Please turn in your Bibles to Galatians chapter 1. Galatians chapter 1. This morning we were reminded concerning the doctrine of justification in our time of studying the confession of faith. And then in the morning sermon, we considered that principle harem.
It's a Hebrew word that the Apostle Paul uses the Greek form of in this particular section that I want to look at this evening. So, it kind of ties up two themes today. First, the importance of the gospel and doctrinal fidelity and allegiance to the truth of God Almighty, and then what will become of those who do distort or those who pervert the gospel. I do want to read beginning in verse 1, Galatians chapter 1, 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 brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia, grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever.
Amen. I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another, But there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed, as we have said before. So now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
For do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.
For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me.
But I went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. Now concerning the things which I write to you, indeed before God, I do not lie.
Afterward I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ. But they were hearing only, he who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy. And they glorified God in me. Amen.
Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the scriptures and we pray now again for the ministry of your Holy Spirit. We ask that he would guide us and lead us and direct us into truth and cause us to hold fast to the truth and never to let it go. We know, God, that many since the days of the apostles have perverted the gospel of Christ.
We see such perversion in our own day, in our own generation. And we would pray that by your grace and for your glory, we would seek to hold fast these truths, that we would treasure them, that we would indeed proclaim them and declare them. As well, we would guard them and fight for them. And we just ask for the Spirit's help, the Spirit's aid in understanding and in keeping these truths.
Forgive us again for all of our sins and transgression, and help us to honor and to glorify you. And we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Introduction
J. Gresham Machen in his sermons on the book of Galatians. There's a book published by Solid Ground Christian Books. It covers Galatians 1, 1 to I think Galatians 3, 17.
And originally, these were printed in Christianity Today in the days that Machen lived. I wonder if Christianity Today publishes such solid stuff as Machen on Galatians, but he says that the epistle to the Galatians is a polemic. And a polemic means when we launch an offensive, when we guard the faith, and we propagate the faith, and we declare the faith, and we do so with a vigor and an earnestness and a desire to defend it. He says the epistle to the Galatians is a polemic, a fighting epistle from beginning to end.
What a fire it kindled at the time of the Reformation, May it kindle another fire in our day, not a fire that will destroy any fine or noble or Christian thing, but a fire of Christian love in hearts grown cold. Perhaps one of the best helps to reviving a heart grown cold to a believer is a fresh dose of the gospel. For how can we gaze upon the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ and not be refreshed and reminded at what He went through on our behalf? And that as a result of that, as a result of His active and passive obedience, the fact that He obeyed the law perfectly, all the commandments of God, Jesus never fumbled, He never misstepped, He never engaged in anything wicked.
From the prohibition against idolatry to the prohibition against covetousness, our Lord fulfilled exactly and entirely and perpetually the law of God. That's the active obedience of Christ. The passive obedience is His death on Calvary, His bloodshedding. And as the Catechism says, justification is an act of God's free grace. wherein He pardons all of our sins and receives us in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to them and received by faith alone.
And how we can look at that and not be refreshed and reinvigorated and, dare I say, revived, is beyond me. So we ought to look at and appreciate this book of Galatians from time to time, because as Machen says, it is indeed a fighting epistle, and what it's fighting for is the truth of the Christian gospel. Well,
Outline of Galatians 1:6–9
I want to focus primarily on Paul's words in verses 6 to 9. Paul expresses his astonishment. He expresses his amazement. And I want to look at that first.
The astonishment of the apostle in verse 6. Secondly, the defection of the Galatians in verse 7. And then the curse upon heretics in verses 8 and 9. But
Paul's Astonishment at Defection
note in the first place, he says, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel. Now, in some senses, what we find here in Galatians is a little bit different than what we find in the opening of other of Paul's letters. He certainly greets the church. Notice in verse 2.
He says, All the brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia, grace to you and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ." So it's not devoid of, it's not absent of a greeting to the church, but it's not really developed, it's not really long, it's not really flowery, as is often the custom. I don't mean flowery in a bad way, as is the custom of the Apostle Paul. For instance, in the book of Corinthians, a book where Paul has to deal with some serious departures from the Christian faith, Paul spends a lot longer calling them beloved and speaking glorious and wonderful things to them before he gets into addressing the particular issues. And I think the difference herein lies, because what Galatians is setting forth is that there was a perversion of the gospel itself.
In Corinthians, there was an issue concerning sanctification. In other words, there was a whole host of things that Paul would have to deal with. There were people that were eating meat, offered up to idols, other people having a problem with that. There were people engaged in sexual immorality.
There were people engaged in, you know, strange behavior with reference to the Lord's Supper, and all those sorts of things. Those errors concerning sanctification, Paul most certainly treats and he deals with. But it is intriguing that when the gospel is at stake, as it was in the book of Galatians, he greets them briefly, but he gets right to the point. He gets right out of the gate to the issue, and he says, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel.
The Judaizing Heresy Defined
Because the issue plaguing the churches of Galatia was called the Judaizing heresy. Now, the Judaizers did not teach salvation by works. This is a common misunderstanding. It was not the case that these Judaizers came to the churches of Galatia and said, forget all about this faith stuff and just obey the law of Moses.
Forget all about what Paul is saying about this Jesus of Nazareth and just fulfill the law of Moses. That's not what the Judaizers said. Any more than Roman Catholicism teaches, we're saved by works alone. That's not what Romanism teaches.
They affirm faith, plus works. That's what the Judaizing tendency was. Yes, it's good to believe in the Messiah. Yes, it's good to believe in the one whom Paul preaches.
Yes, you need to look to Jesus, but you also need to add to it these particular ceremonies of the Mosaic Law, represented in this epistle by circumcision. But Paul's argument will be that if you indeed choose that path, then Christ is of no avail to you. It's either by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, or it's by your works. There's no conglomeration, there's no synthesis, there's no third path.
It's either Christ or you. And that's the problem plaguing the churches in Galatia. So, Paul says, I marvel, I am amazed, I am astonished that you are turning away so soon. This is probably the first letter written by the apostle after the first missionary journey.
The first missionary journey, he goes up to the region of Galatia. It wasn't one particular city, it was a region, and there he planted several churches. Not long after his departure, these Judaizers came in again. They said, you know, believe the gospel, or believe rather what Paul teaches in terms of Jesus as the Messiah, but you need to be circumcised.
You Gentiles need to become Jews also. It's not enough that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You also must be circumcised. You must hold to the Jewish faith as revealed by Moses.
So Paul says this happens soon. The brother is gracious, the brother is loving, the brother is kind, but the brother is firm. We need to appreciate that about the truth of the gospel. Very often persons who fight for truth are deemed intolerant.
Well, we ought to be intolerant when it comes to heresy. We ought to be intolerant when it comes to departures from the faith. We ought to be intolerant when men's souls hang in the balance and false teachers come along and try to peddle some gospel that is no gospel. We ought to be.
We ought to engage in a blessed intolerance. Here, Machen, he says, certainly the point of difference between Paul and the Judaizers was no trifling difference, no matter how trifling it may seem to the modern church. See, sometimes we look at such things and we say, oh, you know, they just like to spill a lot of ink, they like to fight, they like to debate, they like to go on Facebook, they like to go on Twitter, over something that's not really that important. Most recently, it's been the consideration of the Trinity.
The doctrine of the triune God has come under attack, and good men are seeking to defend it, and then you've always got these people that have this Rodney King sort of theology. Can't we all just get along together? Can't we all just love one another? No, our love must rejoice in truth. our love must be grounded in the truth.
If we deny for a moment the Trinity, or we tamper with the Trinity, or we start to posit some defective view of the eternal subordination of the Son of God, we need to repent, we need to recant, we need to get our act in order. These are not trifling things. There's a lot of trifling things that we can get bogged down with in the Christian church. I don't doubt that.
But the doctrine of the Trinity is not one of them. The deity and the person of Jesus Christ is not one of them. The hypostatic union is not one of them. And certainly the gospel of our Lord Jesus is not one of them.
So Machen says, it was no trifling difference, no matter how trifling it may seem to the modern church. He says
Merit Versus Grace
it was the difference between a religion of merit and a religion of grace. That's what's at stake when we don't affirm salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. When we don't affirm chapter 11 in the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, When we don't see that the ground of our acceptance with God, our justification, relies not upon Christ and us, but upon Christ alone, we are seeking to approach God with our own works. The Lord will not have that, and that's what Paul condemns here.
Machen goes on, he says, the Judaizers' teaching required a man to earn at least a part of his salvation by his own keeping of God's law. Paul saw clearly that to follow such teaching was to do despite to the cross of Christ. If we have to fill up even the slightest gap by our own works, then we are still lost in sin. I don't think we fully appreciate Paul's argument in Galatians or in Romans.
I don't think we fully comprehend the exclusivity of faith alone, that it does not entail our works added to it to commend us to God. Machen goes on, for the awakened conscience sees clearly that our own works are insufficient to bridge even the smallest gap. Brethren, have you done enough good works today to bridge any sort of gap other than that which separates you from hell? If you are honest with yourself in light of the revealed will of God or word of God, you cannot for a moment think that your works can somehow sufficiently merit favor with God.
If you think so, you have a defective understanding of who God is, you have a defective understanding of who you are, and you need to come to Scripture to learn the difference. He goes on. We must trust Christ for nothing or for all. To trust Him only for part is the essence of unbelief.
There are two ways of being saved, according to the Apostle Paul. One way is to keep the law perfectly. You're perfectly free to try that. Let me know how that works out for you.
You can call me in about five seconds and tell me it didn't work out. I couldn't do it. Love to God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Do you actually think you can get beyond five seconds?
You know, we try to love God, and three seconds in, we're thinking about a cat video we saw on YouTube. We try to love our neighbor as ourselves, and then we concoct how it's going to benefit me. Brethren, the idea that man can somehow fill that gap is completely reprehensible in light of Holy Scripture. So, Machen says, one way is to keep the law perfectly.
That way is closed because of sin. The other way is to accept the gift of salvation which Christ offers us freely by His cross. The two ways cannot both be followed. That is the burden of the epistle to the Galatians.
You can't mingle them. You can't combine them. You can't synthesize them. It's either your personal, exact, entire, and perpetual obedience to the law, or it is Christ.
You don't mingle the two. You'll end up with neither. He says a man must choose as the way of salvation either law or grace. In bidding men to choose the latter way, the apostle was contending for the very heart of the Christian religion.
So you see, when he says, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, realize that the Judaizers had not shown up at the churches in Galatia and said, don't listen to Paul, don't do what Paul says, work your way to heaven. Just do what Moses commands and you'll find acceptance with God. That's not what the Judaizers said. As I said earlier, that's not what Roman Catholicism teaches.
It's not works alone. No papist would actually think that they can earn their way to heaven by their own works. It's a mingling. It's a conjoining.
It's a conflation of justification and sanctification. It's a collapsing, the whole ball of wax, so that we need our faith in Jesus and our faithfulness before Jesus in order to commend us to God. That is, as Paul says, a different gospel. Now,
The Defection of the Galatians
note, secondly, the defection of the Galatians, verse 7. He calls this different gospel, not another. He's not actually affirming when he says a different gospel that there's two out there. Select which one you may.
You can choose, rather, A or B. Whichever one floats your boat. That's not what he's saying. He further identifies, further defines, further amplifies by saying in verse 7, which is not another.
There is one gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is one way of salvation. Jesus was not kidding when he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
The Bible is exclusive. Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation, for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, that as it is written, the just shall live by faith. There's not two Gospels, there's not three Gospels, there's not a fourth way to approach God.
You know, again, I think this is common in our own generation to just hanker after God and whatever fits, whatever works, whatever accommodates itself to our liking and to our desire, that's what I want. Well, you may want it all you want, but there's no granting it in terms of the Apostle Paul and the gospel of our Lord Jesus. This is the Judaizing heresy, when he says, which is not another.
Specimen Passages from Galatians
Just for a couple of specimen passages to see what was affecting these churches, notice in Galatians 3 at verse 1. Galatians 3, verse 1, Paul says, O foolish Galatians, Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?" Just by way of an aside, can I try and illustrate something for you that we affirm and confirm as confessional Baptists? We affirm the abiding validity of the second commandment. You're not to make graven images.
You're not to have pictures of our Lord Jesus. Growing up as a young papist, we always had the picture of a certain ancient Near Eastern man hanging on our hallway wall. After Palm Wednesday, Mom would put the palms behind the frame. I don't know what the significance of all of that was.
The Bible prohibits that. The Bible forbids that. And in this particular instance, how was Jesus portrayed before the eyes of the churches of Galatia? It wasn't the Jesus film.
It wasn't the Passion of the Christ. It wasn't the children's Bible storybook that had pictures of this ancient Near Eastern fellow. It was through preaching. It was through the apostolic proclamation of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We don't need other media. We don't need dreams and visions. We need preachers that are spirit-filled, men of prayer, men who handle accurately the word of truth, to go out and preach the truth. That's always been God's way.
Paul affirms it in 1 Corinthians 1.21, for since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through what? Through the Jesus film? Through the Jesus puppets that they sell at some Christian bookstores? through the foolishness of the gospel, or through the foolishness of the message preached. That's the emphasis.
And Paul says, the four whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified. He goes on in verse 2, this only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit?
Are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain?" In other words, we are saved by grace through faith and we need to maintain that. 421 and following, he parallels the two covenants, the two sons of Abraham. Notice as well in chapter 5 at verse 1, he says, stand fast therefore. in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Indeed, I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing." He's not talking about circumcision vis-à-vis a cultural practice, because he had Timothy circumcised when he went into Jewish regions.
So, we know that Paul isn't anti-circumcision. I don't know where Paul was in terms of the actual practice of circumcision, but in terms of a cultural norm, he does not forbid it. In fact, he has Timothy circumcised so that no offense would be given to the Jews. That's not under discussion or dispute in Galatians.
Circumcision and the Law's Demand
What circumcision represents is the gateway into Judaism. And when we circumcise ourselves, or rather are circumcised, with a view to acceptance with God, as Paul goes on to say, we have become debtors to keep the whole law. It's not just that one aspect, but rather, if you choose the path of law, you better get busy. That's the point.
He is not condemning it as a cultural practice, but as a practice associated with religious significance. That somehow, this Gentile, it's good he believed, but he must also keep the ceremonies of Moses in order to be accepted by God. When there is religious significance attached to law-keeping, we have abused the grace of God. That's the point.
Indeed, I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You see, there's only one way of approach. It's either your own personal, exact, entire, and perpetual obedience to the law, or it's grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ Jesus alone.
The moment you try to mingle the two, you destroy the gospel. He goes on to say, you who have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law, you see, that's the point, justification by the law. Paul in 1 Timothy 1 says, we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. An unlawful use of the law is seeking acceptance with God by obedience to it.
I hope nobody ever mistakes that in this church. I hope you don't get the idea. Well, they're Reformed, and they affirm covenant theology. They preach the whole law.
They affirm the whole Ten Commandments, even the Fourth Commandment, much to the chagrin of many around us today. But we don't teach that you are saved by that law. I hope you got that. I hope you realize you are justified freely by His grace, grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
That's why we sing, "'Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.'" We're not Judaizers. "'Amazing grace and circumcision, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.'" We're not papists. Amazing grace and the sacraments, how sweet the sound. We're not the new perspective on Paul.
We're not the federal vision. We're not the covenantal nomists. Amazing grace and our faithfulness, how sweet the sound. No, it's amazing grace.
That is that in which we rejoice. It's not the law. We preach the law in its place as the means by which the Holy Spirit sanctifies His people. As well, we preach the law pedagogically.
You ought to look at the law if you're a sinner because it shows you your wickedness and your waywardness and your absolute need for the Lord Jesus Christ. But in terms of the law for salvation, that is not what we preach here. He says in verse 4, you who have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law, for you have fallen from grace. Now that's not an Arminian proof text.
There it is, you can fall from grace. No, that's not what it is. It is not a battle cry of Arminianism to teach, hey, there it is, we can be in a state of grace and fall from grace. What's the fall from grace in the context of Galatians?
It is to mingle works with faith. That is to fall from grace. That is to turn our back on the way of salvation provided by God through Christ. That's the falling from grace.
It is to depart from the gracious salvation proffered in the Holy Gospel. When we seek to gain acceptance with God through circumcision, somehow that means we have fallen. John Eady describes this phrase. He says, Christ's method of justification is holy of grace.
And those who rely on law and merit are in opposition to grace, are fallen out of it. The clause has really no bearing on the doctrine of perseverance of the saints or on their possible apostasy. It's a different context. The fall from grace is to turn one back on the gracious salvation that the gospel communicates and embrace the works of the law, amazing grace and the works of the law.
How sweet the sound. That's the fall from grace in the context of Galatians. Fisher, in his wonderful marrow of modern divinity, if you read one Christian book in your life, it would probably do you well to read that book. He says, so that, if you desire to be justified before God, you must either bring to Him a perfect righteousness of your own and wholly renounce Christ, or else you must bring the perfect righteousness of Christ and wholly renounce your own.
Christ Jesus will either be a whole Savior or no Savior. He will either save you alone or not save you at all.
Troublers Who Pervert the Gospel
Notice, in verse 7, what the apostle goes on to say. This is what's grieving as well, in amplifying this idea of a different gospel. In verse 7, he says, which is not another, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. Now, I don't doubt that there's some dim bulbs out there preaching who haven't done enough study and just really don't know what they're talking about.
But there's actually people out there that want to pervert the gospel. There are people that are out there that actually want to distort the truth. There are people out there that are trying to harm the church of Jesus Christ. Now, they may do it for money, they may do it for popularity, they may do it because they just despise the truth as it is in Jesus, but do what they do.
This is what the apostle says. He says, there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. One commentator says, to tamper with the gospel is to trouble the church. Indeed, the church's greatest troublemakers now as then are not those outside who oppose, ridicule, and persecute it.
The church's biggest problem has never been the pagans or the heathens around them. It's the pagans and the heathens within it. He says, but those inside who try to change the gospel. Conversely, the only way to be a good churchman is to be a good gospelman.
The best way to serve the church is to believe and to preach the gospel. Martin Luther said, that work which is built up of long labor may be overthrown in a night. A man may labor half a score of years to build up some little church to be rightly ordered, and when it is so ordered, there creeps in some malbrain, yea, a very unlearned idiot, and he in one moment overthrows all. He's not lying.
Guy gets into a teaching position and he starts to preach the Judaizing heresy. He starts to preach Romanism. He starts to preach the New Perspective. He starts to preach the Federal Vision.
What does that do to people? What does that do to souls? I'm of the mind and I am absolutely convinced that if you get your mind wrapped around chapter 11 in our confession, which accurately teaches the doctrine of justification by faith alone, there is no more comfort for the Christian. There is no more happy place to be than to understand that your acceptance with God is based on the doing and the dying of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And so some malbrain, as Luther calls him, comes in and he starts to say, yes, faith, but your faithfulness as well. Again, faithfulness in sanctification. Be faithful. Work out your own salvation and fear and trembling.
But we're not talking about sanctification here. We're talking about our acceptance with God, our justification. And to introduce into that construct the idea of faith plus works is to destroy the Church. That's why the Reformation occurred.
Why do you think these men reformed or sought reform? Are they revolted? because the gospel was at stake. Praise God it happened then, because I'm not sure it would happen now. As long as, you know, we have peace and comfort and safety and all that sort of thing, then everything's okay.
Why would we make a big deal out of such little things? The introduction of works and merit into the gospel of grace is a perversion of the highest order. Now,
The Curse Upon Heretics
notice in the final place, the curse upon heretics, verses 8 and 9.
Anathema: Its Meaning and Background
This morning, I mentioned that the principle wherein Israel was to utterly destroy the Amalekites, the Hebrew word is called Kerem, H-E-R-E-M, transliterated. The Greek version is anathema. In fact, the Septuagint, whenever it comes to that Hebrew word herem, translates it anathema. The word literally means something under the band, something devoted.
It can have a positive sense as well. And it can mean devotion. I think it means that in Luke chapter 21, verse 5. It's translated by the New King James as donation.
It's something handed over. It's something given over. Well, in the negative context, it means devoted to destruction. under the ban. Do not take that stuff, Achan.
It was under the ban. He wasn't supposed to take that wedge of gold. He wasn't supposed to take those garments. When Joshua and the children of Israel marched around Jericho, they were told not to take the stuff.
Saul, in 1 Samuel 15, was told not to take the stuff. It's under the ban. It's devoted to destruction. It is condemned.
The New King James here translates it, accursed. So we see that for the Apostle Paul, this is no small thing. It's no trifling matter. This isn't a difference in eschatology.
Paul is not pronouncing anathema on you if you're a premillennialist. Paul is not preaching anathema on you if you're an amillennialist or a postmillennialist. He's not preaching, pronouncing anathema on you if your view of church polity differs. If you're a Baptist or you're a Presbyterian or even an Episcopalian, he is not pronouncing anathema with reference to those things.
It's the gospel. It's the truth of our salvation. It's the reality of how a sinner is accepted by God in Christ Jesus. So notice, verse 8, he says, even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be anathema.
Let him be accursed. I think the NIV has it. Let him be condemned. Let him be devoted to destruction.
Let him be under the ban. You see, this is no small thing. This is an important message. You can't mess up the Gospel.
You children, you young people need to listen and pay attention when it comes to the Gospel. You need to understand the way of acceptance with God is not faith plus. It is faith alone, in Christ alone, by God's grace alone that is the way of acceptance with our holy God. It's important.
It's crucial. In fact, it's the most important thing you'll ever learn. I'm sure math teachers and history teachers and English teachers have that, you know, most important lesson for you. You really got to get this down.
You really have to understand this. That ain't nothing. Now, don't go home and burn your math books and your English books and history, but Pastor Butler said it's nothing. You got to get the gospel right.
That's why we have confession study. This is why we preach expository. This is why we seek to educate the people of God in the truth of God, because apart from it, there's hell in the future. And there's hell in the present when men don't understand.
Romans 5.1. What's Paul's deduction or implication or conclusion after highlighting the doctrine of justification by faith? Romans 5.1. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Where does peace with God come from? It comes from this blessed truth that Christ lived, Christ died, Christ rose again, and all who by grace look to Him in faith will have everlasting life. That's peace. That's blessed peace.
That's the comfort that the soul in Christ truly knows. Paul says, even if we, if it could be the case that Paul would show up and preach like a papist or preach like a Judaizer, if we or an angel from heaven, if it could be that a holy angel would descend and fall behind a pulpit and say, faith in Christ plus circumcision, if any of these things were to happen to you, let him be accursed. There's no apostolic immunity. There is no angelic immunity.
There is no immunity, period. The gospel embodies the doctrine of Christ's life, death, and resurrection. To tamper with that, to twist that, to add to it or detract from it is to tear it apart and destroy it. As I said, the word employed is anathema.
It means something like devoted to God, either positively or negatively. The context suggests which. Luke 21 5, translated by the new King James, has donations. You see the connection.
This is something set apart. This is something devoted. I bring it to the temple and I present it to God. That's a positive use.
But we see that same concept, something set apart, something devoted, something in a negative use is under the ban. It is devoted to destruction. It's interesting because it's used in several places by Paul in the New Testament, and they're typically gospel. They're all connected to Christ and His gospel.
Anathema in Paul's Other Letters
Look at Romans 9, just to see the usage by Paul of this word anathema, to see what Paul condemns. Paul, as I said, is a very gracious, very charitable, very large-hearted man. In fact, at times in the book of Corinthians, you say, wow, man, he really is nice. You notice he never unchurches the church at Corinth?
How many of us would have said, you know, we might as well hang a clothes sign? Imagine if you're Paul and you got a letter from the Corinthians. Yeah, we've got some questions. We have a guy who had ancestral relationships with his father's wife.
We've got people that are engaging in, you know, prostitution or with prostitutes. We've got people that are engaged in all manners. If I was Paul, I'd probably be inclined to say, you know what? It's best just to cut your losses, sell the building, see if you can comp something, maybe give it to another charitable, tax-free charitable organization.
Paul doesn't do that. He never de-churches the church in Corinth. And they had issues. When we get to this, though, he is really, really fighting.
But look at how he uses this word in Romans chapter 9, specifically in verse 3. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, anathema from Christ, for my brethren, my countrymen, according to the flesh." That shows his heart. That shows his love. That shows his pastor's compassion.
I could wish that I would be anathema. I would be devoted to destruction. I would be under the ban. I would be cut off for the sake of my countrymen.
In this, he reflects Moses, who prays something similar back in his day. Notice in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 3, another use of anathema. Therefore, I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. No one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus a curse, or anathema, or devoted to destruction, or under the band.
Notice in 1 Corinthians 16, 22, a text you've often heard me refer to is one that makes the imprecatory Psalms of David look like a walk in the park. A lot of people don't like the imprecatory Psalms of David. They don't like the fact that David asks God to smash the teeth out of wicked men. They don't like the fact that David in Psalm 109 asks that the wicked, their wives become widows and their children become orphans and they go begging in the streets.
They don't like David when he says that the righteous will dance in the blood of the wicked. That's somehow offensive to our modern sensitivities. And notice what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16, 22, if anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed, let him be anathema, let him be devoted to destruction, let him be under the ban, let him be condemned to hell. And then it's used here in Galatians 1, 8 and 9, so I think you see by definition and by its usage elsewhere. how serious an offense the perversion of the gospel is.
One popular dictionary says, he who preaches a false gospel is delivered to destruction by God. Again, it is not a matter of an act of church discipline in the sense of excommunication. The curse exposes the culprits to the judicial wrath of God. That's certainly Paul's not saying to the churches, if you have a heretic, just let him go.
No, certainly deal with him. Jesus commends the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2 because they tested those who claimed to be apostles and were not. We need to keep men out that are not qualified via or vis-a-vis 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. John Eady says, the preacher of another gospel exposes himself to the divine indignation and the awful penalty incurred by him is not inflicted by man.
He falls into the hands of the living God. Paul rehearses, Paul repeats, Paul says again in verse 9, he says, as we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. The one preached has changed to what you receive. The improbability is lessened.
We are an angel from heaven has become anyone and the future possibility has become a present supposition. In other words, Paul is dealing in concrete reality with the churches of Galatia because these Judaizers had followed on the heels of Paul and they said, yes, believe what Paul says and be circumcised and take on the ceremonies of Moses and do what God's law says concerning Judaism.
Application
So that's our exposition, just a couple of lines of application and then we conclude. In the first place, I mentioned earlier that there ought to be a blessed intolerance in us when it comes to the gospel. Again, here Machen, he says, to the men that dominate the life of the modern church, it would seem to be a subtle, hair-splitting distinction at the most. Surely, they would say, Paul ought to have made common cause with those Judaizers who had such a zeal for righteousness and furthermore exalted the Lord Jesus Christ so high.
As a matter of fact, the Apostle did nothing of the kind. What he actually said with respect to the Judaizers was, let them be anathema. He seemed to have none of the modern virtue of tolerance at this point. You see, we can be large-hearted, charitable, and have a great big tent when it comes to a whole host of things, but not the Gospel, not the Trinity.
It's not the case that we can have fellowship with Unitarians. We cannot have fellowship with those who teach Jesus is a creature. We can't have fellowship with those who affirm this idea that we are commended to God, at least in part, by the works we bring to the table. The Apostle Paul tells us we cannot.
We must be intolerant. Now, we should be nice about it. I don't know that we need to beat... Well, we don't.
We don't beat people up, but we certainly need to be intolerant when it comes to the truth of the Gospel.
Galatians 2:21 as the Epistle's Key
Secondly, because we're only popping into Galatians this one night, I think in many respects Galatians 2.21 essentially summarizes the entirety of the book. After a discussion of justification by faith alone, vis-à-vis verse 16, the reality that it is apart from works, he goes on to highlight certain aspects, and then in verse 20 he reports something of his own life, his own experience, not in terms of practical living, but in terms of the doctrine of justification. He says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live.
I think we often wrench 220 out of its context and put it in the context of sanctification. And, oh, isn't Paul just a model Christian in the way that he lives his life? He's still in the doctrine of justification. He's still trafficking in the truth of what it means to be accepted by God apart from works on the basis of faith in Christ.
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." I love the personal pronouns employed by Paul. If you cannot say this tonight, then I bid you to flee to Christ. This is the glory of the Gospel.
This is the beauty and the wonder of it all, that a man, a woman, a boy or girl, by grace alone, through faith alone, can say of Christ, He loved me and He gave Himself for me. Have you, by grace, entered into that state where you confess Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father, and you see His doing and dying for you? That's one of the chief and cardinal points of our blessed religion, that our beloved Lord Jesus does this for us. But notice, 221.
Capping off his argument in this particular context, he says, I do not set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. That is the death knell to Judaism. That is the death knell to Romanism, to the new perspective, to any concept of our faithfulness, commending us to God.
If righteousness comes through the law, then why did we need Jesus? If we could somehow gain acceptance with God by our own doing, then why the cross? Machen, again, this verse is the key verse of the epistle to the Galatians. It expresses the central thought of the epistle.
The Judaizers attempted to supplement the saving work of Christ by the merit of their own obedience to the law. That, says Paul, is impossible. Christ will do everything or nothing. Earn your salvation if your obedience to the law is perfect or else trust wholly to Christ's completed work.
You cannot do both. You cannot combine merit and grace if justification, even in the slightest measure, is through human merit, then Christ died in vain. John Calvin says, for if we do not renounce all other hopes and embrace Christ alone, we reject the grace of God. You can't mingle these things.
It's not a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Christianity isn't syncretic. Luther said, for whoever seeks righteousness apart from faith in Christ, whether it be through works or satisfactions or afflictions or the law of God, is nullifying the grace of God and despising the death of Christ, even though he may speak otherwise with his mouth. And then, brethren,
Doctrinal Vigilance Called For
we need to exercise caution. I would suggest we need to beware of doctrinal indifference. Doctrinal indifference, this whole idea as we've touched on before, it's just a trifling thing. It's no big thing.
It doesn't matter. It does matter. Our lives depend upon it. We ought to be aware of doctrinal imprecision.
Why do we study an antiquated confession of faith? Because precision marks that confession of faith. See, we don't have the luxury of gambling with our souls. We need to be correct.
We need to understand the truth. Imprecision, in terms of doctrinal understanding, leads to imprecision in life. It leads to a loss of comfort. How do I know if I'm accepted by God?
How do I know if I've done enough good works? How do I know if I've merited His salvation and His favor? There's no Romans 5.1 in a scheme apart from justification by faith. There's no way we could say, therefore, having been justified by faith and our works, we have peace with God.
No, no, no, no, no. We need to be aware of doctrinal imprecision. We need to be aware of doctrinal departures. There are some obvious ones, vis-à-vis Romanism, that's the whole purpose, or one of the reasons why there was a Protestant Reformation.
Departures from the truth. We need to identify them, and the way that we identify them is by knowing the truth. I imagine the banker is able to spot the counterfeit because they know the truth. They don't have to study every counterfeit out there, they just have to know the truth.
We have to know the truth and then we'll be able to spot those departures from that truth. We need to be aware of doctrinal compromise. Well, you know, we'll just go ahead and look the other way and entertain this particular... No, no, no.
It's not going to happen here. We're not going to compromise. God willing, pray for your pastors, pray for all of us that we never compromise, that we go to our graves holding fast the truth of the gospel. And we need to be aware of doctrinal novelties.
I'm getting to the point where I don't trust much that is in our generation or coming out. I mean, there's a lot of good theologians, a lot of good men, so I do guess I trust much. But we need to be aware of novelties. If it ain't been discovered yet, it's, you know, likely it's probably for a good reason it hasn't been.
And then we ought to appreciate, with reference to the Gospel, it is divine in its origin. It is the message of Christ's life, death, and resurrection. It is for sinful men. It is received by faith alone.
Its consequence is sanctification in its recipients, and it ultimately brings glory to God. as Luther described. He calls it the joyous exchange. The joyous exchange, referring to that whole exchange, our sin upon the Savior, the Savior's righteousness imputed to us. He says, the rich, noble, pious, bridegroom Christ takes this poor, despised, wicked little whore in marriage, redeems her of all evil, and adorns her with all his goods.
I quite like that. He adorns us with all his goods, and the means by which we come into saving contact with his Savior is faith, faith alone. Look, as Scripture says, and you will live. Banish the thought that it's you and Jesus.
If it's not Jesus, it's nothing at all. You need the Lord Christ Most High, and the only way is to look to Him, to believe on Him, and to come to Him. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father in Heaven, we thank you for this fighting epistle, and we thank you for the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ has wrought a perfect salvation for sinners, and that the Apostle Paul tirelessly preached it, wrote of it, propagated it. Help us as the Church of Christ in this generation to do the same. Help us to hold it fast, help us to not compromise or depart or tamper with or add to or take away from that cause us to be faithful with reference to the truth as it is in Jesus. We pray you'd open eyes and hearts to the truth of the gospel and by the power of your Holy Spirit bring men, women, boys and girls out of darkness into marvelous light that they may behold the face of our Lord Jesus Christ and all of his glory and ability to save sinners.
And we pray these things in his most blessed name. Amen.