Okay, well, I want to turn to
this book of Galatians, this letter of Paul the Apostle to
the Galatians, and I just want to start our study of it. Now, why look at the letter to
the Galatians? There are so many things that
we could look at. Why look at this one? Well, I feel that there's
such an urgency in this day concerning the true gospel. And the true
Gospel, which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ declared in the
Scriptures, this is what it is that we seek to declare and to
make known. God has made that Gospel known
in His Word, in the Scriptures. It's here for us. We need to
know what it is. Because as Paul says in those
verses 7 and 8, it's true in our day. It's always been true.
There are those who want to pervert the Gospel of Christ all around. They want to sound like it's
the gospel, but they want to add various things into it, and
mix various things in, and bring things in that the Word of God
never ever declares. That's the reason that we read
that passage about Uzzah, that shocking passage of the Ark of
the Covenant. Do you know the Ark of the Covenant, all of the
Old Testament has historical truth, but at the same time great
symbology in it. And the Ark of the Covenant is
a picture, I haven't got time to go into any of the details,
but it's a picture of the gospel of God's grace in the Lord Jesus
Christ. I could show you this in all sorts of details, the
wood which represents his humanity, overlaid with the gold which
represents his divinity, and the way in which he covers the
law for his people, and so on and so forth. But this was a
symbol of the gospel, it was a symbol of worship of God in
the Old Testament. It was how they approached God
and God said I will speak to you there above the mercy seat
which was the gold covering on the Ark of the Covenant. But
you know the priests were told to carry the Ark of the Covenant
on poles that were covered in gold. And what did they do? They
got a new cart. When they brought it back, they
got a new cart. God had never said anywhere anything about
getting a new cart. God had said that the priests,
the Levites, were to carry the Ark of the Covenant. It wasn't
to be carried on a cart pulled by oxen. And when the oxen stumbled,
Uzzah, quite sincerely, and there's a lot of sincerity in this, thought
he was doing a good thing and reached out his hand to steady
the Ark. And you may think, this is a shocking thing, but he was
struck dead. It was because he was interfering
with what God had said. The symbology of it in our day
is this. that the gospel of God's grace,
which is clear in the scriptures, we mustn't tamper with it. We
must see what He says. We must seek to be true to what
He says. And that's the reason for the
urgency of coming to this epistle. These messages, you know, a little
number, but these messages go on the website and people can
click and using Windows Media Player and these other things,
you can listen online. And this is our purpose that,
you know, even if there are fewer than 10 people meeting in the
room, yet there's an opportunity for a much wider audience. And
I tell you, we know that people all around the world, obviously
friends who know about us at the moment, but friends around
the world are listening to what we have to say and pointing people
in the direction of it. So, I seek to take certainly
no more than 35 minutes and as near to 30 minutes as possible.
It's difficult to say a great deal that's worth saying in much
less than that amount of time. I know that the fashion in our
day is for kind of 10-minute, 15-minute sermons, but I try
to avoid the 50-minute to an hour ones, which can keep people
hanging on a little bit too long. But we'll try and say something
worth saying in 30 minutes or so. I want to see, just looking
at verses 1 to 10 of this chapter, these opening 10 verses, I want
to see four things here. I want to see the preacher's
authority established, I want to see gracious substitution
declared, I want to see a gospel which is good news soon perverted,
and I want to see who do we seek to please. What's our priority? Who do we seek to please? That's
all in these 10 verses and a lot more. But the preacher's authority,
first of all, look at verse 1. He says, Paul, an apostle. The word apostle just means he's
a messenger. Paul is a messenger of God. He's an apostle. He's one of
that Small number, you know, there were 12 and then Judas
betrayed Christ and the remaining apostles tried to appoint another
one by drawing lots and there was a guy called Matthias who
was picked out. And as soon as we have that account
of him, we never read another thing about him in the rest of
the Scriptures. Because God's man to fill that place and make
up the twelve was the Apostle Paul, as one born out of due
time, as one who was arrested on the road to Damascus and had
that light shine, and where he was right in the fiercest opposition
to the Church of Christ, seeking to destroy any who sought to
follow Christ, That light shone, and he very, very quickly said,
Lord, what would you have me to do? And this is Paul, the
apostle, the messenger of God. And look, how did you get qualified,
Paul? Which theological seminary did
you go to? Where did you get your qualifications?
Where's your Bachelor of Theology degree? Is it from this university? No, not from men. nor through
man. He got it from God, but through
Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.
That's the preacher's authority. Yes, education is good. Yes,
theological education is good. Get as much of it as you can.
Read books, if they're reliable books. Study the scriptures,
yes. But a preacher's authority, if he's got the message of the
gospel of grace, comes from God himself. It isn't something that
you parade your certificates to say that you're qualified
to preach. Paul, an apostle, not from man
nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father
who raised him from the dead. I'll tell you the qualification.
Jesus said this to his disciples. He said, my sheep hear my voice
and they follow me. And God's sheep, Christ's sheep,
hear the voice of the shepherd through the under-shepherds that
he appoints to bring that message to them. And this is the qualification. If the sheep are not hearing
the shepherd's voice, that man is not qualified to preach that
gospel of grace. That's the message. That's the
acid test of it. And so it was with Paul, direct
from God, not from a theological seminary. Look down at verse
11, we'll just skip outside this passage. He said that the gospel
which was preached by me is not according to man. It's not something
that man invented. And he says in verse 12, I neither
received it from man nor was taught it, but it came through
the revelation of Jesus Christ. He's an apostle. He's got this
message from God directly, from Christ. And look who this God
is in verse 1. Through Jesus Christ and God
the Father who raised him from the dead. Not talking about two
gods. It's the one God who's manifested in three persons,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And he says he's an apostle through
Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead.
This is the God who raises the dead. You know, we seem so far
removed from that. But you know, this is why the
miracle occurred with Lazarus who'd been dead in the tomb for
four days. And Jesus came and commanded him to come out of
the grave and he came out. because he has the power, he
has the words of eternal life, he has power over life and death. God the Father who raised Christ
from the dead, this is the God who gave Paul his authority.
So this is the preacher's authority and we need to take heed. We
read some weeks ago in one of Peter's epistles, he says, as
our beloved brother Paul has written in all of his letters
some things that are very hard to understand. He says, Paul
really has some deep and meaningful things. And he says, he's written
some really serious things, as he does in all of the Scriptures.
As far as the Apostle Peter was concerned, the writings of the
Apostle Paul were the Scriptures. They're the Bible. They're the
truth of God. And so it is. And so look, secondly then, he
says he's an apostle, and he's writing to these people, to the
churches in Galatia, a number of churches in this particular
area, in what modern-day Turkey is, as we call it now. And this
is his message, verses 3, 4, and 5. This is the message of
the Gospel. This is the Gospel in a nutshell. It's a message of gracious substitution. That's the message of the gospel.
You know, the gospel is often portrayed as an example of a
good man, of a wise teacher, of somebody who's worth following.
Well, yes, it's all of those things, but you know, really,
gospel means good news. And what the good news is, is
good news of salvation. For there's a verse that is in
the oldest book of the Bible. We believe the book of Job is
the oldest book of the Bible. And if you look in chapter 9
and verse 2, there's no need to turn it up now, but chapter
9 and verse 2 of the book of Job, Job says this. You know,
he's having a tough time, this Job. You might have heard of
the sufferings of Job. And he poses this question, which
is one that's relevant to all of us. How should a man be just
with God? How can a sinful man, as we all
are, be right with God. How can a sinful person, who
is by nature the enemy of God, find peace with God? That's an
important question. It's an important question at
different times of life. It should be an important question
all the time. But in times of sickness, and in times of difficulty,
and in times of danger, you know, that question comes very much
to the fore. Can I sing with that hymn writer,
It is well with my soul. I know that I'm right with the
eternal God. Not on the basis of what I am,
or what I've done, but here, on what it says here. Grace to
you. Grace means God's riches at Christ's
expense. Christ purchased riches for his
people. Grace to you, and peace from
God. peace from God, not hostility
from God, not vengeance from God, not judgment from God, but
peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. And how
is it possible for God to be a God of peace and of grace?
It's in verse 4, because Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins
that he might deliver us from this present evil age according
to the will of our God and Father. God willed to save a people for
His own glory from before the beginning of time. That's what
we read in those opening verses of the epistle to Timothy. From
before the beginning of time, God willed to do this, to save
a people. And how would He do it? When
people deserve to be condemned, the way and the reason and the
manner in which He did it was sending His Son, coming Himself. God became a man. This is the
wonder of the Incarnation. The Eternal God became a man.
God contracted to a span, as one of the hymn writers put it.
The Eternal God contracted to a span, that He might be the
substitute for sinners, that He might give Himself for our
sins. Do you know what Jesus Christ
did? He lived perfectly. When the fullness of the time
was come, it's two chapters on, well, three chapters on. Chapter
4, verse 4. When the fullness of the time
had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, literally,
really, born of a woman. So He was a man, flesh and blood.
He took on flesh and blood, just like we have. God sent forth
His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, under His own
law, under God's law, to redeem, which means to buy back, to buy
back those who were under the law, that we might receive the
adoption of sons. that we might receive adoption
that's what this gospel is about he came and lived perfectly under
his own law to establish righteousness now we all have to face God one day
would you not like it to be said as it was said of Christ this
is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased God was well pleased
with Christ but he was acting as the substitute for his people
that God might be well pleased with all of those who are in
Him. And then not only that, but at the cross of Calvary,
we read that He, God, made Him, Jesus Christ, who knew no sin,
was perfect, was absolutely sinless before the law of God. He made
Him to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. This is what the Gospel is. for
this innumerable number of people that Christ represented, He lived
for them and He died for them, that their sins might be forgiven,
that the price of God's justice might be paid, that righteousness
might be established, that it might be said of those who are
sinners by nature, that looking to Christ and being in Christ,
there is grace from God and there is peace from God. It's a message
of substitution. You see, The Bible speaks of
our condition as a condition of total depravity, total lostness. In respect of God, we think we're
pretty good. We think we're pretty decent
people. But when we look, you know, like you can look and think
that something is pretty clean and white. And you think, yeah,
that looks alright. And then the snow falls, and
there's a pristine layer of absolutely white snow. And you take that
garment up against that white snow, which is the standard,
and you see how dirty and how filthy it really is. And Isaiah
says in chapter 60 something thereabouts, he says, all our
righteousnesses that we think are so clean, he says they're
just filthy rags in the sight of God. That all of that, the
total depravity of the human condition is completely put right
in the total sufficiency that is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
God who became man to represent his people. It's a message of
gracious substitution. This is the gospel. And anything
other than that, anything which adds anything to that, is not
the gospel. It's not the gospel. It destroys
it. So you see, we then come to our third point, which is
this. It's a gospel which is so soon perverted. Look in verse
6. He says, I marvel, I'm amazed
that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you
into the grace of Christ. The Holy Spirit comes and calls
His people into the grace of Christ and He says, you came
and you embraced this gospel of grace that you're right with
God in Christ alone and on the basis of what Christ has done
in living in your place and dying in your place and paying the
penalty that God's law demands for your sins. He says, that's
a glorious gospel of grace and peace from God. It's a glorious
gospel. And he says, you've turned away
from it. I'm amazed that you've so soon
turned away from that gospel, from him who called you into
the grace of Christ, to a different gospel. to a different set of
good news. And he says, it isn't another
gospel because there isn't another gospel. There's only one gospel.
He says, there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel
of Christ. There are those who come along
with teaching that there are other things to add. to the finished
work of Christ. Like you need to do certain things,
or you need to live a certain way, and there's a whole load
of do's and don'ts, and other things that you have to add to
it, and rituals that you have to go through, and places you
have to go to, and all of these other things add something to
the finished and completed work of Christ. The message of the
Gospel is a Gospel of goodwill toward man. It's a message, as
we sing in one of the Christmas carols we were singing here just
a few weeks ago, God and sinners reconciled, Hark the herald angels
sing. And yet, man, by nature, wants
to pervert that Gospel. There's a human tendency to always
add something, to want to add something, to free grace. You
know, the Scriptures speak of the child of God, the Christian,
being clothed in a perfect, seamless robe of the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's pictured, there's a parable
of the marriage supper of the Lamb, and all of the guests were
given the perfect robe to cover them, to be joined with Christ
in eternity. And it's a seamless robe, it's
a perfect robe, and it's the righteousness and holiness of
Christ. And yet, what does man want to
do? we want to sew on to that seamless robe of Christ, what
the scriptures call the filthy rags of our own righteousnesses,
our own attempts at keeping the law of God and of doing the right
things. We must try and sew these things
on. And you know, perverting this gospel of grace brings a
dreadful curse. Look what Paul says. You may
say that this is This is severe language here in verses 8 or
9. This is what Paul says. I mean, surely people are allowed
different opinions about what this gospel is, aren't they?
I mean, surely God's a reasonable God. We don't believe in a God
of the Old Testament, a God of judgment. God says he's the same
yesterday, today, and forever. And Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, today, and forever. He says, I am the Lord. I change
not. He doesn't change. And Paul pronounces
these words which are such a parallel to what happened to Uzzer when
he stuck out his hand to try and save the Ark of the Covenant
from falling off the cart. He says, but even if we, or an
angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what
we have preached to you, let him, he says, even if you hear
me, the Apostle Paul, preaching to you a gospel which is not
the one I preached to you to start with, Let me be accursed. That means let me be anathema.
Let me be eternally damned is what he's saying. And then he
says, maybe you didn't hear me the first time so I'll say it
again. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone
preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received,
let him be accursed. You see, it's a severe thing.
The gospel of God's grace is soon perverted in the minds of
man. Martin Luther said this, Martin
Luther who nailed his 95 articles or whatever they were called
onto the cathedral door at Wittenberg of the Gospel of Grace, he said
this Galatians was his favourite epistle in the whole of the Bible.
He loved the book of Galatians. And Luther said this, what was
it that these who pervert the gospel do? This is what Luther
said, they made good works, which are the effect of justification,
into its cause. They made good works which are
the natural outflowing of a heart that has been made right with
God, you know, the fruit of the Spirit that flows from a heart
that's right with God, he said, these who pervert the gospel
made those good works, which are the effect of justification,
into its cause. And Paul urgently has to attempt
to correct that error. And all religion tends that way. A friend of mine in the United
States wrote something recently in an email. He said he'd been
talking to somebody And this person said, this person who
was from a particular Christian sect said, if we believe two
different Gospels, if we believe two different things about salvation,
we can't both be saved. And my friend said, you're absolutely
right. It's true. There is only one
way of salvation. And it's that way of gracious
substitution in Christ and Him alone. Think about just an illustration,
couple of illustrations. Imagine that, I imagine that
there's a very detailed technical specification for my car. I expect
there is. I hope there is. I'm sure there
is. I'm absolutely certain there is. Now, you imagine that the
people that put it together said, because they've tested it, and
they've been through all of the cycles of engineering development,
etc. And let's say they just suddenly
said, it doesn't really matter that much because, you know,
Wolfgang, it definitely wouldn't be Joey, it would be Wolf because
it's a German car. Wolfgang's decided that he doesn't
want to follow this bit of the technical specification, he wants
to make it up as he goes along. Tell him my car would fall apart,
it wouldn't work properly. That's a silly example, but in
all sorts of aspects. Imagine in the realm of software
development, right? You have a detailed specification
and somebody decides, oh, I'm not going to follow that bit
of it, I'm going to make it up as I go along and do my own thing. And
you end up with something that doesn't work. It falls in a heap.
You press a particular button and the response is not right.
It doesn't work. It only works if it's right and
it's accurate. Think about banknotes. You know,
there are some very good forgeries out there. There was some I saw
recently in the newspaper, £50 notes that were written to be
the best they'd ever seen. But how much were those £50 notes
worth? Zero. Absolutely zero. Literally not
worth the paper that they were printed on. Because they were
forgeries. They weren't the true, authentic article that has the
value of £50 and is convertible to goods. A lot of people got
defrauded through it, obviously. But you see, these are just illustrations
that the gospel of God's grace, the gospel of gracious substitution
is absolutely precious. It's absolutely vital that we
understand it, that we believe it, that we trust in it, that
we don't trust in anything of ourselves, that we trust in God.
Our confidence is in the God who is the God of salvation,
who is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. And look, what do we
want to do? And with this I'll finish. Look
at verse 10. For do I now persuade men, or
God? Or do I seek to please men? For
if I still pleased men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ. You see what he's saying there?
He's saying this is a vital thing. This is an absolutely crucial
issue, this Gospel of Grace, which is under threat by those
who pervert, they trouble the Galatians and they want to pervert
the Gospel of Christ. And he says, well, am I going
to try and be conciliatory in this situation? Am I going to
try and please them and not upset them? Because they've got different
views and everybody's entitled to their own view. So I'm not
going to upset these people and they're acceptable. Accept them
for what they are. You know, we're a broad church.
You often hear that expression, don't you? We're a broad church.
Let's be gracious and open and let's have all sorts of people
with all sorts of ideas. I'm sorry, not the Apostle Paul.
Do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? No,
he sought to please God by preaching the gospel of God's grace in
Christ alone and nothing else. This is what he sought to do.
This was absolutely his purpose. He must preach Christ. He must
preach the righteousness that's in Christ alone the forgiveness
of sins that's in Christ alone, that He has been authorised by
God to bring and to preach directly to these people. This message
that they had embraced and accepted and loved and rejoiced in, but
which now was under threat because there were those coming in to
trouble them to pervert the gospel of Christ and he says if we or
anybody or even an angel from heaven comes and preaches any
other gospel to you than what we have preached let him be accursed
now over the next few weeks we're going to go on and look at the
follow-on passages from this epistle and establish what was
it exactly that they were being bewitched with. Look at chapter
3 and verse 1. He says that they've been bewitched.
O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should
not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly
portrayed among you as crucified? And so he goes on, speaking about
the law, about our position in relation to the law. He uses
the example of Abraham to establish the point. and shows that the
law and what we might do is really just a schoolmaster, verse 24
of chapter 3, a tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be
justified by faith in Him. Because you see, he says in another
epistle, and with this I'll close, it's in Philippians, and it's
in chapter 3, there's Ephesians, then Philippians, and Paul's
talking about all of the things that he has done in his religion. He says, in verse 4, he says,
I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else
thinks he may have confidence, this is confidence for his standing
with God in the flesh, based on what he is and what he's done.
He says, if anyone thinks he may have confidence in the flesh,
I more so. You see, he was an absolute gold
standard Hebrew. He says, circumcised the eighth
day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew
of the Hebrews. You know, a Hebrews Hebrew. Absolutely gold standard. Concerning
the law, a Pharisee. None better. None more zealous.
Concerning zeal, persecuting the church. Concerning the righteousness
which is in the law, blameless meaning no other person could
point the finger at him and say I'll look at you you've done
this and you say you're so good concerning the law nobody else
could blame him he was a Pharisee but what things were gained to
me because they really were and religious people love love to
focus on the things that they are and the things that they've
done he says, these I have counted loss for Christ yet indeed I
also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all
things and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ now this
is what he wants and be found in him not having my own righteousness
which is from the law but that which is through faith in Christ,
the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know
Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings
being conformed to His death, if by any means I may attain
to the resurrection from the dead. Yes, you will, Paul, through
the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. Well, we'll sing our closing
hymn now, which is number 509. 509, which is that well-known old hymn of Charles
Wesley, And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Saviour's
blood? Died he for me who caused his
pain, for me who him to death pursued? 509. And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior's blood? died he for me, who caused his
pain, for me, who him to death pursued. Amazing love, how can it be that
thou, my God, should die for me? Amazing love, how can it be that
thou, my God, should die for me? This mystery of immortal
lies Who can explore his strange design? In vain the first-born
seraph tries To sound the depths of love divine Tis mercy all,
let earth adore, Let angel minds inquire no more. Tis mercy all, let earth adore,
Let angel minds inquire no more. He left his mother's throne above
So free, so infinite is grace Emptied himself of all dark love
And led for Adam's helpless race His mercy, oh, immense and free,
for all my God, it found out me. His mercy, oh, immense and
free, for all my God, it found out me. From thy imprisoned spirit
lay, Thus bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening
ray, Thy walk the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off,
my heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed
Thee. My chains fell off, my heart
was free. I rose, went forth, and followed
Thee. No condemnation now I dread,
Jesus and all in Him is mine. Alive in Him, my living Head,
and clothed in righteousness divine. All I approach to eternal
throne, and claim the crown to Christ my own. All I approach to eternal throne,
and claim the crown to Christ my own. Heavenly Father, bless
your word to us and be with us as we pass. And may your grace,
mercy, and peace go with us. In Christ's name, amen.