Christian-ish: Week 5

Well, today we're going to open the Bible to the

New Testament and we're gonna read from Galatians chapter one

in a moment.

And we've been in this message series called christian.

Ish, and it's this idea that there are some who say,

I am Christian, I like Jesus, I want to go

to Heaven, but I don't really follow Jesus.

As the lord of my life. I don't really submit

to him as the lord of my life. You know,

I've got.

My own path, my own spirituality. That's christian Ish. Have

you ever heard somebody say I'm not religious, I'm just spiritual.

I'm just spiritual. I like Jesus or I like the

stories in the Bible, but you know, I've got my

own path. It leads in the same direction, but my

own path, that's christian Ish. Recently, I watched a YouTube

video with one of my favorite TV actors who is

interviewing two other YouTubers, and it was fascinating because the

topic of faith in Christianity dominated this hour long conversation

and they were talking about what they believed in their

background and where they came from.

And I want to read just a couple.

Of things it's a couple of things that was said

in this podcast video, kind of a summary of a

few things. One person said, I consider myself a Christian

because of my love of Jesus, and especially what Jesus taught,

what he said, what he did, and the beauty of

the teachings and the metaphors of mythology in the Bible.

Just around the same page, there is no mythology in

the Bible.

This person went.

On, I believe in and I agree with the teachings

of Jesus, but I'm not really concerned with what's fact

and what's fiction. For me, Jesus's resurrection is not the

most important thing about Jesus.

That's christian Ish.

Consider myself a Christian, admire the message of Jesus, but

it's not important what's fiction, what's fairy tale, or what's true.

And interestingly, two of the people in this video grew

up as Christians, attending church and actually served as missionaries

for several years before walking away from the faith losing

their way. Now they might say that they found their way,

they found a new way, but they really lost their

way from the gospel.

That's christian Ish. As we look at Galatians Chapter one.

This passage addresses the idea of christian Ish. Galatians is

a letter that was written in the first century by Paul,

who was a influential Christian leader, and he wrote this

letter to the believers in a region of the world

called Galicia. It's no longer called Galicia today we know

it as Turkey. And so let's look at Galatians chapter one.

Starting in verse three, read along with me. Paul writes,

grace and peace to you from God, our Father and

the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins

to rescue us from the president evil age, according to

the will of our God and Father, to whom be

glory forever and ever.

Amen. Verse six.

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, which is really

no gospel at all.

Evidently, some people.

Are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert

the Gospel of Christ. But even if we were an

angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the

one we preach to you, Let them be under God's

curse 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. Years ago,

a mentor of mind gave me some advice. He said

that if somebody has offended you, or if somebody hurts

your feelings or sends you a hurtful email or message,

the advice was to write a draft of a response

and stick it in a drawer without sending it, or

in the draft box without sending it, and just let

all the emotion kind of cool off, and then you can.

Respond a little bit more wisely.

I don't think Paul practiced putting a draft in the drawer.

I mean, look at this language, just some strong language.

He just fires off.

You've deserted me, you've turned away, You've perverted the gospel.

Paul is saying, you've lost your way. We read verse six.

You were so quickly deserting and are turning to a

different gospel. He says, you're turning. It's like getting off track.

It's like going down the road and making a wrong turn,

or getting off the right path. You've turned the wrong direction.

Let me share the big idea of this message. The

main point today is that there is only one true gospel.

There is only one true gospel, Paul writes, you're turning

to a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all,

because there is one true gospel.

The gospel is the.

Word that means good news, and it is the good

news that Jesus, the Son of God, died on the cross.

For our sins.

See when Jesus died on the cross, he didn't die

as a martyr.

He didn't die as a religious martyr.

He died as our savior, as the perfect innocent son

of God.

He became our substitute.

He died the death that we deserve so that we

can be forgiven. And three days later he rose from

the dead so that we can have eternal life in heaven.

Anybody who repents from sin and believes in Jesus will

be saved. This is the good news. This is the

one true gospel, and it's the same gospel that's been

saving and transforming people for centuries upon centuries. It's the

gospel that we believe. It's the gospel that Paul who's

writing this, changed him from a religious terrorist into a

church plan It's the same gospel that changed Peter from

a coward into a bold preacher. It's this gospel that

forgave the thief on the cross. It's this gospel that

set Mary Magdalene free from seven demons. It's the gospel

that saved this sinner, set me free from addiction. It's

the gospel that's transformed you and changed you and saved you.

I want to hear you say amen, if you believe

in the gospel, there is.

Only one true gospel. So what in Galatian church?

As Paul fired up, what's got him so excited? We

read in verse seven, Evidently some people are throwing you

into confusion and are trying to pervert the Gospel of Christ.

So there were false teachers in the Galatian churches, and

these false teachers were telling people that if someone wanted

to become.

A Christian, they first needed to pray to.

Jewish traditions and Jewish religious policy. They said, you need

to become Jewish in order to become Christian. When I

was in college, I commuted to college and it was

about thirty five miles one.

Way, and part of the drive there was a toll road.

And this was the first time in my life that

I'd encountered a toll road. I didn't grow up anywhere

near toll roads, and so I remember the first time

driving the campus and getting off the extigram and pulling

up to the toll booth.

I really didn't know what to do.

I think it was seventy five cents at the time,

and so I pulled up to the toll booth and

I saw the sign that said easy pass, no cash,

and I thought, perfect, I don't have any cash, and

so I pull up to that toll booth. But I'm

surprised there was no place for a debit card.

There was no toll booth attendant.

So I thought to myself, Pennsylvania Turnpike is so advanced

that they're going to scan my license plate and just

send me a bill that I can pay the later.

I did this.

Several times the first couple of weeks of school, and

sure enough, Pennsylvania Turnpike did send me something in the mail.

It was a fine for seventy five dollars.

Well, thankfully, I called and explained, Hey, I'm new, I

just started college. That is the first time I've had

a toll and I got a compassionate person on the

other side of the line, and they forgave the fine

and let me just pay the back pay on the tolls.

These false teachers in Galatia were setting up a religious

toll booth, religious tests that.

If you want to come to Jesus.

You got to first become Jewish, you got to practice

the Jewish customs and the Jewish traditions and policies. They

were saying, true Christians are Jewish Christians. Let me share

something with you. Any time someone puts an adjective in

front of Christian, they've made a detour. Beware of anybody

who says, I'm a conservative Christian, a liberal Christian, progressive Christian, fundamentalist,

Christian fill in the blank Christian putting an adjective to

Christian might be christian Ish. Today, I want to introduce

a theological term and we're going to spend the rest

of our time understanding this term. And it's the word syncretism.

Can you say the word syncretism? Syncretism? And I'm gonna

define syncretism. But before I do, let me share a

story that illustrates syncretism. There was once an Italian missionary

named Matteo Ricci and Mateo.

He loved the Lord. He took a vow of poverty.

He dedicated his life to serving the poor, and Matteo

was committed to traveling wherever God would send him in

the world for the Gospel. In the sixteenth century, Mateo

traveled to China to share the Gospel Taaloe loved the

people in China. He learned the Chinese language. He immersed

himself from the culture, and he understood and explored the

food and the culture, all the things that a good

faithful missionary does when they enter into a new culture.

Mateo even befriended the Chinese emperor at that time, and

early on he was successful in converting people to the Gospel.

And during his ministry, Matteo discovered the Chinese belief system

called Confucianism, and he realized that there were some similarities

between Confucianism and Christianity, and so Mateo started to integrate

some Confucianism practices and rituals with the Christianity he was teaching.

That is syncretism, say syncretism. He was sinking Confucianism with Christianity.

For example, Matteo approved Christians keeping and using the Confucian

names for God like Jan and Shangdi. Matteo allowed Christians

to continue the rituals of ancestor rites, where they would

offer gifts and offerings to ancestors or pray to them

and ancestor temples. He was sinking Confucianism with Christianity. That's syncretism,

and historically Matteo has been criticized by Church history for syncretism.

He was combining a little bit of Confucianism a little

bit of Christianity, and that is christian Ish. The definition

of syncretism is intentionally or unintentionally blending different religious beliefs

and practices. Syncretism creates a different gospel.

It corrupts the Gospel.

And Galatians Chapter one is a warning against syncretism.

We read in verse eight.

Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach

a gospel other than the one we preach to you,

them be under God's curse.

Remember our big idea today there.

Is only one true gospel. Recently, my family became a

Costco family.

Costco is the only place in the United States where you.

Can get all of your groceries, get your whole wardrobe,

buy a vacation and a grand piano all in the

time it takes you to get an oil change in

their garage.

If you shop at Costco, you know what I'm talking about. Well,

Costco is not the only place that my family shops.

We also like Trader Joe's. We like some of the

snacks there, and they have.

These novelty seasonal things and treats we like from Trader Joe's.

But Trader Joe's doesn't have diapers, so we go to

Target to get diapers for our son. And just to

be honest, sometimes when I leave work, when I leave

the church, Whole Foods is a convenience stop on my

way home to get some last minute essentials. So there's

like three or four places that we shop to get

what we.

Need throughout the week.

Syncretism is similar to that, a little bit of Jesus,

a little bit of New Age, a little bit of

the Gospel, a little bit of reincarnation, a little bit

of good vibes, you know.

Just kind of it's all spiritual, right.

I Mean, it might be a different path, but it's

headed in the same direction.

Right. Syncretism is common today in our culture.

I want to share with you some statistics from a

research study done by the Barnet Group earlier this year.

It's said that for out of ten US adults believe

in the existence of a mixture of deities of competing

faith systems, one out of six US adults worship two

or more deities that are drawn from competing faith systems.

Ten percent of self identified Christians worship a mixture of

Jesus and deities from other belief systems. So an example

of that might be someone who believes in Christianity and Wicca,

or Christianity and New Age. Some widely known examples of

syncretism would be Mormonism, Jehovah's Witness, and Masonry that sink

some of Christianity with other religious practices or pagan rituals.

Now, this might be news for some of you listening.

This might be the.

First time that you've thought, like, wait, so like good

vibes karma that is not compatible with Christianity.

No, it is.

It is against Christianity. It is it is counteractive to

the Gospel. What leads to syncretism, First, there's superstitious syncretism.

My favorite TV show of all time is The Office.

I've watched the whole show several times, and I love

this screenshot of the quirky goofy Boss. He says, I'm

not superstitious, but I am a little stitious.

In Acts chapter eight.

We read about a man named Simon who tried blending

the Gospel with superstition. We read, now, for some time

a man named Simon practiced sorcery in the city and

amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he

was something great, and all the people, both high and low,

gave him their attention and exclaimed, this man is rightly

called the great power of God. But then Jesus' disciples

came to the city, and we started proclaiming the gospel.

They started preaching about Jesus and his disciples were performing

miracles and signs and wonders. They were casting out demons,

they were healing the sit curing diseases, all in the

name of Jesus. And Simon was impressed with the power

of the Gospel. And we read when Simon saw that

the spirit was given at the laying on of the

apostles hands, he offered them money and said, give me

also this ability, so that everyone on whom I lay my.

Hands may receive the Holy Spirit.

Simon wanted to mix the Gospel the power of Jesus

with sorcery and superstitious practice for his own gain.

Beware of modern day superstition.

The New Age is a popular belief system that advocates

good vibes and manifesting your destiny and praying to the universe.

And it uses the metaphor of light and the divine spark, and.

It seems all positive.

But let me tell you, the New Age is an

open door for demonic activity. Scripture tells us that even

the devil masquerades as an angel of light. Crystals are

incompatible with the Gospel. The resurrection of Jesus is not

just a version of reincarnation, and manifesting is not the

same as.

Praying to Jesus. I know a young woman.

Who practiced a New Age before believing the Gospel, and

she would often have night terrors and there'd be demonic

activity in her bedroom, in her apartment. And after she

became a Christian, one night she woke up from a

night terror, trying to scream and trying to shout, and

she felt this dark, demonic presence over her bed, and

she began to pray to Jesus, and then Jesus showed

her that there were things in her home that was

inviting this evil. And so right then, in the middle

of the night, she gathered up her crystals and her

dream catchers and her manifestation books and put it all

into a trash bag, and in the middle of the night,

walked out of her apartment through the parking lot and

threw it all into the dumpster. And I could only

imagine what the superintendent of the building was thinking if

they saw this security.

Footage in the middle of the night.

She rejected all that evil that was inviting evil into

her life.

Don't be fooled.

Even dabbling in things like horoscopes, tearor cards, fortune telling.

Those things may seem silly and harmless, but those are

open doors. Reject those, renounce those. So there's superstitious syncretism.

There's also political syncretism. You might call this ideological syncretism.

And haven't we seen this?

Haven't we seen Christians who blend their belief in the

Gospel of Jesus with a political ideology or a political

belief system, Or haven't we seen politicians who manipulate faith.

Or the gospel to coerce more power or support. This

is nothing new. This has been going on for centuries.

Rulers kings have for centuries misused the Gospel for their

own gain.

I think about King Henry in England in the sixteenth century.

The Catholic Christianity was the predominant faith in England and

King Henry was compliant, but he was really christian Ish

because King Henry had a political problem.

He didn't have a male heir to his throne.

This was a political problem, and so what did King

Henry do Well? He asked the Pope if he could

have a divorce approved by the Church so he could

marry another woman in hopes that she would give birth

to a son. Well, it got really complicated because King

Henry was married. His first wife was the aunt of

the King of Spain, and the King of Spain.

Was at war with the Pope.

So the Pope did not want to hurt the aunt

of the person he was at war with, so he

denied the divorce. I know, it's crazy political family drama.

So what did Henry do well? He rejected the Catholic Church.

He established a new church, the Church of England, set

himself up as the head of the Church of England

and appointed a new archbishop, and then he asked the

archbishop for permission to get a divorce. It just so

happens that King Henry's second wife also did not give

birth to a son. So King Henry conspired with the

archbishop to accuse his second wife of adultery and had

her executed. He manipulated the faith, He coerced the church.

He misused the Gospel for political gain, political power.

Political syncretism corrupts the Gospel. We've seen folks.

Who say, true Christians vote this way, true Christians support this.

In our nation, we've seen political syncretism. An example is

Christian nationalism. An article in Sociology of Religion explained Christian

nationalists in the United States advocate a fusion of Christian

identity and cultural conservativism with American civil belonging. That word

fusion is evidence of syncretism, of combining the belief in

the Gospel with an agenda with an ideology of man.

So there's superstitious syncretism, there's political syncretism, and there is

progressive syncretism. There's a belief system that is called the

Progressive Gospel, and essentially progressivism believes that the Gospel needs

to be updated. It needs to be fine tuned to

be relevant in our modern time.

It needs to be contextualized and updated. Just the crossing.

Let me be really clear about progressivism. At its core,

progressivism does not believe the Gospel of Jesus is powerful

enough to transform a human being. At its core, it

denies the supernatural power of God's spirit to transform a

human life. That's fundamentally yet, and there's a version of

progressivism that's called universalism, which believes that everyone who's ever

lived will be saved and will go to Heaven, regardless

of whether or not they confess Jesus as the Lord

and savior of their life.

That that is not a biblical worldview.

Although some universalists will look for support in the Bible.

They'll look at scriptures like two Peter three, verse nine

that reads the Lord isn't really being slow about his

promise as some people think.

No, he's being patient for your sake. He does not.

Want anyone to be destroyed. Some translations say does not

want anyone to perish. And so a universalist will say,

look here, it is a scripture God does not want

anyone to go to hell or be destroyed. So God's

gonna save everybody, regardless whether they believe the gospel.

But what does the rest of this verse say?

Does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone

to repent. Of course, God wants everyone to be saved

by repenting from sin and believing the gospel. The gospel

is clear that everyone who repents from sin and believes

in Jesus as Lord.

And Savior will be saved. And the gospel is clear

that anyone who.

Rejects Jesus as Lord and Savior will die and spend

eternity in hell.

Now, progressive theologians.

Might hear what I say and and and they might respond, well, well,

that sounds exclusive. That sounds harsh, Like Jesus is inclusive, right.

Jesus welcome sinners, the marginalized, the alcast. Jesus welcomed everybody.

He didn't turn anybody away. So how how can you

be so exclusive? The Gospel is both exclusive and inclusive.

Jesus is the exclusive way to salvation.

There is no one else who can save, and yet

anyone can come to Jesus. It is inclusive that anyone

and everyone who believes the gospel will be saved. There

is no religious test, there is no religious toll. Booth

Romans ten to nine says, if you declare with your

mouth Jesus's Lord, and believe in your heart that God

raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For

it is with your heart that you believe and are justified.

It's with your mouth that you profess your faith and

are saved. A few verses later, everyone who calls on

the name of the Lord will be saved. This is

inclusive everyone. You mean the liar, you mean the addict,

you mean the cheater, the adulter, or the criminal.

Everyone. The Gospel is both exclusive and inclusive.

So far this message has been heavy with theology and doctrine.

And so what does that mean for our personal lives?

You know, how do we make this personal?

If when we leave here today, when we go back

to school tomorrow, back to work tomorrow, and when you're

with relatives who have a different belief system, like, like,

how does this how do we make this personal?

First?

I want to say, practice holiness, but make this personal.

By practicing holiness, the Gospel transforms us. The Gospel transforms

our motives, The Gospel transforms our desires, and.

We're called to live in holiness.

We read in One Peter one, as obedient children do

not conform to the evil desires you had when you

lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you

is holy, be holy in all you do, for it

is written, be holy because I am holy, we.

Read in First Timothy four.

Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives tales.

Rather train yourself to be godly practice holy. Holiness is

not perfection, and it's really easy if you grew up

in a holiness tradition like I did, to confuse holiness

and perfection. A shallow understanding of holiness believes that holiness

is simply behavior management. Perfect behavior, perfect action, perfect exterior.

Don't do this, don't do that, don't swear, don't drink alcohol,

don't these behavior things as long as you have perfect behavior,

and sometimes thinking like that will leads you down a

path of believing, Oh if I sin, if I mess up,

if I make a mistake, then I compromise my salvation

and I gotta get saved again. Holiness is not perfection.

It's not perfect behavior management. We will not be perfect

until we reach heaven. So until we reach Heaven. We

practice holiness by confession and repentance. Confessing our sin, owning

are wrong, repenting, turning away from sin, turning away from

the flesh. You see, holiness is not measured by perfection.

It's measured by confession and repentance. So when God convicts

you of sin, confess it, repent and turn from it.

When God shows you that there is something wrong in

your life, repent from it. If God's convicted you of

syncretism today, confess.

It and repent from it. Holiness is not perfection. Holiness

is repentance.

The people of the Church of God are called to

live repentive lives. Do you remember our big idea in

this message there is only one true Gospel. Sometimes we

need to remind ourselves of the gospel. So I want

to encourage you to preach the gospel to yourself.

Preach the Gospel to yourself.

Remember Paul this letter to Galatians, and he's confronting syncretism.

He's calling out the teaching that you need to become

a Jewish Christian or Jewish practices to become a Christian. Well,

in Galatians chapter two, he explains the true gospel. We

read in verse fourteen, Paul says, when I saw that

they were not acting in line with the truth of

the Gospel, I said, Decephis, in front of them all,

you are a Jew, yet you live like a gentile,

not like a Jew. How is it then that you

forced gentiles to follow Jewish customs. We who are Jews

by birth and not sinful gentiles, know that a person

is not justified by the works of the law. That

means that no one is saved by religious good works,

but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have

put our faith in Christ Jesus, that we may be

justified by faith in Christ, not by the works of

the law, because by the works of the law.

No one will be justified. Preach the Gospel to yourself.

I preach the Gospel to myself all the time, especially

when I'm feeling distant from God or I'm struggling to

connect with the Lord. I remind myself of the Gospel.

I go back to the basics. I go back to

the foundation. I go back to my roots. I go

back to remembering where I came from. I remind myself

of my brokenness. I remind myself of my sin. I

remind myself.

Of how lost I was until God came and found me.

God redeemed me. He pursued me at no cost to

save me. It's only by the blood of Jesus that

I'm saved. I remind myself of the Cross often when

I receive communion here in church, I'll hold the elements

in my hand, and I'll remind myself of the Gospel.

I recite the words of Seton Corinthians five p. Twenty one.

God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin,

so that in him I might.

Be the righteousness of God. Preach the Gospel to myself.

You may know this, but the Secret Service and the

agencies that hunt for counterfeit US bills, they don't study

counterfeit techniques because there's just there's a plethora of ways

to counterfeit money, and you can't keep track of it all.

So what do they do.

Well, these agencies they study the authentic US bills. They

know every part of a real US bill, every line,

every millimeter, every color, so when they come across the counterfeit,

they can spot it because they know the true bill

so well. It's very similar with the Gospel Preach the

gospel to yourself. Stand on the true Gospel, and you

will not be deterred. You will not be swayed, you

will be not sideways by a syncretism gospel.

Preach the Gospel to yourself. Can you remember that moment

when your heart leave the gospel? Can you remember that.

Moment when that stone cold heart was turned alive, when

you realized your need for a savior, when you realized

how broken you were, when the shame rolled off, when

the guilt was forgiven.

Do you remember that? Return to that moment and preach

the gospel to yourself. There's only one true gospel, and

the Gospel will guide us, and the Gospel will lead

us in the direction Jesus has called us to.

I want to close with just one story. I remember

when I was a teenager, my family took a road

trip from our hometown in Ohio to Kentucky. And this

was an opportunity. I was learning how to drive, and

so I had an opportunity to learn to do some

highway driving, how to merge lanes, use the on ramps

and the exit ramps. And so Kentucky is south of Ohio,

which means we needed to travel South. So we were

driving on Interstate seventy five South. Well, there's a place

in Cincinnati, Ohio, where I seventy five South and I

seventy one South become one road. They share the road

for several miles, two interstates on the same road, and

then in northern Kentucky they separate and one leads to Louisville, Kentucky,

and one leads to Lexington, Kentucky. And that day our

family needed to go to Louisville, Kentucky. And so we

drove on that road, and we were thought we were

headed in the right direction until we started seeing signs

for Lexington, Kentucky. You see, my parents were so concentrated

on me driving, and I was so focused on staying

in the correct lane, we missed all the signs. There

are plenty of things in life that will want to

detour you from the gospel, distract you from the gospel,

pull you away. When I was driving on that road,

I was still headed in the general right direction.

I was still going south. I was headed for the

wrong destination.

Someone might be headed in the general right direction spirituality,

but it's headed for the wrong destination.

There's only one true gospel. Do you believe the Gospel.

So I want to invite us to respond to what

we've heard today from God's word. Would you join me

in bowing your head and closing your eyes. And first,

if you're listening today, If you're listening today and there's

something in your heart that you know you need the Gospel,

you have not yet put your faith in Jesus as

your savior. Today you have an opportunity to do that.

If you want to make that decision, would you simply

pray this prayer? Say, Dear God, I admit that I'm

a sinner and I need your forgiveness. I believe Jesus

died on the cross and rose from the dead to

save me. Today I confess Jesus as Lord of my life.

I believe the Gospel.

As we remain in this response with our eyes closed.

If you prayed that prayer today, it's put your faith

in Jesus. Would you be brave enough just to raise

your hands and so I can see you and tell

you that God loves you, that your sins are forgiven,

guilt is wiped away. You are going to heaven because

of what Jesus has done.

Is there anyone else? Amen? And now for all of us.

Let's use this moment.

And would you ask God in your heart if there's

anything from today's message, anything from God's word that he

wants you to respond to. Would you take a moment

and ask him and listen to what he may reveal.

And then I'll close this in prayer. O Father God,

we thank you for the gospel. We thank you for

the freedom that we have in Jesus, the guilt washing,

shame removing freedom.

God. I pray for the person today.

Who's had holiness confused with perfection, that you would set

them free from that legalism and from that self hate God,

that self condemnation.

God. I pray for the one who's been trying to

save themselves and work to do good works.

God, would you restore their joy today that Jesus paid

it all, that it was done on the cross, that

Jesus when he said it is finished, he meant what

he said. And so God, we thank you that we

have hope, that we have an eternity in.

Heaven because of Jesus. And it's in his name we

pray Amen,