Persecutor Turned Preacher

Grace Fellowship Church

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This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. If you would like to learn more about us, please visit us at our website at graceedmonton .ca.

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You can also find us on Instagram, Grace Church, Y -E -G, all one word, or on Facebook.

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You can also find us on Spotify, YouTube, or wherever else you listen to your favorite podcasts.

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Please enjoy the following sermon. Well, good afternoon, brothers and sisters. Greetings, warm greetings from Fellowship Baptist Church.

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I was just telling Pastor Shane when we announced, he gave us a little bit of an update last week about what

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God has been doing among you and through you. And our church was so excited about it that they erupted into applause.

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So you are an encouragement to us. And anytime we hear about the gospel going out and transforming lives faithfully with a true and biblical gospel, we are just absolutely thrilled.

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So it's a great honor to be here with you today. Please join me in Galatians chapter 1, if you're not already there. Galatians chapter 1.

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And we've started this journey at our church in this book. We've gone through two messages now.

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And so we're going to be picking up in verse 11 to 24. 11 to 24, chapter 1.

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Galatians chapter 1, 11 to 24. But before we get into that text, let me begin with this.

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I don't know if you watch much of the news. Probably you're not encouraged to do that much these days because there's not very many encouraging things on there.

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But if you've been watching the news, Canada is quickly turning into a country that will defend Muslims praying on the busiest street corners of our city while finding

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Christians for singing in churches. And this just happened recently, actually, just this past week in the city of Montreal.

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The city of Montreal fined a Christian songwriter artist from the

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States who was there visiting, fined him for singing in the church. Let that sink in for a minute.

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He didn't have a permit to sing in a church, and they fined him $2 ,500.

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It was interesting. I was following the Twitter feed, and he actually said, you know, I've done this sort of thing in Turkey and Iran, and Canada has been the hardest one.

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And that's something. But that's not for us to be discouraged at all, because that's nothing new under the sun.

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The church has had a long list of opponents for 2 ,000 years, and until Jesus returns, she's going to have a very long list of opponents.

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That is par for the course. But what is encouraging to see, and what I want to point to this afternoon, is that God actually chooses to show

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His grace and His power to some of the strongest opponents of the gospel, and transform them into zealous proponents of the gospel.

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They dot all of history. Let me give you a few examples. Augustine.

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How many of you have heard the name? A few. Yeah, Augustine was one of the early church fathers and a great theologian.

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Some of his books are still studied today in the academy, the City of God, one of them. But how did he start?

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Well, a hedonist philosopher, completely and totally opposed to the gospel. Then we have

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John Newton, slave trader and drunk, turned to pastor and beloved hymn writer, an abolitionist of the slave trade.

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C .S. Lewis, one of my personal favorites, a famous atheist intellectual professor, who then turned into an apologist and a beloved

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Christian author. How many of you have heard of the Chronicles of Narnia? Then we have

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Walt Heyer, once a transgendered woman, now an author, activist, speaker,

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Christian, helping others with gender dysphoria, and moving them to a new identity, an eternal one, in Christ.

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Nabil Qureshi, a devout Muslim apologist, a defender of the faith, then turned

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Christian apologist and author. Lee Strobel, an atheist journalist writing for the Chicago Tribune, tried to take down the veracity of scripture and the historicity of the resurrection, and then became an evangelist and author.

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And then we have, more recently, Rosaria Butterfield. Anyone hear of her?

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Highly recommend picking up her book, The Confessions of an Unlikely Convert. She was a lesbian feminist scholar, and now a speaker, author, and advocate for Christian faith and practice.

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Isn't that incredible? To suggest that all of these individuals experienced merely a change of mind from one man -made philosophy and ideology to another, or attempted to deal with some kind of cognitive dissonance in their lives, does not account for such a deep -seated change, a complete and utter reversal of their direction in life and an upheaval of their worldview.

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All of these individuals fundamentally started thinking differently about ultimate reality. What could do that?

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Well, I submit to you today a divine call, a call that comes through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Nothing else, nothing else on earth can do that. Now, as I said, we have started in this book, and last week we looked at the apostles' condemnation.

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You'll find that in verse 6 to 10 of any other so -called gospel.

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Now, to give you some context so that you understand, the churches that Paul had planted in the area of Galatia with the real gospel were now drifting into a distorted gospel.

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They'd begun listening to false teachers from Jerusalem who sought to undermine Paul's authority, and they claimed that, look, to follow

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Jesus was all well and good, but really to follow Jesus faithfully and truly, you essentially had to become

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Jewish first. You had to obey the right of circumcision, which was passed down in the Mosaic law.

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They were known as the Judaizers. You'll see them again in Scripture. Now, what

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Paul says in...well, actually, just take a look at it there in verse 9, because we should read it to understand the force of what

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Paul is doing here. He says there in verse 9, as I've said before, now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

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He says it twice. Those are pretty strong words, aren't they? Accursed is damned. You're not coming back, there's no hope of redemption, that's it.

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And so if anybody is preaching to you a distorted gospel, one that is trying to add something to the finished work of Christ, that's it.

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Paul says, you're accursed. Now, the reason why it's such a damnable issue is because it takes the good news of God's grace, and then it distorts it into a man -made effort.

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And so now, in the point of his argument, in his efforts to get the Galatians back to the only hope of rescue from sin and death,

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Paul now enters into an argument that he, not the Judaizers, is a true servant of Jesus Christ.

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And he does so here by appealing to the facts surrounding his call and his conversion, which was a direct revelation of Jesus Christ.

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It was through a profound experience that Paul, the great persecutor of the first century church, became a great preacher and defender of the gospel, author of 13 letters, which this is one of them.

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And so in our text today, I want to examine this first part of this argument that focuses on the fact that Paul's gospel message was not his message.

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It was God's. He did not learn it through human teachers. He did not rely on human traditions.

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Heck, we'll even see he didn't even rely on the apostles in Jerusalem. He relied on one source, and one source alone, a divine revelation of the resurrected, exalted, and glorified

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Jesus Christ. I don't know about you, but that takes the cake for authority, I think. If you want to hear it from the so -called horse's mouth, that's it.

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Now, what I'd like to do is we're going to follow this text and look at the four points that he makes here, and then we're just going to make application as we go.

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So if you're taking some notes, here's the four parts that we're going to be looking at this text with. First of all, verse 11 and 12,

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Paul's point is he didn't get this from any human source, pretty obvious. Then in verse 13 and 16, he was radically transformed by this gospel.

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Remember, he was the persecutor of the church. Number three, he didn't first consult with any of the other apostles, that's verse 16 to 22, and then his gospel was recognized by the churches in Judea themselves as authentic.

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And so that's verse 23 and 24. So what I'd like to do, if you guys don't mind making me feel a little bit at home, we stand for the reading of God's Word.

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Would you guys stand for the reading of God's Word, if you are able? Thank you.

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So I'm going to read the text for us and then pray, and then you can have a seat and we'll get into it. So this is

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Galatians chapter 1 verse 11. For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel.

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For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

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For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.

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And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was

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I for the traditions of my fathers. But when He, who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal

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His Son to me in order that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did

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I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. But I went away into Arabia and returned again to Damascus.

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Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him 15 days.

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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.

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Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.

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They only were hearing it said, He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith

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He once tried to destroy. And they glorified God because of me."

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This is God's Word. Let's pray. Father, I want to thank you so much for the joy it is to be here with the saints at Grace Fellowship.

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Lord, thank you for the work that you're doing among them and in them. And I thank you that you,

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King Jesus, are building your church. And so, Lord, I pray that you would continue to build it. I pray that even through the

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Word today, even through this message, that you would build them up in their holy faith. Lord, I pray that you would put your words in my mouth and that you would cause their hearts to hear you and that all of us would glorify you with one voice.

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And so, we commit our time to you. Thank you for it. In Jesus' name. Amen. Please have a seat.

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All right. So, the first point, Paul didn't get this from any human source. Look there in verse 11 and 12. He starts off by saying, for I would have you known.

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Now, Paul's used that phrase before. It's kind of an emphatic phrase. And he's stating that the gospel message he preached to them did not come from human sources.

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This was not a matter of training. This was not a matter of being catechized. This wasn't a matter of Jewish traditions.

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This was a direct revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, if you got time later on this afternoon,

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I'd recommend reading that because it forms great background for this. Acts chapter 9 and Acts chapter 26.

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So, you can read that later. But if you haven't heard of this story, here's how it goes in the Coles Notes version.

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Paul was en route to the city of Damascus to enslave, or I should say, imprison and kill

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Christians. And on the way, God granted that Paul would receive the gospel through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

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What is interesting to know about this is that prior to Paul's experience on the road to Damascus, he had heard the gospel before.

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He was well acquainted with what the Christians believe and it incited him.

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He thought it was absolutely blasphemous. And he was completely convinced that destroying the church, killing everybody who actually professed the name of Jesus was pleasing to God.

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Does that sound familiar? There's a group today that does the same thing. You'll have a group like that in every age.

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But with Paul, he is walking along and then Jesus comes

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Himself and shows up in blazing light that leaves him blinded for three days and with his worldview completely undone and being remade, by the way.

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Now, the Galatian churches already knew of Paul's conversion, but why he mentions it here is because they needed to be reminded that the gospel that they were at risk of losing was the gospel that had changed their chief persecutor into their preacher.

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That's a bad thing to lose, don't you think? So you start seeing how Paul now is arguing this point.

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Again, it wasn't what he studied in school. It wasn't merely hearing it from somebody else.

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He had already heard it from somebody else, but now he hears it from God Himself.

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This is the gospel. It is not man's idea. And that's the first point I want you to understand.

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The gospel is not a human idea. It is God's idea.

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See, the gospel wasn't developed over time. If you understand Scripture, the gospel actually preceded history itself.

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Now, the gospel was revealed on the stage of history in Jesus Christ, but we worship

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Christ who was crucified from before the foundation of thee. Who had that idea?

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Obviously, the eternal God. And so the gospel is not man's idea.

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It's God's unique solution to our ultimate human problem. And our ultimate human problem, whatever problems we may face in this world, our ultimate human problem is that we are separated from the one true living and holy

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God, apart from His grace. What's interesting is that every idea in human history that tries to deal with humanity's alienation from the divine always does it by prescribing something that you and I must attain to.

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Now, I want to borrow a brilliant statement from Wes Hough. Have you guys heard of Wes Hough?

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Yeah, he's a phenomenal Christian apologist. He's been on the Joe Rogan Show. I never ever tell people to subscribe to a

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YouTube channel, but if you're going to, subscribe to Wes's YouTube channel. The man is gifted, and he handles the gospel quite effectively, and he's a gifted guy.

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Anyway, he said this, quote, every other religious system in the world is a form of the survival of the fittest.

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Let me say it again. Every other religious system in the world is a form of the survival of the fittest.

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Does that sound familiar to you? A bit of an evolutionary principle rolled into that.

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That is decidedly a man -centered one. But it's all about survival of the fittest. It's all up to you to do enough, to know enough, to perform enough, to meditate enough, to feel enough, to be good enough, and then, if you're lucky, you make it.

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I have just encapsulated every other religious ideology in the entire world. That's all what it is.

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In stark contrast, the gospel declares that you and I cannot possibly meet the standards of a holy

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God. We could be given a lifetime, centuries, millennia, we will fail.

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And so, instead of demanding fitness from us, the fittest himself,

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God himself, in the person of His Son, Jesus, steps down into the world and sacrifices

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Himself for the weakest. That you will not find in any other religious ideology in the world or in history.

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It's unique. There is no other message like it. And so, you and I can trust in His finished work from us.

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I would submit that no human mind, darkened by pride, selfish ambition, and rebellion against its

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Creator, could conceive of such a pride -crushing, humbling, and God -exalting message.

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It just simply doesn't have an equal. And so, I don't want you to make the mistake today of placing the gospel alongside other religious claims as though it was in the same category, because it's absolutely not.

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I see this all the time. I remember one time speaking with a friend of mine. He's like, but you only live the way you do.

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You only live that way because you're afraid of hell and you want to get to heaven. And I said, you couldn't be more wrong.

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He's like, what? And I'm like, I'm absolutely guaranteed heaven, and I am not afraid of hell, because Christ endured that for me.

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The reason why I live the way I live now is all out of gratitude for what He's already accomplished. And he looked at me and he says, well, that doesn't make any sense.

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I've never heard that before. I'm like, that's right. That's the gospel. That's the gospel.

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And so, please don't leave it on the shelf with the rest of the religious offerings in the world, because God Himself paying for our sins in the person of His Son is something that was revealed to humanity.

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It wasn't imagined by humanity, and it never would be. And so this is the message that can actually turn persecutors into preachers, which leads us to the next point.

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Paul points now to the fact that this gospel that he received from God was actually the gospel that transformed him.

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Now look there in verse 13 to 16. The Galatians had heard of his former life in Judaism, and now here in these verses 13 and 14, he takes

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Judaism and he names it. He names it a couple times, actually, and he contrasts it as a different religion all together.

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It was rooted not in the hope of Jesus Christ, but it was hopelessly buried in a man -made tradition and teachings.

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And so if any of you have studied Judaism before, yes, they had the first five books of the Bible, they had the

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Torah, and then they had the writings and the prophets, but then they had the Talmud on top and the Mishnah and the

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Gemara, and these things were all human tradition. And what was happening was is that those traditions were actually becoming bigger and more authoritative in the life of the quote -unquote practicing

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Jew than the actual Word of God. It's interesting that we see that dynamic happening in Roman Catholicism today.

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And please, I hope I'm not offending any ex -Roman Catholics or Roman Catholics in the room. I am one, by the way. But you see this happening, tradition overtaking the authority of God's Word.

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And so God has said something, but then man has said something else. And in the Roman Catholic Church, it's the magisterium, it's papal decree.

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And so if the papal decree says something, then, well, whatever the Word of God said, that was nice, but we're going to stick with this.

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Do you see how warped that is? But it's not an old problem. It's an old one.

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Sorry, it's not a new problem, it's an old one. This has happened all the way through history. And so what Paul does here is in naming

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Judaism, he is setting this up as a different religion all together. Now, by that time of the first century, it was interesting because Judaism was really synonymous for the religious system that officially opposed the gospel.

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That's not an anti -Semitic statement. That's just the reality. Following Judaic teachings and doctrines will not rescue anyone from God's wrath.

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Amen? Being an ethnic Jew doesn't rescue anyone from God's wrath.

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The true Israelite has always been made up of both Jew and Gentile who share the faith of Abraham.

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But Judaism as a system is corrupt. Now, Paul, though, refers to his life in Judaism, and he says that in that system, he was surpassing his peers in their studies and their zeal.

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Now, we might think, wow, Paul, that's kind of some chess beating. You're like, nobody was as good as I was. But if you read

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Paul in his context, especially later on in Philippians, he's going to tell you that all of that to him is absolute garbage.

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He didn't care. He didn't care that he had the accolades. He didn't care that he was first in his class. He didn't care that everybody was like, wow,

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Paul, you're really amazing at this stuff. He thought it was a steaming pile of refuse. But here he appeals to it because here he is as the golden boy of Judaism, surpassing all of his peers, and in the understanding that he had and the devotion that he had, he was fully convinced that killing

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Christians and seeking to destroy the church was pleasing to God. There was nothing on earth that was going to change his direction.

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Absolutely nothing. No reason, no appeal, no religious argument, nothing, except for the fact that God was pleased to reveal

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His Son. Now look there in verse 16. This is some of the most beautiful words in all of Scripture, and I'm glad that Pastor Shane mentioned it.

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You guys have been studying effectual calling, right? Is that true? Did I hear that correct?

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Look at verse 15 because in verse 15, there's a beautiful statement that contains God's gracious and sovereign election,

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His effectual call, and of course, His commissioning for Paul. But I'll read it again just because it's so good.

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But when He, that refers to God, who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal

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His Son to me. Like God's servants before Him, Paul was set apart by God before he was even born.

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He was chosen, and then he was called by God. And so this religious terrorist, who was worthy of God's wrath, is graciously called by the

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God who, and look at the word again, He was pleased to reveal His Son to Paul.

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A bit of an honest statement. When I read the news of Christians being persecuted in other parts of the world, like the pastor who was just killed in Syria along with 50 of his family members, catch that?

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There's a certain righteous indignation that boils up from inside me, and sometimes some imprecatory psalms.

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You guys know what I mean by that? The psalms that call for God's judgment. But reading things like this shows me there's another side that we cannot miss to God.

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He is pleased to reveal His Son even to religious terrorists.

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It gives Him joy not in destroying but in saving. That I think is the

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Christian attitude, don't you? Might help you read the news a little bit better.

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We should have that attitude because God is a saving God. And by the way, if you're here this morning and God is still your enemy, please do not presume on His patience.

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It's good to have it, but don't ignore it. Now I want you to see, before we move on to the next point, it's important to note in verse 16 there, there's a choice of preposition that Paul is using.

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Look there in verse 16. He says, please to reveal His Son to me, or in the

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Greek, it could be in me. Prepositions matter, by the way. Now this is an interesting thing.

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You guys all have your Bibles open, so you should see that little superscript over the word, and it should tell you what it says there at the bottom, does it?

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Take a look, don't look at me, look at the book. Okay, and it says in, right? There's a reason why the superscripts are there to show you that, because when scholars take a look at this language, they're like, well, enemoi, it's a bit ambiguous.

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It could actually be either. It could be to, or it could be in.

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And so how do we figure out what is it? Well, if you're like a friend of mine, he's just like, it's either or, just choose one.

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And I'm like, no, no, got to think a little bit deeper about that. What I would submit to you is the way you find out what it is, is by looking at the context, not just the immediate context, but the broader context as well.

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And based on this immediate context and the rest of Paul's teaching, I submit to you that in is the accurate reading.

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We see him talk about this in Romans, 2 Corinthians, also again in Galatians in chapter 3, 1 Timothy chapter 1.

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Why is the preposition so important? Well, here's where the rubber meets the road. I would submit to you that there is a massive difference between having

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Christ revealed to us and having Christ revealed in us. One's on the outside, the other one's on the inside, and those are two totally different realities.

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They're complementary, of course, but they're very different. Let me explain. The second, well, the first is a matter of understanding.

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When Christ is revealed to someone, they understand His claims. It's external. How many of you first heard the gospel explained to you and you understood it, but you didn't believe it right away?

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Yeah, thanks for being honest. I'd heard the gospel explained to me several times very clearly and eloquently without actually caring.

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Didn't matter. I understood it enough to say, yeah, I don't believe it. So did

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Paul. The second though, when

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Christ is revealed in us, it's a matter of revelation and regeneration. You see, God opens up the heart and speaking to us in the gospel so that Christ actually comes to dwell in us, and that revealing, the revealing of Christ in us leads to a radical transformation of one's life.

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It was really interesting when I first got saved. This was 2006. Wow, that's a long time ago.

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Anyway, so in 2006, I had gotten saved, and I remember one of the pastors, and I didn't even think about the answer.

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I was in the church, and you know, after the church came up, I'm like, yeah, I think I should be baptized now because I believe this stuff.

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And he's like, oh, really? He's like, well, where is Jesus now? And I didn't even think about it, and I'm like, oh,

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He's in me. And he's like, you're absolutely right. And then as it came out of my mouth, I'm like, wait a minute.

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That sounds blasphemous. Is He really in me?

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Really? Is that true? So, you know, flipping through the screen. Oh, yeah, He is. Wow, that's kind of cool. All right, let's do this.

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But I want you to understand one point here. For all of us who truly believe here today,

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God has personally revealed His Son in you by His grace, and that, my dear brothers and sisters, absolutely amazing because He caused you to become supernaturally reborn.

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Now, Paul's experience, don't get me wrong, this was unique. I doubt that, you know, please don't put, you know,

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Paul's experience as, oh, this is what I have to have. I've got to have a Damascus Road experience in order to be saved. That's not what

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I'm talking about. But what I'm talking about is that God's choice and His personal call that reveal

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Christ are common features for all who truly believe. You know this.

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When you came to believe Christ, when you heard God sovereignly and graciously through His Spirit and the truth of the gospel, you came to a instant conviction and you responded in faith and obedience.

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Did you not? Now, it might have happened slowly over time, but the thing is, is it happened because when

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He calls us sovereignly and graciously, it's not a matter of if we hear, it's how we hear.

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We hear it. No, it's Him. And conversely, some can hear the gospel, as I said, clearly articulated, but they have no effect.

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I've seen this in our evangelism campaign. So we've been going around knocking on doors, and some of the people who we're working with in our church are really good explainers of the gospel.

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And so I'll see them explain the gospel, and then it just bounces off the person like a rubber ball. And I'm like, oh.

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But then we have to remember, it can't just be human words. It has to be attended by the

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Spirit. So I want you to understand something this morning, because it's important for application.

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Some have Christ revealed to them, but not in them. And so they come to understand the intellectual facts of the gospel, but they don't have any inner light.

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They don't have any inner experience of Christ personally. They don't have any inner power or conviction.

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Now, I know you might think, but hold on a second, Jay. Like, we need to know good doctrine. Absolutely, yes.

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But if all you have is good doctrine and no spiritual conviction that you are actually

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His child, you don't belong to Him. That's Romans 8. His Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are what?

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Yeah, that's in the experiential side. It involves the intellect, but it also includes an experience that we've actually come to know

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Jesus. And so this is what I want you to do today. Consider for yourself, has Jesus been revealed to you or in you?

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Only you can answer that. Have you experienced new life in Jesus or are you just studying it?

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And if you are outside of Jesus this morning, then please don't stay there. Come in.

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Call on Him. Lord, I want you in me.

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And please don't stay in some spiritually dead intellectualism trusting that you know, because look at the

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Christian faith. Yes, it is about our worship of God with all of our mind. Amen. But why do we worship

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God with all of our mind? Give me the answer.

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I'll wait. Yes, because He's altogether worthy. It's because you love the

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God who saved you and you want to know Him better. Right? There's a relational side to that.

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It's like, I'm married to my wife. It's been 21 years. Wonderful. Actually, sorry, 20. Sorry, sweetie, if you're listening.

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20 years. And what's amazing is in that 20 years,

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I've seen different sides of my wife that I had never seen before. And it's a beautiful thing.

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And we grow together, we grow in love, and we grow in understanding. Now you take that and magnify that by infinity, and that's your relationship with God for the rest of eternity.

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You're going to see new parts of God that you've never seen or experienced before. And so don't you want to know

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Him? Yes. So we study, of course. But it's not about what you know, dear brother and sister, it's about who you know ultimately.

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And so if you are in Christ today, you need to understand that, yes, He is in you. His power, His wisdom, His spirit will empower, they'll guide, they'll convict, they'll counsel,

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He will teach and comfort you. Have you experienced that? Good.

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I see some of you nodding your heads. Praise the Lord. Then He's in you. And it is always good to ask other brothers and sisters to say, hey, can you give me some helpful and constructive feedback about my walk with Jesus?

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But I don't think if you are truly born again you really ever need to consult with anybody of whether or not you actually know

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Him. It's going to be hard for you to ignore the reality of the new birth if it happened to you.

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Really. Like, guys, we're talking about the God whose glory filled the temple so much so that the priest had to leave.

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That same God comes to indwell you. You're telling me that you're going to stay emotionally flat -lined?

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That your experience of Christianity will just be intellectual? Not a chance.

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Because when Christ comes into the world to save us, He saves the entire individual, doesn't He? The whole heart.

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And I get it, some of us may be a little stiff along the way, but He'll loosen us up, make us holy.

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Now, you don't need to consult others because if you have come to know Him today, well, then you actually do know

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Him. His spirit testifies with yours that you indeed are a child of God. But this leads us to Paul's third point because Paul didn't consult with anybody either when

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Jesus came and blew him on his back. And so take a look at verse 16 and verse 22.

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We read there in verse 16, we see that God's choice and calling in Christ obviously came with a commission.

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And same thing with us. I mean, obviously, we don't have an apostolic commission today in the sense that you and I are apostles, that office is closed.

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But you and I have a commission to do what? Amen, little sister.

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Amen. Thank you for the feedback. You're absolutely right. We're commissioned to go and make disciples of all nations.

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Nobody gets away from that. If you're a Christian today, that's your commission. Now, granted, all of us are going to do it differently and complementarily, but the reality is, is we're going to do it.

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Now, Paul got chosen, called, commissioned. God reveals His Son in order that He would preach the gospel among the

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Gentiles. And that was Paul's primary mission field. Yes, he preached the Jews as well, but it was the

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Gentiles that he was focused on. Now, he'd already asserted that he was given the gospel by Christ Himself. Now, here in verse 17 to 22, he expands on that point.

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And he argues that the gospel that he proclaimed wasn't from human sources. It didn't come from other apostles, either before his conversion or after his conversion.

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Look there in verse 18. This is really fascinating stuff. I'd never studied this before, except for this week, and it was really encouraging.

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In verse 18, we read, it was three years after Paul had been converted that he's roaming around in Arabia.

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I can never say this. I did this again this morning. Arabia. There we go. It came out. Good. He's roaming around up there, and then he gets down to Jerusalem and visits at Cephas.

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You guys know that's Peter, right? He's one of the most prominent apostles. He stays there only for just over two weeks.

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And prior to that visit, though, Paul had already been boldly preaching. He preached in Damascus.

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He preached all the way through these different areas around that city. And you can read about that in Acts chapter 9.

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But when he gets to Jerusalem, he doesn't see any of the other apostles except James, which is really interesting, because if you read

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Acts chapter 9, everybody was afraid of him. Like, Paul shows up three years after he gets converted.

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He does not get invited to the church potluck, okay? Because it's like, okay, like, you?

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You're going to kill us. He's like, no, no, it's all cool now. And it took Barnabas coming alongside of him to actually convince.

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But he doesn't get wide exposure while he's in Jerusalem. He only gets to talk to Peter for a little while, and he talks to James for a little while, and that's it.

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Now, look at verse 20. This is really interesting, because it seems like Paul's just giving us, like, a travel itinerary, but this is really important.

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In verse 20, he takes an oath that he's not lying about what he's saying. And, well, that's really interesting.

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Why are these details so important for Paul to take an oath for what's happening here in Galatia?

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Well, we don't see it in the text. We've got to go through the historical context. But it's likely that the

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Judaizers who were preaching that false gospel claimed their authority was coming from Jerusalem.

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We know that from history. And the reason why is because Jerusalem is kind of a big deal. What happened in Jerusalem? Well, pretty much everything, right?

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Christ on the cross, Pentecost, brand new church. Some of the apostles were still there. Jerusalem was the mother church.

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And so that, if you were from Jerusalem, man, you had a few stars on your chest. And so here they are, they're still preaching a false gospel, but they're saying that's from Jerusalem.

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And they likely tried to undermine Paul by saying, no, no, no, no, no, no. Paul just learned the gospel from the guys in Jerusalem.

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And by the way, he was wrong about it. He got this circumcision thing wrong. And so when taking this oath, what he's doing here is he's making it very clear that that wasn't the fact at all.

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We read there, look in verse 22, he was still unknown in the churches of Judea, and they never heard of him, sorry, they heard of him, but they never met him.

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And so again, Paul is reinforcing that point that his gospel and his call did not come from man.

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In fact, what is fascinating about this is that Paul's convictions in Christ were developed long before he got to Jerusalem.

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And how were they developed? Well, I would submit to you that over the three years he was in Arabia and Damascus, his convictions in Jesus Christ likely formed, like they usually form, through prayer, meditation, study of God's word.

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Those convictions came from his time with God, not his time with man.

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Why is that important? Well, I think it leaves us with a very important takeaway. I'll qualify this, so don't jump down my back just yet.

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Number one, our convictions in Jesus should be formed and not merely inherited.

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Let me say it again. Your convictions in Christ need to be formed with time, with Him, in His word, and the power of His Spirit, and not merely inherited.

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That is not to dissuade you from teaching your children the faith, that is not to dissuade you from discipleship efforts.

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What I'm trying to make clear is, is that our convictions that we own aren't merely inherited, they're tested.

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Do you follow? When you come to believe something in Jesus Christ, and somebody tells you, you're like, wow, it's really good,

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I never heard about that, this is good. But then you study it yourself in Scripture, it's like, oh wow, now this is enforced.

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And then you live it out. Now you really own it, because it's been tested.

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Again, don't get me wrong, I am not saying, Paul is not giving us a model here to copy for discipleship classes, so that when people come to Jesus, we just lock them away for three years without the rich resources of the

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Christian faith. Okay, that would lead to even more disaster for the church. It's not what I'm espousing.

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What I'm trying to say is that for our personal convictions, the ones that we think through and develop through prayer and personal study are always going to be stronger than what we adopt from others, take from books, and watch this,

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YouTube videos as well. Now, I don't know, I got it says pet peeve of mine, so I'm just going to let it fly here, because, you know, you're not my church.

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Well, you're Jesus's church, so I'll be kind. But I got to tell you, I am so sick and tired of people come up to me and say,

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Pastor, Pastor, watch what I saw on YouTube, watch what I saw on YouTube, watch what I saw on YouTube. I'm like, oh my gosh.

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I think it is a unique challenge for the church today, because we have so many inputs into the

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Christian life that are completely and utterly unvetted. Like, I'm not against YouTube, it's phenomenal if you've got a good source, but please use discernment, guys.

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Find out who's speaking from where, what church they belong to, okay?

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Who's holding them accountable? Because if it's nobody, you should switch channels.

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Just a word of advice. All right, back to this. As a practical application here that our convictions should be formed,

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I think we should encourage one another to grapple with the Scriptures, not just to parrot the conviction of others.

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Now, I know this is almost anathema in Reformed circles, and I'm Reformed, so I'm taking the plank out of my own eyes. It's okay.

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But I have met people who have studied more of Calvin than they've studied Scripture. That's a problem.

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Why? Because as great as Calvin was, he's not inspired.

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So go ahead and study Calvin and Luther and everybody else, but this should be heavier in your heart and mind than any of that.

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Does that make sense? And again, I'm not espousing some sort of insular Christianity that doesn't listen to the whole historical confession of the church.

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That's not what I'm saying. Confessions are good, but where do your convictions come from?

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If you're borrowing them from great minds of the past, they're not yours yet. They're not.

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Do you know how Calvin got his ideas? In this, with God, right?

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All right, now here's my exhortation. Please know what you believe and why you believe it.

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It's really that simple. There's the application. Know what you believe and why you believe it.

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This takes years, but it starts with the desire to know God Himself, and that comes with a new birth, and with that said, we turn to Paul's last point and we show

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Paul's gospel was not from man. Look there in verse 23 and 24. While we read in verse 22, the churches in Judea didn't know

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Paul, they knew of his reputation, and they recognized that he was preaching a message that he once tried to destroy.

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And so what they're doing is the churches in Judea are now erupting into praise because their persecutor is now preaching the very gospel that he tried to stamp out of human history.

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And so here he's pointing out to the Aryan Galatians and the detractors that his message was actually validated by the church herself, and that in Judea, and they praise

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God for revealing that gospel and turning their most feared persecutor into a preacher, which is leading us to the final point, and then we're done.

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It's only the true gospel that actually transforms persecutors into proponents in the faith.

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Only the true gospel. If you add to the gospel something that is not there, not vital, or you take anything away from the gospel, and then what you get is a powerless message that is useless for real transformation.

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That's what you get. And so Paul's gospel though was the real one, evidenced in his own transformation, and no religious rite that the

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Judaizers could cook up could change the heart of man. It was only the sovereign gracious revelation in Christ in the gospel that could do such things.

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And so the Judaizers of Paul's day that troubled the Galatian churches with their man -made traditions and distorted gospel, that didn't lead to God's praise.

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Instead it actually led to, and you'll hear this clearly, bad doctrine always leads to bad living, and a false gospel always leads to death.

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If you want to know if there's a true gospel being proclaimed in your church, then look around at what it's producing.

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And I think you can see it in here. Is it producing love? Joy? Peace?

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Patience? Kindness? Gentleness? Goodness? Faithfulness?

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Self -control? Is that what it's producing? Well then you got a true gospel. If it starts producing factions, envy, conceit, and pain, it's not the gospel.

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Now this is the only message that can convert persecutors into preachers.

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Now the church still has many persecutors today, does she not? Already alluded to that several times.

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Islamists who slaughter whole communities in Nigeria, please pray for them. Thank you so much, Pastor Shane, for doing that this morning, afternoon.

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Then we got pastors and their whole families murdered in Syria by Muslim terrorists. Our own liberal government, by the way, propagates false narratives that have led to the burning of over,

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I found this out, I thought it was just a hundred churches, but it's actually the vandalization and burning of over 530 churches in Canada in the last six years.

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It ain't in Kansas anymore. I don't say that to concern you,

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I say that because our response should be faithful, amen? And so what should our response be to our persecutors?

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Well, there's essentially just two things, just keep these things very simple. Number one, you and I need to hold fast to a true biblical gospel because that's the only thing that's going to actually save the persecutors who are persecuting not just you and me, but they're actually persecuting

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Jesus. Why are you persecuting me,

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Jesus said to Paul. The second thing we need to do is we need to pray for our persecutors, because God may still intend to turn some of them into preachers.

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You know, it's interesting, I was on the phone with some very well -meaning pastors, I love these guys, I love what they're trying to do.

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They were talking about, I might get a little too political, but it's okay, you don't have to invite me back. They were talking about Alberta separation, and they're like, hey, what's the church's role?

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What's our theology of loving our neighbor? Because a lot of people are talking about Alberta separation, and so how do we pastor our people through this?

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What is the Christian response, by the way? Has anybody got a Christian response for that? What happens when one province is like, what's our role here?

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What's our role in Romans 13 going on? What's our role with loving our neighbor? How do we do this?

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What's the role of lesser magistrate? All those components. Anyway, all that to say, you know,

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I was talking with another guy, and he said, you got to be very careful when you get into this. I said, why? He goes, because the power of the church is never political.

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The power of the church is always supernatural, and your worldview and the convictions that you preach to others, the truth that you preach to others, politics are always downstream from that.

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You guys understand? So what our religious view is, is always going to be downstream of our politics, but we should never forget that when the church, while it may be good, obviously, to have some political advocacy and take interest in politics, we're actually told in Scripture to pray for our political leaders, are we not?

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So clearly we need to be doing that, but our power is in the gospel. It's in a supernatural message that the church carries that came from God and leads others to God.

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And it is just as powerful today as it was when Paul was transformed from a vicious persecutor to a zealous preacher.

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All right, let me end. We started today by considering a very long list of people who were hardened opponents of the gospel and then became devoted proponents of the gospel.

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And all of this, by the way, brings God glory and validity to the gospel.

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And while Paul's experience was obviously unique, every single one of us here today who

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God was pleased to reveal His Son in can rest and rejoice in the fact that we've been called by His grace, and you and I too have been commissioned in this work to take the gospel to the world.

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Also, I want to encourage you with one last thought. None of us should be ashamed to speak of where God brought us from by His grace, because when we speak of where Jesus pulled us out of, that ash heap, that pit,

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He gets glory, amen, and others get joy.

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And so may we, by God's grace, speak clearly of our calling in Christ and make our convictions clear and guard the gospel by His power and His grace.

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Let's pray. Thank you for listening to another sermon from Grace Fellowship Church.

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If you would like to keep up with us, you can find us at Facebook at Grace Fellowship Church, or our

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Instagram at Grace Church, Y -E -G, all one word. Finally, you can visit us at our website, graceedmonton .ca.