Untitled Sermon (3)

The Gospel

What is God’s grace dependent on in our lives?

You can’t make him love you

Some of your saftey-nets are law. What makes you feel safe.

This text teaches us three things about the Gospel:

1- We are prone to add to the Gospel.

V11-12

Why is Paul telling this Church that the Gospel he preached to them is not mans gospel? That he recieved it not from any human, but from Jesus Christ himself? Because in that time there were these teachers called the Judaizers. They believed in Jesus, but they also believed that you had to adhere to the Torah, or the law of the Old Testament to be in God’s family.

Historically God’s people were focused in one ethnic group, Israel - the Jews. They were set apart from other nations by following the Torah. Observing the sabbath, circumcision, and dietary laws to name a few. When Jesus came and began teaching about the Gospel that you can be saved from your sins and have right relationship with God through Him, His death and sacrifice, this message was not only for Jews but for gentiles, or non Jewish people. This message was for all.

As time went on the number of Jews who followed Jesus was soon matched by the number of gentiles who followed Jesus. This isn’t a problem, except that there was a small sect of those Jews who followed Jesus called the Judaizers. They believed that to be in the family of God, all gentiles needed to not only believe in Jesus, but also adhere to the Torah. They needed to be circumcised like the jews, observe the sabbath like the jews, and a whole lot of other laws to get in.

The problem? Jesus didn’t teach that. He says “I actually came to fulfill the law and the prophets.” So we have these Judaizers coming into a church full of people who believe in Jesus and they begin teaching - “Actually the way to get into the family of God is not simply believe in Jesus, you also have to do x, y and z.

We see this in verse 7: “there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ”

The Judaizers added to the Gospel message and the people of Galatia bought into it. The Judaizers might have been discrediting Paul’s version of the Gospel by saying he got it from the apostles and it’s all a big sham. They shouldn’t believe his gospel, but theirs. Pauls response: talking about the Gospel he preached says: v11-12 this is not mans gospel, but from Christ himself. Thats why you can trust it.

We are like the Judaizers

We add to the Gospel, tacking on things Jesus never taught as if you must also do those things to be saved and welcomed into the family of God.

Tim Keller writes about the dangers of Phariseeism today, even in evangelical churches,

We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did. (Prodigal God, 15–16)

“I asked her what was so scary about unmerited free grace? She replied something like this: "If I was saved by my good works -- then there would be a limit to what God could ask of me or put me through. I would be like a taxpayer with rights. I would have done my duty and now I would deserve a certain quality of life. But if it is really true that I am a sinner saved by sheer grace -- at God's infinite cost -- then there's nothing he cannot ask of me.” ― Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith

“We are in danger of developing ways to appear godly without really preferring and prioritizing God in our hearts.” - Marshall Segal

How do we test what Gospel we believe in? Ask ourselves this question: Why am I accepted before God?

Is there anyone who can’t be saved?

2- The Gospel finds you, you do not find the gospel.

When I hear of someones sin or see someone sin and I find in my heart a bit of satisfaction that I don’t do that and I judge them, when I feel judgemental towards someone I can rest assured that I believe I found the Gospel because I am smart and wise and in my own power.

3- The Gospel leads to change of heart, not simply change of tradition.