Galatians: No Other Gospel II
Galatians
Welcome:
Good morning, everybody! Welcome to Eastern Shore Baptist Church. It is wonderful to see you this morning. My name is Stuart Davidson, and I am the pastor here.
Last week, we started a brand-new series walking through the book of Galatians. We began with Galatians chapter 1, verses 6 through 10, and if you were here, you probably remember that I made it through exactly one point.
That’s right, one.
So this morning we are going to dive back into that message and hopefully finish our last two points.
If you’re visiting with us today, I’m really glad you’re here. Thank you for spending part of your Sunday with us. I hope you’ll come back and join us as we continue through Galatians.
I also want you to know that Sunday morningworship is just one part of what happens here at Eastern Shore. We have Life Groups every Sunday morning at 9:00, and we’ve got a great lineup of activities on Wednesday nights for all ages that start at 5:30. There are plenty of opportunities to get connected, grow in your faith, and get to know some folks.
I also want to welcome everyone watching online this morning. We’re glad you’ve tuned in and are worshiping with us.
Remember, our prayer line is always available. If there’s something happening in your life that we can pray about, text us at 251-222-8977. We would count it a privilege to pray with you.
Introduction To Today’s Sermon:
Several years ago, a young pastor named Costi Hinn sat down to prepare a sermon from John chapter 5. Now, that last name may sound familiar to some of you. Costi Hinn is the nephew of Benny Hinn, one of the most famous prosperity preachers in the world.
Costi didn’t just grow up around the prosperity gospel. He participated in it. He traveled around the world with his family doing ministry. He experienced the private jets and the expensive hotels. He personally collected large offerings. He experienced all the luxuries that came with the world of prosperity gospel living. He had been taught that if you had enough faith, gave enough money, that God would reward you with health, wealth, and blessing.
Then Costi Hinn picked up a Bible and read it.
Costi’s famous uncle Benny gave him that famous assignment to preach from John chapter 5, where Jesus heals the man at the pool of Bethesda.
Costi studied the passage, he started noticing things that didn’t fit what he had been taught.
There were a lot of sick people at that pool, but Jesus healed one man.
The man didn’t demonstrate extraordinary faith.
Nobody collected an offering before the miracle.
There wasn’t an elaborate healing service.
No one slain in the spirit.
No one speaking in tongues.
Jesus spoke, and the man was healed.
The more Costi studied Scripture, the more the system he believed began to unravel. Eventually, faced a difficult truth.
What he had been taught, what he had participated in, what he had helped promote was not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a distortion of it.
Costi has written about weeping over his participation in false teaching and thanking God for opening his eyes to the truth.
I think there’s something powerful about his story.
He didn’t need a better version of the gospel.
He didn’t need a different version of the gospel.
He needed the Gospel created and taught by Jesus Christ.
The Gospel doesn’t need to be improved.
It doesn’t need to be updated.
It doesn’t need something added to it to make it more attractive.
It doesn’t need anything taken away from it to make it more acceptable.
There is one Gospel.
Jesus Christ died for our sins. He was buried. He rose again. Salvation is by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
That’s why I’ve titled this message, “No Other Gospel.”
Well…part 2.
Today’s Sermon:
“No Other Gospel Part II”
Introduction To Today’s Thought:
Friend, do me a favor and fill in the blanks under Today’s Thought:
Today’s Thought:
Don’t Abandon The Gospel That Saved You For An Artificial Gospel That Can’t Save Anyone.
Don’t Abandon The Gospel That Saved You For An Artificial Gospel That Can’t Save Anyone.
That’s really the danger we’re talking about this morning.
An artificial gospel may look good. It may sound good. It may use Christian language. It may quote Bible verses. It may talk about Jesus. It may even be preached by somebody holding a Bible.
Yet if it changes the message of salvation through Jesus Christ, it has no power to save anybody.
You can dress up a counterfeit, make it attractive, package it well, and put a Christian label on it, but it is still a counterfeit. The Gospel that saved you is the Gospel we must hold on to. Jesus is enough. His cross is enough. His resurrection is enough. His grace is enough. We don’t need another gospel because there is no other Gospel.
Introduction To Today’s Quote:
That’s why we have to take the Gospel seriously. False teaching doesn’t normally walk through the door wearing a name tag that says, “Hello, I’m a false teacher.”
Most of the time, it sounds good. It sounds spiritual. It may even sound biblical, which is why we have to know the truth well enough to recognize when it has been distorted.
Friends, that brings me to Today’s Quote by Alistair Begg. This quote comes from his study in Galatians. Let’s read it together.
Today’s Quote:
“The church must guard the purity of the gospel from generation to generation. False teaching does not always announce itself as false. It often sounds spiritual, appears attractive, and is presented by persuasive people. That is why Christians must know the gospel well enough to recognize when someone has added to it, taken away from it, or replaced it with something else.”
Alistair Begg’s “A Study in Galatians”
Background and Context of Today’s Scripture:
Now, before we read our Scripture this morning, let me give you just a little bit of background. Some of this will sound familiar if you were here last week, but I think it’s important for us to remember the setting.
The book of Galatians was written by the Apostle Paul, probably sometime in the late 40s or early 50s AD, which makes it one of Paul’s earliest letters. Paul is writing to a group of churches in the region of Galatia, an area located in what we know today as modern-day Turkey. These were churches that Paul knew. He had preached the Gospel to them. He had seen people come to faith in Jesus Christ.
The problem was that after Paul left, false teachers began influencing these churches. If you remember, we talked about the Judaizers last week. They were teaching that faith in Jesus was good, but faith in Jesus wasn’t enough.
They taught that Gentile believers also needed to follow certain requirements of the Jewish law, including circumcision, in order to be a true follower of Jesus Christ.
Friends remember the moment you say, “Jesus plus something else,” you have changed the Gospel. That’s why Paul writes this letter with such urgency. He wants these believers to understand that salvation is not Jesus plus the law, Jesus plus good works, Jesus plus religious rituals, or Jesus plus anything else.
Salvation is found in Jesus Christ alone.
With that in mind, take your Bible and open it with me to Galatians chapter 1. We’re going to return to verses 6 through 10 this morning.
Remember…
Statement of Belief:
“We are opening the living and powerful Word of God…truth without error, breathed out by Him, and fully sufficient for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. It is our authority, our guide, and our hope. In honor of the God who gave us His perfect Word, I invite you to stand with me as we read it together.”
Today’s Scripture:
Galatians 1:6-10 CSB
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. [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! [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.
Pastor: “This is the Word of the Lord.”
Congregation: “Praise His name. Praise His holy name.”
Paul Speaking Plainly About The Gospel…
I. The Distortion of the Gospel vs. 7
Friends when you read Galatians one verse seven you see that Paul is speaking pretty plainly about the true gospel. He is delivering the real good news.
I’m not going to spend a lot of time on a point that I spent an entire message on last week. But for anyone that was not here last Sunday, I thought I might give a brief overview and definition. You’ll see that the blank is already filled in for you.
Our first point last week was…The Distortion of the Gospel.
Look again at verse 7.
“Not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.”
Recall that last week we discussed the Judaizers.
They weren’t telling the Galatians to completely abandon Jesus. Their message was much more subtle than that. They were saying, “Yes, believe in Jesus, but Jesus isn’t enough.” They wanted these Gentile believers to add circumcision and obedience to the Jewish law to faith in Christ. They weren’t necessarily replacing Jesus. They were adding something to Jesus.
We talked last week about how that same kind of distortion still happens today. We identified three false gospels that we regularly encounter: the Prosperity Gospel, the Progressive Gospel, and the Performance Gospel.
They distort the Gospel in different ways, but they all make the same fundamental mistake. They take the Gospel God has given us and change it. They add something to it, take something away from it, or substitute something else for it.
Remember the statement I gave you last week: “The Gospel is distorted whenever anything is added to, taken away from, or substituted for the finished work of Jesus Christ.”
Friends, Jesus doesn’t need our help saving anybody. His death was sufficient. His resurrection was sufficient. His grace is sufficient. The Gospel is not Jesus plus something else. The Gospel is Jesus Christ, crucified, buried, risen, and coming again.
Well, friends, now that we have been reminded of our first point from last week, let’s move to the second point.
Paul Speaking Plainly About The Gospel…
I. The Distortion of the Gospel vs. 7
II. The Condemnation of False Teachers from verse 9
Again, we’ve talked about:
The Distortion of the Gospel in verse 7.
Now Paul continues speaking plainly about the Gospel. If you’re following along on your outline, fill in this second blank:
The Condemnation of False Teachers from verse 9
Look again at that verse:
Galatians 1:9 CSB
“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!”
There on your outline is an explanation of this next point.
“God holds accountable people who distort His truth and lead others away from the true Gospel.”
Friends, notice just how strong Paul’s language is here. He says, “a curse be on him.” The word Paul uses is anathema. He’s talking about being under the judgment of God.
Why such strong language?
When you distort the Gospel, you’re not giving somebody bad information. You’re dealing with their eternity.
If I give you bad directions to a restaurant, you might miss supper. If I give you bad directions about salvation, the consequences are eternal.
That’s why Scripture places such a serious responsibility on those who teach God’s Word.
James 3:1 NLT
“Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly.”
I’ll tell you something, folks. That verse gets my attention as a pastor. Every Sunday when I stand behind this pulpit, I’m handling something that doesn’t belong to me. This is God’s Word. I don’t have the authority to change it. I don’t have the authority to soften it because something is unpopular. I don’t have the authority to substitute my opinions for what God has said.
My responsibility is to faithfully tell you what God has said.
That responsibility doesn’t stop with pastors.
Life Group teachers, you’re teaching God’s Word.
Parents and grandparents, you’re teaching biblical truth to your children and grandchildren.
Christians, every time you tell somebody how they can know Jesus, you’re handling the Gospel.
That ought to make all of us careful about what we teach. It should also make us careful about what we listen to.
Just because somebody has a television program doesn’t mean they’re teaching the truth. Just because somebody has a bestselling book doesn’t mean they’re teaching the truth. Just because somebody has a huge church, a million followers, or a popular podcast doesn’t mean they’re teaching the truth.
Popularity is not the test of truth. Scripture is.
Friends, we have a responsibility to know this Book well enough that when somebody teaches something contrary to the Gospel, we recognize it.
Paul takes false teaching seriously because God takes His Gospel seriously.
Paul takes false teaching seriously because God takes His Gospel seriously.
Now, that raises an important question. How do you know the difference? How do you recognize a false teacher when you hear one?
Let me give you an example.
Years ago, Angela worked at Compass Bank in Birmingham. She was a teller, so she handled money all day long. Angela could recognize a counterfeit bill pretty quickly. I’m sure the bank gave her some training on counterfeit money, but that wasn’t the primary reason she could recognize a fake.
Angela knew the counterfeit because she was so familiar with the real thing.
She handled real money every day. She knew how it looked. She knew how it felt. She knew what was supposed to be there. When something wasn’t right, she could recognize it.
Friends, the same principle applies to false teaching.
The best way to recognize a counterfeit Gospel is to become deeply familiar with the true Gospel.
Read your Bible.
Study it.
Sit under faithful biblical teaching.
Know what Scripture says for yourself.
The more time you spend with the truth, the easier it becomes to recognize something that doesn’t sound right.
Acts 17:11 tells us that the Bereans “received the word with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”
Think about that. They didn’t even take Paul’s word for it. They checked his teaching against Scripture.
You should do the same thing with me.
Don’t believe something simply because Pastor Stuart said it. Open your Bible. Read the passage. Study it for yourself. Make sure what I’m telling you agrees with what God has said.
That’s also something to watch for with false teachers. False teachers often want you to become dependent upon their teaching rather than dependent upon God’s Word. Everything revolves around their revelation, their interpretation, their book, their program, their message, or their ministry.
A faithful Bible teacher should constantly be pointing you away from himself and back to Scripture.
Here are some simple questions you can ask when you hear someone teach:
Does this agree with the clear teaching of Scripture?
What does this person teach about Jesus?
What does this person teach about sin and repentance?
What does this person teach about salvation?
Does this teacher point me toward Scripture, or make me dependent upon the teacher?
Friends, don’t spend your life studying every counterfeit Gospel that comes along.
Spend your life knowing the real thing.
Know the Word. Know the Gospel. Know Jesus.
When you know the truth well, the counterfeit becomes much easier to recognize.
Chances are, at some point, some of you have had Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormon missionaries knock on your door. Maybe you’ve had a conversation with someone from another religious group about what they believe.
Let me give you one question that gets to the heart of someone’s theology pretty quickly:
“What must a person do to receive eternal life and spend eternity with God?”
Another way of putting it is this…
How do I get to heaven?
Listen carefully to the answer.
The biblical Gospel says that we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Our works don’t earn salvation. Our religious performance doesn’t earn salvation. Jesus has already accomplished what was necessary through His death and resurrection.
That’s where the differences become important.
Jehovah’s Witnesses will talk about faith in Jesus, but they also teach that you must obey the teachings of their organization and remain faithful to those teachings. They also do not believe Jesus is God in the same way historic Christianity teaches. In other words, their understanding of Jesus and salvation is different from what we find in the biblical Gospel.
Mormons, or members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will also talk about Jesus, grace, and faith. By the way, the Jesus that they are talking about is not the same Jesus of the New Testament.
The Morman Jesus is really just a cheap facade, a counterfeit, of the real Christ.
Their Jesus is brother to Satan.
Their Jesus is not the one true living God. No sir.
Their Jesus is just one of many little g gods in a pantheon of little g gods.
If you like that Jesus, good news, you can be a god yourself if you play your cards right.
What about eternal life?
The Mormons give a very different path to salvation than the true Biblical path.
They add things like religious ordinances, covenants, public obedience, displays of kindness, and continued faithfulness.
Once again, the problem is Jesus plus something else.
Friends, compare those messages with the Gospel Paul has been defending.
Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift, not from works, so that no one can boast.”
That doesn’t mean obedience is unimportant. It doesn’t mean baptism is unimportant. It doesn’t mean good works are unimportant. Those things belong in the Christian life.
They just don’t purchase our salvation.
Jesus purchased our salvation.
That’s why we need to know the Gospel. When you know the real thing, you can recognize the counterfeit.
Paul has shown us the distortion of the Gospel.
He has warned us about the condemnation of false teachers.
Now, in verse 10, Paul turns the spotlight toward himself and asks, in effect, “Who am I trying to please?”
That brings us to our third and final point:
Paul Speaking Plainly About The Gospel…
I. The Distortion of the Gospel vs. 7
II. The Condemnation of False Teachers vs. 9
III. The Devotion of Christ’s Servant vs. 10
Well, friends, we’ve finally made it to the last point on our outline.
We’ve talked about:
The Distortion of the Gospel in verse 7
The Condemnation of False Teachers in verse 9
Now we’re going to conclude with:
The Devotion of Christ’s Servant from verse 10
Look again at verse 10:
Galatians 1:10 CSB
“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.”
“A faithful servant of Christ seeks the approval of God above the approval of people.”
I want to be pretty transparent with you this morning. Everybody has character flaws. Everybody has areas where God is still working on them. One of mine has always been my desire to please people.
Honestly, I can trace it all the way back to childhood. I wanted to please my parents. I wanted to please my teachers. I wanted people to be happy with me. It has always bothered me when I felt like I disappointed somebody or let somebody down. It still bothers me today.
For the most part, I want people to be happy. If something isn’t immoral or unbiblical, I’ll do my best to work with people. I want to help people. I want to encourage people. I want to make people happy while bringing honor to Christ.
One of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn in ministry is that pleasing people and pleasing God are not always the same thing.
I’ve been going to counseling regularly for probably the better part of six years now. There have been plenty of sessions where my counselor and I have talked about my incessant desire to please people. One day, he pointed out something that was incredibly simple, yet incredibly freeing.
Jesus couldn’t please everybody.
Think about that.
Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath, and the religious leaders were angry with Him.
Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners, and people criticized Him.
Jesus told the rich young ruler the truth, and the young man walked away sorrowful.
Jesus confronted the Pharisees and called out their hypocrisy, and they hated Him for it.
Jesus taught the crowd hard truths in John 6, and many of His own followers turned around and stopped following Him.
Jesus was perfect. Jesus never sinned. Jesus always loved people. Jesus always told the truth.
Jesus still didn’t please everybody.
One of the things I’ve had to learn is this: If Jesus couldn’t please everybody, Stuart Davidson certainly can’t please everybody.
There is one Person, though, whose approval should matter more to me than anyone else’s.
God.
That’s exactly what Paul is talking about in verse 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.”
Two words jump out at me there: striving and please.
To strive means you’re working at something. You’re exerting yourself. You’re putting forth effort trying to accomplish something.
That describes people pleasing pretty well, doesn’t it?
You’re constantly trying to figure out what everybody wants. What do they want me to say? What do they want me to do? What will keep them happy? What will keep them from being disappointed in me? What will keep them from criticizing me?
Friends, that will wear you out.
I know because I’ve done it.
The word please gets to the goal behind all that striving. You want someone’s approval. You want them to be satisfied with you. You want to know that they think you’ve done well.
Paul says, in effect, “I’ve settled the question of whose approval I’m living for.”
Listen to what he says in another letter.
1 Thessalonians 2:4 NIV
“On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.”
That doesn’t mean we become rude. It doesn’t mean we stop caring about people. It doesn’t mean we use “I’m just trying to please God” as an excuse to be difficult, stubborn, or unkind.
It means that when pleasing people and obeying God come into conflict, God wins.
Here’s something I’ve discovered in my own life. When I get caught in the trap of trying to please everybody, I get tired. I get anxious. I get worn out. I’m constantly wondering what somebody thinks about me.
Jesus offers us something different.
In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus invites those who are weary and burdened to come to Him. He tells us that His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
Maybe somebody walked in here this morning exhausted from trying to keep everybody happy.
Maybe you’re worn out trying to please your spouse, your parents, your children, your boss, your friends, your coworkers, or everybody who has an opinion about your life.
Maybe part of the reason you’re so tired is that you’re striving to please the wrong person.
You cannot please everybody.
You were never called to please everybody.
You were called to follow Jesus.
Love people. Serve people. Encourage people, and be patient with people. Listen to people. Forgive people. Forgiveness is so hard sometimes, especially when you have to forgive yourself.
Live for the approval of God.
Paul knew who he belonged to. He knew whose Gospel he preached. He knew whose approval mattered most.
Friends, that brings us right back to where we started this morning.
We don’t change the Gospel to please people.
We don’t soften the Gospel to please people.
We don’t add to the Gospel to please people.
We don’t take away from the Gospel to please people.
We faithfully proclaim Jesus Christ because we are servants of Jesus Christ.
There is no other Gospel.
There is no other Savior.
Jesus is enough.
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