Galatians 1:6-12 "Fighting for the Gospel"

Transcript

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So we are in week two because we missed last week. In week two of our study in Galatians, kind of just again remembering the gospel and what Paul is saying about it. And if you weren't here two weeks ago, and we can quickly forget where we started. So let me do a quick review. Two weeks ago we began, and if you look in verses one through five of Galatians 1, Paul introduces himself as an apostle, and then he introduces this greeting, but really a gospel greeting of grace and peace. And he's saying that's where we start. That's the beginning of the gospel, right? But he's saying even more, this is where I'm going in this entire book, to talk about the grace and peace of Christ. And then he talks about the mission, which is the glory of God. And if you look at verse 5, it's kind of an odd thing he does. He says at the very beginning of the book, Amen. And you kind of think, wait, what are you doing? Well, what Paul's doing in verses 1 through 5 is saying, here's what this book's about. Here's who I am, and here's all this for the glory of God. And he quickly summarizes and puts an end to it. But then if you transition from 5 to 6, Paul does something really interesting from this kind of introduction tone, even a greeting, to all of a sudden he turns up the heat. Verse 6 is very different than verse 5. And if you've ever been in a discussion with someone, and all of a sudden the heat got turned up into the discussion, you know how it can quickly go. This is what Paul is doing. And from there he begins to rebuke and to warn this church. Paul has turned up the intensity, and as Brandon was talking to the kids and kind of almost fighting. Now, it's a question I think we have to ask. Why do we fight? When's the time to fight? We don't fight because we're trying to be mean or be selfish, but there's times to fight. If someone is hurting a person that you love, you'll fight for them. If someone is threatening something that's of great value, you'll defend it. Right? Now, Jesus, of course, told us to turn the other cheek, but that was when we're being insulted. Not when we're fighting for something that really matters. There's a pretty popular book that's out that's called Start with the Why. I don't know if you're familiar with this book, but the author asked a really important question. What's your why? What's your reason? You could say this is for life. You could say this is for a business. But we could say here this morning that Paul is very clear about what his why is. What his reason is. It's the gospel. And maybe even to make it simpler, it's Jesus. This is his reason. This is why he's doing what he's doing. This is why he's willing to argue or fight. Notice, not for himself, not for his own selfish purposes, not for his ego, not for his reputation, for the gospel. And Paul begins this book by saying, look, this is why I'm coming to you. And this is what we're going to talk about. We're going to talk about the importance of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul is fighting for the gospel of Jesus Christ in three main ways here, and three points that I'll bring to your attention. First of all, a rebuke. Secondly, a curse, and then thirdly, as a servant. A rebuke, a curse, and a servant. Paul first brings a rebuke to them. Look with me again at verse six as he has turned up the heat here. He says in verse six, I am astonished. This word can also mean shocked. That you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Paul says that they have quickly deserted him. Now, they're not, he's not saying this is me, as in, you're not deserting Paul. You're deserting God. When you've turned to a different gospel, you left God. You turned your back on God. My seminary professor Brian Chapel used to say, this is not a sub-Christian message. This is an anti-Christian message. They completely turned to a new, different gospel, which of course is no gospel at all. It's not good news. It's a works righteousness. They're adding works to grace. They're adding human works to the works of Jesus. This is like having your favorite recipe, and it's perfect, right? And someone comes in and takes that recipe and pours a quart of oil in it. It's not just a little off. It's completely destroyed. It's completely ruined. This is a different gospel. And these false teachers, who were referred to as the Judaizers, were adding the requirement of circumcision to salvation. And saying, in order to be a true Christian, in order to really be forgiven of your sins, you had to be circumcised. And this, of course, is not true. This would be like us saying today that in order to really be saved, you have to go to a certain church. In order to really be saved, to truly go to heaven, you have to give to the church. Now, the sneaky part of that is circumcision wasn't a bad thing. And it's not the bad things. If he would have said, you know, in order to go to heaven, you have to commit these horrible sins. It's circumcision. But it's a false gospel. It's based on works. These are things we see all the time in our culture. We hear it all the time. I was talking to someone this week who told me I had a friend that said if he didn't go to a certain church, he wasn't really going to heaven. That's a little bad. That's from the devil. It's horrible. It's a false gospel. If you ever hear anyone say you have to be baptized, you have to give, you have to speak in tongues, you have to be a member of a certain church in order to be forgiven and go to heaven. That's from the pit of hell. It's not just a little bad. He says, and we'll get into it. He says, this is a curse. And those people that do that should also be cursed. It's serious. So what is this true gospel? We see the false gospel, but what is the true gospel? And if you're new to our church, you might not have heard it as much. But if you've come here consistently, hopefully you know this very, very well. The true gospel is simple. That we are sinful people, and we cannot pay for our own sins. Jesus Christ has lived the perfect life, He's died the perfect death. He's won over our sin. And we put our faith in His work for our salvation and not ours. This is the gospel. And this is what we'll fight for. This is what we'll go to the mat over, as some would say, is that not to add anything to it, not to take anything away from it. That this is the truth of God. I think it's also important to point out that when we talk about the gospel, we're talking about putting our faith in it. What Abby and Emma did this morning to say we put faith in Christ. We put faith in his work for us. Now, what do we mean when we're talking about faith? It might be that you say to someone, I've kind of lost faith in a person. What do we mean by that? An example I'll use is maybe you got your hair cut at a certain place and the person did a good job a couple of times, and then the next two or three times, it was terrible. You had to go home and brush it out, right? You've lost faith in their ability to do a good job. And we're talking about putting faith in Christ. What we're saying is that we we trust his work. And that's it. We have faith in him and his ability to save us. Maybe this morning you have lost faith in Christ. You've lost faith in the simple gospel. And I think it's easy to happen. Because of sin, because we keep sinning, we can quickly think, I've got to do more. I've got to try harder. Maybe you're struggling with assurance of your salvation. Am I really going to heaven? Is this all true? Let me assure you, if you are a Christian, that your faith is in Christ. And his work in your life is enough. It's simple and it's powerful. The gospel is the power of God for salvation. That's it. And so we put our faith in Him. And if you wonder this morning if you're truly going to heaven, ask yourself: if I put my faith in Christ, in Christ alone, not adding anything to it, as we said this morning in our call to worship, the righteous live by faith, not our works, not our morality, not Christian things, but in Christ, in Christ alone. So I have great news for all of us today. Because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we don't need anything else. It's simple. Receive the stern rebuke for your own heart and for your own mind. Paul goes on here to give us a warning, and he's really talking about a curse here. Look with me again at verse 8, as we think about this curse that he says. He says, But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed. Verse 9. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. Now what is he trying to say here? He says, even if an angel came to church and preached a false gospel, don't listen. These apostles were coming in, these fake apostles, these Judaizers, and saying, We're the real messengers of God. Paul is not. And Paul's point is, I don't care who the messenger is. That's about the gospel. It's not about the preacher. It's about the message. So even if an angel said it, so that heavenly being came down. And it's not grace alone and faith alone and Christ alone, don't listen. And he even goes on here to say, let him be accursed. Now, what does that word mean? Accursed. It is what you think. It means a curse. To bring a curse instead of a blessing on someone, for someone to be destroyed. Martin Luther said, for someone to be damned. That's what this means. That if someone is preaching a false gospel, that there are consequences. And Paul is saying they will be punished by God. Jesus, of course, said this in Matthew 18 when he says, if anyone causes one of these little ones to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and for them to be drowned in the depths of the sea. If someone is preaching a false gospel to God's people, especially to the little ones, those that are struggling even in faith. And to say, well, if you really want to be a Christian, if you really want to go to heaven, you have to do this. Jesus says they'll be thrown into the depth of the sea and drowned. Again, a warning, a curse. Why? You may be sitting there thinking, is this really that big of a deal? Jesus says yes. Paul says yes. Even the apostle John in Revelation paints a horrible picture for the false prophets of what they're going to face. Accursed. Think about it for a second. What starts to happen in a church when a false gospel is being preached? What starts to happen in the life of a person when we begin to believe this false gospel? We turn from Jesus. Think about it. A church that really starts to make morality the gospel of you need to be a good person. Just be a good guy, be a good girl, and you'll go to heaven. That is not from Jesus. And then that begins to overshadow everything in the church. Not repentance and faith, morality, good works. Churches can quickly run from the gospel because of worship styles, denominations, sizes, money, buildings, how you feel, emotion. And again, not bad things. But when that becomes the gospel, that becomes the message of the church. Watch out. Be warned. The Galatians had just given their lives to Christ and said, we're going to follow him. And then less than ten years later, this is where they are. It can seep in quickly. It can also seep in quickly to our personal lives. Where we profess faith, we say yes to Jesus. And then soon it's all about morality or church size or how we feel. Instead of the gospel of what's most important. And as teachers and preachers of the gospel, we have to keep coming back to this. Now you may say, well, I'm not a teacher or a preacher. I don't stand up and say it. But you teach. You preach to yourself, to your kids, to your parents, to your friends. We all need to be warned. What are we saying? What are we preaching? Is it Jesus? Or is it Jesus plus? Is it just works? What is the gospel in our lives? What is the good news? Receive this warning and let us repent and turn back to the gospel of Jesus Christ alone. Purely the gospel. A hundred percent. Because we have Christ, and because we have Christ, we have everything in him. So let us receive this rebuke from Paul. Let us see how important it is that even a curse can be brought upon someone. And then see Paul here as the servant, the sacrificial servant of Jesus. Looking with me again at verse 10, as Paul begins to speak personally about his own life. He says, For I am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. Paul is very clear here. He is there to serve Jesus. And as my Baptist buddy would say, even if he had to step on some toes, right? He's saying, I'm not here to please man. And if you're a little offended, well then good. That's what I'm trying to do. This is a stern rebuke, a stern warning. But it always hasn't been the case with Paul. If we dig into his background, he was trying to please people. He was in the Jewish faith. He was trying to make his teachers and other people like him to be a man pleaser. And he saw real quickly what happened. He began preaching and teaching this false gospel.

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He began

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Arresting people and throwing in prison for the wrong things. He's warning them, but he's really warning himself. To say, I'm not here to please man. And if you're offended by the gospel, well, that's probably good. Paul is asking these questions here to say, this is not about me. It's not about these other false teachers and kind of who are the true apostles and all about these man-pleasing things. He's saying the main point here is to give your life to Jesus. To serve him. Not a teacher, not yourself, not even your family. Serve Jesus. And Paul is very clear that he is a servant of Christ. Also, notice that Paul is not saying Jesus serves me. He's not trying to use Jesus either. For his own advantage, for fame or money or power. He's saying it's about Jesus and it's about me falling before him as he is my Lord. He's committed his life, no matter what, to Christ and Christ alone. Paul probably hurt people's feelings writing this book, especially obviously the beginning. And he keeps turning up the heat. And that can cause more stress for him. Can you imagine the conversation that he might have face to face with someone after writing this? The things they might say to him. But it just goes to show you that that was not his concern. That Paul is calling the church to turn back to the gospel, to even fight here for the gospel, and not to seek to please people. And why? Why was Paul saying to them, you need to stand up and you need to fight? Because the gospel is all about Jesus fighting for us. Why do we stand up?

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Why do we speak up? Because Jesus stood up for us. Because Jesus spoke up for us. Because Jesus fights for us.

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Of course we fight for him. Of course we respond. He went to the cross. He fought. He's the good shepherd. And his rod and his staff comfort us. He's the mighty warrior. He's the one who has a sword in his mouth and will destroy all his and our enemies. He fights. And he continues to fight for us with his power. It's the great king, the faithful king. Jesus never runs from an enemy. Now again, did he say turn the other cheek? Yes. Why? Because he was stronger. He was mightier. And it's his people. This is who we are as well. Mighty warriors. Because of him. Because he is our reason. I love what the Bible says in Revelation 20, as we see the victory of Jesus. Revelation 20, verse 10 says, And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night, forever and ever. And I wish the Bible said, We win this point, right? Because that's the truth. And then Revelation 21, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven for God. He is prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. We are victorious in Christ. He has fought for us. He continues to fight for us. We win now, and we will win so clearly when we walk into heaven. The victory, the fighting is ours. So why do we fight? We fight because we win. We win now. And we will win. I love watching championship games, especially in college, but also professional games. Because at the end, the confetti comes. And it doesn't matter which team wins, the confetti is coming, right? It's going to come out of the top, or they're going to shoot it out in cannons, and you're going to see all this confetti everywhere, people running around. I even like watching the guys do the snow angels in the confetti after they win the championship. It's great. Why? Because inside of all of us, we're longing for that day. The day the fight is over, the day we celebrate, the day we're with Jesus. Jesus is our reason. Jesus is our why. Let's not run away from the gospel. Let's not turn to a different gospel. Let's continue to focus in on him, Christ, and Christ alone. And let us celebrate together the joy that he has brought to us and enjoy him forever. Let's pray together. Thank you that you have fought so hard for us. And you've done everything right. And thank you that we can put our faith in you for the first time for some, and for the hundredth millionth time for many of us. So, Lord, we pray this morning that we would focus and look and enjoy the beauty of the gospel. Thank you for this good word. We pray that it would sink deep into our hearts. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.