Sermon Transcript: Galatians 1:1-5 - Moving Forward, Means Going Back

  I want to ask three questions. I want to ask who. I want to ask when and I want to ask why. And that's going to help us set this book up. Who? Who are the Galatians? There are two theories. If you'll put the map on the screen. Okay? Either Paul is writing to churches. Notice verse Paul's writing not to just one church, but to multiple churches, found in the northern territory of modern-day Turkey, Asian minor. And it is well known that there were natives of that land that were descendants of the Celtic people that called themselves Galatians. So by ethnicity, they were what's known as Galatians or what was known as Galatians. So there's the northern Galatian territory. Perhaps in Acts and through Acts, Paul is visiting that area. Luke makes mention in the book of Acts that Paul visited and he uses the word Galatia in Acts this area. In fact, many of the early church fathers held to this view that Paul's writing to churches that existed up there in the northern territory of Asia Minor and there were Galatians by ethnic descent. Maybe so. But, but there are a few problems with that and I'm not going to get into every one of the problems. If you really want to go deeper, you can go to my study notes on the website, the rxccardersville.com slash Galatians and you can see more. You can also just get a really good study Bible and it'll tell you as well. But Luke doesn't imply that Paul planted any churches in Galatia during that missionary journey, which would have been his second missionary journey. You see, the word Galatia could have meant two different things to the people during Paul's day. It could have referred to people of ethnic descent, but it could also have referred to a province of Rome, similar to how we call certain states in the northeast, New England. It refers to a geographic area. Galatia also referred to a geographic area in the southern part of Asia Minor, now modern-day Turkey. And Paul did visit this area in his first missionary journey, the cities of Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lyconia, Lystra, and Derby. Luke records Paul's first missionary journey in Acts through It's also important to note that on that first missionary journey, the apostle Paul took with him Barnabas. Now, why is that important? Because in Galatians, Barnabas is mentioned three different times. After Paul's first missionary journey, though, he and Barnabas were not together, Barnabas did not travel with Paul on his second missionary journey. So which one is it? Well, I think the best answer is found in what happens between Paul's first missionary journey and his second missionary journey, which is Acts So write this down. Your homework tonight or this week is to read Acts and In Acts we have an event that in church history has been called the Jerusalem Council. And at the Jerusalem Council, the elders of the church in Jerusalem, because the church in Jerusalem was the very first church, it was, I don't know a better way to word it than it was the mother church. It was the sending church. And the elders of that church and the apostles got together to discuss this issue of what are we going to do with these Gentiles? They're believing the gospel. What are we going to do about it? And Peter gets up and says, here's what we're going to do about it. They're saved the same way we're saved. They're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. That's how they're saved. They do not have to be circumcised or they do not have to obey the Mosaic law to be made right with God. It's grace alone. Now, if this book was written after that council that Paul knew about and was there when this took place, why did he not mention it in Galatians? Because we all know most of us, most of us know. The issue at hand is circumcision. Should these Gentiles who are believing the gospel be circumcised too? Why would he not reference it? He doesn't reference it. I mean, you would think that that council would be referenced if Paul is writing after the council. Because that council is not referenced at all in Galatians. I am led to believe, maybe not you and I don't want to be dogmatic about it, that Paul is writing before the council. Therefore, these churches are the churches that he visited and planted that Paul records in detail in that southern territory. So that's the way I'm going to go. Now, you don't have to go that way. Honestly, it really doesn't matter because that's not the most important question. So when did Paul write this? I'm going to say he wrote this before the Jerusalem council and after his first missionary journey, which would have been somewhere around AD, making this one of, if not Paul's first letter, perhaps first Thessalonians was, one of his first epistles, at least preserved for us to this day. But the most important question is why did Paul write it? Look at chapter verses and Just look down at your Bible real quick. We're actually going to walk through these verses next week, but jump in ahead just to give us some context. I'm 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. Since Paul has planted these churches and left, false teachers have snuck in and they have quickly begun to preach a different gospel. And what they've done, and we can see it because of the context, is that they have attacked the validity of Paul's apostleship. And if you attack the messenger, what does that do to the message of the messenger? It discredits the message. Well, if he's not an apostle, then what he said is wrong. It doesn't matter. So because they're going after his apostleship, they're going after his gospel and they've now taught, no, no, no, it's not just faith in Jesus that makes you right. It's faith in Jesus plus, you know, you have to do what we've been doing all along. You have to be circumcised. And that law thing that's such a big deal to us, you have to obey it too. They were known as Judaizers or those of the circumcision party. And so Paul writes to a church that's in crisis or should I say to churches because there's multiple churches here. We don't know the extent of the relationship of the churches, but we know the false teaching is spreading throughout these churches. Paul knows the salvation of those individuals in these churches is in the balance. It hangs in the balance. Are they going to believe a lie or are they going to believe in the sufficiency of the cross? And he writes with urgency this letter that you cannot add anything to the work of the gospel. It is Christ's work alone that makes us right. We believe we are saved just as Peter said at the Jerusalem council by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. And it's with that urgency Paul writes this letter. Let's read his introduction versus one to six. 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. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we turn our attention to your word. We need you to speak to our hearts this morning. Help me deliver your word faithfully. Help me be but a messenger, a mouthpiece of your word. Remove distractions. Minister to the hearts of your people through your Holy Spirit, pointing them to the gospel of your Son. And may we run back to the cross this morning. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Now to the introduction. So we said, oh, I thought that was the introduction. No, that was the setup. Now we're to the sermon. As many of you know, my family frequents the beach each summer. We love the beach. We've always loved the beach. I've grown up loving the beach. And we love the saltwater. We love the warm ocean air. And we've taught our kids to really love the beach. They love the beach. Every single one of our children loves the beach. And they love swimming in the ocean and they always have. And as they've gotten older, they're able to swim in the ocean by themselves. I know some of you parents are like, wait, you let your kids swim in the ocean by themselves. They can swim. Okay. We're keeping our eye out on them. They're still alive today. Okay. We're okay. And I set some ground rules for my kids before they ever got in the ocean. There's a ground rule that deals with drifting. I understand and they understand that when you go into the water in the ocean, you're probably going to drift, right? There's the waves. There's the wind. You're going to drift. There's a current. So the rule has always been simple. When you see yourself or notice yourself drifting, you do one thing, you turn around and you look back. You find mom and dad. You find our umbrella. You find our chairs. You know what we look like. You find us and you make your way towards us. That's Paul's message in these first five verses to this church that has drifted away from the gospel. His message is to avoid drifting even further. Stop, turn around and run back to the cross. If you're taking notes, here's what I want us to see. And these five verses, and I'm going to prove it to you. It's here. If we are as a Christian to progressively, if we are to progressively move forward in Christ, and by the way, that's what we're all doing. If we call ourselves a Christian is we're moving forward in this process called sanctification. So if we're going to progressively move forward in Christ, we constantly go back to the cross. That's the point. We constantly go back to the cross. I'm almost there. That's my first sub point. Hang tight. That's what Paul is teaching us this morning because listen, we have the same tendency in our heart to believe what the Galatians believed. It's the way we come into this world thinking that there's something that we have to do. This is what the world teaches. You have to be good enough. You have to work hard enough to earn something. We have to, surely it can't be as easy as just relying on Jesus to save us. I've got to do something about this. I've got to love him more. I've got to obey him more. We all have that tendency. And when we do that, what we do is we diminish the cross and we drift further from the cross and Paul's saying, no, no, no, no, no. If you want to actually keep walking forward as a Christian, that's a life of keeping or continually looking back to the cross. Now Paul is going to do something in this introduction. He knows his apostleship is under attack. He knows that the authenticity of his apostleship is being attacked. And therefore, he knows that the gospel that he proclaimed, the gospel is also under attack because you can't disconnect the two. To attack the messenger means to discredit the message. So Paul is going to emphasize his apostleship and therefore the sufficiency of the gospel he preached in these first five verses. So I want us through that lens to see, now you can put it up, two reminders that will help us move forward in our walk with Jesus, two reminders. Number one, go back to the validity, the validity. We might say the authenticity of the cross's messenger. What do I mean? Notice how Paul begins. Paul, an apostle, an apostle, underline that, an apostle. Now we've studied the book of Corinthians. We've studied the book of Romans. We've studied the book of Philippians and Ephesians. We've unpacked this word apostle before. I realize some of you weren't with us when we did that. And maybe you need a review. The word apostle in the Greek is apostolos. And the Bible uses that word in two different ways, in a generic way and in a specific way. Apostolos means one sent out as a messenger, a sent one, commissioned by someone else. In John, I do believe that's it. Jesus says a messenger isn't greater than the one who sent him, an apostolos. In a sense, every Christian is a sent one. You're a missionary wherever you go. A missionary for the glory of God, for the fame of the gospel, wherever you go, that you are an apostolos. However, the Bible also uses that word we know for something very specific, reserved for a limited group of men. It's limited in its scope and its sequence in time. There are no more capital A apostles running around. We talk about this all the time. If someone says they're an apostle, run. They're not an apostle because God used a specific group of men to give them divine revelation from the risen Christ and commissioned them to be his mouthpiece, to write the New Testament words we have, to be the foundation for the church throughout all eternity. We don't need that anymore because we don't have, we don't need any more new revelation from God about how we're to be saved, right? We have that already in scripture, so we don't need any more apostles. And it's to that that Paul is referring that he is that type of apostle. Notice we know that because of what he says next. Not through man or not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father. Now, here's the deal. Those that were preaching a false gospel knew the qualifications of an apostle. They knew it. They knew that an apostle had to be, number one, a witness of the resurrection. You can go read Acts and They had to see with their own eyes the resurrected Christ. And then number two, from the lips of Jesus, they had to have been commissioned by him to take this gospel to, to, to establish the church. And they knew, well, Paul didn't walk with Jesus like Peter and James and John. Paul, Paul wasn't one of the Paul actually murdered Christians. They did it. Paul wasn't there hours after the stone was rolled away from the tomb or maybe even minutes to, to, to see the empty tomb like Peter. I mean, Paul wasn't there when that happened. You can hear their arguments, right? Paul knows that. But we know what happened to Paul, right? We know what happens in Acts where he is commissioned by the resurrected Christ. He's on his way to murder Christians. He's on his way to, to, to, to persecute the church and what is, what happens? The risen Christ shows up and everything changes for Paul. In Acts chapter he, he takes a murderer, a murderer and makes him a missionary, right? He, he takes a heart of stone, gives him a heart of flesh and everything changes for Paul. He's then commissioned as an apostle to go take the gospel, this good news of Jesus to the, to the Gentiles. And I want to get too far ahead because we're going to go, as we travel through Galatians to more of what happened to the apostle Paul, he's going to reference it. So we know, even Paul would say in, in Corinthians he would acknowledge that, that he's the least of the apostles. What does Paul say in Corinthians ? Speaking of Jesus's resurrection, speaking of him appearing to the disciples, Paul says in verse of Corinthians last of all, as to one untimely, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. I'm the least of the apostles, unworthy to be an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. Yeah, he might be the least of the apostles and the very last apostle, but he is still a what? An apostle because he wasn't commissioned by a man. He wasn't just a pastor. Now he, I believe he pastored churches. See, we can commission a man here as a church and, and, and ordain him as a pastor. That's all what Paul's talking about. Paul's talking about this one-time gift to the, to God's people, this limited office of apostle. It had to be from God and he's saying it is. It came from God himself. Notice not from man nor through man, but from Jesus Christ, or through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. In those few words, you know what Paul is implying? That Jesus is not merely a man. It didn't come through a man. It came through Jesus Christ. My apostleship came through Jesus calling me. Paul right here is implying a core doctrine that the church has believed throughout the ages that Jesus is not merely a good teacher. He is not merely a prophet. He is not merely a good moral example. What does the church believe about Jesus? He is God. And if he's not God, we have no gospel. We're still in our sins and there's no good news, but he is God. Not only that, Jesus was validated to be God because God the Father did what? Raised him from the dead. Not only did the resurrection guarantee our salvation, but it did something else. It validated the claim of Jesus. If Jesus wasn't God, he would not have risen from the dead. Right? So in the resurrection, what God the Father was doing was saying every claim that God the Son made and what claims did he make? He said, I came down from heaven. He said, I can forgive sins. I can receive worship. He says before Abraham was, I am, I'm the one that can. He made all of these references to him doing what only God can do and God the Father validated those references in that claim by doing what? Raising him from the dead. The doctrine of the deity of Christ is so important for us because no mere man can take upon himself our sins and overcome death. He would have to pay for his own sins. No mere man can withstand the blow of God's judgment towards sin and come out the other side. No mere man can do that. Only God himself can do that. And by the way, this doctrine has been hotly contested. It's still contested in our day and age. Right? Well, where does everyone want to draw the line with Jesus? If you say Jesus is God, then that changes everything, right? Well, he might be a good teacher. He might show us how to love one another. I don't know if he's God. What do we believe? If you remember, we affirm the Nicene Creed. Do you know in the early church, we're talking just a few hundred years after Paul wrote this, those professing believers, the primary view of looking at Jesus would be that he isn't God or he wasn't God. He was a created being through the teaching of, of Arianism. He's a high being, but he's not God. And God would preserve faithful men throughout the ages. That's where it's Athanasius. When it seemed like it was him and nobody else to say, wait a second, if he's not God, this salvation thing, there is no salvation. And from that, we have these creeds and confessions that help us understand what we believe about Jesus. Let's read part of the Nicene Creed. You should, you should, I would challenge you, memorize this, read it, know it. This is the first part. We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God be gotten from the Father before all ages. God from God, light from light, true God, from true God, be gotten not made of the same essence as the Father through him, all things were made. We believe in the unity of the Godhead, but we believe that the Father is not the Son and the distinctions of the person. There's a mystery in the Trinity, but Jesus is fully God, co-equal, co-eternal with the Father of the same essence. And we know that because there's an empty tomb. So what Paul is saying here, you don't trust the validity of my apostleship. Well, God does because God raised the risen Christ and it was the risen Christ that appeared to me on the road to Damascus and called me to be an apostle. And look at what else he says. He says, all the other churches do, verse two, and all the brothers who are with me. Now, what Paul is not saying is that he's writing this letter in the company of a lot of people. What he is saying is that the gospel he preached is a gospel that has been embraced by the other churches that he has planted. They have recognized the validity of his apostleship and they have embraced his gospel and they're also concerned about the drifting of these churches into this false gospel. You know, we all have a principle we live by whether or not you want to agree to it. We'd still do it. You do it. The principle is simply this. The more important the messenger, the more important the message. We all live by that principle. The more important the messenger, the more important the message. How do I know that? Well, imagine if one day you received an email at work from a co-worker. You were busy. You had something to do more than likely, more than likely. Normatively, I would say, you would probably hit read later. And then when you weren't busy, what would you do? You would go read it. But imagine if your boss sent you an email or your boss's boss or your boss's boss's boss sent you an email. Normatively. Don't try to argue. Normatively, what would you do? You'd stop and you would read what that email had to say. Why? Because you know the more important the messenger, the more important the message. What does Paul's apostleship have to do with us some years later? Because Paul is not speaking as a man, his own opinions and thoughts as some might claim he is. He's not speaking with some limited human authority and power. To be an apostle means that when Paul pins these words, you know who's actually speaking these words? Jesus himself. When Paul writes to the Galatians, Jesus is writing to the Galatians, the creator and sustainer of the universe. We just read about it. Through whom all things were made, light from light, God from God, the one who knitted you together in your mother's room. Mother's womb, not room. He knew you would be in this room. He's speaking through the pen of the apostle Paul. And I have a feeling we are just not as amazed as we should be to have the privilege of opening our Bibles. And listen, have your devotional, do your daily rhythm, but don't view it as a chore or a duty. The God of the universe is saying, I want to condescend and speak to you today. I have something to tell you and embrace the Bible for what it is. It is the very word of the living God. The word of the eternal and infallible, the word of the creator and sustainer of the universe, it is his perfect living and active word to you and me and the fact that he would use someone like Paul to be an apostle. Paul knows he doesn't deserve to be an apostle. He'd say that over and over. One who would murder Christians, he makes him a Christian and then makes him a missionary or Christian. If God can do that for the apostle Paul, can't he do that for you? Look at the validity. Look at the validity of the cross's messenger. Secondly, look back to the sufficiency of the cross's message. Look at what Paul says next. Notice he's writing to multiple churches. Again, we don't know the interconnection between the churches, but not just one, but multiple churches. He says, grace to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's just stop there because what we typically do when we read a greeting from Paul is do what? Skim over it. Grace and peace. We know you're going to say that, Paul. I mean, we've read most of your epistles. We know grace and peace, right? That's like if we're doing our time, you know, we're traveling through the New Testament in our own reading. We tend to skip over the introduction, but hear me. If God is speaking through Paul and God's word matters and it does, then the words grace and peace matter, right? They matter. What Paul says is very important. Why do they matter? Because what Paul is highlighting are the elements of the message of the gospel. Grace and peace. You can't have one without the other. Let me explain. What are the Galatians really wanting? They want peace. Now if I were to ask you, what is peace? You don't have to answer that out loud. That's a rhetorical question. What is peace? Some of you would say it's the absence of conflict to which I would say, yeah, but it's more than that. It's right relationship with God. Yes. Let's keep going. Think about what Adam, the best illustration that I can give you for what peace is, is found in Genesis where Adam and Eve were walking in the cool of the day with God. Like God is just walking with Adam and Eve, just talking, just hanging out together. No hostility, no sin. They're just communing with one another. The presence of hope, that is peace. And even if you're not a Christian, that is really what your heart wants. And that's what the Galatians wanted, but the problem is they thought that they could get that peace, absence of God's grace. Yes, we'll believe in Jesus, but I mean, they've got some good points about that circumcision thing, right? And that law thing. We've got to adhere to that, right? And then we can have peace. And I know we know that's not true. But before we point the finger at the Galatians and say, how, like, I understand what Paul called you guys, foolish. You do realize we do the same thing. We do it. I do it. Your pastor is guilty of doing it. Maybe you're not adding circumcision to the work of Jesus in addition to faith in Jesus to find your peace. But if you're anything like me, you're adding performance for Jesus in addition to faith in Jesus to find peace, because you'll say something like this. I just don't know if I feel at peace with God right now, because everything is about how we feel. Maybe if, man, if I could just be a little busier for you, Jesus, tell more people about you, then you'll be a little more pleased with me. And perhaps I will sense that peace a little more. I do it. Or maybe it's your love for Jesus. What do I mean? Well, maybe it's you just don't feel this affection for Jesus. And you, you think the Father is displeased with you. And you know, yeah, I got to believe the gospel. But if somehow, some way I can conjure up enough affection for Jesus and, and I kind of sing my heart into loving Him more and just trying harder to love Him more, then, then I will experience that peace that, that, that I really want to experience. Or maybe your addition is your theological convictions. And I'm not saying any of those things are bad. Loving Jesus, laboring for Jesus as we've learned last week, believing, none of those are bad, but none of those make you right with God. You understand that, right? None of those do. Now, a right understanding of who Jesus is, you could argue, is theology, but not, not all of these things that we add onto that. Now, it's again, theology is good. But if you think that God, the Father, accepts you because you have a right understanding of super lap serianism, right? And some of you are like, what is that? I don't even need to tell you what that is. You're wrong. Maybe yours, I don't know, is, is your morality. God will truly embrace you if you live up to His law. If you stop doing this, yeah, of course, trust in Jesus, but surely He's going to give me more peace if I, no. Now, what we do when we think like that, you know what we do? Is we place ourselves back under the burden of the law. We run back to the chains that Jesus freed us from. What makes a sinner right with God? Only the work of Jesus, what gives peace? Only the work of Jesus, which is why Paul adds grace because grace crushes pride, because grace is free. Grace is undeserved. Grace is something you can never earn. And I know our heart wants to earn it. We want to look the part. We want to feel validated. We want to perform the, that's just the way we're wired. And God crushes that and says, no, I'm offering you peace through a gift that you simply receive. And what is that gift? It's the gift of His Son, which is why Paul writes what he does next. Grace and peace from God. It didn't come from us. It comes from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus, who gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of God, our Father. The cross is sufficient. Four reasons Paul tells us why peace is only found in the cross. Four reasons why the cross is sufficient. Now, I let my wife read my sermon just to look over it. Before she read it, I had four Vs. After she read it, she said, no one knows what that last V is, Joe. You have to change it. I'll tell you what the V was when I get there. I have three Vs and one P. She ruined my alliteration, okay? Number one, the cross is voluntary. What does the text say? Jesus gave Himself for our sins. Jesus willingly laid down His sinless life in the place of rebellious sinners, right? The one whom we offended and we learned and we know we owe this incalculable debt that we could never pay, this immeasurable price. We can like, we could work our entire lives and not even put a dent in this. You guys get that, right? The offended party, the one against whom we rebelled comes down and what does He do? He takes care of the check. He pays it, not for good people, but for His enemies. And Jesus did that, not begrudgingly. He didn't say, oh, really, Father, like, if I have to do it, I'll do it. He didn't do it because the Romans nailed Him to a cross. He said, no one takes my life. He did it willingly. For the joy set before Him, Hebrews says, think about this, Jesus knew, He knew the excruciating pain His body would experience when nails would be driven through His feet and His hands. He's the creator of life. He created the nails. He created the wood. He created the human body. He created the nervous system. He created blood. He knew the pain. He knew the feeling of being separated, in a sense, from His Father as His Father poured out His just wrath upon Him. He knew how that would feel. He knew the taste, the sour, bitter taste of swallowing the cup of wrath, and He still willingly did it. He did it willingly. He wasn't forced. He wasn't coerced. Jesus voluntarily gave Himself up. Secondly, it was vicarious. Vicarious, meaning He did it for someone else. He didn't go to the cross for His own sin. Notice the text says, for our sin. And this is why Jesus is God, because a mere man can't go to the cross for another man's sin, because that man is a sinner. That was what the priesthood taught. That's why there's priest after priest after priest, and Hebrews says, no, no, no. The priest has come because he didn't have to make a payment for his own sin. That's what allows Jesus to be the substitute for our sins, because He is God-perfect. No sin, flawless, but yet He substitutes Himself in the place of us to become our sin. Vicarious. And notice, it says our sin. Some of us look at that and think, well, yeah, the last sin I committed, that's what Jesus did. And there's something we have to do to get Him to forgive us for the next sin that we commit. No. Paul means all of your sin. Like, get this in your mind. Past sin, present sin, future sin, even the worst, most heinous sin you've committed, that you've tried over and over to stuff into the back of your brain, because you don't want to bring it back up. You think that's the sin that disqualifies you from God, but if you're in Christ, as we read earlier, there is what? No condemnation for those who are in Christ. He took all the guilt that you had, that you had accumulated, and He put it on His back and went to a cross for you, if you have looked at Him by faith. It was what? Vicarious. For our sins. Thirdly, it was victorious. It was victorious. He did something when He went to the cross. Notice, notice the text says He delivered us from the present evil age. The purpose of the cross wasn't just to justify us. It wasn't merely to make us right before a holy God. Now, that does happen when you look to Jesus by faith positionally. You are at peace with God. So, hear me. If you're in Christ, even when you sin, you couldn't be at more peace with God, because the justice, right, the payment due for that sin was laid upon Jesus, not you. So, you are positionally, I understand, there is a progressive sanctification we experience by which we're to turn from sin and walk in obedience, but positionally, you have to preach this to your mind. You can't be at any more peace with God no matter what you do. That's justification, because at the moment that Jesus rose from the grave, all of your sins were laid upon Him and paid for so that when you look to Jesus by faith, those aren't your sins anymore. Those were dealt with by Jesus and you get His righteousness. We know this credited to our account so that the Father will always see us as He sees His Son, no matter what happens, no matter how far we err or stray, and we will err and stray. That's the gospel you have to preach to your heart, but there's something else that happens, right? We have to remember not only did Jesus at the cross deliver us from the penalty of sin, but also from the power of sin. Notice Paul words it the present evil age. Why does he word it that way? Paul just say the power of sin, because we are living in a time until Jesus returns back, where there seems to be this ruler of the world and sin is rampant and it's picture an ocean and everyone is drowning in this ocean called the present evil age and the ocean is just full of sin. Hostility towards God and here's the deal. That was you and that was me. And the word to deliver is actually to snatch, to tear away. It's to abruptly and powerfully remove something. Jesus uses the word like this in Matthew . If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. That's the same word. So what happens? Not only does Jesus positionally save us and make us right. He saves us from the penalty of sin, but He saves us from the power of sin. He rips us out of the ocean of sin. He takes us out. He doesn't just throw us a life jacket and say here put it on and swim to me. No, He pulls it. He snatches us out, delivers us to Himself and frees us from the power of sin in our lives. Now, let me comfort you. Does that mean you won't sin now that you're a Christian? Come on. We have a confession of sin every week. Why? Because we will still battle sin and some of you are battling it very hard right now. You're drifting, but if you are in Christ, the good news is not only has He freed you from the penalty of sin, He has freed you from the power of sin by empowering you with His Holy Spirit to fight sin so that it no longer rules in your heart. He rules in your heart and He has delivered you from this present evil age and He will deliver you to what? Glory. He will deliver you one day to a place where there is no sin. He will deliver you from the presence of sin. You're in the middle right now, but His work was victorious. His work was victorious. The third VP. The P is purposed. What I did have is volitioned and my wife said you don't even know what that word means. How are they going to know? She was right. I had to look that one up. This was all according to the will of the Father. Notice Paul says that. Meaning Jesus didn't go to the cross as plan B. It wasn't a reaction to the fall. God wasn't looking up at heaven and saying, oh, we messed up. What are we going to do now? No. We're just saying it. If we don't serve a God who works all things out for our good and His glory, we don't serve a God because that's not God. God works all. Even the cross was planned. The worst, most heinous evil event in human history was according to the will of God. So here's where it should comfort you, Christian. He who sent Jesus to the cross. He who began the work of salvation in you will do what? Finish that work. Philippians says, if He began the work, He will see it to completion because He willed it. It's a part of the sovereign plan of God which should bring comfort. And where does all of this lead the apostle Paul to go? Notice verse It leads his pen to do what? To worship. To whom be the glory forever and ever. So what Paul is teaching? Now, first of all, notice how Paul gets there. Paul ends this little introduction. It only takes him four verses. To warm his heart to this place of worship. How does he get there? He reminds himself of what? Of the gospel. Just like get that in your mind. And then he tells us all of this took place for the glory of God. Meaning if you're saved, your life is now about who? The glory of God. Like you're a little trophy wherever you're at, your job, your home, your school, your little trophy. Not for your own glory. Not to hoard the glory of God. Not to rob Him of His glory. But what? For His glory. Not yours. For His. And every day we should pray the same prayer. God, how can you use me for your glory? It leads Paul's pen to worship. What is Paul teaching? Jesus' work on the cross. The message that Paul preached is the only thing sufficient to find peace with God. It's the only way to find acceptance with God. Nothing else. No additives as we've called this series. You know, we have a rule in our house. I like to cook. My wife is a very good cook. She, I don't know if she likes to cook, but she is a good cook. But because I like to cook, I like get creative with my recipes. I'll add a little something here, add a little something there. And sometimes I add too much. So the rule is simply this. Look, if we're going to try a new recipe, you don't add anything to the recipe. Because if you add something to the recipe, what do you risk doing? Ruining the recipe. You don't just risk the work of Jesus when you add something to the gospel. Risk the work of, or risk ruining the work of Jesus. You, you do ruin it. Right? You do ruin it. The work of Jesus alone is sufficient for salvation. And this is so antithetical to what the world teaches, right? Because that is a free gift of grace and the world knows nothing of grace. Everything has to be earned. I mean, think about your job. Think about the rat race of the world. Think about how we're wired to earn, to fight, to strive, to perform, to achieve. And God says, He flips that on His head. He says, you can never work hard enough. It is a free gift. And I'm offering you peace today. Center be comforted this morning in the sufficiency of the cross. Paul is teaching us this morning that peace with God is only found in grace that flows from the wounded head and hands of our blooded Savior. Go back to the cross this morning. That's the simplicity of these opening words. Go back to the cross. Those of you weighed down this morning from your week and you walked in this morning and you said, I just don't feel good enough for God. You know what? You're not good enough for God. I'm not good enough for God. But Jesus is good enough. And the simplicity of the cross says, God the Father accepted the work of Jesus. And if you're in Jesus, you are good enough because Jesus was good enough. Go back to the cross this morning. Those of you weary, trying to feel validated this week by your achievements, wanting somebody to just recognize you. Listen to me. The most important person that could give you recognition is your Creator. You know how He validates His people through His Son? Not through your performance, not through what you've done, not through your obedience. And I'm not saying laboring for Jesus isn't important. We just got off the heels of the parable of the talents. But what I am saying is that doesn't grant you peace with God or acceptance with God. Go back to the cross this morning. See the bleeding hands of Jesus whose work alone was sufficient for you. Those of you who failed once again this week, the enemy has whispered the lies that God will never accept you. Go to the cross this morning. It doesn't matter the sin that you committed. Jesus, if you're in Him, has bled for those sins. Those of you feeling burdened by the weight of the law, which has exposed your inadequacy, go back to the cross this morning. Those of you running in your own strength, which has been fueled by your pride and you just don't want to admit it, go back to the cross this morning and find strength in Jesus. Go back to the cross because here's what I know. If you want to progress in your walk with Jesus, you constantly run back to where? The cross. The cross. This morning I have three responses as we close. The first is simply this. What are we to do? Like, if we're to move forward in Christ by going back to the cross, what does that look like in our everyday life? Number one, it looks like worshiping Him for the cross. Worshiping Him for the cross. And I don't just mean here when we come together and we corporately sing. Of course, that's part of it. It's every day. What led Paul to write verse five? What led Paul to write verse five is remembering what Jesus had done. So how often throughout your week do you have a time where you just pause? Maybe you throw a song on. I don't know. Maybe you're in the middle of reading scripture and you write this out. You just worship Him and you thank Him for the cross. Is that present in your life? Because when you forget the cross, what do you start to do? You start to drift. You run on your own strength. You start to think that you justify yourself. Your works is what makes you right with God. No. The cross and worship Him for the cross. Number two, commune with Him at the cross. What do I mean with that? You know when Jesus wants to meet with His people, when His people are at their messiest. I won't speak with you all the time, but at least at minimum when you're at your messiest, right? Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will what? Give you rest. When was the last time, aside from our time that we have weekly to confess our sins, that you privately, you and Jesus, you confess your sin, whatever that is, the pride, the way you talk to your child, the way you failed to live up to telling the gospel to a co-worker and you had the opportunity? How you treated your wife. Oh, we could lay out our sin. When was the last time you commune with Jesus by confessing sins to Him at the cross? And should you confess your sins to others? Of course. In fact, Jesus would say, look, leave your gift at the altar and go make that right with your brother and sister. Yeah, you should be confessing your sins to them. But when was the last time you commune with Him at the cross, acknowledging the sin in your life and allowing His mercies, which are new every morning to restore you? And I don't know what that might look like for you. I like to journal. Maybe it's journaling. Maybe it's just stopping while you're praying and confessing sins. But I would tell you practically, in a very basic way, just start confessing your sins to Jesus daily. That helps us run back to the cross. And what does that help us do? Move forward. If the band will come up. Lastly, walk consistently with the cross. Some of you have drifted into the evil age that Jesus has delivered you from. And right now you feel like you're drowning in it. What you're not doing, see, when you don't commune with Jesus at the cross, you start to live out of step with the cross. And so you live inconsistent with what you profess to be. So you live in this unrepentant sin. And you're not walking consistently with the victory that Jesus has given you at the cross. You're placing yourself back under the chains of sin and becoming enslaved to it. And you're just drifting. You're just going to keep progressing. Maybe it's a sexual sin that you're walking in and you've hid and you don't want anybody to know. Maybe it's bitterness or anger. I don't know. But this morning, Jesus is inviting you before we take the Lord's Supper to repent of that. He welcomes you to come back. He's like a cat. He said, come. Let's fix this and walk consistently with the cross. Church, if we're going to move forward in Christ, we go back to this cross.