I want to begin reading here
in chapter 1 and verse 1. Let's read a portion, maybe even
all of this chapter. Galatians chapter 1, beginning
in verse 1. Paul, an apostle, not of men,
neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who
raised him from the dead. Everybody have a Bible? Somebody
hand Christian a Bible. Give him a few Bibles. Christian,
you'll find it on page 1267. In verse 2, all the brethren
which are with me into the churches of Galatia, grace be to you and
peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse
4. who gave himself for our sins,
that he might deliver us from this present evil world according
to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory forever and
ever. Amen. Now that is the text this
morning, verses 1 through 5, but let's read a few more verses.
I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called
you unto the grace of Christ unto another gospel. which is
not another, but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert
the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from
heaven preach any other gospel unto you, than that which we
have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before,
so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto
you, than that which you have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men or
God? Am I teaching the things of God
or men? Do I seek to please men? If I yet please men, I should
not be the servant of Christ." Isn't it something when he preached
a self-righteous gospel, he pleased men? Ain't that something, a
gospel of morality pleases men? But when he preached the gospel
of grace, he ceased to please men. Ain't that amazing? But
I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached
of me is not after man. For I neither received it of
man, neither was I taught it, not taught it by man, but by
the revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my conversation
in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted
the church of God and wasted it, and I 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 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 unto Arabia and
returned again unto Damascus. Then after three years I went
up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him fifteen days. But other of the apostles saw
I none, except James, the Lord's brother. Now the things which
I write unto you, behold before God, I lie not. Afterwards I
came unto the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and was unknown
by face unto the churches of Judea which were in Christ. But
they had heard only that he which persecuted us in time past now
preach the faith which once he destroyed, and they glorified
God in me." Now, verse 1. Verse 1. There were these Jewish
men. They were Jews, mainly from up
in Judea, around Jerusalem. And when the Apostle Paul went
to the Gentile world to preach to them, these men had a habit. I don't know if they had gotten
together and got a group of men, got a committee to do it, but
there were men that followed him around. And they did two
things. The first thing they did was
try and discredit the apostle Paul. They tried to persuade those
who had heard him and received the gospel at his hands that
he wasn't truly man-apostle. Discredit the messenger. We see
people doing that all the time, don't we? If you want to discredit
a message, what do you do? If you can't discredit the message,
discredit the messenger. If you can discredit the messenger,
you've fulfilled your objective of discrediting the message. And that's what they did. They
said, he's not really an apostle. He's never been up to Jerusalem.
He didn't receive his apostleship from up there. We came out from
the true apostles. Peter and James and John and
Matthew, they named all the apostles. He's not one of them. He's not
one of them. That's the first thing they did,
discredit the messenger. And then secondly, to discredit
the gospel of the grace of Christ, which the apostle Paul preached.
And that's what he said they were doing here. They were introducing
another gospel. They're preaching another gospel. Paul called them, in another
place, false apostles, enemies of the cross of Christ. And he
tells them here in verses 7 that they're troublers. They're troublers. They trouble you. Well, I'll
tell you this much. If you could convince me that
this man Saul of Tarsus that the Lord saved and called him
to be an apostle. If you could begin to convince
me that he's not really an apostle, that he's lying in the messages
he preached and the epistles he wrote, that'd trouble me too,
wouldn't it? Because when we read this man's
writing, we take him to be truth. And if you could persuade us
that he's not a true apostle, His preaching of the grace of
God is not true, then I tell you, you could convince us that
the gospel of the grace of Christ is not true. That would trouble
me, wouldn't it you? If this man is not a true apostle,
if the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ is not true, I stand
before you this morning without any hope in my soul, because
this is my hope, the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ. Paul
preached the only means for a man's poor soul to be saved was by
this gospel of the grace of Christ. If it's not true, I'm troubled,
because I don't know how else to be saved but by this gospel
of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what the
Apostle Paul begins to do here in this very first verse. He
begins to defend his apostleship. He never does it. any place,
any more than he does here throughout this epistle. He does it in Corinth
quite often, but boy, the first thing he does is set forth his
authority as an apostle. And how does he do it? First
thing, notice in verse 1, Paul, an apostle, not of men. He doesn't deny. that he didn't
go up to Jerusalem. He even confessed. He says, it
was three years after the Lord saved me before I went up to
Jerusalem and saw Peter face to face. And I didn't see any
of the other apostles save James, the Lord's brother. I was unknown
by face to all of those apostles up there. Therefore, he said,
I didn't receive my apostleship. of men. He said, you're telling
the truth. I did not receive my apostleship
of men. Who did he receive it from then? Look with me in chapter, whole
Galatians and look in Acts chapter 22. Look in Acts chapter 22 and
look in verse 11. Acts chapter 22 and verse 11.
If you have a few Bibles, you'll find it on page 1112. Look here who called this man
to being an apostle. Look what he said in chapter
22, verse 11. This is where the Lord Jesus
had stricken Saul of Tarsus, hauled him on the Damascus road.
He sent him into the street called Strait, and he sent this man
Ananias over to lay hands on him. And look what Ananias says
to him in chapter 22 of Acts in verse 11. 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 to Damascus, and one Ananias,
a devout man according to the law, having a good report of
all the Jews which dwell there, they came unto me, and stood
and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. In the same
hour I looked upon him, and he said, The God of our fathers
hath chosen thee, that you should know his will, and see that just
one, and should hear the voice of his mouth, for thou shalt
be a witness, for thou shalt be his witness unto all men of
what thou hast seen and heard." Who called him to be an apostle?
The Lord did. The Lord did. I'm an apostle,
not of men, not of men, but of Jesus Christ. and God the Father,
not of men. Now, look what else he says.
Look back over in my text. Not of men. I'm not called of
men. I have not received any authority
from men. And look what else he says. Not
only not of men, but neither by men. Not of men and neither
by men. Now, what does he mean? What's
the difference? What he got his call of God? The Lord called
him. Who taught him? Who gifted him? Who gave him the authority as
an apostle? Not by man. Peter never taught
him anything, did he? He said, I never saw Peter for
three years. Not by Peter. When you and I
congregate as we are this morning, as we grow in our Christian life,
how do you learn anything? If you learn the gospel, you
know what you're probably going to do. God is going to bring
you to a place like this. He's going to set you down and
make you listen to some poor preacher as he teaches you the
gospel by the Holy Spirit. If you learn anything, you'll
go home, you'll open up your Bibles, and you'll say, Lord,
teach me from your Word. You know something? That's not
the way Paul learned the gospel. It was not by man. He didn't
even sit and read the Scriptures to learn the Gospel. How did
he learn it? Revelation. A direct revelation
of Jesus Christ. That's what he filled them with.
I certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached
of me is not after man. I neither received it of men,
neither was I taught it by man, but by the revelation of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord gave him the power as
an apostle. Gave him special gifts. They
took handkerchiefs from this man's body one day, and they
took it to the sick. And when the sick got that handkerchief,
they were made whole. You think there's anybody like
that today? You think there's any apostles around today? They
claim to be. You have these men who claim
to have these special gifts. But isn't it funny you never
see them in the hospitals? Have they ever healed anybody
that's crippled that you knew personally? No. There's no apostles
today. There's no apostolic gifts today.
There's no new revelations being given today. Please don't stand
there. Please don't do this. Please
don't ever stand up and say, God spoke to me this morning.
If you do, do like me and Clarence does. By His Word. By His Word. Because there's no new revelations
being given. Paul said, last of all, He was
seen of me. If you wasn't an apostle, you
had to be a witness of Jesus Christ. He rose from the dead. Paul said, last of all, He was
seen of me. He was seen of me. I'm an apostle,
but not of man. I'm not an apostle by man, but
by Jesus Christ and God the Father. Now, look back in chapter 1 and
verse 1 again. He defends the credibility of
the gospel, all in this one verse. The credibility of the gospel.
And boy, Luther calls this a thunderclap. A thunderclap against these false
apostles. Paul was going preaching that
Jesus Christ had did everything necessary for God to receive,
accept, justify fully, and forgive all the sins of His people, and
give them the Holy Spirit in their hearts. All on the basis
of what Jesus Christ had done. The Father sent Him to do a work
that you and I could not do for ourselves. And when He said upon
the cross, it's finished, it was finished. Sin was atoned
for. They were put away for all who
will ever believe on Him. And the Father looks at us and
He says, everyone who believes in My Son, I will justify you
freely. I will give you a righteousness
to clothe the shame of your nakedness and I will give you my Holy Spirit
in your heart to seal you and to guide you and to keep you.
All on this basis of what my dear son has done on your behalf. And we can prove that from this
epistle. Look in chapter 3 and look in verse 13. Look in chapter 3 and look in
verse 13 and verse 14. Page 12, 68. Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law. How did He do that? Being made
a curse for us. The law cursed us because we
were lawbreakers. Somebody had to bear the penalty
of a broken law. Who did that? Christ did it.
And when he did that, the law says, I am satisfied. I will
not curse again. For those who believe upon the
Son of God, I will never curse them again. He has redeemed us
from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. For it is
written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. And look in
verse 14. Here is the reason he did it. That the blessing
God promised to Abraham might come on the Gentiles. through
Jesus Christ, through His dying and His burial and His resurrection.
That is, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. How did they receive the promise
of the Spirit? Through believing in a crucified
Christ. Through Christ who had finished
the work. Look in chapter 4 and look in verse 6. Look in verse
4. Chapter 4, verse 4. When the
fullest of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a
woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the
law, that you might receive the adoption of sons. And to cause
your sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your
hearts, crying, Father, Father." Now let me ask you a question.
Did Christ do enough to obtain for you the Holy Spirit? I mean,
my goodness, the Holy Spirit? If you don't have the Spirit
of Christ, you're none of this. Did you get the Spirit by some
works that you've done? Or by hearing the Gospel that
the work was finished? And Paul said he not only procured
for us and secured for us the Spirit for Him to come to our
hearts. Something else happened when he died. He brought in an
everlasting righteousness. Look what he said in chapter
3. Look in verse 6. Even as Abraham
believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness, know
ye therefore that they which are of faith in Christ, the same
are the children of Abraham. We have a righteousness. How
do we get that righteousness? By working. See what Paul was saying to these
fellows? He says, you guys are aiming
for the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God, brother. You want
the Holy Spirit. They believed in the Holy Spirit.
They wanted the Holy Spirit. They said the way the Spirit
comes to you and abides with you is by you living this strict
lifestyle. You've got to be circumcised.
You've got to abstain from certain foods. You've got to be very
rigid and live like Moses in the Law said for you to live.
Then you'll have the Spirit. If you're going to have a righteousness
that God will accept you in, you've got to work it out. You've
got to be careful. You've got to keep the Law. Righteousness
comes by the Law. And they said something else.
If you've ever sinned, And you want to be justified from that
sin? You're going to have to keep
the law to be justified. But look what Paul said in verse
8 of chapter 3. The Scripture foreseeing that
God would justify the heathen through faith, he preached before
the gospel unto Abraham, that in thee shall all nations be
blessed. Through the gospel? Blessed with
righteousness, blessed with the Holy Spirit, blessed with justification. And Paul said, Christ has done
all. And all we do now for these blessings is to believe that
He's done all. And they said, that's not true.
They said, that's just not true. Well, deny that. What about the
moral law? What about living this lifestyle,
bud? Can you prove, Paul, that God
sent His Son to do everything for us and all we do now is believe
on Him for it? Paul said, I can. And I'm going
to give a thunderclap against you that you can't resist it
or you can't prove me wrong. If Christ did not do all for
His people and procure these blessings, and satisfy God in
His death, then why did God raise Him from the dead? See verse
1? Ain't that what He said in verse
1? I am an apostle, not of man, neither by man, but by the Lord
Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead. If He hadn't accomplished all,
God would have never raised Him from the dead. He'd have still
been dead, wouldn't He? But what happened? The Father
raised Him. What does that tell us? I'm satisfied,
my son. You've done it all. There's nothing
more to be done. And now He turns to you, and
He turns to me, and He says, look to my Son. Believe on my
Son. And then I'll justify you for
His sake. I'll give you His righteousness
that is a complete righteousness that He worked out Himself. And
He'll clothe the shame of your nakedness. And I'll give you
the life of My Son. I'll bless you." That's the Gospel. What does the Gospel say? That
in Christ shall all nations be blessed. That's why the Gospel
is such good news. Jesus Christ has already procured
these blessings. And here people are running around
this morning saying, do this and do that and do this over
here. And Paul said, no, God raised
Him from the dead. He raised Him from the dead. That is a thunderclap, ain't
it? Jesus Christ has accomplished everything that the Father sent
Him to accomplish. No more holy days. No more this
rigid lifestyle that the Jews used to live. No, Christ has
did it all. We trust Him. We believe Him.
We look to Him. Paul is going to give another
proof here of his apostleship in the gospel that he preached,
how authentic it is. And look in verse 2, he goes
on. There's a reason for him saying
these things. He never says this any other place, as he says in
verse 2. Not only has he proved here in verse 1 his authority
as an apostle, he's not amending to buy men. set forth the defense
of the gospel. God the Father has raised him
from the dead. And now he does something else. And all the brethren
which are with me unto the churches of Galatia." Boy, what he does. I don't know who these men were
that were with him. But I bet you these Galatians knew who
they were. And it could have been somebody like Apollos. Boy,
they respected this man. He was mighty in the Scripture.
Paul said, He's with me. You fellows don't want to believe
me? You used to love me, but now you hate me because I tell
you the truth? They've convinced you that I
don't have the authority as the apostle? That I'm not preaching
an authentic gospel? Well, these guys are with me. Apollos has not forsaken me.
Mark is with me. You know Mark, don't you? Oh,
so he could have started naming these names. So it wasn't just
Paul. They said, oh, he's got all those
brethren with him. You know, there's people in our
day that think you and I believe. They think we're a cult. There's
people in this town right here that think you and I are a cult.
Don't mess with those people. They're strange. And what they
believe, it's new. I don't know if Bruce and his
empty head has come up with this, but it's Where are they getting
this at? Well, I tell you, I am not beyond
calling the brethren for a witness. I sat down with a fellow in my
house just last week, a pastor. I said, have you ever read actor
Spurgeon? Oh, yeah, I like Spurgeon. I
believe just exactly like Spurgeon. Have you ever read Pilgrim's
Progress? Oh, I love Pilgrim's Progress.
I love John Burnham. Well, he's my brethren. We begin to drop names, don't
we? You know why people say we believe
something new? You know exactly. And it comes
right down to this, and this is it. You know why they say
we believe something new when we're talking about the gospel
of the grace of Christ? Two things. They don't read their
Bibles. Everything we preach here, we
prove from the Word of God. Our teachers do. And I do as
your pastor. And to say this is something
new, they just need to study their Bibles. That's the first
thing. And they say, we've just come up with it in our day because
they don't know a thing about church history. You look back
through the history from the Apostle Paul, go to Augustine
and all of those holy men of God from Paul's day up until
this very present hour. And brothers and sisters, you
talk about a library of truth our forefathers have written.
And we can stand in front of that library and we can say,
these brethren are with us. You think we've got some new
thing? No, look at our brethren here. They preach just exactly
what we preached. And all the brethren which are
with me, to the churches of Galatia. And you know something? If you
reject us, just go ahead and reject our forefathers. Next
time you open up Spurgeon, just think, I've rejected those people
over there that believe Spurgeon. Look in verse 3. Grace be to
you and peace from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Boy, Paul, bless his heart, he
did this to all the churches, but it was specially needed to
this church at this time. Because I tell you what he was
going to do. We call it he was going to skin them alive. I mean,
he was going to rebuke them. Boy, do you know what he said
when he closed this epistle? Don't any of you bother me anymore. I bear in my body the marks of
Jesus Christ. I have proved my apostleship. They hate me. They whip me. They stone me because I'm an
apostle. Don't you bother me anymore.
This is my last epistle to you, and if you don't believe it,
then don't bother me anymore." Man, that was severe, wasn't
it? You know another place he told them this epistle? I stand
in doubt of you. You desire to be under the law.
You've left Christ. You've left His gospel. I stand
in doubt. I think my labor towards you
has been in vain." Boy, he's going to rebuke them thoroughly.
But you know what he does first? Grace be unto you in peace. If
you and I have to talk to people and get so stern with them, and
sometimes we do, let them know we're not mad at them. Let them
know we don't hate them. And sometimes I can understand
why people would say, Bruce, you seem so mean about this.
I don't need to be mean. These things are so serious.
Our souls are at stake here. The glory of Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, is at stake. We're passionate about these
things. But we don't need to be mean. We don't need to be mean. Oh, everybody here this morning,
bless your hearts with grace. Be to you in peace. My hope is
the best for you. Whoever you are and whatever
you believe, I pray that the Lord meets your needs. If you're
lost, I pray that He'll save you. If you're mixed up, I pray
He'll straighten you out. That's my prayer. That was Paul's
way of dealing with it. Boy, now in verse 4, he goes
right to the heart of the gospel. Look at this. Grace be to you and peace from
God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our
sins. Boy, he goes to the heart of
the gospel, doesn't he? These churches have been building up
on this foundation of self-righteousness. You've got to be circumcised.
You've got to keep these holy days. You've got to. You've got
to refrain from certain meats and certain companies. You've
got to live this strict lifestyle every day. You've got to live
like this. They got so bad about it, they
couldn't even stand each other. They couldn't stand to be around
each other. They condemned each other all the time. They bit
and devoured one another. And Paul brings them back here
to the foundation of the gospel. Why did Jesus Christ die to begin
with? Why did He die upon Calvary's
tree? We don't come to the cross with
some ideal in our minds of what we need to do. Do we? Do we come to the cross
with this in our minds? We need to be circumcised. We
look upon the cross and say, man, I need to mend my ways. I need to start living a better
life. We come to the cross to see ourselves
as lawbreakers. The ground here, brothers and
sisters, is for sinners. We come to the cross to see our
lawlessness punished in the bruised and mingled body of the Son of
God. We don't come to the cross to
see our goodness. We come to the cross to see our
badness. We don't come to the cross to
see some potential that we may possess. We come to the cross
to see our utter inability to do anything. The cross is not about our righteousness. The cross is about where our
sins were punished. Come to the cross to see the
broken law and what it required. What did it require? You know
what the broken law required? Go to the cross. You know how
bad our sins are? Go to the cross. You know what
God requires of us? You know the payment that He
demands from us? Go to the cross. We go to the
cross as sinners worthy to perish. And there is where we see Jesus
Christ interposing His blood to atone for our misery and our
sins. That is what the cross says. Here is the cure for separatiousness. Christ died for our sins. Here
is healing for the brokenhearted. Christ died for our sins. Here
is light for those who are in darkness. Christ died for our
sins. Here is cheer for those who are
depressed. I tell you, I get depressed.
Anybody here get depressed without showing your hands? Here is a
cure for depression. What could depress us if this
fills our hearts? Christ died for my sins. What is it that often depresses
us but our sins? Well, here is a cure for it.
Here is a balm for depression. Christ died for our sins. Here is a sign of God's love
for those who have felt His displeasure. Christ died for our sins. Here
is a fountain to wash the conscience, to purify the soul and make it
whiter than the driven snow. Christ died for our sins. And
here is the fountain that cleansed that dying thief and made him
fit for heaven's company. Christ died for our sin. Oh,
isn't this a precious word? How could anybody come to this
place and boast of any potential goodness or a need to do anything in the
light of the cross? Christ died for our sin. In this verse, he teaches us
three things. First, the atonement. Christ
died for our sins and all that that entails. Paul said, you
did run well. You did run well. When? When you just stood with this
in view. Christ died for our sins. You
ran well then. Oh, but when you left the cross
and you went to Moses, to learn how to live. When you went to
the ceremonial law to make yourself righteous, to finish the work,
that's when you fail. Brothers and sisters, the cross
saves us, and we must never leave the shadow of that cross. The
life which I live, I live by faith of the Son of God who loved
me and gave Himself for me. Live there! Live there. We don't need to go on to something
else. What else is there? He teaches that. Christ died
for our sins. And notice something else he
teaches here in verse 4. The purpose of Christ's dying
for our sins. The ultimate, final purpose of
Christ's dying for our sins. Was there a purpose in His death?
Well, he gives us that purpose. Christ died for our sins. Why? In order to deliver us from this
present evil world. There it is. There's the purpose.
Somebody asked Spurgeon one time, what was the purpose for the
death of Christ? Spurgeon said, what's he doing? If I ask you,
Does the death of Christ have a purpose? You say, yes, it does.
I say, what? You say, it delivered me. It
delivered me from what? This present evil world. This is an evil world, ain't
it? This is not a nice world. We've never lived, brothers and
sisters, in a Christian world. Ever since the fall, this world
has been evil. It was evil in our Lord's day,
and it's evil now. Aren't you glad He delivered
you from it? You know what John said was in this world? He said
all that's in the world, the lust of the eye, the lust of
the pride of life, what was the three? The lust of the eye, the
lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. He said that's all. That's all. Well, wait a minute,
John. Now, I know some fine people.
I know some good people. I know all that's in the world. All that's in the world. We know
that we're of God, little children. He's delivered us from the world.
And the whole world lieth in wickedness, in the wicked one. Aren't you glad, brothers and
sisters, that the death of Christ had a purpose in it? Paul was writing the Ephesians,
and he said you walk just like everybody else. You walked according
to the course of this world. And what is the course of this
world, Sal? Fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind, wrathful mind, enemies of your mind by
wicked works. That's the course of this world.
But there's something else about it too, isn't there? This world's
end. The evil that's in this world. It's got an evil end determined
for it. This is what the writer of Isaiah
said, The Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants
of the earth for their iniquity, and the earth shall disclose
her blood. All the murders and the hate
that's been going on, it's going to be disclosed. God is coming
to punish the inhabitants of this earth. Aren't you glad?
That Jesus Christ delivered you from that. It cost Him a great
deal, you know. But that was the purpose behind
it. When John Bunyan wrote his Pilgrim Progress, you remember
the fellow with the burden on his back, Pilgrim? He went looking
for the wicked gate. And he fled. And what was he
fleeing from? Remember that? The city of destruction. That's where we live, isn't it? It's an evil world. The city
of destruction. And listen to what Peter says
about the earth we live on. The heavens and the earth which
are now are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of
judgment and the destruction of ungodly men. It's going to pass away. Aren't
you glad that He delivered you? I tell you what, this is not
a good world. Every one of us are born sinners. Every one of
us lived in sin and will die in sin. And we'll perish in sin. Every one of us without exception,
if we're not delivered by this one means, the death of Jesus
Christ. He died for our sins. He died
for our sins. Paul said, God has not appointed
you to wrath. Thank God for that. He's not
appointed you to wrath. but to obtain salvation by Jesus
Christ our Lord, who died for us." See that? He appointed us
to salvation, to be delivered from this present evil world. If someone asks you why Jesus
Christ died, if there was a purpose in it, you can tell them now,
can't you? This is the purpose of His death. He didn't die haphazardly. It wasn't plan B. He had a purpose. Look at this, and look in verse
4. Look at the last portion of verse
4. Look at this. This is wonderful here. Paul,
this is another thunderclap, Luther says, at this false teacher. He gave Himself for our sins.
That's redemption. That's atonement. That He might
deliver us from this present evil world. That's the purpose
behind it. And look at this. According to
the will of God. all according to the will of
God our Father. These poor Galatians were adept
in this strict lifestyle, miserable lifestyle, trying to keep the
law, and they thought they could be
saved by this. And Paul says, that's contrary to the will of
God. You keeping the law to be saved is contrary to the will
of God. Sounds, that don't even sound right, does it? You live
in a moral life? Boy, I commend you. I commend
you. No, that's not God's will. You mean it ain't God's will
for me to separate myself and be holy? That's not God's will? Man, that sounds awful, doesn't
it? Martin Luther, he said they used
to, they joined the monasteries. They'd go out a lot of times
up in the mountains, out in the remote areas, and they'd build
a monastery out there. And he said, you know, we wanted
to be holy. We wanted to be separated. We
wanted to be saved. So they went out there to live
outside of society so they wouldn't be corrupted with society. Luther
said he finally learned that when he went in the monastery,
he took his corruption with him. But he said they'd go in there
and lay all night on brick floors, cold brick floors, naked. They thought they were denying
themselves. He said he fasted himself almost to death, thought
that this is God's will for me to be saved like this. Ain't
that amazing? Is that God's will? For you to
just suffer and punish yourself? and live such a strict lifestyle
and appear to this world to be so holy and separated? That's
not God's will. How is it God's will to save
anybody? Through the death of His Son.
That's it. I've told some of you different
times about my experience in my teenage years, and this is
the truth. I spent my teenage years thinking.
In my heart of hearts, I thought, it's God's will to save me by
me being a good person. And I tried my best to be a good
person. If I lied, I'd go tell somebody
I'd lied. I tried to make restitution.
I'd apologize. And I'm telling you, there's
times when the guilt comes tumbling into the conscience. And I got
to thinking, this ain't working. This must not be God's will to
save me but myself. And then I started reading the
Bible, started going to church a little bit more, and I found
out that, well, maybe it's God's will to save me, not only what
I'm doing, that's obviously not enough, and being good, but Christ
somewhere has to come into this equation. So it must be me and
Him in cooperation. That's God's will. And I felt
so good about that. And it really made me do better. But then all the guilt, boy,
come a-tumbling back in. No, you still ain't right with
God. God's angry with you and your ways. You're a wicked person.
And then He showed me. Bless His name, He showed me.
He opened my heart and He showed me. It's my will to save you
one way. Wholly one way. And that's by
the doing and dying and resurrection and the intercession of my Son.
That's my will to save you that way. And, Bull, when I saw that,
you talk about a burden lifted. You talk about the gift of God.
I mean, I just sat and wept tears of joy. Isn't it wonderful to
be saved according to the will of God? What a burden that's
gone! I tell you, I'd rather go to
hell this morning if it's His will, than go to heaven and not
be in His will. That's how much you love the
will of God when you see it. And it's His will. If you're
here this morning and you found out it's His will to save you
by His Son, holy by His Son, oh, what a will of God. Oh, we
bless Him, don't we? We bless Him according to the
will of Why does He do it this way? And we'll close with verse
5. Why does He do it this way? Well, for this reason right here,
look in verse 5. To whom? To Him. Be glory forever
and ever. Amen. Why does He save the way
He saves? His glory. He's determined to save us in
such a way, He's going to humiliate us. He's going to bring our flesh
low and leave us nothing to glory in. If you're here this morning
and God has left you something to glory in, He's not saved you
yet. Because when He saves you according
to His will, by the grace of His Son, He's going to leave
you flat at His feet, saying, nod unto me, O Lord. Nod unto
me. But unto your name be glory,
for your mercy and your truth." Come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look no longer to yourself. Come and put all your trust in
Him. Put your faith in His precious
blood. That's the way He saves, by His
Son. God bless His Word. Let us pray.