as you may please God to bless
us together this evening as we continue our meditation in the
epistle of Paul to the Galatians, the first chapter, and this evening
we'll read from verse six to verse nine. It's the first chapter
in the epistle to the Galatians and verses six to nine. 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 be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel
of Christ. For 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. For we said before,
so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto
you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. Last week we considered the introduction
that the Apostle gave to the Church of Galatia by first of
all stating his qualifications as an Apostle who had been called
by God and not by man and had sent him, therefore, into the
ministry. And then we read that wonderful short statement of
the great blessing of faith and the life and death of the Savior. And we concluded with these words,
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Well, then the apostle
then comes very suddenly, really, and surprisingly forcefully But
when he addresses them in this way, I marvel that ye are so
soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ
unto another gospel. And the apostle was principally
referring there to the situation which of course existed through
the Judaism, the religion of the Jews, who tended to cling
to the old ceremonial law, and especially the ceremonial law
regarding circumcision. And they were really trying to
carry on with their old way and also incorporate the new way. And yet the apostle had set before
them very clearly what the right way and what the true way was. And so he addresses them very
forcibly, and says, I marvel that ye are so soon removed from
him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another
gospel. Now, there are two calls. There
is a general call. And the general call is made,
of course, to all men. And we can read of that in Isaiah
and also in the book of the Proverbs. where we read in the eighth chapter
and the fourth verse where these words, unto you, O men, I call,
and my voice is to the sons of men. Now that's the general call. And many people will hear it,
but it will not actually have any effect upon them. And very similarly, In the prophecy
of Isaiah, again, well-known verses really, in the 45th chapter
of Isaiah and verse 22, we read this, where the Lord tells us, Look unto me, and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is none
else. And again, that's a call to mankind. And again, many people have heard
it. And many people have rejected it. And many people have not
received it. And so we see there the general call. But then there
is what we can refer to as the effectual call. And that's a
call from God Himself. And that's a call which is not
resisted. That cannot be resisted because
it emanates from the Spirit of God. And the Apostle, when he
wrote to the Corinthians, he tells us, But we preach Christ
crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom
of God. So what we see there is this.
When God calls, effectually, it is with power. And it has
an effect. It causes a change. It's not
something which is just brushed off. It's the effectual work
of Almighty God. And how thankful we should be
if we know the grand effect of the power of God in our hearts,
directing us to the Lord Jesus Christ. Because here the Apostle
tells us, we preach Christ crucified. And the preaching of the cross
to those who are not saved will just be words. But to those who
are saved, it is the power of God. So here the Apostle is Speaking
to the Galatians and telling this great truth, he says, I
marvel that you are so soon removed from him that calleth you into
the grace of Christ unto another gospel. He's warning them about
turning away from the simplicity of the gospel which he had set
before them. But then he goes and says, which
is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would
pervert the gospel of Christ. And how true that always has
been and will be. There are those who preach another
gospel, who pervert the simple gospel. And what they're really
doing is a bit like the Galatians were. They were trying to add
their part. They were trying to include their
works, thinking they had to do something. in order to justify
their calling and justify their salvation. But we know, as the
Apostle wrote to the Ephesians, not a works lest any man should
boast. And therefore, the Apostle is
redirecting these Galatians that they cannot boast in anything
that they have done, anything that they've dragged in, as it
were, to their religion. but indeed to be, as he spoke
in the earlier verses, grace be to you and peace from God
the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. And directing them
to himself, the 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. So what a great blessing if the
will of God has been and is to call us with an effectual call
out of darkness of nature into the glorious light of the everlasting
gospel. And then he goes on more firmly
to warn them. And he says, 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. And that's a very strong statement,
isn't it? It's a very important statement. The apostle didn't want them
to be led astray. He was very concerned that they
might follow the truth, the simple truth, the truth as it is in
Jesus, and not be sidetracked at all. And having spoken that,
he then repeats it almost in identical words. As we said before,
so say I now again. If any man preach any other gospel
unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. Well, those are very plain words,
weren't they, spoken to the Galatians. And obviously the apostle recognized
the necessity of speaking so plainly and so clearly. And I suppose The day in which
we live, people are afraid to speak clearly of the great truth
of gospel. Afraid to speak clearly of the
word of God. Those things which offend mankind. The gospel is offensive to mankind. Because mankind has nothing to
do. And mankind wants to do. Mankind
wants to justify their own position. They want to qualify themselves
for glory. Well, we cannot do that. And
what a glorious truth it is. As the apostle said, by grace
you are saved. Only grace through faith and
that none of yourselves. It is the gift of God and how
exceedingly humbling that is to realize that almighty God
the ruler of the universe should condescend to look upon us unworthy
sinners of the earth and show to us his grace, his free unmerited
favor, his great love wherewith he loved us so much that he was
willing to come into this sinful world and to suffer and to bleed
and die on our behalf so that we might be redeemed. And surely here as we'll go on
later, the apostle desires that only Christ and him crucified
should be preached and that these Galatians should not become affected
or muddled with some of the Old Testament ceremonies, thinking
that they should carry them out and in essence justify themselves
in measure. No, it's by grace that we are
indeed saved and not on ourselves. It is the gift of God. May the
Lord instruct us from these few verses and enable us to keep
close to the truth of God and the word of God and the gospel
of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.