Let me start by asking this question. How many religions are there
in the world? Someone's going to say, there's
thousands of religions in the world. There's so many different
religions. Actually, there's only two. There's
only two religions in the world. One's all of grace, and the other's
all of works. You can take all the religions
in the world and put them in one of those two categories.
It's either all of grace, salvation. That's what religion's all about.
It's about God, about salvation, being accepted of Him. And all the religions in the
world fit under these two. There's one of all of grace,
all of Christ. It's of God. Then you have once
all of works. No matter what denomination you
tag to it, what name you tag to it, it's all of works. How
many gospels are there in this world? There's just one. That's the title of this lesson. Only one gospel. How many faiths are there in
the world? You say there's many different faiths. Well, there's
only one that's of God. Look over in Ephesians chapter
4. I want you to see this. Let's kind of set this background
here before we get into this lesson. In Ephesians chapter
4, Paul says in verse 4, there is
one body and one spirit, one Holy Spirit, even as you are
called in one hope of your calling. There's one Lord. There is one
Lord Jesus Christ. There's one Lord who is over
all. There's one Lord reigning over
all. There's one faith, and that one
faith is in the one Lord. And there's one baptism. There's
one God. There's not many gods. You know,
the Greeks had all their many gods. There's only one. When Paul went to Athens, I believe
it was, they had all those altars. Can you imagine that? They had
all those altars. And then they had this one altar
that said, to the unknown God. The very altar to the unknown
God is the only God. There it is. The only God that
exists is the one they didn't know. But they made an altar
just in case one shows up that we don't know about. Here's an
altar for him. And Paul preached unto them the
Lord Jesus Christ. He preached who God is, who Christ
is. There's one God and Father of
all, who is above all and through all and in you all. Now he says
here, He's one God and Father of all. That does not mean He's
the Father of all men, does it? He's the Creator. Someone said this past week,
which brought my attention to this, they said God is the Father
of all men. No, He's not. He's the Father
of all them that are in Christ. But now he's the God, he's God
overall. He's the God of creation. You know, God created one man,
Adam. He created the Lord Jesus Christ,
the human nature. But now he created one man, Adam.
And you and I are born from Adam. We're born from him. But Adam
was created. God is not the father of all
men. He's the Father of all them that are in Christ. Now, if you
keep it in its context, He says, One God and Father of all, who
is above all, through all, and in you all. Is God in all men? If God is in all men, then all
men are saved. No one's lost. No one. If God is in all. So there's
one Lord. There's one faith. one baptism,
one spirit, one God and Father, and this is what Paul is writing
them about, and he's going to deal with this throughout this
book, this epistle. And he says to them in verse
6, a marvel, that means surprised and sorrowful. He marveled at
them leaving the gospel, being removed from it, and it would
cause him much sorrow. It causes sorrow to see anyone
leave the gospel. To see a person confess Christ
and then start to move away from him, that's cause for sorrow. I thought of this when I read
this again this week. It was like Eli hearing that
the ark was taken. Remember that? his stool backwards
and broke his neck when he heard the ark was taken. And when Paul
heard that they were being removed from the gospel, he said, I marvel.
I'm surprised and so sorrowful to hear this. And then he says, I marvel that
you're so soon. Part of his marvel was due to
them leaving so soon. You know, Paul preached the gospel
to them in power. He did miracles among them. He
had the power to do that. And he did a marvelous work among
those Galatians. He said the gospel was set forth
among you. You know it. You saw my work
and heard the preaching. And now to hear that you're so
soon removed? I said, I marvel at this. Have
you ever visited someone? Talked to them? You know, they're
healthy. And then a week later you hear
that person has taken ill, very sick. And you say, well, I just
talked to him. I just talked to him and he was well. I'm surprised
to hear that he's so sick. And that's what Paul's saying
here. I'm so surprised to hear that you are removed. Removed. Scripture tells us a
little leaven leavens the whole lump. It corrupts the whole lump.
What may be healthy today may not be healthy tomorrow. That's
why the Scripture says, watch and pray. Watch and pray. Stand fast. We're exhorted to
do these things. Stand fast. And he says, I marvel that you're
so soon removed away. He didn't say that you've fallen
away, that you're apostates, but you're on the road to it.
That's what he said. You're on the road to apostasy,
because you're leaving the only way of salvation. Christ alone,
grace alone. And you're being removed from
it. You're moving away from it. They didn't quit believing. It's not that they quit believing
The gospel, what they started doing was adding to the gospel. These false preachers that came
in, these false teachers, these ministers of what Paul calls
them in another place, ministers of righteousness, not his righteousness,
man's righteousness. He calls Satan an angel of light.
And he says his ministers are ministers of righteousness. That's
self-righteousness. They never minister Christ's
righteousness. They never speak of His. They
speak of their own. They exalt man. And they came in and they said, you
need to keep the law. You need to keep circumcision.
You need to keep some of these ceremonies. You need to keep
doing these things. It's OK to believe on Christ
as the Messiah, but you've got to keep doing these other things
also. which is a perverted gospel. It is a perversion of the gospel.
Satan, first of all, is very real. Secondly, from the beginning
he has been perverting the gospel, the truth. When he came to Eve
in the garden, he took the Word of God. He did not try to go
outside of the Word of God. He took the Word of God and he
put a twist on it. And that's how perversion of
the gospel starts. You put a little twist on it.
You know, listen to this. Satan never comes to you as a
devil. He will never come to you as the devil. He'll come
to you as an angel of light. As a minister of righteousness.
And he'll put a twist on it. He'll put a twist on it. And Paul says, you are removed
away. It's not that they were doing
it themselves. They had a lot of help in it. Those false teachers who had
come in were helping, working hard at removing them away from
Christ alone. Who is your only hope? It's Christ. It's who He is. It's what He
did. It's His redemption that we have
in Him. It's the efficacy of His blood, His righteousness.
Christ is my hope. It's not Christ caused by accepting
of Christ. It's Christ Himself. You know,
the Word of God, if you read it in Ephesians chapter 1, it
says, He, God the Father, hath made us accepted in the Beloved. It doesn't say a word about me
accepting Him. It says, as many as received
Him, bowed to Him, believed on Him, looked to Him, have the right, the power to
become the sons of God. But the whole of salvation is
God accepting me in Christ. It's God receiving me in Christ. And Satan puts a twist on it.
He puts a twist on it. He puts the whole weight of you
accepting Him. You being the missing ingredient.
There's no missing ingredient in salvation. There's no missing ingredient.
He is all and in all in salvation. And Paul says, I am so marveled,
so surprised that you are removed away from Him. that called you, called you effectually, called
you by His grace, that you have removed away from Him, that called
you into the grace of Christ, into the salvation of Christ, unto another gospel. He says,
which is not another. They call it the gospel. How many Jesus are there? Well, there's only one real one.
But you know, Paul said they will come preaching another Jesus,
hear another gospel, another way. Yes, here's what it means,
another way to God. He said they will come preaching.
another way to God, another Jesus. Don't you accept it? Don't accept
it. To leave the gospel is to leave
Christ, is to leave God the Father, is to leave the leading and wooing
of the Holy Spirit, is to leave salvation by grace. When one
leaves Christ, that one leaves all hope of righteousness, forgiveness,
pardon, justification, if you remove from Him, if you remove
from this gospel that's given of God in the Scriptures concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ, you leave it all. He said you
leave it all. This is how serious this is.
You leave it all. They were leaving, they were
being removed, being removed from the only gospel that God
gave. God's only given once, since
the beginning. He didn't give a way of salvation
in the Old Testament, and now Christ is another way, a different
way. No, it's always been Christ. That seed of the woman is Christ.
That Passover lamb is Christ. The ark is Christ. All those
types and pictures are pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
has always been the way to God. He said in John 14, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. No other way. No other way. I believe a few
years ago, Billy Graham said he no longer
believed that Jesus Christ was the only way. That these people
in these other lands and over in Africa who have not heard
of him, they have other ways. Christ said, I'm the only way.
I'm the only truth. I'm the only life. He that comes
to the Father must come by me. No man knows the Father save
the Son. and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." He's
the only way. They did not become atheists.
They were still religious. I dare say that everyone here
who believes the gospel, every one of you came out of religion.
I did. Most everyone whom God saves,
it's usually not straight out of the gutter. It's usually not
straight out of the honky-tonk. It's usually out of some denomination
or some religion somewhere. We're religious. We are religious
by nature. We are going to believe and worship
something. It's in us to do it. But not
until we hear of the Lord Jesus Christ do we finally believe
and worship God. Not until then. What they were
doing was they were leaving Christ alone and they were just adding
to it. They were saying, well, okay, we'll add this to it. If you add anything to it, it's
gone. One old whiter said, you unchrist
him. Let me show you something here.
Let me find it. If I can find it here. Paul talks about them. If you've fallen from grace, He says, let me read down through
here, I may find it, I may not, but in chapter five, I believe it
is. Yeah, verse four. Let me start,
let me start verse one. Stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free. He's made us free from
the bondage of sin. He's made us free from all these
ceremonies. And be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage,
the law. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you,
that if ye be circumcised, and evidently this had become a problem,
this had become an issue. They were saying, no, you still
have to be circumcised. And he says here, behold, I,
Paul, say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall
profit you nothing. If you become circumcised for
the purpose of salvation, Christ doesn't mean anything to you.
Christ means nothing to you. If you do anything, if you do
anything to get God to accept you, Christ
means nothing to you. You've missed it. That's what
he's saying. You've missed it. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole
law, if that's the reason he did it, because of the law. If
he did it because the law said so, you're a debtor to do everything
the law says. You know how many laws there
are? There are 600 and some of them. Do you know them? I bet you can't even repeat 10
of them. You've got to keep them all.
He said you're a debtor to do it all. This is how serious this
is. Christ has become of no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are
justified by the law, You are fallen from grace. You've left grace. You've left
the grace of God in Christ. You've left salvation by grace.
And salvation comes no other way but by grace. So if you leave that, you're
a goner. That's why he's pointing out to them. This is how serious
it is. What you Galatians are doing
is extremely serious. It has eternal consequences to
it. You can change the way you do things at work. It probably
won't have any consequence at all. And if it does, you can
get over it. But you can't get over this one.
This has eternal consequences to it. Satan has his own gospel. It is a perverted gospel. It
gives men the glory instead of God. It is of works. even though it is disguised by
gospel words. Because you cannot say you preach
the gospel and not say grace. You cannot speak of grace, speak
of righteousness, speak of forgiveness, speak of pardon. They disguise
it. Satan is subtle. Listen, I mean,
there is no mask for his subtlety. Eve in her innocence, Eve in
her perfect state was duped by him. Scripture says Eve was deceived. Adam was not deceived. He knew
exactly what he was doing. Eve was deceived in her perfect
state. And you know the mental faculty
that she had. A genius. The woman was a genius. She had perfect use of her mind. And yet, Satan just slithered
right in there and deceived her. And now that we're fallen, how
much easier is it to deceive us? It's so subtle. Just put a little twist on it.
They won't catch it. If it weren't up for the grace
of God, you and I would not catch it. We wouldn't catch it. But he has his own perverted
gospel. Very close. Very close. to the
gospel of Christ. The scripture says, if it were
possible that he would deceive the very elect of God. If it
were possible. But it's not possible, because
God's not going to let that happen. He's not going to let his children
be deceived and then go into apostasy. It's not going to happen.
As I said, Satan never comes to us as the devil. Always as
an angel of light, always with or twist on the gospel very close
to it. Very close to it. You know, the
scripture says, straight is the gate and narrow is the way. Narrow. So you're being too dogmatic. We are no more dogmatic than
the scripture is, than the gospel is. No more narrow than what
the gospel is. Not at all. The gospel that is of
God has to do with His Son. It has to do with His Son. It
has to do with the work of His Son. It has to do with what God
has done for us, not what we ought to do for God. Not at all. It has what He's done for us,
what He's done for the sinner. The gospel that is of the devil
is all about us. It's all about us, what we can
do, what we are to do. I can do nothing to save myself.
As Paul said, if you're going to go down that road, you've
fallen from grace. If you're going to attempt to
do something in order to please God, in order to be accepted
of God, you've fallen from grace. Grace is your unmerited favor
of God from beginning to end. I mean from the start of it to
the end of it. We call it eternity past. With God, it's just eternity.
But with us, it's eternity past, eternity future. It's all of
grace and it's all of God. The gospel that is of God is
about Christ's righteousness. The perverted gospel that's of
the devil is about our righteousness. He's the head of the moral majority.
He's the leader of it. We ought to be moral. We ought
to be. But morality doesn't save me.
It's the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ that saves me.
Because if it were not for the constraining grace of God, none
of us would be moral. Do you believe that? The gospel that is of God concerns
the efficacy of the work and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It has to do with the will of God, the purpose of God. The
perverted gospel that's of Satan has to do with man's ability
and man's free will. They're even bold enough to put
it on the church door, Free Will Baptist. There is nothing, there is nothing
that is under sin and the control of Satan that is free. You turn a man loose, you take
away the constraint of God, you take away the constraint of God,
and you'll see what free will is all about. You'll see what
man will choose. Christ said this, you will not
come to me that you might have life. What's the problem? Your
will. You will not. You will not come
to me. Now look over to Psalm 110. Let
me show you something. God's people are willing and
we do will to be saved as our desire to be saved. But let's
give the glory to whom it belongs. I want you to read this. Psalm
110 verse 3, Thy people shall be willing when
and the day of thy power." When is that? When the Holy Spirit
takes hold of you and gives you life and gives you light. When you are born of God, when
you are born again, at that instant, you are willing. You're willing
to bow to Christ. You're willing to receive Christ.
You're willing to have, Lord, have thy own way. Do we not sing
a song like that? Have thy own way, Lord. Willing.
Willing to follow him. He said to Matthew, sitting at
the receipt of customs, come follow me. He got up and left
his place and followed Christ. Nobody else did at that table. The rest of them sat there and
thought, Matthew, what are you doing? Look at all this money
you're leaving. He got up and followed the Lord. willing to
do so. God makes us willing. He gives us a new heart, a new
nature, and in that new heart, new nature, we are willing. Someone said this, and I like
this. Some old preacher said this,
God saved me against my will with my full consent. I thought
that was good. He saved me against my will because
that old nature, that old man is never willing, not even now. I don't care if you've believed
the gospel for 30, 40, 50 years, that old nature is still not
willing. But that new man is. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Well, the scripture says, whosoever
will, There is no contradiction. Whosoever will, let him come. You tell me who will. Tell me
who will. Thy people. The Word of God teaches
us, thy people shall be willing. The gospel that's of God speaks
of Him accepting us into beloved. The perverted gospel puts the
emphasis on us accepting Him. I accept Him, why don't you?
That's the perverted gospel. The gospel that's of God concerns
the sovereignty of His Son. Scripture says He gives life
to whom He will. But the perverted gospel is all
about our rights. That's not right. God chose a
people, that's not right. You know, nobody gets mad at
God not choosing the angels that fail. You know, there's a multitude
of angels that fail, that are left in darkness, that God provided
no Savior for, and He's left them alone. I have not heard
anybody complain about that. And I was talking to a man one
time, and I was talking about the Lord choosing His people.
Multitude of sinners, no man can number. If he didn't, nobody
would be saved. He said, you mean to tell me
that God may not have chosen my children? He said, I don't
believe. He said, that's not right. That's
when Paul said, who are you to stand in judgment against God,
old man? Has not the potter piled the clay of the same one out
of Adam's race to make one a vessel of mercy? another in a vessel
of wrath. Does he not have that right?
Does he not have that power? Does he not have that wisdom?
I heard Henry say this one time and it just stuck with me. God
will save, God will save all whom he can wisely save. I've never forgot that. God will
save all whom he can wisely save. Well, we'll pick up here next
week or a couple weeks. There's only one gospel. There
is only one gospel. Do not, do not remove from it. That's Paul's message to the
Galatians and to us. Don't move from it. Stand fast
in Christ and the liberty. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made us free.