I remember Brother Mahan one
time singing the old rugged cross. He said, I'll lay my trophies
down. He said, what trophies have you got? What trophies have
you got? You ain't got no trophies. You
ain't got nothing. I'll never forget that. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
1. I remember a preacher, he's dead
now, he committed suicide. And he used to say, there's seven
crowns that people are supposed to get. And he said he wanted
all seven of them. And you know what? The scripture
says that everybody had a crown. You know where they put them?
When they got in the presence of Christ, he threw every one
of them at his feet, every single one. All of them goes to Him. To Him
be the glory. To God be the glory. Great things
He had done. Let me read these first five
verses and deal with them a little bit today, this evening. Paul, an apostle, not of man,
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 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, to whom be glory
forever and ever. Amen. Amen. Get my subject there in verse
four. He gave himself. He gave himself. The Galatians
had to be warned. They must be warned. And they
must be instructed and taught the things. They knew the gospel,
but they left the gospel. And who it is that's warning
them? And he's teaching them the nature of the gospel. And
I tell you what, he's Paul. I said, Paul, an apostle. Apostle
made by God, not by men, and by Christ. He didn't take this
honor unto himself. He didn't take this office unto
himself. And they paid attention to this man because of his office.
They paid attention to what he had to say. And the second thing
we know and noticed in this is that the gospel is of grace.
Ain't that what he said in verse 3? Grace be unto you. The Gospels
of grace. Grace is the cause of our salvation. Grace is the cause of everything
that God's done for us and that done for us in Christ. And then that's the cause of
our salvation. Grace. Thank God for grace. Thank
God for grace, for by grace are you saved, through faith, and
that's not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, lest any
man would have some reason to boast. And then the second thing
is that we notice was in peace from God the Father and from
our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace is the consequence of the
gospel of grace. Where grace is in a man's heart,
where God saves a man by grace, then peace always comes with
it. Oh no, no peace. And they're
talking about peace of heart and especially peace between
God and the man. Now carnal mind is enmity against
God. It's hostile toward God. So God,
He made the means of reconciliation. He sent His Son. And peace, peace
of heart, peace of mind, and especially peace between the
sinner and God Almighty. And no peace except salvation
by grace. Except salvation being accomplished
for us. There's no peace in works. No
peace in works. We've been down that road. No
peace in works. No peace in law. Oh, no peace
in the Ten Commandments. No peace in the ceremonies. No
peace in the rituals. None of it. And no peace in circumcision. And that means that you go back
under the law and you try your best to be worth, clean yourself
up. And circumcision was a sign of
the covenant. But people keep saying, I'm going
to keep trying. I'm going to keep trying. You
know, something, something I'll do will bring me peace one of
these days. And this is one thing that works. Religion always is
done. They always redefine what's allowable
and what's not allowable. They're always moving the goalposts
along. You know, when you first start
out being a real legalist, you know, everything's wrong. And
then you find out, you know, you move the goalposts a little
bit, and move a little bit, and move a little bit. You know,
and they're always trying to figure out what in the world,
what can I do? What can I do? And oh, they decide
what's allowable and what isn't. So if we was go back to works,
what would be allowable? for us to do? What would not
be allowed for us to do? Would it be a dress code? Would it be the length of a hair?
Would it be a beard? Would it be the color of clothes
you wear? Would it be the kind of glasses you wear? Would it
be not wearing a necktie or everybody have to wear a necktie? How in
the world would you know what it's going to be? Who allows
it? That's what, when somebody starts preaching about what's
right and what's wrong, then they're preaching law, they're
preaching works, and they're preaching circumcision. And oh
my, but the gospel, let's go down to verse five now, excuse
me, verse four. The gospel concerns a person.
Lord Jesus Christ. He's mentioned twice in the first
three verses, and it says here, who gave himself, 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
our Father. You know, Paul marveled, marveled
that they so were so soon removed from the grace of Christ unto
another gospel, another gospel. And I'll tell you what, there's
only one gospel and that's the gospel of Christ. And Jesus Christ
who gave himself, the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself, that's
something about our master. He's always giving, always giving. Always giving. He never takes. He always gives. He never asks
you for anything. He just gives. He don't say,
I require you this. He just gives. He gives. Oh my. And Jesus Christ who gave
himself. The gospel is in a person. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. And oh my. Many things. I was recently with some preachers.
And many things are preached in the name of the gospel, but
it's not Christ-centered. And I've been with men, and recently
I was with some fellas, and all they kept talking about is, we
need to, we gotta preach Christ, we gotta preach Christ, we gotta
preach Christ. But they never ever got around
to preaching Him. They just told us we need to.
Now there's a difference in needing to and a difference in doing
it. And that's what we're talking about. Many things can be preached
in the name of the gospel. But if it's not centered on Christ,
and if Christ is not the reason for it, if Christ is not the
gospel himself, then there is no gospel. There's preachers
that preach practical, what they call practical Christianity. You know, I heard a preacher
one time, he preached through the Pilgrim's Progress. I like
Pilgrim's Progress, but I ain't gonna preach it. I'm not gonna
make a whole series of sermons out of it. I'm not gonna do that. And then there's those who preach
a system of doctrine. And I love systematic theology. I've got I don't know how many
systematic theologies in my study. And then there's preachers that's
really strong on prophecy. And they're strong on religious
experience. And you can even preach the Bible
without preaching Jesus Christ. You can do that. You can do that.
But let me tell you something about a gospel preacher. A preacher
that preaches the gospel. There's three kinds of preachers,
practical, experiential, and doctrinal. And the preacher that
preaches the gospel, he preaches every one of them every single
time he preaches. You know, you cannot know Christ
and it not affect how you live. You cannot preach Christ without
preaching the doctrine of Christ. And you cannot preach Christ
and the gospel without people going back and having to remember,
and it's an experience to hear the gospel. It's, you know, it's,
that's just the way it is. And all the gospel's purpose
is to call out a Buy a bride for Christ. Look over here in
Ephesians chapter 5 with me. Keep Galatians 1. Go over to
Ephesians. That's the next book to your
right. Ephesians chapter 5. You know, the gospel is God's
purpose to call out a bride for Christ. And look what he said
here in verse 26. Ephesians 5, 26. He's talking about the church
now. He says that he might sanctify it and cleanse it with the washing
of water by the word. It's the word. Wherewith shall
a young man take heed to his ways? How can a young man cleanse
him from his sin? By the word. And the word is
what washes us and cleanses us. And that he might present it
to himself. Glorious church not having spot
or wrinkle or any such thing But that it should be holy and
without blame before him without blemish now. That's a That's
the way God that's what Christ said his way. He's gonna present
his bride to himself without spot without blemish without
Not even having a wrinkle or a spot or a spot And how can
the gospel be anything but the gospel concerning God's blessed
son? Now, back over in our text, look what he said there in verse
4, talking about the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself, gave
himself for our sins. It was a Christ who was crucified
that we preach. We preach a Christ who went to
a bloody, bloody tree. And when he went to that tree,
he went there to save us from our sins, and he gave himself.
You know, there's an offense in the cross. There really is
an offense in the cross. And look at that in Galatians
5, 511. You know, I don't know how many times men have been
offended with the gospel. and the offense of the cross.
And look what he said here in Galatians 5.11. He said, and I, brethren, he's
talking to these Galatians, is if I, brethren, if I preach circumcision,
if I bring you under the law, I bring you under that old covenant,
why do I yet suffer persecution? Why am I still being persecuted?
Because if I preach circumcision, then the offense of the cross
is ceased. You remember Greg Amquist here
talking about his two brothers, both of them in their 70s. They
said they wanted to go, they went all the way to Florida.
Both of them, they said, we'll meet you in Florida. We want
to talk to you about our souls. We're getting older. And we want
to talk to you about our souls. We want to talk to you about
what's going on. I don't, you know. And so they
went down there and they talked and talked and talked. And of
course, Greg preached the gospel to them. And he told them, you
know, God only saves sinners. And you got, you know, if a man's
a sinner, Christ will say, died for him. And both of them come
to this conclusion. We've made a lot of mistakes
and we've done a lot of wrong things, but one thing I'm not,
we're not sinners. That's how offensive the cross
is. The cross will not let a man glory in anything he thinks,
says, or does. The cross, when Christ put Christ
on the cross, if righteousness come by, anything we could do,
why'd he put on that cross? If we could be justified of God
by anything, why did he put him on that cross? Why did he give
him unto his own wrath? Why did he let his son be mutilated
on that cross? Why did he bleed from every part
of his body? Why did he do that? Oh my, I'll
tell you what. And our God forbid that we glory
save only in the cross of Christ. This is the heart, this is the
soul and essence of the gospel. Christ gave himself. Self, when you talk about himself, what made Christ to be who he
is? What made him to be an acceptable
sacrifice? What made Christ to be who he
is? That God would accept him and
only accept men and women in him, in himself. All that he was, all of his life,
Every breath, every step, every word, every look. All the merit, the worth, the
preciousness, the authority. All that made Christ to be him,
his body, It wasn't just his body, his body was what suffered
on the cross. But I tell you what, you know
where his soul suffering was? His soul was what was suffering. He said, my soul suffer unto
death. It was soul suffering. And the
fact that his father was going to forsake him. Oh my, his person,
everything that he is, everything that he was, was what when he
gave himself on that cross. He gave himself. Oh my. He gave himself. He never flinched from it. He
never regretted it. He never said one word except
the first word out of his mouth on the cross was Father. Forgive
these men. Forgive these people. They don't
know what they're doing. They don't know who they're killing.
They don't know who they're crucifying. They don't know. They don't know. And oh, look what he gave himself
for. This is, oh my, listen to this,
for our sins. For our sins. How awful, how black, how horrible,
how despicable, how deep, how awful, how horrible, how
terrible sin must be that Christ gave himself for our sins. bless his holy name, gave himself for one reason, for our sins, for our sins. Oh, my. If he died for our sins, does anything need to be added?
Does it need to be Repeat it? Look in Hebrews chapter 10. Look
in Hebrews chapter 10. Oh my, look what he says about
what God done for us. Oh, I tell you, I guess, mm-hmm. Gave himself for our sins. Our sins. What about the sins
that I'm gonna yet commit? He gave himself for our sins. said in Hebrews 10, 14. For by one offering, that offering
of Christ, but look up in verse 12, look at verse 12, start there
in verse 12. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, Our sins are gone forever set
down on the right hand of God. He's going to sit there until
His enemies are made His footstool. And by that one offering, He
hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." That's what
our Lord did for us. Hebrews 1 and verse 3 says this. that he by himself purged our
sins. By himself. There wasn't an angel
that come to help him. The father never helped him.
Not one man offered to help him. He did it by himself. He gave
himself for our sins. And if he died for our sins,
I died for every sin that we've ever committed and ever will commit. Our Lord
Jesus Christ's death was so effectual. His blood was so powerful and so effectual. His merit has
such worth to it that God himself puts away all of our sins once
and for all. I wasn't even born yet when it
said Christ gave himself for our sins. And I tell you what, and this
is what makes the heart of the gospel so precious to us, is
because every one of us knows what we are. I mean, we really
know what we are. Sometimes we feel so filthy,
we feel so wretched, we feel so vile, we loathe ourselves,
and yet this is what God says. No matter what I feel like, if
I feel joyful, if I feel sinful, if I feel with great, great assurance,
it doesn't make any difference. God said he gave himself for
our sins. And when he gave himself for
our sins, all of our sins were yet future. If he gave himself for our sins,
then that means, beloved, he gave him for our past, for our
present, and for our future. A dear brother mentioned the
other day, he said, oh, I wish I could go back and do some things. It really troubles me. I wish
I could go back and redo some things and say some things that
I wish I hadn't said. And I told him, I said, God took
care of our sins. Don't let that stuff trouble
you. He took care of our sins, our past ones. our present ones,
and our future ones. When I was yet in my sin, yet
in the world, yet a rebel, yet a God-hater, Christ gave himself
for my sins. And you know what he did? He
told me about it, just like I'm telling you right now. He told
me about it. That's all, this is what makes
the gospel the gospel. And the gospel is the only one
that actually saves. This gospel that I'm preaching
to you. He didn't die to make salvation
possible, to make us ready for the law to sanctify us. He died
to obtain eternal redemption for us. And I'm... will not allow, listen to me,
if you don't get anything else I say, He will not allow a man
to contribute anything to his own salvation, not even a tear. He'll not allow you contribute
one thing, not even a tear. That's a good gospel. That's
a precious gospel. Our feelings don't enter into
it. Christ did it. And I've wept a bucket full of
tears, but not one tear ever put away one sin. Not one tear
never got me a blessing from God. Christ. Christ gave himself for our sins. Oh my. Then look what else it
says here in verse four. who gave himself for our sins,
that he might deliver us. That he might deliver us. You
know what, that word delivers is the same word as salvation.
It means to go set a person free. It means to go deliver him from
some kind of a bondage that he has, some kind of dominion that
he's under. And all by, we was delivered
by his death. Go over to Colossians, just keep
going to your right till you get to Colossians. And when you get over there,
look in Colossians chapter one. Oh, we had deliverance by his
death. Our Lord's death, our Lord's
resurrection. It was a redemptive death. That means to pay a debt, save
a people. Look what he said here in verse
12. giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath
delivered us, saved us from the power of darkness, and translated
us in the kingdom of his dear Son. Redemption has to do with
a person coming, setting you free, and then when he sets you
free, let you go. Let you go. It's like a fellow
I read one time, a man had a bunch of birds, and he kept them in
cages, and he had some couple in a cage, and a fellow, what
do you take for them birds? I don't want to sell my birds.
Well, I sure would like to buy them birds off of you. Well,
what would you give me? He said, I'll see you set a price
and I'll pay it. And he paid the price for those
birds, and the first thing he did, he went out into a field
and opened the door, let the birds fly out of that cage. He opened a cage. And we get to go free from sin,
from death, from hell, from justice, from law. Oh, we're free. And whom the Son sets free is
free indeed. Oh, bless his name. Oh, he saved
us from the dominion of sin, from God's justice and slaves
to sin. And when a slave's redeemed,
he's set in liberty. His status is a free man now. He'd been a slave, but now he's
a free man. Christ paid the price of our
redemption. And you read it tonight, when
I see the blood. When I see the blood, not when
you see it, when I see the blood, God said, then I will pass over
you. It's God's side of the blood.
I'm grateful for the blood, but I'm glad God sees it, because
that's where he took it. He entered into the holy place
with his own blood and obtained eternal redemption for us. Oh,
the ransom's been paid. We now go free. free from sin,
free from the curse of the law, free from the justice of God.
Now we're sons of God. And then we're free from this
present evil world and the power of this present evil age. Look
what else it says here in verse four. You know, it said, he might deliver
us. You see, we're under new authority.
Christ is our Lord, not this evil world. He delivered us.
from this evil world, delivered us from this present evil world. And I'm so grateful that he delivered
us. Oh, my. Deliverance by his death. We've been delivered. And then
he says, from this present evil world. We're free from this present
evil world. We're under new authority. When we talk about this present
evil world, even people that live in the
world who are not believers, they say, I can't believe how
evil this world is. Even they say it. I said, can't
believe how evil it is. You can go down, be walking down
the street and somebody's subject to shoot you or beat you half
to death. We live in a place where it's not that bad. But oh my, that he delivered
us from this present, right now where we are, out of this evil
world. And oh my, if we think it's evil,
imagine what God thinks of it. I mean, it's evil. I mean, whenever,
everything about this world is evil. Everything about it. Men's love of money, men's love
of praise, love of self, hatred for God, hatred for the gospel. Sinful. We live in Sodom and
Gomorrah now. We live in a world that's so
evil that I quit watching the news five or six years ago. I
don't even watch it. All it does is upset you. All
it does discourage you. All it does is make you angry. And I'll tell you what, and you
could pick up a newspaper and read the headlines and you
know exactly how evil this world is. Oh my, we're under new authority.
Christ is our Lord. And then look how he gave himself
that he might deliver us from this present evil world. This
present evil world. And oh my. And look what it says,
according to the will of God. Oh, this what a blessed truth.
This is the blessed truth of God's sovereignty. Oh God, it's
the salvation of sinners. He works. Look over in Ephesians
1 with me. I could quote you. I quote it
all the time. But look in Ephesians 1, verse 11 with me. Oh, my. This is the blessed, blessed
truth of God's sovereignty. Oh, according, you know, he gave
himself for our sins, delivered us from this present evil world. according to the will of God.
Look what he says here now. And the will of God is his own
counsel, works all things after the counsel of his own will.
In verse 11, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance,
being predestinated according to the purpose of him, list of
this, who works all things after the counsel of his own will.
Everything goes on this way. God's working it to his will.
It's his will being worked out in this world. Oh, my. Christ came to do the will of
God. Christ came by the will of God.
Christ lived according to the will of God. Christ willingly
to redeem a people by the will of God. And he predestinated
a people to be his sons by the new birth and by adoption. In our deliverance by the will
of God, He predetermined our deliverance. He predetermined
our destination. It says we're predetermined according
to the counsel of His own will, predestinated. None of you would
get on a plane without knowing where you're going. You get on
a plane and you buy a ticket and you're predestinated You
know that you're supposed to end up at a certain place. You
get in a car, and you say, I'm going from here, and my destination
is there. So everybody lives by predestination,
whether they know it or not. And I mean, you know, you have
a predetermined destination before you get there. God predetermined
a destination for us. What is it? That Christ would
give Himself for our sins, deliver us out of bondage, out of this
present evil world, according to the will of God. And, oh,
God predestinated us to the adoption of sons. Now, I've told you this
when we talk about adoption of sons. God gives us His nature
in the new birth. We're made partakers of the holy
nature. God brings into existence, when in the new birth, he brings
into existence a man who never was there before. That's the new birth. Have no
part of that. That's the new birth. But then,
he's only got one son. Only one begotten son. Only one
son begotten of God. Only one. Well, how in the world
can we be heirs with Christ? I'll adopt them. And I'll make
them my sons. And when I get ready to give
everything to my son, I'm going to give them just exactly what
he's got. Oh, what's our destination? Our
predetermined destination? To be conformed to the image
of God's Son. To be made like Christ. Salvation isn't an offer we can
take or leave. Salvation is according to the
will of God. And look what else it says here
in Galatians 1. According to the will of God
our Father, to whom, verse 5, to whom be glory forever and
ever. The gospel is for the glory of
God. The glory of God. The whole of
our redemption, of Christ being made sin, of us being made the
righteousness of God, of the preaching of the gospel, of the
calling of God's people to himself, has one object, that he might
be glorified, to him be glory forever and ever. He says he
does all that he does to the praise of the glory of his grace. If a man contributes in any way,
he has something that he can glory in. But there's no hint
here of a health or a wealth or ease or a comfort as something
to induce somebody to accept Jesus Christ and the following.
Nothing does. God gets all the glory. The gospel Christ and reveals
man as an ill-deserving, undeserving sinner. God is glorified in a
gracious, merciful, sovereign Lord. Let me close in Revelation
chapter 4 and verse 2. Revelation chapter 4 and verse
2. Oh, somebody told Spurgeon one
time, your preaching is going to lead people to despair. He
said, the more quicker they despair of any hope in anything else,
the better off they'll be. They'll find out that Christ
has everything. Christ is all. But look what he said here in
verse Revelation 4.10. I'll close with this. The four
and 20 elders, fall down before Him that sat on the throne, and
worship Him that liveth forever and ever. And here we go, cast
their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord,
to receive glory, honor, power, for Thou hast created all things,
and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. Our Father, our blessed, blessed
Savior, our Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ, our Master. Lord,
we are so grateful to be owned by you, so grateful that you
bought us, paid for us, so grateful that you gave us new hearts,
new minds, new wills, new desires, made us new creatures. I'm so
grateful and so thankful, and I know all your people are. And
we especially thank you for your gospel. Oh, we're so thankful,
oh Lord, that according to your will, our Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world to give himself for our sins. And he come and saved us out
of this present, present evil world. This world holds nothing
for us. But O Lord, blessed be your holy
name. We've gathered out this evening
to remember our Lord Jesus Christ and bless these men who will
serve the bread and serve the wine. Bring glory to yourself through
us all, for Christ's sake, amen. All right, brethren. with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners plunged beneath
that blood lose all their guilty stains. Lose all their guilty stains. Lose all their guilty stains. And sinners must be healed. lose all their guilty stains. The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day. And there may I, though bad as
he, wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. Wash all. my sins away. And there may I, though vile
as he, wash all my sins away. Dear dying lamb, thy precious
blood shall never lose its power. Till all the ransomed Church
of God be saved to sin no more. Be saved to sin no more, be safe
to sin no more. And there may I, though vile
I seem, wash all my sins away. Our kind, gracious, merciful,
heavenly Father, we bow before you as we remember our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ, His doing and His dying, His suffering
for our sins, our sins, and Him offering Himself to God the Father. And we're accepted in Him. Thank
you for him, Lord. Thank you. We remember him tonight.
We remember the death that he gladly subjected himself to,
that our sin commanded. Without him, we have no standing.
Without him, we have no salvation. In Him we have salvation. In
Him we have life. In Him we have joy and peace
and comfort and grace and mercy and all the things that keep
us, that enables us to go on, that
enables us to live with joy and peace. enables us to look down
in the grave and knowing that the grave can claim no victory
over those who believe in Christ, who will be raised again in His
life. What a wonderful salvation. Thank
you for our blessed substitute, who shed His blood, and whose
blood covers our sins, past, present, and future. We have
nothing to fear. Our sins have been put away.
Death's been conquered. Sin's been covered. And we can approach the throne
of grace with boldness, by and through our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. Thank you for your help. Thank
you. Thank you. Help us to continue Gladly submit to his will, wherever
it leads. Thank you for enabling us to
believe. Thank you for giving us life. Thank you for coming to us. We never came to you, but you
came to us. You brought salvation. We just
bow before you and give you thanks. in Christ's name, amen. Amen.
Amen. Our blessed Heavenly Father,
we come before Thy throne, Lord, to celebrate Thy Son, for He
made heaven and the earth before the world. Here He cometh in wellness, to live a perfect life in our state of order, to satisfy
what required to leave and put away our sin. He died right there. He did set us free. Thank you
for breaking his body. We remember him. They turned
him in, set us free. I just always like to pray. Amen. by faith I saw the stream that
lowly moons supply. Redeeming love, Has been my pain,
and shall be till I die. And shall be till I die. And shall be till I die. Redeeming love. has been my thing, and shall
be till I die. When this forlorn, spring-spanning
tongue lies silent in the grave, I'll sing thy power to save. I'll sing thy power to save. I'll sing thy power to save. In His love, words sweet and
strong, I'll sing my heart to save. Amen. Thank you, brethren. Thank you
very much. The Lord's been gracious to us,
been good to us. You know, Jesus said, Thy strength
indeed is small, Thine indeed Thou art all in all. Jesus paid
it all, all in Him alone. Sin left to crimson stain, He
washed it white as snow. Well, good night and God bless
you. It's been a wonderful day. It's
been a day full of worship. It's been a day full of worship
for a little bit of a day.