CONFRONTED BY GRACE

 CONFRONTED BY GRACE

But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. Galatians 1:11-12.

Introduction

You’ll remember I asked if you were familiar with the saying, “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.” We connected it to the story about the Wooden Horse of Troy. This illustrated the point perfectly that we are to be on the lookout for any false teaching that might be brought into the church.

We had the importance of this hammered home to us where the Lord through His Apostle Paul says, “If anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.” Therefore we must be zealous to hang on to and promote the true Gospel of Grace, lest we be accursed!

In the following I want to ask you if you’ve heard of this saying, “He met his Waterloo.” We’re not talking about the old Abba song here! When we say, “He met his Waterloo”, we mean that he met with crushing defeat. He met his downfall. It refers to the Emperor Napoleon of France.

On June 18, 1815 Napoleon Bonaparte met his “Waterloo”. The Allied Forces, under the command of the Duke of Wellington, faced off Napoleon's army at Waterloo, a place in what is now Belgium. Napoleon had built himself a great Empire. He had conquered the larger part of Europe. But, at Waterloo, the Empire he had built at the end of a sword, crumbled!

One historian says,

The Battle of Waterloo was one of the bloodiest in modern history. During the fighting of June 18, French casualties totalled about 40,000, British and Dutch about 15,000, and Prussian about 7,000; at one point about 45,000 men lay dead or wounded within an area of 8 sq km [3 sq mi]. Additional thousands of casualties were suffered by both sides during the three-day campaign that preceded the final battle.[1]

This mighty leader and his army met with a crushing defeat! Napoleon was exiled to the Island of Elba to lick his wounds. He was a broken man, broken in spirit, humbled, but not without hope.

We see here in the passage before us another man who met his ‘Waterloo. He met his ‘Waterloo’ when he met the risen Saviour Jesus Christ! Paul was confronted by grace, and his pride as a human being met with a crushing defeat. The grace of Christ defeated and overpowered him, over-awed him.

Paul had been an enemy of Christ, the Christ who commands us to ‘love our enemies”. We are told he was breathing threats of murder against the Lord's disciples. He held the jackets for those who stoned one of the Lord’s beloved, Stephen. But on that road to Damascus, grace confronted him. Paul, whose name was Saul at the time, was knocked to the ground! “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”

To persecute any one of the Lord’s flock is to persecute Christ Himself! “Why are you persecuting Me?” Acts 9:4. Paul didn’t know Jesus Christ, for he said, “Who are you Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting, it is hard for you to kick against the goads.” Acts 9:6 says, “So he [Paul], trembling and astonished, said, ‘Lord, what do you want me to do?’” Trembling and astonished! This mighty man, this brilliant scholar, this Hebrew of the Hebrews, this man who was full of the pride of his religion, a false religion, Paul, the persecutor of the Church of Jesus Christ, trembled in astonishment with his face in the dirt!

What did Jesus Christ do to Paul as he lay there helpless? As he lay there at the mercy of the King of the universe? Christ had every right to destroy this wretch of a man for persecuting His beloved Church. Jesus Christ bought His Church with His precious blood. Instead of destroying him, Christ says of Paul, “He is a chosen vessel of mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him many things he must suffer for My name’s sake” Acts 9:15, 16. “Lord, what do you want me to do?” That's more like it Paul!

Paul has all of a sudden stopped breathing threats against the Lord and His Church. The Lord loves a humble and contrite heart. What happened to this man Paul? What changed his hatred for the Lord and His Church, into a love that was willing to die for His Master and His beloved children? Grace!

Paul met the risen Saviour, who is full of grace and truth. Paul was confronted by grace! That’s what we're looking at the following. The general theme is, Jesus confronts you by grace through His Gospel.

The Source of Grace

God is the source of grace, not man. There is grace in the world because there is grace in God. How does God reveal His grace to us? He reveals His grace to us in Jesus Christ as presented in His Gospel.

Paul calls the Gospel, “The gospel of the grace of God” Acts 20:24. The Gospel is the good news that Jesus died for sinners. The Apostle Paul styled himself as the chief of sinners. Therefore if he is chief, there's hope for you and for me!

According to the Bible, all of us are sinners. Therefore man cannot be the source of grace. In the days of Noah before the flood Scripture says that, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of           man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” Genesis 6:5. Therefore the Lord brought a worldwide flood upon the face of the earth! But we see the grace of God in that He spared Noah and his family, eight people in all.

In the day of Jeremiah we’re reminded that man hadn’t changed. The Lord says through His Prophet, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” Jeremiah 17:9. Then in New Testament times, Paul the Apostle quotes Scripture to describe his day saying, “As it is written, ‘there is none righteous, no not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all gone out of the way; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one’” Romans 3:10.

Paul goes on painting a picture that doesn’t look any different from the way things are today. He speaks of mouths full of cursing and bitterness, feet that are swift to shed blood. He concludes by saying, “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Romans 3:18.

Do you think there is any fear of God before people’s eyes today? We live in an age where everyone does what they like, don’t we? We are reminded of the refrain that runs through the whole Book of the Judges. Even the very last verse in the Book of Judges says, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

Even in some churches people do what they like today. Some pay God lip-service while others ignore Him completely. Some test the Lord’s patience by openly professing, contrary to Romans 1, that they are a practicing homosexual, or a lesbian. They do it from the pulpit while claiming to be preachers of God’s Word! May God be gracious to them and show them the error of their ways.

We’ve seen so-call revivals, where others want to roll around the floor laughing and barking like dogs and what have you. They called this worship! “There is no fear of God before their eyes’ says Paul. Do you see how gracious God is? Do you see how patient God is? Do you see how long-suffering God is?

Scripture tells us that it’s not God’s desire that any shall perish. Even in Noah’s day the Lord gave sinners a very long time to repent as Noah built the Ark. However, the patience of God is not forever! Scripture tells us that all men are sinners, all human beings, you, me, the master, the dame, and the little boy that lives down the lane. “All have sinned” Romans 3:23. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one; to his own way” Isaiah 53:6. But there are two types of sinners: Redeemed sinners and unredeemed sinners, i.e., the forgiven and the unforgiven.

So then, if Scripture is correct in saying all men are sinners, where did the gospel of God’s grace come from? Well, it’s “not according to man” says Paul. It cannot possibly come from man. Man is a sinner! As a sinner he is in rebellion to God. O some might be more open with their rebellion than others. That's not too hard to see is it? Proof of man’s rebellion against God is in all those religious that ignore the Gospel of God’s grace. “Let them be accursed” says Paul. Even those who attempt to add to or take away from the Gospel, “Let him be accursed” says Paul.

Mankind was too busy inventing its own gods to invent the glorious gospel! What are some of the ways mankind have devised in an attempt to appease their gods? Well, in some countries they leave out fruit for their gods. Don’t laugh, many in this country leave a glass of milk and a bickie out for Santa Clause! In other places they sacrifice chickens and pigs to appease their gods, which may be a corrupt version of the Old Testament sacrificial system. Others offer up human beings, young virgins! In the OT people offered up their own children to Molech. Nowadays people offer up their children to the god of materialism through abortion. Who is going to protect these young Australians? Apparently not our government. From the highest in the land to the lowest, everyone does what is right in his or her own eyes.

People are no different now from what they were like in the Old Testament. There is no fear of God, is there? “God is dead!” say some. “Man is god!” say others. We live in a mixed-up age. “Live long and prosper and may the force be with you!” say some. While others see life as meaningless, pointless and then tragically commit suicide!

Even in the church, when the people look to the preachers for answers, they’re given stones instead of bread, serpents instead of fish! Paul means it when he says the Gospel wasn't invented by men. It isn’t possible for mixed-up mankind to invent something so beautiful as the Gospel!

The Gospel is the message of the cross of Christ. It is the message of hope. It is the message that points sinners to Christ the Saviour of sinners. Napoleon Bonaparte got it right when he said, “A leader is a dealer in hope.” But what do we have in some churches nowadays? The blind leading the blind. They’ve turned their back on the Gospel. They see no value in it.

Paul says, “It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For the Jews seek a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness” 1 Corinthians 1:21-23.

“The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” 1 Corinthians 1:18. So let them talk about their Stone Age, their Bronze Age, and their New Age! But let us talk about the grace of God in His glorious Gospel. For the Gospel comes from God, i.e., God our Saviour, who alone is wise” Jude 25.

The world isn't smart enough to invent the Gospel. God says, “Confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation” Romans 10:9-10. “Salvation is free. My Son has paid for it” is essentially what God says. That’s foolishness! Therefore, we refuse to believe you” says the world.

But we believe, don't we? We believe that God alone is the source of grace. We believe that God is the source of grace because we know: the force of grace.

The Force of Grace

Paul says to the Romans, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed” Romans 1:16-17.

The Gospel is the power of God! What does this mean? Well it means that God is the One working in the Gospel. The power of God is at work in the Gospel. The power of God that put the stars in the sky. The power of God that put the planets in orbit. The power of God that raised up the mountains. The power of God in the cyclone, an earth quake. “He touches the hills and they smoke” the Psalmists says.

See the power of God in an erupting volcano. Think of the power God has packed into every little atom. Look at the horror of Hiroshima. Split one little atom and you can destroy millions of people. All those killed at Waterloo is nothing in comparison. Think of the power of God that holds those billions upon billions of atoms together. Think of the power God is using to restrain Himself from destroying sinful mankind. Think of the power of God.

Think of the grace of God, the God who is patient with sinful man. The Gospel is the power of God. It is the power of God to salvation for all who believe. Just as God has packed untold power into every little atom, think of the force packed in His Gospel of grace. The Gospel has the power to transform lives, to bring dead people back to life. Instead of killing us as our sins deserve, God breathes life into us through His Gospel of life.

Do you see the power in the Gospel? It’s as if the Lord is walking among those slain at the Battle of Waterloo, as the hot June sun bleaches their bones. He breathes life into this one, then that one. And they stand up one by one and look at the Lord in wonder. They’re saying to Him, “I bore arms against You. I fought to the death against You!” Then the army of resurrected soldiers gazes upon Him in silence, in awe! Then they begin to lift their hands to the Lord and say, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” 1 John 3:1. That’s the power of the Gospel! That’s what it means to be confronted by grace. It is to have a picture of the Lord is walking among the death and decay of fallen humanity and saying to the dead, “Arise! Walk! Your sins are forgiven you!”

Give all the glory to God. You were dead in your sins when Jesus resurrected you. You didn’t choose Him, He chose you. Get things in their proper perspective. It was God who came to you as you lay there in the dust. It was God who breathed life into your nostrils, like He did with Adam. It was God who raised Paul from lying on his face in the dust.

Behold! The grace of God in His Gospel. Don’t add to the Gospel. It was God who did it all. It was God who gave you the breath that caused you to call out to Him. Give Him the glory. All the glory belongs to Him alone. You cannot possibly have understood the full power of the Gospel if you think a man who is dead in his sins can contribute even minutely to his own salvation!

I remember a preacher describe what it’s like when God enters your heart. Have you ever been on a jumbo-jet when it’s coming in for a landing? It slams its engines into reverse thrust. You feel as if the plane’s going to fall out of the sky. Then it sets itself down on the runway and puts the reverse thrust on full blast. Almighty God, the Maker of the heavens and earth, enters into the sinner’s heart through the preaching of the Gospel. But the choice remains with Christ as to whom from among the dead He will save.

Have you ever seen little ducklings hatching from the egg? As soon as they hatch they follow after the first object they see. Only when people see Jesus Christ in the Gospel will they be born again and follow Him.

The Gospel is confrontational. It’s a force to be reckoned with, isn’t it? It is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe.

We’ve looked at the source of grace and the force of grace. We have seen that both the source and the force is God Himself. Let us now quickly look at our part in all of this.

The Course of Grace

Jesus Christ has entrusted His Church with His Gospel. And He has said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” Mark 16:15. Let’s ask the question why? Why does God want people to hear His Gospel? Is it so that He can destroy them? No! It's so that He can bring those whom their sin has already destroyed back to life.

The Gospel is God's way of revealing His grace to sinners. We are to be His mouthpiece, the pulpit in particular. It is primarily through the preaching that people are saved. Therefore, it’s imperative that we guard the pulpit from impostors.

God confronts people through the proclamation of His Gospel. God manifests His grace to you through His Gospel. He changes unbelievers into believers by revealing Christ to them. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart. The Spirit reveals the Son who reveals the Father. But the Spirit doesn’t do it all at once. We can be thankful for that. Your heart would burst. It would explode.

Could you imagine what would happen if God revealed everything about Himself to you all at the same time? Paul the Apostle had spent whole life studying Scripture. It wasn’t until he was confronted by Jesus Christ that he understood what the Scriptures were saying.

It’s our duty as Christians to tell people what the Scriptures are saying. But they won’t understand the Scriptures unless we present Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the key to all understanding. Therefore, as believers we attend church every Sunday to worship God and to see the exalted Christ.

When our minds are refreshed about who Christ is and what He has done, we ready to face another week of trying to present Christ to people out there. But if the man in the pulpit has forgotten the gospel, or has distorted it, how will the people know what note to sound in public? Therefore, you need to encourage the preachers in the pulpits of Australia or wherever you live to preach the unadulterated Gospel.

You can do this by praying that God will raise up men who will preach the Word in season and out of season. You can encourage your Christian brothers and sisters from other churches to urge their pastors to preach only the unadulterated Gospel.

John MacArthur Jnr. in his book “Expository Preaching” says,

Nothing is as dramatic as the explosion of truth on the mind of the believer through powerful preaching.[2]

 Don’t be afraid to bring people along to church to hear the Gospel. There is a tendency nowadays to wait till people are converted before you bring them to church. The fear is that they’ll never come back if they don’t like the sermon! So we keep them away until we think they’re ready. Brothers and sisters anytime is a good time to hear the Gospel! There is no time that is not a good time to be confronted by grace.

God manifested His grace to Paul by giving him His Gospel. The Gospel came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is not of man but all of God.

Conclusion

As we conclude, is there anything we can do in our day to day lives that might serve to advance the Lord’s Gospel? It is said that Alexander the Great looked out over his huge empire and wept because he had nothing left to conquer! But that’s not the lot for the Christian. At least not yet! The Lord by His grace says to His disciples, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” Luke 10:2.

I’ve already mentioned the need for preachers of the unadulterated Gospe. We've been reminded that the Gospel is confrontational. Does this mean we’ve to go and clobber people with the Bible? God forbid!

We started off by saying that Paul met his Waterloo when he met Jesus Christ. Have you met your “Waterloo” in Christ? Do you see yourself as a sinner saved by grace alone? If you have met your Waterloo in Christ then, “Soldier of Christ” show Him your gratitude. The way Christ has acted toward you, you are to act in that manner toward others.

Remember that the Lord’s way are not the way of the world. You are to love your enemies. Do as the Lord says, “If your enemy hungers, feed him; if he thirsts, give him a drink, for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” Romans 12:20-21. Then the source of grace will be the force of grace as you run the course of grace!

Let me finish with the following quote from a famous military man,

“I know men and tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I, have founded empires. But on what did we did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him.” – Napoleon Bonaparte.

Remember that people are confronted by grace through Jesus Christ as presented in the Gospel.

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[1] Narrating the Nation, Representations in History, Media and the Arts, Edited by Stefan Berger, Linus Eriksonas and Andrew Mycock, Berghahn Books, New York, p. 131, note 11, 2008.  

[2] John MacArthur, Jr, Rediscovering Expository Preaching, Balancing the Science and Art of Biblical Exposition, Word Publishing, Dallas, p. 345, 1992.

ACCESSORY

 Here's a link to a short short film written, filmed, and directed by a Year 11 student, Jessica Allan, in which Dot and I were given the leading roles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdxtDw0rf4E&t=63s&fbclid=IwAR2U2oGF-qF1YzmPk7r0uK1BSaD5ezFSBo_WrF9zIk9KduC4nRW_d5fxjeA

https://tinyurl.com/y4gs6xyh

THE WORKS OF THE FLESH VERSUS THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT

My The Works of the Flesh Versus The Fruit of the Spirit is out now in paperback:

Many remarkable things take place when God converts a human being. God’s Spirit works with God’s Word in the heart of every believer, first, to enable belief in the sinner (who beforehand is dead in trespasses and sins until the Spirit regenerates him/her), and second, to transform the regenerated or born-again sinner through the renewing of his/her mind. The former has to do with Justification and the latter has to do with Sanctification. Like love and marriage going together like a horse and carriage, you can’t have one without the other.

              The individual is Justified by God the very moment he believes. He is also Sanctified by God at the same moment, but unlike Justification (which is a legal transaction in God’s court of law), Sanctification is progressive. It is the Son, i.e., Jesus Christ by His perfect life, death and resurrection who Justifies a sinner. It is the Holy Spirit who begins the work of Sanctification in the heart of the sinner upon his Justification. Both Justification and Sanctification are a work of God. However, unlike Justification, the (redeemed) sinner gets to participate in his Sanctification by doing the works God has prepared for him/her beforehand (Eph. 2:10).

              The Works of the Flesh versus the Fruit of the Spirit shows (according to Scripture) the “before and after picture” of the Christian. Before his conversion the sinner produces only works of the flesh. After his conversion the Holy Spirit produces fruit in the (redeemed) sinner.

Purchase at Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/yxr8vzlv

THE PRICE OF DEPARTURE

 THE PRICE 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, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. Galatians 1:6-10.

Introduction

“Beware of Greeks bearing gifts”, was a phrase coined by Virgil in the Aeneid, the retelling of the Trojan War. I suppose a good illustration of this adage would be the legend of the Trojan Horse. The Greeks were at war with the Trojans. They had laid siege to the City of Troy for ten years and they were getting nowhere. So the Greeks devised a plan, didn’t they? They built a huge wooden horse, and they hid an army of warriors in it. Then the Greeks all made like they were going home. They withdrew from surrounding the city, and they sailed away into the sunset!

Then Sinon, a Greek spy, smooth-talked the Trojans into dragging the wooden horse into the City of Troy. When it was dark, Sinon let the Greek warriors out, who then killed the guards. Then the gates of Troy were open and the Greeks flooded in.

Many heresies get dragged into the church. Like the Trojan Horse, they too may look harmless on the outside. But inside they contain something that can kill you and your church. We must always be on our guard against false teaching in the church. We must “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts!”

The Galatians had wheeled a Trojan Horse into they’re midst. The Judaizers had smooth-talked them into buying a false Gospel. The Apostle Paul is firing warning shots over the heads of the Galatians. Paul means business. The warning shot’s more like cannon balls whizzing past your face. They get your attention. You can feel the heat from them. Paul fires his cannon twice. Once in verse 8, and again in verse 9, “Let him be accursed … Let him be accursed”.

The general gist of what we’re looking at is, We need to learn that whoever departs from the Gospel is in mortal danger of being accursed.

To have Christ deny you is to be accursed. When you deny Christ you’re behaving as one who is accursed. To be accursed is “Bad News”. The bad news is that the wrath of God abides on some people. The bad news is that some people are going to experience God’s fiery anger. This is not something I like talking about, but it is something needs to be talked about.

We’ve reached that part of Galatians where Paul, with all the authority vested in him as an Apostle of God, places a curse on the heads of certain individuals. Therefore, we need to ask the question: What does it mean to be “accursed”? To be “accursed” is to have Christ deny you.

Christ Denying You

Proof that you’ve been denied by Christ is demonstrated by your denial of His free offer of grace to you. The rejection of Christ has with it eternal consequences. At this present moment, all who do not have Christ as Saviour are accursed. All who are not believing the gospel at this present moment do not have salvation. That’s the cold reality, isn’t it? But there is good news.

The good news is that God has provided a way for His people to escape the penalty of this curse. That’s what the message of the Gospel is all about. It is God’s solution to the problem of man’s sin. God alone has provided the means of escape. However, there were some people hell-bent on distorting the Gospel. These, as we have learnt, were the Judaizers in Paul’s day. Some of them are most likely Christians converted from Judaism.

The Judaizers are a mild version of the Pharisees, who were all rules and regulations, not necessarily in accordance with God’s law, but their own imaginations. And, like the Pharisees, the Judaizers were attempting to work their way into heaven. The Apostle Paul wants to head them off at the pass before they do any more damage.

They’ve got the congregation at Galatia in a bit of a tizzy over the way of salvation. Up until the Judaizers had arrived, the Galatians believed a man was saved by grace through faith. In other words they believed they were justified by faith. That’s the core of the Gospel isn’t it? Justification by faith is to be declared righteous on account of faith, Christ’s faith!

Even the faith you have is not your own. It belongs to Christ who has given it to you as a gift, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” Ephesians 2:8-9. The Judaizers were saying that more than God’s gift of faith was needed to get a man into heaven. And they were out to teach everyone else their version of the Gospel.

Paul says they wanted to pervert the Gospel. He calls the Judaizer version of the Gospel, a non-gospel, a distorted mirage. Their gospel is like heat-haze on the highway. It looks like water, but you wouldn’t be able to fill a little communion glass in it. There’s no substance to it. It’s not really water at all. It just looks like it.

The Judaizers had begun to make changes to the Gospel. It’s like you or me receiving a wedding invitation and changing things in it. Instead of reading “Come as you are. Wedding garments provided”, you’ve altered it to read “Come dressed in your best. No Admittance for those in flip-flops and tea-shirts”. You’ve seen those dress code signs in buildings? Well there’s no dress code for entrance into the kingdom of heaven. The Lord has taken care of all of that. Augustus Toplady got it right when he wrote,

Nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to Your cross I cling;

Naked, come to you for dress,

Helpless, look to You for grace;

Stained by sin, to You I cry:

“Wash me, Saviour, or I die!”

But this isn’t the song of the Judaizers, is it? They’re singing from a different hymnbook. They’re singing a different tune. They’re singing different words, words they have invented. They’re saying, “No, no Toplady. Forget about this being naked and simply clinging to Christ’s cross business!” They’re saying, “You need to come to God cash in hand!” They’re saying that God deals in the currency of good works!They’re saying, “If you want to get into heaven here’s what you gotta do…

But the Judaizers have it all wrong, don’t they? The Judaizers will stick out like sore thumbs at the wedding feast of Jesus. They’ll be like the man who didn’t have on the wedding garment. In Jesus’ day wedding garments were customarily provided apparently. Nowadays we all have to rush out and buy three-piece suits and fancy dresses. But back then, all guests were provided with suitable wedding attire.

Jesus spoke in a parable of one gate-crasher who didn’t have a wedding garment at a king’s wedding. Matthew 22:13 tells us what happened to him, “Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness;’ there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” This is what it means when Christ denies you. It means you are accursed. It means that you’ve refused to put on the garment of grace He has offered you. It means you’ll be cast into outer darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth. This is the price of departure! This is where the Judaizers were heading with the Galatians. But Paul is out to guide the Lord’s precious little flock at Galatia back into green pastures, beside still waters.

The Judaizers were accusing Paul of proclaiming only half a Gospel. They were accusing him of being a man pleaser. That’s what he’s on about in verse 10, “For do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men?”

Some of our own churches has not been devoid of “men pleasers” in its pulpits. I’ll tell you from experience that it’s not easy to stand in a pulpit and preach some Bible passages. But it must be done, as Paul said in his farewell to the Ephesians, “I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God” Acts 20:26, 27.

I know that some in the pews are offended by some of the things I say, but what can I do but preach the whole counsel of God. If I water down, or add something to the Gospel, even just a little I run the risk of ending up with your blood on my hands! “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea” Mark 9:42. “Let not many of you become teachers knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment” James 3:1.

But what about your part in all of this? There are many people out there who wander from church to church, seeking to have their ears tickled by men pleasers! (2 Tim. 4:3). We live in a time when many people would rather listen to fables than the truth. There’s a great demand for those who will teach fables and tickle peoples ears nowadays. But will a fable ever glorify God and save a sinner? Only the unadulterated Gospel will save sinners, right?

Paul never proclaimed only half a gospel. Therefore the accusations of the Judaizers were as false as their gospel.

Paul had spelled out the way of salvation in the simplest of terms. Simply turn from your sins, believe in Christ and what He has done on the cross, and you shall be saved – is what Paul’s on about. Jesus said the same thing when He said, “Repent, and believe in the gospel” Mark 1:15.

I once presented the Gospel to a Jewish man & what did he say in response? “Too simplistic!” “Too easy!” say the Judaizers. “Paul just said that to keep in with you Galatians. He didn’t want to upset you by telling you what you really need to do to get saved. He was afraid you’d get upset with him if he told you the whole truth.” These are the kinds of things the Judaizers were saying about Paul and his gospel message. They were accusing him of missing out the difficult parts.

It’s kind of like those ministers who keep on telling their congregations “God is love. God is love”, and neglect to tell them “God is a consuming fire” for fear of upsetting them. The result of decades of this that people end up worshipping a lop-sided God. A distorted Gospel inevitably brings with it a distorted God, a god who’s not the God of Scripture.

God is a consuming fire. We enter into heaven through a fire-escape. Christ is that fire-escape. And He’s the proof that God is love!

The Gospel provides clear instruction how to flee the wrath of God to come. The good news is help to the helpless. But if you don’t see yourself as helpless, you’ll end up like a Judaizer. You’ll end up thinking you can contribute to your own salvation to your own destruction. But Paul never gave anyone that impression.

Jesus died to save sinners. Paul says in his letter to Timothy, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief” 1 Timthy1:15. As a sinner, Paul was under the condemnation of God. But Jesus Christ had set him free from that condemnation, i.e., from being accursed. The truth of the matter is that every human being is under the condemnation of God. The wrath of God abides on all at this very moment who do not believe in Jesus Christ (John 3:36). “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23.

Those who believe in Christ and His Gospel have escaped the punishment for their sins. It means you have escaped the curse of God. It means you no longer have God’s curse on your head. It means that the curse you have inherited from Adam has been lifted. Isn’t that a wonderful feeling? It’s great to know that God has declared you innocent of all sin. It’s a great feeling, isn’t it, to have the guilt of your sin removed.

When God lifted His curse from you, it was as if He’d lifted a great weight from your shoulders. Instead of your legs buckling under the load, you now walk with a spring in your step. You walk around with the song of salvation in your heart. What is that song of salvation?

It was music to your ears when you first understood the words of the Gospel.

O for a thousand tongues to sing

my great Redeemer’s praise,

the glories of my God and King,

the triumphs of His grace! (Charles Wesley)

“The triumphs of His grace!” The triumphs of Christ and His cross! That what the Gospel proclaims. It proclaims that you who believe in Jesus Christ have been redeemed. Redeemed from what? From being accursed? How and when were you redeemed? When Jesus died for sinners.

Sin, as you know, is the breaking of God’s law. Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law.” The Gospel, then, is simply the instrument God uses to tell you of your redemption. You know you are one of the redeemed because you are believing the Gospel for your salvation.

So then, what’s the problem with these Judaizers? They’re missing the boat, aren’t they? The boat’s leaving the jetty. They’ve got one foot in the boat and the other on the jetty. It’s make your mind up time! Do you want to stay under God’s curse or do you want to sail along with Jesus? Paul, as it were, is yelling out last call. “All aboard?” He doesn’t want to see any left behind, Galatians, Judaizers, you and me. “I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.” In other words, the ultimatum, “Choose you this day whom you will serve.” What’s it gonna be? The good news or the bad news? The blessing or the curse? I’d rather talk about the blessing in the good news any day, than the curse in the bad news!

The Gospel has always been the grace of God to fallen man. The Gospel message doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s not something that dangles in mid-air. Christ and His resurrection need to be interpreted by Scripture. We of the Reformed faith believe in letting Scripture interpret Scripture. In other words, Scripture interprets itself. And Scripture, of course, interprets the historical event of Christ at Calvary.

Scripture says that, “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” Therefore, to tamper with the Gospel is to tamper with the Scriptures. To understand the Gospel clearly it needs to be viewed in the context of the fallen world. In other words the Gospel is good news in the midst sin and suffering. The Judaizers were causing the Galatians all sorts of trouble through their additions to the Gospel. If anyone adds anything to the Gospel, “Let him be accursed” says Paul.

I hope there is no one reading this who is adding things to the gospel. If there is, God has placed a curse on your head through His Apostle. But God is a compassionate God. He’ll forgive you, if you repent and believe in the Gospel. You may think your sin is too big for God to forgive, but God is far bigger than your sin. Confess your sin to God. Repent of it. And He’ll forgive you. For the Gospel is God’s grace to sinners.

But the Judaizers were adding their own thoughts to the Gospel of grace. There are warnings in the Bible about adding to the Word of God. Proverbs 30:5, 6, “Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words, lest He reprove you, and you be found a liar.”

God is reproving the Judaizers through His Apostle Paul. “Let the one who distorts the gospel be accursed!” says Paul.

You Denying Christ

Jesus says, “Whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven” Matthew 10:33. In other words you give evidence that you are accursed by ignoring or knowingly distorting the message of the grace of Christ. Simply put: Your rejection of Christ is proof of His rejection of you. Or viewed in the positive: Your acceptance of Christ is proof of His acceptance of you.

God has provided the one and only means of salvation through Christ and His cross as spelled out in the Gospel. To distort the gospel is to look a gift horse in the mouth. It is to treat the gospel as if it were a wooden horse with a belly full of trouble. It is to act like a spoiled kid at a birthday party, “Is this all I’m getting?” To distort the gospel is to act like an ingrate and Christ will deny you. This means that every Hindu, Jew, Muslim, New Ager, Atheist whatever, all mankind is somehow distorting the Gospel.

“No one comes to the Father except through Me” says Jesus. Therefore, whether you ignore God or invent your own religion, you’ll never get to heaven. There’s only one way and it’s spelled out in the Gospel.

The Judaizers were in danger of being accursed because they were adding to the Gospel. They are beginning a process of denying Jesus Christ. They’re on the road to complete rejection. It’s like the door to door salesman with his foot in your door. Pretty soon he’ll be sitting in your living room. Before you know you’ll have paid a fortune for all this stuff you don’t need.

Little acorns grow into giant oaks. You let a couple of cane-toads into Queensland and they take over! So it is in any church. Let in one little heresy and by the time you get the barn door closed someone’s wheeled in a wooden horse! How is this so? Well essentially they’re suggesting, “Jesus, you don’t quite have what it takes to save us from our sin!” That’s rejection! That’s a denial of Christ and everything He is and everything He has done.

How can God not quite have what it takes to save sinners? God is the Almighty Sovereign Ruler of the universe. When a person adds to the Gospel, they’re insulting Christ Himself. They’re stealing Christ’s glory. In a subtle way they’re attacking Christ’s Deity.

Charles Wesley in Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, writes,

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;

hail, th’incarnate Deity,

These Judaizers are far from hailing the incarnate Deity. They’re beginning to mock Him, to insult Him. Just as the Roman guards mocked and insulted Him when they placed a crown upon His royal head, a crown of thorns!

The Judaizers were denying Christ His glory before these Galatians. They were suggesting that Christ did something less than perfect. For Christ to have done any imperfect thing, would have meant He was a sinner and not our Saviour.

Jesus said that He came to do the will of the Father who sent Him. Jesus was obedient to His Father even unto death, even the death on the cross. He said that He came to seek and to save the lost. The Judaizers are saying that Jesus failed to save the lost. It doesn’t matter how you look at it. If you say you need more for your salvation than what Jesus did on the cross, then you’re denying Christ. You’re calling Christ a liar! Your robbing Him of the glory He is due. No doubt this wasn’t the Judaizer’s intention, but that’s where their heresy was leading them, and the Galatians with them.

They were saying that Jesus only made it possible for people to be saved. Jesus didn’t just make it possible for us to be saved, but rather He saves to the uttermost. While praying to His Father He said, “Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost.” He’s speaking there of His elect. He died to save only those chosen by His Father. “It is finished!” He cried before He died for them on the cross.

To say that Jesus only made it possible, and that you now have to work your way into heaven, is to deny Jesus Christ. Jesus says, “If you’re not with Me you’re against Me.” Matthew 12:30.The Judaizers were denying Jesus Christ before the Galatians back then. The Mormons, the Jehovah’s Witness, and a host of other cults do the same thing today. There are even those in Christian churches teaching the same lie. They are all denying the sufficiency of Christ and His work on the cross. The Judaizers were beginning a process which could end up in full denial of Christ and His Gospel. Jesus says, “Whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven” Matthew 10:33. “Let him be accursed!” says Paul.

What does it mean to be accursed? It means eternal separation from God. It means that you are denying the salvation of God has provided in Christ. All who distort the Gospel run the danger of being accursed. To be accursed is the price of departure!

The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” Romans 6:23, and that’s the gospel! The good news is that the curse will be lifted from all of God’s elect.

The good news is that all who are God’s elect will repent and believe in God’s good time. The curse is lifted because of God’s grace toward sinners. The curse is lifted from all who are believing in Jesus Christ, i.e., the Jesus Christ as presented in the unadulterated Gospel.

How much does the Gospel mean to you? What’s the Gospel worth to you? The Gospel has brought you back to life. You were dead in your sins until God made you alive. He made you alive by granting you an understanding of His Gospel.

Would you lay down your life for the sake of Christ & His Gospel? If you think that’s a bit too dramatic, let me soften it. How about this: If you had kids, would you want one of them to marry a non-Christian? Surely that’s a bit easier to answer than the life and death stuff! Would you want him or her to marry someone from a denomination who don’t quite believe what we believe? How about this: Are you happy for those who go forward at evangelistic rallies to be sent to churches who don’t believe what the evangelist is preaching? Surely you can see that it’s all life and death stuff as far as the Gospel is concerned.

Conclusion

If anyone teaches anything but the pure Gospel the Apostle Paul says: “Let him be accursed!” Never look a gift horse in the mouth as far as the Gospel is concerned. But I urge you to watch out for “Trojan Horses” in your church!

“Beware of Greeks bearing gifts!” Make sure you yourself haven’t let a wooden horse into your heart. Make sure your heart contains only the Gospel of our fathers. The Gospel many died for at the time of the Reformation. The Gospel that Paul the Apostle died for. The Gospel that Jesus Christ died for.