Well, I
have made a decision and I think you will be glad about it. You know how
good it is to be able to do something good for someone and the blessing you
receive from it, right? Well I want you to be blessed. I do.
So, you remember the Corvette I told you I was going to buy a couple of weeks
ago? 2017 Z06 in Adrenaline Red? I’ve decided to let the church
help me pay for it. Aren’t you excited?
Now,
don’t worry. I’m not getting the most expensive one. Well, I am but
I’m not getting the convertible. I don’t want to appear
extravagant. But so that you get a blessing, I am going to pay part and
the church will pay part. That’s fair, right? The MSRP on a base
model Z06 is $80,395. I checked my bank account and I have $14. Of
course I don’t want to use all of that on the purchase price. I have to
have some for insurance and gas so I will pay $7. That leaves the church
with about $80,388 (and a few taxes). How does that sound?
No?
We are both paying a part. I don’t want to rob you of your
blessing! I can’t believe you don’t want to do that. Well, if you
don’t think that is a good deal then how do you think Jesus feels when we try
to add our paltry good works to His amazing saving grace? When we alter
the Gospel even a little bit by adding to or taking away anything, it is a
direct insult to the Creator of the Universe and His only begotten Son.
When
someone says they believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that Gospel
includes the fact that Jesus died on the cross to be the perfect sacrifice that
we could never be to pay the price we could never pay and then they add anything
else to that…it is a false Gospel and is not Good News at all.
Anything besides the work that Jesus did on the cross to show us grace for our
salvation is just like me saying we can share the cost of a new Vette by me
paying $7.
That is
highly offensive, not only to all true believers, but also to God
Himself. The Apostle Paul got pretty worked up about this subject in the
book of Galatians. The whole book of Galatians is written to refute all
those who would say salvation is by faith and any kind of works. Paul got
pretty upset when he found out that the churches of Galatia; the churches he
started and founded on the pure, unadulterated Gospel, were including in their
teaching that you needed to follow the Jewish law as well as believe in Jesus.
Anytime
something is perverted it means that the truth has been twisted into
something it was not meant to be. Saying that sex is okay between anybody
except a husband and wife is a perversion of the truth. Saying a
baby is not human until it is born is a perversion of the truth.
Saying that we can share the cost of a new car is a perversion of the
truth and saying that Jesus plus anything leads to salvation is a
perversion of the truth and anytime somebody takes the truth of the
Gospel and twists it into something it is not, Satan gets a big kick out of
that because it robs God of glory that is due Him.
Let’s
turn to the New Testament book of Galatians and see just how strongly
Paul felt about this subject. Galatians is in between 2 Corinthians and
Ephesians. It’s only 6 chapters and it divides real nicely into 3 major
themes. Today we are going to look at grace and the Gospel in chapter
1, verses 6-9. Now, I have to warn you. If this passage was a
TV show, it would start out with one of those disclaimers that says, “Caution:
some scenes may be hard to watch.” I know what you do when you see one of
those disclaimers too. You lean forward a little and turn up the volume,
don’t you? Listen to this. Galatians 1:6-9.
“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— 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some
people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of
Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach
a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 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!”
I heard
the story about the man who was applying for a job and the interviewer was
looking at his resume and said, “It looks to me like you have been fired
from every job you have ever had.” The man said, “Yes sir, that’s
right. Which just goes to prove I’m no quitter.”
Sometimes,
depending on what you are doing, the proper and good choice is to quit.
Trying to be good enough to get to Heaven is one of those things. Trying
to earn your way to salvation with good works and a “holier than thou” attitude
is something you need to stop immediately. It’s like trying to teach a
pig to sing. All you do is annoy the pig and wear yourself out.
Paul’s
point here is that the Gospel is enough. Before we go any further, let’s
define “Gospel”. What is the Gospel? Actually, the central
ingredient of the gospel message is a two-fold confession: (1) Christ died for
our sins and (2) He was raised on the third day. The reality of
these two elements can be verified by the Scriptures (cf. Ps. 16:10; Isa.
53:8-10) and by such historical evidence as the empty tomb and the eye
witnesses. Thus, the two elements mentioned here accomplish two important facts
regarding the gospel. The fact that He was buried verified His death,
and the fact that He appeared to others verified His resurrection.
https://bible.org/article/what-gospel
Do you
remember what song we sang just before I got up here? The song “To God Be
the Glory” contains the Gospel. It’s one of the reasons we still sing
some of the old hymns around here. There is a line in there that sums up
the Gospel pretty well. It says, “The
vilest offender who truly believes, That moment from Jesus a pardon receives.”
John 3:16 is
the Gospel. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that
whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” We are only told to
do one thing in that verse. What is it? Believe. What does it
mean to believe? For me, as the vilest offender, what do I have to do to
truly believe?
True belief
is somewhat of an enigma to me because on one hand you don’t have to do
anything yet on the other you constantly have to do something. Let me
illustrate with this chair. Let’s pretend for a minute that this chair is
the way to salvation. This chair will represent the Gospel, the way to
Heaven. It represents everything Jesus did on the cross and in the
tomb. All you need to do is sit in it.
Now, I
can admire this chair and I can talk about this chair and I can recommend that
you sit in it. I believe that this chair will hold me. I believe
that there is nothing wrong with it and it is fully capable of holding even me
up. I understand that the material from which it is made is strong and
that all the bolts are snug and it is adjusted just right. I might even
be able to tell you how much it weighs and how much it can hold and how long it
is guaranteed but until I actually park myself in it, I have not truly believed
in this chair.
So,
finally, by faith, I decide to sit in the chair, believing that it will hold me
up. The problem is, I keep wanting to get up and check the bolts.
I’m not comfortable with how it sits so I feel the need to make some
adjustments. Maybe I should just put my feet on an ottoman, you know, to
take some pressure off the chair. But the builder of the chair is very
proud of the chair and when we try to make adjustments to make it a little
better, the builder is insulted. All He wants me to do is sit in it and
be still and know that He is the builder. (Psalm 46:10)
That’s
why Paul is so adamant about the Gospel. He says if anybody else preaches
another gospel then let him be eternally condemned and that person will be
eternally condemned because a perverted gospel is not the Gospel. If you
start with the truth of the Gospel but you then twist it to include baptism or
the Lord’s Supper or church attendance or even worship, then you have a
perverted gospel and not the true Gospel and you will be condemned.
Think
about the thief on the cross next to Jesus. In Luke 23:39-43 it
says,
[39] One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him:
"Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" [40] But the
other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said,
"since you are under the same sentence? [41] We are punished justly, for
we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing
wrong." [42] Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come
into your kingdom." [43] Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth,
today you will be with me in paradise."
There was
no baptism, no Lord’s Supper, and he never once even went to church. But
his belief in Jesus as being the only way was enough. He knew Jesus was
God and that was enough. He knew all he had to do was to sit in the chair
and be still and accept the grace of God. That’s so hard for us to do
because we are proud people. We want to do something to earn our way to
Heaven so we can feel good about it.
I hear it
a lot when I ask to hear somebody’s testimony. They tell me all the
things they have done. They went to Sunday School and church. They
got baptized 4 times. They were a deacon in the church. They did
this and they did that. I don’t want to hear how you oiled the rollers on
the chair. I want to hear about God’s grace that provided you with a
chair in spite of who you are.
When you
are really relying on the chair and when you understand that you don’t deserve
the chair no matter how well the rollers are oiled or whatever you do; when you
truly believe and have a relationship with the Father through His Son Jesus,
then you understand grace.
When you
understand grace and what it took for the Son of God Himself to leave Heaven
where every angel heaped glory on Him constantly and to come to earth where He
would be mocked, tortured and crucified to pay the price we could never pay
then you will want to be baptized as a message to your family and friends that
you are now a believer.
When you
understand grace you will want to participate in the Lord’s Supper. You
will want to pray and worship and going to church and supporting the church
will be a joy for you but you will understand that none of those things will
get you to Heaven and anybody that tells you otherwise is, according to Paul,
eternally condemned.
Oh, I
almost forgot! I baked some cookies for us to share this morning.
They are a secret recipe but they are so good. I bought some special,
rare, chocolate chips to put in them. I hope you like them. I have
some extra chocolate chips here as well if you want to maybe sprinkle them on
the cookies before you eat it. (The chocolate chips are really rat poison
pellets.)
What?
You don’t want any? Why not? No, these aren’t rat poison.
They’re chocolate chips. They’re special…French…no? Hard to
believe. Okay. You’re right. But that is exactly like taking
the beautiful, pure Gospel of Jesus Christ and adding anything else to
it. You take the truth of grace and you twist it to mean something else
entirely when you add works of any kind. So don’t fall for it when the
Mormons come to your door and try to tell you their gospel because it includes
a supposed revelation from the Angel Moroni that they have included in their
holy scriptures.
Paul said
even if an angel really did preach something else he would be eternally
condemned. They have a gospel that is very close to the truth until they
poison it with untruth. Every religion that uses something other than the
Bible does the same thing. Even some so-called Christians might try to
tell you that you have to be baptized as a baby or you have to sell a certain
number of magazines. Don’t fall for it.
The
Gospel of Jesus Christ is pure and simple and all we need. Just sit in it
and be still, knowing He is God.
*Invitation*
*Lord’s Supper*
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