if you were to Galatians chapter
one, we'll continue our study in the book of Galatians. We've
been going through this wonderful epistle and Paul's about to launch
into, he's already started actually in verses six and seven, a defense
of the gospel. And in these next verses, we
will see him use very, very strong language. when speaking about
the Judaizers or really all false teachers. Anyone who preaches
a gospel of anything that man does to be saved is preaching
a false gospel. Let's read Galatians chapter
1 verses 6 to 10 to see the context. of our verse today. 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 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 ye 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. Last week, we looked at how Paul,
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, But for the fact that
any supposed preaching, again adding works to salvation, is
diametrically opposed to the one true gospel. It's a perversion
of the one true gospel. It's actually, as I said, it's
diametrically opposed to the true gospel of God's salvation
and full free grace in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let's read verses
eight and nine again. It says, but though we or an
angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you, So anything
that adds man's works, whether it be in thought or in deed,
unto you, then that which we have preached unto you, let him
be accursed. As we have said before, so say
I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you, then
that which he have received, let him be accursed. Turn, if
you would, to the book of Isaiah. Isaiah. Do you know that God?
will not share His glory with anyone. He will not share His
glory. God is glorified in the sacrifice
of Christ. God is glorified in saving you
and I in Christ. He's glorified. That was an incredible
act of love. An incredible act of mercy. More
love shown at Calvary's Cross than any love in this world.
More mercy shown at Calvary's Cross than any mercy that's been
shown to anyone in this world. As God himself saves a multitude
of sinners, which includes you and I as his people. And look
what it says, and that's why he won't tolerate a false gospel.
It doesn't bring him glory, it brings men glory. Cuz men say,
look what I've done. It's works-based salvation is
all based upon what man's done. The true gospel is all based
upon what Christ has done, who is the God-man. Therefore, it
glorifies God. And then what happens to we who
are the redeemed of the Lord? We glorify God, don't we? With
our lips now, with our hearts. Look at this in Isaiah, though,
chapter 42, Isaiah chapter 42. And we'll look at verses 5 to
9 here. It says this, Thus saith the
Lord God, he that created the heavens and stretched them out,
he that spread forth the earth, And that which cometh out of
it, he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit
to them that walk therein, I the Lord have called thee in righteousness.
Look at that. God called us in righteousness.
And that righteousness is the righteousness of Christ, beloved.
And I will hold thine hand. Look at that. You remember when
we were kids and we held our parents' hands? When we were
real little, we held our parents' hands. And if we let go of that
hand, it wasn't long before we were looking to hold that hand
again quickly. God himself says, I'm going to carry you. I'm going
to hold you through whatever you go through in this life.
You're never going to be alone. Never. I will hold thy hand and
will keep thee. Look at that. He keeps us. We
don't keep ourselves. We can't keep ourselves. And
give thee for a covenant of the people for a life of the Gentiles. To open the blind eyes, that's
where we were. To bring out the prisoners from
the prison. We were in the prison house of sin, weren't we? We've
been bought out of that, beloved. And then that sit in darkness
out of the prison house. Oh, we were in the darkness of
our sin. We were in spiritual darkness. Look what it says.
I am the Lord. I am Jehovah, he says. That is
my name. And my glory will I not give
to another. He will not share his glory with
anyone, beloved. No one. Neither my praise to
graven images. God will not share his glory.
Now turn, if you would, to Revelation chapter 5. Revelation chapter 5. There is
only one. There is only one who is worthy
of all the praise, and the glory, and the honor. And that's God.
That's God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God is the only one who's worthy.
of our praise, who's worthy of all glory, honor, and praise.
And that's brought forth here in Revelation 5, verses 11 to
13. I beheld, and I heard the voice
of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts and the
elders. And the number of them was 10,000
times 10,000, and thousands of thousands. Look at that. A number
that no man can number. A number that no man can number,
beloved. Sing. What are they saying? Sing with
a loud voice. Worthy is the Lamb. He's the one who's worthy. Isn't
he? He's the one who's worthy of
all glory, honor, and praise. It says, worthy is the Lamb that
was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and blessings. every creature which is in heaven
and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the
sea and all that are in them heard I saying blessing and honor
and glory and power be with him that sitteth upon the throne
and unto the land forever and ever. There's the one. There's
the one who's worthy of all glory and God will not share his glory
with anyone, beloved. No one at all. No one. So Paul's concerned over the
fact that the Galatians probably regarded the gospel he preached
as not so different as the one that the Judaizers preached.
Remember, they were young Christians. They weren't grounded in the
faith. They were born again, but they were a young group of
Christians, just like the Thessalonian churches. It was a young church
too, the Church of Thessalonica, which we'll look at this morning.
They were a young church as well. And his own strong sense of the
serious difference between the two messages is responsible for
the vehemence of his feelings in the words here before us.
And note the use of the plural pronoun we in verse 8 of Galatians
1. We see here that Paul again associates
himself with his colleagues, Barnabas, Silas, and Timothy,
with whom he had had a ministry. They were all called to preach
the gospel. And he wants to show the Galatians that the controversy
is not between one teacher and another. No, not at all. The controversy is between truth
and error. One preaches the true gospel.
and one preaches a false gospel, which is not the gospel, right?
It's not good news. Look at verse eight again. And we see here, Paul proclaims
a curse on all those who preach the gospel. Now, remember who
the true author of this book is. It's God, the Holy Spirit,
right? Paul's just the penman. Look at these words here. There's
millions who believe that there's something they have to do. And
look what the scripture says here. But though we or an angel
from heaven preach any other gospel unto you, and that which
we have preached unto you, let them be accursed. Paul said this,
for though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of. Paul
knew that he didn't have anything to glory in. He knew that all
glory goes to God. For a necessity is laid upon
me, yea, woe unto me, if I preach not the gospel." He said, woe
unto me. If I don't preach the gospel, woe unto me. And look
what it says in verse 8, where he's included himself, if they
preach a false gospel too, let them be accursed. But we know
he's using a situation here that will never occur, because the
angels don't preach the gospel. And Paul is going to preach the
true gospel as long as God will allow him and have him do, and
he did, all the way to the end of his life. It 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. So
what is the good news of the gospel? What is the good news? Well, the good news for sinners
is the fact that by the electing grace of God, God the Father chose a people
to be recipients of his sovereign mercy. Think of that this week.
You who are the redeemed are a recipient of the sovereign
mercy of God, not based upon anything in us. There's nothing in us that would
recommend us or God didn't look down through time and say, well,
you know, no, that Wayne fellow, he can be a pretty good guy.
No, no, there's none good. No, not one, right? None that understand the things
of God. By His mercy He chose me, and He chose you by His mercy
and His grace. Recipients of His sovereign grace
and His sovereign mercy. How? Through the perfect, sinatonic
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. When He died on that cross, He
died for me. And if you're a believer, He died for you. He died in our
room and place, shedding His blood to redeem us, to purchase
us. And we're going to look at this
morning that God's wrath was not appointed to fall on us.
He's not appointed us to wrath, but to receive salvation through
Christ in Him alone. And that's the gospel Paul preached,
that salvation is through Christ in Him alone. Nothing by man
at all. Think of this. Just let it sit
in your minds. God the Father chose us in Christ before the
foundation of the world because it pleased Him to do so. He did
that. He did that. And from the beginning
He's chosen us unto salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. Born again by the Holy Spirit
of God, given faith to believe. all according to the will of
the Father before there was ever a world.
We can't really fathom that, can we? But it's the truth. If we sit and think about it,
we just start to fizz out, don't we? But it doesn't change the
fact that it's the truth. God, our Father, predestinated
us unto the adoption of children, all according to his, the pleasure
of his good will. Nothing in us. Brian, you're mine. Barb, you're mine. Dan, you're
mine. Steve, you're mine. Charlie, you're mine. Vicki,
you're mine. Wayne, you're mine. We weren't
even He knows the end from the beginning,
so he knows all who's going to be born, doesn't he? See, that's
the part that we don't fully grasp. He knows the end from
the beginning, so he knows everybody who will ever be born in this
world. And before it ever came to pass,
Before the foundation of the world, before the foundation
of this world was laid, He chose us in Christ. Brighten your mind. It's amazing. Make you want to shout. Oh my goodness. And it's all by the redeeming
work of the Lord Jesus Christ that we're saved. And this is
what Paul so emphasized in his writings, that salvation is by
grace alone through Christ alone. By his stripes we're healed.
By his work, he's obtained, Paul wrote that Christ obtained eternal
salvation for us. He obtained it. And by His obedience, right?
By His obedience, Christ's people were made righteous, all because
of what He's done. And this all happened according
to the will of the Father. Our blessed Redeemer, by His
one offering for our eternal souls, forever sanctified those
whom He saved. Forever. And we are now reconciled to
God. We fell in Adam, didn't we? We
fell in Adam. We were estranged from God. We're
still His people, even though we didn't know. But in our minds,
we do not desire the things of God. We shake our fist at God
by our works and our actions. And then He regenerates us by
His amazing power. Why? Why did he do that to me? Why did he do that to you? Because
he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Because Christ, when he died, purchased our eternal souls with
the shedding of his precious, precious blood. And right now,
you know where he is right now? He is seated in the heavens.
He's seated right now in heaven's blood. And he's our surety. He's our mediator. He's our Savior. He's our God. He's our Redeemer. My. And because Christ lives, we're
going to live too. We'll live forever. Forever with
Him. Our dear sister brother is in
glory rejoicing with the king. Rejoicing, seeing him face to
face. And one day you and I will be
there too. Oh my, what a day that'll be. What a day, just
a little time. Remember our life is like a vapor,
it's just a little time. It's just a little time. No wonder the apostle Paul was
persuaded that that absolutely nothing could separate us from
the love of God. No wonder he said that. Because
it's God himself who saved us. It's God himself who keeps us,
beloved. My. We who are the born-again, blood-washed
people of God, we are loved with an everlasting love. Salvation
is by the quickening power of God, the Holy Spirit, the life-giving
power. We're born again. Brother Brian,
you said you were driving down the road, and the Lord saved
you just like that, after you heard a message. The message
of the one true gospel. And you sat there for years,
you said, and didn't hear anything. And in that day, that exact day
that God ordained for you to hear, brother, oh my! I believe! Oh, it's so wonderful. It's so
wonderful, isn't it? Oh, God is so good to his people.
And it's under the preaching of the one true gospel that God
the Holy Spirit raises us out of that state of spiritual darkness
that we were in. Because we were in a state of
darkness. Whether we were in church or
whether we were out of church, we were in a spiritual darkness.
And we couldn't get ourselves out of that. God, the Holy Spirit,
by the power of the Holy Spirit, we're delivered from that power
of darkness, translated into the eternal kingdom of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And God, the Holy Spirit, calls
his people with a holy calling under the preaching of the true
gospel of God's grace. No wonder Paul said, woe to me
if I don't preach the gospel. Woe to me if I don't preach and
proclaim salvation in Christ alone. Look at verse 8 again. 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. See the word though
there in the Greek? Or the word though in our text?
In the Greek, it's supposing a case which has never occurred. The Greek word translated there
for angel means messenger. means messenger. And note, he
says, though we, being Paul, Barnabas, Timothy, and any of
their other companions, or any angel from heaven preach any
other gospel unto you than that which we have preached, let him
be accursed. Let him be accursed. So we see
then that the Apostle has expressed the seriousness of the Galatian
error in following the Judaizers. He
says here, if any person preaches any other gospel of salvation,
think of this, except the full, perfect, sinatoning work of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal redemption which he obtained
for us, that he accomplished by himself,
on behalf of who? His elect. which requires nothing of the
creature, nothing of us. I preach to you a gospel that
requires nothing of us, nothing. All we do is look and
live, and God gives us the faith to look and live, doesn't he? Anyone who preaches any gospel
or any so-called gospel that adds anything to the work of
Christ by man, the Holy Spirit by the pen of
Paul says, let him be accursed. That's strong language. That's
strong language. Look at verse 9. He re-emphasizes
it in verse 9. 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. See, we're just receivers
of the gospel, aren't we? We receive the gospel and believe
it. Why? Because we've been granted faith
by the Lord Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit. We're born again
by the Holy Spirit of God, and now we receive this truth. And
what do we do? We rejoice, don't we? Do you
rejoice in the fact that Christ has saved you? Oh, it's wonderful. It's absolutely marvelous. And Paul could have, or see in
verse eight, the words preach any other gospel. This is one
word in the Greek. And it's a verb which means to
announce a message of good news. To announce a message of good
news. The gospel of salvation in Christ alone, by the works
of Christ alone, is good news for sinners. Any so-called gospel
that someone gets up and preaches and tells you there's something
you have to do is not good news, because it'll
damn our soul. But praise be to God, God has
shown us, we who are his people, the good news. of salvation in
Christ. He doesn't reveal that to everybody,
and it's got to be revealed to us. He doesn't reveal it to everybody,
but he reveals it to his people, to those whom Christ redeemed.
Now, Paul could have used the Greek verb charuso, which means
to announce, and the noun eulogio, eulogion, which means good news,
but he chose this distinctive verb, which in English would
mean to evangelize. to evangelize my oh my the expression preach the gospel
unto you is literally to evangelize you in the Greek to evangelize you my oh my preach any other gospel
unto you note this beloved Greek word It's used not merely against
or beside, but it brings forth that that which the Judaizers
are teaching is beyond. Is beyond in the sense of they've
overstepped their bounds. Because it's, again, diametrically
opposed to the one true gospel. They've overstepped their bounds. And it brings forth, again, the
sense of overstepping a limit into a new region. That's what
that Greek word brings forth. They're in a whole nother, what
they're teaching is not truth at all, is what Paul's saying,
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. That Greek word points out a
specific difference. There's a difference between
what Paul's teaching and what the Judaizers are teaching. It
is diametrically opposed to each other. It's like oil and water.
You heard me say, I grew up, my dad was a diesel mechanic,
or a trailer mechanic, and I was always in the shop running around
his feet, and you know, I'd see, I'd see, I always look at the
oil, because you see, the oil would have all those neat looking
colors in it. Well, it was water in there with
it. And they never mixed. They always separated. They could
never mix. Well, a false gospel of man's
works, man's works can never mix with the finished work of
Christ. It can never mix. Never. Not at all. So what Paul's
bringing forth here again by inspiration of the Holy Spirit
is that what the message of the Judaizers is of an entirely different
character. It's so different from the truth. And again, he's bringing forth
by these words that the true gospel is intrinsically different from
the gospel which he preached. It's nowhere near the same. It's
a perversion. My, oh my. And this is here for
our warning, too. People come around us and tell
us, you gotta do this, you gotta do that. Nope. No, I believe
in the finished, perfect work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the so-called gospel which
the Judaizers were teaching was, again, of an entirely different
character. They used the words Christ, but their Christ was not sufficient
to save. Because man had to do something
still. See, when people, and people don't even realize, when
they say that there's something you have to do, they're saying
Christ's work wasn't sufficient. But that's not the Jesus of the
Bible, is it? The Jesus of the Bible completed the work. He
finished the work. There's nothing to be added to
it. It's done. It's finished, she said. It's
bought completely to perfection. It's a work bought to perfection.
And we can rejoice in that, can't we, as the Lord's people? That's
what makes it so marvelous to us. It's given to us. The salvation's
given to us. And it requires nothing that
we do. You know, all the religions,
oh, there was something you had to do. Even the false religions nowadays,
there's something you gotta do. Gotta do this, gotta do that. Gotta pray three times a day,
or do this and do that. You can't just pray to God like
we can. We have the freedom just to pray
to Him whenever we want. We have to do it at specific
times. No, I get to talk to God whenever I want. I cry out to
Him all the time. Sometimes it's just a few words.
Sometimes it's a word of thanksgiving and praise for something that
he's done in my life. Something that others would think,
why are you thanking him for that? Well, because it comes
from his almighty hand. I'm grateful. So Paul preached the gospel of
God's free grace in Christ, which proclaims done. D-O-N-E. The work is done. See, religion
Religion, they proclaim their work as due,
D-O. We proclaim the gospel and salvation
as D-O-N-E, done, it's finished. There's no due, Christ did it
all. He did it all in our Roman place. And let us remember, again,
who the true author of the scriptures are. It's the Holy Spirit of
God. And look again what he has Paul
penned here about the one who's teaching a false gospel of man's
works or merit to gain favor with God. And remember, it's
the Holy Spirit who's a true author of these words. He is
jealous of Christ. Christ is the one who gave his
life. Christ is God just as he is God.
In the eternal covenant of grace, God the Father said, I've chosen
the people in Christ. I'll choose the people. Christ
said, I'll redeem them. And the Holy Spirit said, I'll
regenerate them. Called the great covenant of grace, the everlasting
covenant. Look what he has Paul penned
here. But 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 verse 9 he says,
he repeats the warning again, as we said before, so say I now
again if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that which
you have received, let him be accursed. How important then
is the gospel of grace the gospel of God's free grace
in Christ. How important is it to God? Well,
so important that he twice here tells us that anyone who teaches
a false gospel, let him be accursed. This is strong-languaged. Weiss
brings forth about the Greek word here, accursed. The word
is anathema. It speaks of a person or a thing
set apart and devoted to destruction. Let him be destroyed. And therefore, in a spiritual
sense, it denotes one who is alienated from God by their sin.
They're still dead in trespasses and sins. They don't know Christ. In the epistles of Paul, attached
to this word, the idea of spiritual death. Well, when Adam fell,
we fell in him, didn't we? We come into this world spiritually
dead. Romans 9 3 where Paul says that he could wish himself a
curse from Christ for his brethren's sake This word associates with
with the further idea of separation from Christ. They are let him
be separated from Christ For destruction. Oh My for all eternity we know
that too and If one is separated from God and dies in their sins,
they're like that for all eternity. They're separated from God. But
if one dies in the Lord, we're with him forever in glory, rejoicing,
all because of what he's done. And we see here clearly in our
text, the apostle tells us how those who corrupt the gospel
ought to be regarded. And he concludes himself in here
and all others in a stern warning and a clear word of condemnation.
If anyone comes preaching any other gospel than the full, complete,
effectual redemption and eternal salvation in and by Christ alone,
let him be forever consigned to hell. My, that's strong language. Christ is God's final word to
man. He's the full revelation of the
Father, and the revelation of God is final. It's complete and
perfect. It cannot be improved upon. The
work of Christ cannot be improved upon. It's perfect. It's complete and brought to
a perfect end. It's perfectly complete. He came on a mission, didn't
He? Our Lord came on a mission. He came to save our souls. He came on a mission. And the
book of God tells us that He finished that work. And it's
final. The totality of His work is finished. It's for the salvation of His
people. It's done. And the Word of God has authority
in His house, doesn't it? And the Gospel is final, revealing
Christ, only Christ, and Christ alone is the Savior of our souls.
Turn, if you would, to 2 John, and we're finished with this
here. And I'll just say a few more things, and then we'll be
done. Those who would pervert the Gospel, those who preach
another Gospel, which is no Gospel at all, are to be regarded as
accursed men. Look what it says in 2 John verses
9 to 11. Again, here's strong language
too. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ, not in the gospel of Christ,
hath not God. Period. Look at that. They don't
have God. They don't. No matter how sincere
they are. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both Father and the Son. If there come any
unto you and bring not this doctrine, bring not the gospel of God's
perfect, complete, sinatoning work done by Christ alone, receive
him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed. Don't say God
bless you to him. Don't say nothing to him. For he that biddeth him Godspeed
is a partaker of his evil deeds. We should be very cautious in
charging any man. This is the other flip side,
too. We should be very cautious in claiming that any man who's
preaching the gospel is not preaching the gospel. That's a high charge
of its own. But when anyone comes preaching
another Christ, another gospel, anyone who preaches that salvation
is to any degree or any point dependent upon what you or I
do, rather than upon what Christ has done. Our responsibility
is crystal clear, isn't it? From what we just read. We must
not acknowledge them as God's servants. They're not. They're Satan's angels of light.
Come to appear in smooth words, but there's no truth, no good
news in the message. And Paul knew how serious it
was. when the Lord opened the door for him to preach to make
sure that the gospel that came from his lips was God's gospel,
not a perversion of the gospel. If anyone, including one of God's
elect angels, preach any other gospel than God's gospel, a curse
from God, we see in our text today, is pronounced upon them.
And Paul knew that he had nothing to glory in, did he? He knew
that. He knew the true gospel of God's
amazing grace gives our great Try you and God all the glory,
because it's Him, it's Christ who's accomplished our salvation.
And that's what Paul preached. Nothing in us, nothing done by
us. We're simply receivers of this grace and mercy. All according
to the good pleasure of God's will. Glory to his name.