Contending for the Gospel

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Comments on the last week - election??

The Galatians are Leaving the Gospel Behind

The Scriptures speak pretty clearing about the importance of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the good news that comes from Jesus.

It’s to be embraced - our lives depend on it.

It’s not to be tainted - our witness depends on it.

And it’s to be fought for - The Great Commission depends on it.

Jude 3 CSB

3 Dear friends, although I was eager to write you about the salvation we share, I found it necessary to write, appealing to you to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all.

Contend - athletic term - agonize greatly or to struggle.

When an athlete trains they don’t do it for nothing. There is a goal, they are out to win, if they are a serious athlete then they are going to push themselves as hard as they can to try and reach the prize.

Contending as struggle is not a negative thing but a positive, because it holistically gets the person lined up with their goal.

Trained body, mind, spirit, vision.

And when you find yourself trained up it’s easy to give an answer to the skeptics out there.

The game plan rolls off your tongue

The eating habits become second nature to you

Routines are formed that help you to reach your goal

All things that point to your dedication in training and the importance of that goal.

Rocky 3 - Fighting Clubber Lang. Enjoying the ride but loose in the lifestyle. Could bat off the mediocre contenders (his choices) but wasn’t ready for the real challenge. The movie is about Rocky finding his focus again to defeat his biggest foe.

The same can be said for our knowledge, understanding, and commitment to the gospel.

1 Peter 3:15 CSB

15 but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

Being ready to give an answer for the faith.

A recent Barna survey shows that almost half of the younger generation thinks that it is wrong to share their faith with someone else, even though they said that “the best thing that could ever happen to someone is for them to come to know Jesus.”

Culturally we are moving more and more down the road where faith is an important part of someone’s life but that personal experience isn’t to be forced on to someone else.

The thing about Jesus is you can’t force him on anyone. He has already set out the gift. We are just pointing them to the gift.

Question

If you were to come up with the biggest reason for not sharing your faith with other people what would that be?

Paul is going to get us thinking about this in the book of Galatians!

Corporate Reading of Galatians 1:6-10

Galatians 1:6–7 CSB

6 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—7 not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

How they were turning from the gospel

Their turning was serious. The word turning has the idea of switching teams. It’s not just about having a different point of view. You are jumping ship.

Yankees and Red Sox hats - what do you think of someone who puts on this other hat?

The Galatians had put on the robes of righteousness offered by Jesus, but now they were putting back on robes of works based religion.

The turning away happened so soon.

“I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away!” The idea of quickly reminds us of another story in the Bible. The Golden Cafe.

Question

Imagine that you had spent three years or so planting churches, bringing people to Jesus, and preaching the Gospel. What would your reaction be to the church? How would you respond? What emotions would you be feeling?

Paul’s response to them was “You foolish Galatians.”

Galatians 3:1 CSB

1 You foolish Galatians! Who has cast a spell on you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?

BUT there turning was not hopeless. The word turning here is a continuous present tense verb meaning that that they were in process.

Paul’s words indicate that the ship can be turned. He is not bringing a final thought of condemnation to them.

Later on Paul is going to encourage them not to give up!

Galatians 5:7 CSB

7 You were running well. Who prevented you from being persuaded regarding the truth?

Galatians 6:9 CSB

9 Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up.

This is a letter of reflection.

Look at what was brought to you and look at where you are now.

One of the biggest questions for them (and for us if we start to leave Jesus behind) is “are you more free?”

What we need to know about the gospel

A couple things we learn from the Gospel

When you turn from the gospel, you turn from God himself and from his grace.

Galatians 1:6 - I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him

The Grace of Christ, meaning the Gospel, is Jesus only. The Judaizers were coming in and saying Jesus + and in this case circumcision.

But this just puts Jesus in the category of a good teacher from just another religion.

His words to his followers don’t make sense when he says that he is the way, the truth , and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him.

Jesus + puts you back in a whole other category. The reality is that Jesus + puts in you back in an old category.

When you turn from the gospel, you have nowhere else to go.

Paul comes out and says you are turning to another gospel - NOT that there is another gospel to turn to.

Paul chooses his words carefully

Different gospel - heteros - “another of a different nature”

(Hebrews 7:11 - different kind of priest, not of the same order as Aaron.)

Another gospel - allos - “another of the same nature”

(John 14-16 - Holy Spirit - another of the same kind will come.)

You are turning to a totally different gospel because there is no other gospel of the same nature.

The argument was that they were not teaching anything new or different and if they were Paul was on the wrong side.

The Twist of the False Teacher.

Galatians 1:7 CSB

7 not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

False teachers create confusion and division

Troubling - to agitate or throw into confusion.

Laundry dryer

Galatian church was in a state of trying to process through what Paul had taught them with what these other outside teachers were bringing.

This is the real power of false teaching. Adding just enough to sow confusion will stop a church right in its tracks.

False teachers reverse the gospel

Distort -

Some have said that a better way to talk about distort is to use the word reverse.

They were putting what was behind in front.

Putting the cart before the horse if you will.

What is the gospel?

Ephesians 2:8–10 CSB

8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—9 not from works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

Notice two things:

1 - we are saved by grace alone and

2 - for good works.

This is the order.

This is what makes it a gift. Picture this you get a Christmas gift and then you send out a thank you note. God has given us the ultimate Christmas gift and our life is that thank you note.

Moralistic therapeutic deism.

Moralistic – God wants people to behave.

Therapeutic – God wants people to be happy and well-adjusted.

Deism – There is a God, but He made the world and then left it alone. God isn’t personally involved in the everyday lives of people.

AND SO, it leaves us on our own. “Be good and you will get there”

There are some really nice people out there. Being nice isn’t a requirement for the gospel though. One of the problems is that our niceness can’t bridge our separation from God. We need to come to the end of ourselves.

We are needing perfect righteousness (morally right and justified) and the only perfectly righteous person is Jesus Christ.

Nice is like a racer who is running a race. A runner who is really really fast but fails to reach the goal line because they are running in the wrong direction.

A Warning for Us All

Galatians 1:8–9 CSB

8 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! 9 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!

Paul is not very politically correct with these false teachers. He actually uses the word curse. That is pretty strong language.

This is so serious that Paul doesn’t even remove himself from the equation.

He even includes the angels.

Christ’s glory is at stake.

A false gospel always glorifies men, because it is based on man’s achievement.

Spurgeon says this: “If you meet with a system of theology which magnifies man, flee from it as far as you can.”

People’s souls are at stake.

Paul knew that this wasn’t just an issue like what color should the pew cushions be or what color carpet should a church get. If you start to move the needle on what the gospel means then the message does not hold the truth and people will miss the gift.

Christmas gift - what if parents told a child that I have a really good gift for you under the tree, but in order to get it you have to go out and mow the yard, wash my car, vacuum the whole house, do the dishes, take out the trash, and pitch in for some food. Oh, and you need to do this for a month leading up to Christmas. What’s going to happen. A child is going to either say no right off the bat, because what kind of gift is that. Or they are going to try really hard and lose momentum a week in or less and fail to earn their gift. The child is not going to get the gift.

The health of the church is at stake.

If the only answer we have to give is a call to goodness then we are no different than any other social justice organization out there.

We put out the call for freedom that leads to goodness. Getting the order right makes all the difference between a man made experience and a God made experience.

A church without the right call will be just another voice in the world and ultimately the people will figure out that there really isn’t anything special to draw them in.

Is It About Us?

Galatians 1:10 CSB

10 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.

Paul has put forth his argument and accusation and now he is going to lead us into the rest of the letter.

If they think he is preaching this gospel message because he is trying to get more likes they are mistaken.

And here is where we get to the crux of the matter.

Often times we are scared to share with people because we are afraid of how they will respond.

This doesn’t just go for the gospel.

Often times we find ourselves fearful to share deep parts of our lives because we think people will look down on us.

“If I tell them that secret then they will really think less of me.”

“If they knew about this issue that I struggle with, then I would loose my friends.”

We see our emotional nakedness as something to be ashamed of.

The reality is that the gospel is about us, but it’s not about us.

The message of the gospel first and foremost is about our God who does not give up on his creation and offers a way for fellowship and redemption without hoop jumping.

A church that turns the gospel inward will start to make it about themselves and not about Jesus.

An inward church will end up being a shrinking church.

Shrinking from the commands to care and love one another

Shrinking from the Great Commission

A growing church is an inviting church.

Not just a shuffling of the saints church.

A growing church is a community changing church.

So we have to ask this again - who is your ONE?

End Big!

Questions

Are there areas in your life that you have an easy time contending for? What would those be? Is the Gospel of Jesus Christ one of them?

Are you having gospel conversations with people? Why or why not? Now is a good time to stop and pray for a person who needs to trust in Christ alone for salvation.

How do Paul’s words about pleasing Christ, not men, affect you? Do you struggle with the desire to please others rather than Christ?

* Outline based on Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary