Other Gospels Got You Down? (Rough Draft)

Scriptures:

A. Sermon Reading: Matthew 18:23-35

B. Sermon Text: Galatians 1:6-9

I. Introduction:

A. Revisiting the problem of the Law/Gospel Distinction

In my first sermon in the book of Galatians, I explained that Galatians is a perpetually relevant book because it deals with a perennial problem that plagues the Church — failure to properly distinguish the Law/Gospel.

To help us better understand the distinction I gave us some clear terms:

The Law is what God righteously requires.

The Gospel is what God graciously provides.

And when you collapse the law and the gospel you can find yourself in two errors.

I explained that if proper law/gospel distinction is a road, there are two ditches the Christian can drive into:

On the right — Legalism

Which means in someway you are saved by your works or at the least, your salvation is supplemented by obeying God’s Law.

On the left — Antinomianism (or anti-law)

Which means you don’t care about obeying God’s Law and you can sin as much as you want because Christ has paid for your sins anyway.

My plan today is to maintain this metaphor as we work through this paragraph in Galatians.

B. Here’s Where We’re Going:

(1) Driving into the Ditch

(2) Calling the Tow Truck

(3) Listening to Back Seat Drivers

(4) Staying on the Road

Read: Galatians 1:6-9

II. Driving into the Ditch

A. The Galatians are crashing into the ditch of legalism

Galatians 1:6 “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—”

“I am astonished” is actually one word in the Greek — and it means “to marvel”

KIDS: I say Marvel and who or what comes to mind? — Superhero movies or comings/ Spider-man, Iron Man

Marvel is a great name for a comic book publisher because heroes astonish us, they cause us to marvel or wonder

You marvel at what your seeing: a man in a red and blue suit swinging through the skylines of New York

You’re eyes are seeing something that your brain is buffering and trying to comprehend.

This is the sentiment that Paul launches with right out of his greeting.

Paul is marvelling at what he’s heard about the Galatians…and it’s not a good kind of marvel.

The Galatians are deserting the Gospel of faith alone for a false Gospel of faith + works.

Why is that so astonishing?

Paul is so astonished because (as he says in verse 9) — He preached the Gospel to them and they received it, they believed it.

Paul is so astonished that they believed in the finished work of Christ but now are they are no longer resting in the finished work of Christ.

Paul is astonished that the Galatian churches have driven straight into the ditch of legalism.

B. Legalism

So what is legalism?

Legalism is when you collapse the Law and the Gospel and the result is that you lose both.

Legalism is when you believe you must supplement Christ’s perfect obedience with your imperfect obedience.

God’s Law requires personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience — which means in order to be in right standing with God you must personally uphold God’s Law perfectly forever.

Salvation is necessary because we CANNOT do that.

Our first parents, Adam and Eve had perfect circumstances to obey God’s Law in such a way — and they could not do it.

Now with a sinful nature inherited from Adam — we unable to obey God’s Law perfectly, from our conception to our caskets.

However, the good news of the True Gospel is that Christ the Law-giver and Law-keeper died for us Law-breakers.

For the Christian, all of you’re Law-breaking is put on Christ when He was on the cross, and when you believe all of His law-keeping is credited to your account — meaning, Christ is your righteousness.

Yet the legalist looks both to Christ’s obedience and their own obedience for salvation.

The Legalist doesn’t believe in faith alone — but rather faith + works = salvation.

Legalism makes Christianity a performance based sport.

And this is what is happened in Galatia

False Teachers came in and started preaching a legalistic gospel.

Scholars agree that these false teachers were Judaizers who were preaching a false gospel of faith + works.

The FT’s came to these Gentile churches preaching that not only must they believe, but they must also be circumcised (faith + works = salvation).

The gospel of these false teachers was that faith was not enough.

Paul makes it clear that this legalism is incompatible with the grace of the Gospel.

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ…”

You’re abandoning the one who called you in grace for those who force you into works.

In the True Gospel — God calls you and you hear Him because His sheep know His voice.

In the True Gospel — the Lord Jesus Christ comes us to seek and save the lost.

But the perversion of legalism says we must work our way to him.

And this is disastrous for the Galatians and it’s disastrous for us.

The disaster of legalism is that obedience becomes the metric upon which you measure salvation and not the finished work of Christ.

C. Disasters and Dangers of Legalism

Legalism provides no rest to your soul because you’ll never be good enough to meet it’s demands.

And its disastrous because it shifts your motivations for obedience to your savior from gratitude back to GUILT.

In legalism you don’t obey Christ because your grateful for what He’s done for you, you try to obey Him so you don’t get punished.

Kids:

Legalism looks like cleaning your room so you don’t get in trouble — not because you’re parents have literally provided everything good in your life for you.

Another disastrous aspect of legalism you are constantly crippled by your own imperfect obedience and sadly, you judge others by the same false gospel system.

Under legalism, assurance ebbs and flows based on your own performance.

But under the Gospel of Grace assurance comes from Christ’s performance.

So — let me illustrate this with something other than circumcision.

Legalism is not always so bold as that — often it can be in our lives in a much more subtle way.

D. Legalism in Marriage

Ephesians 5:22–28 “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.”

In this passage we have the Law and the Gospel and Paul perfectly distinguishes the two — the problem is that we’ve been reading it with legalistic eyes.

Legalism for Wives

The Law: “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife”

The Gospel: “as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.”

God’s good and perfect Law — tells wives to be submissive to your husbands.

This is a biblical command and the biblical standard.

But there are two problems:

First: you’re sinful!

You cannot uphold God’s Law personally, perfectly, and perpetually.

So you aren’t going to submit perfectly 100% of the time.

You’re going to push back against submitting to your husband.

The second problem: is that in legalistic thinking your performance as a submissive wife becomes the metric by which you judge your own righteousness.

Sure you believe Christ died for your sins, but you’ve bought into believing that your righteousness comes from how submissive you are as a wife.

Your soul has no rest, because you’ve turned your eyes from the finished work of Jesus to your incomplete work as a wife.

In seeking to be a submissive wife, you forget that Christ submitted Himself to the point of death on a cross to cover all of your recalcitrance.

Legalism for men

The Law: “Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church”

The Gospel: “ and gave himself up for her,”

God’s good and perfect Law — tells you husbands to love your wives.

This is a biblical command and the biblical standard.

But there are two problems:

First — you’re sinful!

You cannot uphold God’s Law personally, perfectly, and perpetually.

You’re not going to love your wife with perfect love.

The second problem: is that in legalistic thinking your performance as a loving husband becomes the metric by which you judge your own righteousness

You do not look to Christ for your righteousness, but rather you look to your own performance as a husband.

And you cannot rest because you’re reaching for a standard that only the manliest man who ever lived could reach.

E. Tension and Destruction:

Might I submit to you that the tension and destruction that’s come to your house is because your home is driven by legalism.

Your home is in distress because you’ve deserted Him who has called you in His grace and turned to another gospel.

And now you’re both living like the forgiven servant and you’re both each others victims.

In our sermon reading we heard the parable of the servant who owes a massive debt to the king and yet he is forgiven.

Instead extending the grace and mercy he’s received he chokes out someone who’s indebted to him.

And we act just like this:

As Christian husbands and wives — the recipients of blood bought grace— we don’t extend the mercy and grace given to us but instead we turn around choke each other out.

We only give each other the Law and never the Gospel.

When one of us as husband or wife comes up short we only give each other Law.

God’s Law says do this, God’s Law says do that.

And never the Gospel says done, Christ says it is finished — let us rest in that together.

Let us work on our marriage in the grace of Christ and obey His word out of gratitude.

If that sounds like your marriage — I have good news.

If you’re not married and that sounds like how you’ve been living — I have good news.

F. The Car isn’t totaled it’s just stuck (You are deserting, not you have deserted)

The good news is that you may have driven into the ditch, but the car isn’t totaled.

Look back at verse 6 in Galatians 1 and notice that Paul says “You are so quickly deserting him”

It’s present tense, not past tense.

Like the Galatians if you’ve driven into the ditch of legalism, you’re car isn’t totaled — you just need to call a tow truck.

III. Calling the Tow Truck

A. Galatians 1:7 — There is only ONE Gospel

The Apostle Paul is very clear: There is only one Gospel.

And what is the Gospel? The Gospel is what God graciously provides.

The Gospel is that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, was dead and buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

The Gospel is that all of your failures as man or a woman, as a husband and a father, as a wife and a mother, as a son and a daughter are put upon Christ and all of His perfection is applied to you.

In the false gospel of legalism not only is all the goodness of God’s Law lost, but so are all of the benefits of Christ and His true Gospel.

And the cure to this isn’t more Law — it’s the Gospel.

The cure to getting out the ditch isn’t trying to pull your car out with your bear hands — it’s calling the tow truck to get you back on the road.

B. The Gospel cure to legalism

The Gospel is the cure to legalism.

The Gospel of Jesus brings freedom:

Galatians 5:1 “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

Christ has the Galatians free — and yet that have submitted again to a yoke of slavery.

I implore you to not do the same.

Christ has set you free — so don’t submit yourself again to a yoke a slavery.

The Law cannot save you, only Christ can.

And this same Gospel cure is what your soul needs.

This Gospel cure is what your family needs.

If your home is ruled by legalism — give each other the Gospel as much as possible.

Don’t be forgiven servants choking each other out.

Instead — rest in Christ and forgive one another because you have been forgiven.

Wives — give grace to your husband when he fails you.

Husbands — give grace to your wife when she fails you.

Both of your debts have been paid by your King.

This rest and forgiveness is born out of the person and work of Christ.

Christ who submitted to the Father unto death.

Christ who gave Himself up for the church.

Christ who sanctifies you and washes you in the Word.

C. Sounds like antinomianism to me

Now maybe you’re hearing this and saying to yourself: “this sounds like antinomianism to me” or “this sounds pretty ‘anti-law’”.

It’s actually the opposite.

Galatians 5:13 “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”

You’re freedom in Christ is sure — but do not use that freedom to gratify the flesh.

Don’t use that freedom to ignore God’s Law.

Rather, use your freedom to obey God’s Law.

Proper Law/Gospel distinction helps you to use God’s Law lawfully (1 Timothy 1:8).

In fact — one of the gifts of the New Covenant is a renewal of the Law being written upon your hearts.

Jeremiah 31:31–34 ““Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.””

The New Covenant is proper Law/Gospel distinction.

The NC promise is that God will write anew His Law upon the hearts of believers AND that He forgives and forgets your sin.

Put Jeremiah 31 together with Ezekiel 36:27 which says, “And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” and you’ve got the New Covenant promise that the Spirit that saves you and indwells you will teach you to obey God’s Law.

Practically this looks like reading 1 Corinthians 16:13 “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.”

And see this is as God’s Good Law.

We men ought to act like men — and we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to do so out of gratitude and forgiven by Christ for when we fail to obey this command.

IV. Listening to Back Seat Drivers

Now we have to ask — how exactly did the Galatians end up in the ditch of legalism in the first place?

They started listening to back seat drivers.

A. Galatians 1:7-9 — Those who trouble you want to distort the gospel

Galatians 1:7 “ but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.”

Is there anything that can grate on your nerves like a backseat driver?

The number one distraction for drivers is probably their cell phones — and the second distraction is your backseat drivers.

Backseat drivers are constantly trying to give you better directions and tell you how to drive.

And I think we can all agree — backseat drivers don’t help, they cause issues.

And this is precisely what’s happened to the Galatians.

They have backseat drivers giving them bad directions and bad instructions.

Paul writes that there are those troubling the Galatians and that they want to distort the Gospel.

They aren’t making the Gospel clear — they want to distort it.

Want — Greek: WISH; to desire strongly

This is no accident — they WANT to distort the gospel — it’s their wish.

Distort — Greek: alter, or change; the sense for something to take on new characteristics.

These back seat drivers, these false teachers are adding new characteristics to the Gospel that aren’t true or consistent with what Paul preached and what the Galatians received.

And because they are preaching this false Gospel — they are accursed or anathema.

B. Be careful with who you let give you directions

Galatians 1:8–9 “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. 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.”

This matter is so serious — Paul says it twice.

John Gill: He says it twice for the confirmation. To show that it did not drop from his lips hastily or inadvertently. He says it twice to show that his sharp words were not spoken from his mind being ruffled, disturbed, or discomposed; but rather it was said because it is a most serious and solemn manner.

Paul doesn’t care who it is or what they are — if they preach a different Gospel, they are accursed.

It could be them, or even an angel (a divine messenger) — but if they preach a different Gospel, they are accursed.

This means we must be careful with who we take directions from.

Be careful and watchful of who you let in your backseat.

Be cautious of your podcast and your youtube subscriptions.

Be cautious of the books you buy.

Do not listen to anyone who preaches a false Gospel.

Do not listen to anyone who preaches faith + works.

These people are accursed - they are anathema.

RC Sproul comments on this passage: “That Paul’s usual thanksgiving for his readers is here replaced by the threat of a covenant curse, repeated for emphasis. These preachers of the false gospel are under God’s condemnation.”

Don’t listen to those under God’s condemnation.

V. Staying on the Road

A. How do I stay on the road?

For the legalist, return and rest to the one you’ve deserted.

Come back to Christ and put your faith in Him alone. Rest in His finished work.

Keep your eyes on Christ.

For the unbeliever — you need to look to Christ.