No Other Gospel

INTRO

Good morning Church

Im Jed Church  //  Creative assistant 

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PREFACE

Today we are going to be in Galatians 1

But before we dive into the text

We need to define the gospel

There are many false gospels and teachings that have come around in the last 2000 years since Christ.

But the True Biblical Gospel is so simple, in fact the word used for “Gospel” in the bible translates to just "Good News"

The Bible defines the gospel as:

The message that Jesus paid the penalty of our sin when He gave His life on the cross, and that all we need do to have eternal life is to believe and trust that His sacrifice was enough.

This is so simple and that simplicity is one of the beautiful things about Christianity

With that in mind we jump in to Paul’s letter to the church of Galatia

News has reached Paul about the Galatian church that has moved him deeply.

He writes this

READ SCRIPTURE - Galatians 1:6-10

English Standard Version Chapter 1

No Other Gospel

6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

PRAY

Normally after his introduction Paul says, either he’s thankful for them, praying for, or something along those lines, but in this letter he skips all of that

He is clearly upset by there actions and is very serious about corrected it

Have you ever walked into a room after you did something wrong, and maybe it was your spouse, your parent, boss, etc. and the very first thing they say is yelling at you for doing that thing.

There’s no greeting, there’s no small talk it’s just straight to the issue.

That’s exactly what Paul is doing here

They made a change to the gospel, and ANY change no mater how big or small automatically makes it a FALSE gospel

A group of teachers in Galatia had taught that Gentile (non-Jewish) Christians had to observe all the Jewish dietary laws and be circumcised for full acceptance and to be completely pleasing to God.

But by insisting on Christ-plus-something-else as the requirement for full acceptance by God, they were presenting a whole different way of relating to God from the one Paul gave them

Paul forcefully and unapologetically fought the “different gospel”, because to lose your grip of the true gospel is to desert and lose Christ Himself.

“deserting him who called you” YOU ARE DESERTING GOD. Abandoning him for a false gospel

now why was following these teachings a desertion of the gospel?

after all they were only adding parts of the old law.

the law that God had originally created and commanded.

The reason why is becuase of the definition of the gospel we set earlier.

“Jesus paid the penalty of our sin when He gave His life on the cross, and that all we need do to have eternal life is to believe and trust that His sacrifice was enough.”

there is no adding to this, even if the old law required it that law has been fulfilled through christs death, burial, and resurrection.

POINT ONE — There is no adding to the gospel

How do people “add to the gospel” today in ways that diminish its power?

Being good gets you to God.

You need to perform certain rituals, or dress in the right way, to be a Christian.

You need to FEEL overwhelming love for Jesus to truly be saved.

Paul’s gospel is the true gospel

we covered not adding the old law

but there is also no adding anything new

This has been done time after time from then to now

((EXPANDING HERE))

verse 8 says “even if an angel from heaven”

And mormons say just that about their additions to the bible

why do we know none of this is supposed to be added.

(1.) The definition of the Gospel

(2.) The inerrancy of scripture

Inerrancy of Scripture

These claims that Paul is making are huge.

literally saying that the people doing this which might seem, small or unimportant or even the right thing to them is in reality causing them to desert God for something that they may still call Him but is in fact false.

So to agree with him we need to understand the Inerrancy of scripture

The basis for the doctrine of biblical inerrancy is located both in the nature of God and in the Bible’s teaching about itself.

First, if God is perfect—all-knowing, all-wise, all-good—it follows that God speaks the truth. God does not tell lies; God is not ignorant. God’s Word is thus free from all error arising either from conscious deceit or unconscious ignorance. Such is the unanimous confession of the psalmist, the prophets, the Lord Jesus and the apostles.

Second, the Bible presents itself as the Word of God written. Thus, in addition to its humanity (which is never denied), the Bible also enjoys the privileges and prerogatives of its status as God’s Word. God’s Word is thus wholly reliable, a trustworthy guide to reality, a light unto our path.

And with the inerrancy of scripture that leads us to point number 2.

POINT TWO — There is to subtracting from the gospel

we cant pick and choose the things we want to believe or listen to.

Everything God said is Gods word

Now there is things we need to know and understand when reading the Bible

What type of writing it is, litteral, poetic, etc.

Cultural things

Context of who the book was written for

BUT the whole Bible is not just for the people of the time it was written but for us today as well.

Galatians was written specifically for the people of Galatia

and still to this day every word written to them his applicable to and for us

Its common to hear people say that things are different now

some of that stuff in the bible cant apply to us today

if they church keeps teaching that in todays culture it will be come irrelevant

Not a single one of these statements in true

and the Bible actually talked about this

READ SCRIPTURE - Ecclesiastes 1:8-11

The New International Version Chapter 1

The eye never has enough of seeing,

nor the ear its fill of hearing.

9 What has been will be again,

what has been done will be done again;

there is nothing new under the sun.

10 Is there anything of which one can say,

“Look! This is something new”?

It was here already, long ago;

it was here before our time.

11 No one remembers the former generations,

and even those yet to come

will not be remembered

by those who follow them.

So when we look at the teachings of the gospel, there is nothing that is to old fashioned or out of date

And in addition to that

POINT THREE — None of us are exceptions

It is our human nature to assume we are the one exception.

sometimes its concisely sometimes its not

We all do it all the time, even in small silly ways

So we have all been driving down Hall rd or Gratiot and had some guy in a charger challenger

its always those two cars every single time

and as soon as the light turns green the floor it and speed off, mean while if you were in the lane next to them with the window down you have now gone deaf.

and they tailgate everyone and weave through traffic

It would always be a pet peeve of mine Alyssa can attest that i would get so upset sometimes

I always thought if I drove a car like that i would never drive like that. I would be 10 & 2 setting the cruze control 2mph under the limit and so calm

But it turns out......

we had a rental car on vacation and i did basically all of those

put it in to sport mode etc

I thought i was going to be the one exception

I would be different and better than all those other people

But no i was not an exception

and as silly as that is its the same thing when it comes to being exceptions to Gods commands

But there are no exceptions to Gods word

Gods more worried about other peoples “Bigger sins”

yeah this is a sin but in my context its really not that bad

((EXPAND MORE))

THE FLIP SIDE

God can love or forgive other people but not me

i know salvations through works isn’t in the gospel, but man i have sinned so much i must need to

((EXPAND MORE))

CLOSING

Landing the plane and wrap up

Church we need to remember the importance of knowing and understanding the true gospel

there are a lot of people and teachings that go against the Gospel

and even our own sinful nature can start to lead us away.

the scariest part is so many of these false gospels can look like the right gospel.

this is why knowing and understanding what the bible and gospel really says is so important for all of us.

not just for pastors or small group leaders.

it is our responsibility for all of us as christians to know this

so we don’t fall into those false gospels

so we can help our fellow Christians avoid them

so we can call it out like Paul did

Pray

Command and own the prayer at end

Benediction closing