-Transcript-
00:35 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the Cafe.
00:39 Welcome to today’s program. Today we are looking at a very unique time in Paul, the Apostle Paul’s life, when he spent three years in Arabia. And why is that important? Because it shows us the unique way that God trained Paul and much about how God will train us if we let Him do it.
01:01 Amen. And it’s so important because we can see what God did in Paul’s life through the advantage of having this hindsight where we can look in Scripture knowing what the future held for Paul and understand the great things that God did through Paul and how the same God, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, can do great things with you and through you as you seek Him and spend time alone with Him. Our text verse is Galatians 1:17.
01:33 Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which wereapostles before me, but I went into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus. That’s Galatians 1:17. So what’s going on here? So why don’t we think about this? Paul was doing what? He was going to Damascus.
01:56 Why? To persecute Christians. Why? Because Paul was a zealous Jew of the Jews, a leader, part of the Sanhedrin, which was like their Supreme Court, and he was involved in the persecuting of the Jews. Paul was there at this stoning of Stephen.
02:15 What did Stephen do? He told the council the truth, that they had killed the Christ, they had killed God’s Messiah, and they didn’t like that very much, so they stoned him to death, and Paul was there holding people’s coats. He was right there a witness to it, and he was zealous. He even admits that he profited from persecuting the Jews.
02:35 So Paul was a follower of the law, and as a Jewish follower of the law, he looked at Jesus Christ as an enemy, because he was looking at the law saying, you know, look, there is one God, and this God is the Lord, and the Lord spoke to Moses, and so Paul’s looking at Christ saying, this isn’t God, this isn’t the Messiah, this is someone that we need to persecute, and by that meaning, after Christ had been crucified and resurrected and ascended up into heaven, then we, as in the Jews, were going to be persecuting those that followed him, the followers of Christ. So Paul, in his fervent zeal, was going to kill and jail those that were involved in this religion that he viewed as against his God. So Paul was thinking of himself as quite religious, and he’s on the road to Damascus, he’s looking to persecute Jews, and who shows up? Jesus Christ shows up.
03:36 We see it in Acts 9 and Acts 22, Acts 22:6-11, and it came to pass that as I made my journey and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me, and I fell into the ground, and I heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Remember, before Paul was Paul, he was Saul. And I answered, who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest. And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid, but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me.
04:14 And I said, what shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus, and there it shall be told thee all the things which are appointed for thee to do. And when I could not see for the glory of that light being led by the hand of them that were with me, I came into Damascus. So Paul goes into Damascus, Ananias is called to go tell him what to do, and immediately something changes.
04:38 Instead of Paul, who’s now been saved, now a Christian, what do you think he’s gonna do? You think he would go back around the other saved Christians, and him being a man of education and knowledge and connection, all these things, you figured he’d go back around the disciples, those that have walked with Jesus. This wasn’t much longer after Christ had been crucified in the sense that Peter was still alive, he could have gone to Peter, right, or whoever. But we see here in Galatians 1:10-20, he didn’t do any of that.
05:09 For do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I never neither received it of man, neither was I taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
05:33 For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, and that word conversation might mean behavior, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it and profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me, capital S Son, that I might preach Him among the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me.
06:10 So we see here in Galatians 1 16 and 17, he’s not going back after he’s been saved to the apostles before Him. But I went into Arabia and I returned again unto Damascus. Then here in verse 18, then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him fifteen days.
06:28 But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother. Now the things which I write unto you, behold before God, I lie not. So Galatians 1 10-20 tells us a lot.
06:40 It tells us that Paul, after being saved by Jesus Christ, Paul, the same Paul that wrote the letters that are in our New Testament, Corinthians, Philippians, Galatians, etc., that Paul did not go back to them that would have been like the forefathers of the religion, would have been the disciples, would have been them that had walked with Jesus, but went to Arabia three years by himself, Amen? By himself. Well why would that be? That would be to be trained up in the ways of the Lord. So let’s park it here for a minute and think about this, okay? This is not what anyone would expect.
07:18 You know, God works in mysterious ways. If people, if man were writing this story, Paul would be saved and run back to disciples and they’d form a super team and win everybody to the Lord. That’s not what happened.
07:34 We see that Paul was so productive for God the rest of his life after he spent much time with God alone. We are most productive for God in our lives when we don’t do what man thinks we should do, or even what we think we should do, but what God wants us to do. You know, God’s training in our life.
07:46 If you think about Paul spending three years in Arabia, not just like time with God, but training for what he was going to do. For this massive undertaking of being the the Apostle to the Gentile people who were viewed as previously non-Jewish people, non-savable if you will, they were viewed as not it. They were viewed as not God’s people.
08:13 They were viewed sometimes as dogs, and we know that the word dog in the Bible is not a good word. And Paul was now being told, okay, those people that were viewed as second-class are actually those that I’m gonna have you win to me through this gospel that you will release, and you will teach others, and you’ll be greatly persecuted for. So that training and dependency on God, those things go hand in hand.
08:35 And as God trains us to do something great for Him, we must be fully dependent on Him. We must be in our Arabia. We must have our time with God, or should I say our time alone with God.
08:48 You know, one way to look at this is to look at what Paul didn’t do. He didn’t go to man after being saved, because man is fallible. He got his revelation directly from God.
09:01 Galatians 1:11, but I certify you brethren that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. Okay, there you go. It wasn’t after man.
09:08 He wasn’t influenced to create this gospel by man. Verse 12 of Galatians 1, for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. So he wasn’t taught it by man, but by the revelation of Christ himself.
09:23 Now, man is fallible. What we learn from this is man cannot be trusted. And you say, well, I don’t trust man.
09:30 I trust my denomination. Well, be careful, because the denomination is man-made, Amen? I’ve read the Bible front to back, and I don’t read about denominations in the Bible. I really don’t.
09:41 Denominations can be a trap. I’ll give you an example of one. Mormon, Latter-day Saints.
09:48 I saw a testimony from a lady, brilliant lady, PhD, former professor at BYU, had been in the Mormon religion for 30 years, and she was saved by the Lord, and she, you know, she got out. And she said one example, and she gave many examples of why the Mormon religion is not the God of our Bible. One example is that it’s not, that they don’t treat the Bible as their final authority for truth.
10:14 They use a Bible, but then they have this thing called the Book of Mormon by their founder, Joseph Smith, when he wrote it when he was 24 years old, and that takes precedent over the Bible. So man’s idea, taking precedent over the Bible, corrupts the Bible. And see how subtle the devil is? He’ll take God’s Word and say, oh, you can still believe in God, but elevate man just enough to corrupt the Word of God.
10:34 And we know not to add to or take away from, and yet that’s what Joseph Smith did. And yet that’s a glaring example of how we don’t want to go to man for our doctrine, and that we want to go to God’s Word directly for our doctrine, so that when we follow Paul, we’re following God because he got his revelation from Christ. But there’s many others that people may fall into the denominational trap about rituals or about certain things, idols, or whatever it is, and that’s not of God.
11:00 The doctrines of men cannot be trusted. Paul was trained by Christ Himself. When the world looks like the church, we have a problem, because you get a watered-down gospel.
11:13 The church starts thinking, okay, it’s okay to, you know, bend a little bit on this issue, or to do a little bit more worldly stuff on this issue, and on and on and on. All of a sudden, we are going to a place where man is making up the doctrine and not God, and that’s dangerous. And you’re saying, well, that’s modern-day times.
11:28 What does that have to do with Paul in Arabia? What I’m saying is, if Paul had gone back to Jerusalem, even to those apostles like Peter, he wouldn’t have gotten the right doctrine, because they were preaching to the Jews. They were preaching salvation to the Jewish people. They had not been given this revelation by Christ.
11:44 That’s why Paul had to go to Arabia to get it, because Christ didn’t give it to them. It’s in the Bible, you can see that this is very clear. There’s no better way to fall into false teaching than to follow man, even if man is well-intended.
11:58 You could think of someone that grew up in XYZ denominational church, and they’re well-intending, and they say, this is how it’s done, because the elders say so, or the the church book says so, or the clergy say so. And we never ever want to do that. It should never be about what I say or what any man says.
12:16 It should, final authority should be in the Word of God. Where is it in the Word of God? Paul was following Christ, and we should too. And we see there was a timeliness to God’s calling.
12:28 Galatians 1:16, to reveal His Son in me that I might preach him among the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. Immediately. You know, that word stands out to me.
12:40 You know, it wasn’t like Paul said, okay, for a season I’m gonna confer with flesh and blood. He said, immediately I’m going where the Lord’s calling me to go, which as far as we can understand, Arabia being a foreign place. He’s going somewhere he does not know, he may not be comfortable, it is not his culture, and God wants it that way.
12:58 Why? Because think about this, if you went somewhere that was foreign to you, let’s say you went to Arabia, I’m guessing no one listening from Arabia though, if you are, then forgive me for that, but let’s say we went to Arabia, what would you do? I know if I went to Arabia today, I would be praying to God, I’d be seeking His Word, I would be closer to Him probably than I am now because I’m in a foreign place, and I don’t know anything, and I don’t speak the language, and you get the idea that that would be a perfect place for Paul to go after his conversion to learn what Christ wanted him to do. You know, the timing of God’s will is very important in our lives. It has profound implications.
13:34 Can you imagine if Paul had tarried and said, no, I’m just gonna go back here for a little bit, I’m gonna go see my uncle over here in this little town I’m familiar with, I’m gonna go do this little thing, I’m gonna go talk to this disciple or this apostle. Can you imagine what could have happened? That opportunity for him to have this great work done for the Lord could have withered away, but immediately he conferred not with flesh and blood. Well, I wish I had more time, but for today that’s all we can get to.
14:03 Tune in next time to hear the second part in this series of what God will do when we are alone with him for an extended period of time and seek him. Thank you for listening, take care, God bless, and amen. Thanks for listening to this episode of KJV Cafe.