One of the wonderful things about
the scriptures to the children of God is that we are reading
our biography. Again and again we are reading
our biography. We are reading the biography
of our Saviour, but we are reading about what we are in Adam and
what we are in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are reading about
what we are in this world and we are reading about what we
are in the world to come. You see, brothers and sisters,
the scriptures are personal. They are personal. They are not
some dry, doctrinal, historic writings. They are the word of
God to the hearts and souls of these people. I'll start at verse
1 and I just wanted to read down to verse 5, which is the verse
that I would like us to spend some time contemplating today. Paul's instruction to these Galatians,
troubled by zealous, religious, moral people, who told people
no doubt that it's wonderful that they trusted in the Lord
Jesus, and then they said, but you must. But you must. It's all very well to talk about
Him in all of His greatness and all of His glory and all of the
wonders of His work in the hearts of His people, but you must. I don't know how many times I've
heard those words, but you must. But you must. Stand fast. Brothers and sisters, therefore
in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, no one is
freed by anything they do themselves. If Christ makes you free, you
are free indeed. And be not entangled again with
the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you
that if you be circumcised, if you do anything, If you do anything
with which you think you are going to earn God's favour, earn
some extra crown, do something by your own efforts to please
Him, if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole
law. Christ is become of no effect
unto you, no benefit, no blessing. He's blessing multitudes. He's
blessing millions. It is become of no effect unto
you, whosoever of you are justified by the law." Justified by anything
that you do whatsoever. You are fallen from grace. You see, every movement from
grace is a fall. Every movement, anywhere, in
any direction, every movement from grace is a falling. You've
fallen from grace. For we, by the Spirit, wait for
the hope of righteousness by faith. I'd just like us to consider
the words in that text this morning. If God the Holy Spirit would
cause you to see your history written there, your present history
written there, you might be enabled of the Spirit to go away from
this place rejoicing, rejoicing in the hope that we have. One of the things that's very
evident out of this is that the work of the Spirit in the lives
of God's people is to cause them to hope for a righteousness,
therefore not to see a righteousness in anything they do and anything
around them. The other work of the Holy Spirit
is that we wait. Waiting people are dependent
people. Waiting people are people who
are looking. We are waiting for the hope of
righteousness. Let's pray. Our Father in Heaven,
we pray that you would take your words and cause them to be life
for us again this morning, our Father, that you might take these
words and cause us to again be led by your Spirit to gaze upon
your dear and precious Son, that we might find ourselves at rest
and at peace and resting in hope in who He is and what He's done
and what He's doing right now for all of His blood-born children. We commit ourselves in Your hands,
Heavenly Father. We want to confess and want to
acknowledge so openly that in ourselves we are nothing and
without Your Spirit working in our hearts. We cannot believe,
we cannot love the Lord Jesus. We cannot find ourselves just
simply at rest in Him. So, Heavenly Father, we again
look for Heaven's blessing upon this proclamation of Your Gospel.
Blessed to our hearts, our Father, for we pray in Jesus' Name. Amen.
Do you want to turn that heater down a little bit, Simon? Just
leave it to mum. It's the blowing. Yeah, is it? Oh, I'm sorry. Is the temperature too high?
It's better because it's blowing up now. Let's get back to our text. is wonderfully logical and I
love the way he begins sentences with those words like for or
because. And what he's wanting you to
do is to be drawn back to the context of what he's just said,
the context of what he's saying right throughout the letter.
And so he's describing is describing a people who he describes as
we. We in contrast to all others. There are ultimately two groups
of people in this world. There are the we, there are that
we, that small remnant we, and there is just everyone else.
The we is characterised in the scriptures by all sorts of marvellous
terms. We read about a couple of them
in Psalm 16, didn't we? They are the excellent of all
the earth. What a remarkable description
of sins like us. And they are all his delight. What a remarkable description
of our Saviour's, our God's attitude and feelings about His elect.
They are the elect. They are the children of God.
They are the chosen. They are the called out ones.
They are His sheep, His body. They are His people. They're
His possessions. They're His jewels. They're His
delight. They are His bride. He calls them mine over and over
again in the scriptures. He owns them. They are His. They are His by creation. They
are His by redemption. They are His in eternity. They are His in time and they
are His in the new creation. They are Abraham's faith children. They are children born of the
Spirit. They are the new creation. They are those who are indwelt
by God, made by the work of God the Son to be a perfectly fit
habitation for God Almighty. What a remarkable thing that
we are. Let's go back to the immediate
context and see if we can define the we. In Galatians 5.1, Christ
has made us free. There is an us, the same as the
we. Made us free. It's we who have
the Spirit. all of God's children will have
the Spirit, and all of God's children will have the Spirit's
work active in their lives. And if Christ be in you, the
body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life. Our life is a spiritual life. The body is dead at sin, but
the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit
of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that
raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken, make alive
your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in you. The Spirit's
work, as we'll see as we go along, the Spirit's work in this context
is to cause people to believe, to cause people to have faith. True saving faith is a miracle
of God. The Spirit's work in this verse
again is to cause those people to wait, and they are waiting
for the hope of righteousness. We've talked so much about righteousness. Quite simply, it is so misunderstood. I'm so pleased that so many people
live basically moral lives and we need to be thankful to God
for them. But if you think righteousness
is anything that you do ever, then you have absolutely no idea
of what righteousness, the righteousness of God is. Righteousness is something
that we can't see. It's something that we actually
see through the eyes of faith and not through the eyes of flesh.
There is just one righteousness and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And these we wait, these we believe. We go back again in Galatians
to 4.31. They are the we, are the children
of the free. They are born, verse 29 of chapter
4, they are born after the Spirit. They are, in verse 28, the children
of promise. They are the children of the
Jerusalem above, 426. They are children born by promise,
423. Chapter 4, verse 6 says that
they are sons. And because you are sons, God
has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. If you be Christ's, if you be
His possessions, if you belong to Him, then you are also Abraham's
seed and heirs according to the promise. The we are people in
3 verse 13 has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made
a curse for us. The you, on the other hand, the
you as much as they display all sorts of extraordinary religion
and zeal and seemingly remarkable knowledge of the scriptures and
seemingly with amazing heritage, pedigrees that they can take
all the way back to Abraham, the we in verse 1 of chapter
5 are trapped. They are caught in a net, they
are ensnared and they are yoked. So not only are they doubly caught,
aren't they? They are yoked under a heavy
burden and they are trapped and ensnared like animals. Verse
4 of Chapter 5, Christ has become of no effect unto you. whosoever
of you are justified by the law." The you are justified not just
by Christ alone, but they're justified by something that they
do themselves. They are debtors. They are still
in debt to God. Imagine that, being in debt to
God with absolutely nothing to pay whatsoever. In debt to that
holy God who appeared to the Jews on Mount Sinai. And what
happened? As soon as He appeared to them, they wanted to flee
back to Egypt. They said, Moses, don't let God talk to us. They
wanted to flee from Him. And here they are going back
to that same law, thinking that they can please that same God.
They have fallen from grace. They have fallen from grace. As I've said so often, Paul is
writing in hope, isn't he? Peter is a great description
of someone who for a time fell from grace. It's a shocking thing
to fall from, but what a remarkable thing that God in His activities,
in His spiritual work in the lives of these people, He restores
the we. He restores the us. He must restore
them. They are His. They are His children
of love. They are the Lord Jesus' blood-born
children and none of them will be lost. For we, so there is
a we and there is a you in this world, we by the Spirit, that we acknowledge that all
of our activities, all of their spiritual life is a spiritual
gift of grace from God himself. For I will pour out upon him
that is thirsty, any thirsty people around, and on floods,
on a dry ground, any dry ground, I will pour out my spirit upon
thy seed and my blessing upon thine offspring." The three members
of the glorious Trinity operate always in perfect harmony, perfect
harmonies of wills and purpose, perfect in their works, perfect
in all of their activities. And the Spirit's work It has
two fundamental aspects to it, hasn't it? The Spirit's work
is to destroy the pride of men, to destroy all the props that
hold up your life, as it were, so that you're left with nothing. You're left with absolutely nothing
but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. All flesh, this is the work of
the Spirit, Isaiah 40 verse 6, all flesh is grass. What a great
description of flesh. All flesh is grass. All human
beings, you put the whole mass of humanity together, they are
just grass. And what about their goodliness?
Their goodliness is as the flower of the grass. The grass withers,
because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it. So where the Spirit
of the Lord blows, we will see, we will see, brothers and sisters,
that we are just grass. It withers. It withers all that
flesh is and it withers all all that flower of the grass, the
glory of the grass, it withers all of that. Nothing withers
the pride of man, as does the doctrine which this book is so
passionately proclaiming, and that is the righteousness of
faith. Just simply trusting the Lord
Jesus and Him alone makes God's children perfectly righteous
without them having done anything. As I said a couple of weeks ago,
The thief on the cross, the man who died for his crimes, is now
in glory and is equally in glory as Paul, who died for his Christ,
or as Moses, who died having served the Lord 120 years. Salvation
in every aspect is pure and sovereign grace. The Spirit blows upon
the flesh, this grass, and it withers it up. The Spirit's work
is to destroy the pride of man, to put the works of man in their
right and proper place. And the Spirit's work is to exalt
Christ. I love that verse in John 16,
14, I think it is, where it says, He will take the things of me
I love thinking how deeply you can take those things of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He will take the things of me. He shall glorify me for He shall
receive of mine and show it to you. He'll take the things of
the Lord Jesus and He'll show it to me. He'll glorify Him. You see, this doctrine, this
gospel that we proclaim, causes God's heaven-born children to
see that Jesus Christ is all in all, is all the sinner's hope. Why? Because nothing but faith
in Christ will help him. Nothing. Nothing in himself. Paul asks that question, doesn't
he? The question, which is a good question, is did you, in chapter
3, he says, did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law
or by the hearing of faith? How do you receive the Spirit? By your doing, doing, doing?
By your good doing, doing, doing? Or by simply hearing the Gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ? Faith for righteousness is just
based on the Spirit's testimony. God's children, their biography
describes them as people who just rest in faith on what God
has said in his scriptures. Why do you believe that you're
justified by faith? What on earth is the basis for
you believing that you are justified? What on earth is the basis for
you believing that you are a child of God? There is one basis, isn't
there, brothers and sisters? God has written in His Word. We, through the Spirit, we, through
the Spirit, We through the Spirit have our
flesh brought to where it really is. We through the Spirit see
the Lord Jesus Christ as He really is and hope which I'd like to
talk about a bit this morning. Hope just rests on this foundation. Other foundation can no man lay
than that which is laid, even Christ Jesus the righteous. So God's work is to debase all
of the pride of man and to put man's work in its right and proper
place and to take all of God's blood-born children and to place
them firmly upon the rock, upon this rock. He will not share,
our great God will not share the glory of his son with another. He calls upon us to look to me
and be saved. On Calvary's tree hangs all your
trust. On his father's throne there
dwells your hope. I love that. On Calvary's tree
hangs all your trust. On his father's throne there
dwells your hope. As the poet said, not what these
hands have done can save this guilty soul. Not what this toiling
flesh has borne can make my spirit whole. Not what I feel or do
can give me peace with God. Not all my prayers or sighs and
tears can bear my awful load. Your work alone, O Christ, can
ease this weight of sin. Your blood alone, O Lamb of God,
can give me peace within." The Spirit's work is to exhort Christ
to find us at rest on that rock, a rock that's higher than us.
The Spirit's work is to give us faith and to exercise that
faith and to continue to exercise that faith. It's out of faith. We, by the Spirit, out of faith. Faith just rests alone, alone
in Jesus Christ. Faith looks out of itself and
out of any of our activities and it looks alone to Him. It looks to his word of promise. I read those verses out of Romans
4, but it's a wonderful description of faith, isn't it? Abraham's
faith. Abraham had a promise from God. He staggered not the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God, being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he
was able also to perform, therefore it's imputed to him for righteousness. Am I too hot in here, is it?
Is that better? Ah, peace. I think we'll be okay. I think we'll be okay. There's a wonderful description
of Paul's commission by the Lord in Acts 26. Three times in Acts he actually
gives his description of his conversion, and I love each one
of them. He's appeared to him to make
him a minister and a witness to these things. and deliver
him from the people and the Gentiles unto whom I send you." And then
this is his description of the Spirit's work through Paul preaching
the Gospel, "...to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness
to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they
might receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them
which are sanctified by faith." Made holy by faith, where is
that faith? To among them which are sanctified
by faith, that is in me. I love that place. What a glorious
place for our faith to be. Our faith resides in Him. He is the faithful one, and His
work of faith in His children is to draw them to look to Him,
look to Him alone, and look to His word of promise. I love what
Titus says at the beginning of Titus. He says, God who cannot
lie. You have a book in front of you,
brothers and sisters, written by God who cannot lie. five wrists on his word. His word is true. His word is more true than your
feelings. His word is more true than your
experiences. His word claims us and His blood
cleanses us from all sin. His blood makes atonement for
sin. His righteousness robes His people
with the very righteousness of God. I love what Isaiah said
in Isaiah 45. He said, Surely in the Lord Jehovah
we have righteousness and strength. He that is born of God believes
in the Son of God, and believing in the Son of God you have life. To believe in the Son of God
is to be forgiven, to believe in the Son of God as he describes
himself in this book. We, through the Spirit, out of
faith, the hope of righteousness. Christians are people who have
hope, don't we? We have a remarkable hope in
a world which is a wilderness. We have a remarkable hope even
in that life of flesh that we've inherited from our father Adam. We are so thankful that the Spirit
glows upon that and it just withers it. We have a hope that's not
founded on our ancestry like the Judas does. We have a hope
that's not based on outward ceremonies and rites. We have a hope that's
not based on the blood of bulls and goats. And we have a hope
that's not based on our law obedience. We wait for Him to work righteousness. We wait again and again. by Him. We wait in Him. We just have our hope in Him
and His Word. We are, as He said, accepted
in the Beloved. We rest. We rest on Jesus Christ
crucified. We rest not upon our repentance
or our prayers or our conquests of sin or our faith. We rest
on Him, the faith that is in Him. We don't have anything except
what comes from Him. We have a hope that's in Him,
don't we? Our hope is just simply in who
He is and how He's described Himself. Our hope is in Jesus
Christ. and that God doesn't take away
your other hope, your hope in anything but Him. May God grant
us the grace that we would find ourselves with all of our hope,
all of our eggs in one basket. My hope, the believer's hope,
is in His grace, isn't it? Is in sovereign grace. That God chose us before the
foundation of the world because He loved us. not because we loved
Him. God Almighty blesses us, not
because we are good, but because He is good. God Almighty saves
us, not because we are gracious, but because He is gracious. As the scriptures say, there
is none good, there is none righteous, there is none worthy. We rest our hope in His grace. Even in heaven, when John was
there on the Isle of Patmos and taken to heaven, In Revelation
5, there they were in heaven and they looked around and they
said, who is worthy? Who is worthy to open the book
and look upon the book? There's not a person there in
all of humanity who is worthy to look even upon the book. And the Lord Jesus Christ comes
and He's worthy. He takes that book, the scroll
of all of the events of this universe, the scroll that describes
His salvation and His people journeys through this world,
that book that contains everything that happens in all of time,
that book is in His hands. He is worthy. I have a hope. We have a hope that's in Jesus
Christ alone. We have a hope that's in pure
and sovereign grace alone. And in the context of Galatians
5, we have a hope of righteousness in an honoured law. That's our
hope, isn't it? That's part of our hope, brothers
and sisters, that He kept it. He kept it, not me. He honoured God's law and magnified
it. He obeyed it, not me. My substitute. The Gospel can
be described in two wonderful words, isn't it? Substitution
and satisfaction. He substituted for me in all
of those things. And God the Father is satisfied. That's our claim before the throne
of God, before the throne of a holy God who is a consuming
fire, that His law is honoured. You see, if I had a hope that
diminished God's holy law, I'd be terrified. We want a hope
that magnifies the law and honours God's law, which is the problem
with these people. in these deceivable activities
with these Galatians, they were thinking that somehow with these
dirty hands you can do something to honour the Law of God. This
is Paul. led by the Holy Spirit to write
this. He and Philippians said, I kept it perfectly. Before men,
under the law of God, he says, I'm blameless. And now, having
met the Lord Jesus Christ, he met holiness. He now knew He now knew the one who was the
lawgiver, and he realised that all of his law keeping, all of
that righteousness that he seemed to have by something that he
did, was just filthy rags. It's withered away to nothing. My hope is based on the fact
that his law has been honoured, has been dealt with honourably,
and dealt with in a holy manner. Therefore, my hope is based on
the character of God, isn't it? My hope is grounded in the fact
that God is just. He is a just God and a Saviour. We are saved by grace. We are
saved by mercy. But we're also saved because
justice demands it. The guilty must be punished. The sinful must die. The guilty must pay his debt. The debtors must have their debts
paid. And for the Lord's people, for
that glorious we, my Lord was punished, my Lord died, my Lord
paid all, that God might be just and deal with me in justice. Therefore, therefore the hope
of believers is as sure as God's throne. sure as his throne is
in heaven." Henry Mahan had some lovely comments on this and he
asked people to consider three questions. The first one was,
if you were perfectly holy and perfectly righteous, and perfectly
unblameable, what would you expect from God? What would you expect
if that was your state before God? I would expect His approval. I would expect His acceptance. I would expect His love. And through the blood of the
cross, We are holy, unapprovable, unblameable in His sight, and
it is the glory of the Lord Jesus to present us so. He presents us faultless, no
sin, perfect righteousness before the throne of God. If the law
can lay nothing to your charge, what do you expect of God? God's children expect to be received. We are, as Romans 5 says, we
are made righteous by His work. Next question, our friend Henry.
Suppose you owed a death of sin and the justice of God found
you guilty and sentenced you to die, and you did die, and
justice plunged its sword through your heart, and then you rose
again. I would expect that he would
precede me. He has no claim, no justice has
no claim on those who are blood-bored. Jesus paid it all, all for him
I owe. Sin has left a crimson stain,
he washed it white as snow. What does the scripture say?
The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. What a horrible, horrible blasphemy
it is to present Jesus to people as if he died for all the sins
of all mankind and then tell people that some of those people
for whom the Lord Jesus did that will go to hell. It can never be without destroying
every revealed attribute of God in the scriptures. It is blasphemy. It is repulsive blasphemy to
the children of God. His blood cleanses us from all
sins. No wonder Paul can say, who can
lay any charge? Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that condemns? Who can condemn the child of
God? No one can condemn Him. Holy
God. A holy God must take all of his
children home to glory. He must take us all home, brothers
and sisters. All of the we must come home. And Henry asked that third question,
suppose you come to the day of judgment, as the religious people
want to talk about, and all the books are opened. And your book
is opened. And in there is not one charge
against you. And in there is a record of absolute
perfect righteousness before God and in His presence. What would you expect of God? I reckon he would close the book
and say, Welcome, thou good and faithful servant. Such is the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters. That's what I'd expect. There
will never be one charge of one sin against any of Christ's children. He paid it all. I owe the law of God absolutely
nothing, brothers and sisters. God says I owe absolutely nothing. Do you see what these Galatians
false teachers were doing? By taking people back to the
law, they are denying completely the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are denying His glory in
making His people holy. They are denying the fact that
by simply looking to Him and trusting Him, as He said, on
the warrant of His words to us, What does he say in John chapter
11? He says, come to me, all you
who are weary, in Matthew 11, I'm sorry. I love John's gospel
so much, I turn there automatically. He says, come to me, all you
who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. You see, you take his yoke upon
you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you
shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke, his yoke is easy
and his burden is light. We owe our great God a debt of
gratitude and praise. That's what our brothers and
sisters in heaven are doing right now. They are singing the glories
of Him who has redeemed us, Him who is worthy. Through the Spirit,
By faith, we are waiting for the hope of righteousness. As
we read in Psalm 17, it says, I'll be satisfied when I awake
in His likeness. The question remains, brothers
and sisters, are you aware Has God, the Holy Spirit, taken
you to a place where you are just waiting? Just waiting. That's the posture of the hopeful
ones, isn't it? The hope for righteousness. Rest. They are at rest. They're
waiting in peace. They're not working. They are simply as Abraham was. They are at rest in the promises
of God. Beloved, now we are. That's the
we, isn't it? Now we are the sons of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Waiting implies dependence on
another. and not on your own strength.
We have no ability in ourselves to achieve. We are waiting in
a sense right now, and we are waiting for God to work a miracle
of grace, a continuing miracle of grace in our lives, and we
are waiting for that great miracle when all things will be revealed. We are waiting on God's timing. We are waiting on God's promises. We are waiting on God's providences. We're waiting on God's purpose
being revealed. That's the Christian hope, isn't
it? It's a spiritual hope. It's a
hope through the Spirit. It's a single hope. It's a hope
that relies and rests on Christ's merit alone. It's a special hope. It's a hope by grace alone. And it has a remarkable substance,
hasn't it? There is perfect righteousness
for all of God's children. Righteousness before the law. Righteousness before the justice
of God. Righteousness in the presence
of God himself. Why? Paul gives one simple reason
in Galatians 2.20, because Jesus Christ loved me and gave himself
for me. That's the song of heaven. There's
not a single person of the you will ever be able to sing that
song. May God, may God cause us find
the Lord Jesus Christ perfect and sufficient and complete in
all things. Let's pray.