A Little Thing Makes A Big Difference, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. Remember earlier in Galatians I said that it was all to the glory of God? Do you know why mankind has added little bits of work into salvation? You've got to be baptized, you've got to do the sacraments, you've got to be a good guy, you've got to show... You know why?

For the glory. I earned it. I did it. You see what I've done? I've done this. God doesn't share glory.

Not with anyone. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. Nobody is more shocked by our spiritual naivety than the Apostle Paul was.

Verse 6, he jumps right in. I am amazed. I am amazed. King James, marvel, NIV, astonished.

But if you read this, that Greek word, it's an interesting word, thaumazo. And I actually believe the best interpretation I could come up with is bewildered. I am bewildered. I am shocked. I am astonished.

Why? He says that you are so quickly deserting him. I am bewildered by that. How could you desert Jesus Christ?

How could you be doing that? That word deserting is a military word. The idea of a military desertion and there's something else about it. When he says deserting, that verb is reflexive.

It's not passive. It's not like I don't know what's happening. I'm just kind of drifting.

It means I'm doing it voluntarily. He said, I am deserted. Why are you? I'm astonished by this. How can you be deserting? And it's only the beginning.

I'm going to tell you something. For six chapters, Paul is spitting mad and he's mad the whole way through. Because of what is at stake here. The apostle Paul sees the problem here and he sees what's at stake. In fact, in every epistle that he writes, even to the Corinthians, which are the worst local church in the New Testament by a mile, he says something nice about him. He doesn't say one nice thing to the Galatians. Not one.

Because of the nature of what's going on there. Paul said, I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel. A different gospel. Paul says they're coming in here and they're giving you a different gospel. Now, you might be thinking, well, were they trying to lead them into some kind of following pagan deities?

Were they trying to do something, you know, really crazy or out? No, no, no, not at all. You know what the Judaizers said? We believe Jesus is the Messiah. We believe Jesus is the Son of God. We believe Jesus died on the cross for your sins. We believe all that. And now you need to believe that. Paul's right about that. But there's a couple other little things you need to do.

Just little things. But you can believe in Jesus. You know what Paul called that? A different gospel. It is a different gospel. In fact, let me give you an example of it. Hold your place here and just turn to chapter five of Galatians.

You know, sort of get a little glimpse into it. Paul writes, it was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery. Behold, I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is under obligation then to keep the whole law. You have been severed from Christ. You are seeking to be justified by the law. You have fallen from grace.

Notice what he is saying here. What were the Judaizers saying? Well, look, you need to believe in Jesus.

Everything that Paul said is true. But you also have to be circumcised. You see, the covenant with Abraham is sealed through circumcision.

It is the mark of the Abrahamic Covenant. And if you are going to get to heaven, if you are going to be saved people, you need to be circumcised. Now, believing in Jesus, that is fine.

But you also need to be circumcised on top of that. And Paul calls that a different gospel. You see, all they are doing to him is what has been done to so many of us. They are saying it is Jesus Christ.

Oh, yeah, it is Jesus Christ. But let me tell you, there is just something you have to add to it. Just a little bit.

Just add a little bit. And all that is is somebody telling you that that is a king snake in your sleeping bag. But it is not. It is a coral snake, a completely different snake.

And that snake can be deadly. And so can this gospel. Notice what he says. He goes in verse 7, which is really not another. He goes, look, I understand the gospel means good news. Actually, it means best news. He goes, there is not really another good news. There is only one good news.

There is only one best news. He said, but I am just saying it is a different gospel. So he says, which is not really another, only there are some who are disturbing you. Oh, I love that. There are some, he says, who are disturbing you. Now, when you see this, it is kind of an interesting word, this idea of being disturbed. It literally means to shake you like this.

To sort of grab you by the shoulders and neck and shake you. He goes, I know what they are doing. They are disturbing you. They are doing this to you.

And then he says this. He says, and they want, and here is where the truth of it comes, to distort the gospel of Christ. They want to distort the gospel of Christ.

That is what they are after. Jesus Christ plus circumcision, you are saved. Just Jesus Christ, you are lost.

If you know anything about rudimentary mathematics, what would cross out of the equation? Jesus Christ. You are saved by circumcision. And through the last 2,000 years, the church has tried to do the same thing. Oh, if you are not baptized, you are not saved. You cannot be saved. If you are not put in water, you are not saved. Only people who are baptized in water are saved. Only people who take the sacraments are saved. Oh, you need to believe in Jesus. He is the Son of God, but you have got to do this. And if you do not do this, you are not saved. You see, you have got to believe in Jesus Christ, but you have to show up in church. You have to give a certain amount of money. You have to be religious. You have got to be a good guy.

You have got to be a good lady. Whatever it is, it is always Christ plus something. Paul says that is a distortion of the gospel. A complete distortion. It is something else. It is a poison mushroom or a coral snake.

It is not a king snake or an edible mushroom. It is something else, and it is dangerous. You see, Paul is saying this. Grace can be destroyed, but it cannot be modified. You cannot modify the grace of God. Grace can be rejected, but it cannot be changed. You cannot make grace something else than what it is. The free gift of God that you can receive. You cannot make it something else, and that is what they were trying to do.

And on the surface, it looks kind of benign. I mean, come on, what is the harm? They just want them to be circumcised. Well, not only does Paul say that there is nobody that should have any more authority in your life than I do, and that nobody is more shocked by our spiritual naivety than Paul, but here is what else Paul says here. He says nobody who distorts the gospel of Jesus Christ will escape the judgment of God.

Nobody who distorts the gospel of Jesus Christ can escape the judgment of God. Notice what he says in verse 8. He says, but even if we, what does he mean we?

He means him. Paul says if I ever preach to you another gospel than the one I preached to you, I'm included in this group. Then he says, or an angel from heaven. If Michael the archangel or Gabriel the proclaimer come, and they tell you I have a message, and it's different than the gospel that Paul preached to the Galatians, he said they're included in this group. Now notice what he says, even we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you. He is to be accursed. There is no stronger word in the New Testament, anathema, accursed. That's what he says has happened, dedicated to destruction. If anybody comes preaching any other gospel, they are to be accursed according to the Apostle Paul.

You see his inference is clear. No title gives anyone license to preach another gospel. No tradition gives anybody a license to preach another gospel. Nobody has that authority.

Nobody. That's what Paul is saying. You see we come up so often and we say, but it's always been in our tradition. That's the way the church has always seen it. That's why Luther, this Catholic priest, when he read the Galatians, understood it finally. He got it. And that's why he came out and he said, sola fida, faith alone saves. That's it. Faith alone saves. And you know what the response was? We don't think so.

Not at all. We say you must keep the sacraments. You must be a member of the church.

That's what you must do. So what Luther's response? Sola scriptura. The scriptures alone have authority, not you.

You don't have authority. The scriptures have authority. Sola fida, sola scriptura. You see, and the reason that that's so important is because of what's at stake. The eternal destiny of people. So Paul says, as strong in language as he could, if I do it, if an angel does it, he is to be accursed. Now, you might want to ask the question, well, what was the gospel that Paul preached?

Well, let's hold your place here and let's look at a couple of passages. First, let's go look at the content in 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Now here, Paul, writing to the Corinthians says this. Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preach to you, which also you have received in which you stand. By which you've been saved if you hold fast the word which I preached to you unless you believed in vain.

Now here's the content. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Jesus Christ, or Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. And that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. He says in that he appeared to Cephas and then to 12. After that, he appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep. And then he appeared to James and then to all the apostles. And last of all, he says, as it were, to one untimely born, he appeared to me also. That's the content. He just said Jesus Christ dying on the cross and rising from the dead.

But there's a dynamic to this as well. Look at Ephesians chapter 2. Now the context of this is he's reminding the Ephesians how they were saved. And he wants them to understand where they came from. So that's why in verse 1 it says, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins.

We all were. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death. So he tells the Ephesians you were dead, everyone was spiritually dead. And then he says at the end of verse three, we were by nature children of wrath. But in verse four, he says God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us. Even when we were dead in our transgressions, he made us alive together with Christ.

Isn't that great? He's made us alive. And then he says, let me explain how the dynamic by grace, you have been saved. And he raised us up with him and he seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in the kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. And then these two great verses.

Actually three. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And that is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. It is not a result of works.

No one, so no one can boast. And then he says we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. Which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Is there a place for good works in our lives?

Yes. Post salvation. After we are saved. There's a place for us to live for God. But before we are saved, absolutely not. Otherwise we'd boast. Otherwise we'd say we earned it. Remember earlier in Galatians I said that it was all to the glory of God.

Do you know why mankind has added little bits of work into salvation? You've got to be baptized. You've got to do the sacraments. You've got to be a good guy.

You know why? For the glory. I earned it. I did it. You see what I've done?

I've done this. God doesn't share glory. Not with anyone. You see that idea of wanting some of God's glory is exactly why Lucifer fell. God doesn't share his glory.

He's certainly not going to share it with us. Well, back to Galatians. Verse 9. Paul says, as we have said before, and I say it again now, if any man preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed. Now, you might want to say this. Maybe Paul is using the word like in hyperbole. Maybe he just means, I don't like that guy.

No. It's a very powerful word. In fact, turn with me now to Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. And Paul knows the definition of anathema. You see, Paul was criticized. Not only were they saying he wasn't really an apostle, but the Judaizers said Paul wasn't really a good Jew. Paul really, to him, that's fighting words.

Remember what Paul said? I'm Jewish. In fact, he infers that I'm the most Jewish man on this planet. He said, I was circumcised. You see, I am a circumcised Jew. Oh, by the way, and I also belong to the tribe of Benjamin, which is the best tribe to belong to.

They are the first in the battle. He said, but I'm not just a circumcised member of the tribe of Benjamin. He said, I'm a Pharisee. He said, I was a Pharisee. That separates me from everybody else. Oh, by the way, when all the Pharisees got together, I wasn't just a Pharisee. I was the Pharisee of the Pharisees.

You see, that was his whole point. Paul says, don't ever let anyone tell you I wasn't Jewish enough. I'm an extremely Jewish man, and here he reveals his heart for Israel and for the Jews. He says in verse 1 of chapter 9 of Romans, I am telling the truth in Christ.

I am not lying. My conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit. He said that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. The fact that the Jews rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah breaks his heart. And Paul says, for I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh. Paul said, I love the Jewish people so much that if they would turn as a nation to Jesus Christ, I would give up my eternal life. How many people would do that?

It's one thing to give up your physical life, but how about your eternal life? Paul said, I would do that. I would become anathema.

I would become accursed. So when Paul says he has incredible anger in these words, I don't care if I say it, I don't care if an angel says it, I don't care if someone else comes preaching it, anybody, anybody who tries to sell you a distorted gospel, let them be accursed. Let them be anathema. If I wanted to use terminology, and I mean this in the right way in the context of our English and our slang, Paul would say, let them go to hell because that's where they're going. You see, this is important to Paul. This isn't Paul saying, you know, everyone has an opinion. I mean, we all have their own little nuances.

Can't we all just get along? Paul wasn't saying that at all. When it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ, it matters. That's why he said, no one should have more authority than I have when it comes to the gospel.

And no one's more shocked than I am when I see how naive you are and how easy you're swayed. But understand, nobody who distorts the gospel is going to be able to escape the judgment of God. There's no wiggle room here.

None. Paul realizes what's at stake. The eternal destiny of people. If you believe the gospel that Paul preached, you're saved. If you believe the gospel that the Judaizers preached, you're lost.

That's the eternal destiny of people. That's important. Secondly, he believes it's the essence of the Christianity. It's the essence of our faith. It's the essence of grace. There's something else. Paul realized that it diminishes the greatness of Jesus Christ.

That's why he's so upset. You see, when you say, well, you need to believe in Jesus, but you get to do something, what are you doing? You're diminishing Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ did a lot of stuff, but not enough.

I'm going to kick in now, and I'm going to do a little. That's diminishing Jesus Christ. Don't diminish Jesus Christ. You see, it's Jesus Christ. He's the one who came. He's the one who lived. He's the one who died. He's the one who was raised. He's the one who ascended.

He's the one who gets the credit. Not you and not me. Not our organization, not our denomination, not our history, not our tradition. Jesus Christ gets it.

Paul understands what's at stake. If you have been exposed to Christ plus anything, let me tell you right from the Word of God, that is a different gospel. It is not the same. See, you can't judge other versions of the gospel based on the similarities.

You can't. And I hear this all the time. Well, they believe in Jesus. They believe Jesus Christ was the Son of God. They believe that.

Great. What else do they believe? Well, they believe that you have to do this to get saved. That's a different gospel. Listen, Lucifer, as I said, he believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

He's not a member of the gospel group. You see, that's a very different kind of thing. You can't do that.

You can't change it. It'd be like this. You're in intensive care. Your life's hanging in the balance. And a doctor comes in and says, this is our only chance. He said, I'm going to give you an injection, and he's going to give you an injection of some medication. Now, you probably know that medication breaks down to some chemical formula.

That's what it is. It's going to be some chemical formula. It's going to have hydrogen and oxygen and carbon, whatever it is, it's going to have molecules and atoms all through it. All right?

And it's going to have a formula. So he gives it to you, and he says, oh, wait a minute, wait a minute. I forgot to tell you. This isn't exactly the same as the one that would save your life, but it's close. It's really close. There's just a couple of atoms and little things that are different, but it's close. It's almost the same. How'd you feel about that? How would you respond?

In anger, I hope. Because when it comes to your life, close isn't good enough. When it comes to your eternal life, close is not good enough. You see, that's the point of the Apostle Paul. Anything else, any gospel, anything else, is just like getting bit by a coral snake or eating a poison mushroom.

Let's pray. Father, I fear that we live in a world that's so eclectic, so pluralistic, that we want to believe that every path will lead to your presence. And as wonderful a thought as that is, Father, we know it cannot be backed up in the Scriptures. Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one will come to the Father but through me. Jesus also told us, as broad is the way to destruction and narrow is the gate that finds eternal life, and few are those who find it. Father, I pray that as believers in Jesus Christ that we are very careful when we share his good news, that we make it abundantly clear to those who hear his gospel that there isn't anything they can add to his finished work on the cross, but they can only receive the free gift of salvation by putting their trust in his person and his finished work on the cross. Father, I pray that if somebody comes out of a tradition by which they are telling them their whole lives that you need to believe in Jesus, but you need to do something else, may they be challenged by your word today to seek out the truth, to stop listening to the tradition and start listening to the word of God. This we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.

That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. ... ... ...