string(7) "m-66998" Burnt Hickory Baptist Church

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Sep 10, 2023

The Life-giving True Gospel

The Life-giving True Gospel

Passage: Galatians 1:1-16

Speaker: Matt Petty

Series: Freedom in Christ

Category: Sunday Sermons

Keywords: church, worship, faith, jesus, sin, god, sermon, christian, bible, christ, gospel, hope, word, theology, salvation, sermons, good news, galatians, jesus christ, the bible, lord, christianity, holy, who is jesus, bible study, the gospel, goodness of god, self improvement, motivate, what is the gospel, study the bible, bible teaching, trending, change your life, 2023, burnt hickory worship, burnt hickory baptist church live stream, god plan, how to change your life, god's not done with you

We begin our new sermon series through the chapter of Galatians where we explore the tension of the law and freedom in Christ. Today, we define what the gospel means. It’s the good news that Jesus, the perfect Son of God; died for our sins, rose again, conquered sin, and now gives eternal life to those who believe, repent, and trust in Him as their Savior and Lord. Some truths we discover about the gospel is that it’s founded on the grace of God and secured by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. It’s unchangeable by anyone or anything at any time, and the gospel is the only way to have an eternally meaningful life. The opposition to the good news of the gospel is driven by Satan and his kingdom, but when we put our faith in what Jesus did on behalf of us through dying for our sins, we can truly celebrate the good news. Have you experienced the gospel? Have you believed, trusted, and repented? Do you need to accept Jesus today? We’d love to connect with you, answer any questions you’ve got, and take time to pray with you. We’d love to know about your salvation story and if you’ve decided to trust Jesus as Lord. Feel free to reach out. You can always take the next step in your faith journey by visiting burnthickory.com/next.

Well good morning church, I hope you have had an amazing, amazing week this week. And I know that as you've walked in this morning, you have noticed the sea of blue on the front of the building out here, the fenced off area, which means that construction has officially begun here at Burnt Hickory. And then also it means that chances are next week we will no longer have access to the front middle entrance of the building here. All right. Now, I say that primarily for this reason right here, it has been observed that there are two types of people here at Burnt Hickory. The first type of people are the people that get to everything 30 minutes early. All right? You get everywhere. You sit down, you have a cup of coffee, you visit with your friends, you wander the hallways. There is about 10% of you that's who you are. All right. Then there is the other 90% of you who get here during the second song. All right? So I just need to tell you that starting this week, it is going to be a different traffic pattern getting into the building. So please give yourself a couple of extra minutes as you come into the parking lot on two wheels. All right. Give yourself just a couple extra minutes. We're going to be pushing people to the outsides of the building to get in. All right. Got that. There's your public service announcement. We're going to do our part in trying to communicate. You do your part and try not to go 90 miles an hour to get here. All right. There it is.

Well, hey, last week I told you we were finishing up our series last week on God's Not Done With You. This week, we're launching into a new series that I am incredibly excited about. What we're going to do is we're going to walk through some of the major thoughts or big themes, through Paul's letter to the Galatians, Paul's letter to the Galatians. In fact, if you got a copy of Scripture this morning, go ahead and find the book of Galatians this morning. In just a minute, we're going to be jumping in, But here's what we're going to do in the next couple of weeks. We're going to walk through some of the major themes, some of the major encouragements, some of the major warnings to us as believers, as well as to those that do not know Jesus yet. This pretty small, little intense letter that Paul has written to these young churches in the Galatia area is an incredible reminder of what we possess in Jesus. The freedom that we have in Jesus. The honor that we have in Jesus. The life that we have in Jesus. As well as how we walk that out. But on the other side, what it does is it encourages those who are not yet walking with Jesus by showing them that it is the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus that can offer them life. So for the next few weeks, what we're going to do is we're just going to kind of pick some pieces in this book. Now, obviously, we're not going to kind of preach line by line every single message from the book, but we're going to do our best to kind of hit the main themes of where Paul is giving this warning to these Galatian churches. All right.

Well, let's jump into the book and see how we do it. And let's just see where God takes us. All right, here we go. Galatians chapter one. You notice the first word is Paul. Paul did write this book. It's undisputed. There's no question about it. It is his letter. All right, here we go. Paul, an apostle, not sent for men, nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God, the father who raised him from the dead and all the brothers and sisters with me to the churches in Galatia. Now, stop right there, because it's interesting that that is all of Paul's intro to this whole letter. Now, if you are a kind of a regular reader of Paul's letters or any letter during this time period, you will know that this letter and intro feels a little bit different. In fact, there is no this is not Paul's normal greetings we could say. There's no usual greeting. There's no how much I love you guys or Paul saying how much I care for you guys. There's no, how much I can't wait to be with you. There's no thankfulness in thank you for supporting me. Thank you for walking with me. Thank you for launching me out of here. There's no thank you for loving me. In fact, it's Paul's only letter that he writes that he does not build a little bit of goodwill or thank the Galatians for anything they are doing, which is part of the point of the letter. None of that is there. It's way different. You see, every pastor, every speaker, every author has a rhythm, let's say. They have a rhythm of how they begin something, how they kind of set their talk up or set their letter up. In fact, I have a really irregular rhythm. I do the same thing almost every week, don't I? I get up here, I say good morning, I say hello, church. I give some kind of forward looking vision, some kind of forward looking announcement or some kind of looking back thankfulness. And then basically all I do is I tell you to turn somewhere in the Bible and then I yell at you for 35 minutes. It's pretty much the same every single week if you come here. Well, Paul had a rhythm in all of his letters except for this letter. It's almost like Paul would have walked up onto this stage, crossed his arms, and it would almost been him saying, Hey, sit down from worship, I got something to say. That's how Paul starts this whole letter. He gets down to business. Why? Because he's blown away at what is happening in these young churches. He's incredibly upset from what is happening in these churches that he started in this Galatian region that he birthed here. He grew them up. He presented the gospel to them among these gentile believers. And they were young. These were baby churches.

When I say baby, I mean really baby. Because here's the deal. When you read the book of Galatians, I want you to realize you are reading the first. If not one of the first letters that Paul ever wrote. Most scholars agree that it was written somewhere around 49 AD. 49 AD. So think about this. This is not hundreds of years later after Jesus was crucified. If Jesus was crucified, we'll say 33 A.D. We are reading something that was written in 49 A.D. less than 20 years later, and that's a really big deal. You say, well Matt, why is that a big deal? Well, because Paul didn't become a follower of Jesus till after the resurrection of Jesus on the road to Damascus. You know this, right? He didn't become a follower of him until after that fact, which would have been 33 A.D. Then God took Paul into the desert to teach him who God was, to train him to introduce more about Jesus. For 17 years, Paul spent in the desert before God sent him out to the Gentiles, which would mean that these churches are no more than two, maybe three years old at this point. They're young, they're babies, but they're already struggling with what is the true gospel. How do we defend the true gospel? How do we follow the true gospel? How do we walk in and believe and love the true gospel? Now, make no mistake, though, they knew Jesus, Paul had led them to Jesus. But now they're struggling. They're struggling.

You say, well how are they struggling? Well, they're struggling either out of their newness of faith or either just out of their weakness. They're struggling because some Jewish Christians, you know, it's always those old Jewish Christians, right? These Jewish Christians had kind of infiltrated the churches of Galatia, these Gentile churches. And basically they were looking at these Gentiles and saying, Hey, that's cute and all that. You think, you know, Jesus, that's great and all that. You think you know the gospel. But if you're really going to be a Christian and a real follower of God, then you have to know that you are going to have to take on some of the customs of the Jews. What were they doing? They were bringing some of the Old Testament into the New Testament church. They were distorting the gospel. And here's the problem. These churches, they begin to buy it. They begin to fall to this. And Paul was hot. He was angry. Why? Because Paul knew the true gospel. These people had believed the true gospel. But now a false gospel had started coming into the church. So here's how we're going to do this morning as we launch into this book. I want to use chapter one of Galatians today to describe what is the true gospel. And then I want to give you five clarifying statements that can help us hang all of our lives around the gospel of Jesus Christ. And here's why this is so important. It's so important because here's the deal. If we have the wrong gospel, then we don't have God. If we have the wrong gospel, then we don't have Jesus. If we have the wrong gospel, listen to me, students, especially you guys, then we are destined to eternity without God. If we got the wrong gospel, our lives are pointed in a direction away from who God is and nothing else matters. And also secondly, if we got the wrong gospel, then we have started to grab hold of Here's the air quotes, the so-called gospel that people are trying to bring to us.

And here's the deal. We as believers in Jesus have a responsibility to not only know the true gospel, but to be able to defend the true gospel in the culture that we are living in. That's why Paul wrote this whole book to defend the gospel. Now, to get things started this morning, I want to give you a working definition of the gospel. Here's why. Because I know people like me get up in places like this all the time and say things like, Man, believe the gospel, love the gospel, fall in love, preach the gospel, And you're like, I don't even know what the gospel is. Well, good. I want to give you a definition that you can write in your Bible. You can have somewhere of what is the gospel. In fact, I put it in your notes. Let me read it to you. The gospel is the good news that Jesus, here it is, the perfect Son of God, died for our sins, rose again, conquered sin, and now gives eternal life to those, watch this, who believe, who repent, and who trust in him as Savior and Lord. Now I want you to leave that definition there. Because here's the deal. This is the gospel. You can't remove anything out of it. You can't swap it up. If you see it. It is what? It is good news. It is good news of what? It is good. It is of Jesus. Who is Jesus? The perfect son of God. What did he do? He did this for us. He died for our sins. He rose again. He conquered sin and now the offer on the table is for those of us who believe, who repent, and a trust in him as Savior and Lord, then we can have a relationship with Him. That's why it is good news. Now I know that is long, but I just want you to be able to grab hold of that.

Once you grab hold of it, you can just shorten it to this. The gospel is the good news of Jesus. It's the good news of Jesus. Now, when you see this, I want you to notice a couple of things. Inside the gospel, when you think about it as a whole, there is a plan, right? There's a plan. There's some parts of it. There's a plan. What was the plan? The plan was that we were sinners and God sent Jesus. That's the plan. But there's an event, the event of the gospel. You see how we can talk about the gospel differently. The event is Jesus’s life and Jesus's death, right? That's the event. But there's also an achievement in the Gospel, and that is that Jesus rose from the dead. That is the achievement. There is an offer in the Gospel. What is the offer? The offer is. John 3:16, right. For God so love the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him shall have eternal life. The offer is for those of us who submit to Jesus that we can know Jesus. There's also a promise in the Gospel. What's the promise? The promise is that when we do submit to Jesus that He grabs on to us, we grab hold of him, and there is nothing that can separate us from the will of God through Christ, Jesus, our Lord. But on top of that, there's last. There has to be a response to the gospel. The response is for me to submit my life to Jesus. That's it, right? The gospel is not automatic. The gospel is not something you are born with. It's not something you're good enough for. It's not something you have because your grandma passed down the family Bible. The gospel is not something that you got when you were baptized as a baby. The Gospel is the good news of what Jesus has offered you and how you respond to it. But I also want you to notice it is all wrapped around Jesus. It's all wrapped around what God has done through Jesus. Now, I told you the whole morning this morning we're going to watch Paul talk about the gospel. And he's going to clarify some things for us. We're going to start in verse three before I give you the first clarifying statement.

Let me read verse 3 to you because it shows us the foundation of the gospel. Watch this, Galatians chapter one, verse three says this. Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The first clarifying statement I want you to write underneath that definition that Paul shows us and all of us to get is this number one. The Gospel is founded on the grace of God. All right. You’ve got to understand this before you go any farther. The gospel is founded on the foundation of the gospel is the grace of God. In verse three, watch what it says. It says Grace and peace. Right? Those were the first words. Why? Well, without the gospel, there literally is no eternal grace. It's not there. And God's grace is the foundation of all of the good news. Let me remind us. All right. Let me remind us and this is a reminder, when God created us, what did he do? He created us perfectly. He created us in harmony with him. He created us in a relationship with him. But what did we as human beings do? We walked away from God. And the moment we turn our backs away from God, we caused a divide between a holy God and a sinful man that could not be bridged by anything that I did or anything that you did. What the grace of God did, though, is the grace of God saw that divide and he gave us a way to get back. God in his grace gave us this. Look at this. Second Timothy 1:9 says that he has saved us and called us to a holy life, not because of anything that we have done, but because of his own purpose and grace, and grace. Ephesians 2:8-9. For is by grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not by works. So that no one should boast.

Listen, the true gospel, it starts with a graceful God, a loving God, a God that looked at us in despair and wanted to do something for us. The gospel starts with a graceful God. And here's the second part, though, and it starts with the spiritually dead me. A dead me. Listen, the gospel is not that I am spiritually weak, and I just needed a little bit of encouragement to strengthen me. The Gospel is not that I'm just a little bit spiritually confused and needed to be straightened out, to be pleasing to God. The Gospel is, is that we were dead. We had no pulse. We had no future. We had no meaning. But God and His grace by his love offered me salvation. That is the gospel. You say tell me about this grace thing. Grace is simply this. It is the unmerited favor of God. That's all Grace is. It is unmerited. I didn't deserve it. I didn't earn it. He gave it. It is the unmerited favor and love of God to which some people go, Matt, why would God do that? Why would God be graceful to a bunch of people who turned their back on him? That's a great question. Let me give you the answer, because it is in his nature. Why? Because God loves us and God cares for us and God desires a relationship with us. Church listen, when we grab hold of grace, some of you are afraid of grace because you got a little bit of a fundamentalist in you, right. When we grab hold of grace as the foundation of our salvation, it will cause us to remain thankful. It will cause us to burst out of pride. It will cause us to deal with other people differently who have wronged us. Grace will cause us to have grace towards others, and it will cause us and motivate us to live out of that grace. It changes us. It gives us such a life of clarity, such a life of promise, such a life of moving forward in the love under the umbrella of who God is. And it gives us as followers of Jesus a glimpse of the true gospel of Jesus. Paul starts this whole letter with grace because he knew what was happening in this church was that they were beginning to introduce a works based salvation. But Paul's like, No, no, no, no. Salvation is founded on the grace of God.

In fact, Paul, speaking to the Ephesian leaders and Acts 20, says this. He says, However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, this is because he understood grace. Watch, he said my only aim is to finish the race, to complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me. The task of what? Testifying to the good news of God's grace. Grace, Grace, Grace. God's grace is greater than all my sins. Listen, the Gospel is founded on the grace of God. But I can feel the tension. Well man, I thought you said it was all about Jesus? Okay, let's link it. Number two, the Gospel is secured by the sacrifice of Jesus. See, the Gospel was founded in the heart of who God is. By His grace, but is secured to us by the sacrifice of Jesus. Think of it like this. If grace is the lifeboat that saves our self, that is drowning in despair. Right? The line that is thrown to us and this secured us to the boat is Jesus. It's a sacrifice. In fact, watch what Paul says in verse three. He keeps going. He says, Grace and peace from you, from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse four, who gave himself for our sins, watch, to rescue us. There it is. It's God's heart. It's by the work of Jesus. Watch this. To rescue us from this present evil age. According to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. That just simply means this. We were helpless. We were hopeless. We were divided by God. Now, because of the grace of God, what did He do? His heart longed for us. And He gave Jesus. See, Jesus saved us from the condemnation of this world by the life that He lived. He saved us from the death that we deserved to die, from the death that he died. And now, because of grace, Jesus has infused into us his life through His resurrection. And that life is the only life that lasts. How long? Look at verse five. It says, To whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. So how long does the salvation of Jesus last? Forever and ever. As long as He receives the glory, we are secure by the line that Christ has given us. How? Through His sacrifice.

Now, let's talk about sacrifice for a minute, because it is a major theme of the whole Bible from Genesis three all the way on. We watch all these sacrifices, right? Over and over and over again to cover sin, to cover sin, to cover sin until we get to the sacrifice of Jesus. And his sacrifice is different. You say how is it different? Jesus's sacrifice was once and for all times. Every other sacrifice was like a temporary little sacrifice. It just maybe bought you a year at best. Jesus’s sacrifice lasted. It was for all time. It was more than a sacrifice that was just a symbol for something to come. It was what was going to come. And Jesus's sacrifice was not just a sacrifice that lasted for a little while. It was 100% accepted by God, the Father, to give us life. You say Matt, how do you know it was accepted by the Father? It was accepted because Jesus rose from the grave. The sacrifice was him on the cross and his death, the resurrection was God looking at the sacrifice and saying, I am well pleased, and your debt has been canceled. The difference between Jesus' sacrifice and any other sacrifice, is no other sacrifice has ever risen. But ours has, ours has. Paul is saying it is founded on the grace of God, but is secured to us by the sacrifice of Jesus. Never let that get out of your mind. Romans, Paul says this in Romans 3:23. He says, For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, that's where we normally stop that.

But keep reading, and all are justified freely by his grace. There it is again, the foundation right, through the redemption. There it is, the second part, that came by Jesus Christ. Verse 25. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, that through the shedding of blood to be received by faith Listen, believers, here's the deal. This is what separates us from every other religion on this planet. Every religion, every one. You can pick them. It doesn't matter which one. Every other religion is trying to work their way into a position where they can have the right standing before God. We, listen to me closely, we have been given Jesus. We're not trying to reach God. God reached us. He sent Jesus to us. We are not trying to hope at the end of our lives that the scale somehow just kind of equals out. We are in a position to know you can throw that scale out because that scale is weighed down by Jesus, and Jesus's sacrifice only. It's the point of the whole gospel. God made His way to us. Hebrews 10:12 says, But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins. There it is. He sat down. What does it mean when you sit down for something? It means you've finished it at the right hand of God. Believers, listen, you can celebrate this. That God in His grace, initiated salvation. Jesus in his sacrifice, tethered it right to us. It is founded on grace, and is secure by his sacrifice. That means this. Our salvation is not based on our goodness. It's not based on our work. It is eternal. It is a gift. It is from God. It is through Jesus. Therefore, if all of that rests on the grace of God and the love of Jesus. Write this down.

Number three, the Gospel Here it is, is unchangeable by anyone or anything at any time. Why? Because we didn't create it and we can't change it. We didn't come up with it. And we can't adjust it. Now, really, this is why Paul is writing this whole book, because he's got his name, the Judaizers. That's the official word for you. They have come into the church and they're trying to dissuade the true gospel. These Jewish Christians are now in this Gentile church, and they're trying to bring these Old Testament customs into the salvation conversation. Basically, they were looking at these Gentiles saying, Hey, it's cute that you love Jesus. It's cute, you know, Jesus. But unless you go be circumcised, you can never be a lover of God. Now you say, well, what's circumcision? Listen, ask your parents at lunchtime. They've got charts, they've got graphs. They'll tell you all that, right? Basically, though, what they're doing is, they're looking at them and they're saying, hey, listen, if you don't have Jesus plus this other stuff that makes you culturally relevant today, in our world and our nationality, then you really don't know God.

Listen, while our problem may be, this may be a little bit different. Our problem is really the same if you think about it. There are so many people that are trying to take our culture. They're trying to take stuff that is happening and they're trying to add that to the gospel in the form of what I would just call cultural relevance. Watch what Paul says about it. Boy, he gets hot. Verse six. Paul says, for I'm astonished. In other words, I am blown away. That’s what he's saying. That you turn so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ, and you're turning to a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all. Evidently, some people, he says, are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Jesus Christ. But wait a minute, man, that seems a little strong, doesn't it? I thought these people were just kind of throwing in a little bit something extra on top of the gospel, to which I would say, yes, that's exactly what they're doing. But that's the point. Listen, Church, we do not have the right nor the authority, nor the backing to do this. We have the right to look at God and go, Hey, God, I got a little bit better idea than the one you set up. I got a little bit better plan than the one you gave me. I want to shift this truth around a little bit. I want to adjust this truth to where we are culturally, so we feel a little bit about ourselves better. God, I want to look at the times, and I want to change this thing up a little bit to make it a little bit more culturally relevant. Paul says No. When we change the gospel, it is not the gospel. That's what he says. And this is strong. Why? Because it means that we're deserting the one who saved us, and we're bringing nothing more than confusion which is exactly what Satan wants. That's what he wants to happen.

So Paul looks at them, and we're going to talk more about this later in the book. Paul looks at them and goes like, this is not about me and my authority is not about you and your authority. This is about the true gospel of who Jesus is, the one that sent me the one that saves. And then Paul gets even stronger about this. Look at verse eight, he says, But even if an angel from heaven should preach the gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under a curse from God. Verse nine As we've already said, and I'll say it again if anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than the one that you accepted, let them be under God's curse. The literal Greek translation there, Paul is saying Let them be damned. Verse 11 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that I preach is not of human origin. I didn't receive it from any man, nor was I taught it. Rather, I received it by revelation from Christ Jesus. Church, listen, if the Gospel is founded on the grace of God. It is solidified by the sacrifice of Jesus, untethered to us, then we have no right Paul says, by anyone anything at any time to change the gospel. But what else did he show us in verse eight? He shows us This is not just a human problem. This is a problem that Satan wants to run after as well. In fact, write this down, the gospel is not only opposed by humans. He says this. The Gospel is opposed by Satan and his kingdom. It's opposed by Satan in his kingdom. That's exactly what he meant in verse eight. Now, before I get to the verse, I want to say something about the book of Galatians. The book of Galatians was written to combat one problem, and that is these groups of young churches that were falling prey to the fact that they were not understanding what the true gospel was. This culturally relevant gospel was kind of seeping into their churches. Now, if you know anything about Scripture, you also know that the Book of Romans was written for the same reason. So if you're going to study the book of Galatians over these next couple of weeks, go ahead and read through the book of Rollins, because they're written for the same reason, and that is to define the gospel.

Now, Romans was written to tell us what the gospel is. All right. You get that right? What it is. All through the book of Romans, Paul says the gospel is this, the gospel Is this, the gospel is this. Since we're in football season, let me put it like this. The Romans would kind of be the offensive team of the gospel, right? Galatians is written to tell us what the gospel is not. What it's not. Let me put it in football terms. It would be the defense, right? The defense, it is defending the gospel. The whole book of Galatians was written to defend the gospel, to defend our goal line, to not let anybody pass us, which is incredibly important because of this right here. What we're seeing happening in this. You see anything that God creates that is good, Satan tries to counterfeit. He tries to counterfeit. You say Matt, what do you mean by that? Here's what I mean by that. Anything that is good in your life, anything that God has graced you with in your life, what Satan will do is he will bring you something almost as good that looks like it, that smells like it, that is almost like it. And he will try to get you just barely off track to where you don't even notice what is happening. And before long, after a long walk in the wrong direction, you are a long way from God. You see, Satan’s plan for you is not to wake you up tomorrow as a murderer. His plan for you is just to have you take one little step and one little step and one little step by the counterfeit pleasures that he puts in our lives. But our job as believers, especially in the Galatians, is to identify the fakes, to know what the authentic gospel is so that we can know when something comes at us that is not real. That's the problem this church is having. They're young, they don't know they're being persuaded and they don't have the knowledge. Church, this is why every single week I, or one of the other pastors encourages you. You got to read your Bible, you got to study your Bible, you got to get into some kind of group or community that can encourage you in your faith. That's why every week I get up here and say, church is not an event, it's a body to belong to. Because, listen, just when we learn to defend the gospel with today's problems, what Satan is going to do is he's going to come at us with something else and we have got to be able to identify exactly what will be launched at us that's not the gospel. Now, in saying that, that's exactly what Paul's pointing to here in verse eight, you know, when you read verse eight you're like, Paul, you're taking this a little bit too far, but he's really not because that's what he says. He says, But even if an angel from heaven should preach the gospel other than the one I preached to you, let them be under God's curse.

You say Matt, how could an angel preach a false gospel? Remember this. Remember the angels that fell from heaven with Satan that are now demons? That's exactly what Paul is saying right here. Paul is saying that, hey, it's not just humans that are going to come against you and attack the gospel. It is going to be spiritually demonic forces that will come at you and try to distort the gospel in your life. Paul says sometimes they're going to look like spiritual authorities like these Judiazers, or sometimes it may even be an angel, so-called angel, demon that preaches a false gospel to you. Now, this is scary, right? And I want you to realize that this is the case of many of the false religions that are on this planet. They've been established through somebody saying an angel appeared to them or from them, that gave them a new message. It was not in congruence with who Christ is. The bottom line in all this is that the gospel has been established. It has been solidified that God's Word is perfect. He has revealed himself to us perfectly. And now if somebody ever comes up with some sort of new word, new vision, new message that is not in alignment with scripture.

Listen, church, it is not from God. No matter how it makes you feel, no matter how it's packaged, no matter what it does in your heart, it is not from God. That is Paul's point here. He's like, I don't care if it's the Judiazers, I don't care if an angel appears to you out of nowhere in the woods, you don't listen to them because the gospel is already established. And the Gospel’s for all times. And the Gospels not to be changed. And the Gospel is not from you, it's from me. And if anyone that tells you otherwise, it's not from the Lord, it's from Satan, and it's dangerous. Students, listen to me, if anybody ever wants it to you says, Man, that was old stuff. You got to get the new stuff. It is from Satan, it's from Satan. In fact, Paul in Second Corinthians says it like this. For such people are false apostles. Deceitful workers masquerading as the apostles of Christ. And no wonder for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It's not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, their end will be what their actions deserve. Friends, beware of any religion that claims to have a second round of revelation or an angel that adds to the gospel as well as be aware of any religion that claims that this is a new day and we're doing a new thing and we've got a new method and a new whatever. God's method works, and it's going to be there forever and ever to His glory. It's not our call. Galatians one seven Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the Gospel of Christ. Listen, Satan knows the gospel. Satan understands the Gospel. And Satan wants nothing more than to throw us into confusion one degree at a time so that we are not living in the full power, the full glory, in the full joy and peace of what the Gospel offers us.

Which leads me to number five. The Gospel is the only way to have an eternally meaningful life. It's the only way You see, what Paul does in the rest of this chapter is not only has he defined that the gospel comes from God, it's given to us by Jesus is unchangeable for all times because you didn't create it and you can't swap it up. Not only is it opposed by Satan, but championed by Jesus, Then he walks through and says, The good news in all of this is that God doesn't want to leave you where you are. He wants to save you from where you are and to give you a meaningful life. And while you think you may have a meaningful life without the Gospel, it will never amount to anywhere close to what the Gospel wants to put in your life. What Paul does in the rest of this chapter from verse 13 on is Paul talks through his testimony of how he thought that he was walking in a meaningful way, but God stopped him in his tracks on the road to Damascus, saved him, called him, and now Paul knows that he is walking in the full power, presence, glory and joy with peace of who God is for the rest of his life. Let me just read you a little section of it. Galatians one, verse 13. It says, For you have heard of my previous way. What's Paul doing? He’s looking back. He's like, Man, I thought I had it all together. I thought I knew what it was. Verse 15. But when God, who set me apart from my mother's womb, called me by His grace, that's what God did on the road to Damascus. That's what God's done in a lot of your life. He's called you from darkness into life. Watch this. Why? To reveal his son in me that I might preach him to the Gentiles. What does that mean? That God saves us from where we are, and He saves us to a task for him. And I'm going to tell you, that the only thing that will bring you true joy, is knowing that you are walking in the fullness as a son and daughter of the King through Christ Jesus, our Lord. The Gospel, it's the good news of Jesus. It's the good news that Jesus’s life, His death, His burial, His resurrection has now given us the chance to have life. Church never let anything distort that, never let anything move you away from that. The gospel is not just a decision that you make and you move on with the rest of your life.

The Gospel is all in where we live, where we walk, where we run and where we love. Every part of our lives. So here's my final question. What have you done with this gospel? What have you done with it? The good news for the Galatian church is they had trusted the gospel. They were just struggling at the moment.

And listen, I think that there's some of you that might be where you are right now, that there has been a moment in your life where you have submitted your heart to Jesus. You have given your life to Jesus. Christ is the Lord of your life, but you have let some things begin to kind of soak in a little bit, a little bit at a time. There's some Judiazers that have brought some untruths in. And before you knew it, just one degree at a time, you have found yourself kind of believing in a counterfeit gospel that you can just kind of love God and go do whatever you want to do on the side. Listen, for you today, my question is this: What have you done with the gospel and what are you doing with the gospel? Are you living your life in the gospel, or today, do you need to plant a pole in the ground like these churches in Galatia and say, I need to get back to the roots of what Christ has set me free from? Maybe that's you today, but maybe today you're in a different position. Maybe today you have never given your life to Jesus. And maybe today is the first time that you have heard the whole Gospel laid out in a way that something inside your soul said, Man, I need Jesus. I need Jesus. Listen, if that's you today, the good news is this You can meet him right now. You can believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, and you can be saved. The Bible says that we're all separated from Him, but he came to bring us life. The Bible says that if we confess with our mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, that we can be saved. So here's the question today: Do you need to give your life to Jesus to set you free? In just a minute, we're going to have our invitation. Invitation is basically a time for you to do business with God. I'm going to be over here about the next Steps banner. And I've got some people that are going to be with me today. You know what? Maybe today you need to give your life to Jesus. Man. I'd love to talk to you over here. All you gotta do is be at us and go, Matt, I need Jesus. What do I need to do? We'll walk with you. If you're online with us today, man, if you'll reach out to your online host and ask that same question, they'll reach right back out to you. Man, Do you need to know Jesus today? Do you need to give your life to Jesus today? Maybe you do already understand and fully know and have the gospel in your life. Maybe today, in this next couple of minutes, you just need to say, Hey, Jesus, here's all me, because you gave all of you.

Lord, walk with us in these next couple of minutes, Jesus and God move in this place. Because you have given us the gospel, the good news of what You’ve done, and let us celebrate that today Jesus, in your name, we pray.

Amen. Amen.

Let's stand and sing together. I'll be right over here by the banner.

Follow Along with the Message

The Life-Giving True Gospel

September 10, 2023

Galatians 1:1–2
1 Paul, an apostle — sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead — 2 and all the brothers and sisters with me, To the churches in Galatia…

The Gospel Defined:
The gospel is the good news that Jesus, the perfect Son of God, died for our sins, rose again, conquered sin, and now gives eternal life to those who believe, repent, and trust in Him as Savior and Lord.

Galatians 1:3
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,…
5 Gospel-Clarifying Statements
The Gospel is…

1. Founded on the of God.

2 Timothy 1:9
He has saved us and called us to a holy life — not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace…
Ephesians 2:8–9
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God&nbsp— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
Acts 20:24
However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me — the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

2. Secured by the of Jesus.

Galatians 1:3–5
3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Galatians 1:5
…to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Romans 3:23–25
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood — to be received by faith.
Hebrews 10:12 (ESV)
But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God…

3. by anyone or anything at any time.

Galatians 1:6–7
6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.
Galatians 1:8–9
8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!
Galatians 1:10–11
11 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

4. by Satan and his kingdom.

Galatians 1:8
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!
2 Corinthians 11:13–15
13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.
Galatians 1:7
Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.

5. The to have an eternally meaningful life.

Galatians 1:13, 15–16
13 For you have heard of my previous way… 15 But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles…
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