>> Good evening, everyone. Why don't we just take a couple of minutes to prepare your hearts for worship, and then we'll begin. Heavenly Father, I thank you for bringing us all here tonight to study your word. Lord, I thank you for just the hearts that are here willing to study your word and seek you, Lord.

And I pray that as we go into this time of praise, Lord, that you would be glorified, that your name would be magnified here tonight, God. So I thank you again. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. >> Who, oh Lord. >> Who, oh Lord, could save themselves if their own soul could heal?

Our shame was deeper than the sea. Your grace is deeper still. Who, oh Lord, could save themselves if their own soul could heal? Our shame was deeper than the sea. Your grace is deeper still. But you alone can rescue, you alone can save. You alone can lift us from the grave.

You came down to find us, led us out of death. To you alone belongs the highest praise. You, oh Lord, have made a way, a great divide you heal. For when our hearts were far away, your love went further still. Yes, your love goes further still. But you alone can rescue, you alone can save.

You alone can lift us from the grave. You came down to find us, led us out of death. To you alone belongs the highest praise. To you alone belongs the highest praise. Lift up her eyes. Lift up her eyes, lift up her eyes, you're the giver of life. Lift up her eyes, lift up her eyes, you're the giver of life.

Lift up her eyes, lift up her eyes, you're the giver of life. Lift up her eyes, lift up her eyes, you're the giver of life. But you alone can rescue, you alone can save. You alone can lift us from the grave. You came down to find us, led us out of death.

To you alone belongs the highest praise. To you alone belongs the highest praise. To you alone belongs the highest praise. Should nothing of our effort stand, no legacy survive unless the Lord does raise the house in vain its builder's strife. To you who boasts tomorrow's gain, tell me what is your life.

A mist that vanishes at dawn, all glory be to Christ. All glory be to Christ our King. All glory be to Christ. His rule and reign we'll ever sing. All glory be to Christ. His will be done, his kingdom come on earth as is above. Who is himself our daily bread?

Praise him, the Lord of love. Let living water satisfy the thirsty without price. We'll take a cup of kindness yet, all glory be to Christ. All glory be to Christ our King. All glory be to Christ. His rule and reign we'll ever sing. All glory be to Christ. When on the day the great I am, the faithful and the true, the lamb who was for sin his slain is making all things new.

Behold, our God shall live with us and be our steadfast light. And we shall let his people be, all glory be to Christ. All glory be to Christ our King. All glory be to Christ. His rule and reign we'll ever sing. All glory be to Christ. Sing all glory.

All glory be to Christ our King. All glory be to Christ. His rule and reign we'll ever sing. All glory be to Christ. Let's pray. God, all glory be to you. Lord, you are gracious to save us, Lord. We are sinners before you with nothing to bring to you that is worthy.

But you sent your son to die for us on that cross that we might come to you no longer under our sin. Lord, no longer under death, but saved, adopted as sons. And so, God, we thank you. We praise your name, God, and we seek to just give you all of the glory in our lives.

So, just bless this time of study of the word. Just be with us tonight. Pray with us in Jesus' name. Amen. Upon whom Jesus said I will build my church, right? So Paul is saying if we look at the Galatians timeline He's only interacted with the Apostles just two times in 17 years Is that a lot?

I mean imagine if you only interacted with someone two times in 17 years You wouldn't necessarily feel like Oh kindred spirit like that's that's my buddy. That's just this it's very infrequent okay, and the point of all of this is I received The gospel that I'm preaching Everywhere and especially I preach to you guys.

This was a direct revelation of Jesus Christ direct revelation Of Jesus Christ, so that's the point. Okay, and so today this little parenthetical phrase Now in what I am writing to you I assure you before God that I am NOT lying in my mind as I mull over this passage That's actually the most important verse Because he's saying This is a gospel from God Directly given to me and I swear to God.

I'm not lying now How many people? How many liars in the history of mankind do you think have ever sworn? I am NOT lying. I swear to God. I'm not lying 100% of every liar that's ever existed has probably said I promise you I'm not lying. Okay, so Paul is saying this Okay.

So what I want to do is if Someone like Paul is saying I have a direct message from God From Old Testament history all the way to now there has been a way you verify those things so how does a person how do Christians look at Paul saying I promise I'm not lying and actually Find it credible.

So we're gonna be looking at a little bit of How we can actually trust what Paul is saying, okay, so 2nd Peter 1 20 to 21 But know this first of all that not no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will But men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

That's how we have the Old Testament That's how we know how the New Testament. Amen Men were moved by the Holy Spirit to write Perfectly what God intended Okay, Hebrews 1 1 2 2 God after he spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions in many ways and these last days have spoken to us in his son Whom he appointed heir of all things Through whom also he made the world now up to the time of Paul They had the Old Testament Scriptures now we have old and new Okay, and I want to do a little bit of a breakdown of the whole Bible There are 66 books of the Bible and hopefully you guys knew this How many authors pop quiz It's on there You better get it, right?

Okay 40 plus different writers contributed to the writing of the 66 book book Okay, and they were not all PhD scholars you have Amos anybody know what Amos did He's a shepherd, okay, you have Kings You have Symbol players have you ever heard of a staff? He was a praise leader.

You know how a staff led praise Symbols you got a praise leader write scripture. What was Apostle Peter's trade? Fishermen you had All kinds of different people with all kinds of different skills from all walks of life Writing this book and that was over a course of 1,500 years Three different languages Hebrew Aramaic and Greek and The consistent message is God will holy holy.

Holy God will one day reconcile sinful man to himself through the promised Messiah. That is the uniting theme throughout the whole of scriptures 40 different authors over 1,500 years three languages all saying the exact same thing because they were speaking on behalf of the exact same United God Are you guys following along Paul Later, he's gonna write scripture He's writing a big chunk of the New Testament, right?

So he's an author of the scriptures And so when Paul says something like now in what now I assure you in what I am writing I assure you before God. I am NOT lying you hope that to be credible and one of the things about revelations through and to people If they're from God, this is what we can expect the first thing is They're all focused more on the exaltation of the Lamb of God and a lot less on the future of mankind Does that make sense If I am receiving a direct revelation from the Lord It's not for like humanities like earthly blessing It really is for the exaltation and the supremacy of the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world?

So that is actually the core element a lot of times with different cults that have popped up over time They've actually done away with the Lamb of God or changed him or weakened him No, but every genuine prophecy of God that comes through the Holy Spirit exalts Christ and Cares a lot less about man the second if there is a focus on mankind It's mankind as primarily an object or recipient of the grace of Holy God We're those whose names are written in the book of the Lamb of God Okay, and it's always confirmed by witnesses So when Paul encountered Jesus Were there people there with him?

Yes, and When Paul goes to Galatia, we're gonna look in chapter 2 It says in chapter 2 verse 2 and I laid out before them the gospel which I preach to the Gentiles And I did this in private to the the pillars and they confirmed it okay, it's always confirmed by witnesses and All revelations that come to man.

It's always going to be consistent. What has always been said of the character of God Because Jesus Christ God is the same yesterday and today and forever right? God is not going to change his tune So any revelation is gonna stay consistent talking about the character of God exalting the Lamb of God Jesus Christ and That always leaves the recipient Changed and equipped and usually humbled and terrified exalting God and not exalting self and with Paul This is what happened He did receive the direct revelation of God he exalted the gospel of Christ Everything that he said was confirmed It was consistent with what had been been said by all the people that had gone before him and he was left permanently changed And equipped for the saving of man equipped for every good work Okay, so I want to read Apostle Peter later in chapter 2 Paul Blasts Peter right That's a pretty like that's actually one of the most like emotionally jarring sections of scripture is like this is the Apostle the leader of all the Apostles and Paul says yeah, I Confronted him to his face Okay, but Peter he writes at the end of his letter Therefore beloved since you look forward to these things be diligent to be found by him in peace spotless and blameless and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation Just as also our beloved brother Paul according to the revelation wisdom inspiration given to him wrote to you as Also in all his letters speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to understand Which the untaught and unstable distort as they do also the rest of the scriptures to their own destruction True prophets of God don't distort the scriptures.

They stay consistent with it Even if it's hard to understand, okay, and Paul writes at the end of his life Evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse Deceiving and being deceived you however Timothy continuing the things you've learned to become convinced of Knowing from whom you learn them and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom That leads to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus all scripture is inspired by God and Profitable for teaching for reproof for correction for training and righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate equipped for every good work And I forgot to mention You know who else received a direct revelation from God?

on the island of Patmos John and all the five things that I listed you could be said of John, right? All right, so the main point in the Autobiography for I would have you know brethren that the gospel which was 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 and that's That's the main point of the next couple chapters So I hopefully answered what makes Paul's direct revelations credible Right that was going to be a question.

That's kind of lingering Did Paul really need no confirmation affirmation from the other apostles? No, he didn't need it and he got it and In a few weeks, we're gonna tackle this last one in what ways had Cephas stood condemned And So we're looking at this passage And this little section of the scriptures how many guys actually looked at Acts 9 Raise your hand higher.

How many looked at Acts 9? Keep them up if the events and the details of Acts 9 Were a little bit difficult to swallow and synchronize with Galatians How many you found either one or the other kind of a little bit troubling or unsettling? Hey good All right. I want to so for those you guys who didn't look at it.

I just want to quickly read it and Give your heart a little bit of peace. Okay, so this is Paul and he took food and was strengthened now for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus and Immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogue saying he is a son of God all those hearing him continue to be amazed and We're saying is this not he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this name and those who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that this Jesus is the Christ When many days had elapsed the Jews plotted together to do away with him But their plot became known to Saul and they were also watching the gates day and night so they may put him to death Okay, Paul doesn't mention this in Galatians.

Okay that there was like a death death warrant on him but his disciples took him by night and Led him down through an opening of the wall lowering him in a large basket Is that why he ended up going to? These other places because people were out for his life Galatians doesn't say now in verse 26 when Paul came to Jerusalem Wait a minute It seems pretty immediate What's this?

What's this happening here, right? He was trying to associate with the disciples Okay, doesn't say apostle it says disciples, but they were all afraid of him not believing that he was a disciple but Barnabas took hold of him and brought him to the Apostles plural and Described to them how he had seen the Lord on the road that he had talked to him and how at Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus and He was with them Now I'm wondering if the them is disciples or the Apostles or both, but he's there moving about freely in Jerusalem Speaking out boldly in the name of the Lord This sounds very different than Galatians true or false Okay now It's very difficult because we don't have all the details to piece things together But I want to just show you something from my own today's my my wife and mine 16th friend-diversary on Facebook It showed me that on Facebook.

Okay, so I decided okay. I'll use some of stories with me and my wife. All right, so I've lost some weight since then if you guys can't tell right so 2012. This is what Becky would say 11 years ago We were missionaries living in China and we took a trip to the Philippines We visited churches in Cebu and this was our first ever visit I've been to the Philippines only once that's Becky She didn't really say that I just put words in her electronic mouth.

Okay, that's what I did And this is me 11 years ago We were living in Korea and I was working for compassion international and This was when I led my first trip to the Philippines We visited churches in Ilo Ilo, which is a completely different island. I eat low.

It was actually not an island It's a completely different city in a different island And I've been to the Philippines 34 times And then I'll say now and what I am saying to you I am NOT lying I Am NOT lying Yeah Everything that was written here is true in March 2012 Becky and I we Were thinking like the Lord is calling us to China, but what are we gonna do in China?

But I've been a compassion sponsor since 97 and I have a heart for the orphans in China Let's go on a vision trip to the Philippines from China join the Korea team and then just explore it So we went together on our like five-year anniversary. So we went that was our first trip together.

I Got hired by compassion a few months later and My first trip was December 2012. And if I said December 2012 is 11 years ago Would I be lying or would that actually be? Okay to say totally okay to say 11 years ago. We were living in Korea We were in China We were in Korea and I was working for compassion international and we had been missionaries to China and This was when I led my first trip to the Philippines Wordings a little different now, I'm giving you context and On my first trip Not ever but as a leader We visited churches in Iloilo and I've gone to the Philippines 34 times I am NOT lying.

Both of these are factually true and because I added context you're like, oh Make sense But axe was written by whom? Luke and was Luke there at Paul's conversion. No, he was not Luke is writing details probably from what he's been told by Paul and just writing stuff Paul In writing Galatians is detailing accurately, but just with a different bent Those are not contradictions It's just we just don't have access to the context fully Not your heads if they're that kind of eases your mind a little bit No, okay.

Nobody's at ease. Whatever Wrestle with it. All right so when we see scripture a lot of times Christians do silly things by trying to Force things to make it make perfect sense. That's actually very dangerous If we come across passages that are hard to fully reconcile We don't try to answer them away by human logic Just say we don't have access to all the information But I trust that all scripture perfectly is God breathed and useful for teaching correction rebuking and training and righteousness So that I may be equipped for every good work Every word that is from the scriptures is as it should be from the mouth of the Lord.

I'm just gonna believe it Okay, it doesn't mean that we don't tackle these hard Not discrepancies, but just like not sync synchronized things We don't discount them, but we don't try to twist it to make it make more sense Okay, so I'm just gonna leave it at that Both of these are perfectly accurate and true even though at first glance They seem like they're one of them.

They're not the same Okay Is that helpful at all? Not sure. I need some kind of feedback y'all. I'm a people pleaser So I need and we're in Galatians, so I shouldn't say that but you know, whatever So This is our passage and I want to just spend my the very bottom here But they kept hearing he who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy and they were glorifying God because of me and the people who are glorifying God because of Paul were probably family members and friends of people Paul killed That's Judea That's the heart Paul was in Jerusalem putting people in prison dragging away both men and women Probably Screaming children hanging on to his legs.

Please don't do this and Those same people who've been robbed of their friends who've been robbed of their parents are Glorifying God because of what God did in Paul's life That's a that's a that's a First of all, that's a lot of forgiveness But that's what God does in people's hearts He changes people and he changes people through people And I'm gonna just I touch upon that because I'm gonna ask a follow-up discussion question to that but I'm gonna kind of stop here and just talk about some announcements.

This is always choppy I don't exactly know how to like smoothly but whatever. All right, we have communion Sunday prepare your hearts We are taking the Lord's Supper this Sunday, so please do prayerfully Come just to participate in that the new membership class begins this Sunday at 9 o'clock in the next door room.

And If you are planning to become a member, but you haven't signed up yet I think you can still kind of walk in. Okay, we do have some space but if you can please do sign up Church cleaning and maintenance day. Is this next Saturday? The more people that we have the more thoroughly we can clean and faster So if you have it that morning free, please do come in Participate in that I will have the QR code just in the next slide and we still need for Reformation night We've been calling it trunk formation, but it's actually Reformation night.

We still need volunteers and then we still need lots of Candies and little donations. So if you guys have those please do drop them off and then Thanksgiving's around the corner believe it or not We still need a few host homes Okay, so if you have a house That you're willing to host A dozen to maybe two dozen people in please do sign up for that, but you do have to be a member Okay, and then the participation Signups are also out.

So if you have a moment and you haven't done so And you want to participate in the cleaning and maintenance day go ahead and do that now. I'm gonna give you about eight nine seconds All right, no one touched their phone so I'm gonna go to the next one I Don't want to clean that's not my spiritual gift Host signups This is the QR code for the host signups November 19th.

Okay, and then we do have like a synchronized worship time Like we did last year. So if you can please sign up for this if you are willing to host Okay, nobody touched their phones I will move on Okay, so for next week we're looking at chapter 2 verses 1 through 5 The questions are for Paul.

What would qualify as running in vain? and this The word he goes I was afraid I was running in vain. That's a little bit of an interpretation So when you tackle that is Paul actually doubting something here, or is he like thinking the Apostles are a waste of time?

So this is going to be an important question for you to think through and then what exactly is a false brother? There's another question you want to think through Okay, is that just I mean, it's not really a brother then right? But what is that and what is the truth of the gospel?

So that the truth of the gospel might remain with you We did not yield and subject him to them for one minute so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you What is that? Okay So for the discussion time, this is what I'd like you guys to discuss number one how Central is the Lamb of God to your life.

It is the theme of the entire scriptures It is a theme of human history the Lamb of God seated on his throne How central is that is the Lamb of God to your life? And how does the Lamb of God affect your day-to-day life? Now that's gonna cause you to have to reflect Probably repent some and share secondly What is the difference between wanting glory for yourself and wanting to be used to give glory to God?

Are there people in your life in whom you give God glory? There is wrong. That's super annoying. Okay, are there people in your life in whom through whom you give God glory? How do you grow and giving glory to God in the lives of the people around you? What does that mean?

Three how discerning are you of the revelations of God in what ways can you grow in areas of discernment? How what's a practical step that you can take to grow that and then number four is as you're sharing your one through three prayer requests if they come up share it with your table and Vulnerability usually breeds vulnerability.

So as you share know that you probably aren't the only one struggling to Really To live all out for the Lord But as you pray for each other as you share may that give you strength Okay, let me pray for you pray for us and then we'll Dismiss father help us to apply the things that we've learned and Help us Lord God to enjoy just the fellowship of believers Not primarily for our joy the Lord that in our love for each other that you may be honored that you may be glorified So would you do a mighty work in the lives of your people at this church?

so that you may be Praised and you may be magnified and exalted in our individual lives and in this church We love you Lord. We thank you for our time together in Jesus name we pray Amen