Beginning with the Bible, Part 6: The Only Word. Sunday, November 24, 2013

Scripture: Galatians 1:3-10, NLT

3 May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. 4 Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live.5 All glory to God forever and ever! Amen.

6 I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News 7 but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ.

8 Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. 9 I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed.

10 Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.

- Today's message marks the end of our series on Beginning with the Bible.

- At this point, we should be getting a good handle on how important the Bible is for us.

- We've been learning about the authority of Scripture over our lives.

- We've been learning about the uniqueness of Scripture and the Bible's divine inspiration.

*- Today, we're going to learn that the only word has only one message: Jesus Christ, crucified, buried, and resurrected.

- The only word has only one message: Jesus Christ, crucified, buried, and resurrected.

- Moments ago, we read about Paul telling the Galatians that anyone who preached something different than the message of the Gospel he preached to them should be under God's curse.

*- So I want to start us off with a simple question, why? Why did Paul tell the Galatians that anyone who preached another message, a different gospel, should be under God's curse?

- That question has a very straightforward answer.

*- The Christians of Galatia were falling away from the message Paul preached, which is the only gospel.

- The only word has only one message.

*- Is it true that the only word has only one message?

- Let's take a few moments to answer that question.

*- First, much of the narratives of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the four biblical Gospels are taken up with the subject matter of the last week of Jesus life and the events of his crucifixion, burial, and resurrection.

*- Second, the four Gospels and Acts emphasize Jesus sending out his apostles into the world as his witnesses. Of course, they were witnesses to his ministry, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection.

*- Third, the Scriptures testify to the uniqueness of Jesus and his message.

*- Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

*- The promise of the prophets is a promise of intimacy with God and the forgiveness of sins, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. (see Jeremiah 31:33-34, Joel 2:31-32)

*- The apostle Peter preached to the Council of Elders in Jerusalem, "There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved." (Acts 4: 12)

- The author of Hebrews describes the uniqueness of Jesus and his message.

*- "Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. 2 And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. 3 The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. 4 This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names." (Hebrews 1:1-4)

- The only word has only one message: Jesus Christ, crucified, buried, and resurrected.

- No wonder Paul was so concerned for the Galatian Christians.

*- To follow the claims of any gospel that adds or takes away from the message about Jesus Christ is to follow no good news at all.

- The Christians of Galatia were giving their allegiance to something other than Christ by turning away from the original message that Christ's death, burial, and resurrection is more than enough.

- He is everything the sinner needs to be saved. No more and no less.

- To trade allegiances is become a turncoat, a traitor to Jesus Christ.

- That is what Paul accused of the Galatians. They were running away from the good news of God's grace available in Jesus Christ.

- But to what were they running? They were running toward a gospel of works.

- The problem the Galatians were facing was simply that a gospel of good works is no gospel at all.

- Do good works save? Can good works create a new heart or cancel the debt of sin?

*- Of course they can't. But some among the Galatians had convinced them otherwise.

- One of the last things Jesus said from the cross before his death was, "It is finished."

- Someone convinced the Galatians that Christ's work was unfinished.

- Someone convinced them that not only did they need Jesus for salvation, but they needed to add keeping the works of the law.

- As the humble preacher and scholar John R.W. Stott puts it, "In other words, you must let Moses finish what Christ has begun."

*- For the apostle Paul, that kind of thinking is intolerable, so he declared to the Galatians his shock.

- How can you add to the finished work of Christ?

- Paul was shocked that a people who embraced the good news about God's grace in Jesus Christ should suddenly turn away to follow something that only pretends to be good news and is really a perversion, a twisting of the truth.

- The Bible warns against people who add or take away from the message of Scripture.

- Deuteronomy 4: 2, Do not add or subtract from these commands I'm giving you. Just obey the commands of the Lord your God that I'm giving you.

- Deuteronomy 18: 22, If a prophet speaks in the Lord's name, but his prediction does not happen or come true, you will know that the Lord did not give that message. That prophet has spoken without my authority and need not be feared.

- Proverbs 30:6, Do not add to his words, or he may rebuke you and expose you as a liar.

- Revelation 22:18-19, If anyone adds anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book. And if anyone removes any of the words from this book of prophecy, God will remove that person's share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book.

- God warns against adding or taking away from his message. Those that do will be exposed as frauds.

- Paul was deeply concerned for the Galatians because they were walking away from their faith in Jesus Christ, and running toward that which is no faith at all but depends only on self.

- The only word has only one message: Jesus Christ, crucified, buried, and resurrected.

*- Paul told the Galatians that some among them had perverted the gospel, they twisted the truth, and a twisted truth is no truth.

- Some from among their own members turned aside to a modified gospel, a new and improved version, an upgrade of the Good News.

- But one cannot add to the finished work of Christ.

- Faith in Christ is irreplaceable. Jesus of Nazareth cannot be separated from the good news nor the good news separated from him.

- The message of the gospel is repent and believe. Repent, turn away from your sins and turn toward God. Believe, trust and have faith that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead.

*- Adding or taking away from the message of Jesus Christ turns the gospel inside out, backwards and upside down and makes an opposite gospel.

- Such a false gospel deeply troubled the church of Galatia. They were confused, divided, and in turmoil.

- When churches try to change the gospel, then they are thrown into chaos.

- God brings order out of chaos. The fastest way to plunge the Christian church into a state of chaos is to teach the church a false gospel.

- Paul told the Galatian church that anyone who preached a gospel different than the one he originally preached should be under God's curse because the gospel Paul preached is the only gospel.

*- As Paul wrote, Let God's curse fall on anyone, including us, or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of good news than the one we preached to you. I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other good news than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed.

- The only word has only one message: Jesus Christ, crucified, buried, and resurrected.

- Paul used such strong language with the Galatians because when we are talking about following Jesus Christ, or some different so-called gospel, then we are talking about eternal security.

- To buy into someone else's version of the gospel rather than the Bible's version of the gospel is to auction off your salvation to the highest bidder.

- It's to trade away the priceless gift of eternal life for a perverted, twisted knockoff of the only truth.

- Anything taught by anyone which contradicts the timeless teachings of Scripture and the essential doctrines of the church believed all over the world for the last 2000 years is in danger of the fires of hell and endangers the ones listening.

- Paul told his readers that even if he himself or an Angel came to them and told them to follow some other way than the grace of God available in Jesus Christ, such a messenger should be under God's curse.

- An accursed one or an accursed thing is devoted to destruction.

- It comes from the Greek anathema which refers to the divine ban of the Old Testament, in which God judged entire cities for their idolatry and devoted them to destruction, every living thing and every material good was destroyed.

- Paul was deadly serious about this for two key reasons.

- One, preaching-teaching a different gospel deflects glory away from Christ.

- By deflecting glory from Christ, the preacher-teacher seeks glory for him or herself; and contradicts the finished work of Christ.

- Two, preaching-teaching a different gospel endangers the souls of human beings made in the image of God.

- The person and work of Jesus Christ is foundational to the gospel, so to change or modify the person of Jesus or his message in any way compromises the good news.

- Compromised good news is no good news, which equals no eternal life.

- Regardless to who it is, if the truth is changed, then the teacher is false.

- There is no compromising the truth, and there is no compromise for the Christian in this present evil world.

- There is only one gospel.

- The only word has only one message: Jesus Christ, crucified, buried, and resurrected.

- The best way to guard against being taken captive by false teaching is to allow yourself to be captivated with truth.

- That's why it's so important that we are familiar with the Scriptures, know and understand the good news of Christ, so that our lives are not thrown into turmoil, confusion, conflict, and chaos.

- If you have not yet believed that the only word has only one message, why not do it right now? Why put it off? None of us know for certain what the remainder of the day or tomorrow holds.

- Beginning life with Jesus is the simplest thing.

- Paul puts it this way in Romans 10: 9, If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

- Allow me to close in prayer with a confession of faith and if you pray that prayer today for the first time let me encourage you to tell others, tell the world.

- The only word has only one message: Jesus Christ, crucified, buried, and resurrected.

- Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. Thank you that you live and reign, so I can live. I open the door of my life to you and ask you to come in as my Savior and Lord. Take control of my life. Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Thank you for sending your Holy Spirit to live within me. Make me the kind of person you want me to be. Thank you that the only word has only one message: Jesus Christ, crucified, buried, and resurrected. Amen.