Got Freedom? Part 1

Jesus plus nothing equals salvation. Those who preach that salvation is Jesus plus whatever that plus might be.

I don't care what it is. Whether it be church rituals or ceremonies or church authority or church as means of salvation or man-made rules, any kind. These people are not preaching the truth. Thank you for joining listeners across six continents for Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. Committed to teaching the truth of God's Word in every episode and in all content. Now in just a moment, Dr. Youssef begins a message in his series called Got Freedom? Biblical words reminding you to not get caught up in salvation through any other way than Jesus.

Here's Dr. Youssef to begin this episode of Leading the Way. Galatians chapter one, as we look at the first nine verses together. And for those of you who are not familiar with it, be prepared to see the Apostle Paul like a no other epistle.

It's unique. I mean he really gets riled up. He gets so hot under the collar. He expressed truly a righteous anger. He's angry at the people who have misled the Galatians but he's angry at the Galatians themselves for failure to understand and appreciate the freedom in Christ. He gets so hurt, so deeply hurt that the people he loves so much that he gave himself to them and help them understand to experience liberty in Christ, freedom in Christ.

They will surrender this liberty so easily and turn into legalism. Where did Paul learn this? Where did he know this?

He got it from Jesus himself. Listen to what Jesus said about the hypocrisy of legalism in Matthew 23, 3, and 4. He said they do not practice what they preach.

They tie up heavy loads and they put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. Verse 13, Woe to you, teachers of the law, and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces.

You yourselves do not enter, nor you let those enter who are trying to. What is this epistle of Galatians all about? What is this legalism all about? I know many of you know what legalism is, but some of you probably don't and I want to make sure you will understand what legalism is all about and why Paul is fighting it with every ounce of his being. The apostle Paul preached in Galatia just like he preached all over Asia Minor and Europe where he established churches, all over the world. Wherever he went he preached one gospel, one message, and there he founded the churches. And the gospel is very simple. That a person can only be saved eternally through faith in Jesus Christ. That a person can only be saved eternally when they look at that cross and they say Jesus paid that price that belongs to me that I should have been paid, but he's the one who paid it and therefore when I come to him in repentance and faith he can set me free from sin. He can forgive me my sins.

He can assure me of heaven. And many people in Galatia believed the message of the gospel and they came into that liberty in Christ. But then a few months later, a group of people known as the Judaizers, they came to those people in Galatia and they said to them, you know, Paul was partially right. These new converts, they did not know much.

He said Paul was partially right. You are saved through Christ, but listen, anytime somebody says to you, you're saved through Christ, but run. You are saved through Christ, but you also have to keep the Jewish ceremonial law, especially circumcision. And so they said, oh, then Christ is not enough for salvation.

We must do this. And so it become Jesus plus something else that would save you. Listen to me. This is the heart of legalism. This is what legalism is all about.

When you hear the word legalism, many times I've heard people use it with such ignorance that they don't understand what it really means. This is the core of it, that you are saved through Christ plus. No, you said through Christ period. Legalism was he said, I'm saved through Christ plus the church plus this plus the other thing. I get some nasty letters when listeners around the country or around the world would hear me on radio or television preaching that salvation is through Jesus alone. Jesus plus nothing equals salvation.

But here's the problem. Those who preach that salvation is Jesus plus whatever that plus might be. I don't care what it is, whether it be church rituals or ceremonies or church authority or church as means of salvation or man made rules, any kind. These people are not preaching the truth. And that is why Paul literally opens the letter first by affirming his apostleship that it is from God, not from man, and immediately runs in there and tears the shirt off the Galatians back. In other epistles, he starts by saying, I thank God for you this and I thank God for this and I'm not here.

I mean, he goes straight for the juggler. Listen, I wish we have more people who have righteous indignation like the apostle Paul today when they see the perversion of the gospel that is being preached all over the place. I wish we have more people who can express righteous indignation.

Today, we just shrug the shoulders. What can I do? False teachers are preaching false gospels. What can I do? False teachers are perverting the truth.

What can I do? False teachers misleading the non-discerning. And they say, so what? False teachers are accommodating to sin and immorality as the norm in the churches.

And they say, well, it's not the way society is going today. Really? In fact, in verses 6 to 9, Paul was adamant that the Galatian Christians must understand that the gospel of salvation is Jesus and in Jesus alone. That the gospel is full and complete and it's the only gospel. In fact, Paul said, even if an angel from heaven or even I myself preach to you another gospel, let that person be accursed in some of the translation. And that's a strong word if you really understand it and comprehend it. It is a strong word and it literally means eternally condemned. Let me tell it to you in a use of language, okay? Those who preach a false gospel or another gospel or an amended gospel or a modified gospel are going to hell. That's the bottom line. Let's plain talk here. Now, don't shoot the messenger.

I know some of you probably are wincing and I don't blame you, but you and I don't make the rules. And Paul speaking here with an authority of an apostle with a capital A. What is an apostle with a capital A? The qualification of an apostle in the New Testament was a person who have witnessed the resurrected Jesus and are being commissioned by the resurrected Jesus. Now, all of us who know the Lord Jesus are apostles with a small a. But this is an apostleship that was given to him by the resurrected Jesus when he saw him face to face on the road to Damascus. And the same Jesus is the one who said, woe to you, teachers of the law and the Pharisees, you hypocrites, you shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces.

How? By telling them that Jesus is not enough to save. In fact, that is the true gospel, which is summarized here in verses three and four. Paul said grace and peace to you from God the Father, Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age.

That's it. That's the gospel. He gave himself for our sin. He rose for our justification. He's the only one who can save us. And Jesus delivered us from the present age, meaning he's the only one who can take us to heaven. And he does all of this without your help.

Without my help. He does all of this without any of our religious works. Again, let me remind you what legalism is. Legalism says believing in Jesus Christ with all your heart that he died on the cross and rose again for you and to redeem you is not enough. That's what legalism is all about.

That to have something must be added to salvation. Now, I know, I know, I know. Most people are confused. And that's why I get these nasty letters. I always give them the benefit of the doubt. I really do, truthfully.

And I would write back, I say I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt. Because you're confusing when I say that a person is saved through Jesus alone with the fact that after salvation a person must live in total obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. See, this is where the confusion comes in. This is really the nub. This is the core of it.

This is the heart of it. And when Paul said grace and peace to you, he said that's the gospel. Grace is the source of our salvation. We got salvation which we don't deserve. We did not earn.

We could never earn in a million lifetimes. And as a result of that grace, that gift of God, we received peace. Peace in our hearts. Peace with God. The peace of God. In fact, Paul tells the Ephesians in 2, 8 and 9. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And if this is not from yourselves, it's a gift of God. Why?

See, not by works. So that no one can boast. No one can brag. You know, we talk about people who are arrogant.

Well, I got nothing to be arrogant about. I was a sinner and heading for hell. And Jesus saved me. It's a gift. How can you brag about a gift?

I didn't have to do anything for it. And so these precious people who get angry. Because I teach what the New Testament teaches that salvation is through Jesus alone. As I said, I give them the benefit of the doubt. Because some of them are probably saying, well, Michael is teaching that after salvation, you can live like the devil and it's okay.

Read my lips. That is not what I teach. Or somebody says, well, I prayed the sinner's prayer. I made my profession of faith million years ago. And I'm just living the way, because it's grace, I sin to my heart's content because grace will cover it all. No! Or that I don't have to obey Jesus after I'm saved. No! Or I don't have to serve Jesus with all my heart after I'm saved. Or that I don't have to serve others out of gratitude and thanksgiving to what Jesus did for me.

No! Beloved, these things are the evidence that I'm saved. They are the evidence. They don't add to my salvation.

They prove that I'm saved. That's where the confusion comes from. Confusion. But if someone teaches or believes that Jesus' death and resurrection is not enough to save a person, then that person is in danger. Is in trouble. Eternal trouble. Today, we have many false teachers who are teaching the other side of what the Judaizers were teaching. And Paul deals with them in chapter 5.

I'll come to it later on. But they're equally wrong, Paul said. Here's what they say. You're saved by grace alone, so sent to your heart's content. Don't worry, grace will take care of it. In chapter 5, Galatians says these people are equally condemned.

Why? Because after God saves you, righteous living is not an option. After Jesus saves you, godly living is not a choice. Because all of these are the evidence that I am saved, that you are saved.

If you don't exhibit these evidence in your life, you are probably as lost as those false teachers who are teaching that Jesus plus something else equals salvation. Many years ago, as many of you know, I used to belong to an apostate denomination. When I used to go to these clergy meetings, they always had this statement, this motto, they always repeated, repeated, repeated, repeated.

I mean, always constantly repeating it. And here's how the statement goes. Doctrine divides, but the sacrament unites. In other words, it doesn't matter what you believe. All that matter is that you go through the rituals. Rituals trumps the word of God. Rituals trumps spiritual reality. Rituals trump even salvation. And that, my beloved friends, is the gospel according to Satan.

I'm convinced, I'm convinced in my heart that Satan accomplishes more through false teachers and preachers in churches than those who are out and out wicked. Look at the history of Israel. The Old Testament is our foundation. And you learn so much about the character of God when you read the Old Testament.

You take the Old Testament, for example, and the history of Israel. Whenever the leaders were led by Satan to compromise their faith, they brought disaster on the nation. And this is how they did it. When they reject the truth, it was never sudden or abrupt. It was gradual.

And it began with baby steps. These leaders did not come out and say, let's abandon Yahweh and worship Moloch. Another word for Baal. They said, ah, let's serve Yahweh and tolerate Moloch. Let's have the altar for Yahweh, but then have a little one here for Moloch. And then slowly but surely, Moloch took over and Yahweh got pushed out of the way. That's why God allowed him for 70 years to be taken into exile in Babylon.

This is the apple of his eye. And if he allowed the apple of his eye to go through exile in Babylon, what would he do with us? You read the heartbrokenness of Jeremiah. The desperation of Ezekiel.

Crying that people would turn to Yahweh and Yahweh alone and they wouldn't. Jesus plus nothing equals salvation is a hill that I'm willing to die on. And I was thinking about this, about the freedom in Christ alone and obedience as the evidence of that salvation.

And that freedom we have comes from obedience to him. And I was thinking about this and then I was reading something about Henrietta Mears. Henrietta Mears was trying to explain this concept to little children.

I mean, it's amazing to me. I can't even explain it to adults. But she was trying to explain this to children. Here's what she wrote.

I couldn't improve on it. Here's what she said to the kids. She said, a bird is free in the air. Place the bird in the water and he's lost his liberty. A fish is free in the water. But if you leave him on the sand, he will perish.

He's out of his realm. And with that explanation, she told the kids, Christians are free when they are in the realm of obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ and his word. You see, our freedom is not freedom to sin, but it is freedom not to sin. That's what the Christian liberty is all about. That we have power over the bondage of sin. That we can say no to sin. And only Jesus can give you that power.

Please hear me right. As soon as you get away from obedience, you're no longer free. I know that experientially and some of you know that too. Make no mistake about it. Galatians is the most intense epistle in the New Testament. Paul is filled with righteous indignation.

His words are like a sword that cuts and so clearly divides between right and wrong. Truth from error, gospel from lies. He wants the believers in Galatians to know that religious rituals, ceremonies, and man-made rules are powerless to save.

Hear me right. Religious works cannot move us from death to life or give us power to overcome sin. It cannot remove the punishment of sin. It cannot deliver us from the present evil age and take us to heaven.

I reflected a great deal about this all week and probably longer. And it's my personal conviction. You can agree or disagree with me. It's not the word of God. It's my personal conviction that with all of our troubles and with all the erosion of our religious liberties that are happening today. Our greatest threat is not atheism, not agnosticism, not paganism, not witchcraft, not even Eastern mysticism. Our greatest danger that we are facing as Christians today comes from the false preachers and the false teachers in the churches. Those who subtly deny the authority of the scripture. Those who say that there is a hole in the gospel that needs to be filled. Those who say that there is a hole in your faith that needed to be added to. Those who say that Jesus is so confusing and inconsistent. Those who say that Jesus' love is messy and unfair and unjust. Those who deny the judgment of God. Those who are fuzzy and ambiguous and use the fuzzy and ambiguous language deliberately.

Language like inclusive and emergent and social justice and harmony and holistic and missional message and contextualizing of the gospel. Listen to me. They reject the clear straightforward plain spoken truth. And that's the danger. It's the danger we have in the churches. Most of all, they will be very uncomfortable with the words of the apostle Paul here. If anyone preaches to you another, a gospel contrary to the one you have received, let them be accursed. Very uncomfortable with plain language. May God give us the spirit of discernment in these hard and harder to come days so that we stand courageously and say the gospel of Jesus Christ plus nothing equals salvation.

And I don't care whether people like us or not. In fact, Paul goes on to talk about that in the next message. Beloved, it is only when we begin to comprehend what it meant for God the son to leave the glories of heaven and be born of a virgin, die on a cross and then rise again. Only we begin to comprehend that he did all of this for us and for our eternal salvation.

Only when we begin to comprehend this, will we want to spend every waking moment in obedience to him. Dr. Michael Youssef always passionately proclaims the uncompromising truth of God's word. Thank you for listening to Leading the Way. You can connect with Leading the Way at 866-626-4356 or ltw.org. In fact, here's details about another way to listen, watch and connect with Leading the Way. Visit ltw.org today to grow in your relationship with Christ. God is the one who always reaching out to us. God is the one who always want to bless us.

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