Steven Lawson: Saved by Grace

well as we start this session the first thing I want to ask you to do is to take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Galatians and I want you to be finding what will be our text for this session Galatians chapter 1 beginning in verse 6 and before I read our passage I feel compelled to say this and that in our last session together with dr. Sproul that message came with such power and force and authority I don't know about you that my heart felt a sense of shock and awe as God came in the power of the Holy Spirit I believe upon her upon our souls as we heard that message and as I have thought this through just even the introduction to this message I feel that I really need to put both my feet in that message that we just heard and extend into this message by saying this dr. Sproul reminded us of the goddness of God the holiness of God the infinite transcendent majestic splendor of his all perfect being blameless and sinless flawless Matthew 5:48 you shall be perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty heaven and earth is full of his glory holy holier than all of us the holiest being in the entire universe supreme in his holiness and the sinfulness of man and the sinfulness of sin that we have all been weighed in the balances and found wanting we have all sinned and fallen short of glory of God and there is this infinite chasm that now separates holy God from sinful man no way that we can approach this holy God in our own sinfulness for we are defiled and corrupted by sin and God is infinitely holy his eyes are too pure than to behold iniquity in the entire Book of Leviticus written to show how can sinful man find acceptance with holy God and he cannot come on his own he must come by way of a sacrifice that has been prescribed by God and the one that God has chosen as a substitutionary sacrifice as the only way that sinful man can enter into the presence of infinitely holy God and this means by which we come into the presence of God is the gospel of grace the higher that we set the holiness of God and the lower that we set the sinfulness of man the greater we span the chasm of the infinite grace of God in other words we magnify grace by elevating holiness and putting man in his rightful place but when we lower man excuse me lower God and we compromise the holiness of God and we do as Psalm 50 says we make God in our own image you thought I was just like you and as we elevate man in lower God then the span of which God's grace would cover that distance is it's just a very small grace and so the gospel of grace is that this infinitely holy God who will not negotiate his holiness who will not lower his standard one bit who has exalted his throne in the heavens and his sovereignty rules overall and we who have fallen in Adam and we who have fallen into the depths of sin the only way by which we may find acceptance with this infinitely holy God the only way is by the grace of God that has been supremely and exclusively manifested in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ now Jesus said I am the way and the truth and the life no one comes to the Father but through me but Jesus said there is or Paul said there is one god in one mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus Peter said there is salvation in no other name for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved the Apostle Paul as he writes the book of Galatians understands what it is to be the chief of sinners he understands what it is to to have fallen short of the glory of this God and to be saved by grace Paul understood when he wrote I am what I am by the grace of God we see Paul on the Damascus Road as he is headed there to apprehend the Christians and there where he is struck off of his high horse by sheer sovereign grace what would you have me to do Lord and in that moment of mana gistic sovereign regeneration the Apostle Paul who was not looking for God who was not are not looking for Christ not seeking the gospel of grace was apprehended by the grace of God and Paul was made a minister of the gospel but chose an instrument to proclaim the gospel of grace to the Gentiles and so on Paul's first missionary journey in acts 13 and 14 he is commissioned by the church and he has sent out from Antioch to be the preacher of the grace of God that salvation is the free gift of God that salvation has been fully accomplished through the finality and the sufficiency of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ that he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and that by his one death he has reconciled us to God that by his death he has propitiated forever the righteous anger of God for all those for whom he has died Paul goes to the mission field in acts 13 and 14 he preaches Grace saving grace free grace redeeming Grace reconciling grace and he comes to the cities in the church of the cities of Galatia and he preaches the gospel there in the face of much opposition and the power of the gospel comes crashing home into the hearts of those who heard him and there were many disciples that were made and he appointed out elders and he established churches and he comes back to the church at Antioch and he gives the report to the church there before he goes to the Jerusalem Council or perhaps at the same time he receives word that the churches where he has preached the word there has been a vacuum in his absence and there have been false teachers who have come into the churches of Galatia they are known by us as Judaizers and they are those that have come in and they use the name of Christ and they speak of grace and they speak of faith but they add to it man's efforts to keep the law both in justification and for sanctification and the Galatian believers were so easily swayed they were naively gullible and they were easily hoodwinked and by these hucksters of the gospel who have come in and who have diluted and corrupted the purity of the gospel of grace and they have added works and they have added human merit and they have added man's religiosity back into the purity of grace and Paul receives the message he had just been there in fact he had warned them not to fall for the false teachers and so he receives the report and he writes these words beginning in verse 6 normally at this place Paul would say something like this I thank my god for you I have you in my heart my every remembrance brings joy to me but for writing this epistle Paul is not thankful for what has taken place there has been a breach of the gospel of grace there has been a compromise and this is a major issue and so Paul writing now this the first of the 13 epistles for this one he does not dictate it for this one Paul is so exercised in his soul that he takes pen in hand and he writes it himself and he writes it in Boxcar size letters so that a man can read it from the other side of the room so that there is no mistaking what he has to say as he now is a guardian of the grace of God Paul writes his fiery of all epistles and he writes beginning in verse 6 I am amazed I'm astonished I am shocked that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ can this be for a different gospel which is really not another only there are some who are disturbing 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 what we have preached to you he is to be accursed as we have said before so I say again now if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received he is to be accursed for am I now seeking the favor of men or of God or am i striving to please men if I were still trying trying to please men I would not be a bondservant of Christ the reason that Paul is so consumed and obsessed with this as Paul well understands in his own life that Paul who was born of the nation Israel circumcised on the eighth day born of the tribe of Benjamin but zeal a persecutor of the church according to the law blameless externally Paul understood more than anyone else in the ancient world that the only way he could find acceptance with this infinitely holy God and find acceptance before the goddness of God as he is a vile corrupt sinner is through the amazing extraordinary extraordinary infinite pure saving redeeming reconciling grace of God and for there to be any compromise with the gospel of grace that person should go to hell before he influences others to the broad path that is headed to destruction we need to hear this in this day as we Minister the Word of God in the places in which God has assigned us we are surrounded by many different Gospels and many perversions of grace there is the new perspective on Paul today that is a frontal attack on forensic justification by faith alone it's not a matter of semantics there is the ECT and the compromise of justification by faith alone there are non lordship advocates who we can what the nature of true saving faith is there are those who teach a baptismal regeneration etc etc etc etc and there is a stewardship of the gospel that has been entrusted to each and every one of us this is our hour in history and we have all been made guardians of the gospel of Jesus Christ and guardians of the grace of God and we must put ourselves into the skin of the Apostle Paul and vicariously feel what he felt believe what he believed and preach what he preached as we look at these verses in this session there are four things that I want you to know I want you to note first Paul's amazement he begins in verse 6 I am amazed this word amazed means to be shocked to be bewildered to be astonished to be astounded to put it in the vernacular Paul is dumbfounded Paul is perplexed he would say in street language today this blows my mind that you are so quickly deserting him would you please note that to desert the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to desert the purity of saving grace is to desert the person of God himself do you see this God is one with his gospel as John Piper is said God is the gospel to desert the grace of God in the gospel is to abandon God himself it is to go spiritually AWOL it is to turn your back on God it is to become a spiritual deserter in the midst of war why is God synonymous with his gospel because all of the attributes of God are supremely put on display in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ would you see the holiness of God then look to the cross and see the infinite chasm that separates God and man would you see the righteousness of God look to the cross and see that which is imputed to sinners who believe would you see the wrath of God look to the cross and see sin under condemnation and under judgment would you see the sovereignty of God look to the cross and see Christ triumphantly saving those for whom he came to save would you see the grace of God the love of God the mercy of God it is supremely put on display in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and the cross becomes the arms of God reaching out to lost sinners that he would save them by His grace but to turn away from the gospel of grace is to desert God himself he then writes in verse 6 concerning God who called you by the grace of Christ and this grace is unmerited it is undeserved Paul understands that he knows that he is the least deserving person on the earth to become the recipient of such a bestow who called you by the grace of God if you had turned just a moment to chapter 2 in verse 16 just to isolate a text a verse that helps put a frame around this grace of God it's the first time that Paul mentions justification in inspired Scripture it is the first time that Paul puts in his pen to the parchment and writes in this epistle as well as any epistle of justification by faith alone and notice what he writes in verse 16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Christ Jesus even we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law since by the works of the law no flesh will be justified Paul is the master teacher here he uses both negative denial and positive assertion there's no room for misunderstanding there is no wiggle room in verse 16 there is no place for anyone to misunderstand what is the grace of God in the gospel negatively he says three times in one verse that it is not by the works of the law that man makes no contribution to his own salvation except the sin that nailed Christ to the cross and then with positive assertion he says three times that we are justified by faith in Christ Jesus and then faith in the verb form believed in Christ Jesus and then he comes back and says a third time faith in Christ Jesus to be justified is to be put in a right standing of perfect acceptance with holy God there are three metaphors that really communicate to us what is the essence in the heart of justification now the first is a legal metaphor in which we find ourselves in the judgment hall of God in the courtroom of God standing before the judgment seat of God and we have all been condemned by our sin and fall infinitely short of the goddness of God standing next to us is our advocate to Lord Jesus Christ who by the perfection of his life and the perfection of his death has met all of the requirements of the law that we are else have broken again and again and again and when we put our faith in Christ apart from any works of the law God looks upon Christ and justifies us and there is the great exchange of justification that all of my sin laid upon Christ and his perfect righteousness laid upon me the great exchange the worst about me given to him the best about him given to me and God's gavel comes down and God forensic Lee legally declares me to be the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ the life that I have never lived the life that Christ perfectly lived and his sin bearing substitutionary death it is imputed to me and I now stand before the judgment bar of God declared to be the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ that is the first metaphor and it is all by faith alone in Christ alone the second metaphor is that of the marketplace of financial transaction that as I stand before God I am spiritually bankrupt before a holy God I am poor in spirit I have no spiritual capital with which to pay off my sin debt but Jesus Christ is infinitely great in spirit the spiritual wealth of His grace his saving grace in His mercy and my sin put into his account and his perfect righteousness put into my account I who is this Who am a spiritual pauper I who am spiritually bankrupt before a holy God I now become the riches of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and it has been credited to my account my sin credited to the Lord Jesus Christ and this transaction by faith in Christ alone and then the third transaction or the third metaphor is that of the clothing arena in my own sin my righteousness is as filthy rags before a holy God I cannot come into the Kings banquet hall in my own filthy dirty rags Jesus Christ is infinitely holy infinitely pure infinitely perfect and in the act of justification the robes of my own self righteousness which is as filthy rags and the side of the goddness of God it's taken off of me and placed upon Christ in him who knew no sin God made to be sin for me in the robes of his perfect righteousness his active obedience his sinless death I am now robed in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ and now when God looks upon me the holy holy holy God looks upon me there is now a covering for my sin and God sees me in the perfect righteousness of his own son Jesus Christ it is all by grace the entirety both of his righteousness given to me and even the repentance in the faith with which I believe upon him it is all of grace and so Paul writes back in chapter 1 verse 6 I'm amazed I am shocked I am stunned that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of God note this for a different gospel there are only two kinds of Gospels there is the true gospel and there is a false gospel there is a saving gospel and there is a non saving gospel there is the gospel of divine accomplishment and there is the gospel of human achievement and the gospel of human achievement whereby sinful man makes contribution to the finality and the perfection of the death of Christ in the perfect life of Christ Paul says it is a different gospel and at the beginning of verse 7 which is really not another it is a counterfeit gospel it is a sham salvation it is a fake message it is a ripoff religion it is a mangled message which cannot save Paul says I'm amazed that you have abandoned God for another gospel we should be equally shocked in our day for those who abandoned the gospel of grace I was listening on television not long ago to Larry King Live and there were a collection of religious leaders on this program and one of them is probably the most popular religious leader of our day who preaches in an NBA Coliseum King said we've had ministers on who said you either believe in Christ or you don't if you believe in Christ you're going to heaven and if you don't no matter what you have done in this life you ain't we know who that minister is who said that he's at in Los Angeles John MacArthur responds yeah I don't know there's probably a balance I believe you have to know Christ but I think that if you know Christ if you're a believer in God you're gonna have some good works I think it's a cop-out to say I'm a Christian but I don't ever do anything it's a total evasion of the question that was asked King what if you're Jewish or Muslim and you don't accept Christ at all national television international television answer you know I'm very careful about saying who would and who wouldn't go to heaven I don't know King if you believe you have to believe in Christ they're wrong aren't they well I don't know if I believe they're wrong I spent a lot of time with Daddy in India I don't know all about their religion but I know they love God I don't know they seemed so sincere I don't know you and I had better know what the gospel truth is we better get the gospel right to quote a book title and we better get on the housetops and cup our voice and shout it as far and as wide as the gospel message can go forward Jesus Saves Jesus says Jesus says this is Paul's amazement this is Paul's astonishment it ought to shock us and astonish us in this hour that there are so many who are tongue-tied we must roar like a lion now I want you to note second Paul's adversaries in verse 6 excuse me verse 7 only there are some who are disturbing you and let me tell you this whenever the gospel is compromised it will always disturb the church greater than any other disturbance the gospel is God himself and it is the chief Cornerstone of the church it is upon this rock that he will build his church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it but for this solid rock to be compromised brings extraordinary disturbance to the church only there are some who are disturbing you he doesn't mention them by name but these some are the Judaizers who are trying to bring their legalism and their works righteousness into the church to tell sinners that you've got to do all of these things in order to believe that the death of Christ is not final and is not sufficient to say sinners in addition they are bringing this legalism to the believers to their sanctification to prevent them from growing in the Grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of grace they are greatly troubling the church specifically they are saying Christ and grace and faith are good as far as they go but they are alone alone inadequate to save or to sanctify human works by keeping the law are necessary for salvation and the works of the flesh are necessary for sanctification and they were saying you have to be circumcised to be saved you have to keep the ten commandments to be saved you have to observe the holy days to be saved you have to practice the ceremonial law to find acceptance before God these are the adversaries of Paul they are the adversaries of the church and we have these adversaries in our day as well and they are those who claim that salvation is by faith and good works faith and water baptism faith and church membership faith and speaking in tongues faith and Hail Marys faith and the mass faith and last rites faith and the Treasury of merit faith and the buying of indulgences faith and faith and faith and there are others who clearly deny the essential truths of the gospel and of Christianity they deny the Trinity they deny the absolute deity of Christ they deny the lordship of Christ they deny the virgin birth of Christ they deny the sinless life of Christ they deny the substitutionary death the bodily resurrection the second coming of Christ they deny that justification is forensic ly imputed to the sinner who believes upon Christ at the moment a saving faith as they say that justification will come perhaps in the final judgement in the end if one has done their part to keep the good works and in the end they will be justified by a holy God such our adversaries of the gospel of Christ others denied the exclusivity of salvation in Jesus Christ these are the adversaries of the gospel Paul said there is a good fight and it is the fight for the purity of the gospel of Jesus Christ I want you to know third Paul's Anathem as' in verses 9 and 10 these false teachers of Paul's day these Judaizers sought to undermine Paul's authority and teaching it in every way they could and so Paul had to respond boldly because the period of the gospel is at stake and because the eternal destinies of souls are at stake so Paul writes in verse and verse 8 but even if we referring to himself and and Barnabas and and whoever would have been it is traveling entourage even if we are an angel from heaven be it Michael the Archangel be it Gabriel be it one of the chief angels being one of the ruling angels be it one of the guardian angels being one of the Seraphim are the chair of FEM if any one of the elect angels should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you contrary to the message of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone Paul says he is to be accursed that the word of curse means to be devoted to destruction it means to be consigned to the flames of eternal hell below it means to be damned to be eternally condemned Martin Luther writes at this point here Paul is is breathing fire his zeal is so fervent that he almost begins to curse the angels themselves there must be no neutrality when it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ James Montgomery boys rights how can it be otherwise if the gospel Paul preaches is true then both the glory of Jesus Christ and the salvation of men are at stake the boys rights if men can be saved by works Christ has died in vain the cross is emptied of meaning boys rights if men are taught a false gospel they're being led from one thing that can save them and are being turned to destruction close quote how true are the words of boys because they are the very words of Paul in this text and then if that were not enough in verse 9 Paul now reloads and repeats what he said in verse 8 and he turns from the hypothetical to the actual and he says in verse 9 as we have said before meaning that when he was there in Galatia Paul told them this very truth that the gospel of grace is the only way of salvation and if any false prophets or false teachers preach to you another gospel they are to be devoted to destruction as we have said before so I say again now If any man be he an apostle be he a spiritual leader in the church may he be any person If any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you have received he is to be accursed those are very serious words and they should call all of us here who understand the goddness of God and the sinfulness of man and the spam span of the infinite grace of God that there is no other way to find access or acceptance before this holy God this should call all of us not only to preach and to proclaim the truth but to be as Paul and to fight for the very purity of the gospel of Christ I would remind all of us that Paul is putting this on the front doorsteps of this book at a place when he would normally say I offer thanks for you Paul has a bee in his bonnet Paul is riled because the gospel of Jesus Christ and His grace have been compromised so I want you to see finally Paul's aim in verse 10 we see Paul's aim as Paul concludes this section he gets down to the bottom line in the bottom line that stands behind this issue for Paul as a minister and as a preacher and as a servant of the Lord is who is he trying to please is he trying to please God or is he trying to please man is he trying to have a popular ministry and gain the acceptance of people in his community or is Paul seeking a men's out of heaven that is the fundamental question before each and every one of us here today and so we see in verse 10 Paul asks these questions these are soul-searching questions for am I now seeking the favor of men or of God or am i striving to please men Paul raises with us and he is saying if I am seeking the favor of men I would certainly count own down my rhetoric but Paul is not courting the approval of men and certainly not the Judaizers nor anyone who is sympathetic to the message of the Judaizers instead Paul is seeking the approbation of God Paul has learned a very important lesson in ministry if you please God it does not matter whom you displease and if you displease God it does not matter whom you please gospel ministry is very simple it is one-dimensional in this sense we must please God it will be God before whom we will stand in the last day and give an account as a steward to his master of how faithful we have been to preserve the purity of his message and to preach it and dispense it while upon this earth this confrontational harsh language by Paul is hardly calculated to win the approval of men men pleasers simply do not hurl Anathem us against those who proclaim false Gospels the Paul is not a man pleaser Paul is a God pleaser and so therefore he brings strong words I remember hearing John MacArthur preach one time and he spoke a sentence that just electrified my heart he said now is the time for the strongest men to preach the strongest message in the context of the strongest ministry I thought God I want to be one of those strong men I want to be one of those who brings the unvarnished unadulterated strong message of the Word of God in the context of the strongest ministry so Paul concludes in verse 10 if I were still tries trying to please men I would not be a bondservant of Christ in the ultimate sense pleasing men and pleasing God are mutually exclusive they cannot be mutually inclusive not in the ultimate sense we must make a choice whether to please God or whether to please men bottom line this is not an either-or or it is an either-or not a both an either we seek to please men and if we do we will displease God and if we seek to please God we will find ourselves at times displeasing men but bottom line it cannot be both ways Jesus put it this way no one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to one and despise the other every one of us must come to this fork in the road and decide whether we will be men pleasers or god pleasers in ministry Paul wrote in 1st Thessalonians 2:4 we have been entrusted with the gospel so we speak not as pleasing men but God who examines our hearts Paul told Timothy for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but wanting to have their ears tickled they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths this is a day this is an hour in which we must stand strong in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we must be unwavering and uncompromising to this gospel of grace and as those around us who would be capitulating to the whims of the time who would be like the wave of the sea tossed back and forth who were adding to the grace of God human merit human works works righteousness who would be denying justification by faith alone in Christ alone let us be those who say with Paul I choose to please God and not men I will be unwavering by God's grace to the purity the message that has been entrusted to me I think of John Knox after he returned from Geneva back to Edinburgh in Scotland as he preached the Word of God in such a bold and fearless way I think of Mary who then assumed the throne and her first Sunday back in Edinburgh she went into Holyrood castle and there she had a private Mass the next Sunday John Knox ascended to the pulpit in st. Giles Church and he said I fear one mass more than all of the marching armies of Europe that would descend upon this Kingdom Mary heard about this sermon and she sent her servants to fetch John Knox and to bring him down to Holy Rood for a private audience with this preacher and as John Knox stepped in and there was Queen Mary surrounded by layers and tiers of her government officials and her counselors she began to address John Knox it would have been an easy time for him to say oh we're all just saying the same thing it would have been an easy thing for John Knox to has said I don't know but John Knox began to preach the eternal gospel of Jesus Christ to this woman who had not yet put her faith in her trust and the sufficiency in the finality and the perfection of the one atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ and he called her to repentance and he called her to turn away from her vain religion and to put her trust in her faith in the Living God through Jesus Christ and Mary was reduced her bogger for said to a puddle of tears and sounded like a howling animal where are preachers like that today it's been well said the problem with preachers today is nobody wants to kill them anymore we must understand we're not in this for a popularity contest we are in this for God when John Knox was buried and today he is buried what is under the parking lot outside of st. Giles church as they lowered him into the grave the Ambassador from France said here lies a man who never feared another man God give us such boldness the righteous flee when no man pursues the righteous are as bold as a lion make us steeped deeply in the gospel of grace and in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ let us be unmoving and and unwavering in our commitment to Sola feed a insula grotty and Solus Christus based upon Sola scriptura for soli Deo Gloria for the glory of God alone and may God use us in this hour and in this generation to preach the gospel a grace because there is no other way that sinful man can find acceptance with the godness of God except through this one atoning sacrifice and man's faith in this risen living triumphant Savior Jesus Christ may God give us grace to preach his message of grace in this hour let us pray our Father in heaven we thank you for such a glorious gospel that you have entrusted to us we know that it comes with great responsibility and great accountability and there is a stewardship that is entrusted to us we know on that last day we will stand before you at the judgment seat of Christ and we will give an account to you for how open and how faithful we have been in the ministry of your word the Lord I pray that you would use even this conference and this time that we have together as we are reminded of your holiness and our unholiness as we are reminded of the infinite immeasurable immutable Grace that is found in the cross of Jesus Christ the Lord I pray that you would seal to our hearts this Gospel message and that we would be those who would preach it to the kings and the queens of this world and fear no man as we proclaim the message we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ the one who became sin for us that we might become his righteousness amen

Channel: Ligonier Ministries

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Length: 54min 46sec (3286 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 17 2015