Doing or Done Part 2 Galatians 11 5

Well, good morning. Welcome to Faith Bible Church. We're glad you're here this morning and those that are tuning in remotely online, we're blessed that you're able to still stay a little connected to us.

You know, nothing really replaces that face-to-face and all that, but we're waiting on the Lord and grateful that He is allowing us to do what we're doing. And so we thank you for tuning in and for being here.

One announcement is normally this time of year we'd be having our annual business meeting and talking about the budget and things, and we're still going to do that. We're just going to postpone it a little bit.

It will happen in the first two weeks of February. It's in the bylaws that it's to occur on a Wednesday, and we're thinking, well, given accessibility and timing and scheduling, we may just maybe add it on to a morning service.

So just so more people are already mobilized being here, and those that want to come can. So kind of, I'd say, put it on your calendar, but just kind of put that in your mind. We need to give you an update.

We owe that to you as to what's been banging around and things like that. So in the first, probably the second week in February, either that Wednesday or very likely a Sunday. So keep that in mind, please.

Worship, Prayer, and the Glory of God

Okay, and so would you join with me in prayer this morning? Lord God, we thank you that you have gathered us together, Father. We wait upon you, Lord, to guide us and lead us in our worship. Father, you are so worthy of our praise.

You are worthy of our adoration, and may we lift our voices with a glad heart, Father, knowing that you love us, that you care for us more than anything on this planet, Father, that you are our guide and our shepherd.

And Lord, may we honor you now with our songs, with our preaching, Lord. We pray that you would bless Pastor John as he shares the burden that's on his heart for this church and for each one of us, Father.

So we thank you for him. Thank you that we just ask that you go before him, Father, in preparing him. And Lord, bless our service this morning. We commit it to your care, Father. We pray the Holy Spirit would guide and lead us this morning, and that we would honor you in all that we do, Father.

So we love you, and we acknowledge your centrality in our lives, Father. And in this service and this morning, we pray in Christ's name, amen. And as I was preparing for this morning, I was pondering what it means to glorify God, to see His glory.

And we talk about that a lot, glorifying, glory, glory to God. And many would say, and I've said it many times, that we were created to bring glory to God. That's why we were on this earth. Psalm 96, 7 through 9 says, Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples, give to the Lord glory and strength.

Give to the Lord the glory, do His name. Bring an offering and come into His courts. O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Tremble before Him all the earth. And one pastor defined God's glory like this, The glory of God is the manifest beauty of His holiness.

It is the going public of His holiness. It's the outpouring. It's the expression of His holiness. And in relation to creation, Psalm 19, 1 says that the heavens declare the glory of God. So what does that mean?

And to quote again, it means He is shouting at us. He shouts with clouds. He shouts with blue expanse. He shouts with gold on the horizons. He shouts with galaxies and stars. He is shouting, I am glorious.

Open your eyes. It is like this, only better if you know me. And that's what we should be doing this morning. We should be shouting out to Him and acknowledging His glory. I mean, we get a little sedentary.

We kind of flat in our worship possibly, but in your hearts, rejoice, bring forth what God is due because He is worthy of our praise. So if you would stand with me this morning, we're going to sing our first song is All Glory, Laud and Honor.

So let's let the Lord lead us in our worship this morning. Great singing. We're now going to sing How Firm a Foundation, a wonderful hymn that most of you are familiar with. Let's sing that together. Brother Jim is going to come forward and read scripture reading this morning.

Good morning. As it said on the board, it features chapter two, verses eight to 22. For by grace are ye saved through faith and not that of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works that any man should boast.

For we are His bookmanship, created Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Wherefore, we remember that we, being in time past, just as in flesh, who are called on circumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made night by blood of Christ. For He is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in His flesh the damn ability, even the law of commandments, containing ordinances, for to make Him in Himself of praying more one new man, by so making peace, and that He might reconcile both unto God, you know, in one body by the cross, having slain an enemy thereby, and came and preached peace to you, which were far off, and to them that were nigh.

For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore, we are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and in the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fairly framed together growth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are building together for habitation of God through the spirits.

May the Lord bless you to be of His word.

Thank you, Jim. You know, when we, if we were to strip away everything that surrounds us on this horizontal plane in this world, we live our homes, our jobs, our cars, our bank accounts, whatever it is, when we take all that away, all that's left really is we have Christ, and that really ought to be our starting point, not our ending point, but we should begin there and be satisfied and be content in Him.

Take away all that other stuff, and what are we left with? We're left with Christ. He's the, He's the essence of who we are and what we believe. So let's stand together. We're going to sing, All I Have is Christ.

Christ as the Foundation of the Church

Ephesians chapter two. So Ephesians chapter two, and we're going to go to Galatians in just a moment, but Ephesians chapter two, where Jim read, and before we go any further, let's go ahead and pray. Father, we're so thankful for this time in Your Word.

It is the bread of life. Peter says to long for the pure milk of the Word that we may grow thereby, and that is our prayer, God. All we have is Christ. God, that song that we so love, show us Christ. That's what we want.

That's what we need, is Christ. More and more of our Savior, God. So we ask now that the Holy Spirit might teach us, might open our eyes, Father, to the truths of Your Word, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

So if you have your notes, you've probably figured out I want to continue speaking with you on the message title, Doing or Done. And remember when I talk about doing versus done, I'm talking about summarizing the singular difference between the gospel that Jesus Christ lived, died, and was buried and rose again on the third day for, that gospel that He preached and taught and died for, and every other false gospel taught throughout human history.

Now, as I mentioned last week, as Faith Bible Church looks ahead to 2021, and what the Lord may have for this church, I was impressed a few weeks ago that it would be helpful if we spent some time dealing with some basic and foundational biblical truths when it comes to anchoring us together and bringing unity when it comes to the truths of God's Word.

Think for a moment with me about river rafting. I have done it, but I've done it on a lazy river with my feet hanging over the side, no life preserver. But think about river rafting, going down a river where you know there are big rapids.

Maybe you've seen videos of that and you're tossed all over the place. Think about how people that raft down a river like that prepare. They make sure they have a life preserver on and that it's tied tight, that it's fastened tight.

Very often, if you've watched any videos of this, you've seen them, they have helmets on. And another thing they do is they make sure that they have a line tied to the raft and that they are anchored securely to the raft should the raft turn over or should they be ejected from the raft.

And we can think of one of the goals of this series of messages doing just that, to help prepare and protect us for the rapids that we might be facing in 2021. You know, when a rock climber is going to scale a vertical rock face, like if you've been to Yosemite, El Capitan, unless they're doing something that I think is insane, which is called free climbing, where they go up these things with no ropes, nothing, these climbers that climb rock faces have hammers, they have pitons, they have long links of very strong rope, and they have a whole series of hooks and clips.

And as they begin to climb this rock face, they carefully pound into the rock face, these pitons, and they do not move until the pitons are secure, the ropes are secure, they are attached, and then they slowly make their way up the face of a rock cliff.

And it's fascinating to watch, fascinating to watch, foot by foot. And see, my point is that churches need to do something similar. As we saw a few weeks ago, when the Bible talks about living in the last days, and as the return of Jesus Christ continues to approach and get ever closer, true believers and churches need to be anchored in the sound doctrine based upon the Word of God.

And this is why one reason why 2 Corinthians 3 .16 says all Scripture, all Scripture, Genesis to Revelation, is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man or woman of God may be complete or mature, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

And this is one of the goals of this series of message. My prayer is that we who are here, and those watching by video, watching online, would have as our goal, our unified goal, sound doctrine of being corrected if we are off.

That's what the word correction there is, course correction. You're drifting and you come back. You're corrected back. And of being instructed in righteousness, listen, so that we are equipped for every good work, come what may down the road.

Amen? That we are equipped, that we have our ropes, and our hammers, and our pitons, only we have the Word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit. Now, take a look at this. This is a stone house. Maybe you've seen a stone house.

And here is another one. And if you look carefully right there, see how big that is? And I don't know if you can see, it's fairly square. I'm not a stonemason, but I have had the opportunity to meet a few.

And what a stonemason would tell us about this house is how important the cornerstone of the house is, and how careful a master stonemason is when they begin to shape, and form, and place that cornerstone.

And they would tell you that it is the same for every one of the foundation stones. Now, these are rough stones, but not on the four edges that you can't see. They would tell you how carefully they chisel, and they prepare those stones.

And the reason is, because if the cornerstone is off even the slightest, it affects each of the foundation stones. And as those stones are off, it affects the rest of the stones, and then it affects the entire house.

All of the walls of that house will be out of plum. So a stone house. Now look with me at the verses that Jim just read, and how the Apostle Paul applies the Word of God, and the teaching of the Word of God to the Christian life.

Now, if you're not familiar with this passage, Jim read beginning in verse 8, we deal with, for by grace have you been saved through faith, and not, what, of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works.

So we have the doing versus done. Then he gets into a discussion beginning in verse 11 about this wall that separates Judaism and Christianity. Okay, and the wall's broken down. There's no Jew or Gentile anymore in Christ.

But where I want to call your attention to is verse 19. Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself, what, being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fit together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

So, if you can look carefully at that, Jesus Christ is the cornerstone. What that tells us is if our doctrines and our teachings about Jesus Christ is off at all, what? The whole church is going to be off.

This is why every Christmas when they talk about, oh, the virgin birth of Jesus Christ doesn't really matter. Or this Easter when all those television specials come on about the resurrection. Well, we don't really know for sure if He rose from the dead after three days.

Maybe He fainted. Maybe He was laying in that tomb wrapped in all those burial cloths and He was just, you know, unconscious. And somehow He woke up and broke Himself out of this plaster. It doesn't matter.

Yes, it does. Everything about Christ that the Bible teaches us matters. And all of the foundation that was laid by the apostles matters. Because in verse 21, here's our vision as a church. Every church should have this vision.

In whom the whole building, that's us. Church, can I make sure you understand something? This church is not these walls. You got that? This church is us. And those of you watching by video. In whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

In whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place in the Spirit. Jesus is the cornerstone. Believers must know Him and know what the Bible teaches about Him. The foundation of the gospel and Christian living that were taught and put into place in the rest of the New Testament by the apostles.

So our goal, beginning last Sunday and for the next few Sundays, is to direct our attention to the gospel and the importance of being unified on the biblical gospel. And in particular, comprehending and understanding the biblical gospel in order to keep our call and election sure in 2021.

Amen? That's the goal. So back to Galatians. Just a couple pages back to Galatians. Galatians chapter one. And back to this message title of doing or done. The goal and purpose of today and God willing the next few weeks in the Word of God is to be unified in our knowledge and understanding of the gospel that Jesus Christ preached and died for and was buried and rose again after three days.

And to be sure, church, to be sure, to know for sure that we have truly been born again and responded by faith to the biblical gospel. We learn in God's Word that beginning all the way back in the Garden of Eden, Satan's primary tactic and strategy and his war against the kingdom of God is to attack the authority of God's Word.

And beginning with Christ's birth, death, burial, and resurrection, and until the second coming of Christ, in addition to attacking the authority of God's Word, he is going to be attacking the gospel, the biblical gospel.

And this approach makes a lot of sense. You see, if Satan can deceive people into thinking that they're saved when they're not, he's way ahead of the game. He's way ahead in the war. If he can raise up pastors and teachers that don't teach a biblical gospel, then he's that much further ahead.

And that is happening in many seminaries today. The reality is that in terms of picking a strategy and crafting a strategic knockout that could potentially topple the church, Satan could have not picked, couldn't have picked a more important target than the gospel.

And this is because fellowship with God and eternity is at stake. You see, like the cornerstone and foundation of a stone house, if someone or a church is off on the gospel, even a smidgen, then the whole church will be off.

This is one of the points. This is one of the main points and lessons of this letter. Jesus said, the gates of hell will, what? Not prevail against the church. So, we know the end of the story, amen. I mean we know Jesus is coming again.

We can rest in that. We know King Jesus is coming. And it's not going to matter who's president when He comes. I mean you can be living in North Korea, when King Jesus comes it doesn't matter, amen. But that doesn't mean Satan is not going to attack the church and try to destroy it.

So, because of this frontline strategy of the devil, Galatians is a book of stellar importance because of its emphasis on being saved by grace through faith alone in Christ alone. Numerous respected scholars suggest that this is perhaps the most important book in the New Testament.

Now, how important, how important is Galatians? How important was it to Paul? And how important is this letter to having a clear understanding of the biblical gospel? And we don't have to go further than verse 6 to know.

Look at verse 6. I marvel, that word marvel in the Greek. Have you ever been astonished? No, I mean I'm talking about astonished, astonished. Do I have to kind of do a little dramatic interpretation of astonished?

It's not, oh, I can't believe it. That's not astonished, okay? I'm not going to do it. I'll never hear the end of it. I'm talking astonished with a lot of emotion. I marvel, I'm absolutely astonished that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, and look carefully, which is not another.

Question, ready? Open book test. How many gospels are there? One. One. It's not another. But there are some who trouble you and want to pervert, want to twist, want to undermine, want to smidgen and course correct the gospel of Christ.

But even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.

So, how important is being grounded in the biblical gospel? Within a few short months of the churches of Galatia, and I'll look at this with you briefly next week, four or five churches, it took Paul about a year and a half to plant them.

Within a very short period of time, most scholars based upon what we can learn about the area, within a few months after Paul leaves those area, some false teachers come in and the believers there were turning away from the faith alone in Christ alone to a different gospel which is not another, meaning only one gospel.

Jesus said, narrow is the way. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me, right? So, how serious was gospel perversion to the Apostle Paul and to God since he put Galatians in his holy word?

He says it twice, let him be accursed in verse eight, let him be accursed in verse nine. And I mentioned to you last week how strong a word this is, how very, very strong a God, someone that has been given over and turned over to God's wrath and curse, picture Sodom and Gomorrah, picture Egypt, turned over to God's wrath and curse.

So, therefore, by God's grace, I want to do all that I can to be very, very clear on an incredibly point, and it's this, if we get the gospel wrong, if we're off even a little, not only is eternity at stake, everything else in our lives and in the church is going to follow and also be wrong.

If we get the gospel wrong, if we're off even in the slightest of the what, the why, the how, how a person is saved, then everything else that follows is going to be wrong. The house is going to fall down.

So, how can we grow and firm up our understanding of the gospel that Jesus Christ preached and died for and that the apostles also preached and died for? How can we get a better appreciation for the importance of being right on the gospel from Paul's epistle to the Galatians, number one, we covered last week, by understanding the hyper-critical difference between doing or done.

If you missed it, it's on YouTube. If you don't like it, vote down. What's one way, you have to be logged in, though, I found out. If you just go to YouTube and you haven't logged in with your Gmail, they won't let you vote.

So, you better log in. Vote down. So, what's one way we can begin to deepen and firm up our understanding of the biblical gospel? We saw last week that it's, first of all, by understanding the hyper-critical watershed difference between doing versus done, as they relate to our understanding of the gospel.

Ephesians 2 .8, look at it again. For by grace you have been saved through faith, done. And that not of yourselves, doing. It is a gift of God, done. Not of works, doing. Lest anyone should boast, doing.

Look at Galatians 2 .16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, doing, but by faith in Jesus Christ, done. Even we have believed in Jesus Christ, done, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, done, and not by the works of the law, doing.

For by the works of the law, doing, no flesh shall be justified. Chapter 3, verse 11. But no one is justified by the law, doing, in the sight of God is evident. For the just shall live by faith, done.

Now, we covered this last week, but basically these verses and others like it lay out the hypercritical difference between a gospel of doing and a gospel of done, between justification by faith alone, in Christ alone, and by faith or by any other means.

And remember this word, justification. Don't get stuck up on it. Don't get freaked out by it. It's all over the New Testament. Basically, what it means is God declaring a guilty person innocent. Now, think about that.

If that is not enough to take your breath away, a guilty person is declared by Almighty God, innocent. And it's done simply by means of grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. It has nothing to do with being a good person and giving a dollar to the homeless person on the street corner, or putting something in the offering box, or coming to church.

Nothing, nothing, nothing else but grace through faith in the finished work of Christ can do this. One of Paul's main points in these verses and throughout this letter is that no one, no one, no one, not a single person can ever do enough to get or become justified or get saved.

The biblical gospel, in the biblical gospel, the lost sinner does nothing and can't do anything because Christ does it all. That's how you harmonize everything Jesus said about being the way, the truth, and the life.

That's how you harmonize verses like no man can come to the Father unless what? The Father first draws him. That's how you harmonize what happened in the garden when Adam and Eve were hiding. Who went looking for who?

Who? God went looking and said, why are you hiding, Adam? As if he's going to hide from God, right? And see, the apostle Paul fleshes out line upon line in this letter is that when the gospel happens to somebody and they respond in faith, it's really been done because then Jesus paid it all, then they do.

And that's where you get into Galatians 5 and the fruit of the Spirit. Because of what he's done, what? We do. That's why James says, faith without works is dead. Real faith works, does, but you can't get there doing.

Can we make that a tongue twister? So, against the backdrop of Galatians, remember this truth about the gospel. Reduce to the lowest common denominator. If you want to take this all the way down to the atomic level in its simplest form.

So, what I'm doing is taking us down to the atomic level, right? Whip out the microscope. Let's put the gospel under the microscope. Here it is at the atomic level. You know what I'm going to do at the end of the message if I have time, but for sure next week, God willing, I'm going to take it to the next level.

We're going to pull the, we're going to put the microscope away and we'll look at the gospel right here in front of us. Amen? So, we have doing versus done, atomic level. If we get that wrong at all, the whole building will be off.

We need to know how God saves sinners and we need to make sure that we ourselves are included in the number of those that are truly saved. We need to be certain that we are trusting in Jesus Christ and his work alone and in his work, not ours.

We need to know this for ourselves and we need to know it so we can share the good news of Jesus Christ with others. So, how can we grow and firm up our understanding of the gospel that Jesus Christ preached and died for and that the apostles also preached and died for?

First of all, by understanding, by understanding the difference between human works and grace and between what man does and what God does and between doing versus done when it comes to the gospel. Number two, second, by understanding a little more about the distinguished writer of this letter.

Go back to verse one. It's kind of a simple thing. Verse one, we find Paul an apostle, that's who wrote it. Okay? And some scholars would say in verse two, and all the brethren who are with me, so some scholars suggest that Paul saying in verse two, all the brethren with him, that he was perhaps aided, maybe they worked together.

Now, look carefully how Paul opens this letter. Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man. Interesting, isn't it? But through Jesus Christ, and God the Father who raised him from the dead, and all the brethren who are with me.

Now, if you've read through the New Testament at all and you have some familiarity with it, you might have noticed that this letter starts out in a very different way compared to the 15 other epistles attributed to the apostle Paul.

To begin with, Paul precisely declares the source of his apostleship. Look what he says, he is an apostle, what? Not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ. This is a profound and compelling claim, and one that he does not make in any other of his letters found in the New Testament.

And there's something else here that's very unique about this epistle compared to the others. He lays out basically the distilled elements of the Gospel not once, but twice. He touches specifically on the Gospel through the resurrection in verse 1 when he says, God the Father, what?

Who raised Him, who raised Christ from the dead. And then in verse 4 he says it again, that He gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil age according to the will of our God.

So, that's something else that's unique to this, and something else very different. Every one of Paul's epistles, 1 Corinthians, Romans, Colossians, Ephesians, you just go through them, 1 and 2 Timothy.

You go through them, you find a lot of warm fuzzies, a very genuine, read the first verses of 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, all of, most of chapter 1 of Ephesians, it's a long hug, greeting, oh I'm so thankful for you, this is how I pray for you, I'm constantly remembering you in my prayers.

There is none of that in this. Paul bursts at once onto the subject which is on his mind, and he launches into a profound and strong rebuke of the Galatians in verse 6. I mean immediately, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who has called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel.

So, understand, Galatians was written by the Apostle Paul, and it begins differently than any other letter that he writes. Secondly, also when it comes to better understanding Paul, we need to appreciate his office in the Church.

He was what? An apostle. What does that mean? An apostle in the New Testament is one who is sent with delegated authority from Jesus Christ. You might have heard somebody like in our day refer to themselves as an apostle.

Well, I have news for you. There's no such thing as apostles today. When the Apostle Paul died, the apostles died off. When all the apostles, the twelve and Paul, that's the end of the apostles. There are no longer any men, listen carefully, with personal, delegated authority from Jesus Christ.

So, this letter was written by someone with delegated, appointed, designated authority, and the giver of that authority was Jesus Christ Himself. The origin of Paul's apostleship was not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead.

And by the way, this is so important in Galatians because it contrasts strongly with the false teachers who had infiltrated those Galatian churches. The language that Paul uses here is emphatic, it's profound, and it basically sets the course for much of what Paul says in the rest of the letter.

Notice that he uses a double negative. See, this is very strong language, not from men nor through man. Not from men nor through man. This is an emphatic phrase. And then he immediately plunges into a discussion of two core and vital issues that are going to carry their way through the rest of this letter, and it's this, His apostolic authority and the divine origin of His message.

As you, and I hope you took my challenge last week, maybe you didn't, maybe you did, it's very easy, it's six chapters, it's very quick to read. Try reading through this letter a couple of times this week and get a feel for it.

What you see throughout the letter is this coming back to His apostolic authority and the divine origin of His message. Look at verse 11. But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.

For I never received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ, not from men nor through men. Verse 15. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace to reveal His Son in me, not from men nor through men.

Chapter 2, verse 6. But from those who seem to be something, whatever they were, it makes no difference to me. God shows personal favoritism to no man, not from men nor through men. So as we look across the vista of this letter, you see two peaks of biblical truth rise above the landscape of the rest of the letter, Paul's apostolic authority and the divine origin of His message.

Paul defines his apostleship with careful nuance. In no uncertain terms, he's chiseling into the rock slate of this letter the fact and truth that his apostleship is not traceable to any human origin.

His apostleship does not go back to any mere human medium or to some leader in another so-called church somewhere or any human agency like a council or a group of elders. Paul was divinely called by, because of, from and through Jesus Christ and God the Father.

And we will see maybe God willing in a couple of weeks. This was in, should the Lord tarry, right? If we're still meeting in person, we'll do it by video somehow. This was in stark contrast to the false teachers that were leading the Galatians astray.

One of the things that Paul does in these opening verses is just to stamp this letter right here. This is what he's doing. And again, my personality, I have a tendency to come on kind of loud sometimes.

But basically what he's doing here is he's doing something I would do. Don't you ever forget this. Okay? So, it's kind of like, okay. You have my attention, Paul. Church, listen to me. As we read this letter, that's how we should feel.

You got my attention, Paul. Okay. Turn off the TV. Put the phone on silent. I'm reading Galatians. Are you with me? That's how strong this is in our vernacular. And just in case you need any more convincing, did you see what he threw in in verse 2?

All their brethren who are with me. In other words, we're standing together on this. It'd be like me calling up Victor and Harold. We're standing together on this. Amen? That's the idea. He's telling them, I'm not a gospel lone ranger.

There's no tonneau. All the brethren are with me. So, in the opening verses, we get this glimpse also of the radical transformation of that Saul of Tarsus went through under faith, by faith. And we get a taste of the fruit of true conversion and a glimpse of what it means to be truly born again.

Verse 13. For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, works-based. How I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my father.

Verse 22. And I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea, which were in Christ. Look at this testimony. But they were hearing only he who formerly persecuted us, now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy.

And they glorified God in me. These simple testimonies speak volumes about the radical transformation that took place in Saul of Tarsus' life on the road to Damascus when Jesus Christ saved him. God sovereignly took a Christian-hating Pharisee on his way to persecute Christians and miraculously and completely and radically saved him and turned his entire world and worldview upside down, all the way down to his view and understanding of God.

What does the biblical gospel do to a lost sinner? What is the evidence and what does it mean to be truly and really completely saved? It means a radical, life-changing, life-altering, 180-degree transformation.

Saul of Tarsus was a Pharisee. In fact, a Pharisee of Pharisees. He was killing Christians. He was seeking to jail Christians. He was trying to destroy the church. But he was radically transformed and rescued and forever changed by Jesus Christ.