Now this morning, I'm going to
begin by reading, starting in the book of Galatians. You want
to go ahead and turn there. Galatians 1, and I'll begin reading
in verse 1. I'm going to be talking more
about this letter and why Paul is writing this letter as we
get into our message this morning. Paul an apostle, not of men,
neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who
raised him from the dead, and all the brethren which are with
me unto the churches of Galatia. Grace be to you and peace from
God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself
for our sin, that he might deliver us from this present evil world.
according to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory
forever and ever. Amen. Paul says in verse 6, I
marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into
the grace of Christ and to another gospel, which is not another,
but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel
of Christ, But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach
any other gospel unto you, then that which we have preached unto
you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now
again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you, then that
ye have received, let him be accursed. Now, my text this morning,
I'm gonna mainly concentrate on verses six through nine here
in Galatians. and the title of my message is
The Gospel or Another Gospel. There are many, many false gospels
out there today, false preachers and false teachers, false Christians,
or Christians in name only. Many who claim to preach the
gospel are preaching another gospel, one of a different kind,
but there's only one true gospel. And it's set apart by the power
and by the glory of God and in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is
the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace and the salvation
of sinners by Jesus Christ the Lord and his work alone. And that gospel we're going to
see this morning is that single message that leaves a sinner
with no hope but Jesus Christ and him crucified. It leaves
a sinner with no hope of forgiveness, but through the blood of Christ
and his blood alone. Not his blood plus other things,
but his blood alone. It leaves us no hope of our justification
before God, but the righteousness of God in Christ. The righteousness
that's imputed to his people, charged or accounted to them,
which they, by the power of the Spirit, they receive it by faith,
God-given faith. Paul the Apostle saw himself
as a guardian of that gospel, and not in a self-righteous way,
and not as if he could do it by his own power. He said of
the ministry, this gospel ministry, who is sufficient for these things?
not us, man's not sufficient, but our sufficiency is of God.
This is a ministry of the gospel, and it's not a watered down message,
not a compromise message, and not a false message. But here
the Apostle Paul had been in this area of Galatia preaching
the gospel, and God raised up churches. where the gospel was
the foundation, the good news of salvation by grace in Christ,
the church that Jesus Christ built. And after Paul left, others
began to creep in, other preachers, other ministers, self-proclaimed,
self-taught preachers, claiming to be sin of God, but who preached
another gospel. They had fooled and had drawn
some of these professing Christians away from the truth. And they
did it not by right out denying Christ, but by attempting to
add to what Christ alone had accomplished. They could have
never drawn these professing Christians away by saying, no,
we don't believe in Christ. They came in saying, yeah, we
believe in Christ. You must have Christ. They did
this by preaching Christ plus something that you might do,
or you might be unable to do. They did it not, like I said,
outright denying Christ, but by pushing the doctrine that
implied that yes, you must believe, but in order to really be sure
of your salvation, you must also perform certain rituals or certain
works included in that old covenant law, like circumcision, or keeping
a day, a Sabbath, and so forth. Paul says in Galatians 1, 6,
he says, I marvel, I'm amazed that you are so soon removed
from him that called you unto the grace of Christ and to another
gospel. In other words, you've been swayed unto another gospel. That word another means another
of a different kind. I marvel, Paul says, Paul writes
that you are so soon removed from him that called you into
the grace of Christ, unto a message of a different kind, not the
true gospel. Then Paul begins in verse seven.
He says, which is not another. In other words, there's only
one gospel. That is the point that Paul's
making here. There are not two gospels or
three gospels, The message that these false preachers were preaching
was really no gospel. It was no good news. Their doctrine
attributed it to sinners, to a sinner's justification to Christ
plus works of law. Therefore, they attempted to
mix the grace of God with works of law. Now, this was the doctrine that
they were These false teachers and preachers were preaching
to the Galatians. And it was no gospel. It was
another gospel. There is but one pure gospel
of grace, of the grace of God in Christ. There's but one faith
and one doctrine. We have all kinds of denominations
in the world today. And they claim to be Christians.
They claim to be preaching the gospel. but their message is
not the same as the true gospel. You hear in most of professed
religion today, especially in the Bible Belt, down here where
we live, where people say, we're all believing in the same God,
preaching the same Christ, just going different ways. But the
scriptures say there's only one way of salvation. It's not two,
it's not three. or more, not your opinion, it's
not my opinion. So you might ask, how can I know
if you're telling the truth? How can I know if you're preaching
the one true way? Well, there's only one way you
can know, and that's by the revelation of God, and that through his
word, the scriptures, and it being applied by the Holy Spirit.
Listen to what Paul said. He says it's not another. There's only one gospel. There's
one Lord, one Christ, one way of salvation by grace in God.
Many people corrupt the grace of God. That's what these false
preachers were doing here. The Bible teaches that salvation
is of the Lord, all in Christ, and by Christ. It's not by what
you do, can do, It's not by you cooperating with God. It's all
of Christ. And many people corrupt this
because they want to interject and insert the works of sinners
into this as forming some part of the ground or the cause of
salvation. They have to do this due to most
false Christianity's belief in a universal atonement. and which
is any religion that teaches that Christ died for all men
without exception. So if you believe that doctrine,
then the sinner must do something in order to make the difference
between the sinner who's saved and the one who's lost. If Christ
died for all men without exception, if he shed his blood for all
men without exception, if he paid the debt, the sin debt of
all men without exception, then it's got to come back to the
sinner and something he does to make the difference. It's
not what Christ done. It's not what he done when he died and
when he lived and when he died and shed his blood. And so automatically,
if you believe a universal atonement, that's what you got to do. You
got to believe that You make the difference. It's something
you gotta do. Whether it's your believing, your faith, and you
can put anything in there, according to how many different false religions
you got out there. Well, that's another gospel.
It's not the gospel. So Paul writes Galatians 7, which
is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would
pervert the gospel of Christ. And that's what they were doing,
perverting. Now the true gospel is the gospel of Christ. It is
the gospel of a person who is Jesus Christ. Paul in Romans
chapter 1 called it the gospel of Christ because it is not of
man, it's of Christ. Paul says in Romans 1, 16 and
17, he says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it
is the power of God and salvation to everyone that believe it.
And then in 17 it says, for therein, therein this gospel that Paul
is talking about is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith. It is the gospel of Christ which
concerns this person, the Lord Jesus Christ, who he is, Well,
who is he? He's God in human flesh. The
Bible says in Matthew 1.21, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for
he shall save his people from their sins. Notice it doesn't
say he's going to attempt to save everybody. It says he's
going to save his people from their sins. Who are his people? I'd like to know that. Well,
they're all that the Father gave him. He said in John 6, 37, Christ
himself. He says, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. The Bible says he shall save
his people from their sins. False gospel teaches that he's
trying to save you if you'll just let him, if you'll just
cooperate with him. If you will just be a better
person than the fellow that might be right next to you, or who
won't believe, that's not the gospel. Then he says in Matthew
1 verse 23, his name shall be called Emmanuel, which being
interpreted is God with us. The gospel of God's grace reveals
Christ who is God and man in one person. Great is the mystery
of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh.
How? In the person of Jesus Christ,
conceived in the womb of a virgin, by the power of the Holy Spirit,
and born of a virgin. It says in Isaiah 9, 6, For unto
us a child is born, speaking of his humanity. A child is born,
and unto us a son is given, speaking of his deity. And the government
shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. He is God in human flesh. He's the Word that was
made flesh and dwelt among us down here on this earth. So what
should be preached in this gospel message, the true gospel? Well,
it says in Romans 17, 1, 17, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. The gospel is the revelation
of the righteousness of God. What is this righteousness of
God? It's the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ
to secure and ensure the salvation and eternal life and glory of
all for whom he lived and died. and was buried and rose again
on the third day. It's the merits of his obedience
unto death. It's not your merits and not
my merits. It's not the merit of faith or
repentance. Those are gifts of God. But it's the merits of Christ,
whole work of salvation and redemption. That's the righteousness of God.
his blood to put away the sins of his elect and bring forgiveness. Christ's righteousness imputed,
charged, accounted to me in order to give me a complete, a perfect,
eternal, unchangeable right standing before God, so that I'm accepted
before God not based on my works, but based on Christ's work and
his work alone. For it says in Ephesians 1 verse
6, to the praise of the glory of his grace, when he hath made
us accepted in the beloved, in Christ. So don't pervert that
by injecting the works of sinners as to attaining and maintaining
salvation. Ephesians 2 beginning verse 8
says, for by grace are you saved through faith. that not of yourself,
it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For
we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto, not because
of, but unto good works, which God hath had before ordained
that we should walk in them. The works of a believer are not
the cause of salvation. They're not the merits for blessings
or rewards. They are the fruit of the grace
and power of goodness of God in Christ. It's called fruit
unto God in Romans chapter 7. Then he says in Galatians 1 verse
8, but though we, that is an apostle, are an angel from heaven,
preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached
unto you, let him be accursed. Nobody is going to be saved under
a false gospel. I don't care what happened to
you. I don't care how you might have
felt. I pass to you to say feelings
come, feelings go. I don't care what dreams or visions
you might have had. You see the gospel, not another
gospel. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. Another gospel will surely damn
your soul. And that's true. Because other
gospels will not lead you to Christ. A false gospel or another
gospel will lead you to Christ plus something else. Then he
says in Galatians 1.9, As we said before, so say I now again,
if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received,
let him be accursed. This word accursed is a very
strong word, which one meaning would be separated from the faithful,
cast out of the church. You see, there's the gospel,
then there's another gospel. I say other gospels because there's
many, many gospels in the world today, false gospel, and they
come in many different forms. Well, how can I know the difference
between the true gospel and other gospels that are out there? We've
already went over a lot of things here to gauge it by, but let's
go over a few questions here. A few questions here concerning
the true gospel or another gospel. Am I believing the gospel or
am I believing a false gospel? First question here is, whatever
gospel you're hearing or whatever you call gospel, does it exalt
the sovereign mercy of God as the only and entire reason and
cause of salvation? Or does it bring salvation down
to you? or does it put salvation in your
hands in some way, some degree? You see, the gospel is a gospel
of sovereign grace and sovereign mercy. Salvation is of the Lord,
and it's not of man. Most preachers stand before the
congregation, and they may bring forth sentimentality, and they
may say something like, now, God has done everything he can
do to save you. Now the rest is up to you. That
statement says that Christ really didn't finish the job of saving
you. That kind of preaching is another
gospel. It's not the true gospel. Because if God has done everything
He can do, then rest assured that it's a done deal. God's
sovereign, and I hear preachers reasoning in their own mind,
and that's where all false religions start, is in our mind. They reason, well, God wouldn't
step on your dignity or step on your free will. That kind
of statement is not scriptural. That's the philosophies and religions
of man. That's another gospel. God's
sovereign, the Bible says, God saves whom he will. Concerning
salvation, the apostle says in Romans 9, verse 16, so then,
it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. You say, well, does that shut
me out of heaven? Oh, no. The only thing that will
shut you out of heaven is your unbelief, not believing this
gospel. Your stubbornness, your rebellion,
your self-righteousness and pride, and your ignorance of that only
true, true gospel. So what do you do? Well, you
bow to the mercy of God. Be like the old publican who
beat on his breast saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner.
The Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
Jesus shall be saved. Well, what is it to call upon
his name? It's to bow to his sovereign mercy through the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And to say, I have no hope but
Christ and what he accomplished. And that's all I need, is what
Christ accomplished. Now, the second question here
is, does the gospel that you're hearing, does it place salvation
in some way, to some degree, and at some stage, upon the sinner?
Or does it place it totally upon the Lord Jesus Christ? The answer
is the true gospel places salvation in every way, in every degree,
and at every stage, conditioned and based entirely upon Christ
and Him alone. And that's why it's a sure thing.
If it's not based on that, it cannot be sure because it's based
on something that you do or something that you're unable to do. It
can never be a sure thing if conditions are placed on the
sinner. That's why we can believe in Christ and rest in Him because
Christ has fulfilled all the conditions and requirements that
God the Father required. And God the Father is satisfied
with what Christ has accomplished on the behalf of all of the elect
whom Christ represented. The Father said, this is my son
in whom I'm well pleased. Here he am. But other gospels
place salvation in some way to some degree or at some stage
upon the sinner. Either to get saved, as people
say, or to stay saved. I hear these people talk about,
you can be saved one day and then lost the next. That's another
gospel. Do you know why? Well, do you
know why you can be lost like that? Saved and then lost? Because
it's conditioned on them, on their works, their efforts, and
their faith, and not on Christ alone. We need to remember that
if we can gain salvation by something that we do or something that
we're unable to do, then we can surely lose that salvation by
something that we do or something that we fail to do. If we can
gain it, we can lose it. That salvation by works, that's
another gospel. There's only one true gospel
and that's the security that a sinner has in Christ. Third
question here, the gospel that you're hearing, does it provide
a perfect righteousness before God, before God's holiness and
justice, and a suitable atonement and sacrifice before God's justice,
revealing God to be just, be both a just God and a Savior.
In Isaiah 45, 22, the Lord said, look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else.
He said in Isaiah 45, 21, there is no God else beside me, a just
God and a savior. There's none beside me. How can
God be both a just and a righteous and a holy God and still have
mercy and grace and love sinners? How can he be both a righteous
judge and judge according to truth and do what's right according
to himself? honor His holiness and His justice
and still save sinners like us? How can He be both a just God
and a Savior? Has that question or that issue
ever been raised and answered scripturally in the gospel that
you hear? If it hasn't, I'm afraid you're listening to another gospel,
not the gospel. Most of what false gospels are
teaching is man-word and not God-word. which reveals God's
glory in the salvation of sinners. That is, if it's God's work.
You see, the only way that God can be both a just God and Savior
is through the blood and the righteousness of the God-man,
the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, in the blood of Christ,
in his death, in all that he accomplished, in his obedience
unto death, God provides for His people all that His justice
demands. Christ satisfied the law and
the justice of God by His death, and it was the mercy and love
and grace of God that sent Him. Romans 5.21 says, that as sin
hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. God's
a merciful God. He's a loving God, he's a compassionate
God, a gracious God, but he will not show love, mercy, and grace
apart from his justice being satisfied. That's why Christ
came and died on the cross. God's justice had to be satisfied
for those he chose before the foundation of the earth, his
elect, whom Christ represented. He had to come and die on a cross,
shed his blood in their behalf. That's why he made a perfect,
complete atonement for all the sins of his people. That's why
his death did not make salvation possible if sinners would just
cooperate with him. His death secures and ensures
the eternal salvation of all for whom he lived. died, was
buried, and rose from the dead. And that's what righteousness
is. Now, the fourth question here, the gospel that you're
hearing, does it shut every door of salvation in heaven but Christ
and him alone? Does it bar every way but Christ?
Does it destroy every hope but Christ? Does it present Him,
the God-man, and His finished work, His blood, and His righteousness
as your life, your hope, your salvation, your acceptance before
God the Father? Or does it add your works, your
efforts, your cooperation, even your faith? You see, we must
have faith, but our faith does not save us. Christ saves us.
Even when the Lord told the woman, with the issue of blood, thy
faith hath made thee whole. You've got to ask yourself the
question in the context, what was her faith? Her faith looked
to Christ for salvation. That's what her faith was. Now,
the fifth question here, does the gospel that you're hearing,
does it give a real sense of eternal security? in Christ,
or does it bring the law down on you at every turn in order
to keep you in line? I was at a place Saturday morning,
or Saturday, no, Friday at noon, getting my oil change, and I
went in the little waiting room, waiting for them to finish up.
And when I went in there, there was a little book on the table.
It was a religious book. I saw that right off. I just
kind of took it and turned a few pages. The only name that I seen
doing it real fast like that was something Dr. Jeremiah. There
must be a preacher, a false preacher out there named Jeremiah. The
reason I say that, because I see what he's writing right here.
Had this in bold print. live without spot. That caught
my eye. I said, well, maybe he's saying
something about Christ's righteousness imputed, that garment that the
elect wear. And so I started reading down
it. Here's what it says. A spot or a stain stands out. It's easy to see. It's something
that's out of place and needs to be removed. This spot is the
same as the spot in Ephesians 5.27, that Christ died to remove
from his church. That sounds okay. He's saying
Christ died and removed the sins. Then he said these spots are
moral and spiritual imperfections, sins, that Christ came to remove
both now and for eternity. That sounds okay. But then he
started telling me what was in his heart. He says this, are
there spots or sins on your life that you know shouldn't be there?
Don't be lackadaisical about them. Clean them so that you
will be a spotless and blameless bride when he returns. See, that's
what he's looking to. By saying that, he's telling
me that he believes man can be sinless and that you need to
work on these sins and get rid of them where you can be sinless,
spotless, live without spot. Nothing about Christ, nothing
about what he quoted that up there earlier about Ephesians
5, 27, but then he went manward. And that really speaks on false
religion. That really speaks on where I
was at one time. And it tells me a lot about that
other gospel. Now, you know that's the same
thing that was happening to these Galatians right here. These false
preachers claim to preach Christ and to believe in Christ and
to believe salvation by grace. But they sought to bring the
law back down on people in order to keep them in line. You've
got to get rid of those sins. You've got to keep the law in order to make yourself without
spot of blemish. Does it take the legal threats
and mercenary promises of the law of God to keep you in line? Well, if it does, my friend,
you're not hearing the gospel. You're hearing another gospel.
The true gospel motivates by the power of the Holy Spirit.
It motivates his people to obedience and love, motivated by grace
and gratitude, as willing and loving bond slaves in Christ.
You see, those who preach the true gospel, the one and only
gospel, Christ and him crucified and risen, He is the way, the
truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father
but by Him. Those who preach that gospel,
we don't have to whip people with the law. We preach the love
of God in Christ. That's the Holy Spirit's motivation,
to bring God's people in line with the truth and the glory
of God in their obedience. It's the obedience of grace,
not law, and it's the eternal security that they have in Christ. In other words, they serve Him
not to be saved or not to stay saved and not to earn rewards,
but they serve Him because all of that is already earned and
secured by what Christ did on the cross. That's the true gospel. It's not Christ plus gospel. Christ is everything. He's all. The gospel are now the God. Thank you.