Paul’s Defense

Every time that I get an opportunity to preach, I find myself appreciating Pastor Milton. And Pastor Mike and the quality of messages that we get so faithfully through them and every time I'm always reminded of just how, how desperate I am for God's grace and how desperate you guys are for God's grace on me for your benefit. With that in mind, would you please join with me in prayer as we. Continue to prepare our hearts to hear what God might have to say to us this morning.

Let's pray together. A dear gracious Heavenly Father, we come before you and we ask, Lord, that you might quiet our hearts before you, God. We ask, Lord, that you would be so gracious so as to illuminate the eyes of our understanding. Help us, oh God, to understand what you have for us this morning.

As we consider the book of Galatians, and as we consider what Paul has to say to the Galatians in chapter 1, verses 10 through 24, we pray, Lord, that you might feed us. Through your word, and that Lord, you might use it to encourage us, to challenge us, to transform us, Lord, that we might grow in respect to our sanctification. We pray, Father, that this would serve as a means through which you accomplish in our lives progressive sanctification, spiritual growth for your glory, for our good, and that we might be useful to you as instruments of your grace and blessing in the lives of those around us, so that, Father, your glory.

It is made known.

It is manifest. So I pray, Lord, that every word of my mouth. That the thoughts of my heart. would be acceptable to you.

We ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, as you guys already know, we are in the book of Galatians. I am continuing in this series, this verse by verse study of the book of Galatians, and if you have your Bibles, go ahead and get them ready.

Open up the Galatians chapter 1, beginning in verse 10. And once you have it open, go ahead and set the Bible aside for a second, because there are some things that I want to say by way of introduction. Let me begin by saying, That the doctrine of justification by faith alone is very important. Some of you are thinking, duh, I know that.

And so I realized that to some degree, I am speaking to the choir, but again, let me say that justification by faith alone is extremely important. Martin Luther, the great reformer said, it is the article under which the church, you and I stand or fall. John Calvin says it is the hinge upon which everything else turns, and we at Cornerstone would submit to you that if you jettison the doctrine of justification by faith alone, you have jettisoned. The gospel itself, and of course if you jettison the gospel, we have no hope whatsoever.

We have no foundation. We have no solid ground upon which to stand. This doctrine is extremely, extremely important. And that is one of the reasons why we are in the book of Galatians, because we want to buttress our people with this doctrine so that there would be no misunderstanding about it, and much more about it will be said.

Let me say also that tragically, This essential Christian doctrine, this doctrine to die for, is under attack. Notice that I did not say was under attack. It is right now as I speak, under attack. This doctrine is under attack.

I was listening. to one preacher earlier in the week who spoke about the Christian Book Distributor Convention, and there was a guy that went around and interviewing people at this major book convention. We're talking thousands upon thousands upon thousands. Of Christian book distributors, authors, and, and salespeople were, were at this convention, and one guy goes around asking the question, how do if you are saved?

How can a person be saved? And half of the people answered that question insufficiently. They answered that question wrongly. There is this movement these days out there, that is known as the new perspective of Paul.

And please note some of what the people who adhere to this are saying. Quote, the gospel is not a system of how people get saved, and when he refers to the gospel here, he is being specific. He is referring to the doctrine of justification by faith alone. He says it is not a system of how people get saved.

One critic of the new perspective says this, that the new perspective claims, the new perspective of Paul claims that traditional Protestant Christianity has seriously confused and distorted what the apostle Paul taught about justification by faith. What a tragedy. And we will learn more about this, I am sure, in sermons to come. One Catholic scholar getting away from the new perspective and considering what is said in the realm of Catholicism.

One scholar, and this is a guy who was raised a Catholic, he became a Protestant, and later on in, in life, he goes back to Catholicism. Listen to what this supposed scholar says. The Catholic Church teaches that although faith is critically important, it only begins the process of justification, a process which also has a middle and an end. Justification is not a single event of faith alone, nor are works merely the fruit of such faith, but a process whereby the individual grows in justification by his faith.

Faith and good works. Notice he is saying that a person is justified by faith and good works. Good works is a part of the package. If you want to be justified, there has to be good works in your life, a growth which can be retarded or even terminated by faithlessness and bad works ending in damnation.

Listen to what this guy says. You can ultimately have real faith. But not have justification. You can ultimately have real faith and at the end of the day be damned to hell for all of eternity.

What a tragedy that this doctrine of justification by faith alone is under attack. Even in the circles of Eastern Orthodoxy. If you begin to unpack what they understand justification by faith to be, their understanding is akin to that of Catholicism. Mike Barry last week referenced the emerging church.

In a few weeks, we will have a conference on the emerging church, and part of what the emerging church has done is they have jettisoned the concept of objective truth. Now think about that, they have jettisoned, they have thrown away this concept of objective truth. Truth becomes relative, truth becomes a matter of opinion, and if they do that, then for all intents and purposes, what they do is they jettison the objective gospel through which people are saved. And again, I submit to you that the gospel, this doctrine of justification by faith alone is under attack.

For those of you who might be wondering, well, how are we to understand justification? Let me try to make it clear to you, to present it as simply as possible, and again, more will be said as we continue in the book. The doctrine of justification by faith basically says that man is absolved from sin by faith in Christ alone. Another way of saying it is this way justification is God's act of declaring or making a sinner righteous before God.

One commentator in referencing Paul's definition of justification, puts it this way, this is more elaborate. Justification means to Paul God's act of remitting the sins of guilty men, and accounting them righteous freely. His grace through faith in Christ on the grounds, not of their own works, but of the representative lawkeeping and redemptive blood shedding of the Lord Jesus Christ on their behalf. Paul's doctrine of justification is his characteristic way of formulating the central gospel truth.

This commentator says that God forgives believing sinners. Let me say it this way, that at the moment of your conversion, if you understand the Bible correctly, you are justified. You are justified. This is God declaring you in his sight to be righteous.

It is God saying to you that it is as if you have never sinned. It is as if you have always been righteous. Why? Because you are clothed.

In the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, His righteousness is imputed to you. So that in the same way in which he was deemed sinful, though he never sinned, the Bible says God made him who knew no sin to become sin, and so God treats him as the sinner. The exchange is that God now treats us as if we have always been righteous. He treats us as if we are holy and without blame.

And that happens, that declaration of God that you are justified happens, the moment in your life in which you repent of sin and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation. Sad to say that this is a doctrine, which is under attack in the church today. Tragically, there are some even in our own church. If anything about the history of this church, there have been some, thank God, small numbers of people who have been influenced by a viewpoint that serves to attack justification by faith alone.

There are some even in recent cornerstone church history, a minority granted, but, but tragic to say there are some who have for all intents and purposes, jettisoned. This essential Christian doctrine of justification by faith alone. And this is what Paul argues in the book of Galatians. Paul is arguing for this doctrine in the book of Galatians, and we hope to unpack it further and further and further as we dig deeper and deeper and deeper in the book.

But before Paul takes us there, It's important for you to know that Paul's ministry has been attacked. There are Judaizers out there who are pointing the finger at Paul and who are working overtime to discredit his ministry. For all intents and purposes. They are saying that Paul is a false apostle.

They are saying that Paul is no authority at. and the apostle Paul is led by God in this book to defend himself. And in his defense of himself, it's not just the defense of self for Paul, it is a defense of the very gospel that he proclaims. So the apostle Paul in Galatians chapter 1, verses 10 to the end of the chapter is basically presenting a defense.

He is presenting a defense. And he's going to defend himself in two ways in responding to the accusations of those that are causing him trouble. He is going to defend his motives, and he is going to defend the gospel itself. He will defend his motives, and he will defend his gospel.

Let us focus first on Paul's defense of his motives. Paul defends his motives, chapter 1, verse 10. Keeping in mind that Paul has just pronounced 2 times anathema upon the Judaizer, OK, he has just declared that those Judaizers who are presenting a different gospel, they can be accursed. OK.

And so as we jump into this passage, let me do one more thing, guys, as we jump into this passage, let me set the stage so that you understand the backdrop into which, Verses 10 through 24 are being stated. Here's the backdrop. Let's, let's assume we have a cast here, OK. Here's a cast.

You've got Paul, the preacher of the gospel of grace. You've got the Galatian Gentile believers. These are the non-intelligent people. They are not of the Jews.

They are the, Gentiles, so they're not all that smart compared to the Jewish believers, but you've got these Galatian Gentile believers. These are the ones that Paul ministered the gospel to. And these are the ones that he is now writing his letter to. You've got the apostles in Jerusalem, the apostles in Jerusalem, Peter and James are those that Paul references here in verses 10 to 24.

Then you've got the Judaizers associating themselves with the church in Jerusalem. They like to say that they were under the direct influence of the authoritative apostles. These are the troublemakers. These are the guys that are saying, if you want to be saved, faith is good, but you need more than that, you need to add the works of the law as well.

So here's a mock conversation. Listen to this. Troublemaker, troublemaker. It is really wonderful that you Gentiles have accepted Christ.

We are really so very, very happy about it. And of course, after coming to Christ, you have been circumcised and you are submitting to the law of Moses, I trust. Galatian Gentile. Having been saved through the ministry of Paul, why, no, Paul said nothing about that.

He said that we are justified solely on the basis of Christ's merits alone. He didn't say anything about our needing to be circumcised. Oh Paul. Oh well, huh, there's the problem right there.

Yes, his gospel is fine as far as it goes, but it does not go far enough. Now I'm from Jerusalem, surely you have heard of Jerusalem. We are the big mama church. All the apostles are there, the apostles of the Lamb.

Now they've all been circumcised Peter, James, John. I've been circumcised too. If you really want to be one of us, if you really want to be one of the people of God, fellow heirs of the people of God, joint citizens of the community of heaven, then you need to be circumcised like we are, and you need to follow the law of Moses. But that is not what Paul said.

Look Look, let me tell you something about Paul, that, that man pleaser. If he has any authority at all, it's derived from the apostles in Jerusalem. He has a subsidiary authority, if any at all. He is subordinate, because if he had learned the gospel at all, he learned it from them.

And so if you really want the real gospel, get circumcised. And keep the law of Moses. That's the true gospel. So this is the, the, the backdrop that Paul is led by God the Spirit to respond to.

And again, he is going to defend himself, and he begins with a defense of his motives in verse 10. Paul defends his motives. Listen to Galatians 1:10 now. He says, for am I now seeking to persuade men, OK, to be literal out of the Greek.

What is being said here is Paul. is asking a rhetorical question. Am I now seeking? Am I now persuading?

Am I now persuading men or God? And the question is, is, well, persuading them of what Paul? Well, obviously it's the gospel. OK.

Am I seeking to persuade men or God of the gospel? The answer is obvious. He's not trying to persuade God of of anything. His focus is to persuade men of the gospel, and he is essentially saying that I I am motivated to proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Don't call my motives into question. Then he goes on to say, or am I striving to please men? Paul, in essence here is saying that I am not striving to please men. Instead, I am motivated to please God.

It is my desire, and it is the passion of my heart to please God. And then he continues. By saying, if I were still trying to please men, you see, there once was a time in Paul's life in which he lived for the praise of men. He was a man pleaser.

He was governed by and directed by what others would say about him. He admits, I used to be that way, but I am not anymore. If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond servant of Christ. And so here Paul is essentially saying, I am motivated to be a servant of God.

Paul is defending his motives here. I am not trying to water down the gospel so as to win a hearing. I am not saying to the Jews, yeah, you need to keep the law and then saying to the Gentiles, no, you don't have to keep the law. I don't have a double standard going on here.

Don't accuse me of that. I am here to proclaim the gospel. I am here to please God. I am here to be a servant of God.

Just one thought real quick by way of application. Do not allow the fear of man. to derail you from proclaiming the gospel. Paul is not allowing the fear of man to derail him, and obviously so when he pronounces a curse on the Judaizer.

I am not. Seeking to please man and what I have said. So Paul defends his motives, and he moves on. In verses 11 and following to a defense of his gospel, Paul defends his gospel.

Now, it's important to say here that when Paul defends his gospel in a very real, real sense, he's not just defending his gospel, he's defending the gospel. And part of what he is doing here is he is defending his own apostleship. He is trying to convince his readers that he is the genuine article, and that what he received is the genuine gospel. And that they need to adhere to the gospel that was first proclaimed to them.

This is what Paul is doing. He is defending his gospel again. It's akin to defending his own ministry, his own apostleship, his own call by God to be a proclaimer of the gospel. You see, for Paul, these things are so intertwined to where he, he can use them synonymously.

My apostleship, my ministry, my gospel, there's a sense in which they blend together as one. Because to attack Paul is to attack the gospel. That is his foundation for life. OK, so Paul defends his gospel.

If you look at verse 11 through 12A, here we have Paul defends his gospel by declaring that it is not from man. Paul's going to defend his gospel in about 4 different ways here. This is the first way. The first thing he does is he declares that it is not from man.

My gospel is not from man, verse 11, for I would have, brethren. That the gospel. Now he is speaking of the gospel as an objective fact, the gospel, this objective truth that is true apart from me, the gospel, the good news, what is the gospel? It is the fact that Jesus died for sinners.

It is the fact that a man can be justified apart from the works of law through faith alone. In Christ alone, the gospel, which was preached by me, he says it was preached by me. When I was among you. I preached the gospel.

He's using the past tense, it was preached. Then he goes on to use the present tense. It was preached by me is right now, it is not according to man. This gospel that I preached when I was with you years ago, and this very same gospel that I am presenting to you now, presenting to you now, it's the same gospel.

And this gospel was not of man. It is not according to man, for I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it. OK, so his first point as he seeks to defend his gospel is to say, It is not from man, and he is going to move on to defend his gospel by declaring that it is directly and exclusively from Jesus Christ. It is directly And exclusively from Jesus Christ.

He makes this statement in verse 12, for I neither received it from man nor was I taught it. And then he says, but here we go, but I received it through a revelation. The Greek word is apocalypsis. This is an unveiling of Jesus Christ.

This is a reference to when Paul as a persecutor of the church was on the road to Damascus, intent on destroying the church, and the Lord Jesus Christ revealed himself to Paul, so that he saw Christ and understood for the first time. In his life that Jesus Christ was the promised Messiah, that he is the savior, that he is the Lamb of God who died on the cross in the place of sinners, so that sinners could go free. When he speaks about the fact that he, that, that he received the gospel through a revelation of Jesus, he is referring at the very least back to the moment in which the eyes of his heart were illumined, to where he could understand the gospel for the first time.

And here he is saying that it came directly.

Through Jesus Christ, I did not make it up. And when you stop to think about it, no human being would ever concoct such a bizarre story, that God would send his innocent son Jesus to die for me, a guilty, vile, wretched sinner, so that I can be forgiven for my sin. That is absolutely bizarre. No man would have thought of it.

The only reason Paul would testify to it, the only reason why you and I would believe in it, is because God in His grace helps us to see it. He illuminates the eyes of our understanding, and he gives us faith to believe that it is true. And for those of us who believe it is the most marvelous message that we could ever have heard and that we could ever proclaim, OK, so Paul is defending his gospel by declaring it is not for man, by declaring that it is directly and exclusively from Jesus Christ.

And what he will do in what follows verses 13 and following, is he is going to draw attention to the fact that his gospel is directly and exclusively from Jesus Christ.

The fact that Paul's Gospel is directly and exclusively from Jesus Christ is proven by his personal testimony. Read along with me as he unpacks his testimony, as he unpacks this revelation, OK? He's gonna begin with his BC days before Christ days, and then he is going to get into how his life was changed through Christ. But let's start with the BC days.

Verse 13, he says, for you have heard. You have heard of it before when I was with you and I proclaimed the gospel, I told you about, you have heard about my former manner of life, my former habit of living, the way in which I used to live in Judaism. How I used to persecute the Church of God beyond measure, and try to destroy it. What Paul here is saying is that I hated Christianity to the core.

Those who claimed to be followers of Jesus, it was my goal in life to eradicate them from existence. I wanted them to be killed and to be destroyed. I persecuted the Church of God beyond measure, trying to destroy it. And then he goes on in reference to his own religiosity, his own Judaism, he says, and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries, among my countrymen.

I was the best. I followed the way of Judaism better than anyone else. point being, there's no way that I in and of myself would have wanted to become a preacher of this gospel. That was not going to happen because I was a Jew of Jews.

Advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen being more extremely zealous. I was more extremely zealous than everyone else for my ancestral traditions. So he gives his former manner of life, his BC days, and he basically says, I hated the church, and I was the most religious devout, pious Jew that you could ever imagine. I was circumcised, I kept the law of Moses.

I was as, as religious and holy as they come. And then we come to a marvelous but in his life, beginning in verse 13. And hopefully every single one of us can say that we also have such a but in our lives. Notice what he says.

But when he who had set me apart. God set me apart even from my mother's womb before I was physically born. He called me through His grace. He was, see, this is all God's doing in Paul's life.

Paul is giving all credit to God. It's not as if I just responded to God, it was God who was at work, doing this work in me, yeah, from even before I was born, and he says, was pleased to reveal his Son in me. causing the eyes of my heart to see that Jesus Christ was indeed the Lamb of God, the Savior, that he died on the cross for sinners. And he gives the purpose.

This is why God called me. This is God's calling upon my life. It has nothing to do with my own choices that God did this in my life. He called me that I might preach him among the Gentiles.

Paul is saying, it wasn't within me to want to do this to begin with, but this is God's calling on my life. So I am being authorized by the one who called me and commissioned me. It is God, you see. He is defending His ministry.

He is defending His gospel. I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were possible before me, but I went away to Arabia. So here we have the apostle Paul. He gives his former manner of life.

He talks about how his life was changed. And let me submit to you this morning that there is much power in the gospel to save sinners. There is much power in the gospel to bring about transformation in our lives in reference to the things that need to be changed. There is power in the gospel.

And so Paul, by giving his personal testimony is saying, That his gospel was revealed to him by Jesus alone, and it was exclusive. In other words, it was not impacted by anything anyone else had to say. Moving on, the fact that Paul's gospel is directly and exclusively from Jesus Christ is proven. By his early ministry.

Listen to what he says and notice, the, the points that he is making continuously in this part of the text. He says, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood. I did not go to any human being. I received the gospel through revelation.

Then I did not go and consult with anyone, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. He would concede that these There were apostles before him, but he is also saying that they had no influence on my gospel message that I preached to you to begin with, and that I now continue to preach to you. They had no influence on this gospel message, which I received directly from Jesus Christ. He goes on to say, but I went away to Arabia.

Now there is much speculation as to what was going on in Arabia. No doubt, he goes to Arabia, a fair distance from where he was when he got saved in Damascus. He goes away to Arabia. No doubt he's proclaiming the gospel as he did from the very minute he got saved, it seems in Damascus and in Arabia.

He's proclaiming the gospel, but I think that a big part of what is going on here is that initial paradigm shift is coming full circle while he is in Arabia. He is understanding more and more just how true it is that the The gospel is absolutely central to life. He is working this out in his theology and in his understanding. He is understanding just how true it is that the gospel is, is, it relates to his own life and it relates to his ministry and it relates to the lives to whom he's ministering to.

He is understanding more clearly the functional centrality of the gospel for everyday life. So he's in Arabia and then he goes on to say, and I returned once more to Damascus. I came to the place where I was going to when I was wanting to persecute the believers, where the, the eyes of my heart were were opened. So he goes back to Damascus.

He's proclaiming the gospel there. Then he goes on to say, 3 years later I went up to Jerusalem, the Mama church. I go up to Jerusalem where these apostles were, and he says this is his purpose. To become acquainted with Cephas.

I wanted to meet him. He is not here saying I went there in order to ask if my gospel is accurate or not. I did not go to Jerusalem to find the apostles in order to get them to rubber stamp my ministry. That's not why I went.

I just simply wanted to get acquainted with Cephas, and he says, and I stayed with him about 15 days. But I did not see any other of the apostles except James. See, he is saying that my gospel, even up until this point, was uninfluenced by the apostles. This gospel I received directly from Jesus was not influenced by the thoughts and the counsel of man.

Now there would be some Judaizers, if they were to read this, they would say, Yeah, right, whatever, Paul, give me a break. You were up in Jerusalem. You did not speak to the apostles. Come on.

Yeah, you did. You had to have. You needed to get their authoritative affirmation over your ministry. And Paul follows up suspecting that that may be an objection by saying, Now, in what I am writing to you, I assure you before God, as God is my witness, that I am not lying.

What I speak is true. My gospel did not come under the influence of anyone else. It is purely from Jesus, and it continued to be so in my early ministry. Then he goes on to say, then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

Basically this is the place where Tarsus was. These are his stomping grounds in growing up. This is where he grew up. So he goes back, no doubt he's proclaiming the gospel, no doubt he's connecting with people to share with them the gospel.

No doubt he's making, right of wrongs that he has done against people in the past. But here he is in Syria in Cilicia. Now listen, this is very important. He goes on to say, I was still unknown.

By sight to the churches of Judea. Here's Jerusalem, here's Judea surrounding Jerusalem. He essentially is saying that the Jerusalem apostles didn't have an impact on me, nor did the Judean churches that, that were out there and by the way, those Judean churches would have been planted through the apostolic ministry, OK. I was not influenced by them.

OK, and so my gospel was directly from Jesus and exclusively from Jesus Christ. And he is saying this by way of defending his gospel, defending his apostleship. Note here too, that it's very clear, That that Paul is willing to go all over the place in order to proclaim the gospel. Those saved by the gospel have a desire to proclaim it to others and that in essence is what he is doing in this letter as well.

So we continue on. He is defending his ministry. He is defending his gospel. He says that it is not of man, it was directly and exclusively from God.

He supports that statement with his early testimony and his early ministry, and then he goes on to defend his gospel by declaring its impact. He wants his readers to understand the impact of his ministry. Verse 23, he says, but only they kept hearing. And he's speaking in reference to the people that he was just talking about, those those believers in Where was it, Syria and Cilicia, the ones who hadn't seen him face to face, oh, I'm, I'm sorry, the churches in Judea, the churches in Judea, those are the ones who haven't seen his face.

In reference to those people, those believers in the churches of Judea, he is saying they kept hearing, having not seen me, but they kept hearing, and so here's a praise report that is being disseminated throughout. He who was persecuted us is now preaching the faith. which he once tried to destroy. The persecutor turned preacher, his life dramatically transformed by the power of the gospel.

Now I would submit to you again that the gospel has power to transform lives. Paul, from persecutor to preacher. And then Paul is also saying in this quote of what others have said, he is saying that his preached gospel had an impact on others. Other lives were transformed.

Paul, the gospel Paul preached transformed the lives of, of others. And if you trace this through, if you, if you look at these places where Paul went and you track it with the Book of Acts, Paul's ministry, was very powerful. It was accompanied by signs and wonders and miracles. countless people got saved through his ministry and consequently, people, people are speaking positive about Paul.

This is part of what Paul is trying to do, is trying to say, what, my gospel had an impact, but then he also wants to defend his gospel by declaring its affirmation by the churches in Judea. How did the Judean churches, those who haven't seen them, how do they respond to this praise report? They give their affirmation, verse 24, they were glorifying God because of me, Paul says. OK, you all want to discredit my ministry.

You want to question my motives. You all, not, not the Galatians, but the Judaizers, they, those troublemakers want to question my motives, they want to question my gospel, but I tell you, as God is my witness, my motives are pure to persuade men of the gospel to please God, not men, to be a servant of God. And my gospel is defensible. I did not receive it through the apostles.

It is not a second-rate gospel. It is not a compromise of what the true gospel is. My gospel came not from men. It is directly and exclusively from Jesus Christ.

It has been effective. It has had an impact, and it has been affirmed. Those who had not seen me, We're declaring That my life has changed. And then in the Judean churches, they are saying, or they are glorifying God because of me.

And so here we have Paul. Defending His motives and defending His gospel, let me Move to some points of application now, some points of application. And there's several. More that could be said than what I have said, but here they are, number one.

The gospel has the power to transform lives. Consider Paul, the transformation that took place in his life. The gospel has the power to transform lives. In December of 1991.

It was Christmas time. And for the first time in my life, having heard the gospel, My life was totally transformed. Without getting into the details, suffice it to say that I was walking in the ways of the world. That my lifestyle was one characterized by sin, and I was held captive by sin to do its bidding.

Trapped in the clutches of sin. Knowing that I was condemned, hearing the gospel around Christmas time of 1991, and finding in the gospel freedom from the guilt of my sin. And it's power in my life, and, and many of you can testify to the same. The gospel has the power to transform lives, and this truth ought to be enough to cause us to be quite happy, to say the least.

Application number 2, we should passionately proclaim the gospel to others. This is what Paul does. And as we continue in Galatians, there can be no doubt about it that he was extremely passionate about this gospel. That the, the, the, the, the single most important thing in the heart of the apostle Paul was that the gospel of God be advanced.

And here he's got these believers who are, who are being led astray by these troublemakers by these Judais just thinking, that they could achieve their justification through works of the law, and Paul fires off this letter to them because he has a passion to proclaim the gospel. He wanted them to understand that they were saved. On the basis of Christ's work alone, and not because of their obedience to the law. They could not be saved through that.

And so he's passionately proclaiming the gospel. We see that in his early ministry, and we see that as he writes this letter to the Galatians, 3, The fear of man should not hinder us from proclaiming the gospel. It can be very easy to feel that little nudge on the inside. Oh, maybe the spirit of God is wanting me to go and speak to my neighbor, and then we rationalize it away, and part of what is going on oftentimes is we're just afraid of what the, what the consequences might be.

Well, he's not interested. I don't want to get him upset at me or whatever. And the point being is that the fear of man should not hinder us. From proclaiming the gospel.

We've got men, we've got God. Question, who is bigger? Therefore, do not allow the fear of man. And a small view of God to lead you down the path of being afraid to proclaim Christ to your neighbors, to your coworkers, to your friends and family.

Number 4, our motivation to proclaim the gospel should be to please God. This is what Paul wanted. He wanted to please God. He wanted to win God's favor.

He wanted God to look down upon his life, and to be able to smile. You see, Paul understood just how awesome God is, and, and how good he has been. So that on the basis of His grace, Paul was led. To proclaiming the gospel because he wanted to please this great God that he had come to know and to have a relationship with.

Number 5, we should be confident, absolutely confident, without any doubt whatsoever that the gospel we proclaim is of divine origin. It is not something that man made up. It is something revealed to us by our Heavenly Father. It is he who has caused us to see that He sent Jesus to die on the cross for my sin, so that in him I can experience forgiveness for my sin and freedom.

From the power of sin in my life and the hope that when I die, the confident hope, the assured hope that when I die, I will not be ushered into the eternal lake of fire. I will be ushered into the eternal kingdom of God, where I will be with him throughout all of eternity future. This gospel is of divine origin and just to attach another thought to that. What Paul writes is authoritative.

There are scholars out there who would question, did Paul really write 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy? I think Philippians was written by Paul, but mm, some of the other letters, hm, I don't know, I have my doubts. what? What Paul received, he received.

Through Christ alone. And so what he writes to us as an apostle is authoritative. We can take it to the bank and we can trust in his word as being what it claims to be the very word of God revealed to us through the apostle Paul. Number 6, we should utilize our testimony in our proclamation of the gospel, and no doubt this is what Paul does.

Number 7, we can be hopeful that our gospel-centered lives will serve to encourage other believers, and this is what Paul is driving at, at the end of the chapter. They were glorifying God because of me. They were encouraged in God because of the work of the gospel in and through me. And so we can be hopeful that our gospel-centered lives will serve to encourage other believers as our lives are adorned by the gospel we proclaim and as our lives are beautified more and more by the gospel.

Others can be encouraged by that, and we can be encouraged that we encourage others. Number 8 We must not allow the attacks of others to derail us from ministering the gospel. From time to time. I will run into a believer.

Who is at a point in his life where he just wants to throw in the towel. He's involved in leadership of some form. And there are those who are criticizing him, and demeaning him and whatnot. And he's receiving accusation after accusation.

And, and, and, and I have seen people get to the place where they're saying, forget it, I want to quit. What if Paul would have said, forget it, I quit. Where would we be without his letters? Where would we be in reference to our understanding of the central doctrine of justification by faith alone?

In Christ alone, where would we be if Paul had said, I can't do it anymore. I'm tired of the persecution. No, the apostle Paul did not allow the attacks of men to derail him from ministering the gospel, which was given to him by revelation of Jesus Christ, and which was on Impacted by what the other apostles had to say, he continues in his proclamation of the gospel, he continues in his writing the gospel down as he writes letters to other believers to encourage them in the gospel.

And then finally, the final point of application, we must beware of false gospels, as I said before, There is an attack in the church today on the gospel.

As I said before, there are those who would say that our reformed understanding of the doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ alone is a mystery. Understanding of what Paul really meant and as we continue in this letter, hopefully it becomes more and more clear that nothing can be further from the truth. Nothing can be further from the truth. The gospel declares that I am justified.

By faith alone in Christ alone, God pronounces upon me that I am justified. And you see, there are those who would want to present a false gospel, the devil would want to whisper in your ear, and he would want to say, Yeah, right. Did God really say There is therefore no condemnation. For you who are in Christ Jesus.

Did Jesus Christ really say, I tell you the truth. Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, has eternal life, will not be condemned. He has crossed from death into life, the devil would come along his demonic hosts, false. Teachers would come along and say it is arrogant for you to say that that you are justified, that that you stand in good relations with God, because after all, how can you really know until you die, and then the judgment is rendered.

The Bible says that judgment was rendered at the cross. He was judged in our place. There is no more judgment for us who are in Christ. There is no condemnation.

We have been freed from the guilt and from the power, and on that basis. We should live our lives to the glory. of our great God and Savior. Without worry, without concern, without apology, without doubt.

I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep me. Please, please pray with me together. Dear gracious Heavenly Father, Lord God, we come before you. Totally humbled by the gospel of grace.

Thank you, Lord, that we do not have to keep laws, Lord, in order to make ourselves hopefully justified before you at some point in the future. Thank you, oh God, that you were satisfied with the death of your son, so that because of his blood, And his death in our place, we have been set free. Thank you, God, that Lord, even though we have struggled with sin in our lives, we have a Savior through whose blood we are cleansed, and that your word tells us there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

You have crossed over from death into life.

You are now free to walk in a new manner of life. You have been set free from the law of sin and of death. You can now offer the members of your body as instruments of righteousness to the glory and to the praise of God. Thank you, God, for the.

hope that belongs to us because of what Jesus did for us in our place at the cross. You died so that we might live. You experienced the wrath of the Father in our place, so that we might go free. Thank you for the gospel.

Thank you, Lord, for the apostle Paul, through him, we have understanding. Thank you for, for what he wrote for our benefit so that we might be built up in the gospel. Oh Lord, we thank you that you by your Spirit moved him to defend his ministry before the Judaizer, to defend his motives, and to defend his gospel, his apostleship, his calling, his ministry. Thank you, Lord, that we have your word preserved.

So that through it we may be equipped for every good work. Protect this church from error. As it relates to the essential doctrine. of justification.

By faith alone in Christ alone. We pray these things in Jesus' name. And all of God's people said amen.