Good morning. Take your Bibles and turn to
Galatians chapter 1. Galatians 1, we'll begin in verse
6. Paul here is addressing the churches
of Galatia and he's very clear with them that they have removed
themselves. They've been taken away from
Christ and a turn to another gospel. And by leaving Christ,
he tells them, you're no longer in the grace of Christ. You've left the grace of Christ.
And that's not good news. That's bad news. That's bad news. So he says now, in verse six,
he begins saying, I marvel. that ye are so soon removed from
him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another
gospel. There were men who came from
Jerusalem. They were called Judaizers. And
that meant that they were persuading the people to become Jews, physically
to become Jews. They were basically saying that
Christ is not enough. You have to become an Israelite
according to the flesh. And by their persuasion, they
removed them from Christ. They removed themselves from
Christ. And so what we see is that anyone outside of Christ
is not a partaker of the grace of Christ. They're not a partaker
of the covenant of grace that God has established for his people,
that God will be merciful and gracious to his people and receive
them in Christ. If they're not in Christ, they
have no part in that grace and in that fellowship with God. And so our Lord himself, when
he calls his people, he's bringing them into the grace of Christ. He's bringing us out of darkness
and out of that prison and separation from God and we're brought into
the grace of Christ. So what is the grace of Christ?
It's the full provision of our God for needy sinners. Christ
provides everything that the sinner needs to be accepted with
God, to be reconciled to God, to have fellowship with Him. We've all sinned against God. We've all fallen short and come
short of the glory of God. We're all sinners, every one
of us. Everyone born of Adam's seed
is a sinner, defiled and corrupt in their nature, and is in rebellion
and enmity against God. We're born spiritually dead.
We have no knowledge of the true and living God. We don't know
how to worship the true and living God. Naturally, it could be said
of us, as our Lord said to that woman at the well, when he said,
ye worship, ye know not. We may be religious, but by nature,
we don't know what we're worshiping. We don't know who it is that
we worship, who created us, and how we are to approach him. Even
if we did have a right knowledge of the Lord, even if we had the
scriptures, the word of God, and the form of the law and the
ceremonies, being left to ourselves in nature, we don't know how
to worship the true and living God. Our Savior, when he was
speaking to the woman at the well, said, we know what we worship
for salvation is of the Jews, of the Jews. Now, that's an important
term. Because the Jews, the nation
of Israel, they did have the scriptures. They did have the
law. They did have the ceremonies
and the pictures and the types. And those things all pointed
to and spoke of Christ. They all looked to the Christ,
the Savior of God. Doctrine and ceremony and forms
of religion, that in and of itself is not salvation. That is not
worshipping God in spirit and in truth. We must be born again. We must have the Spirit of God. We ever need our Lord and His
grace and His mercy which He gives through His Son, Jesus
Christ. And so the true Jew, the true
Jew is one who is born of the spirit, born of the seed of Christ. And he said to that woman, the
hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers shall worship
the father in spirit and in truth for the father seeketh such to
worship him. God is a spirit, and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. And so even one who was called
a Jew, who only worshipped God according to the law of Moses,
went through the form and through the ceremony and doing those
things prescribed in the law and trusting in those things,
even that one didn't worship the true and living God. He was
worshiping God in the flesh. That wasn't worshiping God in
spirit and in truth. And so that one is not a true
Jew. There's a difference between
a false Jew and a true Jew. Paul gives us a definition of
a true Jew, one who is a true Jew, of who is a partaker of
the salvation of God. He describes them in Romans chapter
two. Romans chapter two, verse 28
and 29. He said, he is not a Jew, which
is one outwardly. And that's what these Judaizers
were trying to do. They were trying to to bring
this outward form of Judaism to the people in the churches
of Galatia. Paul said he's not a Jew which
is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward
in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly. and circumcision
is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter,
whose praise is not of men, but of God. that the sinner needs to be reconciled
to the true and living God. Everyone who's offended God and
fought against Him is a rebel against God. For them to be reconciled
to the Lord, everything is provided freely and abundantly in the
Lord Jesus Christ. If you would know the true and
living God, if you would worship Him in spirit and in truth, It's
through the Lord Jesus Christ. And here, that's referred to
the grace of God, the grace of Christ. The grace of Christ. Now there's a wonderful description. of the grace of Christ. What
is the grace of Christ? What do we understand about the
grace of Christ? What has Christ done for us?
What has he brought us into by himself, by his work? What has
Christ done? Well, turn over to Ephesians
chapter 1. It's all here in one place in
Ephesians chapter 1 and it begins in verse 3. And we'll read down
together to verse 14. So that's kind of lengthy. So
I'm going to provide some commentary as we go through these verses.
So it begins now in verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. So our very first
understanding of what this grace of Christ is, it's that our God,
our God's dealing with us, all the blessings that he gives to
us are given in Jesus Christ, not outside of Christ. They're
all in Christ. The banner over the people of
God is Christ himself. He is our salvation. He's everything
to the believer. All our salvation is wrought
by and given to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the will
and purpose of God toward us is that every blessing that God
will give to us, he gives freely and abundantly in Christ. It's all because of Christ. It's
all through Christ. That's how we are received and
have a knowledge of God. Our God has committed everything
for our salvation into the hands of the mediator, the God-man
mediator, Jesus Christ. Now, these blessings are given,
verse 4, according as God hath chosen us in Christ before the
foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love. And so our Lord is describing
here that before we were even born, Before we came forth doing
anything good or evil, apart from our works, our God chose
a people and gave them to Christ, put them in the care of the God-man
mediator, Jesus Christ. And so that description is very
much like what we see in Romans chapter 9, verses 11 through
13, where Paul is describing Jacob and Esau. And he said,
for the children. being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said
unto Rebekah, the elder shall serve the younger. As it's written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. And so we see in
this that the grace of Christ is that God will be gracious
to whom he will be gracious, apart from our works. Before
we were even born, God already chose whom He would and gave
them to Christ to be their salvation, to do everything necessary for
their deliverance from death. And so to His people, whom God
chose and would be gracious to, He purposed that we should be
holy and without blame before Him in love. How is this holiness? and this blamelessness accomplished
for us who are sinners and rebels against the true and living God.
Well, we are brought to see that it's all through the righteousness
of another. It's through the righteousness
of Christ. Look at verse 5. having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will." God is pleased to save you, whom
he's chosen, by his Son. God is well pleased with his
Son. He's not looking to us for additional
works or extra works. He's well pleased with his son. Verse six, to the praise of the
glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the
beloved. He's made us accepted. How did
He make us accepted? Verse 7, in whom we have redemption
through His blood. We've been purchased by the blood
of Christ and by His purchase, by His blood, we've received
the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. Meaning that the blood of Christ
is sufficient to save His people to the uttermost. There's not
additional works that have to be done by us. There's nothing
more that we need to do to make this salvation effectual to us. Everything needed is provided
for us in Jesus Christ. Verse 8, wherein he hath abounded
toward us in all wisdom and prudence, which we now call and understand
to be the grace of Christ, the grace Christ. Now this grace of Christ, this
salvation of Christ, it extends to us being given a knowledge
and an understanding of what our God has done for us. Everything from verses 3 through
8 up to this point has been showing us what Christ has done without
our knowledge, with us having no part and no understanding,
not having been born yet. not been born again, even if
we've been born spiritually. Christ did all this before we
were ever born. And yet, as our Savior, it does
please Him to give us a knowledge of His salvation. It does please
Him to make known to you what He's done for you. It pleases
Him to show this, to glorify Christ in our eyes. And this
is declared, this salvation is declared to us by the gospel. 9. Having made known unto us
the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he
hath purposed in himself Meaning it's been conceived and
executed entirely by the Godhead. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost has
brought this salvation to pass for His people. And so it's not
according to our works. It's not by our merit. Verse
10 That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might
gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in
heaven and which are on earth, even in him. And so this speaks
to the exaltation of our Savior in our eyes, in our hearts, in
our minds. We know and are brought to understand
God's done it all in Christ. There's nothing more I can add
to this. I cannot perfect that which is perfected by the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. That, brethren, is good news
and comforting news to the troubled, weary, sinner who's been laboring
and striving and trying to quiet their guilty conscience, it's
all soothed, it's all made quiet by the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That, at the name of Jesus, Every
knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and
things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That's Philippians
2 10 and 11. Now continuing in Ephesians,
beholding what we have in the grace of Christ, in whom also
we have obtained an inheritance, so that our God chose us in Christ,
committing us to the care of Christ and the provision of Christ,
He came and saved His people by the sacrifice of Himself on
the cross, bearing our sins, bearing the punishment of our
sins, paying the debt of our sins, and satisfied the justice
of God, and giving up the ghost, dying on the cross for His people. He was taken down and buried. And he was laid there in that
tomb, but God raised him up from the dead so that he glorified
his son. And now we have an inheritance
in him. We find we have been saved and
have an inheritance in him also. Being predestinated, verse 11,
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will, that we should
be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ."
Who first trusted Christ? Who first trusted in Christ?
The Father. The Father trusted Christ with
all our salvation to provide everything for us, to establish
that covenant for us. Everything was given into His
hands, not my hands, not yours, but Christ's hands to fulfill
everything that God so abundantly and wisely determined should
be done for His people in eternity past. Verse 13 and 14, in whom
ye also trusted. God brings this to pass in our
hearts. After that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of
your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed ye were
sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. There is an outward
manifestation in what God had done in your hearts. You believed,
you confessed Christ, and were baptized in him. Verse 14, which
is the earnest, the Holy Spirit which God has given you is the
earnest or the down payment of our inheritance until the redemption,
until Christ returns and picks up that which he's purchased
beforehand with his own blood. that purchased possession unto
the praise of his glory. we see it all speaks of Christ. There's nothing described in
here of what you're doing. It's all the blessings we receive
by the Lord and are wrought in our hearts by the Spirit which
he's given unto us in Christ, by Christ, by our Lord. And so
we see that salvation is a person. It's Christ. Christ is the very
salvation of his people. There's not a list of things
for us to do that you didn't see anywhere in there turning
back to the law. Because God said this is holy,
a work of holiness and blamelessness. And if there was something we
did in the law, we would defile it and it wouldn't be holy and
it wouldn't be blameless. It's all of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we're saved by the person
of Christ And without him, we cannot be saved. And that's what
Paul has in mind when he wrote in Galatians 1.6, I marvel that
ye are so soon removed from him. you're so soon removed from Christ
that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. Why would anyone leave the salvation
of Christ? He alone is the abundant provision
of God given freely, graciously to his people. By Christ we have
life in and are made partakers of the covenant of grace which
God established for His people. To turn to anything else, to
leave Christ and look to anything else for salvation is to be turned
to weak things and beggarly elements, things that cannot save, things
that have a form but have no righteousness and no merit with
God. So our God delivers us. He must deliver us from gospel
perversion. What these Judaizers were bringing
was a perversion of the gospel. The gospel is Christ and Christ
alone. And so these professing believers
were removed from Christ. They were turned from Christ.
They looked to things that they were doing. other doctrines and
practices and stuff that they had to do and in so doing they
were removed from Christ. They put their trust in these
men. These men who preached themselves
and these men who preached works and who preached man. must put
his hand to the work of God to secure his salvation. By this
they came under the spell of another gospel, which Paul tells
us in verse 7, which is not another gospel. It's not good news. It's
bad news. It's bad news. And so it began
with circumcision and it went on to the observance of days
and weeks and the Sabbath. And that's what he says. And
it just went on back to those weak and beggarly elements of
the law, which were types and shadows and pictures of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so it declared Christ isn't
enough. Christ isn't enough. But the
gospel declares Christ is all and in all. He is all the salvation
of God. Now turn over to 1 Corinthians
9. Look at 1 Corinthians 9 verse 16. And then we're going to look
at another verse in 1 Corinthians after. 1 Corinthians 9 verse
16. Paul says here, For though I
preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of. For necessity is
laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. Woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospel. Now turn to 1 Corinthians 2. Here he says the same epistle. I determined
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. So if all that Paul preached
to the Corinthians was Jesus Christ and him crucified. And he tells us, woe is unto
me if I preach not the gospel, then what is the gospel but the
preaching of Jesus Christ and him crucified. It's the declaration
that our salvation is not in Bible stories and moral stories
and the practice of ceremonies and religion. It's the salvation
of God is in Christ and him crucified. He has obtained our very salvation,
our very life. And so Paul said, I marvel that
you're so soon removed from him. who called you into the grace
of Christ. I marvel at that. So soon you've
left Christ and gone to another gospel. So, to go outside of
him and focus on these other things, that's not salvation.
That's not salvation. In fact, it brings us into condemnation. Look at verses 8 and 9. Galatians
1, 8 and 9. For though we or an angel from
heaven preach any other gospel unto you, then 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, then that ye have received, let him be accursed. When man preaches man, he is
laying on his hearers additional things that he must do. And that
can take many forms and can be very subtle. Even looking to
oneself and looking to one's own experience and working oneself
up into a depression and a misery, that too is a work. That too
takes men's hearts away from Christ and trusting in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Any work, whether it's you've
got to be circumcised, you've got to do this, for the Lord
before you can be the Lord. You've got to do all these things
or some set of things. It's all turning your eyes toward
what you need to do for your justification or to improve your
standing with God. When the child of God does good
works, it's because they love the Lord. It's because he has
justified them. He has wrought salvation and
love in their hearts so that they willingly, gladly do those
things for their brethren, for the Lord, for the church when
they see a need and they want to serve. Those are all good
and profitable things to men. but we don't do those things
for our justification, and we don't do those things thinking
that they make us more holy in the eyes of our God, and that
our brethren who don't do those things are less holy in God's
sight, we're thankful that God lays things on our hearts to
do for him, and that he reveals to us areas that need, that have
a need from us, that we may serve our God and serve our brethren. You know, we can be confident
in what Christ has done. Aren't you confident in what
the Lord has done for his people? The salvation that he's provided
for his people? But you know where we don't have
confidence? When we find that there's something we've got to
do. that there's something more that needs to be done. Now we're
on shaky ground. Now we become fearful and terrified
when there's something that we have to do by our strength, by
our resolve, by our perseverance. If we don't do it, we're not
gonna be saved. That is a frightening and terrifying
place to be. But when it's Christ and it's
what he's accomplished, that's a comfort. That's a joy. There's
peace there in what our Lord has done for us. And so when
man preaches man, it ceases to be good news and it becomes bad
news. Because I'm a sinner in this
flesh. I'm weak. I'm fickle. I'm careless. I easily go astray. It's bad news when man preaches
man, but when I look to the Lord Jesus Christ and behold all that
he's accomplished, that's good news. That's very good news because
the Spirit of Christ, which has given spiritual life to me in
Christ, testifies that Christ is all. Trust him. Believe him. Look to him. Trust
his work of salvation. Trust his blood. Trust his blood. So the perverted gospel is to
preach man as having some part in salvation, whether it's the
exaltation of his will, or the exaltation of his lineage, or
the exaltation of his church membership, or the exaltation
of his works, whatever it is, his running, whatever it is.
Those things shall fail. It's a perversion of the gospel
and it takes our eyes off of Christ. It removes us from him
who brought us into the grace of Christ and takes us out into
that cold darkness of dead letter religion. Dead letter religion. So don't be taken away from him
that has called you into his grace. There's no mention of
the law there. Ephesians 1 13 through 14, it
all speaks of Christ. It all speaks of what He's done
for you. Look to Christ for all your hope,
all your salvation. Everything is provided freely
and abundantly in in the Lord Jesus Christ by your God. I'll
close with this verse, Isaiah 45, 22. It says, look unto me
all ye ends of the earth, or rather, look unto me and be saved
all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else. Amen. All right, brethren, let's close
in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your grace. We thank you, Lord, for your
mercy to us in your Son, Jesus Christ, that you've provided
everything. Lord, it's so easy in this flesh
to think there's something more that we must do. It's so easy
in this flesh to be turned to our works, to be turned away
from Christ, to be turned to thinking that we have some part
in our salvation. Well, Lord, we're thankful that
in your word you show us over and over again that it's all
of Christ, that there's nothing that we do of ourselves for our
salvation. Lord, we pray for our brethren. We think of those that are unable
to be with us this morning. Lord, we think of our sister
who is home, sick and ill and not doing well. We pray that
you would bless her, that you would comfort her, that you would
heal her and heal the hearts and the minds of those who love
her and have a deep interest in her being well. Lord, bless
her and bless those who care for her. Give her the doctor's
wisdom. And Lord, we pray also that our
brethren who couldn't be with us due to the roads and the conditions,
Lord, that you would bless them and keep them and that you would
bring us all together here safely soon. It's in Christ's name we
pray and give thanks. Amen.