Galatians 1 6-9 Don't mess with the Message
Ice Breaker – Shoe Pile
Title: Don’t Mess With the Message
Text: Galatians 1:6-10
Introduction:
Attention:
History Forgotten - or rewritten
You know......it's like the frog in the pan of hot water....drop one
in boiling water and it will jump out.....start with cold water, bring it slowly
to a boil and it will allow itself to be boiled alive. By the same token,
slowly erode the principles on which this country was founded and over time
watch our rights be very VERY slowly removed in a manner we don't notice and pretty soon WE will be "boiled alive"! Sure seems like that's where we are headed!
HISTORY FORGOTTEN
This is worth remembering, because it is true. It's familiar
territory, but..... Those of you that graduated from school after the early 60's
were probably never taught this. Our courts have seen to that!
Did you know that 52 of the 55 signers of "The Declaration of
Independence" were orthodox, deeply committed, Christians? The other
three all believed in the Bible as the divine truth, the God of scripture, and
His personal intervention. It is the same Congress that formed the American Bible Society, immediately after creating the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress voted
to purchase and import 20,000 copies of Scripture for the people of this
nation. Patrick Henry, who is called the firebrand of the American Revolution,
is still remembered for his words, "Give me liberty or give me death"; but
in current textbooks, the context of these words is omitted. Here is what
he actually said: "An appeal to arms and the God of hosts is all that is left us. But
we shall not fight our battle alone. There is a just God that presides
over the destinies of nations. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone.
Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it
Almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give
me liberty, or give me death." These sentences have been erased from our textbooks.
Was Patrick Henry a Christian? The following year, 1776, he wrote
this: "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great
Nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions,
but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For that reason alone, people of other
faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here."
Consider these words that Thomas Jefferson wrote in the front of his
well-worn Bible: "I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of
the doctrines of Jesus. I have little doubt that our whole country will
soon be rallied to the unity of our creator." He was also the chairman of the American Bible Society, which he considered his highest and most important role.
On July 4, 1821, President Adams said, "The highest glory of the
American Revolution was this: "It connected in one indissoluble bond the
principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity."
Calvin Coolidge, our 30th President of the United States reaffirmed
this truth when he wrote, "The foundations of our society and our government
rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to
support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country."
In 1782, the United States Congress voted this resolution: "The
Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in
all schools."
William Holmes McGuffey is the author of the McGuffey Reader, which
was used for over 100 years in our public schools with over 125 million
copies sold until it was stopped in 1963. President Lincoln called him the
"Schoolmaster of the Nation." Listen to these word of Mr. McGuffey: "The Christian religion is the religion of our country. From it are derived our nation, on the character of God,
on the great moral Governor of the universe. On its doctrines are founded the peculiarities of our free Institutions. From no source has the author drawn more conspicuously than from the sacred Scriptures. From all these extracts from the Bible, I make no apology."
Of the first 108 universities founded in America, 106 were distinctly
Christian, including the first, Harvard University, chartered in 1636.
In the original Harvard Student Handbook, rule number 1 was that students seeking entrance must know Latin and Greek so that they could study the Scriptures: "Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies, is, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, John 17:3; and therefore to lay Jesus Christ as the only foundation for our children to follow the moral principles of the Ten Commandments."
James Madison, the primary author of the Constitution of the United States, said this: "We have staked the whole future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments."
Today, we are asking God to bless America. But, how can He bless a Nation that has departed so far from Him? Prior to September 11, He was not welcome in America. Most of what you read in this article has been erased from our textbooks. Revisionists have rewritten history to remove the truth about our country's Christian roots.
Need: Teens, not only have the “revisionists” changed the way we look at the History of our great country, but we are also in danger of changing the very message of the Gospel…
Bridging Sentences
Textual Idea: Changing the message of the Gospel is nothing new. In fact, Paul was dealing with this very issue with the Galatians. As I said last week, the Judaizers came to town to purposely call into question Paul and the message of the Gospel. It was beyond their comprehension that the Gospel of Jesus Christ could be so easy, there had to be more to it! After all, didn’t God institute all the rules and regulations in the Old Testament?
Read Lev 5…
Now really, can you blame these Judaizers? This Gospel of Grace and mercy was a whole new way of thinking to them, they couldn’t comprehend that it was simply by faith. YES WE CAN BLAME THEM! For two reasons, 1) they failed to see God’s requirement of Faith in the OT. 2) they insisted on changing the message of the Gospel.
Some of you might be sitting here tonight thinking, “I really don’t know what the Gospel is?”
1 Corinthians 15:3-4
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,”
Gospel means “Good News”
The good news is this, Jesus Christ came to be the fulfillment of the Law that we could never hope to be. Jesus Died in your place…
That’s the Gospel message! That was the message Paul went around preaching and teaching…
And the point of the passage that we are going to look at tonight is this…
Sermon Idea: Don’t Mess With the Message of the Gospel!
Interrogative: Oh yeah? WHY? What happens if I do!
Transition: Well the text tells us that when we Mess with the Message, we are messing with God! And when we mess with God we face eternal consignment to destruction.
Text – Galatians 1:6-10
6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel;
7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!
9As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!
10 For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.
Body:
1) The Message Never Changes (vs 6-7) - 6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
Explanation:
Amazed – Dumbfounded and shocked, couldn’t believe what he was hearing about those that had trusted Christ! Their focus had changed! Their bearings were off! The result?
Deserting (quickly) – “To fall away or desert from one person or thing to another.”
Called – Church = Called out ones.
Grace of Christ – “of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues.”
Different Gospel – No good news at all really, because if we have to work to make God happy, how much work is enough? What kind of peace is in that type of mindset? How can somebody have joy and rest when they never know how much they need to do to appease a holy God?
Teens, the message never changes! It is all about Good News! But when we get our focus off of the message, we can end up like the Galatians,
Illustration: The Airplane 90% of the flight, the Pilot is off course. He has to continue adjusting so that he will make his desired destination. The wind blows, he adjusts. The air current changes, he adjusts. All the while understanding where he needs to end up… “looking with end in mind”
Argumentation: Teens whenever you get our focus off the true gospel message, you endanger yourself. The message of the Gospel is perfect, it doesn’t need to be added to, it simply needs to be believed.
Application: Ask Yourself…
Do I understand the message?
Do I believe the message?
Have I submitted to the message?
Transition: The Message Never Changes
2) The Messenger Better Not Change It (vs. 8-9) - 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!
Explanation:
We – Paul and his group were divinely commissioned to share the Gospel with the Gentile world.
Angel - άγγελος [aggelos /ang·el·os/] “a messenger, envoy, one who is sent, an angel, a messenger from God.”
Preach – “to bring good news, to announce glad tidings.”
Accursed - ανάθεμα [anathema /an·ath·em·ah/] “a thing devoted to God without hope of being redeemed, and if an animal, to be slain; therefore a person or thing doomed to destruction.”
So what Paul was trying to get across was that there was only one Gospel and the messenger of the Gospel better get it right or else!
Illustration: Telephone Game of Doom Have Gardner and Ray cast out the offender!
Argumentation: Paul took the Gospel very seriously. He understood his holy responsibility for it. And he was careful to communicate it accurately.
There are many religions as well at people that communicate a gospel that sounds nice, but it is not the gospel and they are cursed that spread it.
There are some of us here tonight that preach a gospel by what we say or the way we live that is no gospel at all.
Application:
Teens if you are a Christians tonight, you are a walking message for Jesus Christ. Are you proclaiming the truth? Let me read it one more time!
8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!
Transition:
The Message Never Changes
The Messenger Better Not Change It
3) Which Message will You Preach? (vs. 10) - 10 For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.
Explanation: Paul asks a very interesting question. A question that cuts right to the heart of the issue. He might state it this way if he were here today… “Am I a man pleaser or a God pleaser?”
You see, if Paul were a man pleaser he would not made an issue out of this slight variation from the Gospel. After all, they still confessed Jesus! I mean, what’s the big deal, can’t we just get along? A little compromise never killed anyone! Besides, isn’t Jesus the Prince of Peace?
Matt 10:32ff - 32 “Therefore aeveryone who 1confesses Me before men, I will also confess 2him before My Father who is in heaven.
33 “But awhoever 1denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.
34 “aDo not think that I came to 1bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
35 “For I came to aset a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
36 and aa man’s enemies will be the members of his household.
37 “aHe who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
38 “And ahe who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.
39 “aHe who has found his 1life will lose it, and he who has lost his 1life for My sake will find it. 40 “aHe who receives you receives Me, and bhe who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.
Illustration: The Bridge is out (Be intolerant, Ryan Dobson)
Argumentation: What if the guy would have shot the flare into the water? Teens, the gospel message makes all the difference in the world for the salvation on men.
There is absolute truth, and that truth is the Gospel message that YOU are called to preach!
Acts 4:8-12 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people,
9 if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been made well,
10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health.
11“He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone.
12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
Everyone of us in this room tonight has a choice to make. Do I fear man more than I fear God?
The one surefire way to find out the answer to this question is if you are willing to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ.
Application: Proclaim the message to those you know. Get beyond “God loves you!”
Remember, it’s the message that saves, not the messenger…
Romans 1:16-17 For I am not aashamed of the gospel, for bit is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the cJew first and also to dthe Greek.
17 For in it athe righteousness of God is revealed 1from faith to faith; as it is written, “2bBut the righteous man shall live by faith.”
Transition:
The Message Never Changes
The Messenger Better Not Change It
Which Message will You Preach?
Conclusion:
Visualization: Our country has made a dramatic shift from where it started. The Christian beliefs that were the foundation of this nation are bust a distant memory…
Has the same thing happened in your life? What is your foundation? Is it the message of the Gospel
Reiteration: Don’t Mess With the Message!
The Message Never Changes
The Messenger Better Not Change It
Which Message will You Preach?
Action:
Appeal: