Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. welcome to our program today
now i'm going to be preaching from the book of galatians paul's
epistle to the churches of galatia chapter one chapter one of my
text is galatians one six through nine verses six through nine
and the title of the message is the gospel or another gospel
the gospel or another gospel my friend There are many, many,
many false gospels, false messages preached by false preachers,
false teachers, false Christians. 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 is set apart by the power
and glory of God in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is the gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace in the salvation of sinners by
Jesus Christ the Lord. And that gospel, we're going
to see, is that single message that leaves a sinner with no
hope but Jesus Christ and him crucified and risen. It leaves
him with no hope of forgiveness but through the blood of Christ,
the blood alone. Not His blood plus other things,
but His blood alone. It leaves us no hope of justification
before God, but the righteousness of God in Christ. The righteousness
that's imputed to His people, charged, accounted to them, which
they by the power of the Spirit receive by faith, God-given faith. Paul the apostle saw himself
as a guardian of that gospel. Not in a self-righteous way,
and not as if he could do it by his own power. He said of
the ministry, he said, who's sufficient for these things?
Not us. Man is not sufficient, for no
man is. But he did say this, our sufficiency is of God. This is a ministry of the gospel. Not a watered down message, not
a compromise message, not a false message. But here he had been
in this area preaching the gospel, and God had raised up churches
where the gospel was the foundation, the good news of salvation by
grace in Christ, the church that Jesus Christ had built. And after
Paul left, others began to creep in, other preachers, other ministers,
self-proclaimed, self-called preachers. claiming to be sent
of God, but who preached another gospel. Listen to what Paul says
to the Galatians. And they had fooled and had drawn
some of these professing believers away from the truth. And Paul
says in verse 6, I marvel, I'm amazed that you are so soon removed
from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another
gospel. In other words, you've been swayed
unto another gospel. Now that word another means another
of a different kind. There's a word in the Greek language
that means another of the same kind. Christ used that when he
spoke of the Holy Spirit as the comforter coming as a result
of his work on the cross. God the Father, God the Holy
Spirit, and God the Son are all the same in the essence of their
nature. So the Holy Spirit could be said
to be a comforter of the same kind as Christ. Not in the same
way, but in the same kind. But here, this word means another
of a different kind. I'm marveled, I'm amazed, Paul
writes, that you're so soon removed from him that called you into
the grace of Christ unto a message of a different kind. He said
in verse seven, which is not another. In other words, there's
only one gospel. That's the point he's making
there. There's not two gospels, three gospels. We have all kinds
of denominations around, all who claim to be Christian, all
who claim to be preaching the gospel, but my friend, their
message is not the same. I was amazed growing up in religion,
in what we call the Bible Belt, and everybody said, well, we're
all believing in the same God, preaching the same Christ, just
going different ways. That's not the same. The scripture
says there's one way. of salvation. Not two, not three,
not your opinion, not my opinion. And I know it's confusing, and
I know many of you out there probably are just as confused
as others, because you're saying, well, how can I know that you're
telling the truth? How can I know you're preaching
the one way? Well, there's only one way you can know. and that
is by the revelation of god through his word we've got to stick to
the bible and i know people say well we all read the bible we
just interpreted different ways i know that but understand this
now i want to give you some questions that you can use as test to find
out whether or not it's the gospel or another gospel these are scriptural
questions And we'll see. But listen to what Paul said.
It's not another. There's only one gospel. There's one Lord,
one Christ, one way of salvation by the grace of God. You see,
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 can do or what you do in cooperation. It's all him. And
many people corrupt that because they want to interject or insert
the works of sinners into this as forming some part of the ground
or the cause of salvation. And that's self-righteousness.
That's another gospel, not the gospel. So he says, which is
not another, verse 7, but there be some that trouble you and
would pervert the gospel of Christ. Now this gospel is the gospel
of Christ. It's the gospel of a person.
Who is Jesus Christ? Paul, over in Romans chapter
1, he called it the gospel of God, because it's not of man. It's the gospel of God, which
concerns this person, the Lord Jesus Christ, who He is. Who
is He? Well, He's God in human flesh.
Bible said in Matthew chapter 21 121 that his name shall be
called Jesus for he shall save his people from their sin Notice
there doesn't say he's going to attempt to save everybody
It says he's going to save his people who are his people. They're
all that the father gave him He said that all that the father
gives me shall come to me and him that cometh to me. I will
unknow wise cast out He shall save his people from their sin.
I false gospels teach that he just come he's trying to save
you if you'll just let him if you'll just cooperate with me
if you just be a better person than that fella next to you who
won't believe that's not the gospel i'm telling you that's
not the gospel and then it says this is a matthew one twenty
three that his name shall be called emmanuel which being interpreted
as god with us so the gospel of god's grace reveals christ
who is god and man in one person great is the mystery of godliness
god was manifest in the flesh how in the person of jesus christ
born of a virgin conceived in the womb of the virgin by the
power of the holy spirit and born of a virgin unto unto us
a child is born unto us a son the son of god is given he's
god in human flesh the Word made flesh dwelt among us." And then
it says in the Gospel is the revelation of the righteousness
of God. What is the righteousness of
God? Well, 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 in Rose
the third day. It's the merits of his obedience
unto death. It's not your merits or my merits.
It's not the merit of faith or repentance. Those are gifts from
God. but it's the merit of his whole work of salvation, redemption,
his blood, to put away all my sins and bring forgiveness for
all of them. His righteousness imputed, charged,
accounted to me in order to give me a complete, perfect, eternal,
unchangeable right standing before God so that I'm accepted before
God, not based on my works, but based upon his work accepted
in the beloved Ephesians chapter 1 and I believe it's verse 7. So don't pervert that by injecting
the works of sinners as to attaining or maintaining salvation. For
by grace are you saved, through faith, that not of yourselves.
It's the 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 before ordained, that
we should walk in them. The works of believers are not
the cause of salvation. They're not the merit for blessings
or rewards. They're the fruit of the grace
and power and goodness of God in Christ. It's called fruit
unto God in Romans chapter seven. And then it says in verse eight,
but though we, that's an apostle or an angel from heaven preach
any other gospel unto you than that which we've preached unto
you, let him be a curse. Nobody's going to be saved under
a false gospel. I don't care what happened to
you. I don't care how you felt I Don't care what dreams or visions
you had my friend The gospel the gospel not another gospel
The gospel is the power of God and the salvation Another gospel
will damn your soul And that's the truth because my friend other
gospels will not lead you to Christ and They'll lead you to
Christ plus or somewhere else. And then he says in verse nine,
and as we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach
any other gospel unto you than that which we, you have received,
let him be accursed. You see, there's the gospel and
then there's another gospel. other gospels because there's
many they come in many reforms well how can i know the difference
well i've already told you so many things that you can you
can and uh... gauge by let me ask you several
questions here the rest of this message concerning the true gospel
or another gospel the gospel or another am i believing the
gospel or am i believing a false gospel another gospel and here's
question number one whatever gospel your hearing or whatever
you call gospel does it exalt the sovereign mercy of god as
the only an entire reasoning calls of salvation or does it
bring salvation down to you you see this gospel the gospel is
a gospel of sovereign grace and sovereign mercy salvation is
of the law not of man. Most preachers stand before their
crowds and they bring forth sentimentality and they'll say something like
this, now God's done everything he can do, now the rest is up
to you. Now my friend, that is another
gospel, not the gospel. I'll tell you something, you
read your Bible, if God has done everything he can do, then it's
a done deal. God is sovereign. And I hear
preachers reasoning in their own minds, well, God wouldn't
step on your dignity or step on your free will. That is not
scriptural. That's the philosophies and religion
of man. That's another gospel. God is
sovereign. The Bible says, God saves whom
he will. It's not of him that runneth,
nor of him that willeth, but of God that showeth mercy. you
say well does that shut me out of heaven all know the only thing
it'll shut you out of heaven is your unbelief your stubbornness
your rebellion and your ignorance so what do you do bow to the
mercy of god be like that all public and who beat up on his
breath saying god be merciful to me the center the bible says
whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved
what what is it to call upon his name is to bow to his sovereign
mercy through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have
no hope but Christ. And then that brings us to the
second question. Does it humble you or all men
in the dust of inability and reveal our total spiritual deadness? The Bible teaches, the Gospel
teaches, that the reason we need salvation by grace is because
by nature we're spiritually dead. Now we're not physically dead
yet. We're dying. God told Adam in Genesis chapter
2 about eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
He said, in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely
die. Literally, it's dying thou shalt die. Adam didn't die physically
just when he ate and disobeyed God. The process of physical
death began, but he died spiritually. He lost, listen, Adam and Eve
when Adam when Adam fell and the whole human race fell in
him now the scripture teaches that read Romans 5 and we could
go to so many other scriptures but when Adam fell he brought
the whole human race into the realm of death and sin and spiritual
deadness that's the way we're born dead in trespasses and sins
we have ears to hear but we have no desire to hear the things
of God And I'll be very honest with you. It's like the truths
that I'm preaching to you today. Are they distasteful to you?
Do they offend you? You remember Christ turned to
the multitude and he said, does this offend you? What he was
preaching. What did he tell him? He says,
your righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and the Pharisees, or you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
Does that offend you? You say, well, I've been working
hard all my life. to be a christian doesn't and
i don't account for something no it doesn't don't think it's
going to count for anything is the blood in the righteousness
of the lord jesus christ now does that offend you you see
you know why defend you because you're spiritually day you don't
have that like he told the disciples he said blessed are your ears
for they hear but he said of those fairs easy said they have
ears they don't hear which means they don't know by they don't
heed You have eyes to see but you don't see the glory of God
in Christ. You understand what I'm saying?
That's spiritually dead eyes. You have desires and they may
be religious desires but it's not a desire for the truth, a
desire for the glory of God. That truth that says that I am
a totally depraved sinner and can do nothing even at my best
to recommend myself unto God. Paul wrote in Philippians chapter
3, he said, that which I thought recommended me unto God, counted
for something. I counted all but lost for the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, and do
count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him,
not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ. here's what i'm saying
the gospel that whatever you call gospel does it bring man
down into the dust of depravity and spiritual death and show
him that there's no way he can be saved if salvation is conditioned
on himself and that brings us to the third question the gospel
that you're hearing does it play salvation In some way, to some
degree, at some stage, upon the sinner, or does it place it all
totally upon the Lord Jesus Christ? The gospel places salvation in
every way, in every degree, at every stage, conditioned upon
Christ and Him alone. And that's why it's a sure thing.
That's why we can believe in Him and rest in Him. But other
gospels, the gospel or another gospel, other gospels place salvation
in some way, to some degree, at some stage upon the sinner. It's either to get saved, as
people say, or to stay saved. I hear these people talking about
you could be saved one day and lost the next. That's another
gospel. You know why? You know why you
can be lost? Because it's conditioned on them,
their works, their efforts, not on Christ alone. That's salvation
by works. You say, well, it starts out
by grace, but you just have to finish it up. Well, my friend,
that's another gospel. There's only one true gospel.
And that's the security that a sinner has in Christ. And I'll
tell you what, you know, people argue with that all the time.
Here's what they say. Now here's how they relate. Somebody says,
well, those who believe once saved, always say they believe
that a sinner will be saved no matter what they do. That's not
what that doctrine teaches. That's a, that's a misinterpretation
and an attack upon the gospel that has no merit. The doctrine
of eternal security of the saved doesn't say sinners will be saved
and stay saved no matter what they do. It just simply says
this, that if you're saved by the grace of God, God will keep
you and preserve you and his spirit will indwell you and it's
impossible for you to be charged with sin and you will totally
be brought back to repentance continually by the power of God
to live for his glory. And then here's the fourth question,
the gospel that you're hearing, does it provide a perfect righteousness
before God's holiness and justice and a suitable atonement and
sacrifice before God's justice, enabling God to be both a just
God and a savior. You know, the book of Isaiah,
the Lord says in Isaiah 45, he says, look unto me and be saved
for I'm the Lord. He said, a just God and a savior. How can God be both a just and
righteous and 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, just and justified? Has that question and that issue
ever been raised and answered scripturally in the gospel that
you're hearing? Well, my friend, if it hasn't,
I'm afraid you're listening to another gospel, not the gospel.
You see, the only way that God can be both a just God and a
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 chapter 521 says, that
as sin hath reigned unto death, grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. You see, God is a merciful
God. He's a loving God. He's a compassionate. God, a gracious God, but He will
not show love, mercy, or grace apart from justice being satisfied. That's why Christ came and died
on that cross. 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 cooperate,
his death secured and ensures the eternal salvation of all
for whom he lived and died and was buried and rose the third
day. That's what righteousness is. And here's the fifth question. 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 righteousness, as your life
and hope, salvation and acceptance before 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 that woman with the issue of blood, thy faith hath made
thee whole, you've got to ask yourself this question in the
context. What was her faith? Her faith was in the Lord. And then here's the sixth question.
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? You know
that's what was happening here in Galatians. These false preachers,
they 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. 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.
You see, the gospel motivates by the power of the Holy Spirit,
his people to obedience and love, motivated by grace and gratitude
as willing, loving bond slaves of Christ. You see, those who
preach the gospel, the one and only gospel, Christ and Him crucified
and risen, He's 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, even ourselves.
We preach the love of God in Christ. And that's the Holy Spirit's
motivation to bring God's people in line with the truth and the
glory of god in there obedience you see is the obedience of grace
not lol and it's the eternal security that they have in christ
in other words they serve him not to be saved are not to stay
saved and not to earn reward but they do all that they serve
him because all of that is already earned insecure by what christ
did on the cross and then here's the last question The gospel
you hear, does it inspire worship and love and obedience and endurance? One of the greatest objections
against the gospel that comes from those who preach another
gospel is that they say that the gospel of God's sovereign
grace in Christ leaves them without any motivation to worship, to
love others. to obey God and to endure and
persevere in the faith. But my friend, the gospel does
not remove all motivations. It removes all legal motivations,
but it puts the sinner on the road of grace in obedience of
faith. Well, I hope this message has
helped you to understand these truths of salvation. And if you'd
like a copy of this message, just listen to the announcer
and he'll give you the information you need to order. The title
of this message is The Gospel or Another Gospel. And I hope
you'll join us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
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at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia, Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
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today and may the Lord be with you.