No Other Gospel

INTRO

One April evening in 2006, a group of university students and administrators were driving on a highway when a tractor trailer crossed the median, slammed into their van, killed five of the passengers, and left one seriously injured and in a coma. It was stunning, tragic news for Whitney Cerak’s family, and they were devastated upon hearing that their daughter was among those killed in the wreck. They couldn’t bear to look at her body. The funeral was a closed-casket ceremony that drew well over a thousand people. Friends and family came from all over to mourn this young woman’s death. The family of Laura van Ryn, another student in the van, were thrilled that their daughter survived the crash, and they rushed to the hospital to be with her. She was in a coma, but they stood by her for weeks, praying she would wake up and talk to them once again. Then the miracle happened. Laura woke up and made some small steps to recovery that her parents documented on a website. One day Laura fed herself applesauce and played a game of Connect Four. She was becoming more alert. But as time went on, the van Ryn family became concerned. Some things seemed to come back to Laura, but other comments the family made didn’t make much sense to her. Then one day, Laura was told to write her name on a piece of paper. To everyone’s shock, the young lady in the hospital bed wrote the name “Whitney Cerak.” Laura van Ryn and Whitney Cerak looked remarkably alike. They had similar builds, facial features, and straight blond hair, and the injuries their bodies sustained in the accident made it difficult to tell the two girls apart. In the hours after the highway collision, the coroner confused the girl who had died with the one who had lived. This scene is almost too surreal to imagine. Whitney’s family had even visited with the van Ryn family at the hospital, not knowing that they were looking at their own daughter covered in IVs and tubes. They were right there in her presence, staring her in the eyes, but they didn’t know it was their sweet daughter Whitney! When they finally learned the truth, they were shocked that they had been with their own daughter and not known it. So many emotions go through my heart when I think about this incident (including deep sadness for the van Ryns). If only Whitney’s family had known she was alive, they would have had peace in their distress. If only they had recognized their daughter as they stared at her in the hospital, their sadness would have turned into gladness. If only they had known it was her. It was a grave case of mistaken identity.

There is a growing difficulty for people in the West to be able to rightly identify the Gospel. What is the Gospel? What is truth? Even as Christians, in a hyper tolerant culture, are finding it difficult to preach the Gospel. What is the real Gospel? How do I know if I am believing the truth? As a church we want to make sure we are preaching the true Gospel and not a comprised or false Gospel.

Every year an organization called The State of Theology polls people who identify as Evangelical Christians. They ask questions about what they believe about the Bible, biblical views on gender, God, salvation, and other question. Here are some of the results from this poll.

26% of Evangelical Christians believe that the Bible is a collection of myths and not literally true.

43% believe that Jesus was a great teacher but He was not God

56% believe that God accepts the worship of all religions the same as He does Christianity.

37% believe that gender identity is not a matter of biology but of choice.

The 2022 State of Theology survey reveals that Americans increasingly reject the divine origin and complete accuracy of the Bible. The doctrines including the deity and exclusivity of Jesus Christ, as well as the inspiration and authority of the Bible, are increasingly being rejected.

This is a growing concern. We live in an increasingly tolerant culture. I’m sure many of us have felt the pressure to behave a certain way, endorse a particular agenda, and feel like we are being forced to believe something we don’t want to believe.

Paul’s main point to the Galatians this morning is this: THERE IS NO OTHER GOSPEL. There is only one true Gospel. The word Gospel is repeated 5 times in these few verses! It’s all about the Gospel.

The main point of the sermon that we are going to tackle this morning is this: In a tolerant culture, we must cling to the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.

How do we stay rooted in the true Gospel while we live in a hyper tolerant culture?

Paul is going to give us 3 ways that we can do this.

Don’t Distort the Gospel

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.

Notice how Paul jumps right in to the issue here. Usually in Paul’s letters he includes some kind of encouragement to the church, things they are doing well. This is the only letter well Paul skips that and goes straight for the jugular. I am amazed you are so quickly turning away from the Gospel.

EXPLANATION: What is the issue here? Joel mentioned this last week, but there was a group of Jewish leaders who called themselves Christians and they came to Galatia and began to preach a different message than what Paul preached. Here is what they were saying, “Jesus is great. We love Jesus. But Paul didn’t preach to you the FULL Gospel. It’s not just Jesus alone, but it is Jesus plus getting circumcised. It is Jesus plus following the law. It’s Jesus plus dressing like we do, behaving like we do, and then you will be accepted by God.”

What these people were doing were distorting the Gospel. The word for distort means to “turn inside out”. Paul is furious, because the Galatians have fallen for a false distorted Gospel. Paul is essentially telling the Galatians that you can live your life one of two ways. You can say “I have received God’s grace, I am accepted by God through Christ’s work, therefore I live a good life.” Or you can live this way, “I live a good life, I do good things, I behave a certain way, therefore I receive God’s grace. God is obligated to give me His grace.” And that subtle change, that little difference, to Paul, means you have made the Gospel no Gospel at all. You see when we add anything to Jesus, when we tweak the Gospel even just a little, we make it no Gospel at all!

Tim Keller says that the minute we begin to “revise the Gospel, we reverse the Gospel.”

Maybe some of us grew up thinking that we have to dress a certain way, it’s Jesus + dressing a certain way then we will be accepted before God. But Paul says that’s no Gospel at all!

Paul shows us the danger of believing a distorted Gospel.

“turning away from Him who called you by the grace of Christ.”

When the Galatians began to believe this distorted Gospel they weren’t just trading one message for another. One philosophy for another, when we believe a false Gospel we are not just trading one idea for another, Paul says we are leaving not an idea, but the Personal Lord and Savior who called us. That’s the danger. We are turning away from Christ Himself.

He also says the danger of turning to a distorted Gospel is that it takes you away from grace. Joel mentioned what grace was last week. There is grace of God outside of the message of the Gospel. It is only thought Jesus’ life death and resurrection that God has made His grace available. I think we would all agree that we live in a very graceless society. We live on edge because we are afraid of saying the wrong thing, doing the wrong thing, because it seems like people are just waiting for us to make a mistake so they can ruin our lives or careers. We don’t live in a grace-filled society, we live in a culture that takes people’s mistakes and uses them to crucify them and ruin their lives and careers. Grace is only found in the person of Jesus. Jesus alone.

APPLICATION

While we don’t have people coming to us and saying her it’s Jesus + circumcision, or you have to believe in JESUS AND follow the law, we are all tempted to believe in a distorted Gospel.

Maybe for you it’s

Jesus + morality: This says that it’s not just Jesus, but I have to live a good life, do the right things, and prove that I am worthy of God’s acceptance.

Jesus + family: One of the biggesst hurdles to people coming to faith in Jesus in Taiwan is family. They are afraid to follow Jesus because of how their family might react. As an outsider here, I see how important family is in Franklin county. While that’s a good thing. You could be believing that, it’s not just Jesus, but it’s Jesus + having the perfect family, making sure I’m always pleasing my family, making them happy.

Jesus + Nationalism: This says that it’s Jesus + voting a certain way, doing politics a certain way. I have to tell you, that voting a certain way does not increase your status before God. We’ve seen how this distorted Gospel has caused so much damage in families, churches, and in our nation. Your status and acceptance before God does not include your political affiliation.

Jesus + Consumerism: This says I am what I own. It’s not Jesus alone, but it’s also my image. I have to be successful in order for God to accept me.

In 2010 there was a man name Laszlo. Laszlo had 10,000 bitcoin. If you aren’t familiar with what bitcoin is. It is a digital currency. One bitcoin is worth 28K, and at one point it was worth 61K. So in 2010 Laszlo had 10000 bitcoin. But one day he got hungry. He really wanted some pizza, Papa John’s pizza to be exact. Instead of using cash, maybe he didn’t have any. He put out an ad that said, “if someone will buy my 2 large pizzas from Papa John’s I will give you 10,000 bitcoin.” Someone obvsiouly took him up on that offer and bought him the pizzas. When they were delivered Laszlo gave the guy 10,000 bitcoin. That 10,000 bitcoin that he traded for two pizzas is now worth over 280 million. Laszlo traded something that was a treasure for something that wasn’t. Let’s be honest Papa John’s isn’t even that great. But Paul says that is exactly what we are ding when we distort the Gospel. We are trading something that is the GOOD NEWS OF GOD for something that isn’t good news at all.

Discern everything by the Gospel

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!

This is some strong language that Paul uses here. Something that our 21st century modern ears struggle to hear! Paul is telling the Galatians, don’t believe everything you hear! Later he calls them foolish Galatians, that someone has bewitched them. Don’t fall for any message you hear. Like I tell my kids, just because it is on the internet doesn’t make it true. Paul wants them to be discerning! But how? Questions the Galatians were asking,

how do we know these guys aren’t preaching the truth? How do we judge what they are preaching? How do we know what is true?

Paul says the way they are to discern is by having a Gospel filter. He says, if anyone, including me! Paul includes himself here, or an angel(spiritual experience) preaches a message different that what we preached or you received let them be accursed! Paul says we take all these messages we are hearing and we filter them through the Gospel that he preached and they received.

What is that Gospel? What was the Gospel that Paul preached?

Turn with me 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.

Anyone, Paul says, even himself, who preached a message different than that, let them be accursed!

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.

SATAN’s DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN

Just this past week Facebook had to take down over 7000 Chinese accounts that were linked to disinformation campaigns. All over the world people are using disinformation to create division in countries and ultimately tear them apart.

Definition of Disinformation is a campaign that “weaponizes multiple rhetorical strategies and forms of knowing—including not only falsehoods but also truths, half-truths, and value-laden judgments—to exploit and amplify identity-driven controversies.”

Disinformation is false information which is deliberately intended to mislead—intentionally misstating the facts.

This is how Satan works. He is a liar.

There is a spiritual disinformation campaign against your soul. Sometimes it looks like an angel of light(UFO?), sometimes the evil shows its face, but we all to be aware that this is happening. And this attack seeks to undermine your trust in God and tempt you to turn away from the Gospel. Paul describes this later as being “bewitched”. There is a supernatural force behind the attack on your faith. This is the power that is behind these false teachers.

Do you ever wonder why it’s sometimes easier just to watch Netflix than it is to pray? Do you every wonder why it can be so hard to read Scripture but not hard to scroll mindlessly on our phones? There is a evil demonic force that doesn’t want us to stay rooted in the Gospel.

I know we are hearing crazy things right now from our culture, but the New Testament reminds us that our battle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual principalities and powers. Our fight is a fight for the truth of the Gospel!

Two quick stories:

My brother, God bless him, wanted to get in shape. I was in highschool and he is a little bit older than me. Do you all remember when infomercials were a thing? They aren’t so much anymore, but I remember watching Billy Mays and Oxiclean so many times. Well there was one advertisement that was promising the results of this machine. If you hooked up this machine with little electrical impulses and put it all over your stomach you could have a six pack within weeks. Guy on the screen sure looked like he knew what he was talking about. The information all seemed legit, so my brother went for it. Got the machine, was thinking about his 6 pack, and you know what he had in a few weeks? A machine stuffed in the closet, with no abs. No discernment. False promises. We need to be discerning.

Final story. True story from a pastor. There was a lady in the church who while she was growing up she was abused. Really sad story, but over time as she was being abused a comforting spirit used to come to her and comfort her. She described this spirit like an angel. It would comfort her when she was abused. Finally when she was older she became a Christian. The night she became a christian she went back home, and the spirit showed up again and told her, “she didn’t need Jesus, it was enough for her.”

Even if we or angel come to you preaching a different Gospel than you received let them be accursed.

Be discerning.

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.

Live out of your identity in the Gospel

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. I’m sure we could name pastors or churches that just preach a message because they want to be accepted by culture. But before we point the finger, we all have this inside of us. We want to be accepted by people. We all have something where we want people to like us to approve of us. That’s not a bad thing, it’s when we make the ultimate thing that it causes us to compromise the Gospel.

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 is being a people pleaser a problem?

This is for all my Enneagram #2 people out there. I’m enneagram #3 wing 2, so I can understand what you are going through. If you have no idea what I just said it’s probably better! How i being a people pleaser an issue?

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.

Paul’s answer to this temptation and problem is to live out of your Gospel identity. Instead of living as a slave to people’s approval, live your life as a servant of Christ, rooted in your identity in the Gospel.

“When work is your identity, if you are successful it goes to your head, if you are a failure it goes to your heart.” Tim Keller

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

In 2002, A woman who was touring Iceland in a bus tour. Then all of the sudden she was reported missing by her bus driver. The driver began 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

Follow the Spirit

BEAUTY OF THE GOSPEL IS THAT EVEN IF WE’VE TURNED AWAY FROM JESUS HE NEVER WILL TURN AWAY FROM US. Repent and believe the Gospel again

Discernment(ask the Holy spirit)

People pleasing