The Origin of the Gospel

Transcript

GR 2080
03/26/2017
The Origin of the Gospel
Galatians 1:11-12
Gil Rugh

We are going to the book of Galatians in your Bibles, the Galatian letter of Paul written to not one church. We don’t know how many churches but we note Paul established churches in several of the cities in the region known as Galatia, more on the eastern part of our modern day Turkey as we have noted on the maps we have seen. It is a difficult letter. It is a challenging letter but it is an important letter. There is nothing more important than the Gospel.

I was reading Martin Luther’s commentary on Galatians and was reminded of the permanence of the Word of God. Here is a man who died in 1546 and he wrote a commentary on Galatians and it is still worth reading because what he was doing was explaining and teaching the Word of God. He had a burden on the verses like verses 11 and 12 where we will be in our study. I just made a copy of a couple of pages. He was concerned for faithfulness to the truth, the battles that he was involved in. He made some comments. Let me just read you a few of his comments. These are on Galatians chapter 1, verses 11 and 12. “O good Lord, what horrible and infinite mischief may only one argument easily bring? By this subtlety the false apostles did deceive the Galatians who were as yet weak in their faith. Moreover the matter of justification is brittle. Not of itself or of itself, it is most sure and certain but in respect of us whereof I myself have good experience. For I know what hours of darkness I sometimes wrestle. I know how often I suddenly lose the beams of the Gospel and grace as being shadowed from me with thick and dark clouds. I know in what a slippery place even such also do stand. As our well exercised and seem to have sure footing in matters of faith.”

Expressing his own experience in that he has observed in other believers how we can be shaken, turned aside from the surety and confidence in the Gospel. He says, “Therefore in respect of us the article of justification by faith in Christ alone is very brittle because we are brittle.” Interesting way to put it. “The Gospel and God’s work of salvation is not brittle but we are meaning if we are not careful how we get turned aside from it. It’s glorious truth gets undermined in our lives. That is what is happening to the Galatians.” And then he has a statement that always bears our attention: “There is nothing more dangerous than to be weary of the Word. He therefore that is so cold that he thinks he knows enough then he’s in trouble. Wherefore let every faithful man labor and strive with all diligence to learn and to keep this doctrine. And to that end let him use humble and hearty prayer with continual study and meditation of the Word. For we have to do with no small enemies but strong and mighty and such as are in continual war against us, namely our own flesh, all the dangers of the world, the lost, sin, death, the wrath and judgment of God and the devil himself who never ceases to tempt us inwardly by his fiery darts and outwardly by his false apostles to the end that he may overthrow if not all yet the greater part of us.”

Luther was writing about 1500 years after Paul wrote to the Galatians but he realized the message of the Galatians and its warning is very pertinent to him in his day and now 500 years after Luther we find the letter to the Galatians just as pertinent. God didn’t put it here so we could know something about some historical issues between people who professed faith in Christ who were Jews but not genuinely saved and the problems they cause. There is a root underlying issue. That is the Galatian church and the believers there had lost sight, loosened their grip on the truth of the Gospel of God’s grace and that puts them in a precarious position. If this is not corrected the church will, so to speak, go under. I mean if you lose your hold on the Gospel of grace what do you have? It is the Gospel that brings salvation. If the believers get confused and led astray what kind of Gospel will be preached?

You know during Paul’s first Roman imprisonment he wrote some letters. He wrote a letter to the Philippians. Leave a marker in Galatians and turn over to Philippians. In this letter he writes of certain teachers who were preaching the Gospel but their motives were not to bring honor to God and people to salvation in Christ. They were trying to add to Paul’s misery. Here he is in prison, not free to go about teaching the Gospel experiencing restriction on his movements and his actions. He talks about the opportunities, even there God’s sovereignty and control. It may look like Paul was being held down but really he’s been turned loose in a different setting. He talks about how the Lord in verse 12 has even used his imprisonment to give him opportunity to proclaim the Gospel.

But look at verse 15: “Some to be sure are preaching Christ even from envy and strife but some also from good will. The latter (those who do it for good will) out of love knowing I am appointed for the defense of the Gospel. The former, (those who preach from envy and strife) proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment.” They are using this as an opportunity to magnify so to speak their ministries. Too bad Paul you don’t have these opportunities. You can’t be used in great ways like we are. You are confined there, restricted with a small audience but we are about proclaiming Christ and look how God is using us. But you know what Paul’s response is in verse 18: “What then? Only that in every way whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice.” I bring this to your attention because here he says their motives may be wrong but the truth of the Gospel is clear. It has not been changed, it has not been altered. Disappointing to see that people would preach a pure Gospel with selfish self-centered motives. We want to never underestimate even our own capacity for sin as believers. But here Paul doesn’t attack them, doesn’t attempt to shut them down because he approaches, whatever their motives they will be answerable to God for that he wrote to the Corinthians about those who would judge his motives. He said ultimately God will judge the motives of our hearts but as long as the Gospel is being preached then I can rejoice.

The situation, come back to Galatians is much different. These who are preaching a corrupted message at Galatia are not just doing it to make Paul’s ministry difficult. They are trying to undermine his credibility but they are using a message that is not truly the Gospel. Now there is no tolerance for that. So the contrast with those whose motives may be wrong in presenting a Gospel that is accurate. Paul says I leave that with the Lord and we can rejoice that the Gospel is being presented. But when the Gospel is not pure and true then there can be no allowance for that.

The issue in the churches at Galatia is confusing. Obviously you wouldn’t have churches getting confused if the message wasn’t a combination of truth and error and the error combined with the truth in such a way it made sense. As we have reminded ourselves again, these are what we call Judaizers, proclaiming this false message. Jews who had professed faith in Christ and as Acts 15 makes clear weren’t changing the facts of the Gospel, they were just saying the facts of the Gospel as Paul presents it are not enough. So it is not a true Gospel, it is not a complete Gospel. It is not a Gospel that will save you. It is not a Gospel that will sanctify you. The death, burial and resurrection of Christ is essential but not enough. That is no better, no more correct than those who deny the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. It just is a more deceptive message because the Galatians had grabbed on.

Well that is the same thing Paul teaches, death, burial and resurrection of Christ. These men are making clear to us there is more to the Gospel than what Paul is preaching. So we saw his strong words in verse 8 of Galatians 1: “If we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a Gospel contrary to what we have preached to you he is to be accursed.” It doesn’t matter. The Gospel has been presented by God. It is clear. It is unchanging. Keep your life in perspective simple.

We get drawn into this. We begin to try to analyze, well is this person sincere? Do I think they love the Lord? And we come up with all these things. Paul says it doesn’t matter. With an angel from heaven if he preaches a contrary Gospel he is not to be believed. He is condemned to hell.

Sometimes we think we are staying on the track but we have suddenly gotten off the track because we are no longer looking at the truth and analyzing what is being taught through the filter of absolute unchanging truth. We have made it subjective and we try to make our decision on the basis of what we think about the person who is presenting it and their motive. Are they sincere? Do they seem to love the Lord? We have to come back and say, “What is the Gospel? What is the truth of the Word of God?” That is what Paul is saying to the Galatians. It is a master work of the devil to masquerade as an angel of light.

Keep a marker in Galatians and come back to Peter, 2 Peter. The devil did this in the Old Testament with Israel by sending false prophets. He does it in the church by sending false teachers. In these early days he sent false apostles because they did not have a completed revelation yet. So Paul comes and teaches and says this is a message from God. Then you have another man who comes in and has maybe a better personality than Paul and maybe he is even a better speaker and he says, “No, Paul is wrong.” Well you can see we can have less reason to be confused. Not that there is any excuse for the Galatians as we see in the letter but we have it now written and preserved for us.

Look in 2 Peter chapter 3, Peter’s final letter. He talks about future things that we are looking for in our conduct, verse 14 of 2 Peter 3: “Therefore beloved since you look for these things be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless. Regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation,” that salvation that he talked about in verse 9: “The Lord is not slow about His promise coming to bring all things to completion as some count slowness. He is patient toward you not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” So verse 15 picks that up: “Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.” These are days of salvation. We get impatient. When is the Lord coming? He’s promised. Well wait. This is another day to present Jesus Christ, another day of opportunity for the lost to turn from their sin to the salvation that has been provided in Christ. “Just as our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand (note) which the untaught and unstable distort.” The fact they may be hard to understand does not excuse a twisting or a distorting of these things but this is the pattern of false teachers. They really don’t understand the truth of the message of Scripture so they do this with the Scriptures generally and it is to their own destruction. “You therefore beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness.” That is what Luther was talking about.

The truth that God has given us is not brittle. We are brittle in the sense if we lose our focus on the truth, if we get weary with the Word, we begin to think we know it so well we don’t need to give it the same attention and diligence. Then we are in danger from “being led astray from faithfulness to Christ” as Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 11, “falling from our steadfastness.” Then you have believers that are in confusion, that are in turmoil, disarray and Satan accomplishes his purposes in undermining the work that God is doing.

So come back to Galatians chapter 1. In this kind of ministry of faithfulness to the Word you have to get used to conflict. Again I read you Luther for that. “We have to do with no small enemies but strong and mighty and they never cease.” Why do we always have conflict, why do we always have battle? Because the devil won’t quit!

The world doesn’t change. In our old sinful nature it has still not been removed to the old man. So the battle goes on. I like to think we get to the place where the battle will be over. We will just have that peaceful quiet resting time as we look forward to glory but Luther said that is a dangerous attitude. It is true. Not because Luther said it but because Scripture says it. Look what Paul says in verse 10 of Galatians 1. “For am I now seeking the favor of men or of God?” That is the choice. “Or am I striving to please men. If I were still trying to please men I would not be a bond servant of Christ.” I couldn’t be the slave of Christ and try to please someone else because the slave has to have that single purpose. All that matters is my master is pleased. Now who is our master?

We all like to be liked. So we begin to think if I make this adjustment. If I tone this down then – then what? Maybe I can please men. Christ reminded the disciples what? Don’t think you should be treated better than Me. And then He warned them, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you.” We are not out courting, trying to aggravate and antagonize people. That is not our goal but the truth that we present has that impact because there is a spiritual war going on. The devil has not changed his attitude, not compromise one bit. As we just touched on and we will see it in Revelation, after a 1000 years chained in the pit, when he is loosed he picks up where he left off trying to destroy the people of God and the work that God is doing. He is relentless.

So Paul said, I couldn’t do both and the problem there is and the conflicts I experienced is because of the truth. There can be no other way, the Gospel that I preach.

Now what is expected of Paul is expected of us. He is going to talk about the revelation given to him in verses 11 and 12. It is that truth passed on to us. We didn’t get it directly as Paul did but it is just as much the Word of God as we have it today as it was when Paul preached it. And if anything we have to be more accountable because we have the Word complete. Even Paul didn’t have it complete because he was dead for over 25 years before God gave the final revelation in the book of Revelation to His slave, John. So we have great accountability, great responsibility. What will I tell God? Well, I didn’t know. Can’t you read? What did I say? Well yes, I guess I didn’t pay enough attention. We don’t want to be in that position.

We have to go over to Titus chapter 1. We are going to get back to Galatians but Titus 1. You see a pattern. I think one of the things that makes us susceptible to error is we begin to let down our guard.

I remember years ago I had a professor when I was doing some studies in California and he was an older man, been through conflicts and he said to me one day, “Gil, I am just tired of conflict. I just want to make peace.” But there is a great cost of doing that. You can’t make peace with the devil and he never is an ally in bringing God’s peace to people. Any peace he seems to be bringing is for our ruin.

So in Titus chapter 1 and in these letters Paul is passing on the truth to others who will be responsible with it and to it and for it. Titus has been left at Crete. Another one of Paul’s younger companions who was delegated by him the responsibility of bringing things to order when he had to move on to other places. He says in verse 5 of Titus 1, “For this reason I left you in Crete that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you.” Then he gives some of the qualifications for elders similar to what Paul gave to Timothy who was left in Ephesus and the church there for a similar responsibility. As he talks about these men he gives some of the qualifications. Look at verse 9: “They are to be men holding fast the faithful Word which is in accordance with the teaching.” That is a key. It must be those who hold fast to the Word in line with what has been taught. They are not asked to add to it, to adjust it, to make it more relevant in that sense. “So that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.”

Because you are here tonight and probably more involved than many in the body in the study of the Word. You know the better you know the Word, the more thoroughly the Word is built into your lives, the more quickly you observe error, you pick up error. Your first thought when someone says something contrary you say, “Well that can’t be right.” Now a person not as familiar with the Word says “Well I think they love the Lord. It makes sense to me.” But that is not the standard. The standard is – is it in accordance with the teaching, what has been presented in the Word of God. We hold that fast. They have to be able not only to teach sound doctrine but stand against error.

The problem is that it happens in every church in every place. “There are many rebellious men, empty talkers, deceivers especially those of the circumcision.” That was the battle fought in those early days of the church. There are many. They must be silenced. It is not enough to say “Well, we are just going to emphasize the positive. We are not going to deal with error. We don’t always want to be pointing out error. We don’t want to be pointing out what is wrong.” The elders can’t be faithful men if they don’t refute contradictory teaching. It is part of protecting the flock. Not just elders but all godly men have that responsibility if you say officially in the church.

What is happening? Verse 11, “They must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families.” That is what happens once error gets in. Then families get thrown into turmoil, believing families. What happens when families get into turmoil? Then that spreads in the body because this family is in turmoil, this family is and pretty soon the turmoil is spreading because things are being taught for wrong reasons, for sordid gain.

So verse 13, “Reprove them severely so they may be sound in the faith. Not paying attention to Jewish myths, commandments of men who turn away from the truth.” So it is an ongoing ministry. The book of Galatians becomes one of the most relevant books because it is dealing with the truth and the importance of holding on to the truth. This is not just something unique to the churches at Galatia. What church in the New Testament didn’t have these battles?

So come back to Galatians 1. Paul makes clear here as we come into verse 11 and 12 there can be no alternation in the Gospel because this is the Gospel that has been given by the God of heaven. There is only one Gospel. It was given to Paul. Not just to Paul but Paul focuses here on his reception but it is not in conflict with the Gospel that was revealed to Peter for example or others. So now as we have our New Testament completed we can go through and see the Gospel is the same. We can read what Peter preached in Acts 2, what Peter preached to the Gentiles in Acts 10 and it is the same Gospel. The Jewish leaders of that early church in Acts 11 say, “Well, it is the same Gospel that saved them by the same kind of faith.”

So here Paul says in verse 11 of Galatians 1: “For I would have you know 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 I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” Now Paul is going to be focusing on his role as an apostle in bringing the message because we have this circle that we have talked about. They either attacked Paul or they attack the message that he preached. If they can undermine his credibility as a messenger then they will be effective in undermining what he preached because if he is not trustworthy as an apostle then what he preaches can’t be trusted. Or if they show his message is not trustworthy that undermines his character because he is not preaching truth. So this just keeps going and going and going. We saw it in our study in Corinthians. They are not attacking his credibility, they are attacking what he said and that just keeps going. So he says, “I would have you know.” He wants to draw their attention. This expression is often used, “To draw their attention” to something serious, worthy of attention. Something I want you to pay attention to; “Brethren.”

Now he said some hard things. Anybody teaching any other gospel, I don’t care if it is an angel; if I did it, anybody else does it, they are under the curse of God. Send them to hell. But he loves them so here he says “I want you to know, brethren.” So he is not putting them all in this same category and you are just like the false teachers and you are cursed too. He doesn’t distance himself from them. That is why he said, “Though we or an angel from heaven.” What is at stake here is the Gospel. But I am writing to you as brethren, for a concern for you.

It is like Peter remarked when we read in 2 Peter 3, “I don’t want you to fall from your steadfastness.” Just like your children. You love your children. Sometimes you have to deal with them very firmly. Sometimes what would be considered harshly but it’s not because you don’t consider them your children any more or your family. It is because you are concerned for them.

So “I would have you to know brethren.” And over all Paul is confident of their salvation although he is somewhat concerned. Naturally as he would be. It depends. If they don’t stop this slide it will raise even more questions about whether they were ever genuine. We have seen this and we will see it again as we move further into the letter. “I want you to know brethren that the Gospel which was preached by me.” And there is a play on the word ‘Gospel’ here because the word translated ‘preached’ is just another form of the word ‘Gospel.’ The basic word, euangelion so you can see the Gospel euangelion which you euangelisthan you see the euangel, the good news there with just a different ending; the Gospel which was gospeled to you. He is emphasizing this Gospel, that message. It was the message that I gave to you. It was the Gospel and I gospeled it to you. I just passed it on to you. This is the Gospel, like I said the basic foundational truth that if this is not established clearly everything else will unravel. You have nothing. You just have religion.

Come back to I Corinthians 15. This is where we often go, I Corinthians 15. I know you know the Gospel but we remind ourselves again and again and again and again because the pressure always comes in. We can make adjustments as long as we agree on the basics, the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. We can accept one another as believers. We can have a lot of diversity. The element of truth in that is you have to believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ but saying you believe that does not make you a Christian. I Corinthians begins “I make known to you brethren,” again talking to them, brethren and you note he had problems with the Corinthians and he was concerned and it comes out in his second letter that they were being led astray from faithfulness to Christ in 2 Corinthians 11 by false teachers who came in as masqueraded as genuine believers. “The Gospel which I preached to you which you also received in which you also stand by which you are saved if you hold fast the Word which I preached to you unless you believed in vain.” In other words unless you just said you placed your faith in the Gospel but it was empty. It’s like the demon faith in James 2. It wasn’t saving. Many people say “I believe.” You ask them, “Do you believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ?” Easter season is coming up. Ask people. Every Protestant and Catholic would probably say “yes.” But you say something is wrong. I know they are not saved. Their life evidences it. You talk to them further. It is clear.

Paul is concerned. “I deliver to you of first importance what I also received. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried, he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. He appeared to Cephas and the twelve then to me;” basic facts of the Gospel. Christ died for our sins. He was raised from the dead. His burial just testifies to the reality of His death. His appearance to witnesses just testifies to the reality of His resurrection. His death was a real physical death. It wasn’t a swooning as was promoted by some years ago. He didn’t really die so His disciples took Him down from the cross and restored Him. And He wasn’t really raised from the dead. It wasn’t a figment of someone’s imagination. He appeared to witnesses. The facts are simple. This is the Gospel. It is the Gospel that Paul preached. They received from Paul and Paul received it from the Lord which is where he is going in Galatians. It is the Gospel concerning Christ. It is the only Gospel there is.

Now it is a Gospel of grace, Paul refers to that down in verse 10 of I Corinthians 15. “By the grace of God I am what I am.” This is it. Now you add other things to it, you no longer have the Gospel of grace, the facts of the Gospel.

Come back to Galatians. This is what Paul is going to say. “I want you to know brethren that the Gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.” It is not of human origin. He will elaborate. I didn’t receive it from man, I wasn’t taught it. So this isn’t a human message, subtle things and not so subtle things. They are not subtle when you compare it just to the simple facts of the Gospel and when we keep that the filter through which things come but when you add other things, the Jews added keeping the Mosaic Law, being circumcised. At least they had an argument, wrong as it was that the Law had been given by God.

We have men who have added things to the Gospel and they add other authorities. I use Roman Catholicism. That happened to be what the reformers were battling and Martin Luther but down to today. What do they add? The authority of the church, so we have two authorities for the Roman Catholics. They have the church and they have the Word of God and they really only have one authority because the only authoritative interpreter of the Word of God is the church, its magisterium, so everyone holds their breath. Maybe the pope will decide this because what he decides is just as authoritative as Scripture. They don’t have to support it and prove it from Scripture because he has his own authority.

Now you see what we have done. We have moved away. Now when he says you won’t be saved if you don’t go through these sacraments, well what do we have now? And the average Protestant does the same thing – adds his works of whatever kind and that is what controls the life. That is what marks us off as unique as Paul is. That is why it is so contrary to men, why it is a constant conflict down through the ages of church history, why people have died at the hands of religious people because the Gospel is offensive.

Come back to Galatians 1. “That is not according to man. I didn’t receive it from man.” No misunderstanding. Paul didn’t get his Gospel from another human being. I wasn’t taught it. No one explained the Gospel to Paul. All of us heard the Gospel from someone or we read it perhaps in a Bible that we came onto in a motel room or someone gave it but we didn’t get a direct revelation from God. Paul is establishing here the credibility and authority of his message and his authority and credibility as an apostle because you can see the connection. If he is not credible as a genuine apostle then the claim that he received the revelation from God is not credible either. So the attack goes on. “I didn’t receive it from men nor was I taught it. I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”

This doesn’t mean the other apostles didn’t have a correct Gospel. You are aware of that I know. There is no change in the Gospel. I mentioned Peter as an example. The Gospel that he preached on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, the second sermon he preached in Acts 3 and we could go through the book of Acts, the Gospel that he preached when he carried the Gospel to the Gentiles at the house of Cornelius in Acts 10. It is the same Gospel, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, salvation in Him alone.

Come back to Acts 10. We will pick that up just as an example. Since we are carrying the Gospel now to a new realm for the first time the Gospel is being directed toward Gentiles. That is the uniqueness of Acts chapter 10 when Peter comes and has these assembled Gentiles as an audience. Verse 34 he begins: “I most now certainly understand” God is not one to show partiality, this was new to Peter in chapter 10. God had especially revealed to him that it was God’s intention now to reach out to those that the Jews looked at as unclean, not worthy, deserving or candidates for God’s salvation but now we realize God is not going to show partiality in His salvation.

So he comes on to show the Gospel. Then he gives a summary of the life of Christ in a couple of verses. Verse 37: “You yourselves know the thing which took place throughout all Judea starting from Galilee” (John the Baptist’ ministry.) Verse 38, “You know Jesus of Nazareth. God anointed him with the Holy Spirit, with power. He went about doing good, healing all who were oppressed by the devil. God was with him. We are witnesses of all these things.”

Then to verse 39, “They put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross. God raised Him from the dead on the third day.” Basic truths of the Gospel. “And He appeared.” Like Paul said, “To witnesses” when we read I Corithians 15. Not to everyone but to a selected group of witnesses. God is not going to give this kind of evidence to everyone but He will select a group of witnesses. Peter was one of those.

In verse 42: “He ordered us to preach to the people and solemnly testify. This is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead. And all the prophets bear witness of Him that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sin.” What does he preach? The death, burial, resurrection and appearance of Christ. If you believe in Him you have forgiveness of sins. “While Peter was speaking these words the Holy Spirit fell on those.” Why? Peter said, “If you believe you will be saved.” And these Gentiles sitting there believed what he had just told them, the Gospel and they are saved. “The Holy Spirit came upon them” and then they will be baptized but you note they are not baptized and then the Holy Spirit comes. They are saved. Now as a testimony they are joined in a public profession.

When you come back to Galatians chapter 1 we have the Gospel in a summary, a very brief summary in verse 4 of Galatians 1. “The Lord Jesus Christ who gave Himself for our sins that He might rescue us from this present evil age.” Basically summarizing, Christ died for our sins to deliver us. You say but He didn’t say the resurrection but the point; the heart of it is the death of Christ. The resurrection would be the seal of that finished work. So that is the Gospel. “I didn’t receive it from men. I received it through a revelation from Jesus Christ.” It is the truth of Christ. It is about Christ. When did this happen? Well for sure on the road that Paul was travelling to Damascus in Acts chapter 9. Christ appears to him. Paul had heard the message of the Gospel. He was present at the stoning of Stephen earlier in Acts and he knew what the Christians proclaimed. He just didn’t believe it but when Christ appeared to him in that special time on the Damascus road, Paul is dramatically converted, saved. Then he believes and understood the truth of the Gospel. There will be later unfolding of this truth to Paul. He will talk about this down in verse 17. We are not going there but he went away to Arabia and spent time there. We will talk about that when we get there. So Paul had a time apart where the Lord did give him revelations. So he had clarity with the Gospel from his own conversion. Obviously additional truth is revealed to Paul as well.

This revelation is what we call “special revelation.” That’s what we have in our Scripture. We use a distinction, there is general revelation and there is special revelation. General revelation is the revelation in God in creation. Everyone is exposed to that. Everyone is accountable for their response to that revelation but no one is saved by that revelation. You need what we call special revelation, that revelation of God’s Word that we hear.

Come back to Psalm 19. Important, this helps us appreciate how every person is accountable to God. I picked Psalm 19 because it has general revelation and special revelation in the same chapter. The chapter opens us in Psalm 19: “The heavens are declaring the glory of God, their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.” So everywhere in creation – you look at the stars, you look around at creation. That tells you something of God’s glory because you see His handy work. What an awesome God who has created all this. “Day to day pours forth speech. Night to night reveals knowledge.” I mean this is going out constantly day and night. There is not a place in the world where this revelation is not being made. Verse 4, “Their line is gone throughout all the earth, and their utterances to the end of the world.” And on it goes. The sun, the moon; it all reveals God. That is general revelation. It is generally available to all people everywhere. You can’t hide from it.

Then you come to special revelation. In the Old Testament it was the Mosaic Law, specifically. So he starts to talk about verse 7: “The Law of the Lord is perfect. The testimony of the Lord is sure. The precepts of the Lord are right. The commandment of the Lord is pure. The judgments of the Lord are true” and on. That is special revelation, the revelation of His Word.

You come over to Romans chapter 1, Romans chapter 1 and verse 18 as we talk about the accountability of the Gentiles who did not have the Mosaic Law so they did not have special revelation and later in Romans Paul will say, “The Jews had special privileges, advantages.” To them the Word of God was given. God didn’t send His Word to Assyrians or Babylonians or the Chinese. He gave it to Israel but there was revelation to everyone, everywhere.

Verse 18, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” Every person everywhere in the world is in the process of suppressing; trying to hold down, hide the truth in unrighteousness “because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident” and you note how, in general creation. “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power, His divine nature has been clearly seen being understood through what has been made so they are without excuse.” So everyone is exposed to the revelation of creation. You say about some people then respond positively? God answers that. No one does. Well what if they did? No one ever will. I can’t come up with an alternative to what God says would never happen. “They are without excuse. Even though they knew God they did not honor Him as God or give thanks. They became empty in their speculations. Their heart was darkened. They professed to be wise but became fools. They exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man so God gave them over to their own sinful desires.”

So that is the response of man to creation. It is always negative and he will talk about the Jews. They received special revelation from God but it didn’t help them because they didn’t respond in faith to it. So God intervened in special provision with the coming of His Son, chapter 3, verse 21 and he starts unfolding “The righteousness of God has been manifested.” And it is the Gospel and it is available and provided for all who will believe. That word ‘faith’ becomes a consistent word.; so this ongoing pattern.

How blessed we are. We have the complete Word of God now. We live in a day where God’s salvation is being offered to all. Don’t start with logic and reason because the unbeliever is already in possession of truth. He is suppressing it.

Marilyn read to me and said something about “the eye has 2 million different parts. Only the brain has more complexity than the eye.” She reads me what I don’t understand, the eye and all that and look at the stars, look at all this around us. And you just think this happened to all come together. They know it didn’t but if they acknowledge that the sovereign God created it, then they will have to honor Him so it just reveals their sin.

But we have the Gospel to bring to them which is where Paul was in Romans 1:16. “The Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” That is what Paul is fighting for. That is what he is battling for. That is why he is saying “This Gospel was revealed to me. This is God’s Word and you cannot add to it. You cannot take away from it. You cannot alter it.” That is the devil’s plan. He is happy to mix the truth of the Gospel in his batter but when he does he nullifies it effectiveness. The devil can’t fold out the power of the Gospel for salvation when he has the Judaizers mix it with the Mosaic Law. Now it was no longer the power of God for salvation because you weren’t believing the truth that God gave. You were believing the concoction that man made.

Now when the church begins to adjust to that where will the Gospel be given out? The church is to be the pillar and support of the truth. Where do you think the devil will concentrate his activity among the unbelievers out there? He uses them for his purpose but his real enemy is right here in local churches that God has established around the world to be centers of truth. The enemy of the devil is not religion. When we get into the book of Revelation we will find that his goal is to establish a worldwide religious system in which he will be the center of worship, a corrupted form of what God said He would do in Christ, replacement for.

So we can expect this serious matter. The last thing the devil wants you to do is to be in the truth. To know this so well that you will not easily be deceived; that you will stand for it whatever the cost. And if he can bring disorder, disruption, unsettle us so we lose our steadfastness then what? Because he moves from church to church to church, what will be the center of truth? That is his goal. Put out the light of the truth. Fine, have the church grow but have it grow with a corrupted message and thus have them deluded into thinking they are doing the work of God. It is a constant battle but what a blessing.

This is the Gospel. God presents it. It is a revelation from Him. Think of how honored we are. Here we have it. Look at this book, I can hold it. This is a big one. There are a lot smaller and some of you have it on your phone. You just get it all the time today. I don’t know whether we are getting a deeper knowledge of the Word even though we have a lot of it because having it around doesn’t mean it fills my mind, my heart and I am growing and understand. That is our goal.

Let’s pray. Thank You Lord for this truth that has been revealed. Lord we are not looking for new revelation. We have everything that You intend for us to know, to understand, to live in light of. How blessed we are but Lord it is easy for us to let down our guard even as Your servant Martin Luther said, “The danger of becoming weary with the Word.” We have heard it so many times, we have been through it so often we can settle in and become complacent, relaxed, comfortable, easy going then concerned with what men think, concerned with our being comfortable, concerned with the ease of life. Lord we pray that our passion will be to be faithful to the One who is our Master, to be faithful with the truth, to have the light of the truth entrusted to us to shine brightly from this place. Thank You for every blessing. Lord thank You for the fellowship we enjoy as we visit together reminded of the blessing that we share as Your people in this place. We praise You in Christ’s name, amen.