Galatians 1.6-9
0 Amens
Galatians 1.6-9
Sam Ford
Nov. 12, 2006
Last week we began our study of the book of Galatians. Paul is the writer, and his planting of the churches is recorded in Acts 13 and 14. Simply stated, the book of Galatians is a letter written to believers about the gospel. The great reformer, Martin 'Luther called the Gospel, "The doctrine upon which the church stands." These churches that were once sold out to the grace of Jesus found in the good news of the gospel, have come under attack from wolves inside their flock. His letter is a clarification, admonishment, and attack. He clarifies what the gospel is and how it applies to our lives, admonishes (like a father) those whom he loves for abandoning it, and then attacks the false teachers who have caused all the problems.
In the time since Paul planted these churches, false teachers came into their community and change the gospel. These false teachers effectively attack Paul's credentials, claiming he has no authority, that he is just trying to please men, and then they malign the message that he taught therefore changing the one Gospel. They take a message of salvation by the grace of God and add to it the works of men. In essence, they abandon a God-centered plan to save a broken world and instead embrace for a man-centered Gospel, exchanging a gospel of grace (unmerited favor) for a gospel of works.
It's important that this letter is addressed to believers. We must never forget the gospel or imagine it is just truth for people who have never heard it. We all need the gospel. The gospel is something we need to preach to ourselves everyday. It is THE truth that gives us meaning, purpose, and satisfaction in this life.
READ GALATIANS 1.6-9Quickly deserting...
Paul is amazed, astounded, bewildered, and shocked that they have SO QUICKLY changed so dramatically. It is as if they didn't even put up a fight either because they were too lazy or completely incompetent.
Notice that Paul is not shocked by the existence of FALSE TEACHERS. Our world is full of lies, deception, and half-truths. Our world is teeming with false teachers driven by self-interest or simply delusional. Satan, the father of lies, has been in the "false truth" business for some time-and He still is. We are working with Satan, the most intelligent being created. Remember, Satan will give you whatever your evil heart wants...as long as it leads you to hell. Therefore, we must expect false teachings to be attractive emotionally and intellectually. In other words, all falsehood isn't ugly. And all truth isn't always "pleasant".
What is shocking to Paul is how is how quickly their falling for a lie, how easily they are persuaded, how overwhelmingly they are convinced. These guys are believers and they got confused so easily it seems. We have to ask ourselves, why? How?
Sadly, this still happens today more often than not. We live in a very stupid culture. That might sound offensive, but go with me. We fall for anyone with authority, good looks, a nice voice, or someone who drops words like ‘absolutely' all the time . Attach a college of repute to a weird scientific study, we believe it without question; throw a picture up on the TV screen of some cop supposedly beating an innocent victim...you'll have riots. We are a reactionary, emotionally driven, visually stimulated consumer culture. Give us more, faster, brighter, more powerful. This happens in the church too. We don't question any more. We have no real answers.
I am convinced we don't question, because we don't know what to ask. We live in a world that is lost, a world that needs truth-and we have it. But we don't know it. We can't go into the Bible to tell someone what God says is right wrong good bad or ugly. As a result, our foundations are shaken by a statistic, a poll, a fact, or a verse. We have no backbone. We are Evan-jellyfish who have no confidence in our faith because we don't know it. Even the long-term believers can lose a firm grip on truth. They end up falling for something weak and perverted. They fall for the counterfeit because they don't know what the real thing looks like.
Deserting Him...Jesus
Notice we're not deserting an IT. To turn away from the truth of the gospel is not to turn away form a church, a religion, or a rulebook. We're deserting JESUS, A PERSON. This is same term used for military, which desertion at this point was punishable by death. We are walking away from our source of life. Like a lost soldier, we desert because we're weak, scared, or confused. We swim away from the only life preserver we have because we think we can swim. WE don't realize, we're so broken, we haven't any arms or legs.
V. 6 What causes us to "turn" toward a different Gospel
Paul writes that these people are turning away from Jesus to a different Gospel. He also says, "NOT THAT THERE IS ANOTHER ONE." In truth, there is only ONE gospel. Jesus clearly said, "I am the THE way, and THE truth, and THE life." Luke also writes in Acts 4.12 says, And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Even though there are many roads available to God, there is only ONE that leads there. The ONE True Jesus and the ONE True Gospel is:
§ All are sinners and cannot do anything to save themselves. (Romans 3.23)
§ Christ, God's Son, is a perfect Savior for sinners, even the worst (John 6.37-44, Heb 7.25)
§ Jesus Christ died for sinners, was buried, and rose again on the first day. (1Cor. 15.1-4)
§ The Gospel is the Power of God for salvation to all who believe. (Romans 1.16)
§ Salvation comes only through Jesus (Acts 4.12)
§ Salvation comes through the substitutionary blood of Jesus, which not only atones for sins, but makes the sinner righteous before God and brings reconciliation with Him (Romans 3.25,5.9)
§ Salvations comes at the moment the sinner believes the gospel (Romans 10.9-13, Eph 1.13-14)
§ Salvation is granted by God and secured by God (John 10.27-30)
§ Jesus perfectly accomplished and completed all works necessary to save sinners (John 19.30)
§ Salvation is completely of God and not of man in anyway, and it is the glory of God alone (Romans 8.28-30, Romans 9, Ephesians 1, 2.8-9)
That is the gospel. The Galatians heard it, believed it, and now they turned from it. Why? There are many things that cause us to turn to a different gospel. Sometimes it's our intellect. The foolishness of God doesn't seem to work with our rational thinking minds. Anything that we can't figure our, we usually throw out. We pick and choose the parts of the Bible that satisfy our ability to reason, failing to recognize the inability of this three pounds of mush between my ears to understand the infinite. I firmly believe there is no certainty apart from faith.
Of course, we often turn to a different gospel because of our emotions. Life experience begin to dictate what are truth is versus truth helping us to understand our life experience. That which is right, wrong, good, or bad, becomes dependent upon our momentary feelings that the Bible says shift like the wind, and our heart, which the Bible says is evil. Really, neither our intellect or our emotions are not causing us to turn from the gospel; it is the sin within us. We do not desire God's way, we want our own. Like a stubborn child who doesn't know what is best for them...we rebel, and turn away from our Father who only wants the best for us.
Regardless of reason, the Galatians fell to the pressure and turned to a different gospel. It was a gospel with a different Jesus. A gospel with a different way to be right with God apat fr A gospel that wBut our world is full of different gospels that claim to save you. Our world is also full of many different Jesus. Paul warns us in 2Corthians 11 about them:
3 But I am afraid that was the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts rwill be led astray from a ssincere and tpure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes and uproclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept va different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. [i] 2Corinthians 11.3-4
Paul warns us that there is another Jesus, another gospel, and another spirit. They are false and must be tested by Scripture. Some Jesus options include...
v. 6-7Another Jesus, Another Gospel
|
False Truth |
Who is Jesus |
|
JW's |
Not Jehovah God, but the first son that Jehovah brought forth. Jesus is God's first creation. Before he created the rest of the world as a ‘junior partner', he had a pre-human existence as Michael the Archangel. |
|
Mormons |
Among the many spirit children of Elohim, the first one was Jehovah, or Jesus Christ. By obedience and devotion, he attained to the pinnacle of intelligence that ranked him as a "God", but he was created. Elohim is "literally" his Father with Mary. Although he is greather than all others by nature of his unique conception, he is in fact our brother...as is Lucifer. |
I don't worry so much the people who "redefine" Jesus. You read your Bible and it is easy to distinguish between the real Jesus and the false one. What I fear the most, and what I consider the most dangerous of false teachers, are those already in the church. These are the ones that label their teaching as "Christianity" but have in fact have perverted the Gospel by addting something to it like a drop of poison to a glass of water.
v.7 We distort the gospel by ADDING to it
The Galatian church experienced an addition the gospel. Instead of a God-centered message of GRACE ALONE in JESUS, they ascribed to the Jesus +program. The Jesus+ program is very dangerous, but unfortunately, quite prevalent in today's churches. Many churches today have unknowingly turned away from the gospel of Grace and adopted a gospel of works to make themselves feel good before their God or look good before men.
In the Galatian church this meant that they were persuaded to believe that the blood of Jesus Christ alone was not sufficient enough to save them from their sins. Because of false teachers among them, they began to believe that their acceptance before God and their continued growth as a believer was dependent upon believing JESUS and following Old Testament Law. They added to the gospel.
Our adversary the devil has used this to give the Christian church a bad name. When we add to the Gospel making it a different Gospel we become guilty of Legalism. Some popular ones include:
- Teaching your righteousness is dependent upon how much you pray or read your bible
- Churches where you are more accepted if you dress a certain way
- Teaching we are saved through being a loving and good person
- Churches that are more approving if do or don't do certain culture behaviors
- Teaching that you must have certain spiritual experiences
- Churches that can only listen with certain kinds of "Christian" music
We add certain conditions to the gospel of grace to make ourselves more acceptable and righteous to God. There is nothing to add. In fact, to add anything is to gain nothing but to lose everything. The slightest perversion of the gospel of grace is not the gospel. It is as false a gospel as the false Jesus of some cult.
V. 7 We replace the gospel and make a new savior
The false teachers of Galatia were promoting a false gospel. It was a man-centered gospel of works where the savior in fact is not Jesus at all, but man tries in vain to save himself. Paul wrote this letter to believers. You see, it's only the CHURCH PEOPLE that like to add stuff to the gospel. If you're not a believer, I can't imagine you having discussions about righteousness before God.
Strangely, we churched and un-churched people agree on one thing, our brokenness. We may not call it that, but we certainly search for grace and peace in a world where THINGS ARE NOT AS THEY"RE SUPPOSED TO BE. We all want a hero, someone or something to save us, to tell us we're good, acceptable, valued. We need Jesus, the perfect IMAGE of GOD, but instead we remake our savior into the IMAGE OF MAN. Believers are just as guilty of this. I am just as guilty of this. We abandon the gospel and reject Jesus completely, making something else our savior. Ask yourself these questions:
- To who or what do you really look for life sustaining stability, security, and acceptance?
- What do you really want and expect out of life?
- What would make you happy?
- What would make you an acceptable person?
- Where do you look for power and success?
These questions will show you whether or not you're following a false gospel-whether you are looking to some other god as your savior. If you didn't answer Jesus, then perhaps you have replaced the TRUE GOSPEL with one of these "DIFFERENT GOSPELS"
1. Gospel of Work: Work becomes the think you live for-to be productive and useful, or to feel successful and powerful.
2. Gospel of Beauty & Image: This can have various forms
- Women: Eating disorders and excessive time, effort, concern about appearance
- Men: Pornography
3. Gospel of Romance/Relationship: This is not the same as purse sexual gratification. You live for crushes or for someone to love you.
4. Gospel of Family: This gospel/idolatry has many variations:
- Your children's prospects and happiness become the most important thing
- Meeting your parent's expectations become the most important thing
- Getting married or having the perfect marriage becomes the most important thing
5. Gospel of Money: This also have many variations
- Having lots (saving) lots of money may be your security, the main way you feel safe in the world.
- Having (spending) lots of money may be the main way you feel significant and important
6. Gospel of Perfection: You live to keep complete control of your life.
*(Adopted from Tim Keller's Gospel Christianity)
Is something or someone besides Jesus Christ the object of your heart's trust, preoccupation, loyalty, service, fear and delight?
V .8--9 Who cares who says it...does it line up with the gospel?
Finally, Paul closes with a powerful ATTACK on the false teachers.
It's no wonder these false teachers are so successful. We are a people so easily woo-ed. Paul says the same thing twice but uses two different examples. First he uses an angel as an example of the wow-factor with which an authority might come. If some angel (named moroni perhaps) decides to pop down, shoot lightinbolts from his fingers, levitate over the crowd, heal your gonnacyphaherpelaids with a word-then proceed to tell you that the gospel Paul and I preach is wrong, we have a truth to stand on and a shiny guy with wings to kick out of the church.
But then Paul says, if anyone. False teachers may not always come with the glory of an angel, but perhaps more subtely. They might even appear gentle and innocent-but make not mistake about it. Their father is the father of lies. Theydo not have the gospel if they do not preach Paul's gospel received directly from Jesus.
We cannot fall We must look below the surface, we must look beyond the feelings. Truth is not tested by our feelings, our intellect, or our experience. Paul boldly declares that feelings, relative to truth the truth of the gospe do not matter. Even it feels unbelievable, uncomfortable, impossible, or offensive...tough. Paul is not concerned with what makes us feel good or bad. If you don't have the truth, but you have high self-esteem, you've lost it all but go to hell with a forced smile. No matter how sure you are, no matter how much you feel, no matter how great your argument, if it doesn't line up with the gospel Paul is preaching, it is not the gospel. And if it is not the gospel, IT CANNOT SAVE YOU. .
Conclusion
Do you believe in the true gospel, or are you following a false one. When your mind is completely unfettered and able to dwell on wherever it wishes-what do you think about naturally? Instinctively? Where do you thoughts go habitually?
Do they go to Jesus-his excellence, his attributes, his glory, his beauty? No?
Wherever they go, there you find your true religion, your real savior, your ultimate concern, the thing your heart most rest in and worships.[ii] Run to the cross, find truth, find life.
r
Col. 2:4, 8s
[Eph. 6:5]t
ch. 6:6u
[1 Cor. 3:11]v
Gal. 1:6[i]
The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. Wheaton : Standard Bible Society, 2001, S. 2 Co 11:3[ii]
Adopted from Tim keller, Gospel Christianity
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