Responding to a Gospel Emergency

Look at the scripture and try to emulate that ourselves to be an Acts type of church, and, and we feel at this church that church membership is important. When we at Cornerstone speak of membership, we mean a Christian who recognizes that he is a member of the universal body of Christ, first of all, and therefore acts out that reality by committing himself. Or covenanting himself to this local body of believers in order to accomplish several things. First of all, to be equipped for ministry, that you are equipping yourself for ministry to be used by God.

Also to be able to use his or her giftedness and resources for the benefit of this local body and also receive from this body to be ministered to. And number 3, also to be held accountable by other believers. this accountability is something that's needed in all of our lives and even to the point of asking your fellow believers here to kick you out of the church if you continue in sin and you're unrepentant of those things. And then finally to be shepherded by the pastors and elders at our church here.

And this is letting the elders know that you desire to place yourself under their authority and their teaching. So when you are covenanting with us, these are things you are doing in order to become a member of Cornerstone. You must be born again, as evidenced by ongoing repentance and belief. You must be baptized and you must be willing to make a covenant commitment to this local body.

the individuals that I am calling up here this morning have done this, and we would like to have them, come forward so we can recognize them. First off, we have Saul, Alexandra, Daniella, Joanna, and Alicia Aguilar. Yes. We also have Chris and Kara Kidder.

Cheryl Kramer. Andrew Y. Tom and Mary Vesey. Vincent and Kimberly Green.

Sylvia Uno. And Christine Robertson. Now, by signing their covenant with us, they have covenant to do many things. I would like to read you, the covenant that they have signed.

By the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit, I covenant to endeavor to be an example of Christ in my speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity of my life, and to forsake the ways of sin, exercise a mutual care of other members in the body of Christ, be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation and mindful of the scriptures to seek it without delay. Strive with others for both the peace and purity of this assembly as part of Christ's body. Attend faithfully the stated services of the church.

Cherish the word of God and the ordinances of the church.

Contribute as a faithful steward such time, talent, and money in the measure that Christ prospers me. That the responsibility of the local church and the worldwide ministry of spreading the gospel be faithfully discharged. Teach my children the word of God, seek the salvation of my family and acquaintances, and to walk circumspectly in the world so that I can be a faithful witness for the Lord Jesus Christ, and encourage one another in the blessed hope of our Lord's soon return and to engage in regular Bible reading and prayer so that I may be ready to meet Him.

And I would like to ask these new members up here, if this is what you have covenanted with us to do, please respond by saying we have.

And at this time I'd like to pray for our members and for ourselves at this time, so let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, I just thank you for this time that we can recognize our new members. I thank you for each person here and their desire to commit to our local body here. I just pray that you would use them in our local body, allow them to just flourish in their gifts given to us, and I pray also that we would be faithful to minister to them.

that, that we would have this common bond of your love for each other and that our commitment would just be to each other during this time. We thank you for their commitment to us and ask for your blessing on them. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

And after the services, I would ask the new members to go out to the lawn area so that we all can extend the right hand of fellowship to them. Thank you very much, guys. Thank you so much. Thanks, Kumi.

Also, I just want to let that the next membership class, if you're interested, is, January 13th, Sunday. it's like 12 to 12:30 to 3:30 over here in the modular. If you'd like to sign up for that, you can contact the church office. I want to take a moment to welcome anybody that might be visiting with us, for the first time, and we've got a special book for you on Christ our Redeemer and plus a visitor's letter from the staff.

If you just raise your hand, we've got that free gift for you. Could you raise your hand if you're visiting with us? Great. Well, while we welcome these guys.

Or somebody, yeah, right here. Thanks, Jason and Mitch for doing that. It's really glad that you guys could be here with us today. We're excited about your presence and we're excited about the gospel.

So if you guys love the gospel, then I think you guys will enjoy being here. And, lastly, before we, greet one another, just, any children that are, if you're going to children's church, then you're gonna head out with Mr. John, is it Mr. John?

OK. just Mr. John. So you're gonna line up to go to Children's Church with Mr.

John here in a second. If you, if you want to stay here and take notes with the sermon, you're gonna see Miss Christine right here, and she's gonna give you the clipboard and stuff like that. So let's greet one another and we'll come back together in just a minute or so. it.

Let me introduce you because that way when Chris comes out, I, I want everyone to hear what you're talking about. First of all Yeah, that's fine. If we could find our way to our seats. Stop Stop the fellowship.

All right, we have an upcoming ministry, a really exciting ministry that's, coming up here at the end of, this month, and here to tell us about this ministry is Steve and Jenny McCullough. So let's give them a warm welcome. OK. Well, good morning.

we're very happy to be able to tell you about our Cornerstones October 31st Festival of Treats. It's a very exciting ministry. That we're having that's coming up this October 31st and we're very, very, where's your costume? I, well, we didn't, we decided not to wear costumes, you don't have to wear a costume.

Oh. So we're very excited about this. Like I said, you don't have to wear a costume. You can.

But you don't have to. Why didn't you guys tell me? Well, we really didn't think that a grown man would, would come to But come to church dressed like, what are you supposed to be? I'm a hobbit.

OK, I even put hair on my toes. Nice, very nice. I don't think that'll come off. We'll, we'll try later.

we're very excited about our, our Halloween outreach, but with all this talk of festival of treats and whatnot, you may be wondering, are we celebrating a pagan holiday? And the contrary is true. We're definitely not. What we're doing is we're doing an outreach to our community.

Jenny, tell us about this outreach. This is a very strategic outreach because it's the one time of the year where people leave their houses and they'll go knock on strangers' doors, ask for candy, and they're willing to talk about the afterlife. And so we want people to come here and we want to be able to minister to them. One way that Guys can help us with that.

We have little handouts. They're invitations. They say all the details of the event, and if you guys can take 1015, hand them out to your neighbors, friends, family, the person who checks you out at the grocery store, anything we can do to get the message out. This is a wide open door to spread the gospel, and we don't want you to miss it.

And one of the ways that we will be spreading the gospel is through our afterlife house. What that is, it's going to be a 20 minute media presentation. It's going to be completely interactive and it's going to be totally awesome. You guys won't want to miss it.

The Montgomerys have been working hard to turn 4 of our bottom classrooms into a just dramatic lighting, cool effects, fog. It's going to look like Disneyland, OK, so. Bringing your family, friends, it's gonna be a great way to question how they plan on spending eternity, and it will really make them think about the afterlife, and we are really excited about it. We're also gonna have what we call the circle of trunks.

So, I'd like to ask, Frodo, Chris, to talk about that. By the way, I find tunics very slimming. That might be my new style. seriously, out here in the parking lot, above parking lot, we're gonna, what we're looking to do is have a circle of trunks where the kids will get raffle tickets from the show down below and they'll come up and what we're looking for is engaging people that want to encourage the kids, not just to, take their candy, but to come back to church, to, to engage them in conversations about the gospel, about what they just heard.

So we're looking for you just to be friendly and outgoing and hand out candy. Right now, we have 10 volunteers or so. We're looking for at least 30. So if you're interested in just coming in, putting your car in there, and just handing out candy and just being talkative, sign up outside.

Now the candy, we cannot do this without the candy. It's very important that you bring candy, and what we're looking for is every family bring at least one candy. If not, I'll send you to Sauron. That's a Lord of the Rings reference.

So every, every family bring at least one bag of candy, OK? But more important than all this stuff, what we need is your prayers. Because if you're not praying for us, we're not praying for us, if the Lord's not with us, then we're not gonna be, we might have a million people come here, but if it's not with the Lord, then it's not gonna be valuable at all. So what we need more than anything else is your prayers, and that's what we want and the candy.

And you to volunteer. And if you want to like hire me out for a costume party or something like that. As Chris said, we really, would appreciate your prayers as we finish planning this, and we really are looking for some more hands to help out on the 31st, it'll be from 6 to 9 p.m. We can use help earlier in the day and later on tearing down.

So, whatever you're able to do, there's a sign-up table outside. Don't forget to take the, little cards that you can give out to your friends. Thank you, guys. Well, thank you, Steve and Jenny and Frodo.

Well, let me invite you guys to turn in your Bibles to the book of Galatians for the 2nd time. We, started last week our series on the book of Galatians, and it won't be long before your Bible is automatically opening. To this book, The Book of Galatians. We're gonna be doing a verse by verse study through this book, we began to introduce it last week and ran woefully short on the time.

So today is the second and final installment of the introduction to the book of Galatians, and the title of the message. this morning is responding to a gospel emergency, responding to a gospel emergency. Last week, we looked at the anatomy of a gospel emergency and broke down what was happening in the Galatian congregations. and, we began to look at Paul's response to this gospel emergency.

but today we're going to complete looking at how Paul responds to this emergency that was taking place in these churches. Speaking of emergency, I, Everybody loves emergency stories, and I was reminded a couple of weeks ago when I was putting the message together of a story I heard on the radio. This is a totally true story of a guy who came into an emergency into an emergency room with his young son because the young son had been playing with a toy car and he got the toy car stuck up his nose to where it was in his nasal cavity.

And so the dad brought him in, told the emergency room personnel what had happened, and said, You've got to get this out of his nose.

We can't get it out. So they did whatever they normally do to extract the toy car from the kid's nose. They then washed off the car, made sure his vitals were OK, and then gave him the car back, and the father and son left the emergency room. Well, the reason this made the news was because about an hour and a half later, the father shows up at the emergency room with the same car stuck up his nose.

And the emergency room people were like, You've got to tell us what you're doing here. And he says this is humiliating for me, but when I got home, I was looking at my son's nose. I was looking at this car, and I was thinking, how in the world could he get this. stuck up his nose, he said, so I started doing it myself and I got it.

I lost the car in my nose. That's neither here nor there, but Everybody loves an emergency story. I remember when I was a kid, that TV series Emergency was the all the rage. And then I think in the late 90s or late 80s and 90s, the show Rescue 911.

I remember watching that show a lot. William Shatner was the host and they just regaled you with story after story of really intense emergency situations and 911 calls and then what was done. in response to all of that and how everything worked out OK, there's been shows since then, and other shows that are based on the premise of emergencies that occur, and then how, people respond to that. It makes for great drama, great television, cause during an emergency your emotions are just going crazy and it's very intense and And the stakes are incredibly high and it requires quick thinking and quick action, and so the drama is just incredible in those scenarios and the truth is, as we began to see last Sunday, we have all of those dynamics that are, that occur.

In the book of Galatians, this is an emergency book. It is rescue 911. It is Paul coming to an emergency situation and responding to it and addressing it. And so it is of all of Paul's epistles by far the most intense of the letters that he wrote.

And one of the things you'll notice too in an emergency is all the normal rules of protocol and courtesy just fly out the window. when an emergency, personnel person comes into a house and there's a family standing around and there's someone gasping on the floor. The, the EMT doesn't do the normal thing like, hi, how are you doing? My name is Bob, and what's your name?

and goes through the family and introduces himself and says, my name's Bob, what's yours? And oh, that's, is that Irish? Is that, is that of Irish origin? I, I've never heard that name before.

You don't go through all of those niceties. The normal rules of courtesy are laid aside and you go right to The situation. I've never heard of anyone ever offended by the lack of courtesy, that was shown by an EMT. Like, did you notice he just walked right by me and didn't say hello?

I said hi and I waved. He didn't even smile at me. No one is offended by that because they know that this is an emergency, and they're there to take care of that situation. And we have that same dynamic even in the book of Galatians.

Paul and every one of his other epistles always begins by taking some time to thank God for things about the readers to whom he is writing with one exception, and that is the book of Galatians. Paul quickly, he briskly introduces himself and wishes them well, and then says something about the gospel. And then verse 6, right when you're expecting him to say, I thank God always on every remembrance of you. What you hear him say is, I am amazed.

And he's off to the races in addressing this very serious situation. So, this is an emergency book, and we have the privilege of studying this book, where Paul is dealing with this extremely intense gospel emergency. Now, last week, we saw the definition of a gospel emergency. It is any development or set of circumstances that lures someone away from gospel truth and leaves them Thinking and acting contrary to the gospel.

When you look at that definition, you realize that all of us have many gospel emergencies. I had a number of gospel emergencies in my own life this week. One of them lasted longer than a day, where I was lured away from gospel thinking and, and was then thinking and acting contrary to the gospel. And not only do we experience gospel emergencies, but there are people in our lives, brothers and sisters in the Lord, maybe a spouse, maybe a son or a daughter or a brother or sister, where the people in our lives that we love and care about are experiencing a gospel emergency.

And how do we respond to that situation? and especially If you've got someone in your life, who at one time seemed to embrace the true gospel, and now they are laying the true gospel of salvation by faith alone in Christ alone aside, and they are embracing a supposed gospel, Which is a gospel of works. How do you deal with a situation like that? How should you view that?

Should you let it go and do nothing and say, Well, God is sovereign, or do you intervene? Do you respond in some way? Well, we're going to learn from Paul's response some things that we can do by way of seeing this as serious, and then how we can respond. Now just real, real quick, guys, we learned last.

Last week that the Galatians at one time were really doing well. they had heard the pure gospel, they had received the pure gospel, they had received the Spirit by faith, they had suffered many things for the gospel, and they didn't care. They gladly suffered those things. They had even experienced miracles we learned from the book of Galatians, they were happy.

They were blessed in the Lord. And they were running well, and they loved Paul dearly because he was the guy that introduced them to this message of the gospel that is now making such an amazing difference in their lives. But we saw also last week as we scoured through the book of Galatians, that something has gone wrong. There are people that have come into the Galatian churches, and are now troubling them and unsettling them By distorting their understanding of the gospel.

And what they're saying to them basically is that yes, you can believe in Jesus, and yes, you are saved through Christ, and through the cross. And yes, you're saved by grace, and by faith. But in addition to believing in Jesus, you must be circumcised, or you will not be saved. That's what they're teaching.

They're taking the pure gospel and they're just saying if we can just add something, just can we just add this work. And that's what they're doing and the Galatians are being foolish and unthinking and allowing themselves to be seduced to this perversion of the gospel, and they are right now in the process we saw of deserting God for this different gospel. Some of them are beginning to turn back to their former way of life, a lifestyle of paganism, and some of the Jews who were in this church are reverting back to their former lifestyle.

in Judaism, they've lost their sense of blessing in the gospel, blessing in the Lord.

They're now turning on Paul and viewing him as the enemy. And we also learned from Galatians 5 that they are biting and devouring each other, which is just a stunning thing to consider. Paul looks at this congregation, and from what he hears about them, they have moved away from the gospel, and now they're biting and devouring one another. I just want to serve notice on you guys, just to reiterate something from last week, when Christians bite and devour one another, that is the result of a gospel emergency.

They have moved away from the gospel. There is a gospel malfunction somewhere at the core. When husbands and wives bite and devour each other, it is because they have moved away from gospel truth. They're not living and breathing in the atmosphere of the gospel.

When brothers and sisters bite and devour one another, parents, it is because there is a gospel emergency, and we need to do more than just tell them to stop that and to be a good boy or a good girl, we need to take them back to the gospel. And so all of these kinds of behaviors are merely symptoms of a gospel emergency at the core. And so things are really in a bad way at the Galatian churches, and Paul responds. And what we're going to see this morning are 7 responses of Paul to this gospel emergency.

The 1st 2 are by way of review. His first response is that he is amazed and tells them so. He is amazed and And tells them, so he says in verse 6 of chapter 1, I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting him. I'm amazed that you're deserting him for a different gospel.

And I'm amazed that you're doing it so quickly. In chapter 4, verse 20, he says, I am perplexed. I'm at a loss about you. I mentioned last week how sometimes our children do things that baffle us.

I've also been thinking about times when I was growing up where I did things. And I remember my dad looking at me. And he just had this look. He didn't even say a word, but he just had this look like, you must not be thinking at all, and I don't even know what to ask to even find out what you were thinking.

I don't even want to ask. I don't even want to know. Just a total look of perplexity. And that's the look that is on Paul's face, as he is looking at this situation.

And part of his perplexity is that Paul himself is so ravished by this gospel. He is so in love with the gospel in love with Jesus and ravished by the beauty and the glory of the gospel, that he's looking at the Galatians leaving that gospel for one where circumcision is required. And he's like, I'm stunned at this. Why would you leave this and go to this?

He doesn't understand it. And the reason he doesn't understand it is because he himself is so infatuated with the beauty of the gospel. It's like, in college, a guy has the most beautiful girl on campus, and that's his girlfriend. And then he breaks up with her and his guy friends are like, What are you doing?

What are you doing breaking up with her, who is so beautiful? And that's what they're doing. They're breaking up with Jesus, they're breaking up with God who has called them by His grace. And Paul is stunned at this.

His second response that we saw last week is that he is pained, and he tells them so, and he uses the most intense metaphor for pain that he could find, and that is the pain of labor. He says in chapter 4, verse 19, my children with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you, he's saying, I am feeling pain, I am hurting myself over what's happening with you. And I am experiencing convulsions of pain in the depths of my being. Over concern for you.

I am pained by what you guys are doing and are in the process of doing in terms of moving away from Jesus Christ, from God the Father, and from the gospel itself. Well, there is a third response of Paul to this gospel emergency. And that is that he is fearful. And he tells them so.

He is fearful. And he tells them, so look in chapter 4, verse. 11 He says, I fear for You. So yes, he's amazed.

Yes, he's pained, but he's also very afraid. And he says, I fear for you. I am experiencing the emotion of fear, and I am afraid for you. And the primary reason why Paul is fearful for them is because they're not fearful for themselves.

That intensifies his fear. They don't understand the danger that they're in. They don't understand how high the stakes are. And so Paul is very afraid for them because of the grave danger.

that they were in I was reminded looking at this of several years ago we were coming from Indiana, the southern route through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona on our way back to California and we decided to, I forget what the main road is, but we decided to go up to the Grand Canyon because we had never been there as a family before and so we get up there and I don't know where the lookout point was, but we walk up to this lookout point and there was a railing. And as I looked over the railing, it just, it literally took my breath away how steep.

The drop is, and I don't know, the older I get, the more that thing freaks me out. And so like I, I touched the railing, but I wouldn't lean against it just in case it gave way and I'm like looking over there, but it gave me the willies, you guys know that feeling.

But here's what, what really was unsettling to me. I had 4 children. who were with us at the time and they had no fear and so there were places where there was the railing and then there were places where there was no railing. And, and some of our kids just were like just walking around like there's just no big deal and there's no drop there.

There was even a sign that said, be very careful. 7 people have fallen off of here in the last x amount of years, and my kids were oblivious to that and I was extremely fearful for them precisely because they were not fearful and comprehending and appreciating the danger that they were in. In fact, for several days after that, I would catch my mind going back to that and re-feeling physiologically what I was feeling, that sensation of fear and just imagining my kids walking where they were walking and one of them falling and And so forth.

That's the feeling that Paul has here.

I fear for you, and I especially fear for you because you're not doing any fearing, and you should be. You don't understand the danger that you're in. You guys are right on the edge of a cliff, a massive drop, and you don't understand how high the stakes are, and I honestly, I am afraid for you. And not only was he afraid for them, look at what else he says in verse 11, I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.

He's saying, I'm not only afraid for you and the danger that you're in, but I'm also thinking back to my investment in you as I gave you the gospel, and gave you the pure gospel of salvation by faith in Christ alone. And all of the time I spent with you, I was physically ill when I was with you guys. But I ministered out of physical weakness, and I poured my life into you. And I gave you the gospel, and I trained you in the gospel.

And I am afraid right now looking at the direction you're going, that all of my investment in you was in vain. Now those of us that are younger, I don't know that we fully can feel what Paul is feeling. But there are parents in our church, that their children have reached an age where They're making decisions on their own and sometimes as a parent you watch your child making decisions and And they're in the process, it seems, of maybe going in the wrong direction and you fear, you fear for them, and you also think of all the investment you made.

Yes, it wasn't perfect and you messed up in 1000 ways, but you tried to teach them the right thing and now which way are they going to go and will all of my investment have been in vain?

There are parents, even in our church who poured their lives into their children, taught them the truth, not perfectly, but they taught them the gospel and the way of the Lord, and their children are now grown up, married, have their own families, and have completely abandoned the faith. And those parents have to deal with what Paul is feeling, and that is that whatever I said, whatever I did, the investment I made, the labor that I engaged him to give them the truth, was it all in vain.

That's really hard. It's really hard.

And the Galatians have not completely abandoned the faith, but they're in the process of that. And Paul and all humanness is feeling fear. And he tells them so. I'm fearful.

I want you to know that I fear for you. That perhaps I've labored over you in vain. There's a 4th response of Paul to this gospel emergency. And that is that he manifests in this book his great passion for the gospel.

I'll tell you, you, you, you can really observe in the book of Galatians in a way that, is fairly unique the intensity of Paul's passion for, the gospel. This is, this is what the whole book is about the urgency, the passion with which he responds to To them moving away from the gospel shows the greatness of his passion for the gospel. Look in chapter 6, verse 14. Paul says, may it never be that I would boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world or through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

Paul is saying, I don't want to boast in anything except in the cross. And that's what he's done in this letter is he has boasted in the cross in the finished work of Jesus, that saves us, and we contribute nothing to that. Paul is the guy that if you were to meet him, he would boast at every opportunity about the cross and the difference that the cross that Jesus Christ is making in his life. That was his boast.

You would see his passion for the gospel and what he chose to talk about, which was the cross. Paul boasted about the cross and about Christ, the way that we tend to boast about our favorite athletes, our favorite sports teams. our favorite bands or, or whatever, we're talking to each other, it's like, oh, man, did you see the game yesterday? Did you see that amazing comeback?

And, we're talking about individual athletes, we're impressed by what they've done, by what they've accomplished, or what a team has accomplished. And we like to talk about that, the way that we talk about those things, that's the way Paul talked about Jesus, and about the cross. I, if you came up to Paul and said, Paul, how's it going? Paul would seize that opportunity.

He would not just say, hey, I'm fine. How are you doing? Paul would no doubt make sure that in his answer, he's talking about Jesus, and what Christ is doing in his life, especially through the cross. I was talking to somebody this week.

I asked them how they were doing. They gave me an answer. And then I said, How are you doing spiritually? And they said, Fine, I guess I'm hanging in there.

And I thought about that, it's like, what is that? That, that is so lame. And then I thought, I've given the same answer to people before also. But what does that mean?

And, and why is it that when, and I thought, can, can I imagine Paul giving that answer? How are you doing spiritually, Paul? Pretty good, I guess. I'm hanging in there.

what, there's no way he would give that answer. He'd be like, oh, man, I got to tell you what the Lord is doing. And, and not that every day was perfect for Paul. He would say, what, I really blew it yesterday, but thank God.

the cross, and the forgiveness and the grace that is mine. I was a persecutor of the church. I should be in hell today, because of my sins. And yet I have God's grace and forgiveness and a relationship with him, even though yesterday really stunk, and the good I wanted to do, I didn't do.

And the evil I hated, I did. Paul would seize that opportunity to boast. And one of the things we can, I think, learn from is often when We ask each other, how are you doing spiritually? Our answers tend to be more about us than about the Lord.

How are you doing spiritually? Well, pretty good. I've had my devotions 5 days out of 7. And I've not been praying like I should, but I've done OK with that.

We start listing off what we're doing. When, why don't we seize that opportunity to talk about what the Lord is doing, through the cross? Why don't we talk about him in those opportunities? Paul would, and Paul says, may it never be that I would be boasting in anything except in the cross, and Paul would seize opportunities to boast and to brag about this amazing Savior Jesus Christ and what Christ is doing in his life, and in the lives of others through the cross.

What we boast about will shape us. Learn that guys, what you boast about will shape you. And so boast, boast about Jesus, boast about the cross, boast about the gospel, and that will shape your outlook and actually impact you as much as it will impact those that you are boasting to. We also see Paul's passion for the gospel in the book of Galatians by how frequently he talks about the gospel.

In fact, that's what the whole book is about, but we actually see the terminology for the gospel showing up over and over and over again throughout the length of the book of Galatians. Let me explain something real quickly, The Greek noun for gospel is euangelion. And we find this in the book of Galatians a number of times. And you guys know what the prefix you means.

It means good. Like if I gave a eulogy at your funeral, that means I'm speaking a good word about you, and you would hope for that, that I would be able to do that, at your, Funeral. So a U on Gelon on Gelion means message. So a U on Gelon is a good message or good news.

And our English word gospel means exactly that, good news. It's from the word gods. which means it's an archaic word which means good, and then spell means news. So Godspell, gospel literally means good news, and it's a perfect translation of Ean Gelon, that's in the New Testament that also means good news.

And then yangalizo is the, verb which means to declare or to speak good news, and we see this root word. A number of times in the book of Galatians. I'm not gonna go through the whole book. Maybe you wrote down these references while, I was talking, but look, look just at chapter one.

in chapter 1, verse 6, this is the point of his letter. I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, verse 7, which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you who want to distort the gospel of Christ. Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have gospell to you, he is to be accursed, as we've said before, So I say again, now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary, verse 11, for I would have, brethren, that the gospel which was gospeled by me, is not according to man and off he's running, talking about the theme of the gospel over and over and over again.

Paul is passionately advocating in favor of and for this one true gospel.

And so we see evidence of his passion for the gospel in, him making this the topic of the letter. This is his boast, and he invites them to make this their boast also. So his passion for the gospel is evident and how passionately he's advocating for the gospel in this letter. But we also see The negative side of Paul's passion for the gospel, and we're able to learn something about the depth of his passion for the gospel by seeing how passionately he advocates against that which is contrary to the gospel.

Guys, Whatever you're passionate for. If you're really passionate for that, you will be equally passionate against that which is contrary. To what you're passionate for. Do you understand that?

for example, the Denver Broncos and the Oakland Raiders and the NFL are arch rivals, and I've never met a Bronco fan who loves the Raiders. It just doesn't, if you love the Broncos, that already tells you the teams that you are too intensely dislike, and it'll never happen that you're talking to someone and And they're like, Oh, I love the Broncos. I am a rabid Bronco fan and I love everything Bronco. Really?

OK, that's cool. What do you think of the Raiders? Oh, I love the Raiders. I love everything about the Raiders.

That doesn't happen. you are for one or for the other in terms of these arch rivals. And if someone said I love the Broncos and I'm passionate about them, but they also liked the Raiders, that would tell you right there how really passionate they are about the Broncos. You would know, what, they're not a rabbit fan.

And they may say they're passionate for them, but they're really not. And so understand guys, that your passion for something is determined and measured not just by how passionately you advocate for that and speak as an advocate for that, but you can also see someone's passion for something by looking at their passion against that which is contrary to what they say they're passionate for. You understand that. And so in the book of Ephesians, we see Paul's passion for the gospel.

He just speaks and emotes about the gospel from chapter 1 through 6, and we, as we studied that book, in recent years, we got to see the depth of Paul's passion for the gospel. But in Galatians, we do get See that positive passion for the gospel, but we also get to see the negative side of Paul's passion for the gospel. And we can learn perhaps more deeply in Ephesians how deep Paul's passion for the gospel goes, because we get to hear him talk about that which is contrary to the gospel.

In fact, what does he say regarding that which is contrary to the gospel?

Well, verse 8, If we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be damned. Verse 9, as we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you receive, he is to be damned. So Paul is not one of these guys who says, Well, there's many ways to God, and I'm preaching one of the ways, and I would encourage you to listen and hopefully you can find your way to God. But if you choose another way, well, I just don't want to speak against that.

I just want to stay positive and talk about my gospel. No, Paul says, if you believe in any way of salvation, any way to God other than through the gospel that I preach to you, then that is not a gospel that saves. And anyone who preaches the gospel contrary to what I preached, let him be damned. That's passion.

That's passion. In fact, go to Chapter 5. And I'm gonna warn you, I'm gonna read something to you guys, and I want to warn you that there are some commentators who really don't like what Paul says here. one commentator says this is the crudest and the rudest thing that is found in all of the writings of the apostle Paul.

One commentator says this is disgusting. And so there are some that do not like it. They think it's ugly, disgusting, and mean-spirited. look at verse 11 of chapter 5.

But I brethren, if I still preach circumcision, because keep in mind, these Judaizers were telling the Galatians, oh, you're not saved, but keep believing in Jesus, but you have to get circumcised in order to be saved. Paul says, if I still preach circumcision, then why am I still persecuted? He's saying this is the whole reason I've had bruises on my back and scars on my body, because I've been preaching a gospel that excludes circumcision. He says, then the stumbling block of the cross, the scandal of the cross has been abolished.

Verse 12, I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves. What he's saying is these people that are so passionately advocating your circumcision in order to be saved. I wish they would totally castrate themselves. That's passion Now When we get to this passage, like 2 years from now, We're going to look at all, all that this means, but I all I want you to see is that Paul is, he's ticked.

He is ticked And he hates any gospel contrary to the one true gospel. And he is against those passionately against those who are preaching a message contrary to them. And what, if you go, wow, that's really offensive, may they castrate themselves. I wish they would do that.

Actually, that's not even a fraction as offensive then as Chapter 1 when he says let them be damned. Castration is a much better fate. than being damned forever. And so Paul does not wish those well who preach a message contrary, and who go coming into the church and and tampering with the gospel and telling God's precious people who are putting their trust in Christ alone, telling them that you're not saved, you have to do this extra thing.

Paul is very angry over that. And so let's learn a lesson here, guys. how passionate you are for something, you will be exactly that passionate against anything contrary to it. It's just a fact.

if we're going to be a church that's all about the gospel, And we're going to really be for the gospel, we have to be against something. We have to be against that which is contrary to the gospel that we claim to be all about. We have to be willing to take a stand against contrary gospels, even those who claim to be Christians and, and denominations that tamper with the gospel and say, yes, you, yeah, you believe in Jesus, but you also have to do penance and be baptized and And you got to go to confession and you got to do this and you got to do that and do these works.

And if you do these things, in addition to believing in Jesus, then you're saved.

That's no different than the message Paul is preaching against in the book of Galatians. We have to be willing to be against and to speak against and to stand against any message that is contrary to the gospel that we claim to be all about., we live in a day where people are so accommodating. Well, my truth is my truth, and Your truth is your truth, and let's just all get along. And, well, this is how I'm getting to heaven.

I'm believing in Jesus and Oh, that's a neat story that you're telling me about your trust in Buddha and so forth, and actually that's quite beautiful and it touches me. I would never want to speak against that. there are pastors standing in pulpits of very large churches who even go on the Larry King show and when Larry King himself is asking them questions, they're saying everything that they're for and one of the things Larry King often does is he wants to find out how much they're really for that.

And so he'll often say, Well, so what about those that don't believe your message?

And what he's looking for is I want to know, do you really believe this? And there are pastors. who go, Oh well, I don't really want to speak to that, and I just, I want to stay positive and talk about Christ. Just Paul missed that memo somewhere.

if that's the memo, if that's the way pastors are supposed to be, he missed it. Paul didn't just stay positive in this letter. He speaks passionately for the gospel. But also against that which is contrary, and we have to be willing to do this now.

We'll be accused of being negative, but, and I'm sure Paul, I'm sure people read this and said he's a really negative guy. castration, damning people to hell. there's a lot of negativity in this letter, but it's an inspired letter. It is the inspired word of God.

And let me also say this to you guys, that you may say you're passionate about the gospel, you may say you're passionate about the Lord and about the word, but mark this down, you can measure your passion for something by observing your level of passion against anything contrary to it. And so, for example, you say you're passionate about the gospel, but if you're not willing to speak against that, which is contrary to the gospel, then that puts a big question mark over Your alleged passion for the gospel.

There are people in churches, who say they're passionate about Jesus. Oh, I love Jesus, and we worship him and, and oh, I love Jesus, I'm passionate about him.

And then later that very same week, you actually pay money to rent a movie or to go to a movie that uses this Savior's name who has saved you from hell. They use his name as a religious profanity. And you're not offended by that. You're not at all ticked at who the writer of that script was that put those words and that blaspheme of Jesus.

And yet you say you're passionate about Jesus, but how passionate are you against those that blaspheme his name? You say that you're passionate for the word of God, for the ways of God. And yet are you really passionate against music lyrics and movies and plots? That are clearly advocating values contrary to the values of the word of God.

are you passionate about purity? Are you really passionate about purity? If you're passionate about sexual purity, then you're going to be passionately against that which is contrary to sexual purity. You're going to feel something, you're going to be even ticked at that, you're going to be unhappy with that, you will speak against that.

So to be for something you have to be against that which is contrary to that. And so let's at times just stop and take a look at our passion against things and look at the depth of it and let that tell us, what, maybe I'm not quite as passionate for these things as I like to say that I am. Paul, we see the positive side of his passion for the gospel, man, I am boasting in the cross. That's all I ever want to boast in.

God forbid I boast in anything else, but we also see the way he speaks about contrary gospels, and we can measure the depth of his passion. By observing that as well. And so Paul in this epistle, manifest his passion for the gospel both positively and negatively. Response number 5 of Paul to this gospel emergency is he warns the Galatians in the strongest of terms that it's either all Christ or all law.

You can't have both. It's either all Jesus, or all the law. we're running short on time here. Let me just say this, that there are people that hopefully at this church that are putting all of their trust in Jesus.

I am 100% condemned under the law of God. I need a 100% savior. I can't even add one fraction of my salvation. So I'm putting all of my trust in Jesus to be my 100% savior.

I believe in one savior, and that is Jesus. There are those though who don't believe in Jesus, but they are depending on their good works to get them into heaven. And if you ask them, how do you're going to go to heaven when you die? Oh well, I've never killed anybody, and I've done this and I give to charity and I, and they start listing off their good works, those people are depending on themselves to be their own savior.

But then there are people, many in churches. who claim to believe in Jesus. But they also believe in their own works also. And you say to them, Well, if you died today, and stood before God, and he asked you, why should I let you into my heaven, what would you say?

And they say, Well, I, I go to mass, and I go to church every Christmas and every Easter. And I've had people, I had one lady at a nursing home tell me, and my uncle was a deacon in a Baptist church. And they'll list off and they'll talk about their good deeds and so forth. And, and then you say to them, because they claim to be Christians, you then say to them, Well, what about Jesus?

They're like, Oh, yeah, I believe in him. I believe in him. And then they agree with you. Yes, he's the way of salvation.

But that's not what they said. And such individuals are doing this. They're putting Half of their trust in Jesus. The other half of their trust is in their own good works.

They're trusting in themselves, and then for where they fall short, they trust Jesus to take them the rest of the way. That's a two savior way of salvation. Themselves and Jesus. Peter and John said there's only one name under heaven that's ever been given amongst men whereby we must be saved, other than the name of Jesus.

It's either one savior or none. And Paul says to the Galatians, you can't have it both ways. You can't believe in Jesus and then say, Well, I also need to be circumcised to be saved, because he says, the minute you take that step to be circumcised and you put some of your trust in that, instantly Christ is of no benefit to you. look at what he says in Galatians 5:2.

He says, Behold, I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, and Paul is saying, if you receive circumcision in order to be saved, Christ will be of no benefit to you. You have just eliminated any saving benefit from Jesus, the minute you put even 1% of your trust in something else, verse. 3, and I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is now under obligation to keep the whole law. You've just basically cut yourself off from Jesus.

He's of no benefit to you. Now, the only way you're going to be able to get to heaven is by keeping the law perfectly, and you got to keep every single thing in the law. And Paul's point in this letter is no one's ever done that, and no one ever could do that. We've already blown that.

In fact, the purpose of the law is to show us that we can't obey God and be perfectly righteous. But he says, if you're going to add one thing to the gospel, Christ now is of no benefit to you. And now you got to be perfect for the rest of your life, which you can't be. Verse 4, you have been severed from Christ.

You who are seeking to be justified by the law, by doing works of obeying the law, you have fallen from grace. Now there's a lot in here that we're going to need to look at when we get here. you might say, well, does this mean believers can lose their salvation? I'm just gonna answer by saying this True believers read warnings like this and say, therefore I'm not going to do this.

I'm going with the pure gospel. That's how true believers respond. And hence no true believer ever has or ever will lose his salvation because true believers respond to warnings like this and say, OK, I am warned. I will not put my trust in this, but in Christ alone.

But Paul warns them that it's either all Christ or all law and only Christ is the way that we can have a perfect righteousness. And be able to have a relationship with God. Real quickly, guys, his 6th response to this gospel emergency as he affirms his love and confidence regarding them. Paul is hard on the Galatians.

He's not nearly as hard as he is on the Judaizers, but he is hard on the Galatians. You foolish Galatians, you unthinking Galatians, are you so foolish? And he speaks in a way to them that's very stern. And he even says in the book, I, I wish I could be with you in person so that I could change my tone.

So he knows that his tone is pretty stern with them. And yet in the midst of all the sternness, look how many times he calls them brethren, just over and over again, brothers, and even in chapter 4, verse 19, my children, he's affirming them, even in the midst of that sternness. At the beginning of the letter, grace and peace to you and at the end, may God's grace be with you. Paul wants the very best for them.

And so all of his sternness is found in between that introductory benediction, and his concluding benediction of wanting God's very fullness and very best for them. And throughout, he's calling them brethren, my children, in the midst of his stern talk with them, and parents learn from this. Sometimes we got to be stern with our children. But They are our children.

And we cherish the relationship that we have with them. And also Paul expresses his confidence in them right after his very severe threatening language at the beginning of chapter 5, he says, I have confidence in you, and the Lord that you will adopt no other view. even though I'm speaking to you this way, I have confidence in the Lord concerning you, that you're going to embrace what I'm saying. He gave them a reputation to live up to.

The writer of Hebrews does the same thing. He gives them some very severe warnings and threats, and then he says, But brethren, I am convinced of better things concerning you, things that accompany salvation, even though I am speaking to you in this way. So Paul is stern, but he is also loving and cherishes his relationship with them and expresses his confidence in them. And then lastly, guys, his 7th and final response is that Paul defends and re-preaches the gospel to them.

And that's basically the way I want to introduce this book that Paul defends. and then he re-preaches the true gospel to them. And if you want a very basic outline of the book that's probably a little overly simplistic, it is this chapters 1 and 2. You can divide the book into 3 sections, chapters 1 and 23 and 4, and then 5 and 6.

In chapters 1 and 2, we see the historical development of Paul's gospel preaching ministry. His basic point in those chapters is, hey, this gospel that I gave to you that I'm preaching to you now, I got this from God. Not from man. I didn't even get it directly from the other apostles in the Jerusalem church.

But then he says, but I want you to know that this gospel that I preached to you was affirmed by the apostles of the Jerusalem church. And then he tells them about how he got in Peter's face and rebuked Peter for behaving contrary to the gospel. And so he's saying this gospel I preached, not only was it affirmed by the apostles, But the apostles themselves in the Jerusalem church have to be faithful to this gospel, and if they don't, I'm in their face reminding them that they're not.

Now Peter was not preaching a different gospel.

He was preaching the true gospel, but his behavior was inconsistent with the gospel, and Paul rebuked him in front of other people. And so he's saying the apostles have not only affirmed this, but even the apostles themselves had better abide by this and behave consistently with this, and the apostles themselves know that they can and should be called to account if their behavior in any way is inconsistent with this gospel that I preach. And then chapters 3 and 4, Paul's basically saying, you guys love the law so much and you want to go back.

Well then, let's go back.

I'll go back with you. Let's go back to Abraham, who believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. He became righteous at his moment of faith, even before he was circumcised. Paul goes back to the law itself and says the whole purpose of the law is to serve as a tutor.

It's not a way of salvation. The law is a tutor that shows Its us our bankruptcy, that we cannot save ourselves, that we can never be good enough to get into heaven. And it is a tutor that brings us to Jesus, to where we look at him, and we're laboring to be righteous, and we're failing at every turn. And we know we need a perfect righteousness to get into heaven.

And finally, we're broken down by the law, discouraged and exhausted. And then we look up, and the law has brought us to Jesus, and we see a perfect righteousness, spotless. And we're like, what, I want that. And so we put our faith in Jesus.

And the minute we do that, our sins are forgiven. And then the very righteousness of Jesus as a robe is placed around us. And we become righteous before God with a perfect righteousness. That's insane.

That's just But that's the transaction that happens by faith. You say, Well, why doesn't everyone just embrace that? That's so easy. Because it's humiliating.

To say I can't do anything. I can't contribute a thing. We always want to contribute something, but God says you can't contribute anything. But I've done it all through my Son Jesus.

Admit your bankruptcy. Stop trying to contribute. And believe in Him to be your 100% savior. And so Paul reasons this through with them from the law.

He then tells the story of Isaac and Ishmael, which is one of the most stunning arguments in all of the Bible that would have left the congregations there gasping, and any Judaizer that would hear this line of argumentation from Isaac and Ishmael would have been horribly offended and even viewed Paul's argument as blasphemous. against the Jews. But we don't have time to get into all of that. But then in chapters 5 and 6, Paul takes the time to apply these gospel realities to their life, and shows the relevance of the gospel and gospel realities to their day to day life.

as we close, just real quick, write these down as you read through Galatians maybe this week, look for some of the key words you're gonna see gospel 14 plus times, or at least the Greek word for gospel. It may not always be in the English faith, believe, believe, believer is like 22 plus times in the book of Galatians. Mark those words, the word grace, which is ill-deserved favor. you see that throughout the book and then words like righteousness, righteous, justified, justified, those are all from the same Greek word, mark those words and even the word works, or working, you see that as Paul is explaining the relationship of faith and works when it comes to salvation.

But anyway, we are out of time, but let me have you bow your heads this morning. If you take nothing away today, take this away, be centered in the gospel. When you get away from the gospel, that's when you start biting and devouring. So stay in the gospel.

And also just be willing as you go out into the days of this week, if you're going to be for the gospel and for the ways of God, you're going to have to stand against those things that are against God and His ways. Be willing to do that. Because souls are at stake, be willing to speak lovingly against contrary gospels. Because eternal souls are at stake.

But let's pray and just ask the Lord as we go through this book, verse by verse, To just give us a gospel revival. Lord, we, we come to you right now, because we stand in need of this book, as a congregation, as individual believers. We are so prone to move away from the gospel. I myself am stunned just as I look over this past week, I am stunned at my sinfulness.

I had someone just coming on the campus today and says, I am so glad to be here, because they were, they were surprised themselves at the intensity of their sin this week. Lord, we, we are a sinful people. And without your grace, without your righteousness, we would have no hope. But help us to just bathe in this grace, to love this grace, to boast in this grace, Lord.

And to cherish it. And as we go through this book, verse by verse by verse, just open our hearts. May our hearts blossom like flowers before you, Lord, as you just fertilize our hearts with gospel seeds, and may an incredible harvest of righteousness. And the salvation of souls be produced as a result of what you do in us as we study this book together in the coming weeks and months.

We ask these things in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said, Amen. Let's stand together. Just, Jesus