The Only Gospel
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Where are we in the Bible?
This is called the book of Galatians. We call it that because it is a letter that a man named Paul wrote to those churches that existed in the southern region of Galatia over in the part of the world we call Asia Minor.
In this letter, we see Paul come right out the gate with an aggressive tone.
Paul planted this church, now they have turned their back on the gospel message and they have embraced another teaching. They have embraced what is called a false gospel.
However, there is only one Gospel.
The gospel is this: That Jesus is the Son of God, that He died on the cross, and that He rose from the grave. Because of that, He offers His salvation from sin to every man!
I. The Source
I. The Source
Where do we get the gospel from?
This is the source of the Gospel: The Father, sent the Son, Who sent the Apostles.
We’re going to reverse this order and work our way back to the Father.
A. The Apostles
A. The Apostles
Everything that these Apostles wrote was inspired by the Holy Spirit.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
Scripture is the entire Bible. This means that everything in the Bible is from God.
So, when we consider the source of the gospel, we need to begin with it’s messengers, the apostles.
Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead),
and all the brethren who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:
What Paul is dealing with is the question of his apostleship.
What is an Apostle?
Apostle is defined as someone on a commission to represent the sender.
This is not just someone entrusted with the message, but it is someone that has the authority to speak on behalf of the sender. That was the role of these Apostles, to speak on behalf of Jesus Christ as they spread Christianity throughout the world.
So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
This is the qualification of an apostle:
Must have physically seen Jesus after His resurrection with their own eyes.
Must have been commissioned (sent) by Jesus in the office of Apostle.
Think of that word office. -Let’s say that a policeman pulls you over. When he comes up to the window you may say, “Hello officer.” When we say that, we are recognizing their right to enforce the law. They are in the office of law enforcement. In the same way, Paul is an officer of the gospel. He is in the office of Apostle. Being in the office of Apostle means that Paul is commissioned (sent) by Jesus to establish churches and to deliver the gospel of Jesus Christ to them. When we read the writings of Paul, they carry just as much weight as the teachings of Jesus recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
#1:
“Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,
beginning from the baptism of John to that day when He was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.”
This is how we know that an Apostle can only be someone who physically saw Jesus post-resurrection. When Judas betrayed Jesus and then hanged himself, they replaced him under these criteria.
When Paul is defending himself in the letter to the church at Corinth, he asks them this question:
Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?
#2: Paul answers in the opening verses of this letter.
Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead),
This was something specific that Paul was assigned, not by men, but by Jesus Christ Himself.
If the Apostles get their authority from Jesus, that means that their source is the Son.
B. The Son
B. The Son
The Son of God is Jesus Christ.
It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove.
Then a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Jesus repeatedly refers to God as His Father in the Gospel of John.
“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also
Jesus is the Son of God.
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,
who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age.
The reason that Jesus is the source of the gospel is because the gospel message is the message of Jesus Christ and His blood shed on the cross.
Let’s look at some key words here in these verses:
1. Grace
1. Grace
Grace is the unmerited favor of God.
This means that we cannot earn it. We can produce no merit, no good thing, to get the favor of God. It is something that He gives freely to us without charging us. Instead of charging us, He charged it all to the Lord Jesus.
An easy way to remember Grace is by an acrostic:
G.R.A.C.E. - God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense
2. Peace
2. Peace
We all understand the definition of peace. It means that there is no tension, there are no bad relationships, we are totally at peace.
Peace with God comes through the grace of God given to us by Jesus Christ.
Before we become Christians, we are not at peace with God but the Bible describes us as enemies of God. -No matter how good someone thinks they are, they are an enemy of God unless Jesus has saved them by His grace.
When Jesus died and rose, and when we believed in Him, the Bible says that we are reconciled to God.
And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled
To be Reconciled is a relational term. We were at war with God, but because of Jesus, we are at peace with God.
3. Substitution
3. Substitution
v. 4 - “our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins”
This means that Jesus willingly died on the cross for our sin. His life was not taken, but He gave it so that He could be obedient to God.
“Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.
No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself.
Jesus didn’t have to die, but because of His obedience to God, He willingly gave Himself.
That is what makes Jesus our Substitution
Instead of us taking the punishment for sin, Jesus willingly laid down His life in our place.
4. Deliverance
4. Deliverance
v. 4 - “That He might deliver us from this present evil age”
This word literally means that He is our rescue.
Rescue from what?
Rescue us from the slavery of thinking like the world thinks and believing what the world believes. (Jesus, by dying on the cross, rescued us from the darkness of the world so that we could live in the light).
All four of these terms help us understand the gospel message.
The Apostles gave us the message of what Jesus did when He lived, died, and resurrected.
That Jesus, by the grace of God, gave us peace with God, by becoming a substitute for our sin and delivering us from evil - This is the gospel message!
Since we know that the source of the Apostle’s authority is Jesus, Who is the Source of the Son’s Authority?
C. The Father
C. The Father
Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.
So, it is by the will of the Father that Jesus came to be our substitute and the give us the gospel message.
who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
1. The Trinity
1. The Trinity
We believe that God is one God that exists in three persons. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?
God the Father and God the Son exist in One another. But there is another, The Holy Spirit.
the Spirit of truth dwells with you and will be in you.
When we are saved by the gospel of Jesus Christ, we become like Jesus in the fact that the Holy Spirit lives in us.
Don’t ever try to understand the trinity!
We must simply accept that God is one God that exists in three persons and that once we are saved, God lives in us.
D. Recap
D. Recap
Paul says that he is an Apostle sent by Jesus Christ, who has given us grace and peace through His substitution, and that God is the One that sent Jesus.
Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead),
and all the brethren who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,
who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
The Source of the Gospel is the Father, Who Sent the Son, Who sent the Apostles, Who are filled with the Holy Spirit.
II. The Message
II. The Message
What Paul is doing beginning in v. 6 is rebuking the churches in Galatia.
Rebuke means to identify another’s sin with the intention of changing their behavior.
It’s not bullying, it’s not judging, it is simply calling sin, sin with an emphasis on getting someone to behave correctly.
Paul is heartbroken to hear that these churches are believing something that he never taught them. He says that they believing a perverted gospel!
We must be sure what the message of the gospel is because too many try to pervert the message that has come from God.
A. Founded on Grace
A. Founded on Grace
I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel,
First he says, “I marvel” - Paul is genuinely taken back by this. He is wondering, “How could you turn away after I was just there?”
When he writes, “turning away” it literally means that they have taken God’s gospel of grace and have replaced it with something else. The imagery here is of a “turncoat army”, they are traitors. They have deserted their post and are allowing the enemy to have free reign.
What dose this mean?
It means that they have turned against grace and they have embraced a message of works.
This message comes from people that we call Judaizers. They are people that went into the churches and they said, “You can’t just trust in Jesus to save you, you have to be circumcised and follow the law of the Jewish leaders and believe in Christ to be saved.” - This is a perversion of the gospel message!
We can know this because the Gospel is founded on Grace.
Salvation is the unmerited favor of God given to us through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
How can we get the grace of God?
1. Faith
1. Faith
Faith means to trust.
To have faith in God means to trust in the plans of God and not in the effort of men.
If we are trusting in the plans of God, then that means that we are trusting in the death of Jesus on the cross, just as God planned it!
If we trust in the efforts of men (ourselves), and not in the plans of God which is Jesus Christ on the cross, then He is not our substitute, because we say to Him, “I will take my own place on the cross. I will take my own place in judgement!”
To get the grace of God that leads to salvation from sin, we must trust in His grace, that very same grace that sent Jesus to the cross and rose Jesus from the dead.
B. Finished in Christ
B. Finished in Christ
which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
When it comes to the gospel message, we cannot add to it, and we cannot take away from it - it is pure - that is why Paul says that there are those who want to pervert the gospel.
We can know that it is finished because Jesus did everything that was required to complete God’s will.
When Jesus died on the cross: John 19:30
He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
When Jesus said that it was finished, it means that the grace of God was now available to all men, because Jesus paid for the sin debt of the world by His death on the cross.
To say that we need to add to the gospel disgraces the penalty that Jesus paid! We are telling Him that He is not good enough and we are calling Him a liar when He said, “It is finished.”
To say that we can take away from the gospel disgraces the sacrifice that Jesus made to free us from sin! We are telling Him that we don’t appreciate what He did when He took our place and we will continue to live in the bondage and slavery of sin even though He has freed us.
Everything that we need to be saved was accomplished in the death, burial, and ressurection of Jesus Christ.
1. Fully Alive
1. Fully Alive
In our lives, even as Christians, we attempt to work to win His approval instead of working because we are approved.
God has already approved us. When you become a Christian, there is no need to carry around guilt, shame, or any sense of unworthiness because Jesus has already paid for that!
You are made fully alive in Him!
For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.
This doesn’t mean that we have to work to be approved, but it means that as we live this Christian life and we are obedient to God we will show that we are approved.
But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
We are not saved by works, but when we are saved we are saved to work.
So therefore, we can neither add to the gospel message by working, and we cannot claim to have the gospel message if we are not working.
The person who says that they are a Christian but lives a life of sin without any shame or repentance is no Christian at all, but they are someone who has perverted the gospel that is finished in Christ.
C. Fixated on Truth
C. Fixated on Truth
But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.
But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.
For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1. What is Truth?
1. What is Truth?
a. Truth is Objective
a. Truth is Objective
This means that truth does not change. Any change made to the truth is a lie.
Some like to say, “This is my truth”. What they mean is, “There is no such thing as truth.”
When someone says that there is no such thing as truth, they are using circular reasoning - what they are saying is that “it is 100% true that there is no such thing as truth.”
It’s an oxymoron. Truth is objective.
b. Truth is Timeless
b. Truth is Timeless
Paul says in v. 8-9, “if anyone ever changes the truth I preached, let him be accursed.”
There is no statute of limitations on truth.
If something that we believed to be true is discovered to be false, it doesn’t mean that the truth changed, it means that we were wrong.
There is never a time when truth will stop being true.
c. Truth is Received
c. Truth is Received
v.11, Paul says that he didn’t get truth from any man, but that he received the truth from Jesus.
Jesus is not simply the definition of truth, He is truth.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.
This means that Jesus cannot be simply a good moral teacher. It means that Jesus is the authority over all things, that He is objective and that He is timeless. He is unchanging and He is always relevant.
Since truth must be recieved, and since Jesus is truth, then in order to receive truth we must receive the Lord Jesus. We receive the Lord Jesus when we know His word and then obey His word.
d. Truth Must be Applied
d. Truth Must be Applied
It is not enough to simply know truth, we must apply truth.
To know truth means that we have an intellectual grasp.
To understand truth means that we apply it and are transformed by it.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
The Backwards Globe Valve
I was working on a Navy ship once, and we were installing a 12-inch globe valve. After fighting all to get it put in all morning, QA showed up and said we had it installed backwards according to the blueprints.
We were mad! Quality calls the engineers and they’re arguing with the foreman— Quality and the engineer were both educated, both confident, both arguing over how the valve was supposed to be oriented.
Finally, they called over the operations foreman—a guy who didn’t have a degree but had been doing this work for years. His crew came in after us to ensure all the piping was operating correctly.
He walked up, looked at the valve for about two seconds, and said,
“Well… for starters, there’s an arrow on the valve that says it goes that way.”
And just like that—the argument was over.
Here’s the point: both of those men had knowledge. They had training, blueprints, and technical understanding. What they were missing was the required experience!
There’s a difference between knowledge and understanding.
Sometimes we can get so caught up in what we think is supposed to be true that we miss what is actually true.
Truth is more than facts, truth is a Person. Truth requires more than just knowledge of the Bible, but it requires application of the Bible.
If we will obey the word of God instead of simply reading it and then moving about our day, we will be transformed.
III. The Power
III. The Power
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.
The Gospel is how we are saved. When we place our trust in the sacrifice that Jesus made and in His ressurection, we are trusting in the message of the gospel.
Trusting in the message of the gospel (having faith), is how we receive the power of God.
A. The Former Man
A. The Former Man
For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it.
And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
We may not have all been zealous for the traditions of the Jews, but we were all zealous for some sort of sin or false doctrine.
Doctrine is the truth that we teach and/or believe.
Paul’s whole life was based on what he believed to be true, and so is ours. What Christianity calls us to do is surrender our former way of life and to be transformed by God’s truth.
What is the former life comprised of?
1. Sin
1. Sin
Before we are surrendered to Christ, we are under bondage to sin.
No one calls for justice, Nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies; They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity.
This means that everything evil comes from inside of us, we are hopelessly and helplessly lost.
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
2. Sorrow
2. Sorrow
The Bible says that Jesus brings us joy through hard times. Without Him, we have no ultimate hope and nothing that keeps us grounded in the winds of life.
3. Death
3. Death
Jesus says that He is the life. Without Him, even if we prosper in this life here, it’s nothing because it ends in death.
I heard a man say that we’re all on a road to death because all roads lead to the grave! Well, that’s not true because the road paved by the resurrection of Jesus leads to life! So, we need to make sure we’re walking on the right road!
When Jesus rose from the dead, He proved that He could raise us up as well!
B. The Saving Man
B. The Saving Man
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace,
to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,
nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
First, this is another point in which Paul declared that he did not receive his apostleship or the message of the gospel from any man. Paul says in v. 17 that he physically met with Jesus in Arabia to receive the gospel and to be commissioned by Him.
This same Jesus that called Paul is the same Jesus that has saved us.
Once we walked according to the former man. We were captivated by all kinds of sin. Through the message of the gospel, we were transformed and given new life. It is all done by the power of Jesus name.
C. The New Man
C. The New Man
And I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ.
But they were hearing only, “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy.”
This is called our testimony.
C.S. Lewis said, “The greatest evidence for Christianity is changed lives.”
D.L. Moody said, “A holy life will make the deepest impression.”
I’ve told many people that they could reach more people for Christ than I ever could. This is because their life has radically changed direction since they’ve come to know the Lord and it shocks people!
When a person that is deep in the pit of sin and their life is radically changed, they can boldly say to other people, “This was the former man, until I met the saving man, and now I am a new man!”
The Christian people couldn’t believe that Paul had made such a dramatic turn. That he went from a Christian killer to preacher of the gospel.
Through the broken life of the Apostle Paul, the power of the Gospel was revealed!
