DON’T MESS WITH THE MESSAGE
Galatians 1:1-9
S: Gospel
Th: Grace-Full Living
Pr: WE ARE TO PROCLAIM THE GOOD NEWS AS IT IS.
?: How?
KW: Responses
TS: We will find in Galatians 1:1-9, three responses we can have to the good news.
The _____ response one can have to the good news is…
I. DELIGHT (3-5)
II. DESERTION (6-7)
III. DENIAL (7-9)
RMBC 4/30/00 AM
INTRODUCTION:
1. Have you ever thought that you communicated it clearly?
ILL Notebook: Communication (chicken quarters)
On a busy Friday night at a restau-rant where Cliff Johnson had recently started waiting tables, the owner suddenly emerged from the kitchen and handed him money. "We’re in trouble!" he said. "We’re out of quarters, and customers are waiting. Go next door and get me $40 worth."
Cliff ran to the supermarket next door, but a cashier said she wasn’t allowed to give out that many quarters. Deter-mined, he sprinted to a convenience store two blocks away, but it was closed. At a gas station farther down the road, the clerk took pity and gave him the four rolls of quarters. Twenty minutes after he’d left, Cliff handed the coin rolls to his boss.
"Where are the quarters?" he asked.
"Right here," I said breathlessly.
His face sank. "I meant chicken quarters."
Well, the boss thought he had communicated clearly, didn’t he?
But it proved otherwise.
And it is a lesson to us about the nature of communication.
2. Misunderstandings prove we need to check and recheck our message.
TRANSITION:
1. We begin a new series today on the letter the apostle Paul wrote to the churches in Galatia.
We call it Galatians.
It was written, not to one church, but to several churches that Paul and Barnabas had visited on Paul’s first missionary journey to what is now known as southern Turkey.
It was here that Paul discovered how ready the Gentile population was to hear and receive the good news about Jesus.
People were responding positively to the message of grace.
2. Our new series corresponds to our theme for the year: “Grace-Full Living.”
Paul’s message to the churches in Galatia will reinforce two purposes we have in mind for you this year.
2.1 Our first purpose is to reinforce the essence of the gospel.
Yes, it is something that you should already know.
No, I am not trying to bore you.
But on the other hand, it is so important, it is so essential to our faith and to who we are, we can never be found neglecting it.
Besides, the gospel should never cease to thrill us.
We should never be found lacking in the celebration of where we have been and where we are now.
The gospel is a message of grace.
We are here today because of amazing grace!
2.2 Our second purpose is to advocate a lifestyle characterized by grace.
Since we have been changed by grace, it calls for a different way of living.
We walk a path of grace and we do it under the power of the Holy Spirit.
Now, there is an art to walking in the Spirit.
It is an art we must master, for it is the true path of faith.
When we walk this path, we will be characterized by "grace-full living."
Our study of Galatians these next several months will help us in these matters.
Now…
3. The opening verses of Galatians establish the authority behind the person and writings of Paul (1-2).
Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—and all the brothers with me…
Paul identifies himself as an apostle.
You may not believe this, but I could stop here and talk about the significance of Paul’s self-identification as an apostle for the next twenty minutes.
But as with all of our future study of Galatians, I will not be giving attention to every single detail and every nuance.
But let me point out one point of significance of the title of apostle.
The word meant that someone was sent as an agent or representative or an ambassador.
And this is certainly how Paul views himself.
He has been sent by Christ to be His agent, representative and ambassador.
This is a point that we accept today.
When you read Galatians this morning, you are hearing Christ’s appointed representative.
You are hearing Christ.
Paul, though, is making the point for a reason.
He is telling the believers in Galatia that he is not to be classed with those who come with letters of recommendation from men.
He was not made an apostle by any council or church.
He was made an apostle by a personal encounter with Jesus.
He knew that he had a unique place in redemptive history.
And he carried an authority to govern and teach the early church.
The trouble was that a group of supposed believers had come to the churches of Galatian, after Paul had been there, and challenged his apostolic authority.
They pointed out that he was independent, overly enthusiastic, and he was missing the proper credentials.
They were trying to get the Galatians to reject his authority as an apostle.
To say the least, Paul was greatly disturbed by this news.
He knew exactly who he was and as you read this letter you will notice how moved and agitated he is.
ILL Internet (Deffinbaugh)
There is a true story of a man that was working in his garage. He was the kind of person who did not like to be interrupted while engaged in a project. Knowing this, his wife walked into the garage and stood quietly at his side for several minutes, waiting for the proper time to speak. At last, her husband looked up, the signal that she was free to say what was on her mind. Very calmly, and without a trace of panic, she said, “The house is on fire.”
You know, there definitely is a time to forsake the customary, polite, social graces and bluntly state the problem.
The burning house was a time for immediate communication.
Likewise, the desertion of the churches of Galatia from the teaching of Paul and from the gospel of God’s grace was the time for the sounding of the alarm.
Paul had little time to waste in polite introductions, for the problem facing these churches, if left unchecked, would have devastating results.
Vigorously, and emotionally, Paul defends himself and the message that Jesus gave him to proclaim.
4. His theme is about the essence of the gospel and the importance to neither add to nor subtract from it.
This is what he has discovered in Galatia.
These challengers have done more than mess with Paul’s ego.
He could have probably handled that.
No, it was more than that.
The house was on fire.
They messed with the gospel, and it was time for the fire department.
It is a lesson for us today as well.
You see, we are not only to celebrate the reception of this message of grace in our own life, we are to communicate it as well.
5. WE ARE TO PROCLAIM THE GOOD NEWS AS IT IS.
In this church, we call ourselves evangelicals.
The word evangelical comes from the word “evangel” which means gospel or good news.
So, an evangelical is someone who is wholeheartedly committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We spent some time in our worship reading an ancient creed of the church, called the Nicene Creed.
It is an excellent summary of the essentials of the gospel.
So let me say this.
We are not to change the gospel.
We are not to mess with the message.
For, the gospel is changeless.
But, we need to recognize that the assaults on the gospel are endless.
There are always going to be people that are going to add to it or subtract from it.
But we must be committed to do neither.
So…
6. We will find in Galatians 1:3-9, three responses we can have to the good news.
OUR STUDY:
I. The first response one can have to the good news is DELIGHT (3-5).
Before we consider the verses, let me explain briefly the setting here.
The Scripture text that we read before the message, Acts 15, is the setting for this letter.
The gospel was at stake.
The greatest danger to the gospel of grace is the human notion that before God will forgive, we must do something.
And this is what the intruders (whom we will refer to from time to time as the Judaizers) to the churches in Galatia had conveyed.
They said that there could be no forgiveness unless they first came through the door as a Jew; then the gospel could apply.
A person needs to believe plus perform certain rituals plus keep certain laws before he can be sure of a right standing with God.
It is this setting that he writes the following:
To the churches in Galatia: 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 present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
The very first point that Paul affirms to the churches is that…
1. God graciously extends His favor toward us.
The very first word is grace.
It was the most important word.
It was the best word.
So much so, when we have God’s favor and grace and peace, we walk with complete confidence in Christ.
We walk in total dependence on the Holy Spirit.
As John MacArthur says,
“Since it offered no grace and provided no peace, the law system being taught by the lying Judaizers is attacked even in this simple greeting.”
It was all about grace.
Then Paul describes the grace in action, for…
2. God delivers us by the gift of His Son (Colossians 1:13-14).
For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Paul communicates, that literally, we are the subjects of a rescue operation.
For the only way any of us can get right with God is through the cross of Christ.
It is through the cross that we have received glorious forgiveness and glorious freedom.
At the same time, Paul wants us to recognize that there is a powerful presence of evil in the world.
It is pervasive.
It influences everything, including us.
We tend to trivialize it.
The point is, is that we needed deliverance from it.
For without deliverance, without being saved, we are destined to an eternity without God (that’s a long time!).
Without deliverance, we are destroyed and destined to hell.
As a result, Paul communicates…
3. God, appropriately, is the receiver of glory.
We are to give God His due.
He deserves glory.
He deserves praise.
We can never do it enough!
Grace to you and glory to God.
And sandwiched between the grace and glory is the foundation—the cross.
4. Delight in the good news today.
Delight in His grace.
God made the first move.
He rescued us and now He deserves the glory.
II. The second response one can have to the good news is DESERTION (6-7).
Paul, with just a few words, has stated the essence of the gospel.
Now he moves to the problem.
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by 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.
1. It is a disturbing matter to walk away from grace (Isaiah 29:13).
Literally, Paul says that he is astounded.
He finds the response of the Galatians to the intruders as bewildering.
It is as he says, “I am amazed, shocked, stunned that you have so quickly turned traitor to Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different Gospel. So quickly, even before the Gospel has had time to lose its freshness, you have started looking around for something new. You have surrendered without a struggle.”
Paul also uses the military term of desertion to describe their response.
And it was not so much a matter that they were deserting Paul, it was, whether they realized it or not, that they were deserting Him who called them.
They were not just turning from a doctrine or an idea.
They were turning from God’s call and from God’s favor.
Isaiah communicates the heart cause for both the teachers and the learners in this…
The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.”
2. When one follows those that compromise the gospel, we go from “good news” to bad news.
What the Judaizers taught made it bad news because it makes light of God’s promise of grace.
They were no longer dependent on God’s grace, but their works as well.
What these teachers offered was a dependency, not on God’s mercy, but on what they were teaching.
Thus, the faith of the Galatians was no longer unique.
It would be like every other religion of the world, then and now.
It would be a religion of works.
For example, Hinduism tells us that if we renounce the world and relate ourselves to the "spirit of the universe," we will at last find our way to peace.
Buddhism sets before us eight principles by which man is to walk and thus find himself on the way to salvation.
Judaism says we must keep the Law absolutely and inflexibly and then we will be saved.
Islam says that a man must pray five times a day and give alms and fast on the month of Ramadan and obey the commands of Allah.
All are ways of works.
Unitarianism says that having good character saves man.
Modern humanism says salvation is by service to mankind.
In every case, salvation is achieved by something we have to do.
So, Paul’s message is, you were free, but now you have returned to bondage.
He goes from astonishment to tragedy.
For Paul realizes that the church cannot tolerate a single drop of legalism to be intermixed with grace.
For when that happens, it does not just pollute grace, it reverses and destroys it.
Which leads us to…
III. The third response one can have to the good news is DENIAL (7-9).
Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!
1. It is one thing to follow, it is another to teach (Titus 1:10-11).
During his whole career, Paul warns his disciples to beware of false teachers.
Note what he says to Titus:
For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach-and that for the sake of dishonest gain.
Back in the Galatians passage, Paul says that they were being agitated, stirred and shaken.
And they were being led into a gross perversion of the gospel.
It is, simply, heresy.
These teachers were attacking the very heart if the gospel.
Paul was not tolerant.
This was no simple Christian difference on a finer point of doctrine.
They were messing with the message, and it was going to make an eternal difference.
I cannot help but comment on some modern day situations.
Paul’s assertion that even angels are not free to change the Gospel has some rather significant implications for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Mormonism teaches that an angel from heaven named Moroni enabled Joseph Smith to discover and read some golden tablets that, without any question, convey a different Gospel than the one Paul taught.
Or how about what is seen on the television so-called Christian stations?
I am at lost at how to respond to some of these preachers I see.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Actually, most of the time, I fume.
For, just as the churches in Galatia were led astray, people today are still vulnerable to the deception of those who will captivate us, motivate us, excite us, and then steal our souls and wallets before they move on to their next victims.
But let them be warned:
2. Those who distort the gospel are devoted to destruction (Jude 4).
Paul says, simply, they are anathema.
They are accursed.
For when you reject grace, and set up rules, you are under the divine curse.
It is a terrifying prospect.
Paul does not offer a sugary concern for the gospel.
It is not “to each his own.”
It is a matter of eternity.
The letter written by Jude would agree:
For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
APPLICATION:
ILL Notebook: Work (no quitter)
An employment manager was talking to a woman that was trying to persuade him to hire her husband. As he looked at his resume, he said, "It looks to me like your husband has been fired from every job he ever held.” To which the loyal wife replied, “Yes, but it does prove one thing. He’s no quitter.”
The interesting thing about this is this notion about not quitting.
We all know that this is a characteristic that we all admire.
And for most matters of life, being tenacious and giving it your best shot are what it’s all about.
Except when it comes to salvation.
For the only way to make it is to quit and say, “I can’t do it.”
And that‘s when grace steps in!
Please note this…
1. The very essence of the gospel is to accept that there is nothing that I can do to improve my status with God. It comes through Jesus, and Jesus alone (Acts 15:11).
Thankfully, that Council in Jerusalem came to the right conclusion that Paul put forth:
We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.
I know some of you are saying…we have reached the end…we are at the application stage…but don’t close up shop yet…hang with me for a few more minutes.
The turning point of disbelief always centers on the person of Jesus, either as an addition or a subtraction.
For much cultic belief, it is a subtraction.
They make Jesus less than the Scriptural testimony.
But sometimes the changes are subtler.
For instance, there is a new church in the area called the International Church of Christ, which targets, specifically, college-age people.
Now this church will agree with us on most things, and they call themselves evangelical, but they have one minor, but significant difference.
According to their belief structure, to be saved, you must be baptized.
Now, I want you to know that I believe in the importance of baptism.
I believe each one of you ought to be baptized.
I also believe it ought to be by immersion because I think the biblical evidence directs us there.
And I also believe that if you are a Christian, you will want to be baptized.
But…and it is an important “but,”…the moment I say, you have to be baptized, I have gone from grace to law.
I have said that there is something you have to do to be saved.
And I am doing the very thing that Paul condemns in this section of verses.
So note this…
2. Perversions of the gospel easily creep into the church, so we must be well established in the truth.
We live in a community that is full of religious and Christian variety.
Among us there are Catholics, Orthodox, Mainline denominations, evangelicals, and cults.
And from time to time, we are going to agree on issues of moral and cultural concern.
But the most important matter is the gospel.
Paul is saying to us that this is eternally important.
We can be right on a lot of things and still be condemned.
We are well aware that we live among a large Catholic population.
And we agree on a lot of things, but it does not mean we necessarily agree on the gospel.
We have every right to explore the difference between what we believe and what the Catholics believe about the gospel.
And there are significant differences.
I am not saying this to stir things up or for the sake of controversy, but for the sake of clarification.
None of us can afford to get this wrong.
You know, sometimes we are tempted to cry out to Jesus for some message, some revelation, some dream or vision, and miss entirely what God is already saying.
I have seen people long for some deeper experience of God and miss entirely what He has already offered.
He has already communicated the deep mysteries of the universe in this, His Word.
This book is our rule of faith and we are to submit our minds and hearts to it.
Our reading of it should be done with precision and care.
We should have a disciplined attention to the meaning of words in context.
You see, it is not enough to possess the truth, the truth must possess you.
ILL personal
One of my favorite games to play with young people as a youth pastor was "Capture the Flag." The game has two teams and there are, basically, two ways to advance in the game. One objective is to capture members of the other team when they come into your territory, and put them in jail. The other objective is to capture the flag of the opposing team. Capturing their flag results in outright victory. The game is over.
In the Christian life, we are called upon, on occasion, to skirmish with the agents of the opposition, to fight individual battles and gain important territory. We can get a bill passed to stop partial-birth abortion, remove pornography from some newsstands, or achieve justice in some area of our society. But Paul is not writing about skirmishes here in the book of Galatians: he is writing about the flag. If the Gospel is lost, it does not matter how many of our opponents are out of commission. The game is over.
So remember this, please…the gospel is not negotiable.
Make sure it stays the “good news” and not something else.
BENEDICTION: [Counselors are ]
Receive the good news…for there is good news for you, though your efforts to improve your status with God will ultimately be fruitless, He has graciously made a way for you to reach Him and know His joy and His peace; receive the good news today;
Delight in the good news…if you have received the good news, celebrate what he has done for you, for it is grace to you and glory to God; and finally,
Proclaim the good news…for good news is not meant to be hidden, but rather shared with those that still need God’s rescue.
Now to him who is able to establish you by the gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.
