and God, God alone.

If you look at chapter three in 1 Corinthians, turn a couple pages to,

uh, 1 Corinthians 3:5 and 9, the Apostle Paul continues on this understanding

1 Corinthians 3:5

of we're called by Christ and nobody else, and we follow God and nobody else.

He mentions, uh, uh, Go- one of God's servants named Apollos.

He says this: "What then is Apollos?

And what is Paul?

Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one."

So he's talking about, "Hey, you guys don't follow us.

God gave us an opportunity to teach the Word of God, and you

came to the Lord through God."

He says, "So then neither one who plants nor one who waters is anything,

but God who causes the growth."

It's God who causes the growth.

Even as us as believers now, right?

So he's speaking after this section about believers.

It's y- you grow not because, oh, you sit under some great teacher.

No, it's God who causes the growth.

Or you don't grow because you have a great study habit, so you…

Or you're reading the right literature or listening to the right sermons.

It's God who causes you to understand what you're reading,

understand what you're listening to.

He causes the growth.

He causes the growth.

He goes on to say in verse eight, "Now he who plants and he who waters

are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his labor.

For we are God's fellow workers.

You are God's field, God's building."

Notice the emphasis, emphasis there.

Everything is God.

It is God who's does the work.

You are God's.

You don't belong to a certain, uh, you know, church in the sense that, hey,

uh, that's why I grew, so to speak.

No, it's God who causes the increase.

And so the Apostle Paul is demonstrating that, hey, God causes the increase.

It's not that I went to the apostles.

It's not that I'm some great, uh, doctrinal teacher.

It is God who just uses me as His vessel.

And then he, and then he hits the point in verse 16 that he did

not go right when he got saved.

If you remember the Apostle Paul's testimony as we go through, as we went

through the Book of Acts, what happened to the Apostle Paul after he, uh, saw this

bright light and the Lord spoke to him?

This is what he says in verse 17.

He says, um, I will look at the verse of the back…

or excuse me, the last half of verse 16.

He says, "I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood."

So he says, "Once I got saved, I didn't immediately go and consult with anybody."

He says, "Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles."

Here he's addressing, which many believe is the argument.

It's like, "Hey, he had to go get trained by the apostles," or,

"He's subservient to the apostles."

It's like, "I didn't go up there immediately, but I went away to Arabia

and returned once more to Damascus.

Then three years later, I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted

with Cephas and stayed with him 15 days, but I did not see any other

apostle except James, the brother."

So what's going on here?

Again, he's showing that his activities after he was, uh,

the Lord was revealed to him.

So was, he wasn't dependent on the apostles' teaching.

He didn't go up to Jerusalem.

Again, his claim is the message that he has was from God, not from anybody else,

and so that's why he's arguing this way.

He's not saying, "I'm better than the apostles."

Don't misunderstand that.

He's not saying that.

He's just saying, "I didn't go to them.

I didn't get confirmed by them.

I didn't get sent out by them.

I get sent out by God."

Right?

He says he went away to Arabia.

Again, this is to show that he didn't go down to Jerusalem,

but he went somewhere else.

And if you were to go back to Acts 9:19-20, right after the Apostle Paul

Acts 9:19–20

is, uh, saved, and he does visit, um, if you remember, he went to see Ananias,

who was one of the disciples in Damascus.

Look at verse 19 and verse 20 of Acts chapter 9

Acts 9 · chapter mention

Says now the second sentence in verse 19, "Now, for several days he was with

the disciples who were at Damascus."

These aren't the apostles, these are just fellow believers.

"And immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues."

That's the point there.

Immediately after salvation and a few days with the, some of the disciples

after he regained his sight and ate some food, he began preaching the gospel.

He did not go to Jerusalem to learn the gospel and then come

back to Damascus to, to preach.

That's the point here.

As a matter of fact, he said, "I even went to Arabia."

And there's a lot of speculation about what he went to Arabia

for because we're not told.

Some people believe he went there to spend some time with

God and to prepare for ministry.

Others, uh, depending on the commentator that you read, says

he went there and even preached the gospel to fulfill his mission.

So he was already preaching before he went up to Jerusalem.

That's where we get to verse 17, right?

And, excuse me, verse 18, he says, "Then three years later,

I went up to Jerusalem."

And he went up to Jerusalem, says, "To become acquainted with Cephas and James."

There's only two apostles there, James being the brother of Jesus.

And he was only there 15 days.

It was more like a meet and greet than, "Okay, I'm getting

discipled by the apostles."

He says, "This is what happened to me."

And that's why in verse n- 20 he says, "Now, I'm writing to you,"

this is him swearing an oath, "before God that I am not lying."

It's like, "I'm not lying about my testimony."

Many commentators say this is actually like an oath, right?

He's like saying like, "Before God," like with the authority of God, as God

as my witness, he's saying, I s- like, "I swear to you, I'm telling you the truth."

Right?

And it's even to say, hey, some believe it's like he's swearing this oath

as a warning to the people that are making these false accusations against

him, that, "Hey, I will even go to court to back up what I am saying."

So he's issuing a defense that, hey, my testimony of all

that I've just said is true.

And then he goes back, now back to verse 21.

He goes back to his timeline of his life.

He says, "Then I was…

Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia."

If you go back to, uh, Acts chapter 9 with me one more time, because this

Acts 9 · chapter mention

is where it shows that he went there before going to see the apostles in a

way that where they confirm his message.

In Acts 9:29-30

Acts 9:29–30

It says this.

So he says, "And when he was talking and arguing with the Hellenistic Jews, but

they were attempting to put him to death."

So he's proclaiming the gospel, and they're gonna put him to death.

What do they do?

The church says, but, uh, uh, Luke writes, "But when the brethren learned

of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him away to Tarsus."

And Tarsus is in Cilicia.

And then we don't pick up his story again for, like, two, uh, two

chapters where Barnabas goes, "I'm gonna go find Paul in Tarsus," which

shows that he was in those regions that he says, in Syria and Cilicia.

Says, "That's what I was doing.

I was already proclaiming the gospel all over the world."

And then he goes to his final, uh, the Roman world, I should say.

Then he goes to his final argument at the end of chapter one of Galatians,

if you go back there with me

To reinforce that he has not been influenced by humans' authority,

he said, "And I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea,

Judea which were in Christ."

He said, "The people in Judea, they didn't even…

They've never even seen me before.

They've only," in verse 26, "They've only heard of me, and

they kept hearing about me."

They kept hearing that, hey, the one that used to persecute

the church is now preaching the very message that he opposed.

And as a result, in verse 24, it says, "They were glorifying God because of me."

So again, all this to say is like the message that I'm proclaiming, these

people are glorifying God because of it.

So I'm not bringing you a different gospel like these men

who have come into the church are.

As a matter of fact, they're glorifying God because of the message that I'm

proclaiming and the way that I'm doing it.

And so there, the Apostle Paul gives his defense of what he has been doing

and what he has done in the church

So with that said, let me just, uh, conclude the sermon this morning

with a few points of application as we, again, taking what Paul has done

and applying it to our own lives.

Going back to the very beginning, how do we demonstrate we are

servants of the living God?

Remember, the Apostle Paul in verse 10 said that.

He says, "I would not be a bond servant of Christ if he was

to please men instead of God."

And so we take a look at all that he said after that and incorporate

that into some application.

So how do we demonstrate that we are servants of the living God?

Going from the testimony of the Apostle Paul.

Well, the first and most important thing is that we testify to God's

gracious revelation of Christ.

Now, we see these three details in Paul's life.

Now, they're not directly in the passage, right?

But in the passage, the emphasis in, in God's gracious initiative in

revealing Jesus to Paul, we see it.

So the question is, how do we demonstrate that we've been, uh, saved by grace?

How do we demonstrate that God has graciously revealed His Son to us?

Well, the first one is this, is we confess our sins, right?

When you say, "God has spoken to me," like, He- God called me, God saved me.

Part of that salvation is that we confess our sins.

We understand we've sinned against God.

God's revealed that to us, therefore, we confess it.

People who have not confessed their sins, they might have been…

They might understand they're doing wrong, but God hasn't revealed to

them the seriousness of their sins in such a way that they confess it

But that's why two people could sit in church and hear the same message and

then at an altar call or in a call to follow the Lord, only one of them goes

For whatever reason, it hasn't been revealed to them the seriousness of

their sins, that they need salvation, which is the second point, as we

recognize our need for salvation.

That's how you testify to God's gracious revelation of Christ.

As you confess your sins, you recognize that I need salvation.

I need the Lord in my life.

I need His forgiveness

And then thirdly, you trust in Christ and turn, or we trust in Christ and

turn from our former way of life.

There's a realization that, hey, I've, I beli- I confess my sins.

I recognize that I need a savior.

I trust him for my salvation, and now I'm going to turn from my

former way of life and follow him.

That's what we see in the Apostle Paul's life, do we not?

Right, he demonstrates that he's been transformed, which is our second point.

How do we demonstrate we are servants of the living God?

We demonstrate the transforming power of God's grace.

Paul said this here in the text.

Right, he says, "You heard of my former," which means this is what I used to do.

"My former life, I pursued Judaism.

I was zealous for my ancestral traditions, and these were all contrary to the law

of God in a way that brings salvation."

So again, Paul's life demonstrated that God's grace does more than

just turns, does, does more than just change a person's belief.

It redirects the person's life and purpose.

It's not so much that we have this head knowledge, "Okay, I

understand what salvation is.

I, I," you know, in, in an academic way, but there's some

results because of you're saved.

You're transformed, right?

Our, our former life is no longer our pattern.

We no longer live like we used to live.

This is what the Apostle Paul said again in Galatians, like, "My former life."

Each and every one of us who are believers should have a former life

of the way that we pursued things

Our life is now directed toward serving Christ.

Turn with me to the book of Ephesians, which is just the next book over, chapter

four, and look at verse 17 through 24 where the Apostle Paul explains this

He says, "This I say therefore and affirm together with the Lord."

Okay, so now let me make this clear.

He's speaking to the believing church, right?

He's saying if you're a believer, this applies to you.

This is…

He says, "That you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walked in

the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding,

excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them

because of the hardness of their heart.

And they, having become callous, have given themselves over to

sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you heard

Him and have been taught in Him, just as the truth is in Jesus."

That's important.

He says, "If…"

Look at that.

"If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him."

So there's, if you're a Christian and you've heard of Christ and you've been

taught in Him, then there's a difference.

There's a transformation in your life.

You can't stay in that former life and try to convince pe- You can try

to convince us that you're a believer, and it's ultimately up to God to say

who's a believer and who's not, but the evidence would speak against you being a

believer if you stay in your former life.

You just have an intellectual understanding of salvation

Look at verse 22.

He says that, "In reference to your former manner of life, you lay

aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the

lust and deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind."

So there's a laying aside of our former life, right?

Some of us have a longer former life and a uglier former life than others, right?

Right, some of the younger kids in our congregation would be like,

"I don't really have a f- a former life that I need to turn from.

I, you know, you just … They're not as bad as … I wasn't

bad as Pastor Robert was."

He goes on again, "So lay aside your old self, which is being corrupted in

accordance with lusts and deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

And then put on the new self, which is in likeness of Christ- has been created

in righteousness and holiness of truth."

So it's like, "Hey, I'm gonna take off these old clothes

that represent my former life.

I'm putting on the new ones in righteousness and truth."

That's the picture he's giving us.

So if you're gonna reveal that you are, uh, following the Gospel of God, that

you're saved, you're gonna demonstrate it by the transforming power of God's grace.

He's transformed your life, taking you from your former life and into a new life.

Now, it doesn't mean you're perfect.

It doesn't mean you won't go back and put on the old clothes once in

a while, 'cause we all do, right?

Meaning we still sin, none of us…

We will not be perfect until the Lord comes and takes us home.

We will continue to sin, and sometimes you may continue to sin over the same

thing over and over and over again.

But a believer will repent of those things every time and, and

resolve and try to follow the Lord.

He won't just say, "Well, I'm saved, but…

And the Lord forgives me, so I can just do what I want."

That's not the mind of a believer.

That's someone who doesn't truly understand what Christ has done for us.

He saved us as, as Andrew read this morning, to walk in, what?

Newness of life

The third and final way that we could take to demonstrate that we have this

new life is that we maintain a godly witness among those who know us.

So remember the Apostle Paul at the very end.

He says, "Hey, these people, they haven't seen me, but they hear of me.

They hear about me.

They hear that this guy that used to persecute the church is no

longer persecuting the church.

He's actually proclaiming the gospel, and we glorify God because of it,

because it's the right gospel."

That is what I would say about our lives, that, that we maintain a godly

witness among those who know us, right?

Our changed life testifies to God's work in us.

All right, we're demonstrating that God is working in me.

Our words and conduct point others to Christ.

That's what the Apostle Paul was doing, right?

He was preaching the gospel that he once persecuted.

He's preaching the faith.

Let your life preach the faith, and let our testimony bring glory to God.

Right, we can ask ourselves as believers, does our testimony, does

my life, you know, as much as I can, as much as it depends on me,

is it bringing glory to Christ, or is it bringing reproach to Christ?

When people hear about me, "Oh, that guy?"

What, what's their first thought?

He's a believer or he's not a believer?

Or, "I don't really know."

You see, our lives should provide a credible witness to the transforming

grace that God has on our lives so that those who know us, they can see

a difference, and they can see that difference that Christ has made and gi-

and they can give glory to God like the early church did about the Apostle Paul.

Jesus said it the best, and I'll conclude with this, this last verse.

In Matthew 5:16, fortunate because I gave Adele the wrong notes,

Matthew 5:16

it won't go up there, but you can just write this verse down.

Jesus said this: "Let your light shine before men in such a way that

they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven."

That's what the Apostle Paul did, and that's what we're called to do as well.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we thank you once again for your Word.

We thank you for the recorded Word that was written to the Galatian church.

And as we can see, Lord, it still applies to us today.

So I pray that you would help each and every one of us who claims the

name of Christ, that we would not only believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but

that we would follow him, and that we would glorify him in such a way that

people would see our good works and glorify our Father who's in heaven.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.