Accept No Substitutes - [Galatians 1:6-12]

Well, I would invite you to take your Bibles and open them to Galatians chapter 1 as I continue my series in Galatians Oh wait,

I don't have a series in Galatians turn there. Anyway Mike gave me permission as long as I didn't go to Ruth and Who knows why

I would go to Ruth to preach whatever I wanted. So here we are in Galatians Chapter 1 this morning.

I Think we got a real lesson this week in tolerance How it works

How it doesn't work what it means What it doesn't mean As far as words go.

I think tolerance has been stretched Folded spindled mutilated. I mean it it virtually has lost all of its previous meaning

It's become a buzzword and basically it means it for you to be tolerant means you must accept

Any sinful activity that anybody wants to participate in if you don't you are Intolerant and guess what intolerance could

Potentially cost you your job for a few days and then they hire you back But if you haven't been watching the news somebody did lose their job this week for saying some things crassly about homosexual behavior and It was all over the news, so I don't know what you guys are watching but anyway

Today there are there there is a group that a lot of people agree deserve condemnation

Who is that group? What's those people that? Actually hold to a standard that says there is objective truth

In fact, there are some really bad people and those people Sometimes are referred to as heretic hunters

They like to think of themselves as discernment ministries. Here's what they do They listen to what people teach from the

Bible and they say does that match up with what the Bible says now to some people That's horrible Especially to false teachers, right?

They don't like that. They don't like being called out But we're gonna see in our passage this morning that we need to be discerning

We need to examine things that are taught. We need to look at what the Bible says

We need to be able to distinguish between truth and error Now the

Church of Galatia is Part of what today would be called

Turkey some of you may be familiar with the term Asia Minor It's that little peninsula that gets really close to Greece doesn't quite get there adjacent to modern -day

Bulgaria, I Mean how many you know, it's in the Mediterranean between the Mediterranean to the Black Seas I could go on but I won't be pointless

That's where it is. That's where the church was actually a group of churches But it's unusual this book is

Unusual among all the books why because typically Paul gives some kind of warm greeting and Then he addresses whatever issue it is that he wants to address with them

Maybe it's multiple issues But listen to some of the ways he starts his letters book of Romans To all who are beloved of God in Rome called as saints

To even the church at Corinth with all their problems listen first Corinthians 1 2

Says to the Church of God which is at Corinth to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus Saints by calling to the church at Ephesus to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus to Timothy He wrote to Timothy my true child in the faith a tenderness

Thessalonians first Thessalonians He wrote this kind of a little plain But he says to the

Church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ at least Identifying them as being in Christ listen to how he starts

The book of Galatians the letter to the church in Galatia to the churches of Galatia stop

No qualifiers. No praise Just the bare plain facts.

It's as if he's just naming them and giving their address. You're a church. You're at Galatia This really is not a long -distance hug it's kind of more like a long -distance slap if we're being candid

We like to be candid Lightfoot said of this opening.

He says it is an indignant Expression of surprise that takes the place of the usual Thanksgiving for the faith of his converts

This is the only instance where st. Paul does not express his thankfulness in addressing a church

The only time and also as I read because I'm gonna read through the first five verses we're gonna start on Galatians 1 we're gonna read 1 through 12, and I'm gonna focus on 6 through 12 this morning

But even as I read I want you to just look at how he focuses on his Apostleship the nature of it.

Why why was that important because he wanted the church to understand Look, I have some authority here

You know what I responded to calls in Los Angeles County People look at my uniform and they go.

Well, there's a representative of the government of the sheriff. This is a deputy I need to respect him and here's what he's doing.

He's pulling the authority card right off the bat I want you guys to know this is just not my opinion. I Am writing as an official

Messenger from the Lord Jesus Christ Why is it so important?

Because the church at Galatia had been infiltrated by a movement known as the

Judaizers These were people who wanted to kind of marry the old covenant with the new you you could be saved by grace

But you also needed to be circumcised In fact, it's interesting one of my favorite passages in all the

Bible is in the book of Galatians Where Paul and reason I like is because I'm somewhat irreverent

Paul goes to the man the Catholics call the first Pope Peter and confronts him

For his theological air right to his face The theme of this book is justification by faith

Alone, there's nothing that can be added to it and you're gonna hear me say that a lot today

If you add something to the gospel you negate the gospel You can't do it, but that's what these men were doing

They had begun teaching that Justification was not a matter of faith alone.

In fact, they even said that Paul, you know when he was in various places He would actually Prescribe circumcision.

So how dare he withhold it from the Church of Galatia? He just doesn't want you guys to take that extra step that really gets you into heaven

This was an assault on the sufficiency of the death of Christ to justify believers

It's an attack on the gospel How does one get to heaven? How was one declared righteous by God?

The Judaizers had to be dealt with in a most severe manner this rebellion against the grace of God had to be put down and Paul was in Effect the general of the forces that were going to put it down That I'm speaking.

I'm using a lot of militaristic terms. Why because this is spiritual warfare If you pick up some almost

I'll call it science fiction It's Christian fiction. You know that that deals with spiritual warfare.

It's about Demons and angels and behind -the -scene warfare and you know, this is all going on and we have no clue here's spiritual warfare

It's truth versus error It's the gospel versus non Gospels our

Demons involved. Yes But none of some physical confrontation with angels, this is a battle of ideas

That's a consistent theme of spiritual warfare. It is about Assaults on the gospel and that's what we're dealing with here today let's read our text

Galatians 1 verses 1 to 12 and Again, notice his authority and how it's up front and center here

Paul an Apostle not from men nor through men But through Jesus Christ and God the

Father who raised him from the dead My authority is not man given.

It's God given He's writing and all the brothers who are with me to the churches that the fellow

Christians who are with him to the churches of Galatia verse 3 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 God our Father to whom be the glory forever and ever.

Amen Nice little encapsulation basically of the gospel what has been done now look at verse 6

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and Are turning to a different gospel

Not that there is another one But there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you let him be a cursed as We have said before so now

I say again if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received

Let him be accursed For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God or am

I still or Excuse me, or am I trying to please man if I were still trying to please man

I would not be a servant of Christ For I would have you know brothers that the gospel was preached that was preached by me is not man's gospel

For I did not receive it from any man Nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ Now this morning.

I want to draw your attention to three truths Drawn from our text so that you will really treasure the gospel

It was and is under attack and it needs to be proclaimed

Defended guarded and What we need to do is whenever we hear somebody say thus saith the

Lord or this is the gospel We need to compare that with Scripture and see if it is so Our first truth is and I used a lot of a's we have some mild alliteration going on here

Our first truth is abandoning grace is abandoning Christ Abandoning grace is abandoning

Christ Abandoning Christ Looking in at verse 6. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him the person

Who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel?

Turning from God the one who called them in Christ and turning to a different gospel listen to what

Hendrickson said he says What we find here is not Satisfaction as would be typical with other churches but stupefaction

Overwhelming amazement painful perplexity Paul is shocked. He is indeed stupefied

Listen he is shocked can't even believe this Other churches have their problems, but Paul writes of his thankfulness for the work of God in them how he's

Directed them thus far and then he addresses the issues that maybe they need to change But Paul is stunned by the theological desertion of the

Galatians They are essentially traitors turncoats They've abandoned

Christ Now imagine using such language about other churches today

Accusing them essentially of theological treason What's going to happen? You're going to be called intolerant a heretic hunter, but what's the truth?

the truth is that people who Water down grace who want to add something to the gospel are leading people to hell

Now this Greek verb translated deserting pictures a complete changing of affections

It's as if a man seems Married man seems perfectly content and happy with his wife and the next day he runs off With another woman it's that radical.

It's a complete changing of allegiance Would that it would be only just a moral failure and you say well only a moral failure.

This is much worse Because it's not just them. It's not just this one particular group this has an

Impact at the Church of Galatia, and if it's not stomped out it will have a broader impact

It marks these people who believe in this as those who are not just merely ensnared in some sin

But those who have been visited by the grace of God who have tasted and seen that it is good and then run from it

The Galatians have heard the gospel. They've been taught the gospel. They gave assent to the gospel.

They said they believed now consider the contrast between This letter and again just the the letters written to the

Church of Corinth with all of its problems Remember they had problems of unity

They had problems of immorality in their midst They misused the spiritual gifts.

The the problems are go on and on and on In fact, people have just written books about the problems of the church at Corinth But Paul took time to praise

God for them. Why? Because like other Christians they stumbled they fell down But God was at work at them.

They weren't perfect, but they were it's not the direction It's or it's not the perfection. It's the direction of their lives, but the church in Galatia doesn't get anything like that They get a cannon blast a full fusillade as it were right in the face

Paul doesn't hold anything back Why? Because there's nothing more serious.

There is no greater failing than abandoning the gospel of Christ There was a fleeing from God.

It says desertion They ran away our text tells us that they were quickly deserting. It was like a stampede

They were not thinking through they had like a herd mentality. They were not thinking through what they were being told

They were not comparing this different gospel to the Bible they were not carefully scrutinizing the teaching to see if it matched the scripture as the

Bereans were committed for They heard about this new gospel this new and improved gospel

This new edition of the Bible or of the gospel and they couldn't wait They had been called to grace

They had been called to Believe in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ to trust in him alone

But they were switching allegiance from that gospel to a different gospel Now, how is it different?

well, it really the word means and it's the word from which we get hetero it really means of a different type

I mean, you know a couple of examples It's like I asked my wife to go to the store and get me night.

She didn't she wouldn't fail like this I asked her to go get my favorite Ben and Jerry's ice cream and she comes back with store brand ice milk

Or worse yet some kind of sugar -free frozen yogurt or something, you know, like come on We're not we're not even in the same ballpark

When we say hetero we understand that they are opposites Especially in this day and age when we're told that hetero doesn't matter anymore, you know, homo is just fine a

Man and a woman they're opposite opposites attract. We understand that and that's the word that's used here

This is an opposite of the gospel. This is no gospel at all. This is like going from the gospel of grace to this new improved additional

Gospel gospel plus let's just call it It's like going from the

United States to the Soviet Union during the Cold War for you kids. That's really bad. How did this happen?

Well, the Galatians have been beguiled by smooth talkers Who have convinced them that they need to do something to get into heaven now

You know Paul was shocked. But if we consider He was shocked because he knew what they'd been taught but if we consider the nature of mankind it really isn't so shocking

We consider the way Satan works it's really not so shocking what happened in the

Garden of Eden Satan distorted The Word of God has

God really said and then he twisted a little bit and what did Eve do in response? She twisted it all the more

It's surprising what a big difference just a little tweak a little change can make You know, sometimes we hear things we go.

Well, that's not too far off. How bad can that be? I was reading yesterday

That if you're flying a plane and you start on the equator and you're and you do a loop around the earth

Instead of ending up where you started if you're off one degree One degree one degree out of 360 what's one degree between friends?

Come on 500 miles So maybe you know,

I mean to obviously we're not on the equator But let's say you started in Boston and you flew around and you're off one degree.

You could wind up what? Washington DC the horror. It's just a little difference

It's not that bad I mean think about it what they were what they were promoting was Good at least under the old covenant, but when it comes to the gospel adding

To the gospel adding to grace You don't just wind up at the wrong Airport you wind up Some place you don't want to be

Paul wrote in Romans 11 6 that adding to works Or adding works to grace causes the grace to know no longer be grace

You nullify grace grace is as Sinclair Ferguson likes to say demerited favor

That is we get the opposite of what we deserve. Nobody wants what they deserve Nobody wants that because what we deserve is hell, but when we tamper with the recipe of the gospel of grace when we add to it we subtract to it we negate it an

Adulterated gospel that is a gospel featuring a mixture of grace with some merit some works some effort some deed

Is as useless as an idol you might as well go out to your backyard You know do what the ancient people used to do

Carve yourself a little idol of stone or maybe a really nice piece of wood out there in the back

That you decided not to burn for whatever reason Carve yourself a nice little idol fall down on the ground and worship it because that's exactly the same effect as when you add works to the gospel you are

Believing in a gospel of your own imagining and a God who needs your help to save him a gospel designed by mortal minds cannot appease the wrath of an immortal holy

God such a gospel Such a pseudo gospel a false gospel imagines that there is something good something worthwhile something valuable in our efforts

But the Prophet Isaiah said that our righteous deeds in other words our best efforts the things that we at the end of the day we feel good about whether it's

Helping somebody across the street or taking care of a baby or whatever wonderful thing that we've done feeding the poor

Clothing the Those who need clothing sheltering those who need shelter whatever good work that we think we have done

Isaiah says it's a filthy garments a polluted garments our best efforts one who

Let's put it another way if you think you know what if I do this I have a better chance of being saved

You don't understand the gospel you don't understand grace you have not believed There is no chance

It's 100 % Our second truth a lot of A's here ambassadors of angels are anathematized a lot of A's We see a distortion of the gospel look at verse 7

He says not that there is another one another gospel But there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ You've left for Christ for another gospel, but the bad news is and this is really bad news there is no other gospel and actually in the wording here

Paul expresses a little bit of sorrow a little bit of Empathy for the

Galatians he feels sorry for them The literal meaning of trouble you is it would have the idea of causing

Something to be shaken together to be mixed up and I don't

I don't like to mix my protein shakes up by shaking them like that because it doesn't work all that well But throw it in the blender. That's the idea here

It's taking these ideas, and they've they've just spun them in such a way that it's got these

Galatians dizzy They're theologically dizzy. They're not thinking right they're confused

The false teachers have succeeded in jumbling their thinking concerning the gospel See that word they're distort.

They really want to distort or Change the gospel. They're changing it from one thing to another

It's a metamorphosis only in this case. You know we typically how do we explain metamorphosis?

The process we see a caterpillar, and it turns into a beautiful butterfly Well in this case the beautiful butterfly turns back into a caterpillar.

It's going the wrong way This is not something that's desirable, but they're pursuing it

We need to defend the gospel, and that's playing right in the next verse look at look at this in verse 8

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel Contrary to the one we preached to you let him be accursed now look at just the first four words, but even if we

It's kind of the royal ways talking about we meaning himself Mostly, but the other men that he's with the other godly men that he's with And he says listen

If somehow it were possible for me to show up at your church and start preaching a gospel

That's different from what I used to that's contrary. That's opposed to the gospel. I used to preach

I Ought to be Accursed I ought to be Anathematized I ought to be condemned.

I ought to be sentenced to hell that's What he's saying and look he says he adds there, but even if we one of these godly men or even if me the

Apostle of Christ should appear and do that that would be bad, and we should be accursed, but look what he says he says or an angel from heaven a

Messenger from heaven it's amazing that angel should be then condemned

It's that serious to misrepresent the gospel The master seminary we used to have a sign you know like if If you ever watched

Notre Dame football and by the way my favorite team is whoever's playing Notre Dame, but they have a little sign

That they that's over their locker room as they exit that says play like a champion today

When I see it, I always go you know play like a Catholic today, or whatever you know I just really don't like but At the master seminary they had a little sign and we didn't get to slap it

I always thought it would be cool You know if we could slap it before we went in a preaching lab you know preach like a champion or something

That's not what it says anyway The sign says this it says we train men as if lives depend on it let me tell you something souls do depend on getting the gospel right an

Accurate gospel saves a gospel with things added subtracted

Affixed Whatever, whatever is done to the gospel to change it will not save and in fact condemns that's why he pronounces that anathema on them an adulterated gospel any change condemns

It's as simple as that What about a message from heaven who would claim to be visited by an angel and receive some revelation that contradicts the

Bible? Who would do that? Well, let's see Muhammad said he was visited by the angel

Gabriel who started giving him parts of the Koran that Were contrary to the

Bible and in fact if you read the Koran you're gonna find that there have been a lot of changes To what is essentially the familiar

Old Testament story? see Joseph Smith visited allegedly by an angel

Founded Mormonism Ellen G. White's Received messages from angels or so.

She said the founder of Seventh -day Adventism The Jehovah Witnesses have their issues with the

Archangel Michael whom they believe to be Jesus Christ I was reading something that they say that he disintegrated after the cross and then became the

Archangel Michael very strange But it's as if this verse

Even if I or anybody else come and preach the gospel is different It's almost like heat it's almost a prophecy because it is a prophecy

This is what's been going on ever since then wave after wave after wave of assaults every possible variation and distortion and addition and subtraction if Something could be claimed to be the gospel no matter how ridiculous the claims no matter how absurd the source

No matter how unbiblical Attack after attack after attack

But the gospel is not changed It is not able to be changed.

It is no more malleable that is subject to change bending folding shaping whatever

Then the nature of God himself because if you think about it, what is the gospel? It is the outworking of the nature of God You say how's that?

Well, God is holy. He disapproves of sin, right? That's part of the gospel

Well, God is love God loves therefore he acted he sent his son second person the

Trinity to live a perfect life Die a sacrificial death be raised on the third day

God is justice God will punish every single sin

Every single sin the only question is whether they are put on Christ at the cross or whether you will pay for them for all eternity

God is righteous. He cannot look at sin. He cannot even abide it.

No unclean thing will enter into the kingdom of heaven There isn't an attribute of God where you could say well that has nothing to do with the gospel because it all does

The gospel cannot change it is fixed. It is his means to save his people and make no mistake about it when anyone

That you hear teaching Says that they found something new or notices something that has been lost

You should approach that with great caution Your alarm system should be going off like crazy

Why because there is nothing new Jude said it was what the once for all delivered faith

There's nothing new or improved. It can't get any better the great

Scottish preacher John Brown put it this way. He said it may be called it is called gospel, but is misnamed

There is no gospel, but one and that ye have abandoned. That's what they had done

Listen Every other gospel every other so -called gospel is actually an anti gospel if the gospel is going north every so -called pseudo fake

Gospel is heading south They're not close. This isn't about shades of gray It's not like there are you know, many things from which we can choose from this isn't a smorgasbord of truth

There's one truth and many enemies of the truth seeking to masquerade the truth or to provide reasonable

Seemingly reasonable alternatives why? Because Satan is a liar and a deceiver the father of all lies and he has many willing emissaries who promote these false

Gospels to lead billions to eternal damnation. What did Jesus say in Matthew 7?

He said many are on the broad road Many think that they're bound for heaven

And if you ask them why they're bound for heaven, they can tell you that is something that they've done

No, they might refer to the grace of God. They might talk about Jesus But when you get down to it, what are they gonna say?

In part it was because of their baptism. It was because of their temple marriage

It was because because because they've got something that they contributed to it

That is not the gospel. And by the way, you can't live the gospel

Anybody who says to you live the gospel you must live the gospel doesn't understand the gospel One person live the gospel

We believe the gospel. We don't live it. You can't live it. You don't have the capacity to live it gospel is good news

That'd be kind of crazy. You know, are you living the newspaper? Nobody would ever say that how can you live the gospel?

But in Mormonism, that's what they teach Many teach that you read that you just you should run the other way

And think about what they were doing here. The Judaizers wanted to add Parts of the

Old Covenant specifically circumcision to the gospel of grace

Judaism morphed over time from a gospel of grace

We read of the heroes of faith We understand that they were saved by faith and faith alone and it really had turned into a ridiculous set of rules

Now look at some so -called Christian denominations out there Roman Catholicism They specifically deny

Salvation by grace alone. They specifically deny and condemn anyone who says that you can know that you were saved

They specifically condemn Anyone who teaches that salvation is by faith alone through grace alone in Christ alone.

They deny all that and instead Salvation is only available through the church and by its auspices meaning there are things that you have to do in order to Merit heaven in order to help justify yourself

Every false religion every false system says to you and appeals to your flesh and says

You know what? The grace of God is abundant and all you have to do is

Fill in the blank. The truth is you can't even believe apart from the work of God Salvation is from beginning to end all of God Now other

Gospels, let's look at verse 9 as we have said before So now I say again if anyone's preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received let him be accursed it's interesting that he

Pronounces a judgment not on the Galatians not on the Church of Galatia, but on whom those who are teaching false things

Is it because he thinks that they're too smart to fall for false teaching no It's because he understands

The God who has chosen at least some of the people at the Church of Galatia Listen to as I read

Galatians 5 verses 7 to 10. You are running. Well, you were doing super Who hindered you from obeying the truth?

This persuasion is not from him who calls you a little leaven Or a little leaven leavens the whole lump

I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty whoever he is

There's a small group of people. Maybe it's only one person with some persuasion

With some influence who's trying to introduce this heresy into the church and he goes get rid of him

Basically, that's what that means verse 9 a little leaven leavens the whole lump. It's not just a little addition

To the gospel spoils it but whoever this person is you need to get rid of him He's going to wreck the whole church

Paul is confident though. Look at that. He says I have confidence in the Lord not in you but in the

Lord Confidence in the

Lord the Lord that is it work in his people Again, notice he uses a cursed

He is that over and over again for emphasis He wants us to understand that those who teach these things will be delivered over to divine wrath

Paul wants to make plain that as one man calls it these self -appointed nobodies

Who are now making themselves guilty of this crime. They will be punished. They will receive their

Just desserts and with all the authority of an apostle of Christ He is pronouncing

God's judgment on those who would distort the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ So we've seen truth number one abandoning grace is abandoning

Christ truth number two ambassadors of angels are anathematized that just means that these who claim to have messages from angels are condemned and our third truth approval of salvation's author is

Is above anthropic ascent too many A's there, but anyway, here's here's the point

Salvation's author is Christ Paul wants the approval of salvation's author More than he wants anthropic ascent, which is the approval of man fancy way of saying that And he asked the question am

I going to be a God pleaser a man pleaser look at verse 10 For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God or am

I trying to please man if I were still trying to please Man, I would not be a servant of Christ. Look I have to make a choice

He says I can either just let you guys go and let you believe whatever you want to believe I can be tolerant

I can go along to get along but if I do that I'll basically be resigning my position as a servant of Christ.

I'll no longer be faithful to the Lord Is it wrong to call people on the carpet who are teaching a false gospel?

No It's a service to the Lord It's what teachers are called to do

They're to exhort in sound doctrine from Titus Chapter 1 and they're also to refute those who contradict it

Again Jude contend for the once -for -all delivered faith. This is what teachers of the gospel ought to do

Now if he were seeking the approval of man, what would he do? Well, you'd be out there trying to maybe outmaneuver these false teachers so that he could have a bigger group than they did

But Paul makes it clear. There is no compromise. There is no midpoint at which the two sides agree We have gospel and anti gospel.

We have matter and antimatter and if they meets it's gonna be a cataclysm Mankind us we by inclination we want what we want rules.

We want to know what we have to do I don't care if it's in your marriage if it's at work

And you know what even in the church sometimes it appeals to our sin nature You know what?

I don't want to just trust in the Lord Jesus Christ Can you just give me a list of things that I need to get rid of in my life?

Is there some way that I you know, some list of sins that I can just stop committing and then I'll be okay It's our sin nature that makes us want to raise ourselves up to be worthy of heaven

And this is no small thing the very glory of the triune. God is at stake. He has decreed planned and Brought about the salvation of his people.

He paid for it all without their help is he now to share the credit because of their circumcision or their baptism or their obedience of any kind is

The sovereign God of the universe in need of our help to save us The answer is no

He has done Everything some say well

God has done all he can and now he just needs you to just kind of lean across the finish line That's not grace

Any accommodation to sinful man is a rejection of Paul's Lord and Master He's would in effect be throwing off the yoke

Again he says if I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. I can't do both Finally look there's only one source for truth

Look at verse 11 for I would have you know brothers that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel

For I did not receive it from any man nor was I taught it but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ He was taught by the resurrected

Lord himself. He didn't learn his gospel in seminary. He didn't read it in a book

He wasn't taught by anyone and in fact if we just remember what the

Lord said to Ananias What he gave him the unenviable task of going to take care of Saul then

Saul of Tarsus in Acts 9 16 Ananias is not too crazy about the idea, but the

Lord says this for I will show him Paul Saul Paul How much he must suffer for the sake of my name?

The Lord himself would show Saul then Paul how much he would suffer for the sake of my name

Jesus taught Paul the gospel and he told him you're going to suffer.

It's not going to be easy Well, what could sustain a man through beatings? through floggings

Running for his life over and over again shipwrecks all the things that Paul went through the whole litany of them

What could sustain him through that except for? The very personal

Relationship and instruction he'd received from the Lord. He didn't need

Self -help books. He didn't need anything else He knew what he knew by virtue of hearing it from his creator his sustainer his

Savior The Church of Galatia had been infiltrated by spiritual traitors those who had joyfully and willingly exchanged the treasure of the gospel

For trash They were leading some astray and causing confusion in the church and Paul wrote to straighten them out

Now we live as I mentioned earlier. We live in an age of tolerance. Tolerance is the buzzword.

It's the watchword It's what everyone prize or what the world prizes above all else.

We also live in an age of unprecedented technology Technology is both a blessing and a curse.

I heard John MacArthur recently talking about how via the

Internet Some of the resources they're able to send out via the Internet mp3 files of sermons and whatnot.

There are thousands maybe tens of thousands of Vietnamese holding

Bible studies and rice patties Now that is a country that is

Communist officially atheist that condemns Christianity in every way possible, but because of technology

The Lord is using that now to reach people that have never heard the gospel would have no way of knowing the gospel

But technology as I said is a double -edged sword

What's the face of Christianity across the globe it's a so -called Trinity broadcasting network

Countless millions Led into false systems of salvation whether it be the prosperity gospel, which says, you know,

God loves you and wants you to be rich God loves you and will bless you if you just send all your money

God loves you, but he is Not a Trinity God loves you, but they have a they have a million different variations

Not a million but a lot of different variations, but they all have one problem they don't preach the gospel

What is the gospel? What is it that we are to defend? Well, I said earlier

It is simply put it is this that we are helpless to save ourselves that nothing we do

Can merit God's favor and In fact, our very best efforts are so riddled with sin that if we were to hold them up before God He would send us straight to hell

Those are our best efforts We all sin and fall short of the glory of God Paul wrote to the

Romans Because of that and because God cannot abide sin cannot see look upon sin with favor

Cannot have it in his presence that sin had to be dealt with God dealt with it

We couldn't having sinned. There's no way we could make up for it. There's no amount of effort

No amount of work no amount of sacrifice that we could possibly ever do That could make up for our sin.

So God sent his son the Lord Jesus Christ second person of the Trinity eternally

God To take on an additional nature as man to suffer the restrictions the limitations that we do

To feel the effects of gravity to be hungry to be sad to be tempted and Yet in all these things not only did he never sin and the way we think about sin, which is never to do anything wrong

But he also never did anything that was less than perfect Which we often fall short of have you ever loved

The Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength for one hour You ever loved your neighbor like yourself for a minute

The answer to both those is no Jesus never sinned lived a perfect life

And then went to the cross not as a victim, but as a willing participant in the redemption of his people

He willingly took the burden of our sin upon him God the

Father poured out his wrath on the Son on the cross and Then we know he was satisfied with it both because the scripture tells us and because he raised him from the dead

All that is the gospel Anything else at best is a response

Now I tell you to believe in the gospel. Is that part of the gospel? No Believing is something that you will do

If God causes you to be born again You will believe you will inevitably believe and I beg you and urge you and plead with you to believe even today

I want you to be reconciled to God We preach Jesus Christ and him crucified because we want people to believe we want them

To see their sin to see the cross and to flee their sin and to embrace the

Savior But you can't do anything to add to that you can't do anything to be better than the gospel there's nothing better The gospel is good news

Good news is God has done it all in Christ. He has accomplished your salvation our response

Needs to be to believe Let's pray our

Father in heaven Lord this morning this afternoon Would you so fix these truths in our mind that no smooth talker no flatterer

No one who wants to appeal to our flesh Can convince us that any addition or any subtraction or any new?

Thought Any way needs to be added to the gospel. The gospel is perfect.

Would you cause us to rest in that? Would you cause us to trust entirely in the finished work of Christ Jesus That is not to say that you won't change us once you save us

But let us not confuse Changing ourselves with the work that you will do.

There is no preparation of salvation It is all a work of yours your spirit

Causes us to be born again You draw us you convict us

Even today Lord, would you be pleased to draw to convict?

to save to grant faith

To any here who don't have it. May you guard this church and everyone here from false teachers from false teaching

From any so -called gospel whose end is Only condemnation we pray in Christ's name and for his sake.