I want to look at Galatians chapter
1 on the subject of an apostle of Jesus Christ. An apostle of
Jesus Christ. You know, when you study a book
of the Bible, there's always so much you can say. You know,
there's a lot of people who will talk about, you know, the author,
and they'll argue about, you know, whether or not the apostle
Paul wrote this or that. Well, you need to understand
at the outset that every word of the scripture is God-breathed,
that it's the inspiration, that's what that word inspire means,
you know, it's God-breathed, it's the inspiration of God,
who is the author of the word. So this is the word of God, and
he used this human instrument, this man Paul the Apostle, it
starts off in verse one, Paul an apostle, not of men, neither
by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him
from the dead." And one of the things that we see here is the
apostle and his calling. Understand that the human instrument,
even though this is the word of God and not the word of Paul,
it's significant that the Lord used Paul to write this because
you need to understand who Paul was. You remember, Paul was a
converted Jew. And the subject of the book of
Galatians, you know, he's combating Jewish legalists who would come
in and make salvation in some way at some stage to some degree
conditioned on man. Man's will, man's works in some
way. And that's the Jewish religion.
Paul knew well what it meant to be a religious Jew. He knew
well what it meant to be a Pharisee. And he was converted. He said
in Philippians chapter 3 that All the things that could be
said of a religious Jew that would, in their minds, prove
their salvation could be said of him. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews,
a Pharisee of Pharisees. He was circumcised the eighth
day as touching the law of Pharisee, blameless concerning his outward
character and conduct. It'd do you well to read about
Paul in the book of Acts. You know, he was a great persecutor
of the church. Paul did not readily receive
the gospel. He's like any of the natural
men of the world. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. You can read about this in Acts
chapter 8. That's where Stephen, after Stephen preached the gospel,
it says that Saul, that was Paul's name before he was converted,
that Saul held the coats of those who stoned Stephen because of
the gospel that he preached that exposed their wicked works, their
religion. And then in Acts chapter 9, it
talks about how Saul made havoc of the church. Saul of Tarsus
hated the gospel. He hated the gospel of God's
grace. He hated the message of Jesus
Christ. And why did he hate it so much?
Well, the book of John chapter 3 explains why the natural man
hates the gospel. Now, that hatred is expressed
in various degrees and various ways. Sometimes it's just an
indifference to it. Well, I'm just not going to listen
to it. But John 3, 19 tells us why, and the Lord's talking to
Nicodemus there, another religious Pharisee. And he says, this is
the condemnation that light has come into the world and men love
darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. They hate
the light because it exposes the best that men can do to make
themselves righteous before God as being evil. And that's the
point. And here Saul of Tarsus had spent
his life trying to make himself righteous, trying to make himself
holy, trying to make himself good enough to be saved, to be
accepted, to be blessed of God, to be justified, to be righteous.
And Stephen stood in Jerusalem and basically told Saul and the
rest of the Jewish legalists, the unbelievers, that that's
no good. In fact, it's worse than no good. It's evil because
it denies the glory of God in Christ. It denies the glorious
person and the finished work of Christ. And so that's why
I hate it. And he says it over here in verse
13. He said, look at, look at Galatians
1 13. He says, for you've heard of my conversation in time past
that that's how he walked his life style, his walk in time
past in the Jews religion, how that beyond measure, I persecuted
the church and wasted it. And of course you know, you read
about his conversion in the book of Acts chapter nine when he
was on the Damascus road. And the Lord converted him, brought
him to a saving knowledge of Christ. So here's Paul. He says he's an apostle. Look
at verse one. Paul, an apostle. The word apostle
comes from a Greek word that means to send. And so the apostle,
a true apostle is one who's called, equipped, and sent out by Christ
to preach and to write the gospel. There were 12 apostles. He's
an apostle not of men, neither by men. In other words, he wasn't
sent by men nor through the agency of men. There was no human authority
or board that appointed Paul to be an apostle and send him,
but he's an apostle by Jesus Christ and God the Father who
raised him from the dead. Now there's something significant
there too. And don't get worried, I'm not gonna stop on every word
and preach a sermon on every word, but you need to see these
things. You know, when by inspiration of the Spirit, the Apostle Paul
wrote by Jesus Christ and God the Father, in the original,
those two names, Jesus Christ, and you know, Jesus means Jehovah
saves, that's what Jesus means, Savior, his name shall be called
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins, You know,
that's the New Testament form of the Old Testament named Joshua
or Yeshua, as they can pronounce it. And it means Jehovah saves,
Savior. And then Christ, that's Messiah,
that's the Anointed One. So this, when he says Jesus Christ
and God the Father, he's reaching back through all the Old Testament
prophecies. All the types and pictures and
identifying Jesus of Nazareth as being the Messiah. This is
what he's been brought to believe. It's not just believing in a
Messiah or that the Messiah has come or is coming. Jesus of Nazareth
is Messiah. Jehovah saves. And so he's the
one who would come and fulfill all righteousness for his people.
You see, Saul of Tarsus had been trying to establish a righteousness
of his own, but he's talking about Jesus Christ here, the
one who is the Lord, his righteousness now. I have no righteousness
but him. And then in the original text,
this Jesus Christ and God the Father is linked by one preposition,
And what that is, that's Paul's way, by inspiration of the Spirit,
of emphasizing the full deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. In
other words, think about it this way. An unbelieving Jew would
never think of writing something like this, Jesus Christ and God
the Father. Because that's putting Jesus
Christ on the same equal footing as God the Father, according
to his nature. So he is God. He is God in human
flesh. That's what Paul's saying here.
He's showing that this is not just a mere man, a good man,
a prophet, but this is Messiah. This is God manifest in the flesh. This is the Word made flesh dwelling
among us. And then when he says, who raised
him from the dead, he's setting forth the offices of the Trinity. God the Father, representing
the authority, the sovereignty of the Godhead. God the Son representing
that which brings His people, His elect to salvation, doing
the work, establishing the only ground of salvation, God the
Holy Spirit who applies that salvation in each and every successive
generation to each and every one of God's elect. God raised
him from the dead. What does that mean? That means
righteousness has been established. Life has been set forth. Sin
has been removed. That's what raised from the dead
means. It doesn't mean just, listen, resurrection from the
dead is certainly a miracle that only God can do. And it's an
impressive miracle. But it means more than that.
It means sin has been totally taken away. That means the debt
to law and justice has been fully paid, righteousness has been
fully established, and that is the security and guarantee of
the salvation unto resurrection of God's people. Not just getting
them started, but even the resurrection. That means He, Christ, is the
surety and the guarantee of the salvation of all His people.
And that establishes Paul's message. His message of grace, what he
preached, salvation by the grace of God. In verse 2, we see the
apostle and his fellowship. Look at verse 2. He says, all
the brethren which are with me unto the churches of Galatia.
These brethren that he talks about, they're brethren in the
faith. He's not talking about his earthly brothers and sisters.
He speaks of his earthly brethren sometimes. when he speaks of
the Jewish nation. He said back in Romans chapter
9, he said, I could wish myself a cursed for my brethren according
to the flesh. That's the sinful human family
that we're in by nature. But here he's talking about brethren
in the faith, spiritual brethren, the household and family of Almighty
God brought about by grace and he calls them the churches which
shows us probably there were several churches in this region
that he was writing to. And you know the word church,
what it means, it means called out ones. The church is made
up of the elect of God, the redeemed of the Lord, the called out or
regenerated by the Holy Spirit. They've been brought to faith
in Christ and true repentance. This church that he's talking
about, he'll talk about them more as we go through Galatians.
These churches are made up of the brethren in the faith. It's
the true Israel of God. It's the pillar and ground of
truth. There are true churches and then there are false churches
in this world. As the gospel goes out throughout
the world in the New Testament era, God establishes his churches
based on the truth of the gospel and the scriptures. But as the
message spreads forth, Satan is also at work, we're told,
in the scriptures, in these last days, sowing what the Bible calls
his tares. Now what are these tares? Well,
they're false churches. They're churches who claim to
be Christian, but they're Christian in name only. They claim to believe
in Christ, but they deny the doctrine of Christ. And that's
significant if we're going to understand the book of Galatians,
because the ones that the apostle is combating here, as far as
bringing in this Jewish legalism, claim to be Christian. And so
within this world, there are true churches and there are false
churches. Now, how do I know the difference? Well, this book
of Galatians certainly gives you a lot of ammunition for your
own intellect and heart to understand what the difference is. And it's
in what they preach. It's in their doctrine. There
are churches who preach doctrines that are a mixture of what they
call a mixture of grace and works. Paul in Romans chapter 11 said
you can't mix grace and works. Listen, if it's grace, it excludes
works as forming any part of the ground of salvation. And
if it's works, it excludes grace. They cannot come together. Like
oil and water, they don't mix. And so anyone who claims to be
Christian, following Christ, following the teachings of Christ,
who introduces the human works and will into the scheme of attaining
and maintaining salvation at any stage to any degree, that's
a tear. That church is a tear. Now, also
within the true churches here on earth, and this is significant
for us, there are true brethren and there are false brethren.
Now Christ taught that in Matthew 13 when he talked about the parable
of the sower and the seed. He talked about the different
kinds of hearers. You had the wayside hearer, that's
a person who hears the message and it has no effect on them
basically, and they go away unaffected. Then you have the stony ground
here. That's the person who receives
it immediately. Oh, it just sounds so great.
And they receive it immediately for a time, but when persecution
comes and it says over the word, then they leave it. They never
believed it, but they leave it. And then we talk about the, it
talks about the thorny ground here. That's the person who claims
to believe it, but they're so caught up in the affairs of the
world that It takes them away from it. And that's false brethren. Then there's the good ground
here. That's the true believer. Well, false brethren are those
who claim to believe the truth, but they deny it in some way,
mainly by falling short of true repentance, adding their works
to the grace of God, or compromising the truth in some way. But here,
Paul was talking about a spiritual brotherhood. that exists between
the people of God in which we realize that our family here,
our family, ultimately, eternally, are our brethren, our brothers
and sisters in Christ. That's what he's saying. And
that's the true Israel of God. Look at verse three. Here we
see the apostle and his desire for the brethren. He says, grace
to you, grace be to you, it says, but literally grace to you. Peace
from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. There he links
those two names again. God the Father and our Lord Jesus
Christ. That again sets forth the deity
of Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? He's God
in human flesh. And as I said, an unbelieving
Jew would never link those two names together like that. They
would never do it. But here's his desire for the
brethren. His desire for them is grace. that they walk in and
abide under the grace of God forever and ever. That's his
desire. Now I'm sure, just like the Apostle
John wrote in 3 John, we desire for each other health. You know,
when one of us gets sick, we pray for health. We desire that
you be healed. So we desire that, nothing wrong
with that. And we desire that we prosper. I hope all of us
prosper. in the things of this world,
as far as getting along, being able to help each other, being
able to support ourselves, all of this. We desire all those
things. There's nothing wrong with desiring all those things
in their proper context. We're not like these health and
wealth preachers to say, well, now, if you're poor, that means
God's cursing you and you're lost, or if you're wealthy, that
means God's blessing you and all this, all the name it, claim
it guys today. But the greatest desire that
we can have for one another is the grace of God that saves us,
that keeps us, and that'll bring us to glory. That's the greatest
desire. And what he's emphasizing here
is that salvation is all of grace. Grace be to you. It's all of
grace. None of it suspended on us, thank
God. If it were, what would happen?
We'd lose it. And listen, grace is the foundation
of our whole existence before God. And this grace reigns through
righteousness, not ours. It reigns in righteousness unto
eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. And it's the foundation
of all peace. Look at it. He says, Grace be
to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace is the foundation of all peace from God and all grace
is given through Christ. Colossians chapter 1 says we
have peace with God by the blood of the cross. It's Jesus Christ
who is the great reconciler of his people by his work on the
cross in shedding his blood to remove any grounds of condemnation
for his people. He was set up from everlasting
to be the prince of peace. He said throughout the Old Testament
to be the one who would come and establish peace. The gospel
is called the gospel of peace because it's the gospel of Christ
who made peace. The gospel concerns the doctrine
of Christ, his person, his finished work of redemption, to secure
complete salvation of all for whom he died and arose, and to
establish peace between sinners and God. And our salvation is
based on his righteousness in and by the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is God manifest in the flesh, because as he made peace, he
sets forth the glory of God in every attribute of his character.
And look at verse four. Here's the foundation of it.
Here's the work of it. Here's the work of peace. He
says, who gave himself for our sins. Now, why did he give himself
for our sins? that he might deliver us from
this present evil world or evil age, as some translations say. Doesn't matter, it's evil. According
to the will of God and our Father. Again, it emphasizes how grace
and peace come to us by the work of Jesus Christ and not by anything
we do. It's not by what we do for God. I've often said that you'll hear
people who get sick or something like that, or sick unto death,
and somebody will tell them, you need to make your peace with
God. And I know what they mean by that. There is a sense in
which when the Holy Spirit brings us to faith, we do make peace
with God because we become reconciled to God in our minds. You know,
Colossians 1 also says we're alienated by nature, we're alienated
in our minds by wicked works. Well, when God the Holy Spirit
brings us to a saving knowledge of who God is and of ourselves
and our sin and depravity and what we deserve, and the fact
that our best efforts to keep the law cannot save us or make
peace for us, we see Christ as the only ground of peace and
we become reconciled to God through Him. We believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We come to God now, not in opposition
to Him, pleading our works and our efforts, but we come to God
pleading the blood of the Lamb, the blood of the cross, and that's
righteousness. That's peace with God. And so
we do make it, but technically speaking, Christ is the one who
made all peace with God. And how did he do it? He gave
himself for our sins. Verse four. Christ work as surety. He's our surety. He's our substitute. To do what? To remove all grounds. of alienation from God and to
establish all grounds of peace and communion with God. In other
words, to work out a righteousness in his death on the cross for
our sins charged to him. That's why he was made sin. And it says here he gave himself.
He didn't bring offerings like the priest of the Old Testament.
You remember the priest of the Old Testament, they brought their
offerings. They brought their sacrifices. Jesus Christ, the
great high priest, after the order of Melchizedek, he didn't
bring offerings, he brought himself. He himself is the offering. He
himself is the sacrifice. He's the surety and substitute
for his people, his sheep, God's elect. And all those who he redeemed
by his blood. Look over at Galatians chapter
three, in verse 13. The apostle's writing here of
the impossibility of salvation or any part of it by works of
the law. And he tells us, look, if you
think that you can be saved, justified, righteous, or have
peace with God based on your works, then you're a debtor to
do the whole law. And you're under a curse. Well, look at
verse 13. He says, Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law. Now how did he redeem us from
the curse? He was made a curse for us. Now how was he made a
curse? Did he become a sinner? No. Was
he made a sinner? No. Was he ever a sinner? Absolutely not. But he was made
a curse. God cursed him. Scripture says
that. And you can read it in the Old
Testament. You can read it in the Messianic Psalms. You can
read it in the types in the picture. Jesus Christ, the God-man, actually
came under the severity of the wrath of God. And he suffered,
and he bled, and he died. Now how was that possible? And it was totally based upon
our sins imputed to him. That's how he was made sin. That's
how he was made a curse. And he says, for us, for it's
written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Now what was
the purpose of all that? Look at verse 14. That the blessing
of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.
Now what is the blessing of Abraham? It's salvation by grace. Abraham wasn't saved by works.
Romans 4 teaches us plainly that Abraham is an example of how
God justifies who? The ungodly. Abraham had nothing
to recommend him unto God. You don't either. I don't either. And the best we can do will not
contribute to our salvation. It's all of his grace. See, Paul,
back here in Galatians 1, turn back there, he's establishing
the foundation of what he's about to say in talking about his own
apostleship here. Christ gave himself for our sins. And you know that word gave,
that's significant too. It not only shows us that salvation
is a gift, a free gift of God's grace, unearned and unmerited,
undeserved, it also speaks of the fact that Jesus Christ voluntarily
gave himself for the sins of his people. He had an obligation. But it was an obligation of the
covenant made before the foundation of the world when he agreed to
be our surety. But he said it himself in John
chapter 10. He said in verse 17, let me just
read it for you, John 10, 17. Therefore doth my father love
me because I lay down my life that I might take it again. See,
he said, I lay down my life that I might take it again. And then
he said, no man taketh it from me. He wasn't forced into this
position. He said, I lay it down of myself. And he said this, he said, I
have power to lay it down, I have power to take it again. This
commandment have I received of my father. You see, he did it
willingly. One old writer said that there
were three qualifications that had to be met by our substitute
to save us, that one who would save his people from their sins.
Number one, there had to be an appointment of God. He had to
be appointed by God the Father. He wasn't appointed of men, but
by God the Father. Number two, he had to be qualified
to do what was necessary. Number three, he had to be willing
to do what was necessary. And Jesus Christ, the Lord of
Glory, meets all three qualifications. He was appointed by the Father
before the foundation of the world. He is certainly qualified. That's why he is able to save
to the uttermost them that come unto the Father by him. Paul
said, I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. He
is able. You see, salvation is based on
his ability, not yours, not mine. And then he's willing. And I
love John chapter 13 and verse 1. It says there that he loved
his own, that's his own people, to the end. And that word end
is the same word that keeps cropping up in the New Testament concerning
his redemptive work. Remember he said it's finished? Sometimes that word is translated
end. It's done, it's ended, it's completed, it's perfected. Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
Well, John 13 once says, he loved his own to the end. How much does Jesus Christ love
his people? He loved us so much that he gave
himself for our sins. And that's unconditional love.
He loved those who didn't love him. Herein is love, not that
we love God, but that he loved us and gave himself to be the
propitiation for our sins. In the giving of himself, look
back at Galatians 1, who gave himself for our sins so that
he might deliver us from this present evil world according
to the will of God and our Father. That shows us that his death
on the cross, his giving himself for our sins, is not just a mere
possibility of salvation, but it's the guarantee, the security
of salvation. You know, most people see the
death of Christ as providing forgiveness and righteousness
potentially for all without exception. That's the mainstay of today's
false gospel. Christ's death is not the guarantee
of salvation, not the security of salvation, but just a potential
for salvation if you'll do your part. And whatever your part
is differs from each denomination among Satan's tares. Sometimes
it's baptism, sometimes it's faith and repentance, sometimes
it's obedience, whatever. But it varies. But that's what
they say. The death of Christ did not really
save anybody for sure. It just made you savable or provided
a possibility for you to be saved if you would rise above the crowd
and cooperate. And usually that's set forth
in some kind of an invitation, you know. Don't stay back there
like these other folks. You come forth. Exercise your
will. But let me tell you something.
There is nothing like that in scripture. There is no potentiality
of salvation based on the death of Christ. His death is righteousness,
and righteousness demands what? Life. Life everlasting. His righteousness demands the
salvation of His people. His blood and righteousness demands
the resurrection of His people. If He died for you, He was raised
for you, you died with Him, you'll be raised too. You'll live in
glory. His death is the assurance and
guarantee of forgiveness of sins. The reason God cannot charge
His elect with sin is because he charged it to Christ. He'd
be unjust to charge it to both Christ and to you. Somebody says,
well, you have to accept it. Well, Christ's death is the guarantee
that his people will accept it. There's no potential here, you
say. He says that he might deliver
us from this present evil world. That word deliver means to pluck
us out. Some Greek scholars say it means to tear us out. He tears
us out of this present evil age. He takes us out from a number. He selects us. He rescues us. He delivers us. Christ came to
rescue and deliver us from this present evil world, this evil
age. It means to bring about a separation
and deliverance from the dominion of this world. its immorality
and its darkness and its religion. And look here, he says it's all
according to the will of God and our Father. It's not according
to the will of man. It's all by the determinate counsel
and foreknowledge of God our Father. It's not God, it's not
our will, it's God's will here. It's what he says. The salvation
by God's grace in Christ is not suspended on the will of men.
There's nothing in the Bible that even indicates that. Yes,
it says we must be willing, it says we will be made willing
in the day of God's power, but there's never any verse or scripture
in the Bible that says salvation or any part of it is suspended
on the will of men. It's not there. If it were, it'd
be a failure. And to say that it would not
fail, and listen, if I rise up against that now and say, well
now, in my case, it is, to say that it wouldn't fail, in my
case, is the height of self-righteousness and religious pride. It's all
according to God's will in Christ. And then lastly, look at verse
five. He says, to whom be glory forever and ever, amen. In the
message today, I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about God's
glory. I've been dealing with that this week in writing the
pamphlet on the glory of God revealed in the gospel. But here's
the apostle and his goal. You see, his goal is to glorify
God. It's all to the praise of the
glory of God's grace. And the scripture teaches us
that God's glory, his intrinsic honor, his intrinsic worth or
worthiness is connected with His glory revealed in the face
of Jesus Christ. In fact, Christ is called the
brightness of the Father's glory. That's the effulgence. In other
words, if you want to see the greatest manifestation of the
glory of God, it's all in Christ. In the Old Testament, it's called
the Shekinah glory. God's glory is the expression
of all his attributes in perfection. And therefore, it can only be
seen and enjoyed through the Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ,
we see all the attributes of God in perfection, not working
against us, but working on our behalf because Christ is our
Savior. He's the Lord, our righteousness.
And in Christ, we see the complete summation of God's glory as both
a just God and a Savior. In Christ, we see the righteousness
of God freely imputed to us and received by God given faith.
This glory is the goal of salvation, it's the goal of obedience, it's
the goal of ministry, it's the goal of all things for God's
people.