Series: Galatians
Title: Messenger, Message, Motive
Text: Gal 1: 1-5
Date: Sept 17,2020
Place: SGBC, NJ
Galatians 1: 1: Paul, an
apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father,
who raised him from the dead;) 2: And all the brethren which are with me, unto
the churches of Galatia: 3: Grace be to you and
peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, 4: Who gave
himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world,
according to the will of God and our Father: 5: To whom be glory for
ever and ever. Amen.
This epistle to the
Galatians is likely Paul’s first letter.
During his first missionary journey, Christ used Paul to establish the
church at Galatia. This letter was
probably written while Paul was on his second missionary journey around 50-53
AD. The reason for the letter is because
Judaizers had begun turn Galatians back to the law from Christ.
Proposition: In the first 5 verses, Paul defends his office, to
defend his gospel and the calling of his brethren—he does so by declaring that God
our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord makes his messengers, our Lord gives one
message and God gives us one motive—this is true of all who Christ saves: all
are made messengers by Christ, all have one message and all have one motive.
Title & Divisions: 1) Messenger 2) Message 3) Motive
CHRIST MAKES HIS
MESSENGER
Galatians 1: 1: Paul, an
apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father,
who raised him from the dead;)
The devil uses the same
tactics in every generation. When he seeks to divide, he attacks Christ’s messenger. By this he attempts to discredit the gospel he
preaches. By this he attempts to destroy
the assurance of brethren, separating us from Christ to our flesh. That is what was happening in Galatia.
So Paul magnifies, not
himself, but his office by magnifying the one who made him an apostle—"Paul,
an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the
Father, who raised him from the dead;).” Paul declares God the Father raised Christ
to show that our Redeemer accomplished redemption. And that our living Head is the one making
his messengers. He called Paul personally,
as ever apostle was called. Still, in
our day though he may use means, it is Christ himself who makes us his witnesses. No man gets glory!
Paul was not exalting self nor desirous of position and
titles—he never calls himself “the apostle Paul”—but “Paul, an apostle”. The Lord said false messengers love,
Matthew 23: 7: greetings
in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. 8: But be not ye called
Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. 9: And
call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is
in heaven. 10: Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even
Christ. 11 But he that is greatest among
you shall be your servant. 12: And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be
abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
But Paul said of himself, “I am the least of the
apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the
church of God” (1 Cor 15: 9). Paul
owned himself “less than the least of all saints and the chief of sinners”
Romans 11:13: For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as
I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: 14: If by any means I
may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.
Paul desires they know that Christ made him an apostle
so they know he preached the truth so they remain assured that they,
themselves, are the fruits Christ produced through his preaching. He said to the
Corinthians
1 Corinthians 9:2: If
I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of
mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.
2 Corinthians 2: 3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be
the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the
Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the
heart. 4 And such trust have we through
Christ to God-ward: 5 Not that we are
sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency
is of God;
So Paul is pointing them to
Christ—Hebrews 3:1 Wherefore, holy
brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High
Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. Christ
makes his apostles and preachers, as well as all of his witnesses. Every believer is a witness of Christ made by
Christ. So it is the most dangerous
endeavor a man can engage in to go against Christ’s preacher to get to Christ’s
church because it is to go against Christ himself. The church is Christ’s body, the fulness of
him. Christ hedges us about and protects
us and reproves kings for our sakes, “Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and
do my prophets no harm” (Ps 105: 14-14).
CHRIST GIVES ONE MESSAGE
Galatians 1: 3: Grace be
to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, 4:
Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil
world, according to the will of God and our Father:
Brethren, verses 4 and 5
covers every possible argument of legalists.
This one statement makes it impossible to argue for human merit having any
part in salvation. Paul is writing to
brethren called and kept of God. He says, Grace be to you and peace from God
the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace is God’s unmerited favor. If salvation be of grace then it is not of
works. Grace is from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. By grace God our Father chose his people freely
in Christ, not based on anything in us, but according to the good pleasure of
his will. By grace he redeemed us
by his Son by himself with no help from us.
By grace he regenerated and called us through the Holy Spirit to
rest in Christ for all. By grace he keeps
us and shall bring each home to glory. So
beginning to end salvation is by the grace of God our Father and his Son Jesus
Christ.
Likewise, peace is
from God our Father and his Son Jesus Christ—Christ is our Peace with God! Sin and guilt torment our conscience. But grace
remits sin by Christ’s blood and gives peace of conscience within his child. The Spirit purges us with the blood of Christ
convincing us that all our sins are gone in the eye of God and there is no more
offering for sin—we are accepted in the Beloved! That is peace with God. Our peace is knowing
God accepts us in the Beloved and it shall never change!
By grace, God keeps his
child in peace by the preaching of one message—"our Lord Jesus Christ, Who…”
Our gospel, our salvation, our
righteousness, our acceptance is a person, God in human flesh, our Lord Jesus
Christ. Paul said,
2 Timothy 1: 12:…I
know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which
I have committed unto him against that day.
Our one message is WHAT Christ
did—"Who gave himself for our sins,…” Our sins separated us
from God. The one thing we can claim as
all our own—our sins, our guilt! We sinned
in Adam. Our nature is sin! All we do is sin! Paul said, “I know that in
me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing!”
If you have seen that you
were the only one at the foot of the cross, nailing Christ’s hands and feet to
the cross, piercing him, mocking him, reviling him then you know it is true. The more we see that Christ gave himself for
our sins, the less we will esteem ourselves and the more we will esteem him.
The righteousness of God’s
people is Christ Jesus alone—Christ gave himself for our sins. The sins of God’s people were so bad that
only God coming in human flesh and giving himself for our sins could justify us
and make restitution to God! So the
spotless Lamb of God, God’s own Son, willingly, freely, gave his spotless self
and was made sin for his chosen people—
"The Lord laid on
him the iniquity of us all”
“He hath made him sin
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Christ gave himself to bear our sins with all
its shame.
"Who his own self
bear our sins in his own body on the tree.”
He gave himself to be made a curse for us: to bear the
unmitigated wrath and justice of God for our sins
The one message God gives
us to declare is WHAT Christ accomplished—"that he might deliver us
from this present evil world.” Christ
magnified and honored the law, declaring God righteous. Now God is just to set us free from the curse
of the law because he justified us.
Romans 8: 32: He that
spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with
him also freely give us all things? 33: Who shall lay any thing to the charge
of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
Christ delivered his own from
the curse of the law so each one shall be given the promise of the Spirit: faith
in Christ and delivered from the dominion of our present evil sin-nature.
Galatians 3: 13: Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it
is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: 14: THAT the
blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; THAT we
might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Believer, when the devil
condemns, when he accuses, when he turns you to your sins and tries to tell you
more is required, remember: Christ is not a judge to condemn us because He
gave Himself for our sins. He will
not trample his fallen child but raises him up. He will not lay a heavier burden but comforts his
broken-hearted child. When you are
afraid of the self-righteous, you can go to Christ. He receives us. He has mercy.
He loves and comforts and never casts us out. Because he already gave himself for your
sins. And Christ shall deliver each blood-bought child fully, finally,
forever from this present evil world into glory with him because he gave himself
for our sins:
Philippians 1: 6:…he
which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ:
The one message Christ
declares through his preacher is WHY he did it?—"according to the will
of God and our Father.” Everything in salvation from election to
glorification is according to the will of God and our Father and all is
accomplished by his Son through the Spirit
John 6: 38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine
own will, but the will of him that sent me. 39 And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me,
that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. 40 And this is
the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth
on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
So God makes his
messenger, God gives one message and
CHRIST GIVES ONE MOTIVE
Galatians 1: 5: To whom be
glory for ever and ever. Amen.
When we are motivated by
the glory of God—wanting God to have all the glory—then we will do what Paul
did when confronted with this problem.
Paul proved Christ had delivered him from this present evil world. He proved that he was an apostle by Christ. He proved that Christ had given him one
message and that he was ruled by this one motive. How so?
We see him here walk by faith: he declared the gospel of Christ rather than law. It is because he trusted Christ to be his
sufficiency and that Paul, himself, had none.
Paul believed that only Christ could convince and keep his people
through the one message, the preaching of the cross.
Also, we see faith
working by the love of Christ and love for his brethren: love constrained Paul
to continue declaring the good news of Christ, even though some had turned
against him.
Paul’s motive was “to God
be the glory!” Men who claim God’s glory
to be their motive often prove otherwise by not believing Christ so as to declare
the one message of Christ and trusting Christ to work in his people. But God has made his people know their insufficiency
and Christ’ sufficiency through the messenger Christ made, with the one message
Christ sends, moved by the one motive God creates within us:
1 Corinthians 1: 28: [God
chose] base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God
chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that
are: 29: That no flesh should glory in his presence. 30: But of him are ye in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and
sanctification, and redemption: 31: That, according as it is written, He that
glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
Amen!