Recognzing The Truth of the Gospel

United Parcel Service takes pride in the productivity of its delivery men and women. On average, a UPS driver delivers four hundred packages every working day. The company gets such high productivity by micromanaging the details of a deliveryman’s routine. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Robert Frank says:“With a battalion of more than 3,000 industrial engineers, the company dictates every task for employees. Drivers must step from their trucks with their right foot, fold their money face-up, and carry packages under their left arm.” UPS “tells drivers how fast to walk (three feet per second), how many packages to pick up and deliver a day (400, on average), even how to hold their keys (teeth up, third finger).”“Those considered slow are accompanied by supervisors, who cajole and prod them with stopwatches and clipboards.”

What would you think about this approach to your “spiritual business”? What if your spiritual leaders imitated these industrial engineers, controlling every movement of your life?

That my friends leads to legalism and bondage. Yes there are spiritual leaders who hold their followers in the bondage of legalism, but sadly we do it to ourselves as well.

God designed our Christian life as a life of freedom in the Spirit. When our spiritual walk resembles that of the UPS delivery people, what we need is a better understanding of grace and how to live in it!

Please turn in your Bibles to Galatians 1:11-24.

Background to Galatians.

It is important to remember the context of Galatians as we walk through this book.

This letter was addressed to Gentile believers in churches Paul established in Galatia on his first missionary journey.

Paul’s work here was being undermined by a group of Jewish loyalists known as the Judaizers.

They were fiercely loyal to Mosiac ceremonies, practices and standards.

They sought to discredit Paul by spreading the idea that he was a self-appointed apostle motivated to elevate himself and gain a following.

They accused him of laying aside the Mosaic ceremonies, standards, and practices to make the gospel more appealing to Gentiles…this also made it easier for Jews to accept by removing the demands of traditional Judaism.

Sadly it worked…some Galatian believers began to question Paul’s authority and legitimacy. They even questioned his motives…but more importantly they questioned his message and doubted it.

So what we have in the text before us is Paul’s defense of his ministry which he offered not to defend himself, but to defend the gospel.

His autobiographical defense extends into chapter 2

By telling his own story, Paul gives us a marvelous picture of God’s transforming grace demonstrating his credibility and vindicating his message.

Why study Galatians?

This book was written to people who lost sight of grace by allowing legalistic tendencies to creep into their church.

We need to be on guard against that…we need to know grace and the gospel, we need to know when grace is not being preached, not being taught.

The Galatian believers had become susceptible to a false gospel that undercut grace and we have to guard against that because what they taught is still alive today…legalism.

To some degree, everyone of us is a recovering legalist…could even say we are recovering Pharisees…because whether you admit it or not, secretly we think there is something we can do to please God and be accepted by Him…we think somehow if we check off the right boxes of prayer time, Bible study, attending worship this morning, that God is pleased with where we are.

Or that if we haven’t prayed like we should, haven’t studied as diligently as we should, missed more Sundays than we have attended, or really wandered in some areas of our life, that God is not pleased with us.

Wherever you are on that spectrum, both indicate a performance based faith that is really legalism…let’s take a moment and really put some teeth into our understanding of legalism today…we need to be able to call it for what it is, and also not call something legalism when it is not.

What Legalism Is...

Working in our own power.

This is part of what the Judaizers were teaching....believe in Christ and then you put your natural ability forward…you have to obey these rules and regulations…its Christ plus your efforts.

Today we can see it this way…you acknowledge you have been saved by grace, but then you begin to come up with a whole list of things you believe you need to do to live the Christian life…

What we’ve done at that point is to leave grace behind and spend the rest of our life trying to figure out how to do this Christian thing on our own…that’s legalism.

Working according to our own rules.

The Judaizers took the gospel of grace and added on rules and regulations of the Old Testament…they took the old covenant and added to the new covenant...

We do the same thing when we add rules and say “well you need to do this, or this, and this in order to be accepted by God.”

I grew up in an era where playing cards was associated with gambling and the devil and any game you played using regular playing cards was seen as evil and displeasing to God…where drums were “of the devil” and forbidden in worship...

I know of fundamental churches who wrote into their constitution and by laws a strict dress code that included what they wear when NOT attending church…ladies, if you were part of those churches, you had to wear a dress or skirt all the time, even in the privacy of your own home…if caught, you could be subject to church discipline.

We need to balance this out...It is important to distinguish what we must obey versus what we should not…We do have commands in the New Testament that Jesus calls us to do, or Peter, or Paul, or John, etc; obedience to the commands of Scripture is not legalism, that is Christianity…holding one another accountable to the commands of Scripture is not legalism.

We must be careful not to add our own set of rules, or to follow man-made rules thinking by doing so, we find greater favor with God than those who don’t.

Just ask Martin Luther what he thought about the church of his day demanding people obey them.

Working to earn God’s favor.

The key thought in legalism is that if we do certain things, then we will have credit before God…the more you do these things, the more credit you build up with God.

If I pray more, study the Bible more, do more things in my Christian life, then I’ll have favor before God, and if I don’t, God will be disappointed with me.

Here’s the startling truth about Christianity:

God’s pleasure in you is not based on your performance for Him, instead it is based on His performance on your behalf.

The legalist in us says “surely there is something I’m supposed to do…I just don’t sit back.”

The reality of the gospel of grace is that if anyone tells you something other than grace alone, in Christ alone, they are to be condemned! That’s what Pastor Matthew taught us two weeks ago when he introduced us to this marvelous book…salvation is God’s work alone!

He initiated it…he accomplished it…everything about our salvation is God and God alone.

Where we get into trouble is when we minimize grace by making our faith all about how well we perform, or how good we look doing it!

There is nothing in the gospel message that says you have to perform for God to be pleased with you…the gospel announces God is already pleased with us through the death and resurrection of Jesus…this liberates us from striving to attain God’s favor.

We already have the tender affection of his eternal love...

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be concerned about what we say, think, or do, as if we are free to live however we want to…we have to be careful not to swing the “anti-legalism” pendulum too far the other direction.

Galatians will teach us how to identify the true gospel of grace that stands in stark contrast to a legalistic faith and then to learn what it means to be truly free to live in Christ!

This morning we examine the next section to learn how we can recognize the true gospel of grace...

Read Galatians 1:11-24.

Main Point: The Gospel of Grace Is Distinctively Counter-Cultural!

The church was still young when Paul wrote this letter and stood against both the pagan culture and the Jewish culture....

Paganism offered many gods and many ways to them…still alive today!

Jewish culture was divided...

Some who held strictly to Old Testament ways and completely rejected Christ and Christianity…Gentiles can only know God by converting to Judaism and following the Law…even then you were not as privileged as they were...

Some who mixed the two together…Judaizers…yes to Jesus, but you need to do more.

Jewish believers…until Paul began his ministry to the Gentiles, the church was composed primarily of Jewish believers.

Paul knew his culture and the impact the true gospel had on this divided culture…he also knew the attacks on his apostleship from the Jewish leaders...so through the use of an autobiography, he provides us with his apostolic credentials as well as insight into this marvelous gospel of grace that formed the core of his message.

Three characteristics of the gospel of grace that makes the true gospel Counter-cultural.

The Message of the Gospel Is Christ - Centered (11-12).

Galatians 1:11-12 “For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”

The gospel originates with God.

For I would have you know — to make known with certainty — “Let me make this perfectly clear”

Paul says here it was not according to man.

The Judaizers said Paul was perverting the gospel by omitting the Law of Moses, but in reality they had perverted it by adding legalism.

Man’s heart is so filled with pride it would be impossible for him to devise a plan of earning God’s favor that completely depends upon grace!

The default mode of the human heart is works-righteousness…we are automatically drawn to a scoring system…something that emphasizes human works...look at what I’ve done…I’m worthy of God’s favor…I’m better than so and so because I did this, that and the other thing...

When someone speaks of the gospel it must be clear their message is one of grace coming directly from God at His initiative...there is nothing you can do because it has already been done!

Grace offends our default mode…it doesn’t make sense to us…we don’t naturally trust grace because we want the control…

The gospel of grace can only originate with God because man would design it to be centered on himself, not Jesus.

The gospel is free of man made traditions.

he did not receive it from a human source, nor was he taught it, but rather it came by revelation from Jesus Christ…this was directed to the Judaizers.

It did not come to him by tradition of father to son or by instruction from a teacher to pupil…that is how the Judaizers received their religious instruction, thru rabbinic tradition.

Many Jews, including the leaders, looked to human interpretations of Scripture instead of studying them on their own.

Their theology, moral standards, and ceremonies were rooted in the Old Testament, but the biblical truths and standards were diluted and distorted by human traditions...

Our salvation and progressive sanctification is never JESUS PLUS…

The gospel reveals the truth of salvation by Jesus Christ alone.

Revelation = an unveiling of something previously secret = generally used in the New Testament to describe a lesson or teaching which man cannot discover for himself…known only as God reveals it.

Jesus is the object of that revelation…Paul obviously knew about Jesus and Christianity before his salvation because he considered Jesus and his followers a threat to Jewish tradition…Paul knew about Jesus, and the central teachings of Christianity, but he did not believe them.

Then Jesus confronted Paul directly on the road to Damascus…(Acts 9:1-16).

Paul met the risen Savior and received his message directly from Him…He did not accept the claims of Christ until confronted by the truth that Jesus had indeed been resurrected…it was this exposure to the truth of who Jesus is that moved him across the line of faith.

Take a moment to explain the gospel.

Implications

It is your responsibility to measure all you hear against the standard of truth!

Paul did not blame the leadership of the Galatian churches for their desertion…he wrote to every believer in those churches…every one of them bore responsibility in their departure and denial of the truth.

Yes, as pastors and elders we are responsible to teach you the truth, and to equip you to live in this world with the application of the truth…but you have the responsibility to know the truth and decipher the truth and hold one another accountable to the truth.

As leaders we are diligently seeking to provide you with as much exposure to the truth that we can, but it is up to you to take advantage of all the opportunities afforded you to learn and apply the truth.

Your leaders are not perfect and never will be…as hard as we work to teach you the truth accurately, sometimes our mouths engage quicker than our brain does, and we might say something that is not as clear as it should be…it is up to you to lovingly seek clarification and if corrective actions are needed we must humbly take them…but you can’t do that if you do not know the truth.

Where do you get your beliefs? What is your source of truth? Everyone has a source of truth, even the atheist (himself). It is imperative you get your beliefs from the right source.

If anyone tries to tell you your salvation and your sanctification (deal with this as we progress through Galatians) depends upon someone other than Jesus and His grace in your life, you are listening to someone who does not know or speak the truth!

1st characteristic — Gospel Centers on Jesus Christ…2nd characteristic...

The Power of the Gospel Genuinely Changes Lives (13-16a).

Paul now shares some insight from his conversion that is a good reminder of what Jesus can do in all those who trust in Him…

What makes the gospel so powerful is that God uses it to change the lives of people you never thought would ever change…against all odds.

That was Paul…if there ever was an unlikely candidate to become a Christian, it was Paul…Paul is a living example of 2 Cor. 5:17.

On a side note, this can also serve as a template for your testimony…your life may not testify of such a radical transformation like Paul’s but the formula is simple…who you were before conversion, how your conversion happened, then speak of how you are different now.

Before Conversion — In Desperate Need of Grace (13-14)

Gal 1:13-14 “For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.”

Here are some specifics of Paul’s life before conversion…

He persecuted the church beyond measure.

Paul was a terrorist…time does not permit full disclosure…read Acts to see what Paul did to ravage the church.

beyond measure = expresses the idea of something done to an extraordinary degree…classical Greek it described paying an excessive price for goods.

His mission was to destroy the church

Paul wanted to stamp out Christianity…total extermination

He was totally convinced he was doing a good thing and that Christianity was false.

In 1 Timothy 1:13, he calls himself a “violent aggressor”

He was a religious elite.

Advancing in Judaism beyond his contemporaries…the idea in advancing was like a pioneer cutting a path through dense terrain…Paul cut down anyone in his path to the top of Judaism.

Paul was sincere in the Jewish traditions that buried the truth of the Old Testament under the weight of human traditions and strict adherence to man-made laws…he was so good at it, he passed others his same age…his parents could have placed a bumper sticker on their camel that said “my son is an honor student with Gamaliel (Acts 22:3).

As he progressed in Judaism, (zealous for his ancestral traditions), his hatred for Christianity increased…in Judaism, God’s favor was earned through works and bondage...in Christianity, God’s favor is a result of grace and bestows freedom…Judaism and Christianity were irreconcilable enemies.

Paul was the classic example of a person who was sincere in his misdirected beliefs.

Regardless of how sincere you are in what you believe and practice, if you do not sincerely believe the truth, you are sincerely wrong!

You can be sincerely consumed with religion and miss Jesus! Paul was in desperate need of grace…

All of us are in desperate need of grace…what specifics do you point to to show your need of grace?

At Conversion — God Works His Grace (15-16a)

Gal 1:15-16 “But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood,”

Here was Paul, a religious elitist and hater of Christianity now describing his transformation.

God Intervenes in Our Life

“but” — after describing his lost condition, he now describes how God interrupted his life with His grace…

“But” is a simple yet powerful word, a conjunction that indicates what follows is a change of direction…it is a word of rescue.

I got in a car wreck, but no one was hurt

LSU lost game 2 of the World Series by 20 runs, but we won the deciding game by 14.

Eph 2:4-5 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),”

“when it pleased God”… God determined the time and the circumstances when Jesus would be revealed to Paul…salvation is completely dependent upon God…

Paul did not initiate his own salvation, much less choose to be an apostle.

God is absolutely sovereign in our salvation.

God Brings About His Eternal Plan

Paul writes that God set him apart from the womb…much like the words of Jeremiah 1:5 ““Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.””

The truth of Scripture tells us we have a God who graciously chose us in him before the creation of the world and He graciously and mercifully works everything according to His will and His purpose to bring us to that place where we answer His call....regardless of what we bring to the table!

Stop and think about this for a moment…God called Paul before he was born…before he ever developed great leadership skill and writing ability or displayed his strong work ethic...yet Paul spent years living in rebellion against Him and terrorized God’s church…God was patient with him… aren’t you glad God is patient with you.

God Graciously Calls Us Unto Himself

Paul says God called me by His grace…Paul was not searching for God, he was actually an enemy of God…none of us can ever claim that we pursued God first…we are here because mercy ran to us, God pursued us…that’s the gospel!

God was pleased to reveal His Son to me and in me...

Jesus revealed himself to Paul in a direct and unique way…this is what makes Paul’s testimony different than ours.

God would continue to reveal himself throughout Paul’s life and ministry.

No one can understand spiritual truth until God reveals it to them…this is to keep everyone from boasting that they have any part of their salvation...

John 6:44 ““No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Eph 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Calling not only refers to the life events that lead us to repentance and faith in Jesus, it also refers to God’s special plan for someone’s life work.

Paul was called to preach to the Gentiles...Although God’s calling of Paul was unique, God does not call any person unto himself whom He does not also call to serve.

Eph 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

1 Pet 2:9 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;”

All of us are called by God as witnesses and servants of Jesus Christ…to be the holy priesthood...

Implications

What events did God use to bring you to Himself, how did you come to know you needed Christ and trust Him? What are you doing now to faithfully serve Him?

The Testimony of the Gospel Glorifies God (16b-24).

Gal 1:16-24 “to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus. Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas, and stayed with him fifteen days. But I did not see any other of the apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. (Now in what I am writing to you, I assure you before God that I am not lying.) Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea which were in Christ; but only, they kept hearing, “He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy.” And they were glorifying God because of me.”

We’re not going to spend a lot of time on this section…but what we have here is Paul defending his apostleship by declaring what he did after his conversion

…his point rests in the fact that he didn’t immediately consult any man about his conversion or his gospel…he didn’t have to because he knew he was saved and that his message was from Jesus himself.

v. 17 — he avoids Jersualem — the home of the church…and goes back to Damascus…more than likely to study, pray and be alone with the Lord

v. 18-19 — three years later he travels to Jerusalem and spends 15 days there getting to know Peter and James.

v 20 — he swears an oath before God...gives an indication of how heated the argument was from the Judaizers…

v. 21 — Paul returns home... Cilicia was Paul’s home province, the capital was Tarsus, Paul’s home city…Acts 9 reveals there was a plot to kill Paul and that is why he fled to his home town.

v. 22 — he was personally unknown by the churches in Judea…they only knew Paul’s reputation...

v 23 —24 — the key to this section — when others heard of Saul the persecutor graciously converted by God into Paul the preacher they rejoiced and glorified God because of him.

All religions created by man always end up glorifying man. Faiths that camp out on performance also glorify man.

There is some law to keep, some teaching to follow, some ritual to perform, etc. In one way or another, man climbs up to heaven to reach God…in Christianity, God reaches down to us through Jesus.

When the focus is on look how good we are at what we do…grace is minimized.

Who receives the glory for your salvation?

None of us may have a life as dramatically changed like Paul’s, but we can still testify of God’s transforming grace by living for His glory, not ours!

Life Steps

Beware those who claim Jesus plus something.

Trust in Christ alone to save you.

Thank God you are free from the burden of having to earn his love and approval.

Enjoy the fact that God is at work in your life

Identify at least three ways your life has changed as a result of your relationship with Jesus.