-Transcript-
00:36 Amen. Welcome to the Cafe. Hope you’re having a great week.
00:41 Hope you’re doing well here today. We’re so excited, I’m excited at least, to dive into God’s Word. I hope you are too.
00:46 We are going through this incredible experience that Paul had after being transformed on the road to Damascus. The training of Paul in Arabia, the importance of time alone with the Lord. We’re in part three of a three-part series and what I’ll do for benefit of those that may have missed part one or two or both is recap a little bit what I’ve been talking about and why it’s relevant here today.
01:11 Galatians 1:17, neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me but I went into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus. Now that’s Paul writing in the book of Galatians that after Christ had wonderfully saved him on the road of Damascus he did not return to Jerusalem. He did not go to the other apostles but instead he went to Arabia.
01:39 Okay and what does that mean? That means that he went to a foreign land. Now why would he do that? The Lord must have called him to do that because truly nobody would, I mean think about this, you have this incredible experience. Now let me go off in the woods by myself or in the desert by myself for three years and figure this out.
01:58 No, most people would go and tell everyone they knew that’s just a natural reaction but Paul wasn’t acting of the flesh he was acting by the Spirit and Christ had called him to go to this unique place that I’m guessing he was not that familiar with Amen.
02:24 Galatians 1:10-20 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 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 and so we see here in the first a few verses of Galatians 1:10-11, 12 what we see is Paul saying that he didn’t get the revelation that the the doctrine that we ascribe to today that the Gentiles are to be saved Amen.
02:53 that whosoever believeth on Him shall be saved Amen that doctrine the you know we we follow Paul because Paul followed Christ but he didn’t get it from man he wasn’t taught it from man but he was it was revealed to him by Jesus himself and Jesus chose to reveal it to Paul there in the wilderness and the scripture goes on for ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews religion.
03:20 and conversation could be translated as 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 father’s you know I recently preached on zeal for the Lord and Paul had great zeal for who he thought was the Lord right.
03:39 and that zeal led to even profiting off of the persecution of the Christians in fact Paul was on the road to Damascus when Christ met him and blinded him and saved him when that happened Christ Paul was on the road to do what he was on the road as Saul to go persecute Christians so on the road to go persecute Christians to bring back and jail them in Jerusalem he is gloriously transformed and saved and instead of persecuting them he joins them and in fact becomes a mighty man of God
04:13 verse 15 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 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 but I went into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus then after three years I went to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him 15 days.
04:38 but other the Apostles I saw none save James the Lord’s brother now the things which I write unto you behold before God I lie not so we see here in Galatians 1:14-20 Paul is very motivated to tell the people I was not influenced by other Apostles right I was not influenced by man I was not influenced by a group and Paul gets very specific that he was with the Lord Jesus Christ in Arabia three years and he had this doctrine taught to him there.
05:14 and then he even discloses what happens when he returns he’s with Peter just only 15 days and only saw James Lord’s brother not no one else and letting them know that this is not a doctrine of man but a doctrine of God and why because it was such a controversial doctrine because up till that point the Gentiles and anyone else that was not Jewish was viewed as secondary or not worthy and not God’s people because that’s what they had been taught so they were only under this idea of what they had been taught.
05:43 all the other Apostles were trying to reach the Jewish people right they were trying to convert the Jews from believing in just what they understood in the laws the Mosaic laws the Torah the Old Testament right believing those things to believing this new doctrine right of Jesus Christ but they were saying kind of what I’m guessing John the Baptist said repent and and get right with God right but they didn’t know this doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone for all including Gentiles they didn’t know that Paul brought that doctrine how did Paul bring that doctrine after spending three years in Arabia with the Lord.
06:21 and so this series of messages is really focused on what we can pull from this what can we learn how can this help us to understand how we are to spend time with God
06:33firstly we have to carve out time alone with him because his ways are not our ways and so what we can’t use logic and education so forth to define who we are and so many people including in the Christian faith believe that they can just kind of think this out and work this out in their minds and use logic for things like spreading the gospel and telling people about Christ and winning souls let me tell you it’s foolishness to the world and so your logic will never work only the power of God will work and you get the power of God from spending time with God and you spend time with God by getting alone with God and you get alone with God and you get into his word and you pray and you seek Him and you fast and you pray and you seek Him and He reveals Himself to you ever so much then I’ve heard a preacher say that the Christian walk as you grow in the Lord as you study the scriptures is a constant growing in the knowledge of Christ.
07:22 and who He is right and that’s how the Lord works that’s His program but how can we grow if we don’t ever spend time with Him we can’t man’s fallible denominations are completely fallible if you’re stuck in a situation where your denomination is telling you what to do that’s a problem because it is flawed Amen
07:41 we go to what the book says what the Bible says not what our denominations say or worse yet what a man says the world is starting to creep into the church every which way and you’re seeing major denominations having a lot of problems because the world’s crept in and it conflicts with Scripture and people say let’s be like the world and other people say let’s be like God intended in the scriptures and there’s a conflict there so we need to get away with God and we saw in Galatians 1:16 to reveal His son to me that I might preach him among the heathen immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood this idea of immediacy of not waiting I’m not giving the devil opportunity to distract you as the devil would distract you but getting away getting time with God
08:22 spending valuable time with Him and letting him lead you three years that’s God’s perfect number for harmony new life and completeness we see three throughout the Bible Christ was buried three days we see three in the Holy Trinity you’ll read holy holy holy in the Bible Moses life was in three parts 40 years in Egypt 40 years in the wilderness and 40 years leading the Israelites out of Egypt through the wilderness three is a powerful number and Paul was in Arabia for three years to help us understand the importance of the harmonious plan of God that all should be saved through faith in Christ alone
09:05 and that it’s not by works and it’s not by the law and again imagine how controversial this would sound to a law abiding Jew to a law believing Jew who was Paul he was a Jew of the Jews he was a not only a law abiding Jew he was an expert in the law Amen
09:25 he was there picking that law apart saying you didn’t do this you didn’t do that and now he’s going to preach by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone we’re not under the law well that’s a big difference and that’s why he had to spend three years in Arabia with the Lord and he had that timeliness to immediately not confer with flesh and blood and we see that quiet time with God must be made a priority in our life and take precedence over conferring with flesh and blood
09:50 because if we don’t prioritize it it won’t happen and as we pick up here in the latter part of the message what I want to say is that we’re discussing how Paul’s life reflected his obedience in this time away with God and and how obedience and and dependency on God go hand in hand with the training of God and the training by God and we can’t have training and and and a revelation from God we can’t be led by the Spirit if we’re not dependent and obedient on Him in His ways which can be very difficult in these modern times.
10:26 so let’s tune in here and we’re gonna wrap up this three-part series on that in his word as we understand and study it it tells us don’t think that I think like you think and so if we can just come to the conclusion that we don’t have all the right ideas and that our best inclination isn’t always accurate and that what most people would do or logic doesn’t always make sense because none of that happened in Paul’s Damascus experiences wrote a Damascus experience.
10:57 none of that happened it was all exceptionally unique it was all of God Christ Himself blinding him Christ himself giving him sight again and a nice being afraid of him coming down to pray with Him and tell him what to do him going to Arabia not going to Jerusalem him preaching a gospel that was for the Gentiles which had been unheard of at that time him writing these epistles these brilliant letters that we as a church age believers get our doctrine from all of this is profound and all of this happened by God’s leading and guiding as God’s ways being higher than man’s ways took precedence and again as I mentioned earlier we now have the benefit of hindsight to see what Paul did
11:42 and he lived an incredible life for Christ and he endured for Christ Paul himself got to see heaven Paul saw Christ Paul incredibly did what God wanted him to do in the way that only God would have done that man could have never conceived all because Paul was obedient to follow the Lord and to do what God wanted him to do over what man would have wanted him to do
12:08 and and how is this possible is it not by the working of the Holy Spirit is it not by the working of the Holy Spirit and the working of the Holy Spirit that that that that enriching of the Holy Spirit comes from living Godly lives comes from abstaining from the sinful things calls from departing from the wickedness of this world calls from living in in love and patience and in doctrine that Christ has for us and not in the ways of the world
12:42 and so we see the power of the Holy Spirit working through Paul and Paul obediently living as God wants him to live doing what God wants him to do can you imagine through Paul’s eyes the shipwreck and though the whippings and the people pursuing to kill him and the persecutions and and the people laughing at him or the people you know being convicted but still deciding not to be saved and and the imprisonments and and the false the false accusations and all these things that he went through at that time through his eyesight through his lens could have seemed chaotic but they all worked to create this marvel marvelous testimony of the truth of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior to all that would believe to whosoever that would come to him and that’s where we get our doctrine today and so we see this wonderful picture of this individual that has this great ministry that starts with three years in Arabia alone with God
13:46 and with Jesus Christ giving him this doctrine directly this special revelation I’m so thankful that Paul was obedient I’m so thankful for what’s in God’s Word I’m so thankful for the lessons that we can take from this today to turn to God to live for Him to seek Him to carve out that special time with Him oh what a blessing that will be when we can see God face to face and thank him for this great truth
14:13 I thank you for listening take care God bless and Amen.