Doing or Done Galations 1:1-5 Pastor John

It is great to be in church and we're gonna go to the Lord in prayer But first we wanted to do kind of prepare our hearts with a great exhortation from the

Psalms Psalm 105 says Oh give thanks to the Lord Call upon his name lots of explanation points

Exclamation points in the text which is the translators trying to help us to understand the spirit of the original

Hebrew It's very uplifting. It's very joyous. It's very exuberant make known his deeds among the people

Sing to him sing psalms to him Talk of his wondrous works glory in his holy name

Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord Seek the

Lord in his strength Seek his face ever more Let's go to the

Lord in prayer Father how thankful we are for this day this wonderful day that we can gather together to worship and Lord, of course for those at home

Watching by video Lord. It's not the same as being with God's people We're thankful that you have allowed us and given us the opportunity to meet like this

God And that we have the technology to record the services God and we pray especially

For our worship service today God that it would be done in such a way that would bring glory to you father father that Jesus Christ would be exalted and Lord that Your people would be edified and strengthened

Lord, we do choose to seek you and to call upon your name today May Jesus Christ be praised in whose name we pray.

Amen Stand together with me if you would as we praise our

Lord for what a wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord I Praise him for the cleansing blood.

What a wonderful Savior that reconciled my soul to God what a wonderful Savior Oh Savior is

Jesus my Jesus Savior is

Jesus my Lord He cleansed my heart from all its sin.

What a wonderful Your is

Jesus my Jesus Is Jesus my

Lord Overcoming power will say

And triumphs in each trying hour what all say

Says my Jesus Your is

Jesus my As we continue to sing our great

Savior Jesus what a friend for sinners Jesus For sin

Jesus lover of my soul Friends may fail me

Falls assail me my Savior makes me

Being Me to the

In Jesus In weakness

Myself Times failing my strength my

Big love me to the end

Jesus In sorrow

For me Even when my my

Helps my soul He is with me to the end

Jesus, guide and keeper, warm but still is

He is with me to the end

Jesus, guide and keeper, warm but still is Jesus, I do now receive

Him more than all He hath granted me forgiveness

I am His and He is mine,

I'll be a Savior, I'll be keeping love with Him Thank you, and you may be seated.

Good morning. Scripture reading for this morning is from Galatians 1 verses 1 through 10.

Galatians 1 verses 1 through 10. 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 whom 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 enough 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 and what we have preached to you let him be accursed as we have said before so now

I say again if anyone preaches any other gospel to you other than what you have received let him be accursed for do

I now persuade men or God or do I seek to please men for if I still please men

I would not be a bondservant of Christ may God add his reading his blessing to the reading hearing of his holy word

I always thrill when I go to Ephesians and we're it has a big the longest sentence

I think in the scripture where it says in Christ you have this and you have this and you have this and you have this it just keeps going and going and going everything that we have is because we are in Christ placed into him by the

Holy Spirit at salvation so let's stand together and sing in Christ alone glorious day since Christ has lost its grip on me for he is mine bought with the precious blood of Christ no guilt in life where else can we go

Lord where else can we go you have the words of eternal love show us

Christ show us Christ as Christ is

Lord you may be seated okay this pastor comes well praise the

Lord Amen Lori Bernstein what a gifted gifted musician and picker of music the way she planned and I'll never forget the first time we sang that song show us

Christ and how the Lord used that song in my heart you know to prepare me for the preaching of God's Word and this service if you're joining us by video welcome we miss you there's enough room in here for all of us to socially distance so if you want to slip in one

Sunday you can be at least six feet away from people without any problem amen so we miss you so if you have your

Bibles go to Ephesians chapter 4 Ephesians chapter 4 if you were looking forward to getting back to our survey through the

Old Testament and diving into 2nd Kings I want to ask you for your forgiveness because for the past few weeks going back a couple of weeks my heart has been somewhat burdened for our church for this church and for the church at large there's all kinds of things right now going on in the church at large that that I won't bore you with but it's very very

I mean you're concerned about the country right you're concerned about where we're headed as a nation we need to be very concerned about where the church is headed as well at least the true church it's been a blessing to be praying and to be part of Victor and Harold's efforts to determine

God's will for faith Bible Church over the past many months and clearly

God is moving in various ways I mean if they talked about it all the time I think that we wouldn't have time for the sermon and we don't want to cut my time out do we but it's even a greater blessing that the

Lord has opened the door for us to be meeting together and worshiping together and as the

Lord directs as the Lord guides members of this church could be voting on some things in the very near future and as we look ahead to 2021 and what the

Lord may have for faith Bible Church I was impressed a number of weeks ago that we should make some efforts on our

Sunday morning and from the preaching and teaching of the Word of God and the ministry of the Holy Spirit to teach and guide us and comfort us and and all of that to be united listen carefully to be united of like mind on a number of important things take a look at Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11 and he that is

Jesus Christ the context is Jesus Christ going all the way back to verse 7 he himself

Jesus gave some to be apostles some prophets some evangelists and some pastors and teachers why verse 12 for the equipping of the

Saints for the work of ministry for the edifying or the building up of the body of Christ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the

Son of God to a perfect man to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting but speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head

Christ from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effect of working by which every part does it share causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love now if you look in your mind's eye carefully through those verses there is literally an entire sermon in these verses but I wanted to call your attention specifically to the reason that Christ has given to the church apostles that we don't have any more profits we don't have those anymore either but we do have evangelists and there's some discussion with scholars is it pastors and teachers or is it pastor teacher one word a pastor is a teacher but why why has

Christ given these gifted men to the church verse 12 for the equipping of the

Saints so one of the ministries of the pastor one reason why God has given to the church pastors and evangelists is to equip the

Saints for the work of ministry why for the edifying for the building up of the body of Christ and here is the verse that has been just on my mind till or until we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the

Son of God and through that become a perfect or a mature man to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting beloved that is going on in the church as we speak just turn on the

TV and listen to some of these evangelists that are flying around the country in the world in private jets and want to buy a new jet 30 40 50 million dollar jets that want you to send in money a couple of weeks ago

I heard a guy and right here in the state of California in a what would appear to be a fundamental biblically sound church telling people to go out and refinance their home and take a portion of the cash out and give it to the church so they can build a church

I want you to hear what I'm saying I'm talking about a pastor telling a church you've been in your home for 20 years you have equity refinance that home take cash out and give it to the church and people are going amen people like us

Christians and and and a warning bell doesn't even go off last week we saw the

Bible clearly warns that in the last days in the in the years and the months and days as we draw nearer and nearer and closer and closer to the second coming of Christ evil men will grow worse and worse and sin will abound more and more and this is exactly beloved this is exactly what we see going on today children tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine there is a professor at one of the largest seminaries in the

United States of America that if you didn't know better you would say wow this is a great seminary and they have a professor on staff on their faculty who is obviously a very brilliant gifted she has a

PhD it's a woman and in one breath she's endorsing the false teaching of a woman pastor and in the other breath she's endorsing a sound biblical pastor out there and I just so bad wanted to write

I'm trying to understand how can you one breath say this and one breath and put those two together because they're not even they're not even swimming in the same river so look carefully we are not to be children and I'm going to tell you something the members of this church whether you're watching by video or not you need to be so thankful to the

Lord for the ministry of Pastor Bernstein and Victor and Harold and the men who have gone before them because this church if anything is committed to sound biblical doctrine we may not have we may not be busting out the walls with the thousands of people but these men are committed to sound biblical doctrine not every wind of doctrine and see and as I've gotten to know the people of this church and unfortunately without a men's

Bible study and fellowship meals and all of that because of this virus you know we're not

I don't know you as well as I'd like to but the phrase that keep kept coming back to my mind is in verse 13 unity of the faith if you look carefully how are believers unified how does a church a local church like ours have like -mindedness we are unified by the knowledge of Christ meaning we're unified in our knowledge and our conviction and our faith about what the

Bible teaches whether we're talking about baptism whether we're talking about elders whether we're talking about the plan of salvation whether we're talking about the purpose of the church whether we talk about how much we're to give to the church all of that that is what unites a church now if you think about this for a moment this fits where we're going today in the next few weeks fits so beautifully because what did we start that series with when we started in the book of Genesis in the book of beginnings we started with the content of the

Bible remember that what is the message of the Bible if you sat down with somebody and they said I've never read the

Bible oh you go to church right yeah I go to church what's the

Bible about well it's God's wonderful marvelous plan of salvation right that's one sentence sums up the message of the

Bible and then we move from the content of the whole Bible into what the character of God see primarily in all of the books that we've studied we have been learning primarily about God of course we've been learning about Israel right but we've been learning about God how he is holy how how he is merciful all the way through first Kings remember a holy people

Leviticus for a holy God all the way through here we're learning about God and we're learning about the character of God's people and how

God is is so powerful from Genesis 1 where he said let there be light and there was what light and he made the earth and and then we see

God's power again in Genesis 6 when he destroys the earth by flood and then we see the power of God and how he delivers

Israel out of Egypt and he divides the Red Sea and we go on and on and on and we learn about God's grace and his mercy how all the world was wicked right but remember but Genesis 6 but Noah found favor found grace in eyes

God out of all of mankind God picks Noah so what

I want to do is God leads for the next few Sundays it might be longer is to call our attention to being unified on the biblical gospel what

I mean by that is comprehending the biblical gospel we have a sense of the content of God's Word we can sum that up with a sentence we began over many months to develop and build a biblical foundation on the character of God and the nature of God so now let's begin embarking on building a biblical foundation when it comes to comprehending the gospel and we're going to embark on this journey of comprehending the gospel by looking at that subject through the lens of Galatians so let's go back to Galatians where Dave read

Galatians chapter 1 and if you looked at your notes the message title is doing or done doing or done the goal and purpose of today and God willing for the next few weeks maybe longer in the

Word of God is to be unified in our knowledge and our understanding of the gospel that Jesus Christ preached and died for listen if you're watching by video or you're here and to know for sure that we have truly been born again what could be more important than knowing for sure where we will spend eternity anything let's pray father

I am so thankful for this day this joy of being together and being in your word praying that the

Holy Spirit will guide will teach us God instruct us father as I can't even those that are watching by video

God that you might minister your grace in their lives even as they're at home or wherever watching this message so we are thankful God for this time and this special ministry of the

Holy Spirit to open up your word to break our stony hearts God that only you can break and show us

Christ we pray in Jesus name amen well if you know your Bible at all you know the

New Testament begins with the Gospel of Matthew however if we took the 30 if we took the books of the

New Testament and laid them out chronologically and put them in order of as when we believe and can tell most you know as accurate as we can be when each of the 39 books were written did you know the first book of the

New Testament the first book in the New Testament would be the book of James did you know that so your

New Testament would not start with the Gospel of Matthew it would start with the book of James the very second one in terms of West as near as we can tell based upon a lot of research the scholars as best as we can tell the next book would be

Galatians okay so the epistle of Galatians brings to the forefront right to the front of the line where it belongs listen the got the colossal importance of getting the gospel right see if you think about this

Satan thought he had it made when he tempted Eve and Adam and Eve sinned he thought he had it made but what happened well he lost because God comes along and what extends his grace and his mercy to Adam and Eve hey they couldn't go back to the garden hey they're gonna die but what they're back into fellowship with God amen amen right so they physically were gonna die they would never have died now they got to work there's a curse there's a consequence of their sin right however now they're restored in their relationship with God he thought he thought he had it made when he tempted

Jesus in the wilderness he takes him into the wilderness Jesus hasn't eaten for 40 days come on let's go on a fast for 40 days no more weight problem here right

I mean boy I'll tell you what problem solved don't need Weight Watchers he thought he had it made he tried everything

Jesus beat him every time of the turn man he was dancing for joy when

Jesus hung on that cross and died and then man was he bummed because he rose again after three days just like he said he would now

Satan comes to kill steal and destroy and that agenda stands still today and we know from God's Word that Satan's desire to overturn the kingdom of God did not stop when

Jesus Christ rose from the grave we learn in the New Testament that one of Satan's primary tactics until the second coming of Christ is going to continue to attack the

Word of God and secondly or right alongside that to attack the gospel and if you think about it his logic is sound you see if he can if he can deceive people into thinking that they're saved when they're not and raise up pastors and teachers that do not teach a biblical gospel he must think that he's winning right because you see the reality is in terms of picking a strategy and and crafting a strategic knockout that could potentially cripple and topple the church

Satan could not have picked a more important talk target than the gospel because friends fellowship with God and eternity is at stake when you talk about the gospel if someone or a church is off on the gospel even a smidgen then the whole church will be off there is a church in Florida over 15 ,000 people the pastor lives in a $12 ,000 mansion with a private jet and a

Bentley and every kind of car you can imagine and he gets up on stage and he tells people they're on their way to heaven and they don't he hasn't he has never to my knowledge preached a biblical gospel but boy he looks good in those tight jeans and drink in the

Starbucks while he preaches off his iPad and sits on a couch Jesus said the gates of hell will not prevail against the church we have the end of the story but that doesn't mean that Satan will not attack the church and try to destroy it so because of this frontline strategy of the devil

Galatians this letter becomes a book of stellar importance numerous and very respected scholars going back for years and years and years cite

Galatians to be one of the most important books of the New Testament Galatians is

Romans in miniature Galatians is Romans the book of Romans in miniature so we need to be prepared to learn many many relevant and applicable kingdom and gospel truths in this book in fact we could say that this is not me

I'm quoting somebody we could say that Paul cut his apostolic and doctrinal teeth on this book one scholar that I read suggests that Galatians was kind of a practice run for Romans okay they're very similar

Martin Luther perhaps one of the most famous reformers said of this letter and I quote the epistle to Galatians is my epistle

I have betrothed myself to it it is my wife and it is said that John Wesley the writer of so many wonderful hymns and the founder of the

Methodist Church when it was sound because it's not anymore it's far from sound it was said that John Wesley was saved as a result of a sermon from the book of Galatians how important is

Galatians and how important was it to Paul and how important is this letter to understanding a biblical gospel you don't have to go much further than verse 6 please take a look at it

I marvel have you ever marveled at something

I'm not talking about the movies have you ever marveled at something I mean just you know when you go to Disneyland and you just go whoa right or Star Wars if you've ever seen that movie the opening scene when that Star Cruiser comes

I'll never forget seeing that movie the first time you remember the old rocking chair theaters and the and this the what do they call it cinemascope is that what they called it cinemascope the kind of curved screen

I'll never forget seeing that I mean talk about wonderment right or a great opera singer or a great orchestra or a great play

I marvel I'm in astonishment that's what he's saying that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel look carefully 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 then what we have preached to you let him be accursed how serious was gospel perversion to the

Apostle Paul and to God since God put

Galatians in his holy word if you look carefully verse 9 if anyone preaches any other gospel to you then what you have received from us from Paul and his traveling companions let him be accursed so if anybody preaches a derrative or a derivative or a deviation and when that television preacher looks in the camera and says you can become a

Christian today just pray this prayer Jesus I want you to be my

Savior amen that is not the gospel that Jesus Christ preached and died for and 25 million people a week watch that and maybe some of them pray that prayer and if they think they are saved based on that prayer they are deceived look what he says look how serious this is he says let him to be a curse the word there is anathema

I cannot emphasize enough get loud enough to tell you how strong a word that word is in the

Greek it means literally a cursed of God the

Greek here means to be under God's wrath and curse like when he destroyed the world like when he put that plagues on the

Pharaoh like when the walls of Jericho came down this is what we're talking about here the

Greek is literally saying may the divine curse of God rest on the kind of person that would dare tinker with or mess with the gospel this is not excommunication this is damnation

I do not know physically naturally any other way to emphasize how serious this is to these people that get up on television or in church and say all you need to do

I can tell you people that have come to our church I can share their testimonies they will stand up here shoulder -to -shoulder and in some of these churches they go to get baptized and they don't even bother to see if the person is a

Christian and they go and they're some submerged in the waters at baptism and they go out of that water thinking they're a

Christian when they've never truly heard the biblical gospel and responded to a biblical gospel and I can point to family members a man in our church that's now an elder at Burns Church his mother does not go to church so by God's grace what

I want to do is all that I can do to be very clear very very clear on an incredibly important point and it's this if we get the gospel wrong if we are off even a little then not only is eternity at stake everything else in our lives personally and in the church will follow and also be wrong if we get the gospel wrong if we're off in the slightest if we're off in the what or the why or the how a person is saved then everything else that follows will also be wrong

I mean I can go through many examples I don't have time our view of the gospel affects our

Christology meaning our understanding of Jesus Christ that's why at Christmas you can have a

PhD at a seminary tell you that it really doesn't matter the virgin birth really doesn't matter it doesn't really matter whether Jesus was born of a virgin or not it doesn't affect the gospel yes it does because if the perfect lamb was not sacrificed if the

Savior was not born of a virgin he would be born with a sin nature like us and he could not make his substitutionary death his shed blood would mean what nothing am

I getting through please give me a shake or a wink or something thank you if we're off on the gospel how we look at Christ doesn't matter it affects our view of God our view of the gospel affects and impacts listen let me let me drive this home our view of the gospel impacts what we think about the church it impacts what we think our role is in the church if I show up every

Sunday morning everything's good we have to get the gospel right and we have to be unified in our understanding and knowledge of the gospel so beginning today how can we grow and firm up our understanding of the gospel that Jesus Christ preached and died for and that the

Apostles preached and died for how can we get a better appreciation of the importance of being right on the gospel from Paul's epistle to the

Galatians number one if you want to follow along in your notes by understanding the hyper critical difference between doing and done what's one way that we can begin to deepen and firm up our understanding of the biblical gospel first of all by understanding the hypercritical and watershed difference between the words doing and done as they apply to the biblical gospel so what

I want to do is I'm going to take much of what Paul says in this letter and I'm going to distill it down for us okay

I want to take everything that Paul says and we'll get a little further but today take everything that he says about the gospel and reduce it down to its simplest form and down to its lowest and simplest elements and one of the ways we can do that is if you look at verse 16 this might be if you have a

Bible and you use a Bible this would be a verse to have marked in your Bible chapter 2 verse 16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ even as we have believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified now does that sound familiar go to Ephesians 2

Ephesians 2 verse 8 for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is a gift of God not of works go back to Galatians Galatians 3 11 but that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident for the just shall live by faith now these verses that I just read and you can get the same verses in the book of Habakkuk you can get the same verses in Romans chapter 1 they lay out the hypercritical difference between the word doing and done between justification by faith alone and faith or justification by any other means now the word justification there is really a very theologically rich word there's entire books believe it or not you laugh if you're a newer

Christian you go what in the world there's entire books written about this one word justification and basically it if you if you can understand this and I just don't have time to give it to you today but just think about this the word justification means to be declared innocent now think about that for a moment if I go out and I shoot somebody right and I murder them

I'm guilty correct everybody agree okay now I go to the judge can he change can he change that I've murdered the person they're dead right okay however he can declare me innocent what does that mean

I'm not going to go to jail I'm not going to death row at San Quentin because he's but I'm still what guilty that's the word a guilty person is declared innocent by God and most of the time you see the word justification and you link it in your mind's eye at least when you read through the

New Testament with the word salvation and Paul's point in these verses if you look carefully again at verse 16 knowing that a man is not justified or saved declared innocent by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ and then verse 11 of chapter 3 no one is justified declared innocent by the law in the sight of God the just shall live by faith and his point and throughout this letter is that no one not a single person can ever do enough to be or get or become justified or saved a water molecule h2o right two hydrogen atoms one oxygen atom but you can't put those two together in a lab and make water or else we wouldn't have droughts right figure that one out want to prove a

God come on get excited about stuff like that hey you can't prove there's a

God okay let me ask you a question what's water made of to h2o to hydrogen okay let's go in a lab let's put them together and let's make water if you change in h2o if you change a single proton or you change those atoms switch out any three you can't you won't have water and here's the point in the same way the slightest change any variance from the pure gospel that Jesus Christ preached and the gospel that the

Apostles preach changes the gospel and at the atomic left level the difference between the true biblical gospel and any and every other gospel is the difference between doing and done are you with me so far how about you oh there's camera you at home thumbs up log into Google and put a thumbs up not a thumbs down I got it

John now what are we after here we're after unity of knowledge right in our knowledge of the gospel and understand that since the fall of man there has been

Gospels in one for another listen that involve doing now what are some examples what are you talking about John well some examples are a bearing certain religious laws going to church giving to the poor being baptized being a good person praying a prayer joining a church leading a

Bible study praying a rosary taking communion these are all what doing and more doing on behalf of the person right doing and works is what

Mormonism Catholicism Islam Jehovah Witnesses Confucianism Taoism Buddhism and even so many so -called

Christian churches they teach and they preach these kinds of false Gospels and when you do the analysis and you study doing doing is what every false religion is build on and I want to be clear that this does not mean that true believers that have responded by faith in the gospel don't do things like obey

God and get baptized and so on if they're truly saved but we'll get to that in just a moment here it is the strategic issue that determines where someone spends eternity is why someone does what they do in terms of living out their faith a very very famous Bible scholar for many many years taught in a seminary graduate level men graduate level men going into the ministry and he taught one class and he started every single class with this question

I'm talking about men who are going into the ministry what is the gospel and he was shocked to find year after year class after class that very few if any of those men going into ministry could explain the gospel how about that you know how long it took the

Apostle Paul to explain the gospel there's your trivia question for the morning

I got an in -and -out card right here 11 chapters of Romans 11 chapters of Romans that's how long it took the

Apostle Paul to explain and lay out the gospel for a church by the way that he never visited right he went to Rome at the end of his life but there was already a church established there that's why we say that he cut his teeth on Galatians okay so on it on one hand what are we talking about ready doing now let's go to the other hand we have the biblical gospel that Jesus Christ preached can you fill in the blank doing versus what thank you

Diana Diane way to go that's the answer in the biblical gospel the lost sinner does nothing and can't do anything

Christ does it all biblical salvation is totally by grace alone through faith alone it's singularly and holy

God it's not my will but God's will Jesus paid it all all to Jesus I owe now do we have to receive the gift yes but that's a whole rabbit trail we won't go down right now what the

Apostle Paul fleshes out line upon line in this letter and I'll develop it over the next few weeks is that when the gospel happens to someone and they respond in faith it's really been done because then

Jesus paid it all then they do you see when it's really done when it's not doing but done the person to whom it's been done by grace through faith begins to become more and more like Christ and they begin to produce the fruit that Paul is going to talk about in Galatians 5 you see

Romans 1 through 11 you're a guilty sinner on your way to hell here's the gospel and it's complex

Romans 3 all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and he spends a whole bunch of verses explaining how sinful we are if I'm not sinful why do

I need a Savior do you understand if I'm not drowning why do

I need a life preserver I don't I have to know

I'm drowning one author put it so well he said the heart of man's spiritual dilemma is that he is incapable of overcoming the total sinfulness that separates him from the

Holy God in Job 25 Job's friend build had said how okay

Job 25 halfway through the book well a little over half you remember those friends that you never want a friend like that Job lost everything he's sitting there in an ash heap covered in ash he's got these three friends that come along and you know what they're gonna do they're gonna tell him everything he did wrong you know

I know why you've lost your wife family riches everything else and you're covered in ashes and you're sitting in an ash heap covered in burlap and have boils all over let me tell you why you didn't go to church enough no build had says way into this exchange how then can a man be made just before God it's a rhetorical question he can't how can a guilty and condemned sinner be made righteous and therefore acceptable to God answer it's impossible for a sinful man to be made so it's impossible to do it this is why the provision of the justification by faith is

God's answer to that dilemma this is the case hardened steel framework and granite rock foundation of this letter the gospel of Jesus Christ is done

Jesus paid it all Jesus does and did it all Christ is the gospel the gospel isn't a gospel of works it is a gospel of grace the gospel as far as salvation isn't about what we do it's about what

God does which is why he puts the caveat think about this Ephesians 2 verse 9 just try to put this in context not of works why lest anyone should boast look what

I did I prayed a prayer look what I did I walked an aisle look what

I did I said God save me yeah that's sometimes a part of it the gospel as far as salvation isn't what we do it's about what

God does in Galatians I hope you get it if you do not necessarily today but maybe after two or three messages it's probably gonna take me at least two more

Sundays to finish this and then we may go on from there by the way I did ask

Victor and Harold's permission I said I'm just burdened and they said thank you

I was telling the family on the way here I said pray for me because I'm gonna get fired up this this is so exciting to have the privilege of bringing this church together even those that are watching by video to have us unified as we move forward in the gospel it's gonna be it's gonna be so wonderful to see what

God does for our church amen so we stand in Galatians on this scenic overlook gazing across breathtaking vistas what is fundamental to Paul and the gospel is the

Lord Jesus Christ seeping and pouring out of literally every seam of this letter because you have to think about it 16 chapters in Romans squeeze down into six chapters in Galatians so literally pouring out of every seam in this letter is the point that the salvation is entirely and completely and fully a work of God so against this backdrop of Galatians remember this truth about the gospel at the lowest common denominator at down at the atomic level in its simplest form the gospel according to Jesus Christ distills down to a single truth it is doing versus done it is works versus grace by by and through faith alone it is law versus grace it is human effort and will versus God's will and in a word again doing versus done now another little kernel backdrop the

Holy Spirit led the Apostle Paul to write this letter to the churches of Galatia because the church is there there's four or five of them it took about a year and a half to plant them he spent it's we'll get there probably maybe next week or the week after some background on the churches very quickly but but it's not one church like Philippians Philippi one church

Thessalonica one church Corinth one church Colossae one church Ephesians one church he spent three years there

Galatia about a year and a half modern day Turkey and I'll show you on a map God willing next week or the week after false teachers were going after the very foundation the church of the church by teaching a false gospel they had come in behind Paul and we're teaching a false gospel a false gospel of doing which is a gospel that is man -based and not

God based man -driven not God given chapter 3 verse 1 Oh foolish

Galatians you see that exclamation point whenever you see an exclamation point in the

Bible the translators are trying to help you to understand that those words are being spoken with passion and emotion okay that's why preachers sometimes can get fired up all right who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes

Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified I don't know if you can get into this but understand that this letter would have been read to the church okay so most of the people in the church if not all did not know how to read so the elder the pastor of the church would come up and you know we'd be in a small little room so can we do this can we have all of you

I'm just kidding let's move everybody into this little section oh sorry Jackie um hold on I'm back sorry let's get everybody down into this little section of the church okay and imagine the pastor looking you in the eye you're sitting there it's a small room and he says

Oh foolish Galatians who is bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before before whose eyes

Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified this only I want to learn from you here's all

I want to know did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith are you so foolish

I mean I can't even believe you having begun in the

Spirit are you now being made perfect by the flesh doing versus done false teachers had crept into the

Galatian churches and were seeking to undermine the gospel and Paul was clearly convinced that these were false teachers dressed in I'm sorry these were wolves in sheep's clothing look at chapter 2 verse 4 look at this this is how it works and this occurred because of false brethren what is he saying listen false

Christians wolves in sheepskin clothing secretly brought in who came in by stealth to spy out our

Liberty which we have in Christ Jesus look that they might bring us back into bondage see

Jesus warns in Matthew 715 beware of false prophets who come to you in sheepskin clothing but inwardly they are ravenous wolves he warns in Matthew 24 11 many false prophets will rise up and deceive many go to Acts 20

Acts 20 verse 28 therefore take heed to yourselves into all the flock among which the

Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the Church of God which he purchased with his own blood for I know this that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock also from among yourselves men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw the way the disciples after themselves by the way that's how the

Jehovah Witness movement was founded did you know that the founder of the Jehovah Witnesses with a

Sunday school teacher that decided he didn't like the doctrine of hell and he started false teaching and they excommunicated him and he started the

Bible Watchtower and Bible track Society which is the parent organization of the Jehovah Witnesses he was a

Sunday school teacher in a Christian Church therefore watch and remember that for three years

I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears Paul warns in Philippians 3 beware of dogs beware of evil workers beware of the mutilation for we are the circumcision who worship

God in the Spirit and rejoicing Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh doing versus done and Satan could not have have devised a a a better or more strategic plan to undermine the church which is why

I want to spend a couple of Sundays on this there is no truth more basic than the gospel of Jesus Christ and beloved if we get that wrong at all the whole building will be off we need to know how

God saves sinners and we need to make sure that we ourselves are included in the number of those that are truly saved we need to be certain that we are trusting in Jesus Christ alone and his work and not ours yes faith without works is dead but why do we do what we do we need to know for ourselves and we need to know so we can share the good news of Jesus Christ with others

John Wesley the founder of the Methodist Church heard a sermon based on Luther's commentary on Galatians and he was profoundly converted and when you study church history which is a fascinating study and you go from Luther to Knox to Wycliffe to Pharaoh to Zwingli and many other men that God had raised up and practiced biblical

Christianity there is a direct line from this very epistle to where we are today as a church this letter is so important it is so powerful it is so relevant then it is so relevant in the early church and it's very relevant today how can we grow and firm up our understanding of gospel that Jesus Christ preached and died for and that the

Apostles also preached and died for second by understanding a little bit more about the

Apostle Paul that you see in verse 1 Paul an apostle not from men nor through man but through Jesus Christ and God the

Father who raised him from the dead and that's God willing where we'll pick it up next week amen in his greeting here

Paul speaks of his person and calling with the same deliberateness with which a soldier might give his name rank and serial number and with the authority akin to an ambassador just come from the court of his

King with an urgent message how important how important is the crystal purity and surgical preciseness of the gospel that Jesus Christ and the

Apostles preached and the gospel that is laid out for us in the New Testament anyone anyone who preaches a gospel other than the gospel laid out for us in the

New Testament is under the curse of God that is not a good place to be there is only one gospel there is only one

Savior and there's only one way of salvation and I want to close with a quote let those who preach any other gospel any other

Savior any other way of salvation let those who preach that the Bible is a myth let those who declare that Jesus is only one way among many ways to God let those who say that all religions are equal let those who proclaim a do -it -yourself spirituality let those who deny the narrow road to heaven let those who add to the gospel such things as baptism good works mass attendance giving tithing

Sunday school praying deeds of kindness giving to the poor missionary work or anything else that may be good in and of itself let those who say that Jesus never lived or that he never claimed to be

God let those who say that there is no such thing as absolute truth let those who claim that tolerance is more important than truth that's huge right now in the church not here but in the

United States that is a huge the T word the tolerance word it's huge let those who mock the followers of Christ let those who want

Christianity but without the bloody cross let those who prefer culture to Christ and accommodation to evangelism that's huge huge in the church right now let those who deny heaven and laugh at hell let those who preach that sin is a myth and the cross a mistake let those who say that's just your opinion when told that Christ is the only way to God if they will not repent if they will not turn from their evil and false teaching then let them all each and every one be eternally condemned let's pray please take a moment whether you're watching by video or here with us this morning eternity is at stake there's no there's no halfway house on the way to heaven it's heaven or hell there's only one way to heaven by grace through faith in Christ alone it's not the family you were born in it's not the church you attend it's faith in Christ alone not of works we'll get to the works but the works come as the result and fruit of true saving faith not as a means take a moment pray father

God we thank you for your word we thank you for this wonderful day we can gather together to worship the wonderful truths of the gospel give you praise honor and glory in Jesus name

Amen Victor is going to come and lead us in a great closing hymn and looking forward to this series amen stand together with me as we reiterate what pastor

John has just said in his message my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness

I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus name

Jesus blood and righteousness I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus name

On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand

Darkness veils his lovely face,

I rest on his unchanging grace, in every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil

On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand

When he shall come with trumpet sound, O may

I then in him be found, dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne