For our second hour, we're gonna
be in Galatians chapter two. Galatians chapter two. Paul was continuing to set forth
his call to the ministry. It was not by his own doing. It's called into question by
those who are at Galatia, by some that have come in to tell
and to preach that they're the same as Paul. Paul's no different
than they are. And they're setting forth other law-mongering statements,
and the people of Galatia are believing it because of what
they're saying. Paul's telling them, my calling
was not of man. My calling was not of men. It
was of God. It wasn't me that called myself
like these men that's declaring unto you. It's God that did it.
It's God that did it. The issue with the Galatians
is pretty simple. It's like so many others. They're looking
at what they do outwardly and they're looking at each other,
what they do outwardly in order to change their status with man. But most worse, worst of all,
change their status with God, but it really doesn't. We can't
see something on the outside that we do or something that
we do not do to change our status with God. It doesn't work that
way. God is a spirit, and they that worship must worship in
spirit and in truth. How do you worship in spirit?
It has to be done by faith. It's not done by what you see
with these eyes. It's no longer faith. At that
point, it's sight. The Galatians are looking at
what each other's doing in order to increase their standing with
men and with God and neither one of them is true. Why? Because
every single time that you mix law and grace in any way, shape
or form, You start telling men that they have to do something
as part of their salvation or as evidence of their salvation,
then all that they're committing is iniquity and they're running
back to the law for justification at that time. So not only does
it not change our status before God, but the Lord said clearly
in Psalm 5.5, he hateth all workers of iniquity. If we're trying
to do something in order to attain salvation by good works, by keeping
the law, I would say to that, number one, by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified. But second of all, keeping the
law in any way, keeping a law in any way, whether it's a man's
moral law, maybe it's a tradition, that could be a law. It doesn't
matter what it is. If you're doing that as part of justification,
you're simply committing iniquity before God. This is what the
message of Galatia is all about. This is it. Christ is the only
one who pleases God. Understand something, we cannot
have peace with God until grace alone is preached. You take grace,
the preaching of God's free grace, his sovereign grace, how he saved
sinners, and you add one work to it, you have made it void
for yourself. It doesn't work that way. The
definition, this is in your art bulletin. I wrote a little article
in there. It says this, that preaching Christ plus something
or minus something is the exact definition of not preaching the
Lord Jesus Christ at all. That's the definition of it.
You can preach Christ this much or this much, but if you preach
everything about him as truth and then you add one thing to
it, you're not preaching Christ as all. That's the poison, isn't
it? That's the leaven, a little leaven,
leaven up the whole lump. That's the lie that was given
by Satan in the garden, the one word. Christ is the only one
that please God, not you and I anyway. Nothing that our flesh
can produce will merit salvation or merit righteousness. But the
lie is that you can gain piety You can become more religious
if you do. You can have a good standing
with God if you do. You could become acceptable to
God by choosing holiness rather than choosing to sin. Well, sin's
what we are, not what we do. And our nature will not choose
holiness. Our nature will not choose good. Our nature will
choose evil, always. All we gain is iniquity. Let's read this together. Galatians
2 verse 1 through 5. Then 14 years after I went up
again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus with me also,
and I went up by revelation and communicated unto them the gospel,
communicated them that gospel which I preached among the Gentiles,
but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means
I should run or had run in vain. But neither Titus, who was with
me being Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. And that because
of false brethren unawares brought in who came in privily to spy
out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might
bring us into bondage, to whom we have place by subjection,
no, not for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue
with you. Now here you have the account
given of Paul and his travels coming up, meeting Barnabas,
bringing Titus with him. Titus being a Greek, he's not
compelled to be circumcised. Well, you have those who are
spying on them privately and they're accusing Titus now. They're
saying, well, he's not a brother because he hasn't been circumcised.
He don't believe God. He hasn't believed on the Lord
Jesus Christ. He hasn't been, this is the whole message of
Galatia right here. This is it. They're literally
saying, you're not a believer because you have not done this.
We live in a day and time that doesn't put emphasis so much
on circumcision, but it will put emphasis on what you wear,
it'll put emphasis on what you say, it'll put emphasis on what
you do. Oh, a believer would never do
something like that. Let me remind you that David committed adultery
and murder. That's what we're capable of
in this flesh, as a believer, a man after God's own heart.
No, we don't look to this flesh for justification or what we
do, but for the grace of God, there go I. Peter denied the
one who created him. Peter denied the God that he
loved. That's what we're capable of in the flesh. That's what
we're capable of. And you and I would be the same
way. What about so many others throughout
scripture? They shut the Lord. Jonah, Lord says, Jonah, go preach
to the men down in Nineveh. 40 days, I'm going to destroy
it. Jonah says, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to do what
I want to do. I'm going to go down here. I'm going to vote. Go down to Joppa, get
on a boat, Tarshish, and start sailing. He's like, now, God's
not gonna tell me what to do. A believing man said that. You
believe that? God said, yes, you will. And
they had to throw him over the boat. He says, I know the problem.
I know what's going on. I've made the Lord angry. They
looked at him and said, why would you do such a thing? He said, well,
my rebellion. My rebellion, that's why, isn't
it? The whole flesh, the Lord left me to myself for a moment.
I thought I had the power. I thought I had a choice. No,
Jonah, you don't have a choice. See, I'm God, you're not. Isn't
that true with the Lord's people? He might let you get on the boat
for a while, but you're gonna find yourself in the fish's belly at some point.
He leaves you to yourself. If you're his, if you're not,
he'll let you keep going. That's a scary thought, isn't
it? You already had a fish prepared. That was a prepared whale to
take Jonah exactly where the Lord had purposed him to go.
And the fish swallowed him up, but it wasn't a pleasurable trip.
It wasn't. Out of the belly of hell have
I cried." The torment, the darkness, it would have been completely
dark in there. The torments and tortures, I mean, he's in a stomach. Acid,
whatever else it might have been, out of the belly. And what is
his confession at the end? And this is the confession the
Lord will cause his people to have. This is the confession
the Lord will draw from you if you're his. Salvation is of the
Lord. And the whale vomited Jonah out.
The Lord drew the confession, didn't he? This is the message
here in Galatians as well. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
not by what you do, and it's not by what you don't do. We're
left to ourself. We're capable of terrible things.
Stop looking to yourself. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. I've titled this message, The
Truth of the Gospel. This morning, I hope that I'm
able to preach three points, three simple truths of the gospel.
They're very simple. I always try to get out of my
own way whenever I preach. I try not to complicate it. It's
not a complicated gospel. I don't have anything new to
tell you, but I have good news to tell you. Three simple truths
of the gospel. I'm gonna tell you what they
are. Number one, God did not leave salvation open-ended. Meaning
that he is not depending upon you and I in any way pertaining
to salvation. He's not depending upon you and
I in any way to make salvation effectual. He's not. Number two,
he will make his people believe his gospel, meaning he will,
in time, give them repentance and faith to believe his gospel.
He will. Those that he died for, his chosen
people, he will give them repentance and faith. Without him, we cannot
believe. And lastly, and I love this,
you will too, neither you nor I nor anyone can do anything
to change or alter in any way the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Can't change it. Unchangeable,
unalterable, unmendable. You can't void it. Lord Jesus
Christ accomplished salvation. It is finished. Now two weeks
ago we heard the message about the Lord's Gospel. Lord's gospel,
and there's only now and only have always been one gospel. There's not many gospels. Paul
makes that clear here in Galatians. He said, and they come preaching
unto you another gospel, which is not another. It's not a gospel
at all. It's not good news. That's the
definition of the gospel. Did you know that? Good news.
The good news is God saves sinners. But if the news is, okay, God
saves sinners and you have to do your part, that's no longer
good news. That's no longer good news to me. Good news is how
he saved sinners, but if it's how he saved sinners is he's
looking to Christ and to you, that's not good news to me, because
I'll mess it up. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ
saved his people from their sin, and the Father was pleased to
justify every one of them. Today, I hope you will be our
teacher as we answer this question, what is the truth of the gospel? First, God did not leave salvation
open-ended. God is not looking to you and
I in any way as part of our salvation. And he's not looking at our lives
as evidence of our salvation. So we shouldn't either. So we
shouldn't either. Paul said, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? He didn't
say, O wretched man that I was. It's past tense. He said, O wretched
man that I am right now. Right now. He started out, he
said, I'm not worthy to be counted among the brethren. Then he said,
I'm the least of the saints. At the very end of his life,
he says, I'm the chief sinner. That's the growth of a believer,
it's down, it's not up. We're not getting better, we
don't see our walk growing closer to the Lord and we see ourself
becoming worse in that regard. We desire him more certainly.
And that's the walk of a believer, is we see less and less of ourself
and we want to see more and more and more of him. Isn't it true
that the more you look around in this world and the more that
you look at yourself now, more than ever, you're grieved because
of the sin that's around you, the sin that's in you? It's so
true, isn't it? God's not looking for me to finish
the work completed by Christ. He's not begging men for anything
to do with salvation. He's not looking to man to complete
something that Christ accomplished. He did not leave salvation open-ended. He says these words, whosoever
will, let him come. But whosoever will, that's not
an invitation, that's a command. And only by the Lord giving faith
and repentance will you come, or can you come. See, we need
a new nature. We need a new heart, one that
looks to Him in all things. And without that, we'll never
come to Him. never come to Him. The truth of the Gospel is that
salvation is not an offer whereby we choose or reject it. Salvation
is an offer that was made on the cross of Calvary one time
between God the Father and God the Son for the salvation of
His elect and it was accomplished then and there. Perfectly justified. Everything God requires, He provided
in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything He's, and in your
life as a believer, everything God requires, He provided in
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything God requires of you,
He provided in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything that
He requires of you to do, He provided in His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Every bit of it, every bit of it. And He gives
it freely by His grace to you. He sees His Son when He looks
at you, His people. Salvation was accomplished when
our substitute seared, he offered himself to God. There's nothing
that I do that makes that successful. There's nothing, think about
what the blasphemy of what men preach is that if you're something
you must do to make the blood effectual, if that's the case.
Well that's, I have the power to make the blood effectual?
I have to walk this aisle, I have to pray this prayer. I know a
church that said you have to come down and shake the preacher's hand and
this and that. They have a ABC one, two, three, repeat after
me thing that they do. You repeat these words, now you're saved.
How do you know? Because I did that. No, that's self-righteousness,
that's not salvation. Let's say, look what I did. Salvation
is of the Lord. We must never think that what
we do has any part of it whatsoever. As soon as we touch it, we're
just like Uzzah, we're dead. We're dead, we can't touch the
holiness of God. That's what we're talking about
here, his blood. We don't make it effectual. It accomplished
that which it purposed to do, which he purposed to do. Whenever
he died, his people were redeemed. He said it is finished. He didn't
say it's finished if you'll let it, no. No, he said it's finished
and was resurrected and sat down. The work is done. The work is
done. Take heart, child of God. He's not looking to you, and
he's not looking at you to satisfy him. He's not looking to your
works, and he's not looking at what you're doing. He's not saying,
oh, you messed up again. Oh, you messed up again. Men
preach that. Men preach lawmongering. That's
what they're doing. The Lord, oh, you're gonna displease God?
No, I can't. You know why? I'm in Christ.
What does that mean? Not one sin ever. Ain't that
glorious? Not one sin, not committed one
trespass, not one ounce of iniquity, never, not once. He sees the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's not looking to you to satisfy
him in any way. That means I can't let him down. I'm in Christ. I love that. I
love that. How do we know it's finished?
Well, Christ said it's finished on the cross, but he also told his father
in John 17, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished
the work which thou hast givest me to do. God is looking to nothing
else but his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as his people's justification. He's looking to his son as all
my wisdom, all my righteousness, all my sanctification, all my
redemption. And that's who we look to as all our wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. The only way that you're gonna
be found in favor with God is look to the same thing that he
is pleased with. Don't look to self, he's not
pleased with self. He never has been, he never will
be, but he's pleased with his son. Look to Christ, look to
Christ. This is the truth of the gospel. The next truth, is that he will make his people
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He will make his people believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody said, well, I don't
like being made to do anything. You won't like God. You won't
like God. God does that which he pleases.
But if the Lord ever makes you a sinner and he makes me a sinner,
we'll realize we would never choose him unless he makes us. What does that mean? That means
he gives us the ability to. He gives us a new nature. He
gives us a new will. He changes our want to. Gives
us a new heart, heart of flesh that looks to him in love. He
causes us to desire his truth in the inward part. So that's
what David was talking about. Search me and know me, oh Lord.
Create a clean heart in me. Redo a right spirit within me.
Everything about me is wrong. Give me that which I need to
worship you, to bow to you. And that's what he does for his
people. Unless he makes us a sinner,
we'll never come to understand that Christ is all. Christ is
all. There's a lot of people that
will say they're sinners. A lot of people say it in pride as
if it's a good thing. But if the Lord makes you a sinner,
he makes you the chief sinner, you'll need a substitute. You'll
loathe yourself, you'll need a substitute. If he ever makes
you see your filth, you'll need his beauty. If he ever makes
you see your unrighteousness, you'll need his righteousness.
If he ever makes us to see how bad we really are, we'll need
his goodness, we'll need his mercy, we'll need his grace.
If he doesn't, we'll remain dead forever. Now understand, and I wanna be
clear on this, you believing and I believing on the Lord Jesus
Christ is completely dependent upon him, not us. It is the gift
of God by grace alone. By grace are you saved through
faith. Well, whose faith is it? Where
did it come from and who gets all the glory? It's his faith.
For by grace are you saved through faith in that not of yourself. That means you had no part in
it. You had nothing to do with it. You didn't merit it. It's not of you. It's not of
works, just in case. He's being more clear the second
time around. He says not of us, but then he says it's not of
works, just in case that first part wasn't clear enough. And
here's the reason why, lest any man should boast. If it was of
works, we would boast. If it was of us, we would boast.
But what did Paul say? He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. Let him glory in the Lord. The good news of the gospel,
because it is completely dependent upon the Lord, the Lord said
in John chapter eight, you shall know the truth and the truth
shall make you free. How is that? How am I going to
know the truth? Do I discover it? Do I seek after it diligently
and then finally after many days of agonizing the Lord, I obligate
God to show it to me? No, it doesn't work that way.
The Lord answered that question in John chapter six. They all,
all of his sheep, all of his elect, they all shall be taught
of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh to me. Those that are taught of the
Lord come to the Lord. and those that are not taught of the Lord
do not come to the Lord. That's as simple as I can be.
You know how offensive that is to the religious and to the flesh,
but you know how glorious that is to the sinner, the God-made
sinner? Lord, make me come to you. Somebody
told me one time, said, you're saying I'm nothing but a puppet,
and they thought I was gonna get offended, and I'm like, I
would love to be God's puppet. That means I'm his. His anyways,
but truly, I mean, to know he has his hands on me, that'd be
great. You know, that's glorious. He didn't insult me a bit. I
think they wanted to try to ruse me there a little bit, but it
did not work. I loved it. I would gladly be the Lord's
puppet. And we are. We are creatures by his own design.
He does, he purposes and we just do. I mean, that's just how it
is, isn't it? The good news, the truth of the
gospel. is you all shall be taught of God. All shall be taught of
God, that it's not your sacrifice anymore that we look to, it's
his. It's not your life that you look
to, but it's his. It's not my doing, but it's his
doing. It's not our death, it's his
death. It's not our works, it was his works. Everything God
required, he provided in his son. That's what we are taught
of God to believe. That's what we are given faith
to believe. The truth of the gospel is God must reveal this
because the Lord said, you will not come to me that you might
have life unless you were taught of the Father. Men often talk about God as love.
And that's true. That's true, and we never would
ever say otherwise. God is love. They say he's gracious.
Yes, he is. His mercy is everlasting. Yes,
it is. But God's a God of judgment. God's a God of justice. God's
a holy God. His love is holy. His goodness
is holy. His grace is holy. His mercy
is holy. And he will not, he will not
compromise one attribute ever, or he's not God. So what's our
hope? The Lord Jesus Christ. The only
way that you and I could have the grace and the mercy and the
love of God is found in the person, the Lord Jesus Christ, who took
our wrath, who took our judgment, who took our transgression, iniquity,
our sin, and he nailed them to his own cross. that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. Scripture says, he
who knew no sin was made to be sin that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. That's the truth of the gospel.
That's the good news to the sinner. He took my sin and made me his
righteousness. He took my guilt and made me
innocent, gave me his innocence. He took my shame and he gave
me perfect peace and union with the father. Don't have to be
ashamed anymore. That's what the scripture says.
Lord's not ashamed to call us brethren. That's what he said. If he does not shine the light
of his darkness, I'm sorry, shine the light. If he does not shine
his light into our darkness, we'll never have the light. We're
dependent upon his light. He is light. We're not light.
We're not light. He's light. he must work or it won't be done. Until he gives us life, until
he gives us repentance, until he gives us faith, we will never
come to him. But the good news of the gospel, he said, all that
the father give me shall come to me and I won't lose one. My
sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and
I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
He doesn't stop there. He says, neither shall any man
pluck them from my hand. Here's the reason why. My Father
which gave them me is greater than all, and no man can pluck
them from my Father's hand, and I and my Father are one. It's
John chapter 10. If you're a sheep, it's because
you've been bought with the blood, not because of what you've done,
but because of what he's done. If you're a sheep, it's because
of his sacrifice, not our sacrifice. If I'm a sheep, it's not by works
of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy,
according to his grace. We'll deceive our own heart all
the way to the pit if he doesn't come and reveal to us that he
is salvation, that salvation's of the Lord. Salvation's not
up to you and me. It's completely and totally up
to God. Completely and totally up to
God. According to his will and purpose, all for his glory, that
no flesh should glory in his presence. There's none good,
no not one. Oh, we need his illumination.
Need the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. How do you get
that? He has to give it. He has to shine light. What does
the scripture say? He commanded the light to shine
out of darkness. Explain that. The light came
out of darkness. That don't make any sense, does
it? Well, that's what he did. It didn't say shine into, it
said shine out of. He commanded the light to shine out of darkness. Where's that? Well, I'm the darkness
and his light bursts forth. Isn't that good? This is what
Paul's letter's all about. He's talking, he's taking them
back to the very foundation, to the very beginning of the
gospel, the truth of the gospel. And the last point I wanna make
in closing is this. One of the greatest comfort to
the believer's heart, there we have, oh, so many comforts in
the Lord. We have his peace, we have his joy, we have his
grace. There's so many comforts. I don't wanna discredit any of
them. I'm not discrediting any of them.
The blessings of God are past finding out. But one of the greatest
ones, is knowing that I cannot change the finished work of Christ. Not by what I do, and not by
what I do not do. And you can't change it for me,
and I can't change it for you. Salvation is accomplished. Salvation is finished. We cannot
mess up The blood of Christ. We cannot mess up the finished
work of Christ. We cannot mess up the union that
has been given to the Lord's people. The fellowship that God
created by the Lord Jesus Christ's death for his people. The perfect
peace. We can't mess that up. It's there
forever now. It'll never change. He successfully
redeemed his people for all time and eternity. By himself he purged
our sins and he sat down. It's finished. It's finished,
salvation complete and he cannot lie. He cannot lie. This means all my unbelief cannot
mess it up. All of my corruption cannot undo
it. All of my iniquity cannot change
it. All of my everything, all my
sin cannot do anything in any way to blemish it, they're all
gone. They're all gone. Listen to what Jeremiah 31, 34
says, for they shall all know me. They shall all know me. From
the least of them and to the greatest of them, said the Lord,
for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin
no more. When did that happen? 2,000 years
ago on the cross of Calvary. And in truth, he's never seen
sin upon his people. You've always seen them in Christ.
Whenever he became the surety before the foundation of the
world, he said, there's one John that's worthy. Behold the line
of the tribe of Judah. He took the book. He loosed the
seals thereof. And in that moment in eternity,
if I can, that's a contradiction. That space in eternity, I guess
that's the way you say it. The Lord, people were justified
right there. That was it. And then in time,
it had to come to pass and it did. It did, it came to pass
on the cross of Calvary, but God cannot lie, that's the whole
point, we were charged to the care of Christ. And the Lord
fulfilled all that He promised He would do. They're all gone, brethren, all
this sin is gone, there's nothing that can ever change that, if
we are in Christ, There is no condemnation. God sees his people
as righteous. God is well pleased with his
people. Why? Because you're in Christ and
you can't get out of him and you can't get in him. He has
to do that. But if you're in him, you can
never get out of him. You can never get out of him.
God's pleased with his son to look on him and pardon us. We
can't change or alter that in any way. That's good news. How many times you messed something
up last week? You don't have to answer out loud. Be a lot
of talking. Well, I messed this up. I messed
this up. I stubbed my toe. I thought I knew how to walk.
Apparently not. Can't mess this up. Can't mess
this up. You're perfectly righteous before
the throne of God because of the finished work of Christ.
That's what he did for his elect people. Thank God for the truth
of his gospel. Let's pray. Father, we ask that
you would take this and bless it for your glory. In Christ's name, amen.