The title of my message this
morning is simply Grace and Peace. Grace and Peace. The Apostle
Paul says, Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but
by Jesus Christ, and God the Father who raised him from the
dead, and all the brethren which are with me under the churches
of Galatia, Grace be unto you and peace from God our 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. grace, and peace. Now, this letter to the churches
at Galatia, Paul wrote this letter, and it's a little different than
the other epistles. Those epistles were written to
churches in cities. This was a province. This was
a very large group of churches in Galatia that the Apostle Paul
started. He founded these churches. You
can see that in Acts chapter 18. He founded these churches,
and they received him gladly. It was a wonderful message. He preached the gospel of God's
grace and these people, these churches, many churches received
him. They loved the gospel of Jesus
Christ and they loved Paul. They loved the message that he
preached. Matter of fact, in chapter four
in verse 14, the apostle said, you would have plucked your eyes
out for me. You received this gospel. You love this gospel.
And I know this, you loved me, but something happened to these
churches after Paul had left. Soon after he had left, many
false preachers came in. Many false prophets came in teaching
against the message of justification by faith in Christ alone. They were preaching faith in
Christ, but they were adding circumcision. They were adding
the law of Moses to the gospel. We have this today. There are
many false prophets gone out, and if you want to know who they
are, they're simple. They take anything and add it
to Jesus Christ for salvation. Most of them today are those
who preach progressive sanctification. This is adding to Christ. They say you're saved by grace
through faith in Christ alone, but you must sanctify yourself
by obedience to the law of Moses. You must become progressively
holy." I was talking to Scott about this. I saw it on the sermon
audio. I don't encourage anybody to
look. But they entitled this conference, The Grace of the
Law. The Grace of the Law. When in all of scripture, the
apostle sets these two things in opposition to one another.
They are set in opposition, and this matter of sanctification
is not a work of the believer, it is the work of God. Paul says
this many times. You can go to 1 Corinthians 1
and verse 2, unto the church which is at Corinth, to them
that are, what? Sanctified in Christ. sanctified in Christ,
called to be saints, sanctified ones. If you go over to just
at the end of that chapter, he says, but of God, are you in
Christ? Who of God is made unto us what? Wisdom. Righteousness, what? Sanctification and redemption. Sanctification is the work of
God. The Father in election is the
work of God the Son in making us holy. It is the work of the
Holy Spirit in creating a holy nature in us. We don't become
more holy. This is what they were teaching.
They said, believing in Christ is good, but you must be circumcised
in order to be justified. Well, that's what Paul is preaching
that wrote this letter for, and he was so moved. He was so surprised
by them. He said, I'm so surprised that
you're moved from the gospel, moved from Christ. He writes this letter, and to
no surprise, these false prophets, the first attack they make at
the apostle Paul is simply to attack his apostleship. They were attacking his apostleship,
saying, well, Paul is not really an apostle. He's just been anointed
by Peter and James and John. He's not a real apostle. And
so the apostle here, first of all, must defend his apostleship. That's what he does in his first
section. He defends his office as an apostle. And then throughout the rest
of the book, he takes on this matter of justification. Is justification
by grace or is justification by the law? It can't be of both. It can't be of both. Those false
prophets were mingling grace and works. If you want to know
a false prophet, simply ask this question, is salvation by grace
or is it by something you do? False prophet will tell you something
you do. You must do something. God did
all he can and the rest is up to you. That guy's a false prophet.
That's what the whole book's about. And so he goes on to justification
by grace or by works. And the conclusion is simple.
Salvation is by grace. It is by grace. And the grace
of God works in the believer and he produces fruits of the
spirit. And that anyone who adds anything to Christ, Paul said
this in, I believe, chapter five, he said, if you add one thing
to Christ, Christ profits you nothing. If you add circumcision,
you that would be circumcised, you add that to Christ, Christ
profits you nothing. I said, this morning, I want
us to see in this greeting of the Apostle Paul, this salutation,
that he is a wise master builder. He lays out all that I just said
in these few verses. The Apostle Paul, he tells you
in these few verses what he's going to tell you. Then he tells
you, and he tells you what he told you. I know Brother Don
told me that a long time ago. He said, tell him what you're
going to tell him, tell him and tell him what you told him. So
that's what he did. And so that's what Paul does
here in these few verses. And so I want to see these three
things. I want to see the apostle. First of all, we're going to
take just a few seconds and a few minutes looking at his defense,
his defense of his apostleship, because this book is not legitimate. If the apostle Paul is not a
true apostle of Christ, then this is not the word of God.
So he must, of necessity, defend his apostleship. And that's what
he does right out of the gate. Look at this. He makes no bones
about it. Paul, what? An apostle. Says it first off. And notice
he says, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and
God the Father who raised him from the dead. He starts out
defending immediately his apostleship. Now, a man of God is never called
to parade his office. We don't do that. We don't make
much of ourselves. Matter of fact, in many places,
Paul says, who is Paul? Who is Apollos? One place he
says we're nothing. That's true. Men who preach the
gospel, we count ourselves your servants for Christ's sake. We
don't parade our office. We don't draw attention to ourselves
to feed our pride. But when called into question
concerning our authority, there must be great importance to manifest
to our hearers that we are called of God. Listen, man's not called
of God, he shouldn't be preaching. He's not called of God, he shouldn't
be preaching. But this matter of apostle is much greater than
the office that I hold. This is the office that God used
to write his word. And so if Paul was not an apostle,
then most of the New Testament is invalid. And so Paul must
defend his apostleship. He says, I am an apostle. Listen,
by Jesus Christ, I was appointed an apostle. Remember that scripture
in Hebrews chapter, in Ephesians chapter four, he said he gave
some apostles, some prophets, some pastor teachers. These are
offices that are given by God and Paul has claim on this office. Now, what is an apostle? An apostle,
the word simply means messenger. And so if you want to say, I'm
a messenger, yes, in that sense, I may be an apostle, but not
in the sense of scripture. The apostles were a distinct
office because they had heard their message directly from Christ,
directly from Christ. Paul said this in 1 Corinthians
9, am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen
Christ our Lord? It is of necessity to be an apostle. You must see Christ. Now you're
gonna hear, you can go on the internet if you want to, you
can find a whole bunch of people calling themselves apostles. They're
not, they're not. That office is closed. There
were only these apostles that God called. There's no more apostles.
And Paul's manifest this, he says, I am an apostle. These
men were trying to discredit him. They said, no, he's been
given his office by one of the other apostles. But look at verse
15. Paul deals with this, he said,
when he 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, listen, I conferred not with
flesh and blood. Neither went I up to Jerusalem
to them that were apostles before me, but I went to Arabia, returned
again to Damascus, then after three years I went up to Jerusalem.
You imagine the bliss of this. The Apostle Paul spending time
with the Lord Jesus Christ, receiving his word. What a wonderful office. What a wonderful gift he was
given. And so we know then that this
gospel, whatever Paul preaches and writes in this gospel, is
authoritative. It is the word of God. And so if men have problems with
this, they have a problem with God's word. This is God's word
given to us through the apostles. Now, the second thing, he deals
in this salutation, he deals with the main focus of the whole
letter, which is salvation. These words, grace and peace. through our Lord Jesus Christ
who gave himself for our sins. That's the gospel, isn't it?
That's the whole sum of justification. By grace, we have peace only
through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the sum
of his message. There's no law in that, is there?
There's no mention of law in this salutation. Grace and peace
only through the death of Jesus Christ. by the will of God and
for the glory of God. That's what he deals with next.
Let's really look at this. Grace, verse three. He says, grace unto
you and peace from God our Father. And we're gonna focus on these
two words, grace and peace. Now, peace is a thing everybody's
striving for. Peace. I just had a peace deal,
right, in the Middle East. Peace deal. Everybody wants peace. You ask a common person what
they want most. They want some rest. They want
some contentment. They want peace. You hear it
oftentimes that people put it on their bumper stickers, little
peace signs. They want peace. You hear parents
raising their teenagers, what do they want? They want peace.
They want some peace. Just give me some rest. Just
give me some peace. When troubles of life erupt and the waves of
trouble overflow our souls, what do we ask for? Peace. Give me peace. When our guilt
and conscience overwhelms us and we struggle with sin and
shame rages over our heart, what is it you want? You want peace. Peace. Peace of conscience, peace
of body, peace of mind, peace with men, peace with self. We
want peace. We want some peace. If peace
is longed for by men, then why don't they have it? If they strive
so hard for peace, why do men not have peace? You'd be all
by yourself and not have peace. Am I right? People are committing suicide
at a greater rate now being alone with themselves. They're not
at peace. No peace. What's the cause? One word, sin. The reason we have no peace is
because we have sin. And sin is what separates men
from God. And so if we have sin, we have
no peace with God and every other kind of peace is useless. If
you have no peace with God, what good is any other kind of peace?
You must have peace with God or there will be no peace anywhere
else. You won't find it anywhere else
unless you know you have peace with God. Peace with God. When God created the world, there
was what? Peace. There was peace in the
earth because there was peace with God and with man. But when
our father sinned, what happened to peace? It left. It left. God cursed the earth
for his sake, and from that time forth, he has been struggling
The earth has not yielded her great strength ever since. And man has worked by the sweat
of his brow day after day after day. When Adam sinned, God cursed
him, God killed him, and man has not been at peace since. Therefore, what we need is the
removal of sin. If you want peace with God, that's
the thing that stands in our way is our sin, our sin. Believe over in Isaiah chapter
59, it says that our iniquities have separated between us and
God, our iniquities. And so where there once was peace,
now Adam needs a covering. He needs to cover his nakedness,
no peace. He went from loving God to running
from God. He went from praising God to
blaming God. He went from life to death. He
went from being wise to being a fool, all because of sin. So
then, that's the reason why there is no peace in the world, because
of sin. This world is cursed, and all
that it is cursed. Have you not found this to be
true, that we get up in the morning, we go to work, we face all kinds
of troubles, all kinds of difficulties, nothing goes our way, and then
by the end of the day, you finally get a little rest, and you get
up and you do what? You do it again. It's the same. It's the same, because sin has
cursed this world. Now, these words in our text
are very important. If we desire peace, and especially
peace with God, because no other peace really matters, except
this one. These words in our text are very
important. Do you long for peace and contentment? Do you long to alleviate the
pain and suffering of this life? Do you long for the storms of
life to cease and have peace? Then you need peace with God.
You need peace with God. How then can we have peace with
God? In our text, these words are
in a specific order for a reason. I did take peace first, because
that's what we need, but how do we get it? Well, you gotta
go back to the first word, grace. You see, grace in Scripture,
go look it up, grace, when these two words are put together in
Scripture, they are always in this order, grace and what? Peace. Grace comes first, and
then, Peace. Romans 7, 1, Paul said, Grace
to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 1, 3, Grace unto you and peace from God our Father
and Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 1, 2, Grace and
peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians
1, Philippians 1, Thessalonians 1, all the same, grace and peace. 2 John 1, 3, John even says it,
Grace be unto you, mercy and peace. from God our Father and
from the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, these greetings, these
salutations are vitally important. They're not there to take up
space. A lot of times we have salutations, right? We say, how
are you? How you doing? Now, do we really
mean how you doing? I imagine if somebody answered,
you would probably be surprised. Well, I'm not doing too good.
My toe hurts. And let me tell you about it.
No, that's not what we mean. We just mean hi. That's what
we really mean. Don't really answer it. But these
salutations are not like ours. They're vital. They're important.
The Holy Spirit wrote them here for our learning, for our instruction. They're not here to take up space.
And this order is vital. Grace always comes before peace. And so what kind of peace are
we looking for? The only peace that matters is
peace with God. Why? Because every other peace
is temporary, right? If I have peace from my, I said
I want peace from teenage children. Now if I get peace from teenage
children, how long will that last? It's temporal. It's temporal. If you have peace of conscience,
how long does that last? It's temporal. Even believers,
how long does your peace of conscience last? Doesn't last very long. The only thing that really matters
is this, because it's eternal. If I have peace with God, I'm
safe. If I have peace with God, I'm saved. And there's nothing
that can break that peace. Why? Because it's by grace and
not by merit. That's why this peace is vital. This peace gives me peace when
I have no other peace. I still can have peace, even
when everything else is not peaceful. Why? Because this peace comes
by grace. So many preachers are preaching
that you can have peace just by decision. By making up your
mind to have peace, you can have peace. Not with God. Now you may, we may manipulate
our minds to have all kinds of peace. You can put on a smiling
face and you can do a whole bunch of things, but you can't have
peace with God without the grace of God. Except God give you peace,
you won't have it. You won't have peace with God.
It is by the unmerited favor of God. So many men are crying,
peace, peace, when there is no peace. World and false religion, they
give a false sense of peace. The scripture says they heal
my people slightly. Religion puts a Band-Aid on the
wound, but the wound is internal. It's not external. It's not fixing
up things. We have a wound that's deep. It's like putting a Band-Aid
on a cancer patient. It's not gonna do any good. The
wound that we have is deep and it must be healed by a miraculous,
a divine healing. And this healing only comes by
grace. Now what does the scripture say
about the wicked and peace? He said, but the wicked are like
the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up dirt
and mire. That sounds a lot like religion.
It stirs up the dirt and mire, tries to confuse you. The gospel's
not confusing, is it? It's salvation by the grace of
God alone, through faith in Jesus Christ and His perfect work to
accomplish redemption. And that is applied only by the
Spirit of God in grace to the sinner. Religion confuses things in what
it says there is no peace with the wicked. There's no peace.
Are you like the troubled sea? Is your heart devoid of peace? If you have no peace with God,
it's because you're wicked. You're wicked. You have sin.
And the only hope then is to be without sin. And the only
way to be without sin is grace. The grace of God. The grace of
God. What then is the answer? We all
have sinned, haven't we? We've all would be identified
with this wicked. The only way then for peace is
the grace of God. No man will ever be at peace
with himself or the world around him unless he has peace with
God. And this matter of peace in the human heart is a matter
of sovereign grace toward the individual. There will never
be a person by nature to obtain peace by works, merit, an offering,
or the will. Peace only comes by the grace
of God. Why? We're born dead, just like
our brother read just a second ago. Wherefore, as by one man,
Adam's sin entered in the world. Our representative, sin entered
in the world by Adam and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men. For all have sinned. And because
we are born dead in sin, you know what, man? He has no desire
for peace with God. Because of our nature, there
is no desire for peace. Man thinks he's all right. Man
by nature thinks he's all right. If he just does his best, if
he just does his best, everything will be all right. If he can
just be religious enough, if he can just do some religious
ceremony, then him and God can have peace. How many times you
heard this foolish statement? I've made my peace with God.
I cringe when I hear that. because they have no peace. If
you've made your peace with God, it's not by grace and you don't
have peace. Grace must come before peace. The grace of God must give you
peace. Otherwise, you don't have it.
Why? Because we, by nature, are at enmity. We're at war with
God. The scripture tells us that the
carnal mind, that carnal mind, what is that? That's the whole
nature of man. Not just this thing in our head,
it's our whole nature. It's enmity, it's not at enmity,
it is enmity against God. And the proof is you don't obey
the law of God, that's the proof. You're not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be. God says, I'm God, bad. Christ is the only way, believe. And what does man do? I will
not have him to rule over me. Why? He don't think he needs
peace. He thinks he can make his peace with God. That's what
the Lord said in Isaiah 28. Remember those guys over there? Let me read it for you. Isaiah
chapter 28. Isaiah chapter 28, verse 15,
it says, talking about the scornful people, he says, because you
have said, we have made a covenant with death and with hell, and
we are at agreement. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, it shall not come unto us, for we have
made lies our refuge and hid ourselves under falsehood. This is a man by nature. He said,
we've made our peace. We've made a covenant. I made
a pact with God. If I just do my best and obey
the law best I can, the problem is God doesn't want your best. You know why? Because your best
is the worst. Isaiah said this, but we all
are as an unclean thing and all our best, all our righteousnesses
are what? Filthy rags. Filthy rag. We do all fade as a leaf and
our iniquities like the wind have carried us away. You ever
imagine a dead leaf being able to put himself to a living tree? When the leaf falls off, do you
suppose it has any ability to put itself back? No. Neither do we. What do we need? Grace. I'll tell you what, friends.
We are a helpless, worthless bunch. And you're looking at the worst
one. What a bliss it is to understand
our hopelessness. You know why? Because this is
the beginning of grace. When God ever shows you you have
nothing to offer for peace, that's the beginning of grace. What
was that hymn that Joseph Hart wrote? A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost hath made him
one. The Holy Ghost revealed him to be one. He was already
a sinner, but he didn't know it. Not until the Holy Ghost
in grace comes and reveals a need for peace. Do you see your hopeless
condition and need of grace? Or do you still have something
to offer? You see, if you still got something, you've got no It only comes by free grace. No other way. No other way. Grace unto you and peace from
God our Father. That's the source, isn't it?
From God. Grace of God. The grace of God, I know this,
when God's grace reveals our hopelessness, it never stops
there. I'm so glad it didn't, aren't
you? You know, I've met some men like that. I've met some
men that they've confessed themselves to be wicked. They confessed
themselves to be hopeless, but that's it. If that's it, what
a sad case, because there's no peace there, is there? No, grace
never stops there. It always moves past. It reveals
our need of peace, and then what? It shows us how God makes peace. Look back at your text. Grace
and peace unto you from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus
Christ, listen how, who gave himself for our sins. Here is
how a man has peace with God, through the sacrifice and offering
of Jesus Christ alone. In this statement, Paul sums
up the whole of the gospel of justification. the whole of God's
justice, the source of grace and peace is God our Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the accomplishment of this
grace and peace is that he gave himself for us. He gave himself
willingly. You remember Isaac, that's an
illustration of that, isn't it? When Isaac was taken up there
by Abraham and he willingly lay on that altar. He willingly laid
himself down. That's a picture of our Lord
Jesus Christ who came willingly to make peace. That's what he
came for, isn't it? He came to make peace. He had
a mission. He had a purpose. His purpose
was to give himself. He didn't give the things that
he had. He didn't give his possessions.
Those would never accomplish peace. What did God demand for
peace? Blood. Blood. Without the shedding of
blood, what? No remission. No peace. No peace. So Jesus Christ came and willingly
gave himself, laid down his life for his sheep, because they needed
peace that they could not provide for themselves. Listen, I'm telling
you, there's peace with God. There's peace with God. It comes
by grace. Do you need peace? Do you need
peace with God? I'm telling you, the only source
of peace is that God sent his son. And he gave himself. And see, God's justice then was
against us because of our sins and must be satisfied in order
for one to have peace. Therefore, God made him to be
sin for us who knew no sin. Why? That we might have peace.
That we might be made the righteousness of God in him so that we might
be reconciled to God. Isn't that the result of peace?
Reconciliation. When two parties are at odds
and there's peace, they're what? Reconciled. Reconciled. What reconciled him? Jesus Christ. You see, there's only one mediator
between God and man, the man, Jesus Christ. There's only one
great high priest. There's only one surety for the
elect. There's only one representative
by which peace is made, and that is Jesus Christ, who gave himself
a ransom for all, all the elect who are to be testified of in
due time. How do you know that you're one
of them? The grace of God comes in the power of the Holy Spirit
and gives you life. He gives you an understanding
of your need, and then he shows you Jesus Christ, and by faith,
you receive him. As many as received him, have you received him? If you have, what do you got?
Friend, you got peace. Preacher, I just don't feel at
peace. I don't matter. If you have him,
I don't care what your circumstances are. Why? Because your peace never depended
on you. And guess what? It still don't.
My peace was made 2,000 years ago. And it ain't changed. Oh, I feel
like it changes. Oh, my heart troubles. They come and they're so painful. And I say, oh God, I'm like that. Isaac's wife, why am I thus? If I am a child of God, why am
I thus? If there is peace, why so much
pain? Why so much hurt? Why do I sin so much? But it still doesn't change my
peace. Why? It was made by grace. It was accomplished by Christ. It was applied by the Spirit. And it's eternal. Friends, that's peace. Unalterable, unchangeable, perfect
peace. Why? Because His offering was
perfect. That's why. Because God is forever
satisfied. He's satisfied. You know that
big ball of fire on Mount Sinai? The blood of Christ has extinguished
it by his one offering. He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Are you sanctified? Well, have
you received Christ? Everyone received Christ. I think he just read it. I'll
close with this. Go back to Romans 5. Read it
with me again. Romans 5, 1. Therefore, therefore, being justified
by faith, whose faith justified you? It was His faith that justified
me. Now by faith we receive it. Therefore being justified by
His faith, and that was by grace, wasn't it? What does it say?
We have what? What do we have? Peace with God. through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom we have access, by faith into this what? Grace, wherein
we stand. Where are you standing? Standing
on grace. I'm standing on the grace of
God, on the blood of Christ as my foundation and refuge and
strong tower and defense. He is my peace. What's all this for? To deliver
us, look at verse four of your text, that he might deliver us
from this present evil world. How'd he do that? He delivered
us from sin, didn't he? Wasn't that what in this present
evil world? Deliver us from sin. He delivers from Satan. He delivered
us from this world. Why? None of that can harm you.
None of that can harm you. If you're in Christ, none of
that can harm you. It's all taken care of. He delivered us from
the law. That's also what that means is
present evil world. The rudiments of this world delivers
from the law. Free from the law, happy condition.
Jesus bled and there's remission. Why? According to the will of
God, the Father. For the glory of God. You know
why you have peace with God? Grace. Nothing yet. Why me? I don't know. God said so. God chose you. No other reason. You can't find
a reason in you, can you? I can't find a reason in me other
than God will. God determined it. Christ accomplished
it. The Spirit applies it and the
Spirit keeps it. You have, listen to me, you have
peace. right now with God. And you know
what? You have peace right now with
God. And when you leave here, you
will have peace with God. You go out there and you fail
miserably. You have peace with God. It's
just not dependent on you. It was the blood of the cross
that brought peace by the grace of God. And because it's for
the glory of God, it'll never fail. It'll never fail. I hope God give us grace to chew
on that. Just to meditate, think. Oh God, give us faith to embrace
it. I pray that he will. I pray he
will.