Let's turn in our Bibles to the
book of Galatians chapter 1. Galatians chapter 1. I want to begin reading at verse
6. After the Apostle Paul had opened his epistle with his greetings
and his declaration of his care and love for the people of Galatia,
the believers in Galatia, He says in verse six of Galatians
chapter one, he says, I marvel that you are so soon removed
from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another
gospel. And of course, as you know, that
means another of a different kind. You know, there's another
word in the original language of the New Testament that means
another of the same kind. The Lord used that in the book
of John, when he talked about the Holy Spirit coming as another
comforter, another comforter of the same kind, that is of
the same nature. Well, this word means another
of a different kind, and he shows that in verse seven. He explains
what he means, which is not another. In other words, there's only
one gospel. There are other, and you know
the word gospel means good news. Well, there's only one good news
for sinners, And there's a lot of others that come claiming
to be the gospel. But he says, you're removed unto
another gospel, which is not another, but there be some that
trouble you. That is, they're troubling you
with this other gospel and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
So now we know what we're dealing with here is a perversion, not
an open denial. of the gospel of Christ, but
a perversion of it. How many people do you know today
openly deny that they believe the gospel? Everybody says they believe the
gospel. Well, we all believe the same gospel. But here we're
dealing with a perversion of the gospel. But now listen to
verse eight. He says, but the we, now who's
the we here? He's referring to himself as
an apostle. He's talking about the other
apostles. Even if an apostle, a person whom you have great
regard for, great respect for, even great love for, though we
are an angel from heaven. What's he talking about there?
Talking about something with glorious appearance. In other
words, what he's saying, whatever their reputation, whatever their
appearance, though we are an angel from heaven, preach any
other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you
Let him be accursed. In other words, lost, even condemned. I've entitled this message, Another
Gospel. And there's two major problems
with preaching a message like this. Number one is just sheer
volume, or you might call problem of logistics. Because there's
only one true gospel. but there are a thousand false
gospels. I mean, you could consider the
world's religions, but that's really not what Paul's talking
about here. I mean, he's not talking about the difference
between Buddhism and Christianity or Islam and Christianity here
because Buddhism and Islam doesn't even claim to be Christian, or
to worship Christ, or to follow him. They may say he's a good
prophet, but that's about as far as they'll go. So he's not
talking about that, but if you think about that, that's a lot
of people. But then when you consider denominations,
you know, denominationalism over differences, what do they differ
over? Where do we differ? Those are
the issues. Is it over the gospel? Most of
the time it is. I know people don't want to see
that because, like I said, they say, well, everybody believes
the gospel. What is the gospel? But you have millions of people
who claim to believe the gospel. And so you've got that logistical
problem, you know, in dealing with this, you know. One true
gospel, we're going to define that. Really, that's the approach
we have to take here. You know, we have to, as one
old preacher said, lay down the straight stick. And anything
that doesn't line up with that straight stick is a false gospel,
the straight stick of the gospel. And it's easy to say, well, the
true gospel is the gospel of grace, and the false gospel is
the gospel of works. The problem with that is that
these who perverted the gospel of Christ claimed to believe
grace. Here. They claimed to believe grace.
But their claim to believe grace was a cleverly disguised system
of works. That's deceptive. It's very deceptive. And then the second major problem
with this is a problem of interest. Most people just flat aren't
interested. They delve into these things.
It's, you know, how many times have you had somebody say, oh,
you know, I mentioned this in the earlier message. You just make
it too complicated. It's got to be easier than that.
And look over at 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Now look over here
with me. 1 Corinthians 15. Now here's the way most people
go with this thing. I remember I preached a message
on this one time here years ago and a lady went out the back
door and she said, you confuse me, she said, I always thought
the gospel was the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. And
I said, well, I said the gospel includes the historical facts
of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. But just saying the
death, burial, and resurrection of Christ is not the gospel.
Look here in verse one of 1 Corinthians 15. He says, moreover, brethren,
I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which
also you have received and wherein you stand. by which also you're
saved if you keep in memory what I preached unto you unless you
have believed in vain. Now, let me say this right at
the outset because one of the most subtle perversions of the
gospel is this issue of conditional salvation. Salvation conditioned
on man. It's conditioned on man's faith
or conditioned on man's repentance, faith and repentance, or it's
conditioned on man's perseverance. They say you can be saved one
day and lost the next because you don't meet the condition
of perseverance. And he's talking about if you
keep him, and he used that word if, you know, over in Colossians
chapter one, it talks about if you continue in the faith, all
that. Well, see, you got to keep the
context and you got to know the gospel. And, and what that is,
you know, in, in our language, you know, as we communicate with
each other, there there's a, there's several ways of using
the word if. Now we can use it as a conditional
if, you know, It's like when you talk to your children, they're
doing something wrong, you say, now if you don't quit that, I'm
gonna whip you. If they do that these days. Or
I'm gonna do something. So that's, in other words, you're
not getting the punishment, it's conditioned upon you doing what
I say. And that's a conditional if.
But then there's also an evidential if. Evidence. And that would
be something like this. I know you're alive if you breathe. You see, your breathing doesn't
make you alive. It's just the evidence that you
are alive. And that's what this if is. That's
what this is about. If you really believe the gospel,
you will continue to believe in Christ. You will not leave
him. God will keep you. And I know the objections that
come out that, well, you're saying you can go out and live like
you want. No, that's not what it's saying at all. There's other
evidences. There's the fruit of the Spirit.
There's all kinds of things we can talk about. But that's what
he's talking about. Believing in vain doesn't mean
you'll lose your salvation. It means you never really believed
at all. You can't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in vain.
Do you know that? You can't believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ to no profit because he's all in all. Well, look at
verse three. He says, for if I delivered unto
you first of all that which I've received, how that Christ died
for our sins. and that he was buried and that
he rose again the third day. Now, did I read those two verses
right? No, I left out something, didn't I? I left out something
that is really, really important, what I leave out. Two phrases that are repeated
in. For I delivered unto you, verse three, first of all, which
I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to
the scriptures. Now that includes the fact that
he died as the scriptures say and said he would die but it
also includes how he died and for whom he died. That's what
the scriptures teach and that he was buried and that he arose
again the third day according to the scriptures. You see just
simply saying the death, burial and resurrection of Christ means
nothing without understanding what the scriptures say about
how he died and for whom he died, why he died, and was buried and
rose again the third day. So don't get caught in that trap,
you see. Now, here the Apostle Paul in
Galatians 1, all through Galatians, he's talking about those who
would pervert the gospel of Christ. And what were they doing? Well,
they were introducing man's obedience to the law as forming some part
of the ground or the cause of salvation, of righteousness,
of justification before God. In other words, they tell you
that man's works are Salvation is conditioned on man's works
at some stage in some way or to some degree in this matter
of salvation. All right? And yet they also
said salvation was by grace. Isn't that something? It's kind of like this. These
were, Paul calls them, they're called in other places Judaizers.
because they were bringing back aspects of the Jewish law, especially
circumcision. All right, now just think about
it. Now here somebody comes along
and they say, Christ is my savior, I'm saved by grace. But, but
you gotta be circumcised to really be holy, to really be righteous,
to really be saved. or Christ is my all in all, he's
my savior, it's all of grace, but you gotta be baptized to
be saved. You've gotta keep the law, you've
gotta obey, you've got to persevere to be saved. That's what these
fellas were saying. Now let me show you that. Look
over in Galatians chapter five. We won't cover the whole book
this morning, but look at Galatians five. I'm skipping a lot, but
it's just to show you what this thing is all about. Now verse
one of Galatians 5, he says, number one, stand fast therefore
in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. Now the book
of Romans defines this great, and I'm gonna go back to Romans
here in a few minutes, just for a little while, but there's two
types of freedom that Romans chapter six talks about that
we have in Christ. The first one is our justification
before God. We're freed from sin. What does
that mean? In Romans chapter 6 and verse
7, it says, he that is dead is freed from sin. And he's talking
about those who died with Christ. You see, the scriptures teach
that Christ not only died, but that he died as a substitute,
a representative, okay? And he represented and substitute
a people. Now, most people say, well, that's
everybody in the whole world. The Bible doesn't teach that.
I'm sorry. You say, well, I don't agree with you. Well, that's
fine. I don't care. I do care, but you don't agree with the
Bible. And I challenge you to challenge me on that. I'm here,
listen, I used to fight that tooth and nail, and I finally
found out, yes, the Bible does teach that, so I just come out
and been, I was honest with myself, and I told my mother, I said,
well, I just don't believe the Bible then. But I know what this book
teaches. And let me show you a picture
of, just tell you about a picture. You remember back in the Old
Covenant? The Old Covenant was God's covenant with the nation
of Israel made through Moses on Mount Sinai. Remember he made
that covenant with Mount Sinai after he brought him out from
Egypt according to a promise that he made 400 and some years
before to Abraham and he established them as a nation. Gave him the
Ten Commandments. Now the Ten Commandments were
not given to that nation as a way of salvation. Bible tells you
that now. You're there, Galatians 5, but
let me just read you Galatians 3, 19. He says, wherefore then
serveth the law? Why was the law given? That's
what he's saying there. It says it was added because
of transgressions. It was given as a measure by
which they could see their sinfulness and their depravity and their
deservedness of death. The way we say it in the New
Testament, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. That's why we say, and the wages of sin is what? Death. So he gave him the Ten Commandments,
but he also gave him the ceremonial law. And that's the law of the
priesthood. Remember Aaron and the Levites,
the priesthood? And the tabernacle, the sacrifices,
the altar, all of that. And that was given to picture
the only way of salvation by the blood of Christ, the righteousness
of Christ. The law can't save you. The blood
of Christ can and does. Righteousness cannot come by
deeds of the law. He says that in Romans 3 and
he says it in Galatians 3. Righteousness cannot... In order
to be saved, you have to be righteous. In order to be saved, I have
to be righteous. Why is that? Because God is a
just God. He's a holy God. He's a righteous
God. He must punish sin. You say,
well, what about God's mercy and God's love and God's grace?
Yes, let's talk about it. But any notion of mercy and love
and grace that ignores, confuses, denies, or dispenses with his
justice and his righteousness and his truthfulness and his
law is a perversion of the gospel. God will not look over my sins
or your sins. He has to deal with sin. And
he has to deal with it in a way of death. And that's what that
ceremonial law taught. They had to shed the blood of
animals to picture that, to typify that. It wasn't that the blood
of animals would take away sin. Hebrews 10 tells us that the
blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. What does
it take? It takes the blood of the God-man,
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the scriptures say.
He died according to the scriptures. God must be just when he justifies
the ungodly. You see what I'm saying? He's
got to be both a righteous judge as well as a loving father. If
you commit a crime and you go to court, you get arrested and
you go to court and you stand before the judge and you throw
yourself at the mercy of the court and the judge says, okay,
I'm gonna let you go, you're gonna be glad, aren't you? You're
gonna be happy that he let you go. But you know what that judge
just did? He perverted justice. What does
justice say? The punishment must fit the crime. What was that little poem? You
do the crime, you do the time. You see, God's not like an earthly
judge. He cannot show mercy without
justice. That's why they had a mercy seat
in the tabernacle. The Ark of the Covenant had the
Ten Commandments, the broken law in the covenant. Why was
it a broken law? Because we break the law. We're
transgressors. We're sinners. And it was covered
with the mercy seat. You remember that mercy seat
was made of acacia wood? That's the humanity of Christ
covered with gold. That's the deity of Christ, that
covering over him. And the high priest of Israel
had to come in one time a year on the day of atonement and shed
the blood of the Lamb to satisfy the justice of God. And that
word mercy seat is propitiation. Hearing His love, not that we
love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the what?
The propitiation for our sins, 1 John 4, 10. Christ was not
just a token. He was not just an example, he
was a propitiation. Now, when that high priest went
into the Holy of Holies, who was he representing? Well, he
was representing the Amalekites. No, the Perizzites, the Moabites. You know all those ites were
in the Old Testament, don't you? They were all there, weren't
they? Who did that high priest represent? Israel. How do you know that? Well, he
had 12 names on his breastplate. And he had amulets on his shoulders
and had six names on one, six names on the other. What did
that represent? It represented Christ, our great
high priest who represents spiritual Israel, a particular people. Who is spiritual Israel? They're
all who believe in Christ. That's why we say believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't represent the whole
world, he represented his people. That's why he said in John 10,
I laid down my life for the sheep. He said in John 6, all that the
Father giveth me come to me and him that cometh to me I will
no wise cast out. He went on to say in that same chapter,
he said this is the will of him that sent me that of all which
he hath given me I should lose what? Nothing, but raise it up
again at the last day. That's it, take it away. Gonna
raise it up again at the last day. That's talking about glorification. But you see, that's the freedom
that we have in Christ. Christ died for my sins, I died
in him, and he's my representative, he's my substitute. Sin can no
longer condemn me. Sin can no longer condemn me. Sin can no longer be charged
to my account. Think about it. I think I read
part of this the last time I was here. But this is what this freedom
is when he says, stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made us free. We're to stand fast in this liberty,
and here it is. God sees no sin in me as a matter
of divine justice. That doesn't mean that God doesn't
know that I'm a sinner. He does know I'm a sinner. He
chastises me. But as a matter of divine justice,
what I deserve God sees no sin in me. You know why? Because
Christ was made sin for me on the cross. And he died. The divine justice of God that
I deserved and earned was poured out on Calvary's tree on Christ
on the cross. And the record books of heaven
record no iniquity, no transgression, and no sin against me. God will
not impute sin to his people. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? I quoted that last time. It's
God that justifies. That's the first freedom. Now,
somebody says, well, then if I preach that, I'll just give
people an excuse to sin. Well, you give them an excuse
to sin. That's up to you. But the thing about it is, that's
not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that that message,
let me show you this. Now think about it. And this
really goes to the second part of that freedom. And that's liberation
of mind and heart and spirit. That's the new birth. We're free
legally in Christ on the cross. My sins were imputed to him,
his righteousness is imputed to me. And I owe no debt to God. I'm free and clear as far as
the debt. And I use that analogy about
the bank. My debt was paid, I couldn't
pay it, and whoever paid it for me gave me a million dollars
to the good. Well, Christ paid it. His righteousness is imputed
to me. So I cannot be condemned. There
is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ. Romans
8, 1. That's freedom. Think about that. If you, listen, think about that.
If you were a million dollars in debt and then all of a sudden
you found out the debt was paid, could you think of the freedom
that would give you in your mind, in your spirit, in your heart?
Well, that's the second freedom. It's liberation of spirit and
mind and heart in the new birth. It's spoken of in Romans 6, 17,
and 18. We've been liberated by the Holy
Spirit when he showed us the glory of Christ. and what Christ
accomplished for me on Calvary. Christ didn't come and try to
save me if I would cooperate. Let me ask you, if you believe
that, now that's a perversion of the gospel, if you believe
that, why is it you cooperated and other people don't? Is it
because you're better than them? Less rebellious? That's not grace,
my friend. No, sir. Man doesn't have it
in him to believe. Faith is a gift of God. The power
of life and the power of the will. God makes his people willing
in the day of his power when he shows us our sin and shows
us Christ. And so we're liberated in our
minds when we see the glory of Christ and that we're no longer
in bondage. I've been set free in Christ.
So what I'm saying is, see, somebody says, well, if I believe that,
I just go out and sin as much as I want to. You don't understand
grace because that kind of grace gives a sinner a desire to obey
God. Let me ask you, that fellow who
paid your debt and put a million dollars in the bank, what's the
first thing you're going to know? You're going to know who he is
and where he is and where can I get to him so I can thank him.
And that's the way it is with God's people in Christ. We're
still sinners, but we're not condemned. Now Paul says that. Now stand fast therefore in the
liberty wherewith Christ has made us three, and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. That's legalism. That's conditional
salvation. If you don't keep on keeping
on, God'll kick you out of the family. That's what these people
who believe you're saved one day and lost the next believe.
If you don't keep on doing what you're supposed to do, or whatever
it is, whatever their denomination says, God'll kick you out of
the family. My friend, that's bondage. That
promotes obedience, but legal obedience. That freedom promotes
obedience out of love and grace and gratitude, you see. Now he
says in verse two, now look at verse two, he says, behold, I,
Paul, say unto you that if you be circumcised, Christ shall
profit you nothing. Well, what does that mean? Better
find out what that one means, hadn't you? It means this. If you are circumcised in order
to be saved, or to be made holy, or to be made righteous, or to
stay saved, Christ will profit you nothing. And you can put
anything in the place of, if you're baptized for that reason,
Christ will profit you nothing. If Christ didn't do it all, then
what you do renders his work useless. That's right. He says in verse three, for I
testify again to every man that is circumcised, that is for that
reason, to be saved or to be righteous or to be holy, that
he's a debtor to do the whole law. My friend, if salvation
is conditioned on you in any way, in any stage, to any degree,
do you realize you're a debtor to do the whole law? Now, what
have I said about that freedom? I'm not in debt to the law. Christ
paid my debt. But if salvation is conditioned
on my faith, on my repentance, on my will, or on my obedience,
or on my baptism, I'm a debtor to do the whole law. I'm not
free. That's right. He says, verse 4, Christ is become
of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law.
You are fallen from grace. Now that doesn't mean you lose
your salvation. It means you deny what you claim. You claim
to believe grace, but you're denying grace. For we through
the Spirit do wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. What
is it to wait for the hope of righteousness by faith? It's
to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, rest in him for all righteousness,
for all freedom, for all glory, for all forgiveness. Now do you
see that? I want you to go back to Romans
chapter one. Let me just give you this. See another gospel. The gospel,
any gospel, any claim of a gospel that does not bring about that
solid freedom that we have in Christ is another gospel. I don't
care what else they say. What does the gospel teach? Look
at verse one of Romans one. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, separated under the gospel of God. which
he had promised to for by his prophets in the Holy Scripture."
There you go. Remember what he said in 1 Corinthians 15, according
to the Scriptures. Well, he says, this gospel of
God is identified by the Scriptures. And the first thing he gives
us here is this, the gospel, the true gospel, concerns a person. Verse 3, concerning his son Jesus
Christ our Lord. God's son, that speaks of his
deity, the second person of the Trinity, See, any gospel that
denies his deity is another gospel. Jesus, that's Jehovah our Savior. That means he accomplished salvation
by his death on the cross. He didn't try to save you. Any
gospel that says that is another gospel. He didn't make you savable. He's the God of the covenant.
He's Jehovah. The God of promise, the God who
justifies the ungodly. Christ, that means he's the anointed
one. He's the Messiah. He's the one
sent of God to do this great work. Our Lord. He's our head. He's our sovereign.
Any gospel that denies that is a false gospel. Another gospel.
He said, which was made of the seed of David according to the
flesh. That's his humanity. Unto us a child is given, a son
is born, you see. Isaiah chapter 9, that's what
the scripture said. The scriptures say that this
person is God-man, God in human flesh, who's coming to save his
people from their sins by the work that he would accomplish
in redeeming them by the blood of the cross. He says, "...and
declared to be the Son of God with power." That's his resurrection.
Yes, he rose again, but why did he arise from the dead? Because
he put away the sin of his people. See, if he just made you savable,
if you would cooperate, he couldn't have arisen from the dead. You
know why? Because sin demands death, righteousness demands
life. If his death was not the complete, eternal, unchangeable
righteousness that demands and secures the salvation of all
his people, he would have never arisen from the dead. And that's what he says here.
He says, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection,
from the dead. Now look over at verse 16. Paul
says, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it's
the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. In
other words, if you believe, I can tell you exactly what's
happened. The power of God has entered your life. See, the power
of God unto salvation. You're a walking, talking miracle
if you believe the gospel. That's what the Bible teaches.
Because you on your own wouldn't do it. I on my own wouldn't do
it. And he says to the Jew first and also to the Greek. In other
words, there's no national, ethnic, racial distinction here. Doesn't
matter. Listen, anyone who believes this
gospel, and he says in verse 17, for therein, in that gospel
is the righteousness of God, not the righteousness of man,
not the righteousness of good men or bad men or whatever, moral,
religious men, the righteousness of God. Revealed from faith to
faith, from faith meaning the preaching of the gospel, to faith,
that's God-given faith, as it is written, the just shall live
by faith, looking to Christ. What is faith in the Bible? We
don't have faith in our faith. Faith has an object. What is
the object of faith? Christ is the object of faith. Now let me show you that. Turn
over to Romans 3 and look at verse 21. And what Paul does
between Romans 1.17 and Romans 3.20 here, he shows why we need
the righteousness of God. Why do I need the righteousness
of God? Why can't I do it myself? And he tells us, he said, we're
sinners. And the highest that we can rise to is sin, even in
our morality and our religion. So he says in verse 21, but now
the righteousness of God without the law, that's without our obedience
to the law, is manifested being witnessed by the law and the
prophets, there's the scriptures, Moses wrote the law and then
there's the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is
by faith of Jesus Christ, that's Christ's faithfulness to obey
the law and to satisfy its justice. Unto all, that is preached unto
all, and upon all them that believe." When you believe it, you reveal
that that righteousness has been imputed to you, charged to you,
accounted to you. All them that believe, for there's
no difference. For all sin and comes short of the glory of God,
being justified freely, without a cause, unconditionally, by
His grace, not by your works, my works, through the redemption
that is in Christ, through His paying the full redemption price
of my salvation. whom God has set forth to be
what? Remember that word, propitiation. Not just an example. You see,
that's why, listen, don't go to churches to get moral pep
talks. I mean, listen, there is incentive to obedience in
the preaching of the gospel. And he says, through faith in
his blood, his death, the righteousness of God brought forth by his death
to declare his righteousness, for the remission of sins that
are passed, that's the Old Testament saints, through the forbearance
of God, to declare, I say at this time, His righteousness,
that God might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. You see, that's the issue. That's
the issue of salvation. That's the issue of the gospel.
And any other gospel is another gospel. It's a false gospel.
That's what Paul's talking about. There's no other way. There's
only one gospel. Now, it's our prayer that God
will bring sinners to seek these things out. You see, most people
don't. They're just satisfied with going
to church and hearing those little moral pep talks and walking away. That's good enough. That's got
to be good enough. Remember Christ told the pharisees, search the
scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life. They are
they which testify. Search the scriptures. Seek the
Lord. That's the issue now. Find how
God is just to justify the ungodly. One gospel. One gospel.