The Apostle Paul is asking questions
again and again of the Galatians, and I trust that God the Holy
Spirit might take these words and they might be questions that
he asks of us. In chapter 3 he asks a number
of questions of these Galatians about what happened to them and
who had bewitched them and how they had become deceived. In chapter 4 he asks more questions. But in chapter 4, where we're
up to is in verse 11, but I might read from verse 1 down to 16
just so that we have the context of it. He's speaking in verse
at the end of chapter 3, he's talking about the blessedness
of Abraham. The blessedness of Abraham is
to be a son of God, a friend of God, to be one who receives
the Spirit of God. And verse 26 to go back there,
for you are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For
as many as of you have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is now neither Jew nor
Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male
nor female, for you're all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be
Christ, if you belong to Christ, if you're owned by Christ, then
you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Now I say that an heir, as long
as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant though he be lord
of all. Potentially he is lord of all
and will own all, but if he's just a servant he doesn't differ
anything from the other servants. But he's under tutors and governors
until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were
children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. And I think he's speaking of
his Jewish heritage there, but when the fullness of time, what
a great gospel declaration this is, when the fullness of time
has come, all time is in God's hands and there is a fullness
at his time. When the fullness of time has
come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the
law. Why did he come? to redeem, not
to try, but to redeem them that were under the law that we might
receive the adoption of sons. And look how he describes the
children of God. And because you are sons, God
has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. Therefore you are no more a servant,
but a son, and if a son, an heir of God through Christ. How be it then, when you knew
not God, When you were a pagan idolater, you did service. You were in slavery unto them
which by nature are no gods. But now, after you have known
God, or rather known of God, how turn you again to the weak
and beggarly elements whereunto you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and
times and years. I'm afraid of you, I'm afraid
for you, lest I have bestowed labour upon you in vain. Brethren, I beseech you, I beg
you, be as I am, for I am as you are. You have not injured
me at all. You know how through infirmity
of the flesh I preached the Gospel unto you at the first, and my
temptation, my trial, which was in my flesh, you despised not,
nor rejected, but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ
Jesus. Where then is the blessedness
you spoke of. At that time you spoke of remarkable
blessedness. Where is then the blessedness? 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? What a question. What questions
God has laid out in his word for these Galatian believers. Where is the blessedness you
spoke of? Where is the blessedness? Am I therefore become your enemy
because I tell you the truth? What a challenging question it
is. about that blessedness. Norm read to us about Mr Cowper
finding the Bible and finding the glory of the Gospel in Romans
Chapter 3 and that extraordinary sense of wonder and awe that
God, God loved you, that God took away all of your sins. that you are now a child of God. When the Lord Jesus in Revelation
Chapter 2 challenges the church at Ephesus, the church at Ephesus
is in many ways exemplary, exemplary in doctrine, exemplary in even
hating the Nicolaitans. But He says, I have this against
you. You have lost, you have left your
first love. Left your first love. That first love is in many ways
what Paul is speaking of here in terms of that blessedness. We want to look this morning
at several things. Obviously Paul's anguish and Paul's reason
for rioting and Paul's witness, witness to them and his witness
about them. And then it might be good if
the Lord allows us to ask, where is that blessedness? Where is
that blessedness? in your life and mine now. We
know from the scriptures, we know from the testimony of the
saints of God throughout times that they spend many, many times,
they spend many, much more time walking, as it were, in darkness
and calling out to the Lord to come and shine a light on their
circumstances and on their lives. And they have moments, they have
just moments as the apostles did on the Mount of Transfiguration.
They have moments where they see the blessedness of the glory
of God. The scriptures speak with great
honesty about the trials and the struggles of God's people
in this world, and particularly about the trials and struggles
of those like Paul in this letter here, who writes in anguish,
doesn't he? He says, I'm afraid of you, I'm
fearful for you, lest I have bestowed labour on you in vain. And he begs. these Galatians. He's calling out to them in love. He's not writing to them out
of some sense of revenge or hate for them. He says you haven't, in verse
12 he says, you haven't injured me at all. He's calling them
back into fellowship with himself. They had not only lost fellowship
with Paul, but their losing fellowship with Paul was because they had
lost fellowship with God in his Gospel. To turn from the Gospel
is to turn from the messengers of the Gospel. And that was one
of the things that the false teachers did. And it's an extraordinary
thing, isn't it, to think of what it meant for an apostle
to have to write a letter like Galatians and defend his person
and to defend his character and to defend his call from God on
his life before these people. It becomes an extraordinarily
serious thing to ponder, isn't it? He is just an ambassador. He is a nothing, as all of God's
preachers know themselves to be. He is just a vessel. He is just one used of the Lord. And the message he brings is
far more significant than the physical presence of Paul. In fact he goes to some lengths
in 2 Corinthians, you can read about it in chapter 10 and other
places where he goes to some considerable lengths to show
that before people he was no great orator at all. Physically he didn't look much
at all. As an orator he was in a place
where he could have been despised by the trained and powerful orators
of his day. He was just a man, wasn't he? He says of himself, for his letters
they say are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak
and his speech contemptible. But in the providence the Lord
had been brought to this Galatian church through an infirmity of
the flesh. Now if you read in Acts 13-15
you will see that Paul on that first missionary journey was
beaten and dragged outside one of the cities in that region
and left for dead. The Jews and the others were
stirred up against him all the time. Maybe that was the cause
of this infirmity of the flesh, that he'd come there having suffered,
suffered for the Gospel. It may be, as you read down,
when he gives a record of their blessedness, the record of their
response to blessedness. Their response to blessedness
is giving and love and generosity. The response to blessedness is
those fruits of the Spirit that he speaks about in chapter 5.
For what does he say in verse 15? For I bear you record that
if it had been possible you would have plucked out your own eyes
and have given them to me. Such was the love that they had
for the Apostle Paul. Such was the way they saw him.
He was received, verse 14, my trial, my temptation in my flesh. They didn't despise what He looked
like. They didn't despise what He sounded
like. They say He had a high-pitched
voice and He was a little bent over man and had a long hooked
nose and an annoying high-pitched voice. Isn't it wonderful how
God makes the preachers of the Gospel seem weak in the eyes
of people? That it's not about them. It's
not about them. It's about the message they bring. How did they receive Him? How
did they receive Him when He came looking like this, suffering
this infirmity of the flesh which seems to have been in His eyes?
Read it there in verse 14. You didn't despise what I looked
like and you didn't reject me, but you received me as an angel
of God. They received Him even as Christ
Jesus." What had happened? What had happened? to bring about this state. If we go back to the Galatians,
chapter 2, we have something of the history of it, don't we?
What had happened? Paul had come and preached the
Gospel, preached the Gospel of sovereign grace, of sovereign
electing love of God. He preached, as chapter 3 says,
verse 1, before whose eyes Christ Jesus
has been evidently set forth. He's been placarded. Paul came
and he proclaimed with a placard, as it were, Jesus Christ set
forth, evidently set forth, crucified. That was his message, Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. The whole Council of God is Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. and what had happened in those
churches. But because of false brethren,
unawares, brought in, they didn't look like false brethren. They
claimed to be Christians. They were so much, in so many
ways, like the apostles that they could come into the churches
where the apostles had left and take up positions of responsibility
and authority, and obviously leadership. Brought in unawares,
they came in privately to spy out our liberty which we have
in Christ Jesus that they might bring us into bondage. For those who think themselves
strong Galatians, is a wonderfully instructive letter, isn't it?
Because in chapter 2 verse 11 he goes on to describe how in
a similar situation, and these people came from James, they
came to Antioch from the very epicentre of Christianity in
those days, the church in Jerusalem, the church pastored by James
is what their claim was. And then they came to that gathering
in Antioch before that certain came from
James, he did eat with the Gentiles. But when they were come, he withdrew
and separated himself, fearing them that were of the circumcision.
And other Jews dissembled, other Jews joined in the hypocrisy
likewise with him, insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away
with their dissimulation, with their hypocrisy. And look what
Paul says of them in verse 14. This is Peter and Barnabas. But
when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth
of the Gospel, I said unto Peter before them, All, if thou being
a Jew livest after the manner of the Gentiles, and not as do
the Jew, why compelst thou the Gentiles to live as Jews? Jews compels the Gentiles. It was compelling from the Apostle
Peter and from Barnabas. Such is the nature of the human
heart, isn't it? Jeremiah 17 says that our hearts
are desperately wicked and beyond cure. Desperately wicked beyond
cure. Calvin said that the human heart
is an idle factory. Charles Simeon said, the human
mind is very fond of fetters. It is apt to forge them for itself. So this letter is a personal
letter, isn't it? It now becomes extraordinarily
personal for Paul. He's not saying that he's been
injured. He's not saying that he's writing
out of any sense of vengeance or reproach to them
because of what they did to him. He is not the issue. The issue
is he loved the souls of these people because he loved the Lord
Jesus Christ. And in God's providence, he'd
taken Paul to that part of Turkey, modern day Turkey, and not to
other parts of modern day Turkey. You can read about it in Acts
chapter 16. He refused for him to go to certain places, but
he did because of infirmity of the flesh. go to these people
and they responded. They responded with extraordinary
blessedness, extraordinary gratitude. And so he asks these questions
of them, doesn't he? In chapter 1 verse 6 he says,
I marvel, I'm astonished, I'm astounded. Chapter 3 he asks
them, who has bewitched you, who has deceived you? Chapter 5, verse 7, he says,
and who has hindered you? You did run well. When you had
this blessedness, you ran well. Who did hinder you? And look
what he goes on to say, that you should not obey the truth. That you should not obey the
truth. You see, these people And that's the heart of what
this part of the passage is about, isn't it? These people had turned
from the Gospel because of the deceptive work of these false
teachers. And in turning from the Gospel
they had turned from God's messenger. He'd been esteemed in their eyes. He'd been esteemed before them.
And then he asked them this question, am I therefore become your enemy? Because I tell you the truth. How much he longed for the response
of the Apostle Peter. The Apostle Peter, people say
that they had a big argument. I believe, as much as the scriptures
allow me to believe, that the Apostle Peter, as soon as he
had that rebuke from Paul, that public rebuke which must have
shamed him enormously and shamed Barnabas, I think he just put
up the white flag immediately. He says, now I see. And he calls
Paul in Chapter 3, at the end of his life he says, he's a beloved
brother. a beloved brother, a beloved
brother in the Gospel who has rescued him from a path that
was bewitching and deceiving. The essence of the issue at Galatia,
of course, is the essence of the issue that is before all
of us and in all of our flesh all of the time. We really do
believe, because of the fall of our father Adam, that if we
do something, if we do something, we will earn God's favour. If we do something, we will keep
ourselves more in God's favour. That is the glory of the liberty
of the Gospel, isn't it? It declares a Saviour. And that's the problem with a
false Gospel, is it presents another Jesus. I love what Hebrews
10, I was reading it this morning when I was in here, I love what
Hebrews 10 just how Hebrews 10 describes our Lord Jesus. He came as that suffering servant
that is said sacrifice and offering, and burnt offerings and offerings
of sin thou wouldst not, neither had thou pleasure therein which
are offered by the law. Then he said, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second, by the which will We are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And then down in verse 14 of
that same chapter, he says these remarkable words. For by one
offering, he has perfected forever them that are sanctified. See, Peter knew better. In Acts
chapter 15 at that Jerusalem council when this issue was raised
before all of the apostles, Peter rose up and he spoke of the fact that
there is now no difference between Jew and Gentiles. God knows the
hearts and He bears them with Him, giving them, that's the
blessing, that's the blessedness here in Galatians 3, is the receipt
of the Spirit, to be a child of God, giving them the Holy
Spirit as He did unto us. The Gentiles received the Holy
Spirit in exactly the same way as the Jews did, as the apostles
did. and put no difference between
us and them purifying their hearts. How? Purifying their hearts by
faith, by the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus and our simple
trusting in Him. The issue, of course, in all
of our lives and I can speak personally rather than speak
publicly in a sense, is that we do believe, don't we, that
if we have a freedom, if we have liberty, liberty from rules,
liberty from regulations, then there will be no restraints and
people will sin as they like. And so it was with good intentions
that these people came to Galatia. They were zealous. They were
moral people. And all they did All they did
was say to these people, there is a way to be sanctified, to
be more sanctified by doing these things. It takes a new nature. It takes a holy nature. It takes a nature born of God
to love freedom and to delight in freedom, as Norman read out
about Mr Cowper. Ezekiel 36 has been a passage
of Scripture which is really powerful, isn't it? And powerful
because of its promises. And these are the promises of
the blessing of the Spirit which was given to Abraham, the blessing
of the Spirit which came to the Gentile believers in Galatia
when Jesus Christ and Him crucified was preached to them. and the
promise of God, just listen to the I wills. He says, I will
sanctify, I will set apart and set high and holy my great name,
which was profaned among the heathen, and which you have profaned
in the midst of them. And the heathen shall know that
I am the Lord, saith the Lord, when I shall be sanctified in
you before their eyes, because, for, I will take you from among
the heathen and gather you out of all countries and will bring
you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water
on you. And you shall be clean. From
all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse
you. A new heart also will I give
you. A new heart and a new spirit
will I put within you and I'll take away the stony heart out
of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh and I will
put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes
and you shall keep my judgments and do them. He goes on to talk
about where they will dwell. But the essence, the essence
of the Gospel coming in power and Christ Jesus himself taking
up residence inside people is that we now as children of God
belong to him. What does he say? You shall be
my people and I will be your God. and I will also save you
from your uncleanness." He will save His people, He will
redeem them, and He will put His Spirit in them, and His Spirit
will move them. He is our sanctification, and
He, our precious Saviour, is our sanctifier. The false teachers in Galatia,
as they do today, keep saying to people, if we can give you
some rules to live by, then you will be more holy. under the New Covenant speak
in exactly the opposite terms." I love what Romans 6 says, isn't
it? He says, "...need ye yield your members as instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God, as
those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments
of righteousness unto God." Because, Romans 6, 14, "...for sin shall
not have dominion over you." Why? because you're not under
the law but under grace. The natural man thinks that to
bring some law will bring people into a state of greater holiness,
Romans 6.14 says exactly the opposite. They thought the law would make
them more sanctified. And they will find, and they
did find, that the Lord did exactly the opposite in their lives. These men could get no inroad
into the lives of these people that they were bewitching and
deceiving until they had removed Paul in their esteem from their
presence. Paul went from being viewed as
an angel of God and even Jesus Christ himself to someone who
was viewed by these people as an enemy. Paul was no different. Paul's Gospel hadn't changed
at all. In fact he makes it very, very
clear, doesn't he, in Galatians 1, that if anyone brings any
other Gospel other than the one that he has preached, if you
receive any other Gospel other than the one that you have received,
let him be accursed. You see the Galatian view of
the Gospel had changed. The Galatian view of the work
of God in the lives of his people had changed. And their view as Paul has changed. There is a lesson for us, isn't
it? When our view of someone has changed, we need to ask ourselves,
is it because our view of the Gospel has changed? As I said,
Paul is an ambassador. People need not to deal with
Paul, but to deal with his King. An ambassador simply has a message,
an ambassador simply relays the message. If you have a problem
with the message about the character of God and what the Lord Jesus
has done, then the issue is not with the preacher, the issue
is with God himself. For those who love this blessedness,
I love what Romans 10 says and it quotes Isaiah 50, it says,
how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings
of good things." I love to think about that this last little while.
Isn't it wonderful? The only thing you can't see
much of me is my feet. It doesn't say how beautiful
is the eloquence of him who preached the Gospel, how beautiful is
his learning and how beautiful is his knowledge of Greek and
Hebrew and how beautiful are some of the things that he's
done. It's how beautiful are the feet. The beauty and the
blessedness that these Galatians had experienced, that Paul spoke
of, was that blessedness in hearing the Gospel for the first time.
That like Paul, that you might be caused by God, I trust you
have caused by God to call out, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, but not,
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me and the life I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me." If that has been your experience
under the Gospel, what remarkable blessedness, plucking out eyes,
doing anything, doing anything to honour the preacher, doing
anything to honour the children of God is just a simple thing. In fact, God's children long
for opportunities to witness to Him. They long for opportunities
to serve Him. They find it not frustrating
that they don't do enough, that they find it frustrating that
they can't at times. They beg the Lord to allow them
to witness and somehow the doors are closed. But the Gospel in
its glory, in its grace, in its freedom is something remarkable. It's something blessed, isn't
it? To know that your sins are forgiven and they are taken away
completely. They became, the Lord Jesus,
as Norm read from 2 Corinthians 5.21, God made him who knew no
sin, God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. He made Him to be sin for us
who knew no sin. He had no sin of His own, but
God made Him to be sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God. In Him, God's salvation, the
love of God shed abroad in our hearts, What did Paul pray for
the Ephesians? He prayed that they would find
that Christ might dwell in your heart through faith. You might dwell in your hearts.
So that's the blessedness here, isn't it, in the context of Galatians
4. The blessedness is that blessedness of the Spirit indwelling people,
the blessedness of being a child of God, the blessedness of adoption. That's what redemption brings,
isn't it? To redeem, verse 5 of chapter 4, to redeem them that
were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
And because you are sons, because you are God's children, God has
sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts. To be redeemed
means that a sinner like me is a perfectly fit, a perfectly
fit home for the holy God of this universe to live in. Isn't that remarkable? That's
where He dwells, isn't it? What is the hope of glory that
you have? It is Christ in you. A holy God is of two purer eyes
than even to look upon sin. When He sees sin, it must be
punished and it must be punished to the full extent of His holy
justice. And He takes up residence in
His people. Brothers and sisters, what blessedness
is this? Sons of God by creation, sons
of God by adoption, by His sovereign choosing, by His sovereign grace,
by His sovereign love, by the work of His dear and precious
Son. That bride, that beautiful bride,
the Church that was given to Him in eternity, given to Him
by His Father. And at that time he took absolute
full responsibility before God to bring them back to heaven,
holy, spotless, blameless, unapprovable. And he did it. He did it. He didn't try and do it. He did
it. It is finished. And what do we cry? What do the
children cry? They cry, Abba, Father. We're brought into this intimate
relationship with Him. That's the blessedness, isn't
it? Where is that blessedness now gone? He loves me. and I love Him. He speaks to
me and He hears from me. He watches over me with adoration
and love every step of my life. He listens. He listens to me
in prayer. Just turn to Galatians and just
look back and see what these Galatians had missed out on. See what sort of an extraordinary
exchange that they had made. By turning back, by simply turning
back to the law, simply turning back to works. In Galatians 2.16
there's no justification. No one is justified. No one is
justified by the works of the Lord, but by the faith of Jesus
Christ. In 2 verse 19, this is the blessedness,
isn't it? For through the law I am dead
to the law, that I might live unto God. You cannot live unto
God and live unto the law at the same time. I do not, verse
21, I do not frustrate the grace of God. I delight in the grace
of God, I am amazed by the grace of God. For if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. There is that bewitching, isn't
it, to turn back there. It's bewitching because it seems
so effective and it seems so worthy and it seems so moral. It's bewitching. But you don't
receive the Spirit that way, verse 2. And you don't, verse
5, have the Spirit ministered, have the Spirit supplied to you.
And 3 verse 7, you know you therefore that they which are of faith,
they are the same are the children of Abraham. And if you're the
child of Abraham in verse 9, then they which are of faith,
and of faith, it talks about origins, that word of, it's where
you've come from. They which be of faith are blessed
with faithful Abraham. And as many, verse 10, as many
as of the works of the law are under the curse. If you go back
to the law at any point whatsoever, you're under the curse. For it
is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them. No man, verse 11, is justified
by the law in the sight of God. Because the law, verse 12, is
not of faith. The man that doeth them shall
live in them. They'll live in them. To go from blessedness to have
all those things taken from you and to have all those things
put on you for a simple act of law. You can see why Paul is
writing with such passion. To love the souls of men demands
that we preach the Gospel of free and sovereign grace to them. To love the souls of men is to
warn them and to encourage them in the Gospel to just look in
simple faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. Just look. If you look
to Him and enjoy the blessedness, then you will have enough works,
you will have enough works between here and heaven to fully occupy
you 24-7. You turn back to anything to
do with your own flesh and your own fleshly activities. The law
works wrath. The law is the strength of sin. I don't know about you. I love
to meditate on the blessedness and I live in my flesh knowing
so often that I don't live in light of it. But I am so thankful,
I'm so thankful that God calls books like this one of Galatians
to be written, just to remind us of the wonder of the Gospel,
just to remind us of the wonder of who the Lord Jesus really
is. Who the Lord Jesus really is
right now. We do quote that verse often
and it's really wonderful to think about it, isn't it, in
1 Corinthians. The reason that no flesh and
no fleshly activity or glory in his presence. God has made his people to be seen in
this world as nothings. But of Him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness,
sanctification and redemption. Is that gospel to you, that He
is my wisdom? that He in His Word is my wisdom,
that He is my righteousness. There is only one righteousness
in the scriptures. It's the righteousness of God,
the righteousness of God that comes to us through the work
of the Lord Jesus. He is my sanctification. He is
my redemption. Just telling you Bibles, I promised
to go to Romans 4 because it's Paul's exposition. of that blessedness
and the same word is used in Romans 4. Just spend a few minutes
as we close just thinking about these remarkable verses. As I said to you before, I remember
the time in India where some of these verses became spirit
and life to me and I just couldn't believe how much of a blessing
they were. What shall we say then that Abraham,
our father, has pertained him to the flesh, has found? For
if Abraham was justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but
not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it
was counted unto him for righteousness. And now verse 4, and now to him
that worketh is the reward. For those who work, they're expecting
some reward. No doubt you have heard much,
as I have over the years, about rewards in heaven and extra jewels
in your crown and a closer place to the throne of God because
you've done these things. There is no gospel in that, brothers
and sisters. There is no honour to God. How do people get into heaven?
Purely by the work of the Lord Jesus. Just read on. Now to him
that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt.
That they put God under some debt. But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. Is that good news to you brothers
and sisters? Is that good news? Ungodly, ungodly. justified by God, in God's courts
in heaven, perfectly just. No sin, no sin. His faith is counted for righteousness,
even as David also described the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputeth righteousness without works. Imputed without
any works, David's at all. saying, Blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. What a remarkable blessing. You know the circumstances of
David writing that. What a remarkable thing when
Nathan came along to David. And David was caused by Nathan
telling that story about the man who had hundreds of sheep
and the other man who had one, used to eat at his table and
sleep in his arms. It's a story about David, isn't
it? David had all that God had offered him, and in 2 Samuel
he says, he would have even given him more if he wished for it.
But the rich man came and he slew, the poor man slammed. And David said quite rightly
and justly, that man deserves to die. deserves to die." And
Nathan turned to David and said, You are the man. You are the man. And then he
says these remarkable things, isn't he? The Lord has taken
away your sins. Taken it away forever. Taken
it away completely. Taken it away justly. Taken it away in a holy way that
all of the character, all of the revealed character of God
is honoured in the death of his dear and darling son. And that's
why the doctrine of particular redemption is just so critical
to the Gospel. It's the only hope I have. The
only hope I have is Paul's hope, isn't it? The Son of God loved me and gave
himself for me. I do pray that God would give
us again and again a sense of the blessedness of his salvation,
a sense of the wonder of it, that we might have these searching
questions asked of us and that we might find that we have a
good hope through grace and that we might be made wise.
May wise unto the bewitching influences of those in religion
who would turn us away from the perfect and sufficient obedience
of the Lord Jesus and His faithfulness and His perfect sanctifying work
in our lives to something else. Obviously the blessedness is
a blessedness that can be lost. It can be lost when people return
to the law because you cannot look to the law and look to the
Lord Jesus at the same time. You cannot look to your flesh
and find comfort and peace in who the Lord Jesus is. The only
way to honour God's law, and you can read about it at the
end of Romans chapter 3, the only way you honour God's law
is to trust Christ alone for your righteousness before God. We can lose that blessedness
as these Galatians had done when we tolerate anything mixed with
the grace of God. If you mix anything with grace,
if you preach 99% grace and 100% works, all you have done according
to this book is preach works. It is grace, pure grace. You cannot mix them. Read about
it in Romans 11 verse 6. And when we tolerate things as
these people had done in Galatia, we turn from His service, we
turn from them in love and we look upon them with suspicion. But for those who are His children,
His glory is paramount, His honour. is the thing that they hold most
dear. And it doesn't matter if they
have to stand, as Luther did, against the whole world. They
will stand for the grace of God and His Gospel. And that blessedness
is lost so often, isn't it? When we lose our first love,
may God cause us Again and again, to have our eyes fixed upon the
Lord Jesus as the author and finisher of faith. May He protect
us, as only He can do, to show us what is bewitching to our
souls. And what is bewitching to our
souls is that which is dishonouring to His soulful embrace, to His
dear and precious Son. Heaven won't have it, brothers
and sisters. It will happen for a while on
this earth that God will sanctify all of his children. Let's pray.