One Gospel
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An Astonishing Trick
An Astonishing Trick
Amanda and I have two dogs.
This past week I have been learning how to read minds.
Let’s see if I’ve learned anything.
I’d like you to think of a number between 1-10.
Any number between 1-10 will work.
You have your number?
Now we are going to do a little math.
Two siblings.
Multiply that number by 2.
You should have a new number.
Now add 8 to that number.
Now with your new number, divide it by 2.
Remember your the first number you thought of, it was between 1-10, subtract that number from your new number.
Now match your new number with a letter in the alphabet.
So if you have 1 then the letter is A.
If you have 2 then the letter is B.
If you have 3 then the letter is C.
I’ll give you a moment to figure it out.
Now think of a European country that begins with that letter.
How do you spell that country’s name?
Think of the 2nd letter of that country, and think of an animal that begins with that letter.
I know what you’re thinking, and theres no elephants in Denmark.
As I was growing up, somewhere along the way, someone thought that I liked magic tricks.
A brother and a sister.
I was given all sorts of sets and books to learn how to do them.
Both basset hounds.
It was fun doing magic tricks.
They are about a foot and a half off the ground.
But very long.
And very strong.
Copper is the boy.
He weighs about 70-75 pounds.
It was fun seeing people’s eyes light up when you surprise them with the trick.
Ladybird is the girl, she weighs about 50-55 pounds.
They are about a foot and a half off the ground.
But very long.
And very strong.
They don’t look like they’d be as big as they are, but they are.
Both very solid dogs.
They are both very sweet dogs.
Very affectionate dogs.
They love being around us.
I’ve got a couple pictures that I can show you.
They’ve got those big ears, and the droopy eyes.
They are surprised by the trick itself.
They look so sad.
Another way to say it is, when a trick works people are astonished, because it’s not what they expect.
Sometimes they’ll sit right at our feet and stare at us.
A good magic trick is filled with misdirection.
Today’s text is about Paul being astonished, but not in a good way.
Just begging for attention.
You expect one thing and it turns out something else happens.
Today’s text is all about misdirection.
There’s that saying, “When the cats away, the mice come out to play.”
He’s astonished at the vulnerability of Christians.
Well it also works for dogs.
Then describes the attack upon Christians and their defense.
And God’s judgment upon those who attack them.
Paul expected one thing from the Galatians, and instead was astonished to find something else.
When the masters away, the dogs come out to play.
Let’s look at Galatians 1:6-9.
When we are home, they are super nice dogs.
Most of the time they sleep.
When they aren’t sleeping they are lazily chewing bones, or wanting to be pet.
But when we are gone … well that’s a different story.
They’ve done some amazing damage to our house.
They pulled up and ripped the carpet in our living room.
We couldn’t salvage what they did.
So we ended up finishing the job.
We ripped up the rest of the carpet in the living room and painted the concrete foundation, and lived on that for a while.
They’ve eaten our couch.
They pulled the cushions off of it and had loads of fun with the stuffing all over the inside of our house.
We know we need to keep an eye on them.
But there are times someone will be at the door, and we will go an answer it.
You get up to get the door, and as soon as we leave the room, we hear the doggie door slam shut.
In the amount of time that we answered the door, one of the dogs jumped on the couch, took a throw pillow off of it, and booked it outside to kill it in the backyard.
When you turn your back, they can do incredible damage.
The Galatian Christians were a lot like the basset hounds we have.
Paul had originally preached to the Galatians, and been used by God in their conversion.
He is who they first heard the Gospel from.
Paul established those churches.
Paul continues on his missionary journeys.
He turns his back.
Just as it’s amazing how quickly my dogs can destroy our living room, it’s amazing how quickly Christians can be deceived.
Paul has turned his back on the Galatian Christians.
This letter is trying to put back together what has been thrown into disarray.
Let’s look at .
Read Galatians 1:6-9.
Astonished Pastors
Astonished Pastors
The Galatian churches were established by Paul.
He had preached to the Galatians while passing through.
The Gospel was preached to them.
Lives were changed.
Churches were planted.
They had heard the truth.
These are genuine Christians.
When someone becomes a Christian, something amazing happens.
That’s why the language of conversion is so great in Scripture.
They are regenerated.
They are born again.
When a person is converted something supernatural happens to the person.
They were founded on truth.
A supernatural event happens.
The Holy Spirit changes the heart and mind of the believer.
He no longer thinks the same.
He no longer lives the same.
And the next thing you know, they’ve believed a lie.
He no longer believes the same.
He no longer loves the same.
He becomes a new person.
The work of the Holy Spirit upon a person’s life is permanent.
says that the Holy Spirit is a guarantee of our inheritance, and remains until we receive it.
He is a seal upon our hearts, marking us as belonging to God.
You don’t lose the Holy Spirit.
Because you’re not the one who found the Holy Spirit.
He changed you.
He entered you.
He sealed you.
He will keep you.
very comfortingly says, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
That is a solid statement saying that if you are in Christ, you will remain in Christ.
Nothing, in all of creation, you by the way are a part of creation, nothing can separate from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
All that happens at conversion.
And Paul has witnessed this happen within the lives of the Galatian Christians.
These are real Christians, who have really been born again.
says they began by the Spirit.
Paul was away.
The false teachers came out to play.
says they were supplied and working by the Spirit.
4:6 says that they are sons of God and that He has sent the Spirit into them.
And remember, the Spirit is an eternal seal, a guarantee that you are in Christ.
4:8-9 says they once were enslaved to sin, but now are enslaved to God and known by Him.
And remember, the Spirit is an eternal seal, a guarantee that you are in Christ.
So the work that is done upon them is real.
What I want you to see is that these Galatians are Christians.
They are real, genuine Christians.
They have been born again.
They are new creations.
They are the real thing.
Think about a magic trick.
If a magician is doing a card trick, he pulls out a deck of cards and tries to prove to the audience, these are normal playing cards.
He hands them to the audience to inspect.
They fan through them.
They make sure they are all the same size, with no duplicates.
These Galatians are real Christians.
There is nothing fishy about them.
They are not trick Christians.
They are not false Christians.
You know what Paul’s worst fear is regarding the church.
The Bible says some terrible things can happen to Christians.
We are told to expect:
Persecution.
Suffering.
Pain.
Disappointment.
We are told that the world will hate us.
And yet the Bible never says, “I’m really worried about you when you suffer.”
says, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.”
Peter says, “Don’t be surprised if you suffer.”
Peter’s biggest fear is not that you will suffer.
In and 13, Paul says, I can live on little or on a lot, I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
Paul’s greatest fear is not whether or not you will have a well paying job, a nice retirement, or a long and healthy life.
You know what Paul’s greatest fear is?
It’s that Christians who have been converted and have the Holy Spirit living inside of them would fall for a lie.
Because that should sound impossible.
Especially when we think of the supernatural event of conversion.
The Holy Spirit is in you.
He changes your mind.
He changes your thinking.
But it’s Paul’s fear.
, “I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.”
, “But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”
Paul’s fear is’s not just a hypothetical fear.
It’s not Paul being an overprotective spiritual parent.
This is real.
Yet it shouldn’t be that way.
says, “… he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
Think about who resides within the Christian - The Holy Spirit.
says that we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
And yet, I don’t see a whole lot of Christians living this way.
I don’t see a whole lot of conquerors.
I don’t see a whole lot of people who live as if they have conquered the world.
Paul’s greatest fear is that the church will be mislead by false teaching.
Even though they have the Holy Spirit - “… he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
Even though they are supposed to be more than conquerors.
Paul’s greatest fear is that these Christians, who have experienced the supernatural event of conversion, will live as if it never happened.
And this is something that astonishes him.
And it should astonish us.
They won’t lose their salvation.
They’ve experienced the Holy Spirit.
He is a permanent seal on their lives.
But it will shake them up.
It will rattle their cage.
And is this happening?
You bet it’s happening.
There are a lot of Christians who have experienced the Holy Spirit, have the Holy Spirit, and yet they live as if they have never received Christ.
And this is astonishing.
And there are a lot of Christians who have been shaken up.
The theme of Galatians is freedom.
Paul is trying to bring freedom back into the Galatians lives.
Because they have gone back into slavery and fear.
And it is not just the Galatians.
There are Christians today, who astonishingly have deserted Christ.
They are shaken up.
Here are 6 Ways Christians can tell if they have been robbed of Spiritual freedom.
1. They are troubled.
, Jesus said, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.”
The base issue there is not believing God.
When truth is pushed aside, God is doubted.
When God is doubted, we worry; we are troubled.
2. A sign of a Christian losing his spiritual freedom, is a Christian who is wishy washy in his beliefs and thinking.
says that a sign of spiritual immaturity is that we are like children "tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”
Truth says this is what I stand on.
Truth is able to reject falsehood.
Truth is freedom.
When that truth is lost, we have nothing to stand on.
And we grab hold of any idea that comes our way.
says of these poor people that they are “always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of truth.”
3. A sign of a lack of spiritual freedom is when Christians are surprised by suffering.
4 says to not be surprised by suffering.
Why is that a problem?
Because if you are surprised by suffering you are not setting your minds on things that are above.
Instead the surprise is that you are fixated on what’s here.
Forgetting the sovereignty of God over all things.
4. A 4th sign of a lack of spiritual freedom is that the Christian is not satisfied.
says, “I have learned in whatever situation I am in to be content.”
Contentment happens when you understand that God meets our daily needs.
And worry happens, when you either doubt God, or think that He hasn’t given enough.
A 5th sign of a lack of spiritual freedom is when the Christian lacks joy.
Later on in this very book, we will see that a product of walking by the Spirit is that there is joy.
But a person who has traded spiritual freedom for a lie doesn’t enjoy God.
He doesn’t enjoy what God has provided.
He’s overall rather grumpy and not pleasant to be around.
And a 6th sign of a lack of spiritual truth is when the Christian becomes a slave of sin.
A Christian who is a slave to sin should be an oxymoron.
It’s like the prisoner who has been set free, only to walk back to the prison and say, “Lock me up, I liked it in there more.”
It’s a life that is addicted to sin.
Paul is seeing these affects within the lives of the Galatians and he knows something is wrong.
His worst fear is realized.
They are deserting truth.
And he is astonished.
The magic trick has been done.
“The magician showed me the cards.”
“I thought they were ordinary, and yet something strange has happened.”
You don’t believe what your eyes saw.
How could these Galatians, who have experienced the work of the Holy Spirit be deceived?
The cats away, the mice come out to play.
We need to ask that same question today.
The mice have certainly come out.
The Galatians are not alone.
And so he writes to put things in order.
To restore their freedom.
He begins by addressing the attack upon the Church
He begins by addressing the attack upon the Church
Paul diagnoses the situation - The Galatians have been mislead.
Then in verse 7 Paul says something we don’t want to hear, “there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.”
We don’t like hearing that.
We like hearing good things.
We like hearing positive things.
Following World War I, there were strict rules put upon Germany.
And slowly, over the next couple decades, Germany began to defy those rules.
They developed an army.
They invested in weapons and new technology.
They
And then in 1933, Adolf Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany.
His powers grew, and Germany began to test the waters, to push the boundaries placed upon them.
He wanted to see if the rest of the world would hold them to the rules put upon them after World War I.
Meanwhile, in England, Winston Churchill, saw what Hitler was doing and grew concerned.
In 1930, Churchill said, “Hitler or his followers would seize the first available opportunity to resort to armed force.”
Yet, the majority of the world didn’t listen to Churchill.
They thought he was a doom and gloom old naysayer.
Most of the world, put their heads in the sand, ignoring the Germany’s rise to power..
Hitler continued to gain power.
In March of 1939, he took over Czechoslovakia.
Europe didn’t care.
They turned a blind eye to the evil coming from Berlin.
Then in September of 1939, he invaded Poland.
The war had begun.
Think of the millions of lives that could have been spared had that original warning been heeded.
But we don’t like hearing that.
Paul is telling us here that there is an attack.
“there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.”
And like Europe before World War II, we don’t want to hear it.
“Let’s only talk about good things.”
And we saw those results.
The Church is built upon truth.
It’s built upon what is real.
That is what we teach and that is what we pursue.
And when we believe error, what happens to that foundation?
It crumbles.
When we lack truth in our lives, then we are living in error.
Chaos ensues.
Winston Churchill warned Europe - Hitler is a problem.
No one listened.
And it’s estimated that between 70-85 million people died from the war.
Imagine if the warning had been heard.
Paul is warning the Galatians - these false teachers are a problem.
They are trying to trouble you.
That means to cause a riot, to bring trouble.
His warning is for your benefit.
They are trying to distort the Gospel.
There may be times here at church we come off strong against something.
Some of your translations might say pervert the Gospel.
That’s not because I’m having a bad day.
It’s because we are trying to protect you from error.
They are ruining the Gospel.
From something that is good and beautiful, to something that is damning.
From a stairway to Heaven, to a highway to Hell.
Paul’s opponents thought that he was making the Gospel too easy.
Especially coming from Judaism.
Judaism was hard.
There were a lot of rules.
There were a lot of laws.
Romans tells us that those were there to show us our sin and to show us our need for a Savior.
But some people found it hard to adjust.
So they went to the Gentiles, and said if you want heaven it’s Jesus and something.
So they took something that was good, which was Christ, and they added something to it.
The Gospel is one distinct thing.
It’s that Christ died for our sins and rose again.
There it is.
But if you add something to it, it is no longer the Gospel.
In the end you get a perverted Gospel.
What kind of a perverted Gospel?
You take some bleach and you take some ammonia.
I’ve got a glass of milk.
Your
Window cleaner and what makes your whites whiter.
Milk is good.
Together, they create a gas that can not only lead to organ damage, but that be potentially explosive.
It taste good on your cereal.
Bleach and alcohol.
Take a drink.
I’ve got orange juice.
Together they make a toxic chloroform.
I love orange juice.
I start every day with a glass of orange juice.
Breathing too much of it can kill you.
Take a drink.
Vinegar and peroxide.
Now milk is really good by itself.
Both are acids, and when you mix them they can make a really good acid called peracetic acid.
Take a drink.
Take peroxide and henna hair dye.
But when you mix a citric acid to it.
Drink orange juice.
They are two kinds of hair dyes.
It tastes awful.
But when you mix them together, they can result in skin burns, your hair to fall out, and who knows what color hair you’ll get.
I can feel my stomach curling.
These false teachers were taking the Gospel, adding something to it, and in the end getting a completely different result.
Mixing the two is not a good idea.
It creates a whole new substance.
Cottage cheese is being made in my stomach.
The false teachers were taking something that was good - Christ.
Drink milk.
Adding a little something to it - the Law.
Drink orange juice.
And in the end they had a perverted substance.
Drink milk.
Drink orange juice.
What before was a gift, lest no man should boast.
Was now a hybrid of works and grace … which can’t coexist.
You can’t have free, unmerited grace alongside works.
Drink milk and orange juice.
That’s milk and orange juice.
They don’t mix.
The Gospel is the wonderful news that Jesus did everything.
He died for our sins.
He lived for us.
He was resurrected.
And it’s all a free gift.
Why?
So God can receive the glory.
So He can receive the credit.
And anything else, robs God of the credit.
And says that you believe Christ did less than what He really did.
And results
You add more to the Gospel, you subtract from what Jesus did.
So Paul warns the church.
Grace and works are opposed to each other.
So much so, that they create an entirely new Gospel, which isn’t really a gospel at all.
There is an attack upon the church.
We may not want to hear it.
But to ignore the warnings, is to allow ourselves to march into captivity again.
And the best defense is to know the truth and to stand upon it.
How does this work itself out in everyday life?
In , Paul says, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons ...”
Your Elders have begun being trained in biblical counseling.
Things we don’t want to hear.
Biblical counseling is the practical reality of saying:
Then he tells Timothy in verse 6, “If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus,”
“What has God told us in the Bible?”
The warning needs to go out.
“How has God commanded us to live?”
And it needs to be heard.
And then living that out.
And our best defense, is to live solely on the true, free Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Reformers called it solus Christus, Christ alone.
Accursed Teachers
Accursed Teachers
Look at Paul’s final words in verses 8-9.
“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.”
Every year at Christmas and Easter, the Discovery Channel airs special programs.
National Geographic publishes articles.
And people share posts on Facebook about some new teaching on the Bible.
There are quotes from reputable sources.
Famous names.
Noted authors.
Influential people.
And these names carry weight.
And they all try and give a new perspective on what the Bible says.
Sometimes saying that the Bible is missing something.
What would Paul say to them?
Exactly what you see in verse 8.
“But if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.”
The standard here is truth.
It’s what’s been revealed in Scripture.
The standard for truth isn’t the speaker.
And that is what we stand upon.
Paul says if he changes.
If for some reason, Paul goes off the deep end and stops preaching the Gospel, as described in Scripture; he says, then let him be accursed.
Paul says, even if an angel from heaven should come and teach a different gospel, let him be accursed.
I think that this has happened at times.
Yea, there are people who are just crazy and make stuff up.
They claim that they received some new vision, or some new knowledge.
And they are just crazy.
But I wouldn’t be surprised if there are people who have actually encountered a demon, thinking the demon was an angel, and were told a new Gospel.
Paul says let them be accursed.
One of the most popular religions in the US is founded on that very idea.
Mormonism.
I have a copy of the Book of Mormon in my office.
Right on the cover of it, “Another testament of Jesus Christ.”
Joseph Smith claims to have encountered an angel, Moroni, multiple times, who helped him discover this new gospel.
I personally think that when Paul was saying these words, it was an exaggeration … that sadly has turned out to be true.
What is our defense?
It’s truth.
It’s standing upon what God has given us within the Bible, and believing it.
Knowing it to be sufficient.
And knowing that anything outside of it needs to be compared to Scripture.
And this extends across the whole spectrum of truth.
There are lots of well meaning Christians out there, who think that truth starts outside of Scripture.
You have questions about things in the Bible.
Did the flood happen?
Was the 6 day creation real?
Is there really a resurrection?
Could Jonah have really been swallowed and in the belly for 3 days?
What does wikipedia say?
What does a college textbook say?
What does a survey say?
What does science say?
What does the Vatican say?
But what happens when these resources are wrong, or change their mind?
What do you do then?
Then your world is shattered.
You see this happen when a celebrity pastor falls into sin.
People follow the religion because of him, not because of truth.
And when he falls then they fall with him.
Our foundation, our defense, must be the truth that is found within the Bible.
And this truth will withstand anything thrown at it.
Charles Spurgeon once said, “The Word of God can take care of itself, and will do so if we preach it, and cease defending it.”
He then tells a story of a lion.
It’s in a cage, to protect him from people.
And outside the cage are armed men, to protect the lion from danger.
Spurgeon continues, “These mighty men are intent upon defending a lion. O fools, and slow of heart! Open that door! Let the lord of the forest come forth free. Who will dare to encounter him? What does he want with your guardian care? Let the pure gospel go forth in all its lion-like majesty, and it will soon clear its own way and ease itself of its adversaries.”
The Word of God is a lion that defends itself, in fact that we can stand upon.
There is an attack against truth.
There is an attack against the Gospel.
There are people who actively try and distort it, pervert it, reinvent it.
And what is God going to do about it?
He says they are accursed.
What’s it mean that they are accursed?
Sometimes when we hear that word we think of the word curse.
That they are under a curse.
Remember Beauty and the Beast.
The Beast once was a handsome prince.
He made fun of an ugly old woman.
That ugly old woman turned out to be a witch and she cursed him, turning him into an ugly beast.
He was cursed.
That’s not exactly what the word means.
It’s not that kind of a curse.
It’s actually closer to the word offering.
What is an offering?
It’s a gift.
It’s when you give something to someone.
Christmas just happened, you gave gifts, you gave offerings to people.
Each week we give offerings to God.
When it says they are accursed God gives them to something.
He gives them to death.
In the Old Testament there were a few times people were devoted to destruction.
Same concept.
Normally, if something is devoted it’s a good thing.
In the mornings, before the day starts, you have your devotions, your quiet time.
You give the day to the Lord.
In the Old Testament God would devote people to destruction.
Hand them over to destruction.
The people of Jericho, were devoted to destruction.
In I Samuel, the Amalekites were devoted to destruction.
He gives them to death.
Essentially, there is no hope for this person.
Grace is withheld from this person.
There is no hope.
There is only damnation.
As scary, and as astonishing as the attack upon the church is, God loves His church even more.
He protects his church and has high standards for those who influence his church.
says that teachers will be judged stricter.
In , Jesus said that if someone causes one of his people to sin, “it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”
God’s judgment upon false teachers, is a demonstration of His love for those He saved.
Why does He care so much?
First, because He is truth.
There is no lie in God.
Satan is the father of lies.
Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth and the life.”
Second, because the price He gave for HIs church was so high.
Have you ever spent a lot of money on something and then you lost it?
All you think about was the cost for that item.
The price for your salvation was the life of Christ.
He was given so you would live.
That’s how much you are worth to God.
He treasures you.
And we can be sure, that God will have victory over His enemies.
So what do we do with all this? We put these three things together.
So what do we do with all this? We put these three things together.
Remember the vulnerability of your faith.
You are not yet perfect.
Your conversion was a supernatural event, but you are not invulnerable.
We can still be surprised by an attack.
Second, that attack is real.
And our best defense, is to live by the Word of God.
To crave it like a baby craves milk.
Third, know that God cares and watches.
Those who attack His church will be judged.