All right, let's look at Galatians
chapter 1. Now, I'm going to begin in verse 6 this morning. The title of the message is Guarding
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Guarding the Gospel. Now, before
I read the text in Galatians chapter 1, I want to read a portion
of scripture to you from the book of Acts chapter 20, beginning
at verse 27. And this is where the Apostle
Paul is speaking with the elders at the church of Ephesus. And
this is kind of like his last words to them. I'm not going
to read the whole passage, we don't have time. But he's trying
to encourage them in the gospel. encouraged them in the ministry
that God had given them in Ephesus. And he says in verse 27 of Acts
chapter 20, he says, for I have not shunned to declare unto you
all the counsel of God. And then he says, take heed,
be on your guard, listen carefully. Therefore unto yourselves and
to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers,
to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own
blood, for I know this, that after my departing," now this
is what Paul's going to be talking about in the book of Galatians.
This is what had happened at Galatians as described here in
verse 29. He says, for I know this, that
after my departing shall grievous wolves, grievous wolves are wolves
that put a burden on you. These grievous wolves will enter
in among you, not sparing the flock, Also of your own selves
shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples
after them. And therefore watch, now there's
the be on your guard, watch and remember that by the space of
three years I cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears. This is serious matter, Paul's
saying. Warned you night and day with
tears and then You know, the gospel is, one man said it this
way, poetically, it's a treasure beyond measure, treasure beyond
measure. Paul called it a treasure. In
2 Corinthians 4, he said we have this treasure in earthen vessels. You can't put a value on the
gospel, no more than you can put a value on the salvation
that it communicates and reveals and relates. The scripture calls
it the unsearchable riches of Christ. The unsearchable riches
of Christ. Peter, when the Lord asked the
disciples about those who were turning away from the gospel,
going away, he said, will you go away also? I think this is
in John chapter six. He said, will you go away also?
And Peter, speaking for the disciples, said, well, to whom shall we
go? You have the words of eternal life. And that's what this gospel
is. This gospel's not just religious
opinion. It's not just one philosophy
among many. It's not just a system of theology,
even though it is a system of theology, but it's not just that
to the point to where you can compare it to other systems.
There's nothing like this gospel that we have. And it is, it's
a precious treasure. in the gospel is revealed the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And so, therefore, we
who have been brought under the preaching of the gospel, and
especially we who have been powerfully affected by the gospel, We are
affected by the gospel in the power of the spirit to have been
brought to redemption, or to have been brought to regeneration,
rather, and conversion, to believe this gospel. God has imprinted
it upon our hearts, our mind, affections, and will. We have
to guard the gospel with our lives. That's what he's saying.
That's what he's telling the Ephesian elders, and that's what
he's going to be telling the Galatians. It's our most precious
possession. Even more precious than anything
that we can even say. It's written on our hearts, we
receive a love of the truth. The psalmist wrote in Psalm 119,
he said, thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not
sin against thee. And let me read you one more
verse before we get to Galatians in 1 Timothy chapter six. These are the last words of Paul
to Timothy in the first epistle to Timothy in verse 20. of 1st
Timothy chapter 6 and verse 20. And Paul writes, O Timothy, keep
that which is committed to thy trust. Now that word keep can
be translated guard. Guard it with your life. Guard
that which is committed to your trust. He says avoiding profane
and vain babblings and oppositions of science, falsely so called. Now the word science there is
just another word for knowledge. That's what science means. You
might have heard the term omniscience. That's one of God's attributes.
It means he knows all. If you divide the word, it's
omni-science. And science means knowledge.
And what he's talking about is those who come along and claim
to know something you don't know. All right? Claiming to have some
spiritual insight that you don't have, but it doesn't fit with
the gospel. And we've had that in our day. I know men right now who will
tell you they've seen things in scripture that we haven't
seen and don't know, and it doesn't fit with the truth as it's revealed
in the scripture of the glorious person and finished work of Christ.
And so we see that, and that's science falsely so-called. In other words, this is knowledge
from God they're saying, but it's not from God at all. And
so he says in verse 21, which some professing have aired concerning
the faith, then grace be with thee, amen. So that's why I entitled
this Guarding the Gospel of Christ. Now go back to Galatians 1 and
look at verse 6. I'm just going to do a few verses
this morning. And here he says in verse six, he says, I marvel,
or 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. 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 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
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.
Now, the first thing that Paul warns against here and exposes
is what we would call perversions of the gospel. Perversions of
the gospel. And he starts out, I'm marveled,
I'm amazed, he says, that you were so soon or so quickly pulled
into this. In other words, so quickly after
Paul had been there and preached to them. He'd been through that
region, preaching the gospel. And just like when he told the
Ephesian elders in Acts 20, he said, when I'm gone, when I depart,
these grievous wolves will come in preaching other things. And
it happened real quickly here. And Paul says, I'm amazed. And
he says, I'm amazed that you're so soon removed from him. That's
desertion. That's what it means. You've
deserted, you're deserting Christ. In other words, you've been seduced
away from the simplicity that's in Christ Jesus. You remember
Paul warned the Corinthians against that in 2 Corinthians chapter
11, when he talked about the subtlety of Satan and seducing
them away from the simplicity of Christ. That word simplicity,
incidentally, in 2 Corinthians 11.3 is singleness. That's what it means. And what
it means is this, our single message is salvation all conditioned
on and fulfilled in Christ Jesus. In other words, none of it is
conditioned on you or me. None of it is dependent upon
you or me. It's all in him, all aspects
of salvation. He is the ground of it. He's
the reason for it. And it's all Christ, and that's
our single message. Now, when preachers come in and
introduce the works and the wills of men, what they're doing is
they're corrupting the simplicity that's in Christ. In other words,
if salvation is a matter of what we do for Him in any way, to
any degree, at any stage, then it's not the simplicity that's
in Christ. Every aspect of our salvation
from beginning to its continuation to its culmination is all of
God's grace in Christ. And anything else is a perversion
of the gospel and deserting him. Now these Galatians, we have
to understand at the outset, they had not yet completely left
the gospel. They had not yet done. Now I'm
sure that you could probably say some of them may have, but
as a church, as a local body of believers, as a witness in
their perspective communities, they had not yet totally, completely
left Christ, but in tolerating these false preachers that he's
going to be talking about, allowing them into the assembly, allowing
them to speak and to influence people, they were on their way,
they were going that route. And he speaks of a process here. so soon removed that the tense
of the verb is not a finalization, but it's a process. In other
words, Paul's saying, now this is where you're headed. You're
headed to totally forsaking the Lord Jesus Christ and his truth.
And so they were going that route. He speaks of a process that if
it works its course, we'll end up being apostasy. Now you know
what apostasy is. Apostasy has to do with a person
who, under the preaching of the true gospel, and came to a profession
of that true gospel, but then totally leaves it to the point
of calling Christ accursed. And so we see that in 1 John,
for example. Now, you know the world, the
religious world will say, well, those fellows were saved and
then they lost their salvation. You know, the Bible doesn't teach
that. There's nothing in the scriptures that would even indicate
that. And we could, I could go on,
that's several sermons in and of itself, but John the apostle
took care of it in two verses in 1 John chapter two when he
said, had they been of us, they would have remained with us,
but they were not of us. And so he tells it very clearly
there that anybody who falls away, just like these Galatians,
if they go this route, and they totally apostatize, fall away,
reject what they once claimed to believe, well, they never
believed it to begin with. They never were saved. They never
were converted. They never were born again. But
he tells them very plainly here that if you continue on this
route, this is where you're going. He says, I marvel that you're
so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of
Christ. Now, that's the emphasis here.
Salvation by the sovereign grace of God based on the blood, the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. In other
words, your calling into this gospel was not of works, was
not of free will, it was of grace. Salvation, what is grace? Well,
that's all of salvation fulfilled and accomplished and secured
by what Christ has done in his obedience unto death as the substitute
and surety of his people. You see, Christ didn't die to
make you savable. Christ didn't die to make salvation
possible. Christ died as a surety. That's what the scripture says.
He was set up from everlasting as the surety, and what the surety
does guarantees the outcome. And if it doesn't, then he's
not a surety. He's just a possibility. But Christ is not a possibility.
Christ is a surety. He accomplished the redemption
of his people, and that's what the gospel of grace. Now, other
gospels say otherwise. And look here, he says, he says,
called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. And verse seven, he said, which
is not another. Now you've got two words there
in the English language, another, but they're two different words
in the original Greek. The first word, another, another
gospel, is another of a different kind. That's what it means. And
what he's saying there, he says, you're turning away from the
true gospel, turning away from Christ, and incidentally, I think
that's something we need to understand. Somebody says, you know, that
you don't arrive at Christ through doctrine. Oh yes, you do. Because without the doctrine
of Christ, you can't know who he is. or what he accomplished,
or why he did it, or where he is now. It's the doctrine, the
teachings of his person and his finished work that the Holy Spirit
uses to guide us to him. That's the gospel, which is the
power of God and the salvation wherein the righteousness of
God is revealed. How are you going to know the
righteousness of God unless we're taught the doctrine of Christ?
But so to turn away from the gospel is to turn away from Christ. You say, somebody says, well,
doctrine doesn't save you, Christ does. Well, that's true. But
if you turn away from the teachings that identify and distinguish
Christ, you turn away from Him. Paul called it in 2 Corinthians
11, another Jesus. And that means another of a different
kind. It's the same word here in the first, another. Another
of a different kind. So he says, You turn from the
gospel unto another gospel, another of a different kind, which is
not another. That's another word that means
another of the same kind. So it's kind of like this, he's
saying, you've turned into another gospel of a different kind, which
is not another of the same kind. Now what's the point there? Well,
how many of you, and you just think about this in your mind,
how many, that's redundant, you can't think about it anywhere
else but your mind, but anyway, how many of you have heard people
say, well, You all believe in this gospel, the gospel this
way, but we believe it this way. Well, that's not possible. You
see, there's only one true gospel, and there are no variations to
the gospel, to the good news of how God justifies the ungodly.
Christ said, I am the way, not a way. I am the truth, not a
truth. I am the life, not a life. There's
none of the name given among men whereby we must be saved. Listen, he's one person, Christ
is, and there are truths about him and there are lies about
him. Listen, there's no variation. For example, he's either God
or he's not God. He's either man without sin or
he's not man, he's God-man. Now any other truth concerning
his person is another of a different kind. And then he either accomplished
redemption for his people or he made salvation possible for
everybody and secured it for nobody, which actually would,
according to the scriptural definition of what a sinner is, would ensure
the lostness of the whole human race. There's no variation. There's one true gospel, but
you know there's a thousand or more. There's thousands of false
gospels. Variations of it. And what Paul's
saying is, no, we're not just different denominations. We're
not just going to the same God. We're just going different ways.
No. That can't happen. He says, you've gone to another
gospel. This is what the Galatians were dealing with was Jewish
legalist, somebody could have well said, well, they just interpret
the scriptures differently than you do, and they just see it
another way. No, Paul says, that's another
of a different kind. That's not even close to the
true gospel. That's a perversion of the gospel.
And so they had become spellbound under the allurement of these
false teachers who exalted the flesh. And as I said, it was
Jewish legalism. I'll give you some scripture.
We won't turn there because we don't have time, but read Acts
chapter 15. Mark that down. That's when those
Jewish legalists came in claiming to be Christian, but who said
that a person has to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses in
order to be saved. Now that's what these Jewish
legalists in Galatia were saying. Paul wrote in Philippians chapter
three, remember when he gave what I think is one of the best
comprehensive definitions of a Christian you find in the Bible,
which is verse three. We are the circumcision which
worship God in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. Well, before that, he said, beware
of the dogs. Beware of the concision. And
that word concision means mutilation, and what he's saying is those
Jewish legalists who would come into you and say, yes, we're
saved by the grace of God in Christ, but you have to be circumcised
in order to really be saved, in order to really be righteous
and holy before God, which is a denial of the grace of God,
a denial of the righteousness of Christ imputed. You have to
be circumcised. He said all they're doing is
mutilating you. In other words, it has no spiritual or religious
significance whatsoever. So listen, he says, these things
are perversions of the gospel. It's salvation in some way by
the works and the will of men. The issue of the gospel has to
do with who Christ is and what he accomplished, what saves a
sinner, what removes sin, what makes that sinner righteous before
holy God. Now what makes you righteous?
The blood of Christ makes us righteous before God. Is there
anything else you can add to that? Well, if you do, it's a
perversion. It's another gospel of a different
kind. That denomination that claims
to be Christian that says, well, the blood of Christ saves us,
but you have to be baptized to really be saved, that's a perversion
of the gospel. That's another of a different
kind. That's not just we're all brothers and we're all Christians,
you see. That kind of attitude has no place in the Bible. It's
just not there. It sounds good, and to men and
women it sounds loving, doesn't it? You all just think you're
the only one saved. You know, you've heard that.
Well, what's Paul saying here? And somebody might say, and Paul
gets kind of harsh here too, they say, well, what about love?
Well, it's not, listen, true godly Christian love would not
support people in a way that would lead them to damnation.
That's what they have to see. There's only one gospel. It's
the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is God in human flesh without sin. who accomplished
redemption by his work on the cross for his people and secured
their salvation based on a righteousness established freely imputed to
them and received by God-given faith. But as I said, now there
are thousands of perversions of the gospel. There are counterfeits.
You know, a counterfeit, if we were talking about money, we'd
be really concerned about counterfeits, wouldn't we? You've seen, maybe
some of you have seen counterfeit money. And, of course, what is
it about a counterfeit? Well, first of all, the more
the counterfeit looks like the real thing, the more people it
fools, doesn't it? I mean, I've heard of people
getting a counterfeit $50 bill or something like that and they
couldn't tell the difference. Well, somebody can tell the difference.
And what Paul's telling the Galatians is, you ought to know the difference.
You ought to be experts to be able to discern the counterfeit
from the truth. I remember in the book of Hebrews
chapter 5, it talks about becoming skillful in the word of righteousness
so as to do what? To discern good and evil. And a counterfeit has no authority.
Just like a counterfeit gospel, there's no authority from God.
A counterfeit dollar bill has no real value or power. It might
fool somebody, but it has no real buying power, no real value. Well, the same thing with a counterfeit
gospel. It has no value. It has no power to save anybody.
The true gospel is the power of God unto salvation, the scripture
says, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. And we know
that in the hands of the Holy Spirit, it'll bring a sinner
to conviction and to faith, to conversion. But a counterfeit
gospel has no power to save anybody. And that's, incidentally, in
Romans 1, 16 and 17, as Paul relates it, he says, the gospel
is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first and the Greek or Gentile also, for therein is
the righteousness of God revealed. Now, how many gospels are out
there in some way, to some degree, preaching not the righteousness
of God, which is Christ and Him crucified and risen, but the
righteousness of men in some way. Well, that's a counterfeit. That's a counterfeit. One other
thing about a counterfeit dollar bill, it's illegal. It doesn't
honor the law. Well, so there's a counterfeit
gospel. It's illegal. It doesn't honor the law because
the moment salvation or any part of it is conditioned on the sinner,
the law is dishonored. You know why? Because we can't
keep the law. We can't honor the law. We don't
have the righteousness of the law. But the true gospel's not
illegal. It preaches forth Christ who
is the end, the fulfillment of the law for everyone that believe. Christ honored the law. What's happening in this, you
know, you look at passages like this. Another gospel which is
not another is a prime example of Satan sowing his tares by
these false gospels. And that's what he does. We don't
have time to turn to that, but you can read about that in Matthew
chapter 13. And I'll tell you, I mean, we just need to be honest
with people. You know, the greatest perversion of our day, it's like
in this day and time that Paul's writing, one of the greatest
perversions of it was the Jewish legalism. It kept creeping in. Paul knew something about that.
He was a converted Jew. He was a converted legalist.
The greatest perversion of our day is that different kind of
gospel, which is not another of the same kind, but another
of a different kind, that reduces the death of Christ, His blood,
His righteousness, to nothing more than a potential salvation
or a possibility of salvation if sinners will cooperate and
do whatever their denomination tells them to do, whether it's
just believe, repent, give your heart to Jesus, or whatever,
or be baptized. That's the greatest perversion
of our day, and it's not a gospel of the same kind as what we preach
from the scriptures. It's a gospel of another kind.
Somebody says, well, doesn't the Bible say we must believe
and repent? Yes. But what does the Bible
say? Believe in what? Believe in whom? Repent of what? Believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Repent of thinking that God would
ever save you based on anything you do. And look to Christ alone. Listen, these Jewish legalists
were preaching circumcision. Well, didn't God under the old
covenant command circumcision? Yes, but not for this reason.
Not to make a sinner righteous. All of that was for another reason.
Well, look at verse 8 or verse 7. He says, which is not another,
but there be some that trouble you. and would pervert the gospel
of Christ. So that's settled. Now what he's
dealing with is not another gospel, just another shade or another
way. It's another of a different kind.
It's a perversion of the gospel. But now, look at verse eight.
Now here he majors on that which we have preached, he says. 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 a curse. Now there's two things here that
you need to notice. Number one, neither the outward
form, appearance, nor the reputation or personality of a man validates
his gospel. In other words, now think about
it. We all want to be kind, gentle,
loving, charitable, moral people. If we don't, we ought to want
those things for ourselves. But we can be all of those things
in a human way and still preach a false gospel. You say, well,
but he's so kind. Well, that's a good thing among
men, but it doesn't validate what he preaches. You know the
only thing that validates what we preach? It's what the prophets
used to say all the time. Thus saith the Lord. What does the Bible say? You
know, somebody says, well, I don't believe election. Well, they
probably have a perverted view of election, but here's what
they should say. What does the Bible say about
election? Because that's what I want to believe. Whatever God's
word says about it. I used to say that. I used to
say I didn't believe it. I used to say I hated it. I used to say it's
not in the Bible. And then I got to studying the
Bible trying to prove that it wasn't in the Bible and I found
that it was in the Bible. And I couldn't deny it. So the thing about it is the
issue here is thus saith the Lord. It's not the personality
of the preacher. It's not the experience of the
preacher. He may have been in the pulpit
for 50 years. I heard a fellow say, when somebody was talking
about several preachers who were promoting this idea of Christ
being made a sinner, told one of my, one of our brethren, he
said, said, well, don't speak against these men. Altogether,
they've got 150 years of ministry behind them. Well, listen. that has nothing to do with i
don't care if they had two thousand years of ministry behind them
if they're not preaching according to this word there's no what? no light in them and it's human nature to go the
other way it's human nature to take in consideration the personality
but paul says though we are an angel from heaven you couldn't
get any better of a personality than an angel from heaven but
paul writes They preach another gospel, that which we have not
preached unto you, let them be what? Anathema, that's what that
word accursed means. Some of the kindest, most generous,
most moral and sincere people I know believe a false gospel
of salvation conditioned on the works and wills of men. So that's
the first thing. The second thing is this. This
is a matter of eternal life. He says if they preach any other
gospel than that which we have preached unto you, let him be
accursed. This is a matter of eternal life
or eternal death. That means cursed of God. In
other words, to reject Christ is to be under the curse. Under the curse of the law. Cursed
is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law. If you're trying to be saved
or righteous based on your works or some conditions you meet,
you're under the curse. What that literally means is
this is a person who's devoted to destruction. Now they don't
know it. They don't know it because by
nature we're ignorant. We've all gone out of the way,
the way of eternal life. We think, I know when I preached
a false gospel, I didn't know it was a false gospel, didn't
admit that it was a false gospel. But that didn't change the fact
that it was a false gospel and is. So he says, let him be accursed. He's devoted to destruction.
Why? Because he's denying the grace of God. His message is
an insult to Christ, just like the perversion of today that
makes salvation a mere possibility if you'll do your part. Do you
know what that does? That diminishes the blood, the
righteousness of Christ, of its value and its power. And it elevates
the works of man. It's saying Christ didn't do
enough. You have to do more to empower
him for salvation. And therefore it consigns sinners
to the curse. It leaves men looking not to
Christ alone, but to something else, usually to their faith.
But Paul says, he says, that we are an angel from heaven preaching
any of the gospel than that which we have preached. Now it's not
difficult to go to the New Testament and find out exactly what Paul
preached. God, the Holy Spirit, used Paul
to write more than half of the New Testament. Written by God,
but he used Paul. But you can go through, the book
of Romans is the classic summation of Paul's message. And it's totally
salvation by the grace of God based on the righteousness of
Christ freely imputed and received by God-given faith. That's what
it's all about, how God justifies a sinner. That's what he preached
here. He preached the righteousness of God in Christ, not the righteousness
of men. Well, look at verse 9, he says,
he emphasizes, he repeats it, and we said before, as we said
before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel
unto you than that you have received, we've preached it, you claim
to believe it. And here they come along and
preach another gospel of a different kind, and you're listening to
them. You're tolerating it. Here's where you're headed. What
he's saying, this is serious. Let him be anathema. Now Paul
is not just saying with a hard heart, let him go to hell. That's
not what he's saying. I've heard preachers preach this
that way. Just let him go to hell. My friend, if they're preaching
a false gospel, We recognize by God's word that they're under
the curse. They're set for destruction.
We pray for the salvation of sinners. It's not that we desire
them in this way. I don't desire anybody out here
to preach a false gospel. I wish the Lord would convert
the whole city, the whole state, the whole country, all of it.
Somebody said, we gotta pray for the salvation of the Jews.
Yes, we do. We gotta pray for the salvation
of the Gentiles too. The Bible says pray for all sorts
of men. Kings, even despots. But my friend, to be under preaching
of a false gospel, that's headed for destruction. And that's not
a popular message. Look at verse 10, for do I now
persuade men or God? Now that word, that translation
is a little confusing because what he's saying, he's not trying
to persuade God of anything. What he's talking about is honor
here. Do I honor men or do I honor God? That's what he means by
that. That's what the original word really means. And the reason,
I don't know why the King James translators translated persuade,
but when we present the gospel, we certainly are seeking to persuade
sinners. in the way of grace. Now, we
know that we can't convert them, we can't make them believe, we
can't give them a new heart. Only the Holy Spirit can. But
the scripture uses his preachers and his witnesses to bring them
to this persuasion. But really what he's talking
about, do I honor men or do I honor God? What am I here for? And
then he says, or do I seek to please men? Well, we know what
pleases men. And it's not the gospel. By nature,
men love darkness. We were all there until God the
Holy Spirit gave us a new heart. We hate the light and love darkness.
And so, what would have pleased us in those days was to hear
of a salvation that was conditioned on us because we thought so much
of ourselves that we could meet that condition, whatever it was.
And if you were in a church where they put conditions on you that
you felt like you couldn't meet, you know what you'd do? You'd
go find you another church. Same false gospel, but fewer
conditions. Isn't that right? Somebody used
to say, I think somebody told me years ago about here in the
South, they said, well, if you wanted to be strict, you had
to be a Baptist, but if you wanted to party a little, you could
be a Methodist. I don't know if that's true or not. But you
had less conditions, which I never did understand because the Methodists
believe you can lose your salvation. I mean, to me, it seemed to me
they'd have to be working hard to keep it. But either way, it's
a false gospel. We're not here to please men.
We're not here to exalt the flesh. Not here to honor men. We're
here to glorify God. We're here to exalt Christ. We're
here to exclude all boasting in the flesh. We're here to motivate
obedience and faith, not that honors you or me, but that honors
God. Not that draws attention to you
or me, but draws attention to our Savior and the righteousness
that He worked out. And that's what Paul's saying,
for if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
To preach a false gospel that pleases men proves that I'm not
a servant of Christ. I'm a servant of men. You can't
be both. All right.