“Called by Grace (Galatians 1:11-24)", Will DuVal | 8/24/25
Galatians 1:11-24 | 8/24/25 | Will DuVal
Last week we kicked off our new series in the book of GALATIANS with the apostle PAUL, who’s writing this letter to the churches in Galatia, REPRIMANDING them for “so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel”. And we looked at the CONTEXT of the letter: how these Jewish pseudo-Christian traditionalists called the JUDAIZERS had infiltrated the churches Paul had established in Galatia, and were now teaching them a “DIFFERENT GOSPEL”, namely, that Christ ALONE ISN'T enough to save you; you’ve got to follow the Old Testament Law of MOSES as well. If you’re a visual learner, perhaps this SLIDE will help:
The Judaizers taught that salvation was predicated on faith in Jesus PLUS works of the Law.
Paul says: “That’s not good news AT ALL! If we’ve got to EARN our salvation, we will ALWAYS fall short. No, the GOSPEL is that while we were still SINNERS, Christ DIED for us. And it is by GRACE - God’s FREE GIFT - that we are saved through FAITH - “whosoever BELIEVES in Him - trusts in JESUS - shall NOT perish but have everlasting LIFE”. Christ is ENOUGH; Jesus plus NOTHING.
And I wonder, as we begin this morning: “Who SHARED that good news with YOU?” Not the FIRST time, but the DECISIVE time; the time it “TOOK”. The time you first BELIEVED it. Not just in your HEAD, but in your HEART; the Bible says, “If you CONFESS Jesus with your MOUTH and BELIEVE in him with your HEART you will be SAVED” (Rom 10:9). And then a few verses LATER, it says, “To BELIEVE, you gotta HEAR; and to HEAR it, someone’s gotta PREACH it; How BEAUTIFUL are… those who PREACH the good news” (10:14-15).
Who was that for YOU? Could be your parent, your pastor, an old SUNDAY school teacher, your CAMPUS minister in college, a radio preacher… For me, it was Stuart Fuller; I praise GOD for Stuart; How about YOU? I invite you to CALL OUT their NAME…
Now, why’d I have you do that? To glorify STUART… and _____, and ____ ? No; to glorify GOD for them. That’s where Paul’s gonna END this morning in v24 - and SPOILER ALERT: it is in FACT the “END”, the AIM, the GOAL, the ultimate PURPOSE of our salvation is God’s GLORY; that HE might receive all the glory for his unassisted work in saving TRAIN-WRECKS like you and me and Paul.
But the Bible DOES also encourage us to “respect those who labor among” us in the GOSPEL, those “beautiful PREACHERS of the good news” - we ought to “esteem them very highly in love because of their work” in our lives, 1 Thessalonians 5 says (vv12-13). So I think it’s appropriate and GOD-honoring for us to honor our spiritual mothers and fathers - those who faithfully sowed the seeds of the gospel in our hearts and then helped NURTURE our budding faith, once God had BIRTHED His new life within us. We HONOR them. As a matter of fact, now that we’re done with the “Wilderness Story” testimonies, I’d love to hear some “WITNESSING story” testimonies - to hear your STORIES of how God used others to bring you to HIM. I think that might help motivate some of US to “go therefore and make disciples” - to BE a Stuart or a ____, or a ____ for someone ELSE.
Maybe that someone is YOU this MORNING. When I asked a moment ago - “Who shared the gospel with you the time it “took”?” - you didn’t have an ANSWER, because it still HASN’T taken. That can ALL CHANGE this morning. You can leave here today with a TESTIMONY of God’s saving grace that set you FREE - “August 24th, 2025, West Hills Church - I FORGET the pastor’s name; to be honest, HE was pretty forgettable (fumbled his way through the rest of the sermon). But the one thing I DISTINCTLY remember is the GOSPEL: God CONVICTING me of my SINFULNESS, and my NEED for a savior, and His gracious GIFT of His Son JESUS.”
But here’s the LAST reason I opened with “Who shared the gospel with you?”, as we transition into the TEXT now: because THAT is precisely the question that the apostle PAUL is responding to here in Galatians 1:11-24; specifically, it’s a question he ANTICIPATES getting from his Judaizer opponents: “Alright, PAUL; you claim that Christians DON’T need the Law of Moses to be saved… but where’d you GET this “gospel” ANYWAY??”
Because remember: they’re former PHARISEES… well, maybe NOT so “former” - they’re STILL Pharisees. And in Pharisaic Judaism, who you were TAUGHT by was EVERYTHING; “who’s your RABBI?” That’s where your AUTHORITY came from. That’s why over and over again throughout the Gospels, people “MARVELED” at Jesus, because “he taught as one who HAD authority [INTRINSICALLY]; NOT like their scribes (with their “derivative”, second-hand authority that had been passed down from rabbi to rabbi, getting a little more ASTRAY and a little LESS authoritative with every passing century SINCE Moses]”.
But that’s the system these Judaizers were ACCUSTOMED to. So they wanna KNOW: “Hey PAUL - who’d you get YOUR authority from, your GOSPEL from, ANYWAY?” And vv11-24 of Galatians 1 is Paul’s ANSWER.
So I invite you to TURN there with me now (if you don’t have a Bible, we’d love to GIVE you one this morning if you visit the INFOBAR after the service… more ESV Study Journals there as well…). But would you STAND with me as you’re able…
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(SCRIPTURE:)
“For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. 12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. 13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. 19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother. 20 (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) 21 Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God because of me.”
This is the word of God… Seated…
These 14 verses, more than anywhere else in ANY of Paul’s 13 NT letters, detail for us the specifics of Paul’s CALLING.
-He tells us TO WHAT he was called.
-BY WHOM he was called.
-WHY he was called.
-And finally, WHY ELSE he was called. (He gives us TWO reasons)
Or as I’ve got it in your bulletins there: Paul offers us the ORIGIN, OUTCOME, OBJECTIVE, and OTHER OUTCOME of his calling here.
But not just “HIS” calling; “OUR” calling. You may not have had a direct, eyewitness encounter with the BODILY resurrected CHRIST like Paul did. You may not have been saved from, forgiven for literally MURDERING people, like Paul. God may not be calling you to preach the gospel to HALF the known world, or to author HALF the New TESTAMENT, like Paul did (I can actually answer THAT one for you: he’s NOT. God doesn’t need you to add anything else to his holy word, so you’re off the HOOK for THAT one at least. Now, the “preaching to half the WORLD” - we’re still very much ON the hook for THAT one. Cuz 43.6% of the world’s population has little to no access to the gospel; they couldn’t trust in Jesus and be saved if they WANTED to, cuz they don’t know a single person who’s a Christian, who can SHARE the good news with them. 3.56 BILLION people. (https://www.joshuaproject.net/) So we still got a LOT of work to do THERE.)
But here’s my POINT: you don’t have to be PAUL to be CALLED. And I wanna show you this morning how PAUL’S calling is - in MANY ways; it’s not IDENTICAL to ours, but in MANY ways - his calling really is OUR calling too.
Let’s see HOW:
First of all, Paul outlines the 1) The origin of our calling: NAMELY, God’s REVELATION. (vv11-12; 16b-22)
This is where Paul spends the MAJORITY of his ARGUMENT in this passage: detailing the ORIGIN, the SOURCE of his calling. And it hearkens back to the “Jesus vs the scribes” distinction; Paul IMPLIES that these Judaizers are just like their Pharisee forefathers, who trusted in their “religious PEDIGREE” as the proof of their RIGHTNESS: “Well I heard the gospel from JIM, and JIM heard it from GEORGE, and GEORGE heard it straight from the apostle PETER.”
Well, there’s 3 things that need to be said about that:
1) First of all, a LOT can HAPPEN, can get CHANGED, between PETER… and GEORGE… and JIM… and then YOU; have you ever played that game “Telephone”?
“Pastors killed the baby bunny?!” – No! it was SUPPOSED to be: “Pastor WILL is really FUNNY”!
Be careful trusting the telephone chain.
2) SECONDLY, if I can get TECHNICAL for a minute, these Judaizers are committing the logical fallacy known as the “Appeal to Authority” error, claiming that just because an alleged AUTHORITY figure thinks something, it must therefore be TRUE. But authority figures are wrong all the TIME, aren’t they? Even the APOSTLES themselves, when they weren’t operating under divine inspiration, co-authoring the BIBLE, they got stuff wrong all the TIME. Once Jesus called Peter “SATAN”, because he tried to DENY the crucifixion. Two SUNDAYS from now, in Galatians TWO, PAUL is gonna rebuke Peter for playing favorites in the cafeteria, and refusing to eat with the GENTILES, non-Jews, whenever these Judaizers came around.
So just because an AUTHORITY says it’s true, that doesn’t make it true… unless that authority is God HIMSELF.
3) And that’s the THIRD point, and Paul’s main focus now, in vv11 and 12: he says, “Look, y’all may have gotten YOUR “gospel” from a friend of a friend of a friend of PETER… but I got MINE straight from the SOURCE: via DIRECT REVELATION of Jesus Christ HIMSELF.
Y’all HEARD the gospel; I SAW it, with my own two EYES: Christ CRUCIFIED and RESURRECTED - THAT’s the gospel… and I MET him; I had a personal ENCOUNTER with Jesus on that Damascus Road, and I KNOW what I saw. I don’t NEED to be “taught”, I didn’t NEED to “RECEIVE” it from any man, cuz my gospel - the REAL gospel - is NOT man’s gospel; it’s GOD’S! That’s why God HIMSELF personally REVEALED it to me - opened my blind EYES to finally SEE Christ on the side of the road that day.
And I was SO confident of this gospel that I was SHOWN, v16, that I didn’t even NEED to go seek CONFIRMATION from anyone ELSE; “I did not immediately consult with anyone”, Paul says. Actually, what he LITERALLY says, in the Greek is: “I didn’t immediately consult with FLESH AND BLOOD” - Now that’s an interesting phrase. JESUS used that phrase once. It was actually just BEFORE he called Peter “Satan”, in Matthew 16. Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do y’all believe I AM?” And PETER replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (16:16); it was arguably the first confession of faith in the history of the CHURCH. That’s why Jesus said, “I’m gonna BUILD my church UPON this ROCK,” this truth. And he BLESSED Peter - actually BEFORE this confession of faith, he was “SIMON”; NOW Jesus dubs him “Peter”, petras, “THE ROCK”, the ORIGINAL one (sorry, Dwayne Johnson) - Jesus declares, ““Blessed are you, Simon (aka “ROCKY”)! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” (16:17)
Paul is ALLUDING to those words of Jesus here when he says, “I didn’t consult with flesh and blood” EITHER. In other words, if PETER received Christ’s BLESSING as an APOSTLE, to be the “foundation of the church”, Ephesians 2:20 tells us, by virtue of God’s direct, supernatural, non-flesh-and-blood REVELATION, then so too have I, PAUL, received that SAME blessing and apostleship because of God’s same direct REVELATION to me.
V17, Paul goes on: “nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, then returned again to Damascus.”
Now, in Acts ch9, Luke leaves OUT Paul’s time in Arabia from HIS version of the story, which I find interesting. It’s INTERESTING to think about the parts of YOUR story that OTHER people find UN-interesting. I imagine PAUL trying to share his TESTIMONY with Luke, who accompanied Paul on his travels and recorded his stories; you can imagine Paul reflecting on his time in Arabia, the WILDERNESS, not unlike the 40 years that God’s people, the Israelites spent there in the book of NUMBERS that we just finished in the spring; was that WASTED time?
Not for PAUL. Luke mighta said, “Yeah, yeah, skip ahead to the GOOD stuff, Paul, like when God miraculously broke you out of prison, or the time you single-handedly shut down the entire city of EPHESUS, their economy came GRINDING to a HALT because the GOSPEL you preached there had folks FORSAKING all the expensive, worthless IDOLS they used to buy and worship… or the time you raised the kid from the DEAD, Paul! I wanna hear more about THAT!”
And you can imagine Paul saying, “Sure, Luke, but you don’t get ANY of that… without ARABIA. Without the WILDERNESS. Without God’s PREPARATION for the ministry he would call me to.”
Christian: Do you believe there’s no such thing as “wasted time” in YOUR life, in YOUR testimony, in YOUR wildernesses?
But back to Paul’s; v18: “Then after three years I (finally) went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas” - aka “Peter”, “Rock” in Aramaic - “and I remained with him (only) fifteen days.”
Now Paul’s gonna tell us NEXT week in ch2 that 14 years LATER, he went BACK to Jerusalem and spent MORE time with Peter and James, and John, and the other apostles - to make absolutely CERTAIN they were all preaching the same gospel, and sure enough, Paul says, “they gave me the right hand of fellowship”, a big “thumbs up” to MY gospel, OUR gospel, THE gospel. “I’m not the one preaching a new, different gospel,” Paul’s gonna tell these Judaizers, “Y’ALL are”.
But HERE, in ch1, he’s still more concerned with where he GOT his gospel - “NOT FROM MAN”. Not from Cephas… “I didn’t even SEE any of the OTHER apostles,” Paul says, “except James, Jesus’s little brother” (v19). Paul’s making the point here that his gospel wasn’t influenced by others because he barely even SPOKE to the other apostles. And we know from Acts 9:26 that one of the REASONS Paul barely spoke to them was that they were TERRIFIED of him! Luke tells us, “when [Paul] had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.”
“SAUL?! The great PERSECUTOR of the Church? The last time we heard from this guy he was on his way to Damascus to lock up more Christians, then radio silence for 3 years… and now he shows back up claiming to be ONE of us, trying to get on the INSIDE - sounds like a big SETUP if I’VE ever heard one!”
So they kept their DISTANCE, initially.
But why do you think Paul went to visit Peter and James, at least, in Jerusalem that first trip post-conversion? We know he wasn’t there to receive the GOSPEL; he’s made THAT much clear. Paul already HAD it. He’d been PREACHING it for 3 years at that point. So why go?
Can you imagine devoting your LIFE - turning your life completely upside down - to follow a guy you’d only encountered for like 30 seconds three YEARS ago? When it’s JESUS you can imagine it. But Paul got so carried away SHARING Christ with OTHERS - in Acts 9, it’s the very next VERSE, after Paul gets BAPTIZED, we read “immediately [Paul began] proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God”” (9:20) - Paul got so busy and passionate EVANGELIZING FOR Jesus that he’s barely taken any time yet for even a little EDUCATION ABOUT Jesus. Now, as a well-studied former Pharisee, Paul would have known all the Old Testament PROPHECIES and typologies about Jesus. But what about his favorite FOOD? “What’s the funniest JOKE Jesus ever told?” “What was he like GROWING UP; it had to be HARD having the Son of God for an older brother…” - those are the kinds of questions Paul got to ask PETER, and JAMES.
Jesus was - he IS; cuz he’s ALIVE! - and he’s a PERSON. And I bet Paul wanted to know everything he COULD about Jesus, cuz he’d come to LOVE him so much.
Is that true of US, Church? Would you risk your LIFE to fill in the gaps, and to know him more DEEPLY?
Paul did. And then, v21, “I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea”, he says. Again, he’s driving home the point that “No one in the church even KNEW me, and the ones who DID didn’t want anything to DO with me. So how could I have POSSIBLY received the gospel from THEM?”
“I DIDN’T,” Paul swears, “I got it from GOD; I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”
And friends, while you may not have been knocked off your horse and seen a blinding light and heard a booming voice - it may not have been a PHYSICAL, VISIBLE revelation for you - but there is a very real sense in which the SAME is true - MUST be true! - of EVERY true follower of Christ: that we received our calling “through a revelation of HIM”.
You say, “Well WAIT a minute; what about that person you had us NAME at the beginning of the SERMON? THAT’s who I received the GOSPEL from; THAT’s who called ME to trust in Christ…”
YES AND NO. Think about THIS: How many of you had heard the gospel, and been CALLED on to put your faith in Christ, MANY MANY TIMES before you actually HEARD the gospel and put your FAITH in CHRIST? I’ve told y’all before; I couldn’t possibly COUNT all the times I’d heard it, all the “Stuarts” in my life before THE Stuart. You think that’s because there was something special about STUART? Or because it isn’t MAN’S gospel, so you can’t TRULY “receive it from any MAN”. The Bible says that “spiritual things are SPIRITUALLY discerned” (1 Cor 2:14). In other words, unless God the Holy SPIRIT has opened the spiritual eyes of your heart to BEHOLD the truth and the BEAUTY of the gospel, all the best apologetical arguments in the WORLD won’t do you any good. The most powerful SERMONS, the most moving personal testimonies in the WORLD can’t SAVE you.
Only a “revelation of Jesus CHRIST” can save us. He’s gotta open your eyes, and speak to your heart. He’s gotta CALL you. Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father… draws him” (Jn 6:44).
You ask, “Well how do I know if He’s DRAWING me?”
That’s easy: if you’re asking the QUESTION, then He’s DRAWING you. You won’t even ask the QUESTION unless God is CALLING you to HIMSELF.
If that’s YOU, don’t wait a second LONGER; don’t even WAIT til I lead you in prayer at the end of the sermon; cry out to God NOW: “Have MERCY on me! I’m a SINNER; I need a SAVIOR; I trust in JESUS!”
“Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD, JESUS, shall be SAVED” (Rom 10:13).
Won’t you call on him TODAY… NOW!
Because #2- The OUTCOME of our calling: is God’s REGENERATION of our hearts. (vv13-14, 23)
“I will give you a new heart,” he promises, “and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove your heart of stone… and give you a heart of flesh” (Ez 36:26).
That’s regeneration. God’s saving work of spiritually re-CREATING us:“if anyone is in Christ,” the Bible says, “he is a new creation. Behold: the old has gone; the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17).
God spiritually re-BIRTHS us: “Unless you are born again,“ Jesus said, “you cannot see the kingdom of God.” (Jn 3:3).
“Do I have to crawl back up inside my mother’s WOMB?!”
“NO!” Jesus explained, “you’ve obviously ALREADY been born PHYSICALLY; NOW you need to be born SPIRITUALLY.”
That’s what Paul experienced on the Damascus road that day: spiritual re-BIRTH, re-CREATION; a new HEART and Spirit that can ONLY come from GOD.
How else do you explain the radical TRANSFORMATION?! How else do you EXPLAIN a guy who was, v14, “persecut[ing] the church of God violently and tr[ying] to destroy it” - Paul was “Church Enemy #ONE”; he says, “so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers” - my Pharisaic Judaism, my religious RULE-keeping - that I was MURDERING people for it.
Paul was a TERRORIST! Think about this: the Law of Moses commanded that blasphemers be STONED (Lev 24:16). But under ROMAN Law - the “pax romana” - Jews couldn’t just be STONING each other in the streets. CAESAR’s in charge now; you bring your grievances to HIM. They even did it with JESUS! The Pharisees didn’t kill him, technically; they had to ask Caesar - Pontius Pilate - to do it FOR them. But you fast FORWARD just a couple years to Acts ch7, and the stoning of STEPHEN, the first Christian MARTYR, and the Jews are back AT it again. “God’s law trumps Caesar’s; let’s KILL him ourselves!”
Paul says: “I helped make it happen.” Paul was there OVERSEEING Stephen’s execution that day.
“I was advancing in Judaism beyond many” - Paul says, “When I read, “Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him,” I didn’t go ask ROME for PERMISSION; I made it HAPPEN.” “So extremely zealous was I for the (Law of Moses)”.
Paul was the LEAST likely candidate to receive God’s regenerating work of the Holy Spirit; he says it himself in 1 Corinthians 15:9- “I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to even be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God” - I was KILLING Christ’s BRIDE!
But what’s the very next verse? What CHANGED Paul? How does the church’s #1 PERSECUTOR become its #1 PREACHER literally OVERNIGHT?
“But by the grace of GOD I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.” (15:10)
The GRACE of GOD. v15 back in Galatians 1 says, “But when he who had set me apart before I was born (Paul says, “that’s how you KNOW it was ALL GRACE - “not of works that I had done”, cuz I wasn’t even BORN yet to have DONE any good works, to even ATTEMPT to “contribute” to my own salvation, and God had ALREADY set me apart - CALLED me to Himself - he…) called me by his GRACE”.
Maybe someone here this morning is thinking, “Pastor, you wouldn’t keep INVITING ME to call on Jesus if you knew MY past, the things I’VE done…” - let me ASK you: You ever MURDERED someone? Ever murdered someone cuz they LOVED JESUS? Cuz if NOT, then God’s saved WORSE!
Paul says elsewhere, “formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent [of Christ]. But I received mercy… and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me [“Mercy” is NOT receiving a punishment you deserve… HELL! “Grace” is RECEIVING a good gift you DON’T deserve… HEAVEN! Paul says…] The saying (this GOOD NEWS, of the GOSPEL) is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, (not the RIGHTEOUS, but SINNERS! It’s not the HEALTHY who need a doctor; but the SICK; Jesus came to save spiritually SICK, sinful people) of whom (Paul confesses) I am the foremost. But (he rejoices) I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost (sinner), Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.” (1 Tim 1:13-16)
In OTHER words, Paul says, “If Jesus can save a murderous, “insolent opponent” like ME, who CAN’T he save?!”
Friends, the gospel is that NO ONE is so wicked that Christ can’t save you.
And yet no one is so RIGHTEOUS that you don’t NEED his salvation.
Perhaps that’s the GREATER LIE that most of us are prone to believe: not that Jesus wouldn’t WANT to save us, but that he wouldn’t NEED to. Cuz “I’m a pretty good person”.
If that’s you, if I could just lovingly invite you to flip one page ahead - we’ll get there two Sundays from now, Galatians 2:16, but it’s too important not to point out for any potential Pharisees here with us this morning; for ANY of us who are ever tempted to think, “Surely God ACCEPTS me, on my OWN merit; I don’t know about all this “Jesus DYING for me” stuff; but I’m pretty sure I’m GOOD with God either WAY, cuz I’m a PRETTY GOOD PERSON”.
If that’s YOU, Paul’s got a WARNING for you here: “by works of the law NO one will be justified,” be made RIGHT with God, ACCEPTABLE to Him, be SAVED! Your best ATTEMPTS to EARN his favor and grace OUTSIDE of Christ are but “filthy RAGS” in God’s sight, according to His word (Isa 64:6).
“What can wash AWAY my sins?” “NOTHING but the BLOOD of JESUS”! The free, undeserved GRACE of God.
I wanna show you a short clip. I don’t do this often, but I just watched this last week and thought it was SO POWERFUL. This is endurance athlete and hunting mogul Chadd Wright - I think that’s how Joe Rogan DISCOVERED him; cuz Joe’s gotten big into HUNTING. So for the first 45 minutes of the podcast, they talk all about hunting. But then around the 45 minute mark Chadd Wright hits Joe with his TESTIMONY: “This is what Christ did for ME, when he came INTO my life and made me NEW”; he’s got a POWERFUL testimony - it’s the same thing Paul does here in Galatians 1! “Paul knew his transformed life was the most compelling case he could make for the truth of the gospel… And it’s no different for us,” commentator Todd Wilson points out (44): “We are our best argument. Our changed life is… our most powerful apologetic…”
And I won’t play ALL of Chadd Wright’s testimony for you - it’s worth listening to the whole thing - but I wanna at least play you a snippet of his very pointed, unapologetic gospel presentation to the most influential voice in all of media today; let’s watch…
[PLAY ONLY 1:55 - 4:24]
“You were dead in (your) trespasses and sins… by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our sins, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved”! (Eph 2:1-5)
HAVE you? Call on Jesus, and be SAVED.
#3- (I’ll be very brief with these last 2 points…) #3- The OBJECTIVE of our calling: is God’s PLEASURE & PURPOSE. (vv15-16a)
Do you know why God saved you?
-Was it because he noticed you were “a pretty good person”?
-Was it because he saw some great POTENTIAL in you? “Wow, look at that PAUL! How well-EDUCATED and ZEALOUS he is? Just imagine what he could do for Team JESUS?” Is THAT why Paul says that God saved him?
V16: “[God] who called me by his grace, was PLEASED to reveal his SON to me”.
Christian: you were saved for GOD’S PLEASURE!
It brought the Almighty Creator God of the UNIVERSE - who needs NOTHING, but who DELIGHTS in certain things - and NOTHING brings God more PLEASURE than saving sinners in desperate need. And REDEEMING us in such a way that God actually now brings us into his OWN perfect heavenly FAMILY; Paul will get to THAT in ch4: “God sent forth his Son… to redeem [us], so that we might receive adoption as SONS. ” (4:4-5)
Nothing brings ME more pleasure than my KIDS. As a Father, it brings me great PLEASURE to be able to HELP my children.
If you’re here this morning, and the reason you’ve been keeping God at an arm’s length is because you don’t wanna TROUBLE him - Listen: Don’t you ROB God of the PLEASURE of RESCUING you. I took my kids swimming yesterday; can you IMAGINE if my 2 year old BO had fallen in without his floatie on, and instead of crying out for help, he thought, “You know, I really don’t wanna bother DAD with this; he looks pretty BUSY…” - there is NOTHING that would bring God more PLEASURE than to RESCUE someone this morning!
God would be “PLEASED to reveal his SON to you”. Actually, what Paul says in the Greek is “reveal his son IN me”, because how does Christ ACCOMPLISH his saving work of spiritual regeneration in our hearts? He sets up SHOP there, PERSONALLY. Jesus Christ sends his Holy Spirit to come INDWELL the hearts of his people; that’s why Paul’s gonna say in ch2: “ I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” (2:20)
And revealing His Son WITHIN us brings our heavenly FATHER great PLEASURE.
But that’s not the ONLY reason he saved us; we’re saved for his pleasure AND his PURPOSE, namely, of BRINGING that salvation to OTHERS! Paying it FORWARD, as “ambassadors” of God’s grace to those still in NEED of it, so he can save THEM and be even MORE pleased!
Paul says, “God called me by his grace… in ORDER that I might preach him among the Gentiles”. Tony Merida notes (36): “Paul’s conversion came with a commission. And so does ours! Peter writes, “You are a chosen race… a people for His possession SO THAT you may proclaim the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light!” (1 Pet 2:9)”
Jesus put it THIS way: “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Mt 5:16)
And that’s exactly where Paul ENDS, in v24, with point…
#4- The (OTHER) outcome of our calling: God’s GLORY. (v24)
All these churches that were MARVELING at Paul’s testimony - this persecutor-turned-preacher - what was the ULTIMATE upshot? “They glorified GOD because of me.”
I heard Joe Rogan come about THAT CLOSE to glorifying GOD because of his work in Chadd Wright’s life.
Brother, Sister: Don’t you want God to get GLORY? Don’t be afraid to share your STORY.
Let’s pray…