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Com Are you thankful for the blessed assurance that we do
have in Christ Jesus? And in Christ Jesus alone you'll
give him praise. You don't have to stop praising
him just because we're going to begin to preach.
Let our praise continue as we have praised Him in song.
Now let us praise him as we look at his Word and as we dive off
into the truths that the Scriptures contain.
So if you've been here for any amount of time, your Bible
probably this morning tried to open itself to the 119th Psalm.
I'm going to get you to make a right, a hard right turn.
I want you to turn into the New Testament this morning.
I want you to turn to Galatians chapter 1.
As you're turning there, I want to kind of give you a preface
into what we are going to be looking at for the next several
weeks and and our times together on Sunday morning.
This series that we will we will be covering has been a series
that has been on my heart for quite some time and and to which
I think is very applicable to the current situation of our
culture even now because we have as of late as you all know.
Heard. Much talk about the gospel,
about falling Christ, about being a Christian, about Jesus
himself. However, we're living in a time
where we have seen so many unbiblical variations of the
gospel and of Jesus and of Christianity that many of us,
I'm sure, not even sure, nor maybe we haven't even ever heard
the true gospel at all. We will begin a study entitled
There is one Gospel. There's not many Gospels,
There's not different variations of the gospel, different tweaks
of the gospel. There is one gospel and there's
always been one gospel, and there always be will be 1 and
one gospel only. So in a broad sense, when we
talk about the gospel, I want you to understand this and the
broad sense. We're talking about the gospel
that encompasses the entirety of Scripture from Genesis all the
way to Revelation, and how that gospel points us to Christ and
points us to our great need for Christ.
We see that in the beginning of the Bible all the way until the
end, and it is here in the Bible as a whole that God is revealing
himself to us, and he's revealing Christ to us.
He begins with revealing himself as Creator there in Genesis.
He then shows us shortly after that the the record of man's
rebellion where our first father Adam fell into sin and rebelled
against the holy God. And then we can follow Scripture
as we walk through that fall of sin to a great flood that we
know Scripture confirms occurred because God cannot and will not
tolerate sin. We see also in the entirety of
Scripture that it reveals for us God's holy standard.
In fact, the whole reason that God instituted the law was to
show His perfection and to show man's inability to meet the
standard of His perfection. And so in the law, in the Old
Testament, we see that we have record of that.
It is in that holy standard that we come to the recognition and
the realization of our rightful place, and that is totally
sinful, depraved and able to come to God in our own strength.
In fact, Scripture says we're cut off and we're alienated from
God because of our sin. We've missed the mark.
We don't meet the standard. And then we see in Scripture the
prophecies concerning the Redeemer who is to come.
All of the prophets Speaking of the Messiah who was to come.
We know now in our day. That that was pointing to
Christ. Son of the living God who came
to this earth as God Incarnate. And it is in the person of Jesus
that we see the God man living a perfect life and then laying
down that perfect life in the place of imperfect depraved
sinners, that they might be reconciled to a holy and to a
righteous God. We see Jesus fulfill all that
the prophets spoke about him. You see a sinless life.
We see His substitutionary atonement.
We see His mercy and His grace offered to sinners, His unending
and undying love offered up for those who had not ever loved
Him. We see His death, We see His
burial, We see His resurrection. We then see His ascension, where
He ascends back to the Father from which He had come.
We see His promises that one day, just as He was taken away
from this earth, He will return to this earth, and He will
rescue the bride that He has purchased by His own sacrifice
for the glory of God. That is a broad sense of the
gospel and the entirety of Scripture.
But then we see a more narrow sense.
We see the narrow sense is that the gospel is the message of
good news. That Greek word you in galleon
means good tidings, a good message.
That is the good news and the good message that Christ did
truly come to this earth and He did come to rescue sinners and
to redeem all of the fallen sinners who will believe and
trust in Him as Lord and as Savior.
Those who were once alienated from God.
Yet Christ came to fulfill the purpose of God the Father in
rescuing some from the multitudes call His own.
Those who would by faith believe and trust in the sacrifice of
Jesus Christ as the only justification for their sin.
And is that same Jesus who rescues sinners, who will
ultimately judge the unrepentant sinners?
Oh, we know that he came to save the repentant, believing
sinners. But in the gospel we must
understand in the narrow sense, yes, the same Jesus will judge
the unrepentant and the unbelieving Sinner.
They will bear the wrath of God for their sin in hell for all
eternity. So we see in a narrow sense that
is the gospel, and in the broad sense it is Genesis to
Revelation. And we will be discussing this
gospel in great detail in the days and the weeks to come.
It's crucial that we get it right.
It's. Crucial that we know the true
gospel according to the Scriptures, especially when we
live in a time where many, if not most are getting it wrong.
I pray that we get it right, and if we're going to get it right,
we are going to have to get it from the Scriptures themselves.
Because I believe many a man and many a woman will spend an
eternity in hell thinking that they believed the gospel, only
to find out that the gospel that they believed was not the gospel
at all. It was what Paul is going to
talk about this morning in Galatians, another gospel, and
he quickly says which is not the gospel.
They believe in some pseudo gospel, some false gospel, some
watered down fake gospel thinking that it's somehow going
to lead them to. Forgiveness of sin and eternal
life. So it's crucial that we get the
gospel because if we get the gospel wrong, we spend an
eternity separated from the goodness and love of God only to
face his wrath and his judgment. And so today as we open the word
of God, we begin here in Galatians chapter one with a
message entitled what the gospel is not.
I pray that in looking at what the gospel is not, we will
clearly see what the gospel is. So if you will turn with me
there to Galatians chapter one verse 6 Paul writing the Church
of Galatia. He says this.
I am astonished in verse 6 that you are so quickly deserting the
one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a
different gospel which is really no gospel at all.
Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and
are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.
But even if we or an Angel from heaven should preach a gospel
other than the one we preach to you, let them be eternally
condemned, as we have already said.
So now I say again, if anybody is preaching to you a gospel
other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned.
Verse 10, he says, Am I now trying to win the approval of
men or of God, or am I trying to please men?
If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of
Christ. Let's pray together.
Father, in the name of Jesus, we come to you, thanking you for
your word, thanking You for the truths that we are going to see
concerning what the gospel is not this morning in a time where
many are confused with every variation, every altering of
what is being called the gospel. God, I pray today that you give
us clarity in your word to the true gospel so that we not
believe a false message, so that we not believe and we not preach
a message that will bring condemnation upon those who
follow this false gospel. That we will through the true
gospel watch you bring darkness out of darkness into marvelous
light as you save souls according to your word, you save
souls according to your power so that you can receive all the
glory and praise for it in Jesus name, Amen.
So today as we open to Galatians chapter one, we are going to
learn what the gospel is not. I have found in my life that
sometimes in order to learn the authenticity of something, I
have to learn what it is not first, especially when they're
differing ideas about the topic. And we know that there are
differing ideas about the gospel.
They are running rampant in our culture.
So Paul begins with this. And so I will begin with this so
that we understand clearly, first of all, the gospel is not
earned by our works. Verses 6 in the first part of
seven say this. I am astonished that you are so
quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of
Christ and are turning to a different gospel.
Which is really no gospel at all.
Let me give you a little backdrop.
Someone, or perhaps a group of people, we're here among the
Galatians, and they were teaching works of righteousness
according to the law to seal their justification, namely
circumcision. And so if you'll follow me into
this, I want you to understand what was going on.
Paul and the apostles were preaching a gospel that is grace
alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
And then there were those who had entered into the church
there, a Galatian. They were introducing heresy,
and that heresy was saying this, yeah, you need to have faith in
Jesus Christ, but also alongside of faith in Jesus Christ, you
also need to be circumcised, which is a work of the flesh,
which counts for nothing in regard to salvation.
That is by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone.
And so many of them had been LED down this road of legalistic
teaching, claiming that in order for us to be saved, we must have
faith in Christ and be circumcised.
However, faith in Jesus Christ plus anything, please hear me.
Church is legalism. If you think that you have to
have faith in Christ plus baptism, a work that men do,
faith in Christ plus church membership, a work that men do,
faith in Christ, plus anything else under the sun that a person
could do, you're sadly mistaken. And the Galatians have fallen
into this trap. They had fallen in and were
potentially falling deeper into a trap that said it is Jesus
plus works and, and I'll go ahead and boldly declare this.
That is heretical. That's not the gospel.
So Paul makes it clear in this letter, in fact in his entire
ministry, that a person is justified by grace alone through
faith alone and Christ alone and not by his works.
Period. End of discussion.
Person's good good works are never credited to them as
salvation. That is not the gospel.
Now I know many of you. You have been around here long
enough to know that we don't preach justification by.
Works we preach justification by faith.
So many of you would say, well, Kirk, we already know this and I
hope you do. But I go to many funerals, and
in those funerals, do you know what they talk about at
funerals? They talk about how good a
person was or how good a person is or what good that person did
while they were on this earth, as if somehow that person is
justified by the good they do or don't do in the eyes of God.
Paul is going to make it very clear here that it is dangerous
when we turn away from grace alone and when we pick up works
of the flesh trying to be justified by those things.
Why is this dangerous? Write it down.
Our works are insufficient in satisfying a holy God.
You will not, cannot. It is impossible for you and
your own works to satisfy a holy God.
Let me help everyone out. Even if you're patriotic, even
if you're hard working, even if you're Southern, and even if
you're a good old boy, you still fall short of God's perfection.
You in and of yourself. You are sinful and you are
rotten to the core. I don't say that to belittle
you. I am agreeing that that is
exactly what I am, apart from the righteousness of Jesus
Christ that comes by faith in Him and that alone.
But I want you to have a clear understanding that there are
many people who preach a message that says that you earn
salvation not just by faith in Christ alone through the grace
of God, but that you also have to do something in order to
receive that. Can I tell you this, that His
standard has not changed? That's how I know I don't meet
His standard. That's how I know you don't meet
His standard because you know what His standard is.
Jesus clearly defines that force in Matthew chapter 5 verse 48,
He says this, be perfect. Therefore, as your heavenly
Father is perfect. Jesus was telling them something
that they could not do be perfect.
But in telling them that they could not be perfect, He
revealed also something to them. Their heavenly Father is
perfect. And he has not changed his
standard. He has not altered who he is.
He's still perfect. And so his standard is still
perfection. That doesn't take long to spend
any time with any of us. But I'll say this, it won't take
you long to spend time with me to find out that I am imperfect.
He said, well, we don't have a lot of time to spend with you.
Pastor, do you have someone who you could call to account?
Ask my wife if I'm perfect, she will tell you absolutely not.
Ask my children, they will say absolutely not.
He's very imperfect, but he trusts in a perfect God.
We will miss the mark in regard to our own perfection.
Therefore, we can never be justified by a holy God.
We can never be declared righteous because even our
thought goodness is still tainted by sin, by wickedness.
In fact, Romans chapter 3 Paul gives a discourse on this.
I don't want you to miss it. He says in verse 10 of Romans
chapter 3. He says as it is written,
there's no one right. It's just not even one.
He's Speaking of both the Jew and the Gentile.
There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.
All have turned away. They have together become
worthless. There is no one who does good,
not even 1. Their throats are open graves.
Their tongues practice the seat. The poison of the Vipers is on
their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing
and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Ruin and misery mark their ways
and the way of peace they do not know.
He said, I don't want to spend any time with that kind of
person. You are that kind of person.
That's who we all are apart from Jesus Christ, He says.
Their feet are swift to shed blood.
The ruin and misery mark their ways and the way of peace.
They do not know. There is No Fear of God before
their eyes. Now we know that whatever the
law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every
mouth may be silenced in the whole world, held accountable to
God. Why are we held accountable to
God? Because if we lay our life next
next to God's perfect law, we realize very quickly that we're
transgressors of this law, right?
You don't even have to know all 10 of the commandments.
If you know three of them, you've probably broken two of
them. And if you've only broken one of
the three that you have. Memorized.
Guess what? You're a transgressor and you're
saying guilty in the face of God as a Sinner.
So you, you should be silenced by that.
You have nothing else to say. So he says in verse 20.
Thankfully, therefore, no one will be declared.
Righteous in his sight by observing the law.
Thank you. Because I have failed.
Not only have I broken one of the commands and two of the
commands and three of the commands and four of the
commands and five of the commands.
I've broken all of his commands, you say?
Well, Pastor, yeah. Because if I've broken one of
them, I have broken all of them. I have transgressed against God.
And so have all of you. He says, therefore no one will
be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law.
Rather through the law we become conscious of sin.
What is he saying? God shows us his perfect
standard, and he says, here's my perfect standard.
And he gives us the 10 commandments, and he says live
by it. But in and of ourselves we have
no sufficiency to live by that. And so we.
Find ourselves in a predicament, don't we?
Because everything that we tried to do good is tainted by our
sins. Is that not what Isaiah says in
Isaiah 64? Six, when he says all of us have
become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are
like filthy rags. We all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind, our sins sweep us away.
Look what Isaiah says there. He says, Your best day, filthy
rags, your best efforts don't meet God's standard.
Your best good deeds fall short. So we have to understand that
the gospel is not earned by our works because our works are
insufficient for satisfying a holy, perfect, righteous God.
In fact, Galatians chapter 3 verse 10 says all who rely on
observing the law are under a curse, for it is written cursed.
It is everyone who does not continue to do everything
written in the book of the Law. There are some of us who think
by our works we can be justified.
Now I have to ask you this, have you ever failed?
Well, if you failed, you're in trouble because you're cursed
and. Isn't that what we all really
are Until Christ relieves that curse from us?
We're cursed because of sin. We inherited that curse all the
way from Adam. That's why I told you.
In the broader sense, we can go from Genesis to Revelation and
we see there in the Gospel. But in a narrower sense, we can
look at it in our lives and we know this.
If there is no innate good in US apart from Christ, there's no
good in us at all. Our works are insufficient and
satisfying a holy God. Secondly, our works are
incapable of saving a depraved Sinner.
If our works can't satisfy God's standard and be sufficient
enough because they are so sinfully tainted, then common
sense tells me this. That they can't be useful in
saving me from the wrath that I deserve.
Because many people will say, yeah, Kirk, I understand that
we're all imperfect, but I'm trying my best and I'm doing
some good. I'm, I'm doing more good than I
used to, somehow thinking that because you're doing more good
that you you than you used to in your own power, that your works
are going to somehow save you. And you're dreadfully wrong.
And I don't tell you that so that I can be right.
I tell you that so that you can know the truth because I do care
about your soul, that you're not going to get to God because
you've been a pretty good old boy or a pretty good old gal
done the right thing most of the time.
Because there's been those times where you didn't do the right
thing, proving that you're a transgressor and you're in need
of a righteousness that is greater than your own
righteousness there. And we see the truth of the
gospel. Romans chapter 3 he says in
verse 21, but now a righteousness from God apart
from the law, your works has been made known to which the law
and the prophets testify. He says this righteousness from
God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe there
is no difference. He says there's no difference
between the Jew and the Gentile, all who by faith trust in Jesus
Christ. They are accredited and imputed
with the righteousness of Christ, the righteousness that
comes from God, he says in verse 23 for.
All of sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are
justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came
by Christ Jesus. God presented him a sacrifice of
atonement through faith in His blood, and He did this to
demonstrate His justice, because in his forbearance he had left
the sins committed beforehand unpunished.
He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present.
Time so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have
faith in Jesus. What is he saying?
God would have to cease to be just if you could somehow save
yourself by your own works. But he remains just.
But he is also a justifier, and he justifies by grace alone,
through faith alone in Christ alone.
He says. Where then is boasting?
He says it's excluded. We have nothing to boast about.
Have you ever met those people who profess to be Christians?
And all they do is boast about the good that they do.
If someone gets up at my funeral one day and starts talking about
all the good that I did, tell them to stop and talk about
Christ, because the only good in me is Christ.
If you saw good in me, please don't give me credit for it.
I'm not. Good.
Christ is good. He's aware that his boasting
it's excluded. On what principle?
On that of of observing the law, No.
But on that of faith we for we maintain that a man is justified
by faith apart from observing the law.
What is he saying there? He's saying your works are
incapable of saving you. I grieve for those who have
bought into this gospel that they sell so often in America,
that if you just do enough good, it will somehow outweigh the
bad. You cannot do enough good
because good does not live in you, in and of yourself.
Our works are incapable of saving us.
Romans 5 verse 19. Paul says this.
For just as through the disobedience of the one man,
talking about Adam, the many were made sinners, so also
through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made
righteous. This is the only way for you to
be made righteous. It is through the obedience of
Christ, not your own obedience, your own words.
It is the work of Christ that justifies us, and faith in that
alone. And so our works are incapable
of saving us because we're depraved sinners.
Only God can save sinners, and He does this apart from any work
that you do. He does this through the work of
Jesus Christ, through his atoning work and that alone.
Titus chapter 3 verse 5, it says this.
He saved us not because of righteous things we had done,
but because of his mercy. He saved us through the.
Washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
He saved us not because of anything that we could do.
Why we're not righteous? But he's righteous and his work
is able to save the unrighteous. Galatians chapter 2, verse 16.
He says this know that a man is not justified by observing the
law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.
So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus, that we may be
justified by faith in Christ Jesus and not by observing the
law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.
He takes it a step further. Down in 21 of that same 2nd
chapter in Galatians he says this.
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could
be gained through the law, your own works, if you could be saved
by your own works, Watch what he says.
Christ died for nothing. We have to be very careful in a
culture that is constantly preaching and teaching works
salvation. Your works cannot save you.
Your works are wicked in and of themselves, and if you think
your works can save you, you have set aside to the grace of
God. Paul says, I'm not going to do
that because it is the grace of God that saves me and allows me
to gain to that righteousness from God that comes apart from
the law. It is by grace.
That's what he's saying to the to the Galatians here.
I'm astonished that you were so quickly deserting the one who
called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a
different gospel, he says. Which is really no gospel at
all. Your words won't save you.
In fact, they can't save you because Ephesians chapter 2
makes it very clear if you, if you would just turn over one
book in your Bible there to Ephesians in the second chapter
and it says this. It says As for you, you were
dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live
when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of
the Kingdom of the air. He said you're spiritually dead
in your sin and you're following Satan.
That's for the unbeliever who we all used to be.
He says all of us also lived among them at one time,
gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature, following his
desires and thoughts like the rest.
We were by by nature objects of wrath.
But because of his great love for us, because of what his
great love for us, who God, who is rich in mercy made us alive
with Christ, who made us alive. He made us alive.
You didn't make yourself alive. You didn't draw near to God, and
he met you halfway. God, who is rich in mercy, made
us alive with Christ. Even when we were dead in
transgressions. You were dead in your
transgressions and God made you alive.
He rebirthed you, He regenerated you.
It is by grace you have been saved, not your works.
And God raised us up with Christ and seated us, us with him in
the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the
coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace
expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
Who's doing all this? It's God doing all this.
Your works aren't even involved in this, he says.
For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this
not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by
works, so that no one can boast. What is he saying here?
He's saying our works are incapable of saving us because
we are depraved sinners and our works are never good enough to
rescue us. It is Christ's work, His death
on the cross, His burial, his resurrection.
It is through Christ that a Sinner is saved and made
righteous and it is by faith. And what says God-given faith
that we access that? How do we know it's God-given
faith? Because he says it's by grace
and not of works so that you don't boast about it.
I believe and have faith in Christ because God regenerated
me to new life so that I could believe and have faith in Christ
with the gift of faith that God gave me.
He gets all the credit because he deserves all the credit.
And so unfortunately, many are depending upon their own works
and their own efforts to count for something before a holy God,
right. I walked an aisle, I prayed a
prayer. I turned my life over to Jesus.
I stood up at a stadium event just because some man told me to
stand up if I wanted heaven. Wrong answer.
That is no gospel at all.
And Paul was astonished that they would abandoned the grace
of God and turn back to works that are incapable of saving
men. If God could have saved a single
person through the law, why would he send Christ to die for
Sinner? It absolutely makes no logical
sense and it absolutely makes no biblical sense.
I join with Augustus top Lady, the rider of the old hymn Rock
of Ages, and I declare this not the labours of my hands can
fulfill the law's demands. Could my zeal no respite?
No Could my tears forever flow all for sin could not atone.
Thou must save, and thou alone. And so a gospel that is earned
by works. Please pay attention to me.
American Church in 2025 is no gospel at all.
It is another gospel, and it is a perversion.
Secondly, the gospel is not ecumenical tolerance.
Many of you would ask what in the world is ecumenical
tolerance? Verse 7, he says this the last
part, evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and
are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ and we need to go back
and we need to look exactly how were they perverting the gospel
of of Christ. They were perverting the Gospel
of Christ by trying to get the true believers to tolerate the
customs and the traditions that they were wanting to bring over
from Judaism. This is what we call ecumenical
tolerance. We see it in our day.
This is where new ideas and free thinking and philosophy in
regard to Christianity and doctrine, especially the gospel,
enter in. This is the reason that there
are so many different gospels today, right?
Because we've tolerated ecumenism.
This ecumenical tolerance is a movement in our day that is very
subtle. It is very dangerous, just like
a rattlesnake. He's very subtle.
He sneaks in, he rattles a little bit to charm his prey,
and before they know it, he strikes with deadly venom.
This is the problem with the ecumenical movement of our day,
right? When we all just get along for
the sake of getting along, we slip quietly into false teaching
and into a false gospel that introduces destructive heresies
and perverts the one true gospel, all in the name of
tolerance and unity and peace. Well, the problem with
ecumenical tolerance is this, and you can write this down.
It leaves sound doctrine. It abandons the foundational and
orthodox truths of Christianity that we have lived by for
thousands of years. It leaves sound doctrine, all in
the name of unity and peace, making it sound very good and
very spiritual, right? Aren't we to be a people of
unity? Yes, among ourselves.
Now, are we to be a people of peace?
Yes, internally and among ourselves.
But what the ecumenical movement does is they want us to be at
peace with them and to unify with them and all of their false
doctrine and all of their false teaching and just to give them a
big hug and let's all just agree and get along.
However, this is false peace, this is false unity, and it
comes at the cost of perverting the Gospel almost every single
time. Oh, it'll fill stadiums as we
light candles and sing kumbaya led by pure emotionalism, pure
feelings. But it isn't the true gospel.
It isn't the gospel that saves sinners.
It isn't the gospel that promotes the righteousness of
Christ. It's a gospel that promotes
another agenda which is outside of Christ.
The pastor, it must be right, he said.
Drew a crowd. Church, please listen to me.
That is pragmatism. That is embracing the idea that
it just because it draws a crowd or just because it works in our
mind, it must be right. Can I tell you, unifying with
people at the expense of the true gospel and sound doctrine
is never right. It's always wrong and we as
Christians can no longer adhere to this.
Crowds do not equal conversion. In fact, in John's 6th chapter
of his Gospel in. Verse 60 there Jesus preached a
pretty intense message and it says this in verse 60.
On hearing it, many of his disciples said this is a hard
teaching, who can accept it? We don't like this.
You drop down to 66, you see this?
From this time, many of his disciples turned back and no
longer followed him. Jesus wasn't trying to draw the
crowds. In fact, many times his message
pushed the crowds away. There's some people who like to
say, well, those people were saved and they lost their
salvation. That's not what John teaches in
his first epistle. He says they went out from us
because they were not of us. These were people who, as long
as you were embracing what they wanted you to embrace, they
tolerated you. But when Jesus preached a
message that they didn't like, man, they were gone.
Like yesterday's news, they were out of there.
Couldn't handle sound doctrine because the ecumenical tolerance
movement always leaves sound doctrine.
We can't abandoned the gospel. We can't abandoned sound
doctrine just because people tell us in doing so that we'll
keep peace. You know, this is not what Jesus
taught at all. The sad thing is most of you
don't even know this, but in Matthew chapter 10, here's what
Jesus taught about it. Verse 34 he says, do not suppose
that I have come to bring peace to the earth.
I did not come to bring peace, but a sword, for I have come to
turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
A man's enemies will be the members of his own household.
What would cause? This to happen, the gospel, the
true gospel of Jesus Christ, What it does is it divides
because when we hear the true gospel, it causes us to embrace
sound doctrine. It causes us to shun those who
do not embrace sound doctrine. It causes a mother to hate her
son because he's a Christian. It causes a father to hate his
children, a child to hate his mother.
It causes all these things to happen that we don't like.
And Jesus said, I didn't come to bring peace between the
believers and the unbelievers. I came to bring peace to the
believer, but I came to bring division.
I came to actually call a group of people.
Out from among the wicked, ecumenical tolerance leaves
sound doctrine and promotes the unity among believers and
unbelievers, among the sound and the unsound that Jesus himself
did not stand for, nor should we.
Why do you think Paul said in our Scripture reading?
Earlier, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for it
is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe,
first for the Jew and then for the Gentile.
Why did he have to say I'm not ashamed of this message?
Because there were many who were trying to make him ashamed of
this message. Because this message was
dividing people. This message was dividing homes
just as Jesus said that it would.
Paul says, I'm not going to change the message just so that
we can have false unity and false peace, just so we can get
along with one another. He would not leave or abandoned
the gospel. He would not leave or abandoned
sound doctrine in the name of ecumenical tolerance.
So we see that that toleration of acumenism leads to sound
doctrine or leaves, excuse me, sound doctrine, but it leads to
syncretism. Again, I know this, the word
that many of you have never even began to contemplate.
There are many and many so-called church movements who
would say, pastor, don't use terms like that because you're
going to confuse the people. How about we do it like this.
I've been entrusted to teach you the truth and somehow sometimes
in an understanding the truth, what you have to do is you have
to learn some new things. And so why don't, instead of me
just taking the easy road and dumbing it down for you and
insulting you because I don't want to do that, how about I
actually stop and I shepherd this flock and I teach you what
syncretism really is and how we see it all around us?
And if we're not aware of it is going to take Minnie down leads
to syncretism. What is that?
That's the mixing of sound doctrine with false doctrine.
That is thinking that you can put a.
Little bit of salt in a cup of water and it not become fully
salt water. That's foolish isn't it?
Because even the smallest hint of salt and fresh water, you
will taste it immediately. And So what syncretism does?
They mix sound doctrine with false doctrine, making it all
together false doctrine. How many of you get that that
you can't take sound doctrine and even introduce 1 little
small speck of unsound doctrine and still think you have sound
doctrine? Your doctrine is completely
perverted it at that point in time.
That's what Paul's telling those believers there at Galatia.
In fact, in chapter 5, he drives us home a little more
thoroughly. He says in verse 7, you were
running a good race who cut in on you and kept you from obeying
the truth. You were running grace alone
through faith alone in Christ alone, and accessing God's
righteousness through that and that alone.
And then all of a sudden somebody came in and they
started telling you, yeah, but you also have to keep the works
of the law like we did in Judaism.
You also have to be circumcised like God told Abraham.
And he says this. That kind of persuasion does not
come from the one who calls you. It's not from God.
He says a little yeast works through the whole batch of
dough. He says That little tweak that
they made trying to get you to synchronize with them trying to
get all of you on the same page you've all seen.
The the bumper. Stickers right where you got the
Darwin fish and he's holding the Star of David while he's walking
with a cross in the other hand. Can't we all just get along?
Coexist. That's.
What syncretism is There's nothing new.
There's nothing new under the sun, Solomon tells us.
But as we look at this, please see that it is very prevalent in
our day, as it was in the days of Paul mixing biblical
Christianity with unbiblical so-called Christianity.
Even now in our day, Americanized Christianity, which
is in fact frightening, or even. Worse, religions that aren't
Christian at all, right, where we say, you know what, we ought
to just unite with the Hindus, we ought to unite with the Jew,
or we ought to unite with the Muslim.
Unite with them. We ought to unite here, don't
you think? At least the Roman Catholics
unite with them. I am a Reformed Protestant.
Why would I reunite with the error of the Roman Catholic
Church? No, I would tell you all
plainly, stay away from those doctrines of demons.
They have taken the true gospel and they have intermingled it
with church tradition and the ideology of men, and they have
perverted the one true gospel. I don't make apology for that.
This is exactly what Paul is doing here.
And so I don't sync, synchronize with other religions ever.
But you don't understand, pastor, it's just a a community
event. It's just a political event.
Come on, let's all people of faith join together.
No, they may be people of faith, but they are not people of the
faith. And Paul tells us that we are to
contend for the faith that has once for all been entrusted to
us. And what is the faith?
It is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And we cannot compromise the gospel of Jesus Christ just
because people want us to synchronize with them.
It's exactly what Paul's telling them here not to do.
He says. Evidently, some people are
throwing you into confusion or trying to pervert the gospel of
Christ. How are they doing that?
Let's take a little Judaism. Let's take a little
Christianity. Let's put it in a jar.
Let's shake it up and see what we have.
But let's just all get along. We can't.
Jesus rebukes churches for doing just this.
You say he does. Yeah.
Have you not read the last book of the Bible, the Revelation of
Jesus Christ? There, in chapter 2, he actually
warns literal, specific churches about some things.
Two in particular stand out in regard to what we're talking
about today. Pergamum, which is found there
in Revelation chapter 2 in the 14th verse, and it says this
after telling them some of the good that they have done.
He says in verse 14. Nevertheless, I have a few
things against you. You have people there who hold
to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the
Israelites to send by eating food, sacrifice to idols and by
committing sexual immorality. He said you're.
Intermingling with the gospel, with sound doctrine, sexual
immorality and idolatry, he says.
Likewise, you have. You also have those who hold to
the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Now just to know a little bit
about the teachings of the Nicolaitans.
These are the people in the day who would say, you know what,
because we have grace, we can live any way that we want to
live. Do what we want to do.
Here's what Christ says to that church.
Repent therefore. Otherwise I will come to you and
will fight against you with the sword of my mouth.
Be warned, in church we are never called to synchronize with
false doctrine and false gospels.
He doesn't stop there. He also speaks to the Church of
Thyatira. He says in verse 20 of chapter
2. Nevertheless, I have this
against you. You tolerate the woman, the
woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess.
By her teaching, she misleads my servants into sexual immorality
and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.
What's going on here? You have this woman, Jezebel,
she's controlling and she's obviously somehow stepped into a
a role of being a prominent teacher in the church, which
should never be. And she is now misleading the
entire group of people into sexual immorality and eating
food sacrificed to idols. What is she doing?
She's taking paganism and she's taking Christianity and she's
mixing it all together. But isn't that what we do in our
day? We take a little paganism, we
take a little Christianity, we mix it all together.
Say we're all just trying to do our best as we journey on to
heaven. Can't we all just get along for
the sake of getting along? That's syncretism.
You kind of have an idea of what it is now, don't you?
And unfortunately, ecumenical tolerance leads to syncretism
most of the time. We're not called to tolerate.
We're not called to accept. We're not, and called to embrace
confusing perversions of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Never are we taught to do that. The gospel message is not
ecumenical tolerance. In fact, it is an intolerant
message. It is an exclusive message and
we don't care if the world hates us and if the world kills us
because we stand on the true gospel.
We cannot compromise the true gospel just to pacify the
pagans. Paul and his day dealt with, and
we're dealing with it in our day.
The gospel is not ecumenical tolerance #3 the gospel is not
evolving in nature. Verse 8, he says, But even if we
are, an Angel from heaven should preach the gospel other than the
one we preach to you. That's for the Mormons who
received another gospel from the Angel Moroni.
Watch what Paul says about this. Let them be eternally condemned,
as you have already said. So now I say again, if anybody
is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted,
let him be eternally condemned. Oh, it's a serious business.
Two different times Paul talks about eternal condemnation for
those who would pervert the gospel.
He says, if it's me, may I be eternally condemned.
If it's any of the other apostles, may they be eternally
condemned. If an Angel himself give you
another gospel other than the gospel that we preach, he said
let them be eternally condemned. This is serious business.
I want you to pay attention to it.
I want you to pay attention to things like this.
When when the the the so-called church in America is distracting
so many people right now, instead of teaching them sound
biblical truth, they're distracting them with new age
thinking. Pay attention to this.
The gospel is unchanging. It's not going to evolve, not by
the apostles, not by so-called apostles of today, not by an
Angel from heaven, not by a demon from hell.
If anyone delivers to you a gospel other than the gospel
that the Lord Jesus Christ preached that he passed down to
his apostles, that you believe that salvation if you're truly
saved. So if anyone brings you a
different gospel than that, you need to know what you're dealing
with. You're dealing with someone who
is eternally condemned. You are dealing with the dregs
of the dregs, the most wicked of the wicked.
Why is this important? Why is this important that we
understand that the gospel is not evolving in nature because
there are many who are making additions and many who are
making subtractions to the gospel in our time to make them
more acceptable. The gospel message cannot
change. It doesn't evolve over time.
Just as Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever,
the gospel that Jesus Christ preached just the same
yesterday, today, and forever. So we can't change it.
We can't change it for cultural preferences.
Don't we see that today, man? Those who seek and attempt to
change the gospel to meet the thought needs of the culture,
seeking to make it relevant or cool or hip?
To be honest with you, I'm quite nauseated.
By it, but we attempt to put the gospel in some attractive
package so that our culture will think it's relevant or preachers
try they they put more effort in being cool than they do studying
the word of God. And I say this to all of them.
Don't you think I'm cool? I'm cool.
No, I don't care anything about being cool.
I want to be biblical and I want to make sure that the gospel
that I preach is biblical, and I'm not going to allow that
gospel to be changed just because culture seeks to make
that gospel relevant in their day.
Has anything really changed? Sinners are still sinners.
They're still wicked, they're still depraved, and they are
still in need of the only sacrifice that has ever been
made that will purify A Sinner from their sin, and that is the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So those who seek to make the
gospel more entertaining, they do it simply because they
understand that we have a culture that demands
entertainment. Now they're all afraid to call
it what it is. I'll call it it's the idol of
entertainment. Our society thinks that they
have to be entertained all of the time.
And we cannot think that the gospel changes so that people
will be entertained. You know how I know this?
Because I know many people who won't read their Bible, but
they'll watch the Chosen, a perversion of the Bible.
You say a perversion of the Bible.
Yeah, a perversion of the Bible, because they don't take the
Bible word for word. What they do is they actually
use artistic license or liberty to make it fit the agenda that
they're trying to spew out. Not on many of you.
You're going to get mad because you're more loyal to ATV Show
than you are to Christ himself, and that's quite all right.
Get mad. The reality is you're not mad at
me, you're mad at the truth. And we have a culture that is so
driven by entertainment that many people think that we have
to somehow evolve the gospel to fit our generation, right?
We got to have some sermon clip before the preacher ever gets up
there, after he walks out of his green room, because he doesn't
associate with the normal people, because he'd never stoop
that. Low.
He walks out of his green room drinking Starbucks in his skinny
pants to entertain the people, and he leaves out the gospel
where he gives them the shallow, unbiblical gospel.
Why? Because the culture says
entertain us, entertain us, so that's what we do.
No, the gospel is not evolving in nature.
It has not become something that we use to entertain people.
The Gospel is the truth of the Word of God.
It is the message of the death, the burial, the resurrection of
Jesus Christ. And that cannot change, not for
people's cultural. Preferences.
Not for what they like or dislike, Not to market it to a
crowd who would otherwise not receive it.
Oh, don't we see that nowadays? Let's make the gospel marketable
because the old gospel didn't sell.
Let me just tell you something. I'm not here to sell the gospel.
I'm here to preach the gospel as the gospel is preached.
God does what He does with the Word of God as it goes forth.
I'm not in charge of the results.
But do you know that there are churches who spend endless
amounts of money on marketing schemes and marketing campaigns
to try to make the gospel more attractive and more appealing so
that people will choose this message over the alternative?
You know, the problem with that is this.
The true gospel speaks nothing of that at all.
The true gospel has never been about man choosing God, but it's
always been about God choosing man.
Oh, you don't believe me? Why don't you go to the first
disciples who were there just doing what they did.
They sinned and they fished and Jesus met them and they're
sinning in and they're fishing. He said leave your Nets and come
and follow me. So with that, does that really
him choosing him? I don't know.
He tells him in John 1516 this plainly he says you did not
choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear
fruit, fruit that will last. I don't have to market Jesus so
that man can choose Jesus. I have to preach Jesus so that
they hear the word of God and God would effectually choose
them and call them out of darkness into His marvelous.
Light I don't have to package that up into something pretty.
Try to make it. Easy for men to choose him.
Know what I have to do is I have to preach the truth and let the
choosing fall on the shoulders of the one who does the
choosing. In fact, John chapter 6, verse
44, the Scripture, we often forget.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him and
I will raise him up at the last day.
No one's coming to Christ because of your marketing
campaign or your marketing schemes.
Your American ideas of advertisement People are coming
to Christ when God himself, by his grace and by his sovereign
power, calls them out of darkness and into light,
regenerating them so that they can believe and so that they can
repent. That's the gospel of Jesus
Christ and. It doesn't change.
We can't allow it to change, not on our watch.
Well, it can't change. Not for cultural preferences,
not for comfort purposes. Don't people want us to change
the gospel to make it comfortable for other people?
Now, Pastor, you need to calm down a little bit.
Calm down with what I'm passionate about.
A message that God spoke through a preacher to me one day.
It was the words of life that rescued this filthy, rotten
center from the hell that I deserved, that declared to me
that God loves me in spite of me, and He loved me enough to
send His only begotten Son to this earth to die in my place,
bearing the wrath that I deserved.
And you want me to calm down about that?
That's the greatest story ever told.
Why would I not tell that with passion in my heart and passion
in my lungs and passion from my voice?
We're not here to make people comfortable.
Right give us a more palatable message, pastor, could you maybe
you know, do ain't the pulpit and get maybe a pub table with
the water on it that you never drink because it makes us feel
like we're just in a pub having a good time We're.
Not in a pub having a good time. We're in a church where Christ
is to be exalted and Christ is to be preached and Christ is to
be honored. That's where we are.
We're. Not going to change the message
to make you comfortable. Well, change it just a little,
right? Don't include the judgement and
the wrath and the hell that is to come upon the unbeliever that
makes them uncomfortable. How about you could preach a a
less confining message, right? Encouraging followers, instead
of living holy lives, to just use grace as a license to sin,
right? You're saved.
So do whatever in the world that you want to do.
That's called antinomianism. It's been around a while.
It's a heresy, and it always will be a heresy, to think that
you can claim to have the grace of God and then live any way
that you want to live. That's an American ideal.
Violate Scripture. Romans 6.
Paul says this. What shall we say then?
Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
By no means, God forbid. We didn't.
We died to sin. How can we live in it any
longer? But isn't it true of the
American church? We have taken grace and made
grace a license to sin because we preach a less confining
gospel, right? We preach the gospel, the gospel
of freedom. You know what the scripture
says. Do not use your freedom to
indulge in your sinful nature. How about a less offensive
message, Pastor? Remove the offensive nature of
the gospel so as not to offend anyone.
Paul says this in First Corinthians.
He says in chapter 1, verse 18. For the message of the cross is
foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are
being saved, it is the power of God.
It's foolishness to the lost people.
They're not going to understand it until God quickens them so
that they can see the truth. It will always be offensive and
it will always be foolish to them until God does a work.
Again, I am not responsible for that work.
I'm responsible to preach the pure message of the gospel of
Jesus Christ. And so are all of you who claim
to be in Christ. Don't look for a less offensive
message for the comfort of people.
How about a more attractive message?
You get to keep the world. You get to keep the indulgences
of the world. You get to have Jesus too.
There is no forsaking of yourself.
There's no coming out of your sexual immorality.
There's no coming out of your drunkenness.
There is no coming out of your gossip or your slander or your
lying. How about we preach a gospel
that's more attractive, right? You get to live the same way
you've always been living, catering to the pleasures of
your flesh, indulging in sin. And you get heaven in the end.
Doesn't that sound like the American gospel in a nutshell?
I've told you I've been to enough funerals.
Everyone goes to heaven because we're all pretty good old boys
and gals, which is not the gospel.
Could you give us a more attractive message?
Here's the message that Jesus preached.
He says if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross and follow me.
That's the message of Christ. Self denial, willingness to
suffer for his glory and for his message for his name's sake.
That's the message of the gospel.
The gospel message cannot change, is not evolving in
nature because the attempt to change the gospel comes with
consequences. Pay attention to what Paul says
there about the consequences. He says let him be eternally
condemned. If an Angel or an apostle or
pastor or so-called evangelist or politician or whoever it may
be preaches a gospel message that is not the true gospel, he
says let him be eternally condemned.
I want you to understand that because when you attempt to
change the gospel, there are consequences that follow no
matter who you are. An apostle, an Angel, Sunday
school teacher, a plumber, electrician.
Satan introduces these lies into the churches.
How does he do it? That's why Paul takes the stance
that he takes Second Corinthians Chapter 11 and tells us this.
He says, for such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen
masquerading as apostles of Christ.
That's why Paul said that even one of us gives you a different
gospel. Beware of this person, he says,
and no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an Angel of
light. It is not surprising then, if
his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness.
Their. End will be what their actions
deserve. What is their end?
Eternal condemnation, that's the warning that Paul is giving.
That is why it is so important that we understand the true
gospel and we avoid all of these false gospels that are out there
because. Eternal condemnation will come
upon those who teach those Gospels and those who those
gospels lead astray. It's very important that we
understand that the Gospel is not evolving in nature.
So we see this. It's not earned by our works.
It's not ecumenical tolerance. It's not evolving in nature.
Lastly, it's not eagerly accepted.
Paul says something in verse 10 that you might think
immediately. This seems kind of out of place.
He's warning them that if someone preaches a gospel,
that's not the gospel that I preach, even if it's an Angel or
another one of us. He said let them be eternally
condemned. What Paul is doing here, he's
standing up when others are not willing to stand.
It was chaos going on at the Church of Galatia.
There were these Judaizers who had crept in there and they were
introducing a false gospel. And this false gospel obviously
was more eagerly accepted, right?
We get to keep Judaism and we get to keep all the traditions
that we were brought up in and. We get the gospel of Jesus
Christ, which when you intermingled the two, there was
no gospel of Jesus Christ left at all.
It was the gospel of these who would pervert it.
And Paul says, am I now trying to win the approval of men or of
God, or am I now trying to please men?
If I was still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of
Christ. And so the true gospel has been
often altered so that people will will more eagerly accept
it. However, please listen to me
Church. We should never alter the gospel
so that it will be more eagerly accept it.
It's a true gospel will by nature.
It will by nature offend people. It will by nature not be
appealing to man's flesh. Oh, I remember the day that I
heard the gospel when I was saved.
That preacher was telling me how rotten and how awful.
And how sinful I was. And I remember in that moment
I'm thinking, who does this guy think he is telling me how awful
I am? Little did I know that God was
working to regenerate my heart, to show me just how right that
man was, that I am in and of myself, awful and unrighteous
and sinful and wicked, and I did need a Savior.
So the gospel message, the true gospel message, is not eagerly
accepted because it is an offensive message.
John MacArthur said it like this.
He said the Gospel is not a message that tells people what
they want to hear. It's a message that tells them
what they need to hear. That's why it's offensive.
It tells you what you need to
hear, and you might not be ready to hear that at that time.
And so it offends you because the true gospel confronts man's
sin. It crushes man's pride.
It deems man sinful and helpless and spiritually dead and
incapable of having a right relationship with his Creator.
Then it goes on and it declares an exclusive salvation in Christ
alone, and it demands repentance and surrender to Jesus as Lord
and Savior. Then it promises persecution to
all who embrace it. But it also promises hell and
judgement to all those who do not.
And so the gospel by nature can be offensive to the natural ear,
can't it? But just because the gospel is
offensive, we don't have to change it so that it will be
eagerly accepted, because it is. So offensive because so many are
offended by it. Here's often the reason why
churches and pastors and ministries think that they have
to A water it down. B Sugar coat it.
Or see completely leave it out. And all of those are wrong.
The gospel is offensive. May we not forget church, please
listen. May we not forget what they
desired to do to Jesus because of the message that he preached.
May we not forget that our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ in
John chapter 8 verse 40, he calls the Pharisees out.
They say we're children of Abraham.
He says no, you're not your children of Satan because
children of Abraham don't plot what you're plotting.
You're plotting to kill me. Why were they plotting to kill
him? Because of the message of truth,
the gospel that he preached, the message of repentance and faith
unto God for salvation. That alone may we not forget
what they did to Stephen, first martyr to follow in the
footsteps of Christ. Acts Chapter 7 what did they do
as he knelt and they plotted to stone him to death after
preaching the clear passionate gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
says in verse 59. While they were stoning him
there in Acts Chapter 7, he prayed.
Lord Jesus received my spirit. And then he fell on his knees
and cried out, Lord, do not hold this sin against them.
And when he said this, he fell asleep.
Now, what did Steven do? He didn't change the message so
that they were would eagerly accept it.
He preached the wrong message of the gospel, knowing that they
were probably going to kill him for it.
And as they killed him for it, you know what he did?
He prayed for their souls. That's the gospel, Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do.
God, we're dependent upon your mercy and your forgiveness and
that alone. Stephen didn't try to make the
gospel more acceptable. He told them point blank, the
Messiah came and you killed him. They didn't like it and they
gnashed their teeth and they picked up stones to end his
life. But even then, he would not
change the gospel to be less offensive.
He knew it would have cost him his life.
May we not forget about that. May we not forget about the
brother of John James who was killed by the sword under King
Agrippa there in Acts chapter 12.
Why was he killed? Same message, The gospel he
preached, the truth that Jesus preached, that Stephen preached.
He came to the same fate. Why?
Because the gospel message is so offensive that sometimes those
who will not accept it want to stop.
Those who preach it now venture to say this in light of
Scripture and in light of history.
A gospel message that doesn't offend is no gospel message at
all. William Garnol said this.
The world loves the gospel that lets it sin and go to heaven,
but the gospel that calls it to holiness and self denial is an
offense. Isn't that true in our day?
A gospel that calls people to self denial and away from sin
and into holiness service to God.
That gospel is offensive to men. It is an offensive message.
Therefore, it's not eagerly accepted, but it's also an
unappealing message. I spoke a moment ago about
people trying to appeal to men so that the gospel will be
appealing to them. The true gospel is unappealing.
It doesn't appeal to our flesh. It can't appeal to our flesh.
It's not fleshly. It's a spiritual message that
must be spiritually discerned. Is that not what Paul said?
The natural man can't understand the things of the Spirit because
they are spiritually discerned. Many of you would testify there
were many times in your life before you can't became a
follower of Christ and surrendered to Him.
You heard the message of the gospel.
It meant nothing to you. But on that one particular day
God used that message and he effectually called you out of
darkness and in delight through that message and you were truly
saved forever more. Why is that?
Because he opened your spiritual.
Deaf ears to hear the truth. He opened your spiritually blind
eyes to see the truth. He opened your spiritually dead
soul to receive the truth. Because the true gospel is not
eagerly accepted by man, not in their flesh and not on their
own. Because the true gospel calls us
to forsake sin and self in the world and to surrender to Christ
alone. The true gospel is the gospel
and we see Jesus preach the rich young ruler when he says, I've
done all these good things and Jesus, I bet you have.
Now go sell everything that you own and come and follow me there
in Luke chapter 18. And he went away sad, unsaved,
because he had great possessions.
It was unappealing to him. Think of all of his riches that
he had acquired and inherited just to be given away to someone
else. He would not obey Christ.
And a gospel that does not call for obedience to Christ is no
gospel at all. It is unappealing to the Sinner.
So what men do is they try to make it appealing, and they err
dreadfully. Unbelievers love their sin.
So what we try to do is we try to make the gospel a little
easier. Swallow, don't we?
But John in his gospel he said this chapter 3 verse 19.
This is the verdict. Light is coming to the world,
that men love darkness instead of the light because their deeds
were evil. Everyone who does what is evil
hates the light and will not come into the light for fear
that his deeds will be exposed. It is the true gospel that
exposes the deeds of men. I'm so thankful that the true
gospel was preached to me on that day in my life, exposing my
sinful deeds, my sinful nature, revealing to me my deep need for
Jesus Christ to rescue me and to save me.
It is an unappealing message. It demands repentance.
Is that not the message Jesus preached?
Matthew chapter 4 verse 17. You don't think that's the
message Jesus preached? Go read it, it's pretty simple.
From that time on, Jesus began to preach repent, for the
Kingdom of heaven is near. Have you noticed in our day the
the message of repentance is all but left out of the so-called
gospel? Why?
Because repentance is not appealing.
You mean I have to turn from what I like and what I prefer
and what I enjoy to have Christ? Yes, it is a part of the gospel
message. You must repent, you must
believe. The gospel demands it.
It rejects our own self righteousness.
Doesn't the true gospel reject our righteous, our thought Good.
Remember the Pharisee in the tax collector in Luke chapter 18?
Oh, isn't that an interesting exhibit of this?
The Pharisee thanking God that he's not like that filthy tax
collector, while the filthy tax collectors over there hiding his
face from God, feels that he's unworthy to even come into God's
presence. He just.
Throws his hands to the heaven and he cries out for mercy.
And you know what Jesus said the the tax collector went away
justified. Why?
Because the Pharisee was holding on to his self righteousness,
his own thought good. And it's not appealing to
mankind to think that I have to throw away all my thought good.
I'm a pretty good person. No you're not.
There are no good people. There are only sinners who are
in need of a Savior and Christ. Is that Savior?
Repent and trust in Him today. That is the true gospel.
That is the gospel that says. It's an unappealing message for
many reasons that I've mentioned, but I don't want to
leave this out because it's an exclusive message.
So I'm appealing the most because it's exclusive.
Jesus said in John 14, six, I am the way, the truth and the life
and no one comes to the Father but by me.
There is no other way. There is no other name given
under heaven whereby men must be saved.
And our diversity, equity, inclusion driven society hates
that message just as they hated it in the day of Paul as he
wrote to the Galatians. It drives them crazy to think
that there is but one way and it's not their way.
But Jesus said this. He said enter through the narrow
gate and I'm done for. Wide is the gate and broad is
the road that leads to destruction and many enter
through it. We often forget about that wide
gate and that wide Rd. is there's a sign above the door
that says heaven and has an arrow.
But that's a lie, because there's only one way He says
this about it. But small is the gate, and
narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Only a few find it. Oh, beware, Church, when you see
multitudes flocking to a so-called gospel, be very leery
of it, because only if you find it.
I pray today that God would have mercy on you, that He would
point you to the true gospel by looking at what the false
gospels are. I'm looking at what the gospel
isn't so you can know what the gospel is.
And that today He would rescue your wretched soul.
For those of you who are here today who are believers, you're
saved today because someone preached to you the true gospel
or you're not saved at all. Be thankful for that and rejoice
that God sent a messenger with the unadulterated gospel of
Jesus Christ and he put his life and his neck on the line.
He risked offending everybody in the room so that you could hear
the truth and be saved. Be thankful for that.
Be thankful for those who stand on the true gospel so that
you're not thrown into confusion, so that your children
are not thrown into confusion. To the unbeliever, I say this to
you and looking at what the gospel isn't today, all you have
heard intermingled through it all the true gospel and what it
is. And I would encourage you today,
surrender to Jesus Christ according to the true gospel
that you have heard. In desperation, cry out to him
to forgive you of your sin to save you, to cleanse you from
the wrath that you deserve, the judgment that you deserve, the
sin that has defiled a holy God. Repent and believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ today. Let's pray together.
Father, in the name of Jesus, we come to you.
Thanking you so much for your word.
God, I thank you for the patience of your people and
hearing it out. Enduring sound doctrine.
But I thank you for the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the
power of God unto salvation for all who believe.
God, I pray according to Your will and by your mercy and your
grace that there be 1 here among us today.
Who does not know you, Lord, that you would have mercy on
them today and you would draw them out of the darkness of sin
and draw them to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior today, That they
would repent, turning from their unbelief and sin turning to you
and you alone. We know that you are faithful to
save all who call upon your name.
But again, we thank you for the gospel, for how you have rescued
us through the truth of it. We give you glory in Jesus name,
Amen. Would you stand to your feet
now? You've been listening to Key
Life Fellowships Pulpit Ministry podcast.
Join us each week for more teaching from God's Word.