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. As we continue to sing our great Savior Jesus what a friend for sinners. My soul. Good morning. Scripture reading from us 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 bond servant of Christ. May God add his reading his blessing to the reading and 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. 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 uh The preaching of god's word and 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.

The Unity of the Faith and the Need for Gospel Clarity

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.

And.

Diving into second 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 uh. That I won't bore you with but it's very very I mean you're 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 uh a number of weeks ago that we should make some efforts on our sunday morning 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 anymore.

Prophets 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.

Okay, 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 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 herald 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 kept 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 i've never read the bible.

Oh. Hey, uh, 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?

Um.

All the way through first kings remember, uh 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 one 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 one.

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 when 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 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 twelve thousand dollar 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 has. He has never to my knowledge preached a biblical gospel. But boy, he looks good in those tight jeans And drinking 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 front line 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 six, 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 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. Than 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. Than what you have received from us from paul and his traveling companions.

Let him be accursed. So if anybody preaches a derivative. 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 be accursed. 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 accursed of god.

The greek here means to be under god's wrath and curse. Like when he destroyed the world like when he put the 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 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 of 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 verne's 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 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 hyper critical 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 the 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 and 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. You 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 oh two h2o two 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 a 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 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 built 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?