Alright brethren, Galatians chapter
1. Galatians 1. Now this epistle
to the Galatians was more than likely Paul's first letter, his
first epistle. He had been used of God the first
missionary trip he took to preach the gospel to the Galatians and
God had called many of them out. If you studied about the Gauls,
in history, that's who the Galatians were. They were in Asia Minor.
And this letter here was probably written while he was on his second
journey, and he was probably writing from Corinth around 55
AD. And so not very long had passed
since our Lord had been crucified, and not very long had passed
since Paul had preached the gospel to them. But The Lord had permitted the devil
to enter in through men who were turning the Galatians from Christ
back to the law, back to the works of their hands. We have
to always remember that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood.
And the devil can do nothing but what God permits him to do.
When he does something like this that's not of the Spirit of God,
it's the spiritual wickedness we wrestle against. He appeals
to our sinful flesh and his goal is to turn us from Christ. And
so in these first five verses, Paul declares that God our Father
and Christ Jesus our Lord, he declares first of all, he makes
his messengers. And then he declares and he gives
one message. And then he declares and he gives
one motive. And this is true of Christ's
preachers and this is true of all his people. He makes us his
witnesses. This is not of man, he does this.
And he gives us one message. Christ and him crucified and
he gives us one motive, the glory of God. Now I want to look at
this, that's my title and my divisions. Messenger, message,
and motive. So first of all, Christ makes
his messengers. This is what he says first in
verse one. Paul, an apostle, not of men,
neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who
raised him from the dead. The devil uses the same tactics
in every generation. He has no new ways. He may use some, it may appear
to be new, but it's the same basic tactic. He attacks Christ's
messenger. He attacks the messenger. And
the reason for that is by this he attempts to discredit the
gospel he preaches. And by this, he attempts to destroy
the assurance that believers have that they've truly been
called of God. And if he can destroy that assurance,
he can turn them back to think they're something else, or to
another gospel, or something of that nature. That was what
was happening in Galatia. They were spreading the rumor
that Paul wasn't really an apostle. After all, to be an apostle,
you had to be called of Christ personally. Paul didn't live,
or was not called during the days that Christ walked this
earth. Everybody knew that. But they were accusing him of
not being an apostle. And by that, they were discrediting
the gospel he preached. And they were doing all of that
to turn the believers, make them doubt their faith in Christ,
doubt their calling by Christ, to turn them back to the law.
They were saying, you remember when they came down from Jerusalem
and they came to the Gentiles? These are Gentiles we're talking
about here. And the Judaizers came to the Gentiles and they
said, it's okay to believe on Christ. They don't come out and
out denying Christ. They tell you it's okay to believe
salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, to the glory of
God alone, and make it sound like they truly giving Christ
all the glory, but they were telling them now, but now to
be sanctified, to become perfect, you have to go back to the law. There's something you have to
add. There's something you must do. That's what they were doing. So Paul here is magnifying not
himself. He's not making a boast that
he's an apostle and trying to puff up himself as being an apostle. No, he's magnifying the office. And the way he's doing this is
by magnifying the one who made him an apostle. He's pointing
them to Christ. He's saying, Christ did this.
He said, Paul, an apostle, not of men. It wasn't a council of
men that made him an apostle. He's saying not by man. It wasn't
a single man that made him an apostle. Not even Paul himself.
But by Jesus Christ. That's who made him an apostle.
And by God, our Father, who raised him from the dead. He mentions
here right away that Christ is risen. Because Christ is the
head of the church. And Christ is the one who's making
his messengers. He's the one calling his people.
He's the one making you and me witnesses of him. Go back over
to Ephesians 4 there to your right and let's see that. Paul's
saying the same thing he said to the Ephesian church. Ephesians
4 verse 10. Speaking of Christ, he said,
he that descended, verse 10, is the same also that ascended
up far above all heavens that he might fill all things. Do
you believe that? Do you believe Christ is filling
all things? I believe he is. Christ is filling
all in all. That means in all of his people,
in all of providence he is working it. In all his pulpits, he's
putting his preacher. In all his pews, he's putting
his people. In his people, he's putting his
word. He's filling all in all. Look, and he gave some apostles
and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers.
Why? For the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of Christ's
body. We're his body. We're the fullness
of Him. The fullness of the stature of
Christ won't be until every member of that body is called in and
we're all complete and His body's complete and full. and it's done. If one member is left out, Christ's
body won't be complete. He will not lose one. He will
not lose one. So Paul here is saying our Redeemer's
risen. He's risen and he's working this. He called me, Paul said. That
was a requirement to be an apostle. But brethren, what I want you
to remember is though he uses means in our day. It's still
not men or a man who called you and me. It's still not men or
a man who made us his witnesses. It's Christ who does it. He does
it. Men can't get the glory for this.
Christ gets the glory. So Paul here, he's not wanting
a position or a title. He's not. He never calls himself the Apostle
Paul. You read through the scripture,
he doesn't call himself the Apostle Paul. He doesn't. He calls himself Paul and Apostle. The Lord, look over at Matthew
23, the Lord said it's false preachers who want titles and
position and to be recognized. Look at Matthew 23. I'm just trying to show you this
is not what Paul's doing here. Matthew 23 and look at verse 6. He said of false preachers, look
at verse 5. All their works they do for to
be seen of men. They make broad their phylacteries
and enlarge the borders of their garments. You see that in our
day, the robes and all the stuff that preachers wear so you know
they're the preacher. They love the uppermost rooms
at feasts, the chief seats in the synagogues. Now watch, greetings
in the markets and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be
not ye called rabbi, for one is your master, even Christ,
and all ye are brethren. Call no man your father upon
the earth, one's your father which is in heaven. Neither be
ye called masters, for one is your master, even Christ. But
now what? But he that's greatest among
you, and you know what he's saying here, he's saying he that's truly
greatest will be your servant. That's greatness in God's kingdom,
is to serve one another, to be a minister to one another. That's
what's great in God's kingdom. And whosoever shall exalt himself
shall be abased. And he that shall humble himself,
Christ will exalt him in due time. So that's not what Paul's
doing. Paul said of himself in Corinthians
15.9, I'm the least of the apostles. I'm the least. I'm not made to
be called an apostle, he said, because I persecuted the church
of God. He said, I'm the least of all
saints. I'm the chief of sinners. So
he's not trying to impress them with a title. He's magnifying
the office declaring Christ made him an apostle. He said this
over in Romans 11. Verse 13, this is what he's doing.
He said, I speak to you Gentiles, and as much as I'm the apostle
of the Gentiles, I magnify my office. If by any means I may
provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, it might save some
of them. He's doing it so these believers
at Galatia won't be listening to these false Judaizers so they'll
know he truly was an apostle made so by Christ. So that they'll
know the gospel he preached to them really is the gospel of
Christ. So that they won't doubt Christ
and doubt their calling and doubt their faith and listen to these
Judaizers. He, remember what he said to
the Corinthians, he said, if I be not an apostle unto others,
ye doubtless I am to you, you're the seal of my apostleship in
the Lord. He said, you're the epistle of
Christ ministered by us, written not in ink, but with the spirit
of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables
of the heart. And he said, and this is the
trust we have through Christ toward God. This is our trust.
When we preach the gospel, we're not sufficient of ourselves,
but our sufficiencies of Christ. That's what Paul's telling them.
He's saying, Don't listen to these fellas telling you there's
something that needs to be added. You've been called by Christ.
You heard the gospel of Christ. That's why he's telling them
he really was an apostle of Christ. You get that? So really what
he's saying is what the Hebrew writer said. He's saying, consider,
he's saying, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider
the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.
He's saying Christ makes his preachers, Christ makes his messengers,
Christ makes his witnesses, and he sends us forth with the message,
with the message. I'll tell you, it's a dangerous endeavor whenever
men start trying to go against one of Christ's preachers and
his church, any of his people. That's dangerous for men to do.
Very dangerous for him to do. Because that's his body. That's
Christ's body. And he'll protect his body. We
just read about him guarding and protecting us. And he's gonna
protect his people. You're hedged about. The devil
couldn't touch Job. He said, you got him hedged about.
And if he allows the devil to touch you like he did Job, he's
not gonna let him hurt you. Not the real you. Not the new
man. He's not going to let you separate
him from Christ. It'd be far good. Like that's
what was happening here in Galatia. It was for their good. We wouldn't
have this epistle if the Lord didn't permit the devil to work
this wicked work in the church at Galatia by sending false preachers
in there. But he's always gonna bring his
people to behold Christ. He says, touch not mine anointed
and do my prophets no harm. That includes everybody he calls.
You're his anointed. You got the unction of the Holy
One. You're anointed by him. and he has his messenger, he
said, don't touch anybody in my church. Now secondly, when
he calls, he gives one message. He makes his messenger, I'm not
just, I don't want you to just think this is the preacher, we're
all witnesses of Christ. If you've been called, he made
you a witness, to witness of him. and we have one message,
just one message. He said here in verse three,
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. That right there ends the argument
of all men who say there's something the sinner has to add. That one
statement right there encompasses all of salvation in what he said,
right there. Paul's writing to brethren who've
been called of God, and he says, grace be to you and peace from
God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. That's not just a greeting. That's Paul's desire for his
people. That's my desire for you. That's my desire for us
together. Grace be to you. Grace is God's
unmerited favor. He's the only one that can give
grace. And scripture says if salvation is of grace, it's not
of works. It's not of works. Grace is from
God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ from beginning to end. God our Father chose us how?
By grace. Nothing in us, no merit in us,
no demerit in us. Grace, free favor of God chose
a people that he would save according to his will. It was grace that
chose Christ to be the captain of our salvation. and sent Him
who accomplished the redemption of His people, redeemed us out
of this world, redeemed us out of our sin, redeemed us from
under the curse of the law, so that we're His purchased possession
by His grace. It's grace. The free favor of
God sent the gospel to you, wherever you were, or brought you under
it, and He made you hear the truth of God. He gave you a heart. He regenerated you. He quickens
you by the Spirit of God. He entered in and He gave you
life. He gave you repentance. He gave you faith. He drew you
to Christ. He made Christ to be all your
acceptance with God in your own heart so that you really heard
Him. He did it all by grace. There's nothing you did to merit
that. It wasn't our will, it wasn't our works, it wasn't because
we put away a certain level of sin. It was strictly by His grace
that He did that. And it's by His grace that He's
going to keep His people and not lose a single one. Keep us
hedged about, keep us looking to Christ only, keep us turned
from ourselves, from our sin, from this world, from anything
that would separate us from Him. He's going to keep us looking
to Christ only and save us. And He won't lose one. That's
grace that did it. From A to Z, salvation is the
grace of God our Father and His Son Jesus Christ through the
Spirit of God. And peace. Peace is from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our peace. Sin and guilt is what torments
the conscience. Sin and guilt. It's what makes men want to turn
over a new leaf, and then once they've turned over the new leaf,
then they begin to think they're good and think they're okay,
and it soothes the conscience a little bit, and then here comes
sin and guilt again. It's what makes men fight tooth
and nail and destroy everybody else to justify self, trying
to soothe a guilty conscience, because there's no peace. No
peace. What's gonna give peace? The
Spirit of God's got to enter in and purge our conscience with
the blood of Christ. He has to enter in and make us
behold, make us understand that Christ is enough, that He has
satisfied divine justice, that He has made His child the righteousness
of God. And when He purges your conscience
and makes you see that before God all your sin is put away,
there's no more offering to God, that's when we'll have peace
with God. That's when a man quits pretending, and his religion
stops being a form, and his religion stops being a show, and he really
and truly begins to worship God. He really, he got peace with
God. Peace with God. And that'll never change. And
so by grace, he keeps us in this peace by declaring one message. It's who? Paul says there, our
Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sin? Our message is who? It's a person. He's our salvation. He's our righteousness. He's
our redemption. He's our all. It's a person. It's Christ. It's God in human
flesh. The one thing that you and I
are relying on is the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. I'm persuaded he is able. I'm
not able, he's able. What's he able to do? He's able
to keep that which I've committed to him, everything, everything
against that day. Our one message is what Christ
did He said, who gave himself for our sins? That's the one
thing you and me can say is ours, is our sins. That's it. We can't claim anything about
this salvation was of us. The one thing we can claim that's
of us is our sin. Adam sinned in the garden, and
we died in him, and death passed upon us, and we came forth with
a sin nature, and all we've ever done is produce sin from our
sinful flesh. Paul said, I know that in me,
that is, in my flesh dwells no good thing. There's nothing good
ever come from it, ever. We can claim our sins, we can
claim that. We see, and here's where He's
got to bring us. If we're going to see ourselves
and truly see our sin, He's got to bring us to the foot of the
cross and then nobody else there, but just you and Christ. And
make you see, you hammered the nails in. You pierced this side. You walked around that cross
mocking Him and reviling Him and spitting on Him. He's got
to make us see that it was our sins for which Christ was dying. And the more we see it was my
sins for which He was dying, the less I'm going to esteem
myself and the more I'm going to esteem Christ. The righteousness of God's people
is Christ Jesus. Christ gave Himself for our sin. What does that mean? It means
our sin was so bad that the only way it could be put away and
we could be justified was for God Himself to come do the saving. That's it. point sinners back to themselves
and they want to glory in themselves and glory in what they force
men to do. God said our sin was so bad Christ
had to come. God had to come in human flesh.
That's the only way we could be saved. That ought to end us
boasting in us. That ought to end any talk about
you and me contributing anything to salvation. God sent his son. And his son's not gone. His son
is still in the midst of his churches. His son's still working
in his people. Christ is still taking care of
his people. It's not like he's gone. His
time and space is nothing to him. He's with us. Would you give your son for a
bunch of helpless people that couldn't be depended on and trust
any part of their salvation, any part of the glorification
of your name to them after you gave your son? We got better
sense than that. Well, God surely won't do it.
He's not going to leave it to us, no part of it. What does it mean Christ gave
Himself for our sin? It means the spotless Lamb of
God laid down His life by going before the Father and willingly
giving Himself to be made sin for us. The Lord hath laid on
Him the iniquity, the iniquity of all His people. He hath made
Him sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. What does it mean Christ gave
Himself for our sin? It means He bore our sins with
all the shame of it and His body on the tree. Peter said, his own self, bear
our sins in his own body on the tree. He despised the shame. bearing the sin and bearing the
shame, He bore the fierce wrath of God. He bore the unmitigated
justice of God, the curse. He was made a curse for us. He was forsaken of God so that
His people will never be forsaken of God. How could we dare give ear to
anybody speaking and exalting sinners to have a part in this
when that's what God did to His Son? To save His people. Our salvation is a who. Our salvation
is what He did. Our salvation is what He accomplished
by it. It says that he might deliver
us from this present evil world. That doesn't mean that he might
do it. That means he did it. It means
that he came to deliver us from it. And everybody he represented,
he's delivering. He has, he is, and he shall deliver
from this present evil world. Because he satisfied justice,
God is just, and he did the justifying. And that's what Paul's talking
about in Romans 8. I know we read that and we think about
God freely giving us all blessings. Well, it does include all temporal
blessings, too. But Paul is talking about he
that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? He's
talking about all spiritual blessings that come from being freely justified. That's why the next verse says,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect is God
to justify. That guarantees not one person
for whom Christ died will fail to be delivered from this present
evil world by Christ himself. The work will be finished when
he's presented every last one to the Father and he will do
that. He will not lose one. He delivered
us from the curse so that we would be given the promise of
the Spirit. And that means He would send
the Holy Spirit, regenerate us, give us life and faith in Christ. Look over at Galatians 3, verse
13. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it's written,
cursed is everyone that hangeth on the tree, and here's why he
did it, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles
through Jesus Christ, and here's what it is, that we might receive
the promise of God the Holy Spirit through faith. He laid down His
life and redeemed us from that curse, and because He redeemed
us from the justice of the law, God says, they have to be given
the Holy Spirit, they have to be given life, they have to be
given faith, because I'm delivering them out of this present evil
world. That was the whole purpose of what Christ accomplished.
He will not fail to send his messenger with his message to
his child that he redeemed and call him out. He won't fail to
do it. So when the devil condemns you,
when he accuses you, when he turns you to your sins, when
he tries to tell you there's something more that you must
do, Martin Luther said, when the devil condemns me, All He
does is make me want to run to Christ. All He does is reassure
me, remind me that Christ has finished it. He's done it all.
So brethren, when He does that, remember, our Lord Jesus Christ
is not a judge to condemn us. Because He already gave Himself
for our sins. Run to Him. Run to Him. He's not a judge that's going
to turn you away and shame you and whip you. No, He's a merciful
Redeemer who's going to receive you into His immutable love and
His immutable grace and His immutable mercy because He already laid
down His life for you. When anybody engages in evil
surmisings, evil suspicions, I suspect this,
I suspect that. When anybody would malign any
of your brethren and start turning you from Christ and turning you
back to your flesh, and you know all that ever does, makes us
where we can't hear the gospel. Be honest, don't it? And if that happens, I'll tell
you what you do. If you're one that's about to do it, or if
somebody's about to do it to you, plug up your ears, stop
your tongue, and run to Christ as fast as you can. He's delivering us from this
present evil world. He's doing it. And He's the only
one. How do you resist the devil?
By faith. That means by Christ. He's the
only one. He's not going to lay a heavier
burden on you. He's going to comfort his broken hearted child
because he already took the burden off. And he won't stop delivering
us until he's delivered the last one. He which hath begun a good
work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Now,
the one message is who? It's what? And it's why, why
did He do this? Why did He lay down His life?
Why did He give Himself for our sins? It says, according to the
will of God and our Father. Everything about our salvation,
from election to glorification, is Christ fulfilling the will
of God our Father. Every bit of it. There's nothing
outside of His will, nothing taking place in this world outside
of His will. He's working all things together
for the good of them that love God, to them that are called
according to His purpose. He's doing it all. And everything
our Redeemer's doing in this world for us and with our enemies
and everything He's doing, He's according to the will of our
Father. That is way too big for me. I just can't even comprehend
how everything is being worked according to the will of God.
But if it's coming to pass, it don't come to pass without God's
will. And especially everything about our salvation, it's the
will of God. Listen to, let's go over there,
John 6, I'm about to finish it up. John 6, verse 38. Remember
what Christ said? Verse 37, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that comes to me I will in
no wise cast out, because I came down from heaven not to do mine
own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the
Father's will which has sent me, that of all which he hath
given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again
at the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
him may have, have, freely have everlasting life, and I will
raise him up at the last day. Sinner, believe on Christ. I
pray today He would speak into your heart and make this real
to you and make you really see this is the important thing. We're talking about the glory
of God. We're talking about the glory
of His Son. We're talking about salvation by God our Father and
our Lord Jesus Christ. How little we really value this. This is everything. This is everything. Well, let me end with this. He
gives one motive in our heart. One motive. Verse 5. To whom
be glory forever and ever. Amen. That's the constraint of
Christ's love for us. That's the constraint of love
for brethren, is that God gets all the glory. And we see it
in how Paul did this, what he did. He proved he is Christ's
apostle right here by what he did, just in these first five
verses. He shows that Christ had given
him one message and he was ruled by one motive. How? He walked
by faith. Do you see him walking by faith
in this? He didn't break out the whip of the law. He didn't
start condemning them. What did he do? He started by
telling them the gospel of Christ. What's he saying? He's saying,
I don't have any sufficiency. My sufficiency is Christ. I'm
going to tell you the one message he gave me to tell you and I'm
going to trust Christ to work in the hearts of everybody present
and make you behold Christ and make you follow him. And we see
him working by love for Christ and for his brethren because
he continues to declare the good news of Christ. Even to, there
was people there that had turned against him and he still preached
the gospel of Christ to them. And we hear by His message, by
Him doing this, what His motive was, the glory of God. The glory of God. When Christ
makes us nothing, and Christ makes us behold Him getting all
the glory, that's when we'll glory in God. And our motive
in what we do will be the glory of God. Does that mean that you're
not gonna sin? Go to 1 Corinthians 1. Does that
mean you're not going to sin? You answer that. You answer that
for yourself. But it sure means you don't want
to. It sure means that he's going to put this in your heart and
make you hate it. Sure makes him going to make
you flee to Christ and beg for forgiveness. Make you want to
be reconciled to those you've offended. But I'll tell you something
else it does, it makes you want to forgive those that offended
you. It makes you want, it wants everybody
to see Christ and not self. And you hate it, you hate it,
you hate it, when you're the cause of it being
otherwise. Why? You want Him to have the
glory. Look at this. God chose, verse 28, base things
of the world and things which are despised have God chosen,
that's me and you, brethren, things which are not, things
that are nothing. That's us, and it's means of
this gospel. Why'd he do that? To bring to
nothing things that are, to bring us down off our high horse to
the dust to Christ's feet. That no flesh should glory in
his presence, But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God
has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption. Anybody that wants to argue and
say, that's not a true preacher, he's not preaching the gospel,
let me ask you this one question. Anybody that would say that?
Anybody listening that would say that? Anybody that would
be accusing a new believer of not hearing the gospel because
they're not hearing a God sent preacher, let me ask you something.
Who's getting the glory in this message? And if you don't think Christ
being your wisdom and your righteousness and your sanctification and your
redemption is everything. It's because you want some of
the glory instead of Christ. But when he's done this for you,
according as it's written, he that glorieth, he'll glory in
the Lord. He'll say, amen. Amen. Our Father, we thank you for
this word. I pray, Lord, You'd bless it. Protect your little
lambs. Protect them from wolves. Protect them from those that
would malign your people, your witnesses. Protect them from those that
would try to make them think there's another message besides
Christ. Protect them from those that
would try to turn them from giving God all the glory and salvation
to stealing some glory for themselves. Or protect your people. Hedge us about according to your
power and your grace, and keep us looking to Christ that we
might have that peace that passes understanding. And Lord, really
make us do what we do for the glory of the Lord. Make us hear
the gospel as true believers hear it when we heard it through
the Spirit of God. Make us put ourselves in the
place of the guilty. Don't let us hear it and think
of another brother or somebody else. That's the devil. Make
us hear it, Lord. We ask you as us personally being
the guilty one, the sinner, and make us hear it as Christ alone
being our salvation. Father, we need you to make us
hear this gospel aright. Lord, make us hear it. Make the
Word effectual in our heart. Lord, we pray You bless it. We
pray You bless it to one of Your lost sheep. And save us, Lord, from our Judaizing
old man of flesh and from those in the world. And don't let anything
separate us from the love of God in Christ. Don't let anything
separate us from one another. unify us and keep us united at
the feet of Christ, looking to him. Lord, we trust that you're going
to bruise Satan under our feet shortly. And we ask you, Lord,
to do so. Keep your people. Keep us in
Christ. for your glory, to the praise
of the glory of your grace and your power. We ask it in Christ's
name. Amen.