You go around this town, this
country, and there are many different messages being preached from
many different pulpits. Well, which one's the gospel?
There's just one. Which message is the gospel,
and how do we recognize that gospel? Now, you remember that
Paul had come and preached to these believers. He preached
the gospel to these believers in Galatia. And Paul thought
they believed the gospel. He really felt like that they
believed Christ and they were established in him. But after
Paul left, Judaizers came in and they told those Galatians,
now, yes, Christ died. He died for your salvation. But
in order to be saved, you've got to keep the law. You've got
to keep parts of the law. You've got to be circumcised.
You've got to keep the dietary laws. You've got to observe the
Sabbath day. And Paul is surprised how easily and quickly. that
the Galatians were led astray. Now look at verse 6. That's where
our lesson begins. He says, I marvel that you're
so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of
Christ and to another gospel. I'm shocked how quickly these
false prophets have lured you away from the gospel of Christ.
I'm shocked how quickly they've been able to lure you away from
grace. Now, grace. meets the need of
every sinner. Grace meets every need of every
sinner. So I'm shocked that you've removed
yourself from grace. If you remove yourself from grace,
you've got no hope of righteousness. You've got no hope of salvation.
You've got no hope of the forgiveness of sin. All those are the gift
of grace. Well, if you depart from grace,
you lose all those gifts. Paul says, I'm amazed you removed
yourself from God's servant to preach grace to you. I'm amazed
that you'd leave God's servant who preached grace to follow
someone who preaches the law? That's shocking. I'm amazed that
you removed yourself from Christ who called you by His grace. You removed yourself from Christ
who's the fountain of grace. That's shocking. I'm amazed you
removed yourself from the Father who called you by His grace.
The Father called you to the greatest blessing a sinner can
ever have. And you've left? You've departed
from that? That's shocking. I'm amazed that
you depart from the gospel of salvation in Christ alone. Because
believing any other message means you think Christ is not enough.
I'm amazed anybody could think Christ is not enough. If you
had to do something in order to obtain salvation, then Christ
didn't do it all. He didn't do enough and he left
something undone for you to do And I'm amazed that you depart
from grace and go to that so quickly. I'm amazed you leave
Christ and go to Moses. Christ is so much better than
Moses. The law did come by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. I'm amazed you leave Christ to
turn to the law because Christ is so much better than the law.
The law kills. Grace gives life in Christ. The
law requires endless work. No matter what you've done, you
can't quit. You've got to keep working. It's endless. Grace
gives you rest in Christ. The law requires endless sacrifices
of animal blood that can never take away sin. Grace shows us
Christ, who by His own blood, with one sacrifice, put away
the sin of His people, cleanses us from all sin. The law requires
your righteousness. Grace declares Christ our righteousness. I'm amazed you'd leave that.
I'm amazed that you'd leave the simplicity of Christ and go to
the law that's so complicated. Sometimes just try reading the
law. It's so complicated, then I'd mess up and not know it because
I couldn't grasp it all. It's so complicated. But the
gospel is simple. The gospel is so simple that
a man can never explain the complexity of it or the wisdom of it, but
yet a child can understand it. Now that simplicity. A couple
weeks ago, one of our little girls, here in service, listening
to me preach, following along in her Bible, and every once
in a while she'd whisper to her mother, that's right. She'd say, that's
right. You know how she knew that was
right? There it was. Right in front of her in her
lap. She could read it. Simple enough a child can understand
it. Now I'm amazed you'd leave that simplicity. I'm amazed you'd
leave that free grace. That you'd leave Christ Himself.
It's like you're under some spell. You can't see right, you can't
hear right, you can't think right. You ought to know, Paul says,
any mixture of grace and works is not the gospel at all. We're
not talking about here another form of the gospel. We're not
talking about something that's similar, just looks at it a different
way. We're talking about polar opposites. These messages are
opposed to one another because they're opposites. They're going
in opposite directions. One's going to salvation, the
other's going to damnation. They're not the same message.
And any mixture, any mixture, I don't care what work you want
to put into it, any mixture of grace and works is not the gospel. And it cannot save, it cannot
give you life. Look at verse 11. Paul says,
just in case you think there's another gospel, he's using that
term. But he says, which is not another.
It's not another gospel. But there be some that trouble
you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Now this other message,
it's not another gospel. Whatever heading you want to
put it under, it's not another gospel. It's not another message
because it has no good news. The gospel is good news. If a
message declares the law, there's no good news to you and me, so
it's not the gospel. If any works, I mean even one
work, It's required of me. That message is no good news
to me. It's all bad news. If I have to keep a day in order
to rest, I'm doomed. It's hard for me to sit still.
If I have to keep the Christian Sabbath on Sunday, I'm in trouble. If I have to observe a ceremony
or I have to not eat certain foods, I'm doomed. I have no
self-control. I mean, just none. If salvation
is dependent on me not eating a pork chop, doomed. I have no
self-control. If any part of salvation has
to do with this body, this flesh, I'm doomed. You can never depend
on dust. It'll crumble every time. And
that's all we are is dust. All these other messages are
not forms of the same gospel. They're not looking at the same
thing in a different way. They're not going to the same
place, just going, you know, getting there a different way.
If you're going a different way, you've got a different destination.
where the scriptures are concerned. Now, there's four or five ways
to get from here to downtown Ashland. There's one way to get
to God, the Lord Jesus Christ. There's one God, one Lord, one
faith, and one baptism. They're not different ways. In
all these other messages, they're perversions of the gospel. They've
taken the precious truth of grace and they've perverted it. They've
mutated it so that it kills instead of gives life. And they cause
trouble. These messages do not give peace. They cannot give peace to the
troubled heart. Can't do it. All they do is trouble
us. They trouble the soul by saying
Christ is not enough. Now, you tell me Christ is enough.
Oh, that gives peace. But you tell me Christ is not
enough. That troubles the soul. That troubles the heart and never
let you find any rest. Now this is serious, serious
business. Look at verse 8. 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. If
any man preaches any other gospel than the gospel that is declared
in God's Word, if he preaches a gospel that is different than
the message our Lord preached and the prophets preached and
the apostles preached, then he is a false prophet. And don't
you listen to him. Don't do it. I don't care what
he looks like or what he sounds like. Don't you listen to him.
He may look like an angel from heaven. Don't listen to him.
He may sound like an angel from heaven. Don't listen to him. If he preaches any other message
other than salvation in Christ alone, other than declaring,
preaching Christ and crucified, if he preaches any other gospel
than the gospel that's declared in the scriptures, Let him be damned. Let him be
sent to hell. Now, brethren, that's serious
business. I mean, there's nothing more
serious than that. And listen, along with the Apostle Paul,
I include myself in this. If I start preaching any other
message to you than the message of grace in Christ, salvation
in Christ alone, don't you stay. Don't do it. If some other man
comes in here and starts preaching a different message, you get
out. Get out, your soul depends upon it. And this is so important,
Paul repeats himself in verse 9 to be sure we get this. 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. Let him be damned. That's how
important this is. Now look at verse 10, he says,
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, who am I supposed to please?
Am I supposed to please God? Am I supposed to seek to please
God? Or am I supposed to seek to please men who have itching
ears, men who are in darkness? Which am I supposed to do? Well,
God's servant will choose the truth every time. God's servant
will seek to please God every time. And he does that out of
a love for God. He's going to tell the truth.
If you're going to lie on God, you can't love Him. If you love
God, you've got to tell the truth. If you love God, a man's going
to preach the message of God. The message that God gives him.
That's out of love for God. But now listen, it's also out
of love for you. I don't preach the truth to you
because I hate you. I preach the truth to you because
I love you. I want what's best for you. The flesh won't like
it. Now the flesh simply will not
like it. But no other message will save you. I care about you,
I love you, so I'm going to tell you the truth. How horrible would
it be for a man to seek to please you and tell you what you want
to hear, tell you what the flesh wants to hear, and end up meeting
you in hell? That man does not love people.
And he doesn't love you. But if I please God, if I seek
to please God, it will please His people. It will please the
people that know Him. We know when Paul's here, I marvel
that you're so soon removed from grace. Though we know anyone
who is God's elect, who believes the gospel has been put into
Christ, been given life and a new birth, they'll never leave Christ.
They'll never fall away from him. He won't let us. His grace
won't stop. He won't let us apart. But now
we can have a head knowledge of grace. We can have a head
knowledge of the gospel and depart from that. Now, we can do that.
Now, I want you to listen to me. Somebody here this morning,
if all you have is a head knowledge of the gospel, if you have a
head knowledge of grace, you don't know the Lord. If all you
have is a head knowledge, you're not saved if all you have is
a head knowledge of the gospel. But I want you to stay. Now,
don't leave if that's all you have is a head knowledge of the
gospel. Don't leave. I want you to stay. Let's stay
and pray that Lord be merciful and give you heart faith. You
know, the head knowledge is good. I mean, you've got to understand
the gospel before you believe it. There's got to be some head
knowledge, but salvation is a heart work. So now you stay and pray
that the Lord will give you heart faith and life because faith
cometh by hearing. Don't leave. But how do I recognize
the gospel? How can I tell? if this is another
gospel or not. How can I tell if a man's preaching
the gospel? Well, the gospel is one truth.
The gospel's not many truths that make up, you know, a whole,
not a list of truths, you know, that you've got to check off
all the list of truths so that you've preached the truth. The
gospel's one truth, one whole. The gospel's Christ. Now, there
are several points, though. A man must preach, if he's going
to preach the truth. If he leaves out any of these
points, he's not preaching the truth. He's preaching a lie.
The first one is this. Man fell in Adam. Man is ruined
by the fall. When Adam fell, everybody who
was in Adam fell. Now, that's all of us, because
every human being who would ever live is going to come from the
loins of Adam. When Adam died, we died in him. When Adam fell,
He didn't fall and skin his knee. Adam didn't fall and break his
leg. You know, you put a cast on it long enough, it'll get
better. Adam didn't fall and twist his back. Adam died. And we died in him. We died in
sin. And that's why these bodies die.
That's why these bodies get sick. That's why anything that goes
wrong with them is wrong with them because of sin. That's why
babies die. They don't have to get to the
age of accountability to sin and become sinners. babies die
because they're sinners. They've got Adam's sin nature.
Look at Romans chapter 5. When Adam fell, all men who were
in Adam became sinners. They became guilty in Adam. Romans 5 verse 12. Wherefore, it is by one man's
sin entered into the world, and death by sin. So death passed
upon all men for that all have sinned, all sinned in Adam. For
until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed
where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from
Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the
similitude of Adam's transgression." That's babies. They didn't sin
willfully. They can't do anything willfully,
but they died because they've got Adam's sin nature, who is
the figure of him that was to come. So all men fell in Adam. Any man that doesn't preach that
is not preaching the gospel. Second, with men, salvation is
impossible. Any man that tells you that you
can do something in order to obtain salvation is not preaching
the gospel. Man is completely sinful. Man
fell in Adam. So he can't do anything to save
himself. He can't do anything good. No salvation can come from
his actions because all of his actions are sinful. Salvation
can't come by the will of man because man's will is fallen
in Adam and will desire only sin. The disciples ask our Lord
one day, who then can be saved? If salvation can't come from
my actions and it can't come from my will, who then can be
saved? What did our Lord answer? With men this is impossible. Salvation is impossible with
men. God elected a people. God chose
a people to save out of Adam's fallen race. They all fell. They
all died in Adam. But God chose a people to save
out of that fallen race. Now, if God didn't choose a people,
nobody could be saved. Because with man, salvation is
impossible. So if sinners are going to be
saved, God's got to do the saving from beginning to end. God's
got to do the saving. And God didn't choose people
because they were good, because none of them are good. They're
all sinful. They're all wicked. God chose sinners and he put
those sinners in his son to be their surety, to be their savior.
That's my fourth point. Christ came and he accomplished
the salvation of his people. Salvation is not an offer. Anybody
that tells you God's offering you salvation is not preaching
the gospel. That's not the truth. Salvation is an accomplishment
that's freely given to God's elect. Now that's what we call
limited atonement. Christ did not die for everyone.
He died for His elect and He accomplished their salvation.
He accomplished the purpose of God to save those people that
in the eternity past God gave to His Son. Now we talk about
limited atonement. The sacrifice of Christ is not
limited in its power to save. Not at all. The sacrifice of
Christ is limited in its scope of who it will save. Christ died
for God's elect and those people shall be saved without a doubt
because Christ accomplished their salvation and he did it by himself. Salvation is not accomplished
as a cooperative effort between you and Jesus. Salvation is accomplished
by Christ alone and is given to you freely as a gift of his
grace. The Holy Spirit calls God's elect
to Christ. The Holy Spirit comes and He
gives life in the new birth. And He gives them faith in Christ
so that those people come to Christ. They come to Christ because
the Father draws them to Christ and they come willingly. It's
not a difficult task. You're not dragging them against
their will. God gives them a new will. And they come to Christ
willingly. They come willingly in the day
of His power. They come to Christ willingly
because God's given them a new nature and a new birth. And that
nature loves God. That nature wants to be saved
by Christ alone. That nature seeks Christ alone.
Now, you cannot preach the truth if you leave out any of those
points. You can't do it. Can't be done. There's one gospel. There's one gospel that God uses
to save sinners. And every other message is a
false gospel. It's not another gospel. It's
a lie. Well, which message is the gospel? I want to give you
four or five marks here that are marks of the gospel. The
first one is this. The gospel gives God all the
glory. Salvation is determined by God,
by God the Father. It's accomplished. Salvation
is accomplished by Christ. And salvation is applied by the
Holy Spirit. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
to Godhead. God gets all the glory. You didn't notice man
doing anything in there, did you? God did it all. He gets
all the glory. Salvation that's determined by
man's decision gives man some credit. I decided so I'd get
some credit. That's not the gospel. God said
he's jealous of his glory. God will not share his glory
with another. So the gospel must give God all
the glory. God saves sinners this way so
that no flesh glories in his presence. He's going to get all
the glory. Second, the gospel is the gospel that's true to
all of the scriptures. There's an article in the bulletin
on the back of the bulletin this week entitled, What About John
3.16? Someone sent me a comment, told
me my whole message is wrong. What about John 3.16? Well, what
about it? People take John 3, 16 and say,
well, Christ died for the whole world to give everybody a chance.
And if they don't be saying, if they decide, then they can
accept it or not. But that's not, that's not so.
That's not true to the rest of scripture. That's not consistent
with the rest of scripture. So that message, Christ died
for everybody to give everybody a chance, cannot be the gospel
because it's not consistent with the rest of God's word. The gospel
is consistent with all the scriptures. including the Old Testament.
A pastor friend of mine was talking to him, and he said that one
of the ladies in his congregation said, I like when you invite
Brother Tate. He comes and she said, I know we're going to hear
Christ in the Old Testament. I didn't know it was that predictable.
I like preaching from the Old Testament. I mean, I like it
a lot. I love the Old Testament pictures of Christ. Sinners weren't
saved in the Old Testament under the law, and now they're saved
a new way, grace in the New Testament. No. God changes not. Well however it is, God saved
Abel is how he's going to save you and me, because God changes
not. Sinners always have been saved in Christ. Sinners have
always been made righteous in Christ. Sin has always been paid
for by the blood of Christ. Look in 1 Corinthians chapter
15. The gospel must be consistent
with all of the scriptures. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have
received, and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if
ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed
in vain. For I delivered unto you, first
of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the And that he was buried. He rose again
the third day according to the scriptures. Now what scriptures
is Paul talking about there? He's talking about the Old Testament
scriptures. They were the only scriptures in existence at the
time. Salvation in Christ is declared all through the Old
Testament. The Old Testament is not salvation by the law.
The Old Testament is Christ. Just as much as the New Testament
is Christ. All the Word declares that one
truth. Christ and Him crucified. The
Old Testament is Christ in type and picture and shadow. The New
Testament is Christ revealed as the fulfillment of all those
types and pictures and shadows. The Gospel is the Gospel that
is true to all the Scriptures. Third, the Gospel is the only
Gospel where God is just and justifier. The only Gospel. God
changes not. God never set the law aside,
ever. So if sinners are going to be
saved, God must save them. But God must remain holy and
just. Has to, or he's not God. Well,
what does that tell you about the law? Sinners must be saved
through the law. God can't set it aside. That
wouldn't be holy. So sinners have to be saved through
the law. Well, how's that possible? We're
saved through Christ's obedience to the law. His obedience becomes
our obedience. God must be just. He also, if
He's going to justify us, He justifies us by giving us the
obedience of Christ. But He's got to be just. Our
sins must be punished. So the Father punished Christ
for the sins of His people. He's just and He's justifier. Look at Romans chapter 3. This is the message of the scriptures.
Romans 3 verse 21. Let's look at verse 20. Therefore
by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. All the law does is reveal our
sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested. Be witness by the law and the
prophets. This is all throughout the Old Testament. even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon
all them that believe, for there is no difference. But now the
righteousness of God without the law, without your obedience
to the law, is made manifest. It's obvious by the appearing
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Four, the gospel is the only
gospel that saves sinners. It's the only one. This gospel
saves Zacchaeus. The law couldn't do that. The
gospel does. This gospel saves Saul of Tarsus.
Saul himself said the law couldn't save me, but the gospel did. This gospel saves Harlots and
Publicans, the chief of sinners, because the gospel meets the
need of every sinner, because the gospel declares grace in
Christ. We must be redeemed. When Adam fell, There is a price
put on our head. The curse of the law is upon
us. We've got to be redeemed from that curse. Sin has to be
paid for. We need our sin to be forgiven.
Redemption and forgiveness are found in Christ, in whom we have
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.
This gospel saves sinners. We need life for our debt. Christ
is our life. We need righteousness because
we're unrighteous. Christ is our righteousness.
We need to be sanctified. Christ is our sanctification.
The gospel declares Christ. And Christ is all a sinner needs.
Now, the gospel does not declare the righteousness of Christ.
The gospel declares Christ our righteousness. There's a big
difference. The gospel declares Christ our righteousness. The
gospel doesn't just declare the blood of Christ. The gospel declares
Christ whose blood atones for sin, cleanses us from every sin. The gospel does not declare Christ
who made a way of salvation. The gospel declares Christ who
is the way. The gospel doesn't declare this
Jesus who made it possible for you to obtain a ticket to heaven.
The gospel declares Christ who is heaven. Heaven is wherever
He is. if he's the Redeemer. And if
you have to do something in order to get saved, that message is
not the gospel. It's not the gospel of Christ.
Fifth, and this is the last, the gospel is the only gospel
that will keep a sinner saved. Every other message Declared
you can lose it. You can be saved today and lost
tomorrow. You've got to keep coming back and doing penance.
You've got to keep walking now. You've got to keep doing all
this stuff. Rededicate your life. I want
you to listen to me. If you fall from grace, you never
were in real grace. You're in some perverted form
of grace, but it's not God's grace. God's grace keeps us in
it. If you can fall away from Christ,
you never were in Christ. You were in this little Jesus,
little J, but you're not in the Christ of the Scriptures. That's
another Jesus. Look in Jude, verse 24. If you can fall from grace, you
never were in grace. You may have had a head knowledge
of it. It may have intrigued you, but it wasn't grace in the
heart. Jude, verse 24. Now unto him, see how it's him,
the gospel's a person, now unto him that is able to keep you
from falling and to present you faultless before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God our Savior,
be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.
Amen. Now that's the gospel. That's
the gospel of God. That's the gospel that saves
sinners and keeps sinners saved. And I marvel. I really do marvel
that anybody wouldn't believe that. I just marvel. I truly
marvel that somebody would leave that Gospel for something less. I remember Henry preaching a
message one time. He said, someone leaves the Gospel, they become
children of a lesser God. It always amazes me somebody
would leave for something less. But if God saves us, we won't
leave. If God saves us, we won't leave.
All right, I hope that'll bless you. Give you a blessing.