Let's get this thing going. All right. Good morning. Take your Bibles and turn to
Galatians chapter 1. Galatians 1. After having declared that he
is one who has authority given to him by God as an Apostle of
the Lord Jesus Christ, he now begins to set forth boldly and
plainly the salvation that our God has provided for his people
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He speaks of our deliverance
by the grace of God, not by our works, but by the grace of God
in the Lord Jesus Christ. I've titled this message, Deliverance. So in verse 3, Paul says, Grace
be to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord
Jesus Christ. Now consider for a moment just
how blessed these words are which our God speaks to us. Naturally, we are Adam's race. We are of Adam's fallen, sinful
race. And we can do no righteousness,
nothing to please God with, nothing that we can do in and of ourselves.
And so being born of Adam's sinful race, we come forth of corrupt
seed. The seed that we're born of,
that we were conceived with, is defiled seed. Now, when God
made man, he made man upright. He made man righteous. That means that man had no blemish,
no spot, no fault in him. He was perfect and upright before
God. It says in Ecclesiastes 7 verse
29, that God hath made man upright, but he, man, hath sought out
many inventions, many sinful works, many devious, clever,
deceitful works of rebellion against the true and living God
and what he's revealed to us of himself both in nature and
in his word. And so in the beginning, in Genesis
chapter 1, in verse 27 and verse 31, we're told that God created
man in his own image. In the image of God, created
he him. Male and female, created he them. And then in verse 31, God saw
everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. It was very good. And the evening
and the morning were the sixth day. So when God made man, he
made him upright. He made him perfect. And there
was no sin in him. But Adam rebelled against God. Adam broke the law that God gave
to him when God forbid him to eat of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. And when Adam ate, of that forbidden
tree, Adam sinned. Adam fell when he did that, and
when he did that, just as God said, Adam died spiritually. He died spiritually and sin entered
into the world by that man and death through that sin. And so death came upon all men. When Adam fell, all that he was
and all that were in him, all his seed in him, was defiled
and corrupted. When Adam sinned, we sinned,
because we were all in Adam. He had no children, no sons and
daughters yet. So Adam died, and as the federal
head of he and Eve, they died spiritually. and died spiritually,
and being our seminal head, the one from whose seed we come forth,
we came forth defiled, and dead in trespasses and sins. And that's
what Paul says in Romans 5, 12. He tells us, wherefore, as by
one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and
so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. And so when we're born, when
we're conceived and we come forth of our mother's womb, we come
forth in sin. We come forth defiled. And just as Adam was enmity against
God when he rebelled against God, so we are enmity against
God. And there's a hatred and an enmity
in us against the true and living God. Yet here, With that backdrop
of our darkness, of our blackness of sin, against that backdrop,
the Apostle speaks of grace and peace of God. He says, grace
be to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord
Jesus Christ. Grace for sinners, peace with
rebels, with God? How can such things be? So this
is glorious and we should be in awe that our God should speak
to us and declare blessings of grace and peace with Him, with
our Lord. God's grace toward us is awesome. It's awesome because grace declares
that God is showing us unmerited favor. We don't deserve grace
with God we don't deserve his kindness we don't deserve being
sustained by the Lord we deserve wrath and judgment and God's
peace toward us is awesome because his peace comes to rebellious
sinners his peace restores fellowship with a chosen people his wrath
being turned away and when we what we really deserve is is
the strong arm of the Lord coming in and destroying us. And so he's gracious and he's
at peace with us, not for any works of righteousness that we
do. Man's way is in rebellion and
in the darkness that he is by nature thinks that it's by the
things that he does for God. He turns to religion and tries
to do religious ceremonies and religious practices and what
he thinks is pleasing to the Lord. And while men ought to
do right, they ought to worship the true and living God, and
we ought to love our neighbors by doing unto them as we would
have them do unto us, man doesn't do that, first of all. And what
he does do, he thinks, merits God's favor and gives him something
so that God owes him for that righteousness which he believes
he's done. It's not by works of righteousness
that we're received of the Lord and reconciled to Him. We're
reconciled to God by His grace, by His grace and His mercy toward
us. We're reconciled by the righteousness
of another. When Paul was writing to Timothy
in 2 Timothy 1.9, he speaks of Christ saying, He had saved us
and called us within holy calling. If it's of our defiled works,
our defiled hands, it's not holy. This is of the Lord, a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. And this is exactly The reason
that Paul gives to us why God is gracious to us, why God has
established peace with his people, it's declared in the beginning
of verse 4 when he speaks of Christ saying, who gave himself
for our sins. That's why God is gracious to
his people. That's why God has established
peace with his people. Because Christ gave himself for
our sins. He deserves all the glory and
all the praise. And so we have, by him, by Christ,
we have a knowledge. And we have an understanding
with our God of all the benefits that He shows to us. We have
an understanding of His grace and an understanding of His benefits
which are made known to us through the preaching of the Gospel. That's where the Lord declares
what He has done. and why we hear that it's not
because of us, it's not for our works, not for anything that
we've done, that our God is merciful and gracious to us. Turn over
to Romans chapter 5. Go to Romans chapter 5. We'll pick up in verse 8. Paul writes saying, But God commendeth
his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Well, if that's the case, then
salvation is wrought in our hearts in the same manner. If when we
were dead in trespasses and sins that Christ died for us, well
then so it is with our salvation, with us being brought, given
a knowledge of what Christ has done. Faith being brought in
our hearts is done while as yet we were yet sinners. While as
yet we were in darkness. And that's what he says in verse
9, much more than, being now justified by Christ's blood,
we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were
enemies we were reconciled to God, forgiven by God by the death
of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved
by his life. So that the resurrection of power
which raised Christ up from the dead is that same power which
works salvation in your hearts. whereby you believe God raising
you from spiritual death, giving you spiritual life, whereby you
hear the voice of God and believe Him, whereby you look to the
Son, all by the grace and workings of the Spirit of God, giving
you life, regenerating you from death, so that you hear Christ,
you seek Christ, and you won't stop seeking Christ because you
need him, you live upon him, you feed upon his flesh and blood. Verse 11, Romans 5, 11, and not
only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ
by whom we have now received the atonement. So that by God's
grace and the peace which he establishes with us in the Lord
Jesus Christ, we in the appointed hour are made willing in the
day of God's power toward us. When he determines to bring salvation
to the heart of a sinner, it's all by his power. We're made
willing and we gladly hear and receive our Lord. It's like we
are like a glass. We don't have the option of accepting
the water or rejecting the water. We don't flip ourselves and decide
which way we're going to be. No. Another hand, a master, a
lord, takes us and he pours water into us and we receive it. We
receive it. And so it is in the day of grace,
we receive the grace of our God who willingly, by his will, according
to his purpose, pours it in and then he is takes part and rejoices
in what he has done and is refreshed by that water, so to speak. And
so it is that our God does that for us. All man can do in and
of himself is reject. All we can do is reject the true
and living God. So the blood of Christ, our righteousness,
is so precious that when he offered himself up to the Father as the
surety of his people as the one who would pay the debt that his
people had accrued, had worked up by their sinful doing and
their sinful acts, that wrath of God which we earned and obtained
for our trespasses against him. So precious is the blood of Christ
that our God settled all our debts, cancelled them, because
they are paid in full by the Lord Jesus Christ. He died that
you should live. He was bound on that cross willingly
to set you free who have no hope in your own righteousness, have
no hope in your own works, but trust in the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You go free by the grace of God. Christ gave himself for our sins. You know, when we read the Old
Testament, we read how the Lord says to Israel, he says, I gave
nations for you. I gave nations for you. I overthrew
people that were settled in the land. I drove them out before
you and gave you that land. He gave nations for Israel, but
for the church, he gave himself. he gave himself for his people. That's love, brethren. And this
is the hope of every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
stand in the hope that our God has given us in Christ, that
we are received and accepted of Him. That's where the acceptance
takes place in the Beloved when our God receives us, accepts
us into the Beloved, all by the blood, by the working, the wonder-working
power of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's our hope. We stand
in Christ, not in our own righteousness through works which we have done,
not by the sacrifices that man makes in religion. We're not
saved by those things, we're saved by the precious blood of
Jesus Christ. Our hope is built on His blood
alone. Romans 3.25, God hath set forth Jesus Christ to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood. We trust His blood. We trust
that His blood delivered us from the wrath of God because He bore
it for us. He gave Himself for our sins. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 15.
1 Corinthians 15 and the first
four verses, Paul declares the gospel to the church. He declares the gospel here.
He says 1 Corinthians 15 verse 1, Moreover brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have
received, and wherein ye stand. That's the firm foundation where
we stand, upon the rock which is Jesus Christ, by which also
ye are saved. If ye keep in memory what I preached
unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. And what Paul is saying
there is that believers, those who are covered by the blood
of Christ, they continue in Christ. We're not turned away from the
Lord, we continue in Him. And that's what he means by saying,
if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, you're not turned away
by another gospel, you're not turned back to this world, you
continue in Christ. And the Lord keeps you, and preserves
you, and sustains you. Verse 3 For I delivered unto
you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures. Christ is the reason
that God forgives us and accepts us. He receives us. He brings
us to Himself, and therefore all the wonder-working of His
power, all the blessings of Christ, are revealed in the hearts of
His people as it pleases our God to do, because Christ purchased
them. They're His people. Verse 4,
and that He was buried, meaning He really did die for our sins,
and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
which declares to us that God is satisfied. God is at peace
with His people. The sin debt has been removed,
put away, covered by the blood of Christ so that there's nothing
now standing between God and His people. And He'll send that
power of Christ which raised Him from the dead into your hearts
when it pleases Him. to work that salvation, to drive
out that enmity that's in us by nature. So I'll read 2 Timothy
1.9 again. Christ who hath saved us and
called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. Alright, now having declared
the hope of the believer to be solely resting upon the Lord
Jesus Christ, Paul gives a very specific reason. He gives a very
specific reason here, the reason why Christ did this, which has
to do with the trouble that these churches in Galatia are going
through. And the reason that Paul gives
for our Lord's death is that He might deliver us from this
present evil world. Now our Lord's death, burial,
and resurrection has worked for us great deliverance. Our Lord
has delivered us from our sins. He's put them away. He's delivered
us from the bondage of our sins where we labored under fear and
worry, fear of wrath and punishment of God. He's delivered us from
the body of sin. which speaks to the inheritance
of all those in Adam. All those yet represented by
Adam are in that body of sin and their inheritance is eternal
death and separation from God. You who believe Christ are born
of the seed of Christ and are in the body of Christ, the body
of our Lord, the body of his life, and we receive his inheritance. We've been delivered out of the
kingdom of darkness and brought into the kingdom of light. And he's delivered us, as Paul
says, from this body of death. so that we shall not be destroyed,
but we have life even now. That's what Paul cried out at
the end of Romans 7. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? Thanks be to God for his Son,
Jesus Christ. That's how we are delivered.
Yet Paul, by the Spirit, says of Christ our Savior, that he
gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this
present evil world. Well, the Galatians were being
turned from the simplicity of Christ. They were being turned
from their hope in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. When he was writing
to the Hebrews, Paul said, cast not away therefore your confidence,
which hath great recompense of reward. Hebrews 10.35 But that's
exactly what the Galatians were doing. They were casting away
their confidence in Christ and being turned to fleshly things. putting confidence in this flesh. And so the Judaizers that were
coming in there to Galatia, they were bringing these churches
into bondage under the yoke of the law. They were circumcising
men. They were turning them to the
works of the flesh and giving them something to glory in their
flesh. And they were troubling those
believers who trusted Christ alone. They were provoking them
and worrying them and fighting against them for trusting in
Christ and telling them, you need something more. You need
the law. You've got to do this. You've
got to do that. And they were turning them away
from Christ to a confidence in law keeping. But Christ gave
himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present
evil world. Christ delivers his people from
the works of self-righteous men. Christ delivers his people from
trusting in dead-letter religion that cannot save. from trusting
in the ceremonies of the law and the ceremonies of religion
and looking to stone tablets of stone for their guide rather
than trusting our Lord who promised to give his spirit and to write
his law, his word, his hope which he gives to his people in our
hearts and in our minds being led by faith by the spirit of
our God. And so these were seeking the
approval of men rather than the approval which comes from God
alone. Our Lord tells us, this is my
beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. All who come to the
Father through the Lord Jesus Christ are accepted, received
of Him. And so, our Lord delivered us
from all those dead ways. Look over at Galatians 4. Galatians
4, verses 9 and 10. But now, after that ye have known
God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak
and beggarly elements? Whereunto ye desire again to
be in bondage? Ye observe days and months and
times and years." And this has always tried to work its way
into the churches, so that even the church, which is so in name
only, even they are being turned from Christ and there's churches,
people that are looking back to the ceremony, literally the
ceremonies of the law of Judaism and the ceremonies of Judaism
and they're blowing horns and practicing these days and they
claim, well we're looking to Jesus now, but why are you going
to the shadow and the types Why aren't you looking to and trusting
in the substance? Because the heart of man is so
deceitful, he goes right back toward those things. Didn't Gideon
have to destroy that serpent that Moses had made in the wilderness
because the people began to worship it and they trusted in that.
And so we see how deceitful sin is, we see how easily deceived,
willingly deceived this heart is and just loves tangible things. There's already been a church
so-called that tried that, the Catholic Church. because they
have no knowledge of the spirit of God, what do they do? They
make giant, enormous cathedrals, these big stone magnificent structures
with incredible architecture. There's no light in the place
except that which comes through stained glass windows or candles,
many candles. And they set up stations of either
these incredible paintings or these statues that they sculpt. and they take you through a little
journey to bring you into that experience, because it's all
of the flesh. The preaching of the gospel,
they won't do that, and they don't trust the spirit, so they
give you fleshly things to lift up man to some experience that
seems holy and religious. But does that save? No, so why
are we Judaizing believers even to this day and going back to
the Passover feasts and other Jewish traditions and things
like that? It's just taking the heart of man away and it's to
be denied and turned away from, stay upon Christ. So Paul then
says, now at the end of verse four, speaking of Christ who
gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this
present evil world, he says, it's according to the will of
God and our Father. If God the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost has willed your salvation, you shall be saved. You shall have a knowledge of
the true and living God. Nothing shall prevent it, because
it's the will of God, and it's accomplished in the hearts of
his people by the Lord. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. Matthew 121. So our looking, our believing,
our fleeing to Christ is all of grace. It's all by the grace
of God. He's the one that works it in
our hearts. Turn over to John 6. Go to John
chapter 6 and let's read verses 37 through 40. And our Lord says, All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out. For 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 hath sent me. And this is the Father's will
which hath sent me, that all of 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 everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the
last day. So this is the will of our God. He is the author of our salvation
and he sent the Lord Jesus Christ and it's by his blood that his
people are delivered. We're delivered from death, we're
delivered from dead works religion, we're delivered from all those
things to trust in Christ. Hebrews 9, 26, but now once in
the end of the world hath Christ appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself. And so this isn't a teetering. This isn't some hanging on of
God, oh, please, pretty please, believe on Jesus. No. By his
grace and power, he works salvation in the hearts of his people whom
He will, whom He will save, whom He will have mercy upon, whom
He will be gracious to and establish peace with them. It's going to
be accomplished by the Lord in His appointed time. Let us be
found faithful to preach the gospel of our Lord. Let us pray
for His effectual working of salvation in the hearts of His
people, and let us trust Him to do it. Be faithful in that
gospel. Stand in Christ. And now, in
closing, this is the capstone. This is what destroys the hope
of the legalist, the religionist who's trusting in their works
to save themselves, Paul gives all the glory to our God. That's the point where man, that
man hates in his nature is that God receives all the glory. God saves whom he wills. Galatians 1.5, to whom be glory
forever and ever, amen. So thanks be to God for his son,
Jesus Christ, who hath put away our sins and established us in
grace and has peace with us through the blood of Christ. Amen. Let's close in prayer, brethren.
Our gracious Lord, we thank you, Father, for your grace and mercy.
that you would be gracious and establish peace with us through
the blood of your son, while as yet we were enemies against
the true and living God. Lord, thank you for your mercy. Thank you, Lord, for your grace.
Thank you for doing everything, because if anything relied on
us, if anything was left to us, we would certainly die in our
sins and be separated from you for all eternity. Thank you,
Lord, for your mercy. Lord, we pray for your people. We pray that you would bless
your people by pouring out your spirit upon us. Lord, we pray
that you would indeed stir in the hearts of your people in
this area, that you would bring them in, that you would cause
people to come and to hear this gospel, and that they would hear
the voice of the Son of God speaking to them and be delivered from
their darkness and their prison of death and bondage. It's in
Christ's name we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right.