Paul calls on God to destroy those who pervert the gospel because the glory of God and the salvation of people are at stake.
Scripture: Galatians 1:6-24
Sermon Notes:
- The grace of God delivers us from the power of this age that we might serve Him.
- If salvation is from God, then there is no other Gospel.
- Pluralists must deny Christ’s divinity for if Jesus is God the Son, then He is the only way to God.
- Gnostic cults teach that man may be saved by secret knowledge. But knowledge does not make one wise.
- Only God’s grace opens our eyes to see the world as it is and to see the folly of all man’s self-righteous attempts to save himself.
- Since salvation is in Christ alone, Paul pronounces a curse upon all false gospels.
- Zeal for God consumes Paul, and so without his customary niceties he directly expresses his dismay that the Galatians are turning to another gospel.
- The Galatian question was one of Jewish initiation rites as a requirement of Christian faith.
- All commandments that typified removal of guilt and sin were made redundant in Christ, but the moral law remains as a standard for right conduct.
- Those who pervert the gospel are replacing it with a caricature.
- Paul was not diplomatic. He directly confronts the Galatian error in order to please God (Galatians 1:10).
- Today the church is culpable for tolerating heterodoxy.
- We need to contend earnestly for the gospel, confronting errors that pervert the church from within and without.
- Paul calls on God to destroy those who pervert the gospel because the glory of God and the salvation of people are at stake.
- Whether it be an angel or a polished preacher who introduces another gospel, they are cursed.
- Satan is able to disguise himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).
- Liberal churches have abandoned the gospel and they are empty because they’re under the curse of God.
- All self-help and pluralistic gospels are under God’s curse.
- The gospel becomes a pharisaic system where man is justified in his sins rather than being delivered from them.
- In Romans 1 Paul says homosexuality is a curse for abandoning the gospel.
- Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 just how inclusive the gospel is: all who repent of their sins are cleansed.
- Grace is preaching the fact that you’re a sinner and you cannot save yourself. We’re corrupt and helpless, so we must depend on God in Christ.
- Though Paul was a violent opponent of Jesus, he was set apart from birth to preach the gospel; Paul’s life is a prime demonstration of God’s grace.
- Would that God would save zealous Muslims today to become preachers of the cross rather than persecutors.
- The Church today must contend for the faith seeking the approval of God and not men.
Application Questions:
- What are some modern perversions of the gospel within and without the church?
- Why does the cross never feature in man-made religion?
- Why does Paul pronounce a curse on those who would pervert the gospel?
- In our expression of the gospel, are we seeking God’s approval or man’s?