Galatians chapter one again if
you would like to turn there. Galatians chapter one. There is now and there has always
only ever been or ever will be one gospel. One gospel. Scripture says there's one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, one God overall, and even says it's in
you all. What's so special about the gospel?
Someone might ask. Well, Romans chapter one, verse
16 says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is
the power of God and to salvation to everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek. Why did he say to the
Jew first and then to the Greek? Well, because that covers all
of humanity. If you're not a Jew, you're a Gentile. If you're not
a Gentile, you have to be a Jew. There is no in between. You can
be a hybrid, but that makes you a Gentile. I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God and the salvation
to all that believeth. Galatians has departed from the
simplicity of the gospel. They have added works with grace. That's a formula for death. That's
a formula for damnation. That's a formula for disaster.
That's a formula for separation from God, adding works to grace. You can't mix the two. We find
in Romans that either it's all of grace or it's all of works,
for if it's of works, it can no longer be of grace, and if
it's of grace, it cannot be of works. That's what the Galatians
have done. They brought the law in, and
there's these Judaizers that are telling the people that they
are sent from God, just as Paul was sent from God, and they're
trying to manipulate their minds and saying, yes, we believe everything
that Paul says, but God also sent us to tell you this. You
have to be circumcised as well. You have to cut away the skin.
in order to sacrifice, in order to show forth what's done on
the inside, in order to prove your salvation. As part of your
salvation, you have to be obedient to the law. That's what these
men were saying. And I love that Paul starts out by laying the
foundation for Galatians very clearly that he's an apostle,
not of men, nor by man, but of God. And that's the same in salvation
that John chapter one tells us about. That's how the Lord's
people are born, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, or the will of men, but of God. Paul addresses this issue
by establishing that it's of God, it's by God, and it's for
his glory that everything has happened in salvation. And he tells them, if you have
grace and peace with God, it's because God's the doer of it
according to his will. That's what we heard the first
hour. Now he's going to address the issue. Now he's going to
get, we say meat and taters where I'm from. We're going to get
to the meat and taters of the situation, the subject, the very
bottom of it, the crux of the matter, the cross, the middle,
the bullseye. He's about to tell us. Understand
this. It's not difficult to depart
the gospel. All we have to do is add one
thing to the finished work of Christ or take away one thing
from the finished work of Christ. And we have not only forsaken
the entirety of the gospel and its simplicity, but we have denied
affiliation with Christ at that point altogether. And we're saying,
look at me, look what I've done. I have a righteousness. something
that I've accomplished that God may be pleased with. That's how
you depart the gospel. That's what these have done.
And that's what he says, so soon departed from the gospel of Christ. We'll get to that in a second.
The gospel is God's gospel. Not my gospel and your gospel.
Now we may refer to it in this message as my gospel and your
gospel because he does deliver it to us freely by his grace
and he gives it to us. But it is God's gospel. Same
in salvation. It's God's salvation. It's not
my salvation and your salvation. Yet God bestows this glorious
salvation on his people freely by grace so we can say this is
my salvation from the Lord and he gets all the glory in it.
He lets us rejoice that we have his salvation and we're able
to own it as our own in Christ Jesus. Gospel is how he saves
his elect, it's how he saves sinners, both now and always.
The gospel will never change. The gospel was before time ever
began, and it'll be whenever time's over with. The gospel
is from everlasting to everlasting. Never had a beginning, never
had an end. The gospel is how God chose to save his elected
sinners, freely by his grace. Gospel doesn't need defending.
I hear men sometimes that likes to debate about the gospel. They
talk about their right, and so they want to try to convince
others that they're right. The gospel doesn't need defending. The gospel
needs to be declared in its simplicity. The gospel needs to be declared
in its truth, unapologetically, not in a condescending
manner, but it needs to be preached in love, clearly and plainly.
And so many, they will change the truth into the lie, somehow,
someway, let something sneak in, like these Galatians are
doing. And that's why Galatians was written, for the purpose of you
and I to be able to see this crap in, and they all latched
onto it. They were like, yeah, we agree, we have to do that. Gospel in its simplicity, this
needs to be declared. If God chooses to bless it, God's
gospel is the power of God unto salvation. We just heard that
from Romans. Now let's read this together.
Galatians 1 verses 6 through 10. I marvel that you are so
soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ
unto another gospel, which is not another. But there'd be some
that trouble you that would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though
we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than
that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." He
says, we or an angel, anybody, including myself. If you hear
it from anybody else, including myself, that means I'm out of
my mind. Don't hear it. Don't hear it.
As I said before, so say I now again, if any man preach another
gospel unto you than that which 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 yet please men, I should
not be the servant of Christ. I've titled this message Only
One Gospel. Only one. There's only one gospel. And the first question I have
is how do you know that our gospel is God's gospel. How do we know
that this is the only one true gospel? Ask yourself this question. Is my gospel that I believe,
is my gospel that I preach, the power of God unto salvation? Or is it the power of man unto
salvation? That's pretty simple, isn't it?
Is it the power of God to salvation or is it the power of man? We
heard last hour that men are powerless and yet so often men
believe that they have some sort of ability, some sort of power
when it comes to spiritual things. That's not true. We're powerless,
utterly, completely powerless. So is my gospel that I believe
and preach dependent upon me in any way for salvation or is
it completely dependent upon what God has done in the person
of Jesus Christ? Is it totally dependent upon
God, or is it the power of man, the power of choice? Does my
choice make the gospel successful, or can my choice prevent the
gospel from accomplishing that which God purposes? See, the
real question is, am I God, or is he God? I mean, you could
just nail it down that way. Am I God, or is he God? Because
if he's God, and his gospel goes forth to those which the Lord
has purposed for them to hear, and they hear the truth, they're
gonna come to the truth. It's so clear in scripture. But if
it goes forth and falls upon deaf ears, you're to blame. I'm to blame. Because we will
not choose God in our flesh. We cannot. It's just amazing
that the Lord would choose to have mercy on creatures such
as us. The creator would have mercy
upon creatures, sinners such as us, and allow us to hear his
truth. Allow us to hear his word. Allow
us to hear his gospel. Is this gospel completely and
totally dependent upon God or is it dependent upon man? I'm
gonna simplify that by asking this. Is what we preach and believe
a proposition or a declaration? A proposition, meaning it's a
proposal. You have an option. Here's the
proposal. Do you want to do this or do
you want to do this? Or is it a declaration? Declaration
just goes forth and the Lord accomplishes that which he purposed.
Is it a proposition or is it a proposal? Is it a proposition
or is it a declaration, I meant? Proposition or declaration? It's
a declaration, isn't it? The gospel's declared and the
Lord does the work. And guess what? The Lord does
the work in the declaration of it too. I never want to stand
and try to declare the truth and the Lord leave me by myself.
That'd be miserable. And that would be, it would be
useless because it takes him to bless his word, takes him
to allow his word to go forth in free course. When the Lord asked, so I said,
well, there's some propositions in scripture. The Lord asked
the man, he's at the pool of Bethesda. He walks up to him.
He says, wilt thou be made whole? That's a rhetorical question.
He was already at the pool of Bethesda desiring to be made whole. Isn't
that right? He'd been there for how many
years? 30 years, I think it was. Long time. He asked him, he said,
will thou be made whole? Yeah. It wasn't sarcasm, it was a rhetorical,
that's the word, it was rhetorical. Of course he wanted to be made
whole, that's why he's laying there to begin with. It wasn't
a proposition. Lord made that man look to Christ
for his healing. Lord said, take up thy bed and
walk, and immediately, He took up his bed and walked. He didn't
say, if you want to, if you feel up to it, if you would like to,
take up your bed and walk. No, the power of our Lord is
through his word. And his word said, take up thy bed and walk. Irresistibly, the man took up
his bed and walked. Passed by so many others, didn't
talk to anybody else. We have record of in the scripture
right there. Goes up to this pool where all these lame and
halt. All these dumb and sick and afflicted and impotent folk
are, he walks up to this man, why? Because he was chosen of
God, that's why. No goodness in him, no merits
in him. This is how God performs, this is what the gospel's all
about, is about the Lord choosing to save a sinner. To save his
sinners by his grace alone. Nothing good in this man, he's
just laying there. Not doing anything but laying there. Can't
do anything for himself. Isn't that the point? Isn't that
what we learn is that we are dead and trespasses and in sin
and we can't fix it? Can't fix it. Matter of fact,
everything we do to try to fix it makes it worse. But God, who
is rich in mercy, we're in his great love where he loved us,
he saved his people from their sin. Is there something God is looking
for me in this gospel? that Christ did not successfully
accomplish? Ask that question. Is there something
God is looking to me for that Christ did not accomplish? Is
there something God required of you that Christ didn't provide?
That's another gospel, isn't it? That's a false gospel. No,
Christ satisfied God's demands in every way, in every shape
and every form. Every demand was satisfied on
the cross of Calvary, insomuch that the Lord resurrected his
son, signifying that our justification was accomplished. He was raised
because of our justification. So you and I have been justified
if we are in Christ Jesus. That's the good news of the gospel.
He's not depending upon me. He's not depending upon you. Our gospel reveals it is finished. It is finished. The gospel of
God's free and sovereign grace, and by the way, that's the only
grace that there is, is free and sovereign, just so you know.
I mean, we say those words because other men have used the word
grace so many times that it's almost lost its luster, but never
forget what grace is. It's God's unmerited, free, sovereign
favor towards his people. That's what it is. Not something
I've earned, not something I can do to get it. He chose because
he wanted to. His own goodwill and pleasure,
that's why. That's why, that's what grace
is. God's grace is not a helpless
passion, like men talk about it is. Well, God wants to save
you. No, he doesn't. If he did, you'd be saved. That's
right, isn't it? If he wanted to save me, I'd
be saved. None can stay his hand or stand to him, what doest thou?
That's the good news of the gospel. I can't prevent him from doing
what he wants to do. I don't have that kind of power.
We don't have any power, do we? God's grace is not helpless passion,
whereby men must help out God. And it's sad that so many men
preach such a little God and such a big man, when the truth
of the matter is, is we're less than nothing without him. We're
less than nothing without him. The gospel declares Christ successfully
accomplished the salvation of his people all by himself, without
our input, without our contribution, without our counsel. And the
only way to preach this gospel is to preach within the confines
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the parameter where you
must preach is the Lord Jesus Christ in himself, him crucified,
his finished work, everything that he accomplished, everything
charged to him of the Father. That's how it is to preach the
gospel. You preach Christ. preach Christ, how he died according
to the scripture. Men say that the gospel is that
God, that Jesus, they say it's the death, burial, and resurrection
of Christ, but they're leaving out very important information
whenever they say just that that's the gospel. It's how that he
died according to the scriptures. It's how that he was raised again
according to the scriptures. It's why. Why was he buried? Why did he die? He didn't die
to make an offer to men. He died to offer his soul unto
the Father. And the Father was satisfied.
And every one that Christ took the sin of on the cross of Calvary
has been justified. They've been redeemed freely
by his grace. This is the gospel. This is the
one true gospel. We didn't contribute to it. We
can't take away from it. And the only way to believe it
is if God gives us faith by his grace alone. To deviate from
the confines of Christ in his finished work is failing to preach
the gospel. It's to deny Christ is all in
salvation. Anybody heard of what a catechism
is before? It's a regulation book, basically,
where they tell people how they're supposed to live and different
things. They'll have regulations for dietary purposes and they'll
have regulations for this and laws for this and that. A lot
of churches do this, Catholic church, many other churches,
reformed churches. We don't preach catechisms here. We don't preach
isms and schisms and shisms. We don't preach any of that.
We preach Christ and him crucified. Why? Because Christ, the focal
point of the gospel, Christ is the gospel. You understand that?
We preach him because he is the power of God into salvation.
That's it. Without preaching him, I'm not
only denying the finished work of Christ, I'm failing to preach
Christ at all. If I add one thing to it or take
away from it, I'm failing to preach Christ at all. The only
thing that preaching catechisms will do is to help you get to
the catacombs of hell. That's what it'll do. That's
the truth of it. Preaching how you are to live your life and
look at me and what I've done. No, that's not gonna save your
soul. That's not gonna do anything when you stand before the Lord.
But what will? The finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We preach Christ as all
in his one true gospel. Notice verse six. He says, I
marvel. That means I'm amazed. I'm amazed that you are so soon
removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ
unto another gospel, which is not another. There'll be some
that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. It's the gospel of Christ. See,
the gospel's a person. Our doctrine completely revolves
around a person. It's all about him. It's all
about him. Our hope is in a person. Our peace is in a person. Our
righteousness is in a person. Our justification is in a person. It's all about Him and what He
has done. That's our hope. That's our peace.
That's our righteousness. His accomplished work on the
cross. The Lord Jesus Christ. Failing to preach Him alone is
to fail to preach the gospel. You can preach the most beautiful
sermon. Someone can preach the most beautiful sermon ever. And
they can disannul and discredit the entire thing by adding one
work to it. Just like the Galatians are doing. They're saying Christ
is all, Christ is all, but, and they put their two cents worth
in there. And they made void the cross for themselves. That's
what they're doing. They're saying, well, Christ is not enough for
me. I've got to do this also. I've got to do this also. No,
perish the thought. Perish the thought. Failing to
believe on him alone is to lose all hope for salvation. Failing to believe him alone
is to lose all hope for salvation. How does one, he said, he talks
about them. There's some among you that would pervert the gospel. How does one pervert the gospel?
I thought about that. How does one pervert the gospel?
It's simply failing to preach Christ alone. It really is. It's
not complicated. Man can preach legalism. Man
can preach morality. Man can preach the law. Man can
preach taste not, touch not, handle not. Man can preach a
lot of things, but if he does not preach Christ alone, he's
not preaching the gospel. If he's adding one thing to it,
he's not preaching the gospel. We simply pervert the gospel
by failing to preach Christ and his simplicity, his glory, his
finished work. And for those who do not preach
and believe the gospel, the Lord tells us clearly, come out from
among them and be you separate. Don't, we don't go to those churches. We're not gonna give poison to
our children. We're not gonna take the poison that they're
offering. No, this is life. This is eternal life. This gospel
is eternal life. There is none. Other than this
gospel, the Lord will not save someone under a false gospel.
It won't happen. That's very clear in scripture. Let's read this again, Galatians
1 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 that would pervert the gospel of Christ.
But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel
unto you, than that which we have preached unto you, let him
be accursed. As we said before, so say we now again, if any man
preach another gospel, any other gospel unto you, than that 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 yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ."
That word, accursed, is probably exactly what you think it means.
It's the same thing as saying damned. I mean, that's what he's
saying. Mark them as one that's not a believer. Mark them as
one that's cursed to be in hell. That's what he's saying. That's
a frightening thought, isn't it? A very frightening thought.
Well, how do I know I believe the one true gospel? That's the
message this morning. How do I know? I need to know.
Well, first of all, we said this already, but first, is it the
power of God into salvation or is it my power into salvation?
The second thing, Who gets all the glory in this gospel that
I believe? Who gets all the glory in it?
Do I have wear up to glory in something that I have done? Do
you have something to glory in outside of Christ? Something
that you show on the outside? Something that others may see
or notice about you that's different than others that is part of your
righteousness? Who does my gospel point to?
My obedience or Christ's obedience? Who does my gospel point to?
My obedience or Christ's obedience? Understand, no one can preach
the law. This is important. All of this
is important. This is very important. No one
can preach the law without using their self as the measuring stick,
whether in a negative way or a positive way. Think about that.
Well, I used to do this, and I don't do that anymore, so that
makes me righteous by the law. Or, well, I really can't measure
up to this because of this, or whatever else. They use themselves
as a measuring stick. So whenever you have religious
organizations that get together, churches is what they call them,
and they don't preach Christ, they begin to look at each other,
and they determine their salvation based upon the other. They're
not picking on anybody in particular, but that's just how it works.
They're saying, look at me. Does my gospel say, look at me?
Does our gospel say, look at me? But as our gospel say, look
to him, look to the Lord Jesus Christ, because he's the only
one that's going to save you and I can't save ourself. You
and I can't save ourself. The gospel says, look to Christ.
And the false gospel says, look at me. That's pretty simple,
isn't it? If my gospel draws any attention to me whatsoever,
it is a false gospel. It is a false gospel. If my gospel
puts any responsibility on me that I must perform on my own
without God's intervention, without God's grace, without God's mercy
being the reason I do it. It's a false gospel. It's a false
gospel. If you want to know the truth
of the question, do you believe the one true gospel? Ask yourself,
does my gospel point to Christ alone? Does my gospel point to
my works or to his? Does my gospel point to my life
or to his life? Does our gospel point to our
works, our life, our service or his? God's one true gospel
only and always points to the Lord Jesus Christ because Jesus
Christ is the only one God is well pleased with. He is not
well pleased with me and he is not well pleased with you if
we are outside of his Son. This gospel points to the finished
work of Christ alone, never to man, never to men, never to flesh, never. It points to the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is plainly declared in verse
10. Look at verse 10. For do I now persuade men or
God, or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should
not be the servant of Christ. If you want to please men, and
that's what we're talking about here, look at me, that's men-pleasers, that's
what they do. That's men-pleasers. If our gospel declares us as
righteous based upon what we do, it says, look at me, we're
pleasing men, because we certainly aren't pleasing God. We can't
please God in and of ourself, we can't. Men-pleasers say, look
at me, but God's chosen people only echo what the gospel declares.
Lord said, here's my beloved son and whom I will please. God's
people says, truth, Lord, amen. Gospel declares that we're dead
and trespasses and in sin, we say truth, Lord. Gospel declares
that we're dead dog sinners and we say truth, Lord, but can I
have a crumb from your table? You're the master, I'm not the
master. You're God, I'm not God. God's gospel declares that we
were justified freely by his grace, not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. This
is what God's gospel declares. That's the good news of it. God's gospel says, look to the
Lamb of God, not me. I want to read this one more
time. Verse six, I marvel, I'm amazed
that you're so soon removed from him that called you into the
grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another. But there be some that trouble
you that would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we or an
angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than 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 than that you have received, Let him be accursed. For do I
not persuade men or God, or do I seek to please men? For if
I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. Is God's gospel the one true gospel? My gospel. Is God's gospel my gospel? Ask
yourself, how do I know? Does my gospel declare my justification
before God, or is my justification dependent upon something I do? Is my justification dependent
upon something that I do, or is my justification completely
dependent upon what Christ accomplished? Is my sanctification based on
me in any way, or is my sanctification declared by the gospel that Jesus
Christ is all my wisdom, all my righteousness, all my sanctification,
and all my redemption. Understand this, this will probably
be in an article soon, just thought I would let you know. Good works are not the cause
of justification. They are the effect of it. Think
about that. Good works are not the cause
for justification, they are the effect. Meaning if you've been
justified freely by his grace, you've been born unto good works
in Jesus Christ. That's what that means. Good
works are not the cause of justification. They're not the cause, they're
the effect. They're not the cause, good works are not the cause
of salvation. Men say you have to do this to be saved. Well
they're saying good works is the cause for salvation. That's not true.
Good works are not the cause for salvation, they are the result. of salvation. They're the result
of being saved. Good works are not for the accomplishment
of becoming more sanctified. Good works are because we have
been sanctified freely by his grace. It's the outcome of being
sanctified. Does my gospel declare that Christ
alone is all in salvation? That every aspect of salvation
was completely dependent upon the Father's election and the
Son's redemptions and the Spirit regeneration? Or is there something
that God failed to do that he's requiring of me to do for him? It's that simple. Which gospel
do I believe? These men, these women, they're
saying, yes, Christ is all. The gospel that you received
is a good gospel. But we also have to do this one thing. And
they perverted the entire gospel. That's how serious it is. One
would think, well, maybe it's not that big of a deal. Yes,
it is. It's very severe. Because now
men are able to look at what they have done as their righteousness,
at least in part, They're declaring, look at what I have done to please
God. God is pleased with me because I've done this. Oh, you haven't
done that yet? Well, you need to do that or you're not a believer.
See how condescending and self-righteous that is? Yet it's happening in
every church in the area, all over the United States, all over
the world. That's what men and women do. Does my gospel declare Christ
alone, that the Lord Jesus Christ is all, that I am the hopeless,
helpless sinner that needs to be saved? Or am I not hopeless
and I have a little bit of power that I need to exercise, let
God have his way? It's one or the other. Our gospel declared that we're
the hopeless, helpless sinner in the desperate need for the
Savior, the Lamb of God, who by himself made his soul an offering. The Father made his soul an offering
for sin, and by himself, he purged our sin. And after he did that,
he sat down at the right hand of God. That's our gospel, isn't
it? That's the good news. Your sin's
gone. David sinned with Bathsheba.
He covered it up for just about a year, maybe even a little longer,
but Nathan came to him whenever the Lord finally told him to.
And Nathan came to him and gave him a parable. And you know the
story well. David had committed sin with
Bathsheba. He had slaughtered Bathsheba's husband, Uriah. He didn't do it by his hands,
but he did it by his commands, so he was guilty of murder. Committed
adultery with Bathsheba, she conceived. And we see that for
that duration of time, she had had a son, so it had to be, we
know, nine months of gestation. So that kind of gives you a time
frame of what's going on. Well, Nathan comes to him and says
to him, there was a man that had many flocks and many herds.
And there was another man that had one ewe lamb and he nurtured
the lamb and loved it. And it raised it as a daughter
into him. It ate at his table. And one day the rich man who
had all the flocks and herds had a visitor. And whenever that
visitor came, he took the ewe lamb from the poor man and he
killed it. And they ate that one instead of taking one of
his many flocks and many herds. Now David was a shepherd. So
God knows how to get ahold of his people really quick. And
he got ahold of David that day. You can imagine David's countenance
changing, thinking about killing this lamb, thinking about how
he would have loved the lamb and all the time that he had spent being
a shepherd, he would have been nurturing to these lambs. He
had a soft spot for them. And he said, well, whoever did
this is going to die. That was his judgment. That was
his judgment. And what did Nathan say to him?
David, you are the man. You're the man. You're the one
that did that with Uriah. You're the one that did that with Bathsheba.
Whenever God comes to a sinner, In this gospel, that gospel meets
you right where you are and reveals to you by God's spirit, you are
a dead dog sinner that needs to be saved and you can't do
it. God's gotta do it. And that's
exactly what God did for David that day. David said, behold,
I have sinned against the Lord. I have sinned against the Lord.
Nathan said to him, Fear not. This is called grace, is what
this is called. This is called mercy. Fear not, David, for God
hath put away your sin. You shall not die. See, that's
the gospel. The guilty sinner being pardoned
freely by the grace of God at his word because of the accomplished
work of Christ. That is our gospel. That's the
one true gospel. David didn't contribute anything,
but he sinned and he couldn't do anything about his sin. God
had to take it from him. This is what the Lord did for
his people. Christ satisfied justice, redeeming
all who he died for. All for the salvation of his
elect, all to the praise and the glory of God. This is the
one true gospel, the only gospel. This is the gospel whereby God
saves his people. He saved them, past tense, from
their sins. As we started out reading, it
says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of
God and to salvation to everyone that believeth. Lord, cause me
to believe. Save me. This gospel makes us completely
dependent upon not what we do, but what he has done. This gospel
makes us completely dependent upon him doing something for
us because we are powerless. This is the true gospel. The gospel is God's final, complete,
and perfect revelation of Jesus Christ. It's his final, perfect,
and complete revelation of his darling son. If you see Christ,
If you are made to see Christ, you are made to see salvation.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord's salvation. Everything
God required, Christ provided for his bride, for his people.
That's what the gospel declares. The Lord's not looking to you
and I for one thing. I wrote down the word iota, and I wanted
to make sure it meant what I thought it meant, and it means an extremely
small amount. The Lord's not looking to you
for not even an extremely small amount of something. He's looking
to you for nothing. He's looking to his Son, whereby
sinners are justified freely by the blood and grace of God
alone. This is the one true gospel to preach. Anything else is not
merely to take away or add to the finished work of Christ.
It's failing to preach Christ period. We add one thing to it. We take another thing from it.
Paul said another gospel, which is not another. They decided
one thing. That's how, that's how easy it
was. It changed the gospel entirely. No, this is the true gospel.
It's to deny Christ altogether if you don't preach him and abandon
all hope of God's salvation. This is the only one true gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ and thank God. He's made it our gospel. He's let us see it. He's made
us believe it. Let's pray. Father, we ask that
you would bless this to our understanding for your glory, according to
your grace and mercy, cause us to believe your gospel in Christ
and we pray, amen.