Galatians chapter 1, verse 1,
Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by men, 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 ye 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
that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 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 please 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 the revelation
of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my conversation,
my life in time past in the Jewish religion, how that beyond measure
I persecuted the Church of God and wasted it, and profited in
the Jewish religion above 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, immediately I 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 in a bed 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 had heard only that
He which persecuted us in times past now preaches the faith which
once He destroyed, and they glorified God in Thee. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
You that You put markers in history that cause this world to think
about your dear and precious son and about his resurrection. And we praise you, Heavenly Father,
that his death and his glorious resurrection are the constant
themes that we long to preach and long to hear of in this fellowship,
and we praise you for that, our Father. And we pray, Heavenly
Father, that you would speak to the hearts of your people
again this morning, Heavenly Father, and it would be your
truth that You reveal to them about Your dear and precious
Son and the glorious salvation that He won for His people, the
people that You had given Him from eternity. Heavenly Father,
we praise You that Your glory is great in the salvation of
Your people. We pray that You would be glorified
this morning by the things that are said and Your Son would be
lifted up in our midst. You might cause Him to be proclaimed
and cause us to have our eyes fixed again upon Him, who is
the author and the perfecter of our faith. We praise You,
Heavenly Father, that we can have this time set aside to worship
You in spirit and truth. And this alone will only happen
by your gracious good pleasure, and we pray your blessing and
your mercy on us again. For we come to you, Heavenly
Father, with nothing in our hands, nothing except our sin, and we
come to you in the name of your dear and precious Son, that you
might bless us in him, and we might be found a blessing again
in him. To each other, we pray your blessing
on us, our Father, in Jesus' name, Amen. Okay. Back to Galatians, what a strong,
strong letter, what a serious letter, what an important, what a grave, grave topic that
we have before us in these opening verses. In verse 6 that we're
looking at this morning, he's marvelled. He says, I marvel
that you are so soon removed from him that called you into
the grace of Christ unto another gospel. Paul had opened this
letter, this situation that caused him such great anxiety, but he
opens in a marvellous way, doesn't he? He very briefly describes
himself, the grace of God that had come to him, who was the
chief of sinners, the man who had wasted the church, and in
wasting the church and killing God's people, he was and had
risen in the esteem of the Jews' religion. He met the Lord Jesus. He met the resurrected Lord Jesus. and everything in his life was
transformed. The thing I love about Paul is
that he has this extraordinary passion, doesn't he? The thing
I pray for myself and pray for us is that something of Paul's
zeal for the glory of God, for the glory of the Lord Jesus,
something of Paul's zeal and love for fellow sinners. would just infect us again and
again. He preached the Gospel, didn't
he? He preached the Lord Jesus Christ. I love the Lord's titles. It's lovely to give him his titles.
In the New Testament, he's given again and again his titles, almost
universally after the resurrection. When the apostles speak of him,
they always give him some of his titles. Almost the only time
I ever call him Jesus, just Jesus, is when they're referring to
his three and a half years of ministry. The Lord. Jesus is
God. He is Jehovah. That's what his name means, isn't
it? That's what it is for him to be the Lord. God with us. God revealed to us. And for these Galatians it was
God witnessed to by the prophets and the apostles. And Paul took
the Old Testament and he showed them, he demonstrated to them
from the Old Testament that this Jesus, this one who was born,
this one who has named Jesus because he will save his people
from their sin. This one called Jesus, because
he will, as he says to these Galatians, deliver his people
from this present evil age. This Lord, This Lord, our God,
became a man, the man Jesus. And so in those two things, he
then can be called the Christ. To be the Christ is to be the
God, is to be the only true and living God, but to be that only
true and living God in human flesh, walking in the places
that we walked. suffering in so many ways, all
of the feelings, touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
and all the time being God, God in human flesh. To be the Christ
is to be the anointed one of God. There is just one, isn't
there? He alone is the Christ. He alone took all of those promises,
every promise you see in that Old Testament. Every promise,
every single promise is yes and amen. a successful saviour. He alone fulfilled all of those
promises. He alone was the reality that
all of those shadows of the Old Testament was about. Him. Salvation is Him. That's His name. Salvation is
in Him. It's in His faithfulness, not
mine. In His love, not mine. In His sacrifice, not mine. In His intercession, not mine. In His sovereign rule. It's interesting how Paul finishes
in verse 5 of chapter 1, he says, to whom be glory forever and
ever. He's described the Lord Jesus
in verse 3, 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. And that little word, Amen. says, this is truth asserted. This is the truth. The Gospel,
as Paul has here in brief summary given it, says done. Done, completed, finished forever. God's Gospel. is a gospel that
brings peace. I love how Isaiah in chapter
26 describes this work of the Lord Jesus. And he says, you
will ordain peace for us. You will ordain peace for us. For you also has wrought all
our works in us. You have ordained peace
for us." Then he has a great description in verse 19 of that
chapter. You can read it at your leisure
at home, you'll find it delightful. In verse 3 it says, you will
keep him in perfect peace, his mind is stayed on Thee because
he trusts in Him. And verse 19 says, Thy dead men
shall live Together with my dead body shall they arise. And then he says to his redeemed,
Awake and sing. You that dwell in the dust, for
thy due is the due of the herds, and the earth shall cast out
her dead. And then that wonderful invitation,
come my people, enter into thy chambers and shut thy doors about
thee. Hide thyself as it were for a
little moment until the indignation is overpassed. For behold the
Lord comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the
earth for their iniquity and the earth shall also disclose
her blood. and shall no more cover her slain."
Our God is a great God who judges, a great God who resurrects. In God's service, and Paul has
described himself and he goes on to describe himself again
and again, as someone who's been ordained of God to bear faithful
witness to Him. That's what the Gospel is, isn't
it? It's a declaration. It's a faithful witness. It's
describing the Lord Jesus and Him crucified. It's describing
Him as this book describes Him. It's describing Him with faithfulness
to this book. It's describing Him in ways which
bring glory to His holy name and glory to the things that
He has done. And that's the question, isn't
it, before the Galatians. Who is the faithful witness?
Who is telling the truth about God? Who is telling the truth
about your souls? Who is telling the truth about
the judgment of God? Who is the faithful witness?
In Revelation 3 there are some graphic descriptions of these in Revelation 3 it says,
I will give power to my two witnesses and they shall prophesy 1260
days. God's witnesses like Paul are
clothed in sackcloth and they'll have a testimony and when they
have finished their testimony The beast that ascends out of
the bottomless pits shall make war against them, and shall overcome
them and kill them, and their dead bodies shall lie in the
street of the great city which is spiritually called Sodom and
Egypt. where also our Lord was crucified. Isn't that extraordinary? He
describes Jerusalem and the religion of Jerusalem to be equivalent
to Sodom and to Egypt. That was the religion that Paul
was in. He, like these ones in Revelation
11, is given power of God to be a faithful witness. And when
the people, in the next verses, when the people see these dead
bodies they'll rejoice. They'll rejoice over them and
they'll make merry and they'll send gifts to one another because
these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.
And after three days and a half the spirit of life from God entered
in and they stood upon their feet. and great fear fell upon
them which saw them. And they heard a great voice
from heaven saying unto them, Come up, hither. And they ascended
up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies beheld them." Paul
is talking about things which have graphic eternal consequences. graphic things. You will be my
witnesses, said the Lord Jesus, both in Jerusalem and all Judea
and Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. They were
faithful witnesses. They are witnesses, Hebrews 2
says, it was confirmed. It was confirmed by miracles
and signs and wonders and once their testimony is finished there
is no need for any more. Paul rejoiced over the Thessalonians. He says that there is joy in
his crown of rejoicing because they had stayed faithful to the
faith. Faithful to the faith of the
Lord Jesus. Faithful to each other. Faithful
to Paul and company. faithful to them who are ambassadors
of the King. And so as we saw last week, Paul
makes a distinction, doesn't he? He makes a distinction, our,
our, our, us, the brethren who are with me, and those who are
opposed to them and stand outside. Here Paul expresses in this next
verse, verse 6, he expresses his great anxiety, great anxiety. Here were these Galatians so
soon removed. He marvels, he marvels that these
Galatians had been so soon removed from Him that called them, from
God who called them into the grace of the Lord Jesus. The
Gospel came and Paul faithfully bore witness to the Lord Jesus,
and they rejoiced. They rejoiced for a while. And here they are, as it were,
at a point of decision. When it says that you are so
soon removed, it means that the removed word there is in the
present tense. They are in the process of being
removed, turning aside, falling away, deserting, becoming apostate,
changing the course of their action, moving from the Gospel. They are being transferred by
deceivers. And Paul marvels. He's astonished. It was remarkable. I was stunned when I was looking
up what that word meant the other day. And there was someone else
who marveled. Someone else who was astonished, was overcome, as it were, with
grief. It was the Lord Jesus. He was
in the Garden of Gethsemane. They came to a place which was
named Gethsemane, said to his disciples, sit here while I shall
pray. And he took with him Peter and
James and John and began to be sore amazed." Verse 33 of Mark
14. Sore amazed. Paul was absolutely
astonished. He was amazed. But he was in
anguish, wasn't he? He was in anguish over these
people. See, Paul was a man of great
love. I was talking to Simon earlier,
Paul in Romans 9 says that he wished that he himself was cut
off and accursed of God for the sake of these people. He was
a man of passionate love. Moses said the same, exactly
the same, cut me off but save these people. Paul was amazed. He was absolutely stunned. He was stunned and he was stunned
with an anguish, an anguish for their souls. I remember saying
a few years ago that if the Gospel we preach is not a matter of
life and death, eternal life and death, then we don't have
a Gospel to preach. And that's what this religious
world wants us to do, doesn't it? Again and again it wants
to say, you can compromise. We're all really saying the same
thing. We're all really talking about
the same Jesus. We're all heading on the same
broad road. And you can take your path and
I can take my path and someone else can take his path and we
all go happily together. to heaven, where all our differences
will be sorted out. would not have that at all. You
see, these people came, they weren't denying that there was
a Jesus, they weren't denying that there was a cross, they
weren't denying that there was a resurrection, they weren't
denying what the Old Testament scriptures said. All they were
saying was that he wasn't sufficient and he wasn't successful and
some little tiny thing that you can do can add to this work,
can polish that jewel as it were, can make you acceptable before
God. Which is why at the beginning
of all these letters of Paul's we actually have a declaration
of the Gospel. He begins by declaring the Gospel. We looked at it last week and
it's good to think about it again. The Gospel, what was the Gospel
that Paul preached? It's a gospel that he received,
it's a gospel that he passed on, it's a gospel that he was
a faithful witness to, it's a gospel concerning God's Son. It's gospel concerning him, as
1 Corinthians says, isn't it? For I deliver unto you first
of all which I also received. He received it directly from
God. And his first message of the gospel is that Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures. The essence of the
Gospel is a declaration of particular and effectual redemption. It begins with God, a God who
is absolutely sovereign, a God who has purposes, a God who is
pleased. Again and again, the Old Testament
scriptures that Paul would have used to establish and confirm
that Jesus is the Christ. Again and again, the high priest,
he goes into the Holy of Holies and who did he represent? He
had names on his heart. He had names on his shoulders. He represented the elect of God. God's priest. brings a sacrifice. It's a substitutionary sacrifice. Who was the Passover? Christ
was the Passover. Who was the Passover for? It
was just for the people, the children of Israel. The elect of God typified in
that nation. Who crossed the Red Sea? Who
crossed the Jordan on dry land? All of these things, all the
fulfilments and types, just represent our Lord Jesus in His glory. The glory of a God who has finished
His work. and is successful. I love how
Hebrews begins, what he's done, he's purged by himself, purged
our sins and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty and
High Priest. When the High Priest went into
that Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement and he took the
blood in, he took blood in for himself and he took blood in
for the people, and what did the people have to do on that
Day of Atonement? What was their task on the Day
of Atonement? They were to sit down and do
absolutely nothing. And a priest took blood into
the Holy of Holies. A priest took blood and represented
them before the very presence of God. A priest came out with
the work done and accepted. And a priest then blessed the
people of God. He did the work. Hebrews 9 goes
on to talk about him, but Christ, verse 11 of chapter 9, but Christ
being come a high priest of good things to come, by a greater
and more perfect tabernacle, not made of hands, that is to
say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves,
but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place having
obtained eternal redemption for us. What a glorious Gospel we
have. What a glorious Saviour we have
to proclaim. For if the blood of bulls and
goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctify
to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood
of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without
spot to God. Purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the Living God." Those wonderful verses in Hebrews
10. He describes himself in verse
8, verse 7, he said, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it
is written of me, to do thy will, O God. Above, when he had said
sacrifice and offerings and burnt offerings and offering for sin,
thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein which are offered
by the law. Then he said, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He takes 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,
once for all time. And every priest stands daily
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can
never take away sins. And here are these people bringing
this law to these Galatians. Oh dear, can never take away
sins, but this man, after he'd offered one sacrifice for sins
forever, sat down on the right hand of God from henceforth expecting
till his enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering
he has perfected forever them that are sanctified. To be the
Christ is to achieve these things with the satisfaction that God
is pleased with. You see, it's not an offer. No human works can attain it.
No human works can keep it. No human works can be added to
it at all, ever, except to defile it. And where human works are
preached, particular effective redemption cannot be preached. The Gospel of God's saving grace
in His Son excludes any activities of man whatsoever. We read in
Romans 11.6, read it again and love it. God says it must be perfect to
be accepted. It's the Gospel of particular
effectual redemption. It's a gospel of eternal election. God chose them. God loved them
before the foundation of the world. God chose the people in
Him. This was the beginning of Paul's
gospel. He proclaimed it all the time. You cannot talk about
the grace of God without talking about the eternal covenant of
grace and the election of grace. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. This Lord Jesus, this resurrected
Lord Jesus in John 17, he describes himself in verse 2, he says,
he has given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given him. I pray for them, he
says, I pray not for the world, it's the gospel of particular
redemption, the gospel of eternal election, the gospel of God's
sovereign grace. He chose us by sovereign grace. He redeemed us by sovereign grace.
He regenerates his people as we will see Paul describing himself,
by sovereign grace. Not a single activity of Paul's,
just God's activity, preserved and sanctified. The Gospel of
Paul Priest was a gospel that described the Lord Jesus as the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. He
didn't frustrate the grace of God, because if righteousness
comes by the law, Christ is dead in vain. Christ is nothing to
you. The only righteousness ever performed
by men is self-righteousness. It pleases the flesh of men.
It causes others to say, look what I have done. Isn't it extraordinary
that it's common teaching these days that you'll enter into glory
and there you'll have all of your works. And God will esteem
you above others because you'll have extra jewels in your crown.
A number of times I was told that I'd have bigger and brighter
and more jewels in my crown because we went to India. We were sinners
when we went to India, Isaiah 64 says. Our righteous deeds
were filthy rags. We have no righteousness of our
own. We don't want any jewels, extra
jewels in our crown. We have none. It's offensive
to God's people. The gospel that Paul declared
is the gospel of a complete and successful and a sufficient saviour
for the salvation of our souls. Colossians is such a beautiful
description, isn't it? In chapter 2 verse 9 it describes
the Lord Jesus in great simplicity but awesome power, isn't it?
For in Him dwelleth all the fullness, dwells and dwells and continues
to dwell all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete. Not that you will be complete,
not that you might be complete, You are complete in Him, perfect
in Him. That is Paul's description, isn't
it? In Acts 20 he speaks to those
Ephesian elders and he says, I'm free of the blood of all
men because I haven't done anything other than proclaim the whole
counsel of God. The whole counsel of God is Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. His gospel is the gospel of a
successful saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he wants all
of those titles, all of those names, to have all of the import,
all of the weight that these scriptures put upon them. Christ
in you, the hope of glory. And God's Gospel has a powerful
effect on God's people. It shuts sinners up. There's
nowhere else to go, which is what the Lord did in John chapter
6. Where else have you to go? You have no righteousness of
your own. You can make and create no righteousness
of your own. You have a problem. You have
a sin problem. You have a sin problem from your
father Adam. You're born in sin and all we
do then is sin. We need a mighty, powerful Saviour. God's Gospel shuts the sinner
up so there's nowhere else to go. All of his righteousness
is taken away from him. All of his works are taken away
from him and there is just one, one left on the stage and that
is the Lord Jesus. wants us to see. It's extraordinary,
isn't it? These are strong, strong words
that Paul goes on to say here, doesn't he, in verses 9. If any
man preach any other gospel unto you that you have received, let
him be accursed. Paul had his pen on the piece
of paper. God wrote those words. God wrote those words. They are the words of God. They
are the words of Paul, but they are the words of God. Those who preach them and those
who follow, follow them to hell. It is just that serious, isn't
it? Wherever you go in the Bible,
my flesh wants to say it's not so serious. There is a possibility
that we could find some other way. Every time I turn to the
Bible, all I ever find is that it's more serious, and it's more
serious, and it's more weighty, and it's more heavy. And you
have conversations with people. I had a chat with a fellow down
the street this morning, and he goes to another church, and
I said, the problem, he says, oh, we need to reform this church.
And I said, the problem is the church doesn't have the gospel
and never did have the gospel. And I'm talking to him, I said,
there's only one word from God for you this morning, one word.
God says, flee. For the sake of your soul, for
the sake of the souls of people, flee is the only word that God
says. And I had to go back down the
street to the chemist half an hour later, and there he is,
sitting in the shop, and he's drinking a cup of coffee and
reading the newspaper. And you think, what impact has
that conversation had? You see Paul still called these
people, these wayward Galatians, he still said that there are
a church, there is a remnant. He is pleading with them, he
is outlining the seriousness of their situation and he knows
that the result of his letter and the aim of his letter is
to create contention and division and separation. He's saying,
like the Apostles say throughout the rest of the Scriptures, they're
saying, stay with us, stay with us, don't be moved, don't be
moved, don't join with them. In 2 John he says, if you partake
of them, If any come unto you and bring not this doctrine,
receive him not into your house, neither bid him God's feed. Don't wish God's blessing upon
him. Don't bless him. For he that
biddeth him God's feed is a partaker of his evildoes. I didn't write
that. The Apostle of Love wrote that.
God wrote that. Paul is jealous. He's concerned about them being
so soon removed, so quickly transferring themselves. He is envious and
jealous. He says in 2 Corinthians 11,
he says, for I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for
I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ. But Paul says to the Corinthians,
but I fear. He says to the Galatians, I'm
concerned, I'm fearful, I'm marveled, I'm astonished, but the astonishment
is an astonishment that brings with it great emotional anxiety. But you are so soon removed,
so soon after his departure, so soon after receiving the Gospel
with joy, so soon after receiving the Gospel with joy and feeling
the liberty, the freedom and the peace. We've witnessed it
ourselves, brothers and sisters, haven't we? And several times
we've had conversations and we've sat and read the Bible with people
and they've become, for a little time, incredibly excited. And
they find it just thrilling that the Lord Jesus is all, is all,
all of my sanctification, is all of my wisdom, is all of my
righteousness. And we've just read the scriptures
and they've become excited and it's taken one little phone call. and they've turned away and they've
become incredibly upset and incredibly anxious and incredibly hard-hearted. And you've just read the Bible
to them. You've just described the Lord
Jesus to them. Paul knew. He knew that people
are weak so soon, so soon removed. In every environment where the
creature has been, they have been so soon removed from him. So soon. You think of them in
history. Satan was the chief angel. You can read about him in Isaiah
14 and Ezekiel 28. So soon removed. Adam and Eve placed in the most
extraordinary environment that ever human beings could be in.
So soon removed. Cain went to that church service. He'd had the witness of his father
and he'd had the witness of his mother and his brother. So soon
removed, he comes to that church service and he brings the work
of his own hand. By the time Noah's generation
comes around, every imagination and the thoughts of their hearts
are only evil all the time, but Noah found grace in the eyes
of God. And what happened as soon as
the ark had landed and as soon as they had grown the first crop
of grapes? So soon removed, a child cursed. You think of that generation
of the exodus. So soon after the great things
that God had done, they get to a situation, they're so soon
removed, aren't they? These, as they made the golden,
these are your gods, Israel, as they made that wicked golden
calf. Now all through the Old Testament,
the picture again and again, isn't it, is so soon removed,
so soon removed. In Galatians 2 we'll see that
even an apostle like Peter, can be so soon removed. He and all
the apostles at that Last Supper said, we'll stand by you. And
Peter finally said, well these other ten, they might be dodgy,
but I'll be there, I'll be there, I'll be there right to the death.
So soon removed. had those remarkable gifts of
grace to have been there at Cornelius' house and been led there by God
in miraculous and marvellous ways and preached the Gospel
and then defended that Gospel in Acts Chapter 15 at the Jerusalem
Council and then goes to Antioch, so soon removed. It's a salutary warning, isn't
it, brothers and sisters? A salutary warning. We are kept
by grace. We don't attain, we don't go
up on God's mountain up to worship God on steps, lest our nakedness
be exposed. It's all of grace. All these
things happened. Under them as examples, 1 Corinthians
10, 11, they are written for our admonition, upon whom the
ends of the world are come. Therefore let him that think
that he standeth take heed lest he fall. We are and we remain
in our Adam flesh weak and vulnerable. So soon removed from Him that
called you. So soon removed from God the
Father who called them. So soon removed from grace. He called them into the grace
of Christ. That remarkable grace that Paul
preached, that remarkable grace that Peter defended with the
other apostles in Acts chapter 15. I love looking at that Jerusalem
Council, that first Bible conference. and He put no difference between
us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now for why
do you tempt God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples
which neither our fathers nor we are able to bear? And it's
amazing the description of salvation, of Jewish salvation, he says
in verse 11. But we believe that through the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. If you're going to be saved as
a Jew, you need to be saved as a Gentile is saved. Nothing in
my hand I bring, nothing of my lineage, nothing of my heritage,
nothing of my family ties, nothing but the Lord Jesus purifying their hearts, causing
His people to be the recipients of grace. What a remarkable word. We looked
at it last week. It's just God's sovereign gift. It comes. I'm merited. It's not bought or sought or
earned. There is no claim that you can
have upon it. It comes as pure love, unasked
for, undesired. It's opposed to works. It's grace
that is eternal, it's free, it's sovereign, it's a gift. It's
grace that distinguishes, grace that exposes rebel hearts, grace
that empties the self-righteous. And all of that grace is in the
Lord Jesus Christ's grace. We often quote that verse
out of Ephesians 6, isn't it? It's the praise of the glory
of His grace, wherein He has made us accepted in the Beloved. Do you know what that word accepted
means? It means to be graced. It's a
verb form. It means to be graced. It means
to be highly favoured. The other time it's used in the
New Testament is that description of Mary. Highly favoured, graced. You see, if you go back to Galatians
chapter 1 with me, we'll just go through some of these verses
and through Paul's description of what he and his brothers and
sisters have and what they are leading. And why he's marvelled,
why he's astonished, anguished, troubled to leave the Gospel
of Grace is to leave Paul and his fellowship. See, Paul, according
to verse 15, when it pleased God who separated me from my
mother's womb and called me by His grace, See, to be removed,
to be removed from Paul is to be removed from one who God was
pleased to call out and God was pleased to ordain. To leave, to be carried away,
to be removed, is to be removed from Jesus Christ and God the
Father. See how he describes him, he's
our, verse 3, he's our Lord Jesus Christ. He gave himself for our
sins. It's our Lord Jesus. It's to
be removed from the resurrected Christ to another Jesus. The resurrection establishes
some remarkable things. All the promises of God are signed
and sealed by His blood and His death and His burial and His
resurrection and His exaltation. The resurrection says God reigns. God reigns over this world with
perfect ease right now sitting on the throne. The resurrection
is a guarantee of your resurrection and everyone else's resurrection.
This whole world will be resurrected. The earth will spew them out,
as it were. The resurrection is a declaration
of his successful, finished work. To be removed from Paul is to
be removed from him, so soon removed from the resurrected
Lord. be so soon removed from the Church. If they continue
down this path, they are removed from the Church. The Church will
be gathered and nurtured and protected by God. It will prevail. But to be outside of it, to be
outside of it, is in a place of extraordinary danger. To be
removed so soon is to be removed from grace. Paul says, Grace
be unto you and peace from God our Father in verse 3. To be
removed from Paul and to be removed from his Lord and removed from
God the Father is to be removed from grace and to be removed
from sin, removed from peace. Because the Lord Jesus brings
peace verse 4, who gave himself for our sins. If you are not
fellowshipping with Paul and the apostles, then you do not
have the fellowship of the Lord Jesus suffering for our sins. Everywhere in the scriptures,
in the New Testament, it's the sins of us, it's for the sins
of us. stand opposed to the us, the
apostolic fellowship, is to be in a place where the Lord Jesus
has not dealt with your sins. To be removed is to remain or
return to this present evil world. Paul describes this world as
present evil. It is evil in all that it does, all of its religious
activities, all of its worldly rebellion against God. But he
says it's a present world. It means that there's another
one coming. This world is not the end of all the worlds. We're still in it. to be removed from Him, so soon
removed, is to be turned away from the will of God, to be in
a place which is contrary to His will, to be turned and removed,
is to be removed from His glory. to be removed from His glory
forever and ever, and to be removed from His truth. Amen is to say,
I agree it is true. Paul marveled. Why? Why were they removed? Quite simply, the false teachers. Turn your eyes from the Lord
Jesus onto yourself. and they can do it in the most
extraordinary and subtle ways. Satan is a master deceiver. He has his ministers. They parade
themselves as ministers of righteousness and ministers of light. He masquerades
as an angel of light. and he causes people to no longer
see that they need grace. Somehow they've grown beyond
being dependent children with nothing in their hands they bring. These Galatians were losing everything
and gaining nothing. So we never get beyond our need
of the grace of God in Christ Jesus. We need, by the grace of God,
to be humbled and kept in a place where we are continually made
mindful of our own weakness. And how are we brought to a place
where we are mindful of our own weakness and our own dependency?
It's the same place of comfort, isn't it? It's look to Him, look
to the Lord Jesus, look to what He has done, look to what He
has suffered, look to what He is doing now. If you look to
Him, and in His light and in His being we'll see ourselves,
we'll see our sinfulness, we'll see all of what they lost, all
of what Paul and the others had, and what's the contribution of
man in all of this? Sin. Sin. Grace will cause us to look to
Him, to see our weakness, to see our sinfulness, to see our
need of Him, to see that He is all of my righteousness, and
I have none other, and I can establish none other. Faith,
says Hebrews 11, faith is the evidence. Faith is the evidence. There's no other evidence. People
are looking to their experiences and they're looking to their
history and they're looking to what they have done in the past,
they're looking to what they might do in the future, they're
looking to their works of righteousness. Faith is the evidence. There
is no other evidence. Look to Him. We have. We are. desperately in need of grace,
electing grace, redeeming grace, sanctifying grace, preserving
grace, unchanging grace, sovereign grace, reigning grace. He calls us into the grace of
Christ. What a remarkable Saviour. He
gave Himself He gave himself for the sins of us, for our sins. Nothing in my hand I bring. Simply
to the cross I cling. Naked come to thee to dress. Help us. Colossians 2.6 is a
wonderful, wonderful verse, isn't it? It says, as you have received
Christ Jesus the Lord. How did you receive Him? How
did you receive Him? You received Him as a helpless
sinner. A helpless sinner who's been
confronted with a holy God. And the only possible hope, the
only possible hope is that that God would be gracious to you. As you have received Christ Jesus
the Lord, So walk you in Him. We never get above being sinners
in desperate need of a Saviour. What a Saviour Paul outlines
for these Galatians. What a Saviour to walk away from. What a Saviour. What a Saviour
we have. May He work in our hearts and
preserve us. Let's pray. We thank you that you took your
church in all ages, and particularly your church in New Testament
times, through so many trials and troubles. We praise you,
Heavenly Father, that these things are written so that we might
be humbled, that we might see again the frailty of our flesh,
and the glories of Your dear and precious Son. We praise You,
Heavenly Father, that for those who find themselves at rest in
Him and His finished work, there is peace. We pray, Heavenly Father,
that You'd continue to work in our hearts to cause us to look
to Him and to find ourselves delighted in who he is and what
he has done. And continually, Heavenly Father,
could you turn our eyes to him who is the author and the finisher,
the perfecter of faith, that we might find ourselves just
looking at him and calling out as Thomas did, my Lord and my
God. What a blessing believing is,
Heavenly Father. What a blessing the Gospel is,
and we pray, Heavenly Father, that you'd protect it and preserve
it in this place, and you'd cause us to be faithful witnesses that
we might faithfully declare the glories of your dear Son, faithfully
declare Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and trust the power
of the Gospel, the power that you have promised, Heavenly Father.
It is the power of God under salvation. Help us to esteem
that remarkable word, salvation. It's all in Him. We thank you
again for your precious son, Heavenly Father. We thank you
for his sacrifice and we thank you for all of what it means.
Help us to stir our hearts again and work in us, Heavenly Father,
something of the zeal and the passion that your dear servant
Paul showed to these people that he loved so much. Help us to
be mindful, Heavenly Father, that by grace we stand. By grace
we stand. We pray your blessing on us,
Heavenly Father. Bless your word and your gospel
to the hearts of your people. For we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.