1. Pine Ridge Free-will Baptist Sermon Notes
September 3, 2014
Defending Truth, Glorifying God (Siva and Sautish Indian students at Tech)
Focal Text: Galatians 1:11-24 reference Acts 9, 15 (Jerusalem Conference)
Are people around you able to see the way you embrace truth and glorify God because of the grace
that has been given to you?
In v.1-5: Paul defends his calling as an apostle appointed by Jesus Christ, and God the Father. Who
were you called by? Can you defend your calling?
 He starts out exclaiming his apostleship that was being questioned by Jewish legalizers.
 Paul declares that he was not sent by men or through men. The Gospel was not given to him
by Jerusalem leaders, or by his prior teachers.
 He recognizes that the power that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead was the same power
given to Paul to convert him and proclaim the true gospel.
 Paul sees that it is only by the will of the Father that anyone is released from the bondage of
sin, and is placed in the family of God to be in bondage to Christ.
 He presses hard in his exclamation that it is for the glory of God that he ministers, and lives.
As it was for those in opposition of him and the true gospel.
In v. 6-10: Paul is trying to persuade his newborn believers to not be misled by a false gospel, but
trust Him with the gospel he has been entrusted with. Do we know the true gospel and are we
prepared to defend it?
 Believers are “deserting” or as the KJV notes they are “removing” themselves from the truth
Paul taught them, and God converted them with by the grace of Christ.
 Paul calls out the false teachers not because of who they are, but his “concern for truth”.
 Paul is pleading with his readers to not turn to a gospel that isn’t the gospel at all.
 The good news that was delivered to the Galatians did not require of them circumcision or a
need to follow the Mosaic law. That is legalism.
 Legalism still impales the Church today. Martin Luther defended “justification by faith alone”
which was lost for several years by the Catholic Church.
 Paul is defending this truth throughout the book of Galatians.
“the call is of God and of grace not of man and of merit” James Boice
In v.11-24 Paul lays out his credentials as apostle so that the believers will believe that his gospel
(justification by faith) is indeed notable. Do we truly understand the grace that we have been given by
God? Paul did.
 Paul reiterates a point he made back in v. 1. This gospel he proclaims is not his own or from
man.
 God has qualified him to preach the Gospel given by God.
 Paul shares with the wavering believers his testimony.
 A man who was killing believers is now proclaiming a gospel that will lead to freedom in
Christ.
 People who once feared this man are now giving glory to God because of his firm belief in
truth, and his passionate protection of them.
Application: With the testimony given to you; will you share it with others, and proclaim the true gospel so that others
that you have been saved to reach with the gospel (Gentiles) might glorify God because of you?
(Galatians 6:14-18)