If you would again this Sunday,
as we were last Sunday for a bit, in Galatians chapter 1, I want
to do a follow-up to that message last Sunday in our reading. So I propose that we read the
first chapter of Galatians. And I believe I could say without
any contradiction that the book of Galatians is
the least read and studied and understood book in our Bible
in that it defines for us as clearly as words can make them
what the gospel is and what it is not. And yet we madly run
our course when we're running counter to the statements that
are found in these chapters in this epistle. All right, let's
begin at verse 6 in Galatians chapter 1. I marvel that you are so soon
removed from him that called you unto the grace of Christ
unto another gospel, which is not another, there can be only
one, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel
of Christ." So you have the genuine gospel and you have perverted
gospels. But Paul warns them, and hence
we are to be warned, 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. and to make sure that they understood
that he knew what he wrote, he says again in verse 9, and as
we said before in just the previous verse now, so say I now again
if any, and the word man is not there, any being, angel or man
or whomever, if any preach unto you I lost my place, let me see
here. What, nine? Yes. As we said before,
so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto
you than that which you have received already at the hand
of the Apostle Paul and those that were with him, let him be
accursed." Now look carefully at verse 10. This one text, verse 10 in chapter
1, without even intending it, kills 90 percent of today's religion
in the world of Christianity. For do I now persuade men You mean he used to? Yes, indeed. Yes, he did. And he persuaded
them with beatings and imprisonments and stoning to death. He knows
all about that kind of religion. There's only two kinds in this
whole world, and that's the true gospel of Christ and everything
else in the other corner. no matter what the name, what
the title. For do I now persuade men or
God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet, that word means
still, if I still seek to please men, I should not be and therefore
I could not be the servant of Christ. You can't please human
flesh, fallen human nature, and God at the same time. It cannot
be done. Alright, verse 11, But I certify
you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached
of me is not after man, For I neither received it of
man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ. For you have heard of my conduct,
King James word conversation here, conduct in time past in
the Jews religion. How that beyond measure, I persecuted
the Church of God and wasted it, and profited in the Jews'
religion among many of my equals in my own nation, being more
exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased
God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
His grace, When it pleased God to reveal His Son in me, that
I might preach Him among the heathen, immediately I conferred
not with flesh and blood. Neither went I up to Jerusalem
to them that were apostles before me, but rather, he says, I went
into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus. And after three
years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him
fifteen days. But other of the apostles saw
I none except James, the Lord's brother. Now the things which
I write unto you, behold, before God I lie not. Afterwards I came
into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and was unknown by face
unto the churches of Judea which were in Christ. for they had
heard only that he which persecuted us in times past now preaches
the faith which once he destroyed and they glorified
God in me." We'll take these statements out
of Galatians chapter 1 in verse 7 That is, in verse 6, Paul says,
unto another gospel, in verse 7 he says, which is not another,
but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel
of Christ. Anything added to or taken from
the precious Bible gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ ruins the
whole thing. It has to be all Christ or no
Christ at all. So I want to remind you of where
we were this past Sunday and just briefly restate those four
things that we looked at which are characteristics of another
gospel, this other gospel that is a perverted gospel. Now before beginning, may we
pray. Lord, thank you for letting us
gather in this place this morning. It is only by your great kindness to us
in the blessed gospel of your Son that we could meet here in
this place and in this manner and not speak of ourselves but
speak of our Savior exclusively. Lord, we had all gone our own
way. Had you not interrupted our mad
dash to hell, we may have been already there
by today. but to the God of heaven and
earth, the maker of all things, the only Savior for sinners, and the only gospel is the gospel
of God. Lord, please help us this day
as we read your word, as this poor preacher tries to comment
on your word, and our poor minds and hearts try to gather up and retain what
we found this morning in this book. But Lord, we confess and recognize
that in ourselves we cannot communicate to another human being one single
thing when it comes to your mercy and your grace. It must be done
by you and by your blessed spirit to take of that redemption that
was accomplished in our Lord Jesus Christ and give it to his
people for whom he died. Help us, we beg, for Christ's
sake. Amen. All right, there were four
things that we looked at. I think this is right now. This might have been in 2010, but I think it says 2011. But
we found four characteristics that define and distinguish for
us a perverted gospel. The first one is that today's
gospel does not recognize and absolutely denies that there
is such a thing as original sin. Original sin. I told you the
reasons why it's called that. It was started in the Garden
of Eden. Adam's sin was the first sin. Well, what about Eve's?
Eve's didn't count. Adam is the representative man.
And it caused every human being ever born into this world from
that time forth to the end of time to be born spiritually dead
in trespasses and in sins. Secondly, today's gospel denies
that people actually deserve to be damned in hell. I hope you're not of that number.
Believers believe that that's the only place they should be,
and if it were not for the grace of God, we would already be there.
But in His sovereign purpose, in His everlasting mercy, He's
seen fit to call out a people for His namesake that He gave
to Christ in that precious covenant in old eternity. So I put it this way, I say of myself, I deserved,
I deserve, and I will deserve to be damned. And it's only God's
mercy in Christ that gives me a release from that. Nothing in Scripture says how
much sin one has to commit, though most of us would be terrified
to know how many. It's not what your sin is. Sin
is against God. Sin does not wish to consent
to God being God. We want to be our own God. And
a fine mess we've made of it in that respect. The third thing
is this, the third characteristic. Today's religion and you know
all about it. Many of us were born in it. Today's religion deals with reformation,
reforming ourselves, quitting bad habits and starting better
ones and try to improve and all this stuff. But the problem is that the same
people, the same churches, the same preachers, the same denominations
who advocate this reformation they deny that they are spiritually
dead and until God borns them anew in Christ in the new birth
I mean you can't even sing all hail the power of Jesus name
and God like it because you don't know what you're talking about
And you hate the fact that Christ has all power. In the Reformation, our Lord said,
you make clean the outside of the cup and the inside is full
of dead men's bones. That's what religion does. We
get trinkets and crosses and everything under the sun. Paul asked the Corinthians this
question, What have you received? I'm sorry,
I got it mixed up. Let me find it. I want you to
hear it correctly. For who makes you to differ from
another? And what do I have that I didn't
receive? What do I have that wasn't given
to me? And if it is given to me as a
gift, then why do I boast as if it weren't a gift? Now let
me read it to you with the words of the King James. Who makes
you to differ from another? And what have you that you did
not receive? Now if you did receive it, Why
do you glory as if you had not received?" That was in 1 Corinthians
4 and verse 7. Now the fourth characteristic
of this perverted gospel will occupy our attention today because
it has to do with the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. The death
of Christ. You can hear this countless times
a day if you're in the right company. In regard to the death of Christ,
the Lord Jesus has come, gone to the cross, died, buried, resurrected,
ascended. So we are told in regard to the
death of the Son of God, Center, God's done all he can
do, now it's up to you. It's up to me. It's up to you. God help you if you believe that.
But we're born believing it, I tell you. Born that way. All
right, that's the review. Now let's see if we can make decent speed on the rest
of these things that I wanted to cover this morning. Now remember
everything from here on out is a discussion of the death of
the Lord Jesus Christ. This primarily has to do with
why was he on that tree? What did he accomplish on that
tree? Where is he now and what is he
doing? Now let me arrange that just
a little bit different. But it grows out of this statement that
God's done all that He can do. Now just stop a minute and think. If that could be true, what would
it mean? If God's done everything God
can do, I know what it means to me. I'm a gone Jesse, as Brother
Richardson used to say. No help. No hope. If God's done all he can do.
And then to tell a sinner whose problem already is pride, it's
all up to you. You can have as many Gospels
in one room as you have people. You have to do this in order
to go to heaven. You can't do this and go to heaven. I'll tell you who's going to
be in heaven. They are sinners! I mean the deepest, darkest,
worst sinners this world has ever seen. Okay, let's get down to business.
John chapter 10. I'm going to ask you a question
and then I want to read not every verse back-to-back but read several
verses in the 10th chapter of the Gospel of John. Here's the
first question related to the death of our Lord Jesus Christ
for our consideration this morning. Did the Lord Jesus die to make
salvation possible? or to make salvation absolutely
certain. It's one or the other. It's one
or the other. If your gospel is that God's
done all He can do, then it's obvious the position that we
would take in regard to this matter. All right, did you turn
to John 10? Let's begin with verse 11. Our
Lord is identifying Himself. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good
Shepherd gives His life for the sheep. Verse 14, I am the Good
Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. They know
me. I know them, and as a result
of my knowing them, they are brought to know me. Alright,
verse 15, "...as the Father knows me, even so know I the Father,
and I lay down my life for the sheep." I tell you, His death, His blood
was not shed in vain. He got everything He intended
to have. He's perfectly pleased and satisfied. And it's only idiots like me
that run around and mix up everything. I lay down my life for the sheep. Jump down to verse 28, speaking
of those same sheep. Well, I can't help it. How about
backing up to 26? But you believe not, because you are not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give
unto them eternal life, that they shall never perish, neither
shall any devil, angel, or man, or whoever else there is, pluck
them out of my hand." Preacher, surely you don't believe
that a person can commit an awful crime and still wind up in heaven,
do you? Well, how big a crime do you
want? David's was not very small. Many others in the Bible were
not small. I'm here to tell you that there's
not any sin. I'll reserve one and I'll tell
you what it is. There's not any sin for which the blood of Christ
cannot cleanse a sinner. But unbelief has no remedy in
the gospel. Second matter about the death
of Christ, when the Lord Jesus went to the cross, did He actually
redeem a people to God? Was He actually paying a ransom
for the souls of His people? or was he simply on the cross
in regard to redemption making redemption possible if you and
I at a later date would do whatever that magic thing is supposed
to be that makes the blood of Christ suddenly work and that's
how we become believers. That's idiotic. Let me read you a statement.
You can turn with me this time if you like. Revelation chapter
5. Revelation chapter 5 verses 9
and 10. And what's our subject? The redeeming
work of Christ on the cross. Now here are some believers already
in heaven, and they're already singing a
particular song. Verse 9, Revelation 5, and they
sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take
the book, and to open the seals thereof, Why is He worthy? For you were slain, you were
crucified, and have redeemed us to God by
your blood out of every kindred, tongue, and people, and nation. And besides that, you've made
us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.
Now that sounds to me like the Lord Jesus obtained what he intended
to obtain by his redeeming death. Let's take another issue, question
number three. When Christ died, and he did die, there's plenty
of non-religious evidence and evidences of that. When Christ died, Did He actually
take our sins in His own body on the tree? Did He really become
a sinner? 2 Corinthians 5.21, For God has
made Christ sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. Here's the text I want you to
see. 1 Peter chapter 2. Now before I give you the verse,
let me remind you of our question. When Christ died on Calvary's
cross, did He actually take our sins
in His own body on the tree? Now, some people get upset when
you talk about the tree and not the cross. Well, if it's in this
book and used in a positive way, then I say, nothing to it. If
it's in here, it's mine. That's like somebody saying,
well, preacher, now you can't preach on this, that, or the other.
I said, if they're in the Bible, I can. This is our textbook,
the only one we have. All right, here it is, verse
24, 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter 2.24, "...who his own self,"
Christ his own self, bear our sins in His own body on the tree that we being dead
to sins should live unto righteousness. Now how are you going to do that?
Here it is. By whose stripes we are healed. The punishment is over. at least for those people that
are Christ's sheep. All right, fourthly, let's go
back to the book of Romans. I don't recall us having been
there this morning, but we just can't do without it. Romans chapter
5, Another aspect of Christ's work
on the cross is called reconciliation. Now you do not reconcile friends. You reconcile two different parties
that are at odds with each other. And there's certainly a case
for that when it comes to ourselves and our sin and God and His absolute
holiness. So this aspect of the death of
Christ on Calvary's tree must be recognized, rejoiced in, and
embraced. In verse 10 of Romans chapter
5, we have these words, for if when we were enemies, wait a
minute preacher, I ain't never been God's enemy. Well, I suspect
you still are if that's the case, if that's what you think. Yes
sir, we're born enemies to God. But I've got good news for his
enemies. If when we were enemies, now
a person has to grow in his negative looking at himself and sure enough
say, I'm worse than I thought, infinitely worse than I thought.
When I was growing up I sang, Jesus love me this I know, for
the Bible tells me so. But you can't just pilfer and
steal anything you want to out of Scripture. You've got to find
out where it is, what it's there for, and what it's saying. If when we were enemies We were
reconciled, there's our word, we were reconciled to God. How? By the death of His Son. Christ is not only our Redeemer,
He's not only our righteousness, He's everything! But goodness
me, He is here in this passage, the Lord Jesus, is our life. If, when we were enemies, we
were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being
reconciled, we shall be saved by His life, namely His resurrected life. How can Christ's life now save
us? Well, you remember a fact that
our Lord intercedes for His people at God's right hand. He pleads
for God to give to us in His name that which He's earned and
merited for us. that this reconciliation between
a God of absolute perfection and a sinner of absolute non-perfection
can be reconciled in this precious one act of our Savior on Calvary's
tree. Number five, does the blood of Christ actually
cleanse from all sin or is it simply and offer to be cleansed
when we bring whatever it is we have to bring to make His
work. 1 John Chapter 1 Now before I give you the verse,
let me ask you the question again. Does the blood of Christ really
and truly cleanse us from all sin, or is it simply an offer
that if we do certain things we'll be cleansed? Here it is
right in our Bibles, verse 7 of 1 John chapter 1, We walk in
the light as He is in the light. We have fellowship one with another,
and here it is, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses
us from all sin. All sin. Now please, be forever
done with this business of thinking about sin in the past tense,
sin in the present tense, and sin in the future tense. It says
all sin, all kinds, all types, for all kinds and types of people. I'm telling you His death is
worth infinitely more than we can possibly conceive. We have
no way to know how glorious and great and grand the Lord Jesus
is. Now I got one more question but
I got to have a question or two to answer this question. Number
six. I may have both ears this time. Is there anybody in hell whose
sins Christ bore on the cross? Is there anybody in hell for
whom Christ died on Calvary's tree? Well, today's religion
says, of course. Yes, it does. He died for everybody.
they're hard-pressed to tell you what makes the difference
between those that wind up in hell and those in heaven but
surely it must have something to do with our goodness how wonderful
we are and kind and sweet so the answer to the question
has to be yes or no and in most quarters it is yes
he did yes He did die for some people's
sins who were already in hell. As a matter of fact, you could
make the same proof that at the time that our Lord died, there
was an untold host of mankind already in eternal fires. But here's the question. If there's anybody in hell for
whom Christ died on the cross, then what's going to keep me
and you from being in hell? Oh, we say, Christ died for me.
Well, He died for them, too. According to you, I mean. According
to this other gospel, that's not another. Isn't that right? Sure it is. Absolutely! Yeah, but preacher, He saved
me! Well, you claimed He saved them! Now where are they? They're in eternal fires. So what's going to keep us from
going to hell? Well, I'm going to keep the faith.
You know, we're going to be different from everybody else. I understand
some people can't do this, but I can. Well, we're really getting prepared
for heaven when we think like that, aren't we? No, we're actually going to go
to hell for our faithfulness and not by the cross. And if by some miracle of grace
you and I get to heaven And that song is struck up that
we just looked at a moment ago, unto him that loved us and washed
us from our sins in his own blood. Let's make sure now, if I believe
he died for people in hell like he did for people in heaven,
then don't you dare put those words on your lips. Because you have no appreciation
for them. You do not understand what is involved and how a man
goes to heaven in the first place. There's only one Jacob's ladder
and that's our Lord Jesus Christ. We narrow this thing down enough,
ball it down enough, we'll come face to face with this false
gospel that is nothing more than heresy, a damnable heresy, that
makes the death of Christ a gesture of hope at best, and makes the death of Christ
a miscarriage of God's justice, and makes the death of Christ
insufficient to save so much as a flea. That's today's gospel. Christ
can't do this unless I let Him. And He can't do this unless I
put my part with His. If there are people in hell for
whom Christ died If Christ actually was tried and found guilty, numbered
with the transgressors, and took my sins and was executed for
my sins on the cross, here's the question. Can the justice
of God punish Christ for my sins and then come back and punish
me myself? And people say, sure, sure. Then if that's the case, God
is unjust. You remember these words? I got
them written down this morning. Payment God cannot twice demand. First at my bleeding surety's
hand and then again at mine. I mean if the debt's paid, the
debt's paid. Nobody knows what honesty is
except God. And if He says it's paid, paid
in full. Whoever he paid it for must go
free! Just must go free. Hey, I've
got a little bit of time. Let's look at another, just a
short little scripture. I know you've heard that line
before. Mark chapter 2. I couldn't figure out how to
get these verses in, and so I just stuck them in at the last. Well, if I get in the right chapter,
I might find mine. Well, I can't find it. Yes, I did. It's right in front
of my eyes. It's in the second chapter of Mark. Boy! Mark chapter 2, verses 21 and
22. And here's all I'm trying to
do this morning with these two verses. is to give you a picture,
a type, a description of what the gospel is and what anything
that's human is. You can't patch up humanity with
divinity. And you can't patch up divinity
because there's nothing lacking. But our Lord used two little,
tiny, virtually one-sentence parables. This is also in Matthew
chapter 9 and in Luke chapter 5, but here's the one I want
to read to you, beginning at verse 21. No man also sews a piece of new
cloth on an old garment. Now, I know you ladies have quit
sewing, so this stuff is going by the wayside, but some of us
can still remember getting our clothes patched and spanked as
well, I imagine. This would have been known by
everybody in Palestine when our Lord said these words, No man
sews a piece of new cloth on an old garment. else the new piece that filled
it up takes away from the old and the tear is made worse."
You can't bring the gospel of Christ into a congregation or
a family or an area without finding out how badly
man hates that truth. we'll do anything. We'll lie,
we'll cheat, we'll steal. The gospel is all Christ and
as far as it's revelation it's brand new. So you can't just bring it into
any religious meeting or group of people or what have you. Verse
22 And no man puts new wine into old wineskins. My margin renders
that word bottle as a wineskin. They did not have, I don't think
they had at that time, the ability to make glasses without it being a prohibitive
cost even then. I don't know that there was any.
But I know that these bottles were made out of skins. and they
had to be new skins. Because if you put new wine into
old skins, they split. They cannot hold the expansion
as the grapes ferment. And no man puts new wine into
old wine skins else the wine does burst the bottles and the
wine is spilled and the bottles will be the skins will be marred,
but new wine must be put into new bottles." The gospel is not
looking for people who are already believers. Christ is looking
for His sheep, and He must have every last one of them. Thank
God! It took me a lot of years to
know anything about that, Okay, Mr. Rogers, our hymn to
close this morning is 299.