All right, God's grace to you, and I would invite you to Galatians chapter 1. Last week we started a preaching series in the book of Galatians, and so we are going to pick up with that. And so we find ourselves in chapter 1. When you go to the doctor, if he finds something wrong, he has to tell you. He can't sugarcoat it. He can't hide it. He can't lie. If he finds something wrong, he has to tell you. Likewise, if you take your car to a mechanic, if he finds something wrong, he has to tell you. And you students, we have quite a few students here, no matter what the grade or the age. You students hand in assignments and you hand in projects. If the teacher finds something wrong, he has to tell you. And this kind of scenario is true in hundreds of ways in our lives. And it's certainly true when we come together as a church, whether it's our church or any other church, if there's something wrong as a church, we need to be told. And that's what's going on here in the book of Galatians. All six chapters, Paul is dealing with something wrong. He's telling these churches in Galatia what's wrong, and he's calling them back to where they need to be. And even as we read the first 12 verses of Galatians 1, we will see that something's wrong and that Paul is addressing it. And so this is God's word, Galatians 1, beginning in verse 1. We'll read all the way to verse 12. Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead, and all the brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia, Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen. I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than that what we preach to you, let them be accursed. As I have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let them be anathema. For do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be the bondservant of Christ. But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. Amen. This is the hearing of God's word. Let's pray. Our Father, we pray that you would bless us. You bless us in so many ways, and now we pray that you would bless us yet again. We pray that you would bless us spiritually. Bless us with what you say. Bless us with your promises. Give us understanding. Awaken us that we might receive what you say. And be glorified and bring your good to us, we pray. Help us, Holy Spirit. Father, we cry out to you, and we do so in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. I suppose one of the hardest things in the world is to try to tell somebody that they're wrong. It's never easy. And probably all of us have been in that situation, whether the giving end or on the receiving end, but it's never easy to tell someone that they're wrong, especially in our society. Because if you dare to tell somebody that they're wrong, you could be blacklisted, you could be called a hater, you could be called proud and unloving for pointing out something that's wrong. Again, especially in our society, because nobody's wrong and everybody has to be right. And so if you talk about what is wrong, you're very offensive. Of course, there's a tactful way to do it, and there's a right way to do it, But the fact of the matter is, is that in our society there will be people that get it wrong. But not just other people, there are times when each of us get it wrong. I've been wrong before and you have been wrong before. It hasn't been the first time and it won't be the last time for every one of us. And so there are times when we have wrong actions and wrong words, and we have wrong perspectives, and we have wrong attitudes and wrong feelings, and we have wrong beliefs. And biblically, when we talk about wrong things, we're basically talking about sin. And the fact of the matter is, is that if we're doing wrong, we have to be told. Now, there are times when something that's wrong isn't a big deal. So if my little 10-year-old son comes up and he shows me his hands and says, Dad, I'm holding a quarter. Which hand is it? And if I pick his left, but it's actually in his right, I'm wrong, but it's not a big deal. There are a lot of things that aren't a big deal about being wrong. But on the flip side of that, there are plenty of things that you can't afford to get wrong that are a big deal. This is a pretty emotional story, but 10, 11 years ago at our old church, there was a young man and his wife. They were in their 20s. They had two little kids. And she got sick, and she went to the doctor. The doctor prescribed medicine. She went to the drugstore, got medication. She took that medication and died. Come to find out that they gave her the wrong prescription. Now that's a big deal. But if you go a little bit further, if you go a step further here in the book of Galatians, Paul was with these people for three years, serving and loving on them, teaching and preaching the word of God to them, and for three years, He was planting churches and establishing churches, and then he left after three years of ministry, and within a year, in just a few months, he found out that something was wrong. You look in verses six and seven, you see that these people so quickly were departing from the gospel, that they were actually twisting and mutilating the gospel. And Paul writes this whole book, and he says, it's a big deal. Because if you get the gospel wrong, if you get salvation wrong, you not only perish, but you perish forever. And when Paul is talking about the gospel, he's talking about the only thing that can cure you from your sins, from all your wrong, and the only thing that can cure you from death, it's the gospel. And if we don't have the true unadulterated gospel, then we have a misdiagnosis, we have a false cure apart from the gospel, and it's deadly. And so Paul, he writes, if you will, a polemic. It's just a fancy way of saying that the book of Galatians is a rationale. In the book of Galatians, Paul is arguing for the gospel with these people. Years ago, R.C. Sproul wrote a book called Getting the Gospel Right. Because the fact of the matter is, there are so many people that get the gospel wrong. These Galatians were getting the gospel wrong, and it's detrimental. And there are people in churches that get the gospel wrong. There are people all over this world that get the message of salvation wrong. And so Paul here contends, he advocates for getting the gospel right. If you want to get the gospel right, it's the book of Galatians. Especially when so many have it wrong. And so let me ask you, do you know the gospel? Gospel literally means good news. Do you know what the good news is? There are a lot of things that could be good news. Your team winning, inheriting money, losing weight, clean bill of health, lots of things. But above that, what's the good news? Do you know the good news, the gospel? And it's not simply that Jesus died on Calvary, that's the beginning, but it's so much more. How do you unpack that? What does it mean that Jesus died on Calvary? Lots of people sing that today and they talk that today in churches, but what does it mean that Jesus died on Calvary? I mean, if you think about it, a lot of us could wax eloquent and we could have conversations with each other about movies and about music and about sports and about politics and about a million things. We could go on and on and talk, but what about the gospel? Could we hold a conversation about the gospel with each other? Do we know the contours and the facets and the shapes and colors of the gospel? The gospel is not one-dimensional. It's beautiful and deep and rich. And not only do we know the gospel, but do we believe the gospel. It's not enough to have it with your head, but do you embrace it by faith? The good news. And not only that, but do you treasure the gospel? And I say that because in Galatians 6, Paul talks about how he boasts in the cross. He boasts in Jesus Christ. And what he is saying there is that he talks highly of Jesus. What is it when somebody boasts? They talk highly of themselves. But Paul boasts he treasures Jesus Christ and speaks highly of him. that the best thing about Paul wasn't Paul, it was Jesus. And so he boasts in the cross. Do you know the gospel so much that that becomes your highest treasure, that you boast in it? And that's what Paul, he preaches the gospel for five chapters, and in chapter six, he boasts in that gospel. He speaks highly of that gospel. Now, I was a teacher, and from time to time with my students, after a concept, after a story, I would say, OK, why don't you summarize that thing in one word? Capture it all in one word. And I know that's quite challenging. And sometimes to my kids, I say, OK, give it to me in one word. And I've kind of done that with all of you. Boil it down. Give it to me in one word. And so how can we boil it down? How can we capture the gospel? How can we capture Christianity in one word? All these biblical words, look at a whole book of them. How can we pull it together in one word? What a question. And I'm going to give you the answer here from what others have said. And I'm going to give you the answer here because it seems quite apparent from the Bible. what the essence of Christianity is. And it's a word that Paul uses a hundred times throughout his New Testament writings. He uses it a hundred times. And in the book of Galatians, he uses this word seven times. So you see that it's obviously a big word. And it's actually the word that you find in the first few lines of Galatians 1. He uses it a hundred times. He uses it seven times here in this book. He uses it right in the opening. And the way that you can summarize Christianity in one word is that first word in verse 3. That's Christianity. It's grace. In verse 3, he talks about grace. And what's beautiful about this is that he begins the letter with grace, and in the very last verse of this book, in Galatians 6.18, if you fast forward there, you see that he ends the book with grace. He begins and ends, like bookends. He begins and ends with grace, which is to say everything else is in a context of grace. And when you look at Paul's 12 other letters, 13 in all, every single one of them begin and end the way Galatians do. He begins with grace and he ends with grace, and everything contained within is grace. And even when you look at John chapter one, what does it say there? The law came by Moses, but grace came by Jesus. When he came, he came with grace. The way you want to walk away this morning is with this understanding. This whole book is a word of God's grace. Christianity is not, oh, I can't do this and I can't do that. It's grace. Christianity is ultimately, I can't go to hell because of grace. That's one thing I don't want to do. And so we have then a religion of grace. When we write letters, it could be cards, postcards. It could be emails and texts. Oftentimes, there are certain formats that are customary and that we're used to. And so when you and I write letters to people, we start off by saying, hi, how are you doing? I hope it's going well. Hopefully, this finds you in good health. We say those kind of things. Pretty typical. Well, in the ancient world, they had a customary way of opening up their letters as well. And they would basically say, cera to you. Cera is the Greek word meaning happiness. They would say cera to you, happiness to you. So if you were living 2,000 years ago on Paul's day, you open up a letter, and it would basically say to you, cera, happiness to you. And Paul borrows from that everyday format that was customary for him. He borrows from his culture, but he tweaks it. He makes it a distinctly Christian greeting here. He doesn't say chara to you, happiness to you. He says charis, which is the Greek word grace. He tweaks it from happiness to grace. And in doing so, he cranks it up and makes it distinctly Christian. Everybody's talking about happiness. Christians talk about grace, which really is the fountain of happiness. And so you see here, not chara, but charis, grace, he says. And that's wonderful because so many times in our lives, we have to work hard. You have to work hard for what you have. You have to work hard in school and in college. You have to work hard in your career. You have to work hard at home and in your relationships. Some of you, when you come to church, you work hard in your ministry. We have to work hard in so many facets. We have to labor to get what we have. And if we're not careful, we can take that Jodeo Christian work ethic into our religion. If we're not careful, we can take a work attitude into Christianity. And just like all the other places in my life I have to work, work, work, when it comes to Christianity, if we're not careful, we can start to think I have to work, work, work. I have to work for favor with God. I have to work for salvation. I have to work to get to heaven. I have to work to merit something and to be rewarded by God. Because after all, I have to work for my boss, and I have to work in every other way. I have to work for a trophy. And so we could think that we have to work to gain from God. But that's not what Paul says here. And I suppose that The world offers grace and it offers peace. Because actually there in verse three, you see not one word, but two distinctly Christian words. Martin Luther said that the summary of Christianity is found in verse three. The summary of Christianity is found in these two words, grace and peace. And I suppose, When it comes to grace, that the world has its offerings, its varieties, its versions of grace and peace. So you get on the internet or you turn on the TV and you get its version of grace and peace. You go to the mall. You go shopping, you go on holiday, you go on vacation. When you frequent places in this world, they will offer you their versions of grace and peace. But Paul here is talking about a deeper, richer, everlasting grace and peace. Not as the world gives, but he's talking about a true grace and peace. I know this has happened to you, I'm sure. When somebody gets something new and they show it to you and you like it, one of the first things you say is, where did you get that? Where'd you get it? I want to go get one. Where'd you get it? We do that all the time. Well, when Paul here is talking about these twins, these two words, grace and peace, where do we get it? And again, the world has its versions, but where do we get this grace and peace? And it's not by working for it. Paul says here, It's not by our own hearts, our own endeavors, it's not by our own works, it's not by our own ministries, it's not by our own charities, it's not by baptism, it's not by giving to the offering, it's not by Holy Communion, that grace and peace don't come from any of those things. When Paul says grace and peace, he doesn't say from the world, or from your works, or from your heart of hearts. But when he says it there in verse 3, he says grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the Father and the Son that are the source of this. that if you're going to have true and lasting grace and peace, there is only one place. Everything else is a lesser form. Everything else is a counterfeit. Everything else just won't cut it in your life. Grace and peace from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And you see in verse three for the second time, he did it in verse one and now in verse three, does it the same thing? He puts the father, God, the father and the Lord Jesus Christ together. He lays them out as parallels. That here you have, for the second time in our passage, the Father and the Son, and that there is a co-equality, that there is a oneness between the Father and the Son. This is the beginning of a Trinitarian passage. You have the Father and the Son. You have here the deity, the divinity, the godship of Jesus Christ. He is there paralleled with God the Father, and he is called the Lord. That just like in the Old Testament, God is called the Lord, he's called Adonai, all over the Old Testament he is the Lord God. Now that divine title, Lord God, is applied to Jesus Christ because he is Adonai, because he is the Lord God the Son. He is paralleled here with the Father and the Son. And in that day with Paul, it would have been Caesar that is Lord of Rome. But here, it's Jesus that is Lord of all. He is King of Kings. You name the man, Jesus is number one. This is his divinity. the Father and the Son, and as such, it's the Father and the Son that are the fountain, that from the Father and the Son comes grace and peace. So if you're gonna have it, it's only gonna come from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And without the Father and the Son, you simply won't have it. You think about your life, don't you need grace and peace? You think about the world and the things that we live in, don't you need grace and peace? Things that are going on in your body and in your mind and in your temptations and the 10,000 things that trouble you this week. From the Father and the Son comes grace and peace. This is a call to action, this is a call to come and believe it, to call and ask God who is the source to give us grace and peace in our marriages, in the rearing of our children, but it's more than that. We all know as you travel around, you go to the stores, you go in the neighborhoods, we all know that it's Halloween and I'm not condoning it, I'm not advocating it. But we all know it's Halloween, and when you look at those scenes, you inevitably see monsters. Halloween monsters. And as scary and ugly as they might look, we know that they're not real. Their decorations, they're not real. But it was Martin Luther that actually, in light of verse three, he talked about two monsters that are real. They're hideous. And Luther said, the first monster that torments us is our sins. Do you know that because of your sin, you're going to die? The payment of sin is death? Sin is ruinous. It is devastating. You live your life long enough, if you continue in sin, it'll torment you. And the end result is death. That is just the fruit of sin. You plant sin in your life. Galatians says here, be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever you sow, you will reap. You sow apple seeds, you will get apples. You sow sin, you inevitably will get death. And so Martin Luther is aware of this, and he says that sin is a tormenting monster, lying, cheating, stealing, pride, selfishness, adultery, lust, all of its forms. It's ruinous, it's a monster, and it's real. That monster will pull you down. First monster is our sin. And Luther referred to a second tormenting monster, and it's a guilty conscience. That not only do we have a bad record, not only do we have sin, but then we have the shame and the guilt and we feel horribly, at least we should. that an offended, wounded, guilty conscience is another tormenting monster. It's ugly and it roars at us. Not only have we done wrongly, but we feel it. There are things in our lives, in our closets, that we would never share because it would make us guilty. It would make us scary if we told. There are things in our lives that we are absolutely ashamed about. Things that we've done that have been hurtful, things that we have done that we can never take back. And here you are decades later and it still bothers you. And so Luther talked about these two monsters. of sin and a guilty conscience. Think about that. What answers to this? What is the solution to sin and a guilty conscience? It's grace that forgives and takes away the torment of our sins. It is grace in Jesus Christ that pardons our iniquities, that casts our sins away, that washes all of our sins and does not charge them any longer against us. It is this word in verse 3, grace, that answers to the monster of sin. And it is grace that devours the monster of sin and defeats our sin. And it is peace that answers to a troubled conscience. That by grace, in Jesus Christ, God says to your troubled soul, shh. And he quiets you. because it is forgiven in Christ. Never to be remembered against you anymore. And if God before you, who can be against you? Grace cancels out your sin and peace answers to a troubled soul. As you can see how these are such beautiful words in Christianity, grace and peace, and they come from heaven. They come from God, the Father and the Son. It was Henry David Thoreau. Probably some of you remember him from literature class, Walden's Pond, Transcendentalism. He lived as a writer and a philosopher, Henry David Thoreau. He lived back in the 1800s on his deathbed. He was just my age. He was 44 years old on his deathbed. His family was so burdened. And you would be. A 44-year-old on their deathbed, you would be troubled. And so they sent the minister to Thoreau. And the minister came and said, now, David, now will you make peace with God? And Thoreau said, I didn't know I needed peace with God. I didn't know I was in war with him. There are a lot of people out there that don't realize they need peace with God. that as the Bible says, there's hostility, there's enmity, that there is a problem, a rift between us and God. It doesn't matter if you say, I don't have a problem with God, I'm not at war with God, I have no problem, me and God are cool, I like God, I have no problem with God. You may not have a problem with God, but if you live in sin, if you continue in sin, then he has a problem with you. If you lie, if you cheat and steal, if you commit fornication, whatever you want to say, think of the Ten Commandments. If you live that way, If you have unconfessed sins, if you are not calling upon the grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, if you don't have Jesus as your Savior, if he has never pardoned your iniquity, if you've never cried out to him for mercy, if you've never repented from your sins, If Christ is not Lord, if Christ is not your Savior, then God is a problem. God is a problem with you. In your rebellion, there is a war between you and God. There's only one mediator, there's only one bridge, there's only one peace between you and God, and it's graciously given to you through Jesus Christ. And so we have here grace and peace. And when he says peace here, for the Jews, and Paul was a Jew, he's dealing with lots of Jews, even in Galatia, and when Paul refers to peace, he's referring to the Jewish concept of peace, which a common greeting for those people throughout Old Testament history, throughout Jewish history, they would greet each other by saying, peace to you, and the other guy would say, and to you, peace. They would constantly say, shalom, peace. Shalom to you, and to you, shalom. The Jews would often talk about peace. The word shalom means well-being. It refers to wellness. The word shalom refers to when everything is in the right place. When all of it lines up, that's peace. You know, when you look in your life, you may not have everything line up. There may not be wellness in your body. There may not be wellness in your wallet. There may not be wellness at home. There may not be wellness in your country. There may not be wellness all around you. But because of grace from God through Jesus Christ, we can have peace, shalom, and we can say it may not be well with my body and it may not be well in 10,000 ways in my life, it is well with my soul. because grace heals the sin and death of the soul and takes away the war with God and brings you to peace. And so as we would close, just a few things. What's wrong with these Galatians? They're in danger of walking away from God's grace and peace. And if we're not careful, that could be true of us. In a few minutes, we'll watch a baptism. In a few minutes, we'll go down and have lunch. In a few minutes, we'll have a business meeting. In a few minutes, we'll go on our way, go shopping, go home, watch TV, go back to our jobs, go back to school. We'll go back to 10,000 things in our lives. And like these Galatians, they were walking away from grace and peace. And if you're not careful, that can happen to you. Having heard of God's grace and peace and how it forgives sins and how it gives ease to your troubled soul, having heard these things, in a few minutes, if you're not careful, It can just go out your ears, and you can walk away from it. We're about to witness Franklin's baptism. This is not giving him grace and peace. This is not giving him salvation and favor. This is not earning for Franklin heaven. Oh, heaven. Franklin's going to heaven. After all, I was at his baptism. No. Franklin is not being baptized for grace and peace, but because he already has this grace and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a gift if he just receives it by faith. That's why he's being baptized. This baptism is a confession. It's a testimony. If you want a sermon, he's about to preach it. It is Franklin saying to the whole world, I believe on the grace and peace of God in Jesus Christ and him alone. And if anybody doesn't believe that, they have no business of being baptized. But if you believe that, then you have every reason to make that public in baptism. What was this baptism about? God's grace and peace in his life through Jesus. That's what you need to know. Grace that forgives and peace with God through that grace. And notice the order. It's not peace, then grace, but it's grace that brings peace. It's not peace, peace, peace, peace. What can I do for peace? No, it's grace that renders the peace. You know what? The picture here in verse three with grace and peace. Think about grace and peace. Is the picture here of grace and peace like a puddle? I just saw a puddle yesterday. Is the picture of grace and peace like a puzzle, puddle? Think about a puddle, small, shallow, murky, and by tomorrow it's gone. Is that the picture of grace and peace? Small, shallow, murky, and by tomorrow it's gone. Or is the picture here more like a river? Deep, broad, flowing. The river of God's grace and peace are flowing. Notice the text. There's action, movement. It's not stale. It's not stagnant. It's not like a puddle. There is a river of God's grace and peace from heaven to earth. Notice there, it's to you. It's moving to you. Grace and peace to you. It's a river that flows. Get into it. Get in the way. Let it flow to you. Let it wash over you. Let God give grace and peace. If you would call on the river to flow to you, then it would. It's not a puddle, but a river. And it's to you. Don't walk away saying, oh, the preacher was talking about grace and peace, and it's to sit on a shelf somewhere. It's to kind of sit in verse three. No, grace and peace is to flow to you. It's to you. And isn't this really kind of a map? Isn't this kind of a template or a blueprint? God deals with us in grace and peace. And how should we deal with each other? Grace that brings peace. That's how God is to us, and that's how it is to be to each other. And if you wanna know what grace and peace look like, if you want the expanded version of verse three, if you want the expanded version of grace and peace, look at verse four. Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that's called grace, he gave himself for our sins. that he might deliver us from this present evil age. The rescue from this present evil age is called peace. Verse four is all about grace and peace. So how are you gonna leave this service today? The way you came? We're calling on God to let that grace and peace flow to you through Jesus Christ. God bless it to us. through Jesus Christ, amen.