Galatians chapter 4, we have
seen Paul ask these questions of the Galatians. Where is the
blessedness that you spoke of? He was, in verse 14, received,
in chapter 4, received as an angel of God, received even as
Christ Jesus. Where is the blessedness then
you spoke of for I bear you record that if it had been possible
you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. Am I therefore become your enemy
because I tell you the truth." Remarkable transformation had
come over these Galatians because they had heard and believed a
lie, a religious lie, delivered by men like the ones in Romans
16, by good words and fair speeches, to deceive the hearts of the
simple. Verse 17, they zealously affect
you, they are zealous for you, but not well, they would exclude
you, They excluded these people from fellowship with Paul. They
excluded these people from fellowship in the Gospel. They were excluding
these people from fellowship with the Lord Jesus Himself,
that you might affect them. The words are the same. They
are zealous for you, but not well, that they would exclude
you, that you might be zealous for them. It is good to be zealous, affected
always in a good thing, not only when I am present with you. He
loved these Galatian believers, didn't he? My little children,
he says, whom I'm in travail in birth again, until Christ
be formed in you. I desire to be present with you
now and to change my voice, for I stand in doubt of you. The reality is the most dangerous
thing in all of this world is a lie that's cloaked in the garb
of religion. Just turn in your Bibles to Revelation
21. I don't know about you, I like
to think about the new creation. I like to think about what the
saints of God are enjoying now. I'll just read a few verses in
Revelation 21 and come to the heaviness of this topic. These
people have believed a lie. Paul, I mean Apostle John, inspired
by the Holy Spirit, had these visions and he said, I saw a
new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first
earth were passed away and there was no more sea. All of what
we see will be passed away. And I John saw the holy city,
now he's talking about people, the new Jerusalem coming down
from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them and be their God. and there's an intimacy of relationship
with the Lord Jesus in this new creation which is remarkable. No tears in heaven and God shall
wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more
death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more
pain for the former things are passed away. the things that
are part of our life, our journey here again and again in this
world, aren't there? Sorrow, crying, pain, no more
tears in glory. And he that sat upon the throne
said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write,
for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done,
it is finished. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end. I will give unto him that is
the first of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcomes shall inherit
all things and I will be his God and he shall be my son. There is a separation made, isn't
there? But the fearful and unbelieving, the abominable and murderers
and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters. All those things
need to be seen in their spiritual context, Lord willing. and all
liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire
and brimstone which is the second death. There are no lies in glory,
no lies, no lies in the new creation. nothing will enter in, and there
shall be no wise enter into it, anything that defileth, neither
whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which
are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. He talks again, doesn't he? He
says, Behold, in verse 12, Behold, I come quickly and my reward
is with me. He said to Abraham in Genesis
15, he says, Christ is the reward of God's
children. My reward is with me and I give
every man according as his work shall be. I am Alfred Amiga,
the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are
they that do his commandments. Believe. Believe what God says. that they may have right to the
tree of life and may enter in through the gates of the city.
For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers,
and idolaters, and then listen to these words, whosoever loveth
and maketh a lie. These are strong, strong words,
aren't they? That's what these Galatians have
been plagued with. That's what man has been plagued
with since the fall. They make and love a lie. We've been going through second
Thessalonians. It's a heavy, heavy thing to think of, isn't
it? The judgement of God upon those who lie. Those who lie in religion. I picked up this thing, I don't
know where I got it the other day, I think I got it over at
the animal park. And here they are, making the love of Jesus
known. And it's a love that saves no
one, a love that is nothing more than a helpless, hopeless, hopeless
desire. The lies are made. Read some
of the excellent articles in your bulletin this week. The
lies that are just surrounding us in religion. The lies about
who God is. You see, they never talk, do
you? You never see these things saying, making the holiness of
God known, making the righteousness of God known, making what the
Lord Jesus did on the cross known to people. They just want to
preach smooth things and entice people. They are just lies. Lies come from the father of
lies. In 2 Thessalonians he describes
Satan and his pride and his arrogance and his activities in this world.
and he also describes the effortless conquering of our great Saviour. He is a defeated enemy to the
children of God. For the working of Satan is with
all signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness and
unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive
not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for
this cause, 2 Thessalonians 2.11, God shall send them a strong
delusion that they should believe a lie, that all might be damned
who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. There is only one righteousness
in the scriptures, isn't there? There is the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God. There is no creature
righteousness at all. All other creature righteousness,
no matter how it is dressed up in this world, is unrighteousness. I don't know about you, I look
forward. I look forward to a place where there are no lies. I had a fellow come in and have
a cup of coffee with me this morning and it's just awful to
see him bound and captive to horrible lies. Horrible lies
about who he is and what his place in this world would be
if it wasn't for wicked white people like us. Horrible lies. Kept him captive, kept him sad,
kept him angry. That's what the liars have done
in Galatia, haven't they? They have turned Paul from being
someone who is esteemed as an angel of God into someone who
in their eyes is an enemy. Turned these Galatians into people
who would give absolutely everything because of the Gospel. The wonder
of the Gospel coming to them into a world of darkness. It came to them. What a wonder
of grace. What a remarkable, remarkable
providence of God that he brings his truth to a people. And He
brings it because He loved them with an everlasting love from
eternity. He brings it to them, as we saw
last week, because they are fit and proper recipients of He who
is the truth to dwell in them, because He's purchased them.
He's redeemed them with His own precious blood. And they are
dear to Him. Paul knows what it's like to
be a Pharisee. He knows what it's like to be
those ones described by John the Baptist as snakes, described
by the Lord Jesus as hypocrites. And how did he come to know it?
He only came to know it when he met the true and living God. The only solution to idolatry
and to lies lies in the Gospel, the Gospel of God, Him coming
to us. I wonder Paul was enraged. My
little children, he calls them, were being deceived by people
who had an outward cloak of religion and morality, a Bible in their
hand. But most of all, most of all
Paul is enraged because the lies demean the character of our Saviour,
the character of He who is our husband." So that's what church
is about, isn't it? That's what the preaching of
the Gospel is about. It's about the glory of God. If the preaching of the Gospel
and the activities of church become activities which are about
primarily the saving of men, then we'll do all sorts of things.
to get some sort of result. We have one simple aim. I trust
the Lord would keep us faithful. One simple aim. We just want
to glorify Him. We want to glorify Jesus Christ
and Him crucified and we want to be faithful witnesses. When Paul is debating with the
Corinthians about the reality of the resurrection from the
dead, And his biggest concern, it seems, at the end of all the
other things is, yes, and we be found. If we're preaching
resurrection and he wasn't raised, if we're preaching justification
by his resurrection, we're preaching particular and perfect redemption
by his perfect and finished work, we be found. and it's not true,
we be found false witnesses of God." We've just read it again
and again in Revelation. There are no liars getting into
heaven. For those of us who have had
the Lord reveal Himself to us, we know what Jeremiah says of
our hearts. is so true, isn't it? Jeremiah
79, the famous verse. The heart of man is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. Desperately wicked is
a medical term, it means incurably wicked. And who can know it? Our God says, I search the heart,
I try the reins. He searches our hearts. You see
our hearts are desperately wicked. We are prone again and again
to the same deceitful lies that our Galatian brothers and sisters
suffered all that time ago. There is just one hope, isn't
there? We can't trust our thoughts, we can't trust our feelings,
and we can't trust our wisdom. There is a way, Proverbs 16 and
Proverbs 14 says, there is a way that seemeth right unto a man,
but the end thereof are the ways of death. Our own hearts deceive
us. We love darkness rather than
light. The wicked are estranged from
the womb, they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies." You see these men were zealous,
these men were sincere, these men were self-sacrificing, these
men were moral, these men knew so much of their Bible, and they
knew nothing. They knew nothing of their own
deceitful heart because they knew nothing of the glory of
God. There will be a time, won't there,
when we will come, brothers and sisters in Christ, into glory
and there will be nothing there that defiles. God hates There are things that
God hates. In Proverbs 6, there is a list
of them. There are six things that He
hates, nay seven. Proverbs 6, 16-17. They are an
abomination to Him. And here's the list of them.
A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent
blood, a heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that are swift
in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and
he that soweth discord among brethren. That's exactly what
happened in this Galatian church, isn't it? It's lies. in the garb
of religious righteousness and religious morality that had caused
these people to be turned from the Lord Jesus, to be turned
from Paul, to be turned from people who would have plucked
out their own eyes and given them to him, to people who now
see Paul as an enemy. What a shocking thing that has
happened so quickly in this Galatian church. As I said earlier, there is nothing
more dangerous in all of this world than religion without Christ. Religion that puffs up the pride
of men. Religion that is in the hands
of Satan and is enticing to multitudes. Paul in 2 Corinthians 11 describes
these people as such false apostles, deceitful workers transforming
themselves into apostles of Christ. The ones that went to Galatia
said that they actually came from the church in Jerusalem. They came from the very hub of
the Christian church. They came, as it were, from the
very apostles themselves, deceitful workers, false apostles, transforming
themselves into apostles of Christ, and it's no marvel be warned,
brothers and sisters, it's no marvel for Satan himself is transformed
into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing
if his ministers also be transformed as ministers of what? As ministers
of righteousness. Satan's ministers. Ministers
of righteousness. whose end shall be according
to their works." See, it's their works, not the works of Christ,
not the righteousness of Christ. It's their works. If you turn in your Bibles to
Jeremiah 27, there's another reason for us to walk humbly
before our God. We read it in 2 Thessalonians
but there's a verse in Jeremiah that somehow along with the 2
Thessalonians verse and many others weighed heavily on my
heart over this last couple of weeks. And of course Jeremiah
is again, again and again, he's calling on these people to return
to the covenant that they had promised to keep. at Sinai, return
in faithfulness to God. And for them it was to put up
the white flag and surrender to the King of Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar. And Jeremiah went through trial
after trial after trial. And he spoke in verse 13, he
says, Why will you die, thou and thy people, by the sword,
by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the Lord has spoken against
the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? Therefore
hearken not unto the words of the prophet that speak unto you,
saying, You shall not serve the king of Babylon, for they prophesy
a lie unto you. For I have not sent them, saith
the Lord. Yet they prophesy a lie in my
name." And he does it for a reason, doesn't he? God has not been
removed from His throne of glory, nor has God's purpose in this
world and in the lives of His people been thwarted in any way
by these false prophets. In their day, in Jeremiah's day,
and in our day. So they prophesy a lie in the
name of God. Why does he do it? See, it's God's judgement, isn't
it? False teaching is God's way of
damning people. That I might drive you out and
that you might perish, you and the prophets that prophesy unto
you. God is sovereignly in charge
of false prophets. We need, brothers and sisters,
we need to cherish, I pray that God recalls us, to cherish the
truth of the Gospel and to be frightened by every lie that
ever comes our way. When God was wanting to get to
bring judgment and bring his prophesied word upon Ahab, what
did he do? We are, and Ahab was led into
this. He was given access to the courts
of God by God's servant. He says, how is he going to kill
him? How is he going to kill him? How is he going to get rid
of Ahab? You read in 1 Kings 22, it says,
the Lord said unto him, wherewith he said, I will go forth and
I will be a lying spirit. This is one of the angels of
God. I'll be a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets.
And so there's Micaiah, lonely Micaiah, one man against a multitude. And you've got to remember that
I have heard these words. He said, I will be a lying spirit
in the mouth of his prophets. And he said, thou shalt persuade
him. Prevail and go forth and do so. Now therefore, this is
Micaiah's words to Ahab before he was killed on the battlefield
with that arrow. You might remember the arrow.
It just was shot up without any particular aim and it pierced
through the armour on Ahab's chest and killed him. Behold,
the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets,
and the Lord has spoken evil concerning thee." And how did they respond? They
responded to Micaiah as they responded to these religious
people. They responded to Micaiah as the people of Jeremiah's day
responded to him, and the people throughout history have responded.
They just acted with arrogance and pride, a proud look that
God hates. And Zedekiah, the son of Chenanah
went near and smote Micaiah on the cheek and said, which way
went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee? See they
believe they have the Spirit of the Lord. Such is the deceitfulness
of deceivers. They are proud. As I said, the letter to Galatians
warns us again and again and again of the dangers, the shocking
dangers of lies in religion. Christ is of no profit to them. They make the death of Christ
a vanity. They frustrate the grace of God. And they do it in a simple, simple
way. They do it in exactly the same
way as Satan deceived Eve in the garden. It's remarkable,
isn't it? There was one law that God gave
in the garden, and Satan pointed her to that law. These people
take the law of God, they take it out of the hand of Christ,
and they rob Christ of His covenant glory. They rob Christ of His
eternal promises. They rob Christ of His eternal
union with His people. Now under the psalmist like Paul
would say, I hate every false way. Do you hate every false
way? See to love someone is to hate
the things that are offensive to them. There is a healthy hatred. that God's people should happen. I was listening to a Maurice Montgomery
sermon. He said very early on in his
Christian life, he discovered that there are two sorts of people
in this world, those who are conscious of God. They live with
a conscious awareness, a grace-granted conscious awareness of the character
of God. They have a healthy reverence
for His holiness. They have a love for His Son. And there is, in the work of
His Spirit in their lives, there's just a consciousness of who Christ
really is. our God is and how He must, He
must be faithful to His Word, to His Word of warning and to
His Word of promise. And there are those who have
no seeming consciousness of God. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. There's no reverential awe of
God. And such was the state of these
false teachers in Galatia. It's not as if they hadn't been
warned and warned and warned beforehand. They had a zeal, but they had
been warned like the others that we've heard about. And what must this letter have
meant to them? for some in this church. These
words of Paul would have been a refreshing recovery, a refreshing
return to the Gospel, a fresh insight into the wonders of redeeming
love, that they would be rescued. Having escaped the mire and fallen
back into it again, they would have been rescued by that Redeemer. I love what Micah 7.19 says.
He says, He will turn again. He will have compassion on us. Not on everyone. He will have
compassion on us. He will subdue our iniquities. What a promise from God. He will
subdue our iniquities and thou will cast all their sins into
the depths of the sea. It is purely a work of sovereign
grace in the hearts of people that brings first the Gospel
and then brings that Gospel again and again with power into the
lives of God's people. A power that turns them back
to the Lord Jesus, turns them away from their works. away from themselves, turns them
away from the lie of the garden. What's the lie? It's infused
into our nature. It is in every part of our being. If you can't see it, all you
need to do is squeeze a human being and out it will pop. You shall be as gods. You shall not die, said Satan
to Eve in the garden. You shall be his gods. You shall
know good and evil. A man could be his own god. and preserve and determine his
own salvation and his own eternal happiness. That salvation is
not in the hands of God, but in the hands of men. That sanctification is not in
the hands of God, but in the hands of men. If you do this
and you do that, you'll be saved and go to glory. find out about another church,
one of the first things I do, the first thing I do is I go
and have a look at their statement of faith. I just want to know
what they say about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I want to
know what the banner is that they are holding up to the world. What flag, as it were, are they
marching under. And again and again and again
you read those words, don't you, that God has done everything
He can God has done everything He can, including sending His
Son. Because of His great grace and
His great love for all mankind, He sent Him to die for us all.
And if, and if you repent, and if you put your faith in the
Lord Jesus, then this present that's been wrapped up by God
is yours for the taking. do this and live, is the great lie, isn't it? The
great lie of human merit, the great lie of human ability, and
the great lie is a great denial of God and His Christ and His
glory. And that's what Satan wants,
isn't it? anything but Christ getting all
the glory. It doesn't matter to Him what
religion it is. It doesn't matter to Him what
denomination it is. It doesn't matter to Him what
clothes you wear, how you're dressed, where you serve and
where you worship. As long as Christ is robbed of
His glory, He has won. You shall be as God. They keep
telling us, don't they? I don't know how many times I've
had the conversation as you've heard so many times and experienced
yourselves. They keep saying, it's all very
well to talk about the Lord Jesus and talk about His glory and
talk about His holiness and talk about His covenant and talk about
what He's done on the cross and talk about how He indwells His
people, talk about all of this. You have all of the glories of
that and then they say, but, but you must do something. Do what? You must do something. There must be something that
you must do. This lie pervades this religious
world around us and we ought to be thankful to God for His
rescue of us out of it. And it's only ever going to be
cast out of us by Christ living in you. I love what Romans 8
says. It says right now, doesn't it?
Right now. Therefore there is now no condemnation
for them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the
flesh." What were these Galatian false teachers doing? Circumcise
your flesh and then continue to walk after your flesh. "...who
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, because, verse
2, for the law of the Spirit of life In Christ Jesus, I love
that the law of the Spirit of Life is in Christ Jesus, has
made me free from the law of sin and death, the law of human
works and activities. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in
the flesh. that, this is the result of our
Saviour's work, isn't it, that the righteousness of the law
might be fulfilled, not partially, completely fulfilled in us who
walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. These people
who turned, these Galatian false teachers as the false teachers
of this world, They turn people from looking to Christ, to look
at anything else. If you turn your gaze, if the
preacher turns your gaze from anything but Jesus Christ, turns
your gaze to yourself and to your activities and to your merits
or to themselves and to the activities of other people, Satan has won
and the lie has prevailed. These false brethren, as we saw
earlier, they come in sneakily. They are deceitful, aren't they?
They come in as lambs, looking like lambs, and it's only when
you get up close and personal that you end up finding out that
they are wolves. They come in privately, privily,
to spy out our liberty. They come in as servants of Satan
who is the liar, the father of lies and a murderer. How does
he murder people? How does he start murdering people?
By lying to them, causing them to believe a lie. What did he
say? What were his first words in the garden? God really say? Has God spoken truth in his word? It's a denial of his character. It's a denial of the judgment
of God and it's an elevation of man. Whatever denies the glory
of our God and denies His Word does so necessarily at the diminishing
of his faithfulness to His Word. They weren't just denying a little
bit of Christ, these false brethren in Galatia, they were denying
the whole doctrine of Christ. It is just one, isn't it? Christ
is just one. Every time in the scriptures
the word doctrine is used, it's just a reference to the truth
about our God and how He saves sinners. Every time doctrines
are mentioned, it's always regarding false False doctrines. There is just one. They turn
these Galatians from looking to Christ. And what a crafty
way to do it. You turn people from looking
to Christ by turning them to look to the law of God. How many conversations have you
had with people who take you to the back half of Paul's letters
and say, here you are, here's a list of rules, and these rules
for holy living have the same bearing and the same weight upon
you as the commandments and the law of Moses. And they put people
back under the old covenant. We read about the glories of
the New Covenant. You can read about it in Hebrews
8 and Jeremiah 31 and throughout the Old Testament. The glory
of God is that the Lord Jesus is the Covenant and He's fulfilled
it and He's perfected it. See, to deny one truth of the
Gospel is to deny all of the Gospel. There's no such thing
as a little lie when it comes to the things of our Lord Jesus. You see, they lied, they came
to them and they lied about circumcision. We read about it in Romans 4
last week, didn't we? They lied about circumcision.
They said that circumcision was from the Law of Moses and it
is in the Law of Moses. But circumcision was given to
Abraham as a sign and a seal, says Romans 4, of the righteousness
that he had by faith 15 years before he was circumcised. I love what John 7, the Lord
Jesus confronted these people who were fastidious as you know.
Fastidious for law keeping, return quickly to John chapter 7. And
of course there's a dilemma when it comes to circumcision and
the law. The dilemma is of course, the dilemma is that you cannot You cannot keep both the law
of circumcision and the law of Sabbath at the same time. Isn't it wonderful how God has
so organised it? He says in verse 19 to them,
did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keep the law.
Why go you about to kill me? The Lord Jesus knew it was in
their hearts. The people answered and said, thou hast a devil.
Who goeth about to kill you? What a lie. Who was telling the
truth? He was telling the truth. Jesus
answered and said to them, I have done one work and you all marvel. Moses therefore gave unto you
circumcision, not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers. And ye on the Sabbath circumcise
a man. If a man on the Sabbath day receives
circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken. And
you are angry with me, because I made a man every whit whole
on the Sabbath day. See, judge not according to appearance,
but judge righteous judgment. See, you can't do both. What's
it mean? What's the purpose of it? To
drive people back to God and to drive people away from law
and law-keeping. Under the law of circumcision,
you cannot keep the law of the Sabbath. But I love what the
Lord Jesus said there in John 7.23, isn't it? How did he make you? What did he do with this man? You're angry at me. You're angry
at me because I made a man every whit hole. See, what does the
Lord Jesus make of his people? Every bit whole, perfect, complete,
righteous, holy. That's what he makes them, doesn't
he? And they're angry with him. You see, the glory of the gospel. is that it leaves no room for
any meritorious work of man. Nothing in man ever to glory
in. God's children delight in the
truth of that. They find it gospel because they
glory in Him. God is a zealous God and He's
a jealous God. The same words zealous and jealous
are used interchangeably in the scriptures. These people were
zealous, zealous for the law of Moses, zealous to turn people
to themselves. It's an extraordinary thing,
isn't it, the depth of the wickedness of man's heart. in the depths
of the wickedness of man's heart in rebellion." You see, they
weren't insincere. In 2 Timothy, there's a description
of these last days. They're perilous times, 2 Timothy
3. For men shall be lovers of their
own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient
to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affliction, truth-breakers,
liars, false accusers, liars, incontinent, fierce, despisers
of those that are good. traitors, heady, high-minded,
lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. You would think
that he was talking about the world outside, wouldn't you?
He's talking about people in religion. They have a form of
godliness. They have a form of godliness
but denying the power thereof. What's the power of the The power
is the Gospel, isn't it? It's the power of God unto salvation. They're denying the Gospel, they're
denying who the Lord Jesus is, they're denying Him as the Saviour
and the Redeemer and the Sanctifier and the Preserver and the Protector
and the Carrier of His people, the One who alone, alone must
work in the hearts of people to turn them from their iniquities
and to turn them again and again out of the kingdom of darkness
and into the kingdom of light in His dear Son. A bit like these
Galatian false teachers, verse 6 of 2 Timothy 3, they creep For of this sort are they which
creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins,
led away by diverse lusts, ever learning and never able to come
to the knowledge of the truth." And he compares them with Jamborees. But then he goes on to say, doesn't
he, in verse 10, But thou hast fully done my doctrine, You have
fully known what I have preached about the Lord Jesus, manner
of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity and patience, persecution,
afflictions which came unto me in Antioch and Iconium. He's talking about his persecutions
in these Galatian regions. What persecutions I endured,
but out of them all the Lord delivered me. not his own strength. Yea, and all that live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And then this shocking
statement in verse 13. But evil men and seducers shall
wax worse and worse. See this is the promise of God.
We see it around us fulfilled in a myriad of different places. See they're deceiving and being
deceived. See they're not insincere, these
people. They are deceiving and they're
being deceived. What's the lie look like? To
these Galatians the lie looked like the lie that's propagated
all around the place and the lie that has a natural home in
my heart and yours. We must never think that it's
always just out there. It's in here. How often do we think that man's
obedience is the basis for his acceptance with God? How often
do you stumble at that? I do on a daily basis, brothers
and sisters, I need the Gospel. I need to hear again and again
that the basis of God's acceptance of me has got nothing to do with
me in any way whatsoever. And that everything that God
looks to from me, His Son has performed for me. And He now
sits in Heaven's glory and He wears the worms that cost Him
that to take away my sins. And He pleads for me. He intercedes
for me. On what basis? On the basis of
something I've done. He intercedes again and again
on the basis of His work. Accepted we are in the Beloved. The lie again is that God looks
down the channel of time and he foresaw that there was merit
in man and they were the ones who were chosen. The man can get some glory in
giving himself spiritual life. We hear it again and again, God
has done all he can do. It's a Christmas present wrapped
up under a tree and now it's up to you. You perform your part
and you will be saved. Do this and live is the covenant
of works. And as I quoted from that statement
of faith which is common in Baptist churches throughout this land
and probably throughout the world, that you by your activities of
believing and repenting, you by your works can make Christ's
blood effectual. What a blasphemy against our
great Saviour. Christ's atoning work is particular,
it's effectual and it's limited to the elect of God. It's a saving
work and a redeeming work. It's a sanctifying work. It's
a preserving work. And we who are saved will sing
the songs of heaven, not a single word about human merits and human
activity and human law keeping. God's gift. of faith and repentance,
God's gift of mercy is to turn us from ourselves to the Lord
Jesus Christ, and not to turn us from Christ back to the law. It's a great lie, isn't it, that
somehow by our law obedience Our obedience and our activities
can be the means of our justification, the measure of our sanctification,
our rule of life, our motive for service, the ground of our
reward in heaven. It denies all the fundamentals
of who we are as fallen in Adam and who we are as redeemed and
saved. by sovereign grace in Christ. Just to finish, I love that passage,
just back a couple of pages from our passage in Galatians. Paul
talks about the simplicity that's in Christ Jesus. But I fear lest
by any means there's a certain beguile thee through subtly,
so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that's in
Christ. It's a singleness. It means oneness. It means unity that's in Christ. What's the reason? What's the
reason for your election? It's just Christ Jesus. Simple,
isn't it? Oneness. What's the reason for
your existence and your creation? It's Christ Jesus created you. What's the reason for your redemption? It's simple and single. It's
Christ, isn't it? What's the reason for your justification? It's Christ. What's the reason
for your sanctification? Where do you look to? It's Christ. When you get to glory, what will
glory be all about? It'll be all about Him. What will be your joy in glory? beholding him face to face as
he wipes away all the tears from our eyes. The intimacy of relationship
with him. So he does that work of me again
and again. As many as I love, says the Lord
Jesus to the church of the Laodiceans. As many as I love, he rebukes
and he chastens. He continues to work out of us
what we inherited from our father Adam. He continues to work out
of us that captivity that Satan took of the whole human race. It's not easy work, but it's
wonderful work of grace in the lives of these people. May He
never let us go our own way and choose our own paths. May He
protect us. May He protect you from the lie,
the lie that's in our flesh, the lie that's in our world,
the lie that is damning multitudes of people. in this world, people
that we love and care for. Let's pray.