Paul, an apostle, not of man,
neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who
raised him from the dead, and all the brethren which are with
me unto the churches of Galatia, Grace be to you and peace from
God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself
for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world
according to the will of God and our Father. To whom be glory
forever and ever. Amen. I marvel that you are so
soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ
unto another gospel, which is not another, but there are some
that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though
we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than
which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. And as we said before, so say
I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than
that you have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade
men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For
if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
But I certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached
of me is not after man, for I neither received it of man, neither was
I taught it, but by revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have
heard of my former conversation, my former way of life in time
past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted
the Church of God and wasted it, and profited in the Jews'
religion above many many of my equals in my own nation being
more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that
I might preach Him among the heathen. I immediately conferred
not with flesh and blood, neither went I up to Jerusalem to them
which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia and returned
again unto Damascus." Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem
to see Peter and abode with him fifteen days. But other of the
apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother. Now the things
which I write unto you behold before God, I lie not. Afterwards I came into the regions
of Syria and Cilicia, and was unknown by face unto the churches
of Judea which were in Christ. But they heard only, He that
he which persecuted us in times past now preaches the faith which
once he destroyed, and they glorify God in me." There are two terms that I'd
like to look at, one more briefly than the other this morning,
but it's really interesting in the verses 8 and 9, If you look at them, and hopefully
the Lord will help us to look at them closely, we see in verse
8, that though we or an angel from heaven preach any other
gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let
him be accursed. If a preacher comes, or a Paul
comes, or an angel comes and preaches another gospel, let
him be accursed. And as we said before, so now
I say again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than
that you have received, let him be accursed. So two critical words in all
these sentences are the whole business of preaching. If anyone comes and preaches
a gospel other than the gospel of Paul, let him be accursed,
even if an angel from heaven comes. And if any man preach
any other gospel than you have received, let him be accursed.
See, the cursing falls on the preacher particularly. Paul loved these Galatians. Paul, as we see again and again
testified in the Scriptures, Paul was a man chosen of God,
allowed to go on in Judaism, to be a murderer, to be zealous,
to be one who kept the law and was blameless before the law. What a remarkable testimony.
The Lord said that there will come a time when people who kill
you will think they are doing God's service. And that was the
description of Paul. He thought he was doing God's
service. And here he is. a converted man,
a man empowered by the Holy Spirit, commissioned by the Holy Spirit,
set aside to be the apostle to us Gentiles and even to Colts. There is a preaching, and because
he is God's servant, there is a receiving. God, in his time
of love, raises up a particular preacher. at a particular time
to bring the message of God in a particular way. Not just the
words of a man will they hear, they'll hear the very words of
God and they'll hear it in their heart and they will be convicted. They will be seized, they will
be grasped by the seriousness of what's laid before them and
their lives will be transformed. They will be born again. At that time of love they will
be converted. That's what Paul says, isn't
it? He's actually writing to these Galatians knowing that
he was sent of God to them, knowing that in the providence of God,
with some affliction of his eyes, he was sent providentially to
their particular part of Turkey. And he knows that amongst them
are genuine believers. He says that they received. What a great word that is. It
means to grasp, to seize, to lay hold of, but in this particular
way it's presented here, it means to take to oneself. That's what it is, to receive
the Gospel. The same word is used of the
Lord Jesus. He took. He took our infirmities
and He bore our sicknesses. How that happens to be is an
extraordinary mystery. But He did. The Word of God says
He did. He's received a command from
the Father. So Paul He's troubled, he's deeply
troubled about what he hears of these Galatians. They had
been special beneficiaries of the Gospel being sent to them
after thousands of years of idolatry. What does Ephesians say about
them? They're without Christ. That was us, brothers and sisters,
wasn't it? Without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,
strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, without
God in the world. Religious as all get out. Religious
and zealous. without God in the world, without
Christ. And they walked according to
the course of this world, according to the spirit of the prince of
the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children
of disobedience, among whom, Paul said, we all had our conversation,
our way of walking. Isn't that remarkable? Paul puts
himself in with all of these idolaters, Jewish and religious
and zealous, and an idolater, kept until God had released him,
kept in Satan's grasp. So they received Paul. as if
He was an angel from heaven, as if He was Christ Jesus Himself. They'd received Him, they'd received
the Gospel, and they'd received the Spirit. According to 3 verse
2, they received the Spirit by the hearing of faith, the hearing
of the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus. But here are these preachers. They've come in, they've come
to pervert. It means to poison. To poison. A little bit of leaven
leavens the whole lump. You've heard the illustration
before that if I have three glasses here and one is 100% milk and
the other one is 100% arsenic and the one in the middle is
99% milk and 1% arsenic, which one is the most dangerous one? You'd smell the arsenic and the
milk would do you no harm. But the one that's the mixture
is the dangerous one. And what is the problem? What
causes the danger? Is it the 99% of milk? No, it's
the 1%. 1% of leaven. The leaven that's
in it leavens the whole lump. They're wolves that come in and
the anathema is proclaimed against preachers in these verses. It should cause anyone who stands
in my place to tremble. The number of nights I had sleepless
hours as I lay in bed in India, and there I was teaching these
little ones. I was teaching them in my dorm, and I was teaching
them in classes, and I was teaching Mark's Gospel, and he says, the
Lord says, If you lead one of these little ones astray and
they were little and they were cut off from their families and
they were away from their churches and there they were relying and
depending on people like me to tell them the truth. The Lord
says it's better for you to have had the millstone around your
neck and to be at the bottom of the Sea of Galilee than to
lead one of the little ones astray. All of the Lord's sheep are little
ones. And my prayer again and again
was, Lord, as we saw or read in that psalm, teach me your
ways. Make me passionate about the
truth. See, it's love, isn't it? It's love that drives Paul
to be so passionate. He loves them. And love warns,
and love pleads, and love acts, and love seeks for God to come
and deal with them. You see, he's still dealing with
these Galatians as believers. He said they had received, they
had taken to themselves the Gospel. the Gospel that he declared to
them. But they were being poisoned, they were being led astray, and
they were listening to a perverted Gospel with people who were no
doubt far more impressive than Paul. Paul came there as someone
who was sick and ill, infirmed in his eyes. And he says, it's
remarkable his description of himself, how he's weak, and he
comes before people with fear and trembling and in weakness
and in afflictions. And these other people are far
more impressive. They have probably an extraordinary
knowledge of the Bible and an extraordinary ability to show
that these scriptures teach salvation by works alongside the Lord Jesus
Christ. Something that man does. Something that man has. That's
why I love that word received. We receive the Gospel. We receive the testimony. These people have another testimony
about another Jesus, and they have another Gospel. So the warning
is serious, and it's a serious warning obviously to the preachers,
and it's a serious warning to the Galatian believers. As the
Lord said, if the blind lead the blind, they both fall into
the ditch. So Paul's hope, Paul's writing,
knowing that amongst these Galatians are some genuine believers. And
Paul's hope is that the Holy Spirit will use his words and
use his warnings and he'll draw people back, draw them back to
lay hold of the Lord Jesus, to lay hold of the Lord Jesus as
he's described in his true character. I love what Isaiah says. He shall
not fail. Our God reigns. He has a people that the Father
has given to him and no one can take them out of his hand. It's
the hand of sovereign lordship that he holds them. There's also a lesson for us,
isn't it, that men and women in this world, us included, can
and have at times embraced error but still trust the Lord Jesus. Peter is a great example, isn't
it? Peter is a great example, an apostle who fell into deep
error, serious error, we'll look at it in weeks to come, But he
is in the providence of God. He's falling into a pit. And
the imagery is that Paul comes and stands in front of him and
doesn't let him fall. And that's how Paul is writing
to these others. The Galatians appeared to be
in danger of total apostasy. Turning from the Gospel is to
have no Gospel at all. Turning from Christ to the Law,
to have Christ plus some of your works, is for him to have died
in vain. Paul knew that there were some
afflicted by this poison, but still the Lord's sheep. He talks of them in 3 verse 2,
they had received the Holy Spirit. There is, in these two verses,
8 and 9 in chapter 1, there is a necessary distinction and an
important distinction, and it's made throughout the scriptures.
Preachers, false preachers, peddlers of lies, peddlers of another
gospel are not to be tolerated, entertained, blessed with money
or hospitality. 1 John is just one of many, many
verses throughout the Scriptures where we are told in the clearest
possible terms that we are not to have anything to do with them.
If there are any come unto you and bring not this doctrine,
which is the doctrine of Christ, the doctrine about Christ and
what He has done, the doctrine of how He saves. Receive Him
not into your house, nor bid Him Godspeed, 2 John 2... 2 John 10. For he that biddeth
Him Godspeed is a partaker in his evil deeds. It is, as Paul
says, a little leaven. Any movement away from the Gospel
preached by the apostles is a movement into a place of extreme danger. So preachers, we are called upon
in 1 John and chapter 4 and many other places, we are called upon
to test them. test them all the time, and if
they do not bring the Gospel, if they do not declare the Lord
Jesus as the scriptures declare Him, if they do not declare the
Lord Jesus as the apostles declare Him, as He declared Himself,
you are to have nothing to do with them. But nevertheless,
Galatians reminds us, that this world is a world where there
is a poison around and our flesh Our flesh is just so prone to
it. It finds a ready home. We keep wanting to have the approval
of men. We keep wanting to think that
something that I do, our flesh keeps telling us that something
I do is going to make God treat me in a different way and not
treat me on the basis of what the Lord Jesus has done. We're
not to participate with the false teachers. We're not to allow
their leave, and as Paul says in Galatians, he says, he withstood
them as soon as he found out, he withstood them and he withstood
them immediately, that the Gospel might remain with them. But there is, and I'll just quote
a paragraph that I read in a thing of Don Faulkner's the other day,
he said, there is a terrible, proud, self-righteous tendency
among God's people in this world and among preachers of the Gospel
to set themselves up as judges of others, to quickly condemn
as reprobate anyone who falls into doctrinal error regarding
the Gospel. What sad division there are in
the visible church among true believers because of this tendency. In matters of judgment concerning
others, if we err, let it be on the side of leniency and not
severity." He speaks so strongly against false teachers. But we
are to look upon other people who have heard, as these Galatians
did, have heard the Gospel. Most people in this world haven't
heard the Gospel. We're talking about a group of
people who have heard the Gospel and have received it. We'll find
that in the weakness of their flesh and under pressure, we'll
find them like Peter, stumbling and falling. And it's wise, isn't
it? And look, the Lord, I think,
has taught us so clearly that we wait. The warnings are issued. The warnings are issued in the
Scriptures and we wait. We wait, hopefully, that the
Lord might draw them back to Himself. We don't join with them
in their apostasy. We don't join with them in what
they're saying and believing. But we wait. We wait and see,
and sadly as Paul and the Apostles did, sometimes we wait and see
and our despondency increases. Time will reveal the genuine. Time will reveal the genuine. If God's Spirit is living in
them, then they will be led and guided. They will, as Hosea was,
they will be hedged around with thorns. They will fall into places,
as Peter did again and again, they will fall into places that
will be prickly and dangerous for them. I have someone come
by the grace of God and stand before them and say, this is
not the way. This is not the way. We wait. It's a strong warning, isn't
it? It's a strong warning. And Paul is, as it were, placing
a line in the sand. He wants the issue to be settled
clearly in the hearts and minds of the people that he loves.
They had heard the Gospel. You see, that's the difference
with these people in the New Testament era. They had heard
the Gospel. We all spent a whole bunch of
time in religion and never ever heard the Gospel, never heard
the Word preached, never heard the Lord Jesus just simply and
clearly and concisely revealed to us. It was always another
Jesus. I love that expression in 2 Corinthians
10, it's the simplicity, the singleness, the oneness of Christ. To have Him declared as Lord,
as Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's why in Galatians Paul,
at least six times, gives us another outline of the Gospel. Let's just look at them briefly
because it's so good for God's people to hear the Gospel. In chapter 2, He says in verse 19, for through
the law I am dead to the law. Through the law taking its rightful
judgment on Christ and me together. I'm dead to the law. I am dead
to the law. He lived in it and now he says
I'm dead to it. That I might live unto God. To
live unto God is to be dead to the law. Then in verse 20 he
says, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me in the life which I now live in
the flesh. I live by the faith, the faith of the Son of God,
not my faith in the Son of God, I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me." He gave himself
for a particular people and he loved them. And I do not frustrate
the grace of God, for if righteousness came by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain." In the next chapter, he speaks so beautifully
of it, doesn't he? In verse 13 he describes the
Lord Jesus again. Christ hath redeemed us, 3 verse
13, has redeemed us from the curse of the law. being made
a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. And the result, the beautiful
glorious result of it, that the blessing of Abraham might come
on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. What's the blessing of
Abraham? That we might receive the promise
of the Spirit through faith. Holy Spirit, God Himself, indwelling
His people. A Holy Spirit indwelling a people. Why? Because they are holy. They are holy. They have no sin. They are holy. Over in chapter 4, verses 4 and
7, He talks about the Lord Jesus
coming again. When the fullness of time has
come, when the time appointed from all eternity, God sent forth
His Son. The Son was a sent one, wasn't
He? Which means that He came from
somewhere, sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. And I love what he says in verse
6, it's glorious. It's so opposite to the religion
of this world. And because you are sons, how
did you get to be sons? You were sons in eternity, brothers
and sisters. You were sons and daughters of
God. 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. If you're a son and a daughter
of God, you're an heir, an heir of God. God has an inheritance. His heirs must receive his inheritance. In chapter 5, he defends the
Gospel. He says, stand fast in the liberty,
what glorious liberty there is in the real Gospel. Christ has
done it all. God is pleased with His Son and
He's pleased with all of His people. Stand fast in the liberty
wherewith Christ has made us free and do not Be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you,
that 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. Whosoever of you are justified
by the law, you've fallen from grace. Then he describes the
work of the Spirit. For we through the Spirit wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision availeth anything, neither works of the
Jewish law, all of that ceremonial activity, all of that activity
that Paul thought was his righteousness before God, he now sees is done. It avails nothing. nor uncircumcision,
all of the activities of the Gentiles availeth nothing but
faith which worketh through love." The Gospel has its impact in
the lives of the Church in chapter 6. We bear, chapter 6, verse 2,
bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. The Gospel defines us, doesn't
it? For if a man thinks himself to
be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. We bear
one another's burdens. At the end of the Gospel, end
of this, Paul talks about the Gospel in his life. Talks about
the Gospel. What a great prayer this is for
us, isn't it? But God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the
world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but a new creature. As many as walk according to
this rule, peace be on them and mercy upon the Israel of God. All of it. The Gospel is declaring
again and again. what the Lord has done for His
people, who they are, and what the Lord has done for them and
is doing in them and will do in them according to His promise. You see, to receive is to take
to oneself. Paul declared the Lord Jesus
faithfully and clearly and simply. Many here and did not believe. And many
claimed to be believers, but they were superficial, weren't
they, like the Judaizers who troubled these people. Many saw
the Lord Jesus, many heard Him preach, but they didn't see Him. What did the Pharisees say when
that bottle of ointment was broken upon Him? If this man was a prophet,
if he was a prophet, he would know. Even Nicodemus came to
him and said, Rabbi, he's trying to honour him, but he dishonours
him. To receive Him is to see Him. I love what Simeon says, he took
that baby, eight day old baby, he took him up in his arms and
he blessed God and said, Lord, you can release your servant
now. I'll go in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. I have seen your promises fulfilled. Here is God in human flesh."
So Paul preached simply, doesn't he? He says in chapter 3, he
says that Christ Jesus was evidently set forth, evidently set forth,
crucified among you. His Galatians had received Him. He's calling them back to what
they had received. He's reminding them of what He
preached to them. He's reminding them and showing
them the differences, the enormous difference between what He preached
and what these other people preach. Receiving the Lord Jesus, taking
Him to oneself, is to see Him as He is. I love what Isaiah
said, he says, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. When you see Him, you'll see
Him as Lord, as an absolute Sovereign. I'm not quite sure what happened
to Peter that day on the shore of Galilee when he was there
and the Lord Jesus has preached and he's told the cast to net
over and he has this miraculous catch of fish and he sees, he
sees something that he'd never seen before. He says, depart from me, Lord. I am a sinful man. He had seen the Lord in something
of His glory and He'd seen Himself in what He is. We have on our
pulpit those words that came from the Greek people when they
came to the Lord Jesus, just in those days before He died,
Sir, we wish to see Jesus. When we stand behind here, that's
the request, isn't it? That's the need of the people
out there. Sir, we wish to see Jesus. I wish to see Him again and again. I wish to see Him high and lifted
up. I wish to see Him as faithful. I wish to see Him as my husband. I wish to see Him as my crucified
Lord. I wish to see Him bearing my
sins and taking them away. I wish to see Him again and again. The cry of our heart Sometimes poetry is the best
we can come up with, isn't it? He took my sins and my sorrows
He made them his very own He bore the burden to Calvary And
suffered and died alone I think it's another poet said, was it
for crimes that I had done, he groaned upon the tree. Amazing
pity, grace unknown, and love beyond degree. I want to see
him. I want to be numb. I want to know again of his love
and his fellowship. and their closeness. Song of
Solomon is a beautiful picture, isn't it, of the intimacy of
relationship, the closeness that he holds his people. We want to see him as the justifier
You see, our justification happened 2000 years ago. My justification
is not given to me because I believed. My justification happened because
Christ died for me and he put my sins away and he gave me his
righteousness. I'm robed now in the righteousness,
the very righteousness of God. He fulfilled. He fulfilled God's
holy law. He says, I've come and I haven't
been sent. He didn't come to do away with the law. He came
to fulfill it. He came to fulfill it completely. He came to save, and save He
did. John 3 says, I didn't come to
condemn the world, we were already condemned. But he came to save. He that believes on the name
of the Lord is saved. Saved completely and forever. That's why Paul is writing with
such passion for these people that he loves. He knows amongst
them are some of the Lord's sheep. And as Peter was falling, these
Galatians are in danger of falling, and he's standing there with
this word from God before them as a barrier to their doom and
destruction. He didn't come to save everybody. How can I know? How can I know that He came to
save me?" He says, but to the lost sheep of the
tribe of Israel. You call His name Jesus, He will
save His people from their sins." There are saved people in this
world. Throughout time there have been
saved people. How do I know? Did He come to
save me? Did He come to save me? What
does Paul say? to Timothy, he says, Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. Is that a description of you?
Is that a description? Is that an apt description of
us? Romans 5 says that sinners are people who are without strength. Are you without strength? Ungodly. Are you ungodly? He says also,
he says, I've not come to call the righteous. but sinners to
repentance. Any righteous here, any got a
righteous deed, a righteous thought, a righteous hope to do something,
you can just muster up the ability to do it. It is extraordinary,
isn't it? I just got a magazine the other
day and it's extraordinary. There they are talking about
the holiness, the holiness that you need to meet God. And what
do they do, these Presbyterians? They tell us that holiness is
an activity that I must perform. that I can do something that
becomes holy. And the purpose of preaching
is to get people to do things, isn't it? To be more this and
to be more that. We did it to each other in religion. I would get together with someone
and I'd show them how much Bible reading and how much praying
and how much evangelising I'd done. Then I'd want you to be
doing it because I'm doing it and I'm feeling so much better
because I'm doing it. And we continued to burden each
other, and we continued in extraordinary ways to live a life of hypocrisy,
because it wasn't really happening. God knew our hearts. He called sinners to repentance. Repentance is an amazing word,
as He called you as a sinner. He called you to repentance. Repentance is a simple word.
It means to change your mind. Paul is writing to change these
Galatians' minds about who the Lord Jesus is and about how He
saves and about who they are and about what really these false
teachers are. You see, when people hear And
people hear the truth, the simple truths about who God is. about how He saves, about who
man is. Just simple truths. You find
that what happens is that they become judges of God, and they
say that that's unfair. Election is unfair. Particular
redemption is unfair. Simon and I were here with a
man who had been in religion for a long time, a few years
ago, and he sat where my wife is there, and we just read the
scriptures to him about the Lord Jesus, about Him being God, about
Him loving a people from eternity, about Him dying particularly
and taking away their sins completely. Just simple things that should
warm the hearts of any sinner, should be just food and drink
to a hungry sinner. To someone who had no righteousness
of their own, it was just simple. And the more we talked about
the Lord Jesus and the more he read, the more enraged we were.
And he walked out and he said, there's absolutely no way in
the world I will ever worship a God like that. And we read
the Bible to him. You see, people, when they hear
the Gospel, they become judges of God and they say it's unfair.
But when repentance comes, when sinners are called to repentance,
their minds are changed about God and they bow. They bow before Him and they
acknowledge whatever He does is right. And they see that their
only hope of salvation is in a message about a sovereign God
who purposed and achieved exactly what He came to do. And they see themselves, instead
of seeing themselves as righteous, they see themselves, like Paul,
as the chief of sinners, and there's almost a competition
to see who can get to the front of the row to be the chief of
sinners. and they see God's salvation. They see the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness of sins is not a
goal at the end of a process where you work and you work and
you work and you finally achieve and you've done and you've done
and you've done. But forgiveness of sins is a declaration of full
and free and complete forgiveness of sins. They're washed away.
God remembers them no more. They do not exist. They're gone
forever. The Lord Jesus has taken them
away and He's done it without you doing anything. That's good
news. That's good news to the helpless. Not that you have to do something
to be forgiven. Not that you have to do something
to be righteous. Not that you have to do something
to be holy. You find out that you've already
been forgiven. Already been forgiven. It's extraordinary,
isn't it? I was studying the other day
and it's interesting that that word, repent of your sins, which
we see in Gospel evangelism all the time, repent of your sins
and then take on this new life. It's a phrase not found in the
Scriptures. God's children don't want to
sin. God's children find the sin that's
in them, the sin that rises up is grievous. God's children want
to be like the Lord Jesus. They want to honour Him. They
want Him to be honoured in thoughts and words and actions. They want
Him to be honoured privately and they want Him to be honoured
publicly. But if repentance is stopping
sinning, none of us have really repented ever, have we? We have never repented. We have
and we do as we get older. There are some sins that we are
less able to commit and we can look more righteous because we
are older. And we can. It looks as if we
can follow the good advice, don't we, of the preachers to turn
over a good leaf and stop sinning and start doing these other things.
It might be good advice, but a true sinner acknowledges that
in his heart there are just sins that are there again and again
and again. That's what it is to be a sinner. What did Paul say? He said, when
I wish to do good and evil, sin is right there with me. We confess
them to the Lord and in our confession we're almost aware of the fact
that they rise up again. So repentance is not stopping
sinning. Repentance is a change of mind. a complete change of mind about
who I am, a complete change of mind about who God is, and a
complete change of mind about God's salvation. Our Lord said,
repent and believe the Gospel. So what's the evidence of repentance?
What's the evidence of receiving? What is Paul calling these Galatians
back to? What's the evidence of repentance?
How do you know you've repented? You believe the Gospel. What's
the evidence of believing the Gospel? It's repenting, a change
of mind, a change of heart. Paul warns that he brings the
Gospel. He warns and he comforts, he
warns and he loves. He loves them. He just reminds
them again and again throughout this letter. He says where they
are going but his solution to their problem is to show them
the Lord Jesus in his glory again. Why don't we go to the Lord's
Word in closing. In Luke chapter 4 he describes
his ministry. In all of his sovereignty, back
in his hometown, he was in the synagogue on the Sabbath day
and he stood up. to read, and was delivered unto
him, verse 17, chapter 4 of Luke, delivered unto him the book of
the prophet Isaiah. And when he'd opened the book,
he found the place where it is written. He took the book, he
opened it, and he looked for this particular passage. And
he says these wonderful words, the Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, because he hath anointed me, he has messiahed me, I am
messiah, to preach the gospel to the poor, he has sent me to
heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives,
and recovering of sight to the blind and to set at liberty them
that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord."
And he closed the book and he gave it again to the minister
and sat down and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened
on him. And he began to say unto them, this day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears. I love that description of us.
It's a wonderful description of us and it's a wonderful description
of Him. He sent me, He's anointed me,
I am the Anointed One of God, is our Lord Jesus, to preach
the Gospel to the poor. You see, Paul came and preached
the Lord Jesus. Ephesians 2 says that effectively
it was the Lord Jesus Himself who was preaching to these people.
Amongst them were His own, and those who are His own will receive
Him. They will receive the message
of who He is, They'll receive the message of what he did on
the cross. They'll receive the message about themselves. Isn't it lovely? Preach the gospel
to the poor. Isn't it lovely? The poor. Any
poor people here? Absolutely nothing to recommend
themselves to God. Absolutely no ability to pay. Don't have a penny in the bank
and just enormous debts. I love how Revelation 22.17 says,
Whomsoever will. Let him take the water of life freely. No
money. Nothing to pay. Poor. The broken hearted. Hearts are
broken. Broken in the fall. Broken in
our continual falling in this world. The heart's no good. It needs a transplant altogether. Captives. That's what these Galatians
were, weren't they? And they were going back into
captivity. Captives in prison and can't get out. The modern Gospel comes along
and says to them, here's the money to get you out. All you
have to do is make the first move. All you have to do. It's
here and available. It's been offered to everyone
and it's been accepted and there's enough. He's died for everyone. All you have to do, whatever you can do is not enough.
If you're a captive, you're in prison and you can't get out. He came to preach deliverance,
deliverance achieved. He came to say, I'm setting you
free. deliverance to the captive, the
recovery of sight to the blind. We've lost sight. We've lost
sight of who God is in the Fall. And it's remarkable the other
thing that we've lost sight of is that we have lost sight of
who we are in the Fall. We need an eye replacement as
well as a heart replacement. We need eyes to see, new eyes
to see, to see Him and to see ourselves. And He came to give them sight.
They now see. They now see Him. They now see Him and they see
that in Him, in Him, be pleased with them for Christ's
sake. He loves them as he loves his
son. And I love the way he finishes,
and we'll finish here as well. But to preach the acceptable
year of the Lord. Do you know what that year is? It's the Jubilee year. What a
remarkable year the Jubilee year is. Go home at your leisure and
read about it in Leviticus 25 and other places. What a remarkable
year it is. It's proclaiming, isn't it? He's
preaching. The acceptable year is preaching
the Jubilee. All your debts are paid. gone completely. All of your
slavery, if you've sold yourself into slavery, all of it's gone. If you've lost all of your possessions,
your land, all of it is completely and perfectly restored to you.
Read about the blessings of that year. The other thing is, in
the Jubilee year, in the acceptable year of the Lord, what do you
do? What do you do? Starts on the
day of atonement. What do you do on the day of
atonement? It starts with the blessing of the blood of the
Passover lamb. What do you do for the rest of
the year? Absolutely nothing. Who's going to provide for you? He has promised and he will. The acceptable year of the Lord. No work. Rest. Rest. And the other thing that
the Jubilee Year proclaims is rest and liberty. And you look to Him and you see
Him provide. Wait. He'll do all that He's
promised in protecting and preserving and keeping His own to Himself. What a great God. What a great
God we have. What an amazing Saviour. Let's
pray.