Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Book: Galatians

  • Boasting in the Cross of Christ

    Boasting in the Cross of Christ

    About this sermon

    Paul closes Galatians in his own hand, exposing the Judaizers’ motives: they want to make a good showing in the flesh and avoid persecution for the cross, and though they do not keep the law themselves, they want to boast in the Galatians’ circumcision. Paul refuses to boast except in the cross of Christ, by which God has crucified the world to him and him to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but a new creation. True Christianity is not external but inward, and in the Lord’s Supper believers boast in Christ’s victory at the cross.

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    Sermon transcript

    Well, please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. We are taking a little break from our study of Isaiah to consider a passage that is found at the end of Paul’s letter to the Galatians. My sermon text this morning is Galatians chapter 6 verses 11 through 18. Galatians chapter 6 verses 11 through 18. You’ll find that on page 1158 of your few Bibles. Friends, this is the Word of God. Let us hear it with reverence and awe. See with what large letters I’m writing to you with my own hand. It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.

    But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God. From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen. Let’s pray for God’s blessing upon the preaching of his word. Our Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you, God, that you give us a clear revelation of yourself in the holy scriptures. They are indeed a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, a guide to our way.

    We pray that by your word and spirit, you would cause your word to find a lodging place in all of our hearts and souls this day. And we pray that that word through the blessing of your spirit would bear much spiritual fruit in our lives. Cause us, Lord, through what we learn today to grow in the knowledge and in the love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And Lord, we pray that you would set a guard over my lips, that I, your unworthy servant, may only speak that which is faithful to your word. In Jesus’ name we pray and all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be seated. Well, the title of my sermon this morning is Boasting in the Cross of Christ. And children, the three words you can be listening for in my sermon today are the words boasting, Christian, and supernatural.

    Boasting, Christian, and supernatural. Well, dear friends, there is a whole lot of boasting that goes on in the human race, isn’t there? For example, sometimes you will hear residents of a particular city boasting in the greatness or the popularity or the accomplishments of their particular city. Business advertisers are quick to boast about the superiority of their particular product or their particular brand of a product in contrast to their competitor’s brand. Sports fans will often boast about the accomplishments of their favorite teams in comparison to other teams. I know those of us in Pittsburgh don’t necessarily know what that is about, right? But there’s a lot of boasting in the arena of sports. And of course, secular elitists in the government, in academia, the media, and the entertainment industry will often boast, or what’s called today virtue signal, about their supposed intellectual and moral superiority to us knuckle-dragging traditional Christians.

    And sometimes they will do so through subtle or not so subtle attacks upon the biblical truths and the biblical ethics that are embraced by Christians. Friends, as fallen sinners, we are naturally prone to boast in ourselves, to boast in our own achievements, in our own supposed works or merits or moral virtues. But few portions of God’s word are better suited to humble sinful man’s arrogant pride and to silence sinful boasting than the apostle Paul’s epistle or letter to the Galatian churches. Now, Paul wrote this epistle to the Galatians in order to address an urgent theological and pastoral crisis that was facing the Galatian churches. In this epistle, Paul combats the false gospel being preached by a group of Jewish Christian false teachers who are often called the Judaizers. And these false teachers boasted in the old covenant ritual of circumcision.

    And they boasted in their own attempts to keep God’s law. And they were trying to persuade the Gentile believers in the churches of Galatia to engage in this same kind of legalistic boasting. But my friends, in verse 14 of this final section of Paul’s letter to the Galatians, the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul shows us believers what we as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ really ought to be boasting about. He says in verse 14, but far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Now, we’re used to seeing cross symbols. Many folks wear crosses as jewelry. But in the world of Paul’s time, to boast in crucifixion, one of the most horrible forms of torture would be regarded as counterintuitive in the very, at the very least ridiculous.

    Why would you boast in the cross? Well, beloved, because on the cross, Jesus our Lord accomplished our eternal redemption. There is certainly a lot of sinful and proud boasting that we who are Christians should strive to avoid. But there is also a Christian kind of boasting that it is our joyful duty to engage in. And my friends, that is boasting in the cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now, as we turn our attention to our text for this Lord’s Day morning, we learn here first of all that sinful boasting arises from sinful motives. Sinful boasting arises from sinful motives. And those sinful motives are an expression of a heart of sin. It starts off, Paul starts off here in verse 11 by saying this as he’s wrapping up his letter to the Galatians, he writes, see with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.

    Why does Paul mention this? What’s Paul’s point here? You see, when we compare Paul’s letters in the New Testament, we find that it was a customary practice for Paul to employ the services of a secretary. That was very common in Paul’s day. And it was also his practice to dictate his letters, therefore, to his secretary. Now, engaging a secretary does not in any way compromise the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was superintending all of this. But that raises the question, if Paul had been using a secretary to write the contents of Galatians, why does he at this point take up the pen himself? At this closing point in his letter, he takes up the pen and he writes the remainder of this letter in his own hand. Again, in this verse, Paul tells us that he is writing with large letters as we see in verse 11.

    Now, why does he mention that? He says, see with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. Why does Paul point that out? Why does Paul point that out? Now, there has been a lot of scholarly guesswork and speculation in trying to answer that question about why Paul decided to finish up Galatians in his own handwriting and why he wrote with such large letters. Some, for example, have speculated that Paul perhaps had a problem with his vision. And maybe that’s why when he wrote himself, he needed to write in large letters. Or perhaps he wrote in large letters in order to authenticate the genuineness of the letter, in order to assure the recipients of the letter that, hey, this is actually from Paul. This is not a fraud. This is not someone pretending to be Paul.

    This is actually Paul himself writing this letter. Or perhaps the large letters were meant to underscore the seriousness of his message. Whatever Paul’s reasons might have been in writing with his own hand and writing in such large letters, it is safe to say that Paul’s large letters would indeed have the effect of authenticating the genuineness of this letter and also of underscoring just how serious Paul was about the subject matter that he addresses in this letter. This is very important in other words. And then in verse 12, Paul says this, it is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. In this verse, Paul exposes two sinful motives of the Judaizers, these false teachers who were trying to convince the Gentile Christians to get circumcised and keep the Mosaic law as a condition for salvation.

    First of all, he says that they want to make a good showing in the flesh or as the New International Version puts it, they want to make a good impression outwardly. In other words, they are motivated by a desire to impress others. Perhaps they wanted to impress the Jews in Jerusalem and they wanted to impress others by converting the Gentile Christians in Galatia to their own Judaized distortion of Christianity. A second motive that Paul mentions is that they also want to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ, the cross of Christ being Paul’s shorthand for the gospel message itself. After all, the gospel message centers on Christ’s saving work on the cross. And why is it that the message of the cross invites persecution? Well, because the cross confronts mankind with its sin, its incapability of redeeming itself by its own works or merits.

    Dr. James Boyce in his commentary explains it as follows. He says, to have the cross is to have three disquieting and humiliating doctrines. Number one, man is a sinner. Number two, his sin brings him under the curse of God, which curse Christ bore. And number three, nothing man can do can earn salvation. For if this were possible, the cross would have been unnecessary. These doctrines humble man. Consequently, men hate the cross and actively persecute those who proclaim it. This is one of the chief evidences of the truthfulness of Christianity, of the biblical Christianity that we affirm. This chief evidence is that no mere human religion would be invented like Christianity because Christianity humbles us. False religion exalts man, exalts our pride and our own efforts to merit God’s favor. But Christianity humbles us and proclaims that your only hope is found in Christ.

    As we sing in that hymn, my hope is built on nothing less than what? Jesus’ blood and righteousness. Not my own righteousness, not my own blood, sweat and tears, but Jesus’ blood and righteousness alone. And then Paul goes on in verse 13 to say this, for even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. In this verse, Paul is saying that not even the Jews, including these Judaizing Christians themselves kept the law of God about which they boasted so much. Even though they had circumcision, even though they had the external written code of the Mosaic law, they themselves did not keep the law of which they boasted. And the reason why they wanted to convince the Galatian Gentile Christians to become circumcised was so that they might boast in your flesh.

    In other words, again to quote from Dr. Boyce, they were trophy hunters and wanted to be able to report on mass quote conversions in Galatia. The humbling parallel, Dr. Boyce says, the humbling parallel would be in the tendency to take pride in counting the number of decisions for Christ and baptisms today. Now, brothers and sisters, we rejoice when we hear of people coming to faith in Christ. When we hear news of conversions, we do rejoice in that. When we hear of people coming into the fellowship of the church through baptism, that’s a source of rejoicing for us. But the temptation is to take credit in that, to boast in that. Beloved, there’s many things that we can take away from this passage as applications, but let me just mention a couple things. First of all, let us be warned, brothers and sisters, against the temptation to take pride in outward appearances and external things.

    Be warned about taking pride, for example, in your church affiliation. We are Orthodox Presbyterian. We love our denominations, history and heritage, and we are blessed to be part of that heritage. But let us not boast in our denominational heritage or in our local church affiliation. Let us not boast in the amount of time we spend in private devotion, in prayer and Bible reading, or let us not boast in our wealth and giving money to charity and so forth. Now, those are all good things, but they are not to be a source of boasting. Just to take you to a couple other passages of Scripture that underscore the need for believers to avoid such boasting, one passage from the Epistle of James, James 1, verses 9 through 11, urges God’s people to avoid boasting in their wealth.

    In James chapter 1, verses 9 through 11, we read these words. James writes, Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass, its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. Again, we need to recognize that in God’s kingdom, the first shall be last and the last shall be first, and there is no boasting in the body of Christ on the basis of economic distinctions between the members of the body. But what about boasting in spiritual things? Well, the Apostle Paul addresses that in passages like Ephesians, the very familiar passage Ephesians 2, verses 8 and 9, where Paul reminds us, For by grace you have been saved.

    What is grace? God’s riches at Christ’s expense. Grace is God’s unmerited favor given to unworthy, undeserving sinners. And Paul is saying, You’re not saved by works, by grace you have been saved through faith. Well, can you boast in your faith? Well, no, he goes on to say, And this, meaning this faith and the entire process of salvation from beginning to end, This is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may do what? So that no one may boast. We have nothing to boast about. Oh, dear listener, be sure that you do not base your hope of salvation upon a proud and self-righteous boasting in your own flesh, in your own human achievements, human merits or virtues. Boast not in yourself. Boast only in Christ and his cross work.

    You know, someone once said the only thing that we have to contribute to our salvation, there is something we have to contribute to our salvation. You know what it is? It’s our sin. That’s the only thing we contribute to our salvation. Our salvation is by grace, through faith, God-given faith from beginning to end. Not only are we justified by faith, a truth that Paul vigorously maintains and defends in his letter to the Galatians, but we are also kept by grace. We don’t begin by the spirit, but then complete salvation by the works of the flesh. No, salvation is of grace from beginning to end. Both present justification and final salvation are by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And some would say, what about good works? Good works are the necessary fruit and evidence of a true and living faith, but your good works do not contribute one iota to your final salvation.

    Christ’s work alone saves you from beginning to end and in all of the phases of salvation. So let us boast in the Lord. Are you trusting in Christ and Christ alone for your salvation from beginning to end? Look to Jesus who was crucified for the forgiveness of our sins and raised from the dead for our justification so that whoever believes in him, trusts in him, might not perish but have everlasting life. And that brings me to my next point as we consider verse 14. We learn in this verse that Jesus Christ is the only worthy object of Christian boasting. Jesus Christ is the only worthy object of Christian boasting. And I say Jesus Christ, now Paul mentions the cross of Christ, well because the person and work of Christ are inseparable. Jesus Christ is known in his work.

    We know him in the scriptures and he he has brought us salvation. So Paul says in verse 14, but far be it for me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice how he describes Jesus. Jesus is our Lord. He’s divine. He is our God. He is the Lord incarnate. We boast in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Now the Judaizers boasted in their flesh, but Paul is emphatic that he will not boast in anything else but in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And when Paul talks about the cross of Christ, he is referring to the atoning sacrifice of Christ. Christ’s death on the cross to pay the penalty for human sin. This is the doctrine of the substitutionary atonement.

    That Christ took the penalty for our sin as our substitute, our sin bearer. That’s what he was doing on the cross. We call that the doctrine, again, the doctrine of the substitutionary atonement. Now theological liberals and other unbelievers often despise and mock at the doctrine of the substitutionary atonement. I’ve even heard of liberals mocking those who believe in the substitutionary atonement, whom they often call fundamentalists in the minds of some theological liberals. Anyone who holds to the classic biblical doctrines that we affirm in, say, the apostles in Nicene Creed, including the virgin birth of Christ and his bodily resurrection, they call us fundamentalists. And sometimes you hear of liberals mocking the substitutionary atonement as a religion of blood and gore. Well, yes, I boast in the blood and gore of Jesus on the cross. Not because I love the thought of my Savior suffering the infinite wrath of God for me, but because what Jesus did on the cross is my only hope of salvation.

    Biblical Christians’ glory in the awesome truth of the precious blood atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. We recognize that the atonement is the heartbeat of the gospel and any so-called preaching that either avoids, denies, or even sidelines the cross of Jesus is certainly not gospel preaching. We believers’ glory in the cross, because on the cross of Calvary, Jesus our Lord suffered for our sins and accomplished, not just made possible, but actually accomplished the redemption of his believing people. Again, Dr. Boyce puts it well. He says, the legalizers had a motive for their actions. Well, so did Paul. Only his motive was not that of a fear of persecution or of a desire to boast in statistics. He was boasting in the cross of Christ because of what the cross had accomplished in his life. As Paul looks back on his life, he realizes that before his conversion, he was exactly like the legalizers, exactly like them.

    Once he too was ruled by externals, he too gloried in human attainment. When he met Jesus, all this passed for him, so much so that he is able even to apply the bold image of crucifixion to it. The world with its selfish and fleshly attitudes was crucified to him and he to the world. In its place came Christ alone, Christ who is everything. My dear Christian friends, this morning as we partake of the Holy Supper by a living faith in our living Lord, what we are doing is we are boasting in the cross of Christ. In the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, we remember, we celebrate, and we commune in the salvation victory that our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross of Calvary. Today we make our boast in the Lord and in his cross work.

    As you take the elements of the supper, you’re saying, I’m a wretched sinner. I can’t save myself. I boast in Jesus. He’s my only hope. Today we make our boast in the Lord and his cross work. My dear Christian friend, do you glory and boast in the cross of your Lord? And when you share, have opportunities to share your faith with others, do you focus on yourself and your testimony? There’s a place for that. I understand. There’s a place for that. But we need to get away from ourselves as quickly as we can and point people to Jesus and what he did on the cross and by his resurrection from the dead. Do we glory and boast in the cross of our Lord? And finally, as Paul wraps up his epistle to the Galatians, we learn in this closing section, verses 15 through 18, we learn that true Christianity, gospel Christianity, is not natural and external, but supernatural and internal.

    True Christianity is not natural and external, but supernatural and internal. The Judaizers came to the Galatian believers claiming to bring a message of peace and hope and mercy, a message that would result in these Gentile Galatians actually becoming part of the true covenant community, the true Israel of God. If only they would submit to circumcision and keep the law of Moses, especially the ceremonial aspects of the law seemed to be in view for them. They would say to the Galatian Gentiles, it’s great that you guys have come to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah. That’s great. We believe that too. But you know, if you really want to be on the in crowd, if you really want to be part of the true people of God, you should be circumcised and keep the law of Moses.

    But they were already part of the true Israel of God, the true people of God. Paul blasts this false gospel of the Judaizers into oblivion. He does so by asserting that in union with Christ Jesus, neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. Circumcision was just a covenant sign. It was important. It had its place. It was a means of strengthening the faith of God’s people living under the old covenant. But it pointed like all covenant signs, it pointed beyond itself. It pointed to a reality beyond itself. It pointed to the new creation in Christ. In verse 16, Paul pronounces God’s peace and mercy upon those who embrace the true gospel. And he implies that only those who accept this true gospel belong to God’s true covenant community, the Israel of God, as it says in verse 16.

    And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God. In verse 17, Paul then expresses the hope that the Galatians will no longer trouble him by allowing themselves to be influenced by false teachers like the Judaizers. Paul was very upset and anxious about these believers and how they were being led astray by these false teachers. And he says, don’t trouble me anymore. Stand firm on your faith. Don’t wander away after false gospels. And in verse 18, Paul very appropriately ends this amazing letter by pronouncing God’s grace upon them. How appropriate in a letter when the main purpose has been to defend the gospel of grace against a false gospel of legalism. As he says in verse 18, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers.

    Amen. My dear friend in Christ, always remember that it is not the external trappings of religion that ultimately matter. These things of course have their place, but they are worthless apart from the work of the Holy Spirit and the grace of the new birth. May God bless his means of grace, but may through the work of the Spirit, may those means of grace point us beyond themselves to the one who is himself the giver and secure of grace for us, namely our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Let us pray. We thank you, God, for the finished work of Christ, the cross work of Christ, which has secured for your people an eternal redemption. We pray that we would glory in, indeed boast in, not ourselves, not our testimony, but in Christ and his cross work.

    We pray these things, Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said, Amen. Let’s respond to what we’ve heard by rising and we’ll sing it as our hymn of dedication 350, Beneath the Cross of Jesus.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Foundations of Faith: I Believe in the Holy Spirit

    Foundations of Faith: I Believe in the Holy Spirit

    About this sermon

    1. Because of our status as adopted children of God, the Father has sent the Spirit into our hearts (vv. 4-6).
    2. The Holy Spirit is identified as the Spirit of God’s Son (v. 6).
    3. The Holy Spirit enables us to commune intimately with God as a loving heavenly Father (v. 6).

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    Sermon transcript

    Just turning to your Bible, Galatians 4, my sermon text this morning, Galatians 4, verses 4-7. Now in order to offer the full context, I’m going to begin reading in chapter 3, verse 23, and I’ll read through chapter 4, verse 7, but our focus will be on chapter 4, verses 4-7 in particular. as we continue our Foundations of Faith sermon series this morning. So beginning at chapter three, and you’ll find this passage on page 1156 in your Pew Bibles, beginning in chapter three at verse 23, let us hear God’s holy word. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.

    For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything. But he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way, we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

    And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir through God. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the preaching of his word today. Almighty, most merciful God, our gracious heavenly Father, once again, we are thankful that you have disclosed yourself to us. You have revealed yourself to us in the Holy Scriptures. This scripture is the word of God, which is breathed out by you, for all scripture is indeed God-breathed and profitable. We pray, O Lord and Father in heaven, that you would grant by your grace that each and every one of us would profit from this portion of scripture that we consider today.

    And we would ask that your word would find a lodging place in our souls this day and would bear much spiritual fruit in our hearts and in our lives, and also in our fellowship as a church. We would pray, Heavenly Father, that you would once again set a guard over my lips, that I, your unworthy servant, may declare only that which is faithful to you, glorifying to your holy name, and edifying to your people. We pray these things through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, and all of God’s people said, amen. You may be seated. As you can see, the title of my sermon this morning is Foundations of Faith, I Believe in the Holy Spirit. And if you have a sermon, your sermon outline, a number of keywords that you can listen for in my sermon today.

    And one keyword I wanna point out to you, and I’ll be explaining in a little bit what this word means, but it’s filioque, F-I-L-I-O-Q-U-E. So I hope I’ve piqued your curiosity. You might learn a new word today. Well friends, I believe in the Holy Spirit. So begins the first affirmation contained in the third credo, the third I believe section of that classic Bible-based creed of the church that is known to us today as the Apostles’ Creed. The Creed has been guiding this Foundations of Faith sermon series in which we’ve been reviewing some of the foundational truths of our holy Christian faith. And it is important and good for us to do that periodically, to go back to the basics and review the basics. And we’ve been seeking to do that. Now as we’ve already considered earlier in this series, the Word of God and the historic Christian Church in all of its Orthodox expressions teach that the one true Creator God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, exists in three co-equal, co-eternal, co-essential persons, namely God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

    In the words of our Shorter Catechism, in answer to question six, the question being, how many persons are there in the Godhead? We read this Bible-based answer. There are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one God, the same in substance, or essence, or being, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. Now as we’ve seen in the Creed, the first credo or I believe section deals with the first person of the Holy Trinity, namely God the Father. It also deals with the doctrine of creation, the doctrine of creation typically being ascribed to the Father. The second credo section deals, of course, with the second person of the Trinity, God the Son, both with his divine person and with his historic works in accomplishing our redemption.

    Well, this third credo section of the creed that we are beginning to consider today deals with God the Holy Spirit. And by implication, it deals with his ministry of applying Christ’s work of redemption to us and of sanctifying us. Today we turn our attention to the deeply important subject of the person and the work of the Holy Spirit. A subject that in itself could fill a lengthy sermon series since there are so many passages, multitudes of passages in the Word of God that touch upon the subject of the person of the Holy Spirit, the work of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit’s ministry to God’s people and to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. But friends, Since this foundation series is simply intended as an overview, as a review, I will resist the temptation to multiply sermons on the Holy Spirit, at least at this time, and I will confine myself today to one sermon on one specific passage dealing with this subject.

    And the text which I’ve chosen for our consideration on this Lord’s Day morning is found in the Apostle Paul’s fiery, white-hot letter to the churches in the first century region of Galatia in the Roman This morning we consider a very central passage in Paul’s epistle to the Galatians, namely chapter 4 verses 4 through 7. And our special focus today will be on verse 6 in particular because verse 6 describes the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of His or God’s Son. the Spirit who enables us as believers to enjoy an intimate relationship with God as a loving Heavenly Father, as is expressed by that prayerful cry, Abba, Father. Now, what are we to make of this letter, this epistle that Paul writes to the Galatians? The Holy Spirit inspired this letter and included it in the canon of Holy Scripture.

    You know, Galatians is arguably Paul’s most intense epistle. And I don’t know about you folks, but as I read Paul’s writings, Paul seems to me, I get the impression from Paul’s writings that Paul was naturally sort of an intense individual. But here we find the most intense, if you will, of his letters. And what accounts for this intensity, the fiery nature Indeed, Paul is intense and forceful in the letter to the Galatians because the stakes are so high. Paul is intense and forceful in this epistle of Galatians to the Galatians because the very gospel message itself is being threatened by a group of Jewish Christian false teachers, false teachers who are typically referred to by the Bible scholars as Judaizers. These Judaizers, these false teachers, were seeking to convince Gentile Christians in Galatia that their faith in Jesus Christ, while certainly important and necessary, was simply not enough to bring them into a saving relationship with God and into full covenantal standing among the covenant people of God.

    The Judaizers taught that these Gentile Christians must, in addition to believing in Jesus Christ, they must also be circumcised and keep the law of Moses if they would be saved. In other words, Gentiles must become Jews first before they can become fully initiated Christians of an equal standing among the covenant people of God. According to the Judaizers, we are justified, that is to say we are declared righteous before God by faith in Jesus Christ plus works of the law. So they preached and taught a faith plus works scheme of salvation. But friends, according to the gospel of Jesus Christ as preached by the Apostle Paul and indeed by the other apostles, we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ, not plus works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ apart from works of the law.

    Or as the reformers put it, we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ alone, sola fide, faith alone. In the particular section of Galatians where we find our passage for this Lord’s Day morning, Paul has been driving home the point that both Jewish and Gentile believers are adopted sons of God and therefore are equally heirs of salvation. We see this, for example, let me just review a couple of verses. If you go back to chapter three and look at verse 26, Paul writes, for in Christ Jesus, you, and who’s he addressing? He’s addressing these Gentile believers in Galatia. In union with Christ Jesus, you, you Gentiles, whether you be Gentile or Jew, in fact, you are all sons of God through faith. And then he goes on to say, if you skip down to verses 28 and 29, he says, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

    And here’s the clincher, verse 29. If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise. Even if you don’t have any of Abraham’s genetics, even if you are not a physical descendant of Abraham, if you are a Gentile but you believe in Jesus, you share Abraham’s faith, then you too are Abraham’s offspring in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we see this also summarized in verse seven of our passage for today. So you are no longer a slave. but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. Again, remember, he’s addressing these Gentile Christians in contradiction to what the Judaizers have been telling them. The Judaizers have been saying, well, yeah, you can become a fully initiated member of the people of God. You can become a fully initiated Christian, but you gotta be circumcised and keep the law of Moses and not just believe in Jesus.

    And Paul says, no. By grace through faith, if you trust in Christ and Christ alone, you too are Abraham’s offspring. And you’re no longer a slave, you are a son. You are a child of God, a son or daughter of God. And if you are a son or daughter of God, an adopted son or daughter of God, then you are an heir through God. You’re an heir to the promises of God. You are an heir to everlasting salvation. So friends, in this section, Paul also drives home the point that the law given through Moses served as a guardian of God’s people until Christ came in the fullness of time. The law’s function in redemptive history was to prepare God’s people for the coming of the promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. And similarly, one of the main functions or uses of God’s moral law in our personal lives is to show us our sin and therefore to show us our desperate need for a sinless savior, namely the Lord Jesus Christ.

    So with all of this context in mind, let’s dive into our text for today and consider, first of all, that because of our status as adopted children of God, the Father has sent the Spirit into our hearts. Because of our status as adopted children of God, the Father has sent the Spirit into our hearts. as we are told in verse 6. Now let’s start at verse 4. In verse 4 we read these words, In the fullness of time, what’s Paul referring to? What does he mean by the fullness of time? Well, one commentator says that this means the time set by God for His children to become adult sons and heirs. As he had been discussing in the previous section of this chapter, were heirs, but they were not fully adult heirs until the coming of Christ.

    So now is the time in redemptive history when they were to become adult sons and heirs. In other words, this is referring to the divinely appointed time in redemptive history. And at that time, what happened? It says, God sent forth his son. There’s so much rich theological and doctrinal and redemptive historical truth just jammed into these few verses. First of all, this points out that this highlights the father’s sending of his son. And this is a clear teaching throughout the New Testament scriptures. Let’s compare scripture with scripture a little bit. Let’s turn to a couple other verses. Let’s go to John, very familiar passage, John 3, 16 and 17, speaking of the father’s sending of his son into this world. You’re familiar with this, right? For God so loved the world that he did what?

    He gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. And then it goes on to say in verse 17, for God did not, what? God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. So we see there, the father’s sending of his son. This was a unified, this was the united teaching of the apostles of Jesus Christ. We see this also in the Johannine corpus in 1 John 4 9-10. If you turn to 1 John, the letter of 1 John 4 9-10, we read similarly these words. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us that God did what? God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him.

    In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins. So getting back to our passage for today, when did this sending forth of the Son occur? It occurred in the fullness of time, at just the right time in redemptive history. And I know I’ve said this many times before, some of you might be getting sick of hearing me say this, but what is history? Children, you know it, history is his story. God is working out his plan and purpose in history. He prepared for the coming of Christ through the long ages of human history prior to the incarnation and virgin birth of Christ. Prior to that time, God was preparing humanity and in particular, preparing his people for the coming of the promised Messiah.

    But now in the fullness of time, at just the right time in God’s preordained plan, he sent forth his eternal divine son. And this is another thing that is implied by this language here. The language that speaks of God’s son, of Jesus as God’s son, highlights Christ’s full deity. Christ is the son of God in the sense that he shares the same divine nature as The Father, there is one divine being, one divine essence shared fully by all three persons of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So Jesus, by being called the Son of God, that does not subordinate his deity, but it points out that he shares fully in the same nature, the same being as the Father. But he was also born of woman. This indicates our Lord’s full humanity. This is Paul’s way of saying what John says back in John 1, 14, that the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

    Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. So he is true God, fully God, and fully man in one divine person. And he was not only born of woman, but we are told that he was born under the law. What does that mean? Well, not only was Christ as a Jew obligated to keep the law of Moses, but in a deeper sense, he was born under the law as a covenant of works, as the second Adam, in order to obey and keep that law on behalf of all of God’s people. And that leads us to verse 5, where Paul goes on to say, He, that Christ came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law to do what? To redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.

    Christ accomplished our redemption so that we might be adopted as children of God. In our fallenness, in Adam, we are not children of God. We are, spiritually speaking, we are children of the devil. We are part of the kingdom of darkness, but in his saving mercy, Christ redeems his elect. He brings them out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the son of his love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his great grace. But what does that word redemption mean? I like how Dr. James Montgomery Boyce defines redemption. He says, redemption means to buy out of slavery. Men were slaves either to the law as Jews or to the elemental spirits of the universe as Gentiles. Christ paid the price of their redemption and set them free.

    So, what does this point to? This points to the fact that the Father has planned salvation. We have been chosen by the Father. Christ executed the plan of redemption. But that plan of redemption that Christ accomplished is useless to us unless it gets applied to us. And how is that work of redemption applied to us? It is applied to us by the sovereign spirit of Almighty God. And this is what is pointed to And this is what we infer from Paul’s words here in verse six. See, we’ve been redeemed by the blood of Christ. We have been adopted as beloved sons and daughters of God through faith in Christ. Verse six, and because you are sons, God has done what? He has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Back in verse four, we are told that God sent forth His Son, but here in verse six, we learn that not only has God sent forth His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, but now that Christ has come and has accomplished our redemption, God also sends the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. not just into the world outside of us, but into our hearts to apply to our hearts and lives the redeeming work of Christ.

    Again, not only did God the Father send forth His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Redeemer, in this verse, we learn that the Father also sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts. And by implication, He did so in order to apply to us the benefits of Christ’s redemption, and therefore, to bring us into a close personal communion with God as our loving Heavenly Father, an intimate spiritual communion which is expressed when we cry out to God in prayer, Abba, Father. Now, I’ll speak more about the significance and meaning of that term in just a few moments, but let me make a couple points of application at this particular time. Friends, first of all, the Father’s sending of the Spirit into our hearts implies an important truth that is clearly taught throughout the Word of God.

    Namely, the truth that the Holy Spirit is a person, not a force. And this is important. If you’re taking notes, write this down. The Holy Spirit is a person, not a force. In other words, the Holy Spirit is a he, not a she. an it, and I have to confess, and I’ve probably done this myself, I sometimes hear Christians in their less guarded moments, and again, I probably have done this too, when speaking of the Holy Spirit, referring to the Spirit as an it rather than a he. And that’s kind of, that’s certainly would be understandable if we were Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Jehovah’s Witnesses, you may or may not know this, but Jehovah’s Witnesses reject the doctrine of the Trinity. They are an anti-Trinitarian cult. And they teach that Jehovah is the Father, that Jesus the Son is a God, lowercase g, that he is divine but less than Jehovah.

    But how do they explain the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is God’s active force. That’s how they describe the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God’s active force, they say. But that’s not what the Bible teaches. The Bible tells us clearly that the Holy Spirit is a person. And just as, again, as we compare scripture with scripture, let’s jump to a few passages that underscore this truth. Turn with me, if you would, to Matthew 12, verse 31. Matthew chapter 12, and look at verse 31. And here in this discourse of the Lord Jesus, he says this. He’s being accused of performing his miracles by the power of Beelzebub or Satan, the prince of demons. And his enemies are accusing him of doing his works by the power of Satan rather than the power of God.

    And Jesus says this, therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Now let me ask you this, if the Holy Spirit is a force rather than a person, how do you blaspheme a force? How do you blaspheme a force? No, you can only blaspheme a person. You can only blaspheme God. And so the Holy Spirit is divine and He is a divine person. And consider also Acts 5, verse three, Acts 5, verse three. where Ananias and Sapphira lie in order to make themselves look better to the Christian community than they actually were in terms of their generosity. And when Ananias is confronted with this, the apostle Peter says the following. If you look at Acts 5, verse 3, it says this, Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?

    What did Ananias, what was he guilty of doing? Was he guilty of lying to a force? How can you lie to a force? I mean, one force is the force of gravity. Can you lie to the force of gravity? No. but you can only lie to a person. So this too implies that the Holy Spirit is a person. Not only that, if we turn to Ephesians 4.30, and again, I’m sure you get the point, but I just wanted to underscore the importance of this point and the testimony of the scriptures to the personhood of the Holy Spirit. We see this in Ephesians 4.30. Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom, not by which, but by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

    Again, let me ask you, dear friends, Paul warns the church against grieving the Holy Spirit, but can an impersonal force an active force, if you will, experience grief? Again, no. So clearly, the Holy Spirit is a divine person. And we learn in this passage, too, that the Spirit applies the work of Christ to God’s people and indwells them. Praise be to God. The Spirit graciously indwells the people of God. Let’s look at another passage in which Paul teaches this. If you turn to Romans chapter 8, and comparing our passage for today with Romans 8 is very helpful because these two passages, in these two passages the Apostle Paul brings out some of these truths with slightly different emphases. But let me read verses 9 through 11 in Romans chapter 8. Paul writes this, you however are not in the flesh, meaning the flesh meaning the sin nature.

    You’re not dominated by under the dominion of the sin nature if you are a believer in Christ. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the spirit if, in fact, the spirit of God does what? Dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. The Spirit who the Father has sent to Christ’s redeemed children indwells them. Dear listener, does the Spirit dwell in you? He does dwell in you if He has convicted you of sin and you are trusting Christ as He’s offered to you in the gospel.

    But if you’ve rejected Christ and rejected the gospel, the Spirit does not dwell in you. But God calls you through the gospel to repent, turn to Christ, trust in Him and Him alone as your all-sufficient Redeemer. And then you can be assured that the Spirit of God applies the saving work of Christ to you and dwells within you. So the Spirit of God dwells in the hearts of God’s adopted children. We also learn, however, in this passage, and this brings me to my next point, that the Holy Spirit is identified here as the Spirit of God’s Son. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God’s Son. It says in verse six, because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father, the Spirit of His Son. Again, it’s helpful to compare this terminology which describes the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of God’s Son.

    Let’s compare that with the terminology that Paul uses back in Romans 8 9. Again, Romans 8 9. How is the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, described in Romans 8 9? You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of whom? The Spirit of God, meaning God the Father. So in Galatians 4, verse 6, the Holy Spirit is defined as, described as the Spirit of God’s Son, but here in Romans 8, verse 9, he is described as the Spirit of God the Father, and then in this verse, Romans 8, verse 9, it goes on to say, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. So the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God the Father and the Spirit of Christ the Son. And this passage, therefore, my friends, would seem to support the so-called Filioque clause in the Latin or Western version of the Nicene Creed. where we say that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.

    In contrast to the Eastern Orthodox version of that creed, which does not contain the Filioqueor and the Son clause in it. as I mentioned, means and the Son. And based on passages like John 15, verse 26, where Jesus says that the Holy Spirit, described there as the Spirit of truth, proceeds from the Father, based on passages like that, the Eastern Orthodox version of the Nicene Creed, which I believe was the original one, because it was simply parroting the words of John 15, verse 26, that version of the creed affirms that the Holy Spirit only proceeds from the Father and not from the Son. But on the other hand, the Western version of that creed adds the words, and the Son, philioque. So the Western Catholic churches confess that within the triune Godhead, the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son, philioque, whereas the Eastern Orthodox churches confessed the Holy Spirit proceeding only from the Father, thereby rejecting the philioque clause.

    And now you may be scratching your heads at this point saying, okay, pastor, it’s afternoon. This is kind of a finer point of theology. Is it really all that much of a big deal? I mean, on the surface, this may seem like a rather minor and abstract theological difference. But friends, we need to understand that in the 11th century, it was regarded as such an important theological difference that it ended up being at least the theological catalyst and basis for the so-called great schism. between the Western Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches in the 11th century during the Middle Ages. Now we could certainly debate whether or not this difference over such seemingly fine points of theology should be such a severe schism or division in the visible church of that time, but it does show us how seriously the church at that time took theological matters.

    I mean, the things that matter most to you will be the things that you fight for the hardest. And according to the church at that time, the most important thing or one of the most important things was how they understood God and what the God, the nature of God, the persons of the Godhead, and so forth, and how they relate to one another. Now, there were, of course, political and other factors, you know, that fed into the great schism, but this was the theological issue. But in any case, with that history lesson in mind, the language of our passage for this morning would seem to support the filioque clause, the and the son clause. And it is because of such passages as this that we are considering today that the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and our Westminster standards confess as biblical the truth that the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from both God the Father and God the Son.

    As it says, and I invite you to turn there, so on page 940 in the back of your Psalter hymnal, Larger Catechism Question and Answer 10, page 940. The question is, what are the personal properties of the three persons in the Godhead? The Bible-based answer to that question is this. It is proper to the Father to beget the Son, and to the Son to be begotten of the Father, and to the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit to what? To proceed from the Father and the Son. And it is because the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son from all eternity that our passage can speak of the Lord Jesus as, speak rather of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of God’s Son. So with this in mind, you might be thinking, okay, well, is the purpose of this passage simply to tune us in to these finer points of theology?

    And these are important points. But I will close my sermon today with this final point. See, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s person and work, it’s not an abstract doctrine that is only to be relegated to the halls of the theological seminary or relegated to questions such as how many angels can dance on the head of a pin and so forth. Now friends, the Holy Spirit, we learn in this passage that the Holy Spirit enables us to commune intimately with God as a loving Heavenly Father. The Holy Spirit enables us to commune intimately with God as a loving Heavenly Father. Verse six, and because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying what? Abba, Father. the indwelling Spirit of God, the Spirit by whom we’ve been born again and renewed, the Spirit whose indwelling presence sanctifies us through the Word, the Spirit by whom we are sealed unto the day of redemption, as we are told by Paul in Ephesians 1, 13 and 14.

    That Holy Spirit, my friends, is the one who enables us as believers to cry out to God in prayer as a loving Heavenly Father. And again, I know I’ve been referring often to Romans 8, but we see this, Romans 8, Paul kind of fleshes this reality out. In Romans 8, verses 15 through 17, we read these words, it says, For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs of Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Or we think in verses 22 and 23, Paul goes on to say, for we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

    And not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we await eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. and skip down to verses 26 and 27, we learn that the spirit also ministers to us in a very personal way. As Paul writes, likewise, the spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray for as we ought, or excuse me, we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. You know, sometimes when you’re praying, you can’t figure out what to say. You don’t know what to say. but those groanings in your soul, that’s the Spirit interceding for you. The Lord Jesus intercedes for us at the Father’s right hand.

    The Spirit himself, though, intercedes within us with groanings too deep for words. And it says in verse 27, he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to God. the will of God. What does that word Abba mean? Some have suggested that it means daddy, and it was used in that way. But others have suggested, well, you know, applied to God, that’s kind of a trivialization or a sentimentalizing of God to say that Abba means daddy. Well, again, I like what Dr. Boyce says. He says, it may be sentimentalizing the word Abba to translate it daddy, but it should not be forgotten that the word is a diminutive and implies intimacy. Think about the implications of that. God is not, our God, brothers and sisters, is not a distant, uninvolved deity that we can only know from a distance.

    He is a God who has become one of us. He has taken upon himself in Christ our full humanity and he died to redeem us so that he might send the Spirit to dwell within us and bring us back into communion and fellowship and friendship with God our creator as a loving heavenly Father. Dear ones, God has created us and redeemed us in Christ in order that we might commune with Him, fellowship with Him in love and friendship, both now and forevermore. In Christ and through the Spirit’s application of Christ’s redemptive work to us, we may enjoy personal communion, friendship, and spiritual intimacy with God as a loving Heavenly Father. It was revolutionary when Jesus referred to God the Father as his Father. And when he called his disciples to pray, our Father which art in heaven.

    Certainly Israel viewed God as the Father of the nation, but this personal approach to God was unheard of before the coming of Christ. But now in Christ, although it is hinted at in the Old Testament, we see that kind of personal intercourse with God exemplified in the book of Psalms, for example. But nevertheless, in Christ and through the Spirit, we, brothers and sisters, can have a deep, satisfying, personal, spiritual connection to God as a loving, heavenly Father. Dear listener, do you have a personal, intimate relationship with God? as your loving Heavenly Father? This is not sentimentality to ask this question. This is the goal of our redemption. What is man’s chief end? Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. God desires that we delight in Him as our chief and highest goal, our chief and highest joy.

    Or do you view God as a distant, austere, stern judge? Now I will say that if you are apart from a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, you ought to fear God. to view God as an offended judge because he is. Now God is good to all. He is kind, he’s good, he’s loving. He causes his sun to shine on the just and the unjust and sends the rain on the righteous and the wicked because he is a benevolent and kind and patient and forbearing God. But he is a God who has an attitude of holy righteous wrath towards those who have rejected him. and who have blasphemed him and who reject his son. Oh, turn from your rebellion. Turn to Jesus Christ who offers himself freely to sinners in the gospel. Turn in repentance and faith to Christ.

    Receive and rest upon Christ alone as your Lord and Savior. And you too, by the grace of God, can enjoy this intimate saving communion and fellowship with God. You too will be enabled to cry Abba, Father. And so the next time you confess the Apostles’ Creed and confess those words, I believe in the Holy Spirit, think about these things that we’ve considered today. Amen, let us pray. Thank you and praise you for the gift of the Holy Spirit, the spirit of adoption, the spirit by which we are enabled to cry unto you, as a loving Heavenly Father, Abba, Father. Lord, we would pray that we would truly desire above all other desires to love and commune with you and to serve you with all that is in us out of gratitude for your amazing gift of salvation.

    We pray these things, Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen. As we close our time of worship, let’s rise and respond to what we’ve heard from the word by singing together Psalm 46a, God is our refuge and our strength, 46a.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • A Different Gospel, Part 2

    A Different Gospel, Part 2

    About this sermon

    1. Take to heart that there is one, and only one, Gospel (vv. 6-7).
    2. Heed the apostolic warning: Anyone who perverts the Gospel of Christ will be eternally condemned (vv. 8-9).

    More sermons from Galatians · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    churches of Galatia. So let us hear God’s holy word. Galatians 1 verses 1 through 10. 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 brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

    But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. Dear friends, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord’s proclamation of His Word. Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us, revealing to us Your Holy Word. We thank You that You have not left us alone in this fallen, sin-cursed world without direction, without a clear Word from Heaven.

    We thank you, Lord, for this portion of Holy Scripture, and we ask that you would give us wisdom and insight as we consider this portion of your Holy Word. We pray that your Spirit would illuminate our minds and open our hearts to behold wondrous things from your Word. We ask that your Word would find a lodging place in our souls by your Spirit, And we ask that you would grant unto me, your unworthy servant, the grace to declare and speak forth your word with power and clarity, with the unction and assistance of your Holy Spirit. May Jesus be exalted in the preaching of your word this day. May sinners be converted unto you and your people built up in their most holy faith. We pray all of these things, Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said.

    Amen. You may be seated. There are sermon outlines out in the foyer, if you’d like to use those to help you follow along, and there’s quite a number of words that I’ve suggested that the children can listen for in my sermon today, which could help them follow along as well. Well, dear ones, in 1 Timothy 3, verse 15, Paul describes the church as a pillar and buttress of the truth. functions of the visible organized church of the Lord Jesus Christ in this world is to hold up, to support, and to defend the truth of God before a lost and dying world. The church is called by God to be a witness for the truth of God’s word in the midst of a world that is filled with lies, deception, and falsehood. But in order to be a faithful witness for God’s revealed truth in this world, the church must guard the deposit of faith which her resurrected Savior has entrusted to her.

    When Jesus rose from the dead after training his apostles and appointing them to be his official spokesmen, his divinely inspired spokesmen, witnesses of his resurrected glory, when he appointed them, he gave them the charge to faithfully pass on that faith once for all delivered to the saints, that deposit of faith. One major aspect of guarding the faith once for all delivered to the saints is the church’s calling to protect God’s people from false teachers and false teaching. especially teachings that would seek to water down, distort, or even replace the true biblical gospel with a different so-called gospel. Guarding the integrity of the biblical gospel, especially the good news of our justification by God’s grace in Jesus Christ alone, apart from works of the law, is a central duty of the church and of its undershepherds, its pastors and elders.

    In his epistle to the Galatians, Paul shows himself to be a faithful apostolic under-shepherd of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he shows himself to be faithful because in this epistle, he exposes and seeks to refute a group of Jewish Christian false teachers who were seeking to lead these Gentile Galatian Christians away from a solid understanding of the biblical gospel. false teachers Judaizers, the theologians and scholars call them Judaizers, because they taught that Gentile Christians must not only believe in Jesus in order to be justified, in order to be saved, but must also be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. In order for a Gentile to become a fully initiated Christian and to become fully a part of God’s covenant community and to be regarded as saved and justified, declared righteous in the sight of God, not only was it necessary to believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior and Son of God, but it was also necessary, Judaizing false teachers for these Gentiles to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. especially the ritual laws, the ceremonial laws.

    And that is why they’re called Judaizers, because they were basically saying, if you’re a Gentile, you can’t become a Christian before first becoming a Jew. You must become a Jew first before you can become a fully initiated Christian. Well, friends, on the last Lord’s Day, as we focused on our passage for today, we focused especially on reveals that God the Father effectually, savingly calls elect sinners to salvation, not by means of the works of the law but by means of the grace of Christ. We saw that this implies, friends, that God takes the initiative in our salvation. We don’t take the initiative. God takes the initiative. It isn’t that we first step towards God before he reaches out to us. On the contrary, it’s the other way around. God reaches down to us in grace and mercy before we reach up to him in faith and repentance.

    We certainly must respond to the call of the gospel to repent and believe. but we respond because God has first been at work in our hearts through the gospel. We also saw on the last Lord’s Day that turning away from this biblical gospel, this good news of full and free justification by grace alone, through faith alone, apart from works of the law, turning away from this biblical gospel, is actually a turning away and apostasy from God himself. You see, to reject the biblical gospel for another so-called gospel is actually to reject the true and living God. It is to throw off the yoke of Jesus Christ and to set up in our hearts a golden calf of works righteousness, legalism, and self-righteous religious pride. And so, friends, with all of this in mind, today we’re going to focus on verses 7 through 9.

    But let’s first, again, let me read for you again verses 6 and 7. Paul writes, I am astonished. Why is he astonished? Why is he flabbergasted? Why is he just, you know, doing a double take? and wondering what’s going on among the Christians in the Galatian churches. Well, he says, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. As I pointed out on the last Lord’s Day, that word in the Greek that is translated as different is the word heteron. I believe we derive from that word heretical or heterodox. He’s talking about turning away from the pure biblical gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ, to a heterodox, a different gospel. And then he goes on to say in verse 7, not that there is another one. but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

    What do we learn from this passage? Well, first of all, brothers and sisters, take to heart that there is one and only one gospel. There are not multiple gospels. I mean, there are different gospel accounts in the New Testament. Yes, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We’re not talking about the gospel accounts because all four gospel accounts claim and reveal this one true gospel, this good news, this message of Jesus Christ. And there is one and only one gospel. That is clearly implied by what Paul writes here in verse seven. He says not that there is another one. That’s essentially saying there’s only one. There’s one and only one gospel of Jesus Christ. This is important, friends. We live in a time where where there is such a cultural pressure put upon the church to change the gospel, to make it more palatable to contemporary trends and contemporary ideas and contemporary ideologies and philosophies.

    And there’s a temptation to reimagine the gospel, to kind of shave off its rough edges and make it more palatable to contemporary postmodern humanity. We saw this in the last century with theological, so-called theological modernism, also known as theological liberalism in the churches. The project of theological modernism was to make the Bible and the Christian faith more palatable, more accommodating to so-called modern man. but of course modern man was conceived of as a man who is rationalistic and naturalistic and rejects miracles in the supernatural worldview of the Bible. And so what theological modernism did in trying to make the Christian faith compatible to the ideas and thought trends of modern man what it ended up doing was gutting the Christian faith of its supernatural truths, such as the virgin birth, the deity of Christ, his physical bodily resurrection from the dead, and so forth.

    And what modernism ended up doing is replacing true biblical Christianity with a Christianity so-called that was not Christianity at all. As Dr. J. Gressam-Machen in his classic book, Christianity and Liberalism, pointed out, liberalism is literally another religion. It’s not Christianity, though it uses Christian terminology and traditional Christian language. It has hijacked that Christian language and imported into Christianity false concepts, foreign concepts. It has gutted Christianity of its supernatural reality. And so, the modernist struggle in the church over the last century reminds us that there’s only one biblical gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And this, here, what Paul is doing, those who would change or pervert or try to improve upon the one and only gospel of Christ. You see, my friends, if you read the scriptures, if you familiarize yourself Word of God, you will see that the Scriptures contain many, many warnings against false prophets and false teachers.

    Let me just read a few of those to you. Let’s turn, if you have your Bibles with you, turn to Matthew chapter 7 verse 15. Matthew chapter 7 verse 15. This is as Jesus is getting towards the conclusion of his Sermon on the Mount. Matthew records in Matthews 5 through 7 the contents, a summary and contents of our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. And Jesus says, in verse 15 of chapter 7, Jesus says, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing. In other words, they’re deceptive. They hide themselves. Who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. These are wolves in sheep’s clothing. What do wolves do to sheep? They destroy the sheep. They kill the sheep. And so these, Jesus’ warning against false prophets, those who would spiritually destroy the sheep of Christ.

    Or think of, turn next to 2 Peter 2. Let me read verses one through three of 2 Peter 2. Again, just another example of an apostolic warning against false prophets and false teachers. In this passage, We read the following words, Peter writes, but false prophets also arose among the people, reflecting on Old Testament times, false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them. bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed, and in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.” Again, very sobering words, a very sobering warning against false teachers.

    And the final passage we’ll look at is Deuteronomy 18. verses 20 to 22. Deuteronomy chapter 18 verses 20 to 22. The prophet Moses addressing the children of Israel says the following beginning in verse 20 Moses says but the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name God is speaking through Moses, and he says, a prophet, a so-called prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die. And if you say in your heart, how may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken? When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, That is a word that the Lord has not spoken.

    The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him. And other examples, brothers and sisters, the one thing that should be clear from these biblical warnings about false teachers is that false teachers do not typically advertise themselves as false teachers. In fact, false teachers can often have very likable and engaging personalities. They can often be very articulate. They can often be very attractive and charismatic in their personalities. They don’t have horns growing out of their heads. They don’t walk around with sandwich boards strapped to their bodies that say, beware, I’m a false prophet, keep your distance. No. They’re often very, very likable. One thing that is common among false teachers is that they can be very, very subtle. We’re told in the scriptures that Satan can disguise himself as an angel of light.

    So some false teachers are very skillful at putting themselves forth as earnest servants of Jesus Christ and of his gospel. And no doubt that’s what these Judaizers were doing. They were probably coming along to these Gentile Christians and saying, oh, that’s wonderful that you’ve come to believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. He is. We accept him as the Messiah. He’s the son of God. Yes, he died for our sins and rose from the dead. You got all that right. That’s wonderful. But you know, you’re missing one thing. You got to get circumcised and keep the laws of Moses, especially the ceremonial laws. And then you can be declared righteous before God. And then you can be regarded as fully a part of the Israel of God, fully a part of the people of God.

    You see how subtly they may have been presenting this to the Galatians and why these new believers in the churches of Galatia from a Gentile background were being drawn to that? These Judaizers were probably skilled smooth talkers and spiritual salesmen. Well, dear ones, we might be tempted to think, well, yeah, the early church, they dealt with heretics like the Judaizers and the Gnostics and the Antinomians and all of that. Well, but, you know, that was back in the first century. Don’t we have a better idea of things now? Well, friends, just as the early apostolic church had to contend with many slick false teachers like the Judaizers and the Gnostics and the Antinomians, So even today, the visible church of Jesus Christ continues to be plagued by false teachers who promote perverted, twisted, heretical gospels, gospels that lead from Jesus and away from the salvation that Jesus offers in the true gospel.

    That’s why Paul is so passionate in this epistle. That’s why he only gives a very brief opening section and opening praise before diving into his subject and saying, what’s wrong with you people? Wake up. I’m astonished at you. Why are you going astray? He knows that eternal matters, matters of eternal weight are at stake. Now, the point here, friends, is not that we should be hyperjudgmental or unlovingly suspicious of pastors and preachers and Bible teachers, or that we should be overly critical of every careless expression or word that a preacher might say. I know that many, My favorite meal after church is roast pastor and criticizing what the pastor said. And I don’t get the sense that you folks do that, or if you do, you certainly don’t let on that you do. But as someone who has been preaching for many years, I can tell you that part of the vocation of someone who’s calling is to publicly speak is that if you spend enough time publicly speaking, sooner or later, you’re going to misspeak.

    Sooner or later you’re going to say something that’s confusing or perhaps unintentionally misleading, and I can tell you that while it is my intention to carefully prepare and research my sermons and to deliver them faithfully to the text, I can look back on my many years of preaching and many times when I unintentionally opened my mouth and put my foot in my mouth or misspoke. So the point here is not to be ungracious and towards those who are entrusted with the task of preaching the word of God, but rather the point here, beloved, is that all of us, whether we’re clergy or lay people, whatever our calling or vocation may be, all of us have a biblical duty to be discerning. The call to discernment, that’s not just for the pastors and elders. That’s a call to all of God’s people.

    All of us in our office of believers, all of us are called to exercise discernment. If you do not exercise proper biblical discernment, we’re actually sinning. God expects you not to be gullible and open to false teachers. We are responsible before God to be discerning in terms of the preachers and Bible teachers that we listen to and follow and expose ourselves to. And we need to be on the lookout for those who may be peddling a false or misleading gospel. But you may wonder, how can you tell a false teacher from a true one? Not by how likable they may be, or by how good they may make you feel, or the number of followers that they have, or by the crowds that they draw. Rather, the answer is you can tell by the message that they teach and preach.

    What is this man’s message? That’s the issue. Is it a feel-good, man-centered message, or is it the good news of salvation through Christ crucified and risen from the dead? Does the preacher proclaim as the scriptures proclaim that all people are sinners fallen in Adam worthy of condemnation for their sins and that no man can be saved by his good works or religious strivings. Does the preacher proclaim Jesus Christ, God and man, the Word made flesh, crucified for the forgiveness of our sins, raised from the dead, physically and bodily raised from the dead for our justification? Do they proclaim this biblical Jesus as the one and only way of salvation? Does he proclaim that we sinners are justified, that is to say, declared legally righteous in the sight of God, not by works of the law, not by our good deeds, but by trusting in Christ’s obedience and sacrifice alone, trusting in Christ alone for our salvation?

    Or does the so-called preacher deny any or all of these biblical truths? If he denies or perverts or obscures or twists any of these or similar essential gospel truths, then there is a good possibility that he is a false teacher and should be avoided like the plague. He should be avoided like the plague because he is distorting what Paul describes here in our passage as the gospel of Christ. He says, not that there is another one, not that there is another gospel, verse seven, but there are some who trouble you. We’re troubling these Galatian Gentile Christians, causing them to be unstable in their faith off of Jesus and onto themselves and their own religious performance. Not that there is another, there are some who trouble you and want to distort what? They want to distort, they have an agenda, they want to distort the gospel of Christ, not a gospel of Christ or one of many gospels, no.

    The gospel of Christ. Notice that this one and only gospel is the gospel of Christ. In what sense is it of Christ? that I believe Paul has in mind here. The gospel is of Christ in its contents. That is to say, it is the message about Jesus Christ. If you go to a church service and you hear a pastor preach a sermon that has almost nothing to say about Jesus, you might as well go hear a sermon in a Jewish synagogue or a Unitarian Assembly. True gospel preaching is centered on the person and the work, the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ. True gospel preaching is not a theological TED talk. It’s not a motivational speech. It’s not moralistic do-goodism. It is about Jesus Christ. The biblical gospel focuses on Jesus Christ, on his person and saving work.

    It does not focus on man’s works or man’s free will or man’s decision. Although certainly, when the gospel, when the spirit brings the good news of Jesus to bear on your soul, it will impact your will. It will move you to receive and rest upon Christ if the spirit is active in it. But the gospel message itself, it’s not a message of decision. It’s not even a message of faith, it’s a message about Jesus. Romans 10 tells us, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by what? The word of Christ, not by the word of decision, not by the word of moralism, or do-goodism, or social justicism, or cultural warriorism, or anything like that. It’s the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel focuses on Christ, on things like his miraculous virginity, his obedient life as the second Adam, his mighty miracles, healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons, walking on the waters, multiplying the loaves and the fishes and so forth. especially his sacrifice, his substitutionary atoning sacrifice on the cross for our sins, and his physical bodily resurrection from the dead, his resurrection appearances to multiple eyewitnesses after his resurrection, and his ascension into heaven, his reign at the Father’s right hand, and his return at the end of this age.

    That’s what the biblical gospel focuses on. Dear ones, the central focus of the biblical gospel is not our faith in Christ, though that is important. The central focus is rather on Christ himself, because Christ is the object of our faith. So it is the gospel of Christ in that Christ, his person and work, are its central contents. But it is also of Christ in its origin. Not only is it a message about Jesus Christ, it is a message that originates from above, from Christ, and it comes to us through the risen Jesus and his officially appointed apostles, whose writings and teachings are contained in the New Testament canonical scriptures. Dear listener, do you believe in this Lord Jesus Christ? the Jesus of the Bible. That’s the only Jesus there is. That’s the only Jesus that can save you from your sins.

    You cannot be saved by a Jesus who was a great religious teacher and a great moral example, but nothing else. The true Jesus was indeed a great religious teacher, a great moral example, but he was great because he was also divine. He is the God-man, the Word made flesh, Emmanuel, God with us. And he came to this earth work out our salvation by his obedient life and atoning sacrifice. He has secured the eternal salvation of all who come through sovereign grace to trust in him as their Lord and Savior. Do you trust in this Lord Jesus Christ as your very own Lord and Savior? Jesus, through the gospel, calls you, each and every one of you, dear listener, God, through the gospel, calls you to repent of your sin, and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior from.

    You repent and believe today. So we see dear friends that there is one and only one gospel and that brings us then to the next two verses as we close our time and wrap up our time in the word this day next beloved heed the apostolic warning that is given here and that warning is that anyone who perverts the gospel of Christ will be eternally damned or eternally condemned. Again, this is a very sober point, but it’s what Paul is saying here, as I’ll demonstrate in a few moments. In verses eight and nine, we have an apostolic warning that anyone who dares to pervert, distort, change, or reimagine the gospel, the one and only gospel of Christ, anyone who does that and continues in that unrepentantly, will be eternally condemned. Look at what Paul says in verses eight and nine.

    He says, but even if we, he includes himself, he includes the apostles themselves, even if we apostles or even an angel from heaven, even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, Let him be accursed.” And then for emphasis, Paul repeats himself, or I should say the Holy Spirit through Paul repeats himself. Verse 9, as we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. Now, that word that is translated here in the English as accursed, In the Greek, it is the word anathema, or anathema, and that word obviously is carried over into the English language. The New International Version translates anathema as eternally condemned, which accurately conveys the meaning of this loaded and sober word.

    And what’s important to understand about this word, this Greek word anathema, is that it is related to the Hebrew word harem, which means ban. See, in the Old Testament, when God called his people Israel, when they had come out of Egypt, and God had rescued them from their slavery in Egypt, and God commanded them to go in and to conquer the promised land, and to put everyone in that land under the ban. All of them were to be devoted to destruction, all of the Canaanites. were not poor, innocent people. They were bloodthirsty, idolatrous people. They were people who did things like burn their infant children alive to their gods in worship and so forth. And God used the Israelites at that particular point in history as his instruments of judgment against the was not something that was to be repeated in other nations or in later redemptive history.

    But in any case, they were put, the Canaanites were put under the ban. Dr. Richard Longenecker in his commentary on Galatians points out that the word here refers to, quote, what is removed from ordinary circulation and given over to destruction. Longnecker goes on to say that anathema means, number one, something dedicated or consecrated to God, and so, number two, something delivered over to divine wrath for destruction. As Bible scholar Johannes Bem points out, the basic idea behind this word anathema is, quote, delivering up to the judicial wrath of God. And so, my friends, what we have in these sobering verses, verses eight and nine, We have the Apostle Paul writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writing in his capacity as an apostle, an official divinely inspired spokesman for the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, pronouncing a divine curse of eternal damnation upon anyone who would dare to pervert, to twist, to distort, to replace the biblical gospel of justification. by faith, the biblical gospel of Jesus Christ, which includes as part of its essential, central pillar, the wonderful truth of our justification by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, apart from works of the law.

    Now, some scholars, often of a more liberal bent, will perhaps look at these verses and say, well, this is just Paul having sort of a temper tantrum. He’s kind of, you know, he’s kind of hot and bothered by the fact that these teachers are not teaching in line with what he thinks should be the correct view of the gospel. He lets them have it. But friends, no, this is not an unfortunate emotional outburst on the part of the man, Paul. No dear ones, this anathema is a Holy Spirit inspired curse which has the official divine authority of the Lord Jesus Christ himself backing it up. For here, Saint Paul writes these words not as a private individual, but he writes in his capacity as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, this is Jesus saying through Paul, if anyone whoever he or she may be, if anyone, whatever their position, even an angel from heaven, even an apostle himself, if anyone should distort and pervert the gospel of Jesus Christ, let him be anathema.

    Of course, we know that God is absolutely sovereign. We know that he will indeed preserve his people from unrepentantly and persistently distorting or perverting the gospel of Christ. But at the same time, God’s sovereign preservation of his people does not negate our responsibility. Now you may say, well, why does the Holy Spirit through Paul, why is the Holy Spirit so extremely, why this extreme length? penalty for perverting the gospel of Jesus Christ. Understand, beloved, the reason that God the Holy Spirit includes this divine curse upon those who preach a false gospel in the scriptures is actually motivated by God’s love for sinners. See, those who proclaim false gospels, those who preach something other than the gospel of Jesus Christ are helping to lead lost souls astray from Christ and from the salvation that he offers.

    Preaching a false gospel is spiritual murder. It is murdering souls by leading them away from Christ and leading them to put their faith in something other than Christ, whether it be themselves, their works, their free will, The saints, they might say, well, Jesus is part of that, but you’ve got to have Jesus plus. Jesus plus theology means no Jesus at all in the end. Jesus will be the full and only Savior, or He is no Savior at all. He will not share His Saviorhood with you or with anyone else. And this is why God’s Word is so stern against those those who would distort and destroy the biblical gospel. In closing, my friends, God takes the integrity of the biblical gospel with dead seriousness, and so should we as his church. Let us as a church and as individual Christians do what Jude commands us to do and earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

    And let us do so even in the midst of our anti-doctrinal, hyper-emotional, therapeutic age. We live in an age where it’s very difficult to stand up for truth, absolute, unchanging truth. But the word of God does not change, and the biblical gospel does not change. Let us stand firmly on it. And let us also be warned against false teachers who pervert and distort the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I’m going to do, in closing, what many preachers would suggest, many homileticians and preaching professors would say, but I’m going to do it anyways. I’m going to name some false teachers that you should be warned about. Because one of the biggest false teachings out there in the Christian world today is the prosperity and claim it gospel. And there are preachers on TV, on the radio, and so forth, who are loading their pockets with the gifts and monies given by gullible people, preaching this false gospel, this idea that God wants you to be blessed and rich and so forth, healthy and wealthy.

    And if you’re sick, or if you have problems financially, there must be something wrong with your faith. I think of folks like Kenneth Copeland. Kenneth Copeland and his wife own a huge mansion. They have, I believe, several private jets, a few yachts on hand. Kenneth Copeland’s going to hell unless he repents of his false gospel. May God have mercy on his soul. He is leading so many astray. But what amazes me as I watch this man, watch clips of this man preaching, is how do people fall for this demon-possessed false teacher? But he’s out there. Don’t you dare give assent to the likes of a Kenneth Copeland. Or you think of someone a little more milquetoast, like John F. Kennedy, who I believe is a false teacher. I think of Scott Hahn. Scott Hahn, any of you familiar with Scott Hahn?

    He used to be a Presbyterian. He was a Presbyterian minister. The biblical gospel of justification by faith alone to join the Roman Catholic. I think he was in his 20s when he wrote an autobiography, Rome’s Sweet Home. Imagine how arrogant and narcissistic you would have to be to write an autobiography in your 20s. But what does he say? What does he preach? Rome’s false gospel of justification by faith plus human merit. And many other examples could be given. The cults like Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and so forth. Now friends, we should have compassion. on those who are led astray by these false religions and cultists and false teachers. But we must stand firm, not only for the biblical gospel, but against those who would lead gullible souls astray. And so in closing, make sure, dear listener, that you believe and embrace the biblical gospel.

    Trust in Christ alone for your salvation, and you will be saved. And stand fast for the faith, once for all, delivered to the saints. Amen. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, there go I but for the grace of God. We thank you, Lord, for the truth of the gospel, this good news that we are fully and freely forgiven, not by our works, not by our worthiness, but by Christ, his works and merits and sacrifice alone. Lord, we in the church are so easily led astray There are so many voices in our time that would lead the church away from this biblical gospel. We pray that you would give us grace as individual Christians and as the church to stand firm for the faith once for all delivered to the saints and for the biblical gospel of Jesus Christ.

    We thank you for the blessings of your grace to us given to us in Christ. We pray that you would be glorified now and cause your word that we’ve heard today. to find a lodging place in our souls. We ask these things in Jesus name and all of God’s people said, Amen. As we close our time in worship, let’s rise and we’ll see nothing less. 459

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • A Different Gospel, Part 1

    A Different Gospel, Part 1

    About this sermon

    1. The gospel reveals that God the Father effectually called elect sinners to salvation by means of the grace of Christ (v. 6).
    2. Turning away from the biblical gospel for a different one is a turning away from God the Father (v. 6).

    More sermons from Galatians · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Well, dear friends. This morning, we are going to consider a passage from Paul’s letter to the Galatians as Reformation Day approaches. I thought it would be appropriate to preach a Reformation-themed sermon, reminding us of the glorious good news, the gospel of our justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, as that good news is defended by the Apostle Paul in Galatians. So this Lord’s Day and the following, we’re going to focus on Galatians 1. verses 6-9. And then we will finally return to the foundations series that I had begun. But right now, let’s turn our attention to Galatians 1. To fill out the context a bit, I’m going to read verses 1-10. But again, our focus will especially be today on verse 6 and on the section verses 6-9. So let us hear God’s holy word.

    Galatians 1, verses 1-10. 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 brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

    As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Dear friends, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let us pray. Almighty God, Heavenly Father, we pray that by Your Spirit, You would bring us light, that You would shine the light of Your Word into our souls. Bless the Word as it goes forth today, as it has been read and as it is proclaimed. We pray that Your Word would find a lodging place in our souls.

    We pray that Your Word, like seed, would find a deep root in the soil of our hearts and bear much spiritual fruit. in our lives. And we ask that You would grant unto me, Your unworthy servant, the grace to declare and speak forth Your Word with clarity, with power, and with the fullness and assistance of Your Holy Spirit. For the glory of Your name, for the edification of Your people, and for the salvation of the lost. For we pray these things through Christ our Lord, and all of God’s people said, Amen. You may be seated. Dear friends, as you can see in your sermon outline, the title of my sermon today is A Different Gospel. And there’s quite a number of key words that the children can listen for. Just choose a couple to listen for and keep track of if you find that helpful in following along in the sermon.

    My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God’s Word teaches that there is only one true and living God. That’s a very basic doctrinal truth that is revealed in the Holy Scriptures. And friends, because there is only one God, there is only one truth. Namely, the truth that is revealed in God’s world and especially in God’s Word, the Bible. And because there is only one God and only one divinely revealed truth of God, there is only one moral law, namely the law of God revealed in the scriptures, the works of which are inscribed upon the human conscience, and which is summarized, that law of God which is summarized in the Ten Commandments. And therefore, friends, since all of this is so, does it not make sense to you that there is only one true faith, only one true religion, namely the true Christian faith that is revealed in God’s Word, the Bible?

    And does it not also make sense that this one true religion, this one true faith, would reveal to mankind the one and only God-appointed Savior and Messiah, and therefore, the one and only way to be saved? To quote from the Holy Scriptures from John 14, verse 6, which should be a very familiar passage of Scripture, we read Jesus saying these words. It says in that verse, Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. You notice Jesus didn’t just say, well, I’m one of many ways or I’m one of many truths. He said, no, I am the way, the truth, and the like, no one comes to the Father except through me. When the Christian church and when we Christians bear testimony to the fact that Jesus is the only way to the Father, we’re not being arrogant, although you can bear witness to that truth in an arrogant spirit, but the claim itself is not arrogant because Jesus himself taught that he is the only way to the Father.

    And, of course, this was picked up by and proclaimed by Jesus’s apostles. For example, as the apostle Peter, the spokesman for the apostles, testified of Christ when he stood before the Jewish Sanhedrin, Peter said to the Sanhedrin in these words, recorded in Acts 4.12, Peter said, and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Peter says, there is no other name but the name of Jesus Christ by which we must be saved. And the Apostle Paul would agree with that. In Ephesians 4, verses 5 and 6, the Apostle Paul proclaims that there is one Lord. That’s Jesus. There is one Lord. One faith. One baptism. One God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

    And of course, in the Epistle of Jude, we believers are exhorted to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. That’s Jude 3. Notice, the faith. The faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. The holy Christian faith that was revealed by Christ and propagated by the apostles and canonized in the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. This holy Christian faith is not something that can be reimagined or revised or tweaked or changed with every passing fad of culture. It is something that is once and for all delivered to the saints. And our job as a church is not to tweak the gospel, not to conform it to the popular opinions of popular culture, but instead to faithfully pass that faith on from generation to generation, to pass it on in its purity and integrity from generation to generation until Jesus returns in glory.

    And so, my friends, There is only one God. There is only one Savior. There is only one moral law of God. And there is only one faith. And therefore, By implication, there is only one gospel message. Children, do you remember what the word gospel means? Gospel means good news. There’s only one gospel message, and that is the good news of full and free salvation for sinners. Salvation by sovereign grace alone, through faith alone, in the crucified, risen, and reigning Lord Jesus Christ alone. But this was a gospel message that sadly the first century churches of Galatia were losing their grip on. Sadly, the first century churches in Galatia to whom Paul wrote this epistle were being threatened by some Jewish Christian false teachers whom scholars label the Judaizers. And those false teachers were perverting this one true gospel by preaching what amounted to what the Apostle Paul describes in verse six as a different gospel.

    The word in the Greek there for different is the word heteron. And that may sound familiar. I believe that that term heteron is the term from which we derive the word heterodoxy or heretical. They were preaching a different, a heretical gospel and not being faithful to the biblical apostolic gospel. With this background information in mind, let’s dive into our text for today. And as I said, this Lord’s Day and the next will be focusing on chapter one, verses six through nine in particular. Today, we’re especially going to be dwelling in verse six because there’s so much here in this passage. And let me read verse six again. Paul, after a very brief opening greetings and salutation to the churches of Galatia, he starts off with astonishment. He says, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different, a heteron gospel.

    Now, what do we learn here in this verse? We learn many things, but one of the things we learn in this verse, and this is the first point in your sermon outline if you’re following along. My friends, we learn here that the Gospel reveals that God the Father effectually calls sinners to salvation by means of the grace of Christ. which means not by the works of the law, but by the grace of Christ. The Gospel reveals that God the Father effectually, savingly calls elect sinners to salvation by means of the grace of Christ. Again, Paul writes, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who did what? Who called you in the grace of Christ. Contextually speaking, when Paul speaks here of this call, it seems in the context, he’s not speaking of what the theologians would call the external call of the gospel.

    That is to say, when the gospel is preached, there is a gospel call, an appeal, a call to all who hear that message to repent of their sins and to trust Jesus Christ as their very own Lord and Savior. We believe in the external call. We believe that Christ is freely offered to all who hear that call. But hearing the call to repentance and faith is not enough to bring someone to salvation. There has to be a response to that call. And only those in whom the Holy Spirit effectually calls through that general call will come to faith in Christ. These Galatian believers, Paul is reminding these Galatian believers that they had been not only the recipients of the external call of the gospel, they’d actually answered that call because they were effectually, savingly called When God determines to save a sinner, He doesn’t just make it a possibility, He actually effectually brings it to pass.

    So it’s the effectual call that is in view here, I believe, in the context of this passage. We learn here, beloved, in the words that Paul writes here in verse 6, we learn that God the Father takes the sovereign initiative in our salvation. I don’t know about you folks, but when I listen to fellow believers, evangelical and Bible believing Christians talk about salvation and talk about God, there seems to be this general idea that, you know, God is just kind of sitting back waiting for you to make the first move. God just wants you to come to him. He’s just so eager. But he’s held back until you take that first step towards him. But this passage makes it very clear. You and I did not first reach out to God. He took the initiative.

    He first reached out to us. The reason that we reach up to Him in repentance and faith is because He first reached out to us. God the Father takes the sovereign initiative in our salvation. Dear ones, in this passage, the Apostle Paul reminds the Galatian believers that it was God the Father who called them to salvation. They did not call themselves. They did not take the initiative in their own salvation. They did not pick themselves up by their own bootstraps or exercise their so-called autonomous free wills in such a way as to get God’s attention and merit His favor so that He chose to save them. No. Rather, it was in or by the grace of Jesus the Christ that the Father had called them with a saving effectual call. A call that actually brings them into a state of salvation.

    Dear ones, we would do well to remember that it is the biblical and apostolic gospel message that reveals the saving truth about Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God. No other gospel, no different or heterodox gospel reveals the truth about Jesus the Christ. Only the biblical, apostolic gospel. The gospel proclaimed by Jesus himself and the prophets and apostles. Only that gospel. reveals the saving truth about Jesus, the Son of God, the Christ. But in contrast to this biblical gospel, the Judaizers, whom Paul is contending against and and seeking to warn the Galatian churches against the Judaizers, these Jewish Christian false teachers were perverting the true biblical gospel, and therefore they were denying this biblical and apostolic gospel. By their false gospel, their different gospel, these false teachers were by implication denying God the Father’s sovereign initiative in the salvation of sinners.

    They were putting the final say of the sinner’s salvation in the hands of sinners themselves instead of in the hands of God. You see, why are they called Judaizers? Well, we need to understand that the Gentile Christians in the Galatian churches, the Christians in the Galatian churches were mostly from a Gentile background. Most of these Christians had been converted to Christ from an unbelieving pagan Gentile background. And this, if you read the New Testament, this is a real issue in the early church. Remember that Jesus himself was Jewish. The earliest apostolic church was Jewish. I mean, the apostles were Jews and the gospel was first preached on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem, preached to mostly Jews and Jewish proselytes, those gathered in Jerusalem. But then it started to spread beyond Jerusalem and Judea. And so Samaritans started to get converted and then.

    Gentiles, first Gentile God fearers like Cornelius, but then the gospel started to go out to raw pagans, pagan Gentiles who were coming to believe not only in the God of Israel, the true and living God, but to embrace Jesus as the true Messiah, the son of the living God. And for many Jewish Christians in that early context, this was this was a crisis. They’re like, what do we do with this? What do we do with all these uncircumcised Gentiles who, you know, who don’t keep the law of Moses? Are they just as saved as we Jews are or are they fully initiated into the covenant community or not? Well, the Judaizers came along and the Judaizers probably held too many Orthodox teachings. It’s very likely that the Judaizers affirmed the need for faith in Christ.

    They would say, yeah, sure. It’s great that you Gentiles have come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. He is, that He died for your sins and rose from the dead. It’s great that you have faith in Jesus. And these Judaizers probably acknowledged the deity of Christ, His atonement, His resurrection. But the thing that they taught, apparently, was that if you’re a Gentile, It’s not enough to just believe in Jesus. You also have to get circumcised and keep the law of Moses, especially the ceremonial and ritual laws, like the food laws and so forth. In other words, bottom line, the Judaizers denied the truth of justification by grace alone through faith alone. They instead presented a system of salvation by faith plus works of the law. They said that if you were a Gentile, you basically had to become a Jew before you could be saved and become a fully initiated Christian.

    And so, friends, these Judaizers apparently taught that justification, justification being a right legal standing before God as the divine judge who declares you righteous in his sight because of Christ’s righteousness. These Judaizers apparently taught that justification was not received by trusting in Jesus Christ alone, but by faith in Christ plus circumcision and keeping the works of the law of Moses, especially the ceremonial or ritual laws of the Old Testament. And therefore, as Paul in verse six launches into the main concerns of this epistle that has been described by scholars as Paul’s white hot epistle, As Paul begins to address these concerns, he reminds these Galatian Christians of the truth, that it is totally, he reminds them of a truth that is totally at odds with the legalistic message of works righteousness, which was being proclaimed to these Gentile Galatian Christians by these Judaizing heretics.

    And that truth is the truth that God the Father had taken the sovereign initiative in calling these Galatian believers into a state of salvation. And this saving call came to them not by means of the works of the Mosaic law. This grace of God came to them not by circumcision or the keeping of the law. It came to them by means of the grace of Christ. Paul says, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you in or by the grace of Christ. Now let’s focus in on that phrase, the grace of Christ. We learn here that God the Father effectually calls His people to salvation through or by means of the grace of Christ. But what does Paul mean when he uses that phrase, the grace of Christ? What is grace?

    How have you often heard grace defined? I’m guessing that many of you have often heard grace defined as God’s unmerited favor. And that’s a that’s a basically correct definition. Dr. Richard Longnecker in his commentary on Galatians defines grace as God’s unmerited benevolence, especially God’s unmerited goodness or benevolence, which is displayed in the salvation of sinners who deserve the opposite of his favor and salvation. One of my favorite seminary professors back in the day, Dr. Meredith Klein, who’s now with the Lord in glory, Dr. Klein offered what I regard as a powerful and even more correct definition of grace. Grace is not just God’s unmerited favor. Dr. Klein reminded us that grace is actually God’s demerited favor. It is God’s favor given to those who deserve his wrath and disfavor. It is God’s kindness shown to those who deserve his judgment.

    We deserve the opposite of grace. But God has given that grace to us. And how does that grace come to us? It comes to us in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, Paul reminds these Galatian believers that they had been called to salvation in the grace, in or by the grace of Christ. Again, according to Dr. Longnecker, in the grace of Christ, that phrase in the grace of Christ should probably be taken as a dative of means with a possessive genitive. In other words, for those of you who are not linguistically inclined, basically what this means is the grace which belongs to and is made possible by Christ. How is it that the infinitely holy God could be gracious and merciful to those of us who have been guilty of committing cosmic treason, who have been guilty of turning our backs on God, suppressing the truth in unrighteousness, shaking our fists at our Creator and saying, no, I’ll do it my way.

    I am the master of my faith. I am the captain of my soul. Get lost, God. I’ll do it my way. Thank you very much. How is it that those of us with that heart attitude, that fallen nature in Adam, How is it that God could be gracious to us? It is because of Jesus. This grace which comes to us and calls us and saves us belongs to and is made possible by the Lord Jesus Christ. My friends, the saving work of Christ, His obedient life, His atoning substitutionary death on the cross, His glorious bodily resurrection and ascension, His reign at the Father’s right hand where He intercedes for us. This saving work of Christ which is outside of us is the objective basis by which this grace is obtained for His people. But you know, as I believe, I think it was Luther who said that the work of Jesus Christ in saving us, that work is external to us.

    It’s outside of us. As long as it stays outside of us, as long as it’s not personally applied to us, it’s useless to us. We need that saving work of Christ personally applied to and imputed to us. And that is done by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit applies this objective outside of us work of Christ to his people. The Holy Spirit applies it to us in regenerating and effectually calling and converting his people in the by that is the subjective means by which the objective work of the Lord Jesus Christ is applied to God’s people. Dear ones, it is precisely this glorious truth of the Gospel, this truth about God’s grace in Jesus Christ, that the Galatian Christians were in danger of abandoning in favor of a different Gospel, a false Gospel, a Gospel which was no good news at all.

    I mean, friends, Gospel is good news. But if you know yourself to be a fallen sinner, dead in your trespasses and sins, in bondage to sin and Satan, if you know that you’re a guilty wretch in the sight of the infinitely holy God, it’s not good news when you hear a message like, well, yeah, I believe in Jesus, but you also need to jump through this hoop and that hoop and read the fine print here. That’s not good news. Do more. Try harder. Be better. Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. That’s not good news to those of us who recognize ourselves to be lost and dead in trespasses and sins. The good news is about what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. The Galatian Christians were on the verge of losing their grip on this biblical gospel in favor of a different gospel, a heteron gospel.

    Well, that’s interesting, Pastor, but that was the first century. That was the churches of Galatia. That’s not the church today, is it? Oh, dear ones, there are many false gospels, many false teachings and false teachers out there. Make sure that you understand clearly the basics of the biblical gospel. And make sure you wholeheartedly embrace that biblical gospel. And be alert so that you may stand against the temptation to fall for a false gospel. If even these first century Christians to whom Paul had preached, if even they were in danger living so close to the life of Jesus and living in the apostolic age, if even these Christians were in danger of losing their grip on the true biblical gospel of justification by faith alone, certainly we too are in danger of that if we are not alert.

    May God in His grace grant us the grace to stay alert. But another truth that we learn from this passage, and there’s so much here in these three verses, that’s why we’re focusing just on verse six today. But the second point in your outline, an important truth we learn from this verse is that turning away from the biblical gospel for a different one is a turning away from God the Father. Paul says, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him or the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Turning away from the biblical gospel, this biblical and apostolic good news of full and free salvation and justification by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. Turning away from that biblical gospel for a different one is a turning away from God himself.

    And verse six, Paul expresses astonishment at the troubling spiritual direction in which the Galatian believers appear to be heading. If you read Paul’s works, the corpus of Paul’s letters, among his letters, Galatians is arguably the most emotional. I mean, Paul gets kind of emotional, too, in Second Corinthians and so forth. But Paul just wears his distress and his emotion on his sleeves as he’s addressing these Galatian believers. And the reason for that is that matters of salvation are at stake. When the purity and integrity and clarity of the gospel are muddied and are compromised, and when a false gospel is being propagated, that poses a grave spiritual danger. And so it must be confronted head on. And that’s why, again, as I mentioned before, the scholars often refer to Paul’s letter to the Galatians as his white hot epistle, because he is burning with zeal and pastoral concern for these believers to whom he’s writing.

    Again, Paul expresses astonishment. He’s befuddled. He’s doing a double take. He’s pulling his hair out. What’s going on here? What is it that astonishes him? Notice, Paul states that he is astonished that these Galatian Christians were so quickly deserting Him who called you. Notice, Paul doesn’t just say that the Galatians were turning away from sound teaching, although they certainly were. They were in danger of doing that. But no, he says they were deserting a person A divine person, namely Him who called you, meaning God the Father. And by the way, to turn away from God the Father is to turn away from the Son and the Holy Spirit as well, since Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist eternally in perfect unity and harmony. Dear ones, it isn’t just that these Galatian believers were in the process of reconsidering some merely minor or peripheral or non-essential or second or third tier points of theology, points of theology where true Christians can agree to disagree and not have the salvation in danger or what have you.

    No, beloved. by turning away from the biblical gospel of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, they were actually turning away from God himself. You see, the gospel, believing and embracing the gospel in a true biblical sense, is believing and embracing the biblical Christ. Because Jesus Christ is inextricably intertwined with the truth of the gospel. To reject the gospel in favor of another gospel, a different gospel, is to reject the Jesus that the gospel proclaims. To reject the God who revealed the gospel is to reject, or to reject the God’s gospel is to reject God himself. Let me just again put it plainly. to reject the biblical gospel, to willingly and knowingly reject the biblical gospel. I’m not just saying, you know, we all understand. I hope we understand that true Christians grow in their understanding of the gospel, in our depth of understanding of the gospel.

    And you can be a true believer and have a very simple faith. Praise be to God that you don’t have to be a theological scholar to be saved. You can be a child with a childlike faith in the Lord Jesus, and that faith is sufficient to receive the gift of Christ. Faith is not a good work that we do, by the way. It’s simply the empty hand that receives the gift of King Jesus, the gift of salvation. And you can be a child and have a childlike faith. But if your faith is in the biblical Lord Jesus Christ, that’s enough to receive. His gift of salvation. But to willingly and knowingly turn away from the biblical Gospel is to reject God Himself. Period. To commit apostasy from the Gospel of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to knowingly turn your back on that biblical good news is to turn your back on God Himself.

    To commit apostasy against God Himself. Because God is inextricably bound himself to the gospel. Like the Israelites in the wilderness who quickly turned their backs on Yahweh their God, the God who had graciously redeemed them, delivered them from slavery, and had brought them out of slavery into the wilderness. These Israelites had fashioned for themselves a golden calf. They had committed apostasy from the God who had been so gracious to them. Likewise, these Galatian Christians were in grave danger of committing a similar apostasy. No wonder Paul is so vehement in this epistle. No wonder Paul reveals such deep pastoral distress, such earnest concern for the Galatian Christians throughout this epistle. Well, dear ones, what’s the takeaway here? There’s many implications, many lessons that we can learn from this. But this essentially is a warning to us.

    Dear ones, let us be warned. If we turn away from the gospel of grace in order to follow after a false gospel, such as the Judaizers gospel of works, righteousness and legalism, If we turn away from the true gospel to a false gospel, no matter how appealing and how biblically sounding such a so-called gospel might seem on the surface, and no matter how many celebrity preachers may be preaching it, if we turn away from the biblical gospel to a false gospel, then we are turning away from God the Father Himself. To commit apostasy from the biblical gospel is to spit in God’s face. It is to blaspheme the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is committing outrage against the spirit of grace. Exchanging the one true biblical gospel, the good news of full and free justification and salvation by grace alone, through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, apart from works, for a different gospel isn’t just a matter of exchanging one second or third tier doctrine from another.

    It isn’t just like, well, I used to be a post-millennialist and now I’m an amillennialist or, you know, I’ve changed my view on the creation days of Genesis 1 or what have you. Again, I’m not saying those aren’t important issues. Everything in the Bible is important. because it is revealed in God’s Word. But there are some truths that rise to the level of absolute essential importance when it comes to eternal salvation. It’s one thing to change your eschatological views. It’s another thing to, say, negotiate or change your views on the deity of Christ or His substitutionary atonement or His resurrection from the dead. We’re salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Now, you might be saying, well, Pastor, you know, you’re almost sounding like an Arminian here. You’re almost sounding like you believe that the true Christians can lose their salvation.

    I mean, that we can fall away from grace in a final way, a final sense. Don’t we believe? Don’t we believe in the eternal security of the true believer? Don’t we believe in the perseverance of the saints? Brothers and sisters, of course we do. Of course we do. And of course, the Word of God indicates that our sovereign God will keep His chosen ones from committing such a grave and final apostasy. Christ has indeed secured the eternal salvation of His sheep. And as Jesus says in John 10, no one can snatch My sheep from My hands. The Father and the Son keep Christ’s true sheep secure. And they follow Him. And they cling to Him. The sheep of Christ instinctively cling to him in faith. Well, then why is Paul so upset? Why doesn’t he just say, well, you know, yeah, there’s these false teachers and they’re threatening to lead the Galatian Christians astray.

    But, you know, God is sovereign and he’ll work it out. He’ll keep them in his care. Why does Paul react as if you really need to hear this and take warning? Well, friends, One of the ways that God preserves His people in Gospel faith is through the warnings of Holy Scripture. Read the letter to the Hebrews. It’s a wonderful epistle that speaks of the high priesthood of Christ and Christ’s eternal redemption of His people and our security in Him. And yet, Hebrews is also filled with warnings not to abandon your confidence in Christ. The Holy Spirit uses those warnings to cause the true believer to take heed so that we might continue to cling to Christ all the more strongly. So friends, let us take these warnings to heart. And by the grace of God, let us continue to cling in faith to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and to Him alone.

    Let us continue to cling to the biblical gospel. And you may say, well, Pastor, I don’t know if I understand this. How do I do that? You know the gospel. You can spend your whole life studying the gospel and never plummets deaths. It is so deep. It’s so rich. But it’s also simple enough that even a child can understand it. We are sinners deserving of God’s judgment and wrath. But the good news is that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life. You may not be able to articulate fully or clearly or in depth the doctrine of justification. You may have a very simple understanding of that. But the issue is this. Are you trusting in Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man?

    Are you trusting in Jesus alone to save you from your sins? Or are you trusting in Jesus plus something else? If you’re trusting in Jesus plus your works, Jesus plus circumcision, Jesus plus the law, Jesus plus anything, then you’re not really trusting in Jesus at all. Trust in Jesus. Believe that in Him you have a merciful, forgiving God. Trust Him to cleanse you from your sins. Jesus in the Gospel offers you the gift of salvation. You know, if someone comes to you with a gift, there’s two things you can do. You can either reach out your hands and receive it, or you can reject it. Faith is simply the empty hand that receives the gift of Christ. And we’re told in Scripture that faith by which we receive Christ is itself a gift of God, because God changes our hearts and makes us willing to open our hearts to Christ, to receive and rest upon Him.

    So, dear listener, have you received and are you resting upon Christ alone for your salvation? Or are you looking to Christ and something else? Look to Jesus alone. Believe upon him, repent and believe. And the Bible says you will be saved and continue to cling to Christ and Christ alone. Don’t be led astray by a different gospel. Build your life upon the rock, Jesus Christ and his gospel alone. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the good news of Jesus, our Savior. We pray that You would give us grace to take heed, to take warning, not to fall for a false gospel, but to continue to cling to Christ and Christ alone. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, Amen. Christ is our mighty fortress. Let’s rise as we close our time in worship this morning.

    Let’s rise and we’ll sing together. 244. A mighty fortress is our God. 244. you

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Fulness of Time

    The Fulness of Time

    About this sermon

    When the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman and born under the law. God rules over history, and he chose the moment of Christ’s coming. Unlike every man-made religion, the gospel announces that God himself takes the first step to save sinners. Christ obeyed the law in our place and died under its curse to redeem us, and then God adopted us as his sons and daughters.

    More sermons from Galatians · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Well, please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. My sermon text this evening is taken from the Apostle Paul’s epistle to the Galatians, and our focus will be on Galatians chapter four, verses four and five. Galatians chapter four, verses four and five. But I’m going to read from chapter three, verse 26, through chapter four, verse seven, sort of to fill in the context here. So let us hear God’s Holy Word beginning at Galatians 3 verse 26 and going through chapter 4 verse 7. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

    And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise. Now, I say as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave, although he is owner of everything. But he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Therefore, you are no longer a slave, but a son.

    And if a son, then an heir through God. And again, our sermon text is verses four through five. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law so that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Dear friends, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Join me in prayer as we seek the Lord’s blessing upon the proclamation of his word. Our gracious Lord and Father in heaven, we ask that by your spirit once again that you would give us open and receptive hearts. Lord, humble us that we might receive instruction from your word, challenge us, confront us where necessary, build us up, comfort us, encourage us, strengthen our faith, hope, and love.

    And once again, fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Grant unto me, your unworthy servant, the grace to declare your word in a clear way, with power and assistance by your spirit, for the glory of your name, the salvation of the lost, and the edification of your saints. We pray these things through Christ our Lord and all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be seated. The title of my sermon this evening is The Fullness of Time. And if you’re following along in your sermon outline, there are some important words to be listening for in my sermon this evening. Fullness, gospel, grace, law, redemption, and one of my favorite words in scripture, adoption. Well, dear ones, our text for this Lord’s Day evening is a marvelous summary of the message that we celebrate during the Advent season and on Christmas Day.

    And that is the message that at just the right time, God’s appointed time, God the Father sent forth his son into this world to redeem fallen sinners like me and like you. This is an incredible message. It’s a message that no other religion on the face of this earth teaches or proclaims. As we will get into in a bit, I will explain one of the things that makes the biblical gospel, true biblical Christianity different from false religions, man-made religions, is precisely this truth, that in the fullness of time, God sent forth his son. And so let’s dive into our text for this evening. I first want you to observe, brothers and sisters, that the sending forth of God’s Son to be born of a woman happened at the time appointed by God the Father. This is my first main point in your outline.

    The sending forth of God’s Son to be born of a woman happened at the time appointed by God the Father. Again, as we read in verse 4, But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son. What does Paul mean by this language of the fullness of time? The Greek word is the pleroma of time. Well, the fullness of time refers to God’s predetermined time. You ever wonder why it is that God sent the Savior, the Messiah, at the particular point in time in human history when He chose to send Jesus? I’ve heard atheists and skeptics say, well, why did God wait for so much human history to come and go before he decided to send Jesus to be the savior of sinners? Why didn’t he send Jesus earlier on in human history?

    Well, God had his wise plans and reasons and purposes for that apparent delay. At God’s predetermined time, he sent forth his son. God’s sovereignty over time and over history is asserted here, is assumed here in this statement. As I said in my sermon this morning, and I will repeat it this evening, hopefully not repeating it ad nauseum, but it is the point that we need to take to heart. Again, history is his story. The coming of Jesus Christ to this earth means that the fullness of time, the fullness of the time has come. Oh, wonder of wonders. What an amazing thing that God the Father would send his only begotten son into this world to redeem unworthy, hell-deserving sinners like me and like you. There’s some important takeaways from this point here that Paul asserts in this passage.

    This passage of God’s word reveals to us and reinforces to us the uniqueness of the gospel message. Biblical Christianity, historic Bible-based Christianity is the only faith that proclaims that the true and living God himself actually came down to this earth and took upon himself our human nature. He became a man in order to bring fallen man back into a right relationship with himself. And think about the direction of that. It’s not man climbing up to God. We don’t climb Jacob’s ladder or whatever. It’s God comes down to us to bring us, who had fallen away from him, back into a right relationship with himself. Whereas man-made religion reverses that and has man climbing his way up the mountain to God. Your listener, are you in a right relationship with God? Well, you’re in a right relationship with God if you believe this good news, if you are trusting in the one whom God the Father sent to be the savior and redeemer of sinners.

    You’re not in a right relationship with God if you’re trying to merit or earn your salvation by good deeds or religiosity, because if you were to seek to be in a right relationship with God through your own works, you’d have to be perfect, you’d have to be sinless. Because God is perfect, God is sinless. Heaven is a perfect sinless place and you need a perfect righteousness to serve as your title to heaven. And as a fallen sinner in Adam, you and I don’t have that perfect righteousness. We don’t have, we don’t possess in ourselves that title to heaven. But in the fullness of time, God sent his son Jesus so that whoever believes in him might be given that title to heaven, might be cleansed from sin and clothed in the perfect, everlasting righteousness of Christ.

    Jesus Christ is the one mediator between God and man, and he is the only way to the Father. Trust in him for salvation from sin, and by the grace of God, you will be saved. Another thing about the gospel, it underscores God’s initiative in salvation The gospel of Jesus Christ, the biblical gospel, is fundamentally theocentric, which is a fancy way of saying it’s God-centered, it’s not man-centered. Whereas, again, in contrast, false religion, man-made religion, teaches man’s initiative in salvation, or at least man’s cooperation in the attaining of his own salvation. You see, man-made religions basically teach that Humanity is basically good in seeking after God, or at least humanity is morally neutral and thus is capable of seeking after God. That man has a free will that is capable in its own strength and power to decide for Christ and to seek him.

    But what does the Bible teach? Well, I could spend a long time talking about total depravity and what the scriptures teach about man’s sinfulness, but the The Word of God teaches that man is a fallen creature, fallen in Adam, that we are dead in our trespasses and sins, as we’re told in Ephesians chapter two, verse one and so forth. Therefore, salvation is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. God takes the first step towards us. We don’t take the first step towards him. And if you take a step towards God, if you open your heart to God, it’s because he’s first opened your heart and drawn you with the cords of love unto himself. This is all assumed by the statement, when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his son.

    God is the one who takes the initiative in our salvation. Our part is a response of grace. Ultimately, our faith itself is a gift of God purchased by Jesus for his people. And so there’s no reason to boast. There’s no cause for boasting. For Jesus did it all. Again, the gospel proclaims that God reached out to us first. God is the one who acts to deliver his people. And of course, his greatest act of deliverance was the sending forth of his son into this world to redeem his people from their sins. So who is this son that the Father sends forth? Well, consider next what our text teaches us about the kind of person Jesus is. Consider what this teaches us about the kind of person Jesus is. In theological terminology, this passage has much to teach us about Christology, which is, again, a fancy theological word that means the doctrine of the person of Christ.

    Well, we learn from this terminology here in verse four, first of all, that Jesus Christ is God. We are told God, meaning God the Father, sent forth his son. Now, this statement that God sent forth his son implies a number of things about Jesus. First of all, it implies the pre-existence of Christ as the son of God. There are some who teach that Jesus did not become the son of God or did not receive the title as son of God until his incarnation. However, Galatians chapter four, verse five, I’m sorry, verse four, Galatians four, verse four, the statement that God sent forth his son implies that Christ was the son prior to being sent forth from the father. God, in the fullness of time, sent forth whom? He sent forth his Son, the one who before his incarnation was the eternal Son of God.

    And thus, this passage also not only implies the pre-existence of Christ as the Son of God, it implies his eternal Sonship. Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity. This passage supports the doctrine of the eternal sonship of Jesus Christ. And so all of this serves to underscore our Lord’s full deity. In the fullness of time, God sent forth his eternal, preexistent, divine Son. But notice it goes on to say, when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son, Born of a woman. Born of a woman. What does that imply? That implies that Jesus is truly human, for though He is the eternal, preexistent, divine Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, in His incarnation, He became a man. He was born of a woman.

    The fact of Christ being the Son of God underscores His divinity. The fact that He was born of a woman Meaning, of course, the Virgin Mary underscores his genuine humanity. Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully man united in one divine person. He is the God man. He is the word made flesh. He is Emmanuel, God with us. In him, the fullness of the deity was pleased to dwell in bodily form, as Paul tells us in Colossians. That was the only way that he could be qualified, by the way, to serve as our savior. Our sin is so serious and heinous in the sight of the infinite, holy creator God that only God himself can rescue us and redeem us from our sins. But he can only do so as our representative. And so he clothed himself, Jesus Christ, the son of God, clothed himself with our humanity in the incarnation to serve as the second Adam.

    The second Adam who undoes all the harm that was done by the first Adam. The second Adam, the last Adam, who succeeded where the first Adam failed. Jesus Christ is the one mediator between God and man. As it says in 1 Timothy 2.5, for there’s one God and one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. Jesus is the man, our representative man. the one in whom we are forgiven and saved. And how did that occur? How did that salvation? How is that made possible? We’ll notice next that we’re told in the latter part of verse four that Jesus was born under the law again, verse four. But when the fullness of the time came, when God’s preordained, predetermined time came, God, God the Father, sent forth his son born of a woman. There’s the incarnation, but next born under the law.

    What does that mean? What is Paul talking about when he says that Christ was born under the law? Jesus was certainly born in a Jewish context. Jesus himself, with respect to his humanity, was a Jewish man. He was born as a Jew under the obligation of keeping the Mosaic law. He was born under the demands of God’s law in order that he might fulfill that law on behalf of his people, and also in order to redeem them from the curse of the law against sin by dying on the cross. You see, in Adam, we are under the law as a covenant of works. Adam is a covenant breaker, and in him we are all covenant breakers. We are conceived and born as covenant breakers, as law breakers, lawless ones. So the law condemns us even from our conception.

    But Jesus Christ, the second Adam, the last Adam, kept the law perfectly for us, and he suffered the curse of the law in our place, in our stead. And so this statement that Christ was born under the law is such a brief and simple statement. But so much is packed into that statement. Christ, the eternal son of God, born of a woman in his incarnation, was born under the law. He was born under the law as a covenant of works. And he, the second, the last Adam, perfectly kept the covenant of works for us. And he suffered the penalty of that covenant for us that we might be redeemed from our sin. And so Christ has provided us not only full atonement for our sins, but a perfect righteousness. How did he do this? He did this by both his preceptive and his penal obedience, meaning that he perfectly kept the precepts of God’s holy law for us.

    And he suffered the penalty, the curse of the law in our place, in our stead. Indeed, the scriptures tell us He became a curse for us that we might receive the blessings of His grace and salvation. The theologians refer to these different aspects of our Lord’s obedience under the law as His active and His passive obedience. His active obedience meaning His living for us as the second Adam, His meriting of perfect righteousness for us, and His passive obedience referring to his sacrifice on the cross to redeem us from our sins. And those aren’t two, really, those aren’t two different obediences. They are inextricably intertwined. Christ would not be able to die on the cross as a substitutionary atonement for our sins if he did not perfectly obey God’s law as the second Adam. Nevertheless, we can distinguish those two aspects of his obedience.

    And it is by his obedience that we are redeemed saved, justified, kept. It is in him that we have full and free salvation from first to last. Beloved, our Savior was born not only to die for us, but also to obey God’s law for us. Brothers and sisters in Christ, the good news is not only that Jesus died for your sins. Praise God, he did die for our sins and we celebrate that. as God’s people when we gather around the Lord’s table as we are scheduled to do this evening. And we have this memorial celebration of Christ’s body being broken for us, his blood shed for us. In other words, Jesus dying for us to offer full atonement for us. But praise God, our Lord Jesus Christ also lived for us. Jesus was born for you.

    Jesus lived for you. Jesus died for you. He rose for you. He ascended for you. He reigns at the father’s right hand where he now is your great high priest intercedes for you. And again, one day he will return in glory to come and take you to be with him forever. And so as we wrap up our time this evening, consider next is my final point. Consider the blessings of redemption and adoption that Christ has won. for his people. Consider the blessings of redemption and adoption that Christ has won for his people. This is brought out by Paul in verse five, where he says he speaks of Christ doing all these things. God sent forth his son. He was born of a woman born under the law. Why? Verse five, so that he might redeem those who were under the law.

    See, in Adam, we were under the law as a covenant of works. We were covenant breakers by nature, by fallen nature in Adam. But praise God, Jesus Christ was born under the law to redeem those who were under the law. Why? That we might receive the adoption as sons. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, they were expelled from God’s presence. They lost their status as a son and daughter of God. And humanity was sent east of Eden. Humanity was sent out to toil upon the cursed soil. But now in Christ, we’ve been adopted. We’ve been brought back into the garden, if you will. We’ve been brought back into a right relationship with God through Christ. And all of this was that, as Paul writes, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Now, adoption means being taken into the family of God.

    Redemption refers to being bought back, rescued from our slavery to sin and its consequences. Adoption means not only being free from slavery, it means being brought into the very family of God. What are some takeaways from this? Well, first of all, beloved, if Jesus had not been born, He would not have been able to die on the cross to redeem us or to rise from the dead. That’s pretty obvious, yes, but we need to remember that. The importance of Christ’s incarnation and birth is in the fact that he came to this earth. God sent him forth to be our Redeemer, our Savior. To quote from Dr. Philip Graham Reichen in his commentary on Galatians, Dr. Reichen writes, Christ had to be born before he could die, of course. There could be no Easter without Christmas, but God the son was born of the Virgin in order to die on the cross.

    Let those words sink in. Jesus was not born so that we could have a sentimental manger scenes and and all of that. Jesus Christ was born in order to die. That baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger whom we remember and celebrate this time of year. He did that so that he might be able to grow up and ultimately go to the cross. Again, Dr. Reichen goes on to say Christianity is not a religion of stable and straw. It is a religion of thorns and nails, wood and blood. The incarnation cannot save us without the crucifixion. Christ did not redeem us by his life alone. He redeemed us through his death. And that central point is why on the night in which he was betrayed, Jesus did not appoint Christmas as a holy day.

    For example, that’s a wonderful edifying celebration, but it is a man-made celebration. Jesus said, what? Do this in remembrance of me. He took the bread. He took the wine. He said, this is my body broken for you. This is my blood shed for you. Do this in remembrance of me, because that which we remember and memorialize in the Lord’s Supper is that which is central in redemptive history. That was the goal towards which redemptive history flowed. Beloved in Christ, Jesus did not only redeem us from the curse of the law, By his grace, praise God, he also adopted us as his sons and his daughters. That means that in Christ, you and I belong to the family of God. You see, before we come to Christ, before God saves us, we are, yes, we are creatures of God.

    We were created in his image, but we are fallen creatures and we are children of the devil, spiritually speaking, apart from Christ. But in Christ, we are his adopted sons and daughters. Again, to quote from Dr. Reich, and he says, Once Christ had gained our freedom, he gathered us into his family. He went beyond redemption to adoption, turning slaves into sons. When Jesus died and rose again, he not only paid for our freedom, but also provided us with our adoption papers, making us sons and daughters of the most high God. Wow. Let those glorious truths sink in and let them encourage your heart this season. And let us, during this Advent and Christmas season, as we reflect upon and celebrate the incarnation and birth of our Savior, let us always keep in mind what his incarnation and birth was for the purpose of.

    Namely, being able to go to the cross, and pay for our redemption on the cross of Calvary and rise from the dead for our justification that we might receive the gift of eternal life. Let us keep that gospel-centered focus during this season. Amen. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, sovereign and eternal God, we thank you for the finished work of Christ, your eternal and only begotten Son, the one who is the second and last Adam, the one who was born under the law to redeem those of us who were under the law but are now in Christ. We pray that by your spirit, these truths would be a source of great comfort, peace, hope, and joy in our lives. And we ask, Lord, that you would be glorified as we continue our worship of you this evening.

    In Jesus’ name we pray, and all of God’s people said, Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Glorious Christ…Glorious Gospel

    Glorious Christ…Glorious Gospel

    About this sermon

    When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law. The Father’s love sent the Son, and the Son came under the law to fulfill it for his people. In Christ believers move from the childhood of the old covenant into adoption as sons, heirs of God who have received the Spirit of the Son, crying “Abba! Father!”

    More sermons from Galatians · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    to each of us and we are thankful Janice and I are both thankful to be with you this evening for the privilege of worshipping God and looking at His Word together. Let’s turn in His Word to Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Galatians chapter 4 I’m reading from the ESV, and I’ll read the first seven verses. Here now, God’s Holy Word, Galatians 4, verses 1-7.

    I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way, we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.

    But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir through God. Let’s bow our heads. Father in Heaven, this is Your Word, and we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you would speak to us this evening. Amen.

    Thinking of anniversaries, much bigger than the 40th anniversary of two young seminarians being interns, 500 years ago, Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg. And around the world, people are celebrating that anniversary, including RPTS.

    In September, we’re having our annual Westminster conference, and we’re going to talk about Luther. So through the summer, I’ve been reading about Luther’s doctrine of justification, and particularly looking at Galatians 4. And I thought, well, I’d much rather preach on Galatians 4 than just study it. So I’ve chosen for this evening Galatians 4, and I would like to turn our attention to two main themes that fall out of Galatians 4.

    First of all, Paul wants to set before us our glorious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But together with that portrait, He wants us to see the glorious salvation that is ours. So tonight the sermon will have two parts. Let’s look first of all at the glorious Savior, Jesus Christ. And we’ll begin with the Old Testament background. To understand the Messiah, we need to begin in the book of Genesis. And we turn to the book of Genesis and remind ourselves that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and they were good.

    He made a garden for Adam and Eve and it was good and they were good. But that situation didn’t remain. And Adam and Eve sinfully fell and brought us into a state of condemnation. But God didn’t leave us in that state. He chose not to kill Adam and Eve, but they had children, and their children had children, and eventually God drew to himself a people.

    He called them to be his own people. We think about Noah being called, being loved by God. We think about Abraham and Isaac. We think about good King David being set apart as a king who followed after God’s own heart. The prophets came and they predicted a change. They predicted a coming Messiah. And as Pastor Dan was talking about this morning’s sermon, I kind of wanted him to continue. Let’s think about Cain and Abel. Cain and Abel were both offering sacrifices. And the question that we wanna ask about Cain and Abel is not why one sacrifice is acceptable and the other not. The question is, why would any sacrifice be acceptable?

    And the answer is the grace of God. That God who is holy condescended and said, if you offer rightly, if your heart is right, if you offer in faith, I promise to accept that worship and to make you to be righteous. So that’s some background to what Paul is talking about. But the blood of bulls and goats that was offered year in and year out pointed forward to a yet greater one who was to come, whose blood would be the final blood, and that’s the blood of Jesus Christ. Now as we think about our Savior, There are some questions that we need to ask ourselves and some answers that we see from the text. Let’s turn in Galatians chapter 4 and read very quickly verse 4. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law. In that one verse, Paul gives us four questions and answers about our great Savior, Jesus Christ.

    First of all, why was the Son of God sent? Why was the Son of God sent? And the answer to that question flows back into the Old Testament. He was sent to complete the promise that was made, say, by the prophet Isaiah and others, that a greater one would come, greater than King David, a final prophet, priest, and king. And there are questions that are behind the question, why was the Son of God sent? It’s the question that I mentioned about Cain and Abel. Why was either offering considered acceptable to God? Why was Noah acceptable to God? Why was Abraham acceptable to God? Why was King David found to be righteous and acceptable to God? Why did God choose a people to be his own?

    And in each of those questions, behind the questions, Behind the question we see the love of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Brothers and sisters, it is because God the Father first put His love on us that He asked the Son to leave the realms of glory. to be incarnate, to live under the law, to suffer on the cross, and be raised up and ascended into heaven. It’s because the Father loved us that the third person, the Holy Spirit, whispers to our hearts, calls us to Himself, and then organically unites us to Jesus Christ. So why was the Son of God sent? He was sent because God is a loving and merciful and gracious God.

    And the whole Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit delights in what we are doing this evening. What we are doing this evening does not impact this world, but it pleases our Father in heaven. And as we think about the why question, why was the son sent?

    We think about someone being sent to do a task. And I think about a soldier. A soldier is sent into battle. No soldier says, well, I’ll pay for my own equipment, and I’ll pay for my own training, and I’ll fly myself to some combat place. No. No, the soldier goes because the commanding officer says, you must go. He must obey.

    And our Lord Jesus Christ obeyed humbly his father and he went with a plan, a plan that includes us here tonight to procure salvation for his people. But when we think about the sending of the son from heaven, we have to acknowledge that Paul is also telling us that the son of God has been living forever. So the son of God who is eternal, came in time to live upon the earth. Paul’s statement that the Son was sent assumes that Christ has always existed. Now as we looked at verse 4, we saw some other questions that we have to answer.

    Why was the Son born of a woman? Well, each one of us knows that no one is born of a man. So, saying born of a woman seems to be redundant, but it’s not. It’s hard for someone to imagine that He was actually born, that God Almighty was born. He was truly incarnate, and He was truly incarnate of a woman. He was made flesh. And our Lord Jesus Christ is still flesh, He is the God-man. He is spatially locatable in heaven. He is somewhere up in heaven. He is in flesh. He is born of a woman because He needed to be truly incarnate. He remains both God and man to this day. The third question that we see from our text is, why was the son born under the law? Why was the son born under the law? And this connects back to the Old Testament.

    Now, historically, when we think of someone like Martin Luther, during Luther’s time, a king was not under the law. The king didn’t have to obey any written laws of his own kingdom. He was the law. Not so God’s king. God’s King David had to have the Law with him under the throne. He had to meditate upon the Law day and night. And because his heart was turned toward God, David says it is his meditation, his delight through the day. So from King David we see a man who is under the Law. and the God-man was under the law.

    The incarnate Son of God lived under God’s law to procure our salvation. Now to say that, we have to understand how is salvation obtained? How do we get saved? And we tonight define sin as any one of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. The law is the standard for holiness. So for any one of us to stand before God who is holy, holy, holy, where the angels in the book of Revelation are covering their faces, they’ve never sinned, but they can hardly stand being in the presence of the Holy One. for us to stand before Him requires God saying, I have determined that you are holy by the standard of my law.

    And again, we think about Cain and Abel. It’s not because either man was sinless, but it’s because God accounted one sacrifice to be acceptable. So the system of the Old Testament awaited the coming of the one who was born of a woman and born under the law. Christ had to be both God and man because Christ bore on His shoulders the wrath of God Almighty against your sin and my sin. and no human being could bear that wrath. Any one of us would be instantly evacuated. We would cease to exist, standing under the divine condemnation. but Christ the Son could stand and take that bloody consequence upon His own brow. Christ had to be born of a woman, Christ had to be born under the law, and Christ had to submit to His own law. Now the fourth question that we see from the text is, who is a Son of God?

    And 40 years ago, I didn’t know much about Islam. How about you? Islam says that God has no son. And other false religions like Greek mythology says God can have lots of sons. Gods can have children. But neither false religion is correct. The Old Testament strongly teaches that God is one.

    Old Testament saints had to say, Sabbath after Sabbath, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. But we know from the beginning pages of Genesis that God said, Let us make man in our image. So God is one, but yet we see from the very beginning the movement of God’s self-revelation to tell us about His three persons. So God is a Trinity.

    And the prophets spoke about this coming Son of God. Isaiah, for example, has many passages where the Messiah is presented to us who is fully God and fully man. The Son of God is both divine and eternal. He is the agent of creation. He is in a relationship with the third person of the Trinity, so that the Holy Spirit can be called the Spirit of the Son.

    So what have we seen in this first part from one verse, beautiful verse four, it’s a presentation of the glorious Lord Jesus Christ. Paul wants us to understand who he is, and together with that is the second part, what he has done for us. Secondly, the glorious gospel. As we look at all of the verses, first of all we see in verses one and two, that Paul is presenting what life was like in the Old Testament, and he says it’s like we are children.

    We are under guardians and managers. Now notice that when we have children, I mean, God gives us children because, well, we deserve to have slaves, right? I mean, kids know that that’s why God gave you to us. I mean, they’re meant to be slaves. But in all seriousness, those children are very much a part of our family. Children we love. Children are our hope. And the presentation in verses 1 and 2 is the presentation of a true church that is childlike, that is not fully mature. They have not yet enjoyed a 21st birthday. An underage church.

    And in verse 1 and in verse 7, look at verses 1 and 7, Paul mentions twice the word slaves. He says that we were slaves. Now, no one wants to be a slave. Being a slave is not a pleasant position. And we were slaves before Christ to sin. We were forced by our own hearts to obey a stern taskmaster of sin.

    And as we look at verse 3, we begin to see more about what life was like for us as underage children. Verse 3, in the beginning, Paul says, when we were children. And then in 3b, he says, we were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. Now Paul uses the word we here and Paul was raised as a Jew and he’s writing to Gentiles so he seems to be including both groups that were enslaved to these elementary principles. And we have to ask ourselves, what are those kinds of elementary principles?

    And Paul’s meaning is crystal clear. What he means is that both Jew and Gentile have striven over the years to make themselves righteous in God’s sight by their own efforts, through their own working. And any such striving ends up in terrible suffering. All such efforts bring nothing but failure. And thank the Lord our situation has changed from being either young children or in the complete throes of death as Gentiles. So look at our present situation.

    And just from these seven verses we’ll see at least Five different changes that have occurred in our lives verse 5 First of all Paul says we are redeemed under the law Now if you look back on in chapter 3 when Paul wrote this he didn’t have chapters, but chapter 3 verse 13 Paul had said this about the law 313 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us And in 4.5, he uses the same word, redeem.

    That is, to redeem those who were under the law. This word redeem that Paul is using means to be bought back. To be purchased back. And it connects to Christ being under the law, which we saw in the first part. We were cursed by the law. Remember our definition of sin? We were cursed by the law and Christ brought us back through his perfect obedience to the law.

    A very important question flows out of the fact that we are redeemed from the law to enjoy adoption. we need to understand our present position relative to God’s law. And the question that perhaps you’ve asked or someone has asked you is what role does God’s moral law play in our lives as Christians now that Christ has come and we’ve been adopted sons and daughters? And the answer to that question is that God’s moral law doesn’t simply express God’s will. it’s fully in accord with God’s will. Rather, the moral law expresses God’s very being.

    It expresses His very being. Let me explain what I mean by looking at the Ten Commandments. Listen to the Ten Commandments said in a way that touches on God’s very being. There is no God higher than Him. He is so holy that His name is holy. God commands us to be like Him in taking a Sabbath rest. He commands us to honor those superior to us like parents. In that what we call the economic trinity, God the Son humbled Himself to His Father and was obedient even unto death.

    We cannot murder because God is love. We cannot be sexually impure because Jesus Christ is incarnate purity and holiness. We cannot steal because God is the rightful owner of all things. We cannot lie about our neighbors because God always speaks the truth in love. We cannot covet our neighbor’s property because God has created all that exists and gives what he wills to whom he wills. So having been redeemed from the burden or the curse of the law, we live to please our Father in heaven like Jesus Christ.

    Now a second benefit that is ours, verse 5b and 7, is that we receive adoption as sons. I thank Pastor Dan for having us read about adoption this evening from the Confession. Now, I don’t know about this congregation, but perhaps there’s someone here who’s been adopted.

    And the adopted child might look very different from their parents, but they truly are the children in that family. Emotionally, they’re understood as the children. Legally, they are the children. The child doesn’t get to choose the parents. The blessing comes to the child from the parents.

    And this is the model of God’s love for us. It is gracious love that is shed forth for us. We, dear brothers and sisters, not because we have earned it, but because of God’s graciousness, have been adopted as sons and daughters of the King. The third statement flows from the previous two. That’s in verse six in the beginning. Paul says, because you are sons. So he says, having received adoption, and now because you are adopted.

    And one thing I’m certain of, I wasn’t certain about adoption, but one thing I’m confident of is every one of us in this room is somebody’s son or daughter. And like it or not, part of our identity is wrapped up in our parents’ identity. We understand that. I would imagine that all of us, for example, have been born in America. Maybe that’s not right. But at least most of us, if not all of us, are American citizens. We identify with our country. We identify ourselves as Pennsylvanians. And that’s a natural thing.

    But what Paul is calling us to do is to see that we have a higher sonship, an identity that transcends our family, an identity that transcends our family in this congregation, an identity that transcends our national identity. Brothers and sisters, our true sonship is in Christ. And a question that flows from this statement of fact, when Paul says, because you are sons, is the question that I can’t avoid. And the question is, am I boasting in my true sonship? I can say that I’m proud to be an American. But at times, at school or at work, do I sometimes become ashamed of my true spiritual identity. May that never be for us.

    And since we are sons, fourthly, Paul says we can cry to our father. That’s in verse 6C. Now Paul, under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, chose his word very carefully. And the word cry is very graphic. All of us know that sometimes during a sermon, a child will cry. And mom or dad will need to take that child out of the room. And the sound is disruptive. But why does a baby cry out? Well, she cries out because she hurts. She’s hungry, or she’s tired, or something’s really wet. And as she cries out, she wants attention. And she knows that her cries will work. Children are pretty quick at that, aren’t they? They understand that mom and dad will come to my rescue.

    And our father in heaven. is no absentee daddy our father in heaven brothers and sisters is strong and he is loving and he is powerful and when we cry out to him as the little baby has confidence that mom and dad will come to the rescue So Paul is telling us that when we cry to our Father in Heaven, He loves us enough to come and reply to our needs.

    And finally, and fifthly, our new situation in Jesus Christ means that we have received what was sent, and that is the Son’s Spirit. This is still in verse 6. So all three persons of the Trinity are involved in our salvation. We are saved because first, God the Father loved us. Christ the Son was incarnate for us. God the Holy Spirit has called us to Himself and changed us.

    And Paul wants to make sure, as he’s writing to the Galatians, that this is not some abstract lesson in systematic theology. Brothers and sisters, if you have trusted in Jesus Christ, if you know that your salvation is found in Him, you have received the Spirit of the Son. And this union that we have with the resurrected Christ through the Holy Spirit is the greatest gift that ever can be given. So in conclusion, these few verses have presented a glorious Christ and His glorious gospel.

    Jesus Christ left the eternal realms for our sake, and He’s now resurrected on high. And wonder of wonders, His love for us is so rich and so free that He knows us, He loves us, He adopts us, He hears our prayers, and He actually dwells within our hearts by His powerful Spirit. And finally, we know that we are heading to receive a wonderful inheritance as sons and daughters because He is Lord. What can we do but praise His glorious name? But also, these verses challenge us. For each one of us, today and tomorrow and the days that follow, We need to walk as sons of the King to know that as we traverse this earth, which sometimes is full of tears, He is in control and He loves us and has His hand upon us.

    Let’s go to our glorious God in prayer. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the mercy that is ours in Jesus Christ. We thank you, oh Lord, that you have come and we rejoice that in just a few minutes we can rejoice in that in terms of the wonderful sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Oh Lord, cause us to see you in your resurrection glory. We ask in Christ’s name, amen.

    Let’s respond to the Word of God by turning in our old Psalms to read the Psalm 78a. Psalm 78a. ♪ O ye my people, to my call attentively hear ♪ ♪ The words that now my mouth will speak ♪ ♪ Remind yourselves to hear ♪ ♪ My mouth shall speak of heaven and earth ♪ ♪ The saints are the hope ♪ ♪ Which we have listened to and known ♪ ♪ As by our fathers told ♪ ♪ We will not hide the truth from you ♪ ♪ And all the praises and his fame ♪ ♪ The wonders he has done ♪ ♪ This world beyond to Jacob be ♪ ♪ His home to live forever ♪ ♪ The day our fathers, kings, and sons ♪ ♪ Have come in grace to earth ♪ ♪ Let children evermore lie down ♪ ♪ And lay beside their King ♪ ♪ Who taught in God and grace ♪ ♪ And on the iron farmers’ field ♪ ♪ A graceful solitude ♪ ♪ Which never would repair its heart ♪ ♪ For he whose sacred heart ♪ As we come this evening to the Lord’s table, let us hear the words of the institution of the psalter of Salem, recorded for us by the Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 11, verses 23-34. Here are the inspired words of God. Amen.

    For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he took the cup also after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

    For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing, he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason, many among you are weak and sick, and a number are sleep.

    But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you will not come together for judgment. The remaining matters I will arrange when I come.”

    That’s part of reading God’s Word. Here, also, these words of instruction in reference to the supper address you as a congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord’s Supper is a sacrament of the New Testament. In the giving and receiving of bread and wine according to the appointment of Jesus Christ, his death is hereby shown forth.

    Consider these things together once again. First, they that worthily partake of the Lord’s Supper do feed upon Christ’s own body and blood to their spiritual nourishment and growth in grace Second, consider that they that worthily partake of the Lord’s Supper have their union and communion with Christ confirmed. Third, they that worthily partake of the Lord’s Supper do herein testify and renew their thankfulness to God for their covenantal bond with God, such that God is our God and we are indeed His people. Fourth, consider that they that do worthily partake of the Lord’s supper do also testify and renew their mutual love for and their fellowship with one another as members of the same mystical body.

    Let us consider earnestly our great need of having our comfort and our strength so renewed in this, our earthly pilgrimage, and in our spiritual warfare, and especially how necessary it is that we come unto the Lord’s table with knowledge, faith, repentance, love, and with hearts hungering and thirsting after Jesus Christ.

    Be reminded here that it is not unto those who live willingly in transgression and in sin, holding fellowship with hatred, malice, or impurity, nor unto those who cherish pride and self-righteousness in their hearts, trusting secretly in their own works and merit that these benefits of Christ were offered. Indeed, as we hear the gospel, I must warn such as these not to approach the holy table, lest you eat and drink judgment unto yourselves. I must also warn the uninspired in the Christian faith not tonight to partake. We would, however, urge such as these to repent, to believe, and to submit yourselves to the ministry of the word, and especially when I admonish our children, our covenant youth, that they might press forward to a full and active profession and participation in the life of Christ and of his church.

    Those who are now invited to partake of the supper are all those who profess their faith in Christ and who humbly acknowledge their trust in him, those who are truly sorry for their sins and would be delivered from the burden of them, and who also desire the grace of Christ that they may lead a holy life as members of Christ’s Church, his body. May all who have such discernment then tonight be encouraged now to come to the table that you might find refreshing and impressed unto your own souls.

    Let’s pray together. Our Father in God, we ask once again to bless and sanctify this administration of the sacrament to our growth and grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that you would come humbly, with hearts broken, that we would be healed and forgiven by the Lord Jesus himself, and thankful for him. that grace by which we have been brought to faith in Him, brought into union with Him, that we might receive the benefits of His body and blood, the body broken and the blood that was shed for our redemption, that we might be the children of God, and that we might receive the glories and the blessings of that life which is ours in Him. May you bless now these very common elements of a very sacred use in our presence, as we come together to eat and drink and do so as unto the Lord, as we come together to the table in faith, believing that you have appointed this for our good and for our growth in grace. Hear our prayers of thanks and our prayers of supplication for sanctification, even through this tonight.

    We pray this all in Jesus’ name, we thank you. Amen. So it was that our Lord Jesus Christ, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread and blessed it and broke it, gave it to his disciples, that I, now ministering in his name, give this bread unto you, saying, Take heed, this is my body, which is given for you, this do in remembrance of me. As the bread is being distributed, I will read to you from the Book of Romans, chapter 3, verses 19 and 20. Reflect upon these things as you receive the bread.

    Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God. Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. This is the part of the war.

    Take, eat, this is my body which is given for you. This do in remembrance of me. Our Savior also took the cup, and having given thanks that it had been done in His name, He gave it to His disciples, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for many for the remission of sins. Drink ye all of it. Once again, reading from the word of God, this is Romans chapter 3, verses 21 to verse 26. Hear the word of the Lord.

    But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe. For there is no distinction where all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because in the forbearance of God he passed over the sins previously committed. For the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and a justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where then is posting, it is excluded by what kind of law of works, no, but by a law of faith.

    This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which I have borne many for the remission of sins. Drink ye all of it. Now let’s pray together. Once again, dear God, we are reminded that ours is the great privilege and joy to be accounted as children of God, and that by grace, through faith, and in union with your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the living God, who in the fullness of the time was born of a woman under the law for our redemption, that by his life, his death, and resurrection, we might be saved. We rejoice in gospel hope, even as we would seek to have his blessings applied to us tonight, once again, through this gracious sacrament of the Lord’s supper. We rejoice in it, and may he bless us by it. We pray these things together to a people. In Jesus’ name, we thank you. Amen. Now, as is our custom, that we would receive our deacon’s offering for the relief of the poor and the needy. Our deacon’s offering will be received.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Justification by Faith Alone

    Justification by Faith Alone

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “By Way of Reminder” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, August 11, 1996.

    About this sermon

    This review series opens with its purpose stated plainly: reminding the church of Luther’s and Calvin’s rediscovery of justification by faith alone, against the backdrop of the Roman Catholic mass. At its heart is the finality of Christ’s finished work, which alone secures our freedom.

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    Sermon transcript

    Tonight we are reading Galatians 2. Let us give our attention to the reading of God’s word, Galatians 2. Then, after an interval of fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also. This was because of a revelation that I had received, and I presented the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles to those who were of reputation, in private, for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain.

    But not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. This was because of false brethren who had secretly infiltrated our group to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, with the intent to bring us into slavery. But we did not yield to them in subjection, not even for an hour, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you. As for those who were of high reputation, their identity makes no difference to me, for God shows no partiality. Those who were considered to be pillars contributed nothing to me.

    On the contrary, recognizing that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel for the circumcised, for the one who worked effectively through Peter in his apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively through me for the Gentiles. And after recognizing the grace given to me, James, Cephas, and John, who were regarded as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, so that we might go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. They also asked us to remember the poor, which was indeed my own eager intention.

    But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they came, he began to withdraw and separate himself, fearing the group of those who insisted on circumcision. And the rest of the Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their behavior. But when I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, “If you, though a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, why do you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

    We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles. Nevertheless, we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin?

    May it never be. For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a lawbreaker. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.”

    Lord, may our ears be opened to You as servants made alive by You. Even animated by Your call, may the certainty of that call be confirmed in us, that we continue to hear what You say. Bless us, Your children, as we would be children to a Father, You a Father to us. As we are to listen to our earthly fathers, may we listen even more seriously and solemnly to our Heavenly Father. We pray this, O God, even as You, by Your Spirit and for the sake of Your Son, set this word before us for our benefit and for our good. We pray this truly, in Jesus’ name, amen.

    I have felt that it is good from time to time to offer to You, this congregation, reminders of the orientation of this topic. The reasons for this, I trust, are fairly obvious. For one thing, we have new people regularly coming into this Church, and it is important in the preaching ministry of this Church that the message from this pulpit be heard in direct terms. Also, the history of God’s people recorded for us in Scripture, and what we know from Church history and about ourselves personally, are certainly enough to convince us of the need for constant reminders.

    This is true not only because of the limits we know as human beings, because we are finite, but also because we are sinners. Therefore, in the interests of our sanctification, we must not allow ourselves to become weary of reminders. Not that every message from this pulpit is not a reminder. Not that every Scripture read in our hearing is not a reminder.

    However, a reminder, especially one that is self-consciously crafted to be just that, a reminder, is of great value to us in our Christian walk. Like the words, like the rocks taken from the Jordan and set up as a memorial, like even the sacraments, one of which we celebrated this morning. Messages like these, specially crafted reminders, may then well serve as monuments, as markers, as guideposts for us, a congregation of the Lord. But there is also the matter of our refreshment.

    Like having been traveling for a while, moving surely in the right direction, but then coming to an elevated point—a hill or a mountain—from the top of which we see better, more clearly, our destination, and also the lay of the land around us. My own soul has been graciously refreshed when I have caught again a glimpse of where I, in this Christian pilgrimage, am headed, and have understood once again the relationship of my present circumstance to that destiny, to that goal. This evening, you may well be in need of your own refreshment. This evening, you may well be in need of standing on a hill, as it were, once again, a mountaintop, just to get your bearings, to find your orientation once more, and to see clearly where you are headed. It could be that a concentrated, specifically crafted reminder would be of great help to you.

    Then there is also the matter of our spiritual development, that a focused reminder may catch you in the providence of God at a point in your life when you are ready, prepared by His Holy Spirit, to hear and to receive as never before what you must hear and receive now. This point is especially important to you, children in the congregation.

    The messages you hear regularly from this pulpit may seem to be beyond you, even confusing to you. You may not understand some, or even much, of the content of the preaching that comes forth from this pulpit. You may not understand the reasons why I seem to become so excited here, or why I raise my voice when I preach. You may not even understand why my face becomes so red, or why the veins in my neck become visible. I have been told by some that I will suffer a coronary here. One small child, so I was told, asked his mother during one of my sermons, “Is Pastor Denison mad at us?” Well, sometimes I am.

    But hopefully my smile, or perhaps it is a grimace— I have been told that as well—is enough to convince you of my interest in you and my love for you. Then there are those unforgettable days, such as the time when, on another occasion, I was delivering a reminder message, and Julie Loud came to me after the service, her face beaming, and said, “I understood everything you said.” May all of you children come to the point in your life where you fully understand the message being preached to you. To recall our orientation in summary form from time to time can therefore be greatly beneficial, and it clearly stands in keeping with the forceful directives of Scripture itself. Such directives as Isaiah 46:9 and 10, a passage which many of you children have memorized.

    Remember the former things of old, writes Isaiah. For I am God, and there is none else. I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. What about the simple reminder from Paul in 2 Timothy 2, verse 8?

    Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead, according to my gospel. Such reminders are of interest to us as we in the Church are benefited by them, and also as they become the occasion for a clear and concise presentation of the gospel itself, by which sinners are converted and translated from darkness into light. So let us continue with this reminder. This reminder concerns the orientation of this pulpit, in the hope before God that such a reminder may be found to be most useful to you. My reminder to you tonight is about the Protestant roots of this ministry, and begins with an assessment of the Apostle Paul’s relationship to the gospel. In understanding the orientation of this pulpit, I want you to ask yourself: How is Paul’s message to be approached most adequately? How is Paul’s message to be approached most adequately?

    It is the judgment of this pulpit that in order to answer this question, we must be in tune with the Reformers—sixteenth-century servants of God, particularly Martin Luther and John Calvin. Both of these men turned to Paul, the apostle of the Lord, in their responses to Catholicism and saw that the doctrine of an objective justification by faith was at the heart of the biblical gospel. Strive to understand the doctrine of justification by faith.

    In other words, according to these servants of God, a definitive historical work of God—an act of God in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ—fifteen hundred years before their time, was the basis of their salvation and their right standing before God. And that a relationship to this definitive work of God was possible not through works or through personal emotional responses, but only through faith in God’s gift. This meant for them, as they appropriated the message that the Apostle Paul, the servant of God, was proclaiming, that a right standing before God does not come to the Church through legalistic pursuits of religious duties, nor through mystical flights into experiential spirituality.

    Both approaches had been perfected by the Medieval Church, yet both lacked the essential element of Paul’s message: the focus on the concrete, historical, once-for-all-time act by God for the salvation of sinners in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. You see, these Reformers understood that if salvation comes through the legalistic pursuit of religious duties or through experiential spirituality, then the concrete historical, once-for-all-time act by God in Christ becomes tangential, trivial, and finally superfluous to the Church’s message. And that accepting the Roman Catholic position, at best, the concrete historical acts of God and Christ must be reinterpreted as anything but a once-for-all-time event, and made into an ongoing event, the benefit of which is attained only by those who are morally and mystically engaged with it. Christ’s death becomes a repeatable event that must be appropriated anew regularly in the believer’s life. Here is the very heart of the Roman Catholic system of the Mass, wherein Rome officially teaches that Jesus Christ is re-sacrificed, and that for the sins most recently committed by those in the Church.

    Both Luther and Calvin, together with the Reformation Churches that arose from them, repudiated such a system. In the conviction that the Holy Spirit is speaking through the Scriptures, they declared Paul’s message: that Jesus Christ gave himself for us, conclusively. By his sacrifice, the righteousness of God has appeared—righteousness that is apart from the law and is instead by grace through faith. For no one will be justified by the works of the law, let alone by our own spiritual experiences. Some of you know that in this summary of the Reformation’s understanding of Paul’s message, I have drawn together elements from Galatians 2, Romans 3, Philippians 3, Ephesians 2, and the central argument of 2 Corinthians 11–12. This is a solid survey of the Apostle Paul and his intention.

    The glory of the Reformation, then, is this: the realization, by God’s grace, that in Christ’s death and resurrection, something final has taken place. And it is through simple faith—only through simple faith—that the proper, God-honored connection to this final act of God is found.

    Otherwise, you fall into greater error. If you compromise the finality of God’s action in Christ’s death and resurrection, you fall into greater error. And if you rely on works, you reject grace. And if you reject grace, you boast in yourself. That is the truth. Now, need I say, this is why you are Protestant. The power of this genuine biblical faith is beyond measure.

    Shall we speak of freedom? I do not think we understand what freedom truly is anymore. On secular campuses, and even on some Christian campuses, the Christian freedom that arose from the Protestant Reformation has been entirely secularized and reduced to a political concept. It is said to be the only freedom that matters.

    Political freedom. Let me ask you about the Apostle Paul. Is this man politically free? As I recall, he was a man in chains, and he even described himself as a bond slave to Jesus Christ. So much for political freedom. This man knows a greater freedom.

    And it is a shame that so much of the Church of Jesus Christ in our day is a stranger to it. The force of this genuine biblical religion is inestimable. What freedom! The Apostle Paul being described as the apostle of freedom, the apostle of liberty. Freedom from human religious tyranny.

    We understand this in relationship to the tyrannous regime of Phariseeism, of which Paul was a part at one time in his life. We know it also from the tyrannous regime of the medieval Church, from which the Reformers were liberated. And what freedom from personal and inner religious torment.

    Does not Luther have something to teach us here? A man, it seems, filled with inner turmoil. Then by the grace of the gospel, as that was communicated to him powerfully through the epistle to the Romans and the epistle to the Galatians, he became finally a free man, with a conscience that was cleansed. As Paul says in one of the most glorious texts in all of his writings, one so easily passed over, Galatians 5 verse 1: “For freedom Christ has set us free. For freedom Christ has set us free.” And let me tell you, no government can take that freedom from you. None. And that is what makes some governments so upset. It is as if Paul, with those words from Galatians 5, were echoing his Lord.

    Jesus’ own words from John 8:36: “If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.” If you do not understand what this means, do not give yourselves rest until you do. Now I must remind you of more things than what I have said this evening. Do not worry; I am bringing this message to a close. This will be a short series entitled, “By Way of Reminder.” What I have said tonight, let it suffice for now. Let it suffice as a reminder to you about the Reformation recovery of Paul’s gospel of salvation by grace through faith. In God’s final sacrifice for sinners in Jesus Christ, that you might live in and enjoy the freedom belonging to the sons of God.

    Our God, we would not despise You. You are stirring us up to reminders that we might be pointed again in the right direction, even corrected. Grant us patience. Refresh ourselves in the orientation of our faith. Be blessed where we are in that position of our spiritual growth, even as we are beckoned through reminders to greater heights yet. We who are children, called even by these reminders, so that these reminders are set as memorials in our minds for an appropriate time. And Father, we ask that we would remember how Your Spirit has worked in Your Church, so remarkably that at times there is a consensus revolving around a reminder, such as in the time of the Reformation.

    And we would not despise our heritage, but hold to it, because we love You and we delight in the freedom that You have given us as Your gift. Here, Father, let slavery and bondage, whether religious or secular, not stop us. May we prove ourselves to be those who are free indeed, the very sons of God.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Christ Welcomes the Children

    Christ Welcomes the Children

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Philippians” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, March 22, 1992.

    About this sermon

    The disciples thought children beneath Christ’s attention, and that was only one of their wrong ideas about him. Christ deliberately welcomes the children in Luke 18, and in that welcome the New Testament overtakes an Old Testament assumption. What the disciples got wrong about children, they also got wrong about Christ.

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    Sermon transcript

    our reading of Paul’s letter to the Galatians, and this morning we have arrived at chapter to this marvelous declaration of the gospel. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

    Behold, I, Paul, say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love.

    Ye did run well. Who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. I have confidence in you through the Lord that ye will be none otherwise minded, but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. And I, brethren, if I yet preached circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross ceased. I would, I would they were even cut off which trouble you.

    For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the laws fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.”

    This I say, then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these. adultery, fornication, uncleanness, deciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, endings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like, of which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God, that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.

    Against such there is no law, and they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

    Then, turning back to the Gospel of Luke, the 18th chapter, reading verses 15 through And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them. But when his disciples sought, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them unto him and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily, I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.” Hear us, Lord, that we may be benefited, remove from us those barriers that sin has caused, that we might hear you with the whole heart, intent on obeying you with all of our energy. We ask it for the sake of your Son, in whose name we pray, amen.

    North of Jericho, in the Jordan Valley, along the roads that lead down from Galilee to Jerusalem, while Jesus is on the last of his journeys to the great city, he is confronted by a congregation, an assembly. coming to him with a unique request. These are parents out of Israel who have brought to Jesus their children, that he might touch them and bless them. This congregation is made up of many.

    The reason why it has gathered may, in fact, have a diversity of reasons, for there may be some in the company who have heard about Jesus and his marvelous works and may have thought of Jesus as something of a shaman. something as a talisman, something of a magician, someone able to work wonders.

    And in the world that they know, seeing all of the complications, seeing all of the difficulties, knowing the ravages of disease and the threat that those diseases pose even for their young, they have come to Jesus that he might touch them and cast, as it were, a spell over those children in order that those children might be protected from all malice.

    There may have been some who were quite superstitious in the company and looked upon the touch of Jesus as something magical. There may have been others who, in hearing about Jesus, had had their religious interest piqued. They were greatly interested in religious personalities. They were drawn to them as metal to a magnet. All that was necessary for them was to hear that there was one more religious teacher, one more religious phenom who was performing wonders or speaking as no one else had spoken before, and they were at the door, off for one more trip to hear this new religious genius. For some, undoubtedly, Jesus was something of a religious celebrity, and you would certainly not want to pass up the opportunity of hearing him or seeing him. And what if in later years you could say to your children, hardly able to comprehend these things themselves, What if you were able to say, well, you know, you were actually touched by the famous preacher from Galilee, Jesus. But while there may have been these types in the company, the superstitious and those interested in religious phenomenon, undoubtedly what rises within the soul of this company comes out of a covenantal background and consciousness.

    They are drawn to this person of Jesus. Yes, whole families of them are drawn to this person of Jesus because they recognize in him something of the realization of Israel’s hope. Could this be the Lord’s Messiah? Could this be the promised one? As they assemble and as they make their trek, as they come for their meeting with Jesus, we cannot dismiss from them faith itself as they look to this One, recognizing in Him, then, the proportions, the dimensions of the covenant’s promise.

    It’s realization set before them. And with that kind of consciousness coming in this frame of mind as they do, they come almost as if they were Israel as a whole. Parents and children, the whole of Israel. embodied within them and their little congregation, parents and children, has in Israel so with them, they knowing then that if this one is the Messiah, he must touch the entirety of what they are, the entirety of their lives. He will touch them in the comprehensiveness of the covenant itself. And what of their children in this connection? Why, their children are but an extension of themselves. They cannot be left out. for they yearn not just for themselves, but for their households.

    That the marvelous, great, benefit, provision, blessing of the Messiah might be bestowed upon them in full. So it is the covenant, as they had learned it well within the schoolhouse of Israel, it is the covenant that constrains and draws them to Jesus. But they are stopped They are stopped. Between them and Jesus are Jesus’ disciples. The disciples rebuke the parents.

    They say, Now, you might think that the reason why they say no is that they’re in a big hurry. Jesus doesn’t have time for this. You might think that the reason they say no is because, well, children are a nuisance. and embarrassment, and we don’t really want them here getting in the way. Jesus has more important matters to attend to. He has more important people to speak to. It may well be that the rich young ruler, whose story appears next, is waiting in the It is not because the disciples are embarrassed by the children or think that the children will be an annoyance to Jesus. It is not because the disciples have concluded that Jesus doesn’t have time for this.

    In actual fact, the disciples themselves are acting out of their covenantal consciousness. They keep the children at a distance because of their commitment to the covenant. They are committed to Jesus as the Messiah. They see him as the one who is bringing in the kingdom of God in keeping with the promises to Israel, in keeping with the promises of the covenant. They are devoted to Jesus. Their understanding, however, of that kingdom, their understanding of the covenant, go hand in hand. And in the interest of that covenant and in the interest of the kingdom of God, they keep the children at bay.

    And now you’re confused. You’re saying to yourself, how can this be? I mean, the parents have come in the interest of the covenant, seeking Jesus’ blessing, and now you’re telling me that the disciples, also in the interest of the covenant, keep the children at bay. How can this be?

    How can the covenant be at base? the commitment of both the parents and the disciples. The disciples are convinced But whatever Jesus means in terms of the fulfillment of the promises with respect to that covenant, whatever Jesus means with respect to the kingdom of God, he will not contradict essentially the administration that had been, in effect, under which these parents themselves had lived. The disciples are on their way to Jerusalem with Jesus, hoping to be sure, hoping that the arrival at the great city will mean the arrival of the kingdom in unprecedented form and power. But the arrival of that kingdom will not mean the destruction of, the laying aside of, the administration that had been. How is that administration worked out under Israel? How is the covenant expressed under Israel?

    Does it not focus in the tabernacle service and in the service rendered in the temple? Have you looked at the floor plan? of the temple and its courts, the layout, the topography of the precincts of the temple recently. Have you reviewed that? You know of the sanctuary, the holy place and the holy of holies, surrounded by a court, the court of the priests.

    Only the priests could walk in that court and approach the sanctuary. When outside to the east was the altar in front of the altar with the court of the Levites, and the Levites would take the offerings from the people and they would set those offerings upon God’s altar. But in front of the court of the Levites was the court of the men, for only the men in Israel could come and present the offerings to the Levites for sacrifice on the altar. And behind the court of the men was the court of the women and the court of the children. The kids could not approach any more than their mothers. And then these four courts were surrounded, as you know, by the court of the Gentiles. Now, it’s that blueprint that the disciples have in mind when they respond to these parents the way they do.

    Yes, we believe with all of our heart that Jesus is the Messiah, he is the King. With him comes the kingdom and the fulfillment of the promises of the covenant. But this will not mean an essential change of that administration, and when we arrive in Jerusalem, the temple in its present administration will be so perfected that it will be cast, as it were, with God’s iron, never to be tampered with again. What does Jesus say to all of this?

    It must have been startling. It must have been a shock. to them, to hear Jesus say what he did. Instead of joining in the rebuke of the disciples, he rebukes them. for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whosoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it at all.”

    We might miss the full power of what Jesus is saying here, but it certainly was not missed by his disciples. You see, ordinarily, we from this passage conclude that all that Jesus is doing here is making a moral and religious point. In other words, a point about character. All that he is saying here is that those who must approach him, those who are acceptable in the kingdom, are those who have the humility and the unpretentiousness of a child. This is adults who have learned such lessons. Had Jesus meant that, there would not have been the shock registered upon the disciples that day. But what Jesus is actually saying here is, Those who you think have right and interest to the kingdom and the temple are those who must come by other ways than those they imagine.

    For foremost in the kingdom is the child. foremost in the kingdom is the child. The child comes first, and then those who are like the child follow. And isn’t that interesting? Because as you look at the four courts of the temple, it would be the child who is virtually the last, even lower than the mothers that held them in the court of the women. The last is brought in first.

    And now it becomes apparent to us just how much Jesus is turning the whole of the disciples’ expectation upon its head in the interest of the fulfillment of that covenant which these parents are recognizing in bringing their children to Christ. For in the administration of the kingdom of heaven now, the children, with their mothers, with the men, all go into the sanctuary itself, there to commune with God, there to live in his presence. In the old administration, the covenant, in a sense, worked against itself. in the interests of a better and greater day. Yes, parents with their children in Israel, coming unto the Lord, but yet even in the coming a barrier. This far and no further.

    But now that tension that exists within the old administration is resolved in the arrival of the new. And in the administration of the new order, the little child shall lead them. Is it not interesting that in the triumphal entry, the children go in first, and in Matthew’s gospel we are told of the children’s praise within the temple precincts by which they acknowledged the superlative character and personage of Jesus. or it is distress. I will say it with gentleness, I will say it with love. There are still those who will keep the children out.

    In their reflections, in their theology, in their doctrine, they conceive of things this way. They are doing the Lord’s service. They are the agents of the new covenant, they say. It was the disciples as the agents of the old who kept the children at bay. Let us learn from a marvelous text such as this. the incalculable worth and value of God’s new administration in Christ, wherein even the barriers that the covenant itself had raised are torn down.

    As the children, the babes, the babes in lead the way. Let us pray. Our Father, as we would acknowledge your covenant and the glories that are found in all of the promises and wonderfully in the blessings We fully acknowledge the inadequacy of the old administration and glory in the fullness, the comprehensiveness and the perfection of the new. Lord, we ask that as in fact we would present our children not out of presumption, but in We might also be determined in ourselves to live godly lives before you, truly becoming as children ourselves, that we, with our children, might enter the kingdom of God. We pray that in Christ’s name, that one who touched and blessed the children on his way

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Paul Confronts Peter at Antioch

    Paul Confronts Peter at Antioch

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 3, 1991.

    About this sermon

    The stage is set with James before turning to the sharp confrontation at Antioch, where Paul corrects Peter to his face. Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians and his wider second missionary journey follow, the same gospel integrity worked out in new territory.

    More sermons from Galatians · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    So now shall we begin our scripture reading in Galatians, chapter 2. We start at verse 11 and read to the end of the chapter. Hear the word of God. When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his faith, because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles, but when they came, he began to withdraw to hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cetus in the presence of all, if you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?

    We are Jews by nature and not sinners among the Gentiles. Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, Even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, since by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if while seeking to be justified in Christ we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin?

    May it never be, for if I rebuild what I once What I have once destroyed I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me in the life which I now live. In the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and delivered himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, with righteousness comes to the law, and Christ died needlessly.” I’m turning over to the book of Acts, the 18th chapter. In order to get a feel for Paul’s second missionary journey, we’ll begin reading with the first verse.

    After these things he left Athens, that is, Paul, and went to Corinth, and he found a certain Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them, and they were working, for by trade they were tent makers. And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews in Greece. Then Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia.

    Paul began devoting himself completely to the Word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. And when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, Your blood be upon your own heads, I am cleansed. From now on I shall go to the Gentiles.

    And he departed from there and went to the house of a certain man named Titius Justus, a worshipper of God whose house was next to the synagogue. And Christus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his house, and many of the Corinthians, when they heard, were believing and being baptized. And the Lord said to Paul, In the night, by a vision, do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking, and do not be silent. For I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city.”

    And he settled there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. Then turning over to 1 Thessalonians, for a taste of that epistle, Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians, the first chapter. And reading the end of that first chapter, beginning in verse 8, For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything.

    They themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who delivers us from the last to come.

    Our Father, it is true that often we believe that the impossibilities that stand for man are final, that there are impossibilities for us and for those that we know and love. We ask, Lord, that we would have that faith that sees you as the God of all possibility, not only for ourselves, for surely we have been rescued by you, redeemed and set in your kingdom. Lord, with respect to those about us, those we love, and with respect to the circumstances that overtake your people, you are the God who can change things. We thank you, our Father, Such is your power, that according to your ordination, your people make their requests, they cry out unto you, and you, in response to them, change things.

    You even change, Lord, those whose hearts are apparently of stone. You take those who are intractable and make them pliable. You renew them. You change the direction of their lives. You raise them up, as it were, from the dead. You rejoice our God. May we, in our attitude, never act as if great things are impossible to you. Instead, may our confidence be built up and our hope strengthened through what you tell us in your word. May we pray with all confidence and with full expectation that we are heard and shall be answered as you please. We pray these things as we approach your word tonight. For Jesus’ sake, amen.

    Now as we make our way through this history of New Testament times, we want to remember that there is not simply historical material for us that comes to us from the Gospels and from the Book of Acts. But there are also epistles, and that the epistles work within the framework of that history that is laid out in front of us. Not that that’s an easy task. It isn’t. We go to work trying to colorate what we find in the epistles with what we find in historical sections of Acts. Sometimes we are baffled. Sometimes we’re at a loss. Nevertheless, there is a historical frame which the various epistles fit. There is a figure that has been introduced to us now in Acts that is important to us.

    The figure is James. He was introduced to us last week as we took up the Jerusalem Council. He appeared there and According to the account in Acts, he gave the final speech, and everybody was happy after he had spoken, and the letter was drafted and sent out to the churches with the imprimatur of the apostles and the elders in Jerusalem. And James certainly was a pillar of that church. So who is this James? If he, in fact, the brother of John, one of the sons of Zebedee.

    Well, that can’t be. Why? Because in the 12th chapter of Acts, we’ve already found out that that fellow has been executed by Herod Agrippa. He’s gone from the sea. That James has died, passed on. Here’s another James. What James might this one be? Well, there is the James who was the younger brother of Jesus, son of Mary. It seems from the gospel accounts he wasn’t a believer to begin with. Now after the death and resurrection of Jesus, he has come to believe and now is a pillar in the church at Jerusalem. And the epistle that bears the name James, later on in the canon of the New Testament, has been written by the younger brother of Jesus.

    Now, this epistle that has been written has caused its own problems, and I think that you’re well aware of those. Have you worked your way through the epistle of James recently? Maybe you were as distressed as was Martin Luther when he read through it.

    He didn’t like that epistle at all. He called it the epistle of straw. Very weak, he said. Why? Because he couldn’t find any evidence in it of the doctrine of justification by faith alone, the doctrine which he felt was the chivalrous by which all true Scripture could be identified and authenticated. James hadn’t fared well with the Protestant Reformation, at least as it came forth from Luther.

    It fared much better with Calvin. Calvin looked at the epistle of James, and he saw the epistle of James as something of a New Testament book of wisdom. Do we have Old Testament books of wisdom? Do we not? the most famous of which is probably the Book of Proverbs.

    Here is a New Testament book of wisdom, and you hear James speak about wisdom, and that’s centrally to his epistle. You read the third chapter of James, and you come to the fifteenth verse of that chapter and what a marvelous statement is given up there as James speaks about that wisdom that is transcendent, the wisdom that comes down from heaven but doesn’t arise from the earth.

    Magnificent, magnificent statement. It’s obvious from that statement that James himself has the heavenly point of view, and that with respect to the wisdom that then he places before the churches, before the saints. Now, he has a number of sober reminders for us in light of this wisdom that he is sharing now by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I might say a wisdom that is possible only because of the work of Jesus Christ. This wisdom that comes down from above is the wisdom that is dispensed by Christ from on high. This epistle, as I have said, is a book of sober reminders.

    We must remember that faith, though it justifies, does not stand alone in its activity. Faith is proved by works, so much is this the case that James wants us to hear it in stark, in bold fashion. justified, therefore, by a faith which stands alone. For a faith which stands alone, devoid of works, is dead.”

    Now, does this contradict what Paul has said so magnificently in Galatians, the second That portion which we have read tonight? No, not at all. If you continue to read in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, you come to the fifth chapter, the sixth verse, and we’re told there by the Apostle Paul that there is this faith then that justifies, but this faith which justifies is a faith that works by love. And if it doesn’t work by love, it’s not justifying faith.

    It’s as simple as that. It’s as simple as that. an epistle then of sober reminders to us coming forth from James, the younger brother of Jesus. And not only is he reminding us of faith’s relationship to work, he’s reminding us of faith’s relationship to prayer. Go on to the fourth chapter. You want to jolt, read that fourth chapter. In fact, pick up any of the chapters of James’ epistle, and you’re sure to be jolted by what you read in those chapters. But nevertheless, moving on to the fourth chapter, you have faith relationship to prayer. He comes out boldly.

    Why is it that you pray, and then you don’t see any consequence to your prayer? A straightforward question. Why is it you see no response from heaven to your prayers? Because you pray them in. You pray out of your lust, he says. What you wish for, you will hope to receive in order to consume what you have received upon your lust, that’s why. You are not, therefore, submissive to God In your prayers, your faith is not directed properly.

    It is not directed aright. Sobering sucks. You have to go to work on your heart when you enter into the activity of prayer. You have to fight with yourself. You have to argue with yourself, debate with yourself, with regard to the condition of your heart as you make requests of heaven. Be in tune with the One to whom you are called upon to submit. Be in tuned to God. Be in tuned with Christ. Be in tuned with that wisdom that comes down from above. understand him, and pray accordingly.” Well, here is James, and he is figured, as I have said, already, as you know, we saw this last week, he is figured in the Jerusalem Council.

    He’s said the decision is made now with respect to Gentile status. Do they have to submit themselves to Jewish rights to the law itself? Is that to be required of them? Are they to be compelled to keep the ceremonial laws of the Jews? No. So says the Council in Jerusalem, and now the word goes out, James contributing to that.

    Now, we’re not done with the figure of James, as you’ve seen from the letters to the Galatians. We have Galatians 2, which James has mentioned once more. It seems that now that Paul and Barnabas have returned from Jerusalem to Antioch, which is their home church, they have engaged in teaching and preaching there once more, and it could well be within that context that the things that are described now in Galatians 2 take place. Peter has come down from Jerusalem. He’s paying a visit to the church in Antioch. And when he comes there initially, he eats with the Gentiles.

    Makes no bones about it. Jews and Gentiles eating together. Now, see, that’s not the way it used to be. Jews didn’t eat with Gentiles. You would become unclean if you did such a thing. Now, we are told that there are those who have come down, reputedly, from the party of James, come down from Jerusalem, representing him, and when they arrive on the scene, we are told that Peter withdraws from the Gentile tables and eats at the table of the Jews who have come down from Jerusalem. Now, things are in a backdraw. Not only is it a matter of Peter withdrawing and then segregating himself to eat only with Jews, we have pressure brought to bear upon Barnabas, the former Levite, you know. He is withdrawing also.

    So Paul withstands Peter to the face. He puts it to him, knowing that if he does not make his stand, the Gentiles there at Antioch are liable to think once more that salvation in some respect is related to the work of the law, or that these Jews have a privileged status and that their keeping of their ceremonial practices somehow places them at a level above Gentile believers. Paul sees this as a threat. a threat to the gospel itself. So he goes toe-to-toe, eyeball-to-eyeball with Peter publicly, stands up to him, challenges him, and wins the day. Peter is convicted and realizes his error. and he and Paul once more in fellowship again, and Barnabas is recaptured.

    Well, this is the second missionary journey with Paul, and we’re going to survey that tonight with you. We’ll be moving from the 15th chapter of Acts, verse 36, through the 18th chapter, verse 22. Now, it’s in fact these Problems arose in the Antioch church prior to the second missionary journey of Paul. What now transpires as Paul’s getting ready for that second missionary journey leaves us quite disillusioned, doesn’t it?

    Because, you see, the church is a place where controversy takes place. You can’t avoid it. There’s been controversy at the church at Antioch. There’s been trouble. People have been fighting with one another. Peter and Paul, in fact, have squared off against each other and gone toe-to-toe.

    And not only that, but now as you move into the preparations for the second missionary journey with Paul, we have Paul standing over against Barnabas. Completely different matter now, for Barnabas wants to take along with him John Mark. What’s the problem there? Well, during the first missionary journey, you might recall John Mark abandoned ship. He left. And Paul is quite upset about that. Why should we take this fella who abandoned us in our first journey? Barnabas is insistent. He wants to take John Mark. They can’t come to an agreement, so they part company. Barnabas takes John Mark, and they go to Cyprus, and Paul takes Silas, and they set out to the north and to the west through Asia Minor.

    Now they retrace the steps of the First missionary journey, that is, they retrace the cities that had been visited by Paul and Barnabas in Lavergne. They go to Derby and then Lystra. If you have a map in the back of your Bible, you may want to follow the progress of the journey through Asia Minor. They go to Derby, the city of Derby first, and then they go to Lystra, and there, though we’re not told in the Book of Acts, they pick up Timothy. Timothy joins the company because he is from Lystra.

    They then move to Iconium and then to another Antioch. This is Antioch of Pisania, a different city than the one that they had left where their home church was situated. They are forbidden to go into the province of Asia, which stands to the far west, now in Asia Minor, the province that includes such cities as Ephesus and others, they’re forbidden to enter into that province by the back door, so they must move northward, but they run then into the province of Bithynia, and they are forbidden by the Spirit to enter Bithynia, so they have to move due west. They have to move due west to Troas. It’s almost as if Paul’s party must to skirt the territories of Asia and Bithynia, like the Jews were compelled to skirt the territories of Edom and Moab in the Old Testament as they were making their approach to the Promised Land.

    But at any rate, at any rate, Paul and his company finally come to Troy. Now, this is, in fact, ancient Troy. And we’re not told much about what happens there, but it is plain from the text that at this point they pick up, in addition to the ones that they are already carrying along, they pick up Luke, which is at this point that we have introduced for us the wee passages of the Book of the Acts, suggested that the author is himself engaged in what is happening. Well, it is at Troas that Paul receives his Macedonian call. You remember the vision that he has? The Macedonian that appears to him says, come over and help us. So Paul and his company are off to Macedonia, and they land at Neapolis, and from there they go down to Philippi, a famous city of that region, and great things happened in Philippi.

    Read the sixteenth chapter of Acts. and refresh your memories. They meet Lydia there. She’s saved. She is a convert. There is also the healing of the demon-to-death girl. She’s a sorceress. She’s a means of income to others who live in Philippi. Those who are denied now their income through her services are enraged, and they go to work on Paul and his company and set the officials against them. Paul and Silas are then in prison. They’re beaten. You remember what happens at midnight as Paul and Silas are singing psalms together. There’s an earthquake and the jailer comes in. He’s trembling. He sees that his wife is in the balance.

    He asks the question, What must I do to be saved? And Paul gives his response, “…believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” We usually leave off the last part of that. Unfortunately, I suppose the reason that we do is that we’re Baptists at heart instead of Presbyterians. No, the whole verse says, “…thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” Covenantal response Paul makes here. to this Gentile jailer. Today there is the apology that was given by the officials of Philippi as Paul and Silas are then released.

    They make their way then to Antipolis and then to Apollonia and then they come to Thessalonica. We’ve read from Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians tonight that there are controversies that arise in Thessalonica. And from that region they then moved down to Berea. On their heels come Jews from Thessalonica to make trouble for them there at Berea. The Bereans, however, proved themselves to be most noble because they searched the scriptures diligently to see whether the things that Paul is saying are true. But Paul is then, because of the pressure that is exerted in Berea, forced to leave there.

    He leaves behind Silas and Timothy, he travels out to the coast, and then he moves on down south to Athens, and at Athens he preaches in the marketplace, and he’s taken up on Mars Hill, there to address the philosophers that had gathered there regularly in order to hear something new.

    He preaches to them something new indeed, the resurrection from the dead, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He tells them, in fact, that this one who has been raised will come again to judge the world. Some of them said, well, that’s interesting. Some of them stopped. Others believed.

    We move then into the 18th chapter of Acts, Paul is moving west from Corinth, I’m sorry, he’s moving west from Athens to Corinth, a place where then he stays for 18 months, a year and a half we are told. He meets there Aquila and Priscilla, they are tent makers, they’re fleeing Rome because Claudius the Emperor has issued an edict and driven the Jews out of Rome, they’ve come to Corinth to live there and to work, and Paul being a tent maker, he knows a trade, He joins forces with them, and they are working together, Paul supporting himself, and we assume at the same time he is preaching the gospel. When Timothy and Silas arrive, they come down from the north.

    He is able to give his full time to the ministry of the Word. The Jews, however, are stirring things up. They enlist, or hope to enlist, Gallio, a council there, a royal official, a government figure. He has no sympathy for the Jews and their objectives, and the church is sparing.

    But after the 18 months, Paul is on his way to Jerusalem. He leaves Corinth, and he makes his way to Ephesus. He stays but a little time A little period there, he is with Aquila and Drusilla once more there in Ephesus, but then he departs from Ephesus, promising to return and minister to them later on. He makes his journey back to the Holy Land, to Caesarea, he goes up to Jerusalem, he there greets the Church, and then he returns to the home base, Antioch. We have that in the 22nd verse of the 18th chapter, and the second missionary journey of Paul has reached its conclusion.

    Now, there is something else to be said. We have, in fact, read some Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians. There are letters to the Thessalonians this evening. There are two of them. These epistles are written by him when he was at Colon. and quite concerned about the well-being of the Thessalonians to the north. There have been some deputations to Thessalonica. We had sent Timothy to investigate the situation there. He was quite concerned about the well-being of these saints. But Timothy has reported much to the joy of Paul how well the Thessalonians are doing.

    Once an exciting reading, read through the Thessalonian Epistles because you have an account of the well-being of the Thessalonian Church and how magnificently these things are doing even under the pressures that they are living. You have them doing well, but there are some concerns. I might note some of them.

    In the fourth chapter, for instance, of that first epistle, Paul is warning them about the sorts of things that they are bound to face, which they are in fact facing in this Gentile environment. Immorality, in a Gentile environment, has a certain status. Because, you see, immorality has placed upon it a religious sanction. you can sin sexually in a Gentile environment and be looked upon as one who is pleasing the gods and goddesses. So sexual immorality has a certain status conferred upon it in a Gentile environment. These Thessalonians have been rescued from that, They have been introduced to the living and true God, they are awaiting his sons in heaven, but the pressures are severe, they are intense.

    So you can read in that fourth chapter of the first epistle to the Thessalonians how Paul gives them instruction. But not only that, you have the problem of the second coming, and that too is addressed by Paul in the latter part of that fourth chapter and into the This chapter has some very interesting things to say about the return of Christ. Now, it’s not as if Paul’s letter was fully successful, because you turn to the second letter of Paul to Thessalonians and you find him dealing with similar issues. In fact, things have become so bad now, with respect to the second coming, it seems that a number of people have stopped working. can become a drag upon the life of the Church. So Paul again speaks to them very forthrightly about matters concerning the second coming of Christ, but then he tells them, look, get to work.

    You’re busy about those things that you should be busy about, and don’t give yourself an excuse. Don’t provide yourself some sort of theological excuse for your slothfulness, for your laziness. words again that I pointed, and I read, and of course minister to those folks in Thessalonica several centuries ago. Well, read those epistles for profit, for instruction to yield. They are very helpful.

    Remember the stress that that early church was under. and under the temptations to face them on every side, the concerns they had about life day by day, concerns they had with respect to things theological, like the return of Christ, and the importance of that question for the life of believers. The second missionary journey is Paul, expressing the things that we’ve already emphasized time and again, mission and the message of grace, the unity of the Church as once more Jew and Gentile are brought together under the banner of Christ, and, of course, the apostolic presence as the progress of the Church is overseen by the authority of those whom Christ has called and set in place. Amen.

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