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.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'll be preaching from the book of Galatians chapter
one. Galatians one, beginning at verse
six. And I'm gonna talk to you about
the gospel I preach. The gospel I preach. And what
I wanna do is try to, in the simplest way that I know how,
not only preach the true gospel, but do my best to expose false
gospels. And that's a biblical thing.
That's a biblical command that the Lord gives to his preachers.
I've heard people say quite, some men say, well, I don't want
to preach the negative. I just want to preach the positive.
Well, you know, I wish that everything that I could say would be nothing
but positive good news. But we have in the scripture
mandates, commandments from God to expose the false, and especially
in these last days when there are so many perversions of the
gospel. You know the word gospel means
good news. Well, those perversions didn't
start yesterday. They began back when the New
Testament church was initially being founded and originated,
beginning there in the book of Acts and going on through to
the epistles. And Paul in the book of Galatians
here, he was inspired by the Spirit to write about this. And
what happened in the churches of Galatia, which Paul had been
used of God to plant, false preachers, mainly in Galatia, they were
unbelieving Jews who claim to be Christian, who claim to preach
Christ, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and who claim to
believe the grace of God. That salvation was by grace.
They had crept in, they criticized Paul, they rejected Paul, and
they brought in damnable heresies. false ideas, false doctrines
that was to infiltrate the true gospel and bring the people to
their way of thinking, which was a way of salvation someway
by works. And some of the Galatians were
listening to these false preachers and Paul wrote Galatians the
letter to recover them. Now Paul had preached the true
gospel. And so it's important, first of all, that we understand
what the true gospel is. Over in the book of Romans, chapter
one, in verse 16 and 17, the verse I quote so often on this
program, where Paul wrote, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ. In other words, this gospel is,
the word gospel means good news, and this gospel is a message
of a person, and the person is the Lord Jesus Christ. who is
none other than God manifest in the flesh. And that's a doctrine
of the good news or the gospel. Those who preach Christ in any
other way, who claim to preach Christ, but preach Him in any
other way other than the Word made flesh, God in human flesh
without sin. He's very God of very God. Every
bit of God, He's the second person of the Trinity. Son of God, by
nature God, co-equal with the Father and the Spirit in every
attribute of His nature as deity. But He's also a man. He had a
human body and soul created for Him in the womb of the Virgin
Mary, created for Him by the Holy Spirit, born in that miraculous
conception and miraculous birth. And He was made flesh without
sin. The Word was made flesh. and
dwelt or tabernacled among us. So that's who Jesus Christ is.
Paul spoke of that in Romans chapter one. Before verse 16,
he said that Christ, that Jesus, this gospel, concerns Christ
who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. That
is, his nationality in his humanity was a Jew from the tribe of Judah,
born of the seed of David. That's his humanity, his sinless
humanity. and that he was declared to be
the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.
So the gospel is the good news of a person. The Lord Jesus Christ,
God manifest in the flesh, great is the mystery of godliness,
God was manifest in the flesh. That's who he is, that's why
we worship him. We're not to worship anyone who
is not God. Those who claim that Christ was
just a good man or a good prophet, and then claim that they believe
in Him and rest in Him and worship Him, that's idolatry if He's
not God, but He is God. He's God manifest in the flesh. So Paul wrote in Romans 116,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. That gospel, this
good news, is the power of God unto salvation. It's the ability
of God, the dynamite of God, unto salvation to everyone that
believeth, to the Jew first and to the Greek or the Gentile also.
And then in verse 17, he says, for therein, in that gospel,
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith, that is, from knowledge
revealed to faith, that is, knowledge received, God-given faith, believing,
as it is written, the just or the justified shall live by faith.
So the gospel speaks of God who justifies people, sinners, His
people, based upon the righteousness of God, which is the entire merit,
value, and worthiness of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ
as the surety, the substitute, and the redeemer of God's chosen
people, given to Him before the foundation of the world. That's
the gospel. And so when Paul writes here in Galatians 1, listen
to what he says. That's the gospel that Paul preached
to the Galatians. And God brought many of them
to faith in Christ. He preached salvation by God's
grace based upon the merits of the obedience unto death of the
Lord Jesus Christ as the substitute and as the surety substitute
and redeemer of his people. And he says in verse six, now
this is Galatians 1.6. He says, I marvel that you are
so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of
Christ unto another gospel. Another gospel. Now some of them
were following these false preachers. Some of them were just listening
to them, Paul's seeking their recovery. Now understand something
at the outset. Anyone who claims to believe
the true gospel, not just a false gospel, but if anyone who claims
to believe the true gospel, but then leaves that gospel, apostatizes
from it, falls away from it, they never believed it to begin
with. Now that's what the scripture
teaches. Many denominations, many preachers teach that, well,
they lost their salvation. No, you cannot lose salvation
if you're saved by the grace of God. You are saved by grace,
kept by grace, and you will enter glory by grace through Christ. First John chapter two and verse
19 speaks of it. They went out from us. John speaks
of those who left the gospel, who denied, claimed at one time
to believe it, and then denied it. And John says, they went
out from us, but they were not of us. For had they been of us,
they would have no doubt remained with us, but they went out from
us that they might be manifested that they were not of us. So
anyone who leaves it and completely turns against it, they never
believed it. Understand that, they didn't
lose salvation. But now, believers, true believers, the elect of
God, Those who are justified. Remember he said the just shall
live by faith. What is it to be justified? It's
to be forgiven of all my sins based on a just ground. That's
what it is to be justified. To be forgiven of all my sins
based on a just ground. And what is that just ground?
It's the blood of Jesus Christ. That's the ground of forgiveness.
And to be justified, is to be declared righteous in God's sight
based on a just ground. And what is that just ground
that I'm declared righteous in God's sight? The imputed righteousness
of Christ. In other words, the righteousness
of God, the merits of His obedience unto death charged to my account. My sins, charge to his account. My sin debt, put on his account.
His righteousness, charge to my account. And that's what the
gospel teaches. Well, Paul says, I'm marveled,
I'm amazed, verse six, that you're so soon. In other words, Paul
must have been there early on and then he left and then very
soon after that, these false preachers came in and he says,
I'm marveled. that you are so soon removed
from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another
gospel. And then look at verse seven.
He says, which is not another, but there be some that trouble
you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. My friend, there are
so many perversions of the gospel. It's a sad day. And the Lord
Jesus Christ, he prophesied of this to his disciples. He said,
in the last days, as we come to the end of the New Testament
age, as we approach the time of His second coming, and we
don't know when He's coming, I believe it's gonna be soon,
I don't know if it'll be in my lifetime or not, but He's coming,
and we're getting nearer that time, and as we get nearer that
time of His second coming, He said there would be more and
more perversions of the gospel. There'd be more and more false
churches, false Christianity. Satan would be sowing his, he'd
be loose to deceive the nations, he said. And he'd be sowing his
tares. What are those tares? False believers,
false churches who claim to be Christian. but who deny the doctrine
of Christ, the teachings of Christ, mainly the teachings of His person,
the glory of His person, and the power of His finished work,
that righteousness that He brought out, His shed blood. And they
be teaching false doctrines like Christ's blood, Christ died for
everybody, now the rest is up to you, things like that. And
I'll show you that in just a moment. But it's interesting here, he
talks about another gospel. You know, in the New Testament
Greek language, there were two different words for the word
another. One meant another of the same
kind. We find that in John chapter
14, I believe it's verse 16, when Christ talked about how
when he goes away, the Lord would send another comforter, the Holy
Spirit. That word means another of the
same kind, of the same nature of Christ. But here the word
another is a different word. It means another of a different
kind. It's not even like the same thing. It's of a different kind. And
he calls it a perversion of the gospel of Christ. And in verse
eight, now this is a very important verse. He says, 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. Those who preach this other gospel,
this perversion, it doesn't matter if it's an angel from heaven.
You know who Satan is. He's a fallen angel from heaven. But if, he's saying this, but
if the we, he said, Paul, if Paul came along and preached
any other gospel than that he had already preached, if an angel
from heaven, don't judge these by appearance or by reputation,
you see? Put that out of the way. If they're
preaching another gospel, they're accursed. And he says in verse
nine, 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. So this is a perversion of the
gospel. Now, when I read passages like
that, I often take self-inventory. What do I preach? Am I preaching
the true gospel, which is the gospel of Christ? Do I tell people
who Christ truly is? Or am I telling him something
that's not scriptural? Well, I can prove from scripture,
and I've already done that, that Christ, who Christ is, He's God,
man. Perfect God, perfect man. That's an amazing truth. I cannot
explain that. He's one person, but with two
natures that are united, not mixed. You can't mix a deity
and humanity, but they're combined, they're united in the one person
of Christ. And he's now as God-man sitting
at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession
for his people. They must be saved and they cannot
be lost. And how do you know who his people
are? They respond by God-given faith to the preaching of the
gospel, the preaching of the cross. The preaching of the gospel,
listen, it's preaching the cross. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. What is the preaching
of the cross? It's not the preaching of a piece
of wood or a symbol. It's the preaching of the finished
work, the successful finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That ends in the salvation of
every sinner for whom he died on that cross. What did he do
on the cross? He put away my sins. What did
he do on the cross? He paid my debt. What did he
do on the cross? He worked out a perfect righteousness
by which God could be just to justify sinners like me. How
do I know that he did it for me? Well, in the process of time,
God brought me under the preaching of the true gospel, and by the
power of the Spirit, he gave me life from the dead. That's
called regeneration. It's called the new birth. I've
been born again by the Spirit. How do I know I've been born
again by the Spirit? I believe the true gospel. Now, if you
believe a false gospel, that's no evidence of being born again
of the Spirit. That's an evidence of not having
been born again. Well, let me give you a couple
of points to look for when you, many of you who claim to believe
the gospel, you claim that you're going to a church where the true
gospel, not another gospel, but the true gospel is preached.
And let me give you a couple of points that I believe you
need to look for. And this is, I think these are
common to all false gospels. Now, I could talk about individual
false gospels. There's many in many places all
over this world. But I think here are two points
that are very common, that are common to all false gospels.
And here's the first point. A false gospel, well, let me
start this way. Let me start with the positive.
The gospel is good news, all right? The true gospel preaches,
reveals, that all of salvation, all of salvation, was and is
conditioned on the Lord Jesus Christ, who by Himself, as the
surety, the substitute, and the Redeemer of His people, fulfilled
those conditions, all those conditions, to ensure their complete salvation
under glory. Now that's what the true gospel
does. Did you hear what I said now? It teaches that all of salvation,
all the salvation of God's people, God's people who are sinners,
who cannot save themselves, who cannot meet any conditions because
they're spiritually dead in trespasses, totally depraved, fallen in Adam,
ruined by the fall, you who were dead in trespasses and sins.
The true gospel preaches that all of their salvation was conditioned
on one person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and Christ as my surety. What does that mean? That means
my sin debt was placed to his account, he's my surety, and
my substitute, he took my place under the wrath and the law of
God, and fulfilled its conditions, its requirements, and redeemer. He's my surety, my substitute,
my redeemer. He paid the price in full, and
He secured my salvation, even my new birth, even the faith
that I believe with is a gift from God because Christ died. So, now, on the other hand, another
gospel of the different kind, all the false gospels, they teach
and preach salvation in some way, at some point, to some degree,
conditioned on the sinner. Now, that's what I'm telling
you. Now, people say, well, now, don't we have to believe and
repent? Yes, but those are not conditions that we must meet
in our own power and will in order to attain and maintain
salvation. Those are gifts from God that
reveal and evidence salvation. The Bible says in Ephesians 2,
eight and nine, for by grace are you saved through faith.
That's not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. Faith in God is the gift of God. It's the work of His power through
the Holy Spirit in us. It's not the product of any spark
of goodness that we have. It's not the product of our free
will choice. It's the gift of God. The Bible
says in 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 14, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them.
They're spiritually discerned. And the Bible teaches that. All
of salvation. including the new birth, including
faith in Christ, including repentance of dead works, including perseverance. Those are the gifts of God. Those
aren't conditions that sinners must meet in order to make the
work of Christ effectual. The gospel does not teach that
Christ died for everybody without exception, even for those who
perish in eternal damnation, because they didn't meet certain
conditions. If salvation is conditioned on me or you, we're doomed. But
the gospel teaches all of salvation conditioned on Christ. But false
gospels will always teach salvation in some way, to some degree,
at some stage, conditioned on sinners. And those conditions
vary with different denominations. Some say it's conditioned on
your baptism. Some say it's conditioned on
your faith. Some say it's conditioned on repentance. Some say it's
conditioned on obedience. All of that. That's a false gospel.
All of salvation conditioned on Christ, who by himself as
my surety, substitute and redeemer, fulfilled those conditions. He
is the Lord my righteousness. Now here's the second point that
we're gonna talk about that is common to all false gospels. The true gospel is the revelation
of the perfect righteousness of God which is the righteousness
of Christ imputed to his people which is the perfection of the
law satisfaction to the law a propitiation as it were that can only be found
in Christ and that's it He is the Lord my righteousness now
false gospels teach that righteousness and holiness essentially are
on a sliding scale. Like there are degrees of righteousness,
degrees of holiness. You see, in the Bible, righteousness
is not found in human morality or human religion or in any way
human effort. In the Bible, righteousness,
which is the perfection, now understand, the perfection of
the law, the perfection of God's justice, that can only be found
in Christ. Nowhere else. Romans 10, four. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Now the believing
is not my righteousness. My believing is not my righteousness. My repenting is not my righteousness,
Christ is. And God-given faith comes from
Him that I might reach out and lay hold of Him, as it were.
For with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness. How does
that happen? With the heart, that's the new
heart given by God in the new birth. With the mind, the affections,
the will, believing, man believes Christ. Christ is my righteousness. Acts 17 31 says that God is going
to judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained
in that he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath
raised him from the dead. And here's what I know. If I
look within myself, I find no righteousness. If I try to be
a better person, which I should do, but that's not gonna make
me righteous. For by deeds of law shall no
flesh be justified, declared righteous in God's sight. I have
one righteousness to declare, to plead before God. And that's the imputed righteousness
of Christ. Christ's righteousness accounted
to me, reckoned to me, charged to me. Paul said it in Philippians
chapter three. He said that I may know him and
be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith or the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God, which is by faith. The
righteousness is what Christ did in His faithfulness to do
what He promised to do, and that is to keep the law and die for
the sins of His people. The righteousness of faith is
the righteousness we receive by God-given faith when we receive
Christ. There is no sliding scale. People
in false gospels and false religion, they talk about how they're getting
less sinful and more righteous. Well, my friend, do you know
what the definition in the scripture of sin is? Sin is falling short
of the glory of God. Romans 3 tells us that, 3.23,
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Well,
what is the glory of God? The glory of God is the person
and work of Christ. And even as a believer, even
as a child of God, I fall short of Him. And so what does that
mean? That means I must continually
look to Him and Him alone for righteousness. I must continually
look to Christ and to Christ alone for salvation, fulfillment,
for glory, for all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
It's all Christ. Believe in Him, rest in Him,
and follow Him. I hope this message has helped
you, 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
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today and may the Lord be with you.