The Gospel [B]

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Transcript:

Tonight we’ll be back in Galatians chapter 1 and finish up the message from this morning. I hadn’t intended for this to be a two-part message, but sometimes that happens. And if we’re going to spend a lot of time on one subject, I can’t think of a better subject to spend that time on than the gospel.

So we’ll be back in Galatians chapter 1. If you recall this morning, I talked to you about how just a little change can change everything. and I started out with the story about the commas.

Do you remember that? That there’s a big difference between let’s eat, comma, grandma, let’s eat, grandma. That comma makes a difference whether you’re inviting grandma to eat with you or whether you’re about to commit a felony.

And trying to explain that to the kids at school, that little things like commas can make a difference. If you start changing things, you can change altogether the meaning. If you start communicating things just a little bit differently, you can change the meaning to where what you’re trying to say is unrecognizable.

And while I’m not talking about the gospel, having to memorize a presentation and do it word for word and just the right words and just the right order, you know what, there are multiple ways to communicate the gospel to somebody. But when we start changing the truths of the gospel, when we start adding things or taking away, it very quickly becomes something altogether different. We can’t add or subtract from the gospel and it not become something altogether different.

I’ve been through different kinds of evangelism training. I’ve been through some things for way of the master, which is good. I really like it.

I’ve been through training twice for evangelism explosion. There are some things I like about it as well. But they both come down to a different approach.

And I know there are others out there, sharing Christ without fear, four spiritual laws. I know there are other approaches out there. they’re simply giving someone a testimony.

There are all sorts of approaches that can come down to here is what I’ve memorized and here’s what you need to know. When I say don’t change things, I’m not saying you have to stick to a particular script.

But the gospel that we proclaim to the world, the gospel that we share with our friends, our loved ones, our children, the gospel that we as a church proclaim to the world must be rooted in what the scripture says, that the foundation story is that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that God had said for 4,000 years that there was a problem of sin and he would send the provision to deal with it, and that because of that, Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, gave his life for our sins as the scriptures said he would, that he was buried, that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures, proving that he was the one who was sent and had the power to forgive sins and was seen by many witnesses. That’s the foundation story of the gospel that we cannot change, cannot afford to change.

Then because of that, the gospel message that we proclaim to the world is that Jesus Christ died for our sins, that we’ve sinned against a holy God, that there’s a punishment, there’s a penalty that’s incurred there for our sins against God, and we are all in need of a savior because there’s nothing good that we can do to earn or deserve God’s love, his forgiveness, his acceptance. We are utterly and completely powerless to take even one step toward that, what he offers as a free gift. And so we discussed this morning that the gospel means salvation is based on God’s unmerited grace.

It is so far from being something that we earn or deserve that if we begin to teach even a little bit, if someone begins to teach even a little bit that it’s based on our merit, it is not the gospel. It becomes something altogether different just by changing that one little thing. If they teach that Jesus Christ died to wipe the slate clean so now we can earn our way to heaven, guess what?

We’ve changed just one little bit, but we’ve changed the gospel. It is not the gospel of the Bible. So the gospel means that salvation is based on God’s unmerited grace.

Second of all, from this morning, the gospel means that Jesus Christ died to atone for man’s sins when we could not, that we were completely powerless. Not only did we not earn or deserve God’s forgiveness, but there’s nothing we ever could do to earn God’s forgiveness. That’s Jesus had to die.

If there was anything that you or I could do to earn our forgiveness, then the cross was unnecessary. And I cannot conceive of a holy and righteous God who would put his son through what happened at Calvary for no reason. The cross was unnecessary if it wasn’t needed for Christ to atone for our sins.

And third of all, the gospel means that God forgives our sins and changes us. It says here in Galatians chapter one that he gave himself for our sins to deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. That it is God’s desire that because of what Christ did and only because of what Christ did that our sins should be forgiven and that he should begin to change us from the inside out.

That in terms of the guilt of our sin we should be delivered from the clutches of this evil world and then beyond that God has a plan for us and God has a will for us and it is for us to grow ever more separate from this present evil world. I’ve told you many times before that I believe sanctification is both instant and ongoing. God, at the moment of your conversion, says, they’re mine.

They are set apart. They’re mine. They’re going to be in heaven with me.

They’re going to have a relationship with me. And yet, from a standpoint of our behavior, sanctification is ongoing. What God has already declared, he spends the rest of our lives teaching us and training us and molding us to act like it.

Does that make sense? He says, you’re mine, and now you’re going to spend the rest of your natural life learning how to act like you’re mine. That’s what I mean by sanctification being both instant and ongoing.

God chooses to forgive our sins in Jesus Christ and to change us into something altogether different. So the gospel began with Jesus Christ dying for the sins that we committed and continues with God making the offer of salvation freely to all who will trust in him. Whosoever will may come, he says.

and saying there’s nothing for you to do, there’s nothing for you to earn or to deserve, you simply realize and admit that you’ve sinned against me, and realize you have nothing good in yourselves to offer. As much as we hate that, as much as we hate that thought of realizing we’re not adding anything to the exchange here, we are simply throwing ourselves on his mercy with nothing to offer. And we receive the free offer of salvation that he’s offered just by humbling ourselves before God.

in that spirit of repentance, that change of heart and mind that causes us to seek salvation, that causes us to throw ourselves on God’s mercy. And then it culminates in him forgiving our sins and changing us evermore to be more like Jesus Christ. It’s spelled out in many places. It’s spelled out in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

It’s spelled out in Titus, I want to say chapter 2 or chapter 3, where it makes very clear, I believe, that we can’t earn it or deserve it. It’s spelled out very clearly in Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, where it says, For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, lest any man should boast. It is spelled out, Acts 17, I believe, says that God justifies those who work not.

You know, even after having been a Christian for a long time, there were times when I used to still wonder and doubt my salvation. And it’s not that I was doubting God’s word. I didn’t doubt for an instant that God’s word was true, that God’s promise was true.

It was one of these things, well, how do I know I really had the faith that God requires? How do I know that I believed enough? Have you ever thought that?

We sort of want to take even faith and make it into a work, don’t we? And say, well, I believed enough, so God saved me. Well, God’s not saying believe enough.

He just says believe, believe. And I remember running across this verse in the book of Acts that says that he is, paraphrasing here, says that he justifies those who work not. He justifies those who could not be justified according to the works of the law.

And I remember reading that as a teenager, and it just sort of settled the question once and for all for me. Okay, is there anything that I could do that was a work good enough for God to justify me? No.

And yet he’s in the business of justifying those who can’t be justified by their own works. And that sort of told me I was still, even though I was thinking in terms of faith, I was still putting way too much emphasis on what I could and couldn’t do. The Bible says God is the justifier.

The Bible says that salvation is by God’s grace and that it’s received through faith. And did I believe that God, I want to say that God was a man of his word, but please understand I don’t mean that God is a human being like us. But did I take God at his word?

Yes. Well, that’s what God’s word says. So that just kind of settled the question for me.

There’s this idea that we like to think we had something to do with it. If we begin to add any other part to the gospel, if we say it was Christ plus even a little bit of my effort, ladies and gentlemen, we’ve changed it into a completely different gospel that has no power to save anybody. I remember several years ago, I don’t remember how old I was.

I was a child, though I was in elementary school, being at some kind of rally in Oklahoma City at a church and hearing J. C. Watts, who used to be, I think he was probably a congressman for this area too, who was where I live.

Hearing J. C. Watts, who was a preacher, I believe, before he went into Congress, speaking at this rally and saying something that has always stuck with me, that 99% sure or 99% saved, I guess it didn’t stick with me as well as I thought.

I can’t remember the word, but one of those two words, 99% saved or 99% sure was 100% lost. That if we weren’t trusting fully in Jesus Christ, it wasn’t the gospel. I’ll put it to you this way, 99% Christ is 100% lost. If you’re trusting 99% in Jesus Christ and 1% in your own efforts, it’s not the gospel that the Bible teaches. And just to go back and look at this passage for a moment before we move on to the rest of the points, I don’t want to stay here and belabor the things that I already preached to you this morning, but I do want to look at the passage before we get to the points that we didn’t get to this morning.

He says in verse 1 of Galatians chapter 1, Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, and all the brethren which are with me unto the churches of Galatia. Grace be to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. And again, he says it for emphasis just so we are sure that he wasn’t speaking out of haste here. He says, as we said before in verse nine, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed.

So does he say, well, it’s all right if it’s 99% the gospel and they’re preaching 1% different, then it’s okay? He says, no, there are some that are wanting to pervert the gospel. And he clarifies in some of his other letters that a lot of what he’s talking about are the Judaizers who said, yes, it’s necessary that Jesus Christ died for you for your sins, but now you have to follow the law of Moses.

Well, we’re adding human effort. And even if we only change the gospel in one point, it becomes something other than the gospel. It becomes another gospel, as he says, which is not another.

It is not just an alternative to the gospel. It is a false gospel that has no ability to save anyone. And when I say, does it matter if it’s 99% the gospel and 1% different, I’m not telling you that somebody has to teach exactly the way we do in every aspect, and if they deviate 1%, that they’re not saved.

I’m not talking about all of Christian doctrine. That’s sort of the point of this whole series of messages on being non-negotiable. There are some things that if you’re teaching that, I’m pretty sure that puts you in the kingdom of the cults or false religion.

And false ideas about the gospel would be one of those things. That’s why it’s here in the series on non-negotiables. If somebody teaches differently than I do about eschatology, you know, what’s going to happen in the end times, you know what, that’s fine.

We can, maybe wrong, you have a right to be wrong if you want to be. I love that saying, everybody has a right to be wrong, you don’t have to agree with me. We can disagree about that and still be brothers and sisters in Christ. I was reading a church in Moore.

I was reading their doctrinal statements day online. And everything sounded good except they were talking about the ordinances of the church. And they said foot washing and the Lord’s Supper and baptism of the three ordinances of the church.

I went, no, I really don’t think so. Does that make them not Christians? Does that make them not saved?

I would say no, because everything else, including what they said about the gospel, was spot on. That may make them not Baptist. That may make them not missionary Baptist. I don’t think it makes them non-Christian. So when I say 99% and 1%, I’m not talking about all of teaching.

I’m saying, and that doesn’t mean that we need to compromise on things either, certainly. But what I’m saying when I say 99% right, and they’re off by 1%, I’m talking about the gospel. If they’ve got most of the gospel right and they changed just that 1% to include human effort or to include a mystical experience or to include whatever, if they change it just a little bit, it becomes not the gospel.

And he says, let them be accursed. He doesn’t say it’s okay, you’re only different on 1%. He says, let them be accursed.

For do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after men.

after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it, and profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace to reveal his son in me that I might preach him among the heathen immediately.

I conferred not with flesh and blood. And you can read on from there and read about when he finally did go and meet with the other apostles if you so choose and you ought to, but it really doesn’t have any bearing on the rest of this tonight. What he has laid out here is that you can’t change the gospel and expect it to stay the same thing.

And we’ve talked about what the gospel is. Jesus Christ died for us and he paid all the penalty for sins and God offers salvation as a free gift received by grace through faith as a result of that. Now why is this such a big deal?

Why does he put such emphasis on you can’t change it and let him be accursed? Why do I say 99% the gospel or 99% Christ is 100% lost? Why would I say you can’t change it even in the slightest?

Well there are four reasons I believe that this passage gives why the gospel is non-negotiable. You know, there are some very nice people out there, very nice people, and they do a lot of good and they help a lot of people, but they’re preaching a false gospel because they’ve got it one percent wrong. They’ve got it wrong somewhere, and a lot of times you’re not usually going to see one percent wrong.

They start teaching something wrong about the gospel, the whole thing eventually is going to go. But it doesn’t matter how sincere they are. It doesn’t matter how much they say they love Jesus.

If they preaching the gospel the way the Bible says the gospel is. Why is this such a non-negotiable? Why is this something that we look at and say, no, I don’t care if you’re 99% right, you’re wrong, and we cannot concede on this point.

Four reasons that we’ll go into tonight briefly. First of all, the gospel is non-negotiable because no other gospel, and I put gospel in quotation marks, no other gospel has the power to save. No other gospel has the power to save.

He tells us, He tells them in verses six and seven, again, I marvel that you’re so soon removed. I am amazed. How did you already forget this?

I just told you. We just went over this. How did you already forget?

Kind of like children. I am amazed that you so soon have forgotten what I’ve talked about, that you’ve removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ and into another gospel. He said, which is not another.

He says another gospel, another seeming gospel, another so-called gospel, which is really no gospel at all is what he’s saying here. He said, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. And he lays out the point here that it is either the gospel or it is not a gospel at all. It is either the good news of Christ as taught in the scriptures or it is not good news at all.

Because the Bible, I think, is abundantly clear that if we’re trusting in human effort, we will not be saved. If we’re trusting at all in our own effort, we won’t be saved. And if these other gospels, these other so-called gospels, were just as effective as the one that Christ taught and that the apostles taught, and that’s recorded in Scripture, if they were just as effective, wouldn’t Paul say, hey, great, more than one way to God.

We’ll get more people that way. But instead, he says, let them be accursed for teaching that. He speaks of them in the strongest possible terms for teaching that, And the reason is not because they were going against Paul, but because they were going against God’s plan and they were going to lead people on a path to hellfire.

Because these other gospels don’t have the power to save. I don’t care what people in the media tell us or what people in academia tell us. They say, oh, all religions are basically the same.

They’re a little different at the edges, but they’re all basically the same in the core. No, they’re not. Superficially, they may be the same.

Superficially, Christianity may have some things in common with Buddhism and other things, you know, teaching about love and peace and being good to each other. But that’s on the fringes of what is taught. I mean, I don’t mean the fringes like radical groups hiding out in the mountains.

I mean, that sort of comes as a result of what’s taught. The core of Christianity is that Jesus Christ is the one way to heaven. When you get right down to it, all religions are exclusive.

All religions teach that they’re right and the others are wrong because they all have a different idea about what heaven is and what it’s not. They all have a different idea about the afterlife. They all have a different idea about how you get there.

They all have a different idea about how you’re supposed to act and who you’re supposed to pray to. And even if we can’t convince people that all religions are exclusive, Christianity certainly is incompatible with the rest of them because at the core of what Christianity is, is that Jesus Christ is the only way to God. He said himself, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes unto the Father but by me.

And you can’t buy his moral teachings without buying that and say Jesus was a good teacher, but I don’t believe he was the Son of God. Well, he claimed to be, and I like what was written, I just lost his name. C.

S. Lewis, I think, is the one who said it, that if he claimed to be God and was not, there are only so many options that he could be a liar. He could be a lunatic.

Somebody has posed another option saying he could be a legend, which I think ancient history bears out not to be the case. So we’re back to what C. S.

Lewis said, he’s either liar, lunatic, or Lord. If he is not who he claimed to be, he either lied about it or he was crazy. Why would we say we buy into his teachings otherwise?

Jesus Christ himself claimed to be the only way to God the Father. And if we are not going through the means that he set up, if we’re not going down the path that he set up, which was through him and his shed blood and his substitutionary death on the cross, dying in our place, then we cannot get to God the Father. That is the essence of the gospel, that he did everything that was necessary.

And if we start adding in our human effort, if we start adding in secret knowledge as the Gnostics were doing in the earliest days of Christianity, it is not the same gospel. It is not going through the one who is the way, the truth, and the life. And consequently, we don’t get to the Father.

So no other gospel has the power to save. So the gospel is non-negotiable because why would we want to preach a false hope of salvation to a lost and dying world? Say it’s okay, you can get there by a little bit of your effort and send a lot of good men and women to hell.

A lot of well-behaved, moral men and women to eternal hell because they were trusting in their own effort on our say so. The gospel is non-negotiable because preaching another gospel places us under a divine curse. That’s a scary thing to think of.

but he says not once but twice, let them be accursed. I explained to you this morning that that means excommunicated, put out of the church. That means not listened to in ministry, but also has an element in there of may God have mercy on your soul because you are going to incur judgment for what you’re taught.

I can’t remember where the verse is located, but there’s a verse that says, desire not many to be masters or teachers, for ours is the greater condemnation. And that means that when I stand in the pulpit or when I stand out there or anywhere that I as a preacher of the gospel, not just as a pastor, but as a preacher of the gospel, whether I’m speaking to a congregation or whether I’m counseling somebody one-on-one, I am responsible. I am responsible for what I’m being taught.

And I’m responsible for what you do as a result of what I’m taught or what I’m teaching. Did I say that right? I’m responsible for what I teach.

I don’t know if that’s what I said the first time. One or two words difference change everything. I’m responsible for what I teach, and I’m going to be held accountable for what I teach.

Brother Shank, you’re going to be held accountable for what you teach. That is a sobering thought to me. Nobody should want the job of preaching unless God tells you to go do it.

I’ve said many times, I don’t know if I’ve said here before, but this was not my first choice for career. I was going to go into politics. Nobody’s held accountable for what they say in politics.

I was going to go into politics. I wanted to be governor of Oklahoma. And God got a hold of me as a teenager and called me to preach.

And I argued with him for years because why would I want to do that? And finally I said, okay, if that’s what you want me to do, I’ll do it. Apparently I was the only one surprised when he called me to preach.

But guys, when you claim to speak on God’s behalf, you’re held accountable more so than you are just as, I think, just as a believer saying things. were held accountable. And I think for that very reason, he says, if you claim to stand up and speak on God’s behalf, a new gospel that is not the gospel, ooh, you’re in trouble.

Ooh, you’re in trouble because you’re not just messing up your own life. You’re leading other people astray. And if we preach another gospel, it places us under a divine curse.

I don’t like to use that word curse because it has witchcraft connotations the way we think about it today. It’s not what we’re saying, but we’re saying the wrath of God is going to be visited on people who preach false gospel. Maybe not now, but at some point.

So the gospel is non-negotiable because preaching another one places us under a divine curse. The gospel is non-negotiable because the message pleases God. You realize the preaching of the gospel pleases God?

This concept has freed me up in ministry more than probably any other. When I came to the realization that I was not put here to talk people into heaven. I was not put here to twist people’s arms and convince them and make them trust Christ. Brother Shank mentioned in Sunday school that sort of easy believism where you knock doors, which is fine, knocking doors, but you sort of ambush people and you’re kind of like a vacuum cleaner salesman.

No offense if any of you have ever done that, but you’ve got an answer for everything. And sometimes people will make a profession of faith just to get you off of their porch. It is not my job to twist your arm until you say some words after me or until you have a quote unquote conversion experience just to get me off your porch.

It is not my job as a pastor or as a Christian to rack up enough numbers from soul winning. Do I want people to come to Christ? Absolutely.

I’d be thrilled if somebody came to Christ in every service we had and every day of the week in between. But my job as a Christian and as a preacher is to open my mouth and proclaim the message. That’s what pleases him.

His Holy Spirit works on people. I need to be responsible and respectful about how I do it because I don’t want to drive people away from the cross. but at the same time it’s the preaching of the message that pleases him because he is glorified when his gospel is proclaimed and he is at work when his gospel is proclaimed and we may not see the fruit of it immediately we may not see the conversion experience immediately but God’s word does not return to him void I’m convinced that’s what the Bible says and when we preach the message of the gospel when we faithfully explain the gospel correctly explain the gospel I believe it pleases God.

It says in verse 10, he talks here about, do I now persuade men or God? Do I seek to please men? If I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. He says here, I can either make you happy with what I preach or I can make God happy.

And clearly he sides with making God happy. And what made God happy was to glorify him and to glorify his son for the work that had been accomplished on the cross. See, we don’t have to have these convincing thoughts and slogans and be tongued and talk people and cast a hypnotic spell with our words and convince people to do whatever we want.

Some preachers are good at that. Some politicians are good at that. We don’t have to do that.

God’s not saying, you didn’t have 500 down at the altar after the service this morning. I’m very unhappy with you. If we’re obedient to proclaim the message, it pleases God.

If we’re obedient to simply tell people the truth about what Jesus Christ did in the pulpit, at home, in the reach wherever, if we’re faithful, if we’re obedient, to accurately tell the truth about what Jesus Christ did. It pleases God. And finally tonight, the gospel is non-negotiable because it’s a plan thoroughly of God’s design.

Why in the world would we want to preach any other gospel? Why in the world would we want to come up with new ways of getting people saved? You know, I read and hear about new things that churches are teaching.

I’m always suspicious of new things that people are teaching. Not necessarily new things that people are doing. I think sometimes it helps us to break out of our comfort zone and do new things.

But new things people are teaching, you say, look what I found new in the Bible. Okay, if you’re the only one that’s seen that in 2000 years, maybe we need to look again. But I see some of the things that people are teaching that are new.

Oh, I’ve got this new thing to tell people about salvation to convince them. Makes me really nervous and usually it’s not the gospel. And I think I’ve mentioned here watching the video of a children’s service at a mega church in Australia.

I don’t know which church it was, but the woman standing on stage with this music and all these people swaying behind her and hundreds of little kids. How’d you like to have that? Not the woman preaching the false gospel and the music swaying, but the hundreds of little kids.

How’d you like to have that? It doesn’t seem fair that churches that are faithful to the word don’t have that and yet people line up for the theological equivalent of cotton candy. But all these kids are there under this woman’s teaching and she says, Jesus wants to be your best friend and have you go to heaven with him.

How many of you would like Jesus to be your best friend? Of course, they all raised their hands. And she tells them to repeat after her, all those who raised her hands.

Essentially, it’s been a few years since I watched the video, but essentially has them pray a prayer asking Jesus to be their best friend and then assures them I have a hope in heaven in the future. And I started out watching the video just angry as could be. Even in my 20s, I’m a cranky old preacher sometimes.

But the more I thought about it and the further we got into it, it broke my heart and made me cry. Because she’s preaching a false gospel. And who knows, that may not be representative of what she preaches or what she says every Sunday.

That is what she said that day and gave these kids the idea that they were going to heaven simply for being Jesus’ best friend. That’s not what the Bible teaches. Where’s the cross?

Where’s the blood? It may seem new and innovative to say, well, we can talk about friendship with Jesus. Everybody likes friendship.

We can talk about this. We ca