THE UNCHANGING GOSPEL IN A CHANGING WORLD

INTRODUCTION

Stats and create the need for the importance of clinging to the Gospel.

Paul’s main point he is telling the Galatians in these few verses is that there is no other Gospel. Here is the main of the sermon: How to cling to the Gospel in a world of tolerance.

Paul gives us three ways that help us cling to the Gospel.

We must recognize the danger of false Gospels. Look at the danger

Galatians 1:6–7 CSB

I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

Paul jumps right into the letter with this expression of astonishment. In every one of Paul’s letters after he writes his greeting there is usually some encouragement for the church. A small note of, hey guys you are doing a good job in this way, or I’ve heard this great news about your faith, or I’ve been praying for you. But here, there is none of that. Paul goes right for the jugular, he wastes no time getting to the heart of why this letter is being written. Paul is angry, frustrated, and surprised at how quickly the Galatians have turned away from Christ to a false Gospel. Why this is so surprising is not the fact that after Paul planted the church they began to turn away, but instead, he’s referring to the amount of time from these false teachers began preaching to the Galatians to when they began to turn away!

CONTEXT: Joel mentioned this last week, but the issue for the Galatian church is that there were Jews who came to the region of Galatia and begin to preach a false Gospel. They came to the church in Galatia and said, “We know that Paul preaches that it is only through Christ alone by faith alone that you are made right before God(justification), but that’s not entirely true.” “You see you do need Jesus, and we are all about Jesus, but you need Jesus plus a few other things and then you can be made right before God. You need Jesus AND you need to follow these certain laws. You need to dress like we do, think like we do, and behave like we do, then you will be made right and forgiven.” The Galatians had come from a pagan background. Pluralistic, tolerant, open minded. What’s so bad about just adding a few little things to Jesus? Doesn’t that make the Gospel better?!

we reverse the Gospel

we can live one of two ways: I am good therefore I get God’s grace or I have received God’s grace therefore I can lead a good life. The order is inmportant to Paul

distort means to turn inside out.

EXPLANATION: This is the danger of false Gospels. The lead us into believing that Jesus isn’t enough. They lead us into believing that we can actually add to the work of Christ. They lead us into believing that we need more than the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus to be saved. As Tim Keller says, “as soon as you revise the Gospel, you being to reverse the Gospel.”

They lead us away from Christ(grace)

Paul says that the Galatians by believing these messages were actually turning away from “Him who called you by the grace of Christ.” Notice how Paul doesn’t just say, you are turning away from the Gospel, but he refers to turning away from God Himself. It’s a reminder, when we begin to trust in something other than Jesus, it’s not that we are simply disagreeing with a certain doctrine, but we are deserting a personal Savior. The word for turning away, or deserting, is a word that is used in war, it means to be a traitor. To turn your back on your people. To switch sides. Our culture preaches that to be a good person you have to be an open minded tolerant person. Paul says, be careful, that in your openmindedness, in your “tolerance” you don’t begin to trust in something or someone other than Jesus.

There is no other good news(just leads you towards condemnation) Martin Luther quote

Leads us away from grace

We live in a graceless society. Outside of Jesus there is no grace. There is image, works, cancel culture, and a mob mentality. No grace.

Now why would we desert Jesus? Why would we turn away?

Galatians facing social pressure, possibly some persecution, lived in a culture that hated the exclusivity of the Gospel.

Parable of the sewer

What are some dangerous false Gospels today?

If only good people could be saved that would be no good news at all.

Gospel of family

family comes in the way of people believing the Gospel in Taiwan and it does here as well.

Wealth

Comfort

Nationalism

“Seeing so many friends and family that claim to love and follow Jesus pledge their allegiance to nationalism and Trump.” Straw that broke the camels back.

Who you feel tells you the truth?

In fact they did an info graphic??

Voting a certain way doesn’t increase your status before God

Materialism

Consumerism

APPLY

World: “Follow your heart.”

Jesus: “Follow me.”

World: “Believe in yourself.”

Jesus: “Believe in me.”

World: “Discover yourself.”

Jesus: “Deny yourself.”

World: “Be true to you.”

Jesus: “Be true to me.”

An interview with Laszlo Hanyecz, who in 2010, purchased two Papa Johns pizza’s using 10,000 Bitcoin. 10,000 Bitcoin is currently worth over $280M. Trading the Gospel for no Gospel at all.

We must be able to discern false Gospels. Be discerning

Galatians 1:8–9 CSB

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, a curse be on him! As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!

A question we might be asking? How do discern what is true and what is not? How can be sure? Paul is going to give us a way to discern false Gospels.

EXPLANATION: Paul tells the Galatians you have to be discerning. He says the way they do that is by taking all the messages they hear and lining them up with the Gospel that he preached and that they received. I want us to see the extreme language Paul is using here. This isn’t something we talk about very often. He has so much confidence in the Gospel that he says, even if he came back or an angel suddenly appeared and preached a message different than what they received he and that angel should be accursed. Anathema. It’s a serious word. And just to be sure that people didn’t think Paul was just blowing a fuse and emotional, he repeats the same thing twice. He’s making it very clear. And Paul includes himself in this statement! The Gospel judges Paul, not the other way around. Tim Keller says that “the Bible judges the church, the church doesn’t judge the Bible.”

So let’s break this down together. If Paul says we are to be discerning by filtering everything through the Gospel. The first thing we have to do is say, okay what is the Gospel Paul preached? Turn to 1 Corinthians 15:1-6

1 Corinthians 15:1–6 CSB

Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel I preached to you, which you received, on which you have taken your stand and by which you are being saved, if you hold to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers and sisters at one time; most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep.

The Gospel is the good news of how God has reconciled us back to Himself, not by any work that you or I have done, but by the life, the death, and the resurrection of His Son. Jesus stood in your place. He stood in my place, He took the wrath of God on Himself, so we wouldn’t have to. He cancelled the record of debt that stood against us and delivered from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of the beloved Son. There’s nothing you or I could add to His work. All of this was according to God’s plan from the very beginning to redeem a people for Himself.

That is the Gospel that the God called the Galatians to. That is the power of God’s grace that transformed their lives. That is the message of power that caused these idol worshipping pagans to forsake their idols and turn to Christ! And changing that Gospel just a little bit, adding to it even just a little bit is damning. Paul says that those who preach a false Gospel will be under God’s curse.

This word anathema means to be cursed. It’s basically like saying “they can go to hell.” In saying this Paul implies that the false teachers are not from God, but from Satan, and that they will suffer this eternal punishment. He later says in Galatians they have been “bewitched” and that these false teachers if they like circumcision so much they can go emasculate themselves! If you think only Paul says this about false teachers look at what Jesus says

Matthew 18:6 CSB

“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to fall away—it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea.

The Bible doesn’t place tolerance and open mindedness as a the highest value. Our culture does. But the Bible does not. The Gospel demands that we have convictions and believe.

G.K. Chesteron said you can be so open minded that your brains fall out.

While we live in a culture that, from Disney to News Outlets, preaches that we should doubt everyone else except ourselves, Paul says doubt everything even yourself, if you are found to be contradicting the Gospel.

EXCLUSIVITY OF THE GOSPEL: Hearing this with our 21st century modern ears, we cringe a little bit don’t we? Why so serious Paul? I mean Paul can’t you be a little more tolerant. What if they are nice people? What if they came from good families? It seems like they are really popular as well. What if they have a million followers on Tik Tok. We live in a culture where popularity=authority. That if a video or a tweet has millions of views we automatically equate with authority. But just because someone is popular or a celebrity doesn’t mean that they have any authority to speak on a subject. And Paul says if they are preaching a false Gospel, Jesus plus anything else, they are under God’s curse, His wrath. All roads don’t lead to God. All religions are inherently not the same. Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses do not preach the Gospel.

One of the reasons the world hates the Gospel because it is exclusive. The Gospel says that there is no way humanity can be saved, except through believing in Jesus and in Him alone. Radically exclusive. There is something inside of us that gets bothered by that.

You might say, why does it have to be so exclusive

Imagine there was someone who was walking around pretending to be Allison’s husband(my wife). This guy would tell everyone that he was married to her, act in those ways, buy flowers for her. Should I sit there, and be like well it’s okay because he’s a nice guy, and yeah my wife is beautiful. I’m going to work on being tolerant. No way! My wife belongs me and me to her exclusively. That means I’m not going to let this guy act like he is married to her.(BETTER ACTUAL ILLUSTRATION) Mormon guys in Taiwan?

While the Gospel is exclusive, the Gospel is also radically inclusive. Jesus says, “all who come to me I will give rest” “whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” White black, democrat, republican, libertarian, all can be justified through Christ alone by faith alone. Or as Jerry Springer says in a tweet before he died:

"I've been virtually everything you can't respect: a lawyer, a mayor, a major-market news anchor and a talk-show host. Pray for me. If I get to heaven, we're all going."

Jerry Springer d. 4/2023

Yes the Gospel is even available for people like Jerry Springer.

So Pauls says we cling to the Gospel in a tolerant culture by being discerning and rejecting anything that doesn’t line up with the truth of the Gospel.

APPLICATION

Gospel fluency stuff? Fruit to root? Lies in our own mind.

We must check our desires. Look at your desires.

Galatians 1:10 CSB

For am I now trying to persuade people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

EXPLANATION: The Judaizers were accusing Paul of changing his teaching to please people. Accused Paul of abandoning the Galatians. Accused Paul of being a people pleasing preacher who just wanted the Galatians approval.

Paul combats this by saying his desire is not to be accepted by men, not to live for man’s approval, but instead to live a life that desires to please God. In 1 Thessalonians 2:4

1 Thessalonians 2:4 CSB

Instead, just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please people, but rather God, who examines our hearts.

2 Corinthians 5:15 CSB

And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.

How does being a people pleasure a problem?

Paul tells the Galatians if your main desire is to please people, it’s going to be hard for you to follow Christ. If our main desire as a church is just that people will like us, we won’t cling to the Gospel in a tolerant world. It’s the old quote that says if you don’t stand up for something you will fall for anything.

Jesus warns us of this John 15:18-19

John 15:18–19 CSB

“If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.

Re-order your desires. Desire to be a servant of Christ. Root your identity in being a servant of Christ not accepted by people. Root your identity in being a servant of Christ not a slave to people’s approval.

If we live for people’s acceptance we will die by their rejection.

A woman on a bus tour was reported missing by her bus driver at Iceland, according to TIME, with the driver describing the missing woman as 5’2’’, Asian and wearing dark clothing. A coast guard helicopter was assigned to help search for the woman but became delayed prompting the tour group to look for her on foot. About 50 people joined the search, including the woman herself. According to the story, the woman had changed clothes and didn’t recognise the description of herself. The search was called off at 3am, “when it became clear the missing woman was, in fact, accounted for and searching for herself.” Looking for something that has already been found.

Basically looking for acceptance when we’ve already been accepted in the Gospel.

APPLICATION: HEAVY APPLICATION