Open your Bibles to Galatians.
Thanks, Brother Travis. Galatians chapter one. The name
of the message today is Christ gave himself. Christ gave himself. And we'll continue our study
in the book of Galatians. So far, we've looked at the first
three verses of this wonderful epistle. And as I said in previous
studies, Before Paul does any correction, in the verse we're
looking at today, before Paul does any correction, he's going
to present the gospel to them. He's going to lay the gospel
before the Galatian churches. And he brings forth, in verse
4, the work of Christ's redemption. he sets it forth right before
them he sets before them the complete finished sin atoning
work of the Lord Jesus Christ before he does any correction
again if you read the book of 1st Corinthians which is also
a book where he does some corrected read chapter 1 it's all Christ
so Paul has a a trend, if you want to say, of doing this, by
inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. Remember that, too. The
real author is the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit's presenting
through Paul's writings before the Galatian Church's Christ
in his redemptive work. So let's read the first five
verses. 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 unto 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 see
Paul's including the Galatian churches with with the fact that
Christ gave himself for his people 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 brother charlie sent
me an email this week and then as i looked at verse four again
that really popped out at me um where it says for our sins
so he's not looking at them as unbelievers he's writing to them
as believers even though This error has crept in, and some
of them have believed that error. This letter, he's going to correct
them in chapter 1. We're going to see, I told Charlie,
we're going to see some of the strongest language that's used
by Paul in chapter 1, where he says that these false teachers,
let them be anathema. Let them be cursed. Though we
are an angel from heaven, preach another gospel. Let them be cursed.
My, that's strong language. That's strong language. So look
where it says, who gave himself for our sins. We see again in
verse 2 that it's written to the churches of Galatia. So he
says, who gave himself for our sins. That's a fact. That's a
fact. Christ gave himself for the sins
of his people. That's a fact. We see it right
here. Why? That he might deliver us from
this present evil world according to whose will. according to the
will of the Father. Look at that. According to the
will of God and our Father. To whom be glory forever and
ever. Amen. What else can you say but what
verse 5 says after verse 4? Oh, all glory goes to you, Lord. All honor and all praise goes
to you. Thank you for saving my soul. Thank you. So God's sovereign God's sovereign
grace bestowed upon a particular people, through the perfect redeeming
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, with absolutely no sinful human
involvement, is hated by all self-righteous religionists.
They hate it. They hate it. Because it takes
us out of the picture. We can't add anything to the
full, complete, Sin atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. If
man tries to add something, they ruin it. It's no longer grace,
Paul wrote. It's no longer grace. And false
religious zealots have been with the church since the beginning.
Judas was one of the 12, and he was never born again. He was
never born again. Self-righteous religion, religionists
have always sought to add something that you have to do, very subtly,
that you have to do along with the work of Christ to be saved.
Anybody who tells you, and I'm telling anybody, anybody, I don't
care, I don't care if they believe Sovereign Grace Doctrine or if
they're full-on, full-on staunch Armenian. Anyone who says there's
something you have to do added to the work of Christ is
a false gospel. It's not good news. It's not
good news. In the fact of verse four, that
Christ gave himself for our sins, that's good news. That's good
news for sinners, isn't it? It's a fact, he gave himself
for our sins, that he might deliver us, beloved. We're delivered,
we're people delivered. Delivered from our sins, delivered
from the wrath of God, delivered from the law of God. We're free. And if the Son shall make you
free, you're free indeed. Oh, it's absolutely wonderful. So Paul brings forth that adding
works to the complete work of Christ, it's just false religion. False religion. Because look
at this in verse four, the complete sinatoning work of Christ. He
gave himself for us. Now think of that. The king of
glory. God's a spirit, right? He can't die. So he becomes a man. Bone of
our bone and flesh of our flesh. Why? To redeem us. And now he's
in heaven, the God-man. Isn't that amazing? God did that
for us. God did that for his people.
It says here that he gave himself. Do you know he gave himself willingly? Willingly. He volunteered to
give himself for us. It's a fact. He gave himself
what? For our sins. The sinless substitute dies in
the sinner's place. Oh, it's good news. Are you a
sinner? Has God shown you that you're a sinner? Flee to Christ. He's the only hope. He's the
only hope. I was talking to my daughter
this week, and I said to her, you know, people worry about,
well, am I one of God's elect, or am I not one of God's elect?
Don't worry about that. Are you trusting Christ or are
you not trusting Christ? If you're trusting Christ, you're
one of His elect. People get all hung up on these
things. If God gives you faith to believe on Christ, you're
one of His people. And what is believing on Christ?
Just trusting Him. Just resting in His finished
work. Resting in the fact that He gave Himself for my sins.
he might deliver me from this evil world that he might deliver
me from my sins all according to the will of God this is God's
will that this happened that's amazing grace that's amazing
grace that Christ would do that and and put yourself in there
who gave himself for put your name in there for my sins if
you're a believer And not just mine, but my brothers and sisters
that I fellowship with. And not just them, but other
believers in this world. And not just them, but a multitude
that no man can number, who are in glory already singing the
redeemed song. And not just for them, for the
lost sheep who will believe on Christ. A number that no man
can number. It's amazing. And then for the
believer who goes, I'm included in that number? Me? Me? Oh my. It's overwhelming. It's overwhelming. My. Any genuine saving interest
in spiritual matters is created by God in us, too. Think of that. Do you have a hope now that you
didn't have before? That was created in you by God.
Do you love the Bible now? Do you love the gospel when it's
preached? Do you love hearing that Christ gave himself for
my sins? Do you love that? That love is
a fruit of the Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit working
in us. We didn't have that love before. Do you love God's people? Do you
love the scriptures? Do you love hearing the gospel
preached and proclaimed? Do you love the fact that when
And did you ever think of this? This is something to think about.
Did you ever think that you'd love it when a preacher says
you're a sinner, because that's what we are? Before I was saved, if someone
said I was a sinner, right? Well, that's fighting
words. Now it's like, yeah, I'm totally
a sinner, but I'm a safe sinner. Hallelujah. Oh, praise the mighty
name of Jesus. I've been born again by the Holy
Spirit of God, and now I've been granted faith to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, my. Here's a quote by Pastor
Henry Mahan. Salvation is of the Lord, cried
Jonah from the belly of the fish. And indeed, it is as the Father
who chose us and who set his love upon us from all eternity.
So God's love has been set upon us from all eternity. He goes
on. It is the Son who redeemed us, the Lord our righteousness,
who by his life and death both sanctified and justified us in
God's sight. Wonderful. It is the Holy Spirit
who quickened the dead. Not dead spiritually. We were
dead spiritually. He quickened us, beloved. We're
alive now. We're alive now. And made us
to live. But all saving acts must be performed
by the man himself. Now think of this. And this is from Henry, as faith
is a gift of God, but the Holy Spirit never believed for anybody.
We believe. It's not his office to believe,
but to woo and draw and teach us to believe. He gives us faith
to believe. And it's our faith, isn't it? It's in Christ. Yeah. And then he says, the sinner
must believe. Repentance is the work of the
Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit never repented. What has He to repent of? Nothing. It is the sinner who must repent.
And by God's grace, we do. Again, not only are we given
faith to believe on Christ, but we're given repentance before
God. That's why sin bothers us now,
beloved. When it never used to bother us at all. There must
be in every person who comes to Christ a personal repentance
and a personal faith. And though these are wrought
in him by the Holy Spirit, yet they are his own acts, or her
own acts. For instance, oh, he goes on,
they cannot be the acts of anyone else. So praying a prayer that
somebody's trying to repeat, that won't help you at all. People say, well, repeat this
prayer after me. That's their confession, not yours. Won't
help you at all, won't help me, right? He says, they cannot be
acts of anyone else or the person has not repented and has not
believed and there is no spiritual life in him. For instance, the
Holy Spirit helps us to pray. He helps our infirmities, but
we pray. You see, faith is given to us
and it's exercised by us. And it has one object, and that's
Christ. Repentance is given to us and
we exercise repentance, don't we? People always get hung up,
you know, oh, have you repented? Well, a true believer will repent
all the time. Do you not find yourself, I find
myself going to the Lord, Lord, forgive me, I blew it again.
Oh my. Once again. Well, see, we didn't
feel that way before the Lord saved us, did we? That's a good
sign, beloved. That's a good sign. Oh, and then
he finishes this with this, true desires after God must be your
own desires. The desire is wrought in you,
it's wrought in us by the Holy Spirit of God, but it's still
yours and mine. That's why Paul said the gospel
of my salvation. Christ is my salvation, mine
personally. Is he yours? Mine. I pray God make it so if he's
not that's the end of his quote there
now before we look closer at verse four and five let me remind
you what the gospel is now this is paramount because Paul is
going to bring it forth here when God's ministers preach the
gospel we declare Jesus Christ we declare him I turned a guy
on yesterday thinking, ah, he's on sermon. I thought, I'll click
on him. He had a sermon about the incarnation.
And I thought, well, I'm doing a study on that. I'll listen
to this guy. I've never listened to him before. And I shut him off after
about five minutes. You know why? Because he talked
about Saint Nick for five minutes. Some Catholic guy. I'm not interested. And this is a Baptist guy. I'm
not interested in that stuff. Didn't mention Christ for five
minutes. That's enough for me. Goodbye. Gospel preachers, we declare
Christ. And we're going to set him forth before you. Because
that's what we're called to do. And Jesus Christ is Jehovah.
He's the second person of the Godhead. He's the second person
in the Divine Trinity. You know, the Gospel of God is
Christ. It's Christ. You take Christ
out, there's no gospel. There are none. My, you know
there's three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word,
and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. And also the scripture
says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. Jesus Christ is the Word of God.
He's the one, he's one with God the Father, God the Holy Spirit,
and he gave himself for us. God gave himself for us to deliver
us from our sins and deliver us from this present evil world,
all according to the will of God, all according to the will
of God from eternity. Let that sink in this week. Let
that sink in. If you're a believer, just think
on this this week. Christ gave himself for me according
to the will of God from eternity. Well, that'll clear up a bad
day. I'll tell ya, Christ, God gave himself for me? God in the
flesh gave himself for me? Yes, Wayne. And yes, believer in Christ,
isn't that wonderful news? It's about the best news you're
ever gonna hear. I'll tell ya, it don't get much better than
that. Oh my, absolutely wonderful. No, it's wonderful. Christ is
our sovereign creator who spoke everything into existence. The
scripture says all things were made by him and without him was
not anything made that was made. That's who gave his life for
us. Scripture also says through faith we understand that the
worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things which
are seen were not made of things which do appear. He spoke it
into existence. That's who saved us. So do you
think the God who spoke the universe into existence and then became
a man and saved us, do you think he'll lose any of his people? If he just spoke the worlds into
existence, keeping me in his hands is nothing. Right? And keeping you in his hands
is nothing. They have a godly imagination
who's limited in what he can do. Our God is not limited, beloved. He has all power. And he keeps
us right in the palm of his hand. As a matter of fact, we're engraved
on the palms of his hand. Oh my. Ever before him. Ever
before him. That's just incredible. My, oh my. So when God's preachers
preach the gospel, we declare what Christ has done and who
he did it for. He saved his people from their
sins, and he saved the people of God's choosing. He didn't
die for everyone, but he died for his people, beloved. Scripture
says he came to save his people from their sins. He will he shall
save his people from their sins, and he's he did it didn't he
praise God Oh My Our great majestic God,
our sovereign creator, became a man. And the word was made
flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, John
said. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full
of grace and truth. He saw him like we see each other. And then
in 1 Timothy, it says, without controversy, great is the mystery
of Godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. So what Paul's
doing here, he's setting forth before them the incarnation of
Christ, the fact that God saved you. to the Galatians. And I ask you, if God saved you,
is there anything else we need to do? There's nothing we need
to do, is there? And if there was anything we
could do, as I said last week, why then did Christ come to this
world? If there was anything we could
do to save ourselves, why did Christ come into the world? Why
did God himself become a man? Because there's no way we can
save ourselves. Christ must deliver us from our
sins, beloved. Christ and him alone. And by
his one offering, by the offering of himself, he sanctified and
perfected forever all his chosen people. Now, we're still sinners.
But in God's eyes, he sees Christ when he looks at us, because
we're robed in that perfect spotless righteousness. My, it's just
amazing. And as a man, our suffering redeemer
by himself removed all the sins of his chosen people from God's
sight forever. Well, somebody says, well, what
about my future sins? Well, again, all our sins were
future at Calvary, right? Did Christ pay it all? Absolutely.
Everything for every single sin we will ever commit in our lives. It's wonderful. He obtained eternal redemption.
He obtained it by the giving of himself. He obtained eternal
salvation. for his blood-bought people.
And the risen, exalted God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, has entered
into heaven to appear in the presence of God for us. And as
the risen God-man, he's seated at the right hand of the Father
right now, interceding for you and I, for his people. And he's
our surety. He's our surety, beloved. He
guarantees our salvation. You know what a surety is, right?
I didn't know until I was talking to Jake at West there, and he
does contracts for the National Guard. And a contractor will
say, okay, I'm going to do this work, and if he can't finish
the work, the surety steps in and finishes the work. They guarantee
that the work would be done, and every contract has to have
a surety. Couldn't save ourselves, could
we? Who steps in? Our surety. And he finishes the work. And
it's completely his work. We didn't even get started. It's done! Beloved, it's done. The surety's paid it all. And these truths are a summary
of the glorious gospel of God's sovereign grace. Look what he
says here in verse 4. It's a summary of these wonderful
truths. Who gave himself for our sins. He's sinless. He gave himself
for our sins. That he might deliver us from
this present evil world. Now, might there doesn't leave
a chat set. We'll see that later on. It's
not like, well, he might deliver us. No, he's delivered us. He's
delivered us from this present evil world according to the will
of God and our Father. And God's born-again, blood-washed
children believe that Christ didn't try to save us. He didn't
try to save us, beloved. Like some false preachers say,
and now the rest is up to you. No, no. There's nothing I can
do to save myself. He didn't try to save us. No.
No. He gave himself for our sins.
And the text proclaims that. So rejoice, as we look at this
first, beloved. Rejoice. He gave himself for our sins. It's a fact. It's a fact. And we believe that Jesus Christ
is our Savior, don't we? We believe that he did save us.
He did save us. He didn't try. He did. He saved
us. We believe that Jesus Christ
is Jehovah God. And because he's Jehovah God,
beloved, he can't fail. Has God ever failed at anything
that he has wanted to be done? Has his will ever been thwarted?
Never. God can't fail. We fail all the
time. I know I do. Land flat in my
face. My, God doesn't ever fail. And
we believe that Jesus, we believe as born-again, blood-washed believers,
that Christ gave himself for our sins. We really believe that.
He gave himself for my sins. He delivered me, not only from
this present evil world, but he delivered me from all my sins.
And you know what else we believe? We believe that God saw the travail
of his soul and was satisfied. The substitute died in our room
and place, and God is satisfied. He's fully, fully satisfied.
He's so satisfied that he said, this is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. Oh my, and he's pleased with
everybody in Christ. Oh, that's good news. Turn, if
you would, to 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel 22. It says here in
our text, who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver
us from this present evil world. Do you know that Christ is the
great deliverer? He's the great emancipator. He freed us. We were in such bondage. We were
in bondage to our sin. Oh, we were in bondage. We didn't
even know we were in bondage to our sin. And we were in so
much bondage. He set us free. Look at this
in 2 Samuel chapter 22, verses 1 to 4. My, and remember, I'm gonna read
our text again. 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. Look at this in 2 Samuel 22,
verses one to four. And David spake unto the Lord
the words of this psalm in the day that the Lord had, what,
delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies. Well, what
was our enemies? Our own sin, the law of God,
The justice of God. The wrath of God. My. Christ delivered us from all
our enemies. Look at this. Delivered him out of the hand
of all his enemies and out of the hand of Saul. And he said,
the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. He repeats
it again. My deliverer. He's my rock. Oh, he's my rock. He's the rock of my salvation.
He's my fortress. He's my hiding place. Is he yours?
And he's my deliverer. I'm set free. He's delivered
me from my sins. Has he delivered you from your
sins? Oh, I pray that he will. I pray that he will grant you
faith to believe on Christ. Because if Christ died for you
2,000 years ago, he's going to get you. He's going to draw you
to himself. Because he won't lose one of
his sheep. Not one. When I was a lost sheep,
I had no idea I was one of God's sheep. I didn't have a clue.
And you couldn't tell me apart from one who wasn't God's sheep,
who was a goat. You couldn't tell. I acted like
a goat all the time. Norm Wells said this, and I like
this. And this will just give you some
light on how we struggle as a believer after we're saved. He says, I
was a better Christian before the Lord saved me. Meaning that
now he knows I'm just a sinner saved by grace. We know what we are, don't we?
We've talked about that. Several of us have talked about
that. We know what we are. We know what God's delivered
us from. And we rejoice at this wonderful,
wonderful fact. And look at that, the Lord Jehovah,
that's Jehovah in the Hebrew. Jehovah's, think of this as a
believer, Jehovah's my rock. He's my rock. Jehovah's my fortress. Jehovah is my deliverer. And
then go back to our text, who gave him, this being Christ,
this being Jehovah in the flesh, who gave himself for our sins
that he might deliver us from this present evil world according
to the will of God and the Father. Oh, it's wonderful, Bobbin. Christ
gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this
present evil world. Now the word might there is not
implying that he might not deliver us. It's not implying that. It's used in a positive way,
teaching us that because he gave himself for our sins, meeting
all the conditions of the eternal covenant of grace in our place,
that our deliverance is as true as God himself. We have true deliverance. Now,
do we doubt? Yeah. Anybody tells you they
don't doubt, they're lying. Even Peter said, Lord, what?
What did Peter say? Lord, help my unbelief. Help me, Lord. Help me just to rest in you.
But it's a true fact. It's as true as God himself that
we've been delivered from our sins. That's good news, isn't
it? Just chew on that this week,
too. Just let that fact, it's a true fact that Wayne Boyd has
been delivered, and put your name in there, while you're working
this week, it's a true fact that Dee Strip's been delivered from
all her sins. It's a true fact that Barbara Kirkpatrick's been
delivered from all her sins. It's a true fact Jim Bruin's
been delivered from all his sins. Tom Butler. Isn't that amazing? It's a true fact. and put your
name in there as a believer. It's wonderful. It's humbling,
isn't it? It's extremely humbling. It brings
us low, and that's what it should do. But then we rise up in joy. God himself gave himself to deliver
me from all my sins. Let's say that word. Hallelujah. I've ever heard in my life. Oh,
Scott Richardson used to say, since I heard the good news,
I ain't heard no bad news. I like that. That's so true. Oh, it's so true. Since I heard
the good news, I've not heard any bad news. Oh my gosh. Oh
my, it's just wonderful. And God forgives all his chosen
people for Christ's sake. Therefore rejoice, beloved of
God. Christ has delivered us from the wrath to come. We've
been delivered. We've been delivered. He delivered us from the power
of darkness. And he will deliver us from this body of death. And
one day he'll deliver us from this present evil world to be
in his presence forever. Forever? That's good news, isn't
it? all because he delivered us from
our sins all because of what he's done in all according to
the will of god i ran out of time i got three pages left so
we're going to continue that next week i just got carried
away there that's ok it's ok salvation's incredible isn't
it in christ well it's it's wonderful