About this sermon
1. Take to heart that there is one, and only one, Gospel (vv. 6-7).
2. Heed the apostolic warning: Anyone who perverts the Gospel of Christ will be eternally condemned (vv. 8-9).
Sermon transcript
churches of Galatia. So let us hear God’s holy word. Galatians 1 verses 1 through 10. Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, and all the brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. 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 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 have said before, 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. Dear friends, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord’s proclamation of His Word. Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us, revealing to us Your Holy Word. We thank You that You have not left us alone in this fallen, sin-cursed world without direction, without a clear Word from Heaven.
We thank you, Lord, for this portion of Holy Scripture, and we ask that you would give us wisdom and insight as we consider this portion of your Holy Word. We pray that your Spirit would illuminate our minds and open our hearts to behold wondrous things from your Word. We ask that your Word would find a lodging place in our souls by your Spirit, And we ask that you would grant unto me, your unworthy servant, the grace to declare and speak forth your word with power and clarity, with the unction and assistance of your Holy Spirit. May Jesus be exalted in the preaching of your word this day. May sinners be converted unto you and your people built up in their most holy faith. We pray all of these things, Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said.
Amen. You may be seated. There are sermon outlines out in the foyer, if you’d like to use those to help you follow along, and there’s quite a number of words that I’ve suggested that the children can listen for in my sermon today, which could help them follow along as well. Well, dear ones, in 1 Timothy 3, verse 15, Paul describes the church as a pillar and buttress of the truth. functions of the visible organized church of the Lord Jesus Christ in this world is to hold up, to support, and to defend the truth of God before a lost and dying world. The church is called by God to be a witness for the truth of God’s word in the midst of a world that is filled with lies, deception, and falsehood. But in order to be a faithful witness for God’s revealed truth in this world, the church must guard the deposit of faith which her resurrected Savior has entrusted to her.
When Jesus rose from the dead after training his apostles and appointing them to be his official spokesmen, his divinely inspired spokesmen, witnesses of his resurrected glory, when he appointed them, he gave them the charge to faithfully pass on that faith once for all delivered to the saints, that deposit of faith. One major aspect of guarding the faith once for all delivered to the saints is the church’s calling to protect God’s people from false teachers and false teaching. especially teachings that would seek to water down, distort, or even replace the true biblical gospel with a different so-called gospel. Guarding the integrity of the biblical gospel, especially the good news of our justification by God’s grace in Jesus Christ alone, apart from works of the law, is a central duty of the church and of its undershepherds, its pastors and elders.
In his epistle to the Galatians, Paul shows himself to be a faithful apostolic under-shepherd of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he shows himself to be faithful because in this epistle, he exposes and seeks to refute a group of Jewish Christian false teachers who were seeking to lead these Gentile Galatian Christians away from a solid understanding of the biblical gospel. false teachers Judaizers, the theologians and scholars call them Judaizers, because they taught that Gentile Christians must not only believe in Jesus in order to be justified, in order to be saved, but must also be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. In order for a Gentile to become a fully initiated Christian and to become fully a part of God’s covenant community and to be regarded as saved and justified, declared righteous in the sight of God, not only was it necessary to believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior and Son of God, but it was also necessary, Judaizing false teachers for these Gentiles to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. especially the ritual laws, the ceremonial laws.
And that is why they’re called Judaizers, because they were basically saying, if you’re a Gentile, you can’t become a Christian before first becoming a Jew. You must become a Jew first before you can become a fully initiated Christian. Well, friends, on the last Lord’s Day, as we focused on our passage for today, we focused especially on reveals that God the Father effectually, savingly calls elect sinners to salvation, not by means of the works of the law but by means of the grace of Christ. We saw that this implies, friends, that God takes the initiative in our salvation. We don’t take the initiative. God takes the initiative. It isn’t that we first step towards God before he reaches out to us. On the contrary, it’s the other way around. God reaches down to us in grace and mercy before we reach up to him in faith and repentance.
We certainly must respond to the call of the gospel to repent and believe. but we respond because God has first been at work in our hearts through the gospel. We also saw on the last Lord’s Day that turning away from this biblical gospel, this good news of full and free justification by grace alone, through faith alone, apart from works of the law, turning away from this biblical gospel, is actually a turning away and apostasy from God himself. You see, to reject the biblical gospel for another so-called gospel is actually to reject the true and living God. It is to throw off the yoke of Jesus Christ and to set up in our hearts a golden calf of works righteousness, legalism, and self-righteous religious pride. And so, friends, with all of this in mind, today we’re going to focus on verses 7 through 9.
But let’s first, again, let me read for you again verses 6 and 7. Paul writes, I am astonished. Why is he astonished? Why is he flabbergasted? Why is he just, you know, doing a double take? and wondering what’s going on among the Christians in the Galatian churches. Well, he says, 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. As I pointed out on the last Lord’s Day, that word in the Greek that is translated as different is the word heteron. I believe we derive from that word heretical or heterodox. He’s talking about turning away from the pure biblical gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ, to a heterodox, a different gospel. And then he goes on to say in verse 7, not that there is another one. but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
What do we learn from this passage? Well, first of all, brothers and sisters, take to heart that there is one and only one gospel. There are not multiple gospels. I mean, there are different gospel accounts in the New Testament. Yes, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We’re not talking about the gospel accounts because all four gospel accounts claim and reveal this one true gospel, this good news, this message of Jesus Christ. And there is one and only one gospel. That is clearly implied by what Paul writes here in verse seven. He says not that there is another one. That’s essentially saying there’s only one. There’s one and only one gospel of Jesus Christ. This is important, friends. We live in a time where where there is such a cultural pressure put upon the church to change the gospel, to make it more palatable to contemporary trends and contemporary ideas and contemporary ideologies and philosophies.
And there’s a temptation to reimagine the gospel, to kind of shave off its rough edges and make it more palatable to contemporary postmodern humanity. We saw this in the last century with theological, so-called theological modernism, also known as theological liberalism in the churches. The project of theological modernism was to make the Bible and the Christian faith more palatable, more accommodating to so-called modern man. but of course modern man was conceived of as a man who is rationalistic and naturalistic and rejects miracles in the supernatural worldview of the Bible. And so what theological modernism did in trying to make the Christian faith compatible to the ideas and thought trends of modern man what it ended up doing was gutting the Christian faith of its supernatural truths, such as the virgin birth, the deity of Christ, his physical bodily resurrection from the dead, and so forth.
And what modernism ended up doing is replacing true biblical Christianity with a Christianity so-called that was not Christianity at all. As Dr. J. Gressam-Machen in his classic book, Christianity and Liberalism, pointed out, liberalism is literally another religion. It’s not Christianity, though it uses Christian terminology and traditional Christian language. It has hijacked that Christian language and imported into Christianity false concepts, foreign concepts. It has gutted Christianity of its supernatural reality. And so, the modernist struggle in the church over the last century reminds us that there’s only one biblical gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And this, here, what Paul is doing, those who would change or pervert or try to improve upon the one and only gospel of Christ. You see, my friends, if you read the scriptures, if you familiarize yourself Word of God, you will see that the Scriptures contain many, many warnings against false prophets and false teachers.
Let me just read a few of those to you. Let’s turn, if you have your Bibles with you, turn to Matthew chapter 7 verse 15. Matthew chapter 7 verse 15. This is as Jesus is getting towards the conclusion of his Sermon on the Mount. Matthew records in Matthews 5 through 7 the contents, a summary and contents of our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. And Jesus says, in verse 15 of chapter 7, Jesus says, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing. In other words, they’re deceptive. They hide themselves. Who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. These are wolves in sheep’s clothing. What do wolves do to sheep? They destroy the sheep. They kill the sheep. And so these, Jesus’ warning against false prophets, those who would spiritually destroy the sheep of Christ.
Or think of, turn next to 2 Peter 2. Let me read verses one through three of 2 Peter 2. Again, just another example of an apostolic warning against false prophets and false teachers. In this passage, We read the following words, Peter writes, but false prophets also arose among the people, reflecting on Old Testament times, false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them. bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed, and in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.” Again, very sobering words, a very sobering warning against false teachers.
And the final passage we’ll look at is Deuteronomy 18. verses 20 to 22. Deuteronomy chapter 18 verses 20 to 22. The prophet Moses addressing the children of Israel says the following beginning in verse 20 Moses says but the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name God is speaking through Moses, and he says, a prophet, a so-called prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die. And if you say in your heart, how may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken? When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, That is a word that the Lord has not spoken.
The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him. And other examples, brothers and sisters, the one thing that should be clear from these biblical warnings about false teachers is that false teachers do not typically advertise themselves as false teachers. In fact, false teachers can often have very likable and engaging personalities. They can often be very articulate. They can often be very attractive and charismatic in their personalities. They don’t have horns growing out of their heads. They don’t walk around with sandwich boards strapped to their bodies that say, beware, I’m a false prophet, keep your distance. No. They’re often very, very likable. One thing that is common among false teachers is that they can be very, very subtle. We’re told in the scriptures that Satan can disguise himself as an angel of light.
So some false teachers are very skillful at putting themselves forth as earnest servants of Jesus Christ and of his gospel. And no doubt that’s what these Judaizers were doing. They were probably coming along to these Gentile Christians and saying, oh, that’s wonderful that you’ve come to believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. He is. We accept him as the Messiah. He’s the son of God. Yes, he died for our sins and rose from the dead. You got all that right. That’s wonderful. But you know, you’re missing one thing. You got to get circumcised and keep the laws of Moses, especially the ceremonial laws. And then you can be declared righteous before God. And then you can be regarded as fully a part of the Israel of God, fully a part of the people of God.
You see how subtly they may have been presenting this to the Galatians and why these new believers in the churches of Galatia from a Gentile background were being drawn to that? These Judaizers were probably skilled smooth talkers and spiritual salesmen. Well, dear ones, we might be tempted to think, well, yeah, the early church, they dealt with heretics like the Judaizers and the Gnostics and the Antinomians and all of that. Well, but, you know, that was back in the first century. Don’t we have a better idea of things now? Well, friends, just as the early apostolic church had to contend with many slick false teachers like the Judaizers and the Gnostics and the Antinomians, So even today, the visible church of Jesus Christ continues to be plagued by false teachers who promote perverted, twisted, heretical gospels, gospels that lead from Jesus and away from the salvation that Jesus offers in the true gospel.
That’s why Paul is so passionate in this epistle. That’s why he only gives a very brief opening section and opening praise before diving into his subject and saying, what’s wrong with you people? Wake up. I’m astonished at you. Why are you going astray? He knows that eternal matters, matters of eternal weight are at stake. Now, the point here, friends, is not that we should be hyperjudgmental or unlovingly suspicious of pastors and preachers and Bible teachers, or that we should be overly critical of every careless expression or word that a preacher might say. I know that many, My favorite meal after church is roast pastor and criticizing what the pastor said. And I don’t get the sense that you folks do that, or if you do, you certainly don’t let on that you do. But as someone who has been preaching for many years, I can tell you that part of the vocation of someone who’s calling is to publicly speak is that if you spend enough time publicly speaking, sooner or later, you’re going to misspeak.
Sooner or later you’re going to say something that’s confusing or perhaps unintentionally misleading, and I can tell you that while it is my intention to carefully prepare and research my sermons and to deliver them faithfully to the text, I can look back on my many years of preaching and many times when I unintentionally opened my mouth and put my foot in my mouth or misspoke. So the point here is not to be ungracious and towards those who are entrusted with the task of preaching the word of God, but rather the point here, beloved, is that all of us, whether we’re clergy or lay people, whatever our calling or vocation may be, all of us have a biblical duty to be discerning. The call to discernment, that’s not just for the pastors and elders. That’s a call to all of God’s people.
All of us in our office of believers, all of us are called to exercise discernment. If you do not exercise proper biblical discernment, we’re actually sinning. God expects you not to be gullible and open to false teachers. We are responsible before God to be discerning in terms of the preachers and Bible teachers that we listen to and follow and expose ourselves to. And we need to be on the lookout for those who may be peddling a false or misleading gospel. But you may wonder, how can you tell a false teacher from a true one? Not by how likable they may be, or by how good they may make you feel, or the number of followers that they have, or by the crowds that they draw. Rather, the answer is you can tell by the message that they teach and preach.
What is this man’s message? That’s the issue. Is it a feel-good, man-centered message, or is it the good news of salvation through Christ crucified and risen from the dead? Does the preacher proclaim as the scriptures proclaim that all people are sinners fallen in Adam worthy of condemnation for their sins and that no man can be saved by his good works or religious strivings. Does the preacher proclaim Jesus Christ, God and man, the Word made flesh, crucified for the forgiveness of our sins, raised from the dead, physically and bodily raised from the dead for our justification? Do they proclaim this biblical Jesus as the one and only way of salvation? Does he proclaim that we sinners are justified, that is to say, declared legally righteous in the sight of God, not by works of the law, not by our good deeds, but by trusting in Christ’s obedience and sacrifice alone, trusting in Christ alone for our salvation?
Or does the so-called preacher deny any or all of these biblical truths? If he denies or perverts or obscures or twists any of these or similar essential gospel truths, then there is a good possibility that he is a false teacher and should be avoided like the plague. He should be avoided like the plague because he is distorting what Paul describes here in our passage as the gospel of Christ. He says, not that there is another one, not that there is another gospel, verse seven, but there are some who trouble you. We’re troubling these Galatian Gentile Christians, causing them to be unstable in their faith off of Jesus and onto themselves and their own religious performance. Not that there is another, there are some who trouble you and want to distort what? They want to distort, they have an agenda, they want to distort the gospel of Christ, not a gospel of Christ or one of many gospels, no.
The gospel of Christ. Notice that this one and only gospel is the gospel of Christ. In what sense is it of Christ? that I believe Paul has in mind here. The gospel is of Christ in its contents. That is to say, it is the message about Jesus Christ. If you go to a church service and you hear a pastor preach a sermon that has almost nothing to say about Jesus, you might as well go hear a sermon in a Jewish synagogue or a Unitarian Assembly. True gospel preaching is centered on the person and the work, the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ. True gospel preaching is not a theological TED talk. It’s not a motivational speech. It’s not moralistic do-goodism. It is about Jesus Christ. The biblical gospel focuses on Jesus Christ, on his person and saving work.
It does not focus on man’s works or man’s free will or man’s decision. Although certainly, when the gospel, when the spirit brings the good news of Jesus to bear on your soul, it will impact your will. It will move you to receive and rest upon Christ if the spirit is active in it. But the gospel message itself, it’s not a message of decision. It’s not even a message of faith, it’s a message about Jesus. Romans 10 tells us, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by what? The word of Christ, not by the word of decision, not by the word of moralism, or do-goodism, or social justicism, or cultural warriorism, or anything like that. It’s the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel focuses on Christ, on things like his miraculous virginity, his obedient life as the second Adam, his mighty miracles, healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons, walking on the waters, multiplying the loaves and the fishes and so forth. especially his sacrifice, his substitutionary atoning sacrifice on the cross for our sins, and his physical bodily resurrection from the dead, his resurrection appearances to multiple eyewitnesses after his resurrection, and his ascension into heaven, his reign at the Father’s right hand, and his return at the end of this age.
That’s what the biblical gospel focuses on. Dear ones, the central focus of the biblical gospel is not our faith in Christ, though that is important. The central focus is rather on Christ himself, because Christ is the object of our faith. So it is the gospel of Christ in that Christ, his person and work, are its central contents. But it is also of Christ in its origin. Not only is it a message about Jesus Christ, it is a message that originates from above, from Christ, and it comes to us through the risen Jesus and his officially appointed apostles, whose writings and teachings are contained in the New Testament canonical scriptures. Dear listener, do you believe in this Lord Jesus Christ? the Jesus of the Bible. That’s the only Jesus there is. That’s the only Jesus that can save you from your sins.
You cannot be saved by a Jesus who was a great religious teacher and a great moral example, but nothing else. The true Jesus was indeed a great religious teacher, a great moral example, but he was great because he was also divine. He is the God-man, the Word made flesh, Emmanuel, God with us. And he came to this earth work out our salvation by his obedient life and atoning sacrifice. He has secured the eternal salvation of all who come through sovereign grace to trust in him as their Lord and Savior. Do you trust in this Lord Jesus Christ as your very own Lord and Savior? Jesus, through the gospel, calls you, each and every one of you, dear listener, God, through the gospel, calls you to repent of your sin, and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior from.
You repent and believe today. So we see dear friends that there is one and only one gospel and that brings us then to the next two verses as we close our time and wrap up our time in the word this day next beloved heed the apostolic warning that is given here and that warning is that anyone who perverts the gospel of Christ will be eternally damned or eternally condemned. Again, this is a very sober point, but it’s what Paul is saying here, as I’ll demonstrate in a few moments. In verses eight and nine, we have an apostolic warning that anyone who dares to pervert, distort, change, or reimagine the gospel, the one and only gospel of Christ, anyone who does that and continues in that unrepentantly, will be eternally condemned. Look at what Paul says in verses eight and nine.
He says, but even if we, he includes himself, he includes the apostles themselves, even if we apostles or even an angel from heaven, even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, Let him be accursed.” And then for emphasis, Paul repeats himself, or I should say the Holy Spirit through Paul repeats himself. Verse 9, as we have 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. Now, that word that is translated here in the English as accursed, In the Greek, it is the word anathema, or anathema, and that word obviously is carried over into the English language. The New International Version translates anathema as eternally condemned, which accurately conveys the meaning of this loaded and sober word.
And what’s important to understand about this word, this Greek word anathema, is that it is related to the Hebrew word harem, which means ban. See, in the Old Testament, when God called his people Israel, when they had come out of Egypt, and God had rescued them from their slavery in Egypt, and God commanded them to go in and to conquer the promised land, and to put everyone in that land under the ban. All of them were to be devoted to destruction, all of the Canaanites. were not poor, innocent people. They were bloodthirsty, idolatrous people. They were people who did things like burn their infant children alive to their gods in worship and so forth. And God used the Israelites at that particular point in history as his instruments of judgment against the was not something that was to be repeated in other nations or in later redemptive history.
But in any case, they were put, the Canaanites were put under the ban. Dr. Richard Longenecker in his commentary on Galatians points out that the word here refers to, quote, what is removed from ordinary circulation and given over to destruction. Longnecker goes on to say that anathema means, number one, something dedicated or consecrated to God, and so, number two, something delivered over to divine wrath for destruction. As Bible scholar Johannes Bem points out, the basic idea behind this word anathema is, quote, delivering up to the judicial wrath of God. And so, my friends, what we have in these sobering verses, verses eight and nine, We have the Apostle Paul writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writing in his capacity as an apostle, an official divinely inspired spokesman for the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, pronouncing a divine curse of eternal damnation upon anyone who would dare to pervert, to twist, to distort, to replace the biblical gospel of justification. by faith, the biblical gospel of Jesus Christ, which includes as part of its essential, central pillar, the wonderful truth of our justification by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, apart from works of the law.
Now, some scholars, often of a more liberal bent, will perhaps look at these verses and say, well, this is just Paul having sort of a temper tantrum. He’s kind of, you know, he’s kind of hot and bothered by the fact that these teachers are not teaching in line with what he thinks should be the correct view of the gospel. He lets them have it. But friends, no, this is not an unfortunate emotional outburst on the part of the man, Paul. No dear ones, this anathema is a Holy Spirit inspired curse which has the official divine authority of the Lord Jesus Christ himself backing it up. For here, Saint Paul writes these words not as a private individual, but he writes in his capacity as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, this is Jesus saying through Paul, if anyone whoever he or she may be, if anyone, whatever their position, even an angel from heaven, even an apostle himself, if anyone should distort and pervert the gospel of Jesus Christ, let him be anathema.
Of course, we know that God is absolutely sovereign. We know that he will indeed preserve his people from unrepentantly and persistently distorting or perverting the gospel of Christ. But at the same time, God’s sovereign preservation of his people does not negate our responsibility. Now you may say, well, why does the Holy Spirit through Paul, why is the Holy Spirit so extremely, why this extreme length? penalty for perverting the gospel of Jesus Christ. Understand, beloved, the reason that God the Holy Spirit includes this divine curse upon those who preach a false gospel in the scriptures is actually motivated by God’s love for sinners. See, those who proclaim false gospels, those who preach something other than the gospel of Jesus Christ are helping to lead lost souls astray from Christ and from the salvation that he offers.
Preaching a false gospel is spiritual murder. It is murdering souls by leading them away from Christ and leading them to put their faith in something other than Christ, whether it be themselves, their works, their free will, The saints, they might say, well, Jesus is part of that, but you’ve got to have Jesus plus. Jesus plus theology means no Jesus at all in the end. Jesus will be the full and only Savior, or He is no Savior at all. He will not share His Saviorhood with you or with anyone else. And this is why God’s Word is so stern against those those who would distort and destroy the biblical gospel. In closing, my friends, God takes the integrity of the biblical gospel with dead seriousness, and so should we as his church. Let us as a church and as individual Christians do what Jude commands us to do and earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
And let us do so even in the midst of our anti-doctrinal, hyper-emotional, therapeutic age. We live in an age where it’s very difficult to stand up for truth, absolute, unchanging truth. But the word of God does not change, and the biblical gospel does not change. Let us stand firmly on it. And let us also be warned against false teachers who pervert and distort the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I’m going to do, in closing, what many preachers would suggest, many homileticians and preaching professors would say, but I’m going to do it anyways. I’m going to name some false teachers that you should be warned about. Because one of the biggest false teachings out there in the Christian world today is the prosperity and claim it gospel. And there are preachers on TV, on the radio, and so forth, who are loading their pockets with the gifts and monies given by gullible people, preaching this false gospel, this idea that God wants you to be blessed and rich and so forth, healthy and wealthy.
And if you’re sick, or if you have problems financially, there must be something wrong with your faith. I think of folks like Kenneth Copeland. Kenneth Copeland and his wife own a huge mansion. They have, I believe, several private jets, a few yachts on hand. Kenneth Copeland’s going to hell unless he repents of his false gospel. May God have mercy on his soul. He is leading so many astray. But what amazes me as I watch this man, watch clips of this man preaching, is how do people fall for this demon-possessed false teacher? But he’s out there. Don’t you dare give assent to the likes of a Kenneth Copeland. Or you think of someone a little more milquetoast, like John F. Kennedy, who I believe is a false teacher. I think of Scott Hahn. Scott Hahn, any of you familiar with Scott Hahn?
He used to be a Presbyterian. He was a Presbyterian minister. The biblical gospel of justification by faith alone to join the Roman Catholic. I think he was in his 20s when he wrote an autobiography, Rome’s Sweet Home. Imagine how arrogant and narcissistic you would have to be to write an autobiography in your 20s. But what does he say? What does he preach? Rome’s false gospel of justification by faith plus human merit. And many other examples could be given. The cults like Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and so forth. Now friends, we should have compassion. on those who are led astray by these false religions and cultists and false teachers. But we must stand firm, not only for the biblical gospel, but against those who would lead gullible souls astray. And so in closing, make sure, dear listener, that you believe and embrace the biblical gospel.
Trust in Christ alone for your salvation, and you will be saved. And stand fast for the faith, once for all, delivered to the saints. Amen. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, there go I but for the grace of God. We thank you, Lord, for the truth of the gospel, this good news that we are fully and freely forgiven, not by our works, not by our worthiness, but by Christ, his works and merits and sacrifice alone. Lord, we in the church are so easily led astray There are so many voices in our time that would lead the church away from this biblical gospel. We pray that you would give us grace as individual Christians and as the church to stand firm for the faith once for all delivered to the saints and for the biblical gospel of Jesus Christ.
We thank you for the blessings of your grace to us given to us in Christ. We pray that you would be glorified now and cause your word that we’ve heard today. to find a lodging place in our souls. We ask these things in Jesus name and all of God’s people said, Amen. As we close our time in worship, let’s rise and we’ll see nothing less. 459
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