Through that this morning, as the bow our heads and our hearts and friends. A father with a privilege it is to come and bow down before you, and to recognize that you are so much greater than our weep. Father it is a privilege to be able to come and to behold you, to focus upon a guy, a God who is high and holy and lifted up, a God who is immortal and visible. The only one who is truly wise. The only one who truly can guide our lives and we come before you today and we bow before you. We have been convinced of your mercy and of your grace and of your truth. Lord as we have built our life upon your teachings, we have been changed. We come to you today. Lord on the first day of this week to begin a week the right way, to remember that we are creatures in your image and that we have been recreated in Christ and that we are here to praise and to live, to honor you. Father we find so much privilege in being your children, so much fulfillment in being who you created as the day but so often we try to find it in our own way. We try to find significance in the work we do and the accomplishments that we complete. Father we come to you today and just build out in front of you. We confess our sins, we confess that Lord a lot of times we have neglected you, we confess that we have ignored you, we confess that the Father we were more preoccupied with ourselves and we want that to change. So we confess and turn away from that this week and as we begin a new week we thank you for what you are to us and pray. Lord you help us to focus upon you. We thank you for your grace, your acceptance. We thank you Father for the hope we have that even if we were to die we would be in your presence today. We thank you for the hope that all things do work together for you, for the truth that nothing can defeat us, that you are a Father who continues to invest every day in His children. And Lord we ask that you do that, we pray that you would teach us this morning as we look into your words and make it clear to us. We pray that you would give us a great sense of your grace and of the calling in our lives. We pray that Lord we would be able to live a life that is contagious before others because we fully understand the gospel of grace. Father we do pray for our country a lot is wrong and yet Lord you are doing wonderful things and churches and you grew your people so Lord we pray that whether there is a lot of discomfort or you bring comfort where there is confusion you have been clarity in our lives where we need some mature that you have been growing and we open our hearts to you today. And ask that as your word is spoken you would affect our minds and our hearts to conform us to the image of yourself. Father we give you ourself and then also we give to you of our resources so that others could know and that this work could go on to find the grace that we have found. We can do all of these things to you now and we pray in a strong name of Christ. Our kids may now be dismissed for children's church and while we have been prepared to talk about grace this morning take your Bibles and turn to Galatians chapter 1 verses 11 through 24 that's our text for today and if you don't have your Bibles take the program because the text of scripture is typed in there for you while you're turning I just want to remind you of a class that is mentioned in the bulletin as we now have a little bit more education space in that room right through those doors back there next Sunday night or the next couple of weeks we're going to be starting yeah next Sunday night we're going to be starting some adult education on Sunday evening we're going to start a survey through the Old Testament through the Bible and I'm looking forward to teaching that first segment so with you would like to get introduced to God's word the Old Testament come and join us and have a great time as we study that together Galatians 1 verses 11 through 24 as our text today the Apostle Paul says into the inspiration of the Holy Spirit I want you to know brothers that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up I did not receive it from any man nor was I taught it rather I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ for you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism how intensely I persecuted the Church of God and tried to destroy it I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers but when God who sent me apart from birth and called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles I did not consult any man nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter stayed with him 15 days I saw none of the other apostles only James the Lord's brother I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie later I went to Syria and Celicia for I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ they only heard this report the man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy and they praised God because of me this morning we continue our study in the letter of Paul to the Galatians the Galatians plural the churches in Galatia what back then was called Galatia but what today is called Asia Minor Paul wrote a circular letter that was to be read in all of those churches and because they needed this theme Galatians is the letter that saved grace Galatians is the letter that saved grace from getting swept under the rug of Jewish rules and regulations because there was a whole lot of people that came after Paul who taught that salvation was not by grace but salvation was by faith and by doing good works so Paul had to write this letter and it really is the letter that saved for us the understanding that salvation is by grace through faith and in our text for today we're going to look at two things because Paul is trying to do two things first of all he's defending himself if you didn't pick that up from this introduction he's defending himself because what he's trying to do is show why he is a spiritual authority that these Galatians Christians ought to follow and we're going to learn why we can follow him the second thing Paul wants to do is to teach how a person's heart is changed by God how is it how is it that a person becomes changed enters into a relationship with God what is the dynamics of that what Paul teaches that so we're going to look quickly at his defense which really is the main point and then we're going to spend a little bit longer looking at how people's hearts are changed by God well how is it that we can trust Paul as God's spokesman you're saying that's not a burning issue for me I didn't wake up this morning thinking gee can I really trust Paul or not all right that's because you trust the New Testament but why do you trust the New Testament my question to you is why do you trust Paul there were critics in the early church who said that he couldn't be trusted and so his defense is really really very simple he comes to them and he gives two reasons why he was the true apostle versus 11 through 15 he says I don't have a hand me down gospel that I got from an inferior source and I didn't misunderstand the message you guys in Galatia heard some preachers that came after me they said I got a message from somebody that couldn't be trusted and I even misinterpreted that Paul says he says the truth is the message I preach I got directly from Jesus Christ read Acts 9 and you'll see we're Paul met Christ face to face radical he's a powerful transformation he didn't get the gospel from a second hand inferior source and he didn't misunderstand it he got it from Jesus that's his first offense the second defense is verses 16 through 24 he says listen you guys say that I don't have a good gospel you don't think I'm a trustworthy apostle but you need to understand this that after Jesus appeared to me then I didn't go to Jerusalem to check out the message I got with the other 12 apostles I didn't go clear it with them and make sure that what Jesus gave me was the same thing they were preaching I went to Arabia for a while and then it was three years later before I went to Jerusalem oh even then I didn't meet all the disciples and apostles I only met with James I only met with Peter the same thing that I teach turned out to be the same thing they've been teaching but I didn't even get it from them I got it from Jesus and so Paul Paul says the message of grace that I teach is the message that I got right from Jesus not from the second hand source and you can trust me therefore as a man who has been radically changed by Jesus did you follow the events that took place on Tuesday Tuesday that was a year ago wasn't it Tuesday what was the Tuesday was the day that Carla Fe Tucker the Texas woman was executed for her double murder did you follow that now you remember I followed it and it was it is an ironic thing to me because in the last years since the death penalty was instituted reinstituted in the United States and since 1976 only two women were executed for their faith not for their faith for their crimes two women were executed for their crimes and both of them had faith in Christ that's what I was trying to say Velma Barfield was executed in 1984 and she had come to faith in Christ during her long imprisonment she had corresponded with Ruth Graham and she'd come to faith in Christ and her life was changed same thing with with Miss Tucker through her long imprisonment she had come to a real faith in Christ not I don't care if you bought into her particular brand of Christianity to point at that woman was different because she met Jesus the same thing was true with Paul he had met Jesus and it was undeniable that he was changed I mean here was a guy here was a guy who was was laying burdens on people it was too heavy to bear he was telling them that they had to get right with God by doing good things he was trying to persecute Christians that were being spiritual and then he met Jesus then he was radically different here's the truth when a person really meets Jesus they are inevitably changed and their changed life authenticates their claim to have met Jesus he met Jesus he was different like these two ladies and like you and me guys I think one of the greatest things about being a Christian is that change takes place you know alive we're different the shame is removed the guilt is taken away you can't deny that we're not perfect yet but we're different those of us who were manipulators and controllers manipulating control less and by God's grace we trust him for what he wants to do and improve us those who are relationally distant and unloving learn to love that was different because of what God has done in our life and bringing us to Jesus at calm dex bill gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and he stated if GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has we would all be driving $25 cars that get 1000 miles per gallon recently the GM people responded by saying yes but what good would the car be if it crashed twice a day
we still crash and we still burn from time to time as Christians were not perfect but we're different and it's proof that we've met Jesus and as Paul defends himself and as apostleship we can trust him because he didn't get it second hand because he was changed improve that he had really met Jesus over the years it will a great church I've taught a lot of different Bible studies with men and it's amazing to see the change in their lives many of them are in leadership today I've seen so many ladies come to the Bible studies that we have in the morning and at other times of the week and they're different I've seen people emerge from small groups changed because they met Jesus as they studied God's word he died that is one of the greatest benefits that we have as his people we're not there yet but we are different by his grace now the question is how do we change the question is how does that change actually transpire how do we become people who have hearts that are rotting from within and decaying from within and how do we get different Paul shows us in his own life how it happened with him and how it happens with us and so let's take a look briefly at the process of a changed heart how is it that the father renovates that which was a decaying heart there's several steps the first the first part of the internal renovation of a decayed heart is an eternal plan look at Galatians 115 but when God who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace Paul was set apart by God for a relationship with God before his birth he makes the statement here that he was a changed man but it happened back at the time of his birth and I want you to understand that if God has a plan to change us at our birth he has a plan that even precedes our birth that goes back a whole lot further than that God has an eternal plan theologians call it the decrease of God and part of the decrease of God or his eternal plan to call people into a relationship with himself and when he goes about trying to change somebody when he goes about trying to change you you have to understand that it started with a plan that goes way back listen to Ephesians 1 4 through 6 he chose us in him before the creation of the world that we would be holy and blameless in his sight listen in love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons and daughters through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will anyone whose life has been changed by Jesus Christ simply has to understand that it was started in eternity past when the father determined to have a relationship with you a renovation of a heart starts with the eternal plan of God I got to tell you guys how I came to meet Karen I don't think I've ever done that I told you all kinds of other things I've been very vulnerable as your pastor but I don't think I ever told you about how I met Karen we both attended Biola College in Southern California a very conservative Bible college we had to sign statements that we wouldn't dance or drink or chew or go with girls that do and so but you need to understand there were some very pretty girls at Biola College and I always had the antenna up as do young men and but there were some girls that I'd see from afar that I never had a chance to meet and that was that was unfortunate at that time I was taking an ethnology class ethnology is the study of how to study a culture we had a major report that we had to turn in and that report was using the principles of ethnology in other words taking the tools that we've learned in class I've had to study a culture and and show that we learned how to use those tools so we had to pick a subculture around us study that subculture and write a paper I decided because I had some inklings and grace back then that in a very conservative Bible college it would be a wonderful idea if I studied the subculture of bartenders I thought I thought wouldn't it be great for these these stiff shirts to get a report on the subculture of bartenders but I'm sure it was a revelation of God because he showed me that I could accomplish two personal goals in one other way if instead of studying bartenders I studied the subculture of conservative Christian women at Biola College
arms with a reason for doing academic research I finally ran into Karen one day on campus and presented with her my proposal for academic research and we agreed to meet that week and so we met for coffee and I asked her some of the deep questions about what it meant to be a conservative Christian woman in the subculture of Biola and I got an A on the report and I got an A wife in the process and I got the better part of the deal I want you to know that when I saw her I didn't know how the research would end up but I did have intentions for a relationship and you need to understand that before the foundation of the world God had a plan to meet you by name and by face he had a sovereign plan in mind about how he would crush your path about how he would introduce himself to you and how from that he would bring you to him the renovation of the decayed heart begins with an eternal plan but it's followed up by an unconditional call Galatians one five says but when God who sent me apart from birth and called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son in me an unconditional call for the father to have relationships with people like you and me as we sang about this morning he is holy so how does something like this actually transpire it comes like this he who is holy has to accept we who are unholy and if he's going to get us holy he's going to take us as we are and so God because he wants a relationship with us plans to take us as we are just like you did Paul listen to Paul first Timothy 115 here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst Paul is not exaggerating I think he was one of the worst sinners that ever existed you don't tell people to get right with God by by laying burdens on their shoulders that Paul did that before he came to Christ I mean you don't kill people who are trying to be spiritual but Paul did that to Christians he was a bad guy and the great thing about him coming to Christ is that he's an example to all of us that God calls us and takes us as we are unconditionally that means without us setting any any basis upon which the father should accept us he doesn't say do this and I will love you achieve this and you'll be my son or my daughter he accepts us unconditionally a nine year old girl was in church with her mother when she started feeling really bad and so she said mommy can we leave now and her mom said no we can't leave now the service is half over she says I think I have to throw up her mother said well go out the back of the church go round to the other side throw up into bushes and come back in the church so the little girl gets up walks down the aisle and in two minutes she's back mom said are you still feeling okay she goes I feel better did you throw up she said I did she said how did you manage to make it out of the back of the church go around your side and come back in such a short time she said mommy I didn't do that they have a box near the front of the door that says for the sick here is no way to sanitize the reality guys all of us are sick before we came to Christ every one of us was sick so the father took us as we are the good the bad the ugly the good never really good and the renovation of a decayed heart begins with an eternal plan it's followed up by an unconditional call but it's activated thirdly by a personal revelation a look at Galatians 1 15 through 16 but when God who sent me apart from birth and called me by his grace look at this was revealed was pleased to reveal his son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles Paul tells us here that in order for the change to actually take place in his heart God had to reveal himself God had to actually make himself known to him he had to show him Jesus because his own spiritual perceptions have been so worked by sin that he couldn't get to know God on his own and so and so God had to give him a revelation in an amazing and all this that we see that when it comes to the change in our hearts it all has to take place with God as the initiator it's not amazing he initiates the whole thing and so our change in like is all from him the sales trainee was trying to explain his failure to close a single deal in the first week and he said there was manager you know you can you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink and the manager said make him drink make him drink your job is to make him thirsty but the reality for us is that when it comes to the relationship we have with God he not only reveals to us his son and makes us thirsty he makes us drink and when we drink and we take Jesus we simply want more and we're changed have we will be changed forever there's one more element to this renovation project and it's this the father gives us a life to give away the father gives us a life to follow to give away verse 15 through 16 but when God who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son and me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles and we see that that was Paul's purpose see the renovation of our hearts all starts with God he's the initiator and once we drink of Jesus and we become his we're changed but he wants to continue the change process and how does he continue the change process in us by giving us something to give away by giving us a life to give away to other people for Paul it was the preach to the Gentiles for us I don't know what's your spiritual gift where do you find God's pleasure how does he use you in a way that makes you know that God is at work through your life the the reality is once we understand what God has given us to give away he continues the renovation process in our hearts Benjamin Franklin put it this way if you're blessed with a sympathetic disposition don't waste it on yourself you see sometimes we stop getting involved in what God is doing and then the renovation project that God has started get short circuited I love just announcement up here with these two kids hanging off him that's a great place to get involved or missions or small groups or someplace you don't earn your salvation from it but in the process you get up you get to be a part of what God is doing in the world and he continues to shape you as you give away the life that he gave you all right what's what's the application here well there's three things one by way of application is to accept the proper self image guys don't ever let me hear you say that you're not important that you are not significant that you haven't achieved enough and when you achieve it you'll finally be worthwhile your proper self image is of sons and daughters of the king dearly led by the one who initiated the whole process to get to know you secondly cooperate with how God continues change get involved get involved somewhere thirdly by way of application praise God and laugh because of his grace you hear that praise God and laugh because of his grace let all that you have received in Christ change you and make you a contagious Christian I got to tell you a story you need to understand that our church service is an hour and 10 minutes long this is not a joke just has not been publicized properly so I have about seven minutes
in Yancey's book what's so amazing about grace he tells the story entitled Bebet's Feast written by Ipsach Jensen a day who rode in the 1930s she tells the story that said in the location on the sea coast of an impoverished fishing village on the coast of Denmark a town of muddy streets of little hovels for homes of a place that you wouldn't want to be poor fishy agree but in that fishing village lived a small Lutheran sect a sect led by the dean an old and venerable gentleman who ruled with an iron hand they all wore black their diet consisted of boiled cod and gruel made from boiling bread and water fortified with a splash of ale the auntie says it on the Sabbath the group met together in same songs about Jerusalem my happy home name ever dear to me they fixed their hope on the new Jerusalem that was to come and forget the life living here this wasn't much to live for so just get through it the dean of this sect an old widower had two daughters one martin named for martin Luther and filipa named for Luther's disciple philip melanchon villagers used to come to church just to see these two gorgeous girls I mean they were beautiful and they had talents they had talents sometimes men would come courting one came soldier came but martin rejected him no I have to take care of my father philipa had an incredible voice somebody heard it one day and said I will train you to become the best operatic singer in all of Europe that she fell in love and said no I can't love you I must stay here and he left 15 years passed and a whole lot changed in the village the two sisters are now middle-aged spinsters still carried on the work of their deceased father trying to hold the group together but there was splintered by controversy and argument and fighting the two older ladies hadn't talked in a decade there was rumor of business problems between members there there was even the rumor of sexual infidelity but despite all of these problems the dean sisters kept the group together on one night too rainy to go out they heard a knock on their door at the door as they opened it in a heat that at the at the base was a woman with a letter in her hand she handed it to the sisters who read it this is a letter of introduction for bad bet she speaks French only her family was all chilled in the French revolution please accept her take care of her she can cook the sisters were suspicious they had no money to pay her but that that pleaded to be taking care of it so finally they relented they brought her into the family she did assume all of the chores all of the chores of the of the sisters she learned the first time she was taught how to split a cod and boil the bread her nose wins but she never really complained she fed the poor she took care of the sick in the city and that bet never really talked about her life much in France and so it was unusual that one day she received the letter from France she read it and calmly he said to the sisters a great thing has happened a friend of mine for years has submitted my name for the lottery and I have one 10,000 francs they congratulated her profusely cited for her but but they they knew that soon bad bet would be leaving as it happened bad bets good fortune came at the same time that the sisters were planning a hundred anniversary celebration for the death for the birth of their father and bad bet said please I've never asked anything of you in 12 years let me do this let me put on the feast I want you to have a wonderful French meal let me do it for you the sisters the sisters had to talk to the elders the sisters had to get it cleared they all promised that it was a luxury that was too great for them they probably ought not to accept it but that bet had made a difference in the community they decided to allow it but they promised never to say much to her about the meal they were a little suspicious didn't the French cook horses and frogs for their meals the day of the dinner came that bet had left for a short time to get all the food in preparation after the money came from France the people had seen crates arriving on the dogs they had seen animals that they had never seen before they had seen food in abundance on the day December 15th of the meal it had just snowed it was a beautiful white frost was laid over everything that that had found China for everybody she had found candles it was an incredible setting for a wonderful feast the special guest was a general serving in the royal palace and as the meal was set before them he went on and on about the food food that he had never tasted before well only once in France only once in a famous restaurant he talked about the wine and the turtle soup in the main course and though no one else really spoke of the food it had a transforming effect on them and they began to talk and they began to remember of the old days when the when the dean was alive and the day in Christmas when the bay froze over the brother who cheated on another in business confessed it the two women who had executed found themselves talking a woman burped and the brother next to her said without thinking how do you know the general could not speak of anything but the meal baby quail oh it was wonderful he'd never seen such a dish except in one place the famous cafe anglais in Paris the restaurant once were known for its famous woman chef had he with wine the general stood he liked to prepare his messages but on this occasion he was a little loose and he spoke and he spoke and he spoke and it sounded like a sermon he spoke of grace and although the brothers and sisters didn't comprehend much what he was saying the company broke up that that feast ends with two scenes one is that they're outside in front of a fountain holding hands seeing the great songs of the faith then some said they felt as if they indeed had their sins washed white as wool and in this regained innocent attire were dancing like little lambs the final scene is inside in the kitchen that better sitting and that's the clutter of the dinner empty crates dirty dishes at the shovel look much like the looks she had on the night when she arrived there 12 years before my team said it was quite a nice dinner by that mark that that that looks with a far away glance and said I was once cook at a cafe anglais marching says we will remember this dinner once you have gone back to Paris that that says that she will not be going back to Paris all her family's dead all that she had to live for is gone back there she will stay plus it's very expensive to go to Paris she said well what about the 10,000 friends that that tells them with a bombshell that she has spent her winnings every last frag on the meal with the people she has nothing left she says don't be shocked this is what a proper dinner for 12 costs at the cafe anglais what did the general say in his speech he said we have all of us been told that grace is to be found in the universe but in our human foolishness and short-sightedness we imagine divine grace to be finite but the moment comes when our eyes are opened and we see and realize that grace is infinite grace my friends demands nothing from us but that we shall await it with confidence and acknowledge it in gratitude you take it to heart and let's pray gracious Lord we acknowledge and accept with gratitude your grace which is beyond our comprehension we are your children by your grace and how thankful we are cause us to dance and sing because of Jesus we pray in his name my friends Robert and Pat are coming to the front right now and if you would like to pray with somebody about a burden that is on your heart if you would like to talk to somebody about how to embrace Jesus Christ as much as your Savior and Lord they will be up there and they'd love to talk to you if you could find the grace that we've been talking now and to him who's able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we can ask or think according to his power that is at work within us to him be the glory in this church and in our lives and in Christ Jesus forever and forever