Credentials Galatians 1:11-24

sing a new name in glory

I am not sure what I think about hair. I have mixed opinions on this issue. Today I have no problem with the idea of being bald. Sometimes I think to myself my brother never has to worry about unkept hair because he doesn’t have any hair. However, I get a little offended when this girl in my earth science class says that I have a substantial bald spot. When I was 14 I wanted long hair to be a punk rocker, no seriously. I did! Today I can’t stand if my hair gets over three inches long, and I beg Michelle to cut it because I don’t want anyone else touching my head. But there is the idea of long hair in Christianity. In the New Testament women are encouraged to have long hair over cover their head and for some reason women’s hair in the church is shorter than in the world. Now before all you women get upset with me, please listen to end of this message. Men aren’t off the hook, remember the story of Samson, the man had a Godly Nazarite vow and never cut his hair. Wow what he must have looked like. Jesus probably did not have my hair cut. But for some reason we as a church worry about hair as if it were a mark of Christianity. When I started teaching there was a dress code that included a very serious hair cut policy. Men’s hair should not touch the collar. We had to hunt down the boys and like measure the hair on their head and today they don’t have the restrictions that they once did. I am not that much of a fan because greasy boys who haven’t washed their hair in a week. Well anyways, I do think that a school can have a dress code and it can have hair cut as part of its policies. BUT Better Christians than me have longer hair, greasier hair, or no hair at all. My point is the length of your hair does not determine your entrance into heaven.

I wanted to come to church today prove my point, but that isn’t me. In Christian Liberty. I will keep the hair style that I have until God or my wife inspire me to change it.

The Gospel is about God, not men.

Galatians 1:10–11 For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.

Last week’s final point was to please God not man. That was what Paul’s purpose in this world was and that is what my purpose is here today. I want to tell you. You don’t determine who goes to heaven. Thank God I don’t determine who goes to heaven or not. Every semi religious figure I see in the media. I can’t tell if they are sold out Christian or a fraud. It gets so confusing today. Let me tell you. I told you a while ago that I don’t hold too much stock in Christian media personalities, I have watched too many fall from grace. On the other hand there are some people out there who don’t look like Christians but they are sold out for Jesus. They may have a checkered past but they have a heavenly future. I am more concerned with your heart than I am about the heart of Dr David Jeremiah or Mr T (who did claim to be a Christian) That is not a judgment on them it just saying. You can’t tell by the outward appearance it is God who knows the heart.

Serve Jesus!

James 1:1 James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: Greetings.

Who you are doesn’t matter. Dr So and So. Business owner of such and such. If you are worth ten dollars 100 dollars 1000 a million or a billion. What matters is if you belong to Jesus. The New Testament authors through away all titles and serve Jesus. We are a servant of Jesus.

All your credentials mean nothing in eternity.

Philippians 3:7–8 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.

Oh, I was the state champion in Basketball..… SO

Oh, I was the valedictorian of my school...… SO

I started my own.… SO I have a doctorate..… SO SO SO

Do any of those things earn you a place in heaven? NOPE!

Paul’s credentials come from Jesus.

Galatians 1:12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Paul rests his entire argument for His authority on Jesus Christ. If I have any authority in your life. It is because of Jesus Christ. I am saying if you listen to anything that I have to say, it is because of Jesus. I will obey Jesus rather than men. The people who I listen to the most in this life are followers of Jesus Christ and that should be your attitude also.

Saul was a Judaizer.

Galatians 1:13–14 For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, 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 fathers.

Paul is saying I was that guy that was trying to take away your Christian Liberty. I was opposed to the gospel. He was that rock star who lived to keep you in sin before he found Christ. He was that Pastor who tried to keep you under the thumb of the law adding works to grace. Some of you have experienced someone like that. I am sorry. I serve Christ to let grace reign in this church. Liberty: Christian freedom with the responsibility of virtue and morality. Paul was Saul a thug, a sinner, a religious persecutor.

Saul’s religious zeal was intense.

Acts 7:58 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

He was so opposed to the gospel that he was there consenting to the death of Stephen. He was just like these Judaizers who were saying you have to be circumcised.

Saul wanted to shackle the church.

Acts 9:1–2 Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

That is what the legalist does. They shackle the gospel. Our neighbors need to come here to find grace. The malcontents the lost, the broken. Saul wanted people to meet His standards not God’s and if they didn’t conform to his standards he was going to have them arrested. I have seen that in church. You don’t sing my way, you don’t dress my way, you don’t talk like me. You aren’t welcome here. I am sorry that is not the overwhelming amazing Grace of God.

Saul was hung up on religious traditions.

Mark 7:8 For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.”

I guarantee you that this happens in every single church. But we need to be careful to minimize it’s effects. That piano must be played every Sunday. What are you doing to the church a deacon isn’t wearing a tie? We don’t have a prayer meeting on Wednesdays. How dare we! All those things I just mentioned may be good. There is nothing wrong with any of them. But you will not find one in the Bible. Again nothing wrong with any of them. But some people say you talk too much about Jesus. Not to me, I am saying some people say that and they get hung up on traditions. It happens everywhere. We need to stop doing that.

God called Saul to be Paul.

Galatians 1:15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace,

Hey everyone here praying for the prodigal. I stopped and prayed for a few when I wrote this. Highlight this verse. Underline it. Memorize it. But when it pleased God… God called me through His grace. Your part is to share, God quickens ( that means give new life) He did it to Saul, he can do it to the prodigal. I know, we say hurry up God.

Do you wonder, what about Paul’s mom. There is no mention of her in the Bible. Was she a Godly woman. She may have raised her son to be religious. Was she praying hard for his hard heart?

Paul was given a mission by God, to be an agent of Grace.

Galatians 1:16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,

Paul doesn’t say. I was asked to write you this letter by so and so. I was given this mission by. No His authority is from GOD! That is who we need to trust on to lean on is the LORD Jesus Christ.

Paul went to Desert University for three years.

Galatians 1:17–18 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days.

Paul had credentials before he became a servant of Jesus. He had it all he was straight laced prim and proper. Than Jesus Grabbed him. Jesus called him and stripped him of everything and said you serve me. Be an agent of grace. First thing he did was send him to the desert. He was there for three years.

I knew a guy who went to Bible school. He was a pastor for some time. It didn’t go so well. Being a pastor is tough. People come and go. You try to serve the LORD and sometimes you feel like you are serving people. He left the ministry discouraged and sold TVs. I remember talking to him and someone asked him how his ministry was going. He hung his head. I sell TVs. Today he is back in ministry. At least the last I knew. and I am so proud of what he is doing. His credentials don’t matter. The fact that he is serving Jesus matters. In the desert or in the palace. In university or not. Some of you have better theological degrees than men who have gone to Dallas Theological Seminary. You went to the school of hard knocks.

Desert university may be the best education.

Moses went to desert university for forty years.

Acts 7:30 And when forty years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai.

David recieved an advanced degree from desert university.

1 Samuel 23:14 And David stayed in strongholds in the wilderness, and remained in the mountains in the Wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day, but God did not deliver him into his hand.

Even Jesus spent a semester at desert university.

Mark 1:12–13 Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.

The truth is that in this life the best credentials that you can receive aren’t from books and in a classroom, even though they have there place it is in God’s school of hard knocks.

Don’t be afraid of enrolling in desert university.

Romans 5:3–5 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Paul got his credentials the same way you do. He leaned on the LORD when times are tough. You learn about perseverance, character, hope, love, and your beloved professor is the Holy Spirit.

College can be scary, but desert university is more intense and it is worth every penny.

Paul wasn’t concerned about people and places.

Galatians 1:19–21 But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. (Now concerning the things which I write to you, indeed, before God, I do not lie.) Afterward I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

Paul was just doing what God told him to. I don’t think to him it was a big deal that he knew Peter and James. Those were big men in Christiandom. He was concerned about knowing Jesus. There is a guy that I like a lot. Every time I talk to him, he tells me every big Christian that he knows. I know this famous pastor, this famous singer. I have probably been guilty of that and so have you. Who cares. You know Jesus that is what is important.

Do you notice how Paul says (I do not lie). Scholars think he wrote that because he had been accused by the Judaizers of lying. Anyways Paul is saying it doesn’t matter what you look like how you dress, how long your hair is. The question is DO YOU KNOW JESUS! Have you earned your degree through the desert university, the experience academy.

Paul was a nobody.

Galatians 1:22 And I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ.

What did Paul look like when he came back from desert university? Did he have long hair? Did he look weathered dirty? That doesn’t matter. People didn’t recognize him for all of his previous credentials. His rubbish as he called it. My question is, how do we get in our heart to take our eyes off the outward appearance and look at the heart? The gospel is color blind.

God has used some ugly mugs.

Mark 1:6–7 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, “There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose.”

When you go to desert university, you may come out looking a little uglier on the outside but true beauty comes from within.

Don’t even ask about Isaiah and Ezekiel. Many Many of the prophets endured Desert academy

Nathan Hale

“I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country”

No military background beyond being a young schoolteacher

No political influence

No wealth or family power

No experience in espionage Only 21 years old

He was, quite literally, a quiet, studious Yale graduate who loved books, teaching, and his students.

What Makes Him a Hero

When Washington desperately needed volunteers for an intelligence mission behind British lines—a job considered suicidal—Hale stepped forward when no one else would.

He was captured within days.

At his execution, he delivered the line that became immortal:

Hale laid down his life for his country and inspired a nation even though he looked so unassuming. His credentials did scream Military hero, but you can’t judge a book by its cover. Look at the heart.

Paul’s testimony glorified God.

Galatians 1:23–24 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.

Paul is singing I was once a sinner but I came pardon to receive from the LORD

In the book tis written saved by grace

The best lesson of desert academy is a sinner saved by grace.

It is about the transformative power of the gospel.

Desert Academy lesson #1 - Grace Alone!

Romans 11:6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.

It isn’t about all you have done, it is about what he has done. Paul was a miserable sinner. God took him and called him saved him and dragged him out into the woods. He looked better on paper before conversion. But his heart was pure gold after Christ. Don’t look at people the way the world does. Don’t worry about their hair makeup or lack there of Worry about their heart.

Grace is a free education.

Romans 3:23–24 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

College costs a lot. Grace is Free! It gives you the eternal credentials that allow you into heaven and it doesn’t matter who you are are or what you look like all are welcome. We are all sinners, just men in need of a Savior.