All right. You all may be seated. Sit down. Everybody sit down. All right. So I want to welcome all those who are in video land. Hello. And from there, so please, if you would, Open your Bibles to Galatians chapter 1, as we'll continue working our way through the book of Galatians. So, Lord willing, we will finish a couple of verses today, which will be good. So let's go ahead and we'll pray and then we'll get started. Father, again, we come and we thank you that we can worship you in our singing, that we can truly sing, Father, holy, holy, holy are you. God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Lord, you are so vast and you are so infinite that our minds cannot grasp you fully. And likewise, Father, your word has to be the same way if it is from you. It is so infinite that we can't grasp the depths of it. And yet, Lord, we just pray now that you would give us a glimpse, an insight to it, to who you are, that we would be pleasing to you in every way, Lord. We thank you for Christ, Father, that we are in him. And so we know we are pleasing to you. Lord, I pray that our hearts would be gripped today by your glory, by your word, by your gospel, that we would see it clearly and run to it, Lord, knowing that it is the only thing that saves man is your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So please, Father, bless us today. Encourage us, Lord. Convict us, Lord. Lift us up, Father. By your Holy Spirit in your name we pray these things. Amen So we all Well, I wouldn't say we all but I would say most people liked to be liked. They like to be thought well of. They don't set out to not be liked. They don't set out to be a nuisance to people. But there might be people that are that way. But I would think that most people set out to be liked and to want to be liked. And so we can easily catch ourselves being pleasing to people and doing things that are pleasing to other people. But if we're going to be Christians and we're going to be those who hold to the truth of the gospel, we have to understand that we will not be pleasing to everybody. because the gospel message we bring is an offense to people because what we were telling people initially is that they are sinners and that they are in great danger of hell and that is not a great message but it is the truth and people will not like us for that message and we see kind of what's happening now in Galatians where Paul has is he's defending the gospel and he brought in a couple weeks ago when we looked at it that There was those that were preaching another gospel. And so what the Judaizers are trying to do now is they're trying to discredit Paul from even being an apostle. They're telling the Galatians that, well, he's really not one of the 12 apostles. And so Paul now begins his defense of his credentials to be an apostle. But before we see this, he brings a little bit of a message to them in verses 10, 11, and 12. So if you look with me in 10, 11, and 12, this is what it says. It says, for am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. So we can conclude here that Paul was not a man pleaser. Paul proclaimed the gospel that was not from man, nor was it man-made. These are just kind of highlights that we'll look at. And he begins to show the Galatians in this letter, his calling as an apostle, which we will look at next week, which would be verses 11 through 24 as he starts to see this. But first of all, we want to look at the first thing, is not being a man pleaser. And as I said earlier, this is something we can easily do. We can bring the gospel to people in such a way that it's pleasing to their ears or we don't want to offend them in any way. And Timothy talks about this when he says that we will acquire teachers in the end times that'll be pleasing to us. They'll tickle our ears. They'll tell us what we want to hear. And so Paul is making this clear that he is not a man pleaser. is what he's doing now this word in verse 10 if you look at it says for I am now seeking the approval of man this verb or this word most theologians can believe it can be rendered as there but it's an emphatic there it's not him just sitting there saying there he's saying there with an emphatic referring back to what he talked about. When he talks about a double curse coming upon someone who preaches a different gospel. So we can look at it from verse nine, if we look at it this way, he would be saying it this way. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. There, am I now seeking the approval of man? So he's talking to man saying, I wouldn't be putting down a curse on someone who preaches another gospel if I was seeking man's approval. So he's making an emphatic point by saying, there. wouldn't have said what I just said if I was seeking man's approval and we have to be in the same context when we are preaching the gospel and we're bringing it clear to somebody we have to be in the same same context as there I'm not pleasing man but I'm pleasing God and that's what Paul says I am not seeking the approval of man if he was he'd be trying to please man But there was a time there was a time in Paul's life when he was Saul that he was trying to please man. He was seeking the approval of man, but he was seeking the approval of his Judaism and he was seeking the approval of the Sanhedrin. So we see that Paul, actually Saul at this time, he was in approval of Stephen's execution. When we look at Acts 8.1, it says this, Now this was Stephen as they were stoning him. So not only did Saul give approval of Stephen's persecution and his death, but he also ravaged the church. He was one who ravaged the church. He brought havoc upon the church That's what this word ravage means is that he brought havoc upon the church in Acts 8 3 it says this but Saul was Ravaging the church and entering house after house. He dragged off men and women and committed them to prison He was being a man pleaser to the Jewish Sanhedrin to the Jewish leaders. In Acts 9.1, this is what Luke writes, but Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus so that if he found any belonging to the way, that's what it was called back then was the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. But one thing that Saul believed is that he was being faithful to God by holding tightly to his Judaism. But he was also very pleasing to the high priest because he was going after the way. So if Paul then was to be a man pleaser, he wouldn't be a bondservant of Christ. This is his argument now. If I was still being the man pleaser, if I was still holding on to my Judaism, if I was still ravaging the church, If I was still doing that, I would be the man-pleaser. But I'm not, because I'm a bond-servant of Christ. So I'm not a man-pleaser, right? So he would be a bond-servant of Christ. And this is the way Paul lived. Once he was saved, on that road to Damascus, we see in that Romans 9, 1 and 2, how he went to get these letters. But if you keep reading in 9, well, he meets Jesus on the road. And he has a come-to-Jesus moment, as we would say. And that's what happens. You know, he is converted. And now he's not a man pleaser. And so he lives this life that is completely contrary to what he was living. In fact, Paul then was no longer a man pleaser, but he was a bondservant of Christ. And this is seen in his persecution for Christ. He was persecuted for Christ. Listen to Acts 14, 19. But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium. This is where we are. This is the area of Galatia. Remember at the first, this is one of the first four churches, the first two churches, Antioch and Iconium that he set up. But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. So he was persecuted for the message now that he was preaching. And then in our very letter that we're reading, in Galatians 6, 17, it says this. From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear in my body the marks of Jesus. Paul could take off his robe and you could see the bruises. You could see the whip marks where he was whipped. You could see in his body where he has the marks of Jesus the brand marks of Jesus almost like a branding like we brand a cattle with a hot. With the hot stick, it's the same thing. He's got these brand marks of Jesus on his body. So there was no way Paul was a man pleaser to the Galatians that the Jews were criticizing him of. Why? Because he was a bondservant of Christ. He was this servant of Christ. He was a slave of Christ. And that's what we read in Romans 1-1. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. This was his new calling, was he was set apart for the gospel. He was an apostle. And so the same thing as servants, we as servants of God, we as slaves of God, we are to be pleasing to God and not to be pleasing to man. This is the same argument that we have in our own lives. 2 Corinthians 5.9 says it this way. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. So whether we're at home and we're with our families, or we're single and we're not with our families, or whether we're working, or whatever we're doing, we are to be pleasing to Him. God is the one to be on our mind. We're to be pleasing to Him and not to man. That's what Paul is urging us to do. The Jewish accusers were the ones that were actually the man-pleasers. They were the ones that were trying to please men. They were the one that were trying to seduce men to come to a different gospel. Paul says this in Galatians 6.12, it says, it is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh. Right, we want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. Right, that's when we become the man pleaser. When we bring a message or we live our lives in such a way that we do not want to be persecuted for the cross of Christ. And that's what they were doing. So they can make this good showing in the flesh. So they wouldn't be persecuted for the cross of Christ. There's a book out, Fox's Books of Martyrs, that talks about many who were persecuted for the cross of Christ. because they held to the truth of scripture. They were more a bond servant of Christ. Therefore, they were not pleasing to man. So ultimately, Paul does not seek man's approval, but ultimately he seeks God's approval. Listen to 1 Thessalonians 2.4. But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. So Paul was not a man pleaser because of the gospel that he did preach. Secondly, we see that Paul realized where the gospel came from. The proclamation of the gospel was not his gospel. but it was a gospel that was of God. The gospel's not man's gospels. Look at Galatians 111. For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. This I would have you known is to make known with certainty is what Paul is saying. This is what he's saying, to make known with certainty. To make it perfectly clear. is what he was saying. So if we read verse 11 this way, for I would have you known, or I wanna make this perfectly clear to you, brothers and sisters. I wanna make it perfectly clear that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. So he's still saying it. There, because of what I preached, I'm not a man's pleaser. Now I wanna make it perfectly clear to everybody that the gospel that I preach is not man's gospel. In our language, that's what it would be. So the gospel is completely a divine gospel. It's a gospel that is not human. It's not of human authority. Paul did not make it up. Paul did not change the message at all to suit the hearers. The gospel message was the gospel message, right? He says to the Corinthians, he says that I wanna know nothing about anything else but Christ and him crucified. That was his message. Christ and him crucified. Christ and him crucified. He wasn't concerned with his message, but he was concerned with a different message that was coming. And so he brings this divine thing. And so he throws down a curse of anybody who preaches that different gospel that is not man's gospel, or that is not God's gospel in Galatians 1, 8, and 9. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you receive, let him be accursed. That's what was so the gospel according to man if it was God's gospel or if it's man's gospel There's always going to be a works righteousness that's attached to it And that's what he was arguing against and we have to be reminded this he was arguing against that it was Jesus plus whatever we put in there. It could be Jesus plus circumcision. That's what they were saying. It was Jesus plus obedience to the Mosaic Law. It could be Jesus plus coming to church. Jesus plus tithing. Jesus plus our good works. And whatever you want to add to Jesus is a different gospel. And it's not the gospel that is from God, but it's a gospel that is man-made. that has works righteousness to it. And Paul wanted us to be clear that they knew that the gospel that he preached was not man's gospel. Now, when it comes to doing good works, are we to do good works? Yeah, we are to do good works, but not to add to our Salvation it's because of our salvation. That's what Ephesians 2 10 tells us for we are his workmanship Created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them again in Titus 2 14 Who gave himself up for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people? for his own possession who are zealous for good works and We are to do good works. We are to care for each other. We are to love one another, just as Christ loved us. We are to sacrifice for each other. We are to be doing good works, but that is not to add to our salvation. That is not to be added to the gospel. The gospel is simple. The gospel is from Jesus. That's the gospel. Galatians 112, for I did not receive it from any man, nor as I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. This is how Paul received it, through a revelation of Jesus Christ. Or it could say, neither. For I neither received it from any man. Paul neither received the gospel from man, nor was he taught it by man. But the Jews of the day, the Jews of the day, they were taught by the rabbis. They were taught the Jewish traditions. They were mainly taught by rabbis that were teaching the traditions, and they trusted in his traditions. This was not how Paul received it. Paul did not go, and if we read, as we read in there, Paul did not go and sit under Peter or James. He did not go up to Jerusalem and sit under them. No, he sat under Christ. He sat under the resurrected Christ. He went away to where he was taught by Christ all the things that he needed to know. He received it by a revelation of Jesus Christ. Again, the Jews, they didn't study the scriptures, but they trusted the teachers to tell them what to do and what to say, and they trusted in what they say. Now, we can fall into the same category, brothers and sisters. We can fall into the same categories in the Christian churches. You can just blindly trust everything I say. You can trust whatever's in this pulpit. That's what we can do in the same ways. Think that the Bible is supernatural. We can give it its place, but we can be distant from it. We can also not challenge anything that is said out of the pulpit, but just accept it. Even if you think it sounds wrong, you can just accept it. But what we need to be able to do is we need to be like the Bereans. You and I need to be like the Bereans. When the gospel comes out and something pops into your mind, it's like, oh man, that didn't sound right. Sometimes you have to listen to your guy and you got to be like the Bereans and what did the Bereans do? Listen to Acts 17 10 through 12 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica They received the word with all eagerness Examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so Many of them therefore believed with not a few Greek, many of them therefore believed with not a few Greek women or high standing as well as men. But look at verse 11, it says this, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. They were examiners of the scriptures. They dug into the word. They were in the word consistently to see if what Paul was teaching was true. And what Paul was teaching was Old Testament, right? The New Testament wasn't there yet. And likewise, we should be the same way. Whether I'm teaching or Dick's teaching or Martin's teaching or you're listening to John MacArthur or you're listening to John Piper or you're listening to your favorite preacher. You have to keep an eye open. You have to be examining the scriptures to see what they're saying is true. I was listening to a video this week that one of my friends had sent me and this is what the guy says. He says this, it's not how many times you have been through the Bible. It's not how many times you've read through the Bible. but it's how many times has the Bible been through you? I thought that was brilliant. I was staggered by it. I'm like, that's true, because we can read the Bible. We can read the Bible, and we can know the gospel by what the Bible says, and we can know and understand that the gospel is from Jesus, that Jesus is the gospel, and we can know all this, but do we know it in our hearts that he is the gospel, that he is our hope? Do we know that much? Because we can read the Bible. There's many scholars out there that have read through the Bible and read through the Bible and read through the Bible, but the Bible has no impact on them. Is that the same for you and I? Do we read the Bible, do we read through the scripture and it has no impact on us? Or does it have an impact on us? Is it going through us, is it working in us? That is what it should be doing. It shouldn't just be words on a page But Hebrews tells us that it's what it's active and living and sharper than two in each two-edged sword Is it doing that in your life when you read the word? Is it cutting you like a two-edged sword? Do you see that? It's alive. Do you see that? It's active Do you see these things? So it's not how many times we've read the Bible, but how many times the Bible's been through us. So Jesus taught Paul the gospel. Jesus lifted the veil from Paul's eyes to see the gospel, 2 Corinthians 3, 14 through 16. But their minds were hardened, for to this day when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted. Because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over the hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. That's what happened to Paul on the Damascus Road. If we continue out the chapter 9 of Acts, the veil was lifted. He saw what he was doing. He saw that he was persecuting Christ. And he came to Christ. He saw his sin. He was drawn to Christ. So it's Jesus who lifted the veil from Paul's eyes. It's Jesus who lifts the veil from our eyes to see more clearly. This is what Jesus does. It's God the Father that revealed Jesus to Paul in Galatians 1.16. Says was pleased God the father 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 which we'll deal with in a couple of weeks, but it God was the one who revealed the son. to Paul. God is the one who reveals the Son to us. The Holy Spirit regenerates you and I. The Holy Spirit changes our hearts, and we see Christ clearly. We see his work on the cross clearly. We see that this cannot be a gospel that is by men, but it has to be a divine gospel. And so this was Paul's argument. I'm not pleasing man. I'm not gonna be a man pleaser because of the gospel that I preach that is divinely hid. So now, where does that leave you and I? How do we respond to this? Well, first of all, when proclaiming the gospel, it means we will not be man-pleasers. We will not be men pleasers. We have to evaluate in our own lives. Are we men pleasers or not? That's what Paul says in verse 10 for am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? That's a question that each one of us has to ask ourselves in our walk in our daily walk in our personal walk. Hey, am I out to please man or am I out to please God? and how we respond in circumstances, and how we respond to what people say to us, all depicts on whether we wanna please man or we wanna please God. So we have to evaluate this in our own lives, in our own personal lives, we have to evaluate that. Do we seek the approval of man? Or do we seek the approval of God? When you have a chance to share the gospel with somebody, and the door is open, do you share the gospel? Or are you ashamed of the gospel? Do you shy away from it? Do you sit back from it? This is what Paul says in Galatians 1.10, right? For I'm not now seeking the approval of man. We can't be. Are we ashamed of the gospel? He says in Romans 1, right? Romans 1.16. These aren't on the board unless Angela gets them up there real quick, but in Romans 1.16 he says this. For I am not ashamed of the gospel. He's not ashamed of the gospel. Well, why aren't you ashamed of the gospel, Paul? For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. That's why he wasn't ashamed of this gospel. because it's the power of God. It's the only thing that saves man is this gospel. It's the power of God, the deutymus of God, the dynamite of God. That's what that word means, that deutymus, this dynamite, this explosion of God. That's what the gospel is, and he's not ashamed of it. Are you and I ashamed of the gospel? Or do we willingly proclaim the gospel because we wanna be pleasing to God? Or do we shy away when we have chances to proclaim the gospel? Do you come to Christ to please man? Well, this is what my mom and dad wanted me to do, so I walked the aisle and I said the prayer and I got baptized. Because I wanted my mom and dad to do this. Do you come to church because it pleases others? Well, I have to be at church because if I'm not, I'm gonna get a phone call from Mark Well, don't come here because you're going to get a phone call from me, because you don't want a phone call from me. Come here because you want to be here. Don't come here to please anybody. Come here because you want to hear the Word of God preached. Come here because you want to sing praises to God. Come here because you want to enjoy each other, and we want to fellowship with each other, and we want to know how to pray for each other. This is why we should come here, not to be pleasing to each other, not to be like, oh, well, I checked off the list there, and so now the pastor will be pleased that I was at church. That should not be our motivation, you know, or any of these things, you know. If we are baptized or we take communion or any of those things, we should not do it for man's sake, but we should do it all for Christ's sake and for Christ's glory because we are saved because of the gospel. Secondly, how about proclaiming the gospel? Not only to be ashamed of it, but when we proclaim it, do you realize that the gospel is a supernatural gospel? It's supernatural. Every time you start to talk about somebody about Christ and his work on the cross to save you from sin, it is supernatural. because it's not from you and I. How many times have you shared the gospel with somebody? Just for your own personal thing, you don't have to raise your hand and say five times or six times, but how many times have you shared the gospel with somebody and then all of a sudden you sit down and you're like, oh, well, that wasn't me. I don't know where those words came from. It's because it's supernatural. It's because you're getting filled with the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit speaking through you. Right? That's why it's supernatural. We have to realize that the message we bring is an eternal message from an eternal God who is divinely wrathful, who has given us a divine message to give the people who are lost so that they won't incur his judgment. Wow, it's supernatural. This also means, since it's a supernatural gospel, that the gospel is full of hope, it's full of encouragement, and it's full of joy. That's what the gospel brings to us, right? It brings hope to the sinner, that I have eternal life waiting for me. It brings encouragement to the believer, that this is what Jesus has done for me in spite of me, and I merit none of it. It brings joy to us because we know one day, because of the truth of the gospel, that we are going to be with Jesus one day. And that will be a day when we are in paradise. So it's a gospel that brings those three elements. And it frees you and I to freely speak the gospel of truth. Because it's not our gospel. Isaiah says that God's word never returns to him void. It's his word. It's his gospel. It's not ours. We don't need to make it out to be something that it's not. Just freely speak the gospel and let God do with it what he wants to do with it because it's his. How freeing is that for us to just freely proclaim the gospel because of his divineness? Also, do you and I see our salvation, this gospel, do you and I see our salvation as the work of God, absent from anything that you and I do? Absent from our coming to church or coming to Sunday school or being baptized or taking communion. Any of these things that we can add to it. Do we see that the gospel that has saved us is absent from any human effort and it's all the work of Jesus Christ on the cross? And finally realizing that the gospel is a direct assault on man's work. It's a direct assault on any other gospel. It's a direct assault on any other belief or any other religion that says your good works can get you to heaven. It's an assault on that. Pure and undefiled assault. We have a gospel, brothers and sisters, that is so rich and so pure that we should find joy in it every day that we wake up, knowing that we have opportunity every day to be pleasing to God when we proclaim the gospel of grace. Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you for this time. We thank you for your gospel, Lord. Just ask that it would imprint on us, Lord, be imprinted on our hearts, Father, and that we would glorify you as we preach the gospel, that we would be pleasing to you and not seeking the approval of man, that one day, Father, when you call us home, that you will say these words to us, well done, good and faithful servants. In your name, amen. Please, let's stand as we sing our last song.