From Faithless to Faithful

Pauls life was changed by the gospel.

The gospel Paul was preaching was not from man, we explained this in great detail last week. Paul didn’t just make up the gospel message, it directly came from Christ himself. He wasn’t taught like the Galatians were he was taught directly by Christ himself. The authority from his message came from God and not man. The gospel that Paul preached was life giving and life changing, and today I want you to see....

Main idea. The power of the true gospel message changes everything about a Christian’s life

Pauls life shows us our need for Christ

Pauls life prior to conversion was radically different than what it was after Christ. Paul was one of the top Jews in all of Israel, and he had a passionate zeal to persecute the Christian Church. He was sold out to the Jewish faith, and wanted to make sure that anyone preaching about Christ would be persecuted in a variety of different ways.

His goal was simple, destroy Christianity, and used everything possible avenue to destroy it.

Why did he do this? Because he clearly believed that Judaism was the only way to God.

Acts 26:11 shows us what he often did. It says, “And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities.”

He did not want anyone to be Christian, so much so that he tried to get them to blaspheme. Paul wanted nothing more than to have others say Christ was not who he said he was. Christ can not take away your sins. Christ was not the son of God and tell him that Christ did not die for sinners, and that what they believed was not true.

He not only tried to get them to blaspheme, but he often run people out of town so they could not spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was 100 percent against Christians.

While he claimed to be faithful he was actually faithless, he was a violent man looking to do anything to wipe Christians off the face of this earth.

The text says that he was advancing in Judaism beyond his own age. He was the best of the best, noone outshined him, he was the valedictorian if that were such a thing.

Not only was he the best, he was zealous for Judaism, and the traditions of this fathers.

He was as Scripture says Pharisee of Pharisees. He followed not only the Old Testament teachings, but all the traditions of his fathers.

His fathers would have taught him something called the Halakah.

The Halakah was A Jewish legal ruling concerning the application of the Torah to various daily aspects of human conduct. There was a law for everything and Paul knew it. Jesus and the New Testament writers lived in a period of intense halakic discourse and debate.

Paul thought very high of himself, because of what he was doing to the Christians and what he knew, his knowledge about God and traditions gave him a foundation for persecuting Christians.

Paul had mastered those teachings and knew them well, but it didn’t lead him to Christ.

I like how one man put it, “Paul is the classic example of a person who was sincere in his misdirected beliefs before becoming Christian. Sincerity cannot bring you to salvation if you do not sincerely believe the truth. you can be sincerely wrong. You can be consumed with religion and miss Jesus.”

Many of us have been their or seen others who were sincere about what they believed but missed Jesus. You can think you have all the right answers when it comes to religious matters and still miss the savior.

And the gospel Paul was preaching, and his life prior to Christ showed his own need for Christ, and our need for him, and thankfully despite Paul seeking his own traditions Christ came and changed his life.

Pauls life shows us what grace from Christ looks like.

Despite Pauls unchristlike behavior God has a purpose for Paul. So much so that he set him apart from birth. God is sovereign and knew everything that Paul would ever do, and God used everything in Paul’s life up until that moment and he saved him to show him what grace looks like.

The church I was at had a theme for my pastors son who was in a tragic accident and that was but God. But God is some of the greatest words in all of Scripture, and for Paul it changed everything in his life.

If he didn’t have a but God moment than he would have never been changed. But God being rich in mercy showed him grace, and he planned on giving him that grace before this birth.

And for Paul Grace was so much sweeter because he had been forgiven of much.

God showed Paul grace through his son Jesus Christ despite everything that Paul had done in his life.

He called him, and when God calls you respond. The calling of Paul was an act of grace, because God removed him from his old life, and brought him into a new life.

Finally he revealed his son to Paul. Listen to the words of Charles Spurgion he says, “Paul was intensely desirous that the Galatian Christians should understand that he was no mere repeater of other men’s doctrines, but that what he taught he had received directly from God by supernatural revelation. They knew that he had been a most determined opposer of the gospel. Indeed, he was a man of such great determination that whatever he did, he did with all his might.”

Paul’s focus went from destroying the gospel to preaching the gospel.

God was kind and gracious to reveal himself to Paul, and because of that he couldn’t help but live a life for him.

This is what God does when he saves a person, he sets them apart from birth, he calls them, and he reveals himself to them. If you are a believer you remember when God did that in your own life, and it motives you to live a light of faithfulness to Christ.

Pauls life show us faithfulness to Christ.

This is the bulk of our message.

Paul had lived a Jewish life, a life that had been all about following rules, and he was good at it. He not only followed the rules, he knew them, and sought to teach them to others, but Christ radically changed his life, despite all he had ever done. It was God’s plan all along to use Paul for his glory, this is why he set him out from birth, thats why he called him, and that why he revealed himself to Paul.

Paul has a strong testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is using that to give credibility to the people of Galatia.

Notice what happens to Paul after being set apart, and called, and seeing Jesus Christ. His purpose changes, and so does his allegiance. God called out Paul in order that he would preach to the Gentiles. A Jew by birth would take the gospel to the ends of the earth. Incredible transformation, only something God could have done.

How could Paul not preach it, after what had happened in his life.

Whats interesting is Paul doesn’t immediately consult anyone about what happened, nor did he take the trip to Jerusalem, but he began to preach the gospel. He recognized that the power of the Holy Spirit and the call on his life was enough to go and preach to the gentiles and this is what happened

Acts 9:19-20 , “For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. 20 And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” After this he did this though, he went away, and he learned directly from Jesus, and then went back again.

For some time he faithful preached and learned from Christ without the other apostles.

After three years ( these three years were most likely after he was saved) he then went to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, We better know Cephas as Peter. Peter was arguably the closest to Christ, so his opinion would hold a-lot of weight. Even though Paul had been called out directly by Christ he knew he needed the other apostles support, and he would get it. In in 2 Peter 3:14-16 Peter says this, “Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. 15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures”

Peter recognizes Paul’s authority, and faithfulness to Christ, not only did Paul see Peter, but James the Lords brother a fellow apostle. James would go on to be a crucial leader in the church of Jerusalem, and he too recognizes the authority that Jesus had given Paul.

Paul adds the statement “In what I am writing to you, before God, i do not lie” Despite the accusations that been made against Paul, he is telling the people of Galatia, my life, my testimony bears witness to the work of Jesus Christ in my life, and that testimony is evidenced by faithfulness of my ministry.

He preached the true gospel to the people of Galatia he has no reason to lie to them, and they have no reason to trust anyone else. Pauls faithfulness to Christ was evident, and Paul didn’t leave himself without witness.

Paul went on to go to places like Syria, and Cilicia, and all over Judea, in places he was not known, but even so he continue to preach Christ.

But notice what they said about him, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy”

Not only did, Peter see this truth, and James but others who did not know Paul saw that he was preaching the true Christ, despite his former life.

No-one is beyond the reach of grace of God.

I have already said this but I cant emphasize this enough, Paul was radically changed by the gospel, and he couldn’t help from preaching Christ despite his former life.

The weight of his transformation, added to his testimony, and the change that happened in his life glorified God.

How can this text apply to our lives?

Your testimony, and call on your life matters. Only you can live the life God called you to.

Think about it. Paul was a man who thought he had all the right answers, who thought everything he did was right thing, yet he couldn’t have been further from Christ.

Yet, The power of the true gospel message changes everything about a Christian’s life. Everyone who a believer has a story about how they came to Christ. Some of us the Lord saves early, and others he saves us in the darkest of places and everywhere in between, but the key is that everyone needs Christ, everyone needs him, Paul as good as thought he was needed Christ, and us as bad as we can sometimes be needs Christ. Part of our Testimony is that we need Christ, and Paul showed us that very thing. Don’t be ashamed by your story, be grateful for how God has wrote it. We all come from different walks and life, but Paul’s story of coming to Christ is the same as everyone else's, thinks he has the all the right answers, but when confronted by the Lord Jesus Christ is changed forever.

Think about how God saved you, it could have been in an instant or maybe over time you saw his work on your life, and knew God had saved you. Every story cannot be like Paul, but every Christian has a story that is centered on Christ that changed your life.

This is an important question for you. What has God called you to be faithful to. We know first and foremost its to be faithful to him, but every believer has a specific call. I love what one man said, “Paul’s calling in life was specific. It is not infrequent to hear of people who claim that God has called them to some specific task. Paul had the same clear sense of God’s direction in his life: “so that I might preach him among the Gentiles” (v. 16). We have been taught that if we aim at nothing we will hit nothing. The same applies in Christian living: if we drift aimlessly in the Christian life, we will simply drift like a bottle in the ocean. We will accomplish nothing although we may bob around in many areas.”

Thats so good, because God has called you to something, for me at this time its to pastor this church, its to be a husband, a father, and someone who is to be a faithful follower of Christ.

For you it could be a number of different things, but its important that whatever God has called you to do, you are to do it. Don’t be like the bottle in the ocean appearing to be busy, yet have no clear direction. Figure out what God has called to you to do. I can’t tell you all the wasted days that I was like that bottle, knowing what God has called me to do, yet floating without a clear purpose.

As a church I want to help you with that call on your life to be all that God has called you to be. I said this early, but only God has called you to your story.

I wish I had Paul’s story as my own, but when I think about really hard, I do have a story like Paul its parts are different but similar. My whole life shows my need for Christ, My whole life is an example of grace from God, my life now is to be faithful to Christ, and you can put your name ( name some people ) in their as well.

The power of the true gospel message changes everything about a Christian’s life, and this is evidenced by Pauls life, and should be evidenced in yours. If you are in this room right now and you dont have a story like Paul’s that is ok, but do you have a story? Did Christ pull you out of life of sin and darkness, have you seen the goodness of Christ, and has he saved you, are you being faithful to what he has called you to do. Every believer has a story, and he is continuing to write it for us until he calls us home.

If you dont have a story I challenge you to see your sin, see a great savior that offers grace to the wickedest of people and turn to him today.

God can change the direction of your life, fill it with grace, and led you to a life of faithfulness.

Let us pray.