 We're going to be looking at Galatians chapter 1, let's begin at verse 10. This is a message related to pleasing God, and that's really what we want to do, is we want to please Him. So beginning in Galatians chapter 1 at verse 10, and I'll read to verse 12, Paul writes, 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 servant of Christ. But I make known to you, 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 it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now as we've been looking at Galatians, we just began our study. You might remember, as I pointed out to you, that false teachers have infiltrated the churches in the region called Galatia. In church history, these individuals are called Judaizers, and their chief aim was to mix the gospel of grace with the Jewish ceremonial and ritual law. So they were mixing the law of Moses with the grace of Jesus Christ as is revealed to us in the gospel, and the result of such a mixture was bondage. And the reason that it is bondage is because when you mix the law with God's grace, it undermines the grace of God, and Paul was intensely concerned about this. That's what was fueling his comments that we looked at in verses 6 through 8, where he said there, I marvel that you are turning away. And he says you are turning away. That's in a Greek tense that means you are voluntarily turning yourselves away. I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. And that's a very strong statement to come from the man who wrote 1 Corinthians 13 and taught us about love. So he's greatly concerned about what was going on. These individuals coming in were going to steal the joy of salvation from these gentile believers. They were going to steal it by saying to them that they needed to become circumcised and understand the law of Moses so that they could relish the grace of God. And he was concerned about this because they were voluntarily deserting God and embracing a twisted or a perverted message that was not a gospel. You see what they were doing is they were playing on something. Their thought was that salvation is something that requires human assistance. It's just too difficult for us to believe in a God of grace and mercy. We need to do something to deserve this salvation. And so they brought that mentality in to add something to the gospel. Now that is a normal tactic. And part of the way the enemy works to undermine the truth of the gospel is he will question to come concerning the grace of God. And the way he normally works is to undermine, we'll say, the message is to first attack the messenger. And that's why Paul began, as we saw in chapter 1, that's why Paul began to refer to himself as an apostle because they were questioning his apostolic credibility. They had circulated a report that Paul had no apostolic authority. They were saying that he was self-appointed. They were saying that his motivation is self-promotion. They were accusing him of laying aside the law of Moses to make it easier for Gentiles to become Christians. Thus they were saying he was undermining God's law. And so what they were doing is they were sowing seeds of discord and their sowing of these seeds actually worked. People began to doubt the authority of the apostle Paul. The questioning of his authority actually led to their doubting of his motives. And so Paul felt compelled to respond to these things. And that's why he says in verse 10, do I now persuade men or God or do I seek to please men? That's why he's saying that. And he says, do I now persuade men? That word persuade means to strive to please, to win somebody's favor. It speaks of gaining someone's goodwill. So he's saying, am I striving to please men? Am I striving to say things that cause people to look kindly at me and to like me? And then the answer obviously would be most certainly not. You see, one of the tactics of false teachers is a reluctance to present the whole counsel of God. People who don't want to really present the whole gospel of God will conveniently leave out some things that may cause people to become uncomfortable, especially today. We see that today. There are well-known individuals that I will not mention by name, but where I mention them, you would know their names who have constantly refused to give the whole counsel. They'll give pieces of the gospel, but they don't give the whole counsel, so some people may be genuinely believers who know that if they give the whole counsel, they're not going to fill the pews with people, and then there are others who intentionally will not give the whole gospel because they don't embrace the whole gospel. And a false teacher is one who doesn't embrace the whole gospel. And a false teacher very often is the one who wants to win people's favor. They want to win converts for themselves. They want people to follow after them. And so the bottom line is, is when you really teach the word of God, A to Z, well, it will reveal our hearts. And I have to be honest with you, some of the best messages that I've ever received have torn me apart, to be honest, have really revealed myself to me. I don't want to walk in and say, when I'm through, yeah, I'm a pretty good guy. I'd like to walk out saying, you know, there are areas of my life that God spoke to today, and there are things in me that I want to change, and I hear that, and I see that, and I want to be different. I want to be better. I want to be a better man. I want to be a better husband. I want to be a better father, grandfather. I want to be a better Christian. And I can see that when the word of God is rightly divided, and it can be done so in a gentle, loving way, but when it's rightly divided, it opens my heart up. It gives me an opportunity. It's like the Lord sticks his hand into my chest and pulls my heart out and says, this is what it's really like, and that's called conviction, and people don't necessarily want to be convicted. They want to come and feel better about themselves and leave feeling better about themselves, but you have to sometimes see yourself for what you are before you can see yourself for what you can be, and conviction helps us to do that. And so what God would have for us in His Word is the whole council, which helps us to see what the Lord wants. In Hebrews 412, it says, the Word of God is living, it's powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And so a false teacher will not give the whole council because they don't want people to necessarily no longer follow after them. A great preacher of another time, a man by the name of Charles Spurgeon once said this, he said, I have never preached to you that you may live in sin if you only believe in Jesus. I have never preached that you shall be saved without being purified in heart. No, the salvation that this pulpit has proclaimed is not salvation in sin, but salvation from sin, not a license to evil, but a deliverance from evil. And that's the preaching of the gospel. And that's what the gospel is intended to do. So what happens is false teachers will enter in and undermine the grace of God. Now Paul often had to deal with false teachers. One of the letters, or we call it a book, but one of the letters that he wrote was 2 Corinthians. And when false teachers entered into the church at Corinth, they lodged many accusations against Paul. When you read 2 Corinthians, you can actually, when you read with an eye to see this, you can actually see that Paul has to answer some 21, at least 21 accusations that these false teachers had leveled against him. If you read 2 Corinthians carefully, you're going to see that many of the things that he's writing is actually a rebuttal against the false teachers who were calling into question his ministry and his heart, his motives, even the way he looked. And so 21 times you'll see in these 13 chapters, Paul having to rebut something that was said. And one of the accusations was that he was one who preached the gospel for personal and financial gain, which was a common tactic of the false teacher at that time. And that's why Paul in 2 Corinthians 2.17 said, we are not, as so many, peddling the Word of God, but as of sincerity, but as from God. We speak in the sight of God in Christ. We don't alter the gospel. We don't make it something that the consumer will enjoy. He said, we're not trying to profit from this message of the gospel. The message has to be presented with a desire to honor and accurately communicate who God is. It's not to be modified to become acceptable to man. It's to be spoken to make man acceptable to God. And when Paul would give that word out, he spoke it with a clean conscience and he spoke it as it was being presented in a way that people would actually know God as a result of hearing what he had to say. When he wrote in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 4, he said, as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak not as pleasing men, but God who tries our hearts. And so that's what he's saying here to the Galatians when he says in verse 10 of chapter 1, do I now persuade men or God or do I seek to please men? For if I still please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. When he says, if I still please men, that would refer to his days prior to his conversion when he was a persecutor of the church. When he persecuted Christians, he was resisting Jesus, but he was pleasing the religious authorities. So he's saying, if I wanted to please men, I'd have never been converted. If I wanted to please men, I'd have remained what I was. Because I would have pleased them because Paul was a leading rabbi of his day. He was an intellectual of intellectuals. He was a man who had very high standards of righteousness. He was respected by many. But he said, if I wanted to please men, I had to state exactly what I was. In many ways, guys, if you wanted to please men, you'd have stayed unsaved because they'd have liked you. A lot more people probably liked you, unsaved than they do now that you're saved. At least that's what happened to me. The friends that I had either were converted or deserted, you know? Because they didn't like what I became. Because I suddenly became a Bible thumper to them. I suddenly became a Jesus freak, is what we used to be called at that time. And you know, what happened to you? I can still remember my cousin saying to me exactly that. What happened to you? You used to be fun. You used to be enjoyable to be around. And he liked me when I was drunk or loaded. Yeah, that's true. Because I could be a lot of fun and very stupid. And he enjoyed that. But when I got saved, I changed. And so if I wanted to please men, I'd have stayed unsaved because they liked me that way. And that's basically what Paul was saying. If I wanted to still please men, I'd have never come to Christ because I was pleasing men when I was a rabbi persecuting Christians. And that's the point he's making. I wouldn't be a servant of Christ. But he goes on in verse 11, I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. When he says I make known to you, he's saying, I'm saying something, I certify this. I want this to be something that you can believe with absoluteness. I want to guarantee this completely. The message I am preaching is not something I have altered to suit my needs. This message that I'm preaching is not built on my own inspiration. And it doesn't rest on my human authority. He says in verse 12, for I neither received it from man nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now this statement would be aimed at those who are trying to infiltrate the church, the Judaizers, because they had received their instruction from rabbis. They looked for human interpretation of the word of God, and they leaned on man's traditions. And that's what he's pointing to. I didn't receive it from man, neither was I taught it. But what has happened with the traditions of men had come corruption of the word of God. And so Jesus, when he was speaking concerning that in Matthew 15.6, speaking to the rabbis of his day, the Pharisees who were doing exactly that, Jesus said, you have made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. And so Paul is making it clear. I haven't received traditions and I'm not inter-rituals. He's saying I wasn't taught it. In other words, I didn't sit under the leading rabbi whom he did sit under was Gamaliel. He's saying I didn't learn the grace of God from Gamaliel. Neither did I receive from the apostles teaching concerning the grace of God that led to my getting saved. I didn't attend a class that was designed to instruct me concerning the love of God and the grace of God. I didn't go through that kind of institution. I wasn't brought to faith like that. But notice in verse 12, he says, it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. That's the heart of the gospel. Jesus who's revealed in the gospel. Now, when Paul got saved, you know the story it's found in the book of Acts chapter nine. Paul was a persecutor of the church. He hated this Christian doctrine with a passion that was unmatched. At that time, it was before Christians were referred to as Christians. They were simply followers of the way. And that's what the Christianity originally was referred to as the way. And that's why Paul would say I persecuted this way unto death because it was a way of life. Jesus himself said I am the way, the truth and the life. And so Christians were followers of the way. They were followers of Jesus Christ who is life. And so when Paul was seeing what was taking place after the day of Pentecost had arrived and thousands were being converted to faith in Jesus' Messiah. Well, Paul was one of these radical rabbis who was so absolutely upset at what was taking place that he actually went and got permission. He got letters from the priest to be able to arrest anybody who was at one time a Jewish person who became a Christian. He was given permission to do that and they were tried as heretics. And Paul was absolutely vehemently opposed to this grace of God. And so while he was on his way to the city of Damascus, we all know of this great conversion experience where he had gone to arrest Christians. He was arrested by Jesus. And he became blind because the Lord Jesus Christ struck him in and he lost his sight and Jesus spoke to him and said to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who am I persecuting? Well, when you persecute one of these who are mine, you are persecuting me. And then the Lord ministered to him and for three days he was outside and he didn't eat anything. And it was during those times that more than likely the Lord Jesus Christ was communicating to him the gospel. Now you need to remember that because he was a rabbi, he understood the law very well. Undoubtedly the Lord Jesus Christ when he converted Saul gave to him the insight into why the law was not leading him to salvation. And so Jesus ministered to him in that time period because when the Lord spoke to a man by the name of Ananias and said, go and pray for Saul, you know the story, Ananias wanted to instruct God. And so you know, I know you're busy with the universe and there are quite a few things that are going on that perhaps this may have passed your attention but this Saul whom you want me to go and speak to kills people and I'd rather you send somebody else because I'm pretty busy. He didn't want to do it but the Lord said, Lord God said, no you go and you pray for him. And so when Ananias went and prayed for him Ananias addresses Paul by saying brother Saul. And so that gives us insight to the fact that Saul in the time that he was blinded to the time that Ananias came and spoke to him had received Christ's Messiah. And from that perspective we know that when Paul is saying that he wasn't taught this he's simply saying that I received this through the revelation of Christ who spoke to me and gave me insight into what it means to be a saved man. So he's giving his credentials here and explaining to people that I have discovered the heart of God is grace and mercy that comes through Jesus Christ. Before Paul was converted I'm certain he was intellectually acquainted with the gospel. He knew that Christians believed that Jesus was a Messiah. He knew that they believed he had been crucified that he died, he was buried and resurrected. He knew that. As a matter of fact when you look at the book of Acts in chapter seven, if you take notes it's found at verse 58, the death of the first martyr Stephen, well the Bible says that they cast him out of the city, they stoned him, and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul. So Saul was somebody who was there at the martyrdom of the first Christian martyr, Steven. He was well acquainted with the gospel he knew but just because he knew didn't mean he embraced. So he knew certain things. Undoubtedly the Lord Jesus Christ gave him more insight even as he spoke to him and it took the Lord to convert him. That reminds me of the fact that we can be filled with knowledge of the Bible. You can be raised in a Christian home. You can have devotions from the time you were a baby. You can be in Sunday school. You can be raised in a church from the time you were small until your present age. But that doesn't mean you're saved because there's a certain point in your life where you enter into the light. If you will, you walk out of the darkness into the light of Jesus Christ. I have a belief that there are quite a number of people who are gonna be very surprised on judgment day because they thought themselves to be Christians when in reality they never really did commit themselves to Christ. They had a shallow kind of intellectual belief. They knew the facts. I mean, if you sat down and spoke to them they'd say, yeah, I know. You know, I know this and I know that. I'm telling you, there's some that I've spoken to a number of people over the years who have this understanding of grace that is warped. It's twisted. Their idea of grace, and it's hurtful to say this but it's true, their idea of grace is not so much that God has given to them an ability through his power to be saved and to no longer be in bondage. But they see grace as permission to continue in sin and go to heaven. So for them, grace is permission. It isn't God's rescuing love. It's not God giving to them something they don't deserve but it's more a matter of them just receiving permission to continue doing what they do, whatever it may be. Whether it's stealing, or whether it's sleeping around, whether it's getting drunk, fighting, or whatever. It's a permission to stay that way. And a grace that does not change a man's behavior is not gonna change a man's destiny. There needs to be something that changes. The Bible teaches that. Paul knew the facts. He's willing to kill people because he clearly knew the facts but he didn't embrace them. But it took the Lord, which it always does. John 16.8 tells us that the Holy Spirit is the one who convicts us of sin, righteousness, and judgment. So the Holy Spirit brings that conviction into your heart where you say, God be merciful to me, I'm a sinner. He goes on and this is the proper way, by the way, in verse 13 following, this is the proper way to give a testimony and you're gonna see how it is and I'll show you this. He says, you have heard of my former conduct and 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 but when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through his grace to reveal his son in me that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me but I went to Arabia, returned again to Damascus so he begins to give his testimonies and it's interesting how he says this, you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, you've heard of it, I was famous for it, you're aware of what I was like, you've heard of my former conduct so this is his testimony, he begins to share, he's saying my message of grace does not run consistent with my history of Judaism, in Acts 22 in verse four he says I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women so you've heard of the way that I was, you've heard of my former life, sometimes when we hear testimonies we can actually be enamored perhaps by all the sin that people get into one of the things you really don't wanna be around is a series of testimonies where all you get in that night is testimony night and I'll tell you why because the first guy that comes up and says you know I did this and I drank and I fought and I slept with a thousand women well the next guy is gonna come up and he says I drank more, I fought more and I slept with 2,000 women and that's what they do and I've seen it and before you know it you got a guy who slept with every woman in the world basically because they exaggerate, it's almost competition who is the worst slug you know who is the crummiest person and it gets kinda like that testimonies when done properly give you enough background information to know that this person understands because of where they came from but they're intended, this is a very important point if you're ever asked to give your testimony the testimony is intended to bring glory to God not admiration from other people saying oh man that was one bad dude or that was one sinful woman you know people get enamored by that to this day some people actually feel bad because they don't have a real rowdy testimony I remember hearing a young lady who gave her testimony just before she was baptized and she walked up and she said after somebody who had just given their testimony I was a drunk, I was into drugs I did this, I got saved bless the Lord everybody cheers and then she gives her testimony and she stands up there and she says I don't really have a radical testimony she was almost apologizing she said I was raised in a Christian home I came to Christ at an early age I've never done any of those things I just know it's time for me to be baptized and the wise pastor who was baptizing her turned to the congregation and said that the keeping grace of God is just as glorious as the saving grace of God and we need to understand that I believe there are kids in the church today who think that man if I don't go out and do all the things that are bad and then later on come to Christ I have no testimony, I'm telling you I tried to raise my kids to not have the testimony I have I don't want them to know the things I didn't want them to know the things I discovered I didn't want them to know what it was like to be what I was I wanted them to be saved from that you see, when you give a testimony it gives glory to God it's not centered on who you are and how bad you were it's centered on how great he is so Paul is speaking concerning this he's saying you've heard of me you heard of what I was I was a persecutor of the church to the death you've heard of my former conduct you've noticed verse 14 how I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation I blazed a trail that's what it means when he says I advanced I blazed a trail I cut down anything in my path and my quest for righteousness I was a premier rabbinic student and I had a zeal that was matchless when he was speaking to the Philippians in chapter three verses four through seven he said if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh I'm more so circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin a Hebrew of the Hebrews concerning the law of Pharisee concerning zeal persecuting the church concerning the righteousness which is in the law blameless but what things were gained to me these I have counted loss for Christ and so that's the whole point he said I was zealous for the tradition of my fathers I had a zeal but not for the gospel but he says in verse fifteen when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through his grace to reveal his son in me that I might preach him among the Gentiles I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me but I went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus now notice in verse fifteen he says when it pleased God God's timing is spoken of here I didn't respond to the gospel until Jesus met me on the road to Damascus but notice how he says who separated me from my mother's womb before I was born God already had determined to save me then God was going to use me for his glory it's an interesting scripture let me give you a couple of them Jeremiah chapter one verse five in the book of Jeremiah chapter one verse five when God is calling this this young man man by the name of Jeremiah to his service Jeremiah is going to be a prophet in Jeremiah chapter one verse five it says before I formed you in the womb I knew you before you were born I set you apart I appointed you as a prophet to the nations before you were even born I was already planning on what I was going to do with you now here's something for you I want to be very clear about this the things that went into your life that were horrible and terrible were not determined for you by God in other words God did not say I want you to have all this pain and all this suffering so I want to be very clear about that it's not like God said you know what I'm going to allow this happening you're going to have this happening because I want that for you that's not how it works God's desire for us has always been for us to live in peace and love and joy and those are the things that God wants for us because of human sin and choices that are made there are things that occur that have affected us terribly in our lives and many of us went through a lot of pain and some may still be going through a lot of pain things that occurred in your life when you were growing up maybe are still occurring to this day that is not God's plan for you he's not saying oh you're going to be heard in this fashion I don't want you to misunderstand what I'm about to say but even as Joseph once said in the Old Testament book of Genesis what you meant for evil God intended for good God has a way of taking the things of our lives that have pain and God has a way of redeeming them and in many ways I have gained greater insight and understanding through just going through the life that I went through I can now see and if you don't mind I'll get personal for a moment I can now see some of the things that when I was young I didn't see at all two things if I may that came into ministry and that wasn't saved until I was twenty one in my home and I hope this makes some sense to you in my home when I grew up my mom and my dad spoke fluent Spanish but didn't teach the kids to speak Spanish they they just didn't it was their generation they did not teach us to speak Spanish the Spanish the little I've learned has been just over time being around people who speak it because my parents did not teach it so what happened is I would go see my grandmother who never spoke English I never had a conversation with my grandmother she only could speak broken English and she died in her nineties and never became an American citizen my grandmother died a Mexican citizen so she never spoke English and never had a group of people around her who didn't speak Spanish so I as a grandchild would go to my grandmother's house and never had a chance to speak to my grandmother unless I had a translator so my mom would sit at the table and would speak to grandma and I would I'd have my conversations with my grandmother through my mom so grandma would speak to me and my mom would say grandma wants to know how you're doing in school and I'd say do my mom tell grandma mine her own business and my no I wouldn't say that and mama I'd say well I'm doing fine grandma and mama would speak and that that's how it was that's how it was now I look back and I say I wish I were taught Spanish my ministry would be just so much it would there be so many more things I could do but you know what happened I learned to speak through a translator and I can speak through translators is like a natural thing for me and so I've gone to different to Japan you know I've gone to to India I've spoken in various places Germany where where I need a translator and I sit there and I'll I'll listen to the language and I get the cadence very quickly and so I'm able to give sentences in some places you speak short sentences in other places you can speak long sentences it just depends on the language but I learned to do that when I was six years old five years old seven years old and so that was part of my training for my future in ministry I never understood it then but I understand it now there are things that you went through that you didn't even you weren't even say I wasn't even saved at six or seven or eight or nine or ten or whatever but but these were things that were going into into my life so that as I grew older the Lord gave to me the ability to minister through these things when my when I was growing up mama was ill mama still is to this day that gave me a deep sense of compassion for people who are sick because of her illnesses so when you see me tear it's because I've been with somebody who's ill all of my life and so when I hear your pain I can understand it so those are things excuse me there's the emotion I don't like it to come up but it does that's me that's how I am my dad used to say david you're too much of an open book you gotta close it up a little bit have I done that with you? no what you see is what you get because that's just who I am that's how it works and so these are the things that the Lord brings into your life in the life of Paul Paul had certain things that went into the making of his life that led him to the place where he was a great believer in Christ and so he said you know what God separated me from my mother's womb God was involved in my life from the beginning in the Psalms in Psalm 22 verses 9 and 10 the Psalmist said you are he who took me out of the womb you made me trust when upon my mother's breast I was cast upon you from birth from my mother's womb you have been my God and so the things that you go through the Lord can redeem and he can use them and they make you actually an understanding counselor and a more loving person when it's salted with the grace of God now he's making it very clear here and I had to point this out notice how he said he called me through his grace no person is placed into leadership except through the grace of God and through God's choice so what Paul is doing here is establishing his call he's saying this is entirely of God this is not my own effort my calling was because of God's grace he's saying you cannot take this position through your effort your desire or your own skills this is something God called me to and the Judaizers are trying to take that position a position that was given to him by God he speaks in verse 16 about God revealing his son in me that I might preach him among the Gentiles God gave Paul life in Jesus and Paul preached this life to others including the Gentiles in 1st John 511 it says this is the testimony God has given us eternal life and this life is in his son and so so Paul would preach that life this life that's in Jesus Christ that you can have in no other way and and he's saying I preach this life to the Gentiles now after he got saved notice verse 16 he said to reveal his enemy that I might preach him among the Gentiles I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood I didn't seek out the other apostles I spent time with the Lord I didn't go to apostle 101 classes to become an apostle he's saying you know what man did not transform me man did not reveal Jesus to me and man did not call me to preach man did not prepare me to preach the gospel and man did not prepare me to fulfill my calling this all comes from God it starts with God it continues with God and it concludes with God and I am to preach he's saying to the Gentiles the matchless grace of God found in the face of Jesus Christ you see the Judaizers need to see that Gentiles don't need the law Gentiles need grace the way we all do we need to walk in the grace of God and we need as believers we need to rest entirely on the grace of God my heart can condemn me but God is greater than my heart and he knows all things there have been times when I have condemned myself I've said all you aren't saved you can't possibly be saved look at how you're acting look at how you're living look at what you're doing and I think I I think that every person in this room perhaps has had a moment at least like that where you've said what happened to me with that newness of life that when I got saved I was so rejoiced I was so glad I was so happy what happened to me how'd I get back into this place I've done that in the past but if it was by works and efforts I'd remained lost it was the grace of God I had to wake up to the reality that God knew me and he knew what I was when he called me and even though he knew I was a mess up even though he knew what I would do with the gospel he still gave it to me and he still trusted me and in that I rejoiced and he still had the ability to work in me and he can work in you too it's all by grace it's all by his goodness it's all by his love it's all him and to me that's a very important thing to remember and to rest in all the time when you wake when you walk away from the power of the spirit of God in your life guys the results are always terrible there's a guy named A.B. Simpson perhaps you've heard of him he was a man who began a movement the Christian Missionary Alliance movement in the late 1800s he was a preacher who was from Canada in the late 1800s as a minister he he came into contact with God in a fresh way he was baptized in the Holy Spirit and received the power of the spirit in his life transformed him and he began to minister in the power of the spirit in such a way that that God was moving wonderfully he went into New York City and while there in Manhattan he had a church and the church was a good sized church for the standards of that day in late 1800s and it sat five hundred people which is a good sized church they have there in that city we were in Manhattan this last week and we went to a place called John's Pizza and when we went into this place it is advertised as having the largest pizza uh... seating area there's five hundred seats and lo and behold it's a former church pastored by A.B. Simpson I have pictures of this pizza hall with stained glass windows and balconies and we're in there eating pizza and there are people eating pizza, drinking beer and it's just loud and rowdy and and uh... and for me he hits me as a minister of the gospel in a way that that is a warning because if I don't walk in the spirit of God and if this church doesn't remain in the grace of God then one day this building that we're meeting in right here this can be anything other than a church it can be transformed into a a playhouse for a chino it can be anything you see twenty some years ago we had an industrial building on Grove Street it sat a hundred and twenty people we used to use it for offices and for Sunday and Wednesday night services and we rented it, leased it for three years so we had the Calvary Dove and it said Calvary Chapel and we had it on this industrial building but after three years we left that and we got another piece of property but I would drive by occasionally until they leased it out and there on the side of the building was Calvary Chapel but it became a manufacturing warehouse and what at one time was a place that had a hundred twenty seats Bible studies worship of the Lord offices counseling ministry went right back into becoming an industrial building this is an industrial building that's all it is until the church arrives but if we don't walk in the grace of God this could become anything but a church it's not hard for that to take place and we need to understand that and it all comes from God's grace it all comes from us enjoying his love and his mercy it all comes from our relationship with Jesus and that's what Paul's speaking about he's saying these people these Judaizers are gonna come in and rip you off they're gonna take the joy of the Lord from you you're gonna get caught up in what you can do for God and forget what God has already done for you you cannot outdo God you cannot out give God who has given to God first that God should owe him anything in return Paul asked the Romans and the answer is nothing who has first loved God before God loved him no one God has loved you first and God has given to you first because God cares about you and all I need to do is understand that and my life is transformed but if I get caught up with this idea oh okay it's grace but I've got to stop doing this let me tell you something now this I'm taking a chance with I stopped drinking a long time ago I stopped drinking because I didn't want to anymore not because somebody said all you can't drink if you don't think I can drink you haven't ever seen me drink I can drink no I wasn't one of those things at all oh okay now that you're now that you're a Christian you can't cuss anymore one of my friends my friend Bill told me David I know you're saved I said really how do you know that he says you had a filthy mouth and that's the truth that's the truth my coach in high school said this is a quote David is the quickest guy in school because I was in tri- he's the quickest guy in school but he has a foulest mouth I've ever heard on any kid I used to swear every other word I got saved and God changes your life but it isn't because somebody said okay now that you're saved you need to make sure you cut your hair and you need to make sure that you don't you don't drink anymore and you don't you don't smoke anymore and you don't you don't cuss anymore when I fell in love with the Lord Jesus Christ those things lost my interest I don't need those anymore I don't want those anymore I wanted to be close to him that's grace but if you just said okay now you've got to do this and now you got to do it okay are you Christian you better get up at six in the morning and you better make sure that you do your devotions because if you don't do your devotions at six in the morning you aren't saved then I must not be saved because I'm not even awake at six in the morning and I'm not awake most of the day don't get caught in traps don't be looking at somebody else saying oh they do this therefore that's what real Christians do and I got to do that too if it doesn't fit why wear it if it doesn't fit why wear it have your devotions that's a good thing have your devotions when God can speak to you have your time with the Lord when it's you and God not when somebody says you need to do this and you need to read this many because let me tell you one more personal thing hopefully this will glorify God if not we'll edit it from the tape Marie and I are dating and I go to Europe I left her a page of scriptures to memorize I was gone for three months I come back I go to see her and I say to her okay do you memorize those scriptures I mean I just got home from Europe and she says uh... I tried and I said cool what's first John 1 9 say couldn't remember really Romans 3 10 couldn't remember Romans 3 23 couldn't remember Hebrews 9 27 couldn't remember I can tell you the scriptures I told her to memorize I'm doing that right now John 3 16 couldn't remember so I look at her and I say so what did you do for three months you know what she did she got up and cried she still does no she got up and cried and left the room and I'm sitting there with her roommate and I say to her what's with her I mean she's so upset about I had no clue and her roommate's name was Joni and Joni says to me she's tried so hard David she's tried so hard she's really been working on those scriptures all this time and I walked into the room and Marie was sitting on the bed crying and I sat next to her and I looked at her and I just puzzled as the day is long and I'm looking at it she just flew me in why are you crying and I'll never forget this she shook her head she said I tried I tried I just couldn't do it I couldn't do that I just can't remember the way you wanted me to the Lord spoke to my heart and I've tried to learn this and he said she's not you she's not you she's trying to make her into you she needs to be like me grace God has been trying to teach me that for years let God work in people's hearts give them the word and encourage them love them but let them rest in me grace the Judaizers are saying okay fine you want to understand grace you need to know law Paul was saying you're stealing the joy from these people of salvation because a law is not required for salvation grace is and that's what Paul is speaking about here now when he says that God gave to me this message I didn't spend time with flesh and blood I spent time with the Lord and I preached his grace notice in verse 17 he says nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me I went to Arabia returned again to Damascus I did not sit under as a pupil the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ they were not above me in authority I did not seek advice or clarification for many men as to what the gospel meant he said I went to Arabia which is a region that was east of Damascus I returned again to Damascus then he goes on to say in verse 18 after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and remained with him fifteen days 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 made my way to Chino and Ontario and I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which are which were in Christ but they were hearing only he who formally persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy and they glorified God in me so after three years uh... these are the periods of preaching in Damascus in his time in Arabia he went to Jerusalem and he established his ministry he became acquainted with the apostle Peter but he was only there for fifteen days with them that's too too short a time to be instructed that's a point and he simply wanted to become familiar with the other apostles but in verse twenty he calls God to be a witness in order to establish the truthfulness of his claim and then he goes on to say uh... verse twenty one afterwards I went into the regions of Syria Cilicia I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ and this I want to close with they were hearing only he who formally persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy and they glorified God in me the power of a transformed life he was so feared that when he originally was saved and he tried to join with the other believers they didn't want anything to do with them they were afraid of him and it took Barnabas son of comfort and encourager to come alongside of the apostle paul so that the others would finally accept him that's how ferocious he was that's how feared this man was ferocious and feared but now the incredible transformation causes people to glorify God the power of a transformed life when my daddy came to christ he said to me I was not as good as your sister madeline my sister madeline as a teenager stayed home uh... friday night when all the kids wanted to go out she would be sitting with mom and dad in the den popcorn watching movies and she did that on saturday and sunday all the time she never went out she never caused a bit of problems to my dad her first boyfriend became her husband I mean she never she didn't party she didn't do crazy things she was just a great girl so my dad said when you came and shared with me I knew I was better than you but I wasn't as good as your sister and when your sister came to christ I knew that if someone that good needed jesus so did I God has a way of using your life I want you to walk out remembering one thing when you walk in grace you touch other people our lives are not intended to be simply as A.B. Simpson said reservoirs of the spirit but the spirit is supposed to pour out of us so God works within you but he also splashes on others through you your testimony in the neighborhood your testimony in the family your testimony on the job site your way of life in school it makes an impact people watch you they do see you and Paul said they knew what I was like and then when they saw what God did they glorified him in me do you want that kind of impact I do I do I do I want people when I'm with them I want people to say something about him I want what he has I have somebody in my life like that Mike McIntosh when I see Mike I say when I grow up I want to be like that he is a tremendous tremendous example of a godly man there are people in my life pastor chuck and others like that I want that impact because every one of us leaves an impression on somebody else I just want to make sure the impression I leave glorifies God