Pleasing God Preaching God’s Gospel

Acts 13-14, Paul did a lot of missionary work with Banabas in cities like Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe

Paul’s work that he had done in this area is being undermined by people who have come in preaching a works based gospel…

Paul in the introduction is defending his apostleship against Judaizers who are claiming that Paul is preaching a false Gospel.

They (The Judaizers) were devoted to the Mosaic laws and ceremonies while also trying to worship Jesus…

They had built their worship of Jesus around a false understanding of the SUFFICIENCY OF CHRIST.

They were trying their best to sow a new piece of cloth to the old garment…

they were trying their darnedest to get new wine into an old wineskin.

Because of this false understanding… they were arguing that Paul’s teaching was too easy… that it didn’t require enough works and obedience to be JUSTIFIED.

And so they try to discredit Paul, they try to attack his credentials as an apostle >>> Which leads to the Galatians questioning Paul’s authority and legitimacy, His motives and the GOSPEL MESSAGE he was proclaiming.

And so here in 1:10-12 we find Paul in the middle of his discourse defending the GOSPEL MESSAGE that he has already proclaimed to them…

the GOSPEL message that they themselves had already received and that they were now turning away from in the midst of the Judaizers and their false claims of a works based gospel.

He tells them that he is astonished that they have so quickly deserted the GOSPEL of GRACE through CHRIST ALONE and are turning to a different GOSPEL.

And he tells to the churches that whoever is preaching a DIFFERENT GOSPEL THAN THE GOSPEL OF GRACE… (JUSTIFICATION BY GRACE ALONE THROUGH FAITH ALONE IN CHRIST ALONE…) LET THEM BE ACCURSED… HE SAYS THIS TWICE TO MAKE HIS POINT!

ACCURSED… MEANS THAT PAUL IS DECLARING THEM SUBJECT OF GOD’S WRATH AND DIVINE CONDEMNATION. Paul isn’t just stating personal disapproval… but rather telling them of a spiritual reality because of their actions….

In Paul’s day as well as in today’s culture… this is a serious accusation…

The act of preaching a false Gospel is the act of leading others into what they think to be salvation when in all reality you are leading them into eternal condemnation and eternal wrath apart from their CREATOR.

Anytime you tell somebody that they’re coming under divine wrath for their actions… and therefore are accursed because of it… people tend not to appreciate that.

These are serious WORD’S that Paul is throwing around…

AND SO… Paul seeks to further prove his point with a series of three “FOR”’s (Conjunctions)… a series of EXPLAINING/ILLUSTRATING, GIVING EVIDENCE of the hard truth he just revealed to the Galatians and false teachers.

ESSENTIALLY WHAT PAUL IS WRITING TO THE GALATIANS AND WHAT WE CAN STILL APPLY TO OUR LIVES IS THIS…

PAUL SEEKS TO BE A GOD PLEASER NOT BY PREACHING MAN’S GOSPEL, BUT BY PREACHING GOD’S GOSPEL RECEIVED FROM CHRIST JESUS, AND SO SHOULD WE.

PLEASE GOD

Rhetorical Questions:

Gal. 1:10: FOR: “am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God?

Or AM I STILL trying to please man?”

Some thought Paul wasn’t preaching circumcision and the law as requirement to try and please or find favor with the Gentiles…

THE ANSWER THOUGH IS NO. He’s not seeking to please man but rather God.

REASON: “IF I WERE STILL TRYING TO PLEASE MAN, I would not be a SERVANT (doulos)of Christ.”

Paul’s desire is to PLEASE CHRIST AND CHRIST ALONE.

It’s interesting here that PAUL SAYS “If I were STILL TRYING TO PLEASE MAN”…

He mentions his former life in Judaism in Verses 13-14:

Persecuted the church

Tried to destroy it

Advanced through the ranks of Judaism.

Was zealous for the traditions of man his fathers (the traditions of men)

Sought to be blameless under the law (Phil 3:6)

PAUL REVEALS TO US THAT THE MOTIVES IN WHICH HE OPERATED WAS A FEAR AND DESIRE TO PLEASE MAN RATHER THAN GOD.

Co-Dependency / approval of man was the driving force behind every decision he made and every direction he went.

Surely what he would say outwardly was that he was seeking to please God through the keeping of the law and the traditions of man…

But Paul tells us that inwardly, the engine driving his actions was not a faithfulness to God but rather an idol like worship of men and their approval.

Paul was pleasing man in his former life… as we can plainly see.

AND SO… had wanted to please man… he wouldn’t have followed Christ. He would have stayed in his current occupation.

From Paul’s explanation… pleasing man, and pleasing Christ… are incompatible.

When speaking with the Pharisees, Jesus says to them in John 5:44

John 5:44 ESV

44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

He continues to tell them that they had set their hope in Moses and the Law rather than in God.

They had really just set their hope in the traditions of man. In the law that they were DOING… instead of letting the law of Moses point them to the Savior.

John 5:46 ESV

46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.

Their love for the approval of man was the OBSTACLE IN THE WAY OF THEM SEEING THE FULFILLMENT HAPPENING RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM IN CHRIST.

We see all these things connected… seeking glory from men>>>pride of self>>>fear of man/ pleasing men>>> seeking to follow the traditions or philosophy of man… THIS IS INCOMPATIBLE with being a “doulos”: A SLAVE & SERVANT OF CHRIST.

Colossians 2:8–10 ESV

8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

>>>PAUL SOUGHT BE DRIVEN BY THE SOLE AUTHORITY of CHRIST AND CHRIST ALONE…

It had nothing to do with appealing to the crowd he was around with the gospel he presented. Wether it was to the Jews or to the Greeks…

The Gospel of grace he presented actually… was one that most men didn’t understand…

Paul has been preaching that It took an act of God’s Spirit to initiate the salvation process in a believer…

because of this fact in didn’t include ANY WAY IN WHICH WE OURSELVES COULD EARN THIS JUSTIFICATION… (It was mind boggling to any man who had tried to earn their righteousness through the law or a law.)

PAUL SAYS THAT THIS IS NOT MAN’S GOSPEL…

NOT BY MAN’S GOSPEL: ALWAYS ADDING TO JESUS

Galatians 1:11–12 ESV

11 For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. 12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

“For I would have you know, brothers…”: Paul wanted to make this perfectly clear to the Galatians because of the fact that when dealing with an issue like the GOSPEL… there is no room for any doubt or any confusion.

Paul sets out then to let the Galatians know that the Gospel they received from him was not a man made thing…

He didn’t receive it from tradition or was taught this by instruction from man… the way in which he received all the other teachings of his life.

One should be able to recognize this down in their heart because a MAN’S GOSPEL IS SOMETHING THAT IS EASY TO SPOT.

>>>I know that it’s something I would have came up with myself…

Given the responsibility to conjure up a way for people to make it to heaven… I would have undoubtedly come up with some sort of scoring system.

Something that rewarded my good works, my abilities, my effort…

WHY IS THIS? Because my natural hearts inclination is to come up with something that is me focused, works based so that I can feel good about myself and have something to check off a list, and so that I can have the control.

Man’s gospel’s… which Paul addresses here in Galatians…essentially claims that salvation is given through Christ + earned and kept by man’s works.

The Gospel, in a man’s gospel is made effective by our obedience to the law.

Catholicism: the sacraments

Mormonism: human effort and additional human revelation

Joseph Smith’s third article: “We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.”>>> The deciding factor? human obedience.

Mormons cite: “We know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.”

Islam: obedience to the five pillars (Shahada: declaration of faith; Salat: Five daily prayers; Zakat: Giving Alms; Sawm: Fasting during Ramadan; Hajj: A pilgrimage to Mecca once)

The Judaizer’s of Galatians were requiring faith + circumcision…

Paul speaks about the logical problem with this in the book of Romans and really gets at the fact that grace and works do not coexist as the basis for salvation.

YOU CAN COME AS YOU ARE TO CHRIST.

Romans 3:27–30 ESV

27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

Paul gets right at the issue of justification by faith alone in Christ alone apart from circumcision or any other kind of works

>>> pointing to the fact that even the Gentile would attain justification apart from their works (they had none through the law of Moses) but only through FAITH.

And then in chapter 4 in speaking about the righteousness counted to Abraham through faith Paul says…

Romans 4:4–5 ESV

4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,

RIGHTEOUSNESS, is counted by faith.

Later, in speaking of the people of Israel and God keeping for Himself a remnant of HIs people… Paul says was CHOSEN BY GRACE.

Romans 11:6 ESV

6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

INDEED… what Paul was fighting against in these churches … Were men who in fact rejected CHRIST AS SUFFICIENT FOR THE JUSTIFICATION OF A MAN IN THE SIGHT OF A HOLY GOD.

AND SO IN DOING SO THEY THOUGHT IT NECESSARY to ADD TO JESUS…

THIS WAS THE GOSPEL OF MAN… CHRIST + WORKS

This was a man made Gospel.

This was what PLEASED MAN…

BUT IT DID NOT PLEASE GOD.

PAUL… is seeking to PLEASE GOD.

Which is why he’s willing to be so direct rebuking those in the church who have turned away and those who are leading them astray with a false GOSPEL.

PAUL IS NOT SEEKING TO PLEASE MAN with man’s gospel, but He is seeking to please GOD BY AND THROUGH GOD’S GOSPEL.

GOD’S GOSPEL: MARKED BY THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST

In God’s providence:

Saul approved the stoning of Stephen. >>> (I wonder how much this played a part in God preparing Paul for his conversion.) (Acts 7)

Saul was behind the great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. (Acts 8)

Scripture says that he was ravaging the church, entering house to house dragging off men and women, sending them to prison.

Because of this suffering… there were many who were proclaiming the Word and many who were believing. (Acts. 8)

Then Saul, seeking to do even more damage to the church set off to Damascus with letters from the high priest to bring any one belonging to THE WAY back bound to Jerusalem.

On his way to Damascus… you probably know the story… Saul was confronted by CHRIST, he’s blinded by Christ, taken to Damascus by his men not eating or drinking, blind for three days… (Now this is a way to get someone’s attention.)

After this, by the ministry of the Lord through Ananias, and through the disciples there in Damascus… Paul was baptized and built up there as a new believer.

Paul elaborates on this a bit more here later in the 1st chapter of Galatians.

GAL. 1:12: Paul had “received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Paul, on that road was given a direct encounter with the risen Jesus Christ.

It was on that road that Paul was convinced that the testimony of these persecuted Christians (most assuredly with Stephen fresh on his mind) were true, and by this firsthand meeting with the risen Christ Paul received the GOSPEL.

The term “Revelation” carries a lot of significance here… it literally means “unveiling, a laying bare, the removal of that which conceals or obscures.”

Paul… deeply entrenched in his love for the approval of men, had this veil of fear taken away from his heart and replaced with truth by grace.

Christ was the one who revealed Christ (His Identity) to Paul. (Acts 9:5)

The fact that God had raised Him from the dead and that He was one with the Father.

Christ revealed to Paul the Union of Christ and the Church.

It was through Ananias that Christ revealed to Paul that he was the chosen instrument to the Gentiles, kings and children of Israel as well as his future suffering.

God had shone in his heart and gave the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus. (2 Cor. 4:6)

Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians…

1 Corinthians 15:1–11 ESV

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

It was by this revelation and grace that Paul was shown that Christ is ENOUGH.

That one is justified by faith in Jesus apart from works, BY GRACE THROUGH faith to all who believe (Rom. 3)

THIS REVELATION FROM JESUS is SO IMPORTANT because you can tell that it is now the STANDARD BY WHICH PAUL is measuring every other set of ideas, religions and philosophies.

BY GOD’S GOSPEL.

A gospel that didn’t just belong to Israel, but also to the nations!

A way in which no man would have conjured up on their own.

This revelation obliterated Paul’s dependence on human approval.

Whatever gain Paul had in his former zealousness for Judaism, he counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

This encounter with Jesus cast away the fear that once had been what drove him.

fear of the jewish establishment

fear of losing status.

He could now stand against Peter,

He could now pronounce curses on false gospels

He could now resist the pressure to please men because by the grace of God he was what he was. (1. Cor. 15:1-11)

This freedom came directly from the sufficiency of Christ… and had nothing to do with the approval of man…

Application:

One scholar said that there is a fundamental divide between those with an inordinate desire to please others (motivate by a fear of man) and servants of Christ with an all-consuming passion to please God (inspired by the fear of God)

Before Paul’s conversion, Paul admits here that his engine was driven by the approval of others and fear of man. BUT THIS WAS SHATTERED WHEN CHRIST IN HIS GRACE SOUGHT HIM OUT.

And so the question for us here is: Are you still operating from the old engine of human approval, or has the gospel reoriented your entire motivation?

Are you seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or are you still trying to please man?

Dear one let me warn you…

Proverbs 29:25 ESV

25 The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.

2. In order to do this… we must ask ourselves… HOW OFTEN DO I PREACH THE GOSPEL TO MYSELF DAILY?

This is crucial in the battle against fear of man.

The Gospel isn’t just a one-time thing… but a constant recalibration in the heart of a believer.

When we do this…

I remind myself that Christ is my judge

That His grace is sufficient

That His approval is all that matters

And in so doing… you dismantle this competing thought of needing somebody else’s approval.

Dear one: PREACH THE GOSPEL TO YOURSELF DAILY.

3. When you speak the gospel; are you preaching man’s gospel, and what they want to hear? Or God’s gospel given to us by revelation of Jesus Christ?

We were not commissioned by Christ in the same manner as Paul, but we have been commissioned as the church… to go therefore and preach the good news.

Is your Gospel presentation highlighted by an understanding that THE GOSPEL IS MADE EFFECTIVE BY THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST, by faith alone!

When you preach God’s Gospel, you’re declaring that CHRIST IS SUFFICIENT regardless of applause or opposition.

CHURCH… cast off the need for man’s approval and seek to be a GOD PLEASER by preaching God’s Gospel.