← Back to sermon library

Please turn with me to Galatians 
chapter 1. Galatians chapter 1, as we take 
up this wonderful epistle of Paul the Apostle. We're going 
to look specifically at the greetings this morning, verses 1 to 5, 
which I believe not only serve as a greeting to the churches 
of Galatia, but provide an overview of the entire letter, which we 
will God-willing see as we move through our exposition. I do 
want to read the chapter beginning in verse 1. Paul, an apostle, 
not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and 
God the Father, who raised Him from the dead. And all the brethren 
who are with me, to the churches of Galatia, grace to you and 
peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. who gave 
Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present 
evil age according to the will of our God and Father, to whom 
be glory forever and ever. Amen. I marvel that you are turning 
away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ to 
a different gospel, which is not another. But there are some 
who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even 
if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you 
than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 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. 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 bondservant of Christ. 
But I make known to you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached 
by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from 
man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation 
of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former 
conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure 
and tried to destroy it. And I advanced in Judaism beyond 
many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly 
zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased 
God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through 
His grace to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among 
the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, 
nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before 
me. But I went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus. Then 
after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter. and 
remained with him 15 days. But I saw none of the other apostles 
except James, the Lord's brother. Now concerning the things which 
I write to you, indeed, before God, I do not lie. Afterward, 
I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was unknown 
by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ. But they 
were hearing only, he who formerly persecuted us now preaches the 
faith which he once tried to destroy. And they glorified God 
in me. Amen. Well, let us pray. Our 
Father, we come now to this majestic letter of Paul to the Galatians. And we just pray for the ministry 
of your Holy Spirit to be upon each one of us. We pray, God, 
that you would guide us in our understanding of the Gospel. 
We know, Father, that men can be wrong in a lot of matters 
concerning religion. and still go to heaven. But we 
cannot be wrong when it comes to the Gospel. We cannot be wrong 
with reference to justification by faith alone. And so we pray, 
we beg You and implore You to send Your Spirit to guide us 
in our study of this letter. We pray for the forgiveness for 
all of our sins and cleansing afresh in the blood of the Lord 
Jesus. And God, we pray for any and all who do not know You, 
that Your Word would be attended by the power of the Holy Spirit 
that there would be a biblical conviction for sin and a display 
of the Savior to men who stand in need. And we ask through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. Amen. Well, as I already mentioned, 
chapter 1, verses 1 to 5 are the greetings which are standard 
in Paul's letters, except for this particular one. He adds 
some elements that I believe are appropriate for this entire 
letter. His summary statement concerning 
the Gospel in verse 4 is designed to counteract the propaganda 
of the Judaizers. those who came in in the absence 
of Paul and said, it's good to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
but you must also be circumcised in order to be saved. So Paul, 
in this greeting, sets forth his authority, but as well he 
sets forth the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which make up the two 
themes of the entirety of this particular epistle. So we have 
greetings, but the verses not only function as a greeting, 
but also highlight two important and related themes within the 
epistle. The nature of his apostleship 
and the nature of the gospel. And the reason why these are 
related, as we saw two weeks ago in our introduction to this 
book, if the false teachers can discredit Paul, If they can say 
that he is operating without the sanction of the Jerusalem 
church, or he is operating as an untaught man, or perhaps as 
a second-tier apostle, then you really needn't take him seriously 
with reference to justification by faith alone. It cannot be 
like that. be not only faith, but we must 
also work in order to be saved. And so an attempt to discredit 
Paul in this setting was an attempt to discredit the Gospel of free 
and sovereign grace. And this is going on in our own 
day. Unfortunately, the epistle to 
the Galatians did not answer once and for all the opponents 
of justification by faith alone. I believe it would be good not 
only for our church, but for lots and lots of Protestant churches 
to revisit again this wonderful letter of Paul to the Galatians. We saw two weeks ago that it 
was his first letter, the first one that he penned. He wrote 
to the churches of southern Galatia. Those churches he visited on 
his first missionary journey, recorded in Acts 13 and Acts 
14. The churches of Pisidian Antioch, 
and Iconium, and Lystra, and Derbe. We saw that his insistence 
upon a free gospel, unhindered and unfettered by a demand of 
the law, was unique and blessed of God in the salvation of sinners 
and in the planting of churches. Well, this morning I want to 
consider the greeting generally, and then secondly, look at these 
two things more thoroughly, or investigate these themes of His 
Apostleship and of the Gospel more thoroughly. But a greeting 
is very much a package deal. You see this in all of Paul's 
letters. There is the sender, there is 
the recipients, and then there is the greeting proper. And we 
see in verse 1, Paul, an apostle. Paul was a man we know who was 
converted in Acts chapter 9. He was Saul of Tarsus and he 
stood by and gave his hearty consent and approval at the stoning 
of Christ's martyr Stephen. In fact, the man Stephen made 
as a final wish to his Lord, or as a final prayer, Lord, do 
not charge them with this sin. And Christ heard that. The Father 
heard that. And so Saul of Tarsus is converted 
on the road to Damascus. And Jesus comes to him and tells 
him, and He will show him how many things he must suffer for 
his namesake. He would be an apostle to the 
Gentiles, to the kings, of heathendom, and then also to Israel itself. And we see this man then converted, 
then employed in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. He 
highlights his authority here. He says that he is an apostle. 
The root meaning of apostle is one who is sent. But in the New 
Testament, it means one sent, but one who is sent with the 
authority of the one who sent him. You need to keep that in 
mind. He's not only sent, he's not 
only on a mission, but he's invested with the authority of the one 
who sent him on that particular message. Regularly in the New 
Testament, an apostle is one who has received a special commission 
from the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what an apostle is. There are not apostles in the 
church today. With the closing of the canon, 
we see that office, that special office has ceased. It is the 
foundational office or one of the foundational offices upon 
which the church is built. But it has ceased. Now, the ordinary 
means, the ordinary gifts that God uses to build up the church 
are pastors and teachers. And we see that clearly in Ephesians 
4. So then notice as well, he not 
only says, Paul, an apostle, but in verse 2 he says, and all 
the brethren who are with me. Paul's going to go to great lengths 
to show that his call came from Jesus Christ himself. But Paul 
also wants to tell them he doesn't operate independently. He's not 
a parachurch guy. He's not operating on his own. It's not self-will. He's not 
independent of the local church, but rather he is with brethren. 
And he says, all those brethren who are with me, we send this 
greeting to you. Paul is not an island unto himself. He received a special call from 
Jesus as an apostle. But that does not mean he is 
unique. It does not mean that he is alone. 
Rather, it means that he is operating in conjunction with other brethren, 
with other people. He mentions the recipients, notice 
in verse 2, to the churches of Galatia. The Apostle still refers 
to these churches as churches. That's very good for us to see. They had some issues here, didn't 
they? Paul is very gracious and very 
pastoral. Very kind hearted. Notice in 
verse 6, I marvel. that you are turning away so 
soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different 
gospel. The process had begun, but they 
had not fully apostatized at this point. So he still addresses 
them as churches. He still speaks kindly and graciously 
and gently with them to some degree. He's going to speak very 
powerfully and in the words of Machen, this is a fighting epistle. Nevertheless, he doesn't de-church 
them or un-church them. He doesn't tell them that everything 
is over there. Martin Luther commented, albeit 
then, that the Galatians were fallen away from the true doctrine, 
yet did baptism, the Word, and the name of Christ remain among 
them. There were also some good men 
that were not revolted, which had a right opinion of the word 
and sacraments and used them well. So the apostle is dealing 
very pastorally, very graciously, very kindly here. And as we argued 
two weeks ago, the Southern Galatian theory, those churches mentioned 
in Acts 13 and 14 are the ones addressed to the churches of 
Galatia. Notice his greeting specifically. It's a twofold blessing, grace 
and peace. Again, you search all of his 
other letters and that is the exact same way that he addresses 
his readers. Grace and peace. Now, this isn't 
like what we sometimes do. Sometimes we might compose an 
email or write a letter, if any of us still do that, and we use 
sort of language that just gets us past the obligatory things 
to the me. That's not Paul. He really means 
grace and peace to you. He really is concerned that the 
churches of Christ function in that sphere of reality, that 
they have grace and that they have peace. And as Luther reminds 
us, these two words, grace and peace, do contain in them the 
whole sum of Christianity. It's not what it's all about, 
grace and peace. He says, grace contains the remission 
of sins, peace, a quiet and a joyful conscience. For peace of conscience 
can never be had unless sin be first forgiven. What a great 
statement and one we ought not to neglect. We stand in need 
continually of grace and peace. We need God's unmerited favor. We need Him to deal with us graciously. You reflect for just a moment 
on your state before God. Don't you need grace constantly? Don't you need grace from our 
Lord always? Not as if you get saved and now 
you've entered into this realm of slugging it out in your own 
strength. That's one of the problems facing 
these churches in southern Galatia. We always stand in need. The 
moment we believe, until the last breath that we take, we 
stand in need of God's grace. That's what a Christian is. Not 
a good performer. Not a good worker. Not a good 
little boy or good little girl. We are those who have been graced 
by God. We are those who stand in constant 
dependence upon His grace. Grace, the unmerited favor of 
God. Peace with God. Amen. When we have that peace with 
God, then we are enabled to have peace with one another. Hopefully 
that flows down from that relationship vertically. If I have peace with 
God, I certainly ought to be able to have peace with my brothers 
and sisters. I ought to have a loving relationship 
with those for whom Jesus died and rose again. Peace ought to 
plague our churches. Not the absence of peace, not 
disunity, but rather we ought to, in the language of Paul in 
Ephesians 4, endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the 
bond of what? Peace. As recipients of God's 
grace, I reflect that by my peaceful disposition toward others. As 
a recipient of God's unmerited favor, I live in this world as 
a peaceful man. Grace and peace are those two 
blessings that you and I always stand in need of. And it is no 
accident that the Apostle here addresses the churches of Galatia 
with this particular greeting. And notice who the source of 
these blessings are. Grace and peace from God our 
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. What's he saying? He is putting 
Jesus on par with the Father. He is telling us something glorious 
about Jesus Christ. There is one preposition that 
governs the Father and the Son as the one source through whom 
grace and peace come. He's attributing deity to our 
Lord Jesus. He is highlighting and showing 
that this Christ is not like other men. We'll see in just 
a moment a bit more fully. One man says, the Father and 
the Son are completely at one in the bestowal of grace and 
peace in man's salvation. The grace which lies behind this 
salvation is indiscriminately called the grace of God, Galatians 
2.21, and the grace of Christ, in Galatians 1.6. We are told 
in Philippians 4, that when we pray, when we let our supplications 
and prayers be known unto God, when we thank Him, the peace 
of God floods our minds and our hearts. We learn of the peace 
of Jesus Christ reigning in our hearts when we dwell richly upon 
His Word in Colossians 3.15. Paul can use Spirit of God and 
Spirit of Christ interchangeably in Romans 8. Why? Because Christ 
is God. Christ is like no other man. He is unique. One man said that 
such statements relating Jesus Christ to God are truly astonishing. I believe they've become sort 
of old hat for us. But when you stop and think about 
it for a moment, that this One who lived in the world, who walked 
this earth, who worked in a carpentry shop, who continued in subjection 
to earthly parents, This One, who for all intents and appearances 
was a normal, ordinary guy. Isn't this what Paul said about 
Isaiah? I don't mean guy in a derogatory 
sense there. I mean that if you were to look 
upon Him, He had no beauty. He had no form. He had nothing 
in Him that would outwardly endear us to Him. That's the prophet 
Isaiah in chapter 53. But that Paul says, grace to 
you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, Again, 
this man says, such statements relating Jesus Christ to God 
are truly astonishing, particularly so when we stop to realize that 
they were written by a monotheistic Jewish Christian with reference 
to one who had lived on earth within recent memory. It's a 
great, a powerful and a packed statement. So that's the greeting 
considered. Let's investigate the two themes, 
the nature of his apostleship, the nature of the gospel of Christ. 
And before we do that, I'm going to pray again. The events of 
this week and some things going on in my own life are weighing 
me down quite heavily, brethren, and I must confess that. And 
I just want to pray that God will give me clarity of mind 
and heart and the ability to expound his word. in a manner 
that truly does exalt His beloved Son. Let us pray again. Father, 
I just come to You, and I confess my sin, and I confess, Lord God, 
my weakness, and I pray for the Spirit of God to be upon me and 
upon Your people here. And I pray that we would really 
receive comfort from Your Word, that we would afresh appreciate 
the glory of God, the majesty of Jesus Christ, and that we 
would experience that grace and that peace that do come from 
You. Father, we love You and we thank You for Your Gospel, 
and I pray that as we consider it more fully now, that our hearts 
would be warmed, that we would be encouraged, and that we would 
be fortified to do battle in this world, God, against principalities 
and against powers, against unseen enemies, and that we may do so 
in a manner that is consistent with Your Holy Word. We ask through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Well, the two themes investigated 
here, the two themes that will serve as the basis of the foundation 
for the entirety of this epistle, are the nature of Paul's apostleship 
and the nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Notice when 
Paul describes his apostleship, he describes it negatively and 
positively. He says, Paul an apostle, not 
from men, nor through man. He is going to spend a lot of 
time on that, from chapter 1, verse 10, all the way to chapter 
2, verse 21. We read that. We saw when the 
Son revealed His gospel, or God revealed the gospel of His Son 
in me. I did not immediately confer with the other apostles. 
We believe the Judaizers had come and again tried to discredit 
the Apostle. Machen describes it very well. 
He said the Judaizers had not been able to gain an entrance 
for their false teaching so long as the authority of the great 
Apostle remained beyond dispute. They couldn't make inroads. Later, 
Paul is going to say in Galatians 6 that they want to boast in 
your flesh. What does he mean? They want 
to boast in the numbers of circumcision that they had accomplished. I 
mean, it's a sick fascination with a works righteousness approach 
to salvation. And so while Paul is claiming 
to be an apostle, having met with Jesus uniquely on the road 
to Damascus, if the people buy that, then we will not be able 
to make inroads into their community churches. The Judaizers had not 
been able to gain an entrance for their false teaching so long 
as the authority of the great apostle remained beyond dispute. So they had proceeded to undermine 
that authority as best they could. They had said that Paul was at 
best an apostle of the second rank. Again, they didn't completely 
disagree with Paul. They weren't saying he's a heretic, 
he's trying to get you, he's trying to destroy you, he wants 
the worst for you. No. As far as Paul goes, he's 
alright. But you need to supplement that 
understanding. You need to add to that understanding. 
You need to put these things into the mix in order to present 
yourselves as faithful before the Lord and receive that declaration 
of not guilty. So Paul is good, but he's neglecting 
to tell you something that is very much a part of it. That's 
their point. He says they had proceeded to 
undermine that authority as best they could. They had said that 
Paul was at best an apostle of the second rank, that he had 
not been with Jesus in Galilee as had Peter and the others of 
the original twelve, and that consequently whatever authority 
he possessed had come to him only through them. That's why 
he's so insistent. I didn't immediately go to Jerusalem. 
I didn't go hang out with them. I didn't enroll in their seminary. 
In fact, he says, what those men are means nothing to me. 
The authority by which I'm invested by Christ came from Christ Himself. That is inherent in this section. And you must get it because the 
Gospel was at stake. Remember two weeks ago we mentioned, 
Paul doesn't say, look, I'm an apostle. You know, the cop who's 
quick to show his badge or the safety monitor or hall monitor 
at school with his badge. You know, he's walking around 
like this and showing everybody his stuff and what his credentials 
are. That's not Paul. How does Paul describe himself? 
Paul. Not even Pastor Paul. Oh yes, 
he highlights that he's an apostle because it's intrinsic to the 
argument. Paul. No priest craft. No two tiers. You don't have to kiss anybody's 
ring. You don't have to wash anybody's feet. He's Paul. He's a servant. Mary, the mother 
of Jesus. Blessed among women. So was Jael 
who drove that tent peg into the head of Sisera. A servant 
used by God. Blessed to be sure. Worthy of 
our esteem and respect for their courage. We don't bow down to 
them. Paul didn't parade himself that 
way. I'm an apostle. I'm the right reverend. I'm the 
doctor. I'm the PhD. I'm the this. I'm the that. He 
didn't have a bunch of initials after his name. He's Paul. But 
when it came to the Gospel and the integrity of it, and when 
men were questioning His ability with reference to justification 
by faith alone, He says, I got this from Jesus. And not only 
from Jesus, but according to Romans 4, I got it from Abraham. 
I got it from David. This ain't nothing new. Paul 
is saying, I am not the one who has departed. I am not the one 
who is inconsistent. I have not strayed from the Old 
Testament. It is the Judaizers. Justification 
by faith alone has always been God's way. Abraham believed God 
and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. It is imputed 
to him. It is given to him. It is constituted. 
He's not transformed. He's not made more holy. It's 
not an infusing of righteousness. It is a declaration. You see, 
the errorists, the false teachers then and the false teachers today, 
they say, no, it cannot be declarative. It's got to be infused. It's 
got to be transformative. We have to become something. 
That's the mingling or the collapsing of justification and sanctification. Paul says, in the manner of which 
a man gets saved by God, it is justification by faith alone. My calling came not from men. 
I didn't go to Jerusalem and they say, wow, you've got some 
native ability, Paul. We're going to cultivate that and we're going 
to send you out. It's not from men. It's not through men. There was no mediating agency. 
There was no missionary establishment or outpost that said, hey, Paul, 
we see some gift in you. We see some ability in you. Which 
to hear him in Corinthians, he says, there is no ability in 
me. When I came to you, I didn't come with the oratory of men. 
I didn't come to you with the ability to string sentences together 
and to flatter and to woo and wow you. What I did come was 
with a demonstration of the Spirit of power. You see, this is His 
point. The Judaizers understood it well. 
If we can bring Paul down, we bring the Gospel down. What's 
going on today? Don't listen to Calvin. Don't 
listen to Luther. Don't listen to Machen. Don't 
listen to the Westminster Standards. Don't listen to the London Baptist 
Confession of 1689. Don't read John Gill. Don't read those guys. 
We're evolved. We need the new perspective on 
Paul. No brethren, we need the old perspective and we need it 
by the fire hose full. Paul is the real deal. Not from men, nor through man, 
but strong adversative. Again, I believe in a description 
of the deity of Christ. There is a contrast here that 
is marked and deliberate. Not from men, nor through man, 
but, he says, through Jesus Christ and God the Father. Men are over 
here. Jesus Christ is over there. That's 
what he is saying. If ever he is pulling out his 
badge, here it is. And it's for a specific reason. 
Because your souls are at stake. What does Paul say in Philippians? 
Some men preach out of bad motives. Some men preach not with good 
will and a desire for the glory of God and the good of souls. 
And I think in the context of Philippians, brethren, The evil, 
the bad, the whatever of these teachers was about Paul. I think 
they were speaking ill of Paul. Paul only ever tried to do what 
was right. But men spoke ill of him. He 
says, that doesn't matter. Only that they preach Christ. 
So even out of their ill will and spite and their discontent 
for Paul, they nevertheless preach the truth. And Paul says, that's 
what makes me happy. That's what makes me rejoice. 
So you've got to see here in Galatians 1, the issue isn't 
some man full of aggrandizement, full of a big chest, and I'm 
Paul and you just have to buckle under and knuckle under to my 
authority. No, the integrity of the gospel is at stake. You 
believe what these Judaizers say and they're going to take 
your soul right down to hell. You believe what these men say 
and they're going to take you right down to hell. That's what 
the issue was. Now notice the nature of the 
Gospel of Christ. Verse 4. Unique in the greetings 
of the Apostle Paul. Again, usually the sender, Paul, 
the audience or recipients to the churches of Galatia or Ephesus 
or the Corinthians or whatever. And then that wish for grace 
to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. 
But verses 4 and 5 are unique in the letters of the Apostle 
Paul. Why? To counteract the propaganda. This is programmatic for everything 
that's going to follow in the epistle. This statement of Galatians 
4 is a summary of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We can make 
five observations from this one statement concerning the gospel. 
Things that will come out again in this epistle to the Galatians. 
Things that surface constantly in the writings of the Apostle 
Paul, and in the Gospel records, and in Peter, and in James. Not 
unique only to Paul. Paul says, when we met, they 
gave me the right hand of fellowship. So in all of his assertion that 
his authority is from Jesus, he says, when I did meet James, 
when I did meet Peter, when I saw them at the Jerusalem church, 
when I met with them eye to eye, they extended me to the right 
hand of fellowship. There was no enmity. There was 
no odds. There was no problem. They didn't say, Paul, you're 
a heretic. That wasn't the case at all. Notice five things with 
reference to the Gospel. the death of Christ. That's what's 
primarily in focus here. Who gave Himself. We need to 
understand that. The incarnation is a necessity. The virgin birth, all those doctrines 
associated with the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But what 
He's focusing on primarily here is the death of Christ. The priestly 
office of Jesus. Notice, the death of Christ was 
voluntary on His part. Who gave Himself? Again, I think 
there is a dig at the idea that we give ourselves. You just try 
a bit harder. You do a bit more. You give some 
more money. You show up at the right places. 
You give yourself and God will save you. That's not the gospel. That is not the good news. Because 
we can never give ourselves enough. We can never do enough. We can 
never perfect ourselves before God. We could work our fingers 
to the bone. We could grind our knees down 
and come up way short of the glory of God. The beauty of the 
Gospel is not that sinners give themselves to the Lord, but that 
the Lord gave Himself for sinners. We have subtly fallen into this 
idea that noble Christianity is to be doers and to be goers 
and to be shakers. I think Christians ought to be 
doers and goers and shakers. But they're not Christians because 
they're doers, goers, and shakers. We are Christians because Jesus 
gave Himself. Voluntarily. What will Paul say 
in Galatians 2.20? The life that I now live in the 
flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me, he says, 
and who gave Himself for me. What does the Good Shepherd highlight 
in John 10? Several times. No one takes my 
life. I lay it down willingly. You see, when the emphasis is 
on Jesus giving Himself for sinners, there's no place for your pathetic 
works. There's no place to recognize 
circumcision as being worthy of a crown. There is no place 
to recognize your doings and your accomplishments in light 
of the Son of God who gave Himself for us. The death of Christ was 
voluntary. Secondly, the death of Christ 
consisted in penal substitution. Penal refers to punishment. You 
all operate in terms of penology. If you're a parent, you know 
that well. If you're a child, you know it 
better. What happens? When you're a child and you get 
out of line, you learn what penology is. Your parents don't say, okay, 
get the book out on law. Black's Law Dictionary. We're 
going to define for you penology. No, it's not quite that in depth. 
Here's what penology is all about. Sorry about that. I'll give you 
a little bit of penology. Penal means punishment. Right? But it says He gave Himself for 
our sins. What's in view? The cross. What did Jesus do at the cross? 
God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might 
become the righteousness of God in Him. What's Paul going to 
say in Galatians 3? Jesus became a curse. Penal substitution. That means 
He stood in our place. In the last hour, Pastor Cam 
used the word vicarious. And I suppose there are some 
who don't know what that word means. That's okay. Vicarious 
is substitution. That's why we oppose the Pope 
of Rome. He calls himself the victor of 
Christ on earth. The substitute of Jesus on earth. Vicarious or substitution has 
this simple meaning. If on my way here this morning 
I would have got plowed down by a frog, Pastor Cam would have 
stood up here and preached. I was scheduled to preach, but 
Cam substituted for me. We were scheduled to die. We 
were scheduled to take the wrath of God. We were scheduled to 
taste hell. But Jesus stood in our place. And you Judaizers want to come 
and tell them to get circumcised. You Papists want to say, you've 
got to do this and that. Or you new perspectives in federal 
vision and say, it's our faithfulness to the covenant that gets us 
with God. May it never be. He gave Himself 
penal substitution for our sins. I love what Luther says on this. 
He says, let us learn here of Paul. I think Luther would probably 
freak some moderns out. He talks too much about great 
sin. Because that's the context for his great Savior. He says, 
let us learn here of Paul to fully and truly believe that 
Christ was given, not for feigned or fake sins, not for small, 
but for great and huge sins. He gave Himself for our sins, 
not just our respectable ones, Not just our little ones, but 
every violation of God's holy law. Every want of conformity 
unto His law. Every transgression. Every wicked 
thought. Every wicked look. Every evil 
intention. Every idle word. Every act of 
godlessness that we're all guilty of. Luther said, not for few, 
but for many. Not for conquered, for no man 
can overcome the smallest sin to put it away, but for invincible 
sins. That's what Paul is saying. Look 
at the Gospel of the Judaizers. Faith in Christ is good, but 
you need to add to it in order to be saved. That's a low estimation 
of sin. You don't understand it's power, 
you don't understand it's penalty, you don't understand it's punishment, 
you don't understand it's thorough going effect on your person and 
in your soul. If we don't have one who gave 
himself for our sins, we are dead in our sins. The death of Christ was voluntary 
on his part. The death of Christ consisted 
in penal substitution. This is riddled through the Bible. 
Not only the Old Testament, of course, Genesis 3, Genesis 22, 
the entirety of the Levitical system, Leviticus 16, very particularly, 
Isaiah 53, Daniel 9, Daniel 9 isn't just a great prophecy concerning 
the 70 weeks, but there is blood atonement spelled out concerning 
our Lord Jesus in Daniel 9. But He died for our sins. 1 Corinthians 
15. He died for us. 1 Thessalonians 
5. He gave Himself for our sins. 
Galatians 1. He died for the ungodly. Romans 5. Isn't that amazing? He died not for the perfect, 
not for the polished, not for those who just needed a little 
boost. He died for the ungodly. The moment that you think you're 
anything more than that, you've got a wrong estimation of what 
the Bible says. Now, I mean, as Christians, hopefully 
we're not ungodly. Prior to becoming a Christian, 
oh yeah, I was only five and the Lord saved me. I hadn't really 
done many bad things. That's a big problem that we 
have today. Some guy gets saved out of the 
world and they put him on the testimony circuit. Tell everybody 
how bad you were. Tell everybody how great God's 
grace is. God's grace is great for that five-year-old. What does every sin deserve? 
The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks. What does every sin deserve? Every sin deserves God's wrath 
and curse, both in this life and that which is to come. Well, 
you can't tell people that. That'll make them feel bad. Well, 
they should feel bad, and they should flee to Jesus. Because 
that's what their future holds for their sin. And who of us 
has only done one sin? We've done one sin in the last 
five seconds. We haven't loved God with all 
our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We aren't loving each other, 
as we are. What about Owen said? We try to convince men of a particular 
sin in their lives when they're nothing but sin. How does Paul describe this age? This present evil age? He died. His death is an offering 
for sin. Hebrews 10. One sacrifice for 
sin. Hebrews 10. The blood of Him 
who offered Himself. Hebrews 9. The offering of His 
body once for all. Hebrews 10. His death makes expiation. There is propitiation in His 
blood. We are justified in His blood. 
We are reconciled by His death. He gave Himself as a ransom. 
He redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse 
for us. Christ is our Passover and He 
was sacrificed for us. You see, this isn't just one 
small place. You've missed this, you've missed 
the Gospel. It is about penal substitution. 
Thirdly, the death of Christ secured deliverance from this 
present evil age. That's what He says, that He 
might deliver us from this present evil age. Common in Jewish thought 
and common in the biblical thought was this age and the age to come. 
Jesus talks about that when He's talking about the unpardonable 
sin. He will not be forgiven in this age or in the age to 
come. Paul says in Ephesians 1.21 that 
Christ has dominion and power over the authorities in this 
age and the age which is to come. The age to come doesn't mean 
that He delivers us bodily. It's not like we're elevated 
and we're sort of floating in a nebulous state here. He delivers 
us from the wickedness associated with this age. He delivers us 
from the wickedness associated with this age, the evil that 
dominates it. Now, for those who think that 
deliverance should mean abandonment, I would suggest you read Machen 
on this. As delivered from this present 
evil age Christians, we shouldn't just say, well, forget it. No. I would consider the reign of 
Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon as a world empire of present evil 
age. When the exiles are in captivity, God, through Jeremiah, sends 
them a letter. What does He tell them? He tells 
them to plant. He tells them to get married. He tells them to have families. 
And He tells them, get this, to pray for the peace of the 
cities that they are captive in. Can you imagine that? Pray 
for the peace of the cities that we're captive in. These are God-hating 
rebels. You pray for them. Doesn't Paul say the same thing 
in 1 Timothy 2? Pray for kings and all who are in authority 
that we may lead a peaceable and a quiet life. Right? You pray for them. It's because 
you've been delivered from this present evil age doesn't mean 
God doesn't still care about it. God still loved the world 
that He gave His only begotten Son. We are to pray for it. We are to shine His lights in 
it. Philippians 2.16. And not only 
shine His lights in it, but hold forth the Word of Truth to it. Philippians 2.16. So we are delivered 
from this present evil age by the power of Jesus Christ and 
His wonderful Gospel. We have been saved. We have been 
blessed immeasurably. We are no longer of the world. We may be in it, but we're not 
of it. We are now passing through. We are sojourners. We are pilgrims. 
But as we sojourn and as we pilgrim, we ought to love men. We ought 
to do good works to men. We ought to seek to let the light 
of Jesus shine through us. And we ought to hold forth the 
Gospel of saving religion to them, so that more sinners will 
hear and learn of this deliverance, and they'll believe and be saved. 
We ought to pray with our Lord that God's will be done on earth 
as it is in heaven. We ought not just to conclude 
that the earth is going. It's like, why polish the brass 
on a sinking ship? Because God's called us to. The 
Lord tells us to pray for that. The Lord tells us to shine His 
light. The Lord tells us to hold forth the Word of Truth. But 
Jesus has delivered us from this present evil age. I love the 
way He says it in Colossians 1.13. Colossians 1.13 is a beautiful 
testimony to this truth. He has delivered us from the 
power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son 
of His love. There has been a rescue operation 
effected by the Son of God on targets who at one time were 
His enemies. Fourthly, the death of Christ, 
not only voluntary on the part of the Son, but it was determined 
by the Father. Notice verse 4. According to the will of our 
God and Father, Well, what's he saying here? You're not saved 
by that idle free will. You're not saved by your doing. You're not saved by your ingenuity. You are a part of another's plan. He is saying, in essence, what 
he spells out in Romans 9.16. It does not depend upon him who 
wills or on him who runs, but on God who shows mercy. This 
whole plan, this whole gospel scheme, this whole structure 
has as its author, has as its architect, God Most High. That's good news. We don't just 
decide to go down to the temple and get circumcised in order 
to include ourselves in God's redemptive plan. We don't just 
flip the light on and say, wow, that's a great idea. I think 
that sounds good. I'll just go do that. No. You are part of 
God's plan, which is glorious. You know, that's a whole sermon 
in and of itself. Just consider the God of this universe actually 
includes you in His plan. If that doesn't put significance 
in your life, I don't know what will. If that doesn't make you 
happy about doing the mundane things in life, I don't know 
what will. God's plan includes your mundane 
activities done in a Christian way for His glory. The God of 
eternal glory actually cares about you. That's beautiful. That's blessed. It is not free 
will, but it is God's will that matters in salvation. The fifth 
observation that we can make on our text is that the death 
of Christ promotes the glory of God. Again, verses 4 and 5 
are unique in the letters of Paul. Gospel summary, doxology. No doxology in any of his other 
greetings. There's doxology in Paul's letters. 
Doxology is the doctrine of praise. That's when Paul takes his pen 
and goes, God is great. May glory be to Him forever. 
Doxology ought to characterize the way we live. Doxology ought 
to be something that is peculiar to God's people. Especially those 
who understand some theology. Theology ought to promote doxology. We ought to be those who proclaim 
the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous 
light. He didn't call you out of darkness into His marvelous 
light so you can sit there dumb. And by dumb, I don't mean you're 
intellectually challenged. By dumb, I mean you're silent. Psalm 132 speaks of the priesthood 
of all believers. And Spurgeon says, Zion has no 
dumb priests. I agree. I agree. So that's what doxology is. Isn't 
it obvious why this doxology is inserted in verse 5? Doxology 
is prompted by gospel summary. In other words, rehearsing the 
fact that Jesus gave Himself for our sins and delivered us 
from this present evil age according to the will of God the Father, 
this can't but promote praise in Paul. If his hand tried to stop writing, 
he would have grabbed it and made it wrote. You're going to 
write doxology. Was it Cranmer who had his offending 
hand put in the fire first? Paul would have, go ahead and 
write it. Not that I think his hand would 
have fought him. The idea is that when you get a whiff of 
gospel, You can't but praise. It's what He does. To whom? Be 
glory forever and ever. Interestingly enough, this is 
the pattern in Ezekiel 36. Why does God call Israel to Himself? So that all the earth may see 
God. Not, oh, Israel, you're such 
a great nation. Such a great people. Such a wonderful church. 
You've done well. You've performed well. No. The 
whole design of it is captured well in the statement of Paul 
in Romans 11, verse 36. After rehearsing the entirety 
of the Gospel with peculiar emphasis on sovereign election in chapters 
9 to 11, Paul can't end without saying, for of Him and through 
Him and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. You 
see, the Gospel will promote glory given to God. If it doesn't 
promote that, you need to believe the Gospel. Because you cannot 
taste it. You cannot come to know Jesus 
Christ as Lord and Savior without praising God. Now, it doesn't 
mean you go stand on the street, plug in your tape recorder and 
sing hymns to the passers-by. But in some way, brethren, that 
Gospel stuff has to find its vent out of your soul. It can't 
be kept in there. That's Paul. A couple of things 
and then we close. First, we need to see the focus 
of the Apostle Paul. What does he get right to? See, the temptation is to read 
verses 1-5 as a greeting and not stop. And not simmer in. Not listen to his words. Verses 
4 and 5 are integral to the remainder of the epistle. In a real sense, 
he could stop right there and he has confounded the Judaizers. 
He could say, that's it. You disagree, you're in a bad 
state. The focus of Paul is on the cross. The focus of Paul is on Jesus. 
The focus of Paul isn't on you being a better you. The focus 
on Paul isn't you having your best life now. The focus is not 
on get the most you can economically. Be the most well-adjusted in 
your family life. I'm not saying these are horrible 
things. I'm not commending to you to be unadjusted and maladjusted 
and be some square peg trying to fit in or out. I'm not saying 
that. But what's the deal for Paul? It's the cross. Because 
I think, if I could sit and ask him, I don't have to because 
his letters reveal it. Paul, why do you do this? Because 
if we gaze at the cross properly, then all these other things will 
take care of themselves. Mr. Lawson does not know this, 
but in some ways, his father has been my proxy father. Not 
because there's any unique relationship between us. I love him. He's 
a good guy whenever I see him. But Steve has told me things 
that his father has said. About the best counsel my father 
ever gave me was, they can kill you, but they can't eat you. 
I'm still trying to figure that one out. One time, Steve has 
told me that his father said, you look after the dollars or 
look after the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves. 
That's great. I appropriate that. I need sage 
advice. Be a nice thing to get when you're 
5 or 10 or whatever. I had to wait till I was 35 and 
move to Canada. But hey, there it is. You take 
care of the small things in this regard, and the big things look 
after themselves. I'm not saying that the cross is a small thing. 
But I'm saying that the church is dealing with all these. Let's 
fix relationships. Let's fix money woes. Let's make 
you a better worker. Let's enthrone Christ! And all that other stuff should 
get worked out. Lloyd-Jones would be an anomaly 
in our day. You know what? He didn't believe 
in having hours of pastoral counseling. I'm not suggesting it's wrong 
or wicked. I like Jay Adams. He's good. Pastoral counseling 
is legit. You know what Lloyd-Jones had 
the crazy idea to believe? The pulpit. You preach the Word. You expound the truth. You set 
before the hearer the whole counsel of God. You know what happens? 
It'll reduce the amount of time that you need to spend in one-on-one 
counseling. Again, do not take from here, 
I can't call Pastor Bob. No, you can't. I'm just saying 
that the church, in moving this implement to the side, maybe 
not functionally, maybe not literally, but spiritually, is suffering 
as a result. Machen said, Paul was not like 
some modern preachers who are inclined to mention the blessed 
doctrine of the cross only when they are taken to task for neglecting 
it. The day that we are taken to 
task for neglecting the Gospel, may God have mercy on us. May 
He remove us and may He put a man here that's going to preach the 
Gospel. You may not realize this, but that's what you really need. 
The best favor anyone can ever do to you is teach you the Word 
of God. I mean, I won't speak for Caleb. 
I'm jacked up. You all know that. The best thing I can do for you 
is preach the Word to you. Not to be the best at this, the 
best at that, or to give you great counsel on how to plan 
your financial future. Don't ask me. Ask Steve Lawson's 
debt. But justification by faith alone 
and the errorists out there who are attacking it, let's sit and 
talk. Because I don't want you to go to hell. He says Paul regarded 
it as the very foundation of the Christian life. And when 
it was belittled as in Galatia, he put his whole heart into its 
defense. I'm just sitting here musing 
on the blessed privilege of studying this epistle. I feel like I have 
spiritual intercourse with John Calvin and Martin Luther and 
J. Gresham Machen. I feel like I'm 
able to just commune with these brothers in a common theme. Paul making much of Christ. No more blessed subject or topic 
is there than v. 4 of Galatians 1. gave Himself 
for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil age 
according to the will of God the Father. There are individual 
implications for your soul, but there's cosmic implications. You are connected to a much bigger 
whole. God is in Christ reconciling 
the world to Himself. A second observation. I believe 
we've touched on some of these others, so I won't repeat them. 
But the depravity of man. I'm amazed, brethren, at how 
often we're surprised that sinners sin. Again, sinners sin in such a 
way that we should be shocked to a degree. I mean, there's 
some things going on right now in the news that should just 
make us sick. But the general idea, the general 
concept What do we expect to take place in a present evil 
age? We sometimes can't believe how 
any sinner could ever do what he ever did. I love what Calvin says. Whatever 
delight men may take in their fancied excellence, they are 
worthless and depraved. I'm sorry, I don't mean to laugh. 
It's just this flies against what we're so used to today. 
You're a delicate snowflake. You are a beautiful individual. 
Calvin says, no, you're worthless and depraved. I believe we need 
more of that. And that's not because I'm sick 
and wicked and weird. I am. I've got issues. But it's 
when we come to grips with that that we see the glory of Calvary 
and we find liberty and freedom and joy and blessing. As Ryle 
said in his exposition of the Beatitudes, if we would build 
high, we must begin low. Blessed are the poor in spirit. You have a high estimate of yourself, 
you have a low estimate of Jesus. You have a high view of what 
you're capable of, you'll have a low view of what Jesus has 
accomplished. but in terms of this present 
evil age. He says, they are worthless and 
depraved, not indeed in their own opinion, but in the judgment 
of our Lord, which is here pronounced by the mouth of Paul, and which 
ought to satisfy our minds. You know, men today, social engineers, 
trying to figure out why people do what they do. Why do young 
guys go into schools with guns and shoot people? Why do doctors 
engage in criminal activity against their patients? Why do people 
abuse children? But Paul's answered that. We 
live in a present evil age that has one answer. The Gospel. The Gospel of Jesus Christ. And 
that brings us to our final observation. Notice, there's two places to 
be according to this passage. Verse 4, "...who gave Himself 
for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil age." 
You are. Whether you have thought through this or not, you are, 
this morning, in one of two places. You are either in Christ, having 
received forgiveness, having been delivered from this present 
evil age, or you are a part of this present evil age. You are 
in your sin. You are a child of the devil. 
You are unconverted. You are undone. As Paul will 
describe in Ephesians 2, 1-4, you are lifeless, you are helpless, 
and you are hopeless. Now, if anything I have said 
today makes sense to you, blessed be God Most High. Do not leave 
here neglecting this fact. You believe on the Gospel of 
Jesus Christ and you will be saved. It's that easy. That's an affront 
to man. We hate it. We've got to add 
to it. We've got to do something. Believe and you will be saved. 
Believe and you will go home having had your sins forgiven. You don't have to come up here. 
You don't have to kneel down here. You don't have to sign 
a card. You don't have to raise your hand. I don't have to tell 
everybody to bow your head, close your eyes, put your hand in the 
air and Jesus will mark it. No. Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ and you shall be saved. Right here, right now. It doesn't 
matter how old you are. It doesn't matter how young you 
are. If you're a sinner, you're qualified. If you're a sinner, believe and 
you will be saved. But do not delude yourself. Do 
not leave from this place. If you have not believed the 
gospel, you are dead in your trespasses and sin. There's no 
third option. There's no third place. There's 
no, well, I'm giving it a thought. No, you need to believe the Gospel. 
He who believes the Son shall have everlasting life. He who 
does not believe the Gospel shall not see life, but the wrath of 
God right now abides on him. Right now. You believe. You will be delivered. And then 
you will say with Paul, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Well, let us pray. Father, 
we thank you for the Holy Scriptures and we thank you for our holy 
Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you so much for the 
fact that he gave himself for our sins and that this was done 
according to your will and your plan. Certainly, as the prophet 
Jonah confessed so many years ago, salvation is of the Lord. And we thank you that that is 
so, God. And I pray that you would bless sinners today. I 
pray that wherever this Good News is preached, I pray especially 
here, that people would believe. that people would know the joy 
of everlasting life and the forgiveness of sins. And I pray that you 
would strengthen your saints and cause us to reflect again 
on this wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ. And it's in His name 
that we pray. Amen.