Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20080601.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Galatians: Defending The Truthfulness Of Paul's Teaching On God's Grace
Part III: God's Use Of Believers' Hardships To Expose Paul's Authority To Preach The True Gospel
(Galatians 1:11-2:14)
  1. Introduction
    1. The presence of hardships in the believer's life and ministry for the Lord may initially seem to be a waste of human suffering, but God USES them to edify His own in ways that make the hardships invaluable.
    2. Such was the case in the hardships in Paul's conversion and ministry, and we view them for edification:
  2. God's Use Of Believers' Hardships To Expose Paul's Authority To Preach The True Gospel.
    1. When Paul wrote to the Galatians, some of his readers doubted he was a true apostle, for Judaizers had led others to think he preached an "easy", false Gospel of justification by faith without circumcision; they felt he sought to gain lots of Gentiles converts by not requiring them to be circumcised, Gal. 1:10 with 5:2.
    2. In response, Paul stated his Gospel of justification by faith alone (Eph. 2:8-9) was not from other men or of his own authorship, but that he obtained it by direct revelation from Christ Himself, Galatians 1:11-12.
    3. In proof of this, Paul gave his autobiography, exposing the hardships involved in gaining this Gospel, hardships caused to other believers and himself as it was not an "easy", false one, but the truth, 1:13-2:21:
      1. First, Paul reported how his Gospel was obtained in great hardship to the Church and also hardship to PAUL himself entirely by revelation from Christ, no one else, Galatians 1:11-24 with Acts 9:1-19:
        1. Due to his zeal, Paul had once advanced greatly in Judaism regardless of his youth, Gal. 1:14 NIV.
        2. Thus, he had greatly persecuted and wasted the Christian Church, Galatians 1:13.
        3. Nevertheless, God had wonderfully saved Paul (Gal. 1:15-16a), and from Acts 9:1-19 we see his conversion involved suffering for him and for believer, Ananias who was led of Christ to help him!
        4. As a new convert, Paul did not immediately confer with the Jerusalem apostles, but, as a "loner" due to his past reputation as a persecutor (Acts 9:26-27), he went into Arabia and returned to Damascus before spending fifteen days with Peter in Jerusalem and briefly meeting James, Galatians 1:16-19.
        5. Paul then returned to Syria and Cilicia, being unknown by appearance to the churches in Judaea who had only heard that he who had once persecuted them now preached the true faith, Gal. 1:20-24.
        6. [So, either Paul himself or Christ, not the other apostles, had authored what Paul began to preach.]
      2. Then, Paul reported his Gospel was nonetheless LATER condoned by the other apostles amid the hardship of combating the Judaizer gospel of justification by faith plus circumcision, Gal. 2:1-10:
        1. In relation to the big debate in the Early Church on whether circumcision was needed with faith for salvation (cf. Acts 15), Paul went to Jerusalem at Christ's direction (by revelation) to check with the other apostles regarding his beliefs to certify the validity of his Gospel, Gal. 2:1-2; Acts 11:30.
        2. At that time, even though persecuting Judaizers had tried to press their false gospel upon them, Paul reported that the uncircumcised believer, Titus, who was with him had not been forced by the other apostles to be circumcised, but that they had accepted his Gospel to be the truth, Galatians 2:3, 4-10.
      3. Third, Paul then reported how his Gospel was publicly accepted by way of a painful public rebuke administered against Peter by Paul himself, Gal. 2:11-14: Peter had withdrawn from uncircumcised believers due to pressure by Judaizers, and so had misrepresented the Gospel; accordingly, Paul had publicly rebuked him before the whole Church to defend the true Gospel before all of those affected!
      4. [Incidentally, Paul's painful rebuke of Peter exposes the fallibility of Peter versus the Roman Catholic Church's assertion of Peter's papal infallibility, and thus the alleged infallibility of all the popes that follow in Peter's alleged papal line, cf. Loraine Boettner, Roman Catholicism (1978), p. 104-105! This hardship event for the Church also further protects the authority of Paul's Gospel of salvation by faith alone opposite the gospel of faith plus the sacraments promoted by that ecclesiastical body!]
Lesson: God utilized HARDSHIPS for the Early Church, Paul and Peter to reveal Paul's Gospel of justification by faith alone as an act of God's grace was NOT an "easy," false one, but the TRUTH!

Application: (1) May we rejoice in noting the credibility of Paul's Gospel via the HARDSHIPS God used for all involved to validate it! (2) Then, may we be encouraged that what hardships we face in serving God's causes today are equally invaluable in His eternal plan, cf. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.