Sermon Text:
Galatians 1:6-10
Paul warns the church strongly about abandoning the gospel and seeking approval from people around them. We are called to remain in the grace of Jesus as we seek to honour God in all that we do.
Sermon Transcript:
(transcribed with AI)
Well, if you have a Bible with you, let me invite you to open to the book of Galatians. We are gonna be in Galatians chapter one here this morning. We are continuing on a series we began last week. And as you find your way there, let me ask you a question. Are you a bigot? Just seeing if you're paying attention here, alright, I don't know about you, but if you have been a Christian for any amount of time, you might have actually been called something like this in the past, right, whether it's bigot or small-minded, narrow-minded, closed off, intolerant, doesn't listen to others, not accepting of differences, there are all manner of this kind of thought when it comes to Christians, right?
Maybe, maybe that's actually how you view Christianity and Christians. If that is you, by the way, thank you for coming. Actually entering into this, because that's not really what we're wanting, right? Let's be honest, as a church, sometimes we have actually fallen into this, where we haven't been good at actually listening to others and hearing the cares and thoughts that other people have around us.
But in essence, this isn't a new charge against Christianity. In fact, it goes back even to the very beginning of the church, all the way back in the Roman Empire, they would call Christians intolerant. Little bit of sort of a historical fun fact, if you will, Christians in the first century were often known as atheists, right? Because in the Roman pantheon of gods, Christians said, well, we reject all of those gods, and so they said, well, you're an atheist then, right? And it kind of funny on this side of things, but we do believe there is one God, and there is one way to get to know this God, that is through Jesus Christ.
Now here's the truth, that is a very exclusive kind of message. It is, it very much does exclude other religions, other ideas, it certainly does. And so when people are upset by that, I certainly can understand why that would rub them the wrong way. It is exclusive in that sense.
But I might also respond, so is every belief system. Right, no matter what you think about God, it will to some degree exclude others. Right, if you say there is no God, well that excludes those who think that there is. Even if you're much more sort of agnostic and you say, well, maybe there's a God out there, but we just can't really know who he is, well that already is excluding those who say we can know something of who God is. Right, if you say, well, all religions kind of lead to the same end, they all teach the same thing in the end, right? Well, I'd actually argue that's one of the most exclusive views you can hold, because what you're saying is actually I can see all religions equally, I can see where they all lead, and I can say that all of them end up in the same place, and if you don't agree, if I say no, well I'm excluding you, right?
Now my point in this is not that we should get rid of exclusive statements, but rather we should say, actually yes, we all are going to make one or another. And so rather than just sort of attacking it for being exclusive to one degree or another, rather say, do we understand them? Can we actually investigate them? Can we look into what these statements actually say about our world, about God and about who we are?
See, I think that actually makes us far better at being listeners to one another. That actually allows us to hear other people's point of view and actually allows us then to begin to speak as well. Look, church, if we want other people to hear what we have to say, we also need to be good listeners.
So this morning as we open our Bibles, we're gonna read in the apostle Paul as he's writing this, he is going to write a very exclusive kind of statement. And it's true, the Bible does have these. And so rather than just dismissing it and saying, well we don't like that, rather let's say what is it? Because actually as we understand better what the message of the gospel is, we find it is the most inclusive, exclusive message there is. Alright?
So if you have your Bibles with you, let me invite you to follow along. Galatians chapter one. It's our tradition here, we stand as we read God's word. If you are able, would you stand with me? Galatians 1 starting in verse 6. This is God's word.
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another one, but there are some who would trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we've said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
As far as the reading of God's word, you may be seated.
Alright, well we are continuing on with this series in the book of Galatians. We started here last week. If you were with us, you'll remember this is a letter that Paul, the apostle Paul is writing to the churches in Galatia, right? Galatia was a Roman province. In modern day Turkey, and Paul had just recently returned from there. Right, he had gone on this whole journey, and now on his journey he'd been planting all these churches in different cities as he went along, and then finally he came, he made it all the way back, back to Israel where he had started. And basically as soon as he gets in the door, he gets a letter, and everyone's going, the churches that you started, they're all going crazy. Right, they're going off the rails in terms of what they're teaching.
And so Paul, he's just gotten back from there, and so now he's having to write this letter going, what are you doing? Right? Verse 6, I am shocked, you are so quickly turning to a different gospel. Right? This is in many ways, Paul's harshest letter. He is direct, he is blunt with them, and really for good reason. It's because they weren't just changing, you know, a little bit here and there, they weren't just adjusting a few things. No, they were changing the very essence of what they believe, the core central gospel message.
And so here is where Paul's gonna assert, actually, no, the message of the gospel is an exclusive one. And yet at the same time, it is also the most open, inviting and inclusive message possible. Because it depends not on who you are, what you've done, what your background is, none of that. The gospel message all depends on what Jesus has done.
And so as we go through this, I want us to hear Paul's warning statements, but also what he's calling us to. Alright? Instead of going to another gospel, let us cling to the God of the gospel. Instead of facing after other teachers, let us remain in his grace. Instead of trying to please others, let us seek the approval of God. As Christians, our goal is to cling on to God through the grace of Jesus seeking his approval. Alright, but let's start here just where Paul starts, right? We are to cling to the God of the gospel.
Look at verse six again with me. Paul says, I am astonished, you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Right, just to remind ourselves of what's all going on in Galatia, you remember after Paul left. Some teachers entered in and they began to teach, actually if you want to be a Christian, you need to keep all of the Old Testament laws, right? Take all the Old Testament laws, you have to actually have to follow all of them in order to be a Christian.
And you might say, well, I mean, what's the big deal? Right? The Old Testament, it's still here, it's in our Bibles. This is God's word. Shouldn't we do all of these things? And the answer to that is both, well, yes and no. Right, yes, actually there's lots in there that we should be doing and listening to and obeying. Right? Absolutely, there's all manner of even feasts and festivals that God outlines that actually are a lot of good, and we should pay attention to. Those are all good things.
However, if you make that, the following of all the rules, your basis for being right with God, you are changing, in fact, denying the gospel. In fact, that's exactly what Paul was going to say later on in the letter. Galatians 5, he says,
Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again that every man who accepts circumcision, that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace.
Right? Again. Paul's not mincing his words. No, he's upset, rightly, because this didn't have to do with just a few sort of cultural celebrations. These weren't sort of, you know, fringe things or ideas, no, this was how you are made right with God. But the Bible teaches us we are sinful. There is a break in our relationship with God. Things aren't quite right, so how do we fix it is the question.
And so Paul says, look, if you are trying to be right with God, mend that relationship simply by doing a bunch of good things. He says, if that's what you want to do, you actually have to do it. Do all of it. Do all of the laws, all of the time. If that's the road you want to go down, you have to do every single law perfectly, every single day of your entire life, no slip ups. If that's the way you want to try and justify yourself before God, you have to be perfect. Are you sure you want to go down that road? Right?
And I mean painfully, we still try and do that sometimes ourselves. Ironically, just without God's law. Right, we make our own version of what it means to be a good person, and we say, well that's what I need to do. Right? I'm a good person, I, you know, I share what I have with other people, I respect other people, I show kindness to other people. I'm a good person, clearly, I don't have a problem. But then the same question applies, is that what you do all the time? Every single day, every single day do you share all that you have? Well, no, I mean not everything I have, I mean I need to have enough for me. Once I have enough for me, once I'm satisfied, then I can share the little bits that are left over. And I'm a kind person. As long as I'm not behind someone going slow in traffic, or in line in front of me, unless I'm hungry or tired or stressed or had a hard day, or someone has hurt me, I'm a pretty good person.
We make up our own law and we can't even keep it. How much less could we keep God's perfect law? See, this is Paul's whole point. If we want to try and make ourselves a good person, go for it, you just can't do it. Right, this is why he says, you're turning to a different gospel entirely.
Verse 7, he says, not that there is another one, but there are some who would trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. Paul says there isn't another way. There's not another way to be right with God, and I mean, here is really the most exclusive claim of Christianity. The only way that we can be right with God is through Jesus Christ. Through faith in what he has done, that's it. Right?
The good news is that Jesus is the one who makes us right with God. 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says,
For I delivered to you as of first importance, what I also received. That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the 3rd day in accordance with the scriptures.
Here's the most important thing, it's that Jesus died for our sins, he was buried and he rose. Again, that we would have eternal life. He is the only one who can actually pay the debt of our sins, who can actually deal with all the problem of our sin, and he is the only one who can make us right with God. We can't do it ourselves. It's not about what we can conjure up or any particular rite or ritual that we could do, it is about what Jesus has done.
And hear me when I say that that is what sets Christianity apart from every other religion on this earth. Because it's not about what we can do, it is about what Jesus has done. And while I say that is exclusive, it is only in faith in Jesus, it is also a message that is open for anyone. Anyone who would trust in what Jesus has done, his death that has paid for our sins, his resurrection life that gives us the promise of heaven, whoever would trust in him would be saved. That is open for anyone, doesn't matter what you have done. It doesn't mean you have to be a good enough person and then God is going to save you, but God saves us at our very worst.
The gospel is not about a way to save yourself, it is about what God has done for us, that we can actually know him. See, ultimately, what the gospel does is brings us into a relationship with God. In fact, look back at verse 6. Paul says, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting. Him who called you. He didn't say you're deserting a message, or a framework, an outlook or a worldview. You're deserting a person, God, who called you to Himself by the work of Jesus. Do not turn away from God. Cling onto him.
See, the truth is for everyone who trusts in Jesus, we can say, not only has God called me to Himself, not only has he fixed and changed my heart, he also dwells in us. John writes,
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we've come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him.
The gospel does not merely change our ideology or our religious practices, it brings us into a relationship with God Himself. He dwells in us. The Holy Spirit is the promise, the seal and sign for every believer that we actually can know God and that he knows us. We can experience His love and grace and forgiveness, not some distant calculated mechanical arrangement. This is the deep abiding love of God.
If you are a Christian here, cling on to that. If you're not, hear the invitation. That you can come to know the love of God Himself through what Jesus has done. This exclusive truth is open to anyone who would believe, cling onto the God of the gospel.
And see this is why Paul is so passionate about this. This is not some small issue, this is the very heart of what we teach. And so then Paul begins to give them warnings. He has two warnings in this passage to not fall away. Right? The first here has to do with these teachers who have come in. He says, do not get led astray by them, but remain in grace.
Look back verse 8. He says, but even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. Right? Paul says, look, I want you to trust in what Jesus has done. Not in what I have said, in what Jesus has done. So much so that Paul says, even if I were to show back up and start saying something completely different, here's a whole different message. He says you gotta throw me out. And hear me, we still need to recognize that. Our faith is always to lie in Jesus, not the messenger. OK?
See, very often we hear these stories about Christian leaders, pastors, teachers, whoever it is, and suddenly you hear about some major moral failure. Right, they've been leading a double life this whole time, and it's so easy to think to yourself, well, I mean, I listened to them, right? Maybe they had a huge impact in your life, even maybe helping you come to know Jesus. What do I do with that? How do I handle that? Is my faith, you know, worth nothing now?
Again, Paul says, your faith is in Jesus, not the messenger. Even if the messenger comes and says something totally different, trust the gospel of Jesus Christ. He even says, even if an angel out of heaven shows up telling you something different, get rid of him. Right?
Now Paul might be pulling their leg just a little bit with this one. See, if you know the story of Acts, when they first showed up in Galatia, Paul and Barnabas, they began teaching and they began even doing some of these miracles. Acts 14 tells us.
When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Laconian, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men.
Right? Paul had to actually explain to them, no, we're not gods, right? We're just here telling you about Jesus, He is God. Right? And so maybe Paul's kind of just, you know, chuckling to himself and saying like even if someone else who shows up and looks like one of the guys, don't believe them.
But I think of course there's also a much more serious part of this as well. It's a clear warning because there is a spiritual realm that does want to distort the gospel. 2 Corinthians, Paul warns them. He says,
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen disguising themselves as apostles of Christ, and no wonder, for even Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.
See, the Bible is filled with warnings about people who will come and try and teach all manner of different things, whether maliciously or unintentionally distorting the gospel. And see, once again, we really need to pay attention to this today.
Because here's the truth, there are a lot of preachers out there. I don't just simply mean people who are in churches standing on stages. Yes, I mean there's a lot of those as well. What I mean is every time you turn on a screen, you watch the news, you listen to a podcast, watch a video online, you're hearing someone in essence, preaching to you about something. But with the way the world works, or maybe the way it should work or supposed to be, there are all manner of messages that you will face every single week.
I am well aware that between right now and when we gather again next week, you will hear far more voices than mine. And so here's the question, are we actually discerning? Are we paying attention to what we're hearing? Are we testing it by the word of God? Are we asking, is this part of the gospel, because we need to. If we are just going along with the latest, you know, person we happen to hear, or whoever happens to be most charismatic, most passionate about what they're saying, we are going to be tossed all over the place. Paul is calling them to root themselves in the gospel.
In fact, look at verse 9, he says, as we said before, he's already told them this. So now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. Now here we need to be a little careful. Twice now Paul has pronounced this curse, right? This accursed on those who would teach a different message. The word here refers to a divine judgment from God. Oftentimes it's used in relationship to hell. Essentially what Paul is writing here. Anyone comes and teaches a different gospel. Let him go to hell. I know that that's a sentence that gets thrown around around very flippantly on a job site, but we're not on a job site. This is actually Paul using that very, very seriously. This is a divine judgment, it should cause us to shudder.
And now hear me, the Bible reserves the strongest of language always for those who claim to teach in the name of God and yet are not. Alright? Jesus in his ministry talks often about this, as he sort of debates and goes against the Pharisees of the day. Matthew 23. It says Jesus speaking,
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
Again, Jesus isn't mincing his words here. He's warning there is a consequence, in fact there is a punishment, a seriousness to hell. Mark 9, again Jesus says,
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell to the unquenchable fire.
The Bible doesn't give us a lot of direct descriptions of hell, and for that I am grateful. Other than to say it is the place of God's divine judgment against sin. It's not Satan's kingdom, it is where Satan himself is punished. See, Paul is warning the church in a strong terms, not only the what happens to the one who teaches a different gospel, but even a warning to following it as well. There is only one way to deal with our sins. It is through Jesus by what he has done.
And I know that always sounds very harsh to us. So, maybe it helps to imagine it a little bit like this. Right, I imagine you're walking along, you're taking a hike, you're going through a forest, you come to a bit of a clearing, the trail pretty much dead ends, and you come to a giant gorge just in front of you. Drops off steep, hundreds of hundreds of feet straight down, you can't get across. It's, you know, 0.5 kilometer to the other side, and as far as you can tell on either way, there's no way.
And so you start thinking to yourself, well, I need to get across here, and so what am I going to do? Well, maybe I can jump it. Ah, it's a little far. So you think, OK, you know what, I'm enough of an engineer, I'm gonna start building something. I know I'm not an engineer, so I don't know if that's even possible, but let's say you start getting, you know, logs, you're chopping down trees and whatever, and you're starting to try and, you know, reach this thing over this gorge to try and get to the other side, until finally someone comes along and says stop! What are you doing? You're gonna kill yourself if you keep doing that. They're not trying to harm you, they're trying to warn you about the danger that it would be to actually fall there. And more than that, stop what you're doing, because someone's already built a bridge.
In one sense, that is the gospel message. Don't try and do this all on your own, you can't do it, it's too great, you won't get to the other side. But the good news is that Jesus has already done it. All you need to do is walk to the other bridge. See this is why Paul, this is why Jesus is warning so strongly about the judgment of God, because the solution, the answer is there for us. Jesus has already made a way for us to be saved. Trust him. Don't wander away on your own, don't follow the people who say you have to build your own bridge stronger. Alright.
Now, here is where we might need to balance ourselves out just a little bit. Because sometimes people have taken some of the strongest language in the Bible like this and made it their only way of speaking. Alright, this is not even the way Paul or Jesus speaks the majority of the time. It's not all in these strong kind of warnings. In fact, listen to Paul in 2 Timothy. He writes,
The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses, escape the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will.
Right, Paul tells Timothy, be patient, be gentle, even with those who are opposing you. Actually, the strongest language that the Bible uses is always those who say, well I am speaking for God. It's not the people who are mistaken, it's not the people who don't know any better. Rather, grace, gentleness and patience is the rule. Passages like these are often the exception, or are the exception, not the rule. Rather, we approach these things with gentleness, patience, extending the same grace that we have so needed. Let us cling on to God, remaining in the grace of Jesus. Don't trust in the charisma or the passion of leaders or speakers.
And Paul ends then with another warning, his second one here, a reminder not to chase the approval of others. Actually seek the approval of God. Look back at verse 10 with me. Paul writes, for am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
So here's the truth, there is a pressure. That other people have on you. Right, like it or not, the people that you are around do pressure you in one way or another, right? If you get a new job, you have a whole new group of sort of people you're hanging out with, you often notice it early on. Right, you notice it because suddenly you're laughing at different. Jokes than you used to laugh at, right? Maybe you're telling different jokes, you're using different words, you are maybe involved in all kinds of other things, right? This group goes and plays soccer, this group goes out drinking. I go along very easily with what other people are doing. And partly it's because we all have a desire to fit in. Right, we do. We have a desire that we want to belong, we want to be loved and accepted. In fact, God created us with a desire for those things. Right? God created us with a desire for a place of belonging with him. That's what he created us for, so that we would be accepted by him.
The problem is in our sin, that strong desire God has given us gets twisted to all manner of other things. And we begin to seek after the approval of other people that we're around. Sometimes it's quick, sometimes it's slow, and we don't even notice it. In fact, the desire is so strong, I'd argue it even happens through our screens. You watch somebody, and so you start saying, yeah, I kind of like what they're saying. I kind of want to go along with that more and more and more. We want to fit in. And so again, we need to pay attention. Who do you want to fit in with? Who are you listening to? Who are you reading? They do affect you.
God made us to be loved by him first and foremost, to belong to him first and foremost. And actually that desire, if we let it can warp us even away from knowing him. Remember, Paul began, do not desert the one who called you, do not turn from him. How do we fight that? Again, 2 Timothy chapter 4. Paul writes,
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead by his appearing and by his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myth.
If you ever wonder if the Bible is prophetic, this is a great example. We can have a pocket full of teachers all the time. And they'll say all the things we want them to say, and the moment someone says something we don't like, we can swipe it away. We can have that pressure to fit in. We can have that pressure to suit our own passions. What is the solution Paul gives here? The word of God. Paul tells Timothy, preach it, don't stop. That's why as a church, we preach the Bible every week, we open it up. Why? Because we need to reset our own hearts in alignment with what God has called us to do. But I mean, hear me, again. Probably once a week isn't enough, is it? We need to be in our Bibles, we need to know our Bibles again and again. As much as we hear all the other voices of pressure around us, let us be in the word of God.
In fact, Paul will go so far as to say that if our desire is that we are accepted by others, we are not serving Christ. That we're actually opposed to serving him. And he's not saying it's because you're trying to get the approval of a bunch of bad people, right? Maybe that's true, but that's actually not his point. Actually, the point that Paul is getting to with this is that no matter who you put in there. Right, you could have the godliest person on this planet and say I want their approval, and it would be a problem, because you're putting someone before God. You've made the godliest person alive an idol for you to serve. Actually, no, we are called to seek God's approval first and foremost. Jesus says,
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Seek after God's approval. If you want to know what that looks like, look at a child. Right? Look at maybe like a 345 year old child, and watch who they think is cool, alright? And you'll be able to tell because kids are very obvious with it, right? They're going to tell you about it constantly, they're gonna start dressing like them, they're gonna start doing whatever they, you know, their idol is doing at that moment. You're gonna see it because kids are great, they're wonderfully obvious for us, and a good lesson for how we can seek God's approval.
Do we talk about him? Do we try and do the things that God is doing? God is kind, gracious, patient, loving, just and holy. Does that describe us? Are we looking at God constantly saying, I want to be just like him? Hear me? I mean half of the Christian life is simply that, looking at Jesus and saying, I just want to be more like you. We mimic those that we admire and even those whose approval we want, so let us seek after the approval of God.
You want to belong. You wanna be loved? Seek it where it matters most, in the presence of God. Let us cling onto God through the grace of Jesus as we seek his approval. Right, the only way we can be made right with God, the only way we can be saved from our sins is through Jesus. Paul warns the church not to replace this message, not to get carried away by what other teachers come in, or by the pressure of trying to fit in with those around them. Paul warns, remain trusting in Jesus, it is the only way to be saved. That is an exclusive claim, and yet it is one that is open for all who would hear. Everyone who would believe, regardless of what you have done, regardless of what you're doing, the exclusive good news of Jesus is open for you. Trust in him.
Church, let us not get drawn away to forget this greatest news. Let us cherish and rejoice that we know God, experience his love, acceptance and joy. Let's pray together.
Oh our heavenly Father, what incredible good news you have given to us. Father, that you would send Jesus to this earth to die on the cross, to pay for our sins, that we could be saved, that we could know you, that we could experience this acceptance and love, this grace poured out for us. Father, I pray, would we never forget nor grow tired of hearing of the good news of what you have done. Lord, I pray, keep us fixed on your word that we would seek after your approval. Father, I pray, would we honor you in how we seek after you each and every day. We ask these things in your name. Amen. Amen.