No Other Gospel

Well, good morning, church. Happy New Year. I hope you all had a good Christmas holiday.

! We are in the book of Galatians this morning. That is page 193 in the Pew Bible, if you'd like to turn

! with me there. Last week we began our series in this book, and we'll be considering the message

of Galatians for the next few months as we begin this new year and as we head towards Easter. Now,

the book of Galatians is a book that is all about clarifying the true and real message of what the

New Testament calls the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. If you've been around Trinity for a

while, you know that we love this word. We even talk about being a gospel-centered church, and we

talk a lot about the gospel, well, because the New Testament talks a lot about the gospel, and because,

well, the whole Bible is really all about this thing we call the gospel, and because the thing that has

sustained and nourished and protected and advanced the church throughout its history

is the gospel, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. But here's the thing. It is very possible, some might

even say inevitable, for churches and for Christians at times to get muddled and mixed up and confused

about what the gospel really is. And that's what happened in Galatia in Paul's day, and it can happen again

and again in our day and again and again in our own lives. And the results of that confusion aren't just

unfortunate. They are disastrous. Galatians is one of the Apostle Paul's most passionate letters.

You know, when we're thinking about renewing the website for every sermon series, we think,

hey, what would be a good verse to put on the home page of the website? There are a lot of

verses in Galatians we probably would not put on the home page of the website.

Why? Even in our passage today, right out of the gate, we hear Paul speaking with passion and with

urgency. He breaks from convention in typical letter writing and just gets right to the heart of the

matter. No thanksgiving, no praise. He says, I'm astonished. Why such passion? Why such urgency?

Because when the gospel is at stake, everything is at stake. Everything.

So let's turn to Galatians chapter 1, verses 6 through 10. And for context, I'm going to begin

Galatians 1:6–10

reading at verse 1, but we'll focus on verses 6 through 10 today. Let me pray as we come to God's

Word. Father, help us now as we come to this passage of Scripture. Oh, Lord, our rock and our Redeemer,

would You help us to rest and see and rejoice again in this glorious good news of our Lord Jesus

Christ. We pray this in Christ's mighty name. Amen. All right, Galatians, picking up in chapter 1,

verse 1, reading through verse 10. Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus

Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead, and all the brothers who are with me to the

churches of Galatia. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

who gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of our

God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. I am astonished that you are so quickly

deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.

not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of

Christ. 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. 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. For 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. So here's the problem in the churches of Galatia. In the late 40s, the apostle

Paul arrived in the region of southern Galatia, what's now kind of south-central Turkey, and upon

arrival he proclaimed the good news of what the God of Israel had done in Jesus Christ. And as they heard

this message, both Jews and Gentiles responded in faith. They received the good news for what it truly

is, good news. And as a result, they began their new life under the lordship of Jesus, Israel's Messiah,

and the world's true Lord. And the gospel had changed everything for them, their relationship to God,

their relationship to each other, their relationship to the world, to themselves, to the future, to their

work, to their trials, everything. But now, not long after that, sometime a little before 50 A.D.,

Paul needs to write to them because as he says in verse 6, they are turning to a different gospel.

And as verse 7 immediately clarifies, this different gospel is really no gospel at all. Not that there is

another one, Paul says. In other words, this different gospel is really a non-gospel. Other gospels may

sound plausible at first, but in reality, they are no gospel at all. So what we see, what we can see in this,

even in this opening paragraph, is Paul beginning to contrast and distinguish the true gospel

from any non-gospel. Like the Galatians, we often struggle to tell the difference between the true

gospel and what is a different gospel that is really no gospel at all. We have a hard time distinguishing

the real from the fake, and if we're honest, we sometimes aren't sure why it really matters that much.

I mean, you have your version of the gospel, I have mine. Does it really matter all that much at the end of the day?

Why bother? Well, let's take a look at some of these contrasts, both explicit and implicit, in verses 6 through 10,

and let's find out. The first contrast that Paul makes is this. The true gospel exalts grace.

Non-gospels distort grace. Look again at verses 6 and 7. He says,

"'I'm astonished you're so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.'"

Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort

the gospel of Christ. Look at that phrase, "'Him who called you in the grace of Christ.'"

Him there refers to God, right? In particular, God the Father. And what, according to the true gospel,

does God the Father call us to Himself with? The grace of Christ. There it is. The heart of the gospel

is the grace of Jesus Christ. Grace, utterly unmerited favor and acceptance, purchased and won and freely

given through the person and work of Jesus Christ. The true gospel exalts grace. It's a message of a

lavish grace from first to last. I mean, consider if you were to summarize the gospel, how would you do it?

We often think of summarizing the gospel with four short words, God, sin, Christ, response, right? Well,

let's walk through that. First, it begins with God, right? The triune God creates and sustains all things.

If you want to learn more about the doctrine of creation, come next week, Sunday school, 9 a.m. Luke

began us this morning. It was awesome. Check out the podcast. You can catch up. You can come. You won't

miss a beat. Come at 9 o'clock. But according to the Bible, does God have to create the world?

Is God somehow obligated to make the world out of nothing and to give it being, to sort of make up for

some kind of lack in His essential being or perfect beauty or perfect eternal happiness? No.

God creates you and me and the world and everything out of His sheer good pleasure simply as an act of

grace. And He places humanity in the midst of His creation as His image bearers. And is this something

that humans warrant through their own desert, through their own being? No. God imparts His image to us

humans as a sheer gift. And He gives humanity a vocation, a calling to bear that image and to

steward creation for His glory. So, the gospel begins with God, and even in the beginning, it's full of grace.

But of course, before we get to the heart of the good news, there's the bad news, right? Humanity decides

to turn away from God rather than receiving and resting in our existence as a gift from God,

rather than honoring God as God and living for God, the source of who we are out of His own gracious giving.

We push God away. We rebel against Him and act as if we can be a law unto ourselves.

And this is the sort of absurdity that the Bible calls sin.

Because here, as we talked about this morning in Sunday School, Luke so beautifully illustrated,

here we rest in the branches of God's grace and love, just in our very being. And instead,

we start to saw the branch off, thinking we can be gods unto ourselves.

And this sin brings death, spiritual death, and eventually eternal death. Rather than living

under God's blessing as His creatures, we reject God and come under sin's curse. God, sin. But it doesn't

end there. The third part of the good news is the heart of it all, Christ. God comes in the person of

Jesus Christ, fully human and fully God. And because He's fully God, He actually does what no human being

tragically had ever done. He actually loves God and worships God fully and completely. He lives a life of

utter freedom and perfection to the glory of God. And because He's fully human, taking our nature into

Himself, He does that for us. Because He's human, He can do it for us. And when He died on the cross, He died to bear the

punishment for our sin. And when He rose on the third day, He rose as a promise that all who are united to

Him will also rise with Him to eternal life. Now, do you see, do you see that the center of the gospel

is not the work that we do, but the work that Jesus has done? All that He purchases and accomplishes for

us, a perfect record of righteousness through His life that warrants God's unmitigated blessing,

a complete wiping away of our sinful record through His death, all of the curse done away,

total assurance of new life now and forever through His resurrection, all of this is done by Him for us.

We were helpless, guilty, doomed.

Our bankruptcy wasn't partial, but total. I've read recently that there are actually two forms of

bankruptcy. Maybe this isn't true anymore. It was kind of an old book. For the reason there's two

kinds of bankruptcy. One is sort of like, yeah, you're kind of in trouble, but maybe you can work

your way out. And there's another kind of bankruptcy like, you're toast. Like, you lose everything, right?

I forget what title it, which one is. Some of you finance people can tell me afterwards.

Right? Which one is our state? It's the latter. We're utterly forfeit.

But what we could not pay and what we could never pay, Jesus gladly and in love paid in full for all who trust in Him.

He gave Himself, the beginning of Galatians says.

So, you see, it's grace. It's radical, undeserved grace. He didn't have to save us. He didn't have to do any of it.

And we certainly don't deserve it. We had actually done everything to not deserve it.

But He looked upon us in love and lavished His grace upon us.

And now, here's the very radical thing.

And this will be the chord that Paul strikes throughout the book of Galatians.

Now, there is no righteousness.

Nothing.

We need to add to be made right with God.

When you are united to Christ through faith, His perfect righteousness is credited to you.

Is there anything that you could add to that?

To warrant God's good favor towards you?

To get a little more of God's blessing in your day to day?

Imagine you could take a spaceship to the surface of the sun.

I know that's not possible, but we're imagining, right?

Burning with the heat of a million furnaces.

And imagine you're there in your spaceship and you roll your window down.

Because it's an old spaceship, so you've got to roll the window down like this.

You take a matchstick, a little match, and you throw it into the fire.

Would that matchstick add anything to the brilliance or perfection or heat of that star at the center of our universe?

No, nothing.

No, nothing.

And so there is nothing that you can add to the perfect righteousness of Christ that clothes you completely when you are united to Him.

And that means God the Father looks upon all those united to Christ with absolute, unchanging acceptance and favor.

On your good days and on your bad days.

And what sins?

What sins are left for you to atone for?

You have a perfect righteousness, but what about all your sins?

But consider what sins are left for you to atone for that His cross hasn't already paid.

From the cross, Jesus Himself declared it's finished.

And that declaration, it is finished, standing at the center of redemptive history, stretches in every direction.

Stretches back over your past sins, over all of your present sins, and even into the future over your sins yet to come.

It's finished.

There's nothing left to atone for.

The record has been wiped clean.

And that means any wrath, any curse, any justice your sins rightly deserved are satisfied.

You see, in the gospel, God doesn't turn a blind eye toward our sins.

He actually sees them fully and in more depth than you and I could ever know.

An old pastor from the Philly area famously once said,

Here's the good news.

You're much worse than you think you are.

God doesn't turn a blind eye toward our sins.

He sees it all.

But He sees them as completely atoned for at the cross.

Justice has been fully satisfied when Jesus died for you.

Nothing can be added.

Nothing taken away.

And so the gospel proclaims to sinners

full and complete reconciliation with God,

an ongoing life with God,

an eternity with God,

fully and totally,

in every moment of it,

by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You add nothing to what He has done.

You take nothing away.

The only thing we can do

is receive it.

This is the fourth part of the gospel,

the response.

To entrust ourselves to the risen Lord Jesus,

to be united to Him

through what the Bible calls repentance and faith.

This is the response

that the gospel calls for.

Faith.

What is faith?

Faith is when we stop trusting in ourselves

to be right with God

and entrust ourselves

to the risen Lord Jesus.

Faith is relying wholly on Jesus

and on His grace

and nothing in us

to be accepted by God

and to live for Him.

So the true gospel exalts grace.

But non-gospels, on the other hand,

they distort grace.

We see this in verse 7

where Paul says,

there are some who trouble you

and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

It's interesting that the word distort there

means not just to kind of confuse

or to corrupt,

but it even means something like to reverse,

to kind of turn on its head.

Now how were these teachers

who showed up at Galatia

flipping or reversing the gospel?

Well, it's clear from reading the book of Galatians

that after Paul left,

false teachers showed up

who started to teach

what was in essence a different gospel.

And we see a glimpse

of what they were probably teaching in Acts 15

that Kosh read for us earlier.

It says,

but some men came down from Judea

and were teaching the brothers,

unless you're circumcised

according to the custom of Moses,

you cannot be saved.

Now you can see why that message

might have been plausible

to these new churches in Galatia, right?

After all,

these teachers who showed up,

they were from Judea.

Wasn't that where Jesus himself lived

and taught during his earthly ministry?

Wasn't that where the message of Christ

originated and rang out from?

They're from Judea.

Talk about a pedigree.

And not only were they from Judea,

but they were advocating something

that seemed ancient

and rested on good ancient tradition,

something even prescribed by Moses himself.

Just think of all the Old Testament passages

these teachers could have quoted

to show that God required circumcision

under the Mosaic Covenant.

How plausible it must have sounded

to the Galatian Christians

as these teachers came and said,

yes, Jesus is the Messiah,

but you still need to obey the law of Moses

and be circumcised if you're going to be saved.

But Paul rightly sees

that even though on the surface

that sounds plausible,

it's a distortion.

It's a reversal

of the true gospel of Christ,

the radical fulfillment

that Jesus had accomplished.

Why?

Why was it a reversal?

Because it was making a human work

a precondition of God's grace

and favor of their salvation.

Their message was basically saying

that your obedience to the law

must precede God's acceptance of you.

First, you obey.

Then, God will save you.

That's what they were saying.

But you see,

that gets it all backwards.

The true gospel

is that God saves you

by His grace in Christ.

And then, in freedom and joy

and the transformation

of being saved by grace,

then you obey.

The false teachers were saying,

obey in order to be saved,

but the gospel says,

God saves you by grace

in order that you can even

think about obeying.

The false teachers were saying,

become the right sort of person.

You have to kind of take on

this exterior thing

of becoming a good Jew,

getting circumcised,

or whatever it is, right?

Become the right sort of person first,

then God will save you.

But the gospel says,

in Christ,

God rescues you by His grace,

and then by that same grace,

He'll make you more and more

into the image of His Son.

You see, friends,

any version of grace

that makes it sound like

you have to earn

or warrant

or achieve it

isn't grace at all.

It's not a gift

if you have to earn it first.

If you've worked

and earned something,

even something so slight

as circumcision,

that's not a gift.

It's a wage.

It's not grace.

Grace is something

you don't deserve

and can't earn,

and it has to come to you

freely.

At the cost of another,

yes, but freely to you.

Non-gospels

distort this grace.

The true gospel

exalts this grace.

That's the first contrast.

But what difference

does this all make?

Well, there are actually

three more contrasts

that Paul makes

in this passage

or that are kind of

implicit in this passage,

and we're going to go

through them quickly

to see why all this matters.

Here's the next contrast.

The true gospel

comforts the heart.

Non-gospels

trouble the heart.

Did you notice

how Paul starts his letter

in verse 3?

As he gets going,

he says,

grace and peace to you.

Grace and peace,

friends,

are inseparable.

Where grace

is received

and experienced

and believed,

peace abounds.

That's why

the true gospel

comforts the heart

because if your standing

before God

is based on the grace

of Christ,

not your works,

not your performance,

not your pedigree,

not your position,

then you will have peace

because nothing can shake

or change

or diminish

the grace of Christ

towards us.

It's a well

that doesn't run dry.

It began in eternity past

and will run

for all eternity to come.

But non-gospels

trouble the heart.

Notice what Paul says

in verse 7,

there are some

who trouble you

and want to distort

the gospel of Christ.

If you are standing

with God,

it depends

on your performance

or some work

that you have done.

even if you feel

like you've just

got to add

a little bit

to what Christ

has done.

If that's

where your standing

depends,

you can never

have real peace

because who's to say

when the work

is enough

and who's to say

you've done

whatever that work

is with enough

sincerity

or consistency

because God

doesn't just see

your outward actions,

He sees your heart

motivations as well.

Who can say

whether even the best

of our good works

were done

for true love

of neighbor

and for genuine

love of God

and not some other

mixed motive?

After all,

was it not also

to look good?

Was it not also

to prove

a little bit

that I'm a good person?

Was it not also

done in fear

that I might not

measure up?

Now, at this point

you might be thinking,

but wait a minute,

wait a minute.

If God saves us

completely by His grace,

what motivation

is there

for doing good

at all?

I mean,

if we have complete

and total peace

with God

through Christ,

why obey?

Now, that's a very

understandable question

and Paul will have

a lot to say

about it

as we get to chapters

5 and 6

of Galatians.

But consider

just here in our passage

the difference

between a calm

and a troubled heart.

Imagine two boats

out on the ocean.

One boat's sailing

across the calm sea

and the other

is sailing across

the troubled sea.

Which sea

is going to be

more productive

for sailing?

Well, of course,

it's the calm sea, right?

The wind fills the sails

and the boat glides

across the water

to its destination.

But consider

the boat amidst

the troubled sea.

On this boat,

there may be

a lot of activity.

The crew is straining

at the oars.

They're tying down

the cargo.

They're fighting

against the wind.

There's activity

and work on all sides.

But are they

getting anywhere?

Just so,

in the same way,

a heart

troubled

by a non-gospel

may look

like a vessel

full of activity

wildly

pulling at the oars.

But is that activity

truly done

for love of God

and love of neighbor?

Or is it also done

for oneself

or in competition

with another

or just in response

to a weary,

burdened,

conscious

trying to get relief?

You see,

only the heart

made calm

by the gospel

will then give rise

to a life

of genuine love.

when the storm

of a guilty soul,

when the storm

of a troubled soul,

a soul burdened

with idols

that can never satisfy,

when a stormy soul

meets Christ,

when a stormy soul

sees Christ

clothed

in all of His grace,

going into the storm

of the cross

for you,

bearing your guilt

and sin,

and coming through

victorious for you,

when the stormy soul

beholds that

and the weight of sin

is lifted

from your heart

and you hear

the Father

say over you

what He spoke

over Jesus,

this is my beloved

child

in whom I am

well pleased.

When the Spirit

comes and makes you

alive to that,

to the love of God

and the costly grace

of God,

paying the infinite

debt of your sin,

oh,

when that calm

sweeps

over the once

troubled soul,

then

real

and genuine

love

begin to flow

for God

and for neighbor.

We will begin

to love

not in fear

or anxiety

or with a troubled

conscience,

we just love

because He first

loved us.

And out of love

for this God,

we delight

to keep His commands.

Yes,

we'll even strive

and pursue holiness

out of love.

we will raise

our sails

to the wind,

we'll put our oars

into the water

and pull

with all the strength

that He provides,

strength that comes

also by His grace.

So,

the true gospel

comforts

and calms

the heart

and empowers

the heart,

but non-gospels

simply trouble

the heart.

The next contrast

we see is this.

The true gospel

is odious.

Yes,

odious,

offensive,

but true gospel

is odious

to man.

Non-gospels

are odious

to God.

You see,

the true gospel

tells us,

right,

that apart from

radical grace,

we cannot please God.

and that is a blow

to all

of our human pride.

And in our fallen nature,

we don't really

like that message.

The sinful human heart

doesn't really accept

its radical sinfulness

and its dependence

on radical grace

in Christ.

That message

is odious to us,

but by His Spirit,

through the word

of the gospel itself,

through the message

of grace,

God actually softens

our hearts

and breaks through

our pride.

And what was once

odious and offensive

to us becomes sweeter

and more desirable

than anything this world

could offer.

Through the Spirit's

inner working,

we see that it's better

to be loved by God

in His grace

and to find acceptance

in His infinite favor

than to cling to our pride

and our self-justification.

So yes,

the true gospel

is a true gospel

of God.

non-gospels, they steal God's glory. Because after all, if the deciding factor between my

ruin and my rescue is what I do, whether that's my circumcision or any other human work,

then ultimately I get the glory because, well, I did it.

And these false gospels ultimately lead God's people into ruin. They don't just diminish God's

grace or steal His glory. They lead God's people into ruin because false gospels cannot save,

because they point us away from Christ and point us to ourselves.

And friend, because false gospels are odious to God,

that means they should be odious to the church as well.

That's why Paul puts it the way he does in verses 8 through 9. He's telling the churches in Galatia

to be discerning and to be decisive when it comes to these non-gospels. It doesn't matter what the

source is. Even if Paul himself were to come back preaching a false gospel, a different gospel than

the one they received that exalts the grace of Christ, what should they do? Throw him out.

After all, everything's at stake in the gospel. Who God is, who we are, who Christ is and what He's done,

the basis of our life and work, the motivation for our love and deeds, the assurance of our eternal

future. It's all at stake in the gospel. The gospel isn't just something that unbelievers need to hear.

It's something that believers need to constantly live in and unpack and unfold and rest in every

single day of our lives.

One more contrast. We've seen that the true gospel exalts grace.

Non-gospels distort grace. We've seen that the true gospel comforts the heart. Non-gospels trouble the

heart. We've seen that the true gospel, yes, is odious to fallen humans, but the non-gospel is odious to God.

Last, in verse 10, we see that the true gospel frees us from people-pleasing,

whereas non-gospels shackle us to human approval. Look at how Paul ends this kind of introduction to

his letter. For 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. Apparently, some of Paul's

opponents, including most likely these false teachers at Galatia, accused Paul of being a people-pleaser.

They might have said something like this. You know, this Paul, he preaches a message of nothing but

grace. He doesn't think you need to keep the law of Moses to be saved. Do you know why he's doing

that? He's doing that so he can win an audience and gain human approval. Paul's gospel is just a

people-pleasing gospel. That's what they were accusing Paul of. But what does Paul say here? He says,

no, it's actually just the opposite. In his former life as a Pharisee, Paul was obsessed with his own

performance. In the next passage of Galatians in verse 14, he says,

I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people. So extremely zealous was I for

the tradition of my fathers. Did you notice the language of comparison there? Paul says,

I was advancing beyond many of my own age.

You see, living in a non-gospel inevitably leads us to comparison and competition.

If my works, if my performance is what sets me apart and saves me, then I will inevitably start

comparing myself to others to see how well I'm faring. For Paul, it was, am I keeping the law of

Moses closely enough? And you know what? He thought he was doing a pretty good job.

But what is it for us? Am I engaging in good works sacrificially enough? Am I being impacted by the

Spirit's work enthusiastically or miraculously enough? Am I being the perfect parent or the

perfect student or the perfect friend enough? All of this focus on the self then leads to comparison.

How do my good works measure up against him or her? How does my experience of the Spirit compare to

him or her? How does my parenting or friendship or work compare to theirs? And when that comparison

starts to take hold, then we inevitably become trapped in human-centered approval or disapproval,

even if the human whose approval we live for is our own, the own voice in our own heads.

Paul says, I don't live that way anymore. He's actually found real interior freedom from human approval

and people-pleasing and comparison. Like a bird flying out of a cage into the bright blue sky,

he's found the freedom. Where? In Christ. If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant

of Christ. You see, the gospel of grace takes our eyes off of ourselves and off of comparison with other

people and puts our eyes solely on Christ and His beauty and His power and His perfection and above all

His grace. And when the grace of the gospel reaches us and we're united to Christ by faith, we don't live

anymore for what other people think of us, not even for what we ourselves think of us. We care only for what

Christ thinks of us. We don't serve others anymore. We don't serve ourselves. We only serve Him. Our lives

are hidden with Him. And friend, if I am a servant of Christ, the King of the ages, the risen Lord,

the never-failing friend, the one whose very name is faithful and true,

then how could I possibly live anymore as a servant of mere human approval?

You have the favor of the Lord of heaven and earth. His grace rescues you and empowers you every day.

That's all that matters. Now, I don't have to live to get the approval of others.

I don't live to get something from other people, you see. No, in Christ, now I can live simply

to bless them and do them good. I don't need their approval anymore. And because I don't need them,

now I can truly love them. That's the power of the true gospel. It can change the very structures

and motivations of your heart. It can change the very direction of your desires. It has the power

to truly set you free. Do you know this gospel, the true gospel of God's grace in Christ,

the gospel that calms your heart and sets you free? Or are you still flirting with a different gospel

that's really no gospel at all? If the Spirit's showing you that this morning,

then look at your own heart. Look at your own heart and say with Paul,

I'm astonished you're so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ.

Be astonished with Paul, and then run to the arms of your Savior, and let the waves of His grace

calm your troubled heart, and let the freedom of His grace lift you up and let you fly. Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, we simply praise You that Your grace has reached even us. Would we live in the peace

and in the freedom of peace and in the freedom of that? Help us to have discerning eyes and discerning hearts

when the non-gospels that flood our world and even our own minds and hearts come rushing in. Lord,

quiet the voices of these false gospels and help us to see again that there's only one,

only one, only one gospel, only one Lord.

And in Him, we are loved forever. We pray this in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.