Turn in your Bible this morning
to Galatians chapter 1. Galatians 1. I'll begin reading
in verse 1. 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 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, 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. Paul says to these people in
Galatia, at the very beginning of this
letter, grace be to you. Actually, it says, Grace to you. If you remember where Joe read
there in I Peter 5, it speaks of God as the God of all grace. And then just a little bit farther
down in that same passage, It speaks of the true grace of God. My message is a question, and it is simply, what kind of
grace do you want? Everybody talks about grace. And most people seem, they say,
to believe in salvation by grace. But the grace that I believe
the Bible speaks of is called the grace that reigns through
righteousness. I would call it righteous grace. Someone asked me one time when
I used that term, righteous grace. They said, where do you get that
from? I said, from the Bible. From that fifth chapter of Romans
where he talks about grace reigning through righteousness. And it is the grace of God in
Christ, the grace of God as He is, the God who will be gracious
to whom He will be gracious. The simple definition of grace
is simply something like this. unmerited and undeserved and
unsought favor. I like what an old writer had
to say about grace with regard to love. He said, love may exist between
equals, Or it may rise to those above
us or flow down to those in any way beneath us. But grace, from its nature, has only one
direction it can take. Grace always flows You think about this. He says, grace always flows down. Grace is love indeed, but it
is love to creatures humbling itself. A king's love to his equals. or to His own royal house is
love. But His love to His servants
is called grace. And thus it is that God's love
to sinners is always called grace. You see, Paul here shows us that
grace is not some mere sentiment from God, or benevolent attitude
from God. No, he says here, grace be to
you from God. Not just grace as an opportunity,
and certainly not grace offered, but God's grace given and therefore
received to great blessing." You see, grace has to be irresistible,
or it cannot be grace, and it would not magnify God, and it
certainly would not meet our condition. The fact that grace is sometimes
called omnipotent grace is the very thing that gives
sinners such as we are hope and salvation. It's the grace of
God. And if you notice here, he says,
grace and peace. You find that a lot together
in the Scripture and in that exact order. The reason being,
peace always comes through grace. Not any peace in this world. And there's not any peace that
can ever be gained by a sinner doing anything, but peace is
the result of grace. It is the fountain of peace. There is no peace except in grace. And you have the situation as
it was in Galatia where there were those who had come in to
that church in Galatia preaching. And they had not openly denied
the grace of God. But they had very cunningly,
and to the deception of some, brought in a message which was
a mixture of law and grace. A mixture of man's works and
grace. And wherever you have law and
grace in mixture, or works in grace, which is the same thing
in a mixture, you don't have any peace. And you truly don't have any
grace. And you certainly don't have
the gospel of grace. You see, grace is exclusively
the work of God. So much so that Paul says, if
you add anything to it, whether it be the least thing or the
greatest thing, it's no longer grace. And the grace that Paul speaks
of, and the reason for my question to you today, is that the grace
that Paul speaks of is quite different from the grace of religion
in our day. Grace in our day has become something
like man being given opportunity, or man being given assistance,
or salvation being made available, and grace not only does that,
maybe assists man to save himself. And so, as Peter says in his
epistle, the true grace of God must be distinguished, I'm afraid,
in every age from the grace that man presents. It has to be distinguished
from this counterfeit grace, which is not the grace of God,
and we have to use such terms as free grace. We're not just talking about
grace as it falls from the conversations of men in our day. We're talking
about free grace, which the truth is all grace has to be free. That's what grace is. Paul said
it this way. He said, unto me who am less
than the least of all the saints is this grace given. This grace. And then he says
also, In Christ also, we have access by faith into this grace
wherein we stand. It has to be distinguished because
the devil has come with a counterfeit to everything that God has done
and everything that God has given. And so the only safe way for
us to know about the grace of God is this book. So I want us to consider some
things this morning. What kind of grace did Paul preach? He is the Apostle of God. He's
the one who Christ revealed Himself to personally on the road to
Damascus. He's the one that God took into
the wilderness for some three years and taught him the gospel
of grace. So we can surely, I do believe,
seeing that he is in agreement not only with Christ but with
all the prophets that went before as to this message and this Savior
and this salvation that is by grace, surely the Holy Spirit
guiding him, we can believe what he says. This is the Word of
God. So what does Paul say? What kind
of grace did Paul preach? Well, right here, he tells us
where this grace comes from. He says it comes from the sovereign
will and purpose of God. If you look down at that third
verse, it says, to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus
Christ." And then if you look in verse
4 also, the last phrase, he says, according to the will of God
and our Father. This doesn't have anything to
do with free will, so-called. This is grace. Anything that
has to do with the so-called free will of man is not the grace
of God that has to do with His will. It is according to the will of
God and our Father. Turn back over in your Bibles.
Hold your place here and turn to II Timothy. 2 Timothy and the first chapter
and verse 8. 2 Timothy 1 and verse 8. Paul writes
to Timothy and he says, Be not thou therefore ashamed of the
testimony of our Lord. That's the gospel. nor of me his prisoner." I'm
in prison for preaching it. But be thou partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel according to the power of God who hath saved us
and called us with an holy calling not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. Grace began with God. Grace began with God before the
world began. Grace began with God in Christ. And it all flowed out of His
will and His purpose of grace. You see that? You can't be any
clearer than that. And it does not say here that
He made it possible. It says He saved us and called
us. He did all of that which is our
salvation and our experience and the revelation of it all
together. He saved us and called us. He did it all according to His
own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ before the
world began. It's all God's work. He's the one who saved us, who
called us, who purposed to save us by His grace, and He determined
to do it before we were born. That's right. Why would God take
the thing that would ascribe to Him His greatest glory or
bring to Him His greatest defeat, if you will, why would He turn
that over into the hands of rebels and sinners such as we are to
see whether or not it comes to pass or not? No, grace comes
from God. It is all of God. And He chose
a people before the foundation of the world. And He gave them
this grace of salvation in Christ Jesus before the world began. And He settled it all before
we were born so we wouldn't be able to get our hands on it and
ruin it. So we couldn't thwart His purpose. So the devil could not alter
the outcome of things. So that they could not, either
us or him or anyone else, get the glory that belongs to God. If you go back over and you read
Ephesians 1, if you start in that book and
in that first chapter reading, This epistle that Paul wrote
to the church at Ephesus, it goes step by step and ascribes
salvation not only to the grace of God, it ascribes salvation
to God the Father, to God the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
all of them together acting to save a people by grace. Nothing but grace. whenever Paul was singled out
by the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus. And he was smitten
and struck down with blindness there when Christ revealed Himself
as one as bright as the noonday sun. And then he was sent by
the Lord Jesus Christ into the city of Damascus, and he was
to hear a message by a man named Ananias. And the Spirit of God spoke to
Ananias. And he told him that he was to
go down to where this man Saul of Tartus was, and he was to
tell him this message. And he didn't want to do it at
the first, because he'd heard of him. And I imagine that he
was in a lot of ways just like we are, We would hardly think
that such a man as Saul of Tartus, as wicked as he was, though religious
as he was, that he would likely be a candidate for the grace
of God. But that's what grace saves. A friend of mine said one time,
he said, you know, when we preach the gospel, to the least likely
candidate, if you will. He said, we really preach the
gospel to the most likely candidate. That's right. And so Saul went
in obedience down to Damascus, and the first thing that he heard
As one born of the Spirit of God, the first thing he heard
from a man's lips, a preacher of the gospel, was this. He said,
the God of our fathers hath chosen you. How could God choose Saul of
Tarsus? But then again, how could He
choose Jacob or Abel or Abraham or any of these? How could He
do that? "...the God of our fathers hath
chosen thee, that thou shouldest know His will, and see that just
one, and shouldest hear the voice of His mouth." That's grace. The kind of grace that Paul preached
was the kind of grace that comes from God. that honors God, that
shows God to be the beginning, the Alpha and the Omega in salvation,
declares God for who He is in every way, and His purpose to
be gracious to whom He'll be gracious. All right, let's look a little
bit farther. Here it is. that Paul speaks of and preaches
comes from the love and the will and the purpose and the decree
of God. The second thing, what does he
tell us about how this grace comes? How does grace come? He says, Grace be to you and
peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ who
gave Himself for our sins." Now, what you find in that statement,
you're going to find everywhere in this New Testament. You're
going to find it everywhere in a picture, in a shadow, in a
type in the Old Testament. And that is that grace comes in the Lord Jesus Christ. You could say it like this. in
the language of men. No grace, no Christ. No Christ, no grace. So that automatically shows all
the multitude of this world who seek God, who seek grace and
try to bypass Christ. No grace. You and I need grace. Without
grace, we'll perish. But there is no grace to be had
from God outside of or apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. No way. It says, "...who gave
Himself for our sins." In other words, God's grace is in His
gracious Son. And it is He who has the Son
in grace, willingly and freely and voluntarily gave Himself. Grace comes. God manifests in the flesh. and comes to sinners such as
we are through Him giving Himself for our sins. Look over in Galatians chapter
2. The one he is talking about here
is that holy, sinless One who is none less than God manifest
in the flesh. Galatians 2 and verse 20, Paul
says, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. Grace comes through Christ giving
Himself. That means giving Himself a sacrifice
and an offering to God on somebody's behalf. Paul says it to those
at Ephesus in chapter 5. He says, "...and walk in love,
as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us,
an offering and a sacrifice to God. No sacrifice, no grace. No Christ as that sacrifice,
no grace. And then again, he goes on in
that same chapter, Ephesians 5, he says, Husbands, love your
wives even as Christ also loved the church. You see, grace is particular.
Grace is God distinguishing. Husbands, love your wives even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. That's grace. Grace is in Jesus
Christ. It is in him coming, not only
as that covenant head, and the Mediator who stood as our surety
from old eternity, but coming into this world, living a sinless,
perfect life on our behalf in order to render Himself the clean
and pure, spotless Lamb in sacrifice, and dying on that cross personally
for His people. It says, "...when He had by Himself
purged our sins." That's not a cooperative effort.
Grace involves what Christ did for His people. Grace has to
do with what He accomplished for them in His life and death. Grace has to do with how God
blesses them with all spiritual blessings in Christ. And you know it says here, it
says, "...who gave Himself for our sins." I love that word,
for. Because that word for, especially
as we find it in the New Testament in so many verses, has to do
with what he did instead of, or in the place of. And it shows that grace has to
do with a substitute. has to do with Christ doing a
substitutionary work in our place on our behalf for us. He gave Himself for our sins. He gave Himself for us in that
there was a divine transfer, or as the Bible speaks of it,
an imputation of our sins for Him so that He suffered for our
sins in our place. There is no grace apart from
Christ. But also, there's no grace apart
from Christ coming and suffering and dying as a substitute in
our place and offering a substitutionary sacrifice for our sins. That's grace. And I'll tell you this, there's
no true grace apart from that sacrifice being an absolute success. There is no grace from God that
does not in every sense reign and find itself victorious in
all that Christ did for us as our Savior. He paid a payment. He gave Himself a ransom for
many. And He did so to satisfy the
justice of God that we had offended. And either we have to suffer for all eternity, or He as the
God-man suffered it when He died on that cross. That's grace. Grace. That's the grace that
reigns in righteousness unto eternal life or results in eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Because if God in any way
does not do right, if He acts in any way contrary to His character,
if He does anything contrary to His law, if He calls anything
what it's not, If he blesses anyone who is not worthy of blessing, then that's not grace. And you
know what? That's what men seem to think
grace is. But the only way that grace can be victorious and be
right at the same time is in Christ crucified. That's the
grace of God. No grace without His cross. You see, He says, our sins, because
this is written to believers, not sin in general or sins in
general, but our sins, original and actual, for the transgression
of My people, was He stricken. Why was He stricken? Because
the Lord had laid on him," Isaiah says, "...the iniquities of us
all. He his own self bare our sins
in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins should
live unto righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed." There's
no grace apart from Christ crucified. And if there was not another
verse in all of Scripture to make this clear and plain and
unavoidable and yet glorious at the same time, it's that last
verse in 2 Corinthians 5 where it says, For He hath made Him
to be sin for us. He who knew no sin. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him." That's grace. Paul said it's in Christ who
gave Himself for our sin. This is Christ the Redeemer.
And this is His grace. And this is the character in
which we have to see the Lord Jesus if we see grace. Right? Here's the third thing. Paul tells us what grace accomplishes. Man's grace offers a lot, makes
a lot available, and gives a lot of opportunity, but it doesn't
accomplish anything. I've likened it to this in the
past. Here is a wide river, and here are men who are building
bridges across this river. And some of them build a bridge
that's a quarter of the way across, and some of them build a bridge
that goes halfway across. Some of them even build a bridge
that goes three quarters of the way across. What good are they? Grace. Is God building the bridge
all the way across and then carrying us across the bridge? For by grace are ye saved. Yeah, if you'll believe, somebody
says. Well, that's true too. But the
thing of it is, he says, for by grace are you saved, are you
being saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's
the gift or the grace of God. What does grace accomplish? Look
there in verse 4, that he might deliver us from this present
evil world. That's what grace does. This
world, as it stands fallen in Adam, is in for a great judgment. Just like it was in Noah's day. Just like it was in a picture
in Lot's day. What happened to Noah and his
family? God delivered them. He delivered
them by this God-appointed, God-ordained method of salvation, the ark,
which was a type of Christ. But He delivered them. What happened to Lot? God sent
angels in there and drug him out, literally. He delivered
him. That's what grace does. You see, the Lord's people are
delivered from this present evil world. That's why He came, and
that was His goal toward His believing people, and He could
not ever have failed. He saw the travail of His soul
and was satisfied. Grace gets the job done. It delivers
the Lord's people. Paul expressed it like this to
the Corinthians. He says, Who delivered us from
so great a death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust that He will
yet deliver us. That's what grace does. Grace
is God in Christ delivering His people, saving His people. That
means rescuing His people from this present evil world. Turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter
5 and look down in verse 17. Now, here it is in a picture.
I mean, here it is in a plain statement. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17, "...therefore,
if any man be in Christ..." Now, the picture I want you to have
in your mind is a man or a woman like Noah and his family was
in that ark. You think about that picture.
What takes place? Anthony, the flood comes, they're
in the ark, they float on that ark forty days and nights, they
come to rest on the mount, the whole world as it was is destroyed,
and they begin in this new world. Now listen to what Paul says,
Therefore if any man be in Christ, if he's in that ark, he is anew,
that word is creation, You can just about read any other
translation and it'll give it to you as creation. And the problem
is some try to take that and have it to do with regeneration
rather than reconciliation, which is the subject here. He said
if any man be in Christ, he's in a new creation. He's just
like Noah sitting in that ark. And when he walks out of that
ark, what's he in? He's in a new creation. Old things are passed away. All his old associations. All
his connections to the first Adam. All his relationship to
the family that fell. in the sin. Oh, things are passed
away, and behold, all things are become new." Why? Because in Christ, God brought
him from that old creation into the new creation. out of that
old world, that old evil world, which is what he's talking about
here truly. He's not talking about simply
being delivered from the moral wickedness and such as that of
this world, although he surely does deliver us from that. But he's talking about bringing
us from that world that one day will be consumed by fire. to
that new creation in Christ Jesus that He spoke of, new heavens
and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. Delivered from its condemnation,
delivered from its gods, delivered from its principles, delivered
from its soon-coming judgment, delivered from its hatred, and
rebellion against God? Paul says in Romans 7, but now
we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were
held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in
the oldness of the letter. What's he saying? He was saying
we've been delivered from the law whereby men do it to live. to a new principle wherein, since
he's made us alive in Christ, we do to his glory. And we are
motivated out of a spirit of love and thanksgiving. To the Colossians he says, who
hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated
us into the kingdom of his Son. Christ delivered us from this
present evil world. One day He'll deliver us to God.
As a matter of fact, this is a blessing. Paul said to the
Thessalonians, we wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised
from the dead, even Jesus, Which one? Who delivered us from
the wrath to come. Now, I know people debate it
until they're blue in the face, but you know, God said you know, whether you'll
admit it or not, whether you keep it shut out of you, you
know there is a judgment to come. It is appointed unto man once
to die, and after this, the judgment. You know that there is wrath
to come. But grace, the grace of God in Christ has
delivered us. It has already delivered us. from the wrath to come." Now,
think about this. How did God in grace deliver
us from the wrath to come? When Christ gave Himself for
our sins, that wrath was heaped upon His head, and there is no
more. Delivered us from the wrath to
come. delivered us from the world's
religion and from its false ideas about God and sin and salvation
and righteousness and about Christ. Christ said, You're not of this
world, even as I'm not of this world.
Well, if I'm not of this world, what does that mean? It means
I've been delivered. that God in grace has delivered
us. That present evil world then
and this present evil world now is in many, many ways the same. They trusted in themselves that
they were righteous by what they had done or abstained from doing,
by what they had given, By the rituals and ceremonies they participated
in, that was their hope and they were good about. You know what
this present evil world is always doing? You can count on this. Sometimes
it may be more outwardly evil than others. It's always going about to establish its own righteousness. Always going about to seek to
please God or gain the favor of God apart from the imputed righteousness
of Christ. apart from God counting us righteous
in Christ, apart from His dying for our sins on the cross. Thank God He delivers His people
from any other hope but Himself. And He often does it. by delivering
us from the self-righteous, self-glorifying works religions that are everywhere,
that are our natural inclinations, that are our family traditions, that are the favored ways of
our friends and neighbors and co-workers. But He delivers. Grace delivers. All right, this is the last thing
quickly. He tells us what the goal of
grace is. And I say that you can, as we
say, call a whole lot by applying this one standard or principle. Does it ultimately and finally
glorify God or man? And I'll tell you this, God said
He will not share His glory with another. Look here in verse 5. He says, To whom? Be glory forever and
ever. Amen. The goal of God in grace
is to glorify Himself because He is the only One worthy. And we only worship God when
we ascribe to Him in everything Glory. We call everything He does right. We call everything about Him
right. And even as we call Him that,
we call Him what He is to us in Christ, as gracious. Gracious. The goal of grace is to glorify
God's grace, which is revealed in Christ as the mediator and
Savior of sinners. And so, Paul, in that same first
chapter of Ephesians, When he ascribes salvation not only by
the grace of God and to each and every person of the Godhead,
he says to the Father, it is to the praise of the glory of
His grace. He says to the Son, it is to
the praise of the glory of His grace. He says to the Spirit,
it is to the praise of the glory of His grace. The psalmist said, Help us, O
God of our salvation, for the glory of Thy name, and deliver
us and purge away our sins for Thy name's sake. You see, grace gives all, and
it's all in Christ. In the book of Zechariah, it
shows in a picture, this temple being built. And it's not the temple in Jerusalem.
It's not the temple Israel. It's the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Living stones in this temple
wherein God dwells in the midst of His people. And it says when
that last capstone goes on, when that last sinner that God has
saved by grace, It's called out. Here's the gospel. God brings them to believe the
gospel of grace, see that their salvation is all by grace, and
they praise the God of all glory for His grace. It says when that
last stone goes in, it's with shoutings of grace, grace. You see, real sinners must have
real grace. Real sinners must have an absolute
Savior. Everything that comes and is
a part of their salvation, their righteousness, everything has
to come from outside of themselves and has to come from God through
Christ and be revealed to them. by His Spirit. So what kind of grace do you
want? Better be thinking about it.
What kind of grace do you want? Everybody's got a grace. The Muslim leaders that they
interview on TV, they're talking about grace. The Baptists talking
about grace, Methodists talking about grace, all these people
talking about grace. This is the true grace of God. Father, we pray this morning
that you might show us your grace. You are the God of all grace.
and make us to know, as Peter expressed it, the true grace
of God as it is in Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. Give us that peace that comes
through Your grace, and glorify Yourself in all things. Enable us to glorify You. Thank
You and praise You that the Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world and gave Himself. You gave Yourself for our sins
and in doing so delivered us from this present evil world. Call out Your people. Cause them
to see something of your purpose and grace which was given them
in Christ before the world began. Give us the grace of faith that
we might look to Him. And keep us by your grace. Preserve
us by your grace. And help us to praise you forever. for Your grace. We pray and we thank You and
we ask all things in Christ's name. Amen.