TRUTH & FICTION

Truth & Fiction

Once upon a time Truth and Fiction met for lunch. The waiter who seated them asked what type of water each wanted. ‘Distilled,’ was Truth’s considered response. ‘Sparkling,’ was Fiction’s bubbly reply. After viewing the menu, they began discussing the art and discipline of writing.

‘To be concise, to write is to communicate. Therefore, an economy of words is best.’ ‘What?’ retorted Fiction to Truth’s aphorism, ‘Then you would leave your reader circling the airport with no landing gear! I say that the wings of thought must be allowed to fly and soar with colourful embellishment, and then to alight on any chosen destination.’ Truth was pensive as he sipped his water, but replied, ‘Words and water are pure when nothing is added to them.’ Fiction then leaned forward, saying, ‘Yes, but facts are always interpreted by the beholder. The nut, in my genre of writing, always contains a kernel of fact. I merely seek to enhance the reader’s understanding in an entertaining way.’ Truth leaned back on his chair, then spoke, ‘You pass facts through the prism of your ‘rainbowic’ imagination, only producing refracted logic at best, and optical illusions at worst. In a word, your genre of writing always distorts reality.’ The waiter arrived to take their orders. ‘Rump steak rare please, with steamed vegetables,’ requested Truth. “The wagyu beefburger with the works and the swiss cheese melted! Ooh! And some of those special spice-sprinkled fries. And a large cappuccino to wash it all down with.’ The waiter left. ‘I believe facts like food ought not to be overly processed,’ stated Truth. ‘Well, I believe they need to be tasty before they will tantalize the reader’s taste buds, be chewed over, enjoyed, and thus provide intellectual nourishment.’ ‘Too many words spoil the message,’ was Truth’s rebuttal. ‘Yes, but the batter is needed to encase the fish,’ countered Fiction. So went the conversation back and forth between Truth and Fiction.

CS Lewis, for example, was able to captain the catamaran of truth and fiction, thereby skillfully avoiding the sandbars of pure fantasy and the crocodiles of hallucination, to arrive at the writer’s source of the Nile. He could write as a theologian every bit as well as a novelist. His novels were based on his theology. Thus, truth was illustrated by allegorical fiction. Is this not the very nature of Christ’s parables?

Parables and allegorical fiction are entertaining because they are engaging. They ofttimes embed the abstract in the concrete. The metaphor is the runway upon which truth lands. As fiction without a cargo of truth is empty, so truth without a store of fiction remains beyond the reach of many. That is why God reveals Himself to human beings by way of analogy resting upon the bedrock of propositional truth. Christian fiction must always have God’s Word at its base.

Having finished their meal, Truth and Fiction asked the waiter for the bill. ‘Your bill already has been paid in full,’ announced the waiter. ‘By whom’? asked our debating diners in stereo.

‘All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.’ Isaiah 53:6-7.

HIDDEN TALENTS

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Hidden Talents

I was having a bit of a laugh while reading some of the social media posts on a site pertaining to where I grew up in Scotland. Back in the day, there was an area of private housing that the locals referred to as “Spam Valley”. Though some gave other reasons, apparently many of the locals called it that, because some of the people who lived there, while struggling to pay mortgages beyond their means, could only afford to dine on cheap spam!

Spam was essentially the same thing as Klik in Canada, and, is right up there with hot dogs, wieners, and internet spam for nutritional value. The Monty Python crew did a skit and even wrote a song about spam back in 1970!

What’s wrong with eating spam? More to the point, what’s wrong with making sacrifices in order to get ahead in life? According to the Bible, nothing! Pork and pork products had been put back on the Biblical menu with the advent of Jesus and the dissolution of Old Testament Israel. Speaking of Old Testament Israel as a body politic, under the heading, The Law of God, in chapter 19 of the Westminster Confession of Faith, we read the following as to what the Bible teaches about why many of the Old Testament laws, including dietary, have been rescinded:

 

IV. To them also, as a body politic, he gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the state of that people, not obliging any other, now, further than the general equity thereof may require.

The Lord commanded Peter in a vision to kill and eat from a sheet full of unclean animals which was lowered to him from heaven. Peter was told, “What God has cleansed you must not call common” Acts 10:15b. This is one of the verses that Christians use to illustrate the expiration of Old Testament Israel as a body politic. It is a sad thing, but by pointing to what they think are contradictions in the Bible, (such as where a lot of Old Testament dietary laws, and laws about not wearing two different types of material, or sowing different types of seed together etc.), some think that they have an excuse to safely ignore God and His Word. And why would Socialism, whose whole system is based on government theft, want to have anything to do with the Bible anyway?

I don’t know if envy, socialistic influence, or both were at the back of the somewhat disparaging title of “Spam Valley”. Probably it was just meant to be humorous. However, contrary to Socialism, there is nothing wrong with owning a private home, as in owning private property. How do we know? Because the Bible teaches so. RC Sproul Jnr. well sums up the Bible’s attitude to private property where he says,

Ownership of property is sanctioned by God, from the garden paradise to Abraham’s flock to the Promised Land to Saint Paul’s tents.[1]

 

Take Jesus’s Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25. Jesus tells the story of a rich businessman who was going overseas. He placed his business in the hands of his servants. (A “talent’ is a weight measure, Rev. 16:21. Here it refers to cold hard cash, though, by way of extension, it may also by general equity or general principle be applied to gifts and talents).

Some employees were given more talents to play with than others, but all were expected to invest them with bankers and what have you, and thereby make lots of dosh before the businessman returned. We’re talking millions of dollars here! This they all did, except for the one who buried the cash somewhere.

The businessman later returned, and generously rewarded each of his investors accordingly for their entrepreneurial diligence. However, the businessman was not happy with the “Socialist”, the one who did not believe in Capitalism, i.e., the one who had hidden his talent. To him he said,

 

You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ Matthew 25:26-30.

 

Of course, this is not to infer that every Socialist will be cast by Jesus on Judgment Day into “the outer darkness”. There are some misguided Christians who think that the Bible actually teaches Socialism! My book, among other things, is my attempt to unteach that false teaching.

Socialism only encourages us to hide our God-given talents. Why invest your talents (as Jesus teaches us to) when a Socialist government, instead or rewarding you, is going to plunder your initial earnings with income tax and then your investments with a capital gains tax and then punish you some more with other taxes if you earn beyond some arbitrary amount set by government? This is unbiblical!

It is said glibly that Capitalism is a system built on exploitation and greed. That may be how misguided Socialists view Capitalism, however, as we have seen even by the brief allusion to Jesus’s Parable of the Talents, clearly this is not God’s view. To be sure, this is not to suggest that some Capitalists have not been exploitative and greedy. We’re sure examples of such could be multiplied. However, the bottom line is that all Socialist governments are exploitative and greedy, especially when it comes to the rich and the financially successful.

While commenting on The Parable of the Talents, says the Bible commentator William Hendriksen,

 

In passing, a safe inference would seem to be that Jesus, who tells this parable, is not opposed to responsible capitalism. Profit promotes employment and makes possible helping those in need etc.[2]

 

I remember returning to Scotland from Canada in the 70s for a few months to convalesce after a serious operation. I noticed that there didn’t seem to be any pizza delivery (as was ubiquitous in Toronto back then) taking place in my hometown. I should have got in there early and made my million organising “Uber Eats” before everyone and their West Highland Terrier dog got in on the act.

Also, I was too slow in opening up the car muffler repair business idea that I wanted to capitalise on. Alas! Apparently, a man who had spent some years in America, took the idea of specialising only in car silencers back to Edinburgh years ago with him and is now still laughing all the way to the bank! Well done him! My excuse is that, to begin with, I didn’t have the initial capital to invest. Also, my plan was to live in Canada, not Scotland.

Now that I am living in sunny Australia, one of my entrepreneurial ideas is to capitalise on the novelty kopi luwak coffee, where people are willing to part with big bucks for a coffee, the beans of which, before being ground, have been defecated by a cat-like creature known as the Asian palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus)!

The Australian version of civet coffee could be kangaroo coffee, koala coffee, or kookaburra coffee. All I need is a coffee plantation and some iconic Australian critter that can eat and excrete partially digested coffee cherries! But don’t hold your breath or send me any begging letters just yet…   

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[1] RC Sproul Jnr., Dollar Signs of the Times-A Commonsense Guide to Securing Our Economic Future, Baker Books, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1994, p. 18.

[2] William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary Matthew, The Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh, Reprinted 1976, p. 883.

THE PROCESS OF DEPARTURE

 THE PROCESS OF DEPARTURE

“There are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ” Galatians 1:7

Introduction

On November 18, 1978 911 people, mostly Americans, died in a South American jungle. They were members of a cult called “The People’s Temple”. The leader of this cult was a man by the name of James Warren Jones. Jim Jones fed his followers a perverted gospel. It was laced with poison. He also gave them something to drink that was laced with poison! He had convinced his followers that his lies were true. 911 men women children perished along with Jim Jones in Jonestown, Guyana. They drank a substance Americans call “Cool-aid” laced with poison.

In Australia we call cool-aid “cordial”. I’m sure some of you with young children have noticed how cordial sometimes effects your kid’s behaviour? It makes some kids hyper-active to the point where they are able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Faster than a speeding locomotive and all of that! It gives some kids headaches. It brings on migraines. So, what is it in cordial and other soft drinks that does this? It’s all the additives, sweeteners etc. isn’t it?

The general gist of what we’re looking at in the following is: Only a Gospel without additives will keep the Christian free of headaches!

Still Waters

The Apostle Paul is amazed the Galatians are turning away from the true Gospel. There is confusion in the ranks of the Lord’s flock at Galatia. The Galatians are exhibiting strange behaviour like a kid on cordial. They’re in the process of departing from the grace of Christ.

The “wolf in sheep’s clothing” has moved in. Instead of lying down in pastures green, they’re rising to their feet and walking. They’re being led away from beside still waters into the hustle and bustle of a troubled world. Even their very souls are troubled as they begin to turn away from the tree-lined paths of righteousness onto a dry and dusty road.

The Galatians had been happily dwelling beside still waters as it were. But some people had it in mind to disrupt their happy home. Who were these people who would lure the Lord’s flock from beside still waters, from beside the cool, clear, crystal fountain of the Gospel, the water of life? They are called Judaizers.

The Judaizers have been causing the Galatians all kinds of headaches. They’ve been disturbing the peace. The Judaizers are like the Pharisees in that they think a person can contribute to their own salvation. The Pharisees, as you know, were in a straitjacket made up of all these rules and regulations. The Pharisees had distorted Scripture to the point where they thought they were making themselves righteous by keeping commandments. They believed in a works righteousness, which is the same as saying they believed they could work their way into heaven.

The Judaizers believed the same philosophy as the Pharisees. The trouble is that you won’t find that philosophy pertaining to fallen man in the Bible. It’s the philosophy of the world imported into the Church. The Judaizers were attempting to import that same philosophy into the Lord’s church at Galatia.  However, the Galatians already new the way of salvation as it is revealed in Scripture. They Knew it wasn’t salvation by works but by grace, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

They knew the truth that the Gospel “is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.” They’d seen that power at work in their own lives. They’d seen in the Gospel how Christ has rescued them. How Christ had brought them out of the darkness of paganism into His glorious kingdom of light. Paul had presented the Gospel to them clearly. They were repenting of their sins and they were believing in the gospel. That’s the sign of a healthy congregation, i.e., a congregation that keeps on repenting and keeps on believing the gospel, So then, up till the point where the Judaizers had moved in, the Church at Galatia had it all. Then came the headache!

The Judaizers tried to convince them that they needed more. Like that advert that used to be on the telly years ago, the Judaizers were saying, “Wait! There’s more!” It’s always a headache when somebody shows up in your church with a false doctrine. All the Creeds of the Church down through the centuries will testify to that. The Judaizers were denying that the Gospel is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. They were attacking the Gospel, the very means of salvation.

God had been saving His people down through the ages by His Gospel. Those in Old Testament times heard of the Christ who was to come, and those in New Testament times heard of the Christ who has come. The way of salvation has always been the same since the Fall. By grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

The Judaizers were troubling the Galatians. They were throwing them into confusion because they were proclaiming a confused Gospel. The Gospel of the Judaizers was a non-gospel, a pollution of the real gospel. Yet the Galatian were beginning to abandon the true gospel and go after it. They had been lending an ear to the Judaizers, instead of telling them to get on their bikes. It’s like when the Mormons come to your door. You should always nicely explain the Gospel to them before you tell them to get on their bikes!

The process of departure then, is when you start believing that which contradicts the Word of God. The Judaizers were attacking God’s means of saving His people. They were attacking the actual message of salvation, the very Gospel itself. So, Paul is warning the Galatians about those who are troubling them. He tells them plainly that these men are perverting the Gospel.

The Galatians had responded to the true Gospel. They had the peace that transcends all understanding in their hearts. What was it like to be one of these Galatians? We might as well ask, what is it like to be a Christian? Psalm 1 says, “He shall be like tree planted by the rivers of water.” David in Psalm 23 says the Lord like a Shepherd leads you beside “still waters”. Isaiah says, “Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” Jesus said to the woman at the well, “Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” Again, Jesus says, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scriptures have said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

The Christian then is one whom the Lord has led and planted like a tree beside still waters. The Lord has invited, and the Christian is drinking deep of the wells of salvation. The Lord causes rivers of living waters to flow from the Christian’s heart. The Christian’s heart has been refreshed by the waters of life. Revelation 7:17 says that Jesus, “the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters.”

The Christians heart reflects the throne of God in heaven. The Apostle John in his vision of heaven says in Revelation 22:1, “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” The Christian, then, is the one who has the Lamb of God enthroned in his heart. Therefore, the Christian bubbles forth the cool, clear crystal waters of life. The Christian is the one who is led by the Good Shepherd. The Christian is the one who dwells beside still waters.

The Lord had led the Galatians besides still waters. The Apostle Paul had presented the Gospel to them in such a clear manner, that they could see their faces in it. The Gospel Paul presented them had shown them up for the sinners they were. He had presented Christ crucified to them. They had seen that it was because of their sin that Christ had to die, to satisfy divine justice. Paul presented the crucified Christ so clearly that the Galatians could see their grubby fingerprints on the nails that pinned Him to the cross. But now that picture of Christ was beginning to fade a bit from their minds.

A wind was beginning to blow over the still waters. They used to be able to see a city of gold, the walls of which were adorned with all sorts of precious stones, jasper, sapphire, emerald, sardius, beryl, topaz and the likes. They saw this city, like clear glass, as they gazed into the still waters. There was no junk on the bottom. There are no rusty old beds, old bikes, old tires, dead cats and dogs in the water of life. However, the devil had been huffing and puffing like the big, bad wolf. His desire is to make the world formless and void. His hot and putrid breath had been drying out the eyes of the Galatians as he blew over the still waters of the Gospel.

The Galatians were taking their eyes off were they should be. Their eyes should have been on Christ as He is presented in the glorious Gospel of grace. Now they were becoming troubled in their hearts.

Troubled Waters

“There are some who trouble you.” The Galatians are becoming troubled in their souls. They are being unsettled, perplexed, agitated.

One time we were out at the gem-fields. We bought a bucket of dirt for four bucks. There were supposed to be little gems in among the dirt. To get at the gems you poured the dirt into a sieve Then you take the sieve full of dirt to a barrel of water. You hook the sieve full of dirt onto this lever thing and lower it into the barrel of water. Then you kind of bounce the sieve full of dirt in the water. The idea is that you wash the dirt away and expose the gems. The gems gravitate to the centre as the dirt is washed away by the action of the water. O you’re left with a pile of worthless little stones, some of them even resemble gems. I wasn’t much good at spotting the gems. But the lady who ran the place could spot them from fifty-paces. She had an eye for these things.

Have you ever noticed that Christians stand out like gems among the dross during times of trials? You would think God permitted His Church to become agitated in order for His gems to move back to the centre where they should be. “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God” Acts 14:22 “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” 2 Timothy 3:12. “You have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found   to praise, honour, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ...” 1 Peter 1:7. “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Coming to Him as to a living stone, reject indeed by men, but chosen by God & precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” 1 Peter 2:2-5.

So, it’s clear then that the troubles we suffer as Christians are to clear away the muck and dross that clings to us and stifles our witness. We are precious gems in the keen eye of God. He wants to bring us into the centre, like the gems in the sieve, and separate us from the worthless pebbles. He does it by stirring up the still waters from time to time. Does Scripture not say that Christ gave Himself for His Church, “That He might sanctify [i.e., set apart] and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word” Ephesians 5:26. That’s what is happening to the Galatians. The Lord is testing their faith to see if they truly believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ. He’s looking for the gems in among the dirt & rubble of sinful humanity. He’s going to set these gems in His Son’s crown!

We are precious gems in the eyes of the Lord. But the Lord likes to polish His precious little living stones. You see this throughout Scripture, how the children of God had their rough edges smoothed off. How they had their faith tested. Perhaps the most famous is Job. James in his Epistle says, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience” James 1:2-3. The Lord led the Galatians beside still waters. The grace of Christ had brought peace to their hearts. But now God had permitted that peace to be disturbed. It’s all part of the process of sanctification, whereby the Lord separates His precious stones from the rubble “Where is your heart, you Galatians? Is it with Me in heaven? Or is it still clinging to the things of this world?”

“Test all things, hold fast what is good” 1 Thessalonians 5:21. The Galatians weren’t doing a very good job of holding fast what is good, were they? They were losing sight of the simplicity of the Gospel, the “by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone” aspect.

The Gospel is God’s grace to sinners. Yet the Galatians were beginning to believe in a works righteous. They were beginning to believe that a man could somehow contribute to God’s free gift of grace. They were believing the Judaizers who were saying you need to be circumcised before you can be saved.

O these Judaizers must have been smooth talkers. They had these Galatians in the process of departure from the gospel of grace. They had them in a state of confusion. The wells of salvation had gone from being still waters to troubled waters.

Muddy Waters

How do you get rid of muddy waters? I was watching TV one day about this new invention in Australia. The new invention was a “syphonic toilet”! I went to Technical College in Scotland decades ago. We learned all about “syphonic toilets” and how they worked. I even installed some in Scotland. When I moved to Canada, I installed them there. Just about all the toilets in Canada are syphonic! So what? Well, so much for a new invention in Australia!

But be that as it may, the difference between a syphonic toilet and an ordinary one is that the one works on the strength of the flush while the other, i.e., the syphonic, creates a vacuum which causes suction. Hence symphonic. However, they have one thing in common. They both need clean water to operate. Why am I telling you all this? Well, I want you to see that if you want to get rid of muddy waters from somewhere you flush it out with clean pure water. That’s exactly what Paul’s doing.

Paul is delivering the Galatians the Gospel all over again. But notice that he’s applying the water of the Word to a particular point. He’s applying it to their present situation. In other words, you need to know where to direct the flow of the Gospel.

The Epistle to the Galatians is a defence, an apologetic, against the philosophy of the world creeping into the church.

The Church doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Neither does the Gospel. The Church must always conform to the Gospel in every situation and age. And the Gospel must be applied to the Church in its present situation and age. The Church in turn, that’s you and me, i.e., all believers, must apply the Gospel to our present situation and age.

I’ve great respect for those Creation Science and Creation Research people. We live in an age of Uniformitarianism, where the Theory of Evolution is accepted as fact. We’ve seen in our day these philosophies creep into the church. We must flush out the effluence of the world by the pure water of the Word of God.

There were people wanting to pervert the Gospel in the days of the Galatians. Certain people have been wanting to pervert the Gospel ever since. It’s still happening today!

The process of departure is always the same for the Christian. It’s always because of some distortion to the Gospel. Such as those who say you can’t be saved unless you’re baptised first baptized. Or those who say you’re not saved unless you speak in what they call “tongues”. There are many other distortions of the pure Gospel floating around nowadays. “The Doctrine of the Second Blessing” is another. We can look at some of these things another time. For the moment I want you to ask yourself, Where do most of these additions to the Gospel come from?

Who is it that makes the water so muddy? It comes from people inside the Church -- doesn’t it? It’s Christians shooting themselves in the foot, isn’t it?

I’ve been referring to these Judaizers as “wolves in sheep’s clothing”. But really it’s the exact opposite. These are sheep in wolves clothing. That’s why the water is so muddy. The Judaizers are most probably Christians with a warped view of the Gospel. You’ve got the poor little Christian sitting in the pew thinking, “Who’s right in all of this? All these people who should know better are arguing about things I don’t really know about, and I’m not sure if I really care about them either!” So then, it’s primarily Christians themselves who muddy the water! How are we to explain this to anyone who asks?

A common question I hear from non-Christians is, “Why are there so many Christian denominations?” Should I show them the “muddy waters and say, “Gaze into this, then tell me what you see”? Or should I show them the cool clear crystal fountain of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invite them to drink? Look, you can see your face in it! Your face looks like it could do with a wash! Look there’s Jesus Christ. What’s He saying? ‘Let Him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.’”

The cure for the thirsty sinner is always the same, isn’t it? You must lead him or her beside still waters, not troubled waters, not muddy waters. But to do so, you yourself must know where those still waters are. They’re found only in the pure unpolluted wells of salvation, the Gospel. If you’ve been sitting in church with a troubled mind, if you’ve been sitting there looking at a muddy Gospel for years, then remember the theme of my message: “Only a Gospel without additives will keep the Christian free of headaches!”

Get back to the basics. The Gospel is that you are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

God began to flush the water of life to clear the muddy waters in His Church over five hundred years ago. The Gospel that had been obscured by centuries of slime and grime, began to bring life to the Church in a big way. We speak of this period as the Reformation. It was the time when the Church that had become Deformed was Reformed. The Reformation came about with the rediscovery of the doctrine salvation by grace, not works!

When I look around, I see blue-green algae in full bloom in the Lord’s Church. There’s a ring around the bathtub of the Church. But praise the Lord, I also see some gems. If you would be a gem fit for the Lord’s diadem, then seek to rediscover the pure Gospel. Then pour it forth with all your heart soul strength and might till your dying breath. Then people will see rivers of living water come from you. Then the Lord’s Church will be cured of her migraine.

Avoid those who want to pervert the Gospel. Better still, show them the pure Gospel, the one that proclaims that Jesus died for sinners. He died to cleanse them of their sin.

Conclusion

Dr. J. Gresham Machen, a gem in the Lord’s crown at the beginning of this century, said,

“Christian evangelism does not consist merely in a man going about the world saying, ‘Look at me what a wonderful experience I have, how happy I am, what wonderful Christian virtues I exhibit; you can all be as good and happy as I am if you will just make a complete surrender of your wills in obedience to what I say.’ ... Men are not saved by the exhibition of our glorious Christian virtues; they are not saved by the contagion of our experiences ... Nay, we must preach to them the Lord Jesus Christ; for it is only through the gospel which sets Him forth that they can be saved. If you want health for your souls, and if you want to be instruments of bringing health to others, do not turn your gaze forever within, as though you could find Christ there. Nay, turn your gaze away from your own miserable experiences, away from your own sin, to the Lord Jesus Christ as He is offered to us in the gospel.”

THE POINT OF DEPARTURE

 THE POINT OF DEPARTURE

"I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel” Galatians 1:6. 

Introduction

We live in the age of Relativism where the importance of a thing is measured by the individual. It’s a strange world indeed in which everyone gets to be the centre of the universe! This means that we live in a world where absolutes have been done away with. People fashion gods after their own perceived image. Almighty God is simply and blatantly ignored as if He doesn’t exist by some. While others over emphasize one or two of God’s attributes while ignoring the rest.

You don’t hear much of God as “a consuming fire” nowadays. Truth is no longer seen as absolute but relative to the individual. It’s common to hear people say things like, “Your truth is different from my truth!” We can be thankful that God is our Rock, our unchanging point of reference, and that His Word, which is truth, endures forever. His Gospel is everlasting.

We’re going to be talking a bit about the Gospel this in the following. Most, if not all, know that the word “gospel” means “good news.” The good news is not that Jesus Christ died and was resurrected. The good news is that Jesus died for sinners! But why is it that the ordinary “Joe” in the street responds, at best, with an “Oh that’s nice” when you present the gospel to him? Well, it’s to do with this age of Relativism that I was talking about. The Gospel is only “good news” for “sinners”.

People nowadays think a sinner is someone who runs around with an axe looking for someone to chop up! Most of us look pretty good when compared to an axe-murderer. But how do you measure up when compared to a holy and righteous God, a God who will judge the living and the dead by His Son Jesus Christ?

Psalm 7:11 says, “God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day.” But we live in an age when people don’t see themselves as wicked! They see themselves as innocent victims, as a people who have been sinned against. “It’s everyone else who’s wicked. Not me! And I deserve an apology.”

It’s true that some people are victims. But they’re also sinners like the rest of us. Most people will admit to being slightly less than perfect. “To err is human” they say. Yet God is going to judge us according to our errors. God calls our errors sin and wickedness!

The point I make is this: God hasn’t changed. He is still angry with sinners every day. But sinners have changed in the sense that they have little or no concept of a God who is angry with the wicked. They have no concept of what the Bible means when it says a man is wicked. Let me illustrate what I mean.

On July 8, 1741, a man named Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon in a friend’s church. He read his sermon word for word. He tried to read his sermon in a controlled tone of voice, so as not to unduly manipulate people’s emotions. The language and imagery he used was so vivid that the congregation trembled uncontrollably. People began to cry out to God for mercy, for salvation! The title of his now famous sermon was, “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.” The conclusion of his sermon contained a tender Gospel appeal to sinners.

“Five hundred people were converted in the community that day, sparking one of the most dramatic episodes of revival in the Great Awakening.” Jonathan “Edwards is looked upon nowadays as a stern and loveless preacher who delighted in terrifying his hearers with colourful descriptions of the torments of hell.” But the truth of the matter is that he was a warm and sensitive pastor. He was a loving husband to his wife and a caring father to his children.

We live in an age where God is proclaimed as a take him or leave him sugar-daddy. A Santa Claus in the clouds. The Great Psychiatrist in the sky. The Gospel appeal is no longer to sinners in the hands of an angry God. The gospel is fast becoming a course you take in order to build up your wounded self-esteem. “Do you feel as if the world has dealt unfairly with you? Then come to Jesus and He’ll make you feel on top of the world!” That’s not the Gospel. The Gospel is good news to sinners, i.e., to sinners! That’s what Jesus means where He says, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

The Gospel is not a quick fix for people who are having a bad day, a bad life. Oh, we have to rescue the Gospel from this present evil age. Jonathan Edwards preached his sermon in 1741. I don’t think I’ve heard any like it in many years. Nowadays they call that type of sermon “Fire and Brimstone”. However, I would call it accurately preaching the Word of God. Edwards lived in the 1700s. A long time ago. He knew what the gospel was, and he preached it. Charles Haddon Spurgeon live in the 1800s. He too knew what the gospel was, and he preached it.

Spurgeon gives us this wise counsel, “Avoid a sugared gospel as you would shun sugar of lead. Seek that gospel which rips and tears and cuts and wounds and hacks and even kills, for that is the gospel that makes alive again. And when you have found it, give good heed to it. Let it enter into your inmost being. As the rain soaks into the ground, so pray the Lord to let His gospel soak into your soul.”

The general gist of the following is summed up in these words: Keep your eyes on the grace of Christ so you don’t depart from it.

People who should have known better were turning their backs on God’s grace in Christ. They had it all. But they wanted to give it away! They were like the dog in Aesop’s fable, the dog with the bone in its mouth. It saw its reflection in the water and opened its mouth to snatch what it thought was a bigger bone. All it did was lose the bone it had as it sank to the bottom of the river. The dog ended up with nothing. These Galatians were doing something of the same thing. They were giving up the gospel they had, for a distorted image of it. They were losing their hold on grace.

We can be thankful that the Lord never loses His hold on us. He never moves from His position. The Lord is the immovable Rock. The Rock of Ages, unchanging. However, I’m sure you’ll agree that we sometimes move from Him. We’re all prone to backsliding from time to time, even whole congregations! Some people backslide to the point of proving they were never Christians in the first place. But let’s keep our eyes on the place where they should be.

Know What You Believe

What did the Galatians believe? Where were the Galatians to start with? What was their point of departure? Well, we are told in Galatians 1:6 that God had called them “in the grace of Christ”. So, what is “the grace of Christ”? First, we’ll need to figure out what the word grace means in this instance. In this case “grace” is undeserved favour.

If I see a mosquito biting my bare arm and I don’t swat it, that’s undeserved favour! If someone steals a loaf of bread from you to feed his starving family and you let him off with it, that’s grace! If people grab hold of your son whom you love and cherish with all your heart and soul and kill him, and you forgive them, that’s undeserved favour. If you were to give some of these people who were responsible for the death of your son a palace to live in, that is grace. The grace of Christ is that He has forgiven a sinful people who put Him on the cross. Not only that, He wants them to spend eternity with Him in a palace Paradise. That’s undeserved kindness, and favour, that’s the grace of Christ.

The Galatians know what the grace of Christ is. They understand the Gospel. They had learned all about the grace of God in the death of Jesus Christ. They knew that each of them had been like a mosquito biting the hands and feet of God. They knew that it was their sin that drew blood from Jesus on the cross. They knew that they had stolen bread from the Lord, when all they needed to do was ask and He would have given it gladly, for them and their family! Such is the generosity of the Covenant keeping God.

They knew that they were sinners deserving to be swatted off the face of the earth by God. But God had forgiven them. They had received the grace that God offers through His beloved His Son Jesus Christ. Paul had proclaimed the Gospel to them on his first missionary journey. And also at the beginning of his second missionary journey. But now the Galatians were deciding to depart from grace.

The Apostle Paul is amazed at how quickly the Galatians are abandoning the Doctrines of Grace. He’s having trouble getting his mind around what they’re doing. He’s been to Galatia. He’s met them in person. He knows they’re a Bible believing church. He knows they’re Evangelical. He knows they’re gospel base. He knows they know that they have been saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

Paul’s already paraded the crucified Christ on a placard, so to speak, before them. “Christ was delivered up because of our offenses! He was raised because of our justification! You Galatians know all of this stuff. So why are you turning your backs on it?” They were like a dog we used to have when we were kids. My mum used to feed it the best of food. It loved liver. My mum used to stink the whole house out boiling liver for this stupid dog because it loved it. And yet it would still go a tear up our neighbour’s garbage and eat rotten, maggot infested scraps of meat!

The Galatian know that they are saved by grace, undeserved favour. But now they’re acting like a bunch of kids playing with matches. Paul is attempting to put out the bushfire before it burns the whole crop. He can see that they’ve taken their eyes off the grace of God. They’ve begun to look at a distortion of the gospel, and like Aesop’s dog with the bone, it looks bigger and better. Some of them have been opening their mouths to swallow it.

The Judaizers had been adding to the gospel. They had been presenting a gospel with certain strings attached. Paul’s telling them to get their eyes off it and back onto the real gospel. He’s telling them to focus once again on the grace of Christ.

Keep Your Eyes on Christ

You must keep your eyes on the grace of Christ. If you know the Christ of the Gospel, then don’t take your eyes off Him. “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him” says Paul. Turning away so soon from whom? From the One who called you to the great marriage Feast. The One who has poured out His love upon you. The One who fed you the food of angels, manna from heaven, the Bread of Life.

“Why? Why? Why are you going after the rotten, maggot infested scraps? Why are you departing from the Lord’s Table of Grace? The Lord has prepared a table for you, in the presence of your enemies. He’s anointed your head with oil. Your cup runs over. And you’re asking to be excused from the table? I marvel at you Galatians. What are you thinking about?” They had received God’s grace through trusting in Christ and His work on the cross. They had repented and believed in the gospel that Paul had preached to them. But now they were going after a distorted reflection of the gospel, a non-gospel.

God reveals His grace to you in His Gospel. You see His grace by contemplating what Jesus Christ did on the cross. You receive His grace by believing Jesus Christ died for your sins. You prove the reality of God’s grace by living a life of obedient gratitude to God.

You would be acting like an ingrate, by going after the bait of the enemy. You catch a fish by hiding the hook in some juicy morsel. “You Galatians! There are sharp hooks in what the Judaizers are feeding you. Can’t you see that it’s the devil who’s reeling you in?”

But there are no strings attached to the Gospel. There are no hidden hooks, no lines, and no sinkers. Nobody’s going to smack you over the head as your gasping for air. The Gospel is for repentant sinners, not stunned mullet. Keep your wits about you. Think things through. Don’t believe every fish-tale that people tell you.

Paul cares about the Galatians. He cares about the Lord’s Church. The Lord loves His Church. He loves His children. He doesn’t want to see His children led away by the big bad wolf.  So keep the grace of God before your eyes at all times. Therefore, keep reminding yourself over and over what the gospel is. The Gospel is that Jesus Christ has done everything that needs to be done to save you, a sinner, from your sins. He said and meant these words just before He died on the cross, “It is finished.”

At His death Christ had finished everything that needed to be done to save sinners. His resurrection was proof of “Mission Accomplished!” If Christ had not risen again from the dead, it would have meant His mission to save sinners was a failure. It would have meant, plain and simple, that He couldn’t even save Himself, let alone miserable sinners such as us. So then, Christ’s crucifixion was on behalf of sinners.

Jesus tells us in Mark 10:45 that He came “to give His life a ransom for many” not for “all” but for “many”. And who are these many? They are whosoever believes in Him. God, then, reveals His grace to those sinners who believe in His Son. Those who don’t believe in His Son are condemned already, and God’s wrath or curse is still upon them.

“God is angry with the wicked every day” Psalm 7:11. God is a consuming fire, but we can be thankful that God is also love. If God was simply a consuming fire we would see no mercy. If God were simply love we would see no justice. But God is both love and a consuming fire always and unchangeably at the same time.

God must punish sin to satisfy His justice. But praise His holy name that He is full of mercy and grace. We should pray along with John Knox, that great Scottish Reformer, “O Lord! be merciful to my great offence; and deal not with me according to my iniquity, but according to the multitude of Thy mercies.” The Psalmist says, “His mercy endures forever!” Therefore, the grace of God is revealed to fallen man in the Everlasting Gospel.

The Gospel is that Jesus Christ died for sinners. Are you convinced you are a sinner? I don’t mean by that that you admit you’re less than perfect. Admitting you’re a sinner means that you know that God is perfect. It means that you know God is Holy and Righteous. It means that you know He is a “Consuming Fire”. It means that you know how unrighteous you are because you know how righteous God is. It’s a relative thing -- you see how much of a sinner you are because you can see how holy God is. If you’ve never heard about a holy and righteous God you cannot possibly know how much of a sinner you are.

It’s not popular nowadays to talk about a righteous and holy God. But how else will we know we are sinners if we refuse to let God be God? To know you are a sinner is to know that God would consume you in your sins, were it not for the grace you have found in Jesus Christ. Admitting you’re a sinner is to admit that you are at the mercy of a God who detests sin. To admit you’re a sinner is to cry out to God for His mercy. It is to grovel at the feet of His Son Jesus Christ until He says that you may stand. To admit that you are a sinner is to keep on kissing the feet of Jesus after He has forgiven your sins.

Ask yourself, “Am I a sinner?” If you are such a sinner then I have good news for you. The good news is that Jesus Christ has died to save you from your sins. You will be saved from the wrath to come simply by accepting His free offer of grace in Jesus Christ His Son. But you won’t accept God’s offer of grace unless you see yourself as a lost, and helpless sinner.

Think about it, if I threw you a life-ring in the middle of the street, you would think I wanted to play a game of Frisbee or something. But if I threw you the same life-ring when you were going under the water for the third time, you’d know that I was trying to save your life.

We live in an age where it’s unpopular to talk about sin, the angry wrath of God, the fires of hell. But how are you going to see the grace of God offered to you in the gospel if we won’t talk about these things? To see the grace of God in the gospel you’ll need to see yourself as the type of sinner I’ve just mentioned. That is, the one who is willing to keep on washing the feet of Jesus with repentant tears. The one who is ashamed to lift his head in the presence of the Lord.

The Gospel means good news. So that must mean there’s bad news too. The bad news is that if you refuse to see yourself as the type of sinner that I’ve described, then God’s wrath remains upon your head. Therefore, you need to repent and believe in the gospel. That’s what these Galatians had done. Yet they were turning their backs on the grace of God! They were taking their eyes off the grace of Christ, and were thus departing from it. Therefore, the exhortation is: Never depart from Christ and His Grace.

Conclusion

Is it possible that we have departed from Christ and His grace? Is it possible that some people, maybe even you, go to church seeking to have their ears tickled? Is it possible you attended church hoping to have your self-esteem built up, only to be told you’re a sinner?

Is it possible that you’re one of those thinking, “Why is this guy giving us all this fire and brimstone stuff? Why doesn’t he write about the love of God? He just keeps harping on about sin and a holy God!” If this is the case, then I put it to you that like these Galatians. You have departed from the grace of Christ! But the Gospel remains the same. It is good news, but only to sinners.

When Jonathan Edwards preached his now famous sermon, “Sinners in the hands of an angry God”, five hundred people were converted because they knew he was talking about them. And they knew he was talking about the unchanging God. They didn’t sit there and give the sermon marks out of ten. Instead, they became “doers” of God’s Word. They cried out to God for mercy. And they found it. They found it in the grace of Christ. They heard about the grace of Christ in the unadulterated gospel. This is the gospel we need to keep our eyes on. This is the gospel we must never depart from. This is the gospel we must proclaim, i.e., that Jesus died only for sinners!

Are you a sinner? The keep your eyes on the grace of Christ and you won’t depart from it. Neither will He depart from you. I’ll close with these words of Spurgeon, “We want again Luthers, Calvins, Bunyans, Whitefields, men fit to mark eras, whose names breathe terror in our [foes] ears. We have dire need of such. Whence will they come to us? They are the gifts of Jesus Christ to the Church, and will come in due time. He has power to give us back again a golden age of preachers, a time as fertile again of great divines and mighty ministers as was the Puritan age, and when the good old truth is once more preached by men whose lips are touched as with a live coal from off the altar, this shall be the instrument in the hand of the Spirit for bringing about a great and thorough revival of religion in the land. I do not look for any other means of converting men beyond the simple preaching of the gospel and the opening of men’s ears to hear it. The moment the Church of God shall despise the pulpit, God will despise her. It has been through the ministry that the Lord has always been pleased to revive and bless His Churches.”

CHARACTERS & PLACES

Characters & Places

We tend to associate Adam with the Garden of Eden, and Jesus with Heaven. Each Bible character tends to be connected to a place. Indeed, Adam and Jesus, the Garden and Heaven are very much associated with each other. How so? Paradise is Heaven, and, just as Adam and Jesus are real people, so the Garden and Heaven are actual places. Therefore, Paradise/Heaven has postcode.

Just as the pre-Fall Adam was typical of Jesus, so the Garden of Eden is a type of Heaven, as in the heavenly Paradise. Indeed, the Old Testament is full of typologies that find their anti-types in the New Testament. E.g., Noah and his ark, when God judged the earth with a global flood, pictures Jesus saving His people (and creation) from the coming judgment of God. David slaying Goliath, typifies Jesus defeating the devil.

Adam was tested by the serpent in the Garden. Adam lost. Jesus was tested by the devil in the wilderness. Jesus won. Indeed, Jesus is the replacement Adam. He takes over where Adam left off, i.e., before Adam fell. As the new Adam, Jesus is in the process of subduing all the earth. All authority in heaven and earth has been given to Him. He has dominion over all things.

God dwells in Heaven. The character of God is revealed in His Ten Commandments. Jesus kept the Decalogue perfectly. Thus He is the express image of the Triune God. No one can get into Heaven unless they go through Jesus. Therefore, just as God took Adam and placed him in the Garden, so Jesus has to take you to that heavenly place. However, is your character anything like the character of God as revealed in the Ten Commandments? So how can God let a sinner, i.e., a commandment breaker like you into Heaven?  

God cursed the ground when Adam ate the fruit of a tree. Adam became sin-distorted. Jesus cursed a tree because it bore no fruit for Him to eat. The tree became shrivelled. But what happens when God forgives a sinner? ‘He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper’ Psalm 1:3. Thus, just as God took Adam and placed him in the Garden, so God takes you and me (post conversion) and plants us in Paradise. Jesus said to the repentant thief dying on a cross next to him, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise’ Luke 23:43b.

Paradise’s postcode has only two letters: XR, pronounced as Chi Rho, from the Greek word ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ, meaning Christ. Find Christ and you will find Heaven. Where is the place where you find Christ? You will find Him in the sixty-six books of the Bible. You will find Him wherever people gather in His name, where the Bible is honoured and expounded, i.e. in any Bible believing church.

There was a television advert in the 70s for a chocolate bar which had the line, ‘They came in search of paradise and found a bounty.’ If you are searching for Paradise, it's found only in Jesus whose bounty includes Paradise. Jesus says, ‘To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God’ Revelation 2:7.

Adam died because he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the Garden. Therefore, eat from the tee on life and live