Good morning everyone. Turning your Bibles to Galatians
1. I've had a lot of reason this
week to contemplate our church, the origins of our church and the priority of our church. It's been an interesting experience
actually. There's so much to be said and
so little time to say it. It's probably similar to John
and saying the world's not big enough to record all these things. While it's been a great pleasure,
it's been difficult in some ways to reduce it down and to look
at where our priorities lie and what distinguishes us in this
world. So I couldn't really speak about
the origins of our church without looking somewhat at the Book
of Galatians. So we will read the first ten
verses of Galatians in a minute. We've been asked so often why,
and I don't know about others, but
over these 15 years I've asked myself why so often. And I guess the answer is that
God's done a work in us and that he's made that work important
to us. And in our experiences of examining
those around us, we haven't found faithfulness to that work. And
it's become such a dramatic thing to us that we've We've had to
make a stand, and the Lord's brought us out of the places
where we were gathered with others, supposedly in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and he's established us. So I guess I've just got
some thoughts about that today, as big as it is. So we just want
to read from Galatians 1. He begins, Paul, an apostle,
not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus
Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. We've come to know that salvation
is completely a work of God. We've come to know that the appointments
when in his church are completely a work of God building his church. He's the one that raises up his
churches. He's the one that sustains his
church. Paul talks in verse 16 there, that it was God revealed in him. That's the way God began his
work in Paul. We're told in 2 Corinthians 3
that our sufficiency is of God. So while there are many churches,
or places that would call themselves churches, that are gatherings of men, that
are directed by men, controlled by men, built by men. What's
going on here in this group of believers is far, far different. In verse two, he says, and all
the brethren which are with me under the churches of Galatia,
Church is about a collective witness. We all speak with one
voice, and we all preach peace to one
another. Verse three, grace be to you,
and peace from the God, God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus
Christ. And then Paul defines the gospel. Paul declares who the Lord Jesus
Christ is and why Paul clings to him and why he stands so passionately
for our God. Verse four, 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. Salvation is
not about the will of men. It's about the will of God. It's
not about the activities of men. It's about the activities of
God. And those activities involve
a purging of our sins. Notice the word sins there. It's not sin in general. It's
not that Christ died for every man, as if somehow men can access
salvation. Every single sin of every single
child of God that our Lord Jesus Christ represented before his
father at the cross has been perfectly paid for. He's purged
us of our sin. We're clean and we can enter
into the presence of a holy God. Amen. This witness comes from a saving
knowledge of God, from an experience of the activities of a sovereign
God in our lives, both personally and as time goes by in the life
of our church collectively. And we have one priority, and
that's the purity of the gospel. Verse six, I marvel that you
are so soon removed from him. The gospel's a person. From him that called you into
the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another. The gospel means good news. And
as we just looked, it's good news about the reconciliation
of men with their God, with a holy God. There is no other news that's
good spiritually for our souls and good for our physical sustenance
even in this world. There is no other good news.
There is one gospel, and God's been pleased to reveal that amongst
us. But there are some that trouble
you. Over the 15 or whatever years
it is, we've been troubled. There have been times when men
have come There have been times when our
own flesh has troubled us. We have opposition from within
and without. And every single time, God has
protected us and has defended us by the power of his gospel. See, these men would come and
pervert the gospel, the purity of that gospel. And it is a perversion
of the gospel. The gospel is good news. And
yet, the counterfeits that are brought
to us and have been brought to us and will continue to be brought
to us speak of men's activity in salvation. So often, so often,
this world presents opposition to the fact that our Lord Jesus
Christ successfully saved his people. And it contaminates the witness. And how important really is it
to defend this gospel? is it to stand and proclaim this
gospel in spite of all the opposition? Look at verse 8. But though we,
apostles, representatives of God, or an angel from heaven,
preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached
unto you, let him be accursed." This is
serious business. That means to be condemned for
all eternity. And he goes on in verse nine,
as we said before, so say I now again, when the scriptures mention
a thing twice, It's because there is a very serious issue laid
before us. But look at what Paul does now.
He now applies it to their current situation. If any man preach
any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him
be accursed. Whether it's an angel, whether
it's an apostle, Whether it's anyone, there is just one gospel and
every other gospel is dangerous to your souls. Verse 10, for do I now persuade
men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For
if I yet pleased men, which is what religion's about, pleasing
men, I should not be a servant of Christ. To preach a false gospel is not
serving men, it's not loving men, it's not caring for their
souls, and it's certainly not honouring our great God. How important is it? This is
a matter of eternal life and death. What's so important about the
gospel to us? Every single word of scripture,
in some way, contains the gospel, declares the gospel, ministers
to the hearts and souls of God's people through the gospel. In Romans 1, we're told it's
the power unto salvation. God's work of salvation It's
not just one moment when a man makes a decision. It's continuous. It's eternal. And it's a sustaining
work of God that began in eternity and will
continue for all eternity. Jonah tells us that salvation
is of the Lord. And that's the result of a saving
experience he had. You can read Jonah 2. But salvation,
all of salvation, continuously, eternally, is a work of the Lord
and not man. And in it we see that our Lord salvation and in all he manifests
himself in his people. See the gospel is all-sufficient.
It's a remedy for every single need we could possibly have. It rebukes us when we need it.
It defends us from some of those people that bring false gospel,
from troubles, from trials. It energises our souls. It refreshes
us. It strengthens our faith. It
explains life to us. It prepares us for what will
come next. It reveals spiritual realities. But what's most important about
the gospel is that it's a person, and God inhabits the gospel. And when the gospel's declared,
he reveals himself, and people meet God in judgment. See, that's where the gravity
of this comes from. Life and death experience, as
we say it all the time, they change people's lives. When we
meet God in saving grace, we have an eternal life and death
experience. In John 16, the Holy Spirit convicts
us of sin. And when God convicts, the subject
is really convicted. It's a work of God, a manifestation
of God. And we meet him, and we meet
him in our sins. And he shows us what we are.
He shows us who we are. He shows us all that we do and
what it really is. And then he convicts us of righteousness. And it just magnifies what he's
just shown us. We see that true righteousness
is in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see the standard of
righteousness necessary to be reconciled to our God. And we see that we have no hope
in ourselves, in men, in our activities of being reconciled
to our God. And then when he's pleased, he
convicts us of judgment. He shows us that our savior has
taken our place, that we're united with him. And that when he died,
we died. When he was buried, we were buried. When he was raised, we were raised. And as Angus just said, when
he was risen, when he ascended to sit in heaven, we ascended
with him. and are seated in heaven in union
with our God. See, it's in this process that
we meet God. It's in this process that the
holiness of God is revealed to us. The seriousness of the issue
of the gospel is revealed to us. Proverbs 1 tells us that fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And this is how we
began. And the Lord was pleased to do
this individually in the lives of some of us. And then he was
pleased to gather us together on the basis of that same gospel,
on the seriousness of that same gospel. So what distinguishes us as a
church in this world? And I'd have to say it's our God.
It's his work, every part of it. It's his presence in our
midst. It's his glory and truth being
revealed. This is how we care for souls. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5,
knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. It's like a
summary statement regarding our church in a sense. We've met
God and God himself. The Holy One of Israel dwells
in our midst. And the purpose of our church,
having experienced His presence, is to persuade men. All of us
have spent time in false religion to some degree. All of us have
felt the burdens and the slavery and the agonies of what that
entails. And yet God's shown himself in
this earth, and he's raised up a church, and there's now an
interaction with a holy, living God. Brothers and sisters, we can
compromise on so many things. We've been shown to be sinners
ourselves and we see the plights of men and know them from our
own experiences. And there's so much we can do
to make a message of the gospel easier to hear for people. But what we can never do is compromise
the truth of the gospel. And while that makes us stand
apart, sadly, from many, many others, We can't change it. We can't help men's souls and
we can't glorify our God unless we stand firm and faithful in
the truth of the gospel as it's presented in the scriptures.
There is just one true salvation in this world and in the next. this church. And if God's in it, we need to
take it seriously. If God's in it, it's precious
to us. It's an incredible blessing in
our lives. As I said, for a few days, I've
been contemplating our church and our experiences, and there
are too many to mention. But how wonderful is it to be
able to look back at our experience and see the footprints and the
fingerprints of our God? These are our Ebenezers. These
are the things that we remember. These are the things that we
see God revealed in, and if he's begun good work, he promises
to complete that work. These are evidences of a living
God. I guess I understand a little
more when the scriptures declare our God to be the living God.
It's a description of his interactions with his people. He's a real
God. He's a real God. We have 15 years
of evidence, and Lord willing, we'll have many more to come. How often, as we've considered scriptures as Angus
has preached through them. How often has God spoken to us
from those scriptures, text after text, week after week, and no
matter what situation we find ourselves in, how often has it
been a word in season to us? We should come in here looking
for it, expecting it. God promises to meet with his
people, to walk amongst them, to declare his gospel to their
hearts, to feed his sheep. What a great blessing, what an
incredible privilege it really is. We have no possible reason to
change. We have, like Peter in John 6,
nowhere else to go, no one else to go to. I pray that God will just continue
to unite us in love of his truth. And I pray he continues to reveal
himself both in us and amongst us. And I pray that he would remind
us again and again and again of what an incredible privilege
it is. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you that
you have raised a church up near us, that you've gathered your
people together and you've declared yourself in their midst. Oh, Father, help us to understand
something of the gravity of what you've done here. Father, help
us to continue to look to you and to see the wonders of your
grace in both the large things and the small things of our lives.
Help us to look expectantly, Heavenly Father. Help us to know
something. of the way you deal with us personally,
individually, but also collectively. Father, there's so much that
sets itself against us or your work in us, and yet make us to
rest. Remind us, Heavenly Father, that
all that's necessary for salvation is complete in your dear and
precious Son. Help us, Father, to lift him
up and to make much of him again and again and again. I thank you, Father, that you've
raised a witness up for yourself. I pray that you give us opportunities
and the words needed to speak. But I pray most of all, Heavenly
Father, that you speak in your gospel and through your gospel
to the hearts of your people. Oh, Father, what a great privilege
it is. I thank you and pray all things in the name of your precious
Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.